Oh my god, Halloween Week is drawing to a close! It’s been a crazy, fun celebration, and what better way to end it all than with a look at horror in 2009? Today, for our final list, we celebrate the best horror films of 2009 so far, and take a look at the horror films we are excited for on the horizon…

Best of 2009 (so far):

Paranormal Activity

The word-of-mouth, small budget film that has become an overnight nationwide sensation, a la The Blair Witch Project. I’ve seen some nasty backlash online from horror fans now that the film is so mainstream, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is one scary, good little movie. With only a few missteps (only one cheesy scene involving an ouija board), this is the kind of movie that might not be so scary when you watch it….but late at night when you wake up from sleep at 3 AM, you remember Every. Freaky. Detail. I don’t scare easy, but I had a few really bad moments in the middle of the night thanks to this film.

Drag Me To Hell

Hey, Good!Raimi is back! I say Good!Raimi because ever since Spidey 2, it’s like an evil bad movie making Sam Raimi automaton has been putting out films. Drag Me To Hell is a return to the horror comedy roots of Evil Dead II/Army of Darkness, blending scares, laughs, and wonderful cheese together in a damn fine movie. Alison Lohman does a bangup job as Christine. I loved this film.

Grace

Ahh, Grace. This is a slower, quieter horror film about a pregnant woman who loses her husband and unborn child in a car accident – but this mother is determined to carry her baby to term anyways. When she gives birth to a stillborn girl, the mother is able by some miracle to will her child back to life, and she names her Grace. Except, something’s not quite right with Grace. She has an appetite for something other than breast milk. This is a really touching, frightening film about the lengths a mother will go for her child – it’s not a traditional shock and gore film, but much more slow and subtle. Another winning film, even if the end is a little cheesy.

Zombieland

I was so very excited for Zombieland, and was ecstatic when it delivered. That kid from Adventureland (aka Michael Cera’s understudy) does a fine job, as do Woody Harrelson, Jules (not sure what her real name is, but she’s Jules from Superbad in my mind) and sweet little Abigale Breslin. Full of laughs, and an AWESOME cameo, this is a film that won me over from the intro narration. Although it got a little catch-phrasy with the whole “Double Tap” and “Nut Up or Shut Up,” the film was so much fun.

Pandorum

I am a sucker for science fiction horror, and despite lackluster reviews, I thoroughly enjoyed Pandorum. The “monsters” were pretty well done, good special effects, solid performances from Dennis Quaid and the dependable Ben Foster…I am a fan.

Haunting In Connecticut

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. Yeah, it’s predictable and the ending isn’t so hot (well, literally it was HOT, but you know what I mean), but there were some genuinely good scares and images in this one. I liked the eyelid box, the carved bodies, the one scene where the kids are playing hide and seek and you see the ghost behind the genius who chose to hide in the dumbwaiter…worth at least a rental.

Dead Snow

I had been waiting for this movie to hit the US since last year, and when I saw it available On Demand, I was ECSTATIC. And you know what? This movie was everything I was looking for. It’s funny, irreverent, makes a ton of really blatant horror allusions, and the special effects are surprisingly really good. It’s a DVD-er.

My Bloody Valentine 3-D

I’m a sucker for 3-D films. My Bloody Valentine is a remake that I wasn’t expecting, and it was pretty solid. You know, solid crazy guy with a pickaxe slasher. Good tension, good blood, guts, gore, and requisite nudity.

House of the Devil

This film just came out in theaters this weekend, but it was available On Demand for the month of October – and I was lucky enough to snag a viewing. This is an amazingly well-directed, beautiful ode to the ’80s horror film. It’s atmospheric, it’s scary in the way that my favorite horror films (Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist) are. That’s BIG praise, and House of the Devil is worth it.

Horror Films We’re Looking Forward To:

The Fourth Kind

Mila Jovovich effing rules, and this looks pretty damn scary.

The Wolfman

Universal goes back to its horror roots with a remake of The Wolf Man – and as it stars three powerhouse actors (Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt), I’m so very excited to watch it.

Piranha 3-D

Alejandre Aja’s new film has been a long time coming, and hopefully we’ll see Piranha in theaters soon!

Dorian Gray

Ok this looks not very accurate, but the Prince Caspian kid is cute, and this poster looks pretty cool.

Anti-Christ

It’s in theaters now, and I think one of the best ways to celebrate Halloween. This looks really disturbing…but I like disturbing.

And that’s it from us! What about you? Any upcoming horror movies you are ready to watch? Any films you want to praise or rant about *cough*TheOrphan*cough*?

Today, for our last guest of the season, we have the incomparable Katie(babs) of Babbling About Books, And More!. Katie has decided to write a little bit about some of the scariest places to visit, in Travel Channel fashion!

Without further ado, we give you the lovely KB!

When the Spooky Book Smugglers asked for me to join in on their scary Halloween Week, I was stumped on what to post about. In the past I have talked about my favorite scary books and movies, so thinking of something totally different to post was difficult. (even though I had about a month to think about it *blush*).

Along my blog and website hopping across the internet I found myself at Travelchannel.com and their post on the Top 10 Creepiest Places. This list is the most frightening places in the world:

10. Bermuda Triangle
9. Haunted Hollywood
8. Tower of London
7. Mutter Museum of Medical History
6. Gettysburg
5. New Orleans
4. Salem
3. Roswell
2. Winchester Mystery House
1. Lizzie Borden Bed-and- Breakfast

Out of the 10 here, I have visited 4 of these places. I guess you can assume I haven’t been to the Bermuda Triangle because I would probably be stuck on some alternative island universe ala the show Lost. (Not that I wouldn’t mind being a beach bump with either Matthew Fox or Josh Holloway.)

The Tower of London is filled with so much history, over one-thousand year’s worth! Unfortunately I didn’t see any ghosts walking around with their heads in their hands. Salem is a bit cheesy and corny but still a fun time and Gettysburg, PA is very tragic and spooky because as you look down on the battlefield where the North and South fought the most deadly battle of the Civil War, chills wrack your whole body because the ghost of that battle and the dead, their residual energy still remains. There is also this wonderful Wine Festival in September there that I also recommend you go to if you have the chance.

But the one place I wanted to specifically point out is number 2 on this list. The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA is an amazing structure that may or may not be haunted!

Why is the Winchester House such a creepy place? The house is full of rooms with stairs and doors to nowhere! You open a door and there is a wall. Stairs lead up toward the ceiling. It is a winding labyrinth with rooms that make no sense.

