#dr jekyll and Mr hyde 2008

[fanofspooky]

Scream King - Tom Skerritt

[majestativa]

My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring.

— Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales, (2008)

[talesfromthecrypts]

What are some movies that you’d recommend that use a lot of good practical effects?

Ok knowing that practical effects is going to cover a wide range of things (makeup effects, in camera effects, puppets, gore):

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

Vampyr (1932)

King Kong (1933)

The Invisible Man (1933)

The Wolf Man (1941)

Godzilla (1954)

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

Viy (1967)

The Exorcist (1973)

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Alien (1979) (of course)

The Beyond (1981)

The Howling (1981)

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

The Thing (1982)

Basketcase (1982)

The Dark Crystal (1982) (not horror but its my buddy)

Creepshow (1982)

Videodrome (1983)

The Company of Wolves (1984)

Gremlins (1984)

Day of the Dead (1985)

Fright Night (1985)

Re-Animator (1985)

Aliens (1986)

The Fly (1986)

From Beyond (1986)

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

The Gate (1987)

Hellraiser (1987)

Bad Taste (1987)

Robocop (1987)

The Blob (1988)

Pumpkinhead (1988)

Society (1989)

Nightbreed (1990)

Tremors (1990)

Arachnophobia (1990)

Death Becomes Her (1992)

Starship Troopers (1997) (not horror in the slightest but the bugs look so fucking good)

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Hatchet (2006)

Martyrs (2008)

Evil Dead (2013) (as far as I'm aware all effects except the first are practical)

Clown (2014)

Spring (2014)

Krampus (2015) (Krampus himself is all practical)

The Void (2016)

Rabid (2019)

The Sadness (2021)

Hatching (2022)

[tiny-fren]

🎃Halloween Media Recommendations!🎃

It's October which means it's time for Halloween! I don't go trick or treating anymore so instead I celebrate by watching spooky-themed shows and movies. A lot of the normal Halloween movie recommendations are too scary for me,so here are some that are perfect for littles and caregivers that like something more light-hearted. This one will be mainly shows and movies aimed at younger littles, I'll have more recommendations for bigger kids in the next post

Dividers by @/kodaswrld

Shows/Show episodes will be in bold

Bump In The Night (1994)

The Trap Door (1986)

Room on The Broom (2012)

Ruffus The Dog (1989) - Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

The Gruffalo (2009)

Eureeka's Castle (1989) - It Came From Beneath The Bed

The Magic School Bus (1984) - A Magic School Bus Halloween

Charlie and Lola (2005) - What Can I Wear for Halloween?

The House with Clocks in Its Walls (2018)

Sesame Street: A Magical Halloween Adventure / Sesame Street: Trick Or Treat On Sesame Street / Sesame Street: Elmo Says Boo!

Gullah Gullah Island (1994) - Gullah Gullah Ghoul-land

Kipper The Dog (1997) - The Little Ghost

Scary Godmother (2003)

Scary Godmother 2: The Revenge of Jimmy (2005)

Fraggle Rock (1983) - The Terrible Tunnel / Scared Silly / A Dark and Stormy Night

Craig of the Creek (2018) - Trick or Creek/ The Legend of The Library

Bear in The Big Blue House (1997) - Halloween Bear

Pajanimals (2010) - Scary Costumes

Clifford's Puppy Days (2003) - The Halloween Bandit / Boo!

Angelina Ballerina (2003) - Henry's Halloween

Rubbadubbers (2004) - Finbar and the Ghosts

Kiki's Delivery Service (1990)

The Wiggles (1998) - Spooky Monsters

Imagination Movers (2008) - Haunted Halloween

Spirited Away (2002)

Make Way for Noddy (2002) - Don't Be Scared,Noddy

Raggedy Ann and Andy in The Pumpkin Who Couldn't Smile (1979)

Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977) [Not Halloween themed but it scared me a lot so I'm counting it]

Little Bear - Moonlight Serenade / Caterpillars / Goblin Night / How to Scare Ghosts / Night of Full Moon / Up All Night

Claymation Comedy of Horrors (1991)

Blues Clues - What Is Blue Afraid Of? / Blue's Big Costume Party

I tried to pick shows and movies that aren't on a lot of other Halloween recommendation lists and some I remember from my childhood. Thanks for reading and I'll leave you all off with a bunch of Halloween commercials I really like. Have a safe and spooky Halloween!

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

Stats from Movies 801-900

Top 10 Movies - Highest Number of Votes

Thirst (2009) had the most votes with 1,097 votes. Captain Clegg (1962) had the least votes with 413 votes.

The 10 Most Watched Films by Percentage

Fright Night (1985) was the most watched film with 32.8% of voters out of 665 saying they had seen it. Zibahkhana (2007) had the least "Yes" votes with 0% of voters out of 444.

The 10 Least Watched Films by Percentage

The Fall of the House of Usher (1960) was the least watched film with 68.3% of voters out of 492 saying they hadn’t seen it. Sewing Love (2023) had the least "No" votes with 5,9% of voters out of 523.

The 10 Most Known Films by Percentage

Fright Night (1985) was the best known film, 14,6% of voters out of 665 saying they’d never heard of it.

The 10 Least Known Films by Percentage

Zibahkhana (2007) was the least known film, 93% of voters out of 444 saying they’d never heard of it.

The movies part of the statistic count and their polls below the cut.

Near Dark (1987) The Wrath (2018) The Uncanny (1977) Fright Night (1985) Zibahkhana (2007) My Best Friend Is a Vampire (1987) Willard (1971) Woman's Wail (1986) The Atticus Institute (2015) Resurrección (2016)

Nanny (2022) The Lodgers (2017) Dead Birds (2004) The Medium (2021) Captain Clegg (1962) The Flesh and the Fiends (1960) Hagazussa (2017) The Priests (2015) The Wailing (2016) The Devil's Doorway (2018)

House of Usher (1960) Shutter (2004) Without Name (2016) Lake Bodom (2017) The Axe Murders of Villisca (2016) Under the Shadow (2016) Southbound (2015) The Dybbuk (1937) The Golem (2018) Invaders from Mars (1986)

Birth/Rebirth (2023) Dave Made a Maze (2017) Await Further Instructions (2018) The Beast Must Die (1974) Imprint (2006) A Wounded Fawn (2022) The Housemaid (2016) Slash/Back (2022) Slumber Party Massacre (2021) Sissy (2022)

In The Spider's Web (2007) Maneater (2007) Stigmata (1999) Resurrection (2022) The Pale Door (2020) Jack Frost (1997) Return of the Fly (1959) She Will (2021) Spiral (2019) The Strange House (2020)

Mary Reilly (1996) The Binding (2020) 32 Malasana Street (2020) The Strange House (2015) Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight (2020) The Reaping (2007) The Moth Diaries (2011) Let Us Prey (2014) The Possession of David O'Reilly (2010) The Burrowers (2008)

Cruel Peter (2019) Sewing Love (2023) A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971) Darkness Falls (2003) Night Killer (1990) Mr. Harrigan's Phone (2022) Black Sunday (1960) Superhost (2021) The Puppetman (2023)

Tom at the Farm (2013) Malum (2023) Suitable Flesh (2023) The Deep House (2021) Winifred Meeks (2021) Son (2021) The Banishing (2020) Alone with You (2021) Enys Men (2022) The Unkindness of Ravens (2016)

Sennentuntschi (2010) The Queen of Spades (1949) Super Dark Times (2017) Lokis: A Manuscript of Professor Wittembach (1970) Life (2017) Citadel (2012) Creep (2004) Thirst (2009) The Canal (2014) A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)

The Innkeepers (2011) The Sacrament (2013) Apollo 18 (2011) The Outwaters (2022) Horror in the High Desert (2021) Spring (2014) The Uninvited (2009) The Grudge (2020) The Messengers (2007) Rawhead Rex (1986)

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #4.0

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson (ed. Roger Luckhurst, Oxford 2008)

You can check out friend of the pod Charlotte's previous episode on Anno Dracula here

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (our episode here)

"If he is Mr Hyde, I shall be Mr Seek." Ch.2 p.14, Jekyll and Hyde

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

Kidnapped!, Robert Louis Stevenson

"In this character, it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good influence in the lives of down-going men." Ch.1 p. 5, Jekyll and Hyde

Dracula, Bram Stoker (our episodes here and here)

Charlotte's video work can be found at CharlotteWithAD on youtube

Queer Street - the editor has "there have been some energetic interpretations of Jekyll and Hyde by 'Queer Theorists', who pick up on instances like this and suggest that the modern understanding of 'queer' as a slang term for homosexuality was already in use in the late nineteenth century. Being 'in Queer Street' was in fact a standard phrase for being in financial difficulties, and is a corruption of Carey Street, where the bankruptcy courts were located."

Politics of disgust - here referring to the (flawed) idea that disgust is a reliable indicator of moral value.

The illegality of pushing a moose out of a moving plane in Alaska (source) . This fun fact turns up in a lot of clickbait listicles but I haven't been able to find anything that actually quotes chapter and verse of the relevant law code, so take this with a grain of salt!

