Ouija (Film)

First of all, before I began my review, you have to know what "ouija" means. Ouija is a board with letters and numbers arranged on it, including the terms "YES", "NO" and "Goodbye, used to communicate with spirits or ghosts. The rules of playing the ouija board according to the movie are as follows :
1. Do NOT play alone
2. Do NOT treat it like a game.
3. Always end it with Goodbye.

Because it's October, the month of Haloween, cinemas around the world are being spammed with horror movies. OUIJA seemed interesting to me, having just watched Annabelle and was fairly disappointed with it. 

As the title had already pretty much gave away the plot, the story revolves around 5 friends who got themselves into a ouija drama after their best friend, Debbie died due to playing with it alone. Supposedly she conjured an evil spirit named "DV" who started haunting and possessing her, leading to her suicide. 

The main protagonist, Laine, stupidly and obsessively wanted to know more about Debbie's suicide and decided to include her other 4 friends into conducting a few Ouija sessions to communicate with the dead Debbie. Of course, like any other horror movie, they managed to conjure the bad ghosts. The spirit, known as Doris Velor (or something like that) appeared with a stiched mouth in a few boos and bahhs moments (yes, cue the annoying sound effects) and began haunting the teens, killing them off one by one. (Cliche, yes...) It seemed like the ghost's mother was made of pure evil.

After her friends started dying, obviously because of her personal selfish obsession, Laine panically started looking for solutions to end the hauntings. She met DV's mentally ill sister who was put in an asylum due to murdering their mother (supposedly she was practising dark magic and used Doris as a vessel to keep the bad spirits) and told her to remove the stitching from the mouth of DV's corpse to stop their supposedly evil mother from terrorising the teens.

So the stupid Laine did as told and of course, the movie had its twisted plot. You can predict how it goes from here.

Overall, I'd give it an 7/10 for the sound effects and creepiness of the ghost appearances. But, the storyline was a true repetition of ALL the horror stories we have already seen. They could have focused more on the history of the ouija and place a better ending.

And finally, What's with the newspaper cuttings? Seriously movie writers have got to find other ways to flashback the past besides the usual "finding old newspaper cuttings in old boxes". Like seriously, who keeps these articles with the evidence together in a box?!

Ghostly,

Ms Anne.

BEYOND : Two Souls (PS3)

Coming soon ;)

Assassin's Creed IV : Black Flag (PS3 Game)

TOTALLY AWESOME...!!!

I was never a real AC fan, hell I didn't even know what the whole Creed was about. Never cared for, never bothered to know. Until my brother bought this one. It brought my gaming skills and actual interest to another level. A good level.

At first it seemed like the typical PS3 RPG game plays. Missions, kill, combat, climb, side missions etc... But with a purpose! It also helped that Welsh born Edward, the protagonist of the game kinda looks like Gareth Bale, so I got that working for me. 2 hours into the game and I got hitched. The missions had an objective and the story progress was damn awesome.

What made this more enjoyable is the option to take breaks between main missions to go hunting, sail, find collectibles, finish contracts, upgrade yourself or your ships and more... Also, despite the fact that you want to "blend in" with the normal people while wearing a creepy assassin hoodie, the actions were easy and various, giving you the chance to kill people with whatever artistic ways you're in the mood with. And trust me, I enjoy ninja assassinating the templar guards for no reasons at all...!

The mission for the Animus player, myself is to unravel a conspiracy between high-ranking Templars within the British and Spanish empires who, under the guise of cleaning up piracy in the Caribbean, have used their positions to locate the Sage to find some mystic device that can see through people's eyes, revealing secrets.

The  Animus story revolves around Edward Kenway who left his wife behind to be a sailor. And after getting attacked at sea, he killed the captain, Duncan Walpole as self defence and took over his life as an assassin. Little did he know the dude was a traitor and had an army, if not two waiting to pounce on him. So Edward progressed, from sailor to captain, bodyguard to assassin... made friends will cool people like Blackbeard, James Kidd (Mary) etc... Got an awesome ship, Jackdaw which I upgraded like a sir, met and killed the Sage, killed templars and won the hearts of the Assassins brotherhood through Ah Tabai, the leader that time.

And just like other AC series I read about, everyone dies. And life goes on...

Gameplay wise, the controls are as simple as any ps3 gaming experience could get. L and R analogs to move around, R1 for free run, actions buttons for random attacks... arrow buttons for changing weapons... L1 for aiming, R1 for shooting... And a whole lot more for ship combats.

