witch

Weeyatches (Book Review)

September 19, 2012 By Horror Palace Leave a Comment

Book: Weeyatches
Year: 2012
Publisher: Damnation Books
Author: Patrick MacAdoo
Language: English
Chapters: 31
Pages: 174
Type: Novel

Author’s Summary: The devolution WILL be televised. Two young women, both insignificant figures in the magical underworld, find themselves drawn away from their personal concerns and into an odyssey through the Minneapolis sewers, the future, and the past, as they battle against a coalition of wandering sorcerers, a warlock who casts spells through drains and pipes, and the weeyatches, a coven of reality stars/witches, in order to prevent a dystopian catastrophe.

Review: Witch lovers clap your hands because this book is all about an apprentice witch who fights an evil witch. Her name is Dylan and Finn is her master. When they attempt to talk to a malevolent witch named Daphne, Dylan gets captured. With the help of an intriguing person, Mae, who is out for revenge because her brother was killed, Dylan escapes and they make a plan to save Finn, all the while her powers growing stronger.

Along with all of the witches in the novel, you have wizards, warlocks and “drain speakers” who can turn ordinary people into zombie-like creatures. There are an abundance of characters to keep track of and I did like how the story unfolded over time.

The writing style was one that I wasn’t accustom to. There are many time-traveling-like scenarios where the story goes back-and-forth from the past to the present. The reason for this was to alter the events that had happened. Almost like a Sci-Fi type of story. It got quite tedious and cumbersome keeping track of all of the activities going on.

A few positives on Weeyatches; put simply, it was a fascinating story, there were tons of events to keep track of, and it was different than any other witch story I have come across in my 20 years of reading novels. The only thing I wasn’t all that enthused with was to me there was too much time traveler escapades that got confusing, it is a book where you must concentrate all the time or you will be baffled with the story. You do want to make sure you have no interruptions while reading.

Weeyatches is available as a Paperback book at many online locations for $18.99. You can also get the E-Book or electronic edition at a price of $5.95. The book cover graphics are misleading and a touch dull. It doesn’t entice you to pick up the book to read what it is about. After initial publications sell, hopefully the artwork can be updated to appeal to the reading audience on a second edition. My ratings and suggestions are below.

[amzn_product_inline asin=’1615726918′]

Reviewer: Dark Goddess
Date: 09/19/2012
Rating: 7/10
Suggestion: Paperback: Buy
Suggestion: E-Book: Buy

Meadowoods Review

June 24, 2012 By Horror Palace Leave a Comment

Movie: Meadowoods
Year: 2010
Studio: Monterey Media
Director: Scott Phillips
Stars: Michael Downey, Kay Ethen, Kerry Goodwin
Language: English
Length: 88 Minutes
Sub-Genre: Thriller, Found Footage

Plot: When three very warped college kids plot to torture and murder a randomly chosen fellow student, they craft an elaborate, ghoulish killing chamber and keep a video diary to chronicle their bloody exploit. But as the pals proceed with their ghastly plan, the violence they unleash threatens to consume them as well.

Review: In the long and tiresome list of horror movies that have adopted the handheld scenario, Meadowoods, is just another one in the ever growing line of failed movies that have tried to capture the fame that The Blair Witch Project received, and more recently Paranormal Activity.

The storyline is kind of ridiculous. You have 3 college buddies who want to be “known” for something. They live in a small, uneventful city and want to make their mark on society and be famous, or infamous, depending on your outlook. They decide they will document a murder on film, then shelve the video and release it in their old age.

I am not a backer of these style films. With Meadowoods, you get the shaky cam constantly with cut off heads, dizzying fast movement camera clutter, out of frame video, in-and-out focus, and many sky and ground shots with weak dialog in the background. On top of that, the Director felt the need to go back-and-forth between interviews and footage of the 3 friends concocting this plan of murder. Albeit with pretty lame acting and unexciting characters.

