Mini Review: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

A scary good Halloween flick 

Tonight is Halloween, how will you spend it? Perhaps watch a scary movie, but which one, especially if you aren't a big fan of horror. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a competent PG-13 horror, which is rather surprising when seeing the negative reputation horror movies with this rating have. The movie tells a story set on Halloween night when a group of young teens find an abandoned house, and within it a old book. The book is filled with tons of frightening stories, which all start becoming true.

This movie is inspired by the popular anthology book series of the same name that released from the mid-eighties, to the early-nineties. Surprisingly enough I feel it is a rather faithful adaptation, then again I've only read the stories that were featured in the film; Harold, The Big Toe, The Red Spot, The Dream, The Haunted House, and a original one that takes inspiration from Me Tie Dough-ty Walker! (Yes, that is the full name of the story). The movie doesn't just focus on those stories as there are plenty of easter eggs to the original book sprinkled around the movie for fans of the series to find. It probably helps that the twisted mind of Guillermo del Toro (Whose works include Pan's Labyrinth, the original Hellboy movies, and most recently the Academy Award winning, The Shape of Water), who was able to bring Scary Stories' illustrator Stephen Gammel's morbid drawings to life.

I'm going to be quickly honest, this review may be a bit biased as I actually never grew up reading the books as the cover art always scared me too much to even open up. It is because of this, I won't fault you if you personally think this is a bad adaption, but hey it's at least a good horror film, much more better then last week's Deadly Detention anyway. All in all, this scary story get a 4 out of 5 paws up from me! Have a happy Halloween everyone!

Movie Review: Little Monsters

The zombie genre just got a whole lot more wholesome

Little Monsters is a amazing story of a washed-up rock star and a kindergarten teacher teaming to protect a group of small children from a zombie outbreak. The movie stars Australian actor Alexander England as the main character, Dave, a washed-up musician who doesn't always makes the best choices for himself. Co-staring is the brilliantly talented, and gorgeous Lupita Nyong'o who was seen earlier this year playing in the spectacular Jordan Peele's US. In this movie though, she isn't playing as a mother, and her evil doppelganger, much rather she is Miss Aubrey Caroline, a kindergarten teacher who is quite talented with the ukulele. Together these two seemingly opposite personalities work hard to protect Aubrey's class of innocent children when a zombie outbreak suddenly occurs. Despite what you may know about the genre, Little Monsters is a wholesome rom-com, that happens to have zombies in it (Not that I mind, the world needs more zombie genre based rom-coms).

Little Monsters begins with a rather foul-mouthed montage of Dave and his girlfriend fighting with other over the most petty of things before finally breaking up. After that, Dave awakens on a couch to a small child named Felix, it is quickly revealed that Dave is Felix's uncle, and that Dave is staying with his sister, Tess. It's established right here as well that Felix has a fascination with tractors (trust me this is important for later), we also learn that Felix has a lot of food allergies as well; gluten, milk, cheese, just to name a few. It is because of this he has to have a vegan diet. Upset from the lack of animal by-products Dave goes out and buys a pizza, upon returning though he gets an idea. Next scene he, and Felix are walking down what seems to be an apartment hallway with Felix dressed up as Darth Vader, Dave prompting him to stay in character. Dave finds the apartment he and his girlfriend used to share, and lets Felix in, only for the poor oblivious child to walk in on Dave's girlfriend and her co-worker doing the nasty. Dave rushes in, and berates her, though she argues back saying that he doesn't care about anyone, but himself. Dave angrily grabs his bong, and leaves, almost forgetting Felix. The two boys return home, only for Dave's sister to get extremely upset at him, but you can't blame her as Felix had been sleeping beforehand, has to go to school tomorrow, and walked in on two adults bumping uglies. Despite this, Tess gives him another chance to be a good uncle to Felix by taking him to school the next morning. The morning where Dave drops Felix off at school is when he meets his teacher, Miss Caroline. Taken by how beautiful she is, he immediately starts hitting on her, making up little white lies to make himself seem better then he actually is. Later in the day when he goes to pick Felix up, he overhears that one of the chaperones for the kindergarten's upcoming field trip had to cancel because her child is sick (actually not related to the zombie virus). Seeing the opportunity, Dave volunteers to help watch the kids on the field trip.

Now the night before the trip, Tess goes over with Dave on how to use the epinephrine injector (EpiPen) in case of emergencies, saying, "Blue in the sky, orange in the thigh", simple to remember right? Next scene everyone is now on a school bus heading to Pleasant Valley Farm, and Mini-golf. On the way, Miss Caroline leads the class in singing Taylor Swift's 'Shake It Off', much to Dave's dismay. When invited to sing for the group, Dave sings a rather terrible rock song he wrote about how his father left him, luckily they reach their destination before things get too awkward. Upon arrival, the kids take immediate notice that children's show host, Teddy McGiggle (Played by Josh Gad) is there filming a special episode. We all have a fun montage of all the fun everyone is having at the farm, but not too far away, something is going very wrong. At a nearby military base the army was experimenting with reanimation. Of course the zombies escape, and shamble their way towards the farm. While on a tractor ride, the driver stops to go investigate something odd, a zombie ripping apart one of the sheep. During this Miss Caroline and Dave get into a small argument about how he shouldn't swear at kids, meanwhile in the background the woman is attacked by the zombie. The two adults quickly take notice, and Dave hops onto the tractor to start it up with Felix assisting him as Dave doesn't know how tractors work. Miss Caroline impales the zombie onto a tree with a pitchfork before putting a small scarecrow hat onto it. Upon returning to the tractor she reassures to the children that they are okay. However, when returning to the main area, they see that the zombies are everywhere, killing everyone, and blocking the way to the bus. Dave is forced to stop the tractor, as Miss Caroline tells the children that this is simply a spooky version of tag. The class forms a conga line, and are able to evade all the zombies.

The group eventually makes it to the gift shop where Teddy McGiggles had locked himself inside, and refuses to allow anyone else in not wanting to risk the zombies getting in as well. Luckily the class manages to find a small crawlspace that they can go through, though Miss Caroline loses her bum bag (fanny pack) in the process. Dave finds another way in, climbing onto a small silo like structure which then lets him onto the roof, and from there uses his guitar to break a entrance in. After a long fight with Teddy, Dave is able to unlock the room that the crawlspace had led to, letting in the children. Now all safely settled, Miss Caroline reassures the students that there is nothing to fear, it's all a game, and the zombies are fake, which they believe. Teddy tries to say otherwise which leads to Miss Caroline threatening Teddy saying that she doesn't want the kids to be traumatized, he reluctantly agrees to stop his swearing, and play along with the plan. Dave meanwhile finds some chips and hands them out to the children to eat, overlooking how he should've checked the ingredient list before giving it to Felix. Turns out the chips had dairy in them which causes Felix to go into anaphylactic shock. Dave tries to use the injector only to seriously mess it up, forcing Miss Caroline to go out and retrieve the spare injector in Felix's backpack which is located back at the tractor. This is when Miss Caroline truly shines as a certified badass, she takes a shovel and uses it to decapitate numerous amounts of zombies before successfully returning with the backpack, and saving Felix's life. Dave realizes during this scene that he needs to be more careful, and think things more thoroughly. We also get a funny moment where since she is covered in blood, Miss Caroline explains to the kids that she simply got into a messy jam fight.

