SPOOPYWEEN DAY 10 THE HOLE IN THE GROUND!!!!

Day 10

The Hole in the Ground

Welcome back to Finland!

Well Ireland, I guess. To be more specific.

BOTH are the home to some of the best horror experiences we’ve had previously, so we can only hope for more of the same this time around.

We have another new film which I know next to nothing about, but the premise sounds oh so fun, and familiar.

What we have here is a story about a mom who’s son goes roaming into the woods and returns very different.

It’s a story I’ve seen a few times done pretty well in horror and I am sure most of you have as well at some time too. If not? Well we’re in for a treat. Especially given the land we’re adventuring through. I know I joke about the irish and its always in good fun. I know better than to upset an irish woman. Learned that early in my dating life, and even my sister knows of their power.

Famously between us we had an “A Christmas Story” you’ll shoot your eye out moment.

My sister was trying to see if she could help set me up with a date and if she had any friends or coworkers who might fit what I was looking for. I didn’t really know what my preferences were so I went off the fantasy girlfriend list and told my sis I’d like a pale red headed irish lady. Her immediate response was “Do you have a death wish? They’d kill you”

Well thankfully I live to this day. Somehow.

But this film is not about crazy irish redheaded girlfriend hopefuls. This is about whether or not this ladies son is her blood born baby, or a blood hungry mimic.

I only say mimic because we don’t know if this boy hatches a clone of himself out of a human sized egg so. We’ll go with something fairly neutral for now. That being said. Lets dive on into it.

The film

One day I will review all the Leprechaun films. One day.

But for now its time to join mom and son on a nice outing at the local fair. Which. To be…fair. Ha. Ha.

It looks rather abandoned. Like seriously abandoned. Which would be a fun kind of outing for mother and son, not gonna lie. I’d love exploring abandoned amusement parks and interesting buildings.

Eating cotton candy from an abandoned park? Not so much. That’s a new level of bravery.

But it’s a nice setting point to introduce us to our fun loving family minus dad. He apparently went out for milk and never came back. Leaving Sarah to raise her son, Chris on her own. Which is no small feat. The two live in a nice little cottage home I’d feel awesomely fortunate to call my own

As much as I complain at times about living in the woods, I really do enjoy a lot of it. So seeing these kind of settings really make me feel cozy and happy. That is until odd hooded men suddenly appear in the road while your driving ending up breaking your driver side mirror, seemingly unaffected by it.

Which is what happens to these two poor souls just trying to enjoy some abandoned park cotton candy of the damned.

Seriously there is no other excuse or way to look at it. These people were the only ‘living’ souls at this carnival, the film isn’t convincing anyone otherwise. Oh yeah they nearly hit someone standing in the road.

But they seem pretty darn cool about it. I mean they aren’t pressing charges and they didn’t start cussing them out or worse off start drunkenly reciting a dirty limerick.

Is it a sign of things to come when they nearly hit an odd stranger in the middle of the road who simply mumbles to themselves and looks like they crawled out of some long forgotten castle? No, it’s just Ireland. I imagine.

But we have no time for odd weird hooded men in the middle of the road. We got a bigger mystery to deal with in this film. Something I am not entirely sure I would want to find in the woods here, or might enjoy finding. It depends on what happens when I talk to the forest people.

Our little family are having a moment as Chris is apparently still afraid of spiders. I hate this. I think it’s sad how we figure kids and people are ‘afraid’ of spiders. We aren’t afraid of them. We are mindfully aware they tend to be little assholes with venom sacks. So stop saying “oh he’s afraid of spiders” and correct yourself “Oh he’s mindfully aware of those egg legged assholes, they can fuck right off”. That’s more appropriate.

Well Chris doesn’t care for them so he and mom escort one outside to politely get rid of it in a way that is both helpful to nature, and pleasing to Buddha. She sets it free outside. Chris has a moment and decides to stomp the spider into nothingness. Declaring that this is one stomp in the path to cleansing the earth of all arachnid and their asshole kind. He then storms off into the woods screaming about manifest destiny and something in irish I can’t make out but I am pretty sure is HIGHLY offensive to spiders and forest insects.

