So, in case you are not aware, every year since 2009, I like to make a post about horror movies you should watch. FOR HALLOWEEN! Lots of people don’t like Halloween but I LOVE it. 2009′s post is here and 2010′s post is here. I still stand by those recommendations so if you’re looking for some good movies, you should check those out.

Here are more suggestions for 2011!

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

This horror comedy is a delightful treat! It’s about a journalist, Taylor, who is making a documentary about Leslie Vernon, who is poising himself to be the next big psycho killer on the block. As Leslie plans to brutally slay a group of teens on the anniversary of his “death” he takes Taylor through the preperatory process, leading up to the night of murder mayhem itself–where everything is not as it initially seemed. This movie is a blast; tame enough for those who have a low(er) threshold for slasher flicks but enertaining enough for people who know the genre inside and out (lots of winking and nodding). It was a TINY bit over-long and the ending wasn’t exactly what I wanted it to be, but I had such a good time getting there, I’m okay with that.

Eskalofrío (aka Shiver)

Eskalofrío’s mood captured me first. Storyline second. It’s all overcast and rainy and ugh, I love that. I like this one a whole lot! It’s a Spanish horror film about a boy who is allergic to the sun. He and his mother move to this quiet village in the mountains and something lives in the woods and is killing people! And the boy who is allergic to sun gets a lot of flack for that because having gruesome murders suddenly start happening directly after you move to a place just never seems to work out in the newcomer’s favour, especially since the attacks are vaguely vampiric in nature. I was not wholly satisfied with the ending but this is the kind of horror movie you watch with a blanket around your shoulders and a bowl of caramel popcorn in your lap and a mug of apple cider at your side and that is good enough for me. Also I find myself really drawn to stories about struggling outsiders and this movie is all about that! WEIRD. Maybe I should write some YAs about such a topic.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

I went through a really brief phase where I was interested in possession earlier this year. It was an odd time. So I got The Exorcism of Emily Rose. I was not expecting anything from this movie at all honestly. When I started watching it, I saw Colm Feore was in it and I thought his sexy face was as good as it was going to get. But I was wrong! It got even better than that! This movie surprised me. It might be one of the movies I liked most this year. I would go so far as to call it almost a gem. It’s about a girl who is killed during an exorcism and the priest involved is on trial for murder. The story largely follows the lawyer representing him and Emily herself (through flashbacks) as they go over what happened and whether or not Emily was, in fact, possessed by evil. There are a couple of missteps but I found the movie nicely emotional overall. Also, the way Jennifer Carpenter contorts her body is incredibly disturbing and maybe the scariest thing of all. There’s something really realistic and understated about her possession and the flashbacks were my favourite parts. It’s not knock-your-socks off horror, I guess, but it is good quality and satisfying! Also: Colm Feore.

The Eye (2002)

I mentioned The Eye (and another pick on this list!) briefly in one of my older horror movie posts. It’s about a blind violinist who gets an eye cornea transplant and then can see again! But it seems the original corneas have enabled her to see people’s deaths and also ghosts. Perhaps you can tell where this is going. Ghostly ominous hijinx ensue! This is such a fantastic horror movie. I really love it. The scares aren’t overwhelmingly in your face but there is a scene in an elevator that gives me many chills. More than the scares, it’s the sad premise that appeals me. Getting something you’ve wanted so long and then having it turn out NOT being what you want it to be–but how can you back from that? Especially when that thing is your SIGHT? Tragically sad. This also has one of the most sympathetic lead characters ever.

Resident Evil (film series)

Yeah, I know. I hated Resident Evil when it came out. I HATED IT SO MUCH. The opening scene with the elevator really upset me and now I always have that moment of wondering whether or not an elevator operated by an evil computer is going to decapitate me whenever I step into one. But earlier this year the first installment wiggled its way into my heart and then suddenly I had to buy them all and then suddenly they were constantly playing in the background over and over again while I wrote This is Not a Test. You know how there are always those really bad movies that come on TV and you have to watch them because they are such brain candy, like Deep Blue Sea and The Devil’s Advocate? The Resident Evil series is that for me. The world, the zombies, the mutations (I used to hate mutated zombies but Left 4 Dead changed all that for me!), the bad accents, the action–Milla Jovovich kicking ass in the most amazing outfits? I am SO there! My favourite is the second installment (Apocalypse), which feels more like a horror movie to me. The fourth (Afterlife) seems to veer completely into action/adventure land but I think it is my second favourite because the fighting sequences are so GREAT.

