The Darkness. Where to begin? I guess with the facts, just the facts. (Some minor spoilers ahead) It’s directed by Greg McLean (known for Wolf Creek and Wolf Creek 2) and stars Kevin Bacon and Radha Mitchell. The Darkness is set in present day revolving around a family who comes back from vacation from the Grand Canyon and brings back more than they expected. Their autistic son unwittingly unleashes an ancient evil when he takes some sacred stones from an altar he found while exploring (alone I might add, way to go family). Sounds awesome, right?
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It had a great premise, but it falls apart in its execution. First off, the story is kind of disjointed. Apparently, the kid awakens these ancient spirits that the Anasazi kept at bay. These spirits apparently brought out the darkness in people before stealing kids and taking them back to their plane of existence or something crazy like that. It was never clear on whether or not they were trying to get into our world, or if their main goal was actually kidnapping. Who knows? The parents, played by Bacon and Mitchell are able to easily Google tons of information about what’s going on but still can’t seem to deal with it. Speaking of which, I want to know what kind of super-search engine terms they used, because they were able to pull up a mega-load of info on those demons easily. There was a slight time jump from when they return from vacation to when the actual story picks up. This time, jump wasn’t portrayed very well, which, if it had been might have made up for some of the following grievances I had with the film. 

As previously mentioned, these entities bring about the darkness in humans for some reason, which manifests with the family by having the sister turn bulimic (although from what I could tell, she had always been bulimic, so I’m not sure if the entities had any real hand in that); driving the mother back to drinking after getting on the wagon; and have the husband fight off urges of infidelity. Wait…I thought I they demons were supposed to bring out the darkness? IF that was the case, then shouldn’t have given in to those urges? I have a confused.

On top of it, the acting was phoned in…from a shitty connection…on a broken down payphone. Some of the scenes which were supposed to be serious were laughable. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to snicker when Kevin Bacon tells his wife that he was sorry he had an affair all those years ago. Or was I? Was this film a sleeper comedy? Because if so, brilliant!
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The movie also suffers from a thing I like to call, fucking with people for no reason. Do spirits in scary movies just get off on scaring folks? Because sometimes, if you take out the creepy factor, things that occur in scary movies just don’t make sense. For example, in this film, there is a reoccurring theme where the faucets keep turning on by themselves. I can see how that would be unnerving and scary, but what is exactly happening? Are the ancient Anasazi demons impressed with modern plumbing? Do they keep turning the faucets on in amazement that it’s so easy to get water? Or are they just really thirsty? I don’t get it. 

Now on to some of the good aspects. The story premise is great. I love the ancient evil being kept at bay and finally breaking loose. It’s an idea I use in my own writing and great trope that works well. The demons or entities also looked great. I’m a sucker for Old West and Native American mythos, so it was interesting to see a different take on the subject. The five entities portraying the Raven, Snake, Coyote, Bison, and Wolf had a creepy vibe and a dark aesthetic. I also really enjoyed the angle of the autistic son. It’s invigorating to see more and more stories involving people with mental or physical challenges and how they interact with the world. I thought it was somewhat original to include such a character in a story like this (I know it’s not the first time) and I thought the writers did a good job. I don’t have any experience in my own life with autism, so I don’t know how accurate they portrayed the character, but from an outsider’s perspective, it seemed legit.
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All said and done, this movie kind of reminded me of the movie, Poltergeist (the original one, not the shitty remake). The similarities are kind of shocking.

Overall: 2 out of 5 sacred stones.
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The special edition of the book, Consequence, published by Griffin Publishers will be out on June 10th. You can pre-order the book now. It features a brand new cover by Adam Miconi as well as a sneak preview of the second book, Canyon Shadows (release date 4th quarter 2016). 

Pre-order the book here:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1WjzsZr
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1Vixjwc

I love helping out fellow authors, especially fellow Seton Hill University folk. Therefore, it's my pleasure to reveal the cover of J.L Gribble's newest novel, Steel Magic. Steel Magic is book two of the Steel Empires series (Urban Fantasy/Alternate History) and will release on July 6th, 2016. You can pre-order it by going to this link: http://amzn.to/1Rc17n2 

Synopsis:
Funerals are usually the end of the story, not the beginning.
Newly graduated warrior-mages Toria Connor and Kane Nalamas find themselves the last remaining mages in the city when a mage school teacher mysteriously falls ill and dies. But taking over the school themselves isn't in the cards. They're set to become professional mercenaries-if they make it through the next 18 months as journeymen first.
The debate over whether to hunt mutated monsters in the Wasteland or take posh bodyguard jobs is put on hold when a city elder hires them to solve the mystery of the disappearing mages. Toria and Kane's quest brings them to the British colonial city of New Angouleme, where their initial investigation reveals that the problem is even greater than they feared.
But when a friend is kidnapped, they'll have to travel to the other side of the globe to save her, save themselves, and save magic itself.

