The World on Fire by Sheldon Woodbury – book review

The World on Fire – Sheldon Woodbury

The prison is called the Spook-house because all of the worst, most monstrous killers were housed there. The story follows The Angel of Death, Louis Sedah, who had a nasty killing spree that ended with him burning down a church. When they locked him up, that was just the beginning. He breaks out with a small army of death row baddies in order to set his big plan in motion. Along with these psychopathic killers he takes a reporter, David, hostage. What the FBI doesn’t know is that Louis has an even larger army of underground fringe mobs that are ready for a change and Louis is orchestrating a massive demonstration of their power.

This was a fast-paced horror thriller. Early in the book, every other chapter told the story of another inmate’s violent journey and how they received their nicknames before becoming escapees and part of The Angel of Death’s crew. This kept the story interesting. As the twisted team carry out their murderous designs, Agent Locke is on their tail. This is a large scale story with many characters and Mr. Woodbury managed it like a veteran author.

There were plenty of interesting ideas and devilishly good twists in the story with an impressive ending that I did not see coming. Louis Sedah is the ultimate evil nemesis, crafting and executing nasty destruction, leaving a fiery trail of death in his wake. It didn’t take me long to realize his last name was Hades, spelled backward. He creates hell on earth. Fans of The Following will love this. It takes a similar premise to its extreme ends.

The World on Fire  on Amazon

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parlor of horror book reviews

Solomon Kane (2012) – movie review

Solomon Kane (2012)

Directed by Michael J. Bassett

Starring
James Purefoy
Max Von Sydow
Rachel Hurd-Wood
Pete Postlethwaite

(world release date 2009, UK and US release dates, 2010 and 2012)

Solomon Kane is the first honorable film adaptation of the character created by Robert E. Howard in 1928. Howard’s fantasy world formed in a natural evolution from dozens of pulp fiction stories appearing in Weird Tales, alongside contemporaries such as H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. Howard’s style lived somewhere between Lovecraft and Edgar Rice Burroughs combining fantasy adventure with tales of ancient gods and powerful evil entities. Howard’s most recognizable character is Conan the Barbarian; Kane should be his second.

Solomon Kane is an early archetype of the superhero, a puritan with a symbolic outfit, entirely black clothes, a long coat and a sloucher hat, and an array of weaponry, a rapier, a Dirk, flintlock pistols and a juju staff. He’s on a mission to battle evil. This film is an origin story dealing with Kane, who starts off as a mercenary only interested in the richest rewards. When an evil entity shows him the darkness that lies within his own soul, Kane flees and goes into hiding in a monastery. Marauders attack a nearby village and the evil sorcerer, Malachi, kidnaps the Crowthorn’s daughter, Meredith. Kane vows to save her as part of his own search for redemption. On his journey he battles zombies, demons, and evil swordsmen.

The film boasts impressive sets with giant statues (real sculptures made for the sets), enormous cathedrals and castles, and powerful natural scenery. The CG is well done and blended nicely so as not to be distracting, except maybe for the final demon which is of the already overused fire demon variety. James Purefoy plays the part of Kane wonderfully, garnering much admiration from Howard fans. Most of you may recognize him as the villain, Joe, in the current TV series, The Following. Although rights to the film were obtained in 1997 it had taken until 2008 to begin shooting. This was supposed to be the first of a trilogy, but I find it unlikely the other films will be made. This is one of the thousands of great stories I refer to that should be made, rather than the remakes and reboots Hollywood continues to green light. This was a foreign made film, a joint UK, French and Czeck endeavor.

It’s not perfect but I’m glad I had the opportunity to watch this and would readily watch the next two of the series if they are ever made.

A wonderful adaptation and introduction of Howard’s iconic character, with great acting, make-up, and special effects.

l give it 4.2 swipes of the sword out of five fiery demons on the anti-hero quest for redemption scale.

The Following and filming location pics

The Following and On Location pics

Don’t know if anyone has been watching, The Following, but I finally caught up with the season finale which originally aired Mon. 4/28/13

The Following is an FBI serial-killer, crime drama, starring Kevin Bacon as Ryan Hardy, the down and out agent, called back to duty, in order to recapture convicted serial killer Joe Caroll. The escaped killer has a penchant for Poe, and is writing a book about the true-life crime-drama that he is creating, while taunting the FBI.

It captured my interest early on and was interesting enough to keep me watching. To my surprise, all of the outside scenes of the season finale were filmed at The Fire Island Lighthouse, which is close to where I live. It was one of those, Oh, My God! I know where that is…, moments.

So I thought I would share some pics from my family outing a while back – our last visit to the light house.

This road was washed away by Hurricane Sandy

Have you ever had one of those moments where you see a location in a movie or show that is in your neighborhood or surrounding areas?