A Review – Devoured: vampire action horror scifi by Cassie Carnage

So, Spooky Season Week didn't go exactly to plan...

First off, I started a day late, so I was going to be finishing a day late. But my seven days worth of posts was almost impossible to keep up with. I barely had any time all week to make the posts anyway, as it was a particularly busy week with work, but by Sunday, I had nothing ready, and there was no way I could possibly finishing reading this book and write the review in the ten minutes I had before I had to start work. So, Spooky Season Week ended abruptly on day 5.

But, I do want to finish it, so this post will be day 6, and the final post will go out on Saturday (hopefully!)

So, now I have explained myself, let me get going with the post!

Jonah, a newly turned vampire, must fight the National Center for Rejuvenation (NCR), a company that is hellbent on filling the world with more of his kind. Just when he thought things couldn't get worse, he discovers that NCR is experimenting on creating unstoppable mutant werewolves.

In order to save his ex, and the world, he must join an uneasy truce with a group of deadly mercenaries as they fight to destroy the source of evil that NCR is hiding.

Amazon UK • Amazon US

My Review!

A newly-turned vampire, Jonah has to acclimatise himself to a lot of change very quickly. Firstly, he is now a killing machine, with a hunger for blood that it seems he can never quite fully satisfy. Secondly, there is an evil vampire queen hellbent on controlling him and making him a part of her brood. And thirdly, there is a man who was supposedly his fiancé, although he has lost all the memories he ever had of Doctor Mallory Conrad, who is involved in secret organisations he never knew existed, even before he was a vampire. 

Jonah finds himself taking lots of different sides, going against Mullo, the vampire queen, and finding himself among a group of highly trained mercenaries, fighting to rid the world of all vampires and werewolves, and to stop the organisation that’s trying to fill the world with the supernatural, and mutating vampires and werewolves with a hidden evil, to make them much more deadly. 

Jonah is not your typical newly turned vampire. He doesn’t have an identity crisis, or struggle morally as he realises he must kill to survive. A killer instinct sets in, and he adapts to survive in an instant. This book very much portrays vampires as having a hunting instinct that takes over almost immediately, and it is clear that Jonah’s entire personality changes. He is not a human who must drink blood to survive, but a human who has been turned into an entirely different species. This was a very interesting portrayal of vampires, and one that comes across as much more real in the telling than other, more moral, vampires. 

Something I particularly loved in this book was the way Mal and Jonah’s relationship changed so dramatically. They were betrothed, but being turned into a vampire took away all of Jonah’s memories of Mal, as well as changing him as a person. Mal knows that Jonah is different, but when he looks at him, he still sees the man he wanted to marry. For Mal, it seems infinitely harder to be around Jonah, for he still has the memories of their relationship before Jonah was turned. Throughout the book, though, their relationship continues, although it is much more toxic than before. Their relationship becomes an addiction, rather than love, with Jonah feeding off Mal and the both of them getting a high from it. As the book progresses, this grows worse for both of them, and it definitely added a layer to the story, with both needing the other, and both struggling with the memory of their human love in the past, showing how much they have both been affected by Jonah’s vampirism. 

With the different organisations, either fighting vampires and trying to rid the world of them, or trying to create more, and mutate them, there are a lot of characters who you are not sure are trustworthy. Not many people trust Jonah, but he doesn’t trust a lot of them either. Most of the vampires can’t think for themselves, they are controlled by Mullo, but Jonah has his own mind, although the more time that passes, the more animalistic he becomes, the more memories of his past life he loses, and the less people trust him. It’s incredibly rare that the vampires in this novel are, for lack of a better word, sentient, so Jonah is a mystery in himself. The entire portrayal of vampires in this novel is original in itself, I have never come across a lot of aspects that the vampires in this book possess. The author has done a fabulous job at making these vampires incredibly believable. In my opinion, they are a lot more believable than mainstream vampires. 

While Jonah is a killer, although that is not exactly his own choice, he is still a rather likeable character. He doesn’t exactly detest the fact that he must kill to survive, but he doesn’t agree with vampirism, or that vampires and werewolves should be free to roam and kill as they please. He wants to destroy them as much as the mercenaries do, and his supernatural abilities certainly help him in his mission to rid the world of the supernatural evil. And as much as his relationship with Mal is toxic, there is still an element of care between them, to the point where it’s difficult to figure out if Jonah is really a good guy, or if he himself is evil and is ruining Mal's life by being around him.

This is an incredibly unique vampire novel, and certainly one I enjoyed reading. This book has been sat in my e-reader for months, and I definitely wish I read it sooner.

And done!

Even now, catching up with the posts for Spooky Season Week, this post is going up several hours late.

Oh well.

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

Movie Reviews – Horror Films – Spooky Season Week, Day 4!

I have no internet at the moment, or I have internet in my building, it just doesn't quite reach my bedroom. While this is very useful in making me go to sleep and stop me staying awake and scrolling for hours, it also means I don't have many options when it comes to actually watching anything. So during the day, I've been downloading things, and watching them in the evening/at night. Which probably isn't the best way to consume horror films, really late at night, and with nothing downloaded to watch afterwards, but still.

Anyway, here are the movies I watched, and the reviews!

Bodies are turning up around the city, each having met a uniquely gruesome demise. As the investigation proceeds, evidence points to one suspect: John Kramer, the man known as Jigsaw, who has been dead for over 10 years.

My Review!

I haven’t watched a lot of very popular movies, and some that I have never seen is any movie in the Saw franchise. I have obviously heard about the films, but I had no idea what they were about or anything. To be fair, I didn’t even realise this was a part of that franchise, although I should’ve been able to guess, given the title. I am not sure how this film compares to the original Saw films, but I really enjoyed it. The story itself was simple to follow, although I’m sure knowledge of the previous films would’ve added to the viewing experience. It got a little confusing towards the end, but again, it wasn’t particularly hard to figure out what was happening. There were certainly characters I liked more than others, although this is a film where good guys and bad guys don’t really exist. It is just a case of who was worse, for there weren’t really any people I would class as ‘good’. Everyone had flaws and most had done terrible things. But still, some characters were much more likeable than others. I am not one who finds horror movies particularly scary, to the point where I was so tired I fell asleep watching this and had to rewind a bit to continue watching it the next day. This film didn’t scare me at all. I would almost go as far as to class it as more of a thriller than a horror film. But still, I did enjoy watching it, and would very much like to go back and watch the rest of the movies in the Saw franchise. 

