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!

Short Story – 'Till Death Do Us Part – Spooky Season Week, Day 5!

I had long since zoned out, absentmindedly stirring the pot of soup I was attempting to make. I had never had much luck with cooking before, but my mother had always made soup out of the scooped out insides of the pumpkins my sister and I used to carve, and this year, I decided I wanted to try and do the same.

I snapped back to attention at the sound of a clatter behind me, and I spun around to look, the wooden spoon still in my hand and flicking soup across the room as I turned. The utensils I had used to open up and empty out the pumpkin, that had been sat nicely on the table, were scattered across the floor as if someone had pushed them all aside. Frowning, I crouched to pick them up, and I set them back on the table, certain that there was no way they could’ve rolled themselves off the surface.

I turned back to my soup, which had started furiously bubbling in the few moments I had left it alone, and started stirring it quickly in an attempt to placate it. I froze at the sound of another clatter, and turned again, this time much slower. The utensils I had just picked up off the floor were sat nicely on the table, but the Tupperware I had on the side across the room was now on the floor. I tried to remember how haphazardly it had been stacked, and shook my head at the memory of them being laid out safely and unable to fall by themselves. 

I turned back to the soup, but the second I started stirring again, I heard a smash, outside the kitchen, further into the house. I turned the heat down for the soup, and put the spoon down on the side. I strode across the room, stepping over the Tupperware and leaving the kitchen. The pictures I had hung on the wall of me and my boyfriend were shattered on the floor. Another noise. I stepped over the broken glass, and ventured on, trying to find the source of the newest noise. Maybe a stray cat had managed to get inside my house, or something. If I could catch it, I could let it back out, hopefully before it broke everything.

I walked into my living room, and looked around at the destruction. Anything that had been on a surface was on the floor. I hadn’t heard anything that warranted a mess such as this. My sofa was on it’s side, as if someone had tipped it by leaning too far back on it. My coffee table was in the corner of the room, rather than the middle of it. I jumped back, gasping, as my television fell off the wall and smashed, screen down, on the floor. My hand covered my heart, and I could feel it pounding. That wasn’t the work of a stray animal, I had watched that fall with nothing touching it. It just tipped forward and ripped itself off the wall of its own accord.

I backed out of the living room, and went back to the kitchen, rushing forward to the hob when I saw my pot of soup bubbling over and spilling out onto the hob. I reached for the pan, but the heat coming from the handle, which had boiling liquid all over it, like the entirety of the hob, made me stop and look around for oven gloves or something to wrap around the handle. I grabbed a tea towel from the side, and folded it several times before using it to pick up the pot, and carry it over to the sink. I dumped it on the draining board, and went back to the hob to turn off the heat. Everything was wet. There was a pool of water across the hob, which thankfully hadn’t started to overflow onto the floor, but it would take more than a single tea towel to dry it out.

I turned to get some more tea towels, only to find a pile of them on the counter next to me, where there had been nothing a few seconds ago. I looked around the room, but there was no one there. I watched the utensils fling themselves off the table again, and chose to try and focus on one thing at a time, and dry out my hob before something broke. Of course, I didn’t anticipate the fact that it was boiling liquid, and that the hob would still be hot. Within seconds, I was across the room, with my hand under the cold tap, the tea towels and hob abandoned. Could this day get any worse?

I heard another shattering noise, and turned to face the direction of the sound.

“Why is this happening?” I shouted in frustration, my hand throbbing and somewhere between burnt and half frozen, the cold water trickling over my fingers.

“Don’t worry, it’s just me.”

If I had thought a voice would reply, I wouldn’t have said anything. I stood shock still, the only sound now the water going down the drain. It wasn’t just the fact that someone had said something, when I lived alone and didn’t have anyone around, that had me so scared. It was the fact that I recognised the voice. How could I not? My boyfriend’s voice was ingrained into my very being, one of the only things I felt I could trust sometimes. He would spend hours whispering into my ear, his breath tickling my neck and moving my hair.

But my boyfriend had died last year. I had been sat next to him as the steady beeping turned into one, continuous, noise, as his eyes slipped closed never to open again. I had held his hand as he died, so there was no way he could be in our home. 

A breeze tickled my neck, and I shivered as he whispered in my ear, like he had so many times before. This time, though, it didn’t make me laugh as it tickled me, or make me smile with the words. It made the hair on my arms stand up, and my heart feel like it had given up trying to keep beating.

