Horrors to the T

And the last week of the challenge shall commence with letter T. Enjoy!

Movie.

A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
Directed by Jee-Won Kim.

Plot: Two sisters who, after spending time in a mental institution, return to the home of their father and cruel stepmother. Once there, in addition to dealing with their stepmother's obsessive and unbalanced ways, an interfering ghost also affects their recovery.

Review: Another old J-horror film that mostly nobody watched. A Tale of Two Sisters was latter given the Hollywood touch-up and released as The Uninvited but it failed to grab the attention of movie-goers. Why, you ask? Well, The Uninvited was a fair attempt and better done than most adaptations but A Tale of Two Sisters is based on a widely known Taiwanese folktale that has been adapted to cinema several times. Imagine a Bloody Mary movie for a Russian population who has never even heard about Bloody Mary. Half the fun is gone!

A tale of Two Sisters is the latest and more accomplished version of the tale. It is beautifully film. We see the events unfold through the eyes of the oldest daughter, who just got home from an extended stay on the hospital. This is the classic trick of an unreliable narrator used with extreme skill. The movie is confusing but it only adds to the thrill. It has been described as a psychological thriller, a ghost story, and a horror. Watch it and choose what works for you.

Book.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
Published byWilliam Heinemann in 1898.

Blurb: One of literature's most gripping ghost stories depicts the sinister transformation of two innocent children into flagrant liars and hypocrites. Elegantly told, it is a tale of unspoken horror and psychological terror that creates what few stories in literature have been able to do, a complete feeling of dread and uncertainty.

Review: If you like gothic literature, you have to read James' best known novel. It is a testament to his skill and a necessary book for every lover of classic literature. The open ending and paranoid feeling of the whole story is what has made it endure. There is not enough that can be said to make it honor. Just read it.

Saturday starts with S

The A to Z Challenge in partnership with this blog proudly brings to you, our recommendations for letter S.

Movie.

Shutter (2004)
Directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun

Plot: A young photographer, Thun, and his girlfriend, Jane, discover mysterious shadows in their photographs after fleeing the scene of an accident. As they investigate the phenomenon, other photographs containing similar supernatural images emerge and they find out that Thun's best friends are being haunted as well. As the supernatural surrounds them ever more threateningly, Jane starts to suspect her boyfriend has not told her everything. Soon it'll become clear to them that you cannot escape your past.

Review: First let me warn you: Stay away from the American version. I know, I know, Joshua Jackson is so cute, but trust me, not even his baby face and vulnerable eyes can salvage this disaster. With that in mind, let's talk about the Thai version. I saw this movie on the theater with a friend. The whole place was in utter silence, terrified to even put popcorn in your mouth. By the mid-point of the movie I was holding my legs and I didn't dare lower my feet even when I started to cramp, lest the monster under my seat grab them. Shutter is a wild ride full of surprises and a final twist to leave you horrified of back pain. I had a really hard time shaking that last image out of my mind.

Book.

Sineater by Elizabeth Massie.
Published by Pan Books in 1992.

Blurb: Winner of England's Bram Stoker Award, Massie's first novel works better as a convincing and original story about the potential horrors of backwoods religious fervor than as a traditional supernatural thriller. Young Joel Barker lives with a special stigma: his father, Avery, is the "sineater," chosen by their Blue Ridge Mountain religious sect to live alone in the woods and bear the sins of the community's dead. Though Joel is universally ostracized, Burke Campbell, the nephew of the sect's leader, Missy Campbell, befriends him in defiance of his aunt, whose mumbo jumbo he despises. When death and mutilation falls upon anyone who has dealings with Joel's family, Missy blames the sineater and mounts a crusade against him and his kin. The two boys set out to stop the sineater and to end the religious madness that is sweeping the town, only to discover that they may be seeking the wrong enemy.

Review: Sineater is an excellent novel deserving of the Bram Stoker Award recognition. Massie's storyline focuses on a tradition and is more realistic than supernatural. Religious fanatics like Missy Campbell really do exist in our world. Massie’s sharp eye for detail brings the characters alive. Sineater is not only a horror/mystery/coming of age novel that has a bit for everyone. The town must face the fact that their traditions are archaeic and unfounded. I travel quite a lot between Montreal and Southern Connecticut and we pass through many a small towns. The very detailed setting Massie protrayed made me avoid at all costs to drive at night on our last trip.

