Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 246

Lucky Penny – Quick Graphic Novel Review

‘Lucky Penny’ is the kind of book you’ll love as you read, but forget about it after a few days. And that’s absolutely fine. Created by Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota, this graphic novel is cute, funny and entertaining. It helps readers escape into the world of the not-so-lucky Penny; for a while.

I love how the story begins with conflict in the very first page – Penny the protagonist is fired from her job. She also loses her apartment and is close to broke. Her best-friend helps her move her stuff to a little rented storage space, and Penny has the bright idea of moving into the place herself when she sees it. And yes, it’s illegal. But cheap. What follows next is Penny’s attempt at getting her life together, or not, as she lives in the garage-like space, with no bathroom. How she manages her ill-fortune forms the rest of the novel.

Anybody who’s experienced days where nothing seems to go right, will completely relate to the ditzy mess Penny is. She is a total dork who survives by getting around on her cycle, eating ready-to-make ramen and reading smutty novels before falling asleep. The story is a weird mix of childish innocence and adult comedy. Some things don’t even make sense, like why a bunch of boys are constantly trying to freak our poor Penny out or why a laundromat is supervised by a little kid. But all these plot-holes don’t even matter, because ‘Lucky Penny’ is a fun tale that keeps you turning pages and before you know it – it’s already over!

The art is adorable, and while it’s only in black-white-grey tones, the panels are joyous and feel bright. Penny’s romance with a nervous but cute nerd Walter was realistic, with the kind of awkwardness that comes with going out with someone for the first time. The climax like the rest of the story was packed with a series of hilarious/unfortunate events, wrapping up with a tone of hope & happiness. Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota make a fun team on paper. It’s a 4/5 from me.

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Listen to Episode 48 – Three Underrated Graphic Memoirs To Read

My Sweet Dear Review – Served With Excess Sugar & Cliches

Between ‘The Tasty Florida’ and ‘My Sweet Dear’, it’s hard to say which BL Korean mini-series was more boring, cliched and cringe-y . Both are set in the culinary world, with a lot of the story unfolding in a restaurant filled with good-looking men. And both shows lack a well-written script.

Directed by So Joon Moon, “My Sweet Dear” stars Jang Eui-Soo and Lee Chan Hyung. Jang Eui Soo looks completely different (handsome still) as Jung Woo, a rookie chef who can re-create any dish he tastes, but has no formal training in cooking. Lee Chan Hyung plays Do Gun, the talented experience ‘head chef’ of a michelin star restaurant called “Laura Dining. The the owner isn’t very happy with Do Gun’s old-school approach to food, and brings in Jung Woo to shake things up. Will the two chefs get along? And is there more to Jung Woo’s entry to the kitchen than meets the eye? That’s the rest of the story.

I am freaking tired of saying the same thing over and over in my reviews – the show looks good, the actors do their parts well, everything is sparkly/pleasing to the eye, but the story is a snooze-fest. It’s only 8 episodes long, 10-11 minutes each, but after episode 5, I was already fast-forwarding stuff. The dialogues are overly cheesy and some scenes are predictable AF. It’s your typical ‘foes to lovers’ type of plot. Two attractive strangers meet, cannot stand each other in the beginning, but as they begin to spend more time together…. sparks fly. Duh. Towards the end, the makers throw in a conflict, make the leads fight, scream, cry. Eventually they clear things up and patch up again. Fin.

A simple story is dramatized excessively, as if they are making some sort of tragic romance movie. There weren’t any fun moments, clever banter or anything worth remembering. A lot of us love it when the actors look like desserts, but that doesn’t mean makers can simply skip working on having an entertaining/decent story. It’s like they went “hey we have a bunch of cuties, just make them do whatever, people will watch”. Guess I am guilty of watching the show for the exact same reason. But we are all allowed to have regrets.

It’s 4/10 from me. Watch it if you are a Jang Eui-Soo fan, he is dashing as the suave chef, a complete departure from his older roles.

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Listen to Episode 34 – 10 Fun LGBTQ+ Books To Read

Reading ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ As An Adult

‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ by Brian Selznick is an intimidatingly big book. It has a beautiful hardback cover, with over 500 pages of story interspersed with illustrations. It’s neither a graphic novel, nor your regular historical fiction pick, making it a genre of its own. And it mixes the three loves of my life – books, movies and drawings. So to put a potentially long review short – I love love love this novel!

