Halloween Kills

Forty years after that fateful Halloween night that killed Laurie’s friends, Michael comes home again. This time, the people of Haddonfield are ready to fight back.

The movie picks up just at the end of Halloween (2018) and skims over what happened there. Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) has a daughter, Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) now. It seems their family home became a trap for Michael earlier that night when he finally hunted Laurie down, complete with bars that sealed him into the basement. Shown through some messy flashbacks, the family set fire to the house, believing that they finally killed him. After all, there was no way anyone could survive that, right? 

The poor firefighters called to the scene soon become Michael’s next victims, their corpses sprawled out in front of the burning house. Visually, it’s pretty cool and we enjoy how gruesome it is. But I guess people are not happy that firefighters are being so brutally murdered in movies. Decades of innocent teenage girls can die, but it’s fictional firefighters we can’t allow, right?

Meanwhile, at the local bar, survivors of Michael’s initial attack reminisce and relax until the local TV starts reporting about the house fire and the slain firefighters. Now middle aged Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) and his friends realize Michael is back and prepare to fight back. Fueled with vengeance and Halloween booze, they take to the streets. In an attempt to protect kids at the playground, one group gets picked off one by one. Their deaths bring horror fans joy.

We catch up with Laurie and her family at the hospital, where Laurie undergoes surgery for wounds we assume Michael inflicted. As Michael’s attacks add up, it fills the emergency room. The hospital becomes overrun with victims, people searching for loved ones and the vengeful mob led by Tommy Doyle. And soon Micheal isn’t the only one taking innocent lives.

Two characters I really enjoyed and was almost sad to see die were the gay couple who reside in the old Myers’ house, Big John (Scott MacArthur) and Little John (Michael McDonald). We see they’re good, quirky, sweet people, even running out to help kids they thought were in trouble. But sadly, they aren’t good at locking doors. I could watch a whole series about how they decided to live in that house and then renovated it themselves (or with some helpful lesbian friends who knew to be out of town on Halloween). But seriously, who would live in an infamous murderer’s childhood home? 

Honestly, Halloween Kills is not a good, well thought out, or at all suspenseful horror film, but I still enjoyed it. What can I say? I love the gore, the horror and Michael’s almost random killings as he makes his way back home.

“Evil dies tonight!”

Candyman (2021)

Nia DaCosta’s anticipated sequel to the 90s horror film is a refreshing new chapter to the Candyman story. The film takes place about thirty years after the original, in the same Chicago neighborhood, but it’s now gentrified. Anthony (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a young artist, looking for inspiration when he hears the story of Candyman. He dives deeper, trying to understand more about the local legend and meets William Burke (Colman Domingo) who tells him more. Inspired, Anthony incorporates the idea of Candyman, including how to summon him, into his artwork titled “Say My Name.” At the gallery opening, his work and talent is initially shrugged off by the local critic and outright blasted by the gallery owner. But when a mysterious murder happens in the gallery and the butchered bodies are found directly infront of Anthony’s work, Anthony’s reputation and the Candyman legend starts to spead like a virus. 

One of my favorite aspects of this film is the use of mirrors. In the original, mirrors are simply a portal, a means to summon Candyman. That’s true here in this sequel, but mirrors are also where we can visibly see Candyman. Without them the disturbing images of throats being ripped out by his hook just happen by an invisible force, which is also visually cool and frightening. You begin to seek out the mirrors in the film, looking for a glimpse of Candyman lurking, and sometimes you’ll find him! There’s also a great scene with Anthony looking at himself in a mirror where we really understand what is happening with that infected bee sting. 

What DaCosta’s Candyman does best is give the Candyman story back to the black community. It felt riduclous to me that the original focused on a white woman when Candyman was born out of slavery and generations of racial injustice. Even the characters comment on the story of Helen, saying no one cared until a white woman got involved. But here, Domingo’s character passes along the story to Anthony, who’s destined to be part of it more than he knows, and the film actually acknowledges the racist history of Candyman and the impoverished neighborhoods he comes from. Here, Candyman finally feels like a horror movie born out of the black experience, complete with generational “swarms” of police or white mobs to murder each suspected Candyman. The artwork’s title Say My Name comes full circle by the end of the film, not just to summon Candyman, but to never silence the countless victims of white mobs and police violence.

