Tag: R.L. Stine

New Fiction 2023 – January

“Psalms” (1-100) ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

Okay so this is where priests pull all the one-liners that they drop during sermons.

“The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

Can’t let it go despite the peril.

“Inventory” by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

When in doubt, a list.

“Mothers” by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

Penitent daughters of singular mothers.

“Especially Heinous” by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

You learn sooner or later that they were always dead girls.

“Real Women Have Bodies” by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

They’ll always find you.

“Eight Bites” by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

When left with little recourse, it’s only natural to sing the song.

“The Resident” by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

Make things around people? No, thank you.

“Difficult At Parties” by Carmen Maria Machado (2017)

The party parable rings universal.

“The First Peer” by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore (2010)

The things we do when we failed to realize we’re not at fault.

“Reservoir Ferengi” by David McIntee (2010)

Can’t make a song bird do your taxes.

“The Slow Knife” by James Swallow (2010)

The only reasonable conclusion to plotting.

“The Unhappy Ones” by Keith R.A. DeCandido (2010)

Carving out the place you’re due from bone.

“Freedom Angst” by Britta Burdett Dennison (2010)

You can play the part, but when will you live it?

“Revenant” by Marc D. Giller (2010)

Once more: Star Trek is primed for horror.

“Work Is Hard” by Greg Cox (2010)

Achieving a satisfactory life.

“The Briefcase” by Rebecca Makkai, performed by Victor Garber for NPR’s Selected Shorts (2009, 2023)

The skin is loose but if it fits…

“Paradise” by Yxta Maya Murray, performed by Tanis Parenteau for NPR’s Selected Shorts (2020, 2023)

Limited options means limited solutions.

Honor in the Night by Scott Pearson (2010)

That’s the stuff. A cross-generational Star Trek mystery is just my game.

Trapped in Bat Wing Hall by R.L. Stine (1995)

Goosebumps books are simply a delight.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, presented by Rice University Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts (1595, 2013)

Hey, this Shakespeare guy was pretty funny.

“Comet as Paperboy” by Samantha Blysse Haviland (2022)

Forever waiting.

“The Art of Negotiation” by Meghan Privitello (2016)

We’re still waiting.

“Forest Spirits” by Secondlina (2022)

Give them space.

“Forest Spirits 2” by Secondlina (2022)

Gotta have a Joe.

“With Sympathy” by Oglaf Comics (2017)

You can have it.

“it went like this” by chaumas-deactivated20230115 (2023)

Power of the belly.

Simpsons Comics Colossal Compendium – Volume One (2013)

Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in.

“Full Void Demo” dev. OutOfTheBit (2023)

Oh this is great. I’ve been in the mood to play a game just like this. 2D movement, careful and considered locomotion, single screen puzzles with no frustrating resets to far back in the level when a player dies. It looks and sounds amazing, and I love the environment design.

Thunderbirds dev. Saffire (2004)

I worked on this nearly twenty years ago but somehow wasn’t sure that I’d actually completed the game. Now I know.

“bugs” dir. k. pakiz (2023)

Of course there’s hats.

“enter initials” dir. k. pakiz (2023)

Three letters, no supervision.

Avatar: The Way of Water dir. James Cameron (2022)

Looks pretty, stops short.

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody dir. Kasi Lemmons (2022)

A respectful consideration.

Thunderbirds dir. Jonathan Frakes (2004)

I wasn’t sure about the game, but I know I hadn’t watched this movie. Something in the wake of the Spy Kids era.

M3GAN dir. Gerard Johnstone (2023)

It builds up but doesn’t quite land. Not sure what I expected, but it seems to have done well so they’ll get another shot.

Corsage dir. Marie Kreutzer (2022)

Just follow a person for a while and listen.

Broker dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda (2022)

There’s no conscious family.

Skinamarink dir. Kyle Edward Ball (2022)

You had me without the jumpscares.

Plane dir. Jean-François Richet (2023)

Plane goes down, plane goes up.

Missing dir. Will Merrick & Nick Johnson (2023)

They ratchet up the melodrama.

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond dir. Yasuhito Kikuchi (2023)

As lost in the weeds as expected.

A Man Called Otto dir. Marc Forster (2023)

I mean, so would I.

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish dir. Joel Crawford (2022)

This many characters done so well. An impressive story.

Women Talking dir. Sarah Polley (2022)

Stageplay tragedies.

Thunderbirds – “Trapped In The Sky” (1965)

An impressive VFX showcase.

Tales from the Crypt – “The Man Who Was Death” (1989)

This is supposed to be the best the series has to offer? (But I’m here for the cheese anyway.)

The Outer Limits – Seasons 1-3 (1995-1997)

Speaking of cheese, this is perfect 90s sci-fi, and a fine example of Canada’s dominance of 90s TV production.

