Stars: 3/5

In the spirit of Halloween, Hulu released “Uncanny Annie” on October 4. This movie is a Hulu original that spotlights a typical Halloween-game-night-gone-wrong story with a splash of modern society influences. 

The plot of “Uncanny Annie” is far from original, but it does add some interesting twists to a classic horror story. The movie is centered around college friends that choose to play a mysterious-looking board game that sucks them into the game’s universe in which they must reveal their deepest fears and secrets in order to survive and win. 

“Uncanny Annie” features well recognized actors such as Georgie Flores, Jacques Colimon, Dylan Arnold and more. The story begins just as any other game night movie where a group of friends that decides to stay in on Halloween discovers an old game board in the basement. They choose a board game called Uncanny Annie in which each person draws a card and must complete the task listed. The penalty for not solving the rhymes and riddles in the allotted time is death. 

Unlike many other board game movies where the game comes to life and merges fantasy into reality, Uncanny Annie sucks it’s players into the game. This was an interesting twist that set this movie apart from others like it because the players were trapped in Annie’s universe and could only leave if they completed the game. It was a good idea, and there were no holes left in the story, but somehow the plot still felt dry. 

The movie tried to incorporate an ulterior story under the main one in which two of the players were responsible for the accidental death of one of their friends. It was very poorly revealed, and there was no suspenseful build-up. In fact it was rather frustrating how one player jeopardizes the entire game and everyone’s lives instead of confessing the crime they had committed to simply end the game. It was the classic “don’t go into the closet” kind of frustration.  

The ending was the best part of the movie because it hits you with the final twist. One player survived the end of the game and is brought back into the real world again. Just as everything seemed to be back to normal, Annie appears and violently rips her to shreds leaving no survivors of her game.

This was an interesting and unsuspected twist, which is quite uncommon in horror movies. I am also a very big fan of nontraditional story endings like this one. It tied the whole movie up with a big ominous bow. The movie wasn’t particularly scary but did have some suspenseful build-up scares.

It was also mildly gruesome and graphic which would probably be hard to stomach if you aren’t one for fake blood. Overall, “Uncanny Annie” makes the mark for movie night and should be added to your Halloween movie list.