As a horror movie, DaCosta’s Candyman is an enjoyable, suspenseful, bloody ride bringing Candyman higher into the horror pantheon. Tony Todd does a wonderful job reprising the title role nearly 30 years later. The scares and gore were enough to make me jump and look away at times in the theater. And I will be making my husband sit down and watch this with me, so I can see his reaction. I think he’ll especially enjoy the scenes in the girls’ bathroom and in the elevator.

“They will say I shed innocent blood. You are far from innocent but they will say you are. That’s all that matters.”

Death Becomes Her

Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis star in this wonderfully weird, dark comedy about vanity, revenge and immortality. When talentless stage-starlet Madaline (Streep) steals Helen’s (Hawn) fiance, Ernest (Willis), Helen goes mad plotting revenge. Several years of marriage later, Ernest is a Beverly Hills undertaker and Madaline is washed up and unhappily aging. When they meet Helen again at her book launch party, they expect to find a frumpier version of her. Instead she is more gorgeous than ever, tempting Ernest and driving Madaline mad with jealousy. 

After the party, in a moment of fragile vanity, Madaline seeks out what she assumed was a very exclusive beauty treatment. It leads her to a huge mansion where she learns about a potion that will make her young and beautiful forever. Meanwhile, Helen is busy seducing Ernest and plotting to dispose of Madaline. But this new gift of immortality will complicate their plans and turns out to be more of a curse.

The special effects in this film are pretty advanced and convincing for 1992. The film even won the Oscar for visual effects. They really help deliver the supernatural and gruesome aspects of the film. When the potion is used, it gives off a strange glow as it travels through the body, illuminating veins and deaging the actors before our eyes. Seeing Hawn walk around with a huge hole right through her abdomen, or Streep with her neck so twisted her head is facing the opposite direction can be a sickening sight. It’s the acting that brings out the hilarious dark comedy in these moments, like Streep, not realizing her head is backwards, looking down and crying, “My ass!” 

Bruce Willis’s performance in Death Becomes Her is one of my favorites of his to date. His portrayal makes Ernest so dorky, goofy, and just sad enough to make the audience empathetic. The moments that go nearly over-the-top always bring a good laugh. While at the beginning he seems to be stumbling into some fantasy of having two women fight over him, he ends up in a nightmare where both the women are literally falling apart and depend on him for his undertaker beauty techniques. When tempted to drink the potion, he hilariously questions immortality with “What if I get bored?!” Which is a lot more than the ladies questioned, but makes all the difference. 

In the Halloween season, Death Becomes Her is a funny, twisted piece of light horror. The gothic and gaudy mansions of Beverly Hills in the early 90s are a perfect setting for this modern monster movie. With the gore, love triangle themes and strong sexual references, I wouldn’t consider this a movie for the whole family, but perfect for a fun date night on the couch. 

“Where did you put my wife? The morgue? She’ll be furious!”

Annabelle

Branching out The Conjuring series, Annabelle tells the story of a young couple and a doll that becomes possessed with evil. Mia (Annabelle Wallis) and John (Ward Horton) are a picture perfect couple living in the California suburbs. Mia is adorably pregnant and John is dutifully sweet, even giving his wife a new doll for her collection decorating the nursery. One night they’re awakened by screams. As John investigates, murderers from a satanic cult attack Mia, stabbing her belly. In the nursery, one of the murders slits her own throat while holding the new doll. 

We’re led to believe that this is how the title doll became possessed with an evil spirit. I’m no expert on the fabled Annabelle Raggedy Anne doll that has been kept in a locked cabinet in the Warren’s home and blessed by a priest twice a month, but I think this particular story is not based in fact and purely it’s own yarn. To me, that takes some of the air out of this particular story, especially since most of the others within this Conjuring universe are based on real paranormal cases the Warrens have worked on. 

