Unboxing: Horror Block [October 2015]

We’re back with some more unboxing! Arcade Block should be right around the corner but I’m super happy that the Horror Block made it here before November so that I could wrap up Halloween marathon with this lovely, or maybe, “horrifiying” unboxing! 🙂

Let’s check it out!!

Horror Block [October 2015]

1) Child’s Play Chucky Plush

Don’t judge me, okay? I never watched any Chucky movies, more like snippets here and there. Except I can see how this character can be uber scary. Not exactly sure where to put this one right now.  So many cool plushies. I’m debating having a spot with a basket full of plush collectibles or something after I rearrange my storage closet.

2) Cryptic Collectibles A Concise Compendium of Creepy Keepsakes

This is pretty cool.  Don’t you think? I don’t own horror movie related collectibles and its only started mildly because of these horror blocks but that’s all about these collections.  I flipped through it a little and I think its going to be an interesting read.

3) Print: They’re Coming to Get You

This is what the info card says: “Originally part of Gallery Guzu’s “Something Spooky” art show, this incredible piece of art by Paul Hanley features the genre’s most notorious undead characters and is suitable for framing.  Can you name them all?”

4) Summoner’s Mouse Pad

Mouse pad and Ouija sort of thing going on here. Not sure those two things should be combined in one if you believe in ghostly things.  And I do so this might end up being given away.  Haha!  I’m quite happy currently with my Hyrule mouse pad.

5) Dario Argento’s Dracula

*runs off to do some research* Okay, back with some info (that you all probably know already). So this is from 2012 and this version includes the making of documentary and a music video and the red band trailer.  The ratings don’t seem to be great but hey, I’m a newbie in the world Dracula movies so I might like it. Its a DVD in a Horror Block.  So far, its two for two in these blocks and I’m pretty happy about it.

6) T-Shirt: Friday the 13th

OMG! Kick in the freak out mode! This shirt design is awesome! Funny how I did this last year but you know what, I think I actually do like Jason Voorhees as a badass slasher than Freddy.  Maybe that’s why I was so excited when they said they would have a Friday the 13th item in the newsletters but usually its super anticlimactic but a t-shirt, even if I’m not the one wearing it, is absolutely fantabulous!

AND…to wrap it all up with a sneak peek of the next block (also my last unless I continue the subscription):

SHARKNADO!!! *excited screaming* The husband looked at me and shook his head.  He just doesn’t understand why and how I like Sharknado that much. As long as you have guilty pleasures, well, this one is mine 😉

Overall, a pretty cool block, right? The T-shirt, Print and DVD were my faves.  I have a ton of horror to catch up on.  Its nice this whole half a month horror marathon.  It doesn’t burn out the desire to see more horrors after the season.  I mean, I do want to see Krampus.

Thoughts on the Horror Block gear? What do you like most?

Halloween Special 2014 (& November update)!

Let me present to you Halloween 2014 with a little vlog and ending with a piano cover like previous years 🙂

If ever YouTube is uncooperative for you, I have jotted down the recap at the bottom.

Also, sorry for the flawed piano cover.
Time was really limited and I’m already behind schedule in getting this up so I tried my absolute best.
And I’m testing out using my tablet to read piano sheet music instead of printing it out.

Oh and I sound really robotic..sorry for that also…

RECAP:
1) Friday the 13th franchise was entertaining
2) Horror marathon is not done yet.  Tomorrow will be The Shining to wrap up. Expect the review on Monday!
3) Skipped 3 movies: Contracted, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, Antisocial. Will get those done soon.
4) November update: Nanowrimo! Tell me if you are doing it so we can cheer each other on!
5) Nanowrimo means no book reviews, minimum movie reviews
Instead it’ll be Photo101, Weekly Photo Challenge, Weekly Adventures, Workout updates, Pinterest Therapy
6) Piano cover: Funeral March of the Marionette

THANK YOU for everything especially being around for this Halloween marathon and everything else! 🙂

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND! 🙂

Halloween Marathon: Friday the 13th (2009)

The 12th movie from Friday the 13th franchise! We’re finally here! However, this is not a continuation but rather a remake set in very much the present.  And you know what? I actually know some actors and actresses in this one.  Thats already a good start 🙂 That was literally my reaction when the names were popping up in the opening credits. Silly things to be excited about, but I was.

