I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (PC)

Back in 1995, developers Cyberdreams and The Dreamers Guild released a video game adaptation of one of Harlan Ellison’s most famous short stories, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (IHNMAIMS), cited as one of the ten most reprinted stories in the English language. This adaptation, written and designed in collaboration with Ellison himself, would receive positive reviews and develop enough of a cult following over time that Nightdive Studios would later remaster the game for modern systems in 2013, followed by a console port in 2025. Admittedly, although I had known about the short story for the longest time, I finally checked it out after learning that a series that I like, The Amazing Digital Circus, took inspiration from it. Naturally, this also led me to playing the video game, which, for the sake of this review, I’ll mention was through the Nightdive release on Steam with all patches up to this point applied. There is some jank in the game’s design, especially one originally intended to have no win state, but it’s still worth checking out for how well it builds on the original story.

Iron Lung (Film)

It’s not uncommon for online video content creators to branch out into film, whether acting or directing. Less common, however, is a content creator not only writing, directing, starring in, editing and executive producing their own independent feature, but also adapting a video game. Such is the case with Iron Lung, which represents Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach’s feature directorial debut and adapts the 2022 indie horror game of the same name by David Szymanski. As a fan of Markiplier, I followed the status of the production throughout, including how conflicts with shooting times prevented him from appearing in the original Five Nights at Freddy’s film. I also witnessed the splash that Iron Lung made closer to release, with a small theatrical rollout brought on by independently distributing the film quickly ballooning to the point that major theater chains like AMC and Regal picked it up, the latter even offering an exclusive (3D printable) popcorn bucket. I was hyped enough to be a part of something so unique, regardless of the quality, that I bought tickets for an early screening the day they went live. Fortunately, Markiplier managed to put his money where his mouth is and create a very solid, if imperfect, big screen debut.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 (Film)

When the first Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) film finally came out in 2023 and proved itself a runaway success, making back over ten times its $20 million budget, a sequel, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (FNAF2), based on the game of the same name, was inevitable. As a fan, I was hyped enough for the film that I attended the Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con, where the cast and crew discussed the experience working on the film and they had announced a Scream reunion with Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich appearing in the same film once again (they also gave away pizza boxes lifted straight out of FNAF). As a reviewer, I recognized the flaws in FNAF, even more so on repeated viewings, though there were assurances that the production crew had listened to feedback and incorporated the criticisms into the sequel, which had a much smoother production. While FNAF2 did leave me curious about the future of the series, I can’t deny that it was overall a step down from the original.

Fobia Vol. 1

Note: Product received for free in exchange for a copy of Powers Squared Vol. 1 and an honest review.

When you’ve dedicated yourself to creative works, it’s natural to want to branch out and try new things when inspiration strikes. One such medium creatives have branched out to is comic books, whether they’re actors, like Keanu Revees (BRZRKER) or David Dastmalchian (Count Crowley), or content creators, like penguinz0 (Godslap) or Jacksepticeye (Altrverse). Now, Derrick Acosta of Mega64 fame has thrown his own hat into the ring with Fobia, a horror anthology inspired by other anthologies like Tales from the Crypt and Slow Death, among others. In an impressive feat for a first-time independent comics creator, he managed to raise $34,671 on Kickstarter to bring Vol. 1 of his dream to fruition, with physical books on the way and a Vol. 2 already in the works. As an independent comics creator myself, it’s nice to see someone else with a burning passion for the medium and, as a Mega64 fan, I was curious about his latest venture.

Stubs - Blade

Blade (1998) starring Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson. Directed by Stephen Norrington. Screenplay by David S. Goyer. Based on characters created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan. Produced by Peter Frankfurt, Wesley Snipes, Robert Engelman. Run time: 120 minutes. Color. USA. Horror

Before there was the MCU and before the X-Men franchise got off the ground, there was Blade. Not the first Marvel adventure into films, there was a Captain America serial in 1944, and, of course, the misfortunate Howard the Duck (1978), but unlike that film, Blade showed there was money to be made from adapting comic books for the big screen.

