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We believe that the term "meditation" is a result of differing sets of practices that are found...
Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated The Haunting of Hill House in TV
Nov 13, 2018 (Updated Nov 13, 2018)
Predictable jumpscares (2 more)
Bad acting
Crappy script
Overhyped Garbage
The Haunting Of Hill House is a 2018 Netflix series directed by Mike Flanagan, who directed last year's fantastically creepy adaption of Stephen King's 'Gerald's Game'. Hill House even features some of the same cast members in Carla Gugino and Henry Thomas, whom I both really like. Before diving into it, I thought that this show was going to be tailor made for me, with a brilliant cast and the same subtle but terrifying horror that Flanagan used in Gerald's Game.
However, after watching the first couple of episodes, I was struggling to get into it. Due to the massive amount of hype and praise that this show was getting I decided to stick with it. By the time I got to episode 6, I was done, but then my girlfriend guilted me into watching that rest of the series because she wanted to see it and she was, "too scared to watch it alone."
What a huge waste of time that turned out to be.
If you have read any of my other reviews of horror-based media, you will know that I have a love/hate relationship with the genre. There are very few horror movies or shows that I feel indifferent about. I hate lazy, formulaic bad horror and that is exactly what Hill House is.
Every single episode consists of a jumpscare at the start of the episode, then a hard cut either forwards or backwards in the timeline. Then about 15-20 minutes of piss poor acting and boring dialogue. This is followed by another cheap jumpscare, usually a woman screaming at an obnoxiously loud volume at the camera. Then we get another hard cut back to the other timeline.
The main issue with this structure, (other than being extremely lazy and repetitive,) is that when the hard cut is made to the other timeline, the audience knows that it is done by an editor and that we are now being asked to focus on a part of the story within the other timeline, but for the characters within the show, it makes no sense. For example, two people are having a conversation when something creepy happens. They go to investigate and a screaming woman comes launching towards them or is standing at the edge of a bed or doing basically any other ghost story cliché you can think of. Then the show cuts away to show the characters as children being haunted by a different ghost, but then when we cut back to the present, we never find out how the last jumpscare was resolved. What was the aftermath of that screaming lady at the end of the bed you ask? How was that resolved? How are the character's mentalities after this happened to them? Who cares?! Say the writers, let's just move on to the next cheap jumpscare.
The script is extraordinarily lazy and the child actors are horribly bad. This is an issue that I feel that there isn't really any excuse for anymore after the brilliant child performances in shows like Stranger Things and Season 2 of the Sinner.
If you judge the quality of something based on what it sets out to do versus what it actually does, then The Haunting Of Hill House is the worst show that I have had the displeasure of sitting through this year. The scares are pathetic, the acting is atrocious in places, the script is diabolically cheesy at times, there is hardly any originality present for an, 'original series,' and the show is overflowing with clichés. Not once did a jumpscare actually scare me, because they were all either laughably predicable or they would be totally out of place just for the sake of shock value and would merit a heavy sigh rather than an legit scare. The most egregious, offensively bad example of this was when two characters were having a conversation in a car in episode 6 and a ghost randomly screams from the backseat.
Please do not waste your time with this series, 2018 had so much brilliance to offer on the small screen and despite what you might hear from big publications, this is not one of them.
However, after watching the first couple of episodes, I was struggling to get into it. Due to the massive amount of hype and praise that this show was getting I decided to stick with it. By the time I got to episode 6, I was done, but then my girlfriend guilted me into watching that rest of the series because she wanted to see it and she was, "too scared to watch it alone."
What a huge waste of time that turned out to be.
If you have read any of my other reviews of horror-based media, you will know that I have a love/hate relationship with the genre. There are very few horror movies or shows that I feel indifferent about. I hate lazy, formulaic bad horror and that is exactly what Hill House is.
Every single episode consists of a jumpscare at the start of the episode, then a hard cut either forwards or backwards in the timeline. Then about 15-20 minutes of piss poor acting and boring dialogue. This is followed by another cheap jumpscare, usually a woman screaming at an obnoxiously loud volume at the camera. Then we get another hard cut back to the other timeline.
