Ed's Review Dot Com

Allspark Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Hasbro,

Henry Thomas, Annalise Basso, Elizabeth Reaser, Lulu Wilson, Parker Mack, Sam Anderson, Kate Siegel, Doug Jones

The Zander Family is having a rough time. Dad was killed by a drunk driver leaving Mom, Alice (Elizabeth Reaser) alone with two girls, Lina (Annalise Basso) and Doris (Lulu Wilson). They are struggling to pay the bills by offering psychic services like readings and seances, when Alice realizes her youngest daughter Doris may actually have the gift for real. Alice really wants to help people, perhaps to help herself with her loss, but is it really friendly spirits, or does their home have a much more sinister past than they are aware. Messing with spirits is asking for trouble, and they have a lot on the way.

This film is a prequel to the 2014 film Ouija starring Oliva Cook and Ana Coto [Click here for Ed’s Review] . If you haven’t seen or can’t remember Ouija, this is a good time to rewatch it, as this is the story what happened in the house about 50 years earlier. This story gives us the background on when the characters in the original movie were kids, and what happened to them so that the original films make more sense. This film is a bit better, although I really did enjoy the first one as well, but now the whole thing makes a lot more sense to me. The first one was kind of random, which a lot of people didn’t care for. This one is a formula film, and it’s produced by Michael Bay so there’s a lot of activity going on here. Henry Thomas, who I haven’t seen in a long time, is here as a Priest who presides over the daughter’s school and is trying to help them. When he’s on screen, he’s really good, but it’s not a huge part. The girls are excellent and really pull it off, especially the younger girl Doris. The film is really creepy and scary, but the weakness is probably the predictability of the story. It goes where you expect, and there aren’t many real surprises in the plot. But it does take place in the late 60’s which was a nice change, visiting my youth for a little while. I find it hard to think of the 60’s as a period piece, but I have to admit I’m really getting old! But the 60’s vibe was strong. All in all, I really enjoyed this film, and thought it was a decent Halloween Horror film. I liked the way it fit in with other movie, and that made it more enjoyable for me. If you’re a fan of horror, this is a really good one.

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Magnet Releasing, Marvista Entertainment, Circle of Confusion,

Sarah Hyland, Justin Chon, Steven Krueger, Clara Mamet, Anthony Carrigan, Sophie Dalah

Satanic is the story of four friends, Chloe (Sarah Hyland) and Elise (Clara Mamet) who are cousins and their boyfriends who are on their way to Coachella for the music festival, but decide to arrive 2 days early to visit the site of horrific murders and satanic rituals in Los Angeles.But when they meet a lost girl who appears to be all alone, they invite her to stay, which brings doom to the bunch of them.

People sure hated this film. I think that is a bad rap, because I found myself interested in it. I was able to follow what was going on, and if you’re totally lost, just watch the special features and you’ll learn a lot about the intentions. I have a soft spot for folks who love the movie business, and though they have little money and little pull in Hollywood, they set out with vigor to try to do the best they can with what they have. Having read William Shatner’s biography about the beginning of Star Trek and the troubles they had where they had to write changes to the script because there was no money for any special effects. (The transporter itself is an example of that. There was a shuttle craft in the script, but no money for it, so Roddenberry on the fly came up with the transporter where the actors stood on tiny circles and inside the camera they would make them disappear and reappear on the surface of the planet. This film reminds me of that.) This is a very low budget film with a very dedicated director who wanted to make this film very much. Most of the cast and crew only did it for their love of film and not for a big paycheck. Everyone turned in their best. Sarah Hyland is obviously the star of the film and is given the most to do due to her experience and training in TV and other films, but a number of the other characters really stood out and did a good performance. My favorite is a toss up between Steven Krueger and Sophie Dalah. Steven did an excellent job, but Sophie really seemed quite adept at her role as the lost soul who was the keystone of the whole adventure. I was sure I had seen her before, but looking her up in IMDB showed that she’s really new but extremely talented. She definitely reminds me of someone, although I’m not sure who. The movie starts out slowly allowing us to get used to the characters and the dynamics of the group, and sets up a few red herrings for us. As the actors get the situation ALL WRONG, we do as well. The ending is abrupt, and loses a lot of people, but it’s really obvious what it all means. I didn’t find it a bad ending at all, although I was disappointed at how it ended, I think it was very well done. I would have liked a different outcome, but I didn’t want the Titanic to sink either, you know. Also I did not want Davey Crockett to die in the Alamo either. But with very little budget and a great love of cinema, these guys made a decent horror film, and though it’s not mainstream Hollywood, I think they did an pretty good job and deserve praise, not complaints. I liked it, and if you’re a horror fan, as I am, give it a try. It’s not that bad, trust me.

