Color Out of Space (2019)

"Color Out of Space" (2019, Richard Stanley, SpectreVision, RLJE Films) is an adaptation of the short story of the same title by H.P. Lovecraft.


Theresa (Joely Richardson) and Nathan Gardner (Nicolas Cage) move their family into a large rural house while Theresa is recovering from cancer. The rural location, however, is meddling with Theresa's work and their kids; Lavinia (Madeleine Arthur), Jack (Julian Hilliard) and Benny (Brendan Meyer) are still adapting to the change. Lavinia also makes the acquaintance of Ward (Elliot Knight), a hydrologist doing a survey of the water table in the area.


One night a brilliantly coloured meteor hits nearby, resulting in a strange light around the area and the eruption of bright and alien vegetation. The family begin to experience further strange behaviours amongst themselves and their animals and things begin to become more and more alien.


A bit of a slow start delivers an eventual impressive pay off as things wind up and up throughout the run time. With some fun and disturbing body horror, a great amount of Lovecraft's work still in there and some beautiful and eerie visuals, the whole film is both entertaining and pretty.


The only factor that didn't seem to work for me was Nicolas Cage as the dad. The whole rest of the family seem to gel so well together as a believable unit but his style and tendency towards OTT acting felt out of place and jarring in what was otherwise a fantastic fantasy horror.

[Image: SpectreVision, et al]

Hani

Gothika

I decided to give this one another shot as part of my Robert Downey Jr. appreciation 'month' (this has so far lasted 3 months and looks not to be ending anytime soon. That man is a gift.). My first and last viewing of this film was at a house party in 2005 and I remember being pretty unimpressed at the time. But I was a cocky 17 year old, so lets see how it fares this time:




"Gothika" (2003, Mathieu Kassovitz, Dark Castle Entertainment, Warner Bros. Pictures, Columbia Pictures) is a film about a psychiatrist who wakes up to find herself a patient in the mental hospital she works at.


Dr. Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) works at Woodward Penitentiary as a Criminal Psychiatrist. She is working with several disturbed and violent women including Chloe Sava (Penélope Cruz). She's also the wife of Dr. Douglas Grey (Charles S. Dutton) who runs the facility, and has an apparent friendship-but-nothing-more relationship with her colleague Dr. Pete Graham (Robert Downey Jr.) - much to the latter's disappointment.


On a stormy night, Dr. Grey crashes her car on a bridge while narrowly missing hitting a young girl standing in the road. When the Dr. approaches the girl to check if she's ok she bursts into flames. Miranda doesn't remember anything else until she wakes up as a patient at Woodward herself and Pete breaks the news to her that she apparently went home and brutally murdered Douglas.


Miranda spends the rest of the film slowly piecing together her memory with the help of a vengeful spirit and some pretty inefficient security in the hospital. What she finds out shakes her worldview and it's probably for the best that she'd already dispatched of Douglas.


The film suffers from a lot of things that aren't its fault. The main one being it's just another early 2000s teen-aimed horror with that annoying blue tinged hue over every scene. But there remain some gaping plot holes (really? Pete just pulls some strings and she's kept at her previous place of work? I don't think so) and just too much going on in the plot. It's like they made a few storyboards and decided to mash it all together; crooked cops, crooked doctors, malpractice, ghosts, murder, torture porn, revenge, amnesia, sexual deviants getting access to patients without (supposedly) anyone knowing, misrepresented mental health patients.... you name it, it's in here. It's a bit of a mess plot-wise.


One of my main gripes with the film is its criminal(-ly insane) underuse of its talented cast. Halle Berry as the protagonist gets a fair share of screen time but most of her time is spent screaming and/or being sedated so her character isn't given much depth outside of her initial intro as overworked psychiatrist who likes to swim. As the film moves on she gets to deliver a more proactive role and starts to do her own sleuthing, but ghostly possession, or not, I doubt that she would be set free at the end of the film, having, you know, murdered a guy! RDJ manages to inject some depth into the character of Pete through that amazing ability he possesses to humanise all of his characters, but essentially Pete is just there to be a hindrance to Miranda's escape and doesn't actually get to do much of note from a plot perspective except moon over Miranda and then act as jailor. Cruz' character is probably the most interesting of the film with a pretty sad story arc but she's more of a plot device than a main character.


