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Book of Blood (2008)
Book of Blood (2008)
2008 | Horror
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
"The dead have highways. Highways that lead to intersections and intersections that spill into our world. And if you find yourself at one of those intersections, you should stop and you should listen because the dead have stories to tell."

Mary Florescu, writer, teacher, and overall expert of the paranormal, is still looking for the distinct evidence of supernatural occurences. A house catches her eye that has been on the market since the daughter of the couple living there before had been murdered. It's said the original homeowner was thrown against the wall by an invisible force so hard that shards of his broken bones pierced his lungs and he choked to death on his own blood. During each incident, the message, "Don't mock us," was found written in blood on the closet doors. Mary decides to move into the house to find proof of the supernatural, bringing an audio/video technician, Reg Fuller, to help document anything they find. A new student, Simon McNeal, transfers into Mary's class. He seems to have a special gift related to the paranormal and is brought into the house to help work with Mary and Reg on the project. Strange occurences seem to begin immediately and only get more violent as they occur. But as things progress, the relationship between Mary and Simon turns physical and suspicious evidence is found in Simon's bag that point to him being a fake. Is the house actually "haunted," or is Simon playing everyone for a fool?

I'm a fairly big fan of Clive Barker's work. I've loved the books and stories (Books of Blood Vol. 1-3, Mister B. Gone, The Hellbound Heart) of his that I've read and several of his films (Hellraiser, Midnight Meat Train) are some of the best the horror genre has to offer. Midnight Meat Train was probably the best horror film to come out of last year, so my expectations were high when I heard about this film and saw the trailer. This was one of my most anticipated horror films of the year even though it seemed to get the short end of the stick with its release much like what happened with Midnight Meat Train. I can tell you that Book of Blood is a good watch, but it may not be what you're expecting.

Book of Blood has its bloody moments, but it's not an all out gorefest. It's actually more of a supernatural thriller. The director, John Harrison, described the film as being more along the lines of films like The Others and The Orphanage. It relies more on mood and atmosphere rather than blood and guts splattering all over your face, which isn't a bad thing at all if done correctly. Book of Blood almost pulls that aspect of the film flawlessly. I say, "almost," because certain lines of dialogue ("I promise we will listen and I will tell your stories to the world.") and a few of the things that happened in the final act of the film (steel briefcase...it'll make sense when you see it) seem a bit cheesy, but may sit better with me on repeat viewings.

The film actually reminded me of Hellraiser quite a bit throughout the film. Other than Doug Bradley's brief cameo (if you blink, you'll probably miss him), the opening scene of when Reg and Mary go into the room where everything happened just reminds me of Frank staying in the attic in Hellraiser. Hellraiser is one of my favorite horror films, so the brief nod to the film (whether intentional or not) was very welcome to me.

My main concern with Book of Blood was how they were going to turn a short story that was originally just an introduction to the actual Books of Blood by Clive Barker into a full length film. The concern wound up being for nothing as Book of Blood met nearly all of my expectations and was extremely faithful to the original material while bringing in elements from another one of his stories called, "On Jerusalem Street." The story fleshes out nicely and the acting is good, for the most part. I think the perfectionist in me kept me from rating this any higher, but I'd definitely recommend it as it's a worthy addition to any avid horror movie enthusiast's collection.
  
The Invisible Man (2020)
The Invisible Man (2020)
2020 | Horror, Sci-Fi
Right off the bat, this latest remake of the classic H.G. Wells story shows us just how suspenseful it can be. It’s the middle of the night and a wide-awake Cecilia (Elizabeth Moss) quietly climbs out of bed so as not to disturb her sleeping partner Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). It quickly becomes apparent that she has been waiting and planning for this moment to leave him for some time now, and she is absolutely terrified of waking him up. She creeps through their spacious modern glass home, gathering some of her belongings and occasionally checking a mobile feed of the CCTV camera that she has re-positioned in order to see Adrian asleep in bed. Already the tension is unbearable, and we’re only a few minutes into the movie!
A few weeks after her dramatic escape from Adrian and Cecilia is now in the safety of a friends house, police detective James (Aldis Hodge) and his teenage daughter Sydney (Storm Reid). It’s clear that the years of living with an abusive and controlling partner have taken their toll on Cecilia and she can barely even bring herself to leave the house, fearful of every stranger that passes her by. We don’t get to see any of what went on in her relationship with Adrian, and we barely know anything of him either, other than he is a tech billionaire and an expert in the field of ‘optics’. So, when word reaches Cecilia that Adrian has committed suicide, we’re even more in the dark about him. He becomes more of an unknown to us, making him all the more mysterious, and the events that consequently unfold throughout the movie all the more terrifying.


