Ozzie horror gave us the "Saw" series. It's appropriate that A24 goes mining for the next Down Under scary guys.

Here, it's the Phillipou Brothers.

A little like "Candyman" this flick is about subtextual trauma. Mia (Sophie Wilde) and her successful father live alone in a house in which Mom had killed herself. This makes Mia hang with her bestie Jade (Alexandra Jensen) along with a tagalong brother Riley.

These kids go over to a friends' house to mess with a severed hand which legend had it belong to a person who could speak with the dead (an origin story here would be fun). Things obviously go wrong as Mia starts to see her Mother, who is in the otherworld but yet has some malevolent tendencies towards her and her father.

The story takes a melancholic turn about life after death and also touches on death in something like "Flatliners" The levels go to absurd when these kids continue to mess with seeing dead people so they can get social media clout.

That said, a SOLID creepy flick. The resolution is how you would expect things to go. And, regardless of the violence and the swearing, it's rather odd when it still feels like a Canadian movie though it was made in Australia. Like, everything seems so...kind. Not sure how to explain that. I think the term is "generic" This is a better than average horror flick but still, it goes by the numbers which is fine. This is not a slasher film. It is released by A24, let that be your guide.