A long time ago in a distant fairy tale countryside, a young girl leads her little brother into a dark wood in desperate search of food and work, only to stumble upon a nexus of terrifying evil.
A young videographer answers an online ad for a one-day job in a remote town to record the last messages of a dying man. When he notices the man's odd behavior, he starts to question his intentions.
Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son. Then a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge.
Director:
Trey Edward Shults
Stars:
Joel Edgerton,
Christopher Abbott,
Carmen Ejogo
A soon-to-be stepmom is snowed in with her fiancé's two children at a remote holiday village. Just as relations begin to thaw between the trio, some strange and frightening events take place.
A father and son, both coroners, are pulled into a complex mystery while attempting to identify the body of a young woman, who was apparently harboring dark secrets.
Two Catholic schoolgirls Kat (Kiernan Shipka) and Rose (Lucy Boynton) get left behind at their boarding school over winter break as the other girls leave, where it's rumored that the nuns are satanists. Meanwhile, a disturbed mental patient Joan (Emma Roberts), an escapee, is picked up by a middleage couple (James Remar and Lauren Holly) who drive her on a determined trip to the same school, where the girls must face the supernatural and demonic possession.Written by
InternetGhost
The Bramford is the also the name of the notorious apartment building in Ira Levin's novel and the film, Rosemary's Baby (1968) which Guy and Rosemary move into. See more »
Goofs
The length of Joan's haircut changes throughout the film. See more »
Quotes
Father Brian:
Katherine? There you are.
[Performs an Exorcism on Kat]
Father Brian:
You are not wanted hear. I say, you will go from this place. You will leave here. You will leave this poor girl... And you will never come back. I command that you leave this place. I command that you go out! I command that you go out! By the power of Christ! I command you! I command you to leave this girl! And never come back! I command you to go out!
See more »
Against The Stream
Written by Elvis Perkins
Mixed by Jesse Lauter
Performed by Elvis Perkins, Mitchell Robe, Danielle Aykroyd, Robert Caldwell, John Rosenthal, Otto Hauser, Paul Jasmin, Greg Wilk & Oz Perkins See more »
The first hour of this movie is impeccably written and directed. I have mixed feelings about the last third, at which point most of the subtlety, creepiness, and mystery which had up to that point made the movie so compelling and intriguing is dumped in favor of a bloodbath.
This is a 6 star movie with 10 star acting, and the first hour of the movie so successfully generates a sense of eerie, atmospheric dread that I feel justified in bumping it up to 7 stars. 19 year old Kiernan Shipka displays the kind of masterful control over her facial expressions one doesn't often see even in actors with decades of experience. Many things contribute to the atmosphere I mentioned, including a fantastic soundtrack and superb pacing.
Regarding the latter, pay no attention to reviewers who are claiming that this movie is "slow." There is a distinct difference between intentionally deliberately paced and slow. A deliberate pace combined with savvy editing and eerie sound design is often what separates truly excellent horror film making from the kind of breakneck paced, unatmospheric junk we usually see. I would imagine that the people who are criticizing the pace of this movie probably don't appreciate classics of the genre like The Haunting (1963), The Changeling (1980), or The Innocents (1961). If those aren't your kind of movies then you probably won't like this one either.
I'm still thinking about the last half an hour of this film. I think the writer / director made some miscalculations and moved the plot in a direction that ultimately brings the movie down a couple of notches. That's not to say it's conclusion is a complete failure. The last two shots are striking and much more in keeping with the first hour. Maybe I should give it an 8. In any case, for fans of carefully constructed and well-made horror films, this is a must-see. Maybe not quite an inevitable classic, but perhaps a near-miss.
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The first hour of this movie is impeccably written and directed. I have mixed feelings about the last third, at which point most of the subtlety, creepiness, and mystery which had up to that point made the movie so compelling and intriguing is dumped in favor of a bloodbath.
This is a 6 star movie with 10 star acting, and the first hour of the movie so successfully generates a sense of eerie, atmospheric dread that I feel justified in bumping it up to 7 stars. 19 year old Kiernan Shipka displays the kind of masterful control over her facial expressions one doesn't often see even in actors with decades of experience. Many things contribute to the atmosphere I mentioned, including a fantastic soundtrack and superb pacing.
Regarding the latter, pay no attention to reviewers who are claiming that this movie is "slow." There is a distinct difference between intentionally deliberately paced and slow. A deliberate pace combined with savvy editing and eerie sound design is often what separates truly excellent horror film making from the kind of breakneck paced, unatmospheric junk we usually see. I would imagine that the people who are criticizing the pace of this movie probably don't appreciate classics of the genre like The Haunting (1963), The Changeling (1980), or The Innocents (1961). If those aren't your kind of movies then you probably won't like this one either.
I'm still thinking about the last half an hour of this film. I think the writer / director made some miscalculations and moved the plot in a direction that ultimately brings the movie down a couple of notches. That's not to say it's conclusion is a complete failure. The last two shots are striking and much more in keeping with the first hour. Maybe I should give it an 8. In any case, for fans of carefully constructed and well-made horror films, this is a must-see. Maybe not quite an inevitable classic, but perhaps a near-miss.