Category: Horror

Orphan: First Kill

Rated: MA15+Orphan: First Kill

Directed by: William Brent Bell

Screenplay by: David Coggeshall

Story by: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Alex Mace

Based on Characters Created by: Alex Mace

Produced by: Alex Mace, Hal Sadoff, Ethan Erwin, James Tomlinson

Starring: Isabelle Fuhrman, Rossif Sutherland, Hiro Kanagawa, Matthew Finlan and Julia Stiles.

‘Welcome home, Esther.’

The prequel to, Orphan (2009), Orphan: First Kill takes the story back to Esther’s (Isabelle Fuhrman) origins, back to Estonia 2007.

But back in 2007, Esther isn’t, ‘Esther’.  She’s Leena.

Incredibly, Isabelle Furhman has returned in the same role and yes, is believable.

Many in the audience will know of Esther’s disorder, hypopituitarism where she’s essentially an in-proportion dwarf making her look like a child even though she’s an adult woman in her 30s.

As do the psychiatrists in the film, treating her in the Saarne Institute.

Opening with the same emotionless bloody violence that Esther is capable of, there’s no surprise or hiding who she really is, so the prequal is layered differently.

I wasn’t sure what concept returning story writer, Alex Mace along with original screenwriter, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick was going to come up with after the big reveal was already known – that the innocent 10-year-old girl Esther is in fact a psychotic, manipulating, murdering, adult woman.  But Mace and Johnson-McGoldrick have teamed up with new screenwriter, David Coggeshall and director, William Brent Bell (Separation, (2021), The Devil Inside (2012), The Boy (2016)) to create something, dare I say, playful.

Here, Esther manipulates her way into a wealthy American family, The Albrights.

Their family came over on the Mayflower and built this country.  They ‘mean something.’

Esther finds another man to fall in love with (Allen, (Rossif Sutherland)) while hating her new, ‘mummy,’ (Julia Stiles as Tricia is fantastic in this role) while her older brother, Gunnar (Matthew Finlan) remains suspicious of his returned little sister.

Let the manipulation and killing begin.

I was bracing for a bit boring and more of the same, but as the film progresses, I was drawn in and ended up having a lot of fun watching this new perspective of Esther.  Fun.  In a good way.

Prequel Orphan was better than expected and that’s all I’m going to give away, except to say, gotta like a wry sense of humour in a horror movie.

Nope

Rated: MNope

Written, Produced and Directed by: Jordan Peele

Also Produced by: Ian Cooper p.g.a.

Executive Produced by: Robert Graf, Win Rosenfeld

Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Brandon Perea, Keith David.

‘What’s a bad miracle?’

Nope is the third movie Jordan Peele has directed (among many others he has written), and I had high expectations after enjoying, Get Out (2017) and Us (2019).

Peele has a certain off-kilter vision in his films that translates here, opening with a monkey on a TV set, covered in blood.

I didn’t know what I was walking into with, Nope, producer Ian Cooper explaining the intention to withhold from giving away too much away in the trailers.  All that was clear was the title, Nope, which I thought was perhaps a wry push too far but the humour here is spot on.

Cooper goes on to explain that Jordan was originally thinking of, ‘Little Green Men’ for the title, hinting at, “The idea of the quest for fame and fortune, and the quest for documenting existence of life beyond Earth,” Cooper says. “The double entendre of ‘Little Green Men’ was a way in which you could talk about dollar bills as well as talk about aliens and the unknown.”

As always with Jordan, the concept of, Nope is unique.

Inheriting the horse ranch from their father, Otis Haywood Sr. (Keith David), OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) attempt to continue the legacy as horse wranglers for film and TV.

Living on a ranch, far out in the Sant Clarita Valley in Southern California, the sky is endless, the expanse filled with clouds and something otherworldly lurking within.

The film has a western feel with OJ selling horses to child star, come cowboy-themed fair owner, Ricky ‘Jupe’ Park (Steven Yeun), crossed with the family drama of the reserved, OJ and his larger-than-life sister, Emerald – the people person of the partnership – crossed with a sci-fi with an alien creature causing electrical black-outs before sucking up whatever happens to be looking up into its guts.

The horror aspect of the film the sound of screams from the sky when the power cuts out.

It’s not an in-your-face horror here, more an unsettled feeling built with the soundtrack but also with the strangeness of the film.

It’s a confusing beginning and continues with random threads brought into the storyline that don’t always make sense in the general narrative of the film.  There is some structure with chapters named after the horses featured in the film.  But otherwise the threads are left to spool with not all coming full circle, well, not quite.

