Month: October 2018

Movie Review, Visitor Review

Movie Review: What We Do in the Shadows

Mead Valley Library

what-we-do-in-the-shadows_poster_goldposter_com_11.jpg

“Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav are vampires who are finding that modern life has them struggling with the mundane – like paying rent, keeping up with the chore wheel, trying to get into nightclubs, and overcoming flatmate conflicts.” -IMBd

Rated R for: bloody violent content, some sexual material and language.

This was genuinely one of the funniest movie I’ve ever watched. It starred, directed, and produced by Taika Waitati, who was also director of Thor: Ragnarok.

This movie follows a documentary crew all of which are wearing crucifixes) as they record the daily life of four vampires flatmates in Wellington, New Zealand.

The set up is brilliant enough, and the content of the movie is even better.

All of the characters have huge personalities, backgrounds you can speculate on, their friendship to one another is sweet, and their interaction to a world changing around them is a delight to watch.

There is a surprising depth of world building that can be inferred in the background in the movie. It is a world where mythical beings low-key integrate with our own modern era, and the subtly makes the world more immersive in my opinion.

The premise is fun, the writing was phenomenal, and the acting was spot on.

I hope you all watch it!

Book Review, Staff Review

Book Review: The Graveyard Book

Mead Valley Library

the graveyard book

“Nobody Ownes, known as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal is he didn’t live in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts, with a guardian who belongs to neither of the living nor the dead. There are adventures in the graveyard for a boy–an ancient Indigo Man, a gateway to the abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, he will be in danger from Jack–who has already killed Bod’s family.”

This is to help start off Halloween Month!

The Graveyard Book was written by prolific writer Neil Gaiman and published in 2010.

The Graveyard Book is one of the fondest childhood book I remember. It follows an orphan who was adopted by the entire graveyard and beyond. Otherworldly entities do their part in raising a boy from a world so removed from their own.

Bod isn’t dead dead, but he is removed from human society. He tries to find his place in these worlds, and uncover where he came from.

This is book is a fun way to start off October! The characters were a hoot*, and the themes of family and identity is what made me so fond of this book.

As a warming: this book does contain violence and death.

*owl pun intended. 

My rating:

❤️❤️ out of ❤️❤️❤️

Submitted by: Lina, Library Staff

Movie Review, Staff Review

Movie Review: The Babadook

Mead Valley Library

the babadook poster

“A widowed mother, plagued by the violent death of her husband, battles with her son’s fear of a monster lurking in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her.” – IMBb

Rated 17+ by Common Sense Media due to: violence and gore, profanity, drug use, intense scenes, and some sexual content.

This is to the start of Halloween Month! The Babadook is an Australian horror film and the debut movie of Director Jennifer Kent.

This movie was haunting, smart, and one of my favorite horror movie up to date. What I really appreciated about the Babadook is that this movie does not rely on jumpscares and shock value to be terrifying.

The movie explores the strained relationship between a widowed mother and her problematic child. One day a mysterious (and quite terrifying) children’s book showed up on her son’s book shelf, and something unsettling began to haunt their troubled home.

The Babadook has a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and #9 on Rotten Tomatoes’ “Top 100 Horror Movies”, even outranking some of the big names such as The Blair Witch Project (1999), the Conjuring (2013), and The Nightmare on Elmer’s Street (1984).

This psychological thriller explores grief, victimhood, what makes a monster. If you want a chilling horror movie but want to avoid jump scares and excessive gore,  then I highly recommend the Babadook.

Please keep in mind the warnings at the beginning of this review. It does contain some disturbing content.

My rating:

❤️❤️❤️ out of ❤️❤️❤️

Submitted by: Lina, Library Staff