Drags pointlessly on to horrifying finale.
349844
Archie and Wolfe are certainly engaging characters-- Archie is a flawed narrator, but in a good way, for the most part-- you feel like a real person is telling the story.

However, they mystery in this book is not so mysterious less than halfway through. The characters explicitly tell you how the crime was done. Then, with a good 25% of the book to go, you find out who did it-- this isn't me trying to show off how clever I am by figuring out the mystery before the writer intended to reveal it. The author very explicitly tells you all this. The suspense of the last 25% of the book comes from Wolfe refusing to tell Archie his plan for actually apprehending the culprit-- who is not even that difficult to apprehend if you think about it for literally one second. In Poirot or Sherlock Holmes mysteries, that suspense is fun-- how is the detective going to make his big reveal and catch the criminal? But, in this book, it is SO drawn out, and the detective's penchant for showmanship in his revelation leads to tragedy.

 SPOILERS

The culprit is just sitting at home. Wolfe knows where he is, and until Wolfe notifies him of the fact, he does not realize that he is even under suspicion. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to go get him. But, instead, Wolfe decides to give the guy a good 12-24 hour notification of apprehension, allowing the culprit to commit murder-suicide, taking out the victim he had originally failed to kill the first time around. Wolfe, the supposed hero of the story, thinks this is a great resolution to things. I love a flawed hero as much as anyone else, but the elder Kimball did not deserve death-- he was a good man who was working hard to make things up to his son. Maybe he would have gone off the deep end upon discovering that his son was attempting to kill him, but Wolfe had no right to make that decision for him. In the modern world, Wolfe would be prosecuted for being an accessory to murder (maybe just manslaughter if he was very lucky). Then the book just ends on that note-- "Hey, the guy you've been rooting for this whole time is really a sociopathic monster who delights in killing people who don't deserve it!" Not a very good return on an investment in the story. I'm sorry I finished it.
4793169
First let me say I am a fan of Ms. Harris.

With that out of the way, this book was bleak and sad and misery-laden. There was no up and down flow, no lighter moments, just one grief after another. The end was *dreadful* and unnecessary.

I understand sometimes characters have to die, but Ms. Harris choice of sacrafice was lousy. It was overly painful.  As others have said, I will probably never read another book in this series.
4387072
A very simple test: if you know the ending and think it's a good or suitable one, you might appreciate this movie. If not, you're in for a tedious, monotonous, characterless annoyance. Would have worked at 30 minutes.
2337611
An American family move into a house in Spain where forty years earlier the father was almost killed by a cult. Six other children were slaughtered, but he got away.

The odd thing is he moves back into the house without mentioning he was almost killed in it. What? The other thing I didn't get about this movie is there is no real explanation as to what the evil that this cult wanted to unleash was. Is it a demon, or a spirit? Don't know, neither did the screenwriter, director or producer.

The acting in this movie is over the top and just terrible. It is so bad that it takes away from the drama, plus the whole family does nothing but scream at each other and there is nobody to cheer for as you end up hating them all.

Waste of time.
3670773
Now, I'm all for a good "slasher" film, even if the content occasionally crosses the line in terms of being graphic and bloody. But when there is basically no story, just innocent young women being dragged into the woods and butchered, shot, slashed, and disembowled, it really becomes just pointless.

The story is a tired one, especially if you have seen "Surviving the Game." Basically these guys in a van kidnap young women and set them free in the woods and hunt them, slaughtering them after they catch them of course. There is absolutely no development with the characters, just an ongoing onslaught of senseless torture. The DVD cover compares the movie favorably to "Last House on the Left" but the storyline does not even come close. On the front of the DVD, however, it does read "they should have stayed at home."