After firing up a lost 1980s survival horror game, a young coder unleashes a hidden curse that tears reality apart, forcing her to make terrifying decisions and face deadly consequences.

My Review!

This film is one that I, once again, knew absolutely nothing about, and just decided to watch on a whim. I am not generally the kind of person to get at all freaked out at horror films, my inability to be fazed by them is actually something I pride myself on, but this movie had me physically gagging at several scenes. It is not for those with a weak stomach. This film is almost a horror version of Jumanji, in a way. A game that affects the real world. The choices are sometimes presented as incredibly clear, or vague, and the things that happen afterwards are more often than not, completely unexpected. Either way, whatever choice is made usually involved horrific deaths. Kayla is a character completely torn apart by things that have happened in her life, but she doesn’t get a chance to break down and mourn. She is forced to keep going, no matter what, and the game Curs>r, the cause of everything that happens in this film, only makes her grief worse. A curse to some may be a blessing to others, but either way, Kayla goes through hell and has to suffer the consequences of loading up the game in the first place. Not for the faint of heart, but this film is wonderful. I did really enjoy it, even though it did make me feel a little sick. 

After being forced to take a room in a boardinghouse, an immigrant in search of the American Dream finds herself in a nightmare she can't escape.

My Review!

This film was very much one of suspense, that emitted the feeling of being trapped, and not being able to do anything about it. Ambar is desperately trying to improve her situation, but is running into dead ends wherever she turns. She doesn’t have the ID she needs, and can’t get any. She can’t improve her job, can’t find anywhere safe to live. The best she can find is a boarding house, but there is something wrong with the place. The more time she spends there, the more desperate she is to leave, but how can she? She needs to spend money she doesn’t have in order to make more money. She is lost, alone, and desperate. The whole horror aspect of this film almost takes a back burner in comparison to Ambar’s struggles, although that in itself was enough to give this film a sense of dread and uncertainty. I really felt for Ambar, she has no one to help her and no way to escape the things she needs to. And the horror aspects of the film, which do only really come into play in the last half hour, certainly add to the overall sense of not knowing whether Ambar was safe or not, or where she would find herself the following day. I can’t say this is one of the best horror films I’ve ever watched, it had it’s moments, but it didn’t keep me gripped throughout it. Mostly, I felt sorry for Ambar, and was just hoping she would find what she needed and would find somewhere safe to properly start her life. 

And done!

This post went up late because it literally wasn't written. I wrote most of it in the last half hour before it went up. I was supposed to include five films, but only ended up actually watching three before this post was meant to go up. Whoops.

This Spooky Season Week is a little unplanned...!

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

A Review – Heaven's Peak: A Gripping Horror Novel by Miguel Estrada – Spooky Season Week, Day 2!

With the time for spooks and scary reads upon us, I scrolled through my e-reader in the search of something that looked like it fell into the horror genre. This book was the one I stopped on, and opened.

Now I'm making this post, I realise that this book is by the same author as Seven Sins, the book I read for my Spooky Season Week last year... coincidence?! Anyway, you can read my review of Seven Sins here, and read on for my review of this book!

The beautiful resort town of Heaven's Peak is home to gorgeous landscapes and terrifying secrets.

After the tragic death of his mother, teenage photographer Kevin Miller moves to a new town with his alcoholic father and eight-year-old sister in the hope of bringing the family together and starting over. However, everything changes when Kevin witnesses his sister being kidnapped by a bizarre creature. The police are skeptical of his story, so he decides to unveil the mysteries surrounding the town on his own.

On the other side of the investigation, FBI agent Norman James will do anything to solve the baffling case, except believe a traumatized teenager's nonsense.

Meanwhile, newscasts predict a blizzard approaching in the next couple of days, as people in the town begin to behave strangely.

Will Kevin and Norman find Kevin's little sister before Heaven's Peak is consumed by darkness?

Heaven's Peak is the first full-length horror-thriller novel from author Miguel Estrada. If you like suspense, mystery and dread, prepare for a ride you won't forget.

Amazon UK • Amazon US (it's free, so go grab a copy!)

My Review!

Heaven’s Peak is the place Kevin has been dragged to, the place he must now make his home. After the death of his mother, his father is hardly fit to parent any longer, preferring the company of a bottle of alcohol over the company of his children, and so Kevin must step up to look after his younger sister, Jenny. 

But Heaven’s Peak already has a history of people going missing. A girl in one of Kevin’s classes, Sofia, is the older sister of a young boy who went missing recently. And when Kevin sees what is really behind the kidnapping, the night when he comes home to find his sister gone, he knows he can’t simply sit back and let the police deal with it. Sofia’s brother hasn’t been found yet, and the police absolutely did not believe Kevin when he described the humanoid monster that took Jenny. There is nothing left to do, but for Kevin to find Jenny himself. 

Kevin is a flawed character. He is not a hero, who knows exactly what needs to be done to move forward, although others may view him as such a strong person. His only goal is to find Jenny, no matter what he has to do, but he also drags Sofia into things she is not comfortable doing. She is desperate to find her brother, but she would rather not put herself in dangerous scenarios, and Kevin rarely sees things from her point of view. He also struggles with sanity as he learns more. There is no way a sane person would claim so surely that a monster is behind the disappearances, but Kevin cannot deny what he saw. 

Other than Kevin and Sofia, this book also gives the perspective of FBI agent Norman James. I love books, whether thriller or horror, that give the view of the people who are supposed to be investigating the case, as well as those who are doing it of their own accord. James is one of the only officers who seems to be actually trying to find any of the missing people, he finds himself in a force of officers who don’t appear to care, and he is the only person who believes Kevin may be telling the truth when he talks of monsters. James is a character I really enjoyed reading about. He is focused, and gets incredibly frustrated when he is treated as inferior and the people around his don’t take things as seriously as they should. He is stuck within a corrupt group, and as you read, you too become more and more frustrated. He doesn’t have what he needs to properly move forward his investigations, and things fall apart without the proper protocols and dedication. 

