It’s been 40 years since Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) survived a vicious attack from the crazy and zany Pee-wee Herman on Halloween night. But when Pee-wee escapes, will her family be safe from what is certainly to be his biggest Halloween adventure ever?
The Halloween remix you never knew you needed until now!
The latest "beat down" challenge from fan-film favourites Bat In The Sun has a particularly dark Halloween twist, pitting Michael Myers (Kevin Porter) against Bat In The Sun's own The Look-See (Dirk Ellis).
Hosted by The Joker (Aaron Schoenke) in Arkham Asylum, this contest is all about who can accumulate the highest kill count!
One of my favourite comic book commentators, Comic Drake, takes a look at the idea of "sidekicks" in comics and it got me thinking about their use in superhero roleplaying games.
This concept brings with it the tropes of generational play and legacy heroes, with young heroes growing into their roles and eventually stepping out of the shadow of their mentors (the classic example being Dick Grayson's Robin becoming Nightwing).
Have you ever used sidekicks in your roleplaying campaigns? Were they NPCs or did other players take the roles? How did the players - rather than the characters - react to the "mentor-sidekick" dynamic?
Revenge thrillers are not renowned for their complex plots and they don't come more linear than Nicolas Cage's wonderously visceral Mandy (out on DVD this week).
It's 1983 and grizzled lumberjack - and man of few words - Red Miller (Cage) and his artistic, hippy, girlfriend Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough) live an idyllic life in the wilderness.
Unfortunately, by chance, one day Mandy catches the eye of failed musician and deranged cult leader Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache).
Sand employs demented biker gang The Black Skulls to kidnap Mandy for his pleasure, but things don't go exactly according to plan, sending Red on an epic, furious, quest for vengeance.
At times feeling like a journey into Hell curated by David Lynch, Mandy is part Apocalypse Now, part Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and part Unforgiven, taking queues from multiple genres as writer/director Panos Cosmatos aims his laser-focus on Red's mythic mission of revenge.
I loves me some weird cult shit and Mandy delivers on that front with The Black Skulls and Sand's Children of the New Dawn, and enough peculiar characters and mannered dialogue to populate a suburb of Twin Peaks.
Startling visuals merge with subtle camera tricks to disorientate the viewer, enhancing our insights into the minds of both protagonist and antagonist, creating an artistic cocktail of psychedelic grindhouse.
Reminiscent of Baskin in its brutal relentlessness, Mandy, however, is more concerned with the human - and occasionally superhuman - monster than the cosmic.
The role of Red is one that only Cage could truly have embodied, segueing from effortless charm to ruthless killer as his descent into madness progresses.
With a running time just shy of two hours, Mandy feels a fraction of that duration thanks to its spectacular pacing and addictive imagery.
The plot may be a short railroad, but the scenery is breathtakingly hypnotic as you are catapulted along this stunning and unforgettable ride.
I originally subscribed to Netflix when the Marvel serials were announced, happy to know my monthly fees would be helping produce live-action realisations of some of my favourite street-level characters from Marvel comics.
But since then the streaming service hasn't been resting on its laurels and has been using our money to create some of the greatest shows around at the moment.
This year, already, it has given us three of the finest shows I've seen on television (and I haven't even got round to The Haunting Of Hill House yet).
Initially, I thought the indescribably surreal and brilliant sci-fi fable Maniac - starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill - would turn out to be favourite new show of 2018, with its tale of dream-sharing and soul mates, but then I sat down to the feast that is The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina.
As a big fan of the late '90s sitcom with Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina The Teenage Witch, and particularly the snarky talking cat, Salem, I needed Netflix's re-imagining of the characters - largely inspired by the erratically published Archie Horror title of the same name - to be something special.
And it far exceeded my expectations.
The first season of The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina consists ten one-hour episodes telling the story of half-witch Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka) who, on her 16th birthday - Halloween - under a blood moon eclipse is expected to forsake her human existence, sign her name in the witch community's Book Of The Beast, and go the Academy Of Unseen Arts to study to become a fully-fledged practitioner of dark magic.
However, she has a human boyfriend, Harvey Kinkle (Ross Lynch), and good friends, Susie Putnam (Lachlan Watson) and Rosalind "Roz" Walker (Jaz Sinclair), that she's not that eager to say goodbye to.
Amongst the many layers of twisted darkness that permeate every pore of The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, there's definitely a perverse, anti-Harry Potter vibe going on, with The Academy of Unseen Arts being the very definition of a dark reflection of Hogwarts.
A beautifully Gothic atmosphere blends with sly political commentary throughout this very contemporary take on social mores, belief, and superstition.
The show constantly references horror movies, both visually and thematically, from the classic (such as The Exorcist and The Witch) to the crass (such as Basket Case), and while there are moments of dark humour along the way, this is about as far from the genteel shenanigans of Sabrina The Teenage Witch as you could imagine, without plunging wholly into the world of hardcore horror.
