Charlotte

Charlotte

Monday, February 27, 2017

Macabre Monday - the deathly London fog of 1952


On December 4th 1952 the city of London found itself trapped underneath a wall of fog and by December 9th when the fog finally lifted, roughly 12,000 had died. But it wasn't because of ghost pirates.

A high pressure air mass settled over the Thames river and when the sun dropped, a cold front moved in from the west forcing any wind to come to a stop. So the air above London sat still and as the temperature continued to drop, people began to fill their furnaces with coal to keep warm. Coal ash, soot and smoke filled the sky. The coal back then was low-grade and sulfurous.

Last November, scientists out of Texas A&M University finally figured out what caused such a terrible storm of events. The anticyclone mixed with the burning coal and other toxic elements with an above average humidity for that time of the year turned the air into a fog of concentrated sulfuric acid.


So how did this all go so wrong in 1952?

This kind of thick fog wasn't exactly news to London, they had gained a reputation for their fog going back all the way to the 13th century but this fog was different. It was named "pea-soup fog" after the artist John Sartain coined that term due to the fogs thickness and green color. The air stank of rotten eggs because of the sulfur and black sludge covered the streets. There were also various coal-fired power stations across the city. Back then according to the UK's Met Office the pollutants that were emitted each day were 1,000 tonnes of smoke particles, 140 tonnes of hydrochloric acid, 14 tonnes of fluorine compounds, and 370 tonnes of sulphur dioxide and because of the lack of wind, this all hung heavy in the air.

As this heavy fog settled, transportation was shut down, flights canceled and schools were closed. Even the ambulance services were halted. People were told to stay home and they did but they were cold so they continued to fill their furnaces with coal. Sporting events got cancelled but of course the pubs stayed open. Even movie theaters had to shut down because the fog was making its' way into the buildings. Could you imagine that? It would be so creepy just watching fog sneak in under the door.


By the third day of London trapped under the fog, it had grown thirty miles wide continuing to enter people's homes, even reaching up to people's knees. Farm animals were choking to death and drivers were abandoning their cars in the middle of roads, unable to see where they were headed. People who spent any time outside would come back in covered in soot. And, of course, some people took advantage of this fog and burglaries took a spike and purses were snatched right off of women walking the streets.


On Sunday the 7th there was no letting up and emergency services were still shut down but the elderly and newborns began to die, unable to breathe and with no one to help them. As it continued to get worse, people all over began to choke and drop dead. Morgues began to overfill with bodies.


Finally on December 9th the anticyclone conditions broke and a cold wind came in from the West clearing out the fog. But as the fog lifted, Londoners were left to dealt with the aftermath. Undertakers had run out of coffins and the death count rose. People continued to be admitted to hospitals in the months that followed and deaths from bronchitis and pneumonia increased.


Now you'd think that there would be an uprising and the government would put in place some new laws and procedures immediately to ensure this would never happen again. But nope.


For four years the British government ignored what happened and it wasn't until 1956 that Parliament finally passed the Clean Air Act after years of public outcry and the death toll still rising. This Act restricted the burning of coal in any heavily populated areas. Homes were fitted with gas, electric and oil heating systems.


Unfortunately this wasn't the last time London had a deadly fog. In 1962 750 people died because of similar conditions. The reason the scientists out of Texas are studying this now is due to Beijing being in the same situation today. If there was just a small shift in weather like London in 1952, and the wind stops, China could be facing the same scary situation. But because of their massive population they could lose hundreds of thousands of lives.


Could you imagine how claustrophobic it must have felt to wake up and not be able to see a few feet in front of you on the street. And even escaping into your home was useless because the fog would continue to seep under your door frames. It's a complete horror movie made of natural causes.

Spooky shit!



Saturday, February 25, 2017

Spooky Saturday - Emelie and why you should never trust the babysitter



It's Saturday!!! And last night I watched Emelie, a 2015 horror film directed by Michael Thelin and written by Richard Raymond Harry Herbeck (DANG). Starring Sarah Bolger in a terrifying babysitter role, Emelie is unlike anything I've ever seen. Let's jump into it!

EMELIE 2015



"...it made her mind crack. It didn't break, it just cracked."

