Netflix And Chill: The Possession Of Hannah Grace (2018)

If you enjoyed The Autopsy Of Jane Doe then you should enjoy this. It is very similar, in that a corpse is delivered to someone who starts to suspect there may be some secrets worth discovering about the body. It also has some similarities to Last Shift, which has a young female police officer in trouble. Strangely enough, I loved the former and only quite enjoyed the latter (although many others loved it). And I really liked this.

Shay Mitchell plays Megan Reed, an ex-cop who left her time on the force due to some personal problems. She is able to get a job working the night shift in a morgue, which leads to her encountering the broken and mangled corpse of Hanna Grace. Following her police instincts, Megan tries to find out more about the corpse, how the murder happened, and what is now making some strange things happen in the morgue.

Capably directed by Diederik Van Rooijen, who seems to have a solid filmography full of movies I haven't yet seen, the big surprise here is the fact that the script is written by Brian Sieve. Sieve gave us Boogeyman 2, Boogeyman 3, and a fair chunk of Scream: The TV Series. None of those projects are a really good time for horror fans, so I think it's fair to say that this stands out as his best work yet. The plotting keeps developing little details nicely, even if things go from zero to insanity very quickly, the flawed central character is a good one to root for, and there are a number of enjoyable death scenes that turn supporting characters into broken bodies.

Mitchell is very good in her role, a damaged individual with a core of strength that remains, despite her moments of weakness. Louis Herthum is a man with inside knowledge of the corpse (played by Kirby Johnson, and I don't want to dismiss her performance, even if her character spends most of her time on a morgue table), and Grey Damon, Nick Thune, Stana Katic, and Maximillian McNamara all work well in their roles.

There are things the movie doesn't get right, particularly in ramping up the pure horror aspects while a number of other people have to avoid seeing anything that our lead ends up seeing, but these are minor complaints. Even the lack of any real stylistic flourishes doesn't matter too much. This is a film that gets the basics right, and getting the basics right, before adding some extra touches to them, puts any horror movie ahead of the hundreds made by people who seem to completely misunderstand the genre. The scares here are crafted expertly, the setting makes it easier to accept the relative lack of people and activity, and everything builds to an unsurprising, but very satisfying, ending.

8/10

https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Boogeyman 3 (2008)

Much like the first movie in this series, Boogeyman 3 has an interesting idea at the heart of it. It's just a shame that the idea is hampered by the dull script from Brian Sieve and the pedestrian direction from Gary Jones. The end result isn't completely horrible, but it's bland and uninteresting from start to finish.

Nikke Sanderson plays Audrey, a young woman who happens to be the daughter of a main character killed off in Boogeyman 2. Unaware of exactly what went down when her father died, Audrey ends up taking ideas from some of his writing that she discovers. Which means that it's not long until the boogeyman comes along. The film then moves to focus on Sarah (Erin Cahill), the actual lead character for the rest of the movie. Sarah is a student, the host of a radio show, and someone who loves to help others in need. When Audrey catches up with Sarah and explains her recent boogeyman-related experiences, Sarah does her best to help. That's not enough, however, and people soon start dying all around Sarah.

There are times when Boogeyman 3 feels like some reworked Elm Street movie, without any impressive gore FX or a decent main character. That's not to say that it's a bloodless affair, it's just neither inventive nor gory enough to make any lasting impression on horror fans.

Cahill is okay in the main role, yet I can think of at least a dozen other actresses from the world of indie horror who could fill her shoes. Mind you, she has more presence than anyone else onscreen, so her being picked for the lead role is no coincidence. The rest of the cast feels so bland and homogenous that I can't even be bothered to highlight any other performances. Oh, there are different character types, for sure, but they all end up just being the same young folk who may or may not meet a sticky end.

There's nothing else worth highlighting either, apart from the last 10 minutes, which provides both a satisfying conclusion to events, and also an unexpected appearance from Jayne Wisener (a young actress best known for her work on some British TV shows).

If you managed to sit through the first movie, and then managed to get through the second movie, there's nothing here so bad that you won't be able to find it passable enough to complete your trilogy viewing (as I did).

4/10

http://www.amazon.com/Triple-Feature-Boogeyman-Barry-Watson/dp/B003UN0752/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411851034&sr=1-1&keywords=boogeyman

Boogeyman 2 (2007)

I can't, in all honesty, say that Boogeyman 2 is a GREAT horror movie. But I can easily say that it's quite a step up from the first movie. In fact, apart from one main connection, you could happily avoid the painful experience of watching the first film and just skip straight to this one.

Danielle Savre plays Laura Porter, a young woman who decides to check into the mental health facility that seemed to do so much good for her brother (Henry, played by Matt Cohen). Laura and Henry were scarred many years ago by a traumatic night that led to the loss of their parents. As Matt heads off to start rebuilding his adult life, Laura puts herself in the hands of Dr. Jessica Ryan (Renee O'Connor) and Dr. Mitchell Allen (Tobin Bell). Unfortunately, it's not long until a number of her fellow patients start dying, and in ways that seem tied to their deepest fears. Is the boogeyman real, or have one of the doctors decided to try more radical methods of treatment?

While the script by Brian Sieve is simply competent, and the direction by Jeff Betancourt is perfectly fine, Boogeyman 2 actually manages to impress with one or two moments of real nastiness. The dressing may be standard, sanitised stuff, but the death scenes here are sometimes wince-inducingly painful, which is all the more surprising considering the blandness of some other aspects of the film. The supporting characters are a mixed bad, and it's hard to care for most of them, the facility always feels like a horror movie set as opposed to a real building (like, for example, those many horror movie hospitals that never have more than one or two staff working in them at night), and the final act revelations will neither surprise nor impress full-time horror fans.

Savre is fine in the lead role, I guess, but it's the supporting cast that provides more fun for movie fans. The appearance of Bell, of course, immediately makes him a prime suspect (due to his prominent role in the Saw franchise), but O'Connor also plays up to the fact that her character could be good or evil, simply because all of the adults disbelieving younger characters with legitimate fears can be viewed as potential baddies in a movie series that has shown how far things can be affected by the fear of fear itself. Then we have Mae Whitman and Johnny Simmons as two patients, the former unable to stop her habit of cutting herself and the latter suffering from OCD relating to hygiene. They both stand out, making the film much more enjoyable than it otherwise would have been. The same, sadly, can't be said for Christine Griffith, Michael Graziadei, Lesli Margherita, or any of the others that I may have already forgotten. Cohen does okay, but he's not onscreen long enough to make much of an impression either way.

If, like me, you never thought of checking out the sequels to the awful Boogeyman then it may be worth reconsidering your stance. You're not missing out on too much if you never watch this movie, but it's an easygoing bit of entertainment if you have 90 minutes to fill and you're in the mood for something undemanding and gory.

5/10

http://www.amazon.com/Triple-Feature-Boogeyman-Barry-Watson/dp/B003UN0752/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411851034&sr=1-1&keywords=boogeyman