This movie has gotten so badly panned by critics that it really has no chance of getting off the mat, box-office-wise. It was directed by M. Night Shyalaman, who is one of my favorite young directors. I believe 'Sixth Sense', 'Unbreakable', and 'Signs' to be one of the most powerful threesome of horror films ever made, taking minimalist views on such archetypical stories as ghosts, superheros, and aliens.
In this movie, he breaks from archetypes, unless his archetype is the period piece, and has mixed results.
But first let me say this: This film is not that bad.
It is miscalculated in places, and badly paced. It is the last 1/3 of the story where it is lost. The film has all the markings of M. Night film. It has a tension that other directors cannot seem to capture, and it holds that tension until you watch the slow reveal for the last 1/3 of the film, and you wonder why it was supposed to be a surprise, because it wasn't one at all.
I fear that M. Night has decided that he has to make a surprise ending in every one of his films. This is a film that didn't need it. If the "surprise" had been revealed throughout the film, it would have made more sense, and given a different meaning to the actions of the characters in the rest of the film. Because of the editing and the surprise ending, there are really only 1 or 2 characters in the film that we care about, the rest seeming empty and without motivation because we don't know why they are there in the first place until the film is already over.
Watch this movie because it is interesting, but it is otherwise forgettable.
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