Great atmosphere, too much bad cgi...

Rating: 6/10 (19 June 2013)

My mother taught me that looking great is important, but to seduce one should leave a little to the imagination. Scott Derrickson could learn a little something from my mother.
I will admit, the film is really, really creepy! What makes the movie horrifically entertaining is its atmosphere and sound effects/ambient score. The 8mm scenes are brilliant and are what give the movie style. The director is on the top of his game when he uses shadows and out-of-focus images of horrors I won't mention at the risk of spoiling the film . The story is also interesting, albeit reminiscent of Paranormal activity 3 and about a dozen other films I've seen. However, all of those strengths are deflated the moment the movie crew starts using second-rate CGI for extended periods of time, in clear focus. His creatures are only scary when we can't see them clearly.. when they're popping in and out of the shadows, hidden in the blurry images of photos, or when we see their reflection in a bit of something here or there. Casting monstrous villains in a bright spotlight strips them of their mystery, their creepiness, and their horror. Also, the longer we have to look at the creatures, the more obvious the film's budget.
The characters and dialogues were mostly stale, with few exceptions. I was rather bored with the stamp-like story completely revolving around a white guy and his pride, who is the master of the house and who makes all of the decisions for the family despite his wife's intuitive pleas and half- hearted ultimatums. Like that story hasn't been told before. How about some new family dynamics that aren't a throwback to the 50's and 60's? Also, some of the main character's reactions to different scenarios weren't entirely believable.
So: good job overall, but needs work on excessive, unnecessary use of bad cgi, and, well, a better writing/editing team, particularly with regards to character development.