Seasonal Blues and How to Solve Them!

Welcome back to the wasteland!

With the end of August there's usually a lot of nonsense one needs to fight through to get back to stability again. I'm not sure why exactly this is the case, but it 100% always seems to be how it is. It oddly isn't just a thing for children and teenagers having to readjust to school again after losing their precious summer vacation. Even as an adult the seasonal change still is in effect, regardless of your occupation. There is a sort of lingering panic affecting everything from coworkers to higherups, forcing a mood that doesn't quite settle until the weather itself does.

We're all waiting for fall, essentially.

This also leads us to point to a strange feeling in the modern world, especially with the internet, in how the seasons all seem to last longer than they used to, even though time passes faster the older you get. A lot of people wonder just how that seems to be the case. Is it just fighting the passing of time, or is there something else there?

Well, the main reason we do this is that we're trying to subconsciously competing with a world that wants us to be faster than we can actually be. Seasons become longer because we're simply not allowed to enjoy them as they are anymore. Whether it is due to loss of local community and family or a culture that continually presses for more materialism and less meditation, the end result is that it is always over before we even realize it began and we're on to the next thing already.

This is the real reason Christmas music plays in November, people begin outwardly yearning for Spring at the start of February, and why a lot of people begin preparing for Halloween around Labor Day. They want to get into a mindset longer than they're socially allowed to have it, and in a society of alienation there is really no reason not to do it. Not to mention that if they don't, they barely get to celebrate it before it's over and we're on to the next thing.

The fact of the matter is that the world moves too fast now. It's been moving faster and faster with less and less care for how it effects the populace for quite some time now. We already don't have enough connection with each other as we used to and there is little means for us to fix it with how we currently operate. The way things are isn't enough to satiate us as social animals, so we look to solutions to this endless issue.

If you want a real solution it is to have more holidays in the year that mean something. I don't mean obviously cynical ones like Valentine's Day or even a one day event like St Patrick's Day. Without a monoculture, the few holidays we have are the few times we feel like we belong to a greater whole anymore. If we want to savor that feeling, well, all we can really do is extend the biggest ones we already have with us. We'll never agree on a new one with the current fractured state of things. This is why Halloween and Christmas in particular are the holidays that last the longest. They're feasibly the only ones we can stretch out longer beyond the day everyone accepts socially.

And, to be honest, I don't really understand the complaints about it. It isn't like you're doing anything else in the meantime except living through another generic day that seems to blur from one to the next. What does having a longer season to celebrate really take away from that? Nothing, really. It's just a residue of the anti-social instinct we've had implanted in us as acceptable for literal decades at this point.

Having the autumn season be a build up to spooky season gives it more for us to do amidst the doldrums of returning to school for kids or getting over the jarring completion from the hot summer season to the mild one adults go through. Halloween is so tightly tied with the autumn season and falling of the leaves that it makes sense that people would get in the mood for it ahead of time, much like Christmas is so tied with winter. We need more to look forward to beyond just another day doing what we already do.

However, I would agree with the idea that hopping from holiday to holiday is exhausting. Christmas not beginning immediately after October 31st is a good thing, we do need space to anticipate it, but the holiday also isn't supposed to end on December 25th, either. And yet for as long as I've been alive, it has not extended into the worst month of the year (January) like it is supposed to and where it would add a lot to an otherwise nothing month where literally nothing happens except cold and everyone being miserable and sick. Would Christmas being properly celebrated not help make that lousy month better from all the cold, snow, dreary feelings, and nothing happening in it? Would it also not help to have a proper holiday to anticipate after it to look forward to? It isn't as if there are many holidays to actually build up to in the first half of the year before Lent, either. Perhaps that should also be addressed. Three months of cold and nothing else isn't exactly healthy for anyone.

As the above video states, there is probably some crass commercialism involved here, but it's almost irrelevant to the discussion. The stores stock every season much too early but most people don't pay them any mind except to complain about it. The only ones that regularly get the complaints are Halloween and Christmas, as it's usually due to people not wanting to be part of the social fabric including those anymore, as if that isn't a key problem with the way things are and why they're being pushed more and more as a consequence. September and October leading to Halloween, and Christmas centered on December through January (it should be the start of February, traditionally, but no one wants to have that conversation yet) is about a quarter of the year where we could potentially act like a society that appreciates and shares the same general experience, and deep down that is what the majority actually wants, but we make no moves to do it.

That is what we had long ago, and what everyone still craves. We might not have celebrated those holidays as much back then, but that is also because we were tied together more tightly for the rest of the year. We don't have that bond anymore, and it is why the masters in charge downplay both holidays every year while the rest of us have been ramping them up more and more these days in the opposite direction. In a sense they are a few of the things we still have left and losing them, or choosing to opt out these days, in a sense is saying you're done with the social contract. If that is what you want then don't be surprised when things don't improve when they're finally gone. Because they most definitely will not, nor will anything pop up in their place.

Of course there are also those that take every season and make it about themselves. You've seen it yourself. The decorations, the costumes, the events, all made to make the person organizing them the winner in some competition in their mind, to put them above everyone else, something only exacerbated by social media. Those who engage in this tend to cheapen the experience and make folks more cynical about the season and what it's for, but the key isn't to abandon the season: it's to make said people know this isn't how things are supposed to be done, and how to make it better. You don't abandon stolen ground, you reclaim it instead. We've spent too much time just ceding everything instead of fighting for any of it.

We still need that connection. It isn't going to go away, no matter how much we downplay it or think we're above it. In fact, that desire for belonging has only increased in recent years. Deep down, we know what we want.

Memories matter, but so do shared cultural memories that the wider populace is able to have together. We're having less and less of those the further we get into the 21st century, and we need to do something to fight against it, even if it's working with what we already have fumbled. We need to do something drastic before we lose it all, because that is the only alternative future ahead of us besides reclaiming what we lost. There is no better alternative coming.

