(This review may contain spoilers).
I did think that this film started off as a found footage film… but I thought the fact that it was actually a vacation movie worked really well. It was good to see that there was a reason provided for why Tyler and Becca hadn’t seen their grandparents for their whole lives… and although there were some cringeworthy moments of attempted humour, there were a few that worked really well. (The rapping didn’t really work that well…)
While there weren’t that many scary moments in this movie, there were a lot that were really quite disturbing. Nana and Pop Pop were obviously strange from the beginning… though I didn’t really find myself putting anything together; which might well have been due to being tired.
There were a lot of suspicious moments in this movie. I felt there was quite a lot of tension and suspense in this, even though the amount of scares was quite small.
I liked seeing Becca’s and Tyler’s relationship with their mother. It was interesting to see how Becca viewed the documentary she was making and how she tried to learn more about her mother’s past. And there were a few moments I found myself smiling and chuckling at some of the humour.
There were some unexpected scenes in this movie and some really quite disturbing ones. There were a few things that I didn’t see coming and I thought it was good how Tyler and Becca were affected by what had happened to them in the past. And by the end, I thought they were both quite strong characters in their own right. I did find this film quite entertaining to watch. I don’t intend to see it again… but there were some strong scenes along with the truly disturbing ones. It’s worth giving this movie a try, in my opinion.
It’s not a total return-to-form for M. Night, but shows that he’s still got a few good movies left in him. Nice review.