Star Sparkle Blog

It's almost Halloween (or Hallowe'en, the alternative spelling which I like), so it's time for my yearly post! This year it's on Monday (31st October). I also celebrate the pagan festival Samhain on this date. I thought that for 2022, I would feature a selection of different videos and previous posts related to supernatural and scary subjects (similar to my past Hallowe'en Inspiration post )!   Ghosts  Films The Disappeared (2008) In my More Hallowe'en Films + TV post from 2017, I featured the British horror The Disappeared, which is about a teenage boy who believes he is being haunted by his little brother, who has disappeared but is thought to be dead. You can read more about it and see a trailer here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/10/more-halloween-films.html   Darling (2007) Darling is a Bollywood horror film about a man haunted by the ghost of his murdered mistress. I also featured it in the More Hallowe'en Films + TV post (scroll down): http...

Today's video is Manike from the upcoming Bollywood film Thank God . The movie is a fantasy comedy and is about estate agent Aayan Kapoor ( Sidharth Malhotra ) who has a car accident and is transported to an in-between realm, where he meets the Hindi deity Chitragupta (played by veteran actor Ajay Devgn ).  Aayan is told by Chitragupta (who is tasked with keeping score of human beings' sins) that he has to play the "Game of Life" which will determine if he will go back to earth or be sent to hell. All his actions to date will now be evaluated. I hope I have got this right; I'm not Hindu so I hadn't heard of Chitragupta but the concept of sins and an in-between place like purgatory is similar to the ones in Christianity. The plot does actually sound similar to a Western film :)  Thank God is due for release on 25th October, a day after the Hindu, Jain and Sikh festival Diwali starts.  Manike is sung by Sri Lankan singer Yohani and Indian singers Jubin Nautiy...

Hallowe'en is coming up next week! In previous years I've done themed posts. You can check out last years here: Hallowe'en Inspiration: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/10/halloween-inspiration.html This year I decided to feature some horror films from around the world. Unless otherwise stated, videos are trailers. :) Hong Kong Dumplings (2004) Please note: This film contains themes that may disturb some people. Former actress Mrs. Li ( Miriam Chin Wah Yeung ) feels that life is passing her by, she fears losing her looks and her husband is having an affair. So she goes to mysterious local chef Aunt Mei (played by Bai Ling ) for help. Mei's speciality is dumplings which have amazing rejuvenation powers. But they have a secret ingredient that Mrs. Li could never have imagined.... Update 4/6/22: The original trailer was gone, so I had to replace it. Spoilers below! Dumplings was originally a segment in the horror compilation Three...Extremes...

Last year I did a Christmas round-up post which you can read here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/12/christmas-round-up.html  Now Christmas is here again, so here's a new festive themed post! Music These are my most recent Christmas music video posts: Lindsey Stirling's Carol of the Bells:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/12/weekly-music-video_13.html   K-pop Christmas!: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/12/k-pop-christmas.html Ariana Grande's Wit It This Christmas: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/12/weekly-music-video_20.html Also check out more songs from Ariana's Christmas & Chill EP: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/12/ariana-grande-christmas-songs.html Here's  Mariah Carey's single Oh Santa! from 2010: And the video for The Star, from the new animated film of the same name: Also I found a K-pop themed Christmas playlist on YouTube. (I've added it to the K-pop Christmas post). Listen he...

Back in April I posted about the IT remake . Now there's less than a month to go until it's released and there's a new trailer! This is Official Trailer 1 and it was uploaded on 27th July. This looks creepy, maybe even creepier that the 1990 version ! Pennywise looks really menacing. A I said in my original post about the remake, I wasn't sure about the casting of Bill Skarsgård . I doubted whether he could be as good as Tim Curry but he looks effective as It in the trailers so far! lol. And of course he will bring his own thing to the role. I look forward to seeing this. I'll probably wait till it comes on TV since I rarely go to the cinema these days. Films come out really quickly nowadays too. IT is out on 8th September in both the US and the UK. Are you a fan of IT (book and/or mini series)? What do you think of the film trailers?