Doctor Who (wiki)

Jules Verne (writer)

The Time Machine, H. G. Wells

Isaac Asimov (writer)

This meme from Buzzfeed Unsolved:

Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, Jules Verne

Around the World in Eighty Days, Jules Verne

Jack the Ripper (wiki)

The unfortunate coincidence of the stage production of Jekyll and Hyde and the Ripper murders (wiki)

Gestalt therapy (wiki)

"Henry James's praise for Stevenson was that 'His books are for the most part without women, and it is not women who most fall in love with them.'..." p. xxvi, Jekyll and Hyde

Dr Jekyll (2023)

Suzie Izzard (imdb)

The Labouchere Amendment (wiki)

Oscar Wilde (writer)

The trials of Oscar Wilde (wiki)

Charlotte is quoting from this article on Crime Reads from 2023

Dictionary Corner; Countdown (1982-ongoing)

"Stevenson also had a friend in John Addington Symonds who was an ardent campaigner for the legal recognition of homosexuality", p. xxvi, Jekyll and Hyde

"In 1887, Stevenson's sense of sheer disappointment that Hyde had already come to be regarded as a 'mere voluptuary' is palpable: 'There is no harm in a voluptuary,' he wrote, 'no harm whatever - in what prurient fools call "immorality."' Hyde, he claimed, was 'no more sexual than another,' and dismissed as impoverished 'this poor wish to have a woman, that they make such a cry about'." p. xxviii, Jekyll and Hyde

Peep Show (2003-2015)

Kill James Bond! (podcast)

The specific episode Charlotte is referencing here is S3E22.5 "Cruising". Preview here and patreon link to full episode here

ACAB (wiki)

“Everyone was guilty of something. Vimes knew that. Every copper knew it. That was how you maintained your authority—everyone, talking to a copper, was secretly afraid you could see their guilty secret written on their forehead. You couldn’t, of course. But neither were you supposed to drag someone off the street and smash their fingers with a hammer until they told you what it was.” Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

Sins of the City series, K. J. Charles

Brandon Sanderson (writer)

November Kelly on returning to the mothership - this is also from Kill James Bond!, but we haven't managed to track down the specific episode - if you know it, give us a shout!

Blindsight, Peter Watts

Echopraxia, Peter Watts

Countess Boochie Flagrante (meme)

Hogwarts Legacy controversy (source)

Stonewall (website)

Well well well, if it isn't the consequences of my actions (meme)

Muppets Treasure Island (1996)

Hercule Poirot; Agatha Christie

Midsomer Murders (1997-ongoing)

Miss Marple; Agatha Christie

Le Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin; The Murders at the Rue Morgue, Edgar Allan Poe

We! Do Not! Talk About! The Orangutan! story from this tumblr post

The Librarian; the Discworld series, Terry Pratchett

The Mystery of Marie Rogêt, The Purloined Letter, Edgar Allan Poe

House MD (2004-2012)

Beowulf (our episode here)

His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik (our episodes here, here and here)

Back To The Future (1985)

The Bodysnatchers, Robert Louis Stevenson

Cat Rating

7/10

What Else Are We Reading?

The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher

Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh!, Nate Crowley

Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

The Discworld series, Terry Pratchett

Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt

The Southern Reach trilogy, Jeff VanderMeer

[mattapparentlystumbltourneys]

THE LAST CHANCE PRELIMS

That's right! We're not done yet! We've got 9 more slots to fill!

So, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 9 total polls will be posted, each running for 3 days (Thanks Tumblr!). The winners will be the last additions to the proper roster for the tournament!

Here's what to expect:

Tuesday (11/26)

Yuria (Eternights) vs Helena Mossman (Half Life 2) vs Virgilus (Umineko: When They Cry)

Kasumi Toyama (Betadori (BanG Dream! Beta Edition)) vs Doge (Undertale) vs Camie Marstrap/Camie Loneozner (Star Wars)

Omegaα (Hololive) vs Kumano Benkei (Inazuma Eleven) vs Bagan (Godzilla)

Wednesday (11/27)

Jangsan Tiger (Lobotomy Corporation) vs Euna (Monster High) vs Zebron (Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance) vs Hunter (Beta) (The Owl House)

Annikin Starkiller (Star Wars) vs Ririco (Dreaming Machine) vs Viola Monty (The Sims 2)

Gaikokkaku Caravan (Guilty Gear) vs Trotter (Lord of the Rings) vs Cyclops Gary (The Lego Ninjago Movie)

Thursday (11/28)

Madge Undersee (The Hunger Games) vs Toph Beifong (Beta) (Avatar: The Last Airbender) vs Manikin (Dark Souls 2)

Silvermist (Beta) (Tinker Bell 2008 Concept) vs Luke Danes (Female) (Gilmore Girls) vs Slushi (Chikn Nuggit)

Sabre (Dinosaur Planet) vs Mr. Lemsome (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) vs Darius (The Hunger Games)

See you all then! Thank you for your patience. I cannot promise much, but I will see this through.

[the-list-tm]

Things I have or want to read or watch

To further improve my personal knowledge of literature and cinema

Featuring stuff in both French and English

Code:

Status:

Unread/Unseen ❌

Read/Seen ✅

Currently reading/watching 📖

Need to restart 🔄

Language:

French 🇫🇷

English 🇬🇧

Books:

Plays:

Shakespeare's:

Hamlet 🇫🇷🇬🇧 | ❌ Le songe d’une nuit d’été 🇫🇷 | ✅ Macbeth 🇫🇷🇬🇧 | 🔄 Romeo and Juliet 🇬🇧 | ❌ Le marchand de Venise 🇫🇷 | ❌ Much Ado About Nothing 🇫🇷🇬🇧 | ❌

Molière's:

Le malade imaginaire 🇫🇷 | ✅ Le médecin malgré lui 🇫🇷 | ❌ L’Avare 🇫🇷 | ❌ Les fourberies de Scapin 🇫🇷 | ❌ Dom Juan 🇫🇷 | ✅ Les femmes savantes 🇫🇷 | ❌

Antigone, Sophocles 🇫🇷 | ❌

Œdipe à Colone, Sophocles 🇫🇷 | ❌

Antigone, Anouilh 🇫🇷 | ❌

Knock, Jules Romains 🇫🇷 | ✅

L’illusion comique, Corneille 🇫🇷 | 📖

La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu, Jean Giraudoux 🇫🇷 | ❌

Amphitryon, Jean Giraudoux 🇫🇷 | ❌

L’Apollon de Bellac, Jean Giraudoux 🇫🇷 | ❌

La Marmite, Plaute 🇫🇷 | ❌

Les Nuées, Aristophane 🇫🇷 | ❌

Les Cavaliers, Aristophane 🇫🇷 | ❌

Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand 🇫🇷 | ❌

L’aiglon, Edmond Rostand 🇫🇷 | ❌

Médée, Euripides 🇫🇷 | ❌

Médée, Corneille 🇫🇷 | ❌

Les fausses confidences, Marivaux 🇫🇷 | ❌

Andromaque, Racine 🇫🇷 | ❌

Novels:

Good Omens, Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett 🇬🇧 | 📖

American Gods, Neil Gaiman 🇬🇧 | ❌

the Discworld books, Terry Pratchett 🇬🇧 | ❌

Dune, Franck Herbert 🇫🇷🇬🇧 | ❌

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen 🇬🇧🇫🇷 | 📖✅

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen 🇬🇧🇫🇷 | ❌

Les Trois Mousquetaires, Alexandre Dumas 🇫🇷 | ❌

Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë 🇬🇧🇫🇷 | ❌

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde 🇬🇧🇫🇷 | ❌

Dracula, Bram Stoker 🇫🇷🇬🇧 | ✅📖

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley 🇬🇧🇫🇷 | ❌

Le fleuve de l’éternité, Philip José Farmer 🇫🇷 | ❌

Les Misérables, Victor Hugo 🇫🇷 | ❌

Notre-Dame de Paris, Victor Hugo 🇫🇷 | ❌

Le dernier jour d’un condamné, Victor Hugo 🇫🇷 | ❌

the Percy Jackson books, Rick Riordan 🇫🇷 | ❌

Robinson Crusoé, David Defoe 🇫🇷 | ❌

A song of Ice and Fire and following, George R.R. Martin 🇬🇧 | ❌

the Harry Potter books 🇬🇧 | 📖

Memoirs by Lady Trent, Marie Brennan 🇫🇷🇬🇧 | 📖

Livres du Paris des Merveilles, Pierre Pevel 🇫🇷 | 📖

Gargantua, Rabelais 🇫🇷 | ❌

1984, George Orwell 🇬🇧 | ❌

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury 🇬🇧 | ❌

This is how you loose the time war, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone 🇬🇧 | ❌

The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller 🇫🇷🇬🇧 | 🔄

Circe, Madeline Miller 🇫🇷🇬🇧 | 🔄

Call me by your name, André Aciman 🇫🇷🇬🇧 | 🔄

Le Roman de Renart 🇫🇷 | ❌

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson 🇫🇷🇬🇧 | ❌

Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas 🇬🇧 | ❌

Short Stories:

The Call of Cthulhu, H.P. Lovecraft 🇬🇧 | ❌

At the Mountains of Madness, H.P. Lovecraft 🇬🇧 | ❌

Miscellaneous:

The Art of War, Sun Tzu 🇫🇷 | ❌

Inferno, Dante 🇫🇷 | ❌

TV:

Movies:

Titanic (1997) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Bohemian Raspody (2018) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Rocketman (2019) 🇬🇧 | ❌

the Twilight trilogy (2008) 🇬🇧 | ❌

the Blade Runner films (1982) 🇬🇧 | ❌

the Matrix films (1999) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Apocalypse Now (1979) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Psycho (1960) 🇬🇧 | ❌

The Lorax (2012) 🇬🇧 | ❌

the Bee Movie (2007) 🇬🇧 | ❌

the Shrek films (2001) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Princess Bride (1987) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Series:

Doctor Who (2005) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Doctor Who (1963) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Torchwood (2006) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Our Flag Means Death (2022) 🇬🇧 | 📖

What We Do In The Shadows (2019) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Friends (1994) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Hannibal (2013) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Merlin (2008) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Supernatural (2005) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Star Trek (most of them) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Musicals:

Nerdy Prudes Must Die (2023) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Starmania (1979) 🇫🇷 | ❌

Legally Blonde (2007) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Epic, the musical (2021) 🇬🇧 | ❌

Plays:

Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors 🇬🇧 | ❌

[jellogram]

October/Halloween Movie List Inspo by Theme!!!!

