What makes a scary movie scary?

     I have seen so many good scary movies, and some that are not so good.  Some directors know how to scare their audiences and know how to create suspense and horror.  Scary movies don't just happen by accident but you have to know what you are doing, and everything has to go together in unison.  The director has to understand the audience and know what relates to them to create a successful and likeable horror movie.
   The special effects is probably the most important factor of a scary movie.  Without the blood, deformed looking mutant monster or creating them to look monstrous, you would not have a scary movie.  Technology has come along way, the scary movies that you've watched when you were a little kid is quite different from the one's today.  The scary movies nowadays have better special effects and  a lot more frightening.
    The dedication of the director is important too.  If a director is dedicated and passionate about making the greatest horror movie, chances are he will succeed.  If you love what you do and could spend hours on creating a twisted plot and putting things together to make it happen, your dedication will not be wasted.  If the first horror movie doesn't turn out the way you want it to be, you will not give up but continue to try until it's perfect.
   The timing in the scary movie is important, when it come to timing, that's where the suspense and horror starts.  Many people don't like how the first 30 minutes of the movie, nothing scary happens and automatically think that it's not going to be a good horror movie.  Let me tell you, that's not necessarily true, the first half hour to 45 minutes is when you learn about the characters and the story so that when you watch on you have an understanding of the story.  After that,  the creepy deformed monster shows up.  What makes it more suspenseful is that one character in the movie knows about the monster but gets killed from the monster.  The rest of the character don't know about it and when the time is right, Boom! The monster comes and snatches of them and that's when the climax starts.
     Music and sound effects are also important  in creating the creepy eerie mood for a scary movie.  In all of the scary movies, when the monster walks up to the character and their is usually no sound except for the loud footsteps of the  monster and the loud breathing of the character, that creates suspense and you know that the monster is going to get him or her.  In the movie Jaws, when the shark comes up to snatch the girl, the theme sound captures you makes you want to turn away.
    I think that every little detail in a scary movie contributes to having a good scary movie, timing needs to be perfect, sound effects and music needs to be frightening, special effects shouldn't be cheap and the dedication of director is important too.
 

My opinion on the Christopher Nolan trilogy of The Batman

      Batman has been very popular with audiences these past decades, and probably one of the most respectable super heroes, of all time.  Batman is known for protecting Gotham city from crime, and for his exotic weapons.  He is fearless, strong, powerful, and seeks justice.  Batman originally was comic book, but later it was adapted into movies in the mid 1900s.  I have only seen the Christopher Nolan series, which is the most recent sequel that was produced.  The sequel includes, Batman Begins, The Dark Night, and The Dark Night Rises.  The director, Christopher Nolan did a phenomenal job in directing the Batman movies.  All three of the movies were fantastic, thrilling, captivating, and was a modern masterpiece that goes beyond your expectations for an action movie. 
      What stood out of this trilogy than the other Batman movies before this, was the fact that Nolan knew how to capture the audiences attention.  The trilogy had a main character that was unforgettable, Christian Bale is simply charming and has the personality and the looks to become Batman on television.  Bruce Wayne, the flawed but self-sacrificing character is a complex and deep character, and Nolan's films presented him as the type of hero he was born to be.  Nolan did not portray him as the typical superhero that is good, fighting evil villains to save the world.  He captured Bruce Wayne as a typical person who has suffered insecurities and loss hoping to avenge his parent's death by getting rid of crime, proving that a typical man could be a superhero.  The special effects Nolan created was exceptional, the explosions in the Dark Knight Rises were so real, and the sounds were over the top.  The villains in the film were frightening, mysterious, and psychotic.  In the Dark Knight, Jack Nicholson who played the Joker was mysterious and showed the darkness in each of us.  He wasn't your typical villain that hopes to gain something by doing bad, but he was a psychopath that terrorized people to show his dark side.  Nolan brought a great team on set during the Batman trilogy, Moran Freeman, Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Hardy.  The actors and actresses knew how to carry out their role.  Nolan also knew how to write the sequel for Batman.  The storyline was complex but interesting.   In Batman begins, he talks about how Batman became Batman, his second one was about the joker and the third one was his last one that concluded him being done with crime fighting and have Robin take his place. 

