Best Ghost Movies, Bird Box and Love-Death-Robots Reviews, Monday’s Music, DIY MFA, and Ninja-IWSG News

Haunting a Cinema Near You…the Best Ghost Movies of All Time by JH Moncrieff

As someone who’s written a series about—you guessed it—ghosts, it should come as no surprise that Alex asked me to write about ghostly movies. Here are my highly subjective picks for the all-time top five.

5. The Awakening. In this little-known British flick, a published author with a reputation for exposing supernatural hoaxes is summoned to a boarding school that’s haunted by a murderous ghost.

4. The Changeling. After the death of his wife and daughter, a troubled composer moves to Seattle and rents a Victorian mansion. He quickly realizes he isn’t alone. What begins as playful turns sinister as the composer discovers his home’s unwelcome tenant is a bloodthirsty ghost bent on revenge.

3. The Woman in Black. Another tale of revenge, The Woman in Black revolves around grieving lawyer Arthur Kipps, who’s barely holding it together after his wife’s death. His boss gives him one last chance to save his job—travel to Eel Marsh House to settle a deceased client’s estate. Determined to succeed, Kipps ignores the townspeople’s warnings, only to find himself face-to-face with an emaciated woman in black. She isn’t an ordinary ghost, as he soon learns—every time someone catches a glimpse of her, a tragedy befalls the community’s children.

2. The Others. Nothing is what it seems in this atmospheric ghost story. When her soldier husband abandons her, Grace Stewart hires three servants who claim to have worked at the house before. Strange occurrences in the home increase with their arrival. But is the house haunted, or is Grace going mad? The truth is more terrible than you can imagine.

1. The Sixth Sense. (Aka the best ghost movie ever made.) After he fails one of his young clients, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe tackles his biggest challenge yet—a disturbed young boy who’s concealing an unspeakable, heartbreaking secret.

What’s your favorite ghost story?

J.H. Moncrieff’s new release, Forest of Ghosts, was inspired by her real-life experiences in Romania, including Hoia Baciu, the world’s most haunted forest.
Jackson Stone is sick of ghosts. With his love life in shambles, he heads to Romania for a horror writers’ retreat, hoping it will be a break from the supernatural and breathing space from his relationship with medium Kate Carlsson.
But as his fellow writers begin disappearing or losing their minds, he realizes he needs Kate’s help.
When Jackson loses his own memory, Kate’s love is the only thing that can bring him back. But she’s falling for the man responsible for the evil in Romania. A man who claims to be her soul mate. Will this master of wraiths forever break Kate’s bond with Jackson?
Available now!
J.H. loves to hear from readers. To get free ebooks and a new spooky story every week, check out her Hidden Library.
Connect with J.H.: Website / Twitter / Facebook

Movie/Show Reviews

Bird Box
Unseen invaders cause people who do see them to go insane and/or commit suicide. The movie opens with the final fourth of the story – Sandra Bullock and the two kids, blindfolded and in a boat on the river. It then alternates between the river and several years prior during the invasion when a pregnant Bullock sheltered with others in a house.
The movie is well acted and solid. However, two things hurt the film.
First, it’s basically the movie The Happening (although a thousand times better!) with a slice of A Quiet Place thrown in. We’ve seen it all before.
Second, there were no surprises. The story played out exactly as I thought it would.
If you’ve not seen the other two films, or you just want a decent NetFlix movie, then it’s certainly worth a watch.

Love Death and Robots
This is an adult animated anthology series on NetFlix, with each episode being 10-17 minutes long. There is a ton of language, violence and gore, and nudity. (If you want to call that ‘adult’ – not necessarily what I need in an animated film/show to enjoy it.) The common factor between each one is in the title, although I don’t recall much love…
Some of the episodes work, some don’t. A couple feature excessive gore and nudity/sexual scenes. (If it weren’t animated, it would be way beyond R rated.)
The animation is always intriguing though, as each one has its own style. Basically, if the movie Heavy Metal were made today, it would look a lot like this.
There have been some standouts. Three Robots was funny, Good Hunting had a unique story and great cell animation, Suits was a great story, and both Shape Shifters and Lucky 13 featured incredibly realistic animation. (Still not perfect with the faces, but oh-so-close!) And The Secret War was beyond amazing with its realistic animation, especially the snow.
If you can handle the “adult’ – and there are a couple you might want to skip – it’s worth a watch for fans of animation.

