Top 10 Horror Games

 

Over the next two weeks, I'll be posting a list of my favorite horror games. And no, not every game on my list is in the picture above, some I only own digitally.

This will by no means be a complete list of all the amazing horror themed games ever released, it's a very condensed list of my absolute favorites. It's also not a list of the scariest games ever made, just to be clear. There are others that I really wanted to add, many that I own and started playing, but didn't quite play enough to add them to this list (because I was too afraid to play them, like The Evil Within and Clock Tower 3, or I had no one to play them with and couldn't get the full experience, like Obscure 2). There are many that belong to a series and I had to force myself to only choose one game...You can see that I just gave up with Silent Hill, I couldn't do it. I have three favorite games in that series and I can't choose between them.

I didn't have a strict criteria when I was choosing games. Basically, did it have horror elements, was it fun and did I play enough of it to have a good idea of what it has to offer? I can forgive a questionable storyline if the gameplay and scares make up for it. I'll admit it now, The Last of Us made it onto my draft list, but I cut it at the end because, even though it has one of the best stories of any video game I've ever played and it no doubt is horror themed and I loved it so much, it wasn't exactly what I was looking for with this list.

I'm not into stalker enemies, walking sims or hundreds of enemies being thrown at you at once, which seems to be the trend over the past several years, so those types of games will not be included. "But you have Resident Evil Village in that picture up there." That's an exception that I'll talk more about when we get to it.

Blind Date With a Movie: Survival of the Dead

 

As I was clicking around on Etsy (the usual), I came across this really cute idea, "Blind date with..." I purchased my Blind Date With a Horror Movie here. (I also purchased a book version from a different seller, but I won't be posting about it.) The way this was packaged is adorable.

The package includes one movie (you don't know what you're getting, so it's like a mystery box which is not my favorite thing ever, but I thought the idea was really cute so I bought it anyway), skincare masks, tea, stickers, popcorn and flowers. It's a nice setup for a selfcare night. As far as the product itself goes, I would give this 5 stars. The seller did a nice job with the presentation, which is really why I bought it. So what I'm about to say is not a reflection on the seller in any way. It's about the movie.

I realize I don't always give horror movies a fair shot. So this time, I did everything I needed to do to get me in the horror spirit (which basically means I turned the lights off, burned some candles and made popcorn - not the microwave popcorn the movie came with). I would love to say that after all of that, I went into watching Survival of the Dead with an open mind, but I didn't. Zombie movies aren't usually my thing (with the exception of Train to Busan, Shaun of the Dead and My Boyfriend's Back). I figured, at least this one is only 90 minutes, that's short enough to not make me completely hate my life, right? Wrong.

Survival of the Dead was written and directed by George A. Romero...I'm confused. I know he made Night of the Living Dead, and while I personally don't care for that movie, I know a lot of people love it, it's generally regarded as a great horror film and probably considered to be the best zombie film by most people who have seen it. So...where did this movie come from? At least Night of the Living Dead is tolerable. This is not. (Neither was his script for Resident Evil. It may have been slightly better than Paul W.S. Anderson's film, but that doesn't make it good.) The zombie makeup is on par with House of the Dead. So is the acting. The whole thing looks like a Syfy movie, bad special FX and all. There's an introduction from George A. Romero where he says it's a horror movie, but "it has some funny moments, so don't forget to laugh." And listen, I'm going to be honest with you, I only made it through 16 minutes of this movie, but I didn't find a single second of it amusing. I feel horrible being so mean about it because he seems so happy in his intro.

From the little bit of this movie that I was able to get through, there are two clans. Families. Whatever. The O'Flynns, who want to kill all the zombies and the Muldoons, who want to protect them in case anyone ever discovers a cure. I immediately hated all of these people. Both sides. It doesn't even matter which side is right, they're all unlikable and I hope they all get eaten by the end of the movie (but I don't care enough to find out if they do). It seems like there's a Walking Dead situation where people are turning into zombies regardless of how they die. Which leads me to a question I hadn't thought of before, but I'm thinking about now...

These "Dead" movies aren't all in the same universe, right? Because if they are, it doesn't make any sense. In Night of the Living Dead, didn't everyone just claw their way out of their coffins one night? It wasn't like they were hit by a car, buried, and then came back to life because everyone on earth was already infected with the zombie virus. How many of these movies are there? Night, Day, Dawn, Land, Survival...Why haven't the zombies just eliminated the human race already? Can that be the next movie? So that no more can ever be made.

Point Horror: Beach House by R.L. Stine

 

First, let's address the picture. Why is there a mermaid candle? I didn't want to take a picture of the book by itself again and that's literally the only summery thing I own.

Today we're talking about Beach House by R.L. Stine. It's not part of the Fear Street series, this is a Point Horror novel. (I'll have several books from the Point Horror series coming up over the next several months.) This is it for the summer themed books! Partly because it's the last one I own and partly because I am done with summer. I hate it. Once July is here, the only thing I can think about is fall and Halloween. It happens every year, it's my coping mechanism for getting through the misery the hear and humidity bring on.

I get so confused between Beach House, Beach Party and Party Summer (all by R.L. Stine). If I call this book by the wrong name somewhere, it's his fault for giving all his beachy books similar names and covers. I have read this book before, but it was a million years ago so I'm a bit hazy on the details. Here are my predictions, with a massive spoiler warning ahead of the rest of this post because I do know what happens. In the past, a guy leaves a girl for dead at the beach. He has a secret closet or something that allows him to time travel. In the present, he's parading around as a rich kid and one of his servants is actually the girl he thought he killed in the past (all grown up now, so he doesn't recognize her). And I think he plays tennis at some point. Don't ask me why I remember that. Okay, let's see how much of this is accurate.

Part One - Summer of 1956

Maria and Amy are lounging on the beach, listening to the radio. This has nothing to do with anything, but since I keep reading these beach horror books, I guess now is a good time to say I hate the beach. I grew up on Long Island, I used to go to the beach all the time. But I had a bad experience once and now I'm absolutely terrified of the ocean. Sometimes I miss it because I also have really good memories of the beach, but I panic when I get near water. That being said, I'm pretty sure Maria is going to end up in the ocean at some point, so I may have to skim through parts of this book to avoid that.

Maria has never had a steady boyfriend, but she's hoping that will change this summer. And she already has two prospects! Buddy, who's a bit awkward, so Amy's boyfriend (Ronnie) mocks him. And Stuart, one of Ronnie's friends. Maybe it isn't fair to judge someone by their friends, but Ronnnie sounds like a jerk, so Stuart probably is, too. At the same time, I'm pretty sure Buddy has his own issues, soooo...Maria's better off alone.

Ronnie and Stuart come running over to the girls, laughing, and pointing to Buddy who is in the water yelling for help. These two imbeciles stole his swim trunks and deserve whatever is coming to them. Why do kids think things like this are funny? Maria thinks the whole thing is pretty hilarious, too. You know, I want to feel bad for what's going to happen to her, but she's kind of terrible. Not that that's an excuse to murder someone, but since this is only a work of fiction, I say go for it. Amy is the only one in this crew who deserves to survive, since she's trying to reason with them by saying sharks were spotted close to shore. Eventually, Maria grabs the swimsuit and throws it in the water, but it lands short and sinks before Buddy can get to it. Everyone, even Amy, laughs at Buddy like this is the funniest thing in the world. Get him a towel. You can't just leave him in the ocean like that. But guess what? That's exactly what they do. Even Amy. They just walk away.

Stuart invites Maria to see Creature from the Black Lagoon at the drive-in, but she already has plans with Buddy. Stuart says he's probably still in the ocean anyway and they both laugh some more, Maria saying how mean it was to leave him there. So...You know it was mean, but you're still laughing about it? Stuart encourages Maria to stand Buddy up and makes fun of him, so she laughs again because she's a pretty awful person. All it takes for her to agree to ditch Buddy is Stuart telling her about his dad's pink, convertible Thunderbird. Awful and shallow. Why is she even seeing Buddy at all? She agrees with every nasty thing Stuart says about him. Let the guy go so he doesn't keep wasting his time on you. Throughout this entire conversation, Buddy was hiding in the shadows like a creep, listening. And he's mad.

