Annabelle vs The Maze Runner

This is the season for horror films apparently, and off we go to watch a few that have been showing, in a kind of competition as to who would win the title of Most Frightening Movie of the season.

Film one is Annabelle, an American supernatural horror film, that tells of how John Gordon gifted his pregnant wife Mia with a doll to add to her collection. One night, however, their house is invaded by members of a satanic cult, who violently kill John as Mia slashes her own throat while clutching the devil doll. The film is a prequel to the big hit The Conjuring.

From the popular reviewers of Rotten Tomatoes, they say: “Although it features a plucky female protagonist, Annabelle still possesses the same medieval attitude toward women of reducing the gender to the extremes of self-sacrificing mother and malevolent toy. For a superior experience, go buy a disturbing-looking doll that says ‘Don’t go see Annabelle’ when you pull its string. In horror, there really is nothing new left to discover under the devil moon, so the secret to startling audiences, or at least raising hairs on the backs of necks, lies in deft direction and editing, both missing here.” In short, it is not worth your peso!

Our personal opinion? Go to the archives for the best true-to-life experiences of Filipinos complete with pictures of the most scary manananggal, kapre, tiyanak and many others that would put the US to shame. 

Film two is The Maze Runner, rated PG and said to be a cross between Lord of the Flies, Ender’s Game and The Hunger Games even as it doesn’t highlight a central romance. Instead, the 16-year-old lead character Thomas is a great role model, helping his friends and standing up to authority when needed.

As the first installment of an American science-fiction-action-thriller where the story follows Thomas who awakens in a rusty elevator called “The Box” with no memory of who he is. When he arrives at the last stop of the elevator, he is greeted by other boys together with Alby, leader of the Glade. Alby warns them not to wander into the wall with an opening as it is a mysterious maze from where no one has ever come out alive. Of course, they will enter and engage in fight scenes with various individuals with no names. And of course, they will come out victorious in the end when it will be revealed that Alby was part of the organization that created the Maze as an experiment.

The survivors of the first installment will be seen next in the sequel, The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials.

Our opinion? The fight scenes were great, but that’s about it. Our attention was divided between reading the subtitles and figuring out who were the heroes and the anti-heroes.

(E-mail your comments to [email protected]. or text us at 0917-8991835.)