4 - Annabelle

    A doll functions as a vessel that a satan-worshipper uses to acquire a soul - of a newborn daughter.
    I liked The Conjuring.  I liked it enough that I own it.  In fact, I’ve been a big fan of this wave of modern horror movies.  Insidious… Sinister… I think that horror has hit a new era, and I think this has a lot to offer.
    But I didn’t care for this.  And my problem boils down to a single issue.
    Sound design.

    I’ll come back to that, but first, let me cover some of the stuff I did like.
    One of the things I really liked about The Conjuring was the period-specific feel.  It felt authentic.  This movie takes place about a year prior to The Conjuring, but most of that look seems to be gone.  It might be because it takes place in a more urban area, but somehow, that charm is weaker than it should be.  But that’s still a plus.
    The direction is still good quality.  I’ve been really pleased with this generation of horror’s ability to frame shots effectively, and to toy with audience expectations.  They do beautiful work with color, especially in well-lit sequences.  (I wonder if this is a side effect of modern digital cameras.  I’ve felt like most modern movies are much more vibrant.)
    The story is a little more lackluster than the other movies.  One of the things I loved about Insidious was that it set up a series of horror tropes, then subverted them.  It pushed the story everywhere you don’t expect it to.  This one just feels like more of a by-the-numbers effort.

    But the sound design.  I’m getting really tired of this.

    Horror movies have liked to play up sound-enforced jump scares.  I don’t mind these on rare occasions, but this has gotten out of hand.  The weakest element of Sinister was the jump scare inserted for no good reason.
    One of the creepiest moments of The Conjuring was a long tracking shot that had a ghost arrive as the camera moved.  The ghost is far in the background, out of focus, and (to my recollection) there was no music cue to go with it.
    I guess that my preference is that a horror movie shouldn’t demand attention by being big and loud.  It should demand attention by being spooky, and requiring attention to know what to be scared about.

    It isn’t just these auditory jump scares… it’s the massive dynamic range.  Chunks of the dialogue is brought down to a whisper, just so the jumps can be bigger.  That’s ridiculous.  In order to be scared, I need to understand what the people are saying.  If I can’t do that, the scares aren’t scary - they’re just annoying.

    I wonder if I sound like some old codger complaining about how everything sucks nowadays.
    Nah.  Last year, I praised Raze.  I liked comic book movies, and sophomoric buddy comedies.  If anything, I’m a bigger fan of modern movies than I am of classics.