The Standard Setter

Rating: 7/10 (22 January 2019)

While by modern standards this film is overly long, complicated, and cliche, that is because this was the film that made these tropes mainstream. A young family occupies an absent hotel during the off-season, and each member experiences hallucinations or encounters with supernatural beings that haunt the hotel. The father goes insane, and attempts to murder his family, as the child channels a demon, and the mother attempts to navigate her homicidal family: a classic sit-com plot, as anyone can tell. The deliberate slow pacing of the high action scenes and the low angles that show us an interesting perspective and pacing of the shots put the audience on the edge of their seat, despite the extended run time.