For a generation consumed by disaffection and disillusion, where bonds and camaraderie are veiled through digital filters and glowing screens there comes reaching across the abyss, a hand: offering connection and communion for those who take its grasp and accept its invitation.

This is hands-down the best horror movie of the year, admittedly scant praise in a year bereft of quality. While a reskin of common ouija and possession tales, Studio A-24 consistently delivers films of a higher caliber, with intelligent scripts and nuanced storytelling. There are many symbols at play here, metaphors for addition and grief, mortality, responsibility, self-destruction and escapism. The layered foreshadowing and themes are present from the onset, delivering satisfying and impactful payoff during the final act. This is a film made by former youtubers with intimate understanding of what appeals to this segment and does an excellent job illustrating this generation’s motives and antics. The film takes its time in setting up and providing sympathetic characters, with a wealth of details slowly revealed organically through acting and subtext. While many do head-scratchingly dumb and self-destructive behaviors, it all feels true to what motivates them, and reflective of the adage ‘youth is wasted on the young’. The horrific elements are truly unsettling, with excellent use of practical effects and visual grotesqueries, but the deeper horrors in this film will unsettle and unnerve on more profound levels. Not many answers are offered about the nature of the specters, the visitations, personal hells, the necromantic conduit or how much is an illusory trap. This is even lampshaded in the script as no one really knows where the hand originates, the rules, or what purpose it serves. But for those seeking a chilling tale and horrific sights from both sides of the veil, this movie gets an unreservedly disembodied two thumbs up and an: