Category Archives: Reviews

Book Review: “The Hunger Games”

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I know, I know, I’m behind on this cultural phenomenon. By now everyone and their grandmother has read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. See, I get a little turned off when something becomes an explosive, all-popular cultural phenomenon; I don’t know if it’s because I don’t like to buy into what everyone else is doing or because usually it’s something stupid like Twilight, but this time around I went ahead and gave in.

Good thing I did! The book is not a masterpiece of literature by any means, but it is a highly entertaining young adult book with dark themes and violence and the exploration of dystopia that adults can enjoy as well. I suspect books like these become big hits because many adults are too lazy/stupid/impatient to wade through something at an adult reading level, so they latch onto quick, easy reads with a fast pace and high entertainment factor.

In this case, there’s nothing wrong with that, since The Hunger Games is a good book. The writing style is geared towards young adult readers but is smooth and polished, with content that is meant for the high school level and above. It’s told in present tense, which amps up the tension and cements the reader in the current moment.

Our heroine, Katniss, makes me pleased that this book is as popular as it is. Katniss takes the damsel-in-distress trope and turns it on its head. She is fierce, independent, stubborn, great with a bow-and-arrow, and she ends up saving the male lead more than the other way around.

My middle name is Badass.

In case you’re living under a rock somewhere, the Hunger Games are a gladiator-style competition in a future dystopia where America has collapsed into a new country called Panem, comprising of a Capitol and 12 districts. After a failed uprising, the Capitol decided to put all of the districts in their place by creating a yearly battle royale between children ages 12-18, where 2 are chosen from each district (one male, one female) to fight to the death. The last one standing is the winner, and the competition is televised to the entire country, mainly for the entertainment of the shallow residents of the Capitol.

It’s gruesome. The children die in horrible ways, from getting speared to poisoned bee stings. Katniss finds herself thrown into the arena with Peeta, the boy from her district, who has a crush on her. They get through the tournament by playing up a half-fake romance (for the Capitol’s entertainment) and through the hunting skills that Katniss has developed over years of feeding her poor, starving family.

The reason the romance actually works in this book (as opposed to, I don’t know, Twilight?) is that it happens naturally and does not take over the plot. Peeta really does like Katniss, but Katniss herself struggles to pretend to be in love with him for the cameras all around them. She does grow fond of him, of course, but it is not some ridiculous love at first sight nonsense. She has a good head on her shoulders and is simply trying to survive the Games.

I’ve only read the first book, so I can’t say how this continues to play out in the sequel. Many people probably enjoy this book for the romance factor (blargh), but I appreciated the well-handled elements of horror and sci-fi along with the strong feminism that many current romance-driven books seem to lack. There is much more to Katniss than romance; in fact, she herself admits that romance is the least of her concerns right now, as it should be. She doesn’t want to get married, and she doesn’t want to bring children into the world only to have them potentially get pulled for the Hunger Games. I like this girl. This is a heroine I can get behind.

FINAL VERDICT

Storyline: 9 out of 10 poisoned bee stings

Characters: 8 out of 10 poisoned bee stings

Originality: 8 out of 10 poisoned bee stings

Writing Style: 7 out of 10 scrpoisoned bee stings

Scare Factor: 6.5 out of 10 poisoned bee stings

Overall: 8 out of 10 poisoned bee stings

Read The Hunger Games now!

Movie Review: “Vampire’s Kiss”

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I have finally seen the critically acclaimed classic, Vampire’s Kiss (1988), with an absolutely stunning performance by Nicolas Cage. And I was not disappointed.

This movie is a terrifying story that makes us question whether it is supernatural in nature, or merely a trick of the mind. An egotistical ladies’ man of a publishing executive is bitten by a vampire, and in one of the most authentic performances I’ve ever seen, Cage captures the harrowing descent into madness.

As with the brilliantly filmed and acted Twilight, sex is entwined with vampirism in this movie. There are some very classy sex scenes as well as a moving romance between Cage and a woman he meets at a bar. They have the same kind of electric chemistry as Kristen Stewart and that guy with the weird hair. At the same time, he puts all his effort into berating his hispanic secretary, Alva, who he clearly has sexual feelings for, and he is also engaged in an illicit affair with the sexy vampiress. Torn between the women in his life, Cage lashes out, culminating in acts of rape and murder as he allows himself to fully become a vampire (or a madman).

