Sign up
Search
Advanced search settings

Search only in certain items:

Search results
All (808)
Content
People
Apps
Books
Orbs
Movies
Music
Podcasts
Shows
Tabletop Games
Tech
TV
Video Games
YouTube Channels
Videos
40x40

LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Saw II (2005) in Movies

Jul 4, 2021  
Saw II (2005)
Saw II (2005)
2005 | Horror, Mystery
8
6.7 (23 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Guttural. Few other horror franchises loathe their characters as deeply and as passionately as 𝘚𝘢𝘸 - not even two minutes into the movie and it already proceeds to chuck these people down the garbage disposal without remorse. Has the worst outlook possible on life as a whole, revels in such an instantaneous breakdown of the human body and mind. Trades out the 'knucklehead Shakespeare' vibes of the original to double down on its endlessly creative gore, which is a fair tradeoff if we can't get both I guess. Can't believe this is the same Darren Lynn who directed 𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘭 - which I not only am beginning to dislike more and more with each revisit to the originals, but which also gets next to no points for being pro-ACAB when this one did it first *and* better 16 years prior. Filled with a multitude of anxious cuts and cool-as-hell camera trickeries (plus such a tantalizing MTV filth aesthetic), often unfairly shunned for being amateurish I'd actually argue the opposite - quick flashes of people in agony, everyone turning against each other and scrambling for answers with each passing second, visually emulating the final stages of a person's fight-or-flight mode like no other horror series before or after. The hypodermic needle pit still remains an all-time skin-crawler. In an age filled with such intolerably self-conscious bleakness in cinema, it's refreshing to see it done so sincerely with these.
  
40x40

Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Cruel Beauty in Books

Apr 26, 2018  
Cruel Beauty
Cruel Beauty
Rosamund Hodge | 2014 | Young Adult (YA)
9
8.5 (8 Ratings)
Book Rating
After reading Bright Smoke, Cold Fire I knew I HAD to find more Rosamund Hodge. She has a fantastic flair for taking fairy tales (or Shakespeare!) and twisting them into something darker but more realistic. Cruel Beauty is a twist on Beauty and the Beast, but this is no Stockholm Syndrome-suffering Beauty. She is resentful, and bitter, and angry at her father for subjecting her to this. She has trained her entire life to go to the Beast and destroy him, even if it means destroying herself too. What she find at the castle is nothing like what she expected, though, and neither is she what Hodge's Beast expects. Watching these two bitter, mocking characters dance around each other to get to the bottom of the curse and what actually happened to their world is engrossing and beautiful.

I couldn't put this book down once I started it, and I've already started Crimson Bound (Little Red Riding Hood), the next book in the same world. There's also a novella, Gilded Ashes (Cinderella), that I should snag a copy of.

The world is lovely and evocative, with gods and Forest Lords and Demons who actively participate in the world and grant wishes and make deals. It's a little bit Rumpelstiltskin, a little Fairy Godmother, a little Greek mythology, and all Rosamund Hodge. She's got talent, and writes my favorite micro-genre SO WELL.

If you like dark fairy tales, read this and then everything else Rosamund Hodge has written. It's excellent!

You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com