Wish Upon

"Wish Upon" (2017, John R. Leonetti, Busted Shark Productions) is about the danger of getting what you wish for.

Clare (Joey King) was scarred as a child, finding her mother's body shortly after her suicide. As a teen she has become an outcast, with only a few close friends. When her father (Ryan Phillippe) presents her with a Chinese music box, which he found whilst dumpster diving, Clare is able to recognise one part of the inscription on the side which states "Seven Wishes". As a joke, she wishes for something awful to happen to her school bully and when the event transpires Clare begins to run with it, wishing willy nilly for everything she desires. If only she could work out the rest of the enscription, she might not be so keen...

An overdone premise that could have been a lot of fun, but failed to be either scary nor campy enough to salvage the film. From the trailers I had went in open minded, and hoping for some "Scream"-style teen horror fun mixed with "Wishmaster" and "Bad Girls from Valley High". But unfortunately the delivered material was pretty tame and not too clever. Most of the supporting characters were underutilised and, although King gives a good performance, her protagonist doesn't garner much viewer sympathy because of her actions.

All in all, it is an adequate starter movie for budding young horror fans to cut their teeth on, but it's certainly not the best example of a teen horror out there.

[Image: Busted Shark Productions]

Hani

Sadako vs Kayako

"Sadako vs Kayako" (2016, Kōji Shiraishi, Kadokawa Daiei, NBC Universal Entertainment Japan) is a crossover of the Ring and Ju-On series. The film actually began life as an April Fools' Joke, but was actually turned into a real feature length film after having a good reception.

When college students, Yuri (Mizuki Yamamoto) and Natsumi (Aimi Satsukawa), come across the cursed video tape they had learned about in class they unwittingly watch it, releasing the curse of the forever creepy and forever vengeful Sadako (Elly Nanami).

In another part of town high school student, Suzuka (Tina Tamashiro), moves in next door to the infamous Saeki house and begins to notice creepy things. After unwittingly following some young trespassers into the house she becomes 'grudged' by the ghosts of Kayako (Runa Endo) and Toshio (Rintaro Shibamoto).

The girls' seek to rid themselves of their respective curses, with the help of psychic, Keizō (Masanobu Ando) and his associate; brutally honest, blind, psychic girl, Tamao (Mai Kikuchi). The psychic team decide to try to pit the ghouls against one another in a bid to end both curses forever!

While the film is a little cheesy, busy and definitely favours Sadako's screentime over her rival, Kayako, it works well as a crossover due to its fun characters and humorous fight scenes. There are still some eerie scenes reminiscent of both franchises' roots, but also some comedy in there that oddly works with the offbeat, and somewhat ridiculous plot. I also enjoyed Keizō and Tamao's extremely random repartee.

The film is oddly charming and, like all crossovers, has a strange fanfiction-like atmosphere.

[Image: Kadokawa Daiei)

Hani

Manhattan Baby

"Manhattan Baby" aka "L'Occhio del male" (1982, Lucio Fulci, Fulvia Film) is an Italian giallo horror film from 'godfather of gore', Lucio Fulci. That makes it sound good. Don't get your hopes up too much...

The film serves as one of Fulci's weakest in my book, and certainly a far cry from his masterpiece, and a personal favourite of mine; "The House by the Cemetery".

We follow young Susie (Brigitta Boccoli) who, whilst in Egypt with her parents, Professor George Hacker (Christopher Connelly) and Emily Hacker (Laura Lenzi), is given a mysterious amulet by a strange, blind woman. Upon Susie receiving this unusual treasure, her father is struck blind whilst in an unexplored tomb and the family have to return immediately home to New York city.

While her parents fret over George's temporary blindness, Susie shows her new shiny thing to her younger brother, Tommy (Giovanni Frezza), and both siblings begin to fall under the amulet's power. This includes the ability to pop off on adventures to Egypt whenever they like, bring back poisonous creatures, ship off people who annoy them to the desert and summon the shambling undead.... Kids stuff, really.

As well as suffering from being very slow and somewhat dull, the plot jumps randomly from scene to scene making everything hard to follow and becoming a chore to watch. The characters also don't behave quite human enough: no one seems to notice all the missing people for starters!

One thing I did enjoy was watching George walk around with his glasses on over his massive eye bandages. Truly weird.

The film just lacks atmosphere and coherence and not even a zombie bird attack scene can save it from that!

