Lately Stephen King has had a resurrection (pun intended) of sorts, with movie remakes of his classic horror novels like Pet Sematary and It, but I was interested to see the sequel to The Shining, Dr. Sleep. Did I mention this sequel was released almost 20 years after the original Stanley Kubrick Shining movie? I think they wanted to take their time and get it just right, and I have to say this Shining Pinup wasn't disappointed!

Before you attack me, I did read the book Dr. Sleep before watching the movie and even if the movie didn't include everything, it did hit the mark for all the important events of the book!

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

There's really three separate stories that mesh together at the end. Here's the movie in a nutshell.

Story ONE
The movie picks up with Danny Torrance ~ the little boy from The Shining ~  and his flashbacks of seeing the ghost of the dead lady in the bathtub from the Overlook Hotel in his house and how Dick Hallorann ~ his friend from the Overlook Hotel ~ taught him to trap the ghosts in boxes he created in his mind. This is a key plot point.

The actors that play Danny, Wendy (his mom), Jack (his dad), and Halloran resemble the original actors. They aren't exact, and I know this bothers some people, but you get the jist of who they are.

You get the jist. This is from Dr. Sleep, not The Shining.

Danny as an adult is an alcoholic like his father. I like that they addressed this. In The Shining movie you are given clues that Jack was an alcoholic, but it's never specific that that's what's causing his temper. Danny drinks to stop the hallucinations, but unlike his father is really trying his best to stop. He packs up what little he has after a wild night out and heads further east to New Hampshire to start over. He befriends a man named Billy that helps him find a place to stay and is also a recovering alcoholic.

Danny gets a job as an orderly in a hospice facility. In the facility there's a cat named Azzie that can sense when a patient is going to die and Danny works with the cat to visit the dying patient and help ease them to the other side with his "shining" gift. Danny becomes known as Dr. Sleep. (I wish I could find a picture of the cat. It's white and fluffy in the movie.)

Story TWO
There's a little girl named Abra that also has the shining that lives near Danny. She's more powerful and can sense him. She communicates with him through a chalkboard on his wall for years. Neither of them meet in real life until one of the visions shows her a boy with a similar gift being kidnapped and killed by a gang that steals his "steam" or essence by brutally killing him. They "eat screams and drink pain". While Abra sees the vision, the head of the gang ~ Rose the Hat ~ sees her! Abra researches and finds out the boy is indeed missing and she has the clues to find out where he was buried. She tells Danny about it. He tells her to walk away.

Danny and his chalkboard.

Story THREE
If you haven't read the book, this part can get a little vague. There's a group of wanderers called the True Knot that also have gifts. They search out others like them to either eat their "steam" or convert them into immortal beings like they are. Rose the Hat sees Abra in her vision and wants to find her to take her steam.

Rose taking steam.

The closure for me was at the very end when Danny and Abra do fight the gang and lure Rose to the Overlook Hotel. The ghosts that haunt the Overlook ~ that Danny saw as a child ~ are similar creatures to the True Knot and feed off live people to take their essence. The hotel itself is a character in this movie and in the grand finale Danny opens the boxes in his mind and lets those ghosts kill Rose, but in the end he ends up dying too.

That being said, it doesn't end on a sad note! It's hinted that their are others out there with the shining, and now the spirit of Danny visits Abra. He becomes her Halloran. So with others out there it's hinted that there could be a sequel but I think they should just box the story up for now, like the ghosts in Danny's mind.

There are lots of nods to the original movie especially in the overhead outdoor shots, the music, and simply revisiting the Overlook. We see the door that Jack axed through, the "REDRUM" door, the ballroom and bar, the bloody elevators, the wintry hedge maze, and even inside room 237. It was satisfying to watch. I give it 4.5 doses of medicine out of 5.

The Overlook is a character all on it's own.

Here's the trailer...

p.s. My Shining photoshoot was included in the most recent issue of Rocket Magazine. The Autumn October 2019 Vol. 2! I got a two page spread!!!

Here's the latest Pusheen Box, it is awesome! The last two fall boxes were autumn themed or spa day themed, and this one is Halloween!!!! (In the video I'm wearing the Pusheen sweatshirt from the Fall 2017 box) You can watch me try to figure out the pouch situation. Lol.