There is a positive to this movie, once the plan starts to unfold and unravel, it does get quite freaky, and there is a twist that most viewers wont expect. Still though, that is over an hour into the movie, and by then you are completely out of the flick. Put simply, Meadowoods should be avoided. Chalk it up as another crappy handheld horror film.

Reviewer: BillChete
Date: 06/24/2012
Rating: 2/10
Recommendation: Avoid

Trailer: Watch
DVD: Overstock
BluRay: N/A
Social Media: Facebook

Evidence Review

April 5, 2012 By Horror Palace Leave a Comment

Movie: Evidence
Year: 2011
Studio: RynoRyder Productions
Director: Howie Askins
Stars: Ryan McCoy, Brett Rosenberg
Language: English
Length: 73 Minutes
Sub-Genre: Found Footage

Plot: Four friends embark on a camping trip to an isolated wilderness to shoot a documentary one of them is making. On the first night the group hear blood-curdling cries and see unexplainable shadows surrounding the camp causing them to question whether they should leave. Suddenly the night takes a terrifying turn when one of the group goes missing and the remaining three realize they are being brutally hunted… but by what?

Review: Well, where should I begin? With the past success of The Blair Witch Project and the most recent success of the Paranormal Activity series, the found footage film is alive and well…which most of the time sucks for the horror fan. Let me be honest here, I am not a huge fan of the found footage sub-genre, but occasionally there is something worth writing about. And Evidence just might be that “needle in a haystack”, if I do say so myself.

It is your basic run of the mill story about a group of friends that decide to take a camping trip. One of the friends decides to make a documentary film about his best friend and his first time “roughing it, in the great outdoors.” It does start out giving you that feeling of…”I’ve seen this before.” Well folks, not for long. This movie is not like anything you have watched in the past. I really don’t want to give too much away about this film, but damn do I want to.

The initial opening act of the film deals with some very cool characters that are very easy to connect with, which is mainly due to the fact that they are likable in a sense. The film does have a few slow spots, but the characters keep you into the film. But hey, once this thing gets going…boy does it get going.

In the second part of the film, we start to get to the good stuff. The friends start hearing things and seeing some strange things that peak their interest, and make them want to get the hell out of the woods. In Evidence, you actually get to see some of the strange goings on before it is balls to the wall in the third act.

The third act is an act all unto itself, and that might just be an understatement. Talk about a twist to the end of this film. I think it has more twists, ups and downs, and insanity than a roller coaster. The things at the end of this film, I have never seen before, and I have been talking about this movie all day. I can’t wait to watch it again, and look for things that I am sure I missed.

Evidence will affect you that is for sure…just be prepared to see things that you haven’t seen before. Give this movie a chance, even if you’re not a fan of found footage. You might just be surprised at this little movie. You won’t be disappointed…I know that I wasn’t.

Check out Land Of The Creeps with myself and GregaMortis and “Help Keep Horror Alive.”

Reviewer: Haddonfield Hatchet
Date: 04/05/2012
Rating: 7½/10
Recommendation: Buy

Trailer: Watch
DVD: Amazon.uk
BluRay: N/A
Social Media: Facebook

Panic Button Review

December 1, 2011 By Horror Palace Leave a Comment

Movie: Panic Button
Year: 2011
Studio: Movie Mogul Films
Director: Chris Crow
Language: English
Length: 92 Minutes
Sub-Genre: Thriller

Plot: Four young people win a competition of a lifetime; Jo (Scarlett Alice Johnson), Max (Jack Gordon), Dave (Michael Jibson) and Gwen (Elen Rhys from Season Of The Witch) are heading off on an all expenses paid trip to New York courtesy of the social network site “all2gethr.com.” As they board the private jet, they must relinquish their personal items and take part in the in-flight entertainment – a new online gaming experience. Once airborne the games begin, and it soon becomes evident through a series of twisted tasks, that the passengers are in for more than they dared imagine.