Tremors (1990)

It seems remiss not to mention the first “scary” movie I ever saw in this post. It was this one when I was five. It is about giant worms under the ground that eat people. When I was five, I was not fully able to appreciate the snappy dialogue/chemistry between Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward. All I could think about was GIANT WORMS UNDER THE GROUND THAT EAT PEOPLE. The first time I watched it, I think I spent every night for the next five months screaming and crying and not sleeping because I was afraid “the tremors would get me.” My mom tried to explain to me that they did not exist and when that didn’t work that they certainly could not make their way up the stairs. Then my sister pointed out those weird spikes on their sides and told me they totally could, extending my sleep terrors for another five months. Everyone learned something about themselves during that time. Anyways, this movie is so great! It plays on classic monster movie tropes. An isolated town, slack-jawed locals, the scientist who can explain nearly everything and GIANT WORMS UNDER THE GROUND THAT EAT PEOPLE. This is a great scary movie for people who can’t handle scary movies, unless they are five.


fin

And if you have never heard of Marble Hornets, you should totally check it out! MarbleHornets is an ARG and it is amazingly scary and fun. It’s, well–I am going to borrow the summary from its TV Tropes page because it gives the gist better than I can:

“Marble Hornets is an Alternate Reality Game (more like an Alternate Reality Movie), following discoveries made while looking through raw footage of a trite student film. In 2006, film student Alex Kralie suddenly abandons his movie in the midst of production [...] Alex’s friend Jay rescues the taped material and [...] by digging it up again he may have reawakened sinister forces. Jay’s YouTube account chronicles material from the tapes and, increasingly, the bizarre and frightening events of his own life . A Twitter page was added some time later. Since Entry #9, he’s noted a guy named ‘totheark‘ responding to each entry, adding a whole new level to the scary.”

I used to watch these at night time and they would creep me out SO BAD! I used to not want to leave my room after I watched them. So now I only watch them in the day. If you don’t know who Slender Man is, you should find out. Start with the intro:

If you’re interested, I also blogged about the first scary book I ever read over at author Nova Ren Suma’s blog as part of a “What Scares You?” guest blog extravaganza! You can read my post here. If you comment on it and all of the guest posts, you will have the opportunity to win an amazing prize pack of books, so you should check it out.

YAY TERROR.

What scary movies OR books will you be watching or reading this Halloween?

Oh, but wait. Wait even more! Before I announce the winners, I may have something of interest to you if this is the kind of thing you are interested in. I posted about it in various online places last week but no news is ever official until I blog about it 500 years later, amirite? The first five chapters of Fall For Anything are online. If you’re so inclined to read them, you can do so by clicking here. ALSO, I did an interview with Miss Remmers’ students on her blog. They asked me some fantastic, thoughtful questions and you can check it out here. Thank you for having me, Miss Remmers!

And NOW onto the Fall For Anything giveaway winners!

But wait!

Yeah, I’m awful. But before I tell you who won what, I really want to thank everyone who entered. I was completely bowled over by the response and enthusiasm for Eddie and her mysterious dying hands. Thank you. Ok. So. The winner of the Fall For Anything ARC (for reals this time) is…

Lara!

And the winner of two preordered finished copies are…

Sommer and Ginny!

So that’s that! If you’re still interested in snagging a Fall For Anything ARC, I guess we should talk about this new contest that I am holding? It is open to International entries! It is also a Facebook exclusive. I know, I know. If it’s not one thing it’s the other. If you would like a chance to win a Fall For Anything ARC, here is what you have to do:

1) Go to my Facebook page. This one –> http://www.facebook.com/pages/Courtney-Summers/145262370138
2) Like me! Really like me!
3) On the Facebook wall write, “I want Fall for Anything!” or whatever. Just let me know you want to be entered in this glorious contest.
4) I’ll like the comment (so you know I’ve seen it) and put you into the draw. I’ll announce the winner October 25th.
5) One entry per person. Winner will be announced on the Facebook page (I’ll reply to their comment, post it on the wall and if it’s possible message them). They’ll have 48 hours to claim their prize before a redraw.

If you don’t have a Facebook account and you hate liking people, there will probably be another giveaway in the near future. Who knows!

In other news (I say this a lot–is there a better way to segue into other news because I’m tired of saying it), two YA author friends of mine are celebrating some good news this week and I want to celebrate with them!

Victoria Schwab, author of The Near Witch (hey, crazy–turns out that link is a pre-order link!) got to reveal the cover of her book yesterday. I was lucky enough to get an early read on The Near Witch and though I am primarily a contemporary YA reader, this book had me from start to finish. Fully expect it to take your breath away when it comes out in August 2011. Check out Victoria’s qt vlog below and then go to her blog for further deets!

In other other news (?), I am still making October as full of scary movies as I can. On the to-be-watched pile: Kwaidan (so excited about this one!), Disney’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow (an oldie, but a goodie–like Hocus Pocus WHICH I HOPE YOU ARE GOING TO BE WATCHING THIS HOLIDAY SEASON), Trick ‘r Treat (totally fast-forwarding through the werewolf bits for obvious reasons) and The Black Belly of the Tarantula which was recommended to me by Emily Hainsworth! And is anyone watching Dead Set on Space? It is about zombies and reality television and it is AWESOME.