I've been hearing about the IT remake for ages and now it's actually getting closer! lol. It's a film remake of the 1990 TV mini series IT , which was based on the book by Stephen King. If you were a child/teenager in the 90s you probably remember seeing it in the video shop like I did, lol. The book tells the tale of 7 kids who battle Pennywise, the evil clown/interdimensional demon! Check out my post on the TV version here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2015/10/halloween-films.html While I'm a fan of the mini series I've never read the book. I've been planning to read it for ages but not got round to it. I've seen people online saying that the book is better than the TV version. I think in the new movie they may have bits that were in the book but weren't in the 1990 version. From what I've seen so far the basic storyline seems similar, although it's set in 1989.  The mini series has two parts, it's set in 1960 when the kids are age...

In October I did a Hallowe'en round-up post. Since today is Christmas Eve I thought it would be cool to do a Christmas round-up. :) Note: Post contains spoilers. Books The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (Narnia) This is the 2nd book in the fantasy children's series The Chronicles of Narnia. Originally published in 1950, it's become a kid's classic. The series is about the magical land of Narnia which is actually meant to be Heaven. It's ruled over by the great lion Aslan (who is like Jesus). But if you're not religious (like me) it's still an entertaining story. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is about siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie who are evacuated from London to the country during the Blitz . They go to stay with Professor Kirke who lives alone, apart from his housekeeper Mrs. Macready.  While looking round the house the youngest girl Lucy discovers an entrance to Narnia in the back of a wardrobe. She come...

Latest music and videos I've been listening to/watching lately! :) (Some are just new to me). Zara Larsson- Lush Life Selena Gomez- Hands To Myself Troye Sivan- YOUTH Ameriie - What I Want Ameriie- Out Loud ZAYN x Usher x Chris Brown- Back To Sleep ZAYN feat. Lil' Wayne- Pillowtalk remix Years & Years feat. Tove Lo- Desire (new version of the original single ) Alessia Cara- Wild Things ZAYN- Like I Would  Ariana Grande - Dangerous Woman  Trobar de Morte- Summoning The Gods  K-pop Jay Park - All I Wanna Do Reddy feat. Jay Park- Think BESTie- Hot Baby Until next time!

The American sci-fi TV series The X-Files is returning to TV! It was a hugely popular show which featured FBI agents Fox Mulder (player by David Duchovny ) and Dana Scully ( Gillian Anderson ) investigating cases which were labelled strange and/or unexplained and given to the X-Files department. The X-Files originally ran for 9 series (or seasons) from 1993 to 2002. There were also two films, The X-Files (1998) and The X-Files: I Want To Believe (2008). They are now filming 6 new episodes and it is scheduled to return on 24th January in the US. Filming is set to finish in August. Both David and Gillian are returning as Mulder and Scully and their boss Skinner ( Mitch Pileggi ) and his former boss,The Smoking Man ( William B. Davis ) will come back as well. I used to enjoy watching the X-Files as a child and teen and still like to watch repeats now, so I'm looking forward to it coming back. I'm not sure whenabouts we'll get it in the UK but hopefully not too far behind ...

It's less than 2 weeks till Christmas now (it always seems to come round quickly!), so I decided to write about my Top 5 Christmas films. This post contains spoilers.Unless otherwise stated the videos are trailers. :) 1. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) The Muppets' take on the classic story by Charles Dickens . Ebenezer Scrooge (played by Michael Caine ) is a very rich businessman, but he's also a miser who dislikes spending money and hates Christmas.  One Christmas Eve he is visited by 3 ghosts (the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future) who warn him that if he doesn't change his ways, he will end up forever alone and miserable and no one will mourn him when he dies. Gonzo plays Charles Dickens who narrates the story and Rizzo the Rat is his sidekick. Kermit the Frog plays Scrooge's employee Bob Cratchit and Miss Piggy is his wife.                       ...

Since it's Hallowe'en I thought I'd do a post on one of my favourite spooky films, Hocus Pocus . :) It came out in 1993 and I used to watch it a lot as a pre-teen and teenager and still really like it now, lol. It's about teenager Max Denison (played by Omri Katz ) who moves from California to Salem, Massachusetts with his parents and little sister Dani ( Thora Birch ). Max isn't happy about the move and is finding it hard being the new kid in town. Now it's Hallowe'en and his parents want Max to take Dani trick or treating but he's not keen on the idea. At school the teacher tells Max's class about the local legend of the Sanderson sisters. In 1693 there were 3 sisters called Winifred aka Winnie ( Bette Midler ), Mary ( Kathy Najimy ) and Sarah ( Sarah Jessica Parker ), who lived in the woods and were rumoured to be witches. The townspeople believed them responsible for the disappearance of their children and when they discovered that the sister...