It's either preserve and build, or lose it all. That's it. This starts locally and personally, as all change does. Create what you want to see and promote it as wide as you can. Support others, don't sabotage, and push the most obvious and simple changes you can. That's the only feasible solution to combatting decay and atomization. We need to create what we want to see.

So let's create! That's what we're here for, after all.

That's all for August, ladies and gentlemen! We'll soon be leaving summer behind for more colorful skies to come.

Until September, have yourself a good end of the month!

Check out Cirsova's new Kickstarter for Wild Stars! The long running epic is rounding on its conclusion. Help get it there!

Happy Halloween!

Hey, everybody! Not much to say today except to wish you all a happy Halloween and All Saints Day!

Cannon Cruisers put out a special Halloween episode like we do every year. Aside from that, keep warm and dry and I'll see you again in November for more weekend posts.

Have a good one!

For seasonal reads, check out Mistcreek Tales!

Happy Halloween!

Hello, and welcome to Halloween and the day before the weekend comes! I hope you're all settled in and ready for some fun.

Though I shared it on the Cannon Cruisers blog and Spotify like always, I wanted to make sure everyone caught our extra long special where we talk about the Exorcist films, particularly the second and third entries, and why they might (and might not) be worth seeing. Of course we also touch on the first in context to the others, but it's kind of needed considering the subject. Regardless, it was quite the episode and we go for nearly an hour.

In other news, you might have missed it but Cannon Cruisers also has a Letterboxd page where we input all the movies we covered on the show over the years with our most recent ratings averaged out between the two of us (this is why you see some half stars when we deliberately do not do them on Cannon Cruisers proper) as well as links in the reviews to the episodes themselves! Be sure to check out our page here!

To be honest, I'm surprised Cannon Cruisers has been going on as long as it has. I thought we might have gotten bored and dropped it, but it's still going strong, even after we ran out of proper Cannon episodes. Seven years down is quite the run. Here's to many more!

If you want an update on the writing front, there's not much to add right now. I have some posts on the Patreon I'll get around to posting here eventually, and I've still got the next part of the serialization to edit after I finish writing the pair of short stories I've been tussling with. Aside from that, things have been going the same as usual on the production front.

My next story should also be announced for release very shortly. We're still just waiting on the artist to deliver the final piece. I can't give an estimation, but it should be soon. As always I will update when I can do so.

That's all for today. Have yourself a great Halloween, a fantastic Friday, a fruitful All Saints Day, and I will see you again for our usual weekend posting!

Today is the last day for the Dream Lords Kickstarter! Check it out for three classic books of weird adventure from the 1970s!

Weekend Lounge ~ Missing Hyperborea

Welcome to the weekend!

The weather's getting colder (in some areas), and Halloween is just around the corner, so let's cover something more fun and a bit spooky today. Instead of the usual tales of blood, gore, and chaos, lets us look into one of forgotten pasts and obscure lands. Where is Hyperborea?

A lot has changed attitude-wise since the 20th century ran out, but one of the things that has changed is our consideration for how weird history and the paranormal are actually quite entwined with normality in ways we never really considered. Dry materialism has never been a good enough explanation of the strangeness we see around us, only religion even bothers to point towards it and show that it is far more natural to the state of how things are than we have considered. When you stay in your daily routine or automatic thinking you tend to blind yourself from the possibility of any existence outside your dulled narrow scope. What lies out there? We might never know, but that does mean we shouldn't forgo curiosity.

That in fact has been one of the underlying themes of some of my recent stories like the ones in Cirsova #20 and Sidearm & Sorcery Volume 3. When things finally do go sideways, things you never imagined possible will be revealed as very much possible. And once that happens, the times can never go back to what they once were.

Then we will have to move on from this neutral state of waiting for normality to return or for it to spring out of thin air like magic. In many ways we were living in a dream world before--that is what the 20th century was meant to be, after all. We were to have a new normal, a new base, that would shield us from our natural state and nature. As it has fallen apart, we now know we've been missing too much of us to continue on the way we have. You can't go home again.

But, then, was it ever actually home in the first place? If not, then which is actually the dream world, and which is reality? Or maybe there's more to connect them than we originally thought. Maybe it is more complicated than 20th century materialism thought possible. In fact, that's a big part of the stories in Star Wanderers. Even in a future where we supposedly know more, there will always be much that is still out of our grasp. It's just the nature of things.

 

As the above video from the YouTube channel Midnight Broadcast shows, people have been considering this subject for a long time. It is a good reason why the writers of Weird Tales are still the most influential of the 20th century, even a century removed from the magazine's formation. They were the few still considering these questions while the pocket protector set were attempting to force convert everyone to dated Science that would rule our every waking moment. Of course, I already wrote about them in The Last Fanatics. What we are dealing with now is what they were trying to replace for their own new world order of eggheads.

So as you get closer to Halloween, consider just how much we don't know about what is waiting in the between, and how much we'll never know in this lifetime. Such a thing might seem frightening, but I consider it amazing. It gives off a sense of awe about just how wild all of this really is. We don't know anywhere near as much as we think we do, and that's great.

Have yourself a good weekend and get ready for November!

The cold is almost here.

And don't forget to pick up the recent issue of Cirsova for Halloween! I've get a creepy story inside that will make your skin crawl!

Terror Season

I'm already back! Time to make up for lost time.

Usually for Halloween, people tend to talk about corny goofball movies or real life terror to try and get themselves into the holiday mood. For myself, I prefer to refresh myself of some of the darker parts of the world we live in, a reminder of how bad it could get and how grateful I should be that I do not share such a terrible fate. There is much value in a horror story.

Instead of posting about the usual outlandish Halloween fare, or overly frothy products that have been recommended so many times, I instead want to share films that hit in a different way. These are movies you might not have seen or heard about (or maybe you never even thought of them as horror movies) that will have you pondering a bit on your own choices between the chills. It's nothing all that heavy, but it does work to keep you on your toes--as all the best horror does.