Batty Pusheen Sticky Notepad...and it's huge!

Mini Dustpan and Brush...and the print is on the other side!

Adorable Plush Candy Corn Pusheen...and it's sparkly!

 

Zombie Vinyl Figure.
 

Candy Corn Pusheen Storage Container.

Witchy Pusheen Mug...that changes color!

Drawstring Pouch....that you can open up flat to completely see what you have inside!

Pusheen Hoodie...with ears and bat wings! I love that it's longer too!

You can see my past boxes too:
Fall 2017 Pusheen Box
Winter 2017 Pusheen Box and
Spring 2018 Pusheen Box
Summer 2018 Pusheen Box
Fall 2018 Pusheen Box
Winter Pusheen Box 2018
Spring Pusheen Box with Jodee Bowie,
Fall 2019 Pusheen Box

Thanks for reading & watching, until next time! Have you hugged your cat today?

As a kid I remember seeing Rabid on Up All Night on the USA Network and the thing that stuck with me all these years was the girl in the freezer and it being a bad movie. I'm sure it was heavily edited for TV because Marilyn Chambers ~ the porn star ~ was in it...which means boobs.

With the Soska Sisters putting together a remake of Rabid and the original playing at my favorite haunt The Screening Room, I decided to revisit this David Cronenberg "classic" to see if there was something I missed the first time around. On reflection, it does have a solid story, but I can do without all the boobs and close up nipples. I feel like they are just filler. (Pun intended?) Needs more butts and wieners.

***SPOILER ALERT***

The basic premise is that a couple ~ Rose and Hart ~ get into a motorcycle accident in the country and the closest medical facility to help them is a plastic surgery clinic. There they do some radical skin grafting on Rose to save her. A month later the grafts are going well and Rose wakes up out of a coma only to stab a patient that's trying to calm her down. I should clarify ~ she stabs him with a phallic stinger that protrudes from her vaginal-looking armpit. No I'm not making this up.

Phallic stinger.

She ends up leaving the ward, going on a rampage, killing people and eating them. Rose doesn't know what's going on, all she knows is that she craves people, the city thinks it's a rabies outbreak, and we find out she's leaving a trail of rabid zombies. Rose doesn't realize she's the carrier of the infection because she doesn't have the same symptoms. In an experiment she just takes a little blood from a victim and stays with them to see what happens. He ends up attacking her and she dies, ending the movie.

My conclusion, her victims are easy to find because she's pretty and men can be creeps. The story is solid, needs more explaining though, special effects good, the music is foreboding, and the acting is mediocre. It's an early Cronenberg and I can see where he's going with it. I give it three phallic stingers out of five.

Creeper and her side eyes.

Here's the trailer, it doesn't really give you much to go on and it's not accurate. Lol.

Appalachian Wild

A few years ago I blogged about collecting mascara wands for the Wands for Wildlife program at Appalachian Wild. They've had such a huge outpouring of wands that they now only collect them twice a year in October and February.

Since my blog, I've been collecting mascara wands and making shout-outs on Facebook for customers and friends to drop them off at my shop Cats Like Us. I'm happy to announce we collected 79 wands! I washed and mailed them out.

If you would like to donate wands to the program be sure they are clean and that you include this form. Maybe you don't have mascara wands or October/ February is over? They are always collecting donations from their Wild Wishlist or monetary donations.

What I really liked was the nice email I received in response to our donation. It was appreciative and made me feel like even if it's an easy way to recycle, it really helped them out.

You can follow Appalachian Wild on...
Email Newsletter
Facebook
Instagram
You Tube
Twitter

Don't forget to check out the Wish lists from your local shelters too, you'd be surprised what they often need!

I'm not gonna lie. I've never been through a haunted house and honestly, it's for the safety of the workers. My fight or flight would kick in and I'd end up kneeing an actor in the balls. Yep, I'm that person. This recently popped up on my Facebook feed, and it's me ~ I would do that, not to be a jerk, but for my own safety ~ so I simply avoid them...and I don't like things jumping out at me. I give the scare actors a lot of credit to deal with crap like this.

