Darkness Falls

I had heard of this movie a couple of years ago from one of my friends who said it was the scariest thing ever. I remember thinking that I HAD to watch, but I eventually forgot about it, and never ended up watching it. This past weekend, another it was weirdly brought up again, and I was like, okay I NEED to watch this. I did what I said.

The movie starts with a story of an old woman that little children used to take their fallen out teeth to in exchange for a gold coin. The womans was mysteriously hit with tragedy as her house was set on fire, which gave her an ugly and horrifying burnt face, and she was hanged. A story is produced about this woman, or tooth fairy, in the town of Darkness Falls who can only get to you in the dark, and if you see her, she will come after you until you are dead. A boy named Kyle, after losing his last tooth, sneaks a peek in the night as he awaits to see if this story is actually true. The evil tooth fairy ceases to kill him, but gets his mother, which results in him being charged for murdering her because, well who would believe a story that a tooth fairy caused the murder. Anyways, the boy grows up, and has to face his childhood back in Darkness Falls as his old friend, Caitlin, calls him to help her little brother who is experiencing the same thing he did long ago. Hence, the journey of the killer tooth fairy begins.

Sounds really stupid, doesn't it. Why would I watch it then? Well ,the two people who described it to me made it seem so scary and cool. Well, nice try guys, but it wasn't. I literally fell asleep halfway through. At first, I was into it and all, but the effects of and the storyline was just blah. I probably would never watch it again, only if I wanted to take a nap.

The Excorcism of Emily Rose

I bet you can tell me what kind of movie this is... kind of obvious. Yeah, a scary one and probably one of the most creepiest movies I have ever seen!

It starts out with the trial of Emily Rose's death, after father Moore had performed an excorsism on her and was now on trial for being the supposed murderer. Erin Bruner, the lawyer for this threatened priest, goes on a journey as she gets more and more involved in this risky case.

Emily Rose's story is told throughout the case, showing the progression of her haunting. It starts when she goes away to college.

She is sleeping in her dorm room, when she awakens to a burning smell. She thinks something is burning outside her room, so she goes out into the hallway where the doors start opening and closing and weird voices are heard. She goes back to her room, tries to go back asleep, and all of a sudden her bed begins to sink in and she can't move as she is forced down by this demon. It was truly something to watch, I couldn't take my eyes away. The hauntings and possesions got way worse, with her becoming all distorted into unreal positions and speaking in languages that she had never known before. It really got to me, because this movie is actually based on a true story.

Not only that, but the lawyer and the priest, being involved with this girls trial, start to become haunted by things just as she was. That really freaked me out! I had read, somewhere before, about the old exorcism movies and how three of the directors had weird things happen to them throughout the filming. It could have been weird coincidences, but then again, not really. People have said that if you mess with spirits and this kind of stuff, you get messed with. So back to the trial, the people involved were becoming affected and the only way to end it all was to tell Emily's story, even though people would rather believe facts that explained all her problems, given by the prosecuter, rather than the true story. I won't say the ending, but that you will just have to watch it.

The intensity and images are what really make this movie one of a kind. I had watched it for the first time when it was first released, and basically hid the entire movie. This time, though, I had watched and really am glad I did. Although it still gives me the heebie geebies, I'd definitely watch it again

No Pain, No Gain

This week has been long, and I mean long. I've spent a total of 40 hours so far at school, in the past three days... not really that normal. The reason? Showchoir.

Our choreographer, whose name I shall leave as Bob, came to review our songs and clean almost every little thing; I mean EVERYTHING! We basically had to re-learn our whole closure since we had some "150" moves that were needing fixed, according to the all-knowing Bob, and we had to "get into" our novelty song. One thing that he is very particular about are moves being HIS way. It is kind of funny when I think back on how he teaches. He wants a lot of the things he says to be exactly how he pictures them in his head. I definitely got this vibe from him when we spent about 7 to 8 hours cleaning our novelty.

