Doctor Sleep

"Doctor Sleep" (2019, Mike Flanagan, Intrepid Pictures, Vertigo Entertainment, Warner Bros. Pictures) is the film adaptation of Stephen King's 2013 follow up to his novel, "The Shining". It's also a sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1980 classic film adaptation of "The Shining".

Mike Flanagan continues to impress with his spooky style and crafting. As a big fan of both The Shining and also the novel of "Doctor Sleep" itself, I was pleased to thoroughly enjoy this film.

Danny Torrance (Roger Dale Floyd) and his mother Wendy (Alex Essoe) move to Florida after the events at the Overlook Hotel. Danny is deeply affected by what he saw and learned in the Rocky Mountains, but he's also being dogged by the hungry spectres of the hotel who have followed he and his mother. Luckily, the spectre of Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly) is also still around and with his help, Danny is able to find a way to lock the Overlook's ghosts away.

Years pass and we find Danny (Ewan McGregor), now "Dan", has followed his father's footsteps and become an unemployed alcoholic with anger issues. But when he is contacted through the Shining by a young girl called Abra (Kyliegh Curran) who believes that she and other children with the gift are in danger at the hands of the devious True Knot gang lead by Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), he finds himself and his friend, Billy Freeman (Cliff Curtis) are the only ones able to offer their help.

It's a great tale and the film is perfectly cast, with possibly the exception of Jack Torrance who is a smidge unconvincing as a young Jack Nicholson. Essoe, however, is fantastic as Wendy without feeling too much like an impersonation. Carl Lumbly also brings Hallorann back to the screen exceptionally.

McGregor gives his usual great performance and delivers Dan Torrance right from the pages of the book. Kyliegh Curran also gives a strong performance throughout giving Abra the right level of spunk and optimism.

Our villains are perfectly villainous. Rose the Hat is page perfect, and manages to be monstrous but also demonstrates her own misguided determination to maintain her 'family'. The True Knot are fabulously brought to life and perfectly cast. It's almost a shame we don't get to know them better but the screen time we get with them is fun, dark and twisted .

The recreation of the interior of the Overlook is lovingly done and stands extremely well as a side to side comparison with Kubrick's film. The ghosts also are great fun and recreated with a fan's eye. Some scenes in the exterior of the hotel are a little less shiny, but overall don't mar the film.

All in all, I found this film to be exactly what I would have asked for. I look forward to it being released with some behind the scenes or documentary footage.

[Image: Intrepid Pictures, et al]

Hani

The Beyond

"The Beyond" (1981, Lucio Fulci, Fulvia Film) is a supernatural horror.

Liza ( Catriona MacColl) inherits the defunct Seven Doors Hotel in Louisiana and plans to reopen it. Unbeknownst to her. an angry mob had killed a suspected warlock in the hotel in the 1920s as he completed a disturbing painting which they believed would open a doorway to death.

Liza is determined to push on with her renovation of the hotel and dismisses any warnings telling her to stop; be they from the creepy blind chick, Emily (Cinzia Monreale), or the sudden, gruesome death of her plumber, Joe (Giovanni De Nava) during maintenance work in the hotel's basement. As things begin to get weird, Liza seeks help from Dr. McCabe (David Warbeck) who believes that there must be a logical explanation for all the weirdness. Much to their disappointment, they are soon proved wrong...

A fun, juicy Fulci classic that brings a lot of beautiful, dark imagery punctuated with a lot of gore and an equal amount of weird dialogue and somewhat meandering plot. We are also treated to the longest, most intense scene about a man's face being devoured by a mixture of real and puppet tarantulas ever. Complete with odd, chirpy sound effects!

The plot can be fairly incoherent and our characters are prone to bad decision making... The dead are coming back to life? Let's hide in the hospital morgue! But any fan of Lucio Fulci in general will probably find this film entertaining and worthy of  a watch. If you're feeling really keen you could enjoy the full Gates of Hell Trilogy and team this film up with its 1980 forerunner "City of the Living Dead" and its classy little sister (and personal favourite of mine) "The House by the Cemetery" (1981).

[Image: Fulvia Films]

Hani

Hell House LLC 2

"Hell House LLC 2: The Abaddon Hotel" (2018, Stephen Cognetti, Cognetti Films) is the sequel to 2016's found footage jump-fest, "Hell House LLC".

I personally really enjoyed the original film and you can find my thoughts on it here.

