yo, "Call of Souls 3" is here. This should be the long-awaited sequel for fans of horror and thrillers, and it is also the 8th film work of the universe of Call of Souls.
Today’s issue, let’s comment on "The Soul 3" produced by Wen Ziren and directed by Michael Chavez. There will be spoilers, please watch it carefully .
Let’s talk about the general impression first. This should be the least scary movie in the "Calling the Souls" series, but maybe it is also the reason why I did the "Calling the Souls Universe" series and re-painted the previous 7 works. I have become bolder. , So don’t you consider revisiting the previous universe movie of "Call of Souls", it is very exciting and can be related to the plot.
As everyone knows, the soul-calling series is the golden signature of the soul-calling universe, but Wen Ziren's production of other types of film and television works is too fast, leading to the director Wen Ziren, who is even more popular than the soul-calling series, so he completely retreated behind the scenes to become a producer. Too tired, but after watching it, you can see that "Call of Souls 3" is a work he produced more carefully than other movies in the universe of ghosts.
Compared with other films of the Evocation universe supervised by Wen Ziren, the story level of "The Evocation 3" is fairly solid. This may be due to the fact that there is a real event as the basis!
For a more in-depth analysis, let's review the plot first and take care of the next part of the friends who dare not watch horror movies. If you have already watched it, you can skip to the analysis part directly.
The story background of "The Soul 3" is set in Brookfield, Connecticut in 1981. An 8-year-old boy, David, was cursed. Is this little boy familiar? He is from the originator of the hexagon, "Wanda Vision "Li Wanda's son Billy.
After the Warrens gave the proof, the priest was invited to come over to exorcise the demon. The moment the priest drove up to that moment, it was a tribute to the 1973 classic movie "The Exorcist."
Moreover, the bodies of the possessed characters in "Soul Recruitment 3" are distorted and deformed, which are somewhat similar to the characters in "The Exorcist".
During the priest’s exorcism, the accident came as expected. Originally going to church for exorcism was more effective, but the demon attacked early and the priest was knocked out. The Warrens could only force them to go to work again. Become an exorcism couple.
But this time the devil was not so easy to run away. The elderly Warrens were not as capable as they were back then. At least in terms of physical fitness, Ed was almost pinched with a small heart. At this time, David’s sister’s boyfriend Arnie directly Dialogue with the devil, which is commonly known as reaching the devil's contract, exchanges his soul for the soul of the brother-in-law.
This trick worked, and the demon was re-hidden and prepared to gain momentum.
Sure enough, Ani's whole person was not good after that, the devil gradually began to devour his soul and tried to control him. For this reason, he also killed a colleague in the kennel and was sent to prison awaiting trial.
In order to prove Arnie's innocence, the Warrens, who understand the ins and outs of the matter, became Conan in the soul-seeking world. With the attitude of doing one line and loving one line, the film entered the style of suspenseful investigation.
In the process of in-depth investigation, the Warrens finally found the source of David's curse. Yes, it was the trouble caused by the wildness when he just entered Dabie. Okay, I know it is a villa. Don't mind if you make a joke.
Based on the clues of David's first encounter with the old man on the waterbed, the Warrens discovered that a totem that believed in the cult of Satan was placed under the house. In our words, it was guilty.
So they had to find out who the Gu person was, so that Ani could be acquitted. A homicide happened in another place, and the clues they found were also of this kind of Gu.
After the Warrens cooperated with the police, we all knew that Caroline had the super power of Yin and Yang. Caroline went to the woods where the murder occurred and directly led the audience back to the time of the crime.
It’s worth mentioning here that every time Caroline’s “possession” of the party’s psychic practices makes Caroline's consciousness very painful and unable to extricate herself, Caroline was entangled by a nun at the beginning of "Call for Souls 2". On it.
This time it was even more so. Although Caroline found the murderer girl and found that the girl was also sent away by the devil, she almost fell into the cliff herself.
However, in order to track down the deeper source and avoid the tiger's lair, the Warrens went directly to the autopsy room to find the murderer girl's corpse for inspiration. Caroline successfully possessed the black-clothed woman who was the culprit.
But I never expected that the black-clothed woman also has such yin and yang ability, and also saw who the Warrens are, and locked their prey.