Let’s check out this remake, shall me?

Director: Marcus Nispel

Cast: Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle, Aaron Yoo, Derek Mears, Jonathan Sadowski, Julianna Guill, Ben Feldman

Twenty something years has passed since the events of Jason’s drowning and the killings and Pamela Voorhees was murdered on Camp Crystal Lake, the town has been peaceful for ages and many have forgotten the events.  A group of kids go to camp there and eventually get hunted by Jason Voorhess.  All of them go missing.  A few weeks later, one of the girl’s, Whitney (Amanda Righetti) has a brother, Clay (Jared Padalecki) that comes to look for his missing sister to find out what happened and brushes past a group of teens going for a weekend away at one of the guy’s family cabin near Crystal Lake.  As Jason slowly picks down the group, Clay starts following a trail to figure out what happened to Whitney.

Friday the 13th remake in 2009 is a little confusing if I put a little more thought to it.  For one, was the purpose to ignore that the past 11 movies happened and to revamp the franchise completely? I’m not familiar with the franchise so maybe some of you can enlighten me on that.  It might change how I actually feel about it.  However, it does feel like a combination of the 1st and 2nd because we start with Jason and his sack mask.  This one is definitely less effective than the one in Part 2 and it minimizes the death of Pamela Voorhees to emphasize his revenge rampage and they even have the teens mention it to show how no one really remembers or knows about Jason’s existence and Camp Crystal Lake’s happening.

If you remember, because it was the beginning of the month that I reviewed it, I liked Part 2 quite a bit and found the 1st one a little slow and boring.  Friday the 13th remake starts off in an extremely fast pace.  When the beginning sequence ended and Friday the 13th light up the screen, I was thinking that if they kept that pace, we were in for an awesome ride. Especially since the girl who plays Whitney is Amanda Righetti and I love her in The Mentalist.

Except right after that intense opening sequence, things hit the brakes and there was a lot of meaningless build up that didn’t include a lot of Jason’s appearances.  The concept behind searching for the missing persons was a good one.  Eventually, people are bound to search for the reasoning behind their loved ones disappearing.  Plus, the actors include rather more known actors/actresses including Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki, The Flash’s Danielle Panabaker and another little actor in more minor roles called Aaron Yoo.  I couldn’t help to feel good watching just that.  Sure, there were some stupid moments and the pace was really killing the whole atmosphere but when the last quarter or third, it started picking up pace again and things started being a lot more fun to watch all over again.  It helps that the whole searching for a missing person and wondering if they are actually missing is a good premise to work with.

At a certain point, I realized that its really trying to figure out who is the next one to kill or how and when Jason pops up to kill the targeted person.  Its usually pretty easy to figure out the order of the kills but how they do it is pretty different. Its here, I need to stop and talk a little about Jason. If you have just burned through 11 movies with Jason Voorhees, there are a few things you will notice.  For one, the sack mask was better than the hockey mask and they do give Jason here the opportunity of finding that mask and using that instead of his sack over his head.  Not quite as fun as the originals but I’m not too picky on how he finds it.  Next, Jason has ridiculous aim in all the past flicks and in this one, man, he has a sharp eye.  There is one commendable thing about this one and thats the kills.  They are pretty entertaining. Plus, this Jason is pretty effectively creepy especially in that scene next to the lake.

All in all, I liked this one well enough.  The 1980 version has a more campy and low budget feeling to it.  This one covers a bit of the story from the first to the third like sack mask, finding the hockey mask, his mother being beheaded.  Its a different story rebooted in the present.  Jason’s body count doesn’t slow down and the whole opening and ending sequence are extremely entertaining to watch.  There are some corny one liners that might get a chuckle/giggle out of you (as it did for me) and the cast is a good one even if the characters for Friday the 13th are never very deep.  Still, its pretty entertaining.  Maybe its because it lacks the style of the old one and the essence will always be in the original version, but this one does a well enough job as a remake, a whole lot better than I imagined.  Not a whole lot of substance but a ton of entertainment (if that makes sense) 🙂

What did you think about the remake? How many movies of the Friday the 13th franchise of you seen? I’ve heard about favorites, which is your least favorite among the 12 movies?

