SPOILERS!

Easily one of the best modern horror films I’ve seen in a long time. The acting, the effects, the mood, the set, the story, and the scares are all fantastic. I loved Pan’s Labyrinth and Cronos so I had high hopes for it. My initial thoughts of the first scene were not good. It was shot well, the lighting was fantastic, but the scares were off. It was those loud booming stinger noise scares. The context to the scene is that it’s the main character Edith’s recently deceased mother. The ghost looks good with an almost zombie like appearance to add onto the ghostly look to it. It puts its hand on young Edith’s shoulder and you hear a loud boom and the mother has a deep and gravely voice. My problem is that it should have been subtler. The hand on the shoulder should have been a silent and the voice should have been soft and nurturing. It is her mother after all. Other than that the movie is brilliant. We see Edith (played by Mia Wasikowska) seventeen years later as she meets Tom Sharpe played by Tom Hiddleston trying to pitch a clay-mining tool to Edith’s father Carter played by Jim Beaver (who has a delightful mustache beard combo and I shall affectionately refer to him as Moustache Dad). He is turned down for the funding and later we see Edith and Tom dancing at a party and they chat about a story Edith is writing. It’s very vague. All we know is that it has a ghost in it and the ghost is a metaphor for the past. Moustache Dad scoops up the past on Tom and his sister Lucille played by Jessica Chastain. He doesn’t explicitly tell us what he found, but he tells Tom to break Edith’s heart. He does and she leaves sobbing. Then the next morning Moustache Dad is murdered by an unknown figure by smashing his head on a sink. That scene was very well shot with the camera panning across the room as he walked, but the emphasis on the shaving razor at one point was odd. I guess it was supposed to be on the sink. Edith re-unites with Tom when he leaves her a letter telling her the truth and that he really did love her. They get married after the funeral for Moustache Dad and they move to England to live in his estate. Said estate has a giant hole in the ceiling, moths flying all over the place, is sinking into the clay ground, and is haunted by ghosts. Other than that it’s a lovely house. The ghosts repeatedly make appearances to Edith, but she doesn’t know what it is they want though. She later learns that one is Tom and Lucille’s estranged mother, the other is one of Tom’s ex-wives whom they murdered, and the last is a baby had between Tom and Lucille. Yes this movie has incest in it and is dropped on our laps like ten minutes before the end of the movie! So Lucille has been gradually poisoning Edith as Tom slowly, but surely falls in love with her. At the end Moustache Dad’s doctor comes to find Edith after he found out that Lucille murdered their mother and Edith not only learned of the incest, but she is Tom’s 4^th wife. However Tom can’t kill either of them because of his love for Edith. So Lucille in a jealous and insane fit she stabs him in the face! A short chase ensues that ends with Edith killing Lucille with a shovel. As I said earlier the scares get much better after the first scene. The ghosts are quiet and their appearance alone is meant to scare you. The performances are great, but the standout is Jessica Chastain who does a superb job at playing a crazy lady! I highly recommend it! It’s slow, but scary and it’s very effective. Even if you don’t like horror movies, but if you love Tom Hiddleston he gives an amazing performance and you get to see his bare ass for like two minutes. Final Verdict – 9/10 Tom Hiddleston butt cheeks.