Tag: Review

Book Review: The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

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The Woman in Black is one of the most recognisable ghost stories to come out of Great Britain, the story of Arthur Kipps travelling to the home of his recently deceased client in the the far and withdrawn village of Crythin Grifford, where he is slowly driven mad by his obsession with the ghost of Jennet Humphrey has stuck with its readers for years to come and is a truly spine chilling tale.

As per usual once I purchase a book I do a bit of research into the author, this time it was Susan Hill who wrote the tale as part of her series “A Ghost Story”, the book was released in 1983 but it is written with such a brilliant gothic style that you could easily be tricked into thinking that it was a much older spooky story from hundreds of years prior.

To be completely honest the story is so perfectly written and crafted that I don’t have any criticisms so this is going to be more a celebratory review where I can share my appreciation for a horror book that truly sent a chill down my spine.

Its cold and crisp Christmas Eve and Arthur Kipps is visiting his family, during the fun and games of the night a challenge of scary stories is brought amongst our party goers, in a circle each person tells a tale in order to spook the guests, the idea scares Arthur as he has truly experienced the paranormal and lived to tell the tale, left only with haunting memories and a broken heart.

We read the novel from Arthur’s point of view it is written as such that Arthur is telling the ghost story of the Woman in Black of Eel Marsh House.

Arthur is visiting the house to gather the affairs of his recently deceased client Alice Drablow, the house is in utter despair the papers are everywhere and everything is in a mess. The towns folk begged Arthur to not spend the night inside of the home but he didn’t head their warnings and stays anyway.

Throughout his stay in the village of Crython Grifford Arthur keeps seeing a Woman dressed in traditional black mourning clothes, the eerie specter begins to drive Arthur mad as he researches the presence leading him down a rabbit hole of theories, child murders and genuine fear that himself or his family may become the next victim of the Woman in Black!.

The book is truly terrifying throughout its gothic nature and disturbing story telling the deaths of children as innocent as they can be is always something we don’t want to think about and this story uses such a dark premise to make the reader truly feel threatened by its antagonist and will have you secretly praying that you don’t meet eyes with such a grizzly ghoul.

The story is perfectly written and to be loved by any horror fan although trigger warnings for the deaths of children and one near the end of the novel which is particularly horrible to read about might put some readers off.

There are multiple adaptations of the book and I am pleased to say that I think I have seen all of them the most recognisable would probably be the Daniel Radcliffe adaptation from 2012 my least favourite due to its major differences to the original story even adding a “happier” ending compared to most other versions.

My most recommended would either be to watch the 1989 adaptation which is much scarier and has fewer changes apart from its ending, it also has an excellent cast and is truly almost as scary as the book.

Finally the play I remember being very good but to be honest it has been a long while since I last saw a production so until it is fresh in my head again I cant truly give too much opinion on it.

I hope that by reading my review you have been encouraged to go out and grab a copy of the original book and experience it for yourself, if you don’t enjoy reading there is also a fantastic audible version narrated by Paapa Essiedu, I found this after reading the story and the production was so fantastic with original music, back ground sounds and a brilliant reader to build the atmosphere it is a great option… It is also FREE !! yep free of charge courtesy of audible so please check it out if you can.

If you would like to help support the website please use the donation button at the top of the page, your donations will help to improve the website by allowing me to afford products to review and to be able to execute any costly updates and changes, any amount in donations are welcome.

Thank You for all of your support.

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

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Book Review: The Shining by Stephen King

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I will be using illustrations from various illustrators all copyright belongs to them and I highly recommend checking out their websites

Finally we are here and after reviewing it’s two screen adaptations it is time to talk about Stephen King’s third horror novel The Shining.

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The book of course revolves around Jack Torrance the new off season caretaker for the Overlook Hotel who is slowly driven mad by the ghosts of its past patrons.

Now I don’t need to tell anyone that we already know which adaptation is more accurate since King has always hated Kubrick’s version.

King made his own television adaptation of the book which was decent but didn’t really work for scares.

In a surprising turn of events what never worked for the screen was terrifying in the writing.

In the story Jack is the most important character only emphasised by Danny’s ability to shine. 

Jack torrence is a flawed man in the book a recovering alcoholic who is in the midst of a divorce after he broke his sons arm in a drunken rage. He had not long also lost his job after attacking a student who slashed his tyres.

Jack has been sober for 5 months and all things considered he is slowly repairing his relationship with his family, taking up work in an isolated hotel which has no alcohol seems the perfect opportunity for Jack to earn some money and find inspiration for his writing, not realising the sinister plans the ghouls of the overlook are hiding.

Wendy a much more powerful character in the book is desperate to have her marriage problems fixed after experiencing her parents divorce as a child and doesn’t want Danny to take on the same emotional impact.

As seems to be a pattern in Kings book child abuse is a theme not used lightly in the novel with Danny Torrence looking back at past events where jack has been physically abusive towards Danny.

Wendy blames many of Danny’s injuries at the hotel on Jack even though it was the ghosts such as the lady in the bath.

It is implied that overlook wanted jack to get the blame as part of their plan to slowly corrupt his mind.

Jack remembers his father beating his mother when he was drunk, early on he is ashamed of this but as the hotel tightens it’s grip over him he begins to have more sympathy and believes that he needs to punish his family.

King leaves so many questions for the readers in his writing, the biggest here is what is exactly is the Overlook Hotel?

From face value it seems to be a haunted hotel which inhabits some rather nasty ghouls but when you really sit back and theorize over it the overlook very well may be a living organism.

King always writes in way that never puts the ghosts in blame for what happens, it is always referred back to the Overlook. 

„This inhuman place makes human monsters.“

A quote from Tony to Danny and one that emphasizes this point, the Overlook is using manipulation and controlling people to change within its own walls. 

