Really disappointed

Rating: 4/10 (26 October 2012)

I went to see this movie after reading tons of great reviews. Am I missing something? Did I watch the same movie as you guys?
This film was so unoriginal and slow. It's your typical boogey-man movie, combined with every horror movie technique you can think of. This film relies so heavily on "jump scares" that after the third LOUD NOISE I was annoyed. Even when the film finally ends, they just had to throw in one last loud noise to scare you. Ugh. I don't understand this technique. That is not scaring. It's startling. If a movie needs to use this as a way to "scare" the audience, it's crap.
Bagoul was pretty creepy in the photos and video stills. But near the end when he was shown as an actual person walking around, it kind of made him lose his creepy mysterious demon persona. He just looked like a sweaty drunken clown and he was no longer scary.
It did have some redeeming qualities: The acting was good. Ethan Hawke and Juliet Rylance and the two kids did a fine job and the family meshed well together. Also, the found footage was very creepy. Those few minutes of the film reels were the only scary parts of the film.
I wanted to like this movie, but it was just way too unoriginal and predictable.