The Visit (2015)

I'd heard The Visit isn't a typical horror movie because it's also a comedy. I heard it's part comedy, part horror movie. I also heard there's a trademark M. Night Shyamalan twist at the end. 

IT'S ALL TRUE!

Usually, once I see a movie with a big reveal or twist at the end, the thrill is gone and I wouldn't bother watching it again, but this movie had some really funny scenes and some really creepy scenes and some that were a combination of both, that would make it worth watching again. The kids in the movie, especially the boy, were very realistic, reminding me of certain times when I was a kid, although my grandparents were pretty normal. 

Come to think of it, I was afraid of my grandfather, but that was just me being a wimp.

Dracula: The Love Story

This isn't the first time I've read Dracula and, of course, I've seen Dracula movies, although not recently; but this time I'm really noticing the love story between Jonathan and Mina. Their relationship is so mutually loving and respectful and caring toward each other, that I wonder why I didn't notice it in past readings. 

The first thing that struck me was their special shorthand that they use to communicate to keep their letters private. They must have spent a lot of time together to devise and practice their personal shorthand and, obviously, enjoyed doing it.

Then, when Mina finally learned of Jonathan's whereabouts after his long imprisonment at Castle Dracula, she traveled alone to an unfamiliar place to be with him and help him recover from his trauma. He trusted her with his diary and left it to her judgement, which he respected, to decide when and if she would read it. Even though he was ill and might lose his ability to provide for her, she married him on his sick bed without hesitation, out of pure love.

Once they knew that Dracula had been feeding on Mina and planning to make her a vampire, Jonathan resolved that she would not become a vampire alone. He also vowed to do whatever he could to destroy Dracula and save Mina's life.

Their relationship is not one of practical pairing or convenience like many marriages during that time, but one of deep mutual love and respect. They weren't just husband and wife, but best friends and soul mates.

Monster High: Clawdeen Wolf in Black, Red and a Touch of White

Clawdeen has yet another crocheted original! A ruffly white collar tops a black and red daytime dress. She's howling in style!

Dark Shadows: Episode 456

I like this episode where Naomi and Vicky discuss Vicky's killing Gifford as he tried to strangle Daniel in the graveyard. First, Vicky accidentally calls him David, but quickly corrects herself, then Naomi does the same thing. 

I love the hair and costumes used during the 1795 story line. Naomi's dresses are so beautiful. She looks like she's dressed for a ball every day. She's so brave in her confrontations and power struggle with the greedy, scheming Nathan Forbes and in opening Barnabus' coffin that she finds in the tower room, thanks to the cruel Nathan. What mysteries await in the tower!

I can't wait to see karma take care of Forbes!

Dark Shadows on Hulu: Have More Episodes Been Added?

I was disappointed a while back when I streamed the last Dark Shadows episode available for streaming on Hulu. The last episode available left Victoria Winters trapped in 1795 locked in a jail cell waiting to be hanged as a witch. I thought Hulu should have at least offered enough episodes to get Vicky back to her own time and wrap up the story line. 

Then while searching through my favorites for a different show, I happened past Dark Shadows and the "watch next episode" was displayed. Sure enough, when I clicked on the next episode Vicky was on the run after Peter helped her escape her unjust sentence. What a treat!

There can never be enough Dark Shadows!

Dracula: Bonechilling Biblical Quotation

How lusciously evil for Dracula to use "the word of God" as his own during his arrogant rant to Mina, gloating about her husband and friends' failure to find his lair and destroy him while, in their absence he uses his superior stalking skills to gain access to her bedroom and feed from her veins; the one person the men were trying to protect. 

Dracula's plan is to use her as a blood supply to punish her for scheming to destroy him, then making her his slave, telepathically linking her to him no matter where in the world she is. He tells her she is now "flesh of my flesh; blood of my blood," a biblical line from Genesis as Eve is created from Adam's rib. Another work of fiction. No matter how repulsed by him, she's helpless to resist. Seems like a bone chilling fate worse than death!

Dracula is so arrogant he believes himself a god or at least possessing the same power and will of a god. He believes he's invincible and confident that he will never be destroyed. That's usually a villain's biggest mistake.

