Movie Review: Annabelle

IMDB Storyline: John Form (Ward Horton) has found the perfect gift for his expectant wife, Mia (Annabelle Wallis) - a beautiful, rare vintage doll in a pure white wedding dress. But Mia's delight with Annabelle doesn't last long. On one horrific night, their home is invaded by members of a satanic cult, who violently attack the couple. Spilled blood and terror are not all they leave behind. The cultists have conjured an entity so malevolent that nothing they did will compare to the sinister conduit to the damned that is now... Annabelle.

Real Story: Annabelle is based on a true story. The real Annabelle doll is the classic Raggedy Ann doll with the red yarn hair. According to the Warrens, (remember The Couple from The Counjouring) it is inhabited by an “inhuman spirit,” and there is a warning on the glass case not to touch. The real-life Annabelle story began in 1970 when a 28-year-old nurse received the Raggedy Ann doll as a birthday gift from her mom. She put the rag doll on her bed and began to notice it changing positions. A leg would be crossed, or the doll would be lying on its side. Then the girl and her roommate began to find parchment paper on the floor with written messages, such as, “Help me, help us.” They had no parchment paper in the house. The doll began appearing in different rooms and at one point appeared to be leaking blood. According to the Warrens the doll wanted to possess a human host. The Warrens took possession of the and keep it in a locked case in their museum. 

My Thoughts: The movie while fun was not that scary. It did not have the moments that made you jump as you should. Frankly I was more afraid of the sowing machine than the doll. I must admit I am confused why anyone would collect these dolls. They look scary and were often made with human hair (of children that passed away in extreme cases). When you move these type of the dolls the wooden parts of them squeak and clank with making the creepiest noises that cause you to shiver. Frankly all those dolls should be salted and burned. 

One thing that made me mad about this movie was the character Evelyn played by Alfre Woodard. It was your typical Magical Negro character. If you are unaware of this term look it up and you will realize what I am talking about. As always the Magical Negro helps the story and main character but frankly I needed more from this movie. I love horrors but I would recommend renting this one. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Post by Vikki

Twitter: ProfessorWhite

Once Upon a Time S4, Ep. 3 "White Out"

Show starts with Elsa freezing the town and refusing to let anyone out until she is reunited with Anna. Past - Anna met with David who apparently knows Kristoff and immediately identifies her as Kristoff's fiancé. Little Bo Peep shows up and David (Charming) tells Anna to hide. Present - Henry is making a basket to help Regina get over her past. A black crow arrives with message from Regina to Henry. She says she doesn't want to see him. A black out occurs in town. Dwarves and Grandmom show up to Snow and tell her that she is now the mayor. Charming, Emma, and Hook are at the ice wall and they wonder why. Emma walks inside the ice wall and meets Elsa. Elsa informs her she is looking for Anna. Past - Bo Peep wants her payment. She is a jerk and controls them. She brands them as one of her sheep and says they will pay or she will own them. Anna wants to teach David how to fight with a sword. 

Present - Hook and David run into the ice wall which causes Elsa to freak out and an avalanche to occur, trapping Emma and Elsa. The recognize they need magic to undo it. Past - Anna is working with David and is beating the crap out of him. Present - Emma wakes up. Elsa demands them to find Anna and then she will free Emma or she will freeze the whole town. Emma and Elsa bound over having magic they cannot control. Emma is slowing dying by hypotherma. Hook and David show up to Gold and ask about the necklace. David sees the necklace and realizes that he knows Anna. In the past Bo Peep took Anna. Present Day David shows up to Bo Peep. The rough her up and take the shepard's crook to find Anna. 

