Annabelle

Every once in awhile a horror film uses a doll and it comes in all different ways. The classics like Poltergeist or the 2013 The Conjuring used it as as an element and not as a main plot device. The first type of doll movie that used a doll as a main character was Magic, a ventriloquist with a young Anthony Hopkins as the magician. It was in the 80's with the first Child's Play that changed the doll concept somewhat. Yes, he was another killer but the doll named Chucky was so revolutionary because he was a character and was actually given something to do. Due to the fact he was a children's doll, this made him even more creepy. Following after Chucky, there were similar dolls films like the Puppet Master series or Dolly Dearest which were clear inspirations for those to follow. Horror director James Wan is famous for following the trend of dolls in the 2000's with the torture film Saw, Dead Silence and of course The Conjuring. The doll concept is one that is hit or miss in films ultimately .    

Based off the The Conjuring doll Annabelle, Annabelle is a prequel to The Conjuring and showcases the doll before the events of The Conjuring. Set in 1967, the couple of Mia Form (Annabelle Wallis) and John Form (Ward Horton) are expecting their first child together. John gives Mia a doll she has been looking for as a pre-baby present and for the nursery that has been set up for her. You could definitely say that Mia is fan of dolls as the room is essentially a nursery filled with close to a dozen dolls. After a vicious attack at the house by people from a cult, the doll eventually becomes possessed from the cult member Annabel Higgins. The possessed doll is then ready to kill.

Being that The Conjuring was set in the 70's, it makes total sense as to why this film was set in the 60's. From the style including cars, houses, hospital and even showing an interesting clip of Maryland Manson, a infamous killer during this time, all of these are all examples of the 60's timeline being used. At the same time, the 60's aspect makes this film seem so silly. When is the last time you ever heard of woman during pregnancy on bed rest by a doctor? It is also so cheesy watching a couple trying to get reception on an old television. The baby is in an old baby carriage makes which me really question if this is stealing from the classic Rosemary's Baby.    

Annabelle ultimately along the way is a horror film where we should care about the characters. The couple surely is likable and going through the exact opposite of what they should be going through when trying to have a baby. The couple are too simple in substance though and really I didn't feel much sympathy for them unfortunately. The local book store owner Evelyn (Alfre Woodard) plays an original character which by the last act turns into a very predictable character and meets a very cheesy ending.                                                                                                                                             

If we boil it down to just one thing, the biggest problem with the film just might be the doll itself. The doll does have an interesting look and feel with its design and color. That said, we are never given an explanation of what makes this doll so special and why the mother thinks it is so. For the most part, this doll is sitting around in the background of scenes and really if we didn't know, this doll could be looked at as just a random doll in background shots. Not in any shape or form does this doll provide any types of scares. Not even small jump scenes.
 

                                                                                             

In the end, Annabelle is a big disappointment. The Conjuring was a film that was just asking for us to have this prequel because that movie made the doll so intriguing. We weren't asking for this type of prequel though as this movie is very boring, choppy, and lacks ideas. Annabelle is a film that will go down as one of the biggest misses in horror in quite some time.

1.5/5

The Conjuring

If you say you like horror, you would have to know James Wan. He is a director who's only made a impact since the 2000's but it's a big mark indeed. He first created Saw in 2004 which was a clever and original torture film that later turned into six more films. Dead Silence came next for him which I've never seen but it has killer dolls in the plot that comes off as original even in pre-watch. Even though more of a physiological film, he created Death Sentence in 2007 which can be described as a crime film. He went back horror in 2010 with Insidious which felt something similar to the classic Poltergeist, with a family getting haunted by a demon and Insidious 2 came in 2013.

With Wan announcing himself directing the next Fast and Furious, it's now safe to say that horror may be done for him and he's going in another direction. Regardless of where he's going, I'm going to support him because I am a fan of his. The Conjuring as possibly his last horror movie fits solidly into his filmography though.                                                                      

Based off a true story and set in the 70's, a family of six with five daughters move into a country house looking for a new start and really a new chapter on life. After what seems like random noises that could be found throughout any house, the Perron family starts to notice that these aren't random noises and they later contact paranormal investigators Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Vera Fleming) Warren. This is a haunted house film with also some homage to the 70's and of course it's horror.         

If you ever seen Wan's previous work,  Insidious which we have talked about, then you know what the The Conjuring is. Like Insidious, The Conjuring has a family, investigators and Patrick Wilson was also in Insidious.  Still though, The Conjuring is a film that works though it does lack  originality.                                                            

The list of why this works without originality is granted very long. Setting this movie in the 70's is fresh and innovating. Ed and Lorraine are the type of characters that are very interesting and the movie has a very cool premise. These are the type of characters I could watch quite often in movies to come. Lili Taylor in particular delivers a performance that stands above them all. The movie provides many scares, at least it did for me, and for a person who doesn't get scared by many things, that's definitely saying something. I can also appreciate the smart ending here that just makes you appreciate how much James Wan knows horror.                                    

