The Devil's Doorway (2018)

The Vatican sends a team of two priests, Thomas Riley and John Thornton, to investigate a possible miracle in 1960 Ireland. At a remote Magdalene Laundry, a statue of the Virgin Mary supposedly cries blood. Father Thomas expects its nothing, but more idealistic and young Father John sees the possiblility of an expression of the divine. As they stay longer, children can be heard playing at night and more and more about this place shows that there is much to hide.

The Devil's Doorway takes the very real horror of the abusive Magdalene laundries with the supernatural. This institution within in the Catholic church hid "fallen women" (meaning sexually active, pregnant out of wedlock, or sex workers) from their communities, abused them, forced them to work, and keep them confined. In the last few decades, the mental, physical, and sexual abuse of the women by priests and nuns who ran the laundries in addition to taking thousands of children born and selling them overseas. All of this is much more horrific than anything supernatural writers can come up with, so I thought some of those aspects fell flat.

The whole investigation starts because of a statue of the Virgin Mary crying blood and it turns out to be so much more than that. Strange sounds are heard at night including the eerie sound of children playing. All of the Mary statues cry and then explode in one of the most effective scenes of the film. A particularly violent pregnant woman is chained up in the basement, apparently possessed. These aspects could have been a bit more streamlined. It's a lot of supernatural just thrown around that don't really seem to be connected to each other. The possession in particular seems to be there just because it's expected to be rather than furthering the story. The payoff for the creepy children voices wasn't executed very well and seemed rather cheesy even though it pointed to the reality of children dying in the "care" of these institutions.

Father Thomas and Father John are the duo sent to investigate the miracle. Thomas is borderline atheistic and jaded while John is idealistic and fairly innocent. This type of pairing is pretty typicaly in possession movies and works well here. They are a bit shocked when the Mother Superior directly calls out the corruption of priests and points out that quite a few girls at the laundries were abused by priests. Her character had great promise, but she remained one dimensional and villainous. The priests are the most likeable characters as they stumble around trying to solve this mystery and getting caught up in the deeper, sordid secrets of the laundry. I didn't like the nuns are basically painted as what's wrong in this situation (even though they aren't blameless) considering that they have no real power in the church as a whole.

The Devil's Doorway does some interesting things. It's a found footage film set in the 1960's and has the visuals to match. The atmosphere can be suspenseful and the plot is fairly well crafted. With the subject matter, I was hoping for a much more critical view of the Catholic Church and it turned out to lay the blame to the nuns who are partially at fault, but don't make the overarching decisions that made the institution and its abuse a reality. Having the priests clutch their pearls about the abuse didn't ring true to me at all, let alone anything else. Overall, it's a decent horror film, but I left disappointed at the tired tropes and random grab bag of supernatural.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins 

Hereditary (2018)

* spoilers *

Annie Graham is not very sad when her mother dies. They always had a rough relationship and became estranged before she succumbed to dementia and other ailments. At the funeral, a surprising amount of strangers attend along with Annie's daughter Charlie, her son Peter, and her husband Steve. They all go on with their lives while Annie feels unresolved about her chaotic childhood rife with family deaths and mental illness. Then, the family experiences a new tragedy that begins the unraveling of their lives.

Hereditary has some wonderful individual scenes that hit extremely hard. The first hour or so of the film is memorable, uniqely filmed, and well done. It establishes the Graham family and their relationships with each other. Annie is an intense woman who creates miniature art. She dotes over Charlie, her daughter who constantly draws and makes figures out of found objects. Peter, Charlie's older brother, seems have girls and pot on his mind at all times. There is an awkward tension between Annie and Peter that could be normal teenager-parent conflict. Steve is on the periphery, but has positive relationships with everyone. The focus is on Annie as she attends a grief support group and reveals her sordid family history full of mental illness, suicide, and abuse. When she befriends a woman from this group named Joan, she later reveals a horrifying incident where she covered herself, Peter, and Charlie in paint thinner and lit a match while sleepwalking. This incident is the most telling as to why Peter and Annie don't get along.