About the author:
By day, J. L. Gribble is a professional medical editor. By night, she does freelance fiction editing in all genres, along with reading, playing video games, and occasionally even writing. She is currently working on the Steel Empires series for Dog Star Books, the science-fiction/adventure imprint of Raw Dog Screaming Press. Previously, she was an editor for the Far Worlds anthology.
Gribble studied English at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She received her Master’s degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, where her debut novel Steel Victory was her thesis for the program.
She lives in Ellicott City, Maryland, with her husband and three vocal Siamese cats. Find her online (www.jlgribble.com), on Facebook (www.facebook.com/jlgribblewriter), and on Twitter and Instagram (@hannaedits).
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About the cover artist:
Bradley Sharp was born in 1977 in Oxfordshire, UK. From a young age he filled many sketch books, so it only made sense to study Graphic Communication at Nene University, where he received a BA Honors degree in 1997.
But the real world called Sharp away from academics, so he traveled around the globe a couple of times, working as a graphic designer. Now he makes a living by designing magazine spreads, but freelances with vector illustrations, allowing him to create something far-removed from what he does in his nine-to-five job.
Sharp finds vector to be an easy tool and believes anyone can use it. "I'd say my artwork is nothing more than glorified doodling. I like the logical inconsistencies of surrealism and find inspiration from many places such as music or the science fiction genre. Dog Star's novels lend themselves well to my style. I look forward to working with DSB in the future, and hope fans will like the imagery as much as they enjoy the words." Find Sharp's work online at http://www.bradsharp.co.uk.

I recently completed a small indie game on my PS4 by the name of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. It released in 2014 and was dubbed a horror/adventure game. I took my time with it, exploring everything I could and I think it only took me about four or five hours to complete. It's an open world game; however, the world it places you in is fairly small. What I liked about it, was that it didn't hold your hand. You play a private detective name Paul Prospero and your goal is to find Ethan Carter. You start the game at the edge of town near some rail road tracks. There's no HUD, no prompts from the game, nothing. You simply have to explore and figure it out on your own. The game itself is fairly simple with only a couple of mechanics to wrap your head around. You'll investigate objects and areas and the game does a pretty good job at letting you know what you need to do in order to advance the plot without flat-out smacking you over the head with it.

Okay, now into the spoilers...the twist at the end of the game caught me by surprise. Basically, you are one of Ethan's stories. Bam, it caught me off guard like the ending of Sixth Sense the first time I watched it. Turns out, none of that really happened. Seems like Ethan lived a troubled life and liked to write stories to escape reality. His family comes looking for him in an abandoned house he likes to hang out in, and accidentally starts a fire. He gets trapped in the basement and is dying of smoke inhalation. You were one of his stories and got trapped in his "world." All in all, I enjoyed this game and it's worth playing, even if you just read the ending here. There's a lot more than I can pack in to a small blog post. Check it out. I'd like to know your thoughts on the game if you've played it. Leave me your review in the comments section.

Now, on to the spoilers...stop now if you haven't played the game. Or don't. You have free will.

The story is very intriguing; the main arc has you tracking down Ethan by reliving memories or snapshots in time, an ability the protagonist seems to have. Apparently Ethan found a hidden room in an old house and accidentally woke up an ancient being known only as the Sleeper. The Sleeper's influence corrupts Ethan's family and they all try to kill him in order to keep the Sleeper from fully waking up. A side arc in the story revolves around Ethan's stories coming to life around you in a kind of Twilight Zone the Movie sort of way.

While the game is short, the story is worth it and the graphics are stunning. Overall, I'd give this game 3 1/2 spirit memories out of five. If you find it on sale or want to enjoy a visually fulfilling game, get it and play it.

Griffin Publishers revealed the cover art for the special edition release of my novel, Consequence. The artist is Adam Miconi who was amazing to work with. Included in the special edition will be a preview of my next novel, Canyon Shadows that explore more events surrounding the Dark Tyrant. Consequence will be available in June.

​World Horror Con 2016 came and went in a flash! I have to say this, it was great being around a bunch of folks who share my passion for horror and writing. I was able to meet and reconnect with a lot of great, talented people in the industry such as Jack Ketchum, Brian Keene, Joe McKinney, and Michael Arnzen. I even got to sit on a panel with most of them which was amazing. I was on a panel talking about Utah Horror and how it’s growing; I was also on a panel about short fiction vs novels; and I moderated a panel about graduate degrees and writing. If you missed it and have any questions about any of them, I’d be more than happy to take any questions.

If you’ve never been to a convention, I can’t recommend it enough. Nothing gets the creative fires going faster than three to four days of nothing but horror and writing. Not to mention the networking opportunities alone are worth their weight in gold. There are plenty of conferences and conventions out there, all you need to do is find one that interests you and go to it. Worst thing that could happen is you walk away the same as when you walked in (okay, sure there are plenty of “worst things” especially when dealing with the horror genre, but we’ll assume we’re living in a semi-safe environment…just don’t read that old musty tome out loud, and whatever you do, don’t play with that fun looking puzzle box). Best case, you walk away with some more friends and some education.
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Some highlights of the convention for me were the panels, the gross out competition (can’t mention what happened in this venue, you’re just going to have to attend one, that is if you have the stomach for it), and the crazy noises coming from the film festival. I was manning the Utah Horror Writers Association booth a lot of the time and the film festival was going on right behind us. It’s almost as fun trying to figure out what was happening based off the sounds coming from the films as it was watching them. I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for next year and where the next World Horror Con is going to take place.