A classic in the true sense of the word.

Rating: 10/10 (12 May 2006)

I have never been frightened by gore but can be made to jump by something as simple as a door banging (The Others and The Bone Collector for example). The mind can conjure up images which are far more frightening that anything ever seen on film and if the mind is nudged along a certain path and given suggestions then it is more than capable in filling in the gaps and creating dark and scary landscapes to get lost in.
This film slowly peals away layers of normality so that it is all too easy to accept what is portrayed (or rather for most of the time hinted at) and as the layers are pealed away so more and more suspense is loaded upon the viewer.
It is an extremely well crafted film (in every area: the script, the direction, the cinema photography, the acting and the music score) and personally one of my favourites and in my opinion certainly one of the best of its kind. It shows that sometime more (a lot more) can be achieved by leaving things out rather than putting them in and those directors who carry on insisting to load their films with tomatoes ketchup would do well to sit down and really study this film.