Ed's Review Dot Com

Broad Green Pictures, Busted Shark Productions,

Joey King, Ryan Phillippe, Ki Hong Lee, Mitchell Slaggert, Shannon Purser, Sydney Park, Elisabeth Röhm, Josephine Langford, Kevin Hanchard, Sherilyn Fenn

Clare Shannon (Joey King) is a school age daughter living with her Dad (Ryan Philippe) who is a collector. Their house is filled with junk he collects from the neighborhood dumpsters to reuse someday for something useful. This is really embarrassing for Clare as her schoolmates constantly harass her for this. In fact, she’s typically being bullied by the cool kids in school. Clare is a misfit. But on his journeys, Dad finds an interesting Chinese music box in the trash, cleans it up, and gives it to Clare as a gift. But this is a very special and evil wishing box which, if you hold it, and make a wish, the wish will come true. Clare starts using the box, but there is more to the deal, and no one can seem to translate the ancient writing on the box. When Clare learns that price that is taken for each wish, she has to try to use all her wits to figure out a way to defeat the demon in the box.

This horror film came out in a time when the theaters are filled with too many sequels of superhero films, and so a decent horror film was a good change of pace and much appreciated. There was a pretty good turnout when I went to see this film, and it seemed the crowd enjoyed it, but there has been a lot of hate for this movie. The film was directed by John Leonetti who also directed Annabelle which is a pretty decent film. I enjoy horror, and though there is some reuse of some of the ideas (after all the evil box movie isn’t new, is it?) it is really well done, and I enjoyed it. It was really creepy, and it has a nice pace. The surprise ending really caught me by surprise, and I really enjoyed the ending. The clever twists and turns were interesting, and though obviously this is low budget, it’s not bad at all. If you’re in the mood for something a little different, give this one a shot.

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Regency Enterprises, New Regency Productions, Blind Wink Productions,

Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs, Mia Goth, Celia Imrie, Adrian Schiller, Annette Lober, Susanne Wuest

Lockhart (Dane deHaan) is a young executive on the rise at his firm, but he’s caught with some financial missteps at the time of a big merger. The board sends him to the Alps in Switzerland to a hide-away SPA/Retreat/Mental Facility in Switzerland to bring back the former head of the company who has gone to this place to rest and recover, but who is needed to be the fall guy for some of the crimes he has committed. Lockhart’s plan is to go in, and bring him out and back to New York on the same day, but as soon as he arrives at the clinic, it becomes clear that there is something much deeper going on. Being kept from seeing the man he’s looking for, Pembroke (Harry Groener) but he soon finds out bits and piece of the history of this place that is indeed sinister. Mostly old people around, but one unusual young lady named Hannah (Mia Goth) is intriguing to him, and appears to be in the center of the mystery surrounding this place, but as the driver tells him, lots of people come, but very few ever leave in this dark, classic, suspenseful horror film.

This is a very unusual film. Directed by Gore Verbinski, it’s a very long movie, about 2 1/2 hours, and it’s a very cerebral type of story that is no so much blood and guts, but really a head spinning maze of twists and turns until we finally get to the end of the film. This movie really reminded me of the look and feel of Shutter Island, and I kept being reminded of that over and over again, as I watched it, and if you are not aware of the actual finale of the film, you’ll be surprised and amazed at what is really going on here. It’s not a perfect film, but I really enjoyed it a lot. Many folks looking for the new style of horror with mass murderers running havoc through a summer camp were disappointed. This is a thinker, and takes a lot of work to follow and figure out what it really happening. All the pieces are not just thrown at the screen, but if you like good old fashioned suspenseful stories that get you pulled into the moment, this movie does that very well. As we got tot he latter part of the story, I found myself glued to the screen not to miss a bit of what was happening. The actors did a really good job. It was well cast, and the setting at the clinic was certainly very well chosen as well, and the cast and location add a great deal of the suspense part of the story. This is a nightmare for sure, and a movie that will move you if you give it a chance. If you are too impatient for the story to slowly unfold like a flower, not like a skyrocket, then you might as well skip this one as it starts out slow and plodding, but by bit, turn by turn, but if you like that, like I do, then you won’t want it to go too fast, and you will appreciate each bit by bit, morsel by morsel and you won’t want it to end too soon. I liked this film.

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Blumhouse Productions, QC Entertainment,

Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root, LilRel Howery, Betty Gabriel, Marcus Henderson, Lakeith Lee Stanfield

Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) is nervous about meeting his fiance’s family. Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) is a white girl from a very wealthy family and she hasn’t quite told the parents, Missay Armitage (Catherine Keener) and Dean Armitage (Bradley Whitford) that her fiance is African-American. But Rose insists that her parents are not racist in any way, and that he has nothing to worry about. But Chris’ best friend Walter (Marcus Henderson) a TSA agent at the airport isn’t so sure. Things feel a bit strange up there as the black people who live in the town are acting very strange, and many more are missing, but when Chris gets the warning GET OUT! all hell breaks loose.