“I’ve come home.”

And done!

Once again, a late post because I only just wrote it. Whoops.

I've been busy though! I carved five pumpkins this afternoon!

I was hoping to do a book review tomorrow... I haven't even started reading the book. We shall see what happens.

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!

Short Story – Never Checking Out – Spooky Season Week, Day 1!

There was something not quite right about the little hotel on the side of the road. I could tell that from the moment I saw it through my slightly fogged up windscreen, my windscreen wipers going a mile a minute in an attempt to keep up with the relentless rain falling from the sky. But this hotel was where the company I worked for had booked in a room for me, and at eleven at night, I wasn’t up to trying to find someplace else. Not that I could afford to rent a room myself anyway.

The hotel was part of a restaurant, with a bar and dining area downstairs, and the letting rooms upstairs. I went unnoticed as I walked in, but the second I announced to the woman behind the bar that I was supposed to be staying in one of the rooms, heads spun to face me, almost to examine me, before people turned to each other and started talking in hushed whispers. 

“You’re blooming brave, love. I wouldn’t want to spend a night here,” someone called out. Someone responded sarcastically, saying ‘what are you on about, you spend nearly every night here!’ and the whole bar laughed, most seemingly moving on from the short conversation, but I couldn’t shake the man’s words. 

I was escorted upstairs, and shown to my room. I thanked the man who had shown me up, and made to step towards the door of the room, but the man stopped me short.

“Take no notice of anything they say down there. They’re a bunch of superstitious bastards, and the drink just makes them worse.” He walked off after saying that, which did nothing to quell my unease. I looked around the hall, before quickly unlocking the door to my room, and stepping in. I had a strange feeling that I was the only person staying at this hotel.

After freshening up, and changing out of my work clothes into a pair of jeans and a comfy jumper, I made my way back downstairs, and ordered myself a drink. Word seemed to have spread, and people started coming up to me, talking to me. The things I was told as I sat there were unbelievable. That the building was haunted, that lights flicker and footsteps can be heard when there’s no one walking around. That someone once got hit by a bar stool that a ghost sent flying, and ended up in hospital. That the pervious owners of the building had left fearing for their lives and their sanity. It’s not like I was superstitious in the slightest, I’ve always been of the mindset that when you die, you’re dead and gone, and that the supernatural has always simply been stories to scare people. But the amount of people that came up to me with a different ghostly story had me a little on edge.

I lay in bed that night, exhausted but somehow unable to sleep. After hours of ghost stories, my brain had started to actually believe some of the stuff that was said, and every little noise I heard made me jump and clutch the duvet a little tighter. A creak here, a quiet clatter there. Whether it was just the building owners or a manager closing up for the night, and making sure the building was secure, I didn’t know, but in my head, a spirit was roaming the halls outside my locked room door.

I woke up the next morning with no idea when I fell asleep, but feeling disorientated and like something was wrong. I sat up, rubbing at my eyes, and realised as I looked around the room what it was that was off. There was a chest of drawers in my room, and when I went to bed, all three drawers were shut. I knew for certain, because I looked through them to see if anything had been left in them. Now, the top drawer had been pulled all the way open, and bent to the side on an angle to hold it open. I climbed uneasily out of bed, and checked the drawer, closing it when I found nothing else strange about it.

And then the next night, I definitely heard footsteps in the hall, that stopped just outside my room, and lingered beyond the door for at least half an hour of me panicking and being frozen in bed for fear that movement would alert whatever was by the door to my presence. The next morning, everything in the room had been unplugged, the plugs were lying on the floor next to the sockets. I requested a room change after that, but apparently it wasn’t possibly, because every room had been booked out. Strange, considering there was clearly no one in any of the other rooms.

In my spare time, the time I was supposed to be using for relaxing, watching television, and sleeping, I started researching the building. Simply searching the name of the building on the internet, along with the word ‘ghost’ brought up a string of web pages about the people who had died in the building, and stories of people who have stayed here, and what they experienced overnight. Flickering lights, footsteps in the hall when there was no one out there. Things moving around in the rooms. Terrible nightmares every night they spent here. 