Monday’s Music Moves Me

Hosted by Xmas Dolly

This week is a freebie, so I’m jumping in!

I’m featuring Evergrey’s Weightless, taken from their new album, The Atlantic.

Ninja News

The IWSG Goodreads Book Club is hosting a giveaway.
Eligibility: This giveaway is open to members of the Insecure Writer's Support Group Book Club on Goodreads
Prize Given to Winner: Hardcover Copy of The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile by Noah Lukeman
Giveaway Ends: April 8, 2019 12:00am Eastern Standard Time
Enter to win HERE

We’re about a month away from the release of the next IWSG anthology – Masquerade: Oddly Suited!
 
Visit the IWSG site for details and pre-order links.

And we just might have some news about the next IWSG Anthology Contest very soon…

New Releases: 

The Heart of Things by Joy Campbell
Book 2 in the In Medias Res series
Find it on Amazon

Luck of the Billionaire by Donna K. Weaver
Kayn never imagines a murder could lead him to love.
Find it on Amazon

DIY MFA

We are partnering with DIY MFA this spring to bring you a great program for writers.

Before we announce details, we’ll be sharing several of their learning podcasts.

The next one is - Episode 236: Writing Without Rules (or Pants) — Interview with Jeff Somers.

Check it out and be watching next month for details about the program.

What do you think are the best ghost movies ever? Have you seen Bird Box? Watched any of Love Death and Robots? What music is moving you? Want to win a free book? And are you ready to read Masquerade: Oddly Suited?

See you April 3 for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group!

Reviews: RiffTrax – The Room and Kung Fu Panda 3! Plus Ethan Fox, IWSG Anthology Cover, Lost and Found Blogfest, Monday Music Moves Me, and Ninja News

RiffTrax Live: The Room Review

They claimed it was one of the worst movies ever made. I won’t argue that. The star of the film also wrote, directed, and produced it. (That’s never good.) Before it began, we were warned that not only had the man never seen a film, he’d never interacted with other humans, either.

The storyline (if you can call it that) centers around a man and his fiancé who is cheating on him with his best friend. And it doesn’t take place in just one room. (The best part was the random shots of San Francisco.)

There was also nudity. Believe me, the lead had no business being nude. And they were long scenes. Despite the gratuitous boob shots, I longed for those scenes to end.

Considering this was a film about human behavior and interaction, none of that rang true. Characters flip-flopped radically. Scenes were random and made no sense. It was the rough draft of a poorly written story. And all of it made worse by a lead who couldn’t act his way out of a wet paper bag. Which just gives Mike, Bill, and Kevin lots of fodder!

Don't go into The Room unless you're armed with RiffTrax!

And of course, a few pre-movie screen shots for you!

Kung Fu Panda 3 Review

Another solid entry in the Kung Fu Panda series.
Villain Kai breaks free from the spirit world, Po’s panda father appears, and Po must learn the art of Chi to save China.
The story doesn’t break much new ground. It still manages to be an enjoyable and very funny ride though.
The animation is stunning. The spirit world scenes are amazing.
Just good family entertainment. Recommended.

When Speculative Becomes Mundane

Please welcome author Ethan Fox!