Emelie opens on a young girl walking, talking on the phone to her friend about taking a last minute babysitter job. A car pulls up, inside someone asks her what her name is, and then someone comes up behind her and promptly kidnaps her and drives away. So soon after when the new babysitter is picked up by the Father, Dan, answering to the name Anna, we know this isn't her. And when the parents leave their children with this stranger she begins to terrorize the children in increasingly creepy and awful ways. There's Josh, the oldest and moodiest, Sally, a red-headed high-energy young girl, and the youngest son Christopher with a bad ass teddy bear whose face lights up and I want that?!

Overall the story is pretty solid - Emelie is a young mother dealing with the tragic loss of her own child which she accidentally smothered in her sleep. We learn this through a terrifying story she reads young Christopher referring to her dead child as "young cubby". She then tells Christopher how she's trying to find a new cubby, and soon we realize she has her sights set on him.


Throughout the movie Emelie puts the kids through some terrifying moments including putting Sally's hamster into the snake pen and making them all watch in an ICONIC scene as the snake slowly crushes the hamster. There's an incredibly uncomfortable scene where Emelie lets Josh find her on the toilet and asks him to get her a tampon. She even puts on a home sex tape of their parents and makes them watch it. This movie is so uncomfortable but you can't turn away. There's so many scenes where you almost want to scream but you can't. There was a lot of audible gasping and clutching of my chest.

But once Josh finds out who "Anna" really is and realizes she's trying to steal his younger brother, Josh really steps up. But Emelie puts up a hell of a fight involving some really great cat and mouse type scenes, and some brutal violence. Josh manages to trick Emelie in the end though as she gets more desperate and while the ending is kind of sub par, I wasn't too let down.


What I didn't love about this film though - the story line with the boyfriend. Maybe I totally missed something, but Emelie spends a lot of the film sending texts to this mysterious guy who you only see a side profile of, keeping him updated of what's going on. Then near the end she tells him to basically buy more time before the parents come home so he slams his car into their car and kills himself? Right? Is that what happened? I have no idea. I was super confused about all of this.

Also the film kept flashing back and forth to the parents having their dinner while all these horrendous things are going on at their home but I actually hated this. I get that it's supposed to sort of keep you on edge and show the contrast of both scenes but whenever it skipped back to the parents it was hella boring.

Sarah Bolger delivers one hell of a performance and the kids aren't annoying which is a huge win! You know I can't stand kids in horror movies most of the time but these guys did a great job.

I did love this movie quite a bit. It's definitely an experience. I highly recommend it and if someone could clarify that boyfriend sub-story line please do.

9/10

Stay Spooky!



Friday, February 24, 2017

Frightful Friday - Stephen King, The Purge and Alien!


WELCOME TO FRIGHTFUL FRIDAY!
You guys...I have had a week. I am so glad it's Friday night. I have a horror movie playing which hopefully I stay awake through and then I plan on doing nothing all weekend but make my way through my Netflix horror movie to-watch list. I also want to go see Get Out. But even though the movie theater is a ten minute walk from my house, I find it incredibly hard to find the energy to get there. But I've been craving movie theater popcorn for like a month now so I think that will help.

Let's jump right in - a lot has happened!

First off, and most important - we got a surprise announcement that changed my life forever....10 episodes are on their way for a TV show called Castle Rock based around the fictional Stephen King town.
OH and if that wasn't cool enough....it's from Hulu and Bad Robot. AKA JJ ABRAMS AND STEPHEN KING ARE REUNITING!!!!!!!


It's being called a psychological-horror series set in the Stephen King universe. It will "weave an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland." It will be an original story, claiming the "first-of-its-kind re-imagining".

Castle Rock appeared in 1979 in The Dead Zone and keeps popping up, including 2014's Revival. The name itself is taken from a fictional mountain fort in Lord of the Flies. What else is set there? Oh you know, just Cujo, Needful Things, Gerald's Game, and The Stand just to name a few....SO MANY CHARACTERS AND STORIES. Fun side story - when my parents and I were driving to Florida one summer when I was about 15, I didn't realize Castle Rock wasn't real and I asked my parents if we could drive there. After looking at a map for a long time (the internet was not such a go-to back then OKAY) I realized Castle Rock was fake.

Anyway, it's being executive produced by Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason who will also be the writers. Sources are saying it will "intertwine characters and themes from the works of Stephen King" and "subsequent seasons will feature a new set of characters and will tie in to previous characters and themes."

Right now there's no casting or premier date but production will begin this year.

THIS IS SO FUCKING EXCITING!!!!!!!! I don't why this Stephen King upheaval is happening this year but I am so goddamn here for it.