But it's not all bad. The film remains watchable, and although it doesn't fit into any good-bad-cheese list it's also not so terrible that you can't sit through it. Whether  you'd actually want to is another question entirely. I can imagine the trope-laden, well trodden ideas behind the film still seeming fresh to the young and uninitiated, and it could certainly serve as a gateway to youngish, thirsty horror fans in the making who haven't yet been enticed by the pleasures of 2001's "Thirteen Ghosts" or 1999's "House on Haunted Hill" which, in my view, deliver a much better late 90s/early 2000s horror vibe.


What can I say? I came for the RDJ factor... and I pretty much stayed around for that, too. It seems 17 year old me and 31 year old me aren't so different after all.

[Image: Warner Bros., et al]

Hani

The Black Room

"The Black Room" (2017, Rolfe Kanefsky, Cleopatra Entertainment) is about demonic possession.

We're introduced to Miss Black (Lin Shaye) and her niece, Stacy (Dominique Swain) who meet their demise in their home thanks to some pervy invisible demons. Later, the house is purchased by a couple, Paul (Luka Hassel) and Jennifer (Natasha Henstridge), who seem happy despite learning about the house having a 'dark past'. Their marriage is put through the wringer, however, when they discover that all their repairmen and Jennifer's gothy sister Karen (Augie Duke) are being picked off and that Paul has become possessed (you can tell by the guyliner and a change in accent) by the horny demonic entity dwelling in their basement.

Sounding more fun than it is, the film misses the mark for me by being overly trashy past the point of funny and essentially culminating the worst of the B-movie catalogue into a 'shock' fest of nudity that loses its shock factor after the first scene.

We are treated to some excellent scoring by Savant that is reminiscent of Charles Bernstein's classic theme for "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and some cheap but psychedelic opening credits, but overall the film felt less like a nod to the trashtastic horrors of the past and more like a bad joke at the audience's expense.

Lin Shaye's character's job seems to be limited to speaking sternly to demons while being overall ineffectual and our other main characters are generally unlikeable.

While some of the kill scenes are entertaining, the film's odd atmosphere was distracting and it felt kind of shallow. Better B-movies, and probably pornos,  have done this stuff before already, and with more success.

With nipple twisting, wandering giant red hands, killer demonic penises, body fluids galore and a flashback scene that felt like something found on the cutting room floor of The Mighty Boosh, this trashy film felt a bit lacklustre and left me feeling more grimy than entertained.

It did leave me wondering, however, if it would still be classed as cheating if you both think you're having relations with your other half but it's actually a pervy invisible demon?

[Image: Cleopatra Entertainment]

Hani 

Truth or Dare

"Truth or Dare" (2018, Jeff Wadlow, Blumhouse Productions) is a fairly solid college horror.

After a shocking opening scene we are introduced to Olivia (Lucy Hale), Lucas (Tyler Posey), Markie (Violett Beane), Brad (Hayden Szeto), Tyson (Nolan Gerard Funk) and Penelope (Sophia Taylor Ali) who are a group of college kids heading out on their final Spring Break holiday together. The group travel to Mexico where we are treated to their drunken Instagram story montage before we join them in a bar/nightclub. By this point we have established the characters' personalities be they goody-two-shoes like Olivia, or a bit of a knob like Tyson.

Feeling a little jealous of her friends' romantic lives, Olivia starts chatting to a guy at the bar (Landon Liboiron) after he intervenes when a college acquaintance named Ronnie (Sam Lerner), won't take no for an answer. Upon introducing himself as Carter the guy invites Olivia and her friends to a secluded building for an after party. Desperate to prove herself to be fun, Olivia persuades her friends and, somehow also Ronnie, to go. The group begin to play a game of Truth or Dare which suddenly escalates when Carter announces that he has tricked them all to begin playing as his own dare. He warns them that they cannot break the rules and leaves the confused and stunned group.

After returning home, Olivia and the others begin to experience strange occurrences and it soon becomes evident that Carter was not lying and they really are caught in a life or death game that won't end...

