Streaming
Services: Hulu
Movie
Name/Year: Into
the Dark: Uncanny Annie (2019)
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Length: 90 minutes
Rating: TV-MA
Production/Distribution: Hulu
Director: Paul Davis
Writer: Alan Blake Bachelor, James
Bachelor
Actors: Adelaide Kane, Georgie
Flores, Paige McGhee, Jacques Colimon, Dylan Arnold, Evan Bittencourt, Karlisha
Hurley, Camden Toy, Liam Graham, Avery Bagenstos, Bloom Li
Blurb
from IMDb: On
Halloween night a group of college students get trapped in a mysterious board
game that brings their darkest secrets and fears to life, where they must play
to escape...and win to survive.
Selina’s
Point of View:
I
actually kind of enjoyed this horror version of Jumanji (1995).
For
the most part, I’ve found the Into the Dark series to be difficult to
predict where quality is concerned. It’s more like a Black Mirror (2011
-) kind of thing than Twilight Zone (1959-1964). It’s still technically
a TV series (distributed by Hulu), but each ‘episode’ is about an hour and a
half long horror film. You don’t need to watch them in order and they have
nothing to do with each other.
However,
sometimes some of the writing or acting can feel a little overdone.
Where
Uncanny Annie did have a few moments that made me roll my eyes, it was
still decent. It didn’t just act as the horror version of Jumanji, it
acknowledged what it was and paid homage. I don’t hate that.
I
didn’t find the character of Annie, played by Karlisha Hurley (Nightmare
Tenant, Time Being, Do You Mind?), to be all that scary, though. I feel
like they could have done better with her. The concept itself was fine, but
even on a low budget, they could have made her scarier.
The
story did follow the recipe of a truth or dare film. It had the same conflicts
and followed similar rules. It’s not where your going to find the most original
content, but it’s the kind of film you could throw on during Halloween and use
for background noise at a party.
Uncanny
Annie didn’t
reinvent any wheels, it followed a recipe, and it paid homage to one of the
great movies from my childhood. Honestly, I enjoyed it. I’d watch it again.
Cat’s
Point of View:
The
beginning of the movie felt a little awkward and clunky, but that was
short-lived and likely attributed to the character-driven awkwardness within
the story. That being said, it doesn’t really count against the overall movie –
especially considering the manner with which we learn exactly why the
characters are acting that way.
At
first, there didn’t seem to be anything unique going on within this college
party-gone-awry horror recipe. As the story unfolded, however, I found myself
invested in the plight of these kids and admiring the horrific simplicity of
the game they played.
There
have been quite a few party-game-gone-bad horror films in recent years, but
this didn’t feel like it was recycling everything I’d seen before. I also
appreciated that the movie didn’t turn into a full-on gore-fest or
torture-porn.
There was blood, but it wasn’t gratuitous. I was also grateful
that there weren’t jump-scares around every corner, either. It was imaginative
and even had decent effects for the supernatural shenanigans.
When
you add in overall well-rounded performances by the ensemble cast to that
equation you come up with a really solid Halloween horror flick which I am
looking forward to sharing with my teen when the holiday rolls around this
fall.
Into
the Dark: Uncanny Annie
opened the door into quite an interesting packaging of horror for me. We’ve
watched anthology films before, where the feature contained multiple stories.
This is the first time, I believe, that I’ve watched a movie-length episode of
an anthology series. I’m actually excited to see what else the Into the Dark
(2018-) Hulu original series has to offer.
Rotten
Tomatoes Critic Score – None
Rotten
Tomatoes Audience Score – None
Metascore – None
Metacritic
User Score – None
IMDB
Score – 5.6/10
CinemaScore – None
Trust
the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 3/5
Trust
the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3.5/5
Movie
Trailer:
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