Actually no, the little brat got mad at mom because he’s not taking it well that Dad is not a part of their life anymore and that she’d let a spider live. So he takes off into the woods. Leading he and mom to discover what can best be described as a meteorite crater. Or you know, the entrance to hell. Maybe a fairy kingdom, land of the wee folk. Who can say. Just yet.

Well she tells her kid to stay the hell out of the inferno pit and he seems to agree with mom. Which I mean good on him because this thing is massively huge, and honestly there is no way of getting in or out of there without a rope and team. Or a liter of scotch and a dare.

Well all seems well in the land of the irish. So far. At least that is, until night time.

There is something afoot in their household. Or someone. Maybe multiple someones. For all we know Seal Team Six could’ve decided their home was prime ground for a night ops. I say this as I currently hear helicopters hovering low to the ground nearby. It’s not because of me. It’s literally running night op drills and such.

Anyway…

So mom is awoken by thumping footsteps and unseen visitors. She begins calling out for her son only to find the little bastard Is nowhere to be seen. SO out the door she must fly! And of course once she’s outside…it’s dark, cold, windy and something is hiding in the shadows and behind the trees. But alas. No sign of her boy. However just as she’s having the most awkward police conversation about calling in her possibly missing son. He magically shows up and gives her a thumbs up.

Seriously though her call with the police is great and had me laughing. She doesn’t know her address, which is reasonable. So they ask for the village name. She doesn’t want to give it. They ask a number, a name, anything she’s on the fence and her mind is loading, Then she sees her son and rudely hangs up on them as if Ireland doesn’t have *69 yet.

They do.

Also the emergency number in Ireland if you were curious is 112. It’s always good to know should you travel abroad.

Just saying. Okay so moving on.

IS everything truly okay though? Well yeah.

UNTIL IT’S NOT!!

Immediately her pouty sometimes behaved mostly upset at her for the lack of his father, not interested in making friends, bullied at school always in his own world son is. Suddenly and promptly sat ready for dinner before she calls him to the table. He’s bringing her flowers in bed when she wakes up, he also is a social butterfly and making friends with a ton of kids, including some who bullied him.

Honestly its not that drastic a change to be real. Any time my sis and I knew there was a possibility of us going to Toys R Us, the movies or better yet Knotts Berry Farm. We behaved our asses off, and making friends can happen in an hour if your lucky.

But no this kid is a full on mimic or changeling. Maybe not from a huge egg but. We know.

We know.

In fact so do the locals. Or at least those who wonder around in night gowns around the streets.

Oh look a lady wondering around the middle of the road in a night gown.

This town really has a thing for pedestrians standing in the middle of the road just kinda hanging around doing nothing but mumbling.

Well that and screaming about things like the clouds, politics, That thing is not your son.

You know, the usual banter.

Well that’s mildly upsetting, but have no fear. The wondering lady’s husband is here to whisk her away and explain she has a condition and tends to wonder, but she means no harm. As for yelling out kids not being yours well. That’s how how she be.

Don’t worry though this old lady will not be popping up again to give us backstory or tell us how to spot a changeling or mimic. Because within a few moments, Mom finds her face down on the lawn with her head buried in the dirt.

Which admittedly. Is a bit odd. But who am I to question when someone wants to play ostrich. People are weird. Especially when they are believing their child may actually not be their child because they appear early for dinner, bring you flowers and old women scream “THAT IS NOT YOUR BOY” while bashing their head into your car window.

As I said, it is a bit odd and gives you something to sit and steep on for a few minutes.

Why would some old lady with unfortunate mental illness believe your son is not your own. Then start throwing their head into your car window.

Also why would that same lady then end up moments later with their head buried in the ground on your property.

It’s another funny moment. Because we have no idea how or why that happened. She seemed rather innocent, but if she was right and that thing calling itself mama’s boy didn’t want to risk that getting out. Then. I guess it’d make sense grandma had to go.

But its funny to me that it happens so swiftly. Mom is in the car with her boy. Who we can presume has been with her the whole time, as we’ve not been lead to believe otherwise. She finds the lady with her head buried at their driveway, and. As the police read back her statement to her on discovering the woman. She’s now staring at her son as if he truly could be something he isn’t.

