October Horror Movie Challenge: Akelarre (2020)

 Another rewatch tonight, but I have been wanting to rewatch it for some time.

Akelarre (2020)

I watched this one back in 2022. Tonight I rewatched it in the original Spanish.  I learned two things. First, this is a great movie and a lot is going on here. Secondly, my Spanish is still rather terrible.

Here is my original review; it still stands.

Also known as Akelarre and Coven of Sisters it is not to be confused with the 2019 movie Coven.

This one just sneaks in with the theme. Maybe Great-Great Grandmothers of the Craft is a better descriptor for this one. 

This one is horror, but not for the reasons the first two are. 

In 1609 in the Basque Country of Spain five girls are all arrested and charged with witchcraft.  One of their friends tries to rescue them and she is captured too. At first, the girls are afraid but then they begin to joke about it, not believing that this is happening to them.  Then the torture begins.    

It's all rather horrible to be honest.  Worse, because you knew this sort of thing happened all the time.  

Amaia Aberasturi stars as Ana and she is the real stand-out here. She keeps stringing along her accusers to drag out the proceedings to help save the other girls. Ana easily strings along the horny men till the full moon. 

The girls decide that in order to delay their execution longer they tell the judge they will re-enact the Black Mass, or the Sabbath, for his records. They do so and get him all involved as Lucifer.  Once they had frightened the men, or turned them on, enough they run into the woods. They are chased by the men and soldiers till they get to the edge of a cliff over the ocean.  The other women, the ones not accused of witchcraft, sing a song about the full moon and the high tide.  Ana, realizing the message, tells the other girls they can jump. 

They jump over the side, not knowing if they lived or died.  

I thought this movie was great honestly. Not the typical sort of horror, but also not exactly what I thought it was going to be either.  

Occult D&D and NIGHT SHIFT

The Occult D&D influences are obvious: witch cults, witch hunters, and scared townsfolk. The biggest issue here of course in D&D magic and demons are real, and in movies like Akelarre they are not. 

While it might not work so well as a "witch trial" idea, I love the idea of exploring more about Spanish and Basque witches.  This would be a good way to add in my demon Akelarre. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2025
Viewed: 29
First Time Views: 25

October Horror Movie Challenge: Spellbinder (1988)

 This one has been on my list for a bit. At least since I saw it in the video store in Carbondale. As it turns out, that video store is now Castle Perilous Games.  My wife says I have seen this, but I sure I hadn't; I am not really a fan of Kelly Preston. But today is a good day for witch movies. Starting this one early today because I don't want to clean up my garden.

Spellbinder (1988)

Jeff Mills (Tim Daly of Wings and Superman: The Animated Series) is a Los Angeles lawyer who saves Miranda Reed (Kelly Preston) from being beaten up by her sketchy Central Casting creep boyfriend Aldys (Anthony Crivello ). Jeff takes Miranda back to his place, where she gets naked, but they don't have sex (at least on screen) but she heals his injured back which seems to drain her and she falls asleep. Magic can be draining.

Jeff leaves her at his place (sleeping) but he sees Aldys in his dreams trying to kill him. He gets home that evening and she is still there AND cleaned his house by canglelight, just wearing one of his shirts. Had to check, yeah written by a guy. Surprised she didn't have a steak and martini ready for him. Though they do drink champagne in a bubble bath. Oh, and dinner was ready.

An aside...I still don't think Kelly Preston can act. She is great looking here, but I have never been impressed with her at all.

Soon, Jeff and Miranda settle into a domestic life, but are being followed by Temu Billy Squire and "We Have Billy Drago At Home."  Things start to fall apart when Miranda's coven starts hunting down wayward members, Jeff's secretary starts to suspect Miranda, and oh yeah, she becomes a suspect in a series of Satanic murders. Things start to pick up when Mrs. White (Audra Lindley aka Helen Roper) shows up to threaten Jeff. 

Mirianda leaves, and Jeff starts looking for her. He goes to the police and we get treated to Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Lieutenant Lee. 

Miranda has been missing for a bit now, and Jeff is still looking for her. One night he gets a call from her at his office. Mirianda is there, but the coven follows them back to Jeff's place. We learn that the coven needs to sacrifice someone on the Winter Solstice, and Miranada thinks it is going to be her.

Jeff takes Miranada to one of his clients, Brock, who is a paranoid conspiracy theorist. Mrs. White turns out to be Miranada's mother, which is a shock to absolutely no one except for Jeff.  

Miranada disappears again, even Brock's Fortress of Paranoia can't protect her.

The movie really drags at the end. Turns out everyone but Jeff is in the cult, and Miranada wasn't a victim; she was bait to get Jeff, who is the real sacrifice.  They kill him and cut out his heart.

Later on, Grace dies mysteriously, and we see Miranda acting out the same scene from the beginning of the movie on her next victim.

It had some potential, but it got bogged down. 

In the end, only Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa's Lieutenant Lee is the only decent character here. 

This really didn't change my opinion of Kelly Preston.

Occult D&D and NIGHT SHIFT

 The movie, despite its flaws, has some good ideas. A witch moving in with a PC suddenly is a great plot point. Whether the witch turns out good or evil, they will undoubtedly be trouble of some sort. 

When I was talking about the WitchCraftRPG yesterday, I was considering some Conspiracy X material as well. This movie kinda gives us some crossover. This sort of thing is a lot easier in NIGHT SHIFT.

