Having survived a brutal murder, a traumatized boy is sent to live with his aunt and uncle who find that his weird behavior is only the start of their troubles when it becomes evident that a supernatural force is acting upon them and try to find the cause of his problems.
This was quite the enjoyable offering. One of the finest points here is the fact that it features quite the impressive atmosphere to be found here that brings about a lot of rather chilling moments. from the opening moments showing the ghostly figure over the mother's body, there's a great unsettling nature throughout here that really makes for a strong chilling mystery that gets played out as the family slowly comes under attack by the different forces. The dreams of being attacked by the ghostly figure, the strange bumping noises deep into the night or the various hallucinations that result after encounters with him all manage to come off with a really atmospheric feel. Coupled alongside the switchover in the second half to more of a series of ghostly hauntings that come from a series of rather impressive setups including the woman's' freak-out in the hospital or the series of vicious stabbing hallucinations of her husband in the bedroom where everyone keeps getting more and more vicious in intensity finally ending with the startling shot of the ghostly woman between her legs in a truly chilling moment. Given that the whole affair is tied together between the ghost protecting him and the haunting in the house that eventually gets revealed by the police officers investigating the original deaths, their frequency makes for a much more pronounced sense of shock to come from these scenes with the continuous circumstances building up and the family drama being played out exceptionally well in allowing the film to build in some solid scares as well as some rather fun action moments. That ramps up the film considerably in the final half with the full reveal of his backstory and how it ties into the failed exorcism attempt as well as the hot-water attack and the stalking ambush through the house that's quite shocking and fun with it's brutality while also setting the stage for a rather shocking revelation at the end which comes across pretty nicely in terms of being a nice twist and getting the final brawl down in the basement that ends this one on a high note. Coupled with the nicely graphic and brutal kills, there's a lot to like here over it's few rather small flaws. The biggest issue here is the fact that there's not much of a real motive for what's going on here as the film doesn't really explain anything about why the kids' possessed or even what's causing it. There's evidence to suggest he did it before to others but yet it readily suggests that this is due to his presence in the house so the earlier attacks are thus confusing and everything is a jumbled mess of confusing motives. Likewise, there's little reason why this one waits so long to get the exorcism out if they knew all along so it's placement so near the end is a rather curious one overall. Still, there's not much to this one that doesn't work.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language and violence-against- animals.
