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graveyardgremlin (7194 KP) rated Night's Edge in Books

Feb 15, 2019

I just finished Maggie Shayne's short story, Her Best Enemy, and enjoyed it a lot. Yes, the plot is rushed and I didn't believe they could love each other that soon at the end, but it was a really fun story! I would have liked it better if Ms. Shayne had left them just starting out in their promising relationship and not dropping the L-bomb at the end - it felt too forced and cheesy. But as I said before, it was very fun, and an easy and fast read too! :)
4/5 stars

Someone Else's Shadow was another very good story. I really liked Maddie, and while the love angle was again very fast, but at the end I appreciated that the author addresses how fast they fell in love. As with the first story, the ghost angle was creepy and made the whole atmosphere of the story come alive. The chemistry between Maddie and Phil was palpable and it did make me feel like they could in fact fall in love that fast. A great short story!
4.5/5 stars

Dancers in the Dark was another good tale in this anthology. Rue was a likable protagonist who had a horrible past, and while Sean could have been brought to life (ha!) more, he was still a good hero for her. The plot was well-done and I never got annoyed at Rue for feeling sorry for herself or anything, which can happen in stories similar to this. All-in-all it was a fascinating tale.
4/5 stars

Kudos

Stephen (210 KP) rated XX (2017) in Movies

Mar 17, 2019 (Updated Mar 17, 2019)

XX (2017)

2017 | Horror

6.8

(5 Ratings)

Movie Rating

XX is actually an anthology of 4 short films, all of which were directed by women.

Overall, the film is superbly directed and the acting is top notch too (the ever wonderful Melanie Lynskey delivers an outstanding performance in particular), but a couple of little niggles slightly lower my overall score.

First film, ‘The Box,’ is the best of them all - creepy and mysterious throughout, with all the elements needed for a thorough horror experience.

Next up is ‘The Birthday Party’ in which, as previously stated, Melanie Lynskey gives an amazing performance. I wouldn’t class this as a horror, more of a very dark comedy, but it’s still a superb piece of work.

‘Don’t Fall’ is where things begin to wane a little - it’s still a really good piece of work, just a little too short to make much of an impact.

Finally, ‘Her Only Living Son’ just doesn’t quite match the quality of the first three films. The storyline is good, but does get a bit confusing, and the acting is great too, but something just doesn’t sit right and I felt disappointed with this one.

Between each short film are sections which make up another little tale, but I found these a bit pointless and just seemed to pad out the overall running time.

All in all, XX is definitely worth a watch, it’s certainly had a lot of thought and effort go into the making of it, and I’d like to see more work by the very talented directors involved here.