The scene in which he accepts his fate and shouts it to the world is a great piece of acting (watch clip below).

Cage’s transformation into a vampire is filled with moments of emotional intensity, which the skilled actor pulls off with finesse. Wracked with guilt and horror at what he has become, Cage turns a gun on himself, but when he is unable to destroy himself he breaks down into one of the most affecting crying scenes I’ve seen in some time. It almost made me tear up a little.

Ultimately, this movie is a triumph for Cage, who displays his wide range of acting talent, from the jerky boss to the dangerous villain to the despairing victim to the wild-eyed lunatic. Even his posh, sophisticated accent is perfect.

Vampire’s Kiss is sheer brilliance. It is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, and by far the scariest horror movie ever made. The script, acting, and cinematography are all Oscar-level. Truly a triumph of filmmaking, and one that will stand the test of time alongside classics like Gone with the Wind (1939), The Godfather (1972), and The Room (2003).

FINAL VERDICT

Plot: 11 out of 10 plastic vampire fangs

Script: 11 out of 10 plastic vampire fangs

Acting: 1,000 out of 10 plastic vampire fangs

Knowledge of ABCs: Z out of 10 plastic vampire fangs

Crazy eyes: 10 out of 10 plastic vampire fangs

Scare factor: 11 out of 10 plastic vampire fangs

Overall: NICOLAS CAGE out of 10 plastic vampire fangs

Now, you don’t even need to watch the whole movie to know how amazing it is. All you need to do is watch this 10 minute compilation of all the best moments. TRUST ME. You will be HIGHLY entertained. Every moment in this video is pure brilliance.

Oh, and by the way… April Fool’s.

Book Review: “Demonic and Other Tales”

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Garon Cockrell is a new writer who recently published a book of short horror stories, a copy of which I got a few days ago to read. The stories boast a broad range of subects, from deals with the Devil to killer clowns to psychotic breakdowns. There is one specific thread running through the stories involving demons and the dark side of Christianity (watch out for Lilith!). I like the idea of interconnected stories and almost would have liked to see this appear in all of the stories to create an overarching plotline, but it still works well to connect a few of the stories.

Cockrell is not short on creative ideas. Many of his premises are surprisingly fresh, like the elderly woman who begins to hear the eggs in the supermarket screaming out to her to save them. When they get cracked open, what lies within is none other than a beating heart. I also love a good killer clown story, so there’s that.

Unfortunately, the execution didn’t quite live up to the ideas themselves. I found it hard to empathize with the characters, and since that is a major factor of psychological suspense, most of the horror factor relied on gore and shocks. If you’re into that, then you might enjoy these stories a little more.

While I wanted to enjoy the creative stories for what they were, the juvenile writing sometimes got in the way. With a good editor and some revising, I think these stories could be a lot better, but as it is, they could do with a grammer check. For instance, the point of view skips around between characters (which I always have a problem with and many writers inadvertently do), and there are some tense issues in one of the stories.

“The Strange Tale of Griffin Shard” is intriguing and pretty cool. I enjoyed this one for the most part, but be warned that the “shocker” at the end is a lot like The Skeleton Key (which, for the record, I think is a good movie). Most of the stories have shock endings, which I found got a bit stale after a while.

There’s also a story with an interesting setup involving a boy who goes bonkers and starts gutting a frog before killing his parents, but this one devolves into a Friday the 13th style serial killer shlock-fest with a bunch of teenagers at a lake.

By all means, you could do way worse when picking up a self-published or small Indie press title (especially for small price of $2.99). If you’re looking to enjoy some creative ideas and aren’t too bothered by a lackluster writing style, then you can find yourself a cheap digital copy of this here.

