MY TOP 10 HORROR MOVIE RECOMMENDATIONS

In my typical fashion, this post is going up far later than anticipated. My excuse this time? Uni and fitness classes (I know - me in a fitness class, shocking) have gotten in the way of what for months has been my 'free time' and I simply haven't been able to sit down and finish a blog post. My original plan was to partake in a sort of 'Blog-o-ween', where I'd have some sort of spooky post up every day in October. Clearly, that didn't quite go to plan. However, I'm not necessarily deterred and this is me promising, right here and now, that you will have a blog post that, in some way, relates to Halloween - be that directly or by virtue of being spooky - every day between now and then.

Of course, it wouldn't be spooky season without those cosy nights in, watching every horror movie from cheesy to terrifying. If you're a horror film buff like me, you wait anxiously for this time of year to come around because it's the time that they actually decide to show the creepy shit on TV. Here, I've compiled a list of my top ten recommended scary movies for your viewing pleasure.

#10 The Exorcist (1973)
IMDb rating: 8/10. Rotten Tomatoes rating: 86% 
 Ah, the classic. The Exorcist is one of those films that you just can't really get away with not watching if you're going to have a horror-movie binge during the Halloween season. A trailblazer for the genre, at the time of its release in 1973, this was the scariest film ever made and has inspired rumours - true or otherwise - of people passing out and vomiting from fear in the theatres. If you haven't seen this film yet, you're missing out and I implore you to watch it. Right now. Immediately.

 #9 The Nun (2018)

     IMDb rating: 5.7/10. Rotten Tomatoes rating: 26%
This is the newest movie on this list, and I strongly disagree with the ratings of other critics. I posted something of a glowing review of it not so long ago, and I still stand by everything I said in it. The Conjuring franchise as a whole provides something of a genuinely unsettling experience, and The Nun serving as the prequel to the titular films, is no exception. I would thoroughly recommend including this one in this year's Halloween-horror roster. 

#8 Zombieland (2009) 

   IMDb rating:7.7/10  Rotten Tomatoes rating: 90%
Look, I get it. Not everybody is a creepy weirdo like me and not everybody likes to be scared. If that's the case for you, but you also have a touch of the old FOMO, and want to be included on the spooky Halloween fun this year, then Zombieland maybe the movie for you. A gem of the comedy-horror genre, I guarantee it'll have you peeing your pants laughing. And let's face it - who doesn't love Emma Stone?

 #7 The Boy (2016)

    IMDb rating:6/10  Rotten Tomatoes rating: 28%
Now, here's the thing with The Boy. I've put it on this list not because I necessarily think it's a great movie. Truth be told, I don't. As far as the scare-factor goes, it rates at a 'meh' at best - it's by no means horrendous, but it's not going to leave you with nightmares. The reason that I enjoy this film is because of it's pretty shocking and rather clever twist towards the end. I can't say much more without giving you spoilers - you'll have to watch it yourself to see what I'm talking about!

#6 What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

    IMDb rating: 7.6/10 Rotten Tomatoes rating: 96% 
Much like Zombieland, this is one of those horror movies for people who don't like horror movies. Directed by, written by and starring Kiwi dreamboats Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement, What We Do In the Shadows is a hilarious take on every stale trope in the vampire movie genre. The mockumentary style only makes it more piss-your-pants hilarious. Highly recommend to anyone who wants to have a giggle this spooky season.

#5 Halloween (1978)

    IMDb rating:7.9/10  Rotten Tomatoes rating: 93%
Of course Halloween was going to end up on this list. I mean for God's sake, it shares its name with the holiday. You'd be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't watch it around this time of year. On top of that, the long-overdue canon sequel is set to be released in the coming weeks - what better way to celebrate it than to watch the original first?

#4 Pet Sematary (1989)
  IMDb rating:6.6/10 Rotten Tomatoes rating: 48%
Stephen King famously called Pet Sematary the only adaptation of any of his works that ever genuinely frightened him - and with good cause. I was only about twelve the first time I saw this film and I still find it as absolutely bone-chillingly frightening as I did way back then. Of course, given that it's nearly 30 years old, the special effects are - to put it kindly - rather lacklustre and a little bit cheesy. But the horrifying storyline and terrifying side story more than makes up for it. There's a remake of this being released early next year- all the more reason to catch the original so you can compare!

