Enjoyable and unique if slightly flawed effort

Rating: 9/10 (25 April 2016)

After sleeping with her new boyfriend, a woman finds herself targeted by an unseen, unstoppable menace intent on killing her as part of a strange condition that he passed onto her, and must convince her friends to help her fight it off in order to survive.
Overall this one here was quite the enjoyable if slightly flawed effort. What really gets the most work out of this one is the unbelievably creative and enveloping backstory laid out for the killer here, and is undoubtedly one of the most engaging parts conceived. Utilizing the concept of the stalking figure only she can see and react to, endlessly pursuing her only and not changing until she sleeps with someone else and all starting because of someone passing it to her through sexual activity is a rather strong, unique concept that is a truly modern and engrossing concept that plays so well into the scope of modern-day viewpoints on sexuality and paranoia that it works so well because of how it plays on those tropes. Having her be the only one really capable of seeing it and responding to its advances that there's plenty of suspense derived from that ability alone in some truly stand-out, spectacular scenes here starting with her realization of the situation at the garage or seeing the old woman approaching her at the school which really sets this one going along incredibly nicely in a strong set of suspense scenes that set this one in motion. Even some of the other big sequences, from the break-in at her house during the sleepover where she sees the figure coming for her but the others are unaware of it's presence, the absolutely spectacular attack at the beach-house where everyone finally becomes aware of what's going on with her and the stellar sequence at her friends' house that finally shows what potentially happens when the being catches up with her. There's a lot to like about all of these elements coming together here that allows for a great set-up into the finale where they launch the assault against it at the pool with some rather clever and ingenious methods of fighting and attacking it. These here do make this one engaging enough that there's a lot to like here though it does tend to have a few minor flaws on display. The biggest issue here is the film's loss of focus once it gets to the second half of the story. Once it lets the group in on what's going on and that something is indeed after her, there's a lull in action that lets a lot of air out of the film as it struggles to get to the big revealing showdown between the two yet there's never a strong sense of action that comes from here. It's all pretty much a toned down series of chases that don't really have the impact of the first half and makes the film feel a little overlong at that point. As well, the other minor issue is undoubtedly the lack of detail given the threat which is understandable given the nature of the set-up but this could've still had a few questions resolved. From how it winds through it's hit-list, how it was summoned and why no one but it's target can see it should've been at least mentioned if not explained, and in general that's little about it that's known overall and it does feel like a cheat. Otherwise this one was a lot of fun.
Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Full Nudity, strong sexual content including continuous sexual themes and drug use.