I probably forgot or omitted a ton of stuff so please don't get mad lol. Most of the older ones are available on YouTube or Tubi, the majority are in English, and most of the lists are in chronological order. I also avoided most sequels for simplicity's sake. I've seen most but not all of these so no content warnings are listed, so be sure to check accordingly.

🎃💀🎃💀🎃💀🎃💀

The Silent Era:

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)

The Phantom Carriage (1921)

Nosferatu (1922)

Häxan (1922)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Faust (1926)

Vampyr (1932) (Almost silent)

The Universal Monsters Starter Pack

Dracula (1931)

Frankenstein (1931)

The Mummy (1932)

The Invisible Man (1933)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

The Wolf Man (1941)

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

Best of Hitchcock Horror

Rope (1948)

Strangers on a Train (1951)

Rear Window (1954)

Vertigo (1958)

Psycho (1960)

The Birds (1963)

Classic Slashers

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Halloween (1978)

Friday the 13th (1980)

The Evil Dead (1981)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Child's Play (1988)

Candyman (1992)

Scream (1996)

The "Science Fiction/Double Feature" Collection from the Rocky Horror intro:

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Flash Gordon (various serials 1936-1940)

The Invisible Man (1933)

King Kong (1933)

It Came From Outer Space (1953)

Doctor X (1932)

Forbidden Planet (1956)

Tarantula! (1955)

The Day of the Triffids (1962)

Night of the Demon (1957)

When Worlds Collide (1951)

Cult Classic and B-movie MegaMarathon

Them! (1954)

The Blob (1958)

Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)

The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

The Wicker Man (1973)

The Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Eraserhead (1977)

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978)

The Thing (1981)

The Evil Dead (1981)

Clue (1985)

Elvira (1988)

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

Donnie Darko (2001)

Birdemic (2008)

Jennifer's Body (2009)

The "I Miss the Old Tim Burton" Watch List

Vincent (1982)

Beetlejuice (1988)

Batman (1989)

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Sleepy Hollow (1993)

Mars Attacks (1996)

The Corpse Bride (2005)

Sweeney Todd (2007)

Dark Shadows (2012)

Macabre Musicals

The Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Corpse Bride (2005)

Sweeney Todd (2007)

Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)

The Lure (2015)

The 90s Nostalgia Mixtape

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

The Witches (1990)

The Addams Family (1991)

Death Becomes Her (1992)

Hocus Pocus (1993)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Casper (1995)

The Craft (1996)

Scream (1996)

Halloweentown (1998)

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The "God Forbid Women Do Anything" MegaMarathon

Carrie (1976)

Suspiria (1977)

Heathers (1989)

The Witches (1990)

The Craft (1996)

Ringu (1998)

Ginger Snaps (2000)

Teeth (2007)

Jennifer's Body (2009)

Black Swan (2010)

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

The Lure (2015)

The VVitch (2015)

Raw (2016)

Midsommar (2019)

Us (2019)

Last Night in Soho (2021)

X (2022)

Scary Found Footage

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Rec (2007)

Paranormal Activity (2007)

Cloverfield (2008)

Lake Mungo (2008)

Unfriended (2014)

As Above, So Below (2014)

Creep (2014)

Host (2020)

Dracula Through the Ages

Nosferatu (1922)

Dracula (1931)

Horror of Dracula (1958)

Dracula (1979)

Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

The Monster Squad (1987)

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

Van Helsing (2004)

Dracula Untold (2014)

The Film Bro Starter Pack (Spooky Edition)

The Exorcist (1973)

Alien (1979)

The Shining (1980)

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

American Psycho (2000)

Donnie Darko (2001)

Get Out (2017)

Eye Candy

Suspiria (1977)

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Coraline (2009)

Crimson Peak (2015)

The Love Witch (2016)

The Neon Demon (2016)

Mandy (2018)

Last Night in Soho (2021)

The Munsters (2022)

Movies My Mom Doesn't Realize Are Gay

Rope (1948)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 (1985)

The Lost Boys (1987)

Hellraiser (1987)

Interview with the Vampire (1994)

The Craft (1996)

Black Swan (2010)

[alexis-royce]

Do you like The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? How about The Phantom of the Opera? Well, my meta-textual, lit-obsessive comic Sire is available to download! As ever, there is a free version of all eighteen chapters, so that anyone who wants to read it can get their hands on it. But we book folk do love a special edition, don't we? That's why I've also collected a version called The Omnibus Edition, which includes:

The 2006 first draft version of Chapter 1,

"Chapter 1.5," which would later be reworked into Chapter 2,

Anna and Susan's Hell Colored Glass run, which was part of an original character tournament in 2008, and included a villainous Pimpernel child,

Le Renard de la Patisserie, a connected comic with an Arsène Lupin child, and a cousin of Emile's,

Character profiles and extra sketches!

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[majestativa]

Under the strain of this continually impending doom and by the sleeplessness to which I now condemned myself, ay, even beyond what I had thought possible to man, I became, in my own person, a creature eaten up and emptied by fever, languidly weak both in body and mind, and solely occupied by one thought: the horror of my other self.

— Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales, (2008)

[mogwai-movie-house]

The 100 Best Sci-Fi Films Of All Time

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) ★★★★★★★★★★ 2. Blade Runner (1982) ★★★★★★★★★★ 3. Alien (1979) ★★★★★★★★★★ 4. The Terminator (1984) ★★★★★★★★★★ 5. Back to the Future (1985) ★★★★★★★★★★ 6. The Invisible Man (1933) ★★★★★★★★★★ 7. Star Wars (1977) ★★★★★★★★★★ 8. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) ★★★★★★★★★★ 9. The Fly (1986) ★★★★★★★★★★ 10. Ghostbusters (1984) ★★★★★★★★★★ 11. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) ★★★★★★★★★★ 12. Being John Malkovich (1999) ★★★★★★★★★★ 13. The Thing (1982) ★★★★★★★★★★ 14. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 15. Videodrome (1983) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 16. Twelve Monkeys (1995) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 17. Timecrimes (2007) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 18. Aliens (1986) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 19. Planet of the Apes (1968) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 20. Frankenstein (1931) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 21. Her (2013) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 22. Starship Troopers (1997) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 23. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 24. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 25. Sleeper (1973) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 26. Time After Time (1979) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 27. The Matrix (1999) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 28. WarGames (1983) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 29. Men in Black (1997) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 30. Cold Souls (2009) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 31. Back to the Future Part III (1990) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 32. The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 33. Jurassic Park (1993) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 34. Time Lapse (2014) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 35. RoboCop (1987) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 36. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 37. eXistenZ (1999) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 38. Bride of Frankenstein (1935) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 39. Moon (2009) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 40. Minority Report (2002) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 41. Galaxy Quest (1999) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 42. Triangle (2009) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 43. The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 44. The Empire Strikes Back (1980) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 45. Return of the Jedi (1983) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 46. The Truman Show (1998) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 47. The Survivalist (2015) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 48. Time Bandits (1981) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 49. Gravity (2013) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 50. Intacto (2001) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 51. A Scanner Darkly (2006) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 52. Alien³ (1992) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 53. Arrival (2016) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 54. Serenity (2005) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 55. Donnie Darko (2001) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 56. Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan (1982) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 57. Limitless (2011) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 58. A Clockwork Orange (1971) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 59. The Prestige (2006) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 60. The Lobster (2015) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 61. Brazil (1985) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 62. WALL·E (2008) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 63. Starman (1984) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 64. Men in Black 3 (2012) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 65. 2081 (2009) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 66. Ex Machina (2014) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 67. Looper (2012) ★★★★★★★½☆☆ 68. Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) ★★★★★★★½☆☆ 69. Code 46 (2003) ★★★★★★★½☆☆ 70. District 9 (2009) ★★★★★★★½☆☆ 71. Alien Resurrection (1997) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 72. Back to the Future Part II (1989) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 73. The Matrix Reloaded (2003) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 74. Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 75. Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 76. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 77. Westworld (1973) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 78. Mars Attacks! (1996) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 79. Cocoon (1985) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 80. Monsters (2010) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 81. Stalker (1979) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 82. Logan's Run (1976) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 83. 1984 (1956) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 84. Escape from New York (1981) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 85. The Martian (2015) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 86. Midnight Special (2016) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 87. Vanilla Sky (2001) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 88. Passengers (2016) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 89. Under the Skin (2013) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 90. They Live (1988) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 91. Source Code (2011) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 92. A Trip to the Moon (1902) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 93. Metropolis (1927) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 94. Quatermass and the Pit (1967) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 95. Equals (2015) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 96. Inception (2010) ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 97. Flash Gordon (1980) ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 98. TRON (1982) ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 99. Things to Come (1936) ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 100. Until the End of the World (1991) ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

