Although it has not been widely publicized before, it is probably something that everyone knows about this movie entering the Conjuring Universe (just like everyone in the Women's Federation 4 will be resurrected through time and space and turned to ashes). This film gave me the same feeling as "Annabelle 2" and "The Nun". It wasn't a big surprise, but it was uneventful. After watching it, it turned out to be pretty cool. The female ghost isn't scary, but rather cute.
Spoiler alert
1. The routine of "The Conjuring"
I remember when I was watching "Annabelle 2" in the cinema, the long indoor shot at the beginning almost made me laugh, because this trick was used by Wen Ziren in "The Conjuring 1, 2", and the child was used at the beginning. Interspersed with the parents indoors, the long shots explain the spatial layout and character relationships of the room. Wen Ziren's ability to compress the plot with limited time is indeed very powerful. For example, at the beginning of "Aquaman", Atlan went from a coma to acquainted and fell in love with Tom, but he explained it vividly in a few minutes.
"Annabelle 2" worked hard to study after the failure of the first part. The long indoor shots at the beginning were also considered to be flawless, and there was a bit of Wen Ziren's feeling in learning. However, when it came to "The Curse of the Crying Woman", the opening chapter The dazzling behavior of long shots seems to be standard, and it will be launched immediately after the title appears.
This time, however, it was definitely a mess.
The overall texture of the long shot at the beginning is relatively general, and because there are only three characters, it cannot form that kind of patchwork effect. The most important thing is that this shot is far from explaining the layout of the house. At best, I said that my daughter likes dolls. matter.
The hostess's house has two floors! Yet the lens doesn't even try to go to the second layer! This long shot, compared to the shots of Wen Ziren's two "The Conjuring", can only be said to have a form and no charm.
Of course, apart from the iconic opening long shot, the godfather in "Annabelle 1" has to mention the connection between the Annabelle doll and the Conjuring Universe.
Not only that, but also all the classic elements of horror films such as the single-family mansion + multiple children + the gradually escalating haunted at night + exorcist + final battle are all added together, it can be said that it is determined to recreate the soul.
(Actually, the element of exorcists is not uncommon in horror films. "The Exorcist" and "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" have the role of exorcists, but Wen Ziren has used them more frequently in recent years. That's all, the "Hidden" series all have the figure of the exorcist, and the "Conjuring" series even makes the exorcist the protagonist)
2. Emotional rendering that still fails
What is the most important thing about horror movies? Is it a lot of jump scares? Is it weird music? Is it a creepy backstory? Is it unknown? Is it mysterious? Is it dark, or is it twisted and disgusting?
Want me to say, the application of all these elements is to render a kind of emotion, to stimulate people's inner terror.
Let’s take the simplest example. The camera follows the protagonist to explore in the dark mansion. The last fright is important, but the process of walking ahead is also an accumulation of emotions. Improve your expectations a little bit, relax, and at the same time add With enough music to evoke a physiological response (including volume), this whole arrangement makes the audience start to get scared and cover their eyes even before the final scary point.
It is a pity that there is no scene in "The Curse of the Crying Woman" that makes me feel this kind of weight.
Not to mention the two "The Conjuring", let's just say "Annabelle 2", the disabled little heroine finally escaped after a series of twists and turns, and sat on the escalator, but the elevator didn't move, at that time , the emotions that foreshadowed in front and this uncomfortable escalator all constitute a disturbing factor, and this scene makes me feel very scary.
Even in "The Nun", there is a scene that scared me a bit, that is, the dead nun's body sat up when I saw it again at the beginning. The way she was lying down was only spoken, but now what I saw was sitting up. When he got up, this sense of unease was infinitely strengthened when the male protagonist reached out to get the key in the corpse's hand (it's a pity that the movie didn't make a big fuss here).
However, as I said, all the elements have been assembled, even the attic and basement, mirrors, candles, crosses are not missing, but the effect is very tragic.