Thats the end of the main feature of this Halloween Horror Month.  Don’t leave just yet! October 31st isn’t quite here yet and I still have few reviews to go up and don’t forget my Halloween special! I’m not exactly sure what and when it is but it will be there some time on Halloween night, with a little November announcement as always 🙂

Halloween Marathon:Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

Suffice to say that I’m pretty happy that this is nearing the end of the franchise for me.  Jason X gave me glimmers of hope that this franchise can still go in the campy fun area and really roll with it.  Next up is the 11th in the Friday the 13th franchise and something like the 8th in the Nightmare on Elm Street one.  I haven’t seen any Nightmare on Elm Street and till 2 years ago I didn’t even know how to differentiate between Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Freddy Kreuger and which franchise they went with, nor did I know what it was about.  I’m a bit more knowledgable now especially after this one because I will be experiencing the first time who Freddy Kreuger is while continuing this crazy Friday the 13th journey 🙂

Lets hope its a good one, right? Especially since next year, I’m betting that I’ll be doing the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise provided I find all the movies.

 Director: Ronny Yu

Cast: Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger, Monica Keena, Jason Ritter, Kelly Rowland, Chris Marquette, Brendan Fletcher, Katharine Isabelle, Lochlyn Munro

Freddy Kreuger (Robert Englund) has been stuck in hell for a long time.  He’s decided to hatch a plan using Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger) to bring back the terror into the kids and teens of Elm Street. Their fear and remembering him will strengthen him.  Except Freddy never imagined Jason to go on an uncontrollable killing spree which leads them to not only leave a blood trail separately but eventually they have to fight each other because either won’t step aside easily.

I’m a bit stuck on how to review this one.  For one, how can I evaluate Freddy when this is one of the later movies (need to check that).  However, as a movie which is supposed to follow that horrific 9th movie where Freddy’s arm shows up to pull Jason to hell, this does tons better.  I think it has to do with the whole being a more recent movie.  Freddy Kreuger is an interesting character and I’m definitely down to watch the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.  If anything, his burnt distorted face and the premise of entering dreams and killing is an effective one.

Freddy vs Jason is one of the better ones out of the last few I’ve seen.  I had a really good time with it.  Its way excessively bloodier than the others.  Jason goes on killing spree but we get to see how he does it brutally.  There’s never a lot of blood.  If there is blood, its shielded by the rainy weather or the dark surroundings.  This one is different.  I put an example below.

Two crazy men in their ways lusting over killing and both unkillable in their own senses makes this a pretty good flick to watch.  Plus, the idea of tying a new scenario like Elm Street and then going back to the roots in Camp Crystal Lake gives familiarity to both sides of the fans and a refreshing moment for Friday the 13th.  In the 11th film, after travelling to space and all, its a refreshing moment.

For me, the highlight and familiarity came in the director Ronny Yu.  While most of you on the blogasphere is familiar with these iconic horror figures in your youth, I was a child surrounded with Hong Kong films.  Ronny Yu has contributed some good and memorable 90s movies.  I’ve never seen him do something in the horror but I think he brings a nice style to it 🙂

The rest of the cast being teens from Elm Street were all pretty good.  The story is solid.  At least I believed it because I haven’t seen any other stuff from Elm Street.  As usual, there is campy dialogue and teens are teens where some get drunk and others get high and Freddy does the whole getting into their heads and controlling them or something at one point, but thats ok. I can accept it because its a fun movie to watch.  I don’t think I’ve felt this entertained in the Friday the 13th movies in a while. I liked Jason X but there was still something bordering the “so bad its good”.  Something about Freddy and Jason makes this better than that.  Its actually a decent flick and  an unexpectedly good addition to the series.  Maybe its just having two bad-ass killers facing off that makes it all the better.

Have you seen Freddy vs. Jason? What are your thoughts on it? Is it a worthy addition? 

One more to go and its the remake in 2009!  Halloween is right around the corner, so is my work deadline.  Excuse me for the sporadic timing of the final reviews.  I promise you that I have a few reviews to go up by October 31st but it’ll be published at all sorts of times.

Halloween Marathon: Jason X (2001)

A major thanks has to go out to my boyfriend for pushing me forward when this franchise headed down the ridiculous road.  After Jason Goes to Hell, I really wanted to just stop.  However, on Saturday night, after that horrible movie, my boyfriend popped in the next one: Jason X.  Jason already could be all supernatural and body snatching and all that. Its not so hard to believe that its zoomed forward in time and invading space. It really isn’t at this point.  Anything that can happen as far as I’m concerned with this franchise.  Just depends who decides to take it on.

