You’re Next!!!
8 November 2014
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Movie Review, S L Eaves, The Endangered, You're Next
Guest Author Post: Movie Review
I recently reviewed The Endangered by S L Eaves (review here). The author kindly agreed to a guest post for my movie topic and below are her thoughts and review on ‘You’re Next’. I haven’t actually seen this movie so will have to go and hunt it down!!! Nothing like a ‘not your average slasher’ movie to get the nerves jangling…
Have you seen this? Did you like it?? Or is it not really your cup of tea???
My thanks to S L Eaves for the contribution:
‘Not Your Average Slasher Movie
You’re Next was scooped up by Lionsgate when it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2011 only to fall into a distribution black hole for two years before finally seeing a theatrical release in 2013. Despite almost no marketing and a relatively unknown cast the film grossed twenty million thanks to word of mouth and critical praise. Critics are not often kind to the horror genre and with the slew of overused iconography, clichéd characters, and the digital hand-held trend that has everyone and their mother making found footage films, it is no mystery as to why critics and film buffs cringe at most recent entries in this genre. Which is why You’re Next, an unapologetically brutal slasher film shot on sleek, rich film stock stands out from the crowd.
The film starts off fairly predictably, with a family getting together in secluded vacation house. As we’re introduced to the family members, it is obvious there is a high level of tension from the start and the reunion plays out with a soap opera-esque level of melodrama; so much so that we welcome the interruption when the home-invasion part of the film kicks into gear.
A group of attackers descends on the house with meticulously planned traps designed to slaughter the home’s inhabitants. With razor sharp dialogue, fast pacing and merciless treatment of the “stupid” characters, this film wastes no time separating itself from the herd. In this film you can expect the dumb, annoying characters to be punished in wickedly clever ways, which let’s face it, we all enjoy to some extent. Predictable elements such as “no cell phone signal in the wilderness” are explained with the more believable “attackers are jamming the signal” and instead of the family being “trapped” inside the house some do manage to leave, only to have rather disturbing encounters when they do.
The writing is good, I’d say above par for slasher standards, and the unknown actors make the “Who’s going to live/die?” question difficult to predict. The main plot “twist” is predictable, but the film treats the audience as if they’ve figured it out for themselves already and not as some big revelation. And it propels the story forward, explaining who the attackers are and their motivation(s).
The attacker’s biggest rival emerges as one of the family member’s girlfriends, Erin. Erin defies the stereotypical victim tropes and proves to be more than capable of turning the tables on the bad guys. Her counter-attack propels the film forward and keeps viewers on the edge of their seats to the very end; an end that serves as a nod to a classic home-invasion film of the sixties.
Once you’re done enjoying the thrill ride that is You’re Next, I suggest checking out director Adam Wingard’s and writer Simon Barrett’s talented (and twisted) contribution to V/H/S. And look for this filmmaking duo to continue pushing the boundaries of contemporary horror.’
Dude and Dobby…
7 November 2014
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Art It Up, Fan Art Up, Not Yet Read, Tabitha
A wee change… Fan Art Up became Art it Up. This is a weekly meme hosted by Tabitha over at Not Yet Read. The idea being to see if you can come up with some 
inspiration for a little sketch or doodle from your last week’s reading or just anything else in general. So, this week my reading has consisted of White Fang by Jack London and I’m currently reading The City Stained Red. Unfortunately, I’ve already tried wolves on here and I’ve not really come up with anything so far for CSR. So, being the Bonfire Season – by which I mean we have fireworks for two weeks before the 5th November and two weeks after (instead of one day! – not that I’m grumpy at all!!!) I’ve drawn a Dude Doodle and this week over at the Fantasy Review Barn the topic for Tough Travel is novices – so, I was thinking Harry Potter. One thing led to another and I didn’t sketch Harry Potter at all. Oh well! Now go and check out Tabitha – who has the cool sketches and all the ‘things’. Yep!
The 64,000 dollar question…
If you were reading a book and as you were reading the events all started to seem vaguely familiar, until you realised the book was in fact your life story (to date and beyond) – would you continue to read to the end??
Somebody asked me this yesterday – my immediate answer was ‘no’ – tempting fate, don’t want to know, and, anyway, if you did know – wouldn’t you then try and make events fit around what you expected to happen, etc, etc, etc.
Upon more thoughtful deliberation – hell no! That book would without a doubt be a DNF for me. Let’s just be honest there are no dragons, sea monsters, witches, demons and vampires in my life! This is a good thing of course, being a gigantic coward and all, let’s just keep them all separate – fact and fiction and never the twain shall meet. To the point – when I’m reading I want my magical escape and unless some sort of rift in the time space continuum happens or somebody finds Middle Earth or dragons come mysteriously swooping out of the mountains one misty day – I’m not going to get my fix reading my own life story – don’t get me wrong, I love life, but I also love a bit of escapism. There it is – in all its glorious truth. Judge me if you will!!
