ClareR (5991 KP) rated The Turn of The Key in Books
Aug 18, 2019
So, as I’ve already begun to say, Rowan is a Nanny who has been employed to look after the children of a wealthy husband and wife architecture team. They work away from home, and need someone to take care of their young children (plus a 14 year old who comes home from boarding school at the weekend). It all seems very rushed, and when Rowan turns up to take her post, Sandra (the mum) drops the bombshell that they will both be leaving for a week the next day. The children haven’t even had a chance to get to know Rowan with their mum there! Sandra leaves a huge folder with instructions for EVERYTHING regarding the children, and a very quick lesson on ‘Happy’, the house computer system (kind of like Alexa, but less chatty and far less easy to use!). I would’ve said something here, but Rowan seems to be desperate for the job. She seems to be a nice enough person, but she does make allusions to her temper, and does seem to lose it with the children quite a bit. But I’m not surprised - she is woken up every night, either by bumps and pacing sounds, or Happy seemingly having a huge glitch and playing loud music whilst turning on lights throughout the house in the early hours. Well, Maddie, the 8 year old, did warn her about the displeasure of the ghosts at her interview.....
I loved how creepy this was - I didn’t know what was real and what Rowan was imagining because of sleep deprivation, but it made all of the days seem to merge together. You could feel how tired and scared she must have been.
The last fifth of the book was something else though. I can’t think of many books where I’ve actually told a character out loud “No!” (It made my dogs stop and look!). The last few (yes, FEW!) revelations and twists kept the tension running right up to the end.
Have I said that I loved this book? This is my second Ruth Ware book, and it certainly won’t be my last - this is even better than The Death of Mrs Westaway (if that’s possible!).
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this book - you did it again! Another absolutely cracking choice!
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JT (287 KP) rated Sleep Tight (2011) in Movies
Mar 10, 2020
In Sleep Tight Balagueró again goes back inside an apartment block, this time the zombies are replaced by normal residents and a concierge with a sinister secret. César (Luis Tosar) is unhappy, and has been pretty much all his life, from the opening shot we see him standing on a ledge high above the streets preparing himself to drop to the concrete below.
He goes about his daily business with meticulous routine greeting the residents with a wry smile and engaging them in conversation day to day, but deep down he loathes it.It seems that his quest is to make others just as unhappy as he is, with main target being the gorgeous Clara (Marta Etura). Initially César seems pleasant enough, he’s polite and courteous and is always making himself available to those who need his help, whether it’s from feeding dogs to fumigating apartments.
It’s when we finally see him under Clara’s bed lying in wait that you realize that Balagueró is about to deliver us a 21st century boogieman. The lengths that César will go to to put Clara in harm’s way will leave you with your jaw open. The idea being that he wants to break her, “we’ll wipe that smile off her face,” he tells his bed ridden mother in hospital.
This almost nods right away to a Hitchcockian feel to the film, think of César as the Spanish version of Norman Bates without the dress, although at one point he does toy with the idea of using a large kitchen knife. During his torment of poor Clara he infests her house with bugs, injects things into her moisturizing products and even goes so far as to sleep in the same bed, with a little help from chloroform.
It would be unfair to explain anything more as it would give too much of the story away, and when Clara’s boyfriend Marcos arrives on the scene things only get worse. During the film you almost feel sorry for César and you’d be guilty for feeling anything but admiration towards him, at his dedication the very least.
It’s a voyeuristic nightmare, more so for the audience as Clara doesn’t really have much of a clue what is going on. Even when César is caught in the apartment during one of the films more gripping scenes he has an embarrassed excuse.
Balagueró proves to critics that he can capture as much tension and suspense through conventional cameras as opposed to the point of view of a hand held camcorder, which he used so effectively throughout [Rec] and its sequel.
Sleep Tight is an edgy slow burning thriller, a different take on the horror genre that will leave you gasping after the final act.
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