Orphan

I went and saw it last night. It's definitely more a thriller than a horror movie. One thing people keep thinking as they go in to see it is that it's a movie about an evil kid. By the end of the movie, you will realize it's not that kind of movie at all.

I absolutely loved the makeup job on the 'kid' at the end of the movie. They really managed to do it very convincingly. You'll see, when you see the movie. The acting is pretty good. The characters were perfect for the movie. The asshole, former cheater husband, the mother who has had some psychological issues, the suspicious older son, and the adorable little daughter. And, of course, the psycho adoptee.

It was well shot and well written. Some things seemed to go off on a tangent, and while nothing was left unexplained, occasionally the explanation was a little weak.

I think the worst part of the movie was the theater experience. The theater was FRIGID. The seat had this wierd, damp sensation, and three teenage girls who sat in front of me giggled and whispered the whole time, and of course shrieked and giggled at what they imagined were jump scenes. It was rather annoying.

Book video trailer for "The Haunting of Sam Cabot"

Check out this trailer I made for MArk Edward HAll's newest book, The Haunting of Sam Cabot.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=60651318

Excerpt from my new novel, Winterborn

A cool breeze chilled the sweat on Tam's brow. Slowly, she opened her eyes to a bright blue sky, white clouds, and winter-faded trees. The day glowed bright and crisp, unmarred. Tam breathed in slowly and spat in the dirt a few times to clear her mouth of bitter bile. The taste remained. She had water bottles in the fridge. Her throat burned, and the just-vomited feeling coated her teeth and tongue.

But the car was just a few yards away, and she didn't feel like dragging Kevin back in the house and then back out. If she remembered correctly, there was a water bottle in the floorboard of the car, an unopened one.

She marched Kevin to the car and ordered him to get in. After a short protest, he got in and slammed the door. Tam hit the button on her keychain that made the doors lock. At ten years old, the car's electronic entry system shorted out in the passenger door and only opened from the outside after anyone pushed the lock button.

“Strap in.”

He glared at her from under his too-long bangs.

“Quick being a brat and strap in.”

Kevin turned his head and stared out the window, arms crossed over his chest.

With a weary sigh, Tam reached over and grabbed the seat belt. Before she could pull it across his narrow body, he leaned forward and grabbed her arm with both hands. He chomped down on the fleshy part of her forearm, grinding his teeth through her flesh as he tore away a mouthful. He growled and went for seconds. His teeth pierced muscle like razors.

Tam screamed and punched him in the side of the head. He growled like an animal and just dug in deeper. She had a terrifying though; if she jerked her arm away, she would rip another hunk of her arm away. If she didn't he would eat her alive. Blood pulsed around his mouth and ran down his chin, where it dripped into his lap.

She heard someone screaming. Why wouldn't they shut up?

Oh, it's me. He had the strength of two grown men. Nothing she did even loosened his grip in the slightest.

Kevin's fingers dug into her arm like talons. The pain was unbearable! She stopped trying to pry his mouth away from her arm and slugged him in the side of the head again. And again.

With the third blow his grip loosened enough for the snatch her arm away.

She couldn't stop screaming. Her voice grated, cracked, until the only sound coming out of her mouth were harsh, painful grunts. Kevin bared his teeth at her, bloody lips peeled back like a mad dog's. Blood—her blood—ran down his chin and soaked into his shirt.

His teeth narrowed, sharpened. His eyes widened and his pupils turned into slits of black. Reptilian. Evil. The tiny veins in the whites of his eyes pulsed visibly, thickening. Blood welled up like tears and ran down his face. His skin paled, cracked.

Tam cried out and flung herself against the door. Locked, it held.

Something on the outside flung itself against the other side of the door.

She opened her eyes and saw the monstrous thing that had stalked her the night before, staring in, snarling. Drool ran down long, yellowed fangs. Bits of past meals hung in the gaps between the teeth, brown and rotting.

It's not real!

Tam smacked her head against the window. Once. Twice. Hard, then harder, eyes clenched shut. She forced her eyes open.

The monster was still there, staring at her. A big crystalline drop of saliva ran down one long, sharp fang. The thing didn't move. Just that drop of drool, that spiraled down its fang. Tam's breathing hitched in her chest with every breath. Fear left her frozen. Her blood sang through her veins, pricking and tingling like electricity.