It also goes without saying that none of these films are appropriate for younger audiences. Do not watch them with any young ones. A guarantee these will give them nightmares.

Before I get started, I also want to mentioned that the 2024 lineup for Cirsova Magazine was just announced, and I'm in it! They are also near the end of their current Kickstarter, so please check it out before it's done.

Without any further ado, here is my list of my favorite lesser known Horror movies worth checking out this season:

1. Society (1989)

There is very little I can say about this movie without spoiling it or diluting its impact, but this might be the most effective horror movie I've seen. It plays off of stereotypes that were tired even then, morphing them into an unsettling look at the border between humanity and artificiality and what being real actually means. And it does this without any ambiguity at all. The title itself is a play between the general setting of High Society and the umbrella term, showing what society actually is--and what it's not.

The paranoia, horror, and mind games, are not quite what you would expect of a movie from this era, but it's also not much like anything else regardless of the time it was made. You definitely won't see where it's going until the credits roll.

Now, this is no art film, it can actually get quite graphic, but that is all in the service of the general theme of alienation, dehumanization, and entropy, a bit of an early look at where we were already heading as a society even then. It all culminates in an ending that might be one of the most disturbing and horrific ever put to film. The pacing might be a little deliberate, but it all sets an effective mood that makes what happens later all the more unsettling. It works better to slowly slide you into this world instead of just throwing you in the deep end.

Warning: Do not watch this one if you have a weak stomach. I mean it.

2. Alone in the Dark (1982)

No, this has nothing to do with the video game franchise from the 1990s or its remakes. This is instead one of the many films that came out during the Halloween (1978) slasher craze, an attempt to cash in on a craze. In fact, it was one of the last from that era--and possibly the best of them all. This one has aged surprisingly well.

Alone in the Dark is about the compartmentalization of evil to keep it apart and secluded from the good. It is a rejection of then-popular hippie-inspired therapeutic reform trend. When the lights go out, you will very quickly find that they can't be put on quite so easy again. There is much Alone in the Dark covers from that insane period of the criminal reform industry, where evil didn't actually exist--it could be fixed with enough pills and pretty speeches. Remember, no one is ever truly evil. We are all the same, in the end!

Donald Pleasance plays the exact flipside of his famous character of Dr. Loomis in Halloween, showing exactly what kind of warped delusion it is that allows true evil room to flourish in a world that has little reason to do so. In fact, the entire cast is incredible, with an a knockout ending that presents its thesis of what happens to a society that thinks good and evil is a whim, a mere fancy with nothing to define their borders. In many ways, this is just as great a watch as the original Halloween, and is highly overlooked to this day.

3. The Stuff (1985)

I've already posted about this before, so there isn't much to add here. I can only say that this is not your typical monster movie, given that the monster, while tangible, is really more of an idea--a concept that is allowed to roam free by a world that just wants comfort and ease above truth and love. In a lot of ways, it is combination of the previous two movies mentioned so far.

Though inspired on classic creature features, The Stuff is interested in the concept of subversion, twisting the natural law for unnatural gains, and shows exactly how that ends up--how it eats you from the inside out. The effects are also surprisingly solid for such a low budget flick. Really sells how otherworldly this thing is.

Many incorrectly believe this is a film about consumerism, but that is missing the core message: The Stuff itself is delicious and addictive and those in control of it will do anything to make sure to justify consuming it, including pushing it onto you and making you accept it as normal. Shouldn't everyone experience bliss, after all? Everything is used as a means to an end to justify pleasure at the expense of everything else. And we know where such a mentality eventually ends up, especially in the Current Year we now live in.

4. Assault on Precinct 13 (1974)

The first thing you might be wondering is why a John Carpenter movie of all things is on a list like this? The answer is simple, this movie is incredibly overlooked to this day and is not recognized for what it is--Carpenter's most supernaturally focused film.

The first thing that should be clarified, Assault on Precinct 13 is a siege movie, possibly the best ever made, detailing a sparse world bordering on apocalyptic (as the 1970s were frequently portrayed) with an enemy force that is more demonic and terrifying than any actual demon he ever tried to put to film after this. The film is instead about the remaining vestiges of civilization in a dying city fighting with what they have left, including a mysterious criminal whose crime we never fully learned, as they must put their differences to combat an evil far darker than they've ever known.

For the type of movie this is, little is outright explained to the viewer, including just who the enemy actually is (as they have no real lines), but with pure visual mastery we are given the stakes, the set up, and the pieces on the game board--and a question of how anyone will actually survive. Just how do you fight an evil that comes and goes without rhyme or reason?

There is a lot to this movie that can't be appreciated if one only goes into it expecting the usual Carpenter mastery of special and practical effects--it is what you don't see in this movie that makes it work. And it is still one of his best films.

5. The Hidden (1987)

From the director of Alone in the Dark, and starring Kyle MacLachlan from Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet, comes a movie that could only have been made when it was and by the people who made it. Think part invasion of the body snatchers, part buddy cop movie, and part 1980s weird horror, and you end up with a movie far more enticing and exciting than you might expect. It is a blockbuster that somehow never ended up a blockbuster.

The film explores relationships inside and out as it also tackles an invasion by those who think little of what makes humans what they are. In the end, we are more than the sum of our parts. What we are cannot be replicated quite so easily, and our protagonists learn this quite well by the end. There is more to us than what can be seen on the outside.

The weird aspect of The Hidden is that it feels like a lost 1980s blockbuster with tremendous set pieces and characters, and a memorable ending that will stick with you. It feels like this should have been huge, but it wasn't at all. In fact, it bombed. It is kind of amazing this one has been under the radar as long as it has been despite how good it truly is. This is a movie more than do for a second wind of popularity.

