(Week 29: July 14 – 20)

This week I was on holiday (as in literally away, not as in sitting in my home and not going to work) which enforced a bit of writing break. Sitting out in the fresh air, surrounded by nature, and listening to the distant crashing of the surf did, however, inspire an idea for a new horror story … which I may get onto next week.

Watching

Returning home on Friday meant that Horror Friday could continue as usual. This week we watched The Conjuring 2 which, to my mind, was actually better than the first one. With its 1960s working class British setting it was a little bit like Ken Loach’s The Conjuring for a while; and, to the director’s credit, things managed not to get too Hollywoodised from there. Eschewing the jump scares of the first movie, this one maintained a steady creepiness throughout and, thankfully, didn’t descend into all-out horror cliche territory, which kinda pulled the first one off the rails towards the end.

For those keeping track, the Marvel rewatch caught us up to Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War (which I’d been particularly excited about) this. Not much new to say about these two except that they both remain superb movies and I continue to wonder what sort of satanic deal Marvel Studios has signed that allows them to continue producing excellent movies and breaking box office records after a decade.

Reading

I did take some books on holiday, but somehow didn’t find the time for reading. True story.