She knows he was with her when crazy lady had her head buried. So all she has to go on, is the same crazy lady babbling he’s not your boy, and him being on time for supper, and giving her flowers.

Either this lady needs some serious hugs and attention, or she is the next Hercule Poirot.

So the seed is planted and our mother of the year is ready to believe what many parents question at some point in their lives, the legitimacy of whether or not this child is hers or some unholy thing from the forest.

Whatever shall a mom do!

Well she’s gonna take a jog and think about it. Maybe pop open a Syrah and relax. Each some cheese. Take a nice bath.

Shit that sounds amazing….So yes the jog.

As she takes a jog debating the legitimacy of her son as most parents do at some point, she happens across the hole in the ground. Well that’s not entirely true. You don’t just ‘happen’ across a huge gaping hole while taking a jog. It’s just kinda all encompassing and taking up your entire back yard.

If you thought that was a setup for an ex, shame on you. I get it and good on ya. But shame on you.

As she circles this large gaping real estate and ponders building a castle upon it. She makes a discovery. A rather startling one at that. So mom is ready for what many, many afternoons of watching Law and Order have prepared her for.

She makes her son lunch, which he is scarfing down rather. Well like myself and most my family when eating my moms spaghetti. Only its much cleaner and a lot noisier as the camera is just RIGHT in his mouth as he’s devouring and shoveling spaghetti down his maw. It’s pretty horrible but so is the sound of most kids eating to be real.

So Mom lets her boy know she loves him and glad he loves her spaghetti. But she needs to know if he’s been a good boy, doing all his chores. Going where she’s told him he’s allowed, and staying away from places he’s not allowed to go.

As he begins to answer politely and with distinguished tone. His mom reminds him of her background in nothing else to do but watch crime dramas and without hesitation or waiting for him to finish she slams down onto the table what will be marked into evidence as A23. HER SON’S FAVORITE TOY MAN!

YES, mom found the toy near the edge of the circle into Irish hell and she knows he has just lied to her about where the hell he certainly claims he WASN’T!

Because surely. SURELY. If he claims he was nowhere near their hole, then this doll should not be there, AND if it were her REALLY REAL son?

He. Would. Have. Brought. The. Toy. With. Him.

Roll credits on the episode, give mom her Syrah.

But before Dick Wolf’s credit can show up on the screen. Chris has his own evidence to present. “I’m not lying!”

It’s not something that really holds up in the court of mom, however. Sarah cannot deny. That when the person you think is not your son screams at you they are being truthful and suddenly with the strength of a hundred leprechauns shoves a tables 3 times his weight and size, pinning her to the kitchen counter. She is inclined to, for the moment agree with the very unholy strong definitely not her kid creature and agree that yes. Yes he is not lying he was totally where he was and wasn’t where he shouldn’t be and things are just fine. Super just fine.

OF COURSE THEY ARE’NT!!!

The kid freakin Superman shoved their table into his mom like it was no big deal!

So yeah mom is gonna be suspicious.

Wait what?

Yes that’s right. Mom, having just witnessed her kid moving a solid wood table like it was a lego house and slamming her into the counter, is not enough to convince her. Maybe in his fit of child rage he was able to muster the strength and body slam her with the table? Maybe it’s the fact she maintains a clean well waxed floor?

Eitherway and as Law and Order teaches any of us. There is the truth, and there is what you can prove. She needs something that will stand up in mom court. Which apparently super strength is just not going to cut it. SOMEHOW.

So does Sarah find more evidence to support her case even though it wasn’t needed? Absolutely maybe.

Maybe her son isn’t her son, because he now is found to be playing with and eating spiders off the floor.

Maybe her son isn’t her son, because his fingers and limbs seem to elongate and morph.

Maybe her son isn’t her son, because he suddenly has the talent to sing and joins the school talent show.

Maybe her son isn’t her son, because she stopped taking her meds.

Maybe her son isn’t her son, because she secretly filmed him morbin out.

MAYBE  HE ISN’T HER SON, BECAUSE HE HULK TOSSED A GODDAMN TABLE AT HER!

MAYBE!!!

HE!!

JUST!!

ISN’T!!

HER!!

SON!!!!