As Cecilia begins to settle back into some kind of normality, she slowly lets her guard down, which as we all know is a big mistake! While Cecilia is alone, we start to get different points of view of her, as if someone is watching her. We focus on areas of the house where nobody is in shot, before panning around to reveal…. nothing. Cecilia is not aware of anything, and we haven’t seen anything either, but you’re left on the edge of your seat, straining your eyes to desperately try and pick out some kind of evidence that someone or something is there with her. And then we begin to get confirmation that an invisible something is actually there – a falling knife, a kitchen fire and things being tampered with all start to put Cecilia back on edge, leading her to suspect that Adrian has found some way to continue making her life a misery. These events start off very subtle, but soon become more horrific and intense, clearly intended to gaslight Cecilia and portray her as crazy to everyone around her.
The traditional route for a movie like this would be to focus on our title character – in this case the invisible man. We might see a brilliant or tortured scientist, succeeding or failing with whatever they’re experimenting with, before following them and the consequences of their actions. By giving us very little backstory to our title character, writer and director Leigh Whannell has chosen instead to focus primarily on Cecilia and the psychological horror she endures. Elizabeth Moss gives us the full range of emotions as she endures her terrible ordeal, and you really do share in her isolation and terror throughout. She completely and brilliantly carries the movie – progressing from the lowest of lows to finally, and brilliantly, deciding it’s time to fight back!
  
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Barry Newman (204 KP) Mar 2, 2020

My next trip to the cinema definitely.

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JT (287 KP) rated Sinister (2012) in Movies

Mar 10, 2020  
Sinister (2012)
Sinister (2012)
2012 | Horror
6
7.1 (24 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Has the found footage genre been done to death? Some would very much say it has, yet they keep on churning the films out. One thing to note with many of these is the budget, films like Paranormal Activity and Insidious were made for a pittance yet generated millions at the box office.

This is the same for Sinister, made for $3m it grossed almost $80m and was one of the surprise hits of last year, of course films like this are not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I love a good scare now and again and here I wasn’t disappointed.

Ethan Hawke is the clear standout in this one, here he plays true crime writer Ellison Oswalt who is looking for his next big thing to thrust him into the limelight. He and his family move into a house which he tells them is only a few doors down from a gruesome murder of a family who were all hung from a tree in their back garden.

When he finds a box in his attic containing reels of super 8 film and a camera he soon discovers more grisly murders and that somehow they are all linked to each other. Add to that a mysterious figure who appears in all the films and you have a character who goes a little stir crazy in trying to uncover the truth.

His family are desperate to leave, not happy with the current surroundings they are thrown into even more turmoil when its revealed that the house Oswalt said was two doors down is actually the house they are living in at the moment, don’t you just hate when that happens?

Director Scott Derrickson builds solid amounts of tension throughout, most disturbing are the super 8 films that show a number of families being killed off (you’ll never look at a lawn mower in the same light again). But then you have the same old horror cliché’s slipping back into it, things going bump in the night which leave you waiting for that revealing moment which comes with a consistent bang.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that this might not actually be classed as found footage, certainly not in the same vein as maybe Paranormal Activity or The Blair Witch Project. We’re not viewing anything from the point of view that the characters in this are dead….yet, and the resulting film is their story. But it is ‘found footage’, in that Oswalt has uncovered these films in his attic.

What makes Sinister that bit more unnerving is the somber mood, lighting and camera angles. Not quite giving us the full picture we have to let our imagination stay a few steps ahead of us. The musical score then connects everything together to give us a real horror treat.