So this game opened my mind to accept the AC saga, making me look forward to the next episode, Unity. If they retained the same controls and game play with a few improvements here and there, I might be reviewing this game within months.

Awesome 5 weeks spent on a game. (yes, I am a light gamer) Worth the price.

A true 9.5/10.

Assassinally, 
Ms Anne.

Annabelle (Film)

Hmmm... After watching The Conjuring 3 times in the cinema, plus a few times after it being available for download, you can only imagine how excited I was to hear about the prequel to the movie, Annabelle. It's a movie about a creepy doll, based on a true story but improvised. The doll as shown in the movie poster was supposedly possessed by a demonic ghost and set on a mission to spook the hell out of everyone around it.

Well of course, expectations were set high for the movie since The Conjuring was a true hit for me. You know how difficult it is to see good horror movies these days without the risk of heart attacks from the typical sudden boos and bahhs... Annabelle was kind of a disappointment. It was more like an "INSIDIOUS" type of movie, a little bit unreal and cliche. The storyline was okay, a normal married couple adopted the doll, some cult followers were interested in it. One killed herself (the girl named Annabelle, duh!) while holding it, causing her disturbed spirit to haunt it and thus the name Annabelle was assigned to it. And it didn't want to let go of the doll. Ever.

There were a few scenes which creeped the hell outta me. One of them was the storage scene where a shadowlike entity made things move around in the dark and chased the girl up the stairs, crawling like creepy asian ghosts. But then it ruined it. The demon showed itself. For me, the way it appeared to be a glimpse and shadowy was horrifying, making a lot of hair stand up at the back of my neck. However, the ram-like head with horns and everything immediately took the horror away. The creators need to learn more about how scary ghosts really look like. Not something out of a Charmed episode.

I would give this movie an 8/10. I personally think some improvements should be made especially in the hair and make up department. However... It's still not a movie I would watch alone. The arrangement and environment of the setting was good and gloomy. And it has an interesting storyline which most horror movies lack of. Good Job, James Wan.

Okay now looking forward to The Conjuring 2.

Being Creepy,Ms Anne.

Perfect Sisters (film)

When I saw the poster for this movie, I was kinda excited. Yes!!! A teenage horror flick... It's been a while since they produced one. Well at least that I know of. I saw the poster, I judged... I assumed it was going to be great since it starred the girl from Narnia and the girl from Signs. 

I was kinda disappointed to see the plastic face of Mira Sorvino whom I once thought was one of the most beautiful women on earth. (Romy and Michelle... At first Sight...) Acting wise, she kinda sucked. And I bet most of you wouldn't even recognize who she was. In this movie she plays the alcoholic mother of the two girls. And yes, I also found out that this movie is based on a true story. And so I waited for the "Horror" genre to start its engine.

Again I was disapointed. Scene after scene I waited for anything terrorizing, thrilling or horrifying to happen. Nothing did. It turned out to be just a normal teen flick. It made the remake Carrie 10 times better. And that is saying something. I guess the writers were too obligated to the storybook or true facts to make it dramatic or entertaining. They could have made the murder part a wee bit more gruesome than it turned out.

Okay enough nagativeness. I guess the acting was okay. The girls were sincerely acting out their sisterly love and their whodahell friends were good supporting actors. I just wish less make up were used on Beth as it hid her traditional beauty. Nevertheless, the casting were alright, minus Mira Sorvino.

Storyline wise... Hey at least I managed to finish the whole movie, making it better than Godzilla (2014) for me xD (spoiler alert) It's a movie based on the true story in Canada about two sisters who killed their mom because they wanted the insurance money and to get rid of their mom's abusive boyfriend. In the movie, they made what the girls did a decent thing because they were left with no choice but to murder her as a way out of their miserable life. But I read in reality, they were just troubled girls who hated their own mother for alcoholism and lack of responsibility. (which I think doesn't make much difference since she already behaves like a dead burden to them...) In the end they were arrested and served 10 years prison, seperately. 

What I liked about the movie is the sisterhood bonding between Beth and Sandra. It's something sisters can relate with, maybe understood deeply. They grew up together, they lived together and they got in trouble together. I just wished people would be a little bit human and let them do their time together. They were afterall underaged...

Anyways... That's all I've got to say about the movie. I give it a 5/10 rating.

Gothically,

-Ms Anne-