Top 5 Creepiest Museums in London

Calling all horror fans who love to feel freaked out or disgusted by terrifying things. Have I got the museums for you! If you love the atmosphere of repulsion and fright (or find it funny watching those who don't) then listen up. In these places, you're able to sense the spirits that lurk behind and the meanings and emotions attached to every object. And one last thing: good luck with the nightmares!

NUMBER 5: THE CLINK MUSEUM

http://www.clink.co.uk/

If old-fashioned torture methods and dingy prison cells are words that prick up your ears then here if where you need to go. The prison dates back as far as 1144 meaning many lives were trapped behind these walls for many, many years leaving their souls behind. One example of torture equipment that is on display is the Scold's Bridle. This was similar to an iron muzzle but for women. It clung to her face and projected into her mouth with spikes to inflict pain whenever she went to speak. This torture method was used when a wife was a suspected witch. This is not the only piece of torture equipment in the museum, so if this interests you then you'll need to go there to find more.

NUMBER 4: THE OLD OPERATING THEATRE 

http://www.thegarret.org.uk/

Back in the days before local anesthetic, there was a time when operations were... more painful to say the least (just think for a moment: Samuel Pepys survived removing kidney stones.) One thing I found was that the old-fashioned pregnancy test was by injecting a woman's urine into a female frog's hind legs and if the frog became pregnant it would show that the woman was pregnant! So if you ever wondered what their equipment looked like or their toxic 'medicines' were like then this is the perfect place to go.

NUMBER 3: THE HUNTERIAN MUSEUM

http://www.hunterianmuseum.org/

This is probably one of the most grossest museums out of the five. It has preserved foetuses of all kinds of mammals at all stages - even human if I remember correctly! This place is not for the squeamish. It has body parts of all kinds of animals dating back to the Victorian era where X-Ray were not invented and the only way seeing inside was by cutting it and taking a look!

NUMBER 2: THE JACK THE RIPPER MUSEUM                                                                           

/http://www.jacktherippermuseum.com/

Although controversial when it first came about for potentially glamorising the deaths of women this place is still creepy as hell. I don't personally agree with the idea that this museum 'glamorising' this, however. It focuses more on the victims' lives prior to their death. Which makes this museum haunting. The rooms are set out how they would have been back in 1888: the detective's corkboard and what a victim Mary Kelly's bedroom would have been like. The thing I found creepiest about this museum was that in the victim's bedroom they were playing a tape of a woman singing a song on repeat. Supposedly, this was the last song Mary Kelly sang as she merrily walked home from the pub drunk. You can really get a sense of her soul that you couldn't just be read about her in a book.

NUMBER 1: MUSEUM OF CREEPY CURIOSITIES

For more information about the museum click here

If the Hunterian Museum was the grossest museum out of the five then this is the strangest, deranged and CREEPIEST out of the five. This place has objects from taxidermy monkey mermaids to condoms used by the Rolling Stones. It does not only have creepy objects but a lot of sexual objects like penis ornaments and guides such as 'Anal Riders' which may make the picture below a bit clearer. But this does not make this place not creepy. OH HELL NO. It's terrifying. Life-size puppets that looked as though someone was inside waiting for you to get close and pounce on you. I loved it. Also, it is a bar which makes the outing complete.

The sign on the door of the museum 

There are the top five places in that have made me shit my pants. I hope you enjoyed reading about and going to these freaky like worlds planted in London. I recommend going to all of them! Good luck sleeping tonight.

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Delicious Lamb Pinwheel Recipe

If you fancy trying something new, experimental and elegant here is the meal for you. This will impress your guests at dinner or encourage the kids to learn how to cook. This fun recipe in parts can be a bit tricky but the taste at the end makes it all worth it. I paired this with sweet potato mash and gravy. Yet, the lamb pinwheels would also suit being with new potatoes or salad. Maybe even stir fried spinach and chestnut mushrooms. Whatever takes your fancy!

Ingredients:
- Lamb mince (I bought a 500g pack yet not all of it was used)
- 4 cloves of garlic (chopped up)
- 1 red onion (Sliced and diced into small pieces)
- A lamb stock cube
- Fresh mint (chopped up)
- Puff pastry
- Little bit of corn flour
- Little bit of plain flour
- 1 egg

1) Soften the red onion in a frying pan with olive oil in it then add the chopped garlic.

2) Next, stir in the lamb mince and fry it until it turns brown.

3) If you wish you can drain the oil that will come out of the lamb - yet this is optional.

4) Add some boiling water (I believe I added half a pint) which has lamb stock dissolved into it. Also, add the fresh mint.

5) Fry the lamb for twenty minutes.

6) Thicken the lamb with cornflour and water to make the mince stick as rolling it into the pastry will now be easier.

