
Kyera (8 KP) rated Frozen (Heart of Dread, #1) in Books
Feb 1, 2018
For an established YA writer, this book is surprisingly wrought with errors and would make an English major cringe. It was a poorly written novel with a multitude of punctuation, grammar, and spelling errors. Those completely detracted from the book and made it difficult to read the novel fluidly. There was an overuse of commas, "For days upon days she had been left in the room, alone, in total silence, with little food and water, the weight of solitude becoming ever more oppressive, the silence a heaviness that she could not shake, punishment for refusing to do as she was told, punishment for being what she was." I ran out of breath just reading that incredibly long, run on sentence. It also illustrates another example, the banal repetitiveness. Some examples would be, "She walked down the road, the road that was smooth." Or "The fire that raged within her. The fire that destroyed and consumed. The fire that would destroy and consume her..." How many times does one need to write the fire? Many of the sentences are just reworded versions of the one that came before it. Unnecessarily repetitive and it makes the book sound like a novice writer threw it together in a slap-dash manner with no editor to speak of.
It also cannot decide what genre it wishes to fall under. The magical elements and new species lend itself to a label of fantasy, like books about faeries or nymphs. Paranormal romance perhaps, for the love story that blossoms over the course of the novel? Or the more recently popular zombie novels, with their diseases and alterations of the human dNA, like Forest of Teeth and Bones? Perhaps its a post-apocalyptic or dystopian style novel, akin to Divergent or the Hunger Games - with its frozen world, scarce resources, and tyrannical governments. Whatever it is, the fact that it cannot decide makes the book quite confusing. It does not flow well as a result of the colliding and conflicting worlds. There also is no world-building, which is incredibly important to me in a book. And character building, or even character personalities? Almost non-existent. I would recommend this book to young teen readers, but not anyone who finds themselves frequently noticing errors in novels (even minor ones)as this will drive you crazy. I almost didn't finish the first chapter because the book was so poorly written, but I wanted to see if it would improve.

Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Wolf (2019) in Movies
Sep 26, 2019
As an idea it's an intriguing one. The outline of the story would make a good movie, it's simple and has lots of opportunities to be really effective on screen, unfortunately I don't think this delivered on that potential.
There's quite a spread of characters but some do get overlooked. Ima has a backstory that you can glean through context and Liviana has an implied story but both are only hinted at and nothing is used. Sometimes this is forgivable but with what happens with them both at the end of the film I think it's appalling that we don't get more from them.
This was yet another film that suffers from a black hole of time. There are a couple of points where they play fast and loose ad in one particular place it looks like they filmed at different times of day not accounting for the scenes timeline.
The location itself is stunning and you can see that repeatedly in the panning shots of forest... lots of forest, oh, and a mountain range. The first time it was nice, the second time it was a little cliche, and after that I started writing abuse in my notes.
The other thing that seems to be popular in Wolf is the blurry camera work. For the most part it looks intentional as it's part of the reveal but it's not isolated to that. Some of the fight scenes look like they might have been put together quite well but in one of the biggest of those you can't tell because the action is accompanied by camerawork that looks like it was done by someone hiccuping on a pogo stick.
My other major quibble is the ending. It seems very late in the game to be adding information to the story. There was even an opportunity to introduce the point earlier in the film but that was where we ignored Ima's backstory, looks like a lot of things could have been solved by changing that scene, it seems like a huge misstep.
It's not the worst film, but it's also not the best. There were some big opportunities for improvements but none of them were taken and ultimately this feels like a waste of a good story.
Check out my full review here: http://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2019/09/wolf-movie-review.html

