My quick rating - 6,5/10. This is one dark flick. I can see very clearly that there is a lot of personal experience involved in the story of this one. There are really two stories going on through it and deciding if people are monsters or the monsters are people is really what the writers and director Scott Cooper were getting at. Keri Russell plays a teacher in a small town in Oregon who begins to take notice of some peculiar behavior of one of her students which leads to investigating further. I am struggling to come up with a good way to sum up what you are going to get with this without spoiling anything. I'll be as vague as I can, not because I am going to ruin some big twist, but learning what is going on is really part of the entertainment value as a whole. When she follows him home after a quick ice cream lunch, she realizes that there may be something severely wrong with the home life and does inform her brother, who happens to be sheriff, (Jesse Plemons) but is basically dismissed. The backstory of what may be going in is touched upon and leads to some Indian mythological creature that may be involved as you will initially read from the opening. Saying this movie is dark is an understatement as for some of it, I was so invested in the kids and what was going on with them I forgot I was watching a horror flick. Disturbing imagery throughout which is clear evidence of Guillermo del Toro giving more than just producing assistance here. The whole atmosphere is just creepy from start to finish. There is just a lot of story to pack into one movie since it is not a point a to b going on. Lots of different things going on makes this a poor one to throw on for background. You will never have any idea what to pay attention to and will miss a lot. The CGI is effectively used without being too intrusive and the monster designs look good. For a year that was lacking in the horror department, this falls into my top 10 of the year. And after you finish this one, you will know why I said it is clearly telling a personal story. The levels of trying to touch upon abuse without just coming out and saying it is so well layered. Don't be thrown off by those who didn't understand it.
