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Pumpkinhead (1988)
Pumpkinhead (1988)
1988 | Horror
Characters – Ed Harley is a hardworking shop keeper and single father, he gets on well with the community and enjoys the quiet life. His life is turned upside down when his son is killed in an accident, which pushes him to turn to the dark arts to avenge his son’s death, only he didn’t plan for what would be expected from him. Chris is one of the teenagers that wants to do the right thing after the accident, much like the rest of the teenagers they all blend into one, except for the one that caused the accident, who only wants to look after himself.

Performances – Lance Henriksen is the star of the film, he is easily the best performer as his character goes through the biggest trauma and shows the desperation for revenge and regret for his decision. When it comes to the rest of the cast, they are performed to the level most slasher films reached.

Story – The story here follows a man that will do anything to get vengeance for his son’s death, which sees him summon the evil Pumpkinhead to kill the people that took his son, he soon learns the errors of his choice and must figure out how to stop the killing machine. For a monster creature feature slasher this is a simple story, we don’t get twists, we don’t need much character development as we are more interested in seeing the effects being used. It is nice have a story that remains simple in the horror genre at times too.

Fantasy/Horror – The fantasy elements of this film comes from the figure of Pumpkinhead that gets summoned to do revenge for people that believe they have been wronged, which plays hand in hand with the horror side of the film which is slasher elements which show just how deadly this figure will be.

Settings – The film is set in a small town where we don’t have many people with the ones living their knowing each other and anyone coming from the outside being frowned upon.

Special Effects – The effects are the highlight of the film, Stan Winston was known for his ability to create some of the most memorable creatures in film history and with him directing he brings us another terrifying creation.


Scene of the Movie – The first imagine of Pumpkinhead.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The teenagers are stupid for how they acted for the accident to happen in the first place.

Final Thoughts – This is a slasher that can be enjoyed by the horror community, it offers everything needed to just let us enjoy ourselves without challenging us like other horrors.

 

Overall: Simple, effective and fun horror.
  
Guarding His Melody (Enhacned World #1)
Guarding His Melody (Enhacned World #1)
Victoria Sue | 2018 | LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
loved this addition to this world!
Independent reviewer for Divine Magazine, I was gifted my copy of this book.

This is billed as book 1 in the Enhanced World Standalones series, but you don't need to have red the 3 books in the main series, before this one. I have listened to book one, Five More Minutes, and am currently part way through book two, Who We Truly are and will get to Beneath This Mask after that. Mild spoilers, is all. and a hint at what I have to come.

After getting meningitis as a child, Seb is left deaf. Throw in mark of the Enhanced that appeared when he was 12, and life has thrown him a double whammy. When there are death threats, Seb hires Gray as a bodyguard. But the Threat is getting worse, after the death of his previous bodyguard and that of his music teacher. If Seb could shake these crippling headaches, and just play his piano, he'll be happy.

I'm really enjoying these books! They are different and different is always good in my book!

Seb is pretty much housebound, but the first thing Gray does, is drag him out of bed at stoopid o'clock to do Tia-Chi in the garden. Helped him, so gotta be worth a try, right?? And that there, is what I particularly LOVED about this book.

The HINTS at what Gray suffered. You don't get the FULL story, not at all, just hints and clues along the way that make you put together a picture, a bigger picture at what Gray suffered, HOW much he suffered and how he got through it. But you just know, that someone else will put together a different picture, with the same clues. And I LOVED that!

Seb's threat isn't who I thought it was, but it was just as bad. I do love being proven wrong!

The chemistry between Gray and Seb bubbles along for much of the book, and I did, at one point, think we wouldn't get to the main event, but we do, and it is glorious!

Talon and Finn (Five Minutes Longer) pop up at the end, and the others are mentioned at various places in the book, so ties the books together.

The Enhanced status of Seb plays very much second fiddle to his deafness.
But I'm not left wanting to LISTEN to this book. Nick J Russo narrates the other books, and I hope he does this one too. I'm eager to see how Seb's voice comes across.

I originally wrote 4 stars at the top of the page (and yes, i do WRITE them up by hand before I post them!) but, actually, I can't find anything to knock that star off, so...

5 full stars!

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
After Night Fall
After Night Fall
A.J. Banner | 2018 | Mystery, Thriller
7
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Page-turner with some irritating characters
Marissa Parlette is newly engaged to Nathan, an EMT, and working on integrating herself into his life and that of his young daughter, Anna. She is also trying to slowly reconcile with Nathan's neighbor, Lauren, who also happens to be Marissa's childhood best friend. The two parted ways after an incident in college. But then--after a dinner party at Nathan's to celebrate his birthday--Marissa awakens early and finds Lauren's battered body at the bottom of the cliff behind her house. What happened to Lauren? Did she jump? Fall? Or was she pushed? Marissa starts to investigate what happened, but soon finds she can't trust anything or anyone, including her own fiance.

This was my second A.J. Banner book, and it was a bit of a strange one. I didn't enjoy it as much as The Twilight Wife, but it is definitely a quick and interesting read. I flew through the pages, as Bannon is extremely good at casting suspicion on everyone in the novel. It becomes apparent quickly that Lauren's death wasn't an accident, so you start trying to guess who did it, and while everyone seems a suspect, I had difficultly figuring out "whodunnit," which was fun.

Not so fun was the fact that Marissa, our main character, drove me a bit crazy. I understand that she would be upset by the death of her former best friend, but she became utterly obsessed, investigating in a strange tunnel vision sort of way that seemed almost deranged. Yet, it seemed like she was clueless in some ways, unable to grasp some facts that were pretty easy for the rest of us to figure out. She was also rather self-centered, insecure, and whiny, and I had a tough time rooting for her. I really didn't enjoy any of the characters, honestly, beside Nathan's daughter, Anna. (Poor kid; she didn't deserve having to live with any of those people.)

Overall, I enjoyed the page-turner aspect of this one, and the fact I was constantly kept guessing. The characters and their weird motivations? Eh. Not so much. Still, this was a quick, easy read.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review (thank you!).