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Phillip McSween (751 KP) rated Horse Girl (2020) in Movies
Apr 13, 2020
Acting: 10
I didn’t love this movie, but I did love Brie’s performance as Sarah. It’s an earnest performance and she did extremely well within the confines of the script she was given. With a solid supporting cast in tow, I enjoyed the acting all the way around.
Beginning: 5
Characters: 2
I wasn’t in love with Sarah’s character or at least how she was portrayed. Without giving away any of the story, I’ll just say I think her arc could have been delved into a bit more. In Horse Girl, it felt like the main issue was being skirted more than anything. I also felt like the other characters were just around for the sake of being fillers.
Cinematography/Visuals: 10
The movie is shot well from a visual standpoint. I love how the dreams blend seamlessly into reality and you have a hard time discerning what’s what at times. It’s those kind of things that keep you guessing and almost manage to salvage the movie.
Conflict: 5
Entertainment Value: 3
If I’m being honest, I was mostly bored throughout the movie. Sure there were a couple of moments that piqued my interest, but I think the movie showed it’s hand too fast by presenting the issue, then not really doing much to resolve the issue. I understand the theme of what the movie is supposed to represent, but where is the light in all of it? It felt like a movie descending more and more into darkness with no hope of getting out.
Memorability: 3
Pace: 4
Slow-moving to the point of being painful at times. I remember repeatedly checking the time hoping that things would eventually pick up. I found myself chasing storylines in my head that didn’t even matter. It felt slower overall because I continued to question the direction.
Plot: 3
The attempt to tackle this type of story could have been handled a lot better. If I compare it to another movie that comes to mind, you will automatically know what Horse Girl is about, but I will say said movie handles the topic like night and day compared to this movie. It lacked any kind of cohesiveness to keep me interested.
Resolution: 3
Ends worse than it started. It drained me of hope which is the complete opposite of a movie’s aim. It’s a shame as there were so many different directions they could have chosen.
Overall: 48
About fifteen minutes in, this movie starts to go downhill for me and never really rebounds. Instead, what happens next is a descent into madness that is neither fun nor hopeful.

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Darren (1599 KP) rated The Faceless Man (2019) in Movies
Aug 5, 2019
It isn’t long before the group of friends have upset the local rednecks who decide to terrorize them, a ruthless drug dealer Viktor Nov (Goikhman) searching for them, while Emily is dealing with her own insecurities about her recover, which manifests itself in a faceless figure haunting her.
Thoughts on The Faceless Man
Characters – Emily is a cancer survivor, she made it with friends, not family and has just started to put her life back together, despite having the fear that one day it would return, which appears to her in living nightmares including a faceless man figure, out of the group of friends this is the only character that gets much outside the generics traits we learn, we have the friend that wants more of a relationship, the one that will push the limits of drugging people, a few jokers and the best friend who can’t handle their substances. Eddie is the owner of the rented house, he comes off creepy to the city slickers as he puts it, he doesn’t want trouble in his property and will deal with anybody that causes it. Viktor Nov is the ruthless drug dealer that has been hunting for his drugs which have a connection to the group of friends, he uses his muscle to kill anybody that disrespects him.
Performances – Sophie Thurling in the leading role is one of the highlights in the film, seeing Sophie balance the mindset of her character through the film will keep us wondering just what will happen next, Albert Goikhman as the ruthless drug dealer is fun to watch, we always know something violent is going to happen when he is on the screen. Andy McPhee does bring the awkward local to life well too.
Story – The story follows a group of friends that want to go on a drink & drug filled party weekend, only to end up in a town that isn’t happy with this lifestyle and that want to send a message to them, while we also see one character haunted by a terrifying looking faceless man. This story does have plenty going on, which works in and against it because you could easily drop one of the side stories and still have an enjoyable horror movie, but mixing them together does add to the mystery of what will happen next, because it does feel like nobody is safe from what is going on. We could have had more development on the group of friends, as it they end up coming off like your usual slasher cast. With the different arcs we do get plenty of violence which is what the film wants to pay respect to the Ozploitation era of cinema, which will help understand the tone of the film.
Horror – The most impressive part of the horror in this film comes from the Faceless Man himself, it comes early in creepy moments, but the reveal of the creature is one of the most terrifying figures in horror this year.
Settings – The film is set in a small town location, with most of the action happening in the one house picked for the party, it shows how things can get out of hand and how uninvited guests can cause more problems in life.
Special Effects – The effects to create the Faceless Man are brilliant, he will scare you, where this film also shines is by letting us imagine the damage being down, with the chainsaw scene being played out longer than needed, which only adds to the horror being inflicted.
Scene of the Movie – The Faceless Man, first full reveal.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The group of friends are not that interesting.
Final Thoughts – This is a horror film built of paying respect to the Ozploitation era of cinema, it brings us plenty of blood and keeps us guessing along the way.
Overall: Ozploitation has returned.

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