2. "Went to an advanced screening a few weeks back..." In response to Reply # 0 Tue Jul-16-13 08:02 PM by ODotSoHot
Easily James Wan's best film. A different take on an all too familiar subject. Based on a true story, Ron Livingston's family is being terrorized by demonic forces and Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are the paranormal investigators brought in to save the day. You hardly ever see two-handers in horror, but I thought it worked quite nicely here. Wilson and Farmiga get the bulk of the character development, but Livingston and Lili Taylor bring a lot to roles that could have easily felt stock and/or cliche.
Wan also gets kudos for casting 6 children who managed to never get on my fucking nerves. Joey King is gonna be a star -- I find her performances so innocent and honest. This flick is no exception.
The scares are good (the biggest one was given away in the trailer) and they never resorted to cheap jumps to manufacture reactions. Wan did an excellent job of setting mood and atmosphere to create tension.
For those of you who had gripes with the 3rd act of 'Insidious', Wan more than makes up for it here. One of the greatest and most intense exorcisms I've ever seen.
The editing is superb -- Kirk Morri has an excellent sense of pacing, knows when to linger on subjects and when to cut away. The sound design was the best I've heard all year.
As for cinematography, John Leonetti's camera was always in the right place and his choice of angles, use of light, color pallettes, etc. added to the creepiness of the world. He had a few too many zooms for my taste, but I won't hold it against him.
Is it perfect? No...but it sure is a hell of a ride. To all the horror aficionados, it's definitely worth a peek.
5. "Best horror film in a long, long time" In response to Reply # 0
It delivered atmosphere that seriously freaked the audience (and me) out. Plus the characters were more than cardboard cut outs. Plus, Wan directed the fuck outta this making this feel like an GOOD old school horror film throwback ala Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist.
I hope they do a sequel.
With that said I'm not watching this again or talking about this again.
>Very little gore but still pretty scary. > >Only negative for me was the ending. I wanted a scary twist >which I thought of a good one like 2 minutes after leaving the >theater.
-Sig-
“Why didn’t you do this in your own god damn country?"
-All Stah's view on undocumented immigrants wanting to be treated like human beings.
9. "i thought that at the end...(SPOILERS KIND OF)" In response to Reply # 8
when the Warrens come back to their spot like Lorraine coulda said something like "i'm going to check on (whatever their daughters name was)" and Ed coulda gone off to put the music box in his little treasure room (or even do whatever, take a piss/wash his hands/etc.) then he coulda came to check on both of them in the daughter's room to find Lorraine looking all fucked up and possessed holding their dead daughter and she coulda said in a creepy fucked up voice "possess the mother kill to the child"
11. "While a solid twist, IMO it would ruin the movie. " In response to Reply # 9
It's kind of a mean spirited ending. That would be the "Saw" type of ending, and it just doesn't feel right for this story or these characters. It's also too close a parallel to the Paranormal Activity 2 ending, and that ending worked in regard to the mythology they built. But this? I'm not so sure it would work. As the other responses noted, the Warrens were a major part of this and being based on their own experiences there's just no way they sign off on that.
Further, the sequel is already green lit and ending it as they did left plenty of room open for that. We'll probably see another movie based on another case they did.
-Sig-
“Why didn’t you do this in your own god damn country?"
-All Stah's view on undocumented immigrants wanting to be treated like human beings.
12. "The Warrens have stated that they have tons of cases that could be movie..." In response to Reply # 11
I'm not aiming at you Cold Truth just making a general statement.
Also, yea that ending would've not worked due to the "based on a true story" angle. And I don't feel we need a plot twist. The one thing about horror I don't like nowadays is 90% of it has a plot twist like that. Plus, *SPOILER* the same thing was essentially already done at the end of Insidious.
15. "It's very much worth a look." In response to Reply # 14
Once it hits the last 15 minutes, it nosedives hard. But with that said I'm more than looking forward to Chapter 2. Which reminds me that I need to start that post.
16. "Meh - (SPOILERS)" In response to Reply # 0 Sun Jul-21-13 05:09 PM by MiQL
You've seen one Exorcist movie, you've seen them all. Cool that they gave a nod to many horror flicks, but definitely not scary.
SPOILERS....
The bottom dropped out @ the end. No one dies and the character/daughter Judy is pretty much irrelevant. That defeated the purpose of most of the tension in that movie, regardless of whether it was 'based on a true story.'
lovelyone80 Member since Dec 15th 2004 50065 posts
Sun Jul-21-13 08:14 PM
23. "YUP. typical haunted house movie..." In response to Reply # 16
it was Amityville meets The Exorcist blended with Poltergeist.
