The latest offering in cellphone-based horror, Countdownis about an app that ticks off the amount of time a user has left to live. It’s super unclear.) But the movie looks great, and it’s undeniable fun for fans who grew up reading the books to finally see the stories adapted in a suitably creepy way. The rules to the hauntings are so inconsistent that we’re left with a pile of dead characters at the end of the film who might not actually be dead? (I’m legitimately asking. The plot is clunky to the point of being nonsensical - rather than taking the obvious route of making an anthology film with a simple framing device, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark attempts to weave each disparate tale into a single narrative, and fails spectacularly. Øvredal, the director responsible for the excellent indie horror gem The Autopsy of Jane Doe, faithfully recreates several of the most iconic stories from the books with a methodical skill that makes me excited to see what he’s going to do next. The movie is a visual treat, with some genuinely suspenseful filmmaking and a few moments of honest-to-god body horror. And one unforgettable sequence of blind terror draws more from A Clockwork Orange than The Shining, guaranteed to make any audience squirm uncomfortably in their seats.įans of the beloved book series will find a lot to like about the feature film adaptation, directed by André Øvredal and produced by Guillermo Del Toro. Breaking out of the confines of the sinister Overlook Hotel means the sequel loses many of the scares of Kubrick’s horror masterpiece, but Flanagan preserves the dread, piling on a mounting creepiness that keeps things spooky and tense throughout. (Seriously, the sequel to a terrible movie about a board game had no business being this excellent.) Flanagan’s latest, the Stephen King adaptation Doctor Sleep, is a curious bird in that it’s a sequel to The Shining, both King’s bestselling 1977 novel and the legendary 1980 Stanley Kubrick film version.ĭoctor Sleep is a far cry from the haunted house tale of the original, falling more into the category of “horror epic” or “horror adventure.” Flanagan packs his movie with gorgeous visuals and memorable characters, keeping you fully engaged in the story until literally the very last shot. Writer/director Mike Flanagan is on a roll right now, thanks to a string of successes like The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald’s Game, and the surprisingly good Ouija: Origin of Evil.
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