Watch the teaser trailer they released here:



There also lots of Alien Covenant news coming out as the movie creeps closer and closer. We got our first full cast photo:


And FOX released a sort of introductory prologue clip that introduces us to each character and lets us know that all of these people are on this ship because they are headed to colonize another planet. The crew is made up of romantic couples and of course their AI Walter.



This clip got me SO AMPED for this movie. I cannot wait to see this in theaters. Although I will admit I completely forgot James Franco was in this movie and it caught me off guard. I really can't stand him. Hopefully he dies quick?

We also got one more still of the film showing the crew arriving at a planet after receiving a distress signal.


Alien Covenant is released May 19th.


Remember last year when I got SUPER bummed that they wanted to turn The Purge franchise into a TV series? Well it looks like that idea's been put on the shelf because Blumhouse Productions has announced that they will be teaming up with Universal Pictures for another Purge film. A fourth in the franchise that will be released on July 4th, 2018. Obviously we don't have any casting news or a title but we do know writer and director of the first three Purge films James DeMonaco will be returning which is an amazing thing to happen. And I have full trust that this will be another amazing addition to the franchise. Purge is quickly becoming my favorite franchise. Except Scream. And Final Destination. But you know what I mean.

Obviously lots of others great things are happening in the horror world, and some not so great things (the Friday the 13th remake is once again cancelled) but these are my three favs and what I'm truly most excited for.

See you tomorrow for SPOOKY SATURDAY!


Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Wicked Wednesday - Horror Movies from 1989


WELCOME....to the first wicked Wednesday.....*insert spooky ghost noise here*....
What do future Wednesdays entail I hear no one asking? Well...honestly...I've got no solid plans. This is just a freebie day. I can throw in a review, I can talk about my feelings, I could just post photos of my dogs....WHO CARES! 

Side note - I was just looking for a movie to throw on while I write this and my Netflix to-watch list is getting out of control when it comes to horror movies. I complain that Canadian Netflix has a terrible horror section but looking through my list there's A LOT on there that I haven't seen. So I think this weekend I'm going to do nothing but watch horror movies...it's supposed to snow anyway so what else am I doing? I also kind of want to go see A Cure for Wellness. At first I had no interest but I talked myself into it today while having a very one-sided conversation with my friend. I basically just started out saying I didn't want to see that artsy, way too long piece of garbage, and then we watched the trailer and I was like dannnnnngggg and then I started reading reviews and convinced myself to go. SO. We'll see what happens.

By the way I went with Jurassic Park 2 to watch while writing this...

OKAY...so what we're really doing here today is that I saw a fun thing on Dreadit about looking at the horror movies that came out during the year of your birth. So we're gonna do that here!

I was born in 1989, the year the internet started to become a real thing, George W. Bush became president, Ted Bundy was executed, Daniel Radcliffe was born, the first cell phone ad appeared on TV, and the Berlin Wall was destroyed. And according to the horror movies released it was the year of never-ending sequels.

Here's my top horror movies released the year I was born:


Pet Sematary

Now this is a good one! One of the few great King adaptations and directed by a woman! Mary Lambert. It was adapted by Stephen King and based on the book released in 1983. It stars Dale Midkiff as Louis, Denise Crosby as Rachel, Fred Gwynne as Jud and Miko Hughes as Gage. Stephen King also pops up himself playing a Minister.


It tells the story of a young family that moves to a new home next to a dangerous highway. After their cat is killed, Louis is informed of a Pet Cemetery that is hidden behind their home and it's believed that whatever is buried there returns. But they don't come back the same. So Louis buries his cat and low and behold the cat comes back, but now it's evil. When their young son Gage dies tragically Louis battles with the temptation to bury his own son in that magical cemetery and risk what comes back.


It also includes the fucking terrifying scenes of Zelda, Rachel's sister. Seriously. Fucking terrifying. Fuck Zelda.


The 'Burbs

Although The 'Burbs never marketed themselves as a horror comedy, we horror fans know it for exactly that. It's hilarious, it's pretty spooky, and it stars my favorite actor of all time - Tom Hanks, in the lead role as Ray. Carrie Fisher plays his wife Carol, Corey Feldman plays a neighborhood kid and Rick Ducommun plays Ray's goofy best friend. Directed by Joe Dante, it was written by Dana Olsen.

It follows Ray as he takes a much needed vacation but when new neighbors move in the whole street is obsessed with the creepy new residents. Are they satanists? Are they ghosts? And why does no one ever see them outside?!

It's a great little horror comedy, with an amazing cast and a cult classic.