There are other firsts for Blade that often attributed to other films. As an example, it was the first comic book film adaptation to feature a Black superhero, not Black Panther. And the first comic book adaptation to receive an R rating, not Deadpool.

Stubs - Island of Lost Souls

Island of Lost Souls (1932) starring: Charles Laughton, Richard Arlen, Leila Hyams, Bela Lugosi; Directed by Erle C. Kenton; Screenplay by Waldemar Young, Philip Wylie. Based on the novel The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells (London, 1896). Producer: None Credited. Run time: 70 minutes. Black and White. Drama, Science fiction, Horror

While Universal gets credit for the early 30s craze for horror film with Dracula in 1931, they were not the only studio to make that genre of films. Paramount Pictures had released Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) and wanted to make a follow-up with more horrific and sexual themes. On June 1, 1931, Paramount paid $15,000 (equivalent to $300,500 in 2023) for the rights to H. G. Wells' novel The Island of Dr. Moreau, first published in 1896. Along with the novel, the studio also had access to an unproduced play by Frank Vreeland that was based on Wells' story and titled His Creatures.

The Paramount version of the story differed from the H.G. Wells novel The Island of Dr. Moreau, on which it is based. One of the differences was the addition of a character called The Panther Woman. This was used in pre-production as publicity with a talent search for the actress to play the role. Paramount publicist Arthur Mayer developed a contest that involved giving the winner a trip to Hollywood, $200 (equivalent to $4,470 in 2023) a week for five weeks, a home at the Ambassador Hotel, and a role in the film.

A copy of the form women could fill out to be considered for the role.

Contestants were required to be between the ages of 17 and 30 years old, to be in good health, between 5 feet 4 inches and 5 feet 8 inches tall, and not have worked, or be related to anyone who had worked, at Paramount. In his memoir, Merely Colossal, published in 1951, Mayer claimed that the contest attracted 60,000 contestants. There were four finalists; Lona Andre, Gail Patrick, Kathleen Burke, and Verna Hillie and the judges were Cecil B. DeMille, Rouben Mamoulian, Ernst Lubitsch, Norman Taurog, Stuart Walker, and Erle C. Kenton, who took over directing the film from Taurog.

On September 29, 1932, Kathleen Burke was summoned to the casting office and told she had won the contest. Two days later, the film went into production. There was location shooting on Catalina Island for a week, and on the SS Catalina, which encountered real fog as called for in the script. Shooting lasted until early November, with retakes of the scene of Ruth with Ouran on December 8. Bela Lugosi was added to the cast in October, replacing George Barbier as the Sayer of the Law. The film was first released in Chicago on December 23, 1932.

Stubs - Murders in the Rue Morgue

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) starring Bela Lugosi, Sidney Fox, Leon Waycoff (Ames). Directed by Robert Florey. Screenplay by Tom Reed, Dale Van Every. Based on the short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe in Graham's Magazine (Apr 1841). Produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. Run time: 62 minutes. USA. Black and White. Pre-Code, Horror.

How does one follow up on a landmark performance? This is what faced Universal Pictures and Bela Lugosi after he made Dracula (1931). The original thought was to star him in Frankenstein, which is what director Robert Florey intended, with Carl Laemmle, Jr. wanting Lugosi to play the monster. According to TCM, “Accounts vary, but Lugosi was to say that he turned down the monster role because it was not a speaking part; others claim that at the time he threw himself into the preparations. What is known is that Florey, working with Garrett Fort, completed a draft of a screenplay for Frankenstein, and shot a make-up test with Lugosi (as the monster), Edward Van Sloan, and Dwight Frye. This footage, shot over two days, June 16 and 17, 1931, is long-gone and much-discussed among horror fans.”

Stubs - The Vampire Bat

The Vampire Bat (1933) starring Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Melvyn Douglas. Directed by Frank Stayer. Screenplay by Edward T. Lowe. Produced by Phil Goldstone Run time: 63 minutes. Black and White. USA. Pre-code. Horror.

