Just Finished Reading: The Fall

I have been without working internet for the past three weeks, so that is the reason for the lack of posts. Over my Christmas vacation I read three different books, with the first beeing The Fall, the second book in the interesting Del Toro/ Hogan vampire trilogy. With this book we get more creepy vampires with their long stingers coming out of their mouths. The most interesting character in these books is Setrakian, an old vampire hunter. In my mind I picture him as Christopher Plummer. It was cool learning more of his backstory in this book. This book also ended with a bit of a cliffhanger with Eph's ex-wife (who is now a vampire) having his son... I guess I'll have to read the third book to find out what happens next...

My Review: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

A part of me wonders if this would have been better if Guillermo Del Toro directed this movie as well as writing and producing it. I was super excited to see this movie. The trailer scared the shit out of me when I saw it, so I thought that this movie was going to be terrifying! It really wasn't though, and I know exactly why! CGI CREATURES ARE NOT SCARY!!!! I understand the need to use CGI in this movie because the creatures are all tiny and fast. The problem is that they show them waaaayyy too much. When it is absolutely necessary to make your monsters CGI, you just have to keep them in the shadows! I mean, when you see little animated creatures walking around it just looks rediculous. The only part that made me scream was the exact part that I screamed at in the trailer, when she is under the sheets and one pops out. I also think that there were too many voices. There were tons of those things talking at the same time, and I think that it would be creepier (and easier to understand!) if there was just one. It was annoying because my mom kept leaning over and asking what they were saying. Just so I'm not completely shitting on this movie, I must say that I thought the ending was kind of neat. It wasn't really what I was expecting, so I'll give it that. Usually Katie Holmes kind of bugs me, but I actually kind of like her in this movie, and I thought that Bailee Madison was great. I swear I've never seen her in anything where she isn't crying. My rating: 4/10

Just Finished Reading: The Strain

I got this book for Christmas and I finally got around to reading it. I have read a lot of vampire novels, and I must say that this one was pretty cool. I would expect nothing less from Guillermo Del Toro who has made some amazing films, including his vampire film Cronos. In this book, which he wrote with Chuck Hogan, a plane lands and all of the passengers aboard are mysteriously found dead. It turns out that they have all been turned into vampires, so their corpses escape and wreak havoc in the city of New York. These vampires have white blood and these gross stingers that come out from under their tongue. Overall, they sound pretty gross. The Strain is almost 600 pages, but it is a pretty easy read. It is a really interesting story, and I am super excited to read the second book.

Spotlight On: Guillermo del Toro

This week's spotlight is on one of my favorite directors, Guillermo del Toro. I have only seen five of his movies, but I loved all of them. All of his movies have such great visual style, and all have really beautiful elements to them. They are all really unique and interesting to watch, and just keep getting better and better with more views. Also, I really love listening to him talk. He has the best voice, and I love hearing him talk about film, whether they be his films or other films. Anyways, here are the films of his that I have seen and that everyone else should see too.

Cronos

Cronos has to be one of the most interesting vampire films I have ever seen. It is about a little bug-like device that turns this old man into a vampire. You see a lot of bugs and machinery in Guillermo del Toro's movies, and this is a perfect example of that. When I first saw this movie, I had no idea what it was about, so I was really surprised when it turned out to be a vampire story. I think that that is what makes the story so interesting. The vampire element is more subtle and not so in your face like most vampire films. This film makes me really curious to read Guillermo del Toro's vampire books. I have the first one in the series, but I haven't read it yet and look forward to reading it soon. If they are anything like this story, they should be amazing.


The Devil's Backbone

This is one of my favorite ghost stories. It takes place at an orphanage in Spain, and is both chilling and quite beautiful at the same time. I love the look of the little ghost boy and how, since he drowned, he looks like he is in water the whole time, with blood flowing upward from his body. I've always been a huge fan of ghost stories, and i think that this is one of the best ones that I have seen.




Here is a video from Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments...there a cool part about The Wolfman, which is another of my favorite films, but at around 10:45 in the video they talk about The Devil's Backbone.



