Because Everybody Else Has One

It may well be a freaking awful horror film but as a surprisingly self-aware mixture of teen comedy and schlock, Annabelle Comes Home is a surprisingly fun time. I still think it's way past time to close the book on the "Conjuring Universe", though... This review is also up on Channel 24 What it’s about The Conjuring Universe continues in this third Annabelle film. After their last harrowing encounter with the titular evil doll, Ed and Lorraine Warren are on their way to their next case but, for the sake of them and everyone around them, they drop off Annabelle at their home, where they know she will be kept under control behind a pane of sacred glass in their room of occult objects. Leaving their young daughter, Judy, at home and in the care of her trusted babysitter, Mary Ellen, they head out with the comfort on knowing that their already well-behaved and responsible daughter is in the hands of an equally well behaved and responsible teenage girl and that ...

Big, dumb and fun might not sound like a ringing endorsement but for an installment in the DCEU (aside for the genuinely fantastic Wonder Woman), it's pretty much an A+ rating. I'm still surprised we got an Aquaman film before a Flash or Green Lantern (oh, right...) movie but it's not like much of anything in the DCEU makes much sense anyway (WW aside, once again). Regardless, DC still has some ways to go before catching up with Marvel but this is definitely another step in the right direction.  This review is also up on Channel 24 . What it’s about Based on the DC Comics character of the same name, Aquaman, real name: Arthur Curry, was born to an Atlantean queen-in-waiting and a land-dwelling fisherman, whose elicit relationship leaves Arthur as a renowned superhero but one without a people of his own. When word gets to Arthur that the current king of Atlantis and his own half-brother, Orm, is planning to launch a concentrated attack on the countries of Earth, the...

Another crummy horror sequel? Maybe not! This review is also up at Channel 24 What it's about Lorraine and Ed Warren are called out of semi-retirement to investigate a case in England where a single mother and her four children are plagued by what seems to be the ghost of the house's former owner. What we thought To date, the Conjuring has been the best of James Wan's horror oeuvre (I still enjoy the deliriously nutty Fast and Furious 7 the most of all his films, though) and its sequel pretty easily lives up to its predecessor. Once again, the cliches of Wan's work do occasionally grate (is there anything more predictable than a James Wan jump scare?) but it's otherwise a really solid, nicely creepy little haunted house flick that easily stands out from a crowded and more often than not disappointing crowd. Once again, a big part of the Conjuring 2's appeal is in its real-world origins. Whether you believe in ghosts, demos and other pa...

... This time it's personal. Well, not really. This review is also up at Channel 24 What it's about : Picking up immediately after the events of the first film, we once again find the Lambert family trying to deal with malicious spirits as they uncover connections to their own past and the ghosts that haunt them. What we thought : Coming hot on the heels of director James Wan's own  The Conjuring , it's hard to get past the feeling that even Wan doesn't really see the point in a sequel to  Insidious .  The Conjuring  may fit into much the same genre, indeed the same sub-genre, as the Insidious  films and it may have plundered freely from many often better horror films from the last five decades or so, but it at least found Wan on noticeable revitalized form as the film had a vitality and freshness – not to mention creepiness - that so many modern horror films so sorely lack. It was probably the best horror flick he has done yet and indicated that ...

Now for a quick review of a pretty fun horror flick.  From Channel24 What it's about A married couple's idyllic life is thrown into turmoil when their young son falls into a coma but even as they try and deal with the fact that no one understands why he isn't waking up, they are confronted with increasingly malicious supernatural forces. What we thought Regardless of whether you find Insidious scary or not, it's nice to see a horror film that is neither a remake ( Let Me In ) nor another entry into the increasingly irritating “torture porn” genre (take your pick). Neither, for that matter, is it as mind-numbingly boring as Paranormal Activity 2 , nor as pointlessly nasty as something like local slasher, Night Drive . It's especially cool to note that it is directed by none other than Saw director, James Wan, who is apparently as sick and tired of “torture porn” as the rest of us should surely be by now.