This was supposed to be scary right?

Rating: 3/10 (17 October 2018)

I don't know what I am missing. I feel kind of alone as most of the reviewers are stating that this is very scary and terrifying. Maybe I have seen too many horror films but this kind of thing is not scary to me. In fact I was laughing out loud at some parts. The ending was so stupid. The mom experiences a possession so deeply that she almost dies and then at the end she's just standing with her husband on the porch like it was a Hallmark film. If you had just been through that you would be rushing to the hospital to get your wounds checked out. So unrealistic.
I did like Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga but that's about it. Ron Livingston was so bland and boring in this. He must have been doing this for the paycheck only. He added nothing special and it could have been anyone in that role. There was no chemistry between him and Lili Taylor. In one scene they are in their bedroom after they first move in and she suggests they "christen" the house. He actually looks like he's completely grossed out about having to kiss her.
Maybe people feel this movie is scarier than it really is because it is supposedly based on real events. I did research on this when it came out because I was interested in the back story and it seems a lot of it was debunked. And of course if there was any truth to any of it this movie took a lot of liberties with the facts. Think about it...if you found yourself in their situation. If all those things were really happening why did they continue to live in the house for 10 YEARS?! I am sorry but there is just no way anyone would continue to live there if they were waking up with bruises or their children were so terrified they took to sleeping on the ground floor rather than in their own bedrooms. I know the filmmakers think they covered themselves by having the dad state that they had sunk every penny into the house and they had no where to go blah blah. Ok great but they could've explored other options. They could've pitched a tent in an open field somewhere and showered at the local Y. The children could've showered at their school gym. They could have appealed to family members or the community or something. So what if they defaulted on the loan! If their health and welfare was being affected to the degree that they were experiencing they could've found a way to not live there. It is utter rubbish to expect us to believe that a normal person would just continue to put up with that. I don't buy the whole "it doesn't matter where you go" the spirits will still haunt you. Ok did anyone else report that happening? NOPE! They all wisely just got the hell out and that was the end of it.
This honestly is no different than most horror films out there. They throw in the haunted house, ghosts and the requisite jump scares and they think they've got a winner. Supernatural stuff does not scare me because as long as I have lived I have never once experienced any of the things these horror films portray. BUT I will say if you want to see something truly terrifying just look to real life. I guarantee you the stuff that happens IRL is 10 times scarier than anything the writer's room in Hollywood could make up.
If you want to be truly horrified take some time to search up the 1986 TV movie The Deliberate Stranger starring Mark Harmon as Ted Bundy. The fact that Ted Bundy confessed to killing 36 people but the authorities believe it to be closer to 100 is truly terrifying. The fact that this guy was married with a child and just out there walking around among us looking totally normal but killing at random is what keeps me up at night. That movie is the reason that after all these years I won't walk alone at night and I have a healthy distrust of people wearing casts asking for help. They haven't even found all the bodies of the people he killed. It is so hard to wrap my mind around the fact that we encounter these individuals on a daily basis without knowing it. That should scare you NOT some paranormal crap drivel.
If you believe in spirits and ghosts then I suppose this might scare you but if you don't I wouldn't suggest watching this.