However, while watching the film I was genuinely interested and engaged. I was genuinely worried during the home invasion scene. The jump scares with the dolls were fun. And I enjoyed yelling at Mia from my couch, asking her over and over why she left that baby alone, again. While this is an enjoyable horror movie, it’s just not that scary. 

However, if you’re a new mom, this movie could be downright terrifying. I would advise that pregnant women and new moms not watch Annabelle, it can be very stressful to see a young mother struggle with this madness and a baby in danger. This could really trigger some postpartum depression and anxiety.

The one scene that I found genuinely frightening was the basement elevator scene. Here, there is a sense of foreboding and terror not just in the situation but with the creepy basement setting, which isn’t something we get in the cozy house or apartment. I was not surprised that Conjuring director James Wan directed this scene. 

In the end, I find myself comparing Annabelle to a chili (yes, I know this is an odd comparison). It’s got all the ingredients for a great horror film, and I enjoyed it in the moment, but afterward I was asking if maybe it should have simmered longer. And what’s up with the hint of rosemary? There’s so much here pointing Rosemary’s Baby, (John and Mia, a satanic cult wanting the baby, ties to the Mansion murders) but the connections seem to have loose ends. I want to check out the next two Annabelle movies out of curiosity, but I don’t expect them to be much better. 

“I’m old. Which means there’s very little that surprises me anymore and if it does, I’m too tired to show it.”

Summer of ’84

François Simard and Anouk Whissell’s 2018 film Summer of 84 is a surprisingly dark tale of American suburbia. The 80s nostalgia factor makes it kind of like a Stranger Things grounded in reality. The story of a kid across the cul-de-sac spying on his neighbor gives the film a suspenseful Rear Window/Disturbia vibe. And the fact that our suspected villain is a police officer is a modern twist on what we expect from authorities we’re told to trust. 

In the summer of 1984 fifteen year old Davey (Graham Verchere) lives in a peaceful, quiet suburb. He rides his bike to deliver his paper route and plays Manhunt, a form of flashlight tag, with his friends after dark. Everything seems ideal on his cul-de-sac, until another teenage boy is reported missing. Soon Davey suspects his neighbor is the serial killer behind all the missing boys. He enlists his friends to help him spy and collect evidence against him. 

This isn’t just any neighbor, Mr. Mackey (Rich Sommer) is a local police officer. He’s lived in the neighborhood long enough to remember Davey as a baby. He’s earned the trust of all the neighbors and community. Still, Davey keeps snooping and finding more and more damning evidence.  Will the adults believe Davey or will he become the Cape May Slayer’s next victim?

The story would be nothing without a fun cast of characters. Honestly, Davey and his friends border on cookie cutter but never fall flat. There’s Tommy aka Eats (Judah Lewis) the kid cracking crude jokes, Curtis (Cory Gruter-Andrew) the worry wart, Woody (Caleb Emery) who looks older, bigger and used to drive stakeout cars. And, of course, there’s Nikki (Tiera Skovbye), the girl next door that gets mixed up in the boy’s spying. And we love to hate the creepy Mackey. The film lets you keep guessing for a while, but I knew that guy was a creep when he sat out on his lawn to watch the neighborhood kids play. It’s an unwritten rule that you just don’t do that unless you’re watching your own kids play. 

I went into Summer of 84 out of curiosity and because I’m trying to watch more films directed (in this case co-directed) by women. What I found was a solidly creepy piece of mystery, suspense and horror. The scare factor is low for most of the film, relying on jump scares much of the time, but quickly cranks up the intensity toward the end. For a good horror film set in reality that will leave you with the creeps, seek out Summer of 84. (I found it on Kanopy, one of my favorite streaming services, free for most library members!)

“You know you can get AIDS from looking through trash, right?”

The Conjuring 2

My expectations of sequels are usually lower than their originals, especially in the horror genre. When I first watched The Conjuring two years ago I was surprised how well crafted and effectively scary the film was. Since then the sinister ideas and dark images have crept into my mind at night more often than most other horror movies. I finally got the courage to watch its sequel, The Conjuring 2, thinking I would easily laugh it off as I do most horror sequels. Instead I got a fresh new batch of nightmare fuel.

