10/31 OktoberHorrorFest - Movie Review - Blumhouse's Truth or Dare - Extended Director's Cut

I've watch this movie twice now and I enjoy both times. To be Honest I didn't remember the ending which was better to my liking. So we've got this group of friends that go to some forgotten town in Mexico resort and meet a guy who suggest them to go to a small cavern beneath a church. There they play a game of truth or dare that goes terrible wrong. Each time they play the game but don't' tell either the truth or do the dare they will die. 

From the beginning truths are uncover and the friend(ship) will suffer from it. It's very well done and really good on characterization. Although there may some strange stuff or plotholes but that will lead a bit of spoiler.  So we've got this bunch of kids who are playing Truth or Dare and as soon as all play the guy that makes them play explains what is happening - but strangely enough he doesn't have to do it. Then it seems that this ghost will take each in turn... Hmm but we learn that there are two extra people playing the game - the person who made them play and another survivor. BUT there is a rule, for each two truth one must play dare automatically.  Hmm but they were playing in the cave and three play Truth... weren't the "rule" applied? Why not? Then there is all the ideas of truth or dare... and the ending was the crappiest one and at the same interesting since it seems you have no real power of the game since right before she was going to play she records a video where she asks the world word via video Truth or Dare making implicit that  everyone that heard it had to play, well fuck!

It's a good thriller, a good movie BUT some stuff really weren't cut out for me.

9/31 OktoberHorrorFest - Movie Review - Gods of the Deep (Movie Review)

 Being a Lovecraftian fan and knowing that this was going to be one I had to watch it. Unfortunately felt flat. We've got this bunch of scientists that find something under the sea and they are tring to enter something that may lead to a place even deeper than the Mariana Trenches. There they find a strange dead being, bigger than anything possible on earth. As an avid fan and with multiple books under my belt you can easily this is Ryleh and the being is Cthulhu and lo and behold he rises (well partially) and strange  things start to happen. Anyone that touches somekind of primordial goo will turn into a monster and with  ship of 5/6 weird stuff starts to happen. Unfortunately it was not all well made, it was a bit forced, it look like the Thing.

IT has some bad stuff, like dialogue or acting. And the sets are truly awful. The doors are like manifold? I don' know. And Cthulhu has ome crappy design. In the end I was not that well invested on the characters or story but I may say it ended as it should. 

There is no nudity, but there is a part where a woman is dressing and see her in undergarments and she has amazing bosom. Unfortunately it  doesn't go from them.

8/31 OktoberHorrorFest - Movie Review - The Invitation (Movie Review)

 What a crappy book. You know Rey from Star Wars? This is her but black and instead of Sith Lords she has to battle Vampires. So you want me to believe that a bunch\coven of vampires that existed for centuries, when battling a person who just transformed to Vampire can't do anything? Haha. So these people have been killing and living like vampires for centuries battling and such. This girl is turned to a Vamprie and immediately kills them all. Yeah Right.

She is obnoxious, sel righteous, boring, self-entitled whining girl.

Oh by the way, she is racist as shit. Oh well, no, please black people can be prejudiced against white and that's not called Racist? Yeah.. Boring.

7/31 OktoberHorrorFest - Movie Review - The Pig Lady (Movie)

First of all, let you be warn that this is a low budget movie. It's a story about a group of friends going into a cabin and one person called PigLady who is being investigated by the police about some homeless people disappearances. It's a low budget slasher as I've stated and the action scenes are rather poor, mainly due to lightning to make things in our imagination I guess. Since the vast majority of the novel is on the dark it's quite difficult to follow it at times.

There is try to make an inclusive cast with two gay characters (probably one a trans), one police officer that I would assune it's They\Them kind of person and true to be hold is set in California... so I bet it is as I say. 

There is some boobs, but that's it. The two main characters are in a hot tub and show their tits, one more than the other but rather fast that you get them in freedom for a couple of seconds. So if you are watching for those , unless one of the actress is your crash from highschool year   (sure they are not famous)  then don't watch it. 2.5/10

6/31 OktoberHorrorFest - Movie Review - Final Destination 1,2,3, The Final Destination &,5 (Several)

I've watched all of these movies twice, and some probably more. Do I enjoy them all?  Yes. Are they all good? No.

So what's this about?

In every one of the movies you've got a chain of events that happen that lead to the death of several characters (among them the MAIN character). This guy or gal wakes up a couple of minutes before and he warns people of their impending doom. Some think he is crazy, others go with him\her willingly or not.

