And that was February! My Writing Round-Up for this month is here.
February was LGBT+ History Month here in the UK; February was chosen for this because it honours the repeal of Section 28 in Feb 2003. You’ll find a theme going on with some of my books as a result, but I’ve been reading whatever grabs me rather than consciously this month, but also with an eye on US Black History Month (February) as well.
I visited a friend who is well into true crime and history podcasts, so I’ve also gone on a non-fiction spree this month as well. I’ve separated podcasts out this time as a result, as I’ve been listening to a slightly wider variety of them this month.
You can let me know your thoughts on any of these you’ve heard/read/seen in the comments!
Table of Contents
Musical Greetings
I would say the artists/bands I’ve listened to the most this month are: Meek, The Struts, Måneskin, and Demi Levato. I really need upbeat tunes with a strong beat for walking and motivation, especially for housework and things like that!
I am also appreciating a 400-track playlist of Anatolian Psychedelic Rock.
Qobuz magazine also introduced me to Tigran Hamasyan and his Armenian contemporary jazz/Armenian folk albums, The Bird of a Thousand Voices, and his latest album, Manifeste, via their “Album Release of the Week” feature (06 Feb). I’m so glad I found this, I never would have discovered this genre of music or this artist via Spotify’s algorithms as it’s not at all something I normally listen to.
I would say this is definitely the most interesting new-to-me thing I’ve listened to this month.
Best album I’ve heard this month:
Album: The Bird of a Thousand Voices (2024) – details
Artist: Tigran Hamasyan
Genre: Progressive rock, Jazz fusion, Armenian folk music
Interview with Hamasyan’s filmmaker partner, Ruben Van Leer: Holland Festival Interview.
On to the main event, however! Here’s a round-up of everything I’ve been reading, listening to, and watching, over this last month. Highlights are in the main sections, and you can expand the details dropdown for full lists.
Books & Short Stories
For this month, I’ve opted for a fair number of queer books; bonus points if there are historical fiction elements within them. I’ve read some non-fiction this month as well, so it’s split into two sections for non-fiction & fiction this time!
I’ve read a few short story collections this month too, and I’ve highlighted my favourite stories from this read-through. You can expand the details section to see what they were. As I’m not sure if highlights are picked up by screenreaders, or how well the highlights show up for other readers, I’ve also put an asterisk in front of the titles.
Non-Fiction
The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros by Galawdewos (1672) eds. and trans. Wendy Laura Belcher and Michael Kleiner (2015).
We’ve had this one on the shelf for a while; it has some really interesting insights into same-sex desire at this time through the things recorded about Walatta Petros, and the introduction has some fascinating points on the collaborative nature of the translation. I really love the photographs of the manuscript illuminations, which are printed in colour.
The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros: a seventeenth-century African biography of an Ethiopian woman (1672) tells the story of an Ethiopian saint who led a successful nonviolent movement to preserve African Christian beliefs in the face of European protocolonialism. When the Jesuits tried to convert the Ethiopians from their ancient form of Christianity, Walatta Petros (1592–1642), a noblewoman and the wife of one of the emperor’s counselors, risked her life by leaving her husband, who supported the conversion effort, and leading the struggle against the Jesuits. After her death, her disciples wrote this book, praising her as a friend of women, a devoted reader, a skilled preacher, and a radical leader. One of the earliest stories of African resistance to European influence, this biography also provides a picture of domestic life, including Walatta Petros’s life-long relationship with a female companion.
Richly illustrated with dozens of color illustrations from early manuscripts, this groundbreaking volume provides an authoritative and highly readable translation along with an extensive introduction. Other features include a chronology of Walatta Petros’s life, maps, a comprehensive glossary, and detailed notes on textual variants.
Fiction
Another Neon Hemlock novella. This one is Black lesbian vampires! If you liked Jewelle Gomez’s The Gilda Stories, you’ll definitely like this, I think. I loved this, especially the community-centred, hopeful ethos, and the sweet lesbian love story at its core. Read my full review here.