Jason Takes Manhattan

Ah yes, that time Jason took a trip to NYC and murdered a bunch of people. People used to HATE this movie, but it seems like lately we're all coming around to it. Written and directed by Rob Hedden it stars Jensen Daggett and Kane Hodder who plays Jason.

This is the eighth film in the franchise and Jason stalks a bunch of high school kids on a ship that takes them to NYC. There is some great kills and some great one-liners. It's worth a re-visit.

Other honorable mentions for that year were Pumpkinhead, Puppet Master, and Leviathan. 



But let's look at the ALL the sequels that came out that year:
  • The Fly 2
  • Halloween 5
  • Jason Takes Manhattan
  • Nightmare on Elm St 5
  • Howling 5
  • Amityville 4
  • Sleepaway Camp 3
  • Silent Night Deadly Night 2
  • Beyond the Door 3
  • Stepfather 2
I mean...HOT DAMN. I didn't even know there was 4 Amityvilles or 3 Sleepaway Camps. I've got some watching to do!


As in any year of horror, there also seemed to be a lot of hot garbage. And based on no research whatsoever just titles and posters....I really want to watch these ridiculous movies:
  • Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator
  • Flesh Eating Mothers
  • Killer Crocodile
  • I, Madman
  • Parents

Well anyway, I've got EVEN MORE to add to my list now. It's really getting out of control. Maybe I should book a vacation and just sit at home and watch horror movies all day? I have enough days...hmmmm....I might look into that tomorrow.

Let me know what awesome movies came out the year you were born!

Stay Spooky!

Monday, February 20, 2017

Macabre Monday - The Garland Trial


Welcome to the first Macabre Monday where we take a break from horror movies and horror news and jump into real life horror. I'm a huge true crime buff and always wanted to try and write some of my own. So you are subjected to my attempt:


This is a story of selfish revenge. Revenge taken out in the most disgusting, life destroying kind of way. Revenge taken out by a man obsessed with what he couldn’t have. A man who let vengeance envelop his whole being, and let nothing get in his way – including an innocent 5 year old boy.

June 29th, 2014 is the last day that Nathan O’Brien and his grandparents, Alvin and Kathy Liknes were seen alive. Alvin and Kathy were moving soon and so the family held an estate sale. About 30 people filtered in and out all day, shopping and chatting. In the evening the family packed up, ordered Chinese food, and then sat down to enjoy a movie. After the movie ended, Nathan’s Mom Jennifer took her youngest son, and Nathan’s brother home, leaving Nathan with his grandparents for a sleepover. The last time she saw him, he was curled up in bed beside Kathy, fast asleep.

At 10am on June 30th, Jennifer returned to her parents home to pick up Nathan, but instead found what began a province-wide search for Nathan, Alvin, and Kathy. “Throughout the whole house it was just like a bloody scene,” Jennifer testified. “There were pools of blood on the side of the bed and on the wall and all throughout the kitchen.” Jennifer called the police and an Amber alert was issued immediately:

AMBER Alert issued for missing five-year-old from Calgary. 

Calgary police are investigating the disappearance of a five-year-old child and his grandparents from a home in the southwest and issued an AMBER alert on Monday afternoon.

Police were called to a home on the 100 block of 38A Avenue SW at about 10:00am Monday morning by a mother who went to the home to pick up her son, who was staying with his grandparents.

The three were not at the residence, and have not been located despite efforts by the police. 

Investigators say evidence at the scene suggests their disappearance may be suspicious.

Detective Lee Treit took swift charge of the investigation, that was dubbed Operation Amber. But this Amber Alert broke a horrible record. It became the longest-running Amber Alert in Alberta’s history. 

  
An entire province held their breath as police began to search. Newspapers showed Nathan’s young face and the kind faces of Alvin and Kathy. The news reporters pleaded for information, and despite the amount of blood found around the home, hope was held. What we didn’t know at the time was that police, by the end of the first day, had a list of six persons of interest. One was a local sex offender, the second was a man who had shot Alvin’s daughter years ago, the third and fourth were former disgruntled employees of Alvin’s, the fifth was a former house guest and the sixth was Douglas Garland.

So why Douglas Garland so quickly? The police released security camera footage to the public of a green Ford F150, asking if anyone had information about the owner. Garland’s sister (Patti) and brother-in-law (Allen, Alvin’s son) recognized the truck and contacted the police. They were quick to point the finger. 

