Starts off superbly - loses its momentum half way

Rating: 6/10 (26 February 2013)

Let me just make it immediately clear that I am not recommending horror aficionados to give the movie a pass. There are some pretty good elements here. The first half of the movie gave me quite a formidable scare. As you delve into the riddle that Ethan Hawke's character is trying to figure out, the story-line appears remarkably promising in my opinion. I was so nerve-wrecked by what I was seeing and hearing that I started doubting whether I would have enough pluck to go down to the basement later that evening to get my laundry out of the washer. I think the most important components that make this part of the movie work so well are great 'camera', surprisingly original (and at moments truly terrifying) sound production, and a great approach in presenting the negative character - very cryptic, shrouded in mystery, with only a few (bone chilling) glimpses being revealed.
What then follows is your realisation that you can already sort-of infer which way the story is going to go for this family. What remains hard to predict is whether they are all going to be saved or all die a terrible death. By the movie's middle part, the main character divulges a piece of information which made the rest of the movie simply too predictable. Intelligent horror movies preserve this type of mystery for the very end. That detail on the murder pattern will, to the movie's further detriment, turn out to be even more ill-conceived due to the fact that it simply has no rationale from a killer's perspective. So the family moves away, SO WHAT? There is no explanation why that aggravates the pagan creature. Plus, the main character basically has this same realisation half through the movie, so why on earth is he shocked at the end when the policeman calls him up to tell him that? Another detail that irked me so profoundly: the stereotype-academic expert character, with his spot-on, yet unconvincing, information about the creature.
Nevertheless, I had a good shake (initially), and I enjoyed the "snuff" home videos.