It is hard to break into any industry that will change your life, especially if you have not already made a name for yourself within said industry. With so many people that have worked in these fields for so many years, they often believe that they know if you can make it or not just by looking at you. It may seem unfair, but that is way of life these days and if you are not willing to fight for it, you will never get it. At some point, even if you are able to prove yourself, you still may not be able to get a foot into the door, your name has to carry all of the weight, so make sure that you never stop with what you are passionate about and make sure the world knows what you are able to accomplish.

Moving to New York has not been the great move that Katie Carter had expected. Wanting to be a model, she is told that her portfolio is not up to par with the other girls and no agency will take her with what she has now. Needing money to hire a photographer is not in the cards for Katie, but things might start looking up for the young woman when she sees a flyer for free photographs on her way out of a restaurant. Not knowing what to expect, Katie gives a call to the number and is able to book a time with Ivan and his team for a photoshoot that will hopefully help to change her life.

At the shoot, Katie does a fine job, but Ivan does not believe he is getting enough of her on camera. Wanting her to disrobe and show more skin, Katie declines and leaves the shoot in a huff. But she isn't quite done with Ivan and his group just yet, since Georgy stops by her place to deliver the photos to her. Thanking Georgy for his time, Katie shuts the door on him, but he wants more from her than just a thank you. Getting into the apartment, Georgy wants everything from Katie, but when he is interrupted by her neighbor, things get extremely bad. Killing the neighbor and raping Katie, Georgy needs help and calls his brother Ivan in to help clean everything up. Being drugged, Katie is not able to put up much of a fight when being put into a box and shipped to her new home.

Waking up in a new room, Katie sees that she is in this nightmare for the long haul. She is able to come up with a plan of escape, but she needs the weakest of the family now holding her captive to try and take care of her. Pretending to be drugged out of her mind, Katie is able to overpower Georgy and get out of the room, but seeing that she is not in New York anymore, she has no idea what to do next. Being picked up by the police, Katie wants to be taken to the U.S. Embassy so she can be shipped home, and when Ana comes in to speak to the young woman, she thinks everything is on the up and up.  But when Ana takes Katie back to her place of torment, she will not be able to escape this time. Being torn up by a paying customer, Katie has little fight left in her and when the family sees this, they prepare for her final days. Burying her alive in the basement, the family thinks that everything is over now, but when Katie is able to break free into the city's underground, she thinks about going home, but the urge to exact revenge on the family that abused her, takes over. Lying in wait for several days, Katie is able to watch the Patov family move around town and comes up with a way to make them all pay for what they have done to her, in their own special ways.

A very gritty follow up to the reboot of I Spit on Your Grave and I must admit that I was surprised that there could be more disturbing scenes in this one than there were in the original, but there are. Katie gets abused much worse than Jessica did in the previous film, and even though you don’t get to see exactly what happens to her in those particular scenes, you get to see the aftermath, forcing you to use your imagination. It is just disturbing to say the least, but when she is able to make up her plan of attack against the Patov family, she will not be denied by anyone, not even the priest that wants to help her. I really liked how Katie came back from her near death experience and pulled herself back into the light, if only for a few seconds. The pain that Katie inflicts on the Patov family is epic and I am sure that they learned their lesson that what they did is simply not okay in any form or fashion.  Stay Scared.

Writers can be a strange breed of people, I can say that because I know several of them. While they may be a little bit eccentric, there is a method to their madness and while others think things that they do are strange, it works for them. While some of them visit the locations that they are writing about, some will stop and talk to people about their lives and draw off of that, but there are others that just need to be alone for a few days to clear their minds and get their creative juices flowing. There is no right or wrong way when it comes to the writing process, as long as the story is told, it is always a success. 

Needing to get away and start her next novel, writer Jennifer Hills has found the perfect out of the way place to stay. Being alone in a cabin next to the lake seems to have revitalized her mind and she is in love with the area and may never want to leave. But all is not as it seems when a few men from town come knocking and want to exploit the woman for all that she is worth. Breaking into the cabin, Johnny, Stanley, Andy and Matthew are ready to have some fun with the city girl, but when she is able to escape their torment, Jennifer is able to find the Sheriff and explain what is going on. Thinking that she will be safe now, Sheriff Storch shows her that nothing is as it seems. As all of the boys are able to have their way with her, Jennifer finds enough strength to make her last walk to the river once the horror has come to an end. Jumping in before Storch is able to kill her, the boys are put on body detail for the next few days so that nobody will be asking questions.

