journal features

movie review - Nightbooks

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Kokubunji, 2024.06.09

This is a story about two kids held captive by a witch in the towering apartment building where the boy lives/lived with his parents. He was taken during an attempt at running away, which I think was a clever start. He strikes a deal with the witch to allow him to continue living by sharing his stories with her every night. While attempting an escape, he meets the other prisoner, a girl who seems to have been there a great deal longer.

We enjoyed the story, the setting, the boy's development through the affair, and rather good visuals of the mad-house apartment/labyrinth. The story is not exactly ground-breaking but they put in the effort to make a compelling story. The result was something at the right tone, balancing the lead's perpetual fear with the heroism needed to escape the maze/place down the hall.

Recommended.

rand()m quote

One day you will take a fork in the road, and you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. If you go one way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and get good assignments. Or you can go the other way and you can do something [...] for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and get good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you have to make a decision. To be or to do.

—John Boyd, US Air Force