What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that the movie, which claims to be inspired by a true case, involves two levels of evil curse: The first is apparently cast by an irate neighbor (here called a witch); the second is more dreadful, covered up by the first: The father sexually abuses his daughter, and she retaliates. There's loud, frightening music, several jump scenes, and spooky handheld camerawork through dark stairwells, hallways, and woods. The evil force abuses the little girl mercilessly: it drags her, rips her blanket off, slaps her, throws her against walls, appears to molest her, makes her scream repeatedly. (It also scares her little girlfriend, who sleeps over one night.) Force also attacks the father, in the form of a wolf, visible to him, invisible to everyone else. Early party scene features drunken characters. A mother poisons a father, and a 21st-century mom realizes too late that her daughter is also being abused.
- Families can talk about the film's elusive scares. Aside from the conventional cues (loud music, dark spaces, handheld camera, jump scenes), the movie uses implied threats and unseen forces: What are the effects of these strategies? You might also want to talk about ghosts and witches' curses, and the idea that the "true story" assumes their existence and effects.