Ed's Review Dot Com

Blumhouse Productions, Entertainment One, LStar Capital,

Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Kirk Acevedo, Bruce Davison, Spencer Locke, Caitlin Gerard, Ava Kolker, Hana Hayes, Josh Stewart, Javier Botet, Tessa Ferrer, Marcus Henderson

In the beginning of this fourth entry into the world of Insidious, we see Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) as a young girl (played by Ava Kolker) as she grows up with a monster of a father who is warden of a prison in a little town in New Mexico. Elise and her brother Christian (Bruce Davison) (child played by Pierce Pope) fear their ferocious father who particularly hates the fact that young Elise has the power to see dead people and talk to the dead. Finally, Elise has had enough and leaves Christian behind and heads out on her own. This prequel is shown us because in this film, Elise gets a call from a person who lives in her old home needing her help. She decides she must go back to the house, find the evil that she brought out decades ago. In the process she learns the truth about the things that happened in that house, reconnects with her estranged brother and his two daughters.

This is another entry into “The Further” with Elise. Elise has been the centerpiece of all the films, one of the best horror franchises ever, but in this film we really get to learn her back story. I found that particularly interesting. Most of the scary parts of this film are very similar to the rest of the franchise, but the story itself is what makes this so enjoyable, although I did get really scared a few times. The location is really creepy, and this house is a star. It’s really nice to fill in the story of Elise’s background, and this is a first rate horror film. It has some fierce competition in the box office, but this is a great horror film, and fans of the genre definitely ought to catch this one. I really enjoyed it.

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Herrick Entertainment,

Shelby Young, Chloe Bridges, Mitch Hewer, Taylor Ashley Murphy, Carter Jenkins, Kyle Fain

Covington Forest is a spooky place. The place is known for teen suicides and, of course, it’s the talk of all the younger folk nearby. Five teen friends decide to play flashlight games daring each other for dangerous games in the forest. But one of the people has a secret of her own which makes the night even more deadly and perhaps no one will survive the night.

This is an unusual horror film, and a nice surprise, especially for a horror buff like me. This film is a new take on the usual found footage films with nausea inducing shaky camera movements. This one, however, is told from the point of view of the flashlight, It’s an interesting take, and this, in my opinion, added a new twist to the story. There are times when the flashlight is shining in the wrong place, or not doing anything at all, which is a weird situation when you wish the camera was looking somewhere else. Like many films of the horror genre, it doesn’t give you all the answers, and is not going to wrap it up with a red bow. It will give you a lot to think about and will make you wonder, but that’s what makes it good. But the thing that impressed me the most was how terribly suspenseful it was. I was really riveted to the screen and found this little low budget horror flick very entertaining. If you’d like to see something way out of the ordinary, this is an excellent choice. Watch it in the dark, with the sound up, but it might be a good idea to bring a friend.

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Just One More Productions, Exit Strategy Productions,

Joel Hogan, Megan Peta Hill, Josh Potthoff, Pete Valley

Three friends have a dream to be accepted for a survivor-like reality show, but they have to submit a video showing how well they work together, and that they are up for adventure. They decide to travel to Australia to visit a friend they haven’t seen since they were children, and to film themselves doing a dive in a shark tank surrounded by hungry sharks. But when a disaster happens to their ship, the three find themselves floating alone in shark filled waters waiting for some good luck in the way of a rescue from their dark situation.

This is the third, obviously, in the serious of Open Water movies. I have seen all three of these, although the only review I have written is for Open Water 2 [Click Here for Ed’s Review]. It’s hard to believe that the first one was in 2004, 13 years ago before Ed’s Review was even a thought. The first one was a very startling and interesting film, but actually Open Water 2 was even better. This third installment was one too many, perhaps, and I found a bit disappointing. After the successful suspense of Open Water 2, this one took to the “found footage” gimmick which doesn’t really work. That’s because they can’t possibly show everything from the point of view of one single camera, so they constantly cheat by throwing in other shots and we’re supposed to try to figure out who filmed it, and where the film came from. The whole back story of kids wanting to be on reality tv, and then ending up in a found footage flick is hard to swallow. The acting is not very solid, and the chemistry between these three is very ho-hum. Over in 80 minutes flat, it’s still plenty long for you to get bored with it and wish it to be over. IT does follow the format, somewhat, of the trilogy, but does come up a little short. Personally, I wish I had passed on this one as it wasn’t worth the time invested, and is especially a letdown after the last one. Choose “47 Meters Down” instead of this one, and you’ll enjoy it a lot more, in my opinion.