Sabrina's hometown, Greendale, although near to Riverdale, exists in a strange time out of time, where mobile phones and laptops are rare but not unknown, the kids talk about modern films but the TVs and cinemas only show old black and white movies (have to love any show that name-checks the sublime Carnival Of Souls), the school library still uses index cards etc
Rich characters and engaging stories make Chilling Adventures a joy to watch; I devoured the entire season in two days and when it came to an end I was aching to know what was going to happen in the second season.
And the world of Sabrina is crying out for exploration of this kind, the world-building is amazing, mixing genuine folk tales and ghost stories with original material to create a rich tapestry more than suitable for gaming in.
Tomorrow (Sabrina's birthday), Justin Isaac, of Halls of the Nephilim, and Tim Brannan, of The Other Side, will be further developing this idea, producing gaming material based on elements of the Netflix show.
And while we're talking about Netflix's quality output, it would be very remiss of me - especially given why I originally signed up to Netflix - not to mention the recent amazing season of Daredevil.
The first, and the strongest, of the Netflix/Marvel collaborations, Daredevil continues to be the epitome of the streaming service's superhero output.
This season saw the return of Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk - aka The Kingpin - and introduction of Wilson Bethel's Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter, who was destined to become the infamous Daredevil antagonist Bullseye.
I'm not generally one to glorify villainy, but I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Bullseye because of his incredible skill set, his knack of being able to turn any object into a lethal weapon, and his superlative marksmanship.
And this season did the character proud.
With Iron Fist and Luke Cage recently having the plug pulled on them - hopefully to make way for a Heroes For Hire series - I really hope we get more seasons of Daredevil and Dex has a chance to return and go full Bullseye.
Netflix continues to use our subscription money to make shows of the highest calibre - as well as offer us a wide tranche of other shows and movies from around the globe - that I'm proud to support.
If they keep this up, it looks like I'm going to be a lifer.
The Scarecrow is a song by Pink Floyd on their 1967 debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. This video is a promotional film for the song, made for a Pathé newsreel and filmed in early July 1967.
An American living in Mumbai, Maria (Sarah Wayne Callies aka Lori from The Walking Dead), is having trouble moving on from the tragic death of her eldest child, Oliver (Logan Creran), in a car accident that she feels responsible for.
After Maria attempts suicide, her housekeeper Piki (Suchitra Pillai) tells her of an abandoned temple in the countryside where, if the correct ritual is performed, the spirits of the dead can be summoned to allow communication through the closed temple door.
This would give Maria a chance to say farewell to her son... but the one condition is, regardless of what the spirit says, the door must remain closed for the duration.
Of course, Maria - being an American - knows better and fails to follow the one simple rule.
By the time she gets home, she discovers that Oliver's ghost is haunting her home.
Annoyingly, it never got a home video release over here or even popped up on a streaming service.
Honestly, I can't fathom why it's been treated so shoddily.
It's a decent, solid, ghost story with a fascinating "fish out of water" protagonist, adrift in an exotic alien culture that harbours wholly different ideas about death and the afterlife than Maria's Western upbringing has prepared her for.
The film has a solid moral to it ("rules are made for a reason") coupled with a steady escalation of terror, even if the narrative gets a bit chaotic and probably wouldn't hold together if examined too closely.
Sure, the story isn't wholly original, and it relies on the odd jump scare, but the themes and imagery of The Other Side Of The Door are interesting enough to elevate it above the bulk of production-line horror fodder.
...there's an ancient temple with a sealed door where you can communicate with a recently departed loved one (who is on the other side of the door) just one time, as long as you don't open the door.
In a long-running supernatural game where death has meaning (e.g. Call of Cthulhu), I could see this scenario carrying a lot of weight, especially if the deceased character is a former member of the players' group.
As a rule I'm not usually in favour of "prequels" sneaking into my long-running horror movie franchises, but The First Purge isn't about demystifying some supernatural boogeyman, but providing some sociopolitical backstory for the core event of these movies.
And, anyway, past the first - home invasion-themed - episode of the franchise, The Purge movies have become more action-adventure than horror in feel anyway.
Given the increasingly divisive and violent turn of modern American politics, The First Purge feels strangely prescient, perhaps it even hits too close to home for some as the events it is satirising and warning against are already happening around them.
It opens by laying the groundwork of a near-future America electing an ultra right-wing president, representing the new New Founding Fathers Of America party.
They, in turn, institute a "social experiment" on Staten Island, New York, of "The Purge" - a night without law, where people can "purge" their pent-up aggression.
People are offered $5,000 to not leave the island that night, with more incentives offered if they participate in some form.
Grudges, disputes, and perversions are acted upon, but much to the NFFA's initial disappointment, except for a few violent outbursts, those remaining on the island either lock themselves away or party.
But, of course, The Purge has an ulterior motive: ethnic cleansing of low-income areas, not to put too fine a point on it, and so disguised mercenaries are sent in to increase the body count and reduce the population.
