Joseph Roy Wright
Bio
Hello there!
My name is Joseph Roy Wright, the British author of 12 Independent novels!
I like to write about movies, pop culture, fiction and horror! I review all the latest films (and classics), I also like to write short stories.
Stories (88/0)
Watch Dogs Should've Been Groundbreaking
Watch Dogs is a series of video games that (although still ongoing) could've developed into something truly remarkable, unique and fascinating. A video game where you play as a most wanted internet hacker/vigilante, a Robin Hood for the modern, tech sauvy age of digital corruption. The groundbreaking Mr Robot comes to mind when thinking of the perfect espionage thriller storyline, a narrative that could blend this gameplay idea together into something truly groundbreaking. Unfortunately Ubisoft over-promised their claims for the original game, Watch Dogs 1 received a massive graphical downgrade, the gameplay took a huge hit too, it looked worse, played worse and was far less immersive than what it was shown or hyped up to be. The hacking was (and still is) very simple and surface level, you simply tap one of four buttons to make a traffic light go green, lift a barrier or take control of a CCTV camera. You might be able to stun/distract people by hacking their phones from afar, or emptying their bank account for in-game cash (you evil gamer!), but outside of the blackout hack (missing in 2 & Legion), the hacking was nothing but a gimic, that only served to make combat and police chases easier. They never really did anything truly innovative with this mechanic (although cheating at poker using the casinos CCTV was a really clever touch). I do think 2 & Legion did add a lot more to the toy box, as you can now turn police and gangs onto eachother by sending false crime reports, hack a series of different drones and work vehicles; from scissors lifts to drones equipped with machine guns. It seems they have rarely tapped into the privacy side of hacking though, outside of a couple of story missions and side activities, we're never given the opportunity to expose an evil corporation, character or group, to use that information to blackmail them, or maybe return all their stolen money to the people who were robbed.
By Joseph Roy Wrightabout a year ago in Gamers
The Headless Horseman Of Halton Village
(This is a fictional horror story) Monday – 9/5/22: Throughout the years, many have speculated the existence of ghosts and spirits. Is there an afterlife? Is death really the end, or do we still linger on as lost spirits. These questions can never truly be answered. You either believe in the occult, find it non-sense or you are somewhere in-between, entirely unsure whether or not the supernatural exists. Well, an old friend of mine, Andrew Bates, would tell you it's all real! He first encountered his greetings with the dead, all the way back in 2001, a good 21 years ago when he was just a young boy in school. This was during that infamous murder case known as: The Skinners Incident, where a killer was going around town, skinning people alive! It was sick, but many (including Andrew) dared say that the killer had a paranormal origin. However whenever I mention this to him, he proclaims that this was all real and that the demon tormented him first, appearing as a black skeletal creature, with multiple wings and limbs like a Spider crossed with a Bat. It all sounded so ridiculous, even I doubted his sanity. There is one case however that is still fresh on all of our minds. The case which involved several mysterious be-headings near the areas of Halton Castle. This first began in 2011 a good 10 years after the bizarre murders in Runcorn and again; police were completely dumbfounded by the series of killings. No evidence to point fingers, they seemed to happen at random and I even met a woman who said she saw her boyfriend's head tear off by itself and fall to the ground in front of her, like some phantom ghost had chopped the man's head off with an invisible sword. Many who dared walk by the castle around 1-3am would sometimes be found be-headed and others have claimed to see a skeletal horse and headless knight in black, chase them around the castle grounds. These killings stopped by 2012 and nobody has mentioned the headless horseman since. Yet I've often heard echoes of a horse clattering across the castle grounds at night and some have even heard a man speak in old English screaming things like; "I strike you!", "You're all dead!" and "Have at it, fools!". Many find these bizarre occurrences to be humorous, but there is certainly a dark undertone to all of this. On some quiet mornings when nobody is around, I've heard many say that you can almost hear the faint war cries of ancient warriors battling over the castle and many say this ends with a horrifying scream that only lasts ten seconds, the same time a headless man is still conscious, before dying. Very creepy stuff, but it's hard to say if it's all just our imaginations playing tricks on us, being fully aware of the horrifying myth that surrounds the place. I'm fairly new to this town, only moving here in 2020 after the pandemic, I had to move somewhere cheap and settled into the Runcorn old town. I'll have to ask Andrew more about this when I next see him, for he's lived here all his life and he claims to be a psychic. As you probably guessed.