The next day, Maria lies to Buddy and says she wasn't feeling well the night before. To make up for the date she missed, Buddy suggests they go swimming. Maria is hesitant, as she's not a good swimmer and the weather is bad, but she eventually gives in. They swim farther away from shore, to escape the undertow. The fog obscures the shoreline...And this is where I'm starting to get anxious. Thinking about being in this situation is sickening. Skimming the book...Maria wants to get back on land, she's worried about sharks. (Nice how she wasn't worried when Buddy was stuck in the ocean yesterday.) Buddy tells her not to worry, they only attack when they smell blood. Hint hint.

Out in the ocean, with Maria choking down salt water, Buddy finally comes clean about how hurt he was by that so-called joke. Hurt. Furious. Same thing. Maria is terrified and it sounds like she's starting to panic which is really bad when you're in the ocean trying to stay afloat. Buddy confronts her about lying to him, too. He's gazing over her shoulder when Maria turns to look at what he's staring at...Sharks. (I hate every second of this and I'm getting a headache reading it.) Buddy pulls a knife out. From where, I don't know. And he slashes Maria. Sharks won't attack unless they smell blood, right? He continues to stab her and then leaves her in the water to be eaten alive. Okay, I've changed my mind. Maria sucks, but no one deserves that. And Buddy enjoyed it a little too much, which kind of makes me think he would have turned out to be a psychotic murderer at some point whether she had been nice to him or not. He's got that serial killer vibe.

There's a search for Maria's body, but no one can find it in the water. Amy, Ronnie and Stuart are all commiserating together and now, all of a sudden, they regret being mean to Buddy and think he's not so bad. They think he drowned, too, so they're feeling guilty about how they treated him. The officer investigating the disappearances asks the trio where Buddy lives and they point him in the direction of the beach house he's been staying at. Officer Barrett heads in that direction with the three of them following him, because why not? There's an investigation going on and they could contaminate a crime scene or tamper with evidence, but sure, it's fine that they come along. When they go inside, they find the house empty. No food, no belongings, no sign that anyone was ever staying there. Officer Barrett says no one lives in the house and that Buddy lied.

Part Two - This Summer

I guess we're now in 1992 because that's the copyright date of this book. Here, we're introduced to Ashley, who's "done some fashion modeling" and her jealous, Matt Dillon look alike boyfriend, Ross. There's also Kip, a "townie" whose goal in life is to look like Vanilla Ice, and Lucy, who's dating Kip even though he's a jerk to her. Lucy has to leave the beach in two weeks so she can go to summer school and brush up on French. I'd rather do that than be at the beach. Learning another language is at the top of my list of things to do if I ever have enough free time. Anyway, who wants to hang around with a Vanilla Ice wannabe all summer? The best thing he's ever done was the "Ninja Rap" in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2.

Not important, but absolutely worth noting: Kip drives an ice cream truck. He offers to get Ross a blue Italian ice because it's his worst seller and no one will miss it. When Ashley asks what flavor it is, Kip replies, "Blue." This is the most accurate thing I've ever read.

Some guy names Denny comes charging out of nowhere, picks Ashley up and throws her in the water. And she's mad. "You got my new bathing suit all wet!" Is that not the purpose of a bathing suit? To go in the water? It's not like it's a new article of regular clothing that's ruined because it got wet. I understand being mad that some obnoxious idiot threw her in the water when she didn't want to go in. But the bathing suit getting wet is a weird thing to be mad about. When Ashley gets back to her MTV beach blanket, there's a new boy there. His name is Brad and he took tennis lessons with Ross the summer before. I KNEW tennis was a thing in this book. Brad and Ashley can't stop checking each other out and Ross notices this. Brad invites them over to play tennis at this mansion that he pretends to be embarrassed by, yet can't stop bragging about.

Ross is pretty angry after Ashley flirts with Brad and she chases him down the beach, trying to reason with him. They eventually sort out their drama and Ross suggests they go inside the abandoned beach house. You know, the one from 1956. Inside, to their surprise, they find Kip and Lucy. Ashley wonders why no one lives in the fully-furnished house and Kip tells her it's because of the murders. Ashley is officially creeped out and she wants to leave. The next day, she finds out from Ross that Lucy and Kip never made it home the night before. That's what happens when you hang out inside a murder house.

Part Three - Summer of 1956

It's been several days and Buddy and Maria are still missing. Amy thinks they were eaten by sharks because Buddy was a good swimmer and that's the only explanation that makes sense, besides Buddy sneaking off into a secret time warp closet after leaving Maria for dead.

Stuart informs Amy and Ronnie that he's leaving to go work at a drive-in and it's not much of a sendoff. So long, Stuart.

Amy sees someone inside the beach house and points them out to Ronnie. It's Buddy! He's alive. He comes running out to greet them, in a shirt with blood stains on it. Hmm. Don't worry though, he just cut his finger making a sandwich. Amy and Ronnie want to know where he's been since Maria went missing and he claims he was out of town, but he totally spoke with the police over the phone. Amy asks what happened to Maria after they went swimming and Buddy lies and says they never did. Maria went in the water by herself because he was afraid of the undertow. Buddy claims they argued and he left Maria alone in the water. Some guy. If he thought the undertow was that dangerous, why leave her there alone, even if they argued? Why not at least stay on the shore and watch to make sure she was okay? Oh, that's right. Because he left her to be eaten by sharks.

To Amy's credit, she has doubts about Buddy's story. Ronnie just takes his word for it, until Amy points out that while Maria was usually up for anything, she wasn't reckless. In the middle of this discussion, they notice a body floating face down in the water. It's Stuart, his scalp was smashed open and, gross, they can see his skull. Nearby is a log with blood on one end. Clearly this was not an accident.

The next chapter is titled "It's So Easy" and I know this must just be a coincidence, but with a character named Buddy and this part of the book being set in the 50's (even though that song wasn't released until 1958), I have to wonder if R.L. Stine was referencing Buddy Holly here, since he references everyone else in this book.

Buddy watches the scene on the beach (poor, dead Stuart) from his house. He's excited. Murder is easy, he thinks. We can officially say that Buddy did not snap because he was bullied, he's just a psychopath. He's absolutely resentful that they made fun of him, but the way he thinks about the murders, it's definitely more than that, he enjoys killing people. He's set on murdering Amy and Ronnie next, but he's undecided on who should die first.

Buddy pretends to feel actual human emotions as he approaches Amy and Ronnie on the beach and asks if there are any suspects in Stuart's murder. Amy remembers Buddy's blood-stained shirt and she's having a difficult time believing so much blood could have come from his finger.

Another new day on the beach! Because that's all anyone does in this book and to be honest, I'm not even really reading it anymore, I'm only skimming through enough of it so I can finish writing this post. I already know how it ends. Amy is alone and Buddy shows up looking for someone to talk to about Maria. Because he's so sad. He asks Amy to go back to the beach house with him. Will she go? Or will she trust that voice inside her head that keeps telling her she should be afraid of him?

Part Four - This Summer

Lucy and Kip are still missing, but that's not going to stop Ashley from trying to convince Ross to go to Brad's mansion so she can flirt with him some more! Who cares if your friends are dead when you've been invited to play tennis at a rich guy's house?

It starts to downpour, on the beach, where these characters apparently live, and Ashley decides the best course of action is to take shelter in the murder house where her two friends disappeared. Searching for towels to dry off with, Ashley steps into an enormous closet...And finds Lucy's scarf. (I don't think they even reported this to the police.) No worries though, it's time to go to Brad's mansion!

When they arrive, a middle-aged woman answers the door, one of Brad's servants. She's covered from head to toe, even in the summer heat. Hmm. Brad tells Ashley and Ross not to worry about Mary and says she's just weird. Brad has a cousin named Sharon...Why are they introducing new characters more than halfway through the book? (And spoiler, this character never shows up again, what a waste of time.)

Brad sucks at tennis, but Ashley's into him anyway and agrees to come back the next day to go swimming, while Ross is standing right there. At this point, I don't even think Ross is jealous, I think he's angry that his girlfriend is openly hitting on and making plans with another guy right in front of him. "That's the definition of being jealous." Okay, but there's unwarranted jealousy and then there's this. Ross storms off and Ashley doesn't care because it means she go swimming with Brad now.

