Horror Film Catch-Up - 1 of 3

Basically I've been getting caught up on films that were big hits in the past few years (I have encountered on HBO and FXM, mostly) I'm just now getting to.

Ouija: Origin of Evil

2016 prequel to the 2014 Ouija (starring Olivia Cooke), which made mad money in relation to its minuscule budget, a Blumhouse standard it does seem, plays cute with the ending regarding Lin Shaye (who made an appearance in the 2014 film and does so in a twist at the end of this one). In 1967 LA, a window, whose husband was killed in a drunk driving incident, raises her two daughter by conning grieving customers through fraudulent séances. Her red-headed teen daughter, Lina (Annalise Basso), sees a Ouija game over at a gal pal’s secret party (she escapes through her window) and mentions that to her mom, hoping they “freshen up the act”. What happens instead is that mom, Alice (the wonderful Elizabeth Reaser, of Netflix’s excellent first season of The Haunting of Hill House), inadvertently summons an evil “darkness with glowing eyes” that possesses her younger daughter, Doris (Lulu Wilson). Henry Thomas, a widower priest at a Catholic school Alice’s daughters attend, finds himself confronting the evil of the film unsuccessfully, and Parker Mack as “Mikey”, the romantic teen interest of Lina, who unfortunately has too many lone encounters with the possessed Doris. I think the film is at its best when creepy Doris is staring at folks, when the creature is revealed behind Doris as she inspects through the planchette viewer what is bothering her neck (a literal pain in the neck), Doris’ mouth stretching/extending and eyes gone near white as the evil takes her over, the revelations from written memories in Polish put on paper by a possessed Doris (Marcus, a Polish victim who came over to the States and was a victim of a Nazi doctor who would kidnap folks, experiment on them in the basement of the very house the girls currently live, and bury them behind the wall, is a restless spirit among many victims who “reach from the afterlife darkness”, along with the evil that inhabits Doris) told to Alice and Lina by Thomas’ Father Tom Hogan after getting them transcribed, and certain possessed visualizations of Doris when “whispering” the “voices” into victim’s ears. No surprise: you can definitely see The Exorcist inspiration all over this film. Carefully the film doesn’t spend too much time outside the home, giving 60s historians enough ammunition to pick apart what isn’t accurate in the evocation of the period this is set. Good cast helps and this, I thought, was at least better than the just so-so previous entry. And that basement is the stuff of  nightmares. 2.5/5.

The Nun

In 1952 Abbey of St Carta in Romania, when one nun is butchered and pulled into the dark by an evil presence, the younger nun is so frightened by it she leaps from a window with a rope around her neck, effectively hanging herself. A local is passing through and finds her decaying body being gnawed away on by crows as the rope breaks. In Vatican City, a priest, Father Burke (Demián Bichir; of the superb and sadly short-lived FX drama, The Bridge) is commissioned to go to the abbey and investigate the nun’s suicide, given orders to carry a novitiate (Taissa Farmiga; American Horror Story), supposedly familiar with the area (she says she is not), and locate the young farmer, Maurice “Frenchie" Theriault (Jonas Bioquet), who found the nun so he can guide them to the location in the mountains. The Hammer fan in me was marking out to the aesthetic of various uses of crucifixes (whether woodworked for doors or graves) and sun through trees, and the Romanian woods just have this eerie quality perfect for a period horror film. Especially the bomb-damaged castles, gradually being enveloped from green as the lack of human activity has allowed nature to reclaim its hold. Meeting the Abbess in the cloister (she is on a throne like stone chair surrounded by deteriorating lit candles and ancient crypts (the kind with imprinted bishop impressions on the lids)), darkened with a sinister tone, promising to answer questions presented by Father Burke after their vow of silence, is nicely atmospheric and creepy, while Frenchie’s lantern-lighted visitation from the possessed dead nun (buried by Burke and Frenchie before meeting the Abbess) in the graveyard, encircled with fog and blue-tinted moonlight, just hits my Gothic-horror G-spot. In terms of presentation, this film delivered the goods. It takes me back to the era of horror I hold near and dear. The sheets hanging down in the convent quarters, rooms for Burke and Irene (who hasn’t taken her vows yet), the various silhouettes of nuns in their habits (one passing a window as Burke looks up at the castle), lantern flame just giving out enough light to keep the spooks hidden in the dark, and Burke falling into an empty coffin (bringing Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow to remembrance) are nice stylistic touches. Like the horror movies of now and last twenty years, the heavy reliance on jump scares and sound effects (along with specific special effects such as a snake coming out of the mouth of a boy exorcized by Burke previously and the demon nun surprising Frenchie in the graveyard) are in full vigor by the filmmakers. There is a retelling of history involving a duke who opened a portal for Valak (a demon) during the Dark Ages after building the Romanian castle for which the nuns populate in the current ongoing story from Sister Oana to Irene providing exposition for the audience and there is a book being studied by Father Burke with drawings and writings detailing the existence of Valak among other evils that the world should never want moving among humankind. This film made a ton of money throughout the world, so there is indeed a market for this kind of horror…which I appreciate. The blood of Christ, the convent being used at the castle because of the evil that must be contained, and the bombs of war reopening what was sealed factor into the back story. 3.5/5.