Those who die in the Overlook are trapped there in spirit, the hotel prays on the weak and tricks them into killing the stronger members first. This is not only seen through how the Hotel effects Jack Torrence but also  it’s previous victims Delbert Grady and his family. 

Compared to kings previous novel Salem’s Lot I didn’t really find this book as scary but I will say that you can take certain scares from the book more seriously than the 1997 miniseries. 

One thing that does work much better in this book than either adaptation is Tony, Tony is never visualised but is a distant voice which calls out to Danny dropping simple auditory warnings of what’s to come. 

In a later revelation we learn that Tony is simply Danny communicating with his 15 year old self 10 years into the future, making sure that everything goes to plan and Danny survives his father’s murderous onslaught.

there is a very good theory going around that Danny inherited his shining ability from his father, Jack having the ability and not realising would help explain things, especially how he manages to directly communicate with the spirits of the Overlook.

The shining is Stephen King’s best book yet and is in opinion a perfectly written horror story, it isn’t overly scary but has some creepy overtones and with its smaller cast and singular location the plot is easy to follow and never feels it gets off track.

It’s a story that has a conclusive finale but will leave readers thinking about it’s narrative and theorising it’s supernatural aspects.

If you would like to help support the website please use the donation button at the top of the page, your donations will help to improve the website by allowing me to afford products to review and to be able to execute any costly updates and changes, any amount in donations are welcome.

Thank You for all of your support.

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

The Shining Mini Series (1997) Review

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By now it is no secret that Stephen King has never cared much for Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his third novel The Shining so in 1997 he decided to produce his own version, King hired Mick Garris to direct the series and filming was shot at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado, the Stanley was the real world hotel King stayed at which inspired his original story.

The story here very much remains the same with recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance becoming caretaker for the Overlook Hotel during the off season and gradually being convinced by the Hotels ghosts to murder his family

Casting here was pretty decent with Wings star Steven Weber taking on the Role of Jack Torrance and Rebecca De Mornay playing wife Wendy.

Both of these guys are great and share a really nice on screen chemistry, Weber brings so much more to Jacks character than we got to see with Nicholsons approach, I think this is because in this version Jack manages to gain a lot more sympathy from the audience as we can see a genuinely nice guy and loving father who is conflicted between the love of his family and the Hotel.

Rebecca De Mornay brings so much more to the character of Wendy Torrance, here we get a strong female lead with guts and backbone, her portrayal is not only mothering but a powerful protector and somebody who wont let anyone get in the way of her family.

Danny Torrance is this time played by Courtland Mead and he is awful, I’m sorry I don’t normally go in on child actors but this kid is so annoying and his portrayal come across a bit forced, it probably didn’t help that King hired a 9 year old boy to play a five year old so Mead had to dumb down his speech and behaviours to try and match those of the correct age.

Another odd choice was the casting of Tony, Dannys imaginary friend here he is played by Wil Horneff who is fine enough but my god the dress sense its so 90’s it doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the series and makes him come across a little bit silly, “Clarissa explains it all” eat your heartout!

The late Melvin Van Peebles plays Dick Halloran and he is a gemstone in this, I love him so much he plays a much more prominent role in this compared to Scatman Crothers in Kubrick’s version. Van Peebles Halloran so much character and becomes a grandfatherly figure to Danny, the two communicate via the shining much more frequently in this as well helping us an audience to realise his greater importance in all of this.

While the casting was almost spot on basically everything else was hit or miss, the general effects were pretty bad from a CGI standpoint which can be seen during the scene where Danny is almost attacked by the hedge animals, makeup and physical effects on the other hand were excellent with realistic blood splatter and genuinely scary makeup, my favourite was the dead lady in the bath, I actually prefer this look to the lady in Kubrick’s adaptation.

got this video from https://theshining237.com/2017/10/16/shining-vs-shining-lets-put-the-1997-king-miniseries-up-against-the-1980-kubrick-film-and-see-what-happens/ check this website out for a great comparison of both versions

Line delivery was genuinely so cringe as can be seen in the video above, mostly from Jacks end with wonderful lines like “Up to room 217, where do think I’m going out for a pizza” and “Congratulations, Dick you’re a Publisher’s Clearing House winner and here’s your prize”

At this point I haven’t even read the book but I know this is more accurate especially with King producing the series and I want to point this out because Kubrick made changes to the original story for a very good reason which I feel is made clear after watching this adaptation.

Words cannot always adapt well to screen !! What may be considered scary in a book will not always come across as scary in a cinema, Kubrick thought this about the animal shaped hedges so instead he used a hedge maze for his finale, we feel Danny is in danger here he is lost trapped in a labyrinth with his possessed father who wants to kill him, Topiary isn’t scary but the thought of being lost and trapped most definitely is.

Scenes from “The Shinning” 1980 starring Jack Nicholson.

Jacks death was changed in Kubrick’s too having him freeze to death trapped in the Maze, in the 1997 mini series Jack dies when he blows up the Hotel a satisfying finale but I preferred Kubrick’s because it gave the audience the sense that Jacks soul was taken by the Overlook and it was still open awaiting new victims.

It does get rebuilt at the end of the 1997 version but it just doesn’t carry the same energy as Kubricks adaptation.

The biggest sin of all with this version is just how generally boring it is, we see a lot of character development but its done through far too much dialogue, the majority of this four hour and 30 minute production is talking with any action and scares being few and far between, I feel like King was trying to build up the suspense like he excellently does in his books but again for a TV production playing it out like a novel just doesn’t work and by making this King did nothing but make himself look a bit foolish, he is entitled to opinions on Kubricks version but he would have been better off leaving that be the only adaptation he was never going to beat it and at the end of the day the film still would have drove book sales so the original story would have been read by millions no matter what!

