Horror Marathon Weekend II

I think I have never watched so much horror movies and tv series in one go! And from all different countries, both Western and Asian. What a Thrill!

Horror Marathon Weekend

Let the horror marathon weekend begin!
Since Starhub is offering free viewing of channels for a week, we are taking this opportunity to catch all the horror movies and tv series on Thrill. :) 

New Movies

There are a number of movies coming soon that I am interested in watching. 
Ghost in the Shell, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Alien: Covenant, Wonder Woman, The Mummy...
Now the issue is how and where to find time to watch them?!

Monster Movie

According to Blothings quiz "What Kind of Horror Movie are You?", I am a monster movie. Yes, I do enjoy my monster movies where there is action, destruction and death. As such, I LOVE the series like Alien, The Mummy, Predator, ... Ok, it's time to watch my Alien and The Mummy blurays again.

You Are a Monster Movie

Nothing makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up like a menacing monster, whether that monster comes from a lab or outer space. You like horror movies with a lot of action and destruction. Of course you want the good guys to win in the end... but not until many people die first. You appreciate the creativity involved with imagining the ultimate monster. The idea of an evil that is capable of anything both delights and frights you. Your favorite movies have a unique take on the definition of monster. You go for movies like Alien, the Mummy, and King Kong.

What Kind of Horror Movie Are You?

Life's Simple Pleasures 2016

Life's simple pleasure is being able to watch one's favourite tv series - The Walking Dead when the series returned after a break. :) I have been dying to know what happens after that cliff hanger! 

Forever Spoof

Here is a creepy but funny spoof of the song, Forever by Derrick Hoh. It is a really nice catchy song and the video is brilliant, if you can look past a few gross details. But if you have a sensitive nature, then just listen to the song and don't look at the video.

(uploaded by SuperForeverEndeavor)

The Passage & The Twelve by Justin Cronin

Tried out a new author, Justin Cronin. 
Read his "The Passage" and it was GOOD! A totally engrossing tale of catastrophe and survival in a futuristic America overrun by vampire-like creatures. Cronin is not like James Rollins or Matthew Reilly who fill their pages with lots of action-packed adventure. But Cronin draws you into his book even without tons of physical action (don't worry, there are some action in the book lol). He looks deep into human nature and the way he bonded us to the characters is in itself an adventure!     
Reading the sequel, The Twelve now.

The Blood Gospel by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell

I finally got my hands on The Blood Gospel, the first-ever collaboration between James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell. It is the first novel in The Order of the Sanguines series and only released recently on 8 January 2013! I better make sure my Kindle is fully charged so that I read through the night! Lol :)

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

I accompanied a friend (who was afraid to watch it on her own) to watch Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. It is certainly an interesting spin on Abraham Lincoln, casting him as a lawyer/ president-to-be/ president by day and a vampire hunter by night. (Buffy does pop into the mind - cheerleader/ counsellor [in the later seasons] by day and vampire slayer by night lol :P). I have heard some people were appalled with the idea of a well-beloved president having a secret life and as a vampire hunter at that too. I guess the main thing to bear in mind in order to enjoy the movie is the notion of "What If". This movie is a result of "what if Lincoln has a secret life as a vampire hunter, how would it be?". The movie combines imagination and a bit of history and it is definitely not meant to replace the real history. That's how I see it and I enjoyed the movie lol. 

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter trailer (uploaded by ENTV)

The bloodier ALVH trailer (uploaded by ENTV)

PS. Not too long into the show, a scene where Lincoln, an amateur, shot the vampire who murdered his mother - when he turned to look at the corpse, it was nowhere to be seen. From watching so many horror movies, I knew the vampire was going to attack Lincoln from behind so I braced myself for the attack on screen. Little did I know, the "attack" came from behind my seat! The movie-goer seated behind me screamed most loudly and jammed his knees with force into the back of my seat in fright! I have NEVER heard a guy screamed like a girl before and much less see, or rather felt a violent reaction like that. Goodness! All I can say to that male movie-goer is: Be a man!

Halloween Month

My girls seem to be gearing up for Halloween each in their own way even though we don't celebrate it lol.

Marieann made a "dress" for the peephole. I had a shock when I first saw it, not expecting it to be there. But I have to laugh at her creativity. :)


Juliane geared up by watching the RE trilogy with me. Although I have seen the movies a couple of times, I still jumped at scary places. Juliane didn't even moved a muscle but she chided me for scaring her when I jumped. I was rendered speechless...

Trilogy? No, It's Quadrilogy

I really enjoy the movie, Resident Evil (2002) and its sequels, RE: Apocalypse (2004) and RE: Extinction (2007). I just love watching horror movies lol. :P Thinking that Resident Evil has probably reached its limits in churning out sequels, I bought the Resident Evil trilogy (blu-ray) box set and brought it back to Singapore from Denver, USA this May. :)

I was most happy with my RE box set until I saw a trailer recently. It is Resident Evil: Afterlife! Yippee, a 4th RE to scare me silly haha. But a major ARGH too. I already bought the RE trilogy box set. :( Being somewhat OC, I will now have to buy the RE quadrilogy box set when it is released as I want to keep it as set.