I even walked up one set of stairs and bumped my head on the low ceiling. O.o

The story behind the Winchester House is pretty sad. The reason the house was built this way is because:

“When rifle heiress Sarah Winchester began building her Victorian-style mansion in 1884, she pledged that the construction would never end during her lifetime. The reason? She thought the continuous noise would appease the ghosts that plagued her after the deaths of her husband and daughter as well as help her attain eternal life.”

“Sarah Winchester built a home that is an architectural marvel. Unlike most homes of its era, this 160-room Victorian mansion had modern heating and sewer systems, gas lights that operated by pressing a button, three working elevators, and 47 fireplaces.”

The Winchester House is not a house of horror but a wonderful and marvelous mansion full of bizarre features and oddities. The rumors still persist that the victims killed by Winchester rifles haunt the house that was never finished, roaming the halls, confused because of the stairs and doors that lead to nowhere.

Out of the 10 creepy places mentioned, which ones have you been to? How about some places that aren’t mention that you may have visited that should be placed on this list? And if you have been in the Bermuda Triangle and lived to tell about it, do they have a island happy hour there?

Thanks again, Katie!

What better way to celebrate the end (or almost, we still have two more posts today!) of our Halloween Week than to have a Flash Giveaway?

We have two batches to giveaway, each to one lucky winner.

Batch 1: courtesy of Gollancz has Hater by David Moody and a hardcover of A Touch of Dead, an anthology of Sookie Stackhouse stories, by Charlaine Harris

Batch 2: courtesy of Ace and Jove has Dark Road Rising by P.N.Elrod and the Never After anthology.

To enter, leave a comment telling us which batch you prefer. Contest is open to residents of the US, Canada and UK and will run till 11:59pm (Pacific) TONIGHT. GO!

Part of the fun of the Halloween season is the movies that are on cable tv – and on Halloween itself, networks usually prepare some really good lineups. This year, AMC has been a little disappointing – but we’re happy to announce that The Sundance Channel is taking care of that deficiency!

This Halloween, The Sundance Channel is having a “Scare Tactics” horror film fest. At 12:30 am on October 31st, three horrific films will be shown back to back to back.

First up is Philip Chidel’s Subject Two, about a scientist who discovers the secret to resurrecting the dead.

Subject Two Appeared at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival
In a remote, snowbound cabin in the Rockies, a scientist (Dean Stapleton) is working on a revolutionary project — for which he needs a guinea pig. Enter Adam (Christian Oliver), an unhappy med student, who becomes the second subject in a series of experiments that involve his repeated murder and resurrection. As the study progresses, both the physical isolation and the effects of the reanimation technique begin to take a toll on Adam.

This is followed at 2:10 AM by Korean filmmaker Woo-cheol Lee’s Cello, a tale about a cellist who suffers a car crash, and tries to put her life back together.

The undying aftereffects of physical and psychological trauma form but one force haunting the female protagonist in Korean filmmaker Woo-cheol Lee’s atmospheric exercise in horror. Music instructor Mi-ju (Hyeon-a Seong) once had a promising career as a cellist, but a life-changing car accident brought that to an end. When a student threatens her, Mi-ju experiences flashbacks of the traumatic crash and begins to suspect that supernatural forces are threatening her as well. And that very creepy new housekeeper doesn’t make matters any better.

Finally, the “Scare Tactics” block closes at 3:45 AM with David Moreau and Xavier Palu’s Them, aka Ils (which we posted about earlier this week!), a terrifying film about a French couple alone in a large house in the woods.

David Moreau and Xavier Palud’s excruciatingly tense fright-fest arrives as part of a recent boom in French horror films, notable for stylish flair, heightened atmosphere and psychological insight. Purportedly based on real events and told in a chronology that unfolds in nearly real time, Them follows a French academic couple (Olivia Bonamy and Michaël Cohen) living in Romania, who rent a handsome country house in the forest. Alas, during a dark and terrifying night, they slowly discover they are not alone.

Well, we know where our DVRs will be on Halloween night…

For today’s guest, we are very lucky to have young adult authors Diana Peterfreund (of Rampant fame) and Carrie Ryan (genius behind YA zombie novel, The Forest of Hands and Teeth) over to guest blog. For their topic, they’ve decided to write about another young adult author: The Awesomeness That Is Christopher Pike.

Please give it up for the lovely Diana and Carrie!

Hi, we’re Carrie Ryan (The Forest of Hands and Teeth) and Diana Peterfreund (Rampant). Our first teen novels came out this year. They’re filled with supernatural horror and teenage girls who must fight for their lives – sort of like the novels we read and loved when we were younger… the novels of Christopher Pike. In honor of Halloween, we decided to have a Pike reminiscence and love-fest. This is the conversation that transpired.

Diana: My favorite Pikes were MONSTER, SEE YOU LATER, and MASTER OF MURDER.

Carrie: Your memory is so much better than mine.

Diana: Just because I’m LOOKING at them. I have a stack of them here on my desk.

Carrie: I wish I’d gotten my box of books. I’m sure just holding them would make me remember. I read these books on weekends, staying up until 3am usually because I HAD TO KNOW what happened.

Diana: Yeah, me too. I remember Monster kept me up all night, and I kept trying to convince myself it was just fiction, so I could go to sleep without thinking that vampires from outer space were going to come eat me.

Carrie: Oh, that’s right! His vampires were from outer space!

Diana: And India. He had those vampires too. That’s actually the one they’re reissuing and is on the bestseller lists right now: THE LAST VAMPIRE, with the sexy immortal blonde girl vampire from India. Not MONSTER, with the crazy bat-like alien vampires.

Carrie: Those books taught me to speed read. [Carrie goes online to look up old favorites.] It’s interesting to read this flap copy now.

Diana: Why is that?

Carrie: His plots – the descriptions – don’t seem as complex as I remember: “Kid goes on vacation, someone dies, haunting ensues.” But I remember the stories being so fantastically unique. They were SO beyond anything else I was reading or thought about.

Diana: I wonder how much of that was that they were going to tone down anything that seemed out of the ordinary, for marketing purposes. I love the covers. Neon candy colors with blood dripping from the fonts – but not girly, even with all the pink. All these gorgeous paintings of girls with long glossy hair in jeans and sweaters standing with boys in jean jackets pulling them to safety. (Even though the girls could take damn good care of themselves.)

Carrie: Oh yeah, the covers bring back TONS of memories.

Diana: Is there any Pike book you specifically want to talk about?

