... Before remains more of a mood piece than a full-on ghost or gory horror story. It is at least as interested in the manifestations of guilt in real life as it is using them as fuel for the supernatural narrative, and maintains the grief-stricken atmosphere as well as it does the spine-tingling stuff.

And Crystal is brilliant. His commitment to the part and this new mode is total. He never takes refuge in his comedy persona, and he utterly convinces as a man struggling with experiences he never imagined he would have to go through. His pain is both acute and chronic as he learns more about his wife, how he failed her, and how she turned to others to help her process what he could not. What kind of man, what kind of husband, what kind of therapist would allow that are questions that haunt him as deeply as Noah’s visions do him. Speaking of whom – as someone old enough to remember when the sight of a child actor made the spirit quail because children couldn’t act, I remain beyond grateful that those days are behind us and that Jupe only adds to the lustre of the new age. I don’t know what mighty forces are responsible for the change, but thank you, thank you.