While most of Hollywood history revolves around the releases from the majors (MGM, Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros, Fox, Columbia, RKO), there were several smaller studios known as poverty row studio. One of those was Majestic Pictures, which was in business in the early 1930’s. Studios like Majestic were always on the look for what they hoped would be a break out film. And with The Vampire Bat they thought they had one.

To give a little background, Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray had been paired together in Warner Bros’ Dr. X (1932), a horror film directed by Michael Curtiz, and had completed work on The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), a follow up horror film, also directed by Curtiz. The latter was a large-scale release and would have a lengthy post-production process before it was released.

Stubs - The Little Shop of Horrors

The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) Starring: Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles. Directed by Roger Corman. Screenplay by Charles B. Griffith. Produced by Roger Corman. Run time: 70 minutes. Black and White. USA. Horror, Comedy.

Roger Corman was known for a lot of things as an independent film producer. Not only did he make countless feature films including X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes (1963), The Wild Angels (1966), The Trip (1967) and House of Usher (1960), he also handled the distribution in the US for such directors as Federico Fellini (Italy), Ingmar Bergman (Sweden), François Truffaut (France) and Akira Kurosawa (Japan). He mentored such directors as Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Peter Bogdanovich, Joe Dante, John Sayles, and James Cameron. He also helped to launch the careers of actors like Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, and William Shatner.

But the one title that comes up every time his name is mentioned is The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), a self-described comedy/horror film.

Corman shot the film quickly in order to beat changing industry rules that would have prevented producers from "buying out" an actor's performance in perpetuity. On January 1, 1960, new rules were to go into effect requiring producers to pay all actors residuals for all future releases of their work. This meant that Corman's B-movie business model would be permanently changed and he would not be able to produce low-budget films in the same way. Before these rules went into effect, Corman decided to shoot one last film and scheduled it for the last week in December 1959.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - Is the Sequel as Good as the Original?

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe. Directed by Tim Burton, Screenplay by Alfred Gough. Miles Millar. Based on Characters by Michael McDowell, Larry Wilson. Produced by Marc Toberoff, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Tommy Harper, Tim Burton Run time: 104 minutes, Color, USA Comedy, Horror

Note: This review contains spoilers for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

Sequels seem to be taking longer and longer to get made. The original King Kong's sequel, Son of Kong, came out the same year, but the turnaround has only gotten longer since. Two years ago, Top Gun: Maverick came out 36 years after its predecessor, Top Gun, and this year, Beetlejuice follows suit with its sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. While Maverick was an improvement over the original, can the same be said for Beetlejuice x 2?

Five Nights at Freddy's (Film)

Back in 2014, the original Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) caught the internet by storm and, within a year, became a series that exploded in popularity as fans obsessively dissected the ever-expanding lore. In April 2015, this popularity led to the announcement of a film adaptation from Warner Bros. While the franchise continued its reign as a cultural juggernaut, however, the film itself had unfortunately entered a development hell that saw a change in studios, from Warner Bros. to Blumhouse Productions, multiple director changes, from Gil Kenan to Chris Columbus to Emma Tammi, and several scrapped scripts (some fans have suspected that Warner Bros. retooled one of these scripts into The Banana Splits Movie, which, if true, wouldn’t surprise us). Only in 2023 did the film finally enter production, as series creator Scott Cawthon, who had a very hands-on role from the beginning, had finally approved a script he loved.

As a fan of the series (even if I had only watched Markiplier play the games until I played Security Breach and its DLC for myself), I had experienced the emotional highs and lows from following the production for years, ending with excitement as news from the final production slowly trickled in. With final details of the story mostly shrouded in mystery until the official trailers rolled in, I had no idea what to expect, but still remained optimistic and got tickets for a screening on opening day, where I watched with someone who didn’t know anything about the games or expanded universe. As a fan, I can happily say that while the final film likely won’t go down as a classic of the genre, it’s a very enjoyable love letter to the series and its fandom that even newcomers (who the marketing doesn’t do much to entice) can still get into.

