October Horror Challenge 2023 #3: "Paranormal Activity 2"

Thos movie had a lot on its shoulders right from the beginning. it had the reputation of the first one to live up to, and that movie made so much money on such a little budget and it ushered in the popularity of the whole "found footage horror" craze (seriously, for awhile there it seemed like every other movie that came out was a "found footage" movie). There really was no way for this movie to make its own way under the shadow of the first movie, but it did try, and I'm taking a second look at it today to see why I don't think it was successful.

This movie actually starts before the events of the first movie have taken place, and we get to see a middle aged couple shooting a video to welcome their newborn son Hunter into the house. they seem to be a likeable bunch, mom, dad, and teenage daughter. The woman is Katie's sister from the first movie, and we get to see how the demon wreaks more havoc here and slowly destroys the family. First their house is ransacked, which leads them to install a bunch of security cameras all over, and the rest of the movie is mostly footage from those cameras, allowing us to watch as things fall apart, the center cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon this world. Slowly (very slowly) strange and scary things start to happen, and they slowly get worse until the family has to make a choice in order to survive.

Maybe it's because there are more characters to introduce, but this movie seems to take longer than the first one, with just Micah and Katie to introduce. This movie has two parents and a teenager, as well as a nanny who plays a small but pivotal role. we also get introduced to the baby boy, who doesn't do much (because: baby) and we have to wait long stretches of time when nothing is happening. I guess this is supposed to build tension and get us to care about the family, but to me it was just tedious and boring. At least in the first one Micah and Katie realized right away that something supernatural was going on. In this sequel the dad takes FOREVER to admit that anything is even wrong, let alone that something supernatural is happening. And once he finally starts to acknowledge the ghostly elephant in the room, he makes some moves that make me REALLY not like him. I suppose, like the demonologist in the first movie he decides to act selfishly to protect himself and his family, but where these characteristics were endearing in the demonologist, they make the dad out to be a narcissistic monster. If you can'ttell, I still don't like him.

I got distracted after having to wait a million years for something to happen, so it might just be my bias, but I feel like when the scary things start happening they're not as scary as they were in the first movie. like great, we see that you can knock over some pans and move an Ouija board dy itself, thank you, now please do something actually scary. I forgot how the teenage daughter in this movie actually starts believing something evil is happening long before anyone else in the movie sees fit to acknowledge that anything is going on. That makes me like her more than I did when I first watched this movie. Overall I feel like the family is not as likeable as Micah and Katie from the first movie, so that makes it hard for me to care what happens to them. There are some good jump scares to be had here, but I still think they take way too long to happen. I will give it this, when the twist happens, it dies tie in really well with the first movie and makes it seem like it was planned out from the beginning, when I know that didn't happen that way from watching the documentary earlier. I suppose this movie is OK, and if it had been shorter with the extraneous stuff cut out I would probably like it more, but as it stands, I still think it doesn't live up to the original movie

October Horror Challenge #2: "Paranormal Activity "

This is the first movie in the series, where it all began, and it still holds up after all this time. Micah and Katie are very likeable and they still managed to draw me into the story, even if I knew what was going to happen to them in the end.I still like how in this movie the Paranormal psychic therapist type guy comes to give answers and help out, but that he doesn't stick around and sacrifice himself for the good of the whole or something, he just nopes the hell out of the situation and protects himself. Little touches like that make the movie seem even more realistic since they go against what usually happens in these kind of movies. It was interesting revisiting thos movie again. I watched it last year too, but this time I'm planning to follow it with the other movies in the series, so we shall see how that affects my view of the movies. For now I appreciate this as the cultural milestone that it was.

October Horror Challenge 2023: #1 "Unknown Dimension: the Story of Paranormal Activity"

When the movie "Paranormal Activity" first came out, it was a bigtime phenomenon and everyone was telling me I had to watch it, because they knew i loved horror movies and here was a horror movie taking the world by storm. So many people tried to sing the movie's praises, but they all said the exact wrong thing: "it's just like "The Blair Witch Project!" See, I didn't like "The Blair Witch Project," so that wasn't the way to entice me to see this movie. Over time, however, enough people told me that this movie was scary and good and I had to see it, so I decided to watch it, and you know what? it scared the ever loving bejebus out of me. it's rare for a movie to do that, so I admire the movie for that if for nothing else. Several years and seven movies later, the Paranormal Activity series has made its impact on the horror community, and this movie is about that.

