2025 October Horror Challenge #53 "Jennifer's Body"

Jennifer’s Body: A Misunderstood Feminist Horror Classic

When Jennifer’s Body was released in 2009, critics and audiences alike didn’t quite know what to do with it. Marketed as a sexy horror-comedy designed to appeal to teenage boys, the film was sold through trailers emphasizing Megan Fox’s body rather than the biting satire that lay beneath its surface. The result was a commercial flop and a critical shrug, yet the truth is that Jennifer’s Body was never meant to be a fantasy for the male gaze—it was a darkly witty feminist critique of the very culture that exploited and misunderstood it.

Written by Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama, Jennifer’s Body turns the traditional “dead girl” trope inside out. Jennifer Check (played with equal parts menace and vulnerability by Megan Fox) isn’t the helpless victim of horror cinema’s past. She’s a high school girl who becomes the literal embodiment of male fears and desires after being sacrificed by a clueless indie rock band seeking fame. Instead of staying dead, Jennifer rises—hungry not for approval or love, but for flesh. Her victims? The very boys who objectified her.

Subverting the Male Gaze

What makes Jennifer’s Body so fascinating is the way it reclaims horror for women. Kusama and Cody weren’t interested in making another slasher flick with a “final girl” running terrified through the woods. Instead, they built a story that exposes how women are consumed—figuratively and literally—by a culture that sees them only as objects of desire. When Jennifer seduces and devours her male classmates, it’s not just gore for shock value; it’s revenge, catharsis, and metaphor. Each kill is a gruesome commentary on the way the world feeds on young women’s beauty and innocence.

Megan Fox’s performance is key to understanding this subversion. At the time, she had been pigeonholed by Hollywood into playing the ultimate bombshell, the glossy fantasy of films like Transformers. But here, she uses that image against itself. Every smirk, every cruelly playful glance becomes a weapon. Fox leans into the character’s sexual power not to titillate, but to mock the audience’s expectations. Watching Jennifer’s Body through the lens of female rage and reclamation reveals that it’s not about male pleasure—it’s about the cost of being constantly watched.

The Curse of Mismarketing

The tragedy of Jennifer’s Body is that its message was buried beneath a marketing campaign that misunderstood everything about it. The studio’s promotional materials leaned heavily into Fox’s sex appeal, framing the film as a steamy teen horror romp instead of the sharp feminist satire it really was. The trailer practically begged young men to come watch “Megan Fox be hot and evil,” while the actual movie offered a sly indictment of that very gaze. Unsurprisingly, audiences expecting a typical horror-thriller left confused or disappointed, while the people who might have appreciated its social critique—especially young women—never got the chance to see themselves reflected in it.

In hindsight, Jennifer’s Body feels like it was simply ahead of its time. In the late 2000s, mainstream audiences weren’t ready for a horror film written by a woman, directed by a woman, and unapologetically centered on the complexities of female friendship, jealousy, and identity. It took nearly a decade—and the rise of movements like #MeToo—for viewers to return to the movie with fresh eyes. Today, it’s gaining recognition as the cult classic it always deserved to be.

A Story About Friendship and Power

At its core, Jennifer’s Body is as much about friendship as it is about fear. The relationship between Jennifer and Needy (Amanda Seyfried) anchors the film emotionally. Their bond is complicated—part devotion, part rivalry, part mirror. Needy watches her best friend transform into something monstrous, and the horror lies not only in Jennifer’s supernatural hunger but also in how their connection fractures under the weight of trauma and societal expectations. The film’s emotional climax isn’t when Jennifer dies, but when their friendship does. That loss hits harder than any jump scare.

Diablo Cody’s trademark dialogue—clever, self-aware, and steeped in irony—turns the horror genre into a kind of dark poetry. Lines like “Hell is a teenage girl” don’t just sound cool; they encapsulate the film’s thesis. Adolescence is its own kind of haunting, especially for girls told their worth depends on how they’re seen. By making the monster a victim of patriarchal sacrifice, Jennifer’s Body exposes the violence that lurks beneath the surface of so many coming-of-age stories.

Reclaiming the Classic

Over time, the cultural tide has turned. What was once dismissed as shallow or confusing is now praised for its biting social commentary and layered performances. Jennifer’s Body stands alongside other feminist horror films—like The Witch and Ginger Snaps—that reimagine female monstrosity as empowerment. Its humor, gore, and emotional honesty make it an essential entry in the modern horror canon.

In a way, the movie’s misunderstood legacy mirrors its heroine’s fate: beautiful, brutalized, and blamed for something she never chose. But like Jennifer herself, the film refuses to stay dead. It keeps coming back—on streaming platforms, in think pieces, in late-night cult screenings—inviting new audiences to finally see what was always there: a wickedly funny, razor-sharp reflection on what it means to be consumed by others and to reclaim your power in return.

Jennifer’s Body isn’t a failure—it’s a resurrection. And like all great horror stories, it’s one that lingers long after the credits roll, whispering to anyone who’ll listen: maybe the monster was never the girl at all.

2025 October Horror Challenge "52 "They/Them"

The Haunting Reflection of Horror: How They/Them Triggered Memories of Pine Rest

Horror has always been a lens through which I navigate fear and trauma, allowing me to confront danger from a safe distance. As someone who survived institutional abuse, I have relied on horror movies as a coping mechanism, using them to explore fear, powerlessness, and survival without being fully overwhelmed. The Peacock original film They/Them struck me with a force unlike anything I had experienced before. Its depiction of a conversion therapy camp mirrored aspects of my own lived experience, evoking both validation and intense psychological discomfort. Watching the film brought buried memories to the surface and forced me to confront trauma that has shaped my life for decades. To fully understand why They/Them impacted me so profoundly, it is necessary to contextualize my own experiences with institutional abuse and coercive therapy.

My Experience at Pine Rest

At seventeen, while in foster care, I faced a perilous situation at home. My probation officer considered sending me back despite repeated threats to my life from my brother. In a desperate attempt to protect myself, I took an entire bottle of pills, reasoning that if I survived, I would remain under supervision and avoid being returned to an unsafe environment. This led to my hospitalization and subsequent transfer to Pine Rest, an inpatient therapy facility in Grand Rapids, where I endured what they termed “reparative therapy.” The facility claimed it could “cure” deviant behavior, targeting not only my history of self-harm but also my gender-nonconforming presentation. The therapy itself was a combination of mind-control tactics and coercion: I was forced to write lines hundreds of times, obey arbitrary rules, and accept punishment for asserting autonomy. The methods were less about helping me heal and more about enforcing compliance and control.

One night at Pine Rest crystallized the terror and humiliation I experienced there. While attempting to adjust a shower curtain with a wire coat hanger, I was confronted by orderlies, accused of having a plan to harm myself, and escorted to the so-called “quiet room.” There, stripped naked and vulnerable, I faced Dr. Masterson, the head psychiatrist. He berated me while quoting Bible verses and threatened forced medication if I continued to cry. Eventually, I was coerced into taking a combination of powerful antipsychotics and tranquilizers. The psychological and physical disempowerment of that experience—being completely at the mercy of authority figures who could manipulate, punish, and humiliate at will—remains vivid in my memory, even though a dissociative fugue has erased some details. Attempts to report potential sexual assault were dismissed; the adults who should have protected me sided with the perpetrator. The trauma was compounded by the knowledge that no one believed me and that the abuse was normalized within the institution.

Connection to They/Them

They/Them brings these horrors into the cinematic realm, dramatizing a conversion therapy camp where authority figures wield coercive control over vulnerable teenagers. The movie mirrors the power dynamics I experienced at Pine Rest: arbitrary rules, threats of punishment, enforced compliance, and rituals meant to “correct” the natural behavior of queer and gender-nonconforming youth. Specific scenes—such as teenagers being isolated, punished, or coerced to comply with religiously framed rules—resonated deeply with my memories of sitting naked in a sterile room, crying under the scrutiny of a man with the power to dictate my reality. The tension, fear, and helplessness depicted on screen brought my own trauma vividly to life, forcing me to relive the psychological and emotional weight of institutional abuse.

Emotional Impact and Validation

The emotional response I experienced while watching the film was intense and multifaceted. I felt fear, anger, sadness, and grief—emotions that are typical for trauma survivors when confronted with reminders of abuse. Yet alongside these painful emotions, there was a profound sense of validation. Seeing a fictionalized representation of conversion therapy and institutional coercion confirmed that my experiences were neither imagined nor isolated; they were part of a broader, systemic problem that affects many vulnerable youth. Horror, in this case, allowed me to confront the truth of my trauma while providing a controlled environment in which to do so. Unlike my time at Pine Rest, where control was taken from me, watching the film allowed me to observe, process, and reflect with agency.