The main issue with this structure, (other than being extremely lazy and repetitive,) is that when the hard cut is made to the other timeline, the audience knows that it is done by an editor and that we are now being asked to focus on a part of the story within the other timeline, but for the characters within the show, it makes no sense. For example, two people are having a conversation when something creepy happens. They go to investigate and a screaming woman comes launching towards them or is standing at the edge of a bed or doing basically any other ghost story cliché you can think of. Then the show cuts away to show the characters as children being haunted by a different ghost, but then when we cut back to the present, we never find out how the last jumpscare was resolved. What was the aftermath of that screaming lady at the end of the bed you ask? How was that resolved? How are the character's mentalities after this happened to them? Who cares?! Say the writers, let's just move on to the next cheap jumpscare.
The script is extraordinarily lazy and the child actors are horribly bad. This is an issue that I feel that there isn't really any excuse for anymore after the brilliant child performances in shows like Stranger Things and Season 2 of the Sinner.
If you judge the quality of something based on what it sets out to do versus what it actually does, then The Haunting Of Hill House is the worst show that I have had the displeasure of sitting through this year. The scares are pathetic, the acting is atrocious in places, the script is diabolically cheesy at times, there is hardly any originality present for an, 'original series,' and the show is overflowing with clichés. Not once did a jumpscare actually scare me, because they were all either laughably predicable or they would be totally out of place just for the sake of shock value and would merit a heavy sigh rather than an legit scare. The most egregious, offensively bad example of this was when two characters were having a conversation in a car in episode 6 and a ghost randomly screams from the backseat.
Please do not waste your time with this series, 2018 had so much brilliance to offer on the small screen and despite what you might hear from big publications, this is not one of them.
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Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated Hearts on Air (Hearts, #6) in Books
Jan 9, 2020
This review and more can be found at my blog https://aromancereadersreviews.blogspot.com/
This has been borrowed from the Kindle Unlimited library.
Well, first things first. You DO NOT have to read book #5.5, One Epic Night, to understand this as it is included at the beginning of this book.
Then the story continues where that one left off. Trevor is now a TV star in a free-running show that follows him and a handful of other free runners as they do stunts around London and other big cities. One difference now is that Reya is not in his life. Chapters go back and forth a few times so we see what happened in the months following their "one epic night" and how things didn't end so well with them.
It's been about 2 years since then and Trevor suddenly turns up in Reya's life again wanting to be friends again and asking if she'll fill in for one of their pregnant PA's while she's off on maternity. Reya is wary of letting Trev back into her life but eventually agrees and they travel to several cities around Europe with the group doing stunts and free running in pretty parks and some well known places. As they spend time together, they grow closer once more and before long those feelings from two years ago are creeping back in.
One thing that was driving me a little mad was the Leanne and Callum thing. I know they get their own book in a different series but seeing their love/hate relationship and the arguments and tender moments and NOT KNOWING what was happening was driving me a little mad. I will definitely be getting their book at some point.
I also liked how we saw pretty much every other character from the series in this one towards the end. I had honestly forgot how they all connected but seeing them in those last few chapters was really nice.
Definitely should be read if you've enjoyed previous books in the series.
This has been borrowed from the Kindle Unlimited library.
Well, first things first. You DO NOT have to read book #5.5, One Epic Night, to understand this as it is included at the beginning of this book.
Then the story continues where that one left off. Trevor is now a TV star in a free-running show that follows him and a handful of other free runners as they do stunts around London and other big cities. One difference now is that Reya is not in his life. Chapters go back and forth a few times so we see what happened in the months following their "one epic night" and how things didn't end so well with them.
It's been about 2 years since then and Trevor suddenly turns up in Reya's life again wanting to be friends again and asking if she'll fill in for one of their pregnant PA's while she's off on maternity. Reya is wary of letting Trev back into her life but eventually agrees and they travel to several cities around Europe with the group doing stunts and free running in pretty parks and some well known places. As they spend time together, they grow closer once more and before long those feelings from two years ago are creeping back in.
One thing that was driving me a little mad was the Leanne and Callum thing. I know they get their own book in a different series but seeing their love/hate relationship and the arguments and tender moments and NOT KNOWING what was happening was driving me a little mad. I will definitely be getting their book at some point.