Carrie: What’s the one with the bad coke? [note: that’s the one where someone was forcing people to snort bad cocaine and killing them]

Diana: DIE SOFTLY.

Carrie: I wonder whether you could have a book like that now. I can’t remember at the time if I was appalled by the story line – I doubt it. I think today there might be issues with it being too dark or edgy (or, would it be considered a problem novel). And I also wonder if it would fly in terms of plausibility. The chick’s killing people by making them snort it (duct tape over their mouth).

Diana: Yes! That was freaky. “Say no to drugs, kids.”

Carrie: I remember that ending with him setting up a camera in his closet and AS HE’S DYING he hears the photo shutter. Of all the books, that’s what stands out in my mind because I never saw that coming and I thought it was so brilliant, because the chick would have gotten away otherwise. Now, I wonder if readers would think “Oh, they’d find the tape residue on his mouth,” because they watch so much CSI.  I wonder if today you have to be hyper aware of forensics and stuff like that. I NEVER thought about those types of things when I first read the books but maybe today’s teens would.

Diana: That’s a good point. It was weird how sometimes he’d write thrillers with no paranormal elements, and sometimes they’d be supernatural. And sometimes they’d start out as thriller/mysteries and then BECOME supernatural in the sequels. Like, I loved CHAIN LETTER but then I thought the sequel kind of went off the rails.

Carrie: Oh, I forgot about that one! The best thing about CHAIN LETTER is that there were actual Chain Letters out there – I remember getting them. Not this email nonsense – real letters with stamps.

Diana: I still remember how scary that was, especially in the sequel, where the supernatural came in. How you moved your name up on the list, and then once you were at the top of the list, your name went into the box. “Once you are in the box, you stay in the box.” that line was so scary, I remember it more than a decade later.

Carrie: See what I mean about memory?

Diana: Because – spoiler warning — the box was hell.

Carrie: Maybe you didn’t like the sequels as much because it’s that initial figuring out the world that’s so interesting with him.

Diana: His worldbuilding was fascinating. It was always so Californian and had that New Age flare, too—biofeedback machines and reincarnations, etc. So different from what I was used to in Florida.

Carrie: And me in South Carolina. It sort of gave it an even more otherworldly aspect.

Diana: We two southern girls living vicariously through the liberal woo woo Californians in Pike novels!

Carrie: LOL. But I never felt like I couldn’t “get it.”

Diana: I didn’t even have cheerleaders at my high school, let alone sociopathic coke dealing ones.

Carrie: I was a cheerleader at my school – haha!!

Diana: Did you deal coke?

Carrie: No, not so much.

Diana: Did you sell cookies? That was their cover.

Carrie: I made stupid plastic cups filled with candy for the football players.

Diana: Close enough!  I guess I must have read a lot of these in middle school, because had I tried in high school, I might have gone, wow, why does everyone have boyfriends in this!

Carrie: The other thing I really like about Pike is the games he plays with the narratives. It’s a question of who is telling the story and when. There are a lot where it’s the cop interrogating people later on.

Diana: Oh yeah. I loved that. The first-person narratives in REMEMBER ME, where she’s dead, and in THE LAST VAMPIRE, were very powerful. Who is telling DIE SOFTLY? Herb, right? But he dies.

Carrie: Just because someone was narrating didn’t mean they’d make it at the end, which, from an author standpoint, is fascinating. It’s also something I love about writing YA because as an adult I wonder if I’d find something like that trite because I’d seen it before? But there’s always got to be that first time and that’s the BEST feeling – when you’re reading and for the first time to realize that your narrator can die.

Diana: Do you have something to tell us, Carrie?

Carrie: About my characters dying? LOL. That’s what I love about writing for teens. It’s always new for them.

Diana: All those little narrative tricks. Unreliability, killing off the protagonist, story-within-a-story (which he does in so, so many of the books, ROAD TO NOWHERE, THE MIDNIGHT CLUB, WHISPER OF DEATH)… Pike kills off a lot of people in his books. No one was safe.

Carrie: I love how he sort of took these ordinary things we all knew – chain letters, scavenger hunts – and then made them horrific.

Diana: That’s where I always thought horror is scariest. That’s what Stephen King does so well, Dogs, cars, trucks, sink drains, cornfields….

Carrie: I learned not to pick up hitchhikers from Christopher Pike.

Diana: Ha! That was ROAD TO NOWHERE. Awesome cover. Chick with a skeleton hitchhiker in her car.

Carrie: I think reading Pike then expanded my understanding of how far authors could go. It’s exactly what you said – no one’s safe, which I think added to the thriller aspect. I mean, there’s a comfort in reading a romance where you know things are going to work out, you just don’t know how. They’re still page turners because it’s the figuring out how that’s fascinating, but with Pike… all bets were off.

Diana: And so many of his books started out with death. Just reading the descriptions people are dealing with the death of someone in the group…their murder, their suicide.

Carrie: They always are. Do you think that was a choice he made cause he was writing thriller and death is an easy thriller choice? Or do you think he was trying to deal with something more?

Diana: He wrote one from the perspective of a serial killer—Dexter before Dexter. THE WICKED HEART. I think it’s a way of saying these teens are already in danger, they’ve already seen darkness. Usually the past death is connected to whatever is going on. It’s the inciting incident, from a storytelling perspective.

Carrie: I wonder if I would have read them differently if I’d dealt with something like death as a teen. Because as a reader, I got to hold those stories out at arm’s length.

Diana: That’s a really good question. I don’t know if you see books like this for teens anymore, where they aren’t called “problem novels.”

Carrie: Me neither. It’s more common to see books that deal with suicide be more in the vein of THIRTEEN REASONS WHY.

Diana: So many of the Pike characters have best friends or exes that committed suicide too, but instead of sitting in a diner listening to tapes, they are fighting the killer vampires from outer space.

Carrie: Or being haunted… literally. Hmmm, I was about to say that that’s because the books aren’t about the suicide, but aren’t they? I mean, dealing with a literal ghost of the dead person… isn’t that just a stand in for how people deal with suicide and death? He just makes it literal?

Diana: True. You could probably write an excellent comparison paper between 13 REASONS and Pike’s WHISPER OF DEATH.  They are both about a teen girl suicide whose last act on Earth is to arrange a post-mortem payback for the people she blames for her death. Hannah of 13 Reasons does it with tapes. Betty Sue in Whisper does it by magically creating a parallel dimension in which she horrifically kills the people who made her suffer in life.