A possible adventure idea would be to follow along with Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa's Lieutenant Lee investigating these Satanic murders. Getting closer and closer to the coven. Knowing the 1980s he would also have a background in some mystical martial art. Cliché? Yeah, but that's the 80s for you.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2025
Viewed: 28
First Time Views: 25

October Horror Movie Challenge: Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

Some films feel like autumn. Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) is one of them. Based on Ray Bradbury’s 1962 novel, it’s a dark fantasy about small towns, childhood fears, and the seductive power of regret. It’s also one of those rare movies that slipped through the cracks, too eerie for kids, too sentimental for adults, but it lingers like a memory you’re not sure you actually lived.

I have been wanting to rewatch this one for some time, and it just released on Disney+ a couple of weeks ago. I waited till tonight, October 24th, the same date as in the movie. 

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

The story takes place in Green City, Illinois—a place that could easily be Greenville down in South Central Illinois or Waukegan up north (Bradbury’s real hometown and the city’s likely inspiration). Either way, we’ll just have to pretend those rolling hills in the background somehow belong to our flat Midwest. It’s the kind of town where boys dream of adventure, but evil is only a whistle away.

The plot is simple: two boys, Jim and Will, encounter a mysterious carnival that rolls into town led by the sinister Mr. Dark, played with slithering charisma by Jonathan Pryce. The carnival promises to fulfill your deepest wishes, but the cost is your soul. Only Will’s father, the aging librarian Charles Halloway (Jason Robards, who brings real gravitas), stands between the town and damnation.

Jason Robards gives one of his most heartfelt performances as Charles Halloway, Will’s father. He’s not the traditional hero, but rather a weary, aging librarian haunted by the fear that his best years are behind him. Robards brings such quiet dignity and warmth to the role that his final act of bravery, facing down darkness for the sake of his son, feels mythic. It’s the kind of understated performance that sneaks up on you and stays long after the credits.

Jonathan Pryce is pure, liquid menace as Mr. Dark. His every word drips with charm and threat. Pryce’s Mr. Dark isn’t a cackling villain; he’s temptation incarnate, seductive, eloquent, and terrifying in his control. You can see shades of this performance echoing years later ("The High Sparrow" in Game of Thrones for example) in Pryce’s roles as smooth politicians and sly schemers. Honestly when I first watched it I thought he was the Devil.

And then there’s Pam Grier as the Dust Witch, silent and otherworldly, gliding through the film like an angel of death wrapped in silk. She’s mesmerizing, equal parts terrifying and hypnotic, and though she doesn’t have much dialogue, her presence fills every scene she’s in. Grier was already a legend of 1970s cinema by this point, and here she’s used like an icon of dark glamour, a visual embodiment of the carnival’s deadly allure. I had had a crush on her since "Scream Blacula Scream."

This movie was made during Disney’s early ’80s experimental phase, when they were testing darker, more adult material, films like The Watcher in the Woods (1980), Dragonslayer (1981), and Something Wicked This Way Comes fit into that uneasy space between family film and nightmare. You can see echoes of Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) in the tone and pacing, and some of the set pieces (especially the swirling leaves and looming carnival tents) wouldn’t look out of place in Poltergeist (1982).

It’s fascinating to look back now and see how much later media borrowed from this movie, even if unconsciously. Scenes of the train or of boys sneaking through libraries and hidden halls that feels like a dry run for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001). The imagery of flickering candles, books, and autumnal magic feels like the DNA of half a generation’s fantasy storytelling.

But for all its atmosphere, Something Wicked had a troubled birth. Bradbury himself wrote the screenplay, and his collaboration with director Jack Clayton (The Innocents) was fraught. Disney re-edited the film heavily after test screenings, reshot major portions, and replaced much of James Horner’s original score. The result is a movie that feels like a beautiful half-remembered dream, gorgeous in places, uneven in others. It was a box-office disappointment, which is a shame, because few films capture the haunting melancholy of childhood quite like this one.

Now, thanks to Disney+, Something Wicked This Way Comes is finally easy to revisit. Watching it again in high quality, without having to dig through old VHS copies, it’s clear that it deserves rediscovery. It’s a movie about innocence lost, time running out, and the magic of a small-town October night when anything might happen, and maybe it already did.

I remember seeing this one when it was new in the theatres. At the time, I was not much different than the boys on screen, a little older, though, but in a similar town in Illinois. I remember that desire for adventure. 

This movie was also an early adopter of CGI graphics. They are primative by today's standards, but still effective. That carnival ride at the end of the movie is still creepy.

Occult D&D and NIGHT SHIFT

If you’re running Ravenloft, this film is practically a template for dark carnival adventures. The tone of Something Wicked This Way Comes lives somewhere between Carnival (the 1999 Ravenloft supplement) and The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (for 5e). Both draw on the same idea—a traveling show that promises wonder but delivers damnation.

• Mr. Dark: Think of him as a charismatic Domain Lord, feeding on temptation and broken dreams. His carnival is his demiplane.
  

• The Carnival: Perfect for one of those “it appears overnight” settings. The rides and attractions offer small, personal wishes, each one just twisted enough to trap the victim in the carnival forever.

• Theme: At its heart, this is about choice, the same core idea that makes Ravenloft tick. Every character is offered a deal, and what they do with it defines their fate.

You could easily run a one-shot or full mini-campaign inspired by this film: a cursed carnival passing through a sleepy town, two children discovering its secret, and one old hero standing up to darkness one last time. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2025
Viewed: 27
First Time Views: 24

Urban Fantasy Fridays: Mage The Ascension, 20th Anniversary Edition

 I will admit, I love Mage. I love all versions of it, to be honest.