Hellboy

 I remember when I first saw the trailer for this movie I just went "WOW!" I wasn't  familiar with the Hellboy comics, so I had never heard of this character before, but the combination of the awesome visuals and John Hurt's great voice in the trailer just made me instantly want to see it. I believe that this was the first Guillermo del Toro movie I have ever seen and it is one of my favorite superhero movies.



Pan's Labyrinth

Being more of a sci fi girl, I have never been a huge fan of fantasy films. But when it is a Guillermo del Toro fantasy film, like Pan's Labyrinth or the Hellboy series, you know that it isn't cheesy or rediculous, but is beautiful and awe-inspiring. The first time I saw this movie I was just amazed by everything I was seeing. It combines this rather violent war-time storyline with this fantastical fairy tale story line and it is just an amazing film. My favorite part is probably the part with the Pale Man.



Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Most superhero sequels are pretty shitty, or at least not nearly as good as the originals, but for Hellboy II, this is not the cast at all. I love this film! I dare say that it is even slightly better than the original. My only complaint is that John Hurt died in the first one, so he is only in this one for the very beginning. This films has a great storyline, and fucking amazing creatures. Every single creature in this movie is cool as hell!



Also, I'm a big fan of Family Guy, so I was really happy when I found out that Seth McFarlane does the voice of Johann Krauss.



Future Projects: Okay, so stupid dumb ass Universal dropped out of financing his film At the Mountains of Madness because he wanted to make it an R-rated film. Hopefully, he'll find someone else to finance it, because it has been way too long since del Toro has had a movie come out. I mean, Hellboy 2 was three years ago!!! Anyways, he is also supposed to be directing a new adaptation of Frankenstein, with Doug Jones playing the creature. I have know idea when that is supposed to be coming out, or if it is even being made anymore, but this is a film that I would really love to see get made. So PLEASE Mr. del Toro, pick a project and start already!!!!

And just because I love listening to him speak, here is a really cool video I found of him listing his favorite ghost stories...

Spotlight On: Doug Jones

This week's spotlight is on the greatest creature actor of our time, Doug Jones. While there is a chance that you do not recognize his face, you will more than likely recognize at least one of his characters. He is probably most well-known for the work he has done with Guillermo del Toro, but he has worked on several other really cool projects. He has worked on several movies/ TV shows/ music videos, but here are my favorites of his roles going in chronological order.

Thin Clown

In 1992, Jones played the thin clown in Tim Burton's Batman Returns. Not a particularly big role, but still a really cool one in my opinion. He was part of Penguin's evil gang and help rewire the Batmobile.

Billy Butcherson

Hocus Pocus was one of my favorite movies when I was a little kid, and Billy Butcherson was always my favorite character. He is a zombie man that Winifred brings back from the dead to help attack the kids. Has a really cool look to him and Doug Jones does an amazing job. Here is the part of the movie where he is risen from the grave.




Ripper

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of the movie Tank girl. The one thing that I did like about the movie though, were the Rippers. I thought that they looked really neat, and one of them was played by Mr. Doug Jones.

Gentlemen Leader

This is one of his creepiest roles. He plays the leader of the Gentlemen in what is probably the most well-known Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, "Hush." Creepy. As. Hell. The creepiest thing about them is probably the fact that they don't speak and they just communicate to eachother by gestures, which is something that Doug Jones, being a creature actor, is perfect at.



Abe Sapien

This is probably the role that Doug Jones is identified with the most, and for good reason. He is perfect as Abe, and is one of the main reasons why the Hellboy movies are so great. In the first movie, David Hyde Pierce does the voice of Abe, but Jones does it in the sequel. I just love it because he really knows how to move when wearing a costume, and really makes the characters come alive.



Cesare

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is my favorite silent film, so I wasn't too pleased with the idea of a remake. When I read that Doug Jones played the somnambulist Cesare, however, I had to see it. Overall, the movie is not that great and has horrible acting, but I loved Jones as Cesare. There is other living person who could have played this part, or at least played it nearly as well as Doug Jones.



The Faun

He plays two creatures in Pan's Labyrinth, the first being the faun. "Soy un fauno." It is obviously not Jones' speaking voice, but the character is all him with the look and the movement of the creature.



The Pale Man

The Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth is probably my favorite of Doug Jones' characters simply because he is scary as hell. Like the Gentlemen, this creature says nothing, so the creepiness is all in the movements. Even the way his hands movie is creepy, and when he started running after Ofelia, I thought I was going to have a heart attack.



