Ready Player One (2018)

 

Based on a book that I have not read, Ready Player One is about a virtual reality world called the OASIS and the people who compete to control it. It’s the year 2045 and the world is a mess. It is such a mess that people escape into the OASIS spending most of their lives there. One of these players is Wade Watters who plays as a character named Parzival. Wade is one of many Gunters who are trying to get the Easter Eggs that the late James Halliday hid in the OASIS. The person who finds all the keys will own the OASIS. Also out to get the keys in the evil IOI who wants the OASIS for themselves. Wade gradually gains a group of allies and together they beat IOI. The movie is great and the cultural references are spot on. I have been told that they took great liberties with the text of the book, but since I have never read the book I enjoyed the movie for what it was.

Witch Mountain

 

Escape to Witch Mountain by Alexander Key

The book that started the Witch Mountain franchise. In it, orphans Tia and Tony are running away from a rich billionaire that wishes to exploit them for their powers. They’re aliens you see. In the book Tia only speaks telepathically to Tony. She’s mute to everyone else. Jason O’Day in the original book is a priest. One of my favorite science fiction quotes comes at the end of this book when Day tells Bolt, “Do you think my God is so small that he could not create other worlds like this one?”

Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)

The movie stays pretty close to the book except that Jason O’Day is not a priest and Tia is not mute. This was one of my favorite movies growing up (and I still think it’s pretty great). I actually watched this movie before reading the book. It was many years later when I discovered that it was a book. For that reason I like the movie slightly better than the book.

Return from Witch Mountain (1978)

I don’t think this movie is as good as its predecessor. Basically Tony gets captured and brainwashed my unscrupulous individuals and it’s up to Tia and a group of children that are skipping school to start a street gang to save him.

Return from Witch Mountain by Alexander Key

This is listed after the movie because it is basically a movie novelization. You know you have made it when the writer of the original book liked it well enough to write the movie novelization.

Escape to Witch Mountain (1995)

In this version twins with purple light magic beamed down to earth and were separated. They have to be together for their magic to work. It’s a different version to be sure but has many of the same elements. A fun movie.

Race to Witch Mountain (2009)

Tooted as a sequel instead of a remake this movie has alien kids Sara and Seth trying to find their parents’ research while outrunning a terminator/Gort creature sent from their home planet who are not interested in finding a solution to saving their dying planet and the Men in Black. They team up with taxi driver Jack Bruno who acts as their Jason O’Day. I loved this mainly because they weren’t trying to make a remake. 

Mothra (1961)

 

Part of the original Godzilla franchise. Mothra is a gigantic moth that is worshipped on Infant Island. When an expedition goes to Infant Island, two little priestesses (about the size of Thumbelina) are captured by club owner Clark Nelson who then uses them at his club. Mothra then goes on a quest to rescue her priestesses and bring them back home. Unlike some of the other kaiju films, Mothra doesn’t set out to destroy. She’s just going in a straight line to find her priestesses and if you happen to be in her way? Well that’s your problem. Long lauded as the Queen of the Monsters, Mothra is one of my favorite kaijus.

Pacific Rim (2013)

 

From a trench deep in the ocean vicious monsters known as “kaiju”. The only way to deal with them is by the use of giant robots called “jaegers”. The Jaegers are piloted by two humans using a mental link. But the government has decided that the Jaeger program is no longer working and wants to discontinue it. But it is only a ragtag group of Jaeger pilots that is standing between the earth and total annihilation. There is a sequel, but I don’t like it’s premise. As far as I’m concerned, the franchise ends with this movie, which I love. 

Dead Silence by SA Barnes

 

Claire and her crew discover the Aurora, a luxury space liner just floating in space. But when they go on board to salvage things, it quickly becomes apparent that something went horribly wrong on the Aurora. The book gave me serious “The Naked Time/The Naked Now” vibes. Another thing I loved about this was that it is a first person narration. This worked for this book because Claire sees ghosts but you are never entirely certain if she actually sees ghosts or is just nuts because it’s always seen through her eyes. Quite a great scifi horror book. 

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

 

They did remake this movie in the 70’s but this is about the original movie. My dad says that this one scared him badly when he was a child. It starts in a hospital where a psychiatrist is called in to talk to a raving man. The man who is introduced as Dr. Miles Bennell starts to tell the other man about how the people in his home town are being slowly replaced by pod people. It is a scary invasion story simply because the people can be anyone…

A Port in the Storm by LuthienTauriel

 

This fanfic is a one shot taking place during a brief scene in the movie Race to Witch Mountain. As a nod back to the original two movies, Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann, who played the kids in those original two movies make a cameo in the movie. In my story, they are the kids from the original movie who decide to help the new aliens that show up in their town. It was a joy to write. Due to some trouble I have had with conartists, all of my fanfic is now locked and requires you to be a registered user of Archive of Our Own to view. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/57351328