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Ju-on: Origins
Ju-on: Origins
2020 | Horror, Mystery
8
6.5 (4 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
atmospheric (0 more)
Sometimes a bit hard to follow (0 more)
Contains spoilers, click to show
Ju-on: Origins is the prequel to the original Ju-on The Grudge on Netflix.
The story mostly follows two story lines:
The first is of paranormal author, Yasuo Odajima and T.V. Hostess Haruka Honjo and follows Yasuo as he tires to find the cursed house to write about.
The second is Kiyomi Kawai who is taken to the house by two of her new classmates.
The series shows how curse of the house affects the two main characters but is also interspersed with snippets of the lives of other people who have lived in the house and flashbacks from the memories of other characters and, at times this can make the show a bit hard to follow.
Ju-on: Origins has an 'Amityville' vibe to it but more so, as in the original films the cures is not restricted to the house, meaning that, even if you get out you may not be safe.
The series is very atmospheric but , although there are ghosts it does focus more on the people who have lived in the house which makes this very grim in parts.
There was something familiar about some of the scenes in Ju-on: Origins, at least part of this is due to the original film, the scene where Kiyomi and her friends first go the house is slightly reminiscent of the school girl sequence in the first film although it does go in a different direction.
Now for some warnings. As i said Ju-on: Origins has some grim sequences. It's a Netflix series and, almost as soon as it went on (At least here in the UK) there were complaints about the auto start trailer which skirts around one of the main scenes which involves rape.
As well as rape there are murders (It makes 'American Horror Story; Haunted House' look tame) violence towards women, children, men (although i don't recall any animal abuse), sex and implied, possible incest so you have been warned
  
Murder of Crows (The Others, #2)
Murder of Crows (The Others, #2)
Anne Bishop | 2014 | Paranormal
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
It's been a handful of months since I read the first book in this series and I had to go and read my review of it so I could remember enough to get really into this.

This picks up not long after the first one. Meg is still working in the liaison office, accepting parcels for the Others in the courtyard and getting over the events of her almost dying. As a cassandra sangue - a blood prophet, she still has the urge to cut when pins and needles sensations take over her body and in doing so she sees black feathers in snow - Crow feathers. It foretells a coming war between humans and the Others and by reading some of their history, I am definitely on the Others side in this.

There's also a few scenes involving Meg's old handler. It seems he still wants her back and the Others are determined to track him down as his crimes and those like him escalate to almost unforgivable proportions.

The author doesn't mind writing some gory scenes and towards the end of this book, it was a little graphic in the violence.

One thing I was hoping for - a romance between Meg and Simon - seems to be brewing. It's a little awkward because Meg's never had a relationship before and isn't sure how to interact with him and Simon has never really done anything with a human before so they both try and stay as friends, though feelings are clearly starting to emerge.

There's something with this series. It hasn't completely grabbed my attention - I sometimes skip paragraphs! - but I want to read it and when I am reading it, I find it hard to put down. I want these characters to defeat every obstacle, I want them to be on top, to win.

I will be continuing the series at some point.
  
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Alexis Taylor recommended Arise Therefore by Palace Music in Music (curated)

 
Arise Therefore by Palace Music
Arise Therefore by Palace Music
1996 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I first heard the record in Joe's [Goddard, Hot Chip] house, and I think we would have been about 16 or something. He'd been told about Palace by Kieran [Hebden, Four Tet], and we would all go to the Beggar's Banquet record shop in Putney after school, and buy and listen to things in there. We'd buy hip-hop, different indie records and pop albums. It was particularly good for hip-hop, and these lo-fi indie rock records. That's where we bought the album, and we were in Joe's room where we would work on Hot Chip recordings, and it sounded so different to anything I'd ever heard before, because it's so slow-paced. Will Oldham's voice is so unusual when you hear it, and particularly at that time before he'd developed into being slightly more well-known, his voice was particularly eccentric - it cracks in some interesting ways; it's not a formally trained voice - over that sparse piano and drum machine backing. The song that I first heard was 'You Have Cum In Your Hair And Your Dick Is Hanging Out' - a memorable title! The song doesn't have those words in it. It's just a beautiful heartbreaking ballad, and it's hard to know sometimes what that dense lyrical terrain is all about with Will Oldham. Some of the symbolism is quite hard to read, but it makes an emotional impact straight away. It took me a long time to get to know that record. I bought my own copy in Lancaster when I went to visit a friend at university, and I just kept going back to it. Each time there would be another song that I would get to know and love. I had a long car journey with all of Hot Chip, and some friends of ours from a festival recently, and we listened to the record, and it was another breakthrough where it became more meaningful to me."

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