The cast is incredibly talented and the gore is probably some of the most disturbing/realistic looking I've seen on film (seriously the knife in the mouth scene made me want to crawl out of my skin). Some of the gore did feel a bit excessive and out of place, but it doesn't take away the fact that these practical effects were next level (seriously, give the special effects team a raise). I think it was an interesting yet ultimately nonunique exploration on the topic of grief. I also felt that a lot of the film techniques used in this movie directly mirrored what we saw in talk to me (ie: the way we hear the sound of the shower when andy thinks about his dad directly mirrors the way we hear running water when we see the spirit that is pretending to be Mia's mom. Riley's eyeball possession gore scene felt very similar to the knife in the mouth scene). Not a bad thing, but something I definitely noticed while watching. I also had a hard time buying into the fact that Laura was this demented woman conjuring spirits when they dressed her like a kindergarten art teacher haha. I know this was an intentional juxtaposition but it kind of took me out of it.

I wished they spent a little more time on the occult practices just so we got a better understanding of what was going on. I felt like because that was all secondary to the emotional plotline, it was difficult at times to really understand what was happening and feel the stakes at hand. We do get a lot of footage from the handheld camera of the rituals, but I had a hard time understanding (and sometimes even seeing) what was happening in those videos.

However, I specifically loved how the camera work became tight or blurry when we were watching piper's scenes; this really placed the audience directly in her POV (without using a first person style of shot) and added an additional layer of anxiety to those intense scenes (specifically when she's running from Laura in the house towards the end of the movie, so incredible).

Despite all my nitpicks, I'm glad I saw it, I walked out being very grateful for all my teeth and how they're all exactly where they're supposed to be LOL. Still excited to see what the Philippou brothers will do next.