THN Reviews, Blumhouse Amazon Prime October Specials: Black Box (2020)

 

Stars: Mamoudou Athie, Phylicia Rashad

Budget: Unknown

Directed By: Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour

This movie is one of four horror films made or selected by Blumhouse for Amazon Prime over the October period. I'll be reviewing each one with my thoughts on each Starting with:

Black Box, I thought I had this film sussed from the beginning but it did throw me off for a few minutes then after that I did kind of guess what was going on, though by then it was very obvious.

We join Nolan on the sofa watching home movies, he's got a puzzled look on his face, we learn that Nolan has lost his memory after being in a car crash that killed his wife and left him brain dead and in a coma for a while.

Even at the beginning here we see he's been acting uncharacteristic of himself, it seems his kid daughter has been looking after him and trying to jog his memory with things too. Seems he lost his temper and hurt his hand punching a wall. After a few things go from bad to worse, like not getting his job back as a photographer because his work seems different. At the urge of his friend He goes to see a doctor who specializes in rebuilding neural pathways.

While 'under' He see's a scary blank faced apparition that moves and sounds like it's all broken like, despite this things do slowly start to come back to him. Though the memories are in direct contradiction to how other people know or describe how he usually acts.

This is where the movie threw me for a few minutes though I was right in thinking the 'thing' was a allegory for something, which it sure did end up being in the end!

A few more sessions however reveal the true nature of what was/is going on within his head, as well as what part some other players have in his story. I won't say no more as I don't want to spoil any of the twists and turns as they are a major part of the film.

Suffice to say it's quite a big error here, as if he hadn't gone to meet the doctor what would have happened?

Would he have just lived as is, would she have tried to intervene some other way?

That's the only way I think it's a little weak.

Acting wise there's some good chops going on here, seems the older the actor the more believable the performance. Doctor Brooks being, for me a stand out.

Effects wise there's a lot of clever using an effect to cut to a new scene, cheap, easy and effective. All practical effects look decent enough, all equipment looks authentically medical and believable in use.

It's not exactly horror it's more a thriller too I feel like.

Final verdict if your hankering for a twist movie with some spooky elements It's worth a watch, THN awards Black Box a reasonable 3 out of 5 stars.

THN Reviews, Blumhouse Amazon Prime October Specials: Evil Eye (2020)

Stars: Sunita Mani, Sarita Choudhury

Budget: $5million

Directed By: Elan & Rajeev Dassani

This movie is one of four horror films made or selected by Blumhouse for Amazon Prime over the October period. I'll be reviewing each one with my thoughts on each film, next up:

Evil Eye an almost exclusively Indian cast tells a supernatural tale that even though is a tried and tested formula weaves in the lifestyles and beliefs of the characters to give it a fresher feel.

This was the one and only Blumhouse film that had an easily obtainable budget attached, guessing they had all around the same amounts spent on them. Very little to no effects some practical blood effects and warping for old memory flashbacks etc.

Acting wise this film had some of the best acting chops out of the four films very strong performances from ALL of the cast especially Sunita as the troubled mother. This film also insights into how Indian families work as well as their (more modern) out looks on life, money and tradition.

It's a thing to marry into same race, rich families if your female, I have and still do have some good Indian friends. It was nice to see as an outsider something I've talked to them about, though i believe these were/are Bengali Indians who are mostly Hindu, pretty apt for the theme of the film. Which as I've said is a tried and tested horror film premise, a killer that doesn't stop even in death.

So on with the actual film. We join Pavilli who is a close to 30 Indian woman with her mother (Usha) constantly going on about finding a husband. Seeing some her friends happy with spouses/boyfriends she reluctantly agrees to go on a date her mother sets up in a coffee shop.

Her date ends up late so she ends up talking to a good looking Indian guy instead, he's rich too and seems perfect. The two hit it off and things move fast. Usha after seeing him however starts to get bad feelings about him, linked to something that happened to her in the past. This gets even worse after she talks to him and something he say triggers more memories.

She advises Pavilli to leave him but due her seemingly failing health and mental stability everyone begins writing off her feelings as just being all in her head. I really cannot say anymore without spoiling a big twist, that is telegraphed quite openly, though does keep you guessing for a good portion of the film though

Despite being filmed late 2019 the way this film is filmed seems very apt for todays Covid19 situation, a lot of it is singularly filmed over the phone conversations, with only a few people at a time coming into direct contact, I liked that.

Despite being one of the lowest ranked of the 4 Blumhouse films, this one was one of the ones I enjoyed the most of all. Despite it's tried and tested formula the newish take on it. THN awards Evil Eye (2020) a strong 4 out of 5 stars.

THN Reviews, Blumhouse Amazon Prime October Specials: Nocturne (2020)

 

Stars: Sidney Sweeney, Jacques Colimon

Budget: Unknown

Directed By: Zu Quirke

This movie is one of four horror films made or selected by Blumhouse for Amazon Prime over the October period. I'll be reviewing each one with my thoughts on each film, next up:

Gosh well I found this a slow burn from the beginning, almost to the boring. It was only saved by small flashes that grabbed my attention back from such a snooze fest.

The acting was very wooden and boring too, effects wise the effects on show were good for what they were. Practical on the dark drippy eyes looked believable. To it's strength this was the first one that actually felt horror based rather than a thriller.

However the droning monologues and incredibly boring plot were the downfall of this piece, mix that with something that is not a love of mine, piano music, this was a dead end.

On with the plot of the film.

Twin sisters Viv and Juliet grow up with a love of the piano, both good at playing but Viv unfortunately begins to out-shadow her sister. Juliet works very hard to keep her standards up where as Vivian it seems to come very easy.