With that thought in my mind, I watched Jason X, still holding on to a little glimmer of hope that it can be okay.

Director: James Isaac

Cast: Kane Hodder, Lexa Doig, Jonathan Potts, Lisa Ryder, Peter Mensah, Melody Johnson, David Cronenberg

Jason Voorhees is captured and there is dispute as to how to be rid of him.  Some want to risk the chances of him escaping so that they could learn from his regenerative genes and others, like Rowen (Lexa Doig) just want to put him into cryogenic status so that he would be frozen forever.  After a mishaps, Rowen and Jason both are frozen until 2455, when a group of astronauts discover their bodies and bring them aboard their ship to defrost them.  Although Rowen warns the professor of the dangerous Jason Voorhees and that he isn’t truly dead, it is too late when Jason wakes up and starts to brutally attack everyone in this new environment.

I can’t believe I need to refer to the last one right now because I really don’t want to. Jason Goes to Hell insinuates that Freddy Kreuger helped pull him into hell.  Its puzzling that Freddy vs. Jason only happens after this movie.  I guess it could be since we’ve obviously jumped into the future.  Goodness knows when he was captured and brought to that lab.  The continuity is yet not there.  Regardless, Jason is in space now.  Funny enough, that last one’s ugly weird alien baby looking thing doesn’t occur and he regenerates into a metal uber Jason (as IMDB calls him).

We’re heading into the millenium so technology should look better but it doesn’t really for some parts.  This one has a lot of cheesy dialogue.  It seems 2455 and 1980 really didn’t make a lot of difference when it came to the level of campy and cheese that it was all about.  At least that part was kept in this.  Other than that, there’s acting and sex (plus weird sex-ish scenes).

To be fair, its not as bad as Jason Goes to Hell (sorry E!).  Its a tad lame and the story is full of predictable deaths and just really silly characters.  Nothing really makes sense as to what happens but its more eventful than the last one and you know what, despite saying that its campy and cheesy, it was pretty acceptable.

At this point, the movies are feeling like the layout is extremely familiar and the deaths are more and more easy to predict.  Jason doesn’t really develop much except the scenario he is in changes.  The first 7 stayed rather true to the whole Crystal Lake thing but after he decides to head to new territory in Manhattan and now he’s in space, there really isn’t much else to feel the continuity.  I mean, you’d have guessed after the last one, we’d be heading for some Freddy and Jason fun but that comes after this one.

Its pretty interesting because I think starting at this one, they start talking about the kill count for Jason Voorhees.  I think they said 83 in this one.  I’m guessing its a random number because there’s sections in between of his life that we don’t get to see because I can’t seem to count anything close to that number in my head.  Or is there?

I’m straying away from the main point.  Jason X is not a bad entry even though its campy and cheesy and the premise is completely out there.  Anything is better after Jason Goes to Hell.  What can I say?  There’s only going up after absolute crap, right?

Have you seen Jason X? Did you enjoy it? What did you think of the whole space premise?

Halloween Marathon: Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)

This weekend was extremely efficient and I’ll be on track to get them all reviewed before Halloween arrives 🙂

Next up, its Part 9 of Friday the 13th franchise with Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. It was released a few years after the rather destructive Part 8.  I’m a bit worried about how this one will go but I tried to be extremely objective with this.  With expectations as low as mine, I really don’t know how it could be bad.

Director: Adam Marcus

Cast: Steven Freeman, Kari Keegan, Kane Hodder, Steven Williams, Steven Culp, Erin Gray, Rusty Schwimmer, Richard Grant

A special FBI task force is sent in to trap Jason Voorhees and blows him up to pieces.  Picking up the remains, they believe that he is dead except he is not.  Coming back from the dead, he can now morph into whoever he “kills”. As he tries to trace back his path to find other blood-related Voorhees, the secret of what can really kill him is revealed.

As of today, I’m only one away from completing the entire Friday the 13th franchise.  Its hard to imagine how the last one I have to see or any other movie will have that crap factor more than this one.   Look, I thought Jason Takes Manhattan was bad.  I really just wanted to write “WTF This is crap” and end this review there.  This one doesn’t deserve the attention and time spent to even put this post together.

