I recently went and saw the movie, Underwater and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. It spoke to me on a Lovecraftian level. First off, here’s the synopsis:

Disaster strikes more than six miles below the ocean surface when water crashes through the walls of a drilling station. Led by their captain, the survivors realize that their only hope is to walk across the seafloor to reach the main part of the facility. But they soon find themselves in a fight for their lives when they come under attack from mysterious and deadly creatures that no one has ever seen.

First off, without getting into any spoilers, let’s go over the good parts of this movie. I am not a huge fan of Kristen Stewart, but in this film she did great. They cast her perfectly for the character she was supposed to play and she did a fine job. Second, I always find T.J. Miller funny, and he didn’t disappoint this time around. He added much needed comic relief to an otherwise tension-packed film. Third, the director, film crew, and writers did a wonderful job utilizing isolation in this film. I’ve always found that horror works best when the characters are isolated from the outside world, and since this movie is set six miles underwater, you really can’t get much more isolated than that. Fourth, they didn’t reveal the monster too fast. Movie monsters do well to stay hidden, showing up only in glimpses or deep shadows. The magic is broken once we get the full reveal. It wasn’t until very late in the film that they showed the monsters in their entirety.
​
Now, let’s get into the bad, and there was some bad. For one, this is an underwater research facility. Knowing what I know of government facilities in extreme locations, is space equity. In other words, there won’t be lots of open space. 

This movie opens showing wide hallways and an otherwise empty locker room that is frickin’ huge! No way are they going to go through the time and effort to build such a facility with that much empty space. Second, I had to roll my eyes when we see the peeps getting into their underwater pressure suits and they tell the newbie research assistant (a woman), ‘oh, you got to take off your pants because they won’t fit in the suit.’ At first, I was like, sure, okay whatever. But at one point we see a few of the characters get out of their suit and of course, the women are wearing nothing but sports bras and panties. The dudes…t-shirts and boxers that are baggy as all get-out. If you’re going to make a rule, then stick with it. I can go along with your bullshit rules as long as everyone plays by the same ones. The pants can’t fit…why is that? Too baggy? Then a t-shirt shouldn’t work either. They could have solved this by making them wear some special wetsuit or something like that other than making it about gratuitous skin shots.

There were a couple of other things I liked and disliked, but we’ll get into that in the spoilery section below. Overall though, the pacing was great, the tension was somewhat, and the story was fun. It’s not a deep movie (other than being six miles deep), but it was highly entertaining.

​I give it 4/5 underwater research facilities. 

Still here? Cool beans. We’ll flip the script here and I’ll start with somewhat I didn’t like spoilers. First off, it is way too easy to blow that facility to hell and back. Kristen Stewart only had to pull up a page on a touch a screen and then move some sliders, then we were into a 1 min countdown to self-destruct. No special codes or key cards. Nothing. Just flip to page two and slid the levels and kaboom. What the hell? Second, there were odd things playing in the background, like touristy music or welcome to Roebuck Station audio. This is an underwater mining/drilling facility, not a tourist destination. I can’t imagine that they’d be playing that crap over the speakers. But what do I know? Then, during the end credits we see newspaper clippings stating the company was going to go back and rebuild the facility and start drilling again. START. DRILLING. AGAIN. As if they didn’t’ learn their GD lesson the first time around.

As for the good, and this is where the movie sold it for me, was with the big baddy monster. It was a huge leviathan/kraken looking thing! It was amazing. They showed you the whole creature, but it was well done and near the end and so very worth it. I was instantly thinking Dagon or Cthulhu when I saw that sucker. I love that it was “woken” up by the drilling and came to wreck some souls.
​
Super fun show. I totally recommend this movie if you’re into shows like Alien and the like. 

Continuing my journey to make a dent in my to-be-read pile, I conquered John Hornor Jacobs' novella, The Sea Dreams it is the Sky. Man oh man, what a ride it was. The back cover blurb for the story reads as follows:

A brilliant mix of the psychological and supernatural, blending the acute insight of Roberto Bolaño and the eerie imagination of H. P. Lovecraft, The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky examines life in a South American dictatorship. Centered on the journal of a poet-in-exile and his failed attempts at translating a maddening text, it is told by a young woman trying to come to grips with a country that nearly devoured itself.

Here was my take:
What a wonderful read! This novella is a slow burn in the best way possible. By the time I reached the end I found I was devouring each sentence like a rabid dog placed in front of a gourmet feast. Jacobs gives you enough to make your skin crawl but hints that there's so much more in the miasma that if you knew what was there, your skin wouldn't just crawl, it would tear itself off and run as fast as it could. If you like slow horror that takes its time, then read this novella.

This story was well crafted. It was slow in the sense that Jacobs took his time ramping up the strange, weird, and supernatural in the book. However, I'm not saying this as a negative at all. It was somewhat refreshing and when the strange and weird do begin to occur, it has more impact because of his choices. Makes me double-think how I write my own tales as generally most of my stories start off with a bang and take off. 