FINAL VERDICT

Storylines: 6.5 out of 10 screaming eggs

Characters: 3 out of 10 screaming eggs

Originality: 8 out of 10 screaming eggs

Writing Style: 4 out of 10 screaming eggs

Scare Factor: 7 out of 10 screaming eggs

Overall: 6 out of 10 screaming eggs

UPDATE: Garon told me that some of the issues I pointed out here are being worked on and will be fixed for the book’s re-release! So definitely check it out when this round of editing is done! It should be available in a couple of weeks.

NOTE: If you wrote a book, short story, or novella that you would like me to review on Pandora’s Pen, query me through my Contact form and I’ll get back to you ASAP. I may not always have time, but if I do I would be happy to read and review your published* work. My goals are to 1) help you get more visibility and readership, and 2) help you improve your writing. While you might not like my review, I will always be honest and well-intentioned.

*Published work only, please.

Movie Review: “Event Horizon”

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All I knew of this movie was that it had something to do with black holes, took place in outer space, and was horror. It sounded to me like the makings of a good movie, considering the kinds of mystery you can explore through the universe’s most mysterious object.

An event horizon, for those who were never astronomy geeks like me (I wanted to be an astronaut when I was eight), is the radius around a black hole at which nothing can escape. It is the point of no return. Once you reach the event horizon, you’re going into that black hole, and nothing’s going to stop you.

The concept of the movie lived up to my expectations: a ghost space ship is trapped on Jupiter’s atmosphere, the crew mysteriously missing after it traveled through a portal via a manmade black hole. Awesome idea? I’d say yes. Then they discover that the portal went beyond the edges of their universe, taking them outside of normal space-time into a place of pure chaos: Hell. And when the ship came back from Hell, it brought some of it back with it. Super awesome idea? Hell yes.

This provides us with lots of possibilities for creepiness, and we get some nice moments of gore (i.e. people ripping out their own eyeballs). The ship is also a spectacle in itself: it is gigantic and was designed to look eerie and futuristic. Unfortunately, that’s about where the awesome ends and the clusterfuck begins.

I think you might need a Band-Aid.

What disappointed me most about this movie was that the concept is so cool and had so much potential to be great… but the execution failed. The crew are haunted by their pasts, which the ghost ship brings to life, but the audience is left a bit puzzled about some of these unexplained back stories. Character motivations are one-dimensional, and they are given some terribly cheesy lines of dialogue. The plot itself is unravels in a strangely haphazard fashion, without enough build-up or exploration of all the frightening possibilities of the ship that went to Hell and back.

[SPOILER] One bright spot is he villain, played by Sam Neill. Once the ship’s evil has fully possessed him, he becomes a demonic force with a scratched-up, eyeless face to match, and he succeeds at being genuinely creepy. I would have enjoyed seeing more of his descent into madness. [END SPOILER]

Perhaps my qualms with the movie are exacerbated by my disappointment that it failed to live up to the concept. I admit, the higher you set the bar, the farther you have to fall. Despite some of the great visuals and the glimmers of good sci-fi horror, Event Horizon ended up being sort of a fun, cheesy, sometimes-scary mess that had me laughing on occasion.

I also learned what it might look like to be trapped in a giant computer chip.

All in all, this was a fun movie, and I don’t regret watching it one bit. If succeeded in entertaining me, even if it didn’t succeed at becoming a truly excellent piece of sci-fi horror cinema.

FINAL VERDICT

Story concept: 10 out of 10 space ghosts

Execution of plot: 6 out of 10 space ghosts

Script: 5 out of 10 space ghosts

Acting: 6 out of 10 space ghosts

Cinematography and visuals: 8 out of 10 space ghosts

Music and atmospheric sound effects: 5 out of 10 space ghosts

Scare factor: 6.5 out of 10 space ghosts

Overall: 6.5 out of 10 space ghosts

Do you disagree with my final verdict? You can view it and share your own opinion in the comments below. Watch Event Horizon now!

Movie Review: “The Woman in Black”

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At last! The long-awaited gothic ghost story starring none other than Harry Potter (er, I mean Daniel Radcliffe). Many wanted to see the classic story put to screen. Many wanted to see a decent horror movie for once. And many others just wanted to see Harry Potter all grown up.

