Okay here’s the thing, if you DO NOT LIKE psychological horror/thriller films especially films similar to A24 you’re not going to like this. A24’s movies especially the horror films are almost always made with a secret meaning or representation behind them ex : hereditary, midsommar, Heretic.. these movies arent ever typically made with a straight answer at the end. to encourage the watcher to think and interpret it on their own. Yes I only gave 4 stars because it was pretty slow paced but, these reviews are just awful and I could tell these people have never seen a film like this and were just expecting another “Quiet Place” and such with a full background and explained plot/dynamic. This movie compared to other films was actually explained to us pretty well beside the fact that we (spoiler) never got to hear what the mother was going to say when she told her son that she brought the evil. There’s a few things I pieced together by the end of the movie that made it all a make a bit more sense. Here is my brief interpretation (all my personal opinion)
The mother brought the evil to this house and is some kind of curse that effects her family I believe, her husband mother and father were all possessed by this being and so she unalived them to protect her children. She is the only one who can see the evil, where it is, who it’s portraying, etc. The evil can show itself as anything and can also choose when to not be shown etc etc. This house has some kind of protection from it and it seems to work against the evil. Time jump to when the hiker came to help the boys. He was most definitely real, and not the evil portraying someone. Now here’s the part that made me enjoy this movie. The eldest son sees the hikers wallet with a picture of his daughter in the front, at this point in the movie the “evil” has been leaving the children alone to make them more vulnerable. The eldest son then goes outside and the “daughter” comes to him and asks him if he’s seen her father, he lies duh anyway girl ends up running away the son chases her and she makes him run in circles around the trees so that he no longer can have the ropes protection.. blah blah anyway he takes it off and chases her again she shows her true form (the evil) and possess him. I believe he is still possessed by the end of the movie because of his statement “she loves me more” which is what the evil said to the younger brother in the beginning of the woods trying to portray the eldest.
Anyway no one’s gonna read this but some of you guys need to understand that certain movies are made for certain viewers. If you don’t have the capacity to interpret and see through a movies meaning you shouldn’t be watching this kind of film