The Gift (2000)

Sam Raimi avoids the camp of the "Evil Dead" trilogy to deliver some serious scares in "The Gift," a Southern-Gothic ESP thriller that stars Cate Blanchett in the role of Annie, a psychic living in a small town.

   When local flake Jessica King (Katie Holmes) gets murdered, Annie's sixth sense acts up, leading the authorities to one man: resident wife-beater and town redneck Donnie Barksdale (Keanu Reeves). Of course, Donnie's not the one who done it, and with her power under scrutiny, Annie must find the real killer before she, too, becomes a victim.

   The strength of this movie is that it avoids the pitfalls of modern horror films. First of all, Annie isn't the usual ditzy, flaky, slutty heroine, who along with her group of dumb friends has a total IQ of 50. She behaves in an admirable and most of all, INTELLIGENT way.

Fed Up, Enraged, or Psychotically Crazy -- 16 Memorable Cinematic Rants

Happy belated Thanksgiving! Though we live in the States -- long-time Virginians -- we didn't celebrate today as hubby had to work. I do have a big-ass turkey thawing in the fridge, waiting for his next day off. :-)

Avocado green was a splendid choice for a 1970s kitchen. My parents, on the other hand,opted for tomato red.

And I watched several Thanksgiving-related movies. The kids and I watched Planes, Trains & Automobiles, which is one of our go-to family holiday movies. I am also about halfway through Ice Storm. So far, this movie is just okay for me, but it has some great moments. And it's awakened my growing-up-in-the-70s nostalgia. I suddenly want to paint everything in my house avocado green and buy a big-ass brown station wagon.