The monsters themselves are difficult to talk about without giving away important parts of the plot. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that they really are monsters, for this is a horror book with supernatural elements. They are incredibly unique, I have not come across anything supernatural fiction with monsters such as these before. The author has done a wonderful job in making a new kind of horrific being, which is just as scary as any mythical or supernatural creature I have read about before. I have read some reviews of this book, and quite a few have described this book as missing some key details. However, while some may say there was an air of incomplete about this book, with a lack of explanation about the creatures, such as why they were taking people, or how they came to be, I actually liked the way the author left out these details. At no point does the reader know any more than any of the characters, so you are drawn more into the story, desperate to find out more, and for the truth to be revealed. By still not revealing these details at the end, you are left feeling incredibly uneasy, not sure if the characters are safe or not. It is incredibly difficult to explain without giving away the ending, but the author has certainly succeeded in writing a book that is full of suspense! 

I did really enjoy reading this book. There is intrigue and suspense all the way through, which makes it next to impossible to put this book down. Like the last book I read by this author, I stayed up late to finish reading, as I simply had to know what was going to happen, and whether Kevin was going to be able to find Jenny. If you like monsters and unease, this is certainly the book for you.

And done!

I think, out of this book and Seven Sins, this is certainly the superior book.

I don't have much to say down here, other than trying to do Spooky Season Week this year was probably a mistake, considering it is the Sunday before I start as I write this, and I have yet to actually schedule any posts for the week at all...!

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

Movie Review – The Open House – how can you be completely sure you don't have an unexpected guest in your home?

Something I have started to realise – I only ever review thrillers and horror films. I review every kind of book, but the kind of movies I find myself watching are very limited.

It might be because I spend ages scrolling though lists of movies, trying to find something I actually want to watch, and I know for a fact that I enjoy movies that fall into those two genres, so I try to restrict the amount of time I spend searching by choosing a film from those genres.

Who knows.

Anyway, let me introduce you to this film, and then I can share my review!

Following a tragedy, a mother and her teen son move to a relative's vacant vacation home, where eerie and unexplained forces conspire against them.

My Review!

After the death of his father, Logan and his mother, Naomi, find themselves traveling to Naomi’s sister’s house in the mountains. They don’t have the money to stay living where they were, and going to the mountain house is a break, not only from everything going on, but also from the worry of having to find the money to keep a roof above their heads.

The house is massive, the kind of place you don’t live in, but vacation in. It is for sale, but Logan and Naomi are free to live there, to look after the place, as long as they make themselves scarce during open house events. But, strange things start to happen. Logan starts to hear strange banging sounds, and things go missing from one room, only to turn up in another. The water heater turns itself off, and Naomi repeatedly has to go down to the basement to relight the pilot light.

I was not entirely sure what I was getting myself in to when I clicked on this movie to watch. I honestly thought I was clicking on a thriller, not a horror, so you can imagine my surprise when there were creepy camera perspectives, and I started to wonder if I had perhaps clicked on something I didn’t realise. I must say, though, the camera shots are great. There are plenty of angles that have a little room for something creepy to just be in shot in the background, and it’s almost scarier when there’s nothing there.

It’s not really a spoiler, but if I don’t mention it, I can’t talk about the film at all. This film is about a home invasion, of someone hiding within the house while Logan and Naomi are there. The person is practically living there alongside them, but they don’t know. I think the reason I found this film as creepy as I did was because home invasion is a massive fear of mine. I am constantly afraid of getting up in the night to go to the bathroom, as both Logan and Naomi do in this film, and realising I am not alone. The camera shots really bring all of that together, into a film that actually creeped me out, and not many horror films have ever done that.

Something I liked about this film was that Logan and Naomi are not a strong team, fighting together against the grief of losing Logan’s father. They are divided. Logan never wanted to move anyway, and was not given much of a choice on the matter. Not only did he lose his father, his life was turned upside-down. Meanwhile, Naomi is just trying to get by on what little money they have. They fight, accuse each other of doing things. The house they are in is much too big for just two people to be living in it, so in a way, they are more than just alone, they are isolated from each other and the outside world. 

I have never really come across open houses as a method of selling a house. It might just be not done in the area where I live, I am not sure. To me, the idea of people just wandering around your house, and you not having any idea where they are in the house, or what they are doing as they walk around, is ridiculous. There is a perfect quote from the film, that entirely sums up what my thoughts are on the matter:

I mean, you give your keys to someone you hardly know, they stand in one room and welcome in a bunch of complete strangers, and those people just roam around the house. And the realtor doesn't check the house when it's done, right? They just... turn the lights off and go?

Doesn’t it just seem like the perfect opportunity for people to walk in and steal stuff, or plant things… or stay... the list of bad things I can think of happening is endless, and yet, this isn’t just something that happened in the movie, people actually do open houses? Maybe it’s less creepy if the house isn’t quite as big as the one in this film. I just know if strangers were walking around my house, I would want to know where they were at all times. I am getting off topic!

It seems to be becoming a thing, where I watch a film, and when I look the film up afterwards, so I can get all the necessary information about it to write a review, I find it has countless bad reviews. At least this time, there are some good reviews to counter the bad. Yes, there isn’t much of a conclusion at the end, and yes, there isn’t much plot. But, the entire movie builds suspense, and the ending was creepier without a conclusion. There was no answer to the why, and it’s the not knowing that makes this scary. Logan and Naomi don’t know there’s someone in their house. The viewer doesn’t know who is in the house, or why. I knew this was a good film while I was watching it, for the simple reason that I realised I was scared. I don’t get scared at horror films, this is not me bragging, I just don’t. I see the camera shots, predict the jump scares depending what is in the scene. I try to guess the ending before the film has even started. But I went into this film thinking it was a thriller, so I wasn’t trying to guess a horror film ending. Yes, I appreciated the camera shots, but there weren’t many jump scares, if any, really. This was a film built on tension, about something that scares me in real life, and I was sucked into the film so much that I actually felt scared. I do think this is a film that you will either love or hate, but for me, I definitely love it.