Sure enough, when the Warrens returned home, Ed had a phantom and almost killed Caroline, and then they discovered that a Gu was also placed in the house.
In other words, this thing is played like a wireless router transmitter. Wherever it is placed, there will be a signal, and a woman in black can be a demon.
Although Ani was in jail, the demon still wanted his life. He tried to possess him again and again and let Ani commit suicide. Afterwards, a priest who might have just hired came to exorcise Ani, which was a little strange.
Then the Warrens separately investigated. One of them was a retired priest who was also a occult fan. The Warrens had visited him before but to no avail.
After the Warrens were locked by the women in black, Caroline once again went to the retired priest to learn more about the curse in this regard. The reverse is that Ed through physical tracking and found that all this was related to the retired priest, immediately Also rushed to the retired priest.
Sure enough, the woman in black is actually the daughter of a retired priest. Because of her father’s occult studies since childhood, the woman in black gradually became interested in the cult of Satan and wanted to gain strength from it, so she made a contract with the devil and assisted the devil. Ask for the soul of man.
Of course, these things have nothing to do with the retired priest. The retired priest was eventually killed by his daughter.
The only thing that can break this curse is for the Warrens to break the curse of the black women. You can also understand it as a wireless transmitter base station.
The final result was of course successful. At the same time, Arnie reduced the demon's mana under the love of his girlfriend and the priest's exorcism. The Warrens broke the curse altar, and Arnie's curse disappeared.
Afterwards, the Warrens got another trophy, that is, the CPU of the wireless base station: the altar burned paper bowl, and placed it in their supernatural museum. It is not difficult to see that "The Soul of the Universe" will continue...
Analysis of Comments on "Call of Souls 3"
In line with the fine tradition of commenting first and then suppressing, let's talk about the advantages of "Calling the Souls 3" first.
Michael Chavez, the director of "Call of Souls 3" may not be familiar to everyone. He is the director of "The Curse of a Crying Woman", and "The Curse of a Crying Woman" is still his first feature film debut. No matter how you look at it, "Cry "Curse of a Woman" is a work that does not exist in the Soul Recalling series, but as a heavyweight movie in the Soul Recalling universe, Wen Ziren gave the guide tube to Michael Chavez.
I can only say that their private friendship is really good. Either Wen Ziren trusts Michael Chavez and believes that he has potential, or Wen Ziren just wants to find a director who has strong execution ability and is willing to cooperate with him.
Compared with "The Curse of a Crying Woman", "Call of Souls 3" has indeed made great progress.
It can be seen that "Calling Souls 3" wants to create a three-dimensional character through a solid story, and then use the character to bring out the horrible part of the plot, instead of deliberately creating scenes and actions that suddenly scare people.
To give a very simple example, a more general horror movie is to bring the protagonist’s dying personality all the way to black, and even create some inhuman (non-normal logic) motives, resulting in only surprises in the film. Scary scene, I was really scared after watching it, but it is not advanced, I still want to curse.
And "Call of Souls 3" seems to evade this very deliberately, even a little too evasive, thus reducing the scary degree of the film. In a bad word, I put my whole hand in my mouth and prepared you to scare me. The result is the feeling of "this is it?"
This may also be the trend of horror films in recent years that want to take the high-end development route, abandon those disgusting makeup, remove the scenes that suddenly jump out to scare you, and want to use high suspense and fear creativity to bring out some thinking and win Recognition of the audience.
For example, "Witch", "Escape from Dead End", "We", "Wind Wind", "Genetic Doom", "Midsummer Night Terror", etc., all deliberately abandon low-consumption scary routines and play horror The film updates a higher-level benchmark.
However, "Calling the Souls 3" also made me feel the nostalgic atmosphere of the previous exorcism films. The process of exorcism was detailed and programmatic. Of course, this also cut down or even ruined the unique scary creative style of the calligraphy series. Let’s talk about shortcomings later.
The theme that "Call of Souls 3" wants to sublimate this time is the same as the theme of "Call of Souls 1," and it has expanded the scope this time.
The motivational event in the first act of the film is actually because of love. David is cursed by the devil. It is because of love that Arnie exchanges his life for his brother-in-law's life and is willing to take all risks.