Silver Surfer

Laurence Fishburne did the voice of the Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, but again Doug Jones owns this character. To be honest, I have never actually seen this movie, but from what clips I have seen the whole movie looks pretty stupid. Jones as the Silver Surfer would be my only reason to watch.



Chamberlain

In Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Jones reprises his role as Abe Sapien and also plays two other characters. The first of the other two is the Chamberlain. He is this really odd looking creature with these really long fingers, and I think that it takes a really great creature actor to make a character like this work.

Angel of Death

God damn, how cool would it be to be Doug Jones and to be able to wear all of these amazing costumes and makeup? The Angel of Death in Hellboy 2 just looks amazing!

Ice Cream Man

I have absolutely no desire to see the movie Legion. When the CGI old woman crawled on the wall in the trailer, I was just like, "NOPE!" I just thought that this was worth mentioning because it is such a strange character. In the trailer you see all his arms stretch and his face gets all long. I mean, its a neat role for Jones, but this movie just looks stupid to me. On a plus, though, it is actually a movie where you see Doug's actual face...



The Creature

Now I am just waiting patiently for Guillermo del Toro's adaption of Frankenstein, which is supposedly coming out in 2012. Doug Jones will be playing the Creature, aka Frankenstein's monster. According to del Toro, the look of the creature will be based on Bernie Wrightson's artwork, so Doug should be a perfect choice. Can't wait!

Just Finished Reading: Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus 1818 text

I just finished rereading this book for my Women Writers class. We had to write a literary analysis on a novel of our choice, so of course I chose Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This is one of my absolute favorite stories, and I never get tired of reading this book. It has fantastic elements of science fiction and horror, but is also quite beautiful and heartbreaking. In my literary analysis I wrote about the themes of love, revenge, and the consequences of trying to play god. It was actually pretty easy for me to write and I ended up writing a lot more than I needed to. Well, to be fair, she said that it had to be five pages, but she didn't say that it had to be double spaced. So, I have five pages of single spaced, which is way longer than it needed to be but, whatever, I think that I wrote a good literary analysis.
I am somewhat obsessed with the Frankenstein story. I love the story of how it first came to existance with Percy Shelley and Lord Byron telling horror stories with Mary Shelley. I have loved most of the film adaptions that I have seen (my favorite being Bride of Frankenstein,) and I am super excited for the new adaption being made by Guillermo del Toro with Doug Jones as the creature.

My Christmas Gifts

Yesterday was Christmas, and this year I got some pretty neat gifts...Here is a list of what I got in chronological order...

From my roommate: I came home on the 20th after my last final, and a day or two before I got a gift from one of my roommates.

I was really excited about this gift because, for one, I had no idea that he was going to buy me something, and two, it was really thoughtful. He knew that I had 101 Horror Movies You Must See Before You Die, and the Sci Fi one as well, so it was really cool that he thought to get this for me. I counted, and I've only seen a little over 1/5 of the titles in this book, so I've got a long way to go.

From my Grandma Rose: We always have Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the family, and my Grandma usually gets me a Wal Mart gift card, but this year she gave me $30 in cash. Money is always an awesome gift.

From my parents: I got a set of purple mittens and a winter hat, plus two books and two DVDs...

The above three were on my Christmas list, and they also got me this (probably because it was really cheap...)

I already have the first Austin Powers DVD, but I do not have the second two, so I'll definitely watch this...

From my great aunt: a pajama set...looks really comfy...

From younger sister: a black shirt from The Buckle. A little flashy for my style, but I'm not one to pass up free clothes, and its actually pretty cute.

From twins: A bathroom kit with loofa, body wash, shaving stuff

From older sister: Gift card to Borders....awesome!

From my cousin: Instead of getting gifts for everyone, we have drawing to get someone a gift. My cousin Justin got my name, so that means that my Grandma Frenchi picked it out....

So, overall I got some pretty good gifts this year. I finally have the entire Sin City series now. I've been avoiding buying the last book because it costs so much more than all the rest of them. Plus, I got Psycho and The Shining, two of my favorite movies, and I've really been curious about Guillermo Del Toro's book The Strain. It should be really good.