PS. I am so going to watch Resident Evil: Afterlife when it opens in Singapore on 9 September 2010. :)

A Tale of Two Movies - Cloverfield and The Mist

Before I went off to Australia in late March, I saw two movies almost back to back - Cloverfield and The Mist. Both movies are of the same genres - horror, sci-fi and thriller all rolled into one. I couldn't really decide which one I like better...

Cloverfield is a movie about a monster attacking Manhattan all seen through the camcorder. It is like The Blair Witch Project. Everything is shaky (as seen through the camcorder) and you are thrown into the whole experience the characters were faced with and thus, getting involved in the movie itself. You realised that you only know as much as the characters do. You don't know what is going to happen next or who is going to die next. You are kept at the edge of your seat. Throughout the movie, you can't really see the monster but yet the terror is present... That's what I liked about the movie, the suspense created. By the end of the movie, there isn't really an ending. I was left guessing if the survivors survived... that is part of the charm of Cloverfield.

The Mist is a much more straight forward movie. You are thrown into the story pretty quickly with a freaky storm knocking out power and the characters heading into the town's grocery store where it all happened - the mist. The characters realised that there are strange ceatures in the mist and deadly too. The town folks soon found themselves having to fight against what is out there - the creatures and to fight against what is within - human fear and irrationality. In between the fighting against the creatures, the differences in handling stress which resulted in the raw display of emotions and chaos seemed to me, far worse than the creatures outside the store. The ending is a tragic twist. I like The Mist, not just because there are deadly creatures, but also for the emotions depicted in the movie. The Mist is an emotional piece of movie for a horror movie.

Cloverfield and The Mist are both movies that left me thinking. Cloverfield made me think about why it happened and how would it end for the survivors. The Mist made me think about human emotions and the vulnerability/ strength of humans in the face of fear.

Fear is a major element in both movies. But I think in The Mist, fear has a much deeper purpose than that of scaring us silly. The fear in The Mist showed us how easy it is to destroy the structure of society. The fear in The Mist showed us that it can make us do things which we could or would never do in normal circumstances. That leaves alot to think about, for me at least, it does. Hey, maybe I do like one of the movies better...

Here's the trailers for Cloverfield and The Mist respectively.

Cloverfield - Theatrical Trailer

The Mist - Trailer 2

Cell by Stephen King

Since I am sleepless tonight, I thought why not I do my book review since there is a backlog of them (have completed reading quite a few books), lol. Oh dear, I am really a librarian at heart hor, doing book reviews, trying to interest people to read, lol. Ok, getting sidetracked here from the book review... :P

A recent book that I have read is Cell by Stephen King. I haven’t read many of his books (only Carrie and Christine) as I chose instead to watch his novel adaptations/ & screenplays (e.g. Sleepwalkers, The Shining, Pet Sematary, Storm of the Century, Nightmares and Dreamscapes). It is easier that way. But the book, Cell, happened to come my way. So I thought why not?

Cell went straight into action on its first page and it is non-stop till the end. However, I thought the ending was a bit … lacking or MIA (missing in action). This could be my personal bias. The story was exciting and good throughout, without a doubt. Maybe I have been too pampered, so used to stories telling me a good ending (to me, good ending = must have a conclusion, never mind if it is happy or sad or bitter-sweet, must tell me what happened!) that I have refused to accept anything else. King is no doubt a Master. He is able to use a very simple idea, a commonplace thing such as the cell phone to create a horror and thriller out of it! As I read the book, I got increasingly uneasy. I have only begun to use the cell phone more frequently in the last 2-3 years. Before that, I was most reluctant to use one because I think it would make one stupid (evidence: the girls' father, lol). Now King has got me thinking again if it is such a good idea to use the cell phone so frequently. Hahaha. Yes, King is that good!

Cell is a fairly easy read, not heavy going, totally unlike The Swarm, which I once read. (I still can't believe I actually read The Swarm, all 881 pages, lol) One can finish Cell in no time. I finished reading it within two days. Go ahead, read it. It may change your world. :P

New TV Series: Nightmares and Dreamscapes

Was trying to decide if I should watch House showing on AXN or the premier of Nightmares and Dreamscapes on 5. Both were showing at 10pm. Nightmares and Dreamscapes won because House has repeats and I can watch today's House episode another day. Hahaha.

I just saw the first episode of Nightmares and Dreamscapes. It is an eight episode miniseries based on various short stories by Stephen King, mostly from his Nightmares and Dreamscapes short stories collection.

Today's premier episode, Battleground was about a hitman who murdered the CEO of a toy company, had to contend with toy soldiers which were revenging the CEO's death. It was really fun to see the toy soldiers waged war on the hitman. It was like watching Bands of Brothers but in miniature toy forms and fighting against one hitman instead of the Nazis.

