KING ON SCREEN (2022) Movie Review

King on Screen (2022) d. Daphne Baiwir (France/Belgium) (105 min)

Stephen King’s debut novel, Carrie, first landed on book stands in 1974 and was a relatively modest success. By the time Brian De Palma’s film version hit screens in 1976, King’s follow-up, ’Salem’s Lot had already been published, with The Shining just around the corner. Over the following 45 years, King continued to churn out tome after tome, oftentimes two (or more) in a single year. As of this writing, he has signed his name to 65 novels, over 200 short stories, and five non-fiction books, making him one of the most (if not THE most) successful living authors. It is therefore no surprise that the man’s work has been adapted time and again; over 80 feature films and TV projects (movies, miniseries, series) have their roots in King’s brainwaves, with many of them deemed modern classics.

OCULUS (2013) movie review

Oculus (2013) d. Mike Flanagan (USA)

Following a long stint in a mental institution, Tim (Brenton Thwaites) meets up with his art dealer sister Kaylie (Karen Gillan) to begin his life anew. However, his sibling has no intention of forgetting their past, and the dark forces that shattered their childhood. Seems that the mirror acquired by their father (Rory Cochrane) possesses the ability to warp visual observations and entrap minds, leading to some very twisted and disturbing consequences for the kids and their mother (Katee Sackhoff). Returning to their childhood home and having taken elaborate observational precautions, Kaylie hopes to prove that Tim’s criminal acts – the very ones that ended him up in the booby hatch – were not the results of faulty mental wiring, but rather the influence of the malignant artifact.

ABSENTIA (2011) movie review

Absentia (2011) d. Flanagan, Mike

Seven years after the disappearance of her husband, grieving widow Courtney Bell is in the process of legally finalizing his “deceased in absentia” status when he begins to appear to her in increasingly disturbing visions. At the same time, her drifter sister Katie Parker has a number of strange encounters with individuals (including genre fave Doug Jones) in and around a creepy underpass tunnel. Writer/director Flanagan conjures an intriguing horror story with some serious smarts and well-conceived characters going for it, mostly balancing out any obstacles that accompany its clearly diminutive budget.