And, would you read that book??????? And Why????
Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi.
5 November 2014
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Fantasy Review Barn, Novices, Tough Travelling
Every Thursday I go a travelling with the Fantasy Review Barn and various other wanderlusting and most excellent bloggers around the tropes of fantasy as part of Tough Travelling. This week is all about novices:
‘Novice is a term in frequent use. There are not only Novice Priests and Priestesses and nuns: you will also encounter novice healers and bards, and sometimes also novice mages… Novices are always young, frequently skinny and undernourished, and clad in robes.’
Novices – more tricky than I thought – I’m not sure these are novices – but I’m having them. And, unfortunately the one book that actually has ‘novice’ in the title (by Trudi Canavan) I can’t actually have because I haven’t read – DOH!
The Magician by Raymond Feist – Pug – apprenticed to be a master magician at the beginning of the story (novice mage).
Blood Song by Anthony Ryan – Vaelin, in training to be a warrior of the Sixth Order.
Half a King by Joe Abercrombie – Jarvi – at the start of the story he is apprentice to the King’s Minister – which involves a lot of reading and a little bit of magic and is a role usually reserved for women.
The Book of the Crowman by Joseph D’Lacey – Megan – the keeper. Not sure about this one – although she is definitely young and skinny, clad in robes and under nourished.
Feast of Souls by Celia S Friedman – the witch Kamala – she’s ambitious, she wants more than to be a witch – she’s wants to be a magister and so she becomes a novice to a magister in order to do so.
And, honorary mentions – Harry Potter – he has to be a novice!
Can I also mention Locke and Jean – they both were sort of novices to Chains – and on top of that they both had to frequently spend time with other religious bodies as part of their training.
White Fang by Jack London
White Fang is one of my Classic Club reads and I’m pleased to have finished this as I have to admit I’ve been doing fairly abysmally this year with ticking off books off that list!!
The story is predominantly about a wild wolf (well sort of 3/4 wolf 1/4 dog) and it’s transition into a domesticated animal. I guess it’s a coming of age story for canines! (I also read that it is believed to be an allegory of human progression into civilisation and more than that – that it could be an allegory about the writer himself and his transition from ‘wild child’ to successful author – I have no idea if that is based on solid foundation but thought I’d just throw it in as food for thought.
At the start of the novel we follow two characters as they trek across Yukon territory transporting a coffin to the town of Fort McGurry. The two men and their sled team are being hunted it seems by a pack of wolves who appear to have joined forces during a particular bad winter and period of famine. Gradually the wolves begin to pick off the dogs one by one – they seem to be made more confident in their escapades by the cool confidence of a female wolf – who appears herself to have some ‘dog’ in her genes. I’m not going to relate the whole hunt/chase as that would spoil the initial tension that you feel when reading this part of the story. The novel then progresses to the birth of a litter of cubs by the aforementioned she-wolf to the pack leader (who for the purposes of the story is called ‘one eye). From this point forward the story is narrated by one of the young cubs who is also the inspiration for the title of the book (unsurprisingly).
We follow in his footsteps as he begins to discover the wilds in which he lives and just how dangerous a place it really is. We watch him being taken captive and literally beaten into submission. Then, as he finally seems to come to terms with his lot he is passed on to a nasty character who makes his original capture and submission look like it was simply play time!
Characters – the main character of course is White Fang, his mother (Kiche), his father (One Eye) and a young dog pup called LipLip also play parts albeit mostly small ones comparatively speaking. There are also the ‘humans’ involved with the story – notably the obnoxious character Beauty Smith – a cowardly man who is determined to own White Fang, and Weedon Scott – the final character who plays a major role in White Fang’s life.
The Setting – Yukon territory, Canada at the time of the1890s during the Klondike Gold Rush.
I enjoyed this and thought it was well written, in fact given that this was published in 1906 I expected the language to have a more dated feeling which wasn’t the case. I think for me the first issue I had was getting used to the idea that I was reading from White Fang’s pov. At first I think I resisted the idea a little and so this, for me felt like the first part of the tale from White Fang slowed down a little. However, once I got used to the idea I enjoyed it a lot more – the author doesn’t try to make unreasonable points in terms of the story – it’s not like he’s applying thoughts to White Fang that are simply ridiculous, the dog isn’t describing things or thinking deep thoughts after all.
The ending – well, I don’t want to spoil it so don’t read any further if you dont already know the ending! Basically, the ending has the feel good factor. You could says its almost two sweet – and yet I liked the ending, I can’t deny it! I’m a pushover for a happy ending!
Books and travelling with Lynn 