Screenshot: Gobble Inn Spilt Milk Studios, the team behind the cozy artifact-restoration game Trash Goblin, is currently working on their upcoming follow-up, Gobble Inn. I recently had a chance to sit in on a preview event and spend some hands-on time with an early demo build. It’s still pretty early in development with plenty of placeholders, but it has good bones, and I’m excited to see where it goes. Andrew Smith, CEO, Founder, and Creative Director of Spilt Milk Studios, did all of the talking as Gobble Inn was being demoed, and he had me sold at “non-violent.” Sure, and there you are closing my article. But hear me out: there are lots of violent games already, with non-violent games being much more limited. So to make a survivors-like without any bullets—heaven or hell—sounds to me more like a creative exercise than a limiting one. And I’ve obviously liked what I’ve been seeing. For fans of Trash Goblin, the gameplay is significantly different, though the wholesome atmosphere and cozy vibes remain intact—even when you’re down in the dark depths, hunting for supplies. Here is how Smith describes the core loop: Screenshot: Gobble Inn “Essentially you’re playing as Auntie Val. You’re digging for ingredients in the chasm, and then you’re using those ingredients to keep the inn stocked up so you can keep feeding people. So you’re discovering recipes, you’re levelling up, you’re having choices—you’re doing all that good run-based stuff. “You’re doing it, though, without any combat, without any sort of death or anything like that. So that’s kind of like the big twist that separates us from things like Megabonk or Dave the Diver.” The games that immediately came to mind for me while watching the gameplay were Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and Moonlighter. Screenshot: Gobble Inn “Food is like a system, and that’s gonna be fun too because, canonically, goblins are affected by what they eat physiologically,” Smith continued. And those food buffs can be powerful, especially based on what I saw during the preview event and experienced in my own time with the demo. In Gobble Inn, you play as Auntie Val. They’re a licensed Delver, and tough as nails. Even so, I found myself wondering: why Auntie Val? Why base an entire game around them? “We were thinking quite hard about what our audience would want from Trash Goblin, and what that would mean for our next game. And we knew that there were characters here that people love and that match known genres,” Smith said. “So if we were going to make a romance visual novel game, then Mushromeo, right, is going to be the player character. No doubt there’s something with Donoval and being a wandering merchant or something like that. And then, yeah, digging." “Auntie Val’s a delver: they dig all day, so it made sense to look at Auntie Val. But also, there were quite a lot of people who just genuinely are like, ‘Oh, are you ever going to do a DLC where we get to do the digging and find the trinkets?’—that sort of thing. So there were a lot of layered elements. We’re just like, okay, if we’re going to do a digging game, then that’s what has to happen. It has to be Auntie Val.” So why make a new game in the Trash Goblin universe? And why veer into survivors and roguelike territory—which is much different than the artifact restoring and upcycling of Trash Goblin? Screenshot: Gobble Inn “Separately, the idea for a run-based roguelike without violence led to it being a digging game, and then it all just kind of made perfect sense,” Smith explained. “And frankly, it’s kind of cool because it’s another goblin game, even though it’s a different goblin." “We were being quite cautious around not wanting to leave our Trash Goblin audience behind by making something that’s in a very different genre. So any element that carried over and made sense in our hearts and in a vibe kind of way—that made us more confident.” One thing Smith said early on stuck with me throughout the presentation: “We delight players specifically—not people with funding amounts or people in suits, but people who play our games.” Gobble Inn is still in development, but you can help support it soon: the game's Kickstarter goes live on October 29.

Screenshot: The Jackbox Party Pack 12. I’ve been playing Jackbox games for a long time now—way back when the Chicago studio was still called Jellyvision, and a friend came over with a copy of You Don’t Know Jack. “You have a CD-ROM?” she asked. I did, indeed, and I was immediately hooked. It was unlike anything else I had played at the time: an irreverent, fast-talking game show that tested your knowledge while being genuinely funny. While the studio has expanded far beyond its trivia roots over the last three decades, Jackbox Games still has a special knack for drawing players in with clever hooks, sharp writing, and low-barrier party chaos. The Jackbox Party Pack 12 marks the second numbered installment in a row with zero sequels, ports, or remakes. Instead, it delivers five completely original games—We Forgot a Card, MegaPals, Idol Factions, Debate and Switch, and Hyperface—each its own style of party game. Screenshot: We Forgot a Card: The Jackbox Party Pack 12. We Forgot a Card Have you ever forgotten to get someone a card for a special occasion? That’s the premise behind We Forgot a Card–except with a teaspoon of absurd. Your goal is to come up with funny phrases–unjokes work too–and to match whatever weird stock art and occasion. It’s a competitive Mad Libs disguised as a last minute trip to a bizarre gift shop. It’s uncomplicated, immediate fun where everyone votes on their favorites, and,like the best Jackbox creative games, bending or outright breaking the prompt's rules often yields the funniest results. Just like Tee K.O.'s custom shirts, you can actually order physical, printed copies of the greeting cards you make in-game. It’s a strangely endearing touch; even if it’s an obvious monetization play, I can’t even be mad at it. Screenshot: MegaPals: The Jackbox Party Pack 12. MegaPals MegaPals asks you to forge alliances—sometimes unwitting or completely unlikely ones—as you race to chain word associations together for point dominance. It plays a bit like Family Feud on too much caffeine: everyone frantically types out as many associations as they can for a prompt before the timer runs out, scoring points whenever their impulsive thoughts match someone else's in the room. There is a real thrill when you land a match with another player, especially when the shared word is seemingly random or off the wall–or even better, when it’s a deep cut reference. Where the game stumbles a bit is in the later rounds, which recycles player answers from the first round and turns them into the new prompts. Player submitted phrases don’t always make for great categories, which yielded both the flattest, most awkward rounds of our session, but also some of the most creative and hilarious stretches when people had to dig deep to come up with associations. While you could easily use MegaPals (and this pack in general) as an icebreaker to get to know new people, it shines brightest when you’re playing with friends whose weird brains you already know how to read. It’s interesting to see what friends you end up having the most synergy with, and you start to work with them to try to get the best score. Screenshot: Idol Factions: The Jackbox Party Pack 12. Idol Factions Longtime fans will immediately recognize the DNA of Idol Factions: it is essentially the classic “DisOrDat” round from You Don’t Know Jack, dressed up with stone idol avatars, a third category option, and real-time sabotage. We ended up playing this one with just two people–the only game that really allows for head to head competition without extra audience participation. Playing with just two people, the pace is a bit overwhelming. Even though my opponent is much better at word and trivia games than I am, she really struggled with the