Tag: television

fictionz:

“Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare – Chicago? Los Angeles? Miami, Florida? Vincennes, Indiana? Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace, where there’s hate, where there’s prejudice, where there’s bigotry. He’s alive. He’s alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when you hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind, unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He’s alive because through these things we keep him alive.“

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

New Fiction 2023 – October

Another October in the can! And now I wish I could snooze through the real horror that is the holiday season. Maybe I’ll stay in October forever… forever… forever…

Here’s the long version (since Tumblr blocks too many links in one post).

The TL;DR:

Short Stories

  • “Snatched from the Brink” by Mary E. Penn (1878)
  • “The Canal” by Everil Worrell (1927)
  • “The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror” by Carmen Maria Machado (2020)
  • “The Time Remaining” by Attila Veres & trans. Luca Karafiáth (2019)
  • “CUE: Change” by Chesya Burke (2011)
  • “Last Call for the Sons of Shock” by David J. Schow (1994)
  • “The Real Right Thing” by Henry James (1899)
  • “The Haunted House” by M.A. Bird (1865)
  • “The Island of Regrets” by Elizabeth Walter (1965)
  • “The Stolen Body” by H.G. Wells (1903)
  • “The White Priest” by Hélène Gingold (1893)
  • “The Man Who Went Too Far” by E.F. Benson (1912)
  • “Mater Tenebrarum” by Pilar Pedraza & trans. James D. Jenkins (2000)
  • “Menopause” by Flore Hazoumé & trans. James D. Jenkins (1994)
  • “Señor Ligotti” by Bernardo Esquinca & trans. James D. Jenkins (2020)
  • “Shambleau” by C.L. Moore (1933)
  • “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe (1850)
  • “The Village Spectre” by Gianna G. Maniego (2002)
  • “The Fog Horn” by Ray Bradbury (1951)
  • “The Lady of the House of Love” by Angela Carter (1979)
  • “The Woman’s Ghost Story” by Algernon Blackwood (1907)
  • “Black Bargain” by Robert Bloch (1942)
  • “Vastarien” by Thomas Ligotti (1987)
  • “The Doll” by Daphne du Maurier (1937)
  • “The Transferred Ghost” by Frank Stockton (1882)
  • “The Shadowy Third” by Ellen Glasgow (1923)
  • “The Daemon Lover” by Shirley Jackson (1949)
  • “The Interval” by Vincent O’Sullivan (1918)
  • “The Phantom Cyclist” by Ruth Ainsworth (1971)
  • “Couching at the Door” by D.K. Broster (1942)
  • “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler (1984)

Audio

  • Tales from the Crypt Presents: Dead Easy by A.L. Katz & Gil Adler, performed by Sean Astin, Jake Busey, Tia Carrere, Brett Cullen, John Kassir (1995, 2022)