After this the audience is treated to a very sweet scene where Felix, and Dave recite an old rhyme that Tess taught them both (To Dave as a child, and to Felix as a mother), to help scare away the bad dreams. Once the kids have all fallen asleep, Miss Caroline, and Dave take the time to talk to each other, and get to know each other better. Dave explains to her that he has been a scummy guy the past few years, and that it wasn't his fault that his ex cheated on him. He also talks about his childhood where Tess had to take care of him a lot because their mother was psychotic. Miss Caroline, who insists to Dave to call her Audrey, reveals that when she was a teenager she was a hardcore rebel that always got in trouble, though after volunteering at the school, she realized her passion for teaching. She also reveals to Dave that her engagement ring means nothing, she and her fiance broke up a long time ago, she only kept the ring to keep away flirty single fathers. It is also revealed that Audrey's favorite musician is Neil Diamond. Meanwhile, the military has set up a base outside the farm, planning to bomb it the next morning as they don't the virus spreading anywhere else. The next morning, Dave surprises Audrey with a Ukulele rendition of the Neil Diamond song, 'Sweet Caroline'. I'd be lying if I said this wasn't one of the best scenes in the movie. Afterwards, Audrey, Dave, and Teddy come up with a plan to get them all out of there alive, Teddy suggests taking his McGiggle Mobile as it would be able to fit all of them. Dave, and Teddy go up to the roof to ready themselves for the mission. Teddy reveals that his real name is Nathan Schneider, and he is a self-proclaimed sex-addict. Having a moment of understanding, the two men get to work. Dave starts off by leading the zombies away from where Nathan will be going, then once the zombies are out of that area, Dave follows Teddy to the car only to be locked out of it. Turns out Nathan was intending to drive off by himself. However, things don't work out for the celebrity as the zombie in the back of the car rips him apart. Dave is now forced to climb onto the top of the car's roof as a horde of zombies surround him, it doesn't look good at the moment. At least he was able to receive a call from Tess, who is near the military camp, that he regrets not thanking her before for all the great things she has done. 

Much to Dave's surprise he sees the tractor is moving, but who is driving? It's Felix! He snuck away while the rest of the class was busy, dressed up in a Darth Vader outfit, he easily maneuvers around the zombies making it to the tractor, which thanks for his love of the machine is able to operate easily. Dave jumps aboard with him, and returns tot he gift shop where everyone else loads up. We then notice something very peculiar, but interesting. While Miss Caroline sings for her class she notices that the zombies following them are actually responding to the music, which becomes very clear when she sings 'If you're happy and you know it'. Eventually they come across a barricade of soldiers, but the soldiers only see Dave and Audrey, and at first are ready to shoot them. Though upon hearing the children in the back singing along with the songs, the general breaks protocol, and lets them through letting his military mow down the rest. Even with the gun fire, Miss Caroline reassures that this is all pretend. Once they go through, and come to a stop, Miss Caroline and Dave share a kiss as a bomb goes off in the background, "Fireworks!" she tells the children. They are all detained by the military, and taken into quarantine, which is explained in the next scene when the general confronts the group of concerned parents, reassuring that they will be just fine as they have two great teachers. Tess is taken aback, surprised, and happy to hear how her brother had stepped up. We then cut to the final shot in the movie, the class in quarantine all having a fun time as they all sing Taylor Swift's 'Shake it Off'.

All in all, it may not be Shawn of the Dead, but it's pretty damn close in terms of greatness. If you haven't watched this yet, I highly suggest you do as it is available on Hulu right now. This cheerful take on the zom-rom-com genre gets a 5 out of 5!

Movie Review: Deadly Detention

Please do, forget about me

This week I was browsing around Netflix for a movie to review, and I stumbled upon what looked like a wannabe Breakfast Club movie with a Slasher movie twist. The movie is called Deadly Detention, released back in 2017. The acting in this movie is simply atrocious, I've seen Disney Channel sitcoms with better acting, and that's saying something! Let's see which of them learn a valuable lesson about themselves personally, or anatomically if ya know what I mean (get it, cause they'll be dead!).

Deadly Detention starts out how you would expect, it opens with all of our students in a school bus being driven to an abandoned prison. why an abandoned prison, because apparently the school that week had been overrun with possums, so they needed to fumigate the campus. At the prison the students meet up with their principal, Ms. Presley, who then leads the delinquents to the prison's holding room. It is there she tells them that they will be there until 4pm, and that they are to write an entire 800-word essay within that time about "the me you don't see" (sounds familiar don't it). Of course however the students don't really get anything done, and instead procrastinate. During this time we get to know the characters better, such as; Jessica, the Athlete who closely follows school rules. Taylor, the Basket Case who carries her skateboard everywhere, though never really uses it. Kevin, the Brain who is not only Christian, but is also presumed to be gay (we never get a confirmation on that). Barrett, the Princess, yes I know what I just said, but he fits the archetype. Finally we have the fifth student, Lexi as the Criminal (or s**t as they call her in the film). With our Breakfast Club archetype roles filled out, we can finally move on with the movie. while Ms. Presley leaves the area for a moment to investigate something, Lexi sneaks into her temporary office and steals her "Best Principal of 2010" award, trust me this is important for way later. After successfully hiding the stolen award from her, the students begin their procrastination again, until they are interrupted when Ms. Presley begins banging on the door screaming for help. Jessica attempts to help, but it is too late as the screaming stops and a pool of blood trickles beneath the door. This is heavily implied however as we don't even get to see the body or the supposed pool of blood. They then hear the intercom turn on as a mysterious voice prompts them to leave the room. Taylor suggests that since they are in a abandoned prison, it could be a malevolent ghost, Jessica is skeptical however, and Lexi believes it to be a prank by Ms. Presley.

