#the experience of reading it felt more like a suspenseful thriller

[alternativeulster]

it's interesting to see thg having a renaissance bc i was 12 when i read the first book, and found rue to be the character i could most relate to, given that she was my age. katniss felt like a cool older sister that i looked up to. now i'm 22 and reading the series is a completely different experience, katniss is a child and rue is a baby and the whole thing is so much more devastating. so fucked up how getting older recontextualises shit.

[nemoys]

a very long messy review of link click (season 2)

alright so reading through a bunch of (mostly negative) reviews of the season thus far i've come to my own conclusions over how this season felt, and i really feel like addressing them since i personally feel like it deserves recognition (and rightful criticism) within certain aspects. really interested in everyone's takes so lmk whatever you think about all these aspects i'm about to gloss over.

NOTE ; i'm not going to be talking about the art direction or OSTs . i believe those have been nothing short of phenomenal and i feel like we can all universally agree over that

1) tonal shift : from a more emotionally driven s1, coupled with sprinkles of slice of life moments, we turn to a mostly thriller/mystery plot line. personally, i've always seen this coming. the tonal shift really didn't take me by surprise. with the lg stabbing at the end of season 1 it almost seemed inevitable that the more light hearted aspects of the first season weren't going to happen. more importantly, it was very clear that there was always a higher presence to fight. link click was always meant to be a thriller, this was always the plan, and so i suppose logically i assumed the second season would follow that path. i understand how people might've felt disappointed, or 'robbed', but i don't think the shift was all that shocking quite honestly, it was always set up. link click was never light hearted, even at s1.

the more shocking shift has to be the shift from an emotional, to suspenseful change in writing. the emotional writing in link click has always been the best part of the show and that hasn't changed, the emotionally driven plot lines of s2 (chen bin, ltc/ltx) have been written very well. the suspenseful writing also works. replaces the tear jerkers with an unsettling anxiety, and it's executed relatively well. you can clearly tell that the crew's been experimenting quite a lot with this season, and yes, that's usually what season 2 is for.

2) pacing : now i totally get the criticism in this aspect. in my opinion, the weakest part of s2's been the pacing. with overly drawn out fight scenes, and unnecessarily long recaps, i think the issue has to do with the fact that lc just has a LOT to address, and so it makes us feel less inclined to sit through longer scenes that don't directly advance the plot.

obviously i get that the fight scenes show off a lot of the animation budget #tm and they do look great but the fact that we had way too much time dedicated to a five minute long fighting cutscene in the FIRST episode just made me feel impatient.

3) red herring endings: alright this might be an unorthodox opinion but, aren't red herring cliff hangers a norm in general with these kinds of shows lol. idk i've come to expect the total opposite every time so it doesn't really bother me i guess i'm just used to the medium. not really a lc problem it's a story telling problem in general but that's just marketing i don't know what else to say.

it'd be nice if they followed through but some part of me thinks they're pulling a whole boy who cried wolf situation, eventually they'll pull the trigger when we don't really expect it.

4) shipping/ main trio reconciliations : it's a really serious ongoing situation. i kind of get why the main trio/shiguang don't get a chance to talk things over amongst themselves, it just isn't the time. keep in mind everything that's happening rn is happening continuously, there are no gaps within the days or anything, kind of makes sense that they don't really talk about it. they probably will get to once it's all over, which might be well into s3. again, this was always meant to be a thriller more than it was trio focused. also idk about you guys but i think we actually did get a lot of sweet moments within the trio, cxs and lg, even the sibling dynamic with ql and cxs were really lovely this season.

5) the women: okay i REALLY don't understand the problem here. the women are written well. ql is written FANTASTICALLY and all side characters like ltx and that one red eyed lady i'm forgetting the name of were great too. hell even chen bin's wife was great. i think for a donghua/anime where women are usually given dirt in terms of actually strong writing, lc has always been very solid. their lives do not revolve around the men in the show it just happens to be that men are a part of their lives. they have very distinct personalities and aren't treated like weird objects to gaze at (what a bar lol) but yes i do think the women are written quite dimensionally.

6) unanswered questions : when have linear shows ever answered questions (especially mc based) in season 2?? when has season 2 EVER tied loose ends? when it comes to linear television, season 2's purpose almost always build towards a greater evil/climax. there's a reason why season 2 hasn't answered questions we've had, season 2s in most shows rarely ever do. from what i can tell, with a confirmed s3, i've always expected s2 to simply do its job as a second season and further raise stakes and raise even more questions. i do get the frustration, i get the lack of any backstory, but i want to refrain from making any actual comments over that till every episode's aired ahah, however, im not too mad at it. i just think this show's ride is currently still at an increasing accelerated pace (guys i'm sorry i study physics), things will only be explained once we've once hit the climactic point or go downhill right after. time will tell i guess

Conclusion

overall, i think this season was actually pretty solid. s1 set a very unrealistically high bar, as s1 in my opinion is one of the best seasons in television period. but s2 and s1 shouldn't be compared in the same way, their tone is quite different, and needs to be analysed individually instead. i'll make a complete review once the season is over, but honestly i've come to enjoy the season most when i stop expecting too much out of it. i think people had way too many things they've expected from s2, that were bound to simply never happen.

that said, i do hope the crew takes the valid criticism regarding the pacing (and ig the character focus?) into consideration and implements it well into s3. it's worth noting that i believe nothing was meant to be complete with s2 in the first place.

i've really enjoyed this season, and i'm beyond ecstatic to rewatch it all once it's done airing, in order to properly take it all in. it's had its flaws, more than s1 has had (let's be real s1 had little to none). but that's bound to happen to shows when they head down their linear routes. currently sitting at a 7/10

[minimalist-language-learning]

I finished 『ひと』 !

Now that I've read the last chapter of 『ひと』 I want to share my thoughts:

Story

I have mixed feelings. Slice of life stories are nice and relaxing to read from time to time but, unfortunately, I struggled to motivate myself to continue reading. I can see the value of this kind of story, however, I missed interesting twists, unusual events, challenges that the main character needs to overcome, etc. (=anything that would make me curious) To be fair, it's not that the main character doesn't has any goals nor problems, far from it. But they are so … normal. I usually prefer interesting and exciting stories. Mystery, action, suspense, thriller… you name it. That's why slice of life is a bit boring for my taste.

However, this is just my personal taste and has nothing to do with the quality of the book itself! Although it was not a page turner for me, it's not that I dislike the story. I think it's a nice slice of life story.

The first chapter introduces the protagonist, his difficult life situation, his past and several other characters. The books reveals gradually more and more details about the protagonist and other characters in a natural way. I liked the pleasant writing style and storytelling.

To me, the story and characters felt very realistic. It was not like the dramatic, exciting and exaggerated stories I'm used to (and usually prefer). Reading this book rather feels like watching normal people like you and me living their normal life: You learn about their struggles, see how they are building relationships and how they are trying to find their way in life.

Most of the time I had the impression that the main character didn't know what to do with his life (I think many people can relate to that). He didn't have much confidence in himself and his abilities. In chapter 3, things changed a bit thanks to people around him. They encouraged him to believe in his abilities which opened new paths for him (I'm very vague here to avoid spoilers). I was curious which path the main character will choose.

During the last chapter, the protagonist made some surprising decisions. It seemed like he became a bit more confident and optimistic and finally realized what is important to him at this point in life. Especially the last page was a big surprise for me.

It's a bit sad, though. The end made me more curious what will happen next than the other chapters before.

Difficulty

The level of difficulty was okay. I had to look up many words and didn't understand every detail but most of the time I was able to follow the story. Only scenes with descriptions of different kinds of meals and other cooking and work related things were quite difficult because of my lack of vocabulary in these areas.

I think this novel is a bit difficult but not too hard to read. Compared to other novels, most sentences are surprisingly short. So even though there were words I didn't know the sentences were not very complicated.

I was able to follow the story but I felt that I missed lots of nuances that are important to really understand the appeal of the story. At this point, I've read two or three books where I had the same feeling. In other books, this doesn't matter too much. Understanding what is happening is usually enough to enjoy the book. But there are books where I have this vague feeling that following the story itself is not enough. That's why reading these books felt ... unsatisfying. I'm not sure how to describe it. Did you experience something similar?

Anyway, I still have a lot to learn. And since I'm not a big fan of slice of life stories, please take my thoughts with a grain of salt. I just described how I personally experienced reading the book at my current level. This genre may not be my cup of tea but I think it's a nice story that makes you think about life.