She turned her head. Her neck creaked. Kevin--

He looked normal. Bloody, grinning, but normal. No fangs, no vampire-eyes. Smooth, pre-adolescent skin.

“Even if I'm not here,” he said. “It is. And it's going to get you.”

“Shut up.”

The monster remained. The gaping, dinosaur-like mouth closed slowly. It leaned closer to the window, where its hot breath fogged up the glass in rhythmic puffs.

“It'll eat you slow. One part at a time. Then it'll lick up your blood.” Kevin demonstrated by swirling his own tongue around his lips.

Tam took a deep breath. He had to shut up. She couldn't take any more of his violent threats. Couldn't deal with the fear anymore. Enough was enough was enough. “Shut up. Now.”

“My mom's going to watch it eat you. Maybe it won't eat you all up. Maybe it'll eat out your insides and then use your body to hold its baby. You killed Jake-O, so it needs to have another one.”

Tam lashed out and hit him, sending his head crashing against the window.

He didn't move.

Oh God, had she killed him?

“Kevin?”

She nudged his shoulder. He didn't move. But he was breathing, she saw, she her concern faded somewhat. As long as he was breathing. His eyeballs twitched back and forth behind his eyelids. That was good, right?

Ignoring the thing outside her window, she cranked the car and jammed it into gear. The drive to town was one she hated, dreaded. It would be ten minutes or more, even going sixty, before she saw another house.

God forbid they ever need help out there.

Re-Cycle

This is one of those really awesome Thai flicks. Thailand is putting out better and better work! I mean, their horror/dark fantasy movies have always seemed to make more sense to westerners than any of the other Asian...places...movies. Okay, so I hope you know what I mean. So I just watched Re-Cycle.

Re-Cycle is one of those movies that belong to the newly-named 'metafiction' genre, where the story is about the author, the author is a character, or the story revolves around the author's story, or story-in-a-story type things.

It's about an author, Ting-yin, who is celebrating the movie premiere of her bestsellings romance novels by stressing out over her latest book, a venture into the supernatural. She says, at the press conference for the movie, "I want to experience the supernatural."

An old boyfriend comes back into town, and she's extremely bitter about it. We don't know why just yet. About this time, the cinematography and special effects start to happen. Awesome, just lemme say. The movie is beautifully shot. The special effects and art design are absolutely amazing. I am scouring the internet for stills from this movie, it looks that awesome.

The first part of the movie, when Ting-yin begins to have her paranormal experiences, is great. The jump scenes are perfectly placed. One of them even got a "HOLY FRIG!!" out of me, which is pretty rare these days.

So as Ting-yin begins to put two and two together-- what she writes is what she needs to do-- she starts to, well, do what she writes. This means getting into the elevator of her apartment building. She notices right off the posh, expensive buildings has changed.

From here on, I was mesmerized. This movie honestly has some of the best graphics I have ever seen. The special effects were handled with such care that I wasn't turned off by a single corny trick. And did I mention it's asbolutely beautiful? The surreal aspect of this movie rocks. It's a bizarre mix of Neverending Story, Silent Hill 4, Alice in Wonderland, Labyrinth, Pan's Labyrinth What Dreams May Come and a few other films.

The description has this listed as a horror film. although it has some kick-butt jump scenes, some really disturbing imagery, and the requisite long-haired faceless Asian ghost (whose later special effects completely redeem this doesn't-quite-belong-in-this-film-character), it's definitely more of a dark fantasy than a horror movie. There is some content that may affect hormonal, sensitive people (like myself. I cried a couple of times. But I have a documented medical screwed-up-hormone condition LOL, so results not typical).

The only thing that made this movie slightly not perfect is the very last two minutes. I'm sure it's because something was lost in the translation, and it is sort of explained in the movie, but not fully, and just a little bit more would have straightened out the confusion.

Still, it's not enough to keep me from watching this movie again! As I said, it's absolutely BEAUTIFUL.

A great new review and an embarrassing injury!

Choate Road reviewed Spirit-Mother!