Carrie: Huh, that’s really interesting to think about. Just looked on the Amazon website – for Whisper of Death they have the reading level at ages 4-8… er… no

Diana: Really? That book STARTS with an abortion. And then this one guy, Helter Skelter — I’ll never forget it – is walking on this wall that turns into a razorblade and splits him in two.

Carrie: Ugh – that’s very Saw.

Diana: That book actually IS very Saw, now that I think about it. It’s very horror porn — the horrific killings. Now, people might say some of the stuff in his books was way too old for middle schoolers, which is mostly when I read it. I never even thought of it. Rape and murder and abortions and coke dealers. I read them at 11, 12, and people are saying “oh, this is 14 or 15 and up” now.

Carrie: I never thought any of it was too mature for me.

Diana: Or maybe people were saying it then too and because I was a kid, I never heard it.

Carrie: It never freaked me out – except for late at night when I needed to know how it ended.

Diana: It freaked me out, but then again, I’m a wimp. As for horrific deaths, there are some in Suzanne Collins that are just as horrific…the wasps, the mutts, etc. The more things change….

Carrie: Good point.

Diana: Pike’s books were always thrillers, and sometimes they were supernatural thrillers, which at the time was called horror. It’s like how now they call books “dark fantasy” what might have been called horror. Like your book. I’ve also seen reviews of Rampant that call it horror.

Carrie: Really? I never saw it that way.

Diana: It’s kind of how when chick lit was popular, people would try to call any sort of women’s fiction chick lit. Sometimes, with these old Pikes, you had to read the book before you knew if it was supernatural or not. That’s another thing they don’t do now. That and let books with all that death slide without being a Book About Death. Though I guess your book starts with deaths.

Carrie: True, but I don’t think of it as a problem novel.

Diana: Well, THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH isn’t even set in our world. Pike’s novels were always set in OUR WORLD.

Carrie: Which made it easier for them to at once seem real and accessible, but still didn’t feel like it was going to happen to ME, which kept that horror at a distance.

Diana: You don’t think it would be more at a distance if it was set in another world? That’s what scares me about the “normal” horror – I’ve been in a rest stop bathroom, I’ve been in the house with the lights off. This could happen to me. I’ve never lived in a religious compound in the zombie-infested forest after the apocalypse.

Carrie: No?

Diana: I remember making the conscious choice to start RAMPANT like a horror movie. Babysitter, boyfriend, monster in the woods.

Carrie: I’m not sure I even saw all that but it’s true. Wow, I’m shocked I missed that.

Diana: Me too. And grumpy. There was also a lot of meta in Pike novels. Like he would have his characters go to see a movie based on another of his books, or he would have them mention his other books. For instance, the characters in FALL INTO DARKNESS were inspired by reading GIMME A KISS, and the writer in MASTER OF MURDER seemed to have written FALL INTO DARKNESS. That was another favorite, actually. MASTER OF MURDER was about a teenage bestselling horror novelist and no one knew it was him, including his crush, who was a huge fan. Such fantasy wish fulfillment for me!

Carrie: I loved reading books about people in publishing.

Diana: I wonder how many aspiring teen writers reading that book got the totally wacked out idea that they could be a secret novelist and no one but their agent would ever know their true identity. I know I suspected Pike was really some 17 year old kid when I read that particular book.

Carrie: Oh, I’m totally sure of that. I even remember another book that was basically the same idea: popular genre writer with a pen name and the book they’re talking about in the book is the book you’re reading (wait… was that too convoluted of an explanation?)  I totally felt like reading Pike is what got me to not only love books, but love the idea of writing.

Diana: I actually met Pike’s longtime agent this summer at a cocktail party and I totally monopolized her telling her what an inspiration Pike was to me.

Carrie: Yeah, I remember you calling me right after that happened.  I felt the same way when I met RL Stine (which is who I read after Pike).  I spent most of the time around him being stunned and wanting to tell him just how much of an influence he was on me. Do you think your writing now is influenced by Pike?

Diana: I do, especially when it comes to characters making plans. Pike wrote characters who thought things out and made these elaborate schemes. You’d have chapter after chapter of the character going “Okay, this is how I’m going to fake my death/kill the alien vampires infesting my town/whatever. I’m going here and I’m getting this harness and I’m building this kind of bomb that will throw me clear…” And it was always so interesting, watching the plans come together, watching them work or fail or backfire. Nothing came easy for the Pike characters. They really had to work for it, and there were dangers and consequences of messing up.

Carrie: That is totally so true and I think that’s what I’ve taken from him – how things can just get worse and worse and you never know what the consequences could be — nothing was taken off the table (death, dismemberment, happily ever after).  That’s what really kept me reading: I just never knew what would happen.

You know it’s just sort of funny to find ourselves here as critique partners, having grown up in totally different places and yet both loving Christopher Pike and both being influenced by him/taking inspiration from him. Man, I really need to go get that box of Pike books out of my dad’s attic once I’m done with this deadline.

Diana: I was in the store the other day and his reissued vampire books (THIRST) are shelved next to RAMPANT because of our last names – Peterfreund and Pike. That seemed so incredible to me. I can’t imagine someone going up to 13 year old me in the Waldenbooks clutching a copy of REMEMBER ME and saying, “One day, you’re going to be right there on the shelf next to him.” And now I am.

Carrie: OMG that is just about the coolest thing ever! To be on a shelf next to Pike – heck being on any shelf in a store at all.  You’re totally right, my 13 year old self would have died (and my significantly older self still does die when I see my book near his!).  Thanks Mr. Pike!

Thank you, Diana and Carrie, for the fabulous post, and trip down memory lane! You’ve both inspired me to bust out my old Pikes for a Halloween re-read (luckily, I have them with me thanks to my sister):

Some of them are pretty tattered, but readable. And I’ve had them all these years, through multiple moves…so I’m proud of my Pike collection.

How about you? Any Christopher Pike books you love? Or any YA horror favorites you care to share?

Disclaimer: Halloween is totally a Thea thing when she hijacks the blog and makes me watch and read all sorts of stuff that are way outside my comfort zone (I am SO NOT a horror/Halloween fan). Last year, it was The Evil Dead movies, which, wouldn’t you know, I ended up loving. This year, I was given another list of movies that I had to watch, one for each day of the week. Ana’s Halloween Marathon is now an official part of our annual Halloween celebration. Let the torture fun begins!

Also: there will be spoilers!!!!

Ana’s Halloween TV/Movie Marathon: Day 5 – The Descent

Why The Descent: Today is kick-ass horror heroine day in our Halloween Celebration and Thea asked me to watch this one. I have NO IDEA why I agreed given as how I hate the premise (see below).