A novelty number is something that makes people laugh. It is pure entertainment and joy, a number that brings the whole show to life. With that said, it is the biggest acting number, and if you can't act out every little detail down to the last point, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near Bob. For every sentence practically written in the song, there is some sort of outrageous move that is sometimes ridiculous and sort of embarrassing that he wants us to do perfectly. He then, if not done perfectly, goes into a long and sometimes pointless story or description of things that dont relate to anything we are doing to help us do what we are doing or he singles out innocent people. uh, what? Well it gets kind of annoying after awhile.

There are many things that he has done that really put people over the edge. Even so, I sort of empathize with him. Yeah, I just went into a long ordeal about all the things that he does that make me want to die, but I know he means well. When I think about it, our group learns so much from how he teaches. At the time he teaches, it may be long and painful, but the overall factor is a good one when it comes to our competition results and rankings. Our group does good because of his gift of giving us good choreography and, of course, us making it our amazing and coolest show ever! Everyone has there different inputs, mine is just that he is one single-minded, controlling, and talented dude.

I am hoping we are getting as good as we should be, since we were put through those three long days of hell.

Bobby pins are edible, right?

As you know, Cocoa and Carols was yesterday, and it was super fun! All the little kids were so cute and excited to perform, and everyone just seemed very pleased with how it turned out. When the day had come to a close, there was a little get together at one of the girls' house, so everyone showed up and ate/talked the night away. It was an interesting night, if I do say so myself.
For starters, after the boys left the little party, the girls all decided to play in the Olympics. What I mean is, we all pretended that we were doing Olympic diving and we were from different countries. Some of them were the judges, while the rest of us picked our countries and did the dives that we were told to do into the guest bed. My favorite was definitely the tuck dive; smashing my face into the mattress was just the greatest (not really!)
As the night went on, we all decided to tye dye shirts, which actually turned out pretty well! I had never done it before, so having mine turn out really good was quite an accomplishment, if I may say so myself. That ended after sometime, and as the clock struck two we all got comfy in our blankets and began to talk about random things; that's is when it happened.
It all started with my friend, Dallas. She was talking about how earlier in the day, she made up a cool sentence using my full name. The sentence was, "Come on Rachel, Collingsworth it". You get it? I thought it was really clever! Anyways, as she was saying it, I had put a bobby in my mouth to hold it as I was lying down and putting my hair up. I started saying something to her about the whole clever sentence when I suddenly started choking on the bobby pin!! No one knew what was going on, so all they did was watch me hack and choke on this stupid thing. Finally, I swallowed it and sat up, so embarrassed.
My friends still are picking on me about it, but it was no laughing matter. I could have died from it! Although tragedy took place, the night was pretty fun. I now consider myself a tye dyeing, dancing and singing Australian Olympic gold medalist.

Christmas in October?

It has occurred to me, these last couple of years, how much we get involved with the holiday season. You see sales at stores start to hit hardcore, months in advanced; you hear the all-too-annoying holiday music that makes you want to kill yourself; and you even see the overloads of lights being put up even before one can even consider the holiday season to be around the corner. How has our nation become this crazed? I begin to look back.
When I was a kid, Christmas was the best thing ever; I mean what kid didn't want all those toys and gifts? A weird kid that's who because presents are the greatest. My parents would come up to me, about a month before the big day, and ask for my list. I would smile my big happy smile and give them the TOYS R US sheet, and they would just laugh. Of course then I didn't know that what I was doing was completely stupid, but I really did want all those toys! One Christmas, I was about five, and I asked specifically for a Scooby doo board game. I told my mom that I really hoped Santa would get it for me, and what do you know, I got it from non other than Santy Clause! I was the happiest five year old alive. Any who, back then, Christmas was Christmas. There wasn't really any rush or craziness until the week of Christmas day. It was almost like a calming holiday for me: spend time with my family, eat a lot of food, and so on. Now I feel as though everyone is more worried about the gifts and sales and all that jazz, not even thinking about the meaning of it in the first place. My family and I are still the same as we have always been, when it comes to the holidays and such, but the media and others are impacting how we view it.
I guess I'm not an expert on this. I mean, it could have been this bad when I was little and I was too young to notice, but I highly doubt that. Things change over time, and as technology has enhanced, more and more opportunities have opened. The media displays more and more each day, and businesses use the media as there way of advertising their stuff; what greater way to reach people than through the holiday season. It just gets nuts!
What I am getting at is the fact that Christmas, the holidays, whatever, has become way too big of a deal and a big deal in the wrong way. It is meant for you and your family and what it means to you. The extra gifts and craziness just doesn't need to happen.
Therefore, I am hoping everyone has happy holidays!