Willy's Wonderland

While Scott Cawthon’s smash hit Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) didn’t invent the horror subgenre of killer animatronics originally designed for amusement, one need only look at Michael Crichton’s 1973 film Westworld to see where the seeds were truly planted, it’s pretty safe to say that the runaway success of the game brought this concept to new heights, leading to other media utilizing it inevitably being compared with the series. In the time during the official FNAF film’s rocky development came a pair of films with their own takes on the genre, the first being the infamous The Banana Splits Movie, whose background details have raised suspicion of reusing a rejected FNAF movie screenplay for a quick cash grab. The second, Willy’s Wonderland, is an independent project made on a shoestring budget originally slated for release in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to move to 2021 instead, gaining attention for starring Nicolas Cage and putting its own unique twist on the subgenre. With it being a horror film and me having a low threshold for the genre, I hesitated at first to watch it even after it piqued my curiosity, only to finally watch it in preparation for the then-upcoming FNAF film and finding myself thoroughly enjoying it for what it is.

Frankenweenie (2012)

Tim Burton’s 1984 live-action short Frankenweenie has an odd place in his career. Not only did it have a more niche audience for the longest time, only seeing a home video release within certain releases of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but the short’s creation also led to Disney firing him for what they considered a waste of company resources. Fast forward to 2007, when Disney hired Burton to direct two 3D films, one of which was a feature length remake of Frankenweenie, this time in stop-motion. The finished product would release in 2012 to generally positive critical reception and also had the honor of being both the first black-and-white feature and first stop-motion film shown in IMAX 3D. In the context of its creation and release, Frankenweenie is certainly a technical achievement, as well as a personal one considering that not many people can say they got to remake a project that got them fired by the same company that hired them. In the context of the rest of his output, however, Frankenweenie’s second chance at life doesn’t change the fact that it’s not one of Burton’s best creations.

Stubs - Drácula (1931)

Drácula (aka Spanish-language Dracula) (1931) starring Carlos Villar, Lupita Tovar, Barry Norton Directed by George Melford. Screenplay by Garrett Fort, Spanish adaptation by Baltasar Fernández Cué. Based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker (London, 1897) and Dracula (play) by Hamilton Deane, John L. Balderston. Produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. Run time: 103 minutes. Black and White. USA Horror

Hollywood has always had an eye on the foreign markets. When they were making silent films, it was easy to do as only the interstitial cards could be translated and inserted. The coming of sound presented a different set of issues for doing this. As an example, between October 1929 and February 1931, the comedy team of Laurel and Hardy shot 10 of their films in Spanish, French, German and Italian, relying on interpreters writing the dialogue phonetically on a blackboard just out of camera range. Laurel and Hardy featurettes La Vida Nocturna (1930) is the Spanish-language equivalent of the team’s short Blotto (1930), while Politiquerias (1930) is a greatly amplified version of Chickens Come Home (1930).

Universal took a different approach when it came to Dracula. By 1930, the studio had focused primarily on developing Spanish-language films for the foreign market and rather than have Bela Lugosi learn Spanish on the set, they instead set out to make an entirely Spanish-language version with a Spanish-speaking cast. While Tod Browning would shoot during the day, the George Melford production would shoot at night and on the same sets.

The idea originated with Paul Kohner, a producer at the studio who convinced Carl Laemmle to make Spanish language movies that could be shot simultaneously at night with their English originals. While Drácula maybe the most famous, it was not the only film shot like this at the studio.

Apparently, the cast and crew would arrive in the evening, look over what was shot that day and then shoot their own version. They were apparently not required to be slavish to the original. While they used the same marks as the daytime production, they were free to make some changes. As an example, the Spanish version has more dialogue, different costumes and some different camera work. According to Lupita Tovar, who starred as Eva, they wanted theirs to “be the best” of the two releases. As some critic referred to it, Drácula was sort of like a second draft, which are usually better than the first.

