Search

Search only in certain items:

Lovecraft Country
Lovecraft Country
2020 | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Lovecraft country was a total surprise to me, I expected something that was totally over the top and when I saw the opening scene of the first episode it looked looked I was going to be right. However the show soon settles down and, after the first episode finds itself ground in reality, even if it is a reality contain magic. A lot of the episodes have a Lovecraftian/Pulp feel (The strange case springs instantly to mind) but they are still set in a very real feeling world and some episodes throw a real emotional punch.
The first couple of episodes focus on a couple of characters which leave some of the supporting cast feeling a bit two dimensional to begin with but, by the final episode almost everyone has been filled out and some of the best emotion comes from the characters you'd least expect.
There is violence, racism, sex and magic in Lovecraft Country so you may want to keep younger viewers away.
The series has Lovecraftian themes but also pulls on other classic literature and still manages to steer away from the more conventional monsters , there are no vampires, no zombies and, even though it's called 'Lovecraft' Country his most famous creation, Cthulhu, only has a small cameo that has no effect on the story, favouring the Shoggoth as the go-to Lovecraft creation.
  
A Terrible Love (A Terrible Love, #1)
A Terrible Love (A Terrible Love, #1)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I received this copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was quickly captivated by this story and the characters and quickly devoured this book.

The story has some dark aspects but they are to be expected in most New Adult books. This one is slightly darker than others and focuses on abuse and violence.

I’ll start by mentioning Devin Castile, I think I fell for him pretty early on or he at least got me a little hot and bothered. Wowzer! Well done for creating such a hot character :D

Mitch on the other hand seemed sweet and kind but their wasn’t really a spark there. He seemed too much of a gentleman (but some women like that).

I also really liked Brad and Carlie, they were fun characters and I enjoyed the banter they shared with Jess

Although dark, this is a well written book and having looked on GoodReads I’ve seen their is going to be a second book, A Brutal Tenderness, which sounds like it will tell the story from Devin’s POV. I’ll tell you now I will definitely be interested in seeing things from his view and I’ve marked it as “to-read”

I really enjoyed it and recommend it to those who like New Adult books and those who like their books a little grittier.
  
40x40

Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Atomic Blonde (2017) in Movies

Jun 26, 2019 (Updated Sep 25, 2019)  
Atomic Blonde  (2017)
Atomic Blonde (2017)
2017 | Action, Mystery, Thriller
In 1989, before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, MI6 agent James Gasciogne is shot and killed by KGB agent Yuri Bakhtin, who steals the List, a piece of microfilm concealed in a wristwatch that contains the names of every active field agent in the Soviet Union. Ten days later, Lorraine Broughton, a top-level spy for MI6, is brought in to be interrogated by MI6 executive Eric Gray and CIA agent Emmett Kurzfeld about her mission to Berlin.

The day after Gasciogne's death, Lorraine is dispatched to Berlin to recover the List and assassinate Satchel, a double agent who has sold intelligence to the Soviets for years and who betrayed Gasciogne. When she arrives in Berlin, she is immediately ambushed by KGB agents working for arms dealer and KGB associate Aleksander Bremovych. Lorraine then meets with her main contact, agent David Percival. After failing to find any immediate leads, Lorraine searches Gasciogne's apartment and discovers a picture of him and Percival, and is then ambushed by the Volkspolizei. She realizes only Percival knew she was going to the apartment, and begins to suspect him of being Satchel...

If I'm honest, I read the full plot description and went "oooooh, was that what was going on!?" Not in a "that was confusing sort of way, but I had just gone for some good old fashioned violence.
  
Piranha 3D (2010)
Piranha 3D (2010)
2010 | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
5
6.3 (18 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Kind of great, definitely awful
Looking for a silly, average, stupidly gory horror film? You could do a lot worse than Piranha 3D.

This movie is never going to be considered a horror great, not even close. It's cheesy, it's brimming with awful acting (except Elisabeth Shue, we love Elisabeth Shue), and it's completely brain dead, and in spite of all of this, Piranha 3D knows exactly what it is, and just waves it in our stupid entertained faces - it's a lot of fun.

The build up to the ridiculous finale is filled with a lot of one dimensional characters that are hard to care about, but has enough sudden gore (with some pretty nice practical effects for the record) to keep you interested.
They even throw in Christopher Lloyd just being a perfect bat-shit crazy version of himself, because why the hell not.

