Best Since "The Strangers", Simplistic, Everyone Has Their Own Ingredient

Rating: 10/10 (11 February 2013)

Everyone has their own opinion of what a horror film should be and what elements make a horror film good... In my opinion, I believe simplicity is the key to something that will scare the crap out of you. This movie has that very simplistic approach. The violence and horror of the atrocities isn't really in your face with this film. A lot of what's going on is really implied. So if you're expecting gore and that's what gets you ramped then you're probably not going to like this. Ethan Hawke is a True Crime writer in the film and being the husband of a psychologist... I've seen a lot of true crime documentaries, TV shows and have read a lot of true crime novels... The horror in what people REALLY do is scarier than any boogie man, monster, demon, etc... Hopefully this isn't a spoiler for anyone but I'll note it is possible this needs a spoiler alert. Beyond the true crime portion there is a character in the film that is supernatural? So that part is a little different but before you figure that part out everything is very real. The score is great and plays a big part as well and you should watch this movie with a good sound system to include a sub-woofer. If you're watching in on a TV with 3" speakers then you're not going to get the full effect. There are a lot of different ingredients to a good horror film and I hope that if you're actually into horror films you do it right and watch it in pitch black darkness with a good size television, great sound system and only a few people in the room. Otherwise you're going to be just some random person with an opinion. I value horror films and I take it seriously.