Behind You follows Sisters Olivia (Addy Miller) and Claire (Elizabeth Birkner) who have had their world turned upside down. Their mother has just died, and their father is unreachable, somewhere out of the country. Naturally, a friend of their mother’s Camilla (Aimee-Lynn Chadwick) thinks it is best for them to be with family. Camilla brings the girls to live with their estranged aunt Beth (Jan Broberg) and from the jump things seem off.
Beth doesn’t even come out to greet the girls, her friend Charles (Philip Brodie) does so instead. When Beth does finally meet them, her first thought is to convince Camilla to take them instead. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Camilla refuses and the sisters must stay. Beth gives them a tour of the house, complete with the oft-seen locked basement door that of course immediately peaks Claire’s interest.
What the girls don’t know, and what the audience is privy to, is some of the history of the house. When Beth was a child, a malevolent entity attacked Beth’s sister Angela through a mirror. In what some would say is an appropriate reaction, Beth has either removed or covered the mirrors throughout the house.
The best parts of Behind You are the eerie pacing and slow, creepy stylistic elements. Andrew Mecham and Matthew Whedon, who both wrote and directed the film, did a great job building up suspense and a feeling of dread. Through a mix of spine-chilling music and deafening silence – where every creak and noise is magnified – to camera angles that leave the audience holding it’s breath as the camera slowly pans across a room, there is a lot to like.
The problem is, most of these are in the first half. The second half of the film replaces the ominous tone and masterful buildup with brashness and in-your-face jump scares and violence. Subtly can be king, and more of it in the second half of Behind You would have only been a benefit. It seems like a switch is flipped and suddenly we’re left with a completely different film in front of us.