My wife and I went to Seattle for the first time last week. It was just a brief trip and the weather wasn’t great but we enjoyed it. For various reasons, we flew down, despite the fact that it’s only a couple of hours to drive, which was an odd experience. The flight time is only about half an hour which means it takes longer to get through customs than actually fly and there’s barely enough time to unbuckle your seatbelt at cruising altitude before it’s time to start descending again. Still, it was more relaxing than driving and I got to do some writing in the waiting lounge going out and on the way back. We arrived Thursday afternoon. It was cool and overcast but dry. As the weather forecast was predicting lots of rain for the rest of the weekend we decided to head straight to the Space Needle. A combination of the weather, high winds and the fact that part of the needle was supposed to be closed meant there wasn’t a lot of people around so we got to do a couple of loops around the walkway and have a drink and a slice of cake without … Read More
The Conjuring
My wife and I went to see The Conjuring on Saturday. We’re both horror fans (it was Ann that introduced me to one of my favourite films, Hellraiser) and we both enjoyed it. I’m pleased that Hollywood has finally moved away from the “teen horror” of films like Final Destination and its brief flirtation with torture porn (Hostel 3 anyone?). They seem to have rediscovered the 70s style paranormal horror exemplified by films like The Exorcist and Audrey Rose and I for one approve. The Conjuring is “based on a true story” – the paranormal investigators in the film, Ed and Lorraine Warren are real people and the film covers a couple of their cases. How true the story is, I don’t know but The Conjuring is a solid entry into the haunted house sub-genre. It’s appropriately tense and creepy and feels a lot like those older films. Like most modern horror films, it relies on rising tension punctuated by sudden shocks but it’s effective and if you like your horror creepy, it’s well worth a look. [The Conjuring by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 31 July 2013]