January 5, 2026 – This horror film goes from being simply creepy to mysterious, from cringey to fascinating as it moves along its way towards a surprising conclusion. I felt very uncomfortable watching the first part of this movie because of its creepiness, but then it got interesting.

In a small city, 17 children get out of bed at 2:17 a.m. and go running off into the darkness. The police can't find them, despite evidence from ring cameras and extensive searches by people and dogs. All the missing kids were students in a single grade school classroom. Only one student, Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher) from that classroom remains. Both he and his teacher, Justine (Julia Garner of “Wolf Man”) are questioned extensively by police.

Justine becomes the target of the town's anger over the missing children. Parents of the children, including Archer Graff (Josh Brolin of the Avengers movies) think that Justine knows something about the disappearances that she is not admitting. Both Archer and Justine have nightmares about the missing children.

This story is told through a series of scenes of different perspectives of the same time period in the same town. These scenes show how several different characters, including Justine, Archer and Alex, experience related events happening around the time of the disappearances. Each of these scenes gives some hints about what is going on, including a scene involving a school principal, Marcus Miller (Benedict Wong of the Doctor Strange movies) whose personality is altered, suddenly and radically.

It isn't until we get to a scene about what leads to Marcus Miller's sudden transformation, that we finally learn who is behind the mysterious events in town. The answer lies in witchcraft, sympathetic magic, and supernatural powers that are reminiscent of zombies and vampires. This is something no viewer would suspect unless they happen to be steeped in horror movie clichés, or perhaps, paranormal trivia.

The plot doesn't really make sense, but I did find the mystery compelling. The acting is very good by Garner, Brolin, Wong, Austin Abrams (“Wolfs”) who plays a homeless man, Alden Ehrenreich (“Solo: A Star Wars Story”) who plays a cop, and onetime boyfriend of Justine. An unrecognizable Amy Madigan (“Field of Dreams”) recently won a well-deserved Critics Choice award for her role in this movie as Aunt Gladys. She has been nominated for other awards as well.

I watched this movie mainly for Madigan's performance, but I did not recognize her at all. In fact, her appearance changes significantly during the course of the movie. I did not recognize Wong, either, but at least he did look familiar. For a horror film, this one is pretty well written by writer-director Zach Cregger (“Barbarian”). It involves some misdirection to make the mystery harder to figure out. This movie rates a B.

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