By Joseph Roy Wrightabout a year ago in Horror
Avatar: The Way Of Water - Movie Review
At last it is here! The (very) long awaited sequel to James Cameron's Avatar. Is it as good as the first, or is this another doomed sequel? Some say James is the king of movie sequels, so maybe Avatar: The Way Of Water is another stellar entry to his list of achievements. Well I'm here to tell you the answer is a resounding yes... and no.
By Joseph Roy Wrightabout a year ago in Geeks
Cabinet Of Curiosities - Series Review
Guillermo del Toro has done it again! The talented film director of Pan's Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, Pinocchio (2022) and many others, has given us another horrifying masterpiece. Spanning over 8 unique tales, all of which have morals and imaginative monsters, that will haunt you forever! Although I recommend watching these episodes in chronological order (even though I didn't), because the series ends with a very tragic story, which I wish I saved until the end. Each episode is a completely different horror tale however, so you can still skip around if you like and it wouldn't ruin the continuity of other episodes. Guillermo has a very unique style, everything feels like a dark fairy tale, from the oak furnished environments to the dated wardrobe the characters are often dressed in. Visually; Cabinet of Curiosities has a very old fashioned presentation, which seems to make the stories feel more grand and legendary, making the monsters involved feel more like cruel, ancient Lovecraftian Gods, rather than typical horror movie demons. Not one episode of this show is bad, every story has a unique twist or set up, no two tales ever feel the same.
By Joseph Roy Wrightabout a year ago in Horror
Halloween Ends - Movie Review
"What on earth did I just watch?!" Is what I told myself upon leaving the cinema. Halloween Ends completely missed the charm of the original movie. What was once a very simple, straight to the point slasher, where a unstoppable killer storms through Haddonfield on a murderous rampage is now a convoluted romantic thriller about Laurie's grand daughter, Alison, falling for a bad boy psychopath! I'm not even kidding you folks, Halloween Ends focuses far more on this new character named Corey, who slowly becomes psychotic upon meeting Michael Myers in a creepy sewer. After escaping the infamous serial killer, Corey slowly starts to lose his sanity and essentially becomes a copy-cat killer of The Shape, only he has an even cheaper Halloween mask from the local dollar store. What's even worse is just how much screen time is absolutely wasted on this bizarre, yet awful romantic relationship he has with Alison, which honestly takes over the majority of this film's run time! I swear to you this is the actual plot and it's not at all scary.
By Joseph Roy Wright2 years ago in Horror
Smile - Movie Review
Smile begins strong, it has a creepy setting and story which begins with our main character, Dr. Rose Cotter (played by Sosie Bacon) Visiting mental patient of hers, as she is a psychiatrist. This first patient of hers, he believes a monster is following him, and what I like about this is how ambiguous Smile is, for he is not the one who passes curse onto Rose, it is actually her second patient, Laura Weaver (played by Caitlin Stasey) who is haunted by the demon. So it leaves us wondering whether or not Rose's first patient is just crazy, or if he too is cursed by the demon, this and many other questions are never answered, leaving us in the dark with only the fear of the unknown to comfort us! After Laura's suicide in front of Rose, whilst under possession of the demon, this triggers the demon to attach itself to her and soon a bizarre series of hauntings begin to take place!
By Joseph Roy Wright2 years ago in Horror
The Most Disturbing Movie Ever Made
From the opening shot of this film, they let you know instantly that this is going to be a disturbing one, for it begins with a shot of open heart surgery, accompanied by some truly bone chilling orchestral music. The tone is instantly set by the director's unsettling cinematography, colour scheme and atmosphere. The film isn't exactly Horror themed, but the colours are dull and scenery is equally mundane, the film has a very realistic and grounded presentation which I think adds a lot more grit to some of the more grotesque/grizzly scenes that do pop up throughout this honestly disturbing movie. Not only are the scenarios within The Killing of a Sacred Deer unsettling, but a lot of the characters are simply just weird too, Collin Ferrall's character (Dr. Steven Murphy) has a disturbing corpse fetish with his wife (played by Nicole Kidman), which we see played out during, thankfully very brief, sexual scenes. Nobody within his family speaks like a normal person either, this isn't even bad acting, they just seem to be very, very formal with everything they do and say, it's intentionally uncanny, meaning almost every character just feels off in the most haunting way possible. Even when something truly terrifying does happen, characters will act completely unfazed 90% of the time and that just feels even more wrong and alien, it's like a surreal nightmare.