Hawke gives a solid performance, he’s a man very much on the edge and that fame is the answer to his future. He’ll succeed at whatever the cost, and the cost is ultimately a big one. The end reveal some might have seen coming a mile off, personally I wasn’t expecting it so it was a good finish to a film that had rattled the nerves a few times.

Produced by the same team that brought us Paranormal Activity and Insidious, it’s a low budget success that shows big budget horrors how it should be done.
  
Some Will Not Sleep: Selected Horrors
Some Will Not Sleep: Selected Horrors
Adam Nevill | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
90 of 250
Kindle
Some Will Not Sleep: selected horrors
By Adam Nevill

Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments

A bestial face appears at windows in the night.

In the big white house on the hill angels are said to appear.

A forgotten tenant in an isolated building becomes addicted to milk.

A strange goddess is worshipped by a home-invading disciple.

The least remembered gods still haunt the oldest forests.

Cannibalism occurs in high society at the end of the world.

The sainted undead follow their prophet to the Great Dead Sea.

A confused and vengeful presence occupies the home of a first-time buyer.

In ghastly harmony with the nightmarish visions of the award-winning writer's novels, these stories blend a lifelong appreciation of horror culture with the grotesque fascinations and childlike terrors that are the author's own.

So I wrote a few notes on each story that I enjoyed!

They are just little rambling I’m far from a in depth critic!

1. Where Angels come in

I’ve read this before and it it’s stuck with me for some reason. We all had that one house as kids that spooked us, only luckily mine was never full of creepy things.

2. The Original Occupant

A man determined to spend time in a Swedish forest finds himself disturbing a sacred ritual only to disappear after writing a frantic letter to his friends. After a search of the house and forest he’s never seen again! Really good and quite creepy never mess with someone’s sacred alter!

3. Mother’s Milk

Well that’s just made my stomach turn! A man thinks he’s found lodgings and a job finds himself turned into a milk fiend the source of the milk is definitely an interesting one.

4. Yellow Teeth

An old friend comes to visit and never leaves. This was creepy I’d just hate having someone around me that filthy and smelly.

5. Pig Thing

A strange little piggy tale after a family move to New Zealand

6. What God have Wrought

This follows a soldier searching across desert for the creature that holds his sister! For some reason this didn’t grab me.

7. Doll Hands

This is what will happen when the world comes to an end the over privileged using the poor souls as meat! Quite chilling!

8. To Forget and be Forgotten

I loved this! It reminded me of his Apartment 16 which is a book I fell totally in love with and the first book I read of Adams and this was in that style. A lot of the paragraphs struck home with me especially at the start! Solitude is something we all seek at some point and being around people can be taxing.

9. The Ancestors

This is the second time I’ve read this and it still creeps me out! A little girl makes friends with a ghost and some toys that have dark intentions and definitely dislike parents!

10.!The Age of Entitlement

11. Florrie

Another brilliant short! I think a good cleansing of all newly brought houses is in order to prevent this!

Overall I absolutely love his writing style each story even ones I didn’t quite click with transports you to that scene you’re reading. I’m building a steady collection of Adams books I highly recommend anyone of them!
  
    The Blackjack Wiz

    The Blackjack Wiz

    Entertainment and Games

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    Game Controller & TV Remote Supported! Blackjack is a classic casino game and seemingly so simple....

Finding Home
Finding Home
Meg Harding | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Finding Home by Meg Harding
Finding Home starts off with Jared. He has lost his job, is living back with his mother as his husband cheated with someone else, and now he finds out that his grandma has died. His mother wants him out of the house so she sends him off to hell (Florida in May) where he finds more than he bargained for, and learns about just who he is and what he wants.

This is a sweet and steamy, low angst, story full of feel-good factors. Jared's brothers are all brilliant, and Chase is... well, Chase is Chase and I wouldn't change a thing. Jared's neuroses were a tad annoying to start with, but as his story became clear, all was forgiven as I literally couldn't see him growing up any differently given the circumstances.

One thing I loved in particular (without giving away any spoilers) is when Jared does something that others might not agree with, but he does it for himself, for his own reasons, and to find things out about himself. I LOVED THAT!!! He is aware of what jumping into something might be like, but he is prepared to work with himself to ensure that everything goes the way it should.

