A friend and I went to watch this with great anticipation after watching several stellar reviews on YouTube from folks I typically share movie taste with. We left feeling pretty letdown and confused, I must say.

Thing is: this movie had lots going for it-a great concept, plenty of opportunity for character-building, brilliant performances, and it looked great. Was it "the scariest movie in the last year or so"? Hardly. But whatever-horror fans are easily desensitized to thrills and chills.

What this movie lacked was intelligent, fleshed out and compelling storytelling and characterization (a depressing trend in today's cinema). Frustratingly, the subplots and characters were all there to exploit but wound up going nowhere-totally underdeveloped. There were also lots of interesting details dropped in the first act or so of the film that were never followed up on, to the point that you left, wondering why these things were even introduced in the first place because they served no real story purpose.

I can't emphasize enough the acting talent of the leads because it would have taken very little to create fully developed character arcs here and a narrative that your audience is really invested in.

There's no amount of technical skill that can make up for sloppy or rushed writing. If these newcomers spent more time analyzing what makes a good story and the craft of characterization, and slightly less time on the technical aspects of filmmaking, they ultimately wind up with better films. I hope they develop their craft further and take such feedback to heart because writing as an art form is being sorely underemphasized in filmmaking, to its great detriment.