For the most part, it's all very standard and pretty average. But that aforementioned finale....Christ.
The final 20 minutes is gratuitous and then some.
The audience is just assaulted by outrageous violence, enough to keep you firmly grasping just how silly this film is...it's kind of glorious, and the whole thing deserves it's place in the infamous so-bad-its-great hall of horror fame.

It's dumb, but it's entertaining. A must for anyone who fancies a braindead popcorn horror now and again.
  
40x40

LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated American Horror Story - Season 1 in TV

Aug 29, 2019 (Updated Sep 17, 2019)  
American Horror Story  - Season 1
American Horror Story - Season 1
2011 | Horror
The start of something weird and (sometimes) wonderful
I recently convinced my partner to watch Game of Thrones (she loved it in case you were worried) and the deal was, when we were done with GoT, we would watch one of her favourite shows - American Horror Story.

As we sat down to watch the first season (often referred to as Murder House) of this anthology style series, I wasn't too sure what to expect, but I ended up really enjoying our time with the Harmons.

The season has a suitably creepy tone throughout, and a plot line that keeps you in the dark with what happens throughout, and a pretty impressive amount of violence and horror effects.

The huge positive about this show though is obviously the ensemble cast.
Evan Peters, Taissa Farmiga, Frances Conroy, and Jessica Lange in particular all carve in some really memorable parts to the overall series.
Sarah Paulson doesn't star too much in season 1, but her short time is a nice taster for the important roles she will play moving forwards.

The overall tone can be campy and hammy at times, but that balance throughout Murder House is pretty good.
We ended up watching the whole season in a couple of nights, and I'm glad that I let AHS into my viewing life 👍
  
    Agi Bagi Meadow Flyer

    Agi Bagi Meadow Flyer

    Games

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Agi Bagi Meadow Flyer is a colorful and joyful game for the youngest. Discover a magical planet of...

Echo Park (Harry Bosch, #12; Harry Bosch Universe, #15)
Echo Park (Harry Bosch, #12; Harry Bosch Universe, #15)
Michael Connelly | 2006 | Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
10
9.0 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
Does the Confession Solve the Cold Case?
Since Harry Bosch joined the open unsolved squad of the LAPD, he has been actively working on one of his own unsolved cases, that of a young woman who vanished thirteen years earlier. He has a suspect, but it is just based on gut feeling. Then he gets a surprising call. A man who was recently arrested with dead bodies in his car has reached a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. He’s going to confess to several other crimes, including Bosch’s cold case. Is the confession credible?

I had missed Harry Bosch, so I was thrilled to be back in his presence when I picked up this book. He’s a fantastic character, and he comes to life once again in these pages. FBI agent Rachel Walling is also present, and I enjoyed their interactions. The rest of the characters, returning and new, are just as vivid. I knew to expect twists, but they still caught me off guard when I reached them. Yet each one was logical. This series has more sex, language, and violence than my normal cozies, but they are never gratuitously put into the book but used to tell the story. I definitely count myself among Michael Connelly’s fans, and I can’t wait until I find the time to visit Harry Bosch again.
  
Saw (2004)
Saw (2004)
2004 | Horror
Contains spoilers, click to show
Doctor Lawrence Gordon and Adam Faulkner-Stanheight both wake up chained to opposite sides of a dingy room with only a handful of clues the two men must find their way out and save the doctors family.
Most of the film focus not on the two trapped men’s escape attempt but on the past couple of days and on the ‘Jigsaw’ killers previous traps which show the events that led to, not only Adam & Lawrence’s imprisonment but also to how Jigsaw is tracked down by the now disgraced Detective Trapp.
The previous trap rooms all seem a lot simpler than the one set up for Adam and Lawrence and this does seem to be the first one that involves people outside the room.
Saw contains a lot of threat, a bit of gore and bodies that died violent deaths but the graphic scenes are no worst than films like ‘Seven’ and, like Seven, Saw doesn’t focus that much on the actual killer but on his actions and the effects they are having on his victims and it only hints at how long Jigsaw has been active for. The one thing I will say about the violence is that it does show consequences, the doctor is shown to suffer after cutting off his foot and, most of the time, shooting and stabbing does lead to injuries.