Cozy horror is apparently a thing. I was happy to dig into something unique and fun, and Bonnie Quinn delivers with the first book in her How to Survive Camping series. The book, and the series, started out as a collection of posts on the No Sleep forum on Reddit. The story centers around Kate,…
Tag: troubling
Klute (1971) – Alan J. Pakula
I tuned in for Donald Sutherland, and stayed for the fantastic performance by Jane Fonda. So good in fact, that she took home the Best Actress Oscar. It’s a stunning turn, and she’s so good in it. Sutherland plays the titular Klute. John Klute, a detective. He’s trying to rundown lead on a friend who…
TIFF 25: California Schemin’ dir. James McAvoy
I had never heard of Silibil ‘n’ Brains, but knowing this was James McAvoy’s directorial debut I had to check it out. It’s based on a true story, and it’s very entertaining. Gavin (Seamus McLean Ross) and Billy (Samuel Bottomley) are just a couple of blokes from Dundee, Scotland. They dream big, and those dreams…
To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) – Harper Lee
Countless people read To Kill a Mockingbird in high school, or couldn’t read it because people fought to get it banned. In high school, for me, it was all about Le Petit Prince and The Catcher in the Rye. I’ve had a huge hole in my literary field. But I was finally glad to fill…
TIFF ’23: Sleep
Midnight Madness at TIFF is always a lot of fun, and some great genre films get scheduled that are designed to deliver to the late-night audience. Sleep hopes to do that this week. A Korean entry to the film festival from writer/director Jason Yu. It’s his first feature film, and Yu creates a tense, moody…
The Twonky (1953) – Arch Oboler
I venture into a new section of DK Books’ Monsters in the Movies, one dealing with monstrous machines, and the first one I encounter is a sentient television set in The Twonky. This kind of sci-fi comedy is probably more relevant today, when seen through the lens of mobile phones and modern technology, instead of…
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2011) – Ghosts of Mortis, The Citadel, and Counter Attack
“He who seeks to control fate shall never find peace.” Christian Taylor pens this episode that continues the Mortis story arc, that finds Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor), Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) and Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) still trapped on the strange planet, with a family of powerful Force users. This episode first aired on…
The Croning (2012) – Laird Barron
This week’s book shelf brings a bit of cosmic horror as I delve into Laird Bannon’s novel, The Croning. The story spans the decades of one man, and the horrors that are around him, and the realization that these nightmare terrors are real. It’s unnverving, as we are introduced to geologist Don Miller, and his…
The White Ribbon (2009) – Micheal Haneke
I’m finishing up the main body of DK Canada’s exceptional The Movie Book, and Haneke’s The White Ribbon is a fantastic film to wrap up the main section of the book. Set a few short years before the First World War, this Golden Globe winning film is a somber, thoughtful affair on sins, youth, tradition,…
Toronto After Dark 2019: The Assent (2019) – Pearry Teo
There’s a Barker/Lovecraftian feel to the gritty dirtiness of this entry in the Toronto After Dark film festival. Couched in a house covered in unnerving art, and filled with troubling apparitions and visions there is an aggressive edge to The Assent in the way it is shot, and the way the story unfolds. Mostly. Halfway…
The Mind Reels 