It is not often that I go and see a film with a horror tone to it.
But as it stars Ethan Hawke and Emma Watson who I am big fans of and that it is directed by Alejandro Amenabar who directed The Others, I felt I should give it go.
I also went into this with little knowledge of what the story was about.
I remember seeing the trailer and still out in the open on what the plot was going to be.
The film began with a little back-story and I was interested with what the subject was and could definitely see the potential in this being an entertaining mystery horror thriller.
The first two-thirds of the film definitely develops well, has me interested and quite tense throughout. Sadly, the final third becomes quite a let-down. It it not terrible from a technical side, it is just the path the story decided to go down. With this being based on true events, I did read about it afterwards to see if this was the right way.
It sort of did. But I think they could have presented better within the film. The blame could very well be because of the first part of the film leading us down something different.
Thankfully in terms of making the film, it pretty solid all-round. The camera work really intensifies every situation, the locations are shown in great detail and the performances are worth mentioning.
Ethan Hawke keeps showing us how good an actor he is and has been for the past 20 years. His leading role kept the film together and also my interest and where this was going. David Thewlis was a great addition. Emma Watson for me was a bit under-whelming. But I think the way her character was directed, I will put the blame elsewhere.
The rest of the acting was perfectly fine, but sadly forgettable.
All in all, it was an interesting subject that engrossed me and made me want to find out more. The movie also does a great job of depicting the people involved.
Despite that, I cannot ignore the disappointing ending. The characters motives decided to completely turn their heads and it made me think "am I watching the same movie?".
After reading more about these events, I feel the ending almost went the right way. However, the director seemed to plant something extra that ended up to be quite unrealistic. I don't know if Amenabar did this to make it easier for the audience, but it seemed unnecessary.
A good mystery horror flick that could have been as great as the directors previous work.
Rating: 7/10
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