Too few modern horror films take their cue from the power of suggestion. The less you show, the more terrifying your story can be. Some of the all-time greats of the genre, from The Haunting to The Shining, either show nothing scary or deliberately supernatural at all, or bide their time, allowing strange noises in the distance or unexpected shadows to do the heavy lifting.
Jim Mickle’s previous film Stake Land, a post-apocalyptic road movie with a vampiric threat, combined the tone of something like The Road with narrative flourishes (invincible hunter known only as Mister, vampires launched from helicopters like dropping bombs) more akin to comic books.
Electrick Children Written and directed by Rebecca Thomas USA, 2012 Electrick Children’s lead Julia Garner played a brief but memorable role in 2011’s Martha Marcy May Marlene, which Rebecca Thomas’ film bares superficial comparisons to in that they both concern members of ritualised, insular societies in contemporary America; both also happen to be the debut …