Dumb and not scary

Rating: 4/10 (13 May 2013)

It started out so strong for me only to be so letdown by the ending and silly plot. I'm okay with clichés, as long as it's done well, but the movie can never seem to decide whether it wants to go mainly the paranormal/monster or possession route and what came of felt like a complete mess. What incites this possession? Watching a bunch of the old reels? I saw Ethan Hawke's motives but what about every family before? Why are there so many obscure plot devices like the professor whose only role is to chime in every now and again to talk about the stupid pagan deity crap. Why is it that the family has to move before they get killed? Is it the boogieman dude or the kids what we're afraid of? It certainly wasn't the kids running around in the bad make-up who we're to believe each carry out the massacre of their entire family. A girl about 8 or 9 supposedly hoists and hangs her entire family onto a tree to kill them, lol; okay.
I honestly ended up chuckling at a lot of the "scary" moments as I think many hardcore horror fans will. I don't know what the rave reviews are going on about how scary this movie is, the only scares that exist are cheap pop-outs that are mostly predictable - there is no fear factor, I mean, at one point there is a snake-under-the-box scene; the director has no shame. There is no comparison to Saw or Insidious as they were both so, so much, better.
Sure... I screamed a few times during the movie, but not because I was scared.