By Joseph Roy Wright2 years ago in Horror
Blonde - Movie Review
First off, I'm not offended by this movie. Despite how inaccurate it is, with all of it's strange and twisted presumptions. Truth is I just think it's a very confusing and pretentious waste of time, like when art geeks think a tipped over dumpster full of rubbish is somehow "art", that's basically what this film is. The reason I think this is because of the director's irritating insistence on constantly changing the aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9 at nauseam! Not only that, but the film always switches from color to black and white too. Then there are scenes where the camera is hand-held, thrashing around drunkenly. Worst of all, the picture even blurs in and out of focus during chaotic moments. I absolutely hate it when movie directors go out of their way to try and be artistic like this, because all it does is take me out of the movie, this break in immersion always distracts me from the plot too. It would be like reading a comic book where the art style and color scheme randomly changes from panel to panel. Because of this, you can never tell if the scenes are supposed to be flashbacks, present tense or dream sequences. So it's not like these visual changes are here to help you understand what is real or not, for even within the same scene, aspect ratios will change, even dipping in and out of color, it's just a pretentious mess! I can understand that the director obviously wanted their movie to stand out from others, but all this achieves is a dizzying experience which is bound to give anybody a headache. You could argue this is done to get in the scrambled mind-set of Marilyn Monroe herself, to visually communicate how distressed she is in certain scenes. Admittedly, little moments like these might've been effective sparingly during very climatic scenes, but the film is unfortunately littered with tripe like this throughout the entire run time, resulting in the visual equivalent of a hideous train wreck.
By Joseph Roy Wright2 years ago in Blush
Borderlands 3 Is Underrated
Despite hearing nothing but bad things about the story for Borderlands 3; "Troy and Tyreen are annoying", "Ava is unbearable" and "The comedy is cringe worthy", etc. I decided to go into the game anyway, because I really enjoyed the previous games and although the comedy has always been very hit or miss, I find the series has a certain charm. The comic book style graphics perfectly suit the over the top humor. Although this entry may have gone too far in a few places, it wasn't the complete disaster that I feared it might be, in fact, I think it's one of the better games in the series.
By Joseph Roy Wright2 years ago in Gamers
007: Spectre is Underrated
Everything about Daniel Craig's 4th 007 film, Spectre, just screams "Classic Bond" in my opinion. The film has so many fun throwbacks to the Sean Connery originals, there are even a few Roger Moore era references too. Ultimately Spectre feels like a modern day remake of some of the greatest Bond films rolled into one thrilling adventure. It may have it's flaws (which I will go over), but in my opinion it's a very underrated Bond film. It certainly deserves a lot more recognition and love.
By Joseph Roy Wright2 years ago in Geeks
Fantasy Island (2020) Movie Review
Fantasy Island is a lot of dumb fun, but if you're looking for a horrifying psychological thriller, this won't be your cup of tea. The plot follows five characters, J.D Weaver & Brax Weaver (played by Ryan Hansen and Jimmy O. Yang), who are brothers. Patrick Sullivan (played by Austin Stowell) and two women, Melanie Cole (played by Lucy Hale) and Gewn Olsen (played by Maggie Q). Each character has their own fantasy in mind and the mysterious island owner, Mr. Roarke (played by Michael Peña), is here to provide.
By Joseph Roy Wright2 years ago in Horror
- Top Story - July 2022
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) - Movie ReviewTop Story - July 2022
The latest entry into the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise is a bumpy one, although not entirely awful, there are plenty of gross gore effects. Leatherface himself looks terrifying and is equally deadly. Because of this, the horror in general is very well executed, characters die painfully, within seconds of meeting this lunatic. There really is no escape, as Leatherface knows his hometown like the back of his hand, while all of these strangers run around like headless chickens, unable to escape from death's grip! Acting wise, people genuinely look terrified when Leatherface charges for them. So with all of these intense thrills, what is it exactly that makes Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) a mixed horror movie rather than a perfect slasher?
By Joseph Roy Wright2 years ago in Horror