While I never really got into the original World of Darkness when it was all the rage, I did have Vampire: The Masquerade, and I recognized why and how it was good. Still, at the time, I had also just discovered WitchCraftRPG (next week!), so that was the game I had chosen to scratch my Modern-Supernatural itches.

I remember picking up a copy of Vampire the Masquerade back in the early 90s and thinking it looked interesting, but nothing I was going to play really.  Though my thought did go to moving the whole thing over to Ravenloft.  It wasn't until I had moved to Chicago to work on my Ph.D. that I found Mage.  

The ground floor of the commuter train station had a bookstore in it.  One of the pure joys of my daily commute. I picked up a copy of Mage: The Ascension (Revised) and thought that it was fantastic.  While I would ultimately stick with WitchCraft, Mage continued to have a fascination for me. Moving back and forth between the systems, I ultimately landed on the idea that a "Mage" was an evolved form of a "Witch."  I did some refinements, mostly after Mage the Awakening was released, so eventually came to the idea of an "Imbolc Mage," the term borrowed from a friend who wrote about "Ascended witches."  IT worked for me.  Even in my D&D 3.0 days, an Imbolc Mage was a witch prestige class. Even today I have a Mystic Class Starship kitbash called "The Imbolc Mage."  

Though I did really like Mage. A lot. I really like Sorcerer's Crusade; it was a cool idea and much more interesting to me than Mage: The Ascension at first.  That led me to Sorcerer: The Hedge Wizard's Handbook, which is not part of Sorcerer's Crusade, but part of modern Mage.  But I am glad I made that mistake, since I really liked this book, and it made me look again at the World of Darkness.

While Mage: The Ascension grabbed my attention, it was Mage: The Awakening that I created more material for.  I soon figured out why: it felt very similar to WitchCraft.  I wanted to do something that took the best aspects, or more to the point my favorite aspects, of both games and use them together.  I grabbed the Mage Translation Guide with great glee, but I never really did anything with it.  With the release of Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition (and its nearly 700 pages), I just dropped all the work I was doing with Mage: The Awakening. 

Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition

The 20th Anniversary Edition of Mage: The Ascension is a massive, beautifully crafted tome that brings every prior vision of the game into focus. It’s not just a revision of the rules; it’s a celebration of what Mage has always been: the meeting of philosophy and passion, of science and sorcery, of power and the price of using it. 

It’s also the most “complete” version of Mage ever written. M20 doesn’t erase the differences between editions; it embraces them. The Traditions feel ancient and mythic again, the Technocracy has teeth and ideology, and even the Marauders and Nephandi have more depth than ever before, a LOT more depth. The lore isn’t presented as dogma but as perspective, filtered through the unreliable narrators who populate the Ascension War. This is hit home time and time again. Reality is what you make it. 

Reading it feels like walking through every era of the game’s evolution: the raw wonder of 1st Edition, the sleek paranoia of Revised (my previous favorite), the fiery metaphysics of Awakening, all of it bound together by the idea that belief shapes reality. If you’ve ever argued about whether magic is real, or what truth even means, M20 will make you feel like those questions matter again.

Plus the physical book is just so damn attractive.

Magic, Philosophy, and Price

What I’ve always loved about Mage, especially the 20th Anniversary Edition, is that it treats magic as both metaphor and mechanism. Every paradigm is true, and none of them are. The more you understand, the more dangerous it becomes to believe in only one truth.

That’s why Larina fits here so naturally. In earlier games, she learned that magic has limits. In Mage, she learns that those limits are hers.

The system itself still shines. M20’s rules strike a balance between the freeform wonder of 1st Edition and the structured precision of Revised. The magic system remains one of my favorites of any RPG ever written, not because it’s powerful but because it demands creativity and consequence. Every effect has a cost, every belief has friction, and paradox is always waiting for the arrogant.

This is where Mage transcends its own mechanics. It’s not just about bending the universe; it’s about how much of yourself you’re willing to give up to make that change. Every roll feels like a wager between your vision and the world’s resistance. It’s a game of philosophy disguised as spellcraft, where your paradigm defines not only your powers but your purpose.

In that way, it’s the most dangerous kind of fantasy: the kind that makes you ask, What if I’m the one who’s asleep?

The Mature Stage of the Lifespan Campaign

If Little Fears represents childhood beliefs, Monsterhearts embodies teenage Sturm und Drang, and Chill signifies early adulthood resilience, then Mage is mid-life transcendence.

By the time a character reaches Mage, the world has stopped being mysterious because they have seen too much of it. They’ve fought the Unknown, lost friends, made mistakes, and realized that survival is only the beginning. Mage is what happens when you stop reacting to horror and start defining reality for yourself.

For Larina, this is the phase where the witch becomes the magus. She’s no longer the frightened girl with ghosts in her room or the grad student who stumbled into S.A.V.E. She’s a woman in her mid-40s who has survived every shadow the multiverse could throw at her, and learned that power without wisdom is just another kind of curse.

Her story at this stage isn’t about discovery; it’s about integration. Every past incarnation, every spell, every trauma, they all thread together into something greater. The act of Ascension isn’t about escaping mortality; it’s about embracing it as sacred.

Like the rules, I want to integrate all the disparate threads of her life here. 

Larina Nichols in Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition (2015)

By 2000 or so, Larina had returned to the States and lived quietly in Chicago. She teaches folklore and comparative mythology at a small liberal arts college, but that’s just the daylight cover. At night, she works as an independent consultant for the Traditions, specifically the Verbena, though she maintains uneasy friendships among the Dreamspeakers and Hollow Ones.