#3 The Shining (1980)

    IMDb rating: 8.4/10 Rotten Tomatoes rating: 86%
Based on one of my all-time favourite novels, The Shining is something of a legendary horror movie for a damn good reason. It's a horrifying depiction of the psychological decline of Jack Torrence and the torment of his young family at the hands of a haunted hotel. The late, great Stanley Kubrick really worked his unique magic on this one and, of course, Jack Nicholson's performance as leading man is absolutely iconic. The only thing I implore of you is that you read the book either before or after seeing the film - it's an absolutely tantalising scary delight, and I promise you won't be disappointed.

#2 The Amityville Horror (1979)

   IMDb rating: 6.2/10 Rotten Tomatoes rating: 29%
To be honest with you, I had a bit of a tough time deciding between this and the next movie for top spot. The only reason this one gets beaten out by a slim margin is because of the slight controversy surrounding the 'true story' on which the film is based and some of my own personal reservations about the Warrens (both of which I plan to explain in later posts!). That said, this is a truly brilliant movie. A classic of the paranormal genre, I strongly recommend that you watch this if you haven't already (And no, the 2005 remake doesn't count. I don't care how hot Ryan Reynolds is. Watch the original first.)

#1 The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)


    IMDb rating: 6.7/10 Rotten Tomatoes rating: 48%
My all time favourite horror movie, and one of my favourites over all, The Exorcism of Emily Rose is great in its uniqueness. Loosely based on the real story of a young German woman named Anneliese Michel, the film follows a court case surrounding the death of a girl, which may or may not have been caused by demonic forces. Made all the more impressive by the fact that Jennifer Carpenter actually did all of those crazy twists and contortions herself, this is my absolute must-watch film for any horror binge at any time of year. If you watch no other scary films this season, make sure you see this one.

So - those are my ten horror movie recommendations for this Halloween season. Do you agree with my recs? Have any you'd like to add? Let me know!

Keep it weird,
Jazz xo
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FILM REVIEW: THE NUN (2018)


If you're at all into the horror movie scene, you might have noticed that, in recent years, there's been something of a shift in both the style of and attitude towards horror movies. It seems like, for much of the past 20 or so years, the horror scene has been overrun by bloody gore flicks - think the Saw and Final Destination franchises, Hostel, Wolf Creek. While these will forever hold their place in history as iconic flicks that you watch far too young at sleepovers and give yourself grisly nightmares for a week, they don't really hold on to the heart of horror. That is to say, they seek mostly to disgust and repulse rather than genuinely frighten and unsettle. This was, of course, followed by the altogether lacklustre "found footage" based-on-a-true-story-but-not-really trend of the early 2010s (I'm sorry, but Paranormal Activity was utter bollocks and I won't be told otherwise). Thankfully, however, as the 2010s have worn on we've seemed to see a return to the roots of what made horror great - genuinely unnerving, unsettling films that don't just rely on blood and guts to put the shits up their audience. 

The Conjuring franchise is a series I feel best exemplifies horror's recent return to greatness. Directed by director/producer/writer extraodinaire James Wan, the titular films of the franchise have managed to strike a perfect balance between using the "based on a true story" trope and not relying on it solely for the fear factor. I'm a gal who loves a really good demonic possession film, and The Conjuring franchise really seemed to echo the days of yore (i.e. the 1970s and 80s) in which demon flicks had their peak. I was in love with the series from the first film and, while the Annabelle movies didn't really do it for me, I was more than a little excited for the release of The Nun and booked tickets to see it on opening night as soon as they were available at my nearest cinema. 

I'm happy to announce that I wasn't at all disappointed. The story follows a troubled priest named Father Burke (Demián Bichir) and a young novitiate, Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) as they travel to a Romanian abbey to investigate the apparent suicide of one of the convent's nuns. While there, they meet with a local known as Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet), who discovered the dead nun's body while making his daily supply delivery. As one would expect with such a film, all is not as it appears and there is much more sinister activity afoot. 

The greatest strength the film offers is the marvellous casting, with strong performances all round. Especially compelling is the performance of Taissa Farmiga as leading lady - though this should perhaps not be at all surprising, giving that she is the younger sister of Vera Farmiga, star of the first two Conjuring movies and something of a veteran of the silver screen at that point. Acting talent clearly runs in the Farmiga blood, as her performance is easily on par with that of her sister. Demián Bichir, as ever, provides a gripping performances as the troubled and surly Father Burke, and the film also has some scenes of comic relief thanks to Belgian dreamboat Jonas Bloquet's "Frenchie". I only hope, should subsequent movies in the same cinematic universe as The Nun be released, that we see the three of them return to the screen again. 