Past David confronts Bo Peep and fights her people then her. He wins and takes the necklace back. He is able to find Anna and gives her back her necklace. Present - David talks Elsa into saving herself and Emma. She is able to focus and make a hole to get them out. They warm Emma up and plan to find Anna. Past - David's mother lets Anna know about someone that can help in regards to magic. We all know she is talking about Rumple. Once Anna says his name we see the Rumple looking at her in his magic ball. Present - They use the crook and hear a heartbeat so they know she is alive. The gang plan on helping Elsa find her sister. Henry shows up to Regina's house and says he will not give up on her. Regina finally opens the door and they are reunited. Emma and Elsa go back to the barrier and she is unable to take it down but they cannot figure out why it will not come down. We see a blonde in an ice cream shop and we realize she has the same power as Elsa which may be why they cannot take down the barrier. Looks like Elsa will be facing off with the Snow Queen. 

My Thoughts: What I love about this show is their ability to have the characters meet in the past and overlap in the future. Well done on their part of having Anna know David before he was Charming. She actually was the one to teach him how to be a swordsman.

I look forward to next week's episode and seeing Elsa face off with the Snow Queen.

Where do you think Anna is by the way. Is she in town or still back in the enchanted forest or does Hans have her captive?

Post by Vikki

Twitter: ProfessorWhite

Fangirl Review goes to NYCC

Hi Everyone,

This is my 500th post! Yay! I am excited that I have been around this long and keep churning out articles. I have met some awesome people along the way and hope to continue to grow even more for the next 500 posts. This week I will be headed to New York Comic Con and have been awarded the opportunity to be Press. I look forward to getting into the elusive Press Room and see what all is going on up there.

I even bought a new lanyard just for my Press Badge. I hope to fill you guys in on multiple posts about my time at Comic Con. Thank you again to everyone for your support. Here's to more posts! 

Posts by Vikki

Twitter: ProfessorWhite

The Vampire Diaries S6. Ep.1 "I'll Remember" Recap

Episode starts with a couple making out in a tent in the woods, cliché anyone? Sheriff Forbes tells the kids to pack it in. The guy realizes he is all alone and then sees his girlfriend dying and gets attacked as well. Four months has passed since the end of the other side. Elena is walking to the crypt. She does an overview of her life and wants to become a doctor. Elena meets with Alaric who is drinking blood because he is a vampire. Matt has been working out. Jeremy is randomly hooking up with chicks. Stefan took off and is looking for someone that can talk to the dead. Caroline dropped out of school and is hanging out on the border of Mystic Falls since the anti-magic border is up. Tyler is now back in school. Caroline does not want to leave her mom. Elena is talking to an imaginary Damon via some powder from the witch Luke. 

Alaric is teaching at the university. Elena is in the class as well as Liv and Tyler. Luke tells Elena that she needs to face reality and stop using the herbs to see Damon. Alaric is talking to Stefan to see if he has anything. Caroline meets with Alaric and cannot find anything about an anti-magic border. Caroline is supset that Stefan left and did not say goodbye. Elena called Matt to speak to Jeremy. She wants him to get off the couch and get it together. Jeremy is on a downward spiral. Elena shows up to Luke's place. He refuses to give her more herbs. She roughs him up for denying her. 

Elena is riding around in the car and talking to Damon. Damon tells her that he is gone and that she has to deal with it. Tyler is now human and Alaric tells him to keep himself together before he does something stupid to trigger the werewolf gene. Looks like Tyler has the hots for Liv. Stefan is hooking up with some chick. He apparently tells her nothing about his life. Alaric is drinking blood out of a flask. Elena comes up to a chick that is going to mystic falls. She was feeding but Caroline interrupts before she can wipe the girl's mind and she gets away. Elena admits to Caroline that taking the herbs helps her see Damon. Elena says she is dealing with it. Caroline says she isn't and she needs to leave so she can fix it. Matt sees the girl that was attacked. It appears as though the sheriff and Matt are going to cover up the problem. Stefan finally takes Elena's phone call. She begs him to give her hope. Stefan admits that he stopped trying and said goodbye. He tells her it is time to move on. 