If you would like to help support the website please use the donation button at the top of the page, your donations will help to improve the website by allowing me to afford products to review and to be able to execute any costly updates and changes, any amount in donations are welcome.

Thank You for all of your support.

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

The Last of Us Part 2 (2020) Review

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The Last of Us Part 2 is the sequel to the excellent 2013 hit The Last of Us, the game was developed by series creator Naughty Dog and was published exclusively by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4.

The game this time focuses on two main characters Ashley Johnson reprises her role as Ellie and Laura Bailey was brought in to play Abby.

Ellie’s main goal in the game is to kill Abby after she kills Joel by beating him over the head with a golf club, the reason for killing Joel is revealed later on in the game and is a plot point I will not spoil here. Joels brother Tommy heads to Seattle on a Solo mission to hunt down his brothers killer, Ellie and her new girlfriend Dina leave to find Tommy and help him get revenge for Joels death.

Abby is playable in the second half of the game, her journey takes Abby to try and rediscover the purpose in her life after she kills Joel. Her reasons for the the violent way that Joel died are revealed during these chapters along with showing us her relationship with boyfriend Owen and pregnant friend Mel.

Purpose is a theme played with heavily throughout the game and both playable protagonists have to try and get to grips with what is important in life. Revenge is something which effects both characters Ellie is desperate to kill Abby hoping that it will heal her pain from losing Joel, she is so hell bent on this fact that she is blind to the world around her.

Abby is having the exact opposite problem she has killed the person she was after but she is still pained, she realises that her emotions are not going to heal, everything will never be ok again so she is desperate to try and make the most of what she can, later on in the game she even teams up with an enemy of her group and has to choose which path she wants to follow.

Ellie is painted very differently in this game compared to the first and thanks to the excellent writing by Naughty Dog you will be rooting for her in the beginning and later on realising that Ellie is very slowly becoming dangerous, I never knew how the story was going to affect me, at first I hated Abby but by the end of the game I was disagreeing with Ellie and having more sympathy with the person she was trying to kill.

For reasons I don’t particularly understand Ellie’s blood can no longer be used to save humanity so for the most part she isn’t under the danger of being experimented on and is spared multiple times in the game because of this, I wish they explained how its different in this game compared to before but maybe that is something we will discover when the TLOU 3 eventually comes out.

The gameplay follows on from the prior title with its survival horror and moments which require stealth, compared to the first game though I would argue that there are much less infected to deal with compared to human enemies, this of course ties into the main themes and story of the game, there is a big conflict happening here between former firefly’s now known as the WLF (Washington Liberation Front) and the Seraphites a religious cult who want humanity to live off the land and get rid of technology after teachings from their prophet stated that the fungal virus was only brought upon humanity as a punishment for all of its sins.

A new dodge mechanic was added into this game and was extremely helpful during combat especially with the infected, it made the combat a little easier at times without taking away from the games overall difficulty.

Both Ellie and Abby are able to upgrade weapons at workbenches, this will allow for faster reloading, scopes, more penetrating shots and much more.

Skill paths can be purchased with medication, these will allow you to gain new skills based on different play styles focusing on health, explosives, firearms, field tactics, endurance etc.

Collectibles are a massive part of the game this time around with even more things to collect and unique items which tie to both of our playable protagonists.

Ellie is able to find collectible playing cards of people with special powers similar to the X-Men and what I am assuming inspired these. She can also find notes and write down entries in her journal.

Something very cool Ellie can do is play the guitar and while some songs are played as part of the story, if you try out different combinations you can actually play a catalogue of songs from artists such as the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, Metallica and more.

Apart from notes the only other collectible Abby can find are coins each representing different states in America, these were fun to hunt down but its hard not be a little disappointed compared to how much effort was put into Ellie’s half of the game.

A creative choice I would have made is to still have the two campaigns but mix them in together, one chapter of Ellie then one chapter of Abby and so on.

Visually the game is extremely impressive graphically it is one of the best looking games on the system. There has been a big upgrade compared to the first game with Naughty Dog using techniques such as motion matching and advanced light sourcing technology to make the game run smoothly in 1080p and 4K, the game now has new environments to work with, there are still depressing, dark and abandoned areas to explore but also more uplifting and less intense places more prominently seen in flashbacks and my favourite chapter “The Farm”.

Naughty Dog do a fantastic job with making sure that the graphics do not disappoint from start to end with realistic particle rendering of small details such as realistic uses of dust or dirt particles, the realistic movements of flames, and the almost life like visuals of the infected and fungus makes this one of the best looking games for the PS4 and to be honest I think it could even be pulled off on PS5 while it is still in its early lifespan.

Music has a more prominent role in this game compared to the first, In my review of the original game I spoke about how music tracks are few and far between with a higher focus on immersive gameplay. Here we can say the same thing but in a brilliant move by Naughty Dog Joel gifts Ellie her guitar, because of this we can now have these wonderful and emotional renditions of real world songs which not only have a meaning that ties to Ellie’s story but they added more music without taking away from the immersive gameplay as players still feel isolated and lost in this rather depressing chapter in the Last of Us franchise.

I held off from playing this game for a long time, its no secret that a lot of people were disappointed with the game for various reasons including Joels Death, how we are supposed to feel a connection with Abby and some sad saps had a problem with LGBTQ in the game as Ellie and Dina are in a lesbian relationship.

I am pleased to say that I had none of these issues, at first I was upset with Joels death but after the story unfolded I began to understand why Abby wanted him dead and yes I began to feel bad for her, I felt a connection with both and it gave me conflicted feelings I didn’t know who’s side to be on and by the end of the game I was secretly praying that the two could just be civil so I didn’t have to witness either of them die.

