Easter Sunday 2019

The wonderful aroma of a fine Sunday lunch is drifting from downstairs as I write this post from my bedroom. Our guest, my mother in law, is expecte any minute. So, I’m snatching a few seconds to write this down.
Changes are sometimes subtle, since Valentine’s Day we’ve been regularly attending the gym we joined and to my surprise we have kept it up through the cold nights. My weight was starting to trouble me because I wasn’t eating well and wasn’t exercising and could not see the situation improving without taking action. We had been discussing joining the gym since November 2018 but had been waiting for the right time. I thought it was now or never back in February. I was struggling to tie my own shoes, bending down I could feel my belly getting I the way. So after two months of regular exercise and eating better I am happy with progress. I was over 75kg in weight and for my height that wasn’t where I should have been, my BMI was into the orange and would be heading towards the red if I didn’t do something to arrest the decline. I was also worried about the amount of sweets I was eating and diabetes. Now, my weight is 66.9kg, that’s almost a loss of 10kg. I want to get my weight under 64kg, so I still have some work to do but the great thing is I feel better. I can bend to tie my laces without my belly preventing me. I can wear shirts without feeling they are bulging around my middle. I can even get into and button jeans I thought were lost to me. So, I am happy with my progress!

Spring update

It’s been a while since I posted here. I haven’t really been watching many horror films this year, the films I’ve been watching have mostly either been on TV or they are on a scratch-off poster of 100 greatest films we bought my son.
My interests continue to be mainly music, video games and photography, a lot more on the photography side though to be fair. Films and reading have been the biggest losers in this. I also do more drawing now I have an ipad and the Apple Pencil.
During February half term I also joined a gym, along with my wife. We go to the gym 3 times a week and that eats into my time too. I don’t exactly enjoy the gym but I do want to lose some weight and I know that I have to go if I am going to do that.
I suppose the time I would have sent watching films is also taken up by watching concert footage of my favourite bands - either on DVD/Blu-Ray or YouTube.
Not much of an update I know, but there you go. The one thing I haven’t mentioned is BREXIT. There has been non-stop news coverage of it and I’m quite sick of it all. So I won’t bother saying anymore about it here. Suffice to say that a right load of bollocks is spoken on all sides.

Emelie (2016)

An interesting little film that I quite enjoyed. It concerns a baby sitter who a couple hire based on good feedback. Problem is, the babysitter turns out to be a total psycho. It builds up slowly and develops very well. I’d certainly watch this again and hav no problem recommending it.  Sarah Bolger plays the central character and does a great job. She doesn’t overplay the character and because of that she is more believable - a great attribute if you’re in a horror film.

Happy New Year

The year 2018 is over and 2019 has begun. The weather is dry at least, so the year is not starting with drizzle as it has in previous years. I slept in, have been sleeping later in the mornings during the holidays so that will stop in the morning when I have to return to the work routine and have to catch a train.
I don’t really do new year resolutions but I do have plans for the year in my head, which I just need to turn into reality. It will not be easy to achieve some of the plans but some are ongoing things I just want to start and then keep up. Not giving up or slipping back are good goals to have for the year ahead.
I hope 2019 is a better year in terms of health for my family. There have been some setbacks and operations and treatments but I hope everyone gets better this year.

New Year’s Eve

Just reflecting on the season, the Christmas Holidays are nearly over and I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I’m sorry that the Christmas bubble of present giving and socialising/drinking/indulging is over. On the other hand, I feel like it’s good to get back to normal life and living. We do over-indulge at Christmas, so you can’t do that for long without it having some kind of negative impact. I feel I drank more than I ought to have last night, for example, when we had friends over. And tonight it will be the New Year celebrations so I will have a new year drink as well. I’ve drunk a little Prosecco, a little Tia Maria, a little 43 and a fair amount of Carlsberg lager. That’s quite enough for a week and a half.

ATM (2012)

This film reminds me of the style of thrillers that have been made in the last few years where the setting is confined to one place and the situation keeps getting worse for the characters remaining. This film is a good example of these kind of films, which I personally don’t mind watching. The setting for this one is an unstaffed banking room in the middle of a car park. I don’t know why any bank would build one of these in the middle of a car park but that’s maybe something common in America? 3 Office workers, who just happen to work for a bank, stop off at the ATM to allow one of hem to get some cash to buy pizza on the way home from an office Christmas party. Personally, I would have told the idiot to get a cab. The other passenger is a girl that the other guy wants to ask out on a date and has offered to take her home. Instead of being a good friend, the other guy insists on being driven home and then insists on stopping for some cash to buy pizza, oh my God, why? It’s early in the morning. Hasn’t he had food at the party? It makes no sense.
So in the ATM there is a problem with his card and all 3 enter the room. Then things start to go bad. Between them and getting back to the car is a guy wearing a black coat whose face they can’t see. He looks mean and when a stranger appears walking his dog, this guy in the coat kills him in plain sight of the 3 in the room. This freaks them out. Instead of making a run for it, they stay in room. I told you it makes no sense. Things do indeed get worse as is the case with all of these sort of films. I won’t spoil it for you but needless to say that they don’t all make it out. There’s no happy ending, that’s a spoiler for you. I enjoyed watching it to see what would happen but a large part of me was frustrated with their behaviour.

