Dahlia DeWinters - Author

Quirky Heroines, Happy Endings

Blogtoberfest – Halloween Teapots

Welcome back to BlogtoberFest!

 

As the weather grows colder in the Northern Hemisphere, the morning (or afternoon) beverage of choice can change, depending on the mood.  Sure, I’m a coffee gal at heart, but there’s something about tea, with its .little bags and cute little teapots which make a cold fall morning so much cozier.

What’s that, you say?  You don’t have a teapot?  Well, reader, you’re in luck.  Keep scrolling.

I’ve gathered a few of my favorite spooky-ish teapots along with buy links for your shopping pleasure.  Beware, however, most of these teapots are from Etsy and are most likely “one of a kind”.  If you see one you like, best jump on it while you can.  I made it easy to shop. Click on the link to buy.

Please note:  These are NOT affiliate links, nor am I affiliated with the seller in any way.  Now go on and enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy shopping and lots of hot tea!

 

Dahlia

Blogtoberfest – Horror Movie Review – Friend Request

Title:  Friend Request

Synopsis:  A popular college student graciously accepts a social outcast’s online friend request, but soon finds herself fighting a demonic presence that wants to make her lonely by killing her closest friends.

Genre:  Horror

Opinion:

Let’s face it, most of us live online these days, especially those under 30.  Between online dating and online classes, people find themselves either at the computer or on their cell phones.  People are judged by the number of friends they have on social media or the number of likes they have on a post.  Some people pay good money to acquire followers and/or garner even more interest in their online musings.

Okay, you might be saying, it’s a movie review, Dahlia, get to the damn point.  All right then.  I say all that to say is when we see a post with no likes or a person with a low number of “friends” or “followers”, we assume that means low popularity.  And of course, someone with low popularity online is to be pitied and “felt sorry for”

And now we come to the crux of this movie.  A popular college student receives a friend request from a girl who doesn’t have any friends.  Feeling sorry for her, she “friends” her.  The relationship then degenerated into a sort of stalker/stalkee symbiosis, with the popular college student trying to get away from the cloying, smothering of her new “friend”.

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After cutting off the friendship, the girl commits suicide and posts the video on the popular girl’s social media page.  This leads to her losing online friends and then DUN DUN DUN, she begins losing friends in real life….TO MURDER MOST FOUL.

Anyhoo, the rest of the movie invovles her tracking down and trying to eliminate the girl’s ghost, who is apparently causing all the trouble.  Will she succeed?  You’ll have to watch the movie to find out.

All in all, it wasn’t the best horror movie I’ve seen, but I thought the premise was interesting.  It is well-acted and well-shot with some disturbing imagery, but I must say the movie does contain an almost paint by the numbers list of horror cliches, including jump scares with stinger chords.  Despite these flaws, it’s moderately intriguing and is a good movie to have on in the background.

Grade:  B-

 

BlogtoberFest 2017 – The Days of Halloween

Let’s face it, the holidays start earlier and earlier every year.  I saw a six foot light up snowman in Costco at the end of August.  Therefore, I see no reason not to begin the celebration of all things spooky, macabre, and scary in the month of October.

You faithful readers of my blog:  I thank you.  AND you already know what’s going to be happening.  Recipes, Top 3 lists, Top 5 lists, spooky songs, movies, books….everything relating to the theme of Halloween and horror.  Click over every day to see something new!

So pour yourself a Bloody Mary with bacon garnish and come on along for the ride.  We’ve been expecting you.

 

Horror Movies-Original vs. Remakes – Battle One

So, you call yourself a horror movie fan?  Well, even as a middle of the road fan, meaning I won’t watch them at night, and if something is too gory or too much, I will turn it off to preserve my sanity.  Given that, I’ve seen a lot of scary movies, but even I was surprised to find out some were remakes. Let’s take a look, beyond the obvious.