The next day, Ross tries to apologize, but Ashley is over him and doesn't want to hear it. And then Denny, whom I had completely forgotten about, shows up to "save the day." I'm rolling my eyes. Ashley can't stand him either, I sincerely doubt she wants him playing hero. Denny punches Ross in the stomach...Seriously? What is wrong with guys that they think this kind of behavior is okay? Ross was being annoying, but he wasn't threatening Ashley, he was apologizing. That doesn't exactly justify punching him in the stomach. Denny leaves as the cops show up and then Ashley does, too. She's not even going to wait around to make sure Ross is okay?

That night, Ross calls Ashley and she tells him, again, that she's not accepting his apology and they're over. He's better off, she was into Brad anyway. I know Ross is supposed to be the bad guy here because he's jealous, but she was constantly thinking about how interested she was in Brad, so...Ross wasn't 100% wrong. Ashley hangs up and when the phone rings again, she assumes it's Ross calling back. Nope. Just someone with a hoarse voice, warning her to stay away from Brad or she'll die. First Ashley thinks this might be Ross because, you know, he's so jealous. (Rolling my eyes, if I hear one more time about how jealous he is, I might scream. It's his only characteristic.) But then she thinks she recognizes the voice as Sharon's. Can you really confuse the two? I guess Sharon exists as a red herring. But seriously, Ashley is absolutely terrible at recognizing voices. The person on the other line says, "I am not Sharon. I am dead." That's fine. I'm not questioning it.

Ashley goes to the movies with the object of her infatuation and the conversation she has with Brad afterwards is troubling, because I had an ex like this and to me, it's a red flag. Ashley thought the movie was funny. Brad gets on her case about it because he has no sense of humor and can't take a joke and he's really kind of nasty to her. Over the fact that she laughed when Chevy Chase fell off a ladder. He says, "It wasn't even him. It was a stuntman." Okay, AND? It was a stuntman. SO? What is his problem? LEARN TO LAUGH, BRAD.

They end up back on the beach. The entire town is just the beach, the entire world is the beach. Brad gets really intense, telling Ashley that she isn't like other girls and he wants to share a secret with her. She's kind of freaked out, she thinks he might propose when they've only been on three dates. Brad wants to take her to the beach house. She follows, reluctantly, and wonders what he wants to show her.

Part Five - Summer of 1956

Amy and Buddy go inside his beach house to avoid the rain outside. Amy asks if she can look around and discovers the large closet, when Buddy warns her to stay out of there. And then he starts to scare her. He keeps saying she's "gone" and staring at her menacingly. He says Ronnie is gone, too. (When did he find time to kill him?) Buddy starts going on about his feelings and how everyone humiliated him, including Maria, and Amy finally realizes, without a doubt, that yes, Buddy did have something to do with her disappearance. He admits it. He also admits to killing Stuart and Ronnie. It doesn't matter, he says, because he doesn't really live here. Amy has no idea what that means and questions him, but Buddy ignores her.

Amy runs from the beach house and Brad chases after her with a shovel, which he swings at her head. When she wakes up, she feels cold water and realizes her hands are tied around a wooden post...The stilts of the beach house. And the tide is coming in. Buddy leaves Amy there to drown. I'm not sure who had it worse, Maria being left to get eaten by sharks or Amy being tied up so she'll drown as the water rises. Buddy goes back inside the beach house, walking away like they all did the day they left him in the ocean.

Part Six - This Summer

Ashley is suddenly afraid to be in the beach house with Brad. She tries to avoid going inside and changes the subject, asking why she smells gasoline. He's not concerned about it, he just wants to talk about himself and his family drama and I'm not getting into that here because this post is long enough and it doesn't even change anything. Brad said he was exploring at the beginning of summer and found the beach house and he wants to show Ashley what is inside. At first, Ashley doesn't want to go in there, but then she thinks she sees Ross watching them and because she's immature and petty, she goes inside even though her intuition tells her not to.

In the beach house, Brad guilt trips Ashley into following him to the bedroom and leads her to the closet where she found Lucy's scarf. He wants her to go inside with him, but she says no and he snaps. He gets extremely angry and if she didn't already know there was something off about him before, she does now. Brad grabs her by the hand and pulls her into the closet with him. As he tries to drag Ashley further inside, another hand grabs her, pulling her away from Brad. Back inside the bedroom, Brad's servant, Mary, appears. When Brad tries to exit the closet, Mary tells him to get back inside, threatening him with a torch. And she calls him Buddy.

Brad/Buddy wants to know who Mary is. She asks, "Don't you recognize me, Buddy?" When he says no, she begins to tear her clothes off, revealing the scars covering her body. It's Maria, from 1956. She survived. And she wants revenge. Ashley doesn't know what the hell is going on right now, but she's scared. Maria explains that the beach house was built on a time warp and Buddy discovered its secret. Going into the closet takes you back to 1956. She tells Ashley how Buddy killed all her friends and that really makes Buddy lose his mind. He attempts to leave the closet, but Maria burns his shoulder with the torch, forcing him back in. Maria admits to calling Ashley to warn her about Buddy and then tells Buddy to go back to 1956 where the police are waiting to strap him into the electric chair. She asks him if he smells gasoline. (He should have listened to Ashley earlier.) Maria has poured it all over the house. She sets Buddy on fire with the torch, before dropping it into a puddle of gasoline, causing an explosion that sends Ashley flying out of the house. Isn't that lucky?

Ross is outside and Ashley runs into his arms because her new boyfriend is a serial killer. They drive off into the sunset together like nothing ever happened.

My mind was probably blown by that ending when I was a kid. And maybe I would have liked it more now if I didn't still remember everything that happened in this book. But reading it again, I really wanted it to end. I couldn't stand most of these characters by the end of the book. And what the hell happened to Denny? He made like, three appearances and for what? They could have edited him out of the book and it wouldn't have changed anything. I guess the book did make an impression on me when I was younger, for me to remember it after all these years, but knowing everything made it boring to read through again and I think I need to take a short break before reading the next book.

If Ghosts Are Real - Kairo vs. Gonjiam

 

Do you ever find yourself wondering what would happen if ghosts were real? What would they be like? Sometimes, when I have nothing better to do, my brain comes up with things like this. Which scenario is more likely to happen, Kairo or Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum? When I asked myself that question, I immediately thought Kairo seemed more plausible. I'm not even sure why I feel that way. I think it's because everything that happens in Gonjiam just seems too terrifying to ever really happen.

In Kairo, through the internet, ghosts begin to invade our world. People experience overwhelming despair and loneliness and are eventually spirited away. I never fully understood Kairo's explanation of how ghosts managed to enter our world through the internet, but it didn't matter because the emotions it brought on were so strong. I understand the concept of being spirited away, I've seen it in other media (for example, Fatal Frame 3). I could be completely wrong, but Kairo almost makes it seem as if the people who are spirited away are in such despair and feel so alone that they simply cease to exist. All that's left behind is a black shadow.

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum is about a group of people who go explore, you guessed it, a haunted asylum while broadcasting the entire thing online. Although some of the scares are set up by the production crew, it soon becomes clear that they're not responsible for a lot of the creepy things that are happening.

If ghosts exist, even though they're downright evil in Gonjiam, at least they're isolated to one location. If you want to avoid them, you just never go to the asylum and you'll be safe (you can't now anyway because Gonjiam was actually torn down around the time of the movie's release). Whereas in Kairo, they're invading our world, you aren't safe anywhere. Maybe it's because I grew up on the internet and I remember how it used to be, but to me, of the two of these movies, Kairo does seem like the one that's more believable. If for no other reason than, if you take the ghosts out of the equation, it still seems like something that could happen. Maybe the ghosts are symbolic. Maybe I'm making no sense.

These are the only two ghost movies to actually scare me, but they did it in two completely different ways. Gonjiam is pure horror, it's tense and you never feel safe while you're watching it because the film does such a good job of attacking when you least expect it. You know it's coming, but it doesn't happen at the moment you think it will. Kairo, on the other hand, conveys a feeling of loneliness unlike anything I've ever experienced before. It was made at a time when the internet was fairly new, dialup still existed. This movie feeds into the kind of loneliness that I think a lot of people who spent a fair amount of time online back then felt.