The last few pages of the story moved me, and I was wrapped in a sense of awe combined with joy for all storytelling mediums. Brian Selznick’s simple story was able to take me back to my childhood. I can’t imagine how many buckets of tears I would’ve shed if I read it as a school-girl. I wasn’t my usual cynical adult self as I carefully read each page, some filled witch simple pencil drawings, narrating the story, like a silent black & white film from a lost era. I saw the Martin Scorsese movie based on the book in 2011, so despite being familiar with the plot, it managed to be a magical portal to a different world.

We have a Dickensian protagonist – 12-year-old Hugo Cabret is an orphan taken in by his drunken uncle who works at the railway station, after the boy’s father dies in a tragic fire. The only tangible memory left of his clock-maker father is a notebook and a mechanical-man he was working to fix. The story follows Hugo’s adventures and his efforts to fix the mechanical-man. His life is complicated when his drunk uncle disappears one day, forcing Hugo to do his job of maintaining all the clocks at the station. Because if the authorities find out the boy is by himself, they will pack him off to an orphanage.

Hugo is a liar, thief, clock-keeper, aspiring magician and a bit of an imp. He can get on the reader’s nerve sometimes, but one has to remind themselves that he is but an orphaned boy, with little knowledge of how the world works. Selznick’s artwork is simple, childlike, there is a raw rough draft element to them, as if they’ve been torn off from an artist’s personal diary. Had the novel just been filled with those illustrations, with the text just serving as caption, they story wouldn’t have been as compelling. The artwork is sprinkled in just the right amount, enough to captivate and carry the story forward.

The real twist in the tale comes when the young Hugo locks horns with a grumpy old toy-shop owner Papa Georges, from whose shop Hugo often steals parts. Papa Georges isn’t just another ordinary old man, he has a lot of cryptic angry questions for Hugo, hinting at a mysterious past. Sleznick’s story is a tribute to storytellers of the past, the dreamers, the magicians, and the first filmmakers who brought the magic of cinema to the common man. For fellow-creators, it will be hard to not fall in love with the tale.

‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ is the perfect gift for young readers and also for adults who still have a childlike spark left in them. It’s a 5/5 from me. I am thankful to a new friend for lending me their gorgeous copy.

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Listen to Episode 55 – Ending of ‘Sputnik Sweetheart’ Explained

Yara Review – Poignant Tale Of A Real Life Murder

Any piece of work that says “based on a real story” and true-crime fans are all eyes and ears. If you fall in the same category, you won’t even need to watch the trailer for the 2021 Italian film ‘Yara’ on Netflix, the 1 hour 36 minute runtime is an added advantage. Not going to take up a lot of your time in the day.

Directed by Marco Tullio Giordana and written by Graziano Diana, the film follows the investigation into the mysterious disappearance of 13-year-old Yara from Brembate di Sopra in Italy. Isabelle Ragonese plays Letizia Ruggeri, the prosecutor leading the investigation into the difficult case, because there are practically no clues on what happened to Yara. It’s as if she disappeared into thin air.

On the night of her disappearance, Yara had gone to drop off a stereo with a dance instructor, it was a 700 meter long walk from her. Her parents never saw her after that. Investigators didn’t even have straws to clutch at, and the entire country wondered what had happened to the young girl. The first tangible and major breakthrough came in only after the tragic discovery of Yara’s body, three months after she was last seen. Letizia Ruggeri does all she can to crack the case, including some very expensive methods that draw criticism over her method.

As a foreign viewer who knew little about the real case, ‘Yara’ makes for a very gripping watch. It’s devoid of over-the-top drama and is almost filmed like a documentary, with very little frills. A significant amount of the plot is carried forward through news reports, some of which felt like real archival footage on the search operations to look for Yara. It’s the character of Letizia that adds an emotional touch to the story. She is portrayed as a loving mother, and her maternal instincts seem to be the driving force in her quest to find answers in the difficult case. Viewers get a glimpse to the kind of pressure the police and prosecutors face while working on cases that draw a lot of media attention. The victim’s family does not get a lot of screen space, but when they do, they are played with a lot of dignity and sensitivity.

The climax felt underwhelming, because even though the film ties up the ending neatly, we never get clarity on what really happened on the fateful day. Since it’s based on a real case, perhaps the makers couldn’t just take the liberty of showing their own conclusions. Although, upon further reading, it turns out that the script does withhold a few twists and details that could’ve made the film feel a lot less satisfactory. It’s a 7/10 from me. Stream it on Netflix if you are a true-crime fan.

