Written by Jeff Buhler.
Directed by Nicholas McCarthy.
★½
Each movie, I give them one big rule they've established, as long as the movie then follows the rules it set up in the universe. For this movie, I will give them that reincarnation is a thing. But, the movie still has to follow basic logic, and there are some dumb decisions made by a couple main characters late in the movie that yanked me out.
The film focuses on Miles, an 8-year-old boy who has the spirit of a serial killer slowly taking over. We see the killer die right before Miles is born, so there's no mystery there. It's a matter of waiting for characters to catch up to what we know. Miles keeps doing creepy things. He mutters Hungarian in his sleep. He likes sharpening knives and tools.
There are a couple effective jump-scares, but more often, director Nicholas McCarthy telegraphs what's coming. We get tropes like the close-up on the boiling tea kettle. In many ways, the movie is set up to live or die by the third act, and that's where the movie really jumps off the rails. How stupid are these people?
Jackson Robert Scott is really good at switching between being normal and malevolent as Miles. So at least there's that.
No comments:
Post a Comment