The group makes their way to the kitchen, where they discover Ms. Presley in the meat locker, except... she's dead! Now realizing that this is serious, the students find new weapons in hope of fending off against the killer as Lexi left the trophy with the body of Ms. Presley saying that she doesn't want her ghost to haunt her. The weapons are useless however as none of the kids use them at all, the weapons seem to have had literally disappeared from them between shots. At least we get some more exposition as they travel the halls, they talk about how they ended up in detention. Turns out, a few of them were framed for petty crimes they didn't even commit such as vandalizing, and having alcohol in their locker. Soon enough, they come across the killer, brandishing a large stake, and run away from him into a communications room. The room starts to fill up with poisonous gas, causing the group to escape into the ceiling crawlspace. It seems fine at first until the familiar stake starts to pop up through the ceiling, attempting to stab any of the students.Four of the kids, divided into groups of 2 are separated from each other the the ceiling breaks apart. Taylor however is caught on something, and we simply see the stake getting closer to her until the screen goes black. We have no idea what happens to her. The first group comes to, showing that Jessica and Kevin have fallen into what seems to be a different hallway. Kevin also seems to have had his ankle sprained, so can only walk with a limp. He, and Jessica quickly make a run for it though as they hear the killer nearby. Eventually they lose him, but also reach a dead end. Here Jessica receives a pep-talk from Kevin about how they will get through this. Meanwhile Lexi and Barrett awake in a massive mess hall, where seeing that they are all alone decide now is the right time for the coitus, never mind that there is a killer running about. Kevin decides to stay behind, so he doesn't slow down Jessica. Once again before we can anything happen, the screen cuts to black. Jessica quickly realizes that Kevin sacrificed himself for her, and makes her way into the mess hall.

Jessica finds the others, luckily after they had gotten their clothes back on. Though seeing the lipstick on Barrett's face, Jessica yells at them for not taking this seriously. Overhead, the anonymous voice tells them to head back to the holding cell where they started. Barrett angers Lexi when he calls them by their archetypes, her's being the s**t. Though if this is really trying to be The Breakfast Club, then she more fits the role of The Criminal. The girls leave him alone long enough to be attacked off screen by the killer. They return back to see the damage, now vowing vengeance on the killer, they arm themselves with a serving fork, and a pot lid. Literally in the background of the shot, there is a mop that Jessica could've easily broke to use as a proper weapon! Jessica pumps herself up with some stretches, and I can't tell anymore if this movie wants to be a parody, or a serious slasher. Jessica, and Lexi take notice of something strange, in the room that the killer came from is a shrine of a fellow classmate who had killed herself a year prior to the movies. Yeah, I didn't bring that up until now since the movie also never brought it up until now, except maybe a quick one-line mention around the beginning. The two attack the killer, and Jessica is shoved between two closing gates. We never see what happens, we're supposed to assume she died, but we got no squishy sound effect to clarify that. All we know is that now, Lexi is our Final Girl.

Turns out that the killer was the School Hall Cop (I assume like Mall Cop, but with less Paul Blart) all along, wow. His motive was that, the girl who had killed herself was his daughter, he claims that is was this specific group of kids that bullied her into it. We then get a actually interesting plot twist though, turns out Lexi was best friends with her, and that she killed herself because her father was abusive. Not wanting to think about it like a rational adult, he instead begins to strangle Lexi, oh no is this the end? Nah, he gets hit in the head with a blunt object, now I was expecting Jessica, but no, it's the fricking principal! Somehow Ms. Presley is still alive, and was able to save Lexi. The two then walk down a long hallway towards the exit, this is when the most ridiculous part comes up. Ms. Presley literally says that on her way to save Lexi, she checked the pulses of the other students, and it turns out they'll all be okay! Alright... what the actual f**k. It's one thing to have all your kills off screen, but to completely undo it all!? Not cool. Let's just hope that this doesn't leave any possibility for a sequel. 

This was probably, not just the worst horror movie I've seen, but also one of the worst MOVIES I've seen period. The acting, wack. The soundtrack, wack. The plot, wack. The way they have off screen kills only to undo them later, WACK! This movie gets a 1 out of 5 paws up, and detention for the rest of eternity!

Mini Review: The Addams Family (2019)

They're all together ooky, the... decent-ish family flick *snap snap*

The nearly 100 year old (81 to be exact) franchise is back to introduce a new generation to macabre humor. Did it really succeed in what it set out to do, or will children forget it as soon as the next hit animated feature comes out. The plot centers around two different plot lines; one about Pugsly's passage into manhood, and the other plot being about not judging others, and learning to accept those who are different (Haven't heard that one before). 

You may have already noticed the quirky art style they went with, this is actually a homage to the original 1938 comic strip. In all fairness, it works... sometimes. Some of the character designs are pretty good and great renditions of the original drawings, although then we get to some of the new characters that were made for the movie, god are they ugly. Unfortunately one of these new characters is a major side-character to Wednesday's plot, Parker Needler, the daughter of the movie's villain who befriends Wednesday. I wouldn't mind her character design too much if it weren't for the fact that she's important to the plot, and thus appears a lot throughout the movie. Funnily enough she looks more pleasing to the eye after the gothic makeover she got from Wednesday. Other then that one complaint, I don't mind the animation too much. To be honest, the only thing interesting in the movie was Wednesday's story of her exploring outside the Addam's Family estate, and causing general chaos where ever she went. Although because of this, it makes me wish that the other characters had as much development as her. 

All in all, the movie is sadly lacking. I wish that the Addams had gotten into more wacky scenarios with the picturesque town at the foot of the mountain they live upon. Sure we get one scene, but that was far from enough for me. While the message is quite generic, it is a good one for children to learn, "it's okay to be weird". I most certainly could've benefited from such a message when I was a kid. The meh reunion with America's most spooky, kooky family gets a 2 out of 5 paws up. 

Trigger warning
if you suffer from extreme arachnophobia like I do, think twice before seeing this in theaters as there are many moments throughout the movie where spiders are close to the screen for long periods of time.

Movie Review: ParaNorman

A spooky classic

Hey everyone! This week the movie I watched is actually quite close to home. From LAIKA Studios in Northern Oregon is the charmingly spooky 2012 film, ParaNorman (geez, I thought it was released in 2016, I sure feel old haha). ParaNorman is the tale of a young boy who has the gift to speak to the dead, and finding his place in a small town of non-believers. It is actually a very emotional story that had me tearing up slightly at certain points throughout the movie. Although, at it's core it is a great horror comedy that people of all ages can enjoy! Another thing about the movie that is so interesting, is that this was the first stop-motion animation film to use full-color 3d printing. Thanks to the now streamlined process, the title character alone has around 1.5 million facial expression combinations! Enough trivia though, let's get to the review.

