I’d not read anything by T. Kingfisher before this novel, but given the grace of the prose, The Hollow Places will not be the last. She’s shown her sureness within both this subgenre and in the art of simply telling a good story.
The film scene—and, by extension, the trailer scene—is ramping up for the holidays and the new year. We’ve got a bunch of franchise films, standalones, and odd ducks coming soon. But, before the movies properly arrive, let’s look at the trailers for three of them.
The thing about reviewers and critics is that we sometimes get overwhelmed with the sameness of media—and thus crave anything unique.
To call Circle an intense film is to undersell it. Utilizing almost only a single location, this death game story touches upon politics, human nature, mercy, and bigotry. It uses a very simple premise and plays it straight and is one of the best-paced films I’ve seen in a long time.
Calling Harrow Lake a disappointment is perhaps too strong a phrase, but the book does fail to deliver in a few key aspects. There was a missing ingredient, a piece withheld, that made it appear mismanaged.
If you were tracking—as I was—the creative output of Liam Vickers on YouTube, then Murder Drones seems the obvious next step.
Horrid is a book about emotions more than anything else. Its plot, its ending, its momentum are all in service of getting across big emotional moments.
Trese has an awful first episode. It’s such an underwhelming piece of animated storytelling in almost every regard. I’m probably not even going to watch three episodes for a full review.
By the end of the second episode, it was clear this was more Twilight Zone than pure horror. I wasn’t expecting it to scare me regardless, but as a Halloween viewing, it was disappointing.
Squid Game hits you and doesn’t stop. Episode two is so brutally hard to watch, so upsetting, that I couldn’t help but compare it to The Handmaid’s Tale in terms of emotionally affecting scenes.
Doctor Who is a fun, campy show most of the time, but it occasionally decides to terrify. The Daleks are the most famous example, but there’s more to see than just one evil alien race. More twisted, disturbing, and dark things out in that universe.
For better and not for the worst, The Ghost and Molly McGee is basically what you’d expect it to be. The first episode—which is all I’ve seen of it—is in the standard style of episodic comedy. But that’s not a complaint.