I started dreading coming back to the hotel, a cold shiver ran down my spine every time I stepped through the door, and settled in my bones until I left the building the following morning. The end of the week was slowly nearing, and I would be going home, and I couldn’t wait, but voicing my concerns to my boss, asking to be moved to a different hotel… I had only just managed to get this job, and I didn’t want to come off as paranoid before I had a chance to prove myself.

I stared up at the ceiling, the duvet pulled up to my chin. A coldness had settled over the room in the last couple of minutes, and I started to shiver, but quelled the shaking and froze at the sound of footsteps approaching my door. They paused for but a moment, outside of my door, before continuing. Not down the hall, like every time before, but continuing towards me, the footsteps coming through the closed door and stopping right next to me.

I could barely breathe, frozen in place as the bed dipped, as if someone was sitting down on the side of it. I tried to pretend to be asleep, but my eyes refused to close, and my breath kept catching in my throat as air come in and out in shaky pants. When I saw a figure appear before me, I stopped breathing all together. He was pale, colourless, almost see-through. He slowly reached a misty hand out towards me, and touched it to my cheek. Icey coldness ran through my body, starting from the contact of his hand on my cheek, and I felt my body go numb, even though my mind raced on.

In weeks to come, people would talk of the woman who was found dead in one of the rooms upstairs. In months to come, when gossip quietened down, and people started renting out that room again, they would complain that it felt like someone else was lying in the bed with them, and whenever they lay down, a wave of fear would wash over them. They would describe it in online articles as if the woman who had died was still around, and in her final moments, she felt nothing but terror.

And done!

I'll be honest, I was going to scrap the idea of doing Spooky Season Week this year entirely. It was supposed to start yesterday, and go from Monday to Sunday. But obviously, I didn't have any posts ready to go out yesterday. So I'm going to try and do Tuesday to Monday instead. At least this will actually include Halloween.

And hopefully, I'll actually get some posts scheduled. I currently have one ready for tomorrow, and that's it.

Anyway, 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!

Short Story – The Halloween of A Drunk, British Girl (and the mockery of her friends) – Spooky Season Week, Day 6!

The Halloween of A Drunk, British Girl (and the mockery of her friends)

Read part 1 – The Poetry of A Drunk, British Girl (and the mockery of her friends)

*The following contains alcohol consumption.

"How have you never seen a scary movie?" Timmy asked, slamming a bottle of vodka down onto the coffee table.

"Because I don't like being scared," I stared at the bottle on the table, noting that Timmy hadn't procured any other drinks. "Is that all we have?"

"No, but it's all I'm getting." He sat back, reaching for the remote to the television, snatching it away before I could get it.

"Did you at least bring in shot glasses?" Amy asked as she walked into the room, and Timmy and I both leant back on the sofa to look at her upside down.

"Who needs shot glasses?" Vi leant forward and picked up the bottle, unscrewing the cap and taking a swig as Timmy, Amy and I watched. Her face didn't give away anything as she swallowed, putting the bottle back down on the table, and the cap down beside it, daring the rest of us to pick it up.

"Fine, I'll go," Timmy reached forward and picked it up. Amy left the room, saying something about refusing to drink from the bottle and that she'd be back in a minute with some glasses, as Timmy tipped the bottle back. I waited for his nose to crinkle, but to no avail – perhaps I was the only one whose entire face screwed up at the taste of vodka.

I heard the front door open, and I turned to look in the direction of it.

"Don't worry, everyone, the fun has arrived!" Noah walked into the room, shedding his coat and throwing it into the corner of the room.

"Where is it?" I asked, grinning, and he pulled a face at me, jumping over the back of the sofa and narrowly missing landing on me.

"It's right here," he leant towards me and pressed his lips against mine, and I closed my eyes, melting against him. His nose was cold as it brushed against mine.

"Please stop. Amy, hurry up and get in here, the lovebirds are making out again!" Vi called, and Noah smiled against my mouth.

"Just delivering the fun, Vi," Noah said, causing a very vocal reaction from Vi, who I was sure was about to walk over and sit between us.

"It's so annoying! I look over, and everything's fine, and I look over again and you're stuck together." Vi complained and Noah kissed me again, before sitting back, stretching his arm across my shoulders, and pulling me against him.

"Timmy wants to watch a scary movie, and I don't want to," I told Noah, and he stuck his bottom lip out, pouting down at me.

