I did not even bother with Jordan Peele's first movie, due to word of mouth that it was not a horror movie , but a thriller. When I saw he was fully committing to horror I decided to give it a shot. When things first kick in it's pretty much a rip off of "the Strangers". Then comes the twist that the home invasion is the shadow side of the protagonists. The acting is terrible. The antagonist side or the shadow of the protagonists, is the worst side of the equation as their ability to come across creepy , scary or evil, comes across as just wide eyed or retarded. To the point that the movie was almost unwatchable. Midway into this shit show , I just had to dig in and force myself through it.
Mad Men's Elizabeth Moss is the only character that was tolerable. The problem with this is you don't get invested enough in the characters to care if anything happens to them. Even in the campy 80s horror movies they achieved this more often than not. The stupid don't get out of the car or go in the basement moments abound. Not in a way that creates tension for the characters, but due to uneven writing. The humor seems more natural than the horror. Though I am calling this horror, that term suggests that it is scary. This makes it a bit of a misnomer.
To say this movie is well made by any stretch of the imagination is like giving a kid an award for participation. This movie are any horror movie should be able to stand on it's own two feet alongside other horror movies. In this case I am not asking it to be as good as "the Shining" or "Psycho" , but to measure up against movies more closely related like "the Purge", "Funny Games" or "the Strangers " which it fails to do. I am glad I did not pay to see this movie.
