Films: The Conjuring - Last Rites & Honey Don't!

Last Friday - well now, I was hardly going to miss The Hideout's trip to The Conjuring: Last Rites, which opened that day.. starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren, it covers the 1986 Smurl haunting. And they're supposed to be making this the last case. Well, I love this stuff, so that was a no-brainer. Showing in the Odeon West End, advertised social in All Bar One after.

Had booked for Bella Italia - third day in a row - and traffic must have been very delayed, because my bus was late - so I was about 10 minutes late for my booking. Not a problem! Again, as the day before, I had the new katsu carbonara - and reminded my waiter that I'd suggested a pinch more katsu in it. Well, when it came, they sure had done that.. you could smell the katsu. The dish was swimming in katsu sauce - and it was yummy. I can't say whether most people would prefer this ratio of katsu to carbonara, but I was delighted. Finished around the time our social, in the cinema bar, was supposed to start, and made my way across to it. As I was heading out, someone posted on the group WhatsApp something about the usher saying the bar was closed - he didn't say that to me, but then, I didn't bring it up either..

The organiser had bagged the tables at the end, because there were a lot of us, and they were easy to find. Mind you, as people arrived, some complained about there being two Odeons in Leicester Square - true, it does make things very confusing! But we all made it in the end, and had a lovely chat before going in - primarily about horror, of course, and some about Darkfield's next London outing - sadly, I've seen all their shows this time. And so it came time to go in - and the cinemas showing this have a rather cool poster outside the screens (apologies for the side angle on this):

In short, I loved it - but was far the keenest in the group, some people really not thinking much of it at all. It was an easy sell for me - it's exactly the sort of horror I like, and in my opinion, one of the more restrained efforts of the franchise - and none the worse for it. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise their roles quite satisfactorily, and in this one have a daughter - and we see how the mother was pregnant with this daughter during their first case.. of course, a demon kind of latches itself onto the baby thereafter. But anyway.

I didn't catch any annoying jump scares - well, perhaps one. But I loved the subtlety of the appearance of the various phantoms - blink and you'd miss it, for some of them, which adds a sense of creepiness, as you start to keep an eye peeled for anything you might miss. And more, they arrive without fanfare - even the obvious ones, it can take a minute to notice. If there's one thing I hate, it's the clanging scary music that can tend to accompany spooky phenomena - that's completely absent here, and I loved it. It's as though they have a sense of entitlement to be there, and just happen to manifest at that moment. Plus much of it is focused on a mirror, and I love mirror horror - although they didn't really make much use of that. But anyway, I was a happy bunny.

We didn't actually end up going for drinks afterwards - but it was late. And I had the usual internet blackspot, waiting for the highly unreliable #176 - ended up walking to the next stop, just so I could see what was happening! Both buses were so delayed, it was after 1am when I got home - and I was exhausted. No blog for me that night.

The other night - just as I'd finished the blog - Movie Roadhouse London advertised Honey Don't!, in the Cineworld Empire again, for yesterday. Directed by Ethan Coen, it's an old-style private detective comedy thriller, starring Margaret Qualley as detective Honey O' Donahue, investigating a suspicious church run by Chris Evans. We were meeting in Victory House again, and I'd booked Bella Italia again for beforehand.

Duh - on my way in, I completely forgot about the weekly Palestinian protest! Even when I saw that all the #188s were terminating at Waterloo, I didn't realise - not until I got there, saw all the parked buses, and it looked familiar. And it occurred to me that these protests aren't achieving anything useful - we all know the issue, it doesn't need this publicity, and it's just an inconvenience. Patently, it's been going on so long now that if it were going to achieve anything, it would have already.. Anyway, I ended up on the Tube - and of course, as there isn't combined pricing between that and buses, it would've been cheaper to take that in the first place. Mea culpa..

In Bella Italia, I decided that my curiosity was satisfied, and went back to my old reliable chicken milanese - which was just lovely. Again, I arrived 10 minutes late, and again, it didn't matter - and I'd booked far too early. Never mind, I used up the time having some ice cream for dessert - which was lovely. And then joined the others at Victory House - slightly late, because for whatever reason, restaurants really slow down when it comes to dessert! Anyway, there were just the three of us - and we had a lovely chat before going in.

Hee-hee, I just absolutely loved this one too! An old-style caper starring a (very) sassy female detective, fielding unwanted male attention as she seeks justice. And along the way, beds sundry attractive women she comes across. We did agree, afterwards, that more could have been made of the church element - something of Chekhov's Gun there, the principle that if a gun appears on stage, it must be fired; i.e. if a story element is introduced, it must be used. All the church seems to be there for is titillation - no harm in that, but it's sloppy. All the same, there was plenty of clever wit - I was always on tenterhooks to hear what they'd have Honey say next. And the soundtrack - again, we agreed on this - is terrific. Listening to it as I write. Caveat - don't take anyone prudish to this, it does push some boundaries. ;-)

Afterwards, the organiser was hungry, and fancied Chinatown - as we walked along, he said we could pick, and I suddenly thought of Imperial China. Lordy, haven't been there in years. They found a table for us without trouble - I had chicken spring rolls and kung po chicken, but really couldn't finish it. I had eaten earlier, of course! Still, the food was good, the service was good, and it was great to hang out with them. And yes, again, I caught my bus where there was internet access - you're blind without it. Again, crashed last night.. it's becoming a habit.

More in the next post..