When all but one member of an elementary school class mysteriously vanish at exactly 2:17 a.m. one night, suspicion naturally falls on their teacher (Julia Garner). I’ll watch anything featuring Garner, whose unique intensity has enhanced such head trips as Ozark, Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Assistant. She gets solid support from Josh Brolin, Amy Madigan and Benedict Wong among others.

Regular readers will be familiar with my horror-movie preference for genre-bending psycho-thrillers that slither under your skin as opposed to lazy gore and violence, and while this one admittedly slips into the latter once or twice, the mayhem is brief and serves to give macabre teeth to the unnamed and unseen villain. The scares are slowly and deliberately set up but pack a horrific wallop when they hit. The totally gonzo, darkly comic (and even cathartic) denouement is a masterpiece. 

This twisted, kinetic, constantly engaging fable is one of the best horror movies of the year, the kind that has you looking over your shoulder as you leave the theater, and it cements writer/director Zach Creggar’s position as one of the genre’s top new talents. You could call this a horror movie for those who don’t do horror. The Brothers Grimm would approve.

(128 min)