Trivia: This movie is about a bunch of women that go on a caving expedition. I HATE caving. I hate caves and everything to do with it. When I was a teenager I went to a nature-walk that included a visit to a cave, a small one mind, not of those that go on and on and on, but still one that had a couple of tunnels and I ….froze. I FROZE. It was horrible, that was when I realised I had fear of heights and fear of confined spaces: SO not the best place or time to find out about those. I had to be dragged all the way back by two very lovely people. And I swore to NEVER, EVER be near a cave again. EVER.

Viewing Party: This one was a proper viewing party. I enlisted Dear Partner to watch it with me (as a comfort company) and got the proper edibles – crisps, beer and chocolate covered raisins. We sat down to watch it and I was prepared to be terrified. I was not disappointed – it was a perfect horrific experience and I came out of it simultaneously liking and loathing this movie.

The premise is this: a group of friends get together to go to a caving expedition.

Before embarking in their Descent….to HELL

They all seem to be pretty knowledgeable and experienced (a bonus thing about the movie in my opinion, that they are not just a bunch of idiots that decided to try something new and shinny) and they go in and go down and down descending into their doom. Because OF COURSE an accident happens and a tunnel collapses and they can’t go back; OF COURSE someone did something stupid like actually making the decision to take the group to an un-mapped , never visited before system of caves without telling any of the other members of the group and without telling anyone in the outside because she thought it would be fun. OF COURSE worse things happen, like someone breaking a leg, someone losing their ropes. And then, on top of the claustrophobia, on top of being trapped inside a cave without knowing where to go and if they would ever be able to leave, as if paranoia, fear, danger of exhaustion, hunger, thirst, death or worse weren’t enough: OF COURSE TPTB go and RUIN everything by adding hominid-creatures- that- live –in- the –dark- and-want-to-devour-the-ladies, to the mix.

What I liked: the absolutely terrifying experience of watching this movie and believe me when I say this: I have no way of expressing how much I HATE that I liked that. I guess this whole Halloween thing is getting to me. Getting out of my comfort zone to find out that I like being outside my comfort zone is not ….comfortable. Or something. But I digress. This movie tapped in every single thing I am afraid of: caves, being trapped, claustrophobia, the dark, tunnels, creepy crawlies, height. The first hour of the movie was brilliant in exploring all that – in the crescendo of horrible things and in the tension of knowing that these women are probably doomed. Plus, the women, they are totally kick-ass (which is why I was supposed to watch the movie in the first place) : they do not freeze or panic at first, they move on, thinking, examining, trying to find a way out. They also make mistakes – who doesn’t – until they are faced with something very primal inside themselves, the very instinct of survival, at all costs.

Carrie called. She wants her blood back.

Brutal, bloody and efficient – they are all that and more. And it was awesome to see that. And I loved the ending that I got – the one where everybody dies. Muwahahahah. Wait. OMG THEA WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?

What I loathed: the fact that what was a GREAT chance for psychological horror with all the PLAUSIBLE things that can occur when you are trapped in a system of tunnels is thrown away for what I consider cheap thrills – yes, horrible, yes terrifying, yes it allows for some kick-ass moments, but still silly nonetheless. I hated the addition of the creatures. Hated with a passion. It was so unnecessary.

Gollum was sad he wasn’t invited to partake the dinner

They weren’t even that scary – more gross than anything. I guess this is a monster movie after all which is not my cup of tea. I also hate that there is an alternate ending, in which one of them survives and that now they are making The Descent 2. Blah.

Verdict: I don’t know. I guess from a pure objective point of view, this is QUITE horrific. Which I presume, should be the point. There were parts I REALLY loved like the first hour and the kick-assness of the girls, especially Juno and Sarah:

And with that, I finally bid adieu to my Halloween Week homework.

I MADE IT THROUGH ANOTHER YEAR. Go me!

For today’s stop on Halloween Week, we examine a very, very important group of folks. We take a look at women in horror films who KICK SERIOUS ASS. We’re not talking about the catatonic blondes who can do nothing other but scream and cry and look pretty (or naked) – we’re talking about the Ellen Ripleys, the Alices, the Barbaras (circa 1990). Here’s our list of women who take no prisoners, our favorite leading ladies in the horror film genre.

Carrie, Carrie (1976)

Adapted from Stephen King’s first novel, Carrie White is not your typical horror heroine. A girl ostracized because her strange behavior and tormented by her religious zealot mother, Carrie also has some intense telekinetic powers. And she’s pretty damn badass when she gets going. In a scary, snapped kind of way.

Barbara, Night of the Living Dead (1990)

The original Barbara was a simpering ninny with absolutely no value to the film – but in the remake, this deficiency is fixed, and Barbara develops from a shocked and scared woman to someone that won’t take any more human or zombie drama anymore.

Alice, Resident Evil (2002, 2007)

Genetically modified and amazingly talented at combat, Alice can kill infected zombies with guns, machetes, or her bare hands. Take your pick.

Clarice Starling, The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Does this count as horror? It’s certainly horrific, even if it is more of a thriller film. And Jodi Foster’s Clarice is gutsy and intuitive; even though she’s a rookie, even though she’s terrified, she meets the challenge with determination. And that, friends, is sexier than anything.

Nancy & Kristen, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 (1987)

Nancy Thompson embodies the baby-voice ’80s terribleness in part 1, but in part 3, she comes back with a vengeance. She teaches the poor haunted kids how to use their dreams to fight Freddy – and Kristen’s gymnastics totally come into play. Together, these two are able to face down Freddy, no small feat.

Sarah, Day of the Dead (1985)

The only woman in a military bunker surviving the zombie apocalypse, Sarah has to deal with cretinous army dudes every. day. She’s smart and she does what she can, with what she has.

Ginger & Brigitte Fitzgerald, Ginger Snaps (2000)

Death-obsessed Ginger gets bitten by a wild creature, and she begins to change…into a werewolf. These sisters are bitchy, they’re mean, they’re cruel…but they’re a different type of heroine that deserve a little spotlight.

Trish, Jeepers Creepers (2001)

Confession time: I love this movie. I don’t know why – I’m not a fan of the second film, but this first one just WORKED for me. And Trish, one of the main characters along with bro Derry (you know him as Justin “I’m a Mac” Long), is a protective big sister that tries her best to deal with the creeper stalking her and her brother across a country landscape.