7) Spray a thin layer of plain flour on a surface and roll out the puff pastry. Make sure it is rectangle shaped and half a pinkie thick. Kind of reminds me of the shape of toast.

8) Next, put a thin layer of the mince mix on top - I didn't end up using all my mince mix.

9) Roll it upwards carefully - this is the tricky and messy bit!

10) Using saw motions cut the roll of lamb mince and pastry an inch at a time. You may want to wait until the lamb is cold as I didn't and the pastry melted inside making it messier. Once you cut an inch off lay it on a greased baking tray.

11) Beat an egg and then spread it over the pastry to get a golden brown colour once cooked.

12) Cook the lamb pinwheels for twenty minutes at 180ºC

And then you're done! I hope you enjoy and feel free to comment below if you did!

Pet Sematary - A Book Review

Despite the fact that this is now my favourite book that I've read by Stephen King, it is evil. It ripped my heart apart. It will rip yours too. And it is for the people who are dead brave. King picks at the natural instinct inside of all of us to protect small children. Then he makes us face a raw and realistic nightmare with a hallucinogenic twist. Even King, himself, finds this story to be his scariest yet. 

Death is an obvious theme of this book as it teaches us that sometimes the dead are better off staying dead. This is no zombie story in spite of the way it sounds it is far more than anything of that category. The time taken to get to know these characters is lengthy but once they face hardship, as part of the family, so do you. So prepare to laugh, cry and feel as though insanity is calling your name.

The further I got into this book the more I did not trust the narrator, Louis Creed. In the first section of the book, Louis' dreams and reality are merging together. The divide between the two gets blurred. So as I read the rest, I thought to myself: is he half dreaming all this or is it really happening? 

I loved this book so much that I wanted the ending to be longer seeing as the rest of the book was building up to it. Nonetheless, the ending was a tsunami of emotions and worth the read. If you want to read this, which I recommend, then I have a challenge for you. In the book, I found two references to his other books. See if you can spot them. 

I dare you. 

The Revenant Book vs Film

The Revenant: a story about a man, Hugh Glass, who is mauled by a bear. Ripped into shreds. Abandoned by his fellowmen. This revenge tale will pull and yank you in every direction not giving you a break for breath. Well, with Glass’ throat in tatters you don’t have much to complain about. However, one thing I found myself moaning about was how different the film was to the book. I then discovered at the end creds that the film was only based ‘in part’ to the book. All became clear. So, here are a few things I found to be different in the book compared to the film to help you pick what to do first. You’re welcome.

The book and the film, to me, have very different themes following throughout them. In the book, it is man vs nature as he battles a bear but also a multitude of other animals, which I found to be a much better concept. Yet in the film it is more man vs man as the plot has changed and he wants revenge for a much deeper reason that is a much deeper reason that is perhaps more relatable to those watching than being abandoned. Throughout the film, he encountered more people and less animals. Throughout the book, he encountered less people and less animals.

Another difference between the two is that I found the book to be a lot gorier and thus a lot more realistic. Maggots and vomit made the book, although more gruesome, have a sense of reality. After all, this was a real life story and these things would and did happen. Granted the film does not have senses like smell, touch and taste to make it more disgusting, I still think these scenes should have stayed in. To me, the protagonist had less hardship in the film and made it look a little easier (than the book.) Nonetheless, Leonardo DiCaprio did an amazing job and certainly deserved the Oscar for it.
One thing I did prefer the film for over the book was, in fact, the ending. The film does give Glass more of a reason to battle his way back to have revenge on Fitzgerald, the antagonist. As for the book, the reason for revenge is seemed perhaps redundant. Plus, the film has a killer battle between Glass and Fitzgerald.

For me, the book was better despite the ending and the lack of Leonardo DiCaprio’s face. I just preferred the man vs nature concept that was left out of the film. If you’re wondering which one is better to read or watch first, I would say it doesn’t matter. The choice is yours.

A Clockwork Orange - A Book Review

Imaginative,  A Clockwork Orange is a fanciful, short read which can be easily wizzed through in just one sitting. However, it is best to keep in mind that thid book does have a multitude of disturbing scenes. As the blurb itself says: 'fifteen-year-old Alex doesn't just like ultra-violence - he enjoys rape, drugs and Beethoven's Ninth.' I would suggest not reading this if you're below say sixteen-years-old (but I'm obviously not going to stop you.)

One aspect that I was really impressed with was Burgess' use of language. It is the most unusual and fun language I have ever read. The main character, Alex, names himself 'Your Humble Narrator' and us his 'brothers.' Yet it is almost as though, he has created his own language with 'viddied' meaning 'saw' and 'slooshied' meaning 'heard' and much more. Don't worry, it is easy to get the hang of it quite quickly. Interestingly, having this language fits Alex's personality. For me, it represents the denial he has that what he is doing is wrong, like 'the old in-out in-out' meaning 'rape' or maybe just sex in general. In his mind, he is innocent. Weird.

