It Looks…as Though We are Being Kidnapped: Five Were Missing

Day 22) V is for Vanished: Choose a book with a missing person

Five Were Missing (originally published as Ransom) by Lois Duncan

So I have just discovered that Lois Duncan past away in June of this year. I would like to dedicate this post to her amazing style and storytelling.

And I truly mean it

So as I have said before, I love libraries:

I have always thought the library was the best place to be:

I used to just roam the stacks looking for the next thing to read and become emotionally invested in.

One day as I was looking, I found this book Ransom by Lois Duncan. I had never heard of Duncan before and had never read her books, so boy was I in for a surprise.

Wow

She has written all kinds of novels but is most known for her teenage suspense books. She is an amazing writer in how she crafts her characters. Just fantastic.

After this I read Killing Mr. Griffen, and there are the rest of her books I am planning on reading and haven’t gotten to yet.

Another reason why this book is so perfect to review is not only do I give you not one but FIVE missing people, and this year marks the book’s 50th anniversary!

Carl and her married!!!

The day started off normal for the group of kids taking the bus from school to their neighborhoods. So as the bus takes the children to all their destinations, the driver makes a lot of mistakes.

Bruce Kirtland offers to help the new bus driver, directing him to every stop.

After that five kids remain, all headed for the housing development called Valley Gardens, the “rich” part of town. Even with Bruce, the new bus driver passes right by. He goes way past it and then heads off to pick up “a friend.”

His friend turns out to be the muscle.

And they are being kidnapped.

AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes these five will have to work together to figure a way out of this.

First we have Marianne Paget. Her father and mother divorced a few years ago, leaving her mother with nothing but the house. Her mother remarried, a boring newspaper writer, Rod Donovan, who is nothing like her father. Rod actually tried to pick her up from school, but she defiantly refused. The only bright spot in being kidnapped is that her mother will have to call her father to ask for money. This might cause them to be reunited, the Paget family again! That is, if she survives. But tough little Marianne will learn some family secrets during this trial.

Glenn Kirtland was taking the bus because his car was at the shop being worked on. If he had had it, him and Marianne would have been out of there. He’s not that upset about being kidnapped or the money; but the fact that he superjock and most popular guy is being kidnapped, like a wimp or loser. Glenn is set on getting out of there, no matter what, even though his parents have enough money.

Bruce Kirtland, Glenn’s little brother, is a freshman and in most eyes; a “nobody”. He doesn’t care as he loves his brother and doesn’t mind being in his shadow. He pulls his strength from Glenn, but before this over he will learn a lot about his brother and himself.

Jesse French is an army brat and has been all over the world. She has grown up mostly home-schooled and spending a lot of time by herself. Her mother wants her to have a normal life and friends, so they rent a house in Valley Gardens. Her mother is disappointed as nothing seems to have changed with Jesse.  But now Jesse will have to draw on all her inner strength, army training, to get through this ordeal. Especially as her family has no money to pay a ransom.

Dexter Barton is from New York and also a recent transplant to the area. Having suffered from polio as a child, he cannot use his right side as well, the most trouble being in his arm. He fell in love with a girl, but when he overheard her cruel words about his body, it created a chip on his shoulder as he isolates himself from everyone. When his parents die in an accident, he is sent to live with his uncle in New Mexico, residing in Valley Gardens. His uncle is rich, but never around, something that doesn’t bother Dexter as he prefers being alone. But now, with his uncle being unreachable, how will he get out of here?

Will these kids make it out okay? Or will this be their last bus ride?

Just fantastic! I loved it so much that when I came across an old copy I bought it instantly and read it thoroughly. I highly recommend that you all read it and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

To start the 30 Day Challenge from the beginning, go to It Was a Pleasure to Burn: Fahrenheit 451

For the previous post, go to People Have to Snatch at Happiness When They Can in This World. It is Always Easier to Lose Than to Find: O Pioneers!

For more on kidnapping, go to But the Book, It Will Never Close…: Along Came a Spider (2001)

As we are talking about kidnapping and trying to get away, what better song than Run, Rudolph, Run also known as Run, Run, Rudolph.

