Dexter by Design (2009)

Jeff Lindsay keeps the Dexter story going with another in his series. Dexter is now married and has a baby along with his wife's other two children, Astor and Cody. Astor and Cody have had a violent childhood and Dexter sees that they are related to him almost deeper than by blood. He sees that he will need to "train" them as he was trained by his adopted father, Harry.

Harry's daughter, Deb, is a detective in the same police department where Dexter serves as a blood spatter specialist. She knows about his Dark Passenger and has used Dexter's unique talent to help her solve cases and advance in her career. She gets Dexter to help on a case and they find their way to the door of a suspect. Almost as soon as she identifies herself, the resident pulls out a knife and stabs her. Dexter mistakes the other resident as the stabber and holds him until help arrives. Unfortunately, this is not the stabber and the confusion allows the real one to escape.

While Deb lays in the hospital recovering from her blood loss, her boyfriend, Chutsky, helps Dexter track down the suspect as far away as Cuba. Unfortunately, the suspect is busy tracking down Dexter and his family. What a fool.

I love this series but be warned. It is not for everyone. The book's characters are echoed in the series on Showtime but the story lines are different.

My rating for this book: ++++

"Dexter" series

I have been a fan of the "Dexter" series on Showtime for a while now and came across one of Jeff Lindsay's books at a used book store and couldn't resist. For fans of the series, I highly recommend reading the books. There is enough difference between the events that reading the books gives you more Dexter deliciousness.

Dexter is a monster -- no one will deny that, not even himself. At the age of three he was found inside a cargo container sitting in a pool of his mother's blood. She had been hacked up by drug dealers and left with her sons three days before. The police officer adopted Dexter and helped him deal with his pathology by focusing his need to kill on targets that deserve it. By keeping to "the code" Dexter is able to hide his actions and feed the beast. Ironically, he works as a blood spatter specialist in the same Miami police department as the daughter of his adopted parents. Indeed it is here that he finds his victims and the skill to ensure that they deserve a death sentence.

These books are not for the squeamish and faint hearted. They are brutal and full of language but one cannot help but want to continue reading the series and watching the episodes on TV.

My rating for this series: ++++

Repo! The Genetic Opera (DVD, 2009)

If I told you that the new-age singer, Sarah Brightman, a star of Law and Order, Paul Sorvino, Anthony Head from the Buffy series, and heiress Paris Hilton appeared in an opera together you would probably think I was under the influence of an illegal substance. Unless, of course, if you are a fan of the producers of other remarkable (?!) movies, most notably, the Saw series.
I am at once hypnotized by the performances and repulsed by the gore in this movie. The singing was amazing even if the songs were not.
The story is about a man, Rotti Largo who owns a company that sells organs for transplants. When recipients cannot make payments, he sends out Shilo's father, Nathan to reposess the organ. When Shiloh was born, Rotti slipped some poison to Nathan who unwittingly gave it to her mother while she was giving birth. Nathan has two horrid sons, Luigi and Pavi, and one daughter (Paris), Amber who are trying to be in position to take over the company when Rotti dies. Of course, there is one character who seems to know what's going on, Graverobber, played by Terrance Zdunich, who collects an addictive pain killer, "Z", from dead bodies.
Not for the faint hearted but fans of movies featuring maximum gore, a la Rocky Horror Picture Show, are the only people who would appreciate this movie. For me it was like watching a train wreck. I watched hoping that there would be some redeeming factor. I think one of the reasons I made it through the whole movie was the phenominal voice of Sarah Brightman (you may have caught one of her concerts on PBS).
BTW, Paris "won" a Razzie for her perfomance in this movie.
I'm even at a loss at what tags to link to this blog entry.
My rating for this movie: +