I'm also not unconvinced it doesn't take place in David Lynch's head. It just has that whole feel to it that's hard to nail down. (As an aside, I also recommend Blue Velvet as a film that fits the season and has a similar idea about expunging evil so that the good can flourish.)

6. Altered (2006)

This one is a bit further apart from the rest in release date, coming out in an era when the genre was more or less in hyper irony mode and falling apart at the seams, something it had been doing since Scream. This movie is a horrific tale of friendship pulled apart by interior and exterior evil, of relationships run through the wringer of paranoia, and a supernatural presence that smashed them like a hammer through thin glass. Some things should be left in the dark.

Altered explores the survivors of an abduction years later as they attempt to hold their lives together and use what little sanity they have left to capture the thing that took one of their own. However, the creature they catch ends up being a lot more than they bargained for. Sometimes the past should be left to the past.

This is a dark film, in a lot of ways. It doesn't revel in postmodern irony and tongue in cheek humor the way a lot of flicks around this time did. This is a serious horror tale of the dark and what it does to the soul, and it's quite an unsettling watch.

Despite all that, the entire thing is engaging from start to finish. Unfortunately, it's quite nearly unknown these days. Hence why I've mentioned it here.

7. Maniac Cop 1 & 2 (1988-1990)

You might be wondering why I included not just one, but two movies in this entry. That's partially because I consider the two of these one long story, split into two parts. You might also be wondering why I would be putting a slasher movie on a list like this--aren't those nothing but excuses for mindless carnage? Well, the Maniac Cop movies (the original two, the only ones that matter) are not quite what you think they are.

The first film starts off as a simple noir-inspired film of a cop serial killer that has to be stopped. However, as the film goes on, you soon realize there is more to this murderer than you first realized, the escalation leading to some crazy places. This spills over into the sequel, which does exactly what something like, say, Halloween II does not, and raises the stakes, turns the heat up to max, and soon enough everything boils over in a chaotic ending where justice is finally served and everything is wrapped up perfectly. It becomes a lot more than a slasher by the end. The entire experience is one you will not soon forget.

Maniac Cop has a bit of a noir tinge at times, leaning a little on old detective movies for menace in its tone along with peak 1980s practical effects to really emphasize the unknown nature of the threat. Because what that ends up being is tied up in the theme of the perversion of true justice and the evil it brings out on the innocent and guilty alike. Only by setting things as they should be can order be brought back again.

These two movies are a strange experience and better than you would think, being that they came out during the slasher movie mascot craze. This isn't really like any of them, though. Thankfully, there is much more to these movies than an excuse of mayhem, and watching them back to back remains quite the experience.

8. House 1 & 2 (1985-1987)

Unlike the last entry I'm only including two here because they are totally different despite sharing the same writer and yet billed as sequels. The original House is a horror movie about a missing son and a mad house while the second is more of a strange surreal comedy about family. You can watch either on their own, but both are very much worth seeing, even if unrelated plot-wise.

For those unaware, the writer of both was involved in 1980s cult horror favorites Monster Squad and Night of the Creeps, two movies much more well known than these are. That said, they are every bit as good, despite how different they are tonally from his other films. You won't watch anything else like them.

That said, they're both good movies that center on the importance of family and home, a surprising thematic overlap between them that helps each of them stand out. It also helps that the special effects are incredible, even for their time. There it little chance you'll see anything like them from their time or even now.

9. Just Before Dawn (1981)

As I alluded to earlier, I am not very big into slasher movies. For the most part, I don't get a joy out of watching unlikeable people get murdered. Unless there is an intense atmosphere (the original Halloween), a twist on the framework (A Nightmare on Elm Street), or a compelling dive into the themes (Alone in the Dark), they mostly end up falling flat for me.

That said, 1981's Just Before Dawn is a strange beast, even for the genre. It leans more on the survival movie aspect but also lends itself to a surreal nightmare quality of unaware normal folk stumbling into an eerie reflection of what they know, much like people unused to nature would feel like if they were stranded on a nature trail. There is a supernatural bent that is hard to put into words, despite nothing about it being explicit. It's the atmosphere and the tone as well as the nature survival story aspect that makes it stand out from the pack.

All that and the final reveal at the end is a nice bow on a film that is better and more unique than you might think. It also contrasts the harsh unforgiving natural world with the world man made for himself quite beautifully in a harsh finale that will make you consider thinking twice about where you choose to wander and lay down your head. Perhaps the world isn't our playground? It is surprisingly effective at what it does.

10. VFW (2019)

This is quite the jump forward, but VFW from 2019 is a hidden gem that deserves to be better known. Essentially a modern take on a John Carpenter movie starring old genre favorite actors, VFW manages to sidestep a lot of the bad trends of modern cinema to deliver an engaging experience. You probably wouldn't have known this came out in 2019 if I didn't say so.

Much like Assault on Precinct 13, this movie is a siege film. However, unlike that classic, this film keeps the apocalyptic 1970s feel but transports it to the modern day with a slightly different focus and concern. The theme is around aging veterans, those in their final days, as they live on the edge of a world that passed them by and one those who came after them let crumble. There are two sets of characters, divided by age. The first are the elderly veterans backed into a corner and the other are the youthful anarchists driven by additions and bloodlust to crush whatever is in their way. It takes a young woman fleeing from them and begging for help among the elders that sets the entire conflict off. By the end of it, who will be left standing?

That is the horror of this movie. When it seems like the world is already over and your life is already near its end, should you keep fighting? Was it all for nothing? The answer is not what you would expect from a movie released in 2019.

VFW probably wouldn't work as well as it does if it wasn't a deliberate 180 on all the bad trends of modern filmmaking. The practical effects, the camera work, the lighting and clear sound, the focus on masculine themes, the clear dialogue, and the ending, are all the sort of things one does not see too much in the modern era of movie making. Given that the whole story is about the aged and the forgotten fighting against the crushing tide of progress, one that cares nothing for them at all, the older film techniques serve the whole experience exceedingly well. It is a movie out of time. And that's where we should end this list.