That being said, I decided to watch Hell Fest. I'm not sure if it's my fascination with amusement parks, my lack of experience and curiosity with haunted houses, or Halloween time, but I really enjoyed it! (Contrary to many critics.) It was suspenseful, the characters have good chemistry and seem like real people, and there was a couple of twists that made the story even better.

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

The movie begins in a haunted house maze with a creeper that kills a girl in the house and hangs her body with the other props. That's pretty smart. I imagine she wasn't found for three days because the guests going in thought she was part of the experience. (She probably got stinky.)

Cut to (pun intended), a gal named Natalie unexpectedly visiting her best friend Brooke. Brooke has a roommate Taylor, that doesn't necessarily get along with Natalie, but makes an effort for Brooke's sake. It's announced that they have VIP passes to Hell Fest, a traveling horror night with rides, a DJ, dance party, skeleton cage dancers, bars, haunted houses and more. Natalie isn't really keen on going but goes with the gang because Gavin ~ a guy she's interested in ~ will be there. Brooke and Taylor are going with their boyfriends.

Looks like a blast. You can find me at the bar. 

Brooke wears cat ears. She's a girl after my own heart. <3

Upon entering the park, everyone goes through a metal detector and is scanned with a wand, making it obvious you can't bring in weapons. Shown from the back, going into the park, is a guy in a black hoodie with scuffed boots. You get a cue from the muffled sounds that he's the killer. He's only ever shown from the back, and he puts on a mask, then he's shown with the mask on. You never see his real face. The guests think he's one of the actors and he hides in plain sight. He then grabs a knife from a food stand within the park. Again, that's pretty smart! Use a weapon that's already there.

Our killer.

The group of six, Natalie & Gavin, Taylor & Asher, Brooke & Quinn enter their first haunted house, aptly named Deform School. There's a girl running inside screaming at them to help her. They think it's part of the act. The masked killer, that we saw earlier stabs this girl in front of Natalie. Her friends try to convince her that it's just all part of the show. He then begins to follow their group and lurks behind them.

Taylor, Natalie, Brooke.

The next maze they go to is the Deadlands, where the actors are allowed to touch you. (That's a nope from me.) To enter you first have to go on an old school dark car ride called Night Bumps. (Side note: Interested in dark rides? The Dark Ride Project is a great resource.) They end up going without Gavin because he wants to go back and get a prize from one of the games for Natalie. He tries to buy one from the carnival worker, and after he says "no", Gavin tries to STEAL ONE! That's not cool bro. Just when you think he's not going to die, because he and Natalie had a moment in a photo booth, he ends up getting killed by our masked murderer, who then takes Gavin's cell phone, and continues to correspond with the group, so they think Gavin's still alive. Smart again. Also, they show Gavin's head getting bashed in with a giant mallet. The practical effects are great!

On Night Bumps there's a locked bar that holds you in the car, Natalie has to ride alone because Gavin is still M.I.A. While she's on it, the ride stops and the lights go out. She sees the masked killer and you see him come towards her. So you think she's the next one to die, NOPE! PLOT TWIST! There's more than one person dressed in a black hoodie and the same mask. 

The group goes to the Deadlands and enter a triple maze haunted house where they are separated. The killer is inside and kills Asher ~ Taylor's boyfriend ~ by stabbing him in the eye with a syringe. The killer makes sure that Natalie knows he's inside too...disturbing. 

Natalie is thoroughly creeped out and gets sprayed with goo from one of the scare actors. Then Brooke and Natalie go to the bathroom to clean up. While in there, Natalie messages Gavin and hears a phone go off in a nearby stall. The killer is in there with her. He attacks her and she gets away. Brooke and Natalie tell security and of course, security doesn't take them seriously. They find some of the photo booth pictures in the bathroom and know the killer was in there with them.