When schoolteacher Cynthia gets a tattoo at a block party in 1991 Flatbush, she doesn’t realize she’s embarking on a life-changing romance with an immortal Ghanaian vampire. Cynthia’s affair with Safoa weaves together stories from nineteenth century Ghana, late twentieth century New York and a near future reality in Maryland that defies the utopian/dystopian binary.
Black Velvet by Fox N. Locke. I really enjoyed this one. It is a contemporary paranormal YA coming-of-age story that is so deeply small-English-town messy and grounded, despite being about ghosts and necromancy. Set the year of the London bombings (which took place 07/07/2005), it tackles queerness, transness, bigotry, fear, and suicide ideation, as well eating disorders and grief.
After a near death experience, a troubled young trans man is haunted by the ghost of Elvis Presley. As if that wasn’t enough, he soon discovers he can bring things back from the dead.
Set in 2005, Black Velvet follows emo music obsessive Aaron Phillips as he navigates a barely breathing music career, a fraying romantic relationship, and fragile mental health seven years after the disappearance of his dad. Wracked with academic ennui, depression and gender dysphoria, Aaron and the afterlife will have to get reacquainted before he can finally find solace.
A powerful exploration of love, loss, and queerness, Black Velvet balances the supernatural with the agonies and apathies of confronting adulthood in the MySpace era.
Perfect for adult millennials who grew up when My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy were at the height of the cultural zeitgeist.
For fans of The Lovely Bones, Cemetery Boys, Life is Strange, and Turtles All The Way Down.
I’ve had this one on my TBR for ages, ever since my Red Riding Hood post from Feb 2024. I finally dived in, two years later. This is a collection of original short fiction, so I’ve listed them in the details section below and highlighted my favourite stories. I would recommend reading the review by Casey the Canadian Lesbrarian for some really well-thought-out considerations of this collection.
Stories in the collection, click to expand.
I really liked all the stories, and so the highlights are almost all the book; it was actually hard to decide which I liked best over the others. I think this is just my first reading opinion. If I re-read this collection another time, I may highlight a different set of stories, or have one that stands out above all the others which didn’t before. But here are my first-time impressions, the ones that stood out to me in this initial read through, and the ones that lingered persistently in my mind afterwards. It’s not the ones I thought it would be!
“Riding the Red”
*”Money Tree”
*”Something to Hitch Meat To”
“Snake” (CW: peadophilia)
“Under Glass”
“The Glass Bottle Trick”
*”Slow Cold Chick”
*”Fisherman”
*”Tan-Tan and Dry Bone”
*”Greedy Choke Puppy”
“A Habit of Waste”
“And the Lillies-Them-A-Blow”
*”Whose Upward Flight I Love”
“Ganger (Ball Lightning)”
*”Precious”
The award-winning author of Brown Girl in the Ring and Midnight Robber presents a powerful new collection of short fiction that draws on the folklore and legends of the Caribbean in sensual and disturbing tales that capture the dark worlds of the soucouyant (vampire) and lagahoo (werewolf). Original.
Bump in the Night by Lara Kinsey.
This one is a 20pg F/F Victorian London set short story that I have read before and enjoyed. I wanted something sweet, light, and spicy, and that’s what you get here. It is very short, but I think just long enough. I am always happy to infer and intuit things in parts where stuff isn’t explicitly stated, and my mind usually fills in the gaps at breakneck speed, so the length really isn’t a problem. A comfort re-read for when all I want is a girl banging a ghost.
Wallflower Agnes has spent too many seasons with no proposals in sight. A little magic is just what she needs. But divination is a tricky business. The flickering candlelight has her jumping at shadows.
She didn’t ask for a scrappy thief in her kitchen, ogling her in her nightclothes and making her head spin. But Flash’s wicked proposition captures her attention. Can Agnes bargain for a brighter future? And at what price?
4,000 words ending in Happily Ever….Afterlife.
