Annabelle Creation

You ever have those moments when you find yourself looking at something you know you shouldn't because it will make it very difficult to fall asleep or use the potty in the middle of the night?  Horror films involving dolls have that effect on me.   There is just something about the soulless eyes of a doll that make me think if I look at it long enough, its going to say "Hi my names Chucky!", then he jumps up and starts smacking my face like Batman smacking Robin.

I was one of the few people who enjoyed the first Annabelle movie because it provided creepy-doll-pee-my-pants scares, but I acknowledged it had major flaws.  What really separated the first Annabelle movie from the second is the change from using jump scares to using the far more effective slow burn scares.  At different times of the movie I found myself plugging my ears like I was at a nickelback concert, because that devil-doll was running all about the house so quickly I could never identify where she was at, and minutes would go by before I found any resolution.  Slow burn scares are far more effective because they build up a sense of dread for the viewer, and provide more time to get emotionally involved with the characters so when they kick the bucket you're far more horrified.

Annabelle Creation is a part of a promising cinematic universe that, in my opinion, rivals other more popular universes such as Marvel or DC.  I haven't seen the NUN yet, but if this movie is any indicator where the series is going then I'm already psyched!

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

Split

 

For as long as I can remember, I have been a fan of M. Night's films.  Like a loyal family member I felt like I was there for him when nobody else was, like going to see the mediocre big budget films that made him one of the jokes of Hollywood.  It became so bad that I could hear people groan in the theater when they witnessed a trailer for a movie that is written/produced/directed by that man, and that happened with "The visit" as well... until the movie was released.  Now it seems like my man M. Night has found his groove again with a solid horror/thriller that is even better than his comeback  film from a couple years earlier.

Much like the lovechild between Psycho and Red Dragon, this movie is a psychological horror and sometimes body horror film that tells the story of a man with Disociative Identity Disorder (DID) who abducts three girls and holds them in his creepy cell as food until his new 24th personality emerges.  This 24th alter known as the "beast" is brought up several times as the movie progresses as this personality that's going to  eat the girls as soon as he arrives.  With that in mind, the tension in the movie builds and builds for Anya and the other girls as they strive to find a way out by working with some of the abductor's personalities while avoiding the dangerous ones.

James McAvoy as the villain with DID and Anya as the final girl carry this movie and steal every scene they're in.  I'm not going to give anything away, but lets just say that many of the other people are a means to an end, and are merely those characters in any horror film that make stupid decisions that people (like me) find joy in witnessing.  Go see this movie, and beware the beast!

4/5 stars

Hush

Ever wanted to know what could make the premise of a home invasion film creepier?  Make the homeowner a deaf girl.  Living the solitary life as a writer in the middle of the woods, during the course of one night Maddie receives a visit from a mysterious man wanting to kill her. What makes this movie so interesting is it’s (mostly) told from the perspective of a person who can’t hear.  This means there isn’t any creepy music building up the movie’s tension, or a lot of long conversations between characters except through ASL.   Because the main character was deaf, I found myself constantly at the edge of my couch.  Because unlike the other home invasion movies, such as Strangers, I was not able to hear if someone is knocking on the door, or coming around a corner.

Something else I like about the movie was how simple it was.  Unlike other home invasion films such as Strangers or The Purge, the storyline in Hush was simply about one psycho trying to kill one girl in the house at night.  There were no back stories such as a blind-date gone wrong between the killer and Maddie, nor was there a twist that showed Maddie was related to or had a relationship with the killer at one point.  You never really find out what the motives are between the characters, only that one of them is trying to kill the other.

4 ½ of 5

The Exorcism of Molly Hartley

I remember when the Haunting of Molly Hartley came out in 2008, and remembering it was like a marriage between girly heart-throb shows like The O.C. or 90210 with cheap PG-13 horror films meant for the teenager demographic.  Even though Haunting was kinda crappy, I’ll be honest, I’m entertained by even the crappiest horror film.  When I heard there was going to be a sequel I was confused for a couple reasons.

REASON #1= The end of Haunting was supposed to be one of those dead-end endings= I say this  because when Molly turned 18 she was supposed to have given her whole-self over to the Devil, so he can begin taking over the world.  This made the idea of a sequel seem weird, because in the Exorcism of Molly Hartley the main character is now 24 years old, and the transition into being the Devil’s puppet is still not complete?  I always knew the Devil was a bad dude, but as it turns out he is slow as well.

REASON #2= The Exorcism of Molly Hartley was straight to DVD= this isn’t always a bad thing since many of the great horror films never made it to the theaters.  But since the first movie was a PG-13 teenage-horror-hit, it made this film seem like the filmmakers did something wrong. 

This isn’t to say The Exorcism of Molly Hartley is complete crap, because some of the exorcism scenes were heavy, brutal, and reminded me of the practical effects in William Friedkin’s original Exorcist.  I find that I enjoy this movie more when I don’t think of it as a sequel to teenage-angst-driven Haunting of Molly Hartley, and instead see it as a standalone exorcism horror film with an “OK” story and awesome practical effects.

2 ½ of 5