This movie took a year off of my life...

Rating: 10/10 (31 July 2013)

and gave me clinical anxiety. I mean Jesus Christ almighty I don't scare easily I'm a manly man's man but this film was horrifying. I was very worried about it being over-hyped, especially since I've seen enough horror movies that I've gotten to that horrible point where I can tell generally when a scare's coming by the camera angle and the sound cues. It wasn't over-hyped. Nor were the best scares given away in the trailer, in my opinion. Even the ones you do see in the trailer, they spin them or cut them in such a way that it's not quite what you get in the movie, which was really nice. It still caught me off guard. Anyway, I'm going to try to explain as lucidly as possible why this film actively crippled my soul and tried to kill me. This is not a cheap jump-out scare movie. I know a lot of people say that, and you may wonder, "then what kind of movie is it?" This movie is a horrible, slow, simmering build-up of suspense to the point where I was praying for the jump scare to come just to break the tension. This movie is physically exhausting and makes you anxious as hell throughout almost the entire thing. It's a long time before you even see the freaky ghost lady and they manage to make it horrifying without her. When the scare does come, it does not last a second and then pass. IT's not a startling thing. No, you see the horrible ghost (great make up effects, by the way), the camera lingers on the ghost for an unsettling amount of time and it somehow doesn't lose any of its shock value, and then there's an extended sequence of said ghost attacking someone or just generally being a ghostly dick that will leave you exhausted by the time the scare passes. I will say the climax and end of the film goes into slightly more well-trod, less frightening territory, but it's not bad at all, just not quite as balls-crushingly horrifying as the first 3/4 of the film. The bottom line is if you have anxiety or a heart condition, are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant, you should consult your doctor before seeing this movie. Oh, also the cinematography and the sound and acting was really neat and stuff, even from Lili Taylor, which I'll admit surprised me a little after her horrible stint in the Haunting, which I do not recommend because it sucks