Comics

  • “Birds of a Feather” by Stephanie Phillips, Maan House, Giorgio Spalleta, Justin Birch, Chris Sanchez (2021)
  • “The Origin of Vampirella” by Budd Lewis & Jose Gonzalez (1981)
  • “Do You Know… the Beast-Man?” by Richard Howell, Colleen Doran, Kevin Cunningham (1992)
  • “Good Ol’ Fashioned Vanilla” by W. Maxwell Prince, Chris O’Halloran, Martín Morazzo, Good Old Neon (2018)
  • “For Better or Worse?” by Richard Corben (2016)
  • “Werewolf!” by Frank Frazetta (1964)
  • “Chickadee!” by Aya Rothwell (2016)
  • “The Evil Dead” (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) by Richard Floyd-Walker (1986-1987)
  • “Famine’s Shadow” by Rachel Deering & Christine Larsen (2014)
  • “A Pretty Place” by Emily Carroll (2023)
  • “The Thing from the Sea” by Wally Wood & Joe Orlando (1951)
  • “The Living Ghost” by Frank Belknap Long & Fred Guardineer (1948)
  • “Essence of Life” by Gail Simone, Tula Lotay, Jared K. Fletcher (2013)
  • “Hag of the Blood Basket!” by Al Hewetson & Sean Todd (1971)
  • “The Fisherman” by Franco, Tressina Bowling, Wes Abbott, Sara Richard (2022)
  • “Dental Plan” by Joy San (2019)
  • “Frankenstein y el Hombre Lobo” by Unknown (1946)
  • “Man’s World” by Keith Giffen, Mary Sangiovanni, Bilquis Evely, Mat Lopes, Taylor Esposito (2017)
  • “Shadow of Death” by William M. Gaines, Al Feldstein, Graham Ingels (1953)
  • “Smoke and Cedar” by Abby Howard & Alina Pete (2016)
  • “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison & John Byrne (1994-1995)
  • “A Dog and His Boy” by Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, Jill Thompson, Jason Arthur (2006)
  • “The Horror Beneath” by Leah Moore, John Reppion, Timothy Green II, Michelle Madsen, Nate Piekos (2006)
  • “Shadows on the Tomb” by Joe Certa (1952)
  • “The Muck Monster” by Bernie Wrightson (1975)
  • “The Duel of the Monsters” by Archie Goodwin & Angelo Torres (1966)
  • “The Willowdale Handcar or The Return of the Black Doll” by Edward Gorey (1962)
  • “Inside You” by Valerie D’Orazio & David James Cole (2014)
  • “Soylent Teen” by Jordan Morris, Liana Kangas, Ellie Wright, Jack Morelli (2023)
  • “The Gris-Gris” by Jim Keegan & Ruth Keegan (2004)
  • “Fair Ground” by Jo Duffy, Mike Manley, Jackson Guice, James Fry, Kevin Cunningham (1992)

Video Games

  • Haunted House dev. Atari (1982)
  • Castlevania dev. Konami (1987)
  • Clock Tower dev. Human Entertainment (1995)
  • D dev. Warp (1995)
  • Friday the 13th dev. Atlus (1989)
  • Silent Hill 3 dev. Konami (2003)
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s dev. Scott Cawthon (2014)

Movies

  • It Lives Inside dir. Bishal Dutta (2023)
  • The Company of Wolves dir. Neil Jordan (1984)
  • Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare dir. Rachel Talalay (1991)
  • Honeymoon dir. Leigh Janiak (2014)
  • Organ dir. Kei Fujiwara (1996)
  • The Bride of Frankenstein dir. James Whale (1935)
  • The Royal Hotel dir. Kitty Green (2023)
  • House of 1000 Corpses dir. Rob Zombie (2003)
  • The Nun II dir. Michael Chaves (2023)
  • The Godsend dir. Gabrielle Beaumont (1980)
  • Hatching dir. Hanna Bergholm (2022)
  • The Velvet Vampire dir. Stephanie Rothman (1971)
  • Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter dir. Joseph Zito (1984)
  • A Haunting in Venice dir. Kenneth Branagh (2023)
  • Piggy dir. Carlota Pereda (2022)
  • A Night to Dismember (The Lost Version) dir. Doris Wishman (1979)
  • The Blob dir. Irvin Yeaworth (1958)
  • Embrace of the Vampire dir. Anne Goursaud (1995)
  • Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls dir. Andrew Bowser (2023)
  • Exposed to Danger dir. Yang Chia-yun (Karen Yang) (1982)
  • Saw X dir. Kevin Greutert (2023)
  • The Birds dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1963)
  • Slumber Party Massacre II dir. Deborah Brock (1987)
  • Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island dir. Jim Stenstrum (1998)
  • The Being dir. Jackie Kong (1983)
  • Kuso dir. Steve (2017)
  • Visible Secret dir. Ann Hui (2001)
  • The Exorcist: Believer dir. David Gordon Green (2023)
  • The Love Witch dir. Anna Biller (2016)
  • Bones dir. Ernest R. Dickerson (2001)
  • Bedevil dir. Tracey Moffatt (1993)

Television

  • Regular Show – “Terror Tales of the Park” I-VI (2011-2016)
  • The Simpsons – “Treehouse of Horror Presents: Not It” (2022)
  • Tales from the Cryptkeeper – Seasons 2 & 3 (1994 & 1999)

New Fiction 2023 – August

“Lamentations of Jeremias” ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

A little tag to the end of Jeremias about how dealing with God sucks, and there’s another one after this.