And that is all! Go forth and enter my Facebook Exclusive, Open to International Entries ARC giveaway! Or watch horror movies! Because uhm, I can’t remember the focal point of this blog entry anymore. Probably it was the contest. But I really love horror movies too, so…

DARK WATER (2002)

I find this movie so upsetting, I can’t even tell you. I haven’t been this disturbed by a movie since Tremors when I was five and that’s laughable but there is NOTHING LAUGHABLE ABOUT THIS MOVIE. You’ve probably heard of the American remake with Jennifer Connelly. Maybe you’ve seen it. Maybe that’s the reason you are laughing at me right now. I saw it before I saw the original and foolishly thought I was prepared for this thing since I knew what was coming. Not. So. Dark Water is about the love of a mother for her daughter and a creepy little ghost girl who threatens to come between them both. It has the staples of a good J-horror (maybe milder than most) but all I want to do is tell you to STAY AWAY from it. I enjoyed it until I got to the last 20 minutes and then I started crying and I could not stop. This movie has an ending I will never get over. NEVER! It depressed me for days. When I tried to tell people about it, I’m not kidding, I would cry. Needless to say, I will never watch this movie again. I CAN’T. Because I tried once and the SAME THING HAPPENED. But if you want an emotionally traumatizing Halloween this is the perfect pick for you!

THE HOST (2006)

If you are my friend and you saw this movie before I did and you didn’t tell me about it YOU ARE NOT MY FRIEND. The Host is a South Korean monster movie that is pure genius. It’s the most recent movie I can remember enjoying absolutely every single second of. It’s about a horrific tadpole mutation in the Han River who kidnaps this guy’s daughter and he and his whole family work together to get her back but they’re a pretty mismatched slapstick bunch that has never gotten it together before so that proves to be difficult. I just butchered the whole synopsis. Family values! Political commentary! Are both in this movie! It’s just excellent. It made me tense, it surprised me, it made me laugh, it made me cry–a lot. And the ending! I can’t think of the last time an ending really SHOCKED me, but this one did. I thought it was bold. If this movie got remade by Hollywood (please no), I feel the ending would never ever be allowed to happen. Hollywood is lame.

LAKE MUNGO (2008)

This Australian documentary-style ghost movie is a GEM. I LOVE IT. If you like shows like A Haunting, I think you’ll dig this. If you love The Changeling, I think odds are good you’ll like this. The synopsis for Lake Mungo on Rotten Tomatoes is simply: “A supernatural drama about grief.” After their 16-year-old daughter Alice drowns, the Palmer family finds themselves haunted by her ghost, which eventually leads them to discover Alice had something of a double life going on. (I know Twin Peaks fans are raising their eyebrows, but I can’t comment because I haven’t seen Twin Peaks.) In all I’ve read about this movie, I feel the double life aspect is overemphasized. To me, Lake Mungo is more about the idea of people never really knowing you before you die and how tragic that really IS. How do you make that right? In death, Alice seems determined to give as many missing pieces as she can to the people she loved but these pieces don’t necessarily mean they will make who she was and how she died any less of a mystery. I found this so tragic and melancholy and subtle and thoughtful and genuinely creepy–it didn’t go places I expected to at all and I thought the ending was perfect. I think if you watch any movie on this list, it should be this one. I can’t believe I am saying that about a list that includes Pulse, but there you go. What a lonely, sad, eerie movie this was. I LOVE IT. Hollywood is remaking it and MARK MY WORDS, Hollywood will ruin it. You suck about that, Hollywood. PS stay for the credits because they are the final punch.

PULSE (2001)

You will either like this one or hate it, I think! The first time I watched it I found it frustratingly slow and then the second time I watched it I was like MAN I AM IN LOVE and then I went through this month where it was all I wanted to watch. I would play it in the background on repeat while I wrote novels. Yeah. It might be my most favourite J-horror ever, in fact. Or at least in my ever-rotating top 3. And it is definitely one of my favourite movies of all time in general. Pulse is directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (I love him, he is a genius). It is about ghosts invading the world through the Internets! But more than this, it is about isolation and loneliness. You know that good old line, This is how the world ends… not with a bang but a whimper? That is basically Pulse. And that is a magnificent thing. It’s haunting and languid and beautifully shot and the sound is fantastic. Like I could talk forever about how good it SOUNDS. But I have noticed that about all of Kurosawa’s films. I just like the way they sound. CRAZY atmosphere. I could just look at this film or listen to it all day and it would make me so satisfied. Also it features parallel storylines which is exciting. You won’t find many–if any–jumpy scares in this movie but watching the world disappear right out from under the two main characters who are trying to escape a fate which seems inevitable is so thoughtful and unsettling and I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Avoid the remake, which is a crime against filmmaking. SERIOUSLY HOLLYWOOD, WOULD YOU PLEASE CUT IT OUT.