And done!

This is actually the longest review I have ever written for a movie. It might be the longest review on this blog. It does include a quote from the film, and a rant about why I think open houses are a bad idea, but still.

Also, that tagline on the cover? You can't lock out what's already inside. It makes me shudder just thinking about it.

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

Movie Review – Countdown – what would you do if you knew exactly when you were going to die?

I've been watching a lot of movies about clocks counting down to death recently. First In Time, and now this one.

This film came up on Netflix, and I added it to my list. I can't remember exactly when that was, but I've now watched it!

I will introduce the film, and then we can get into my review!

When a nurse downloads an app that claims to predict exactly when a person is going to die, it tells her she only has three days to live. With time ticking away and a figure haunting her, she must find a way to save her life before time runs out.

My Review!

An app that tells you when you are going to die. It sounds like fun and games, download it and it gives you a random amount of time on a clock. And it is fun, for those who get thirty years, sixty years… but for those that have a matter of days, a matter of hours? Things seem a little more real.

Quinn Harris is a nurse, at a hospital where a patient is certain he is going to die in surgery. When he shows Quinn the Countdown app, she believes it’s just a silly app, and that he’s got himself worked up over nothing. But his girlfriend also downloaded the app, and she died when her clock reached zero. When Quinn tells her co-workers about the app they all download it, to see how long they so-called have left to live. Quinn has two days.

Disturbed, Quinn tries to continue life as usual, until she comes in the next day to learn that the patient has died. And his phone shows that his clock has no more time left. She tries everything to escape the ticking clock that is hanging over her head, but nothing seems to work. Even buying a new phone does nothing, as the app simply downloads itself onto that one as well. After all, you can’t escape your fate.

This was a fabulous film. I don’t think there’s a single moment when you’re not ever so slightly on edge about what is going to happen next, and completely aware that the clock isn’t stopping, but steadily ticking down as everything happens. Quinn comes across as a very real character. She doesn’t simply disregard the app, or completely obsess over it, but it nags at her, the thought of her impending death scares her and there is seemingly nothing she can do about it. She is not sure whether to truly believe it or not, but she has enough information to put her on edge, and she can’t be at ease until she knows the truth – and she can’t know the truth until her clock runs out.

As Quinn starts to learn more about the app, things start to click into place with how it works. It is clear from the first few minutes that there is some sort of supernatural nature to the app, so it is not a spoiler to talk about that, but I won’t go too much into what it really is, and the ins and outs of it. The whole idea (that I’m not going to talk about!) is one I don’t think I’ve come across before, and the way it was carried out was wonderful. It is not just a scary movie, with some scary situation, jump scares, and a couple of deaths, it has depth to it, and while there are some jump scares, I think they worked with the film. It is not the kind of supernatural entity that you can figure out the rules to within minutes, there are layers upon layers of different rules for the supernatural aspect of this film, that will keep you thinking even after you’ve finished watching.

Quinn was a character I really liked. She is not perfect in any way, but she tries her hardest at the things she feels are important. Quinn is the character that spends the most time on-screen, and while there are two other characters who I would consider ‘main’ characters, she is definitely the centre role of the film, so I’m glad I liked her! The other two characters, Quinn’s younger sister, Jordan, and Matt, who Quinn meets at an electronic store, when trying to get the app off her phone, are also very likeable characters. I liked Matt, in particular. He is troubled by his past, and scared of what his future holds with the clock on his phone ticking down. Meeting Quinn seems to be what saves him from completely losing himself in what seems to be his last few hours. Jordan and Quinn’s relationship is strained, Quinn is never around, and they don’t spend time together anymore. And, like Matt, both Quinn and Jordan have an event of the past that troubles them, and as a result of that, a morbid curiosity to know how long they have left.

This is a wonderful thriller, and I can see how this could really freak some people out. The idea of finding out when you are going to die is not an original one, but this way of telling the story is almost fascinating, because it almost seems plausible. A silly free app, that all your friends are downloading for a game, or that you hear about and curiously download. And after that, all you know is the tick, tick, tick of each second of your life slipping away. If you like thrillers, horror, and the supernatural, this is a must-watch!

And done!

This really was a great movie. There are some films that I watch and can just forget about afterwards, but there are some that I have to talk about afterwards because I loved them so much. This was the latter.

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

Movie Review – Polaroid – when a camera 'shoot' may actually be lethal

I have way too many films on my to-watch list.

I've also managed to get really behind on my blog posts, I missed several in the last few weeks, and I want to get more organised with them. I wrote a list of posts I want to make, so I can actually get some finished, and making that list involved scrolling through my Netflix list to see what movies I could review. This was one I couldn't remember adding to my list, so I was obviously intrigued and clicked it.

I watched it instead of finishing my list.

Let me introduce it, and then we will get into my review.

High school loner Bird Fitcher finds a vintage Polaroid camera that holds dark and mysterious secrets. She soon realizes that those who get their picture taken by it meet a tragic and untimely death.

My Review!

Bird Fitcher is the person in high school with a nickname, the kind people say loudly, so that you’ll definitely hear it. ‘Scarf Girl’, who always has a scarf around her neck to hide an old scar. Bird loves photography and antiques, so when her friend, Tyler, gives her an old polaroid camera that he found in a yard sale, she is overjoyed. She snaps a photo of him to commemorate the moment.

A few hours later, Tyler is dead. A shadow on the photo Bird took disappears, and moves to a newer photo, one of another friend. Hours later, and she is also dead.

Bird has a single picture, with all her friends in it, taken with the camera. With two people dead, and the shadow mysteriously having moved onto the picture with all her friends, Bird starts to grow worried. There is something about the camera, something about the deaths of her friends and the photos taken. The shadow looms over the group photo, as she realises that someone in the photo is next.

