Great horror, really liked it

Rating: 8/10 (14 September 2013)

This is old school gore-free horror, just the way I like it. It's got great story, great acting, great style in direction. So many horror movies these days are a let down, but this one delivered big time.
Story is not the most original. It's got elements from a lot of other horror movies, some pretty bad ones, so I was a bit skeptic on how the story would evolve. But it does hold together and actually delivers by the end quite well. I never felt being betrayed by cheap red herrings, it just worked.
Acting is great. It's Ethan Hawke most of the time and I really think he makes a lot of this movie. He's both likable and quite believable. His character is quite humane in all it's fragility. The scene in which he has fallen asleep watching an old interview of his and his wife finds him is actually quite heartfelt. There's only one scene - pretty important one - which I think Hawke slightly overplays, but otherwise everything is spot on.
Scares are delivered quite sparingly, but they're effective. I watched this in the middle of the night and I did jump a few times. Some of the 8mm films are quite disturbing to watch, even tho there is no actual graphic gore involved. I really liked the fact that they spared the graphic images and went for psychological terror instead.
The direction is solid. It's stylish. Music and soundtrack choices were quiet interesting here and there. Makes me feel like I want to watch this again just to concentrate on the soundtrack once more. They even have a Boards of Canada tune playing over a scene - what's not to like?
Great movie, really really good. Old school horror ftw!