you had me till the end...

Rating: 6/10 (17 April 2011)

*SPOILER ALERT* i think people either loved or hated this movie for a couple reasons: 1) everyone wants special effects, gore, huge stars, or a big name tied to a movie for it to be considered "good" or "scary". the people who said they weren't scared even for a moment were either lying, or not paying attention throughout the movie. i'm not talking scared out of your mind like the first time you saw the exorcist or anything, but if you didn't jump at the sounds that were off screen, or be a little surprised at some of the things that happened, i can't ever read your reviews ever again and take them seriously. in those people's cases, they got bored within 15 minutes because they were expecting one thing and got another, so that turned them off and nothing could bring them back. to be quite honest, most of the movie was slow moving. and that's the point. this is not meant to be a Texas chainsaw massacre, halloween, Friday the 13th, or hell, even a poltergeist movie. it is designed much the same as the shining was. it tells a story. it leads you along a path, predictable as it might be, and tries to startle you along the way. if you let yourself get submersed into the character's point of view (which you should do to get the true terror of the movie) you will see that the little things that seem pointless and boring to all those critics out there, are really what would scare anyone in real life. this is more a psychological thriller than a horror movie. period.
2) the acting was mostly average. true. there seemed to be quite a few different sides to micha throughout the movie. at times he was strong and tough, others angry and stubborn, or arrogant and close minded... his character was not consistent, which bothered me throughout the movie. i couldn't tell if he was trying to help, or if he was in it for himself (maybe selling the video because early on he said he was getting good footage...) or if he was trying to help his girlfriend. i don't think his part as all that well thought out, and he seemed to be all over the place, which was frustrating. i also had some issue with katie's character as well. again, for lack of consistency, she seemed to want to take control and do things her way, but never seemed to actually accomplish anything, always giving way to micha, even when she swore up and down his way was the wrong way. i guess that might get into the writing a bit more than the acting, so back on track here... the "scary parts" were impressive and showed a great deal of what i thought felt like real emotion. real terror, shock, horror, desperation, stress and anxiety. i loved that. what i didn't love was all the in between takes that seemed forced and like they were supposed to improvise dialogue. those scenes, especially with her friend, didn't seem realistic. it seemed to me like they got quiet when the camera came near, or worse yet, tried to force a conversation just for the conversation's sake. small detail, but bothersome at the least.
3) finally the ending. this is what actually ruined he movie for me. we went from a demon plaguing this couple for 3 weeks, poltergeist style, into a full demonic possession and killing in a very short time. it seemed like a cop out. it seemed like the paper that we all wrote in college at one point, where we spent so much time on the body and filler b.s., we ran out of time to actually pull it all back together and write a well throughout conclusion and just said, "eh, whatever, it's done". that's what it felt like to me. it seems like if the movie had not had a definitive ending... or if it didn't end so quickly... or even if it had an ending similar to other possession movies, it would have flowed better (albeit making it less original so kudos for that i guess). it just didn't feel complete, and overall, it really felt like a cop out ending just to end the movie. had there been more substance to it i would have to agree that it was a blair witch type movie and deserved much higher ratings.