The movie opens with a very 80/90s VHS aesthetic as we are shown a goofy fake zombie movie within our movie. Already within the first, few minutes of the film you'll be greeted to one of the many hilarious jokes. This one poking fun at how in horror the character could run away much rather then taking the time to scream, and the general campiness of movies from the era. When the zombie chomps on the lady in the movie, we cut to the reveal (as if it weren't already obvious) that it's simply a movie playing on a older tv, and in front of the tv is our protagonist Norman. Behind him on the couch is his grandmother knitting, playfully asking him "what's going on?", after explaining to her, she expresses why not just talk it out and get along (huh, just noticed that foreshadowing, nice). We then hear Norman's father calling out for him to take out the trash, as he leaves the room, his grandma asks him to tell his dad to turn up the heat as it's too cold. In this scene we are introduced to Norman's other family members, a disgruntled father trying to change out a light bulb, his mother cooking a meal, and his older teen sister who is seen talking on her phone with a friend of her's. After he takes out the trash, Norman seems nervous, but goes up to his father and tells him his grandma's request, it is then the household comes to an abrupt stop. It's revealed to the audience that grandma is dead and what Norman was talking to was her ghost, though no one believes Norman in that he can speak to the dead. This isn't even unusual as in the next scene we see Norman walking to school greeting and interacting with every ghost he comes across, even the ghost of a freshly ran over raccoon. When he arrives at school, we also see that he isn't just considered odd in his family, all the students actively avoid him, along with a bully who teases him. This was one of the parts that got to me emotionally, I may not be able to speak to the dead, but I can relate to how it feels to be isolated and purposefully left out just because of your differences, he also feels relatable to me because simply judging from his bedroom he's a real horror aficionado, and what's not to love about that!

After a quick bullying session from school bully, Alvin, we cut to Norman and the others from his class rehearsing for a play about the history of the town. The drama teacher takes it too seriously however, and when giving off an example of how she wants them to act this allows for the audience to learn about the myth surrounding the town. What we now know so far is that a witch, before being hung, cursed her seven accusers to eternal damnation, and that they will rise from their graves as the living dead. School is soon dismissed, and first we see Norman walking by himself only to be joined by Neil, a kid his age who despite not having the exact same problem as Norman is also bullied, and because of that they should become friends. Norman of course is hesitant at first, but decides to hang out with him for a bit after Neil helped scare off Norman's crazy uncle Mr. Prenderghast (From his mom's side of the family). Upon hearing that Norman can speak to the dead, Neil asks if he can perhaps speak to his dog, Bub, who unfortunately, and ironically was ran over by a animal recuse vehicle. The two boys soon quickly bond and become friends as they play with the ghost dog, Norman finally finding a friend. Though everything is not at peace, Mr. Prenderghast is acting frantic, he's nearing the end of his life and he needs to pass a certain book to Norman so he can stop the witch, though he dies before he can give it to him. Later that night is the annual play, it goes well until Norman is swept into a terrifying hallucination, in which a tree tells him that the dead are coming. Norman tries to tell everyone, only to be laughed at, and his father admitting that he wished Norman were born normal. Our hero is then grounded for something he can't even control, his mother tries to comfort him saying that when people are scared they sometimes do, and say things they shouldn't. Upon asking why his father is afraid of him, his mother corrects him saying that his father is scared for him (that still really doesn't excuse his attitude in my opinion). 

The next day, Norman is treated as the laughingstock of the entire school. He retreats to a bathroom stall, so he can be alone. It's during this scene, he finds out his uncle had died as seen by the fact that his ghost approaches him, albeit with some bad timing, as in the stall next to Norman is Alvin. Prenderghast's ghost tells Norman that he must read from a book located with his body at his house, and he must do it before sundown that day, or else the witch, and the dead will awaken. After fulfilling his unfinished business, Prenderghast moves on to the afterlife. Alvin then chases Norman out of the school, and we skip to later on after school. Norman is sitting in his bedroom now realizing that all the zombie memorabilia might've been a bad idea. His grandmother then talks to him, saying that it's okay to be scared as long as it doesn't change who he is. It is during this scene we also get a nice little easter egg when Norman's phone rings, his ringtone is the theme to the 1978 classic Halloween. Now filled with courage, Norman sneaks out of the house, which is rather easy when his older sister is supposed to be watching him, but instead is on her phone talking to one of her friends. Norman zooms by Alvin on his bicycle, making the bully peeved, and start following him, as Norman interrupted his (terrible) break-dancing. The audience can see the sun now falling into the horizon. Norman hurries into his uncle's house and finds the body, and with it, the book tightly secure in his cold, dead hands. After successfully retrieving the book, he heads to the burial ground of the seven accusers thinking that is the place he needs to be. Norman quickly realizes however, that this is no spell book, or anything, much rather, it's the story of Sleeping Beauty. The boy is understandably very confused, but not knowing what to do, he tries to read it, only for Alvin to take the book from him. The sun now completely sets, and with it spooky things start happening. A large purple, and green cloud forms in the sky, resembling a witch's face. The ground beneath the boys cracks as the seven accusers now rise from the grave. They understandably run away from the zombies.

Courtney, Norman's older sister finally notices that her brother is missing and goes to search for him. She first heads to Neil's house knowing that the two are friends. What she didn't know was that, Neil's older brother is her crush, Mitch, who was introduced earlier in the film. The three head towards the graveyard, as Neil mentions that Norman said he had to go there. On their way they coincidentally come across Norman, and Alvin, as well as the zombies. There is a funny part here where Mitch drop kicks a zombie's head and only cares about how far he kicked it (As you can probably tell, he isn't very bright). The leader of the zombies, the judge, manages to cling onto the van as our main characters drive off. Seeing this, the other zombies follow the van into town where in a hilarious plot twist, the humans are a bigger danger to the zombies, then the zombies are to the humans. The group breaks into the town hall to access the archives in hope of finding out where the witch was buried, though they can't find the information they need. As the witch now looms over the town hall, Norman climbs to the top of the roof in a last-ditch effort to stop her. It doesn't work of course though, and instead the witch shoots our protagonist with a bolt of lightning, burning a hole into the book, and making Norman fall through the roof, back into the archives. While unconscious Norman has a dream that reveals something important, the witch was in fact a little girl, a girl who had the same powers as him, powers that were mistaken for witchcraft. We also find out that the witch's name is Agatha Prenderghast (Which makes Norman the descendant of a witch, nice). When he comes to, he sees the zombies are now surrounding him, though instead of running away this time he confronts them, asking why they killed her. The zombified judge then confesses that what they did was wrong, that they were just scared at the time, and thought that would be the best thing to do. Now with the truth revealed, Norman doesn't want to put Agatha back to sleep, instead he now sets out to help her spirit finally cross over, thus ending the curse. Upon leaving the town hall, Norman, and the zombies are cornered by a mob of hostile civilians, at first things are looking pretty bad for them, but the mob is stopped when Courtney, Neil, Mitch and even Alvin step in to defend him, and talk sense into the crowd. The mob calms down, though this angers Agatha causing her to stir up a ghostly hurricane, destroying everything in her way. Norman's parents now finally getting a better understanding of their son, drive him, the judge zombie, and Courtney over to where the Agatha was buried, under the tree she was hung from (I think? They never said which tree she was hung from, only that she was buried under that specific one). The trees in the forest come to life, separating our hero from his family, forcing him to have to go alone to confront Agatha.