We open on a scene with three creepy little girls in Victorian dress, playing with dolls. Creepily they all look to the left, and they all stand in creepy unison. And as the creepy music plays, they simultaneously open a window and creepily step off, side-by-side, to their doom.

The movie takes place in a remote village painted in washed-out hues, on the outskirts of which is a deadly marsh. A winding road cuts through the foggy wasteland, often submerged when the tide rolls in, to get to a secluded estate that is frightening in all its rotting glory, haunted or not.

How could you go there and NOT expect to see a ghost or two?

Enter Arthur Kipps (Radcliffe), father of a four-year-old whose mother died in childbirth. Still grieving, he is sent to the estate as a solicitor to make sure all the paperwork is in order after the owner dies. But eerie occurences lead him to discover the town’s curse.

Whenever somebody sees the spectral form of the Woman in Black, their resident ghost, a child in the town dies. The townspeople tell Arthur to leave but he resists, staying in the house and witnessing the ghost himself.

Atmospheric tension abounds as Arthur explores every dust-covered nook and cranny of the house, and it rachets up when the haunting makes its presence known. Upstairs, a screech and banging sound echoes and echoes in the silence until Arthur finally gets into the locked room to find a rocking chair moving of its own accord. Never have I ever felt more dreadful suspense at listening to a rocking chair. The consistent pounding mimics your own beating heart as you venture with Arthur through the house, searching for the source of the noise.

Such is the beauty of The Woman in Black: simple sights and sounds are twisted into horror in ways more subtle than your average modern slasher. The story itself is simple, revealed slowly as more sinister clues are dropped about the nature of the woman in black. The movie is light on the dialogue, which only adds to the eerie silence of the location and forces you to note all the creepy little sounds. A dark hallway manages to have a personality of its own, and windup toys turn childish things sinister.

For his part, Daniel Radcliffe does a good job portraying the grief-stricken solicitor. As he is rather manic and nervous in real life, I was impressed by how he pulled off the deeply somber disposition of his character, and it was refreshing to see him in a role that isn’t Harry Potter. Unfortunately, he still sort of resembles a teenager playing dress-up in adult clothes, thanks mainly to his boyish features and short stature, but by the end I felt almost convinced that he could be a young, lost father.

An excellently satisfying gothic movie, The Woman in Black succeeds precisely because it rejects the modern standard of gore-filled, shock-exploited horror. This movie is subtle and slyly eerie, and in the end you feel as though you, too, have endured a journey straight into the heart of the macabre. Whether you come out the other side in the train station, however, is up to you.

FINAL VERDICT

Story: 9 out of 10 haunted rocking chairs

Acting: 9 out of 10 haunted rocking chairs

Cinematography and visuals: 10 out of 10 haunted rocking chairs

Music and atmospheric sound effects: 10 out of 10 haunted rocking chairs

Scare factor: 9 out of 10 haunted rocking chairs

Overall: 9.5 out of 10 haunted rocking chairs

Book Review: “Escape from Furnace: Lockdown”

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A little while back, I hosted a giveaway contest with a random drawing to win a free copy of Alexander Gordon Smith’s book Lockdown, the first in the Escape from Furance series. Along with sending the book to the winner, Macmillan Publishing also kindly sent me a review copy. It arrived on Thursday; I got back from work at 3:30, picked it up, read sporadically throughout the day, and finished by midnight. That should tell you something.

Lockdown is fast-paced thrill ride, and you can easily blaze through this book in no time. It is a not-so-paltry 273 pages, but I guarantee that you won’t want to put it down until you reach that last cliffhanger. It is definitely a young adult novel, but there is also a certain maturity ringing through the pages that will make it a good read for adults as well (and frankly, I wouldn’t recommend it to someone under 13, unless they’re utter creep-jobs like me).

We meet protagonist Alex in a future England that reminds me of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange: violent gangs of youths run rampant, engaging in criminal activity and murder. Except here they don’t try to reform them; they just stick them in Furnace Prison, a real-life hell for young criminals that is as impenetrable as it is horrifying.

Alex has gotten into some seedy things, mainly robbing houses. I admit, when he stumbles into a setup, I was a little disillusioned by the ridiculousness of the bad guys who show up to frame him, but I quickly got over that as we see him chucked into the inescapable Furnace, which is in a miles-deep cave underground. That’s when it really starts to get good.