This song was written by Johnny Marks, the one who wrote Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Marvin Brodie. It was sung by Chuck Berry in 1958 and was #69 in the top 100 of 1958 and peaking on #36 on the UK list of 1963.

It has been in ton of Christmas films, like my favorites Home Alone:

And Jingle All the Way:

A great and fun, fast paced, rockin’ song.

For more on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, go to I Hate Those Kinds of People

For more Christmas carols, go to Le Fantôme de l’Opéra

A Bump in the Night

One of the scariest things that can happen is when you hear strange noises and are home alone.

So this past weekend I was home alone with my three pets. I was just chilling, watching TV when all of a sudden I heard “Bump, bump, bump.”Almost as if someone was knocking on the windows.

I looked around but couldn’t find anything.

Strange.

So I decided to ignore it.

So I continued watching TV and I heard the banging again.

I’m scared!

So I decided it must be one of the dogs, maybe he got stuck in one of the rooms. I called him, but it turned out he was hiding in the top cushions of the couch next to me.

Okay I’m not going to lie, one of the scariest things is when you are home alone and you hear strange noises. I started to worry that it might be somebody trying to get into the house.

Oh Crap!

So I looked around the house and outside, but I couldn’t find anything.

And the bang, bang, bang continued…

So I’m not going to lie, being a fan of Supernatural, my mind did go there.

I decided that it was time to look around outside and see what was the cause of this noise.

Yes I know horror films, I know that usually meet disaster, but I decided I needed some proof before I called for help. So I armed myself and headed out.

I don’t actually own a gun so I brought out a bat instead.

And was ready to meet anything out there.

That’s right, you don’t want to mess with me.

Don’t mess with me!

I went out and found…………………………………………………………..

*GASP*

IT WAS A…..

Ahhh!

Bird.

Yes a little bird had flown in the open door that lead to our indoor pool. It had gotten stuck and was trying to find a way out. Every now and then it would stop and rest on the wooden beams, which was the same color and hid it from view. That’s why I couldn’t find it when it stopped banging on the windows in its attempts to get out.

It took about an hour, but I managed to free it from the room and release it back into the wild. Yep, mission accomplished.

For more Supernatural, go to Back in Black

For more events from my everyday life, go to Death By an Alarming Rate

You Will Die in Seven Days: The Ring (2002)

“You will die in seven days…”

So many of you might remember the post I did a year ago on Ringu, the original Japanese film. I had watched Ringu because I had heard that it was far creepier and better version that the American one. However, I found that to be false, with The Ring being the creepier one of the two. This was mostly due to the actors, some story changes, and a better explanation of Samarra. But more than anything else, my own personal connection to the film (I’ll mention that at the end).

So I was home alone one night (my roommates were all out of town for the weekend) and decided that I would spend the night in watching films. I had spotted this at the library and decided that it was perfect film for the occasion. I decided that instead of watching it alone in the living room, I would watch it in my room with the lights off. You know, set the “creepy mood”.

So the story is pretty similar to the Japanese film. You have two girls who are talking about a cabin weekend that one of the girls, Katie, had gone to. Suddenly the topic of a cursed videotape comes up. If you watch this tape you will die in seven days. After her niece dies, the main character, Rachel (Naomi Watts) starts tracking down what caused her death and gets caught up in a supernatural mystery. (For more info check out Ringu or watch the film).

So what made this film much creepier than the original? Let’s get started.

1. Lighting/Set Design

I’m not sure where the story takes place but it is always raining and gloomy. Plus the camera crew gave the whole movie this blue tint when filming which also adds to the creepiness/horror film feel to it.

 

2. The Kid

In the first film Yoshi wasn’t really in the film that much. He had the nightmares and could hear his cousin “calling” to him, but that was mostly it. He watches the video, which leads his mother to try even harder to discover how to stop it. He then gets dropped off at his grandfather’s house for a bit and we don’t see him until the end of the film.

In the remake this kid is SUPER CREEPY

He’s kinda like Cole from The Sixth Sense, that is if Cole wasn’t a cutie. I mean this kid is an uber creep as he only talks in monotone, and doesn’t act like a kid at all-more like a 30 year old man. To top it off he even draws strange murderous pictures. Horrifying.

AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3) The Video

So The Ring came out four years after Ringu and had much better special effects, not gonna lie about that. And the video was much more creepy in this film. Freaky, emphasis on the FREAK.

4. Samara/Background Explanation

So in the original film we don’t get a full background on her. We find out that a professor was looking into studies of mental telepathy and other things like that. He found a woman that has this ability and the two end up having a child that for some reason is more powerful, and CRAZY! The main character’s ex-husband also just happens to have this ability. That’s it. That’s all we get.

How does it pass down? Why does the husband have it? Is that why they got a divorce? Why was the girl so much stronger? Why did she kill all the horses?

In the remake they give her a weirder background that explains her murderous tendencies. She was almost drowned as a baby, taken away from her family, and then put into social services. She has a history of trying to get attention/be the center of attention. She was adopted by a couple that really wanted kids but she was unlike anything they had ever seen. She started to develop these powers that freaked out her parents as she was getting into their minds.

AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She goes to a psychiatric hospital and is questioned and treated, causing her to react as a kid would with anger. She kills her doctor and gets sent back home to the horse ranch.

To prevent her from harming anyone, they put her up in the barn away from everyone else with only a TV set. This makes her very angry.

She gets very jealous and kills all the horses by making them go insane. To her adoptive mother, Anna, those were her children. She loved them and cared for them. She has a complete mental breakdown and gets sent to a sanatarium. After she is released the family goes to the mountains and she kills Samarra by throwing her down a well, and them committing suicide herself.

It may be strange, but explains things a whole lot more than the original. Plus it is very creepy.

So personal connection.

As I mentioned earlier, I was home alone. I had 5 housemates; 3 were staying the night at their boyfriends house and 2 had gone home to see her parents. My actual roommate had gone home to see her parents and wasn’t coming back until the next day. Instead of chilling in the living room, I took my food into my bedroom, along with the film.

So I was watching the film and had just gotten to the part when Rachel has watched the tape and received the call that in seven days she will die. Just as she has hung up her phone, my phone rings!

AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I pause the film and reach for the phone, shakily saying hello as its ringing scared the bejeezus out of me.

It was just my sister. She had an idea for something and wanted to bounce it off me.

Phew!

So I go back to watching the film. As I reach the part when Samarra comes out of the TV

My door starts to open.

AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So let me explain campus security. The dorms I was living in were like townhouses. They had 4 bedrooms-2 singles & 2 doubles. Every student was given an ID card that held campus money, allowed us to check out books, go into the rec center & dining hall, and most importantly our rooms. We had two doors to the dorms that were set to only accept the cards of the people of the house. Besides running your card through the slot (like a debit card) each member of the house had a unique four-digit number to gain access. A card wasn’t enough, you had to use your code as well. Plus the code had to match the card or else you were out of luck.

To make that even more impressive, every room was encoded to only accept the occupant’s card. My roommate and I were the only ones who could into my room, unless someone had one of our cards. (The codes were only for the front & back doors.)

So you can see why I was freaked out. Everyone had made plans to be gone, defintely be gone. But yet here was my door opening and someone or something entering.

AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It being really dark and the fact that the rooms were L-shaped (therefore making it hard to see “who” was exactly coming in through the door) didn’t help that much.

Of course, as I’m sure you all have figured out by now it was just my roommate. It turns out she had changed her mind and decided to come home early.

This experience made the film much more exciting, although anything that happened in the film afterward that last scare was pretty anti-climatic.

So It was a pretty great film and I suggest you check it out.

And I’m not just trying to pass it off to save myself from being killed. LOL

To start Horrorfest III from the beginning, go to Even a Man Pure of Heart

To go to the previous post, go to You Think You Know Something, Do You?

For more on Ringu, go to That Video…Is Not of This World

For more on real life mimicking horror films, go to Krueger Town 

For more evil children, go to He Who Walks Behind the Rows

For more on remakes, go to Let Them Fight

For more films that spanned sequels, go to It’s Happening Again, Isn’t It?

For more on Supernatural, go to I’m Batman!