I honestly expected more based on the reviews I had been reading. It wasn't a bad movie but I could have waited to see this online or later. Would have been better seeing this with a full theater.
I mean it's a decent flick...I'm a fan of horror so I enjoyed this BUT to the extent people were talking about...
SPOILERS
I thought it was stupid for the Warrens to have all that stuff in their house. Like why keep items from demonic possession or haunted places in YOUR HOUSE?
How did the dad not think to run to the house the moment he heard that his wife left with the children?
>it was Amityville meets The Exorcist blended with >Poltergeist. > >I honestly expected more based on the reviews I had been >reading. It wasn't a bad movie but I could have waited to see >this online or later. Would have been better seeing this with >a full theater.
I mean...I was spooked by The Ring, but this right here? Not @ all. So not worth a viewing @ the theatre.
> >I mean it's a decent flick...I'm a fan of horror so I enjoyed >this BUT to the extent people were talking about... > >SPOILERS > >I thought it was stupid for the Warrens to have all that stuff >in their house. Like why keep items from demonic possession or >haunted places in YOUR HOUSE?
They didn't follow-up/wrap up the use of that creepy doll. I just think the overall effort was just lazy.
...and how many times is ol' girl going to say "God brought us together for a reason!"
Nah. I'm good.
> >How did the dad not think to run to the house the moment he >heard that his wife left with the children?
27. "They emphasized that it was a safe place." In response to Reply # 23
>I thought it was stupid for the Warrens to have all that stuff >in their house. Like why keep items from demonic possession or >haunted places in YOUR HOUSE?
What were the realistic options?
They entrusted those items to a place governed by the only people who can be reasonably trusted- not to mention qualified- to keep such things: their own home, governed by themselves. Remember, they stated that keeping such beings locked into the items they latched onto is ultimately safer than releasing them by destroying them, and why would they allow those items to remain with the people they've helped? That would defeat the point. The only gripe I had was that there should have been a second layer of lock and key to prevent their daughter from just wandering in like she did.
>How did the dad not think to run to the house the moment he >heard that his wife left with the children?
Let's see:
head over there by himself and do... well, nothing, because this whole thing was so far beyond his grasp to begin with, let alone at a moment of major escalation?
Or...
Call the ghostbusters for help before taking any action, and letting the experts in on the situation before he heads out.
It's not like they had cell phones in the 70's so he could call while he was en route.
He made far and away the most logical move in that situation: he got help for a situation he knew he couldn't handle rather than head out to certain doom while he tries to be a cowboy.
Would you really prefer he head out on his own to handle that situation?
-Sig-
“Why didn’t you do this in your own god damn country?"
-All Stah's view on undocumented immigrants wanting to be treated like human beings.
32. "No, the point is that this room is under their watchful eye. " In response to Reply # 28
>obviously it wasn't too safe. But you know...I digress.
You do realize safe doesn't mean foolproof, right? There's no such thing as an unbeatable security measure. It does not exist.
Spoiler...
Were it not for Bathsheba latching onto that locket, which bore some sort of psychic connection to her daughters own locket, Bathsheba would have had no means of getting there to begin with.
Obviously they can't be there 25/7. A storage facility is more prone to a break in. People are also failing to realize the spiritual implications there; in the homes of folks with no experience or ability to deal with such entities, that room would have gone nuclear before it had a chance to collect that many items.
I'm not saying that there couldn't be a *better* way to deal with that, but people are failing to consider so many aspects of that when they dismiss the notion.
I'd certainly like to hear a plausible alternative at the very least, but as it stands that was the best overall option for dealing with those items.
-Destroying them or leaving them in the homes of the families they helped would be absolutely foolish.
-I doubt any church would want them on their grounds.
-Museums wouldn't treat them as the dangerous spititual gateways they actually were.
So what then?
-Sig-
“Why didn’t you do this in your own god damn country?"
-All Stah's view on undocumented immigrants wanting to be treated like human beings.
18. "Where were the RI accents!?" In response to Reply # 0
They nailed it on everything else, loved that movie. I give it 4 out of 5..I'll call it a supernatural adventure movie instead of a horror movie, I really loved the retro version of the ghost hunting tech. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are two of my favorites. Id also like to see Livingston in Anchorman 2 looking like he did in this.
35. "The movie wasn't original in any way, but nothing is anymore" In response to Reply # 0
Let's be real. It was executed so well that it's hard not to enjoy it. Good actors, good pacing. It was pretty action packed throughout. True, lots of the scares only depended on creepy imagery or music, but at least the imagery WAS genuinely creepy and not corny. Don't get me wrong though, there was good old fashioned suspense as well. I give this a solid B+
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