Written by: Mike Flanagan, Jeff Howard
Directed by: Mike Flanagan
Starring: Kate Bosworth, Jane Thomas, Jacob Tremblay
Rated:PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
A young couple adopts an orphaned child around dreams - and nightmares - manifest physically as he sleeps.
Verdict
A couple dealing with past grief through their newly adopted son makes this more than a jump scare movie, but the logic leaves more than a few questions unanswered. You'll see the conclusion coming before it arrives, but it's still effective for the most part. The biggest problem is this is a bit undercooked. It's an interesting idea that falls prey to a few flaws.
It depends.
Review
This has a great opening. A man is struggling to kill, Cody. You wonder what could have driven him to that. It's a solid horror moving introduction. Cody's adoptive parents don't keep him, somehow driven mad.
Cody's dreams literally manifest. Cody's new adoptive parents Jessie and Mark begin taking advantage of that as a way to see their deceased son again. This gives the movie a little depth as Cody becomes less of a way to fill the void directly and instead allow them to ignore their grief.
They do seem incredibly accepting of this weird gift. Butterflies appear and disappear and they aren't bothered. Their dead son appears, and they see it as a bonus. I just don't see the average person being so accepting.
Cody tries not to sleep, knowing his dreams eventually conjure "The Canker Man," a boogeyman type that consumes people. The Canker Man does consume a few people, but where do they go? From what we see they just disappear which seems odd.
Jessie and Mark start getting investigated, more for their incidental neglect, but it gets us to the same point. Jessie begins her own investigation into the child, something nobody else ever took the time to do. The big reveal, now how Cody does that, we have to blindly accept that, but the origins of the monster will be apparent long before the movie reveals it. It doesn't make it any less effective.
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