Mama (2013)

Since last night was Halloween I thought it was time to watch a horror film and I recorded this one off The Horror Channel recently. It features a couple of young children, two little girls who are left alone in the woods by their father who has committed a murder. The father is taken by a sinister presence, “mama” and the girls are left alone with it. Their uncle uses up all the money he inherited from his brother to pay trackers to find the girls. The girls are eventually found after 5 years but are feral. They become the subject of a psychiatrist intent on finding the truth behind the thing they call “mama”. The psychiatrist seeks to set up the uncle, his girlfriend Annabel and the two girls up in a house used for therapeutic rehabilitation. It is there that the entity known as “mama” reappears for the girls. Over time the elder girl becomes more trusting of her uncle and Annabel, the younger girl doesn’t because she can’t communicate as well, however she and Annabel eventually bond. Due to various happenings the story behind mama emerges and it’s a ghost story about a woman who loses her baby due to locals chasing her to the edge of a cliff.

The film is reasonably well made and acted, Jessica Chastain portrays Annabel well. The two little girls do well in their roles too. It builds suspense quite well but I felt let down at the end of it. The visuals might have seemed impressive in 2013 on the big screen but didn’t do much for me, watching on a normal TV screen at normal volume (headphones actually).

The Pause

 It’s been a while since I last posted something. The reason for that is probably all about time. It’s also the fact that I am watching a lot less television and film. It’s been a trend for a couple of years now. I have increased the time I spend with music and YouTube and reduced the time watching films for myself.

Other things have been happening in my life, including becoming a community radio disk jockey or DJ, to use the familiar. This is taking up time that I would probably spend with either watching films or on my video game system.

There has also been the fact that for the last two years there has been a dog in our lives and while this is a joy, it means there are daily walks and that life is a little more constrained than it was.

So, given all of this, I have prioritised things and this blog has become a lower priority. The only reason I’m able to post this is that I am on annual leave for a week now and have a bit of time to think.

I’m not closing the blog and walking away. I will come back to this but for now, my posts are not going to be at the same frequency as they were in the past.

Second dose done

 It's the end of May Bank Holiday weekend and the Sunday of the weekend, which means the good news is that I don't have to work tomorrow. This morning I did our weekly shop at Tesco and this afternoon I have had my second dose of the Astra Zeneca vaccine. I received a text a couple of days ago that said if I had booked my second jab I could have it earlier than planned. So I had to cancel the original and could then book an earlier date, so that's what I did, nearly two weeks sooner than it was originally scheduled. I think the NHS has done a marvellous job with the vaccine roll-out. It was all so efficient and organised. Now that I'm fully vaccinated I feel like the life that was put on hold can continue on as normal. I just need my wife to receive her second dose and then it will really feel like getting back to normal again.

Yesterday there was a protest march in London about vaccine passports and the restrictions placed on us like mandatory facemasks and social distancing. They say the media and government are lying and that there is no virus. My own view is that the virus is real and is deadly enough to want to do everything to stamp it out. The people protesting are selfish and putting everyone at risk.

First dose done

Miraculously, not long after my last post I was sent a text inviting me to book my Covid vaccination appointment. It didn’t take long for the short wait to be over and last Friday I drove to Wing and it was there that I received my jab. It felt like a little scratch, not painful and I was given a card and that was it. It was all over in 15 minutes and since, over the next day or so, I felt a little more tired than usual but now I feel like normal again. I do have a tender arm but only like a bruise, not a constant aching.

I received the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine, the one that was being questioned in Europe for a day but worries seem to have been allayed, just scaremongers. I know that there are people who are anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine, although I don’t know if they are two opinions that have a significant overlap or not. I can’t understand them.

My next dose is due sometime in June, it’s been booked. On the day I had my first dose, it was apparently a record day for vaccinations - Boris Johnson even had his injection on the same day. Not in the same location as I had mine though!

