The Silence – Film Review

I did recently finish reading The Silence by Tim Lebbon and couple of days later got to watching the Netflix adaptation. I have been reading a few of his books lately and I consider Lebbon to be one of the most interesting and rewarding modern British horror/fantasy authors. The book of The Silence was set here in the UK, and while elements of news reports and drama of the vesp creatures movements come from around Europe and the globe, the focus is mainly from the point of view of  the young daughter Ally who is deaf and uses sign language to communicate with her family, and a lot of the second half of the book follows her father Hugh as he explores alone for food and shelter for the family. The tale is not really a horror story but more a survival tale, similar to John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, Invasion of the Body Snatchers or The War of the Worlds with the blend of mass social paranoia, fear and anxiety over the population.

The book does as you may expect have richer detail of the character point of view, their thoughts and reactions to the building terror of the outbreak of the mysterious vesp creatures which decimate towns and cities and begin to travel across land and eventually overseas in a matter of days. You do get to know Ally and her father and family well over the four hundred or so pages as you follow them through trauma and sadness and read how this changes and challenges their family dynamic.

I was interested to see what changes had been made (as there usually always are changes, especially for Hollywood adaptations of books) for cinematic reasons. The book focuses on main characters who live in the UK and travel up toward Scotland. In the film, they are based in America and they simply travel across the country to look for a safe place. With the film being only one hour and a half it did skip forward after just ten or so minutes, moving quickly over some long sections of the book. Some parts are condensed, some changed slightly to build up the sense of drama on screen-I assume. Generally though, it does remain mostly the same to the book storyline, the acting from Stanley Tucci, Kiernan Shipka (lead of the new kooky and creepy Sabrina the teenage witch Netflix series) and others is all good and there are some strong memorable scenes, some new to the film. The family communicating with sign language was acted really well I thought. The main dramatic final sequence in the cottage with the vesp attack did work which I was almost doubtful about prior. The ending is slightly different to the book, possibly setting up a sequel. Though some were not impressed I would suggest that you watch it if you like suspense thrillers, Hitchcock movies, monster movies.

James Parsons is author of two science fiction/SF books – Orbital Kin- a scifi mystery thriller and Minerva Century- a far future cyborg space opera epic. Also his first horror novel Northern Souls set in and around the North East of England. All three are available as paperback & ebook now from Amazon, Waterstones and your friendly dependable independent bookshops.

The Ritual (2017) Film Review

Somehow I did manage to avoid seeing this new horror film until I had read the book it is adapted from by the author Adam Nevill. I had recently met him around the time this was due out at cinemas and as I started reading more of his books (and became more of a fan) decided to hold back and experience the book first.

There are many times a film is adapted from a successful or well known book-for example Silence of the Lambs-and people always say ‘the book was better’ or ‘not as good as the book’ so I wanted to make it one of those time I actually read the book first.

I’ve read a few of his books now and they are always written well but I can see why The Ritual was chosen to be a film over some of the others. The story so obviously has that horror movie big screen atmosphere, could be made on a fairly low budget and possibly fits in with similar movies around these days.

Personally, I enjoyed the book a lot but over half way in there are some parts of the story and characters I may have changed or written differently. Some of those things were changed in the film-more on that later.

So just as a modern horror movie, even if you are not familiar with the book, how well does it succeed? The film sees a group of male friends who have known each other since university days get back together around a decade later after one of them has died. They decide to explore the wilds of Sweden on a hiking trip. It starts of well, we see how the friends act together, how the group works, hear about how their lives have changed over the years since university. Each friend is different, they have different outlooks on life, some more jaded, cynical than others, some experiencing divorce, career problems, regrets.

At the start we see them on the town back in the day, where two of the friends Luke and Rob go to a corner shop for more booze. There is a robbery in the shop, Luke survives but Rob dies. Throughout the film, we see Luke constantly thinks about how he didn’t save his friend, how it could have been him.

After a couple of days hiking the group gets lost, one injures his leg, slowing them down. They find some disturbing things in the woods around them. Settling down for a night in an abandoned cabin they encounter and experience more unexplainable things. Lost in the forest, with hardly any food or water and arguing over the direction something in out there making sounds, moving among the trees, waiting…

It sounds like a very simple idea for a film and well, it is but the direction and acting make it works really well. Rafe Spall in the lead role as Luke carries the film but the other actors support him well, their characters reacting to the terror around them well.

There are some humorous dark comic funny lines as the characters try to comprehend their situation and get through it. There are several graphic scenes which heighten the fear without being to overdone.

What many have been talking about since the film was released is the actual monster stalking them in the great forest. This thing is CGI but by god, it possibly is one of the most distinctive, haunting things in any horror movie for a long while. And also it actually is basically exactly how it is described in the original novel. Well done filmmakers.

Also the scenes where Luke has flashbacks or hallucinations to where he watched his friend die in the cornershop are filmed really well as he seems to sit in the forest where the cornershop appears among the deep trees before him or it is cut and edited well. Yes, some very good editing in this film as well.

