Search

Search only in certain items:

The Silence (2019)
The Silence (2019)
2019 | Horror
Good But Not Great, Hints of Tension & Terror
The Silence is a 2019 horror film directed by John R. Leonetti and based on a screenplay by Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke. It is an adaptation of a novel by the same name by author Tim Lebbon. The movie was produced by Constantin Film and EMJAG Productions and distributed by Netflix. It stars Kiernan Shipka, Stanley Tucci, and Miranda Otto.


A team of researchers accidentally unleash an unknown species of blind winged creatures deep in a cavern underground. The creatures, called "vesps", violently attack the researchers, killing them before flying out of the cave seeking the noisiest areas next. Ally (Kiernan Shipka), who lost her hearing in a car accident, lives with her brother Jude (Kyle Harrison Breitkopf), parents, Hugh (Stanley Tucci) and Kelly (Miranda Otto), grandmother Lynn (Kate Trotter) and dog Otis. As the outbreak spreads, a state of emergency is declared and people are urged to stay quiet and indoors. However Ally suggests the countryside is likelier to be more quiet so they set out in two cars, accompanied by Glenn (John Corbett), Hugh's best friend.


This movie was alright, but i felt it could have been better. It wasnt terrible though and even had some really good scenes. It was a pretty cool idea/concept. I feel that the film A Quiet Place, did a better job in almost every way in comparison. I think that this movie wasn't able to sell the tension in a convincing way and was unrealistic in some parts. I liked Stanley Tucci's acting but the daughter's was hit or miss for me the entire film. And I'm sure there were plenty of plot holes in this film too, I could feel them as the movie went on. As critic Chris Agar of Screen Rant put it, "...a fairly bland thriller that struggles to leave much of an impact - despite some fleeting moments of pure tension and terror." I give it a 6/10.
  
40x40

Rick Astley recommended Under the Pink by Tori Amos in Music (curated)

 
Under the Pink by Tori Amos
Under the Pink by Tori Amos
1994 | Alternative

"I haven't listened to this record for ages. But I intend to! I walk a lot and used to live by Richmond Park and I like to walk with an album as I don't do that very often. That was one of my Richmond Park albums. There's that Kate Bush element, beautiful, mad lyrical content and some of those song titles are like 'what the fuck?' Just great. What was I doing during this period? I was retired. I quit in the mid 1990s and decided I was going to teach myself to make records for other people like a producer. And it was a time when Auto-tune was king in pop music and this – and other things – made me realise I didn't want to do it and also I probably can't do it. It's quite an art to make songs for other people. You give it your everything but no one writes songs for bands, no one wrote songs for The Smiths. They write them for solo artists most of the time. That void is taken up by pop and you have to make records which are autotuned because a lot of the time - in the 1990s – the idea was 'Can she sing? Well, it doesn't matter'. But it did to me! It is an alchemy of Christ knows what to make a good record and I don't think I've got the chops to do that [for someone else]. I had a record deal with Polydor in Germany at one point specifically within the context of not having to release the album anywhere else! I did a bit of promotion there but nothing happened. It wasn't the kind of record that used to get me on the radio in the 1980s but it also wasn't the kind of record that was enough of truly doing what I wanted to do."

Source
  
Greenwich Park
Greenwich Park
Katherine Faulkner | 2021 | Contemporary, Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Thriller
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This seemed to be the book that everyone was reading a few weeks ago, and just as I was building myself up to preorder it, it popped up on The Pigeonhole - and I’m so glad that it did.
This has some of my favourite ingredients in a thriller:
📚Unlikeable characters
📚I’m not quite sure what’s going on
📚Characters who who don’t know what’s going on either
📚Multiple (3) viewpoints, including one that’s decidedly dodgy
📚A big secret that the reader can see coming - but what is it?!
📚A heart stopping moment of revelation!!
I felt sorry for Helen - she has a high risk pregnancy, is stuck at home on a building site, and makes friends with a woman (Rachel) who won’t leave her alone! Rachel befriends Helen at her antenatal class, when Helen’s brother Rory, and his wife Serena fail to turn up. Rachel is pregnant, yet drinks, smokes, drinks caffeine and eats all the food you’re told not to eat. Helen is very insecure, lacks in self-confidence and can’t tell Rachel that she doesn’t want to see her.

In fact as the story progresses, Helen’s fears and confusion are really well described. I could feel the dreamlike quality of Helen’s consciousness towards the middle and end of the book - she became more confused.

On the other hand, her brother Rory and his wife Serena, who are also expecting their first baby, seem very laid back. Helen reads far more into the friendship with Serena than Serena does. Serena is dismissive and quite cold.

I didn’t see the end coming, and I loved the slow burn leading up to the big reveal. It gave me enough time to properly despise a number of the characters, realise that Helen’s friend KAte was one of the best people in this circle, and that money can’t always buy you what you want.

This is a book that deserved the hype - it’s well worth a read!
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and to Bloomsbury/ Raven Books