J R

All of my stars are for comedy. There were some seriously hilarious moments in this movie, but I can't tell if those were intentional. Part of the film attempted to amp up the adrenaline and mystique (it wasn't effective for me, but it could be for someone else), but the build was uneven and occasionally so absurd that I failed to suspend my disbelief sufficiently. The ending [no spoilers here] was *chef's kiss.* My horror film watching group laughed for a solid 3 minutes breaking this down. It was perfect. But not if you're looking for a serious psychological thriller. Just a note, but the child actor's performance was credible and nuanced--I'm always impressed when children are spectacular actors. All the acting was solid, frankly, and the sound work was very creative. The comedic victory of the end sequence was a bit disorienting. A friend remarked of this film that "you can't recommend or recreate this experience." It's true.

If you watch 15 minutes, it looks like a brilliant film that you're walking in on too late, but that might have made sense with the full context of the production. But it is not this film. The more I watched, the more I became convinced my Netflix had accidentally shifted into another film. Much of the plot appears to have been culled from the 2002 Ghost Ship (which is a great watch), stitched together with a ghostly Titanic and a mishmash of Hitchcock and Kubrick references. The Rod Serling voice over announced, but did not create, an ending. There is no resolution because there is no plot. Perhaps it is this sensation of directionlessness, nonsense, and heavy-handed reference to other films of the genre, that makes this movie truly horrifying.