Just maybe though…

Seriously she collects ALL of this evidence. Some would say a copious amount of evidence, but not a plethora. She wasn’t a plethora of evidence.

But yes, seeing her son giggling as he runs across the floor in his room on all fours, chasing and eating a spider, watching his fingers seem to grow and stretch out, his sudden willingness to join a talent show and sing which he never did before, and planting a camera in his room to film him say “it’s morbin time” and morb out. Only grants her the strong possibility he isn’t hers.

So she takes her findings and collected evidence to the old man down the road, who’s wife first declared that her boy was not hers.

It is there we learn that this was of course not the first time it’s happened. She used to believe their own son was not their own. At the old ladies funeral we learned he didn’t see their son one day as he was backing out and accidentally ran him over three or four times. And even though he was ‘fine’ his wife claimed and went crazy denying he was their son. She would even test her husband all those years later to make sure he himself was really himself. So surely knowing this, he will be the best source for her to give this evidence and get his seal of approval. If he approves of this. He can testify on her behalf in mom court and be sworn in as an expert witness as he claims knowledge of the Changeling or evil seed of the forest.

Well he doesn’t want any part of this.

Mom is sad.

She showed him her morbin video and he was not moved. He didn’t want to see any more of it, he doesn’t want to talk more about it, and she’s beginning to upset him with her trying to get him to confirm that she isn’t crazy and she is right. That this thing is not her son.

But he can’t do that for her. He just tells her enough is enough, he can’t take it anymore, throws her camera to the ground as well he should. And takes off. But not before mom gets the last word as all moms do. He didn’t tell her she was wrong.

She points this out to him and he confirms with her before walking off to a bottle of whiskey, that no. he can’t tell her she is.

So now mom, with her mountain of evidence. No expert witness, and a crushed camera knows she must go for one last piece of evidence. To make this into a solid case against this thing in her home.

Seriously its hilarious and about to get a little more so in the worst way.

Because what better way to confront a super strong mythical creature in your home, than to drug it.

Now this is where I felt things might just take a little turn.

Mom had stopped taking her meds, which help her to sleep and ease her mind. She has now taken all of these pills. Not some of them. All of them. Emptied them out, and mixed them into the powdered parm cheese, for their spaghetti dinner. Drugged spaghetti is not spaghetti. It’s sadghetti.

But also yes she dumped an entire bottle of pills into her real sons favorite cheese topping.

I felt the movie would take a turn and we would discover that she really was off her meds and all of this was in her head. That she really just fed her son a whole ass bottle of pills and he was now going to die in front of her.

Hey, it’s happened before in other movies so we can’t discount it.

Instead these are Hollywood special pills, so they only make him really sleepy. As we see while he watches cartoons and yawns.

Moms master plan now that this thing is tired and could pass out? Confront it with a moms last secret weapon. She tells him it’s been way too long since they played their special secret and favorite game. The kid has no idea what she’s talking about, and it becomes clearer to both of them as mom begins a countdown from three.

Now normally, their little game consist of mom starting off the countdown. Her son giggling. And at the count of 1, he would take off running and she’d tickle him if caught.

That doesn’t happen. Which again, tired boy, not gonna be a playful one. No way in hell I’d play with my cousins or mom if all I wanted to do was sleep. This ain’t the Sims. Sleep is vital and energy is zapped.

Only this is for sure not her son. Because he calmly walks up to her, grabs onto her wrist, and flings Mommy the fuck out of the room.

I am not joking and I shouldn’t laugh but I am. It’s like the same scene in Justice League when Superman is brought back to life and attacks the Justice League, and tosses batman like a little clown boy when he spots his lady friend nearby.

It’s the funniest goddamn thing in that entire shit movie. Both versions of. And its played out here to great effect with a little boy tossing his mom like an action figure across the room.

Off camera we hear him begin to land solid punches into mom, who begins to beg him to stop. Instead he tosses her like a rag doll across the kitchen. Continues over, and continues to beat her, until mom blacks out and wakes up. In of all none comfortable spots. The forest. Well face down in the forest head buried in the ground, like the old lady.

So lesson here is never drug kids. Period. You’ll just awaken their inner beast and they will absolutely destroy you.

Also don’t assume to know the strength of mythical forest creatures.