"Oh, dear. Are you scared?" he asked, and I stuck my tongue out at him, turning my back to him and folding my arms. "Poor Piper, scared of a movie," he grabbed me by my arms and wiggled his head into the crook of my neck, kissing my skin. I couldn't help but smile, and I shook my head at his antics. I couldn't stay mad at him.

"Stop it!" Vi half yelled, picking up a pillow and holding it across her face. "All the time!"

"What's going on?" Amy asked, finally returning.

"Where are the glasses?" Timmy asked, and Amy seemed to realise she hadn't brought anything back with her.

"Umm," she turned around and walked back to the kitchen, coming back seconds later with a stack of shot glasses.

"What were you doing in there?" I asked, trying and failing to get Noah to sit up properly and stop messing around.

"Nothing." I watched as her cheeks turned red, and grinned at her.

"Who were you texting?" Vi asked, and Amy picked up a pillow and threw it at her.

"No one, shut up. Put the movie on."

"Was it that girl you met at the coffee place?" Timmy asked, and Vi and I both turned to look at him. Noah even removed his face from my neck to stare as well.

"What? When? How do you know about this person and we don't?" I asked, accusingly.

"You trust Timmy with your secret girlfriends and you don't trust us?" Vi asked.

"Timmy is the least trustworthy of us!" Noah added, making Timmy attempt to hit him across the back of the head, but missing and nearly hitting me instead.

"I didn't tell Timmy, he just so happened to be there!" Amy said loudly, picking up her witch hat from the floor and pulling it down over her eyes.

"So there is a girl? He didn't make it up?" Noah asked and Amy, or rather the hat, nodded.

"What's her name? What does she look like? What's she like?" I hounded Amy.

"Where does she live? Does she like vodka and scary movies?" Vi added and Amy groaned from within the hat.

"I'm not inviting her over, you'll all embarrass me too much." She announced, just before the doorbell rang.

"Piper, you go." Vi deadpanned, and I sighed.

"Give me the hat then," I stood up and pulled that hat off Amy's head, putting it on my own instead. It went really well with my jeans and t-shirt. Very witch like.

There was a bowl of sweets waiting by the door, and I bent down to pick them up before I opened it, to a chorus of 'trick or treat!'

"I think I'll go with treat," I held out the bowl, waiting for the little fingers to find the contents. A parent stood off to the side, and nodded their thanks to me. I smiled back, as the children dropped their sweets into the baskets they carried. They thanked me, and I closed the door, picking out a sweet from the bowl and putting it in my mouth before anyone else realised I had taken one and asked me to bring them one as well.

"Turn the light off!" Timmy called, and I sighed, flicking the switch and plunging the room into darkness, other than the light the television emitted into the room.

"He chose a movie while you weren't here so you couldn't argue. I said it was unfair," Amy announced, and I slumped into the seat next to Noah. He wrapped his arm around me, and I curled up into him, ready to turn my head away from the screen and to close my eyes at any moment.

"Timmy, switch seats with me," Vi said, and I watched as she stood up, and waited for Timmy to move.

"Why?"

"Because." Timmy sighed, standing up and letting Vi sit down next to me. She shuffled up to me, and, as soon as Timmy pressed play and the title screen appeared, she reached for my arm and gripped it with enough force to cut of my circulation. I sat up a little, and leant closer to her.

"I thought you were all tough?" I whispered and she glowered at me.

"I don't like horror films," she whispered back, her teeth gritted, and I smiled, reaching for her hand.

"We'll survive." I leant back against Noah, with his arm around my shoulders, Vi's hand in mine, and her other hand around my bicep. I wouldn't be surprised if my arm were to drop off from lack of blood flow half way through the movie.

"I hope."

And done!

This is kind of a continuation from my other short story, in that it has the same characters. I missed them a bit, so they're back! And Piper and Noah have got together!

Not everything about Halloween has to be scary! So I decided just to scare my characters, rather than actually create something scary. 

*Throws a sheet over my head, and makes ghost noises* that's all for now...

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!

Short (Spooky) Story – What the Storm Washed In – Spooky Season Week, Day 4!

What the Storm Washed In

*The following contains violence and death.

I rolled over in bed, pulling my duvet tighter around my shoulders. Rain pounded against the window and every so often, the sky would rumble and light would filter in through the cracks in my curtains as lightning exploded across the sky.

I stared blankly across the room, the darkness creating shapes and trying to trick my tired eyes into believing there were people or monsters waiting to attack. I closed them, and rolled over again, trying to get comfortable.

