A bad film from whatever angle you attempt to dissect it from...

All that said, the movie reminded me of a mix between The Exorcist and Evil Dead, minus the black humor. It felt like the Exorcist as far as the possession aspects go, but like Evil Dead because of how physically powerful and mortally dangerous the demonic possession had become. I haven't seen too many movies about a shrine that instantly possesses people when it "looks" at them. Speaking of which, the part where the statue turns its head and looks at the lead actress was quite chilling. On the other hand, the movie doesn't feel like a broad narrative or even an account of possession like The Exoricst, but instead like an isolated tale, like one you would tell around a camp fire, as it is almost entirely from the perspective of the main characters. One where the journey takes you away to the location, where the description becomes deadly real. The semi-twist, where one immediately assumes that the cult is the evil of the film, and then finds that they are combating the evil is nothing new, but works very well in this movie.

I notice that the reason a lot of people hate on horror movies like this one, is because they overly rationalize the movie and despise the stupid things the characters do, but c'mon. Generally speaking, there wouldn't be a movie if the characters didn't slip up and succumb to some level of stupidity. It is easy to look at it in hind sight. "I would of done this, or she should of done that" is pointless. The movie is a FANTASY, a work of FICTION. There has to be some failure, some trip up that gets the spiral going. Sadly people like you will probably hate most horror and that is probably why most horror gets 3/5 stars on Netflix. Lol.

All in all I found this movie to be way above average as far as recent American horror movies are concerned. If you love the genre, can find a way to immerse yourself into the story (turn off all the lights, use headphones/ear buds, watch alone, etc.), you will probably dig this movie. If you hated movies like The Blair Witch Project because you couldn't immerse yourself into the story, suspend your disbelief, watched it and thought "this is just a bunch of kids filming in the woods with noises" because it failed to capture you and fill you with the same sense of dread as the actors portrayed, then maybe you should reevaluate why you even watch horror movies in the first place.

I thought the actors in the three main roles were fine. And I didn't see any gaping plot holes. Obviously you have to accept the idea that supernatural forces like this actually exist, at least while you're watching the movie.

I think it's a little ridiculous that people don't believe characters would take risks like they do in this movie. Obviously they didn't fully understand the danger they were in, and you hear about people doing risky things all the time. She's a reporter, and some of them are willing to go into war torn areas even after other reporters have been killed. None of these things are plot holes.

I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, googoo goo joob goo goo goo goo joob-J Lennon

Yeah, I gave it a 6/10, as well. The low budget kind of hurt it, and the story seemed like it should've been fleshed out a bit more. As it is, it's still better than most of the bigger budget, CGI horror junk that Hollywood churns out.

I wouldn't say it's great, but it was competently made and I've seen much worse. I thought it was pretty slow though.

I liked the movie. Better than ED 2013
= The Nemesis =