Author: Soforah

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

By Soforah on

One, two, Freddy’s coming for you.

Three, four, Better lock your door

Five, six, grab a crucifix.

Seven, eight, Gonna stay up late.

Nine, ten, Never sleep again…

Chris and I are huge horror fans, and since psychological dramas are taking over our beloved genre, we’ve decided to re-watch the good old classics for now. Nothing beats a slasher movie on Saturday night so, we’ve decided to start our re-run galore with “A Nightmare on Elm Street” series.

Yesterday evening we’ve watched the first one, released in 1984. Now that’s what I call real horror. How I’ve missed the simple plots of a slasher movie! No intricate dialogues, no psychological BS, and no violins… Just the simple life of teens, trying to outwit a creepy killer on cool 80’s tunes. The perfect recipe for a Saturday horror night.

While reading some trivia of “A Nightmare on Elm Street”, I’ve learned that the movie is actually inspired by real-life events. Apparently, Wes Craven decided to make this movie after reading some L.A. Times articles about a group of teenage immigrants who, after moving to the U.S., died in their sleep after suffering from disturbing nightmares.

Interesting… A great concept, perfectly translated. The last time that I had watched a NOES is so long ago that I barely remember any of it. I’m glad we decided to do some re-runs for now, I have the feeling that I’m watching most movies for the first time again. The perks of getting older… hehe…

Anyway, A Nightmare On Elm Street is, in my opinion, along with Halloween and Friday the 13th, one of the best slasher movies ever made.

Documentaries

By Soforah on

One of our most favourite things to watch during our Sunday lunchtimes are documentaries. Whether it’s about a serial killer, Bigfoot, or doomsday preppers, all is welcome as long as it keeps us interested.

At the beginning of the quarantine a new docuseries, “Tiger King”, was released on netflix. Everybody and his mother seemed to be pretty hyped about it so it only seemed natural to watch the show from the beginning to the end. What seemed to be a fun thing to watch in the first episode, gradually became a drag. Joe Exotic went from a funny loose cannon with a mullet to an absolute train wreck of a person. I honestly never thought that something like that existed in this world. Anyway, I admit that I only watched the entire show to be up to date with the hype, but to be entirely honest, I could have lived without it.

Add to this basket over hyped shows like “Making a Murderer”, “The Staircase”,… which I found not only boring, but also extremely depressing. I even quit watching these in the middle not caring about the end.

Unlike the previously mentioned basket cases, there are also riveting documentaries that were compelling to watch, and that brought a tear to my eyes when it ended. “Don’t Fuck with Cats”, “The Bigfoot Files”, “Evil Genious”,… All these were excellent.

“Bigfoot Files” was a complete other type of documentary, but was interesting, and at times even made me roll on the floor of laughter. Some scenes were so ridiculous, it was funny. Yet a part of me desperately wanted to know if they found actual clues on whether Bigfoot really exists or not. Spoiler alert: they haven’t. I guess that the mysterious creature will remain a myth after all.

In the entire haystack of serial killer docuseries, my favourite is “Don’t Fuck with Cats”. The story of Luka Magnotta was both disturbing and interesting, and kept me glued in front of my screen till the end. I loved the way they build up the suspense in each episode. Still now I wonder who the real monster in this story was, Luka, a victim of modern society, or the people on social media that seem to have given him a push into the direction he took. Regardless, an excellent story which is hard to top, and my favourite of all serial killer stories.

A R’lyeh Great Easter

By Soforah on

In the summer of ’94, I started hanging out with some school mates that apparently were into roleplaying. One day, a bunch of us had planned to hang out in the attic room of my best friends’ old house, where they surprised me with a campaign of Call of Cthulhu. I had never heard about H.P. Lovecraft and his universe before, but since that day I’m a huge fan.

When the movie “Color out of Space” came out, Chris and I wanted to keep it for a special occasion. This Easter holiday, I thought it would be a great idea to make it a Cthulhu inspired day.

We first opened a good bottle of wine and enjoyed the beautiful weather on our balcony. It was a great moment, and Chris even got a little sunburn.

After that we crashed in the couch, and started watching “Color out of Space”. To be honest, I had no idea what to expect of the movie, I was too afraid to watch the trailer and get disappointed. Never have I been this wrong, the movie was stunning! It was so great, I don’t even know where to begin. The direction and cinematography were meticulous, alongside with a screenplay written as it should be in honour of the work of Lovecraft.

The casting was perfect, no one can portray a man taken over by insanity like Nicolas Cage does. The man is craziness incarnate, just too bad for his overacting which grows tiresome at times. Also, props for the witchy elements which they made look darker than I initially expected. I actually love all about this movie, it was surreal, disturbing, visually pleasing, and the horrific creatures were beyond grotesque.

All I can say at this point is that I can’t wait to watch this movie again. A perfect tribute to H.P. Lovecraft. Just one question though: what’s up with the alpacas? I know they’re funny, but of all animals, alpacas?