The cinematographer character, Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott) brought to the ranch to help capture what’s lurking in the sky comments, ‘That’s the dream I never wake up from.’  It sounds cool.  But doesn’t quite have enough weight in the end to stand up straight.  Again, adding to the slight disconcerting tilt to the film.

The wonder I had about the humour being pushed too far with the title, Nope was however, unfounded.  Daniel Kaluuya as the steady and reserved horse wrangler gives the word ‘nope’ a weight that just tickles.  Again, Kaluuya is well-cast and obviously a favourite of Peele’s because he brings it every single time.

All the characters in, Nope are well-cast, Angel (Brandon Perea) the Fry’s Electronics IT expert adds another layer of humour as he misses his girlfriend while ingratiating himself into the plot of the film because he’s slowly losing the plot with his life and needs to be involved.

It’s an entertaining film.  A strange slightly off-kilter film where Jordan has juxtaposed sci-fi, (some) horror, family drama and western that comes together as something funny and unique.  I just couldn’t quite get on board with the why of it.  Still, a fun ride.

The Black Phone

Rated: MA15+The Black Phone

Directed by: Scott Derrickson

Screenplay Written by: Scott Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill

Based on the Short Story by: Joe Hill

Produced by: Jason Blum, Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill

Executive Produced by: Ryan Turek, Christopher H. Warner

Starring: Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, James Ransone and Ethan Hawke.

‘Would you like to see a magic trick?’

It’s 1978.  Finney Shaw (Mason Thames) is pitching a baseball, trying to impress a girl.

With two strikes, he almost does it.

He lives with his dad (Jeremy Davies) and little sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw).

Their dad drinks.  Finny and Gwen are tense.

Kids in town are going missing.  And they all know why.  It’s the Grabber (Ethan Hawke).  He’s taking them.

What drew me into this film was how cool the kids are – this is a movie about them; a crime, supernatural horror where kids are being kidnapped and a black phone that’s dead but still ringing.

The film is based on the short story written by, Joe Hill, Stephen King’s son and a great horror writer in his own right, see, 20th Century Ghosts (2005), short fiction piece, Best New Horror – a unique voice that’s haunting and has a punk horror feel about it.  There’s also the novel, Heart Shaped Box (2007) and others worth checking out.  Yes, I’m a fan with signed copies.

Adapted for the screen by director Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill (Sinister (2012), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) and Doctor Strange (2016)), it’s like there’s a window into what it’s like growing up in a small town in Denver: bullies, parents, crushes.  Serial Killers.

Gwen as the little sister is hilarious with her little skips of excitement and comments like, ‘Dumb fucking fart knockers.’

Not only is she a fire-cracker, she has a gift.  Her dreams show her things she’s not supposed to know, like, The Grabber has black balloons.

So when her brother’s taken, she prays to God for her dreams to show her where he’s been taken.  And desperate, the cops listen because no-one else knows about those black balloons.

The suspense is built by slowing the shots, the words silent, the sound of sinister amplifying the quiet to give a moment to feel, to then screech a sudden shot to a dead kid, to get the heart pumping.  There’re some jumps here, layered over the suspense so, The Black Phone creates a suspense thriller without the gore.

There’s a lot of thought here from director Scott Derrickson with cuts back and forth when Finney realises he’s trapped in basement, where no-one will ever hear him scream.

There’s good use of objects from the creepy mask of the killer to create an other-worldly monster, the toy rocket ship like a talisman, the crack in the wall of the prison like a bleeding cut.  And of course, the black telephone.  The ringing built in the soundtrack like the sound of a saviour.

There’s a careful stepping as each piece of the story come together, each given space and care and more thought than I expected.  And there’s restraint to let the performances of the characters become the focus.

Where do they find these kid actors?!

And there’s good support from Jeremy Davies as the dad and ‘night-night naughty boy’ Ethan Hawke suitably creepy as, The Grabber.

A better than expected suspense, supernatural thriller with thoughtful pacing set to a 70s vibe.

Men

Rated: MA15+Men

Written and Directed by: Alex Garland

Starring: Jesse Buckly, Rory Kinnear and Paapa Essiedu.

‘What do you want from me?!’

I had an angry response to, Ex Machina (2014) (a strong response a sign of an emotive movie, I guess).

Conversely, I really enjoyed the head-bend of, Annihilation (2018).

So I was curious to see what writer and director, Alex Garland was going to evoke with, Men.