Then a devastating accident tears their family apart. Charlie is killed due to a chain of events involving allergies, nuts, and a dead animal in the road. This scene blew my mind. We don't really see what happens, but we see Charlie hang out of the car, the approaching telephone pole, and the oppressive silence that follows. The car had been loud with her wheezing, trying to breathe around her swelling throat. After that, the camera focuses only on Peter as he goes through a number of emotions on his face: shock, hope, realization, sadness, and finally a numb calm. He drives home without looking in the back seat, parks as usual, and goes to bed only to lay there awake for hours. This scene had so much emotion. The carnage isn't seen there, but we know something terrible happened. The dread built over the night when he lay there is like a crazy amped up version of dreading your parents are going to find something you did when they wake up. I couldn't believe it was happening. The tension and dread didn't let me look away from the screen.

The aftermath is equally devastating. Annie is inconsolable, screaming and crying for hours. Peter is numb and doesn't seem to say anything or react. They collide during dinner one night when Annie explodes, claiming that Peter didn't take responsibility for his actions and that she hates him and his disdain. This seems to be the first time Charlie's death was discussed as a family, showing that their norm is not to communicate at all until it becomes a fight. A dream sequence also shows her revealing to Peter that she never wanted to be his mother and tried to miscarry him with a repeat of the paint thinner incident. These two scenes in particular show Annie's tendency to lash out and continue the cycle of abuse started by her mother. She also has built up resentment over Peter's very reasonable feelings of fear and distrust towards her. Instead of working through them or being honest in a constructive, nonaggressive way, she opts to hold grudges and leave all of it unsaid. Even with her husband, Annie chooses to keep even her need for support a secret and leaves room for doubt since she has been lying. Her only outlet for emotion is her miniature art where she constructs scenes from her life. Steve proves to be the most decent character of the film who offers emotional support without judgment or anger.

Unfortunately, I feel that the film falls apart after this. The seance scenes completely obliterate any tension or emotion that was built up. What follows is typical cult tropes that are scene in films from Rosemary's Baby to The Omen. Some of the horror elements are well done, but felt silly and compelely disconnected after the bombshell of Charlie's death. All of the truly shocking events were part of the family drama and not part of the supernatural aspects at all. While I enjoyed how all events were connected and essentially predestined, it also made the movie much more predictable, along with the tropes, so very few scenes were a surprise. Another thing that bothered me was how simple logistical things seemed to be ignored. Why did the family never have an epipen when Charlie was allergic to nuts? Why was Peter going to school so soon after his sister's death and why weren't people talking about it everywhere? Why wasn't he offered therapy? Why wasn't Annie's mother's whole deal a little more established so the ending made more sense? The last scene was a bit frustrating as well. If you need a whole exposition bomb right at the end of your movie, maybe you're doing something wrong.

Hereditary has some undeniably amazing scenes and masterful direction and acting. I wish the ending of the film would have had the same emotional weight as Charlie's death, but it seemed silly in comparison. The ending had too many typical horror tropes that cheapened it and made it predictable. A reveal about Charlie's character also made it quite ablist, implying that she is odd and/or disabled because of a possession. It left a bad taste in my mouth and yet another example of outdated, ignorant ideas still having a presence in modern day horror. I did enjoy all the performances, particularly Toni Collette as Annie, Alex Wolff as Peter, and Annie Dowd as Joan. Ari Aster has a unique vision as a director, but I found his writing not as impressive.

My rating: 3.5/5 fishmuffins

Ouija: Origin of Evil

Doris has trouble making friends and spends most of her free time helping her mother with seances or what she calls "readings." Business is dwindling with the act becoming stale and oujia boards are exploding in popularity, so her mother buys one as a prop to garner more customers. She never expected it to actually work. For a while, Doris helps her mother with readings directly, answering loved ones' questions, having the spirits move the planchette on their own, and sometimes even talking in their voices. However, Doris' behavior is becoming more and more erratic with strange things happening around her at an alarming and increasing frequency.

I expected Ouija: Origin of Evil to be completely horrible. The first film was a forgettable piece of garbage that made me want that hour and a half of my life back. This film, on the other hand, was delightful. It had everything I wanted: creepy atmosphere, suspense, an interesting story, and characters to care about. Doris, Lina, and their mother Alice struggle to survive. Alice conducts "readings" that she knows are just scams, but tells herself she's giving her rubes peace and closure. All suffer from the loss of the children's father, forcing Lina to grow up much faster to protect her sister. Even though I didn't always agree with their decisions, I cared about their whole family and what happened to them. They are hardworking people trying to live their lives despite great losses.