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Dimension Films, Outerbanks Entertainment, Collision Entertainment,

Horror, Supernatural Horror, Supernatural Thrillers, Slashers and Serial Killers, Teen Screams, Zombies

A group of friends in a small Louisiana town witness one of their group’s grandmother who is killed in a car accident. She’s retrieving a secret package, and when one of the townsfolk tries to steal the case, he is also killed. Turns out grandma is a well respected voodoo leader, and the guy who was killed along with her comes back to life and sets out to kill everyone in the group. What follows is a Jason, Mike Myers type of serial killer who is undead, and pure evil being chasing, and being chased by the young people using all their tricks.

This is a B horror film, but a lot better than the one I saw yesterday. This one has been around a while, since 2005, but is making its rounds again this season. Featuring some well known TV actors at the time 10 years ago, and some up and coming stars as well, it’s actually very scary and very well made. With layers of monsters, snakes, voodoo, and zombies, it’s got a lot of power and it just keeps building and building up to the very end. With excellent creepy locations, the background makes things even worse. There is a lot of heart put into making this, and I give the team credit for the effort that was put into making this one of the creepiest little known films I’ve seen in a long time. This is certainly one that’s off the radar (It was originally titled “Backwater”), but if you can find this one it will give you nightmares! It was nice to stumble into one so well put together on such a small film. If you can find this one, give it a shot.

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Safady Entertainment, Silver Lining Media Group, The Culling Productions,

Jeremy Sumpter, Elizabeth Di Prinzio, Brett Davern, Chris Coy, Linsey Godfrey, Virginia Williams, Johnathon Schaech, Harley Graham, Jennifer Bowman

Five friends are on a road trip to a music festival, but when they stop for a bite, they find a little girl of about 7 who is all alone in the parking lot. After discussion they decide to give her a ride home safely, but when they stop at the old farmhouse, they soon find themselves battling the forces of evil just to survive in this horror film.

This move is full of problems, from lack of money, to a devoted, but weak cast, to reusing the same plots again and again. But by the same token, it is really creepy. It’s dark and the suspense is really pretty good. I mean, it’s certainly a well used plot for sure, but if you don’t expect too much, it is quite possible to enjoy this film. Remember, there’s not much new that you can dream up that hasn’t been done. So you change around the characters, make this one a little girl, and you have the hook to build a creepy house story. Don’t go into this thinking it’s a great new masterpiece of a story, because it’s not. But if you have some time to kill watching a movie to creep the heck out of you, this is not the worst you can do by any means. When people get together who really want to make a movie, and give it their best, God bless them for keeping new blood (pun intended) to the film business. I didn’t hate it, Didn’t love it either. But it was ok to watch.

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Ghost House Pictures, Good Universe, Screen Gems

Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto, Stephen Lang, Emma Bercovici, Franciska Torocsik, Christian Zagia, Katia Bokor, Sergej Onopko

The Blind Man (Stephen Lang) lives all alone in a house on a street in metro Detroit and he is the only person on the block that is left. This is a perfect setup for Rocky (Jane Levy) and her boyfriend Money (Daniel Zovatto) and her “friend zoned” would be suitor Alex (Dylan Minnette). Rocky takes care of her little sister as her dysfunctional mother won’t, and her dream is to take her sister and get out of Detroit and move to California. They pull off petty jobs, but The Blind Man got a huge settlement when his little girl was killed by a drunk driver, and since he never goes anywhere, the money must be in the house. With a score this big, the trio can take off an move to the west coast. But The Blind Man is an ex soldier who, though he’s blind, is not a push over, and the trio run in to a LOT of really big problems on what was supposed to be an easy job. As they discover more secrets, it appears there isn’t any way out at this point, and The Blind Man has a keen sense of hearing and smell, and is clever as a fox.

This film has been tearing up the box office, and it was a must see when I saw the trailers for it. I wasn’t sure Jane Levy was ready for a part this big, since I have only seen her as Tessa on Suburgatory, but she was awesome. By far the biggest role, but she carried it very professionally. Excellent job. When it comes down to it, this is a movie for Jane and Stephen Lang, and the others are just there to fill in the spaces. The two of these fight an epic battle down to the bitter end. This is an extremely horror inducing movie and is scary as hell. The Blind Man is not really alone as he has one nasty Cujo worthy dog beside him which helps a lot. The jumps and scares are one after another, and I shouted out loud more than once which is rare for me. But the suspense level is awesome. The director and cinematographers did an excellent of putting us in the scene, and the shots and setups were unbelievable. Whether down in the dark basement in the dark, or stuck in a closet, or crawling through a creep air duct, we are there with them. This is the first real horror film of the season, and timed perfectly, given the big numbers at the box office. Sure not a huge budget, but a well thought out horror film inside a heist film. The characters are well developed, and the script is crisp and smart. All in all, very scary, very suspenseful, and very well done. Good work guys. This is a good one!

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