The two characters we see the most in this film are Bird and Connor. Connor is a guy Bird has a crush on, and they meet at a party, where Connor goes on to be featured in the group photo. After talking to Bird for a brief time, Connor starts to spend more time around her, teaming up with Bird to try and solve the mystery, and escape the danger, of being in the polaroid. Connor seems to be the one who believes Bird the most when she tries to tell her friends she is worried for them, and the photo, and together they work to try and figure out what is happening, why, and how to stop it.

I really liked Bird’s character. She is a very fleshed out main character, she has all the attributes of a real person – she is not just a backstory and the events of the film. Unfortunately, some of the other characters felt a little flat. Like they were just there for the sake of another character, rather than being real people in the situation. There was one character, I won’t name which, who I was certain from the start was going to die. They just seemed like the kind of person added into the film to be a friend who died. What do you know, they did! There was another character, though, Devin, who I thought was the next most real character after Bird. Unlike some of the others, he had very strong emotions that changed with what was happening, and he reacted to them physically. He might’ve been my favourite character, just for how real he came across. 

Those in the pictures are linked to them, and that, in turn, links the shadow to them. I watch films with subtitles on, and the subtitles referred to the shadow as an ‘entity’. The entity shows up within the first few minutes of the film, so it is not a spoiler to talk about it. It makes an utterly terribly noise, a ragged wheezing, screeching scream. It is the kind of sound that is the last thing you ever hear. I won’t go into detail, but I quite liked the ‘rules’ of the entity. There are always rules for supernatural beings, like how werewolves can be killed with silver, or vampires with a wooden stake. The entity has rules I’ve never come across before, and I thought they fit the film perfectly.

When looking up this film, after watching it, I found a lot of negativity about it. Apparently, not many people liked it. While I can understand that it’s not an engrossing horror film, that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, it is not without tension. Sure, there are predictable moments, and it uses jump scares to add to the horror aspect, but it was still enjoyable. Some people have called it unoriginal, saying that the story has been done before. I can’t really add my own opinion to this, because I’ve never seen this kind of story anywhere else. This might be why I enjoyed it more than others, who have.

Yes, this film may not be what some people would class as a horror film, I would personally say it’s not that scary, but I don’t get scared watching horror films as it is. I would consider it more of a tense supernatural thriller. There is a lot of darkness, as with most horror films, and I am once again made to question – do lots of people use weak lamps as lighting in their homes, rather than lights that actually light up the room, or is that just a thing in horror films so there are shadows and dark corners? 

Overall, I enjoyed this film. It is a quick film, just under an hour and a half, and while I found it more interesting than scary, it was entertaining. I think it might’ve been better with less jump scares and more gore, but it was still a good film. It certainly was not one I regret watching, it wasn’t a waste of my time (and believe me, I’ve watched several films before that were!) I would quite happily watch this again, perhaps with a friend, to introduce them to it. 

And done!

I honestly don't know why I can't find any positive reviews for this film. There's not actually that many reviews of it, and they're all terrible. It wasn't that bad! I liked it!

That's all for now...

Bye!

See, hear and speak no evil – in the form of three different films

My idea for this post came from an image I saw on Pinterest. I do think the image was technically a joke I didn't understand, but it gave me this idea.

I recently watched Sightless, which is about a woman who goes blind. In hindsight, that would have been a perfect fit for this post, but I have already reviewed that on my blog, and I don't want to include it again. (You can read my review of it here, though.) That, combined with the Pinterest image, created this idea in my mind. Taking a look at how movies deal with different things that are seen as necessary for a film – such as sight and sound.

And so, we begin with sound.

A deaf and mute writer who retreated into the woods to live a solitary life must fight for her life in silence when a masked killer appears at her window.

A quick aside. I watched it the for the first time a few years ago, with a friend who loathes horror films. I watch them with barely any reaction, but she was terrified the entire time, and was gripping my arm incredibly tightly. I had to give her a pillow to hold onto instead, because I was starting to lose circulation to my fingers.

My Review!

Deafness has isolated Maddie. She moved from the city, to live in a secluded cabin to focus on her writing. She can video chat with her friends, and she has made friends with her neighbours, but she is still alone. When she finds herself being stalked in her own home by a man outside, who seems intent on killing her, she must do whatever she can to survive, even though she has the disadvantage – he has weapons he knows how to use, whereas she cannot hear him, scream, or call for help. 

Maddie is smart, but there is only so much she can do. She is in the middle of nowhere, with no way to get help, or to get away herself. The best she can do is to lock her doors and try and hide away from the windows, but it wouldn’t be difficult for the man to simply break a window and climb in. It turns into a game of cat and mouse, him circling as she tries to find different ways to do what she needs to in order to survive. 

With Maddie being unable to hear, there are scenes where you see things happening behind her, things that she has no idea about, because she cannot hear the tapping on the window, the footsteps. You almost beg her to turn around and notice, but there is nothing you can do but sit and watch. The horror aspects of this film are on the side of keeping up the tension, although there are some rather gruesome injuries including broken fingers at very unnatural angles. Just to warn you.

We now move onto sight...

Most people dismissed the reports on the news. But they became too frequent; they became too real. And soon it was happening to people we knew.

Then the Internet died. The televisions and radios went silent. The phones stopped ringing

And we couldn’t look outside anymore.

A quick aside (before watching the film). The same friend who I watched Hush with watched this movie one night. Once again, she hates scary films, but I wasn't with her to watch it. So I woke up to hundreds of messages from her, conveying her terror as she watched this film. I think she had been messaging me the entire time she watched it to try to not be so scared.

Extra side note. While watching this, I wasn't too sure if I had it right, and this had been the movie my friend had watched, because I didn't think it was all that scary. But, I started to remember some of the messages she sent, and I'm certain now this is what she watched. There was a lot of focus on the names of the children, if I remember rightly. 

My Review!

Malorie was having enough trouble coming to terms with her pregnancy, and the fact that she would have a child to look after soon. The end of the world arrived at just the right moment to take her mind off it. People around her start going crazy, losing their minds and killing themselves. Malorie finds herself inside a house full of strangers, simply trying to survive.