So, for the sake of everyone, I’ll just do this in point form of why it doesn’t work:

– No continuity.  

Jason takes Manhattan ended where he was ruined by toxic waste and gone back to his child form. However, he is very much a grown and menacing man that Kane Hodder portrays him as.  So it just took back what Jason Takes Manhattan did.  Last I check, this franchise wasn’t rehashed till that last movie in 2000s.

– Supernatural body invasion stupidity

There are no words to describe how disgusting these scenes are to watch.  Its literally revolting…too revolting and yet so pointless.  What has this franchise turned into? WTF!

– Extremely low budget

None of the Friday the 13th flicks are high budget.  But this one owns up to it because it just feels like there was no money put into it at all.  The effects were bad, the acting was bad, everything was sloppy.  It was so messy.

I’m going to fume over how this wasted my time on a weekend that I could’ve used it for other or better movies.  Still, I watched this whole thing.  Word of advice: DON’T watch this for dinner.  I did that and I ended up not really eating much after the first scene and the following ones after that also.  It was pointlessly disgusting.  Probably as disgusting as it is crappy.

I get wanting to put an origins story on this but seriously, it was pretty ridiculous.  Oh right, and that ending.  Dragged into the ground..to hell, I presume. And that alien looking thingamabob at the end sequence.  WTF!!!

Its a short write-up because it really doesn’t deserve more of my time than this. I have no good words for this one.  If Shitfest was going on right now, this would be a worthy one for it.

Onto the next one! Let’s hope it gets better, right?

Thoughts on Jason Goes to Hell?

Halloween Marathon: Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

I took last week to catch up with a few priorities like Gone Girl and reblog and neglected post and well, Thanksgiving (which is actually today but I already celebrated yesterday).  Now, I welcome you back to the Halloween Marathon and lets get right into business (because I am now behind) and check out Friday the 13th The Final Chapter.  Supposedly this franchise was going to end with this one from what my boyfriend told me and I guess I can’t really argue with that because of how they wrap things up.  We all know it didn’t or else this marathon wouldn’t be happening.

Director: Joseph Zito

Cast: Kimberly Beck, Peter Barton, Corey Feldman, Erich Anderson, Crispin Glover, Clyde Hayes, Barbara Howard, Lawrence Monoson, Judie Aronson, Camilla More

After being mortally wounded and taken to the morgue, murderer Jason Voorhees spontaneously revives and embarks on a killing spree as he makes his way back to his home at Camp Crystal Lake.-IMDB

This killing spree involves not one but two houses along his way home.  One housing a group of teens (of course) and another is a family.

The change in location and number of targets is what makes this Friday the 13th jump back into good territory.  It was really fun to see the slashing action swap around.  Plus, it took the audience on a little Michael Myers adventure of how Jason Voorhees is equally unkillable because after the ending of Part 3, he still managed to come back and this time, he was engineered to go back to his home on Camp Crystal Lake and he was ready to kill whoever got in his way.

 Jason Voorhees is a pretty menacing character in this one.  He really does get pretty creepy and his killing methods although still varies for his characters, and it seems the director liked a lot of face crushing, he still brought a lot.  Plus, this time the equation brought in a family consisting of a mom, daughter and a younger boy. When you bring young kids in, there’s always a question of whether they will be really annoying and Tommy Jarvis played by Corey Feldman, brought a lot to the final act, especially since he was actually quite clever.

Finally, the tone of this one varies a little and that scene up there is cheesy and so hilarious.  There something about this one that is a little different from the rest.  It has a little humor, a few scares and adds a few extra elements because its not out in Camp Crystal Lake.  Jason still keeps the alive factor that he has where he does a few chases and he has a few brutal kills (that was actually pretty disgusting).

Although, none of Friday the 13ths are great movie masterpieces in any way, they do always promise some form of fun.  So far, I’d have to say that the first one was the most dull to watch.  This one is pretty entertaining 🙂 We all know it doesn’t end with this one, so obviously, our journey into the Friday the 13th series continues.  These are feeling a little formulaic though and when I’m looking for pictures, I get confused which character belongs to which one.

My Weekly Adventures!