touch controls while trying to fling answers into the right buckets under pressure. Still, the sheer panic of watching answers pile up while trying to toss live countdown bombs through a portal onto the other team's screen is hectic in the best way. Those bombs add just the right amount of spiteful chaos to keep a simple sorting game exciting. Screenshot: Debate and Switch: The Jackbox Party Pack 12. Debate and Switch Set inside a rowdy town hall, Debate and Switch pits two players against each other for short, stupid 30-second debates while the rest of the room (and the audience) votes on who made the better case. It’s quick and punchy, though it carries a slight "party ruiner" warning label depending on your group. Because the game allows players to write their own custom debate topics from scratch, things could easily go sideways if someone brings a genuinely divisive topic to the table or takes losing an argument a little too personally. As long as your group keeps the prompts light and absurd, though, it’s a blast. Screenshot: Hyperface: The Jackbox Party Pack 12. Hyperface Initially, Hyperface was our least favorite game of the bunch. Tasking players with warping, smudging, and drawing over selfies or stock portraits to match reaction prompts, its phone-screen editing tools feel cumbersome at first. If you’re a perfectionist trying to sculpt a specific look under a ticking clock, it can be downright frustrating. Once we stopped fighting the tools, however, Hyperface clicked. We quickly discovered that restraint—using just a subtle tug or smudge of the warp tool—often produced far more hilarious results than overworking the image. Much like We Forgot a Card, it’s another game where slightly subverting what the prompt asks of you works heavily in your favor. Or maybe that’s just the smart-ass in me. Most Jackbox Party Packs are worth the price of admission even when one or two games in the bundle turn out to be duds. What makes The Jackbox Party Pack 12 stand out is how consistent the entire lineup feels. Even when these five new titles borrow mechanics from older games, each one carves out its own identity. Whether you’re a visual creative, a shameless debater, or a rapid-fire word and trivia nerd, there is something in this rotation that plays to your strengths. And because party games should be effortless to get to the table, Jackbox continues to set the standard for accessibility. Being able to use any smartphone or browser as a controller, alongside built-in streaming toggles and room for up to 10,000 audience members to vote and heckle, keeps the barrier to entry practically nonexistent. The Jackbox Party Pack 12 is available today for $29.99 across PC, consoles, and mobile platforms, or bundled alongside Trivia Murder Party 3 and the upcoming Fakin' It XL in The Jackbox Backpack Bundle.

Horror isn’t just a genre; it’s an amalgamation of pop culture, cozy traditions, and things that go bump in the night. This year, we're taking our 31 Days of Horror across the entire cultural spectrum. We’ll be taking a look at movies that scare us, games that kept us paranoid, scary books we cozy up with under blankets, music that sets that spooky tone and seasonal food we’re craving–or strange food you’d have to tie us up and force feed us. Whether you’re looking for something truly terrifying or a cozy autumn haunt, come back every day this month for a new bite-sized review or spooky adjacent list. There is a distinct cruelty to short-form horror. Whether it’s short horror films on YouTube, short stories, or games you can wrap in a single sitting, brevity acts as an amplifier. The tight runtime prevents too much of the veil from being stripped away—you never spend enough time in the world for the monster or the mechanics to become familiar. Instead, you're trapped with the dreadful certainty that something terrible is coming, and it's arriving fast. While Iron Lung stands out in this micro-horror boom, it barely scratches the surface of what's out there. I finally cleared out my backlog to tackle five single sitting horror games. Screenshot: Voyager-19 1. Voyager-19 (miziziziz) Runtime: ~40 mins | Platforms: PC (Steam, itch.io) The Pitch: Claustrophobic cosmic dread in an unshielded tin can. If you love the low-fidelity isolation of Iron Lung, Voyager-19 takes that same suffocating blueprint into deep space. Cast as an expendable pilot strapped into a tiny single-person pod, your mission is to catalog celestial anomalies before radiation exposure and mechanical failure overtake your craft. The game thrives on sensory starvation: there are no windows, leaving you entirely dependent on grainy dashboard monitors that render the void in delayed, still-frame snapshots. It trades away the violent shock value of Iron Lung for something colder and more patient, letting the crushing weight of cosmic dread do the heavy lifting. Screenshot: There's Nothing Down There There's Nothing Down There Runtime: ~25 mins | Platforms: PC / SteamVR (Steam) The Pitch: Benthic pressure, pitch-black waters, and acoustic terror. While underwater terror-fest Subnautica lets you ease into its waters, There’s Nothing Down There drags you straight to the bottom. Strapped into a deep-sea submersible, your mission is to investigate an anomalous thermal heat source inside an oceanic blue hole. Things unravel fast once you discover something unnatural waiting in the black. With only the brief burn of flares to cut through the dark and the vague silhouettes of a sonar display to guide your path, the isolation is absolute. Trapped in a slow-moving vessel, attempting to flee feels like running in a nightmare—you can only plod sluggishly through the water while certain death closes the gap. Screenshot: That Which Gave Chase That Which Gave Chase: Runtime: ~50 mins | Platforms: PC (Steam, itch.io) The Pitch: An arctic expedition into the teeth of silence and madness. Trading enclosed cockpits for the suffocating vastness of an arctic whiteout, you play as a sled dog musher hired by an obsessive scientist to navigate an uncharted, frozen wasteland. Guiding your team across the blinding snow has a steady, rhythmic pull—one that provides a false sense of security until the realization sets in that the harsh weather isn’t the only thing trailing your sled. Through its disjointed narrative and abrupt smash cuts from one eerie scene to the next, it keeps you completely off-balance while steadily ratcheting up the dread. Screenshot: No Players Online No Players Online Runtime: ~15–20 mins (Original) / ~2.5 hrs (Expanded) | Platforms: PC (itch.io, Steam) The Pitch: The uncanny dread of an abandoned multiplayer lobby. Before "liminal spaces" oversaturated internet and video game horror, No Players Online tapped into that specific melancholy and phantom unease. Instead of a series of hallways and empty rooms, No Players Online is about an empty Capture the Flag server. It feels immediately unsettling, even when you’re just running the flag across the map. Part first person horror, part desktop exploration, No Players Online is about grief that haunts us, and what we leave behind. Screenshot: Paratopic Paratopic Runtime: ~45 mins | Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux (Steam, itch.io, GOG), Switch, Xbox The Pitch: Lynchian road-trip horror steeped in industrial rot. A low res apocalyptic nightmare, Paratopic is a game I’ve been thinking about since I stopped playing. Not only did I have to piece together what I had just experienced, I had to make sense of it. In a rotting world, you take on the role of three people, with smash cut transitions that bring you from one jarring or surreal experience to another. It’s a dark and grimy reflection on societal decay steeped in existential dread and cosmic horror–but never in a way that completely tips its hands. Tying it all together is phenomenal sound design—an underlying industrial drone that drenches every quiet scene in pure dread.