To the A, to the B... and We're on the R

Another week has passed us by. Uhf! Can you belief we're getting closer to the end of the challenge? Well, here are my R suggestions:

Movie.

Reincarnation (2005)
Directed by Takashi Shimizu.

Plot: Nagisa Sugiura (Yuka) is a young Japanese actress who comes face to face with a slew of ghosts. These restless spirits begin to appear when she signs on to star in a horror film which tells the true story about a crazed, local professor whose murderous rampage at a hotel left 11 guests dead, including his young son and daughter. The movie is being filmed at the very site where the killings took place.

Review: Like a lot of Japanese horror films, Reincarnation isn't told in a linear way. The story seems fragmented and confusing but that's part of what makes it scary. There aren't graphic, bloody scenes and the suspense is built around the ambiance and things you think you saw out of the corner of your eye. Very unsettling. At the end everything makes sense and the story comes round leaving the viewer with no questions but quite surprised.

Book.

The Ring by Koji Suzuki.
Published by Vertical in 2003.

Blurb: A mysterious videotape warns that the viewer will die in one week unless a certain, unspecified act is performed. Exactly one week after watching the tape, four teenagers die one after another of heart failure. Asakawa, a hardworking journalist, is intrigued by his niece's inexplicable death. His investigation leads him from a metropolitan tokyo teeming with modern society's fears to a rural Japan--a mountain resort, a volcanic island, and a countryside clinic--haunted by the past. His attempt to solve the tape's mystery before it's too late--for everyone--assumes an increasingly deadly urgency. Ring is a chillingly told horror story, a masterfully suspenseful mystery, and post-modern trip.

Review: Just before starting with the challenge I did an extensive review on this book and mentioned I'll review each book of the series separately. For the sake of this post I'll resume things by saying that there are four books in the series, The Ring, Spiral, Loop, and Birthday. I've read all but Birthday and my favorite by far was the first. It is similar enough to the movies adaptations that you'll recognize the plot, but the second part of the book is significantly different. And much better. The are no loose ends by the end of the story, everything fits nicely and is explained away, unlike the movies. Suzuki is known like "The Japanese Stephen King" and with this series he proves it right. He builds suspense like a master and you can't stop turning the pages. A must read.

If you want to know more about the books, movies, and my opinion, click here.

The N Details of Horror

The third monday of April is here and I can't believe we're past the mid-point of the challenge. Time is flying!! But I'll open the week with a bit of a trivia.

In recent years we have been inundated by the amount of remakes Hollywood has forced us to endure, usually in detriment of the original piece which often shares but a few threads with its 'newer' version. Well, it seems bad remakes were not invented by Hollywood. Here I share with you the first remake ever. The English version of The Haunted Castle, directed by George Albert Smith in 1897 and based on the French original of the same name. If you want to check the 1986 version, click here.



Movie.

Noroi: Te Curse (2005)
Director: Koji Shiraishi.

Plot: A documentary filmmaker explores seemingly unrelated paranormal incidents connected by the legend of an ancient demon called the "Kagutaba."

Review: You didn't really think I was going to forget about Japanese horror, right? Also know as J-horror its peak of interest hit around 2002, when The Ring exploited into western theaters and blew our minds. Recently it has been kind of forgotten, though it is still much well regarded. Noroi is a prime example of a good story that doesn't follow western standards for horror and yet delivers in scares and eeriness. Film as a mockumentary--another huge trend--it is an effective film that actually bothered with a story that makes sense.

Book.

Necroscope by Brian Lumley.
Published by Tor Books in 1992.

Blurb: From the undead vampire in the Romanian mausoleum, Boris Dragosani tries to draw an evil force so powerful he will gain supremacy in the ultra-secret paranormal agency he works for in Russia. His official job is as a Necroscope – his speciality is tearing secrets from the souls of newly-dead traitors.

And England too has her necroscope – her communicator with the dead. When Harry Keogh is recruited by the British Secret Service to take on the paranormal menace from behind the Iron Curtain, the stage is set for the most horrifying supernatural confrontation ever... 

Review: This is actually the first book in the series, a total of five widely popular books. Lumley style is quirky but interesting and makes you care for his characters. He has also develop a very intricate story surrounding his vampires--indeed, these are vampire books--making the collection one with the most complex backstories and mythology on the theme EVER.