Representation and Social Implications

The film also underscores the importance of media representation for survivors of abuse. Conversion therapy, especially in institutional settings, is rarely depicted in mainstream media, leaving many survivors without validation. They/Them challenges that erasure, portraying not only the terror and abuse of such camps but also the resilience and humanity of the survivors. For someone like me, who endured coercive control and humiliation, seeing my experiences mirrored on screen was simultaneously triggering and affirming. It reminded me that while the abuse I suffered was deeply personal, it was also part of a larger societal problem, and my survival is a testament to resilience rather than weakness.

Moreover, They/Them invites reflection on the psychological mechanisms that allow survivors to endure trauma. Horror has long been my coping mechanism, a way to externalize fear and confront it safely. The film intensified this process, forcing me to navigate memories that had been compartmentalized or suppressed through dissociation. Each moment of tension, punishment, or threat in the movie echoed the real-life fear I experienced at Pine Rest, highlighting the lasting impact of institutional abuse on survivors’ mental health. It also emphasized the importance of acknowledging trauma rather than silencing it; in the movie, as in life, surviving abuse requires both awareness and resilience.

Beyond personal resonance, the movie prompted reflection on broader social issues. Conversion therapy, particularly in institutional settings, is a practice rooted in coercion, fear, and the suppression of identity. My experience at Pine Rest demonstrates the devastating effects of such environments: the erosion of autonomy, psychological trauma, and the lasting struggle with self-blame and shame. They/Them functions not only as entertainment but also as social commentary, shedding light on systemic abuses and validating the experiences of survivors. The film’s portrayal challenges audiences to confront uncomfortable truths about how vulnerable youth are often failed by the very systems designed to protect them.

Conclusion

In conclusion, They/Them impacted me more strongly than most horror films because it reflected the very real horrors I endured at Pine Rest. Its depiction of coercive control, punishment, and conversion therapy brought buried emotions and memories to the surface, allowing me to process them in a way that was both terrifying and validating. Horror, as a genre, has long been a tool for navigating trauma, but this film was different: it forced a confrontation with the past while affirming the reality of my survival. By representing the systemic abuses of conversion therapy camps, They/Them offers both a mirror for survivors and a warning to society, highlighting the dangers of institutional control and the resilience of those who endure it. The film reminded me that the trauma I survived was real, that my responses were human and valid, and that despite the abuse I endured, I continue to live, reflect, and bear witness to these stories.

2025 October Horror Challenge #51 "Tarot"

Tarot is a film that wears its symbolism on its sleeve and invites the audience to do the same: to shuffle through images, meanings, and moods until a pattern — or a warning — emerges. At once intimate and uncanny, the movie trades in quiet dread rather than jump-scare theatrics, choosing instead to let its imagery and performances slowly insinuate themselves under the viewer’s skin. The result is a film that rewards patience and reflection, one that feels less like a narrative punch and more like a slow-reading of a deck that keeps rearranging itself.

On the surface, the plot of Tarot is deceptively simple: a small cast of characters are drawn together around a set of mysterious cards whose presence disturbs the surface reality of their relationships and histories. The movie resists the temptation to spell everything out; it offers fragments — an exchanged glance, a lingering tracking shot, a recurring card — and trusts the viewer to assemble the meanings. That obliqueness is both the film’s greatest strength and its occasional frustration. When the movie is working, ambiguity deepens into atmosphere; when it missteps, it can feel coy.

Visual and stylistic choices are where Tarot really stakes its claim. The cinematography approaches the cards as objects of both intimacy and menace: close-ups linger on texture and edge; shallow depth-of-field pushes faces into dreamy half-focus; and a muted, almost monastic color palette lets pops of crimson, gold, or faded blue command the frame like talismans. The director uses composition like a reader uses spreads — arranging figures and props so that every frame feels like a deliberate layout, a photograph meant to be interpreted. Slow dolly moves and extended takes enhance the sense that the camera itself is riffling through the lives of its subjects, looking for correspondences.

The sound design and score also deserve praise. Rather than relying on a chirpy theme or aggressive stinger cues, the film opts for an ambient, textural soundscape: low drones, distant bells, and a shifting, almost breathing undercurrent that makes silence feel populated. When music appears, it rarely underscores emotional beats directly; instead it tends to comment obliquely, adding layers to scenes without telegraphing their meaning. The cumulative effect is that the movie’s aural world becomes as tarot-like as its visual one — suggestive and resonant rather than prescriptive.

Performances are lean and measured throughout. The actors avoid melodrama, choosing instead to embody characters who are careful with their expressions and speech. This restraint is essential to the film’s mood: in a story about interpretation and projection, small gestures matter. A slight change in a smile or a hand’s hesitation does heavy narrative lifting, and the ensemble trusts the camera to catch those micro-choices. If there is a single standout, it is the lead who anchors the film with a presence that is equal parts fragile and determined; their performance gives the film a human center that makes its more surreal moments feel earned.

Thematically, Tarot plays at the intersection of fate and agency. The cards in the movie function on several registers: as catalysts for action, mirrors for character, and metaphors for the ways people attempt to organize chaos into story. The film is skeptical of simple superstition — it never posits the cards as an external magic that forces action — and instead suggests that ritual and symbol have the power to reveal latent choices and desires. In that way, the movie becomes less about prophecy and more about confession; drawing a card is a way for a character to confront what they already suspect or fear.

What makes the movie linger after the credits is its interest in interpretation — not only of cards, but of other people. Several scenes feel like exercises in reading: characters study one another for clues, misread intentions, and retrofit memories to match a new narrative. That social hermeneutic is where the film finds its modern resonance: in a culture saturated with images and explanations, how do we know when a story is real and when it’s a consoling fiction? Tarot suggests that the line is porous, and that the attempt to fix meaning is, paradoxically, a profoundly human act.

Pacing may be polarizing. The film deliberately avoids procedural momentum; it does not rush to reveal its secrets, and many scenes are allowed to breathe long after a conventional screenplay would have moved on. For viewers accustomed to plot-forward storytelling, this can feel diffuse. For others, the slow-burn approach is precisely the point: the film wants you to dwell, to return to earlier images with new associations, much as a reader revisits a card spread. The patience required is not passive; it activates the viewer’s curiosity and interpretive faculties.

There are moments where the film’s ambiguity feels like a strategy rather than an aesthetic necessity — scenes that end on evocative but inconclusive notes, or plot threads that are hinted at but never fully examined. These choices will annoy some and delight others. Personally, I found that the film’s willingness to withhold answers encouraged repeated viewing; each return offers new connective tissue. Yet, had the screenplay tightened a few arcs or offered clearer emotional payoffs for certain character choices, Tarot might have retained its mystery without occasionally drifting into neat vagueness.

Production design is another quiet hero. Set pieces, props, and costuming carry their own vocabulary: the cards themselves are treated as crafted artifacts, and the domestic spaces the characters inhabit feel lived-in and symbolic in equal measure. Small details — a stained tablecloth, a child’s drawing, an old photograph — become indexical, yielding narrative clues without becoming heavy-handed. This tactile attention grounds the film’s more metaphysical impulses and makes its symbolic flourishes feel earned.

Contextually, Tarot sits comfortably among recent films that privilege mood over exposition and thematic suggestion over plot resolution. It is not a genre exercise in the conventional sense, nor is it strictly arthouse; rather, it walks a liminal line, borrowing from both to create a hybrid that will appeal to discerning viewers who enjoy cinema as puzzle and poetry. Its strengths lie less in immediate thrills and more in the compound resonance of image, sound, and performance.

In conclusion, Tarot is an evocative film that rewards careful attention. Its achievements are many: striking cinematography, nuanced performances, and a thematic core that interrogates how humans make sense of uncertainty. Its limitations — a pacing that demands patience and a fondness for ambiguity that occasionally borders on withholding — will determine whether viewers fall in love with its mysteries or walk away wanting. For those willing to be read, to sit with questions rather than answers, Tarot offers a richly textured cinematic experience that lingers like a remembered dream.

2025 October Horror Challenge #50"I Know What You Did Last Summer"

I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) — A Review and Reflection 1. Revisiting Summer: From the Novel to the Original Film

The 2025 version of I Know What You Did Last Summer arrives as both a tribute and a retread, resurrecting a familiar premise first born in Lois Duncan’s 1973 novel. In her book, Duncan spins a suspenseful, character-driven tale: four teens — Julie, Ray, Helen, and Barry — cover up an accidental hit-and-run and are later terrorized by ominous, anonymous notes warning that someone knows their secret. Unlike a slasher, there is no fisherman with a hook in the novel; the menace is psychological, not physical. Duncan herself was deeply critical of later film adaptations for their sensational violence.