Horror isn’t just a genre; it’s an amalgamation of pop culture, cozy traditions, and things that go bump in the night. This year, we're taking our 31 Days of Horror across the entire cultural spectrum. We’ll be taking a look at movies that scare us, games that kept us paranoid, scary books we cozy up with under blankets, music that sets that spooky tone and seasonal food we’re craving–or strange food you’d have to tie us up and force feed us. Whether you’re looking for something truly terrifying or a cozy autumn haunt, come back every day this month for a new bite-sized review or spooky adjacent list. Charlie Kaufman is a madman whose stories are the things of wonder. Whether it's the mind bending Being John Malkovich, the emotionally charged Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or his epic and devastating Synechdoche, New York; Kaufman has something to say and is going to say it tin the most magical way possible. So when I heard he was adapting a novel for his third venture as a writer/director, first with Netflix during the height of their pay gobs of money to great artists but don;t you dare properly advertise it, I was intrigued beyond belief. i'm thinking of ending things isn't Kaufman's first stab at an adaptation, that would be Confessions of a Dangerous Mind which was directed by George Clooney. But that was 18 years prior to this and Kaufman's status and craft has grown immensely since then. I elicited not to read the novel when the film was announced, to give the adaptation a fair shot. I'm glad I went that route. Once again, this is a movie that is somewhat dependent on not knowing the film's "twist" or true leaning. However it's not the end all be all like some other film's I've covered this month (I'm looking at you Abigail). In fact the movie tries it's damndest to clue you in on the reality of the story, something that Kaufman seems determined to do in most of his films. He like hiding revelations in plain sight, either making you feel annoyed with yourself that you let movie magic trick you or proud that you caught on so quickly. i'm thinking of ending things stars Jessie Buckley as a young woman who realizes she is at an impasse in her relationship with Jake, played by Jessie Plemons. This happens just as they are taking a road trip to meet Jake's parents at their family farm. It's a perfect set up for a different movie, one that is accessible and maybe a straight forward examination of couple at the end of their time together. But thats not Charlie Kaufman's vibe and i'm thinking of ending things is certainly not that. The film immediately send you into a uncertainty. We never find out Jessie Buckley's character name or occupation, both change throughout the film with barely a moment to acknowledge it. Inconsistencies on the narrative spread like a disease, making you immediately feel uneasy about what real, what isn't, and what truly is. Character's histories are undefined or only hinted at and linear time is merely a suggestion. Add to that very surrealistic/disturbing imagery and sound design that turns the domestic narrative into a horror show and you have yourself a tension filled two hours that will surely break you by the end. The film is as sad as it is frightening as it crescendos to its puzzle box of an ending that I truly think is not that difficult to decipher even not having read the source materiel (which I have since) Oh and there's a framing device of an elderly highschool janitor living his life spliced into the whole thing. Make that what you will. i'm thinking of ending things feels very much the dark mirror world version of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in almost every way. Where one is delightful in its melancholy, the other is dreadful. Where one is fighting against the tides, the other is letting itself get swallowed by the sea. Where ESotSM evokes empathy, i'm thinking of ending things permeates pity.. Ultimately they both settle on the same conclusion: life is our experiences and those experiences are worth having. Go watch i'm thinking of ending things. It's kinda perfect as a thriller for the fall and winter season and makes for a great double feature with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But watch this first, don't end you night on a down note. Or do, it is spooky season after all!

Horror isn’t just a genre; it’s an amalgamation of pop culture, cozy traditions, and things that go bump in the night. This year, we're taking our 31 Days of Horror across the entire cultural spectrum. We’ll be taking a look at movies that scare us, games that kept us paranoid, scary books we cozy up with under blankets, music that sets that spooky tone and seasonal food we’re craving–or strange food you’d have to tie us up and force feed us. Whether you’re looking for something truly terrifying or a cozy autumn haunt, come back every day this month for a new bite-sized review or spooky adjacent list. There's so much I want to say about Abigail, but any inference to other movies that do similar things or references to clear and obvious allusions could ruin what is honestly a very fun movie. Unfortunately this is a movie that was ruined by its marketing. I am not the most strict about going into a movie blind, usually I think if the journey to the spoiler is good, the spoiler isn't actually a spoiler. But for this movie it absolutely is. Too much of the film relies on you knowing nothing about the story, the characters, and in order to enjoy the journey. Which is already a Herculean task in this modern age of everything ends up online from the word go. I think we're far enough away from this movie's terrible marketing that many have forgotten it but not far enough that the spoiler is ubiquitous…I think. So I will try to tread lightly. The film is about a ragtag team set up to kidnap a wealthy man's daughter. Once they do they hole up at a rendezvous point and wait for further instructions. Unfortunately the wealthy man has a secret, vicious killer at his disposal that begins to prey on the team of criminals. There, that's all you're getting from me plot-wise. Lets get on to what I can safely talk about, Tone. The tone is a little all over the place. It's very Radio Silence, the film collective behind Ready or Not, Ready or Not 2 Here I Come, and the Scream sequels 5cream (yes that's what i call it, five cream) and Scream 6. . There are moments of a very extreme horror that clash with moments of very goofy humor. If that sort of whiplash is not your thing then stay far away from Abigail. And most other Radio Silence fare for that matter. The characters are pretty broad, but they are utilized to their highest ability. All the acting is pretty fun all around and with so many moments of the writing digging its heels into the stereotypes and not really caring. Dimwitted musclehead Peter (portrayed by Kevin Durand, under utilized in Ready or Not 2) is fun and never outstays his welcome, Melissa Barrera as Joey shines as the film's lead, and Dan Steven continues his reign as the best thing in everything he's in. Oh and the practical effects meshed with CGI, are exceptional. Some truly gnarly stuff that is handled so well. Often times when you see a severed head, it looks like a prop. Not here, as every possible penny was put into making the effects look pristine. I will say that if your a stickler for competent characters who don't do the dumbest thing, this one is not for you. This is a love letter to Bottle Horror Movies (movies that take place in one spot...and horror but that part is self explanatory), the characters vehicles for the story and violent, and i mean violent deaths. So tread lightly with your cinema sins. Honestly, if there's anything to take away from Abigail it's a reminder that Dan Steven rules. Go watch the movie now and ignore the trailer at the end of this post. I chose the most no spoiler trailer i could find but even that's too much. It's readily available on physical media and on streaming platforms which are listed over at Just Watch!