That's all for this time. Enjoy the season, and remember to think about higher things while you do. We are quite lucky to be alive.

Only two months left in the year to go--we're almost at the finish line. Keep your eyes on the road and we'll make it through.

Have a good holiday, and I will see you next time!

Four books of heroes and high adventure!

Happy Halloween!

Hope you're having a good one! This is just a quick update post to let you know that the Fifth Cannon Cruisers Halloween Special is up today. You can find it here!

In this one we cover the fourth and sixth entries in the Friday the 13th slasher series and discuss how such a simple series maintained longevity for a whole decade. Why these two entries specifically? Well, you'll have to tune in and find out for yourself. You might be surprised at these ones, especially if you only know the first couple like I did.

A lot of horror is looked at, and seen as, a celebration of evil. To be fair, it can be if misused. However, the spirit is really in the celebration of evil being triumphed over and mocked. Believe it or not, the story that carries through these two entries (and technically the fifth, but not really) despite its lightness actually does show this. Much like the first and third Nightmare on Elm Street movies tell a story of evil being put down, this is the same, albeit not quite on that level. However, they do aim a bit higher than you might think for the genre.

For my money, I still believe the two proper Maniac Cop movies (which I covered here and here) are still the best, and most overlooked, examples to making this genre work and showing how evil acts and intent can lead to tragedy. There can be more to it than watching clueless and broken people meeting their untimely end. For another example from that Halloween season during the coof, I also covered Night of the Demons here. It's also surprisingly eerie. Just because the subgenre has been done badly does not mean it can't be done right, or effectively. It very much can!

Nonetheless, our Fifth Halloween Special is an hour long and focused on these relics of a slowly dying decade in the back of our minds. Once again, you can find it here! We talk for a good while on our perception of the series and why these two entries work.

Be sure to have a fun Halloween, and do not let the cynicism and misery of modernity poison your imagination and love for higher things. It is one of humanity's best features and we would do good not to lost it to the nonsense trying to drag us down into misery.

Thank you once again for coming here and also tuning into Cannon Cruisers. It means a lot and makes this all worth doing. Once more, the new special can be found here.

Happy Halloween!

For a modern horror story, see how Fanatics cleansed an entire industry of wonder!

Happy Halloween!

Welcome back to a new year of Halloween weirdness. Hope you're ready!

It's been more than a bit trying for everyone over the past couple of years, but that doesn't mean we can't take a break to indulge in our imaginations a little. What better time than the day before All Soul's Day?

This year I'll share a few fun things you could do for Halloween, especially if you're planning on staying in and relaxing. It is the weekend, after all.

First up, for Cannon Cruisers this year we decided to cover a pair of American adaptions of Japanese properties with the Guyver movies. It was kind of a weird experience since we watched them back to back and topped it off with a watch of the first episode of the 2005 anime adaption of the 1970s manga. It was a lot of Guyver.

You can watch it here on the Cannon Cruisers site.

Up next, the Superversive Podcast is doing a Halloween Special of their own reading both classic stories and new ones. It's going to be jampacked with all sorts of people. I will also be on it reading the first part of Y Signal for everyone to enjoy.

The stream reservations is below:

Don't forget that they also have a spooky series of their own in Pinkerton's Ghosts. You can watch all 50+ ongoing episodes on the channel here.

Last but not least, I'm going to top it off with something you can watch with your kids and younger relatives. That would be the 1990s kid classic Are You Afraid of the Dark? which has the entire series up for free and perfectly legal on YouTube.

You can watch the entire near 100 episode series here, and a random episode is listed below:

I hope that's more than enough good stuff to keep you satiated this weird and wild day! Remember that it's all in good fun and that we've got even more exciting days ahead.

The year isn't over yet!

For an eerie book, there is always Brutal Dreams: a story of a nightmare world that won't end even in death!

I Left My Brains in San Francisco!

Find it Here!

Since Halloween is just around the corner I thought I would highlight a perfect book for the occasion. There are so many choices, but there is a recent release that could very well scratch that itch for spooky fun. This is a comedy horror book not like much else you'll read today. Of course, I'm talking about I Left My Brains in San Francisco, a book in the Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator series. With a title like that you might understand what you're getting into.

Nevertheless, to truly understand this one, you're going to have to read the description. It is as weird as you'd think!

Zombie problem? Call Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator--but not this weekend.

On vacation at an exterminator’s convention, she's looking to relax, have fun, and figure out her relationship with her boyfriend, Ted. Too bad the zombies have a different idea. They rise from their watery graves to take over the City by the Bay…and destroy any chance of downtime with Ted.

Can Neeta find time between lopping off heads to bare her heart?

Enjoy the thrill of re-kill with Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator. Get your copy now.

You can find the book here.

I hope you're all having a good Halloween season, readying yourself for All Saint's Day and the insanity that occurs during the upcoming holiday season. The year is almost over, but not quite! We still have quite a few things left, including some surprises!

Until then, have a good time. It's been a rough couple of years, and you deserve a break. Happy Halloween and I'll see you again later this week.

For more spooky fun, check out Brutal Dreams! This is a story of normality turned inside out and a man striving to correct those wrongs. You won't read anything else like it, that's for sure!

Weekend Lounge: Spooky Season

Welcome to the weekend!

Today, the guys at Geek Gab will be taking a look at the newest online sensation in Squid Game, or whatever it's called. See the episode above to tell just what it's about.

There was also a recent Superversive stream featuring Cirsova talking about his upcoming works. You can find it here:

Lastly, Red Letter Media put out the last part in their John Carpenter discussion. This is another lengthy video but mostly centers on their top 5, of which is fairly contenious, for the most part. Though their #1 choices are fairly obvious.

