31 days of horror part 2

October 2nd 2016 

Internet problems at home are meaning I'm a bit behind on Blog posts at mo, but hopefully it should all  get fixed soon and I should be able to catch up.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd kick off today's post with a few recommendations for films to watch over the Halloween period - starting with a couple of favourites of mine.

1) Contracted - I've talked about this film before, but this is a great gross-out film to start off your 31 days of horror viewing. A young girl is date-raped at a party, only to wake up next morning to realise she has contracted a sexually transmitted disease that slowly causes necrosis. 

Over the next three days, we, the viewer, witness as her health rapidly starts to decline - leading to all sorts of nasty moments that to describe here, would only spoil your viewing pleasure.

A sequel that followed is not so good, but this film stood out for me and I loved every minute of it!

For a full review featured earlier, simply search Contracted in the search bar at the top of this Blog.

2) + 3) {rec} and {rec} Genesis - Again, I have talked about these films before, but Spanish horrors {rec}and {rec} 3 remain two of my favourite horror films of all time. There are 4 films in total in the series, but of them, these two, in my mind, are the strongest so far.

In {rec}, a film crew documenting the lives of people working the night shift find themselves at a local fire station recording all that goes on there. All is fairly boring and mundane until the point when they are called out to help an old lady, trapped in her apartment.

The film crew go with them, but shortly after arriving, the whole apartment complex is put under quarantine and it soon becomes clear that something is very, very wrong. 

The old lady is sick, and the sickness is spreading - infecting anyone and everyone she comes into contact with and turning them into violent and deranged killers who simply refuse to be stopped.

With nowhere to go, the film crew desperately try to uncover the cause of the virus before it is too late!

{rec} is a brilliant film - at 90 minutes, it is intense, claustrophobic, and shocking to the extreme with plenty of shocks and thrills to keep the adrenaline pumping. 

The contrast between the slow start, and what follows afterwards, is simply sublime and everything happens so quickly, you are sure to be left by the end credits with your heart pumping as this is certainly a film that leaves nothing to the imagination.

{rec} 3, or {rec} Genesis as it is better known, occurs at the same time as {rec}, but outside the city and instead based at a wedding. It receives mixed reviews because unlike the previous two films, it is more light-hearted in tone and the found footage style is quickly abandoned but you know what, I love it simply because it is so different.

It starts like a wedding video, with shots of the happy couple getting ready for their big day, but before the end of the night, everything has all gone to hell. 

One of the guests at the wedding is a vet, bitten by a dog owned by a family who live in the original apartment building, and it isn't long before he begins running amok and infecting everyone else.

I love this film, and not just because it features a chainsaw wielding bride, but also because of the unique twists and turns the story takes.

There are plenty of surprises here and those who dismiss this film as being too different from the others are simply missing the point.

Like the sorbet course in a meal, this film is almost like an interlude, a little break or refresher, before things go back to being serious for the fourth and final chapter.

For me, these three films are a perfect start to Halloween and your 31 days of horror movie viewing.

Look out for more recommendations soon...

Revival, and why I'm worried about The Dark Tower movie...

Stephen King still remains my favourite author of all time ( he sits proudly at the top of my top 3, closely followed by Robin Hobb and John Connolly) but in recent years I've kind of stopped reading his books for no reason other than that I don't read anywhere near as much as I once did now I am a writer.

That said, when I saw Revival in a charity shop recently for just £2, I knew I had to have it.

Revival is very "Hearts in Atlantis" in style in that it is very much a nostalgia piece.

It begins way back in the sixties when a young boy first encounters the new reverend in town, and then goes on to tell the story of how this man continues to feature in this boy's life through the next few decades as he slowly becomes a man and discovers that both their fates are intertwined.

It is a great book and right up there with King's best, but to say any more about it would be to do it an injustice.

It is just one of those books you need to experience for yourself, but I'm happy to say it never disappoints and ranks right up there as one of my favourite King books that he has ever written.

King is an awesome writer who thinks nothing of crossing genres and always trying to deliver something that his readers might not think to expect. 

The films of his many books are a very different animal entirely though, and that is why I'm worried about the film adaptation of what is arguably his greatest work, The Dark Tower.

Putting aside that they have cast Idris Elba as Roland, the gunslinger, (shock, horror - a black man in what is supposed to be a white man's role - not like Hollywood has ever done anything like that before, is it? Aeon Flux starring Scarlett Johansen, I'm looking at you) - something I really don't have a problem with btw - the history of King's books being translated into film is not a favourable one.

Yes, there have been some truly great movie adaptations, but equally there have been just as many bad ones, if not more. 

One of the things that does give me hope about The Dark Tower film though is the fact that it appears to be, from all accounts, not a faithful adaptation of the books but a kind of sequel.