After that miracolous saving you've got strange deaths of this characters, but they are not coincidences, oh no. They are orchastrated by "Death". We see "Death" almost a supernatural being with a plan. Sometimes wind, or other thing move so that person may die. BUT not all is what seems because sometimes, this second death can be averted et voila, they are safe (again) or are they? 

Have you heard the saying, nothing is true in life besides Death and Taxes? Well, in this case Death will have what it owns. 

In the second movie you've got a character from the first, then there are all of this connections between characters in different movies, like someone didn't died because in the first movie something happen etc or there is one where two characters survived just to be killed in the airplane of the first movie (like a prequel but you never know it) etc.

They are good.

The first one is Final Destination (2000) is set on a airplane

The second is Final Destination 2 (2003)  is set on a traffic jam (don't see the cover or else you know who survived from the 1)

Final Destination 3 (2006) is set on a rollercoaster

Final Destination 4 ( does not exist, it was titled as "The" Final Destination) and is set on a racetrack

Final Destination 5 is set on a bridge

In terms of characters, always new ones except Tony Todd (the guy from the mortuary) and also Clear Rivers which appears in 2 movies.  

The fifth novel will circle back to the first.

Really enjoyed them all. Next year there will be a new movie, Final Destination Bloodlines - that will be crap I bet with all the remakes.

5/31 OktoberHorrorFest - Movie Review - Ghost Ship (2002)

Interesting movie on a ghost ship with a bunch of salvagers. It's one of the first works by Emily Browning and you've got some interesting people acting like Karl Urban (probably best know for Butcher (Tv Series The Boys) or Julianna Marguiles (ER or Hot Zone)m she is very hot (/but no nudity) but probably the best actor is Gabriel Byrne  best know by Usual Suspects, End of Days, Stigmata among others.  

 So we've got here a movie where a ship has been stranded for years now in international waters and they are tasked to save it and collect the price.  The first 30m we've got introduction to each individual actor backstory, interest and way of being. Since there are only 6 it's quite easy to differentiate each one.

There is a lot of gore, and lot of spooky stuff , delusion and interesting back story behind all of it. I think it nothing spectacular and you can see where stuff is going as soon as you start seeing weird shit. 

Now about the nudity and I know that's what you want to hear (there are a couple of scenes, great boobs  by Francesca Rettondini. 

4/31 OktoberHorrorFest - Movie Review - V\H\S 85 (2023)

This is the first fifth movie on the series. So if you don't know this is usually a compilation of short movies all recorded as people did in the 80's with their hand cameras, all screw and pixelized and so on. 

The first tale is a about a group of young teens that go to a lake that is prohibitive and after a while they are shot and dead. The problem is that they return

The second tale is a Mexican tale about the earthquake that happened in 1985 and the secrets that were uncovered then. The third tale is a mess of virtual reality that people think it would happen in the future. Think Tron.

The fourth tale, probably one of the best is the tale of a family celebrating something that we later learn is connected with the first story. Very good, very ground-breaking, and the ending was truly excellent.

The fifth tale is about a killer who is being tapped killing some random people, whilst the police receives the tape BEFORE. Truly interesting tale as well.

Inbetween of these tales there is an ongoing tale about a strange being, being study. Very odd one. 

There is a hint of nudity but nothing sexual and like one second (on the mexican tale)

3/31 OktoberHorrorFest - Movie Review - A Cat in the Brain (1990) - Lucio Fulci

 This is some weird shit I must tell you. 

You've got this movie direct (portrayed by the actual director of the movie called Lucio Fulci) which is filming one of his splatterpunk movies and becomes affected by it. He can't eat meat or hear chainsaws lest he becomes a bit of berserk - but nothing major. He then goes to a psychiatrist and the guy hypnotized him to do some really macabre things everytime he hears a sound.

What interesting is the flashbacks he has, some images and such. They are really bad. This is a very good novel but not to the feint of heart. Although I may say, or I will say it's very unbelievable, weird fake shots, fake blood, fake bodies etc. It's a masterpiece for the 1990 where really nothing existed. Nowadays is one more movie but I believe is still holds it's value.