Sitting around looking back at the past week, its been consumed with my house, boyfriend, horror movie marathon, catching up on TV and writing posts and of course, work.  Time is really a scarce resource, my friends.

Still, I’ve learned a few thing this week even if its not even having to step out of my neighborhood 😉

Lets see what I’ve been up to, right?

1) Marathoning at the max!

October Halloween Horror month is what set off the blog in 2012 and its what motivates.  I know that a lot of you are interested in this genre so every year I try to up my game.  This weekend I had some crazy motivation and got through 4 films in the rundown.  I know, I know, a deserve a pat on the back.  Wait until you see what else I got done 😉

The movies were interesting to say the least.  I already posted up the Friday 13th Part 2 review this morning.  I pretty much have one more movie to watch to complete this week.  Although, I’m actually thinking about whether to do a few weekend reviews or just do a few double review days.  I usually try to avoid weekends since the posts never are popular because we’re all generally busy with our own lives.

2) TV time!

Who’d have thought after watching so many movies, I’d still have time for TV, right? Well, yeah, sacrificing sleep or just pure insomnia week is where I’m at.  So I’m finishing up Arrow Season 2. I only have maybe 5-7 episodes to go which should be land me right in time for Wednesday for Season 3.

 

Other than that, I started Vampire Diaries Season 6.  Its interesting to say the least.  From how Season 5 ended, I figured everyone would be yet again grieving in their own separate ways (and this time, its pretty literal). I’m not a hard audience to please when it comes to Vampire Diaries so I was relatively happy with it.  I do hope that things intensify gradually because I can see things getting a lot worse before they get better as is always the case with Vampire Diaries 😉

I do intend on eventually checking out How to Get Away With Murder and Gotham. Before that, I’m going to work on Arrow 😉

3) House: New Lights

One of the biggest successes this week is finally having the basement done. Its just having my two DVD shelves over and arranging all the stuff into it but in general, its painted, the new wall lights (from Rona) were installed, trimmings done, furniture arranged and even bought a floor lamp (from IKEA) to help with lighting up the room a little.  Its feels pretty good to know that almost everything is in place for the basement.  I even managed to rearrange the storage in shelves and started putting a video games away.  Its rewarding to look at the basement and be pleased that its finally coming around.

Only one more room to do and thats the kitchen.  Along with my furniture to come in and a bunch of organization but its definitely coming along nicely 🙂

4) House: Cabinet decoration

Things are slowly coming out of the boxes and my room is looking more and more empty as things are boxed up at my  new place.  The first floor is technically done safe for what I mentioned before, organization.  Now that the garden is all transplanted with a few little decisions left and a whole lot of leaves raking, I was indoors taking care of pulling things out.  IKEA had a lovely sale on a glass cabinet and we bought that a few weeks ago so I couldn’t leave it so sad and empty in its corner.  Here’s how it turned out:

Yup, thats a Yuna from Final Fantasy on the top and yes, those are the original My Little Ponies at the bottom. Nothing is extremely valuable as in I’ll be able to sell it off and get back a lot of money but its valuable because of the memories it holds whether from person who I got it from, the travels or just parts of my life 🙂 Its not exactly done but I think its 90% there.

5) Yummy Lamb Chops

The weather gets cooler and my mom loves to make lamb.  Sunday night, she made lamb chops and they were absolutely delicious.  🙂

6) Cat Napping Time

Let me introduce you to a Saturday morning at 8:30am (because we all wake up at 7am to feed my cat), especially after a few late evenings away from home during the week.  The result is not only being waken up brutally early on Saturday morning but that when I crawl back into bed, she’ll finish eating and then comes back for her morning nap and usually is her obstructing me from getting up.  Apparently my blanket covered legs are extremely comfortable to sleep on.

7) Music!

There’s really nothing else that happened other than those little things so how about to end things off with some music that I love this week 🙂

Daniel de Bourg is an independent artist and this new single is awesome! 🙂 Plus, when in doubt, Jason Mraz is a sure fire 😉

How was your past week? TV? Horror marathon also? Any Halloween traditions? Also going through home renovations?

Happy Monday, my lovelies! 🙂

Halloween Marathon: Friday the 13th (1980)

We’re getting down to business! The first movie of our main feature: Friday the 13th! I’ve only ever seen Part 2 of the franchise so I have a general idea of this first one is about because my boyfriend told me a bit about how it all starts before.  I’m not exactly sure I was a huge fan of Friday the 13th but if its held up for 12 movies, it must have some redeeming features 😉 Lets see how it all started!

