Movie Review: The Conjuring 2

In an average year I make it to about 18 movies in the theatre; half of them are easily Oscar nominees in January and February, and about six are various Superhero/Wizard/Spaceship films (which would be a movie I'd see entirely based on the title).

This tends to leave me with about two movies a year in theatres and in my chosen Genre, the horror film. More often than not these end up being post-apocalyptic films as they look better on the big screen.

Last night, however, I went to an advanced screen of The Conjuring 2, director James Wan's follow up to his 2013 original featuring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the paranormal investigators who, worked on cases like the Amityville Horror and the Enfield Poltergeist in the 1970s and 80s.

The movie was a lot of fun for me for a number of reasons:

1) Wan is getting really great at doing supernatural horror - although he is still probably most famous for the originalSaw (which is well worth a watch), the Insidious and Conjuring films show a really neat progression of his work behind the scenes, laying out the various home and characters before fully submerging them into the horror of the story, and working well on both the over the top and the subtle in horror.

2) The leads are pretty incredible, getting you to invest in them as a couple first and then using the strength of their relationship throughout the horrors of the film is a great way to show the power of a good relationship.

3) If you happened to catch the BBC mini-series The Enfield Haunting earlier this year, as I was, you're in for even more of a treat as that story follows the same events but from the supporting characters point of view - in many ways horror relies on perspective to be most effective and these two versions of the same story actually helped each other a lot.

Although I didn't like this film quite as much as I did the original Insidious (which, as a story not based on true events, could take some very interesting jumps) it is a solidly effective horror and left me hoping for more if the film does well.

Movie Review: The Conjuring

Last weekend a lot of people decided to skip the usual summer fare of action and animated films and instead decided to go see the new horror film The Conjuring, directed by filmmaker James Wan (famous in horror circles as the director of Saw and Insidious), which is pretty great news, as the film was a pretty great haunted house story, and definitely had me on the edge of my seat for most of the story.

 

The story is largely about the Perron family, who in 1971 moved into a house that started acting very strangely very quickly.  All the clocks stopped each night at the same time, strange smells and noises contantly woke the family, and eventually something started attacking the children.  At this point Ed and Lorrainne Warren are brought in, paranormal investigators who hope to solve the Perron's problem.

 

What I loved best about the film comes down to the strong story and acting, horror can often impress me with great scary concepts, but stories that are brought to life by actors who excel at their craft tend to stick with you.  The entire film had a vibe that felt like a horror film made in the early 70s, reflecting in everything from camera angles to the title card.

Also the music box shown in some of the trailers is much creepier when seen in detail.

This movie was great, and assuming it'll come with a commentary track when released on DVD, I'm pretty sure I'll be adding it to my collection.

Bookmonkey Saw: Day 18

Taking a step away from the films for a few days, lets look at some the other Saw-related media out there.

But first a little background.

1) In 1999 Konami released a survival-horror video game called Silent Hill (which in itself became the beginning of a series of games, comic books, movies, and novels), in which an "everyman" type character explored the frightening town of Silent Hill and sometimes slipped into a darker and more violent place.  Unlike it's most popular competitor in survival horror, the Resident Evil series of video games, Silent Hill focused on moody atmosphere and could best be described as psychological horror rather than the zombie-filled action horror of the Resident Evil series.

2) One year earlier, in 1998 the television series Felicity began airing which focused on the character of Felicity Porter (played by Keri Russell) as she attends college at the fictional University of New York, and throughout the series balances school with a love triangle involving two boys named Ben Convington and Noel Crane.  The first season ended on a cliffhanger, wherein Felicity had to choose between taking a road trip to California with Ben, or a trip to Europe with Noel.  Season two began with the knowledge that Felicity chose (mild, 13-year-old spoiler) the road trip with Ben.

Now, before you get upset and and start wondering why I'm filling my Saw blog with Silent Hill and Felicity, bear with me, It will all make sense I promise.

1a) Before season two of Felicity began, fans could buy a novel called Felicity: Summer which focused on her European trip with NOEL!?!  Which, of course, didn't happen (although the series does get involved in time travel later - seriously - so who knows, maybe it did?).