[frankendykes-monster]

Halloween 2022 Countdown Ranked

59. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

58. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995)

57. Curse of The Swamp Creature (1968)

56. Monster From The Ocean Floor (1954)

55. Billy the Kid versus Dracula (1966)

54. Teenage Cave Man (1958)

53. Lost Continent (1951)

52. Attack of The Killer B-Movies (1995)

51. Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)

50. Jesse James meets Frankenstein’s Daughter (1966)

49. Full Moon High (1981)

48. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)

47. The Werewolf of Washington (1973)

46. The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944)

45. The Invisible Woman (1940)

44. Anthropophagous (1980)

43. The Slime People (1963)

42. Casper’s Halloween Special (1979)

41. The Crawling Hand (1963)

40. Scream (2022)

39. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

38. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

37. Invisible Agent (1942)

36. The Descent (2005)

35. Eegah (1962)

34. Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971)

33. The Midnight Hour (1985)

32. Ringu (1998)

31. Halloween is Grinch Night (1977)

30. Attack of The Giant Leeches (1959)

29. Monster Mash (2000)

28. Bloodz vs. Wolvez (2006)

27. The Man From Planet X (1951)

26. Child’s Play 3 (1991)

25. Hansel and Gretel (1983)

24. Cat-Women of The Moon (1953)

23. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971)

22. The She-Creature (1956)

21. The Terror (1963)

20. The Exorcist (1973)

19. The Navy vs. The Night Monsters (1966)

18. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

17. The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t (1979)

16. Hobgoblins (1988)

15. Die, Monster, Die! (1965)

14. The Abomination (1986)

13. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

12. Lake Mungo (2008)

11. Day of The Animals (1977)

10. Atom Age Vampire (1960)

9. The Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters (1972)

8. Night of The Blood Beast (1958)

7. Child’s Play 2 (1990)

6. The Crawling Eye (1958)

5. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

4. The Old Dark House (1932)

3. Child’s Play (1988)

2. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

1. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

God this was such a bottom-heavy marathon compared to last year, alright let’s get this shitshow started.  I can’t believe I willingly put myself through some of this.

The 1950′s-1960′s science fiction extravaganza: Curse of The Swamp Creature is, I think, one of those TV remakes of 1950′s films starring monsters designed by Paul Blaisdell.  This is one where I thought “okay should I give it credit for making me laugh in the first 30 seconds and then not once for the entire rest of the runtime?”  The answer was no.  Monster From The Ocean Floor is a dreary slog of a film, one of those cheap shits that only features the titular monster for all of 30 seconds while people just aimlessly do nothing for the entire runtime.  Teenage Cave Man I only watched because the monster suit from this film was reused in Night of The Blood Beast, and otherwise it’s Ayn Rand wet dream of the freethinking teenager being magically smarter than everyone else on top of the offense of being a caveman movie with no dinosaurs.  God, speaking of which, Lost Continent is another Lost World ripoff that’s decades behind the curve and who’s only saving grace is stop motion dinosaurs which magically improve any movie they star in.  The Slime People is an oddity because the monster suits and concept are star studded but it just, I guess, doesn’t have the money to see through actually showing us slime people emerge from underground and completely take over Los Angeles.  Weird and disappointing.  The Crawling Hand has one of the best trailers for any monster movie I’ve seen complete with a slowed down version of “Surfin’ Bird” but aside from some humorous spouts of bad acting and the 100% out-of-nowhere gag ending, it’s nothing remarkable.  Admittedly there has been a couple films about disembodied hands killing people and I can’t find the concept scary no matter what, sue me.  Attack of The Giant Leeches is in decent/mid-tier territory, boosted by reusing music from Night of The Blood Beast (Roger Corman lives up to his cheap reputation) and genuinely gruesome scenes of the leeches’ human victims still being alive after progressively blood feedings, it mostly loses me for just not doing anything remarkable with its finale.  The Man From Planet X is working with a pretty stock script but is boosted by how atmospheric its directing is, every shot is just littered with shadows or fog.  Cat-Women of The Moon is definitely one of the more humorous genre outings I’ve seen of this type, living up to its title 100% other than I guess having long nails and sharp eyeliner making you a “cat” woman I guess.  The She-Creature isn’t the best Paul Blaisdell monster movie I’ve seen but that’s expected given his work crops up in some really interesting ones, this one being a murder mystery involving both hypnosis and prehistoric evolutionary links somehow.  The Navy vs. The Night Monsters is like a better version of The Thing From Another World what with an indeterminate number of US army guys having to deal with a monster(s) at their fort and their progressively more extreme methods of having to deal with it.  Atom Age Vampire is one of the funniest films I’ve seen in a *while*, an Italian knockoff of Eyes Without A Face that hits all the same plot points just far more crudely and with a manster (man-monster) thrown in to boot.  Watch the English edit for full effect.  Night of The Blood Beast is one I was excited to revisit and it did not disappoint, being one of the definitive genre precursors to Alien (1979) and just an all-around shock to the senses in general with how isolated the cast can be and what they have to be put up against.  The star of the show is The Crawling Eye however, a genuinely insane film that actually got under my skin with this viewing with the sound design, effects work, and some really gorey moments like flesh being desolved or multiple decapitations.  As far as alien invasion films of the 1950′s go, this is definitely up there.

We have a pair of oddity western-horror mashups between, uh, actual people and fictional characters with Billy the Kid versus Dracula and Jesse James meets Frankenstein’s Daughter.  Only thing of note with the former is that John Carradine reprises the role of Dracula after playing the character in House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945).  Carradine was one of the most prolific actors in the history of the medium so it’s not surprising to see him crop up here and there without expecting him, but suffice to say he brings nothing to the role and just blends in with the rest of the drab film.  Jesse James meets Frankenstein’s Daughter gets extra points solely for featuring the creation of an awkward and haphazard Frankenstein monster, which is generally the only reason to seek out random odds-and-ends Frankenstein movies.

Full Moon High is another Larry Cohen film that looks good on paper but I don’t really find myself enjoying at all.  As a comedy there are a decent number of funny lines (”I’m not one of those types to believe in vampires and werewolves and virgins, I’ve never seen any of those.“) but it almost forgets it’s a werewolf movie for a lot of the runtime as the main plot involves how being a werewolf prevents you from aging and blah blah blah I can’t be bothered to care when you present something I didn’t come here to see (1950′s football player returns to his school in the 1980′s to find it littered with violence and drug use).  The Werewolf of Washington is similarly dreary experience that only exists to present lackluster post-Watergate political satire.

Oh how the mighty have fallen; I made an attempt at finishing out The Invisible Man series but couldn’t even bring myself to watch the dedicated Abbott/Costello film.  Truly the worst Universal sequels barring whatever happened with The Mummy.  The Invisible Woman and Invisible Agent are a full-on comedy and action-adventure film respectively, so in some way I feel cheated for how they’re consistently lumped in with the rest of the series as a whole, which are to say, horror (beyond not doing anything that hadn’t been shown to us in the first two installments).  The Invisible Man’s Revenge makes an attempt at trying to get the series back on track but all it does is make me realize I could just be watching the first two films.

Anthropophagous has been one I’ve been curious about for years, mostly because the poster is a really gristly shot of a guy eating human entrails, and while I *guess* that does feature in this film it’s just another slog to get through with no interesting characters, locations, or plot beats to string you along.  Avoid.

Scream 5 exists for no reason other than to drop the entire series’ GPA.  It’s the entry wherein the genre commentary overshadows everything else to the detriment of this being the first Scream film where I can’t be bothered to care about any of the returning characters.  I wrote extensively about this one in my Letterboxd review so I’m only going to touch on some finer points here.  Scream (1996) is allowed to reference I Spit On Your Grave (1978) because the former is better, this one is not allowed to make snide remarks about The Witch (2015), I’m not having it.  If you’re desperate for a creative shot to the arm that is a grand return after an 11 year absence, just watch Scream 4 (2011).

The Descent was borderline funny to me in the sense that my reaction to so much of what the characters are put through is “shit I would just die, what else is there to do?”  I mentally tuned out when the film switched from “being trapped in a claustrophobic cave system with no sense of direction” to “being hunted by underground monsters.”  I usually scoff and roll my eyes at “oh my god it’s scarier because it could actually happen” but this is rare case where, yeah, being trapped underground with no way out is more terrifying before you add monsters to the mix.

Alright, brief “worst of the worst” roundup: Eegah, in spite of being one of the most notable MST3K punching bags, is not *that* bad.  It peters out by the finale but there are enough funny moments and actually good stuff (Eegah talking to the corpses of family members in a proto Texas Chainsaw scene) to string you along for the better part of an hour.  The Terror is a fascinating film for me, made solely because Roger Corman finished The Raven (1963) two days early and still had access to Boris Karloff.  What we get is a bizarre and haphazard jumbling of horror cliches in a story that is almost bursting at the seams over how overwritten it is, but the making of this one is so interesting to me personally that I can’t bring myself to dislike it, even if Jack Nicholson never was good at “charismatic leading man” type thing before he settled on crazy motherfuckers.  Hobgoblins was one I was surprised over how hilarious it was, another convoluted mess you can’t help but laugh at.  The hobgoblins hypnotize people to let them live out their greatest fantasies albeit with some horrific twist, giving us some golden scene like a guy going to makeout point with an imaginary woman so the hobgoblins can push the car over the edge.  Lordy lordy lordy.

