#not to be confused with the haunting (adaptation of the haunting of hill house) which also got a 1999 remake

[timsashas]

"if you're such a horror connoisseur then why did you give the 1999 house on haunted hill remake 4 stars"

[drdemonprince]

Do you have any favourite scary movies?

I love the ambiguity and grief of The Orphanage, and the main character's emotional journey is absolutely gutting.

The Strangers has some of the most subtle, dread-inducing scares of any horror film of its era; if you liked the hidden ghosts in Mike Flanagan's Haunting of Hill House, it owes some inspiration to this film, I think. It truly gave me nightmares.

The newer Suspiria has really stayed with me, and I loved Flawed Peacock's analysis of the film on Youtube as well. I watched both this and the original back-to-back a few months ago, and they're both great in different ways, but nothing tops the haunting, sickening beauty of the end of this one.

28 Days Later is the only zombie movie for me, and yes part of that is because Cillian Murphy was so fuckable in it. I'll never forget the quiet, contemplative air of this movie, which is rivaled only by The Last of Us games. The zombie genre is bloated with derivative crap, but this movie rang in a whole new generation, and did it so well you don't need most of the rest.

The original Saw is a hell of a stage-play-slash-bottle-episode, and it's far more sophisticated in its writing than any of the rest in the series. It really holds up in my opinion.

The Cell isn't really that scary, to me, but it's fucking cunty as hell with incredible costumes and set pieces, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Bonus points for having a minor corruption/hypnosis aspect really tickled my imagination. I just wish that element had lasted for longer.

Speaking of movies that are actually plays -- there's no better Stephen King adaptation than Misery. Kathy Bates absolutely crushes in a nauseating, confining performance here, and the hobbling scene is one you just never forget. To me it's a perfectly paced film, and it holds up shockingly well in the era of stans and superfandoms.

Ghost Ship is my favorite bad stupid horror movie. The opening scene is enough creative nonsense carnage to justify its existence, but stick around through the end for a very weird trip-hop montage.

Dead Silence is another goofy one that gets really inventive with its gore. I love horror movies that do just downright disrespectful, creepy shit with corpses, and that's what this one is all about.

The Boy is a fucking laugh riot to me. The entire premise is so transparent from the very beginning and the thrills are so awkward and tame that it's a great Halloween party movie. If you're anything like me, you and your friends will walk around the house talking about the Boy for days afterward. Brahms is an age regressor king

Some people find Aronofsky's movies to be too over-the-top to connect with, but I think he nailed the internal horror of perfectionism, codependency, sexual repression, and eating disorders with Black Swan. Barbara Hershey's character is so perfectly unsettling that it sets all my people-pleasing, abandonment-fearing issues alight every time. Everything about this movie is confining and distorting, which is exactly how it feels inside when you narrow your entire life to a singular pursuit and are governed by impossible rules.

The Others has exactly what I need for a horror movie to have good replay value: just like The Orphanage, it's final reveal is more depressing and unsettling than it is pure scary, which makes it cut deeper, and it recontexualizes the whole rest of the film. The interiors and aesthetics are great.

Possession is easily the most disturbing movie on this list. This one cuts deep in a confusing, unmooring way -- it makes you feel sick in your soul, hopeless, and put off from relationships. Filming it reportedly ruined Sam Neil & Isabelle Adjani's lives for a good while, and you can see why. This film is the psychological reality of divorce in its unabashed form. To really leave behind a life you once committed yourself to, you have to become almost unrecognizable to yourself, and do great violence to both your former self, and the ones you love. This film gets that, and it's painful. It makes you feel disgusting for wanting things or for staying in a place where you're unhappy.

Happy watching!

[mask131]

There's still a haunt on the hill...

In my previous post, I dug through the ghostly chain of adaptations of Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" starting by its various movie incarnations. But I am not done...

Because in 2018, Mike Flanagan released on Netflix his massively successful television series, "The Haunting of Hill House".

Flanagan's television series was strongly influenced by "The Shining", another major haunting-story of the 20th century, first marking American literature under the pen of Stephen King...

... Then marking American cinema by the movie adaptation of Stanley Kubrick.

Mike Flanagan never hid his passion and love for "The Shining", both the Kubrick and King versions, and it is for this reason he was the man behind the 2019 movie "Doctor Sleep"....

... an adaptation of Stephen King's sequel-novel to The Shining.

And fascinatingly, a lot of details and ideas of Flanagan's "The Haunting of Hill House" (or its sister-series, "The Haunting of Bly Manor") were reused for his Doctor Sleep movie...

But, speaking of Stephen King, did you know he made his own "The Haunting of Hill House"? Well, almost... He and Steven Spielberg worked on a project in the 1990s: a remake of The Haunting/a new movie adaptation of "The Haunting of Hill House". Unfortunately this movie never came to the light of day, as the two men split apart due to creative differences...

However this did not stop Stephen King from reusing the unused/unfinished script/concept for his "Haunting of Hill House" adaptation, throwing in a lot of elements from his own "The Shining", with several nods to the real-life Winchester Mansion, and tadaa! The result was 2002's mini-series "Rose-Red".

Stephen King has very often praised Jackson's novel. In fact, in his eyes it is one of the two greatest ghost stories of American literature... Alongside Henry James' The Turn of the Screw.

Do you recall Henry James? Sure you do! From the previous post... He wrote the "Ghostly Rental" story, that itself got adapted in 1999 into a horror movie called "The Haunting of Hell House" - confusing Jackson's "Hill House" with Matheson's "Hell House".

Do the links stop here? NOT AT ALL! Flanagan's "The Haunting of Hill House" was supposed to be the first season of an anthology series about ghost stories. This project got cancelled, but not before a sister-series to "The Haunting of Hill House" was made... a second season called "The Haunting of Bly Manor", which is a loose adaptation of "The Turn of the Screw".

AND THERE'S MORE! Because you see, before being re-adapted by Mike Flanagan, "The Turn of the Screw"'s most famous adaptation was a 1961 movie called "The Innocents". A movie which also became a classic of black-and-white haunted house horror movies, just like "The Haunting" that was released two years afterward... Film critics, cinema theoricians and movie enjoyers all agree that the two movies have to be compared, with something of a sibling relationship to each other.

"The Turn of the Screw" - and more specifically the 1961's "The Innocents" movie - also had a huge influence on one of the greatest Spanish moviemakers of the 21st century: Guillermo del Toro. In fact, it was to pay homage to both the classic of Gothic that was "The Innocents", and the behemoth of the traditional horror that was Kubrick's The Shining, that he decided to create his own Gothic horror movie... The wonderfully horrifying "Crimson Peak", released in 2015.

And not only does Crimson Peak unites The Turn of the Screw with The Shining (Guillermo also invoked the influence of other massive horror movies, such as The Omen or The Exorcist) - but this movie also is the final union, the ultimate blooming of Jackson and James' works. Because del Toro's original intention for this movie was to pay homage to the "two grand dames" of the haunted house movies... 1961's The Innocents, and 1963's The Haunting. The two ghostly tragedies finally united in one Gothic movie...

Well... To be fair, the uniting of "The Haunting of Hill House" and of "The Turn of the Screw" had already happened long before del Toro's Crimson Peak, but with a much less famous and successful movie: 1971's Let's Scare Jessica to Death... A cult piece (despite its lukewarm reception), it was created with only one goal in mind: recreating a psychological horror story with ambiguous implications, in the style of James' The Turn of the Screw, and Robert Wise's The Haunting.

(Think we're done? FOOL! Just you wait...)

[septembersghost]

I think my biggest issue with both the haunting and thohh is that they're both about the ghosts, not the house itself. Like yeah thohh has that bit with the red room but in the end they were the ghosts that made the mom throw the tea party, luke get into drugs and so on. Whereas there are no ghosts in the story, just the house, which was the whole point, right? I love both adaptation but they could be anything else than that. They basically only share the character names.

And yeah they both also have some other stuff picked from the story like Nell climbing the railing in TH or the cup full of stars and the stone rain story in thohh, and that thumping on the walls scene in both, but in both it kind of feels like they could do without and be completely separate properties. (Especially with how recontextualized they are in thohh)

And then there was something that reminded me of Bly but i don't remember now. i should have written this when i meant to right after reading the story but here I am writing what i remembered of it super randomly bc the haunting is on the tv hah 😅

Also, reading the story gave me such weird mix of imagining the characters as those from th and from thohh in turns lol

Idk i love the idea of a place messing with people rather than ghosts

SPEAK ON IT BESTIE

the thing is, hill house is a great ghost story, and a terrible adaptation. they really don't share anything but a title and a few character names. and shirley jackson had such an incisive, valuable story to tell in her novel about psychological trauma and horror, about the way disenfranchised women are viewed with suspicion and derision and often cast aside by society, the ominous presence of fear and loneliness, the desperation to find somewhere to belong, the way lines can blur between the mind and reality. i love show!nell and yet she is nothing like book!nell, and book!nell is SO important because rarely are women like her depicted or treated as if they matter. the show made the confusing choice to be about children and a nuclear family's terror and scars from actual malevolent ghosts, where you could argue the novel is about everything but the nuclear family - it rejects the concept (her mother was horrible and abusive, her sister and brother-in-law simultaneously controlling and dismissive). insist on your cup of stars is this deep ache she has, of never having anything of her own, even her dreams and wishes, clawing to keep one tiny shard of self. she escapes to the house, and the house is waiting for her. it preys on her because she's vulnerable and fanciful and troubled, it is an echo and manifestation of her isolation. the house is the monster. we're not even sure if the ghosts are there, and it doesn't matter. the house consumes people. the place itself is evil. its very facade is malignant. idk it's just such an effectively terrifying concept and eleanor (and theo) in the novel are such distinct female characters. the series/book are completely separate stories in my head.