2a) Already considered one of the leaders of horror games in the video game industry, Konami began to look for a new concept which would further cement their hold on this sub-genre of video games.

Now, let's talk about Saw, for Playstation 3.  Like Felicity: Summer, Saw the game plays around with the franchise, taking place between Saw and Saw II, and featuring the character of Detective Tapp, who DIED in the first film, as the main character.  At the time of the games release, Saw VI was due out in about a month, so a game wherein the main character, who is clearly referred to as dead in the second film, somehow survives and gets to go through another bout with the Jigsaw killer may seem strange, but that is what players were met with.

The game looks an awful lot like Silent Hill, taking place in a largely-abandoned location, and with a very similar atmosphere, it is easy to make comparisons.  Also, having played through the first half of the game myself, it is probably the most fun I've had with a Saw-themed text since the first film.  The game is filled with timed mini-puzzles, and although it has a pretty high violence factor, the fact that you control the character makes it a heck of a lot more enjoyable than watching another half-dozen random characters get fed through death-manchines (sorry, Saw III - V).

So there you have it, even a passing familiarity with the series of films is all you need to enjoy the game, and as long as you are not put off by the onscreen violence, it was actually a lot more fun than I expected.

Also I got to put Saw and Felicity together for the first time on the web!

Bookmonkey Saw: Day 16

Saw V

On to the fifth Saw film now, and it begins exactly where the fourth left off – many people have died horrible deaths (again) and a plot twist has left the audience wondering exactly who is doing the killing now and why(again).

Directed by David Hackl (who was the production designer for Saw II – IV) Saw V strives to answer exactly that question, using flashbacks to the first Saw film (again) and for the first time in the series, the second film as well.  In this film the victim running through the gauntlet is once again a group (5 this time), and the story flashes between them and the parallel story of an FBI agent who found an unexpected way out of a trap and is right on the trail of the new Jigsaw Killer.

By this time in the series, much of the focus has shifted from story to the horrible death traps used by the killer, but as my interests don’t run that way, neither will my blog posts.

An interesting note my wife pointed out to me was that the heavy use of dioramas in the series (first in the original film, but most strongly in the fifth), looks an awful lot like those used by “The Miniature Killer” in the seventh season of the CBS television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation which lasted for the majority of the season and began airing about a month before the release of Saw V. 

For the next two posts I’ll be looking beyond the films, following the logic that “…if the film and television industries invest so heavily in previews, bonus materials, merchandise, and their ilk, so should we as analysts..” (Gray, 2010, p. 8). So get ready to learn about the first Saw videogame and the VH1 Reality TV series Scream Queens.

Gray, Johnathan (2010) Show Sold Separately: promos, spoilers, and other media paratexts. New York , NY : New York University Press.

Bookmonkey Saw: Day 2

Okay, so today let’s look at the first film of the series, Saw (2004).  Created by Australian filmmakers James Wan and Leigh Whannel, the story is actually quite simple.  Two men wake up in an abandoned bathroom, chained by their ankles to pipes on either end of the room.  In the centre of the room is the body of a man who appears to have shot himself in the head.  In its hands are a tape records and a gun.  The two men manage to acquire the tape player and finding cassettes in their pockets which say “Play Me” (Obvious shades of Alice in Wonderland here), are informed that they have approximately 8 hours in which to escape, which will only occur for the one left alive at the end.

There is also a sub-plot focusing on two police officers who are hunting down a serial killer called “The Jigsaw Killer” who places his victims in horrible hurt-yourself-and-escape-or-do-nothing-and-die traps (such as they one our two leads are in).

As with many horror/thriller films, there will be plot-twists and discoveries, but I’m attempting to write without spoilers so I’ll go light on those.

In terms of the Horror genre in 2003/2004 when the film was released at the Sundance Film Festival and later released throughout North America , here is what was going on.

2003 Was filled with a lot of sequels and remakes, Dawn of the Dead (Remake), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Remake), and Freddy vs. Jason (considered parts 8 and 11 of the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13^th franchises respectively), as well as Van Helsing an homage to the classic Universal Monster movies of the 1930s.  Keep in mind that the Horror genre is one made of sequels and remakes; usually the producers and directors are working on their first or second film and horror films have always packed kids into theatres.