World War Z (2013)

If you want to stream World War Z on Netflix, make haste, you only have until September 30. I watched it last night and found that zombies that can run are far more horrifying than the stereotypical slow but steady stumbling type. Can you imagine even one of them running at you? They were really strong too! There were some really suspenseful scenes as well as all out run-for-your-life scenes, which were pretty exciting too. Staring at Brad Pitt for two hours is its own kind of excitement.

However, not having read the novel, I couldn't compare it to the movie, but kept thinking that the book must be so much better than the movie. It usually is. The movie seemed more like a succession of action and suspense rather than actual story and plot. Some background on Reggie and why he and his wife were so adamant about him NOT working for the UN again would have been nice. PTSD? He seemed fine when they were reunited in Nova Scotia so, evidently, the hell he endured in his search for an answer, cause or cure for the zombie disease must have been equal to or less than his past experiences as a UN envoy. And what did his wife do before they settled down to raise a family? She was pretty darn confident and knowledgeable about the use of flares, how to loot and how to survive in an environment of anarchy and lawlessness. 

Like so many movies based on novels, it made me want to read the book!

Gothic Miniature Baby Dolls

A friend at work gave me these two baby dolls, but they were so naked! I made them little diapers and the girl a top, which gave them a gothic baby look. Their plastic open/close eyes are a little creepy.

Monster High: Clawdeen Wolf has a new Halloween Dress!

I designed and crocheted this dress myself. It's the first in a series of dresses I'm planning to design and crochet for my granddaughter who has a nice little collection of Monster High dolls. They will make nice Christmas presents!

Dracula's Cruise Ship to Whitby

Schooners! Bram Stoker moved Dracula and his boxes of dirt into Whitby, England, aboard a schooner named the Demeter. I know I've already posted about the mysterious schooner that entered port during a wild and windy storm that would have torn apart any other ship, but when I got the opportunity to look at some schooners in person, I had to share.

I saw an ad for a schooner fest being held in New London, CT, and had to check it out. It isn't Whitby and it isn't London, but NEW London will do!

It was cool to see them in person anchored at the pier, although in full sail would have been better. I could imagine 50 large boxes of dirt and a vampire's coffin being carried on that ship. Imagine it crashing ashore with the dead captain bound to the wheel!

The Walking Dead: Season 5: Conquer

I was really afraid this was the end for Glenn. Of all the near death situations he's been in, I didn't want him to be killed by that weasely worm, Nicholas. It would have been better if Nicholas and Gabriel both got the ax. Gabriel is the most selfish, weakest loser they've come in contact with. Plus, he killed two walkers without getting a speck of blood on his white shirt. His only talent. He's supposed to be a shepherd, but he only thinks of himself and doesn't learn from his mistakes, even mistakes so horrific that he can't live with them. After leaving Alexandria's gate wide open, he was going to commit suicide-by-Sasha with no consideration of what that would do to her vulnerable grieving mind. You have to hand it to Maggie for not kicking his ass.

Season 5 was Carol's season. She gets better with each season. Carol started the season by rescuing the group from Terminus, and ended it with her superior strategy techniques in Alexandria. The terrifying threat she made to Sam was like a creepy fairy tale, only true! Then she confronted Pete the wife beater with a casserole in her arms and knife at his throat. That was great! Then she puts on an attitude of meekness and sweetness at the town meeting. 

What a season finale too! I was so shocked at Reg's torturous death at the hands of that nut Pete and poor Deanna helplessly holding Reg in her arms as he died, that I sobbed harder than when Rick and Carl were reunited with Judith at the season's start.

I want to see Season 6 so bad, I'm tempted to get cable again. I was pretty spoiled introducing myself to The Walking Dead after Season 4 was already posted on Netflix, so after becoming hooked during the very first episode of Season 1, I power-watched all four seasons. Luckily, my daughter's friend bought Season 5 on DVD and lent it to me after watching it herself. 

Season 6 begins on October 11. Even that small length of time seems like an eternity! Never mind having to wait until the season ends and comes out on DVD. A year from now?

The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 9

What a great episode, but I'm so sad that Tyrese died. It was so cool how all the people whose deaths had affected Tyrese so deeply (except for Karen) came back to communicate with him as his hold on life became weaker. He was such a strong person with such a big heart and strong morale beliefs. Just like real life, we sometimes wonder why someone so good has to die when other rotten evil people live on. 