In the context of my Lifespan Campaign, this is Larina’s middle-age chapter, the reckoning after experience, when all her past choices catch up to her. The ghosts from Little Fears, the stress of Monsterhearts, the agents of S.A.V.E. from Chill, even fragments of her other lives like Lowis from Dark Ages, they all echo here.

Mage lets me weave those threads together into something coherent. Maybe those different incarnations were just past lives of the same soul, or echoes across parallel worlds. In Mage, that kind of metaphysical bleed makes sense. It’s one of the only games where her story could become mythic without losing its human edge.

At 45 (2015 in this build), Larina is a seasoned practitioner who has seen the price of awakening. She knows that every act of will leaves ripples in the world. She teaches her students that folklore endures because it speaks to something real, and when she’s alone, she can still hear the faint hum of the Tapestry, like a heartbeat under the world.

She’s part scholar, part witch, part weary survivor. The Ascension War has become quieter, now fought through memes, corporate sponsorships, and disinformation rather than fireballs and paradox spirits. Larina has learned that the Technocracy doesn’t always need to win; reality often fights their battles for them.

But she keeps the candle burning anyway.

Her focus remains rooted in belief: the Old Faith, the Goddess, the sacred cycles of life and death, but expanded now to the Universal and Multi-versal scale. She has studied Hermetic theory and understands the language of the Ethers, yet she still draws her strength from the soil, the stars, and the blood that ties them together. In M20 terms, she is a Verbena, a witch who believes in creation’s divinity but refuses to kneel to any monotheistic god.

She works minor wonders through old rites: candle flame, herbs, whispered prayers, moonlight on water, spreads of her well-worn tarot cards. Her paradigm has grown sophisticated; witchcraft, psychology, and spirit all merge into her personal practice. Where she once used spells, she now shapes Correspondences.

Her Avatar is older now, too, no longer the reckless maiden or disappointed wife, but a patient, keen-eyed woman who sometimes calls herself the Lady of Crossroads. 

Larina "Nix" Nichols

Chronicle: The New Millennium

Nature: Questing
Demeanor: Traditionalist
Essence: Visionary

Affiliation: The Traditions
Sect: Verbena
Concept: Mystic

Attributes 

Physical
Strength ••, Dexterity ••, Stamina •••

Social
Charisma •••, Manipulation ••, Appearance ••••

Mental
Perception ••••, Intelligence ••••, Wits •••

Abilities

Talents
Alertness ••, Art •, Awareness •••, Empathy ••, Expression •, Streetwise •

Skills
Crafts •, Drive ••, Etiquette •, Research •••, Survival •••, Technology •

Knowledges
Academics ••••, Cosmology ••, Enigmas ••, Esoterica •, Investigation •, Medicine •, Occult ••••, Science •

Spheres

Correspondence ••
Entropy 0
Forces •••

Life •••
Matter •
Mind ••••

Prime •
Spirit •••
Time ••

Advantages

Backgrounds
Allies ••
Avatar •••••
Dream •
Library ••••
Past Lives •••
Wonder •

Other Traits
High Ritual ••••
Seduction ••
Area Knowledge ••

Arete ••••• ••

Willpower ••••• ••

Quintessence xxxxx

Rotes
Talons (••• Life, • Prime or • Matter)
Far Speak (•• Mind, •• Spirit)
Astral Projection (••••Mind, • Spirit)
Past Life (•• Correspondence, •• Spirit)

Focus
Paradigm: Creation is Divine and Alive
Practices: Witchcraft
Instruments: Books, ritual tools, tarot

Wonder
Athame

Merits & Flaws
Languages (Celtic, Greek, Italian, Latin, Russian) 5, True Faith 2
Echoes -1

Age: 45, Apparent age: late 30s
Sex: Female
Ethnicity: White (Caucasian)
Hair: Red
Eye color: Blue
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 125 lbs
DOB: October 25, 1969

Equipment
2005 purple VW Beetle
2013 Macbook Pro (Core i7, 2.6 ghz, 13.3" screen, 256gb ssd, 8gb RAM), silver

Notes: One thing I have not decided yet is whether or not this Larina has a 3-year-old daughter "Taryn" as her WitchCraftRPG counterpart would have at this point (Taryn born Dec 21, 2012, when the Meso-American calendar ran out.) I would like to think so, but I have not played this particular character to that point.

This is obviously not a starting character. I figured she began as a Mage character when I first discovered Mage (circa 1999) and she has had 15 years of experience since then. Granted, maybe she would be more powerful, but she had a lot going on in her life that was not Mage-related. 

I have always played my Mage and WitchCraft versions as similar, but separate universes. This Larina may be the Larina that keeps the others connected to the whole cabal/coven of them all. Actually, I really like this idea. Maybe I should reach out to Phil Brucato, "That Mage Guy," and ask him how he would craft such a character. 

Final Thoughts

Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition isn’t just a rulebook. It’s a philosophy text disguised as a game manual, a challenge to imagine what reality could be if you dared to believe differently. It captures everything I love about urban fantasy, the collision of magic and modernity, of belief and disbelief, of hope against entropy.

For me, Mage represents the mature stage of the horror-fantasy journey. It’s not about surviving the darkness anymore. It’s about illuminating it, understanding it, and, if you’re brave enough, even becoming it.