With a sequel set to be put out in 2015 and spin-off film coming out the first week of October in 2014, the future of this film is far from over. It is something I am surely looking forward to. The Conjuring won't go down as Wan's best work but it won't be his worst work either. I would put it in the middle of his filmography.

4/5

The Poltergeist Curse

My love for horror, and even before the Blair Witch Project, began with Poltergeist. With a pot-smoking scene, sexual undertones and at times strong horror scenes, this movie was probably not made for an elementary kid but I could say that about most films that I watched during my youth. It was a film that used at the time, a difficult concept of involving a family inside a horror plot and in this case a Poltergeist was attacking the family. With the well known Tobe Hooper directing it, Poltergeist made it's mark on the world but had two crappy sequels that later followed.

What makes this series an even more interesting series is what is known as "The Poltergeist Curse". This was a series that produced some crazy real-life incidents and also sadly involved some interesting deaths of actors in the movie, some whom were very young.

Dominique Dunne who played Dana Freeling was strangled to death by her boyfriend in 1982 at the age twenty two. Unfortunately, the boyfriend only served three years in prison before being released.

Julian Beck played the VERY strange Rev. Henry Kane and died from stomach cancer during the production of Poltergeist 2. The remaining scenes involving him were handled by H.R. Giger.

Will Sampson played the Medicine Man and died after the release of Poltergeist 2 from kidney failure at the age of fifty two.

The saddest death of the series was no doubt that of Heather O'Rourke who died from cardiac arrest and septic shock after a misdiagnosis at the age of the twelve. Her ghost is said to haunt Stage 19 at Universal Studios where she shot twelve episodes of the Happy Days television series.

Zelda Rubinstein died at the age of seven six in 2010. She is the only cast member to die at a normal age and from natural causes.

Here are some additional interesting facts.

- Drew Barrymore was originally casted for the lead role of Carol Ann.

                   

                        

-The Poltergeist and E.T. houses both looked the same due to the fact they both were shot in the same area and the films were released just one week apart. The Poltergeist house was also damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

-The famous skeleton scene in the first film did involve real skeletons. JoBeth Williams was so afraid to shoot the scene that Steven Spielberg jumped into the pool with her for support.

 

- O'Rourke died during the production of Poltergeist 3. The director of the film, Gary Sherman wanted to scrap the film altogether but was pressured by the studio to finish it and eventually used a body double for the rest of O'Rourke's scenes. He called the film a disaster because of it.

- The creepy clown scenes involving the character Robbie being choked actually did involve the actor Oliver Robins being choked due to a prop malfunction. As the story is told, Spielberg jumped in and saved the child actor.

For many movie nerds, these are well known facts. Often and sometimes around Halloween, there are articles regarding The Poltergeist Curse. I find The Poltergeist Curse to be fascinating and unlike anything I have seen before.

Children of the Corn

Of all the Stephen King books and films, I find the movie Children of the Corn to be about the most interesting. As a fan of horror movies, I think films with children as villains seem to work for me. Poltergeist and Insidious are two quality horror movies that involve children and families. Village of the Damned was another and this spawned others. Children of the Corn is one of the most interesting of these films because of it's originality, atmosphere and it involved many kids, not just one. This series had some sequels with the first one coming out in 1984 with mixed reviews. The most recent in the series was a remake on the Syfy Channel in 2009 eight years after the last one.

This remake uses most of all all the same ideas of the original including corn fields in Nebraska and kids with religious views who have killed their parents and looking to strike again. This time the victims are an argumentative couple who were on their way to a honeymoon trip in California.

As a creepy kid film, it is very important that there are good performances from the child actors. Here, I was disappointed in the child characters. Other than the Isaac character (Preston Bailey) just about every kid plays their part like extras. At the same time, these characters are not creepy and don't work well as villains.

Even though you could pick at it a little and get maybe something, there isn't much of a plot here. I do like the leads of David Anders and Kandyse McClure but they aren't given much to do and they really mope around a lot. There are some interesting sets here but the kill scenes are not particularly good. There are some beneath the surface ideas that do come into play here. and these include the idea of race, spiritual aspects of the corn and religious overtones throughout.

Of course you can't take any of this story too seriously, but obviously there is no way something like this could happen in our country with our government. A town full of killer kids and young pregnant girls would be responded to quickly by the police and military and would be a CNN headliner for weeks. A minor flaw maybe but still hard to overlook.

I found Children of the Corn to be disappointing and a movie with an hour and half plot that ran too long at two hours. This is a tv film that feels like a tornado stringing things and ideas around with no purpose and really just wasting our time.

1.5/5