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‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ Gets Gen Y Lyrics

Come November and new Christmas themed movies start emerging by the dozen on our screens. And how can romantic comedies not feature a few old favorite Christmas tracks? Like “Baby It’s Cold Outside”.

Almost every year, the song gets new reboots, tributes and covers. It’s often debated for its ‘problematic’ lyrics, since the song is about a girl saying she should really get home, but her date pressures her to stay back, to have another drink and get cozy. “What’s in my drink?” she asks in the original lyrics, making a lot of people call the song ‘rapey’. In-fact, that’s exactly what the protagonist in the 2021 film ‘Love Hard’ says during a scene where she is asked to sing the song with the male lead as part of Christmas caroling.

“I am not singing that, that is like the sexual assault theme song” she protests. “You just do your part, and I’ll change my lyrics so the song doesn’t sound rape-y”, her friend assures her. So here are the new lyrics from the film, with the male bits updated with Gen Y lyrics, complete with an Uber ride reference.

I really can’t stay
No problem there’s the door
I’ve got to go away
I hear ya, say no more
This evening has been
Totally consensual
So very nice
I hope you get home safe tonight

My mother will start to worry
Here’s my phone give her a call
My father will be pacing the floor
Adios, say no more
So really I’d better scurry
I’ve been saying that for a while
Well, maybe just half a drink more
Slow down, that’s quite a pour

The neighbors might think
It’s just my old friend Troy
Say what’s in this drink
It’s just lemon LaCroix
I wish I knew how
To take a hint?
To break the spell
Do you know how to spell ‘farewell’?
I ought to say no, no, no
I’ll call you an Uber, they’re close
At least I’m gonna say that I tried
I feel like you’re not trying at all
I really can’t stay
Well, maybe just go out

Cause Baby, it’s cold outside
Maybe just go outside

Changed lyrics from the film ‘Love Hard’

Actors Nina Dobrev and Jimmy O Chang deliver this adorable updated rendition of the song, making it one of the highlights of their RomCom “Love Hard”. And since we are on the topic, let’s talk about how the lyrics aren’t problematic because it sounds like a douchebag is trying to pressure his date. In an incisive Medium write-up titled ‘The Problem “With Baby It’s Cold Outside” Isn’t Consent. It’s Slut Shaming’ by Cammila Collar, the writer explains how the woman in the song wants to go home only because the society expects her to. Not once in the song does the woman says she does not want to spend more time with her date, instead she cites how her parents will start worrying and the neighbors will start gossiping if she isn’t back home like a ‘good girl’ before curfew. She says “she ought to say no”, not that she wants to say no, and that’s really the problem – of having to conform to an invisible rule-book on how ladies ought to behave.

The song was written in 1944 and first seen on the big screen in the film ‘Neptune’s Daughter’ in 1949, the lyrics are completely in sync with the time it came out. Obviously there will be hell to pay if a girl is not back home on time. The original lyrics are too outdated for America, but in other parts of the world, girls still gotta worry about not being out too late post a date. But yes, we are all glad there is a fun updated version, where the guy doesn’t sound like a clingy creep.

Here are the original lyrics that were modified in the film –

(I really can’t stay) But, baby, it’s cold outside
(I’ve got to go away) But, baby, it’s cold outside
(This evening has been) Been hoping that you’d drop in
(So very nice) I’ll hold your hands they’re just like ice

(My mother will start to worry) Beautiful, what’s your hurry
(My father will be pacing the floor) Listen to the fireplace roar
(So really I’d better scurry) Beautiful, please don’t hurry
(Well, maybe just half a drink more) Put some records on while I pour

(The neighbors might think) Baby, it’s bad out there
(Say what’s in this drink) No cabs to be had out there
(I wish I knew how) Your eyes are like starlight now
(To break this spell) I’ll take your hat, your hair looks swell

(I ought to say no, no, no, sir) Mind if I move in closer
(At least I’m gonna say that I tried) What’s the sense of hurting my pride
(I really can’t stay) Baby, don’t hold doubt
[Both] Baby, it’s cold outside

(I simply must go) Baby, it’s cold outside
(The answer is no) Baby, it’s cold outside

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Love Hard Review – Cliched Christmas RomCom Has Its Fun Bits

The 2021 Netflix Romantic Comedy ‘Love Hard’ starts the exact same way as the 2020 coming-of-age tale ‘The Half Of It’ (another Netflix original). The protagonists talk about the Greek legend of how humans were originally created with four legs/arms and two faces, but were split into two by Zeus, so that they would spend the rest of their lives finding their other half. In-fact, right from start to finish, this film directed by Hernan Jimenez has a lot of scenes inspired from a bunch of different movies.