“The Miracle of the Lily” by Clare Winger Harris (1928)

Water yourself.

“The Conquest of Gola” by Leslie F. Stone (1931)

Why dudes gotta be like that.

“The Black God’s Kiss” by C.L. Moore (1934)

Fuck. Yes.

“Space Episode” by Leslie Perri (1941)

Fellas, just step aside.

“That Only a Mother” by Judith Merril (1948)

You see it coming but still hits.

“In Hiding” by Wilmar H. Shiras (1948)

Okay things get weird and eugenicsy with this atomic supermen bullshit.

“Contagion” by Katherine MacLean (1950)

Again with the genetic supermen business. Maybe that’s the intended effect?

“The Inhabited Men” by Margaret St. Clair (1951)

That’s some good slow-burn space horror.

“Ararat” by Zenna Henderson (1952)

Oh no the superior beings are among us and better than us and will replace us, aka yikes.

“All Cats Are Gray” by Andrew North (1953)

See or not, they’re there.

“Created He Them” by Alice Eleanor Jones (1955)

Rather be dead tbh.

“Mr. Sakrison’s Halt” by Mildred Clingerman (1956)

Get me outta here too.

“All the Colors of the Rainbow” by Leigh Brackett (1957)

God, this was a tough and necessary read.

“Pelt” by Carol Emshwiller (1958)

We’re all a skin to someone.

“Car Pool” by Rosel George Brown (1959)

This style, holy shit. Getting into the stuff I came up with, the style of the gazed navel.

“For Sale, Reasonable” by Elizabeth Mann Borgese (1959)

Don’t hire me.

“Birth of a Gardener” by Doris Pitkin Buck (1961)

You don’t listen.

“The Tunnel Ahead” by Alice Glaser (1961)

I mean, what else to do?

“The New You” by Kit Reed (1962)

They’ll bottle you up soon enough.

“Another Rib” by John Jay Wells & Marion Zimmer Bradley (1963)

Not so shocking now.

“When I Was Miss Dow” by Sonya Dorman (1966)

Be me be you be me.

“Baby, You Were Great” by Kate Wilhelm (1967)

If you can’t connect then you learn to live with it.

“The Barbarian” by Joanna Russ (1968)

Fear of my tower getting breached.

“The Last Flight Of Dr. Ain” by James Tiptree, Jr. (1969)

Twelve monkeys origin story.

“Nine Lives” by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)

Too many minds for a collective.

Twilight by David R. George III (2002)

Hefty story but it’s good to go back to the old style of dealing with incomprehensible beings from other dimensions.

Are You Terrified Yet? by R.L. Stine (1998)

Not with this story. If Goosebumps 2000 is about aging out of monsters and supernatural stuff then I don’t care for it.

Tick Tock, You’re Dead! by R.L. Stine (1995)

Time travel shenanigans, my beloved.

“Mighty Max Trapped by Arachnoid” by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Spiders don’t scare me.

“Mighty Max Liquidates the Ice Alien” by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Refractive weapons.

“Mighty Max Lashes Lizard” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Squirt.

“Mighty Max Traps Rattus” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Traps you.

“Mighty Max Outwits Cyclops” by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Poke ‘em.

“Mighty Max Tangles With the Ape King” by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Just take over.

“Mighty Max Slays the Doom Dragon” by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Does he though?

“Mighty Max Grapples with Battle Cat” by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Bring them back.

“Mighty Max Squishes Fly” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Narshty.

“Mighty Max Blows Up Dino Lab” by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Science outfits are slipping.

“Mighty Max Stings Scorpion” by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Big means not poisonous.

“Mighty Max Crushes the Hand” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Win the duel!

“Mighty Max Escapes from Skull Dungeon” by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Smasher, really?

“Mighty Max Conquers the Palace of Poison” by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Flees from it, eh.

“Mighty Max Sinks Nautilus” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Time has ravaged your once youthful looks.

“Mighty Max Caught by the Man-Eater” by Bluebird Toys (1993)

The final frontier.

