It feels like a drawn out scary movie script
351403
It's all in the title. "The boy who drew monsters." That's what he does, he draws monsters. The book never really picks up, gets going. It seems to drag on much longer than it needs too. At certain points, the author dangles little bits that could have been a plot point in front of your face, but then no, we're back dragging on exactly where we were. By the time I got to the end (and mind you, I read this book in 48 hours, I had a lot of free time on my hands), the little twist isn't fulfilling at all. Overall, I would say it was just an unsatisfying book. It feels like a drawn out scary movie script, but the middle would need to come out if that were the case, because it just lulls you into boredom. The pacing and scary content seemed uneven as well. There is a scene fairly early in the book that is pretty graphic and scary, which seems to hint what the rest of the book will be like, but then it is never that graphic or terrifying again. I loved reading about the ocean in Maine, how it feels to be there in the winter. That's about it.
2780217
Not sure who the title is celebrating, nor who's responsible for the event that sets the story into (very slow) motion. Don't have answers for the many complex questions surrounding the characters at the end. A great deal of time was spent setting up a gripping climax, but instead of closure or some decent denouement, we're left with even more horrific threats looming. This could work in a short story, but a 555-page journey should do more than depress and bore the traveler. Couldn't help asking all the way through, where in the world is the editor? The author has many skills (as proven in The Secret History), but here we're asked to plow through endless, repetitive descriptions that add nothing to the ambiance or plot. I often love long books, dense with description, but invariably I feel I've gained something from the experience. Here the fate of cast and audience alike seems to be disappointment.
3928834
I do not understand why everyone keeps saying The Exorcist is the scariest movie of all time and that The Ring is 2nd to it. The Ring had kept me up the first time i saw it. Everytime i closed my eyes I kept seeing Samara Morgan coming for me. This movie creeped me out big time. While The Exorcist, I sat with a straight face all through the movie which I personally found quite boring, I wanted something that would scare me when i watched it and having heard everyone go "Oh its so scary, its the scariest movie of all time" I thought it would be. But The Ring, with the way it starts out heavy, then gently slows down, and makes you feel all warm and safe thinking that everything is going to be fine now and then BOOM everything is bad again. It was just a great roller coaster of a movie. And the fact that it doesnt try to explain WHY was ingenious. Things like this cant be figured out, it just is. I hate it when movies try to put some reasoning behind it because lots of people who watch movies allways feel like there should be a motive. Well, the truly scary things have no motive.
986197
Overall, not as good as I had hoped for.  If you've seen "Poltergeist" and/or "Paranormal Activity" this movie has elements of both.
The story follows a family who has just moved into a new house and starts experiencing strange occurrences (a story line that has been used way too many times, imo).  Then one of their son's falls into a coma, for no apparent reason.  Bring in the psychic stage left.
Honestly, I would have stopped this movie after 15 minutes in, but I wanted to see where it was going.  Finally stopped it after an hour and 15 minutes.  I didn't care about the ending, and I really should have been on the end of my seat wanting to see the ending.
So, the story wasn't all that great, it lacked uniqueness and depth.  The characters were not that compelling either, and therefore the acting wasn't all that intense (and it should have been based on the scenario they were put into).  The directing, also, was a little ho-hum for a scary intense movie, like this should have been.  Establishing shots are really just boring, in my opinion.
I look to issues with the directing, and mostly, the writing. It needed to be a better story.
I wouldn't buy this for my collection, nor would I watch it again.
2653441
Boyfriend of a dead girl takes revenge on the son of a god fearing, but paradoxically satanic-like, torture and killing family. A classic twisty kidnap thriller except the over scripting just made the story confusing resulting in little tension and drama. The acting is too over-the-top directed (stand here, move there like this) making the movie not very believable. The viewer feels as if they're standing along side the director hearing his directions. The dialogue is typical Hollywood make believe talk adding to that too staged feeling i.e. as if every short sentence is rehearsed and "retaken" multiple times. The usual dumb decisions that only characters in movies make.  The usual "you think people are dead but they seem to come back with one last surprise knife attack". A too predictable and emotionally ho hum movie.
108877
This bok is like a form of revelations or the marvel comics eternals thor saga with the 50 year judgement and then the politics with a controlling invader from outer space like the representative is supposed to be like jesus and or God and like he is fitting in like john Carpenter's movie with the special shades, and like I can feel out kirbyizm like long spacial areas a vizio screen in front of people like our flat tv panels, loneliness issues and then there is a what you call it a trade in situation like a border, and then the whole feeling is sad because the childhoods end comes from the last of the nastalgia when anybody of any world politics take over the past will stay there and won't return... I admit I stopped reading midway and then I read the last few pages It got to me one way and was boring on another no gadgets nothing really compelling boring peaceful if that aliens...
3039541
Yes there is suspense, but it is terribly unrealistic and this bothered me.  I like my stories to feel real.  Too much circumstance and unrealistic behavior by the characters.
2668231
It was like waiting in a 3 hour line for a ride that lasts 30 seconds.  The build up was boring and the climax was like 5 pages long.  The middle of the book could have been whittled down and the end needed more explanation.  I feel gypped.
1936705
This movie felt like a rough draft of a potentially better film. There were some interesting ideas but I had a hard time buying into or enjoying this movie. I thought it was kind of silly the main character fell for a sex-less operating system which spoke to him with a breathy female voice. I had a hard time buying into the notion that the operating system was a real person. It also felt kind of creepy because it was like he was dating his employee. I just had a hard time getting into or finding anyone that I could sympathize with in this movie.
3202121
The prologue was amazing, I actually got really excited when I read it. It was like I had a dramatic storyteller in my head who just knew the right things to say to get the listener entranced.