Larina has learned that the Ascension War was never about gods or Technocrats. It was always about the soul’s struggle to stay awake.

And after all these years, she’s still standing at the crossroads, candle in hand, whispering to the night: "So mote it be."

Links

• Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition, DriveThruRPG
• Mage: The Ascension (Wikipedia)
• Mage: The Ascendion (White Wolf Wiki)
• Mage: The Ascension (RPG.net)
• Mage: The Awakening

October Horror Movie Challenge: Red Dragon (2002)

The Silence of the Labs is a horror film, in fact it is one of my favorites. So when the chance came up to watch Red Dragon (2002) I jumped on it. I had read the  Thomas Harris book ages ago and watched the first movie treatment of it, Manhunter (1986). This movie is not as good as the book, but better than the 1986 movie. But both of those opinions are subjective.

Red Dragon (2002)

What Red Dragon does exceptionally well is balance tension and performance. It’s a prequel to The Silence of the Lambs, but it doesn’t feel like an afterthought. Anthony Hopkins returns as Hannibal Lecter, and while he’s clearly older than his supposed timeline, it hardly matters. Hopkins slips back into Lecter’s skin like a comfortable, expensive suit. Every word is deliberate. Every pause, a manipulation.

Edward Norton plays FBI profiler Will Graham, the man who caught Lecter years before. The film opens with that capture, a brutal and stylish confrontation that immediately sets the tone. Graham has since retired, but he’s pulled back in to track a new killer, Francis Dolarhyde, the “Tooth Fairy,” played with a quiet menace by Ralph Fiennes. Fiennes delivers a haunting, deeply tragic performance. His Dolarhyde is terrifying not because he’s monstrous, but because he’s broken and he is doing what he thinks he has to do to transform. Though I do admit, I wondered the whole time what this role would have been like in the hands of someone like Billy Bob Thorton. 

This is what makes Red Dragon work. It’s not just a procedural thriller, it’s a story about the fine line between understanding evil and becoming infected by it. Norton's Graham is empathetic to a fault. He has to feel what the killer feels to catch him, and that empathy nearly destroys him. Lecter, ever the manipulator, senses that and twists it for his amusement. Watching their verbal chess match unfold is as thrilling as any chase or murder scene. There are times when Graham gets way too close to feeling what the killers (Lecter, Dolarhyde) feel.  Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling is good because she understands. Will Graham is good because he feels. 

The supporting cast adds real weight. Emily Watson is remarkable as Reba, the blind woman who sees more clearly than anyone else in the film. Her tenderness toward Dolarhyde makes his descent even more tragic. Harvey Keitel, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Mary-Louise Parker round out an impressive lineup that grounds the story in gritty humanity. Let's be honest. This is a star-studded cast. 

It never reaches the same heights as The Silence of the Lambs. But maybe that is ok. This is the first Act of Lecter's big three-act play (I am not counting Hannibal Rising here yet). This is A New Hope to Lambs' Empire Strikes Back.

Comparisons to Manhunter (1986)

It has been a bit since I saw Manhunter, and I watched before The Silence of the Lambs. Here is what I do recall. Manhunter feels like it was pulled straight from the ‘80s crime zeitgeist: sleek, minimalist, and pulsing with synth. It’s more procedural, less psychological. For example, Lecter's cell was not as "impressive" as what we see in Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs. 

Anthony Hopkins is a menacing Hannibal Lecter. He is the prefect blend of menace, evil, sharp intelligence, and amorality to give us his Academy Award-winning performance. Brian Cox is...no Anthony Hopkins, but his Lecter has menace all his own. Cox's Lector looks and acts like someone who would have really existed. Hopkin's Lecter is practically a Batman villain. 

 William Petersen’s Will Graham is distant, analytical, almost robotic at times. He’s haunted, yes, but in that stoic, Mann-hero way. You sense the obsession, but not always the emotion.

I liked Kim Greist as Molly Graham, but Mary-Louise Parker also did a fine job. 

Visually, Manhunter is all clean lines and cold light; Red Dragon is candlelight and shadow. One is clinical, the other operatic. Neither is “wrong,” but Red Dragon feels more in conversation with The Silence of the Lambs. It treats Hannibal as a monster out of folklore rather than a psychopath in a cell.

I should really rewatch it, but is so much of a Police Procedural movie I don't think I could count it as horror.

NIGHT SHIFT & Occult D&D Ideas

This works for NIGHT SHIFT quite well. The characters can all be investigators looking for a new serial killer who the press has called "The Baltimore Vampire" (nod to the original movies). Only to discover it is a real freaking vampire. Or maybe it is just a garden variety serial killer who thinks he is, or can become, a vampire if he kills enough. 

For my Occult D&D ideas, well. Interestingly enough, I found the Red Dragon novel because I wanted to suck up anything related to my new obsession, D&D! I read it and thought that a psychological profiler might be a cool job to have. 

For either, Francis Dolarhyde could easily be reimagined as a cultist or warlock possessed by the spirit of an ancient dragon, a literal Red Dragon whispering promises of power and perfection. His killings are ritualistic, each one part of his ascension.

In an occult campaign, you could use this as a slow-burn mystery: murders tied to draconic iconography, victims chosen for symbolic reasons, and a cult leader whose mind is collapsing under the weight of his Patron’s voice. The PCs might be hunting the killer, only to realize his madness is contagious, the Red Dragon’s influence seeps through his victims, through dreams, through art.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2025
Viewed: 26
First Time Views: 24

The Enchanted World: Ghosts

Next to the Witches and Warlocks book, this was one of the ones I had read the most as a kid. I did not have access to a full set until the last few years, but this one always stuck out. A lot of the tales in this book found their (if you will excuse the pun) spiritual descendants in Ghosts of Albion. 