“Mighty Max Bytes Cyberskull” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Stay off the computer.

“Mighty Max Terminates Wolfship 7” by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Go away aliens.

“Mighty Max Survives Corpus” by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Get aHEAD in DEADvertising.

“Mighty Max Against Robot Invader” by Bluebird Toys (1992)

He invade.

“Mighty Max Zaps Beetlebrow” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Quick work.

“Mighty Max Crushes Talon” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

See into the bone soul.

“Mighty Max Out-Freaks Freako” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Wergh, some kinda phobia.

“Mighty Max Rams Hydron” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

I said let ’em take over.

“Mighty Max Versus Kronosaur” by Bluebird Toys (1992)

They just do what they do.

“Mighty Max Challenges Lava Beast” by Bluebird Toys (1992)

I doubt the veracity of flesh to fire.

“Mighty Max Tangles With Lockjaw” by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Well, some last words at least.

“Mighty Max Defeats Vamp Biter” by Bluebird Toys (1992)

In the sun.

“Mighty Max Fights Nuke Ranger” by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Not a place of honor.

“Mighty Max Pulverizes Sea Squirm” by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Die native fauna.

“Mighty Max Battles Skull Warrior” by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Go home, you’re drunk.

“Mighty Max Hammers Ax Man” by Bluebird Toys (1993)

It’s a tool!

“Mighty Max Hounds Werewolf” by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Awoo.

“Mighty Max Neutralises Zomboid” by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Flesh of my flesh.

“Mighty Max Defeats Battle Conqueror” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

I kick you.

“Mighty Max Head to Head With Hydra” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Two in one.

“Mighty Max Melts Lava Beast” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Delicious java.

“Mighty Max Strikes Fang” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Grab the tail.

“Mighty Max Shuts Down Cybot” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Always an off switch.

“Mighty Max Shatters Gargoyle” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Tap tap tap.

“Mighty Max Assaults Skull Master” by Bluebird Toys (1994)

You’d lose but you do it anyway.

“La-Mulana” by KC Green (2023)

Hyuck.

“Mental Health Marge 2 Da Rescue” by ossian (2019)

Listen 2 da TV mom.

Theater Camp dir. Molly Gordon & Nick Lieberman (2023)

I took a theater class one semester of high school, along with a final play at the end, and that is an intense type of person to hang around with. But I liked that there’s a subset of member who just does, like, building sets and stuff, because it me.

Never Say Never dir. Baoqiang Wang (2023)

So… signing shady contractual obligations with children is okay if you’re giving them something to do?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem dir. Jeff Rowe (2023)

This feels the most like playing with action figures out of any TMNT thing which makes it the most appropriate interpretation.

Meg 2: The Trench dir. Ben Wheatley (2023)

Not enough sea creecher.

Ransomed dir. Kim Seong-hun (2023)

I enjoy the sociopathic killer who could be in a boy band genre from South Korean cinema, and this is right in there.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter dir. André Øvredal (2023)

A fine Saturday afternoon on broacast TV sorta movie.

Jules dir. Marc Turtletaub (2023)

Got some aliens this month, and this one is a charming little story about how aliens can’t save us from our bodies’ inevitable betrayal.

Strays dir. Josh Greenbaum (2023)

A good road trip to set the soul afire.

Blue Beetle dir. Angel Manuel Soto (2023)

Lots of good details, but it still shakes out as a generic superhero movie of our age.

Gran Turismo dir. Neill Blomkamp (2023)

I saw this 1.5 times after the first showing failed halfway through. You know where it’s going and, you know, sports movie gonna sports.

birth/rebirth dir. Laura Moss (2023)

Hey! That’s it, the jam, the good stuff. A high-end version of my beloved anthology horror.

Landscape With Invisible Hand dir. Cory Finley (2023)

The other aliens movie of the month is more in the po-mo style of commentary on our societal ills. I look forward to this feeling quaint in 20 years.

Porco Rosso dir. Hayao Miyazaki (1992)

Damn, TaleSpin really do be like this. But I’ll just take it as more fun anthropomorphized adventures of the air and sea.