As ever with a Purge film, there are multiple storylines at play through the night being chronicled by the film, but they feel more overtly intertwined than the other movies.
The final act evolves into a reverse Die Hard where local drug lord Dmitri (Y'lan Noel), fights his way up a tower block to rescue his ex-girlfriend, Nya (Lex Scott Davis), her brother, Isaiah (Joivan Wade), and handful of other survivors, from the heavily-armed invading mercenary militia.
While, The First Purge is definitely an exciting action film, as with most prequels, there's an inescapable feeling of "what's the point?" here, given that none of these characters appear in later films and we know that The Purge continues for many years after this experiment.
More useful - but probably a lot less exciting - would have been more from the New Founding Fathers' point of view and the political justifications for such a radical initiative.
It was interesting to see - albeit briefly - the arrival of the NFFA on America's political scene, learn a bit about the supposed psychological aspects of the experiment, and discover the NFFA's true motivations of The Purge.
But really all these things could have been slipped into the storyline of any Purge story that advanced the central narrative, rather than creating an entire prequel to tell us what we'd suspected all along.
Of course, given the conclusion of The Purge: Election Year, I'm not entirely sure if there can - or should - be any more movies in this franchise.
Once you get past the clumsy and forced title (how many of Doctor Who's current target audience will have heard of the Sex Pistols and the song?), Arachnids In The UK turned out to be a disappointingly trite 'monster-of-the-week' effort from Chris Chibnall.
The Doctor finally get the TARDIS back to modern-day Sheffield only to find that the city has a problem with giant spiders... centred on a posh new hotel owned by stereotypical American businessman (and wannabe future president) Roberston (Chris Noth).
Like the one-dimensional Krasko, from Rosa, I can only assume that Robertson is being set up for a return appearance, otherwise he's a painfully undeveloped and clichéd character.
On the positive side, the effects are incredible (the spiders are terrifyingly real), the show continues to look cinematically gorgeous, and the character work from The Doctor and her friends remains the highlight of the episode.
It's just - once again - Chibnall's story is so bland and, ultimately, unengaging.
The ridiculously corny cause of the spiders' mutation just emphasises the shallowness of the story.
There are some strong moments in Arachnids In The UK, such as Graham's interactions with dead wife, Yaz's family, The Doctor's realisation of what's happening to the queen spider, the final moments in the TARDIS, but these only serve to accentuate the paucity of decent story material in the rest of the episode.
Perhaps I was expecting too much? This current season of Doctor Who has so much going for it (a fascinating new Doctor, a trio of well-rounded travelling companions, beautiful cinematography etc), that it makes the weak storytelling even more aggravating.
And to have a story all about giant spiders and NOT make even a passing mention to Metebelis III is such a missed open goal.
When rookie Ghostbusters Brenda, Bryan and Jake accidentally capture Satan, they must decide what to do with her before all Hell literally breaks loose. Will the Ghostbusters of Long Beach be able to save the world from Armageddon? We sure hope so.
I wasn't going to back any more games on Kickstarter, but Spectaculars simply looks like an amazing system, jam-packed with ideas for emulating comic book tropes without sacrificing any of the excitement of old school gaming.
And it comes in a box... jam-packed with "bits" to use at the table: cards, sheets, funky dice etc
And it comes with added Steve Kenson - surely an indication of the game's pedigree!
As soon as your back the campaign you're entitled to a free download of the rules, complete with print-and-play cards and a couple of scenarios to give you a taste of the system.
Rodney Thompson, creator of Spectaculars and founder of Scratchpad Publishing, explains on the campaign's site:
"Each box set of Spectaculars represents a unique comic book universe, one that the players craft and evolve during play. There is no assumed setting for the game; instead, Spectaculars provides materials and guidance that help players craft the universe these comic book stories take place in. Each copy comes with a book filled with pages of important, iconic elements that make up the foundational elements of the setting. These include entries for your setting's powerful, alien artifacts, your setting's supervillain prison, your setting's government agency that deals with superpowered conflicts, and important background characters like the head of your setting's most important news media empire. As you encounter these elements for the first time in the game's scenarios, you and your players will define these elements, and then from that moment on they become a permanent part of your setting."
At the moment Firestorm only exists as this short, proof of concept, story, but all being well this will spawn a full series and see the return of Gerry Anderson's world famous puppetry, miniatures, physical sets, and practical effects.
A full Doctor and companions set - sans TARDIS - is expected at a later date, with cards for using the characters in your Exterminate! games and a different pose for The Doctor miniature.
The next episode of the new series, Arachnids In The UK, airs on Sunday, and here's a clip:
Given the excellence of August's The Death Of Superman, I have high hopes and expectations for next year's sequel, Reign Of The Supermen. It's adapting the classic comic book storyline that followed DC Comics famously killing off one of its tent-pole characters in the early '90s.
Even then no comic book fan believed that Superman was going to stay dead, but it was a great circus and helped bring the medium into the mainstream consciousness for a while.
