Recent Family Haunts
by Kristin Battestella
These somewhat rocky contemporary
films provide enough past guilt, post-war ghosts, grown up
paranormal, childhood nightmares, and modern day monsters for a
terrified family or two.
Before I Wake –
Mike Flanagan (Oculus)
directs Kate Bosworth (Blue
Crush),
Thomas Jane (Dreamcatcher),
Annabeth Gish (The
X-Files),
and Jacob Tremblay (Room)
in this 2016 Netflix
dark
fantasy drama. In spite of the never working, always home in their
mansion rich blonde white people, we hope for the couple who lost a
child now making a fresh start by adopting a very special but
sleepless eight year old. Group therapy's been helping our fellow
insomniac mom cope – getting the psychological metaphors out of the
way while showing how our husband and wife have reacted differently
to such grief. Their new son, sadly, takes out his books and
flashlight to stay up all night, sneaking some serious sugar because
he fears the man who eats people when he sleeps. Strange images
increase about the house, and instead of the typical jerky husband,
it's nice to have a trying to be helpful doctor. The therapist,
however, dismisses mom's encounters with creaking doors, breaking
glass, and ghostly figures as lucid dreams or sleep deprived waking
hallucinations. Our couple is always in front of the television not
talking about how they can inexplicably see and touch their late son
in tender moments giving and taking away before he disappears in
their arms. Naturally, they take advantage of this gift, putting on
the coffee to stay up while their current dreams come true son
sleeps. He can help them heal, and with such fanciful graphics, one
almost forgets how they are deluding themselves by using his dreams
to fix their reality. When mom drugs his milk and cake with child
sleeping pills, we know why. Dad may bond with the boy, but it's
unique to see a multi-layered woman both experiencing the horror and
contributing almost as a villain who thinks she's right. The monster
may not be super scary for audiences accustomed to terrifying
effects, but this is about kids fearing unconscious ghouls and waking
nightmares not scaring viewers. Previous foster parents are committed
after talking of demons when the boy's dreams come true, but he
doesn't know what he's doing – unlike the adults who realize, do it
anyway, then justify their response as mercy. If he can't wake up,
they can't defeat the black vomit and flesh consuming monsters.
Unfortunately, convenient hospital connections provide old records
and birth mother details while the case worker never notices the
ongoing file is lifted by the subject. Confining the boy leads to a
house of horrors with moths in the stairwell, cocoons, creepy kids,
gouged eyes, and bathtub bizarre – which are all fine individually.
However, the story backs itself into a corner by resorting to state
of mind scary at the expense of the personal fantasy, unraveling with
explaining journals and a parent sugarcoating someone else's memories
so obvious Freudian questions can do the trick. With this thick case
file, how did no child psychologist figure this out sooner –
especially with such legalese and real world missing persons? Rather
than essentially letting mom get away with sacrificing people to
overcome her grief, the finale explanation should have been at the
beginning to further appreciate the boy's torment. Despite a kind of,
sort of happy non-ending, the parents dealing with a child dreamer
plot makes for a mature reverse Elm Street mixing
family horrors and fantastics.
Insidious: The Last Key – After the thin, uneven, seemingly nowhere left to go Chapter 3, I'm surprised there's room for this 2018 sequel aka Chapter 4. There's headache inducing volume issues once again with soft voices versus incredibly loud excuses to make you jump if the scares don't. Fortunately, penitentiary gates, latches, and skeleton keys disturb the nearby 1950s families. Lights flicker during every execution, and young Elise insists ghosts are in the bunk bend and playing with their toys. Dad, however, gets out the switch for talking nonsense and locks her in the basement bomb shelter where child voices taunt her to open a special red door – leading to evil claw hands with keys for nails, ghostly possessions, and hanging consequences. Grown up Elise Lin Shaye dreams about the past as her Spectral Sightings team moves in with their semi-working technology and a tricked out ghost hunting van. When the latest call for paranormal help is her old address, she's initially reluctant to return to the house she fled with scars on her back. Though some of the emotion seems rushed or superficial – actual ghosts and ghosts of the past metaphors, we get it– the mix of sardonic, nerdy banter, and friendship ground the trauma, lingering cobwebs, and bibles. Night vision and point of view cameras provide shadows that some see and others don't while microphones and phantom whistles create one yes, two no communications that are more chilling than unnecessary references to the prior film. False walls and hidden keyholes reveal chains, crawling entities, and creaking demons approaching the paralyzed in fear. Awkward confrontations with brothers left behind and meeting grown nieces create personal touches amid the metaphysical and psychological horrors as the family is lured back to the maze like levels of the house. Tunnels, old suitcases, and skulls address both the personal demons and the underlying sinister as spirits need to be freed from the dark. Metronomes lead to eerie fog, lanterns, underworld jail cells, and risky confrontations in The Further. Detours with real world violence, loud action, guns, and police, however, are time wasting filler when the ghosts still have to be faced. After the fine demon reveal strengthening our family connections, everything degrades into typical whooshes, television rattling roars, and a deus ex machina that's the same deus ex machina from Chapter 3 complete with winks to the First Insidious for good measure. Although there are problems when the plot strays from the tale it's supposed to be telling, this was more entertaining than the ultimately unnecessary third movie.
