By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)
Edgar Allan Poe crafted a better supernatural drama in his poem, Annabel Lee, than with director John R. Leonetti’s studio made product, Annabelle. This horror film about a haunted doll attempting to ruin the love John and Mia Gordon (Ward Horton and Annabelle Wallis) have for each other and their newborn daughter, Lea, is not without some problems. Although there is a slight connection with The Conjuring in this film, that importance is never explained. Instead, the way this film dwells upon a church sermon to guide the plot ruins the film.
The problem with the modern horror these days lays in the production team not understanding what makes a terrifying age-old concept uniquely scary. Cursed dolls have existed for a long time. Had the entire production team stayed overnight at Isla de las Munecas – The Island of the Dolls (located near Mexico City), they might have crafted an entirely different product. At least their experiences there would have seeped into the film a lot more than the premise of a cult murderer’s blood spilling upon a once beautiful Victorian age doll to make it haunted.
Continue reading “Annabelle is no Cheerleader for Halloween, a Review”
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Charles Darwin might not survive naming the horrors found in Blood Glacier (Blutgletscher), an Austrian film by writer Benjamin Hessler and director Marvin Kren. Together, they are known for films like Rammbock (2010) and Schautag (2009). If his last film is any indication, perhaps this filmmaker has a fondness for creating terrors formed by self-mutilating viruses. In the Alps, just what may lurk underneath the snow is definitely not the Abominable Snowman! Instead, as the title implies, there’s a glacier that is shrinking and revealing a red like algae that’s going to spell doom for the scientists studying the effects of climate change.
Spoiler Alert