Once the finger was pointed, police moved in quickly. Garland lived on a farm near Airdrie and on July 4th the police swept in without a warrant, in hopes of finding the trio alive. Canadian law allows a search without a warrant under “exigent circumstances”. Simultaneously, Garland was nabbed at a traffic stop nearby. Const. Jamie Parhar handcuffed him and said, “he was very calm and collected.”

When officers arrived at the home of Garland they found a burn barrel still smoldering and hope began to fade. One detective found a duffle bag that contained handcuffs, a large knife and a billy cub. A warrant was finally drafted and so began another search – this time for the bodies of the trio, and the collection of evidence.

Overall 1,400 pieces of evidence was taken, but only 89 were presented in court and around 250 – 300 police officers were involved. One officer alone spent 10 months sifting through the ashes found on the Garland farm. Two weeks after the trio was reported missing, Douglas Garland, 57 years old, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder. 


So who was Garland and why had this happened?

Douglas Garland, who allegedly suffers from ADD, attended medical school in Alberta when he was younger for one year before suffering a breakdown. Later on he started to work for Alvin Liknes, but when that business faltered, the working relationship ended. Those in the know say that it didn’t end on a bad note. According to Alvin’s son Allen, Alvin and Garland hadn’t spoken in about 7 years. The last time they even saw each other was Thanksgiving the year previous, but neither had spoken.

Many describe Garland as a loner, including his sister Patti. His parents agreed, Doreen Garland, his mother, also described her son as intelligent, handy and well read.

So why did this happen? Allegedly, Garland and Alvin disagreed over a failed patent for an oilfield pump over a decade ago. And although Alvin never made any money from it, he did make money from his other business ventures with his wife Kathy. Garland saw this happening. and it angered him. Perhaps he felt he was entitled to the same kind of success. He also developed an unhealthy fascination with Kathy, and when Garland found out that Kathy and Alvin were going to be leaving Calgary, he decided to act.


Although we currently do not know exactly the events that happened on July 29th, and the days following, investigators put together a close enough picture by digging through the mountains of evidence.

The keypad lock to the Liknes’ home had been disabled using a power drill, the same lock that Garland had been researching online a few days before the kidnapping. Kathy and Alvin were most likely struck near the floor in separate bedrooms in their Calgary home based on bloodstain pattern analyst. The three bodies were then put into the back of Garland’s truck, alive. Evidence was found in two outbuildings on Garland’s property, in and around the burn barrel, and in the basement of Garland’s parents home. There were also two meat hooks, a large hacksaw, and an array of knives found. They also found a child sized pair of handcuffs and 50 adult diapers. DNA was found on rubber boots, a hacksaw, and one meat hook. Alvin’s DNA was found on a charred fragment inside the burn barrel, and Kathy’s DNA was found on small pieces of cloth near the incinerator. Inside the ashes that the officer spent 10 months looking through, he found bones, a small tooth and a pair of glasses.

A neighbour of Garland’s says he awoke early between 2am and 3am on July 2nd to see a light on his neighbor’s greenhouse and when he awoke properly in the morning he saw a large fire burning on the acreage.

In the basement joists of Garland’s home, they found a hidden hard drive that contained perhaps the most shocking evidence. Photographs of dead and dismembered bodies, women wearing adult diapers, many bound with handcuffs and restraints, documents about killing and photos of Kathy Liknes. In Garland’s search history was more damning evidence including "most painful torture", "autopsy scalpel blades", "amputation", "lack of oxygen brain damage in minutes" and "what happens to the brain without oxygen." There were also manuals found about becoming an “effective assassin.”

Garland spent weeks researching this horrific kidnapping and murder. And until he speaks, if he ever does, we can only imagine in horror the kind of terrible things Alvin, Kathy, and young Nathan went through. 



The final nails in Garland’s coffin were aerial photographs captured by an aerial surveying company doing work for the City of Aidrie. The photos show two adults face down in the grass of the farm wearing what are believed to be adult diapers, and nearby a smaller figure, believed to be Nathan.

Over the past four weeks Garland has been on trial, and on February 16th a jury found Garland guilty of three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Nathan O’Brien, Alvin and Kathy Liknes. In court, it was reported that Garland was agitated throughout the trial. The jury listened and saw all of the disturbing evidence listed above, and much more. Within 8 ½ hours of debate, and although the bodies of the trio were never found, the jury came to their verdict of guilty.

