Horns Movie Review
Synopsis: Blamed for the murder of his girlfriend, a man (Daniel Radcliffe) awakes one morning to find he has grown a pair of horns. Armed, now, with supernatural powers, he sets out to find the killer.
Based on a novel by Joe Hill
There are few movies I enjoy more than Steven King’s movies about his books. His son, Joe Hill, does his father proud. They share the same gusto for the shadowed side of humanity.
The lead character Ig Perrish, suffers at the hand of his own conscious. His life is take from him; tossed around and shredded. Leaving him with a topsy turvy shamble. His girlfriend Merrin, played by Juno Temple, died in the most brutal and miserable way. She’s been left in the wet, dismal forest, never to escape again. Earlier that same night, Ig had been with her. They had fought; breaking off their engagement, in front of half the town. Bitter resentment had stolen the breath from both of them. Merrin had a terrible secret. One no one would ever believe. Not even Ig’s parents believed he hadn’t killed the love of his life.
Ig wakes one morning, and found that he grown horns. They mirrored the hell that plagued him As the horns grew bigger. People start acting peculiar. The blackest parts of people’s immortal souls slithered into the daylight, and refused to back down. Doctors had sex with their nurses during office visits. Unfeeling reporters beat the living crap out of each other, just to get the story. Ig thought things could get bleaker. Someone he trusted more than life itself betrayed him, and Merrin. Ig was robbed of the very ground his mental health walked on. Only with Ig’s continued transformation, does he come close to seeing the light.
I have watched this movie at least four times. The character development is coupled with a plot that barreled it’s way toward the end. I found myself enraptured. I adore horror. But I need more than blood and guts. There must possess development and angst, mental mazes for me to contemplate. I am a sucker for paranormal/fantasy themed scary movies. Horns had just enough.
This fed almost all items of the list that captured my attention. The twists and turns will catch you up, and leave you guessing. The end will soothe the inky Raven trepidation. We are now watching NOS4A2, another Joe Hill inspired show that is just as menacingly deep and complex. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
Title: Skriker #0
Author: Dani Smith
Genre: Comic
Keywords: Angels, Demons, Werewolves, Comic Books
Price: 3.99
Publisher: Self-Published
Summary: Join the Halfling Bad Boy on an adventure in England chasing the notorious Black Dog, a ghostly hellhound long rumored to bring death to all who encounter it. Of course, not all is as it seems.
Review:
Let me start off my saying, I’ve followed Dani Smith and her work for a very long time now. I have seen the painstaking labor she puts into all of her projects, and I am thrilled to finally have the latest masterpieces in my hands, so to speak.
Skriker #0 is an introductory comic to the lead character of the Black Dog and Rebel Rose series Dani Smith has written and illustrated. This is a small peak into the history behind the man, before he formally met Rose, an ass-kicking, take-no-shit heroine many have grown to love.
While I had seen pictures of Skriker’s parents before, I had never known the background. And now, another facet of this bold character’s personality has been uncovered. The vivid imagery and descriptions were spectacular, as usual. The hints at Skriker’s soft side were both deeply felt and comical—no pun intended...this time. :)
If you are new to the Skriker and Rose world, Skriker #0 is a great place to start!
Title: The Hunt
Author: Andrew Fukuda
Genre: Paranormal Science Fiction/Horror
Key-words: Vampires, Post Apocalyptic, Extinct
Length: Novel
ISBN: 978-1250005144
Price: (Print) $17.99
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Reviewer: Kayden McLeod
Author: Andrew Fukuda
Genre: Paranormal Science Fiction/Horror
Key-words: Vampires, Post Apocalyptic, Extinct
Length: Novel
ISBN: 978-1250005144
Price: (Print) $17.99
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Reviewer: Kayden McLeod
Summary:
Don’t Sweat. Don’t Laugh. Don’t draw attention to yourself. And most of all, whatever you do, do not fall in love with one of them.
Don’t Sweat. Don’t Laugh. Don’t draw attention to yourself. And most of all, whatever you do, do not fall in love with one of them.
Gene is different from everyone else around him. He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an unquenchable lust for blood. Gene is a human, and he knows the rules. Keep the truth a secret. It’s the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood.
When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him. He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible—and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity?