For example, the basement, because there is only one ghost in this film, this basement really has no use other than as a space to lock the heroine. Think about the classic scene on the stairs leading to the basement in "The Conjuring 1". The heroine strikes the matches one by one, but doesn't want to suddenly stretch out her hands to pat it. The double impact of vision and hearing is perfect. Not to mention that the plot also fits perfectly with that hide-and-seek clue.
Let's talk about the attic, which basically does not reflect the gloomy and mysterious nature of the attic, except for the wedding dress dummy, which is just a room with a lot of things. Previously, the part about the attic in "The Secret of Ma Rouben's House" was better than this, and the part of the attic in "Hereditary Doom" was also very beautiful.
The story of La llarona is said to be a ghost story that Mexicans are very familiar with. It is a shadow of childhood in the hearts of many Mexicans. Unfortunately, this film basically does not make a big fuss about the element of Mexico, even if you invite a Mexican Participating in the screenwriting will make the story more exotic and mysterious instead of Annabelle with a layer of Mexican skin.
As for the element of the exorcist, are you really not joking?
3. Chaoying's jokes and duels
In fact, he was really there to be funny. He contracted most of the jokes in this film, but as an exorcist, he looked like I didn't know what to do with it. Those egg rituals were also very interesting, and these jokes really made Ben The atmosphere of the film came alive.
It is worth mentioning that the final "big" battle, in which the exorcist leads the family to fight the evil spirits in the final duel is a reserved program of "The Conjuring 1, 2", and basically at this time, the evil spirits show their real bodies and fight with humans. Wrist wrestling, showing muscles, spells against waves, and spell competition, there is no horror at all. This is also the most popcorn in the Conjuring Universe, and happily, "The Curse of the Crying Woman" inherits this, not only that , but also try to be more eccentric, to get closer to the end of the decisive battle at the level of "The Nun" (the seal of Jesus' blood at the end of "The Nun" really made me see the big scene of the ghost movie), a super-powered la llarona (self- With burning effect, force field control, airflow control, teleportation, invisibility, sonic shock attack, etc.) you have to give up these spells and choose to rush directly to the protagonist holding the holy cross like a Spartan warrior. I thought of the Thanos Legion, which can span across the galaxy, and can only use ground melee creatures as the main force to attack the earth.
However, it is also quite shocking, and most importantly, it is really cool.
4. "The Conjuring 3", are you really good director?
This is the director's debut work. From this point of view, it is already a very good passerby. It is interesting to imitate the "Conjuring" series, although it is a bit immature in many parts, such as the narration before the title of the opening film, such as the second female entering the house and taking the child The black screen cut for the crying woman was very crude (obviously didn't know how to express this process with limited footage), and the final shot at the end of the credits was unsatisfactory.
Of course, it can be regarded as uneventful.
However, if you want to ask this director to direct "The Conjuring 3", that's really worrying.
The Conjuring Universe has always used "Conjuring" as the main story to lay the foundation for word-of-mouth, and then develop a rumor (maybe the word-of-mouth is not so good) to make a lot of money at the box office, and if there is no solid quality guarantee for the main story, it will undoubtedly be like Justice League without Superman, without iron The Women's Federation of the Big Three of the Shield and Hammer is average and has no backbone. If "The Conjuring 3" like "The Curse of the Weeping Woman" is rated only around the pass line, the future of the Conjuring Universe is really worrying.
In short, "The Curse of the Crying Woman" is of average quality, but you might as well watch it. It should be regarded as the popcorn in horror movies, although it is not as good as "Us", "The Clown", "Hereditary Doom", let's watch it. Hahaha with a smile, I almost forget it when I get home, and I won't be disturbed by my inner demons at night. (The night I watched "It's Behind" I stared at a painting on the wall for a long time, and I always thought it was looking at me).
And to be honest, because I know that the Annabelle doll is actually quite cute in reality, I always thought that the doll held by the little heroine was the real appearance of Annabelle, which caused me to focus on that doll a lot of time. . Hey, it's really a family of people who want to die and don't tell the truth. Everyone has seen a ghost and still insists on saying no, and they know it's dangerous and they go all out to get the doll.
But the little girl is so cute, just be silly.
Finally, Annabelle wishes you a good laugh
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