The Conjuring: A Fun Game Of Clap Hide And Seek, Anyone?

The Conjuring is a horror film directed by James Wan, loosely based on the real-life adventures of Ed and Lorraine Warren. The plot sees the Warren’s summoned to a farmhouse to help a family that is being plagued by a malicious spirit.

The mainline Conjuring films are defiantly the best this shared universe has to offer, while the Nun and the later Annabelle films had some good moments, by and large they were reliant on jump scares, whereas these films especially the first was not so.

The film builds its scares organically, and focuses on character, mystery and atmosphere knowing that they can lead to stronger scares. The blind folded clapping scene from this film is far scarier and far more impactful than 100 jump scares.

The casting of Patrick Wilson and Vega Farmiga as the Warrens was sheer genius as they are the perfect protagonists, both believable enough to think that they can actually defeat the demons, but also human enough to be relatable and warm. They are very likeable, and you end up rooting for them throughout. I strongly believe the casting of these two makes this film what it is, without them and with lesser stars it could easily have faded into the bland horror background.

Overall, this shows the strong origins of the series before they gave in to jump scares.

Pros.

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga

The scares

Building atmosphere

Cons.

The family as a whole is quite forgettable and generic

It feels a little samey after a while

3.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Rosemary’s Baby: The Horrors Of A Toxic Relationship

Rosemary’s Baby is a psychological horror film directed by Roman Polanski. The plot follows young woman, Rosemary (Mia Farrow), who finds herself suddenly pregnant one day after having a horrific dream. Over the course of her pregnancy more and more odd occurrences play out, before things take a sharp turn towards the sinister.

The demonic angle of the story didn’t work for me, I won’t go to much into it as I don’t want to spoil it too much, but I didn’t find that part of the story scary. I could see from the beginning where they were going with it, but no matter how much they built the reveal it did little for me in the end.

Rather where I do find scares in this film is the way it depicts the life of a woman in the 60s. The bias towards the husband, the blatant sexism, the belief that women can just be hysterical. I found the abuse and mental anguish that Rosemary suffers from those around here to be far more chilling than anything else in the film. Maybe that was the intent?

I think in terms of horror cinema as a whole you can see how this film would go on to inspire a lot of other people and projects. There are elements here that would become genre main stays for decades after. So credit must be given for that.

Personally, I didn’t find it very interesting and often found myself losing focus with it and becoming distracted, I think it was very slow in pacing and didn’t have a lot to keep me engaged.

Overall, though I can understand its significances, I found it to be overly slow and the main horror aspect of the film feel flat for me.

Pros.

The genre significant

Showing how hard it was to be a woman in that time period

A few memorable moments

Cons.

The demonic plot line did nothing for me

It was far too slow

2.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Taking Of Deborah Logan

The Taking Of Deborah Logan is a found footage horror film directed by Adam Robitel. The plot sees an elderly woman with Alzheimer’s become possessed by an evil malevolent presence. Of course, there is a student there with a film crew recording the whole thing because she is doing a thesis about the disease. I don’t know, but she is there.

Let’s get one thing nice and clear right off the bat, this film had no reason to be a found footage film, did it add anything? No. Did the constant shaky cam and cuts to black make the film any scarier? No. If anything the use of found footage derailed this film and ultimately killed it; the final sequence boils down to the same thing you have seen a thousand times before shaky cam running down a dark hallway where everything is hard to see and there is a constant screaming that makes you want to say “shut up”. It is aggressively average.

What makes this sad is the potential the film had. Mental illness, especially the sort of ones that feature in this film, bring a special type of very real fear with them. The film could have played with the idea of is she possessed, or is her mental state getting worse rapidly, that would have been interesting. No, the film just decides yeah lets go for the predictable boring demon angle and it flushes all the potential it had down the toilet.

Overall, this is nothing new. There is promise in the first twenty to thirty minutes, but the rest of the film promptly ruins that. From a filmmaking point of view this film points out to be all the issues with found footage films and the genre as a whole; barely seeing something for half a second isn’t scary. The found footage genre is dead.

Pros.

It has promise

Cons.

It ruins said promise

The storyline is played out

The found footage filming style is grating

The third act is barely watchable

1/5

Reviewed by Luke

Extra Ordinary: Meal For One?

Extra Ordinary is an Irish horror comedy film directed by Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman. The plot sees reluctant medium Rose (Maeve Higgins), forced back into the game when Satanists steal a virgin to sacrifice to their dark lord. She must believe in her gifts once again and stop the growing evil.

