All men really want is the power you give them. 

Typically, when somebody moves into a new house, it is not haunted, even if they are a bad person.   However, C.M. Punk is special and in Girl on the third Floor, the house must have thought he could handle it.  This movie starts out great and then towards the end, falls flatter than two-day old Pepsi.  (C.M. Punk loves Pepsi and has a tattoo of their logo, wrestling fans know this which is why this joke is so hilarious). This movie is only a year old so I will not give away any big  spoilers so keep reading to see if this is something you would be interested in. 

The movie opens up with some stills from objects around the house, giving it a surreal vibe reminiscent of The Shining.  The protagonist Don Koch (played by Punk) shows up with his cute German Shepherd Cooper.  He just bought this house which needs major interior repairs and we see that his pregnant wife has stayed behind for work since he is currently out of a job.  As he is fixing up the place in nicer clothes than you or I would wear for housework, we see that Cooper is being curious and exploring the house.  We also see how Don awkwardly holds a beer bottle while working.  This isn't because Don is scared but because Punk is straight edge in real life and it looked awkward.  We hear strange noises, see marbles randomly rolling into rooms and get quick glimpses of a woman walking by.  A lot of noises coming from behind walls and from the third floor ceiling (get it?).  There was one particular jump scare that got me pretty good and about three minutes later my ceiling was randomly cracking which legit freaked me out.  We keep seeing more shots of Cooper being cute and in my mind, he is stealing the show at this point. The thought then forms in my head that nothing better happen to him.  Don meets a random girl named Sarah with a weird vibe but she is attractive enough to catch his attention and then I knew this girl was going to be bad news.

Therein lies the film's greatest strength; anticipation and foreshadowing.  Events keep happening where you know something is going to happen later but don't know when and the suspense builds up until it does.  Travis Stevens who wrote and directed this, does an excellent job of making you think something is going to happen, and keeping you in suspense until the payoff.  There were several times where I almost talked out loud, "oh noooo" because I knew something bad was going to happen. For example, Don has a likable friend Milo who comes to help him fix the house and calls him out on some stuff that transpired.  Milo is left alone in the house after an argument and Milo is Black... in a horror movie. "Nooooo!" At another point in the movie we hear the dryer rumbling and fear for the worst which we get.  

The film follows a certain pacing and genre in the first half and then it tries to be different by upping the supernatural elements which doesn't work.  It violated the intrinsic reality the film was set up upon. Granted, sometimes horror films do this on purpose to scare and surprise the viewers but in this case, it felt out of place and like a different movie.  Remember when I compared this movie to The Shining earlier?  It followed the pattern of weird fluids leaking from the house (blood vs semen) to suddenly inserting ghosts, a monster type character and finally the deterioration of the protagonist all while keeping a surrealist perspective.  In this case, the introduction of these elements seemed like they came from another movie.  There are some #MeToo implications weaved in for the reasoning for the change up but I am still not sold. There is also a callback to some earlier dialogue as a way to try and justify the shift. The ending was lost on me but maybe I'm just too dumb to get it.  After all, I kept hoping Don would GTS the hell out of Sarah but spoiler alert he never did.