A lot of thematic and emotional implications, great performances, and a twisty turny denouement add up to a creepy good thriller.

A ceramic hand has been making the rounds among Australian teens. If you hold the hand and say the right words a ghostly entity will appear and possess you, but don’t hold on too long or the entity will never leave.

Troubled teen Mia, played brilliantly by Sophie Wilde, is having trouble fitting in after the death of her mother. Luckily she has a support system in best friend Jade, played by Alexandra Jensen, jade’s brother vulnerable Riley, played by Joe Bird, and their single mother Sue, played by Miranda Otto who gets to steal a few scenes as the protective mother. When Mia and Jade attend a party with the mysterious hand and Mia gets the opportunity to see her mother again things go from bad to worse.

The atmosphere here is thick and heavy. It really put me in the lives of these teenagers. I believed them and their struggles. It had an authenticity that really pulled me in. When it creates and atmosphere of terror and dread it really worked because they had taken the time to create that authenticity.

But the big selling point we’re the performances. Sophie Wilde takes her character through hell. She is pitch perfect at the highs of her early moments of happiness as well as during her deepest moments of tortured despair. Not to mention her ability to contort and modulate herself to portray a woman possessed by a demon or maybe the ghost of her mother.

My other favorite performance was Miranda Otto. She is a strong and intelligent mother who will not let her kids get away with crap. She finds perfect comedy moments that feel both hilarious and completely in tune with the rest of the movie.

This is one of those elevated horror movies where the terror lies less in the blood and guts and more in the implications and thematic consequences. The movie has a lot to say about death, hell, and what they mean for the living. It also gets deep into friendship, trust, and social isolation in a powerful and unique way. This is a movie with ideas behind its jump scares.

I also loved his much this movie kept me guessing. The story seems straightforward, but I could never guess where this one was going, and I can always predict what’s coming next. This one was different and especially when I’m watching so many horror movies in a row different earns a lot of points.

It is a really strong movie and a lot of creepy fun in you have the stomach for it.

It’s my cup of tea. A