Horror isn’t just a genre; it’s an amalgamation of pop culture, cozy traditions, and things that go bump in the night. This year, we're taking our 31 Days of Horror across the entire cultural spectrum. We’ll be taking a look at movies that scare us, games that kept us paranoid, scary books we cozy up with under blankets, music that sets that spooky tone and seasonal food we’re craving–or strange food you’d have to tie us up and force feed us. Whether you’re looking for something truly terrifying or a cozy autumn haunt, come back every day this month for a new bite-sized review or spooky adjacent list. Last week, we compiled you a nice list of foods that LOOK scary (or festive) but won’t actually kill you, repulse you or otherwise harm you. But if you thought we were stopping there, you’re wrong. This week, let’s take a look at foods that are actually horrifying in concept/appearance or for some other reason. I’d like to take one moment here to say what I hope is obvious to those of us adults living and eating in the wide world - it’s not nice to yuck other people’s yums. Just because the concept of something disgusts us here in the Western world (or outright frightens us) doesn’t mean that thing isn’t delicious or even a prized delicacy elsewhere. Still, there are certainly things that, if put on my plate, might make me run in the other direction. We skipped a lot of the usuals (save for one, because we just can’t not have it on this list) and threw in some curve balls you might not know about. Now, this should also go without saying, but …don’t die. Some of these things are fine to eat, some of them are dangerous to eat, and it behooves you to know the difference. Head Cheese Now, lots of us are dairy enthusiasts. I’d hardly kick a cheese off my plate, and rarely do. But head cheese, while cheese in nomenclature, is actually not really cheese. It is, instead, a sort of jellied loaf of pig’s head meat. As it turns out, pork heads have high collagen content, and if you simmer the interior meat of the head, it’ll form a nice gelatin and bind together. Sometimes this is accompanied by aromatics, herbs and spices, or vinegar. I don’t love the idea of it, but in all honesty, it’s not so bad, especially if spiced nicely. It’s just a weird concept, and akin to so many jello aspics that never should have existed in the first place. We’ll come back to that later. Escamoles I am a fan of just about anything I can get my hands on that any good Mexican cook can cook. I’m not 100 percent on escamoles though, which are black ant eggs that are boiled, cooked in soups or otherwise added to things like guac. Now, I can’t say I’ve tried them, it’s just that larvae isn’t really in my culinary dictionary as something delightful to find on my plate. Maybe I’ll change my mind though. Geoducks Look, these are just a jumpscare. I’ve seen ‘em on Iron Chef, and I know they’re probably pretty great. They’re served in a lot of fine dining situations but, come on. Look at them. I mean really, really look at them. They’re giant clams, and I mean, I wouldn’t just be like “Oh boy, let’s eat that!” Rhubarb Leaves Ok, so these don’t look scary. And some people actually say they’re not scary. After all, rhubarb is perfectly fine and great for pies and such. However, the leaves of the rhubarb plant contain toxins that at the best will have you spending way too much time in the bathroom being really unhappy. At worst, kidney damage. So..let’s just leave the leaves, and keep on keeping on with those magenta stalks, eh? Octopus Here’s the thing. Octopus is good. I mean really. I’ve had the tiny ones at sushi places, and I’ve had it in other things. It’s just this. Octopi/octopodes can play the piano. They’re really smart. And to be really fair, unless they’re tiny, the tentacle suckers are kinda a no from me, dawg. Beyond that though, what if they have a very ancient, very powerful Old friend. I think that’s reason enough to be a little concerned indulging in these 8 legged friends Fried Spiders This is not about me, but it’s a little about me. I have had a very hard time accepting spiders in my vicinity. I realize they’re our friends, on some level, but I’d like them to be my friends from pretty far away. I’ve overcome my major arachnophobia thanks to a scientist at the Field Museum who actually used a 9 year old child with arachnophobia who’d confronted her fear ahead of me in line to hold a tarantula to get me to do it, too. And I ended liking the pink toed tarantula that would later also hang out on the top of my head, where I was warned not to move too fast so I don’t upset her. Great. I do not, and I repeat, do not, want them on my plate. Especially the big tarantulas, not only because of my friend Rosie from the museum, but also because no no no no no. I don’t want one in the shower at the same time as me, and I don’t want one as a street food. I’m sorry. I will be abstaining should I find myself in Cambodia where these are popular. Nutmeg Ok, I’m gonna need you to put down the pumpkin spice latte for this one, friends. Nutmeg is in ALL THE THINGS. Especially right now, where the PSL is king. It’s one of the best things in a lot of really great spiced things, including pumpkin pie and carrot cake and…yeah. I mean, Alton Brown wears one around his neck so he has it in case of emergency. But did you know that in large doses, it can actually really toxic? It’s true. It’s capable of causing nausea and breathing difficulty or even a long lasting psychosis when taken in extremely large doses. So maybe just don’t do that, then? Aspics Like I said before, it seems like mid century America had a real problem with Jell-O. Mostly that they found really inappropriate things to suspend in it. I’ve encountered at least a few of these in my time growing up with my Polish relatives, including lime jello with radish (why is it always lime jello?) and various other Jello with celery or other chunks of things I’d much rather be left out. I wanted to find the worst offender, and according to my research, here it is. This horror graced the pages of Southern Living back in 1973 and included lime jello, raw shrimp, horseradish, and cottage cheese. There are other ingredients, but I need to make dinner soon. Might be a hot take, but I think we should leave meat (especially raw meat!) out of jello stuff. OK? Ok. Mushrooms that WILL NOT kill you that look just like Mushrooms that WILL kill you Mushrooms are fantastic. And possibly immortal. But they’re umami bombs, and there’s almost nothing I like more than a stuffed mushroom, mushrooms sauteed in butter, or the Polish mushroom soup I grew up on. I’ll take ‘em anywhere I can get them, and that means I’m always curious if the mushrooms I saw on my hike will kill me or make me very very happy. The thing that keeps me from going after it? Chanterelle vs Jack O’ Lantern mushrooms - These mushrooms are nearly identical. But one’s orange and one’s yellow, you say. Willing to bet your life on your definition of orange vs. yellow when there’s more than the 64 colors in your crayon box in the world? Or there’s death caps vs field mushrooms. Or cute little button mushrooms vs a mushroom called the Destroying Angel. And yes, some of these will absolutely kill you. If you have the guidance of a professional forager, go for it, and find yourself some free fungi that’ll go great in all your recipes, but if not…I’d just shell out for the lions manes and shiitake in your produce department and be happy you don’t have to wait to see if you die. Casu Marzu Italians are renowned for their cooking. When you watch Giada or Stanley Tucci or just about anyone stroll through those ancient streets and sit down at a table, you’re sure to be delighted at what you find there. Tomatoes so perfect they’ll make you cry. Big wheels of parmesan. Balsamic vinegar that’s so prized it’s in a bottle as expensive as what’s inside. The list goes on. But what it doesn’t include (partially because it’s illegal in the EU) is casu marzu. And speaking of not including it, I almost didn’t because I do not want to post a picture of it nor think about it at all. On top of that it’s on almost every list. But that’s because I just do not know how anyone can stomach it. And apparently it’s divine. That may be true, but this cheese is intentionally infected with fly larvae, and then the resulting maggots get to eat and live in there until the center of the originally hard cheese takes on a soupy texture. Oh my god. I apologize. I might be off cheese for a little while. Anyway, that should’ve finished you off for the horrifying foods, and I’m gonna go think of things that aren’t that. Join us for even more stomach churning horror in film, game, tv and …everything else form. Here’s a picture of a kitten as a palate cleanser. Goodnight.