Doris starts out as a sweet but lonely girl struggling to come to terms with her father's death and her mother's job scamming people. She prays to her father every night to tell him about her day in order to cope. Her demeanor completely changes after she is attacked by an entity. She becomes more cold and calculating. Her previous kindness becomes a mask to hide her cruelty and lull those around her into a false sense of security. Her possession takes form visually with blank, white eyes and physical feats physically impossible for humans. This is achieved with CGI that I thought would be distracting, but proved to be effective and just enough. Much more would have been too much and it never became too cartoonish. Possessed Doris is formidable because of whatever's possessing her and the fact that others underestimate her.

The pacing of the film is excellent as it deliberately doles out its scares. Even when everything seems fine, I could feel an undercurrent of unease that something wasn't right. It was too perfect with Doris finding a bunch of money and communicating with people's dead loved ones to make her family successful again. Some of the plot developments came out of nowhere and there was no way I could have predicted them. The reason for Doris' possession was unexpected and pretty creepy. Even though the film is PG-13, I didn't feel like it was censored or parts were cut out to achieve the rating and appeal to wider audience. I was fully into the film and on the edge of my seat for most of the last half.

Overall, Oujia: Origin of Evil blows that first film, which was about as interesting as watching wallpaper dry, away with its creativity, unpredictable plot, and formidable performances. The only part that was lacking to me was the ending. It felt incomplete and disconnected from the rest of the film. Other than that, I was so impressed with this film that won me over when I already wrote it off before I even sat down in the theater which is no small feat.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Ash vs. Evil Dead

After all his epic adventures with Deadites and thirty years later, Ashley Williams still works at ValueShop. lives in a trailer park, and goes to dive bars to pick up women. To woo a woman, he stupidly reads from the Necronomicon and brings the Deadites back. As Ash leaves a trail of possessed and dead people behind him, detective Amanda Fisher chases him across the country while he travels with his two young coworkers Kelly and Pablo to return the Deadites to where they belong.

I was never a super huge fan of the original Evil Dead films. I understood why they were important to the horror genre and their innovation in horror comedy and practical effects. I decided to give the show a try and I'm so happy I did. It has almost everything from the original films merged with a compelling story and likeable characters. The show brings back Bruce Campbell to his iconic role as undeservedly arrogant Ash with his chainsaw hand, one liners, and brash attitude. The only difference from Ash from the films is that he's now aging ungracefully and refuses to see it. He has a simple mentality: shoot now, think never. He's much older, pathetic, not very smart, and completely unapologetic.but he's so charismatic and fun that you still root for him through all his bumbling and mistakes. Speaking of mistakes, he thought it would be a great idea to summon a demon to fight the Deadites, but didn't think about the aftermath.

The new characters fit well with the show. Pablo and Kelly provide a voice of reason to Ash's antics. Pablo is desperate to be cool in Ash's eyes and in love with Kelly. He was raised by his shaman uncle who prophesied of a man who fights evil called El Jefe. Pablo is absolutely convinced this is Ash and believes in him even when Ash has his own doubts. Sometimes even Ash's most deplorable actions get even Pablo to judge him badly. Kelly, on the other hand, is less eager to join the group. She is focused on running from her past, but finds a kind of family with Ash and Pablo. She judges Ash harshly, but still follows him and works to beat the Deadites with him. Pablo and Kelly provide different perspectives on situations and give Ash some perspective at times.

The Deadites are back to their old tricks. Regular zombies are bad enough when someone sees a loved one rotting and attacking them. Deadites take it to crazy lengths. One minute they will spew obscenities and insults and the next weep at the attacks in a perfect imitation of the loved one. These are living or dead people possessed by Kandarian demons who have a hive mind. Not all of them are zombies, but the majority of them end up that way. At their core, they are dark tricksters who delight in mayhem and chaos. In the show, they have a mysterious leader and an ultimate goal that concentrates their efforts, making them even more dangerous than before.

