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ClareR (5589 KP) rated The Resident in Books

Jul 26, 2020 (Updated Jul 26, 2020)  
The Resident
The Resident
David Jackson | 2020 | Crime, Thriller
9
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
How can a thriller be both horrific and hilarious at the same time? The humour in The Resident keeps poking its head up in the most unlikely and inappropriate circumstances, and I loved it.

Thomas Brogan is a serial killer on the run, who finds an abandoned end of terrace house to hide in. He discovers that this house and the other three in the row have a shared loft space. So Brogan starts to spy on his neighbours. He has a penchant for playing games with his victims, and this is an ideal set up for him - and the secrets that he discovers are more than enough to keep him entertained.

This is such a fast paced, entertaining read, and I can well imagine it as a film. There are some very interesting twists and turns, and some real heart-in-mouth moments. It was another great reading experience with The Pigeonhole, the comments and opinions from the other readers making it all the more entertaining, and the author dropping in to answer questions. This is what makes The Pigeonhole so great!

If you like your thrillers a bit gory and a bit inappropriately funny, you’ll love this book - I did!
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated La Flor (2018) in Movies

Nov 2, 2019  
La Flor  (2018)
La Flor (2018)
2018 | Drama, Horror, International, Musical, Thriller
How can one rating do justice to film-making on this scale? The simple numbers involved are staggering: the film lasts thirteen and a half hours, took nine years to make, is composed of six different episodes comprising many more sub-narratives. It's usually shown over three or four days, for obvious reasons. Even the closing credits last for over forty minutes (yes, I stayed: my thought process was basically 'Well, I've come this far..).

There's at least one horror movie in the mix, along with a musical melodrama, a sprawling existential spy thriller, and a metafictional self-parody. Characters include archaeologists, witches, Casanova and Margaret Thatcher. Just about the only thing holding it together is the presence of the same four actresses, who play significant roles in almost every episode. It begins very generic, but becomes increasingly strange and avant garde as it progresses. One would say it has become completely unravelled by the end, but it's not as if it was ever very ravelled. Parts of it are indisputably brilliant and highly accomplished, others are kind of indifferent; some of it is actively irritating. In the end it is a gargantuan, self-indulgent oddity. Some of it is definitely worth watching, but the whole thirteen hours...? I'm not sure. Maybe wait until it comes on TV.