A pretty grim, if simple, premise that manages to be intriguing and entertaining. The characters are mostly unlikeable, but in that charming horror film way that we're all accustomed to. As the game progresses we get to learn a little more about each person's secrets as well as how far they are willing to go in order to remain alive.

The effects and death scenes are excellently portrayed with the odd 'snapchat filter' face of those possessed by the game managing to be both creepy and oddly subtle. Each death has a quality of creativity similar to the "Final Destination" films, and there were times I even found myself wincing.

For a film I'd anticipated to be one of the common disposable college horror films, it actually delivered a pretty solid and even somewhat thoughtful piece which evaluated the selfishness of the characters as well as entertained me with some good ol' gruesome antics. Of course the story behind the game felt a little cheesy, but what's a horror film without some cheese?

[Image: Blumhouse Productions]

Hani

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday

"Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday" (1993, Adam Marcus, New Line Cinema) is the ninth film in the franchise, which, including "Freddy vs Jason" and the 2009 reboot, now contains twelve films in total. It is also not the first in the list to claim to be the "final" (see 1984's "The Final Chapter").


The oft resurrected, hockey-masked antagonist, Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder), is killed by an FBI operation. Once in the morgue, however, the wiley undead killer manages to possess the coroner and go on a rampage through the town, jumping from body to body in the process. Hunting him down is bounty hunter, Creighton Duke (Steven Williams), who believes that someone of Jason's bloodline can be the key to his final demise. If he's right, however, they could also be the key to Jason resurrecting himself in a brand new body....


A schlocky film that doesn't waste any time with a lot of character building and goes straight into the gore and killings. It's chock full of hints to other franchises too with an Evil Dead Necronomicon at Camp Crystal Lake which has since been explained as an Easter Egg justification for Jason's strength and longevity, and, of course, a small cameo from Freddy Krueger... well, part of him, anyway, as a lead-in towards the 2003 film.


It's a definite B-movie sequel with lots of cheesy dialog, some scenes that drag on and a meandering plot that does not always navigate plot holes well. We also, obviously, miss our physical Jason-stalking as he possesses others throughout the film. While the gore is fun and the characters ridiculous enough to be entertaining, the film as a whole is definitely not one of the better Friday entries.

[Image: New Line Cinema]

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

Ava's Possessions

"Ava's Possessions" (2015, Jordan Galland, ODD NY, Off Hollywood Pictures, Ravenous Films, Traction Media, Momentum Pictures) is a horror comedy about a support and rehabilitation group for people who have been possessed.

Ava (Louisa Krause) was possessed by a demon called Naphula for 28 days, and during that time she did some bad stuff. Now demon-free (but not demon-proof) Ava has to attend a therapy group to avoid jail time. Her friends and family are having a hard time forgiving her for the demon's behaviour, despite knowing that she was not in control of her faculties during that period. Ava tries to remember her missing 28 days and avoid the demon which is still lurking around her trying to find a way back in, but she might not like what she finds out and her attempts to help a friend may cause more trouble.

It's an interesting concept; the post-possession movie. What happens after the exorcism? Very creative. Whilst amusing, I'm not convinced by the 'comedy' description of the film, however. as I didn't find it particularly funny, but I'll admit it's satirical and it touches on some dark stuff. The strong parallels drawn with the demons of alcoholism or substance abuse are really quite clever.

The premise is good, but the plot gets bogged down too much in other sidelines and loses its track. Low budget and cheesy, but not gory, the film is very different to what I had anticipated. It's ok, but it could have been more of a game-changer, had the story had more clarity.

[Image: Momentum Pictures, et al]

Hani

Finders Keepers

"Finders Keepers" (2014, Alexander Yellen, HFD Productions) is an evil doll/possession movie based in a large old American house.

Alyson (Jaime Pressly) is a single mother who moves herself and her daughter, Claire (Kylie Rogers), into a large old house with a dark past so that she can focus on her writing. Claire is sad to be leaving her old home and school behind and, upon finding a creepy old doll left behind by the previous home owners, becomes extremely attached to it to the point where she seems like a completely different kid. In fact, is the doll possibly more than just a doll?