Director: Sean S. Cunningham

Cast: Betsy Palmer, Robbi Morgan, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Kevin Bacon, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson

Camp Crystal Lake has been closed for a few years after a boy drowned followed by murders that occurred on the land.  However, ignoring the rumors that its cursed, it is about to be reopened.  Two more weeks before the camp officially opens, the teenage counsellors arrive to the camp site to help set up the final arrangements. Right before a heavy rain storm hits, they realize that one by one they are attacked and murdered.

I always find it hard to review these “classic ” horrors.  You can’t really use the same set of expectations.  Friday the 13th is different from the Halloween series.  Maybe its because it hasn’t held up with the years thats gone by since then but it doesn’t seem to pack the same punch as the other did.  However, thats not saying that it wasn’t good.

Friday the 13th uses clever camera work to never show who is the person doing all the killing. When that creepy moment shows up, it cues the repeated double note background sound effects and the camera follows the characters like its someone spying or creeping up on them.  At the same time, as the movie goes along, there is some interaction with the mystery killer before they are killed and also shows that its someone unknown but doesn’t look threatening either.  Aren’t those the scariest types?  Thats only sometimes, because it also pulls out to have a third person view also.  One of the big moments was seeing Kevin Bacon show up on screen and being shocked to see that he was involved in this.

I do have to admit that I expected a lot more from Friday the 13th.  I really don’t know why.  Maybe its because Halloween was so awesome.  Sure, the music had me a little creeped out at times but for the most part, it was pretty predictable.  You could tell when it would be a fake scare and when it was going to be the real deal.  The only question was where that killer would pop out from and how they’d do the killing.  The cast wasn’t that great.  I do have to say that some kills were a little shocking.  The beginning of Friday the 13th was underwhelming but okay.  It started to drag a little bit but it injected enough creepy moments to keep me awake and alert.  The best part is the finishing act once the killer reveals themselves.  I’m all about spoiler free here but I’m sure the majority of you already know who it is.  Now that was full on nutso and then with the final bit and the crazy twist.  Now that really made me forget all the meh parts in the beginning.

Overall, Friday the 13th was good.  It wasn’t quite what I expected when it first started but it did end brilliantly.  Sometimes, endings do make up for the beginning and I think it applies to here.  They had a good eerie creepy setting and for the most part, with the double note sounds it worked well to create the right atmosphere.  Although the cast isn’t anything special, even if I was surprised by Kevin Bacon’s appearance, its an good start to the series.

I have seen Part 2 but I’ll still have to rewatch it to refresh my memory.

Have you seen Friday the 13th? What do you think of it? Does it have some nostalgia moments for you? 

My Weekly Adventures (plus a final callout for votes)

Welcome back to my weekly adventures! Its been refreshing to not have to waste my brain cells on writing some smart title because I really never have any stuff. Not that talented in that area 😉

This week’s adventures are really not quite adventurous and I really had to strive to find what to do for this.

We’ll do this day by day and step by step.

1) Girls Movie Night

On Tuesday  night, I went with my girl friends to go see The Maze Runner.  I miraculously managed to get the review up the next day.  If you happened to have missed it, please head over HERE to check it out if it interests you 😉

2) Montreal Comic-Con Tee Turtle Shirt came in!

Ghibli characters crossing the street? Enough said, no?

3) Vampire Diaries Season 5

On Friday night, I came home to wrap up the last two episodes of Season 5.  Although the first few episodes of the fifth season was a bit slow, it does pick up relatively fast.   The season finale has me looking forward to Season 6.  Plus, it gave me a pretty weepy evening when I couldn’t help but shed a few emotional tears with that somewhat dramatic ending. Cliffhanger season finales are just so great but just so frustrating also.

Next season is starting Oct. 2nd (I think) and you bet that I’m going to be catching that episode whether its on TV or the day after streaming on CTV (Canadian channel when I only have bunny ears).

4) Afternoon Date with my Boyfriend

Our Tuango coupon deal was going to expire at the end of September so we used Saturday afternoon to go on a little trip to downtown and visited one of the newer museums.  What the museum is? Can you guess with the picture on top?