The gameplay is addictive, the story will have you on edge of seat and the morals and narratives will have you wondering who the real hero is, you will question many moments and may even see certain characters in a different light, but to truly know how the Last of Us Part 2will affect you is by playing it yourself and that is something I recommend as just like its predecessor this is well worthy of a clean 10/10

If you would like to help support the website please use the donation button at the top of the page, your donations will help to improve the website by allowing me to afford products to review and to be able to execute any costly updates and changes, any amount in donations are welcome.

Thank You for all of your support.

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

The Shining (1980) Review

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Welcome to our next deep dive into the world of Stephen King, this time we will be taking a look at The Shining, Kings third novel and its two current adaptations, as per usual we will discuss the adaptation in chronological release before discussing the book and ultimately deciding which adaptation was the most faithful to the source material.

P.S I am aware of a third adaptation an Opera but I cannot for the life of me find a recording of the show, there was a temporary audio recording release which has been removed from the internet. I’m not going to discuss this one until I can actually watch or listen to it, then I can give a fair analysis so if you would like to see me discuss the Opera please try and convince them to release it in some form or bring it to the UK

Apologies about this but I don’t feel its right for me to review something I cant actually experience right now!

here’s a very good article about it https://screenrant.com/stephen-king-shining-minnesota-opera-explained/ and yes the audio link is dead!

With all that said and done, on with the Review of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining

Often regarded as one of the greatest horror films of all time Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining has been met with critical acclaim but one critic who doesn’t like the movie is Stephen King due to how Kubrick handled the books major themes and the character Wendy.

At this point I have not read the book so I cannot comment on my feelings of this as an adaptation until the end of this journey but just from Kings remarks I am assuming this wont be the most faithful.

The film stars Jack Nicholson in the starring role of Jack Torrance an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic who accepts to be the caretaker for the Overlook Hotel during the off season.

The Shining (1980)
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975)

Jack Nicholson is just astounding in this and it is easily one of his best performances, Nicholson has always had a talent of getting lost in his characters and a particular talent for playing the mentally unhinged which before the Shining could be seen in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” it was actually this performance which got Jack the role.

In the movie Jack Torrance is a prick from the get go, a selfish individual with unrealistic aspirations of his writing career, he has a unsettling demeanor about him and is genuinely very unlikable this is one choice I am not too fond of as it makes his eventual mental breakdown and psychological snap a little less surprising than it should have been and while Nicholson’s performance as Jack is so memorable I feel it could have been even better if the character started out with a little more sympathy.

Shelley Duvall plays Jacks wife Wendy and she never got much appreciation for her portrayal and even received a razzie for it, Duvall’s character was badly written in this to be a whiny and annoying trigger for Jacks insanity and to be honest until the second half of the film I thought she was fairly forgettable, in her second half’s performance when she plays the upset and distraught Wendy I thought she did a really good job especially in the finale. The scene with the baseball bat on the stairs broke a world record for the most takes with 127 eventually leaving Duvall with a hoarse throat and blistered hands.

Kubrick was cruel to Duvall in many ways to help set up her character, not only did he constantly criticise her performance but would would belittle her Infront of the other cast members and even isolated her by demanding the cast and crew completely ignore her during the entire production, no matter why these choices were made they are still very wrong and effect Duvall to this day.

The rest of the rather small cast of the film are all fine but none are particularly memorable minus Duvall and Nicholson, Danny played by Danny Lloyd is the son of the Torrance’s and he has a special gift called Shining, this gift allows him to see events from the past and for a Child actor Lloyds performance is actually pretty believable and not annoying in the slightest this is left even more impressive considering that Kubrick had tricked the boy into thinking they were making a Drama instead of a Horror film.

Scatman Crothers plays Bill Halloran the head chef of the Overlook Hotel and also a character that has the gift of the shining and uses his ability to communicate with Danny about his fathers mental breakdown.

Having a film with such a small cast in an insolated Hotel is not an easy project to pull of but it is thanks to Kubrick’s directing that it works so well here, from a story telling perspective we can pick up on subtle clues with Jacks character and realising that he is actually quite mentally ill from the very start of the film, he has anger issues and the way he speaks to his wife and son shows signs of a narcist who has nothing but selfish goals.

Before he even starts his job care taking for the Hotel Jack is told about how the last caretaker went mad and chopped up his family, this moment is left alone for a while we don’t see much reference to it at least from Jacks view but we can see him struggling to get anywhere with his book and how this writers block is affecting him.. after all this is meant to be his big break.

Later on when the spirits of the Hotel begin to take a toll on Jack he slowly begins to slip back into alcohol and his more abusive self comes through.

Danny is seeing visions of the murdered family of the last caretaker, blood gushing out of an elevator and flooding the hallways, it could be warnings of whats to come or what has happened in the past are these visions real? are the ghosts really making Jack go crazy or is he just crazy?

All of these are questions you are trying to answer but you cant because the film leaves the viewer open to various theories but no definite answers to what is really going on. This works so well in the movies favour as it ultimately leaves you feeling genuinely disturbed and confused exactly how the Torrance’s felt being isolated in the hotel while all of these things were potentially happening.

A really interesting directors choice here was to have the characters notice and react to something before the viewers, this was a nice change compared to what we are used to with most films in the horror genre. It also leaves the audience feeling uneasy and not understanding why these characters are all of a sudden looking distressed or upset, leaving the reveal even more chilling than it otherwise might have been.

For a good chunk of the movie it is made very clear that the Torrance’s are the only people in the hotel, the place is by all means isolated, in one scene Danny is riding throughout the Hotel on his tricycle and the camera follows from behind as he goes around corners, all of a sudden we see two twin girls and then visions of their murders. This scene while so simple is one of the scariest moments in horror because of that buildup, we as an audience have adapted to isolation and when it is revealed that other entities are in the hotel it throws you off and causes us to feel anxious and panicked.