 

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Yep, this sister vs sister thriller/horror was remade in 1991 starring real life sisters Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave.  John Glover plays the part, I think, that Victor Buono played in the original.  I’ve seen it, I’ve noted it, I’ve blanked it out.  Nuff said.  Here’s the trailer.

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The Crazies

Timothy Olyphant, who I will always forever see as sexy salesman Danny Cordray on The Office, and Radha Mitchell do a great job in this remake of the 1973 classic.  I don’t mind telling you, the trailer scared me.  The image of people enjoying a nice day at a baseball game as a huge, zombie-like dude marches across the field carrying a bloody weapon….that’s horror, where the ordinary go so wrong, so fast.  I haven’t seen the original, so I’m not sure how it measures up, but I can say it sure scared me.

Last House on the Left

As an exercise in 70s horror, I watched this.  It was an awful experience because the movie was so good at being awful.  The feeling of dread, of hopelessness and fear exudes from the screen after the two fun-loving girls meet up with that terrible crew.  Once seen, it is not an experience I’d want to repeat, because the movie did so well at making its audience feel terrible.  I won’t watch the remake.

The Fly

David Cronenberg is a body horror master.  In The Fly, he lets it all hang out.  Ugh.  I’ve seen both, but the remake is more stomach turning, and probably realistic than the original.  Both movies, however, do have good points.

The Blob

Yes, Steve McQueen was dreamy as a 40 year old high school student, but let’s be real.  The original Blob depended more on suspense than gross out scenes.  In the remake, it was a disgusting thrill to see the dude sucked down the drain by the blob.  The telephone booth scene was also a good scare.  Again, with what they had to work with, the original Blob was pretty good, but the remake’s special effects made a scary story much better.\

 

 

So what’s your vote?

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Horror Movie Review -The Collingswood Story

Title

The Collingsworth Story (2002)

Synopsis

A young girl staying in touch with her boyfriend via a webcam discovers an unimaginable horror linked to the house she just moved into.

Genre

Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Opinion

I’d started watching this movie some time ago.  Something happened where I couldn’t finish it, and I never got back to it because I couldn’t remember the name of the movie! Luckily, or unluckliy for my time and temper, I rediscovered the movie while researching found footage movies.  As you know, I’m a sucker for found footage, no matter how terrible, so I suppose in watching this movie, I got what I deserved.

The movie begins with some newspaper clippings and vague old-time pictures you know are going to come into play later.  Yeah, yeah, let’s get to the movie.  Stop with all the history you’re just going to repeat over and over throughout the movie.

The premise is a woman moves to New Jersey for college, leaving her boyfriend behind in Virginia.  Because they are so very attached to one another, they use a webcam and video chat to keep in touch.   

First of all, the Windows 95 interface and the silly looking software for the videochat kind of hooked me right away.  Being a tech oriented person, I was really wondering how they were able to connect via video chat using a telephone landline.  It looked like Prodigy or CompuServe interface.  But my tech meanderings aren’t really important right now.  Let’s get on to the movie.

Dude, really?  He wore a backwards baseball cap so well, I should count it as the actor in the movie.  Every single time he was on screen, dude was sporting that backwards hat.  To be fair, the movie was made in 2002, so the style was HAWT back then.  Other than that, he looked like a real desperate grease monkey trying to hold on to his lady friend.

On the other hand, the female lead was quite striking and charismatic.  Now, I usually don’t go on and on about the leads, but when there is nothing but chit-chat going on, you have nothing to do but focus on the two actors involved.  I enjoyed watching her performance.

The mystery itself was pretty intriguing, and we get some glimpses of early 2000 webcam folk, but I must say, the entire movie fell flat at the end.  With all the web research, the spooky buildup and a scary psychic, the ending was a little bit of….what just happened.  Hey, maybe it’s me and I didn’t get the deeper meaning of the movie or I missed something when I looked away from the screen.  Bottom line is, The Collingswood Story held my attention, then dropped it like a lead balloon.

Not Recommended, unless you are interested in early 2000 computer technology.

Rating:

D

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