A month has passed and the group of boys are back to living their everyday lives, but when young Matthew sees the face of Jennifer in the woods, he knows that something strange is going on. The Sheriff has thought very little about the event, since she is surely dead, but when he gets a call from his buddy Earl saying that one of Jennifer’s friends is looking for her, he has to put it back into his mind. While the boys are sure that the young woman is dead, they all get targeted in one way or another and when Johnny is tormented by someone outside of his trailer, he believes that Matthew is messing around with him. Talking to Andy about the problem, the two start looking for their friend, but when Stanley shows up in a panic to let them know that he has lost the tape from that fateful day, Johnny knows that they have to find Matthew before things escalate. 

While talking with his wife at home, the Sheriff is surprised to see that there is a new tape on the table that appears to be the one he ordered destroyed. Talking to the boys again, they all agree that Matthew is behind it since he had feelings for the city girl. Searching the woods for their friend still yields no results as Matthew has been taken by Jennifer who has had a month to work her plan out to perfection. Hunting down the men that took her life away from her, she has devised a special punishment for each of them and Matthew is the first one. When stumbling upon an old vacant house, Stanley and Andy find that Jennifer is still alive and are punished for their actions against her. With only two men left, Jennifer has saved the best for last and will make sure that they understand how their torment has changed her life.

It has been years since I have seen the original I Spit on Your Grave, but I stumbled across this one in a bargain bin, so I decided to give it watch. Damn, is all I can say as if the opening part of the story is not disturbing enough, the revenge is that much gorier. I would say that I feel bad for all of the men being killed off, but after what they did, they deserved much worse. I really liked seeing how the bright eyed Jennifer has transformed into a woman that will stop at nothing to get what she deserves, and while I don’t believe in holding grudges, what she did was fantastic. Good growth on her end, while the boys just sit back and live their lives like nothing has ever happened. I did enjoy this remake and it gave birth to two more films that I will probably enjoy checking out. The biggest takeaway I have from this movie is to never piss off a writer, since they have the mind to create something much worse than you can ever imagine. Stay Scared.

Okay. We need to take a moment and acknowledge something incredibly important about Ash vs. Evil Dead before we get too deep into today's recap...the fact that this is flat out, the perfect horror/comedy television show. Now that may seem like quite the bold statement to make, or over the top fanboying on my part because nothing is ever supposed to be perfect, but this show has outright achieved that honor. I don't know of any other series in its respective genre(s) that has ever blended bone chilling moments and side splitting laughs like this one does, not to mention...it's also as bold as they come because it truly holds nothing back and pushes the envelope in ways I never thought horror would or could on television.  

What made me come to this magical realization was last night's episode, 'The Morgue'. Because not only did it deliver on everything we have come to expect from the franchise...it actually managed to enhance it further. Our usual cavalcade of one liners suddenly added some rapid fire banter to the mix, the scares were creepier and the gore...well let's just start there because holy cow was the gore magnificent. Now ironically enough, it's something we talked about in depth last week, when I pointed out that it seemed as though the show runners decided to throw caution to the wind and let loose on cable and believe it or not...they managed to top last week's splatter fest with an incredible slap stick, slop scene where Ash has to duke it out with a dead man's colon to retrieve the Book of the Dead and well...I laughed so hard during this moment I had to pause the TV on several occasions to get the giggles out, but more importantly...he duked it out with a freakin' colon!

It's the kind of stuff that only a handful of horror stories have ever tackled, and even then, it's only been done in motion pictures as far as I know (also shout out for the hints of Re-Animator this scene evoked) and when all is said and done, this new paradigm shift to make the show push the envelope when it comes to blood, guts, gore and comedy is working like a charm. We're getting a best of reel of the Evil Dead franchise when these moments occur, alongside entering new territory where we can expect the unexpected, find ourselves cringing at some moments that make your stomach turn all while laughing so hard that tears stream down your face. However, while this water cooler moment was incredible to say the least, this episode had plenty more to offer, since the scares were handled in perfect fashion as well.

If anything, the show is able to exude a sense of irony since the true horror elements that went on display for us to enjoy were handled in extremely low key fashion. I continue to think about the opening of the episode, where the Coroner was working hard to discover the cause of death of some poor soul, before eventually being violently murdered by a Deadite. But the beauty of that scene is the sheer fact we never saw that monster emerge from the freezer and the use of the unknown and keeping our creature off screen made for a much more satisfying reveal when we discovered the identity of that Deadite and these moments kept the episode grounded in terror and served as a way to refresh our palete in between moments of levity. 

