The nod toward "A Quiet Place" acknowledged, this one has enough of a decent premise to go the distance on its own: some strange presence walks among us, and to gaze upon it is to go mad. Sounds downright biblical. To be sure, there are some decent moments of tension to be found within its two hour running time; and overall it is worth the watch. That said, it could have been much better.

My problem is mainly with the writing and casting. The film's sensibilities are really a throw-back to such 1980s fare as "The Thing" or "The Abyss". To that end, the first half of the movie plays like a Hollywood idealization of society at large, where a conveniently multi-racial group of survivors hole up in a stylish Monrovian home to bond (and quibble) over their common enemy. There are the usual movie fights (Malkovich's white-guy Libertarian streak vs. The communal approach of his erstwhile companions). And the usual cross-racial movie bonding (Rhodes and Bullock exchanging deep dark fears in a not-entirely-convincing manner).

But in the end it is Bullock's role that matters. This is her vehicle, and she does a decent job of playing the unintentional single mom dropped in the middle of a terror, trying to survive and save those around her as well. But decent is not quite enough to carry the script for two hours; and I found myself largely uninvested in her plight for the last twenty minutes of the film.

I cannot help but feel the casting was done at a Los Gatos committee table. ("It's 2018. Bullock is 1996, and we need some 2018. Can we get Machine Gun Kelly? Call his agent.") The draw power of some of the stars is undeniable. But the choices also drained the movie of its potential power.