Very unusual, but intriguing and highly original horror movie.

Rating: 8/10 (8 January 2019)

This is a very unusual horror-movie. There's no gore, no slashings, no jumps-scares, so it's probably not every horror-fans cup of tea (as the mixed reviews clearly indicate), but I have to say that I was very much intrigued throughout the whole film. Sure, there are some things to say against it: the pace is extremely slow, the dialogues are sparse, there's hardly any action (save an unexpected very chilling action-scene in a swimming-pool in the last 15 minutes), there are in the end no answers or decent solutions to the mystery. I can imagine that some will consider it boring.
But - at least in my opinion - there is much more to say in its favor. It's absolutely original (which is quite an achievement in the nowadays over-saturated horror-market) and the atmosphere is haunting, thanks to the inventive direction, the beautiful photography and a very effective, chilling musical score. The characters - a group of adolescent kids - interrelate more by stoically hanging out together than by words and all behave for most part of the movie as in slow motion, which enhances the weird, dreamlike feeling that this whole project creates. As does the facts that there are never any parents in sight, that the kids constantly watch old scifi movies from the fifties and sixties on television and that one of them - a girl of about 15 - reads The Idiot by Dostojewsky on a pink shell-shaped e-reader and every now and then quotes some lines from it to the rest.
The premise (girl gets "infected" by her boyfriend with a supernatural force in the form of weird appearances that follow and threaten her, and from then her friends try to help her to get rid of it) grants for some weird and creepy moments, culminating in the aforementioned climax in a deserted swimming pool. But I got the distinct feeling that there was more to this story than just the horror-aspects, it seemed as if there were many metaphores that I coulnd't quite put my finger on. Something to do with sexually coming of age, I guess, since the sexual "deed" played such a pivotal role in the transmitting of the curse and so many of the apparitions had clearly sexual connotations.
The acting is over-all rather restrained, but especially Maika Monroe as the tormented Jay does a great job. And I would also like to mention Keir Gilchrist. His character behaves so subdued and reactive that it doesn't give much room to shine, but he does magic with his body language and his face. I saw him before in Heartthrob where he has a leading part, that movie wasn't great but Gilchrist sure was!
All in all I was very much intrigued and entertained and I rank it 8 out of 10.