PONTYPOOL (2009)

This is a really clever Canadian (represent!) zombie movie that I love with all my heart. It is about zombies (yay). It is about a zombie plague that is spread by words–but what words? You won’t know until you speak them. And by then, it’s too late. And then you will try to eat your way out of someone else’s mouth D: to cure yourself. It takes place in a small town radio station and much of the action happens off screen until it all goes to hell in the most awesome way ever. It is unnerving and fascinating and fun and a really fresh take on a–it pains me to say it–kind of tired genre. It’s not an overtly violent or gorey movie. It is quiet and loud in all the right ways. Perfection. But it’s Canadian so perfection is a given. Mwahaha. Pontypool is based on the book Pontypool Changes Everything, which is really crazy and pretty much nothing like the movie but fantastic in its own way.

A TALE OF TWO SISTERS (2003)

Stay away from the craptacular remake known as “The Uninvited.” Ugh. Hollywood, I give up on you. A Tale of Two Sisters is ~superb~. It’s a mess-with-your-head type movie about two sisters who come home from hospital together after some STUFF happens. But that STUFF hasn’t been resolved, to say the least. It’s even exacerbated by a wicked stepmother. What follows is like–I don’t even know how to describe it. Constantly escalating psychological warfare between the eldest sister and the wicked stepmother. This movie is not a thrill-a-minute variety but there are a few genuinely terrifying ghostly moments here and there that will have you covering your eyes and wishing for them to be over because they are so intense. Overall it is a slow but expertly paced puzzle and the tension just gets tighter and tighter as each piece clicks into place until you’re like ugh my stomach hurts is this even worth it? And then when you see the whole picture, it’s like, “YES, YES IT WAS.” It is a beautiful and tragic nightmare. Which is what you need for Halloween, amirite?

Other movies you should consider that I did not have the time to do enthusiastic write-ups for but feel enthusiastic about are The Devil’s Backbone (a poignant coming-of-age ghost story), The Eye (the original–a really neat story about a girl who gets eye cornea transplants that enable her to see ghosts… which is not a good thing) and Tremors (THEY’RE UNDER THE GROUND!). And that’s what I gots.

Now it’s your turn! What movies should everyone watch on Halloween? I don’t want to say our friendship is contingent on you participating in this blog post, Internet, but, well, it IS.


In other news, there are still a few days left to enter my Fall For Anything ARC Giveaway. I’m completely bowled over by how many people have expressed interest in the book and so I have decided to draw two extra winners and they will each get pre-ordered copies of Fall For Anything, to arrive on their doorsteps upon release (December 21st). I just thought you should know!

HAR HAR HAR!

So guess what Internet! Most of you know this because I can’t shut up about it everywhere, but last Wednesday there was an EARTHQUAKE in CANADA and I FELT IT.

Here is my story:

I woke up and I was in my bed and then my bed started shaking–like little vibratey shakes–and I thought two stupid things 1) that a big truck had gone by outside or 2) it was me that was shaking (I DON’T KNOW) and then it stopped and then I went on Twitter and everyone was talking about this earthquake in Ontario and I was like oh how interesting and then I got up and then I was like

OH MY GOD THAT WAS IT!

And then I told my dad about it but because he was on the road when it happened and it hadn’t hit the news yet HE DID NOT BELIEVE ME but then my brother-in-law also experienced the same thing at the exact same time AND IT WAS TRUE THAT I FELT THE EARTH QUAKE and I have always wanted to experience an incredibly mild, non-destructive earthquake so there you have it. That is my story and I think it is a pretty great story, personally.

In other news, Fall For Anything is available most places online for pre-order! Active pre-order links are on the book’s page if you’re into that sort of thing. I will be getting copyedits for it sometime next week. I have bought myself a pack of these for the task:

While I wait for copyedits, I have been writing (while listening to a lot of Fiona Apple–God, she is so great) and reading this book:

I actually bought this book and started it last year, but for some reason couldn’t get into it. I think I tried reading it outside of a reading binge (I am a binge-reader) and that is why. So I decided to give it a go again because I am dying to see the movie–and refuse to until I have read the book–and OH MY GOD YOU GUYS IT IS SO GOOD! I am only about 250 pages in (it’s like 600 pages) and it is just deliciously thrilling and hard to put down and SO VIOLENT and what can I say, I am enjoying the violence very much! There is a girl character in the Program with a SICKLE and she is A RUTHLESS KILLING MACHINE and she is awesome and she would totally kill me ASAP if we were in the program together but oh well.