My debate on The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks

         I read this novel my sophomore year in my AP biology class, this book is more of an educational and biological piece.  The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks raises the questions of scientific ethics in the mid 1900s.  In this narrative writing, Rebecca Skloot takes a closer look at Henrietta Lacks' life and her immortal cells.  
          Rebecca Skloot took years in writing this book, organizing, and processing the facts she got from Henrietta's family, as well as getting their approval of publishing it.  After the death of Henrietta Lacks, her family had no knowledge of her surviving cells known as "immortal",  because they kept on dividing and are still alive to this day.  Researchers took her cancerous cells and began experimenting with it, and companies made millions from her cells.  All the family was ever told was that these HeLa cells were helping to cure other diseases, and they were, these cells help make the first polio vaccine.  You can imagine how curious Henrietta's family were, thirsting for knowledge of their mom's cells.  All these questions of how? and what?  This topic is a topic of controversy and discussion.  Is it right to experiment on her immortal cells without the consent of her family members?
        In my opinion I felt like it was wrong and unethical for researchers to grow her cells and experiment with them  without the families consent.  Although it did provide a pathway for cures and an understanding of cancer cells.  Henrietta's family didn't benefit at all from it.  They were still living in poverty and had no answers for HeLa's cells.  It was not until decades later, the Lacks family got the answers they deserve.  On the issue of Nature, Francis Collins goes deeper into the Lacks family and discusses with the family about the possibility of releasing the HeLa genome data.  Collins refers to HeLa cells as "unique", eventually the family agrees to release Henrietta's genome.  Thank goodness this controversy is settled and may Henrietta Lacks  live in peace now, knowing that what her cells have done in the medical field and her families decision of releasing her genome.

Bucket reading list Rooftops of Tehran

       Rooftops of Tehran was on the top of my reading list this summer.  The story is  richly rendered, about courage, sacrifice, and the bonds of friendship and love.  Mahbod Seraji opens the door to the fascinating world of Iran and provides a glimpse into the life and customs of a country on the verge of a revolution.  Its a love story about the lives of two teenagers living in the Iranian revolution and their process of trying to grow up in the era of the Shah.  Seraji brings humor, emotion, and tragedy into the lives of the characters.  He clearly makes us understand the brutality of the dictatorship during the Iranian revolution.  He brings historical context into an appealing bittersweet love story.
       Many people understand Iran, as a hateful country full of war, hatred, and terrorism, this is what the media portrays it as.  Seraji tells another side of Iran through his characters, he chose to tell the story of hope, friendship, love and humor.  He acquaints his readers about Iran, by bringing a clash of the Persian culture and telling the lives of the regular citizens in Iran.  He portrays the picture of innocence in a country that is going through turmoil.
     I was captured by the book from the beginning because of the rich description the author makes in making the characters, it almost feels like Deja vu.  By the end of the book, you know and you can describe the characters personality and their life.  I felt like I was with the characters during their time of woe, and during their time of happiness.  The setting of this book in the beginning is in a psychiatric hospital, you know from that moment that something is happening.  A couple of chapters later the setting changes to the rooftop where Pasha is spending his summer with Zari.  It kind of makes you want to read on until you find out why he was in the psychiatric hospital.  Even in the beginning of the book I was wondering why, and how the character is in the psychiatric hospital.  I think what made me want to read this till the very end was the way the author wrote the book.  He put a glimpse of the climax in the beginning of the book to make the reader wonder what happened to the character so the reader would read on.  As the reader reads on, the reader is putting the pieces together through the clues the author made.  What makes this novel funny is the portrayal of the teachers.  The witty characteristics of the teacher just makes you laugh. This book is heart warming but also heart breaking at times.  Rooftops of Tehran is definitely a must read novel for audiences that have a high expectations for books, it won't disappoint you      

Is Noah from the Notebook every girl's dream guy?