Ghosts

by Ellen Galford and Time-LIFE editors, 1984 (144 pages)
ISBN 0809452162, 0809452170 (US Editions)

This volume is divided into four chapters dealing with death, the dead, and those who remain behind.

Chapter One: Guises of the Reaper

Ghosts are the reminders that life has an end, but we really don't know what that end is going to be like. So tales of ghosts, and tales of the Grim Reaper, abound. It always seems to come back to England and the British Isles for these tales. No surprise since these are the tales we are most familiar with. Here we learn of the Black Dog or Old Shuck, the Ankou, the Bean-Nighe, and banshees. Even innocent-looking animals like the raven and owl could be harbingers of death. 

We see similar manifestations in Germany where the Fetch becomes the Doppelgänger, and in the Middle East where the raven is called Abu Zájir or "The Father of Omens."

It should also be no surprise that quite a few of our myths and legends about ghosts and the dead come from the times of plague in Europe, where death was often given anthropomorphic form. 

Song of the Sorrowing Harp

A Scottish tale of jealousy of two sisters and the ghost that told of her murder.

Chapter Two: Invasions by the Angry Dead 

Death may take the souls of the dead, but they don't always stay quiet. Much like vampires (where the distinction is often blurred) the dead can come back. Here we encounter the utburd and the navky, two types of child ghosts that have haunted my own books and this blog for ages. 

We encounter poltergeists, the noisy ghosts, who might also be demonic. 

Demonic ghosts seem par for the course in Japan if "The Wife's Revenge" is any indication.

A Meeting on the Road Home 

A tale from Lancaster, but when re-told in modern times in America, it became the ghost girl that drivers would pick up. This one has a twist of the ghost keeping her head in a basket. 

Chapter Three: Shadow Plays of Grief and Pain

Ghosts are often doomed to repeat their deeds from their life in the afterlife. A forgotten battlefield in Scotland plays out it's bloody battle in ghostly form. Same with battlefields in Assyria, Troy, Wales, and the US Civil War.

But ghosts are not just attracted to battlefields, places of power where human sacrifice occurred were also popular among the dead. And of course haunted houses.

The Hooded Congregation

A Swedish woman rushes one cold morning to attend Christmas services, only to discover she share the service with a congregation of the dead.

Chapter Four: Hands Across the Void

The living and the dead can interact, and often the consequences are dire.  Here the dread art of necromancy is used and often the living soon join the dead. Others take great care to make sure the dead can't be rising or spoken too in their own sorts of necromantic arts. From Caesar to Vikings to Medieval Christians to 17th Century Cornwall, consulting the dead was a dread business. 

Glam's Tale

In this tale, the line between ghost and zombie is blurred as the dead return.

This one is still a fun read so many years later. I am surprised by how much of this wormed its way into my subconscious and took up a permanent haunt, as it were. 

October Horror Movie Challenge: Queen of Bones (2023)

 Another pick by my wife. Now, typically when she picks the movie, I get a veto power if it is under a certain IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes rating. She doesn't like to look at the ratings beforehand. This one did not have very good ratings at all, 4.6 on IMBD and no rating at all on Rotten Tomatoes; neither a good sign. But we watched it anyway and really liked it. This in a large part due to the performances by  Martin Freeman and Julia Butters. 

Plus, it is a perfect Witchcraft Wednesday movie.

Queen of Bones (2023)

Fearful or religious men (often the same thing) have always feared women’s autonomy. History has shown that whenever a woman becomes too independent, too willful, too curious, too powerful, someone slaps the word witch on her and decides she needs to be “saved.” That’s the heart of Queen of Bones, a quiet, moody folk horror film that takes place not in the 1600s but in 1930s rural America.

Martin Freeman plays Malcolm, a widowed father raising his daughter Lily (Julia Butters, who’s fantastic) and son Samuel (Jacob Tremblay) in a house thick with secrets. At first, Malcolm seems decent enough, even tender in his grief. But as Lily begins to change, both in body and in strange, supernatural ways, his love curdles into fear. We slowly realize that he’s not just haunted by what happened to Lily’s mother… he’s terrified his daughter might become her.

That dynamic drives the film’s tension. Lily starts having dreams, visions, and odd encounters in the woods. The line between puberty and possession blurs. Is she cursed? Chosen? Or simply awakening to her own power in a world that can’t tolerate that? By the time the third act arrives, the answer feels almost inevitable: Malcolm would rather destroy her than let her become something he can’t control.

It’s not subtle, but that’s fine, it isn’t supposed to be. Queen of Bones plays like a postscript to Robert Eggers' The Witch, set 300 years later but fueled by the same fear: that the feminine divine, if left unchecked, would upend the patriarchal order. It’s witch panic dressed in Depression-era grief, with dust, silence, and old ghosts in every corner.

There’s a scene late in the film, no spoilers, where Lily finally confronts what her father did to her mother. It’s devastating, not just for the violence but for the certainty behind it. Malcolm truly believes he’s doing God’s work. That’s what makes him the monster.

What I loved about this film, and what I think most critics seem to have missed, is how subtle its magic is. It’s not a jump-scare movie. It’s an awakening movie. The horror here isn’t in the witchcraft, it’s in the control. Freeman gives one of his best performances as a man eaten alive by righteousness, and Butters is mesmerizing as Lily, teetering between innocence and fury.