To finish the day in beauty, we watched the H.P Lovecraft documentary “Fear of the Unknown” during the dinnertime. It’s a 1 hour and 29 minutes documentary on Youtube where writer Neil Gaiman, filmmaker John Carpenter and others discuss the life and legacy of Lovecraft. When I saw the time stamp of 2007, I was baffled that it took me 13 years before even hearing about this documentary. Nevertheless, it was highly interesting, and perfect to end this Lovecraftian Easter.

Three Weeks

By Soforah on

These last 3 weeks have been some of the strangest weeks of my life. It all started on a Tuesday, I woke up having flu like symptoms, with the COVID-19 pandemic going on, I had to contact my doctor. He decided that I was infected and had to stay in quarantine until I was fully recovered. We are three weeks later now, and I finally start feeling better, and better each day.

When I look back at the last 3 weeks, everything seems like a blur, some moments were lucid, others have become blank spaces in my memory due to the fever. During the moments that I was lucid, a lot has been going on in my mind though. It has been quite a long time that I needed to rethink my life, and so I did. Between my soul searching and dreaming about tropical destinations, I’ve watched a lot of TV-shows and movies. But more about those later since I tend to make a blog post of most of the things I watch.

This pandemic is until now the biggest world crisis that I’ve ever lived through, and it’s about the weirdest time to be alive. A world wide quarantine situation that forces the people to stay inside with only essential shops like supermarkets and pharmacies that may remain opened, social distancing, and the police fining the people that don’t respect the measures. You can’t go outside without a valid reason, and if you do you need to wear a mask and gloves.

While some people are completely negligent, others are in panic. I have to admit that, at this point, I stopped reading too much about it because I don’t want to live in panic either. We just deal with it, and ration our supplies as much as possible even though some things are hard to come by in these times such as medication, toilet paper, soap, masks, gloves,…

Last week I bought a sewing machine so I can make masks myself. It was quite the thing to setup since I never used such a machine before, but I managed to make one mask with old sheets and ribbons from old PJ-pants. It doesn’t look like much, but at least we have a mask for when Chris needs to do the shopping on Tuesday. That’s the one thing that scares the living hell out of me, that something would happen to my better half.

On the bright side of all this is that I learned to use a sewing machine, and our planet seems to recover thanks to the lockdown. The air is so much fresher, and it’s the first time since I live in Brussels that the sky looks blue without the blurry effect of the smog. It makes me think so much about the global warming and pollution, and how everyone can make a big difference with little effort. I wonder what the world will look like after all this, are things going to change for real or are people just going to pick back up from where they’ve left? Only time can tell!

For me personally, a lot has changed during this pandemic, and all in a positive direction. Meanwhile let’s try to stay safe so we can live and tell the tale.

Countdown to ACNH

By Soforah on

Tomorrow Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be released, and as you can see, I am ready for it!

With the COVID-19 pandemic, my flu-like symptoms and quarantine, this couldn’t be a better timing. If you would have told me at the beginning of the new year that the whole world would be on a lockdown at some point due to a deadly virus, I would have laughed, thinking you watch way too much survival stuff on TV. Yet, here we are, and it would be pretty boring if it were not for netflix and video games. So yes, ACNH is more than welcome at this very moment.

The Strangers: Prey at Night

By Soforah on

I’m genuinely baffled by all the bad reviews I’ve read about this movie. I’m starting to think that the people who wrote these don’t like horror movies. Well, I loved it, it’s one of the best slasher movies I’ve ever seen. Normally I would have watched the original before the sequel, but I just saw this title on Netflix, and thought it looked great.

The movie is atmospheric, tense, and well-paced. If you are a fan of slasher movies, you will certainly enjoy this treat! It has an 80’s throwback theme with a bad-ass soundtrack .

There are a lot of references to other horror classics: the main title music is very similar to John Carpenter’s The Fog (1980), the car on fire chasing the girl echoes Christine (1983), the female killers use kitchen knives like Michael Myers in Halloween (1979), and the scene where Kinsey sets the truck on fire and where the Man in the Mask walks out and collapses right in front of her, is inspired by Halloween II (1981). 

Definitely a great Saturday Eve horror movie night candidate. This evening we’ll finally watch the first one. If the original will be as good as its’ sequel, it’s going to be a hit.

Halloween 2019

By Soforah on

This year for Halloween, I had prepared our traditional pumpkin oven pasta in the morning. We eat this dinner every year on Hallow’s Eve, the celebration wouldn’t be the same without. We had to skip on it last year since there weren’t any good pumpkins to be found due to the lingering drought after the summer heatwave. What blasphemy, but this year my secret recipe was back on the menu.

Around 5 PM, we started watching Halloween 1978, the number one slasher classic of all time. The fact that it’s the best of its kind, and that it takes place on Halloween, makes this movie the perfect choice for a horror night opening.

