A modern retro horror movie hits the spot

Rating: 9/10 (16 December 2015)

In short, I loved it! I'm a bit of a horror movie fan, but most of all a movie fan. Even a geek. This movie is good on many levels.
There's a quick introduction, which leaves quite a few things to be answered. Once you figure out what's going on, it's quite mind tingling. The plot does fall a bit out of pace here and there, but it keeps interesting all the way to the credits. At modest 90 minutes, it's actually quite a slow movie, but that's a good thing here. Gives you time to think, without getting boring. Many times I was just looking at the casts small expressions, looks and loving the fact that the movie doesn't spoon feed everything. There are a few scenes with a bit more action and jumpy scares, which in my opinion don't all work as well as the more slow sections. At one point "It" kind of gets out of character in my opinion, just for the sake of "being scary".
As a horror movie it's quite effective. There's not much gore (goriest images are in the beginning) and relatively few jump scares. But the tone of the movie is grim. No jokes, nothing is funny. The cinematography is absolutely beautiful and builds a great atmosphere. The same can be said for the most part about the soundtrack too, which is quite 80s inspired synth driven - almost chillwave (without over compressed beats). There is one theme in the soundtrack tho that sticked out as almost like a parody. It's a bit too over the top and would better suit a Scary Movie kind of spoof. Otherwise it's perfect.
The acting is great. The cast was all unknown to me, but did very well. One nice touch is the timelessness of the movie. There is modern technology used, but for the most part it's quite timeless without being overly retro either (except maybe for the soundtrack). And the ending, I kept thinking how will they end this without it ruining the movie - and they didn't! It's as good as it can be.
A very pleasant surprise, but now that I read about this it has gathered good reviews and I don't wonder why. Recommended!