"i love the idea of a place messing with people rather than ghosts" same

i think i've also said this to you but i'm never over that ending monologue in the show twisting and trampling the meaning of the iconic opening/closing lines of the novel. even within the concept of the series, it's baffling. the evil of hill house is hungry and destructive. there's no peace or union there. whatever walks there, walks alone.

[blue-hi]

24, 17, 5 for OCverse ask game!

(link to meme)

5: Pick a theme song for the TV adaptation.

so! this is actually a question i have thought about. there was a time not even too long ago where i thought this story would work really well as an audio drama (still kinda do ngl) but that would've been more trouble than it's worth, but i still fantasize about it sometimes. anyways, the intro theme would be a shortened version of the instrumental Time Has Gone by the Dead Brothers from the album Flammend' Herz.

it's just got the whole vibe down.

17. Describe the "required reading" to understand your vision. Be as pretentious as possible.

idk if i'm reading the question right but i'll talk inspirations. obviously, the dungeons & dragons 5e book van richten's guide to ravenloft because that was what started this whole thing. i don't rigidly adhere to any depictions set out in that book, just use it for inspiration. i've been delving more into horror because of/adjacent to this project, so i'll throw out such stories as the haunting of hill house, dracula (naturally), something wicked this way comes, the strange case of dr. jekyll and mr. hyde, and frankenstein to start, as works i've read or intend to read to help refine the atmosphere and ideas.

24: Best scene you've written?

ooh, that's a good one. let me see. the prologue got me into grad school (partly; at least, it was one of my writing samples), but that's not really the pick for this question, i'm just bragging. i'm also a big fan of the scene introducing the pretentious professor of the carnival, but i'm going to go with a new one here. i'm going to go with the beginning of the next chapter, chapter 3, with the brothers' reunion:

Nik slammed into the stranger’s waist and they both collapsed to the dirt. As they fell, the man’s hand shot out to grasp for balance and slapped Nik’s cheek. The impact stung and he cried out, more in confusion than in pain, and did the first thing that came to mind: he bit down on the intruder’s fingers. Hard. They were bony with thin, papery skin, and soon dripped with the unmistakeable metallic taste of blood. The man grunted, his voice strangled and hoarse. He wanted to keep quiet. Nik spat out flesh and blood and prepared to bellow: Hermos must know. Before he could, the man grabbed his hair. Long fingernails dug into his scalp as the man jerked Nik’s head to the side, throwing him off-balance. They rolled over and under each other, scrambling for control. The man still had a solid grasp on the side of Nik’s head and pulled him in a tight embrace, while his other arm tightened around Nik’s throat. Nik’s elbow reflexively punched out and hit his opponent’s belly. He took full advantage of the brief surprise to wrench himself free. He managed to stumble backwards two steps before a small, forgotten creature darted between his legs and sent him crashing back down. All of the wind slammed out of him, and by the time he coughed it back, the stranger had risen to his feet. He grabbed his metal-tipped cane and raised it high, prepared to slam it with full-force on Nik’s head. He didn’t. Still gasping, Nik scrambled out of the cane’s reach. It was hard to see in the darkness, but the curl of the man’s moustache was familiar, and he recognized the dark, sunken eyes, which were wide and fixated on Nik’s face. “...Pascha?” Pascha lowered the cane, and his searching stare intensified. “It’s you,” he breathed. His left hand tapped his ear, and Nik mimicked the gesture. His fingers brushed the scar of a gunshot wound from childhood.

i don't often write fight scenes, but i'm proud of this one!

thank you!

[alexjcrowley]

Okay fine I have to do everything in this house

Referring to the 1968-69 show because I am old

No. 1: the Slag brothers in the boulder mobile

Seeing as I am doing this in 2024, I'll go with the Alpine line up Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon. They would probably drive faster if they had The Flinstones car you have to carry yourself and run.

No. 2: The Gruesome Twosome in the Creepy Coupe

Who gets the car of nightmares? I wanna say Haas, because as much as Alpine is failing this year and I would kiss Kevin Magnussen on the lips for what he did in Jaddah, who of us is reacting any differently than screaming in horror if we find out our favourite driver ended up in Haas? Also the dragon is definitely the spirit of Gunther Steiner still haunting the team.

No. 3: Professor Pat Pending in the Convert-A-Car

A car that can adapt to every circumstances? Now that would be a miracle. Unfortunately, I'll go with Alfa Romeo/Sauber/Stake F1 Team/Future Audi for their particularly pronounced tendency to change name every few years just to confuse everybody on the paddock (at least the ex Alpha Tauri still has Racing Bulls in it and a somewhat recognisable logo).

No 4. : Red Max in the Crimson Haybaler

Yeah, I don't care it's red, the name of the pilot should suffice, plus this literally flies, which is more or less what RedBull cars have been doing for a while. And if there were any other doubts, let me just add: it's not a coincidence it's one of the few cars without a co-pilot, he can win this game all on his own.

No. 5: Penelope Pitstop in the Compact Pussycat

You can try to convince me this ain't Ferrari and you can fail. Doesn't matter the performance, they stay the most stylish car on track. And Penelope is definitely devilishly gorgeous.

No. 6: Sergeant Blast and Private Meekly in the Army Surplus Special

I'll be honest, I'll go with Williams because Logan's surname is literally Sargeant. Williams wants YOU to represent USA at the rich european family motorsport.

 No. 7: Ant Hill Mob in the Bulletproof Bomb

Mixed bag of wayyy too many guys for just one car. I'm getting Alpha Tauri VisaCashAppRB switching seats every three months vibes. Also those guys are as tall and as angry as Yuki Tsunoda.

No. 8: Lazy Luke and Blubber Bear in the Arkansas Chuggabug

One's too anxious, the other doesn't break a sweat. These are definitely Norris edging for a win and Oscar with the Kimi Räikkönen attitude in a McLaren.

No. 9: Peter Perfect in the Turbo Terrific

No one could embody the perfect gentleman aura of Peter Perfect like the Britcedes duo. They act like British Royalty, and, like Peter always comes in aid of Penelope, Lewis is for obvious reasons quite friendly with Charles this season. Yeah, the car is shaped like a dick, but that's a subtle reference to George Russell being a meme lord.

No. 00: Dick Dastardly and Muttley in the Mean Machine

An old man ready to sabotage everyone on the race and his loyal sidekick? Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll could not have more accurately represented.

About the Rufus Ruffcut and Sawtooth in the Buzzwagon erasure, blame Tumblr for not allowing more than 10 pictures in a post, but also F1 for turning down Andretti's offer, otherwise we could have done all of the 11 cars.

F1 x Wacky Races crossover when

[all-souls-matinee]

Quick-bite reviews: The Haunting (1963) dir. Robert Wise + The Haunting (1999) dir. Jan de Bont

Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House has been adapted several times over the years. All have made a number of changes to the book (the 2018 Netflix adaptation to the point of being original fiction), but the core story is about a group of people dealing with the challenges of living in a haunted house. Doesn’t get more classic than that.

Something my brother brought up immediately is that the ‘63 adaptation is worth watching just from a movie-making and horror history perspective. It’s incredibly atmospheric, blurring the line between a real and an imagined haunting as the group conducts their academic study of the paranormal. Our protagonist Nell is struggling with mental health issues, and realistic ones brought on by life circumstances and perceived threats to her sexuality rather than the “craziness” we see portrayed so often in movies. That realism sticks for the rest of the cast; Nell is overly sweet and incredibly angry by turns, Theo is a femme lesbian (almost unheard of for a 60s movie!) with a kind heart but a cruel sense of humor, Dr. Markway has an odd confidence to him yet a strained relationship with life outside of his career. Maybe the least complicated character is Luke, a money-hungry skeptic set to inherit the house, but he was also a favorite. The story itself isn’t totally my thing, featuring a lot of internal monologue in voiceover and some weird pacing choices that lean toward the gothic, but the acting and characters really shine and that does a lot for a film. 

The ‘99 remake is one of the worst things ever made... but also totally, totally worth a watch. I was wondering aloud at who saw the character-driven original and thought ‘this needs a killer fountain, it needs a circus room, it needs bone explosions,’ but de Bont made his career on action movies like Speed and Minority Report, so there’s our answer. While the ‘63 adaptation leans hard into the psychological angle of the book to make Hill House into a character, the remake tries to get that same effect by literally bringing the house to life through CGI. I want to say it fails completely where the original succeeded, but I honestly loved the set design and some of the gruesome kills in this one (yes there’s murder now. There’s also a mystery? Like a Scooby-Doo mystery), so we’re at an impasse. All of the changes they made are just kind of like that; shoutout to the sexuality stuff in particular, as the 90s decided ‘yeah, sure, Theo can be a lesbian. That thing from porn where it’s hot when girls look at each other’s boobs and kiss but are also straight.’ The characters really took a beating alongside the premise, but at least Luke is still fun (here played by Owen Wilson, which must’ve been confusing that being his brother’s name and all.)

