The Gift is much more than a boilerplate Hollywood horror film…

Edgerton and Bateman put in very good performances in a story that depends entirely on our inability to trust their characters.

The Gift is uniformly intense without being heavy. Not for one second does it drag. If you enjoy psych-thrillers, there will be plenty to think about long after the end credits have rolled. Do not miss this one.

What really drives the movie home are the excellent performances from the entire cast. Edgerton is delightfully strange, while Bateman is pretentious in an endearing kind of manner. The only wasted opportunity is the superb Allison Tollman from ‘Fargo’ is cast in a minor role that doesn’t add anything to the story. But that’s only a minor complaint in an otherwise awesome movie. As far as thrillers with smart thrills go, it doesn’t get better than ‘The Gift’.

You must watch The Gift because this is a thriller that fans of the genre have been waiting for. You must watch it for the sincere performances of the cast. Bring an open mind to the movie hall though.

On the technical front, the film has good production values. The camera work, the background score and editing are precisely noteworthy. With a couple of terrific jump scares, the film certainly has its share of actual fright, but the real terrors are in the mind.

The film is worth watching for its treatment.

Quite remarkably, there is no gratuitous violence in the film, despite the palpable tension all around. Even the climax rests on merely the hint of an unspeakable crime, an idea planted Inception-like in the mind. And just as the last scene of Inception leaves you to figure out if the spinning top stopped or not, the last scene here has you wondering: did Gordo do the dirty deed or not? Go figure.