This is one of those films that if you go to the restroom during the movie you might not know what is happening when you return. The film takes a sudden shift somewhere just beyond the half-way mark and then the viewer must decide if what is happening is in a character’s mind or is really a flashback scene. It becomes a bit puzzling in spots but the ending clearly reveals what took place.
The premise of the movie is that a man named Will (Daniel Craig) leaves a successful publishing job in New York City to work on a novel and to spend more family time with his wife Libby (Rachel Weisz) and two daughters in a New England home they are fixing up, his “dream house”. It is all sweet and pleasant in the beginning, but then one of the girls spots a face in the window. Next Will finds some teens in his basement, stating “He’s back”, and when he learns that a man named Peter Ward murdered his wife and two daughters in this house, bizarre powers begin to take over. Soon the film goes down a psychological path of confusion, guilt, and questions and it is not clear for a while exactly what did happen in the house.
Add to this Naomi Watts playing a neighbor who sympathizes with the father and his burden surrounding the house, and the mystery deepens. At any rate, we are disappointed that very strong language is used in this film with several uses of “GD” and “J or J/C”, not to mention the strong violence which contains some bloody wounds and bloody scenes. This is not one for the family by any means. We have to withhold our Dove “Family-Approved” Seal from this picture.