Well, the actors and writers of the script should have stayed at home, anyways.
1202530
Yaaaawn...what a bore-fest. Instead of trying to wrap up the series, tying up the loose ends from all the cliffhangers in the series finale, we got a worthless prequel. Most of the scenes in "Fire Walk with Me" were already explained as backstory in the show...they're simply acted out here and we learn nothing new. I loved Twin Peaks, but I'm not a fan of this movie at all...pass!
2962181
Totally devoid of suspense despite many opportunities. All the suspenseful parts must have made it to the cutting floor on purpose.
I suppose if the story started out with the population struck by severe tunnel vision it would be worth one star.
It is almost as if someone wrote a story and the producer/director of this movie deliberately tried to sabotage it.
Rife with unrealistic characters;
A Jehovah Witness that would pretend to strike an unwary person in the head with a baseball bat as a fun gesture.
A drunken priest with a 2 foot long black cross tattooed on his back.
The red letters without a messenger.
A reluctant prostitute that could have been teetering on agoraphobia. ( another ball dropped)
None of the zombies were brought out as a foremost character.
This is too far away removed from classic suspense, horror, logic and character representation to be of any value.
4733696
This is more of a novella than a novel. While the writing style is good, the story is depressing and very much unfinished. Okay, granted, horror stories will contain horror, and this one has it in spades. Psychopath murderer on the run ... innocent people in his path ... blood and torture giving him immense pleasure. But there is little characterization, and then the unrelenting horror is spoiled by a totally blunt ending. We want to know what happened to the nice people (no spoilers, so I don't mention names)? How did they, afterwards, handle the terror they suffered? We have no idea because the book ends when you least expect it. Bluntly. What about all the people this psycho left behind him?
3017843
I had initially low expectations. Some slamming doors some flickering lights, a levitating person or two. What I got was less than even that. The saddest part was it could have been a clever sequel and it could have been very scary. It had a creep moment or two but was incredibly boring. The ending was dull and stupid. The coven at the home at the end was the single creepiest moment in the entire 96 minute running time and that lasted a total of 1 second. Who can even explain the logic of running from demon possessed people but still have the courage to record every moment with your high definition camera? If you want scary, watch the first one otherwise save your money all your going to feel is cheated.
4199591
The seventh installment of the Harry Potter series left me feeling high and dry at a time I felt I should have been celebrating. It was the end of an era! My defining childhood literature! And yet Rowling's attempt to bundle her created world into one neat little parcel failed miserably.

Without giving any specifics, I felt that the deviation from Hogwarts did not suit the characters at all. Their 'journey' fell flat in my eyes - a cowardly tactic despite the devastation in the world surrounding. The unbridled skewering of characters left and right seemed reminiscent of a B-grade horror film. A hundred pages in I was afraid Voldemort would be left by the sidelines in favor of much more controllable zombie armies to finish off all of the light side.

Any romance attempting to develop during the story line is utterly lost in the constant movement and action, which turned more boring then battle intense by the end of the novel. The final battle is overly dramatic and missing some vital characteristic that I am still unaware of. And can anyone say hero complex?

But beside all that, I believe the most horrible part of the ending to this generations defining series is the Epilogue. Not only does it attempt to give the next twenty years' worth of history in less than twenty pages, but it was uncalled for. What happened to letting the reader decide what happens? Who needs a pretty bow telling you that so-and-so lived happily ever after with fifteen kids, the end? J.K. Rowling, borrowing one of her favorite lines, completely bulloxed the ending with a few words too many.