Agatha is understandably angry at the world for what they did to her, but Norman attempts to talk sense into her saying that lashing out against the world makes her no better then the people who hung her. Her spirit gets increasingly more violent, and destructive as Norman tells her a new story, one that sounds very familiar to what she went through. He pleads to the ghost to remember who she was, an innocent child, as he seemingly falls to his doom, the area changes around him. The entire area including the old tree transform into what it looked like a few centuries ago. Agatha, now looking normal remembers that she was a little girl named "Aggie", and that her mother would sometimes take her to that tree and tell her stories underneath it. Aggie asks Norman if he ever wants to lash out against those that wronged him, he simply replies that even though it would be nice, it would do nothing, in fact it would make him no better then his bullies. He then proceeds to explain to her that he at first believed that there was no one in the world who understands him, but now knows that "There is always someone for everyone". The two befriend each other and sit underneath the tree, wanting to be with her mother once more, she leans over onto Norman and finally allows herself to pass on to the afterlife. Norman returns to his parents who praise him, and they return to town to find that the souls of the dead accusers had passed on as well, and everything is now fine and calm. We do get a funny moment at this point as well, Courtney asks Mitch out on a date to go see a movie, and Mitch responds positively saying, "You're gonna love my boyfriend. He's like a total chick-flick nut!". It was actually this moment that caused ParaNorman to become the first PG-rated movie to be nominated for a GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Award, which at the time was rather groundbreaking. After this scene we finish off with a rather heartwarming moment in which Norman is watching a scary movie once more with his grandmother's ghost watching over him on the couch. His father then enters the room and sits on the couch next to the spirit, asking Norman if she's in the room. Upon nodding his head, he turns to where he thinks she's sitting and greets her, making his grandmother's spirit surprised, but very happy. The rest of the family then come into the room and sit down with Norman. His father and grandmother then ask in unison, "So, what's going on?", and the movie ends. It's a really sweet way of ending the movie, as we now see his family accepting him for who he is, and being a better family because of it. 

Overall, ParaNorman is a very good movie that can watched anytime of the year. It shows kids that it's okay to be scared, and the right way to deal with bullying. The art is also very gorgeous, with everything being handmade. Personally you should do anything you can to support this animation studio, they make such amazing films that unfortunately don't make much at the box office. All in all, I highly recommend giving this movie a watch with 5 out of 5 paws up!

Movie Review: Sadako vs Kayako (The Ring vs The Grudge)

A crossover we've all been "dying" to see

This week, I decided to travel overseas for a different type of horror, specifically Japanese Horror. There is something about Asian cinema, and how they often are able to make better horror then Hollywood, without the Hollywood budget. It probably helps that in many Asian cultures there are lots of scary stories and myths to draw inspiration from. For this review, I decided to review Japan's most iconic horror icon. Though there is a slight problem, there are two of them, Sadako from The Ring and Kayako the vengeful ghost from Ju-on: The Grudge. I knew I could only pick one, and after thinking it through, I decided, "Why not both?". Thus today we are reviewing the 2016 crossover movie, Sadako vs Kayako, a movie which pitches both ghouls against each other in a battle over two young women's souls. 

The movie was originally teased back in 2015 as an April Fools Joke, though later that year it was revealed to be an actual production. I'm going to be honest right now, the promotion and build-up to the movie was much more better then the actual film. You may ask, "How does Japan promote a battle of their two most iconic cinematic ghouls", well how ever Japan promotes anything, with tons of wackiness and charm! From simple goofy clips of the two demonstrating good theater manners, and a opening pitch at a baseball game to a Hello Kitty collaboration (btw if anyone gets me the Sadako HK plushy i'll love you forever, no joke). Unfortunately all of this would lead to a disappointing ending as i'll talk about soon enough.

Despite these characters being so iconic, they surprisingly aren't that well known in the west, other then those pretty bad western remakes of their films. Just in case some of you here don't know who these characters are, i'll quickly nutshell their movies of origin. Sadako is from the 1998 movie Ring (or Ringu). The movie centers around a cursed video tape, anyone who watches it receives a call from Sadako who tells her victim that they have seven days to live before she kills them. It is said though that the would-be victim can escape their fate by copying and sharing the video, thus creating a endless cycle. This technique doesn't work all the time though, it depends on which of The Ring movies you watch. 

Now unlike Sadako, Kayako and the small ghost boy Toshio have a bit more backstory to them. In the 2002 film, Ju-On: The Grudge, the ghost's backstory's are that Kayako's husband finds out that she loves another man. Filled with rage her husband proceeded to murder her, his son, Toshio and the family cat, Mar, before finally hanging himself. The mother and son come back as the Japanese ghosts known as Onryō, which literally means "vengeful spirit". Their house is cursed, making anyone who walks inside cursed. How the curse works is that, as soon as you are cursed, the ghosts will hunt you down and kill you, and if you die outside the house, the curse will spread to wherever you died (Yikes, talk about overpowered). It is also said that the souls of Toshio and Mar fused together which is why the boy meows much rather then make more human sounds.