Another re-read, and another Neon Hemlock offering. This is one of my favourite short story collections by a single author; Paula D. Ashe’s visceral We Are Here To Hurt Each Other is the other. Palumbo’s collection is a wonderfully dark ride through Canadian and Trinidadian folklore, queer experiences, and immigrant experiences, filled with elements of intersectional identities, and a rich tapestry of perspectives.
Stories in the collection – click to expand
The highlights from this read are different to previous reads; the following stories are the ones that really struck me for some reason in this specific read-through.
*”The Pull of the Herd”
*”Personal Rakshasi”
“Her Voice, Unmasked”
“Of Claw and Bone”
“Propagating Peonies”
*”Kill Jar” (original novelette)
*”Tessellated”
*”Laughter Among the Trees”
“Apolepisi: A De-Scaling”
*”Tara’s Mother’s Skin”
*”The Bride”
*”Douen”
ONE OF BOOK RIOT’S BEST BOOKS OF 2023
The stories in this collection of dark fantasy and horror short stories grapple with the complexities of identity, racism, homophobia, immigration, oppression and patriarchy through nature, gothic hauntings, Trinidadian folklore and shape shifting. At the heart of the collection lie the questions: how do we learn to accept ourselves? How do we live in our own skin?
Cover illustration by Mia Minnis. Cover design by dave ring.
Where the Dead Brides Gather by Nuzo Onoh.
A book group read. I had a lot of thoughts about this, but I’m not sure how to phrase any of them. I know I liked it a lot, and I was really drawn through Bata’s story. I don’t know if I liked it more than Amos Tutuola’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts or not. I didn’t like it as much as Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde. I definitely want to read more by Onoh.
A powerful Nigeria-set tale of possession, malevolent ghosts, family tensions, secrets and murder from the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement and ‘Queen of African Horror’.
Bata, an eleven-year-old girl tormented by nightmares, wakes up one night to find herself standing sentinel before her cousin’s door. Her skin, hair, and eyes have turned a dazzling white colour, which even the medicine-man can’t heal. Her cousin is to get married the next morning, but only if she can escape the murderous attack of a ghost-bride, who used to be engaged to her groom.
Through the night, Bata battles the vengeful ghost and finally vanquishes it before collapsing. On awakening, she has no recollection of the events. And when the medicine-man tries to exorcise the entities clinging to her body as a result of her supernatural possession, Bata dies on the exorcism mat. There begins her journey. She is taken into Ibaja-La, the realm of dead brides, by Mmuọ-Ka-Mmuọ, the ghost-collector of the spirit realm. There she meets the ghosts of brides from every culture who died tragically before their weddings; both the kind and the malevolent. Bata is given secret powers to fight the evil ghost-brides before being sent back to the human realm, where she must learn to harness her new abilities as she strives to protect those whom she loves.
Occupying Bodies – an anthology of body horror short stories compiled by Bernardo Villela and edited by Dean Shawker (Black Hare Press).
I dipped into my author copy (my story in here is called ‘Along the Xylophone Road‘) to check out the other stories in this collection, and I found a few that I liked! I won’t do the highlighted faves here, because I haven’t finished it yet.
Podcasts
I’ve also listened to two story podcasts this month; HorrorBabble again for the classic short stories, and Shadows at the Door for classic and original stories as audiodramas, rather than narrations. Again, you can expand the details section and see which episodes I’ve listened to, and which I especially enjoyed (these are highlighted and asterisked). I’ve separated these out from the books this time as I read quite a lot this month, and I didn’t watch a lot of TV!
I listened to one non-fiction podcast, which was Behind the Bastards, just the one mini-series, which was a story on the Zizians. I appreciated the format, and might listen to a few more of their stories.
Non-Fiction
I visited some friends and we had a few days hanging out and crafting and listening to Behind the Bastards, specifically their 4-part story on the Zizians. This story is absolutely wild. I liked the format of the podcast and I might well listen to more.