The film follows lead character, Harper (Jesse Buckly) – it’s raining outside.

She has blood smudged under her nose.

She runs.

She stays in an idyllic country house to heal.

Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear) shows her around, a classic affable Englishman, ‘Won’t be a jiffy,’ he says.

Then comments, ‘The M4, a dreary bore.’

Then adds, ‘Watch what you flush.  It’s a septic tank and all…’

A jarring statement and a hint of what’s to come.

Geoff, it turns out, is one of the many men-clones, that Harper must endure during her time away from life.

Contrasting the clones is this heightened sense of beauty, the landscape like a moving Monet painting.

Beautiful, then flawed by a naked man, a running man, that stalks her.

The telling of, Men, feels off-centre but clever and green, like an expression of the primal with Harper taking an apple from a tree and taking a bite like Eve in the, Garden of Eden.

The film weaves around this theme of Adam and Eve, subtle, then visceral.

The present bleeds into Harper’s past, her screaming voice becoming one with the soundtrack.

What do you want from me?!

This constant demand becomes an extreme depiction of men’s misunderstanding of what a woman needs.

That a woman has her own life too.

Rather than a confronting horror, I found the thought behind the film refreshing.

 

The Innocents

Rated: TBAThe Innocents

Directed by: Eskil Vogt

Screenplay Written by: Eskil Vogt

Produced by: Maria Ekerhovd

Executive Producer: Axel Helgeland, Dave Bishop, Céline Dornier

Starring: Rakel Lenora Fløttum, Alva Brynsmo Ramstad, Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim, Sam Ashraf, Ellen Dorrit Pedersen, Morten Svartveit, Kadra Yusuf, Lisa Tønne.

Norwegian with English subtitles.

‘What do you do when someone’s mean?’

A sleeping child

Is the picture of innocence.

The shot is close.

Ida (Rakel Lenora Fløttum) has freckles on her nose.

She has an autistic sister, Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad).  Anna’s non-verbal.  She can’t even feel a pinch.

Ida is nine years old, yet it doesn’t feel like innocence when she pinches her sister, spits from the balcony and stomps on a worm.

When writer and director, Eskil Vogt (also screenwriter of, The Worst Person in the World, ‘In Competition – Feature Films’ 2021, Festival De Cannes. See review here) was asked about the idea behind the film’s title (The Innocents) he responds,

“I think kids are beyond good and evil or rather before good and evil. But I don’t think children are little angels, that people are born pure. I think children are born without any sense of empathy or morals, we have to teach them that. That’s why I think it’s interesting to see a child doing something that we would call evil in an adult. The moral aspect is more complex since they aren’t fully formed yet.”

Ida’s family has moved, her mother (Ellen Dorrit Pedersen) tells her it’s a new school, new friends.

Ida lies back on a swing and looks at the world up-side-down.

She meets Ben (Sam Ashraf).

He’s moved around a lot.

He has a bruise on his chest.

He can also move things with his mind.

I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into at the beginning of this film – children doing mean things is confronting.

Yet, as the film continues, the characters, the children get complicated.

The Innocents is a horror with children as the main characters, with the parents on the outside, not knowing or understanding.

It’s a film about forgotten kids, who suddenly find they have powers.

Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim) who lives in the building complex, finds Anna with her mind, the film following her mind like flying through the mist of the outside.

She can hear Anna even though Anna can’t speak.

‘I’m talking to someone who isn’t here,’ Aisha tells her mother (Kadra Yusuf).

Her mother cries in secret.

When the four children are together, Ida, Ben, Anna and Aisha – they become more powerful.

But rather than focussing on the supernatural, the film is about the children exploring their new powers and how each reacts to having power, therefore revealing the truth of who they are and why.

I was haunted by this film, the power shown in the ripples of water, by the wind in the trees.  Like the audience is invited into this secret world of the children as they pick scabs and dig in a sandbox, the boredom, the exploring, the violence – I believed all of it, the children the driving force of the film, shown in careful detail by cinematographer, Sturla Brandth Grøvlen.

A quietly menacing film that’s riveting, shocking and unique.

X

Rated:  R18+X

Directed by: Ti West

Produced by: Ti West, Jacob Jaffke, Harrison Kreiss, Kevin Turen

Starring: Mia Goth, Brittany Snow, Scott Mescudi, Jenna Ortega.

‘Just when you thought you’d escaped the slaughterhouse.’

Cicadas and flies and a rundown farmhouse are the setting of, X.

Police cars have their strobes silently rotating.

They walk into the farmhouse.

An evangelist is preaching on the TV.