The 1997 film, written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Jim Gillespie, reimagined Duncan’s contemplative mystery as a classic ’90s slasher. Instead of a moral reckoning, the characters are stalked by a masked “Fisherman” wielding a hook — a decidedly more visceral threat than anything in the book. This change not only heightens the tension but shifts the tone: what was once a story about guilt becomes a spectacle of survival. While the movie was never hailed as masterful horror, it found its audience as a slick, campy slasher. Its legacy is inseparable from its era, riding on nostalgia, jump scares, and a memorable villain.<>

2. My Childhood Connection: Reading the Novel as a Little Girl

I first encountered Duncan’s I Know What You Did Last Summer when I was quite young — maybe in middle school. To my younger self, the book was both thrilling and terrifying in a way that few stories were. It wasn’t graphic, but the weight of secrecy, the question of moral responsibility, and the slow-building tension stayed with me. Duncan’s prose moved quickly, and I remember reading late into the night, turning pages on the edge of my bed, heart pounding.

Back then, I had no concept of slasher culture; the idea of a Fisherman with a hook was foreign to me. Instead, I fixated on the “who sent the note?” mystery, on what it means to do something terrible and then pretend it never happened. That innocence made the book’s emotional stakes feel real. Re-reading it years later, I was struck by how little had changed about myself: I was still drawn to tension, to secrets, to the question of whether the past can truly be buried.

3. Christopher Pike’s Chain Letter — Uncredited Echoes

As I grew older, I also devoured teen horror novels of the ’80s and ’90s, including Christopher Pike’s Chain Letter. Though Pike certainly has his own voice, there is no denying thematic overlap: in Chain Letter, a group of young people receive threatening letters after some dark event, and the suspense escalates as the chain continues. (While Pike uses more “rules” around the chain letter concept, the core is similar: guilt, anonymous menace, peer betrayal.)

Some readers and critics have accused Pike of borrowing heavily from Duncan’s premise. While I wouldn’t call it plagiarism — Pike’s book is creative, and it resonated with me deeply — the similarities are striking. Yet Chain Letter stands on its own merits: Pike weaves psychological horror with teenage angst, moral dilemmas, and the reality that secrets don’t stay buried. It was a favorite of mine, even if I recognized, in the back of my mind, echoes of I Know What You Did Last Summer.

4. The 2025 Film: A “Requel” With Nostalgia and New Ambition

The 2025 film doesn’t just reboot — it requels. Rather than ignoring the past, it leans into legacy: Jennifer Love Hewitt (Julie) and Freddie Prinze Jr. (Ray) reprise their roles — older, scarred, and haunted by their history. The new protagonists — Ava, Danica, Milo, Teddy, and Stevie — replicate the moral predicament of the original: they cause an accident on July 4, swear secrecy, and a year later, someone is making sure they pay.

This approach to legacy feels deliberate. According to Roger Ebert, the writers hint at deeper themes — corruption, class, and privilege — suggesting that the sins of the past are part of a larger system. There’s also a meta angle: true crime podcasts, power dynamics, and a generational reckoning. But for all its ambition, many reviewers argue that the film fails to deliver on these ideas.

5. Strengths and Missed Opportunities

One of the film’s strongest features is its balance of fan service and fresh faces. Returning stars lend nostalgia, while the new cast brings energy. Entertainment Geekly notes that the legacy actors’ appearances feel “more like fan service than meaningful story beats,” but suggests they do anchor the film emotionally. Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, and the rest often shine, but critics argue the script underutilizes them.

Pacing is another common criticism. According to TheMovieBlog, the opening is rushed, the middle drags, and the final act’s payoff feels anticlimactic. Roger Ebert echoes this, calling the editing disjointed and the tonal shifts jarring: some kills are cartoonishly gory; others are emotionally hollow. The cinematography and score are competent but unremarkable, leaning on genre conventions without surprising the viewer. Entertainment Geekly points out that often when the movie tries to signal deeper meaning — through class critique or generational trauma — it retreats into nostalgia and gore. Moreover, the killer reveal and motive do not land for many. Hollywood Insider says the twist is telegraphed yet unsatisfying, calling the script “uneven” in tone. The intention to explore power or institutional neglect feels undercooked. Even when the film teases larger social commentary, it often reverts to slasher mechanics.

6. How the Requel Echoes—And Diverges From—Its Roots

In terms of structure, the 2025 film mirrors the 1997 original: a group of privileged young people makes a deadly mistake, then suffers the consequences. But the requel also recontextualizes that structure. By bringing Julie and Ray back, the film creates continuity — their trauma is not just past, but present. Their survival becomes part of the myth, and their regrets carry forward.

Unlike the original movie, which leaned into slasher tropes exclusively, the requel flirts with a broader palette: true crime commentary, class critique, and the legacy of violence. Yet, as critics note, these ambitions are not fully realized. Roger Ebert argues that the film “feints” at meaning but lacks the courage to fully challenge the structures it hints at. Instead of a clean slasher film or a sharp social satire, the requel resides somewhere in between — and sometimes that in-betweenness feels like diluted identity.

Still, the film gets points for bravery. It doesn’t erase the past; it demands that characters reckon with it. The fact that Julie and Ray have aged, changed, and carry their scars adds emotional texture. And by positioning the new generation against that legacy, the movie suggests that some secrets cast long shadows.

7. Comparing the Requel to the Novel and to Pike’s Chain Letter

From my perspective as someone who read the novel as a child and grew up reading Pike, the 2025 film is the most novelistic of the cinematic adaptations — not because it abandons slasher violence, but because it centers its conflict around legacy, secrecy, and guilt. While Duncan’s original was quietly psychological, the requel ramps up the horror; yet it also channels her deeper themes of regret and moral responsibility more than the 1997 movie did.

Regarding Pike, there’s something almost poetic in how the requel mirrors the structure of Chain Letter even as it hearkens back to Duncan. The letters, the group’s secret, the sense that someone is watching — these are motifs both Pike and Duncan explored, and the new film weaves them together with a self-awareness that feels almost modern. Unlike Pike, who built his own mythology, the 2025 IKWYDLS feels like a conversation with the past: with Duncan’s guilt-driven mystery, with the slasher lineage, and even with Pike’s psychological tension.

8. Personal Reflection: Nostalgia, Growth, and What We Did

Watching the requel felt deeply personal to me. As someone who first read Duncan’s book as a little girl, I saw echoes of the guilt that haunted the teens, but I also felt a longing for more: more risk, more insight, more emotional weight. The movie reminds me that the past is not static — that the choices we made long ago still ripple.

I also felt a pang of disappointment: the requel could have leaned harder into its thematic ambitions. The commentary on privilege, power, and forgotten trauma is tantalizing, but I wished it had more teeth. That said, the legacy aspects — revisiting Julie and Ray, honoring their survival — gave me a bittersweet satisfaction.

As for Pike, I recognized his ghost in the letters, in the secrecy, in the twisted sense that someone is punishing you for what you thought you buried. The requel doesn’t copy Chain Letter; it dialogues with it, acknowledging its influence even as it reclaims the original narrative.

9. Verdict: A Mixed But Meaningful Legacy

Ultimately, I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) is not a perfect film. It struggles with pacing, tone, and ambition, and some of its thematic threads feel half-baked. Critics have noted that it leans heavily on nostalgia and doesn’t always justify its existence beyond fan service. But it is meaningful. As a requel, it succeeds in honoring its roots — the novel, the original film, the emotional core — while attempting to say something new about history, grief, and the price of secrecy. For me, it’s not just another slasher: it’s a reckoning. If you loved Duncan’s book for its moral weight, or Pike’s Chain Letter for its psychological chill, or the original 1997 movie for its hook-laden thrills, there is something here to chew on. The new IKWYDLS may not rewrite the past, but it asks us to consider how much of that past we carry — and whether ghosts ever truly let go.

2025 October Horror Challenge #49 "Beetlejuice"

“Beetlejuice”: Finding Companionship in the Afterlife of the Imagination

Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice (1988) is one of those rare films that manages to blend the macabre with the hilarious, the gothic with the heartfelt. For many viewers, it’s a bizarre, unforgettable ride through the afterlife; for me, it was something even more intimate. Watching Beetlejuice as a lonely and isolated child, I found in its ghostly world the companionship and magic I longed for but could never quite reach in real life. Burton’s strange and wonderful creation showed me that even the misunderstood, the dead, and the outcast can find their place—and perhaps even their people—somewhere in the in-between.

At first glance, Beetlejuice is a comedy about death, but beneath its eccentric humor lies a surprisingly tender story about belonging. The film begins with Barbara and Adam Maitland (Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin), a young married couple who die suddenly in a car accident and return home as ghosts. Their cozy Connecticut house, once a peaceful haven, is soon invaded by a loud, tasteless New York family—the Deetzes—and their darkly dressed teenage daughter Lydia, played by a young Winona Ryder. The Maitlands are horrified by the Deetzes’ attempts to redecorate and “modernize” their home, and they seek to scare them away. But the Maitlands aren’t very good at haunting, so they turn to a “bio-exorcist,” the wild and chaotic Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), for help. What follows is a gothic carnival of hauntings, possessions, and otherworldly bureaucracy—all underscored by Burton’s unmistakable visual style.