There is one scene in each movie that I’ll point to as a good summary of both. In the first Dr. Markway sits with a shaken Nell, getting her to open up about the death of her mother, and tells her that she’s too in her own head, that she needn’t frame herself as a martyr and that she’s instead a person with all the complexities and contradictions personhood entails. In the second, Nell is thrown against Rodin’s gates of hell in her nightgown in order to save all the CGI ghosties of the house. A perfect imitation of Christ on the cross.

Buy a ticket? Make the first one a homework assignment and the second one a bad movie party assignment. Happy Halloween!

[carriagelamp]

The tops books I read over the 2020 – you know, what I could fit in between the entire world collectively losing its mind and a literal plague being unleashed on us.

This is ridiculously late, but my new year was just too busy to get this done and fight with tumblr over uploading x.x so here it finally is. I won’t go into detail about them, because I did that in my various monthly reviews, but (with the exception of Crave which was unspeakably bad but made the list because it was strangely iconic for my summer this year) this assortment of novels, novellas, comics, and manga were all fantastic reads that I would recommend people check out!

The list in a not-picture form:

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood by Fred Rogers – a collection of illustrated poems from Mister Rogers

Belle Révolte by Linsey Miller – most recent queer novel by one of my favourite authors, about magic and science and war and medicine

Behind The Scenes by Bisco Hatori – a manga series by the creator of Ouran Highschool Host Club, a great coming-of-age story about a students in the theatre prop department

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor – a scifi novella about the first of the Himba people to leave for space after being accepted into the most prestige university in the galaxy

The Bromelaid Trilogy by Terry Pratchett – a series about a dying race of nomes who discover there’s more of them than they thought and more to the world than they imagined

Crave by Tracy Wolff – worst paranormal romance book I’ve ever read, derivative of, somehow, everything, do not fucking bother

The Deep by Rivers Solomon – a novella about a race of deep sea mermaids and how they cope with the traumatic history of their people

Doll Bones by Holly Black – a story about a group of kids as they struggle with growing beyond playing make believe and a ghost that may or may not be haunting them

Flawed Dogs by Berkeley Breathed – a story about dogs and how they survive in against the human standards of perfection and beauty, both hilarious and traumatically brutal

FRNCK by Olivier Bocquet & Brice Cossu – a French graphic novel series about a boy who accidentally falls back into prehistory and is adopted, somewhat reluctantly or at least with great confusion, by a family of cavemen

Ghost Hunters Adventure Club and the Secret of the Grand Chateau by Dr Cecil H. H. Mills – a Hardy Boys satire written by the Game Grumps which was probably the funniest book I read all year, I would highly recommend it even as someone with zero interest in the Game Grumps.

Gregor the Overland by Suzanne Collins – Gregor discovers a hidden world under New York populated by giant animals and strange humans that are determined to draw him into their political turmoil

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson – I feel like I read this ten years ago. The novel that the Netflix series was loosely based on, a very cool horror with fascinating themes built into the subtext

Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens by Tanya Boteju – a Canadian slice-of-life novel about a young queer teen falling into the LGBT scene for the first time and figuring out friendship, love, and who she is

The Last Book On The Left by Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, and Ben Kissel. True crime stories with a comedic twist, adapted from their podcast The Last Podcast On The Left.

Lupin III: World’s Most Wanted #3 by Monkey Punch – anyone on this blog knows I fell hard for Lupin this year. A goofy series about a world class thief and his team.

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline – probably the best book of the year for me. A post-apocolypse story based around the horror of residential schools, climate change, and illness

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyers – look I loved the Twilight series too much as a teen when it was first coming out not to have gone head over heels for this. Unabashedly loved it.

No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen – a Canadian novel about child poverty and homelessness, more light-hearted and hopeful than it sounds

The One And Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate – a gorilla that’s spent his entire life placidly living in a tiny mall exhibit meets a new friend and suddenly has something bigger to live for and protect

Our Dreams At Dusk by Shimanami Tasogare – one of the best queer manga series I’ve ever read, super artsy and focuses on the different complicated experiences by a number of different characters

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey – alternative history novella about a gay gunslinger and his team of hippo-cowboys in Louisana as they go on the biggest heist of their careers - so worth the read, this was tons of queer fun

Sanity & Tallulah by Molly Brooks – a graphic novel about the hijinks two young children (and aspiring mad scientists) can get up to on their space station home

The Witcher: The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski – can you believe The Witcher came out this year? Anyway, the novels were fucking amazing, some of the best high fantasy I’ve read in years

[femalechibiblogger]

My Top 7 Underrated Indie-Horror Games

1. Detention 

Set in 1960s Taiwan of the White Terror period, students Wei and Ray find themselves trapped and vulnerable in Greenwood High School (翠華中學), which is located in a remote mountainous area. The place they once knew has changed in unsettling ways, haunted by evil creatures known as the "lingered" (魍魎). While hiding from the rampaging monsters, the protagonists unveil mysteries which slowly reveal the dark past of the cursed school.

Detention is a horror adventure video game created and developed by Taiwanese game developer Red Candle Games for Steam. It is a 2D atmospheric horror side-scroller set in 1960s Taiwan under martial law. The game also incorporates religious elements based on Taiwanese culture and mythology. The game was released on 13 January 2017. A demo version was released on Steam Greenlight on 13 June 2016.

The concept of the game originates with the Red Candle Games co-founder Shun-ting "Coffee" Yao. In February 2017, a novel based on the game was published by novelist Ling Jing. A live action film adaptation distributed by Warner Bros. Taiwan was released on 20 September 2019.

2. Layers of Fear

The player takes control of an artist who has returned to his studio. His initial goal is to complete his masterpiece, and the player's role is to figure out how this task should be accomplished. The challenge comes from puzzles which require the player to search the environment for visual clues. The house appears straightforward at first, but it changes around the player as they explore it in first person. These changes in the environment provide scaffolding for the puzzles and provide regular jump scares common to games of this genre.

The game is divided into six chapters with various items for the player to find in order to complete his work. The game is heavily dimmed, and there are objects that uncover certain aspects of the painter's history. While completing the painting, there is a letter that is slowly pieced together, which shows the origin of his masterpiece, and objects which explain the secret of the painter through dialogue flashbacks.

Layers of Fear is a psychological horror video game developed by Bloober Team and published by Aspyr. It was released on Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One worldwide in February 2016.

In Layers of Fear, the player controls a psychologically disturbed painter who is trying to complete his magnum opus as he navigates a Victorian mansion revealing secrets about his past. The gameplay, presented in first-person perspective, is story-driven and revolves around puzzle-solving and exploration. Layers of Fear: Inheritance was released on 2 August 2016 as a direct follow up add-on to the first game. This time the player controls the painter's daughter with the downloadable content focusing on her apparent relapse into trauma after returning to her old house.

A definitive port for the Nintendo Switch, entitled Layers of Fear: Legacy, was released on 21 February 2018 and it features, in addition to the Inheritance DLC, Joy-Con, touchscreen, and HD Rumble support. A limited physical retail release for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, published by Limited Run Games in North America, would be available starting October 2018. A sequel titled Layers of Fear 2 was announced in October 2018 and was released on May 29, 2019.

3. The Blackout Club

You are a teenager from a small, modern town. Each morning, you awaken covered in mud or scratches, with no memory of the night before. You've heard of sleepwalking - but this is different. Sometimes you lose entire days.

There are others like you. Your new group of friends bonded over this shared secret, forming a club to investigate the cause of these BLACKOUTS. Together, you discovered a network of bizarre underground tunnels, hidden just beneath the surface of your quiet community. An uncanny, disorienting music beckoned from below.

You hesitated. But last night, your best friend vanished - and now, a mysterious group of adults wants to eliminate you. You must strike back, capture their activities on camera and expose them to the world.

The Blackout Club is a first-person co-op horror game centered around a group of teenage friends investigating a monstrous secret beneath the skin of their small town. 1-4 players explore procedurally-generated missions against a fearsome enemy you can only see with your eyes closed.

The developers describe the content like this:

There is violence in the game where players or enemies might use tranquilizer darts or electric stun guns on another human. Although there is no excessive violence or gore in this game, there are scenes with blood and evidence of crimes such as kidnapping and murder. It should be noted that the player characters and their allies are teenagers. Players are not allowed to injure or hurt another teenager, but the game does depict teens in situations of peril.

4. Cry of Fear

The player controls Simon Henriksson, a 19‑year‑old who wakes up in an alley shortly after being hit by a car. The player must navigate the city solving puzzles and fighting monsters to progress. The game switches between normal gameplay levels representing the city and surrounding areas, and "nightmare" levels, similar to those found in the Silent Hill series of games. 

Cry of Fear features many unique mechanics, such as the limited inventory system, which allows the player to carry only 6 items at a time and does not pause the game while the inventory screen is open. Another unique mechanic is the ability to dual-wield inventory items, allowing the use of two weapons at a time, or one weapon and a light source. Item combination is also possible from the inventory screen. Health is recovered by the use of morphine syringes, which can blur the player's vision if overused. Stamina is consumed through strenuous actions such as running and jumping, and can be recovered by resting or the use of morphine syringes.

Some days before Cry of Fear's anniversary, Valve released a Half-Life update for Linux compatibility, making changes in the folders and engine. This update made several Half-Life mods, including Cry of Fear, incompatible with the base game. Team Psykskallar decided that, since no more could be done for the mod itself, they would finish a standalone version. Confusion due to Valve regarding Cry of Fear's status as freeware caused the game to be delayed until April 25, 2013.

