Richard Hopkins

Judging by user reviews on Google, you'll either love this film or you'll hate it. How you find is entirely based on whether you are religious or not. The positive reviews are like a facebook post asking you to "drop an amen!", and the religious reviewers oblige in their masses with 5 shiny stars, and lots of prayer emojis, while reasonable people are more critical. It's not hard to figure out which camp I fall into. **edit** I lost the main body of this review, and refuse to write it all again but suffice to say the plot is thin, with several areas unexplored, character development is limited to say the least, there are no scares, the sets are too dark. The acting is fine, but not exactly good. Overall, this is not a good film, nor is it based on a "true story" - just because somebody tells you something, doesn't mean it's automatically true. I'm looking at you, the bible. Way too much Jesus rubbish, and not enough scary or interesting bits in it.

I don't often leave ratings on films, as all art is subjective, but this film was just bad. The concept, although unoriginal and trite, was fine: Young lad hears noises in the walls, parents are acting strangely, so we, and the lad, are thinking "are the parents keeping someone/thing in the walls, and why?". Are they pure evil? Turns out that, yes, they are keeping someone in the walls, but not for the reasons you might first suspect - however, this twist (that the thing in the walls is there to keep it away from others for their own safety), is neither a shock nor a suprise. Ultimately, the thing persuades Peter to poison his parents (both of whom were enjoyable to watch), and release the said thing from within the walls. Thing turns out to have ulterior motives. I'm cutting a lot out here, but the thing, which turns out to be Peter's sister, is a murderous contortionist, who seemingly has the strength of multiple strong men, and can climb the walls, hang from ceilings, and run along vertical surfaces. Something she *learnt* to do from rats and spiders, apparently. Seems feasible. Showing great strength and speed, she is ultimately overpowered by a 10 year old boy, who pulls her hair. This after she easily and swiftly dismantes 3 large home intruders in a 5 minute sequence of blood and gore. The film ends with her back in her cellar, threatening that "I'll be watching you in your bed, Peter". Which is also nonsensical, as he's hardly going to stay in the house, is he? There might also be a police investigation because of the 6 bodies, and seeing as you aren't supernatural in any way, and can just 'climb good' - it's safe to assume you'll get the chair. Why they keep the girl in the walls in the first place is never addressed, and why she hasn't got out earlier is a mystery - especially as it takes the heroine teacher about 8 seconds to break through the wall with a fire poker - surely a person strong enough to rip a man in two in a heartbeat, can get through a drywall at some point over the last few years? And earlier, why they lock Peter in the cellar as punishment for misbehaviour, next to the girl's dungeon? Why put him so close to discovering the secret? Another stupid turn of events. Also, have they been feeding this girl? And why didn't they turn her over to the authorities at any point after she, assumedly, killed a missing girl some years back (a subplot that is VERY lightly explored)? It's not as if they love her, and don't want her to be taken away - they lock her in the walls and ignore her. Man. This film was dumb. I like Anthony Starr, but his turn was limited, and this film needn't have ever been made. No real jump scares, which is great, because they suck. The house in which 95% of the movie is set, is creepy and well decorated in a gothic style, and it is bordering on atmospheric occasionally, but it's almost as if the writers, cast and crew all got bored, and just went "ok - let's just wrap this up, shall we?" when they were under half way through scriptwriting. 1*.

I don't have time to do a review. 5 stars. Move on.