Evil dolls are a popular theme again, it seems. And Lilith the doll is pretty creepy looking to give it credit. She's a bit underutilised, however, with very few creepy doll scenes. The main issue is, however, that the film doesn't build up much sympathy with the characters. Claire's pretty upset at moving home, and I can appreciate that, but they made her come across as a bit of a brat before she even became possessed and it's a shame because Rogers did an excellent job otherwise. Jaime Pressly was pretty believable in her role as concerned parent also.

The film wavers a bit in plot and rules with the doll getting tossed about a fair bit without harming Claire, but then becoming voodoo doll-ish as and when it suits. And the plot twists rely on a few great leaps in logic that just don't add up. The ending is pretty unsatisfying also, leaving a lot of unanswered questions.

The film has gore, but isn't particularly scary, losing a lot of creep factor through being a tad too predictable. In the main, it's a good effort, but not one I'd rewatch in a hurry.

[Image: HFD Productions, Syfy]

Hani

The Witch

"The Witch" (2016, Robert Eggers, Parts and Labour, Rooks Nest Entertainment, RT Features) is an atmospheric horror set in 17th Century New England and centred around a very unlucky family.

William (Ralph Ineson) is excommunicated and banished from his puritan Christian plantation, along with his family; wife, Katherine (Kate Dickie), daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), son Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw) and twins Mercy and Jonas (Ellie Grainger and Lucas Dawson). They set up home at a rough farm and Katherine gives birth to a boy called Sam. The infant disappears whilst Thomasin is playing with him and the disappearance is blamed upon "the witch of the wood". But there really is something lurking in the shadows and, as the unlucky family begin pointing fingers at each other screaming witchcraft, something is tearing them apart.

Oh, and the twins claim to be able to speak to the black goat called Philip.

A slow burning film with a good atmosphere and realistic, harsh depictions of the hardships of the puritan era. The language can be quite difficult to stay in tune with and, although the horror elements are really good, they are relatively scarce and the film is certainly not jumpy. But the tale is grim and the fear and grief of William and his family is palpable. It really explores some of the darker themes of humanity and the little doocots we put ourselves in.

The scenery, costumes and sound design are all absolutely spot on and bring a sense of period drama to the film. The film felt old and it had a lot to say. I expect more great things to come from Mr. Eggers, certainly. I was left with an almost shell-shocked feeling towards the end of the film which is a good sign, but as a whole it wasn't at all what I'd expected and I feel it was more thought-provoking and unsettling than 'scary'.

[Image: Rooks Nest Entertainment, et al]

Hani

We are still here

"We are still here" (2015, Ted Geoghegan, Snowfort Pictures, Dark Sky Films) is an American haunted house film which was inspired by the works of Lucio Fulci, and has a certain Lovecraftian atmosphere about it.

It's 1979 and Paul (Andrew Sensenig) and Anne (Barbara Crampton) have moved to a new, remote house away from their busy city home after the untimely death of their son, Bobby, in a car accident. Anne feels that Bobby's spirit is still with them and she's becoming unsettled by this. In an attempt to settle themselves, they invite their friends, May (Lisa Marie) and Jacob (Larry Fessenden), who are self professed psychics, over to the house to contact Bobby. As things unwind further and more and more spooky occurrences take place, it becomes evident that there is a lot more to this house than previously imagined...

A fantastic film which keeps a steady, haunting pace and lets you in on the plot nicely as it thickens. The effects are fantastic in their gore and their surprise factor, with some very effective jump scares which are not too tropey. The scares are genuine and the characters are likeable, three dimensional and captivating. You begin to care about what's going on. And finally, an on-screen possession outside of an episode of "Supernatural" which felt scary!

My hat's off for this film, I genuinely loved it.

[Image: Snowfort Pictures]

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

The Asylum

 "The Asylum" aka "Exeter" and "Backmask"  (2015, Marcus Nispel, Studio Canal releasing) is one of the films I missed by not attending Glasgow Fright Fest earlier this year. And I have to say, I must be missing something because I didn't think it was really anything special, but I seem to be in the minority here!