Paranormal Activity is about a young couple who have mysterious things happening in their house, so they decide to set up cameras in their bedroom in hopes of capturing something and learning what is going on. Soon they get more than they bargained forms they discover a sinister supernatural presence in their home. They consult an expert on the Paranormal who confirms that there is something malevolent in their home and they have to figure out what it wants and how to get rid of it. Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston play the young couple, and they are better actors than those you find in other found footage films. Their performances really help ground the movie in reality, and since I was rooting for them, I cared even more about what happened to them. It was interesting hearing how they picked the right actors for the film and how they knew right away that Katie and Micah were perfect for their roles.

One thing I learned from this documentary was that the studio originally wanted to buy the film and remake it with professional actors and professional equipment, but the director insisted that the studio first screen the movie as-is for a big group of people and see how well the movie played to an audience, and during the screening people kept walking out so the filmmakers thought the movie was a failure, but near the end of the movie they talked to an usher and found out that people were walking out because they thought the movie was too scary, and when they heard how well the movie had impacted the audience, the studio decided to go ahead and release the movie as it was. This rings true for me, because part of what makes the movie so good is that it really looks like real home movie footage from people who seemed like real people; they could be me and my friends suddenly encountering something supernatural and evil. that's what made it scary to me.

See, the thing that ruined the Blair Witch Project for me wasn't because it wasn't good, it was because I had a friend who watched the movie in theaters, and she came back to her house full of friends and roommates, and she sat in the living room in dim lighting and told us from beginning to end what had gone on in the first movie, like she was telling a ghost story around a campfire, and when I actually got to see the movie itself, nothing could compare to that experience of hearing the story of the movie as if it were a ghost story. With Paranormal Activity, I didn't know anything going into the movie because I threatened everyone with death if they spoiled the movie for me, so I was watching it blind, and it hit me even harder than it would have if I had known what was going to happen going into the movie.

Honestly, I didn't like the second movie as well as I liked the first (we'll see how I like it when I view it this time around) but hearing the cast and crew talk about what they experienced while making the movie, trying to recapture the success of the first movie, and trying to capture lightning in a bottle again. I really liked the third movie, and it scared the crap out of me, so I was totally here for learning about what happened during the filming of the movie. I didn't expect that the third movie in the series would be as scary for me, so I walked into it and ran into a wall and faceplanted in terror. the ending scared me so badly that I almost started crying. The fourth movie always felt rushed to me, and I didn't appreciate it as much as I did the other movies in the series. The filmmakers seemed to agree with me that the movie was less than stellar, but it was still interesting to hear how auditions and filmmaking went. I liked hearing about how it played to audiences once it was first released. the film ended up grossing $142.8 million. the good thing about the Paranormal Activity movies is that they can be made cheaply and they gross so much money that even when your movie isn't as successful, it still makes a lot of money.

The fifth movie was better than the fourth (up to this point it was weird how the odd-numbered films in this series were good to me, and the even-numbered films in the series were less good), so I had high expectations for the movie and it would be hard to live up to those expectations for any movie, let alone the fifth in a series, but I did end up enjoying the movie. That sequel didn't make as much as it could have done, and that's because people were sick of the Paranormal Activity movies by this point, so the movie only grossed about $90.2 million, which is a lot, and only seems like a failure when compared with the other movies in the series. The sixth movie in the series was fighting an uphill battle, trying to overcome the fatigue that audiences felt towards the franchise by this point. They decided to make the movie in 3D, and it wasn't as well received as the filmmakers had hoped. One of the writers says that with all the big special effects, the movie was getting away from what made the first movie work, that barebones "this could be real video footage" aspect of the original movie. it was cool seeing how the crew felt like a family after working together for so long, but the 7th movie in the series took the story off in a new direction with different characters and a whole new story. I think this is why the movie works so well, because it didn't retread the same paths as the first 6 movies. This documentaryends the way it began. it begins with a cameraman asking people what scares them, and their responses are interestingto note, and the movie ends with a Cameraman asking the cast and crew the same question, and it'sfun to see how they answer the question. All in all this movie was interesting, and it hyped me up to watch the Paranormal Activity movies. We'll see how that goes.

October Horror Challenge 2023

It's almost that time of year again! Keep an eye on this space. we might have some giveaways and other fun little goodies in store this year!