In other news I watched Doppelganger, another Kiyoshi Kurosawa film and I LOVED IT. I think it displaced Retribution as my second favourite of his (Pulse is always in first place), but I’m not sure. I just can’t say enough good things about Kurosawa’s films. I want to write books like he makes movies. JUST LIKE THIS:

I look for that in books too; books that just say it! No hiding behind prose, those ~twenty dollar words~. Just saying it. JUST SAY IT! That’s what I like. And that’s what I like about his movies. He just says it. Anyway, all that’s left for me to see is Charisma and that’s on its way to me in the mail now. Dear Internet, tell someone to distribute Loft so I can watch that too. I am so sad Charisma will be my last Kurosawa film until more are released in North America. I guess I’ll watch the ones I have over and over again until this situation changes. Sigh.

ANYWAY.

Now I am going to get back to reading Battle Royale. I hope everyone is having an amazing weekend! As you can see, I am having quite an amazing weekend myself, what with the reading and the movie-watching and the earthquake that led up to both. My weekend is WAY more amazing and exciting than the weekend everyone at the ALA conference is having, I AM SURE.

ALSO did I tell you there was an earthquake in Canada and I felt it.

I DID.

But not as much leisure time as I would like, sob.

But still.

Leisure time for me is spent reading books and watching movies and trying not to move around too much while I do either.

I’ve been pretty fortunate in all of my selections recently, so I thought I’d share ‘em with you. Here’s what I am surrounding myself with as of late:

1. The films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Lots of J-horror here. Kairo (Pulse) is my favourite of all his films. It’s about ghosts and the internet! Avoid the terrible remake. I could watch Kairo over and over again. It’s incredibly slowly paced, but that’s a huge part of its charm and when it really gets going it’s like someone has their hand inside your stomach and is squeezing your guts, which is exactly how you should feel when you’re watch a good movie, in my humble opinion. IN PAIN. Kairo also has parallel storylines, which always makes me want to experiment with the ways I write my own novels. Retribution is my next favourite Kurosawa film, then Cure and Seance. Tokyo Sonata just came in the mail and I have heard incredible things about it. I’m going to watch it TONIGHT! Also on my To-Watch list: Charisma, Doppelganger and Bright Future.

2. PONTYPOOL.

3. Good books!

I’m on a roll!

The Lighter Side of Life and Death: This book was WOW. This book is WOW. C.K. Kelly Martin is one of my favourite YA authors. Her novels are so significant and important and everyone–EVERYONE–should be reading them. The way her characters experience all of these firsts is so thoughtfully and sensitively handled. As an author, she shows respect for her readers and her books are so incredibly realistic. The way she pinpoints emotional truths makes her narratives so universal and so special. What she is doing is not something you see in YA novels every day and anyone who wants to write a YA should read one of her books before they even attempt it.

One Bloody Things After Another: This is AMAAZING and it is so worth your time. Joey Comeau’s writing so understands, well–people! He gets the way they have secrets and that gets me right in my ol’ ticker. And then he sets his novels in these fantastical, strange, unsettling and practically impossible situations and presents them in a way that makes them seem possible! This is a zombie/ghost/coming of age novel that feels POSSIBLE. IT FEELS LIKE MY NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOURS! Also one of my favourite things about his work is the way his characters are violent and the way they internalize and process violence. I’ve said this of his work before and I will say it again: he doesn’t waste a word.

Stolen: This book blew me away. It is absolutely stunning. What a beautifully intense book. Incredibly vivid setting, but not overwritten. This novel is brilliant. Like I said–STUNNING. That’s about all I can say. Every mind-blowing and positive adjective that is out there applies to this book. That is how I feel about it.

Shit My Dad Says: I like the twitter but I loved the book. The relationship Justin Halpern has with his father is clearly a loving one–not that anyone is debating that because if they are, they’re stupid. Heartwarming and hilarious.

Dirty Little Secrets: What a sad, good book. This is a very consuming, intense read with what I think is a very fitting, perfect ending. And the pacing was just spot on. Omololu frames the story over the course of twenty-four hours and it doesn’t drag at all. It’s just fantastically done. I am sometimes disappointed with novels that have incredibly heavy subject matters–the ones that only want to skim the surface and not really delve right into it but can still claim the edge and importance of the subject they’re writing about; books that don’t look directly at the very thing they’re about! This was not the case here. Dirty Little Secrets looks directly at the topic of compulsive hoarding and forces you to do it too.

Books I am in the process of reading: Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly and Making the Run by Heather Henson, both of which I’m early into but am having difficulty leaving alone for extended periods of time.

Movies I’m spending my Friday night with: Tokyo Sonata (eee!) and Splinter. And probably Pontypool again because DID I MENTION IT IS AWESOME.

Have you watched or read anything worthwhile THAT I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT?

For my leisuring, I mean.