Screenshot: Warhammer 40,000 Boltgun 2 For the Emprah! As part of my ongoing midlife crisis, I’ve been playing a lot of games from my childhood.That includes a lot of “Doom clones” and other seminal titles, and I think Boltgun 2 would fit right in. While I felt like the original Boltgun was missing a few factors to make it a classic, Boltgun 2 goes a long way toward addressing my gripes while adding a whole new character, new weapons, and a branching narrative to encourage replayability. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 is a retro-inspired, Build Engine-ish first-person shooter and a sequel to the mostly well-reviewed and well-received Boltgun. In it, you can play as either returning Ultramarine Malum Caedo or the Sister of Battle Nyra Veyrath. Screenshot: Warhammer 40,000 Boltgun 2 Malum is the stompy, chainsword-wielding heretic slayer that you knew from the original. Nyra is a bit faster and carries a bolt pistol and a power sword. While there is some weapon overlap between them, they each sport their own arsenal and unique grenade. My biggest gripe with the first game was how aimless it felt. It was just encounter after encounter with set pieces, offering little in the way of interesting combat variety. Boltgun 2 fixes this with much more dynamic enemy encounters, mixing foes placed natively in the map with "PURGE!" holdouts where you have to survive waves while delivering the Emperor's judgment. Map layouts are better, too. A lot of levels are set up in the classic “find the X-colored key to unlock the X-colored door” style that Doom popularized so many years ago, peppered with surprises to keep retracing your path interesting. Screenshot: Warhammer 40,000 Boltgun 2 Another gripe I had with Boltgun was its toughness system, where larger weapons were required to be effective against larger enemies. This created a sort of rock-paper-scissors dynamic like the one I hated in Doom Eternal. Now, weapons just do damage, and you can use whichever weapon on whatever foe as you see fit. Weapons in Boltgun 2 are pure joy, especially with how much destructive force they pack. It helps that each enemy seems ready to explode into gory sprites at the slightest provocation. Whether I’m using my frag cannon to take out groups of heretics or burning them down with dual meltaguns, the weapons available are amazing. There is one exception, and that’s Nyra’s crossbow—it just feels slow and weak compared to everything else at your disposal. Screenshot: Warhammer 40,000 Boltgun 2 Despite how much carnage you can rain down, that overpowered feeling is balanced out by an overwhelming amount of enemies and projectiles. Carelessness can lead to an easy death. Fortunately, there are plenty of accessibility features that can make the game easier, allowing you to unlock all weapons, give yourself infinite ammo, or make yourself invulnerable. There’s also a navigation guide that can show you where to go—which is completely optional, so you can leave it off for retro game authenticity. You’ll be fighting a lot of the same types of enemies from the first game, alongside a few new variations and mounts. Khorne Berzerkers will try to get right in your face—and they can do a lot of damage very quickly. There are also mounts that units will ride, making them much more formidable; they remind me a bit of the Werebulls from the Serious Sam series. Boltgun 2 is a clear step up over its predecessor. Developer Auroch Digital did a great job taking the almost-great concept of the original and refining it. If you already loved the first game, this will be an absolute treat. For those who weren't sure the first time around: check out Boltgun 2.

Screenshot: Theos: Cities of Myth Triskell Interactive, the developer behind 2023's Pharaoh: A New Era, is returning to original IP creation alongside publisher Dotemu. While their new mythological city-builder Theos: Cities of Myth won’t launch in full until November 4, you can get an early taste of it starting today with a three-chapter Athens demo on Steam. Set in a reimagined Ancient Greece, Theos gives you the ability to build your polis the way you want—as long as you follow the will of the people, that is. And the gods will be watching. In this alt-universe, gods and mortals coexist on the streets. In the demo, you choose between Athena and Dionysus as your patron deity—with Hera, Ares, and three more Olympians confirmed for a roster of seven in the full release. Each god brings their own demands and city-shaping blessings, which you have to juggle alongside the desires of the populace and visiting historical luminaries like Socrates and Aristotle. Screenshot: Theos: Cities of Myth If you liked Pharaoh: A New Era or the late-'90s classics that inspired it, Theos: Cities of Myth should be right in your wheelhouse. It feels like a spiritual successor to 2000's Zeus: Master of Olympus—which was developed by original Pharaoh studio Impressions Games—complete with a central Sanctuary that grows alongside your city. However, Triskell has baked in a lot of modernization, most notably retiring the infamous "roadblock puzzles" that have defined the subgenre since the Caesar III and Pharaoh days. Instead of trapping walkers in closed loops, you can now manually customize patrol routes and dispatch emergency services like firefighters directly to hazards. Even better, after Pharaoh: A New Era opted for simplified auto-resolved combat, Theos reintroduces full real-time battles to defend your borders and conquer rival Greek rulers. Screenshot: Theos: Cities of Myth Theos: Cities of Myth looks poised to deliver the modernized Zeus successor fans have wanted for years, striking a smart balance between classic isometric charm and much-needed quality-of-life overhauls. The three-chapter Athens demo is live on Steam now, with the full game launching on PC on November 4.

