Spooky Season

Trick or treat, trick or treat, give us something to make us shriek! When October rolls around inevitably film studios capitalise on Halloween fever to release a slate of horror movies… and often take the chance to dump them at a “critic-proof” opportunity. Let’s look what’s being carved up for us this October.

Ouija: Origin of Evil – 21 October

Prequel to the 2014 film Ouija that lots of people watched but far less people liked. This time young attractive people in the current era, have been replaced by family with creepy little girl in the 60’s, a far more in vogue horror trope of the moment. Lin Shaye is the only one appearing in both films, who was only added to the original in reshoots, and has curiously become a horror movie icon in the last few years. No reviews are out yet, but considering director Mike Flanagan’s unexpectedly sleeper hit on Netflix Hush kept horror simple but tight, it may fare better than the first. 

Three more Halloween-aimed films after the jump

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The Furniture: The Malevolent Secret Code of The Conjuring 2

"The Furniture" our weekly series on Production Design. Here's Daniel Walber

There are many ways to scare an audience. Music, special effects and editing are combined to surprise the audience with loud, unexpected images of malevolent demons or slashers or whatever. But what about production design? Can you be terrified by a stationary armchair?

The Conjuring 2 holds all the answers. James Wan is an excellent horror craftsman, a director who uses every trick in the book, including the sets and props. Production designer Julie Berghoff and art directors A. Todd Holland and Andrew Rothschild run amok, with the same ferocity as the film's music and editing.

Their first order of business is to exploit some of the genre’s stand-by images. There are a lot of crosses, in this case an entire roomful.

They stand at attention, ready to demonically invert themselves at a moment’s notice. There are smaller crucifixes sprinkled throughout the film, as well as the occasional window lit to resemble a cross... 

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What the hell did I just watch? A festival quartet

Nathaniel R reporting from TIFF. The festival ends today (I expect La La Land to win the coveted People's Choice in this non-juried festival) so I'm about to hit the airport. I'll be scrambling to finish telling you about the cinematic adventures screened from all over the world in the next couple of days -- and yes update the Oscar charts with all this new information -- so we can wrap up. And then NYFF begins!

Here are three films that go completely off the rails and one film that stays perfectly on track though the protagonist goes off it. Each have as many cons as pros so they're mixed experiences, presented in preference order. So click on for Argentinian nudist comedies (NSFW), Anne Heche and Sandra Oh fist-fighting, Greek paraonia, and the latest from A Girl Walks Home At Night's director who has graduated to bigger budgets and famous actors.

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Review: "Blair Witch"

by Chris Feil

Revamping The Blair Witch Project for a new generation comes with a lot of baggage. The 1999 horror benchmark delivered unforgettable chills for some, though it's still debated by others for just how scary it actual is. More importantly, the film was the original viral sensation, catching the zeitgeist just as the internet first exploded. Recalling Cannibal Holocaust's faux documentary aesthetic, it also all but invented the found footage genre the moment before documenting our every movement with a recording device became commonplace.

Simply, Project was orchestrated in the right way at the right time. Unfortunately, this Blair Witch is a shadow of the original's terror and cultural relevance...

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Team Experience Remembers Blair Witch

This weekend sees the release of surprise sequel Blair Witch, a high(er) tech follow-up to 1999's The Blair Witch Project. You might recall the GOTCHA moment on social media when Adam Wingard's The Woods was revealed at Comic Con to be a surprise sequel to an unwitting audience, but the original was somewhat of a surprise in its unveiling as well. Launching at Sundance to an audience unclear of its authenticity (later revealed to be fictional), the building buzz of its shocks created a box office hype machine so large that it could only leave some viewers feeling dooped.

Still today, the film can inspire fierce debate among genre fans and cinephiles over whether or not the film is indeed scary...

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