Cocoa and Carols

It is that time of year again for everyone to get into the holiday season. Buying gifts for the holidays, putting up the Christmas tree, and even baking an extra amount of desserts; people start to become crazy over a short period of time. While everyone may be busy getting ready for Christmas, Hanukah, or whatever they may celebrate, I am just trying to get ready for our schools holiday celebration, Cocoa and Carols.
It happens every year here, and each year is a fun success. Our show choirs, Chantuers, Protégé, and Happiness, put together this fun filled day for elementary and middle schools to come and perform their Christmas songs for our area to here. It is a really great experience for the kids to come out, perform, and to watch our groups do our shows because they get to see what our choir program is all about. Although the day may be a positive thing to contribute to, it may be a little hectic for those who are new to the whole thing.
For starters, we (the show choirs) have to bring three dozen cookies each. The little monsters get a little hungry after doing a major performance, I mean come on! Also, we have to get a whole bunch of hot cocoa, hence the name. Food always attracts people, so that is a plus! After the little details are set in stone, it is time to plan out the schedule for what school is performing, what times, and when our show choirs have to be ready to perform. This year, almost a fourth of Happiness is going to be missing in the morning, due to ACT testing. That threw things off a little, but we got everything figured out and with the day being, well tomorrow, everything seems to be ready.
If I had to pick something that was my favorite out of the whole day, it wouldn't be our choirs performing their songs, or the little kids singing the cutest things ever. No, it would have to be Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer! All the choirs come out on stage, and we get everyone in the audience, parents included, to participate in this famous tune. We even pull up little kids on stage to help us do it, which really gets the crowd more involved. It isn't just the old easy tune though, NO, we have tricky actions that you have to pay attention to. For instance, throughout the whole song you can't say nose or reindeer. If someone messes up, they are noticed like that! It really is a fun thing to do, and every year I look forward to it more and more! Also, this year I am a Happiness member so I get to go and announce a elementary or middle school group that is performing. I have Jackson, my old elementary school, so I am kind of excited.
Cocoa and Carols is just something to help those who truly go nuts during this month, to just relax and enjoy the holiday season love without all the stress. So come on over to school tomorrow, and you will surely be one happy holiday cheer-meister.

Sleepyhead... THE BEST

I was hanging with my usual crazy friends this weekend, listening to some crazy music. Me and my friend decided to get onto his computer and crank up his itunes, when all of a sudden I heard this song. It started out kind of weird, but then all of the sounds and beats came into action and I was like WOAH why haven't I heard of this song? It was the coolest song I had heard in quite sometime, and is actually pretty old so I don't know why I hadn't ever heard it!
My friends were all jamming out to it, knowing all the little details to it while I sat there and tried to figure out what was even going on. We put the song on repeat, listening to it over and over and over and over and... well, you get the picture. Instead of our usual movie nights, we had a dance party. Turning off the lights and putting on the cool sound wave thing that is on the TV (I don't know what it is called), we danced the night away to this one particular song. Of course, it got repetitive so we changed it up, but it still was buzzing in my head. As I was riding home, it randomly came onto my friends ipod, and so began the break out dancing to the song all over again.
When I got home, I decided to look up the video to the song; it is actually pretty legit.
I have never seen a video like this before and it is so sweet! I definitely want to meet this guy that made this song! Now whenever I am down and really cranky or something, I will turn this song on and everything just seems good. It is the best!

