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Hazel (2934 KP) rated The Bride in Books

Jul 2, 2023  
The Bride
The Bride
John Nicholl | 2023 | Crime, Thriller
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I have enjoyed Mr Nicholl's books before and this was no exception.

Daisy is writing a letter to her unborn child whilst she sits in a jail cell awaiting her trial for murder. The book is written as a series of letters and provides Daisy's account of how she got to where she is but is she a reliable narrator?

I became very quickly engrossed in Daisy's story; it's full of tension and suspense with me desperately wanting to find out just what the heck happened. There are twists that had my mouth agape with the ending of the book causing me to gasp out loud. Written at a good pace, The Bride is a great psychological thriller that I would have no hesitation in recommending to readers of this genre.

Thanks to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of The Bride.
  
A Cure For Wellness (2017)
A Cure For Wellness (2017)
2017 | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
What if you were told that you could be cured from any and every ailment, all while relaxing in the picturesque Swiss Alps. Would you go? A Cure For Wellness is a psychological thriller directed by Gore Verbinsky whom in the past brought us Disney’s Pirates of The Caribbean. I’m not sure going with a psychological thriller was the best choice for him.

   After a young power-hungry stockbroker receives an odd letter from the CEO during a major merger he becomes blackmailed into going and retrieving him. Pembroke (Harry Groener) has taken up permanent residence in a mysterious gothic styled rehabilitation center in a remote part of the Swiss Alps. Pembroke has no intentions of leaving the hospital so Lockhart has plenty of time to explore. As soon as he arrives though, he notices that there is something strange going on. Patients are eating decadent and costly meals and flying kites as if they were on vacation rather than in treatment. Little does he know, he will be at the center of it all after an accident turns him into a patient rather than a visitor.

   I feel as though this was less of a thriller and more of a flop. I wasn’t able to connect to Lockhart and frankly at times his character was rather annoying. This made it difficult to sympathize with what might be happening to him. Lockhart reminded me of Leonardo DiCaprio in Scorsese’s Shutter Island. Though Scorsese’s film was way more entertaining and thrilling than this. The film was extremely long (2.5 hours) and when you thought it was going to end another curve ball would be thrown. Though the film was less than entertaining, the actors portrayed their parts well. The scenery and landscapes along with the colors of the filters used did give the film that bit of eeriness the story needed. Some scenes were creepy and others involving animals were disturbing and could’ve been left out in my opinion. I left the theater scratching my head with the old “what the heck did I just watch” thought. This film was just not for me and seemed more like Verbinski bit off more than he could chew. The audience also seemed to be disappointed with it as well.
  
Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)
Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)
2019 | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Performances and tone (0 more)
Predictable (0 more)
A mixed bag of a film, both engaging and tiresome
Dan Gilroys teams up again with jake Gyllenhaal but this time with far less success than 2014's nightcrawler. Velvet Buzzsaw follows a small group of the LA art world as the mysterious paintings of dease are released into the world. As seen in the trailer the paintings are able to move and even come out and grab you and here is where my issues with the film start.

In my opinion in horror it's best to have some kind of rules so you know what to be scared of. Even the slightest hint of ghosts or the supernatural will do at separating horror from something more psychological. Here it's unclear as to why these paintings have these properties as everything feels like the real world and for the first act the film it balances on this in between of something psychological and actual physically alive paintings. And for the most part these horror sections are terribly predictable as soon as we see a main character alone with one of the paintings it's pretty clear as to what's gonna happen.

Where the movie excels is in between these horror parts when we get more of Morf(played by gyllenhaal in scintillating form) trying to figure out what's going on while experiencing haunting visual and auditory hallucinations. This descent into paranoia and almost madness is far more engaging than the cheap thrills the film seems more eager to give us. More of these characters being entranced yet horrified by these pictures and subtle things going wrong would have made for a far creepier experience.

Overall what could have been a really interesting psychological thriller ended up being a slightly above par horror movie with good performances all round and a interesting premise and while the horror elements were my least favourite part they were very creative and any horror fan would be sure to get a kick out of it