However, what matters most about this series, is that it has always featured a wonderful story arc and the grand plot for season two was revealed in this episode by way of Pablo and his need for revenge and answers when he tried and failed miserably to flex up on Ruby. He truly thought he could intimidate the Dark One only to discover she's playing docile to get what she needs and could clearly cause trouble if she so chooses, but she actually wants to help. She was able to get Pablo to admit to his premonitions and revealed that he is the first human being that the Necronomicon has ever attached itself to and after another frightening vision, and battle with a Deadite, we now know what's going on. Ruby's kids betrayed her because they are attempting to resurrect their father, a demon known as Baal. The implications of that are of course horrible because if this being wants new life, no good can come of it, but alas...it will be a bit before all of this gets resolved since Ash lost the Delta and the Necronomicon as well since it was 'safely' locked inside the car. 

Either way, the reveal of what the Ghostbeaters are up against this season means that they managed to raise the bar on the stakes for our heroes and the world as well, and no doubt Baal will be a much more formidable enemy than Ruby and our intrepid heroes are going to be in for quite the fight and well, when we take that plot line, and combine it with everything last night threw our way, my jaw is still dropped and quite frankly, I'm dying to know what happens next. But in the meantime, I have a funny feeling I'll be rewatching this episode several times for several reasons. For starters, to break down and appreciate all the incredible things they packed into a half hour of storytelling and quite frankly, to get my fix until Sunday night when the next episode arrives. Until next time.

It's been quite the interesting sophomore season for Fear the Walking Dead. At times the show has been outright brilliant, giving us powerful and stunning episodes that leave you thinking and leave our characters in new and exciting places development wise, and at other times, its youth still shows through with episodes here and there that left us scratching our head.  

But for the season finale, the show decided it was high time to take a few risks story wise, taking a couple of our characters to some supremely dark places and finally allowing for our characters to grow up and embrace the world they now inhabit and well...this decision was a successful and effective one to say the last because 'Wrath' and 'North' were a breathtaking pair of episodes that revolved around Travis' fall from grace, and redemption for both Travis and Nick.  

The redemption was of course far more evident for Nick, who really has gone on quite the incredible journey this season, and oddly enough, his decision to separate from his family turned out to be a wise one despite the fact that so many of us decried it originally. By being out on his own, and off the drugs and finding a place to call his own without anyone watching over his shoulder...Nick grew up. He found love in Luciana, he found a role to help keep the community going and risked his own neck for the greater good by defying Alejandro and delivering the drugs to keep the colonia filled with water and food for the people that had taken him in. Granted, this turned out to be a waste of time once Marco and his gang revealed they knew the colonia's exact location, but that still didn't deter Nick from trying to save lives.

He continued to stand up to Alejandro, making the focus about the people and not faith or an agenda and well...his boldness paid off in spades. He finally convinced Alejandro to let him lead people away from the colonia, giving them a destination when he saw a helicopter landing across the border, and he even put together a bold plan to deal with the gang so they weren't pursued or harmed. That plan demonstrated the darkness that Nick still exhibits since he basically set a trap for those men to be cornered and devoured by the dead, effectively giving the them the complex until their rotting corpses drop, but the good outweighs the bad here. Nick has always understood the eye for an eye mentality and knows it applies to this world and while his journey back to the States may not have ended the way he wanted it to, the kid finally did something incredibly noble, and something tells me this is only the beginning of Nick's journey as a crafty leader.

But the centerpiece of last night's story was Travis' journey, which was a heartbreaking one to say the least. We knew ugly was coming once Brandon and Derek showed up at the hotel sans Chris, and despite Madison's best efforts to keep her husband away from those two boys...fate found a way to intervene and the face to face showdown between Travis and the boys finally came to fruition, and it was absolutely devastating. 

For starters, we learned, eventually, that the boys had an accident with Chris behind the wheel, and rather than deal with Chris' horrific injuries, they put him down as they had so many of their friends and the truth about the fate of his son...was more than Travis could bear, and the fury within that we have only seen once from Travis, during last year's season finale in fact, was unleashed. There was no mercy for Brandon or Derek as Travis beat them within an inch of their lives, tossing them through glass, and stomping on a skull for good measure. It was uncomfortable to see the always straight as an arrow Travis lose his cool...and in the process of dishing out a little street justice for his son, he hurt Oscar and of course, jeopardized his place as a member of the hotel's burgeoning community.  

