Basically the anti-Conjuring.

Rating: 8/10 (21 February 2019)

I tell people I like horror. But it can be so hard to find a good one. Even one that doesn't ultimately annoy me. Even the ones everyone says are superior kind of annoy me, like The Conjuring. This movie is sort of...the anti-Conjuring.
But this one is different. Before watching I had a firm idea of the kind of thing I wanted to see in a horror movie: characters move into new location, uncanny things start to happen, characters only gradually become aware of an incorporeal menace and never fully appreciate the amount of danger they are really in.
This turns that around. We are informed very early on who is our enemy. They are tangible, identifiable, a character literally points to it. We know its attributes; it's invisible to everyone but one specific target, it will appear as different things to the one specific target, it cannot be beaten in a fight, but it walks everywhere.
We know how it goes about things but not why. And the movie never tells us. There is no lengthy scene searching the web. It gets no name. There are no "paranormal experts" popping in to arm us. It's not a supernatural thriller marketed as a horror. This is legit.
We are not confined to one area, the movie does not waste time cruising for our sympathy with kids and a dog and a family. We have a bunch of teens that need to keep moving. It's breezy and often somewhat hypnotic with its low key tone with a sense of danger always on the low boil, the sense of dread and urgency still never leaves you. Never. There is also an agreeable utilisation of backgrounds
it's not perfect: I feel the movie really spoils its own atmosphere when the follower shows emotions (hissing; why do all horror monsters hiss now?), but it is testimony to the freshness of the movie that I can look past this and still give it 8/10.
I don't like the lavatorial stuff either but whatever.
I know it became a sort of "indie darling" but don't let the pretentious fans put you off. Buy or rent this movie.