The Butterfly Room (2012)★★★★☆

Butterflies are thematically appropriate for spring, right? In any case, I’m happy to report that I liked this one more than I anticipated…though I admit that could just be because the story actually made sense in this one. Yes, it used flashbacks, but it used them well, and I was able to follow along with the plot and understand what was going on.

And it was scary! The tension builds throughout and things just get creepier and creepier. I love the opening sequence…the way the credits appear on screen is amazing and the background music is really well done. I also like that they used a flashback for the opening sequence – way better than using some moment from later on in the film.

For the first time, I tried to watch the movie for the day on my train ride to work. I was expecting to be disappointed or at least to have to backtrack a bunch to keep caught up with the story unfolding, but it worked really well. I downloaded the movie to my iPad before the ride so it wouldn’t be trying to stream while going through tunnels, and it was surprisingly an okay experience. I was a little concerned that some things on screen would be too disturbing to watch around other people, but this movie isn’t so graphic or gory.

Most of the horror comes from the realness of the whole story. There’s no supernatural evil at work here, just a lonely old woman with some strong ideas of what’s right (and perhaps no strong ideas of what’s wrong). The reveal of what’s really in the butterfly room is well timed and wonderfully done, so that the climactic scenes are terrifying and genuinely climactic.

Oh, and I liked that there were some horror film veterans in the cast. While everyone was good, including the children, it was really cool to see Heather Langenkamp and P.J. Soles make appearances.