Not terrible not great

Rating: 5/10 (6 July 2014)

It's funny, I agree with the negative reviews on here but... somehow still managed to kind of enjoy this film.
Main highlight for me was finally hearing BoC - Boards Of Canada - used to major effect in a Hollywood feature film. (OOOH LOOKY THAT! If you lowercase 'hollywood' IMDb uppercases it for you! Just as I don't want it to!)
I always take Ethan Hawke as the Tom Cruise who can actually act (most of the time). It's like if you took Tom, removed the scientology, removed the ego, toned down his John Malkovich screaming-and-throwing-things-is-acting habits, and added some more true acting ability, you'd get Hawke. I thought he was adequate in this, though he could have been given more to do.
Main problem I had was with the story itself: as soon as I realised it was supernatural ooga-booga nonsense, not a serial killer, the fun kinda went out with the rules.
Another problem was when Ethan was doing his endless wander-around-in-the-dark-with-an-old-unreliable-torch bits, why did the rest of the family not wake up? He was knocking stuff over left right and centre, with the bogey man doing the same. Heavy sleepers, indeed.
The final - literally- problem I had was with the ending, it went on and on (and on... and on) and could have been removed entirely and the film would have been punchier.
Still - an OK film I thought. Not terrible, not great, just OK.