Those who have read The Dark Tower novels from beginning to end will be aware that Roland's journey across the Wastelands is not the first time that he has attempted to reach The Dark Tower and that with each climax, his quest appears to begin anew.

The movie, it appears, is going to show a whole new cycle of events as Roland begins his journey all over again; thus explaining this time around why the colour of his skin has changed and why we will not be seeing, at least in the first film, some of the characters that we readers have come to know and live like Eddie and Odetta.

This isn't the Roland Deschain readers think they know, but a new interpretation as the gunslinger begins his journey from the beginning for what is allegedly the last time.

Doesn't mean it's going to be any good, but the chance to experience a whole new chapter of The Dark Tower, albeit on the big screen, has to be a good thing, right?

I mean, the last fix we had was with the interim novella, The Wind through the keyhole and that was years ago so anything new has to be a good thing, right? Right?

That's the problem, we really don't know.

Recently, I had the misfortune to watch Carrie 2: The Rage and it was awful.

I love the original Carrie, and even quite enjoyed the remake hen I saw it on Netflix recently, but the sequel is atrocious. It was like Beverly Hills 90210 with telekinesis, the actors couldn't act their way out of a paper bag, and an attempt to catch up with lone survivor, Susan, many years later never really goes anywhere. The story teases that the same man who fathered Carrie White is also responsible for fathering the new girl in this film, ignoring the fact of however many years might have passed between his fathering both children, and then never really goes anywhere with it.

Susan, now a teacher, seems to know a hell of a lot about recessive genes and how the telekinesis gene is passed on through the male and then is woefully under-used and the whole thing just feels like a disaster. 

And what is up with those tattoos that suddenly seem able to move across her body when the new girl's powers come into effect? 

Don't even get me started on that.

Yes, I know, Carrie 2 is not really an adaptation of a King book, more a shameless cash-in, but the fact remains, King books rarely make a successful transition to film.

In future blog posts, I intend to look at some of the many success and failures that have occurred over the years, but the law of averages states that The Dark Tower movie has a lot of work to do and a lot to prove if it is going to be one of the better ones.

And that, that is why I'm worried it's going to suck.

Still, there's always the remake of IT to look forward to, right?

What I have been watching...

So, as you know, I have this perchant for nasty little movies that I like watching late at night, and one that I have discovered recently is a little little known Aussie gem from 2009/ 2010 called The Loved Ones.

Lola is a bit of a social misfit. She is also the unpopular one at school, so when she finally plucks up the courage to ask the guy she fancies to their end of school prom, inevitably he turns her down.

Brent has his own issues - he was partly responsible for his dad's death in a car accident - and besides, he's going out with one of the hottest girls in school and already taking her to the dance.

Unfortunately, as is often the case in such movies, Lola is a bit of a nutcase. Alone out in the wild, taking some time out for a bit of manly brooding and a crafty smoke, Brent suddenly finds himself being attacked and subdued and when he wakes up, he is being held prisoner - by Lola and her dad.

If Brent won't take her to prom, she'll bring him to her own prom. 

Though dancing is the last thing on her mind...

What follows next is what can only be described as 'torture porn' as Lola begins mentally and physically abusing Brent, along with assistance by her father. Though not as extreme as some films that I have seen, nonetheless there are more than a few bits that make for uncomfortable viewing in this rather stylish and often fun horror thriller.

A side-plot featuring Brent's best friend and his own date with the school goth never really goes anywhere other than providing a little bit of light entertainment and comic relief, but overall, this is a pretty neat film with one or two clever twists and the kind of dark humour that Australians seem to do so well. 4/5

The other film I've been watching is Contracted, Phase 2.

Following on from the first film, this time we follow Riley - the guy who had unprotected sex with Sam, the infected girl, towards the end of the first film. 

Following her subsequent death -spoilers - Riley goes to get himself checked out by his brother-in-law, a doctor to make sure he hasn't contracted anything himself. Despite being given a clean bill of health, he still begins to panic - especially after extracting one of Sam's finger nails from underneath his skin where she scratched his back during sex back in the first film.

Much as in Contracted, we see his condition gradually worsening, but this time we we also get another person's perspective thrown into the mix as we follow a police officer trying to track down the person who started off the virus in the first place.

This sub-plot is one that is only ever partially explored and that is one of the main downfalls of this sequel. For when the movie finally ends, even during the end-credits sequences, we, the viewer, are still left with more questions than answers. 

I liked this film and it has some very nice uncomfortable - and often very nasty - scenes including one (spoilers again) that sees Riley pissing blood, but the problem is it all feels a bit too much like what has come before. It is more of a traditional zombie film than the first one with reports of the outbreak spreading across the city whereas the first film offered, at least in my opinion, something a little different.