As a child, I didn’t understand all the adult jokes or the satire of suburban culture, but what I did understand was loneliness. Like Lydia, I was often isolated, cut off from other children and from the normal rhythms of life. I didn’t go to school, didn’t have playdates, and didn’t know what it was like to be part of a crowd. My world was small and silent, filled mostly with books, imagination, and longing. When I first saw Beetlejuice, it felt like someone had opened a secret door into a place where loneliness wasn’t a curse—it was a kind of magic. Lydia wasn’t afraid of ghosts; she welcomed them. She could see the dead when others couldn’t, and that ability made her special rather than strange. Watching her form a friendship with Barbara and Adam felt like watching my own wish come true: the dream of finding kindred spirits, even if they came from the other side.

The ghosts in Beetlejuice aren’t malicious or frightening; they’re simply lost. They’re trying to make sense of the strange, bureaucratic world of the afterlife, flipping through manuals and attending appointments with the same kind of bewilderment I often felt trying to navigate the real world. As a child who had to teach myself things—reading, writing, understanding people—I recognized something familiar in the Maitlands’ confusion. They wanted to do the right thing but didn’t know how. They were, in their own way, like me: well-meaning but out of place. The tenderness with which Burton portrays them reminded me that kindness can exist even in unlikely places, and that sometimes, the most misunderstood souls are also the most generous.

Visually, Beetlejuice is a masterpiece of creative chaos. Burton’s use of exaggerated sets, vivid colors, and surreal design elements creates a world that feels both cartoonish and deeply emotional. The afterlife scenes—complete with sandworms, skeletal civil servants, and waiting-room ghosts—are a playground for the imagination. For me, that imaginative world was everything. It showed that the bizarre could be beautiful, that even the grotesque could be comforting. When I was a child with few real connections, the film’s haunted house became a kind of home for my mind. I wanted to wander through its hallways, to meet the Maitlands and have them teach me how to float above my fears. I even wanted to sit on the couch in the waiting room for the dead, because at least there, everyone seemed to have a story.

What makes Beetlejuice endure is not just its strangeness, but its heart. Beneath the jokes and special effects is a message about family and acceptance. Lydia, who begins the film feeling alienated from her shallow parents, finds love and protection in the ghosts next door. Barbara and Adam, who can’t have children in life, find in Lydia the daughter they never had. Their connection crosses the boundaries between life and death, proving that belonging is not about where you are—it’s about who sees you and understands you. For a lonely child watching from the outside, that message was a lifeline. It told me that even if I didn’t fit in with the living, there might still be a place for me somewhere, with someone.

Michael Keaton’s performance as Beetlejuice is a chaotic force of nature, but even his character, for all his vulgarity and madness, fits into this theme of outsiders seeking connection. He is desperate to be noticed, to be called upon, to be included. In some strange way, his manic energy reflects the darker side of loneliness—the craving for attention that can twist into mischief when left unchecked. Watching him, I understood that loneliness can make you both creative and chaotic, playful and destructive. Yet in the end, the film suggests that redemption, or at least understanding, is possible.

Looking back as an adult, I realize how much Beetlejuice shaped my imagination and my empathy. It taught me that the strange parts of ourselves aren’t something to hide—they can be sources of connection. It also reminded me that family doesn’t have to mean blood relations; sometimes, it means finding people (or ghosts) who see your light in the dark. Even today, when I hear the opening notes of Danny Elfman’s iconic score, I’m transported back to that first feeling of recognition—the sense that I wasn’t entirely alone, that somewhere out there, even in the afterlife, there might be friends waiting to welcome me home. Ultimately, Beetlejuice is more than just a cult classic; it’s a story about loneliness transformed into laughter, fear turned into friendship, and death reimagined as a gateway to belonging. For those of us who grew up isolated, it offered not just escapism but hope—a colorful, chaotic reminder that even ghosts crave connection, and that maybe, just maybe, they’re listening when we call their names.

2035 October Horror Challenge #48 "Weapons"

A Review of Weapons: A Haunting, Compassionate Symphony of Trauma and Power

From the very first moments of Weapons, director Zach Cregger proves he is a bold storyteller, unafraid to wrestle with deep grief, supernatural dread, and fractured innocence. What begins as a mysterious disappearance of 17 children turns into a multilayered exploration of how trauma, power, and neglect fester beneath the surface of a quiet suburban town. The film’s structure — shifting perspectives, character-driven chapters — gives it a mosaic quality that is emotionally rich, intellectually unsettling, and ultimately cathartic.

One of the greatest strengths of Weapons is its refusal to spell everything out. As Roger Ebert noted, Cregger “abjectly refuses to connect every dot,” leaving room for metaphor, interpretation, and even discomfort. This ambiguity isn’t accidental: it mirrors the way real trauma is fragmented, how truth can be suppressed or misremembered, and how the most horrifying things sometimes defy tidy explanation.

Performances in Weapons are uniformly excellent. Julia Garner, as Justine Gandy, anchors the film with a performance that is both fragile and fierce. Her Justine carries the weight of suspicion, isolation, and hidden knowledge, and Garner imbues her with humanity even when the world around her treats her like an outsider or a witch. Josh Brolin’s Archer — a grieving father whose anger and confusion fuel one of the film’s most emotionally wrenching arcs — is also deeply compelling. The ensemble cast around them, including a haunted principal (Benedict Wong) and other characters with secret pasts, helps weave a tapestry of loss and longing.

Cregger’s screenplay is both daring and deeply metaphorical. As Esquire points out, he tackles themes like “toxic family relationships, domestic abuse, and our appalling ineptitude regarding caring for our children.” But unlike some films that treat metaphor lightly, Weapons earns its weight: the horror in this movie does not come simply from cheap jump scares, but from the unsettling idea that the real threat may lie in neglect, in unloved children, or in adults too broken to heal.

Visually, the film is evocative. The tone shifts between eerie, fairy-tale horror and gritty realism. These shifts make the more surreal, supernatural scenes — particularly those involving the sinister figure of Gladys — feel both shocking and inevitable. Some parts feel like a modern nightmare; others feel like quiet, painful memories surfacing.

The emotional core of Weapons resonated with me deeply, especially through a personal lens I carry. When I watched the story of these children vanishing, of a teacher ostracized and blamed, of parents unraveling under grief, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own past. As a little girl, I was not allowed to go to school. I taught myself to read and write in secret, piece by piece, longing for what other children took for granted. I was constantly jealous of those who could sit at desks, raise their hands, learn in a classroom. Seeing a teacher like Justine, who becomes a target — not because she is guilty, but because the town needs someone to blame — hit me in a personal way. I understood what it means to be excluded, to teach yourself, to carry a hunger for the kind of acceptance and education that others receive so freely.

That personal echo made Weapons feel more than just a horror movie. It felt like a meditation on powerlessness and resilience, on the way society weaponizes blame, and on what happens when no one protects the most vulnerable. Through Justine and Archer and others, the film shows that trauma isn’t neat — it’s jagged, stubborn, and sometimes impossible to fully eradicate, but it can also be faced and understood.

The pacing of Weapons is deliberate. While some viewers might argue that the ambiguity slows things down or that certain character arcs feel underdeveloped, I see this as a strength. The movie doesn’t rush to a tidy resolution. Instead, it allows its characters (and us) to sit in discomfort, to contemplate what it means to lose innocence, and to reckon with the cost of holding onto power. Critics on Rotten Tomatoes echo this, noting the film’s “originality” and “genre-bending” ambition.

There is also a kind of dark beauty in how Cregger frames the horror: it is not always external. Sometimes, the scariest weapon is grief itself, or the neglect that seeps into daily life. As Esquire writes, Weapons is “a killing machine that livens up an otherwise bummer summer for horror,” but beyond the gore, its real power lies in its emotional core.

The film’s structure — shifting character perspectives, interwoven timelines — supports this thematic complexity. By telling the story in chapters, Cregger lets each character’s trauma unfold on its own terms, and then shows how these individual pains connect. Justine’s journey, Archer’s grief, the principal’s shame, and even the sinister manifestations of Gladys’ power all feel interdependent. This layered storytelling gives the film a richness that lingers long after the credits roll.

In conclusion, Weapons is more than a horror movie — it’s a deeply human film about loss, blame, and survival. Zach Cregger demonstrates that he is not just a master of scares, but a thoughtful writer-director who understands how to make metaphor matter. The performances are moving, the writing is brave, and the emotional resonance is real. For someone like me, who missed out on school, who learned in quiet isolation, and who always carried a private ache for belonging and education, Weapons hit a note of truth: trauma isn’t just something that happens to “others,” and healing isn’t always obvious or clean. But it is possible to face the darkness, to name the wounds, and to strive for something like peace. If you’re a fan of horror with heart — horror that doesn’t just frighten, but also makes you think and feel — Weapons is absolutely worth your time. It’s a haunting, hopeful, and deeply affecting film that lingers in the mind long after the final frame.