5. The Coma: Cutting Class

The story follows Youngho Choi, a freshman student at Sehwa High. In the midst of finals season, a student attempts to commit suicide during their study session. Despite this event, final exams are scheduled to continue as normal. Youngho proceeds to take his exam, but falls asleep from exhaustion due to having gotten no sleep the night before. Consequently, he wakes up at his school desk in the middle of the night and finds that there is more to Sehwa High than he thought.

The Coma: Cutting Class is a 2D survival-horror video game developed and published by Devespresso Games. It was released on October 19, 2015. It follows the story of Youngho Choi as he explores the mystery behind the abandoned Sehwa High school.

A remastered version was released on September 22, 2017 for Steam, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, and on December 21, 2017 for Nintendo Switch. A mobile version was released on January 17, 2019 for Android and January 22, 2019 for iOS. A sequel, The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters, was released on PC platforms (Steam, GOG) on January 28, 2020.

6. The Park

The game follows Lorraine, a struggling single mother and widow with a troubled past, as she searches for her young son, Callum, who goes missing in Atlantic Island Park. Lorraine enters the park after her son just as the park prepares to close for the afternoon, only to find that nighttime comes unnaturally fast as she ascends the escalator and discovers the park to be abandoned, vandalized and rundown as if several years have passed. Despite abandonment, the rides and lights mysteriously still function. Lorraine calls for Callum and his voice calls to her, leading her through the decrepit park.

Lorraine boards several rides which reveal the themes and backstory of the game: the Tunnel of Tales tells the story of Hansel and Gretel, this time with a new ending - in which after cooking the witch in the oven, Hansel and Gretel devour her. On the Ferris Wheel, Lorraine remembers Callum's father Don, a construction worker at the park who died in a fall from the Ferris Wheel when Lorraine was still pregnant with Callum. Between rides, Lorraine expresses her frustration with Callum, her belief that she is a failure as a mother, her history of mental health problems, and her fear that Callum is becoming changed by some mysterious threat. However, while aboard the roller coaster, a monstrous top-hatted ringmaster (identified in the credits as The Boogeyman) accosts Lorraine and claims 'the Witch' has her son.

The Park is a first-person psychological horror adventure game developed and published by Funcom. The game was released for Microsoft Windows via Steam on October 27, 2015 and is a spin-off of an earlier Funcom game, The Secret World. It was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on May 3, 2016 and Nintendo Switch on October 22, 2019. It will be released in Japan on September 24, 2020. The game takes place in the Atlantic Island Park that closed back in the year of 1980 for mysterious reasons that are gradually revealed throughout the game.

The Park is experienced from a first-person perspective as the player, Lorraine, interacts with and experiences the decrepit environment of Atlantic Island Park. There is no combat or defense and the player has no health HUD as Lorraine can only interact with limited objects in-game and there are no enemies to battle. These objects mostly consist of pages that reveal the backstory of the park and later, Lorraine. Lorraine can call out to character Callum at any time during gameplay, and this may have a small affect as it allows Lorraine to follow Callum's voice and thus continue the narrative of the story or to reach necessary areas or objectives within the park such as the rides. The rides act as both exposition and scares. To enter the House of Horrors, Lorraine must find a flashlight. Throughout the game, Lorraine narrates her feelings and memories to the player.

7. Mad Father

Mad Father takes place in northern Germany, where the 11-year old protagonist, Aya Drevis, lives with her father, Alfred Drevis, and their maid Maria. Aya is a shy girl who never goes outside. Her mother, Monika Drevis, was incredibly ill, and presumably died of illness before the occurrence of the game. Her father performs secret research in his laboratory in the house's basement, with the assistance of Maria. Aya is aware that Alfred experiments and kills humans in the basement, as well as the fact that he is involved in an extramarital affair with the younger Maria, a former homeless woman he had taken off the street some years prior.

On the anniversary of Monika's death, the very beginning of the game, Aya awakens at midnight to find herself surrounded by test subjects that escaped from the laboratory. Fleeing back into her room, Aya encounters the mysterious salesman Ogre, who offers her the task of solving puzzles to break into her father's laboratory and uncover his secret. Aya discovers that her father had intended to perform taxidermy on her and convert her into a doll, as he had done to numerous other children, having been enamored with preserving humans after having killed his own mother as a youth. Aya soon discovers that her father killed her mother in fear of her mother taking Aya away to prevent him from performing taxidermy on her.

The game has three endings based on the player's choices. In one ending, Aya allows her undead mother to take her father away to another world. After returning to the real world, she runs into Maria, who knocks her out, takes her to the basement and then kills her, turning her corpse into a doll. In the second ending, Aya saves her father from being taken by her mother's spirit. However, after doing so, Monika reveals to Aya that Alfred murdered her for one of his experiments. Horrified, Aya flees while being chased by a chainsaw-wielding Alfred. While attempting to escape, she runs into Maria. Maria attempts to follow her, but when she fails to capture her, Maria is attacked by Alfred. The game then branches into two endings depending on Aya's actions; if Aya neglects to help Maria and instead attempts to escape the mansion, she is found by her father and killed, with Alfred performing taxidermy on her corpse and rendering her into one of his dolls. In the true ending, Aya helps Maria, declaring that the two shall henceforth live together. Maria then kills Alfred and the two women leave the mansion, which is burned down by Dio, the spirit of one of Alfred's human test subjects.

As the house burns down, Ogre transports Alfred's spirit to another world, where he is free to experiment to his heart's content, creating a mature adult clone of his daughter, leading into the events of Misao. Meanwhile, while walking away from the burning mansion, Aya notices that her father's medical book has survived the blaze. Some years later, Aya and Maria have created a clinic, where they perform medical services free of charge. A poor woman named Jean Rooney arrives for an examination, and Aya uses anesthesia to render Jean unconscious, claiming that Jean will no longer suffer from her illnesses. In another room, Maria muses that Aya has become just like her father and that the tendencies run in the family, heavily implying that Aya has followed in her father's footsteps.

[aion-rsa]

Stephen King’s Favorite TV Shows According to His Twitter Raves

https://ift.tt/3qGUGDO

“NOW WE’RE SUCKING DIESEL! If you don’t get it, you missed a great series.” Stephen King’s recent discovery of British police thriller Line of Duty – as relayed via a series of highly enthusiastic Tweets – was a delight to witness. King’s zeal is enough to make UK fans wish that he hadn’t binge-watched the BBC series from his home inside the sewers of Derry, Maine, but instead watched it at broadcast pace in the UK, where he would no doubt have made a sizeable contribution to the show’s Twitter larks. (King proved himself happy to join in with online TV show speculation when he correctly predicted the killer in HBO/Sky’s Mare of Easttown. You can bet he’d have had a take on the mystery identity of Line of Duty baddie ‘H’.)

Line of Duty isn’t alone in attracting King’s online praise; when the horror author watches a TV show he loves from inside the creepy Castle Rock devil shop he calls home, he lets his 6.5 million followers know about it. Below is a list of endorsements King has made on Twitter in recent years, from the usual sci-fi and horror suspects to a few less expected titles. 

US MODERN CLASSICS

The Americans, Game of Thrones, Homeland, Sons of Anarchy and The Shield

In Stephen King’s house (inside Derry’s landmark water tower, The Standpipe) as of February 2018, only three shows were considered ‘appointment television’: FX Cold War spy drama The Americans, HBO fantasy epic Game of Thrones and Showtime spy thriller Homeland. King describes all three as “a cut above”. Going one further, three days after the Game of Thrones series finale aired, King called out the New York Times’ list of 20 best TV dramas for neglecting to include the HBO dragon epic. He’s glad the Times included FX cop drama The Shield, a show that “fundamentally changed TV”, but feels it should also have tipped a hat to FX motorcycle gang drama Sons of Anarchy. Get it right, New York Times.

INTERNATIONAL DRAMA

Dark, Fauda, Hotel Beau Sejour, Les Revenants, Marianne, Money Heist, To The Lake, ZeroZeroZero

Nothing scares Stephen King, not even subtitles. When he’s relaxing in his converted alien spaceship half buried in the woods of Haven, Maine, he enjoys nothing more than streaming a foreign-language box-set. He particularly rates German sci-fi Dark, which he called terrific, complex and very German, and recommends these explanatory recaps for anybody confused by its multiple timelines. Virus thriller To The Lake was called “a pretty darn good Russian series on Netflix,” while Israeli spy thriller Fauda was described as “all killer and no filler”. King called Belgian crime drama Hotel Beau Sejour “eccentric, brilliant and strangely touching. Supernatural fare for those who don’t ordinarily like it.” Speaking of the supernatural, King’s a fan of celebrated French horror Marianne, which he says could scare even “a sicko” like him. Also in French, he loved atmospheric supernatural zombie drama Les Revenants/The Returned, calling it sexy and scary. Netflix’s Spanish-language thriller Money Heist is “a firecracker” while he found Italian-Anglo crime drama ZeroZeroZero “bone-shaking, chilling, terrifying, epic,” and King found it hard to believe it could be bettered. High praise.

