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.

Our Sponsor of the Day: Letter H

To mark the start of week 2, I want to add a little extra for today. A little piece of trivia from the horror archives:

The first horror movie ever to be filmed was "The Haunted Castle" (Le Manoir du Diable) in 1896. This french jewel featured vampires, casted only two actors, and lasted a whopping 3 minutes. With you, the first horror/vampire film ever made.




And back to our usual programming...


Movie.


Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
Directed by John McNaughton.




Plot: Loosely based on the story of confessed murderer Henry Lee Lucas, the film follows Henry (Michael Rooker) as he selects innocent victims--occasionally with his roommate Otis (Tom Towles)--and kills them, capturing their murder on videotape.


Review: This is an extremely violent, not glamorized version of the life of a serial killer. Not for anyone indeed, it has been debated ever since its debut in different international festivals. Among its defenders are those who justify its brutality because of its uncompromising honesty in a world genre where most horror films cheapen death by trivializing it. Against those content the ones who consider it to be a reality we know of but that we don't need to watch to understand. The MPAA refused to rate the movie AT ALL and so it stands today, unrated. It is a thought-provoking film, very well written, with amazing performances but beware, I once heard a person say she wished she could un-watch this film as she had changed forever after seeing it.


Book.


My first selection was House of Leaves; the very complex, very debated, experimental Danielewiski horror book, but given its nature, I know it won't appeal to everyone, so I added another YA Post-apocalyptic story to the mix. Here you have both:


1. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewiski.
    Published by Random House in 2000.


    Blurb: The story focuses on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story -- of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.


    Review: Danielewski's claim to fame is the fact that "House of Leaves" is really two novels in one. What binds them together is the Nabokovian trick of running one narrative in footnotes to the other. The horror story part of it is a tour-de-force where Zampano, a blind Angelino recluse, dies, leaving behind the notes to a manuscript that's an account of a film called The Navidson Report. In the Report, Pulitzer Prize-winning news photographer Will Navidson and his girlfriend move with their two children to a house in an unnamed Virginia town in an attempt to save their relationship. One day, Will discovers that the interior of the house measures more than its exterior and, more ominously, a closet appears in a hallway. Will then contacts a explorer, Holloway Roberts, who mounts an expedition with his two-man crew. They discover a vast stairway and countless halls where the constantly changing building drives Holloway into a murderous frenzy. 


    What could very well represent the fall of the story, its patch-like structure, works in favor of the viscerally frightening experience, enhancing the horror of the tale. The second story, unfolding in footnotes, is that of Johnny Truant, the man who discovered Zampano's body and took his papers. He tracks down and beds most of the women who assisted Zampano in preparing his manuscript. Soon Johnny is crippled by panic attacks bringing him close to psychosis. 


     This novel is what Dali's body of work would be it it were made of books. Surrealist in the extreme, it has as many detractors as followers, but where so much is said by others, the only way to know the truth is to read it for yourself and create your own opinion. 


2. How I live Now by Meg Rosoff.
    Published by Random House Children's Books in 2006.


    Blurb: Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she’s never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy. As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it’s a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy’s uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary. But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.


    Review: This multiple-award-winning book touches deep themes like the horrors of war and anorexia. Most of the reviews you'll find talk about the story being focused for young readers, but that doesn't mean adult reader won't enjoy it. It can take at tomes on elements of magical realism, like in Daisy's near psychic connection with Edmond and the scenes of her idyllic life in the English countryside, and then evolves into vivid realism as the protagonist is faces the horrors of starvation, exhaustion, and murder. Truly a story not to miss.

A to Z Challenge. Letter F.

Let's not beat around the bushes. I know what you want, what you came here for, so here it is: Letter F.

Movie.

The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)
Directed by Roger Corman


Plot: After a long journey, Philip arrives at the Usher mansion seeking his loved one, Madeline. Upon arriving, however, he discovers that Madeline and her brother Roderick Usher have been afflicted with a mysterious malady: Roderick's senses have become painfully acute, while Madeline has become catatonic. That evening, Roderick tells his guest of an old Usher family curse: any time there has been more than one Usher child, all of the siblings have gone insane and died horrible deaths. As the days wear on, the effects of the curse reach their terrifying climax.

Review: I know this is really going old school but House of Usher is a very special movie to me. I watched it on my early teen years when I was innocent and impressionable. Not only it scared me good, it introduced me to one of my favorite actors of all time, the talented and quite dapper Vincent Prince. It also made me curious enough about Poe's stories that I actually took to read them. So, this is more of a sentimental choose for me. However, the movie is extraordinary. The adaptation is fantastic, as it effectively transfers the gothic ambiance of the piece, its eeriness, and its scares. The acting, of course, makes the movie because with like so many gothic books, it is all about the characters. So do watch this movie. I know, it's black and white, but consider this: it won't hurt your eyes as much if you watch it with the lights off. Oh, WAIT! I just found out you can find it in Technicolor, hurray!!

Book.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan.
Published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers in 2009.

Blurb: In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?


Review: Apocalyptic YA stories are all the rage these days and since there have been a lot of comments from those of you who are not fans of hard core horror, I thought Carrie Ryan's book might be a good option for you. In The Forest of Hands and Teeth (a trilogy, by the way) there's a bit for every taste. There are zombies, grim happenings, scares, gloom, love, and action. The characters are well crafted and you feel for them. The main character, a young girl, is strong and believes in herself but is bounded by love to her family and friends, and moral obligations to the people of the village. She's not all-powerful but she's not whiny and in need of a prince. If you liked the movie The Village, you'll find this an interesting book, just remember that this is a trilogy and the ending will not be too 'definitive'.


Remember to leave your suggestions for me!