I vaguely remember this bizarre conversation in the hotel bar in Ohio with a guy with a LOT of blond hair. (remember, I was about six vodka/cranberries in, with the tequila freely flowing). We were in the, as Gregory Hall puts it, the Verizon Wireless crowd of drunken writers and fans, so after the blond guy (whose name I finally managed to find out was Jim) kept asking me, "Are you a Gators fan?" I think he asked me like four times. I kept saying no and sloshing back shots of tequila. I don't remember exactly when or how, but I ended up in a really dark corner of the bar with Matt, Robin, Jim, Jason Keene and two awesome Ohio chicks, Courtney and Beth. Jim found out I was a writer, or I was babbling about my book, or something, and offered to review my book.

I didn't have any print copies (still don't, damn it) so I told him I could send him a copy of Spirit-MOther in PDF.

Long story short, I did, and he reviewed it!

Here's the link:

http://www.choateroad.com/reviews.htm

I love it!

The book is available at

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Spirit-Mother/Adra-Steia/e/9781934678985/?itm=1



I also had a very embarrassing injury today...I was in a new store, trying on shoes. They happened to be this pair of fire-engine red stilleto heels. Very cute. So not me. Six inch high heels and super-klutz don't mix! Anyway, I got one of my feet into one shoe (wasn't easy...I swear my feet just aren't shaped for fancy schmancy shoes!) and was trying to cram my other foot in. I stumbled, hopped, caught my balance, and decided to give up that venture.

When I stepped down out of the one shoe I'd managed to get on, my other leg cramped up really bad. After a couple of steps, I realized I'd managed to pull a muscle. Trying on shoes. That's about as bad as when I gave myself a black eye waxing my eyebrows!!

Black House by King/Straub

I'm trying so hard to find things to do that don't involve some really complicated homework!!

I just finished Black House. This is an awesome book, despite the LOOONNNGG boring first part. I love it when King revisits his Dark Tower world. I loved the short story in the Room 1408 compilation, about the Little Sisters. That sort of world really sparks my imagination and makes me want to write more dark fantasy. I delved into this genre with Dark Consort, and I'd really love to write more of it. Who has time...Between the kids, the job, the art, college, and life in general, I barely have times to eat, sleep, and shower! I have way too many projects waiting in something similar to Purgatory.

Anyway, back to Black House. Apparently this book is related to The Talisman. I don't know...haven't rread that one yet! Planning on it though, definitely. I keep picking it up in Walmart and putting it back down.

I like Stephen King's dark fantasy stuff. These days, I like it a lot more than his horror. Sometimes his horror novels are sort of flat and formulaic. Even though the story is mostly well-told, it just doesn't grab you the way you want it to. I hate to say it, but his writing seems slightly dated sometimes. With the Dark Towers books, you can't help but get involved.

I'm choking on the too-strong scent of 'sex on the beach' wax buttons. (Ya know, the little parrafin and oil gizmos you toss into an oil burner or tart burner and heat up? They melt and smell real good!). So I'm going to blow out the tea lights and try to get the girls corralled into their bedroom, at least.

Then on to that blasted homework........

The Signal (movie)

I'd heard this movie was horrible. Boring. Dumb. Pointless.

I watched it a while back and realized pretty quickly that the people who say that about the movie can usually be described by at least two of the words I just used.

You can't watch that movie thinking you're going to be watching some formulaic horror movie. It's really a movie that you can't label. The first part of the movie is sort of slow, but sublte. About the time you're going to turn it off, you realize something is about to happen that you need to see. Abruptly it segues into the second part of the movie (it is actually broken up into three parts) and suddenly you're thrust into this lightening-fast WTF-inducing very dark, very twisted whose-line-is-it-type black comedy situation. You don't know who's crazy. You don't know if anyone actually is or if its just human nature. The social commentary during this point is spot-on and occasionally cuts pretty deep. And it's really funny. Some great one-liners and obvious-answer type stuff.

The third part is like turning a sharp right after going straight at 100 miles an hour. You've suddenly got emotions and a twist that I really didn't 100% grasp, although I understand what on a basic level (if that makes sense LOL). The characters, some of which have been really shallow and 2-D show some depth and development.

Definitely a movie to see--if you're not going to take it too seriously and can think outside the modern Hollywood box!