Read more

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By Ron Hogan

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By Louisa Mellor

BRITISH DRAMA

Black Mirror, Life on Mars, Line of Duty, The Stranger

From underneath his massive, transparent dome in Chester’s Mill, Stephen King will often enjoy a bit of British telly. Back in 2013, when it was still a Channel 4 show only just available worldwide on Netflix, King Tweeted that he loved future-tech anthology series Black Mirror, calling it “terrifying, funny, intelligent,” and compared it to an R-rated The Twilight Zone. The show creator Charlie Brooker, told Den of Geek at the time that despite being a huge Stephen King fan, his reaction was characteristically muted: 

“I think I probably smiled? That’s about as effusive as I get about anything, because whenever anything nice happens in the world I always expect something appalling to happen immediately afterwards.”

BBC crime-drama-with-a-time-travel-fantasy-twist Life on Mars is another British favourite that King described in September 2020 as one of his favourite shows of all time, “the kind you go to when you’re feeling sad.” That same year, he called Harlan Coben’s mystery thriller The Stranger, starring Richard Armitage, as an excellent, addictive mystery. King’s British TV crush of the moment of course, is BBC crime drama Line of Duty, which he praises for having a central Mulder/Scully-type vibe between main characters Steve Arnott and Kate Fleming.

US THRILLERS

Big Sky, Bosch, Designated Survivor, Escape at Dannemora, Fargo, Mindhunter, Perry Mason, The Good Fight, The Man in the High Castle, The Morning Show

After he’s finished all the two-finger KitKats from the minibar at Room 217 of The Overlook Hotel, where he lives, Stephen King puts a thriller on the TV. Crime thriller, political thriller, legal thriller, alt-history Philip K. Dick thriller… he has time for them all. King is a particular fan of ABC’s murder show Big Sky, which stars Ryan Philippe and Vikings’ Kathryn Winnick. In February this year, he called it the best drama on network TV and said the final three episodes were stepping into Emmy territory. He calls Bosch an excellent detective series, one of the best on TV, with an engrossing story and superb cast. Kiefer Sutherland-starring series Designated Survivor he called excellent, complex and involving after its move to Netflix. Prison drama Escape at Dannemora is TV at its best according to King, who in 2015 described the penultimate episode of Fargo season two as the best thing on television in the last three years. In 2017, he strongly recommended David Fincher serial killer drama Mindhunter, and last year called the Matthew Rhys Perry Mason reboot a “damn good show.” In 2019, King called The Good Wife spin-off The Good Fight “the best show on TV”, and found nothing not to like about Apple TV+’s The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston. That was the year he also named Amazon Prime’s The Man in the High Castle season four as “amazingly good”, challenging and involving.

HORROR & SUPERNATURAL

Black Summer, Dracula, The Haunting of Hill House, Servant, Stranger Things, THEM

When he’s not nursing kidnapped novelists back to health in the remote Colorado cabin where he lives, Stephen King goes in for a bit of scare-action on the TV. He called Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House “close to a work of genius” despite not being a fan of revisionism of its kind in general, and praised M. Night Shyamalan’s Servant for its focus, acting and atmosphere, adding “if there’s anything creepier or more binge-worthy than this, I don’t know what it is.” He loved Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ BBC Dracula, calling it terrific and “VERY bloody”, found the first episode of Amazon Prime Video’s THEM scared the hell out of him, and praised Netflix’s Black Summer for reinvigorating the zombie drama: “Just when you think there’s no more scare left in zombies. THIS comes along.” As for Stranger Things, he described the first season as like “watching Steve King’s greatest hits” in a good way. 

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Next week on What Famous People are Watching: is Stanley Tucci really that big on the Westminster Dog Show, or is he more of a The Underground Railroad guy? We find out.

The post Stephen King’s Favorite TV Shows According to His Twitter Raves appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3x6ARqW

[blindrapture]

a union-mandated break post

(okay, let’s see if I can type this all over again after losing the post. gotta remember how it all went.)

Hey there, the few mutuals who Like all of my posts, the lurkers who occasionally make their presence known, the lurkers who I also hope are there, and all you folks who come across this post naturally before scrolling on (that’s fine too, please have a nice day! remember to take a deep breath and unclench!). I wanted to make a post giving a casual update.

Things have been going. You know how it is. Time proceeds onwards at a pace that is a crawl to some and fleeting to others, depending on relative perspective. The average of all these observations may be Objective Truth, a hazy mythical and abstract prospect which to this day no living human has ever known (due to the nature of perspective). We still try to know it for some reason, an endeavour which may be “a good thing” or “a condemnation of our species,” but that’s relative too. See above. Still, it is possible to take an approximation of what we figure this average to be and find ourselves (mis)balanced on a knife-edge in between all perspectives. This narrow path, the knife-edge between fast and slow, between good and bad, between ecstasy and despair, seems precarious at times, yet at other times is like a garden, wide and spacious enough to sit awhile. Our perspectives cover this garden from us with the shrubbery of Can’ts and Shouldn’ts, and the way to the garden is fraught with the misty cloud of Look-Like. And yet, ultimately, these shrubs and mists are but prismatic scenery colouring our time on this Earth, a perspective which is easy to see from within the garden. The Earth is brown and grey and immortal, though wearing an impermanent coat of blue and green. One day, we will slip out of our perspectives and return to the Earth, join her mounding’s mass, and that will be death.

So that’s the weather. Sometimes cold, sometimes mild, sometimes wet, sometimes dry, sometimes bothersome and sometimes the only backdrop I could ever want. I’ve been up to the usual, cycling between interests like a bat between haunts.

- The other day I got around to playing Smile For Me, an experience which took me about three hours to more-or-less complete 100%. Really cute game, I fell in love with all the characters, and the budding horror elements made me excited to see where it’d go.

- Currently I’m playing A Monster’s Expedition Through Puzzling Exhibitions, a game often cited in the same breath as Baba Is You and Stephen’s Sausage Roll. I think those two games are puzzle masterpieces, and A Monster’s Expedition is hitting me in the right spot. It frequently fills me with awe, which is impressive considering the game is just a long series of oblong block-pushing puzzles. It has scope, though, and it has the guts to hide that scope from you until you’re able to discover it for yourself. I’ve played for about 10 hours so far, beaten over 200 islands, and yet I feel I’m only getting further away from the end goal. Hard to describe. It’s a good game.

- When I’m done with that game, next I’ll be checking out Spelunky 2. I’ve wanted to try the original for a long time but never got around to it; I picked up the sequel. I know very little about the games (with a rough idea of what gameplay is like), and I intend to keep it that way for as long as I can. I like games that rely on discovery.

- Book-wise, I’m, y’know, reading Finnegans Wake as I fall asleep, occasionally inching through other books too, but my main reading focus at the moment is The Familiar. I went and picked up a new copy of Volume 5, and I found the Volume 3 I had kinda lost for a while, so now I have the full Season 1 again. And it’s been long enough since I read any of them that it’s finally time to reread them. As a unit this time. I am... so happy to be in their headspace. I’m currently in the second act of Volume 1, taking in a lot more details this time (and I do still remember a sense of where the whole plot goes), really cherishing the commitment to physicality and aesthetic. There’s not many authors out there like Danielewski. House of Leaves kickstarted my book obsession, y’know. And The Familiar is about as grand as a project can be. It’s supposed to be 27 volumes, each one 900 pages long, and the design of these books is goddamn sublime. The publisher only let him do the first 5 volumes, which is sad, but luckily those 5 volumes make up a “Season,” so they’re still a whole thing, a complete story arc for each of the nine protagonists, and plenty of secrets and details that give a good sense of the true scope. And did I mention the series is fucking scary? Profoundly so, each new volume weaving you deeper into its conspiratorial web of eldritch coincidences and patterns. The story is full of cats, immortal cats, God-cats. There’s a scientist who keeps a freaky magic orb and is known as Wizard. There’s an Armenian taxi driver who’s one of my favourite characters. And you can probably get all the volumes Used for fairly cheap on Amazon now. ........please, somebody join me in loving this series.

- Creative-wise, I’m working on music as always, putting notes next to each other until I get a result I can do something with. There is one piece that’s definitely done, a collaboration between Lindsay and I, but it’s going into Nine Is God so you won’t hear it just yet. Speaking of, that’s coming along. I haven’t even started making any codes or cool connections yet; I want to finish the... Core of this update first. Let’s be deceptive and call it the Main Blog. I have proven to myself that I definitely can do this; I keep stumbling on new mechanisms I can add, and I have a pretty vivid idea of what the whole thing will look like. It’s gonna be maybe a decent size for a Blog, all told, but it’s the form of the thing that mandates a lot of care. Luckily I have made Viceking’s Graab, so this isn’t the first time I’ve done something this mechanically ambitious. ...look, just. Of course I’m excited to Actually Talk about this thing, but like with the Graab, its nature requires me to keep it secret until players finally discover it for themselves. I like making that kind of thing, I want the sense of discovery, of climbing up a hill only to reach the summit and see an even bigger mountain looming over you that you hadn’t realized was there. Like Frog Fractions, or its sequel, even if you know there will be more than meets the eye you still get surprised and filled with delight. This concept fits neatly into an ARG format.

- Oh, also, I’m super excited for the Braid remake. It’s gonna have a comically thorough amount of developer commentary, and that’s all I want from this world. It’s even coming to Switch!

