The Haunting of Connecticut

It has been such a very long time that I watched a horror film that I actually enjoyed. Not once during this film did I sigh or roll my eyes, which is extremely rare! It did not keep me enthralled and riveted completely; I did find the gumption to text others my excitement (you know who you are) throughout the film. Even more exciting, it is based off of a true story.

Ok, so there is a family that has a older son that has cancer and rather than travel miles and hours frequently for his treatment, they purchase a house close by. Due to the seriousness of the situation it was a spur of the moment purchase without many questions. While preparing the house for occupation, they find that the house used to be a funeral parlor complete with an embalming room in the basement next to which the son decides to make his bedroom. Random events happen and the son thinks it is due to the treatments that he is seeing things as that is a known side effect. During a game of hide and seek, the kids find photos that show that the house wasn't just a funeral home, it was also a place reknowned for seances with a powerful child medium. The owner of the home dabbled in necroism to make the child's powers strongers. The child became so strong that he blew up everyone during a particular seance and cremated himself. Now the house is possessed and needs to be cleaned. I am not going to say more about the plot as the unknowns are what makes the movie fascinating.

The haunting scenes were wonderfully vivid and thought provoking. It kept me on the edge of my seat while things were going on and there were so many parts where I gave many different phrases of exclamations. I am positive that the real events were not as dramatic but bravo. I would actively watch this again at my own expense instead of haphazerdly keep it on in the background just because it was on as I do with some shows;I would even almost put this on my desert island movie list!

Loved it! Here is the IMDB info!

The Unborn

For the record, I love me some haunted horror movies (please see my bio!) The trailer for this had some great effects. We throw in the DVD, there is no introduction or character development, the movie opens while the story is all ready in progress. Within the first fifteen minutes of this film, the actress sleeps in the buff, takes a shower, has a sex scene and goes into the bathroom in her boycut underwear twice. Let's get those pesky nude/risque scenes out of the way first before we even develop a plot. Speaking of which, this plot had more holes in it than a homeless guy's whitey tighties. It all starts with her eyes starting to go from brown to blue because some kid she is babysitting hits her with a compact mirror he was making his infant sibling look at. The little boy she halucinates about is her dead great uncle who, along with his twin, her grandmother, was part of some testing done on Jews during the Holocaust. He died during it and some undead spirit takes his body so grandma has to kill him. The main girl in the story is haunted by dreams of the boy, dogs, fetuses and her mother. Her mother committed suicide while in an insane asylum. She finds her grandmother at the same asylum (?) who tells her to get some Hebrew book that she needs to get translated and an exorcism by Rabbi Gary Oldman. At first he doesn't believe her until he sees the upside down headed dog. So, he says he will help her but he has to get a Christian preacher to help out. Here's the best part and this is where you can see they TRIED to put a story into it. The preacher asks for ID and to fill out forms for the exorcisim. I swear it. Both Gary Oldman and I chuckled at that one. Now, grandma says that the spirit wants her because it likes twins after having her brother. So.. why is it going after the girl instead of grandma? She's still one of a twin and just as much so as the girl is. The spirit does kill grandma with the upside down head guy crawling up the stairs. Oh, the girl's best friend is killed by the babysitting kid with a knife but only after she hits him with her car while he was riding his big wheel. They go the exorcism (which I think is in the same asylum place which is completely empty now?) for which everyone dies except for Gary and the girl and they are free, right? No, the totally forseeable ending is she is pregnant with twins. What a twist. (Note the sarcasm)
This is what I like to call a jump film. It goes out of it's way to get you to jump. It got me twice (and I don't normally jump at films), one included a wahh! and it got an OMG in a spot too. The haunted parts in the film were GOOD! At the end... DAMMIT! It's a Michael Bay! Curses! No wonder it had no story and good effects! Fie fie fie. That was a bigger twist then the actual ending of the film.

Here's the info if you really want to see it. Just don't expect too much. My advice, fast forward to the haunted spots and then walk away. Oh, also rent this if you want to see Charles Miner (the temporary Regional Manager of Scranton Branch of The Office) get beamed with a pipe!

Holla!

Hey everyone, this is a call out to the Book Butterfly, Kim! Through her site, which is posted under my blog list, I won a free copy of Evernight by Claudia Gray! Wooooot!

Blue Moon-Second book of the Immortals-Alyson Noel

All right, this blog is actually over due. Even though the book came out on July 7th I got it last week. I forgot that I pre-ordered it! So, what a lovely surprise when it came (and I just love surprises!)

The first book in this series is called Evermore. I adored that one. This series is actually up there in my top ten of all time so far along with Harry Potter and the Ugly series.

