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The First Omen

The First Omen

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For those keeping score, The First Omen is the third movie released this year where the Devil plays a significant role.  Previously, Late Night with the Devil and Immaculate reminded us that Old Scratch should never be underestimated.  What does this trilogy of cinematic devilness portend?  While I can’t speak for Immaculate (which I haven’t yet seen), the two movies featuring Beelzebub have been very good indeed.  Perhaps it’s time for someone to revive the Oh, God! franchise to balance things out.

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Skinamarink

Skinamarink

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Skinamarink does something that I found uncanny.  It reminded me of what it was like to wander around the house late at night as a child while my parents were asleep or otherwise preoccupied.  There’s the sound of bare feet on carpet, lights being flicked on, the muted rush of water from the toilet.  It also captures all the different sources of light that keep the fuzzy darkness at bay, from the blare of ceiling lights, a solitary night light shining in a hallway and shimmering television screens.  Within this nocturnal landscape, pajama-clad children play with toys in their rooms, in hallways or wherever the mood strikes.  The movie captures all of these moments brilliantly.

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Evil Dead Rise

Evil Dead Rise

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The Evil Dead franchise is known for its wicked sense of humor, so what better way to kick off this latest entry than with a dig at dead teenager films?  Unlike its predecessors, Evil Dead Rise isn’t set in a secluded cabin in the woods, but at a cabin by a lake.  The sun is shining, the water is glistening and a couple of teenagers are annoying each other.  (Ah, hormones.)  The standoffish Teresa (Mirabai Pease) defiantly reads her paperback copy of Wuthering Heights while trying to ignore Caleb (Richard Crouchley), her cousin Jessica’s oafish boyfriend.  If you’ve seen more than one slasher movie, you know that these characters will soon be dead.  That’s true here, but this movie definitely wants to make a statement in that regard.

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The Exorcist: Believer

The Exorcist: Believer

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The Exorcist is proof that no franchise, no matter how moribund, will always get another chance at box office glory.  After proving time and again that they could not make a successful sequel, Warner Brothers let The Exorcist property languish on the shelf.  In the years since the equally  uninspiring prequels were released in 2005-06, an interesting thing happened.  Rival studios used the original movie as a template for their own demonic possession movies.  While those movies were not on par with the movie that inspired them, they were usually profitable.  (2010’s The Last Exorcism was inconceivably profitable.)  This steady stream of success is probably what led Universal to purchase the rights to The Exorcist, with the justification that if knock-offs could make money, a small-budget Exorcist movie rooted in the lore of the original certainly could make a healthy profit.

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The Nun II

The Nun II

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At one point in The Nun II, the demon known as Valak is terrorizing Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga).  While doing that, Valak is also possessing another character in another town that, according to the movie, is an hour’s car ride away.  For reasons left unexplained, Valak has grown more powerful since the last installment.  Of course, Valak was very powerful before.  For example, at one point Valak transported a priest into a coffin buried underground.  In this sequel, Valak has the power to warp space-time in two places simultaneously.  That display of power is very impressive.  And yet, no matter how hard Valak tries, I knew that Valak would lose again to a nun who might be ninety pounds soaking wet.

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The Last Voyage of the Demeter

The Last Voyage of the Demeter

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If you’re familiar with the mythology of Dracula, you already know the fate of the Demeter and its doomed crew going into this movie.  The ship left Romania bound for England, encountered fierce storms and a strange man on board and the crew disappearing one by one.  When the Demeter reaches shore, the crew are nowhere to be found.  The ship’s undead cargo, Dracula, wisely disembarked for London long before he could be discovered amidst the shattered remains of the ship.

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Insidious: The Red Door

Insidious: The Red Door

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In The Red Door, the fifth entry in the Insidious series, the Lamberts are once again pursued by demons who want to possess members of the family.  The Lamberts have to be the unluckiest family unit since Craig T. Nelson and company in the Poltergeist movies from the Eighties.  You would think after one failed attempt, the evil beings would move onto another family, but no.  If at first you don’t succeed, scare, scare again, eh?

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The Boogeyman

The Boogeyman

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As far as horror movie cold openings go, The Boogeyman has a brief yet effective one.  A toddler is crying in her crib while something that sounds like a wet bag of bones lets itself into her room.  A few seconds later, there’s a slashing sound, a spray of blood and the child is silent.  (The movie is rated PG-13, so nothing graphic is depicted throughout the movie.)  Who, or what, killed the child?  The answer to that question arrives soon enough, and to nobody’s surprise it is The Boogeyman.  

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