[rruhlreviews]

Book Review - The Shining by Stephen King

This is the first Stephen King novel I’ve read, and fittingly, I read it during the largest snowstorm I’ve seen in a few years—though not nearly as severe as the blizzards that entrap the Torrance family in the Overlook. It was an excellent introduction to his body of work. Since I write gothic horror, reading The Shining has helped me to learn more about the broader canon of the subgenre, especially since my experience thus far has primarily been the foundational stories of the nineteenth century, such as Carmilla and the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The Shining, written and set in 1977, enhanced my horror experience as I had a closer cultural connection to the fears explored in the story. Small details down to the sad song Seasons in the Sun on the radio made the threats feel close to home. I believe this is why it had such mass appeal, as a reinvigorated take on a classic subgenre. Divorce, generational trauma, economic depression, and the undercurrent of racial relations are easy for the contemporary reader to connect with, and this is still true almost fifty years later in 2024.

Regardless of the year of setting, The Shining contains the hallmark elements of gothic horror: an isolated location, missed opportunities for escape, loss of sanity, and haunting. The characters not only physically trapped in the Overlook, but emotionally trapped with each other, and it’s the latter that makes the story captivating. Jack fears becoming his father, Wendy fears becoming her mother, and both fear upsetting their son with a divorce, which keep them entangled in their failing marriage. Through the narrative, their resentment for each other is as palpable as the steam building up in the boiler, a ticking time bomb. This is what I consider to be the most masterful element of the novel and the reason it remains so popular: a sense of subtle, creeping dread and psychological tension.

The first 250 pages were difficult for me to remain interested in, if I’ll be honest, but I kept reading because of the little hints. I could not put the book down for the last 200 pages. My own gothic novel has a slower pace, and something I had been recently struggling with was feeling like I needed more glamour and action to convey dread, but The Shining is titillatingly creepy with a thousand little threads that weave together in a web to ensnare the reader’s curiosity. The introduction of the story teases a climax that is paid off in full at the end. In addition to the main suspense around “redrum,” the recurring symbol of the wasps stood out to me. The first major supernatural occurrence at the Overlook was the resurrection of the hive, Jack connects the wasp nest with his abusive father and the cycle of trauma, and the entity dying at the end is compared to a swarm. The novel is neatly bookended, starting with Wendy and Danny together in a normal day, and ending with Wendy and Danny together in a new type of normal. I do personally prefer horror stories with hope at the end.

After gaining experience with formulaic mysteries and thrillers—which I do enjoy, don’t get me wrong—I love a suspenseful novel that is not predictable. Despite knowing nothing was going to allow the family to leave the Overlook, there were times I had hope Jack would snap out of it, and I really thought it wouldn’t be possible—but then he did at the very end to complete his goal of saving his family. I could not predict if Dick was going to make it to Colorado and survive to the end of the novel, and that perilous journey up the Rockies in a blizzard may be one of the most harrowing things I’ve ever read—and he fought not only the winter, but racial profiling. Another touch of realism to bring the fear home. I was convinced Wendy and Jack were going to kill each other, but Jack was the only one not to escape the Overlook. The novel kept me guessing and I felt real fear and disgust, especially when the dead woman in the tub was first revealed and when Jack was hunting Wendy in the scene made famous by the movie. A successful horror story indeed. My hope for my own writing is to make a reader feel such raw emotion and concern for a character.

As for criticism, I’m unsure how I felt about the third person omniscient point of view. I believe we needed all the viewpoints offered to get a full picture of the story told, but at times, the perspective seemed to shift midsentence and the style wasn’t the most readable. From a gender lens, something I could’ve gone without was how the novel paused to mention what every woman’s chest felt or looked like. It’s not unexpected for a male author in the seventies but it did take me out of the narrative. If I had a shot every time the word “nipple” appeared, I probably would have about five shots, which is, in my humble opinion, too many for a story without a romantic focus.

If The Shining was written by an unknown author in 2024, I feel like it wouldn’t have been allowed to have such a slow start or have a length of 500 pages. The market has changed since 1977 for an audience with a much shorter attention span. The first page is Jack’s dislike for his new boss. It doesn’t have the hook demanded by modern readers. Yet the first chapter foreshadows the rest of the novel, and right away, we know Jack will try to kill his family like the former caretaker. The narrative may meander at times like a mountain road, but it delivers. King keeps his promises to the audience in The Shining, which is what makes the book and him as an author so successful.

[she-karev]

📚Book Review📚

5/5 Stars! ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“The problem with books is that they end. They seduce you. They spread their legs to you and pull you inside. And you go deep and leave your possessions and your ties to the world at the door and you like it inside and you don’t want for your possessions or your ties and then, the book evaporates. You turn the page and there is nothing and we are both crying.”

Here is my first book of 2024 and the first monthly book review I will officially start today. For the month of February AKA the month of Valentine’s Day, I decided to read a book that accurately represents my love life ha-ha. I just have one word for this book…wow. And that wow is an acronym for Wow Oh Wow. I bought this book last Tuesday and I haven’t put it down ever since. It was so enticing that I read it everywhere I went, in school, in bed, at the hair salon, even at my cousin’s baby shower! It took me 7 days to finish all 422 pages and it was worth it! Don’t worry there will be NO SPOILERS ahead for those that didn’t read the book or see the show.

I could lie and tell you I read the book before seeing the TV series but I didn’t. Regardless, that didn’t stop the rollercoaster suspense I rode while reading this thriller. Because that’s what it was like to read it from the point of view of a narcissistic stalker. Joe Goldberg was more unstable, unpredictable, and delusional in the book than he was in the show. At least in the show you could see the super handsome Penn Badgley and not be as creeped out as you should’ve been. It’s different from the book because there is no A-List actor to ogle over there’s just a man who invades the first pretty girl he sees come into his shop. Yet the way he charms Beck in the book is the same for us because he has us convinced, he is the last true romantic in New York. There were times when I felt crazy like Joe and obsessed with Beck like him and I almost believed that his actions were justified when he was committing them.

It’s rare to entrap the readers into the mind of their characters and I applaud the author, Caroline Kepnes, for achieving it. She made us experience the other side of what most women today experience in this modern and technological world. Social media essentially makes us targets for people like Joe Goldberg and it’s easy to write it when it’s happening to us but from the person that does it? It takes talent and perception.

The way Joe tells the story makes it seem romantic in his viewpoint but it’s suspenseful to read it and wonder what his next move will be. I was reading it anxious of when he was gonna get caught and the pacing of it was so good. His moods were unpredictable and I never knew if he was gonna kill someone, he felt was unworthy of Beck or just because he was ready to snap from Beck ignoring him.

As far as thrillers go I highly recommend this one if you want a modern The Collector. If you think the TV series will compensate for the book, think again because you don’t know what you’re missing. Pick it up and give it a try if you’re looking for a spine-chilling masterpiece because that is exactly what the great Caroline Kepnes gave me this month.

[theflixdiary]

Nerve (2016) directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman

age rating : 13+ genre: thriller, action, adventure duration: 1h 36m country: USA language: English screenplay: Jessica Sharzer, Jeanne Ryan

major cast: Emma Roberts, Dave Franco, Miles Heizer, Juliette Lewis, Emily Meade

plot summary: Vee (Emma Roberts) joins Nerve, a viral online game where players complete dares assigned by anonymous “watchers,” but soon realises there’s no turning back.

if you enjoyed this post, don't forget to show some loves by leaving comments / likes / reblog / help me to spread the words. follow me for more reviews!! ❤︎❤︎

read my thought below (may contain spoiler):

THIS. GOTTA. BE. ONE. OF. THE. MOST. THRILLING. MOVIES. I. HAVE. EVER. WATCHED! seriously, Nerve is like someone took my everyday thrill of a social media feed, injected it with adrenaline, and set it loose on the big screen. it’s the ultimate combo of a pulse-pounding plot, gorgeous lighting, and edge-of-your-seat suspense that hooks me right from the start and never lets go. honestly, I didn’t even take a bathroom break – that’s how gripping this movie was. (yep, too much info, but this film deserves the confession!) let’s talk about the concept: an underground online dare game where people are players or watchers, and as the dares get riskier, so does the payout. it’s basically a social experiment on hyper-drive. honestly, it gave me big Pokémon Go vibes, but instead of finding cute little creatures, players here are thrown into real-life dares, as everyone around them is glued to their screens, watching the madness unfold. the digital, neon lighting palette? on point! it adds this incredible, almost unreal vibe that suits the high-stakes tech world the movie plays in. it’s like the movie dared the lighting team to bring out the energy of the online dares, and they delivered.