 

           

Everybody probably have seen the movie or read the book by Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook, or at least the girls.  Noah, the muscular, dreamy guy relentlessly asks Ally to go on a date with him and will not take no for an answer, but Ally eventually said yes and ends up in love with him.  Ryan Gosling the guy that plays Noah captured so many American’s hearts of being the perfect dream guy in the movie.  He wrote 365 letters to Ally while she was away, built the white house for her while she was with another guy, read to her every day when she had Dementia, and most importantly he never stopped loving her.  Noah’s actions captivated so many Americans, and also simply because the movie had a good story plot.  I mean who wouldn't fall in love with a guy that is so committed to you?

            Every girl that has seen the Notebook is probably in love with Noah, because of his charm, personality, and he knows how to love a girl.  I truly think that Noah is America’s sweetheart and America’s dream guy.  I mean if I was a girl and I had a guy that treated me like that, I would fall head over heels in love with him.   When I found out that Duke was Noah I was surprised, I was surprised that for seven years he read to Ally every single day hoping Ally would regain her memory or would remember something.  His undying and unconditional love for Ally really brought the audience’s attention, and I think that’s why Noah is every girl’s perfect dream guy.  Noah never gave up hope on Ally when she couldn’t remember anything, but was patience and calm with her.  When Ally did regain some of that memory he cherished that moment, and made it special.  His dedication to Ally was what made the audience love him.

            Nicholas Sparks, the author of The Notebook was inspired by his wife’s grandparent’s life, so he sought out to write a book about it.  Most of Nicholas’ Sparks books have the theme of love, and most were inspired by his life or his families.  I feel like he does a wonderful job writing his books.  The story line is clear and understandable that doesn’t leave you wondering, what the heck did I just read?  But rather it makes you want to read more of his books until the end.  I have read almost all of his books, and they are good.  His books to me are like a drug, I have to finish reading the entire book before I can do anything else.

            To me, Noah is the sweetest guy that any girl would fall in love with.  In the story you can see how much he loves Ally.  I would have to say, Noah is every girl’s dream guy.

           

 

Movies and books came a long way

Books and movies are probably the best kind of entertainment in the 21st century.  People began reading and writing books during prehistoric times, not necessarily words, but they had pictographs that they can communicate and read with.  However movies were developed later, the first ever movie was made in 1903.   Of course when the first movie came out it wasn't like what we have been watching in the 21st century, high definition quality,  the compelling sound effects, and cool and realistic special effects.  The movies that  were developed back in the days were black and white, had glitches, didn't have the cool special effects, and were not as convenient.  We have come a long way since, I still remember back when i was about 4, we still had VCRs, and we would watch movies and record on our VCR.  A couple years later the DVD player came out.  It was smaller than the VCR, more convenient and had better quality.  What's new now? Blu ray discs, they have even better quality than the regular discs and some include never before seen footage or special features.  Books and movies have changed throughout the ages too.  Back in the 15th 16th centuries, probably the most important book to people were religious texts, then people began writing stories and with the help of the printing press they could replicate books faster and more people began to read while it became available to them.  The books that were written before our time were very different from today's books.  Nowadays you could read possibly about anything and the language has changed so much.  Words have been modernized  and some authors in my opinion write so we could understand it through simpler words.  Before our time, the books, to me, seem so learned.  The words that the author used had a very high vocabulary.  Like Shakespeare's play Hamlet, their is so much vocabulary that most of you might not know, because we have never heard of the words before or never used it before.  Even though books and movies have come a long way the concept has always been the same, movies and books are educational, a form of entertainment and a great way to spend your leisure time.  Throughout the blogs, I will be writing some of my favorite books and movies and I'll be discussing them also.  I hope you will be enjoying as much as I do reading books and watching movies