The cops walk down to the basement, ‘My God.’

X is a horry (ha, ha, typo I swear), I mean gory, horror featuring the cast and crew of a porn movie in the making: The Farmer’s daughters.’

It’s 1979.  Anyone can make a porn, especially a home-made movie.  But cameraman, RJ (Owen Campbell) wants this porn to be different, ‘Because it’s possible to make a good dirty movie.’

He’s brought his good-girl girlfriend (Jenna Ortega) along as sound tech to prove his point.

And Maxine (Mia Goth) co-star and girlfriend of the executive producer (Martin Henderson) of said porn has the x-factor: ‘I need to be famous Wayne.’

To give the setting of the film the right ambiance, Wayne rents an outbuilding on a farm.  A farm owned by an elderly man and his wife.

And by elderly, I mean old; the old-factor pushed to become part of the horror, because, X is a horror that builds with flashes from the deteriorating old to the fresh and young x-factor porn stars.

Blond bombshell Brittany and fellow, well-endowed sometime boyfriend, Jackson (Scott Mescudi) are ready to perform for the first scene.

The flash back and forth between the old and the x with the ominous music of the soundtrack holds the tone of bad things to come.

Including bones sticking out of fingers and nails through feet.

There are jumps and moments when I was looking through my fingers.

It gets twisted too, but not to the extent it’s unwatchable.

The storyline wavers across to the ridiculous but there’s genuine tongue-in-cheek humour, like a sign reading, ‘Plowing Service,’ stuck to the side of the film crew’s van.

There’s nothing believable about the old couple, but the techniques in the directing and editing lift the quality of X, the juxtaposition of scenes timed just right, the staring of Maxine directly into the camera and co-star Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) asking, ‘What about you, Maxine?  What’s your American Dream?’

Maxine doesn’t answer directly, only to herself in the mirror – to not live the life she doesn’t deserve.

There’s underlying meaning to the seemingly benign that comes full circle in the story that leaves a different kind of understanding of the film – not just sex, not just horror, but an extra layer that makes the erotic slasher also interesting.

Scream

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★1/2Scream

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

Written by: James Vanderbilt, Guy Busick

Characters Created by: Kevin Williamson

Produced by: Paul Neinstein, William Sherak, James Vanderbilt

Starring: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Jenna Orgtega, Melissa Barrera, Marley Shelton, Dylan Minnette, Jack Quaid, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sonia Ammar, Mikey Madison, Mason Gooding, Kyle Gallner and Reggie Conquest.

‘What’s your favourite move?’

The phone rings and I think to myself, who has a landline?

But Scream 2022 is all about bringing back the audience to the same opening as Scream 1996, the original.

Tara (Jenna Orgtega) answers.  She’s home alone and about to get stabbed.

Welcome back to Woodsboro.

Scream the return, doesn’t shy away from its slasher genre.  The film gets very stabby, Ghostface relentless as the knife penetrates cheeks and stomachs, people straddled with two handed plunges.  It gets bloody.  As expected with the Scream franchise.

The difference with this instalment is the invitation to the audience to be part of ‘the game’.

Watching the characters walking around the house just waiting for Ghostface to suddenly appear behind a door.  It’s a tease and light-hearted (if a slasher can be light-hearted) because the audience knows what’s going to happen.  We’ve seen it all before and know:

Don’t go off on your own.

If you know the why of the killing, you’ll know who’s the next target.

The killer is always part of the tight-knit group of friends being targeted, here your somewhat typical high school buddies, hyper vigilant Wes (Dylan Minnette), twins Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding), girlfriend of Chad, Liv (Sonia Ammar) and best buddy of Tara, Amber (Mikey Madison).

The film uses the assumption the audience knows what’s coming and the characters know what’s coming next because they’ve all seen the slasher franchise, ‘Stab’.  Which is basically the Scream franchise so the characters analyse their situation based on the Stab movies.  While being in a Scream movie.  Scream the return, or ‘requel’ as described by Mindy is not just a slasher, but also self-reflecting that makes for some funny, tongue-in-cheek humour.

Another rule in making a sequel (requel) is bringing back some legends, enter the return of Sheriff Dewey Riley (David Arquette), Gale Riley (Courteney Cox) and of course, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell).

So there’s the current storyline of Tara and her sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) with boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid) coming back to Woodsboro to help solve this new phase of Ghostface killings.

And there’s the legends brought back to help figure out who Ghostface is because they’ve been in the same situation many times before.