Camera angles play such an important role in the film to help create the feeling of unease, I previously mentioned Duvall’s 127 takes but it wasn’t just her, Kubrick was deliberately making both Nicholson and Duvall re-do takes to make them start to get tired and stressed, this would begin to affect the performances and would get some more natural takes with bizarre undertones, he would push his actors to redo perfectly performed scenes in order to slightly drive them mad and get under the skin and human psyche, this method would get some really interesting facial expressions, Nicholson would start drooling and actors would come up with new lines without thinking, the famous line “Here’s Johnny” was adlibbed by Nicholson during one of these takes.

Music is the key ingredient that makes this film so memorable and scary, after filming and during post production a very talented gentleman named Gordon Stainforth did the musical score for this film, a 1936 composition “Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta” by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók was used in various scenes and along side very clever use of the Mickey Mousing technique a term used to describe music or sounds synchronised with an on screen action or movement helped to build up the atmosphere and help emphasise the Overlook Hotels manipulation of Jack, manipulative and sinister notes to help pull the strings in jacks mind and unforeseen puppet master, an evil presence we can hear but cannot see and easily the scariest part of the film.

The Shining is one of the greatest Horror films of all time and while it clearly has it’s departure from the original writing thanks to Kings hatred towards it, I feel that for any adaptation of a Stephen King book this is in many ways truly a masterful film and one I feel King should be proud of. I understand why he has issues with it but without the book we never would have been gifted one of the greatest art pieces in not only Stanley Kubricks works but in the history of cinema as a whole. You see Stanley Kubricks the Shining is more than just a film its an experience, a composition and a work of art each bundled together in one package, truly a marvel of filmography, it is now protected by the national film registry and is a movie everyone should see.

After his initial distaste for the 1980 adaptation Stephen King would produce his own in 1997, a tv mini series and our next journey in the Shining Deep Dive.

If you would like to help support the website please use the donation button at the top of the page, your donations will help to improve the website by allowing me to afford products to review and to be able to execute any costly updates and changes, any amount in donations are welcome.

Thank You for all of your support.

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

Movie Games: Ice Age (2002)

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Welcome to another edition of Movie Games the series where we look at licensed games from the past and see how much they follow the plot of their movie, this time around we will be covering the 2002 classic Ice Age from Blue Sky Studios which had only one videogame for the Gameboy Advance.

But before we dive into that first lets go over the plot of the movie spoilers ahead so beware!

Scrat the Sabertooth Squirrel accidently cracks open the earth and causes a large avalanche which he barely escapes but is trod on by a herd heading south to avoid the forthcoming Ice Age.

A clumsy sloth named Sid wakes up to find he has been abandoned by his family so he moves south by himself, he upsets a pair of rhinos and is recued by a grumpy mammoth named Manny the two continue to travel south together much to Manny’s annoyance.

Meanwhile Soto leader of the saber tooth tigers attacks a human village trying to eat the chiefs baby as an act of revenge for the killing of his pack members, the village is destroyed but the baby is no where in sight, a member of the pack Diego is sent on a personal mission to find the child and bring him to Soto alive and ready for consumption.

Sid and Manny discover the baby and its mother floating in a river, they manage to receive the baby before the mother loses her last strength and drowns.

Diego catches up with the duo and encourages them to give him the baby so he can take him back to his tribe on Half Peak, Manny agrees as long as they all go with Diego leading them so he can be watched.

Our trio continue their adventure across the treacherous and icy land getting into many shenanigans including a water melon fight with Dodo’s and a rather dangerous ice slide.

Eventually they come across cave paintings and one set of a mother and baby Mammoth being murdered by hunters, this turns out to be Manny’s previous family and the reason why he keeps to himself.

At the end of the movie Diego nearly falls to his death in a river of lava but is rescued by Manny, when they arrive at Half Peak, Diego confesses his betrayal and the trio are attacked, Diego takes a near fatal blow during the final battle with the Sabers, Soto is killed instantly when he is impaled with falling icicles causing the rest of his pack to retreat in fear.

Manny and Sid mourn Diego believing him to be dead and finally return the baby to its tribe, Diego joins them afterward when he has more strength.

The trio now closer than ever remain as a pack and walk together towards warmer climates.

In a post credits scene twenty thousand years into the future Scrat is washed up in a block of ice on a deserted island, when he is thawed he manages to find a coconut which he again tries to bury by smashing it into the ground causing the earth to crack and a volcano to erupt…. whoops

now over to the video game adaptation

The game is a fairly standard 2D platformer with players starting at point A and needing to get to point B and normally having to defeat a boss at the end of most levels.

You play the game interchanging between Manny and Sid who each star in their own stages.

Manny sees the most action as he has the majority of levels, his stages are fairly basic in design he moves slowly because of his large size but can use his trunk for both physical attacks and for shooting nuts.

Sid’s stages are side scrollers and they are just awful, the screen moves way too fast to the point where one tiny mistake you will die, you don’t have time to make decisions on how to tackle certain jumps or avoiding enemies and the absolute worst is that you have barely anytime to grab the acorns!

Acorns are a collectible you can find all over stages with each level giving players a goal to find 40, the acorns basically work as a life system, you take damage you lose one and that will leave you with less chance to make the goal.

If you do manage to collect all 40 acorns in each of the 10 levels you will get a pretty lame bonus stage that is really not worth effort in my opinion, it doesn’t offer anything new and has all of problems of the other levels.

The basic gameplay is fine and you can tell that a lot of inspiration for this game actually came from Donkey Kong Country.

The stages are riddled with Dodo’s and other creatures which can be defeated by hitting them or bouncing on them, sometimes you have bounce across them or slam the ground to flip certain enemies over and then bounce on them … you seeing the similarities here?

