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Fantasy Island (2020)
Fantasy Island (2020)
2020 | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
Much like the recent adaptation of the Banana Splits Hour, Blumhouse's Fantasy Island took a show from my childhood and added horror elements to the premise. Five strangers land on an island where their fantasy is granted. The island is overseen by a mysterious Latino named Mr. Roarke, played by master monologuist Michael Pena. As you may have seen in the trailer, two are given everything that they want (money, sex, a mansion), one plays soldier, one is given a fresh start, and one gets revenge on a middle-school bully. However, a fantasy can easily become a nightmare and the island does not distinguish. As the five strangers are slowly brought back together, they learn that the island did not randomly select them. Someone else has their own nightmarish fantasy to live. I will not spoil the secret, but the mysterious person behind it all makes precious little sense unless he or she had a traumatic brain injury before and during the plot of the movie. Some scenes were very good and it could have been a good horror movie if it had just left the storylines separate like the tv show managed to do.
  
The Haunting of Hill House
The Haunting of Hill House
2018 | Horror
Characters (1 more)
Story
Confusing timeline scenes (0 more)
Netflix's: a haunted Mansion
I was roped into watching this by my partner, but I wasn't disappointed.

NETFLIX as usual has given us a great horror story just in time for Halloween, haunting of hill house is a diamond in the dark that follows a group of distant siblings who are troubled and haunted by their childhood.

A brilliant offering with some very strong "the shining" vibes that were very welcome.
Dark, intense and deep with common issues.

After the death of one of their own, the siblings are forced to reach out and come face to face with each other....and their estranged father.

With storys of past, present & future dangerously entwined and nightmares clawing their way back in, time, trust & understanding may be their only means of surviving.

Although some parts seemed to drag a little, it more than made up for it with sub plot explaining and some great cliffhangers.

The show is an adaption of the Shirley Jackson novel of the same name from 1959.

It is definitely something I will watch again and something I'd like to see more of.
  
The Haunted Palace (1963)
The Haunted Palace (1963)
1963 | Horror
7
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Vincent Price (0 more)
Something Wicked
The Haunted Palace- is anethor Poe, Price and Corrman film. But Although marketed as "Edgar Allan Poe's The Haunted Palace", the film actually derives its plot from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, a novella by H. P. Lovecraft. The title The Haunted Palace is borrowed from the 6-stanza poem by Poe, published in 1839 (which was later incorporated into Poe's horror short story "The Fall of the House of Usher"), and the film uses eight lines from the poem within the framing of the story. So in reality its a H.P. Lovecraft story and a Poe title.

The plot: Condemned warlock Joseph Curwen (Vincent Price) curses a New England village just before being burned alive. More than a century later, Curwen's kindly great-great grandson Charles Ward (also Price) arrives in town and moves into Curwen's old mansion. Caretaker Simon Orne (Lon Chaney Jr.) helps Charles and his wife Ann (Debra Paget) adjust to their new home. The ancient curse, however, takes hold of Joseph, awakening inside him a long-dormant evil passed on through blood.

Its a decent film.
  
The Haunting  (1963)
The Haunting (1963)
1963 | Horror
The Haunted House
The Haunting- is one of the best horror movies of all time. Its scary, spooky, haunting, terrorfying, horrorfying and more.

The Plot: Dr. John Markway, an anthropologist with an interest in psychic phenomena, takes two specially selected women to Hill House, a reportedly haunted mansion. Eleanor (Julie Harris), a lonely, eccentric woman with a supernatural event in her past, and the bold Theodora (Claire Bloom), who has ESP, join John and the mansion's heir, cynical Luke (Russ Tamblyn). They are immediately overwhelmed by strange sounds and events, and Eleanor comes to believe the house is alive and speaking directly to her.

From the great novel- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

In 2010, The Guardian newspaper ranked it as the 13th-best horror film of all time. Director Martin Scorsese has placed The Haunting first on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time.