I guess October is a pretty good month for watching horror movies. Why is this, I wonder? Please note: that’s a joke. I thought I should clarify because some people still occassionally ask me if I was really serious when I publicly declared Salinger listened to Lady Gaga a lot when he wrote Catcher in the Rye, which he totally did, but anyway.

I love watching horror movies year round, but I must admit THE NEED gets greater when the weather starts to change. I inevitably find myself buying scary movies recklessly and feeling no buyer’s remorse later even though I really should (my last purchase was Voices about uhm, an hour ago and I hope it is good).

Anyway, I threw some suggestions Emily’s way and then I shook my fist at her because I decided I wanted to write a blog post about the horror movies I think people need to watch in October or really any month and here we are! This said, does anyone have any absolute horror (or horrorish) movies they think MUST be watched in the upcoming grand month that is October? PLEASE put them in the comments! I want to hear them! Unless they are torture pr0n (ie Saw et al), in which case forget it. I really do not like torture pr0n at all.

Here are mine, in no particular order:

ONE MISSED CALLED

This was my first J-horror! So It has a very special place in my heart. It’s about people who get a phone call from themselves in the future at the moment of their death. And involves a vengeful spirit. This movie really creeped me out. It took me over a month to finish it for some reason. Probably because it really creeped me out! The hospital scene is terrifying and I remember feeling like I could not trust one corner of the screen. And I was right! Avoid the remake.

JU-ON: THE GRUDGE

I think this was my second J-horror? It’s about a haunted house full of vengeful spirits (I love vengeful spirits!) and an inescapable curse, told in a compelling, non-linear fashion. This movie scares me every single time I watch it and I watch it a lot. The first five times I watched it, I kept noticing things I hadn’t upon initial viewing. Scary things! Either I am really unobservant (possibly) or this movie is a work of SUBTLE GENIUS (definitely). I love it. Very high on my scary list. Avoid the remake.

SHUTTER

The first time I saw Shutter, I watched it with one hand over my eyes and one hand over my mouth. It’s about a photographer, his girlfriend and a REALLY SCARY VENGEFUL SPIRIT that turns up in his photos but whatever, that’s what you get when you shoot with a Canon (Nikon: Ghost Free Since 1917). I still watch it through my fingers. The scene in the hotel room is the bestest thing ever and there is one moment that gets me every time, provided I have the nerve to watch it. This is also very, very high on my personal scary list. As always, avoid the remake. Even if it DOES star Pacey Witter. Trust me.

THE CHANGELING

It’s my personal belief that The Changeling is one of the best and scariest–if not thebest and scariest–ghost stories out there. The seance scene is a work of art. Also: GEORGE C. MOTHERFN SCOTT is in it. I am not going to say anymore than that. Except 95% of my viewings of this movie take place in the day because watching it at night is sometimes more than I can bear. Also: creepiest ghost voice ever. Seriously, if you watch any movie on this list, MAKE IT THIS ONE. THIS ONE I TELL YOU.

THE CITY OF THE DEAD aka HORROR HOTEL

My copy is called Horror Hotel. Okay, this movie is not scary per se, but it’s WONDERFUL! It’s about a college student who is writing a paper on witches and she goes to this old witch town and there are witches there and BAM! WITCHES! I tend to think of these movies as like, feel good horror. You watch them with a big bowl of popcorn and a comfy blanket wrapped around your shoulders and enjoy.

BLACK CHRISTMAS

I love this movie with my whole heart. I can’t stop buying new editions of it every time they come out. It is about a psychokiller who kills a group of sorority girls on Christmas Eve, but it is also so much more than that. I think Black Christmas is pretty unnerving and the ending is PERFECT and I first saw it when I was like, thirteen and what a great memory of my youth! Also, the tagline is: IF THIS MOVIE DOESN’T MAKE YOUR SKIN CRAWL, IT’S ON TOO TIGHT! Where can you go wrong? Exactly. You can’t. Also: AVOID. The remake.

DEAD MEAT

What a great, great, great perfectly low-budget Irish zombie movie. When I first saw it, it vaguely put me in mind of Night in the Living Dead. It veers more into campy territory, but the production values are similar and I guess that over-riding feeling of isolation and trying to make it work is too. Now, this is not a direct comparison–nothingbeats Night of the Living Dead!–but I found Dead Meat pretty dang satisfying for a (kinda) zombie movie. Objectively, I am not sure it’s good, but personally, I liked it a whole lot.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

I don’t think there will ever be a zombie movie that is better than this one. I saw Night of the Living Dead in my early teens and I wanted to curl up in a ball and give up on everything, it bothered me so much. I felt like I had survived something but there was no point; it was so grim and senseless and exhausting. Those quickly became the same reasons I would love the movie and turn into a big zombie fanatic. The sheer poetry of survival! It’s all here in this movie, which is always brilliant and always scary. And because it fell into the public domain, you can watch it here.

