Without being wildly original, it’s unpredictable. There’s an interesting structural component to the way it keeps resetting the narrative. It’s also willing to shift gears and play in different sub-categories of horror. It’s got some psychological thriller, some haunted house, some creature feature, some Texas Chainsaw vibes, and it approaches everything with a sense of humor (without totally undercutting the material’s impact). It's genuinely funny – the attempt to gauge the dungeon basement’s square footage is one of the best comedy sequences I’ve seen in a while. It indulges in cliches / classic tropes, with Mother being a monster with pathos (whose strength doesn’t make sense from a logical perspective, but it works within the genre). It also tweaks the standard formulas and plays with expectations. The house is an excellent bit of non-descript set design; it’s a believably, pleasantly bland AirBnB that plays on the mildly unsettling sensation of waking up in a strange house (this film stuck with me on my first post-Barbarian AirBnB). Shout outs to the casting of Skarsgard (another great play with expectations based on his persona) and Long’s character. The film does a great job presenting a horrible person who thinks he’s a good guy. I like that the film plays with giving him a classic redemption, then snatches it away and punishes him.
While I did like the different reveals of the neighborhood, I wish the film was more thoughtful in its use of Detroit. There’s room in the setup for dealing with the city’s racial dynamic and gentrification, but the film goes a basic and stereotypical route, exploiting it as a backdrop where anything can happen because of infrastructural decay and as an environment manifesting corrupted family dynamics.