We should all be caught up now, so we can finally start talking about the main event, Sadako vs Kayako. The movie begins with an unfortunate social worker who had been sent to check up on a middle-aged woman since no one had seen her in awhile.After walking around a little, she finally comes across the corpse of the woman who seemed to had stuck a large shard of glass into her throat. The social worker watches in horror as an unsuspecting VHS player starts playing, playing the infamous cursed video. The audience, doesn't see the video, but instead sees Sadako stalking her new victim in the background before we cut to a university. In one of the rooms we get our obligatory foreshadowing class lesson, in which a professor is teaching a bored class about different urban legends, such as the cursed video and the cursed house. The movie even throws in a small easter egg mentioning "The Slit Mouthed Woman" as seen in the 2007 movie Carved, which was directed and written by Kōji Shiraishi, who also wrote and directed Sadako vs Kayako. During the lecture the professor, Shin'ichi Morishige mentions that if any of his students find the cursed video, they should bring it to him, and he'll pay them in return, of course no one believes him however. After doing a quick promotion of his self published book that goes into detail about the cursed video, he dismisses the class. The film cuts to our main protagonist Yūri Kurahashi, and her friend Natsumi Ueno, Natsumi and Yūri are discussing whatever when the peppy friend asks Yūri a favor, help her transfer the videotape of her parent's wedding onto DVD so she can give it to them as a anniversary gift. First though the girls go to a thrift shop to find a VCR, Yūri stumbles upon a old, dirty device, but with it being so cheap she decides to go with that one, although they forgot to check to see if there was anything inside of it first. Upon arriving back to Yūri's apartment, the girls set up the VCR only to find a decrepit old tape inside, being a thrill seeker Yūri  decides to watch it despite Natsumi's protests. Yūri is fortunately distracted by a text message which she takes her time to reply to, thus missing out on the video. Natsumi isn't as lucky, she didn't get distracted and watched the cursed video in it's entirety, thus cursing her to a untimely demise. Natsumi quickly takes the video out, and tells Yūri that this may be the cursed video. The girl's fears are confirmed when Natsumi receives an ominous phone call, warning her of her final two days. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, they shortened the curse down to two days instead of seven, i'm not too sure why, maybe to make events line up easier?

The girls make their way to the shop where they bought the VCR, only to arrive too late as they come across the distraught shop owners whose part-timer just committed suicide after telling them that she had watched that same video two days ago. We see here that Sadako's method of killing isn't as direct, instead making her victims commit suicide. Upon remembering their professor, the girls go to him to ask him for help. The movie from time to time cuts to this other girl who lives on the other side of town, Sishuka Takagi, who recently moved into a house that is coincidentally right next to Kayako's house, this can only mean disastrous things are to come indeed. Unfortunately we don't see or learn much about about Sishuka until towards the climax of the movie. Our main girls find their professor and tell him about the videotape they found. Excited to finally have his chance to meet the mysterious Sadako, he watches the video himself as well as prepares to copy it to a DVD format, which sounds like a bad idea waiting to happen. Yūri frantic for answers reads through the professor's book, and finds a page on different ways to rid yourself of the curse, such as showing it to someone else. Morishige tells the girls that unfortunately it didn't work since Yūri gave him the video to watch and not Natsumi. Wanting to at least rid of Natsumi of the curse, he takes her to a renowned local exorcist, in hopes that she can break the curse. Things don't work out to plan however as Sadako is a very strong ghost who is willing to kill anyone who gets in the way of her curse. Sadako possesses the exorcist and the exorcist's assistants, making them kill each other, then Morishige as he tries to save the exorcist. Arriving late is a more experienced exorcist with psychic powers, Keizo Tokiwa, who is accompanied by a young blind girl dressed in red, named Tamao, who is also psychic, it is never revealed how the two are related however which is a bit of a shame. A little before the exorcism scene, but after the scene where the professor watches the video we finally get to see Kayako in action, or more Toshio actually, but whatever. A group of young boys bully another child into going into the cursed house. The poor boy isn't killed off immediately however, Toshio instead approaches him before cutting to the young boy still alive, he opens the door just enough to throw a large rock at his bullies which makes them run in after him to take revenge. One by one, the boys get picked off, until the last bully remains, we see in a POV shot of the innocent boy hiding in a closet, watching as his bully gets closer to his hiding space, only for Toshio to pounce on top of him, killing him. Luckily we don't see the ghosts actually killing the children directly, instead the ghosts grab them and they simply disappear, I don't know why, but seeing kids in peril always makes me a bit uncomfortable, especially if it's heavily implied they were killed (I was stupid for thinking that the nice boy and Toshio would somehow become friends haha). 

Focusing back on the Sadako plot, a depressed Natsumi blames Yūri understandably as she was the one who insisted they watch the suspicious tape in the first place. Feeling guilty Yūri decides to watch the video for Natsumi hoping that the curse will pass on to her instead. However, Natsumi makes the stupid decision after seeing Yūri hop into the shower, she watches the video again, cursing her once more. To make matters worse Natsumi even posts the video onto the internet, dooming thousands worldwide (Pretty sure Rings (2017) stole this plot point). Yūri then meets Keizo and his assistant who tell her that her efforts were in vain as sharing the video is simply a rumor that doesn't actually work, so she just cursed herself for nothing. Keizo then goes on to explain that the only way to defeat Sadako is to pit her against an equally powerful curse in hope that they cancel each other out, the exorcist leaves to find such a ghost to pit against Sadako. Soon after this Yūri finds out what Natsumi had done, and now Natsumi locks herself in a separate room where she attempts to kill herself before the curse can. Unfortunately for her, killing yourself falls under interfering with the curse causing Sadako to pay Natsumi a earlier visit then planned, and kills her by filling her lungs with her hair. Having seen her best friend died in front of her Yūri is now determined to stop the curse once and for all at any cost. Keizo, and Tamao come across the home of Kayako, and see Sishuka walking home from school. Tamao warns that the house beckons to her and that if she wants to live, she needs to stay away from there. With both Keizo and Tamao sensing the dark presence in the house, they choose Kayako as their target, and begin prepping for their plan. Later that night after being taunted by nightmares, Sishuka decides to explore the house in search of the missing boys. She comes across the nice boy, only for it to be actually Toshio. Seeing the ghoulish child, Sishuka screams which causes her parents to wake up and rush over to the cursed house in a attempt to save their daughter; everything that could go wrong, goes wrong. First Sishuka's father's head is snapped by Toshio, then her mother is mauled by Kayako, before Kayako can get to Sishuka, she is saved by Keizo, though now cursed there is hope for her. 

Yūri is introduced to Sishuka, and convinces the terrified girl to help them, saying, "Our curses will fight each other", ah yeah, we know where this is heading. The two girls enter the cursed house, find a old TV with a VCR and Yūri has Sishuka watch the cursed video, so now both girls have both curses on them. Toshio then appears, doing his creepy ghost cat child thing, but is dragged into the television before Sadako crawls out towards the girls, Kayako is also heard coming down the staircase. The two begin their heavily anticipated battle, only for the humans to find out that they are as equally powerful as each other. Keizo distracts the ghosts, which allows the girls to head outside towards a well that Keizo and Tamao prepared as a last ditch effort to at least seal them. Yūri prepares herself to be sacrificed to seal the two ghosts, though once Sadako and Kayako clash, the two fuse into a gross monstrosity and Keizo is killed. Sishuka pulls the cover over the well, thinking that's all over, though the cover is pushed off. It's revealed that the two demonic ghouls had fused, using Yūri's body as a host, they become Sadakaya. Sadakaya has the appearance of Sadako, but with the ominous croaking and jerky movements of Kayako. Sishuka and Tamao scream in terror as behind them Toshio is back doing that creepy waggly tongue thing he does sometimes, the girl's fates are open to interpretation though it is most likely that they had died. That was the ending of Sadako vs Kayako, though there wasn't much battling sadly. At least at the end of the credits we get a new version of the cursed video featuring the new Sadakaya.

