Rating: NR

Runtime: 1 hour 54 minutes

Genre(s): Drama, Fantasy, Horror

Released: October 6th, 1921

Directed by: Fritz Lang

Written by: Fritz Lang & Thea von Harbou

Starring: Bernhard Goetzke, Lil Dagover, Walter Janssen

The way it was filmed though was amazing. The tinting was beautiful and fit perfectly. I also feel like I could easily fangirl over how Lang uses stairs in not just Destiny, but all of his films. They are never just stairs and instead are used to help portray the mood of the moment in the movie (from ominous to sad or even peaceful). During the early parts that dragged, I found myself feeling a little disappointed but by the end, I was almost in tears at how powerful some of the scenes and actions were. This is definitely a must-watch for anyone who loves cinema.

Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10

The majority of Princess Dracula is spent detailing the struggles the young woman must now face as part of her transition from royalty to living dead. We accompany her while she learns to hunt (which took up way too much of the book if you ask me) and easily predict the doomed fates of those she comes into contact with. Ultimately, as her failure to contain control over her new primal instinct grows and she experiences a disastrous (and overly dramatic) romance, Ruxandra is left completely hopeless. The book ends by doing a bit of a time jump to set up the second installment of the series by introducing someone I expect will be very important, Elizabeth Bathory.

For the most part, this was an enjoyable read. However, the hunting scenes had so much detail, to the point of being a little too much for me personally. There would be a little development in the story...and then it would go back to hunting. I get it...she needs to feed, but the amount of time spent on just this aspect of the story makes it start to feel like filler. I was also a little in shock at how incredibly cheesy the sex scene was. It was like I put down Princess Dracula and was suddenly reading a Harlequin romance from the 80s or 90s. One line in particular, "She didn't care about being a lady anymore.", somehow left me speechless while laughing hysterically in my head at the same time. Seeing as we start in book one with Vlad Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) and book two will have Elizabeth Bathory, it seems that each book will see Ruxandra's interactions with historical figures connected to the vampire mythology.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3/5

The Blair Witch Project, released in the summer of 1999, would significantly impact how movies are filmed and promoted. Since its release, the found-footage style has become popular in the horror and sci-fi genres. The deceptive marketing of films being true or based on true events (even if they were not) would also go on to be used by other famous films (ex., Paranormal Activity). While most of us laugh at how dramatic The Blair Witch Project is, there is no way you can deny how important it has proven itself to be in the movie industry. 

A sequel would quickly be put together after the unexpected success of BWP. Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows would be released a little over a year later, in 2000. Lacking everything that made the original great and plagued with horrible acting and a predictable, uninteresting storyline, Book of Shadows is both a total failure and a total bore-fest. 

So much cringe.

A decade and a half later, amid a movie industry that seems completely drained of new, original ideas, 2016's Blair Witch would attempt to do what its predecessor could not. It manages to be better than Book of Shadows, but considering how bad Blair Witch 2 is, that really isn't much of a compliment. The majority of the film, like the original, is spent trying to build up a mood of desperation and absolute terror. Unfortunately, it fails in its efforts to do this and wastes a little over an hour of your time with boring and stereotypical horror tropes. It picks up a little near the end, but nothing that happens is new and leaves you wondering if Blair Witch was instead trying to be a modern remake instead of a sequel.

The best part of the 2016 version, without a doubt.

A good part of what made The Blair Witch Project good was how realistic it was filmed (shakiness, blurry, etc..) and the effective, and once again realistic, usage of sound effects. The woods sounded like the woods, and it looked like it was filmed by an amateur. Unfortunately, none of this made it into either of the sequels, and if someone decided to try again, they definitely need to keep these aspects in mind.

Ratings and Info (clicking on the film title will take you to a movie trailer):

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7.5/10

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) - ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 2/10

Blair Witch (2016) - ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ 5/10

The Blair Witch Project should be considered mandatory for anyone who considers themselves a fan of horror. Skip the sequel, though. It is awful. As for the 2016 Blair Witch, I think it is decent enough to recommend; just don't expect it to be as good as the original.

Rating: R

Runtime: 1 hour 35 minutes

Genre(s): Crime, Drama, Horror

Released: May 13, 2016

Directed by: Jeremy Saulnier

Written by: Jeremy Saulnier

Starring: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Patrick Stewart

So I was left not liking the neo-Nazi gang and not giving a crap about what happened to the little punk band. That left me very bored and disappointed. More time to actually get to know the band would have helped with this problem. The highlight of the film is when the band opens their set (at a place known as a hangout for neo-Nazis) with a song that has them yelling "fuck Nazi scum". The rest is a borefest with occasional moments of gore that came off as trying too hard to be shocking.

Rating: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 3/10

Music can do wonders.  It can bring people together or rip them apart (especially true in the modern age of fandom insanity). Perhaps most importantly, music has the ability to heal us. It can help you escape or just let you know you are not alone. Music, as a format, tells the stories of humanity and while many of those stories are happy, there is sadly an overwhelming amount of sadness, depravity, and injustice on this planet we call home. When these stories and the emotions associated with them are condensed into a song, the results can often be haunting and upsetting. These songs are not meant to make you happy and instead, expose a side of humanity that many wish to forget or just straight up ignore.

Below you will find the five songs that I have personally found to be profoundly upsetting. While doing some research, I began to notice that many of the lists of "disturbing songs" I found had a completely different definition of what "disturbing" really means. This makes sense since people are affected by different topics differently, but only one of the SEVERAL lists I looked at had the first songs I thought of when considering making this list.

(It was originally going to be a long list of the most disturbing songs ever, but the person behind disturbingsonglist.blogspot.com has done a pretty good job already, so this is just a personal top five.)

"Frankie Teardrop" by Suicide

I found this song a few years ago and holy crap is it an experience. Although I originally had it playing in the background while doing other things, I quickly found myself stopping and just listening. The song tells the tale of Frankie Teardrop. Frankie has a wife and a kid to support. Frankie is not making enough money and to prevent his family from suffering makes a tragic decision. The constant drum machine that seems to be mimicking both a racing heartbeat and the machine that is daily life plus the genius usage of silence broken up by screams of terror, despair, and disgust combine to make the story absolutely terrifying. This one sticks with you. After my first time listening to it I felt nauseous and incredibly anxious.

"Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday

A truly heartbreaking song about racism and the lynching of African Americans. It gives me chills and brings me to tears every time I hear it.

"Me and a Gun" by Tori Amos

Inspired by her own experience with rape, this song is made more haunting due to the absence of any instrumental and is sung acapella.

"...A Psychopath" by Lisa Germano

Germano took the powerlessness and revictimization that many women feel/go through after surviving abusive situations and turned it into a song. What really drives those feelings home is the real 911 call that is playing in the background. Incredibly uncomfortable to listen to, even the singer herself had trouble sleeping after recording it.

"Daddy" by KORN

It is a song about a kid being molested. It is believed that Jonathan Davis was inspired to write this because he was molested by a babysitter as a child. What makes this song so upsetting is the ending that features Davis screaming and weeping while a lullaby is being played. Of all the songs I have ever discovered, this is the hardest to listen to from beginning to end.