The Conjuring 2 expands on Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed Warren’s (Patrick Wilson) dealings with the supernatural. The opening scene depicts some of their involvement investigating the infamous Amityville haunting (any horror fan will recognize those windows). Here and at home, the Warrens get visions of a ghastly nun and dark premonitions. Then, they are called to investigate a haunting in England.

The Hodgson’s on Green street in London are a family trying to move on from a messy divorce. Peggy (Frances O’Connor), her two boys and two girls live in an old house, furnished by the previous owners. Strange happenings revolving around the younger girl, 11 year old Janet (Madison Wolfe), begin to shake the family. Was it the homemade ouija board she’s been playing with? Her older sister finds her sitting up at night, talking to the darkness. Janet thinks she’s sleepwalking. It all seems like childsplay until their mother witnesses a strange, violent and unexplainable occurrence right in the girl’s bedroom. It’s a great, startling scene!  When the police are involved, they witness objects move in ways they cannot believe. The media gets involved and records an interview with the girls, where Janet seems to be possessed and speaking for a long dead owner of the house. 

When Ed and Lorraine arrive in England to help the Hodgson family, things turn serious.  Details, crazy shit. Ed gives the children a pep talk to stand up to the bad spirit together. Lorraine confides in Janet about their supernatural experiences. But some of the investigators think Janet is faking all of it and any proof of that could quickly discredit the Warrens. But how will the family fare without them around to protect them?

Something I really admire about this film, and its predecessor, is that their overall look is genuinely scary. The inside of the Hodgson’s house looks haunted. The walls are dingy. The boys little tent is dark and foreboding. Their basement is a dangerous mess. And that corner with the armchair looks absolutely rotten, like these sinister supernatural things have been eating away at the house for years. And then there are the physical manifestations of the things that haunt the family and they’re not easy images to shake from your mind in the dark. 

Throughout the film the cynic in me wanted more explanation about the creepy nun. She seemed out of place in the beginning, and knowing about there’s a film in this series called The Nun, I originally dismissed it as a long con advert. Don’t be as cynical as me, it all connects and pays off in the spectacularly suspenseful end. And I was close to picking up those clues to the demon’s name, that alone makes me want to rewatch the film.

Overall, The Conjuring 2 is a good and scary horror movie, but only nearly as frightening as its predecessor. Still, images of that demon nun seem to lurk in the shadows and possessed voices still ring in my ears. Good supernatural sequels are hard to come by, so The Conjuring 2 is a welcome addition here in my October Haunts. And James Wan proves himself as more than a one hit wonder for scary stories. And overall, The Conjuring saga/Warren files are proving to be a very interesting and entertaining slice of the horror genre. I want to check out more. Perhaps The Nun next. Maybe Annabelle, if I’m brave enough. 

“After everything we’ve seen, there isn’t much that rattles either of us anymore. But this one… this one still haunts me.”

Hereditary

Ari Aster’s debut horror film, Hereditary, is a dark, brooding, gut punch of grief and guilt. It stars Toni Collette as Annie, a mother and artist who has just lost her own mother. There’s relief mixed with this grief, as her mother was a strange and very private person. She mainly has to console her daughter, Charlie (Milly Shapiro) who is a bit of a social oddity. Her clicking and creepy drawings are one thing, but cutting off a pigeon’s head is a whole different level of weird. Soon, more tragedy strikes the family and there seems to be a sinister force pushing them toward either disaster or greatness. 

Over the past decade, Toni Collette has become one of my favorite actresses and in my opinion her performance in Hereditary is her best to date. I was honestly hoping she would secure an Oscar nomination for her role here, but that didn’t happen. Collette pulls off this perfect combination of maternal exhaustion, relief and frustration in the first act to really set up who she is. When the unimaginable happens her screams and cries of raw, primal grief tear at your soul. My favorite moment is the dinner scene, where she lashes out at her son, Peter (Alex Wolff). Whether she’s scared, angry, skeptical or at her lowest, she’s always believable and spot on and we feel her pain. 