Caroline fills Tyler in about the herbs from Luke. She blames Luke for the herbs and Tyler says he will handle it. Matt takes the girl to the border to Caroline can compel her. Tyler is drunk and confronts Luke. He roughs him up but Alaric breaks it up. Elena is back in the crypt again taking the witchy herbs. Elena talks to Damon and says thank you for all that he has done. She says she has to let go and kisses him. Damon turns on her and says she will feel the pain forever. She breaks down crying. Liv confronts Tyler and he apologizes. Tyler says he has a lot of rage and he does not know how to deal with it. Liv walks away. Caroline calls Stefan but only gets a voicemail. Caroline says Elena is hiding, Tyler has problems, Matt and Jeremy does not leave Mystic Falls. Jeremy is in the woods drinking. Caroline is sitting in a diner close to town trying to get home. She wants him to help her fix it. Stefan sees the voicemail and destroys the phone. Elena asks Alaric how he is dealing with it. Alaric admits to hating being a vampire. She asks Alaric to compel her to forget loving Damon since he has that ability. We see Damon making pancakes for Bonnie. They seem to be enjoying each others company. 

My Thoughts: Obviously we knew Damon and Bonnie were not done for. We just have to wait for the explanation as to what happened to them. They seem to be happy living their lives wherever they are. It almost looks like the boarding house but I am not sure where they are. I do really want Stefan and Caroline together and I was hoping he would show up there but apparently not. Everyone is falling apart in different ways. It was a shame to see. Great opening of the season, I wonder how it will work out with everyone. 

Post by Vikki

Twitter: ProfessorWhite

Movie Review: Odd Thomas

IMDB Storyline: Small-town fry cook Odd Thomas (Anton Yelchin) is an ordinary guy with a paranormal secret: he sees dead people, everywhere. When a creepy stranger shows-up with an entourage of ghostly bodachs - predators who feed on pain and portend mass destruction - Odd knows that his town is in serious trouble. Teaming up with his sweetheart Stormy (Addison Timlin) and the local sheriff (Willem Dafoe), Odd plunges into an epic battle of good vs evil to try to stop a disaster of apocalyptic proportions. Based on the best-selling thriller by Dean Koontz.

My Thoughts: Another random movie on Netflix that popped up. I was hooked in the first few minutes of watching this movie. First I must admit I was upset that this book series slipped past me and I was unaware of it until after I watched the movie but now I must read the books. The movie was funny at times and had crazy moments. I truly enjoyed the pace of movie. There was action, there were bullets, there was mystery, and even a love story. A great movie for us supernatural enthusiasts that enjoy humor with it.

Check this movie out. Share your thoughts in the comments. 

Post by Vikki

Twitter: ProfessorWhite

Throwback Thursday: Fester's Quest

Hi Everyone,

I want to start a new weekly video game post. I wanted to take over the Throwback Thursday hashtag (#TBT) and make it about video games. I plan to share with you video games that I enjoyed as a child and any games I just feel like sharing. 

Fester's Quest was a game my brothers and I owned for NES. It was made by Sunsoft and released in 1989. It is a top down view and action shooter but focuses on collecting items and upgrading weapons so it has a little bit of something for everyone. 

We enjoyed the Addam's Family as children. My father loved watching the tv show so we grew up watching it and even some of the old movies. So when a video game came out we knew we had to play. I am not sure if we even choose this game or my parents saw it and just knew we would enjoy it, either way it ended up in our collection. The game starts with Fester enjoying himself relaxing when aliens show up in town and he now has to defend it. He is dressed in his usual garb and is walking around town destroying aliens with either a gun or whip. You can easily level both up by collecting blue gun and whip boosts. You quickly drop a level if you pick up the red ones. Sometimes you will kick a lot of aliens in the same spot and see a lot of blue boosts covered by red and know that you have to walk away from all the goodies. 

The game was unbearably hard as you have to start at the beginning if you die which can cause a kid like me to throw the joystick and walk away from the game. I am not sure if I ever beat the game but it is a game that I look back on nostalgia. Check out the gameplay footage below. 

Post by Vikki

Twitter: ProfessorWhite