The show is hilariously disgusting with blood and vomit splattered liberally. Unfortunately, the effects are primarily CGI instead of practical effects. The effects are the most revolutionary thing about the original films and it's disappointing to see the legacy stop. I suspect it's a budget and time constraint issue. I've resigned myself to the CGI because it doesn't look terrible and the soul of the show is intact. It's a fun, gory, over the top horror comedy that's a worthy follow up to the original films. The only other problem I had was that half hour episodes are way too short. Other than that, I loved every minute. The ending to the season was perfect and I can't wait to see the repercussions in season 2.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

The Conjuring 2

Janet, a regular little girl, is suddenly plagued with hearing voices and sounds at night. As time goes on, the incidences get more and more violent with she and her sister being thrown around the room. Eventually, the ghost speaks through her and her family feels unsafe staying in the house. Leaving isn't an option since it follows them. First they go to the police and then the church, who employs the help of famous ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren. Unfortunately, they have already been targeted by an evil force.

I hated the first Conjuring movie but I held hope that the sequel would be better. The Conjuring 2 is a mediocre horror film, but miles better than its predecessor. It features a formulaic haunted house/possession horror film. The real strength of the film is in the character building and the acting. I felt for Janet and her family. Her mom is a single parent struggling to provide for her children with no other support other than a neighbor. These supernatural events put great strain on an already stressed family and it was heartbreaking to watch. Ed and Lorraine Warren have a family of their own built on faith and love. The faith part is a bit in your face and obnoxious, but their love is apparent because of the skill and chemistry between Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson. They care absolutely for each other and the people they help. Both of these family dynamics are what made the film at all entertaining.

Unfortunately, quite a few things didn't work for me. First and foremost, I have a problem providing exploitative charlatans like the Warrens any sort of positive publicity. I find them morally reprehensible. Their portrayal in the film is well acted, but flatly perfect and boring. Their faith is portrayed hamhandedly instead of as an organic part of their character. The obvious notion that they and the Enfield poltergeist could be fake is brought up in passing, but discredited quickly by having the accusers not be as charismatic or nice as the couple. The writer could have at least given the Warren's credible argument at least for Amityville, but it amounted to "you weren't there" and namecalling. It may not be as entertaining, but I'd like someone to make a movie where they are shown as the frauds they are in reality rather than the perfect ghostbusting couple they are in this film.

The story doesn't bring anything new or interesting. It stays securely in the established tropes of the possession and haunted house genres. The horror aspects are lacking, mostly relying on numerous (I counted 13) jump scares without building up any actual atmosphere or suspense. These cheap scares give the audience an involuntary jolt, which is fine used sparingly with atmosphere or tension. After a few, they lose effectiveness and show that the filmmakers aren't interested in constructing an effective film. The film also relies a lot on CGI creatures and actors with brightly colored contact lenses. Both come off as cheesy and brought me out of the film. The demon nun creature in particular came off as Marilyn Manson in a nun outfit rather than a blasphemous demon. A particular scene with her and a painting started out as a bit creepy and then descended into goofiness. The Crooked Man creature is well designed, but not well created or used. Showing too much of the monsters shows all of their flaws, Some scenes go on way too long and an odd Elvis moment made the pacing drag. The ending is super sappy and completely out of character.

The Conjuring 2 is not quite as bad as the first, but the construction of the film is a mess. The characters are well acted and sympathetic, but the Warrens come off as too perfect. The horror elements had potential, but came off as cheesy and cheap. James Wan had a couple of good films at the beginning of his career. Now, he continues to pump out underwhelming, forgettable films filled with jump scares. I'm happy that horror is thriving as it dominated the box office opening weekend. I just wish that original films that play with tropes and have original ideas were in theaters rather than the same formulaic ones over and over again,

My rating: 2/5 fishmuffins

Horror Movie Mini-reviews: Ava's Possessions and They Look Like People

Ava's Possessions

Ava was possessed for 28 days by the demon Naphula, but she's better now. Everywhere she goes, people hate her, fear her, or mock her. Not only did she lose her job, but also her boyfriend and all of her friends. She's being faced with numerous criminal charges and opts to join a rehabilitation program for possessed people instead of going to jail or paying back all the damage she caused. Ava starts on her journey trying to piece together the last 28 days, figure out why she became possessed, and see why her floor is stained with blood.