Finally, in prison, the priest exorcised the demon, which was also the fear of the fearless demon of his girlfriend, rushed forward to prevent Ani from committing suicide and tried to awaken Ani’s consciousness.
It's the same with the Warrens. After Ed was manipulated, Caroline also used remember me to make Ed you sober!
Even the retired priest thought in advance that his daughter might have caused the trouble, but out of love for his daughter, he was unwilling to give this clue to the Warrens.
BUT~After talking about the advantages of the film, I will turn to the next step. I can feel that "Call of Souls 3" wants to try to break through itself, and want to make something different from "Call of Souls 1 and 2". This is good. Ideas, but attempts will always face success and failure. Strictly speaking, I think this time "Call of Souls 3" is not as successful as I imagined.
The first is the absence of the strongest scary features of the soul-calling universe. I am not referring to the effect of surprises, but the most skillful use of Wen Ziren to create an atmosphere of fear in "The soul-calling 1 and 2", which is my "Calling the souls." The "fear comes from the unknown" mentioned in the "Universe" series.
This kind of unknown, "Calling the Souls 1 and 2" all use the details that often occur in our daily lives, and then make a fuss in it, and then use the devil to molest the characters and make various classic scenes.
For example, the applause of "Calling the Souls 1" can directly send people away.
There is also a little girl in "Calling the Souls 2" being pulled by her feet when she sleeps. To make a digression, I actually have to cover my feet with a quilt since I was young.
There is also the classic Marilyn Manson laid-off and re-employed, walking around Caroline's house, which is really permeating.
Even in "Annabelle: Birth", there are some pretty scary ideas that lift your hijab and shoot a toy gun to pick up the ball.
These are all works of the soul-calling universe that are impressive, and every time you talk, you have to adjust the fearful part of your breath.
But these are all directly discarded in "Calling the Souls 3". The first scene of "Calling the Souls 3" tells the audience directly that we are playing exorcism this time. By the middle of the film, the audience already knows that this is. A man-made incident caused the devil, and the strength of the final reversal seemed very weak.
When Caroline discovered the woman in black at the time, I thought it would be reversed. In fact, they are not in the same time and space as each other, because the dress of the woman in black is quite old. The woman in black is actually a witch hundreds of years ago. It's just that she has a contract with the devil, and the devil has given her the yin and yang eyes and the ability to travel to the future to capture the souls of others. As a result, I think more.
Then there is the looseness of the role of Arnie in the film. We all know that there are the Warren couples in the soul-calling universe, and the possessed characters of flowing water, but the possessed characters can also be regarded as the C protagonists of every soul-calling work.
"Calligraphy 1" has mother Peggy and her lovely daughter, "Calligraphy 2" is a little girl in red. They both left a deep impression and performed brilliantly.
As for Ani of "Soul Recruitment 3", except for the first act, after changing his life, he feels that the whole character has walked to the B-line story. There is not much sense of existence, except for some scary scenes that are not very scary. The second half of the investigation At that time, the focus of the narrative shifted to the child David and the murderer girl.
Such a loosely structured character line makes the Ani, who is not outstanding in acting skills, more transparent, almost becoming a tool man.
There is also the reason why "Call of Souls 3" has not been effective in terms of fear if it is over-interpreted. Perhaps in terms of gender, there is no discrimination against women here, but basically the themes of horror movies are based on female characters as victims. , The expressions that women make when they are faced with fear can more gain the empathy of the audience. Therefore, throughout the first seven works of the soul-calling universe, the protagonists who are victimized or possessed are all women.
Since "Call of Souls 3" is a real event as the blueprint, the protagonist must be the man. Although the film also added another female victim's perspective, and Caroline added up to the two victimized women, the film was not able to grasp the overall situation. Such a comprehensive chessboard of fear, care for one and lose the other.
In terms of the richness of the story, "Calling Souls 3" also has a pity, that is, the real case of such a good Arnie did not dig into the scene of the judgment, but took a stroke.
"Soul Recruitment 3" is a real case judged because of evidence of demon possession. Some more controversial and thought-provoking articles can be made in court. As a result, the film is hardly mentioned in the court scene.
However, I can also understand that this is not a feature film, but a real horror ghost film, but if the film has one or two court scenes, to extend the debate and discussion of some atheists and theists in the case, the film will be added. A lot of points.
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