Core2Duoノートレビュー 's review (Otherwise forgettable 80's horror flick with an honorable mention) 『When shifting through the sheer number of cruddy 80's horror flicks, every now and then you'll find a forgotten gem or two. 976-Evil is not one of them to be sure, but it does have one honorable mention that makes it worth seeing on its own. That honorable mention is that the film is directed by none other than Robert "Freddy Kruger" Englund, who does manage to inject a little bit of creativity into this otherwise forgettable horror flick. Fright Night's Stephen Geoffreys stars as a nerd who calls up a hotline said to give out a "horrorscope", and soon enough finds himself taking on a demonic form and striking back at everyone he can, including the high school bullies and his uber-Christian mother. It's up to his cool biker cousin Spike (Patrick O'Bryan) and a private detective (Jim Metzler) to take him down, which results in some fairly anticlimactic moments of bloody violence. There are some decent makeup effects to be found, and the script is from future Oscar winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland, but as a whole, 976-Evil fails thanks to some horrible acting and overall cheesy effects. All in all, 976-Evil is an otherwise forgettable 80's horror flick that is only worth seeing based on the fact that Robert Englund directed it. Other than that though, there isn't much that you're missing here.』
(Have you tried nerd love?) 『I love this movie. I remember watching it back in the day when it was shown on Up All Night hosted by Rhonda Shearer (remember that show?) But I haven't seen the movie in ages. The other day I was looking for something to watch on the old b00b tube and found "976-EVIL" available on-demand. There was a sequel to the movie that came out a few years after this one (that Patrick O'Bryan was in) and there is talk of an all-new remake, as well.
The movie is directed by everyone's favorite keeper of sweet dreams, none other than Mr. Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund. And surprisingly the movie wasn't nearly as gorey as one might think with a talented director like this. Instead there were many sensitive and reflective scenes that are almost never in horror pictures. But truth be told "976-EVIL" is hardly a classic horror film. This isn't a movie that's gonna cause you to piss your pants, unless you piss from laughing too hard. But that's OK too because sometimes a good laugh is just as important as a good scare.
The first half of the movie centered around rebel without a cause Spike (portrayed by '80s b-movie actor Patrick O'Bryan). We see Spike loose a hand of poker to his scummy friends. We see Spike threaten his kooky born-again Christian aunt Lucy (played by the late Academy Award winner, Sandy Dennis). We see Spike defend the honor of his nerdy cousin Hoax (you gotta love that name) (played by Stephen Geoffreys) when the boys in the bathroom try to flush his head down the commode. And we even get treated to a brief sex-session between Spike and his blonde nymph girlfriend Suzie (Lezlie Deane) who thinks nothing of putting on Spike's tighty wighties. Spike also calls some ludicrous horoscope hotline but since he's not a total geek doesn't have much interest in it.
During the second half of the movie we see a lot more of the progressively less geeky Hoax. When he starts calling the hotline his luck starts to change, he even starts to grow hair on his chest too! I love the part when Hoax took revenge on the guys who effed with him when he was just a lowly nerd. I suppose if they'd known who they were messing with they wouldn't have roughed him up so hard. Then he gets revenge on his crazy mom who spends all her time watching the PTL and stroking her playful pussie.
The movie also includes many great lines, such as when Hoax said to Spike, "hell finally froze over cousin." I also like the complete and total b-movie feel of the entire movie. It was like a throwback to the great pictures of the '60s because all of the special effects were so fake-looking. I suppose that had more to do with the budget but it was still funny.
I really like the transformation that both of the cousins went through because it was a total 3-60. It wasn't just Hoax. Spike wasn't the same person because it was almost like their roles were reversed. Although Hoax kinda resembled Marty McFly he was certainly the more brazen of the 2 because he had the balls to make all of his dreams come true (hell really did freeze over). The moral of the movie is not to call too many pay phone lines, unless you're some geeky kid from the '80s who doesn't have anything better to do.
』
(Bad Transfer And Scenes Missing!!) 『This DVD is well below the decent quality standard mark. Short scenes and shots are missing or have been omitted for some strange reason and the aspect ratio is completely incorrect. I hope someday someone fix these problems with a correct re-release. The version I'm reviewing is the Sony Pictures release.』
(Guess what cousin HELL finally froze over!!!) 『THIS MOVIE WAS GOOD.I WAS KINDA IFFY ABOUT GETTIN IT,BUT I DID.AND IT WAS GOOD.』
(0 STARS: Revenge of the satanic Nerd.) 『Ostensibly, "976-Evil" sounded like a good concept to me. Calling satan on the telephone for favors sounds kind of creepy to me, especially with the obvious evil strings attached to it, but this movie fails to execute it properly. While watching "976-Evil", I realized early on that the creators of this flick had butchered what COULD have been a decent plan for a horror flick. In the same mold as "Carrie" (although obviously not near as good of a movie), "976-Evil" is about a nerd who gets picked on relentlessly by some bullies at school, but when the nerd (played well by Stephen Geoffreys) calls 976-Evil, he gets evil or what the creators of the movie would like you to believe is evil and he gets back at the bullies. This movie is rather poorly acted except for Geoffreys, whom, while obnoxious for sure, seems to have nailed down the dorky nerd guy role pretty well. The problem with "976-Evil" is that it is too focused on the nerd getting back at the bullies and, consequently, does a terribly pathetic job at presenting the "evil" theme this movie half-heartedly tries to relate to the audience. As a result, what you have in "976-Evil" is your typical teenaged revenge flick erroneously portrayed as a horror movie when in reality the horror is obviously secondary to the revenge of the nerd theme. There really are NO likeable characters in this nonsense, but I particularly disliked the pathetic loser character named Spike...what a dork! Ultimately, "976-Evil" comes off looking like the total joke that it is and has absolutely nothing to offer the serious horror movie fan.』
Core2Duoノートレビュー 's review (NO TRIFFIDS) 『No Day of the Triffids in my set, as well.Was very disappointed as it would have been a great set. May send it back. I gave it 5 stars for Little Shop of Horrors and Graveyard Tramps. TO NOTE:Looking at all of the other reviews...all this time has passed and ,yet, no change has been made in the title』
(Not as advertised) 『Bought this title to see Triffids, but Triffids was NOT included. What a disappointment.
』
(Great independant film) 『This film is early 80's sci-fi. It appears to be an independent film of low budget. Their is one scene early on where a cow has been killed by something unseen and when wild dogs are eating it one of them gets sucked into the cow. This is the only exciting scene, everything else is very plain. The story continues on to explain of alien DNA found on the moon was being tested in space on lab animals. The satellite falls to earth crashing in Spain. Over a years time they experiment on the alien DNA until it gets loose and starts killing of the residents of a small town deep in Spain. The movie spends most of the time on useless chatter and rarely gets into exciting dialogue. At the conclusion only a few escape the town moments before an air strike believing they are free from the alien virus and incineration, only to find out they were wrong. The alien kills a store clerk. The film ends there and its up to you to imagine the outcome.』
(No Triffids) 『This collection does not include the movie "Day of the Triffids" despite what the title says. I sent it back.』
(What the...?) 『Okay, there's been a BIG mix up here. Well, maybe not so big in the grand scheme of things, but if you followed the DVD link from the imdb page for the film "Alien Predator", which stars Dennis Christopher and...other people, to this Amazon page, DO NOT PURCHASE THIS. Even though Amazon lists the details (cast, crew, etc.) as being that of the classic "Alien Predator", the actual product this page is selling is a boxed set containing 'Day of the Triffids', 'Graveyard Tramps', 'Track of the Moon Beast (featuring a man named Johnny Longbone), and the classic 'Little Shop of Horrors', NOT included in this box set, which is collectively titled "Alien Predators", is the actual FILM "Alien Predator". Buyer beware.
