The blog of author Stacy Kingsley - Stacy Kingsley

Movie Review - OUIJA SUMMONING

11/19/2018

The synopsis for Ouija Summoning from IMDb is: A beautiful woman is haunted by an evil spirit after an innocent game of Ouija board goes horribly wrong.

First off, in this day and age are there any “innocent” games of Ouija. I mean I am sure everyone has read the warnings and seen the other movies where teens have played with an Ouija board and have died.

Ouija Summoning begins in an older house where one women arrives and is attacked by another. As things happen the police arrive, and the crazy woman is arrested, all while chanting that it had to be done.

This was a problem for me as I had no idea who these people were, or why this was happening. So while it starts in the action, it doesn’t do anything me because I have no idea what is going on, or really why I should care. Plus, this isn’t something that is returned to later in the movie, so it is a scene that doesn’t matter. Later three young college age students stop at the house because one of them needs to pee. They don’t stay in the house but they do step in, and from there bad things happen.

The main character, Sara, is haunted by someone crying and telling her to kill people. As people start dying around her, she is viewed as insane and her parents seek help for her. Her parents, who are divorced, attempt to help their daughter, but they find that they don’t really know how, and then they decide that they think she might actually be killing people.

Bad acting and a bad story line were the biggest issues throughout this movie. There was a lot going on and nothing was explained. The audience has no idea what is up with this specific Ouija board, or why it is the one that is haunted, or who the woman that keep crying is. With so little information the movie doesn’t make much sense. It also isn’t very interesting as a horror movie because there is nothing scary throughout it.

I felt that this movie seemed like a half-hearted attempt to make a scary movie that was attempting to bank on the Ouija board fears created by other movies. However, there was no character or story development, nor was there any reason for the audience to feel fear or suspense. So there wasn’t anything to redeem this movie to the audience, and there was nothing to make it worth watching.

I absolutely do no recommend this movie to anyone, not even if you are bored and looking to watch something on streaming. If you watch it you have been warned that it is a waste of an hour and a half.

Movie Review - RINGS (2017)

11/7/2018

2017’s movie Rings was an unnecessary addition to the story of little Samara. It is obviously about the story of a group of people who view a tape and then get a phone call telling them “seven days.” Of course they know by now that to live they must show the tape to other people. If they show the tape to other people then they are passing on the curse and saving themselves.

This movie tried to delve deeper into the story of Samara, pointing out how she came to be and what happened to her, but it seems to forget all of the things that happened in the previous like what happened to her body and who was the person who cared for her. It seems to want to change the story to make her video viral, trying to create a modern horror story.

I don’t think this was a needed movie in the series, and it detracted from the things that happened before in the series. I would have liked to see more development into how the video got out there in the first place, or how it became cursed, or anything, a prequel wouldn’t be a bad idea.

If they went back to the very beginning, saw Samara in the asylum, maybe in her house before the asylum, maybe how she was treated as an infant. I find it unfortunate that they keep building on what has already been said, and honestly Rings adds nothing to the story.

I like Vincent D’Onofrio as an actor. I find him great in almost everything he does, although lately I’ve seen him more in the role of a villain that a good guy. I feel almost as if he is being type cast as a man who is more bad than good. From his role in Full Metal Jacket (a private who is pushed too far) to Rings he gets more rugged and rough with each role. The only role where he wasn’t the villain was during his time on Law and Order: Criminal Intent, but he wasn’t a happy man.

The main character in this film, Julia, was annoying and she didn’t do much for this film. The attempted frights were the same as they were in the previous movies. Lots of images from the cursed film and more well shots as well as bugs and hair being pulled from the mouth of people, gag inducing moments that have been done several times before.

I can’t say I cared for this movie, and I lost interest halfway through, probably sooner than halfway through. I would have liked more to the story, and I would have like if it hadn’t deviated from the original story to make Samara seem more piteous.

I don’t recommend this movie, not only was it bad but it also didn’t add anything to the series. I think if they want to make another movie for this series they should start in the beginning, at the birth and childhood of Samara.

