Most of us struggle. We struggle financially, emotionally, physically, and just in life. Every day we get up and we struggle through our day, but we don't think of it that way do we? We like to think that we are living, but life is the biggest struggle of them all.

I saw a blog from another author today, and it broke my heart. I follow this author on twitter and have met him once, although like many in a sea of faces I am sure he wouldn't know me from Jane Doe. He is a somewhat popular author in the fantasy genre and his books, while long, are amazing (I have yet to finish the first because it is so long, and I have many shorter books I want to get through). He posted a blog recently about a death that seems inevitable and shortcoming. I felt for him, as I always do because I am only human. It has made me think.

A friend of mine lost her daughter a little while ago, I had no words. Another friend of my partner lost their 19-year old daughter this last week. Another friend of mine was hospitalized and I am not sure if he is going to be okay or not because he has kidney issues along with the issue he is currently in the hospital for. Another friend was just released after needing a blood transfusion. One of my cats, a 17-year old grumpy old lady, isn't doing well and gets skinnier and wobblier every day. My partners father isn't doing fabulous. I still have no words. They escape me. As a writer I want to say something comforting. I want to say the perfect thing. I don't want to repeat platitudes. But, I have no words.

I, myself, understand loss. The passing of my grandfather still haunts me. I look back and continually want one more day, one day to talk to him, one day to tell him I love him, one more day to walk to the corner ice cream shop. We always want one more day. But the struggle to live is over when we die. Living is the struggle.

While I miss my grandfather every single day, I know that he is no longer in pain. I know that if there is an afterlife he can walk and talk and drink whatever he wants. His afterlife is easier than the last few years of his life, and only I struggle because he isn't here.

I know the friend who lost her daughter struggles every day with that loss, but she has to find ways to struggle through each day and she has to find the beauty of her daughter in the world around her.

I know the friend who just lost his daughter has a long, dark tunnel to crawl through before he will find the light again. Yet, he will struggle through that tunnel, crawling through the muck and darkness of depression to hopefully make it back to the sunny, bright light of life.

It just struck me today, after reading the aforementioned author's blog, how much we live to die. Are we embracing the moments we have now? I know I am not. I need to take a moment, I need to hug and kiss my partner. I need to take a drive to Maine to visit my partner's father. I need to breathe and take a moment to enjoy the beauty of my surroundings. I need to get over being sad that I had to move and start over again, people do it all of the time, some with no one behind them. I need to stop struggling, and start living.

Tomorrow I am going to find something to enjoy and I am going to forget about the struggle to live and enjoy it.

The plot synopsis on IMDb explains the entire movie: Affable hillbillies Tucker and Dale are on vacation at their dilapidated mountain cabin when they are mistaken for murderers by a group of preppy college students.

This movie is a comedy about misconceptions, stereotypes, and how the tropes of horror might be one giant misunderstanding. The movie follows a pair of young men who are considered hillbillies named Tucker and Dale. Dale is a big goofy guy who wants some friends, and possibly a girlfriend. Tucker is a man with a plan, and he just wants to fix up his vacation home and relax. They both fall prey to the hands of a group of unruly college students who decide that they are homicidal maniacs and must be stopped.

This movie was really quite funny. It reminded me of CABIN IN THE WOODS a little in the idea behind it. It was making fun of the horror genre, just like CABIN IN THE WOODS does, but it isn't disrespectful towards the horror genre. There are some movies and books out there which I feel take advantage of the horror genre and twist it into something disingenuous (to me the entire TWILIGHT series made fun of the horror genre and was disrespectful). I found TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL humorous and delightful, although it had me questioning if other characters could have become accidental serial killers.

Was Leather face just a misunderstood chainsaw artist? Was Freddy actually an awesome hairstylist who got caught in someone's revenge fantasy? Did Michael Meyers just get frustrated because his sister wasn't taking him trick-or-treating when she promised she would? Now I know that the answer to these questions are all no, but it was fun to think about.

The characters of Dale and Tucker, just happen to be around while students fall prey to misadventures. In fact the first death is quite humorous and shocking, but also hilarious. It was unexpected and yet expected all at the same time. This movie also made me think on my own misconceptions and stereotypes. This movie takes it step-by-step as each student accidentally dies through mistakes they make or accidents when the timing has to be just right.