Last week, I watched the movie Kingsman for the first time (yes, yes, I'm late to the party, fine). If you haven't seen it, suffice to say it's a spy movie, with most of the usual themes you tend to associate with spy films.
Anyway, there's a scene in the middle where the spy's mentor shows him their “armoury”, a bit like the part in every Bond film when JB goes to visit Q, and gets his exploding jock-strap.
The mentor shows the spy a poisonous pen, a shoe with a hidden knife, a lighter which is also a grenade... Then they get to the shelf with a bunch of tablets and phones.
“What's special about them?” asks the spy.
“Nothing,” says the mentor.
It's an elegant turn-of-phrase; funny in context, but also quite poignant. I guess it's a very human reaction that something we use every day becomes mundane, even though the capabilities of a smartphone would've had you burned as a witch just over a century ago, and would've probably made you a super-spy in the 1950s.
For those of us towards the fantasy end of fiction, this isn't too big a concern. The stuff that we write about, largely, can never exist by definition. For speculative fiction authors, though, I'm curious – have you ever written something fictional that turned out later to be real? Do you ever think about this as part of your writing?

Ethan Fox is an author of urban fantasy fiction, and has recently published his debut work, The Scissors and the Sword. It's available HERE from Amazon, in both Kindle and Paperback formats.
Also, BUY NOW at a special introductory price! This offer expires very soon, so check it out quickly if you want to take advantage of it.

The IWSG Anthology!

Here’s the cover and details:

Parallels: Felix Was Here, Anthology
Print ISBN 9781939844200
eBook ISBN 9781939844118
Science Fiction/Alternate History

Enter the realm of parallel universes!
What if the government tried to create the perfect utopia? Could a society linked to a supercomputer survive on its own? Do our reflections control secret lives on the other side of the mirror? Can one moment split a person’s world forever?
Exploring the fantastic, ten authors offer incredible visions and captivating tales of diverse reality. Featuring the talents of L. G. Keltner, Crystal Collier, Hart Johnson, Cherie Reich, Sandra Cox, Yolanda Renee, Melanie Schulz, Sylvia Ney, Michael Abayomi, and Tamara Narayan.
Hand-picked by a panel of agents and authors, these ten tales will expand your imagination and twist the tropes of science fiction. Step through the portal and enter another dimension!

Ninja News

Our very own Annalisa Crawford gathered third place in this year's Costa Short Story Award. She won for her story Watching the Storms Roll In. Visit her site for pictures of the awards ceremony. Way to go, Annalisa!

Out this week!
Assassin’s Heart by Sarah Ahiers
Multiple versions available at Amazon and find it on Goodreads

Monday Music Moves Me

Hosted by Xmas Dolly. Forgive me if I screw up the theme this week.


I’m hooked on several albums right now – new Megadeth, Dream Theater, Serenity… But since I reviewed Baroness-Purple last week, I decided to post one of their songs. Again, just good, solid rock. Nothing scary – promise!

Lost and Found: The Valentine's Edition/Question of the Month

This time, we are joining Michael at A Life Examined and doing a combination question and blogfest.

From Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out and Guilie Castilol-Oriard at A Quiet Laughter, and co-hosted by Elizabeth Seckman, Yolanda Renee, Denise Covey. and Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Tell your story about love lost or found in our special Valentine's blogfest. Your post can be a short fiction, an essay, poetry, or even a song--let your imagination run free.

What love did I lose and find again? Not the love of a woman. (No sir, I suckered her into marrying me before she came to her senses.)

My love of playing music.

I’ve played an instrument since I was young and even minored in music in college. But once I graduated and moved on with my life, I forgot about it.

Then, several years ago, my wife purchased a guitar for me. I’d always wanted to play one and after a few months of trial and error and one month of lessons, I became proficient enough to play a whole song. After years of being away from music, it was awesome.

Now I play in a Christian band, and it’s the most amazing thing ever. That I can create something that will inspire and move people – what more can an artist ask for?

Writing is fun and I’ve enjoyed where that path has led me. But music is my true passion. And I’ll not let it go again.

What about you?

Yes, one very full post!

Have you seen The Room? (The bad RiffTrax one, not the Oscar contender.) Catch Kung Fu Panda 3? Ever written anything that became real? Excited about the anthology? Ready to give Baroness a listen? And what love have you lost or found…?