Well I spoke to soon it seems!

Apparently eating drugged sadghetti, with drugged parm, beating your mom, dragging her through the woods, digging a hole by hand, and shoving her face into the ground burying it. Actually will tire out and eventually put to sleep even mythical changelings.

Because the lil bastard just tuckered themselves out and passed out.

Which is even funnier, when MOM wakes up, gasping for breath. Does she decide to look for her son in the gaping hole that spawned this abomination? No, because a self check of your coochie in the woods is not something to do at the moment.

Instead SHE drags this creature BACK to her home, and into the basement.

Lets go over this one more time. Because I think it’s kinda needed.

A mythical irish being. A changeling. Has claimed her sons roll in our world. She confronted it. It beat the ever loving shit out of her WHILE drugged. Dragged her ass to the woods and buried her head. So she decides the best course of action is to drag this creature back into her home, into the basement. For round 2? I mean sure, why not. Guess that’s one way to go.

Does the fight go well?

Of course there’s going to be a fight. And no it doesn’t entirely go well.

The beast portraying her son wakes up. She demands to know what it did to her son. And it lunges for her. The two battle it out and mom manages to choke slam her not son onto the cement floor. The creature takes a few moments to realize this just happened in its drugged state and decides to react as a child would. It begins screaming at an unholy decibel level and mom does the most mom thing she can. She walks off and locks him in the basement to think about what he’s done.

That’s our introduction to the final 20 minutes of the film people.

And I kinda love it. It seriously is the most mom thing I’ve seen, and its funny as hell.

So while her not child screams and throws a tantrum. She takes off and decides to take a little trip down into her gaping hole to do a little poking around and exploring.

Her hole is dirty. Dark. Cavernous, and full of little ribbed tunnels.

It can be a tiring journey if you don’t know your way while exploring this gaping hole. So its best to have some sense of where you’re going and where the right spots to hit are. Thankfully, she has a tool in hand to make the exploration easier and much more on point. But when you’re tired, your mind isn’t entirely on point, it can still be hard to get there. But she’s going to try. She needs this little victory.

So flashlight in hand mom is digging her way into this ancient place and scurrying around little tight tunnels until she finds a not so promising room. Full of child skeletons half buried in the dirt. Among this mass of ancient death however, is her actual for real son.

Huzzah! Subject acquired. Time to GTFO

Which is a splendid idea as the unholy hole is waking up and inside are a LOT of faceless disturbing looking creatures. Which, as she runs and crawls away with her son. Are quickly, and creepily changing into. Well mom.

So a tunnel of multiple moms chasing after a real mom and her real son is what we are left dealing with. Not at all creepy, and not at all something that could potentially pull a twist on us at the end as we are running out of film.

So Mommy Sarah does the best thing she can think to do once they are safely out of that hole, clear of the forest and at their vehicle of escape.

She drops her kid off at the foot of the car, tells him to stay and behave while she goes back into the house and grabs the keys to the car.

I’m sorry what?

SURE!

Go ahead!

Leave the kid you literally crawled through hell to find, and rescue from multiple faceless changelings who can replicate perfectly any form they find. Leave him there for a few minutes. Go get yourself a shower, change of clothes, maybe put a pot of tea on the burner and then escape this nightmare.

For hells sake lady.

Well she skips out on the shower and change of clothes thankfully. She just grabs up her keys. Stops long enough to hear the creature coughing and crying in her sons voice begging for his mom.

Which she responds in turn with burning the house down.

Because that’s what you get when you fuck around and find out.

She packs her kid into the car, takes off, never looking back and as they drive off, we see her son Chris give a weak smile. The camera fades to black and.

We aren’t done yet! It aint that kinda film!

Next we find Sarah has returned to school. She’s taking classes, getting a circle of friends. Enjoying life again. Her son is happy, has a kickass bike and is enjoying not being devoured by creatures in a cave.

Do we get a twist ending? Is there a big ol “Is he the real son or fake?” or “Is this really mom?” No we don’t. Shockingly.

We get something better and I love this film for.

