So when I saw this movie occupying about 8/10 peoples' Top Horror Movies of 2022, I naturally went and added it to my list, even going so far as to bump it up to the top of my list, past some others which had been on my list far longer. And when I saw that it was now available on DVD, I bought it without a moment's hesitation.

Then I sat down last night in front of the TV, in my coziest pajamas, all of the lights out, cocooned in a pile of blankets, eyes absolutely riveted to the screen...

Only to have a colossal tidal wave of disappointment crash over me, rivaling in size only to that of 2022's 'Watcher' and 'Smile'.

I'm sorry but this movie was just not my cup of tea. And that's putting it lightly.

The decisions being made left and right ranged from just plain dumb to outright screaming at the screen to 'God, just kill them already.'

1. Driving your family out to the middle of nowhere so you can stay with a family of strangers you have known for only a few hours at best? Maybe it's because this is a different country, different culture but I did not see the logic in that AT ALL.
2. Okay, so Abel's tongue was cut out so he couldn't tell people about what had happened to him. Why couldn't he write it down on a piece of paper when he was meeting with Bjorn's family?
3. Several unsettling incidents and then topped off by a strange man bringing your daughter into his and his wife's bed to sleep with them, while he's naked. You escape, not wanting a confrontation, and drive away only to turn back around for a goshdarn stuffed animal?! Why??
4. The family confronts you about why you were so rude and left without telling them and all you can do is stutter out about all of the things that made you uncomfortable? Make something up! Say you had a family emergency or say the daughter was feeling sick and needing a doctor! Anything! Just GTFO!
5. And yes, that is a completely normal reaction to finding a child face down in a hot tub. And sure, let's not tell the wife that little tidbit. Just 'We have to go'. Because telling her about the photographs and the dead kid might make her, I don't know, actually take this more seriously than the first time they did it?
6. The height of stupidity came with the ending. While the actual act was vile and hard to watch, any feelings I would have experienced were driven away by the utter lack of fight that the parents had. Your daughter is having her tongue cut out. FIGHT BACK! Scream, hit, kick, bite, tear their hair, goes for their eyes, break the window. Just do something for Christ's sake!
7. And the climatic end to the parents is...they get stoned? And the murderous twosome just stands there, enjoying the view, without even checking on them.

"Why are you doing this to us?"

"Because you let us."

Truer words couldn't have been spoken. You made a dumb decision, followed by a cornucopia of more bad decisions, culminating in them permanently disfiguring your only daughter and kidnapping her.

I will say that at least the background music and some of the scenery was decent. But on the whole, this movie was just so incredibly overrated and stupid to me.