The film was remade in 1999 by director Jan de Bont, starring Liam Neeson, Lili Taylor, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Owen Wilson, but that version was heavily panned by critics and audiences. Dont watch that film, but instead watch this masterpiece.

I would highly reccordmend this movie.
  
Mirrorfall (Ash & Blue, #1)
Mirrorfall (Ash & Blue, #1)
Stormy Sto Helit | 2020 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!


Steph has been headhunted to help unravel a code that has been found that so far nobody has had any luck trying to decipher. Whilst working on the code she finds the mansion under attack she hides out in the best place she can think of, she does get found and for some reason, the person that found her seems very familiar and when he reveals why she is stunned!


Mirrorfall is the first in the series Ash and Blue. I found the book quite interesting - it's a bit MIB mixed with Winx saga and a bit more besides. Although I found it captivating there were times when I kind of thought hang on a minute, really would you process news like that as quickly as she seemed to? There were also times I did feel slightly confused as to what was going on that was more in the first few chapters though it may just have been me.


I did enjoy the overall story and experiences that happened in there so would definitely recommend you read this.


** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
  
Bitter Orange
Bitter Orange
Claire Fuller | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery
8
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Very eerie tale involving three delusional housemates. Each delusional in their own right. Ending was a total surprise for me. (0 more)
One of the housemates story jumped around so often in her re-telling of said events, it was difficult to keep up and understand what she was saying. (0 more)
Bittersweet Bitter Orange
Bitter Orange has three main characters and the story is told from their narrative.

Francis Jellico who has never left home, much less her mother's side, until this year when her mother passed. Even after her mother's passing, Francis kept the death a secret for at least a month until the stench got too great.

Francis inherited her mother's eccentricities which included wearing her dead mother's undergarments even tho they did not fit and also a locker her mother wore that had a generic picture in it. Her mother had never put Francis' picture in.

Cara- young, sexy, assertive, self assured, talkative and friendly. Her glaring sin was she had problems with remembering which was truth and which were lies and keeping the truths and the lies straight so basically , she didn't make any sense most of the time.

Peter - older than Cara and very much in love with her but not liking her much on most days. He seemed genuinely caring but also as if he would like to break away from her. He also had a good idea for property value and costs of goods...especially antiques and knew what to sell to whom for what price point.

Basically, these three characters have been hired by an American investor to catalog the items in a mansion the investor had bought as well as to catalog the grounds and flower gardens. It is believed the investor plans to sell the property.

The mansion is large with many spacious rooms and bathrooms but only two of the bathrooms actually work. For some unknown reason ,Frances has been put in the maids quarters in the attic and the couple on the first floor with a mini suite at their disposal,.

As the three begin working together , each performing their job they soon begin hanging out together after hours, eating and smoking together.

This is where the story starts getting twisted. There seems to be a bit of jealousy between Cara and Peter over Francis. Cara gets jealous if Peter spends too much time with her, even if they are working and Francis misinterprets Peter's friendship.

All in all, this was a great read. It really kept me on the edge of my seat and the ending totally surprised me.

Bitter Orange: A bittersweet story set in 1969.
  
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Josh Burns (166 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of The Brookhaven Experiment in Video Games

Jun 21, 2019  
The Brookhaven Experiment
The Brookhaven Experiment
2016 | Horror, Shooter
Creepy, yet fun (0 more)
Lovecraftian horror VR waveshooter
This another wave shooter (for more on the psvr wave shooter overload/competition see my Wraith review) and uses either the Move controllers or Aim controller. Move controllers are for small guns and knives, Aim is for bigger guns. The world has gone to hell and is overrun by creepy mutants that have a Lovecraft vibe sometimes. You're out trying to find a solution. The sound design works great to track where enemies are coming from. There are a ton of different enemies, some are huge! The campaign is fun, atmospheric and gets very challenging. You buy upgrades and ammo between levels and there are hidden power ups that you can shoot to collect. There is also a survival mode that has an added map that is based on the mansion in Resident Evil. You can even see a red herb and a green herb flanking the stairs, but you can't use them. Theres a wide variety of environments from sewers, to labs, to city streets and more. It's a lot of fun, but difficult and combining that difficulty with creepiness can make it hard to want to revisit if your stuck on a level because they compliment each other.
  
