This current year, as well as the past several, has seen a slowly building increase in something the horror genre has required for quite a while in this critic's opinion...originality. I've stated before that I am very hard to please when it comes to this vein of the film industry's offerings, always leaning more towards that which sends chills through my very being in lieu of buckets of blood and gore. With this recently released effort from director Michael Shanks....SUCCESS!!
Delivering an atmosphere that is palpably tension-filled, at (brief!) times strangely comedic, ultimately unsettling, ominous, and unequivocally creepy, Shanks weaves a tale of relational stresses forming between a young couple Tim (Dave Franco) and Millie (Alison Brie) after a move to the country that's meant to help their union only ends up serving to bring about an unearthly encounter that will drastically alter them, and ALL they are, in more ways than either would have ever expected....or wanted.
The beauty of how Shanks directs this effort is the slow burn (but not TOO slow) manner he executes the story in order to introduce us fully to the couple and their growing discontent before launching us into the circumstances which usher in the supernaturally and body horror-centric elements that, once present, just take over in the best of ways. There are some seriously jarring moments, effective jump scares, and the aforementioned, consistent aura of uneasiness that visually the film tackles masterfully.