On that note, "Alien Predators" is a cool little b-horror movie, and it would be nice to actual see it on DVD. Although you'd laugh your way through most of it, there are actually a few scenes that are kinda' creepy.』
Core2Duoノートレビュー 's review (Reggie and his super ponytail are back for roud 4 with the Tall Man) 『Now that Sid's been on the horror movie kick for October it was only fitting that we finally complete the Phantasm series. Which mind you has just been getting better and better. Well maybe not better in storyline but better in the B factor, which is a huge must for us. With a fourth installment it's still so evident there is no stopping the Tall Man. This son of a b***h is ice cold. Never using a knife, machete, chainsaw, or any other slasher device the Tall Man is able to tear anyone apart simply with mind control and silver orbs. This guy is certainly something out of a nightmare and someone Sid would never want to cross paths with.
Phantasm IV picks up where the III left off as Mike, who's looking a bit older, is cruising around in the Tall Man's hearse while Reggie is being held by a bunch of the silver orbs. For some reason the Tall Man lets Reggie go while Mike continues on some bizarre spiritual journey packed with flashbacks. As the film moves forward Reggie (Clint Howard stunt double) proves to be the star of the show as always. The combination of hilariously awful one liners, bald head with mullet style ponytail, and newly found Predator style gun makes Reggie a man whose certain to pick up a Woody Award this year. As the film rolls on there is a lot of the same style action with dwarfs and silver obs with more flashbacks, and another great situation as Reggie tries to score failing miserably. Finally once Reggie and Mike team back up toward the end they come to discover that not even the sweetest hearse explosion can eliminate the Tall Man. It appears he will be an unstoppable force, much like Chuck Norris, for eternity.
So needless to say Phantasm IV is a 5 can event as far as Sid's concerned. No it isn't the best in the series, but it's still the Tall Man. Even though each film has almost the exact same premise you just have to love them for what they are. It's the vintage 90's style b horror we have come to love. In addition to being packed with laughs and enjoyment it also takes us back to that time in life when everything was simply the best. It just reminds Sid of those great nights hanging with Santa watching movies and eating way too much. A film like this should always be done on a crisp fall evening, with a couple windows opened, and 3 great buddies. So on that note this could only be close out one way, with the Drive-In Totals:
7 zombie dwarfs shot dead Reggie style
39 brain drilling silver orbs
orb drilled through Reggie's hand
zombie cop from hell
2 explosions, 1 in attempt to kill Tall Man
9 Reggie-tough one liners
Proof that the Tall Man cannot be killed, so when will #5 happen?
』
(Everything it should be and more) 『PHANTASM IV may actually be my favorite film in the series. It deserves a great DVD release and it gets one from Anchor Bay. While the quality of the anamorphic transfer and 5.1 soundmix seems identical to the previous MGM edition, the treasure here lies in the extras that are included on this DVD. There is a highly informative commentary track from Don Coscarelli, Reggie Banister and Angus Scrimm. There are trailers for the first and third films as well as a great promo trailer for part 4 (vastly different from the "trailer" included on the MGM version). There is some great behind the scenes footage that shows how sphere effects were accomplished as well as Bob Ivy's amazing fire stunts. The new cover art for this release is probably my favorite cover art for any edition of any PHANTASM film and a card reproducing it is included inside the case with chapter titles printed on the reverse. This film is such an amazing and appropriate conclusion to this epic story and Anchor Bay has given it a very satisfying release on DVD. It's a huge improvment over the previous edition and certainly worth adding to your collection.』
(outsanding) 『hay amizon i like the forth fantasm then i did the third i thout it had alittle more action in it』
(About 50% old material from the First Film!) 『The Phantasm film series has always been a somewhat unsettling for a few reasons...Ffrst, Angus Scrimm as the sinister "Tall Man" is one of horror's more interesting villains. He doesn't need a butcher knife or an axe to be intimidating; he's just as effective with his menacing glare. Second, the series truly defies explanation. Does anyone really know what in the hell is going on in these films? Director/Writer Don Coscarelli is either a genius or a lunatic. The original cast is all back including Scrimm along with A. Michael Baldwin (Mike) Reggie Bannister (Reggie) and Bill Thornbury (Jody).
Phantasm IV Oblivion gets a new release with bonus features courtesy of Anchor Bay. It promises to answer some of the series' questions but ends up opening up more mysteries than it solves. The film was made on a miniscule budget of $650.000, and trust me, it shows. A good one-third of the film is told in flashbacks using footage that was cut from the first Phantasm film in 1979. I suppose that's one way to lower the production costs but none of these flashbacks does anything to forward the plot of this film. Mainly we see Mike back as a 13 year-old, sneaking on to Reggie's ice cream truck, going to his brother's funeral, or cruising around with Reggie. The only flashback scene of any importance is when Jody and Mike lure the Tall Man into a noose and hang him from a tree. It doesn't kill him of course, it just makes him mad and he convinces Mike to cut him down by promising to leave and never come back. Yeah...we know how that turned out, don't we?
This Anchor Bay releases features an uncut version of the film. It opens right where Phantasm III ended with Mike fleeing in the Tall Man's hearse while Reggie is pinned to a wall by dozens of the silver spheres. The Tall Man, I guess showing his sporting side, just lets Reggie go, telling him it's not his time. Of course, soon after, Reggie is accosted by a demonic traffic cop as he goes after Mike. It's clear this scene was tossed in to give Reggie something to do and so he could deliver the snappy one-liner, "blow me!"
Eventually, the Hearse takes over and drives Mike out to a rocky desert area. Coscarelli has been accused of simply dressing up his evil dwarfs to look like Jawas. Perhaps as way to thumb his nose at his critics, he has the dwarfs crawling around the rocks and peeking as Mike walks around, just like the Jawas did in Star Wars. Up until this point, roughly halfway through, the film has basically consisted of Mike driving and having flashbacks, and Reggie driving after him and meeting another girl on the road who won't give him any action in the sack. Still, Reggie scenes are the best part of the film.
This is when the wheels come off big time. Mike and the Tall Man begin dimension hopping through those weird portals. Mike sees himself during the Civil War being operated on by the Tall Man. Maybe this was to establish how old the Tall Man is but we already knew this from the first film. We then see Mike sometime in the 1800's as the Tall Man introduces himself as Jebediah Morningside, a seemingly kindly old doctor or scientist. What happened to turn him evil? Or is the real Jebediah Morningside dead and the Tall Man is an alien using his form? Did he cross-over into some strange Hellish dimension? Mike talks about using the portals to go back in time and kill him before he turns evil but then nothing becomes of the idea.
What we ultimately learn, or at least confirm, is that the Tall Man can't be killed. Kill one body and another from a different time or dimension appears. Where's the conflict in that? We still don't find out what his true intentions are, what the silver spheres are, or why he wants Mike so badly. The Phantasm films have been entertaining but this one strictly looks like a money grab by Coscarelli. What also hurts the film is that much of action takes place outdoors, rather than in gloomy and creepy mortuaries. That atmosphere was a big part of the first three films and it is missing here.
Phantasm V is supposedly in production and due to come out in 2009. Is a new sequel going to fly thirty years after the original? Scrimm is now in his mid-80s and Reggie Bannister is 62! If we do indeed get a new film hopefully it will bring the series to an effective close, something Phantasm IV failed to do.