In this games defence on a short budget they did an ok job, it is far from perfect with issues such as off screen platforms to jump too, unnecessary back tracking, bad hit detection and of course way too fast side scrolling but if you can look past all of this it has unlimited lives and with patience you can then experience the surprisingly pretty well designed boss fights.

There are various battles in the game and all of them are fought by Manny, there are these giant seeds in levels that can be used as ammunition against larger creatures and bosses.

The bosses each have various designs and require different strategies to defeat, there are two ways to defeat boss one is as mentioned with the seeds and the other is by slamming onto them, how you can achieve this will differ between boss variants but overall is really easy and wont take very long to figure out.

Graphically the budget didn’t stretch very far with this, some fairly low quality pixel art is used for character sprites, the backgrounds are pretty impressive and have a lot more detail even managing to keep up with the fast auto scrolling segments.

The soundtrack is pretty decent for a licenced game and the real issue is the lack of tracks and how much they replay the same small tune on a loop it can get a little annoying but thanks to this games short length of around 1 hour it doesn’t drag on too long that it becomes a problem.

So how closely does Ice Age GBA follow the movie?

Well lets be honest apart from a few screen captures from the film at the beginning and ending, this game goes in a complete different direction to the film and while I think this does work a lot in its favour allowing for some variants in boss fights and enemies, I think it’s departure missed out on so many opportunities for levels based on movie scenes, we could have had Sid running towards the screen while jumping obstacles and avoiding the Rhino’s or a fun slide level based in the Ice Caves. The biggest sin of all is that they never made a stage based on the memory sequence with Manny’s family, it would have been a great opportunity to change the art style and make some more creative choices that tie into the script.

While this isn’t exactly a faithful adaptation I wouldn’t go out of my way to call it a good video game either, effort was made to try and do something creative here and while I will say that for a knock off DKC clone this is far from terrible it failed in so many ways with its gameplay issues, repetitive soundtrack and uninspired visuals that all that it truly has left for its self is the creative boss battles and an overall simple experience for very young gamers. 3.8/10

I think for our next movie game we will jump into Ice Age the Meltdown to see if lessons were learnt from this.

see you then …. p.s there are three versions of that one so wish me luck !

Padawan

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Book Review: Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

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Salem’s Lot is the 2nd novel by horror author Stephen King, it was released in 1975 as a successor to his first story Carrie which released the year prior. Salem’s Lot is often considered one of Kings best works, it sold very well and proved that King was a horror legend in the making and had the talent to be more than a one hit wonder.

Before we continue, this review is a part of our Stephen King Deep Dive series, I will be comparing the novel to the adaptations we have already discussed so there will be spoilers!.

A writer Ben Mears is returning to his home town of Jerusalem’s Lot to base his next story on a house of horrors from his childhood. When he was a child Ben was dared to break into the Marsten house where he soon saw the hanging body of Hubie Marsten. The image of the swaying corpse stuck with Ben his entire life and ever since the Marsten House had stayed abandoned and casting an eerie presence over the town.

The Marsten house has recently been purchased and converted into an antique store ran by Richard Straker, his business partner Kurt Barlow is never seen which leaves Ben feeling uneasy and we soon learn this is for good reasons.

While Mr Mears is definitely a more focused on character I wouldn’t necessarily call him the main character because in reality the entire town is put to paper giving almost every resident there own story and importance.

King is able to write in a way to give the town an established presence which can resonate with readers so that we have a full understanding of its layout, character relationships and the feeling that everyone knows each others business, it had a small town feel something that helped me feel connected to the book after once living in a small town myself.

So with all of the writing to ease us into Salem’s Lot it takes a long time for the vampires to actually come into the book, I’m talking more than 100 pages which is unfortunate because the novel is a bit of a slow burner, the first half of the book does take a little bit of patience but its definitely worth it for all of the horror we get in the second half.

I don’t think the legacy of Salem’s Lot has really done it many favors, when the book first came out no one knew it was vampires which helped with the patience of the Kurt Barlow’s reveal and also made certain scenes more creepy such as the disappearance of Ralphie Glick but because the book is so famous now we already know its vampires so we don’t have much of the initial mystery element to draw us in.

The book is really creepy and King has a natural talent of writing eerie and disturbing scenes which are genuinely scary, for me nothing is more upsetting than horror that involves children and this is no exception, there is a few scenes in this book that really freaked me out and both were to do with the children, the first was the initial vampire reveal with Danny Glick’s eyes open in the coffin and the window visiting scenes come to mind when discussing some of the scarier moments in the story.

Here is one of my favourite lines from the book which really shows how King can make his story telling scary without the use of visuals.

And in the awful heavy silence of the house, as he sat impotently on his
bed with his face in his hands, he heard the high, sweet, evil laugh of a child
-and then the sucking sounds.

There is a romance in the book between Susan Nolan and Ben Mears I never really got into this part of the story but by the end you do feel a little sorry for Ben after his reaction to her becoming a vampire.

Mark Petrie is easily the best character in this book, he is so cool in this and I feel like neither adaptation really did his character much justice, in the book he has nerves of steel and is from the beginning a bit of bad ass. This Mike takes down a massive school bully and is able to sleep straight after seeing his dead friend outside of his window, he is a natural escape artist and expert on all things monsters making him a perfect candidate for a vampire hunter.

One thing he does in the book I thought was really clever was tightening his muscles when being tied up by Richard Straker, he does this so that when his muscles relax it is easier for him to slip his binds.

Another really interesting character was definitely Father Callahan the local priest with a drinking problem who in this book becomes some what of leader to the vampire hunts nearing the conclusion, making an ultimate sacrifice to save Mark Petrie, Callahan is forced to drink the blood of Kurt Barlow but is not turned into a vampire, this gives Callahan ties to Satan preventing him from re-entering his church and heading down a dark path, he gets on a bus and flees Salem’s Lot a sad ending for such a prominent figure but he will return in a future entry of the Stephen King Mulitverse.