Navigating the world when you can’t open your eyes or you will die seems to be a very difficult thing, not that the things the characters do are entirely simple. Closing the curtains and making sure the outside stays outside keeps them safe, but when food starts to run out, a trip down the road in a car with sensors, letting you know which side is too close to something, is a necessary risk. No one can trust anyone – as the song of the siren was murderous to sailors, the monsters will cause you to hear those you do trust, trying to convince you it's safe to remove your blindfold and have a little look – it's also rather like Medusa, now that I think of it.

Alongside this, there is a timeline several years on, where Malorie has two young children with her, and is trying to journey along a river blind. The urge to simply rip your blindfold off and reorientate yourself seems almost impossible to resist. The entire film itself moved a little slowly, it seemed to drag on a bit. I wish that there had been more of a tension built by showing the viewer what the characters were unable to see, like in Hush, where the viewer is begging Maddie to turn around. Instead, we are as blind as the characters, and, not being in the situation, it's a lot less tense and dramatic. I remember this film being very popular a while ago, and, unfortunately, I don't think it lives up to the hype. 

It is still an excellent addition to this post, though – this film is completely about seeing no evil, and to stay blindfolded to survive.

And to end, we are back with sound, except this time, instead of being unable to hear, you can't make any noise...

In this “MIND-BLOWINGLY TENSE” thriller, a family must navigate their lives in silence to avoid mysterious creatures that hunt by sound. Knowing that even the slightest whisper or footstep can bring death, Evelyn and Lee are determined to find a way to protect their children at all costs while they desperately search for a way to fight back.

A quick aside. I was adamant this was the movie I wanted to watch for this post, but I couldn't find it anywhere to watch for free. I debated for a while, about whether I should try and find a similar film, but quickly decided against it and bought A Quiet Place I and II. I now own both on DVD (yes, I still use DVD. And love them.)

My Review!

The world has been taken over by creatures, who hunt by sound. Even stepping on the wrong spot on the floor and making the floorboards squeak is enough to bring them running for their next meal. Evelyn and Lee know just how dangerous the creatures are, and will do anything to keep their children safe.

Trying to stay silent in a world surrounded in sound is almost impossible, especially considering Evelyn is nearing her due date to give birth. In a world of sound, though, being deaf does not give Evelyn and Lee’s daughter an advantage. She can’t hear the creatures coming, and although Lee is constantly trying to fix her hearing aids, they never seem to work.

This film uses sound wonderfully. There is very little spoken dialogue, most of the dialogue is shown through sign language. The lack of normal sound, like chatter, or even the clink of cups, makes any sound so much more dramatic. You can feel what the characters feel. Silence, and then shock at a small clatter, because it is so different, and dangerous. I found myself feeling like I could make no noise either, and watched the entire film in complete silence. I even realised I was putting my cup of tea down really gently, so it didn’t make any noise. The sound design in this film is amazing, and (since I didn’t really know what this movie was about until I watched it) completely unexpected. Even now, ten minutes after I finished watching it, I am slightly apprehensive of the noise of my keyboard as I type this. This film has plenty of tension, and it definitely immerses the viewer.

I have absolutely no regrets over purchasing this film on DVD, because after watching it, I know I’m going to be watching it again and again.

And done!

I feel like most of my posts are very straight forward, being a review of a book, a movie, or a short story of some kind. This time, though, I am really rather proud of this post. I actually planned the whole thing out, and spent three consecutive evenings writing it (there were three films. What, did you think I was going to watch them all in one go?!)

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

A Review – Janie by Joseph D. Slater

I grabbed my copy of this book after talking to the author for a short period of time on Twitter. This is the way a lot of the books I've been reading lately have ended up in my ebook library – a couple of tweets go back and forth, and suddenly I'm reading their book.

I will first introduce the book, and then I will get into my review!

In this Henson meets Lovecraft universe, Janie’s sister is kidnapped through a portal to the Conscious Sanctum, a world full of monsters, trials, and tears.

Led by the spirit of her father in the form of a raven, she faces these challenges in order to save her sister from the fate of the Vulture Queen.

A path of piranha-toothed mice and man-eating trees awaits her, but can she even save herself when she gets there?

Amazon UK • Amazon US

My Review!

Janie is a child, at just 12 years old, but her life has forced her to grow up quicker than she should have. She lives in a house with her mother, step-father, and younger sister, Delilah, but she has to take on the role of mother. Her mother and step-father spend most of their time arguing, and her mother seems to have wanted servants, instead of children. Nothing Janie can do seems to be good enough, even though she is trying her best to raise herself and Delilah.

After buying a new book, Janie’s life gets flipped upside-down when a raven starts speaking to her, claiming to be her dead father, Frank, and a portal opens, sucking Delilah in. Without a thought for her own safety, Janie jumps in after her sister, closely followed by Frank. Finding themselves in the Conscious Sanctum, Janie’s immediate mission is to find Delilah, but first, she must survive long enough to do so.

To begin with, I likened the Conscious Sanctum to Narnia, for there is an evil queen, the Vulture Queen, and creatures that do not exist on Earth. However, it quickly became apparent that this novel is not one of a place like Narnia. The Conscious Sanctum is a horrific place, and it seems impossible that you would stumble upon anyone who would help you, over using you for their own gain. The Vulture Queen wants young children, to be her personal slaves, and so adults are a rarity in the Conscious Sanctum. Those who grow too old are killed. 

Janie finds herself overcoming great obstacles, with an angel and a devil on each shoulder. The angel is Frank, attempting to lead her through the Conscious Sanctum safely. However, she has her own mind, and often does not listen to Frank – besides, she can’t quite find it within herself to forgive him for leaving her to live with her mother after his death. On the other shoulder is Arith, a demon who started following Janie around ever since she bought that book. Arith gives less than helpful advice, usually trying to convince her to kill people, and Janie finds herself in situations where she would love to listen to one, but the other is presenting the only viable option.