While I might disagree with much of their list (Christine and Starman are way too high and In the Mouth of Madness and Assault on Precinct 13 are far too low) it is a solid discussion on a surprisingly influential filmmaker.

And if you want more talk about John Carpenter, we've covered nearly all of his movies on Cannon Cruisers. In, fact we've got one coming up in the current season. Stay tuned to the blog to find out just which one!

Speaking of Cannon Cruiser, we just recently released our 100th episode on Cannon itself! the movie was Jeff Speakman's Street Knight from 1993. We're well on our way to reaching 200 total movies covered so come check us out. It's a fun time had by all.

Lastly, Pulp Rock will be done in a matter of hours! If you haven't jumped on the train, you better hurry up. The campaign will lock up within a couple of hours of this post!

And that's it for this week! It's been a wild one.

Soon enough Halloween will be here, then All Saint's Day, and it's only a stone throw away to Christmas. 2021 is almost done. You're gonna make it.

So chill out on this day of rest and catch a break. Have a good time, relax, and put your feet up. You deserve it.

Battles for Light in a world of unending Darkness!

Halloween Movie Madness #6

For our final episode in this week long special, we take a gander at one of my favorites in 1990's Maniac Cop 2, sequel to the film of our previous episode in 1988's Maniac Cop! For all intents and purposes, I consider both movies to be one long story, so I suggest listening to that episode before coming into this one. Spoilers from that one are unavoidable in this one. That said, this is the superior movie of the two films.

Whereas the first was a tense thriller where we are questioning just who the killer as and what they might want as the tension ratchets up, in this one we know who the Maniac Cop already is and their general motive. However, we are given more context and more information that reveals some of the more obscure parts of the first movie as well as the depths of the injustice that caused this whole mess to unfold to begin with. It takes the promises of the original, and brings them into full fruition here. By the end of the story, everything is put right and the revenge has been settled. This is how horror was always meant to be.

As I said, this is one of my favorite horror movies, and a perfect example of a sequel that builds upon and fixes everything in the original, while enhancing the previous entry at the same time. Check out the full episode to hear my full opinions on a movie that should be reevaluated as one of the best of its kind. It is worth the second look. You can also watch this cross-posted at Cannon Cruisers instead, if you so desire.

And that's all for our week-long special! We've been on quite the journey of weird movies. Thank you for sticking around for the journey, and I hope you will have a good weekend. It's been fun!

I'll see you next week. Until then, have a Happy Halloween!

Halloween Movie Madness #5

We're in the home stretch! For the fifth movie in our week long special we cover 1988's Maniac Cop, a unique gem in an era swimming in them. This is a movie that has gained more popularity over the years, and for good reason.

Throwing it back to the Fear City era of New York, Maniac Cop is the story about a man in a cop uniform going rogue and attacking innocent people. Who is he and what is his motive? Those questions are what the story is all about. In fact, they lead directly into the sequel, but we'll save that for tomorrow. For now, it is about the original movie.

As usual, check the episode below for my full thoughts. You can see it on the Cannon Cruisers site, if you'd prefer. The Maniac Cop movies (at least, the first two) are some of my favorites in the genre.

I hope you're ready to have a Happy Halloween! There's only one more episode before we wrap this special up, and I guarantee that it's a good one.

Halloween Movie Madness #4

On the fourth day of our six day festival of fun films, I am going for another oddball pick. This time it is the obscure buddy cop, horror, comedy, existential piece, Dead Heat.

This is one that wouldn't feel out of place on an episode of Tales from the Crypt, sort of like how the House movies would have fit in on Tales From the Darkside. It's a specific sort of horror that could only exist in the era they were made, for better or worse. For the audience? It's definitely a win.

See the episode below to hear my full thoughts. I definitely believe this is a movie that deserves more attention than it gets.

Just as before, this one is cross-posted on Cannon Cruisers. Watch it wherever you'd prefer.

Be sure to have a Happy Halloween!

Halloween Movie Madness #3

As we continue our movie madness, I chose to cover the sequel to haunted house gem House. The difference with the sequel is that it is really a whole different genre of movie. Whereas that was more influenced by classic horror with a dab of black comedy, this is a pulp-styled lost world adventure with a helping of '80s comedy to go with it. It's quite different from the original.

But, in many ways, it's also the same. The themes that run through both are almost identical.

What helps is that most of the same staff and personnel from the first movie are in this one, creating a project not too out of line with the first, despite not even really being the same genre. Check out the episode below for my full thoughts.

Just as before, this series is being cross-posted on Cannon Cruisers. Choose whichever location you'd prefer to watch it. It's your choice.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Movie Madness #2

For the second movie this week we will be taking a look at an underrated gem. I'm talking about the movie House by director Steve Miner (Friday the 13th Part 2 & Part 3, and Warlock) and writer Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps, the Monster Squad, and episodes of Tales from the Crypt) which has quite the staff and cast behind it.

This is a haunted house movie about a man brought to the edge after losing his family to this place, and is given the chance to move in and take revenge. What unfurls following this setup is some of the most impressive special effects you will see, as well as some surprisingly effective comedy, and trippy horror that adds to a building atmosphere of tension.

It goes without saying that I enjoyed this one! Check out my full thoughts below!

Also, a reminder that this is cross-posted at Cannon Cruisers, but you can watch it here if you'd prefer. I just wanted to make it easier for anyone passing by to see these posts.

Once again, Happy Halloween!

Halloween Movie Madness #1

This week I decided to do something a bit different than my usual posting. Since Halloween is just around the corner, I thought I'd try a new idea to liven things up.

All this week up to the 31st, I will be cross-posting with Cannon Cruisers and sharing my thoughts on a Halloween movie of my choice. So get ready for six posts of insanity for Halloween week. Sit back and enjoy the discussion.

For Monday I decided to cover the obscure 1988 cult hit Night of the Demons. Check out the video below for my full impressions.

