I like horror. I don’t mind blood or gore in movies I don’t need to think too much about, though it is nice to see a movie that’s a bit more subtle. And that was definitely the case with this movie.
The first scene did a good job of setting the feel of the rest of the movie, even though it wasn’t clear how everything fit together at first. I found both Daniel and Peter interesting characters, even if it did follow the whole trope of gruff, reluctant mentor is forced to be partnered with a young, wet-behind-the-ears rookie.
I did like seeing the exchanges between the two of them and it was good to see that, although Daniel was gifted in his learning, he was still ignorant about the real workings of being an exorcist.
I thought there were some pretty good elements of foreshadowing in this movie. By the end, there was a lot that had come together and made sense. However, many of the scenes were pitch black and it was virtually impossible to see what was going on. There was one scene that took place in the prison/police precinct that I’m still left completely confused on exactly what had happened. Plus, I was watching with two of my friends who are blind…so at various points, I was saying, ‘I don’t have a clue what’s going on either.’
There were some good moments of action in this movie, but the jump scares were pretty basic and nothing I hadn’t seen before. Visually, by the end of the movie, I thought it was let down. The whole finale was extremely fast-moving and confusing in comparison to the rest.
I did like the relationship that was shown between Daniel and Charlie, but I would have liked more insight into Daniel’s motivations. Even when Peter asks him, Daniel doesn’t really go into much detail. Even by the end, I didn’t really get a good idea of Daniel’s strength of will/character.
I would have liked to see a bit more of the wider world of this movie. I think there was a lot more that could have been shown. And it was disappointing that the movie seemed to abandon some of the subtlety in favour of jump scares, especially towards the end of the movie.
I did find this movie intriguing to watch, even though I would have liked to see more motivations of the characters and more of the world outside. Plus, I didn’t feel that the end goal made a lot of sense. I think it would be good to see a sequel to this movie, where hopefully some more details are explored and the hints of, ‘You know what it’s like,’ are further explored with Daniel’s character.