Instead of that. We get a happy mother and son. But also a very paranoid mom. She has become just like the old lady. Their new home is full of mirrors. Everywhere. And as Chris plays on his bike outside, she takes photos of him with her camera. Just to make sure he really is who he says he is. At all times. She smiles at the photos seeing his face. Until just one photo comes up a little blurry. Then we see the look of paranoia on her face. We see the large room covered wall to wall in every sized mirror imaginable. And that’s where we end.

The End.

This was. Wow I’m sensing a pattern here. This is now our second changeling film this year to come out. Very interesting. I really liked that a lot.

It was a fun movie with bits of horror, and played someone more on the horror that say The Babadook tackled and showed us. We didn’t see much if any of the real monster, and seeing things from moms perspective. Not just the subtle and blatant signs that she saw. But also what we saw in her mind. It was really telling and another nice touch on the mental illness trend here. There were moments where, like Sarah talking to the police about her testimony when they discovered Noreen’s body on their property. She was distracted zoning out what the detective was saying to her. Watching her son arm wrestle one of the officers. In her mind she saw him split the officers wrist. In reality he was struggling with both hands to pull the man’s hand down and win. During the talent show as the kids sang a song about of all things irish folk tale about a hole in the ground. She zoned out the other kids when her sons part came up only to hear him creepily stop singing and growl out to her the story of an old man, a tree and the hole. Little moments like that really added to the guessing game in the film.

There were a good deal of moments I really did expect to find the story turn around and bite us. Turning from Is this really a changeling, or is mom really out of her mind and going to try and kill her son. But nope. The film never strayed from what it was. It kept it simple and on point. Only working to make you doubt it until it reassured you this kid was absolutely not a kid, and mom was not in a good spot.

Then you get the usual signs of a twist ending like I mentioned. Either we would end up with a fake Sarah and real Chris, or we’d end up with fake Chris having replaced rescued Chris and mom never the wiser.

Instead we got the most real ending to a terrible situation like that. A paranoid for life mother who will never trust what she sees until her dying day. It’s a fucked up ending and I love it. Knowing this is now her life, that her son will grow out of this and likely with time forget it. But the rest of her life, she will always doubt what she sees. Eventually, and unfortunately ending up like Noreen.

It’s messed up but also the perfect way to end this thing.

It’s a great film overall, but not a perfect film by any means. I mean it’s damn near but there were some things that felt a little unneeded to be fair.

The fake Sarah was sort of unneeded. I get why she was there, and it was an odd moment versus scary moment when she was faced with a false version of herself trying to take back the son she’d just rescued. It showed us how quickly these things can work and change, how perfectly. But it was only for a glimpse before she freed herself. It just felt a little out of place, like it was maybe added after the fact for an additional scare? The film really didn’t need it, unless we wanted to play up the whole tease of is she or isn’t she. But they really didn’t do that either. It’s more something you kind of half expect after its introduced.

Much like her leaving her son outside by the car.

That also could’ve easily been the ending as well. You see her put him down, and the moment she spends just a second to long in the house, you immediately just assume “Welp okay, she fucked up, her sons gone”

So things like that. It’s misdirection yes, but it just seemed a little out of place and not really that necessary.

It’s still a strong movie and the story is great.

What also impressed me wasn’t just the film score, which really is something, but more so the acting.

Most filmmakers will tell you the biggest challenge when making films, especially horror, is finding good child actors. Most of them are, as James Cameron famously talked about on the making of ALIENS, trained to smile at every line reading. They are mostly put out there to work in commercials before a certain point. So finding a kid that’s not going to smile during line readings of emotional dialog, that’s a pluss. Finding a kid that can actually hold their own beside an adult costar for an hour and 20 minutes? That’s a fucking blessing.

James Quinn Markey(Chris) is a hell of an actor. Kids got some serious chops, and played his roll very convincingly. Like almost scarily at times.

The transitions on screen from him acting like a kid and just having a fun time, to flicking a switch seconds later and staring at you with ancient eyes and a completely different tone and way of holding himself. It’s genuinely creepy and he nailed the dual parts spot on. Seriously, major kudos to whoever found this kid and I hope for more work from them in the future.

Horror is unfortunately one of those genres you can either prosper for after, or you sort of fade off. All to often it happens and that’s unfortunate. So we will hope he flourishes.

