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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2271 KP) rated A Wicked Yarn in Books

Dec 30, 2020

A Wicked Yarn

Emmie Caldwell | 2020 | Mystery

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

This Debut is a Good Yarn

After the loss of her husband, Lia Geiger moves to a new town in Pennsylvania and starts selling things she and her knitting friends make at a local craft fair run by her best friend, Belinda. She’s expecting to sell lots of items over Mother’s Day weekend, and Saturday is great. But when she arrives on Sunday, she finds Belinda standing over the dead body of Belinda’s ex-husband, a developer who just the day before was planning to buy the barn where the craft fair is held and tear it down. With attendance at the craft fair dropping and Belinda everyone’s prime suspect, Lia jumps in to clear her friend. Can she do it?

While I don’t normally read crafting themed cozies, I’m glad I picked up this debut because I enjoyed it. The mystery is strong with several viable suspects, and it kept me guessing until the end. I did struggle with Lia’s relationship with Belinda. Even given what she is going through, I had a hard time believe that Lia and Belinda are best friends. However, there are plenty of other characters to love here, including Lia’s new neighbors and her young adult daughter. I enjoyed spending time with them. I’m looking forward to visiting Lia again when the next book in the series comes out.

Kudos

LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Hack-O-Lantern (1988) in Movies

Nov 11, 2020

Hack-O-Lantern (1988)

1988 | Horror

6.0

(1 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Hack-O-Lantern is a ride. It boasts a simple plot about a Satanic cult grooming a young boy all the way through adult hood to join their ranks, whilst his siblings just try to enjoy teenage life, and a maniac in a devil mask runs about town killing folk with a pitchfork, all on Halloween night. Standard slasher stuff, but with randomly thrown in music videos, strip teases, and belly dancing. The film even stops dead for a few minutes to show us a stand up comedy routine. It's really really odd.

The whole experience is ball achingly 80s, complete with questionable acting, awkward dialogue, passable gore effects, and an absolutely raging music score. All of the music just sounds like Final Fantasy battle music. It's incredible.

Hack-O-Lantern was aired as part of Joe Bob Briggs 2020 Halloween Special, and is worth a watch to gain some insight into why this films is so weird and disjointed, such as director Jag Mundhra speaking very little English accounting for some of the bizarre dialogue, and his Indian background explaining the out of place Bollywood elements sprinkled throughout. It's a pretty fascinating and quirky horror all in all.

If you're looking for a cheap, ridiculous, and absurd 80s horror, then this ticks all the right boxes.