I loved Janie as a character. She is very brave, clear by her jumping through the portal after her sister, and by the events that follow, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t get scared. Once again, she is only 12, and this new world holds horrors the like of which she has never even thought about before. At some points in the story, I wondered if perhaps Janie should have been portrayed as older than 12, for some of the things she does or says seem like an older child, but considering the circumstances she grew up in, I suppose she already is older in spirit than she is in body. 

One of my absolutely favourite parts of this book was Dibs. Dibs is a cave weasel, who started following Janie around and quickly becomes great friends with her. He has no dialogue, being a cave weasel, but he is a very large personality, and he seems to communicate just fine without spoken language. Dibs’ and Janie’s friendship was wonderful, especially with how trusting they are in each other. The whole thing made me want a cave weasel to see me and decide that I was their person, so I could have a little buddy like that as well.

This book has plenty of twists, with the changing environment and revelations Janie makes about the people she comes into contact with. I did find the story a little slow and confusing at first, but everything clicked into place quickly, and after that I couldn’t put this book down. If you loved books like Narnia as a child, and want something a little darker, and with a bit more of a deadly suspense, you should definitely check this one out!

And done!

I'm writing this post on New Years Eve, and this was the 74th book I read this year. I have approximately 13 hours to read another book to get to 75 books before midnight. And I have things to do today... fingers crossed!

That's all for now...

Bye!

Short Movie Reviews – Spooky Season Week, Day 7

 

So, I ended up watching quite a few scary movies for this week of blogging, but if I gave each movie an individual post, there would be too many posts for only seven days, and I'm pretty sure people would get bored of seeing them.

Thus, after writing full reviews for The Blair Witch Project and Pet Sematary, I figured I could compile all of the others into one post, and give mini reviews for them.

Let us commence!

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may get paid or receive a commission if you purchase through my link.

On a black and unholy Halloween night years ago, little Michael Myers brutally slaughtered his sister in cold bold. But for the last fifteen years, town residents have rested easy, knowing that he was safely locked away in a mental hospital – until tonight. Tonight, Michael returns to the same quiet neighbourhood to relive his grisly murder again…and again…and again. For this is a night of evil. Tonight is Halloween!

My Review!

I have always heard it said that people get frustrated at horror movie characters, for being so annoyingly dumb, but I have never come across a movie before where I actually felt such a thing. If you are not sure the bad guy is actually dead, don't drop the knife right next to his body and turn your back to him! A slasher movie from the 70s, this film includes a man, who killed his sister when he was only six, who breaks out of a mental hospital, and returns to his hometown. His doctor works to try and find him before people get hurt, and babysitting teenagers are the ones who end up in Myers' grasp. The main character, Laurie, is lovely, and incredibly likeable, but although she is very smart, she doesn't seem to have much sense when faced with someone trying to kill her! All in all, it's a good movie if you're after a little bit of suspense, as long as you don't mind predictability and a bit of nudity here and there.

Much-lauded comedy, described by its makers as 'a romantic comedy - with zombies'. Written by Simon Pegg, creator of the hit TV series 'Spaced', the film fuses the style (and copious bloodshed) of classic zombie films with observational suburban comedy. Shaun (Pegg) is a useless but likeable thirty-something who works in an electronics shop in Crouch End. He doesn't get much respect from his fellow staff, even though he's standing in as temporary boss; his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) has had enough of his lack of direction and penchant for downing pints in the local pub; and he doesn't get on with his stepdad (Bill Nighy). Things get worse when the living dead make their appearance, threatening to spread their zombie curse across the nation. Will Shaun be able to rise from his sofa to save the lives of the two women he loves - Liz and his dear old mum?

My Review!

Not everything about this season needs to be overly horrifying and scary! We are allowed to watch movies that have some comedy in them as well, rather than just gore! Shaun of the Dead is a movie I have seen before, but it is certainly one that you can watch over again. With zombies who are happy to stop and wait for people to finish their conversation before attacking, and popping round the shop for a Cornetto, this movie mixes comedy and horror together, into a strange but almost delightful amalgamation of a group of people trying to stay alive when everything they know seems to have disappeared. If you are after a bit of a laugh, but also want to stay on theme with the time of year and throw in a couple of zombies, this is definitely a movie to watch!

Five battle-hardened American soldiers are assigned to hold a French Chateau near the end of World War II. Formerly occupied by the Nazi High Command, this unexpected respite quickly descends into madness when they encounter a supernatural enemy far more terrifying than anything seen on the battefield.

My Review!

This isn't a movie I watched for the first time this week. In fact, I have seen this movie multiple times now, and it has actually got better with each time I watched it. Thinking they've caught a break, the five American soldiers are happy to arrive at the French Chateau to protect it. They can sleep in beds, eat properly, rest for the first time in ages. But, what they are faced with isn't the dream they expected, but a nightmare. This is the kind of movie that has unexpected layers to it – there are the layers that reveal themselves, but then you realise there is still more to come, and then more still. This is almost a horror movie within a horror movie, although it is not until the very end that everything seems to fall into place. On rewatching it, you start to notice little things, things that will have been irrelevant the first time watching it, so unimportant that you might not even have noticed, but when you understand what is happening, what has happened, and what will happen, this film becomes all the more amazing. Rewatching it, this movie becomes a search for those little things, that just prove how much work went into creating this film. It is one that I highly recommend you watching. If you are after a scary, historical, military, supernatural film, that will put you slightly on edge and leave you staring in shock and awe as the credits roll, this is the one you must watch.

Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) are a happily married couple with three young children who have moved into their idyllic new suburban home. When tragedy strikes their young son, Josh and Renai begin to experience things in the house that are beyond explanation. Before long, their lives are turned upside down by demonic forces, hell-bent on terrorising their very existence. Forced to seek help and protect their family, they learn the terrifying truth…… it’s not the house that’s haunted but something far worse…

My Review!