At the end of the day, these are both really great horror films that are shining examples of how to do a ghost movie the right way. And I wouldn't want to experience either of them for myself. If ghosts are real, I hope they're more like the Casper variety.

Some More Etsy Orders

 (I realize these items don't actually belong on a horror blog, but...I guess witchcraft is considered to be supernatural? So I feel like it sort of fits here. Plus, these items are really beautiful and I wanted to talk about them.)

I think I've already explained my feelings on this subject, but in case I haven't, I'll quickly do it again. In general, I don't really believe in anything (except aliens because we can't be the only intelligent life in the universe), but I do believe anything is possible. So while I'm skeptical about the properties certain crystals may have, I'm also hopeful that they'll do what they're supposed to do. If you think about something like aromatherapy, where different scents can bring out different reactions in people, why can't crystals do the same? Colors are also able to have an effect on us, right? If I'm wearing yellow (which rarely ever happens), I feel amazing, like Belle from Beauty and the Beast. So who knows? I'm not going to rule crystals out.

None of the items I bought can be used to harm anyone else, not intentionally. Hopefully not unintentionally either, I'm a little worried about a Monkey's Paw situation. I really just thought everything looked nice and if they do anything to help heal my traumas, even better.

The first shop I ordered from was AnitaApothecary. Shipping was extremely fast, I ordered on a Tuesday and everything arrived on Thursday.

I bought three candles, The Magick of Garnet (scented with balsam and cedar, and you can read the intentions on the label, but some include confidence, harmony and well-being), Season of the Witch (meant to connect to your ancestors during Samhain, but honestly, I just thought it looked beautiful) and The Shadow Worker (scented with berries and florals, meant to help you face your inner traumas and demons). As you can see, these candles are stunning. I don't ever want to burn them because of how gorgeous they are, they're a work of art.

I purchased the Autumn Spirit altar offering because I really wanted to use it as decor in a glass bottle. The scent is spiced apples, cider and pumpkin and for someone like me who loves every one of those scents, I had to buy this.

Lastly, I bought tea, Samhain Tisane (cinnamon, dried apple, orange peel - it sounded amazing) and Fuck Anxiety (don't we all feel that way?). Here's the thing though. I don't understand tea. I don't drink tea. I have no idea what to do with loose tea. So I haven't actually tried it yet, I'm intimidated by it. That sounds ridiculous, I know, but it's true. So I had to figure out what to do with loose tea and I went on ebay and bought two things...

I'm not going to bother linking either of these because I'm 99% positive that they are counterfeit Starbucks mugs and while that doesn't bother me because I didn't buy them as a collector, I don't want anyone who does collect their mugs to get scammed. I bought the tea cup for the tea, obviously. And because it's really cute. But I haven't used it yet. And then I bought the mug because I really wanted a cute Halloween mug and this one is adorable.

Lastly, with every order, you receive a little bag of extras, including a tarot card and candy, which is super nice. My experience ordering from this shop was great and I would absolutely place another order in the future.

The rest of my orders were for single items from several different shops, so let's go through them.

Different background for this one, sorry about that. I thought it would be easier to see it this way. This is a carnelian necklace from LanaMoonJewellry. If you look up the properties of carnelian, you're likely to find a lot of differing things. Personally, I bought it to help with my non-existent self esteem (I told you, I'm trying to heal my traumas). There's a dime in the picture for size reference, I was really surprised by how small it was when I first saw it. However, when I put it on, I realized it's the perfect size and I fell in love with it. It's dainty and so nice. I've been wearing it every day since I received it and I've gotten several compliments on it.

I bought another necklace, from The Twisted Forest. And if you saw my post about Crow Haven Corner, you'll know I bought a rose quartz wishing tree from them that was made by the same person who runs this shop. I love that wishing tree so much, I wanted to buy something else from them and I thought this silver acorn spell necklace was really cute. It's meant to be pink, but I don't think it actually looks that pink. The acorn is pretty large, I thought it would be a bit smaller, but I'm not bothered by it. I also really love this necklace and I've been wearing it layered with the carnelian necklace every day.

And finally, here's Jack, with a Banishing Heartbreak candle from Candle Intentions Shop. The scent is a combination of grapefruit, mango and sandalwood (I love the scent of sandalwood, it reminds me of the beach). Before anyone gets the wrong idea, this candle's intent is to promote self love and confidence and release traumas while giving you the courage to trust. I want to make it clear, I am not heartbroken over my ex. I have no lingering feelings for him, I don't want him back. Even if he came to me with a ring and begged me to take him back and then made a public apology for treating me (and everyone else he's ever come into contact with) badly, I wouldn't want him back. You can see by what I just said though, that I'm still dealing with some anger and bad feelings towards him, right? I also have trouble trusting men after what he did to me. The purpose of everything mentioned in this post is to help me heal so that when I decide to date again, I can do so in a healthy way.

That's all for this post! I'm extremely happy with everything I bought and hopefully everything does what it claims to do and I can live a happy life without feeling so annoyed all the time.

The Witch's Diner - Episode 2

 

We learn two things at the beginning of this episode. One, it seems as if CEO Oh doesn't approve of Hee Ra killing people. And two, Gil Yong has been suspended from extracurricular activities because of his "fight" with Yeong Jae.

I didn't mention it in the last recap (because I wasn't sure what we were seeing and I'm still not sure), but for the second time now, we're shown a flashback of a little girl, running from someone or something. It looks like it could be a nightmare Jin is having. Maybe a memory from her childhood. My theory is that she's met Hee Ra before, based on Hee Ra's interactions with CEO Oh and the fact that she seemed to be following her in the first episode. I'm not sure what her interest in Jin is, but there's something there for sure.

(Throwing this out there in the middle of my post, the music in this show is good, it sets the creepy-whimsical tone well. But I want a legit K-drama OST. That's my favorite part of dramas and I'm waiting for it.)

On her way to work, Jin sees her competitor being carried out on a stretcher. She tells herself it has to be a coincidence. I would think the same if someone told me they were a witch and could grant me a wish. What are the chances of that being true?

There's a man we haven't seen before, but he's behind on some kind of payments and is avoiding the loan shark who is looking for him. He watches Gil Yong at his job - a job he himself had applied for and was rejected from. Listen. Gil Yong is a good kid and if this man does something to him, I'm going to be so annoyed. He keeps taking matches out and snapping them in half, throwing them on the street. Why? What does this mean? Does it mean anything?

When Hee Ra arrives at work, Jin confronts her, asking if she really killed that woman. Hee Ra says no, Jin killed her. It was her wish. That's not the kind of revenge Jin wanted though. (It's the Monkey's Paw.) Hee Ra tells Jin she's a hypocrite, asking since when is revenge a "soft and nice" wish? Lightning flashes and we see glimpses of Hee Ra's face illuminated by it, again showing what she really looks like. I have only ever watched Song Ji Hyo's romantic comedies, seeing her as a villain is interesting and she's doing a great job here.

Jin runs from the restaurant, in tears, either because she's responsible for someone's death or because Hee Ra scared the hell out of her. Or both. She feels extremely guilty for what her wish has caused. She comes across Gil Yong, who is in therapy as part of the school's disciplinary action for the "fight" he had with his friend. He confides in Jin that when he was young, he caught a deadly illness. He no longer remembers that and in time, he says he won't remember this incident either. He has a good disposition and seems to make Jin feel better through their conversations with each other. I like the friendship developing between them. It needs to stop there though. It seems like Gil Yong has a crush on her, but she's about 10 years older than he is. Don't make this weird.

In school, Yeong Jae's phone rings during an exam and he's kicked out of class. My heart seriously breaks for this kid. Gil Yong tries to catch up with him after class, but his knee is injured. His doctor informs him that he can't exercise for a month and he may have to miss his next track competition.