1970′s role call: Dracula vs. Frankenstein continues the trend of awkward and frustrating messes, this one originally being an unrelated horror film that later had the two characters thrown in mid-production.  What ensues is an unusually violent at times boring at others movie that I can’t help but derive at least some ironic enjoyment from.  The untimely tragedy of this film is that this was the last role for Lon Chaney Jr.  Bela Lugosi got stuck with Ed Wood, Karloff with Corman, and Chaney Jr. with Al Adamson.  Chaney Jr. could have been a great actor if it wasn’t for the horror typecasting and seeing play just another bumbling grunt in this is almost painful.  See also: somehow this film is also the final role for J. Carrol Naish, who played Daniel in House of Frankenstein (1944).  Odd.  Let’s Scare Jessica to Death just blends in to the larger genre trends of leaning more towards provocative material what with explicit concerns of mental illness in our protagonist and questions of reality around her, but aside from the soundtrack this one has already completely left my memory.  The Exorcist isn’t *quite* the most overrated horror film out there, but it does surprise me that is one of the ones that escaped into the mainstream; it’s mostly middling for the first hour of its runtime before becoming a decent enough demon story.  I will say I can’t for the life of me find the devil scary in this, “your mother sucks cocks in hell!” will always be funny to me, they’re like a Freddy/Chucky joke dispensing precursor.  The Town That Dreaded Sundown, hoo boy, had this one had a more consistent tone dodging the comedy relief, it could have been an all-time great from this decade with an entire town plunged into despair over unsuccessful efforts to apprehend an anonymous serial killer.  This one goes all out when it comes to the more suspenseful moments, making the gags all the more frustrating.  Day of The Animals narrowly edges out being just another part of the glut of killer animal films in the wake of Jaws (1975), by just having everything out to kill people.  In spite of its inherent ridiculousness I can’t not say it’s better produced and more oppressively intimidating than it has any right to be, almost reminds me of a version of the environment itself is trying to kill you a la backrooms.

Ringu kind of sets in that the late-1990′s-early-2000′s period of J-horror just isn’t for me compared to the likes of films we saw in the 1960′s and 1970′s.  They tend to bleed together in my mind and Ringu is disappointing in that way.  I will say I was surprised that we get a satisfactory explanation for the origin of the tape and that only the final scene exhibits the famous “crawling out of the television” moment, which somehow became the most memorable thing from this one.

Bloodz vs. Wolvez I’m going to defend on the basis that this could have been a genuinely solid effort, what with the concept of bougie black vampires trying to integrate into human (read: white) society but working class black werewolves are stuck in poverty and this class disparity is the driver of the conflict between the two groups.  What holds this back, and of all the films I watched for this season, this one pains me the most to say it’s only average, is the fact that this may be one of the lowest budget films I have ever seen.  Everything is restrained by the fact that this must have been over consecutive weekends on $100.  Holding out for a remake that does this one justice.

Brief 1930′s aside: I’ve never seen any adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde prior to this year so any amount of expectation or set ideas on what should be done with the story escape me.  Suffice to say this is an impressive one overall, with a lot of POV shots and split screen effects that I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a prior film.  The 1931 film is another slow to start but when it gets going it unfolds into one of the most explosive finales to any 1930′s horror film (though admittedly I’m not sure what separates Mr. Hyde in this from your average London man but what have you).  Oh yes, The Old Dark House.  This is the ultimate “minimalist” horror film, using the absolute bare essentials it can to craft an uneasy atmosphere that dominates everything else.  No supernatural phenomena, no body count, just extreme thunderstorms trapping everyone inside one dark house and them being forced to make it out with their minds intact.  “This is an unlucky house, two of my children, died when they were 20, eh-he-he...” “Laughter and sin!  Laughter and sin!  This too will rot!”

Die, Monster, Die! is the rare pre-1980′s Lovecraft adaptation, very loosely taking from The Colour From Outer Space, and comes together thanks to starring roles by Karloff and Nick Adams along with going into some unusual territory concerning mutations that befit the subject matter.  Slow to start but strong finish.

The Abomination is another one of those pushing-for-the-edge 1980′s obscurities that mostly exists to up the gore to previously unseen levels, and I can’t say it wasn’t successful, with practically an entire house being converted into an eldritch monstrosity that eats people piece by piece.  It’s frankly disgusting at times but if you’re on the search for more of these have at it.

Out of all the bizarre mishmash that is the group of films that I decided to watch this year, Lake Mungo is the biggest outlier to the group.  I’m not sure if I’d classify it as horror, it’s a piece of weird fiction that seems to escape genre.  Unlike, it seems, pretty much everyone else, this one doesn’t really scare me at all, but I can’t help but be fascinated as the narrative ebbs back and forth in an emotional cacophony that leads to gut punches.  I’m not entirely sure what to make of it, it could have gone anywhere in the ranking and I wouldn’t be wholly satisfied with its position, but I guess that’s why you can’t truly assign a number value to art.

I made an effort to try and make it through as many actual Halloween specials as I could this year in between the feature lengths.  Attack of The Killer B-Movies sees Elvira and a bunch of teenage schmucks watch several low-tier 1950′s science fiction films that have been colorized, cut for time, and with new soundtracks, with MST3K gags strewn in between.  It somehow makes these films worse, which is a monumental accomplishment in cases like with Monster From Green Hell (1957).  Avoid unless you and some pals have to see everything Elvira.  I’m not familiar with anything related to Casper prior to the 1995 film and the seemingly deluge of material featuring the character for the following decade, and Casper’s Halloween Special didn’t do anything to convince me to rectify that, blah.  The Midnight Hour is one I was disappointed to return to, not nearly as insane as I recall it being.  Functionally a proto-Hocus Pocus (1993) wherein a witch returns from the dead to curse an entire town, The Midnight Hour wants to be a zombie film, a party film, a romance, and about two other things but doesn’t meet the manic energy required to pull it off.  An absolute must see is the musical number riffing on “Thriller” in the middle of this one, “Get Dead.”  “I’m dead, you’re dying, everyone should try and get dead!”  Halloween is Grinch Night is a fascinating watch just being an unyielding onslaught of color and sound that doesn’t know what a quiet moment is, the oft mentioned “weird” Grinch scene makes perfect sense in context however, not sure what everyone was on about with that.  Monster Mash is an adorable enough fist-shaking, involving Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, and The Wolf Man being forced to assert that they’re still scary in spite of being sell-outs in a world of slashers.  Best part is one of the monsters they’re up against is Freddy D. Spaghetti, who wears a pasta strainer in place of a hockey mask, love that dude.  Hansel and Gretel is a retelling of the story by Tim Burton, and it makes for perfect background material at a party for its ambiance coming from the fact there are only like five characters existing on solid monochrome sets that have virtually no decorations.  I’ve never cared for the story itself but the presentation here is hypnotizing.  The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t is another cute and inoffensive one, with Dracula forced to call all the world’s monsters together to have a witch doing her scaring duties lest the holiday be cancelled all together.  Ends on a disco party because it’s the 1970′s, fuck you.  Nothing however can beat The Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters, a reprise/semi-sequel to Mad Monster Party? (1967), which I watched for last year’s countdown, and one that perfectly rights the wrongs of that misfire.  The light plot concerns Dr. Frankenstein making a bride for the Monster and calling in the rest of the major terrors to come to the wedding, and it’s almost entirely a springboard for gags.  The difference between this and Mad Monster Party? is that this is actually funny, whether it be the reining-in of some obvious Halloween gags (ha-ha the monsters want to eat roast black widows) or there being two human characters to counterbalance the monsters, one absolutely terrified of them and one who’s a major Universal fanboy.  Just when you think the film is ending it turns 90 degrees into another direction with 10 more jokes on the way.  “Oh I’ve made a terrible mistake, the bride is alternating current, and the groom is direct current!”

There isn't much going on in The Blair Witch Project so I can't comment on much, suffice to say this one has still got it, marketing campaign or no marketing campaign. Slowly becomes more and more claustrophobic until you get to that final shot of standing in the corner. It having been spoiled for me years prior doesn't at all change how effective it is in context.

Time constraints prohibited me from watching every Child’s Play film but I enjoyed my time with the first three entries.  If anything surprised me about the first film it’s that it is a genuinely scary experience, the only one where Chucky is intimidating.  The people saying that they could just drop kick him?  Yeah, Chucky will fucking kill you.  This is what A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) wishes it was.  Child’s Play 2 does its services as a not-quite-as-good horror sequel but it’s strong continuity with the first and upping the stakes and scope make it a worthwhile watch.  Child’s Play 3 is decent enough but can grow tiring over how much it forgets it’s a Child’s Play sequel and not a Full Metal Jacket (1987) parody.  Too much of the run time is eaten up by shit that is inconsequential and yeah, not too bad compared to a LOT of slasher sequels but I can see where people are coming from when they say this is the weakest entry in the series.

If your body horror film doesn’t make me feel like the person having their flesh twisted, you failed.  Industrial music.  Stop motion editing.  Semi-undead mechanical sex.  Tetsuo: The Iron Man commands it all.  If you turn your head for five seconds while watching this you will have missed the equivalency of a Lord of The Rings prequel’s volume of information and even then a lot of this indecipherable on every level.  The beauty of practical effects is a lot of the time I genuinely couldn’t tell you how the effect is done, and Tetsuo does that seemingly every 10 minutes.  I’ve come and gone with this film but make no mistake, everyone needs to see this.  It will change you.

