My review has some spoilers, so don’t read this if you care about that.
We’re all entitled to our opinions, but I really don’t understand how people are rating this movie 5 stars. The acting was good and so were the few instances of gore (if that’s what you want in a horror film), but the story is convoluted and really doesn’t make sense if you take ten seconds to think about it. The movie breaks itself into acts that focus on specific characters, but this model only ended up serving as a way to introduce the characters so we know why they’re in the house during the finale and that’s all. There’s drama between some of the characters, but it ended up serving no purpose (like why did Justine and Paul need to be having an affair? Why did they both need to be alcoholics? Why did Paul need to be an abusive cop and get stabbed with James’ syringes constantly, and potentially contract Aids? The plot could have worked without these details). I guess really it was just to make them more unlikeable as characters, and therefore we might think “oh maybe they took the kids?” due to those flaws, but those red herrings fell completely flat if that’s the case. There’s not much development of the characters, no real discussion of the villain’s motivations for capturing the students (the audience can infer it because the villain states they’re sick and “needs the children”, but it’s never explicitly stated that they need their youth, nor do we ever see the villain getting younger unless you notice they had grown a little bit of hair by the end). The background of the villain is never discussed; she just arrives in town and is a problem, oh and she’s a witch with a plant. There’s imagery in some of the characters’ dreams that never reappear (like the assault rifle above the house). Also, ring cameras serve an important purpose in tracking down the children. One of the characters used a couple ring cameras and a paper map to triangulate where the students went. But like… none of the people who lived near the house the students ran to had ring cameras? Or noticed 17 students arrive at a single location at the same time? Idk I just wasn’t impressed with this film.