Inevitably it was always going to be difficult to repeat the success of the first film but, for me, I don't think this sequel really works and it all ends up being a little disappointing. 

Which is a shame because I had such high hopes for this!

The critical response means we probably won't get a third instalment, and hence any real kind of answers, and they is both a good thing and a bad thing.

Rec 4 suffered from trying to go on too long (3 was good, 4 just felt pointless) and probably it is a good thing that the Contracted series ends here - but I still out have liked a few more answers. 3/5

One thing I am looking forward to is the imminent release of my friend, Kathy Denver's debut book.

Ever since discovering the likes of Christina Engela and Christopher Burch's The Icarus Void, I've been looking out for more bold, new reads and from the looks of it, Kathy Denver's book, The Guardians, looks like it might well fit the bill. 

More fantasy than horror, here is the blurb:

 "Eli a warrior witch, faces off against a race of entites known as the D'thseh, whose intent is to feed of the pain and misery they inflict on non-magical humans. 

When a member of his coven is brutally murdered, Eli and his friends must prepare themselves for a battle like no other they have faced before. 

With the resurfacing of the Dark Ones, a faction of witches that practice dark magic, Eli must not only face the on coming storm he must also face the demons of his covens past. 
One they may not survive."

If you want to check it out, the Amazon link is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guardians-Forest-Ancestors-K-Denver-ebook/dp/B01FPOYSR6?ie=UTF8&ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_udp_api_2kmoxb8WZ04QT

And you can find her release party, being held this weekend, here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1737001629918048/?ti=icl

Feel free to stop by and meet the author...you might even win some prizes!!

Until next time, ciao...

And the final films for 2014 are....

This last month has been manic. I'm not even going to go into all the stresses and hassles of work that I have been experiencing all through December - needless to say it has been worse than the usual Xmas at the hotel - but my writing output has gone down to virtually zero this month and I am now behind on editing. 

Today then was a me day -and well deserved it was too! 

What did I do? I took daughter, Emilie, and Mrs. Sparky to see Paddington. 

Paddington is quite simply one of the most sublime and enjoyable kids films of this year. The lovable bear whose antics have become famous the world over in print for several decades now gets a well deserved and long awaited make-over, and even something of a back story that he was always lacking before. 

Though not as upsetting as the first half hour of Up, Paddington begins with a hint of tragedy. Paddington's Uncle is killed during an earthquake and the young bear is sent off on a trip to London by his Aunt Lucy alone because it is what his Aunt and Uncke had always intended to do but just never found the time. 

Though assured of a warm welcome, Paddington (who isn't called that yet) soon finds London less friendly than he expected and it is only when he decides he has no option but to sleep in a bin that he encounters the Browns. Reluctantly, they agree to take him in for the night, but he quickly becomes one with the family as they all attempt to do their best to track down the famous explorerer who first met his Aunt Lucy many years ago and regaled her with stories all about the delights of London, England.  

Add Peter Capaldi as an annoying neighbour, Jim Broadbent in a cameo as Mr.Gruber ( who doesn't get enough screen time here - more in a sequel, please), and Nicole Kidman as a nefarious taxidermist and what you get is a fun-filled family romp that will amuse and entertain both adults and children alike.

What's more - there is a veritable who's who of cameos from all manner of British comedy actors, the like of which you will no doubt recognise from various sketch shows even if you don't know their names, and in this, the film at times becomes almost like a throwback to the golden age of British comedy films from days gone by. 

I loved it, Emilie roared with laughter despite having seen it already with my mum, and Mrs. Sparky was likewise throughly impressed. 

A winner all round...

The second film I watched tonight was Thor:the dark world. 

I'm not a big fan of the Thor films, but I kind of felt like I had to watch it as it forms part of the Infinity Stone storyline and I had already seen the aftermath in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I actually quite enjoyed this one - more than the first at any rate - though one of the funniest bits is when Thor falls through a portal, has to get back to Greenwich, and has to take the Tube. 

"How do I get to Greenwich from here?" He asks. 

"Take this train for three stops," is the reply.

Once again, there is a very British connection and funnily enough, one of the random cameo actors from Paddington turns up here as well. The bonus extra scene at the end features Benicio Del Toro as The Collector, long before his appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy (more on that another day) and as per usual, this film is yet another good example of Marvel doing what they do best: giving the audience the usual Earth-under-threat crisis whilst continuing to build their ever expanding universe.

It's all pretty standard stuff, but there's nothing wrong with that and Stan Lee once more impresses with his usual cameo. 

Though not my favourite of the many Marvel films I have seen (I'm now up to date), Thor: The dark world is slightly better than okay and that rates it above the first film at least.

More soon...