Movie Review - THE AXE MURDERS OF VILLISCA

8/27/2018

Where do I start with The Axe Murders of Villisca? I think I will start with the most interesting tidbit about the movie, there really were axe murders in a house, and they happened on July of 1912. Another little bit of interesting information is that the murderer was never found. This movie is supposed to take place in the house of the murders, and it revolves around three misfits who all have something dark in their past.

The main character somehow was never convicted of being complicit in the robbery his father took him along to commit, even after both his father and the clerk were killed. Apparently his best friend took the fall for him, but it still doesn’t make sense. His best friend is a young gay man who lost his entire family in a car accident. And the day they decide to go visit the house for their small time, and small town, show about the paranormal, they meet a young female peer who has made friends with the wrong men.

This movie is honestly just a huge mess. It doesn’t delve deep enough into the reason behind the horrors that happened at the house, where apparently eight people died. This in itself makes things hard, because if I have no idea what causes the evil to happen, then I am not going to care much about why it happens. It might involve something about regret, guilt, and possession, but it isn’t really given much credence or thought.

There were no really scary moments, and for a movie about ghosts or possession I would have liked something to be frightening or suspenseful, but there was neither. In the end I don’t have much to say about this movie except, don’t waste your time. It isn’t even a movie that you’d watch simply because it is on streaming. No matter how you watch it, it will feel like a waste of time. So, if you heed my review, and listen to what I am actually writing here, then you will skip this movie and find something else to watch. There are several movies on this blog that I have reviewed better than this movie.

Movie Review - THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE

1/4/2018

I wasn't sure what to expect from this movie, since I hadn't seen much about it and there didn't seem to be much chatter about it. I had heard a few things, but not really what the movie was about. The movie follows a medical examiner and his son as they called to identify the body of a beautiful corpse. She is possibly the victim in a homicide but with no external injuries it is hard to say what happened to her. She is found at the scene of a homicide, half buried in the ground, which is why she is included in the homicide scene.

Not knowing what this movie really was about before watching it I wondered what I was about to watch, and how an autopsy could be made interesting and horrifying, but this movie did set things up quite well. The father is teaching the son how to be a medical examiner, and the son is learning quite well and fast. The night the body of Jane Doe is brought in the son is about to leave for the movies with his girlfriend, but instead feels an obligation to stay with his father and help him out. He makes plan with the girlfriend for later and tells her to come get him when it is time to go.

The body of Jane Doe is a complete mystery. She comes in with signs of decomposition and later death, but her body is not in bad shape and there are things that suggest she has been buried in another place rather than where she was found. As they do their work and slowly run through the body they find things that suggest this young woman has been severely tortured, but they don't understand several of their findings. As the night moves on a storm outside grows and they find themselves trapped in the morgue as strange and dangerous things start to happen.

This movie doesn't rely on jump scares which is fantastic since those really are overused. It slowly builds up with the mystery and horror of the body and what is happening around them. I didn't appreciate one scene involving an animal, but that is only because there are often scenes in which animals are harmed (which to me seems very cliche). With each slice to the body something new happens, whether it is bodies moving on their own or mysterious songs playing over the radio, these things keep up all night as the father/son team try to figure out how to get out of the building.

As the night moves on and they attempt to figure out what is going on, things continue to get worse, ending up with a death and severe injuries. This movie didn't end how I expected it to, but it also wasn't quite a surprise either. It was an unusual subject matter and the plot was an interesting take on an old story. There are some parts that are remniscent of other movies, but overall it was a new idea and an interesting subject matter.

I also have to applaud Olwen Catherine Kelly who plays Jane Doe. Throughout the movie she has no lines and the only thing she gets to do is be a dead body. While this seems like it might be one of the easiest jobs ever, I am one hundred percent sure that this was probably a very difficult part to play as the character is naked the entire time, or in a body bag, and has her eyes open. And yes I do realize that some of the scenes are probably not the actress, but she did a fantastic job.