now, Emma Roberts and Dave Franco – massive props! they nailed their roles. Vee’s relatable “good girl stepping out of her comfort zone” mixed with Ian’s mystery man vibe is pure gold. their chemistry? electric. and it’s not just the two leads – the whole cast somehow makes this wild concept feel so real and relatable. I was all in, invested in every single twist and risky dare, and trust me, there’s no shortage of nail-biting moments. the suspense is a beast in Nerve. sure, I might have a guess about where it’s headed, but even then, the way it’s all laid out keeps me glued to the screen. I felt like I was right there with them, heart racing and hands clinging to the armrest. the entire setup just screams “don’t look away, or you’ll miss something epic!” I loved that it captures how technology messes with us – it makes me think about how we’re all glued to our screens and where that can take us if we’re not careful. like I said, Pokémon Go vibes, but with a wild edge.

poster credit: IMDb edited using canva

[burningdarkfire]

books i read in apr 2024

[these are all short + casual reviews - feel free to ask about individual ones if u want my full thoughts or ask for my goodreads!!] 

rosencrantz & guildenstern are dead - tom stoppard ★★★★★ (play)

i watched this performed live with billy boyd and dominic monaghan as the leads and tbh thought it was "just fine" but being able to read it at my own pace ... the devastation really set in 😩

delicious in dungeon vols. 4-7 - ryoko kui ★★★★☆ (fantasy manga)

finally overtook the anime and i'm really looking forward to getting into the meat of the story!

exit west - mohsin hamid ★★★★☆ (contemporary, magical realism)

loved the writing style and the perspective, it's very beautiful and very human

close to death - anthony horowitz ★★★★☆ (mystery)

one of the stronger installments in this series. i always enjoy a story-within-a-story kind of frame, however loose!

none of this is true - lisa jewell ★★★★☆ (thriller)

extremely readable and genuinely thrilling book with a disappointingly weak ending 😔

vigilance - robert jackson bennett ★★★★☆ (dystopian)

nothing particularly new or fresh about a gun-obsessed america but RJB does know how to make a point and stick to it

penance - eliza clark ★★★☆☆ (contemporary)

ostensibly is a critique of true crime although imo it mostly just reads like. true crime. possibly i am not familiar enough to pick up on the nuance. but also, hilariously, it's at least a little bit about teenage girls who are socialized about tumblr and that really lent a flavour to my reading experience

autobiography of red - anne carson ★★★☆☆ (contemporary, verse, mythological re-telling)

started this as an audiobook and could not follow it at all - switch to paper to finish but. hmmm. i think it just needs more out of me than i currently have to give

green dot - madeleine gray ★★★☆☆ (contemporary)

i didn't know this was just a book about a young woman who is the affair partner of a married man but it really is just that. probably fine if you like that sort of thing but i don't so i was bored

this wretched valley - jenny kiefer ★★★☆☆ (horror)

light on the tension and suspense, heavy on the gore and suffering. not much in the way of themes or any deeper storytelling

everyone you hate is going to die - daniel sloss ★★★☆☆ (memoir, essays)

listened to this on audio and it felt more like a podcast than anything. sometimes funny but often just rambling and crude

lobizona - romina garber ★★☆☆☆ (YA fantasy)

pacing is poor and it reads much younger than it's marketed. it also reads a lot like baby's first trans narrative. i think this would be a great book if it'd been written for pre-teens instead!

[DNF] minor feelings - cathy park hong ★★☆☆☆ (memoir, essays)

listened to this on audio. racism is real but so are annoying people 😭

[mediaevalmusereads]

Ace of Spades. By Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. Feiwel and Friends, 2021.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Genre: YA thriller

Series: N/A

Summary: Welcome to Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter, Aces, is bringing two students' dark secrets to light.

Talented musician Devon buries himself in rehearsals, but he can't escape the spotlight when his private photos go public. Head girl Chiamaka isn't afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power.

Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they're planning much more than a high-school game...

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: racism (including use of the n-word), underage drinking, distribution of a sex tape featuring a minor, homophobia (including forced outing), bullying, drug use, hit and run car accident, PTSD, stalking

OVERVIEW: I believe I was reading a post about dark academia when I stumbled onto this novel. Thrillers aren't typically my genre, but I was promised a critique of institutional racism in the education system, so I picked it up. Overall, I think this book was very well done; it was quick, it had high stakes, and it had characters that you really felt for, even with all their flaws. The main reason why I'm giving it 4 stars is because I felt the ending was rushed and relied on way too many coincidences. But other than that, I enjoyed the reading experience.

WRITING: Àbíké-Íyímídé's prose is gripping and easy to read. I felt like it balanced showing and telling well, and it moved at a pace that felt neither too slow nor too quick. Dialogue felt natural, and though there are some instances of slang or pop culture references, I don't think they'll be too much of a drag on the writing as the book ages.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows Devon and Chiamaka, the only two Black students at an elite private high school. Devon and Chiamaka find themselves targeted by a mysterious figure named Aces who leaks their secrets to the student body via text. These secrets threaten to get the two kicked out of school and denied acceptance to college, so the two team up to take Aces down before their futures are destroyed.

Overall, I think Àbíké-Íyímídé did a great job crafting suspense. The bullying (for lack of a better word) is not your typical everyday harassment (not that bullying is ever "normal" or insignificant), but life and future-threatening actions that make the stakes incredibly high. There also aren't a lot of dull moments where characters are sitting around; it felt like every scene was purposeful, whether to advance the plot or develop character relationships, so even though this book was over 400 pages, it moved quickly and kept me engaged.

The only part of the plot that I didn't think was well-done was the ending. Without spoiling anything, I will say that I think the ending relies on too many coincidences to happen - things that are outside the characters' control. I also felt like after everything was done, there was a sense of finality and security that just didn't seem quite believable, and though I don't want the characters to be tormented for the rest of their lives, I do think things ended a little too suddenly and neatly.

CHARACTERS: Devon, one of our protagonists, is sympathetic in that he struggles with trying to belong while also feeling guilty about his privilege. Devon comes from a low-income neighborhood and attends school on a scholarship; his mother barely has enough money to cover bills and fees, and Devon sometimes resorts to drug dealing to help out. Devon's perspective is incredibly insightful for the way it examines the struggles of Black kids from low-income families to fit in with white kids; not only does Devon have to contend with feeling like an outsider, but he has to confront those from his own neighborhood who resent him for his opportunities.

TL;DR: Ace of Spades is a dark academia thriller that critiques the systematic racism present in the education system. While the ending left a lot to be desired, the complex protagonists, quick pace, and high stakes meant that I was highly engaged, and I look forward to more from this author in the future.

Chiamaka, our other protagonist, offers a different perspective. She is a biracial girl from a wealthy family, and she is highly ambitious. She uses the people around her to get what she wants, and to be honest, I kind of liked her ruthless pursuit of her goals. Of course, there are moments when Chiamaka's behavior is problematic, but I loved watching her put her mind and her scheming to work.

Belle and Terrell were the biggest surprises, and I really liked how Àbíké-Íyímídé used them to A.) give our protagonists a confidante, and B.) explore tangential themes such as queerness, education and class, and family.

Still, I think this book would have had a greater emotional impact if a little more was done with certain characters - namely Jack, Andre, and some of then teachers/staff at the school. While the way they are written now is fine, I think I would have had a bigger reaction to their arcs if they were more involved with the plot earlier on. I feel the importance of these characters to the protagonists are told to us rather than shown, and we were expected to care about changes to their behavior before it was established (emotionally) what they meant to the protagonists.

[paolojcruz]

Reeling In The Years

REVIEWS : GAMES

Sleuth your way through stylized retro art films in Sam Barlow’s Immortality, an unapologetically high-concept FMV mystery

originally written for X-Box Outsider, August 2022

Immortality is the latest full-motion video (FMV) mystery by developer Sam Barlow, and his team at Half Mermaid Productions. The premise is unapologetically high-concept: actress Marissa Marcel starred in three unreleased movies, each in a different genre, in 1968, 1970, and 1999. Nobody has seen her since her last film was made. The player’s task is to watch clips from her movies to piece together what really happened to her. Aside from the unedited production footage, the game includes (fictional) behind-the-scenes clips, rehearsals, table reads, and screen tests.

Content advisory: Immortality features potentially upsetting subject matter. The game launches with a content warning that may not fully prepare audiences for more intense parts of the experience. No spoilers are provided in this review, but we felt it was necessary to highlight this.