2/31 OktoberHorrorFest - Movie Review - Bag Boy Lover Boy (2014) & Cellphone (2023)

BAG BOY LOVER BOY

So the first is low budget horror movie about a normal person who sells hot dog until the day some artist appears and says he wants him in this next art project. Being this horror, or somekind of it, the art itself looks like it's going to be somekind of kinky porn stuff but alas it was not (because he is putting a bag on top of her head). This guy which I have to tell is a bit of mentally challenged person wants to be artist as well now and things go downhill after all he can't really discern the difference between "art" and just being a murderer. It was bad movie, not worthy of 1h30 that it took. But being a low budget I guess I can accept it... This probably cost what? 10 dollars and a sandwich? Oh, there are some boobs but nothing really too graphic or interesting.. imdb

CELLPHONE

Since this was disapointed I went to Cellphone a 2024  horror novel set in a isolated house in the middle of nowhere. It started very interesting with a guy, going around his house, at night, with his cellphone and camera on and looking at things. We don't know what he sees but after looking at his wife  in her bed he find out him hang. Afterwards we start accompanying another inhabitant to the house and right from the bat you know something is going on. We then learn the reason she is there and funny thing is that the man who portrays her husband is her actual husband (well it wasn't but they are now). Did they meet in the movie? That's the most important thing... Getting back to the movie it sucked. IT was slow burning, boring conversations and the "evil" ghost kind of thing was overdone and pretty unconvincing. Most interesting part of the movie besides the real love between characters was Justin Malik Jackson performance. 

Okay I've search. This movie was filmed in 2021 which makes sense with the lack of characters (there several character but never meet , well almost) 

Whitney is now engaged to fellow co-star Jared Noble. They met in Chillicothe, Ohio while shooting the film 'Cellphone'.

No nudity. imdb

1/31 OktoberHorrorFest - Movie Review - Succubus

There were two movies called Succubus in 2024. One of them is Russian and from what I've heard it's better than the US counterpart. imdb

The Tale is set on a island where a bunch of couples get together to overcome somekind of adversity on their relation. Trust , lack of sexual appeal etc. Each one is given several tasks where they must perform or else... In the beginning you don't know what "else" is since is just some kind of jump scares but as the story progress you get the feeling of what it means to be there and what is at stake. After a while you see those guardians and their weird cult. To be honest, just from the get go with those masks you know that something was wrong but whatever.  There are some really interesting things like the monster and the twin thing. To be fair, this is nothing you haven't seen before on other movies out there.

There is a lot of  sexual tension, but unfortunately only two sex scenes although when they exist they are very good , well because Angelina Pahomova has great boobs and even for that only is sufficient to watch the movie. She gets naked thrice in the movie whereas one of them is pretty good. 

Some odd things is the lack of dialogue I don't know if they create this movie for English audiences , probably, but every character as English name like Stacy or Nick which I found odd. I've try to first hear in Russian and then English and couldn't tell which is better...  The Dubs are awful. The plot in the end is a bit convoluted, not going to spoil but I thought that everything ended quite easily... 

TBR Month of September (Plus Status at 13/9/2024)

I've been away for some time which I am sorry but unfortunately stuff happens and I had less time to write here. So this month of September I chose to read (to be fair it's going to be the same in November & December)  to read some oldies  - books written before 1980. My goal is to read one Horror, Fantasy & Sci-Fi & One Other.

For the month of September I have chosen:

1. The Secret of Chimneys Agatha Christie 400p 1925
2. Something Wicked This Way Comes Ray Bradbury 261p 1962
3. Roadside Picnic Arkady Strugatsky 197p 1977
4. Flowers in the Attic Virginia Andrews 423p 1979
5. Three Hearts & Three Lions Poul Anderson 175p 1953

From last month it transitioned 

1. Crowfall Ed McDonald 454p          2019
2. Battlefield Earth L. Ron Hubbard 1135p 1982

As of today I've read

1. The Secret of Chimneys Agatha Christie 400p 1925 (Rated 86) 
2. Something Wicked This Way Comes Ray Bradbury 261p 1962 (Rated 45) 
3. Roadside Picnic Arkady Strugatsky 197p 1977 (Rated 25) 
4. Fulgrim - Graham McNeil  510p 2007 (Rated 85)  
5. The Secret Path Christopher Pike 144p 1995  (Rated 80) 
6. The New Girl R L Stine 168p 1989  (Rated 41) 

Currently Reading

1. Flowers in the Attic Virginia Andrews 423p 1979
2. Parasite Darcy Coates 422p 2016

Analysis of First Semester 2024

 As you know I've changed my goals that instead of being books read (Which I initially set to 104 (2 per week or so) I changed to 100 pages per day. 

So, how am I faring you ask..  Well I've read (concluded) 58 novels with total page count of 14993 pages that gives roughly 83 pages per day. So I am bit off on the page count.

