Three horror picks that weren't all that scary

I’ve never been a big fan of horror movies or TV shows—I just don’t have the stomach for it. But every now and then, a morbid curiosity gets the better of me, and I enter the dark world of the supernatural: ghosts, spirits and otherworldly beings who aren’t exactly the friendliest of entities.

 

Stubs keeping me company while I'm watching a horror movie.

So, with my finger over the mute button, I recently watched—in broad daylight and with our pet, Stubs, by my side—two horror films and a TV show about demonic possessions and exorcism, haunted houses and alternate dimensions.

 

Here’s a quick take on The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Ouija: Origin of Evil and Stranger Things, each serving up its fair share of thrill and suspense.

 

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)

 

I watched this movie for two reasons. One, because I quite enjoyed its prequels, The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring 2 (2016), and two, I liked the chemistry between the husband-wife duo of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. They’re the kind of couple you never want separated, and because, together, they can take the ‘haunting’ out of any haunted house without being too ruffled by the experience.

 

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (Netflix India) was not exactly spine-chilling, but there were moments when I wished I were watching Laurel and Hardy instead. For instance, when Lorraine sets out on her own into dark places and shadowy tunnels, as she usually does, to investigate a murder case involving a cult and a satanic curse that results in the demonic possession of an eight-year-old boy. Or when Ed, temporarily under the spell of the oculist, tries to kill Lorraine before her heartfelt entreaties of their love brings him back to his senses.

 

There are no haunted houses in the film, but some fiendish twists keep you on edge. Overall, though, it lacks the scary intensity of its two predecessors, such as the chilling appearance of the demonic nun Valak in The Conjuring 2.

 

Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)

I always thought Ouija was just another word for Planchette, the spirit board or talking board my friends and I devised and experimented with while growing up in the seventies. It wasn’t until I watched Ouija: Origin of Evil (Prime Video) that I realised planchette was actually a small heart-shaped moveable piece of wood that spelled out messages from the spirit world.

 

As it turns out, in the film, the planchette unleashes a terrifying evil in the lives of Alice Zander (Elizabeth Reaser), a down-on-her-luck widow and a fake spiritual medium, who adds the Ouija board to her act with her two teenage girls—only for her nine-year-old daughter, Doris, to become possessed by a spirit named Marcus.

 

Barring the eerie visuals and creepy atmosphere, which are usually the staple of most supernatural horror films, Ouija: Origin of Evil doesn’t do much to stand out in the genre. There are moments of suspense, but not spine-chilling enough to make me cover my face and peek through my fingers.

 

Stranger Things (2016–Present)

 

I can’t say much about this TV show since I’ve only watched Season 1 so far. But I’m getting into the series, which is set in the 1980s in the town of Hawkins, Indiana.

 

A blend of horror, science fiction, mystery, adventure and drama, Stranger Things (Netflix India) revolves around mysterious disappearances, government conspiracies, secret experiments, and monsters from an alternate dimension called the Upside Down.

 

Season 1 mainly follows a group of inquisitive kids who, with the help of a somewhat reluctant girl with psychic abilities, quietly investigate the disappearance—and presumed death—of their best friend. They’re convinced he’s been dragged into the Upside Down by the Demogorgon, a humanoid monster.

 

Winona Ryder delivers a fine performance as the missing boy’s emotionally distraught mother, who believes he’s alive and possibly trapped in a strange, mysterious dimension. She claims she communicates with him through Christmas light bulbs and letters scrawled on the wall.

 

Is Stranger Things worth binge-watching? Probably for others, but not for me.

 

Despite an intriguing storyline and well-drawn characters, I watched only one or two episodes at a time—I find the presence of children in horror movies and shows disquieting. Perhaps that’s what makes them strangely appealing. Imagine if 12-year-old Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) in The Exorcist (1973) had been portrayed by a grown woman: Would it have had the same chilling effect on audiences?

 

Anyway, the devil isn’t going to make me watch any more horror until New Year—from here on out, it’s going to be mostly feel-good stuff, like Christmas movies. I want to end the year on a comforting note.

 

© Prashant C. Trikannad