The atmospherics of the movie can also be applauded for their delicious creepiness. The score (composed by Abel Korzeniowski) manages to reflect everything that was great about those of classic horror without feeling trite, cliché or overdone. This wonderfully eerie soundtrack, coupled with some genuinely frightening imagery makes for an air of unease and fear that is rare in recent films. In particular, I enjoyed the physical appearance of the film's titular villain. "The Nun" herself is something of a horrifying demonic creature whose appearance - particularly facially - hits that sweet spot of being almost-but-not-quite-human, and is just animal enough to be genuinely frightening. 

All that praise in mind, even the greatest of films has its weak spots. For The Nun that, unfortunately, comes in the form of the film's logical inconsistencies. I like to keep my reviews spoiler free, so I won't say too much on that, but I will say that some parts of the film make little to no sense given prior scenes. The storytelling is also a rather lazy and incoherent in places, leaving a few glaring plot holes and requiring some post-watching thought to really get it to all fall into place. 

That said, the film was altogether thoroughly enjoyable from the perspective of your average horror movie fan. It doesn't rely solely on gore or jumpscares to be frightening, though it isn't without its fair share of both - if you're sensitive to either of those things, you may want to approach the film with caution. Also be aware that a suicide is depicted in the film rather graphically and there are heavy themes of the religion and the occult. Again, if you are sensitive to or upset by any of this, this may not be the movie for you. Overall, I'd rate it a total of 8/10.

Thanks for reading, 
Keep it weird,
Jazz xo
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FRESHER'S FACTS & FICTIONS PART 1; WHAT TO EXPECT | Jazz Blackwell.

So it's that time of the year again.


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The academic year is drawing to a close and across the length and breadth of Britain 17-19 year olds are waiting with baited breath for exam results, UCAS confirmations and, ultimately, the beginning of their university career.

I know it's daunting: trust me, I was there myself two years ago. It's difficult to know what to expect. What do you do with yourself during fresher's week? What are halls like? What do you need to bring, and what is better left behind? What can you do to ensure that you have the absolute best possible experience with higher education?

I won't lie to you and pretend I'm an expert. I don't know the sciencey, psychology bits behind it all and I'm fully aware that everyone's experience is different. Don't think of this as the be all, end all, definitive guide to how to survive the Warfield of university. See it as more friendly advice from a pal who's been there, done that and got the t-shirt.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM...

 HALLS
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For many - if not most - going to university is the first time you're standing on your own two feet. The majority live with their parents until they hop skip and jump off to uni. The prospect of living independently for the first time can be frightening. You're now responsible for your own cooking, your own grocery shopping and your own cleaning.

It's not just the thought of having to be a real, fully fledged adult that frightens a lot of people; many spend their first year in university residence, or "halls". Essentially, you're signing yourself up to spend the next academic year living with a group of strangers. If you're lucky, your university may have some programme in place where you can find out your hallmates ahead of time, so that you can preemptively get to know each other via social media. Others, however (my uni included), simply have you wait until the first day of living together to introduce yourselves.

The most important thing to remember here is to communicate with the people you live with. For the next nine months or so, you're gonna be sharing a relatively small space with them - including sharing a kitchen and, oftentimes, also a bathroom. You're not going to be doing anyone any favours if you're limiting your interaction with each other to awkward smiles and stilted conversation when you both go foraging for midnight snacks. Introduce yourself as soon as you can, and perhaps propose that you all spend the first night of fresher's week at the bar together, getting to know each other.

Also, make sure you're considerate and respectful. Ask before you use things, and don't fill the flat with people they don't know every single night. Remember that everyone has different ideas of fun; just because you love to have loud, wild parties doesn't mean your hallmates do. Give them a heads up if you're planning on having people over and if they're not comfortable with that, respect their reasons and see if you can reach a compromise, or if your party can take place elsewhere.
I'm a firm believer that you can never have too many friends, and your year is going to go a lot more smoothly if you get along with the people you live with.

CLASSES
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 Allow me to state the completely, stupidly obvious; university is nothing like school. The class structure is no exception from this.