It was an inventive movie and I wish I would have watched it sooner. While it was a gore fest I wouldn't classify this as a horror movie. It was more in the vein of SHAUN OF THE DEAD or DEAD ALIVE, which are classified as dark comedy. I think maybe this is might be a dark comedy, but in reality it is just a comedy where death can happen.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes. In fact I am thinking of showing it in one of the English classes I teach because it is full of stereotypes and misconceptions, which is something we look at in a character analysis. So, yes, watch this movie, and you really should watch it more than once so get all of the humor.

Renee Zellweger is a social worker who is trying to protect a little girl named, Lilith, from here severely abusive parents. She struggles to figure out how to help Lilith, but after finding the little girl being sealed into an oven and attempt to burn her alive, Emily (Zellweger) can't stop helping the little girl.

After thinking about it and inviting Lilith into her home Emily finds that there are some strange things going on and she begins to wonder if there was a reason Lilith's parents were trying to kill her. People start dying and Emily wonders what evil lies behind the sweet eyes of the child.

This movie is incredibly predictable, at least to a point. There was a least one death that I did not see coming and I was a little surprised. Then the end was a little surprising because, while I knew what was going to happen, I wasn't sure how it was going to happen. I was a little disappointed that the movie left off where it did, only because you can't do some of the things Emily did and just get away with it.

The actress who played Lilith is the talented Jodelle Ferland, who was also in SILENT HILL, CABIN IN THE WOODS, and KINGDOM HOSPITAL. A pretty good actress in horror movies, although it almost seems like she plays the same character. I am interested in seeing what she develops further along in her career (especially since she is only 22).

Anyway, back to the movie. I don't think this is the best movie, but I don't think this is the worst movie. It doesn't rely on jump scares, which was good since so many movies try to rely on jump scares, but it doesn't keep the tension, and Emily seems a little flat as a character. So, I don't think I would recommend this movie, but if you're bored and want to watch something try it out, maybe you will like it more than me.

I'm wondering if there are movies that I may not have watched that I should watch and review? I generally review almost every movie I watch, but wonder if there are things out there I may be missing?

My last review was of the horror movie AUTOPSY, and most of the time I do review horror movies. I mean, hey, I'm a horror author so I'm tuned into the horror genre. I love horror movies, and horror novels, and horror TV shows, and horror events, and in reality Halloween is my favorite holiday, even if I don't dress up and go out. I do watch other movies not in the horror genre, I don't always review them. I probably should.

Well, now coming to the question of this? Do you guys out there in internetland have any movies suggestions? I want the odd movies, the fun movies, the weird movies, the off the wall movies, the movies no one else has heard of.... but I still need to be able to find them... So it can't be so off the wall that it is hard to find, otherwise I might not be able to watch it!

AUTOPSY is a 2008 movie about friends who crash their car and end up at a local hospital. The hospital is a bizarre and possibly very dangerous place, with a weird front desk nurse and criminal deviants working as janitors and ambulance drivers.

The main character, Emily, is the one that the doctor, Benway, focuses on. She is a young girl who at one point was in med school, and the doctor seems to focus on this about her. He tells her she should go back to med school and get her degree, but he isn't who he seems to be, and behind the scenes he is experimenting, on what the audience doesn't really know.

One by one Emily's friends are taken away to be examined, and treated like experiments. She doesn't know what is happening until the doctor starts asking her some very odd questions during her exam. Emily asks after her boyfriend, Bobby, and is constantly told that he is in recovery, but towards the end of the movie she finds that nothing is that simple.

I will once again be honest, this was not the best movie. There was no explanation of plot, and as a horror movie it wasn't scary. It tries too hard to be a grotesque horror movie with violence and blood, but that isn't what makes a movie a horror movie. A good horror movie has something frightening, it suspends belief and makes one want to watch more. A good horror movie makes one sit on the edge of their seat and anxiously wait to see what happens to the characters. This movie had none of that.

I didn't get to know the backstory of any of the characters, which doesn't help make me care what happens to them. The bad guy, Dr. Benway, wasn't at all scary or menacing (even though the character was played by the excellent Robert Patrick). The scares were mostly of the gore and blood type, showing the inside of a characters beaten skull as another character tries to help them isn't scary, it is just dull since it has been done over and over. The movie just didn't grab me like it should have and I found my mind drifting to other things. It was boring, which is a bad thing for a horror movie to be.

I don't recommend this movie to anyone, not even anyone like me who will watch anything (even when it has bad reviews from others). It was dull, unoriginal, and just bland.