』
(A Complex, Compassionate, Perfect End to a Perfect Saga) 『**SPOILERS**
Phantasm IV just might be my favorite film of all time, and I'd like to explain why I adore it so much and feel that, in every sense, it IS a fitting end to the series, and that it leaves NO questions unanswered.
This series has always been a riddle, always an enigma, and the answers are as difficult to see when they're right in front of you as perhaps the destination of one of the Tall Man's dimensional forks.
I'm sure everyone has a theory of what was meant or implied by a lot of the events of Phantasm IV, and here's my personal take that I strongly believe in, so much so that when I watch part IV, it brings tears to my eyes, every time, without fail.
A lot of people get confused by the "contradictory" flashback scenes that depict different events than what happened in the original Phantasm.
Think about this...it IS true that the ending of Phantasm reveals that everything was just a bad dream, and that Jody died in a car wreck. But poor confused little Michael claims that everything felt so real...
Ten years later, his dream is proven a reality because the Tall Man is back, desecrating every town he travels through-he also kills Reggie's family. Reggie then believes Michael and the two team up and the rest of the series plays out rather linearly.
But...then how could everything have been a dream, if it all proved true? What....REALLY happened?
In part IV, Michael is not only beginning to understand everything about the Tall Man's origins, but about the CORRECT origins to his own connection to it all. It WAS a dream, but something ELSE happened. All the flashback footage we are shown in part IV finally reveals what REALLY happened when Michael first encountered the Tall Man. Everything else we saw in the original was either one of many parallel universes we've witnessed in the series, or merely a dream caused by the Tall Man affecting Michael's perception of reality.
So....Jody DID die in a car wreck, but we never LIVED that reality. It's this disconnection and robbery of Michael's memory of his brother that makes this series so effective in it's sense of loneliness and emotional loss.
Also, I believe that the girl from Phantasm II that Michael has a telepathic connection to is a result of this. She looks extremely similar to the granddaughter of the psychic from the original, and I believe, that if everything from part I WAS a dream, then he knew that girl from a separate dimension of reality, the reality we never knew, that is, until we saw glimpses of it in part IV.
The ending of part IV brings tears to my eyes. Reggie tears through the fabric of time, to journey back to where his personal journey with Mike began. Sitting together in the ice cream truck, they truly have traveled back in time, where they can relive the battle, only this time, armed with something more powerful than a four-barreled shotgun....knowledge.
They will continue this battle, most likely forever. Yet every time they come back to where they started, they will have learned more every time.
It is for this reason that I do not wish for a Phantasm V, no matter how much I adore this "phranchise". I have never held so much love and compassion for a series of films or a cast of characters as much as what I've seen in the Phantasm saga. I would love another journey with them, but, in my heart, I know that Reggie and Mike are still out there, traveling across endless dimensions, fighting the Tall Man for all eternity. They are the Yin and Yang, the Life and Death, of Space and Time. For one to give in to, or to destroy the other, would probably unravel the very fabric of all reality. Let's hope their fight never ends.
Thank you, Don, for giving us the most endearing, complex, and compassionate horror film saga that has ever been created. I will cherish these films until the day I die.
price：$14.99
Universal Studios
Usually ships in 24 hours Core2Duoノートレビュー 's review (The Best Mummy Movie Ever) 『T^his movie is the best Mummy movie ever made. This is an awesome movie. i love this film. I Recommend This Movie For Everyone』
(the mummy widescreen collection) 『Came very fast damage free kind of hate that shipping is 3 times what i paid for dvd』
(The Mummy is fun for all) 『Love "The Mummy",a great ride. Endless fun movie.So much fun,I had to get "The Return Of The Mummy". So you see the endless fun keeps going on&I hope the ride never ends.』
(Great service) 『The product was delivered earlier than I expected Great service And what I had ordered』
(Good film) 『This is still the best of the 3 mummy movies. I thought the film looked great in Blu-Ray. Very crisp and detailed. I always liked the chemistry between Rachel Weisz (one of my favorite actresses) and Brendan Fraser. The special effects throughout the film are very good. Sometimes the acting and script is a little too cheesy, and the John Hannah character can be very annoying (he plays Rachel Weisz' brother in the film), but the filmmakers were obviously going for the Indiana Jones "matinee" feel so it's forgivable. Not a great film but fun. I believe Rachel Weisz carries this film, however, and it wouldn't have worked without her.』 『Universal Remote Mummy (1999) (Blu-ray) Deep in the Egyptian desert, a handful of people searching for a long-lost treasure have just unearthed a 3,000-year-old legacy of terror. Combining the thrills of a rousingadventure with the suspense of the legendary 1932horror classic, "The Mummy" is a true non-stop action epic, filled with dazzling visual effects, top-notch talent and superb storytelling.』 『If you're expecting bandaged-wrapped corpses and a lurching Boris Karloff-type villain, then you've come to the wrong movie. But if outrageous effects, a hunky hero, and some hearty laughs are what you're looking for, the 1999 version ofThe Mummyis spectacularly good fun. Yes, the critics called it "hokey," "cheesy," and "pallid." Well, the critics are unjust. Granted, the plot tends to stray, the acting is a bit of a stretch, and the characters occasionally slip into cliché, but who cares? When that action gets going, hold tight--those two hours just fly by.
The premise of the movie isn't that far off from the original. Egyptologist and general mess Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) discovers a map to the lost city of Hamunaptra, and so she hires rogue Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) to lead her there. Once there, Evelyn accidentally unlocks the tomb of Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), a man who had been buried alive a couple of millennia ago with flesh-eating bugs as punishment for sleeping with the pharaoh's girlfriend. The ancient mummy is revived, and he is determined to bring his old love back to life, which of course means much mayhem (including the unleashing of the 10 plagues) and human sacrifice. Despite the rather gory premise, this movie is fairly tame in terms of violence; most of the magic and surprise come from the special effects, which are glorious to watch, although Imhotep, before being fully reconstituted, is, as one explorer puts it, rather "juicy." Keep in mind this film is as much comedy as it is adventure--those looking for a straightforward horror pic will be disappointed. But for those who want good old-fashioned eye-candy kind of fun,The Mummyranks as one of choicest flicks of 1999. --Jenny Brown』
price：$4.49
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Usually ships in 24 hours Core2Duoノートレビュー 's review (a chilling trip through the backwoods, Wrong Turn gets so much right . . .) 『Taking you deep into the West Virginia wilderness , director Rob Schmidt's vision of 70's style horror may not be startlingly original, but following a familiar path, Wrong Turn (2003) is a shocking and effective thriller, that contrary to the title, makes very few missteps.
Trying to avoid gridlocked traffic, Chris Flynn (Desmond Harrington) detours down a back road and rams his classic Mustang into a SUV, stranded in the middle of the road. The occupants, a party of five young friends are shaken, but unhurt. Flynn along with Jessie (Eliza Dushku), Scott (Jeremy Sisto), and his fiancé Carly (Emmanuelle Chriqui), head off looking for help, leaving Francine (Lindy Booth), and boyfriend Evan (Kevin Zegers) behind. As you might expect, it is not too long before some seriously bad things start to happen, as the terrified group encounters a group of grotesque mountain men, deformedby generations of inbreeding, for whom homicide is a way of life.
Making a break into the woods, the group is pursued by the freaks, who have deadly skills will a variety of weapons. The ensuing chase is highlighted by a suspenseful confrontation, high in the forest treetops, that features a jaw dropping kill. There isn't much down time as the film proceeds to a fiery finale. The mountain men are ferocious fighters, and die very hard. Created by the team of special effects genius Stan Winston (Terminator 2, Predator, Jurassic Park), the three principal freaks are designated according to their appearance, as One-Eye, Three Finger, and Saw-Tooth.