All this archival sleuthing happens on a grid interface that simulates a vintage Moviola editing machine. However, unlike their analog counterparts, these virtual film strips can be easily reorganized by production date or the order that the scenes appear in each movie.

To unlock new film clips, you’re challenged to search for visual elements that are shared with other reels: cast members, production crew, props, and even lighting styles. This uses a standard point-and-click mechanic, familiar to graphic adventures and hidden object games, using a cursor to find “hot spots” in a static frame.

In that sense, Immortality clearly builds on many of the investigative gameplay elements from Barlow’s previous releases. Her Story (2015) had single-use keywords as a way to search for new footage. Meanwhile, Telling Lies (2020) used an in-game timer to ramp up the tension. That makes it easy to recommend Immortality for anyone who’s already a fan of his work. However, the shared aspects with Barlow’s earlier titles mean that Immortality is unlikely to win over cynics towards FMV narrative games.

Then who else will Immortality appeal to? Well, for one thing, the three movies have major arthouse cineaste vibes. With stylized aesthetics matching each genre, Immortality seems like an ideal gateway title for middlebrow film enthusiasts who don’t ordinarily play video games.

Ambrosio (1968)—Marcel’s screen acting debut—is a Gothic tragedy set in a repressive Spanish monastery that gradually explores more overtly paranormal elements. The film draws on giallo (Italian pulp cinema) tropes and the blasphemous surrealism of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain. Minsky (1970) is a noir detective procedural against the backdrop of New York’s decadent art scene, co-written by Marcel. The cinematography and production design are a heady mix of post-hippie excess and vintage cop show gravitas. Two of Everything (1999) marks the end of Marcel’s long hiatus, and takes its cues from psychological suspense thrillers like Christopher Nolan’s Memento and Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream.

As a reviewer in my early 40s, who first rented these films in college, I hadn’t even considered that they had a distinct period-specific look, until I played through these segments. Granted, some of the visual symbolism feels a bit obvious: crosses, snakes, and forbidden fruits. But these on-the-nose elements also serve the gameplay, making the subtler clues more accessible and recognizable for less genre-savvy players.

All three segments of the game are held together by the performances of the uncredited actress who plays Marissa Marcel. Throughout frequent changes of wardrobe and hairstyle, Marcel is shown to be gifted at internalizing the nuances of her roles. There’s a veritable thrill in figuring out when Marcel has stopped being in character after a take ends, and how she puts elements of her off-camera personality into each part.

Barlow’s team does not shy away from presenting the uglier, retrogressive elements of the Hollywood studio system, as disclosed in the game’s extensive content warning. A slimy producer gets handsy with actresses. A director openly treats his crew with casual lewdness. The cast are encouraged to flirt with each other inappropriately, in the interest of screen chemistry. On-set safety appears woefully lax.

It can get especially difficult in scenes featuring carnal acts by the fictional cast. Without the help of modern intimacy coordinators, there’s an uncomfortable ambiguity between in-character ravishing and the cast members’ personal intentions. This applies to consensual love-making scenes as much as fictionalized sexual assault.

It’s clear that Half Mermaid designed these moments to be thought-provoking, but the possible end result is that Immortality can be a fraught, unsettling play experience and it’s an unfortunate crease on what would otherwise be a superior example of the game’s intended genre and style.

But on the whole, Immortality is a great example of how to push the boundaries of an FMV narrative game. The match cut feature and Moviola interface are the perfect mechanics to address the persistent critique that FMV games are ‘just’ a collection of non-linear cut scenes. Moreover, they work in the service of the larger investigative meta-arc about Marissa Marcel’s disappearance.

It’s almost impossible to discuss exactly how that mystery unfolds without spoiling crucial plot details. However, if you’re familiar with non-interactive research-based mysteries—like Archive 81 on Netflix or Elizabeth Kostova’s novel The Historian—you’ll probably guess that things eventually get spooky for the player-as-archivist. There may be sinister forces in play that are considerably more powerful than a smarmy Italian studio executive.

After logging nearly 18 hours of play, with 70% of achievements unlocked, there were still a handful of lingering uncertainties. Sure, I had answered the key question: what happened to Marissa Marcel? But the crux of Immortality is really figuring out how and why it happened. That’s an experience I would handily recommend for anyone who enjoys narrative games.

This game was reviewed on PC using a pre-launch review code provided by developer and publisher Half Mermaid.

[billconrad]

Writing Saved My Writing

    I was miserable four weeks ago. It started with bad news about my father. He has Parkinson’s, and the disease is getting much worse. My friend has diabetic health issues and is not doing well. One of my big weekly highlights is to go to the swap meet. I discovered that the land was sold, and their last day would be December. I enjoy watching movies, and the Netflix DVD service ended that week. The final straw was a critical book review. From the text, it was clear that the reviewer did not read more than a few pages, but they still left a dreadful review.

    It was a miserable time, and I moped around for two days. Fortunately, I had a solution. When I get down in the dumps, I have developed a routine. It involves bike rides, hiking, walking, and talking to friends and family. This self-analysis inspired me to make a significant change.

    It was time to stop writing. It had not succeeded and was taking time away from essential activities. As I grappled with the logistics of shutting down my writing empire, I realized it was Tuesday. On Wednesday, I typically publish an article.

    I was in no mood to create something epic, and I tersely edited a mostly ready article. (We Don’t Have to Write About It). The resulting article was not my best, which confirmed that I should stop writing entirely.

    This line of thinking upset me further, and I got into a tangent about an old grade school friend, Marco Zirino. “Wow, I should write something about that guy. But this is not a usual topic.” I put my negatives aside and wrote all about Marco. The words flew onto my screen, inspiring me to develop many new topics.

    After four solid hours, I noticed something unexpected. I felt better. What about my father and friend? I was not happy about their situation, but I was no longer depressed. And that painful review? It hurt, but I created something from thin air (the Marco Zirino article). How many people can do that? Was it good? The article received many compliments, proving it was a solid accomplishment.

    Writing was supposed to be a hobby and not a lifeline. Yes, it is creative, but I never expected it to be a lifesaver. That was something new. What was going on? The same thing that has always been going on. I like to write. Why? It provides a great sense of freedom, is rewarding, and is an excellent outlet for my thoughts. Plus, I learn from my mistakes and grow as a person.

    The core of my problem was that I had been treating writing time like a job. This meant I had expectations, goals, and deadlines. This experience taught me to take a step back and get more enjoyment. This will help my mental outlook, readers, family, and friends.

    You’re the best -Bill

    November 01, 2023

    Hey book lovers, I published four. Please check them out:

    Interviewing Immortality. A dramatic first-person psychological thriller that weaves a tale of intrigue, suspense, and self-confrontation.

    Pushed to the Edge of Survival. A drama, romance, and science fiction story about two unlikely people surviving a shipwreck and living with the consequences.

    Cable Ties. A slow-burn political thriller that reflects the realities of modern intelligence, law enforcement, department cooperation, and international politics.

    Saving Immortality. Continuing in the first-person psychological thriller genre, James Kimble searches for his former captor to answer his life’s questions.

    These books are available in soft-cover on Amazon and eBook format everywhere.

[keanthegooseman]

The Lost Symbol | Series Review

Series: Robert Langdon (Book 3)

Author: Dan Brown

Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Crime Fiction, Suspense

Publication Date: September 15, 2009

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

"To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books."

Robert Langdon, a brilliant Harvard symbologist, suddenly gets a call from an old friend, Peter Solomon, summoning him to Washington D.C. to deliver a lecture in the Capitol Building. When Langdon arrives, however, he quickly realizes that something is amiss, Peter has been kidnapped. Minutes later, a disturbing object is discovered, with 5 symbols engraved on it. Recognizing it as an ancient invitation, Langdon's only hope to rescue his mentor is to follow wherever this invitation leads him.

This isn't the first time I've read one of Dan Brown's novels, however the last time was when I was very young so I'm basically going into this book blind. I will say that I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed reading this though, because I remember not enjoying Brown's books, although to be fair, age comes with change. Although I should've read one of the earlier books in the series, I'm glad that "The Lost Symbol" doesn't require a prior reading of them, though there are some references to the previous entries.