Oh yes, and Happy Halloween!

Fear of the Dark

Keeping with the theme of Halloween themed subjects for October this year, I wanted to talk about probably the most influential one for me both as a boy and one that led me to eventually be a creator. That would be the 1990-1996 (...) horror anthology series, Are You Afraid of the Dark? that ran on Nickelodeon down south and on YTV up north. This was one of the first live action series that managed to speak to me as someone who usually preferred animation. There was a short two season revival that brought the series back in 1999, but by 2000 it was over for good, at least in it's original incarnation.. In other words, Are You Afraid of the Dark? (or AYAOTD?) pretty succinctly captured the 1990s for Gen Y kids during its entire run.

The series began in Canada in 1990, the place where most live action shows were once filmed for kids (at least, the non-sitcoms and game shows) and was soon aired by Nickelodeon in 1991 where it achieved most of its fame in the south. In Canada it primarily known for airing on YTV, which I've written about before. To this day, it is still fondly remembered by Gen Y kids, and for a very good reason. There wasn't much else like it.

So what is Are You Afraid of the Dark? about? Well, aside from being a horror anthology series for kids, it also stars kids telling stories about other kids. In other words, it felt (though it wasn't) a lot like a series made by children for other children to enjoy. It was unique in that sense. For a traditionally adult genre and series format like a horror anthology, it was the first to show these sorts of things could be made for wider audiences. And it is still the best at what it did, even years later.

Every episode begins with a group of kids called "The Midnight Society" gathering around a campfire in the woods and telling scary stories they came up with themselves. They each take turns every week to tell one. There was no limit as to what the stories could be about as long as they were horror tales of some bent. What this did was give the stories both a bit of levity (knowing they're being told by kids adds a certain charm to them) and an incite into how that character thinks or acts since what is told sometimes relates to something that happened to the kid recently. Sometimes there would even be reoccurring characters depending on who was telling the story. Doing it in this way has actually managed to help the show age far better than you might think, since any cheese is given a good context for why it's there.

And it remains popular, getting a short mini-series revival in 2019, and known for airing during Nickelodeon's prime period of popularity in the '90s, it has a name that still commands nostalgic clout today. Being that this year is its 25th anniversary, I believe it deserves at least a little bit of exploration. Heaven knows far worse things get attention these days. You can find a (far too) short oral history here, some of which I will use to talk about it going forward.

Are You Afraid of the Dark? was created by D.J. MacHale and Ned Kandel. At first it was a special that aired on Halloween before repeated airings gave it the success it needed to get a full series order. The show was originally pitched to Nickelodeon, but they were unsure of a horror series for kids. Kind of weird for the network that prided itself on edge, but that's what happened. It was up to Canadian production company Cinar to jump in instead, and they did. As a consequence, the show is basically a Canadian show that aired in the US. Again, this isn't out of the ordinary for the time. Unless it was a sitcom, all live action kid shows were Canadian productions.

Because of the strict guidelines of no violence, blood, or depravity, the writers more or less had to try to stick to Gothic-style creeps of the sort the Twilight Zone had to rely on back in the day. These limitations would probably strangle most productions in the crib these days, especially with how nihilistic gore has gotten, but the lack of it made Are You Afraid of the Dark? what it was. It was a good way to help the series stand out, even among others of its own genre. You definitely wouldn't see this sort of thing in a Tales from the Darkside episode, and that's a good thing.

This was also the time before computers came into heavy use, so the series had to use practical effects instead. In the era where mainstream horror was dying, they still went with the classic approach to the scares. However, despite that, the effects have aged surprisingly well, for the most part. The worst looking ones are those where they tried to use computers, but then those have never aged well and never will. However, combining the focus on old style horror with the practical effects of the time lends the show a look that still works today.

There is a bit of a misunderstanding in how horror works in that so many think horror can irreparably scar children and they must be hidden from it. No doubt there is much that can traumatize anyone, and there is also a reason horror is primarily for adults, however, that doesn't mean it all is. Horror stories are fundamentally tales of bad choices leading to bad ends, or lessons being taught to characters through an unfolding plot stemming from Something That Shouldn't Be. It's a genre essentially about showing why things are the way they are and why they need to stay that way. Horror that forgets that lesson tends to not work.

For an example, let us talk about my favorite episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? and explain how it works so well. There are many more popular examples that could be used, but I would rather stick with a more common episode. The one is called The Tale of the Phone Police. Though it is not spoken of much by aficionados of the series, though it is quite a good one.

Every episode begins with a title like this.

Jake and Chris are making prank calls from Jake's room. Jake is experienced at this sort of thing, but Chris is unsure and nervous that what they're doing is okay. Jake's sister catches them in the act and warns them that if they keep it up they will upset the Phone Police and things will get back for them. Who are the Phone Police? A mysterious group that enforces phone etiquette and punishes those who go against it. One of their biggest pet peeves are prank callers.

To emphasize this she tells the story of a bad boy named Billy Baxter who was once a troublemaker until he was caught by the Phone Police and never heard from again. Naturally, they don't believe her, however, they do have their doubts and soon find a suspicious number in the phone book. It has six numbers instead of seven! Jake calls it, and a creepy old man replies asking for help. He's trapped. Jake keeps hanging up, but the caller keeps calling back, pleading for help.

It keeps getting weirder, so the two boys end up going to the phone company and asking about the number. They are soon take to the records department in the basement where it somehow gets even weirder.

Jake is arrested by the Phone Police while Chris overhears the manager reading him his crimes. The prankster is taken to a cell while his friend escapes unseen to find help. Inside his cell, Jake finds nothing but solitude--no way out, and no neighbors or cellmates. He s trapped alone with nothing but a phone.

The phone rings, and the old man voice returns. He reveals himself as Billy Baxter, the boy that went missing so long ago. All Jake can do now is sit in a cell and receive prank phone calls of his own: the phone cannot make outside calls so he cannot call his parents or anyone for help. The only exception is that you can call back numbers that call you. The old Billy Baxter laughs and leaves him alone in the cell again.

