Pay it forward

Rating: Null/10 (11 April 2015)

Well, first off, I did not expect a release for this Indie locally, and when it happened, the first emotion is one of overwhelming grateful-ness. I also did not expect much of the nudity of the sex sequences to make it to the final cut, and I was right, but surprisingly, a few long shots of said nudity made it without them being blurred out, and few more mag snaps. Puzzling, but hopefully a sign of things to improve. Or not.
This one's been making the rounds for being the surprise Indie hit (actually, slightly better-than-average, if numbers are crunched accurately) this year, the way 'The Babadook' was.
Helmer David Robert Mitchell has a few credits, but other than a mixed bag review for 'The myth of the American sleepover', has really nothing to recommend him, other than this one.
Well, to the movie now: While I wholeheartedly recommend that this be viewing in cinemas, and have read glowing reviews for the same, there were so many why-in-blazes-did-they-do-that sequences that I feel that all the compliments are grossly overblown, making this one of the most overrated movies of this year.
+ The cinematography, complemented by some very able camera-work, that is very old-school, making the Michigan locations chosen to be pitch-perfect to film in and around. The old-school long shots as well, evokes old-school John Carpenter in more than one sequence.
+ The rules not being very clear (changing a tad, here and there) puts us firmly in the shoes of the possible vic, empathizing with their situation, and realistically not knowing where the menace is gonna spring from next, or what keeps it going, and for what reason, kinda keeping it all very grounded. The aspect of a literal level of Ctrl+Z happening with the rules on the death of a vic, where the 'force' zeroes back on the previous possible vic, is quite novel, and makes for a nice explanation on how the pre-title sequence came about.
+ The soundtrack by Disasterpeace. Old-school John Carpenter. Gonna purchase it soon. Fantastic. Overdone, overblown, and calls attention to itself, but simply superb and great. Long time since I've listened to such tracks. Not only evoked Carpenter's Halloween (for more than just its soundtrack or his style), but also Ridley Scott's 'Blade runner' for its Vangelis' score. Can't get it outta my head.
+ The casting and the performances. This team, might just go places. I've not seen even one of them earlier (something to do with not being in the US as well), and somehow I think that's gonna change.
MASSIVE SPOILERS below, and my conclusion beforehand:
A movie worth watching on the big screen, and my rants on the movie's minuses need never detract from that. However, for a movie that wants to be taken seriously, there are quite a few loopholes, that hopefully might get fixed in the sequel being planned.

The surprising way in which one of the main characters keeps it together while 'passing it on', while, in hindsight, indicates that he/she has done it before, doesn't ring true with the rest of his/her characterization about the same aspect.

The number of times, as I mentioned previously, that I was wondering why certain characters did what they did, that dialed up the stupidity quotient (wayyy up) to a great extent, and literally caused whiplash with the way the rest of the movie screamed to be considered 'smart'. Ouch.

The same conceit was used to much, much better effect in Hoblit's 'Fallen', where there was a logical conceit to the central conceit, and the final completely-off-left-field twist ending also gave it a level of respect hitherto not given to mainstream horror/thriller, while keeping the entire flick completely-grounded.

Where were the parents? Why sleepovers? What's up with all the sleepovers all around? School? Missing from school? Logic?

(While I did appreciate the changes in the rules laid out to an extent) Why the literal change in rules at the end? What did it all mean? where did all the effort go?