The most prominent part about "The Lost Symbol" was the tidbits of info about history, science, architecture, art, religion, geography, etc. It was really interesting to read, was probably what drew me into the story, and seeing how it all fits into the story. It kinda felt like a social studies lesson, to be honest. As to whether or not said pieces of trivia are factual or completely fictitious I do not know, but I do know that it sounds believable enough to give off the impression that it's true. The book also bounces around between different characters' perspectives, which I felt made reading the book a more enjoyable read.

Dan Brown's ability to pique your curiosity and have you turn each page with interest truly is amazing. I found myself looking forward to the next chapter each and every time. My favorite part of the story is Mal'akh, the main antagonist, chasing Katherine Solomon, younger sister of Peter, inside of a pitch-black lab called "Pod 05". I'd feel my heart pulsing quickly throughout, and seeing the perspectives of both hunter and hunted makes it all the more fun. I didn't find any glaring problems with the story while reading, but in hindsight, there were a couple of problems that impacted the quality of the story. 

The bulk of the writing was made up of Langdon or some other character reciting trivia from wikipedia relevant to the plot. While the exposition was interesting, it resulted in less time for the story to progress, and the book ends up becoming half thriller-mystery novel/half history lesson. Personally, I enjoyed it, but if you're looking for a novel and not a sudden trip back to school, you may want to think twice before reading this.

The characters, in my opinion, were good, but there were some moments where they were behaving out-of-character. An example being  Robert Langdon acting like he isn't used to strange events happening, even though the book makes references to his past adventures. One thing surprised me however, and that was how easily I found myself becoming attached to minor characters that we only get to see for a small portion of the book. In general, I found the characters to be both believable, and inconsistent.

Even if "The Lost Symbol" suffers from inconsistent characters and being more encyclopedia than fiction novel, it makes up for it with a great reading experience that keeps you paying attention. If you enjoy thrilling mysteries, learning about history, or just want to read something fun, this should be on your radar. After I finish reading some of the books in my TBR, I'll be sure to read the other entries in the series.

[bespokeredmayne]

Return to the dark side

The Good Nurse is certainly Eddie Redmayne’s grimmest portrayal in more than a decade, and there has been a flurry of false assumptions in the media that exploring the worst in human nature is new territory for the Oscar-winning actor.

The group of six fans who gathered by Zoom last week to talk to him knew better — were familiar not just with Marius Pontmercy, Stephen Hawking and Newt Scamander but Alex Forbes, Eddie Kreezer and Antony Baekeland. 

And they couldn’t be more supportive of seeing Eddie — as he put it, “go to extremes” — and delve into the complexity and challenges of his most recent projects of Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club on stage and this true-crime thriller from director Tobias Lindholm, told with shades of Hitchcock suspense. 

Armed with advance screener access courtesy of Netflix, the group — including two nurses from his fandom — were ready with their questions. They were rewarded with insights into how the film was shot, how Eddie’s stunning scenes in the latter part of the film were crafted — and of hearing firsthand Eddie’s exuberance and energy at tackling the role in partnership with Jessica Chastain and Tobias Lindholm, two artists he admires deeply.

The Interview

Eddie: Hello, hello, everybody from all corners of the earth!

Charlotte: …you do have your two nurses on — Marci and Cris from Italy. So we can have some expert analysis.

Eddie: Wow! It’s so nice to speak to you all, and thank you for jumping on. 

Charlotte: Well, thank you, too. We just are thrilled. I think we’ve all kind of chatted, at least online, and this movie has exceeded all of our expectations. The sensitive approach to it, and of course your performance is just unbelievably authentic. 

Eddie: Thank you! Thank you so much. I’ve really enjoyed the promoting of it because it was an amazing experience making the film. It’s rare that you get through a sort of film where everyone is as impassioned about it as each other, so I’m thrilled you guys enjoyed it. 

Charlotte: Well, that’s coming across. It’s really lovely. We’ll go ahead & get started here, and as always, Ivonne can lead with her first question. 

Ivonne: We’ve spoken to you before about the physical preparations for your previous roles – a lot of your previous roles have had physical intricacies, but I felt like The Good Nurse is a very character driven piece, and I felt like your performance has a lot of nuance and a lot of  layers that kind of came to the spotlight but in a very restrained way. So I was just wondering, what was that process like? 

Eddie: It was, one of the things that I loved when I read the script — and the script was my introduction the story – was the enigma of Charlie. The fact that this was Amy’s story, and who was Charlie? The film wasn’t going to allow you to find out the pat reasons for his behavior. I love that even though, of course, as an audience you’re looking for that — for the “why” of it, and Tobias said something actually beautiful: “We’re looking for the ‘why’ in order that we can explain away this person as a monster…’we would never do that’…’he did it because of this.” What was much more complex was actually more the nuance in this man, his own trauma. I loved how stunningly underwritten it was. Krysty Wilson-Cairns had done a piece that really had faith in the actors. So one of the appeals for me, once I started reading about Charlie’s childhood, was about hiding (it) really, and there was a particular naturalism to Tobias’s movies that I had adored. Often his take on things is not the obvious; it’s the oblique. And one of the things I was most excited about was to be in a Tobias Lindholm film. I didn’t feel as if I had worked with this sort of filmmaker. And so it was about doing all the prep — and hiding as much as I could. If that makes sense.

Charlotte: Playing off what Ivonne just asked — because you do put in all this preparation, and you’ve talked about how Charles Graeber’s book had so much rich material, and you talked to Amy Loughren: Not having Cullen’s motivation be obvious — did it free you up in any way, not having that to really explain with your character?

Eddie: As the actor, even if the piece isn’t really explaining the motivation, you have to find a confluence of or accumulate some possibilities. Now he also had mental illness — Amy describes him as having a dissociative personality. So that was the massive insight — that this was two different human beings. But where that was catalyzed felt a lot about his trauma, not only about being abused as a 7-year-old, but also the closeness of the relationship with his mother and how the hospital behaved when his mother died in a car crash and how they couldn’t find (her body) and when they did find it, it was all sort of disrespected. And after having done these insane things in the Navy for many years, when he then came back and trained to be a nurse,  it was that very same hospital where his mother had been brought after the car crash. The fury at that particular place and that system felt fueled. And I’m not saying that that’s the reason at all, but that felt like a strong reason. And so certainly when Jessica or Amy talks about his mother in that final scene, and (he says) ‘They didn’t stop me,’ that idea of the system being the thing that he, in his narcissism, believed was the problem, that was definitely something I was playing with. In relation to the freedom, I did feel freer on this film than I had in a long time, and that had a lot to do with Tobias and Jody (Jody Lee Lipes, the cinematographer) and his lighting that was so dark that it felt at its most real. You didn’t have the sense of the camera crew. You didn’t even feel like you were being observed, and that intimacy with Jessica was wonderful.

Charlotte: Marci, do you want to ask your first question?

Marci: You have told us before about how you do a lot of research and homework in preparing for a roles, and then it sort of disappears into your portrayal. As a trained nurse, I wonder what you learned through your research and from Amy that became embedded in you that helped make your performance so authentic. 

Eddie: Gosh, well through my experiences — I’ve had one particular one in the past couple of years of being by someone’s bedside and watching nurses — I’ve always had extraordinary admiration for nurses. But through the nursing school — a couple of weeks that Jessica and I did with a guy called Joe, a pediatric ICU nurse, we started with the history. I found that riveting, that fact that so many systems come from the late 19th century-early 20th century wars, and how the architecture of hospitals is built up. But also it was basically what it requires for nurses, and what you guys are. You have to be an extraordinary brain. You have to be brilliant at science and maths, and I really felt that because I was really struggling with some of the sort of biological-based stuff that we were doing. The thing that shocked me was the physical — the actual tireless, physical, like what it takes to move bodies, to move the beds around, how extraordinarily tiring CPR is. So the physical elements of it, followed by — and this was something that I’ve witnessed in a hospital — this emotional intelligence that you need, a humanity. You know, sometimes doctors in my experience don’t have that, and you have to be this go-between, between families, between patients at their most vulnerable. So it was those things — the fact that you have to be such a polymath — made my respect for nurses supersede where it already was. There were specific things — like apparently actors get the CPR wrong. You have to have your elbows locked. I’m not a very ‘prop’ actor, so things like attaching the IVs or putting in needles while doing other things — multitasking — were something that I had to come in every morning and practice on the dummies. And I did ping myself a couple of times. But after each take you would get that the director’s and Joe’s feedback. So hopefully we did OK.

Marci: I would say so. It was very authentic.

Chrissie: I did see the film, and I thought it was fantastic. The nuance of your characterisation of Charles Cullen is so spot on, according to Amy (Loughran) at the BFI screening. How did you manage the task without having met him? Was there ever a consideration to try to have you meet him? Is that something you would have wanted, and why or why not?

