New Horror 2023 – Day 31

“Why are you in such a hurry to be old?”

“Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler (1984)

Doesn’t take much to just roll with it, does it?

💀💀💀

“So, who d’you want done?”

“Fair Ground” by Jo Duffy, Mike Manley, Jackson Guice, James Fry, Kevin Cunningham (1992)

Something always catches up.

💀💀💀

“We could’ve helped that child.”

Bedevil dir. Tracey Moffatt (1993)

We need more surreal expressionism in set design. That alone lends a movie those spooky vibes.

💀💀💀

“This one’s gonna make you have to change your chonies.”

Regular Show – “Terror Tales of the Park” I-VI (2011-2016)

I’ve never watched a regular episode of Regular Show, but I get the sense that the Halloween specials aren’t all that out of the ordinary.

💀💀💀

“Oh, you know kids. Still missin’.”

The Simpsons – “Treehouse of Horror Presents: Not It” (2022)

Hm, sticking too close to the source material is a longtime problem with their parodies, and this one certainly suffers for it.

💀💀💀

“C’mon, how powerful could a god from a dump like this be?”

Silent Hill 3 dev. Konami (2003)

The first half kind of drags before it finally gets to the titular setting, then it’s surreal melty wall terror. That makes up for the slow start and cements it as another great entry. I’ll be back for the next one in 2024.

💀💀💀

“So, just be aware, the characters do tend to wander a bit.”

Five Nights at Freddy’s dev. Scott Cawthon (2014)

I always avoided this one because the jumpscare gameplay wasn’t for me, but I figured I had to at least see the first one through to the end. I don’t know that I can recommend it what with Cawthon’s problematic nonsense, but it’s an interesting product from an indie dev of the time.

New Horror 2023 – Day 5

“I never believed white folks until I saw evidence for myself.”

“CUE: Change” by Chesya Burke (2011)

A different kind of zombie tale. It’ll come for you, too.

💀💀💀

“… w… worms… worms… itch…”

“For Better or Worse?” by Richard Corben (2016)

A gnarly progression, I like it. I’m glad all these Shadows on the Grave stories have delivered, short as they are.

💀💀💀

“Fucking butterflies.”

Organ dir. Kei Fujiwara (1996)

Editing makes it a bit tough to follow, but it feels intentional to get the viewer into a frenetic and overwhelmed state. And this movie sure does overwhelm. 🫀

New Horror 2023 – Day 3

“Someone screamed – it was me, it was me – as her flesh blackened and greened and sank in around her bones like fallen cake.”

“The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror” by Carmen Maria Machado (2020)

Horror-ish? Certainly in the spirit of the time. But it’s also just one of those meditative pieces about how one gets here through all the muck of youth and existence, where you are who you are and sometimes you have to wonder how you got to be this way.

💀💀💀

“I’ll tell them what we did and you won’t be able to stand it!”

“Do You Know… the Beast-Man?” by Richard Howell, Colleen Doran, Kevin Cunningham (1992)

Wow. This one’s pretty raw in terms of a character being abused and treated horribly. But the thing is, Machado’s story has the exact same scenes, only between a man (abuser) and a woman (victim) instead of a man (abuser) and a man (victim), like in this story. So why does a man abusing another man stand out to me when the other, more heteronormative abuse does not? And that’s the most fucked up thing here, realizing it’s just because it’s between two men and that’s not normalized in my brain the way it is when it’s a man abusing a woman. This one absolutely got to me.

💀💀💀

“Might be your dream, but it’s my rules!”

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare dir. Rachel Talalay (1991)

Oh, so is this how Freddy Kreuger became a cartoon? Because pop culture definitely took this character and made him into a spooky family-friendly spokesman. And the movie isn’t being coy about it, but somehow the comedy and campiness doesn’t quite gel. The ending montage showing scenes from the previous movies definitely make me think I should go watch those instead.

💀💀💀

“Remember to carry matches; the HAUNTED HOUSE is very dark.”

Haunted House dev. Atari (1982)

It’s obviously of its time and technology, but I can see how this sort of thing is a progenitor to a lot of what we now know as survival horror. It has limited supplies, a house full of spooky creatures, and most importantly it’s explicitly dark with the need to light one’s surroundings. I also appreciate the many modes available so players can customize their difficulty level.