This is a good old fashioned horror film that has real terror and a real good story. It’s hard to figure out the truth, and you’re likely going to go through the film thinking it’s easy to figure out only to be blown away at the end. Sure, there’s a few jump scares, and the sound effects and score add a lot to the film which makes this a great one to see on the biggest screen you can with the best sound system you can find. But above and beyond that, this film is really creepy with a lot of suspense thrown in. The ending is especially good. Yes, this is one horror film that is less on the gore, and much ratcheted up on the scary story side. This is one of the better horror films I’ve seen in a long time, and the African-American slant is quite interesting, although not at all essential to the story, and it could have been anybody, really. But the reasoning for why they’re African-American is really twisted. In summary, this is a darn good horror film with lots of new faces. In fact, this was Allison Williams’ first feature film, and she nailed it. Jordan Peele wrote the story and this is his debut as a director, and the story arose out of a discussion in 2008 over whether Hillary as a woman or Barack as an African-America had more right to be president. It grew into this story, and it does cover a lot of moral and ethical ground, but never stops the constant terror and suspense. I recommend this one to horror fans everywhere!

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Covert Media, QED International, Revolver Picture Company,

Jacki Weaver, Liana Liberato, Harrison Gilbertson, Ione Skye, Brian Wimmer, Danielle Chuchran, Ella Harris, Carl Hadra, Jan Broberg , Kasia Kowalczyk

Evan Asher (Harrison Gilbertson) and his family, Mom and Dad, and sisters move into an empty house that is haunted. Evan is kind of shy, but when he was out walking, he ran into another girl, Sam (Liana Liberato) out walking as well. Sam is rather mysterious, but the two form a bond. But when Evan finds a strange box in a room through a little door, the two are anxious to find out what it’s all about. But there is a history of something evil in that house, and the device connects them to the source of it to their doom. Something is going on and as they say, “Curiosity killed the cat!”

This is a decent, run of the mill, horror film, but there are some things that are a bit refreshing. Essentially it’s a ghost story, although they make about big deal about this miracle box that connects to another dimension, it’s essentially still just a ghost story. Actually this is a case where the beginning of the film is a lot better than the climax ending. It seemed like it kind of ran out of gas at the end. I can see why the ending is not a favorite of anyone who reviewed this film. But is was creepy in a haunted house sort of way. The two young actors who played the leads took on a rather difficult task to try and carry this film themselves. They did their best with it, and deserve a good deal of credit for taking on a daunting task like this and bringing it as far as they could. The rest of the case was basically just filler, except for the neighbor lady, Janet Morello, marvelously played by Jacki Weaver. She really shone in the role of the creepy person who did frighten me a few times. She has a very minor part, but her part is important to the story, and she is the keystone of the whole setup, and she really aced it. All in all this is a relatively scary little ghost story with a few problems and a botched up ending, but it is higher quality than most of the stuff out there, and though it’s not a hugely popular hit, it is an out of the ordinary surprising little horror film that didn’t disappoint me. I enjoyed it all the way up to the strange ending. Horror fans, give it a shot.

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Genre Co., The, Benaroya Pictures, 120dB Films,

Anthony Reynolds, Owen Teague, Clark Sarullo, Stacy Keach, Isabelle Fuhrman, Samuel L. Jackson, Erin Elizabeth Burns, John Cusack

Clay Riddell (John Cusack) is in the airport when he notices everyone who is on their cell phone screaming, then turning into maniacal killers killing themselves and everyone around them. A strange signal pulses though the phones turning filling everyone on their phone with incredible rage. Those not on their phone at the time, soon called 911 or someone at home to find out what was going on and were exposed to the sound. Clay escapes the airport, but sets out on his way to determine what happened to his wife and son who were home at the time of the cell phone attack. He runs across Tom McCourt (Samuel L Jackson) who is a locomotive engineer and they team up to try to survive the pockets of murderous monsters that are everywhere. The try to figure out the rules of how to deal with this problem while trying to stay alive.

This is based on a novel by Stephen King. I haven’t had the opportunity to read the book yet, and from those who have read it, the film pales in comparison to the book, but not having that to compare it with, I really enjoyed this film. It seems that Stephen King has a problem with Hollywood producers doing a weak job of migrating his books into films. I liked the fact that this was a zombie movie with living zombies. It was an interesting twist, as though these folks were clever and fast instead of stupid and slow like the typical zombie. In typical King fashion, we’re not going to get all the answers. He seems to like to tell the story of what happened and let you draw your own conclusions as to the whys and hows. The suspense was intense, although this is more of a science fiction story than a horror story. But King is like that too, typically. This is a really intense story, and the pair of Cusack and Jackson really go well together. This movie has a lot of people who dislike it, but for me it’s one of the better modern Stephen King movies I’ve seen. I enjoyed the scares and the suspense, and found it a very enjoyable little film. For Sci-Fi and Horror buffs, why not give it a try.

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