"Is it true what they say about this place? That someone tried to conjure the devil here once?"

The Devil's Attic opens this weekend. What's that all about? Well, I wrote a poem about it.

Since before the dawn of recorded time,
when humans first crawled from the slime,
I have harvested all the evil souls.

With punishments both harsh and strident,
I've poked and prodded them with my trident
and roasted them all over beds of burning coals.

But here I store my top selection,
the most wicked in all of my collection.
Into this, my attic, they're all crammed.

And on display in demonic glory,
they await to unleash their hellish fury
upon your heads, my hapless little lambs.

So step inside my house of horrors,
witness all the pain and sorrows, 
and feel the wrath and vengeance of the damned.

If that doesn't answer every question you might have, you'll just have to come see it. Now that's out of the way, let's get to this movie review. I found a really good one to set the mood for your forthcoming haunted house visit.

This week's Thursday Thriller is Darling.

This 2015 film by writer-director Mickey Keating is a minimalist, atmospheric showcase for the many expressions actress Lauren Ashley Carter puts her face through while her character Darling goes slowly insane.

Darling has agreed to house-sit the oldest home in town, and because it's the oldest home in town, it's obviously haunted by the ghosts of all the horrible tragedies that have happened there over the years. Homeowner Madame (Sean Young) informs Darling that the last caretaker committed suicide.

Exploring the house, Darling finds a locked room she doesn't have a key for. When she mentions it to Madame over the telephone, Madame tells her not to go in there. All alone in a big house, Darling starts to lose her mind, so she goes out and picks up a stranger to bring home and murder. She stabs him half to death, then puts a plastic bag over his head and suffocates the other half, or so she thinks.

But man oh man, the way she stabs that guy!

I don't want to give too much away, so let's stop talking about the story and get to how it looks. There is no clutter in this movie. The home is tidy and clean with a few modest antique furnishings. It's in black and white. Throw in some vintage costumes, and it all gives the film a timeless quality in its look. The photography is striking. If you cut a couple dozen frames out of this movie, they would hang well in a modern art exhibition. Some jarring, choppy editing here and there, along with a super creepy sound design, keep the hairs on the back of your neck raised. Take your Dilantin before watching, and keep a wooden spoon your mouth for good measure. Flashy-stroby effects figure heavily in this story's style.

Carter put in good performances in Lucky McKee's The Woman and Chad Crawford Kinkle's Jug Face, but those were ensemble pieces compared to Darling. With only a couple supporting characters, Carter has to carry this movie on her own, and she does it well. There are so many close-ups of her having so many mood swings, she practically tells the whole story with her face, with most of the workload resting on her gigantic eyes. Luckily, she has a pretty broad emotional palette and she shines in what's almost a solo performance.

All in all, Darling has some of the best photography, editing, sound, acting and stabbing I've seen in a horror movie in a while. It streams on Netflix.