Saw worked in a very different way than the other options horror fans had at the time.  To begin, the killer is off screen for almost the entire film, second there is no female lead (one of the two men in the bathroom has a wife, but she is on screen for less than 10% of the film, mostly in flashbacks), and finally, although the story clearly owes concepts to both Mad Max (1979) and Se7en (1995 – which also focuses on cops trying to find an incredibly clever killer) Saw wasn’t an obvious remake or sequel.

Watching it myself I have to admit that the first film is kind of clever.  The on-screen violence is fairly minimal (you don’t see any severed body parts for example), and the story seemed innovative and quite smart for an incredibly low-budget film.  In the end, the movie did so well at the box-office a sequel was ordered with a release date set for the Friday before Halloween in 2005.

Bookmonkey Saw: Day 1

Okay, so lets join your pal Bookmonkey for a talk about the Saw-franchise of horror films.

In 2004 Lions Gate Films released a horror film which would dominate the horror genre in film for the next seven years and touch upon other formats ranging from comic books and video games to reality television.  It all began with...

Wait, first let’s go back to the beginning.

In 1979 Australian Cinema hit the mainstream with the film Mad Max.  The finale of this car-chase / revenge film has ex-cop Max Rockatansky (played by Mel Gibson) come upon one of the villainous thugs who murdered his wife and child early in the film.  Forcing the man to handcuff himself to a car, Max sets the vehicle on fire, brandishes a hacksaw and states:

Max: The chain in those handcuffs is high-tensile steel, it’ll take you ten minutes to hack through it with this. (tosses villain the hacksaw) Now, if your lucky, you can hack through your ankle in five minutes. 

Walking away from the vehicle as it burns, the audience hears the scream of the thug followed by the vehicle exploding.

The creators of the 2004 horror film Saw, Australians James Wan and Leigh Whannell, were both two-years-old when the first Mad Max film was released, but both state that the film, and specifically this scene “...was definitely a big, direct influence”(1) on Saw (2004) which has two men handcuffed to pipes in an abandoned building and facing the same dilemma.  

It is these connections, along with the fact that the Saw franchise had a new motion picture out the Friday before Halloween every year for seven straight years, and that the story expanded into other areas, including significant aspects of popular culture, that drew me to want to make an examination of the series.

As a long-time horror fan myself, but definitely one who prefers the monster movie sub-genre, I was of course familiar with the general idea behind the series, but until this month have not seen any of the central or related texts.  

1. Hartley, M. (Director and Writer) (2008). Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! [Film] Australia: City Films Worldwide.

Thing's I've Noticed: Growing a "Saw" collection can be pricey

One of the things people don't often realize about having a "Theme" month, is that it can get kinda pricey.

Back in 2010 when I did Twilight of Bookmonkey, the price was fairly minimal - my kids owned all the Twilight books, as well as the first two films, so all I needed to find was the novella and some soundtracks, which was fairly easy as my local library had everything.

In 2011 for The Reimagining of Bookmonkey, things got a little pricier - the library doesn't tend to collect horror movies so over the course of a few used book store runs I had to trade away movies I was finished with for a lot of movies that I would soon be finished with  - quick note here, if everything you are looking for is available in multiple copies at multiple used-bookstores, maybe the thing you're looking for isn't that great.

This year, I've got seven films, two PS3 games, a couple seasons of a reality TV show and a single issue of a comic book from 2004 to track down.

So far I've laid out about $30, making Bookmonkey Saw my priciest theme-month to date.  Also that was for one game, a specific edition of the first film (which included the 2003 short film used to sell the script to potential buyers) and the comic.

Thank god I can rent the rest.

Anyway - I'm not complaining too much, after all I do get to spend the next month watching all these movies, and seriously, how bad could they be?

Three Posts to go until a month of Saw

From the Desk of Bookmonkey,

As I'm now three days away from spending a month on a look at the Saw franchise, I thought I would clear a few things up.

1) I'm not going to get into graphic descriptions of on screen deaths or the like, although I'm a big fan of the horror genre, I'm not particularly into gore.

