carpenter-esque

Rating: 9/10 (31 October 2015)

I was leery renting a horror film, they've all become so awful, especially the supernatural thrillers. But the tittle and the synopsis convinced me to brave a peek, I was not disappointed This is the movie paranormal activity wanted to be. While paranormal activity labored under the idiot plot of a Husband merely shrugging off a wife who stared motionless at him for hours while he slept, and seizing a camera instead of a weapon or car keys. The characters in this movie don't behave like idiots at all.
From the scoring to the pace of the menace it is rich with homage to Carpenter's Halloween, it also owes much of it's style and theme to movies like Jacob's Ladder, The Happening, Susperia and The Entity but it doesn't rip any of these movies off.
It also is an allegory which is refreshing because while I enjoy a slasher flick as much as anyone, rarely do even supernatural horror films address the human situation in any real way, beyond the occasional theological reference of holy vs unholy or sane vs insane. They even slip in some social commentary in a way that seems natural.
It follows makes my top 10 list of horror movies made since the new century and maybe since 1990. Which is saying a great deal considering the sad state of cinema these days.