Scary but with annoying and silly elements

Rating: Null/10 (19 January 2018)

This movie was mentioned in a list of recommended scary movies. I guess this movie is quite scary, and also quite sinister, and while I would commend its little use of jump-scares, I would say it makes an even greater sin: trying to make things scary by loud sound effects and music. While those are themselves conceptually and technically commendable, I find it an equally annoying and silly tactic. Speaking of silly, the film's "boogeyman" looks just like some "evil" metal band member in face-paint. Which I find ridiculous. At least one sees him rarely and there are some other alteration-effects to his look.
The plot contains some baffling elements, and the protagonist unfortunately, while at first seeming relatively intelligent, turns out to be quite a douche, in a gratuitous way. A scene where we see him in an old TV-interview (he's a True Crime writer) is almost like a parody-sketch of an interview. The plot is generally unexplained and things "just happen" from a day-to-day-basis, which makes the plot feel somewhat unconnected. Maybe to some extent this is deliberate, however the premise and other things could still require more explanation. E.g. of how the writer is in possession of all his research material, which no-one else seems to have seen (although he is not a very secretive person either), and he himself seems kind of slow and indulgent in getting through. Assuming to be able to solve a crime by just watching all the ritualistic murder videos seems also fairly contrived.
A minor but consistent element of bafflement, and attempt to make things more scary, was that the protagonist, who almost always works at night, always leaves the lights out when he wanders around the house following some strange sounds, presumably to be more thoroughly surprised when he finds something or someone (it is otherwise pointless).