The Library at Mount Char was October’s pick for the Sword & Laser book club, as a “Sword” pick (meaning fantasy) and something meant to be mildly horror adjacent (as co-host Veronica Belmont doesn’t handle horror well – which is fine). The book itself is some okay splatter horror with a side of urban fantasy, but it didn’t quite land for me.
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Time to catch up with the book reviews for the Sword & Laser Book Club, with my thoughts on China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh.
Read moreI returned to Portland Retro Gaming Expo this year, and gave my thoughts on the con this year.
I finally catch up with the “kidnapper”, just in time for him to reveal the truth as the Dark Presence shows up.
For the first episode of our 2nd year, and for the spooky season, we take a look at the 1985 adaptation of Hideyuki Kikuchi’s first novel in the Vampire Hunter D series.
In 1983, when House of the Long Shadows came out, it was heavily panned by critics of the time as being derivative of the old film “Seven Keys to Broadpate”, that the ending undermined the story, and it didn’t have much for scares. I would argue that the critics of the time were simply not picking up what this movie is putting down.
There will be spoilers below the cut.
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Now that I’m caught up with the most recent anime reviews, it’s time to get back to the horror with some Dario Argento, and him returning to a more… conventional Giallo with Tenebrae. There will be some spoilers for a 20+ year old movie
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Spy Classroom Season 2 is one that is a lot more serious than the first season. It’s not to say that there isn’t a large quantity of slapstick, some comedy around the members of Team Lamplight’s personality foibles, and more development for some of the other members of the group – that’s definitely there. However, it does make an attempt to be more dramatic than last season, with varying degrees of success.
Read moreI’m able to replay the end of the previous level, making up for those technical difficulties, and start episode 3 and our meeting with Rose.
Wake continues back to the lodge, and I have technical difficulties that caused my PS5 to restart, leading to my losing the last 15 minutes of the stream, so you don’t get the driving sequence, or Wake fighting off crows, or you learning that the Dark Presence has possessed Rose.
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Oddtaxi is one of those truly unique series – on paper it’s the sort of hyperlink-cinema noir story that fits right in with series like Baccano and Durarara (or, for that matter, films like Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, and Pulp Fiction). However, how the presentation of the story helps make it truly distinct from the other stylistic works that came before. There will be some spoilers below the cut.
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So, this anime is a little less “spooky” and a little more “fanservice-heavy”, but it’s a series that also involves the Yokai, which are used in both spooky and silly contexts, so I feel okay including this more recent series, Ayakashi Triangle, into my Halloween reviews.
Read moreWake turns the tables on the “kidnapper”.
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