Wrong Turn takes a while to get going, but once things break open, the story flows pretty smoothly, with good pacing that provides shocks and thrills, all the way to the end. Accepting killer mountain men, is the major roadblock, in what is otherwise a pretty credible tale, that features some rather memorable kills. The acting is solid, and the story moves forward without being sidetracked or slowed by insipid dialog, or extraneous scenes.
This edition has been out for a while, and is a pretty solid package. The dual sided disc contains fullscreen and widescreen versions of the film, with various extra features spread on each side. A commentary track with Rob Schmidt, Eliza Dushku, and Desmond Harrington is available on both versions. The extras include featurettes on the late Stan Winston, Eliza Dushku, and the film's special effects. Wrong Turn is highly recommended to fans of the backwoods horror genre.』
("Horror At Its Absolute Best") 『I first discovered "Wrong Turn" when I was scanning through my TV late one night and saw it on a movie channel. I had never heard of it but read the info on my television guide and decided to give it a try. I am a sucker for a good scary film and I was not at all disappointed by "Wrong Turn". The film is about a bunch of young people in their early twenties whose car breaks down in the backwoods on a long deserted stretch of an abandoned road in West Virginia. What happens to them as the movie unfolds is horrific as these people come in contact with a bunch of in-breeders who feed off human beings. The scenes are excellently directed and acted, the action is bone-chilling, and the suspence of it all will leave you breathless. If your a fan of films like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Wrong Turn" will not let you down. This film, which was a huge boxoffice hit, was followed by "Wrong Turn 2" that was released directly to DVD. Also, just in time for Halloween, "Wrong Turn 3-Left For Dead" arrives in DVD stores in October, 2009. This particular DVD version of "Wrong Turn" features both the widescreen and full screen editions of the movie as well as many bonuses. There is commentary by director Rob Schmidt and its stars Desmond Harrington and Eliza Dushku, 4 featurettes are included on the making of the film, and much more.』
(unconvincing) 『I don't see how this film could have received such a high average rating.
To me everything about the film was unconvincing: the acting, the story, and the directing. There's a few gory scenes here and there, and a couple of scary moments, but that's about it. It's not consistent in keeping up the suspense, and the mystery surrounding the twisted killers is lost too early the film.
To me this film was just background noise, even in mediocre films there's often at least one factor that carries the film through: acting, story, directing...but this film has none of that. They pumped alot of money into the film and hired a well-known actor and actress, but they should have spent the money developing a more interesting script instead. I think that's the core of my complaints, it's just not interesting at all to watch, there's nothing that drew me into the film, and I didn't really care if the victims died.
There's been some good horror movies made in recent years such as Hostel, the House of Wax, and the new version of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre...but Wrong Turn is not of the same caliber as those. Even good horror movies need a good storyline. 』
(missing quality) 『Dvd was sent without the cover. in blank a cover ,this item description was not like that. very unhappy and dissapointed.』
(Very good and suspenceful) 『I really enjoyed this movie it was extremely suspenceful in parts and I was glued to the screen. The charaters where beliveable and well-developed and well acted particularly by Kevin Zegers and Eliza Dushku.
Two cars collide on a short cut road - ostensibly they both took a "wrong turn" to get there - so two of thm stay by the cars to watch their stuff while the others head off into the woods in search for help.
Little do they know that a family of inbred cannibal rednecks live nearby and begin hunting them diown and killing them off one-by-one.
The deaths scnes were pretty good and there was quite a bit of gore and A LOT of suspence. It really makes you care about the characters, too. In slasher movies in normally rooting for the killer bu theres was times when I felt like screaming "RUN!!" at the screen.
Looking at reviews this is a love-it-or-hate-it movie. I loved it and would deffinatly reccomend it.』 『Sultry Eliza Dushku runs for her life in a snug white tanktop, pursued by inbred backwoods cannibals inWrong Turn. Dushku (Bring It On,Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and a clump of other attractive young people (includingSix Feet Under's Jeremy Sisto and Desmond Harrington ofWe Were Soldiers) get waylaid in the deep West Virginia wilds by a trio of grotesque mountain men, all given realistic ugliness by makeup artist Stan Winston (Interview with the Vampire,Terminator 2).Wrong Turnis the sort of movie where you know who's going to die by the order they appear in the credits, but fans of the inbred backwoods cannibals genre (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,The Hills Have Eyes) will find much to savor, particularly the scene in which Dushku and Harrington are trapped under a squalid bed while the inbred backwoods cannibals prepare one of their friends for dinner. Grisly.--Bret Fetzer』 『A CARLOAD OF SIX TEENS FIND THEMSELVES TRAPPED IN THE WOODS OF WEST VIRGINIA, HUNTED DOWN BY CANNIBALISTIC MOUNTAIN MEN GROSSLY DISFIGURED THROUGH GENERATIONS OF IN-BREEDING.』
price：$9.99
Dimension
Usually ships in 24 hours Core2Duoノートレビュー 's review (what kind of a mask is that?!) 『6.8 THE FILM ITSELF 5.0 VISUALS 7.0 SOUND 6.0 PACKAGING 1.5 EXTRAS
What have they done to the Halloween franchise? From the cover alone, when I saw LL Cool J, I rolled my eyes. I know, I get it, you're trying to capitalize on his "fame" at the time and bring more teenagers to the theatres. But, the worst part is he has no impact on the film! His role is completely useless and he couldv'e been played by anyone else.
But back to the film. Obviously, as the title tells, this is 20 years after the the events of Halloween 2. The storyline is a bit shady and kind of clumsy in its execution and how it's put together, but most movie-goers won't notice what's different and what might not add up. But the film itself contains the usual: dumb characters, moments of above-average teenage dialogue (thank the writer here, he went on to create and write Dawson's Creek, which I love, but the dialogue isn't right for the age-group), the killer that never dies and the characters that do the same, and the life lesson at the end.
But the most horrific part of this film is the new mask they gave Michael. What a terrible idea, and whoever made it, okayed it, and allowed it and still didn't understand how horrible it looked should be fired immediately. Why do we see his eyes? Why does the mask fit so freaking tight? Why does it seem to show him smiling at times? And why can we see so much of his skin under his eyes?! You never see his eyes before! Why now?! I laughed in disgust several times when I saw a close up of his face, and that ending... wow.
The series will eventually hit a low(er) point that this (sadly), but for fans of the franchise, it's still something fun to watch from time to time. Nothing that you'll want to watch more than once a year probably, but at least it has Jamie Lee Curtis in it again. And Michael's head coming off? What will happen next...?
5.0 VISUALS There's little here besides just seeing the characters. Little death scenes and very little blood. But that ending, where Michael's head gets chopped off couldn't have ever looked worse. Embarrassing for such a classic franchise.
7.0 SOUND They overuse the Halloween theme (you hear it about every 5 minutes) and I even think they did some "remake" work on it at times, which really made me roll my eyes. No use of surround sound and nothing to write home about. Typical horror movie sound.
6.0 PACKAGING I gave this a 6.0 because I felt bad for this DVD release. The main menu is cheesy, but at least the cover shows us almost absolutely everyone who was in the film.
1.5 EXTRAS Only 3 extras and they are almost completely useless. The first is "Unmasking the Horror", in which the title has abolsutely nothing to do with what we see. They talk about the soundtrack and the legacy and how the project got started. So why is it called "Unmasking the Horror"? No idea.