Fiction
HorrorBabble was again a key feature of this month! Click on the details below to see which stories I listened to. My faves are highlighted. Full warning: there is so much 19thC racism, ableism, and all the other -isms in so many of these…
List of all the HorrorBabble episodes listened to in February (highlighted ones are faves)
“The Death of Halpin Frayser” by Ambrose Bierce (35:17)
“Demons of the Sea” by William Hope Hodgson (24:08)
*“Tony and the Beetles” by Philip K. Dick (31:37)
“A:B:O” by Walter de la Mare (writing as Walter Ramal) (42:16)
*”The Screaming Skull” by F. Marion Crawford (01:10:54)
“The Empty House” by Algernon Blackwood (40:06)
*”The Ebony Frame” by Edith Nesbit (31:41)
“It Will Grow on You / A Tale of Body Horror” by Donald Wandrei (28:04)
“The Dweller in the Gulf” by Clark Ashton Smith (42:50)
*”All Cats are Grey” by Andre Norton (17:55)
“The Vaults of Yoh Vombis” by Clark Ashton Smith (53:22)
“An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce (28:56)
“Three Skeleton Key” by George Toudouze (29:02)
“In the Forest of Villefére / A Tale of Lycanthropy” by Robert E. Howard (09:52)
*”The Waxwork” by A.M. Burrage (18:13)
*”The Pendulum” by Ray Bradbury (14:46)
*”The Festival” by H.P. Lovecraft (22:40)
*”The Signal-Man / A Classic Ghost Story” by Charles Dickens (27:56)
*”Sredni Vashtar” by Saki (14:41)
*”The Disinterment of Venus” by Clark Ashton Smith (20:01)
*”The Red Lodge / A Classic Ghost Story” by H. Russell Wakefield (33:13)
*”Far Below / A Lovecraftian Tale of the New York Subway” by Robert Barbour Johnson (38:21)
*”The Trap” by H.P. Lovecraft and Henry S. Whitehead (01:00:51)
*”The Thing in the Cellar” by David H. Keller (17:41)
*”The Statement of Randolph Carter” by H.P. Lovecraft (19:15)
*”The Cat-Woman” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (14:51)
*”Lost Hearts” by M.R. James (27:17)
*”The House Among the Laurels: A Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder Story” (44:33)
*”The Black Kiss / A Weird Tale of the Sea” by Robert Bloch and Henry Kuttner (52:49)
“Church in the Jungles” by Arthur J. Burks (14:25)
*”The Invaders” by Henry Kuttner / A Cthulhu Mythos Story (45:01)
*”The Black Crusader” by Alicia Ramsey (38:01)
*”The Hanging Stranger” / Horror meets Sci Fi by Philip K. Dick (38:51)
Shadows at the Door has been recommended to me so much now that I’ve dived in this month. I’m really loving it. Episodes listened to are below in the dropdown list, and my faves are highlighted. I also really like the chat after each performance; I’ve had some interesting takeaways from each one so far.
Shadows at the Door episodes listened to in February (highlights are faves)
*”Leave a Light on For Me” by Mark Dixon (54:34)
“The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving (54:00)
*”Let Sleeping Gods Lie” by Gemma Amor (57:54)
*”The Signalman” by Charles Dickens (49:36)
*”Winter Wings” by Christopher Long (01:07:23)
*”Pit Village” by Mark Dixon (01:02:59)
“Number 13” by M.R. James (57:33)
“Quicksilver Spirit” by Pete Alex Harris (01:10:38)
*”Silent Warnings” by Mark Dixon (01:09:19)
TV Shows & Mini Series
I didn’t really watch a lot of these this month but I’ve had fun with the ones I did watch. Not so much “fun” in the case of the documentaries, but I appreciated them, and found them really compelling and powerful.
Documentaries
Escaping Twin Flames (2023) dir. Cecilia Peck.