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Blumhouse Productions, Digital Riot Media, Vesuvius Productions,

Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Rachel Matthews, Charles Aitken, Donna DuPlantier, GiGi Erneta

Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) is a college girl, living in the sorority house, and very popular on campus, but her Mother recently left them, and she has withdrawn from her father who is also suffering from the loss and resorts to using small talk when they meet. Tree has withdrawn and acts out instead of facing her grief and as a result, ignores her father completely. Today is her birthday, and she shared the same birthday as her Mother, so it’s a very hard day for her. But as the day draws to a close, a serial killer in a mask kills her on the way to a party. But when Tree awakes, the day is starting again, and the same things repeat. After weeks of reliving the same day over and over, Tree ends up dying in the end no matter what she does, but she is getting closer to determining who the killer is, or perhaps more so trying to figure out who it isn’t. In the end, she’s stuck in this cycle until she is able to figure it all out on her own.

Everyone throws Groundhog Day at this movie, and rightly so. Even in the ending of the movie Tree’s good friend throws out directly the Groundhog Day connection, and of course Tree has never heard of Bill Murray nor the movie itself which is one of the many humorous bits in this movie. It is horror, but it does have a great sense of humor, and the story is very well written, highly predictable, but you’re probably wrong after the twist in the end. And nothing is as it seems. The suspense was pretty high level, and the script was very clever. Actually there have been many other time loop films, but none exactly like this one. It’s fresh, great looking, and highly entertaining. I really enjoyed this film. The acting was very good. Jessica was excellent, even though she’s rather new, she’s was in La-La-Land and did a good job there, but this really showcases her talent though. Her platonic friend Carter, played by Ishmael Broussard is also very good. All in all the movie was a great deal of fun to watch and if you love horror, this is certain a decent one and well worth the trip to see this one on the big screen.

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Atomic Monster, New Line Cinema,

Stephanie Sigman, Talitha Bateman, Lulu Wilson, Philippa Coulthard, Grace Fulton, Samara Lee, Tayler Buck, Anthony LaPaglia, Miranda Otto, Lou Lou Safran, Mark Bramhall

Bee Mullins (Samara Lee) is a sweet little girl who lives with toy maker Sam Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia) and his wife Esther Mullins (Miranda Otto). When Bee is killed in a sudden accident, the little family is devastated, but try to move on, but a really evil doll, Annabelle who we met two movies ago, decidedly did not want any peace in this house. 12 years later, Samuel and Ester (who is now bedridden and unable to walk) decided it was time to make amends, and invite a nun, Sister Charlotte (Stephanie Sigman) and six young women and girls who are orphaned, into their home for a kind of penance for the evil that has overtaken their house. They think it is save, but two of the little girls are very curious of what is hidden away, and the evil is free again in this prequel to a prequel to a great horror movie series. But the team that puts together these stories is really good, and even though you wouldn’t expect it, this film is awesome. It is very, very scary in a number of different ways. I mean, there are great jumps and jolts from the awesome camera work mixed with loud noises, that we often decry as cheap scares, but the are mixed in with a really truly creepy story that keeps building and building suspense. The children who play the orphans do a wonderful job, and the two main children have a quite challenging role for each to play, but the do it stunningly. Mr. and Mr. Mullins are also very good, especially

This whole series of movies has been extremely good for the most part. In Conjuring 1 and 2 we met the Warren’s, a husband and wife who ran a paranormal investigation team and had a cellar full of haunted and possessed artifacts, the key one being a very scary looking doll in a glass case named Annabelle. We knew from the very first time that we saw her that this doll must have had a demented history. We found out what the doll could do as a conduit of a demon in the first movie, a prequel to the Conjuring films called Annabelle. The very end of this film is the actual opening of Annabelle, and though Annabelle told the story of the what the doll can do, this prequel to a prequel, Annabelle: Creation tells us the story of how the doll was made, how the demon came to control it, and what happened to the original owners before the last movie. Since this is a while ago, this becomes a period piece of sorts, and even though it’s awesomely presented in the past, the year really doesn’t matter. But even though it shouldn’t be, it is really an awesome movie! This thing is really very scary. There are a nice mix of scares, and though there are some well done jump scares with the excellent camera work combined with loud noises from a great soundtrack, sometimes these are decried as cheap scares because they are overused. But these are excellently done because they are mixed in with some really intense suspense that builds and builds throughout. The team that puts these films together are masters of suspense, and that is why it is doing so good in the box office this week. The girls who play the orphans in the movie are really good, especially the two girls who play the leads. These two girls are the youngest and best friends, a lot because the other 4 girls exclude them from the group as much as possible. These two do an unbelievable job turning in this difficult performance, and it is nearly perfect. Mr and Mrs Mullins are also very well played, both as the happy young couple with a lovely daughter , and as the worn out and nearly destroyed couple that take in these kids as a sort of last attempt at redemption. Anthony LaPaglia is especially good since he is a major part of the film, where as his wife has a much smaller, yet critical role. But I think I was most impressed by Stephanie Sigman who plays Sister Charlotte who also did an excellent job. She is hopeful and cheerful while trying to do her best to keep her girls together even though times are very tough. She gave a wonderful performance. The special effects are really top notch, and the setting and camera work is excellent. All in all, this was a really good horror film and one that any fan of scary movies should see. This film helped save my summer. Well done!

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