The Wind Rises dir. Hayao Miyazaki (2013)

Ghibli’s contemplative looks at Japanese culture and history are some monumental works.

Retribution dir. Nimród Antal (2023)

That’s your final guy? Shoulda been someone else.

To Live and Die in L.A. dir. William Friedkin (1985)

That’s some good 80s vibe I tell you what.

Tales from the Crypt – Seasons 5-6 (1993-1995)

Okay, alright, things are starting to sag a bit after the peak of seasons 3 and 4. Not a show to binge watch. But I still want a super cut of Cryptkeeper intros and outros.

Watch The Outer Limits (1995) Online for Free | The Roku Channel | Roku

Watch The Outer Limits (1995) Online for Free | The Roku Channel | Roku

First, this TV show I’m about to write about is online! And free! (With ads, in the US.) It’s worth hopping in just to poke around in this weird and very Canadian science fiction anthology show from the 90s.

That said, I finished watching The Outer Limits (1995) and I’m really torn on how to proceed. I’m glad I watched it after all these years of vague memories from its syndication run, and there are some stand-out episodes which I will write about here, but I also want to… do more. And this is after spending the past month ‘n a half editing the poorly maintained wiki for it because I needed this information to be properly sorted and laid out. I mean, at the very least, there ought to be an online collection of all of the Control Voice’s narration. It’s like a book of Psalms or Proverbs when it’s all put together. I think a podcast would be neat, but I gotta figure out that workload.

For now, let me jot down the episodes that stood out to me. I grouped my recommendations into broad categories of episodes but there’s a lot of overlap in themes and settings:

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Space!: If it’s an episode beyond Earth, out in space somewhere, I’m in. I don’t care about the individual quality of a given space episode, I’ll watch it again, even if it’s really just a bottle show on a small spaceship set or an “alien” planet that looks a lot like British Columbia.

Quality of Mercy
Season 1, Episode 13
A fighter pilot is taken prisoner during an intergalactic war.

The Voyage Home
Season 1, Episode 15
An alien from Mars hitches a ride aboard a returning space capsule.

The Light Brigade
Season 2, Episode 18
Five astronauts attempt to save humanity from destruction.

Tempests
Season 3, Episode 9
While bringing medicine to his plague-infested colony, an astronaut enters alternate realities after his ship crashes.

Relativity Theory
Season 4, Episode 6
A biologist discovers a race of aliens but loses control of her ship to a mutinous crew.

The Human Operators
Season 5, Episode 7
A woman inspires an enslaved man to rebel.

Abaddon
Season 6, Episode 14
A space salvage crew gets a deadly history lesson from a genocidal militia leader supposedly executed 150 years earlier.

Rule of Law
Season 7, Episode 17
A judge tries to establish law and order on a remote alien mining colony.

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Aliens be invading: Whether friend or foe, aliens show up on Earth often, which ya gotta do if you’re science fiction in the 90s.

Sandkings
Season 1, Episode 1
A scientist searches for a way to continue his experiments when the top-secret government project he is working on is shut down.

The Deprogrammers
Season 2, Episode 16
A rebel leader concocts a plan for freedom on a dark future Earth that has been conquered and programmed for slavery by aliens.

Bodies of Evidence
Season 3, Episode 16
When the crew members of a space station die, the captain is accused of murder.

Feasibility Study
Season 3, Episode 17
Aliens take a human community into space to see if they will make good slaves.

Promised Land
Season 4, Episode 21
Human survivors terrorize a handful of aliens who remain on Earth after an interplanetary war.

The Grell
Season 5, Episode 4
A government official and his family are shot down over slave territory.

Ripper
Season 5, Episode 11
A doctor in Victorian London discovers Jack the Ripper is an alien.

Star Crossed
Season 5, Episode 21
Cosmic “Casablanca” tale of a cynical cafe owner who encounters an old flame in a world dominated by alien invaders.

Something About Harry
Season 6, Episode 18
A youth becomes suspicious of his mother’s new boarder when three townspeople suddenly disappear.

Think Like a Dinosaur
Season 7, Episode 8
A space station technician lives with aliens to learn the secrets of long-distance space travel.

