Fraught with all-consuming dread and familial mystery, Here Before is an emotionally and psychologically demanding thriller surrounding the loss of a child.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Gregg, who wrote and directed, has mostly written for television, and while this is her feature directorial debut, she’s a born filmmaker.
While Gregg offers a cheeky sense of what it really means to gaslight someone, no one will feel as injured by the film’s final-act choices than its audience.
The Hollywood Reporter by Leslie Felperin
It has its own peculiar spirit and casts a very witchy spell, thanks particularly to Gregg's adept handling of both experienced and young, less proven performers.
There's a lot to like in this engaging and unnerving drama, but the finale doesn’t come together to deliver on an intriguing and chilling first half.
Gregg delivers an intoxicating and impressive directorial debut, so it will be enjoyable to witness what she does next. Here Before is a harrowing depiction of motherhood with all of its loving and painful experiences.
The tension that drives Here Before is our curiosity as to whether or not the film is taking place in the world of the uncanny. In a way we want it to be, because that would make it scary fun; in another way we don’t want it to be, because that would make it corny scary fun.
A screenplay which could have benefited from another pass undermines the credibility of what comes before, and, despite a formidable intensity from Riseborough throughout, leachs tension along with plausibility.