Knowing (2009)

Now, this is a film starring Nichols Cage so my expectations were not high and I very nearly didn’t even start watching knowing that he was in it! Did you see what I did there? I got past my prejudice and started to watch. It’s a convoluted story about a school child who writes down a load of numbers 50 years ago instead of a drawing of the future (like the rest of the class), which all get buried in a time capsule. 50 Years later the capsule is opened and Cage’s son, called Caleb, is given the envelope with all the numbers in it. He takes it home wrongly. Cage as a father isn’t much good. He hasn’t got over the death of his wife and drinks heavily. So, what does he do but pick up the sheet of numbers and start analysing it! All night, he doesn’t even sleep. He connects series of numbers to major accidents that have happened around the world. It’s strange and hedoesn’t know what to do with it. It seems to predict something will happen in the future. He tries to prevent a couple of major accidents that just happen to be near where he lives. He narrowly misses getting killed by a large airliner crashing into the ground. Then he is involved in runaway subwa train derailment and crash. It gets worse but you’ve already probably lost the point. There is no point. The Earth is going to be incinerated by a solar flare and his son (with his new friend female friend: don’t ask!) are taken by aliens who have been trying to tell them the whole time. Fanciful, pointless twaddle. There is. No reason anyone should watch this film.

December update

I haven't really been actively watching new films for this blog channel, so there hasn't been a lot to post about. I'm not on a break, I've just put a lot of energy into other endeavours this year. It's been mainly photography of one kind or another but I haven't felt the need to post about that here.
At this time of year I end up watching films I've already seen, rather than new ones. I've recently  watched Gremlins, Home Alone, White Christmas, It's A Wonderful Life, A Night To Remember and Ready Player One. I'm sure there have been others but they come to mind most readily.
The last 3 days have been the Christmas bubble, so have felt a bit slow, vegetative and naturally full of just eating and drinking. My family have played Scrabble and cards in-between the TV programmes and meals. I must try to do something interesting before I return to work in a week from today.

David Brent: Life on the Road (2016)

I don’t normally post films on here that aren’t horror related but there are exceptions and since I haven’t been watching many films at all I thought this was another exception worth making. The story follows on from the TV series docu-drama of the live of David Brent an ex-regional sales manager for a paper supply firm based in Slough, Berkshire. David is no longer a manager and now works for another company called Lavichem, which I think is still in Berkshire but not sure which town it is supposed to be, maybe Slough still. This time the focus is on his attempts to make it in the music industry and land a record deal. He gets a band together, Foregone Conclusion II, and goes on the road with a friend who is supposed to be an up and coming rapper.
To cut the story short, there are few laughs in this extended piece. The formula feels tired and it lacks strength in the other characters around David, which was what made the TV series watchable. You could dislike David in the TV series and laugh at him, but here he is a sad and pathetic figure that doesn’t make you dislike him. You just feel a sense of desperate pity. I didn’t think this film was very successful, it’s a fate suffered by other funny TV series when they change to the big screen format.

Dracula (1958)

This is a Hammer Films production starring the enigmatic Christopher Lee as Count Dracula and Peter Cushing as Dr Van Helsing. I have seen this film a few times and still really can’t believe how old it is now, it’s 60 years old and still a great film. They have played around a lot with the original story to make it fit the big screen format. It is still recognisably Dracula though. I can’t imagine how audiences might have originally received it and whether they were frightened by it. I’ve never found the Hammer films very scary personally but I still enjoy watching them. Dracula is one of their classics, I can recommend this to everyone and especially anyone who hasn’t seen it previously.