Insidious: The Last Key

Prequel to the first two Insidious films (and another big hit for Blumhouse) has Elise (horror icon, Lin Shaye) returning to her home where her horrible security guard father (the New Mexico prison in 1953 is when this starts, detailing Elise as a little girl, her visitation of a little boy, the father who beats her for even admitting to her abilities, and the mother, who tried to keep her safe, perishing when Elise “opens a door” she shouldn’t because her father locked her in the basement) once mistreated her, leaving behind “scars instead of memories”. The current occupant of the house believes something malevolent is there, wanting her to help. She decides to do so, with her two paranormal researchers, Tucker and Specs (Angus Simpson & Leigh Whannell) joining her. Josh Stewart, as Elise’s sonofabitch father, leaves a bad taste, and Shaye definitely excels at providing us with a trauma resulting from his abuse that is etched all over her. Shaye being the star instead of a Rubenstein scene-stealer is actually a nice change from the other Insidious films. Tucker and Specs provide obvious “ghost geeks” lovingly silly and fun to watch, as their awkwardness remains endearing. I have always pondered doing an October Insidious/Poltergeist binge, perhaps in the future. Giving us a solid, if haunting and tragic, Elise back story, setting her out there front and center, isn’t such a bad idea! The use of the whistle, Elise and her brother (Bruce Davison, still showing the effects of being left behind by her to live with their monster father) reuniting in a tense and sad exchange, Elise moving about her former home hoping to communicate with spirits lingering there, locating an actual abducted young woman, Specs having to come to Elise, the kidnapped girl, and Tucker’s rescue when their client turns out to be the abductor with a gun (!), Elise locating suitcases with items (and even skulls!) of past victims of her father’s (!!!) in an air conditioning duct, and her brother’s daughter, Imogen (Caitlin Gerard), revealing she’s a psychic just like Elise are some fascinating moments/developments/details that emerge. I wasn’t all that crazy about The Further, though, with victims in cells, the demon with keys on its fingers locking the throats shut of targets…this includes Elise’s mother showing up and Imogen providing a whistle that helps her contact the spirit of said mom combating the demon with a lit lantern. The Further literally looks like a prison, and the “feeding the demon with fear and hatred” just gets bogged down in afterlife hokeyness as Elise’s father tries to help her against the demon, stabbed and disintegrating as a result. Keys in flesh by the creature, murky corridors and halls in the house and Further making things difficult to see, and Elise talking to her younger self just lost me. And, admittedly, the film sort of started to bore me. I loved Elise, though, and Shaye has the gravitas to keep you invested in her welfare as she enters that deep dive into the spiritworld with all its dangers. I just wish the spiritworld had been more interesting aesthetically. The creature, too, just wasn’t all that scary as much as it was corny. The main detour that did unnerve and unsettle was the reveal that teenage Elise accidentally motivates her possessed father to kill Anne, a kidnap victim, with his dreaded cane. 2/5