All the while inviting the audience to see the characters reflect on their story while comparing the killings to the Stab movies while we the audience watch them.

Is it better than the original?  No.  The first one was shocking and unforgettable.  But it’s just as good in other ways because it’s something different and challenging.

This instalment is not your typical slasher and the risky re-visit to the original idea of, Scream, is surprisingly successful.  It’s like a re-make in a re-make that leads to all sorts of layers and humour while still having the scary moments.

Recommend going back and watching at least the first Scream movie to get some of those aside jokes.

 

The Suicide Squad

Rated: MA15+The Suicide Squad

Directed and Written by: James Gunn

Produced by: Charles Roven, Peter Safran

Starring: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, Joel Kinnaman, John Cena, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Michael Rooker, Flula Borg, David Dastmalchian and Taika Waititi.

‘Is that rat waving at me?’

The opening scene sees the death of a pretty yellow bird.

Birds feature a lot in, The Suicide Squad mark II.

To the extent I was wondering by the end – what’s with the birds?!  Is it because they represent freedom?  Could be something in that, the squad been given a chance at freedom, etc.

Like the first film, potential members of Task Force X are found languishing in Belle Reve: the prison with the highest mortality rate in America.

Languishing until Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) offers them a deal they can’t refuse: 10 years off their sentence in hell.  Or for those not tempted by the reduced sentence, the promise not to incarcerate a ten-year-old daughter (Storm Reid) that would more than likely mean death.

Sent on another impossible bloody mission, this time to the jungle of Corto Maltese, there’s the same antics from characters such as Captain Boomerang (Michael Rooker) with a whole new cast of villains with unique skills like: Peacemaker (John Cena) who loves to walk around in his y-fronts, Bloodsport (Idris Elba) who really does not get along with Peacemaker, King Shark (Sylvester Stallone)  – apparently a god who now has a taste for human and amongst other new characters, Polka-Dot (David Dastmalchian): the man has issues.  With leader Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) back to direct the chaos.

The film has the same foundation as the first instalment, a squad of anti-heroes sent on a covert mission by the government – but way more extreme.

There’s still that manic fun tone, with the likes of Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) shooting her way to freedom with a demented smile, but I don’t remember the first instalment being so brutal.

Not that nasty is necessarily a bad thing.

I’m a big fan of gallows humour, and there were a lot of funny moments that tickled, sometimes unexpectedly like seeing the back view of Milton (Julio Cesar Ruiz), the bus driver, as he runs after the squad to ‘help out’ in his shorts and Crocs.

And making light of a trained rat, friend of Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), 2 because the first Ratcatcher was her father (Taika Waititi, yep Taika’s in it!):

‘Is that rat waving at me?

‘It appears it is’

…’Why?’

But sometimes the humour was just that bit too off-kilter – see above about the birds.

It was about 50/50 for me.  But when the humour hit, it tickled A LOT.

The narrative goes back and forth in time, highlighted by the inclusion of text in scene – leaves falling to write, ‘Now’.

There’s more clever with relief from the blood and guts when blood’s replaced with an explosion of flowers.

And that blending of scene continues with music played in the bus becoming the soundtrack, the, Pixies track, ‘Hey’ backing the squad as they walk into their next suicide mission.  Gold.

The attention to detail is impressive as director James Gunn pushes the boundaries so the humour’s darker, the violence more bloody, with an added extra tilt towards the demented.

Tending towards horror and comedy rather than action, there’s a lot of entertainment here but brace yourself, it gets twisted.

Old

Rated: MOld

Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan

Written by: M. Night Shyamalan

Based on the Graphic Novel: ‘Sandcastle’ by Pierre Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters

Produced by: M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock

Starring: Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Ken Leung, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abbey Lee, Aaron Pierre, Kathleen Chalfant, Alexa Swinton, Nolan River, Kylie Begley, Embeth Davidtz, Eliza Scanlen, Alex Wolff, Emun Elliott, Thomasin McKenzie.

I wasn’t overly impressed with the trailer for, Old: people going to a beach and getting old.  Quickly.

But being a Shyamalan film, there’s always going to be more to the story.

Based on the graphic novel, Sandcastle the idea of people stranded on a beach, rapidly aging, gave Shyamalan the foundation of the film.

I don’t know whether it’s because I haven’t been to the beach, heard the waves or being greeted at a resort with a cocktail for a while (supposed to be in Magnetic Island right now but currently in lockdown, grrr) – the scenery added another dimension: the water always flowing, keeping time.

The Capa family arrive via a private bus to resort, Anamica.

