Spook Out! Day 13 ~ The House at the End of Time (2013, In Spanish w/Subtitles)

Amazon Says...
"A mother imprisoned for 30 years for the murder of her husband returns to her home, but the supernatural events, which led to her crime, come to haunt her and reveal a sinister secret about the house."

I Say...
^The summaries I've read for this film are a bit of necessary misdirection, but to explain further would mean depriving you of the pleasure of discovering The House's mysteries for yourself. (So I won't.)

Horror Type...
Horror, Suspense, Family Drama, Fantasy

Main Players...
Ruddy Rodríguez as Dulce (Badass Mom)
Gonzalo Cubero as Juan José (Loser Dad)
Rosmel Bustamante as Leopoldo (Loving Son)

I liked...

• Rodríguez's portrayal of the harried mom--financial worries and her sometimes annoying sons stress her to the max but you never doubt the love she feels for her kids (actually, she's just masterful in this, period)
• the set design--I've never felt so twitchy watching a deteriorating house as I felt watching this one
• the hot priest who seeks to offer Dulce spiritual solace (that's not a euphemism--he really is just a good guy doing his job)
• how they take your basic haunted-house story and spin it into something wonderfully bizarre
• the sweetness that emerges in the third act; it may seem hard to believe but this movie provides a heart-warming (though not treacly) ending I just love

The Meh...

• the dad of the piece experiences a legit heartbreak but then seeks vengeance against a vulnerable innocent, which is totally believable but ugh
• I feel like knowing something more of the experiences of previous tenants of the house would round out the narrative (but perhaps a sequel's in store that'll provide just that?)

Would I recommend it...?

Definitely watch this award-winning film! It has some good scares that aren't OTT, though there are moments of violence.

Miscellany...

The Spanish title is La casa del fin de los tiempos, which means "The House OF the End of Times." Not to split hairs but once you've seen the movie, you feel the difference.

Ratings...

My Grade: A
Rotten Tomatoes Scores: Tomatometer=Not Available, Audience Score=72%

Details, Schmeetails...

I Watched The House at the End of Time on Amazon (the Rotten Tomatoes page linked above provides links to other host sites)

The House at the End of Time's IMDb Page

The House at the End of Time's Wikipedia Page (Contains Spoilers)

This concludes day 13 of

Streaming Consciousness: Odds & Ends

But mostly odds, because I am. Odd, that is.

C'mon, now, you knew that about me already.

...so, like, I haven't had a cigarette since about 4:35pm, Monday, August 19, 2013. Prior to that, I'd smoked for about 26 years. On the bright side, the antidepressant I'm on is also prescribed, in lower doses, for help with smoking cessation. On the dark side (my favorite), there have been moments when I feel I shoulda been strapped up like my good friend Monty Burns, over to the right. And not just for the kink factor, either. Anyway, I've already seen some good results (food tastes better, Yay!) and some bad (I've been carb-craving like a MoFo, Booo!). I didn't say anything about this sooner 'cause whenever I try to do something like this and blab about it, I always crap out. But so far, so good...

...took The Kid back up to skewl for his second year of college. Dang. Second year of college. Wow. I mentioned a few months ago that I'm mostly over Empty Nest Syndrome. It should be noted, though, that the remnants of ENS manifest as a desperate need to feed people, along with me tossing out stuff like, "You're not going out in this weather without a coat?!" Which everybody loves...

...I've set my release date my debut fantasy romance novel, That Fatal Kiss, for

TUESDAY,

SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

W00T, W00T, W0000000000T! 

The e-book, anyway. I want to have a paperback available for folks who don't cotton to books in digital, but that may be somewhat delayed. (The best laid plans of mice and men...)

Meanwhile, if you'd like to read a sexy excerpt from That Fatal Kiss, click here. Or check out this interview of my heroine, Persephone, and hero, Hades, the Lady and Lord of the ancient Greek Underworld.

Stop by on release day and enter a comment for your chance to win a free copy of the e-book! And don't forget to spread the word!

My Entry for the 50 Shades of Sexy Blog Tour!

Click here to read my excerpt!

Y'all, RWA NYC (the New York City chapter of Romance Writers of America) is running a blog tour in which members offer up a (brief!) sexy (but not too graphic!) excerpt from their books (or WIPs).

Today's post features a snippet from my debut novel, That Fatal Kiss (coming September 24!). (Probably!) (God willing!) So, like, please take a look/leave a comment/spread the word!

(I adore writing parenthetically!)

(You may have noticed.)