Even actresses doing significantly better than most in their age range can’t live on hit franchises alone, unfortunately, so here’s Lin Shaye in MIDNIGHT MAN, acting for all the world like she isn’t slumming in a murky imitation of her INSIDIOUS films.
Unlike many Indian horror films which offer scares in between song and dance numbers, THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR offers a quickly paced fright fest that features the solar eclipse, pregnancy, spirits and spirit possession.
Over the past several years, director Mike Flanagan has been building an impressive body of genre work that often focuses on domestic trauma. Sadly, his 2013 production BEFORE I WAKE fell victim to Relativity Media’s financial troubles, but it’s now available on Netflix and well worth a watch.
By coincidence, INSIDE is the second horror remake to be released in as many weeks directed by a Spanish-speaking filmmaker, after DAY OF THE DEAD: BLOODLINE. The comparison illustrates the difference between a movie that has some artistic ambition behind it, and one that has been merely cranked out to capitalize on a title.
If you’re going to dare to revisit this territory, you’d better have something clever, innovative and/or meaningful to add. The driving story element DAY OF THE DEAD: BLOODLINE’s creators came up with is the Bub variant trying to get rapey with the scientist heroine.