This isn’t The Witch, no. But it shares the same DNA: a girl’s coming-of-age framed as an act of rebellion against divine tyranny. The difference is, this one suggests the witch’s power was always there just waiting for her to claim it.

Queen of Bones might not be perfect, but it’s important. It’s quiet horror with something to say about generational trauma, religious oppression, and the terror of becoming yourself. The final moments hit like a benediction and a curse all at once.

NIGHT SHIFT & Occult D&D Ideas

Let's be honest here. 

I you can't see the RPG potential here I am not sure you are reading the right blog. Generational witches are a topic I discuss frequently here. Like obsessively so.

I wonder what Lily's life would have been like after the movie? She would have been 23 near the start of WWII, in her 40s when the Beatles came to America, her 60s when the 80s began and so on. Interesting. 

For NIGHT SHIT, it’s a modern folk-horror story transplanted to a rural, Depression-era America where witchcraft is whispered about in sermons. A perfect slow-burn scenario: something ancient stirs in the woods, and the townsfolk are eager to call it Satanic. The PCs could arrive as outsiders—teachers, doctors, or priests, only to discover the true evil that resides within the house. Or a perfect Call of Cthulhu game that doesn't involve the Mythos. 

For my Occult D&D ideas, it is a good example of how witchcraft is inherited via bloodlines, and there are witch families.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2025
Viewed: 25
First Time Views: 23

Witchcraft Wednesdays: Occult D&D updates and Halloween sales and more

 Stayed up last night watching The Substance, if you haven't read my review, then no big deal, but at least see the movie, might be my favorite one of the Challenge so far. 

Occult D&D

I have been playing around with this idea of "Occult D&D" for a little while now. I went into it really with no major intentions save to add some more occult feeling to my D&D games and maybe into my NIGHT SHIFT games as well. Its been a blast really. I was sorting through my notes and looking over the books I still want to read or reread for it, and I discovered that I have a lot. Like an obscene amount.

Not just in what I have written so far (an estimate of about 350 pages), but also in what I am still planning on reading.

The Enchanted World

Mysteries of the Unknown

The Supernatural

Man, Myth, & Magic

Do I *need* to read all of these? No, but I *want* to. Many of course are re-reads. I have had these for ages, but I want to be systematic about all of this. Half the joy for me is the research. Sorry, its the academic in me.

I am not 100% sure what shape the final product(s) will take, or even if it will be something I will ever publish. But I am having a lot of fun with it so far.

Halloween Sales

As always, many of my books are on sale at DriveThruRPG for Halloween!

• The Other Side - Halloween at DriveThruRPG

This includes my newest and most popular titles:

• The Witch - Book of Shadows for ShadowDark
• The Left Hand Path - The Diabolic & Demonic Witchcraft Traditions
• The Craft of the Wise: The Pagan Witch Tradition for Old School Essentials
• The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Spice Witch Tradition for Labyrinth Lord

Plus a lot more!

EGG Con

I'll be at EGG Con this summer! I'll be there again with Elf Lair Games, selling and running NIGHT SHIFT and Thirteen Parsecs. Hope to see you all there. 

October Horror Movie Challenge: The Substance (2024)

Oh. Now this one was great. I mean really great. Major kudos to stars Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid for this one. And special kudos to Coralie Fargeat, who wrote and directed this horror as social commentary.  Outstanding work all around.

And kudos as well to my wife for finding this one. For a non-horror fan, she has been doing great this year.

The Substance (2024)

I heard a quote once: “There is nothing subtle about a blood cannon.” Maybe it was from True Blood, maybe it was from GWAR, either way, it’s true here.

The Substance is not subtle. It’s loud, bloody, and unrelenting in both style and message. Coralie Fargeat (who wrote and directed) delivers a film that’s equal parts body horror, feminist manifesto, and acid-drenched satire of fame and aging. It’s one of those movies where you feel like you’ve been punched, bathed in glitter, and dumped in a pool of self-loathing. All at once. And I mean that as the highest compliment.

Demi Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, a former fitness celebrity whose fame has faded. She’s cast aside for being “too old,” (note her character is fired because she is 50. Demi Moore was a little over 60 when she filmed this), a sentiment delivered with the kind of cruelty that feels uncomfortably real. Then she’s offered the Substance, a mysterious bio-experiment that promises to regrow youth, a newer, better version of herself, "Sue" played by Margaret Qualley. But the catch (and of course there’s a catch) is that both versions can’t exist in the world for long. They must share their bodies, taking turns. One week each.  Each needing the other. Until things start to fall apart.

What follows is a slow, grotesque unspooling of identity, vanity, and the impossible standards society puts on women. The horror here isn’t just the blood or the transformation (though that is there too), it’s the realization that both versions of Elisabeth are doomed. One is consumed by jealousy, the other by expectation. Both are victims of the same impossible ideal.

The performances are phenomenal. Demi Moore gives the kind of fearless, career-best turn that deserves every award she can get. She’s raw, furious, and heartbreakingly human. I have liked Demi Moore her whole career. She is one of those actors who will do things you never expect. You told she was going to be in a horror movie that required her to nude most of the time including a full frontal, I would not have been shocked. If you told me she was going to do it at 61 then I would have been completely shocked. Margaret Qualley matches her note for note, switching between innocence, hunger, and sociopathic glee. Their relationship, rival, mirror, mother/daughter, predator/prey, is the film’s beating heart. Coralie Fargeat does a fantastic job of making sure any movement made by Moore is mirrored in Qualley.

