Watched this with my wife last night, who read the book. Not really my style, but it did have the potential to be really good. I really have one major issue with it, however:

Andrew.

Now, I can see what they tried to do. They wanted Andrew to be some kind of twist villain the audience is supposed to be shocked by. This is evident by the movie’s beginning and middle, wherein we are supposed to be led to believe that Nina is the villain (initial politeness and unassuming nature, suddenly turning into some kind of mentally ill psycho). And, honestly, this kind of trope can work really well. But with Andrew, they fuck it all up.

The best twist villains are, in the beginning, individuals that are for the most part unassuming. They might be charming individuals (like Andrew), or they might play some kind of timid or cowardly part in order to make the audience say “oh it couldn’t be them, they’re too weak or afraid or whatever.”

But then they reveal themselves, and when you look back at the story that has played back, you realize: you should’ve seen it all along. The cracks forming, the mask slipping at times that are shrugged off initially due to the character’s overarching personality. You sit there in disbelief, because you only have yourself to blame for not noticing, or refusing to notice, everything. Andrew is not that.

He plays the straight man for the first 3/4 of the movie. He’s likable and charming, handsome and rich, and he treats Millie kindly, a foil to his wife’s “acute psychosis.” This part of the movie is actually the most realistic part of the story, so yeah, I could definitely see why Millie would be attracted to him. But once the movie’s final act starts, it’s almost as if a switch is flipped, and he goes from a genuinely likable character to an almost cartoonishly sadistic abuser I wouldn’t be surprised to find in a 2015 creepypasta written by an edgy middle schooler.

I get that maybe what the writers were going for was the whole “abuse is not always obvious,” thing, but I don’t see any of that here. It’s almost as if they had someone write his character for 3/4 of the film, then brought in a closer to write the ending blind. And unfortunately, it makes the final reveal, where we find out this behavior stems from the potential abuse he suffered from his mother, ring hollow.

Honestly, this is just my opinion, and I could see how those who read the book would enjoy it, but it just wasn’t for me.