Saw this in a packed theater, which was surprising, the last theater that was like that was Scream 6, last March.
It was impressive. The tension building, the imagery (the woods, the costumes) the subtle kind of satire/critique of the American talk show, (Did anyone notice the title was in red, white and blue) the acting, the short running time. This was a really well crafted movie. I thought some things at the end were a little shaky, but overall it was great. Like someone said the feeling of dread and unease, a lot of that is based on the idea that talk shows, have to be so light and so reassuring all the time. When it starts to go off the rails,, everyone wants to keep laughing, that's why the tension works so well. The little moments like the guy in the skeleton costume. The way the girl said "I'm not pretty enough", the skeptic character increasingly looking delusional.
"I know you from the tall trees"
like most horror, the payoff is not quite right. The rollercoaster effect. The fire thing is just kind of overdone. Would have pulled some of that back, but still great ending, great movie. I personally don't like late night shows, the format and the kind of smarmy bullshyt from the hosts is not for me, so this was perfect.
oh yeah and the amount of producers was crazy. Just a risk mitigation. And probably paid off if this hits. They all probably put in like 200k each. and could make 10 million. looks like it's at 3 million now.