The Conjuring

broderic on July 27, 2013

I should be writing this review of The Conjuring in bright daylight, but a rainshower has just rolled through darkening the evening sky. Hopefully, it doesn’t put shadows in places where I dare not look.

The Conjuring was about one of the scariest cases of the paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren. They were the investigators responsible for the Amityville case. At the start, they are investigating a haunted doll. That doll is the most frighteningly evil doll you will ever see. I hate dolls.

The Warrens eventually are asked to investigate a haunting at the Perron house built on the plantation of a former Salem farmer. Yeah, it’s not an Indian burial ground, but it is the cause of the evil.

The Conjuring then mixes up several better scary movies. There’s the Poltergeist style investigation when the Warrens set up camp in the house awaiting the paranormal activities to commence. There’s The Exorcist style exorcism to exorcise the evil from the house.
You would think the movie is derivative. It’s not. It mixes these other films in the best way for a different effect.

Supposedly, The Conjuring was rated R because of it being to scary. I wasn’t scared enough, and that is saying something. I squirm when watching scary movies. I did squirm during this one, but later at night I didn’t get scared of the dark. And by the next day, wasn’t scared of anything at all. Does this make it terrible because it failed to make me scared? No. I still loved getting creeped out. I still loved the setting and the pacing. The ghost was okay (The Woman In Black still creeps me out to this day), but overall it did its job.

4 of 5 stars.

Weird

broderic on April 27, 2013

I was over my moms this evening.

“I want to show you something. It’s weird.”

“Weird? How?”

She was leading me to the far side of the the balcony.

“Oh. We can’t see it from here.”

“What? What’s weird.”

When my mom uses the word, weird. It is rather unsettling. It’s not like us younguns who casually toss it off. It’s disturbing.

We head upstairs for a better look.

“What’s weird? What is it?”

She won’t tell me. She wants to show me. We look out the window into the small briar patch between the houses.

“Do you remember the chairs that your Tita Mina brought over? I think that’s one of them there.” [In the woods]

Creepy. Who would’ve done that. How? Why?

“Gabe said that there were homeless living in the Haunted Woods by school.”

I don’t think this put up by a homeless man. There’s kids playing in the backyard. They could’ve set up the chair as part of their ‘fort.’

Still, the chair sits in the vegetation waiting for someone to sit in it.

The Creature

broderic on October 30, 2012

creature-from-the-black-lagoon

Something about this picture that is really sexy and or disturbing. It’s sexy with the actress, Julie Adams, in a classic pinup girl pose. Disturbing because of the very phallic like Creature posed to pounce on her. Lots to think about there. And lots to dissect.

Quote of the Day [10.26.12]

broderic on October 27, 2012

“Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis?”

Janine (Annie Potts), “Ghostbusters”

Quote of the Day [10.21.12]

broderic on October 21, 2012

“All ghost stories are ‘true’ stories. We love them, if we love them, from the depth and antiquity of our willingness to believe them.”

Michael Chabon, “The Other James”

Link of the Day [10.21.12]

broderic on October 21, 2012

Let’s go ghost hunting.

What’s that under the bed? Is there a strange shadow by the window? I think the bed shows a clear depression in the shape of a woman. Can it be the White Lady of Ordsall Hall?

It’s all in your imagination. There’s nothing there. Not like there’s anything downstairs at this moment.

What’s that?

I’ll go investigate…

http://services.salford.gov.uk/ghostcam/

Link of the Day [10.20.12]

broderic on October 20, 2012

Let’s go ghost hunting.

Do you see anything? Is there something creeping around the basement hall? Is there a shadow in the corner of the children’s room? Or is the grey lady roaming the research room?

I don’t see anything in the pictures. I don’t think there is anything there.

But I think there may be something upstairs in the house. Let me check…

http://www.libraryghost.com/

The Woman In Black

broderic on February 7, 2012

The problem with the ghosts in The Woman In Black is that they are real. There is nothing left to the imagination. It was a real ghost with a real curse looking to avenge the death of her son by causing misfortune on the villagers and their children. It’s not all in the protagonist’s head, a mature Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe. It’s really there.

The atmosphere was decently creepy. The Eel Marsh House had the great hallmarks of a haunted house: secluded and out of the way, overgrown vegetation, dark hallways and even darker rooms, bad glass in the window panes. Yup. It’s a delightfully scary house. Would’ve been nice if the story could’ve lived up to the spookiness.

The story follows Radcliffe who come from London to close out the affairs of the last, late owner of the Eel Marsh House. The surrounding village doesn’t want him there because once Eel Marsh House is messed with children die horrible deaths. And it happens. Death comes for the kids and it’s the woman in black. Spooky. Radcliffe has to confront this ghost or else personal harm will come.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that I can stay in a house which plainly shows the ghost roaming the halls. Or with a rocking chair rocking on its own. Too creepy. I wish this movie had made me scared to sleep at night but it didn’t.

3 of 5 stars