OK, I'm going to go ahead and say right now...I completely disagree with RLM and anybody who agrees with them that James Wan intended this as a big play parody. This is not a prank. This is who James Wan is. Especially if you give him carte blanche to do whatever he wants.

Anybody who has followed this guy's career knows what he's about: big budget horror, 12 year-old brain intelligence and maturity, but knows how to shoot a film. In fact, he's on the same level of Spielberg and John Woo as a straight-up director of film.

But as a storyteller, and filmmaker? He's as bad as Ed Wood, and this is probably his biggest example of that. The fact that Mike & Jay compared him to Sam Raimi is...just insulting to Sam Raimi.

This movie is painfully boring except for maybe 10-15 minutes of hilarious over the top stuff ("The Matrix"/any women in prison movie sequences) that probably should've driven the movie--and would be the only excuse to give it any credence it was intentionally this crazy.

I don't recommend watching this unless you are with a group of people who have a lot of great quips ready to go. RiffTrax would have a field day with this.

out of

RLM's HiTB video was disappointing. Not very sharp, guys. Normally they are...here, they are playing dumb a little too much for their own good.

HOLY SHIT

WTF IS THIS?

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i don't even know what to say as a response. except that this movie sucks the absolute lowest root that could exist on this planet.

An extreme step down for James Wan.

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yes. EVEN for him. the bar is not exceptionally high but wan has not been THIS bad.

Insidious and The Conjuring are two of my favorite horror movies, so my bar for his directing this genre of film is pretty high.

I just wasn’t scared at all, and was kind of stuck in a state of amused shock throughout the final act.

The V for Vendetta detour through the police station was ok I guess.

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This movie was the topic on this week's episode of "How did this get made?" I think the fact that got it so quickly tells me all I need to know about it.

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The more I think about it the more I have to give James Wan credit for a fairly original concept.

I just don’t think it was executed that well.

Mostly enjoyed the directing and tracking shots too.

Some of the acting was B level, but I don’t think they were given much to work with dialogue wise.

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it's not an original concept.

check out tom waits' song "poor edward". it's also based on a "real" case.

i wouldn't put anything james wan has done in my top 10 but you have to say, for going balls to the wall...this only has a few moments of anarchic brilliance.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Mordake

Pretty crazy, but I was speaking more towards applying this specific concept/deformity to a horror film.

I’m sure my list of favorite horror movies is pretty biased to the last 30 years or so.

Whereas yours spans the entirety of film.

Which is something I respect.

Insidious and the first 2 Conjuring films were the last times I remember being legitimately spooked during a couple scenes, so I had high hopes going into this.

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in the horror movie genre, it's basically "basket case". which probably could use a good, strong remake. but i wouldn't trust modern filmmakers to do it.

"insidious" and "conjuring" are probably wan's best work, and even up against those...this is just shit.

Professor Quirrell!