Horror isn’t just a genre; it’s an amalgamation of pop culture, cozy traditions, and things that go bump in the night. This year, we're taking our 31 Days of Horror across the entire cultural spectrum. We’ll be taking a look at movies that scare us, games that kept us paranoid, scary books we cozy up with under blankets, music that sets that spooky tone and seasonal food we’re craving–or strange food you’d have to tie us up and force feed us. Whether you’re looking for something truly terrifying or a cozy autumn haunt, come back every day this month for a new bite-sized review or spooky adjacent list. Audition tends to be a big introduction to J-Horror. The film is practically ubiquitous with the the country's horror output, right their with Ringu. But unlike Ringu, Audition has maintained it origins, never getting a remake (note: there has been one in development for a long time) and for good reason. Audition is an incredible nuanced and subtle film that presents itself as one thing, transforms slowly into another, then hits you a bus of horror. Shigeharu Aoyama is a widower who has spent the last seven years caring for his son Shigehiko , who encourages his father to remarry. Enter Shigeharu's friend Yasuhisa Yoshikawa, a film producer who devises a plan to set up a fake audition for a non-existent film in order for Shigeharu to find a wife. Kind of a gross misappropriation of power, but nothing the typical rom-com or romantic drama would have as a center piece. The film plays everything pretty by the numbers for most of the first two thirds as it introduces Asami Yamazaki, a former ballerina and the girl Shigeharu sets his sights on. In fact outside of one very, and I mean very, unsettling scene, it kinda just feels like a Japanese drama of a widower finding love in a problematic way. Your general romantic misunderstanding plot that surely will wind up being ok, with all the red flags brushed under the rug in the name of love like usual. Right? ...right? Well it is on a list of horror narratives, so no, it doesn't turn out alright for everyone involved. Instead the final third of the film is one of the darkest, strangest and frightening left turns a movie could take. I'm not sure if Audition has the same issue that films with such a vital a twist typically have since this movie has never been recommended under the guise of its twist (espeically with the poster being a complete spoiler). Rather the fact the film starts off as this benign but inappropriate romance then turns into a complete horror show is the selling point. I won't go into detail about how it goes off the rails, but it most certainly does and in spectacular uncomfortable fashion. It plays with your preconceived notions, twisting how you feel about everyone's motivations. Whether or not you were weary of Shigeharu's usage of the fake audition or not, he doesn't deserve what the film dishes out. Despite my thoughts of Audition being impervious to it's twist being revealed, after rewatching this trailer I may retract that statement a bit. Please don;t click this trailer anbd just watch the movie. Audition is available to stream and as a great 4K release from Arrow! Get you hands on this devious film and have you self a scary night.

Horror isn’t just a genre; it’s an amalgamation of pop culture, cozy traditions, and things that go bump in the night. This year, we're taking our 31 Days of Horror across the entire cultural spectrum. We’ll be taking a look at movies that scare us, games that kept us paranoid, scary books we cozy up with under blankets, music that sets that spooky tone and seasonal food we’re craving–or strange food you’d have to tie us up and force feed us. Whether you’re looking for something truly terrifying or a cozy autumn haunt, come back every day this month for a new bite-sized review or spooky adjacent list. I love a good Halloween episode of a TV show. And I love any holiday special. I think it’s because I’m a child of the late 80s, and early 90s. This was THE era for holiday themed TV, and Halloween was my favorite. Suddenly your favorite shows got a little scarier – even the sitcoms. And shows that were already scary? Well, you could count on them doubling down on the horror. For this list, we’re going pure nostalgia, and hopefully including a few you haven’t thought about or seen in a minute - though we’ll still throw some classics you’ll see on any 90s countdown in there. And let’s get this out of the way right now, since I feel contractually obligated to do so by my colleagues here at Culture Combine: The Treehouse of Horror episodes of the Simpsons are ALWAYS going to be right there at the top of any Halloween TV list, but especially the 90s ones. It’s a given. Halloween Hound: The Legend of Creepy Collars - Wishbone Let’s start off mild, with an adorable but slightly creepy tail…er, tale. That’s right, we’re going straight to PBS for this one, and straight to Wishbone. I’m so sorry, you can’t tell me you didn’t love the little guy. And literary scares are legit. Plus, dog in elaborate costumes. This one’s a take on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow that sees Wishbone in the role of Ichabod Crane. I mean, enough said. Get out of here and watch it. It’s actually available on the tube of you, and if you haven’t seen Wishbone in a while it’s gonna warm your cold dead heart. And scare you a little, if you’re like me and the Headless Horsemen shivered your timbers. Meatballs or Consequences - Animaniacs For me at least, Animaniacs was a can’t miss. If I ever rushed home from school to see something, it was this show. Sure, some of the jokes went over my head until I was a little older but I had the tapes of all the famous songs and I had the reruns memorized. Meatballs or Consequences gets us the Warner Brothers, and the Warner Sister - alone with Death/The Grim Reaper. And you know it’s gonna be his nightmare as much as it is theirs. So Wakko’s in a Swedish meatball eating contest because of course he is. And he’s attempting to outdo the largest person anyone’s ever seen. Kid packs away a lot of meatballs, but it turns out that knocks him out cold. Or dead. Which brings us to the grim reaper of it all. Wakko has perhaps binged his last. Now, I’m told that this was a parody of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s films, but all I could think of was Bill and Ted, because it lands the Warners in a checkers game with Death for Wakko’s life. It’s ridiculous, Death gets his ass kicked by three little kids (sorta. They’re kids. They’re just…ok, it’s best not to go too deep.), and added bonus: if you didn’t know it was an Ingmar Bergman parody then, you can watch it now and probably get even more out of it. Which is the beauty of Animaniacs. My recommendation to catch this one? Free on Tubi, with some ads. Stevil - Family Matters My nostalgia glasses aren’t so strong as to put this out there as a great episode in general, but my fear of ventriloquist dummies tips the scales some. Plus, it’s weird, campy and fun, and that’s a part of the fun of Halloween for me. In Stevil, Steve Urkel (look it up, you little tiny babies!) brings home a ventriloquist dummy which gets brought to life by an errant lightning strike. And y’know, the way these things happen, he decides to go on a murder spree. And honestly, it IS pretty scary. For one thing, again, ventriloquist dummies freak me out. But like, they dismember people, stuff them up chimneys, and just generally destroy the entire family. And maybe I repressed this one til I did the research for this article, because rewatching the clips has got me feeling some type of way. If you want to watch it and you have Hulu, you’re in luck, since Family Matters is available to stream there. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Garfield’s Halloween Adventure I’m cheating here, both because this is a TV special and because it’s from 1985. I was 3. However, I loved Garfield from as early as I could first read books. Maybe it was the sarcasm, the laziness - I have no idea. I just really, really loved him. Maybe we had one of those plushies you stick up in the car that stop bullets. I’m not sure.This special sees our sardonic orange tabby out trick or treating with Odie as his servant and encountering kids in costumes, which scare Odie. This of course annoys Garfield, so he reverse Scooby-Doos it. (Scooby-Does it?) and he rips off the mask to find out the kids are not kids at all and ARE actually g-g-g-ghosts. Ghost pirates, to be specific, and they’re hunting for treasure that’s buried in the very mansion they end up in. This was genuinely scary to little me, and might bring back some fond first scary memories on the rewatch for you, too. If you’re looking to rewatch this, it’s on Paramount+ or Amazon Prime WITH Paramount+ Hush - Buffy the Vampire Slayer Before you even begin to say “But that’s not a Halloween episode” I already covered Fear Itself and Halloween last year. And they’re great. I love both of them very, very much. But they’re far and away not as scary as Hush, or as much of a TV masterpiece. Remember, Hush got an Emmy nomination, though it was robbed of the win, in my very biased, Buffy adoring mind at least. And if you somehow didn’t have the images burned in your mind from this one, this is the episode featuring the Gentlemen, who roll into Sunnydale and steal everyone’s ability to speak. It’s a completely silent episode for most of its run time (27 minutes of silence, to be exact) and the Gentlemen are truly horrifying. The suits, the eerie floating and scary ass hands and face. The crazy scary straightjacketed one that flails around behind them? I mean, I’m still scared of all of this. And add to that fear that you can’t scream for help, and you can’t hear anyone else scream either. This was peak Buffy, and it’s truly amazing. Watch it over and over, because it never misses. Just…not too close to bedtime, because it is nightmare fuel. X-Files- “Home” Ok, so here’s another one that is a little bit cheating. That’s because this really isn’t a Halloween episode per se, just like Hush wasn’t. However, it did air in October originally, and it was so disturbing that it was actually controversial. It earned a TV-MA rating and viewer discretion warnings and some critics and viewers felt it went too far and was too graphic, too violent and too disturbing. We’ve heard that one before, horror fans, but it never seems to stop you. Honestly, this one is a hard watch for me, but it’s also incredibly scary and a really great episode of a really great show. Hulu folks, you’re able to get this straight to your nearest TV. Home Improvement - A Night to Dismember Say what you will about Home Improvement and its largely felonious cast. It was a powerhouse, a cornerstone of TGIF, and they had some damn good Halloween episodes. Every single year we watched the show as a family I’d look forward to them, and there’s more than one I could pick here. It’s not as corny or pranky as some of the other ones, and it actually has an emotional undercurrent that an aspiring goth girl like myself with real live teenage angst related to. In this one, Mark, the youngest of the boys, was making a black and white horror film with his friend Ronnie for their class. And, backing up to make my goth comment make sense, this was the era in which Mark had turned goth, with full on skinny black jeans, black nail polish, big shoes, and black hair. Me: so into this, wanting to do this too, related to the angst which would bring him to play the sad angry music and make the moody films : riveted. Tim and Jill usually had the upper hand in the Halloween prank wars that the family was known for in these episodes, but in this one they’re helping on a school project that turns dark. See, the plot of the movie is that a neglected child seeks out a mad scientist to make a potion to turn his family into freaks so that he can kill them. Now, don’t ask me why he didn’t just, IDK, kill them without all the mad science of it all? I’m not the writer here. But it culminates in Mark with a knife scaring the actual shit out of his parents, and prompting a heart to heart that touches on the real feelings behind Mark’s story for the film and his parents reassurance that he doesn’t have to change who he is or how he dresses, and they love him just the same. Which is surprisingly progressive for a show like this one. Those wanting to look back on this one can turn to Disney+ Good Will Haunting - Sabrina the Teenage Witch It’s a show about witches. The whole entire show could count for Halloween if you wanted it to. But this in particular episode is a lot of fun, both for the costumes the cast wears (Harvey as Frankenstein’s monster is great) and for the creepiness of it all. Because that’s right, we’ve got another creepy doll. This one summons monsters to a calm night of horror movie watching with friends/boyfriends, and has the added b-plot of Hilda and Zelda avoiding a witches Halloween party. It’s really goofy, and a little bit spooky, with a ton of amazing guest stars up to and including Ringo Starr (for real though. He’s the mummy!) and that’s a perfect reason to be reacquainted with this this Halloween. If you’re hunting for Good Will Haunting, you’ll find it on Hulu. The Scare - Dawson’s Creek Speaking of teenage angst as we have, let’s revisit Dawson’s Creek, the soapy teen drama girls my age were absolutely absorbed in en masse. Pacey, Dawson, Jen, Joey - I mean, pick one and tell me you didn’t have a crush. In this episode, Dawson being Dawson is trying to prank his friends. It starts with stupid practical jokes and escalates into a seance, all the while in the background a news report is warning of an actual IRL serial killer who’s heading straight for Capeside. What are the odds? Well, it’s the only town they ever seem to be in in the show, so pretty high. Still, no one’s super worried until Jen starts getting phone calls and notes. But psych! (do you like the use of 90s vernacular there?) it was just her boyfriend. So there’s no REAL killer, right? RIGHT? We get another red herring somewhere along the way only to find out Joey was RIGHT THERE WITH THE KILLER way earlier. I mean, is it terrifying? Sure, I guess. But it’s also a fun romp in how horror and romance go hand in hand. I recommend. This is available widely, including on Tubi, Disney+, Hulu and Apple TV. And Then There was Shawn - Boy Meets World This one has to be on this list, and if I had been counting down to number one, this would be tied with Hush for top honors. Here’s the thing - I love when a theme episode can do double duty and pull huge plot moments for the entire episode/season/series – the way that Once More With Feeling did for Buffy. Sure, that was a musical episode, and that’s a sort of “theme” or some say “gimmick” episode, but it revealed one of the most important plot points of not only that season, but the rest of the series. And Then There Was Shawn is a scary, sometimes funny, really well done Halloween Episode of a show I already adored. This was in the Scream era, and they got Jennifer Love Hewitt for it, who plays Eric’s love interest and became a love interest for Will Friedle as well. We’re in the middle of an emotional breakup between Cory and Topanga and after a fight, everyone gets detention. They didn’t really reveal this as what it would be until they all get into detention and stuff starts to get really weird, really fast. Feeny kicks it off when he pulls up a map screen and “ No One Gets Out Alive” is written on the chalkboard, but it gets even worse from there. They’re locked in the classroom, the lights go out, there’s a shadowy figure outside, and people get stabbed by pencils pretty quickly. Feeny dies, the janitor dies. People are dropping like flies, and for a series that LOVES a silly joke or a catchphrase, there’s way fewer laughs than there are actual freaky moments. This was a slasher parody done to great effect with a cast of really talented people and a great writer’s room, and it shows. But what it also shows is depth, as the killer is revealed and the reasons that things went that way become clear. I don’t even want to spoiler it now, because it’s brilliant, and so scary that the episode director, Jeff McCracken stated that the network was apprehensive to put it out there, and feared it could be too scary for the audience. I’m really glad this one made it to air, because it’s still the one I hold up as one of the greatest Halloween episodes of any show of all time, for its careful parody of slasher films, emotional undercurrent, total genre shakeup and great acting. Disney+ is where to park it to watch this classic. We hope you enjoyed this list, and that you’ll bookmark it to revisit some 90s classics for spooky season alone or with friends.

