Red Nights (2010)

There are spoilers, so if you plan on watching, read no further.

What could have been. There are some great, well shot scenes in this film. Some of the shots were very Hitchcock like. The story is about a stolen potion that paralyzes and increases sensitivity of nerve endings to extreme levels whether it be pleasure or pain. The thieves who stole it are a minister and his mistress (a young woman). They have a buyer, arranged earlier. The woman decides to make the deal herself (she poisons the minister) and steals a passport and flies to Hong Kong, just in the nick of time before Interpol puts out an alert for her arrest for the murder of the minister.

When she meets the middleman (woman in this case) to make the sale, she tries to negotiate a bigger payment. It doesn't work and she is offered less money. Some good acting here as the middleman knows the young woman is desperate. She accepts the offer and now must deliver the potion to another location. Little does she know, the buyer is a vicious and dangerous woman, capable of murder herself. We see this earlier in the film. The meeting doesn't go as planned and the potion ends up being stolen from her. Now, she has no money and no potion to sell.

What happens next is a cat and mouse game between the young woman, the buyer and the original owner of the potion, who is involved with illegal activities and is dangerous himself.

If only this film had stuck to this and focused on the young woman and her predicament. Instead, they spent too much time on the buyer, who increasingly, became a cartoonish superhuman character. As the film neared the end, it turned into a revenge flick, with the usual brutal killings, dark rooms and jump scares. There is also a rather graphic torture scene that went on for far too long.

This could actually be a very good film just by editing. Make the buyer a minor character, take out the superhuman element and end the film, as they did in the middle of it, with the young woman coming to the realization that she was in way over her head.

"Rock Your Baby"- George McCrae

Previous to him being killed, I had only heard about Charlie Kirk. I didn't even know what he looked like. Just from reading some of the stuff he's said, the problem I have is he's really not helping any of his followers to better themselves. He's telling them it's not their fault. Someone else is standing in their way. Often the blame goes to immigrants, minorities, women and any religion except Christianity. Basically, anyone except themselves. For anyone believing this, the solution might be to get rid of what they perceive to be standing in their way.

This is dangerous and the fact that there have been so many shootings, largely (maybe exclusively) by people who listen to Kirk and others like him, proves it.

How bad would it be if Kirk didn't even believe in the stuff he was saying? It's possible some or even all of it was just an act. What if it was just him knowing his audience and just telling them whatever it was they wanted to hear? If this was the case, then I would have to believe he was laughing at them. He was telling them, "This is why your life sucks so much." And they cheered him every time he did. In the meantime, their lives stay stuck in a forever loop of blaming others.

"Hungry Heart"- Bruce Springsteen

"Moon River"- Henry Mancini

"Hair"- The Cowsills

Quote by Magical_felix

"I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights" - Charlie Kirk

So nice of him to volunteer.

Quote by Magical_felix

Charlie is anyway. Thursday night football will still go on tomorrow.

They better not cancel that game. I'm a Packer fan. On the other hand, maybe they should cancel games every time there's a shooting. That might just get the public angry enough to do something about the gun problems we have in this country. Gun deaths are so common, people don't even seem to blink an eye anymore.

"You're Gonna Lose That Girl"- The Beatles

"Get Down Tonight"- K C and the Sunshine Band

"Election Day"- Arcadia

"How Much I Feel"- Ambrosia

"Against the Wind"- Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band

"Good Luck Charm"- Elvis Presley

"Time Passages"- Al Stewart

"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"- Elton John

"You're in My Heart"- Rod Stewart

"Next Doot to an Angel"- Neil Sedaka

"New York City Rhythm"- Barry Manilow

"Every Which Way But Loose"- Eddie Rabbit

"Snowblind Friend"- Steppenwolf

"I Honestly Love You"- Olivia Newton John

"New Looks From an Old Lover"- BJ Thomas

"Easy Come, Easy Go"- Bobby Sherman

"Ghostbusters"- Ray Parker Jr.

"Kansas City"- Fats Domino

Quote by KimmiBeGood

Wow! I thought I was a fast writer! Two stories (one long) already in!

I really love competing with y’all in comps here, so trying to pivot from the children’s stories I’ve been writing to a smutty obsession story. 🤣 It’s a big pivot. 🤣

My entry will be short like me, but hopefully a good read. In my usual fashion, I wrote the ending, and am now working my way backward. 😊

Happy Writing, Lushies

Working backwards is actually a really good way to write a story. There are some stories I gave up on simply because I didn't know how to end it. There is one particular story I entered into one of the competitions that I really hated how I ended it. I wonder if it's okay to change a competition story well after the competition is over.

"Back on the Chain Gang"- Pretenders

"Nice to be With You"- Gallery

"Tenderness"- General Public