Media can be used as a tool to assist with the experience of life, and that is the way I want to approach things. I have spent time adapting myself to feel comfortable in these boring aesthetics (of understated puzzle games, thoughtful pretty books, blogs as art) because this means I am less susceptible to getting burned out during contemplation and self-examination. It may seem like a matter of taste, but taste is relative too; it’s not hard-wired, it can be adjusted, it does adjust all the time under the hood. ...I don’t know where to go with this one, other than that I should be careful not to condescend. I am not above anyone, I am confused too. I just.. like confusion and mazes, and I try to speak these aesthetics in an approximation of how I see others talk about theirs.

Right. I think that’s the bulk of it, that’s what I wanted to say today. I hope you are holding on, reader. It’s a wild and lonely world out there, and it’s our world; it’s yours just as much as it’s anyone else’s. You are important to it.

I leave you, mysteriously, with an old Genesis song. It’s called “Can-Utility and the Coastliners,” which is a silly way of saying it’s a song about the myth of King Canute. Sick of flatterers claiming he was equal to God, he went to the sea shore and said “If I truly am equal to God, then let the waves halt at my feet!” They didn’t. An astute demonstration, but it just prompted his flatterers to praise his ingenuity. “But he forced a smile, even though his hopes lay dashed where offerings fell.” I’m not really sure how the story ends. But it’s a wonderful song, starts off very folks-y but quickly takes a left turn down Mystery and Beauty. And it’s freaking Genesis.

See ya.

[vavuska]

I finished watching the first season of The Haunting (of Hill House) and I didn't like it!

My first impression:

I used to love Shirley Jackson original book, The Haunting of Hill House, and I loved that the author called one of the daughters like her, but... I don't liked how they change the background story: Hugh Crain built the house for his family and was the beginning of the tragedies.

Maybe, if the authors could keep the Sanderson surname, not change all the background story of the house and choose other name for the children, it would be better: in the book Theodora was an artist, —that was supposed to be lesbian by critics —, Eleanor (Nell) was a disturbed women and both of them were chosed by Dr. Montague as "medium" for his researches on haunted houses, and they weren't related at all. On the other hand Luke Sanderson, the other main male character, was really related to the owner of the mansion, that was his aunt, and was there to watch on Dr. Montague experiments.

I don't know how will evolve the story, but I hope it will be interesting as the original book (I saw also others movies adaptation and there were good).

The novel has been adapted to film twice, in 1963 and again in 1999, both times under the title The Haunting. The 1963 version is a relatively faithful adaptation and received critical praise. The 1999 version, considerably different from the novel and widely panned by critics, is an overt fantasy horror in which all the main characters are terrorized and two are killed by explicitly supernatural deaths.

Why I didn't like the show:

1 - Ten episodes of NOTHING: being ghosts is not enaugh to make your characters interesting!

Ten episodes of NOTHING. This show is one of the few TV shows, movies or books that left no emotion at all in me. When I finish reading or watching movies and TV show, I feel always a deep melancholy for a world that close his doors, but here I felt nothing. Great photography, no jumpscares. I appreciated that, but there wasn't a real plot and the ghost stories have only a superficial touch in TEN EPISODES.

I don't know if watch the next season or not...

2 - In a story about haunted hauses, the main creepy, scary events are supposed to happen in that damn house!

Ok. This is a show about an haunted house, so the ghost creepy events are supposed to happen only in that damn house... Not out.

Mr. Dudley told Hugh that his wife nightmare and vision stopped when they stopped to work in the house by night... I feel so confused!

And more important: if you told us that the damn "red room" is the stomach of the house, you just can't let ghost following the characters even to L. A.!

You are saying that that damn house has eaten them, they have been digested and now are part of the evil and darkness of the house. THEY JUST CAN'T GOING AROUND. FIND OTHER NARRATIVE SOLUTIONS!

3 - Ghosts not even were not interesting (we know very little about that past), but they aren't even scarying!

There were Polly, the beautiful flapper girl, her husbdand William, the tall men with the bowler hat and thr walking stick, their unnamed daughter and son in wheelchair...

There were Hazel and her daughter Jacqueline, who used to play with starry teapots!

And... I discover that Hazel was William's sister on reddit. Wow.

Oh, in the show is mentioned that William must have at least another sister, but we know a very little about William himself, so reasonably we couldn't expect some more!

They only thing we know about William he was generically mentally insane and walled up himself alive in his own house.

Of Polly we knew a little too: she was generically “crazy”, met William in an asylum, they fell in love, get married, have two children and she died at an old age, even more crazy, as Hazel did.

From the show we didn't know how her relationship with Hazel was (it was just said that William didn't get along well with his sisters), but on reddit I discovered that both Polly and Hazel blame each other for their children's death: Polly thought that Hazel murdered her children, Hazel thought Polly murdered her daughter.

On reddit it is also said that Mr. Dudley could be the extramarital son of William. Wooow. So much information!

Why, why the hell they didn't put this on the show? Oh. Yes, they didn't want to steal space to the useless Crain's family drama!

4 - Mental illness is portrayed as glamour and all the difficulties of recovering from a drug addiction were all simplified in the final episode!

Both Olivia and Nell characters are so clean and nice, they are loved by evrebody and their mental illness have a very little impact of their social life: yes, they both commit suicide, but at the end was said it was all the ghost of Hill House to blame.

Well, honey, mental illness is not clean and nice, most of the time. I talk by experience!

And recovering from drug addiction is so easy, when all the ghost disappear and you have such a supporting and lovely family with you.

Ok. Yes. Thank you for exposing your Disney-like ideal of life, but poeple keep having drug problems, even if they have a loving and supportive family at their side. Most of the time, the family actually pay more times for their loved ones recovery.

And all the main characters' problems easily end with a simple hearth-to-hearth talk with their dead sister. That's too superficial, even for a stupid mainstream TV show.

5 - Basically the whole show is just This Is US but with ghosts: full of good sentiments and feelings. They love each other so much, even if their “big brother” is an idiot and they barely speek with their father.

6 - All the Father/Parents-Children issue is superficially portrayed in the show.

Hugh trys his best, but fails. He didn't make amend with his children, only with Steve, the narrator, to whom he shows what really happened the night in which his mother, Olivia, killed herself. Hugh loves his child, but at the same time keep them away from him. Their problem is not they can't communicate with each other, they don't even try it! And don't want to hear other's position. Also the Dursley storyline is a bit annoying: yes, I know that it is meant to break our heart and it does, it does, when Mr. Dursley told to Hugh about his born-dead daughter. But the Abigail part was just a big nonsense: Oliva murdered their only daughter and Mrs. and Mr. Dursley were unbelievable so comprehensive with Hugh and agreed with him that “no one must know”. Their daughter's sould has been eaten by a dark, evil entity and they didn't care! They keep her at home to “protect her”, but to protect her better, they just could take miles and miles from Hill House! A big nonsense!

7 - The director and screenplayers deleted all the nasty, anxious atmosphere of the original book.

Shirley Jackson described Hill House as “arrogant and hating,” full of “sickening, degraded cold.” In the novel, we’re trapped not merely inside this malevolent architecture but in the mind of an unreliable mouseburger named Eleanor, a spinster whose sanity gets eaten away during her days at Hill House, where she’s gone to participate in a study about the paranormal.

In the show we just see Olivia floating around the house with her long gown. Her slowly corruption by the house is not scary nor shocking at all. We are not trapped in her ill and weak mind, we just saw her smiling and talking with herself in some occasion, and finally asking herself: “Oh, this strange lady dressed as a 20s flapper is telling me to poison my own children, why I shouldn't trust her?”

It would be more shocking if she actually kill all her family. That would be more impressive. Again: Olivia and Nell mental illness is fashioble, charming, not scarying. They are so well dressed, with perfect hair and make up. No one Eye bugs on their face. They look like healthy girls who sleep very good every night. You are not worried by their behavior. They look normal. Not even insane. Just a bit stressed as can happen to everybody.

[mask131]

There's a haunt on a hill...

In 1959, an American Gothic horror novel was released: "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson, which would become one of the most influential haunted house stories ever written in the 20th century.

In 1963, a British movie adaptation of the novel was released under the title "The Haunting" - a work of Robert Wise and Nelson Gidding that would become one of the classics of the black-and-white horror movies.

In 1999, another "The Haunting" movie was released - a Jan de Bont adaptation that presented itself as a remake of the 1963 movie...

... When in truth it was not. The American "The Haunting" was not based on the British movie, neither was it actually based on the original Shirley Jackson novel, despite taking lots of elements, names and details from it.

No, in truth, a careful look at the 1999 "The Haunting" reveals that this movie was actually based on/strongly influenced by a book titled "Hell House".

Published in 1971, "Hell House" is a horror novel by Richard Matheson that was heavily inspired and strongly influenced by Jackson's own novel, to the point a lot of people tend to confuse the two despite being very different in tone, style and outcome, thanks to their similar premise and characters.

The confusion also applies to the 1973 movie adaptation of Matheson's novel, "The Legend of Hell House", which people tend to mix with the 1963 "The Haunting" despite again, very different tones, styles and outcomes.

And things get even more confused when you consider that a "Haunting of Hell House" exists! A 1999 horror movie (yes, released the same year as the American "The Haunting").

But it has nothing to do with either the Haunting of Hill House...

... Or with "Hell House"...

This movie is actually inspired by a story by Henry James, "Ghostly Rental" - hence this movie's alternate name, "Henry James' The Ghost Rental". (Henry James who was also the author of "The Turn of the Screw". Remember, it will be important for later)

However, the movie clearly decided to play on the famous evocation of Jackson's novel by choosing a title that has just one letter different from the original...