Eddie: Chrissie, what a cool question. I knew that it wasn’t going to be possible from the outset, particularly because we were going to be started filming at end of COVID so there were all sorts of restrictions. But the more footage I watched of Charlie now, and you can see the 60 Minutes, it did not marry with the man that Amy was describing as this kind, gentle, self-deprecating man. And so I felt it’s been so many years, and it’s almost like he’s lived with his reputation that I felt OK with not meeting him. I did not think necessarily the version I would get from him was…I didn’t want to be manipulated, honestly. That being said, it wasn’t an option. What I did have was all of this footage and voicemails and things from that period, so I worked pretty hard on the specifics of that, and Alex Reynolds (note: his movement coach) and I did a day, and Alex’s genius is managing to articulate something that I can observe and that I can take emotionally into my body. So that was probably the most. The other person was Charles Graeber, who wrote the book, and he spent a lot of time with Charlie Cullen. And he (had) such brilliant insight into the specifics of him. But the overwhelming thing was the real Amy talking about the side of the friend that she loved. That was the biggest score into him. 

Chrissie: Playing such a complex character how did you ensure you looked after yourself whilst filming? It must have been quite draining.

Eddie: My family were here in New York. Jessica’s family were wonderful. The kids were hanging out, and I’m not an actor that brings it home. That being said, 70-80 percent of the movie Charlie was being kind. It was much more intense for Jessica. The heart element — Jessica was sort of pacing around, running around the wards, it was incredibly physically intense on her. But then my family left for the last few weeks, and that was the last moments of the film. That was intense. But still I’m not an actor, I don’t think — I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Hannah — who takes it home with me. Hannah was quite thrilled to lose the voice. Occasionally there could be some practicing, and she found Charlie’s voice pretty creepy.

Chrissie: It was very creepy. Lovely to chat with you.

Eddie: Lovely to talk to you, too.

Charlotte: Cris, if you could ask your first question. 

Cris: Attending a nursing school, I would like to know what you liked most about this job.

Eddie: Gosh, I don’t have the emotional capability to be a nurse. I don’t know how you guys do it. And the feeling I had not just in nursing school but when I heard some of the stories, but particularly when I was in this ICU with a friend a year or two ago, was the emotional connection that you as a a family member feel to the nurse, who you engage with, who you get on with, who is the person who translates things for you that you don’t understand at this moment in which the person you’re with is at their most vulnerable. It feels like your everything. And that feeling when that person goes home and has a couple of days off — and of course they need a couple of days off — but you get a new nurse you have to develop a new relationship with. And it’s so complex. The thing that I learned is that nurses probably have to be extraordinary actors to be able to show that empathy and that compassion to people but also to have a relatively normal life at home. I know there are so many jobs in the services, whether it’s police or psychologist, that I would not be able to do. But I think that idea of how you’re able to cut off is astonishing to me. 

Charlotte: And now we’ll go to Erina in New Zealand, who always tells us what time it is in New Zealand.

Eddie: Yes! What time is it over there?

Erina: It’s actually quite respectable. It’s 6:48 a.m. 

Eddie: What’s that? It’s like an early wake up. 

Erina: Yes. (Laughs) But it’s Friday; it’s in the future. My question is: You really see the transformation of Charlie from the caring friend to the frightening killer in those last few scenes. What was the shooting schedule, and could you actually build to those last transformative scenes? Or did you shoot out of sequence, were you back and forth?

Eddie: Well, the amazing thing was we shot all the exterior scenes out of sequence. But everything that took place in the hospital, they had built this hospital. They had wanted to shoot in a real hospital, but because of COVID obviously that was impossible. So in a business park they built this ward, and…all the background artists were real medical professionals. What it allowed was for us to shoot that main part chronologically. And it was really wonderful because on the page, the friendship and how the friendship unfolds is stunningly underwritten by Krysty. It was about finding the truth of friendship through extreme scenarios, but it was also a workplace thing. It was how to find that organically. And there were moments of improvisation, there were things the actual circumstances brought up, like with the pizza. And Jess and I had known each other for years, but it really was wonderful, it was actually really a lovely period shooting that. And then everything shifted after that, and when we got to the interrogation scenes, I hadn’t actually seen Jess for a couple of days. I’d done the scenes with Noah and Nnamdi, and they had been kept away from me during the process so sort of the first time I’d properly met them was in that scene. Tobias had kept them apart. That was pretty intense, the days shooting the interrogation scene. So when Jess came in the following day, we just gently kept our distances for that last day, and so when she came into the room, it was like an old friend coming back. None of this is ‘Method’ or anything, but it was just a way of trying to find the grace notes, given that we were able to shoot chronologically because it’s so rare that you have.

Erina: That’s like a luxury, so it’s so awesome to hear that they did that. So how great is that?

Eddie. Really great. 

Erina: Thank you, Eddie. I might not get my second question, so…

Eddie: Lovely to speak.

Charlotte: We’re starting on our second round…

Eddie: I’ll give short answers… (laughter)

Charlotte: Well, Ivonne had wanted to ask you about your experience with the K-Pop stars but that question was knocked out, so she’s going to have to ask a serious question now.

Ivonne: Serious question, yeah. When you think of your career as a whole — because there are so many audio-visual media — what would you like your legacy to be?

Eddie: My legacy — oh God, I have no idea. It’s not something I think of. I don’t like to think back in the past, but it was interesting recently at Zurich, they showed me lots of films I’d done in my career, or moments of them, and it was so interesting because for me what it does is take me back to where I was in my own life. It takes me back, like seeing Les Mis takes me back to when Hannah and I had just got together or like, each film comes woven into a life memory. My thing is if I just never underestimate how lucky I am to get to do something I love. It comes with odd, weird things that I have sort of negotiate. But if I just keep to doing it, that’s what I care about. And it’s lovely…I’m going to stop answering (laughs).

Charlotte: This kind of plays off that, my next question does, talking about your past movies. Because we all know that you’ve done these very dark roles in the past, but a lot of people are just kind of discovering you now, and in the last decade or so you’ve definitely played roles that run along the lines of being romantic or heroic — or being a nice guy — certainly not anything this dark. What about The Good Nurse appealed to you, particularly at this time in your career?

Eddie: The interesting thing is that it was six years ago that I was cast in it. This often happens with me, whether it was The Danish Girl — films are such weird things, really. They can take years to happen. This film I was cast in six years, it then moved studios, the financing fell through, then all of our schedules were all over the place, but ultimately I’d say it was two things, three things. It was an extraordinary story that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of given he was perhaps the most prolific serial killer in history. Secondly it was working with Jessica, who I think is one of the greats. Thirdly, I had seen Tobias’ movies, and I adored his films…he felt like a unique filmmaker and whenever you watch his films, you know that you are watching a Tobias Lindholm movie. And I wanted to be in a Tobias Lindholm movie. 

Charlotte: That’s lovely, very simple, too. Marci?

Marci: You and Jessica Chastain were both amazing in this film, and you seem to have great chemistry. What was your favorite part of working with her?

Eddie: My favorite part of working with Jessica was she is a sensational actor. She also has innate confidence, but also loves what she does. She’s an absolute optimist. And she always looking for the best. I am someone who…whenever I read a script, I hear the worst version of it. And she was really good at just having none of it, just pushing me into an optimistic place, which was really wonderful and galvanizing me.

Charlotte: Cris in Italy, your second question?

Cris: What inspired you for the interrogation scene for the last part of the movie ?

Eddie: We hadn’t prepared the interrogation scene. We had worked a lot on the scaffolding of the character up until that point, but that piece — a lot of it was verbatim from the transcript of the trial. But also he had gotten furious in that interrogation, but also there was also a moment a year later when he was in court, when the judge was reading out a pronouncement and Charlie Cullen started screaming this mantra about the judge’s failings, and repeated it again and again and again furiously in court to the extent that he had to be bound and gagged. And I wanted to bring that element into that scene also.

Charlotte: OK, Erina. Ye of little faith, you get to ask your second question (group laughter).

Eddie: I got there, Erina!

Erina: I’ve got to deliver something good now. No pressure! You've played real-life characters in the past - what have you learnt from these other roles that helped you bring the Charlie to life?