Another crash of thunder, and I jumped when my door creaked open. I turned to face it, expecting to see a shadowy figure. Thunder storms always put me slightly on edge. Instead, there was a small head poking through the gap in the door.

"Cathy? Are you awake?" my little sister, Daisy, half whispered, even though it was very clear I was half sitting up in bed.

"Yeah, come here," I pulled up my duvet, waiting for her to close the door and run over. She climbed up into my bed, and I tucked the duvet over her as she snuggled into my pillows.

"I don't like the storm," she mumbled and I held my arms out to her, letting her curl up in my arms.

"It's quite noisy, isn't it?" I asked, and she nodded.

"I saw a man."

"Where?" I asked, smoothing her hair.

"At the end of the hall. It was all dark."

"I'm sure it was just some clothes," I soothed. At the end of the hall, we currently had clothes hanging up to dry, as a broken tumble drier and bad weather demanded we find room to hang them up to dry inside. And it wasn't an uncommon thing for the darkness to steal clothes and morph them into people.

"It wasn't. It was a man." she said and I nodded.

"Okay, well I won't let anything happen to you. You're safe in here." I pulled the duvet tighter around us. "And nice and cosy. So try and go to sleep, okay?" I said and she nodded, closing her eyes.

It didn't escape my notice that Daisy's thumb quickly found it's way into her mouth. She might be seven, but some childhood habits stay for much longer. I still had a blanket that I curled up with when I was sad, or in need of comfort. Sometimes, we must choose comfort over being grown up.

I sighed, staring up at the ceiling as Daisy slept. My arm was starting to go to sleep, but if I tried to slide it out from under her, I was sure to wake her. I heard footsteps in the hall outside my bedroom, and listened as they made their way towards my parents' room. My Dad must have got up to get a drink.

I turned my head towards the window as a flash of lightning wormed its way through the curtains again, and I waited for the thunder to follow it. The wind had started to pick up, and the rain was practically being thrown against the glass now, the howling of the wind whipping around the edges of the building sounding out into the night.

Trying to turn over a little to potentially wiggle my arm free, I saw that Daisy hadn't closed my door properly, leaving it slightly ajar. I stared at it, willing it to close by itself. There was no way I was going to be able to sleep without it closed, and I didn't want to get up and wake Daisy up in the process to go and close it.

The next flash of lightning highlighted a figure standing just outside of my doorway, and I frowned. There were no clothes there, nothing that my mind could've interpreted as something other than what it is.

"Dad?" I said softly, trying not to wake Daisy. "Is everything okay?" The figure was too tall to be my stepmother. It had to be my Dad.

The door creaked open, my Dad's hand on it, pushing it slowly, and he stepped into my room, his other hand behind his back. I watched, wondering whether he was going to pick up Daisy and take her back to her room, when the lightning flashed again, the light dancing over the face of the man standing over my bed.

The man who was certainly not my father.

My scream echoed around my room, bouncing off the walls and battling with the wind and rain for dominance, but the man didn't even flinch. I clutched Daisy to me, her eyes wide open as I pulled her as close to me as possible. Somehow, if she was close, I could protect her.

I tried to shuffle away from the edge of my bed, pulling Daisy with me, but my bed was against the wall, and my back flattened against it, Daisy pulled to my chest.

The man dropped the hand that had been behind his back, and my eyes followed the object he was holding. He raised it slowly, above his head, and I rolled over Daisy, pushing her against the wall and covering her body with mine. I closed my eyes tight, tucking my legs up around Daisy, shaking as the thunder rumbled around the room again.

The object sliced through the air, the sound barely registering in my ears before I screamed in pain. The blade was pulled from my side, causing me to whimper as my head started to spin. I couldn't move my legs. The wound throbbed, and I found myself wondering, as the warmth of my blood slid from my body over my duvet and over my sister, whether I would've been sliced in half if my spine hadn't stopped the weapon.

"Cathy?" Daisy's voice whimpered in the quiet, and I shushed her, trying to pull her closer into my chest, but my arms were starting to grow too heavy for me to move them properly.

"I love you, Daisy," I said, my voice cracking and my eyes fluttering with the exertion of talking.

