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The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire

Kyle Harper

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Book

A sweeping new history of how climate change and disease helped bring down the Roman Empire Here is...

Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London: Their Lives and Their Marks

David M. Mitchell

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Book

Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London is one of the most important works of silver...

The Venetian: This Haunted World: Book 1

Shani Struthers

8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

From the author of the bestselling Psychic Surveys series, comes a brand new series of STANDALONE...

LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated The Purge (2013) in Movies

Aug 8, 2021

The Purge (2013)

2013 | Mystery, Sci-Fi

6.4

(30 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Despite it's shortcomings, it's easy to see why The Purge ended up spawning a franchise and that's mainly down to it's tantalising premise. The whole "murder is legal for one night every year" idea is suitably dystopian, and yet feels uncomfortably plausible. It's a little slice of horror-plot gold.
This first entry however, is more of a tease of what could be, focusing on one family, in one location, on Purge Night.
It has a fair amount going for it. Two strong leads in Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey, a relatively charismatic villain, and a well paced narrative that manages to achieve some sort of tension here and there.
Unfortunately, it falls into silly action clichés during the final third. It's easy to lose count of how many times a main character is about to meet their demise, before being miraculously saved at the last second. It becomes a bit laughable by the time the credits roll. The plot beats around this point take a bit of a dive as well, with some last minute twists thrown in that don't really make a lick of sense. The action itself is fairly entertaining, but marred somewhat by all the crappy CGI blood flying around. And although the main villain has some entertaining aspects, his minions are just a bunch of cringy edge lords that unfortunately plague this entire series.

All that being said, The Purge is still a modest and tidy enough home invasion thriller that deserves a watch.

Kudos

Andy K (10823 KP) rated Bakjwi (Thirst) (2009) in Movies

Oct 4, 2019

Bakjwi (Thirst) (2009)

2009 | Drama, Horror, International

8.5

(2 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Best vampire priest film ever!

The director of Oldboy brings you his own unique spin on the vampire film. A priest is assisting victims of a plague in Africa when he becomes afflicted with a unique illness he can't initially identify.

The moral Christian values slowly start to change as his lust for blood and sex consume him. He must continually inject the rose colored ambrosia to stave off boils from covering his entire body. He begins an affair with a married woman unbeknownst to her family or husband. Her lust and passion are fulfilled as well since she is unhappy with her husband and her marriage.

The priest is constantly torn between his former religious believes and his current immoral desires which are consuming him. His relationships evolve as he can now relieve the suffering of those who want to end their lives while assisting to maintain his own.

Will his desires or his new romance get the best of him?

Watched this as part of my October horror-a-thon, and was not disappointed. The concept for the film is completely unique in a good way and is assisted by pristine, sets, camera work and lighting. Some of the imagery will certainly catch your attention as something you have not seen before and the plot will keep you guessing.

The 135 minute running time did seem to drag a bit toward the middle of the film, but it gains traction and motors through the last hour rather quickly.

I really liked this one.