M3gan (2022)

!Killer dolls are nothing new (just ask Chucky) and even killer robots have been appearing on our screens for years now (Westworld, anyone?) but a killer robot doll, something meant to bond with a child and provide joy and happiness that suddenly turns sinister, and offers a chance to serve as a cautionary tale about how much we're letting technology control our lives (Alexa, turn on the ominous music) now THIS I gotta see. As a horror fan, I must see all the new horror movies as soon as possible, and this one needled some of my own fears about how intrusive technology has gotten in our everyday world, so I was stoked to get the chance to see it today.

M3gan stands for "Model 3 generative android." When a young girl's parents are suddenly killed in a horrific accident, she is shipped off to live with her aunt, who happens to be a talented robotocist who works for a toy company. The aunt is testing a new design, M3gan, who is set to be the toy everyone will be asking for as soon as she's released. M3gan is a robot that is designed to bond with a child and become that child's favorite playmate, with programming that lets her adapt and learn from the child and the doll's environment. Predictably, this all goes horribly wrong as the sentient toy becomes a little TOO all-knowing and takes on a mind of her own. This starts small, with disobeying her creator's orders, and slowly escalates to something far more terrifying - and deadly.

I'll admit to being a kind of fuddy-duddy when it comes to technology. I get creeped out by Alexa as she's programmed to respond to voice commands, because I can't help but flash back on 2001: A Space Odyssey and how well everything worked out for those folks when technology took over, so I'm the perfect audience for this kind of movie since I'm already half in the bag when it comes to thinking this kind of technology is a bad idea, so I don't need much convincing to freak out when the robot doll starts acting a little too lifelike.

The child actors in this movie deserve major props. the three actresses who portray the lifelike doll M3gan manage to inject lots of actual menace into the proceedings, and the girl who plays the Orphan, Cady, is very likeable and draws us into her world. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and protect her from all harm, which is exactly how I was supposed to feel and it made me really connect with her character. Allison Williams, the actress who plays Gemma, is endearing, and we get the feeling that she really is devastated by grief and just wants to reach out to her niece and take her pain away, which leads her to make some rash decisions with regards to trying out the new technology on her niece without perhaps installing enough safely protocols, you know, in case the doll turned evil as they are wont to do. There is plenty of cat-and-mouse stalking that goes on as the movie is PG13, so we know there won't be much gore, but the movie ratchets up the creep factor so greatly that we don't really need it. I even felt for side characters, like the crazy old lady with the dog, so their subplots worked for me, and when M3gan finally goes whole-hog with her evil robot antics, it genuinely creeped me out. There's not much new ground to tread here, with the "technology is wonderful but what if it takes over" plot many films have tread, but this one treads well-worn pathways with panache, so I definitely recommend this fun little chiller.

I Haz Boox

my first two novellas are available on kindle! These are probably pretty amateur because I wrote them years ago, and they're both very angsty and very gay, but I love them, and they're here! Yay!

Check this out! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BN7G79QR?ref_=cm_sw_r_mwn_ts_80R1P377VX6ZH4KYNCMP

Check this out! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BN7KGC1T?ref_=cm_sw_r_mwn_ts_6MPPPGAW24CN8TDQ6C59

Pitch Perfect

Here is a possible Pitch for my book "The Ins and the Outs: How to Know what You Don't Know You Don't Know"

In 2021, a woman has a psychotic break. She goes to bed one night in her apartment and awakens the next morning in a holding cell at her local jail with no idea of what happened or how she got there. She fights for five and a half months to have her mental health evaluated before she is finally released. Over those five and a half months she learns what it's like to be in jail, the crime she committed that she doesn't remember, what the other women in jail are like, and what life is like on the other side of the world she never knew existed. Through it all she finds her way back to her faith in God even as she loses everything else in her life (her job, her apartment, her identity). She learns what a "dark night of the soul" truly is, and how to make it throguh when you think you can't make it through anymore. Her poems, journal entries, and cartoons drawn on scraps of paper from her cell make up the pages of this irreverant and unconventional memoir.

EDIT:

I've heard from a reliable source that the synopsis of the book should only be one sentence long, so here's my attempt at that, does it sound ok?

Culled from poems, cartoons, and journal entries written on scraps of paper in her cell, this irreverent memoir tells the story of a woman who went to bed one night and woke up the next morning in jail, with no memory of how she got there.