The graveside service was cool too because in the beginning of the episode, I just assumed the service was for Beth. But at the end of the episode, it was revealed to actually be a funeral for Tyrese. Poor Sasha, losing her brother right after losing Bob.

Do you think the dead people who visited him, Beth, Bob and the girls, were a hallucination or were they really spirits?

Halloween: Tis the Season

The leaves are starting to change, the temps are finally below 90 degrees and all the Halloween decorations are on the shelves in the stores. It's Halloween season! To celebrate the most fun season of the year, my daughter and I watched the original Halloween the other day. I watch it at least once a year, but I haven't seen it in a while. In fact, it's been so long that it still made me jump in a couple of places, like when Laurie (Jaime Lee Curtis) puts the key under the mat at "the old Myers place" where her real estate agent dad is planning to show it later that day. As she turns to walk away Michael Myers pops up and watches her out the window. Creepy!

Halloween is my favorite horror movie, mostly because of its simplicity and ability to send chills up my spine and, as just mentioned, makes me jump. My daughter likes to watch Linda and Bob get killed because she can't stand them. The slashing of teenagers hasn't stopped since Michael Myers stabbed that first girl on Halloween in 1963.

The scariest part is at the end when Michael Myers falls out the second story window after being shot several times and walks away! You can't kill evil.

Dracula: Protecting Mina

Why would the men think that Mina would be safer all alone in the vicinity of Count Dracula than hunting him with them? She's too delicate to break into Carfax to search for the boxes of dirt and to witness whatever they may see in Dracula's lair, but she's OK to be alone where they've all seen Dracula as a bat flying around looking into windows. 

Maybe Stoker was an equal rights advocate who was pointing out how silly it was for them to consider Mina someone who needed to be protected from manual labor and manly pursuits such as vampire hunting. By excluding her from the good stuff and making her go to bed while they went out, they left her totally vulnerable and in a perfect position to be victimized by a vampire or anyone else, even one of the mental patients in Seward's care. 

Mina's husband, Jonathan, doesn't even have a hint that something is amiss when he mention's Mina sleeping extremely late the following morning, being difficult to awaken and looking pale and weak. Her husband wasn't around to see Lucy's symptoms after becoming Dracula's victim, but everyone else was, including Mina. If I were Mina I would have noticed the bite marks as well. 

Maybe they all just assumed she was having her time of the month!

Dracula: An Evil Genius

One would have to be an evil genius to make himself so feared that many generations of an entire population of a region would be too afraid to organize and rid themselves of its horrible presence. Dracula seems to be able to stalk and murder the townspeople without consequence. The one desperately brave mother who pursues Dracula to his castle in an attempt to save her child, is instantly killed as well, silencing the only voice that spoke out against him.

Even in broad daylight would you enter the vampire's lair?

Van Helsing learns that Dracula is thousands of years old, having had direct relations with the devil himself as a scholar in the Scholomance, learning everything evil that the devil had to offer. The Scholomance was the devil's academy for everything magic and dark. Here's a good article on The Scholomance by Jason Colavito. This is where Dracula apparently learned all of his powerful skills that have allowed him to victimize the human population at will while keeping them too terrified to risk an attempt at exterminating him.

Even Jonathan Harker, staring straight into Dracula's face as he rested in his coffin, couldn't bring himself to destroy him as he lay there totally vulnerable, knowing that Dracula had plans to kill him.

Dracula: Modern Technology

Mina Harker transcribed all of her journal entries written in the shorthand she and Jonathan used in their correspondence with each other. She used a typewriter to get it done and make copies for Van Helsing, Seward and Morris to share all the info they had collected about the evil Count Dracula. Mina was a really bright woman who could get things done and use the newest technology to do so. It's strange to think that the typewriter was a new tool and that it wasn't a common piece of equipment like a computer is to us, making the typewriter obsolete. Have you tried using a typewriter lately? What a pain! All that erasing and no copy and paste function.

However, tech savvy and smart Mina is with her typewriter, she's surprised and amazed when she finds Dr. Seward dictating on his phonograph. She comments that she's heard of them, but never seen one before. She's thrilled to witness Seward's demonstration of his phonograph and is eager to learn how it works. Imagine how excited she'd be if she could learn about all the technological gadgets we use these days!