Taylor being oblivious to what's going on volunteers to have her head chopped off on stage with the owner of Hell Fest, Tony Todd (THE Candyman. He's the only big name in this movie.) The killer tried to chop Taylor's head off, but she gets off the stage. The killer follows her into the crowd and stabs her. That's when hell breaks loose! (Get it? "hell"?) Ok, so the crowd scatters. Natalie and Brooke end up in the Hell maze, supposedly the scariest of all of them. The killer follows them and upgrades his knife for an ax. Smart. The gals grab weapons from inside the haunted house. Also smart. They confront him, Brooke gets her leg slashed and Natalie stabs him. Cops come, but by then he's gone.

Dapper Tony Todd.

They show a car pulling up to a garage in a suburban neighborhood, the driver pulls in. He unlocks a cabinet in the garage WHERE HE KEEPS OTHER MASKS! It's our killer. He takes off his mask, hangs it, and we see that he still has photo booth pics of Gavin and Natalie, those also go inside the cabinet. It's as if he's punching out for the day and hanging up his work gear. Then we see him come into the house where he's greeted by his daughter who was asleep on the couch. The real scare is the realism. Killers can be family men...or women.

The killer seems to know where everything is inside the dark rides, he knows what mask to bring, he knows how to blend in and where to find good weapons, he's strong, but you never see him or find out who he is. You never hear him speak. After he was stabbed did he go to the hospital or just go home? Your guess is as good as mine.

Overall I give it 4 masked creepers out of 5. I've read a lot of bad reviews of this movie because there wasn't enough gore, or it was slow, or it's just a slasher film. I would venture to say that I liked it because I LIKE slasher films, amusement parks, realism, and that there are not one, but two final girls. Bonus: it was filmed in a real amusement park, Six Flags White Water in Georgia. 

Here's the trailer...

My friend Jodee ~ who you've seen in some unboxing videos ~ has kitties that are identical twins, I really can't tell them apart. I didn't even know that was possible, so I did a little research and it's definitely possible! Here are her babies Sheba and She-ra for reference....

It's very rare for a momma cat to have just one kitten. The average litter is five kittens. It's more prevalent to have small litters of two or three in new mother cats or mother cats over six years old. And it's more common to have big litters in spring and summer, so really twins can happen at any time.

In some cat breeds like the Singapura, it's more common for kitty twins to occur, but it's also possible in any breed. And it's not just twins, but cats can be identical twins too. If they both came into existence with one sperm and one egg they are identical.

Singapura Cats

The Singapura Cat is one of the smallest domestic breeds at 4-8 lbs. It's known for large eyes, ears, and an even larger personality!

Here's some internet famous twin kitties...

Banshee & Norn

Iriss & Abyss

Rudy & Clyde

I decided to take a step back in time and revisit a movie I haven't thought about since the '80s...The Gate! With the wave of new horror movies being set in the '80s why not take a look at what really was shown at the theaters?

The Gate had everything... monsters, metal, massive amounts of pastel clothing, and Stephen Dorff?! Yes, our favorite fun loving vamp from the movie Blade is a wee little boy in The Gate!

Crazy right?!

***SPOILER ALERT***

The  main story focuses on two best friends Glenn and Terry. Glenn is troubled by nightmares about his tree house and the hole it has left in the backyard after it was removed. His heavy metal loving friend Terry comes over to play and they find a large geode in the hole. It's strange, so they begin to research it.

The ominous hole.

In the meantime, Glenn's older sister Al is tasked to babysit Glenn for three days while their parents go out of town. THREE DAYS! Sure, I babysat when I was 15, but for an evening, never whole days!!! Ok, suspend your belief that a young teen can be trusted. Of course she has a wild party and we are introduced to their dog Angus. He looks like a gray version of the dog I had as a kid ~ Leonard Beardsly (Leo for short). The kids at the party are mean to him and he gets releGATEd to being upstairs. (See what I did there?) Poor doggo.

You can see the dog on the left.

Glenn and Terry crack open the geode and see some foreign words scrawled on a board. They read the words, so they've obviously never seen The Evil Dead. DO NOT speak words you don't know while cracking open an otherworldly object because you just may summon demons. Odd things start happening. There's a little levitation, giant moths (in my mind these are the scariest part of the movie), Nightmare on Elm Street-like objects pushing on Glenn's bedroom walls, and Terry sees his dead mother. (This is one of the really sad parts.) When Terry wakes up what he thinks is his mother is really Angus ~ the dog ~ and he's dead.

