not very good

It had the potential to be so much better than it actually was. I enjoy surrealism in films, but to me, the whole was less than the sum of its parts.

It wasn't horrible, and some aspects of it really worked (I thought the atmosphere the filmmakers created was spot on, for example). However, by the end of the film, there were some missed opportunities. I don't think they took the surrealism far enough to compensate for the lack of explicit character development. This led to the movie having the feel of a half-hour of material being stretched into a full length flick. The atmosphere was excellent and immersive, but there wasn't enough going on to maximize that. Instead there was too much dead time where tension was subsequently lost. They put alot on the kid playing Michael to carry that much screen time without action, and unfortunately, his performance came off as boring and wooden by the end of it.

I realize that we're watching from Mike's perspective, but the parents were also written to be too one-dimensional. Likewise with Michael. There just wasn't much of a journey portrayed despite the kid obviously having a lot of traumatic experiences. And, by starting off with the parents being so creepy, it didn't really leave anywhere to go with them because their end point was about the same as where they started. So, instead of being surprised or shocked, when the cannibalism was verified and handed to the audience on a silver platter, all I was left asking was "What took so long?"

This is a movie I really wanted to be a fan of, and it just came up short. The filmmakers' reach exceeded their grasp, although certain aspects of it did work. I just wish they would've made a choice to go further with the surrealism and symbolism or more dialog. Instead, this movie took what could've been an amazing concept and executed it as a mediocre impersonation of a David Lynch film. Too bad.