Vaccinating the population

 Everyday life is still under the shadow of the Covid-19 virus, we're living under lockdown measures that restrict movement and how many people we can mix with from different households. I'm still the only member of the family doing food shopping regularly. There is light at the end of the tunnel though. Vaccine development has been extraordinary and there are now several vaccines that are being administered to the most vulnerable groups in society. I read just this week that people aged between 56 and 60 without underlying problems would be able to book an appointment for the first dose of vaccine from Monday this week. I'm not in that category yet but it is heartening to know that my age group would be the next after this one, so it does seem at the moment as though the phenomenal efforts of the NHS mean that they are getting through the population. It is some sign of hope that larger percentages of the population will be vaccinated by the date intimated in the government's lockdown exit strategy. That is, as long as people abide by the restrictions and don't all forego the measures that will continue to be necessary even after having the vaccine.

Deep Star Six

 This is an underwater monster movie and I watched it for a while and then fell asleep for several minutes and when I woke up it was no better. The monster was difficult to believe and I just felt no real sense of suspense. I didn't really care for any of the characters so when they did get killed it was just ticking them off of a list and I couldn't care less really. I usually like the premise of underwater thrillers but this was just no fun to sit through.

Outpost (2008)

This film felt like it was too long to me! It concerns a bunch of mercenary soldiers sent to cover a scientist while he tries to establish the true nature of an experiment in an old German bunker. I didn't really get where it was set, I assumed it was in some kind of battleground due to the need for the soldiers to maintain some kind of perimeter defence. It's one of those films that has zombie Nazi's brought to life in it. It's all very silly and not really that entertaining.

Amazon Echo (4th generation with Zigbee hub) and Philips Hue Go Light

From the money/vouchers I got at Christmas I bought myself a thermal bodysuit and a Hue Go Light, which is a standalone rechargeable lamp. I like the idea of being able to control my environment using my voice. I thought that the set-up would be easy but it wasn't as smooth as I thought it would be. I had the Hue app on my phone and updated the light's software. I managed to add the light to the Alexa app on my phone but it wasn't a simple one step thing. I had some routines set-up so that I could string together some commands that involved playing music and setting the light to come on with a colour to create a mood. But then I did something, can't remember exactly what but the connection between the Echo and the light got lost and I could not get it back despite trying numerous different combinations of things. 

For anyone who might be having the same problems, I'll document what I did and how I eventually fixed it.

1. I downloaded the wrong Hue app for my phone. The Go light is a Bluetooth lamp and you need the Hue BT app (BT stands for Bluetooth I guess)
2. I downloaded the correct app by using the QR code in the Hue instruction pamphlet that came in the box
3. I plugged the light in and turned it on and tried to pair it with the app but it wasn't working
4. I eventually read and followed the instructions and held the power button in for 10 seconds until it flashed a couple of times and turned off
5. I tuned it back on and tried pairing it and it eventually paired
6. Once I got the light working with the Hue app I found a setting to update the light software, so I updated it
7. Then I tried to add the light to my Alexa app
8. I went to add devices and saw the Hue logo so I clicked that
9. That route took me to signing in on the Hue website, which then wanted to search for a Hue bridge. I haven't bought a Hue bridge because the Echo includes a smart home hub. So I didn't want to go that route
10. In the Alexa app I went back to the devices page and went to add an individual light, which then asks what make and I chose Philips Hue from the list
11. It then wanted to scan for the device, saying it could take up to 45 seconds
12. So first couple of times it didn't find it but then I read about turning the light off and on, so I did this (the 10 seconds off)
13. It must have worked first time, not sure why but it did, it called the light First Light and I just accepted this
14. I was able to set up some routines in the Alexa app involving the light and music
15. I don't remember what I did wrong next but something happened so that the light was controllable by the Hue BT app but not via the Echo's voice control

I spent a lot of time going through what I thought was the process to get Alexa to scan and discover devices, re-starting the light many times using the 10 second restart. I looked up some suggestions about going to Settings > Apps > Alexa > Clear Cache and same for the Hue app. But that didn't work, the light was still not discoverable. I started to wonder whether the Echo and the light had to pair exclusively? I had the Hue app working and was a bit reluctant to fiddle with that but the next day I deleted the light from the Hue app. I then tried to add the light as a new device in the Alexa app but again that didn't work. I could pair it again with the Hue app, so that was something at least. I didn't find anything much online from official sources other than telling me that setup was simple and that adding the Alexa skill to control the light requires the Hue bridge. I tried adding it via the Hue Light app, where it asks if you want to control it with voice commands and then gives you the option for Alexa.