I decided it would be a good idea to watch this movie, because image of the man with the red face standing behind Josh really freaked me out. There’s something about just how inhuman the red face looks that makes a chill run up my spine. Watching it at night, as well, was perhaps a mistake. If I knew what this film was about before I watched it, I wouldn’t have done that. But, as it stands, I finished watching a movie about nightmares and the hellish things the sleep world can hold, just before going to sleep. One thing that always seems to be utilised in horror movies is the lack of light, and wow, do the family in this movie have a lot of lamps, and use them way more often than the main lights. It’s almost like they want a spooky atmosphere. Another thing, is characters always act like they're in a horror movie. If you heard a strange voice over the baby monitor, surely you would run to get to your baby, rather than stand at the bottom of the stairs and listen to it? Nevertheless, it is a horror movie, and I suppose these ‘flaws’ are necessary for the movie. There were a lot of things that scared me about this movie, especially so the man with the red face, but one thing in particular was when the title was shown. Turns out, you can make anything scary if you put very loud, erratically played string instruments over the top of it. If you want to watch a movie that will scare you, freak you out, slightly annoy you with horror movie things, and make you afraid to go to sleep, go ahead and watch this one. Just not at night. And not right before you have to go to sleep. And not in the dark.

And done!

Spooky Season Week has, unfortunately, come to an end, which means we are now back to posts on only Wednesdays and Saturdays. It does mean, though, that I don't have to write as many posts last minute – I finished this one last night.

That's all for now, then.

Bye!

Movie Review – Pet Sematary – Spooky Season Week, Day 5!

 

Stephen King is a name that almost everyone knows, and a lot of people are very familiar with his work.

I am not one of those people.

The only movie I have seen that was based on a Stephen King book was It (unpopular opinion, I didn't think it was scary at all...) and I have never read any of his books, although I would like to remedy that.

And so, when I was scrolling through Netflix, hoping something would magically appear that I wanted to watch, and I saw this movie, I decided to settle down with a blanket, and press play...

Let me introduce this movie, and we can get into what I thought about it!

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may get paid or receive a commission if you purchase through my link.

A sinister burial ground lies behind the Creed family's new, rural Maine property, and a sequence of tragic events will soon unleash its terrible power.

My Review...

A new house. A new life. Louis and Rachel Creed packed up everything they knew, and moved their family to a new house, far from everything they knew. With the desire to slow down, to spend more time at home with their two children, Ellie and Gage, Louis in particular takes this move as an opportunity to start a new kind of life, one where he doesn't spend hours upon hours working the nighttime shift at the hospital, and instead, spends those hours with the people he loves.

As Ellie starts to explore her new home, she come across an unusual area in the woods by the house. With a sign reading 'Pet Sematary', and graves all around, she is undoubtedly curious. Rachel had a difficult childhood, with the trauma of losing her sister and blaming herself for her sister's death, and has tried to shelter Ellie from the realities of death. And, while Louis doesn't completely understand, he lets his wife shield Ellie from the fact that what comes after death is unknown, and it is, unfortunately, inevitable.

But, when Ellie's cat, Church, is found dead on the side of the road outside their house, a road that trucks speed down dangerously, Rachel can't bear to tell Ellie that her beloved cat is gone. Instead, they weave a tale that Church has run away, and their new neighbour, Jud, takes Louis to bury Church. Instead of the Pet Sematary, though, Jud leads Louis to a different place, and bury the cat there, even if it is creepy, and has a strange feel to it.

The next morning, they find Church alive, in Ellie's bedroom.

The thing about horror, is that often it relies too heavily upon the supernatural, or on people with revenge on their minds, to create the atmosphere and to provide the scares. This film doesn't do this, but rather, uses human nature, assisted by the supernatural, to tell the story. There is plenty of foreshadowing throughout the film, with the lorries on the road, and with the story of Church, that helps you to predict what will happen, and even though you know it is inevitable, it won't stop you hoping that, somehow, Jud will get through to Louis, and everything will be left alone.

The whole idea of being able to bring the dead back is one that Louis grasps onto. After Jud shows him the place, its existence haunts him in the form of a cat who was once loving and kind, but now hisses and attacks his children. And, even though he knows the outcome, that if you bring the dead back to life, they will not return how they left, the pain that grief brings is unbearable, and with the option there, no other option seems available.

Louis is the character at the forefront of this movie, although Ellie also gets a lot of screen time. While Rachel and Gage are almost in the background of this small cast of characters, every one of them plays their individual role. The butterfly effect suggests that one action, one small decision, can change the course of everything that is to happen, and this movie, although not outright stating it, shows this. If Jud and Louis had buried Church in the Pet Sematary, if Louis and Rachel had told Ellie that Church was dead, if Rachel had never been left home alone with her sister that dreadful day – the outcome of this story could be completely different. Indeed, if Church stayed dead, and if Louis never learnt of the powers the ground could hold, there might not be a story to tell.

This movie is a fabulous portrayal of horror without the scares, but rather, something that will get under your skin, and leave you feeling unnerved. In particular, the closing scene is one that will stay with you for a long time. In the horror genre, it can seem too easy to kill off adult characters, and sometimes, if a character is too annoying, the viewer might even be waiting for that particular person to die. When two of the main characters are children, though, young children, who are innocent, lovely, and have their whole lives ahead of them, the whole aspect of horror takes on a different tone. It's more difficult and unsettling to watch children in danger, especially with such a subtle thread of supernatural running through the story. This family is living a normal life, in their new home, and yet, there is something wrong, something that they can't quite put their finger on. And, with the feeling of being unsafe hanging around them, trying to sleep at night becomes a much more difficult thing to do.

I watched the 2019 remake of this movie, and for those hardcore Stephen King/Pet Sematary fans out there, yes, I am aware this is a remake, and that there were some significant changes to the story in this film. I haven't read the book, and I haven't seen the original film, but giving my opinion on this film, it is a story that will cause chills to run down your spine, and I certain want to read the book now, to see just how different the ending is, and to read the words that eventually made their way into the imagery of this movie.

And done!

I said in a previous post that it was the week before my 'Spooky Week' and I only had three posts written. It is now Sunday, the day before Day 1, and this is post 4.

This is how unorganised I am.

To be fair to myself, I have been unwell the past couple of days, but hopefully (fingers crossed) I will be able to figure out 3 more posts before they have to go out.

That's all for now...

Bye!