28 DAYS LATER

The opening of this movie is basically a good argument for why PETA will cause the end of the world. It’s about a rage virus that turns you into like, a rage zombie in less than a minute (again, entirely thanks to a PETA (like) organization tsk tsk). And a guy that wakes up from a coma 28 days after it has spread all over England. 28 Days Later is so fantastic and bleak and hopeful and TENSE. This movie gave me a stomachache the first time I watched it, I found the idea so distressing. And I dreaded every scene that took place at night. Aaah, dread. Delicious dread.

THE MAD

This is a zombie comedy starring BILLY ZANE. It is hysterical and campy and fabulous. BILLY ZANE (his name should always be capitalized just because) plays this former rocker turned uptight doctor, who is on a road trip with his new girlfriend, angry daughter and his angry daughter’s idiotic boyfriend. When they make a stop in a small town… ZOMBIES abound! And absolute hystericalness. Hystericalness that involves a raw beef patty that attacks people. Yes, A RAW BEEF PATTY THAT ATTACKS PEOPE (see above).

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT

I judge people who don’t like this movie now that it’s all cool not to like. I judge them HARSHLY. Because The Blair Witch Project is amazing, dammit. AMAZING, DAMMIT. I love the way it exploded onto the scene and I love that it holds up as a good movie even now. I mean, how horrible would it be to be lost in the woods with this possible evil witch stalking you? Horrible. Every time I watch this movie I have a complete understanding of how horrible it would be. And I’m impressed. Rock on, Blair Witch. Rock on. Haters to the left.

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HOCUS POCUS

That’s freaking right. It ain’t the time of the season until you’ve watched this movie at least ONCE. And if you haven’t, you miss out. YOU DO YOURSELF AN INJUSTICE. Hocus-freaking-Pocus. Bette Midler. Kathy Najimy. Sarah Jessica Parker (okay, not so much Sarah Jessica Parker). Witches who are accidentally resurrected on Halloween night by OMRI KATZ and THORA BIRCH. An immortal cat. EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS MOVIE. IS PERFECT. If you don’t watch it in October, then, I don’t know. You should be ashamed. ASHAMED! Because being a fierce witch STARTS with these witches and don’t you forget it.

SGA was also listed in Publishers Weekly’s Spring 2010 Sneak Previews, along with quite a few other books I’m really looking forward to reading.

Meanwhile, I’ve been in creative limbo, slowly trying eke out words while stuff goes on around me that demands nearly all of my attention and emotional energy but I guess that’s life and that’s the way life is sometimes. I will say this: it’s VERY frustrating when your heart is in something, and the rest of you is being pulled in all different not-awesome directions.

Sooo I’m hoping to level off enough to focus soon. Or else. And this basically means I’m currently in a weird position of trying to recharge my batteries and give myself a break without taking a writing break because taking a break from writing is pretty much impossible for me to contemplate (I know someone who can attest to this coughLoricough).

Mostly I have been attempting battery recharging by watching horror movies and waiting for a shift and trying to be content with an output of like three words a day*.

Anyway.




* I AM NOT CONTENT WITH AN OUTPUT OF THREE WORDS A DAY.

image via my confined space

image via wikipedia

image via google

Fun Fact about this Canadian: I did not always say “eh,” but my friends did. And I wanted to be just like them so I forced myself to say it until it finally became second nature. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if they decided to jump off a bridge? Probably I would have done it with them while screaming, “EEEEEEH!”

And they would have thought I was so cool and finally accepted me for the person I pretended to be when I was around them. *sniff*

I am celebrating Canada Day with this movie:

jerk

Also I liked how many artful Jason Vorhees shots it featured:

True story: this part of Friday the 13th Part 2:

IT’S TRUE.

Anyway, sometimes I look at where these blog entries begin and where they end up and I am amazed I write books.

So a recent comment on one of my older blog entries led me to discover something interesting. HEY GUYS, LOOK AT THIS:

But can I say, as much as I sometimes dislike my asymmetrical eyelids and tire of opening my eyes REALLY WIDE for photographs just to even them out, it makes me sad that this is considered a correctible problem. Enjoy the novelty of being able to have two different expressions at once, people! I KNOW I DO.

So is it egotistical when you want to make a photograph of yourself your own desktop background?

Let me explain: when I was teeny, my mom took these three pictures of me JUMPING OFF THE COUCH in quick succession. I often refer to these photographs as, “The last time I was happy.” I don’t know why, since I am generally a content person. Maybe because I like to see my mom roll her eyes when I say it?