Overall,  I thought the movie was okay, at the very least, it's a decent Ring film. I feel like the movie spends too much time on The Ring plot and just shoehorns in The Grudge at the ending. Then we didn't even get to see a fight, which is rather disappointing, though the fusion part is kinda cool. If you want a Japanese horror and only care about the scares, then I recommend this. Though if you want a horror icon battle, I instead suggest Freddy vs Jason which is what I was expecting Sadako vs Kayako to be more like. It's okay, not the best, though it is much better then any of the American remakes from either franchise ironically enough. In the end the long awaited duel between Japan's iconic silver screen ghouls gets a 3 out of 5 paws up.

Movie Review: Stephen King's Cat's Eye

A Meowvelous Anthology Film

We're kicking off our October spook binge with the 1985 Stephen King classic, Cat's Eye. The movie is a compilation of three stories, the first two taken from the Night Shift short story collection, and the last one being an original story made for this movie. The plot for the movie is simple, we follow a stray cat who must go on a journey to save a little girl from a monster who wishes to steal her breath, along the way, the cat is a witness to two other stories, Quitters Inc. and The Ledge. Cat's Eye is also full of fun little Stephen King references; a cameo from our favorite rabid canine Cujo, to something more simple like a copy of the Pet Semetary book being read by a character. 

Cat's Eye opens with, well, a cat's eye. Our furry protagonist wakes from his cat nap, and wanders about his neighborhood only for a very familiar St. Bernard to start giving chase. The two animals are almost ran over by a certain sentient 1958 red Plymouth Fury, i'm sure many Stephen King aficionados know who i'm referring to. Cujo doesn't give up easy, and eventually manages to chase the cat to a shipping warehouse where the cat is accidentally shipped off to New York City. This is where the cat first meets the little girl, albeit in a vision. This is never explained, how the child was able to telepathically ask the cat for help, though some fans suspect The Shining, which would make more sense then to just accept as is. Though the cat doesn't say a word, we can see through it's actions that it has taken up the call to arms. Before he can start his journey however, a car with the logo, "Quitters, Inc." pulls up behind the cat. A man climbs out of the car with a cat cage and captures our feline hero, for what reasons we do not know yet as we are taken into the first story of the anthology, Quitters, Inc.

Quitters, Inc. opens with a car pulling up in front of the titular building, inside the car are two men; Dick Morrison, the protagonist of this story, and his unnamed friend, who drove him there after recommending it to Dick to help him with his smoking addiction. Inside the waiting office Mr. Morrison watches a man crying in his chair. He then watches as the crying stranger's wife leaves a separate room looking worn down and miserable, Mr. Morrison is obviously having second thoughts about this now, but it's too late. He is taken into the office of Dr. Vinny Donatti, Donatti explains to Mr. Morrison that their program has a 100% success rate. Quitters, Inc.'s tactics though are quite "unconventional" as Vinny explains, the patient is to be constantly supervised during the first month and warns our protagonist that if he is seen with a cigarette they will punish him. Vinny demonstrates, pulling away a curtain to reveal a small room with our unfortunate feline hero in it, it is quickly revealed that the floors are electrified and Mr. Morrison can only watch in horror as the cat helplessly hops around the room (Despite how realistic this scene is, no animals were harmed in the making of the film, what actually happened to the cat was that they blew some air beneath it in order to make the cat jump. It's still a bit cruel in my opinion, but it's much better then actually being electrocuted). Mr. Morrison jokingly asks if he's going to be put into "the cat room" thinking that that Doctor is bluffing, but Vinny replies very seriously that no he isn't; instead it'll be his wife on the first offence, then if he smokes again it'll be his daughter, if he still smokes then he'll send a deranged man to r**e his wife, and if he continues smoking then they'll give up (keep in mind he said that last part while flashing him a concealed pistol). It is easy to say that Dick is scared s**tless at that moment, though Vinny reassures him that no one has done four offences yet. 

Dick Morrison returns home that day feeling rather paranoid, he also decides to hide this from his wife and daughter as to not worry them. Though not understanding the circumstances, his wife, Cindy, is very happy to learned that he stopped smoking and is very supportive. That night though Mr. Morrison is overcome with nicotine related cravings, he goes downstairs to find one of his hidden extra pack of smokes, he is about to light it before spotting something strange. The closet is open and in the closet are a pair of wet rain boots that don't belong to him, his wife, nor his daughter. This is when Dick realizes that Vinny was very quite serious about the constant supervision. He quickly discards the cigarette and talks to the closet making up an excuse as to why he was down there before returning to bed. The next day he visits his young daughter at her school during recess, mainly to show the audience one of his main motivations for quitting, because he cares about his child. After letting her return to her group, Donatti approaches Mr. Morrison warning him once again that if he smokes, his daughter will not understand why she'll be put through pain, only that her father had done something bad, as he simply puts it. Next scene Dick is attending a work party that is very smoking based, he watches anxiously as his friend approaches him, offering a cigarette even after Dick told him that he had quit. Much rather then supporting his decisions, his friend taunts him as Dick starts to hallucinate, in the end though Mr. Morrison makes the responsible decision to not smoke and instead leaves the party. On his way home, he gets caught in traffic, during the wait he first cautiously looks around before pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. Dick thought it would be safe, but he was very wrong, as one of Donatti's spies was in the car next to him. Overcome with terror, Dick hurries home only to find that he is too late, as a phone call from Vinny confirms. He heads over to the office and is held at gun point as he is forced to watch his wife be "mildly" electrocuted. During this scene the cat is also being held by Donatti as all villains need a cat to stroke. Luckily our furry protagonist is able to escape after a quick scuffle. After the humans are tortured, Cindy of course is very upset at her husband, though forgives him rather quickly. We then skip a few weeks(?) ahead, Mr. Morrison is being weighed by Donatti as the treatment has been going so well he gained weight. It is then Donatti gives Dick some illegal diet pills that he must take, Mr. Morrison jokes, "or what, you'll set my house on fire?", the men share a hearty laugh as if they're great friends despite what had happened. Donatti of course then replies, "oh no, we'll cut your wife's little finger off", the two laugh more as Dick leaves his office and time skips to nighttime where he, his wife, and his friend that recommended the program and his wife have a celebratory dinner. As they clink their glasses together though, Dick notices something; his friend's wife... she's missing her little finger, and thus ends our first story of the anthology.

