You’ll have to excuse the tardiness of this post as I was (am still) sick for the back half of the month.
This month, I:
Got tested for allergies. Turns out I’m allergic to a few types of tree and weed pollen as well as cats and dogs (I knew this). Apparently my reaction to dog dander was very bad.
Consumed about two full boxes of Dayquil
Watched my nephew’s soccer team play its way to a 7-3 season (woo Jace!)
Went apple picking and experienced the most frightening hayride of my life (see header image)
Saw my nephew (10 years old) play percussion in a high-school football game (woo again Jace!)
Had a relatively chill Halloween hanging out with friends and family. My son trick-or-treated as a driver of Grave Digger, the monster truck.
Consumed a moderate amount of media
What I watched
The Blob (1988) (rewatch) - One of the only on-brand October movies we watched this month was the “classic” remake about a gelatinous substance devouring a small skiing town. I still admire it for its briskness and dedication to fantastic practical effects. I also went the last several years thinking that Matt Dillon was in this, only to find out that it’s actually Kevin “The Lesser Dillon” Dillon.
Onslaught - A superhuman squad of man-killing soldiers are unleashed on a trailer park while a mother and daughter struggle to stay alive. I was extremely excited for this, given that it’s a spiritual (but also in ways, direct) sequel to one of my favorite movies, The Guest. Unfortunately this movie was a huge mess, with way too much build-up and a whimper of pay-off. Some of the ideas introduced (and play off of other ideas introduced in The Guest) are not used to their fullest ability and make the movie feel like a shell of what it really could’ve been. Huge bummer for me.
Idiots - Two men are tasked with transporting a spoiled rich boy to rehab and get up to shenanigans along the way. For the most part I think I liked this, despite its uneven tone and questionable story choices. Writer/Director Macon Blair, frequent collaborator with the GOAT Jeremy Saulnier, has proven himself really talented at the directing side of things but should really defer to a writer to refine his stories.
Buddy - A psychopathic children’s show character goes on a rampage after the children rebel for their autonomy. This movie takes some really wild swings and for the most part actually knocks it out of the park. It gets really bizarre at times, but I was all there for it. I can see this movie being a real crowd-pleaser.
The Cycle - A forensic pathologist is pulled into a decades-old mystery when her assumed-dead father’s corpse shows up at a completely unrelated crime scene. This is a movie best viewed with no prior knowledge, even if I was able to chart where it was going pretty early on. It felt heavily inspired by David Fincher’s Seven at times, albeit on a much smaller budget. This was another movie I watched this month that opts for practical effects and is way better for it. I do think that the ending is a bit drawn out and overstays its welcome by just a hair.
Below (2026 miniseries) - Josh Hartnett does a strange accent while his small fishing island is plague by a giant squid and other weird happenings. I was on-board for the first few episodes, but by the end was deeply disappointed by the direction things eventually take. None of the answers you get are as satisfying as the road taken to get there and the final act has a weird human threat element piled on for diminishing returns. Luckily episodes are short and everyone talks funny.
What I read
Crone by Keith Rosson - ex-cop Eli is tasked with solving the murder of his gang-leader boss’s son, which may or may not be related to the disappearance of Eli’s daughter a decade prior. I absolutely loved this book from beginning to end and, after Fever House and Coffin Moon, it has really solidified Rosson as a master of blending a crime story with supernatural elements. Every character in Crone is a rich personality and is used intelligently in the scope of the plot. The book is fun, creepy, and really sad at times, but I was never for a minute bored.
The Suffering by David Sodergren - a convent of nuns in the Italian mountains are besieged by a disease of potentially demonic origins. This book was just grotesque descriptions of nuns wasting away from a necrotic disease, all while succumbing to some kind of nymphomaniac insanity along the way. It’s shock horror for shock’s sake and not really much else beyond that. It was a quick read but left zero lasting impression on me.
The Dorians by Nick Cutter - a group of elderly people, previously resigned to medically-induced euthanasia, opt into an experimental treatment that is claimed to be able to reverse their aging. This is a classic Nick Cutter novel through and through. By that I mean it’s a rather slow burn up until all hell breaks loose and gore spatters the walls. I felt like this took waaaaaay too long to get going and I disliked almost every character. The climax comes and goes way too quickly towards the end and then we’re left with an extremely unsatisfying conclusion. Definitely towards the bottom of Cutter’s collection of work.
The Burial Tide by Neil Sharpson - a woman awakes buried in a coffin with no memory of who she is and how she got there. After she claws her way to the surface she realizes that there’s something very strange going on in this isolated Irish village. I read this Irish folklore-inspired novel not know that I had previously read another one of Sharpson’s Irish folklore-inspired novels Knock Knock Open Wide earlier this year. Between the two, The Burial Tide is a better novel in almost every single way. The way the story unwinds itself here is paced perfectly and the marriage of folklore to a modern mystery felt much more natural here. This will end up being one of the best books I read this year, for sure.
What I played
Silent Hill: Townfall - As a casual enjoyer of the Silent Hill franchise, I have been very excited about Konami’s recent output. Two years ago the franchise saw its first entry to take place outside of the titular town in Silent Hill f, which I thought was an enjoyable if not a bit underwhelming game, and last year the Silent Hill 2 remake ended up being one of my favorite games of the year. This year, we have another team taking a stab at the series with a first-person stealth-focused game taking place in Scotland. Much like f it kind of left me wanting a bit more.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a gorgeous game with a dour story fitting of the franchise, but outside a few of the puzzles it wasn’t that fun to play. The stealth segments were often straight-up bugged, as acknowledged and since fixed by the dev team. I did, however, think that a few of the big puzzle sections were very inventive and difficult, but not in a frustrating way. I ended up completing a single play-through in a long weekend and selling the game for store credit. Maybe I’ll pick it up on a steep sale again sometime.
Silver Pines - Continuing the theme of playing spooky games this October, I checked out this 2D side-scrolling survival horror game that clearly takes inspiration from Silent Hill, Twin Peaks and other works by David Lynch. The story puts you in the shoes of Red Walker, a detective on the heels of a missing musician named Eddie Velvet in the titular northwestern American town.
In typical old-school horror game fashion, you have to solve puzzles and conserve ammunition while navigating shadowy horrors blocking your path. I thought the puzzles in this one were pretty well done and varied, but the combat, especially in boss encounters, felt very lacking and just a race to shoot and reload as quickly as possible. I also beat this one and nearly 100% all of the collectibles over four or five days. I probably enjoyed it even more than the new Silent Hill game, but I still don’t see me returning to this one for a while.
Control Resonant - The first Control game may not have been perfect, but its quirky brand of dark humor and mind-bending mythology was exactly up my alley. This one follows Dylan Faden, who was present in the first game as Jesse’s brother and antagonist of sorts (it’s complicated). Following a breach of the Bureau of Control, Dylan is released from captivity as a last resort to push back the threat that has escaped into Manhattan.
Seeing as this sequel would shift away from the clunky third-person shooting and pivot into a hack-and-slash action game, I was very much anticipating its release. For once my expectations worked out in my favor as I was delivered a game that surpasses the original in probably every way. The setting is much more varied and expansive, and easier to navigate to boot, and the combat is fun if not a bit button-mashy. I loved every beat of the main story as well as the side stories I ran across throughout my play-through. My only real gripe with the game is that they touted several viable playstyles through a mix-and-match weapon system that I didn’t feel was all there. Regardless of what I chose to wield, I was mashing on the square button a lot. Despite this, however, it will remain as one of my favorite gaming experiences of the year.
Glad to hear that new Sharpson rocks, def gonna give it a read soon.