Great horror movie!

Rating: 7/10 (13 October 2012)

*FULL PLOT REVEALED, MAJOR SPOILERS*When I saw the "From the producers of Insidious and Paranormal Activity" in the commercials I knew I had to see this movie. First off, let me say that the music was amazing in this movie. There were also a lot of jump scares, but I feel that some of these scares were ruined for 2 reasons. 1) Commercials: There were some scenes that I saw in the commercials that I identified immediately when they appeared in the movie. 2) Predictable: Almost every jump scare that occurred in this movie was preceded by silence, so you knew that when every thing got quiet there was going to be one. The only jump scare that caught me off guard was the one with the girl that appears right next to the main character, and when that scene happened I literally jumped 20 feet into the air! Regardless, a majority of the jump scares still scared the crap out of me. One of the things that surprised me in this movie was how fast the story started, for instance, the first scene in this movie is the family that had lived there being hung!
The storyline is pretty much this: Family (which consists of a dad, mom, pre-teen son, and younger daughter) moves into new house where murders took place. The dad, who is a true crime writer, discovers a box of old films and a projector in the attic, and each film is marked by a cute, fun name that looks completely innocent at a glance, for example, "Hanging out", and "BBQ". Dad starts watching family films, and each video starts out with a few scenes of the family having fun and chilling out, but then the video flips over to a scene where the entire family, with the exception of one kid from each family, is murdered. There are five videos in all, which means five different families and five different types of murders. Tears come to dad's eyes after watching each film, but he keeps his calm for the first four films, although he completely loses it after watching the last film, which is a family getting their faces run over by a lawnmower. One thing the dad does notice is that a creepy figure appears in each film, later referred to as the "Boogie Man", in addition to some sort of cult symbol also appearing in a few of the films. After the dad watches the films, creepy things start happening, such as appearance of the "missing kids" and his pre-teen son having "night terrors". The dad gets help from a friendly police officer, and a professor that studies cult symbols and appearances, but in the end it all becomes too much for the dad and the family moves back into their old house. The dad is then contacted by the cult professor and pretty much told that leaving the house and burning the films doesn't help at all, and that the dad and his family are pretty much f*cked. The daughter turns out to be possessed, and soon to be the "missing child", and kills the entire family, and in the end, falls into the care of the "Boogie Man".
Overall I found the movie very creative and definitely worth seeing. It may not have been as scary as Insidious, in my opinion, but it will still leave you shaking as you walk out of the theater!