Anyway, regardless of whether it’s egotistical or not, these photos make me happy when I look at them, so I scanned them in to make them my desktop (so I could be happy all the time!) and then I decided why not show the interwebs because HEY GUYS, LOOK AT HOW CUTE I WAS:

Okay, now let’s bring the mood down a little and watch the first official trailer for New Moon together:

It has been A Time. In two words. Handed in round two of revisions for Some Girls Are last Monday, and now I’m very slowly working on catching up on like, everything, while I anticipate round three. Please be patient with me while I do this (but since when have you lovelies not been patient with me?)! March is mostly a blur of re-writing and coffee, but I will try to think of some things that happened and then proceed to share them with you in a hopefully entertaining way before I kill my web presence completely. Because THAT IS WHAT BLOGGING IS ABOUT.

First: I got the Twilight DVD on Saturday. The 3-DISC HMV EXCLUSIVE, which I guess has some extra-special features on it that I will probably never watch, though I did watch the movie itself.

Lest I OD on Emo Edward Cullen, I’m putting the Twilight Saga aside for a little bit and got some new books to read: The Season by Sarah MacLean (finally!), The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp (for some reason I keep calling it The Impossible Now even when I am looking at the cover and it’s going THAT IS NOT MY TITLE, COURTNEY), and Wake by Lisa McMann. Has anyone read any of these? Let us talk about them! Here are my initial thoughts on all three:

1) I am strangely attracted to Sutter in The Spectacular Now and kind of want to date him even though I wouldn’t want to touch his emotional baggage with a ten foot pole. If he gets rid of the later, we can TOTALLY do the former, but I have this sneaking suspicion that ain’t gonna happen.

2) The Season is super-charming and Lord Blackmoor is hot. I have a feeling he’s-a-gonna end up with another character, so I’m trying to mentally prepare myself not to be super jealous when that happens. If I am wrong though, I will be thrilled because that means if I ever acquire the ability to become a fictional character that can visit the pages of any books I would so TOTALLY have a chance with him. Incidentally, Sarah agreed to an interview on my blog (eee!!) and that’s my first question: “If I acquired the ability to become fictional etc…” Let’s anticipate her answer now.

3) The possibility of a Janie actually ever existing is precisely the reason why I will never fall asleep in public anywhere. I look at Wake as less of a story, and more of a warning. NOBODY FALL ASLEEP IN PUBLIC. ODDS ARE GOOD SOMEONE WILL HAVE THE FREAKY ABILITY TO SEE YOUR DREAMS, OKAY. God, imagine if someone found out about my dream where I wash RPATTZ’s hair while he’s sleeping. That would be absolutely mortifying.

In other news, the lovely Adele over at Persnickety Snark (a book blog you guys need to watch), sent me some photos of Cracked Up to Be in Australia! So cool, you guys. I have some very close and dear friends in Australia and I get such a thrill thinking of my book being where they are. And then I get super jealous of my book for getting to Australia before me. Unfair!

I have no regrets.

Adele also interviewed me, which was super fun. Check out the first part here!

ALSO (you guys still with me?): a shameful amount of time ago, I asked Steph aka The Awesome Reviewer X about her thoughts on online marketing based on a post by Author Extraordinaire, Sarah Prineas. So Steph totally made a great blog entry about it and I was like !!! THANKS STEPH and then I was like I WILL COMMENT SOON and then my revisions became Tremors and ATE ME… so I never commented. :( And it was a GREAT discussion. And I still feel bad–like I am so ashamed I can barely @reply Steph on Twitter, actually–so I’m hoping talking about it in my blog will redeem me a little (will it Steph, will it?!).

Anyway, Steph’s post is fabulous and I thank her for addressing a hot-button topic among authors in the fantastically candid way she addresses, well, everything, and for hosting such a great discussion in the comments. I have lots of strong feelings about online marketing and summed up, they are basically: I LOVE IT.

Although online marketing efforts can not necessarily be quantified in sales, the opportunity to connect and reach people and let them know HEY I’M OVER HERE is one I really can’t pass up (as M.J. Rose often says, “No one will buy a book they don’t know exists.”). If only one person looked at Cracked Up to Be’s book trailer and made a mental note that the book is exists, I’m very satisfied with that. I’ve really enjoyed the online promotion thing, and I think I’ve made some really strong and lasting connections and friendships and that’s worth its weight in gold to me.

Incidentally, along with my amazing publisher’s efforts to get word out about Cracked Up to Be, and my signing at OLA earlier this year, all of my promotional efforts have been focused online. ALL of them (seriously, I’m a hermit). I’d say most of the buzz Cracked Up to Be has received has been created online by you wonderful book bloggers and online friends, who took the time to get excited about it and say you were looking forward to it, to reading it, to reviewing it, to inviting me into your space to be interviewed. I got word not too long ago that the book went into it’s third printing, and while I can’t say this definitively, I have gut feeling that you wonderful people on your computers that were hooked up to the internets played a large part in making that happen. Thank you for that.

So yes. Online marketing! Whooo!!!

Finally, this is the best song in the world:

WHOOO TOTO’S AFRICA BEST SONG EVAAAAAH.