I even reset the light, this performs a factory reset on the light (the software update remains in place, so you don't need to download it again) and then re-paired it with the Hue light. After that I tried to again to discover the light in the Alexa app but no joy, not even after clicking the button in the app to make the light discoverable.

Getting close to giving up I continued Googling and found this suggestion on Reddit: "go to the light in your Hue BT app and hit reset and give it about a minute and simply ask Alexa to discover your devices again". So I reset the light again, which removes it from the hue app. But instead of pairing it first with the Hue app I tried to discover it from the Echo, the light blinked and I knew it had worked. I could control the light using my voice commands and the Alexa app.

I then added it to the Hue BT app and can now control it with either, so it is not exclusive but the order in which you pair the devices seems to be the thing to get right: after a reset, pair with the Alexa app first and then you can pair it with the Hue Light app.

Now I can either use voice commands or either of the apps to control the Go Light and it's great. There is one light effect I can't find in either app though - the candle effect is not an option. And the blinking light alarm doesn't seem to be an option in the Alexa app. I will have to search Google to see if I can find those options. 

New Year's Day 2021

Page one of a new year and I had a great breakfast of a sesame bagel with bacon and cheese, which was accompanied by an excellent coffee I made myself from filter coffee provided by a local coffee bean shop called The House Of Coffee. It was a great start to the day. My wife and I then took the dog out for a long walk to the woods that he loves. We met another dog walker who walked with us, he has the same breed of dog and our dogs love to play together. So it was nice for the dogs to be able to play together.

Back at home I finished off a cinnamon toffee swirl I'd bought the previous day. I watched a film in the afternoon. Read a bit and also sorted out how my Christmas presents can work together, more on that in my next post.

That was my New Year's Day. The weather has been cold but it hasn't rained or snowed. It did start out a bit dark and dreary and I did have a bit of trouble getting up, partly because it was dark but also because it was a fairly late night last night and I'd drunk a few beers and some 43 liqueur.

There were some fireworks that went off locally but it didn't last too long. Then I caught a bit of the fireworks from London, I didn't know whether they were having any this year and was surprised that they did to be honest, given how they didn't want crowds and were telling people to stay home.

Glad that the news didn't have any awful disaster on it.

Christmas 2020

 Here in Britain the news today is that the Brexit deal bartered with the EU has been approved unanimously by Parliament. I'm glad that there has at least been a deal reached even if it is at the eleventh hour, it was uncertain only a few days ago. There was enough will to want to make the relationship work and so it should.

Other news includes approval of another vaccine for Covid-19, this time it is the Oxford developed vaccine that doesn't have as many storage limitations as the Pfizer vaccine. So this one might actually be used in more parts of the world.

Due to the large programme that is needed to deploy vaccines it will be some time before the population at large is vaccinated. I've seen reports of timelines such as Easter but I think that's optimistic. Just remember this vaccine is for the whole population, at least as many as those who don't actually refuse to have it. There are some people who will refuse and for the life of me I don't understand what their argument is. There are uncertainties sure but they are about how long the vaccine will work and the extent of the resistance not about whether it works or not. I feel it will be the autumn of 2021 before most people have been vaccinated. Unfortunately, for the entertainment and hospitality industries I feel any events being planned before September may need to be rescheduled. But I will be happily proved wrong.

Christmas has certainly been a tame affair this year. No events have been allowed. So it's been a Christmas at home without even being able to have family over with us or visit them. At least we are safe and have not had the virus. I am very grateful for that and will accept the isolation to keep everyone safe.

The state of life has not changed since I last commented on it back in May. It's been a continuation and this New Years Eve many many people will be very glad to see the back of 2020. It certainly has been the year that was unlike any other in my lifetime.

Just a word about Christmas presents this year. I have received an Amazon Echo speaker and started a trial of Amazon Music Unlimited. Also got F1 2020, a videogame with a lot of content included in the package - unlike some of the other versions. I have not succumbed and bought a PS5, I shall wait on that front until next year some time.

My other main news that I haven't reported is that I have been volunteering for a local radio station for a few months now. This has at least been something of a distraction from the Covid-19.

Presidential Election 2020

The US presidential election happened on 3rd November. Incumbent President Trump to this date and to the best of my knowledge has still not conceded victory to president-elect Joe Biden. Well lets not forget that Hilary Clinton won the popular people's vote in the last election and Trump only got in due to the electoral college system. This time however, the electoral college system didn't vote in his favour and Joe Biden won more electoral college seats. These results have been certified. President Trump's pursuit of legal cases to change the results have not succeeded mainly because everyone else can see through them for what they are: "trumped up" is a very appropriate term under the circumstances. I don't know what trickery and machinations are left for Trump but I think he will do all he can to subvert the results, so it is not all over. In the meantime, he continues to be obstructive and only allow the cogs of government to conduct the most legally basic forms of transition. This is actually damaging the US and will affect the ability of Biden's government to get started tackling all of the many and extensive problems his administration will unfortunately inherit from the failure and frankly, the joke that has been the Trump presidency. Not least actually addressing the Covid-19 pandemic response instead of denying and obfuscating it.

Wrong Turn 6: The Last Resort

I have a note that I watched this film. That's it. That's all I can remember. It was a few weeks ago I know but really this was a film that made absolutely no lasting impression on me. I've just read a Wikipedia article about it and it vaguely sounds familiar but that's about all. Dredging now but I recall a few sparse details, there seem to be too many deaths to be really believable and they are too frequent. It's one of those films that I think are made for fans of a franchise who find something appealing in having more films in the franchise, however I personally wish that in these situations they would just stop producing more films. I read a few reviews that suggested it wasn't the worst in the franchise but just remember the bar is set pretty low.

Embrace of the vampire (2013)

 Pretty much as usual I started to watch this film with no expectations. I wasn't enthralled right from the get go due finding the acting pretty wooden. Sharon Hinnendael plays the central character called Charlotte and she is very pretty, so you'd imagine watching her should be a pleasure. However, in this mixed up movie that can't decide what it wants to be she is just under-utilised in a criminal way. The better scenes are where other girls in the university are bullying her but even these suck. I didn't enjoy this film much at all and I can't see why anybody would really, it certainly doesn't repay any time spent watching it. Not recommended, not even for fans of vampire films.

Beneath (2014)

 There are several films with this title, this one is directed by Ben Ketai. It concerns a young female student back home for a while to celebrate her father retiring from his job as a miner. Celebrations are going on in a bar with his workmates and in the banter it is suggested she is against workers being exploited. So, one thing leads to another and she is challenged to spend a few hours in the mine on her fathers last working day and she is only too happy to pick up the challenge.

So the next morning, hangover burning a hole in her head, she is taken down into the mine. She is given a shovel and has to shovel coal into a bin. While she is getting used to the work, at the mine head the drilling stops as the driller finds a hard bit of rock. He's encouraged to continue and breaks through into another tunnel but this causes a collapse and they become trapped down in the mine. Calling up to the surface determines it will take 72 hours to get down to rescue them. They have a metal cabin which provides fresh oxygen via tanks and can keep them alive when the air becomes toxic in the mine.

It turns out that there was a disaster in the past, where nineteen miner's lives were lost because they could not be rescued. So, things start to go supernatural now and something starts turning the men against each other. The young female student starts seeing weird things and the men are disappearing and getting killed in increasingly gruesome ways.

This film is a watchable B movie, if you are bored and have some time to spare.

Open House (2010)

 What was surprising about this film was that even though the plot was sort of ridiculous, the execution, acting and direction were of good quality. The fact that it was so well-made actually made up for holes in the story and it turned out to be a good thriller.

It concerns a woman who is trying to sell her house after the break-up of a relationship, I think with her husband but whether they are married or not I'm not sure. A man somehow gets in the house and traps her in a sort of crawl space between floors in the basement, handy since it has a door he can lock. He commits several murders with a knife and is joined by a woman. At first you might believe they are romantically involved but it turns out she is as murderous as he is, infact probably more so since he has to cover up after her murders. She seduces the woman's partner and kills him. Turns out that the killers are actually brother and sister.

The woman thinks the owner of the house has been killed but instead the man is keeping her downstairs and bringing her up during the day while his sister is out.

