It Works!

Rating: 9/10 (29 October 2009)

Not sure exactly how they did it, but as some others here have said better than I can "less is more." Very low budget. Only a handful of actors, two primarily, none well known. Limited set, a house. Not much else.
That this film does work, is a genuine scarefest, has as much to with the lack of pretentious trappings as it does the engagement of the viewer's imagination. The house could be almost any house or duplex anywhere in the USA, and many parts of the world. The protagonists could be any young people. They're not totally nondescript, they just don't have exceptional traits calling attention to themselves. The situation-- ----strange nighttime occurrences and sounds-------is the stuff of conversation anywhere you go.
So why does the film work so well?
Verisimilitude. It's all credible. The actors, the set(s), the scenario, the weirdness-----all credible. It doesn't stretch the viewer with convoluted plot detail. So the midbrain stays more involved in the action than the cerebrum . . . . . thoughts are kept at a minimum, while fears are played to. By restricting thought, viewers are brought into a heightened emotional state. The viewer's visual search for something out of the ordinary on the recording video when time passes and nothing has happened keeps the endocrine system in high alert. I noted that it was difficult to NOT look at the screen at such times, and I sensed that the same was true for everyone in the theater: The movie cajoles watchfulness. When we become so attentive, we move into a different internal state, a more alert state than regular waking consciousness. This movie lulls the viewer into that state gradually and convincingly. The final effect when the movie ends is that we are left in that state: "Deer in the Headlights" ---no one moves out of pure uncertainty, out of crippling fear.
And isn't this precisely what a good horror film ought to do?
I give the makers all the credit in the world. They either lucked into this one, or they're more genius than they realize. And from the profits this one is generating, they'll be able to explore their talent again.