While Jin is out with Yoon Mi, she tells her about the witch and says, "We take our words and thoughts lightheartedly. But there's actually power in them. Terrible things can happen because of them." We're all taught this from a young age, right? To think before you speak. This applies to so many different situations, but let's think about it in terms of bullying, since it applies to this show. I know it's a problem in my own country and I've read that it's a problem in South Korea, as well. The most known example I think people have seen in the past couple years are the deaths of K-pop idols, driven to suicide after the hateful comments and harassment they receive online. It can happen to anyone, but I'm using this example because it's so publicized. Your words carry weight. You may think they're nothing, but they can hurt people. I know I'm going off on a tangent, but what Jin said here was really important and I wanted to include it.

There are rumors spreading that Yeong Jae attempted suicide because of his "fight" with Gil Yong. Gil Yong goes to visit him at the hospital and Yeong Jae tells him that he tried to jump from the school's roof, but his legs were shaking and he must have wanted to live after all. In an attempt to comfort Yeong Jae, he says it isn't over for him, but Yeong Jae thinks having to live like this is even scarier.

Hey, there's another witch! And she's here to lecture Hee Ra about overstepping. At work, Hee Ra has a list of rules for Jin: Don't question her, don't eat anything she cooks, she decides opening hours and she can do whatever she wants. She's the boss now and the first thing she wants to do is redecorate.

Gil Yong is standing on the edge of a roof, believing everything is over now, including college, because he can't compete in the track meet. He receives a phone call from Yeong Jae as he's about to step off, and his friend says he won't lose to those bastards at school. This gives Gil Yong the strength to step away from the edge.

CEO Oh is called to redecorate the entire diner and it looks exactly like the one from the beginning of the first episode. Jin is not a fan, exclaiming, "We're not a tarot shop." She asks CEO Oh what his true identity is and he tells her, "It's best to think of me as a supporter who gives help without being noticed." Thanks, that clears everything up. Gil Yong walks past the diner and decides to go inside, noting that he hasn't had anything to eat. Hee Ra asks him to take a seat, to which Jin opposes, saying he's not a customer (clearly trying to protect him). Jin takes him outside, saying she needs a word with him, and we see a flash of two photos in Hee Ra's possession, one of Jin and her mother and another of (what appears to be) Gil Yong and his mother. Hee Ra says, "Now we've gathered everyone." What is she planning?

Outside the diner, Jin warns Gil Yong that the witch can grant wishes and he says he believes it since she's the one saying it to him. She tells him there's no guarantee that he'll be happy if his wishes come true, he'll have to carry the burden of even the smallest wish. Gil Yong asks what will happen if he makes a wish to help someone, when Hee Ra interrupts, telling him to either make a wish or get lost. He goes back inside and makes his wish (we aren't told what it is yet, but Hee Ra says he's a wacko) and asks that it be kept a secret. Once he's finished eating, the witch hands him a business card and he leaves.

That night, Jin wakes up and sees what looks like a corpse lying next to her. Was it just a dream? She returns to work and learns that Gil Yong is now a part timer at the diner. Someone is standing outside in the shadows, with a knife, watching them. That person, who turns out to be the man from earlier who lost out on a job to Gil Yong, enters the diner and pulls the knife on Jin, before Hee Ra appears and asks what's going on.

I'm really curious about why Hee Ra is gathering these people together. She doesn't seem entirely evil, although she's definitely questionable. I'm excited to see what happens in the next episode.

The Witch's Diner - Episode 1

 

The Witch's Diner is about Jeong Jin, who loses her job and boyfriend of five years in a string of bad luck. After deciding to open a restaurant with her mother, it goes bankrupt. Jin then meets Jo Hee Ra, a witch who is capable of granting wishes, for a price. In exchange for a wish, Hee Ra wants to borrow the restaurant. It becomes a great success, but at what cost?

I started watching this K-drama because I'm a fan of Song Ji Hyo on Running Man and I always like to support the Running Man members in their other activities. Also, a supernatural themed K-drama? Sign me up. The Witch's Diner is currently streaming on Viki, if you're interested in watching it. It was adapted from a novel written by Goo Sang Hee. I googled it, I don't think there's an English translation and while I can read 한글, I don't understand 99% of it, so unfortunately, I won't be able to read the book.

(Disclaimer: I don't know if I'll be posting about each episode as it airs due to my work schedule being all over the place while our building is closed this summer. It may have to be whenever I can find some extra time.)

Episode 1 begins outside the Witch's Diner, where a sign reads the following:

1. Operating Hours: Sunset to sunrise.
2. Menu: Differs depending on the request.
3. Price: Insanely expensive so not everyone can eat here.
4. *However, all wishes are possible. The effect is certain.

First of all, the cinematography of this shot is incredible. The set looks like it belongs in a dark fairytale (literally, it's kind of hard to see sometimes). It's stunning. I hope the production value continues throughout the rest of the episodes.

We see a father who is down on his luck, inside the diner. He invested everything he owns into a bad deal that didn't work out. He lost his home and is about to be living on the streets with his children. His wish is to win the lottery so he can provide for his kids. The cost? "That look in your eyes...I like it," says Hee Ra. That sounds ominous. As promised, the father wins the lottery. Running from his house, intent on taking everything from the man who took all of his possessions, he gets into his car, where his vision blurs and he begins to scream.

Jin is an office worker, struggling with a job that requires her to work long hours and deal with an abusive boss. One night, at a company dinner, she's attacked by her boss' wife, who thinks they're having an affair for no other reason than Jin had the misfortune of being seated next to him. When Jin arrives home, drunk and stumbling (and in a much better mood than she was before), her mother tells her she is "not a person, but an alcohol bottle." The next morning, when she arrives at work, her boss fires her because if he doesn't, he claims his wife will kick him out of their house. To make matters worse, that same day, her boyfriend breaks up with her, saying they've grown apart. He really had to do it at that moment?

Hee Ra and CEO Oh (played by Ha Do Kwon, who has been a guest on Running Man several times and is incredibly funny) go to a rooftop apartment that's so beautiful and impossibly large on the inside that I had to rewind and make sure I didn't miss something while typing this. If this is how a witch lives, I want to be one, too.

The next character we're introduced to is Gil Yong, a student. (If the spelling of these names changes from episode to episode, it's because I'm basing it on the romanization of Viki's subtitles and they aren't consistent. This is why I think learning 한글 is important before learning to speak Korean, romanizations are never the same and you're likely to end up misspelling the actual words if you base it on the romanization. That's not important right now though.) He runs track, but suffered an injury. Jin's friend, Yoon Mi, is a teacher in Gil Yong's school.

One night when Gil Yong is working, he sees a friend from school, Yeong Jae, walking home with a bruised face. He asks what happened to him, but Yeong Jae tells him to leave him alone. Inside Gil Yong's job at a convenience store, Jin comes in, drunk, to buy a coffee, before going back outside and crying. Gil Yong attempts to comfort her, but she says she's okay (she clearly is not) and goes home.

The next day, Jin's mom says she knows she lost her job and tells her to take her time looking for a new one. For now, she suggests they buy a restaurant together. They put all their savings into purchasing one from a woman who is looking to sell the one she owns. At first, the restaurant is very busy and seems to be doing well, but then the chef asks for a two week vacation. How can you run a restaurant with no chef? Well...You can't. Business dies down. It turns out that the woman who sold Jin her business is a scam artist and opens a new restaurant right across the street, stealing her customers. And guess where the chef is! Not on vacation. I'm so mad. There's always one evil woman in these shows (it's usually the rich boyfriend's mother/aunt/grandmother) and it looks like she's it. Jin's restaurant was already doing poorly, this is really going to be the end for her now.

At school, Yeong Jae is being bullied. I really hate kids. Gil Yong notices he's sick. Yeong Jae tries to leave the classroom, but some brat refuses to let him out and he throws up. Gil Yong tells him to leave, that he'll clean up, and Yoon Mi runs over to help him. Afterwards, Gil Yong follows him to the bathroom and gives him a change of clothes. They go to Yeong Jae's home, where his mother is suffering from a terrible cough, reminding Gil Yong of his own mother (I'm 99% positive she passed away).

