Real Gods Require Blood

The scouts

It's competent horror-drama, sure, but the premise—kids feeding a literal demon—is executed so straightforwardly that it becomes exactly what you'd expect, which is precisely what bores me about it.

Hussain demonstrates formal control over tone and pacing, situating the film in a lineage of British social realism meeting folk horror; the restraint is admirable, even if the narrative doesn't quite justify the deliberation.

What makes this work is the choice to hold the camera on Alice's face during the babysitting sequences—not the supernatural elements, but her dawning complicity—and that specific economy of performance carries the entire weight of the moral uncertainty.