Review:
The Hunt will creep under your skin and stay there.
The Hunt will creep under your skin and stay there.
When I saw The Hunt on pre-order a little over a month ago, completely by accident, I read the excerpt. I wanted it, and though I never pre-order books, I almost did with this one. However, I went out on the weekend, and snatched it up at my nearest bookstore.
Gene is immersed in the world of another race: a predatory and primal driven vampire-like set of beings. Though they fear the light, and have fangs, they appear to have a humanoid lifespan. They have children, and grow old.
For his entire life, Gene pretends to be like them, going to extremes to stay under the radar at all times, procuring items to cover his “heper” (human) odor, shaving his body and beyond.
The psychological layering in how Gene thinks and acts is a flawless, brilliant affair. Not only does he pretend to be something he’s not, but in many ways, he thinks like them. When something abhorrent to his basic nature happens around him, he refers to the activity and his association as we, not them. On the occasion, it’s skillfully disconcerting to read him mentally including himself on one hand, feeling his disgust and terror on another. The depth of his character makes you wonder what a lifetime of pretending for fear of his life, has done to his psyche as the book progresses, and he grows into new understanding.
While some of the content gets violent, the prose isn’t as graphic as it could be, though written with enough detail that you can visualize the desperate struggle between victim and predator.
The choice of first person narrative drives his emotions home to the reader with startling clarity. It’s so rare to find a book like this. I do not award Best Book easily, in fact, I never have before. But Andrew Fukuda deserves it for his second novel, The Hunt (available also in the UK under another cover).
Title: Wicked Nights
Series: Angels of the Dark
Author: Gena Showalter
Rating: Five Siren Stones
Series: Angels of the Dark
Author: Gena Showalter
Rating: Five Siren Stones
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Key-words: Angels, Demons, Heaven, Hell
Length: Novel
ISBN: 978-0373776986
Price: (Print) $7.99
Publisher: Harlequin
Key-words: Angels, Demons, Heaven, Hell
Length: Novel
ISBN: 978-0373776986
Price: (Print) $7.99
Publisher: Harlequin
Summary:
Leader of the most powerful army in the heavens, Zacharel has been deemed nearly too dangerous, too ruthless—and if he isn't careful, he'll lose his wings. But this warrior with a heart of ice will not be deterred from his missions at any cost…until a vulnerable human tempts him with a carnal pleasure he's never known before.
Leader of the most powerful army in the heavens, Zacharel has been deemed nearly too dangerous, too ruthless—and if he isn't careful, he'll lose his wings. But this warrior with a heart of ice will not be deterred from his missions at any cost…until a vulnerable human tempts him with a carnal pleasure he's never known before.
Accused of a crime she did not commit, Annabelle Miller has spent four years in an institution for the criminally insane. Demons track her every move, and their king will stop at nothing to have her. Zacharel is her only hope for survival, but is the brutal angel with a touch as hot as hell her salvation—or her ultimate damnation?
Review:
Wicked Nights by Gena Showalter is a thrill ride, with unexpected twists and turns that doesn’t leave anything to be desired.
Wicked Nights by Gena Showalter is a thrill ride, with unexpected twists and turns that doesn’t leave anything to be desired.
Annabelle Miller is a young woman who has been badly abused by forces beyond her control, secretly plotting against her, warping her preordained path in life. The violence and pit of angst her life has become, filled with demons who stalk her every move, draws the dark haired, dangerous and captivating warrior angel, Zacharel.
Zacharel has his own crosses to carry, a past that haunts him every moment, of every day, poisoning his views on life, and himself. He’s cut himself off from any emotion he might’ve once possessed. But Annabelle could hold the key to unlock freedoms he never dare hope to have.
Upon reading Wicked Nights, I was thoroughly taken with the gritty, dark edge, mixed with sultry desire, driving the characters toward the book’s climax and beyond. These aspects lend flawless, believable cause for the variety of actions and reactions: a rare quality I adored from start to finish. The author pulls all the right emotions, at just the right time: a master of a poignant orchestra. As you near the end, you never expect the final blows, all the threads of the plot pull together seamlessly, in ways that are so unexpected, the emotions the characters feel are your own.
I can’t wait for Beauty Awakened, Koldo’s story, a particular angel who caught my interest, with his interesting back story.