Alright, final stretch.  There is no series in the history of film that has a wider gap in quality between entries as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Watching the majority of the series this year also ran the gamut of how good or how bad a movie in general can be.  I did not rewatch 2 because I figured it would get better on a rewatch (I don’t care for it) and I didn’t bother with Leatherface (2017) because come on just look at it.  Let’s begin: Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is relatively inoffensive, I’d say I prefer it to 2.  It’s ostensibly a mainstream studio remake of the first film and while there are great scenes found within, it’s major drawback is that I can’t “buy” any of it.  At no point do I believe these people are a group of mass murderers, they’re actors playing mass murderers.  This is an issue plaguing the majority of the series but more money doesn’t mean you can effectively capture that feel.  The Next Generation is the first of several abominations I had to sit through, featuring what might be the worst set of performances I’ve seen in any film.  This is the one that reveals that the Sawyers are secretly working for the Illuminati as part of a massive fear spreading campaign and has an ending that resembles a Nirvana music video more than anything and makes me question everything that led up to committing to watching this, the less said the better.  The 2003 remake is Leatherface, again, though it benefits from being the second entry in the series aside from the first to have some consistent aesthetic going.  Can still be easily skipped.  The Beginning is the first entry that devolves into pure torture porn, and doesn’t take any advantage of the fact that these characters can’t survive at the end, opting for just repeating bare slasher essentials except for killing off the final girl.  Texas Chainsaw 3D opens with a montage of footage from the first film then hard pivots into a plot about the Swayers being murdered in mass by a vigilante mob and “the Sawyers didn’t deserve this!”  No mention of the killing and cannibalism I guess as Leatherface, despite collecting a body count in this film alone, is turned into the good guy.  “Do your thing cuz!”  Just when you think things can’t get any worse, we are presented with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, no “The,” the new low bar for the series, if not the genre and maybe film as a whole.  Make no mistake that this is easily one of the worst films I have ever seen, involving gen-Z gentrifiers trying to buy up a small town to make into an upscale getaway, but Leatherface is there and blah blah blah you could have called this film anything else and you know what would have happened?  It would still be as bad but I wouldn’t have had to watch it, no one would have noticed it, no one would have to be as angry or anything because the only thing this has going for it is the connection to the first film.  It’s like if the Star Wars prequels weren’t called “Star Wars” they’d be as easily forgotten as Jupiter Ascending (2015) or Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets (2017), where no one would have batted an eye, called them shit in a single breath and then easily forgotten about them without a second thought.  Fuck this movie, fuck it for being another stain on the legacy of the original, fuck everyone that says “I just want to see stupid teenagers get killed,” fuck any defense of this.

Only thing that came of having to sit through these was another opportunity to rewatch the 1974 film.  As soon as I had settled on this being up for viewing, the #1 spot was sealed.  If someone were to say that this is the greatest horror film ever made, I don’t think I’d agree but at the same time I wouldn’t be able to put up a counter argument.  I said a few days ago that I define horror as a genre by its presentation of violence, and this is a perfect example.  The opening text crawl lets us know that even if this was a singular event, the resulting trauma and open wounds will be carried forever.  The soundtrack itself is oppressive, camera shutters and industrial machinery in the place of actual music at times, the opening credits burned by footage of solar flares, the entire environment taking place in the blazing Texas sun with dried up water beds and radiators and dilapidated buildings.  It’s one of the ultimate descents into hell that have ever been presented by any film, horror or not.  Innocent people unknowingly walking to their doom, the discovery of seemingly endless amounts of human and animal remains and never putting the pieces together until it’s too late, the final survivor being forced to see how the meat we eat is made.  “I just don’t take no pleasure in killing.”  It’s been nearly 10 years since I first saw The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this is one of the rare films that absolutely changed me, and while no subsequent viewing will have that same impact, I can’t not love it to the upmost extent that I can love any movie.

[longitudinalwaveme]

DC Comics’ Portrayal of Mental Illness

 As you can probably ascertain from the general contents of this blog, I am a huge fan of DC comics (and, more specifically, of the Flash). I am also a psychology major who is on the autism spectrum and has struggled with Social Anxiety Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. As such, I have a...complicated relationship with comic books that discuss mental illness. 

Of course, of all the comics that deal with mental illness, Batman is undoubtedly the most prominent, and, as such, is the easiest target for criticism. The more a comic book talks about mental illness, the more opportunities it has to get stuff wrong. Since there are literally thousands of Batman comics out there and I don’t have the time to research them all, I will be using a 2001 Batman guidebook to give you a few examples of the things that it gets wrong about mental health (and psychology in general). 

To start, let’s talk about Arkham Asylum. Not only is its name anachronistic (virtually no mental heath facilities are called asylums anymore), but its depiction usually is as well: even a psychiatric hospital that doubled as a penal facility probably would not be located in an old Gothic-looking building that looks like it came straight out of a horror movie. It’s also worth noting that Arkham Asylum didn’t exist in the Batman mythos prior to 1974, and that originally, Two-Face and the Joker were the only two villains who went there. Prior to that point, everyone, even the Joker, just went to prison when they were caught (which, as we shall see, is actually probably more accurate for everyone except maaaybe modern Two-Face and the Mad Hatter). My suspicion is that it was introduced to capitalize on the popularity of the 1962 novel (and, once it was released, the 1975 movie) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which was about a psychiatric institution, but there were probably other factors involved, such as the popularity of works by H.P. Lovecraft (which is where the name Arkham came from). Whatever the reason, though, Arkham Asylum is really only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the misrepresentation of mental illness and mental health in Batman fiction. 

The introduction of Arkham Asylum led, increasingly, to the idea that all Batman villains were mentally ill, which, in turn, led to some...um....very inaccurate portrayals and depictions of what mental illness is and how it works. 

For example, the 2001 guidebook I am using incorrectly describes the Joker as “certifiably psychotic”. He’s not. While there are individual exceptions (we are talking about comic books, after all), in most appearances, the Joker is not psychotic. He has no apparent hallucinations and does not seem to display signs of delusions, either. He is not out of touch with reality in any meaningful way, he’s just horrifically violent. Describing him as “certifiably psychopathic” would have been much more appropriate (although you can’t technically diagnose someone with psychopathy; the condition he would be diagnosed with would be Antisocial Personality Disorder). 

In the same book, Two-Face is described as “schizoid” and “schizophrenic”, both of which are not even remotely correct. What the modern Two-Face is supposed to suffer from is Dissociative Identity Disorder (what used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder), although it’s not always portrayed terribly accurately. Schizoid Personality Disorder is not DID, and it’s not Schizophrenia, either; it’s a personality disorder characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships-basically people who are extreme loners. Similarly, Schizophrenia is not DID. While it is hypothetically possible for the two conditions to be comorbid, they are not at all the same thing. Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder characterized by delusions and hallucinations, which Two-Face almost never displays in fiction. DID is a dissociative disorder. Most people with DID do not experience delusions or hallucinations; their condition is typified by the presence of more than one personality and is thought to usually only occur as a reaction to severe childhood trauma. (Credit where credit is due: modern Two-Face is correctly shown as having experienced trauma as a child.) The fact that the term schizophrenia literally translates into “split mind” is probably the source of some of this confusion, but with schizophrenia, the split is between the mind and reality, not between the mind and itself. 

Also from this guidebook, the Riddler is, confusingly, described as having “an obsessive-compulsive desire for attention”, which, from a psychological perspective, is pretty much nonsense. Desire for attention is one thing; obsessive-compulsive disorder is another. The “obsessions” in OCD refer to intrusive, recurring thoughts, not to something that a person strongly desires and spends a lot of time pursuing. Additionally, the Riddler is described as “pondering the unsolvable riddle of his own psychosis”, which is not accurate. The Riddler consistently displays signs of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and less consistently displays signs of OCD, but neither one of these conditions is a psychotic disorder, as neither involves hallucinations or delusions. When the Riddler says he’s not psychotic, and that he’s perfectly sane, he’s completely right on both counts. He’s never displayed any evidence of a break from reality, so he’s not psychotic, and he’s almost always aware that what he’s doing is a crime, so he’s not insane, either. In fact, with the possible exceptions of the Mad Hatter, Man-Bat, and Two-Face, none of the Batman villains are insane, since they are all aware that what they’re doing is illegal when they do it. 

What makes the earlier mistakes in this particular guidebook even more mystifying to me is the fact that their description of Scarecrow, and, more impressively yet, Scarecrow’s fear toxin, is pretty much accurate. They don’t call him psychotic or label him with conditions he doesn’t have and they accurately identify his on-again off-again phobia of bats (Chiropteraphobia). It also describes his fear gas thusly: “a toxic mix of adreno-cortical secretions and strong hallucinogens...it prompts neuromuscular spasms, cardiac arrhythmia, and panic attacks”. This is an astonishingly accurate description of what his fear toxin would need to be made of and what it does to his victims’ bodies. I don’t know who wrote this section, but they deserve some serious credit for doing their homework! (It makes no sense to put the Scarecrow in Arkham. Not only is he neither psychotic nor insane, but putting an evil ex-psychologist in a psychiatric institution is a REALLY bad idea, as he has the know-how to easily manipulate both the doctors and the patients.) 

Also from the 2001 Guidebook: The Ventriloquist is described as having multiple personalities, and is NOT described as schizophrenic or schizoid. While the term Multiple Personality Disorder is no longer used by psychologists for diagnosis, it is at least describing the same condition as DID. Modern Firefly is described as a pyromaniac; this is accurate from what I know of the character. Mr. Zsasz is described as a “sociopath”; again, this is mostly accurate. 

