I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I couldn't take my eyes off it, and it has some creepy moments, but the story is a mess. A clarivoyant gift, a secret code, a sadistic serial killer, a Satanic cult, an evil doll, a cabin in the woods...how are they all connected? Unclear, except that they're all occasionally in the movie.
If it weren't for the rather half-hearted exposition in the end, I'd think the writer-director Oz Perkins was being intentionally absurd and Lynchian. There are moments where characters do things so ridiculous, it seems like a satire of horror movie tropes (eg agents discover that there is one victim who survived an attack by this serial killer years ago, so they set out to interview her...but first, they stop by the remote farm where the attack occured. In the middle of the night, obviously.) I'm left wondering if this is all supposed to be "dream logic" or if it's just old-fashioned bad writing.
Other thoughts one a scale of 1 to 10 Cages, this is a perfect 10. He is totally bananas, and it worked for me.
The final line is a reference to Osgood Perkin's previous movie, "The Blackcoat's Daughter" (which, come to think of it, was also a very atmospheric horor movie with a convoluted story)
Perkins has a real knack for staging and camera placement. Long after I'd lost hope that the plot would make sense, I kept being drawn into scenes, just because of the way it's implied there is something just off-camera about to enter the shot, or there is something going to emerge from the background. Craft like this doesn't need a big clunky story or plot twists.
I just discoverd the trailer, which does a great job conveying the tone without giving too much away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSslhT4s6ek