The prison is hot and claustrophobic, and it’s kill-or-be-killed as the rival gangs horde their territory. Each day they endure hard labor, such as chipping away at the rock walls to make more rooms, and the only respite is a short, freezing shower and the rotten gruel they eat for every meal. I could feel their hopelessness and resignation to a life where they never again see the sun in all the visceral details of the place.

But that’s not the worst part. There are creatures that come out at night to take you: wheezing men in gas masks and their rabid hellhounds. And it turns out the gas masks are actually sewn to their faces. Unfortunately, by the end of book one these men are still a mystery.

Of course, Alex won’t stand for all of this. He’s not the only innocent kid at Furnace, and he has decided to attempt the impossible: escape. But not before he nearly gets killed, experiences utter depression, and runs the risk of losing his best friends to the darkness.

My only qualm was with the Americanization of the book. We’re obviously in England, as they talk about British pounds and such, but they turn around and use “Mom” instead of “Mum.” It was like those first couple of Americanized Harry Potter books, before they wised up and stopped trying to cater to dumb Americans who don’t know what “Mum” means. But this is, of course, a minor issue that is easily forgotten.

There’s also a nice interview with Alexander Gordon Smith at the back of the book, and a preview of the next one, Solitary, which I plan to read as soon as I can get my hands on it.

FINAL VERDICT

Storyline: 9 out of 10 hellhounds

Characters: 8 out of 10 hellhounds

Originality: 10 out of 10 hellhounds

Writing Style: 6 out of 10 hellhounds

Scare Factor: 8 out of 10 hellhounds

Overall: 8 out of 10 hellhounds

Read Lockdown: Escape from Furnace 1 now!

Book Review: “Indiana Horror Anthology”

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Indiana Horror Anthology edited by James Ward Kirk, the sister publication of Indiana Science Fiction (which I will have two stories in) debuted a few weeks back with haunting tales from Indiana writers. Not all of the included pieces caught my interest, but I’ll give a rundown on my favorites from each section.

POETRY

“Hotel Transylvania” by Roger Corwin was easily the standout of the bunch. The poem itself is set up almost like a brochure detailing the pleasures one might find at this hotel. Of course, these pleasures include free stakes and crosses, ghoul valet service (tipping with dead flesh encouraged), swimming in the moat, complimentary blood transfusions in case of bite, and full burial services including decapitation.

FLASH FICTION

“Total Worship” by Allen Griffin is short, creepy, and gruesome. The narrator maintains an old, ritualistic idea of religious worship… involving human sacrifice.

“Dark Reflection” by Eric Garrison has some excellently creepy descriptions about the otherworldliness of mirrors.

“The Space Between Breaths” by Josh Wolf is about a man who has a sixth sense of sorts: he can see two different versions of people, one being that person’s ideal self image, and the other being their “real” self known only to their subconscious. When he meets a girl whose two selves are both the same, he becomes intrigued, especially when it turns out she has an interesting ability as well, which blurs the line of dream and reality.

SHORT STORIES

“The Dark Attraction” by Matt Cowan tells of a family on an innocent vacation to an amusement park. As with any park, there is a haunted house ride, which the older brother dares to try by himself. Turns out the ride’s just a little too real.

“The Dead Girls” by A.J. French may be my favorite in the anthology. It’s about a lake haunted by twin girls who have a dark and disturbing past, created partly by imagination becoming reality. Chris goes fishing out on the lake after his father’s death and sees them come to the surface, their faces “covered in sores and open wounds, places where the fish have eaten away the flesh. Blank staring eyes: tangles of blond hair waving like an undersea plant; a smile, teeth, tongue, a grin” (87). The writing here is fresh and interesting, and the story carries emotional and mythical depth.

“Ballet of the Dolls” by James S. Dorr is fun because of its unique concept. There’s a circus show involving bird-like doll puppets that dance to music, but their movements are oddly lifelike. There is a reason for this, Jason learns: an awful one.