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That good time body horror: Genetic modification, mutations, horrible surgeries, you know the deal.

The New Breed
Season 1, Episode 16
A scientist’s experimental potion yields disastrous results when his close friend decides to test it upon himself.

Afterlife
Season 2, Episode 15
A convicted murderer agrees to participate in a secret military experiment to avoid being executed.

Double Helix
Season 3, Episode 12
A reckless scientist’s experiments initiate a close encounter.

Music of the Spheres
Season 3, Episode 14
A music broadcast from distant planets turns young listeners on Earth into something alien.

The Joining
Season 4, Episode 13
To survive in a hostile environment, a scientist combines his DNA with that from creatures from Venus.

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Leave those brains alone: Often done as an exploration via virtual reality, but also mind control, this is about diving into people’s minds and messing with them.

The Sentence
Season 2, Episode 22
A doctor invents a virtual reality device that allows convicts to mentally serve a life sentence in a few hours.

Hearts and Minds
Season 4, Episode 3
Soldiers battle insectlike aliens trying to steal an energy source from Earth.

Nightmare
Season 4, Episode 20
A voice interrogates aliens’ captives and probes their weaknesses.

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Don’t make robots, dummy: People were broadly scared of robots in a way that’s very different from our current AI nightmares. There was also often an inversion of the theme, asking “who’s the real soulless automaton?” 

I, Robot
Season 1, Episode 18
A humanoid robot is accused of murdering its creator.

The Camp
Season 3, Episode 7
A prisoner learns the truth about the alien invaders that have enslaved mankind for centuries.

The Hunt
Season 4, Episode 2
After animal hunting is banned, sportsmen hunt androids which are no longer useful.

Simon Says
Season 6, Episode 8
A man builds a robot to replace his deceased son.

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Can’t the AI do it?: What if robots but they don’t have a body.

Bits of Love
Season 3, Episode 1
The lone survivor of a devastating war meets again with a holographic lover.

Stream of Consciousness
Season 3, Episode 5
A virus program threatens a computer-controlled society of the future.

The Haven
Season 5, Episode 15
A high-tech building malfunctions disastrously, compelling its previously isolated inhabitants to work together to get free.

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Don’t time travel either, dummy: Not all time travel episodes have a bad outcome, but they do all agree that you just shouldn’t do it even if you could go back and kill baby Hitler.

A Stitch in Time
Season 2, Episode 1

An FBI agent’s investigation of a baffling 30-year string of murders leads her to a doctor’s laboratory.

Vanishing Act
Season 2, Episode 21

A man’s life disintegrates as he inexplicably moves from one world to another.

In Another Life
Season 4, Episode 4
A suicidal man is transported to another dimension to kill a homicidal alter ego.

Tribunal
Season 5, Episode 12
A concentration camp survivor relies on a time traveler to bring a Nazi war criminal to justice.

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Doom: Why focus on one’s own mortality when the extinction of the species is on the table?

Inconstant Moon
Season 2, Episode 12
A lonely physics professor discovers the sun is burning out and uses the Earth’s final hours to make up for lost time.

Dark Rain
Season 3, Episode 6
Two parents try to prevent a government agency from using their healthy newborn in a plan to repopulate mankind.

Deadman’s Switch
Season 3, Episode 13
A soldier inhabits a bunker with doomsday devices as aliens land on Earth.

The Vaccine
Season 4, Episode 11
A dozen survivors of a fatal plague must decide who will get the only three vaccinations available.

Lithia
Season 4, Episode 17
A man held in suspended animation reawakens on a planet inhabited only by women.

Phobos Rising
Season 4, Episode 24
Soldiers on Mars fear an explosion on Earth marks the end of a long truce between opposing alliances.

Summit
Season 5, Episode 13
Negotiators for Earth and Gregocia, a planet inhabited by a genetically engineered race, try to build trust after a summit goes wrong.

Stasis
Season 6, Episode 9
Two lovers living in an oppressive future society try to connect even though they’ve only seen each other as holograms.

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I’m not paranoid, just saying: A lot of this show is a response to the popularity of The X-Files, and many episodes directly deal with fear of… well, all of it. *waves arms around*

To Tell the Truth
Season 4, Episode 14
No one believes a discredited scientist when he claims that the world must be evacuated.