I also liked how we saw pretty much every other character from the series in this one towards the end. I had honestly forgot how they all connected but seeing them in those last few chapters was really nice.
Definitely should be read if you've enjoyed previous books in the series.
Acanthea Grimscythe (300 KP) rated The Jesus Man in Books
May 16, 2018
The Jesus Man by Keith Anthony Baird is a tough book for me to rate, if I’m being honest. It’s part of why, despite completing it last week, I’ve taken so long to write up my review. The book isn’t an easy read by any means, especially with its vast amounts of purple prose. It does, however, have a uniquely intriguing plot.
One of the major deciding factors for me when I read a book is its ability to make me feel emotion. I want a connection with the characters, even if it’s a seething hatred that I feel in the depths of my heart. With The Jesus Man, I felt loathing and disdain, but nothing beyond that. I felt disconnected, for the most part. The characters seemed to me as if they were in limbo between fully and halfway developed.
In regards to plot, Baird does an excellent job. As a horror fan, I end up reading a lot of apocalyptic books. Most of the time, the cause is a viral outbreak of zombies. It’s a cliché we deal with far too often and it’s been beaten to death time and time again. Baird goes an entirely new route, with the dredges of Hell returning to claim what should be theirs. Described as the Fallen, we know these creatures as the angels cast from Heaven in the wake of God’s love for mankind stoking rebellion among them. It’s an interesting take on the world’s post-nuclear was end and I feel that Baird did a wonderful job in this area of his book.
I do have to take a moment to appreciate one beautiful perk to Baird’s ornate writing style: his depiction of gory acts is absolutely stunning. I’m a sucker for splatterpunk, so this served as a nice treat for me. While his characters felt lacking to me (which I discovered was the author’s intent post-read), his vivid descriptions (even if heavy-handed) are breathtaking and nightmare invoking.
I’ve danced between a two and four for this book several times, so ultimately I’m going to go with a three. While I loved the concept, the difficulty of reading this book made it hard for me to enjoy.
I would like to thank the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
One of the major deciding factors for me when I read a book is its ability to make me feel emotion. I want a connection with the characters, even if it’s a seething hatred that I feel in the depths of my heart. With The Jesus Man, I felt loathing and disdain, but nothing beyond that. I felt disconnected, for the most part. The characters seemed to me as if they were in limbo between fully and halfway developed.
In regards to plot, Baird does an excellent job. As a horror fan, I end up reading a lot of apocalyptic books. Most of the time, the cause is a viral outbreak of zombies. It’s a cliché we deal with far too often and it’s been beaten to death time and time again. Baird goes an entirely new route, with the dredges of Hell returning to claim what should be theirs. Described as the Fallen, we know these creatures as the angels cast from Heaven in the wake of God’s love for mankind stoking rebellion among them. It’s an interesting take on the world’s post-nuclear was end and I feel that Baird did a wonderful job in this area of his book.
I do have to take a moment to appreciate one beautiful perk to Baird’s ornate writing style: his depiction of gory acts is absolutely stunning. I’m a sucker for splatterpunk, so this served as a nice treat for me. While his characters felt lacking to me (which I discovered was the author’s intent post-read), his vivid descriptions (even if heavy-handed) are breathtaking and nightmare invoking.
I’ve danced between a two and four for this book several times, so ultimately I’m going to go with a three. While I loved the concept, the difficulty of reading this book made it hard for me to enjoy.
I would like to thank the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Lee (2222 KP) rated Hell House LLC (2015) in Movies
Jan 20, 2020
I'd heard very little about Hell House LLC before watching it and hadn't even seen the trailer either. But, it had been highly recommended by a few people and had been sitting on my Amazon Prime watch-list for some time anyway, so I decided to give it a shot. It's a found footage horror, which has been done to death now, so it's easy to go into another one feeling cynical and apprehensive. However, there is still the occasional hidden gem out there waiting to be found and, for me, Hell House LLC turned out to be one of them.
