Brief Story Line
Story was set in a small town in Oregon state, where a young boy named Lucas (Jeremy T. Thomas) seemed to be having troubles at home and in school. His teacher Julia Meadows (Keri Russel - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, The Americans TV series etc) was worried about him. Despite the disapproval from her brother & sheriff Paul (Jesse Plemons - Game Night, Friday Night Lights TV series etc), Julia still tried to pry into Lucas' conditions.
When a dead body was found seemingly bitten by large beast and people start to go missing, Paul and his deputies were looking for answers, however unlikely they could have been.
So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this horror movie.
End of Brief Story Line
I was interested to try this movie because the horror seemed to be not supernatural. The trailer suggested it to be more of creature horror and luckily my guess was right, as supernatural horror film is scarier and could give me nightmares. Anyway, when watching this movie, I felt that the opening scene was OK but afterwards it moved in a very slow pace which was surprising considering creature horror usually tend to be suspenseful early on. Not until half way through the movie that things become more interesting and more intense.
The story itself was not very complicated. However, the writers seemed to focus on a bit of dramatic side especially relating to the background story of the lead characters Julia and Paul. But the story involving the boy Lucas was quite interesting. The spooky feeling was strengthened by the dark tone and lack of color, plus gloomy music. Personally to me though, the darkness was a bit too much which resulted to unclarity of the thing that was supposed to scare us. But the use of jump scare technique was quite effective, with one particular scene towards the end that totally shocked me.
The special effects was OK with the best for me was the scene in the attic and also the victim's bodies which looked real and terrifying. One thing that I admired was how realistic Lucas' malnourished body was. The lead cast were generally fine in their roles. In addition to those 3 names, there were few more people in support roles such as Graham Greene (Wind River etc) as former Sheriff Warren, Amy Madigan (The Hunt etc) as principal Ellen Booth, Rory Cochrane (Reprisal TV series etc) as Deputy Dan and Scott Haze (Child of God etc) as Lucas' father Frank Weaver.
While looking at the closing credits, I noticed that it was based on a short story titled The Quiet Boy, written by Nick Antosca (also serving as one of the screen writer). I saw the well known name of Guillermo del Toro as co-producers too. This movie was directed by Scott Cooper whose prior works included Out of the Furnace and the highly regarded Black Mass. Despite these names though, I felt the movie itself was a bit lacking in making it a truly memorable one. The early part gave the feeling of it was going to be one of those slow burn and disturbing horror movie, while the second half was more intense but strangely not suspenseful enough (or perhaps too brief). Not to mention that the creature was an unfamiliar one for me (it was more of a famous myth in the US). The climax was a bit weird for me, especially the abrupt change of Julia's characteristic. Btw, there was no mid or post end credit scene, though the final scene was the classic horror movie ending.
Overall this was a horror movie which probably focused too much on the disturbing issues in small town America and too little horror. There was a bit of stylish feel which might explain why critics quite enjoyed it. I myself was OK but saying this one really satisfied me might be a bit too much. So if you are fans of horror with such qualities, then you might be able to enjoy this a lot. But if more intensity or suspense is what you are looking for, likely you would be more satisfied elsewhere.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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