Screenshot: Matchbox: The Movie. Apple TV. For someone who writes for an arts and culture publication, sometimes I feel like I live under a rock. Maybe it’s just the sheer amount of stuff coming out that I can’t possibly have my eyeballs on everything. Case in point: Matchbox: The Movie. When I saw my first review for that, I was thinking, "like, the cars?" Yeah, like the cars. I thought Hollywood gave up on its obsession with making films with flimsy premises based on millennial and Gen X nostalgia, but then I remembered that Masters of the Universe and Barbie was a thing, so what the hell do I know? Announced way back in 2022 as a partnership with Skydance, I assumed this would be another toy cash-grab. But its biggest sin isn't that it's based on a toy—it's that it's a generic spy movie wearing the Matchbox branding for reasons that feel barely earned. Unlike films like Battleship that really tried to shoehorn their premise to fit the source material, Matchbox just shows us a few small cars next to bigger cars every so often to remind us that this is, indeed, a Matchbox movie. Too bad everything else feels crammed and cliche–though I admit I did get some enjoyment out of it. Only just. Screenshot: Matchbox: The Movie. Apple TV. When I first discovered that Matchbox: The Movie was released on Apple TV, I started to watch a trailer for it, but that made me almost chicken out. Like a shot of bad grain alcohol with way too much proof, you need to shut off your tastebuds, tune out the protests from your brain, and just get that sucker in your stomach. So I threw it back and hoped I wouldn't go blind. Within the first 10 minutes of the movie, we’re introduced to Smalley (Bill Camp), who gives us a brief history of Matchbox cars. His character, with his autoshop featuring a model train-style setup dedicated to Matchbox cars, serves as the nexus that brings together the film’s protagonists. Screenshot: Matchbox: The Movie. Apple TV. Sean Walker has a crush on Aimee, blows his chance, and then hard cut to almost 30 years later. Sean Walker (John Cena) is now a badass super spy. You can tell because he’s doing extra scary spy stuff, like stealing a nuclear warhead and delivering it to an arms dealer. It’s a whole basket of cliches, with Cena’s Walker brash, insubordinate, and highly capable. His handler and former partner Helen is played by Danai Gurira doing her best Viola Davis-as-Amanda Waller impression, just with a few more smiles than Waller typically dishes out. After Walker successfully delivers the nuke, he finds out Matchbox lover and autoshop owner Smalley has died, prompting him to return to his hometown after 28 years away. While reconnecting with his friends, they’re all drugged and kidnapped by the CIA, who think they were Walker’s co-conspirators in this bomb heist. Screenshot: Matchbox: The Movie. Apple TV. Each of Walker’s friends in this ensemble—including Aimee played by Jessica Biel, Crosby (Sam Richardson), Ted (Arturo Castro) and Charmaine (Teyonah Parris)—spend the film mostly as just "Walker’s friends." There are a few half-hearted attempts at character building, one of which revolves around Crosby wanting his Leatherman back and Aimee wanting to drive because she’s a race car driver. The plot and characters are so by-the-numbers that I couldn’t have come up with a series of cliches quite as egregious as Matchbox: The Movie does. I would have rathered a clumsy attempt at making the movie about Matchbox cars than what the final product was. Eventually, Walker decides to ditch his friends because they're slowing him down, and he is immediately captured. Through the power of friendship and some serious charisma rolls by Aimee, the gang secures a small fleet of vehicles to find and save their friend. Screenshot: Matchbox: The Movie. Apple TV. In the middle of the movie, during an action sequence with one of their friends hanging out of an ambulance while on fire, it cuts to a small kid playing with Matchbox cars. It was, until that moment, that I had forgotten the Matchbox tie-in. The moment was so absurd, I wished it would have leaned into utter absurdity, instead of trying the skirt the line between “realistic” and “barely believable.” Matchbox: The Movie is barely about Matchbox cars. It ends up being a little bit of Fast and the Furious and a little bit of True Lies meets Grosse Pointe Blank with a small (tiny) pinch of The Road Warrior–but never as good as any one of those films were. It’s also full of the self-referential "wow, that just happened" style humor, and characters that are overused tropes. Matchbox: The Movie does little to encourage a new audience to check out the toy brand, nor does it serve as brand representation in any meaningful way. It is dumb, popcorn fun that is utterly missable.

Horror isn’t just a genre; it’s an amalgamation of pop culture, cozy traditions, and things that go bump in the night. This year, we're taking our 31 Days of Horror across the entire cultural spectrum. We’ll be taking a look at movies that scare us, games that kept us paranoid, scary books we cozy up with under blankets, music that sets that spooky tone and seasonal food we’re craving–or strange food you’d have to tie us up and force feed us. Whether you’re looking for something truly terrifying or a cozy autumn haunt, come back every day this month for a new bite-sized review or spooky adjacent list. Birthed out of the painful and tumultuous emotions of writer /director Andrzej Żuławski faced while getting divorced, Possession is a masterpiece of horror. Combining a variety of genre elements in the most pervasive avant garde fashion, the film had been a difficult to procure cult classic. But thanks to the resurgence of physical media, it's now readily available (albeit contentious color grading throughout its releases). The film centers on the relationship international spy Mark (portrayed fantastically by Sam Neil), his wife Anna (portrayed even more fantastically by Isabelle Adjani), who is seeing another man and wants a separation, and their son Bob. At first glance the film sounds like the making of a great drama, but moments into the film things just feel off. You have to be aware that this film relies heavily on emotion over plot, the feeling you get watching these people slowly destroy their lives over the logic behind their actions. Characters are staged oddly, they speak off to the side, and entire sequences feel disjointed and out of place. However it's all for a reason. Possession is a finely crafted film that truly take every aspect of its creation into account for maximum effect. The film as as uncomfortable as uncomfortable gets, with it's social political themes (the film takes place in West Berlin in the 80s) seeping into the other aspects of the film: from the duality of people (figuratively and literally as Bob's teacher Helen is the spitting image of his mother), the psychological pain of a divorce, and of course my favorite: body horror. Much of the film goes off the deep end rather quickly, with instances of otherworldly influences wreaking havoc on Mark and Anna. I don't want to spoil too many of the turns the film takes, but I will not that the subway scene is heartbreaking frightening and insane. It's no wonder that even if you haven't seen the film, the image of Isabelle Adjani frantically flailing around has become a staple of horror imagery. Like most great films, the film is open to deep and varied interpretation, thanks to its many layers of reality that can all be taken literally or with a boulder sized chuck of salt. You can view everything as a metaphorical representation of the characters heavy distress, or maybe the more supernatural aspect are actually happening. Whatever path you take, it's a harrowing experience that will leave you frightened for day to come. Go watch this amazing film before Hollywood remakes it. Oh, they already are? and it seems promising? Let's hope it doesn't turn out like one of the film's doppelgangers.