So there are some moments in the book that may upset some readers this includes child abuse, sexual assault, sexual themes and the deaths of children. I don’t want to go into any detail with these but these are really bad and are highly detailed so they could very easily cause some discomfort for some readers so please keep that in mind if you want to read this.

The most accurate adaptation is the 2004 mini series which not only made characters much more similar to how they were originally written but also took a lot of scenes directly from the original story, certain parts were definitely changed for example Father Callahan does not fight Ben Mears in the book and does not murder Matt Burke.

Unlike the 1979 version the 2004 adaptation includes some of the side characters stories, it has a big focus on Ben Mears past with the Marsten house and even Kurt Barlow is more closely mirrored in the 2004 version as in the book he does not have the blue skin and does talk, he is manipulative and charming convincing his victims to allow him to bite them and to become his followers.

The original mini series is really good and to be honest I actually prefer it to the remake but you cannot deny that for accuracy the 2004 version does take much more inspiration from Kings writing.

In our next deep dive we will be taking a look at Kings third novel The Shining so look forward to that!.

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Salem’s Lot (2004) Mini Series Review

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In 2004 we got another television adaptation of Salem’s Lot it was directed by Mikael Salomon and starred Rob Lowe in the starring role of Ben Mears, this adaptation is based in the early 2000’s and was filmed in Australia.

The plot here is very similar to the 1979 adaptation which we have already looked at so I won’t go into too much detail here, but to sum it up the series follows a writer as he returns to his childhood town discovering it to slowly be overridden by vampires.

This particular mini series is often looked at in a negative light when compared to the far superior 1979 mini series but personally I really appreciated this for what it gave us.

The casting here is absolutely fantastic and in many ways is better than the original mini series, we have some big stars and veterans to the acting scene in this not only including Rob Lowe as Ben Mears but also Donald Pleasence as Richard Straker, Andre Braher as Matt Burke, Samantha Mathis as Susan Norton and James Cromwell as Father Callahan, all of these performances are very memorable and each actor put everything they had into their roles.

Donald Pleasence is one of my favourite actors and is amazing in almost every project he works on, here is no exception he plays Richard Straker and gives the character a new lease of life with his drugged up and more eccentric take on the manipulative and sly figure.

James Cromwell deserve some recognition for his portrayal of father Callahan a bit of a bad ass priest with a drinking problem. Cromwell gives the character a real sense of leadership, control and doing everything he can to send the vampires back to hell. I will discuss Callahan’s character in more detail during our book review.

I finally want to give credit to Dan Byrd who plays the teenager Mark Petrie he gave the character a more heroic arc than we saw in the 1979 version, I like this Mark he’s really cool and for a kid he can seriously handle is own and isn’t afraid to get into a fight if need be. The 1979 Mark was one of the highlights of that version but he was more wimpy and we never really saw him get into much action, Byrd’s portrayal is much more enjoyable and overall someone I feel will more likely have the audience rooting for them.

A modern day setting works really well for this, the series actually begins and ends in a modern hospital where a dying Ben Mears is on life support after falling out of a window while battling with Father Callahan, a really great and gripping start to this series and along with narration throughout the production provided by Rob Lowe really helps to keep the audience understanding exactly what is going on and how the character of Ben Mears is feeling and thinking during specific moments.

To be honest I really like this version and I think it has a lot going for it, providing a much different experience to the classic 1979 series but also in a lot ways a different story because this does have a lot more side stories from the novel as well as some that were made specifically for this series and unfortunately in many that was its downfall.

The two episode run of this is so crammed together that everything happens so quickly and it is difficult to really understand characters motives or to really feel much connection with what’s going on during these side plots making certain dramatic moments not having much of a reaction from me personally.

Now you may consider this criticism a little bit harsh but I will say that both version have this issue and its simply down to the fact that Salem’s Lot really needed a television series with at least one full season to really make sure that all of the really important stuff is covered and to also make sure that they help audiences really connect with the towns folk.

Lets not forget that in the original book the vampire stuff doesn’t happen until around the half way point but that discussion will be coming up next in our wrap of this Salem’s Lot series.

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A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987) Review

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A Return to Salem’s Lot is the “Sequel” to the 1979 mini series, director Larry Cohen had originally wanted to direct the 1979 adaptation but lost the role to Tobe Hooper. Warner Bros later approached him to direct a low budget film for them and he suggested a sequel to the Salem’s Lot mini Series.

In all honesty the film is as far from a sequel as you can get, apart from the town name none of the previous characters return here and there is little reference to the mini series. The poster shows the Master behind the film title but to my surprise the he is also absent in the film, a great example of false advertising to sell a product.

This film follows two protagonists Joe an anthropologist studying human nature in African Tribes who returns to the USA to take care of his Son Jeremy a teenage trouble maker who is threatened to be thrown into a mental health institution.

The pair travel to Salem’s Lot the childhood home of Joe who has inherited an old farm from a deceased relative, during the daytime the town is run by Human Drones as a ruse to hide away the towns dark secrets. At night all of Salem’s Lot vampiric residents roam the streets looking for human or animal blood to drink so that they can survive.

The leader of the vampires is Judge Axel a manipulative and influential old man who reveals to the vampires to Joe and promises not kill him or Jeremy providing that Joe will write a study of Vampire behaviours and life styles to be released in 200 years time.

Joe is desperate to leave the town and even during an escape attempt he is caught so he wants to comply just to see him and Jeremy safe but unfortunately thanks to a manipulative young girl, Jeremy is having a hard time choosing not to turn into a vampire and this becomes another major plot in the movie and another issue for Joe to help him with.

