films – Page 2 – Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher

Hold onto your seat at “Don’t Breathe”!

Dont breathe Sept 2016 Pay full ticket price to see this at the first opportunity. This is one hell of a suspenseful movie. I’m old enough that I fall asleep in action movies and shoot’em-ups if they flag the least in holding my attention. I sat on the edge of my seat like a teenager through this entire flick, flinching, dodging, squirming, and ducking with the action every step of the way.

The plot is incredibly simple. Three teenage friends work as a team to break into rich people’s homes for different reasons, a girl to earn enough money to run away from home, her jerk boyfriend who trips on the vandalism, and the intellectual who has a crush on the girl and will follow her anywhere. The jerk finds out about a blind veteran of Iraq, who won a lot of money in a lawsuit involving the death of his daughter. They film the vet’s house in a deserted section of Detroit until they find out that he rarely leaves. They decide to go against their usual practice of waiting until the owners leave and instead break in during the wee hours with the intent of chloroforming him while he sleeps. Of course, things do not go as planned and the friends find themselves trapped with a tough, twisted killer who has a dark, sinister secret to protect.

With Iced Tea, Farmington, New Mexico, March 20, 2015

Now, at this point, you can probably guess who is the first to die and then the second, but don’t be too sure about the ending as there are innumerable twists and turns throughout and they are particularly rapid-fire at the end. I found the action very inventive and well done with completely unsuspected twists. One moment that had me twisting and muttering “Ewwww” was the most wicked and innovative use of a turkey baster that I have ever seen or even heard of.

I found the acting first-rate and the use of close-ups very effective for bringing the viewer directly into the fast-moving, blood-splattered heat of the action. I didn’t catch any slip-ups and I thought all the action was logical and exceptionally well planned out down to the tiniest detail. The set-ups to maintain or generate constant suspense were right on the money.

See this movie at your first opportunity. This is one of the most terrifying thriller/horror movies I have seen in a very long time.

Slattery’s Art of Horror Now Takes Submissions and Announcements

Writing at Hasting's Hardback Café, October, 2015 — Writing at Hasting’s Hardback Café, October, 2015

If you have a bit of horror flash fiction or poetry you would like to see published on this blog, go to my submissions page for guidelines. I would like to see more original fiction and poetry published here in any short form from narratives to any type of poetry (including the experimental and off-beat) to short plays or whatever. I would like to showcase as wide a range possible of works of horror. If in doubt, send it. This is not to say that I will publish anything that comes along. Whatever I publish will have to meet my own aesthetic standards and tastes, but I do want to see anything you have (so long as it meets the minimal standards expressed on my submissions page). We have had some very good authors and poets recently and I am eager to see more.

In addition, I will now start taking announcements about works of horror. If you are a horror author with a book-signing coming up or you will be giving a public talk somewhere or you have a book (or film) with a definite release date, announce it here. If you have anything related to a creative work in the horror genre that you would like to publicize, draft an announcement and send it in. I reserve all editorial rights however to make any needed changes for clarity, etc, and to ask questions if the announcement isn’t clear on some point. There will be no charge for this, at least initially, but I do reserve the right to charge fees later, if a lot of announcements do start to flood my inbox.

However, note that I will not do advertising for any product. I want to publicize creative works and to help authors, poets, film makers, and others jump start their careers. I am not a merchant. As to where the line is between advertising a product and publicizing a work, that will be my subjective decision. So if you want to sell pens, notebooks, software, or any other concrete product, try Amazon.com.