Next up is a Creed music video. Now we're talking! Who doesn't love Creed!? Now I can sit up alllllll night and watch this awesome video with one of the worst bands of the 1990's in the desert singing. Er, trying to sing. This is the best extra feature I have ever seen on any film. Legendary. (end sarcasm).
Last is a "trivia game" which asks you the most obvious of Halloween questions. I'm surprised there wasn't a question that says "around what holiday do most of the films take place?", and when you get a question right you see Michael get hit with a fire extinguisher. And when you guess wrong, Josh Hartnett gets stabbed in the leg and lets out a hilarious howl. 10 questions. Fantastic.
IN CLOSING A passable, mildly amusing film with alot of problems compounded with terrible special features make this a horrific (no pun) DVD set. Obviously the studio takes no care in a once-great property.
4.0/10 "POOR"』
(Vengeance Is Coming...) 『Following the original "Halloween" from director John Carpenter in 1978, this franchise had for all intents and purposes succumbed to the very same pratfalls that have befallen virtually every other horror franchise in existence. What this means is that the series that birthed the very sub-genre it exists within had become nothing more than another lame slasher franchise cranking out useless sequel after sequel, paying little attention to the fact that the stories were fast becoming old and tired.
In 1995, after the sixth film in the series massively disappointed audiences, the future for the franchise no doubt lay in question. Not to mention, the impending twentieth anniversary of the original "Halloween" loomed on the horizon, and it was looking as if the date would be remembered with little to no fanfare. However, all of that changed in the summer of 1998, when original star Jamie Lee Curtis reprised her role of Laurie Strode for the seventh installment in the series, "Halloween H20: 20 Years Later".
"Halloween H20: 20 Years Later" is essentially summed up by the title. Basically, 20 years after the terrible events that victimized Laurie Strode, she continues to live in fear of the possibility that one day her killer brother may finally find her. Living under assumed names, Laurie and her 17-year-old son (Josh Hartnett) are doing their best to keep their dark family secret buried, while carrying on with some semblance of a normal life. However, some secrets are too powerful to be kept hidden forever, and Michael is determined to finish what he started all those years ago.
Over the course of the 17 year gap that separates "Halloween 2" and "Halloween H20" there was numerous other installments released as a part of the franchise. With the release of "H20" all of the sequels beyond the second movie have been omitted from the series' accepted continuity. For those who are curious, the reason is that movies 3 through 6 did not feature Jamie Lee Curtis or her character Laurie Strode; instead, the focus shifted to Laurie's orphaned daughter (apparently Laurie died in a car wreck or something like that) who is now being hunted by her dear old Uncle Michael. Even though some plot threads from those previous films were somewhat promising; in the end, it was easier to disregard them for the story in "H20" rather than to rewrite some of the history. While all of this was not incredibly important, I did feel that some exposition was needed for those who may not be aware of why the plots from movies 3 through 6 are never even touched upon, and in fact, most are contradicted by events in "Halloween H20". Anyways, that's a basic rundown on the history of the "Halloween" franchise.
If you ever watched any of the previous sequels, then you undoubtedly noticed that the quality of writing took a serious nose-dive from where the series began (which in itself wasn't exactly brilliant from start to finish). Along with the massive slate cleaning that "H20" brought to the series, the writing for this sequel was much stronger than all of the previous installments thanks to screenwriters Robert Zappia ("Five Days to Midnight") and Matt Greenberg ("Reign of Fire"), along with some re-writes by Kevin Williamson ("Scream").
The overall plot for the film is relatively solid, albeit with a few head scratching moments as most horror movies tend to have, but more on that later. The story took a mature approach to the ramifications of that horrific Halloween night and how even after all this time Laurie still lives in fear of her brother's possible return. Even though at first glance the premise that Michael has supposedly been waiting all this time to come after his sister once again seems a bit far-fetched; the manner in which that plot point was handled was surprisingly effective. I also appreciated the attempt to bring a potential resolution to the conflict set up so long ago between Laurie and Michael. If for no other reason, that portion of the story alone is worth watching for longtime fans of the original who have always wanted to see brother and sister come face-to-face once more.
It has become quite clear that the success of horror hits such as "Scream" or "I Know What You Did Last Summer" made an impact on the characters' interactions in this film and almost any other horror films that have followed them. The banter, especially between the teenagers, is fast-paced and loaded with innuendo and pop culture references (as are most teenage conversations). I also noticed that when the adult characters were on the screen the slick, fairly well-written dialogue didn't just disappear or become stale, as is so often the case; instead, it matured (without being too heavy-handed) to tackle the bigger issues that the adult characters, most notably Laurie, were facing throughout the movie.
Now, as I alluded to a moment ago, there were some weak spots in the story though. The biggest weakness this film had was with some of the characters. It seems that ever since "Halloween" started this sub-genre of horror that every other film of this kind must feature the same basic cast of characters in some form or another. You've got the rebellious guy, the smart girl, and the horny guy and his female equal, and so on and so forth. While this cast is smaller than many other horror films, it still fills most of the roles with standard stock characters. The only difference here is that in the case of Josh Hartnett and Michelle Williams, they actually appeared to be trying to bring some depth and realism to their characters; thus, serving to elevate their status above all the others in the pantheon of unoriginal character archetypes in horror films. But beyond those two, the rest of the teenaged characters were typical carbon copies left over from previous horror movies.
Another couple of issues with this film revolved around the improbability of how Michael either knows to be in certain places to kill someone or somehow catches up to a person running, despite the fact that he's walking as slowly and methodically as possible. Those two faults are not exclusive to this series rather they are common issues in almost every single horror franchise in existence. It does not matter what horror franchise you look at, this is a problem area that is universal and has always irritated me. What I want to know is, "Why most directors choose to go along with this obvious absurdity?" And lastly, the pacing early on in the story was a little on the slow side. I enjoyed the opening moments of the film that served as a set-up for the remainder of the movie, but the 15 to 20 minutes that followed struggled to keep things going strong. Note to the writers of horror films, the key is to always keep the audience on edge, it worked for John Carpenter in 1978, and I'm willing to bet it still does even now.
As for the performances in this movie, let us begin by discussing the return of Jamie Lee Curtis to the role that made her into a household name. Jamie's performance as Laurie is much more mature and refined here than it was in the original film, and let's just forget about the colossal waste of time that summed up her appearance in the initial sequel. Jamie skillfully portrays the radical change in her character from a woman who continues to be victimized by her memories to a woman ready for a final showdown with her tormentor. From the quieter moments between mother and son, to her soul-bearing confession as to who she really is, to her inevitable moment of truth; Jamie Lee excels in every respect and the movie definitely benefits from her terrific return to the series.
In the supporting roles are mostly up-and-coming talents, although some of these talents are obviously stronger than others. Leading the way for the supporting cast members, as I noted earlier, are Josh Hartnett ("Pearl Harbor") and Michelle Williams ("Brokeback Mountain"). Both appeared to be committed to their roles, not willing to sit idly by and just speak the lines and hit their marks in as uninspired a fashion as possible; instead, they opted to let their characters emotions and motivations shine through naturally. Plus, their characters' onscreen chemistry seemed more genuine than most in horror franchises, resulting in their romantic relationship becoming more believable than one would expect.
Next, we have LL Cool J (TV's "NCIS: Los Angeles") as a mediocre security guard with lofty aspirations. LL has proven in several other projects since his role in this movie that he clearly has acting talent; however, in this role he is merely average. At times his portrayal seemed a little shaky as if he couldn't quite get a handle on the character; however, this problem could be more a fault of the script than the actor in the role. Still, despite a potentially weak character arc, LL should have been able to do more with the role; instead, he seemed to rest on his laurels causing his performance to suffer as a result.