2025 October Horror Challenge Personal Essay: Someone Saved My Life Tonight

When I was a teenager, I lived in an abusive home. My mother thought that she wasn't abusive because she didn't hit me or my brother, but what she did to us was worse. She pulled us out of school after I finished kindergarten and he finished first grade, and she paid tuition at an accredited home school so she would have paperwork proving that we were in school if anyone ever called protective services on her, which happened from ti.e to time, but she didn't teach us. I had to smuggle a textbook into my room when I was 10 years old and teach myself to read and write, because I knew if I ever could escape from my home life, I wouldn't survive in the world unless I knew how to read and write. Reading also helped me escape the crushing confines of my home life. I soon discovered that reading about people fighting fake monsters helped me survive the real monsters all around me, and I became a die hard horror fan who devoured Stephen King books as fast as he could write them. He soon became my favorite author, because he has a gift of saying things I've felt for years but couldn't put into words. Over the years reading his books, I saw him dedicate books to his three children, Naomi, Joe, and Owen. As years passed the kids grew up, and Joe and Owen started their own writing careers. Now, I love a good horror story no matter who writes it, and I loved Joe Hill's book "Horns," and I've heard great things about his other books, so I know he's a good author. But when Stephen King said in an interview once that Joe writes just like him, I disagreed with that statement. I mean, come on, Joe Hill is good, but he's never written anything that literally saved my life, and Stephen King has. In Stephen King's book "Rose Madder," he said something that stuck in my head and wouldn'teave, and it echoed within me until I finally did what it said, and because of that, I'm alive today.

In "Rose Madder," a woman is being abused by her husband, and she realizes one day after one beating (that isn't even as bad as some of the others) that if she stays in this relationship, she's going to die, because he's going to kill her, and if she wants to survive, she has to run away. So she does, and the book unfolds from there. But that passage wouldn't leave my head. You see, my brother was always the favored child. When we fought, if he ran to my mother crying, she would hug him and punish me. This worked from a very young age. He would sit for hours on the couch with his head in my mother's lap and she would stroke his hair, and they would talk, and she loved him and despised me. This went on for years, and while I was trying to learn to read and write, my brother was busy bonding with the enemy. Which meant they had a very special relationship, but it also meant he couldn't take out his anger on her because he would lose his favored position, but he had to put that anger somewhere, so he took it out on me. He beat me, choked me, stabbed knives into the wall next to my head, threatened to slit my throat and leave me bleeding in the bathtub. He would unlock the door while I was showering and whisper that he could get to me anytime. So I lived in fear, and I dreamed most every night that one day, he would snap and kill me. And then he'd go crying to my mother, and she would hug him and cry, and help him cover it up, and I would disappear and no one would ever know my story. I knew in my soul that this would happen. It was only a matter of time. So I lived, and I didn't fight back because he was so much bigger and stronger than me, and I knew one day I would have to do something, but I was terrified of leaving the only home I'd ever known, then one day he hit me, just a slap, didn't even leave a mark, and he told me he'd never given me "permission to speak" so he didn't want to hear a word out of me all day, or what I'd get would be ten times worse. And that made my blood run cold. Because my mother was standing right next to him when he did it, and I knew she wouldn't stop him. I had to stop him. I had to get away if I wanted to live. So I ran to a payphone outside a local store (we didn't have a phone in my home) and I called a hotline and got connected with an emergency foster care organization, and they got me out of the home that night.

Everything I've been able to do in my life is a result of that act, and I wouldn't have been able to do it without Stephen King and his book. Every time I wanted to give up in the years following that act, I would repeat the story to myself, and tell myself it was time to get busy living or get busy dying. And I wanted to give up a LOT. I encountered a lot of struggles, and I handled some of them very badly. I managed to get my GED and pass my ACT with the ambient knowledge I had obtained and soaked up in my two years in high school in emergency foster care, and I went to college and graduated with a 4.0

I've struggled a lot over the years, mostly due to undiagnosed mental health issues, but I've always clawed my way back and fought to survive, and Stephen King's words helped make it all possible. So when I say I wouldn't be alive today without his books, I really mean that. And I have a hard time being objective about his books and his writing, because he saved my life. So I really liked Joe Hill's book "Horns," but I didn't think he could write like Stephen King. Until I read "Black Phone." That's the one that gave me pause, because it's soul-ztirring in the best ways. Well done, Joe Hill. Maybe someday someone will tell you a story about how you saved their life. Great writing can do that.

2025 October Horror Challenge Book Review: "The Clatter Man" by Janelle Schiecke

Review of The Clatter Man

By Janelle Schiecke

As someone who has adored slasher movies ever since my first glimpse of a masked figure in the shadows, I went into The Clatter Man with high expectations. Slashers are my favorite subgenre of horror because they combine adrenaline, suspense, and an oddly comforting sense of familiarity—there are rules, rhythms, and archetypes that make the chaos strangely satisfying. Janelle Schiecke’s The Clatter Man captures all of that magic in novel form. It feels less like reading a story and more like stepping directly into one of those terrifying late-night movies that make you check the locks twice before going to bed.

A Love Letter to the Slasher Formula

Schiecke opens the story with an atmosphere of nostalgic menace: a group of friends traveling to an isolated cabin by a remote lake. The setup evokes the spirit of Friday the 13th, The Burning, and Cabin in the Woods—a classic scenario that instantly cues you to expect bloodshed. But before the first scream, she takes her time letting the reader sink into the camaraderie of the group. We hear the teasing between old friends, the whispered romantic tension, the bravado that masks private fears. That slice of realism makes the later horror hit harder.

What really grabbed me, though, was the way the book builds tension through sound. The name “Clatter Man” comes from the eerie, rhythmic clinking that announces his presence—something between a wind chime and chains dragged over gravel. One early scene captures this perfectly: the group is sitting by the fire, telling stories, when a faint clatter echoes across the lake. No one can tell where it’s coming from. It could be the wind, or it could be something else. It’s such a simple, cinematic moment, and it reminded me of the best jump-scare setups in slasher cinema—quiet, suspenseful, letting dread bloom before the violence begins.

When the Legend Comes Alive

The transition from campfire tale to waking nightmare is executed beautifully. There’s a scene in which one of the friends, restless and half-drunk, wanders away from the cabin at night to prove that the legend isn’t real. Schiecke writes it in a way that mimics a slow-motion camera pan: the flashlight beam sweeping through trees, the rustle of leaves, the echo of breathing. When the first clatter sounds behind him, you can practically hear the theater audience gasp. As a longtime slasher fan, I knew what was coming—and still, it got me. That’s the mark of great horror: when a predictable setup can still make your heart pound.

Character Work That Matters

Unlike many slashers that rush through character development to get to the kills, The Clatter Man invests in its cast. Each person has a distinct personality and motivation: the skeptic, the leader, the comic relief, the romantic, the reluctant believer. The author gives us just enough time with each that when the violence begins, it genuinely hurts to see them go. This isn’t just a parade of victims—it’s a group of people whose friendships and flaws feel real. I especially appreciated how one character’s emotional arc parallels the “final girl” trope but with modern nuance. She isn’t just surviving because she’s pure or lucky; she survives because she’s smart, angry, and refuses to let trauma define her.

Atmosphere and Symbolism

Schiecke’s prose is cinematic. She uses sensory detail—crickets gone silent, wind chimes swaying without wind, the metallic smell of fear—to immerse the reader fully. There’s also subtle symbolism at play: the sound of “clattering” mirrors the collapse of emotional barriers, the disintegration of friendship, and the noise of guilt echoing through the survivors. The Clatter Man becomes more than a monster; he’s a manifestation of secrets and things left unsaid. It’s that extra layer of meaning that elevates the book from a fun horror romp to something haunting.

A Scary Great Time

From a pacing standpoint, this book moves like a perfect slasher movie—tight, relentless, and visually evocative. Each chapter feels like a new scene cut from a film reel, complete with establishing shots, rising tension, and sharp climaxes. The action sequences are brutal but not gratuitous, described with enough restraint to make them unsettling without veering into pure gore. I found myself reacting exactly the way I do when watching my favorite slashers: one moment grinning at the clever setup, the next gripping the edge of my seat in dread.

By the time the story reaches its bloody finale, you can feel both exhaustion and exhilaration—just like walking out of a late-night horror marathon. The final reveal ties everything together with a satisfying blend of tragedy and terror, proving that Schiecke understands that the best slashers aren’t just about death; they’re about survival, memory, and the cost of fear.

Final Thoughts

Reading The Clatter Man felt like rediscovering why I fell in love with horror in the first place. It’s equal parts nostalgia and nightmare—a book that embraces slasher tradition while carving out its own identity. The atmosphere is chilling, the pacing impeccable, and the villain iconic enough to haunt your imagination long after the last page.