The plot surrounds a Halloween house tour in an old abandoned hotel in a small American town. On opening night, as dozens of thrill-seekers descend on the house to enjoy the various mannequins and lighting effects that have been setup to try and scare them, there is an incident down in the basement. Panic ensues as everyone tries to locate the exits and there are a number of mysterious deaths, along with numerous injuries. We see a YouTube video that somebody recorded during their tour, but they didn't quite make it to the basement to capture what went on, so all we see is them making a hasty exit. Five years on and the hotel is now boarded up, while the whole tragedy remains unexplained. Now though, the sole survivor of the crew responsible for putting on the event has approached a documentary crew with a bunch of video tapes that were recorded by the team in the run-up to opening night, so hopefully the truth will finally be revealed.
We begin with the team driving to the hotel for the first time, before going inside to check it all out. They've put on Halloween house tours before, but this one is a bit of a challenge due to the derelict nature of the hotel. First they need to get power to the place, in order to setup safety cameras in every room and corridor, strobe lighting etc. Then they start setting up the various rooms, working out themes and hiring a small group of actors to dress up and scare people during the tour. Early on in the movie, these scenes are interspersed with interviews from reporters, photographers and historians who recount some of the troubled history of the hotel and give us a bit more detail as to what happened during and after the events of the tours opening night.
The crew of five are all staying in the hotel as they work towards the big day, all the while documenting their progress and the various challenges they encounter. The place is seriously creepy anyway and the movie takes it's time in establishing the characters and making sure you're familiar with everything they've installed and the general layout of the hotel before mysterious things start happening, usually at night while everyone is trying to sleep. At first, things are basic enough that it's easy for them to accuse someone of trying to prank the others, but they soon start to increase in intensity and creepiness. Despite all common sense, preparations still continue for the big night which, as we already know, turns out to be a big mistake.
I really liked Hell House LLC. I'm still not actually sure what happened down in the basement, or afterwards for that matter, but the build up to it really did work well for me and there were some very effective and genuinely unsettling moments. And I do love feeling unsettled by a movie!
The plot surrounds a Halloween house tour in an old abandoned hotel in a small American town. On opening night, as dozens of thrill-seekers descend on the house to enjoy the various mannequins and lighting effects that have been setup to try and scare them, there is an incident down in the basement. Panic ensues as everyone tries to locate the exits and there are a number of mysterious deaths, along with numerous injuries. We see a YouTube video that somebody recorded during their tour, but they didn't quite make it to the basement to capture what went on, so all we see is them making a hasty exit. Five years on and the hotel is now boarded up, while the whole tragedy remains unexplained. Now though, the sole survivor of the crew responsible for putting on the event has approached a documentary crew with a bunch of video tapes that were recorded by the team in the run-up to opening night, so hopefully the truth will finally be revealed.
We begin with the team driving to the hotel for the first time, before going inside to check it all out. They've put on Halloween house tours before, but this one is a bit of a challenge due to the derelict nature of the hotel. First they need to get power to the place, in order to setup safety cameras in every room and corridor, strobe lighting etc. Then they start setting up the various rooms, working out themes and hiring a small group of actors to dress up and scare people during the tour. Early on in the movie, these scenes are interspersed with interviews from reporters, photographers and historians who recount some of the troubled history of the hotel and give us a bit more detail as to what happened during and after the events of the tours opening night.
The crew of five are all staying in the hotel as they work towards the big day, all the while documenting their progress and the various challenges they encounter. The place is seriously creepy anyway and the movie takes it's time in establishing the characters and making sure you're familiar with everything they've installed and the general layout of the hotel before mysterious things start happening, usually at night while everyone is trying to sleep. At first, things are basic enough that it's easy for them to accuse someone of trying to prank the others, but they soon start to increase in intensity and creepiness. Despite all common sense, preparations still continue for the big night which, as we already know, turns out to be a big mistake.
I really liked Hell House LLC. I'm still not actually sure what happened down in the basement, or afterwards for that matter, but the build up to it really did work well for me and there were some very effective and genuinely unsettling moments. And I do love feeling unsettled by a movie!
mostlyinpyjamas (13 KP) rated Getting Over Jesse Franklin in Books
Nov 29, 2017
Couldn't put it down.