With no editing or grammatical errors that disrupted my reading flow, this was a page-turner that had humour, family, hotness, and love. Definitely recommended by me.

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa

Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
  
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Sarah (7798 KP) created a post

Feb 21, 2019  
Last night I went to watch a stage version of The Full Monty at Manchester’s Opera House. The film is fantastic, so I was interested to see how well they pulled the stage version off.

The play was great, and such a lot of fun. It was really funny although maybe a little too foul mouthed in parts (I’m sure people from Sheffield don’t swear that much!), but highly entertaining. They used all of the songs and scenes from the original film, and some extra backing music that fit in with the rest. The plot was identical to the film so they haven’t really changed much, and the set design was quite good. They’ve pulled off a steel works well, however the only issue is that because of the steel works design, there wasn’t a lot of moveable set pieces and while they tried their best, some of the switches to none steel works scenes didn’t work as well. Cast wise, this is the first play I’ve seen where I actually recognised the majority of the main actors. Admittedly they weren’t Hollywood stars, but in the UK at least they’re fairly recognisable faces if you’ve ever seen soaps or sitcoms - Gary Lucy (Hollyoaks, Footballers Wives) , James Redmond (Hollyoaks), Louis Emerick (Brookside), Andrew Dunn (Dinnerladies) and Kai Owen (Torchwood) made it all the more enjoyable to watch. They all performed well too, although my only criticism is that there were some very dodgy Yorkshire accents from some. Maybe not something everyone would notice.

In all though this is hilarious and highly entertaining play, and a really fun night out. Definitely worth seeing if you liked the film 9/10
     
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Andy K (10821 KP) Feb 23, 2019

Wish I could see this!

BO
Breach of Trust (Atlanta Justice, #3)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
One of my favorite legal suspense authors is Rachel Dylan. Her writing style is genuine and unique and her characters always come to life for me as I read her books. I had the pleasure of reading books 1 and 2 in this amazing series, and now, I've had the delight to read book 3. It was so refreshing going back to Atlanta and feeling like the story was written just for me.

I loved getting to see Mia and Noah's story unfold. Their pain, their struggles, the twists and turns of the plot, all jumped off the pages and captured me completely. Noah's character was absolutely my favorite, and I fell in love with him so hard in this story! Mia's character was incredibly luck to have him protecting her!

Ms. Dylan's talent for intricately weaving a legal thriller into an unforgettable read is amazing. She does a fantabulous job at research, and blending it with her awesome messages of hope, love, forgiveness and mercy.

This is the third book in her ATLANTA JUSTICE series. I highly recommend it be read in the series, and not as a stand alone. The full effect of this author's talent and her amazing characters that become family is best felt reading the books in the entire series. Ms. Dylan has once again created a phenomenally amazing, heart-pounding story of edge-of-your-seat suspense. Definitely giving this one a high 4 star rating and two thumbs up.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House Publishers and was under no obligation to post a review, positive or negative.*
  
Never Fear the Reaper
Never Fear the Reaper
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
In a world filled with darkness…
can true love spark just enough light to save it?
When Chase hires the mysterious ghost exterminator, Ryder, to cleanse his house from a pesky poltergeist he gets way more than he’s paying her for…
There’s just something about Ryder that has him mesmerized.
Is it the fact that he’s witnessed her do the unexplainable? Or the fact that she’s absolutely breathtaking? Or perhaps it’s that eerie familiar feeling that they’ve met before, perhaps in another lifetime.
Chase desperately tags along with Ryder on a whirlwind of life threatening adventures in exchange for a few precious moments of alone time with her. With the Grimm Reaper’s Scythe as their defense, Chase developing some supernatural gifts of his own and an intense crush developing between the both of them what crazy supernatural force will target them next?

Never Fear the Reaper (A Never Fear the Reaper Series Book 1) Ashley Pagano is an original read that is full of non stop action and the paranormal/supernatural.
Ghosts, Poltergeists and Demons abound in our world and a pair of reckless humans are determined to either help them move on, or make them.
Ms. Pagano is a new-to-me author and I have very much enjoyed my first experience of her work.
I loved reading it. I was hooked from the very beginning and found myself lost in the pages. It not only has a wonderful storyline it has characters that I loved reading about.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion