The Ringmaster's Realm

  I decided that I needed a break from the world of Fallout 76 yesterday afternoon and decide to watch a few movies.  One I have watched before and this 2023 entry Dark Harvest. Plot : Teens confront a legendary supernatural spectre that emerges from the cornfields of a small Midwestern town every fall. At first glance,  I figured this was going to be another Slasher/Teenage based horror flick.  Fortunately,  I was wrong and this was quite entertaining and somewhat original campared to a majority of the movies coming out today. Although, the premise was a touch outlandish, there were some interesting elements within the storyline.  The performances were OK, the scripting decent,  the scenery and era fit,  and the effects were pretty good.  My biggest peeve was that I was able to figure out the twist about mid way through and spent the majority of the movie trying to figure out what was going to happen to rectify it. I did like the ending and the way it turned out.  But,  I'm sure s

Yesterday was an interesting day across the nation,  with many walking to a strange cell phone outage that seemed random yet specific in the locations.  On top of that,  it appears that there was an outage that impacted the capabilities of many pharmacies across the US. All in all,  it was strange,  but, it didn't totally surprise me.  After all,  I did watch the 2023 movie,  Leave the World Behind, which in true predictive programming theory failed a massive cell phone outage.  Plot : A family vacation on Long Island is interrupted by two strangers bearing news of a blackout. As the threat grows, both families must decide how best to survive the potential crisis, all while grappling with their own place in this collapsing world. While initial reports yesterday indicated that multiple carriers were seeing outages, as of this afternoon only AT&T had come out and talked about their issues, blaming the incident on an error in coding, No real details, but they claim it wasn't a

On my recent trip to Point Pleasant, I was able to score some classic Fate Magazine's. Fate has always been one of my favorites,  covering all of the reasons of high strangeness and the unexplained while featuring some of the most prominent researchers of the day. In fact,  when I had an article picked up and published by them in the mid 2000s, I was so humbled. I still view that as one of my greatest accomplishments as a researcher of writer.   With that,  in the October 1988 issue, I came across a story about a UFO Flap that occurred in April  1975. With it being somewhat close to my homestead,  I decided to try to do a deep dive on it.  After all, this was a large event,  with multiple sightings over a 3 or 4 day period.  What I found (or didn't find) online was quite surprising. At first, I found almost nothing.  This was surprising because the story in Fate was detailed and actually contained some valuable information.  Mostly, I found links to a book,  The Lumberton repor

It's not often that I look forward to watching a slasher film.  Don't get me wrong,  I absolutely love them.  Unfortunately,  most modern entries are nothing compared to the ones I grew up with.  But that was different,  A son as I saw that 2023s Thanksgiving was streaming, I had to watch it.   Plot : An axe-wielding maniac terrorises residents of Plymouth, Massachusetts, after a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy. Picking off victims one by one, the seemingly random revenge killings soon become part of a larger, sinister plan. Wow, this one was se much fun to watch.  While I'm sure that it will fall into the love it or hate it arena,  I hope more love it.  This one has everything you need to take a modern journey into the world of the classic slasher genre with an entertaining story,  over-the- top kills, and some really good effects.  Did,  since of it was headscratching, there were some holes in the story,  and I found it sonewhat predictable, but that did nothing to take

While I didn't post yesterday on my birthday,  I was busy in documentary world. I love documentaries, especially ones that cover interesting subjects. Yesterday was the Missing 411 series, as it seems to be popping up on my social media feed quite a bit.  The first one I'm reviewing is Missing 411: The Hunted.  Plot : Hunters have disappeared from wildlands without a trace for hundreds of years. David Paulides presents the haunting true stories of hunters experiencing the unexplainable in the woods of North America. This is a great series and the research that David Paulides has done is tremendous. Not only are these cases fascinating,  there definitely seems to be something odd taking place.  This becomes even clearer when you do mass map comparisons with cave systems and other supernatural sightings.  The combination of interviews and research brings this series of events into a clear light and the cases are extremely interesting.  It is definitely a series that is worth watc

While I have been spending some time on the subject of shadow people and the hat man,  there are times when I need to take a break.  When I do,  I love to jump back in time to some of the horror films that made me love the genre.  This 1985 Dario Argento film is one of those,  Phenomena (AKA Creepers) Plot : A young girl who has an amazing ability to communicate with insects is transferred to an exclusive Swiss boarding school, where her unusual capability might help solve a string of murders. This has always been a polarizing work,  much like a lot of Argento's works. For me,  it was one of the first movies I encountered by him and helped me fall in love with his imaginative and stylistic approach to horror.  The cast is alright and the performances are uneven,  but this do little to bring diem things interesting story filed with the concepts, visuals,  and details that always cry out in an Argento film.  Yes,  the storyline does have some plot holes and there are side technical i

The weather yesterday was miserable again.  Fortunately,  the sun came out first and I was more motivated. After packaging a couple trading cards,  I kicked back and decided on something rather tame and atmospheric, 2020's Shirley. Plot : Renowned horror writer Shirley Jackson is on the precipice of writing her masterpiece when the arrival.  This movie was a bit odd. A fictional biopic based on famed writer Shirley Jackson crafting one of her best selling novels. While it was an interesting premise, which featured some tremendous performances, decent atmosphere, and what could have been a truly entertaining film.  Unfortunately, the scripting is uneven and the mood while atmospheric jumps around all over the place.  In the end,  this could have been an even more interesting fictional biopic, it was just average.  Check it out if you want,  but be warned.  

I took a few days away as I have been busy around the shop.  Between that and the weather, I haven't wanted to watch anything or really do anything, but I figured that I would get back to some movies today I was the best skies continued above us.  My selection was a 1970s witchcraft flick Blood Sabbath.  Plot : A coven of witches captures a young man travelling through the woods. He gets involved in a power struggle between a beautiful witch and the evil queen who heads the coven. Ok,  this one is exactly what you would expect from the early 70s. Surely made for the drive-in era,  this is a strange one.  Not really a horror movie,  but from the beginning of the Satanic Panic, it was clearly playing on the fears of the population with the nudity and the Occult and witchcraft overtones. The storyline makes little sense and had me scratching my head on multiple occasions, the pacing is slow,  and performances are in no way convincing. I'm sure this was a low budget entry,  but sti

After a stretch of modern movie with mixed results, I was in the mood for some classic Sci-Fi  schlock. While searching,  I found it with this 70s Alien Invasion film tradition none other than Sir Christopher Lee. It is the 1977 entry,  Starship Invasions.  Plot : An advance team from a dying, far-off civilization seeks a new world to conquer and inhabit -- Earth. With a cast featuring Christopher Lee and Robert Vaugh, how could this one go so wrong? Sure, it's not terrible,  but it's not really good either.  In fact,  it's perfect mindless 70s aliens themed schlock. The concept is interesting and there are some good visuals and effects (along with some bad ones). However,  this low budget film suffers mightily from low energy.  Other than Lee and Vaugh, the unrecognizable cat is just blah,  and that almost dooms this from the start. Truly,  the performances drag down what could have potentionally been somewhat memorable. Instead,  what is left is a late-night horror Host s

I took a couple days away as I continue to battle this cold.  Plus,  I've been caught up trying to finish a few quests in Fallout 76, last night being one with the Cult of Mothman, so that's been fun.  But,  today I decided to dive back into some horror with 2023s Freddy's Friday's.  Plot : A detective begins to investigate a series of mysterious murders that are connected to a demonic book that brings dolls to life. As the body count begins to rise, the detective soon learns the curse of the demonic Friday and must find a way to stop. If you thought this was gong to be a ripoff of Five Nights at Freddy's from looking at the cover, you would be so off base. That is what I thought as well,  until I started watching it.  Instead,  I found an erratic and strange low budget summoned demon slasher influenced film that had some masked, almost animatronic, looking killer's. While there was potential here, the casting, performances, effects, and execution was lacking th

I am usually not a big one for going to see the latest hype movies in the theater, but sometimes when the opportunity comes to watch a surprise with AMC Screen Unseen, I jump at it. There what happened last night when I got an early surprise with the 2024 entry,  Lisa Frankenstein. Plot : A misunderstood teenager and a reanimated corpse embark on a murderous journey to find love, happiness and a few missing body parts. I have to start by early I loved this movie.  It was the right niche of comedy, darkness, lightheartedness, and nostalgia, that it should appeal to everyone.  For me,  the brooding 80s soundtrack was the icing on top.  The cast is outstanding and their performances really work to make this one extremely entertaining. Sure, the storyline is outlandish and a bit unpredictable,  but that works in this quirky film.  The writing is solid and the character development was spot on.  Truly everything within this one worked to continue building throughout,  especially with the co

It's been a long week and I seem to have come down with a small cold.  Hopefully,  the preemptive strike with medicine helps keep it at bay.  While trying to keep myself from overdoing it yesterday,  I decided to kick back and watch some horror.  That's when I stumbled upon the 2021 short,  Scream of the Blind Dead. Plot: Virginia wanders a deserted, haunted landscape and wakes up the ghost of an ancient and bloodthirsty blind female knight. As the wraith relentlessly pursues her prey, the truth about Virginia's dark past is revealed. Growing up I loved the Blind Dead series.  It was fun to watch and always interesting.  This short that paid homage to that classic series was also fun to watch.  Taking a surrealistic approach to the storyline, this one uses tremendous visuals,  a haunting score,  and a heavy atmosphere to create something different and entertaining.  Yes,  the lack of dialog will turn some viewers off, but it shouldn't. This was a fun flick and one that

After a few duds over the past few days,  I decided it was time to reach into the past for something I haven't watched in years. My selection was the fun horror film from 1994, Brainscan. Plot : A teenager is part of an interactive video game where he kills innocent victims. Later, the murders become real. This is a fun movie and one that screams 1990s. The cast is decent and there are some great performances, especially that of the Trickster. Sure some of it feels dated today, the storyline, while fun, is outlandish, and the early special effects are hit and miss, but after that,  there is a lot to like. The atmosphere sittings,  the pacing is great,  and the overall feel really works. I am so glad that I decided to revisit it.  In the end,  this one may be leaving Tubi soon,  and that's a shame. If you are looking for a great throwback,  give this one a shot,  you would likely enjoy it.  

Time does seem to fly by.  It seems like yesterday, I was walking through Point Pleasant searching for the Mothman. Today,  I'm just hanging out and watching some movies.  The first one I caught this month is the 2020 thriller,  The Postcard Killings. Plot : A New York City detective investigates the death of his daughter, who was murdered on her honeymoon in London, and discovers the existence of a serial killer. As a huge fan of procedural crime movies and shows,  this one seemed like a nice change of pace from what I have been watching.  Unfortunately,  there was something missing.  I'm not in any way saying this is a bad movie,  in fact, it has some great scenery, a solid cast with decent performances, and an interesting storyline.  However,  the movie never truly achieved anything to make it stand out.  It was actually quite pedestrian and bland; never capitalizing on its full potential to become something extremely memorable. So, in the end, this will help you pass some t