One of the most highly anticipated films for me to check out was the sequel to the classic Stephen King written and Stanley Kubrick directed The Shining which King over the years had expressed his distaste for the film. In 2013, King wrote the follow up to the novel entitled Doctor Sleep and from that point on fans wondered if we’d ever see the sequel come to life. Their prayers were answered in 2019 when Mike Flanagan (The Haunting Of Hill House) took on the task of writing and directing the film version of Doctor Sleep. The film stars Ewan McGregor (Mortdecai) as Dan Torrence, who may remember as the child from the first film. Dan is now all grown up and is constantly battling the image his father left behind and after travelling all across the country settles in New Hampshire at a nursing home where with his powers he becomes Doctor Sleep. He soon discovers that a little girl with the same kind of powers is in grave danger from a group known as The True Knot who prey on the kids who display the shining as they believe it keeps them immortal. The film also stars Rebecca Ferguson (Life) as Rose The Hat, Kyliegh Curran (I Can I Will I Did) as Abra Stone, Cliff Curtis (The Meg) as Billy Freeman, Zahn McClarnon (Bone Tomahawk) as Crow Daddy, Emily Alyn Lind (The Babysitter: Killer Queen) as Snakebite Andi, Selena Anduze (The Rookie) as Apron Annie, Robert Longstreet (Aquaman) as Barry The Chunk, and Henry Thomas (Suicide Kings) as The Bartender.
Out of all the horror films that I have checked out in the past year, this is definitely one of the finer moments in the genre. There wasn’t really anything that I did not like about this film cause I felt that it had it all and one of it’s finest details is The True Knot who were the perfect antagonists especially Rebecca Ferguson who absolutely stole the show as the true main villain of the film. She absolutely commanded the screen every time she appeared and the last sequences of the film were built up very nicely as they accomplished the pay off. The special effects were amazing and the sequences with the ghosts were absolutely great too as I can’t get that creepy woman in the tub out of my head. The only thing I had criticism about were the actors they cast to portray Danny and his family from the very first film The Shining. Now I understand, you can’t go in a time machine and grab Jack Nicholson to bring him back to play the character again, but the guy they cast did as good a job as he could. I felt the film was a perfect way to close the chapter on a series that we all know King was not happy with for a while and the ending of the film closes that chapter for good hopefully. If you love Stephen King horror films then do yourself a favor and go and check this one out cause it’s great. That is why I am going to give the film an A+ for a final grade because it has great acting, great writing, and some amazing cinematography.
There are few things in this life that truly freak me out and one of those things happens to be a Ouija board and the other is evil spirits. So, what happens when you combine those two things into one film, well hopefully a good horror film. For today’s film, I decided to check out the prequel to the 2014 film Ouija in Ouija: Origin Of Evil. For Alice Zander (Elizabeth Reaser), life hasn’t been easy for her and her girls since the death of her husband. She relies heavily on scamming people during seances to get some extra cash. One day she brings home a Ouija board to add a little something extra to the seances, but what she doesn’t realize is the impact it’ll have when an evil spirit possesses her daughter Doris (Lulu Wilson) as a result of it. Now they’ll have to battle the demon inside her in order to save her.The film also stars Annalise Basso (Oculus) as Lina Zander, Henry Thomas (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) as Father Tom, Parker Mack (The Darkness) as Mikey, Doug Jones (Hellboy II: The Golden Army) as Ghoul Marcus, Chelsea Gonzalez (Criminal Minds) as Gloria, Michael Weaver (Super Troopers) as Roger Zander, and the film was directed by Mike Flanagan (Hush).
Spoiler Alert: There may be information contained in this Article that could potentially spoil the plot of the film so continue with caution or do not read any further if you do not want to know. This is the film that the original should have been as far as scary and spooky moments are concerned. This is another horror film that I absolutely loved this year even though I went in very skeptical. I definitely feel that this film could compete with The Conjuring films (at least part 2), Annabelle, and any other film like it. When you watch this film, the original Ouija film from 2014 will make sense or t least the backstory that you get in that film will make sense. Lin Shaye (Insidious) plays Lina Zander in the 2014 film and we wonder why she is freaking out and why our main characters have to cut the stitches off the girls mouth in the film. Well, this is the film that is going to explain it all for you so sit tight and enjoy the show. There are plenty of cheap scares to go along with the demonic imagery that we get, but a lot of kudos goes to Lulu Wilson who plays one creepy little girl when she gets possessed. There is a reason why this film has an 81% (as of right now) on Rotten Tomatoes because this film is legit. The other element that I loved as a film nerd is the ode to the old 60’s/70’s films with the old title card and the burn marks that appear on the screen every now and again. It was a cool thing to include and it was much appreciated by me and some of my colleagues. This is one of my favorite horror films of the year and that is why I am giving it an A- for a final grade.
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