Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.
Couple with children moves to a house where a man killed his family. Strange occurrences inside the house disturb the newly moved family.
I decided to revisit this film because I had given it such a low rating and afterwards saw some favorable comments about it. Indeed, it is not as bad as I had considered it to be. But it is not much better, either. It displays enough technical proficiency as to be watchable, I have to give it that. But somehow I did not get overly excited by its tricks. I was, on the other hand, intrigued by its reception. Some people have converged, according to Wikipedia, on an interpretation of the troubles of the protagonist as being of a financial kind. Well, that is funny, because one could point one's hermeneutical compass on several different directions other than this. The fact is that the film has no concern over consistency or even logic, and ends up being a cinematical Rorschach test. It is better enjoyed as a merely mechanical device for atmosphere and shocks, and the characters' predicaments turn out to be more annoying than frightening from a viewer's perspective. Brolin's performance stands out among the fine cast.
Rating: 32 (up from 15)
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