Bringing up the rear in the performance category are Jodi Lyn O'Keefe ("The Crow: Salvation") and Adam Hann-Byrd ("Jumanji") in the heavily clichéd roles of the sex-crazed teenagers in the movie. Both roles are only included in the movie to fulfill some prerequisite that apparently stipulates that every horror film have at least one promiscuous couple within the cast. While almost every movie has one or two meaningless roles in their lineup, horror films always seem to make sure those roles are the most irritating to audiences; all the while, finding their way into more scenes than they deserve within the movie. I will admit that at least the writers seemed to attempt to flesh out Jodi and Adam's characters. Yet an over-reliance on sexual puns and unoriginality within the roles overshadowed all efforts to elevate the characters above being anything more than typical throwaway horny teenagers.
"Halloween H20: 20 Years Later" is the first sequel in the franchise to even come close to rivaling the original in any respect. While the film is stronger in some areas than the first "Halloween", it still never manages to recapture the atmosphere and style that was so integral to that one's success. Until someone can either channel John Carpenter's directing choices and abilities into another one of these installments or coax Carpenter into returning for another round, I doubt we'll ever see a movie in this franchise reach the level of the first one.
"Halloween H20: 20 Years Later" is rated R for violence, language, and sensuality.』
(Huge Fan) 『I am a huge fan of the Halloween Movies and was unable to find this movie anywhere else for the low low price. Thanks Amazon!』
(Great End To The Trilogy!!) 『If you ask me,I thought Halloween H20 was a pretty good film.It mostly relies on modern fluid effects for the scary cinematics,like ruffling curtains in the wind and stuff.That instantly gets the movie to appear like 90's thrillers such as Scream and Scream 2.That was a pretty nice effect for the movie.Jamie Lee Curtis makes a nice comeback as well for the film.As for the rest of the film its standard stuff.The movies ending was perfect and suprisingly unexpected! Skip 3,4,5,&6 this is the 3rd and final!!』 『Halloweenis one of the great modern horror films, but as a franchise its track record has been spotty at best, painfully bad at worst.Halloween H2O: Twenty Years Later, directed by horror vet Steve Miner (Friday the 13thparts 2 and 3,House), won't displace John Carpenter's original but it might help you forget the films in between. Miner certainly has: the film begins as if sequels 3 through 6 never happened. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis, reprising her role for the first time in almost two decades) faked her death and is now a single mom and headmistress of an exclusive California private school. She's also a secret alcoholic who lives in fear of her homicidal brother-bogeyman Michael Myers. Guess who decides to show up for a family reunion? The film begins with classic horror-movie exposition (the deserted college campus, Michael's escape, Laurie's waking nightmares) accomplished with some humor and style, but it's all setup for the second half, a driving roller coaster of stalk-and-slash thrills. There's little of the self-conscious genre referencing ofScreamand at times the film is a little far-fetched--it is a slasher movie about a knife-wielding homicidal maniac who won't stay dead, after all--but Curtis transforms Laurie from a shrieking victim into an empowered, determined horror-movie heroine who's learned a thing or two from the previous films. Adam Arkin, Josh Hartnett, and TV cutie Michelle Williams (Dawson's Creek) costar, and the script received uncredited polish fromScreamwriter Kevin Williamson; Curtis's mom, Janet Leigh, pops up in a cameo.--Sean Axmaker』 『Twenty years after the original Halloween, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), now the headmistress of a Northern California private school under an assumed name, is still struggling with the terrifying memories of the psychotic killer Michael Myers. That horror becomes a reality once again when Michael returns, embarking on a murderous road trip from Illinois to California, killing three more people and stealing a victim's car before threatening the lives of Laurie's rebellious son (Josh Hartnett), his girlfriend (Michelle Williams), and the school security guard (LL Cool J). It's up to Laurie to conquer her internal demons and end Michael's evil. And a conveniently placed ax might just help her accomplish the task....』
Core2Duoノートレビュー 's review (An Oxymoron Collaboration of Mediocre Romance and Fantastic Fantasy) 『Since there are over 200 reviews for this book, my review will be brief. This second installment was pretty good but could have been better. I went in reading this book fully aware of the fact that Laurell has a mini obsession with conveniently writing in outlandish sexual situations just so Merry can have sex and I was ok with that. However this second installment really tried my patience. There was a lot of unnecessary rehashing and explanations, almost as if she were stalling and drawing out the storyline; in addition, the sex she writes in for Merry just sucks! I like the twist of a female having a harem of men to serve her but in Merry's case the men don't seem to be going out of their way to please Merry or even consider pleasing her. It mainly feels like Merry gives a lot of pity sex or just plain passionless and pointless quickies or pretty much just gives. Apart from the nuisances, the fantasy portion of this installment was creative, action-packed and electrifying. Laurell has a created a magical world filled with danger, darkness and excitement. I recommend this series to only those fellow dark urban fantasy readers who are fully forewarned of the many bizarre sexual settings and the portrayal of Merry as the center of the universe or the one that everyone desires. If you have the patience to tolerate these things, only then do I recommend this series to you. Aside from my frustrations with the sexual aspect of this installment, when Laurell is sticking to the storyline, the storyline is phenomenal. Fantasy wise, I can't wait to see what happens in the next installment Seduced by Moonlight.
I also recommend: Forbidden Magic (Magic Series, Book 1) Dragon Wytch (Sisters of the Moon, Book 4) Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1) The Devil Inside (Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist, Book 1) Hell's Belles』
(Still a good book into the series) 『I am enjoying the second book almost as much as I enjoyed the first.
It missed one star because there are things that for me are missing, like the explanation for a sudden love with Frost and how could a Goddess be so weak and drink like human and be so fragile. If she is no longer a Goddess, but faerie, she shouldn't behave so much like human.
I really like the sadist Queen, I like the fact that the heroine isn't a romantic teenager that sees a prince in the white horse and fall in love with him. But, things developed from passion, to companionship, to love.
I like that the writer, know that faerie are the pieces of Gods that had somehow faded and lose most of their power but still remaining magical.
The mix of modern investigation with faerie tale, with a dark sadist and bloody elements, is quite an attractive to me.
I will be reading the third book in the series and I honestly hope it will only get better. 』
(A Caress of Twilight (Meredith Gentry, Book 2)) 『An adult fantasy world worthy of getting lost in. Well written with memorable characters, I read the entire series and look forward to the next installment.』
(Love It!!!!!) 『This is a fantastic book. It just drags you in and you are not even looking.』
(awsome 2nd installment) 『Love this series. Get these books if you are into fantasy, a different take on the concept of "faries". A wonderful author. Lots of sex so be wary who reads this series.』 『Faerie princess and private detective Meredith Gentry juggles love, sex, intrigue, magic, and more in this witty and sensual novel from Laurell K. Hamilton. Merry has her hands full: she's desperate to conceive a child and thereby claim the Unseelie throne; she's the target of intrigue from both the Seelie and Unseelie Courts; her newest client is an exiled goddess with a secret that could get them all killed; and a hideous fey force that alarms even her formidable lover-warriors is loose in Los Angeles.
A Caress of Twilightis infused with Hamilton's characteristic appealing blend of sex, magic, wit, and romantic dilemma. The mystery takes a back seat to the concerns of Faerie power and politics, making the book less balanced, but Merry's growth in leadership and power, along with a bang-up ending, won't leave fans disappointed. Readers new to Hamilton might be advised to start withA Kiss of Shadowsor the extremely popular Anita Blake series.--Roz Genessee』
『I am Princess Meredith, heir to a throneâif I can stay alive long enough to claim it.
