One of the Good Guys

So on The Office, Michael Scott once said that he thought the saddest day of his life would be when Steve Martin died. I totally get it. Ever since I was a little girl I have thought that Steve Martin was so awesome. Whether it was watching him play his banjo on the Muppet show, going on a great adventure with the amigos, or living life as a "Jerk", he always made me laugh and smile. My appreciation for Steve Martin has only grown as his career has grown. When I was in college I bought a copy of his book Shop Girl at a used book sale and I read the book in a day and was mesmerized at how good the book was. Is there anything he can't do? Then when Steve Martin released The Crow, his banjo album from 2009 I was so smitten with his music. I love the banjo and the album has been on my Ipod since it first came out. He had albums in the past that I wasn't really aware of but The Crow just added another level to my appreciation for this great artist. I know follow all of his music releases with great anticipation and I hope one day to see him in concert. I've read his fiction and non fiction and I am just amazed at how diverse he really is. I love that he knows when to be serious and he knows when to be funny. His tweets can make my day better and the sound of the banjo is pure happiness, just daisies and sunshine. In 2013 he won and honary Academy Award and his speech made me cry. His dedication to art, music, comedy, and his love for his family make him one of the true good guys in Hollywood.

The Sacrament

May contain spoilers. I just recently watched Ti West's The Sacrament and I have been meaning to blog about it. I really enjoy Ti West and after watching the trailer I was super stoked to see this film. I find religion to be quite terrifying and cults also. I was prepared to be super scared by this movie. Well....I have watched lots of documentaries on cults, so this movie ended up being a lot more predictable than I expected. Don't get me wrong, the movie was very entertaining and I would recommend it to anyone that loves horror movies or thrillers. The movie ran about an hour and a half. I think that if maybe there was just 30 minutes more the audience could have been given more behind the scenes of why the cult members were so terrified and desperate to leave. The religious followers built their parish Eden Parish from the ground up with their own hands and their own money too. The movie just felt to me like a movie version of the massacre at Jonestown. The character of Father had a deep hold of its followers and he was charismatic and powerful. He also had a drug problem, a problem with sleeping with members of the congregation, and worst of all a death wish should his power ever be threatened or compromised. I am trying so hard not to be critical of the movie because I really did find it entertaining but it was just too much of a play by play of the events of Jonestown. If you have ever listened to the chilling recordings of Jim Jones as he orders his followers to drink the poison and you can hear screams and crying children...you will still be shocked seeing the pain that the followers go through as they slowly die. Families cling to one another and it is a truly scary scene to watch. I liked the end of the movie and that 2 of the filmmakers successfully made it to the helicopter and were flown away to safety by the wounded pilot. Ti West did an awesome job making you care about the people in the film and even though you may have known where the story was headed it was still an amazing ride.

Top Ten Horror Movies

I have decided to post my Top Ten Favorite Horror Films and what I consider to be the best of the best. I’ve added my commentary and I have seen an alarming amount of horror films, so I have plenty to choose from and these are my favorites. I love all types of horror films except for I am not a real big fan the torture film. So here we go, my top ten!
Top 10 Horror
1. Poltergeist-
I think that this is one of the most beautiful films that I have ever seen in my entire life and I have never watched a horror movie to date that made me feel as much as this film did. I can still watch it from time to time but it’s honestly so intense that it has to be an occasional thing. The fact that the movie focuses on a family’s love for one another, and manages to scare the crap out of me is tremendous. I am still afraid to watch this movie, which is a pretty amazing thing considering how many times I’ve seen it. This is why I find this movie to be the greatest horror film of all time, no contest…nothing else will ever come close.
2.The Exorcist-
I kind of don’t even want to discuss it because it scares me so bad. Every once in awhile my husband will say something in the Regan Pazuzu voice and I then threaten to divorce him. In the restored version of the Exorcist we got our first glimpse at certain items such as the spider walk which I didn’t see when I watched the movie as a kid. I’m pretty sure watching that movie at age 11 was the start of my life long problems with sleeping. Also, in the restored version we got the subliminal images of the scariest thing I have ever seen in my life…Captain Howdy. So congrats, my brain will never be rid of that image. If you are a fan of the movie you should check out the book, it’s brilliant.
3. Bram Stoker’s Dracula-
Coppola’s 1992 version of Dracula is an amazing adaptation of Stoker’s book. I am in love with the book and the film is so awesome and it is like this painting that has come to life. The costumes and makeup are amazing, Gary Oldman is amazing, the rest of the cast was pretty good selection except for Keanu. Poor Keanu, I love him, but he ruined Jonathan Harker. I think this is the most romantic movie ever. This film does include such lines as “I love you too much to condemn you,” that’s effin romantic.
4.Twilight zone: The movie-
How Kade and I managed to watch this when we were so little I will never understand, but the phrase “Do you want to see something really scary?” messed me up, like for the rest of my life. The rest of the movie includes four unique mini movies and this has always been a favorite of me and Kade’s.
5.The Shining-
I had to include a Stephen King on my list even if I am referring to the Kubrick film which took some major liberties with the story. This is one of the greatest horror films ever made by anyone’s standards. The music is perfect, the scenery is perfect, Jack Torrance is ehhhh…not so perfect. The whole point is supposed to be a father’s descent into madness and Jack Nicholson pretty much plays the character bat shit crazy from the start. Anyways…this film is what horror is all about. It also includes one of the creepiest scenes ever…the two men with the masks on in the room. It’s such a short scene but it really stays with you and gives you the creeps. And the best scene ever…the blood pouring from the elevator…I can’t even breathe when I watch that scene. So awesome!
6. In the Mouth of Madness-
This movie is so differentand underappreciated.It focuses on a horror writer named Sutter Cane.It’s quite obviously an ode to another writer I love, but this movie is so unpredictable, surprising, and well made that I cannot believe I didn’t see this until I was 28 years old.This is super creepy movie with some insane imagery that will stay with you for days and I will never ever get the image of that old dude on the bike out of my head….ever…or that creepy painting. So underrated.
7.Let the Right One In-
I love the Swedes…what can I say. They make good music…ex. The Knife, Fever Ray, they make good men example: Alexander Skarsgård , and they make good movies…Let the Right One In. I read about this movie a long time before it came out and how it was supposed to be this amazing horror film about vampires but the twist was it involved kids. I finally got to see it and I fell completely in love with the movie. The story is amazing, it is definitely a unique look at vampires but this isn’t really a horror movie. It’s a story about friendship and about two lonely souls finding one another
8.Martyrs-
This is the most violent film that I have ever seen and will probably ever see.I know that probably not a lot of people could sit through it because it is so brutal. The actresses cry in every scene and in is extremely intense. I really don’t want to reveal too much because this film is one of the rarest experiences I have had in long time watching a film. I was speechless, in tears after watching the movie and then explained later to husband that it was beautiful. Again, it’s hard to go into detail but if you think you can stomach it the moral of the story is so incredibly deep I would love to be able to discuss it with someone else. I don’t consider it one of those awful “torture” films, even though the movie is essentially all violence. It’s just too hard to explain without ruining the experience. It’s worth it though.
9.Cloverfield-
I happened to be reading Stephen King’s the Stand in my senior year of high school, and I got a bad cold and was convinced that somehow I had the virus in the novel. Anyways…I’m not discussing the Stand the movie (which I thought was silly), I’m discussing Cloverfield and the feeling the movie gave me and how real it felt to me. The chaos, the confusion, the panic, and terror. I loved the movie, the shaky camera didn’t bother me at all and it made me care about the characters even more. As soon as the movie started I was immediately engrossed in the film and felt like this could really happen. I also like that every time I watch the movie I have the same feeling of dread hoping that somehow they will still get away and there will be a different ending.
10.The Ring-
So clever, so creepy, and so mainstream I even convinced my parental units to watch this movie with me. I watched the original film Ringu, and I have watched many foreign horror films and The Ring is the only American version that was just as good if not better. The story of this movie is just so original, and refreshing in a world of movies where it seems like ideas are always recycled. It was more of a horror mystery and had a great twist, I just think that it is a great underrated horror movie and I love the creepy lingering scare I get after watching it.