God what a trip. I went through this because ‘Twin Flames’ is a concept mentioned in Onoh’s book, Where the Dead Brides Gather, and I had no idea it wasn’t just a cutesy New Age concept. This documentary was recced in book club, and… oh no. It’s a whole thing. Check for trigger warnings before watching.
Explores the story of Jeff and Shaleia Divine, the leaders of Twin Flames Universe, who sell online classes that guarantee harmonious union with your destined partner, a controversial online community that preys on people looking for love.
Death Cap: The Mushroom Murders (2025) dir. Gil Marsden.
I watched this for the fungi, although I’m not into true crime generally! I think it’s a well-made documentary, but it does highlight how ghoulish reporting on these cases can be, and I felt kind of icky watching it, although I got more and more drawn in.
A deadly beef wellington at a family lunch in Gippsland, Australia killed three and critically injured one. Erin Patterson, a suburban mom, was later convicted for the incident.
Fiction Series
Dark Shadows (1991) created by Dan Curtis.
I’ve seen a lot of the original 1960s version (also created by Dan Curtis) and have some of the DVD box sets of a few seasons before Barnabas appears, and after. I’ve also seen the 2012 film, which Tim Burton ballsed right up (although I did laugh at the Carolyn werewolf reveal, which is a nod to the original show). This, however, is worth a watch of all 12 of its 90min episodes, and deserved that Emmy award. Sad that there’s no S02; only one plotline gets sort of resolved.
Victoria Winters comes to Collinwood, an isolated mansion in Maine, to work as a governess, but soon finds herself drawn into a strange world of vampires, ghosts and curses.
Fallout (2024-) created by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and
Graham Wagner.
I caught up on Season 02 this month, after starting it in January. Really enjoying it. It’s made me want a series based on Bioshock! And I also really wish I could access the Silent Hill franchise from somewhere, but most of the films aren’t streaming in the UK that I can see? Anyway, I really enjoyed S02.
In a future, post-apocalyptic Los Angeles brought about by nuclear decimation, citizens must live in underground bunkers to protect themselves from radiation, mutants and bandits.
Clarice (2021-) created by Alex Kurtzman and
Jenny Lumet.
I know it hasn’t been renewed or officially cancelled, and it can’t feature Hannibal, but you know what, he’s got his own show. This is a fine police procedural with a main character suffering from PTSD, developing her character as a separate person. It also addresses the problematic stuff in Silence of the Lambs with a trans character played by Jen Richards, a trans actress, which was discussed a lot online at the time. I was happy with how the series ended, even though there’s space for more.
A look at the personal story of FBI agent Clarice Starling, as she returns to the field about a year after the events of The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Films
Highlighted films with posters were my favourites this month. I have a complete list of all the films I watched in the details below; click to expand and see the full list.
倩女幽魂 / A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) dir. Tony Ching Siu-Tung.
Retro Action Fantasy-Horror that I found – a fab piece of Hong Kong cinema. Some fantastic 80s effects and body horror moments, enjoyable action sequences, and very funny. I can see why loads of people like it or are really nostalgic about it.
Old Evil is coming to collect the bride.
A naïve young tax collector for the imperial government winds up spending the night in a haunted temple. There he falls in love with a beautiful woman who, unfortunately, is dead. With the aid of a powerful Daoist Swordsman, he must defeat undead hordes, overcome a sinister Tree Demoness, and descend to the pits of hell, to fight for the spirit he loves.
When A Stranger Calls (1979) dir. Fred Walton.
Ok so on my first watch, years ago, it didn’t really grab me. This time around I’m much more impressed. While the 1st act is essentailly a tight standalone short horror film, The 2nd act takes that and tears it apart, and has a much more nuanced take on mental illness and the inherent issues of societal rehabilitation than you’d expect; the 3rd act wraps it up and robs you of the usual sense of justice/catharsis. I think this is a good double-bill with Psycho II, for pretty much the same themes.
