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Alchemic Phone - Alchemy in your pocket

Games and Education

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Are you a good Alchemist ? You are tasked with rebuilding the universe, bit by bit, or rather...

Bumpy Road

Games

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A love story on four wheels! Spring is here and a couple in their autumn years have decided to go...

LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated The Void (2016) in Movies

Aug 10, 2020

The Void (2016)

2016 | Horror

6.7

(10 Ratings)

Movie Rating

I watched The Void with absolutely no prior knowledge of what it was, and what it is, is certainly...something.

The Void felt to me like a series of homages to other horror classics. The overall plot seems like an obvious nod to Prince of Darkness. The creature designs are reminiscent of The Thing, albeit with a sprinkling of Guillermo Del Toro. The climax reminded me sometimes of Hellraiser. One of the villains gave me Re-Animator vibes. All the while, there's a distinct Lovecraftian undercurrent from start to finish.
All of this is a good thing though. The Void never feels like it's ripping off any of these movies, but rather wearing it's heart on it's sleeve.

As mentioned above, the creature designs reminded me of The Thing. This is further bolstered by their nightmarish aesthetic, and the fantastic use of practical effects. In fact, there's very minimal use of CGI at all, something you don't see too often these days.

My only criticisms are aimed at the plot. It's starts off well enough, and evokes a feeling of tension and uncertainty, well realised by a decent cast. Before long however, it's clear that a lot is left open to audience interpretation. The fever dream approach to the filming style leaves you questioning what is real and what's not, a plot technique that I'm usually all for, although The Void is a film that I feel could have benefited from a little more explanation and resolve.

Overall though, it's a gory, entertaining horror creature-feature, that I would recommend watching, even if it's just the once.

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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2432 KP) rated Sprinkles of Suspicion in Books

Jun 4, 2020

Emory Finds Herself Caught up in a Murder

When Emory discovers that her husband, Philip, is having an affair with her best friend, Tori, Emory naturally gets very angry and gets into a very public fight with Tori. That creates a problem, however, when Emory finds Tori’s very dead body just a few hours later. Naturally, the police consider Emory their best suspect, so Emory sets out to give them other suspects. As she tries to clear her name, is she prepared for the secrets she will uncover?

Between the Orange County, California, setting and the culinary cozy hook, I couldn’t pass this book up. As always, I enjoyed seeing the action taking place in areas I recognized even if I don’t know them super well. This book works in many ways like a TV pilot, readjusting Emory’s life as well as giving us a murder to solve. The murder got overshadowed a bit at times, but I always found the book compelling to read. There are several good surprises and twists to the mystery. The ending was a little weak, but it does answer all of our questions. I certainly sympathized with Emory since she comes across as very trusting, something that creates problems when your life becomes a mystery. I did feel her family was a little too self-absorbed. I’m sure it was supposed to be funny, but I found it more annoying. The 11 recipes at the end include some Western themed dishes as well as a couple of delicious sounding cupcakes. All told, this is a fun series debut that will leave you wondering just where cupcakes and murder will take Emory next.