Tagged: atmospheric

Books

The small hand by

by Susan Hill

Coming home one evening from meeting with a client, rare books dealer Adam Snow takes a wrong turn and ends up outside a derelict Edwardian house. For some strange reason he is drawn to this building and its wilderness of gardens and finds himself wandering through the overgrown weeds. And, standing all alone, he feels the strangest of sensations. A small hand, in his. As though he were a father taking hold of a son’s hand. But he is not a father. And there is no child.

14 October 2010
Books

Summer of night by

Read for RIP challenge It is the last day of school at “Old Central”, the building is being decommissioned and after the summer holidays the children will be going to a...

13 October 2010
Moving Pictures / Reviews

The Village dir. by

For this year’s RIP challenge Carl has suggested that as well as reading horror-ific books we might also watch some suitable films and to get the ball rolling on my RIP films I decided to rewatch M. Night Shymalan’s The Village.

I quite enjoyed it the first time around. I don’t seem to recall having been all that surprised by any of the so-called twists or reveals, but it was an enjoyable film.

12 October 2010
Books

The moor by

Author: Mary Russell
If you’ve read my reviews of the other books in this series you’ll already know that I really love them. If you haven’t here’s a quick recap; Sherlock Holmes, a real historical figure retired to Sussex in order to tend to his bees. While there he met Mary Russell; a somewhat moody, if quite brilliant, teenager and took her under his wing. She became his apprentice and later his wife. Errr, spoiler alert! In this, the fourth in the series, Sherlock sends Russell a telegram summoning her to Dartmoor and the moor that was the setting for The Hound of the Baskervilles. There are reports of another ghostly beast roaming the countryside and an old friend of Holmes would like him to investigate. Especially when a man is found dead on the moor.

22 February 2010
Moving Pictures / Reviews

The Wolfman dir. by

I really did want to enjoy this film. It is a werewolf film after all, and I am a fan, plus Benicio Del Toro has something about him that I usually enjoy. Unfortunately there is very little by way of storyline in this film. And even less of characters. I mean, why make a film about a character no one cares about? When your central character leaves me meh-d out, well, your film really isn’t going to grab my attention now is it?

15 February 2010
Books

The Giant, O’Brien by

“Bring in the cows now. Time to shut up for the night”.
There came three cows, breathing in the near-dark: swishing with the tips of their tails, their bones showing through hide.

7 October 2008
Books

I am legend by

LibraryThing ; RIP III On those cloudy days, Robert Neville was never sure when sunset came, and sometimes they were in the streets before he could get back. There is nothing...

13 September 2008
Books

Wormwood by

ISBN: 9780440217985 Read for the RIP Challenge I’ve said before that in most cases for me to really love a book I have to have well written/developed characters which is possibly...

14 October 2007
Moving Pictures / Reviews

Zodiac [based on the book] by dir. by

This is based on the true story of a serial killer in the 1970’s in California who highlighted his murders with cryptic letters to newspapers. He killed at random, and called himself The Zodiac, and wrote his letters in a code. He also often sent bloodstained items of clothes along with these letters as a sort of proof. He was never caught. Robert Graysmith was working as a cartoonist at one of the newspapers where the letters arrived, and became caught up in the case. The film is based on his book of the events of the time.

17 June 2007
Moving Pictures / Reviews

300 [based on the book] by , dir. by

I have a feeling that how you feel at the end of seeing this film will be hugely coloured by your mindset before the film began. Personally I loved it. Wonderful visuals and a great story. Wasn’t overly impressed with the characterisation, but you can’t have everything.

The film begins with a voice-over, and this narrator pipes up throughout the film, sometimes describing the action that we are watching on screen. I have no doubt that some will find this redundant, but, given the ending and who the narrator is I think this device actually works really well. Plus he does add to the melodramatic, over the top atmosphere that make this such a good film.

23 March 2007
Books

Little, Big by

ISBN: 0413513505 See also: Spike Magazine This book, one of the classics of fantasy literature, did absolutely nothing for me. Okay, that is a slight exageration, because there were some touches...

2 August 2006
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