After that, we watched some episodes of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. One while the pasta was in the oven, and the next while we were eating.

With our bellies full with pumpkin delight, we crashed in the couch to watch Annabelle Comes Home. As I expected, it was great, I’ve always been a fan of the movies inspired by Ed & Lorraine Warrens’ case files. I always wondered while watching The Conjuring, what would happen if some one would break into their room full of cursed and haunted objects. Well, it may not have been a burglary, but I think that I got my question answered.

While babysitting the daughter of Ed and Lorraine Warren, a teenager and her friend unknowingly awaken an evil spirit trapped in a doll – IMDb

Anyway, after the movie, both my husband and I noticed that the lights in our haunted houses display all went out simultaneously. You have to know that they all are on batteries and aren’t linked in any way. I know that there probably is a logical explanation, but it just added to the spooky factor.

We were kind of tired after all that, but couldn’t resist watching the season finale of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. This must be one of my favourite tv-shows ever created. It’s eye-candy, the casting is fantastic (Miranda Otto, Michelle Gomez,…), they don’t hesitate to go dark where it’s supposed to be, and it’s about witches. I love witch themed movies (actually, everything), especially when they’re not afraid to go evil. The only thing that got me a little bit baffled was that weird singing scene at the end, but other than that the show was wicked!

This Halloween was one of the best celebrations we had so far, I absolutely loved it! Somehow I’m sad it’s over, but still 12 days of holidays left for me so, I’m leaving the deco up until then. Halloween isn’t over until I say it’s over, muahahahaha.

A Quiet Place

By Soforah on

In a post-apocalyptic world, a family is forced to live in silence while hiding from monsters with ultra-sensitive hearing – IMDb

Now that I’ve seen both A Quiet Place and The Silence, I see why people say that they are very similar. Even though they are, it didn’t bother me at all, I enjoyed both movies. Where A Quiet Place is more about the survival, The Silence has a better rhythm, and more likeable characters.

Rather than writing about their differences and similarities, here are some facts I’ve read about A Quiet Place:

  • The film’s director and lead actor, John Krasinski, played the monster in a motion capture suit for a few scenes.
  • Actress Millicent Simmonds has been deaf since infancy.
  • The filmmakers purchased twenty tons of corn and hired local farmers to grow it.
  • The entire movie was shot in thirty-six days.
  • The movie only contains about 25 lines of voiced dialogue, although sign language dialogue is used extensively.
  • The first line of voiced dialogue isn’t spoken until about 38 minutes into the film.
  • John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are married both in this film and in real life.
  • In the basement scene towards the end, a few frames of newspaper cuttings are visible. One of these clearly states ‘Multiple Landing Sites’ as a headline, alluding directly to the origin of the monster species being from space.

The silence in the movie created such a tension, it made me wonder how it must be like if this would happen for real. I can’t imagine being so quiet all the time! I’m like an elephant in a china shop, I would be doomed!

Hellraiser: Judgement

By Soforah on

The movie began with a strong opening scene that looked promising. I remember Chris and I looking at each other like “wtf did I just look at?”. It looked gore, disturbing, and very different from what we’ve seen these last days. Unfortunately, it slowed down on the horror the closer we were getting to the end.

I have to admit that I’m not familiar with the Hellraiser franchise so, I didn’t know what to expect. I remember trying to watch the first one, and I had cut it in the middle. Maybe not my favourite kind of horror.

There was a scene with vomit and saliva that still makes me gag every time I think about it. So no, unlike my plan on putting a picture of this scene on my blog, I decided not to (a very wise decision if you ask my keyboard).

Anyway, my verdict is fifty-fifty. I didn’t have a bad time watching it, but it didn’t blow my mind either. At least I got to see Pinhead in action once.

Trick ‘r Treat

By Soforah on

The time has finally come, Chris and I are at the beginning of our three weeks autumn holidays. We’ve been counting down to this moment for almost a year so, let the spooky time begin!

Last night we kicked off our favourite season with a re-run of Trick ‘r Treat. This movie is one of my favourite Halloween themed stories ever created. It may not be the most scary of all, but it captures the spirit of Halloween perfectly.

Instead of writing a review or something like that, here are some fun facts I’ve found about the movie:

  • Characters from each story are frequently seen in the background of stories they are not involved with. This is to help piece together the chronology of the movie.
  • Most of the Jack O’ Lanterns were made out of either foam or ceramic. An on-set joke was that no pumpkins were harmed during the making of this movie.
  • Little people were used to fill in for kids trick or treating, since this film was shot mainly at night and real kids could not work these hours.
  • Anna Paquin’s character “Laurie” is named after Laurie Strode from the 1978 Halloween film.

And, that’s it folks! Cheers to the most creepy and spooky 2019 Halloween holidays!

More posts