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Jeepers Creepers (2001)
Jeepers Creepers (2001)
2001 | Horror, Mystery
Subhuman dumpsterscum Victor Salva adds absolutely nothing to this as an auteur let alone as a basic director: he shoots it mostly in the most unengaging, dated way possible and the writing - which can at best be described as semi-coherent - feels like a Quibi's worth of material thinly stretched into feature length. Overall a very haphazard, spotty experience that doesn't deliver nearly as much of the goods as it should... but definitely still weird, gross, and funny enough to suffice. That Sistine Chapel-esque lair of mutilated bodies, cobwebs, dirt, and vials of various mysterious liquids is almost worth the price of admission alone (in fact just in general the production is A-class when Salva can actually shoot it right), and Justin Long's one continuous panic attack of a performance is so tremendous. And come on, JC is one *hell* of a killer - running on moving cars, foully scarfing down innards, pulling 180s with his swiss army knife collection of bodily contortions, and whistling jazz tunes like some sort of crowd-pleasing merger of Predator and Freddy Krueger. Shame there isn't enough of him, but I just have to admire how that ending takes zero prisoners. It's fun, nowhere near the classic it should have been though even if there are hints of what it could have been sprinkled throughout.
  
    Dicetopia

    Dicetopia

    7.5 (2 Ratings) Rate It

    Tabletop Game

    Ah, the neon-clad city of Dicetopia lies before you! A seething cauldron of petty thieves, devious...

BO
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Blood Oath is an interesting and fairly refreshing variation on the vampire riff. Most of the current tales give us a suave, sexy predator who mesmerizes his or her prey, leaving humans pining for their presence. They might even fall in love with a human. Nathaniel Cade, however, refers to humans as food, saying, "Would you have sex with a cow?" That makes much more sense to me. It's a good thing he isn't interested, either, as the typical reaction people have to encountering him is utter panic, often involving the loss of bladder control.

Cade is definitely a predator, though - an extremely effective one. Farnsworth attempts to explain his abilities scientifically, rather than mystically (I'd classify this book as science fiction if I had to choose a genre, whereas most books featuring vampires and similar creatures are fantasy or horror). The same is true of the enenies he faces.

While I'm not generally interested in socio-political thrillers (which is what this book was, other than a story about a vampire who works for the president), I did enjoy the fresh take on an old trope. While I normally groan when I see the first book from a new author billed as the beginning of a series (do publishers even buy single books any more?), I'm somewhat pleased this time. I do wish they'd been a little more careful with the name of the series (The President's Vampire), as there's another book with the same name: [b:The President's Vampire: Strange-but-True Tales of the United States of America|690096|The President's Vampire Strange-but-True Tales of the United States of America|Robert Damon Schneck|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177264074s/690096.jpg|676444] by [a:Robert Damon Schneck|368998|Robert Damon Schneck|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]. Then again, if Farnsworth's book or series takes off, I suppose there's a chance that sales of Schneck's will as well. I'm sure he wouldn't complain about that at all. I've put it on my to-read list, after all.

I hope to talk my partner, Sam, into reading <i>Blood Oath</i>. If I do, it'll be fairly miraculous, as I don't recall him anything with dragons or werewolves in it other than ([a:Jim Butcher|10746|Jim Butcher|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1205261964p2/10746.jpg]'s Dresden Files) for most of the time that I've known him (12 years as of this writing). After his years at White Wolf, I think many books seem more than slightly derivative. He also did so much research before working on books he wrote for them (like [b:The Book of Nod|416122|The Book of Nod|Sam Chupp|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223664741s/416122.jpg|405290]) that he got a little burned out on certain subjects. Farnsworth's approach really is different enough that I think he might give it a chance. Will you?
  
Sadako Vs Kayako (2016)
Sadako Vs Kayako (2016)
2016 | Horror
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Atmosphere is fairly true to the early films of both franchises (0 more)
2nd Half starts to unravel and the last 20-30 minutes is...well its something (0 more)
Versus movies claim another victim
I love Ringu.

And I love Ju-on.

So although I was skeptical about this movie (Damn you Alien v Predator: Requiem), I was intrigued by how it would work.

How does Sadako, a well dwelling ghost of a psychic little girl, that killed people through terror, end up battling with the curse/spirit of a murdered woman who now makes cricking noise and crawls down stairs and under sheets.

Both combatants kill via terror/mental means, so what does this mean in terms of this movie?

Well an hour or so of the film is basically a mediocre version of Ringu and Ju-On, with some good tension, and a skill for unsettling moments in that way J-Horror still possesses, and I was very much enjoying the ride.

However, as the two titular characters meet...it all starts to get a bit...well silly really.

I won't spoil anything specific, but the final act is a mess of new mythos, old mythos, off-screen battling and really, REALLY weird choices.

I was left feeling frustrated, and that the film had cheapened the brands with their choice of resolution, which though surprising, failed to really add anything to either franchise.

Not a terrible film, but not a great either.