It varies slightly between unis, and even between courses at the same uni. I can only speak to my own experience, but generally your course will be divided between lectures - in which you'll find everyone from your course, often well upwards of one hundred people - and smaller classes, which may be called "seminars", "tutorials" or "labs", depending on what you're doing and where. Lectures tend to be more generalised, whereas seminars are more focused. To give an example from my own English course, a lecture will give an overview of a particular book or text, while the seminar will look specifically at one chapter, or at exactly what the author was trying to do with a particular character. While both types of class are equally important and you should be trying your best to have full attendance at all of them, seminars are especially vital for getting that detailed information which will score you the big marks on your assessments and exams.

Another thing to note; while any university professor worth their salt will certainly be willing to offer help and guidance to their students, it's important to remember that you're expected to be much more independent. A university professor may have the same number of students in one class as a school teacher has overall. It's totally unreasonable to expect your lecturer to dedicate the same amount of time to each individual student as your year nine English teacher could.

Don't panic though; its perfectly doable if you make good study plans and divide your time properly (more on that in an upcoming post). If you find yourself truly stuck, acquaint yourself with the services available to you; there's likely a course or faculty support team who are more than willing to point you in the right direction and if studying is getting overwhelming, your universitiy's mental health or counselling services are there to help you out.

PEERS/SOCIAL LIFE
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 As important as your experience with classes in your uni experience is your interactions with those around you.

If, like me, you're moving from a small, rural town to a major city for university it can be startling beyond just being a culture shock. The sheer number of people around you can be quite overwhelming. Fun fact about my life; there are almost as many students at my university alone as there are people in the town where I grew up, and my uni's student body is approximately 20,000 people larger than the entire population of the village where my entire family lives now. If you're in the same boat, it may be daunting - going from at least "sort of knowing" all the people around you to being immersed in a whole army's worth of strangers is quite the shock to the system.

I won't lie to you - I'm not someone who's ever had trouble making friends. I'm rather sociable and confident, and there are very few people with whom I struggle to get on. As it was once eloquently worded to me by a friend in a beer garden, I'd  be friends with a floormop if there was nobody else around. However, I do appreciate that not everyone is the same. I know that for some, the idea of meeting new people is absolutely panic-inducing. Even if that's the situation for you, there are things you can do to grow your social circle at university.

First off, as soon as your place is confirmed, take to Facebook. More often than not, there'll be a group page for your course at your uni, from which you can be added to a group chat with the people who will be in your classes. There are two huge benefits to this; first of all, you get all the awkward introductions and "getting to know each other" bits out of the way virtually, which is a godsend if you're anxious about talking to strangers face to face. You can go into your classes with at least a little bit of prior knowledge about those around you. Secondly, the people on your course are likely to have similar interests to you, at least to some extent. After all, you all chose the same class for a reason, right?

If similar interests are a must for you in a friendship, it'll be a good idea for you to join a couple of societies. There are generally a couple of ways to go about this; check your university's website before the year starts and see if they  have a page showing the societies on offer. Failing that, there'll be fresher's fairs in the initial week of the semester, where most - if not all - of the societies will have a booth where you can sign up and learn more about what they do. Societies exist for almost everything: be it sociopolitical values, sports, hobbies or even movie and book fandoms,
you're almost guaranteed to find a group of like-minded people with whom you can connect.

BUDGETING
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 A great, wise and noble man (okay, Jay-Z) once said "you can't afford something unless you can buy it twice."

While I don't know that this is necessarily applicable in all life circumstances, it's certainly a good place to start with your university budgeting. Much like moving out, for many first year students, this will be the first time that you're 100% responsible for your own finances; now that you're not under your parents roof any more, you're the only one responsible for paying your rent, for doing your grocery shopping. The prospect of being the only one in charge of your money can be exciting - but it also means you've got to be responsible. It's all too tempting when you get that first maintenance loan payment to spend it on all the things you always wanted but never could buy before but remember that payment has to last you until the next one comes in and it has to cover your rent, your groceries and any transport you may need, be that public or your own car. If you blow all your dough within Fresher's Week you're kind of, sort of, well and truly screwed until your next payment comes in. 

So, I hear you ask, what's the best course of action to take to make sure you have enough to survive and have fun? The answer: budget, budget, budget. 

The largest payment you're going to be making is likely going to be your rent. A good place to start budgeting is calculating how much per term your rent is going to cost you and then deducting this amount from your maintenance loan payments. This will leave you with a good idea of how much you've got left per term to spend on... well, everything else. 