Meanwhile, Chris gets back to Jake's house to explain what happened. However, Jake's sister doesn't remember him or her brother at all! She does remember the story of the Phone Police, but the tale wasn't about Billy Baxter. It was now about a boy named Jake O'Brien! Chris is now alone in rescuing Jake from captivity as he is the only one who knows he exists.

That's right, the Phone Police not only arrested Jake, they also erased him from existence. These guys are a lot worse than we first thought they were. Chris probably only escaped because he was in the building when it happened, but no one saw him there. It doesn't matter that much, Jake is in serious trouble regardless.

Chris then shows his resourcefulness by sneaking back into the building back down to Jake's cell. He gets Jake out and tricks the manager into getting trapped in the cell himself. The two head for the only exit--the underground tunnels. But the manager is adamant that no one escapes the Phone Police!

A chase begins underground as the two escape back out through the sewers to the streets. However, suspicious police cruisers are all over the place and the pair have to hide in the dark. After a close call, they get back into Jake's house and his sister remembers him again. Whatever the Phone Police did to his existence had been undone. But before they can relax, there is a knock at the door! They plead his sister not to answer, but she does anyway to reveal--a pizza delivery man. Turns out he just had the wrong address. Jake's sister makes fun of them saying she just made the story up, and even they begin to question just what they went through.

However, the pizza delivery man returns to the car to remove the sign from his door--it is a picture of a phone. Jake's phone then rings again and the laughter of Billy Baxter can be heard as the story ends. Were the Phone Police real? It doesn't matter because neither Jake or Chris ever made another prank call ever again.

A few tidbits about this story. It was obviously inspired by the Thought Police from 1984, Jake's last name is even O'Brien. This episode also inspired Weird Al Yankovic's Phony Calls parody of TLC's Waterfalls. A bit of odd trivia, but the show did have an odd reach.

What makes this episode work is that it nails the concept of childhood horror from unexpected places perfectly well. Not only is this the type of story that kids would tell to each other on the playground, but it also successfully captures the sort of thing that would unsettle them. Prank calling is (or was, I don't know how common it is anymore) a pure childhood thing that tapered off during the teenage years. Turning it into the plot for a  horror story for kids was a masterful stroke. This is what the show was best at, and what no one else could match them at doing. Not even Goosebumps managed to be as good at it in this area.

As mentioned before, horror stories show what happens when the rules are broken, and this episode goes to the nines with it. At the same time, it doesn't have to explain everything to the viewer. You never learn everything about the Phone Police, not even what they actually are or what their exact purpose is. It is never explained how they can erase your existence by imprisoning you or why they have the power to do the things they do. They just have it, and you'd better not mess with forces you do not understand. There is no tired, pointless backstory or origin story. It just is what it is. That is what makes horror work.

As a series for introducing kids into horror, it does a great job most of the time, and this episode is one of the best examples of how it works. It presents the sort of thing that would unsettle the audience, but also reinforces the morality of the norm at the same time. It is no wonder Are You Afraid of the Dark? was such a big hit. It truly was unique, and successful, in what it was doing.

The original title sequence.

However, nothing lasts forever. After two season of a 1999-2000 revival, the series was shelved for good (aside from the reboot miniseries 20 years later meant to cash in on nostalgia) and so was children's horror as a whole. Despite breaking new ground, and proving it could work, those in charge still refused to allow more series like it to air. As a consequence, instead of being a pioneer, Are You Afraid of the Dark? became an anomaly. Horror anthologies as a whole didn't survive in network TV either, though. The television landscape of the late '90s was a very different place than it was even a few years prior. Times were changing, whether the audience wanted them to or not, especially with 2001 just around the corner to reshape everything in the west forever.

One of the reasons co-creator D.J. MacHale got out of children's productions is because the major broadcasters no longer wanted to create series like this anymore. He moved out of the industry because it was no longer about making the sort of thing he liked making. This is pretty obvious to anyone who has been paying attention to mainstream entertainment.

We all know this. The only thing networks want is the lowest common denominator comedy series that can be disposed of quick so they can replace it with a new one and not have to get a mega-hit and have to pay the actors more money as a consequence. Nickelodeon is forced to rely on milking '90s nostalgia for a reason: this practice of producing only trash for a quick buck has destroyed their brand over the decades. We all know the only reason the reboot miniseries happened is because Nickelodeon is hurting and relying on their old properties from their highest point to stay alive. It's hard to emphasize how their biggest property still running is a series that premiered in 1999. This is not a healthy industry, but they chose to make it this way. It is a horror story of their own making.

This emphasis on recreating the past instead of being inspired by it to create new things is a big part of the problem with modern art and entertainment. There is nothing stopping a new series inspired by Are You Afraid of the Dark? from being made except that those in charge would rather cash in on the name instead. It's easier. That's what it's been about for some time now. It's not about the art, or even about supplying the customer with a product. It's about the easy money. As a result, do not expect another series like it to come around, at least not in the old system.

But you don't have to settle for that.

As the mainstream art world implodes, there are many new creators coming up outside the system to entertain you. The next Are You Afraid of the Dark? could be just around the corner. It just won't come from the old system. They had their chance, and they squandered it. That might be the scariest prospect for the old guard. They just aren't needed anymore.

It's an awkward Halloween this year, for sure, but it won't be like this forever. Eventually normality will return, and just like the show's characters we will be able to look back and reassess our path. How did we get here? Well, it's been a very long and strange path that lead us to where we are. The destination, however, remains unchanged. We still know where we're going. Normality still exists, and it's still worth fighting for.

Happy Halloween! I've got a bit of a surprise for next week, so keep your eyes peeled!

The New Age is here! Find out what it's about in the Pulp Mindset!