I'm not usually a fan of possession stories, but this one is unique in that it takes place right after the possession where most films end. Considering how possessions usually go (attacking people, acting grotesquely sexual, yelling obscenities, among other horrific things), it's safe to assume that the transition back to normal life isn't going to be easy. Ava has no memory of any of the things she's told she did, but her entire world has changed. Everyone looks at her like she's dangerous and so many people have been hurt by Naphula with her face. She has practically no support system left except a court appointed counselor, a lawyer, and her horribly judgmental mother. Everyone else either hates her, fears her, or mocks her and nothing she does can change the damage that's been done. Along with the emotional fallout, Naphula wreaked havoc and racked up quite the list of criminal charges as well. Now, she has to go to what amounts to Possession Anonymous or face the full brunt of crimes she didn't commit.

The film loses a lot of steam near the end with completely predictable revelations and simply underwhelming events. Ava also insisted on making horrible decisions that wouldn't even help her. I liked that the story explored people who like being possessed and even work with their demons as a different perspective not seen in possession stories. The ending was unimpressive and clumsy, but the majority of the film is enjoyable and a different fare than the usual in the genre.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins


They Look Like People

Wyatt runs into his friend Christian on the streets of New York City by chance. Wyatt has just been dumped by his fiancee while Christian has decided to improve his life with positive thinking and manliness. They live together for a while happily, dating girls and hanging out together, but Wyatt can't shake that he's convinced people are being taken over by demons. Time will tell if Wyatt is right and he needs to leave the city with whatever people remain themselves or if Wyatt is out of touch with reality.

They Look Like People is a surprisingly good film. The suspense slowly builds throughout the film. The beginning feels uncomfortable because of Christian's awkward eagerness and Wyatt's obvious discomfort towards Christian. After a while, they settle into a groove, but Wyatt knows he shouldn't be in the city at all. Every night he receives phone calls from a distorted voice that tells him how to differentiate between actual people and demons as well as how to properly kill them. For much of the film, day time is relatively normal while the night holds the fear and terror. The last half of the film has that night time feeling bleeding into what passes for his normal life.

The real question of the film is if Wyatt is right or not about demons taking over humanity. Suspense is built throughout the film, playing with the question and keeping the audience guessing until the end. The last scene is incredibly intense with Christian tied to a chair and Wyatt deciding whether to kill him or let him live. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the screen as the events slowly unfolded. The only drawback to the film is Christian as he tends to grate on the nerves with his desperate masculinity. Some may be frustrated by the lack of horror elements as the plot builds, but I thought it was a well done slow burn horror film.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Inner Demons

The reality TV show Intervention has chosen to center an episode around Carson, a sweet girl turned addict of pills, heroin, and just about anything else. What makes her different from other addicts is her insistence that she's possessed and takes drugs to protect others from the demon. Her teary parents eventually convince her to try rehab and she tries to get clean. Then weird things start to happen to and around her. The Intervention people just care that it's good TV except one camera man who believes her. Is Carson possessed or just a sad, drug addicted girl?

I'm not the biggest fan of possession films, but I always give films a chance when I see they are trying something new or interesting. Inner Demons isn't the typical possession film. First, the drug angle is new. Carson was an innocent religious girl who memorized bible verses for fun, then she became a heroin shooting goth girl. This seems fairly typical, but the reason behind it makes it fresh and new. Carson is self aware and doesn't want to hurt her family so she dulls herself with drugs. The drug use can be related both to growing up (as people typically at least experiment) and to the corruption of innocence, both of which are the usual meanings of possession in films. However, the drugs are saving her parents even though they are destroying her own life. She can no longer enter a church, but I interpret that as her rejection of her parents' faith because of the church's inability to help her out of her situation. Although Carson does do the typical demon face and creepy voice stuff, she's actually quite sweet and charismatic for most of the film, which goes with her motivation for doing the drugs in the first place. She deteriorates in rehab when the demon is no longer dulled by drug use. She is shown to be a genuinely nice person who has no support system. The people and organizations set up to support and protect her have all failed.