I am always a bit wary about reading anything written by someone I follow, and chat to, on twitter. What if I don’t enjoy it?
Totes awkward. Especially if I’ve told them I’m reading it. I worry that I’d have to leave twitter in case they ask me if I liked their book.
So, I’d been putting off reading Getting Over Jesse Franklin. But it’s on offer, free on Amazon right now, and when I saw that, I suddenly had a bad case of FOMO.
I had to read it because what if I was missing out on a good thing?
And I’m so glad that I did!
Just one chapter in I tweeted that I was hooked.
I walked around Asda, still reading, this evening, and I’m admitting nothing here but I might have served pot noodles for dinner because I could not put the book down.
If you’ve ever had a crush on a member of a band you’ll enjoy the trip down memory lane, if you’re a sucker for a romance you’ll love this one.
It’s not insta love, which so many stories are lately, it’s a romance that blossoms, at first, on the internet.
We’ve all been there haven’t we? Waiting, hoping, for a message to ping, almost afraid to look in case it doesn’t, feeling your heart stop for a moment when it does.
Let me tell you, I now have a major crush on Jesse Franklin!
Stephie writes so well, the story keeps moving, I loved the cast of characters, Cassie’s friends, family, colleagues, and of course Jessie’s family.
The story is told by Cassie and reads in such a way that it’s like a friend telling you a story over a bottle of wine and a slice – or two – of cake.
The descriptive writing is spot on, I could picture every scene perfectly.
At one point I wanted to grab Cassie by the shoulders, give her a firm shake and tell her not to do it, to slow down, but she did do it, and she broke my heart. There I was reminiscing about the posters I had on my wall as a teen, smiling because sometimes an online relationship can lead to love, my optimistic heart all a flutter, then boom! I found myself heartbroken in aisle 7 of my local Asda.
I absolutely loved this book! So much that I’m now going to buy the sequel, Jetplanes to Jupiter. I just hope I can put it down for long enough to cook a proper dinner tomorrow.
I wholeheartedly recommend Getting Over Jesse Franklin but read it at the weekend because you’ll get nothing done.
Totes awkward. Especially if I’ve told them I’m reading it. I worry that I’d have to leave twitter in case they ask me if I liked their book.
So, I’d been putting off reading Getting Over Jesse Franklin. But it’s on offer, free on Amazon right now, and when I saw that, I suddenly had a bad case of FOMO.
I had to read it because what if I was missing out on a good thing?
And I’m so glad that I did!
Just one chapter in I tweeted that I was hooked.
I walked around Asda, still reading, this evening, and I’m admitting nothing here but I might have served pot noodles for dinner because I could not put the book down.
If you’ve ever had a crush on a member of a band you’ll enjoy the trip down memory lane, if you’re a sucker for a romance you’ll love this one.
It’s not insta love, which so many stories are lately, it’s a romance that blossoms, at first, on the internet.
We’ve all been there haven’t we? Waiting, hoping, for a message to ping, almost afraid to look in case it doesn’t, feeling your heart stop for a moment when it does.
Let me tell you, I now have a major crush on Jesse Franklin!
Stephie writes so well, the story keeps moving, I loved the cast of characters, Cassie’s friends, family, colleagues, and of course Jessie’s family.
The story is told by Cassie and reads in such a way that it’s like a friend telling you a story over a bottle of wine and a slice – or two – of cake.
The descriptive writing is spot on, I could picture every scene perfectly.
At one point I wanted to grab Cassie by the shoulders, give her a firm shake and tell her not to do it, to slow down, but she did do it, and she broke my heart. There I was reminiscing about the posters I had on my wall as a teen, smiling because sometimes an online relationship can lead to love, my optimistic heart all a flutter, then boom! I found myself heartbroken in aisle 7 of my local Asda.
I absolutely loved this book! So much that I’m now going to buy the sequel, Jetplanes to Jupiter. I just hope I can put it down for long enough to cook a proper dinner tomorrow.
I wholeheartedly recommend Getting Over Jesse Franklin but read it at the weekend because you’ll get nothing done.
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Lee (2222 KP) Nov 13, 2018