Kate Fuller, From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

I really like Juliette Lewis, and as young as she is in this movie, she comes to grips with some tough decisions – if you count shooting your vampirized brother and father tough, that is.

Sarah Connor, Terminator 2 (1991)

Ok, I’m totally cheating here because as great as T-2 is, it’s not horror. BUT Linda Hamilton’s beefed up Sarah Connor is so badass, she deserves a spot on this list. So I’m pulling rank and sneaking her in.

Cherry Darling, Planet Terror/The Girls (Batch 2), Death Proof (2007)

Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez put together a hell of a show with their Grindhouse flicks, and both of them have some awesome leading ladies. In Rodriguez’s Planet Terror, Rose McGowan pulls together a wonderful performance as Cherry Darling – the one-legged stand-up-comedian-gogo-dancer-turned-killing-machine. And the second batch of girls in Tarantino’s Death Proof – Abernathy, Zoe, and Kim – are fucking fantastic. One of my favorite, rousing, revenge/girl-power flicks.

Juno & Sarah, The Descent (2005)

I won’t say too much since Ana is watching and writing a post about this film today, but Juno and Sarah are both badass climbers/cave explorers – and so very human too. Both are suffering in their own ways, both make really dumb decisions…this is just a great film.

Sidney Prescott, Scream

Ahh, Neve Campbell. Where have you gone? In the Scream films, she’s sort of a new Laurie Strode – though she’s not really as cool as Jamie Lee Curtis, she does manage to keep her head on and stay alive.

Jennifer Hills, I Spit On Your Grave (1978)

This is a bit of a controversial one. The film, also known as Day of the Woman shows Jennifer, a woman alone in the woods, gang raped repeatedly by four men who leave her for dead. She’s not dead though, and she comes back and kills each man in a show of bloody vengeance. It’s disturbing and misogynistic – those rape scenes are…well, nasty. I have no desire to watch this movie more than once. But Jennifer’s revenge is a rousing story, and one that I think works. That’s just me, though.

Lt. Ellen Ripley, Alien films (1979, 1986)

This is a no-brainer. Strong, intelligent, and totally badass, Ellen Ripley takes down Aliens like nobody’s business.

Laurie Strode, Halloween films (1978 onward)

Jamie Lee Curtis was amazing as Laurie – stalked by Michael, she stabs a knitting needle in his neck, a wire hanger in his eye, a knife in his chest. Unlike her friends, she fought back, and continued to do so in the subsequent films. Laurie is the original slasher heroine – sexy, smart, and gutsy. None of this screaming pitifully nonsense.

And these are some of our favorites – what about yours?

Title: Fifty-Two Stitches

Author: Anthology, edited by Aaron Polson

Genre: Horror, Anthology, Flash Fiction

Publisher: Strange Publications
Publication Date: September 2009
Paperback: 162 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand alone anthology

How did I get this book: ARC from Publisher

Why did I read this book: When we were contacted by small horror & fantasy press Strange Publications with a review query, I was more than happy to accept. We’re more than happy to do our part to support small publishers, especially in the realm of horror and speculative fiction! When I read a bit about Fifty-Two Stitches and learned that it was entirely composed of flash fiction, I was willing to really try to push myself and work against my biases.

Summary: (from Amazon.com)
Quick, dark, and often filled with black humor, this book will keep readers awake at night with an array of horror flash fiction. Each story can be read in minutes, but will haunt for much longer.

Review:

Earlier today in my review of Malpractice, I revealed that I had a bit of a bias against “flash fiction.” These are extremely short stories, no more than 1000 words in length (at the maximum – word counts can be much lower, depending on the publication). But, dear readers, I have to admit how ridiculously unfounded my bias was – I hadn’t ever really given flash fiction a fair chance and was set against a style of writing I had never really read. With Fifty-Two Stitches, I had a chance to confront my silly biases. Each of these fifty-two stories are 500 words or shorter.

And wouldn’t you know it? I ended up loving many of the stories in this book.

Reading each “stitch” in this book, I came to a (in retrospect, a pretty “duh” moment) realization – writing flash fiction is HARD. I’ve read and reviewed my share of horror anthologies and first novels, and many authors tend to make the same mistakes: wasted, powerless adjectives, descriptions that are lengthy and try too hard at gruesome, for example. But in the flash fiction of Fifty-Two Stitches, there’s simply no space to make these mistakes. Each sentence, each word has to be selected for maximum effectiveness – and the result is all the better for it. As in all anthologies, Fifty-Two Stitches has some duds and unevenness, but there are also some memorable, truly awesome stories within as well. Some of these gems include “New Woman” by Doug Murano (in which a man used to taking charge on dates gets more than he can handle), “In the Garden” and “Mother’s Love” by L.R. Bonehill (both eerie, haunting stories about mothers dealing with loss), “Sitting Up With Grandpa” by Blu Gilliand (where a young boy sits vigil with his recently deceased Grandpa), and “Dead Weight” by Robert Smartwood (a story that gives a whole new meaning to coyotes and border crossing).

Of all the stories in the book though, I had six solid favorites that not only delivered as 500 word stories – they satisfied my reading appetite, provoked thought, and in some situations, made me yearn for more. “Bad Meat” by Natalie L. Sin focused on what happens to life on a farm when a zombie strain takes over not only humanity, but infects cows and poultry – and a young girl that misses meat so much decides to get some protein with an ironic twist. “Something In Common” by Joshua Scribner is beautifully executed – the story opens with a few people walking together, trying to figure out how they are similar. The reason why they are discussing something so odd is revealed gradually, expertly in the story – and when they finally discover exactly what it is that they share, it’s too late. Mr. Scribner’s story is not only imaginative, darkly funny, and expertly executed, but it’s also very visual. Really good stuff. In a change of pace, another favorite of mine was “Let Your Fingers do the Walking” by Rick McQuiston – which is just a funny, absurd story. A man and his wife flip through the phone book that was left on their doorstep, only to find some bizarre listings. I loved the introduction, I was hooked by the creative ad listings, and, best of all, the story finishes with a hilarious new character. “The Exquisite Beauty of Death” by Mercedes M. Yardley is a much more tragic, darkly romantic story that resonated long after I finished it. The visuals of Ms. Yardley’s writing were gorgeous – I loved the image of a woman whose eyes leaked blood. Also, different from any of the other pieces in this anthology, Ms. Yardley has a distinctive, poetic style of writing that I truly appreciated. “They” by Pat Moran is a good, old fashioned monster under the bed story. It feels a bit like Summer of Night by Dan Simmons or It by Stephen King (the same small town, young children facing an evil that no one else wants to acknowledge), and, though very simple, is very effective. Finally, in “The Homeless Situation” by Felicity Dowker, we see a future where human empathy is a disease, and the homeless litter the streets. Of all the stories in Fifty-Two Stitches, this was probably my favorite. I’m a sucker for dystopian stories, and “The Homeless Situation” puts a terrifying new spin on a dreary future.