Movie Review - ANNABELLE: CREATION

1/4/2018

Where do I begin with this movie, I guess by saying I am so glad I didn't buy it. The description of the movie is: Having their daughter many years ago, a doll make and his wife decide to take in a nun and several girls as an orphanage. One of the Doll Maker's creations isn't pleased to have the girls in the house and does everything in its power to push them out. Of course the "creation" it is talking about is the doll of Annabelle.

The movie starts out really well done. The characters are interesting and the family in the beginning is a very loving family. The doll maker is a man with a talent that only stops because of the unfortunate death of his daughter. When the girls move in as the home becomes a sanctuary things start to change and the movie takes on a darker tone. Although the tone darkens it tries to scare with a lot of jump scares and slow paced frights. Nothing in the movie was original, which really was a shame since the acting was spot on and the actors did a really great job building their characters.

Now, the movie begins with the family and shortly after the loss of their daughter, then skip forward twelve years to when the house is opened as an orphanage, then it skips forward again to an adoption, then once more to twelve years later and basically near the beginning of the movie ANNABELLE. This should have been avoided as it tried much too hard to explain the origins of ANNABELLE and the possessed doll. The audience didn't really need to be told how the doll got from point A to point B, instead, another movie could have been made, or it could have been left up to imagination. As it is the movie was incredibly slow and at times it was actually dull. There could have been more time spent on the girls and what their backgrounds were, or on why they were moving from one orphanage to another, or why there was only one nun in charge of the girls. Instead the movie focused too much on the doll and her origins.

The attempts of the tone to build up the horror of the film doesn't quite work as the movie becomes underwhelming. There should have been more story and less moment sitting in the dark waiting for a monster to appear. I honestly wanted more than a dark, sinister setting and a movie that is only a build up to the original film. This didn't really add to the story of the doll, in fact it takes away from the story by trying to explain it too much.

The only thing that makes this movie tolerable is some of the acting. The child actors were all fabulous and didn't seem to fit the tropes normal for actors of their age in a horror movie (the child hiding under a bed or in a closet). The doll maker and his wife were intentionally creepy and they were well played. The nun could have used a little more development, I would have liked a little more background on her and how she came to be the one caring for the children.

Overall, this movie wasn't great, and it wasn't necessary to make. I'd say skip it, and if you've already see it I'm sorry for your wasted time.

Movie Review - DEMONIC

12/3/2017

DEMONIC is another movie, set in another haunted house, with a twist ending and no special insights. In fact, the best thing about this predictable movie is Maria Bello, who is often a very good actress even when she has been cast in a very bad movie.

After watching this horror film I thought that maybe, just maybe it wasn't terrible, and in all honesty it isn't terrible, it also isn't new. The ending is somewhat predictable, even with the double "surprises" it is still predictable. It would have been better if it had a different ending, but then it wouldn't have stayed with the plot it angled for.

DEMONIC is a movie about a group of six people who go to a house to find out what force, or forces, are residing there. One of the characters, a young blonde named Jules, is an insightful young woman who believes and thinks she knows a lot about the mystical and supernatural side of life. Of course, if this were true she is also a young woman who did not do her homework on the house she and her friends are walking into. One of the young men, John, is the son of a woman who survived the last massacre that took place in the house. This is something that neither Jules, nor any of the other characters seemed to have known.

The characters are all predictable tropes of you average college kids, they seem just a tad smarter because they aren't really in college, but they are trying to make a documentary about ghosts and the house. One of the characters is the ex of the young woman John is dating, and there are several annoying moments between him and John throughout. The police detective is also an annoying stereotype of a police detective who doesn't want to believe that anything supernatural is going on. He was supposed to be on a date with Maria Bello's character, but instead is called to a crime scene where three people are dead and two are missing.

Maria Bello interviews John as they try to find out what has happened in the house, and while the detective watches the tapes left behind to see if he can find the killer, but it all goes haywire when one of the characters is found at the site of a car crash, and another is found hanging in a basement room.