Alien Radio
Season 5, Episode 1
A radio host pooh-poohs callers’ UFO encounters until one caller kills himself.

Manifest Destiny
Season 6, Episode 4
A rescue crew starts going suicidally insane after boarding a derelict interplanetary battleship.

Down to Earth
Season 6, Episode 10
A mysterious stranger who claims to have a piece of an alien spaceship causes paranoia and chaos at a UFO convention.

Decompression
Season 6, Episode 13
A mysterious woman visits a presidential candidate on his plane, saying she has come from the future to save his life.

Zig Zag
Season 6, Episode 19
A cybercolumnist leads a daring attack against supercomputers that have taken control of society.

Nest
Season 6, Episode 20
A pair of old buddies must overcome their haunted past while battling a strange infestation at an Arctic research station.

wistfulwatcher:

the death of reruns was the death of television.

we talk a lot about why streaming is killing television, but i think one factor that is under-discussed is syndication. there have been some good short-run series, but the majority of our most beloved series had long runs. like, 5+ season runs. runs that hit that sweet 100 episode mark, meaning they qualified for the most lucrative syndication deals. streaming shows are reducing and eliminating the need for such deals because they’re so siloed. instead of making a syndication deal with another station (and paying your creatives fair residuals), streaming services host their shows on their own platforms and instead pay the streaming rights residuals that are nowhere near as fair.

because these streaming networks (both streaming-only, like netflix, and core networks with original content streaming, like cbs and nbc) aren’t selling their shows off-platform, they don’t need to hit any kind of episode landmark to be cost-saving. you can host a show in any increment, so having a 20-episode series is the same as having a 60-episode series. except the 60-episode series, of course, takes longer and costs more to produce. as long as a network makes one season of a show, they get to market it for new viewers. and once they feel they’ve gotten all the new subscribers they will out of a series, they drop it to save money.

until there is some monetary benchmark incentive to get a series past one or two seasons, television as long-form storytelling is dead.

New Horror 2022 – Day 31

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“A Good Student” by Nuzo Onoh (2014)
“Bit by slow bit, his body started to disintegrate like fluffy flakes of white cotton.”

I read a story from this book every year, and they are always memorable. Onoh’s stories present such a unique cultural viewpoint that it provides new takes on stories of spirits and ghouls. Another reminder to get my head out of America’s and Western Europe’s ass.

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Dracula Daily – “October” by Bram Stoker & ed. Matt Kirkland (1897, 2021)
“The men were scared every time we turned our electric lamp on them, and fell on their knees and prayed.”

I’ve been reading Dracula Daily, well, daily since the beginning, and it ends next month. What a journey. I’d never read it before so I’ve definitely not had the typical reading experience. All the travel stuff this month reminds me most of playing the Fury of Dracula board game, zipping around Europe to hunt down the children of the night. As far as the reading, October was the most suspenseful month thus far as the protagonists chased Dracula out of London and pursued him into the east, then are forced to wait and see where he’ll turn up. I’m not actually sure how this is going to end since the 1992 movie adaptation has been all I knew about Dracula proper for a long time and it turns out is not too faithful to the actual novel written by Bram Stoker. And I suppose neither is this chronological reading, but at least this gets through the original text.

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“The End of All Things” by Natalie Leif & Elaine Well (2014)
“I’ll look at the lines myself.”

I wasn’t quite sure of the message here, and it’s probably a sign of a good story that I found it very compelling but wanted more. The ending evokes a sense of inevitable collapse beneath the weight of the world, that we are all inextricably linked to an entity we cannot escape.

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Darkstalkers 3 (aka Vampire Savior) dev. Capcom (1997)
“Let’s stick together until I’m full, shall we?”

Take Street Fighter and throw in supernatural and sci-fi horror figures, and that’s this game. Each of the 18 characters gets their own little arc and ending through the arcade mode, and while I’m sure most people are more interested in the multiplayer aspect, I always found the single player mode an interesting part of these fighting games. This is another instance in which I realize that while I never considered myself a horror fan when I was younger, I was absolutely in for monsters and the supernatural.