There’s the sound of birds and cicadas: the sound of the tropics.

The daughter, Maddox (Alexa Swinton) is singing.

‘I can’t wait to hear it when you’re older,’ says Prisca (Vicky Krieps) about her daughter’s voice, mother of Maddox and young son Trent (Nolan River).

Some of the hints are heavy handed.

Yet the family dynamic with husband, Guy (Gael García Bernal) and Prisca’s relationship being played out in front of their children; and their young son hanging out with his new friend, Idlib (Kailen Jude) son of the resort manager: ‘What’s your name and occupation,’ the two boys ask the resort guests.  It’s the sort of thing kids do when they’re free and happy on holidays.  And a great way to introduce the main characters.

It’s all very watchable.

Like an easy listening radio station.  It’s easy watching.

But there’s always hints of what’s to come.

A guest has an epileptic seizure at breakfast.  But she’s OK.

Parents keep secrets from their kids.

There’re buzzards flying overhead.

Given an invitation to a private beach, it’s made very clear it’s a secret.  Just for the Capa family.  But then other guests get on board the bus.

They’re driven through the jungle.

Just walk through a cave and you’re there.

The cave opens-up onto a pristine beach, surrounded by rocky cliffs.

A lone man sits in the distance.

The kids find buried cutlery and dolls in the sand.

There’s no phone reception.

Then the children on the beach begin to change.

‘Something is going on with time on this beach.’

I expected the build to be boring.  But there’s enough mystery going on with the characters inside the main storyline to allow pace.

The timing is important in the film because the whole story’s about time.

Old isn’t edge-of-your-seat action or thriller, but suspense handled well.

The kids particularly at the start of the film ease the story in nicely.

I like Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) as the mum.

The casting all round was well done, the change of the young kids to the older characters believable.

Except the glaring change in eye colour for one character (not giving anything away), from blue to brown when she gets older a jolt out of a tenuous suspended reality.  I don’t know whether I missed something or a genuine oversight?  But it felt like swapping out an actor in a soap opera and everyone pretending it’s the same character.  The change threw me.

Yet even after this stretch the film was still better than expected with good pacing making the mystery overall, an intriguing watch.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

Rated: MA15+The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

Directed by: Michael Chaves

Story by: James Wan, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick

Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Sterling Jerins, Julian Hilliard, Ruairi O’Connor, Bonnie Aarons, John Noble, Eugenie Bondurant, Sarah Catherine Hook.

“If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.” -Friedrich Nietzsche.

Based on a true story.

July 18, 1981.  Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed (Patrick Wilson), priest and the Glatzel family keep vigil over eight-year-old, David (Julian Hilliard): a young kid.  Possessed.

‘I just can’t remember one quite like this,’ says Ed, as the film opens with all the drama of an exorcist.

Set in Brookfield, The Devil Made Me Do It follows the possessed rather than the origin of a demon, giving this third instalment of, The Conjuring series, a different tone.

Here, there’s a hint of the courtroom, with Arne (Ruairi O’Connor), the boyfriend of David’s sister, charged with First Degree Murder and facing the death penalty; Arne’s defence, ‘Not guilty by reason of demonic possession.’

Enter Ed and Lorraine with the interesting premise of swearing to God before giving evidence an argument of: if there’s acknowledgement of God, why not the Devil?

The film is built around a real case, with recordings of the exorcism played-out with the rolling credits.  Creepy.  Probably the creepiest part of the film.

Not to say there weren’t scary bits – there’s still moments of Lorraine traveling through to an other world as she follows her visions making contact with the source of evil.  Made even scarier when she realises the contact goes both ways.

‘Being brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared,’ a comment made by Arne to young David before possession turns him into a killer.

There’s certainly some dark themes here, but I have to say the horror in this instalment lacks the same impact as the previous Conjuring films.

And the darkness here is offset by the ever-resilient love story between Ed and Lorraine, ‘My home is here with him,’ says Lorraine about Ed.

There’s also the young love between the accused and girlfriend, Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook).

So there’s more of a dramatic tone, somewhat humanising the horror.  Which for me took away some of the edge to those scares – rather than putting more weight behind the characters.

Not sure why.  Maybe I just didn’t believe the young love between Arne and Debbie and the whole standing by her man.

And somehow the foundation of this instalment, with the court case and recordings seemed less believable.  How’s that for irony.

But all I can do is review how the film hits me – and it hits OK with more emphasis on the relationship between Ed and Lorraine making the film a balance of love story and horror, for me, diluting the impact of the scares.

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