DVD DoubleHeader : two movies that will SCARE the SH*T out of you!!!

I just love the new packaging of DiBiDis:

Blu-Ray, baby!!!

Much has been said about M.Night's rapid descent
into mediocrity after his THE SIXTH SENSE masterpiece;

be that as it may, and
despite the waterlogged fiasco that was Lady in the Water,

I'm not shy to say that I remain a Shyamalan loyalist:
Unbreakable and The Village will always be my favorites.

THE HAPPENING might be the shortest and least complicated
of his films; running at less than 90 minutes,
the movie is almost like a parable;
a simple cautionary tale about protecting our environment.


Pretty simple, true,
but damn scary as well.


There are several M. Night trademark "gulat!" scenes
that made me jump out of my seat, and the
perfectly eerie score by James Newton Howard
drove me to cover my eyes with my hands.

I'm pretty certain that the writer/director
was influenced in no small way by War of the Worlds,
Stephen King's The Stand, and other apocalyptic dramas.

As a matter of fact,
the first scenes of The Happening seem to be lifted
directly off the pages of King's 2006 bestseller, CELL.



"The event that came to be known as The Pulse began at 3:03 p.m.,
eastern standard time, on the afternoon of October 1.
The term was a misnomer, of course,
but within ten hours of the event,
most of the scientists capable of pointing this out
were either dead or insane. The name hardly mattered, in any case.
What mattered was the effect.



At three o'clock on that day,
a young man of no particular importance to history came walking —
almost bouncing — east along Boylston Street in Boston.
His name was Clayton Riddell.
There was an expression of undoubted contentment on his face
to go along with the spring in his step.

Clay's attention was attracted by the tinkle of an ice cream truck.
It was parked across from the Four Seasons Hotel
(which was even grander than the Copley Square)

Three kids were clustered around the window,
bookbags at their feet, waiting to receive goodies.
Behind them stood a woman in a pants suit with a poodle on a leash...



The woman in the power suit raised the hand holding the leash
and plugged a long-nailed finger into her free ear.

Clay winced, fearing for her eardrum.
He imagined drawing her: the dog on the leash,
the power suit, the fashionably short hair...
and one small trickle of blood from around the finger in her ear.



Then there came another cry from the Common,
not a human one this time but something between
a surprised yelp and a hurt yowl.

Somewhere — it sounded like maybe around the corner on Newbury Street —
something exploded.




Pixie Dark cried out, ''Who are you? What's happening?''

At the sound of her friend's voice,
Pixie Light whipped her bloody head around.
Blood dripped from the short dagger-points of hair
overhanging her forehead.
Eyes like white lamps peered from blood-dappled sockets.

Pixie Dark looked at Clay, her eyes wide.
''Who are you?'' she repeated...

and then: ''Who am I?''"



See what I mean?
King should receive Royalties!!!


Whatever the result of any litigation, if ever,
between the Horror Meisters,

I still highly recommend that,
if you missed it in the theaters,

watch The Happening on "Blu-Ray";
Scary Shit Happens!!!



Remember THE BEACH?

Alex Garland's must-read novel for all beach bums,
which Danny Boyle turned into an excellent film
starring Leonardo DiCaprio?

Well, guess what?


THE RUINS
is the Horror Version of The Beach...
a tropical paradise goes straight to hell.


The movie is 100% true to the scariest book of 2007,
and includes the goriest and bloodiest
amputation and self-mutilation scenes ever.

No wonder Stephen King is a fan!!!




from www.ew.com:

Stephen King's review of The Ruins


When I heard that Scott Smith was publishing a new novel this summer,
I felt the way I did when my kids came in an hour or two late
from their weekend dates:

a combination of welcoming relief (thank God you're back)
mingled with exasperation and anger (where the hell have you been?).


Well, it's only a book, you say, and maybe that's true,
but Scott Smith is a singularly gifted writer,
and it seems to me that the twelve years between his debut--

the cult smash A Simple Plan--

and his return this summer with The Ruins is cause for exasperation,
if not outright anger.

Certainly Smith, who has been invisible save for his
Academy Award-nominated screenplay for the film version of A Simple Plan,
will have some 'splainin to do about how he spent his summer vacation.

Make that his last twelve summer vacations.



But enough.
The new book is here, and the question devotees of A Simple Plan
will want answered is whether or not this book generates anything
like Plan's harrowing suspense.

The answer is yes.

THE RUINS is going to be America's literary shock-show this summer,
doing for vacations in Mexico what JAWS did for beach weekends on Long Island.