Carson has quite a few people in her life at the film, but only a few actually have her best interests in mind. The first are her parents who appear to be victims in this whole situation. They enable her behavior and are using this Intervention to put their foot down and stop. More on them later. Second is the camera crew who are mostly horrible people who exploit these drug users at any cost for entertainment and ratings. They even stoop to snooping through Carson's room to make her private diary a juicy part of their show. The only exception to this is brand new camera man Jason who hasn't let the industry completely jade him yet. He follows Carson through her rehab journey, looking out for her. He is the only person truly keeping her best interests in mind and one of the only people who believe her. Carson's school friends, who peer pressured her into participating in their stupid ritual that got her possessed in the first place, abandoned and shunned her.

Other people at the rehab facility attempt to help her, one being a therapist who quickly wants to push her off into a psychiatric facility when she becomes too violent. He doesn't even seem to want to figure out why she is in the state she's in. Another is a devoutly religious nurse who attempts to exorcise her. Before that, she places homemade crosses and other religious icons in Carson's room. The problem with the attempted exorcism is that it was really just another assault that Carson felt she deserved. The nurse mentioned that a past exorcism involving a beating with sticks had worked, but the possessed girl died. It shows how religion doesn't help people in this situation and how their brand of "help" is incredibly destructive.

The reason for Carson's possession becomes clear when the film crew goes back to her house after she was ejected from rehab for drug use. Her father is a raging, violent alcoholic and her mother simply enables him and allows it to happen. They admit that the violence has been present for most of Carson's life. This aspect along with her very religious upbringing reveals her life to be repressive and oppressive. The drug use and demonic possession are really her way of both coping with and railing against her living situation. The ending is horribly sad because Carson simply can't survive in this situation despite the one person who cares about her and doesn't hurt her in some way.

Inner Demons does a good job using tropes of the genre and subverting some of them. I don't like many possession films because they tend to be puritanical and misogynistic in nature, but this one isn't. It's not a perfect film: some of the special effects are lackluster and I don't appreciate jump scares in general. Other than that, I thought it was an entertaining film with interesting things going on within.

My rating: 8/10 fishmuffins

Possess

Bridget Liu isn't just a moody, combative teenager that just wants everyone (including her parents, her mom, and the cute son of the police sergeant) to leave her alone. She can communicate with demons and send them back to where they came from. Fearing her loved ones reaction to her power (or her belief in her power), she confides in Monsignor Renault, who then guides her and asks for help on increasingly more dangerous exorcisms. On one of these, Bridget hears a demon say something frightening that turns her whole world upside down. She has to figure out a demon's plan before it's executed and find out who around her is working for it.

I usually don't really like exorcist stories, but the awesome metallic blue cover and the good things I've heard about Gretchen McNeil's writing made me ignore my misgivings towards the genre. I was pleasantly surprised by most of the story. Bridget is a smart, capable heroine that has special powers over demons. Even though she can be too whiny and annoying, her good qualities outweigh those annoyances. I liked seeing the story through her eyes because she adds her own sarcasm and unique point of view. Her character develops throughout the novel and she gets much less annoying and much more mature by the end of it. My favorite scene is the one where a doll shop is infested with demons. There are some pretty creepy moments, but nothing mindblowingly scary. Possessed dolls are just disturbing by themselves. Gretchen McNeil's writing is what made the book enjoyable. Despite my problems with it, I read it pretty fast because she built up momentum really well and grabbed my interest. The plot moves swiftly after the exposition with the demonic activity increasing as it goes along.

I did have some problems with this book. The minor characters are paper thin with little to no character development. A boy is in love with Bridget and literally stalks her around school and sends her frightening and obsessive text messages. This situation gets way out of control and totally could have been prevented if she had just told an authority figure about it and gotten him help. It just makes her look horrible and like she doesn't really care about her friend and the other people he could hurt because of his obviously unstable mental state. I really had to suspend disbelief with the religious aspects because I grew up Catholic and went to Catholic schools. It did pull me out of the story a couple times at the beginning, but I was so interested in the story by the end that it no longer mattered. There were some twists and turns in the plot, but I could see most of them coming a mile away.

Possess was kind of uneven for me. The character development was great for Bridget, but most of the other characters were basically cardboard. I do wish it were a little more scary. Most teen horror is kind of underwhelming. Despite the problems I had, Gretchen McNeil's writing kept me interested throughout the book and I will definitely be reading her new release, Ten.

My rating: 3.5/5 fishmuffins