2) I am going to focus on a lot of the ways in which the franchise grew, looking at the original short film, the series, the spin-off comic book and at least the first game for the PS3 (I'm still searching for the second)

3) I've done a bit of a double duty with my Saw-themed month, I'm also going to be using it for a course I'm currently working on, so there may be some references to other academic works over the next month, and the occasional work cited (bear with me).

Anyway, that's about all - I just wanted you to know that my goal is to still have this blog be a place my kids and my mom could read over the next month, and due to the subject matter, I thought some of you might be cautious about what I'd be writing about.

Your pal,
Bookmonkey

Things I've Noticed: I'm heading back to school

Today marks the first day in my second year of library school - not that I'm a second-year student (although I sort of am), but as I'm about a third of the way towards my Masters of Library Sciences, and there isn't such as thing as a 1/3 student, I guess I am a second year student.

This term I'm actually taking two classes, a Thursday morning (Organization of Information) and a Thursday afternoon (Multimedia LIteracies), which means that for one day a week I'm not at work but am instead a full-time student (sort of).

It was very cool - I got to have first day jitters, meet new students and get the smell of freshly sharpened pencils (a scent I've connected with school ever since kindergarten).

Anyway, I've seen the early work on the saw-themed banner I'll up next month and it looks pretty cool - and hopefully by the time it goes up I'll be able to understand it's relevance to the series (which I've still never seen) and am pretty excited to spend a month looking at one of the biggest horror franchises of the last decade, so at least I'll be in the know.

Being a student is pretty cool!

Genre Character of the Week: Kristi Rey

Our genre character this week is a little tricky, because although the character is well developed over the two films she appears in, I found the horror of each of these films diminished as the series progressed.

 

Oh yeah, sorry – Kristi Rey is the main character of the film Paranormal Activity 2, and is also a main character (as a child) in the prequel film Paranormal Activity 3.

 

So (spoilers included) lets go back the fall of 2009 and the phenomenon of the Paranormal Activity franchise.  It was a found footage style film (clearly influence by The Blair Witch Project) which followed the lives of a young couple, Katie and Micah who dealt with some kind of creepy activity in their home.

 

The movie was a huge success, horror audiences loved it and as the Saw franchise was winding down it appeared thatParanormal Activity may be the new look of horror fims.

 

I didn’t see it until 2010, for free, from my local library.

 

Having been a dedicated fan of horror from my youngest years, this movie just seemed to be more of the same style of horror I had been seeing since The Blair Witch Project ten years earlier.  My personal opinion was that “…the first film was a lot of fun in a sort of Blair Witch Project vein, and there were more than a few scares throughout – without going into spoilers I will say that the movie is worth a watch, but maybe only if you can watch it on TV or get it cheap.”

 

Then, just like the Saw franchise, Paranormal Activity 2 came out in October of the next year (2010) and we were treated to an interesting prequel/sequel (which I reviewed here)

 

Now a few weeks back I watched Paranormal Activity 3, which follows the female leads from both previous films in a definite prequel, taking place nearly 20 years before the events of the first two films.

 

Again, I saw these free from my local library (which is how I recommend anyone should watch them), but it’s fair to say my favourite character in the franchise is Kristi, played in the second film by Sprague Grayden and as a child in the three-quel by Jessica Tyler Brown.

 

What I like about Kristi in both films is just how real she comes across – in a lot of ways the more down-to-earth a character is in a horror story, the more scary the story becomes, because the character is so easy to relate to for the audience.

 

My problem with the films as a whole, is that they start out showing you one thing, then saying it’s another (clever), and then the second film, although using a recognizable actress for its lead (bad choice in a found-footage style film, even if the actress is great), plays with both the format of prequels and sequels in general (more clever), the third film basically explains exactly what was going on and also seems to have a problem with grandmothers.

 

Yup – in the end the message received is “Don’t trust friendly Grandmothers.”

 

Now I know that a fourth film is on its way, and when it’s free I’ll probably check it out, but honestly, horror works best when there is an unknown to be afraid of – not when every possible back-story is examined for potential shock moments.