Plot overview: Nina Dobrev plays Natalie Bauer, a Los Angeles based journalist who writes a column (à la Carrie Bradshaw from ‘Sex in the City’) chronicling her disastrous online dating life under a pseudonym. Things change when a colleague expands her radius on the dating app. Natalie swipes right on an Asian-American guy called Josh Lin who seems just her type, but lives on the other side of the country. Convinced this could be her ‘happy ending’, Natalie flies to the east-coast to surprise Josh on Christmas, only to learn she has been catfished. What follows next is a predictable story about how Natalie tries to turn-around her situation and have a great dating write-up for her column before her next deadline.

To be fair, ‘Love Hard’ does have a decent amount of fun moments, with a fresh take on certain plot-lines. For example, except for the fact that they look Asian, Josh Lin’s family is American in every way, there is close to zero racial stereotype attached to them. The character of Josh’s grandmother was hilarious, she is the ‘cool’ granny who wants to get on a dating app and have her fun. Jimmy O. Yang is adorable as Josh, a well-read, nerdy, introverted guy, who is insecure about his appearance, so he resorts to using pictures of his handsome friend Tag (Darren Barnet) on the dating app. It was a nice change to not have a douche-y villain in the tale. Tag is the romantic rival, but instead of being the usual over-the-top jock jerk, he is just someone who has different interests than Natalie. Harry Shum Jr has an entertaining little cameo as Josh’s older attention-seeking brother and it was a delight to watch his immature onscreen antics. Nina as Natalie doesn’t stand out, her character is inconsistent, she is a hypocrite who is all hot & bothered about being lied to, but doesn’t mind having a host of fake hobbies to attract a hot guy. Also, there’s the ridiculous bit of her staying with her catfish, even though she constantly asserts how she ‘doesn’t trust him’. You sure babe?

What a lot of viewers might not like is how the makers sort of sugar-coat catfishing in the film. For the uninitiated, ‘catfish’ is the term for people who fake their identity online to start a relationship or to commit some sort of fraud. Catfishing is quite common (MTV has a whole reality show for it) and maybe only 1 out of a 100 turn out to be decent human beings like Josh, most others need therapy, or worse – prison time. But well, since it’s a romantic-comedy, our catfish is obviously a cute dude with mild self-esteem issues. There’s a lot of ‘be your authentic self’ talk thrown around in the script, to drive home the point that faking an identity is not a good thing, but it’s overdone. In-fact, this movie feels dragged out in parts and could’ve easily been shortened by at least 15-minutes.

The cinematography is well-done, some of the areal shots of the snow-covered towns were gorgeous. I felt like the Christmas decorations were a little too flashy, but for a festive romantic-comedy “Hard Love” probably packs in the right about of shiny lights. There’s even some entertaining caroling by the Lin family and an enjoyable modern rendition of the song “Baby It’s Cold Outside”, its lyrics are changed to make the man sound like a courteous gentleman who doesn’t pressure his date to stay back at his place.

Despite a foreseeable climax, where a very famous scene is recreated, the ending actually feels heartwarming. Nina Dobrev and Jimmy O. Yang pull off a sweet ending, and even though their chemistry isn’t crackling, it’s cute enough to not feel like a downer. It’s a 6/10 from me.

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Ending of Murakami’s Sputnik Sweetheart Explained

Just like his super popular ‘Norwegian Wood’, Haruki Murakami’s ‘Sputnik Sweetheart’, which came out ten years later, also has a cryptic ending. It’s funny how both novels end with a mysterious phone-call, and in both stories, it’s hard for the readers to decide if the climactic call was real or imagined. In the end, you just have to go with your gut feeling.

So while there can be multiple explanations to the ending of ‘Sputnik Sweetheart’, we quickly go through the plot and look at four possible interpretations of the climax in the latest podcast episode of Abstract AF.