That was where my excitement ended though. I thought it was going to be just this action-packed, rollercoaster of twists right from the get-go, I was excited. No, not at all.

Instead its full of lengthy descriptions and a bunch of sitting and talking. I couldn't finish it, I was almost to the halfway mark when I just had to put it down.

Because of those lengthy descriptions it was like a movie playing in slow motion. It took a couple of a sentences to say he was putting his elbow on his knee. No thank you.

I really didn't even feel any kind of connection between the characters even though they shared two kisses.

I could barely focus on this book, I just got so bored with it and it was just slow. I kept getting distracted until I just gave up. Even when the plot started to get going, there was no urgency for me, no excitement because those lengthy descriptions just slowed it down.

Can you see an ongoing theme here? The only problem I had was the plot was slow to get going and that detail.
4269548
You know when you have watched too many horror movies when your friends are cringing in terror and all you can do is yawn. While Ring, a blockbuster success in Japan, does deliver some chills (especially to those who can get scared easily), it is ultimately disappointing.

The movie starts off very well, with a girl who tells her friend about a videotape she had watched a week ago. In it were some disturbing (not gory) images then a phone call at the end of it. The phone call indicated that she was going to die at the end of the week. In the movie, this premise is an urban legend that they brush off, but as the girl goes downstairs, the TV suddenly turns on and she found dead the next morning. It is the second most chilling scene in the movie and sets the tone. The next day, a reporter, covering the case finds out about the legend and begins a search for the tape. She finds it and she is given the same call. In one week, she is going to die. Of course, she won't take it lying down, so she enlists her ex-husband and they begin researching the history of the tape.

The actual investigation takes 80% of the movie and it is non too exciting to watch. We do get a sense of dread as each day is counted, and the investigation itself is interesting, in a Changeling, sort of way, but many things pop up that begin to throw water on the flame we call reality. We learn that her husband is suddenly Psychic and this psychic allows the reporter to magically appear in scenes that happened years ago, a la Mummy Returns. However, the background story in and of itself is fairly boring and there are little twists and turns. It is more interesting when they dissect the videotape for evidence and clues.

The last day (the movie is broken over a period of 7 days) is the most terrifying, due to self-motivated fear. We all know what is going to happen at 7:00 p.m. and as the main characters become more frantic in their actions to find a solution, the viewer also shares in the sense of despiration. When the phenomenon finally happens, it is a scene right out of a 1980's Lamberto Bava movie, but much better done. It is scary scene that caused several people in our viewing audience (both ladies and one guy) to gasp. It is a well crafted scene. However, the ending of the movie is poorly done. How does the reporter figure out the answer? There could have been 100 different answers to why she was spared, but of course she knows the right one.