My cousin, Prince Cel, is determined to see that I donât. As long as we both live, we are in a race for the crown: Whichever one of us reproduces first gets the throne. So now the men of my royal guardâ frightening warriors skilled with blade, spell, and gunâhave become my lovers, auditioning with pleasure for the role of future king andfather of my child. And they must still protect me from assassination attemptsâfor unlike most of the fey, I am part human, and very mortal. All this royal back-stabbing makes it very difficult for me to pursue my living as a private investigator in Los Angeles, especially since the media madesure the whole world knows the Faerie princess is alive and well in sunny California.
Now, in the City of Angels, people are dying in mysterious, frightening ways. What the human police donât realize is that the killer is hunting the fey as well. Havoc lies on the horizon: the very existence of the place known as Faerie is at grave risk. So now, while I enjoy the greatest pleasures of my life with my guardians, I must fend off an ancient evil that could destroy the very fabric ofreality. And thatâs just my day job. . . .
From the darkling throng to the glittering court, this is a world of magic and delights, greed and grotesque ambitions. Laurell K. Hamilton has created a mythos of extreme power and pure beauty that is a delight to behold. 』
price：$2.80
Picador
Usually ships in 24 hours Core2Duoノートレビュー 's review (Sank to the bottom of Bareneed's harbor with this book) 『This is one of the best books I've read in the past decade and I wanted to weigh in with a more recent review. I loved this book. I see that it has solicited some mixed reviews on Amazon, and I expected as much.
Here's the most useful litmus test I can think of to determine if you'd like this book or not: If you're a fan of or can tolerate magical realism and/or ghost stories (think Isabel Allende at her best), this book is a stunner. It's written entirely better than it needs to be, and the reader is rewarded by being effortlessly sucked into a watery, mysterious world falling apart at the seams and trying to suck itself back together. I rank Kenneth Harvey right in there with Gregory Maguire as a mind-bogglingly poetic and proficient writer who remains underrated in this regard.
This also means that he's not Dean Koontz. Harvey does not write a bookfull of three-word sentences. His writing requires you to slow down and savor the eeriness of the story he spins. If you enjoy reading simply for the sensuousness of being caught up in an alternate reality, this is a treat. If your favorite part of a book is finishing the last page so you can put another books-read notch on your belt, don't tackle this one.
I personally find this book to be a feast for the senses. The smell of rural Canadian sea town air, the visual of winding roads through the hills and town of Bareneed, the cold dread that seeps over you like a pea soup fog and the ghosts of those lost at sea; it's all effortlessly here.
One thing that bothers me about this book: the softcover jacket design. The hardcover version is a beautiful, graphic, b&w package that jumps off the shelf and into your hands (why I read it in the first place). The softcover looks like a 9th grade goth kid in art 101 got a crack at it, and doesn't reflect the true beauty this book has to offer. Just my two cents on that little issue, since it bothers me.』
(Sometimes it's hard to remember to breathe...) 『I really enjoyed this story. It was incredibly imaginative and Kenneth Harvey painted a very vivid picture in my mind of the town, the people, the smells, the feel... there were moments when I had to pay attention to my own breathing! I didn't think that he was trying to write like any other author, including Stephen King. As a huge King fan myself, I didn't see any similarites that were upsetting. It only took me a few days to get through this story because I didn't want to put the book down! Good stuff, I recommend it.』
(Really original.) 『This book has a really good flow. I enjoyed the story and read it at a steady pace because I was so intrigued to see what was wrong with the town and how everything would wrap up. The characters were believable and I liked a lot of their personalities. Only, it kept at that pace, and then all of a sudden the action and the ending just wrapped in a few pages...that was it. Perhaps it would help next time to let the action flow a little more and make the ending longer instead of it being seemingly rushed.』
(Depends upon what you expect...) 『While the quoted blurb on the back cover intrigued me by referencing Lovecraft, it took me about ten minutes of reading to realize that the author of the quote could not actually be familiar with either HPL or "The Town that Forgot to Breathe"...and, quite possibly, with neither.
No, this book has much more similarity to Stephen King...and while the later New England horror-writer was without doubt inspired by the earlier, their sympathies could not be more different. Lovecraft wrote of bookish scholars confronting alien powers, and quietly revered a certain elitist nobility that has failed to endear him overmuch to readers more swayed by literature that aims to speak to 'the common man'.
King, on the other hand, is often at his best when he portrays the more-or-less modern, more-or-less small town setting. He knows about working class people who are out of work, and he knows about middle-class people who are growing more or less out of touch with their roots. It is precisely this human perception, in addition to a master's grasp of the technique of narrative, that allows King to tower above the rank and file of modern genre writers. We may quiver in the night over his bloody clowns and monster movie remakes, but if the works stay with us at all, it is because his characters and settings ring rich and true.
Kenneth J. Harvey has even more of this power. It is somewhat of a shame that anyone familiar with King will be unable to avoid making easy comparisons (as I have just done). Harvey's setting is nearly stereotypical King: a depressed Northwestern coastal fishing town beset by the supernatural. His characters, like many from King's pages, include a colorful and keenly authentic cross-section of wise old-timers, small-town (forgive the phrase)'white trash', and often adrift middle-age professionals...not to mention the obligatory police and military interlopers.
However, where King shows the cancerous effects of the supernatural on his characters (a recurring Lovecraft theme), Harvey takes almost the opposite stance. It is humanity's disease which afflicts these townsfolk, technology and progress which have sapped the vitality and magic of the community. The ill omens of supernatural danger occur not because man has foolishly dared to come too close to mysterious things, but because he has strayed too far from them.
Without doubt, this is an ideologically motivated work. Some may dismiss it, seeing a misguided nostalgia for a simpler time, and some may welcome it as an ode to traditional virtues of community and locale. One may feel that it gently preaches, and affirm or rebel as suits their temperament.
The author makes missteps and sometimes fails to deliver on his promises. It's easy for us to say that a tighter editing would have resulted in a stronger work, and possibly a slightly shorter one...perhaps Harvey was trying to include a little too much and despaired of bringing it all together at the end. In trying to strike a balance between comfort and complexity, it is easy to drop a few threads along the way; many and more well-known authors have had the same problems, and vastly more have failed to produce anything as uniquely engrossing and enchanting as this book.
This is just barely able to be called a work of horror. Do not buy this because you've read everything else in the genre and need your horror fix (though it will serve a more specific Stephen King addiction, and offers a touch more substance than anything he's produced in the last thirty years). It is barely even a work of 'modern fantasy' (and by this I mean the many dreary books which have fairies talking on cell phones, or witches working at publishing houses). It is well worth reading, mainly because it is well-written and memorable and speaks Newfie like a native.
Read this, instead, if you want to smell salt air and hear the sound of the ocean at night. Read this if you want to reflect on the dangers of too much progress and the decay of small-town strength and wisdom. Read this if you've ever deliciously shuddered at the thought of mysteries of unseen depths that have nothing to do with man-eating sharks and lost undersea civilizations.