Every babysitter’s nightmare becomes real…
A student babysitter has her evening disturbed when the phone rings. So begins a series of increasingly terrifying and threatening calls that lead to a shocking revelation.
(This blurb is literally a description of the first 20mins only. Then the rest of the film happens.)
Deep Rising (1998) dir. Stephen Sommers.
This is my 6th Sommers film, and it was entertaining. Sadly, as it’s the 1990s, the best characters are the ones who do not survive, mainly because they are Black, Asian, British, and Aussie. Nevertheless, the action scenes were fun, and the last 10secs of the ending made me laugh so hard I gave it an extra star. On my Letterboxd list: Crime Doesn’t Pay: ‘When the Hideout/Mark Goes Bad’ Horror
Full scream ahead.
A group of heavily armed hijackers board a luxury ocean liner in the South Pacific Ocean to loot it, only to do battle with a series of large-sized, tentacled, man-eating sea creatures who have taken over the ship first.
Vestige (2023) dir. Joseph Simmons. 13mins runtime.
A really tight short film about grief and growing up with parental absence, which twists into Weird Fiction/Sci-Fi Horror yet still manages to hold the slowburn feel and emotional impact. I enjoyed this a lot; always up for a bit of Yorkshire Gothic/Weird.
A young boy searches for answers after his dad goes missing at sea, but after discovering a strange fossil on a Yorkshire beach, he thinks it could be the missing piece of the puzzle.
Event Horizon (1997) dir. Paul W. S. Anderson.
A rewatch – the day I decided on a Sam Neill double-bill. This is one of my all-time favourite films. I absolutely love this concept and the way the ship looks like a monster in the poster, like a weird metal flying dragon thing. This is my favourite ‘haunted house in space that wants to kill you’ film, I think.
Infinite space. Infinite terror.
In 2047, a group of astronauts are sent to investigate and salvage the starship Event Horizon which disappeared mysteriously seven years before on its maiden voyage. However, it soon becomes evident that something sinister resides in its corridors.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994) dir. John Carpenter.
Sam Neill double-bill! I thought going for Posession as a triple threat would be too much in one day. Now, I do love The Thing and Prince of Darkness, but I think that this one is possibly my personal favourite of the three, or at least the one I rewatch the most out of them all. I really like it.
Lived any good books lately?
An insurance investigator visits a small town while looking into the strange disappearance of a popular horror novelist. He soon finds that the impact of the author’s books is far more than inspirational.
Pitch Black (2000) dir. David Twohy.
New to me, but I watched this twice this month. I wasn’t into Sci Fi or Action when this came out originally, and definitely not Horror. Now, I’m not sure I will ever be normal about it. I’m watching the trilogy in preparation for Riddick IV: Furya to be released, slated for this year. This is my fave out of the 3 – see the “Details” section below for my thoughts on the others.
Don’t be afraid of the dark. Be afraid of what’s in the dark
When their ship crash-lands on a remote planet, the marooned passengers soon learn that escaped convict Riddick isn’t the only thing they have to fear. Deadly creatures lurk in the shadows, waiting to attack in the dark, and the planet is rapidly plunging into the utter blackness of a total eclipse. With the body count rising, the doomed survivors are forced to turn to Riddick with his eerie eyes to guide them through the darkness to safety. With time running out, there’s only one rule: Stay in the light.
The Whisperer in Darkness (2011) dir. Sean Branney.
A rewatch. I really enjoy the way this is shot as a 1950s Golden Age of pulp Sci-Fi sort of film. I think that’s a really innovative way to get around the fact that the Mi-Go are basically… really shit monsters, and to make them not shit, you have to invest loads in costume design, animatronics, CGI, whatever. Here, they look fine, because they’re meant to look shit. Genius.
In the deepest woods of the most remote hills… a dark mystery BEYOND BELIEF!
Folklore professor Albert Wilmarth investigates legends of strange creatures in the most remote hills of Vermont. His enquiry reveals a terrifying glimpse of the truth that lurks behind the legends.