"I love you too, Cathy." She sobbed, and I pressed my lips against her head as the man brought the blade down again, stilling my kiss, and forcing my life from my body, and out, into the cold, dark, wet night, leaving Daisy alone, with nothing but the shell I left behind as a shield.

And done!

I remember writing a story like this ages ago, but I didn't go into quite so much detail. In fact, I think I still have the story in the notes app on my phone, and I could probably find it if I looked.

I just looked and found it. I never named any of the characters, and the story is rather terrible in itself.

I wanted to include the cliche that a child tells someone something, and it is passed off as the child not seeing something properly, or miss interpreting something. And yes, the man did kill their parents first, which is why no one came when Cathy screamed.

That's all for now...

Bye!

A Review – Seven Sins: A Thrilling Horror Novel by Miguel Estrada – Spooky Season Week, Day 3!

When I started preparing for my Spooky Season Week, I wanted to find some scary stories to read and review.

So off I went, on a search to find something to read!

And I came across this book. I mainly clicked on it because the title reminded me of the movie Seven, but I am certainly glad I did!

So, let me introduce the book, and then I shall start my review!

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

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Several individuals connected through a series of unfortunate events find themselves as participants in a twisted game of trials set up by a hacker who has chosen them based on their cardinal sins.

This group of misfits will do anything in their power to survive and return any semblance of normality to their lives, even if it means destroying each other.

Seven Sins is an action-packed, thrilling horror that will have you on edge on every page. Grab it now to see who will survive the night!

Amazon UK • Amazon US (It's free!)

My Review!

The seven deadly sins can be interpreted in many ways, and there are many people in the world who commit these sins in their everyday lives, sometimes knowingly, sometimes without realising. This book covers them all.

When a select few people all receive messages from a hacker, using the contact information 'NV', they all find their lives quickly turning upside down. They are threatened, coerced, convinced into carrying out tasks for this mysterious person to protect themselves, and to save those they love.

Jumping between different characters, this book is incredibly fast paced. It can be rather difficult at first, to keep up with the characters, and trying to keep track of who's who, but the confusion doesn't last long, and you quickly figure out who these people are, and which of the sins they relate to. There are characters of all kinds – male, female, young, old, good, bad. For example, there are several ways to interpret the sin 'gluttony'. It could be someone who is so entranced by food that they withhold it from those who need it. Or, it could be a cannibal who prepares delicacies with his victims.

This story is very much like a detective's board, and as you progress through the story, you slowly start to add the red string, joining up one dot after another, slowly weaving the truth out of the words until you stand back, look upon everything you have discovered, and the truth unfolds itself.

While every character had their own motive, there were a few in particular that I loathed, and others that I liked a little more. Jessica and Oliver, Lust and Sloth, find their way into the spotlight as they fight for survival, and both are characters that are easy to get behind and want to survive. I also didn't mind Roger (Greed) or Trevor (Wrath) too much. They both had their motives, reasons behind their actions, and even if the things they did were considered wrong, they were both going through things, and their actions became their response. Timothy (Pride) was a character I wasn't sure about, for I found it hard to like him, but I couldn't see any glaring reasons not to. He was a grey zone, almost. However, there are also characters who are utterly repulsive, such as Matthew (Gluttony) and I applaud the author for being able to keep hold of so many characters, and for making me feel incredibly different about each of them.

I must say, I was expecting a lot more blood and gore in this book, but I'm only now finding out that it is listed in the young adult genre. While I understand this, for it is certainly suitable for older teens, I would not recommend this book to younger teens, for there is some graphic violence, and content that I would not deem suitable for a younger audience.

It is clear that a lot of thought went into making sure all of these characters had something in common, some small connection linking them all together, through one another. Another thing that must have taken a lot of time was making sure that all of the connections were not revealed until towards the end. However, there were a couple of grammatical errors, such as missed words, here and there, and some of the characters got a lot more time in the spotlight than others, so we learn more about some characters, like Oliver and Jessica, than we do others. However, this is an entertaining read, and it will certainly get you thinking at some points! I started reading this before bed, hoping to read some and then finish it the following evening, but instead ended up staying up late to find out what happens next. It is a gripping read, and I enjoyed reading it.

And done!

As I am writing this, it is the week before this post will go out. I am trying to get my Spooky Season Week scheduled, and I planned to have it all ready by now, but this is only the third of seven posts I have to write... I had better get on with it!

That's all for now...

Bye!