The Silence – Kiernan Shipka and Miranda Otto reunite alongside
Stanley Tucci (Road to Perdition) in this 2019 Netflix
original. Gas masks and point of view cameras in a Pennsylvania cave
unleash screeching and splatter before unnecessary credits montaging
evolution and modern destruction. The tablet conversations with boys,
soccer mom literally seen with soccer balls, hip grandma in the
kitchen, little brother playing video games, and narration from our
deaf teen likewise contribute to a very cliché start. Opening in
media res with mom silently
waking the deaf for breaking news would make more impact, and
although the hearing impairments seem superficial, Sign
Language, high pitched ringing, and helicopters better set the scene
as initial television news about the cave release and device alerts
are ignored. Cities are quickly infested – under attack with few
details beyond viral videos warning people not to make noise as
fireplaces are blocked and the emergency system sounds. Our family
packs up in several vehicles to flee the city, but viewers needlessly
break our deaf protagonist's viewpoint for subway passengers tossing
out a mother and her crying baby, o_O. Radio reports, police sirens,
traffic jams, and short cuts lead to gas station gun violence,
fleeing animals, and car accidents. There's macho – dad wasn't a
hands on guy and now he has to be – but tough family decisions get
made once these pterosaur vesps surround the van and slam the
cracking windows. Dogs alert one to danger, however barking can be a
problem, and leaving the vehicle to find shelter includes injuries,
infection, and rattlesnakes. After the first half hour, it's mostly
innate sounds with very little dialogue – viewers have to pay
attention to all the non-verbal reactions. Risky treks to a nearby
small town lead to empty streets, mauled corpses, monster eggs, and
cults cutting out tongues before raids, abductions, and sacrifices
required. The internet is spotty, but news about the creatures
disliking snow comes amid dying batteries, handwritten notes, and
creepy confrontations. The performances make the twistedness and rage
while thunder, lightning, and decoys create a stir alongside cell
phone beeps and music. Unfortunately, rather than major social
commentaries or down deep emotions, the angst resorts to physical
altercations – because it's only been a few days yet all the
weirdos are afoot. Why don't they ask where they're going when they
have the chance? How can the unprepared do better than the armed and
knowledgeable? Such derivatives rely on stupidity, conveniences, and
the smart teenager before a tidy, abrupt end where nobody ever
actually fights back against the swarm. Hush was
better, but fans of the cast can enjoy the suspense here – which
was surely Netflix's intention to maximize the bang for the Chilling
Adventures of Sabrina buck with
an alternative to Bird Box. We
like this family and want to see them survive because not making it
through an ordeal together is the scariest thing.
Voice from the Stone – It's post-war Tuscany and dilapidated
castles for nurse Emilia Clark (Game of Thrones) in this 2017
tale opening with church bells, toppled statues, and autumn leaves.
Letters of recommendation and voiceovers about previous goodbyes are
unnecessary – everything up until she knocks on the door is
redundant when the Italian dialogue explaining the situation is
enough. Her charge hasn't spoken in the seven months since his
mother's death, and sculptor dad Marton Csokas (Lord of the Rings)
is frazzled, too. Our
nurse is strict about moving on from a family, and although her
unflinching English decorum feels like you can see her acting, this
may be part of the character fronting when she wonders if she is
qualified for the case. The mute son is likewise an obedient boy if
by default because it takes speaking to object, and he listens to the
walls to hear his dead mother. Period furnishings, vintage photos,
mirrors, and candles enchant the interiors, but the stone and stucco
are spooky thanks to taxidermy, strange old ladies, creaking doors,
winding stairs, and broken tiles atop the towers. Wooded paths,
overgrown gardens, and old bridges lead to exploring the flooded
quarry, cliffs, family crypts, and stone effigies. This estate has
been in the late wife's family for over a thousand years, and forty
generations are buried beneath the rocks. Noises in the night provide
chases and dead animal pranks as our nurse listens to the walls to
prove it's just the settling house, rattling winds, or bubbling pipes
talking. Progress with the boy takes time while billowing curtains
and melancholy phonographs linger over somber scenes as she grows too
attached in wearing our late mother's clothes. Unlike her, our nurse
sits docile and silent when posing for his sculpture before
fantasizing some saucy as he carves. She can care for father and son
– talking to portraits of the Mrs. and listening to tombs to
further ingratiate herself into this family. Desperate, she hears her
now, too, in eerie interludes and spooky dreams that add aesthetics
yet feel like weird seventies horror movies nonsensical. Wet perils
and violent slaps begat illness, but questions on whether this fever
is real or psychological unravel with fog, wheezing, heartbeats, and
buried alive visions face to face with the dead. Although some may
dislike the ambiguous non answers and stilted style or find the
derivative Rebecca or Jane Eyre mood and outcome
obvious, the slow burn period setting makes this an interesting piece
for gothic fans not looking for outright horror a minute.
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