I want give some praise to actor performances in this as for a cheesy sequel to a story that never originally had one most of the actors in this put a lot of heart into their performance’s.

Michael Moriarty who played lead protagonist Joe is really good in this and gives a really convincing performance as a concerned father but also a bit of an asshole who at times can be selfish especially around work.

Judge Axel played by the late Andrew Duggan is really great as the villain in this and comes across as fairly innocent but will draw blood if it means he will get what he wants, a strange comparison but the character actually reminds of Lotso from Toy Story 3 as both characters have similar goals and personality traits.

My final praise goes to the late Samuel Fuller an actor and real life WW2 veteran who plays an eccentric Nazi Hunter who has come to Salem’s lot looking for an individual. He eventually teams up with Joe to try and destroy all of the vampires in town.

Everyone else does an ok job here but isn’t exactly memorable and the only annoying performance came from Ricky Addison Reed who plays Jeremy but to be fair its more the character than the performance. Jeremy is so unlikable in this, he is whiny, annoying and overall a stereotypical “bad kid” but the character is so over stereotyped that its a lame and seriously corny performance from an actor that probably could do a better job if given some decent material to work with.

You can tell this was a low budget production but to be fair they did the best with what they had and some of these effects are actually pretty decent and to my knowledge do not rely on any CGI, the film obviously uses a lot of fake blood but the burning effects are pretty good especially when using holy water. Judge Axel’s final form looks a little silly and cheap and was obviously this films take on the Masters make-up but here it kind of sucks and to be honest they would have been better leaving him with his human face and finding a creative way to kill him.

A Return to Salem’s Lot is a pretty good vampire flick all things considered, it isn’t deep or will stick with viewers for a long time but as a B-Movie it is a lot of fun and while it doesn’t hold a candle to the 1979 mini series it has some really great performances, some decent effects and a story that is silly but still compelling and you will to see it through till the end, you can tell a lot of work went into this and while it didn’t have much connection with the mini series or Kings book there is some respect to those versions and its obvious that the name wasn’t only used to sell the film but does actually try to be a proper continuation just with new characters.

Next time we will be taking a look at the 2004 Salem’s Lot mini series a very much forgotten version and I am very eager to see if it holds up.

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A Plague Tale: Requiem (2022) Review

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A Plague Tale: Requiem is a survival horror/stealth game developed by Asobo Studios and is a sequel to 2019’s excellent Plague Tale: Innocence, the game released in 2022 for the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC and a cloud based version for Nintendo Switch.

6 months after the events of Innocence the De Rune family and Lucas are still on the road living in a house provided by the Order, Hugo has had his macula under control but due to stress brought on by a recent conflict he loses control and the rats come back. This time the power of the macula is much worse than before, it is slowly taking over Hugo and becoming a major threat to not only France but could easily spread world wide if not destroyed. The family are sent on a boat to Marseille but soon split up when conflicting opinions on whether Hugo needs to die or not cause a rift between Amicia and her mother, in a desperate bid to find a cure for her brothers illness her and Hugo head to the Island of La Cuna looking for a cure to the Macula, this island had only ever been seen before in Hugo’s dreams but does it really hold all of the answers?

The gameplay here is very similar to the previous entry, Amecia and co will be needing to sneak their way through most of this journey, the most common enemies are soldiers and with her trusty sling shot Amecia is able to easily kill those without helmets, unlike the first game this entry actually encourages different styles of play including violence, opportunism and remaining unseen, opportunism was my favourite because I like to collect anything I see and did find myself using found materials in crafts and alchemy.

In the game you can craft various secondary abilities including fire, extinguisher, flammable tar, and odor to attract rats. I used extinquish the most to easily take out enemies with the rats while still remaining out of ear shot. Speaking of rats now that Hugo’s power is revealed we can control the creatures in the majority of times they appear, the rats will eat Amecia alive but Hugo can take control to send them to the enemy soldiers instead.

A new whipping mechanic was added, it only appears every now and again as a way to get Amecia out of a pile of rats and has very limited use, it helped me more than once but ultimately it took away from the games difficulty when compared to innocence.

The chapters are still on set linear paths but there is more room for trying different strategies with larger and more open areas that hide more than their fair share of herbarium collectibles (now including feathers) and the larger areas giving players the chance to build up the three different playing styles.

A new collectible here is the souvenirs, these are hidden secrets in chapters that will trigger special dialogue and cutscenes between characters.

Visually the game is gorgeous on PS5 and is a vast improvement when compared to Innocence, with the success of the previous game it seems a higher budget was used here to give us a more more visually inspiring experience and while the differences between the two games are only small Requiems small adjustments such as more realistic skin tones, clothing textures and giving the rats more believable fur really does make a massive difference.

Olivier Deriviere returns to commit to the composition once again, the soundtrack really is fantastic and remains dark and eerie and giving off a vibe of loss, in the first game loneliness was a key element to the story and the soundtrack helped to emphasise those feelings and here while this part of Amecia and Hugo’s journey sees a lot more allies and new friends a new type of loss is clear, being lost on what to do and losing loved ones is definitely key to the story telling, while the soundtrack barely differs in style to innocence its adaptability works well for the emotional story telling of the narrative and in many ways it has a bigger impact on this story because as players we have had enough time throughout the two games to get attached to these characters.

After finishing Innocence I could not wait to get my hands on Requiem to see the next part of Amecia and Hugo’s journey, the game did not disappoint but also gave me something I never expected, one part of this game made me emotional and even got me to shed tears, I wont spoil which part but I rarely cry at games so this was unexpected, I think its mostly due to the games writing and how they get the players to connect with these characters and only want to see the best outcome for them.

Requiem is a fantastic game and I recommend playing it providing you finish Innocence first due to this being the second part to that already very story driven game.

9/10

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