In all, this was another fantastic anthology from some very talented authors. Though a few of these stories weren’t as neat or tight as others, Fifty-Two Stitches delivered. I highly recommend it to anyone – it certainly helped me realize just how amazing flash fiction can be.

Notable Quotes/Parts: You can read some of the short stories from this anthology online at the official book blog. Here’s one of my aforementioned favorites, from the site:

“Something in Common” by Joshua Scribner

“Did you ever go to Magic Springs Amusement Park?” asked Cho.

“Yes. I’ve been there a few times,” replied Walt.

“You know that ride, Dr. Dean’s Rocket Launcher?”

“That’s the one that lifts people straight up and then drops them.”

“That’s the one. You ever see the people at the start, when it suddenly jerks them up?”

“Sure.”

Cho, who was a stranger to him a few hours ago, and now was the only person he had seen in a week, gulped and said, “That’s what the people looked like when the tentacles fell from the clouds and whipped them up.”

Walt got both pictures in his head. That was what the people looked like, except the horrors were different. On the ride, they had expected it.

Cho had said little after joining him, but now seemed to be warming up. She said, “I’ve had them right by me, a few different times. I’ve seen them bust through the roofs of cars to take people, but they don’t take me.”

They were zigzagging through overturned and wrecked cars on the road. The damage the tentacles could do was apparent.

“They took everyone else,” said Cho. “Why don’t they take us?”

There was a croak in her voice. Walt was long single. Communication wasn’t his forte, and now this woman was in crises and wanted to talk. All he could think to do was be empirical.

“What are the similarities between us?” he asked.

“Huh?”

“How are you and I alike?”

She took nearly a minute to answer, but he was glad to hear she was no longer on the verge of crying. “You’re a middle aged white man. I’m a young Asian woman. You’re big, and I’m small. We’re not really alike at all.”

“True, and in the ways we are alike, being human, speaking English, we were also like all the people who got taken.”

They came to a steep slope in the road. Near the end of the slope, Cho said, “This reminds me of The Peak Trail. I’d just come off it when the tentacles came.”

Walt laughed, though it was hard with his lack of air. “I wish I would have hiked more; then I’d be in better shape for all this walking.”

Cho didn’t laugh. She seemed deep in thought. They were making their way around an overturned tour bus when she said, “What were you doing when they first came?”

“Mowing my lawn.”

She seemed deep in thought for a few seconds and then said, “You were mowing, and I was hiking, both outdoor activities”

Now Walt thought for a few seconds and then said, “But we couldn’t have been the only ones. There must have been hundreds doing both activities on a summer day.”

She sighed and then said, “Yeah. I guess.”

Just then, he felt a sting and slapped it. He withdrew his hand from the little mess of blood and insect parts.

Cho got into her backpack. She pulled out a little blue cylinder. “Here,” she said. “I got this repellant off the internet. It works wonders.”

Walt went to spray it on his exposed skin. It wouldn’t spray. “It’s out,” he said.

“Oh yeah. I don’t know why I didn’t toss it. I finished it last night.”

The tentacles were transparent and you could only see them briefly when the sunlight hit them just right. Right now, Walt could see the suction cups behind Cho.

The thought that came seemed to have arrived to mock him. He looked at the can he was holding. He laughed with exasperation and said, “I got this off the internet, too. Good stuff. I bet we were about the only ones to have this particular brand on that day.” He laughed again. “I ran out last night too.”

Cho stared at him with an inquisitive look for a few seconds. Then there was the stunned horror when she was lifted into the sky.

“Yours must have worn off too,” he said to the girl who was gone.

He wondered what his face would look like when he was going up. After all, he was expecting it.

__________

Joshua Scribner is the author of the novels Mantis Nights, The Coma Lights and Nescata. He’s published over 100 stories. Up to date information on his work can be found at joshuascribner.com. Joshua currently lives in Michigan with his wife and two daughters.

Additional Thoughts: Check out the official book trailer below:

Rating: 7 – Very Good

Reading Next: Elegy Beach by Steven Boyett

Greetings, friends! Our next guest for Halloween Week is the lovely Kristen of Fantasy Cafe. Kristen isn’t much of a horror reader, but when we invited her over for the week, she was eager to give one of Thea’s favorite childhood authors, Christopher Pike, a try.

Ladies and gents, please give it up for Kristen, as she reviews Whisper of Death!

I have a confession to make: I’m a serious wuss when it comes to horror. Normally I avoid it like the plague due to childhood memories of being completely creeped out by anything the least bit spooky. When I was about six years old, I saw the movie Aliens and was terrified for at least a year. (This was around the time Alf was popular so my six-year-old self had learned to associate aliens with light-hearted and funny instead of horrifying before this movie scarred me for life.) Just the sound of the spooky Unsolved Mysteries music was enough to keep me wide-eyed and awake at night with the blankets pulled over my head.

For some reason I was in the mood to be adventurous and give horror another shot this Halloween. I mentioned to Thea that I could not remember reading a horror novel since reading R.L. Stine as a teenager so she kindly offered to send me a copy of Whisper of Death, one of her favorite novels by Christopher Pike, who was another popular YA horror novelist around the same time R.L. Stine was widely read. So one afternoon I settled in to read my first Christopher Pike novel, making sure to read it while it was bright and sunny out. Iím glad I did since its premise would have had me turning all the lights on and constantly looking over my shoulder if it was dark out, especially if it was eerily quiet too (not that eerily quiet happens often living in a college town).

The first couple of chapters describe the meeting of Roxanne and Pepper, who begin dating. Soon after that, Roxanne becomes pregnant so she and Pepper gather up some of their savings and head out of town early one morning to get an abortion. Once she and Pepper return to their hometown, Roxanne notices it is very quiet and she cannot even get a TV channel or radio station to come in. It almost seems as though she’s the only person left…

Roxanne becomes completely freaked out and runs around the town yelling and knocking on doors only to find she really does seem to be the only person in her neighborhood. Eventually, she meets up with Pepper in the center of town since he came to the same realization she did and tried to find somebody, anybody else in their town. They find they are the only inhabitants along with three other teenagers – a troublemaker, the smartest kid in the school, and a gorgeous and popular girl. After wracking their brains to try to figure out how they are connected, they realize it may be Betty Sue, a girl from their high school who recently committed suicide. Yet everybody seems rather secretive concerning her and those who are closest to her seem wary about discussing her in any detail. They go to Betty Sueís house anyway where they find some stories she has written – stories in which each of them dies.

