I think the greatest thing a horror film can do to an audience is induce a feeling of dread. Anyone can scare you by having something pop out at the screen, but being able to take the audience, clue them in to what's coming, and then hold them to the fire, twisting and terrified… that's a skill set. That's real horror. This movie is loaded with unnerving imagery, simple and direct scares that play on a primal nightmare level, and ideas that blindside you with the way they twist expectation.
The film is also ordered in what I think is the exact right order. The first segment by David Bruckner sets the tone for just how crazy things might get, and the final segment by Radio Silence feels like the brakes are off and you're flying off the mountain into the void. It's crazy, and the audience tonight was screaming, jumping, viscerally reacting. This is the sort of film that's going to creep into the permanent nightmare vocabulary of the audience, and I think the cheap, ****ty VHS look of everything is a big part of why. We have learned over the past 20 years that if you're watching something on film, it's not real. But if you're watching something on video, especially low-grade unpolished video, that's "real." And the filmmakers play off of that idea with such glee that I almost feel like I got mugged by an entire gang. It is a film designed to shake you with abandon.
And there is no doubt… I am shaken. Well-played.
Distributors, start your engines. Someone's getting rich.