Since I am bringing up Harry, the way that Blue Moon went reminded me of the way that the Potter books played out. There was always something that he had to get over by himself because everyone abandoned him. Poor Ever, you would think she could find some happiness now that she has come to some kind of terms with losing her family (and dog, never forget Buttercup), Drina shall bother her no more, she won't have to keep going through the incarnation cycle anymore and she can now spend eternity with dreamy and adoring Damen! That boy makes my heart patter he's so cute. Now if she can just seal the deal and do the dirty deed with him after waiting hundreds of years. Suddenly, there is a new kid that is sitting with the gang at lunch and she just gets the hebbie jebbies from him. Something just does not sit right with her even though he is going out of his way to gain her acceptance. After a couple of days of spending lunch with him he claims that he is going to do away with the high school chaste system and everyone is going to live in harmony. Though it sounds fantastic there are still some sceptisims with the idea for Ever. Imagine her surprise when it actually happens! Even her bosom buddies are over there and wait... is that Damen making out with Stacia? And is that an aura that Ever sees around him? Damen has forgotten all of his past lives and calls Ever a stalker, a freak and a spaz. Oh boy, Damen couldn't have broken my heart more. Roman is the only one that actually talks to her but she doesn't buy what he's selling. Like every heroine when their hero that has vowed undying love to her but has now turned his back on her, she has to get to the bottom of this. With the help of Ava, the helpful psychic, she figures out how to get into Summerland, where she meets two catholic school girl twins. They guide her to a hall of information where she learns that Damen is being poisoned, is slowly dying, the formula to the antidote and.. wait.. a chance to turn back time and return to her family?

Will Ever go back to before her family died, forgoe being an Immortal and forget about Damen or will she choose true love? And what is up with Roman?

This was a can not put down, must read voraciously, heart wrenching and wonderfully intriguing story. I love the duality of the charactors and how the story simply flows. It has all the ingredients for a winning story: romance, mystery, villiany, adverse events and difficult choices. When I become emotionally involved with a story, good show!

I can't wait for the next one, Shadowlands, which is projected towards the beginning of next year.

Here's the site and I so encourage everyone to pick it up.

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

Oh boy did I love this book! Vampires and teenagers! Why doesn't that theme grow old? This was such a cute book! (Thanks for the recommendation, Kim) When the characters are deep and colorful and I am all for the book. Jessica was all right as a heroine and I loved watching her grow and blossom but I really loved Lucius. He walks in and owns the story! He is dark, handsome, conceited, confident and well educated. Num! Now, you will have to read this book to get this next part. I fell for Luc like Mindy did. At first he was the story but.. then he got very moody and started second guessing himself and he got so very dark. Never fear, it ended soo adorabley and I want more!

This is a must read!

Link here.

Raven by Allison Van Diepen

At first this book cracked me up. Three chapters into the book I thought it was going to be about breakdancing. I swear it. I didn't know there were still books about breakdancing. It turned out that was a back plot and this book was surprisingly very cute. It threw me a loop and introduced immortals along with drug addicted brother. It did turn out to be an involving love story for teens. I must have gotten the wrong version though as I didn't get the ending. Do you know what is frusterating? Getting to a good part that is tension filled and then it ends with 'and all went silent'. That was the ending I got and became so mad I didn't want to read anymore. I heard it ended perfectly, of course.

Don't download, get the book.

Here's the site!

City of Bones-Cassandra Clare

Folks, I am going to be completely honest on this one. I just couldn't finish it. I normally try to muck through a book if it doesn't hold my attention if I have an inkling of an interest in the story; I normally want to see where it goes and achieve a sense of finality with the book. I feel guilty when I can't finish a book. Not with this one. This book put me to sleep more times that NyQuil could. Let me tell you about the story and then I shall share my thoughts with you.
So, the book is about a girl named Clarissa, or Clary. It's a normal night at the underage club, some boy with blue spiked hair grabs her attention and then she sees him go into a closet with a girl.. followed by two shadowed guys. Naturally, she follows them, especially when she sees they have knives. She watches as they kill him and then finds the murderers astonished that she can see them. See, the boy with blue spikes was a demon and the girl and two guys are called Shadowhunters and mundies (that is mundane humans) are not supposed to see them. She is simply entranced by one of the guys, Jace, and finds him stalking her the next day and interrupts a love confession from Simon, her best friend. During their discussion she receives a frantic call from her mother (whom she had just had a fight with) and rushes home. Upon entering the house she finds it a mess and is attacked by some centipede/scorpion demon thing. Jace seems to pop up outta no where through out this story. Of course he saves her, she goes unconcious, yadda yadda. I got up to where they find that her mother was a Shadowhunter on the run with an item called the Mortal Cup, which makes more Shadowhunters, and an ex-Shadowhunter wants the cup so he can become the Hitler of humans and wipe out all demons so the blood is purified.
The story has promise, it just seemed contrived. The characters and their actions seemed unrealistic (as unrealistic as can be in a Sci Fi/Fantasy book), the whole story felt forced and the story line was very, very thin, especially when it came to how the events came together. The only way I would have held on is if there was a believable romance between Clary and Jace, but that seemed strained as well. I tried my hardest as this is a trilogy but just could not do it.

Here's my little secret: I am not a synopsis reader. I will scan through it and if it catches my interest, I dig in. I do not like spoilers and love to be surprised. Just a little insight.

Anyways, here is a link to the trilogy if you want to give it a shot. What's good for the goose isn't necessarily good for the gander.