Dracula: Vampires Raising the Coffin Lid vs Slipping Out Between the Cracks

One of the creepiest traditions of vampires in old movies is when they rise from their coffin after the sun goes down. There's an atmosphere of mystery and fearful anticipation as the creaky coffin lid slowly rises when the awakened vampire pushes it up from the inside. This scene was something I never tired of when watching Dark Shadows when Barnabus Collins would rise for the night.

However, in Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula, the basis for most vampire tales, Lucy does not lift the lid of her coffin or push open the squeaky iron gate of her family tomb to enter and exit her coffin. She somehow passes through the sliver-like areas between doorways and coffin covers:

We all looked on in horrified amazement as we saw, when he stood back, the woman (Lucy), with a corporeal body as real at that moment as our own, pass in through the interstice, where scarce a knife-blade could have gone. (Stoker)

I kind of like the creaky coffin bit, but Stoker's method does provide more safety and mystery for the vampire. Van Helsing had to cut through the lead liner after removing the coffin lid to show the others that Lucy was indeed a vampire. Would it have better if he could have simply hid nearby with the men and waited for her to slowly raise that lid on her own?

The Babadook (2014): Psycho Scary

The Babadook (2014) movie is genius on many levels. However, I heard a lot of bad reviews from disappointed viewers (including my daughter) who were hoping for a typical brainless slasher film, but instead found themselves watching something that probably went right over their heads. My daughter said it was boring and nothing scary about it. I don't get it. I was so creeped out afterwards I had to watch a couple of comedies to wash the creepy feeling out of my head before going to bed.

The Babadook "being" was so dark and shadowy with those Nosterafu/Freddy Kruger fingers and a voice like the creepy sound from The Grudge. The book in the movie was terrifyingly cool!  The acting, writing, directing and everything else about the movie was absolutely phenomenal. The grim disapproving expressions on all the faces of the people Amelia (Essie Davis) came in contact with, mostly in positions of authority, just amplified her loneliness and isolation.

 I felt so sorry for that poor family and kept trying to will Amelia to get some help. I hope this movie can be used as a tool to educate the public and others about what depression can do to a person's mind. It's not all moping around and crying in the dark. It can really warp its victim's thinking and there's still a lot of shame in asking for help, especially when the people who can help don't take it seriously, like the cops Amelia spoke to. The doctor wasn't much help either, reluctantly prescribing sedatives for the son as she cried and pleaded for help. 

The ending was a little weird, but I guess if you can't fully rid yourself of your demons, finding a way to keep them at bay is the next best thing.

Dracula: Beware the Creepy Tombs, Trees, Grass and Dogs

In Seward's diary entry Dr. Van Helsing proves to Dr. John Seward, Quincy Morris and Lord Arthur Godalming that their beloved Lucy Westenra has risen from the dead as a vampire. Van Helsing has already brought Seward to Lucy's coffin twice without completely convincing him of the fact. Now, he has brought all three men to the tomb.

As Seward and the other two men wait and watch Van Helsing prepare the tomb for Lucy's rising, Seward describes the atmosphere:

 Never did tombs look so ghastly white; never did cypress or yew, or juniper so seem the embodiment of funereal gloom; never did tree or grass rustle so ominously; never did bough creak so mysteriously; and never did the far-away howling of dogs send such a woeful presage through the night. (Stoker)

Seward's ominous description of his surroundings as he waits to witness the unimaginable horror of   Lucy as a vampire has warped his view of the natural world into something that's unnatural as plants and domestic animals become creepy and foreboding.

Stoker captures this ability of the human mind so well here. I've never waited for anyone to rise from their coffin as a vampire, but I've definitely had the experience where my mood has unnaturally altered my perception of normally innocuous things that we barely notice under normal circumstances. Has this ever happened to you?

Dracula: Van Helsing Breaks into Lucy's Coffin

Dr. Van Helsing was certain that Lucy Westenra had risen from the dead as a vampire and she was what the neighborhood children referred to as "The Bloofer Lady" and wanted to prove his theory to Dr. Seward by taking him to the Westenra family tomb and opening Lucy's coffin.

