Mike Flanagan

Absentia (2011)

There’s a lot about this movie I like. It’s an earlier Mike Flanagan film, so there’s a lot of interesting direction and story. There are definitely some scary moments here.

Before I Wake (2016)

I originally watched this way back in 2016 and was going to write about it for the original run of this site, but there was some distribution issue and I wasn’t sure it was technically available anywhere so I put it aside and am finally getting back around to it.

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Okay, I was…hesitant to watch this, because it’s a two and a half hour movie, but it IS Mike Flanagan (AND Stephen King), and I watched The Shining last time around, so it had to be included here. And I’m glad it was.

Gerald's Game (2017)

So, I think this movie wins for making me cry the hardest of any movie I’ve watched this year. Actually, I don’t recall crying for ANY other movie I’ve written about this year. And I’m a BIG crier, especially for movies.

Hush (2016)

I’m a little less tired today (mostly because I did nothing all day), but I still wanted to watch something good. It’s rare that I see a scary movie on Netflix rated anything above 3 stars, but this one had 4 so I figured I’d give it a try.

Would it be too cliche of me to say that it starts less with a bang than with a whimper? This is my 100th review, so I figure I’m allowed to be a little cliched. Anyway, I can see why it was well rated.

Oculus (2013)

I’ve watched this movie several times (and a couple this year alone!) but haven’t written about it yet because I haven’t quite figured out what I want to say about it. I like it quite a bit, but it’s hard for me to pinpoint why.

Maybe it’s the cast — Katee Sackhoff and Rory Cochrane are great as Alan and Marie, the parents. Kaylie and Tim were great — both past and present versions were believable and the family chemistry worked wonderfully. And it was kind of neat seeing James Lafferty in this, since I’d only ever seen him in One Tree Hill before.

Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)

Okay, so I looked back at my rating for the original movie and now I feel like my rating system means nothing. “Pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it” with an “interesting” story and “believable” acting gets only three stars? LIN SHAYE only gets three stars? I thought I was MORE generous back in 2016 but it seems like I’ve just always been inconsistent.