Hell Reviews: Scream Street the TV series.

I know, I know…”Hell, this is meant to be book Wednesday, this isn’t a book!”

I’m sorry, I’m cheating a little today.

Now those of you who were here the other week, probably being no-one but you know, would remember that I did a review on a children’s book series called Scream Street and in that review I mentioned a show being made from it.

If you wish to see that, it's here: http://hellrreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/hell-reviews-scream-street-by-tommy.html

So I am going to review the show based on the book.

It was around mid-February that I found out that a long awaited cartoon had been made from it, first airing in October of 2015 apparently.

I’d missed it completely, but the magical thing called internet certainly helped me discover what I’d missed….kind of.
I’ve only seen a few episodes as the entire catalogue seems kind of difficult to find online all in one place, even on their own website, but you can play a game to make yourself a scary monster!
From the ones I found I watched about two episodes and was highly disappointed to the point where I couldn’t actually watch anymore.

The books have this amazing story about three friends finding relics to get the parents of one of their group home to live normal lives by the standards of humans, and people have been crying for a TV series to be made from this premise and characters.

So why did they make a show that only seemed to use the characters and not the fascinating story?

The creators had this whole, magical story to work with and instead they went for fifteen minute stories that don’t relate in anyway to anything and I’m failing to understand why. One of the ones I watched was about a renegade hoover.

Some of the characters have had some strange design alterations and one has been changed completely!
Bella Negative seems to have ditched her original vampire looking designs from the book illustrations to horrible, tacky clothes that you see people on Jeremy Kyle usually wearing.
Luella went from being a beautiful witch with a daughter called Poppy to a teenage trainee witch with a thing for Resus.
Why?
Not a clue.
Despite only being in one book she was her own character who fit in well with the original story and now they’ve shifted her to a teenage fangirl.

The animation also jars me, I think it’s kind of ugly to be honest. There’s not much I can say about it aside from I really don’t like it, but this would probably be because I kind of liked the scruffy looking illustrations from the book and the designs from the show just don’t sit well with me.

 

(My favourite book cover to date)

(Resus' design on the show.)

However I know I am not the demographic for this show and it’s not made to entertain me, I just can’t help but feel let down by what CBBC produced from a story that would have translated so well on the screen if it had been followed.

Maybe this was their intent?

To tell a different story away from what you’ve already read, little bits and pieces of 'normal' life in between their adventures, but there are children out there who don’t read and aren’t encouraged to who will miss out on the original plot that I think would really entertain them.

The show was put up for an award however, so it seems that I don’t know anything and should keep hushed as a casual TV viewer.

The original author Tommy Donbavand, who is an awesome guy from what I’ve seen and thumbs up to him for keeping the series going with e-books, seems happy with the end result and I suppose that is ultimately what matters.

Not everything will be to everyone’s taste, and this is one thing where I will simply stick to the books.

Hell Reviews: Ginger Snaps

Synopsis: Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins) are two teenage sisters fed up with the routine of high school, dating and parents. They long for something which would bring a little excitement into their lives, but when Ginger is attacked by a werewolf it's maybe a little too much, too soon. Over the following months, Ginger undergoes some surprising physical and psychological transformations. Brigitte does her best to fight against the changes and win her sister back, but with Ginger having now infected her boyfriend Jason (Jesse Moss), it seems that she might be fighting a losing battle.

I first watching Ginger Snaps years ago, back when I lived in our old house...which is scary to think that was over ten years ago now! It was my first official horror film after being frightened by a bit of Hellraiser that I saw a few years earlier.
It was late one night and I was lounging around with my mum when she spotted it and said we could watch it together, I believe this may have been on the Syfy channel when it was still called Sci-Fi, and it was a UK premiere.
This would have been around the time I was first starting to get into horror as a genre, I loved dragons and vampires, long before I took a liking to werewolves, but it seemed interesting and I figured 'screw it, a nice easy film to watch with my mum'.
In the end, I loved it.

I've rewatched it quite a few times since then, and although it doesn't seem to hold up as well as I remember it, I still think it's a great film.
The way they mix lycanthropy with puberty was pretty clever and Ginger's transformation was a great, relatively slow progress when compared to other werewolf films. I liked the slow progress of the change rather than a super rapid transformation, it was nice to see something more based on the emotional relationship between the sister's than having it pushed to one side to make room for action.
As a girl who was just entering the old puberty cycle, it seemed like an interesting take on the subject compared to the old 'What's happening to me' books, which whilst interesting really lack the fun factor. They really need some horror versions of those books for the creepy dudes and dudettes out there.
It's a film where you can definitely see why it's been classed as a revolutionary film for its genre, whether you enjoyed it personally or not.

Both the main actresses did a good job and this was my first introduction to Katharine Isabelle, who I officially class as my favourite actress. Emily Perkins did an amazing job in her role, but it was Katharine that was perhaps my first 'girl crush', I think she's absolutely gorgeous and I loved the design of her partially turned phase which is represented on a film poster that was sadly didn't get over here in the UK.

I also love how both these girls go on to have roles in Supernatural, with Emily playing a role that is so different from what I'm used to seeing her in. (A role that some have actually found insulting, to an understandable degree.)

This isn't to say that the film didn't have any faults, as all films do, but I never really found any that took me out of what I was watching and made me lose track of anything that was going on whilst I contemplated why they'd make such a decision or miss such an easily edited detail.
I mean sure, the girl who liked to tease Ginger and Brigitte seemed a little bit unneeded and unbelievable, but she has hardly any screen time and there is one moment where the music and way it's shot make that particular scene feel like it's part of a comedy film that accidentally got sliced in that's kind of distracting, but they're only two very short parts of a small list of gripes.

Ginger Snaps is one of those films that left an impression on me, so much so that I could happily recommend it to people for an easy watch, including my own brother.
After my first viewing I went out to buy the DVD and found out there were two more, luckily I found all three in a boxset. Not so luckily, I found the other two fairly disappointing, with the third being completely forgettable.

Would I recommend it?
Sure! I found it fun to watch, I still do and think it's a good, simple watch to get your fill of sisters angsting, period scares and werewolves.