Vari/The Shadow (2024) dir. Jaak Kilmi.
Estonian historical crime thriller/horror, new to me. I watched the first 5mins and decided I was going to like it. It’s not often someone living with unmedicated schizophrenia is a sympathetic protagonist in this genre. This is very much in the same vein as The Pale Blue Eye, Raven’s Hollow, and Gogol, but slower, and without any supernatural elements. I would have liked a few more scenes with the killer, I think.
A poet. A madman. A detective.
Juhan Liiv, a struggling poet and an unlikely detective, solves gruesome murder cases in Estonia, the Wild West of the crumbling Russian Empire in the 1890s. Investigations take him to miserable dwellings of the local Estonian peasants, luxurious castles of German nobility that have sworn allegiance to the Czar, and to the depths of ancient forests where witchcraft is still practiced. Juhan is fighting crime and his own inner demons. He is considered mad and pronounced crazy. But by standing for justice and truth, at the end of the day, he is the sanest of them all.
Mother of Flies (2025) dirs. John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser.
An absolutely incredible achievement in indie filmmaking, honestly. A really touching folk horror/body horror film about cancer, grief, faith, and loss of children. The visuals are really striking and vivid. There is a LOT of graphic baby death (stillbirth and necromancy).
When a young woman faces a deadly diagnosis, she seeks dark magic from a witch in the woods… but every cure has costs.
Other films watched in February: not highlighted but not DNFs, all enjoyed in some way.
- Scarecrows (1988) dir. William Wesley. I would watch this again; there is no explanation given for anything, but the camera lingers on a photograph in the farmhouse of 3 men with rifles, the three crosses in the graveyard, the main 3 scarecrows, and the generator, which seems to be important regarding the scarecrows’ animation. I reckon there’s enough in that to work out some sort of backstory by yourself. On my Letterboxd list: Crime Doesn’t Pay: ‘When the Hideout/Mark Goes Bad’ Horror
- Rites of Spring (2011) dir. Padraig Reynolds. I’ve watched 3 of 6 Reynolds films now, and this isn’t the best of the 3. It’s a messy dovetail of a story that fails to really pull the ending together. There was more we could have done; I felt there was a lot of good stuff here, but it never quite got to shine. Rachel never got to confess her work mistake to Ben who was fired for it, which would have deepened the interpersonal drama; the folk horror elements weren’t fully embraced, or combined. The ending fell very flat for me. That said, I can see myself watching this again if I’m in the right mood and forget some of it. On my Letterboxd list: Crime Doesn’t Pay: ‘When the Hideout/Mark Goes Bad’ Horror
- The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) dir. David Twohy. I liked this, I didn’t quite like it as much as Pitch Black, and I think Twohy was a bit too ambitious in its scope. This would have been a really good film if it had focused on the prison break at Crematoria, and expanded on the characters in and out of the prison, so we got a better sense of who Jack/Kyra was, and got more invested in the prisoners and mercenaries. It didn’t really need the Necros frame, as that was very Krull meets Conan and Beastmaster in space, with a splash of Flash Gordon (aah-aaah). I am really liking the worldbuilding and the action in these, though, and this one had a lot I like. It certainly had a load of great actors including Dame Judi Dench, but I can see why some people didn’t like it. This feels like a video game or book series, but it’s an original story; I think it definitely deserves a lot of kudos for that, to be honest. It’s got such a great feel to it. Sure, it’s also derivative, but it’s fun.
- Riddick (2013) dir. David Twohy. Again, this was fun, and back to its roots of survival on a hostile planet, but I didn’t think it was quite as fun as Pitch Black so it doesn’t get to be a highlight. Also, I didn’t like the implication at the end that the lesbian character wouldn’t fuck men except Riddick, and I choose to believe she was joking and nothing happened. I did like the wrap-up of the Johns storyline from Pitch Black. Again, a decent cast.