The Driller Killer (1979)

This film is in the public domain and I watched it this week streaming over the internet. The reputation of the film in the UK is a bad one but I think it was one of a series of VHS titles that got labelled as Video Nasties which the BBFC cut or banned, I think it was banned here in the UK. I don’t know why really. The film is not as low quality and just plain nasty as I was expecting. It is based around a male artist who is driven mad and who goes on a killing spree with a drill powered by a battery pack on a belt. He lives with two beautiful women who are struggling to pay the rent. He hopes to sell a large painting for a lot of money to a gay art dealer and use the money to buy whatever he and the girls want. Their relationships seem to be bi-sexual. The art dealer hates the painting. A band move in downstairs and practice their songs all night so the artist can’t think straight. He resents the fact that one of the girls seems to be able to find some money for the rent from the husband she is separated from. The killing is the culmination of this downwards spiral, so I don’t think it is as gratuitous and as nasty as it was portrayed at the time. It isn’t even very graphic apart from one scene when a man’s head is drilled in to. Worth a watch if you’re intrigued but it certainly isn’t a classic or anything to get worked up about.

The Hexecutioners (2015)

I watched this film last night. It follows the journey of a young woman who is starting a new job as a euthanasiast. The film starts with a bit of text that says that euthanasia has been legalised and this sets the scene. So we follow the character on her first solo job and everyone she meets is creepy in one way or another. The patient she puts to sleep suddenly sits up, vomits and then calls out the word “murderer” and the patient’s husband grabs a pillow and puts it over her face. Not a great start. She goes back to her flat and her landlord is also very creepy. In the middle of the night she get up and opens her door to find him reading the bible loudly on the stairs. He tells her he has a message from God for her: that the people she puts to sleep don’t go to him. He tells her she has to leave.
The second part of the film has her team up with another euthanist who has been doing it longer. So they go to this mansion house and the rest of the film is set there. I do have to confess I fell asleep for some of the later stages in the mansion. I did wake up for the climax and it is good. Not a bad film overall really.

Doctor Who returns with a new series

So the obvious thing to say is that Dr Who has returned with a different actor playing the character, I believe its the 13th actor to play the character but I’m sure a Dr Who nerd will point out if I’m wrong about that. Jodie Whittaker has stepped into the shoes left by Peter Capaldi. Two episodes in and I would say she has made a better start in the role already, so things are looking up I think for the remainder of the season. I never subscribed to the viewpoint that the character had to be played by a male actor, in fact it sees quite ridiculous to even type it now. But that seemed to be the controversial thing about the casting of the new Dr. I think Jodie Whittaker has a wide appeal and great acting talent, which at the end of the day is what you need in the role. Well done Jodie, long may you reign!
A quick word on the companions: Bradley Walsh is entertaining but I’m not so sure about the others. They still have to find their feet I think.

Returning to Apple

I looked into replacement tablets. I considered seriously the Windows Surface Go but ultimately it was vey expensive when I factored in things like the pen and a keyboard. I watched a few videos and weighed up the Windows Surface against the Apple iPad. The 2018 ipad has some significant improvements over previous generations of ipad. One of the most important for me personally is pen support: specifically the Apple Pencil. Perhaps another factor was that we recently bought my daughter a large 12” iPad Pro and this was very impressive when it was demonstrated to my wife and I. So, being able to FaceTime with her while she is at University is certainly an advantage. There are other video calling technologies I know but FaceTime works so easily. However, this wasn’t the only reason. I considered the price and my wife could get me a slight educational discount, so I made my mind up and we went to the Apple store. I don’t like the fact that even on a Sunday the Apple store is incredibly busy. It’s not even that close to Christmas, the new iPhone was obviously very popular.
I bought an iPad with the gold back, it’s a little bit like the Rose Gold of a couple of years ago.
The Apple Pencil works very well. I’ve had the iPad for two weeks and I’ve enjoyed using it very much. I’ve done some drawings on it and have to say that the experience of drawing on the screen isn’t like drawing on paper but you do get used to it. If its good enough for David Hockney, it’s good enough for me.
Today I received a Bluetooth keyboard for my iPad. I purchased a cheap 3rd party protective cover. I purchased a sling for the pencil to go around the iPad and included with the sling is a grip for the Apple Pencil. I have yet to try a drawing with the new grip. I’m a very happy chap with my purchases: I’ve only spent about £20 on the accessories.
I’ve been using my new keyboard and listening to SoundCloud while I type. It’s all pretty good so far. I’m feeling that this new iPad could replace a lot of my laptop needs. It doesn’t have a CD player, so there are some things I still need a laptop for.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Tablet Failure