I won't spoil this one at all, I simply recommend if you like horror in the same vein as Lovecraft, or the movie, The Ninth Gate, then check this one out. 

It's alive! My second collection of short stories is live! I'm super stoked about this one, because not only does it have stories that have appeared in recent anthologies, it also has some stories that have never been released as well. That's right! You, dear reader, can experience these tales for the first time. This one also has some flash fiction and a rare poem (rare because I rarely write poetry). 

Inside this tome of horrors you can find the following tales:
"The Devouring Maw" which initially appeared in Hunger: A Collection of Utah Horror. It's about some folks down in southern Utah on the hunt for a lost arch. Well, they find it, but they also find something else. Something sinister.

"The Dark Place" which appeared in the anthology, Peaks of Madness: A Collection of Utah Horror. It's about a young girl who's on the run and takes refuge in a cabin in the woods. The cabin has a small door upstairs with a note that reads, do not open. Simple enough, but then something starts knocking from the other side of the door.

"The Temptation of the Moon to Shadow" is a poem I wrote that appeared in the HWA's Poetry Showcase Vol. 5. 

"The Demons We Bring" appeared in Old Scratch and Owl Hoots: A Collection of Utah Horror and if you're familiar with my short story, "Horishi Tom" then you'll recognize the main character. The events of this story take place before the events in "Horishi Tom". 

"The Cedar Box" is my fantasy western, think gunslinging elves trying to survive in a hellwaste. An old elf carries a precious cedar box with him as he searches for someone. 

"Mr. Abernathy’s Music Box" appeared on this very website as a bonus and is about a peculiar passenger on a sea voyage and his mysterious music box. 

"The Horror of Sunshine Meadows" was a piece of flash fiction I wrote that appeared online. It's about someone who finds a young girl standing outside of a forest. Things are not always what they seem. 

"Final Moment" has never appeared in any anthology, so you're getting it now for the first time. It's about a woman who buys a horrifying painting at auction only to find she's bringing much more home with her.

"Kathy Loves Kittens" appeared on the Tales to Terrify podcast. It's about a man who survives a horrifying car wreck only to find that his daughter isn't only missing, but seeming has disappeared from existence. However, someone knows where she is.

This collection is full of suspenseful stories. If you like horror or dark fantasy, check it out!
​

One of my 2020 goals was to read more books. I have a to-be-read pile of both physical and ebooks that is ginormous! I'm definitely in the category of people who like to buy books which may or may not ever get read. However, I'm trying to make a steadfast effort this year to make a dent into that pile. The first book I finished, was Let Sleeping Gods Lie by David J. West. 

The back cover blurb reads as follows:

Louis L’Amour Meets Lovecraft
​Porter Rockwell, wanted for a murder he did not commit, is hiding out in Old California selling whiskey to thirsty forty-niners. When his friends dig up some monstrous bones and a peculiar book and offer to sell it for a helluva price, Porter can’t resist the mystery.
But when both his night bartender and the sellers are murdered at his saloon Porter has to find out what the mysterious artifacts are all about. With some Native American legends, Sasquatch, Lovecraftian horror, and murderous bandits thrown in, not even bullets and blades can stop Rockwell from leaving a swath of righteous carnage in his wake.
Let Sleeping Gods Lie is a weird western fantasy in the vein of classic pulp fiction and Louis L’Amour books. If you like frontier justice, larger-than-life characters, and witty humor, then you will LOVE the first installment of the Cowboys and Cthulhu series.
Buy Let Sleeping Gods Lie to get lost in a horrific weird western adventure today!

I've read several of West's other books, to include his other Porter Rockwell stories. I enjoy West's style of writing as it is very reminiscent of the old pulp adventure stories from back in the day. Now, unless you're new to my blog, you'll know that I'm a sucker for Lovecraftian tales, so when I saw that West was finally merging his Old West stories with Lovecraftian mythos, I was all in. His other Porter Rockwell stories merely touched at the weird and dark, while this one plunges right in with both feet. Here's the review I left on Amazon and Goodreads:

West delivers a story that reads like it's a masterful blend of Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft! I'm a sucker for weird westerns and West never fails to deliver. This story is action packed and hits all the right notes. I loved all the nods to Lovecraft.

West can also paint a scene. All throughout the book there was some wonderful imagery, but this one bit stuck with me:

They rounded a bend and came head on against a like-minded group of riders. Stoney’s men, the Mountain Hounds. When a hard rain falls, who was hit with the first drop? Impossible to say, but the thunder certainly sounded. Pistols and rifles were drawn and fired. Horses and men screamed as they careened together, an avalanche of flesh and lead.

Bottom line, if you like westerns and if you like Lovecraft, then this is the book for you. Do yourself a favor and read it.