The Haunting (1999)
The Haunting (1999)
1999 | Horror, Mystery
5
5.8 (16 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The CGI (0 more)
Hill House
The Haunting- doesnt live up to the oringal, now thats with most horror remakes, and this is one of them. Liam Neeson and Lili Taylor did a good job. Why cast owen wilson, he does nothing in the film but just say "wow". Catherine Zeta-Jones was just there.

The plot: This horror tale focuses on visitors to the secluded mansion of Hill House who have been called to the isolated location by Dr. David Marrow (Liam Neeson) as part of a study on insomnia. However, Marrow is really investigating fear, and he plans to scare the subjects, including the introverted Nell (Lili Taylor) and the seductive Theo (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Unfortunately for Marrow and everyone staying at Hill House, the manor is actually haunted by an evil spirit out to torment its guests.

Steven Spielberg talked to Stephen King about doing a haunted house movie, and the two agreed that Robert Wise's 1963 film "The Haunting" was a benchmark of cinematic house horror, but after they started writing, the two had creative differences. Spielberg agreed with King's idea to use the real-life Winchester Mystery House, in San Jose, California, as a source of inspiration.

Just watch the oringal.
  
Written on the Wind (1957)
Written on the Wind (1957)
1957 | Classics, Comedy, Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I’ve been directing television for almost twenty-five years. In that time, one thing that I have learned for sure is that Douglas Sirk is the godfather of all dramatic television. It all comes from him. The best of television is redolent with his sense of ironic and knowing melodrama. He piles on the conflict in each and every scene. Bad things and disappointment stalk his characters, but always with style. The first ten minutes of Written on the Wind are literally drunk with this style. Robert Stack drinking from the bottle in an intensely yellow sports car, hundreds of leaves that blow through a Texas mansion, pages of a calendar that flip through time, and, above all else, Dorothy Malone. Nobody mambos like Malone: the sequence where she drunkenly mambos in her room while her father dies of a heart attack is choreographed for the camera like a Minnelli musical. Sirk blocks a scene with such dynamism and artfulness you can turn off the sound and know exactly what’s going on. All That Heaven Allows got me into Sirk, but Written on the Wind is the poster on my office wall—it’s a touchstone, a timeless piece of popular art."

Source
  
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Lee KM Pallatina (951 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Resident Evil 7 biohazard in Video Games

May 4, 2020 (Updated May 4, 2020)  
Resident Evil 7 biohazard
Resident Evil 7 biohazard
2017 | Action/Adventure
Horror (3 more)
Graphics
New characters
Survival horror
A triumphant return to it's dark roots
Contains spoilers, click to show
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was a resounding success that managed to draw back gamers who were becoming a little weary of the franchise's somewhat failing previous titles with it's introduction of this first person survival horror that introduces you to "the baker family".
Admittedly that's not a very unnerving name but the family in question may make you rethink your choice In neighbours (you know the peace loving Jones's two doors down).

Completely flipping the idea box upside Down there hasn't really been a great RE: game since RE:4 until now, pitting you against the psychotic members of the baker family (& zoe?...who is so scary, she literally does nothing) & grandma??? (Seriously, she's the creepiest character..who manages to do less than zoe!?)

You play as newcomer Ethan, who has received a message from his fiance who's been missing for 3 years (and who's hair is exactly the same length as it was 3 years ago- that's right I'm calling them out on this one) who goes in search of her, leading him to a rundown mansion in rural Louisiana, USA, eventually things take a sinister turn as you come face to face with the Baker family.