Later, after receiving an urgent voicemail from Yeong Jae, Gil Yong goes to meet him at the junkyard. It's a trap. His bullies forced him to call and lure Gil Yong there. This is hard to watch. Any time someone is being tortured (and this kid really is), it's sickening. I hope these little monsters get what's coming to them. Soon. Yeong Jae is forced to fight Gil Yong, and he punches him in the face. The cops come and break up the fight. Back at the police station, the bullies lie and say those two were going to fight and they tried to stop them, and for Yeong Jae's sake, Gil Yong goes along with this, lying and saying he instigated it. The officer in charge makes a snide remark about how it's "always like this" when people come from "that family environment." Jin (who is there after causing a disturbance at the competing restaurant) overhears this and says it's discrimination. She calls the cops out and says you can tell that Gil Yong and Yeong Jae were the victims and the others were the perpetrators. The two boys are free to leave, thanks to Jin.

After posting a "for rent" sign at her restaurant, Jin is met by Hee Ra, who says she'll take over the business and in return, grant Jin a wish. Jin asks her to leave and touches her shoulder, which does...Something. Is she transported somewhere? Seeing another dimension? Is it a vision? Either way, they're no longer in the diner, they're in front of a mansion. Hee Ra tells Jin, "There are things that you can't see, but still exist in this world." She says what Jin is seeing isn't reality, but information. If you eat her food, your wish will come true. She tells Jin to make a wish and if it comes true, leave the restaurant to her. Jin's wish is revenge on the woman who scammed her. Honestly, I think Jin's getting off easy. Sure, she'll be responsible for whatever happens to her competitor (and her customers if Hee Ra takes over), but at least she won't lose her sight like the man at the beginning of this episode. After eating the meal Hee Ra prepared for her, rats begin to invade the restaurant across the street, giving her competitor a heart attack. Once the wish is carried out, Hee Ra's face is shown transforming from wrinkled to beautiful. Do these wishes help keep her young?

This was a decent first episode. It set us up for whatever's about to come next. As much as I don't want anyone to have someone else's misfortune on their conscience, I kind of hope Gil Yong will eat there next and get even with those brats from his school. Also, as a side note, "restaurant" is a word I can never remember the spelling of, but after typing it 500 times for this post, I don't think I'll ever forget it again.

Fear Street Part Three: 1666

 

The dog dies.

I don't have time for this. I have to watch Mulan, the entirety of Agent Carter and episodes of Running Man, The Witch's Diner and Monthly Magazine Home. I do not have time for movies in which the dog dies.

Fear Street Super Chiller #3 Goodnight Kiss by R.L.Stine

I know what you're thinking. "What makes something a Super Chiller?" 50 extra pages. That's it. They're no scarier than regular Fear Street books, they're just longer. Now here's what I'm thinking. Who is that supposed to be on the front cover? She doesn't match the description of our female protagonist at all.

I remember reading this book as a kid and listening to "Diggin' On You" by TLC on repeat because I'm pretty sure that was my favorite song on CrazySexyCool and I knew that was a summer song and this was a book about summer and it just...Felt right. It added to the mood, you know? I don't know how I did it, I don't think I've been able to read with background noise since then. That's how good that song was though. 

Predictions! Listen, I'm going to be honest. I think I remember how this book ends, so it's not really a prediction, but more of a spoiler. April is going to become a vampire and kill her boyfriend. I don't remember anything else that happens in Goodnight Kiss, but I distinctly remember April becoming a vampire. Let's see if I'm right or if I'm imagining that ending.

Goodnight Kiss begins with Jessica (not our MC) going on a blind date with a boy named Gabri. The movie they're seeing sucks (no pun intended), so Gabri suggests they leave. Can we talk about how stupid that nickname is? His name is Gabriel or something. How did R.L. Stine decide to go with Gabri instead of Gabe? I have a theory that it's because he hates this character as much as I do. Anyway. The two of them head over to the beach and Gabri decides to take a bite out of Jessica, but surprise! She's a vampire, too. Now that dinner has been ruined for the both of them, they need to find someone else to eat or Gabri will never shut up about "needing the nectar." (His dialogue is really bad and it makes me cringe.) These two vampires do not get along. Not in a fun, hate-to-love way either. It's an immature, She's All That, "Let's make a bet to see which of us can make a human fall for us and then drink from them three times and turn them into a vampire first" kind of way. They even choose each other's victims.

Our main character, April Blair, is vacationing for the summer. Her boyfriend, Matt, and his best friend, Todd, are also vacationing in the same town, which April's mom kind of hates because she thinks Matt is immature for liking video games and horror movies and I feel personally attacked right now. Mrs. Blair wants April to spend time with people she doesn't know from Shadyside, which makes sense since half the people in Shadyside either end up dead or being the reason other people end up dead. (That's not her reasoning though.) So we have Jessica and Gabri who are vampires, April who is going to become a vampire, Matt who is an idiot (trust me, he is) and Todd who is the shy third wheel. He has a lighter he plays with when he's nervous. He absolutely has social anxiety. I do the same thing with my phone. There always needs to be something else to focus on when I feel anxious. I really hope none of these characters treat him badly because of it. I think he'll probably just die though. Right? He's probably not going to last very long, someone has to die.

Jessica tells Gabri that she's choosing April as his target, and since she has a boyfriend, Gabri says, "I really must protest." THANK GOD she calls him out for sounding like a bad movie. Really though, April seems to secretly hate her boyfriend, so I don't think Gabri is going to have to work too hard. As for Jessica, she has to go after Todd...He's definitely going to die.

Jessica wastes no time with Todd. Seriously. She finds him on the beach and gives him a story about how this is her first time there and she's lost. He  walks her in the direction of the summer homes and kisses him. They met like, two minutes ago. And luckily for Gabri, April is annoyed because Matt is 20 minutes late meeting her (that's my biggest pet peeve, so I'm right there with her), so he takes that as an  opportunity to introduce himself to her. April explains that she's waiting for someone and Gabri suggests that maybe her "friend" misunderstood and went to the beach to wait for her. He then offers to walk her over there because it's dark outside. Wouldn't want anyone dangerous to approach her. With no sign of Matt anywhere, Gabri decides to take a chance, fangs out and everything, when bat-Jessica swoops in and attacks April. This sends her running down the beach, into Matt's arms. No nectar tonight.

Unfortunately, Matt screws up again and forgets he made plans with April and she is mad. So when Gabri asks her to go to the carnival with him, she says yes and he gets his first bite. Meanwhile, Jessica bites Todd for the third time, but she drinks too much of his blood and kills him. She leaves his body in the water at the beach, where Matt finds him and believes he drowned. Rather than admit defeat, Jessica decides to continue the bet, making Matt her new target. Good luck getting him out of the arcade.

After having a nightmare about Todd, Matt believes vampires are to blame for his death. Even with all the evidence...Todd and April's exhaustion, the bat attacks, Gabri being "allergic" to garlic and not having a reflection (Matt doesn't know about that last part, but April does), Todd getting paler on their beach vacation...I still think I would have a really hard time jumping to that conclusion. He runs to tell April, who may or may not still be his girlfriend? They're being super weird with each other. Of course, she gets mad. She thinks it's a bad joke. Matt sees two small puncture wounds on April's neck and tells her Gabri is a vampire and if they weren't broken up already, I think that probably did it.

Jessica definitely has an M.O. Lure unsuspecting boys down the beach, kiss them immediately, and then bite them. What's wrong with Matt though? This is the girl your dead best friend was dating. At least try to control yourself for five minutes. Just hold out a little bit. Jessica wastes no time, she's onto her fourth bite, meanwhile Gabri has bitten April once and now she's wearing a silver cross around her neck, so by the time he ever tries again, summer will be over. Luck is on his side though and the necklace falls off. Still, he's slower than a snail and I have little faith in him, even though I know April will be a vampire by the end of this book.

Corpse Todd comes to warn Matt that Jessica and Gabri are vampires. I kind of had to skim this entire section, it was pretty gruesome. Matt decides the only way to make April believe Gabri is a vampire is to act like a creepy stalker and take pictures of them together. When Gabri doesn't show up in the pictures, she'll have to believe Matt. Once they're developed, Matt has a picture of April, alone, in the ferris wheel. There's his evidence. Too easy, right? Yeah, I thought so, too. He drops the photos when he sees Gabri on a boat with April, headed towards an island, and he runs after them. Matt stakes Gabri with an oar and then sets Jessica on fire. (Since when does fire kill vampires?)

