Director: Damien Leone.
Most of the movie is very good. I liked 90% of it very much. It is also important to note that it's a huge box office success (0.25m$ budget and 11.5m$ box office).
The things I liked the most are the elements of tragedy in the slasher genre, unfortunately the ending didn't take it all the way to tragedy-territory as I wished for:
My favorite character is the mother, who's very flawed and makes many mistakes as a mother but at the same time I felt a lot of empathy towards her, I understood why she is like that and how deeply hurt and conflicted she is. That's why, when she dies I felt very excited: it was a brave (writing) move to kill her. I felt like it's becoming an "elevated horror" film in which the elements of tragedy define the flow of character arcs.
Unfortunately, the main character was not so interesting. She does not comes to terms with her losses in a meaningful way, and she finds resolution in the magical sword instead of within herself.
In tragedy-horror, one doesn't overcome obstacles by winning, but by losing everything: the power to win comes after there is nothing else to lose.
The screenwriter decided not to go with the ultimate loss (killing the brother) but instead to give the protagonist a happy ending with a deus-ex-machina in the shape of a magical sword.
This element was foreshadowed in the 1st act but I wished it was just a red-herring and not an actual solution to the main conflict.
Anyway...
For its genre it's a good film. It could have been much better, but I enjoyed it very much even with its flaws.
Verdict: 3.5 / 5 ★ - Fun and not bad.
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