I have mixed feelings about this novel. I like it because it hooked me right away and maintained a good level of suspense. It does not take long for the characters to see that mysterious man looking for his daughter in the middle of the road. Right away, something just seems wrong. From that point on, the action was fast paced and I was wondering what was going to happen next.
But, once I started to realize what was going on, I was a little disappointed. I’ve got to give this book some credit though; these monsters really seemed unique. It’s a nice change of pace to see a monster that stands out. However, I found it a bit difficult to believe in this monster. They were the snow and could materialize long enough to create blade like projections that they used to enter the human body so they could feed. When I first read that, I had to put the book down for a bit and return to it later. I just didn’t get it. I don’t know if it was because I wanted more information. What were they? Where did they come from? Why do they have to feed? If they’re just going to turn back into snow, do they really need to feed? And if what they fed on was so bloody, how do they so easily turn back into white snow? I don’t know why I had a problem with it, but I did.
Maybe not the best questions, but I couldn’t get past them. This made it very difficult to go along with these monsters. I loved the idea that they were in the snow because it was easy to have the monsters everywhere and anywhere. I just wasn’t completely impressed when they did appear. It also seemed like it might be really easy to beat them. Melt the snow. Big fires. Something.
The ending didn’t sit well with me either. There’s the suggestion of other worlds. The monsters leave. And there are multiple reports of these monsters across different parts of the country, all in small towns. It raised more unanswered questions for me.
There were several things I liked. I liked the characters. I liked the conflict. I liked the tension and suspense. I liked that these monsters seemed pretty original. I loved some of the description. The girl with no face at the beginning. The way the monsters didn’t “mix” with kids. More than anything else, I was able to enjoy the story because I was interested in the characters. Even though there were several things I didn’t like and even though part of the novel raised many unanswered questions, I liked the characters and I cared enough about them to see what was going to happen. I think that speaks well for the novel and the writing.
Another issue I had (not monster related) was the author’s use of some vocabulary. “The pain was like a thousand holocausts.” “[…] like a photo from some Nazi concentration camp, charred bodies littered the snow.” Those two lines threw me completely out of the story. I couldn’t help but think there would be better ways to describe something, other than holocaust references.
THE THING
THE THING
This was the first time I have watched this movie the whole way through. Up until now, I have only seen bits and pieces. Wow. What a fun movie. :)
The opening scene was striking (and as a person with a bunch of dogs, I didn’t really like it). But it works so well. It’s attention getting and it raises several questions that recur throughout the movie. What’s wrong with the person/animal? Does he/she/it have some terrible disease? Is he/she/it a monster? How do you know? What will happen if it gets away?
I love this type of monster movie. When I say this type, I mean body snatcher type of movies. Next to zombies, these ones are really creepy. Just the thought of monsters/creatures/aliens getting into people, changing the people, and then taking over is scary. It raises the question of “What if this really happened?” How long would it take to notice? Would we notice the changes in others? Would we be aware of a change in ourselves? That particular question gets me. What if I was attacked and some alien took over my body. I wonder if there would be a part of me that is still the same and realizes that something has happened, even though I can’t do anything about it.
Another aspect of this movie is that the monster isn’t always visible, but it’s always there in a way because every suspects everyone else. It feels like there’s the constant question of “Who is the monster?” For example, that blood testing scene in the movie. You have a group of people who work together in an isolated environment every day. For the most part, they work together well. Eventually though, any trust that may have been there is gone and they all suspect each other. To the point that one ties up the rest of them so that their blood can be tested. And they find out that some of the people the suspected the most were actually uninfected. I think that’s the most disturbing part of this movie (and others like it). The thought that the monster could be anyone and that the society can fall apart pretty quickly (and even turn hostile) when people are so distrustful.
Some of the effects weren’t all that great. At times, some weren’t even scary. I did enjoy the scene where the man’s head (I can’t remember the character’s name) grows legs and walks off on it own. While that was cool, I didn’t like when the monster took on the look of a spider. I just thought it was kind of goofy looking and not really scary. Not really even gross. However, after the monster gets to the penned up dogs and they have that huge mass of stuff on the table that they’re checking out…that was interesting and got my attention. It looked gross and I couldn’t easily write it off as looking like something else (like a spider). In addition, their discovery of the body with two faces was another good one. Gross and attention getting. There seemed to be a mix of really interesting effects that worked well, and others that the movie could have done without.
This one is a remake of “The Thing from Another World” right? Anybody see that one? Any good?
This was the first time I have watched this movie the whole way through. Up until now, I have only seen bits and pieces. Wow. What a fun movie. :)
The opening scene was striking (and as a person with a bunch of dogs, I didn’t really like it). But it works so well. It’s attention getting and it raises several questions that recur throughout the movie. What’s wrong with the person/animal? Does he/she/it have some terrible disease? Is he/she/it a monster? How do you know? What will happen if it gets away?
I love this type of monster movie. When I say this type, I mean body snatcher type of movies. Next to zombies, these ones are really creepy. Just the thought of monsters/creatures/aliens getting into people, changing the people, and then taking over is scary. It raises the question of “What if this really happened?” How long would it take to notice? Would we notice the changes in others? Would we be aware of a change in ourselves? That particular question gets me. What if I was attacked and some alien took over my body. I wonder if there would be a part of me that is still the same and realizes that something has happened, even though I can’t do anything about it.