After all, Madison's edict was no one was to cause any harm to anyone else, or they had to go and that edict was held into place for Travis, with a caveat. Seeing an opportunity to put her family back together, Madison requested his release and sweetened the deal by letting Elena know that she and Alicia would join Travis on the road. It's a deal that Elena agrees to, but it all goes south once Oscar dies in emergency surgery and in stunning fashion...the Manawa/Clark clan had to fight for their lives to escape the hotel, leaving Strand behind of his own volition in the process and putting them back out into the world, hot on the trail for Nick...and a safe place to stay...

Yet while it was indeed incredible to see Travis finally do what must be done, it was equally stunning to see Madison admit that this was their future, one filled with good moments and ugly ones as they make the tough calls to see another day, and to see Alicia kill as well to save her family...well it just goes to show that next season, this family is not one to be messed with. Yet at the same time, one has to be concerned where Strand's mind is at since he refused to join them, and we do have to wonder if Ofelia will be safe after crossing the border and who exactly was Nick dealing with military wise at the end of the finale. These are all questions to be answered in season three of course, but either way, this was a solid season finale, light years ahead of last year's and if the next season of this show holds to more storytelling like we experienced over the past few weeks, minus silly decisions of course, Fear the Walking Dead may finally come into its own, offering us up another incredible show where the dead walk the earth and mankind struggles to survive. Until next year. 

Young television shows, ones that are heading into their second season are often at risk of experiencing a sophomore slump, where the stories just don't quite hold a flame to the first season. It's a dangerous place to be, since it can cause the audience to tune out and it's something that quite frankly, part of me was worried could possibly happen with Ash vs. Evil Dead. After all, this is a series that comes with some high standards and any deviation from their already epic delivery, could spell trouble for this already storied and beloved show.

However it's clear now that I worry way too much about this sort of thing when it comes to shows I love because the season two premiere, 'Home' was absolutely stellar. In fact, it's as though we never left. The characters are just as rich as ever, Ash is just as goofy as ever and since there's no origin story or need to refresh our hardcore fan base, we were able to get right into the action and get the plot rolling and oh man, did they set up another incredible season with Ruby basically losing control of the evil children Pablo helped give birth to in last year's season finale, forcing her to contact El Jefe, break the truce and bring him back into the fold to once again kick some serious Deadite ass. But what made this premiere so memorable, was the buckets of gore they poured upon us, and the rich character development that Ash went through in this story.

Now this series is no stranger to gore, we've literally seen geysers of blood happen before our eyes, but this particular premiere actually managed to give us more gore than ever before. I mean, there was blood spraying everywhere, with a side of blood...and that's freaking awesome. It's as though everyone figured out that they can basically do whatever the hell they want on cable, so why not go for broke? In addition to excess and awesome splatter, they even upped their game with practical effects, case in point, that sequence with Pablo and the disturbing vision of his face falling off? That's one of the wildest and creepiest things the franchise has ever done and it's wonderful to see that the show is going to push the gore envelope this year and make it so that no one will be snacking or eating a meal when the show is on.

But, what I enjoyed most from last night's episode, was the continued development of Ash. He's gone from brainless badass...to brainless badass with a backstory and well, this man has suffered through the years, even without the Deadites making his life hell. Turns out after that little incident at the cabin all those years ago, he was branded a psychopath by his hometown and earned the nickname 'Ashy Slashy' complete with a catchy jingle to mock him. So to see him brave a return home, take some ugly ribbing from his former friends and his father, (which by the way, how awesome is it that Lee Majors is playing his dad Brock Williams and that they snuck in a Six Million Dollar Man joke?) shows that at long last, our little Ash is growing up, and finally becoming the hero we've all been waiting for. Maybe. Probably...

In the end however, this was one satisfying season premiere for certain. Not only are we back in the fold of the Evil Dead universe but this one episode set up all kinds of lovely plot points for us to enjoy. Pablo for instance, is still having wild dreams after the Necronomicon hugged his face and well...those dreams and visions seem to be getting stronger the closer he gets to the book, plus...Ruby's little monsters can't see him, meaning we will no doubt be exploring what powers he has been given by way of the book...and of course will those help or hinder him? Not to mention...can Ruby actually be trusted or is this another crazy plot on her part to bring about the end of mankind? We will find out over the next few weeks, and man, is it good to have this show back. Until next time.