I unintentionally, but very appropriately, consumed a lot of spooky media these past two months.
MOVIES
Werewolf by Night
I adored this Special-Event-style B-Movie throwback from the MCU, about a group of monster hunters who gather in a mansion to decide who gets possession of a special anti-monster medallion. Gael García Bernal is great and charmingly goofy as the mysterious hunter with a secret agenda and I really liked Laura Donnelly as the exiled daughter of the medallion’s previous owner. Plus there is a Very Good monster friend. I think I’ve watched this like 6 times.
Bodies Bodies Bodies
This movie is definitely not for everyone - it has a loud, hyper style that I can see grating on people and there are a few “everyone shouts at each other” scenes that go on too long - but overall I quite liked it. Set in a garishly large mansion during a hurricane, a group of extremely privileged, vapid young people get together for a storm-themed party involving lots of drugs and alcohol. After a game of Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (a social-stealth-style party game), one of the guests turns up dead and it basically becomes live action Among Us. Who is the murderer? Who is telling the truth? Why do more people keep getting killed? I thought the resolution was satisfying, with just enough clues sprinkled throughout that it all made sense. Plus, Lee Pace is in it.
Honorable Mention
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
Not all of this show worked for me, but there is still a lot that I enjoyed. Tatiana Maslany is really good, I loved the episode with Daredevil, and I appreciate that Disney/MCU tried something different.
BOOKS
The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher
When her cruel, vindictive grandmother dies, it falls upon Mouse to clear out the old house in rural North Carolina. But when she and her loveably stupid bloodhound Bongo arrive, Mouse quickly realizes that her grandma was a hoarder and making matters even worse, there is something unsettling about the woods in the back yard. In one strangely uncluttered room Mouse finds the diary of her long dead step-grandfather, who keeps going on about strange twisted beings in the trees. But surely that was just just his imagination, right?
Other than a slightly clunky narrative device that constantly caused Mouse’s phone not to work, I was fully absorbed in this spooky story of constructed creatures, impossible locations, and creeping dread. Plus, major kudos to T. Kingfisher for including a reassurance that Bongo survives the story unscathed, exactly when I needed to read it. Literally the moment I went “nothing bad better happen to this perfect dog” the narrator, who is writing the story after the fact, mentions the dog is fine and sitting at her feet. *phew* (HORROR FICTION)
The Sceptic by Lily Morton
I am kind of hit-and-miss on Lily Morton books - many of them don’t work for me - but I really like her Black and Blue paranormal romance series. The Sceptic is a spin-off from that series which follows Will, the best friend of the B & B main character, and Jem, a nature photographer who was also introduced in the previous books. Taking a break from filming penguins in the Antarctic, Jem is currently working as the cameraman for a YouTube ghost hunter show and enlists Will’s help in a weekend excursion to a very haunted house. This is a romance so of course the close proximity and the ghostly shenanigans lead to smooching. The supernatural elements are definitely where this book shines and I did sleep with the light on at least once (but bear in mind that I am 100% chicken and particularly susceptible to haunted house stories). The ghost mystery resolution was a little lackluster and the book lost a bit of steam once they were out of the haunted house, but I still enjoyed the book overall. (PARANORMAL ROMANCE)
Hollow by Shannon Watters, Branden Boyer-White, Berenice Nelle (Illustrator), Kaitlyn Musto (Colorist)
This charming modern take on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow follows teenager Isabel “Izzy” Crane, who moves to Sleepy Hollow with her parents and quickly learns that the town is obsessed with Washington Irving’s famous story. Everything is Headless Horseman related and the Van Tassel family is still around, with classmate Vicky Van Tassel being high school royalty. As the town prepares for the annual Halloween festivities, Izzy, Vicky, and fellow classmate and prankster Croc encounter the famous ghost for real, leading to an “it’s up to the kids to solve this mystery'“ style adventure. There is a sweet romance between Izzy and Vicky and Croc’s cinnamon roll energy is adorable. Berenice Nelle’s art and Kaitlyn Misto’s colors add a lot to the story as well. It’s a small thing, but I really love the way Nelle illustrates simplified faces for panels where you’re seeing characters at a distance - there is so much emotion and humor with very few lines. (YOUNG ADULT PARANORMAL ADVENTURE)
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
Through the Woods is a collection of 5 illustrated stories in the vein of Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark or Tales from the Crypt; that something-scary-happens-and-it-ends-on-a-dark-cliffhanger vibe. Emily Carroll’s illustrations are excellent and add so much extra creepiness. I immediately wanted to go make art after reading this book. (HORROR GRAPHIC NOVEL)
Honorable Mention
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
I alluded to this book in my most recent blog because I was enjoying it at the time, but it really lost me in the last half. Hence the honorable mention. I think Moreno-Garcia does a great job building the setting and the location of the story, and I liked the protagonist and her misguided “gothic heroine” choices, but an abundance of gaslighting, assault, and inconsistent characters took me out of the story in the end. But as with all my blogs, these are just my own hot takes and what doesn’t work for me might totally be your jam, so I thought I’d mention this one since it has a lot going for it and might appeal more to other people.
GAMES
Elden Ring (updated)
Just a note to say that I finished Elden Ring and it’s probably my GOTY. The final boss took me A WHILE and involved re-doing all my character stats, but I have officially completed a FromSoft game. My elation at finishing the fight made me immediately miss the final thing I had to do to get the ending I wanted, but still.
Stray
As a palate cleanser following Elden Ring, I finally played Stray, a short, wonderful little game where you are a cat trying to escape from a strange underground city populated by robots and dangerous monsters. I had to obtain assurances before starting the game that the cat didn’t die at the end so I will pass those assurances on to you; it hurts it’s leg briefly but is otherwise unharmed canonically. You can get killed by monsters if you mess up one of the chase or stealth sections, but it’s not too brutal and the cat is fine when you retry the section. I only died once and it was OK. Most of the time you’re leaping around rooftops, exploring, and getting into cat mischief. Be prepared though, even though the cat is fine, the ending made me cry extremely hard for story reasons.
ART
In October, I posted spooky art every day on my social media feeds, which included a few new pieces as well as a bunch of old stuff from as far back as 2012. Here they are all together. It was a lot of fun revisit some of these old pieces and made me want to try reimagining some of them now that I have nearly 15 years of paper cutting experience.
Here are bigger versions of the new pieces, so you can see them better:
“King Boo”
“Wisp”
“Pale Man’s Feast” (from Pan’s Labyrinth)
“You’ve Been Watching SUSPIRIA”