After giving this movie a second viewing, I’ve noticed so many little details that connect to so many thought provoking themes I can only scratch the surface in one review. The way the house is so dark and confining mirrors back to Annie’s miniature works and makes me think of the ants that we cannot unsee. Then there’s the beheading… and fire… but I don’t want to give too much away for anyone who hasn’t seen the film. And then it all connects back to the grandma’s mysterious past. Like they said in Peter’s class, it’s all inevitably leading to the hero’s tragic end. 

And poor Peter! He’s just being a typical teenager and he gets steered into this awful mess. After his big accident, he’s rightfully so distant and depressed, gnawed by his guilt and grief. Wolff does a wonderful job in his performance, especially in that last classroom scene.

Hereditary is a great horror film, one of the best this decade (which has seen an abundance of great horror). The story and characters are sympathetic and captivating. It can be a slow burn at times, really adding to the family drama, but before you know it the sinister forces propel this film into overdrive and leave you gasping and your stomach churning. 

I love and hate how I often I think about this movie when I wake up in the middle of the night. I’m honored to say that this is one of the few movies that has truly freaked me out and given me nightmares in my adulthood. Maybe it’s because I’m a mom now and I’m afraid of loss like Annie experiences. Maybe the idea of sleepwalking and lighting that match is too much. Or maybe it’s that ending in the tree house that makes my skin crawl. It’s all so raw and and terrifying that it can be hard to shake. And I love it.

“There’s nothing I can say and nothing I can do ‘cause… it happened.”

The Haunting

My first encounter with The Haunting was with the remake in 1999.  It was a jump fest starring Liam Neeson that relied on random gore, too much CGI, and *spoiler altert!* let Owen Wilson get his head knocked off in a gigantic fireplace.  That’s what I remember most today.  At the time, I had no idea it came from an old horror classic and ate it up like popcorn.

The Haunting from 1963, directed by Robert Wise, is a fun, suspenseful horror film featuring the haunted Hill House.  The film starts out with the house’s grizzly history: built by Hugh Craine for his wife who died on her way to Hill House, he met an unfortunate end as well, leaving a small daughter.  As an old invalid woman, she dies in the house, due to neglect, and her negligent companion hangs herself in the house after inheriting it.  Clearly, you don’t want to own the house next.

In the present, Dr Markway (Richard Johnson) wants to document scientific evidence to prove that ghosts do exist.  He invites meticulously picked candidates to stay for the weekend at Hill House.  These include Luke (Russ Tamblyn), an skeptical young man and the heir to the house; Theo (Claire Bloom), a psychic with the style of a movie star; and  Eleanor (Julie Harris), a shy woman who has spent most of her adult life taking care of her sick mother, who recently died.  Together, they experience some extraordinary events and whatever haunts Hill House grows stronger and more violent.

Even before she leaves, Eleanor has a strange pull toward Hill House.  Staying with family since her mother’s death, she practically steals a car to accept Dr. Markway’s invitation.  There are hints to Eleanor’s psychic abilities, but she is insecure and denies them.  Even when frightening things happen at Hill House, Eleanor wants to stay, right up to the very end.  Perhaps it’s a kind of destiny.

Some of the scariest moments in The Haunting focus on what it is you don’t see.  At night, Theo and Eleanor huddle together, scared out of their wits about the noises in the house.  These are much more than creepy creeks, but violent pounding, children screaming and a threatening roaring sound.  You could swear something awful is just outside the door.  What you can imagine is probably scarier than any image.  Later in the film, a door seems to swell and contract, almost as if it were breathing, and just barely holding back whatever beast is haunting the house.  If Dr. Markway had invited me in his study, I would have wet my pants the first night and ran the next morning.

What makes The Haunting frightening is how it relies on the presence of the house and a building sense of dread.  To most viewers today, it may not be very scary, but more creepy and unsettling in a fun way.  However, younger viewers may have nightmares, so judge accordingly.  The wonderful details of the mansion are great eye candy, as well as the freaky-door scene.  There’s also a wonderfully suspenseful scene featuring a spiral staircase that will make anyone think twice about climbing the next one they see.

“God!  God!  Whose hand was I holding?”