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Meenakshi Sundareshwar Review: Cute Cast Can’t Save Sucky Script

Just five minutes into the film and my mind was already bubbling with dozens of questions and judgement for whoever gave a go-ahead to the silly AF script for “Meenakshi Sundareshwar”. Vivek Soni has directed this 2021 Bollywood film and has co-written the script with Arsh Vora. It’s another one of those Netflix offerings, that looks great in every way, has fun beats in the background, but the story is just random incidents stringed together to piss off viewers who expect something intelligent.

The film starts with a young man Sundareshwar (Abhimanyu Dassani) getting ready to see a potential bride for himself in Madurai, and his entire joint-family accompanies him. While they are on their way, his strict father coaches him on what he’s supposed to say if the girl’s side query him about his employment status. So here’s the biggest red flag, apparently, Mr Sundareshwar finished his engineering degree a year ago and is still unemployed because he hasn’t found a ‘suitable job’ yet. Sorry Mr Soni, but no respectable south-Indian father who is extremely disappointed with his son for not getting an IIT seat, would bother getting the jobless 20-something ‘fool’ married. And no ambitious 23-year-boy in his right mind would want to wed so soon, unless he is cripplingly desperate to get laid. This is me complaining about the first five minutes.

‘Meenakshi Sundareshwar’ is basically a dumb Punjabi love-story masquerading as a south-Indian tale of arranged-marriage and long-distance relationships. The cinematography is great, you have all the women draped in beautiful silk sarees, the homes are done artfully, both the traditional and modern ones that appear through the runtime. I loved some of the background music and tracks, they are upbeat/happy, and might lull some viewers into falsely believing the story is fun too. Basically, all the surface elements are done to perfection, but there is no coherent plot. Cosmetic conflicts are foisted on the protagonists to make it appear like they do have a story worth telling.

Sanya Malhotra is adorable as Meenaskhi, but that’s because she has that kind of cute personality in real life. It has nothing to do with her onscreen character. Abhimanyu Dassani reminded me a lot of Madhavan, he is quite charming as the socially awkward Sundareshwar, but together the two actors have very little chemistry. So why are we supposed to root for two youngsters who have very generic personalities and are eager to get married without considering the consequences? The only striking personality trait about Meenakshi is that she is a huge Rajinikanth fan. Just a little cliche they had to add because she is Tamilian. And don’t even get me started on the toxic job Sundareshwar lands eventually, which is meant to provide comic-relief, but is far from funny.

Why did they even make this film? What was the point? I was left wondering at the end of it all, after fast-forwarding a lot of bits towards the second-half. It’s a 4.5/10 from me.

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Listen to episode 29 for some fun movie recommendations.

Jai Bhim Review – Suriya Shines And Lijomol Lands A Sucker Punch Too

A pack of tribals are busy smoking out rats with fumigation pots in a village in South-India. They’ve been paid by a farmer to rid the rodents infesting his crop. That’s one of the first few scenes of ‘Jai Bhim’, the 2021 legal drama written and directed by T.J. Gnanavel, starring Lijo Mol Jose & Suriya as the primary protagonists.

Set in the 1990s, the story is about Rajakannu (K Manikandan) and Sengani (Lijomol Jose), an honest hardworking couple from the Irular tribe, a group known for their rat/snake catching skills. A day after Rajakannu catches a serpent in a wealthy man’s house, a burglary takes place there and he is named as a potential suspect. What follows next is a series of unlawful actions by the local police, which includes the detaining and thrashing of a pregnant Sengani.

The tone of the film quickly changes, from the idyllic simple lives of the Irulars, it moves to the grim reality of how their community is abused and brutalized by the system. The cops arrest Rajakannu and two of his family members, mercilessly beat them to get a confession, but to no avail. A few days later the cops claim the accused escaped from the police station. Sengani is distraught and doesn’t believe her husband fled, especially after he stoically bore brutal blows for days. She runs pillar to post to find a lawyer who’ll help in her quest to find her missing husband and prove his innocence. Enter Chandru (Suriya), a high court lawyer who doubles up as an activist in his free time, taking part in protests against cases of police brutality. He is known for doing pro bono work for human rights cases and is quick to take up Sengani’s cause.

The makers couldn’t resist the urge of putting the usual exaggerated drama and stylistic flourishes of music to introduce the hero of the film. For example, when we are first shown a high-court hearing, the court-room lights switch on in a rhythmic pattern, as if it’s a dance stage. But to the director’s credit, these little dramatic/stylistic elements of commercial Indian cinema aren’t overdone. They are in the right amount to hold the attention of all sorts of viewers – the ones that like their dramas over-garnished, and also those who prefer a serious no frills film. The police brutality scenes are violent, unbridled and will have your blood boiling. A significant amount of communist symbolism is slipped in, complete with the hammer-sickle red flags, which makes parts of the story feel like propaganda. But considering it’s loosely based on a real life case, one can perhaps forgive the blatant political posturing.

