It's advertised as a horror/thriller, and it actually is, judging to the amount of killings, the jump-scares and all the blood and gore. But I got the impression that the makers had even higher ambitions, this movie seems also to criticize therapists and their sometimes unorthodox, even cruel treatments, as well as seek justification, or at least understanding, for aggressive behavior in a traumatized childhood. This only partly worked: Brian is pictured so conniving and relentless, and his killing-spree, especially in the last 20 minutes, is so over the top, that every attempt to sympathize fails.
What we get is a rather unbalanced story: for a regular horror flick there's way too much psychological digging in the past, while for a serious drama-with-a-message the gore more and more dominates all other, maybe well-meant, intentions of the makers. What didn't help is the over-all clumsy acting, only the young version of Brian was convincingly played by Jonathan Tysor as this sinister little boy, brooding on evil. The abrupt ending of the movie suited the rest: we are left almost literally in mid-air when Brian confronts another (his last?) victim. And then? Are we to suppose that now Brian has conquered his demons and will live happily ever after? It feels as if the makers didn't know either and simply decided to call it a day.
What we get is a rather unbalanced story: for a regular horror flick there's way too much psychological digging in the past, while for a serious drama-with-a-message the gore more and more dominates all other, maybe well-meant, intentions of the makers. What didn't help is the over-all clumsy acting, only the young version of Brian was convincingly played by Jonathan Tysor as this sinister little boy, brooding on evil. The abrupt ending of the movie suited the rest: we are left almost literally in mid-air when Brian confronts another (his last?) victim. And then? Are we to suppose that now Brian has conquered his demons and will live happily ever after? It feels as if the makers didn't know either and simply decided to call it a day.