Uncanny Annie

The Blumhouse juggernaut continues with the second season of their Into the Dark series for Hulu. As such, at least in the case with Uncanny Annie they are on familiar territory with teens or young adults in peril innocently messing with forces they can’t handle. In this case it’s a game that once started has to be played to its conclusion, no matter the costs on the way.

The pre-credit does sort of give things away rather than give a taster. However once past that we are in the living room of friends immersed in a role playing that comes to an abrupt halt. It’s Halloween night and there’s going to be a bit a get together with beer and pizza. The friends are a mix of ex-lovers, nerds, jocks and the nasty one. Amid some tension settle in for a night of game playing.

Hunting around in the cellar they come across a few and decide on Uncanny Annie. Intrigued by the concept and that it may be over very quickly, they start to play. It doesn’t take long for the cards to start dictating the direction of the game, playing on their secrets and pasts, leaving the players with awful choices to make.

Some gruesome deaths and zippy direction by Paul Davis ensure that there’s little time to lose interest in what is going on as the game develops and traps them. As such there’s not much time to develop much sympathy or rapport with the cast as they get despatched in various ways.

There’s a touch of the Twilight Zone at times which moves the action away from the house, and into other dimensions. Uncanny Annie (Karlisha Hurley) herself is not a bad creation as she zips and twitches in and out of the frames taunting the cast who are all very good. It’s not the most testing of films or concepts but it’s a lot of fun that will pass away eighty or so minutes without thinking they have been in any way wasted.