Garland is now facing a life sentence with no chance of parole for 75 years. Although, to be realistic, Garland won’t see 75 years. He’ll be long dead by then, at an impossible 132 years old. He is tied, with only two other murderers, for the longest time in prison in Canada without a chance of parole.

Reported over this past weekend, after being sentenced this past Friday and put in jail, Garland was assaulted by several other inmates. At around 10:30pm EMS was called to the Calgary Remand Center to attend to a 57-year-old man with serious injuries. He was transported to hospital in stable condition with “soft-tissue injuries”. Garland was moved back to the Remand Center on Saturday. 

  
The public now feel relieved, a psychopath bent on revenge, no matter the logic or the cost of life, has been locked away forever. But the family of the trio must now begin to deal with the loss of three incredibly important people. They have to grieve. The Crown Prosecutor, Shane Parker, said last week of the family, “I think they’re numb; they’re still processing”. Garland and his farm of horrors will forever be a scary story we bring up over the years. The family will forever feel that empty space and wonder exactly what Nathan could’ve grown up to be. A young boy who had nothing to do with this one-sided grudge. A young boy who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, whose life has been violently cut short. And Alvin and Kathy – they were moving to Edmonton to retire and spend a lot of their time in Mexico. They still had so much more life to live and love to give. But a disturbed man took that all way.

This is a story of revenge. But more importantly it is a story of a mad, egotistical man, who felt it was his right to kill a lovely couple over something that he believed he was owed. And most importantly, this is a story of three beautiful lives drastically and violently cut short. 


Saturday, February 18, 2017

Spooky Saturday - Get The Girl 2017


First of all, welcome to the first Spooky Saturday here at Horrorbound! Saturday's will be for horror movie reviews. If I watch multiple horror movies in the week, I'll also post a review on Wednesday as well. Look at me....two posts in a row...nailing it!

Second of all, I googled "Get the Girl" to look up info about the movie and I guess I wasn't accurate enough because I just saw a whole bunch of very disheartening articles like "how to get girl to like u (w/ pictures)". But...it also feels kind of accurate for what this movie is sort of about.

So let's jump in:

GET THE GIRL 2017


"I knew, if just given the chance, I'd be the right guy to sweep her off her feet"

Clarence believes in love at first sight because it happened to him with a bartender named Alex. But he's unsure of how to approach her and the first time he does, makes a fool of himself. Alex is currently going through a messy divorce and Clarence watches on as her life slowly falls apart. Clarence decides to approach a known shady guy named Patrick to help him get Alex to notice him. Patrick agrees, once shown a handful of cash because Clarence is of the Duffield legacy, and comes up with a plan where Patrick and some friends will kidnap Alex and Clarence and hold them captive. Clarence will be able to save the day and prove to Alex he's the one for her.

But the team is a hot mess of personalities and Alex isn't going down without a fight. Once someone is killed, everything begins to completely fall apart. And why is the house seemingly empty if Clarence lives here? And what's the real connection between Alex and Patrick?


Overall?

Look, Clarence, played by Justin Dobies, is a creep. Hands down. He's gone to the bar Alex works at every single night even though he doesn't drink just to watch her life. He's approached her twice in all that time. And he assumes that because he's watched her, he knows her. This is wrong and creepy. And yes, in the concept of this movie it turns out he was right - as Alex said, "so you almost killed me to show me I'm alive." But COME ON. Movies like this are what makes articles like the one I found above a reality. You don't "get" girls, that's not a thing. You meet someone and you either fall in love or you don't. There's no magic handbook, there's no step by step guide. You either make a connection with someone or you don't. If at the end of this movie Alex had shot Clarence and said, "fuck off you're a total creep", I would've cheered and enjoyed this statement piece of a movie. But clearly that didn't happen.

BUT...all that aside, let's look at this movie for what it is - a story.


Alex, played by Elizabeth Whitson, is amazing. She never once stops putting up a fight, she's independent, she's smart and she's a goddamn fighter. Which is why the ending of this film is so irritating. Patrick, played by Noah Segan, is charismatically evil and I actually enjoyed his screen time. The group of kidnappers are fun to watch, they're all kind of idiots and clearly have no idea what they're doing. And K.J. steals the scenes he's in, played by Adi Shankar.

There's a couple of twists in this movie that I liked. SPOILERS...............Patrick is Alex's ex-husband and this whole ordeal was coordinated by Clarence to take revenge on Patrick and get him to sign the divorce papers so Alex can be free. I didn't see it coming, I liked it, and it seemed plausible within this implausible movie.