“Bumper Music” by Murphy Edwards follows a hit-and-run assasin who takes pleasure in the business of murder and experiences a bit of karma while on a particularly difficult job.

“Shade in the Shadow” by Cory Hall is about a boy, now a man, whose grandfather had a patch of land where, if your shadow fell over it, anything buried there would come back as a ghost. Cassidy is back there now to find where his brother is buried and cast his shadow over the grave. Of course, bringing back the dead never ends well.

There’s plenty to read in this anthology, which has a total of 11 poems, 10 pieces of flash fiction, and 14 short stories. The fiction is really where it’s at, since horror poetry always seems to ignore the subtleties of good poetry and instead just stick fun horror ideas into cheap verse, but I digress. This is a small-press underground collection of Indy (and indie) horror that gets a passing grade from me.

FINAL VERDICT

Originality: 7 out of 10 creepy dancing dolls

Writing Style: 4 out of 10 creepy dancing dolls

Scare Factor: 6 out of 10 creepy dancing dolls

Overall: 5.5 out of 10 creepy dancing dolls

Check it out at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com. Also stay tuned for the release of Indiana Science Fiction where you can read stories by yours truly.

Read Indiana Horror Anthology 2011 now!

Read Indiana Science Fiction Anthology 2011 now!

Movie Review: “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”

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A while back, I made a post with my 2011-2012 Horror Movie Bucket List. And I’ve now begun making my way through it, starting with Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.

My expectations for this movie were pretty high: it’s a Guillermo del Toro movie, it looked pretty creepy, and had a traditional haunted house story vibe in the previews. And I’m happy to say that I wasn’t disappointed.

The movie begins with a dark scene from the 1800s. The painter, Emerson Blackwood, seems to be slowly going crazy in his basement… but of course, there’s something else down there with him, and not only has it taken his son, but it’s still hungry.

After discovering that whatever’s in the house feeds on teeth, we move into the present day where an unhappy but precocious young girl (Bailee Madison) is getting passed around by her divorced parents, and is now going to live with her father and his girlfriend in an old house that he’s renovating. Blackwood’s house, of course.

From here, we get a feast of eerie scenes, creepy sounds, and some serious CGI. I would have preferred not seeing so much of the creatures, since what you don’t see tends to be scarier, but the creatures themselves are pretty well done so I’ll let that slide. They sort of made me laugh, since they look sort of like deformed rats, but their  faces are actually pretty freaky looking.

The plot itself is quite simple (there are malicious otherworldly creatures in an old mansion), but this actually serves the movie well. Rather than getting bogged down in a complex and incomprehensible mythology, this movie seamlessly incorporates the basic background information as we go along.

What stands out to me, though, is the production itself. The cinematography is beautiful as we are swept through this rustic old mansion. The score is filled with excellent atmospheric music, the kind you might hear in a classic scary movie with sweeping violins and melancholy cellos. And on top of this score, we hear the laughing, scampering, and devilish whispering of the creatures.

Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce are adequate in their roles. The real standout is Bailee Madison, who portrays Sally with a surprising amount of sincerity from a child actor. It wasn’t the best movie in the world; sometimes the action started to feel repetitive. But there is much to appreciate here. And, after the eye-roller that is Darkness Falls, we now have a successful scary movie about the light-fearing evil tooth fairy!

Something else that impressed me was the companion book I came across at Barnes and Noble: Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark: Blackwood’s Guide to Dangerous Fairies. Written by the movie’s creators, it intersperses entries from Blackwood’s diary, chronicling his discovery and interaction with the creatures, with a veritable catalog of mythological fairy-creatures from around the world. One of them is the bone gnawers from the movie, which feast on children’s teeth. Yummy.

FINAL VERDICT:

Story: 6 out of 10 bloody baby teeth

Acting: 7.5 out of 10 bloody baby teeth

Cinematography and visuals: 9 out of 10 bloody baby teeth (point off for overuse of CGI instead of imagination)

Music and atmospheric sound effects: 10 out of 10 bloody baby teeth

Scare factor: 6.5 out of 10 bloody baby teeth

Overall: 7.5 out of 10 bloody baby teeth

Watch Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark now!