Give too much away, and viewers will cry spoilers. When it comes to creating them, designers have to balance a lot of needs and voices with the ultimate goal of getting people to the theater.
Like the films they advertise, they can become cultural icons - at their best functioning as frameable and collectible works of art. M ovie posters are plastered on dorm rooms, scaffolding under construction sites and megaplex hallways. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience. Some of the violence is also too graphic for a children's film, even while other effects - long shadows, conspicuous lightning, candy-colored vomit, the rudimentary films-within-the-film that bring Alex's stories to life - are deliberately more spoof than spook.Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Instead, the film could feel a bit too creepy for some viewers with its depictions of child abductions, psychological trauma, and torture. His captivity has such clear lessons for him in the "real world" that it would've made more sense in the resolution if he had just dreamt the whole thing, underscoring both his inventiveness and the social-emotional growth he needed. When Alex finally confronts the sadness and pain that brought him to this haunted house, his grade school drama feels almost too pedestrian for the rest of the fantastical tale. Writers will appreciate that in this world, telling stories saves lives (the film's tagline is "Write for your life").īut Nightbooks also would've done well to take its own advice when Natacha suggests that every good story hints at the truth - the more truth, the more powerful the story. When Natacha sighs, "writers - so insecure" and Alex suffers writer's block or outwits his know-it-all audience of one, it can be laugh-out-loud funny. The script has some creative and intelligent twists on the art of storytelling. Winslow Fegley and Lidya Jewett are both fantastic, and Krysten Ritter seems to be having a great time vamping in monster boots and stylish witch-wear. Combined with intricately-rich set designs, especially a cool skyscraper of a personal library, and over-the-top adult baddies, the constant tension can be exhausting. This isn't ideal for a child-centric tale: We should only root for their survival. Plot twists keep the story moving in Nightbooks, but ultimately there are so many threats to the characters' lives, so many "this is the end" moments, that you find yourself hoping for some resolution, any resolution, after about an hour. Modern-day characters are plopped into a world of classic fairy tales and fantasy-horror movie images in this inventive tale that could've been better scaled back. Language is mostly taunts like "suckers," "freak," "twit," "stupid," "lame," and "tryhard," but also "hell," "crap," "sucks," "butts in," and "oh my God." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails. A witch appears to lose an arm, and another is burned alive. A being comes to life and emerges from a coffin. The two captured kids fall, run into things, and are attacked, poisoned with candy, and locked into a cave with skulls. There are plenty of scary sights, including witches with evil, wrinkled faces and glowing eyes creepy dolls and old toys a closet of clothes from kids now long gone ghosts with white eyes and kids frozen as tiny statues that seem to scream. But first they're attacked by a vicious cat, spider-like creatures with knife-sharp legs, and an angry unicorn. The kids outsmart the witch(es) with a combination of cunning, bravery, and teamwork, and they learn to value their own unique qualities. There's pretty constant tension as two kids go up against a witch who has abducted them and threatens to kill them, as she has done with many others. Parents need to know that Nightbooks, produced by Sam Raimi and based on the book by JA White, has positive messages about being true to yourself and being a good friend but will likely be too scary for younger or more sensitive kids.
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