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Dahlia DeWinters - Author

Quirky Heroines, Happy Endings

Horror Movie Review – Hell House, LLC

Title:   Hell House, LLC (2015)

Synopsis:
Five years after an unexplained malfunction causes the death of 15 tour-goers and staff on the opening night of a Halloween haunted house tour, a documentary crew travels back to the scene of the tragedy to find out what really happened. (from imdb.com)

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Opinion

Well, well, well. The found footage genre isn’t completely dead.

If you’re a friend of mine on social media, you should well know I’ve never met a found footage film I didn’t like. Well, scrap that, because I realized, yes, I’ve met a few I didn’t care for at all. However, I am fascinated by the whole genre of found footage horror films and never pass up a chance to screen them….if I can take it. Some I won’t see because the gross factor is too high. But that’s blog post for another day.

Hell House, LLC is a little gem I found hiding on Amazon Video. Sidenote- I got the prime membership just for the shipping, but the Video area is kind of like your favorite Palmer Video. I’ve been finding quite a few cool films included with my Prime membership. Back to the movie.

The premise is quite simple: A group of friends put on haunted houses each Halloween season in New York City. This season, they decide to rent an old hotel. The Abbadon hotel in Abbadon, New York. Now, I’m pretty genre savvy, so I knew that Abbadon meant something or other, but was too lazy to reach for my phone to look it up. No matter, because I simply like watching the story unfold before my eyes. Why do research when surely the filmmakers will do it for me?

As a found footage film, this is one of the better ones. There’s not a ton of shaky cam or people yelling profanity at the camera, which is good. The movie opens telling us of an incident that happened five years prior, where people were killed/injured at the opening of the haunted house. It then circles back to before the incident, where the haunted house was being set up.

I must say, this film offered me quite a few scares from places I didn’t expect and had me covering my eyes at one point. It’s fun and it holds together, pretty much, plot wise. There is very little blood/gore – it’s not a slasher film, but I tell you, it’s creepy enough that I remember some of the scenes from it a few weeks later.

Recommended – have fun!

Rating – B

 


Filed Under: Horror Movie Reviews, Uncategorized Tagged: black geek girls, black girl nerds, dahlia dewinters, female geek bloggers, found footage, found footage horror, halloween, horror, horror movie review, horror movies

Horror Movie Review: Sinister

Title:  Sinister

Date: 2012

Starring:  Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Fred Thompson

Director: Scott Derrickson

Sinister is a supernatural horror film in which a crime writer, Ellison Oswald (Ethan Hawke), moves his family to a new house in order to work on a new book.  (What a great name, by the way, right?) His last real hit was ten years ago and since then, his books haven’t done well. This is his last ditch effort to make money on a family’s murder and disappearance of the daughter.  However, he does not tell his family that they’ve moved into the house where the actual murders took place. And when he finds a box of film reels and projected in the attic, he begins watching them, unwittingly giving strength to a supernatural force than intends on possessing his family.

Sinister is not a movie we haven’t seen before, but the execution and the cinematography is top notch.  Ethan Hawke hits perfect notes as the jaded writer, desperate at writing another book which will be as successful as his last one.  In his words, he doesn’t want to become a “textbook writer” even though that will pay the bills. He’s an artist, after all, right?

When he and his family first move into the neighborhood, they are greeted by the superb character actor Fred Thompson, who expresses a near disdain for Ethan Hawke coming in and disrupting the neighborhood with his presence.  He’s professional about it, but his deputy, a young fresh faced dude, is pretty star struck, much to the disgust of Mr. Thompson.

Nevertheless, Ellison persists, even after his son starts to have night terrors and he begins to see visions of children floating around.  I must say, those scenes are some of the best jump scares I’ve seen in a while. They’re not cheap, either and they are scarily effective. Even upon a second viewing, I still cringe a little when I know they’re coming.

Purchase a DVD of Sinister here:

The entire movie had a deliciously creepy vibe and the excellent cinematography keeps you intrigued.  At times it was little dark, making it difficult to see exactly what was going on, but I soon realized that was the director’s trick to make you peer more closely at the screen so he could REALLY grab your attention.

There are snuff movies within the movies that are truly disturbing, especially when you learn the truth behind them.  These film were shot on 8mm film to lend them more “realism”, and let me tell you, it worked, as did the rest of the visual effects of the film.