We open to a woman committing suicide before we are introduced to the "Exeter School for the feeble minded", an asylum which has been abandoned for some time. The place is about to be renovated by Father Conway (Stephen Lang), but his young friend, Patrick (Kelly Blatz), puts a stopper in the works by being unable to convince his pals not to have a big ol' party in the place. Knowing Exeter School has a dark past, the gang of course decide to play some vinyl backwards and play "light as a feather, stiff as a board", while also drinking, shagging and taking some drugs.... And this brings some demons to the surface who then go all "Evil Dead" on their asses by possessing them one after another.

Now let's get this straight, there are some good things going on in this film. It's a good setting, the kill scenes are admirably gory, very realistic and creative, the demonic effects are effective and the acting is good enough. My main problem with this film was that I was bored and felt like I was watching a remake of several other possession movies merged together.

Whilst it's nigh on impossible to make a possession movie without paying coincidental (or completely on purpose) homage to "The Exorcist", this film felt like they'd also lifted chunks of scene from "Evil Dead", "Night of the Demons" and many other possessed-teen films. It was way too tropey to fully appreciate and played out as a remake, despite not actually being one...

All in all, it's a perfectly serviceable horror film and there's nothing at all wrong with it, it's just not anything new or special. The fact that people are raving about it online kind of indicates to me more that we've had a serious lack of new and original horror recently!

[Image: Studio Canal Releasing]

 

Hani

 

Da Possessed

"Da Possessed" (2014, Joyce Bernal, Star Cinema, Regal Entertainment, Regal Films) is a Filipino horror comedy and is actually a remake of an Indian movie called "Muni 2: Kanchana".

Ramon (Vhong Navarro) is a big scaredy cat. He lives at home with his over-protective mother, brother, sister-in-law and their children. He sleeps at night in the same bed as his mother because he is so scared of everything.

When his mother's house is in danger of being repossessed because she cannot keep up with the payments, Ramon gets a job as a landscape artist for a rich tycoon. Ramon's shift boss is the tycoon's beautiful daughter, Anna (Solenn Heussaff) - who's main skills are looking sultry, doing bad cartwheels and flashing her knickers -, who takes a shine to Ramon.

In his attempts to impress Anna, Ramon unwittingly digs up the graves of three people who were killed unfairly and he and his family are then haunted by the unrestful spirits. The spirits take turns possessing Ramon's body as they try to avenge their killer, with mischevious consequences.

A strange film that is pretty standard plot fayre, and yet has some quirky characters and ridiculous situations. For me, it was something a little different due to my unfamiliarity with Filipino films in general, but at its core it's a pretty standard, if oddly charming, horror comedy.

I did enjoy the end scenes, however, which appealed to my sense of humour.

A little ridiculous, but not the strangest film I've seen! It could have done with being a little shorter, however...

[Image: Star Cinema & Regal Films]

Hani 

Dolly Dearest

"Dolly Dearest" (1992, Maria Lease, Patriot Pictures, Channeler Enterprises, Trimark Pictures, Image Organization) is a killer doll movie.

The Wade family move to Mexico because of father, Elliot (Sam Bottoms)'s new job as the operations manager of the Dolly Dearest Factory. Unbeknownst to them, a cult's burial ground has recently been unearthed and an evil spirit has escaped, finding refuge inside the bodies of abandoned dolls within the factory's stockroom. When Elliot's daughter, Jessica (Candace Hutson), finds the dolls she is allowed to keep one. Soon, Jessie and her new little friend are running amok, taking down anyone in their way and behaving altogether very strangely.

A weird film that is partly Child's Play and partly the Omen. Both the doll and the little girl are supremely creepy and while Chucky was decidedly more animated, Dolly enjoys some effective shots and prehensile, plastic fingers. I didn't dislike this movie. It is a little slow moving, but on the whole it delivers an average amount of action. Whilst it's decidedly not scary, and is very predictable, it's a good crappy horror film.

[Image: Trimark Pictures, et al]

Hani

Mirrors

"Mirrors" (2008, Alexandre Aja, Regency Enterprises, New Regency, 20th Century Fox) is a jump-scare horror about what lurks on the other side of the looking glass.

Ben (Kiefer Sutherland) becomes the new security guard at an old shutdown department store which had previously suffered a horrific fire. He's an ex-cop, ex-husband and father of one son called Mikey.