- Osiris (2025) dir. William Kaufman. No, sorry, this one wasn’t for me. We opened still making unidentified “Middle Eastern” coded Muslims fighting the Yanks the bad guys, which I’m pretty much over, and then it was fairly run-of-the-mill from there. The action was pretty decent, it was watchable, the alien design was totally fine, and I liked the spaceship labyrinth setting, but ultimately nothing special and it fell flat for me. I enjoyed it enough to keep watching and not DNF.
- Devil’s Knot (2013) dir. Atom Egoyan. I liked this one. I’m not sure I liked it enough for it to be a highlighted film, but I definitely thought it was a bunch of good performances. I’m not sure that I got enough of any one element in the film that would have made it a great film. It felt like there was a lot that could have been done with this that it shied away from? I’m not sure. But I thought it was decent for the heavy subject matter.
- Dracula: A Love Story (2025) dir. Luc Besson. So, I had decided not to watch/rent this, but some friends streamed it while I was there, so I ended up watching it anyway. Firstly, I didn’t fancy yet another Dracula adaptation. Secondly, Besson has been accused of rape, sexual harrassment, sexual misconduct, and of grooming a 12yo girl. Thirdly, I’m not into French cinema in a huge way, I don’t by any means dislike it, but it’s not something I vibe with the most. That said – Dracula is not objectively a bad film. It’s campy fun where the CGI was notably not where the money went. It has a recognisable but pretty solid script with lines taken from the novel and from the wider Dracula mythos, and owes a great deal to Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), an adaptation of the Patrick Süskind novel. It has a Danny Elfman score that riffs offWojciech Kilar‘s score for Coppola’s version, which in turn was riffing off John Williams‘s score for John Badham’s Dracula (1979). It was aesthetically pleasing, there was a lot going on, and I did enjoy it as an attempt at romantic tragedy rather than a horror film. That said, there were, as expected, things I just didn’t like about it and didn’t vibe with as much. Close to being a highlighted one, but just fell short for me.
- Setan Alas! / The Draft! (2023) dir. Yusron Fuadi. Not my fave concept but it’s a fun take on the ‘stuck in a loop’ sort of film. In this one, five students are trapped in an old villa, and are then unable to escape it… because their lives are being written and revised by someone writing a movie script. It’s supremely meta, where they get stuck with continuity errors, plot holes, and all sorts of things that really mess up their lives. Dead friends come back to life after being inexplicably murdered, and rewrites fuck with their perception of time and reality. It’s such a good idea, but I guess it didn’t work for me so much. It’s a Sci-Fi Horror, it has some great moments, but I sadly didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to.
- Black Goat (2026) dir. David Hinds. So – overall, this is a reasonable British indie horror. If you’ve seen a lot of indie British horror, you will have an idea of where to place your expectations. Start a bit low – no, too low, raise them slightly. No, too high, lower them a bit. Up a bit. Down a bit. Perfect. There we go. In all seriousness – not the worst acting, not the worst SFX, not the worst plot, not the worst script. Black guy dies first – sigh. It’s just focusing on two brothers from there, Ben and Mike, and Ben’s reluctant mission to get water samples from a mysterious pond for the Forestry Commission. It’s fairly predictable, but that’s why we watch these sorts of films, isn’t it? Sometimes I don’t need shining bouts of directorial genius, I want to watch two men hiking in the woods and avoiding talking about the important stuff, like their fraternal relationship, and Mike’s drinking. And along the way – evil cosmic goatman. Why not.
CATCH UP ON THE MEDIA ROUND-UPS, STARTING WITH NOVEMBER 2025
January 2026 Media Round-Up
My monthly media round-up for January 2026 – all the books, podcasts, tv shows, and films I’ve been enjoying this month!
December 2025 Media Round-Up
My monthly media round-up for December 2025 – all the books, podcasts, tv shows, and films I read/listened to/watched this month.
November 2025 Media Round-Up
I’m starting a new monthly series where I post a round-up of all the media I’ve watched/read/listened to for the previous month. Here is November’s media round-up!
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