While there were parts of this movie that were fun and interesting, most of it was dull and I didn't have to pay attention to it to keep up with what was going on. I knew at the end that the person they thought was the killer wasn't going to be, and the person they assumed was the killer from the beginning was most likely going to be the killer. Overall, this was a predictable movie, but it wasn't a terrible movie. It did keep me wondering what was going to happen at the end, but after a certain point I would have liked a tad bit more suspense to let me know that I wasn't right about what was going to happen at the end of the movie.

Movie Review - EVIL DEAD (remake)

3/2/2016

I was warned not to watch this. I was warned that this wasn't as good as the original. I was warned that if I had seen the original I was going to be disappointed in this one. Those warnings were all correct.

If you haven't seen either movie, first watch the original, second don't watch the remake.

This movie is about a group of friends who go off to a cabin in the woods. They are there to help one of them get off of drugs and sober up. All of this is going just as planned until someone finds a book, bound by barbed wire. He finds it fascinating, and like a complete idiot he reads some passages out of it, unleashing an evil that has been waiting for several years to create havoc on earth. One by one each person is affected until only one remains to fight the evil on their own.

I understand, we need strong female characters, but seriously, what the heck was the point of the remake of this movie. None of the women or the men stood out to me, unlike in the original movie where Ash still stands out. The most interesting character was the long-haired Eric, who is the one who reads the book and sets hell on earth free. He fights throughout the movie to stay alive. He is stabbed several times, shot with a nail gun, hacked at with a knife, hit over the head with a large crowbar, and even though he is being literally beaten to death he still tries to help his friend.

Other than him, the rest of the movie was just eh. The ideas behind some of the violence were a little unrealistic. I seriously doubt you could cut off a body part with an electric knife, once you hit bone those things usually stop. I have yet to see one strong enough that it could cut off a limb. And how on earth, are you going to walk around if you are spurting arterial blood? Cauterize the damn wound already. Geez!

I understand, I'm expected to suspend my belief, but for this movie I just could not do it! I know, the original is just as unbelievable, but I think since it was new, and I wasn't expecting a lot of it, I could watch it without wondering about wound care.

Just don't. I didn't heed the warnings, and I really should have, I wouldn't have wasted an hour and a half of my life watching just another remake that didn't need to be made.

Movie Review - HOLD YOUR BREATH

3/1/2016

Another movie from 2012, and this one is a stinker.

Another movie about a group of friends going off to a vacation, where things go terribly wrong.

From IMdB - A group of friends on a weekend camping trip find themselves being picked off one by one when one member of the group refuses to abide by the urban myth that you can breathe in evil spirits when passing cemeteries.

The movie starts in a prison with the execution of a prisoner, which of course goes all to hell. Then the movie moves to a group of friends in a van, and once again you've got the same group. There is the horny girl, the horny guy, the couple that can't get enough of each other and have sex whenever they can but are really supposed to be the leaders of the group, the smart guy, the stoner/drunk guy, and the lone girl who is there just because there always seems to be an extra. One by one the group is possessed by the ghost of a murderer, who in turn makes them do horrible things that they only remember in their nightmares.

This movie is very slow, entails lots of unnecessary nudity, and for some reason everyone curses at everyone because they are all in a pissing contest with this backwoods redneck guy who is trying to keep them safe. Everything goes as one expects in a movie like this. The redneck guy, who used to be a guard at the asylum in the movie, has the best lines in the movie, and is pretty freaking awesome, but underused. One of his best lines is, "You take another step closer to me you'd rather jack off a bobcat." These lines kept on continuing throughout the movie.

Then there was the head guy of the group, a studly blond with a hot girlfriend, who argues constantly with the redneck.

Not a terrible movie, but not great either. This followed the same formula of a lot of movies in this genre. Movies about groups of friends going out and trying to survive the night while some weird evil is killing them off one-by-one.