It doesn't take long for Ben to discover what his recently deceased predecessor had also known, there's something inside those suspiciously well polished mirrors within that abandoned, spooky, fire-gutted building. And whatever is in there wants him for something. Naturally, he does some digging and there's a perfectly logical and spooky reason behind it all.

Fun, gory and quite atmospheric, the OTT death scenes actually lend rather well to this otherwise creepy premise.

Despite obviously relying on jump scares, gory shock effects and people's irrational fears for cheap thrills, the film benefits from a good cast, clever effects and a chilling ending. The hand prints on the other side of the glass are truly freaky.

I really enjoyed it, and I have to admit I'd avoided this one for years thinking it to be yet another modern jump-scare romp! It's certainly worthy of a spin.

[Image: New Regency & 20th Century Fox]

Hani

Clown

"Clown" (2014, Jon Watts, Cross Creek Pictures, Vertebra Films, PS 260, Zed Filmworks, Eli Roth) is about a father (Andy Powers) who finds an old clown costume in a house he is selling and wears it to his son's birthday party so as not to disappoint him when the real clown cancels.

But, when he tries to remove the costume, it won't budge, having fused to his skin. Every attempt to remove it fails, even when his wife uses some tools to remove the nose.... He seeks the help of Karlsson (Peter Stormare), who tells him that it is not a clown suit, but the skin of a child-eating clown-like demon that is now possessing him.

I liked this film. At only 1hr 40 minutes long it doesn't outstay its welcome and the acting, special effects are story are all excellent. It's also very well paced and suitably dark.

There's some gore and some tropes, but not so many that I'd complain, and some nice demon book imagery. This film also doesn't shy away from some disturbing scenes involving scary clowns, sharp objects and children. so be warned.

I also really, really appreciated the subtle changes in the look of the suit as the film progressed as it became less of an outfit and more skin like. Very well put together.

I recommend.

[image: Cross Creek Pictures]

Hani

Annabelle

"Annabelle" (2014, John R. Leonetti, New Line Cinema, Atomic Monster, The Safran Company, Warner Bros. Pictures) is the follow up to "The Conjuring", this time focussing solely on Annabelle, the possessed doll.

We open the same way as we do on the film's predecessor, with the young nursing students explaining to Ed and Lorraine Warren about their dealings with the creepy doll.

But, the story isn't focussing on their incident, Annabelle's previous targets were John and Mia Form. A young professional couple, expecting their first child. John (Ward Horton) presents his wife, Mia (Annabelle Wallis), with the doll; a rare specimen for her rather large and daunting collection of creepy-ass dolls. Man, was her kid going to be traumatised!

It isn't long before creepy stuff begins. Firstly, the house is broken into by two freaky people, and they attack Mia. It transpires that the assailants are Annabelle (the girl next door) and her boyfriend, who were members of a Satanic Cult. Believing the doll, which featured in the attack, to be tainted, they throw her away. But, like Chucky, she doesn't like that and comes back...

The Forms move house to an apartment block to escape the events, but they just can't get away from the doll which finds them there. The doll inherits the moniker Annabelle after the murderous young girl (what a nice momento) and Mia, feeling safe in her new surroundings, decides to keep her....

It isn't long before the doll begins to manifest creepy happenings and other inanimate objects start being poltergeisty.

They seek help from the church and from a nice lady called Evelyn (Alfre Woodard). But the doll is after something more sinister than just scaring a few people...

With some nice jumpy bits and a good bill of characters that you can build a rapport with, this is actually a pretty good scary doll flick!

It doens't go all Chucky on us either, Annabelle is not a scuttling little maniac with a knife, she is the hiding place of something sinister.

I really haven't got anything bad to say about this film. It takes a lot of inspiration from classics, and it may not be a groundbreaking piece of horror cinema, but it does the job and it does it with class.

Just remember, spooky dollies aren't everyone's cup of tea.

[Image: New Line Cinema, et al]

Hani

The Evil Dead

"The Evil Dead" (1981, Sam Raimi, Renaissance Pictures, New Line Cinema) is the entry level cult horror B-movie masterpiece by Sam Raimi and the main reason that both Raimi and Bruce Campbell are household names.

