witwoud

Best thing here is the cinematography. I wanted to pause every scene and just admire the composition and the colours for about ten minutes. Also good is Maika Monroe, who once again finds herself looking over her shoulder for people who may or may not be following her. And Burn Gorman, who I fondly remember as young Mr Guppy from the BBC's version of Bleak House, is on excellent creepy form here.

The story itself is fairly routine. Woman thinks she's being followed. Husband, cops and everyone else think she's crazy. Turns out she's not. And the ending's a bit unlikely. But never mind that. Watch it for the sheer look of it, and the fine acting.

Seems like a lot of people were expecting another CHUCKY or ANNABELLE or whatever, but they're missing the point. M3GAN is exactly what it sets out to be: a fun, campy, tongue-in-cheek horror-comedy that's aimed more at teenage girls than hardened horror geeks. There should be more films like this, not fewer -- after all, we have to train up the next generation of horror fans, and what better than a singing, dancing, murdering doll?

It's not without its flaws. It's scrappy in places, particularly the parts set in the toy company. The boss and the coworkers were rather implausible. I don't mind that they dialled back on the violence, given the target audience, but a lot of it was rather generic and failed to take full advantage of the premise. (A nail gun -- seriously, M3gan?)

But the things it got right, it got very right. Principally M3gan herself, a brilliant creation, with her pussy bow and synthetic voice and big watchful eyes. She's a sort of Hannibal Lector for the TikTok generation. Just the sight of her sitting in the background, apparently switched off but obviously listening, added a delicious air of menace to many of the scenes. And the 'campy' aspect of her character -- her trite, upbeat advice and Hallmark-style mawkishness -- was hilarious. When she began to sing the whole cinema exploded with laughter.

Decent performances by the other two leads, and an excellent turn by Lori Dungey as the difficult neighbour. A shout-out to screenwriter Akela Cooper, who also wrote the enjoyable MALIGNANT. I was surprised to find M3GAN a more thoughtful film than I'd supposed, with interesting things to say about grief and attachment.

It's not quite a classic. But it's cleverer than the average horror film and frankly more fun too. That it doesn't rely on gore, violence and jump scares to keep you interested is a mark in its favour, I'd say.

All the pieces are in place here for a decent folk horror, but Lord of Misrule never really takes off. Tuppence Middleton does an okay job but I could never believe in her as a vicar. She, her husband, and their child are just a 'meh' sort of family. And all the pagan elements are things we've seen a dozen times already. A trio of people standing in the mid-distance wearing animal heads. A rambunctious festival hiding something more sinister. Corn doilies and whatnot hanging from trees. And then, of course, a missing girl, and sacrifices, and so on, and so on.

It's not bad, exactly. But none of the characters behave in particularly believable ways, which means that it's hard to get invested in them. This, combined with its lack of originality, makes it all a bit of a slog.