During this year’s Essence Festival, Hello Beautiful, in partnership with Nissan and Universal Pictures, hosted a VIP red carpet screening for the new film GIRLS TRIP. Attending from the cast was Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Regina Hall, Tiffany Haddish, Larenz Tate and Kofi Siriboe; director Malcolm Lee and producer Will Packer introduced the film. Hello Beautiful editors Allison McGevna, Shamika Sanders and Keyaira Kelly were also on hand to welcome guests.
Special guests included Ava Duvernay (filmmaker), Bevy Smith (radio/tv host), Big Freedia (FUSE TV), Issa Rae (HBO’s “Insecure”), singer/songwriter Tank, RonReaco Lee (Starz’ “Survivor’s Remorse”), Ari Lennox (Interscope Recording Artist), Karen Civil (social media maven), actress/singer Letoya Luckett, Shyann Roberts (June’s Diary); Fox’s “Star” cast members Jude Demorest, Ryan Destiny, Brittany O’Grady and Miss Lawrence; actress/model Nomzano Mbatha, actress Essence Atkins, actress Bresha Webb, RCA recording artist Elle Varner, tv personality Tai Beauchamp; “Queen Sugar” co-stars Omar Dorsey and Timon Kyle Durrett; tv host Alesha Renee, rapper/tv personality Romeo, Mona Scott Young (Monami Entertainment), Yandy Smith (“Love & Hip Hop”), celebrity stylist Ty Hunter, radio personality Wild Wayne (WQUE) and more.
Around this time of the year horror movies are a staple but you would be hard press to actually find a good one that successfully scare the living daylights out of you. Director Mike Flanagan (Oculus, Hush and Before I Wake) looks to make things super spooky this Halloween season with Ouija: Origin of Evil.
Oujia: Origin of Evil serves as a sequel (I say prequel) to the not so stellar film Ouija. Set in 1965 Los Angeles, we follow the Zander family, the mother Alice Zander (Elizabeth Reaser) and her two daughters Doris (Lulu Wilson) and Lina (Annalise Basso). They lost the patriarch of their family due to a drunk driver and to make ends meet run a séance scam.
Alice convinces her daughters that they are providing a service to the naive customers who only want to talk to dead relatives and family members. With the help of some clever parlor tricks and her daughters, Alice easily convinces her customers she possesses the ability to speak with the dead.
Things start to get very interesting in the house when a Ouija Board is introduced into the act. Doris still affected by the loss of her father decides to use it to speak to her dad. What she doesn’t realize that in doing so she opens up a gateway to the other side allowing malevolent spirits in the house.
The spirit in the guise of friendlier spirits uses the young girl as a medium between worlds. She even helps the family business out tremendously with her new scary and unique gifts. What the family doesn’t know that is that the spirit is slowly taking over young Doris and twisting her.The family is thrown into an intense battle to save young Doris from the evil spirit that’s inside her and at the same time stay alive themselves.
(L to R) ALICE REASER is set upon by LULU WILSON as her daughter Doris in “Ouija: Origin of Evil.”
Verdict:
When it comes to horror films it’s hard to garner scares out moviegoers today, well I’m happy to say that isn’t the case with Ouija:Origin of Evil. Mike Flanagan manages to encapsulate that fear with slow builds and well-timed shock scares. Michael Fimognari’s amazing cinematography for the film will have you staring at scenes you know good and well you want turn your eyes from. Each jump, shriek, gasp and scream are all well deserved and earned in the film. Each character does their part in the film but it’s Lulu Hanson’s portrayal of Doris that stands out especially after her possession.
There’s just something insanely creepy about seeing this little girl just switch back and forth from being possessed. Don’t be surprised if Ouija becomes a Halloween tradition in theaters, lets just hope they don’t do too many of these movies.
The film adaptation of Paula Hawkins best-selling novel “The Girl on the Train,” delivers a portrayal that stays true to the core essence of the psychological thriller. Starring Emily Blunt, her performance as the unhinged alcoholic Rachel shines throughout the film, as we witness her cope with her inability to have a child and divorce from Tom (Justin Theroux); now remarried and with a new baby.
Spiraling further out of control, she loses her job at a PR firm in New York City yet continues commuting on the train everyday as if heading into work. While riding the train; which passes right by the house she once shared with her ex-husband, she catches glimpses of Tom and his new family further fueling her obsession with his new life. On her commute Rachel also eyes couple Megan (Haley Bennett) and Scott (Luke Evans), who she believes are the embodiment of true love and living the ideal life.
One day while riding the train Rachel spots Megan on the deck kissing a man who isn’t her husband. This shatters her fragile mental state even more and leads her on a terrible bender. The next morning Rachel awakens bloodied and beaten with no memory of the previous night. That morning she learns Megan who is later found murdered, has gone missing. With no recollection of her actions during her drunken stupor could she have done something to Megan? Determined to get to the bottom of it, Rachel injects herself deep into the investigation to uncover whether or not she’s capable of carrying out such a heinous crime.
Directed Tate Taylor, The Girl On The Train is cinematic murder mystery that will keep audiences unfamiliar with the book guessing to the very end. The film does a great job of building the suspense as we are unapologetically exposed to the lives of these multidimensional characters especially Rachel and Megan. Fans of the novel will appreciate Taylor’s ability to translate its key messages while adding touches that improve the big screen adaptation.
4 out of 5
The Girl On The Train hits theaters this Friday October 7. In the meantime check out the trailer for this moody thriller below.
Step into the new teaser/trailer for Universal Pictures’ ALMOST CHRISTMAS. The new comedy from writer/director David E. Talbert (Baggage Claim) and producer Will Packer (Ride Along, Think Like a Man series, This Christmas), tells the festive story of a beloved patriarch who asks his family for one gift this holiday season: to get along. If they can honor that wish and spend five days under the same roof without killing one another, it will be a Christmas miracle.
Selected as the Centerpiece feature of the 53rd annual New York Film Festival on Saturday, October 3rd, STEVE JOBS takes us behind the scenes of the digital revolution to paint an intimate portrait of the brilliant man at its epicenter.
Check out the new poster above and the official trailer below:
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