And if you believe the chain stops here... There's still much more to say. Much more to see. And much more to compare.

But that will be for another post, because this one might become too big for Tumblr's liking.

[ohlayarfp]

Film Review - Misteri Dilaila by Syafiq Yusof

Misteri Dilaila is a Malaysian horror thriller film that went viral in 2019. I rarely watch Malaysian films because when i do, it’s usually the same plot all over again. Drama, romance, action, comedy and everyone’s favourite, Horror. I feel like these genres are the usuals everywhere but what makes it unbearable for most of us Malaysians is how similar every story is. Rich boy meets a poor girl. Rich boy falls in love with her and when they get married the mother hates the poor girl. They fight and one day someone dies and the end. For horror, it’s just about some people getting haunted by a ghost that was sent by a close friend of theirs.

The thing I understand about the horror hype for Malaysians is how our culture is deeply rooted with mystical beliefs and as religious as we tend to be, ghost stories seem to intertwine with our faith for countless years. Personally, I believe in Asian ghosts more than the western versions. This is probably due to my own family having our fair share of sights into the world of the undead. 

The reason why I chose to talk about this film is because of how disappointed I felt when I watched it. Unlike most Malaysian films, it had the potential to be a great one. The look of the film was far better than the usual ones we got and the story building had a Gone Girl vibe. What made me disappointed was the fact that while watching that film I was hopeful and excited thinking finally a Malaysian Filmmaker is making a psychological horror instead of those in your face jump scares. 

The story is about a married couple, Jefri and Dilaila, who were spending their holiday together at a luxury vacation home in Fraser’s Hill. After a petty issue where they end up quarrelling at each other, Jefri discovers his wife went missing the following morning. Next thing he knows, a mysterious woman who also goes by the name of Dilaila shows up one night where she claims to be his wife. Adding more confusion is the supernatural occurrences that regularly haunts Jefri whenever he’s alone in the house.

Throughout the whole film, I was at the edge of my seat thinking that there’s finally a malaysian filmmaker that is about to introduce a character with a mental illness as the protagonist which would’ve justified his hallucinations of the ghost. Unfortunately, it was just like other films where there’s no actual context to the sightings, they were just ghosts being ghosts and haunting him for no reason. Well that’s for the 2nd version of the film.

Another fun fact about this film is that it went viral due to the alternate endings it has. When the film came out in the cinemas, people were surprised to hear that they had different endings when they discussed it with their friends. This was purely the filmmaker and his team’s intention. Different halls have different endings and this was meant to be a surprise for the audiences. It was a great marketing strategy and considered as a genius way of thinking for some people while some were mad that they were being ripped off. 

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

As a person that watched both versions, I was unsatisfied with both versions as both endings angered me. Nevertheless, I didn’t think it’s an absolute flop though. Both versions have the fair share of plot twists. The first version revealed that the protagonist we thought all along was the actual antagonist. He was the one that killed his own wife whilst every supporting character was a part of the police team that were acting to make him confess to his wrong doings. It was then stated that the hallucinations he got was a result of his guilt and him being under the influence of drugs all along.

The second version on the other hand is more mystical. The ghosts made more appearances in this version. The protagonist is still the good guy but the inspector that was involved in the case turned out to be a fake policeman and he was working with the imposter Dilaila. Towards the end, Jef found out that his wife has been dead a long time ago and the ‘wife’ he was holding turns out to be something else (this we never see on screen though). 

Personally if i were to choose an ending, I would choose the 1st version as it makes more sense logically but I can understand why people love the 2nd Version.  Malaysians and their thirst for horror films explains the statistics. But a famous film reviewer on YouTube (ZhafVlogs) once made an instagram poll and asked his subscribers to choose between the two versions and surprisingly it was a tie. This proves that the director made the right decision to come up with alternate endings. 

*END OF SPOILERS*

The film then landed in a controversy within the next few weeks after the premiere. Someone noticed that the story was awfully familiar. It was then proven that the story was 90% similar to a few films from India, America, Russia and more. People were comparing it to a film called “Vanishing Act” and they were right. 

As a film student, I am aware about the concept of adaptation so I personally see no wrong in the filmmaker’s act. However, I can understand why people are mad. The filmmaker went silent once news got out about him “stealing” the idea and “claiming” the story as his. But based on my research, I never found him claiming the story as his before. Although, he also never mentioned about him making a remake of the initial film as well. The filmmaker went silent for a long time and people kept sending him hate comments but soon died after a few months. 

A year later, the issue was raised yet again by someone and this caused the filmmaker to finally speak up. He explains the concept of adaptation and how he was inspired by a scriptwriting book called Save The Cat which said that “A good artist copy, but a great artist steals”. He also states about there being so many films abroad that have the similar concept to an older film such as Fast and Furious with Point Break, Avatar with Pocahontas and Inception with Paprika. He finally came clean and stated that he was inspired by a stage play from France called “A Trap for a Lonely Man”. He then added his own twist by adding some horror elements knowing that it being the target audience favourite genre.

Also regarding the quote from Save The Cat, (in my opinion) I feel like what the author was implying is about ‘stealing’ stories from life. Not stealing the exact plot codes from other films. This is based on my understanding from the phrase which I assume Syafiq may have misinterpreted it.

He raised logical points from a filmmaker’s perspective and he also raised some issues about being pressured from his father (Yusof Haslam) and brother (Syamsul Yusof) who were well known filmmakers as well. He said that everyone kept on telling him to be better than his father and brother. Sadly, when he was at his lowest, even his family turned their backs on him and said that it’s fully his fault. 

From my point of view, I was initially furious with him for not being able to defend himself by explaining about the adaptation because I feel like most Malaysian audiences are unaware about it. People assume adaptation is from book to film when it's more than that. I, myself, learnt that from film school. And I’m not entirely defending him as well, I’m still disappointed in him for not speaking up sooner. But I do empathise with him as well. The audience were quick to attack him. The film industry in Malaysia is not entirely in the best state for these past few years. So a film like Misteri Dilaila made everyone hopeful for more quality films like it only to be betrayed at the end when they found out that it wasn’t his own creative idea and a total rip off. I still feel like he did a good job with his visuals which was an improvement from the local films around that time.

Reading through the whole issue and looking at how this decision to “copy” the plot codes as he was inspired from the Save The Cat book has opened my eyes. As a filmmaker, I feel like i should always do research before starting on a project and the best thing is to always be honest with our intentions. If it’s inspired by a remake, then set it straight and give credit to the original piece. Don’t keep it to yourself. It is terrifying though, being in his state where everyone turned their backs on him, even his own family. He released a few films after that, saying that film is his job and that it is his source of income so as much as it may seem hard sometimes, life still goes on. Sadly, he received a lot of backlash and people lost their faith in him. People were being sarcastic and teasing him if the film was even his.Seeing that happened to him opened my eyes. People may let it slide but they’ll never forget. Once you screw up, people will remember and use it against you. 

Pictures of the set:

Links to Film Reviews:

A Non-Horror Fan's Guide To Watching 'Misteri Dilaila'

https://rojakdaily.com/entertainment/article/6414/a-non-horror-fan-s-guide-to-watching-misteri-dilaila

Misteri Dilaila (2019) Review

https://www.caseymoviemania.com/2019/02/misteri-dilaila-2019-review/

Movie review: Misteri Dilaila

https://www.thesundaily.my/style-life/reviews/movie-review-misteri-dilaila-DJ649603

Link to news about the controversy :

Is Local Horror Film ‘Misteri Dilaila’ a Rip Off? Here’s What The Director Had To Say..

https://juiceonline.com/is-local-horror-film-misteri-dilaila-a-rip-off-heres-what-the-director-had-to-say/

Horror fans slam ‘Misteri Dilaila’ for ripping off Hollywood film ‘Vanishing Act’

https://www.malaymail.com/news/showbiz/2019/03/05/horror-fans-slam-misteri-dilaila-for-ripping-off-hollywood-film-vanishing-a/1729154

Clarification/Statement by the Director about the issue (in Malay);

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=649749852534594&set=pcb.649750949201151

[jmsa1287]

Netflix's Haunting 'Locke & Key' Can't Figure Out What it Wants to be

Too kiddie to be an adult drama and too intense to be a children's show, Netflix's adaptation of "Locke & Key," based on the beloved comic series, is no "Stranger Things" and no "The Haunting of Hill House."

"Locke & Key," based on the beloved comic series by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, has been in development hell for some time now, going through different iterations and being passed over to different networks over the years. But the series finally lands at Netflix Friday, resulting in a confused fantasy/horror show that can't figure out what it wants to be and is stuck in a sort of creative purgatory. The 10-episode drama, developed for the small screen by Carlton Cuse ("Lost"); Aron Eli Coleite ("Heroes"); and Meredith Averill ("Star-Crossed"), follows the Locke family — mother Nina Locke ("Scandal" star Darby Stanchfield), teen son Tyler ("Closet Monster" star Connor Jessup), teen daughter Kinsey (Emilia Jones) and youngest son Bode ("It" actor Jackson Robert Scott) — as they move from Seattle to a seaside Massachusetts home. The decision to head across the country comes after the Locke patriarch Rendell (Bill Heck) is murdered and the family moves into Rendell's ancestral home — the creepy Victorian mansion known as Key House.