I actually thought this was rather good, the comedy didn’t always hit the mark for me, but it did make me laugh several times and when it didn’t, I still had a smile on my face. I was surprised to see Will Forte pop up, I was unaware of who was in it when I put it on, but he played a failed musician turned master of the darks arts with a real sense of flare that I enjoyed, he was delightfully over the top.

Moreover the dynamic between Forte’s Christian and his wife Claudia (Claudia O’ Doherty), was priceless. They had a really great back and forth and the chemistry between the two of them was palpable for all to see. O’ Doherty has been popping up in some really heart stuff recently and is really making a name for herself as a comedic actor; she practically stole the show in The Festival.

My one complaint would be the lead, while Rose is likeable enough, I found her to be a bit too bumbling, a bit too awkward, it felt forced and I didn’t really buy it. I also thought that her jokes were by far the weakest, as a lead she was a disappointment.

Overall, a subpar lead doesn’t slow this film down much as it has enough laughs and charm to keep you happy and satiated until the end.

Pros.

The comedy

The world/ the world building

Forte.

Claudia O’ Doherty

Cons.

An unpolished lead.

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Blackcoats Daughter: The Best Episode Of Sabrina Ever

The Blackcoats Daughter is a psychological horror film directed by Osgood Perkins. The plot is split into three separate narratives, one for each character, that culminate together in the final act. It tells the story of two girls who are left behind at their Catholic boarding school over break. Things quickly become sinister when it becomes clear that one of the girls is in league with a demon; a bloodbath ensues.

When I first saw this film the other night, I didn’t know what I thought of it, a few days later as I am writing this review I still don’t. This seems to be a recurring theme of Perkins work; it is incredibly polarising.

On the one hand it is incredibly drawn out, to the point of feeling indulgent or as though it is trying to kill time, at points and the split narrative can be confusing even after you have seen it; as there are a lot of little details that are easy to miss, I recommend if you are going to watch this film to watch it twice.

However, when you do start to pick up on the little details and things it becomes far more engaging and far creepier to. In fact I thought this film was genuinely quite scary and it made me jump, more than I have done in a long time, at one point in the film. I think the horror in this film comes as a result of figuring out what is really going on and how everything fits together.

Another to praise in this film is the performance of Kiernan Shipka as Katherine, the main girl and the one who is in league with the forces of evil. Up until watching this I was convinced she couldn’t act, her performance in the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is painfully bad, though now I think that this might have been bad writing, because here she was fantastic. Shipka plays evil and creepy so well, she is really quite menacing in this film and puts the performances of everyone else to shame; this film will serve as a testament to her acting forever more.

Overall, certainly not a film for everyone, but if you like slow burning horror then you will find something to like here.

Pros.

A great twist.

Shipka.

Creepy and unsettling.

Well done.

Cons.

Slow and confusing at points has to be watched twice to fully appreciate.

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

Starry Eyes: What Is The Price Of Fame?

Starry Eyes is a horror drama film directed by Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer. The plot follows Sarah (Alex Essoe), a young actress who is presented with her big break, but in order to get it she must cross a line. The line transcends morals and decency, and instead leads straight to evil. Is sell her soul worth a life of fame and fortune?

This film is brutal, it pulls no punches at all, it shows the deeply out of whack power dynamic of Hollywood and the casting process; showing the depths of human depravity. It touches close to home in our modern climate as Sarah is asked to strip naked for the role and later, she is asked to perform sexual favours for it. However, it does not stop there, though that is already horrific, the movie executive force Sarah to give up her humanity and be demonically reborn.

Taking the supernatural elements out for a second, this film is an incredibly frightening social commentary on the film industry, the message of the film is a pertinent and relevant one and one that bares further reflection.

Essoe is great in the lead role, we really buy her mental and physical breakdown over the course of the movie. The hairpulling scenes are especially tragic and really help to highlight the characters desperation, showing just how much of a victim she is in all of this. The character was easy to warm to and was easily empathetic throughout.

My one critique of the film is that in parts it is slow. It is only on for slightly over an hour and a half; however it feels much longer, proof of pacing problems. The first and third, third of the film is fine, it is just the second act that is slow.

Overall, a frightening film for a number of reasons and one that I believe should be watched as it has a very timely message for all of us.

Pros.

The scares.

The subtext/ social commentary.

Alex Essoe.

The ending.

Cons.

The second act drags and is hard to watch.

4/5

Reviewed by Luke