I gave a quick search for a thread on this movie but finding none, I’ll plow into it.
We just got back from seeing this movie. I liked it, mainly the ending even if I found the first half slow and boring. My wife hated the ending. She stood up and proclaimed “We wasted our time watching this sh*t?!?!”. A few people in the audience also made profane comments about the ending. The first time I’ve seen this reaction to an ending since Blair Witch Project. Comments or opinions?
I just saw this last night, and felt much the same way you did. The first half made me feel like I had made a mistake with this film, but when things started getting creepy, the movie really picked up, and I really enjoyed it. And staring at Anna Paquin for an hour and a half is always fun, too 
I did have a question for anyone who’s seen it: Who were the three people in the photograph? Were they witches, demons…what? I heard there was some editing done to the film for the American release, so I don’t know if that got cut out or not, but I don’t remember anything being said about them. As it were The scene where the photo falls off the wall and Regina picks it up and notices there’s one missing, and you see it crawling around on the ceiling, was absolutely fucking freaky!!! I loved it.
I enjoyed the movie and didn’t find the first half to be especially slow. Overall, I thought it all held together well and built up the suspense at a nice pace. As to the ending, it was certainly ambiguous, but I like being left with a little mystery.
The friend I went with absolutely hated the whole movie, but he also giggled during the preview for “Christmas With The Kranks,” so I’m not taking his opinions too seriously.
Personally, I thought the movie started out well enough. It presented many points and plot lines, and in generally made for a good opening to a mystery.
By the end, though, all the points and plot lines were still open. Nothing was ever resolved. You finally got the basics of what happened 40 years ago (rather abruptly, with little lead-up), but none of the details were fleshed out. What was the hidden room? What was the significance of the pair of gramophones? Or of the carousel–it was the father’s, yes, but beyond that? Who were those people in the picture? Why did they wear “blind” glasses? One came out of the photo to do… what? Why were the found items more turn of the century than 1960s (40 years ago)? “Oval temple”, why? Why was it necessary to conceal who built the house? Why was it necessary to conceal who sold the house? We know what the ritual was, but what was it for? What was the Darkness–evil, yes, we got that, but what evil? What was its aim? On which side were the dead children (for that matter, what were they? Ghosts? The ritual wasn’t successful, so they couldn’t be part of whatever this Darkness thing is)? What was the whole thing supposed to be about?
I’m all for ambiguity, but this movie presented many question and answered precisely none. It just seemed to steal elements from other movies (and video games), mix them up, and present them as some kind of mystery with no real point.
Spoilers below if anyone is reading this who has not seen the movie:
From what I gathered during the movie, the point of the ritual was to bring forth children’s fear of the dark into a real power. Instead of the darkness being just something scary, those fears became real and the darkness killed people. The grandfather didn’t care about giving the darkness power beyond scientific curiosity.
While I skipped over many of the problems with the movie such as the unexplained things, my one real problem was the gas stove at the end. So the darkness can disrupt electricity but can’t shut off gas service? It can make people and a VW bug but can’t go outside to the meter and turn a valve?
The mother character was badly done. I’m guessing it was some bad acting thrown in with a bit of bad writing.