New Fiction 2022 – July

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete – “1 Paralipomenon” ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

More begetting children and all their names before coming back around to more of David’s reign. So many chapters are just appendices to previous events.

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete – “2 Paralipomenon” ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

Two Paralipomenon, say that five times fast. So now it’s on to Solomon and his riches (again), Roboam talking about how his little finger is bigger than his dad’s dick, and Jeroboam getting whipped with scorpions all the way to the fall of Jerusalem. It’s basically another look at what we saw in Kings.

Dracula Daily – “July” by Bram Stoker & ed. Matt Kirkland (1897, 2021)

Dracula’s finally outta that musty old castle, though leaving Jonathan in the lurch is quite the cliffhanger. And that poor, poor captain.

Bad Hare Day by R.L. Stine (1996)

A mish-mash of various ideas from earlier books. It has the vibe of Haunted Mask and stealing secrets from weird adults, the experimenting with illicit stuff from Monster Blood, animal transformations from various books, bratty younger sister who bullies the protagonist, a Slappy-like snarky villainous character. It’s too much of a remix and more slapstick than horror.

Egg Monsters from Mars by R.L. Stine (1996)

A decent creature story, but the latter half kind of sags with the protagonist spending a lot of time just trapped in a freezer and struggling to stay warm. The villain is genuinely frightening but also one-dimensional and doesn’t really explain his motivation well. And there’s not enough of the egg monsters. It’s close to a top tier book but just sputters too much along the way.

“Bathtub Mermaid” by Edith Zimmerman (2022)

Someone has to hear about the doll thief.

“its time for… the dark cabinet” by itstimeforcomics-blog (2015)

When you least suspect it.

Lost Highway dir. David Lynch (1997)

One can see the continuation of a theme in Lynch’s work since Blue Velvet. Does he want us see the darkness or the light?

Mad God dir. Phil Tippett (2022)

If the journey ends for you, it doesn’t mean it’s the end.

Mr. Malcolm’s List dir. Emma Holly Jones (2022)

British accents always class up the cruelty.

Thor: Love and Thunder dir. Taika Waititi (2022)

Whoof, what a drop from Ragnarok.

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers dir. Akiva Schaffer (2022)

A reflection of a reflection that is unaware of what it sees.

Where the Crawdads Sing dir. Olivia Newman (2022)

Pump up the volume on the mystery, tone down the romance.

Nope dir. Jordan Peele (2022)

The most fun take on Jaws since the original. A real hoot and also really fucked up at times. An understanding of horror by someone who continues to bring cool ideas to movies.

Vengeance dir. B. J. Novak (2022)

You get awful close but you shouldn’t have been the face of it. Now we ask, what did we learn?

Fear Street Part One: 1994 dir. Leigh Janiak (2021)

Really going for it right out of the gate. I’m in. Now I need to know if I should go back and read Fear Street after reading this bunch of Goosebumps books.

Fear Street Part Two: 1978 dir. Leigh Janiak (2021)

Even the devil craves a kind word.

Fear Street Part Three: 1666 dir. Leigh Janiak (2021)

Legacy is mankind’s ruin.

Goosebumps – “Bad Hare Day” (1996)

Erf, the book was rough, and the episode doesn’t do itself any favors by leaning into the snarky villain.

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (1988-1990)

A nostalgia bomb like every one of these 90s cartoons tends to be, though the tropes eventually wear thin when watching it all in one go. Monterey Jack may be what crystallized my appreciation of cheese.

Better Call Saul – Season 5 (2020)

This show… it doesn’t build the way Breaking Bad builds. It’s more of a roller coaster with the sense of hitting the same drop a few too many times. This season is a bookmark in place while you wait for the extra season that should have been season five.

The Book of Boba Fett (2021-2022)

I feel bad for the actors and crew of this ostensibly standalone TV show. Your makers should have had the fortitude to stick the vision.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

Better, but only because it is exactly what I remember. It’s comfortable, like an old pair of socks.

The other thing I would think about is [R.L. Stine’s] attitude towards work in general. So he obviously, on the one hand, is someone who works really hard. And on the other hand, he’s someone who’s very nontraditional in how he approached work. So he wanted to have a humor magazine and he didn’t care about doing well in school. He just liked writing jokes and then liked writing these books for kids. Like we’ve talked about before, he has this kind of antiauthoritarian attitude. Maybe for him, all work that isn’t work you want to do is bad. Both issues to do with bad workplaces, and then issues to do with classism come up a ton in his work. And I think they’re personal issues for him, too.

Discussing R.L. Stine’s very relatable disdain toward the workaday world on Say Podcast and Die!