I do love the DVD cover art, though

[Image: Fulvia Film]

 

Hani

Friend Request

"Friend Request" (2016, Simon Verhoeven, Warner Bros., Freestyle Releasing, Wiedemann & Berg Film, SevenPictures Film, Two Oceans Productions) is a supernatural horror centred around social media and a college campus.

Laura (Alycia Debnam-Carey) is a popular girl with over 800 social media friends. She lives off-campus with a group of pals and gets good grades. One day, she receives a friend invite from a reclusive girl in her class, Marina (Liesl Ahlers). Laura accepts the girl's request, seeing that she would become Marina's first friend... She even tries to connect in person. Big mistake. The girl becomes obsessed and takes very public umbridge when she is not invited to Laura's birthday dinner, vowing to get revenge on Laura for slighting her.

Laura gets freaked out and deletes Marina on social media. The next day news comes that Marina has committed suicide. Not just that, but she filmed it and the video has went viral about campus. In her death video, Marina publicly names Laura as the reason for her suicide. Laura's many friends begin to shun her and she soon suspects that she has been cursed...

The film has a good premise. Social media is the latest trend in horror lore, taking over from some of the older evil-technology films including the "Ring" series, etc... It does suffer from some bad scripting, some hammy scenes and a lot of tropes: of course the recluse is a goth, of course she is an orphan...

It's all very by-the-numbers, but is perfect for its target audience - teens who may just be getting into horror. As an established horror fan, it falls a little flat to me, but I don't believe I'm in their intended demographic. Whilst that does make the film suffer a little, it does deliver some good scenes and a strong, if flawed, message about being careful who you add on social media, and how much of yourself you put out there. You just never know what will be used against you.

[Image: Warner Bros., et al]

Hani

976-EVIL

"976-EVIL" (1988, Robert Englund, New Line Cinema) is a film about two cousins who call a mysterious 'horror-scope' number which is actually operated by the devil to trick mortals into turning to the dark side.

Spike (Patrick O'Bryan) is a rebellious teen who likes to strut about in leather jackets, ride his motorcycle, date rocker chicks and play a lot of poker... badly. His little cousin, Hoax (Stephen Geoffreys, best known as Evil Ed from "Fright Night"), is little more nerdy, rides a scooter, wishes he was tougher and lives with his overbearing, fundamentalist Christian mother, Lucy (Sandy Dennis); who wears way too many wigs. Lucy lets her nephew live in a granny flat on her property, but she disapproves of his lifestyle while she also holds his inheritance money hostage.

Both Spike and Hoax come across the phone number and call it. Spike thinks it's all a big joke, and stops calling, but Hoax begins to work out what's going on and seizes the opportunity to pay back his bullies and get a girlfriend at the measly cost of his soul.

This film is in the 'just-bad' category. The scenes are long and drawn out and the action is extremely slow. There's just not enough horror in his horror film. The premise is promising, but there just wan't enough delivered to make it a good 'bad' film. Robert Englund directed this and one other film, "Killer Pad" in 2008. There's definitely a reason for this.

It's cheesy and 80s and has Stephen Geoffreys in it, usually that would check all the boxes for me, but this film is just not one I'd watch again.

[Image: New Line Cinema]

Hani

Oculus

"Oculus" (2013, Mike Flanagan, Blumhouse Productions, WWE Studios, Intrepid Pictures, Relativity Media) is a film about a family destroyed by a creepy antique mirror's presence.

Kaylie Russell (Karen Gillan) has returned to her childhood home with her brother Tim (Brenton Thwaites), who has spent the last 11 years in a psychiatric hospital for killing his father. Kaylie believes that Tim is not responsible for the death of her father, and is convinced that the antique mirror in her parent's study is haunted and the cause of all of their heartache. She intends to prove her brother's innocence once and for all.

We see the film in two timeframes; present day and also Kaylie and Tim's childhood through flashbacks. Slowly, the truth behind the sinister effects of the mirror are unveiled as both adults begin to see ghosts, memories and creepy things.

An old trope done with a modern slant, I thought this film was really well put together and manages to use some old horror cliches without being predictable.

Some of the hallucinations are truly inspired, and the atmosphere is truly very intense with some great camerawork.

The flashbacks also manage not to detract from the film's building dread, and the characters are well written, especially the parents, who we watch slowly come under the dreadful influence of whatever lurks within the looking glass.

It's still freaky to hear Karen Gillan with an American accent, however!

[Image: Intrepid Pictures, et al]

 

Hani