Anyway, the fear that eminates from this movie is like that of the Blair Witch Project. It is self-created and those who are fearless when watching horror movies may not be too impressed. However, all my friends who watched the movie said it was scary as heck, so hence my recommendation for the casual horror movie lover....Rating: B-
2328313
This started out SO well.  The plot and the events were terrifying, although I felt the writing left something to be desired.  It had a creepy Blair Witch vibe to it that really had me feeling jumpy, and I had to keep reading.  Then . . . the second half.  And while it was not terrible, it really could have been a story in itself.  The characters in the first half were real and you could relate to them.  The characters in the second half were almost caricatures. Things didn't make sense, things jumped around, and the ending was a huge let down in most respects.  On the one hand, the message was clear about how events can totally wake us up from the life we thought was making us happy and cause us some serious rethinking and re-evaluation.  But there was no actual conclusion, no resolution -- and to say more would be giving it away.
Also, as others have mentioned, some more extensive editing would have helped.  There were odd sentence constructions, and some things were so bad I had to back up and read it again to figure out what he was saying.  There was also a lot that could have been left out in the second half, and was just superfluous and tedious. In the first half of the book, it was interest that kept me reading and wouldn't let me put it down.  In the second half, I kept reading only to find out how it was going to end, not because the story was drawing me in.
3651393
The scenes are really dark and hard to see things in.  The length of the total game is pretty short and I didn't feel like I got my money's worth.
4283191
With the benefit of doubt I've been hoping it would get better. Not so. It seems the responsibility lies with direction as well as acting.  Or perhaps its genuine in how the Swedes overreact to some of life's bumps.  When each respective person has any difficulty they over emotionalize the situation.
Screaming, faux vomiting, driving fast, etc.  They express a feeling with  boringly exaggerated external detail. No inner work that every good actor knows how to do.  Hard too to care about any character as well. Writing and direction responsibility. Another fact is that it's way over priced.
334362
First of all, let me preface by saying that my husband and I love a good action adventure movie, and I adore Downey and Law. But like so many movie versions of pre-existing characters and stories, this one is too dark and violent. Add to that, the humor, and you have something that feels sick. I don't mind movies that re-invent or re-interpret characters and stories -- if they are done well and have integrity. The first Batman movies were terrific, but the later ones became too gruesome and perverse. This movie feels like a destruction of the original Sherlock Holmes. I feel sorry for the young people whose first (and maybe only) encounter with the great Sherlock Holmes will be this franchise. BTW, My husband hated this movie more than I did and he's not even that familiar with the original books.
4032809
This Is Another Interesting Rendition Of A Famous horror Story By H.P. Lovecraft. However,I am really some-what Disappointed,In The way it was Done,On film. While I was reading the story,I was riveted,and could really sense and feel the horror of it,coming at me,out of The pages,But the film rendition really isn't as good. They bring in some intense romance,which was never in the written story,and which I feel has No Place whatsoever,in The Film,Either. I feel,This Is An Extremely Bad Botch-Up. It shouldn't have Been Put In,Because,The way the story was written;There Is an Aura Of Increasing and worsening Terror,That Builds slowly But Relentlessly,as the reader starts to realize that the protagonist Is Doomed. There Is no way he can escape. He tries everything,But nothing works,and,In The End,He Is Finally Killed,By The Evil Agencies That Tormented Him,From The Start. The written story gets this across,fantastically well,But,Bringing romance into the film of it;I Think,Just Totally Detracts from the general theme,of the eeriness and horror,of his Ultimate Fate. So,I'd say That was A Total No-No. Shouldn't Have done It. Otherwise,I Think It's Quite Good. I'd recommend this to those,who don't mind seeing a semi-good horror film,with some botch-ups in it.
2836830
I actually feel like time has been stolen from my life. I cannot recall a movie that was worse than this. I feel bad for the humilation that the cast must have felt.