October 1. Sunday. 

I decided that I would challenge myself this month and actually commit to something. October is one of my favorite months because it’s just so chill and happy. But I thought that I shouldn’t let it pass without doing something that captures its spirit. I am in no way a horror movie fan, primarily because I do believe in the supernatural and that alone scares the living shit out of me. I even remember in high school someone threw a Halloween party and she put on some horror movie, I literally burst into tears out of fear. Hopefully no tears will be shed this time around because I’m a grown woman, dammit! Oh, and by the way, I’m watching all of this during the afternoon because I am a little wimp. Hopefully I’ll get my shit together and accomplish all 31 days of this stupid idea.

I got my pillows, my coffee and my little black cat (yes I have a black cat, how appropriate, am I right?) snuggled next to me. So, here we go!

Scary spoilers are a-coming!

The whole movie is about a writer who decides to live in the woods presumably for a quiet life. But that quiet life turns horrifying pretty quickly since there is a masked man out to kill her for fun.

The movie starts out quite happy actually, she lives a peaceful life in a house near nature and all its glory. But living like that has one problem, it’s the perfect place to get murdered!

Although the set-up was pretty cliche and I knew what was going to happen right away, the whole thing still had me at the edge of my seat. Our protagonist Maddie, played by Kate Siegel, played the role of a deaf woman in a horrific situation very well. She had me rooting for her from start to finish and had me hoping she’ll get out of the situation alive.

But I couldn’t go on without mentioning our main baddie, a.k.a the masked man, portrayed by John Gallagher Jr., who had me scared all throughout the movie. He was a very convincing psycho killer and when he waved around the bloody body of Maddie’s friend, the hair on my arms stood up, especially since he seemed to enjoy it.

The film was set in only one place but it served as the perfect place for our little game of cat and mouse. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I felt more and more claustrophobic as the movie went on because I felt just as trapped as Maddie.

The lack of ominous music was a welcome change because the movie didn’t need loud creepy  music to set the mood. The way it was filmed and directed did the job for you. And I guess it was also probably because Maddie couldn’t hear the masked man so we’re also treated to a similar experience.

The movie was definitely not as scary as I thought, but it was a good start to my little challenge and a thrilling experience that I’d like to see again. I hope the rest of the movies I have planned are going to be as great as this one.

1 down, 30 more to go.