The Collins mausoleum on the original Dark Shadows TV show is similar to the description in Dr. Seward's journal entry of the Westenra tomb with the creaky door and Van Helsing reading the coffin plates to find Lucy's coffin:

Then he fumbled in his bag, and taking out a matchbox and a piece of candle, proceeded to make a light. The tomb in the daytime, and when wreathed with fresh flowers, had looked grim and gruesome enough; but now, some days afterwards, when the flowers hung lank and dead, their whites turning to rust and their greens to browns; when the spider and the beetle had resumed their accustomed dominance; where time-discoloured stone, and dust-encrusted mortar, and rusty, dank iron and tarnished brass, and clouded silver-plating gave back the feeble glimmer of a candle, the effect was more miserable and sordid that could have been imagined. (Stoker)

Isn't that great imagery? The dust and rust and creaking iron gate, the dead flowers, the empty coffin!

Dracula: The Bloofer Lady

How times have changed! According to the "Westminster Gazette" in Dracula young children have been wandering away from their homes or not coming home from playing on the heath. A couple of them go missing for the entire night, not returning home until morning. Even after their return home with bite marks on their necks and explain that they were lured away by the "Bloofer Lady," people make light of it. The neighborhood children make a game pretending to be the Bloofer Lady and lure little children away from their homes. Adults find this amusing and play the Bloofer Lady at outdoor performances.

Under the circumstances, don't you think people would be watching their kids a little closer and not allowing them outdoors after sundown and teaching them not to talk to strangers? If that happened now parents would be imprisoning their kids in their homes, barely allowing them out to go to school.

Apparently not, because later the same day the Gazette reports another pale child had been discovered that morning under a bush on a remote side of Hampstead Heath. Did the Bloofer Lady, (who we learn is Lucy Westenra risen from the dead) lure them away with her vampire powers or a sweet treat?

Being Human (UK) Season 1, Episode 1

Being Human (UK) was ranked the #2 best vampire TV show in an article on metacritic.com so as I had a craving for vampires, I found it on Hulu and watched the first episode. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was listed as #1, but I've already seen all the episodes of Buffy; not recently, but I've seen them. I was tempted to watch them all again because I love that show, but I need to expand my horizons and try new things. 

The first episode of Being Human (UK) is really good and, like The Walking Dead, drew me right in, so I'll definitely watch the remaining 35 episodes. I didn't think it was that scary until I left the room to use the bathroom and expected werewolves and vampires to jump out of the dark corners of the house and accost me on my way by. Obviously, I thought wrong! The most horrific scene was when Annie watched George transform into a werewolf. It seemed so realistic and the expression on her face when the wolf came toward her when she called his name made it even more frightening.

The comedy balances out the horror, sadness and regret that goes along with being dead people trying to live a "normal" human life alongside live humans. George's nervous response to Owen the landlord, and ghost roommate Annie's fiance, when he asked George to explain the noise upstairs was hilarious. The writing and the acting in this show is really good. I hope the rest of the series is just as good as the first episode!

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

After all these years, I finally watched Sleepy Hollow! Better late than never to see a movie where Johnny Depp is so cute that it really doesn't matter what the movie is about. However, the movie was really entertaining, more comedy than horror. With Tim Burton's direction Sleepy Hollow was darkly charming like Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, etc.

Right away I observed that the story took place in the same time period that Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights was set. What a cool coincidence! Even though the two stories took place on opposite shores of the Atlantic, seeing the settings and costumes made me wonder if Catherine Earnhart Linton's dresses were similar to those of Lady Van Tassel (Miranda Richardson). Lady Van Tassel's evil vengeful machinations made Heathcliff''s seem like a spoiled school boy's tantrum. 

Christopher Walken is so cool and I had no idea he was in it, let alone as the crazy Hessian killer who became the headless horseman! That was like hot fudge topping on my ice cream with Christopher Lee on top.

Sleepy Hollow was a really good movie that was worth the wait. What other good movies from the 90s did I miss?

Dracula: Lucy's Funeral Flowers

Lucy's youth and beauty is restored after her body is attended to by the undertaker in such an amazing restoration that Dr. Seward and her fiance Arthur can hardly believe that she's dead. Only Dr. Van Helsing knows the gruesome secret of her unnatural transformation. As they leave her coffin where she's swathed in drapery and decorated with lilies, roses and garlic flowers, Dr. Seward writes in his journal:

"Van Helsing did not go to bed at all. He went to and fro as if patrolling the house and was never out of sight of the room where Lucy lay in her coffin, strewn with the wild garlic flowers, which sent, through the odour of lily and rose, a heavy, overpowering smell into the night."

