We Are Still Here: Review

I recently watched the 2015 film We Are Still Here as per the recommendation of a handful of super excited people. I'd been hearing good things all week, so I told myself, "hey, I'll save this one for a rainy day and it'll be awesome!"

Cut to about two days later...there was a beautiful thunderstorm here in New York and I was so excited to snuggle up burrito-style and turn this flick on.
With the thunder and lightning in the background, I flipped this one on and got myself ready to be terrified.
The story is about a small town that a middle-aged couple moves to after the tragic death of their son. When things start to get a little weird in the house, the couple realizes that there may be someone their besides their beloved Bobby...so they call upon their "psychic" friend to check the house out with her boyfriend.

Things start to go downhill early on, giving you little bits of suspense here and there right off the bat. I feel like things are very stop-and-go; a lot of the suspense and jump scares happen very abruptly and they're kind of expected.
I have to say, the story itself is good. It's a pretty typical house-haunting-type film, but the story of the house and the history is fun.
The characters are really well-written, however the casting left a lot to be desired. I found the acting really cheesy to the point where I was having a hard time getting into the story.
The entities floating around the house getting crabby and nasty were pretty terrifying. I won't get too far into where they come from or what their deal is because it's very well-explained in the film, but what you should know is that two of them are kids, which is one of the things that freaks me out the most. Ick.

Overall, I liked the film. Maybe not enough to watch it again, but I do recommend it as a film that you check out at least once so you can join in on the conversation about it!
I give it a 6/10, a little better than halfway there but the acting really ruined it for me. The entities and the deaths are what got the rating up there for me...if you guys enjoy gore like I do, this one has PLENTY. I promise, it doesn't start off too gory, but once you get a little ways in...BAM. Body parts flying everywhere. Thumbs up on that for me.

Happy haunting, my spookies...let me know what you think of We Are Still Here!
Taylor Terrible <3

Sweet Treats: A Review

Last time I reviewed a novel by author Jeremy Megargee it was Dirt Lullabies, featuring creepy floor-demon M. I got lucky enough to receive a copy of Sweet Treats, his newest novel, featuring a new demon for me to want to hang out with.

I'm always excited to get new reading material; I consider myself a bookworm where I can sink my teeth into just about anything and everything. When you send me a novel about a demon possessing a child in order to take down a psycho killer? Count me in.

I've always been fascinated with the idea of demonic possession, so when I ripped into this book (as I always do with Jeremy's novels), I was really excited to see it come up! Basically, the premise of the story is that Jack, a twelve-year-old boy is kidnapped and tortured by a nasty man named Edgar. Left for dead, Jack is thrown into a sewer and encounters an unexpected light at the end of the tunnel in demon-friend Verminort. From there, some really awful things ensue, like Edgar holding his sister captive in his house upstairs, and downstairs he keeps a room full of preserved "treats"...-shudder-

I'll leave you with that little synopsis because I do highly suggest giving this novel a read. I've never come across anything like this story before. The characters, as usual, are really fun to read. Jeremy knows how to appeal to readers with his characters in a way that most writers don't- he makes them your friend. You aren't reading about someone you've never heard of and you have to learn about; somehow from the first time they speak, their first action, you know them. Jack is a kid, which makes the story sadder than intended, I'm sure...at least to me, Verminort is a chatty demon with daddy issues, and Edgar is the most repulsive, bumbling human being I think I've ever heard of. This was all within 101 pages that I developed these intense feelings for these characters.

Also, for those of you that read Dirt Lullabies, there may or may not be mention of one of my favorite characters here in Sweet Treats!

So as always, I leave you with this: Jeremy Megargee is one of the most talented authors that I've had the pleasure of reading. He and Zach Bohannon are both forces to be reckoned with in the horror genre among the likes of Stephen King and RL Stine; they have the ability to go to a very, very dark place, and they drag you right there with them...and they never cease to impress me.

One of the most important things we can do as a community of horror lovers here on the internet is support each other, and as always, it was a pleasure having the opportunity to support and incredible indie horror writer.
Purchase a copy of Sweet Treats on Amazon and support indie horror!

Until we meet again, spooks <3
Taylor Terrible