So, we have a couple and their two kids who are going through financial turmoil and the marital stife that it comes with. Eventually, it becomes clear that one of the kids is having some kind of emotional issue... Supernatural? Well, the father doesn't think so, but as is so often the case in movies reality is for losers.
What is the deal with that? Anything such as alien abduction or ghosts or what have you in the movies is always poo-pooed by at least one reasonable person who is subsequently proven wrong, as all scientific evidence disagrees with what you simply need to accept as fact. I know that they have to do this to make the movie interesting, but I really feel like there is a conspiracy or something.
I mean, there isn't an actual conspiracy, but there is a systemic disregarding of evidence-based, logical thought processes in so many damn movies and TV shows. It bugs me more than the casual disregard of computer processes and exactly how they work. Computer misrepresentation bothers me most notably when it is a focal point in the storyline - hello, The Net. Freaking Sandra Bullock...
So, back to this movie. It drags quite a bit. I've seen pretty much the same storyline in several other movies, and it's not terrible. Evil force picks a child. Family fights evil force. Evil force tries to take child. The end result often changes, but this is the basis for alien movies, supernatural movies, and on at least one occasion, a WWII movie.
A lot of the others are not done as well. This one has some good acting performances, and the directing is particularly notable for being so good. The trick of only kind of seeing glances of the villains works very well in this film, but the pacing is really its worst enemy. It's a shame, as there is a lot to like about the movie. It may be worth a Netflix stream if you are running low in your queue, but its just not really all that compelling.
2.75/5