The character, Alex, is truly so strange and complex which surpasses just the use of language. He is so power hungry and greedy for ultimate dominance. So much so he slit the wrist of his friend (or droog) and made him suck it. All because his droog suggested a more democratic friendship. It's just madness once you step inside of his demonic mind.

Overall, I'd defiantly recommend this to anyone who desires to read this, as it is real horrorshow. I gave it 4.5 stars (well 5 stars on Goodreads) as the language just makes it as well as the great plot.

IN THE WOODS - Flash Fiction

Leaves crunched and twigs snapped underneath thirteen-year-old Abbie. She had no idea how she got here. Trudging further into the depth of the forest, splinters pierced and punctured her bare feet. The cold air bit through her armour of thin cotton pyjamas. Silhouettes of naked tree branches or spirit's long fingers reaching up to heaven. This being hell. The wind cried, cutting through the silence. Then something patted her on the shoulder.

Despite getting a small case of whiplash from turning her head too quick, she found nothing. Nothing but a dirt path narrowing into the distance. The urge to follow it pulled Abbie like a magnet. Poor curious mind. In a trance, she wondered down it like a zombie. Once too far in to go back, a girl appeared screaming only twenty feet away. Her dress looked as though she came from a hippie camp protesting against the nuclear weapons. But her floral pattern clashed with the blood splatters that covered her.
"Help me!" The hippie cried. Ignoring the impulse to scurry away, she followed her. Where could she have run to anyway?
"Oi, hippie girl!" Abbie shrieked, "What's happened?" She twisted around to reveal bloodshot eyes that had seen far too much. Vomit dripped from her chin onto her bony chest.

Pouncing over to her, the hippie slipping in the mud. Continuing to crawl over just as far. She was at Abbie's feet in seconds.
"Please! You have to help me! He's after me, he's gonna get me!" She cried, mascara running down her porcelain skin.
"Who? Who is going to get you?" Her eyes tore away from Abbie's to look behind her shoulder. She screamed. So hard as though her jaw was about to dislocate.

A man was storming over. And he had a bloody axe in hand.  

A review of Cujo - Stephen King

A rapid dog is out for the kill. Of course, it’s written by Stephen King. Published in 1981, King’s spectacular novel Cujo was created in the midst of his struggle with alcoholism and drug addiction. This progressing to the extent that the author, himself, doesn’t even remember writing a single page of the iconic terror at all. This killer book will terrify you into turning pages night until dawn. Set in a place King named Castle Rock, in an existing place Maine that King grew up in and loves enough to set a large majority of novels in. Castle Rock is a place where a variety of characters are living. From a little boy with something hiding in his closet to a guy who is never sober. The fact that all these characters have their own separate lives yet cunningly all interweave with each other fittingly is very clever, very complex, very King.

Cujo is a grand Saint Bernard who - like any dog - enjoys chasing rabbits and munching on treats. Yet once his paw is down the rabbit hole, the story is anything but a sweet Alice in Wonderland type of fairy-tale. It’s ridden with rapid bats that nibble and chew on Cujo’s fresh skin. And so the transformation begins. He isn’t the Camber family’s friendly dog anymore…

Similar to countless other novels written by King, Cujo builds suspense and tension through the first section of the book. King describes his characters in such depth that you feel as though you know them so well that you distinguish everything about them; you sympathise with the characters. We begin to love Gary’s satiric humour. And we feel protective over young Tad. That’s when the plot thickens. King has slyly done this as when you read that far into the novel, you will not be able to put the book down. You’re involved now. You’re a part of the novel. And you’ll need to know what happens next.

Triumphantly bloodcurdling, King is fully aware of what makes an outstanding novel. ‘Good books don't give up all their secrets at once.’ Stated King. Cujo is a prime example of just that. King almost seems to humanise Cujo’s train of thought throughout the novel such as: ‘It was possible that one of them might call him BADDOG. And at this particular moment, he certainly considered himself to be a BADDOG.’ Making the reader sympathise with a rapid dog. Did you expect that?

The narrator of Cujo is opinionated about all the other characters and talkative to the reader. Yet we don’t truly know who he or she really is. ‘Belasco, who was a prick of the highest order.’ The narrator pretty much hates everyone. On the other hand, they entice you to learn more about their lives and eventually feel distraught for them and their troubled fate with the rapid dog. 

We envision the characters’ lives as they go through aspects of life from money trouble to having an affair. With these characters, you are either going to love them or hate them but that’s what is so fascinating about this book. It forces you to have an opinion on each character spiralling in whatever shape or form.

If you have the patience with the slow unravelling beginning of this book then you’re unquestionably going to enjoy this book to its full potential. As it lures you in one page at a time.

Just remember: ‘The monster never dies.’