Back in January 2015 I bought a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 version 3 tablet that was on sale. There was a new version that was a lot more expensive but the older version was still a great device so I bought one, it cost £146 exc. VAT which was a bargain. The thing about it that was unique was the S Pen, a very good pressure sensitive pen for drawing based on Wacom tablet technology. I bought accessories for it including a Samsung flip cover and a new stylus for it called a Bamboo Stylus. For nearly four years the tablet has served me well but I had noticed it was starting to slow down a bit, probably after several system upgrades. I hate how manufacturers can issue updates that affect the performance of older devices. They are only thinking of their latest kit and just assume everyone is rich enough to always be buying the latest gear. Anyway, up until a few weeks ago I was perfectly happy with my tablet. Then suddenly one morning, the splash screen came on as usual but didn't disappear. The tablet didn't boot past the splash screen. I've read many posts on various forums and it appears that there is no fix for this issue. I took the tablet into a Samsung store today and they told me they can't repair it because they don't make the parts anymore. I am very disappointed with this poor support. I have a laptop and a phone but the tablet fit into my lifestyle as a device in the middle of those things. Having a camera and a pen was great because I could do things with my tablet that I couldn't do on any other device.
So, I'm now in the market looking for a new tablet. I quite fancy the 2018 6th generation iPad with Apple Pencil. It's an expensive replacement for a £150 tablet but the Microsoft Surface Go is not priced competitively enough. There are other tablets out there that run the Android operating system and my last two tablets have been Android: the Nexus 7 and the Samsung Note 10.1 but I need something reliable and both of these previous tablets slowed after installing updates. I used to use an Apple iPhone 4 until I swapped for a cheaper and much larger Motorola phones which have worked well, particularly the Moto G4 I currently use. So tomorrow I may visit the Apple shop and see what my wife's educational discount can get me.

Shrooms (2007)

I watched Shrooms this week, having been aware of the film for many years now I thought I'd finally give it a go. Well, it is a pretty standard mid-budget horror set in some woodland in Ireland. To be honest, it could have been set anywhere. A group of obnoxious American students are on holiday to collect and eat some magic mushrooms. They have a young good looking male guide who seems to be connected romantically with one of the American girls but not in a very clear way. The plot is fairly standard and one by one the Americans meet their fate. The blonde girl eats a mushroom she shouldn't and has a fit. The guide tells them not to eat the type of mushroom she ate and says that victims have been known to see the future. Well sure enough, she seems to be able to predict the demise of them all. This is also connected to a scary campfire story that the guide tells them about. An old borstal school property nearby had a bad reputation, one particular teacher their used to torture the boys before he killed them. This gets interwoven into the blonde girls hallucinations. None of this is scary in the least by the way, so don't expect this to be an exhilarating thrill ride. It isn't. Not a film I can easily recommend, if you're not feeling well and its raining with nothing else to see or do but eat mushroom soup, this one might be for you. The ending is supposed to be a twist but it was all quite predictable.

Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema

I've been a Mark Kermode fan for a good many years now, first encountered him on radio 2 in the evenings during the 90s when Mark Radcliffe had an evening show before John Peel's programme. There are 5 programmes in this series: the romcom, the heist, coming of age, science fiction and horror. He has interesting things to say about each genre and his wide knowledge of films references a lot of films I have not seen or heard of but want to now explore. Very well worth a watch if this link to the iplayer programme information still works.

Unintentional blog break

I've had an unintentional break from blogging. I don't seem to have watched many films recently - although I did manage to see Ant Man and The Wasp last week at the cinema. My main sources of entertainment for the summer months has been videogames, books and photography. The latter has been a growing source of entertainment and education for me for a while now. It is taking over my other hobbies and is getting me out and about a fair bit.

Hatchet 3 (2013)

So I saw Hatchet 2 and didn't think much of it so my expectations were not high for this film. I thought it was slightly less objectionable than Hatchet 2. Still has the swamp environment and lots of other clichés. Danielle Harris reprises her role from the 2nd in the series and this carries on from where the last one left off. There are some gruesome deaths where body parts are pulled apart. The story brings in a sheriff who happens to be married to a journalist who believes she knows how to kill Victor Crowley. Her head is pulled off her shoulders. She didn't get everything right and it cost her. Only Marybeth Dunstan can kill Victor Crowley by reuniting him with his father, who has been cremated and is actually a pile of ashes in an urn. Marybeth does work out how to kill Crowley but she is impaled on a tree trunk, so isn't up to much at the end of the film. If you liked the previous films you might like this, otherwise I'd say avoid.

Night of the Living Deb (2015)

This is a comedy romance film involving an awkward single girl called Deb and a handsome guy called Ryan, played by Maria Thayer and Michael Cassidy respectively. The film is very silly but has a bit of charm usually lacking in these types of film. I liked the Deb character mostly because of Maria Thayer's quirky portrayal. It's not a film I would recommend for people who just want horror - there is no sense of threat in the film, the zombies could be replaced with something else equally unthreatening. A silly film but OK for a rainy day when you want cheering up.