Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
Haunted doll Annabelle is a beacon for spirits, so strap in for a whole bunch of ghouls and ghosts once she’s unleashed.
Haunted doll Annabelle is a beacon for spirits, so strap in for a whole bunch of ghouls and ghosts once she’s unleashed.
Aquaman really needed to be another Wonder Woman.
It’s not.
While I’m not going to argue that The Nun is a good film, I do think that’s its more interesting than its detractors give it credit for.
Upgrade is a clever genre mash-up. The film merges the tropes of the traditional revenge flick with speculative sci-fi,
at once indulging in genre thrills and commenting upon them.
I want to play a game.
The rules are simple. Before you sits a television, the seven Saw movies and a timer set to 666 minutes.
Watch all seven movies before the timer runs out; fail, and you’ll be subject to the most gratuitous, elaborate torture devices our team of underpaid Hollywood screenwriters can come up with.
Annabelle Creation is nothing particularly original, sure, but neither was The Conjuring. What it does deliver is judiciously-executed scares and a pervasive atmosphere of dread.
James Wan’s haunted house oeuvre is a well-oiled machine. Creaky floorboards and fearsome presences roll off the production line like clockwork; creepy, broken, grandfather clockwork. And, although The Conjuring 2 is bound by formula, when the scares are this good, I’m happy to buckle my seatbelt and enjoy the ride. Wan’s recent good form (Insidious et al) is…
The Fast & Furious franchise’s seventh lap contains few surprises for those familiar with the franchise. Fast & Furious 7 (originally titled just Furious 7) doesn’t deviate from the well-worn path established by its predecessors, delivering the same mix of cars, fights, absurd stunts and bro-y banter that’s sustained the series for the past fourteen…
It’s easy to forgive horror films their sins if they’re actually scary. If Annabelle had been a genuinely frightening film, I could’ve happily forgiven its hollow Polanski references – ranging from a host of Rosemary’s Baby quotations to a Charles Manson’s appearance on television. I wouldn’t have had a problem with how it mishandles/abandons its…
The Conjuring feels very old-fashioned. That’s not surprising, given the 1971 setting and accompanying huge sideburns, but (aside from some obvious J-horror influences) this is a film that could have been produced decades ago, with the personality and pacing of classic horror. Director James Wan has commendable patience, slowly developing an ominous atmosphere before breaking…