The always good Vincent D’Ononfrio makes a cameo as a professor who’s there to fill in the gaps when Ellison needs some explanation of what is going on in his house.  James Ransone plays the young deputy that is Ellison’s connection at the police department. He’s so very happy to be assisting the famous writer with his research work.  I thought the dude was kind of bland, but given that he goes on to star in the sequel to Sinister (which I did not see), I guess someone liked him.

I’ve seen this movie more than a few a times, and I have to be honest, it creeps me out every time.  The performances, the staging, the overall crawling dread that follows you from the first frame….I have to recommend this movie.  True horror fans won’t be disappointed and if you really get into it, it may give you nightmares for sure.

4 stars out of 5:  Highly recommended


Filed Under: Blogging, Horror Movie Reviews, Movies--Books--Music--Television Tagged: female geek bloggers, horror, horror movie reviews, horror movies, scary movie reviews

Blogtoberfest – My Bloody Vampire Sangria

Hello again!  So glad to see y’all along with me for the ride Halloween blogging, or, as I call it……BLOGTOBERFEST……..

Today’s recipe is not a mocktail, but a straight up liquor fest.  It was a choice between this and chocolate martinis.  I chose this because it looks like fruit punch.  (What, me drinking?  Nah, this is fruit punch.)  And I love sangria.

You can find the basic recipe here, but I added my own twist.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 (750 ml bottle of red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Rioja reds, Zinfandel, Shiraz)
  • 1 Lemon cut into wedges
  • 1 Orange cut into wedges
  • Strawberry or Kiwi slices
  • 3 Tbsp sugar
  • 2 shots brandy
  • 1 shot gin
  • 2 cups ginger ale or club soda

Preparation:

Pour wine in the pitcher and squeeze the juice wedges from the lemon and orange into the wine. Toss in the fruit wedges (leaving out seeds if possible) and add sugar and brandy. Chill overnight. Add ginger ale or club soda just before serving.

If you’d like to serve right away, use chilled red wine and serve over lots of ice.

 


Filed Under: Blogtoberfest, Recipes, Uncategorized Tagged: blerd, blogtoberfest, colors in darkness, dahlia dewinters, female geek bloggers, geek girl, halloween, halloween drinks, Halloween fun, halloween recipe, sangria, vampires

Blogtoberfest – 10 Days of Zombie Movies

Keeping it simple for today.  Here’s a graphic that give you ten of my favorite zombie movies.  In case image doesn’t come through, here they are in no particular order.

 

REC
Dead Snow
Zombieland
Night of the Living Dead
Sugar Hill
Train to Busan
The Serpent and the Rainbow
Planet Terror
The Battery
The Horde

 

 


Filed Under: Blogtoberfest, Movies--Books--Music--Television Tagged: black girl nerds, blogtoberfest, dahlia dewinters, female geek bloggers, halloween, haloween, music, spooky music, the serpent and the rainbow, train to busan, zombies

Blogtoberfest -Swallow that Sweet Fear: Halloween Cookie Recipe

Photo Courtesy of Domino Sugar

It’s cookie recipe day! 

If you’re like me,  you plan way ahead for any type of party or treat fest because you’ve just GOT to be sure that everything is going to go right. 

I worked with my daughter this summer in perfecting her cupcake and frosting recipe so she would have the most lovely cupcakes to take to school for her birthday.

Mind you, I can’t stand everyday cooking, but baking is my thing.  I like the fact that it’s fun, short and you get a sweet treat at the end.

Now, I’m giving you this cookie recipe early enough so you have time to experiment with it, mess it up and start again. 

 

Halloween Bat Sugar Cookies – Recipe courtesy of Domino Sugar

YIELDS

3 to 4 dozen cookies

INGREDIENTS

Cookies

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
  • 3/4 cup firmly packed Domino® Light Brown Sugar
  • 3/4 cup Domino® Granulated Sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Icing

  • 3 3/4 cups (1-lb pkg.) Domino® Confectioners Sugar
  • 3 tablespoons meringue powder
  • 6 tablespoons warm water
  • purple food coloring
  • 1 tube black decorator gel icing

Click HERE for the rest of the recipe.

 

Happy Baking

 

Dahlia


Filed Under: Blogtoberfest, Recipes Tagged: black girl nerds, blogtoberfest, colors in darkness, cookie recipes, cookies, dahlia dewinters, female geek bloggers, halloiween, halloween, halloween cookies, halloween dessert

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