For anyone who loves slashers—the dark woods, the doomed weekend getaway, the steady build toward chaos—this is a must-read. It’s a scary, great time that proves you don’t have to be on a movie screen to feel the thrill of being hunted. Janelle Schiecke’s The Clatter Man is everything I want from horror: fast, frightening, and unforgettable. I absolutely loved it.

Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5 Stars)

Perfect for fans of: Friday the 13th, The Strangers, The Ritual, and anyone who’s ever wanted to step inside their favorite slasher movie.

2025 October Horror Challenge #47 "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of those rare movies that never fails to lift my spirits. Every time I watch it, I’m reminded of how magical and creative Tim Burton’s world truly is. The stop-motion animation, the unforgettable songs, and the quirky yet heartwarming story of Jack Skellington always make me happy and cheer me up, no matter what mood I’m in. It’s a perfect blend of spooky and sweet, and it captures the joy of imagination in a way that never gets old.

2025 October Horror Challenge #46 "Cabin in the Woods"

When I first saw this movie I'll be honest with you I watched the first 5 minutes I think is what it was and I got to the part where the really loud music starts and the title of the movie came on screen and I turned it off. I thought it was going to be one of those movies and I don't like those movies. I don't like movies that call horror fans stupid and mock horror fans and do it for a laugh because I love horror movies and I am a horror fan and I find it irritating when my intelligence is insulted simply because someone wants to get a cheap laugh and at my expense. I also don't like it when someone calls me a bad person for liking horror movies so I'm not a fan of the movie funny games because that movie is insulting and that movie has the same kind of setup this movie does with the loud jarring music and the title of the movie and the promise that everything is going to be unexpected and look at us we can be disjointed and disorienting we're so cool we're better than you. I was over it. So I stopped the movie about 5 minutes in and I had borrowed it from a friend and I returned it to her and she asked if I had watched it and I told her no I hadn't I had only watched the first 5 minutes and I didn't want to watch the rest of the movie and she questioned me as to why and I explained to her I thought it was going to be one of those movies and she said No you need to watch it it's not one of those movies I promise So she gave it back to me and I sat down and I watched the whole movie and I have to say that I agree with her after viewing the whole thing It's not one of those movies It is actually an intelligent movie and its own right that takes a new perspective on the horror genre and it doesn't call anyone stupid and it doesn't call anyone a bad person and it doesn't insinuate that anyone's intelligence is lower because they happen to enjoy watching horror movies. So I will admit that I judge this movie incorrectly when I first viewed it and then I agree now that I've seen the whole thing that it is indeed a good movie. I wanted to check it out now because I haven't watched it since that first time I watched it right when it first came out on DVD so I'm watching it now and it holds up pretty well It's pretty gory but because of the setup as to what is going on with the plot the Gore doesn't hit the same way it would if this were a straightforward stock and slash movie so it's not so bad for my non-gore loving friends to endure so we're surviving it so far. And I am noticing things that I didn't notice before and I'm appreciating the characters more than I appreciated them the first time I saw the movie because now I don't have to worry about having a huge chip on my shoulder or a stick up my ass because I'm angry that my intelligence is being insulted when it's not. I recommend that you check this movie out because it's a smart movie and it does some cool things with the horror genre that I've never seen before so if you like movies that kind of pick apart the horror genre and look at why we find certain things scary and why we continue to enjoy horror movies and why we perhaps need horror movies in fact you might really enjoy this movie so you should check it out.

2025 October Horror Challenge #45 "Sinister"

The first time I saw this movie I had heard so many good things about it and of course it's a horror movie and it's got Ethan hawg so we know I was going to watch it. I heard that it was really scary and that it had scared a bunch of my friends and they all recommended that I watch it so I was excited to check it out for the horror challenge that year so I put the movie on and I watched it. And it was a really good movie I was very impressed with it I thought hey this is a good movie It's got a good plot it's got good acting It's got heart and soul to it I cared about the characters It was pretty devastating because it's a horror movie and it's mean to its characters but in clever ways so I was impressed with the movie. The only thing was, it didn't scare me. So I thought well this movie isn't scary but it's a good movie and I really like it so I'm going to buy it so I guess I'm happy with my viewing choices tonight. And then I turned off all the lights and I went to bed and I lay in bed and I looked around the dark room and I closed my eyes and I heard footsteps running in the hallway and I opened my eyes and I looked and my cat was lying down in the bed next to me so the footsteps weren't hersed and I was like fuck this. I got up I turned on all the lights and I watched another movie because no way was I going to sleep with the evil demon from this movie running around in my hallway. So as you can see the movie did end up scaring me more than I thought it was going to It has a slow burn kind of scare to it where you don't notice until later it's like an aftertaste. You don't really notice it right away but it slowly creeps up on you and then you're scared and you're like damn this movie is scary. So I'm excited to check this movie out again today I enjoy watching Ethan hawke in movies He's one of my favorite actors as I think you can tell by reading my reviews on this website how often I mention him cuz I try to watch every horror movie that he's in and he's in some really good ones and I honestly think everyone does a great job acting even small bit players like the sheriff and the youngest daughter in this movie does a great job with her role so the movie is well worth checking out It's got a sinister haha a sinister Aura about it that just kind of seeps in like a stain like a drop of water landing on cloth is slowly seeps in and spreads out and infects everything around it and I appreciate a movie that can give me that feeling because I think evil is a very all encompassing force that taints everything around it and I think sometimes it creeps up upon you slowly and you don't notice it until it's taken over and That's what this movie illustrates. I like that this movie features an evil that you can't really escape, because the house isn't haunted the family is haunted So even if you leave the house because in horror movies you're always wondering why the family doesn't just leave the haunted evil house and get away from all of the demonic activity but in this movie even if you leave it follows you so I appreciate that perspective and I think the movie is well worth checking out so give it a shot.

2025 October Horror Challenge #44 "Scream 6"

I really didn't know what to expect from this movie because let's be honest these sequels run the gamut from really good to pretty terrible so I wasn't sure where this one was going to fall but there are a lot of things that I liked about this sequel. Again the relationship between the two sisters feels real and again the tight knit relationship between the people who survived the murders in the past movies is something great to see because I like to see good things coming from tragic things and the friendships and bond that these characters share because of the messed up things that have happened to them definitely a plus that could qualify as a good thing that came from something bad. And I want everyone to know that I did guess who the killer was in this movie It doesn't matter really because I as I said that's not why I watch these movies I watch these movies to see stock and slash movies with some cleverness and some tongue in cheek humor and killers that aren't invincible finally and victims that don't die from one stab wound like they do in most movies Get some resilience people. But I did guess who the killer was and I'm proud of myself for doing that It's like the first time I guess the end of a Harlan Coleman novel I was very proud of myself because he writes really twisted twisty stories and it's hard to figure out all his plot twist cuz he lies right through his teeth to you so you have to pay attention very closely to everything every character says in order to guess the gaps and the knowledge that are going to lead you to the conclusion of who the killer is and that's hard to do I got s*** to do in my life I don't have time to sit here and read a book and remember every word that a character says So I tend to fall by the wayside with movies that get too twisty and I don't notice all the hints and all the clues and all the evidence but I pick up on the red herrings and then I look silly so I've given up trying to guess who the killer was but I was proud of myself for figuring out who the killer was this time around. I like the characters I like the backstory of the killer and why the killer is doing this I think that had the two sisters Sam and Tara sat down and spent some time thinking about it they would have probably figured out quicker what was going on because it was glaringly obvious to me and I don't know why it's like the ghostface killer kept saying over and over again why he was doing this and they were like plugging their ears and saying la la la la la la la and not paying attention and they would have figured it out way earlier on in the movie if they hadn't just sat down and talked and not run around and gotten stabbed thousands of times I don't know maybe they're like getting stabbed some people are into that kind of thing. This movie is gory and the killer is really vicious in this movie like in the other movies I have said that the scream movies have sadistic kills and they do with stabs that are mean and harsh and definitely not little pokes These are full on stabs but in Scream 6 the killer has using a knife in each hand and basically eviscerating people and it's pretty gross and I'm impressed with the gore. I liked seeing some of the legacy characters come back in this movie it was nice to see them again Hayden panettiere is one of my favorite actresses so it was great to see her again and it was great to see characters who really are passionate about horror movies though I could say that this movie is making an argument that people who are passionate about horror movies are psycho killers but that's not really true because the character of Mindy and the character of Kirby are both definitely obsessed with the horror genre and they don't end up being psycho killers which ruins a little bit of the end for you cuz it knocks out too suspects but I don't think any of you really suspected them in real and if you did then you weren't paying attention because I knew it wasn't them Now that I guess to the killer was I shall look down my nose upon anyone who did not guess who the killer was That is my birthright and I am glad I checked this movie out I'm glad I gave it a chance It's definitely better than part two and three it holds up pretty well although I think it's getting tired and I just don't know if they're going to be able to sustain the momentum to make the sequels continue to be watchable but they're probably going to continue to make sequels as long as they make money and let's be honest we know that I am a fan and I will watch them as long as they make this equals whether they're good or not so I'm hoping that with the next movie they come up with something cool maybe the Agatha Christie wrote where everyone is a killer but for now we have five stock/movies that I crammed into one day and I'm happy that I did because slashers are my favorite sub-genre and I had a fun day checking all of these movies out and remembering why I liked this franchise so much in the first place so yeah I recommend this movie. give it a chance.