Terry goes home feeling disturbed by what he saw, and as a metal kid takes comfort in music. He sees a correlation between the booklet the fictional band Sacrifyx includes with their album and the hole in the ground. The pictures in the book match up to what has been happening at Glenn's house. Surprise! They accidentally summoned demons. Duh. This fits nicely into the whole "satanic panic" of the 1980s. (Side note: There's a movie coming out this year called Satanic Panic that I'm looking forward to seeing.) Terry figures out that the instructions on how to close the gate can be found by playing the album backwards and shares all this information with Glenn and Al.

Some foreshadowing on Terry's denim vest.

The next night the moths break through Glenn's bedroom window (that's a hell no from me), and the gate is officially opened with the death of Angus being the first sacrifice. What you think is going to be this giant glorious hellfire demon is actually a bunch of little demons, similar to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Halloween episode "Fear Itself" from the fourth season where they accidentally summoned what was supposed to be a scary demon but ended up being a tiny demon they merely stepped on to kill.

Demons from The Gate.

Tiny demon from Buffy. He's in the center and so small you can hardly see him.

The kids try to close the hole, not before Terry falls in, but he gets out and they close it. The End. Just kidding! A zombie grabs Terry and Al and takes them into the hell realm to be sacrificed. All the deaths cause the giant demon to come out of the ground beginning the hell on earth phase and Glenn is left to fend for himself while the house crumbles around him. He launches a rocket to explode the demon into a shower of fireworks, thus closing the gate. Terry, Al, and (thank goodness) Angus are all back. My question is how are they going to explain the mess to their parents?!

I always liked this movie because I could relate to the characters, I was around the same age as the kids, into metal music, and was left unsupervised for large periods of time. I have to say it holds up all these years later, even the special effects are decent. Warning: there's some use of words that would be considered offensive now. I give it four mini demons out of five.

The fashion alone is perfectly coordinated. This could be a Benetton ad.

Here's the trailer...

Sometimes you just need to get away, and I took a few days to visit a friend in Arizona last week. We made a point to stop at a place near her house called Spooky's Swirls - Props and Pastries. They are exactly that! It's a gluten free bakery that's home to horror / sci-fi movie memorabilia and actual on-screen props and wardrobes.

Located in an unsuspecting plaza, it's warm and friendly inside and you can tell it's very new. (They opened in July 2019.) We were welcomed and encouraged to hang out with cartoons on a big TV, games to play, and a nice selection of classic genre magazines to flip through, but of course I was more interested in the props and costumes.

Upon entering you are greeted by a life-size (can you use the term "life-size" if he's not alive? Hmmm, this will be a random thing to think about when I'm trying to fall asleep tonight) Slimer from Ghostbusters and a big table with flyers for local related events.

All along the walls are curated pieces from movies. I expected a couple of pieces, but there was a decent amount to look at and read. Spooky's Swirls works directly with the Horror and SciFi Prop Preservation Association. They work to preserve film history and have over 4000 artifacts, so don't expect to see the same thing as I did when you visit. They are planning to rotate the exhibits.

I approve of this jacket, afterall one of my Halloween costumes from last year...

Little did we know that the actor who plays Georgie from It would be at Spooky's Swirls the following day. I'm always too early. *sad face* We were unable to go back for the meet and greet because we had tickets to see the movie at the same time he was going to be there! But I'd say keep an eye on their social media for other equally cool events.

After taking in all the displays, we indulged in cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting. They were even warm! I can eat gluten, but I know sometimes gluten free things can be a little dry. This was delicious and tasted like a regular cinnamon roll. My friend got a piece of carrot for later and she said it was really moist and tasty. (Yes, I wrote the word "moist". I'm not afraid of it.) Don't worry they have horror and sci-fi themed desserts too.

The only thing I was a little disappointed in is that they didn't have tea, and I can't drink coffee because it rips a hole through my stomach. BUT dear readers, I was assured that they are working on selling tea in the future. If I lived closer this would a favorite haunt, so if you are anywhere in the area go visit! Check their hours first because they are limited.