Night of the Living Dead (1968 dir. George Romero)

Ug. Defiantly not a movie I would care to see again. Could have gone my whole life without seeing at all and I would have been fine actually. 

Anyway, really, the movie. It was in black and white, which I don’t have a problem with at all. Some of my favorite movies are black and white. It’s just that this one seemed to do so little in the amount of time that it played. 

Within the first twenty minutes of the movie I wanted Barbra to just shut up. Then when she finally did she was so out of it that I would have just put her in the cellar so she was out of the way. Mr. Cooper I wanted to die with his first two words. He’s such a jerk! And the way he keeps thinking he knows everything or tries to always be in charge is so annoying!

The one person I liked was the only one you never learned the name of. The tall black man you meet twenty some minutes in. He was the only sensible person there. Of course they thought he was a ‘murderer’ so killed him in the last five minutes.

The other girl, Judy, she was another odd one. From the way they talked it sounded like she had almost a problem with leaving places. They said how she didn’t want to leave the house with a flood, the she didn’t want to leave the house with zombies coming after them, wonder if she would have left the house had she been in one of the evacuation zones in Jersey for the hurricane.

How did it relate to the book? Well for one there were both about zombies. (duh) Two: Each had a guy who thought that he was doing what was best for the group when really the weren’t (Jack from the book and Mr. Cooper from the movie) Three: there was a girl that the main guy was trying to protect in some way (Delkalb was trying to protect Ayaan from war the best he could, Mr. Tall-and-Dark tried to protect Barbra from the zombies, Mr. Cooper and herself) Another thing - backing up here - how come the zombies in the movie walk so slowly but in the beginning when Barbra was being chased the guy seemed really agile? And what time was it? On the TV it was always light and the Chef gunman guy said that they would hunt all night - in the house they had just been saying how it was ten to three - so why was if always so dark at the house? 

Well that’s all for zombies (except for the class discussion of course). Next week, Vampires - and not the sparkly kind that skipped their basic biology class. Real vampires.

Monster Island by David Wellington

Monster Island is not a book about monsters but rather zombies. I personally have never been a zombie person, but I know a lot of people who are. 

This book was first created online, later published into a book. I remember seeing the cover at Borders one time - most likely a long time ago. I’ll have to ask my sister is she’s read if, though I don’t think so.

Back to the story. Because it was online, the format was similar to fanfiction or other online reading sites. I liked this for two reasons. One: I have been reading a lot of fanfiction recently so I was very comfortable with the format. Two: The chapters were very short and though there were sixty of them, since they were not that long it felt like you were getting a lot done. James Patterson also writes like this which is one of the reasons I will read some of his books.

The story itself is pretty good in my opinion. Sure, I don’t like zombies, but that won’t stop me from stating the truth. 

For those who read this would would like a bit more to go on in order to determine if you would read it, here. The story is zombies. For some reason when you die you come back to life within a minute. However, because your brain lost oxygen you’re mindless. The story is from two points of view and switches off every chapter. One story is about a guy who traveled from Africa to NYC to get AIDS medication for their contours warlord in exchange for safety for himself and his daughter. The other story is a medical student in NYC who kills himself while connected to a respirator and dialysis that way he can keep his mind. Of course the two stories intertwine. A Scottish mummy comes back to life an can control all the dead. They find a group of survivors. One guy thinks killing everyone would be best and tries to do it. Yeah-da, yeah-da, yeah-da, read it yourself, I’m not going to spoil it by telling you the whole thing.

Anyway, personally my favorite character is Ayaan - she understands what has to be done even if everyone else is to noble to consider it. I did also like Gary in the first part, but then after he talks to the mummy I just want him to go die.

So there is Monster Island. Two down, fourteen to go.

Elements of Horror

The things I think are in horror books/movies:
* Lightning
* Assistances
* Rain
* Death
* Something humans shouldn't be able to do
* Elements of surprise
* Creatures not seen in everyday life
* A full moon
* Lots of things happening at night

( I've seen maybe 3 horror movies ever so there are more than likely other things too.)

