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Book Review -The House on Foster Hill

SUMMARY

Two years after the suspicious death of her husband, Kaine Prescott is still mired in grief and guilt. She is also wrestling with fear over strange occurrences which continue to happen to her. So, Kaine purchases an old house in her ancestral home town of Wisconsin and flees her life in San Diego. She intends to renovate the house as a way to honor her husband and start her life over. But, the house is in worse condition than she realized. And the same strange occurrences follow her to the house in Wisconsin. As they continue to escalate, Kaine decides to dig into the decades old mysteries which surround the property.

A century earlier, Kaine’s ancestor Ivy Thorpe is also caught up in mysterious events surrounding the abandoned Foster house, when a young girl is found dead on the property. Like Kaine, Ivy too seeks answers as a way of distracting her from the grief of a dead brother and the abandonment of a close friend. But Ivy’s single-minded commitment to discovering the girl’s identity, puts her at odds with the recently returned Joel Cunningham. It also puts her in danger as the killer is still loose and willing to silence Ivy for good. Continue reading “Book Review -The House on Foster Hill”

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Hitchcock’s Romantic Films

WHO IS ALFRED HITCHCOCK?

Alfred Hitchcock earned his title as the Master of Suspense and it is one that he certainly deserves. Unlike other directors who worked in multiple genres, Hitchcock remained true to his preferred theme.

Whether directing gothic mysteries, international intrigues, courtroom dramas or thrillers, Hitchcock managed to titillate his audience with the tension inherent in the suspense of the unknown, feeding their fear with mystery.

Romantic tension is a recurring sub-theme. While usually not the focus, it is often the boiling undercurrent which adds to the overall suspense inherent to his films. Hitchcock does not display the contented happy side of romance, but rather the darker aspects of love and desire. He generally shows the male and female leads wrestling with a vital question and component of any relationship – trust, all while already finding themselves in murky circumstances.

I have seen a large number of Hitchcock films and have made a list of a few which highlight his view of romance. Hopefully, this will give a new perspective to Hitchcock’s title as the Master of Suspense. Here are five romantic films, Hitchcock style.

To see the list, please follow me here to The Silver Petticoat Review.

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Classic Film Review -The Birds (1963)

I feel like I’m one of the few people on the planet who had not seen this Hitchcock classic. To be honest, even though I’m working my way through Hitch’s films, I had put this one off The Birds because I was afraid it might be too scary. I do not do horror films and I do not like to be scared.

SUMMARY

Just in case you are not familiar with the plot, wealthy Melanie Daniels played by Tippi Hedren (Melanie Griffith’s mother and Dakota Johnson’s grandmother) has a meet cute in a San Francisco pet shop with attorney Mitch Brenner who is portrayed by Rod Taylor. He plays a little trick on her in order to repay her for a prank she perpetrated against one of his clients. Strangely enough, they are both in the shop looking for birds.

This encounter intrigues Melanie enough to track down his name and address, drive out of town to his family home to retaliate. If Melanie’s behavior doesn’t creep out you a little, then don’t worry, the birds that begin to congregate in Mitch’s small town will.

MY THOUGHTS

Once the story has both Melanie and Mitch in the same place it gets to the gist of the plot which is basically a bunch of birds terrorizing an entire town.  I’m not kidding, that’s the entire story in a nutshell. Continue reading “Classic Film Review -The Birds (1963)”