My favorite books.

1. Stephen King’s The Eyes of the Dragon- I remember once in high school when I was researching Stephen King that his daughter Naomi had asked her Father why he never wrote anything that she could read. So Stephen King wrote a fairy tale for his daughter. The book is amazingly beautiful, a great adventure and my favorite book that I have ever read which is saying a lot because I read A LOT of books and nothing will ever compare to this amazing story.
2. The Ruins by Scott Smith- This is the best scary book I have ever read. Smith is an incredible storyteller and his words weave an incredible world of terror where it is difficult to put the book down while reading it. The characters are complex, the story is exciting and the fact that this man has only written 2 books is such a shame!!
3. Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg- Flagg creates entire worlds within her novels. This novel takes place in the South and the book is filled with rich lively characters. Daisy Fay is the little girl that the book is about and the story just talks about her and it is so funny. This is a great happy book, a great beach read and a great book to cuddle up under some blankets and enjoy. It’s such a joyful experience!
4. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg-This is an amazing children’s book that begins with a modern day myth and then the book transgresses into a series of gorgeous pictures and each picture has a sentence that evokes the imagination into another world.
5. The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub-I love this book. I read it over and over again in high school. The child Jack in the book is one of the noblest characters to ever grace the page. I always said that if I had a son one day I’d name him Jack after Jack Sawyer in the Talisman. It’s a great adventure about a 12 year old boy that travels across the country shifting between two worlds on a quest to find a magical Talisman to save his mother’s life.
6. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt-This book is so beautiful it’s like the most beautiful song you’ve ever heard. This book tells the story of a little girl that meets a family that has drank from a mystical spring so they will never grow old. This book makes me feel like a perfect fall day, that’s how wonderful and perfect this sweet tale is.
7. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold- Ok definitely the heaviest book on my list and I was wary to ever read this book thinking why would I possibly enjoy a book so sad that the subject matter is so intense? Well even with the intense subject material this is the sweetest story about life and death and a true story about the ultimate hero and villain. I was so immersed in this book I felt like Susie was someone I loved and lost and her Father was the most loving man ever. The bonds of family and the love between Susie and her father are so strong that it makes the tragedy in the novel something able to deal with. I never thought I could read about such a thing but Alice Sebold wrote such an amazing novel.
8. The Giver by Lois Lowery- I love imagining what the world could be like in a dystopian or post apocalyptic state and the fact that there is an incredibly well written children’s book about this type of society is a dream come true. This book…every page…is amazing! I gave it to my Mom for Christmas a couple of years ago and I told her “You don’t even understand, this will change your life,” Yes it’s that amazing.
9. Books of Blood Volume 1 to 6 by Clive Barker- A master of horror this ginormous book has enough creepy tales to satisfy the most avid horror fans. I absolutely devoured this book. I carried it around with me at work and people were like “What in the world are you reading?” Because I had to carry the huge book with both my arms and I’d respond with “Oh I’m just reading the best book ever!”
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky-A quirky lovely little book that is something you just can’t put down. This novel takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions and man do you love the main character in this story. It’s a beautiful modern and hip new classic.