Possibly the scariest film of the weekend and the one with the most ‘jump scares’, this supernatural slice of the genre certainly provoked a few shrieks from the FrightFest audience. Mary (Christie Burke) gives birth to two babies but only one of them survives.

 

Back home and not only adjusting to life as a mother to Adam but also grieving over the loss of her other child Thomas, Mary begins to hear voices and feel a sinister presence in her new house. Her devoted husband Jack (Jesse Mosse) does his best to sympathise but fears it’s all in Mary’s head. It’s not long before she becomes consumed with the belief that a paranormal entity is trying to snatch her remaining child for itself.

 

This has a good premise at its core and certainly for the first half of the film it manages to maintain a real sense of dread and unease as Mary delves deeper and deeper into a state of depression and horrific paranoia. There are a few jerky moments that even made me jump and when shown, the evil threat is quite frightening. Christie Burke is fantastic as Mary; portraying shades of everything from fear and panic to sufferance and acceptance, she holds her own throughout. Mosse doesn’t get as much to do but is solid in the ‘husband who doesn’t believe his wife’ role. The voice of the being itself is unnerving and alarming and is more effective when it’s just being heard rather than seen.

 

Unfortunately the story does start to weaken in the second half and it loses some of the fear factor. Some of the lines of dialogue prove rather cringe worthy – as do the actors deliveries of them - and it’s almost as if the script lost its way somewhere.

 

It’s clear where it’s going to end up and the ending is a little predictable. That’s not to take away from the unsettling atmosphere and the sound story at the core of the film, it just didn’t have all the ingredients to make it a real shocker!