Lijomol Jose as the pregnant Sengani is absolutely riveting, not once does she slip out of character, and holds her own against the more experienced Suriya. And Suriya is all guts & glory as the activist/lawyer Chandru, who hero-worships BR Ambedkar and believes in equal rights. In court, he lands one sucker punch after the other against the prosecution, keeping the film intriguing and hard-hitting. Prakash Raj in his small cameo as an upstanding top-cop proves again that he can pull off all sorts of roles, even though we are used to seeing him as the ‘bad cop’ on screen. The other actors do a commendable job, although, the script could’ve used a stronger prosecuting lawyer.

Some scenes are slightly long-drawn to make the characters grow on the viewers, perhaps to make us feel more sympathetic for their plight as the story drums to an emotional climax. Despite the serious themes, the director manages to slip in some comic relief in the tense courtroom exchanges. The CGI in the first few scenes with the rats and snakes was slightly weak and the makers could’ve avoided it. But apart from these very minor flaws, and a few extra minutes, it’s a powerful movie, sure to remain in the conscience of the viewer for a while. The ‘criers’ will need tissues at the end.

‘Jai Bhim’ is the victory chant of the followers of BR Ambedkar, independent India’s first Minister of Law and Justice, a champion of the downtrodden who dreamed of an India free of caste. His dream unfortunately remains unfulfilled, but Suriya’s film is a fitting paean to the man and the real life lawyer K Chandru. It’s a 8.5/10 from me. The movie is on Amazon Prime.

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Hypnotic Review – What The Witch Is This?

It’s funny they needed two directors to make the 2021 psychological thriller ‘Hypnotic’. Or maybe it’s the classic case of ‘t(w)oo many cooks spoil the broth’, because this film is a predictable muddle. In parts it feels like a horror movie, in some bits it comes across as a fantasy/magic tale, because some of the nonsensical scenes would only be acceptable in a story with witches.

Written by Richard D’Ovidio, Directed by Matt Angel and Susan Coote, ‘Hypnotic’ is about a woman who realizes her therapist is a dangerous man, when it’s too late, or is it? Kate Siegel plays Jenn Tompson, the protagonist, whose friend introduces her to the charming Dr Collin Meade. On their very first session, Meade uses hypnosis on Jenn, but they aren’t meant to help her. The doctor has his own sinister motives and a dubious past.

Let’s talk cinematography – it’s really annoying how the directors keep the sets completely dark, as if the story was taking place in Gotham city. The therapist’s office looks more like Mr Grey’s den from 50 Shades…, with doors that would perhaps lead to a BDSM chamber. Jenn says “cosy place you have here” (or something like that), when she sees Meade’s office, and as a viewer you might go “huh? you call this cosy? this place looks like the HQ of some cunning businessman who makes his workers slog to death, while sipping whiskey in his cold, dark, stylish chamber”. Even the cop’s office is dingy and dark. Even the roads seem go dark during broad daylight. Where do these people even live? Gloomsville?

One of the primary plot devices that carries this film forward is the method of hypnosis used by Dr Meade on his patients, and it’s exaggerated as hell. It’s like Meade is a wizard casting a mind spell on Jenn and she eventually runs to another therapist/witch who tries to cast a counter-spell to fight off Meade’s magic. Maybe the writer wanted to write a story with witches but the producers said “nope, we need a therapist as an antagonist, that’s more real”. Sure. On the contrary, it’s extremely far-fetched, and does disservice to mental health practitioners.

Kate Siegel is great as Jenn, she exudes the sad persona of a beautiful woman dealing with trauma; Jason O’Mara as Dr Meade is the right amount of creepy for the role. But the plot is too thin, filled with loopholes and the pacing is slow, even though the runtime is just 90 minutes. The writers foreshadow a twist with a very obvious hint in the first half, so a lot of viewers can see the climax coming. They should have just made a dark-fantasy film with magic and witches and maybe this would’ve been more fun. It’s a 5/10 from me.

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Listen to – 15 Freaky Facts About The Case ‘Conjuring 3’ Is Based On