Now this is a really good horror movie

Wow wow wow, wow wow, wow wow. Did I forget to say "wow"? Such an amazing movie! What amazes me even more is that I didn't watch this movie sooner. I heard that it was a dry movie, and given how disappointed I've been by others in the genre lately, I promptly put this movie on my mental to-watch list and left it there. I'm so glad I decided to watch this tonight instead of another formulaic blockbuster.

I couldn't help becoming a little pessimistic at the onset with the familiar narrative of a single mother and child coping with the loss of a loved one and strange things beginning to happen. The boy begins to act more and more erratic, claiming there's a monster. Yawn. I swear if the mother had setup a camera in the boy's room to try to capture images of the monster or if the boy became possessed I would've stopped the movie right there. What kept me watching through the first third or so was the hints that something more was going on than just a monster summoned by reading a book.

A notable turning point in the movie, I felt, was when the boy stopped saying things to the mother like, "Do you want to die?" and showing more genuine concern (and fear) for what his mother was going through. Up until that point it seems more like the mother is just doing her best to deal with her misbehaving child and grief from the loss of her husband, while the child is dealing with some kind of monster. But once the mother started having hallucinations, it was clear the real story was not originating from a gloomy child's book. From there it started getting really creepy and the real horror started coming out in droves.

I started off feeling sorry for the mother. By about halfway until near the end, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the boy. By the end, I was feeling both happy and sad for both the boy and the mother. Overall, I was really impressed by this movie.