Hello humans and not-humans,
Are you and your air conditioning having a good summer?
My Dungeons & Dragons group recently finished our four year campaign of Descent into Avernus. It was truly an honor to bring my character Bungo Syrup the Rat Bastard, a halfing ranger and his rat, Rat to life, but next I’m going super duper magical with a blind high elf Lovecrafty warlock. I’m not a big RPG (role-playing game) person, but I’ll get there.
News:
Mel Brooks and the team behind the What We Do In The Shadows series are producing a Very Young Frankenstein pilot for FX.
In a banner year for The Stand, an anthology of 34 short stories told before and the after the events of the book, called The End of the World As We Know It (intro by Stephen King) is coming out next month.
Housekeeping:
I have exciting news I’m not able to announce yet! Mark down the weekend of October 4th in your calendar, wherever you are.
My first published book review, of That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film by Payton McCarty-Simas is available to read on MovieJawn.
Tip! Ever click on a link and can’t read the article? Try 12-foot ladder.
Watched:
28 Years Later (2025) 4/5
Theaters
A beautiful reflection on what it means to be human, humane, and British.
The doctor’s (Ralph Fiennes) plotline was the highlight of this zombie-not-zombie film, and very much a dedication to the lives lost in Covid.
The Ending (No Plot Spoilers): The controversy of it could’ve been mitigated by moving the final scene to after the credits, but uhhh, I liked it! 28 Years Later begins a new trio of films, so this established that we’re going more bonkers action than outright horror. The Aliensification of the franchise if you will. Let’s get stupid!
I do think it’s worth examining why the only? maybe I need to see it again person of color in this film plays the most animalistic dick-swinging alpha zombie creature, in a stereotype that goes all the way back to King Kong, or even Birth of a Nation. But yay for male full frontal!1
For you if you love: 28 Days Later, apocalypse horror, British accents
Stephen King’s The Stand (1994) 4.5/5
Internet Archive
Loved it! Smashes a few things/characters together from the book, but a shockingly faithful adaption. I don’t know why they keep doing it.
Casting was near-perfect and those classic songs like “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and “Don’t Dream It’s Over” always hit.
This story really shouldn’t be less than 6 hours.
For you if you love: Stephen King, 90’s actors, classic good vs. evil
Dumplings (2004) 3.5/5
Tubi
A retired doctor (Bai Ling) now sells dumplings that make you young and beautiful thanks to the ‘secret ingredient’ revealed early in the film: aborted human fetuses.
In a post-Roe America (abortion forever), the film’s black market procedure is even harder to watch, but for a movie with this sickening of a secret ingredient, it never reaches the levels of body horror and disgust it would have been justified to do. It stays in its track of domestic and business drama, with the scenes in the dumpling maker’s apartment keeping such a lovely slice-of-life-ness to them.
Incredible sound design that likely inspired the Dennis-Quaid-eating-shrimp scene in The Substance.
For you if you love: food movies, themes of aging beauty, 2004 fashion
Possum (2018) 3.5/5
Shudder, Prime, Tubi
An “disgraced children’s’ puppeteer” (Sean Harris) tries to dispose of his spider-like marionette, but it keeps coming back. Like trauma.
This is made up of long, repetitive shots that could’ve broken me on a different day, but can also lean boring and meandering. Disturbing, bleak, and tragic, with solid performances that could’ve benefited from even more hamminess.
For you if you love: Skinamarink, Laura Palmer, creepy puppets
Read:
4/5
I love V.E. Schwab because she can approach something that’s been done to death (i.e. superpowers - Vicious, magic - Shades of Magic), and find an angle that somehow feels fresh, but foundational to the genre.
This book has my favorite explanation for how much blood vampires require.
My issues are not the book’s fault; it’s part of the emerging New Adult category I’ve outgrown. Between Adult and Young Adult (YA), but closer to Adult, the New Adult genre features 18 to 30-year-old protagonists dealing with age-appropriate themes of leaving home and finding their identities. The themes were relatable, but the slight repetition and overexplaining that’s also present in the ACOTAR books for what I imagine is a TikTok-addicted gen-z audience irked me a bit.
Bonus! Nearly every character is queer, because of course they are; what other type of person, especially living in the 16th or 19th century, looks at the sick and boring life of a heterosexual as a curse worse than eternal thirst?
For you if you love: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, Carmilla, new adult
Thanks for reading!
xo,
the dream you have where you’re back in school but naked and all your classmates are laughing at you, even your crush, allie lembo, who is wearing a giant cowboy hat for some reason, oh GOD NO now it’s a SPIDER