A group of college students head out to spend the weekend at a cabin in the woods. When they get there they find the cabin is run-down and creepy. I love the scene with the swinging bench, it's very effective.

While investigating their new surroundings, they come across an audio player with a tape recording and a creepy old book which looks to be bound in human skin.

Being adventurous young people, they listen to the tape recording and accidentally release the demonic spirits (aka Deadites) into the woods. The demons then take turns possessing the teens and traumatising them or killing them in fantastically b-movie ways.

The most serious of the series, The Evil Dead remains one of my favourite horror films to date.
I recommend reading Bruce Campbell's book, "If Chins Could Kill" to get more behind the scenes appreciation of how hard those guys worked to make this film!

Disturbing and gross, with homemade special effects, crafty camera work, sheer determination and the ability to talk his friends into landing face down in muddy puddles and spend days in an old derelict shack making monstrous noises and giggling maniacally, Raimi created the film that would make him a horror legend and earn his reputation as a director. And it would kick start the movie career of one of my favourite horror stars, Bruce Campbell, earning him a dedicated fanbase of nutjobs.

Milk oozing deadites for the win!

[Image: Renaissance Pictures]

 

Hani

Insidious Chapter 2

"Insidious Chapter 2" (2013, James Wan, IM Global, Entertainment One, Blumhouse Productions, Film Disctrict, Stage 6 Films) is the sequel to Insidious (2011).

We continue the Lambert family's story, both after and prior to the first film's events with Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson and Barbara Hershey reprising their roles.

It would seem that the Lamberts all share some tenuous links to the ghostly realm, given the events of this film. 

A completely unnecessary sequel to a film that, I felt, lost its way in the last hour. Insidious 2 seems more inadvertently funny than scary. Acting more as a filler to the missing information from the first film, the plot seems cobbled together and disjointed. It almost feels as if someone had written a Fanfic of Insidious and then they decided to turn that into the sequel.

That's not to say that it's not entertaining. The opening sequence is great fun, the retro credits and legend are excellent! The effects are good and the acting is good. There's even a couple of effective jump scares.

The main problem is the jumpy-ass plot and the lack of good scares. In fact the only tense scene for me involved the baby and the best scene was the 'little girl' ghost who has an excellent parting line to our ghost hunting comedy duo, Specs and Tucker.

The explanation of the history of the ghost was convoluted and didn't add much to the plot, and aside from some entertaining nudge-nudge-wink-wink link ups between the first film and internal scenes, it all played out a little flat.

Not to mention the Scooby Doo ending which was worthy of the 'Ghostfacers' from Supernatural!

Fun but not in the horror way. If you want to enjoy some fresh work from James Wan watch "The Conjuring" instead.

[Image: Blumhouse Productions, Film Disctrict, Stage 6 Films]

 

Hani

The Possession

"The Possession" (2012, Ole Bornedal, Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert, Lionsgate, Ghost House Pictures, North Box Productions) is a supernatural horror about a little girl who buys and opens a creepy old dybbuk box and is then possessed by what's inside.

A fun little flick with a creepy and atmospheric build up, slightly ruined by showing too much at the end. Throughout the whole film we never truly see what was in the box and we can never properly hear what it's saying to  young Emily (Natasha Calis), which is brilliantly creepy, unfortunately, they seemed to have a special effects budget and were hell-bent on blowing it all in the end, so...

Reminiscent of "Candyman" for the visual effects and "The Exorcist" for the theming, but with Judaism as the focus religion in place of Catholicism. 

The acting is great, especially that of the young girls Emily and her older sister Hannah (Madison Davenport). Also, as much as I kind of hated the ex-wife character, Stephanie (Kyra Sedgwick), you don't get much history on the relationship problems outside of Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) working too much away from home and being distant, so maybe Clyde deserved all the hate.

And what's not to love about Jeffrey Dean Morgan? He's a handsome man, plays father to Sam and Dean Winchester in "Supernatural" and leads a happy band of heroic miscreants in "The Losers".

All in all, it's not the scariest thing I've seen recently and it plays too much to the horror-tropes to be anything more than yet another exorcism film, but it's eloquently put together, well-paced and generally a good film.

[Image: Lionsgate]

Hani