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Amer dir. Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani (2009)
"Can’t you see she’s hungry?”

This was a doozy and a strange movie to end the month. Hardly any dialogue and fairly interpretive, it’s also a sharp homage to giallo horror, which I’m not especially versed in. But part of the reason I take on these movie-a-day projects is to check out new works and be challenged, so I’m glad I did. The horror here is in confronting the self, staring inward into the abyss from which there is no escape.

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The Simpsons – "Treehouse of Horror XXXIII” (2022)
“If we want to escape with our delusions of being alive, we have to fight.”

I enjoyed this year’s Treehouse of Horror, even if it was fairly light on comedy. But the comedy in recent years can sometimes be full of some real groaners, so perhaps I just welcome an acceptance by the writers that jokes every other second isn’t their strong suit. The first two segments are straightforward retellings of The Babadook and Death Note (the latter also animated in anime style), but the third segment was especially meta and weird, even as a simple parody of Westworld. That clicked with me because it’s as meta as The Simpsons Game, which I’ve written about before from my perspective of working on the game. That introspective angle also makes it the darkest segment, asking the audience to examine pop culture today and the way we treat the characters in our favorite media.

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Bob’s Burgers – "Apple Gore-chard! (But Not Gory)” (2022)


“Everyone wants a piece of you. Sometimes as a sacrifice to the gods.”

This show’s dedication to producing a Halloween show every year is admirable. The episodes are always great, though in recent years they’ve moved away from Halloween itself as the central theme in favor of other spooky familial shenanigans. Louise’s exploration of the nature of popularity was a poignant thread.

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Castlevania – Seasons 3 & 4 (2020-2021)


“Thank you for my second life. I intend to use it well and make wonderful new dreams of it.“

I’d watched the first two seasons some time ago, and waited until the show was complete to catch the rest. While the arc of the first two seasons that were focused on Dracula felt complete, these latter two seasons were more of an extended epilogue, exploring these characters in the wake of defeating a great foe. As a result, there isn’t the same satisfying arc, just a series of interesting encounters and meditations on forming new lives and relationships. It feels like a short story anthology that follows the novel. Reflecting on it, I’d say it’s just the thing to round out the month, some breathy autumnal monologues punctuated by decadent battle sequences.

New Horror 2022 – Day 18

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“Scales” by Cherene Sherrard (2017)
“Who would have thought it? A siren that can’t swim.”

Unsettlingly real in the reminder of what it’s like to be from two worlds and belonging to neither.

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“Goin’ South” by Nancy Collins, David Imhoff, Jeff Butler, Steve Montano, Renée Witterstaetter, Electric Crayon, Simon Bisley (1995)

“He has his hate to keep him warm.”

People in the 90s really wanted to see these sorts of bouts between characters from different media properties. There’s an essay in the comic itself that comments on the fascination. Of course, this just presages our modern era of cinematic media universes. As for this first issue in a trilogy, it’s a decent setup, but not much happens since it’s focused on getting the two characters into the same room by the end of a single comic issue. I think a cross-country trip/spree featuring Jason could’ve been cool if it wasn’t so rushed.

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Evolution dir. Lucile Hadžihalilović (2015)


“There was a star on his belly.”

A real quiet entry. It’s slow, deliberate, and doesn’t care to outline the plot for you. But the pieces are there to bring it all together, and the implications leave a lot in question for the post-movie pondering.

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Costume Quest (2019)
"My mom made pancakes this morning and warmed the syrup. Would a monster do that?”

I loved it. It’s more grounded than some of its counterparts in modern animation, but still wacky and full of heart. They were faithful to the core elements of the video games and still create their own universe with it. The only bummer is that it’s trapped behind Amazon exclusivity.

Another one of those things where I feel like people would ask “what’s wrong with you?” is that I don’t want to watch a show until it’s done and there will be no more episodes. Usually, I do catch the first season or two just to see if I’ll like it. Then I just wait until it’s done or cancelled. So I want to watch more of it, but I want it to end so I can watch more of it.

So anyway, see you in the WWDITS discourse in 2024 or later.