A few nights later, Matt is out with April when he finds her cross on the ground. She won't look at it and tells him to leave it there. I KNEW IT. Matt was too late, Gabri turned April into a vampire before he staked him. April bites Matt and I guess he kinds of deserves it for that one time he made plans with her and forgot about it, which really, if you think about it, was the catalyst for this whole thing anyway. She probably wouldn't have gone out with Gabri if that didn't happen. Nice going, Matt.

Goodnight Kiss is okay. Vampires really aren't my thing. The only vampire-related media I enjoy is 30 Days of Night. Nosferatu is an interesting example of German Expressionism in film, but other than that...Yeah, not a fan of vampires. The book isn't bad, I just think of all the monsters you could tell a story about, vampires are the most boring. Plus, Gabri was really strange. And Jessica was mean. Matt reminded me of too many of my exes. April was stupid because she never even questioned the bite marks on her neck. The only one I could relate to was Todd and he was killed off halfway through the book. Overall, I'd still rate it a 4/5 since Matt most likely dies.

Coffin Letter Board

I want to start by saying I love Etsy. Too much. Sometimes on my days off I wake up and the first thing I do is check the Etsy app on my phone and then I'm in bed for an hour scrolling and looking at recommendations based on things I've purchased already. People are so creative and I like supporting smaller businesses when I can. I won't lie, there are times I buy things on Amazon because it's convenient and then I hate myself for it. But I've been buying a lot from Etsy over the past couple years. I have prints that I bought and have no room for. I bought cases for games I bought used at Gamestop that came with the ugly Gamestop cases. Masks. A ton of pins. A copy of Shivers 2. Some Fear Street books. Things you'll see in another post. So, yes. I have a problem when it comes to Etsy, I want to buy everything. Let's just put that out there right away.

One day, as I was browsing things the app wanted me to buy, I came across a coffin letter board and my first thought was, "I need that." And then I asked myself what I would even do with it. And the part of my brain that malfunctions when I see anything horror themed said, "I'll use it for my horror blog that I never advertise and no one knows about!" So I was kind of like, well...That's a waste of money then, isn't it? And I wasn't going to buy it. I was going to do the mature, responsible thing and control myself. Well. You can see how well that worked out, right?

I absolutely love this letter board. I want to use it to count down the days until Halloween. I want to put horror movie quotes on it. I bought accessories for it. It's going to be amazing, I'm going to make it worth the $34 I spent on it.

The letter board itself is really big. It comes with a...Thing (I know that's not the right word, but it's all I've got) on the back so you can hang it if you'd like to, but it also includes a stand that you can sit it on. There are so many letters. If you look at the quote on my coffin, you can see how many I used and how many repeating letters there are and I didn't run out, I still had a lot left over. You should absolutely have enough letters to write whatever you'd like on there. It's sturdy, I don't think it's something you'll need to worry about breaking (unless you drop it from your roof or something in which case...what are you expecting to happen?). The only issues I had with it are that the letters are really hard to remove from the plastic they come attached to. I had to use a pair of hair shears to cut them off because regular scissors weren't doing it. Three pieces also broke, two W's and one *. That's not terrible because you do get so many pieces, but it's worth noting.

I have more accessories coming, but the ones I'm using now are from HoneycombHeights. What's nice about these is that you're able to choose how big they are and the color. I chose pink, obviously, because it's the best color. I know it's not a Halloween color, but I'm not just using this for Halloween, so it's fine. 

Fear Street Part Two: 1978

 

After the first Fear Street movie, I'm really dreading this one and if I were smart, I wouldn't put myself through watching 1978 just to write a blog post. Sadly, I'm not that smart and I'm going to torture myself. But hey, there are two things that could make this more tolerable. One, my expectations are low this time, so things can only go up from here. And two, I'm watching the first half before work and the second half when I get home, so maybe breaking the movie up will keep me from burning out on it. Fear Street 1978 is almost two hours long and that's a pretty significant amount of time to watch something if you're not enjoying it. Let's see how it goes.

Back in 1994, Deena and Josh break into C. Berman's house, with Sam, to beg for her help since she survived the camp massacre in1978. From the very beginning, we know that C. Berman's sister is going to die. She tells us so. The question is, how?

I'm taking a second here to rant because the main bitch at this camp says Sarah Fier would have stayed dead if you do what you always do: Burn witches. No one. In the United States. Was burned. They were hanged. Burning witches was a European thing. I can't even blame Fear Street for this, I've seen this happen in so many other movies and shows as well. But let's set the record straight, it didn't happen. They were hanged, with the exception of Giles Corey, who was pressed to death. Get your facts straight.

We already know what this is about, right? We heard about it in the last movie. A massacre at the camp. I'll skip over all the massive spoilers since the movie was just released today and instead keep it at this: To stop Sarah Fier, supposedly, her hand needs to be reunited with her body. I've seen enough horror movies to know there's always a catch, it's never that simple. I don't believe that's going to be the end of it.

I have a real problem with these movies. Sex has no place in Fear Street. No one in Fear Street was having sex. They were awkwardly flirting and making out sometimes, in an attempt to turn people into vampires or whatever, but they weren't doing anything more than that. Nudity? In a movie based on Fear Street? Books I read in elementary school? Seriously, who are these movies made for? I said it last time and I'll say it again, these movies are not appropriate for kids and they definitely weren't made for fans of the books, so what is this supposed to be?

I will admit, 1978 was slightly better than 1994. It had a coherent story and wasn't all over the place. The acting was so much better, there were even a few characters I didn't hate. But it still feels nothing like Fear Street and rather than making these movies for a demographic that doesn't exist, I wish they had just followed the storylines of some of the books. I think, if I'm going to like any of these movies, it will probably be 1666.

In the Mouth of Madness

"It's not real from your point of view and right now reality shares your point of view. What scares me about Cane's work is what might happen if reality shared his point of view. A reality is just what we tell each other it is. Sane and insane could easily switch places if the insane were to become the majority. You would find yourself locked in a padded cell, wondering what happened to the world."

One hundred plus posts and I'm just now getting to the movie that was the inspiration for my blog's name. In the Mouth of Madness is a Lovecraftian horror film, directed by John Carpenter and starring Sam Neill, Julie Carmen and Jurgen Prochnow. (Honorable mention to David Warner, who seems to turn up in every movie ever made.) It's about an insurance investigator named John Trent (Sam Neill) who is hired to look into the disappearance of horror writer Sutter Cane. Cane's work is said to be the cause of mass hysteria among his readers, often resulting in extreme violence. Cane's fans begin to believe his work is real instead of fiction, something John Trent initially scoffs at, but as the movie goes on, he begins to question reality himself.

I have so many things to say about this movie, but I will be here forever, so I need to edit myself. One night when I was younger, I was flipping through channels at like, 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning and I saw Sam Neill and thought, "Hey, that's the guy from Jurassic Park." And because Jurassic Park is one of my favorite movies, I decided to watch this film that I'd never heard of and knew nothing about. Several things happened after that. First of all, I loved the movie because it didn't have a clear ending, it was open to interpretation. I also became a huge fan of Sam Neill. And I went to the IMDB message board (back when they still existed) and found out that the movie was inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft, whom I had also never heard of before. I'm now a fan of his work (the parts of it that don't make me cringe, anyway) and a lifetime member of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. In the Mouth of Madness really shaped the kind of horror I ended up loving.

John Carpenter makes fantastic films. In the Mouth of Madness is my favorite horror movie ever. The Thing and The Fog are great as well. I know Halloween is Carpenter's most famous/loved film, but he's done so many other interesting things that deserve more attention. There are some really beautiful shots in this film of the fall foliage in Canada and it's incredible. The theme song is so different from anything else Carpenter has done, but it really works here. The rest of the soundtrack is subtle, yet effective. Everything about this movie works together beautifully (except Julie Carmen's acting, I'm sorry, but she's over the top, especially her "I'm losing me!" line). There are Lovecraft references scattered throughout the movie and you can even see some of his creations brought to life by Greg Nicotero (I really appreciate that they used practical FX instead of CGI). People seem very divided over this film, they either love it or hate, but I'll keep recommending it to anyone who will listen because I absolutely love it.

