Eli
It worked quite well for me, especially because it begins like a relatively conventional horror film and ends up taking you to a much stranger, more exaggerated and more entertaining place than I expected. I do not think it is a great film, or a fully rounded one, but it is one of those Netflix titles that, despite all its problems, ends up earning a certain sympathy because it dares to go wild. For much of its running time it may look like just another medical haunted-house story, but its final stretch gives it a personality I appreciated.
The premise has a hook: a sick child, a clinical house that seems too perfect, desperate parents and an experimental treatment that smells from the beginning of confinement, control and secrecy. I like that mixture of hospital, mansion, laboratory and prison. The protagonist is not only afraid of what might be inside, but also of the air itself, the outside world, his own body and the adults who say they want to save him. That paranoid edge works well.
The film knows how to create a fairly unsettling atmosphere. The white corridors, sealed rooms, protective suits, medical rules and the feeling that everything is too controlled create clear discomfort. It is not the typical dusty Gothic mansion, but a clean, cold and supposedly safe space that ends up feeling threatening. That almost hospital-like cleanliness gives its haunted-house horror a different feel.
I also liked that, for a while, it plays with several possibilities. Is the illness real? Is there something supernatural? Is the boy seeing ghosts? Are the doctors hiding something? Do the parents know more than they say? The film does not always handle those doubts with subtlety, but it does maintain curiosity. Even when it uses scares and fairly familiar resources, there is enough mystery to keep watching and want to know where it is going.
The young protagonist is an important piece. He is not only a passive victim: he conveys fear, anger, exhaustion and distrust. It is easy to understand that he is tired of living locked up, of depending on everyone, of his body being a prison and of adults talking about him as if he were a problem to be fixed. That feeling of vulnerability helps the film have something more than scares, even if it does not always go as deep as it could.
The adults work best when they feel ambiguous. The doctor, the parents, the people surrounding the treatment... all of them seem to carry part truth and part lie. That is where the film finds its best tension: not knowing exactly whom to trust. The medical and the religious, the scientific and the supernatural, the protective and the abusive begin to mix until the house stops looking like a refuge and becomes a trap.
Still, not everything works. The first half can feel somewhat mechanical, with predictable scares and scenes that seem taken from a streaming-horror manual. There are moments when the film does not quite decide whether it wants to be psychological horror, ghosts, medical conspiracy or hidden possession. That mixture is part of its charm, but also of its disorder. At times it feels as if it is placing pieces without yet knowing exactly how they will fit together.
I also understand those who say it depends too much on its final twist. It is true that much of the film gains value retrospectively thanks to that ending, and that is always risky. If the twist does not work for you, everything before it can feel like a rather manipulative accumulation. But it worked for me. Not because it is perfect, but because it turns a correct and somewhat routine film into something crazier, bolder and more memorable.
The final stretch is what I remember most. There the film removes its mask of restrained horror and embraces a kind of supernatural excess that may seem absurd, but that I found entertaining. I prefer an imperfect film that dares to take a strange path to one that remains in a polite routine of soulless scares. That ending does not fix all the problems, but it does give the film an identity I was not expecting.
In the end, it remains for me an uneven but enjoyable film. It has good atmosphere, an attractive premise, a protagonist who conveys vulnerability and a final twist that raises it above what it seemed to be at first. It is not subtle, it is not always coherent and at times its dependence on the trick is too obvious, but I had a good time. As afternoon horror, with mystery, confinement, illness, secrets and a fairly wild resolution, it seems more likeable to me than its reputation might suggest.
The premise has a hook: a sick child, a clinical house that seems too perfect, desperate parents and an experimental treatment that smells from the beginning of confinement, control and secrecy. I like that mixture of hospital, mansion, laboratory and prison. The protagonist is not only afraid of what might be inside, but also of the air itself, the outside world, his own body and the adults who say they want to save him. That paranoid edge works well.
The film knows how to create a fairly unsettling atmosphere. The white corridors, sealed rooms, protective suits, medical rules and the feeling that everything is too controlled create clear discomfort. It is not the typical dusty Gothic mansion, but a clean, cold and supposedly safe space that ends up feeling threatening. That almost hospital-like cleanliness gives its haunted-house horror a different feel.
I also liked that, for a while, it plays with several possibilities. Is the illness real? Is there something supernatural? Is the boy seeing ghosts? Are the doctors hiding something? Do the parents know more than they say? The film does not always handle those doubts with subtlety, but it does maintain curiosity. Even when it uses scares and fairly familiar resources, there is enough mystery to keep watching and want to know where it is going.
The young protagonist is an important piece. He is not only a passive victim: he conveys fear, anger, exhaustion and distrust. It is easy to understand that he is tired of living locked up, of depending on everyone, of his body being a prison and of adults talking about him as if he were a problem to be fixed. That feeling of vulnerability helps the film have something more than scares, even if it does not always go as deep as it could.
The adults work best when they feel ambiguous. The doctor, the parents, the people surrounding the treatment... all of them seem to carry part truth and part lie. That is where the film finds its best tension: not knowing exactly whom to trust. The medical and the religious, the scientific and the supernatural, the protective and the abusive begin to mix until the house stops looking like a refuge and becomes a trap.
Still, not everything works. The first half can feel somewhat mechanical, with predictable scares and scenes that seem taken from a streaming-horror manual. There are moments when the film does not quite decide whether it wants to be psychological horror, ghosts, medical conspiracy or hidden possession. That mixture is part of its charm, but also of its disorder. At times it feels as if it is placing pieces without yet knowing exactly how they will fit together.
I also understand those who say it depends too much on its final twist. It is true that much of the film gains value retrospectively thanks to that ending, and that is always risky. If the twist does not work for you, everything before it can feel like a rather manipulative accumulation. But it worked for me. Not because it is perfect, but because it turns a correct and somewhat routine film into something crazier, bolder and more memorable.
The final stretch is what I remember most. There the film removes its mask of restrained horror and embraces a kind of supernatural excess that may seem absurd, but that I found entertaining. I prefer an imperfect film that dares to take a strange path to one that remains in a polite routine of soulless scares. That ending does not fix all the problems, but it does give the film an identity I was not expecting.
In the end, it remains for me an uneven but enjoyable film. It has good atmosphere, an attractive premise, a protagonist who conveys vulnerability and a final twist that raises it above what it seemed to be at first. It is not subtle, it is not always coherent and at times its dependence on the trick is too obvious, but I had a good time. As afternoon horror, with mystery, confinement, illness, secrets and a fairly wild resolution, it seems more likeable to me than its reputation might suggest.
Mini Review: It worked quite well for me, especially because it begins like a relatively conventional horror film and ends up taking you to a much stranger, more exaggerated and more entertaining place than I expected. I do not think it is a great film, or a fully rounded one, but it is one of those Netflix titles that, despite all its problems, ends up earning a certain sympathy because it dares to go wild. For much of its running time it may look like just...
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