Mary (Naomi Watts) is a single mother caring for her severely disabled stepson, Stephen (Charlie Heaton), alone in their home ever since her husband passed. Her work as a child psychologist supports them but she’s finding it hard to keep up since Stephen is her whole life but is really only an empty shell.
Meanwhile, Mary is preoccupied with a young patient, Tom (Jacob Tremblay). He’s deaf and her work with him has gone slowly but just as she believes progress is being made, 
his case worker is yanking him away to yet another group home. Tom has bounced around in the foster care system and Mary’s compassion is inflamed. Tom runs away one wintry night, and the fact that he seems to have run to her home briefly for refuge preys on her imagination. As the days go by and a powerful winter storm pummels them, townspeople give Tom up for dead but Mary becomes haunted by his ghost.
Virtually alone in an old house save for her vegetative stepson, Mary’s nightmares become our nightmares. Is this movie heart-pounding? It was for me. I don’t watch scary movies very often but was drawn to this for the cast, and Naomi Watts does not disappoint. But even a relative novice to the genre such as myself can feel what a retread this script is; there’s nothing new or original here, and the fear factor dips because of its obviousness.
Some beautiful cinematography helps establish a sense of isolation here, but it’s largely useless when the script goes for weak jump-scares and ignores what should have been lush with psychological horror instead. I kept thinking of this movie as “the one with Vera Farmiga” which it is not – but it is an awful lot like the one that is, and many others besides. If you have a hankering for white-lady-haunted-by-child-ghost, well, here it is. Again. But I bet you could do better.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
Oh no, I hate scary jump movies, on the miss list!
LikeLike
More “white ladies haunted by ghost child”. I think I’ll skip it 🙂
LikeLike
I really hate the jump scares. It’s one of the big reasons I hate horror films. (Not the only reason, but it’s in the top 10.)
LikeLike
I like Naomi Watts so may end up renting this once it is less than $2. Thanks for making surey expectations won’t get too high, Jay! xo
LikeLike
It’s not bad, it’s just not original. but if you don’t watch too many in this genre, it may be perfectly fine for you. I like Watts too. She and Jacob Tremblay have another movie coming out together soon!
LikeLike
I tend not to be a fan of suspense so the mention of jump scares makes me think I’ll have to stay away from this one!
LikeLike
There’s not too much of it, I’m just surprised there were any at all. It didn’t quite know if it was going for straight up horror or not.
LikeLike
It sounds like there’s a lot of wasted potential here.
LikeLike
Yeah, there was an interesting nugget here but they went way off track.
LikeLike
Jump-scares are so much less interesting or intriguing than psychological horrors.
LikeLike
Ach. I’m kinda bored with these kind of flicks now. Really need to throw something extra in… like, I dunno, a friendly ghost that helps with the housework or something.
LikeLike
Big fan of Naomi Watts, and have been since the Ring.
LikeLike
Pingback: Canada 150 | ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES
Darn, another Naomi Watts film for the scrapheap. I’m guessing she got this role on the strength of the The Ring, but still, that was a long time ago now. I’m tempted to not ever see this one.
LikeLike
I sincerely believe you could get away with it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Even though the entire cast is terrific, I decided to avoid this one because it looked so fucking terrible from the reviews (I also hate constant jump scares.) I went ahead and read the spoilers though, good stuff. 😀
LikeLike
A bad movie. Female variation of Shining ?
LikeLike