After being physically abused by her partner Madison begins to have hallucinations of horrific, violent crime scenes. An unknown entity attacks her in her own home, murdering her husband and taking off into the darkness. Wishing to help those who she witnessed being attacked she seeks the assistance of law enforcement and embarks upon a journey into her past, but she won't like what she finds...
When I saw that James Wan was behind this horror I was super excited as I love a lot of his work, so eagerly viewed with the highest of expectations. A brutal introduction to Madison's life unveils a less than rosy relationship with her husband and the sad revelation that she has struggled to go full term whilst pregnant. Struggling to come to terms with her upsetting news is proving difficult, and what happens next won't make it much easier! If having her husband murdered in her house isn't the icing on the cake the same assailant assaulted her. Who? What? Why? All questions that will be answered later in the movie, I won't be giving anything away about our villain.
The intro to the movie was jam packed full of little clues and tips about what was to come, which ruined the element of surprise a little bit for me. Typically with Wan movies you're left on the edge of your seat, wanting more, with a twist so unexpected you're picking your jaw up off the floor. I miss those days! This was predictable for me and this is reflected in my rating.
Annabelle Wallis who starred in Annabelle; produced by Wan, is our leading lady Madison. Aside from the bad hairstyling I thought she did a great job. She made the viewer sympathetic towards her character's situation and was expressive enough that we weren't left bored by her. The movie is all about Madison and it could have been very boring in that sense, but there were enough developments about the character throughout the movie that you were kept on your toes. The rest of the cast wasn't anything to call home about, but the characters were mostly necessary to the storyline so I can't complain too much...
We see the enemy many times, but we don't reeeeeeeally see them. This bad guy is like a shadow - their costume is quite peculiar but flows nicely when they escape quickly, and the effects that go with it are odd too, but as the story develops you will begin to appreciate the reasons behind this. I thought that there was plenty of gore for the people who enjoy something a little more macabre, with enough story to push it along. But the quality of the movie itself could have been one of the reasons I didn't rate it anything more than average!
Overall an okay movie, not one I'll every watch again, not sure I can really recommend it either as I wasn't particularly entertained. It was just so-so.
Review by CB
Comments