Nothing here feels cheap or hasty, which is why the horror, when it comes, is all the more chilling and grim. Slick, sharp and legitimately terrifying, The Gift is a truly brilliant thriller — and, one hopes, the first of many features from Edgerton to come.

Edgerton, who also wrote the screenplay, shows a masterful touch in playing with conventional expectations.

The Gift is B-movie melodrama at its lurid finest, and worth a look.

Taken on its own undemanding terms and considered within its not very original framework, Joel Edgerton’s feature-length directorial debut is a pleasant — or pleasantly unpleasant — surprise, hitting its genre marks in brisk, unfussy fashion and raising a few hairs on the back of your neck along the way.

The Gift will have you triple-locking the doors and rushing to pull the curtains.