Plus, with J.J Abrams as one of the producers was a big sell.
The first half is pretty solid. We get put straight into the action, get introduced to our characters well and already saw some strong chemistry with our actors and felt the positives vibes coming from this team we would be with for the next hour and a half.
There is a mystery that builds-up nicely with some fairly well executed tension set-pieces. But after the reveal of the mystery and the concept, it felt as if it would just resort to gory action. I'm fine with that up to a point. But with everything else just going through the motions and it just never felt give us a memorable final act.
I think the cast all did a good job. Jovan Adepo really surprised and more than held his own as the lead. After showing a lot of promise in Fences, Adepo showed great maturity in his role and showed everyone that he can carry a film.
Pilou Asbaek was good value as this cartoony villain. You can tell he was just embracing the tone and was fully committed to the performance. This for me shows that Asbaek can do as good on the big screen as he has been doing on the small screen.
Wyatt Russell gave us a nice mystery to his character and felt like someone I could feel safe.
Mathilde Ollivier was another top choice in casting. Much like Adepo, Ollivier felt more like an experienced head in this cast with a very mature performance that a lot of strength and composure. I would happily see her in more blockbusters.
I was also happy to see Iain Dear Caestecker who I like of Agents Of SHIELD.
What I also liked about was the strong production design, the gory make-up and the score.
Everything about the look of the film screamed gory, dark and disturbing and the strong make-up blended in well with the setting.
As for the score, it was composed by Jed Kurzel who I remember enjoying his pieces for Macbeth. There were some cool pieces especially in the first half. It really gave us those thrills and elevated the mystery that are characters are trying to solve.
There a few fundamental problems with this film. Most of them became noticeable in the second half.
After introducing us with an interesting concept, they did not explore it any further. It just resorted into something we've seen so many times.
The ordinary script and character tropes just got enhanced as my investment in the story got less and less.
In the end, I thought it was fine. It has a solid start and I liked how they were building up to the mystery aspect.
While the second half was saved by its action, the rest just gave up by the end. The story became formulaic and the horror that was being marketed seemed to never fulfill its purpose.
While it doesn't do much wrong, it also ended up being a film that was not that memorable. It never made the most of its concept and the predictable story structure just made it feel very ordinary.
However, my admiration for gory action made this enjoyable enough to be a decent watch. But this could have been so much better.
Rating: 7/10
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