Sinners who art on earth, behold the masterpiece of horror! I can’t resist to make a philosophical reading of the film, helped on by Foucault. If the most evident level of dread stems from the possession of a sweet young girl by an ancient demon, another less obvious layer is much more significant. The movie starts by showing the child as bright, blooming, active - at most shaken up by her parents' recent divorce. As the doctors get more and more hold of her, kicking off with medication then moving forward with invasive, shocking tests & treatments, she gradually loses her self. As such, it's the cold, instrumental, dehumanizing gaze of the medical institution that is the most terrifying.
It is like an extended version of Modern Family: self-consciously wild at first but sweet and sincere in the end.(Claire and Phil, seriousIy?) I'd expected something more out of Tina Fey and Steve Carell. Yet I believe they're as good as they could be in such a mediocre script!