Whisper of Death is a quick read and it is easy to fly through. The first couple of chapters didnít hook me since there was a lot of teenage angst and discussion about how hot Pepper looked (the story is all told from Roxanne’s perspective), which Iím not really a fan of. Once Roxanne discovered that most of the town seemed to have disappeared, the story really took off. At that point, I really wanted to know what happened next and how the death of Betty Sue and her stories tied together. I ended up reading the whole book in one afternoon.

This may be easy reading but there are some rather heavy, mature themes in this book, especially considering it was marketed as YA. Thatís not necessarily a bad thing, but I couldnít help thinking about how my mother would have died if she found out I was reading this book when I was a young adult. Not only does Roxanne have sex in it but she becomes pregnant, and there is some time spent on her agonizing over the decision of whether or not to keep the baby and how it will affect her life and Pepper’s.

Toward the end of the book, there was a sort of odd twist and it worried me that the book was going to have one of those cop-out “it was just a dream” endings. Fortunately, this was not the case and it was one of the most bizarre, twisted, wtf-inducing conclusions I can remember reading.

I had fun with my first foray into horror in years, but I wouldnít say Iím a convert to the genre yet. I enjoyed it while I was reading it, but once I put it down I found it fairly unsatisfying since it didnít stick with me for very long afterward. The messed-up way it ended did have me thinking about it for a little while, but I tend to remember the books where I really come to love the characters for the very longest. While Roxanne was likable and I had definite sympathy for her plight, I found myself focusing on what happens next instead of what happens to her and her friends, meaning my reaction once I finished was to think “fun book” but not “I want more right now!” Thatís not the fault of the book at all; itís just the way I am as a reader. I’m sure it wouldn’t be fair to judge all of horror as not being particularly character-driven based on one book, so feel free to recommend me some creepy books with great characters for next Halloween!

But anyway, back to the book now that I got the caveat about my personal preferences out of the way…

Whisper of Death is a great read for Halloween – it’s short enough to read in one sitting and is rather chilling. The brave can read it Halloween night but for someone easily spooked like me I’d recommend reading it during the day when your imagination isn’t likely to run away with you and creep you out.

6/10

Thank you Kristen! And we’re glad you enjoyed Whisper of Death!

Disclaimer: Halloween is totally a Thea thing when she hijacks the blog and makes me watch and read all sorts of stuff that are way outside my comfort zone (I am SO NOT a horror/Halloween fan). Last year, it was The Evil Dead movies, which, wouldn’t you know, I ended up loving. This year, I was given another list of movies that I had to watch, one for ach day of the week. Ana’s Halloween Marathon is now an official part of our annual Halloween celebration. Let the torture fun begins! Also: there will be spoilers!

Ana’s Halloween TV/Movie Marathon: Day 4 – Dark Water (2002)

Why Why Dark Water : Today our International Horror day in our Halloween Week celebration and Dark Water is one of Thea’s favourite movies. She asked me to watch it for Halloween and she even sent me the DVD by post!

Trivia: Dark Water is by the same director that did The Ring (the original Japanese one) and both movies were based on stories by novelist Koji Suzukiwants. Now, don’t ask me why, but I actually watched The Ring a few years ago out my own accord and it remains one of the scariest experiences of my life.

Viewing Party:

I started watching this fully expecting to shit my pants, pardon my French. The Ring was such a scary, downright terrifying experience for me, that I was sort of expecting Dark Water to go down the same way especially when I learnt it was a Ghost story ( I hate, hate, hate, HATE ghosts. Hate.) . I was so, so wrong. I mean, it was still pretty scary and I basically watched the whole thing with my eyes covered, peeking through my fingers but in the end, the movie was more like a beautiful tale in a horrific sort of way. And it reminded me quite a lot of The Orphanage, which nearly caused me several heart attacks (the peek a boo scene in the library? I had a hysterical attack watching it, I was so afraid) but also gave me the warm fuzzies. I will not go as far as to say the same about Dark Water but there is an undeniable sad beauty in the midst of all the horror.

And as much as I would like to share my viewing experience with you (which would go something like this: OMG, AAAAA and Yikes!) as I went along, I think I would be short-changing the movie for those who have not watched it. I will just write some of my thoughts about it:

Dark Water moves really slowly and sometimes I think this is the worst thing about some horror movies, the certainty that SOMETHING is coming and you just don’t know when; and as the time passes and the clock starts to tick, the tension grows and grows until something does happen and it’s all you can do contain your terror.

And the more this particular story appears to be only a regular story about a mother and a daughter who are struggling to find their footing after a divorce and the ongoing fight for the kid’s custody, you just know that there is something ELSE about it. As the movies progresses , it is the almost claustrophobic atmosphere that creeps in little by little: be it in the silence and emptiness of the corridors of the derelict building that mother and daughter move into or in the way it is seems to be always raining outside; be it in the desolated loneliness of a small girl waiting for her mother to pick her up at shcool;

Or more urgently in the ever growing water stain the ceiling of the mother’s bedroom that drips and drips and drips. Glimpses of the mother’s struggle in finding a job, her fight with a clearly abusive husband, her story of psychiatric breakdown almost points to the possibility that this is one of those psychological horror movies where everything inside the protagonist’s head but we, the viewers know better because even though the two main characters at first are unaware of it, there is a presence that seems to be following them around.

It is a small girl with a yellow raincoat and a red bag. Little by little, this presence insinuates itself in their lives until the mystery of who she is, is revealed. The climax of the movie gave me serious goosebumps because it is a mixture of fear and horror in its purest form but also so genuinely sad and poignant because in the end, Dark Water is one of those old-fashioned ghost stories where the ghost wants something that it cannot have and a mother will do anything to save her daughter.

The same climax left me glued to my seat with terror at the same time that tears fell from my eyes. Awesome and brilliant this movie was.

Verdict: I Loved it and recommend it. Go ahead and watch it if you like your horror movies with a bit of a heart: I don’t think you will be disappointed. Just make sure to pick up the Japanese version!

Have you watched Dark Water? Like? Dislike? Let me know!