Tired of being constantly bullied, a young boy living with his orphaned brother while trying to stay out of trouble ends up encountering a real-life witch in the area and ends up befriending it, forcing him to come to a deadly realization where his loyalties lie when it starts on a bloody rampage.
On the whole, this was a highly enjoyable and chilling effort. One of the finer points to this one is the incredibly strong setup that serves as a reason to generate the central relationship at hand. While cliched, the setup involving the bullied youth who decides to seek solace in areas outside of the accepted norms in the community which causes everyone to worry about him while he ends up developing a macabre friendship with the creature is handled quite well. This goes into the reasons why he's being bullied and how that leads him into contact with the witch as well as the clues that he's been hiding the relationship with the creature from those around him that everyone suspects is the human girl that's hanging around him that gives this part of the film a lot to like. As well, once the witch becomes a prominent part of the film there's some fun to be had with the creatures' stalking and attacks. The first encounter inside the house where it appears in the mirror behind him while attempting to prank the others outside is a genuinely unnerving moment, much like the later ambush on the girlfriend at the house. There's a genuine tension to the way it constantly alerts her to its presence without saying anything and the final payoff is quite satisfying being one of the only jump-scares in the film. Other encounters, including the ambush on the girls in the woods or the hospital appearance, offer up some dark and thrilling action that's a nice setup for the finale where the final confrontation is as emotionally disturbing as it is brutal. These manage to provide this with some enjoyable aspects. That said, there are some minor drawbacks here that hold this down. Among the main flaws here is the fact that the central relationships that it spends so much time honing aren't always the most interesting or enjoyable to see play out. The main relationship we're supposed to be following in the brother meeting up with the new girl from the bar is inherently uninteresting and doesn't make either of them out to be interesting with the constant abuse and fighting that makes them out to be far more dysfunctional than warranted. Likewise, the central triangle with the kids is equally uninteresting, managing to come across with far more curiosity than anything regarding how they're even friends in the first place and making for a highly aggravating experience here. The other issue at play, which is somewhat informed by the previous drawback, is that it takes way too long for the witch to actually do something interesting in here. It spends way too much time here standing around watching him interact with his brother, the crummy lifestyle they lead, or the interactions with the bullies tormenting him before it springs into action to attack those around him. As well, the constant bickering and fighting between the brother and his girlfriend in their relationship just amounts to even more time here that ends up pushing back the rampage until so late in the film that it's quite hard to really care what happens since we're spending all this time on factors that some of the impact is lost. These are really all that hold this one down though.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, intense themes of bullying, child abuse and violence.against-animals.