The ending though.....what a cop out. First of all I hated how Alex was all of a sudden like "yes everything you're doing is not crazy and I'm totally falling for you" and I hate that they just cut it off to like...leave it up to the imagination....I guess? DUMB. Dumb ending.


I'm going to give this a 6/10. I was slightly entertained but it came off more as an attempt at a comedy heist than a horror film.

Stay Spooky!

Friday, February 17, 2017

FRIGHTFUL FRIDAY - Stephen King, Get Out, Stranger Things, and Halloween


Hey guys!
Welcome to my new and improved layout of the blog, and by layout I mean attempt at posting way more often so I've given myself a strict schedule. And by attempt I mean....ya'll have been with me for awhile now and you know I am terrible at stuff like this. But if I want to move this blog to a real domain by the end of the year I need to work harder. I will also need help. BUT....let's worry about that later.

Here's the new schedule:


And since it's Friday....it's time for my wrap up of the horror news from the week. This is super specific to my tastes and not very helpful. But that is no surprise to ya'll.

First up?

Stephen King has seen Gerald's Game. I REPEAT...Stephen King has seen Gerald's Game. Which I may have talked shit about a few posts ago. But King is putting his seal of approval on this so now I'm finally starting to get excited.
Directed by Mike Flanagan (Hush, Ouija sequel) and funded by Netflix, Gerald's Game is of course based off of the book by the same name, released in 1992. Gerald's Game is from one woman's perspective as she lays handcuffed to a bed after her husband died during some sexy time.
And here's what he had to say:


Oh my dear Stephen. You better be right. You've never let me down before....


Coming next week is the much anticipated film Get Out, the directorial debut from Jordan Peele and ohhhhh boy does it look good. It got a lot of great reviews from the festival circuit and people are really starting to hype this thing up. Get Out follows Chris as he visits his girlfriend Rose's family for the first time. He's invited to a weekend getaway in the family home upstate and at first the family is overly accommodating which Chris reads as an all white family trying to deal with their daughter being in an interracial relationship, but soon realizes something more sinister is going on. BUT OMG WHAT IS IT?! Every time I watch the trailer I just get so excited. I NEED TO SEE THIS MOVIE.

Also there's no news or anything about this film, I'm just super stoked it comes out next week you guys. Get Out stars Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, and Bradley Whitford. 


IT LOOKS SO SCARY


HALLOWEEN IS COMING....
And there's lots of info pouring out all over the place so let's try and make sense of it all. First of all John Carpenter, who is going to be executive producing this bad boy, went on Facebook and announced the director.

So you say you want a Revolution?
You want to shake things up and bring back Halloween and make it rock again?
Well so do I.


David Gordon Green will be directing and Danny McBride will be co-writing it with Gordon Green. I am here for this trend of giving comedy directors horror movies! Blumhouse will be producing. Carpenter mentioned that it was actually McBride and Gordon Green who sold him on the idea of this rehash based on their pitch. I mean...woooow.

"David and Danny both came to my office recently with Jason Blum and shared their vision for the new movie and…WOW. They get it. I think you’re gonna dig it. They blew me away.
I might even do the music. Maybe. It could be kind of cool.
And you’ll get to see it in theaters on October 19th, 2018.”

McBride and Gordon Green recently spoke with Cinemablend and dropped the bomb that this won't be a remake as we all suspected but actually a continuation of the story. They will be focusing mainly on the first two movies and going from there. They also promised to do a "straight-up horror" film. MUSIC TO OUR EARS RIGHT?!

Look forward to this arriving October 19th 2018. Only a year and a half away, I say, confidently, sobbing.

 STRANGER THINGS

During the Superbowl we were treated to a trailer for Stranger Things season 2. And there's a fucking massive monster in there that made me so happy I made Mitch re-watch it about 5 times. LOOK AT IT!!!!!!!




But we have to wait until Halloween which feels like forever away but also gave me a great theme idea for my epic work Halloween party.....

Anyway, let's wrap up the news...first up:

 Netflix has released five new images from season 2!






So many exciting things!!!!!!! We also know that Eleven is back because we see her in the trailer, and we all kind of assumed she would be based on the ending of season one but now we have confirmation. And she has a cute new 80's hairstyle!



We have two new kid characters joining us: Sadie Sink and Dacre Montgomery but we're also going to see some new adults, one being Linnea Berthelsen who is playing a young woman living outside of town who is tied to the lab. The one I'm most excited about is Sean Astin who is playing a former classmate of Joyce and Hopper. 

