Misled by "scary" reviews & Thoughts on establishing rules

Rating: 6/10 (24 April 2017)

I was thrown off by the time period in which the movie supposedly takes place. It was intentional per the director, but it was distracting. I think the movie needs to tell the viewer when the setting is somehow to let them know the "rules"- for example a kid can't have a cell phone in a 90s movie, but it's expected for a movie in present day.
There isn't a lot of dialogue, a vast majority of the "sound" is a very 80s dreamlike synthesizer which adds to the dreamy direction of the movie. It's very prettily filmed, but there are a lot of slowly- turning shots which seem pointless. There are also a few times that the director started a sense of dread with a scene, then messes it up with his choices. Here's what I mean: there is a scene where Jay (the protagonist) is walking through a dark house, the camera follows behind her, closely, so you know something is coming, but you don't know where. Right before the reveal happens, the director switches the shot to film from the monster's perspective in the next room, so when Jay walks into the room and is surprised, we aren't. The movie's "rules" for the monster are pretty rigid- it walks slowly in a straight line to its intended target, so by definition, you know that Jay isn't going to be surprised from behind, because it doesn't appear out of thin air. My point is, what could've been a good climax to a build up, ends up being secondhand.
The final confrontation with the monster seems to bend the rules already established in the movie, so it falls flat. There are also two scenes in which two characters appear as if they are going to pass it on to random hosts, but nothing is shown (all other sexual encounters are) so it ends up again leading the viewer to question the established rules.
Overall, I was extremely disappointed because I had read multiple accounts of this being the scariest movie in a decade, and I loved the concept, but the movie just isn't scary, and there are too many questions to make it a good piece of film. I'm not going to destroy it in the ratings because there is much worse (and the acting was actually good) but I feel like I'm below the average here, so I gave it a 6.