Good concept, poorly executed.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

This movie is almost the european equivalient of the Korean 'The Tale of Two Sisters'. While the Korean movie was much more complex, psycholgical horror. This one relies more on atmosphere. The absolutely lush yet somewhat surreal cinematography, the secluded house, the way the twins behave ( Who on earth collects those grotesque cockroaches ) creates an omnious atmosphere you never ever want to be a part of. However, one of the biggest drawbacks of the movie is, it gives away it's biggest twist right within the starting 10 minutes. For a seasoned moviegoer, it would be as easy as a cakewalk. You see it coming, you just hope you're wrong or it has some other trick up it's sleeve, but alas, it isn't so. But even then, towards the latter half, the movie makes a quick genre transformation to body horror, and it was disturbing. More so considering how innocuous and pure a mother-son relation is. Watch it with low expectations, without expecting a mother of a twist, and you might like it.

This movie definitely has that artsty, slow paced, mellow feel to it, which i absolutely loved, you can clearly see the distinction between Hollywood and foreign films here, it was not overly dramatic as opposed to Hollywood films of this sort and had a good steady pace, which sadly got ruined a bit towards the end. The plot twist was really blatant, they had an excellent premise and in my opinion they should have just went with the original idea of this not being the real mother, instead they pulled the good old - dead sibling cliche and revealed it only at the end, but any experienced psychological horror fan had already gathered that ages before the reveal. All in all, the movie is not that bad, it is different, has great atmosphere and scenery, despite all taking place at one location. Do not go into this movie looking for horror, gore or fast paced action, this is a different kind of thriller, and not that bad of a watch, if you are tired from classic Hollywood horror and action scenes!

This one's thick with atmosphere. Unfortunately, I could never get over the basic premise that two young boys are left alone at home in a remote country house beside a lake and forest waiting for their divorced mother to come back from the hospital after a bad accident. The overall tone might be that of a dark and disturbing fairy tale, but at least the beginning should have been grounded in a little more realism. Otherwise, there is no real incentive to figure out the underlying psychological motivation of the characters and their interdependence. It feels like the directors had assembled all the creepy movie ingredients they could think of and then run out of their own ideas. The result is a demented shopping list where almost no cliché is left out. The bandage fetishism is a nice touch (a cross of Maria Beatty and Scott McGehee/ David Siegel), so is the art direction, although a bit obvious with the pictures of blurred silhouttes on the walls. The coackroaches, the candles, the children's games, the nursery rhymes, the bow and arrow, the pagan masks, the dark spaces, the dead cat, the bondage and torture, it's all too familiar and stripped of any real emotional attachement or narrative consequence. It's a clinical study of whatever they where trying to dissect, one that gets rather tiring about the half-time mark. The third act should have been the second act leaving room for a truly innovative story twist towards the end. Alas, that twist never comes and this viewer felt slightly frustrated when the credits started to roll.

Apart from being a slow, psychological thriller that leaves ample hints of its final reveal throughout the film, this is also a very good portrayal of the effects of loss and trauma.The beginning half of the film keeps your attention, with some surreal visuals and the mum acting off and distant. The second half is when things get interesting.This is one of those movies that don't thrill you with on screen action but instead with the realization of truth as more and more of the plot is unveiled. In the end it was one of those dilemmas that you as a viewer can't outsmart, and therefore can't really comment much about, which is always a good sign. As a movie its not BRILLIANT, but as a story, its beautiful.