In conclusion, steer clear of this book. The only thing that lies here is eight hours of pure disappointment.
1891462
"They" starts out with a brilliant scene introducing the 'night terrors' that disturb a little boy. The scene was creepy and very well done. Soon after, though, it all went downhill. Don't be fooled by the "Wes Craven presents..", he had nothing to do with the direction of this film. And it shows. The plotline and premise quickly fall apart and the ending leaves you wondering why you wasted your time. This movie is one of those that was totally butchered. If you're a die hard horror fan, like myself, rent it just to see it. But don't expect anything too spectacular.
1079979
I really tried to enjoy the ultra-low-low-budget film, WET KISS, but found it excruciatingly dull. The premise of a traumatized little girl, growing into a devastated, homeless woman, is interesting. She is befriended by a man named Pete, who tries to help her. Unfortunately, Pete's friends are all idiots, and the woman winds up dead. This leads to her return from a watery grave, and revenge by "drowning" her victims on dry land. The idea is great, but the execution is drawn-out and hideously boring. The extra star is for the finale, which is OK...
7978
this movie seems to start out well then it starts to drag on, by the halfway point you've already pretty much figured out exactly whats going to happen.  The ending is anti-climatic and unexciting.  Everyone on earth lives in a lousy little place and if you get sick thats just too bad and the people in the sky get everything.  Jodie Foster looks kind of haggy in this too.  I am so glad I didn't go to theater to see this.  I didn't buy it either thank goodness.
3366945
After being riveted to the initial books in this series, I was expectant of a battle of wits and wills - a reckoning and an intelligent, creative end to Victor. Disappointment is an understatement. The end of this series became nothing more than a tiny spurt of monotonous preaching and clich. And a tiny twist reveal so contrived, so pathetic, I am almost embarrassed to claim I completed it. Koontz has done much better work, but it seems so forlorn and withered to end a fabulous idea and rich characters with a popcorn fart and a dime store postcard.
464361
SINISTER is the story of a woman plagued by the eeevil conjurings of a vengeful voodoo practitioner. While this should be a gripping tale of supernatural mumbo jumbo, it is instead a very dull story w/ very little intrigue. Alas, the voodoo-villain looks ridiculous, and the hokum is hokey! If you do watch this movie, you just may be reduced to pure carbon during the seemingly endless "car wash" sequence. We are literally taken through a car wash w/ the main character! As it adds nothing to the story, I can only believe that the prop-car simply needed a wash on that day of filming. This scene, while dull in the extreme, is still more frightening than anything else in SINISTER. Unless, of course, you are terrified by a few cockroaches or allergic to men in black nail-polish. Sheesh!...
280683
"Saw III" should have been the epic, horrifying end to this demented series; unfortunately, it wasn't epic and it probably isn't the end of the series at all.

The reason I enjoyed the first film was not the gore, although I have to admit I was impressed by the openly brutal scenario of people having to hack their own legs off in order to survive (one either overcomes the fear of horrendous physical pain or dies), but because it had a soul and a brain behind it: an atmosphere of mystery and horror pervaded it.  No one knew who was the vicious mastermind behind these inventive and repugnant torture/murders or who would go to such lengths to prove something to society about the depreciation of life. Saw II" carried on in a similar vein; more was revealed about Jigsaw and he was face to face with an angry cop who wanted his son back.  Still, we didn't know anything about him and it never became too personal; he remained a ghastly enigma with an intriguingly intelligent and thoroughly evil persona.

In this movie, though, they make the character that could have rivalled Hannibal Lecter into a soap opera.  The film begins promisingly (an ex-con gets permanently reformed in a rather unorthodox way) and Jigsaw, ironically, has to face his own mortality through his imminent death by cancer.  From there it degenerates into tedious emotional dynamics involving his protege Amanda, a young doctor with a time operated shotgun shell collar around her neck, and plays an extended and really ridiculous "game" with a blameless victim of a drunk driver.

The character Jeff and his "vengeance conflict" (how can you blame the guy for not wanting to save the guy who ran over his child?) is really just an excuse for us to watch Jigsaw's demented assistant indulge in emotional drama about her checkered and boring past.  Things get so monotonous that nothing shocks anymore.  The end is the most ridiculous plot twist I've ever seen and it isn't enduring what precedes it.  If they were going to do this, they should have ended the series with the original.
2723452
This book only gets interesting in the last 50 pages. Until then, it is a stultifying bore, full of excruciating detail about how Watney jury-rigged items in order to survive. It is "Castaway" without Wilson.