Again, according to Tovar, director George Melford did not speak Spanish and had to use an interpreter to speak with the cast. That is not apparent on the screen.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City

For fourteen years, Resident Evil’s theatrical presence was dominated by the work of Paul W. S. Anderson, whose contributions had notoriously little relation to the source material. Following the release of the sixth film, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, work on a reboot of the film series began with the idea that the new film would be more accurate to the games. After a rocky start, the final product would see a wide theatrical release as Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City to mixed reception. Once I finally played the two games it was based on, Resident Evil (RE1) and Resident Evil 2 (RE2), I decided to give this film a try while the stories were fresh in my head just to form my own opinion. Unfortunately, Welcome to Raccoon City does a good job at showing that while video game adaptations have come a long way, they still haven’t cracked the code on this series.

Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham

Among the most well-known Marvel and DC superheroes, Batman is unique in that he not only possesses no superhuman abilities, relying more on his wits, he’s a very versatile character. You can place him in just about any situation or tone and it somehow makes sense. From the more grounded Batman: The Animated Series to the sillier Batman: The Brave and the Bold or even the more fantastical Batman Ninja and Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, just about any situation works for the world’s greatest detective as long as there’s some sort of mystery to solve. In one of the more unique takes from back in late 2000, DC published a three-issue “Elseworlds” story written by Mike Mignola and Richard Pace called Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham, which places Batman in a cosmic horror story heavily inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft. This story later got loosely adapted into a film of the same name in 2023.

Although I had not read the original comic story, the premise of The Doom That Came to Gotham piqued my interest since I had read some of Lovecraft’s work when I was younger and had been fascinated with different takes on it ever since. Unfortunately, while it hits many of the elements found in Lovecraft’s style of cosmic horror, and has a lot of potential within the context of Batman, the film doesn’t quite hit it out of the park.

Three Lesbians in a Barrow

A change in gameplay can sometimes be beneficial for a game series, though it still helps to try and keep things fresh as it goes. A follow-up to The Testimony of Trixie Glimmer Smith (TToTGS), Three Lesbians in a Barrow (TLiaB) is another visual novel that was included in the same bundle as the previous game and Parsnip and expands further on those games’ universe while trying something new for the series. Though shorter, TLiaB accomplishes this goal, even if the execution isn’t perfect.

The Testimony of Trixie Glimmer Smith

Genre changes between games in a series aren’t uncommon, but are still notable when they do happen. Case in point, whereas Parsnip is a point-and-click game, its sequel, The Testimony of Trixie Glimmer Smith (TToTGS) makes the jump to a visual novel format. Acquired through the same bundle where I obtained Parsnip, I wasn’t sure what to expect from it aside from its nature as a sequel. While it still has some hiccups along the way, I found myself surprised by what it was able to accomplish with the shift in gameplay style.

Parsnip

Note: This review contains spoilers for Parsnip.

If you think the oddly-specific horror game subgenre of “cute game turns out to be dark” has been oversaturated by now, you’re not alone there. In a sea of games included in a massive itch.io bundle, Parsnip stood out to me mainly due to its appealing art style, to where I thought to download and play it along with its two follow-up games included in the bundle. Once I finally got around to playing Parsnip, I was legitimately unaware that it was one of those types of aforementioned horror games, and while it is effective on a first playthrough, the game is not without flaws.

Adult Swim Yule Log

If you celebrate Christmas during the holiday season, there’s a chance that you’ve had a “Yule Log” video running in the background while opening presents. Sometimes a major or paid network will provide one of their own, such as the defunct Hub Network once broadcasting a short “Yule Log” of their own with appearances from then-current animated Hasbro characters. This year, [adult swim] threw their hat into the ring with a 90-minute special simply titled Adult Swim Yule Log. Considering the block’s history of broadcasting subversive content, it’s natural to expect some sort of twist on the holiday tradition. If that’s the case for you, rest assured that your suspicions are correct.