Another aspect of this movie is that the monster isn’t always visible, but it’s always there in a way because every suspects everyone else. It feels like there’s the constant question of “Who is the monster?” For example, that blood testing scene in the movie. You have a group of people who work together in an isolated environment every day. For the most part, they work together well. Eventually though, any trust that may have been there is gone and they all suspect each other. To the point that one ties up the rest of them so that their blood can be tested. And they find out that some of the people the suspected the most were actually uninfected. I think that’s the most disturbing part of this movie (and others like it). The thought that the monster could be anyone and that the society can fall apart pretty quickly (and even turn hostile) when people are so distrustful.
Some of the effects weren’t all that great. At times, some weren’t even scary. I did enjoy the scene where the man’s head (I can’t remember the character’s name) grows legs and walks off on it own. While that was cool, I didn’t like when the monster took on the look of a spider. I just thought it was kind of goofy looking and not really scary. Not really even gross. However, after the monster gets to the penned up dogs and they have that huge mass of stuff on the table that they’re checking out…that was interesting and got my attention. It looked gross and I couldn’t easily write it off as looking like something else (like a spider). In addition, their discovery of the body with two faces was another good one. Gross and attention getting. There seemed to be a mix of really interesting effects that worked well, and others that the movie could have done without.
This one is a remake of “The Thing from Another World” right? Anybody see that one? Any good?
THE WOLFMAN by Mayberry
I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it had everything I would expect in a werewolf book. The family drama. The love interest. The realization of the truth. The community’s hunt for the werewolf (even with torches ablaze). That touching moment where we see that the animal side of the critter still has that memory of its human form (of course stemming from the aforementioned love interest). The capture. The continuation.
All stuff that great werelit is made of.
But that’s my problem. This felt like a classic tale retold. That’s fine and everything. It just makes for a boring story. I wanted some neat twist or some new perspective. I was bored.
The werewolf was a werewolf. Plain and simple. The transformation was as expected, and I didn’t expect anything new there. It will happen at the full moon. There will be a change in bone structure, muscle mass, skin and hair, etc. I don’t know or understand the physiology or anatomy of all that. And that’s okay. I don’t need to. I just know that it is going to happen and I do not expect this to be the part of the werewolf story that is changed. It just felt like nothing else was changed either.
What added to my overall dislike of this novel was that the story was so slow. It felt like there was more thinking and talking and brooding than action. The characters thought and talked, and then thought and talked again. It was a cycle of thinking, talking, brooding. Oh my. Some murder and death and hunting were sprinkled in every now and then. When we did get to the action scenes with the werewolf, there was very little that came across as original. It was big and strong and impossibly difficult to defeat.
Speaking of the impossible…I am going to stray from the monster talk for a moment because I have something else to add. Did anyone else notice how often the words “impossible” or “impossibly” were used? He impossibly used those words an impossible number of times. It drove me crazy. Every time I saw that word, it threw me out of the story. I started to focus on the words and not the story.
The whole time I was reading this, I just felt like I was waiting for something (I don’t know what exactly) that never happened. I’m sure this added to how slow it felt. I knew the setting was not going to be modernized at all. I was fine with that. But I wanted something to stand out. And I kept waiting and waiting and waiting. I never got to the point were I felt that I found that part of the story that was cool because it stood out from other werewolf stories. I also never really felt like I liked any of the characters. That was just one more thing that kept me distanced from the story.
All stuff that great werelit is made of.
But that’s my problem. This felt like a classic tale retold. That’s fine and everything. It just makes for a boring story. I wanted some neat twist or some new perspective. I was bored.
The werewolf was a werewolf. Plain and simple. The transformation was as expected, and I didn’t expect anything new there. It will happen at the full moon. There will be a change in bone structure, muscle mass, skin and hair, etc. I don’t know or understand the physiology or anatomy of all that. And that’s okay. I don’t need to. I just know that it is going to happen and I do not expect this to be the part of the werewolf story that is changed. It just felt like nothing else was changed either.
What added to my overall dislike of this novel was that the story was so slow. It felt like there was more thinking and talking and brooding than action. The characters thought and talked, and then thought and talked again. It was a cycle of thinking, talking, brooding. Oh my. Some murder and death and hunting were sprinkled in every now and then. When we did get to the action scenes with the werewolf, there was very little that came across as original. It was big and strong and impossibly difficult to defeat.
Speaking of the impossible…I am going to stray from the monster talk for a moment because I have something else to add. Did anyone else notice how often the words “impossible” or “impossibly” were used? He impossibly used those words an impossible number of times. It drove me crazy. Every time I saw that word, it threw me out of the story. I started to focus on the words and not the story.
The whole time I was reading this, I just felt like I was waiting for something (I don’t know what exactly) that never happened. I’m sure this added to how slow it felt. I knew the setting was not going to be modernized at all. I was fine with that. But I wanted something to stand out. And I kept waiting and waiting and waiting. I never got to the point were I felt that I found that part of the story that was cool because it stood out from other werewolf stories. I also never really felt like I liked any of the characters. That was just one more thing that kept me distanced from the story.
RIG: HORROR *NEW FORMAT*
I decided to switch around my pages. This will just be easier. I'll keep my older responses on the other page. All the new ones will be here.
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