Murdering people is easy in this film, there are no police involved at all. No difficult questions and no detectives sniffing around. Despite they are occupying a house that is not theirs and on the property market. Someone from the company she works for leaves a message on her answerphone. The house cleaners turn up. The female owner tries to get rid of them, slipping a piece of paper into one of the cleaners hands that reads "call police". He reads this and recognises the situation and starts to ask his wife to leave but at this point the male murderer suspects something is wrong and kills both cleaners. He then beats the woman with his belt.

The female owner tries a different approach and tries to convince the man to leave his sister and run away with her. While they are upstairs discussing this, the sister unexpectedly comes back with the estate agent. The female hides in a wardrobe. The sister allows the estate agent to show her the house, she insists on seeing the bedrooms. While in the same bedroom as the female owner the sister tries to seduce the estate agent. The brother comes out of the bedroom and slashes the estate agents throat to the annoyance of his sister, she's concerned about blood seeping through the floorboards.

In the evening they invite guests over. People we've seen before who are friends of the owners. Well, it's not the type of house party I would want to go to, lets leave it there! Overall,this film shows that even with a script that has lots of holes in it, you can make a decent thriller.

Honeymoon (2014)

 A young newly wedded couple arrive at a remote house in the woods belonging to the girl's family. What can possibly go wrong? Well, quite a lot actually but it is done bit by bit and the suspense really does build up well. I shared the man's frustration with not understanding why his wife was becoming more remote from him. This is another film that contains a good twist to the story. It's not what you think in the end and to be kept in suspense for the length of the film is a great achievement from the director Leigh Janiak whose first film this was. One of the stars (Rose Leslie) is in the hit TV series Game of Thrones. It was a lot better than the average film on the Horror Channel.

Road Games (2015)

 This film was quite an interesting take on a familiar theme. An Englishman hitch-hiking in France meets a young French woman and they hitch-hike together. A French house owner passerby stops and gives them a lift. At first it seemed as though the killer on the loose that's in the news is the Englishman. However, all is not as it seems. There are some good twists in the film that will keep you watching, I quite enjoyed this from a plot point of view, despite not particularly liking the actors involved.

The Possession of Michael King (2014)

I wasn't really sure what to make of this movie. A young man is spiritually lost, he has lost his wife and she believed in the supernatural world. He wants to prove there is nothing in it and chooses to make a film of his experiences trying to connect with the afterlife. He is a film maker by trade, so the film plays out in the style of found footage. A trope that is overdone in my opinion, especially in horror films.

So he visits a variety of fraudsters who make claims that they can summon demons or talk to the dead. After a few he starts to develop a ringing in his ears and strange things start to happen. His sidekick abandons the project, he doesn't like what is going on. It turns out that there is some entity trying to take charge of Michael.

This isn't an enjoyable film to watch, there are some unpleasant scenes (for example, he enters his sisters bedroom while she is sleeping and lifts the duvet to feel the top of her thighs) and I found it a bit on the long side. He does indeed seem to be possessed by the close of the film, so he got what he wanted I guess. I didn't like the character of Michael and that's quite important with a film like this. Perhaps others would like his character but I couldn't muster up any sympathy for him, if you go looking for trouble and then find it where you didn't expect to, more fool you.

Static (2012)

I was pleasantly surprised by this film. It manages to keep its surprise until the end, at least it did for me. A couple are seeking to get over the death of a child and have moved out to the sticks. A young woman knocks their door one night claiming to have broken down and that there are a gang of people after her. They bring her into their home and the husband immediately trusts her but his wife is more suspicious. They do indeed see the people who are tying to find them in their home, they are wearing strange masks.
The twist in the story is the same as The Sixth Sense from 1999. This 2012 film didn't get very positive reviews when it was released but it's not a terrible film, its just not a classic either.

Grave Halloween (2013)

I watched this film in two parts and hoped the second part would be better than the first, it wasn't. It is set in a Japanese forest known locally as Suicide Forest for the sheer number of people who commit suicide there.

Some American students are making a documentary for one of them whose birth mother committed suicide in the forest. They meet up with some other American students who are also in the forest but seem to be there for a good old laugh. These jokers find an abandoned tent and find an expensive Rolex watch, that one of them takes hoping to sell and split the profits.

It doesn't end well for any of our students but the story and the journey to get to the end are not told in an interesting way. The make-up effects are pretty good but the dialogue and story are weak. It could have been a lot better because there is probably a more interesting way to tell the same story.