Juliet becomes disillusioned with how hard she's working and not getting nowhere, with no time for her life. Vivian however has time to see friends, talk up the tutors and pursue other enjoyments.

Juliet comes across a deceased students book that somehow seems to improve her life and skills at the cost of bizarre things happening to friends and family.

Yeah I'll leave it there you know how I feel about this film, it's got a decent story on paper but to me at least was just too boring in execution. Again no budget to be found on this, can't have been much.

THN awards Nocturne (2020) a weak 2 out of 5, so we won't spoil the ending as usual, watch it if your doing a marathon of the four films 

THN Reviews, Blumhouse Amazon Prime October Specials: The Lie (2018)

 

Stars: Peter Sarsgaard, Joey King

Budget: Unknown

Directed By: Veena Sud

This movie is one of four horror films made or selected by Blumhouse for Amazon Prime over the October period. I'll be reviewing each one with my thoughts on each film, next up:

The Lie, well what can I say this must have been made on a very tight budget indeed, little to no special effects. One thing I did like however is The Lie is solely based around one aspect, The Lie, it's all about it. I may sound like i'm talking in riddles but once you watch this film you'll get it.

The Lie perpetuates a feeling that is in a child's innocence something they would do to achieve the goal they want, especially when they get the desired effect. Enough with the riddles now.

Two divorced parents are trying to get their daughter (Kayla)to a retreat she apparently goes on every year. It falls to the dad to take her. Along the way they see and pick up Kayla's friend who is also going at a bus stop. These something up with Kayla and Brittany right from the beginning, there even seems to be some weird tension between the dad and Brittany too when he says she's good looking.

Though this is only brought up once more later on, though it is a reason why Kayla does what she does.

Anyway Brittany needs a pee, Dad doesn't really want to stop but does both of the girls run off to take a piss. They take a while so Dad goes looking, he hears a scream then see's Kayla on a bridge without Britt. She says she pushed her off due being jealous, it was and accident she didn't mean to kill her.

Dad looks for Britt's corpse but only finds her purse with cracked mobile/cell inside. He doesn't want to hand his daughter in so they hide from a passing truck then go back to mum's. Mum's horrified but goes along with the lie that Kayla was ill and they never went.

Over the course of the film now the lie grows, keeps getting added too, though it strangely brings the mum and dad closer together again. I'll leave it there as any more explanation will spoil the ending.

Overall okay, again not really a horror movie, more of a thriller again in my eyes. The twist?

I had this sussed from almost the beginning unfortunately, It was still a good watch with some good acting pulled off by Peter Sarsgaard and the mother too, Kayla was just wooden and one note sobbing all the time, though might have just been her character. Like I said earlier little to no practical or special effects apart from blood and a dream shot of dead Brittany.

THN awards The Lie a weak 3 out of 5 stars watch if there's nothing else on.

THN's Top 5 Haunted Places: West Wales

Not many places on the west coast but I have managed to scrounge 5 together for this list, last one for wales for now as there are many, many other haunted places in both South and North Wales I'll go back and make 'another 5 places' in the future perhaps.
You may have noticed a lot of Welsh places are castles, we are known as the land of castles, we have a lot of green places left in rocky hills and mountains. Those castles are hidden in the most unlikeliest of places, read on!

1. Margam Castle

Not actually a castle it's a very large country house from the Victorian era built at the beginning of 1800. Lived in until mid 1900 the house seen a lot of people come and go.
Outside view:

It's been shown on various haunting shows like Most Haunted and Paranormal Lockdown. One of the most frequent seen or encountered spirits is that of Robert Scott, he was killed by a poacher now his spirit ever angry rages about.
Inside:

A fire in 1977 forced them to renovate the building too, it's currently protected by the local council and ghost walks were done before Covid19, looking to start up again soon.

2. Llanelli House

Is a Georgian grand house, built in early 1700
This is how it looks now:

but before 2009 it was in a state of disrepair
like:


It's been the site of many spooky happenings for a lot of ghost hunters, it's age and occupancy give a varied amount of historical suspects to call upon. One such is Mira Turner who resided there has been said to show up a lot in many investigations!

3. Pembrey Woods

Yeah a WHOLE freaking woods, so many scary, spooky and paranormal things have happened here it's unbelievable. So beautiful in the daytime but full of terrifying sounds and happenings in the night.
Picture:

Weird stuff like dolls nailed to tree's, spooky things like people chanting among the trees and then there's the paranormal things like demon dogs, demons and ghosts frequently seen. Another site Most Haunted has explored too, no standout spirits of mention just very active.

4. Iron Age Forts in Haverfordwest (Castell Henllys)

Rebuilding on ancient excavated sites the current iron age forts and huts are a true recreation of what was once. Despite the buildings being relatively new there's been some haunting experiences in this usual little historic experience.
Pictures:

This would have been a place they would have worked with the newly discovered material Iron. Of course a lot of accidents would have happened in this very experimental time.

Everything seen has been ghostly guards walking about to spiritual kids running around the fort grounds, ethereal laughter bouncing around the grounds.

5. Carew Castle

One of the oldest places on here built in 1270, in an event which is rare occurrence the Carew family still actually own the building!
It is however not roofed, windowed or kept in shape unfortunately as seen in this picture here:

The grounds are maintained though by The Pembrookshire Coast National Park, who the family lease the grounds too them.
It was a stone fort first then over the years, as it was a very defensible position, was built up into the full size castle that remains there till this day. Being this old the site is home to many many a haunting from groups of soldiers to sounds of metal on metal clashing and clanking.
A few of the owners have even been recorded on EVP, unfortunately I can't find names to confirm this.

So folks there you go that concludes Wales, for now at least, where to move to next, we'll see and surprise you next time!
Much love and spooky times from THN.