I've read 6 Fantasy, 6 Thriller, 18 Sci-Fi & 27 Horror novels which makes sense since it's my favourite genre.

My Top 5 (without Re-Reading)

1. Swan Song - Robert McCammon *97*
2. Ship of Fools - Paul Richard Von Russo *93*
3. Tender is the Flesh - Agustina Bazterrica *93*
4. The Hunt for Red October - Tom Clancy *92*
5. Skyward - Brandon Sanderson *92*

Top Disappointing Books

1. The Resting Places - Anthology *23*
2. Gilead's Curse - Dan Abnett & Nik Vincent *25*
3. The Deep - Nick Cutter *32*
4. The Night House - Jo Nesbo *33*
5. Malorie - Josh Malerman *33*

In terms of Black Library Stuff I've read 11 books plus one ReRead which is pretty good. My Goal is to read 20 or so this year to dwindle my BL Books.

Series I finished  (not all in the same year)

 - The Beast Arises - Black Library (12 novels)

- Slob - Aron Beauregard (2 novels)

- Ambassador Chronicles (2 novels)

- Bird Box (2 Novels)

- Gilead - Black Library (2 Novels)

- Space 1999 - Audiobook (3 novels)

- Genevieve - Black Library (4 Novels)

- The Rewilding Report (3 novels)

- Arc of Scythe  (3 novels)

Series Started

- Alice - Christina Henry (1/3) 

- Skyward - Brandon Sanderson (1/4)

Series That I continued

- Dead of Night - Jonathan Maberry (2/4)

- Ciaphas Cain - Sandy Mitchell (11/??)

- Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan (2/14)

- Horus Heresy - Black Library (4/54)

28/52 Friday Update - Books Read; Currently Reading & TBR (and bought)

I will try to get back to this format on a weekly basis but it's being hard since it's vacations and the kid is at home etc... I was on vacation for one week and read several novels.

Books Already Read

1. All the Fiends of Hell - Adam Nevill  344p 💀4/7💀  ⭐45⭐
2. Conan the Destroyer - Robert Jordan 288p 💀5/7💀 ⭐88⭐
3. Murder at Spindle Manor (#1) . Morgan Stang 252p 💀7/7💀 ⭐93⭐
4. The Church Beneath the Roots - Felix Blackwell  343p 💀8/7💀 ⭐73⭐
5. It Waits on the Top Floor (#1)  - Ben Farthing 296p 💀12/7💀 ⭐70⭐

Ongoing

1. Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 - Ron L Hubbard 186/1050
2. Crucifax - Ray Garton 287/388

Books to Read July 

• DeathWorlder Victoria Hayward 344 2024
• Battlefield Earth L. Ron Hubbard 1135 1982
• Conan The Destroyer Robert Howard 271 1984
• Darkness, Tell Us Richard Laymon 504 1991
• Rogue Planet Greg Bear 330 2000
• Crowfall Ed McDonald 454 2019
• Hunger Jeremy Robinson 253 2023
• All the Fiends in Hell Adam L G Nevill 336 2023
• Murder At Spindle Manor Morgan Stang 249 2022
• My Sweet Satan Peter Cawdron 251 2014
• It Waits on the Top Floor Ben Farthing 289 2021
• The Church Beneath the Roots Fleix Blackwell 329 2024
• King Blood Simon Clark 534 1997

Books received. TBR Pile piling up...

• Every Dead Thing - John Connolly
• The Man Called Noon - Louis L'Amour
• Lolth's Warrior - RA Salvatore
• The Shadow on the Glass
• Herald of Ruin
• Let's Destroy Investutech - Tim Pratt (Special Edition)
• Neon Wings - David G Barnett (Special Edition)
• In the country of dreaming Caravans (Special Edition)
• Letters from Hades (special edition)
• Bubba and the Cosmic Blood Scukers (Special Edition)
• Powersat - Ben Bova
• Tales of the Grand Tour - Ben Bova
• Leviathans of Jupiter - Ben Bova
• Mars Life - Ben Bova
• Earth- Ben Bova
• Mercury- Ben Bova
• Moonrise- Ben Bova
• Farside- Ben Bova
• The Rock Rats- Ben Bova
• The Silent War- Ben Bova
• Empire Builders- Ben Bova
• The Precipice- Ben Bova
• Moonwar- Ben Bova
• The Return- Ben Bova
• Titan- Ben Bova
• Aftermath- Ben Bova
• Titan- Ben Bova
• Endurance - Jack Kilborn
• Project Nemesis - Jeremy Robinson
• Beta - Scott Sammy