2025 October Horror Challenge #43 "Scream 5"

So I'm watching Scream 5 because I haven't seen Scream 5 or Scream 6 and scream 7 is coming up soon and I would like to watch that one as well because I like the scream movies so I'll watch them until they stop making them pretty much That's just what's going to happen I'm that kind of a fan they inspired devotion and their fans. But I heard somebody tell me that they had a problem with one of the character deaths in this movie they said I'm not mad necessarily that the character died although I did like the character I'm mad at the way the character died because it doesn't make sense So I was watching to see if I agreed with that statement and now that I'm seeing the movie yeah I agree The death doesn't make sense It's stupid and annoying and it insults all of our intelligence and I don't understand why it happens the way that it does so boo on that. Other than that death though so far the movie's pretty good the beginning was great the opening sequence I definitely liked it and I liked that they continued the tradition of the killer being human meaning you can kick the killer and beat the crap out of him with a chair and it will hurt the killer not like those movies where the killer is invincible because that's just not fair and I liked how they brought in the family story although I think one of the family connections is kind of stupid and they're not explaining how it happened and they're just leaving it there like we're just going to accept that this happened without any explanation of how and I'm irritated by that but other than that I do like the new characters and I like seeing the characters return There were characters that I actually liked from some of the previous films that I did not want to see die in this movie so I'm pissed but that's the way the cookie crumbles and scream movies so I understand we'll see how the rest of the movie goes. yay we get to see two girls kiss and a Scream movie My life is now complete. So what did I think about this movie in the end Well I have to say that it was actually pretty good I didn't guess who the killer is but you know I've given up on ever trying to guess who the killers are in the Scream movies because I just it's not about that for me I don't trust anyone and I hate everyone and I just think every once the killer and one of these days there's going to be a scream where everyone is the killer it's going to be like that Agatha Christie book where everyone is the killer in the end and they're all killing each other and I could see that happening in the screen franchise because honestly they just can't seem to do it with just one killer except in part 3 oddly enough part three managed to do it with just one killer. So part 5 like I said has two girls kissing part 5 has a person with asthma losing their inhaler and having to go back to a murder house to get it and part 5 has hidden family secrets that as we all know can't stay hidden because they're going to come back because the past is never really passed and it's going to come back to bite you in the ass. or something like that generally with these movies that's what happens. I wish they explained how I don't want to ruin anything or spoil anything but there's a twist that I wish they would have spent more time on because I just can't see with the timeline of the first movie how this twist could have happened and I guess it just bugs me that they rely so heavily upon this twist Just being true with no one questioning it and I don't know I find it irritating I know that movies like this have to reveal twist Wait a minute I'm your best friend sister's brother's boyfriends uncles brother-in-law That's why I'm the killer but in this movie it seems like it's really reaching and I wish they would have tied that up neither and there's one character death that that guy on Twitter was right it is stupid but other than that I did enjoy this movie I liked the acting I liked the relationship between the sisters it felt real to me I liked the chemistry that Gail and Sydney have on screen because at this point Courtney Cox and Neve Campbell have been in a lot of movies together so they just work they're fun to watch and it was great to watch them kick some ass and it was great to see ghostface stabbing people again because that's really what these movies are all about So let's move on to the sixth one and we'll see if that one is worth checking out.

2p26 October Horror Challenge #42: "Scream 4"

I've always said that I'd like to scream for better than scream three and scream too and I do although it has its flaws and its things that make it difficult to watch at a times It's a little cringe let's be honest The opening sequence is great The character of Jill is kind of a b**** to Sydney just because Sydney is the cousin who went through the original murders doesn't mean you have a right to treat her like crap although when all is revealed in the end I guess it makes sense that some of the people act the way they do I don't know He makes the characters unlikable but I really liked the character of Kirby and I like that Sydney is virtually unkillable as the killer said "What are you fucking Michael Myers or something?" It's funny but it works and I did like the movie I liked how dark it was Now I'm watching the fifth movie and I appreciate how the fourth brought the story back without seeming like it was just retreading old ground trying to ring the buffalo's neck to get pennies from heaven I don't know It just seems like horror movies have to have sequels and they said Scream was going to be a trilogy and then of course we all know it is an increasingly inappropriately named trilogy because it's not trilogy they keep making sequels Now they're working on a seventh one so we'll see what happens with that I suppose but I do enjoy the back story behind the Killer in scream for more than I expected to. basically it's a litmus test if you like stock and slash movies you'll probably like scream for so you should check it out but if these aren't the kind of movies you like this movie is more of the same and it's not something that will appeal to you so give it a pass for my money I appreciate it and I definitely enjoyed watching it so I guess I say I recommend it onto screen 5.

2025 October Horror Challenge #41: "Scream 3"

remember when I said that sequels to movies have a tendency to be bigger and throw more crap at you at the screen and tend to be louder and more obnoxious and everything's bigger There's more kills There's more twisted backstory there's more bad acting There's more explosions? Well I'm sure some of you were thinking There's no explosions in the Scream movies. I said before you this day scream three where a house just blew up because they put an explosion in the movie because they wanted to make it bigger and that's what they did. This movie tries to go back to the past and rewrite history that was done so well in the first one and they just fail miserably and I it makes me sad The only thing that I like about this movie is watching Courtney Cox and David arquette hug each other because I know that they fell in love doing these movies and that makes me happy cuz I think it's sweet. Everything else about this movie irritates me There's too many characters there's too much of a twisted backstory only certain people should be allowed to write plots this twisty. Harlan colbin is allowed to write plots this twisty because he is proven time and again that he can handle juggling this many twists without sounding like he's pulling things out of his butt You on the other hand writers of Scream 3 are not allowed to handle this many plot twists because you do not possess the skills to make it seem like you are not pulling everything out of your butt and throwing it at the screen and hoping that some of it sticks It's insulting. So I just don't vibe with this movie the way I did with the original. And I know this because I watched this movie along with Scream 2 Back when I was a freshman in college and I watched them and gave them a chance because I had loved the original scream and I wanted to see what the sequels did with the story and how they added to the story. And it was a fun night I got to hang out with friends and we ordered pizza and we watched movies and we watched Scream 2 and Scream 3 and the movie sucked but it was fun hanging out with my friends So the movie is remind me of good times but they really get under my skin and piss me off when I try to watch them now because I know so much about horror movies and I know that they could have been good Not all sequels are bad I have seen some good sequels. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D is what the 7th Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie or the 6th and it's good I like it better than all of the other sequels reimaginings and remakes by far by several orders of magnitude the sequel to Candyman Candyman 2 farewell to the flesh isn't as good as the original but it is good it's worth watching it's worth buying and owning. These movies aren't worth buying and owning They're worth staring at with anger and derision and your face because they're just going to take everything that worked in the first movie and shit all over it. That's really all I have to say about Scream 3 at one point I think that I did enjoy it better than Scream 2 I told everyone that scream too was my least favorite but the more I watch them the more Scream 3 irritates me and the more I appreciate Scream 2 because while it is not a good movie for a lot of reasons it's not as insulting to my intelligence as the third movie. Do yourself a favor and skip this one. EDIT: okay, I admit it, I was a jerk when I wrote this review. Once most of the cast is dead and all the secrets start coming out finally for real the movie doesn't get as bad as it was it gets better and I understand why I did like it the first time that I saw it I always forget that it gets better after the first half of the movie So I would say that Scream wanted two and three are worth watching if nothing else so that you can have a basis of knowledge for scream for when scream for comes along because Scream 4 is a movie that I actually enjoy and I like the story and I would want to know the story from the three original films before watching Scream for so I would know what everyone was talking about in that movie Scream 4 is a movie that I actually enjoy and I like the story and I would want to know the story from the three original films before watching Scream for so I would know what everyone was talking about in that movie So give it a chance It's not as bad as I said it was It's not as bad as the critics said it was It's just a little ridiculous in the beginning and for the first maybe hour of the movie after that it gets better. give it a chance if you want There are some good scenes that come near the end and if nothing else seeing Sydney get chased through the house by a killer is fun for me at least as a fan of slasher movies so I like watching stock and slash movies like this and I appreciate what this movie has to give me and what it gives to the horror genre as a whole even though it gives a huge pile of crap There's gold buried in the crap if you want to dig and I generally want to date because that's what I do in October I watch a lot of horror movies and I dig for gold and sometimes I find it.

