<PERSON>
The effects sequences that represent the neural link between possessor and possessed are truly inspired. The physicality of the facial effects and the editing techniques suggest a much better film. As a feature length narrative this is dreadful and manages to be a step backward from the promising, if not cliché, Antiviral. It doesn't help that the son sets up a comparison to the father, aping <PERSON> the elder's masterpiece Videodrome (not only in plot but in elements of the design). 5
But apart from a handful of "interesting ideas" (critic speak for how do I justify sitting through this) this is among the more inept indie horror films of the past decade. It is entirely reliant on the visual styles of the day, which I must admit, I find to be suggestive of a cohort of filmmakers more interested in packaged effect than in cinematic expression. Like The Devil's Candy, Hereditary, or Beyond the Black Rainbow this is obsessed with an aesthetic of portent, but lacks the cinematic brain to imagine such an aesthetic. I cannot wait for the era of symmetrical compositions, slow zooms, and synth scores to die as brutal a death as we are subjected to witnessing in these woefully generic films. 645