Earlier in Dr. Seward's journal when he reports that Lucy's beauty and youth have returned as she lay in her coffin, Van Helsing lifts the sheet away from her mouth to lay his gold cross over her lips. The mention of the sheet reminded me of the drapery mentioned in Catherine Earnshaw Linton's funeral arrangements when Nelly arranges it around her face in Wuthering Heights.

Mostly the visualization of all the flowers in the candle lit room with young beautiful Lucy's corpse in the coffin and then the strong odor of the garlic overpowering the scents of lilies and roses is so intense, I can almost smell it myself. Stoker's strong description of the scent of flowers and garlic, without using words, points out to the reader that there is absolutely no natural odor of decomposition, which is what the flowers are used traditionally to mask. Regardless of the beauty and aroma in the room, there's something very mysterious and unnatural as well.

Black Sunday (1960)

Black Sunday (La maschera del demonio (original title)) is an Italian horror movie from 1961, directed by the great Mario Bava. It's dubbed in English, so no subtitles to read. This movie went from campy to scary and back again. The beginning lays out the history of a witch trial in the 17th century, which is a good story in itself, and then fast forwards to the 19th century where the descendants of the witch have an underlying feeling of gloom and doom that they can't understand until all hell breaks loose.

There are bats, fog, a creepy castle with a crypt beneath an abandoned chapel, vampires rising from the dead and corpses turning up all over the place. The scenery, atmosphere and story were creepy and well done, but the dialogue and acting in some scenes was so over-the-top dramatic that it was funny. It's a scary movie with little hope for a happy ending as the young Dr. Gorobec (John Richardson) tries to get to the bottom of the horrific happenings. 

Then enters the priest. He's not much of a talker as he listens to the young doctor rant about all the freaky events at the castle and his desire to save the beautiful princess, played by the wonderful Barbara Steele (in a dual role as Asa the witch). As the doctor speaks, the priest wears this odd half smile the entire time with his buggy eyes and cheap wig. I laughed out loud during the conversation:

Dr Gorobec: The maid's daughter claimed to have seen Dr. Kruvajan get in the carriage to come to the castle. It wasn't the castle's driver though. The driver resembled the man in the portrait at the castle.

Priest: The portrait that hangs by the fireplace?

Dr Gorobec: Yes.

Priest: The portrait of the man who died 200 years ago?

Dr Gorobec: Yes. What's so special about the man in the portrait?

Priest: (His eyes seem to get even bigger) Nothing.

Ha!

However, the odd priest was instrumental in helping to rid the castle of the evil curse, but he was a weird one! You can check this movie out on Netflix.

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

Snow White and the Huntsman's Queen Ravenna's (Charlize Theron) need to suck the youth out of the kingdom's girls to maintain her own perpetual youth and beauty is similar to the crazy medieval Blood Countess of Slovakia, Elizabeth Bathory, who killed hundreds of girls to bathe in their blood to maintain her own youth. The difference is that Ravenna was able to use other females to remain young and beautiful with the help of a magic spell, while Bathory was just a sadistic nut because we all know that doesn't work.

Fairy tale remakes are cool, so this new twist on Snow White intrigued me. The movie cast Snow White (Kristen Stewart) as more of a self-possessed fighter standing up for the oppressed and not as a helpless domestic servant for the dwarfs waiting around to be rescued. It was cool that Snow White was not only the key to giving Ravenna eternal life and beauty, but was also the one person who could kill her. 

I'm a fan of computer generated imagery, which was used nicely to create the coolest effects like the magic mirror, the dark forest creepy crawlies and those cool little fairies. I really liked the fairy land and everything in it. The evil queen's transformations and her ravens were cool too, especially in the forest after Snow White bit the poison apple.

At the end of the movie Snow White was crowned as queen standing alone as lone ruler with her choice of lovers, which was apparently the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth), since his kiss and not her childhood friend William's, was the kiss to bring her back to life after biting the poison apple. The ending was set up nicely for a sequel as Snow White stands in front of her throne watching the Huntsman pass discreetly behind the crowd. Who would have guessed that the sequel would become a prequel?