2025 October Horror Challenge #40 "Scream 2"

So, the self-aware horror movie that has balls to say what we're all thinking, that most of the time sequels suck, now has a sequel. interesting. I think we all know that as a general rule sequels are not as good as the original movies. That's just the way things are. With a few noted exceptions, sequels have a tendency to be louder bigger and more explosive than the original, but that does not translate into being better they take what worked in the first movie and try to cram more and more and more of it down our throats until we get sick of it and throw up and that is not a good formula for creating a good movie. So I see scream to doing that from the beginning of the movie. though the opening scene in the theater works, it's not as effective for me at least as the opening sequence of the original film because the opening sequence of the original film was really creepy whereas the opening so we can coins of this film was exactly what I like to say about pretty much every other sequel second verse same as the first but a little bit louder and a little bit worse. That's what happens, and it sucks that everything that made the first movie special has a tendency to get trampled in the second movie. So here comes Scream 2, and it is a lot louder a lot bigger and yeah it is a lot worse than the original screen. I just don't like Scream 2 I try to appreciate it for what it is and there are moments that I appreciate Like I love watching Sarah Michelle gellar on screen in any role that she plays she's great and I like watching her get stalked by the killer and watching her fight back and seeing what happens No I'm not going to tell you what happens because I don't spoil movies in my reviews but it just seems like everything in this movie is too much It the music's too loud there's too many fights there's too many kills and I never thought I would say that I watched a movie called Dead alive where a bunch of zombies get killed with a lawn mower and that's probably about as many people killed in that one scene as there are in the entire movie scream too and that is a lot of deaths and it's not too many for that screen so I don't know why the deaths in this movie would be too many but it just seems like the movie tries to throw everything at us hoping that something will stick and it would do better for itself just to sit back for a minute and give us time to breathe. One thing I noticed about this movie that never really struck me before the way it strikes me now is how Jada pinkett Smith's character in the beginning of the movie talks about how horror movies are disproportionately white They don't have a lot of women of color in them and that's something that I noticed of course being horror movie fan that I am but it's not something that really bothered me until about 10 years ago when it just started to be too much because I know that black people tell scary stories too. They do I've heard them most of the ghost stories that I learned were from black and brown people So I know that they have scary stories too Why don't they ever appear in horror movies? typically my answer is that they're smarter than the white people and they leave 5 minutes into the movie because they're far more intelligent than able to see that something evil is going on and that answer does carry some weight but it's not a good enough answer for why there are so many white people in these movies It's not fair to joke and brush off a question like that without giving it some thought and analysis so I started to analyze it and think a little more deeply about it and I'm glad now that we have a resurgence of speculative fiction and horror and dark fantasy stories written by authors of color and I'm glad that we have movies with diverse casts now in horror movies more than we did before at least It's not like hey look this movie has one black guy in it the way it used to be back in the '80s and the '90s so things are getting better I guess It's just a slow process Time marches on and it will continue to take time. I'm hoping that as far as the Scream movie is go I enjoy watching the rest of the sequels better than I enjoy watching the second one because I'm drowning watching the second one wishing that it was over with so I could watch the third and get it over with because if I remember correctly I didn't like the third one either So we'll just have to see what happens but as far as horror movie sequels go Scream 2 Mrs out on a lot of the suspense of the original by being too much. It's the annoying little kid that tries to get attention by banging pots and pans and pushing things off shelves and throwing books until the parents explode and scream because any attention is better than no attention if you know what I mean? And I just don't vibe with this movie the way I do with the original so I don't like it but I will watch it I make sacrifices for Halloween horror month.

2024 October Horror Challenge #39 "Scream"

I have a big announcement for you all. "Scream" is a good movie. I know, I know. next I'll be announcing to you that water is wet right? But I think it's an important announcement because sometimes I forget it. There was so much hype surrounding the movie Scream when it came out that what sometimes gets buried in the midst of all the crap is that it's actually not a bad little horror movie. I mean, sure it's dated, but it's dated for the mid-90s which is the Aaron which I was a teenager, so it's dated for my youth and it brings back some fairly good memories of time spent watching the movie with my mom and one of my best friends and I don't have very many good memories with my mom so I do treasure that. What happened was my friend saw the movie and recommended it to us, and my mom doesn't normally watch horror movies but she agreed to watch Scream with us so we all watched it together and my mom actually got into it by the end of the movie it was a little too gory for her but she was intrigued so she watched it with us and guessed who the killer was right along with us and she was wrong. I remember the first time we watched it she thought the killer was Sydney's dad, and I thought the killer was Gail weathers, which is funny to me now because when I watch the movie now, it's glaringly obvious to me what is going on and the identity of the killer and all of that but at the time that I saw it I was only 15 so cut me some slack I was young, and I hadn't seen many horror movies. Now I've seen so many that scream sometimes gets lost in the shuffle but it was one of my first horror movies so I should definitely appreciate it for that if nothing else. The story of Scream is pretty well known by this point. It's about a small town where some high school students are brutally slaughtered in the beginning of the movie and we get to watch The killer call and torment them and then stalk them and kill them on screen in pretty violent ways for my mom to be watching because she just doesn't like gore so you can imagine that the Gore in this movie was a lot for her. honestly it's not that gory but it is kind of sadistic the way they torment the victims on the phone, before they go in for the kill and that is something that I appreciate. Like I always say, I like my slashers mean spirited. What I mean by that, is that I like to see murder portrayed as something sadistic and evil when it's calculated like this because that's what murder really is you have to be a callous human being to take another human being's life in such a way and I like to see things portrayed on screen the way they are in life. I don't necessarily like to see violence that is sanitized for public consumption, and I don't like to see killers who kill their victims cleanly because that's not what murder is like in real life you would trip over the coffee table knock over a plant make a mess while you were trying to stalk your victim through the house and this movie shows that kind of thing the killers actually look human so I vibe with that kind of portrayal. I'm not going to spoil what happens in the movie even though most of us know all of the twists and turns of this movie pretty inside out. at this point the movie has been around for almost 30 years! Think about that; 30 years. What the hell have we been doing for 30 years? where did 30 years go It doesn't seem like it's been 30 years and yet it has I guess it's true what my friend always says about time Time is like toilet paper the closer it gets to the end the faster it goes so now that I'm a little older time seems to be flying by me and I see these big gaps and I look back and blink and it seems like years have passed and it's surreal but I appreciate anything that can hearken back to my younger years and made me see them in a positive light because I had a lot of tragedy and trauma and my younger years and the monsters and horror movies, the fake monsters that I saw on screen and read about in books, helped me deal with the real monsters that I had to deal with in life. So I needed an outlet and these movie is provided in outlet and scream showed me that you could fight back against a killer You could fight back against the evil and possibly win. which to me is an important lesson. I like the characterization that I missed when I was younger now when I'm watching the movie it's hard for me to miss how the characters of billions do really did look like they were in a relationship. I mean come on they were two seconds away from kissing every time they were together on screen It's a little ridiculous but it's not something that I would have noticed when I was a kid it went right over my head but it's something that I noticed now and I appreciate it now because it added to the story that they had chemistry between them. And I appreciate seeing the character of Dewey the cop and Gail weathers the reporter being real people with real lives and real problems and real attraction to each other that just kind of built organically from their interactions with each other. Even though I know that it ended badly, I know that Courtney Cox and David arquette were married so they met on the side of the movie and fell in love and it makes their scenes cuter and it makes their scenes ring truer for me knowing that this happened so that is another reason for me to enjoy this movie. The movie's not perfect. It's a little ridiculous how Sydney takes so long to figure things out because I was watching the movie so you can say I was stupid for not figuring it out but she was right there in the middle of everything and she didn't figure it out either So I think I should get a pass if you give her a pass for not figuring it out. I definitely appreciate the sadistic nature of the violence, the rebelling against authority that I see the teenagers doing this movie, which comes to a head when the principal is murdered graphically on screen. I'm sure that scene was satisfying for a lot of people who hated their principles in high school. Mine wasn't so bad so I wouldn't have wanted to stab her but I know some people who might have at least had a cathartic reaction to seeing a high school principle be stabbed on screen so that helps the movie ring true as well. overall I have to say that the movie works. The tongue in cheek sarcastic dark humor and the awareness of the culture in which the movie was released is something that a lot of movies tried to copy after scream came out to mixed results obviously most of the time it produced lower quality films but Scream was special because it rose above its flaws to become a cultural phenomenon so it's well worth checking out now even if you've seen it before and appreciating it for what it is and for what it did for horror movies and for horror culture. You can't go into a Halloween section of a store without seeing those ghost face masks now and that's a testament to the ongoing popularity of the screen franchise. So check this movie out and see where it all started and where all that popularity came from and give it a chance if you've never seen it before because even though it isn't perfect, it's a good little slasher and that's exactly what it's supposed to be and that's what I love it for.