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movie review - Nightbooks

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one 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

The problem is not people being uneducated. The problem is that people are educated just enough to believe what they have been taught, and not educated enough to question anything from what they have been taught.

—Richard Feynman