Eddie: I still feel every time I get cast in a film, it sort of feels like the first time. I don’t have a specific process, but what I’ve learned — and the real shift in that was Theory of Everything, when I started working whether with vocal coaches or Alex on movement — but realizing it was so odd to prepare a character in a vacuum. I have lots of actor friends who have acting coaches, and I’ve never worked with an acting coach. But that process of having sounding boards, other artists you can play with ideas when you arrive with your director and other actors felt really important to me. All of that technical stuff may just be sort of reassuring to know that you’ve done some prep. Sometimes I don’t even know how useful some of it is. But it’s also it’s part of what I love doing. It’s like with Cabaret, when I went to Paris for this theatre school, LeCoq, the workshops there. I don’t know how useful any of it was, but what it did, it took me to a place of being willing to make a fool of myself in front of strangers. And that’s what I knew I needed to do in rehearsal for Cabaret. And that I knew I couldn’t be safe; I needed to go to extremes. And I don’t know whether any of that makes sense, but…

Erina: It all makes sense.

Charlotte: Eddie, thank you so much! Usually we know what you’re doing next so we can say we look forward to talking to you again, but we certainly look forward to whatever you’re going to do and to speaking again sometime. Thank you!

Eddie: Guys, thank you so much, as always, for your support. It helps me a great deal. I love that we get to chat in this kind of international fashion, across time zones.

Ivonne Jofre, who is originally from Catalonia, is now a budding filmmaker who divides her time among London, Spain and New York — where she has been accepted for a master’s program in cinema studies at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts & hopes to clear the hurdles to attend in 2023-24. She founded the first (and most popular) online fan website, Eddie Redmayne Net, in 2008 when she first met Eddie after seeing him on stage, and her @eddieronline account is the largest on Twitter, with more than 68,000 followers}.

Charlotte Aguilar, from the U.S., is an award-winning writer-editor-producer who has managed BespokeRedmayne accounts on Tumblr, Twitter + Instagram for nine years, with more than 30,000 followers — assisted by teen granddaughter Maria Suarez. They have met Eddie in New York and London and coordinate an annual fan fundraiser for his birthday to support Eddie’s patronage of the MND Association of the UK.]

Marcella “Marci” Wright is a blogger from Oklahoma, who previously worked as a nurse for years. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2020, she subsequently had to leave her nursing job due to mobility issues, & now works remotely as a data analyst. She is also a proud mom to Jake — who was the reason she started blogging about Eddie, after seeing his portrayals in The Yellow Handkerchief and Fantastic Beasts (upon seeing the original 'Fantastic Beasts' movie, Jake, then 15, happily announced, "Mom, Newt is autistic like me!")

Christine “Chrissie” Sallans is the OG of Redmayniacs, following his career since his early days on stage in London, and an integral member of the “Troop” of fans who camp out and brave London weather to support Eddie at premieres, performances and special events. Just this year, she’s visited with him at Cabaret, the Olivier Awards, the Secrets of Dumbledore red carpet, and the London Film Festival UK premiere of The Good Nurse. A social worker and educator by training, she is currently a university lecturer.

Maria Cristina “Cris” Della Valle lives and works as a nurse in Turin, in northern Italy near France. Lately she has worked in intensive care after many years in the cardiac surgery and general surgery departments. She is one of Eddie’s earliest fans and part of his “Troop.” She has traveled throughout Europe to see him on stage (this year in Cabaret), attend festivals, personal appearances and premieres for his films (most recently for The Good Nurse in Zurich).

Erina Ellis lives in Wellington, New Zealand. She works in television and is currently involved with broadcasting the Women’s Rugby World Cup, being held in New Zealand. She manages the @amazingeddieredmayne account on Instagram, the largest of its kind with more than 100,000 followers.

[neo-shitty]

— tag game.

recommend 5 or more of your own works that you would rec to someone asking what they should read first & explain a little bit about the work. these can be the most popular, the ones you think are underrated, or your own favorites! then tag five other writers! | tagged by @bearseungmin, thank you! i think i’ve done this before but doing this is always fun as it lets fics recirculate around haha (if that makes sense 🤣)

disclaimer. now, for the regular dick stroke because if readers won’t boost our works, we will. since i couldn’t settle with just five, i picked four each for the main groups i write for. and also more than five writers bc why not??

tagging. @mosviqu​ @petrichor-han​ @sulfurcosmos​ @decembermoonskz​ @lixesque​ @ravenori​ @pastelsicheng​ @koishua​ and literally anyone who sees this and finds it interesting, please feel free to tag yourself and promote your work :3

NCT.

ten feet deep, still sinking — mark lee.

pjo!au !! basically percabeth but make it mark lee and mc </3 more melancholic rather than action-filled and it’s just me pulling out one water-related metaphor after the other. perfect for sad rainy days.

kill steal — lee jeno.

purge!au :3 jeno saves a damsel targeted on purge night,,basically..,.,. suspense!! suspense!! suspense!! good world building (or maybe that’s just me HAHA big brain moment)

slow dancing in a burning room — lee donghyuck.

my take on the red string of fate and how soulmates may suffer consequences from actions in their past lives. if you like slow shit that takes its time to build the atmosphere, i recommend this one because it felt like i took forever to get the simplest points across :D it was a fic where i wanted to draw a ‘what happened’ reaction from the audience rather than tying up everything in the end.

no longer human — na jaemin.

sci-fi, post-apocalyptic world where best friends get split up and try to find their way back to each other. i wrote this in action-movie structure, and it reads that way too. fleshed out world and i have been told that it’s really immersive too! not much to say without giving anything away :3

SKZ.

meet me where the flowers are — hwang hyunjin.

inspired by the kdrama, youth of may. dabbles on topics such as death and grief, peeks into the parts of history that are often brushed under the rug and forgotten.

ghosting — han jisung.

nothing special, really. just a personal favorite bc i’ve never been able to give justice to my own emotions better than i did in this fic. it’s about friendships and those that gnaw on the strings that keep two people tethered. 

roger rabbit — lee minho.

minho gets suspended and walks the line between that and expulsion, his friends want to save him but how? that’s the gist of it. a writing experiment (and my personal favorite), a story told from seven povs.

checkmate — ot8.

young, dumb, broke high school kids make stupid decisions on impulse. thriller fic about the aforementioned friend group in roger rabbit. 

[theflixdiary]

watched on Apr 20, 2019 on putlockers

Insidious (2010) directed by James Wan

age rating: 13+ genre : horror, supernatural, thriller duration : 1h 43m country : USA language : English screenplay : Leigh Whannell

cast : Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lin Shaye

synopsis : Insidious follows the harrowing story of a family who moves into a new home, only to find their son mysteriously slipping into a coma. as they seek answers, they uncover dark forces from another realm, and terrifying secrets about dreams and astral projection come to light.

if you enjoyed this post, don't forget to show some loves by leaving comments / likes / reblog / help me to spread the words. follow me for more reviews!! ❤︎❤︎

read my review below (may contain spoiler):

my thought: I chose to review Insidious as my final October movie review, because this movie feels like it was made for me. watching it brought back memories of my childhood, when I could have lucid dreams and even create my own worlds within those dreams. I used to explore my dream worlds with an awareness that I was dreaming, and this movie’s concept of “The Further”—a haunting realm beyond our world—hit so close to home. it felt like seeing my childhood imaginings on screen. back then, I sometimes had nightmares too, where I’d meet creepy creatures with my own face - distorted, so the terrifying visuals in Insidious really resonated with me, amplifying both the familiarity and eeriness of the story.

the way the movie blends real-life scares with otherworldly horror kept my attention hooked the entire time. I felt a strange nostalgia mixed with fear, like revisiting something personal yet unsettling. every scene kept me on edge, both for the thrills and the memories it brought back. the pacing and suspense drew me in completely, making this more than just a movie—it was like stepping back into my own dreams. I was so excited when I watched this movie with my family, because I used to have problems to explain my experience to my family, and they never believed me. when I told my family, "mum! dad! remember those days when I told you I could travel into another dimension in our home? this movie is how it happened!" now, imagine the horrified looks in their faces. and they still see me as an oddball.

poster & stills credit: IMDb edited using canva

[wanttotalkaboutbooks]

The Luminous Dead

by Caitlin Starling

This is a horror/thriller novel about a woman who takes a dangerous job to explore a cave, guided by only her suit and the voice of her handler. There are only two characters: her and her handler. There are mysteries and secrets she has to uncover about her mission while trying to survive the cave system.