We now return to our cat as he rides a ferry to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Upon arrival he receives a reminder of his main quest, but unfortunately he gets caught up in our second story, The Ledge, instead. The Ledge starts by showing a pompous crime boss and casino owner named Cressner, he is also quite famous for his luck when it comes to bets, or wagers as he puts it. He goes outside a casino talking to one of his men about someone else, whom we do not know yet who this person is. Cressner and a buddy of his are then distracted by the cat attempting to cross the perilous road full of speeding cars. Cressner wagers that the cat will make it, while his buddy and his buddy's girlfriend are not convinced. In the end though fortunately Cressner was right, and the cat makes it, although causing a car crash in return. Wanting to reward the cat for his bravery, Cressner decides to take the cat back to his penthouse and even gives him the name, Sebastian (Don't worry that stupidly hoity touity name doesn't stick around long, thank goodness). The movie then cuts to a couple at a trans-continental bus station where a man named Johnny Norris is sending his girlfriend off to a different state so she can hopefully stay safe while he gets the money they need to live comfortably. Things don't to plan however as after the bus leaves, Cressner's men kidnap Johnny and take his car back to the hotel where Cressner is waiting. It is revealed that Johnny was a former tennis pro and that his girlfriend is actually Cressner's wife (oof). Cressner tells Norris that he planted drugs in his car and that he is going to call the police on him... unless, he partakes in a little wager of his; walk on the short ledge of the building, and go all the way around. Norris of course is very reluctant at first, but with the chance that he'll come out of it a free man, he had to take the risk. Throughout the daunting challenge Cressner attempts to make Norris lose his balance, though is unsuccessful as Norris persists, even going as so far to endure the painful pecking of a pigeon that causes him to bleed. After traversing around an unstable sign he finally makes it back to where he started. Cressner holds up his end of the bargain, Norris gets his money, his wife, his freedom, but with a twist. Cressner kicks over the bag to reveal his wife's decapitated head, Norris overcome with anger vows to kill Cressner. Of course Cressner has a butler armed with a gun with a silencer to get rid of Johnny, luckily before he can take the shot, the cat comes to the indirect rescue and knocks over the butler allowing Johnny to grab the gun. First he kills the accomplice, then he points it at Cressner who is reduced to a whimpering coward. Johnny decides to get his revenge by forcing Cressner to go through the same ordeal as he. Cressner though doesn't even make it halfway as that same pigeon is back, pecking at feets, causing the man to lose his balance and fall to his death. Coincidentally the cat happens to had just arrived at the ground level, just in time to watch Cressner splat on the cement, we don't see it of course because that would be nasty. With Cressner dead and the cat free once again, we move on to our third and final story, General. 

General, starts with a travel montage of the cat making his way to the suburbs of Wilmington, North Carolina (coincidentally, this city has been either the filming location or setting of other Stephen King adaptions such as Firestarter, Maximum Overdrive, and Silver Bullet). This is where we not only catch a glimpse of the looming threat, but we also finally meet our mysterious girl, Amanda (Played by Drew Barrymore, who starred as the main character in the movie Firestarter the year prior). Amanda immediately takes a liking to the cat and adopts him, giving him the name General, a rather appropriate name, seeing how strong and brave this little cat is. Of course though, Amanda's mother is extremely anti-cat as she believes in the old wives' tale that cats steal children's breath, which is very ridiculous. She also has a reasonable explanation that since they already have a pet bird it'll only end up disastrous. The next day Amanda tries to convince her mother to allow General to sleep with her in her bedroom stating that he is "nonviolent". Despite Amanda's good intentions however, it is when she says that, we cut to General killing a wild bird outside the house with only her mother spotting that. Later that night we finally see what our adversary is, a small impish like troll who is out to literally steal Amanda's breath. However before he tries to steal the young girl's breath, the troll breaks into the bird's cage and mauls it to death, leaving the cage comically covered in yellow feathers. It is about to steal the child's breath when luckily the window was left open, so General was able to get inside and confront the monster. The monster gets away though, leaving General in the room just in time to be framed for the death of Amanda's parakeet. Funny enough in a short scene just before this, the mother can be seen reading a copy of Pet Semetary, that might help explain her stance on cats.

Poor General is accused of murder and Amanda's parents kick the cat out of the house for the night. The next morning the mother is doing the whole, "I told you so" shtick to her probably traumatized daughter, what great parenting. After Amanda leaves for school, the father notices something peculiar, a large wound on General's shoulder, which he got from the fight last night. Her father is thinking that something must be up, though his wife is convinced that the bird got one good peck in before going down. After he leaves for work, Amanda's mother shoves General into a box and leaves him at an animal shelter ordering for his termination. At first it seems that General has given up as he is laying in a cage sad, the thing is though, that was all a ruse. His act helped make the guy at the shelter lower his guard, and so when he opened the cage to give him his supposed last meal, instead General sprints out of the cage and runs all the way back home to his girl, and just in the nick of time as well. As General makes his escape, the troll returns to finally steal Amanda's breath, though he also locks the bedroom door from the inside making it impossible for the parents to interfere. The troll begins to draw away the child's breath, you see Amanda start to choke, is this the end? No, just in time, General jumps in and saves the day! Chasing him onto a record player, General turns it on, making the troll spin rapidly. They spin him fast enough, that the troll is then flung off and sent into a fan, where it is then shredded to pulpy bits. Amanda's parents then are able to bust into the room to see the aftermath of the fight. At first her parents don't believe a word she says, that is until they find the shredded up body. The movie then cuts to General being rewarded with a huge fresh fish to snack on, before entering a fun POV shot of General going upstairs to the parent's bedroom where Amanda is sleeping until they can clean it up. We then see General get up on Amanda's chest, *gasp* is General going to take her breath!? No, of course not, you dum dums. General instead gently licks his girl's face causing her to wake up and hug him, and roll credits. What a wholesome way to end a Stephen King story.

Overall, Cat's Eye is a really great movie that you can actually watch with the whole family. Though just because I say that doesn't mean you should plop little Timmy down in front of the TV. It is PG-13, but you should take that 13 literally as the movie uses strong language and scary imagery that might be too much for younger audiences. Other then that, I completely recommend you check out this film, especially if you're fans of Stephen King's newer adaptions such as It (2017,2019) or Pet Semetary (2019), and you haven't yet watched his older content. Personally though if I had to rate each segment, 1 being my most favorite and 3 being the least, it would be in this order; 1. Quitters, Inc 2. General and 3. The Ledge. With it all together though this spooky classic earns a first time on this blog score of 5 out of 5 Paws up! Seriously, if you haven't seen this movie, go watch it!