STARRING: Josh brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan. Written, produced and directed by Zach Cregger. Budget $38 million. Running time 128 minutes.
When a classroom's worth of children, save one, Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher) all get out of bed at 2.17am in the morning and run off into the night never to be seen again, suspicion falls on their teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) and the parents of the missing kids all turn on her.
And that's all I'm going to tell you about the plot. The film unfurls its story through six different character's perspective, the surviving child Alex, his teacher Justine, her ex boyfriend Alden (Paul Morgan), her boss headmaster Marcus Miller (Benedict Wong), a young drug addict called James (Austin Abrams), and the father of one of the missing children Archer Graff (Josh Brolin).
Telling the story from six different character's perspective is an excellent conceit and works brilliantly, building the plot with each tale. You'll try to second guess the story, but you'll do it without success, the film leads you along but each time rips the rug from under you, creating a deeply unsettling and scary experience. The film is filled with jump scares and some genuinely frightening imagery, it's also got some extremely gory sequences that had the audience I saw this with shrieking in response. The direction from Cregger is very assured and he is shaping up to be a deeply original horror director. The music also works perfectly creating an atmosphere of clawing naked dread.
However, a film like this only works if it nails its landing and it's a delight to report that this does it with absolute precision and you will not be disappointed.
It think this was one of the most original and chilling horror films I've seen in a very long time and I bloody loved it! And for once, I didn't groan or laugh at some ludicrous plot hole.
Drop whatever you're doing and go and see this now, before someone spoils it for you.
9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments, unless they're how to make money working from home, are gratefully received.