Review: With the increasing number of users year after year using social media websites like Facebook and Twitter, I found the concept of this movie to be a fresh idea, and wondered how they could turn a relatively friendly atmosphere into a horror movie. For the most part, I think they pulled it off.

You have 4 friends on this all2gethr.com social site, really strangers, board a plane heading from the UK to the USA, with a chance to win expensive prizes while airborne by playing these sickening games. You soon realize after Stage 2 of these mind games that the trip has a more grandiose purpose that leaves you on the edge of the seat wondering what this demented person behind this flight has in store for the passengers, and their families and friends.

Panic Button actually shies away from showing the kill scenes. You do get the picture, but the movie flashes the images by so quickly it loses its effectiveness. While this “higher purpose” story does come into play about 60 minutes in, the ending was completely predictable especially when you have seen as many horror movies as I have.

On a whole it was an intelligent story, and very relatable to the younger internet savvy teenagers. Panic Button lets you know just how public everything you do online is, both searchable and traceable. The dark tones with social networks really hits hard and is very true to real life. For me, I would of liked more of a chilling track and more violent scenes shown on camera. The acting was very good, but these characters were generally shady, and I just didn’t “feel” for them. With all that said, Panic Button is definitely worth a watch, get your hands on it, you will be entertained for the most part.

Reviewer: BillChete
Date: 12/01/2011
Rating: 6/10
Recommendation: Rental

Trailer: Watch
DVD: Amazon.co.uk
BluRay: Amazon.co.uk
Social Media: Facebook

Paranormal Activity 3 Review

October 27, 2011 By Horror Palace 2 Comments

Movie: Paranormal Activity 3
Year: 2011
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
Language: English
Length: 85 Minutes
Sub-Genre: Paranormal

Plot: A malign and murderous spirit continues to dwell within a San Diego home in this second creepy sequel to 2007’s chilling Paranormal Activity. Hoping to catch photo evidence of Bloody Mary, the residents soon become victims in their own horror film.

Review: Just in case you don’t know, I literally loathe handheld, shaky cam, documentary, home movie style horror movies. I think for the most part they are a directorial cop out, and what really makes my skin boil is the flood of these horror movies that have hit to the streets since “The Blair Witch Project.” Now after those scathing remarks you will no doubt assume that this will be a poor review for Paranormal Activity 3, well continue reading as you might be surprised.

Paranormal Activity 3 is a prequel happening before the original movie. We do get a brief clip of the star Katie Featherston in the beginning of the movie, but for the most part the story revolves around her family when she was a pre-teen along with her younger sister, mother and step-dad.

The family begins to experience supernatural happenings that gets progressively worse as in both Paranormal Activity 1 and 2. But this time around they actually show more diabolical phenomenon’s, and what they show is quite disturbing and generally scary. This time around it effects children and it effects them hard. One of the girls has an imaginary friend that turns violent and very abusive.

The last 20 minutes are downright creepy, and the director pulled off some scenes that were unbelievably freaky. The story ends in a completely shocking nature you never seen coming. This goliath of a franchise will, I predict, have a 4th installment, no doubt whatsoever.

I enormously appreciated that this movie doesn’t have an abundance of shaky cam, most of it is stationary, and there is even an ingenious part where the step-dad concocts an oscillating fan with a piece of wood to make a smooth panning shot. Even the sounds grab you making for a half a dozen jump scenes. I still can’t believe that this style film has garnered a recommendation from me, for the first time ever might an add. This is by far the best unprofessional video camera movie ever made. I am here to tell you, go watch Paranormal Activity 3 at the theater, you will be scared!

Reviewer: BillChete
Date: 10/27/2011
Rating: 7/10
Recommendation: Go See It

Trailer: Watch
DVD: N/A – In Theaters
BluRay: N/A – In Theaters
Social Media: Facebook

witch

Footer

Submissions