Sophie Thatcher  and Vivien Lyra Blair  shine as two sisters coping with the recent death of their mother, and are the crown jewels of the movie. Thatcher plays the distant teenager Sadie (16), and Blair is 11 year-old Sawyer who is years more conscious of the pending danger in their midst, and, as it will turn out, the more proactive in dealing with it. We can only hope that we’re seeing the emergence of a new generation of ‘final girls’ in the genre with Vivien Lyra Blair leading the way as she echoes the ever-green queen of final girls, Jamie Lee Curtis, even at this tender age. Yes, more of that!

Chris Messina plays their father, Dr. Will Harper, a psychiatrist who having suffered a great loss is adept at listening to the mental ailments of his patients but unable to digest the same advice and guided counsel he dispenses on a regular basis himself. Thus, the possibility of another pending catastrophic episode renders him impotent as a father figure, even as he’s the model modern dad. Healing thyself is just not in the cards for him. Messina straddles that fine line without blinking or breaking a sweat.

Another stand-out performance is delivered by chameleon actor David Dastmalchian as the nervously disheveled Lester, who shows up unannounced at Harper’s home office seeking help during a triggered mental episode. You can feel the air leaving the theater during that short but powerfully acted and directed scene as he describes the concurrent deaths of his three daughters by various means, but all connected by one constant: the Boogeyman, he claims. I got the creeps waiting for Lester to lurch forward and potentially break his therapist in half! At this point, not only do WE find ourselves hypnotized and at the edge of our seats, Dr. Harper has been so affected by the strange visitor’s story that he excuses himself to call the cops. But it’s too late as Lester has already left behind much more than just a bone-chilling tale. Talk about the complex mechanizations of the mind. Yes, more of that! (kudo to writers Scott Beck, Bryan Woods and Mark Heyman for that rollercoaster ride!)

The film could have fared better without the formulaic troupe of the misunderstood teenager chastised by her schoolmates after a tragic incident. But having included it, eventual Karma should have befallen them at the hands, ahh, I mean claws, of the specter whose existence hearkens from a time immemorial. I was taken out of the film for a moment as soon as I was led into that cookie-cutout space. Meh. Precious screen time could have been better allotted to character development or added backstory. No more of that! (wagging a finger at writers  Beck, Woods and Heyman for that lazy short cut)

The cinematography (Eli Born) and production design (Jeremy Woodward) are huge complements to the film and underscore the psychological horror, mental instability and trauma at the core of the storyline. Comparisons have been made to Smile, Slender Man, and The Babadook. You can pass your own judgement on that. Either way, the atmosphere is both thick and alluring in a “this way to your doom” sort of way. On that level, the movie is very effective.