My Home Has No Walls

My home, does not have a single wall

yet keeps me from my downfall

My home, without a single room

keeps me from reaching certain doom

My home is not a house, not for rent or sale

it’s not even the place where I receive my mail

My home has a heart, a soul, a voice

and it supports me in every single choice

My home has a face, nose and eyes

the warmest of hellos and hardest of goodbyes

My home moves with me, wherever I may go

and that’s just the reason for why I know

My home is where my heart is, resting here with you

and for the life of me, there’s nothing I’d rather do

My home keeps me safe, by day and by night

safe from sorrow, safe from anger and from fright

Before this poem, I never really knew

but my true home, is you

Insidious

After an unfortunate accident in the attic of married Josh and Renai’s new home, one of their son’s, Dalton, falls into a coma no one around them seems to be able to explain to the worried parents.

Soon afterwards, strange things start to happen all around the house. Renai hears voices over the baby monitor belonging to their infant daughter, Cali, yet whenever she enters the nursery, no one’s there. Josh convinces her that it’s nothing, probably just interference, but when Renai starts to actually see ghostly shapes around the house, she decides to call for backup, Josh’s mother. Convinced that the house is haunted, she makes her family move again. But the problems seem to follow them into their new home, and Josh starts to doubt his wife. Renai calls a stronger defence line, Elise, a reputable medium recommended by Josh’s mother. Soon, Renai’s worst fears have become reality, as Elise tells her that the house was never haunted, young Dalton is, because of his talents within the field of astral projection. Josh uncovers the disturbing secrets of his past, realising he is partly at fault for their son’s difficulties.

On a path towards a possible title of classic, Insidious is unnerving to say the least. The subject of falling asleep and never waking up is something that scares everyone, but the mixture of a logical fear and the entry of the supernatural brings forth something entirely new, leaving many questions unanswered for the sequel to answer.

Lights Out

One of the very few horror movies to actually rattle my nerves, Lights Out walked right into my heart and never really went away, though despite being terrified of the being in the movie, I was also fascinated by the simple pluck on our psychological strings that allowed me to view this movie so personally, because really: who has never been afraid of the dark?

Sophie suffers from strong mental health issues, depression and delusions, often talking to an imaginary friend when things become too overwhelming. Her daughter, Rebecca, has moved out, not being able to deal with her mother’s issues, and Sophie’s son Martin still lives in the house. One night Martin sees his mother talking to an actual figure in the darkness of her bedroom, and horrified he doesn’t sleep a blink. As he goes to school the next morning, school staff notice, and upon failing to reach Sophie, they phone Rebecca, who takes him home. To make amends, Sophie offers her son a movie night, and tells him the story of Diana, her friend from when Sophie was institutionalized, explaining to him that Diana was the figure he saw. Terrified, he escapes his mother’s house to go sleep at Rebecca’s.

His sister assures him he’s got nothing to worry about, that Diana is just a memory, confining in him that she herself had nightmares about the photosensitive mental case when she was younger. But soon, as soon as the lights are turned off, the siblings get an unwanted visitor, and find out that Diana is very, very real.

As a supernatural horror movie, this work of art plays on a very real fear most of us have at some point in our life. Because, just maybe, just maybe, there is something hiding in the dark when we turn off the lights.

Highly recommended for any horror fan!

1408

  A classic horror writer, Stephen King keeps returning to the big screen, over and over again, and in light of the new It recently being released, what could be more fitting than review some of the author’s other masterpieces?

  Mike Enslin has devoted his life to, ironically enough, the life after this one. Travelling the states, visiting haunted places and staying in spooky hotels are part of his daily routine, and as an author; his job. The drive to explore the unknown, deeply rooted since his daughter’s untimely death, is what brings him back to his and his family’s roots: New York. A relatively unknown hotel, the Dolphin, is uncovered to him, and with a particular room in mind, 1408, he travels to the great city, yet again expecting nothing more than smoke and mirrors. However, after being begged by the director of the hotel not to take the room, he enters both the room, and a completely new experience of the horrors regarding the afterlife.

  Shocked that this movie has yet to receive a status as a horror classic, I can do nothing but recommend it. The film, to put it lightly, plays joke after joke with both the viewer’s and the main character’s minds, spinning out of control in an almost banal fashion before calmly taking everything back to logic and safety. Highly recommended!