Struggling with the sudden and tragic loss of their father, the three Locke kids try to adjust to their new life and new school, making friends and keeping an eye on young Bode. It doesn't take long before the trio learn that the house isn't all it appears to be — especially when local kids tell them about the urban legends surrounding the house. Bode befriends a ghoul of sorts who lives in a well on the estate, played by Laysla De Oliveira. She informs the young Locke child about a number of keys hidden within the home; each key holding a different supernatural power. Not everything is as it seems and Bode is quickly sent — or tricked — into hunting down these keys, setting off a chain events that carry through the rest of the season. The biggest issue with "Locke & Key" is tone. Netflix's reboot of "Lost in Space" suffered a similar issue; the space drama tried to be an edgy thriller but was bogged down by also attempting to be a family show. It wasn't graphic or thoughtful enough to keep adults entertained and likely too confusing and boring to please kids. "Locke & Key" is a bit more successful though it's not as provocative as teen shows like "Riverdale" or Netflix's "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" and it's no "Stranger Things," a show about kids for kids that does a wonderful job at spewing out nostalgia so even at its worst, adults will still watch. Though it doesn't come close to something as terrifying as "The Haunting of Hill House," "Locke & Key" does have its moments, which may be a problem for an audience under 14.

There are some solid performances here, most notably Jessup, who has proven in the past that he is capable of more like on ABC's short-lived "American Crime." After the slaying of his father, Tyler is dethatched and depressed, smoking and drowning out the world with headphones. He's lost a lot of his interests, like hockey, but he meets a young woman who seems to bring him out of his shell. Jessup is the most authentic actor here, playing Tyler the best he can with light material. Elsewhere, De Oliveira has fun has her role as the mischievous spirit and has a fabulous wardrobe to boot! We've never seen something demonic look so fierce! "Locke & Key" feels like a familiar show; something you'd see on a broadcast network in the early or mid 00s, something like "Once" but without that program's spirit. It's hard to say if being stuck in development for a decade caused the handful of issues the new show has but as it stands, "Locke & Key" is a show for no one. Fans of the genre are better off re-watching "The Haunting of Hill House" or waiting for its new season. Despite some intriguing moments, this adaption maybe needed another 10 years too cook.

[amandajoyce118]

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 2 Easter Eggs And References

I finally finished watching this set of episodes last week, and finally got to type out all of Easter eggs and references this weekend. There will, of course, be spoilers for the episodes here, but I have a feeling anyone interested in Easter eggs has probably already watched the episodes by now.

Enjoy!

Chapter 12: The Epiphany

The Spinning Clothes Change

Well, this is straight out of the Melissa Joan Hart era of Sabrina Spellman, isn’t it?

Sister Shirley Jackson

Shirley is one of the members of the coven. Shirley Jackson, however, isn’t a fictional character. That name belongs to the woman who wrote The Haunting Of Hill House, now adapted into its own Netflix series. Brother Lovecraft is also mentioned, which is probably a nod to HP Lovecraft.

Dorian’s Grayroom

If you don’t understand that Dorian here is the title character from Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Grey, I’m going to guess you haven’t had any classic lit in your English classes yet. You will, don’t worry.

Salome

The entertainment at Dorian’s is actually a woman straight out of the Bible. She’s also the subject of an Oscar Wilde play, so someone’s a Wilde fan.

“They go low, we go high.”

Roz is a Michelle Obama fan. Another reason to like her.

“The half-witch must not ascend…”

This word choice seems purposeful considering Sabrina is from the same showrunner as Riverdale where we have a bunch of kids running around Riverdale trying to “ascend” with the Gargoyle King.

Chapter 13: The Passion Of Sabrina Spellman

Bye Bye Birdie

It’s funny that Sabrina starred in the Baxter High version of this play since the actress also dealt with it quite a bit when she was in Mad Men. Cute nod.

The Play’s Color Palette

Did anyone else get a Baz Luhrmann Romeo and Juliet vibe from this play? Or was it just me?

Archie Comics At Cerberus’

Both the regular Archie comics as well as Afterlife with Archie can be glimpsed on shelves in the store.

Theo’s Locker

Theo’s high school story feels very Carrie at times. His locker being filled with feminine products is one of those times. Fittingly, Riverdale did Carrie: The Musical in an episode as well. So, you know the showrunner is a big fan.

Chapter 14: Lupercalia

So Many Archie Comics

Sometimes, it seems like that’s all the comic book store in town has. But it’s not, as we will see in the next episode.

Adam

So, there is a Dr. Masters in Archie Comics. The character here, and the character in the comics, don’t share the same first name though, which is likely purposeful since another Dr. Masters appeared on Riverdale as well. While his last name is likely a nod to the comics, his first name is likely a nod to the mythology of Lilith. The story goes that Lilith was created before Eve, that she was actually Adam’s first wife, before leaving the garden, thinking for herself, and also being branded as the world’s first demon, Lucifer’s first wife, or the world’s first witch, depending on the interpretation of the story. It’s fitting that Lilith gets a chance with another Adam.

Chapter 15: Doctor Cerberus’ House Of Horrors

Mrs. McGarvey

She’s played by science fiction actress Veronica Cartwright. She was in such classics as Alien, The Birds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and The Witches of Eastwick. She also appeared in TV classics like The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Wonder Woman And Aquaman

The long shots of the comic book store reveal images of Wonder Woman and Aquaman on the shelving, so, now we know they sell something other than Archie comics.

Arkham

The DC universe gets another shoutout when Harvey has his reading. The school he supposedly gets into is the Arkham Colony of the Arts, a nod to the asylum for Batman’s many villains.

Howard

Interestingly, also during Harvey’s reading, his roommate Howard is a familiar face for Riverdale fans. The same actor plays Dr. Curdle Jr. on Riverdale. Now, we don’t know if Curdle’s first name is Howard or not, but it would be a nice nod to the double appearance of Ben Button on the show last season and on Riverdale. I’m curious if Greendale is like and alternate reality for the Riverdale universe at this point.

Chapter 16: Blackwood

Ray Wise

He plays the Antipope here. Ray Wise loves to play devilish characters. He’s frequently a bad guy. In fact, he already played the devil for the show Reaper. Who else was on Reaper? Aunt Hilda herself, Lucy Davis.

Chapter 17: The Missionaries

Sabrina On Her Bike

The music that plays and Salem accompanying her definitely reminded me of the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz, no?

Jerethiel

If anybody was paying attention to “Jerry” before the reveal that these witch hunters were angels, they would have noticed the name on his nametag. That suffix is a dead giveaway for his angelic roots. Also, cute that these angels are inspired by the Mormon religion, though I’m sure the Mormons don’t appreciate being depicted as the bad guys.

“God will forgive your original sin…”

This line confuses me since “original sin” was supposed to be eating from the tree of knowledge. Essentially, free will is original sin. But it doesn’t actually seem like that’s what the witch hunters are references, but rather just the sinful behavior of the witches in general. It’s an odd phrasing, so I threw it in here.

Sabrina The Savior

Not only does Sabrina get the crown of thorns, but she also gets pierced in the side, and holds a crucifixion pose to get things done. The imagery is clear.

Chapter 18: The Miracles Of Sabrina Spellman

(Side note: I love that Harvey made the Dark Phoenix comparison here. Anyone who has ever seen anything related to X-Men would have likely had the same thought. Sabrina not appreciating that Harvey compares her to a comic book when their entire lives are out of a comic book is also really amusing.)

Methuselah

His name is a reference to the longest living man in the Bible. But he’s played by the incomparable William B. Davis AKA the Smoking Man from the X-Files.

Chapter 19: The Mandrake

Sweetwater River

The ritual Sabrina is supposed to partake in involves making a golem and drowning your double at Sweetwater River. Sweetwater is the river that separates Greendale from Riverdale. It’s also where Jason Blossom was lost and Cheryl Blossom almost died - a set of twins, or doubles as it were. Nice symmetry.

The Ghost

The sheet thrown over Lilith’s new Adam before he tries to kill Sabrina is an homage to one of Michael Myers’ kills in Halloween.

Mandrake-Sabrina’s Scream

Okay, my first thought here was that it was a nod to the idea of mandrake roots looking like babies and how they were used in the Harry Potter series. (The Mandrake scream being fatal once mature.) But it also works as a nod to the screeching in Invasions of the Body Snatchers. We’ll call it a double egg.

Chapter 20 The Mephisto Waltz

The Episode Title

It’s taken from Mephisto, or Mephistopheles, a high ranking demon in German folklore. It’s also the name of a demon in Marvel comics, but that’s probably not related. It’s also the name for the devil in Faust, which makes another person with a name for the devil (Nick Scratch) becoming the literal embodiment of the devil rather poetic here.

“Ashes, ashes, he falls down dead…”

I like that the sisters decide to kill Blackwood using a spell to the tune of “Ring Around The Roses,” which was actually a song about a plague. Were they trying to give him a plague? Fitting.

“Not today, Satan.”

Glad to see modern pop culture makes its way into Greendale outside of horror movies and comic books.

The Archies

Sabrina still has her thermos for the fictional Archie comics band in her room. I’m sure there are tons of Easter eggs in her room if we could actually see everything. Just like Harvey still having Archie artwork on his walls.

Masquerade

The song is from Phantom of the Opera, in case anyone watching the show doesn’t love musical theater as much as the rest of us.

That’s it! That’s all I’ve got, though I’m sure I’ve missed some since I’m not as well versed in horror and probably didn’t catch all of the movie references.