It is really interesting to watch this episode, especially the toy soldiers! It sure brings back good old memories. I remembered playing with such tiny green toy soldiers too during my childhood! Yes, I did have an unusual childhood, lol. I never did play with girlie toys/dolls but only with Lego, Playmobil, Eagle spaceship from Space 1999, Star Wars X-Wing fighters, etc. LOL.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes, so far, is good, lol. I really like it. It is my kind of show - horror and science fiction. For those of you who are into Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, this new series won't disappoint you. I wasn't disappointed, lol. But then again, I have pretty strange tastes in tv series, movies, interests for a girl. Hahaha.

Watch Nightmares and Dreamscapes if you can, every Monday night at 10pm on Channel 5.

Grindhouse: Planet Terror

I watched the Grindhouse: Death Proof a few months ago. It was the second segment. I really enjoyed watching it and laughing over it. I decided to watch Planet Terror, directed by Robert Rodriguez, the first segment when it opens in Singapore. I finally got to watch it this evening. I thought I had better not wait any longer, as it seems to be ending its run.

Planet Terror is about a group of survivors who had to fight and kill zombies while trying to get to safety. Yes, the plot is as simple as that, lol. This is an absolutely hilarious movie – the characters, the dialogue, the cheesy yet funny lines, the violent scenes of blowing zombies to bits were so gross-out and over-the-top that they became funny instead! I shall not say anymore or I would be going into spoiler domain. :P

I absolutely love the movie. I had such good laughs. I am going to watch it again, not just because I enjoyed it tremendously but also because I missed the first 20 minutes of the movie!

This is the first time I have ever missed the start of a movie. Hubby was delayed in picking me up and there was a massive traffic jam on the way. I was pretty vexed about being late for the movie. I had wanted to forget it and just watch the movie another day. But curiosity got the better of me and I went for it anyway.

I am going to watch it again this weekend and laugh to my heart’s content. Dear Friends, whoever is interested in Planet Terror, let me know. I can go with you, lol.

***
When I told hubby last night that I was going to watch Planet Terror, he thought the movie didn’t sound very appealing. I told him it was a film feature paying tribute to B-grade horror movies and it probably wasn’t his kind of movie. But hubby decided to watch it. True enough, it was NOT his kind of movie. At the movie, I was laughing away but he was pretty quiet. He hated the movie while I loved the movie. He kind of blamed me that he watched such an awful movie. Err, hello, I never told him to go and definitely never forced him to go watch it. Get that straight. See, this is why I like to watch movies on my own!

***
After the movie, we had a simple dinner. I had my bangers and mash while he had a hot dog. We got home with plenty of time to spare before Ghost Whisperer started at 10pm. Lol.

Fantasy, Sci-fi, Horror, Comics...

For a moment, I thought you have decided to reveal your identity as "Y", Secret Admirer. Sigh. Happy too soon. Hahaha. Ok, so there are 2 separate persons who commented on my post: "Books - Borrow or Rent?".

Thank you for your recommendations, Y. Haven't heard of Trudi Canavan (sorry :( ) but I did a quick search on the net and read a bit of the extracts of The Black Magician Trilogy. It is pretty interesting. As for David Gemmell, I thought he sounded very familiar. Went to dig into my bookshelf and I found Gemmell's graphic novel, Legend. Hmm..I guess I am reading alot more than I realised. Trojan War trilogy seems very captivating with my favourite combination of fantasy and ancient history. Will definitely keep these authors and titles in mind. Thanks again, Y.

As for you, my Bookworm, Horror too Secret Admirer (told you, it is getting to be too much of a mouthful! So why don't you just tell me who you are?! Hahaha.), why are you so keen for me to go to NLB? Are you sure you don't work for NLB?! An undercover NLB agent perhaps...Hahaha. Yes, I do have to pay some fees for renting the books but just treat it as having one less dessert. :) But I don't have to pay for car park fees cos I don't drive. Hahaha.
Ok, being into aircrafts too, I think Naomi Novik's Temeraire will, without doubt, be on my list of books to read. Oh my gosh, do you realise how long my book list has just gotten?! Hahaha.

I am a big Battlestar Galactica fan. I have read the BG classic books and I have the original BG series on DVD, a birthday present from my lovely brother who is currently residing in UK. Yup, I have also seen the new BG series. Took abit of getting used to the gender changes of Starbuck and Boomer. I like this new series, it is darker but more in-depth development to all characters. I think they will be producing Season 4 in 2008 and it may be the last season. (Needs to check up on this, it would be a shame though to end it so soon.)

I like Horror too but I haven't ventured very far with this genre. Only read Edgar Poe, Anne Rice (The Mayfair Witch series), and Stephen King (the odd book here and there). Dean Koontz and Laurell Hamilton, you say? My list has just ballooned again! Hahaha.

Comics. Yes, I like reading them. Why not? =) I have read graphic novels like Batman/Dracula series, Gemmell's Legend; comics like The X-files, X-Men, X-Generation; manga like Akira, Appleseed, Fist of North Star; and Chinese comics like Tian Xia. So what do you read?

Thanks for the recommendations! If I am behind in my writing, I know who to blame. Hahaha.