My Rating: 5/5

I loved this book so much. I was skeptical going in, especially regarding the book's ability to creep me out, but when the action truly got going...wow. I read this at night with the lights on in my room, but I was so into it that I didn't put it down until 4 AM (I read it within 24 hours). I was genuinely scared; the author beautifully wove suspense and atmosphere together to depict the truly terrifying circumstances that the main character had to survive.

My full review may contain mild (nonspecific) spoilers so honestly I'd highly recommend actually reading the book before continuing further. I can't emphasize enough how much I genuinely loved it, I genuinely got so into the book and it's probably the first novel that's ever freaked me out this much.

Content warnings (because they're spoilery) and full review under the cut!

The content warnings for this book include: injury, death, depictions of dead bodies, questioning of reality, and hallucinations. Mentions of vomiting and medical procedures. There are a lot of scenes in dark and/or tight/closed off spaces. Please be safe while reading!

As I said before, I started this read a little skeptical. There was nothing immediately remarkable about the book, nor any immediate red-flags. The writing is good but unassuming, not particularly stylistic or tonal. The main character, Gyre, could be considered quite normal, and nothing about her or her handler, Em, indicate much about what direction this book could go. It's equally likely to end up a flat, if maybe mildly unsettling story as it is to be a genuinely good novel, I thought. I've never really felt the grips of terror in a book that'd make me want to cover my eyes like in a movie, I thought.

I'm so happy I was wrong.

The build in tension is slow. Of course, we know right away that Gyre's mission is dangerous, but she's competent enough, if underqualified. We know that Em isn't telling us everything there is to know, so we expect some twist, probably something that will ramp up the danger tenfold. Slowly, as Gyre creeps deeper into the cave system, the novel pushes the tension further and further. In that sense, the reader is able to follow Gyre's journey on an emotional level, from a real but ultimately familiar suspense to a disorienting fear as more unknown variables start to factor in.

The author does such a good job depicting Gyre's mental state as her journey through the caves continue - ultimately, you experience what she is experiencing, terror, doubt and all. The writing is concise and straightforward, but this makes Gyre's (and the readers') emotions all the more poignant; the terror that you are meant to feel isn't obscured by flowery language. The author's clear writing makes her descriptions very effective as well, because you are placed directly in the environment, and you experience everything Gyre experiences. Because the language isn't flowery or open to interpretation, your brain processes the words very quickly, which means when something occurs in a split-second, you as a reader are able to react in the same moment as Gyre. By this, I mean that this is the first book I've read which managed to jumpscare me. It was thrilling; I didn't know books could do that.

The characters themselves are well written. They aren't revolutionary or even really unique, to be honest, but they fit well within the story, and by the end of the book their individual and shared storylines and character development made sense. Em's backstory is key to a lot if not all of the book's twists and turns, so I won't tell you any specifics, but I thought the way the author went about her story was...an interesting decision. I'm in two minds about it - part of me thinks that the build-up warranted something more dramatic, but another part of me thinks that I'm glad the reveals weren't extremely shocking or dramatic, so that they didn't take away from the main plot which is the treacherous cave exploration. You could call into question the author's decisions over these things, but I think that ultimately, the characters fit into the story so snugly that any complaints are just nitpicking.

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that Gyre and Em's relationship gives us a nice probably-kind-of-toxic, messy wlw subplot that develops throughout the story. It was one of the reasons I picked up the buck, and though it isn't prominent in most of the story (because both characters have bigger things to worry about) it adds an extra depth to their relationship, a little more spice and drama, which I think added to the crazy emotional journey that Gyre went through in those caves.

Again: I cannot recommend this book enough, especially if you like gripping stories that develop fear through atmosphere (and if you do read it because of this book review, let me know what you think!)

[pandoricpies]

SSO Horrors

A post diving into how dark this franchise’s storyline gets and ideas for a horror game that will never actually be created. SPOILERS for the SL books and SSO storyline.

This idea originally came to me after reading the second book of the SL trilogy, The Legend Awakens. Props to Helena Dahlgren for the Pine Hill Manor scenes in that book; I was completely left on the edge of my seat the entire time. Linda’s whole experience was definitely an unexpected thriller for the children’s genre; cutting her leg on a broken window, exploring an old creepy mansion owned by the centuries-old psychopath that was targeting her, her friends, and their horses, being chased down halls and having to barricade herself in rooms to be protected from the apparent non-human dark riders (not to mention the way Dahlgren describes the animal sounds and scratching that they made, chills), and, to top it all off, nearly dying from sepsis due to her cut becoming infected.... if that’s not horror game material, I don’t know what is.

If you can’t already tell from the title of this post, I am a huge fan of the horror genre. The suspense-packed and often deep moral stories are always a fun watch/read. I personally am currently making my way through some classic Stephen King books that I haven’t read yet which was sort of what inspired this post.

Taking a look at SSO’s storyline on the surface level, we see a classic dark vs. light story, with horses and female heroines as the main points. However, there are quite a few darker elements hidden among the story quests, most of which would only be noticeable to the eye of the older audience of the game. The potential for this plot to be upped to a more mature level as far as darker themes go is definitely there. Regardless, the already existing underlying themes have some heavy themes...

- Teenagers, around the ages of 15-19, have been tasked with saving the world from a demonic entity. They have been granted special powers to do this with. These powers however can be extremely dangerous, as we see with both Alex and Catherine with their Lightning Circle incidents, in which they almost killed living beings. These factors combined would no doubt take some sort of psychological toll on the Soul Riders, as they are so named.

- Brainwashing and cult-mindset was a huge theme brought up with Justin’s kidnapping. He was abruptly cut off from the outside world, had his memories removed, and his mind artificially filled with thoughts of Garnok and world domination. It’s clear when he is rescued and goes back to his home that he’s depressed; his Midsummer dialogue a year back was “My dad thought it would be good for me to get out. I don’t do that much anymore” (not exact but close enough). When he talks to his mother during the memories quests the first thing he jumps to seeing her pregnant with him is “I wonder if she’d would be so excited if she knew all the terrible things I did”. To add to that, upon getting Justin back home, Thomas tells our character “If he keeps having these dark thoughts, I’ll have to turn to the druids.” That in itself was pretty unsettling. All this dialogue was put there to draw attention to the mental affects of literally having your brain tampered with.

- Elizabeth’s story was probably one of the saddest in my opinion. She had to stand by while her friend group fell apart, one going on to die, one going missing, and the other two continuing to split away from her. She then felt it was her responsibility to make up for her sisterhood’s failures, staying with the druids and eventually helping recruit new Soul Riders. Seriously though, imagine that. She saw what pain the magical war brought to her and her friends; knowing that she was pushing four more kids into a situation like that would’ve been devastating (here comes the morals vs. duty idea). Our character must have been a whole other level of that feeling. She saw what Catherine went through with her magic - the fear, the near madness. Then of course she goes on to imprison her close friend’s son (it appeared from the quests that she was closest to Catherine so that just adds to the pain). And to end it all, she sacrifices herself to save a girl who she considered a daughter.... jeez. - Catherine is another issue here for obvious reasons. A teenage girl is entrusted with goddess-level powers, then nearly goes psycho from the inability to control them. You can clearly tell from her last few diary entries how exhausting that was and how happy she was to finally have a somewhat normal life with her husband and son.

- And finally of course we have the DC gang. Mr. Sands is a basket case all on his own, a man who has used mind control (arguably in my opinion one of the creepiest forms of dark magic out there) on numerous victims including his own grandson, a man who legitimately worships a demon, and not to mention has it out for a bunch of teenagers. His whole backstory with Rosalinda made me feel some sort of sympathy for his character (he watched her nearly be drowned to death), and I’m actually quite curious as to where they’re going to take that. Also, The Nightmare Institute? That could be a horror game within itself. All we know so far about that place is that humans and animals are tested on with dangerous materials (ex. Mr. Anwir). Let’s not forget to mention the dark riders who apparently have animal qualities now? (as it was described in the SL books) Ok so we can clearly see that SSO’s storyline gets a bit dark. But just imagine; a Pine Hill Mansion first-person POV game, where you’re in a situation similar to Linda’s, or even one in DC or the Nightmare Institute. Honestly this entire storyline could be turned into some Resident Evil plot lol.

But that being said, as much as it’s fun to speculate these types of things, I enjoy SSO’s storyline just the way it is. It’s enjoyable for me as an older player, but it’s also filled with great moral stories and motivation for young children, especially girls. I love the atmosphere of female empowerment, and it’s especially unique to SSO because around the time of it’s initial release, that wasn’t seen much in video games.

Might start during these ‘chat’ or ‘random things that come to my mind’ posts more often.