So how different is the film to the book? Well it is mostly exactly the same until around the big turning point in the story, after half way in the book-

The acting and characters are very much as they are in the book but I did feel a good portion of them wandering the large deep and dark forest and their arguments and desperation and some of the detail of their individual characters was stripped down to some extent. I can understand that this regularly happens for book to film adaptations and it is not as bad an outcome as does often happen.

(Spoiler ahead?) Luke and Dom make it to some strange large cabin and meet strange locals.

In the book it turns out some nasty young black metal Satanists have been watching and hunting them down one by one. These Satanist black metal youths trap Luke in a room, with plans to sacrifice him. He eventually talks with the them, arguing with the leader about what life means, what lies in the forest, music, what the world gets wrong. Eventually Luke escapes after a long fight, flees and confronts the forest monster, drives away in a bloody and beaten state, smashes into it in a crazed detailed confrontation but only just survives to make it back to home.

The film still takes Luke to the cabin where the meets strange locals who worship the forest monster/Satanic beast, but the specific young black metal band characters of the book and the time Luke spends talking with them is cut out. The film shows only brief versions of these characters, but the mysterious old woman with them remains, feeding him up for the sacrifice. The final ending of Luke confronting the monster is changed, but is equally dramatic and possibly works better for the big screen or as a movie ending.

This film feels like some of the best old hammer horror films and The Wicker Man for modern times, with a hint of Blair Witch in there too. Very well made modern horror and I recommend it to all horror movie fans.

 

James Parsons is author of the horror novel Northern Souls available now from all good bookshops and online in paperback and ebook. He has also published two SF novels -Orbital Kin, Minerva Century also available now.

CELL(2016) -Movie Review

This film adaptation of the Stephen King novel has been out for a couple of years now but I recorded it from television around Halloween and watched it this weekend. I read the book a few years ago and did enjoy it. I found it interesting at the time as it was the first book from King after his serious accident which really caught my attention. By this time most people had small palm-sized cell phones, and so the concept of this story was something which could pull you in easily.

I had forgotten a lot of the main story and only really remembered the troubled production issues the film experienced and then later the mixed or negative responses once the film was released. Having watched it, I actually did not think it was too bad. I noticed that King co-wrote the screenplay and so must have wanted to be sure that it would transfer to the big screen in a way that he wanted to see when writing the book possibly.

So CELL is one of very many recent post-apocalyptic movies, and in a way sort of a zombie movie. The people who are changed by the sudden strange phone signal are not ever called zombies in the movie, but the occurrence is viewed as a kind of mass epidemic. When the book was published the film 28 Days Later had already started the ball rolling in pop culture bringing zombies back to the fore of horror. Since then and through the 00’s we’ve had so many riffs on the zombie/post-apocalyptic concept-extreme horror versions, parodies like Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland, huge Hollywood budget takes such as I Am Legend and World War Z and even the Godfather of Zombie movies Romero returned with Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead with varied results.

It is probably I Am Legend which CELL most closely resembles and possibly even works better than in some ways. While many people also dissed that Will Smith blockbuster movie of the classic and hugely influential genre novel, these movies both share a similar cinematic atmosphere of dread and modern unease. There is a fear of loneliness and technological paranoia through both movies, as well as a hint of post-911 terror anxiety.

I actually was big fan of I Am Legend, certainly the first half of the movie which is for the most part almost dialogue free and simply followed Will Smith through his lonely daily routine and we observe his isolated experience and the effects on his character.

With the movie CELL, within minutes the main character played by John Cusack joins with Samuel L Jackson and they move across the country to find his wife and son. They join with a small number of other desperate and surviving individuals on their journey. This tale being based on a King novel, is no simple zombie splatter flick-though the gore and visual effects are really up there along with some of the most realistic from Tom Savini-it sees the masses of people affected by the phone signal ‘evolving’ together acting almost like insects or animals.

I actually could have sat through a longer version of this film and that may have been due to the casting Cusack or Jackson but also the different take on zombie concept. I thought it possibly could have done a lot more. We are at a time when one of the most popular shows on the planet is The Walking Dead, which is all about a small group of distinctive survivors working together against the zombie masses on a daily basis. I am not really a fan of the show (I know, sorry people!) but still do like zombie and post-apocalyptic or dystopian films and novels which have something different to offer.

There were some moments where I did want to yell at the screen ‘Don’t touch that phone!’ or ask why are they going in that building, and some characters and scenes which seemed a little lazy or predictable. It does features some elements which are quite familiar to other King books or films such as The Stand but I still continued watching until the end. Not a perfect movie, but not really as bad as you may have heard either.

James Parsons is a UK author of horror novel Northern Souls- available now as paperback/ebook from all good bookshops and online. He has previously published two science fiction novels as James E. Parsons, Orbital Kin and Minerva Century also available as paperback,hardback, ebook from bookshops and online now.

Northern Souls-A New Horror Novel

My first horror novel has been a long time coming. With science fiction on the back burner for a while get ready for something to ruin your sleep and make the shadows at night feel much more uncomfortable.