Frayed

It was a slow night, not much was going on. Me and my cousin were just lying around, trying to find something to watch on the mind numbing tube. Of course, we couldn't find anything at all; then we were both like "lets rent a movie!"
My cousin is 22 years old so there is quite a difference between our ages, yet we have so many things in common. One of the biggest things is that we are both obsessed with thriller movies and scary things. I love scary/crime movies with a huge passion and so does she. She is even is getting into a career that involves dealing with troubled and psycho people, which may seem insane, but I actually think that would be really interesting. Anyways, we established that our movie was going to be a good and scary mystery type film, so I went to the category and we began our search.
The list held good movies that we both had seen, but also movies that shouldn't even be allowed to be on the list because they were down right horrible. All of a sudden we came across a movie called "Frayed". It seemed perfect! The summary stated that a deranged psycho path escaped from the asylum trying to reach his family, unleashing the true secret from his past. So amazing, right?
And so the movie began! It started out with home videos of what looked like a little girls birthday. It showed clips of her opening her presents, while her brother kept stealing them away from her. Then came one of the boy hitting the pinata harder and harder until it was broken into little pieces. The mother got upset with the boy and sent him to his room. The movie then showed the mom, still recording, walking upstairs to talk to the boy about why he was sent to his room. All of a sudden, the camera fell to the floor and of course landed perfectly only showing the mother laying on the ground. She was being hit over and over again in the face by a bat, while screaming her sons name. It was grotesque and graphic, making me want to puke! That was just the beginning and I was already feeling the uncomfortable, scared emotion.
The movie then went on and told the story of the little boy growing old in the asylum, then breaking out of it. It is truly hard to explain what went on in the movie because it had so many twists and turns, but the ending was definitely the weirdest. It is one of those totally screwed up endings that throw you a huge curve ball. The whole time you watch the movie, you have to make sure you pay attention to every detail or else you won't get it. It honestly was a really good movie and I would watch it again, even though when we finished it I couldn't fall asleep for the longest time. That is two thumbs up for the movie! Way to go!

The Blindside

Having been thanksgiving last week, I had a lot of time to do things. In reality, all I really did was spend time with my family and friends and eat. But one of the things I did almost everyday was, I watched a movie. Whatever my mood was, may it be sad, happy, or courageous for a thriller; all I had to do was lay down and, with a click of a button, watch whatever I desired. I wasn't always able to watch the movies on my screen, so thats when I would venture to the overpriced theater, where I saw The Blindside.

The Blindside is about a homeless and out of school African-American boy, named Michael Oher, who is taken in by the Touhy family. The Touhy family, wealthy and white, help him get back on his feet by getting him involved in school and helping him find himself, but along the way the family starts to find themselves as well and they all realize they are one big happy family. It is a touching story, watching the journey of the troubled boy turn into a successful NFL player. It is one of those, if you try hard and believe, you will get what you desire type movies. The mother, played by one of my favorite actresses, Sandra Bullock, was so phenomenal! I had watched the sneak peak before I went to see it, and it showed her talking to the real mother, getting the insight on how she acted and how Sandra should portray her. It was really interesting, and I feel she successfully portrayed her, no doubt whatsoever. It wouldn't be easy for someone who is in a lot of movies where she is tough and smart, to turn into a snooty mother who cares too much about her looks. But whatever the circumstances are, she pulled off the character perfectly.

It is kind of funny now. I was watching football with my dad the other day, and the Baltimore Ravens (the team he was drafted to) was playing. All of a sudden, I saw the real Michael Oher playing and was like WOAH. It was really cool, kind of like a movie star on the football field.

I would definitley recommend this movie. Go watch it, NOW.