So, the movie... For some background, I'm not a horror movie person, I haven't seen The Ring or any of those movies, no, not even the Scary Movies (though my friends tell me those are not meant to be classified as "horror"). My last actual horror movie was "Bhoot" which you'd agree was more sound effects than anything substantial.
My friends insisted on me watching the interview before the movie, but I thought it would be better to not psyche myself before watching the movie and so I went in with no prior knowledge of what this was about, except that there's a family who moves into a new house and that house is haunted.
The movie is excellently made. And you have to know me when I say this, because I was horribly scared. I was petrified, I was clutching the hand of my friend, crushing it rather, to a point where I had to disengage my fingers once in a while to have some blood flow! I even screamed and jumped off my seat for a particular scene. Yes I was "that" person in the theatre. But you know what? There were others too. This movie was made for us. It makes you experience a lot, puts you through tremendous stress and emotions and then thankfully manages to bring it together in the end to tie things neatly... I would've died if they didn't manage to end it peacefully, if they had left things hanging, I don't know what we would've done...
Coming back to what I loved about the movie, there's this tendency in movies like these to go overboard, to use sound effects and just blow them out of proportion every opportunity you get, to use blood and darkness till it sickens you in your gut, to just basically scare the crap out of you by doing horrific things, but the good thing was, that this movie didn't do any of that. They didn't go over the top using the sound effects but instead went to the perfect point (Remember the scene where the daughter bends down to check what's under her bed?), even places where crazy things are happening like the climax or the scene when Lorraine falls down to the basement, they managed to keep it real. And at some moments, actually managed to inject some humour in parts.
The characterization was very well done too. Each character honed and developed beautifully through small instances that showed depth. The lighting, the sets, and even the ghosts / spirits... very very aesthetically done.
At the end of the day, yes it's a movie about a family of who move into a new house, but there are tons of experiences that they go through that make it a rather fun journey to go through. Needless to say, me and my friends ended up playing board games the whole night after watching the movie (coz smart as we were, we went for a 11PM show!) because none of us felt up to sleeping alone... but the movie ends well enough for you to sleep peacefully if that's what you want to.
I wish they made a series out of this! Like made up cases which Ed & Lorraine could go solve! :)
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