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Feb 01, 2016Nursebob rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
Using a palette of wintry colours and lighting effects which rarely go beyond twilight, director Andrés Muschietti’s ghostly shocker certainly doesn’t lack for style. Furthermore, executive producer Guillermo del Toro’s fascination with the dark fairytale world of children is evident throughout starting with an opening montage of disturbing crayon scribblings and the words “Once upon a time…” But the film’s many jolts become predictable after a while—all those jerking silhouettes and fluttering moths reduced to so much gimmicky filler and his fiend little more than an extra crispy Barbie with waving hair and a few extra joints. When Muschietti finally ends this overly long exercise in generic frights he not only destroys any sense of mystique, he also veers full on into cloying Tim Burton territory with moonlight, menace, and a choir straining to keep the mood going. And more stupid moths.