I also decided to use a few other DC guidebooks and see if there were any other egregious mistakes: 

2015 Guidebook:

 Haha, “Lenny Snart”. (That has nothing to do with mental illness, I just thought it was funny.) 

 Dr. Polaris is described as suffering from “a split personality disorder”; they mean DID. It’s also worth noting that most people with DID do not have a “good” alter and an “evil” alter; having DID does not make you Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

The Joker is described as “crazy” and “insane”; while the former is up for debate, I can say with confidence that the Joker meets no real-world definition of insanity that I know about. 

Riddler is not described as insane, yay!  

Two-Face is described as having Multiple Personality Disorder; this should be DID but is otherwise broadly correct. That being said, the idea that getting acid thrown in your face would cause you to develop a split personality, as this book seems to imply, is unlikely. DID doesn’t develop that suddenly. 

2016 Guidebook: 

While Doctor Polaris may very well have a personality disorder, the emergence of a second personality would indicate the development of DID, not  a personality disorder. An adult man couldn’t “develop’ a personality disorder anyway; they’re developed in childhood and are usually lifelong afflictions. 

Harley Quinn is a weird case; to call her psychotic isn’t completely inaccurate, as she has displayed signs of hallucinations and delusions in the past. That being said, the way her condition is depicted is inconsistent and confusing, and doesn’t seem to line up perfectly with any actual real-world condition. 

Modern Heat Wave is absolutely a pyromaniac; Johns in particular was surprisingly good at writing a realistic case of the condition. 

The Joker is not insane. Neither is the modern Joker’s daughter. Both understand what they’re doing is wrong. 

Lex Luthor is indeed a sociopath, as is the New 52 version of Mr. Freeze (BTAS Freeze is not). 

Two-Face’s condition should be described as DID, not MPD; otherwise things are about as accurate as one can expect from Two-Face. 

2008 Guidebook:

Calling Abra Kadabra narcissistic is accurate. 

The Black Manta autism thing is icky on multiple levels. Ewww.

The first Cheetah probably would not have suddenly developed a second personality as an adult. 

Dr. Polaris. You know the drill. Split personality should be DID. A “good” and “evil” alter are pretty unlikely. Usually DID would show up before adulthood. 

Firefly and Heat Wave do both seem to have pyromania. It’s also accurate to describe Heat Wave as cryophobic. 

The Joker cannot be “certifiably crazed”; crazed is not an official psychiatric term. And again, he isn’t insane, so he shouldn’t be in Arkham. 

Killer Croc has never displayed any noticeable signs of psychosis. 

Magenta having DID is actually more realistic than most of the other characters I’ve talked about; she’s got the necessary childhood trauma and her alters developed when she was still quite young. Furthermore, her more violent alter isn’t manically evil. 

Whoever wrote the Scarecrow piece in the 2001 Batman Guidebook must’ve also helped to write this one, since the shockingly-accurate fear gas description is the same. 

Professor Strange is not insane in the legal sense of the word. 

Arnold Wesker has DID; MPD is the condition’s original name but is no longer used by professional psychologists. 

Zoom (Hunter Zolomon, not Eobard)... I think there’s an argument to be made that Zolomon actually is psychotic. While he’s never displayed hallucinations, he is clearly delusional in the most literal sense and does seem to have lost touch with reality. As such, this book is not wholly inaccurate in calling him psychotic.

You get the idea....

Looking specifically at the Flash, things improve slightly simply because writers who don’t understand psychology aren’t constantly talking about it. That being said, that doesn’t mean it never gets brought up. 

Golden Glider was intended to receive a psychiatric evaluation in the late 1970s. It’s interesting that she actually protested this, pointing out that the male criminals never received psychological evaluations (and indeed, they always went to prison rather than to an institution). She was indeed motivated by something other than profit, and I can understand why they wanted to have her evaluated given her lack of earlier criminal activity, but I don’t know if she was actually mentally ill per se...and she definitely wasn’t insane. 

In the early 1980s during the twilight hours of Barry Allen’s first run on the Flash, it seemed that the writers were trying to take a page out of Batman’s book by arguing that Barry’s costumed criminals were insane (even though they usually didn’t display any behavior that would indicate this). As such, Barry stated to imply that his Rogues were mentally ill in some fashion despite the fact that their behavior really hadn’t changed appreciably since their earliest appearances. That being said, the Pied Piper did appear to suffer some sort of nervous breakdown during the “Trial of the Flash” arc; what exactly this was is difficult to explain, since we didn’t get to see a whole lot of him after this point, but he did go to an actual psychiatric hospital (that was referred to as such rather than being called an asylum) and he did recover, relapsed, then recovered again, making this one of the more accurate portrayals of how mental illness works despite the limited information we have about his actual condition. They even showed him slowly deteriorating over a period of time before the actual collapse!

Big Sir, who made his debut in the same storyline, was rather more poorly handled....but at least he was explicitly manipulated into villainy rather than becoming evil simply because of his condition. 

Wally West went to therapy early in his run; given the context I’d say it was reasonable that he was suffering from both anxiety and depression (his uncle had just died and he was really struggling to fill his shoes as the new Flash). Going to therapy did actually help him, which was nice to see, and his therapist did not become evil, which was also nice to see. (I’m not going to talk about Heroes in Crisis, as I prefer to pretend that that never happened.) Yay for protagonists discussing their mental health problems in productive ways! 

In the early-to-mid 1990s, Mark Waid wrote a story in which Lisa stated that she’d faked insanity in order to be sent to a psychiatric hospital rather than to prison, but the story seemed to be implying that she was actually insane. Not only is successfully being declared not guilty by reason of insanity incredibly difficult, but Lisa displayed no signs of not recognizing that her behavior was wrong, so she wasn’t insane. She was, however, displaying strong signs of paranoia, which could perhaps be attributed to a paranoid delusion of some sort. It’s especailly weird since this was never really a characteristic of hers before or since, and it just kind of came out of nowhere. 

The Trickster (specifically the first one, James Jesse) is often mistakenly believed to be mentally ill by casual fans. While he is indeed mentally ill, possibly even psychotic, in the DCAU,  and he’s a remorseless psychopath in both live-action Flash shows, in the comics themselves he displays no real signs of mental illness. That being said, I LOVE the interactions between DCAU Wally and DCAU Trickster. They’re made of adorable.

The Pied Piper went through a second bout of mental problems in the mid-to-late 2000s, being tricked into believing that he’d murdered his parents, going to prison, being beaten regularly by the warden, escaping from prison, going through the stress of fighting in the Rogue War, having his mind messed with by the Top, accidentally becoming involved in the murder of Bart Allen (another thing I like to pretend never happened), having to go on the run, watching the Trickster get shot in front of him, having to drag his corpse around a desert, almost dying, getting transported to Apocalypse, blowing it up with Queen music, and then being left basically all alone. He really went through a trauma conga line, so it’s not surprising that he was starting to display some odd behavior. Poor guy probably had PTSD. 

And then there’s the Top. Beyond the speculation of @gorogues that he’s on the autism spectrum (a  theory I find to be quite persuasive), I also think it’s likely that he suffers from another mental illness (most likely bipolar I disorder, also as suggested by @gorogues). He was clearly mentally ill for most of Geoff Johns’ run, and his behavior in his very first appearance was decidedly odd as well. Intense mania and depression can sometimes induce psychosis (as we seemed to see during Geoff Johns’ run), and his “threatening to blow up half the world to become its ruler while I’m somehow safe on the other side of the planet” plan from his first appearance, which he clearly expected to work perfectly, is so overconfident and over-the-top that it fits well as a particularly exaggerated manic episode. While it’s not conclusive by any means, I think it’s a distinct possibility.

[problematic-faves-appreciation]

Problematic Faves Cliffs Notes: Harvey Dent/Two-Face

Batman (1980) #329

Summary: Once a crusading district attorney that worked alongside Batman and Jim Gordon to fight crime – now the duality-obsessed super criminal known as Two-Face.

Harvey Dent also serves as a dark reflection of Batman's own struggles living a dual life with conflicting identities.

Main Goal: To enact his own justice whilst committing crimes.

Fears: Uncertainty, himself in general [the things he's capable of, specifically], losing control, his loved ones dying, his darker half discovering Bruce's secret identity [Detective Comics (2016) #1021], Renee Montoya's rejection [Batman: No Man's Land, novel], and the Joker [Joker (2008), only].

Mindset: Sees himself bound by fate and its will. As a result of Harvey's black-and-white worldviews, he considers his two-headed (scarred on one side) silver dollar a truly objective instrument of justice due to it only yielding two simple, 50/50 outcomes at the end of every coin toss.

"Some people go to the beach to forget their problems. They can watch the waves for hours. I understand the fascination.

There's a pattern – then there is no pattern.

It's the same with the coin. We want it all to mean something – we want to find the pattern – but in the final analysis, it's just waves."

— Harvey Dent, Secret Origins Special (1989) #1

•••

"He was always interested in the law – some might say obsessed. Man's law gave order to Harvey's world – they delineated the parameters of right and wrong, good and evil. They gave him something to believe in."

— Gilda Dent, Secret Origins Special (1989) #1

•••

Hugo Strange: Let's go back further, you were a rising star, a beacon of light for this city. A white knight riding in to save it with the Dark Knight not far behind.

