Minor Masterpiece of Modern Horror

Wow, this little horror film impressed me. SOME SPOILERS AHEAD

I actually liked a lot of the ambiguities in this film. I liked the fact that a handful of things are left unexplained -- that the film works for your interpretation rather than only offering explanation. Many films do this badly, but it worked for me here. And the premise -- some kind of unexplained "pact" between the girl's mother and her brother -- is very original and rather disturbing.

Mostly, the talent of the director to make a quite scary film out of nothing more than a small Southern California suburban home -- that's refreshing. Sure, in some sense the film is too ambitious in that it wants to be both a ghost story and a story about a serial killer. Also some of the "ghost" images (the image in the cop's digital camera of the ghostly hand pointing at the wall) are a bit too much. But the film is so well made it makes you forget its flaws.

I can see a lot of hardcore horror fans not liking this film because the film takes its time. It doesn't hurry us. Good ghost stories are like this -- which is why it is all the more bizarre and jarring when the climax of the film has nothing to do with a ghost or spirit. I suspect this film will be more appreciated by the casual horror fan or suspense fan or just film buffs in general than a lot of hardcore horror fans. This is a pretty scary films, and most horror films these days aren't really scary -- they're just startling, grim or gory.

I don't watch that much recent horror, but I don't understand why this one did not get a lot more attention. I think it's because distribution for well made truly independent films these days is poor. Back in the day an independent horror film this good would have gotten lots of press and good distribution. Now it's just some newspaper and radio reviews no one notices and then to Netflix. I think the stature of this film will only grow over time.