Following on from the events of the first film which covered a documentary team investigating the supposed technical issues which caused tragedy at the opening night of popular Halloween Haunt, Hell House, at the Abaddon hotel in 2009, the second film focuses on the public's continued curiosity of the cause of the tragedy.

Having reached some level of infamy after the documentary was released, Mitchell (Vasile Flutur) ventures back into the Abaddon Hotel after investigative journalist, Jessica Fox (Jillian Geurts), and her team receive an anonymous tip off of breakthrough evidence within the abandoned building. Despite Mitchell's misgivings they head back inside and discover some more of the truth behind the hotel's dark presence.

The familiar surroundings and creation of continuity are very effective and the film manages to continue the story in a believable way, demonstrating that the documentary inspired several wannabe ghost hunters to venture into the hotel with their camera phones and meet some unfortunate circumstances.

A lot of the jump scares are familiar, too, but this isn't to the detriment of the film and actually really pleased me as a viewer. The hotel doesn't change the rules for the sequel, it just reveals more of its nature to the camera. There are one or two elements where we are shown perhaps too much compared to the first film where a lot of the scares were in the subtlety of the horror, but on the whole the sequel delivers a lot of the same level of creep that the first did.

In the pattern of most sequels, however, the film does not quite meet the quality of the original and the characters and actors do not quite convey the same natural relationships and repartee that the original cast did. Things do sometimes feel a little more obviously acted. Although some of these scenes took me out of the story momentarily, the action within the hotel would quickly draw me back in.

The film delivers many more twists than the first and some of the revelations are delivered at a fast pace. A good few of these are succinct and creative, but the volume of them did lose some of the ingenuity and simplicity of the original plot. The story flow of the sequel is also less linear than the original and demands a little more effort from the viewer to keep things in place.

All in all, "Hell House LLC: The Abaddon Hotel" delivers an effective sequel that continues the story from the first film and sets up a comfortable starting place for more in the series. Although it didn't feel as immersive as the original, I certainly enjoyed it and look forward to a third.

[Image: Cognetti Films]

Bloody New Year

"Bloody New Year" aka "Timewarp Terror" (1987, Norman J. Warren, Lazer Entertainment, Target International) is a British New Year themed, supernatural horror movie.

A group of unruly friends find their way onto a strange island which is trapped in a time-loop where it is always New Year's Eve 1959.

A fun premise that suffers from just too much going on. Is it about evil science experiments? Is it about ghosts? Is it about zombies? Is it about a British version of The Shining? The answer? Apparently all of the above.

Our group of pals are pretty unlikable and our ghostly hotel could have done with a bit more build up but all in all the film is entertaining for its 50s party atmosphere. The film is pretty silly and suffers from some directionless story-telling, but if you're looking a cheesy late-night New Year's romp, then look no further.

[Image: Lazer Entertainment, et al]

Hani

Hell House LLC

"Hell House LLC" (2016, Stephen Cognetti, Cognetti Films) is a found footage mock-umentary film set in a Halloween haunt.

The film circulates around a film crew trying to unravel the mystery of a tragedy which struck a haunted house in an abandoned hotel. Although authorities reported a 'malfunction' as the cause of the panic, survivor footage and accounts have made it seem like something more sinister happened. When someone steps forward as a witness who was involved in the tragedy, along with a lot of new, unseen footage, the crew think they might be on the verge of a breakthrough. We follow the story of the group of haunters setting up shop in the small town just outside of New York city and see first hand the events as they unfolded.

I'm not the biggest fan of found footage as a rule. The jumpy camera style gives me motion sickness and often the acting is unnatural and distracting. But, "Hell House LLC" manages to be dark, entertaining and filled with effective jump scares. The camera motions are very typical of a found-footage flick, but the effective screen cutting, styling and overall storytelling keep the viewer engaged and stop it from becoming boring.

The characters are well evolved and a good sense of camaraderie (and animosity) is built up effectively. Some of the jump scares are pretty by-the-book, but these are well paced and nicely shot. There are a few, however, that actually elicited a jump from me and the use of one of the haunt props is extremely well done. It is definitely this that made the film stand out for me and has brought it into my annual Halloween watch list.

The film delivers an effective scare fest and neat plot twist that creates a great Halloween party atmosphere. And while the plot isn't exactly breaking any new ground, it does inject the jump-scare, found footage genre with a fun, atmospheric entry.