Movie: Let the Right One In (Swedish dir. Tomas Alfredson, 2008)

The movie in one word: odd. 

My roommate tells me that this movie was re-made in America and is called Let Me In made last year, 2010. This is definitely not your typical Vampire movie, or creature movie for that matter. No overly gruesome parts, not tons of blood, no sudden appearances that make you jump in your seat. I honestly don’t see it needing an R, though I wouldn’t say PG-13. Why don’t we create one that’s in the middle and call it that. It can be AR for Almost R (but not quite).

My sister would never watch it. Not because of the genre but because it’s Swedish. She refuses to watch pretty much anything subbed. Me, I don’t mind. After spending five years watching subbed anime, it being in Swedish is fine.

I thought the bully’s older brother was a jerk. An eye for an ear, who taught him in school? The vampire, Eli, was cool. I get why this movie was paired with Frankenstein. Both Eli and the Creature just wanted to have a friend in there life. I felt bad for her / his “father” even if he was killing people. All he was trying to do was feed Eli. I thought the way he died was good. Sacrificing himself to feed her, at the same time dyeing so no investigation can lead to Eli.

Oskar was one messed up kid. Sure his parents are divorced, his dad forgets about him when he drinks, mom works all the time, but couldn’t they have payed more attention to him so he wasn’t stabbing trees? And people who collect newspaper articles about murder, death, and knives grow up to either be murderers themselves or the crazy people that create groups to follow them. Your telling me that the parents knew no one that could watch him every now and again so he doesn’t spend so long by himself? That’s just bad parenting. So I don’t blame him for still being friends with Eli even after her finds out she’s/he’s a vampire (or at least drinks blood to survive). But still, as creepy, unethical, unmoral or what-have-you as it is to be friends with them, a Vampire on your side can be helpful.

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

I just finished reading Frankenstein, and my first thought is that Frankenstein is not a nice person. He wants to create a person from dead parts yet is repulsed but the end result. Was he not looking at what he was doing? Did he think that once the figure had life that it would look normal? 

I feel bad for the Creature. He didn’t ask to be created, yet his very existence is looked upon with fear and hatred. In the beginning all he wanted was to understand what was going on, what the things were around him. Yet Frankenstein abandons him, leaving him to fend for himself. Be it Frankenstein abandoning the Creature he created, or a mother leaving her misshapend child for dead, it is not right.

I do not understand one thing. How does Frankenstein’s story relate to Walton’s journey. He is exploring the Artic and Frankenstein sought to create life when it wasn’t his place to do so. How do the two relate?

As I was reading the beginning of the novel, I couldn’t help but relate it to Fullmetal Alchemist, a manga and anime from Japan. The story is about alchemy, taking one thing and transmuting it into another. In the story the main characters search for the Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir of Life - same things that Frankenstein studies in the beginning. The characters also sought to create human beings with alchemy - human transmutation. The difference between what they do and what Frankenstein does is that the create from basic compounds - sulfur, carbon, ammonia, salt - Frankenstein creates from pieces of dead human. The characters seek to revive there mother, Frankenstein seeks to advance science. They each create a creature, and monster, but instead of it living and seeking love and friendship, the creature mad in Fullmetal Alchemist is not even human and dies soon after. Either way it is not in our place to create life, only God has that right. 

Did I like the book? It was good, but I wouldn’t call it one of my favorites. I think that it was one of those novels every person should read, but once was enough for me.

Well, this is new.

I've never had a blog before, have never even looked at one. However, for class we have to keep a blog about all the books and movies we talk about. As of right now I have no idea how to link my teacher's site it this. My sister will hopefully be chiming in often. I don't know what she will say when she learns I have to read a book per week. I hardly read a book per month if that. But I'm going to prove her wrong.

This will be interesting.