Just a quick aside, I wanted to show this canvas I bought from Whack Wam Bam on Etsy. They have some amazing artwork and this is one of the best things I own, so I wanted to quickly recommend their shop.

Fear Street #25 One Evil Summer by R.L. Stine

 

WARNING: THE PETS DIE IN THIS BOOK. Also, spoilers.

Something about the cover of One Evil Summer always draws me to it (surprisingly, not the cat). I think it's the colors. I really like the way the yellow lettering looks with the teal background. Random, I know, but I wanted to make a point of it because I think this may be my favorite Fear Street cover of all time. 

Are books like this even around anymore? I work in a library and we still have a collection of Goosebumps books, but we don't carry Fear Street or any Point Horror novels. Our entire YA section is fantasy/dystopian/romance (there's nothing wrong with that, I love a good dystopian novel), but we don't have any fun, paperback horror novels like we did when I was a kid. R.L. Stine was everywhere back then.

I'm going to be making "predictions" before reading these R.L. Stine books again. (With the exception of Halloween Party because I already read that book by the time I came up with this idea, even though this post is going up first.) For some of them, I also have very specific memories associated with them, so I'll probably briefly mention those things, too. Or any other "interesting" tidbits about the books. Like the fact that I bought this book on Etsy and there's a guy's name and number written inside the front cover. Anyone else see Serendipity?

I decided to start off this series with One Evil Summer because I personally feel that even without a psychotic babysitter, summer is pretty evil. I did read this book 500 years ago, but the only thing I remembered about it was the cover. So! My prediction, based on the cover and the description on the back...I don't actually recall how dark these Fear Street books get, but I'm going to guess the babysitter kills the kids she's supposed to be taking care of. And maybe the cat helps her? Let's see how evil the summer really was.

The book begins in the present, where our protagonist, Amanda Conklin, is locked up in a juvenile detention center for the murder of a girl named Chrissy who was hired to help take care of her siblings for the summer. We're off to a good start, someone is already dead!

The Conklin family is leaving Shadyside behind for the summer and going to Seahaven. Amanda will be going to summer school (I didn't know you could even do that outside your own school district) and her parents will be working (her father is a lawyer and her mother is a journalist). Because Amanda failed algebra and won't be able to watch her siblings, her parents decide to hire someone to take care of  Kyle and Merry. Along for the ride are Mr. Jinx (an orange cat) and Salt and Pepper (canaries). 

Not long after the family arrives, a girl named Chrissy comes by to apply for the job. But something is weird about her. Mr. Jinx hisses at her, something he's never done to anyone before (TAKE THAT AS A SIGN), and Chrissy hisses back at him. Listen. If someone hissed at my cats, I would tell them to get the hell out. During Chrissy's interview, she claims to be living with her aunt and says her cousin just came home from college, so a live-in job is perfect for her. Mrs. Conklin gives her the job without even checking her references because the entire family is completely enamored with her, except for Amanda, Mr. Jinx and the birds (who stopped singing in Chrissy's presence).

As Chrissy is unpacking, Amanda notices a newspaper clipping fall to the floor. Chrissy reluctantly hands it over to her. It's an article from two years ago, about a 15 year old girl who was in a coma from carbon monoxide inhalation. Chrissy tells Amanda that Lilith, her twin sister, is still in a coma. And that she's evil. (Coming to you from the future here to say that this makes NO sense given the rest of this story, I don't even know why Chrissy made that comment.) I mean, she's the one hissing at cats, but sure, okay.

This is when Chrissy's lies begin to unravel. At summer school, Amanda meets a boy named Dave who lives in Seahaven. She asks if he's ever heard of Chrissy or her aunt, but he hasn't. This surprises her because the town has a small population, you would think everyone knows each other. The other lie Chrissy is caught in is that she told Mrs. Conklin that her parents died in a car accident and her sister is all she has left and she's worried about her. She just said Lilith was evil like, five pages ago. Amanda tried to tell her mom that Chrissy is lying, but of course her mom doesn't believe her. It's so frustrating to me when parents believe someone they barely know over their own children (assuming their children are generally well behaved and not Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son). Chrissy is probably going to murder them and all their pets, but sure, Amanda's imagination is working overtime.

This is getting long, I'm going to skip ahead. Strange things begin happening that prove Chrissy has some sort of supernatural powers. She gets Mr. Jinx killed. Then she kills the birds and makes it look like Amanda did it. Mr. and Mrs. Conklin bring Amanda to a psychiatrist because they think she's delusional. The psychiatrist says Amanda believes she doesn't deserve her parents love anymore because she failed algebra and that she feels Chrissy is taking her place. I think he got his degree from a Crackerjack box.

Amanda's parents decide not to fire Chrissy and feed into her "delusions," so she decides the best thing she can do is act like she buys into the doctor's theory and apologize to Chrissy. I was really on Amanda's side, but everything she does from now until the end of the book is absolutely idiotic:

1. She brings a kitten into the house, after Chrissy already killed three of her pets.
2. She calls Chrissy's references while she's in the house.
3. She snoops through Chrissy's room for the rest of the newspaper clippings and reads them in Chrissy's bedroom instead of going into her own room and then hides under the bed when Chrissy comes in.
4. When Chrissy thinks she's killed Amanda, Amanda comes back home and eats some Cheerios when Chrissy goes in the shower. Instead of grabbing Kyle and Merry and getting out of there. (She also leaves the box of Cheerios open, so Chrissy knows she's been there.)

Throughout the second half of the book, we learn three things. The first is that Chrissy's parents were found dead in bed, their car was left running in the garage. That's not exactly a car accident. The second thing is that one of Chrissy's references was a judge, who is now most likely dead, based on Amanda's conversation with the reference's neighbor. And the last thing we learn is that her father had Chrissy's father prosecuted for arson. Chrissy tells Amanda that Mr. Conklin is the reason her father killed himself and...What the hell? If you want to kill yourself, why take your entire family out with you? She also reveals that the two people she gave as references were the judge and the assistant D.A. so we can assume they're dead. And that's...Fine. But did she really have to kill the cat and the birds? And if Chrissy just wants revenge, why not kill the Conklins immediately instead of playing head games with Amanda? (Because then there would be no book.)

All of this leads to a showdown on a boat where Chrissy plans to kill Kyle and Merry. Amanda goes to save them and Chrissy falls and hits her head on the boat. Amanda takes that as an opportunity to tie Chrissy up and drag her back to the house, but before she can call the police, Chrissy breaks free and sets the house on fire. Amanda tells Kyle and Merry to get out, and then THE KITTEN TRIPS CHRISSY and she falls into the flames! That's for Mr. Jinx! Amanda escapes with the kitten and is then arrested for murder because when Chrissy's body was examined, they found the wound on the back of her head and the police believe Amanda set the fire to cover it up. That's...A bit of a reach. Kyle, who was in shock and unable to speak for several days, is finally doing better though and he confirms Amanda's story about Chrissy. Amanda is told that Chrissy was actually Lilith (why did she say her sister was evil, she was talking about herself, was she actually self-aware?), and the name Chrissy came from Lilith's pet cat. That is the most surprising part of all of this, that she had a cat who probably didn't hate her and that she would kill someone else's cat when she had one of her own.

One Evil Summer was fun, when Amanda wasn't making stupid decisions and her parents weren't ignoring all of her concerns. I would have liked it more if the pets didn't die, I feel like that never adds anything to the story, it's just a way to make people upset. It's unnecessary. We all know Chrissy is evil without her killing the cat. Other than that though, I think we're off to a good start rereading these Fear Street books!

That was supposed to be the end of this post, but this morning when I was cleaning off my desk so I could get on my computer and actually type my notes into something somewhat coherent, I moved a box of books (all purchased from Thriftbooks and Etsy)...

...And noticed one had a pink piece of paper inside it. So I looked at it...

I went from receiving a book with a guy's name and number in it and thinking it was my Serendipity moment, to finding a really creepy note in another book. Just wanted to share that. Also hope whoever this note was to didn't date that person's brother.