My quick rating - 7,1/10. Anyone who rates this low is very much missing the point. I think this liberty can only be taken by the few who have taken modern horror flicks to a new level. James Wan happens to be one of them. Without being in that elite group, you would not first get the budget but more importantly, would not be able to make such a campy and tongue-in-cheek flick such as this. It all starts off on the course of your standard slasher fare. The camera work is creative and pulls you in taking a typical boring scene and adding enough flair to it making it interesting. Annabelle Wallis plays Madison, who after a run-in with her abusive partner and consequently, a killer, begins to have visions of the killer continuing his work. Visually these scenes more put her in the place where it is happening and look very cool in how they meld the worlds together. So for a couple of the acts of this one, we get to follow along with a "Scream" type slasher flick with the dark coat-wearing long-haired killer being a mixture of all the typical horror films you can think of. Could be supernatural, could be a demon, or maybe a parkour-loving serial killer with a flair for rendering its victims into unrecognizable states. I was just fine with following along and figuring out who the killer was and how Madison was connected and then Wan does what his status allows and throws a completely ridiculous curveball at you. Not only that, but the final act of this flick pays homage to what has to be another favorite of his; Hong Kong action flicks, John Woo style. Not only does the story get wrapped up in a completely campy way in reference to some old-school horror flicks, well massively exaggerated BUT also gets some John WIck action to boot. Definitely one of the more enjoyable flicks so far this year. And back to how I started, if you go in expecting some serious horror flick, that was not the intention. This movie succeeds in spite of having no intentions of it and does so on more levels than a straightforward horror movie would. It does so by being both which is very hard to pull off.
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