[Image: Cognetti Films]

Hani

The Shining

"The Shining" (1980, Stanley Kubrick, Warner Bros., Peregrine Productions, Producers Circle) is one of my all-time favourites. I love the book, but then again, it's Stephen King, what's not to like? It's a truly creepy read, and if you haven't already, I highly recommend!

Despite not being particularly true to the novel, Kubrick's film is an outstanding piece of cinema, and really a film that everyone should see at least once.

With a disturbing score that is reminiscent of Italian horror films such as "Suspiria", where a harrowing, off-key backing track really builds tension and unease! It really sets my teeth on edge, which is just how Jack is feeling!

Struggling novelist, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) has taken a job as an off-season, live-in caretaker of the salubrious and remote mountain hotel, The Overlook Hotel. He, his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and their son Danny (Danny Lloyd) move in and settle in for a long winter.

Danny and his 'imaginary friend' Tony are not keen on the hotel, but he plays on regardless, despite being troubled by terrible visions of the hotel's bloody past.

Wendy carries on doing Jack's job while Jack, who is becoming increasingly 'grouchy' as the days tick on, sits in the large main hall and writes.

But soon Jack's grouchiness is leaning more into insanity as the bloody events of the hotel's past seem destined to repeat again and again, "forever and ever and... ever..."

A creepy film which has given me the shivers in large hotels since the tender age of six (when I first watched it), it is responsible for many an iconic scene including the creepy Grady twins and that wonderful "Here's Johnny!" moment.

Nicholson is in his element playing the creepy, ever maddening husband, while poor Shelley Duvall plays the traumatised wife and mother to a tee!

Gripping but relatively quiet, until Jack gets his axe that is, it is a film that is both extremely late 70s, early 80s in telling and in dress sense, but it still remains an effective piece that can thrill and shock viewers to this day.

[Image: Warner Bros.]

 

Hani

1408

"1408" (2007, Mikael Håfström, Dimension Films, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) is a haunted hotel room film based on the book of the same name by Stephen King. This is a King book I haven't yet got to reading, but it's on my list, and has just moved swiftly up the list thanks to this film!

Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is a sceptical writer who travels around America staying in supposedly haunted hotel rooms and giving them shining, ghost-filled reviews in his cheap thrill books. He has come to live this way after the death of his daughter, Katie (Jasmine Jessica Anthony) and the resulting separation from his wife, Lily (Mary McCormack). He's lost his drive to write real books and is lost.

His PO box is always overflowing with invites and flyers from Haunted Hotel owners, but there's one hotel in New York that he feels compelled to visit after receiving an anonymous flyer, The Dolphin Hotel.

He travels to New York and tries to check into room 1408. The hotel's manager, Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson) attempts several times to dissuade Mike from staying in that room, offering him bribes and free evidence. But Mike is determined, and is eventually given the keys. Olin takes him to the floor, but not the room, and warns him that over 56 people have died inside 1408 and no one has lasted more than an hour.

Mike sits in the room for a while, telling his tape recorder about the shabby, boring appearance of the room, its drab decor and lack of any supernatural phenomenon. And then, the room makes with the scary!

The film is quite intense, elegant and jumpy. The scares flip smoothly from psychological to 'boo' moments and Cusack gives his usual high level of character acting for the tense surroundings. Mike begins as a sceptic, slowly slides into intrigued and shocked, falls into terror and tries to bounce back into control. It's a good rollercoaster effect and Cusack pulls it off brilliantly.

The version I watched was the Director's cut which has the, what I like to call, 'British Audience Ending'; we're rarely upset with a sad, brutal ending. The 'real' ending, if you like, was quite a lot different, due to negative responses at test screenings. I haven't actually seen this ending so can't really offer comparison, but I really liked the ending in this one and thought it fitted with King's usual story telling very well.

I think this film is quite classy for the modern horror as it manages to entertain and scare its audiences with no sex. Not that I don't love a good sleazy 80s slasher, but I'm finding that a lot of modern horror films feel the need to have boobs and torture to the max and it's getting boring. What I liked about "1408" was that it's scary and has some gore and grisly bits (there is a very good scene with a blue light), jumps and thrills without pandering to the 'Saw'-seekers.

Keeping with King's recurring theme of  'places that are just wrong' "1408" is more than a haunted hotel story, and the evil cannot be truly beaten. Really worth watching.

Image: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Hani