Just drop your expectations at the door and curl up with nothing more, and nothing less, than a good book that is both eerie and thoughtful. You'll find it easy to forgive a little clumsiness at times, because the rest is as satisfying as homemade soup and an old book of true true fairy tales.』
(Totally bizarre but fun!) 『At times I really felt that I was a part of "The Town that Forgot How to Breathe". Very descriptive. All the characters, even the minor ones were very well developed. There were some parts where I got a little confused and felt the author didn't describe the scene well enough but overall a very interesting read. The "horror" is minimal. This is not a gore fest or even that scary. It's kind of hard to describe because I have never read anything else like it!』 『With no more cod to fish, Bareneed, the setting of Kenneth J. Harvey's powerfully eerieThe Town That Forgot How to Breathe, has become another Newfoundland outport village on the wane. As one character laments, "Bareneed, once a lively and warm place, now stank of drabness and heartbreak." It's not much of a magnet for tourists, but it has attracted two visitors for the summer: a fisheries officer and his young daughter. Deeply pained by the recent break-up of his marriage, Joseph fails to notice the more curious aspects of the town. It takes him a while to hear about the townsfolk who've been dropping dead for no apparent reason. He's also slow to realize that his daughter Robin's new playmate is the ghost of a drowned girl. When he and Robin find an "exceptionally ugly" sculpin at the end of their fishing line, Joseph again tries to stay calm. But then he takes a closer look at his catch. "Feeling his fingers turn warm while he tried to disengage the hook," Harvey writes, "Joseph whisked them away. Flesh-coloured fluid seeped from the sculpin's wide mouth. A solid object began edging out as he wiped his fingers on his pants--a flesh-coloured sculpted orb, topped with something that resembled hair, matted in mucousy clumps." The porcelain doll's head that emerges from the fish is one in a series of unsettling sights in Harvey's book. As more and more objects are expelled from the sea, Bareneed's most painful secrets come to the surface.
By setting his story in this desolate Atlantic locale, Harvey seeks to do more than add regional flavour to a Stephen King-style tale of an ordinary community plagued by inexplicable events. Instead, the terrors that Harvey describes are rooted in very real psychological and societal traumas. What makesThe Town That Forgot How to Breatheso cunning is the way Harvey uses the horror genre as the basis for a provocative defence of Newfoundland's imperiled cultural traditions. Even though his ornate prose style can sometimes get waterlogged in the scenes between the shocks, Harvey has created a book that is as compelling as it is unique.--Jason Anderson』
『
Something strange is happening in the seaside town of Bareneed. Mythical creatures are being pulled from the sea, perfectly preserved corpses of long-lost villagers are washing up on the shore, and residents of the town are suddenly overcome by a mysterious illness that is making them forget how to breathe.
A page-turning gothic thriller reminiscent of H. P. Lovecraft,The Town That Forgot How to Breatheis "a novel of dazzling ambition and strange, haunting loveliness. . . . An absolute triumph of the storyteller's art" (Joseph O'Connor, author ofStar of the Sea).
price：$2.19
Oxford University Press, USA
Usually ships in 24 hours Core2Duoノートレビュー 's review (Best novel ever) 『I do not love novels really and mostly I only get turned on by classics, but this is by far the masterpiece of all novels in that genre! 100% must have if you are a fan of ALL of Poe or just want to read a very special novel!』
("I feared I should not be able to write, from mere memory, a statement so minute...") 『Claiming that this is the true narrative of a sea voyage by Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Edgar Allen Poe records the strange, unbelievable events aboard the ship Grampus in 1827 and on a voyage of discovery to the Antarctic six months later. Published in 1838, Poe's fictionalized narrative, supposedly penned by Pym, a young man from Nantucket, describes Pym's experiences beginning in July, 1827. Stowed away in the hold of the ship and aided by his friend Augustus Barnard, whose father is captain of the Grampus, Pym endures more than a week alone and in almost total darkness before he discovers that a mutiny has occurred onboard.
Macabre details of ghastly deaths and unrelieved bloodlust, the massacre of the crew, and the casting adrift of the captain presage even more gory events. A countermutiny, equally bloody, leaves only four men alive on the Grampus. A gale, a gruesome death ship which passes them, circling sharks, and additional deaths leave only two men alive when the brig capsizes.
The second half of the account details the trip of discovery taken by Pym and the other survivor, along with an English crew from a passing ship, south to the "Antarctic Sea," a voyage in which they go "more than eight degrees farther south than any previous navigators." On this journey they encounter a monstrous "Arctic bear," more than 15 feet long, a cat-like animal with red teeth and claws, warm water with Galapagos tortoises, a series of islands inhabited by canoe-paddling natives, the Aurora Borealis, hot and milky water, white ashy showers, and a huge human figure in white, not the sights reported by later Antarctic explorers.
Poe's only novel, in the romantic tradition of sea adventures, presages the publication of Melville's Typee, which is a true story. In this case, Poe plays with the reader's sense of reality, claiming that his fictional narrative is true and that the fictional Pym had "refused" to publish it because he thought no one would believe his tale. Ironies abound, matched only by the romantic embellishments and imaginative "discoveries" in Antarctica that make this fast-paced narrative as full of tense drama as any soap opera. The abrupt "conclusion" remains ironically inconclusive. Breathless excitement and near death experiences, combined with mystical visions and inexplicable events, make this exciting narrative fun to read. n Mary Whipple 』
(Poe's One and Only Novel:) 『In this novel I had the same feeling I used to have watching or reading Treasure Island. It is one of the best adventure novels I have ever read.
It speaks about an adventure seeker, a Mr. A. Gordon Pym. He tries to leave the luxury of his little city Nantucket, where he used to live with his father. One friend of his convinces him to travel. The first voyage was a total disaster. But he did not quit his dream. He went on yet another ... Man, it was the most chilling experience I ever had. It is not like anything you dream, it is even stranger. No goblins nor trolls appear hear, yet still, Poe can really bring the horror to your heart.
A mutiny is added to the singular experience Pym had, and then Cannibalism. And after you thought the story finished, you see that Poe starts a new story which not as impressive as the first, yet turns the attention to some other direction.
The end was a bit shaky. I did not like it at all. I usually do not like open endings. That was the only reason I gave 4 instead of 5 stars.
Overall, I would recommend you to read it in the middle of the night (if you do not have anything else to do), with a cup of tea, and with no one else around! You would enjoy it even more.』
(A disturbing tale of shipwreck and savagery) 『This story, Poe's only novel, is an endurance test for both reader and characters. I believe it was originally serialized, and reads like a collection of incidents rather than a complete story. However, it is a captivating tale, astounding in it's detail and casual horror. Arthur Gordon Pym was born under an unlucky star. He survives in the most inconceivable circumstances, from a drifting, overturned hulk to the frozen waters of the Antarctic. Each page turned piles more horror in his path, described with a growing clinical distance. Pym himself becomes more desensitized to each incident, until he views the irrational with a casual curiosity. The language is beautifully detailed, and some feel this story is the inspiration for "Moby Dick."
Altogether, a delightfully disturbing story. One of the best I have read.』
(Poe's Best Long Work -- And His Only, Even) 『At 150 pages or so, Arthur Gordon Pym is the closest Poe came to a novel. Rife with his characteristic polarization and dreamscape plots, this stands, in my opinion, as one of Poe's best. The short stories included only add to the mainstay, and it's a great value.』 『Edgar Allan Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is a pivotal work in which Poe calls attention to the act of writing and to the problem of representing the truth. It is an archetypal American story of escape from domesticity tracing a young man's rite of passage through a series of terrible brushes with death during a fateful sea voyage. Included are eight related tales which further illuminate Pym by their treatment of persistent themes--fantastic voyages, gigantic whirlpools, and premature burials--as well as its relationship to Poe's art and life.』
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>,Stephen Geoffreys,Patrick O'Bryan,Sandy Dennis,Robert Picardo,Jim Metzler