The next thing; work out how much you want to spend on groceries per week. Stay tuned for a full post on how to shop smart as a student, as well as several affordable recipes to come. A basic rundown is to remember that there's nothing wrong with supermarket's own-brand products, and that frozen veg is just as good as fresh, keeps for longer and is usually much better value. Tinned goods like beans and tomatoes also have good, long shelf lives and can be found at low prices. Make sure you keep stocked with the quintessential student staples; dried noodles, pasta and rice can be bought in bulk and don't really go off. 

While going out is always fun, and I definitely sound like your mum right now, don't do it if you can't afford to. I know it might seem, in the moment, like you care more about getting that sixth double vodka and coke than restocking your shelves in the morning, but sober-three-days-later you will be furious and drunk you for blowing all your cash on one night (trust me, I've been there). When you are going out, consider having pre-drinks at somebody's place, where you can provide your own alcohol and mixers and reduce the number of drinks you'll want while out. Also consider preparing a snack for when you get home, so you're not tempted by expensive and less-than-healthy fast food at the end of the night. 


This is as complete an advice guide for surviving your first year without a hitch that I can come up with. If you have any further questions that you'd like me to answer, feel free to leave me a comment or drop me a message, either via email at jazz.blackwell.17@gmail.com, or over on my Facebook page. The most important thing to remember about starting uni is that everyone else is in the exact same position that you are, and that, while it can seem frightening to start off with, you're beginning a journey that will not only benefit you in terms of finding a career, but will allow you to make lifelong friendships. Stay tuned for the next post in this series, where I'll advise you on what you should take with you to uni and what's better left at home. 

Thanks for reading, 
Keep it weird, 
Jazz xo
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REFLECTION AND REINVENTION: WHERE I'VE BEEN AND WHERE I'M GOING NEXT. | Jazz Blackwell

Picture credit: my pal Eilidh, at the old Fruitmarket in Glasgow.


Dear reader, hello.

If you've been a follower of this blog in any capacity, it'll be no new occurrence to you that I haven't posted anything to this blog in a number of months. For that, I generally offer a half-hearted, wishy-washy apology with a smart-Alec comment or some pseudo-witty commentary about my life between posts. This will not serve the same purpose but, rather, will act as a legitimate explanation.

I initially began this site as a book blog in the autumn of 2015. I thought it was a perfect idea; I love reading, and I'm very much someone who likes to share my opinions with like-minded people (or just scream into the metaphorical void by throwing my ideas out into the virtual abyss that is the world wide web). That said, I quickly lost my passion for book blogging. Simply put, I've never been someone who is okay with the idea that I have to do something; teachers throughout my entire educational career will attest to the fact that I've always been heinously bad at meeting homework deadlines or doing assigned reading. Reading ceased to be so much the fun hobby I've always loved it for and became something of a necessity; I felt I had to be reading X number of books per week in order to post about them, or I had to finish a book within a certain time frame in order to publish a review on it.

It also quickly became apparent to me that there's a certain type of person involved in book blogging. That is to say, the type of person who has shelves full of pristine, shiny hardbacks, who reads every new-release novel as soon as they come out and, pertinently, someone who enjoys Young Adult fiction. In short: the type of person I am not. It became apparent to me rather quickly that there is little space in the blogosphere for a bookcase of well-thumbed, dog-eared, broken-spine crime/thriller paperbacks from the 1980s. Not to sound like a piece of shit hipster or anything, but for my twenty-one years, I'm an old soul at heart and book blogging is a young man's game.

To cut all of that waffling short, I became altogether rather disenchanted with the notion of blogging about books. This was never something that I got into for money or for attention, but I did expect some networking opportunities to come out of it. I did, as some of you may recall, also attempt to blog about my life. However that, too, fell rather flat.

As you may know, I'm about to conclude my second year of university, marking the halfway point through my higher education experience. I was never really one to buy into the trite cliché of going to university to find yourself and other such metaphysical sounding bullshit that we like to tell ourselves but I'm afraid I'm going to have reinforce it a little bit right now. These past two  years have left me with more valuable life experience than I ever expected to get from uni, and have genuinely helped me to solidify the direction that I want to go in life - including the direction in which I want to take this blog. I plan to take it in an altogether more 'lifestyle' route; not necessarily with any distinct set theme that will limit what I can and can't post about and constrain me to time limits in the way I felt I was before. Here you'll see everything from uni tips, to recipes, to film and book and music reviews. I give you my word that I'll become more dedicated.

If you read all of this, thank you.

Keep it weird,
Jazz xo
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