The story focuses on Eric after his girlfriend has passed away unexpectedly. Police are not yet sure how she died but some think Eric may have been involved. He feels the danger and extreme sorrow crushing him. But she returns…

What does she have to tell him? Is he confused? Delusional? If a ghost came to you how would you react? Would you act on the message of a dead loved one?

Northern Souls is published in October in paperback and ebook in all good bookshops. James E. Parsons has two SF novel available now- Orbital Kin & Minerva Century-paperback, ebook, hardback.

Northern Souls- Tyneside Terror

What would you like to know about my first horror novel published very soon? Will it be banned? Have I gone way too far? What twisted scenes of terror around the North of England have I imagined?

In less than one month now my debut horror novel will be available in print for all to read. I’ve published two SF novels up to now but all the while I had been writing a few horror short stories here and there and this large horror tale had been taking shape.

Why is it set in and around the North East of England? Well this is my home area, it is where I was born and grew up. I left Newcastle around my early twenties but I do feel very much connected to it. It is me and I am North East in body, history and soul.

Northern Souls imagines a new secret dark tale below and around the streets and Newcastle, Byker, Gateshead, Wallsend and other local areas. It is a supernatural tale, a struggle against ancient evil as it rises and controls the land in various horrific ways.

Dare you read it?

Northern Souls is published in October in paperback and ebook from all good bookshops. Fear the North…

Northern Souls- Death will tear us apart…

It has been written for a while. My new and first horror novel has been in the works through all of the time I had been writing my first sci-fi novel Orbital Kin and I have been redrafting it a few times in the last couple of years.

What is it about?

You may have seen some photos on my social media, read some short hints about the story. I will tell you a little more now-

In the North East of England a young man named Eric has recently had to deal with the death of his girlfriend Grace. It has shaken his life unbelievably but some things about her death don’t add up or just don’t make sense.

He does see Grace again and it is her message which really starts the story of this book.

Besides this lamented and tragically ended romance there are others dying and disappearing mysteriously around the North East. Bloody trails and rumours circulate along with fears and talk of ancient local myths and legend.

You may have heard of some of the most famous Northern legends about monsters or ghosts such as the Lambton Worm, Tam Lin, The Witch of Seaton Delaval, the White Lady of Blenkinsopp, the death of Cuthbert and others. How much of these old local tales are entertaining fiction and how much of them contain some element of truth?

There may be ghosts, there may be abominations as Eric and his friends move around the North East hoping to save souls while the blood spills, flesh is torn and supernatural forces rise around them.

Northern Souls is due to be published late September/early October 2017 in paperback in all good bookshops.

James E. Parsons has previously published two SF books- Orbital Kin & Minerva Century available now.

 

 

The year ends, but a future waits…

Here we are now right at the cold, wet and dull end to 2015. While right now things may be grim and dreary outside, there have been a number of entertaining and suprising events, books, films and more over the months.

What have been some of the film/book/game highlights for you?

There have been the huge event films including Avengers:Age of Ultron, Mad Max, Jurrassic World, smaller challenging films including Ex Machina, Chappie. Many of us might probably agree that the cinematic turkey came very early this year with Terminator:Genisys. After several long years and a final parting with original director, Marvel’s Ant-Man made it onto the big screen and was thankfully and surprisingly overall a great fun movie. One of the most anticipated huge sci-fi cinema events was the return of Ridley Scott to the genre with his adaptation of The Martian which pleased a great many.

With new books in genre we had a return to his known loved science fiction style from cyberpunk legend William Gibson with The Peripheral. Serious hard SF author Stephen Baxter continued on with his Proxima/Ultima series, Adam Christopher gave us SF Noir Made to Kill, Neal Asher has his Dark Intelligence-book 1 in paperback in September, as well as recent returns from Jeff VanDerMeer, Gary Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Ramez Naam, John Scalzi, John Meaney, Richard Morgan, among many other in the SF genre.

The horror genre was the master Stephen King offer us more besides the now regular detective noir thrillers and mystery tales he has put out over recent years. Sarah Lotz Three, David Wong’s Futuristic Violence and Fancy suits. Can we still class Dean Koontz as horror? If so, he has, as usual been putting out his well crafted thrill-rides tales. Thankfully there has been real new horror work from the UK legend Shaun Hutson, Ramsey Campbell. The other cult horror author from these parts Graham Masterton has moved away from horror for a while but is now putting out very successful thriller novels on fine form. There is good, more varied horror fiction outthere but a reader possibly really needs to dig around and hunt it down sadly.

With fantasy books, one of the top reliable authors Robin Hobb has continued to put out a new series, we had work from Trudi Canavan, Jim Butcher continued on with his well established and loved urban fantasy tales, Brandon Sanderson, Raymond E. Feist, Joe Abercrombie still establishing his strong fantasy style, Terry Goodkind.

The videogames highlights of 2015 included Halo 5, Fallout 4 in recent weeks, new Tomb Raider, Assasin’s Creed, Witcher3, Destiny built upon the initial established world, the almost perfect Batman game series ended with Arkham Knight.

What made your year, and what are you waiting for from 2016?