Harvey Dent: You can leave him out of this. He is wrong. They all are. No one understands the beauty of fate's hand. I am grateful to Falcone. He gave me a clarity; a purity that few will know. Everything boils down to a simple choice, this way or that way, good... or bad.

Hugo Strange: Do you really believe that?

Harvey Dent: How could I not?

— Batman: Arkham City

•••

Batman: If you pull the trigger, how are you different from the Roman?

Harvey Dent: That's Jim Gordon talking. You know the system doesn't work. That justice can be decided like the flip of a coin.

— The Long Halloween

•••

"You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time... but you were wrong! The world is cruel. And the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased, unprejudiced, fair."

— Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight

•••

"Life's a lottery, Holman. It's chance that decides who lives and who dies. Who gets cancer. Which kid is born with spina bifida. Who gets run over by a truck.

This [the coin] is what decides whether or not I blow your wife's brains out."

— Harvey Dent, Joker's Asylum: Two-Face #1 

Teen Titans Spotlight (1987) #13

Character Traits:

🌗 Loving • Idealistic • Genuine • Principled • Resolute • Focused • Driven • Workaholic • Passionate • Eloquent • Wrathful • Obssessed • Brooding • Self-loathing • Black-and-white thinking • Dauntless • Fair • Honest (generally) • Man of his word • Learned helplessness (regarding the coin and his choices) • Self-destructive • Unpredictable • Hair-trigger temper • Can be persuaded • Charitable (depends on coin toss) • Takes his pain out on others • Self-enabling • Serious • Harsh • Intimidating • Vengeful • Physically violent • Self-aware • Conflicted • Feels remorse • Tries, but fails to improve as a person • Too Dependent on his coin • Fatalistic • Suicidal • Forgiving • Self-centered, but not selfish 🌗

Key Facts:

Harvey Dent...

• Had mental health issues long before his disfigurement [Batman Annual (1990 #14, Batman: The Animated Series - Episode 10, and Batman: Arkham City].

• His father physically abused him every day as a child. Christopher Dent used a double-headed coin to make Harvey believe he could "avoid" the beatings if the coin landed on the non-existent "tails" [Batman Annual #14].

• Bruce Wayne was his childhood friend [Rebirth universe & Batman: Nightwalker].

• Harvey "Legal Eagle" Dent was the top of his class [Secret Origins Special (1989) #1].

• Paid for his father's nice apartment [Batman: Two-Face (1995) - Crime & Punishment].

• Half of Harvey wanted to love his father, while the other half wished him dead. Despite everything, he tried to make peace with Christopher prior to the acid attack [Batman Annual #14].

• Never stopped loving/thinking about Gilda Dent when she disappeared from his life following the events of the Long Halloween [Batman (2006) #653 & Batman (2011) #712].

What's more, Harvey continued loving Gilda so much that he wound up murdering her second husband's killer in a pre-Long-Halloween continuity [Batman (1980) #329] because the man's death left Gilda grieving.

• Fun fact: The Power of Love helped him resist Poison Ivy's pheromones in the Dark Victory #11!

Begone, thot!

• Blamed Batman for what happened to him with Salvatore Maroni Carmine Falcone and the acid attack that scarred his face [Batman: Arkham Knight].

• Uses his coin to determine whether he should kill or spare his victims. Also, he has been known to perform acts of charity [Detective Comics (1942) #66 & Batman: The Silver Age Newspaper Comics Volume 3 (1969-1972)] sometimes.

• Loves and hates Gotham [Batman and Robin (2013) #23.1].

• Dislikes hypocrites [Batman: Two-Face (1995) - Crime and Punishment & The Spectre (2001) #5].

• Developed strong feelings for Renee Montoya in the Batman: No Man's Land storyline.

• Continued caring about Renee deeply, despite the events of Gotham Central (2003) #10 [Convergence: The Question #1-2].

Received training from Batman [Batman #653] and Deathstroke [Deathstroke (2018) #38].

• Has tried growing better as a person, but he keeps failing [Batman Annual #14 & Batman and Robin Adventures (1995) #1-2].

• Has re-scarred himself more than once [Batman Annual #14, Batman #653, and Batman: Black and White (1996) #1].

• For all his faults and crimes – such as nearly beating Dick Grayson to death in Robin: Year One – he has helped people [The Batman Chronicles (1999) #16], defended Jim Gordon from himself as Jim's defense lawyer [Detective Comics (1999) #739], cares about the women in his life, and keeps his word when the coin comes up good.

He is a complex character, period.

Other Facts:

• Has seen Cocteau's "Beauty and the Beast" [Batman (1986) #397].

• Knows how to sculpt [Detective Comics (1986) #563].

• Owns a "thememobile" like Batman [Batman (1987) #410]!

• Likes baseball [Batman (1987) #411].

• Likes symmetry [Batman (1989) #442].

Smokes, but also doesn't [Batman (1994) #513].

"My own version of the literary reference mark known as a diesis – more commonly known as a double-dagger! My next pair shall strike to the heart of the matter!" — Harvey Dent, Batman: Two-Face Strikes Twice #1 – the words of a man who certainly reads a lot!

Batman Annual #14 & Teen Titans Spotlight #13 – A himbo he is not!

• Reads classic books such as "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" [Detective Comics #66] and "A Tale of Two Cities" [Batman: Two-Face Strikes Twice #2].

• Still finds putting criminals behind bars fun [Batman Gotham Adventures (1999) #12].

• Can speak Spanish [The Batman Chronicles #16].

• Doesn't mind hitting women at all. There are so many examples of this; Harvey confirmed it himself [Batman: Streets of Gotham (2009) #7], and beat up Jim Gordon's wife in Batman (1999) #572.

• Made a self-insert comic book in an art therapy program. Yup, he wrote and drew it himself [Detective Comics (2001) #753]!

Called it "The Adventures of Copernicus Dent and His Best Girl and Plucky Assistant R'Nee!" 

• Plays chess with Batman [Gotham Knights (2002) #32].

• Has watched Star Trek [Nightwing (2008) #150].

• Fought and killed a werewolf [The 2008 DC Universe Halloween Special]. Yes, really.

• Was a cult leader [Detective Comics (2020) #1020].

• Rebirth!Harvey is now working as a jailhouse lawyer in Blackgate [Detective Comics (2020) #1024].

• Understands how binary code works, but computer geeks make him sick? [Robin (1994) #11] Yeah.

• Has kids. Twins! [Batman: Two-Faces Strikes Twice]. It looks like they're irrelevant.

• Remembered Renee's birthday and sent her tulips [Detective Comics (2000) #747].

• Has been a judge before [The New Batman Adventures - Episode 24 & Arkham Unhinged (2013) #11].

• Hates odd-numbers [Robin: Year One #2].

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #3.15

Disco Elysium

Good Omens (2019-)

Nimona (2023)

Nimona, N. D. Stevenson

Gingerhaze (tumblr)

One Piece (2023 -)

One Piece, Eiichiro Oda

Knife of Dreams, Robert Jordan

The Gathering Storm, Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin

A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2023 -)

Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief (2010)

Power Rangers (2017)

Jane Austen

Temeraire, Naomi Novik

The Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis

Out of the Silent Planet, C. S. Lewis (our episode here)

Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen (our episode here)

Emma, Jane Austen (our episode here)

Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (our episode here)

Uprooted, Naomi Novik (our episode here)

His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik 

Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers (our episode here)

Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (our episode here)

Hamlet, William Shakespeare (our episode here)

The Emperor’s Soul, Brandon Sanderson (our episode here)

The Old Kingdom, Garth Nix

Lirael, Garth Nix (our episode here)

Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

The Locked Tomb, Tamsyn Muir

The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells

Curse of Strahd (wiki)

D&D (wiki)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (wiki)

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson

Dracula, Bram Stoker (our episodes here and here)

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (our episode here)

Men at Arms, Terry Pratchett

Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett (our episode here)

Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, Eoin Colfer

Artemis Fowl (2020)

This infamous line from Avatar: The Last Airbender:

Chuck Tingle

Monstrous Regiment, AMarguerite (ao3)

George Eliot

The Brontës

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë (our episode here)

Animal Farm, George Orwell

Sheltie the Shetland Pony, Peter Clover

Eragon, Christopher Paolini

Star Trek

Odd even rule (trope)

Eragon (2006)

Robin Hood (2006-2009)

The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien

Andy Serkis (imdb)

The Andy Serkis audiobook can be found here

Tom Bombadil; The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Tolkien translation (our episode here)

Adapting The Locked Tomb by giving it to Steven Moffat is a reference to this post

Wheel of Time (2021-)

Game of Thrones (2011-2019)

Merlin (2008-2012)

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies (2014)

Benedict Cumberbatch’s name (meme)

Benedict Cumberbatch (imdb)

American Gods (2017-2021)

American Gods, Neil Gaiman

Discworld; Terry Pratchett

Going Postal (2010)

Going Postal, Terry Pratchett

Thin Sybil is a reference to the BBC The Watch adaptation of which we speaketh not, we’re still very angry about that

Sybil Ramkin; Discworld, Terry Pratchett

Nobby Nobbs; Discworld, Terry Pratchett

Glup Shitto (meme)

This Is How You Lose The Time War, Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

The Amulet of Samarkand, Jonathan Stroud

Bartimaeus, Jonathan Stroud

The Wind Singer, William Nicholson

Jeeves and Wooster, P. G. Wodehouse (our episode here)

Howl’s Moving Castle, Dianna Wynne Jones (our episode here)

Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie (our episode here)