I can't wait to see what's happening and is Will still puking up those slugs? And WHAT IS THAT GIANT MONSTER?! And what's happening with the lab? AND GHOSTBUSTERS COSTUMES! AND MORE 80'S REFERENCES!

IT'S ALL SO EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway,
That's it for my weekly wrap up of my personally and selfish curated horror news. Will you be going to see Get Out next week? Any theories on Stranger Things season 2? And what exactly is going to happen in this Halloween film...Halloween 3.0...if you will? Leave a comment!

Stay Spooky!

Monday, February 13, 2017

The Descent - a perfect Galentine's Day movie


HAPPY GALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!! And happy Women in Horror month! February is the month to celebrate the women in the horror genre from the actors to the writers to the special effects to the producers etc. And it's also the month to donate blood and save some lives! And today is Galentine's Day where you celebrate the loves of your life who are your female friends. Last night I watched The Descent with one of my Galentine's and it was super fun.

Full disclosure - I've seen The Descent about 8 times. It's one of my favorite horror films. But I've never actually talked about it on this blog and it's a great one to showcase for Galentine's Day because of its all female cast, (seriously...there's like one guy in this film). Ceara, my Galentine, had never seen it so it was fun to watch with her and watch her freak out.

THE DESCENT (2005)


I'm an English teacher, not fucking Tomb Raider.

The movie begins with a horrific accident that kills Sarah's husband and child. A year after the accident a group of her girlfriends and herself head off to the Appalachian Mountains to do a little cave diving and to help Sarah start to move on. Juno, who was there the day of the accident, Beth, Sam, Rebecca and Holly join Sarah and the group head off to the cave to explore. Juno is taking the lead. As the group gets further into the cave, a passage collapses leaving them stuck. Juno admits that the cave system she told them they were in isn't the truth. She's led them into an un-mapped cave system so that they could discover it as a group. Obviously the group loses their shit over this info but are determined to find another exit. As they travel through they begin to find some strange things like left over mining gear and some wall paintings. And Sarah believes she is seeing people in the distance.

But what they uncover is something so terrifying and evil that the group quickly find themselves running for their lives inside of a cave system that may not have an exit.


Overall?

The first time I saw this movie I was terrified out of my mind. It was the perfect setting - a group of friends, drinking, and watching the movie late at night. The "crawlers" scared me so badly I had to sleep in a bed with my friend because I didn't want to be alone. But since then I've grown a thicker skin when watching horror movies and now just appreciate it for an amazing, claustrophobic, jarring horror film.

The Descent is a British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall. It was filmed at Pinewood studios and all the caves were made on set. The crawlers were based on Nosferatu and were kept separate from the actors until their first scene together to create real fear shown on screen.

This film is claustrophobic. You watch as the girls crawl through tiny cave systems and occasionally get stuck. The film plays on the darkness and will keep the screen black while focusing on a small tunnel or a giant empty space, leaving you to fear what will fill those spaces. The compositions make the atmosphere pure dread.

The Crawlers are kept mostly in the background for most of the film, leaving you freaking out until they're finally shown in full force. The makeup and practical effects are spot on and you're never taken out of the story. The gore is intense but necessary. Speaking of the Crawlers, I really appreciate that we're not spoon fed the origin story of these creatures. We're given enough little clues to really use our imagination and come to our own conclusions. Were there men and women trapped under this mountain back in the old days during a mining exploration? Perhaps over the hundreds of years they've evolved into these blind, violent creatures. Or have these Crawlers always lived beneath the mountain, feeding from above?


The relationships between all the women are really well handled. Sarah and Juno have some tension between them and as the story moves on you gain more and more understanding of what kind of person Juno really is. Spoiler alert; she's the fucking worst. Sarah's development is fascinating as she starts out being this timid, depressed woman and turns into the strongest of the group, facing violence head on and doing anything to survive. All of the women feel realistic and the decisions that are made and the conversations all feel incredibly real.

This is a well handled movie that is honestly straight up terrifying. Even after seeing it so many times, it still freaks me out in some spots. The first time you see a full Crawler through the video camera is something that sticks with me. And when Sarah emerges from the pool of blood ala Carrie....just amazing.

Go watch this movie if you never have because it is really a gift. The sequel I've only seen once but kind of want to re-watch tonight. I remember it making the ending of the first one that much better?

Anyway, solid 10/10. Perfect movie for Galentine's Day. Go watch!

Stay Spooky!