I’ll be posting up on that tomorrow once I have time to sit down and sort through the pictures tonight 🙂

5) Getting started on watching the Halloween Movie Marathon

With the extensive series of Friday the 13th being the main feature, my boyfriend and I have started watching the Halloween movies this year.  Only the main feature ones for now.  How far I am? Well, I’m not going to dive into those details but once October starts, I’ll have my reviews up. I have a general run down set from the current results.  I’m taking the top 3-5 movies in each category in the voting polls that I had up 2 weeks or so ago.

With that said, as relentless as this sounds, FINAL CALL OUT for the voting on Halloween movie marathon! Tomorrow is the last day! 🙂

If you didn’t vote and would love to participate or just help a girl out or voice your opinion, head on over HERE!

If you already did, thank you so very much! You’ve just chosen the movies I’m going to watch for Halloween and I really hope that your choices get picked.  If there is any particular ones you’d like me to look at, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll make sure to add it to the marathon or the next recommendations month 😉

ALSO, as a bonus,  I’m planning on going to see some horror movies in the theatres. There’s a few I’m interested in but I’m going to need my boyfriend to go with me so he has the final decision in these situations.  Lets hope it happens 😉

6) Water and Transportation support for Oasis Half-Marathoners!

It was the real deal yesterday for my friends.  I woke up bright and early to take 3 of them to their 10K/half marathon.  I spent another hour and a half navigating through all the closed roads.  Thank you to my phone GPS, I managed to figure and regroup and finally found a parking spot. Then proceeded to wait for them to get back.

Everyone did great times and some had their personal high.  Plus, they all got a bonus with the run with a free beer.  They were all tired but extremely proud, I’d have to say 🙂

I’m not much of a runner but there are times, I do consider training to attempt a 10K.  Who knows? Maybe one day I will.

7) Painting almost done!

Our basement is completely done painting. Its looking pretty joyful and colorful, which is good because its also extremely dark already. The lighting is bad here but the walls are mint green 🙂 I think it turned out lovely. While I was busy with helping friends out, my boyfriend was hard at work. That leads us to my next point…

8) Gardening progress!

Sunday was indeed a busy day and it took a lot to keep going. I came back and had lunch and eventually got back to my place to continue the gardening.  I actually drafted out the yard setup in my notebook to know how to proceed. A few things were accomplished after that.

Raspberry plant in the ground

Crimson Star moved and Spring bulbs planted

My side plot is getting most of my attention.  You can see the green leafy plant next to chrysanthemums and thats the crimson star.  It flowers in summer.  Also, right next to it, with all the black top soil is spring bulbs.  I’m not sure if I planted them too deep, so we’ll see in Spring 2015, right? Thats just the first phase.

I’m clearing out some plants and making them smaller in the front yard so I can keep planting more bulbs.  My yard is mega depressing in spring on the flowers front so I’m seeing to it that next year, it’ll be different 😉

9) Planning for some Changes

Its a bit early to talk about it and life’s been really kind of taking a front seat over the blog(s).  Between the house and getting anything on Tranquil Dreams, its taking me forever to get some write-ups to other bloggers that I said I would.  That makes me feel pretty bad so I’m going to be working on those ASAP. If I owe you anything for any blogathon/series, I promise you, they will get there soon. I’m a bit fuzzy on deadlines right now but I’m trying to get them in.

Surprising fact is that my brain loves to overwhelm itself even more as I try to organize myself.  I think it just likes to be in constant chaos.  What do I mean? Somehow, I’m inspired for a few tweaks for the blog, which I’m sorting out the little bits and pieces to launch for next year.  Perhaps, I’m playing around with a rating system, a long term project and I’m deciding when that new segment, Crush of the Week/Month should launch. I’m just debating if it should be weekly or monthly. 

10) Ending these adventures off with some music…

You thought it’d never end, right? Well, I like to end in style and here we are. The first is a little piece from The Piano Guys called Batman Evolution.  The score arrangement is pretty genius!

Second, its a song I recently heard on the radio: Wanderlust by The Weeknd.  It has a nice beat 🙂

Thats it for this week’s adventures! 🙂

How was your weekend? What series are you watching? Anyone also closing up their gardens before the frost arrives? Any music addictions lately? 

HAPPY MONDAY, MY LOVELIES! 🙂