Seána Kerslake(Sarah) did a wonderful job in her own right. She pulled off a single mom struggling with her life and trying to hold it all together for  the sake of herself and her kid, while also QUESTIONING who the hell it is in her home with her. The film really reminded me a lot at times of The Babadook, which I very famously am not that big a fan of and have gotten into heated debates over with my sister in the past, and calm discussions over. So for me to draw parallels between the two films and their actors, is a compliment for me. As much as I may not like what that film did, I can respect the actors in that film and the work they did. Which was great. So seeing another mother and son team that not only held their own and pulled off a level of believability in a terrifying and unbelievable story, AND. Most importantly, having them genuinely feel like a real mother and son. That’s no small feat, and I genuinely give my respect to them both, and the mother son duo in The Babadook.

I’ve said before I love folklore films and this is absolutely going up with Hatching as another favorite for me. And much like that film. It told its story. No more, no less. It didn’t bog us down with explanation or back story. It told its story and moved right on its way as happy as you please.

Every moment they filmed got their story out there, nothing was wasted, aside from the scenes I mentioned that felt unneeded, but even then. Those scenes lasted only a few seconds. Never enough to impact the overall story. This was another film that for being an hour and 23 minutes, felt a lot longer, told an interesting story that had you in the first few minutes. Good acting, writing, and directing will do that.

And Writer/Director Lee Cronin did just that. A standout job. Honestly I would not be shocked if this film was what got the attention of Sam Raimi and company when they looked for a director to helm Evil Dead Rise.

Which was also a…well a film we will review here so you’ll have to wait for that one.

Again everyone involved in this did spectacular. This is a very high recommendation from me, and I’d go as far as to say it demands to be seen.

Is it my favorite this far as we finish the first 10 films? I mean its definitely a contender. A strong one.

Even the effects in this. Which were so few. Absolutely stood out as amazing. Which STILL also gets me!!

We had some good horror gags, like the snapped wrist, the moving soil, the stretched fingers and back twisting. But the film also held back. When mom recorded Chris in his room, and proclaimed this was the definitive proof. Because what she filmed was NOT human? WE NEVER SEE IT! They never even teased what was there for us. We just see the actors reacting to it. It could be from budget reasons they didn’t show it, it could be dare I say it…restraint?! But it didn’t effect the film. If anything it actually worked so beautifully well. You WANT to see what they’re reacting to because the faces of mom and old man Des. It looks horrific. But they never give it to us. Even when we DO get to see the changelings, and the real monster Chris. It’s horrifying, quick, but long enough to stick in your mind. You know what you saw, you know it’s messed up. But you aren’t made to linger on it. It’s really perfectly done and balanced.

I know I mentioned the music earlier but hot damn man. The music had a great eeriness to it. It touched on vibes from John Carpenters the THING and a film not long ago released called The Void. It’s a deep dark atmosphere of growing dread and tension. It’s moody and steadily grows in a really creepy way that just fits the film.

It’s actually hard for me to talk about the music too much because a lot of the feel I got from this. A lot of why I loved this so much and the absolute terror it carries. Is because the composer for this, Stephen McKeon, he also worked with the same director over on Evil Dead Rise.

WHICH WE WILL

TALK ABOUT

AT LENGTH

Eventually….eventually.

For now. Just rest happy knowing this is a great movie. It’s worth purchasing and you won’t be disappointed. It’s incredibly low on blood and that’s great. It doesn’t have a lot of jump scares, but it has enough there to work with and keep you invested. Seriously it was hard to review and watch because you just want to go full in on this movie, and I did. Several times. I went through it twice to finish this because, well yeah. It’s just that damn good. DO check it out, rent it, buy it, force a friend to buy it for you.

It's unreasonably unholy late, and I should sleep before someone thinks to put a changeling in my bed. Which honestly if they did I’d laugh and let them have at it because my life is….well they can only go up. Or they’ll run screaming.

SO.

Until tomorrow. Next time you move into a nice little home off in the Irish country side? Maybe inquire about Changelings in the area and. Hmm what else. Oh yes. Don’t forget to maybe bring up to the realtor and ask them about THE UNHOLY LARGE GAPING HOLE TO HELL IN YOUR BACKYARD!

MAYBE!

Goodnight!