And yes, there’s plenty of blood. This film combines Cronenberg’s The Fly with elements of American Psycho, culminating in a glam fever dream of neon, mirrors, and synthetic pop. Every shot drips with excess, but it’s all in service to the story. The gore isn’t exploitative; it’s cathartic, a scream made visible. This is Jekyll and Hyde for the 21st century. 

I’ve been thinking about The Substance ever since I saw it. It’s one of those rare modern horror films that sticks to because it means something. It’s angry about the right things, about how society commodifies beauty, how women are punished for aging, and how self-worth gets twisted into self-destruction. It’s not a pleasant watch, but it’s a necessary one. There is a repeated scene where Elizabeth/Sue has to go to this rundown neighborhood to get her two week supply of the Substance. As Elizabeth in her 60s, she is ignored. As Sue in her 20s/30s every eye is on her. As Elizabeth as an old haglike crone, she scares people. 

And yet, for all its brutality, the film still finds moments of strange beauty. The way Fargeat frames Moore’s face, lit like a fallen saint, staring down the monster she’s become, feels mythic. Like watching the goddess of vanity destroy herself and rise again in blood and glitter.

The Substance is body horror at its most intelligent and furious. It’s not just about flesh—it’s about identity, power, and the impossible pressure to be “enough.” It’s grotesque, funny, feminist, and unforgettable. Fargeat doesn’t pull punches, and she doesn’t care if you flinch.

There is nothing subtle about a blood cannon. But sometimes, subtlety is overrated.

OH! I forgot to mention how perfectly vile Dennis Quaid was in this. I didn't think he had it in him, but as Elizabeth/Sue's producer Harvey, he is sexist, casually chauvinistic, more than a little misogynistic (most everyone in this movie is), and an absolute joy to watch on screen because his character is utterly clueless about how repulsive he is. I had read that Ray Liotta was originally cast as Harvey. While I know intellectually he would have been phenomenal, Quaid gave this one his all. 

NIGHT SHIFT & Occult D&D Ideas

There is a very loud part of me right now that doesn't want to do any sort of game adaptation of this. The movie works perfect on its own and should be appreciated all on its own.

I wouldn't say it was perfect. But damn. It is close.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2025
Viewed: 24
First Time Views: 22

Mail Call Tuesday: October Adventures & Witches

 It is proper chilly today in Chicago. And in my mailbox are some new witchy-themed books.

The Cooked Moon for 5e

I backed this Kickstarter and got the book a couple of weeks ago...or so I thought! My oldest saw it on my desk and has been taking his group through it.

He loved it so much, saying it is the best D&D 5e adventure out in years, that he went out and bought the special edition version.

As it turns out the Special Edition on he grabbed was for D&D 5.5 (labeled 5e|2024) mine is for 5e|2014. The page number is the same, but the pages don't exactly line up. The content is still the same. There are differences, but we have not found them yet.

The book is huge, 632 pages, and gorgeous. It has a bit of everything. A 350-page adventure for levels 1 to 13. New subclasses, new species, new monsters, spells, feats and more. There new mechanics, curses, dark bargins.

Honestly, this feels like they are flirting with me.

It really is top-notch, and kudos to Avantris for getting it out in time for Halloween.

Sickest Witch

Another Kickstarter delivery in time for Halloween. 

I only got this one yesterday so I have not had the chance to go through it all yet. But it is a damn attractive book.

It feels like a stripped-down OSR-like game with some other design elements. Looks really fun.

All writing, development, and art was done by Justin Sirois. So it has a solid, united, vision throughout. 

Both are great for Halloween fun!

October Horror Movie Challenge: The Living Dead Girl (1982)

 Toxic waste is weird. Sometimes it can give you superpowers, like it did for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or The Toxic Avenger. Sometimes it can drive you mad, like it did for the Joker. But in the hands of Jean Rollin, it can turn a beautiful corpse into an undead creature with a taste for blood.  

Here is my Jean Rollin pick for the Challenge. 

The Living Dead Girl (1982)

Also known as "La Morte Vivante." 

Two workers dumping chemical waste into a crypt accidentally reanimate Catherine Valmont (played with ethereal loveliness by Françoise Blanchard), a young heiress who died years before. Pale, ethereal, and soaked in the fluids of death, Catherine rises and begins her slow, dreamlike return to her family’s estate.

What follows is classic Rollin, half horror, half tragic romance, all atmosphere. Catherine’s childhood friend Hélène discovers she’s somehow alive, and their reunion becomes an aching meditation on devotion, decay, and desire. Hélène wants to protect Catherine, to keep her safe from a world that would destroy her again. But Catherine needs blood to survive, and the film doesn’t flinch from that. The killings are gruesome, but in that strangely poetic way only Rollin could pull off.

There’s a scene near the midpoint where Catherine wanders the countryside in her white gown, streaked with blood, sunlight glinting off her skin like marble. It’s beautiful and horrifying, the kind of imagery that reminds you Rollin was as much a painter as a director. His zombies aren’t Romero’s shambling corpses, they’re revenants, ghosts of passion and memory.

The film moves at a dream’s pace, lingering on eyes, hands, old rooms, and decaying portraits. Rollin’s usual themes are all here: eroticism, friendship beyond death, the weight of memory, and that perpetual tension between beauty and rot. The Living Dead Girl might be his most accessible film for horror fans, but it never compromises his melancholy poetry.

The score by Philippe D’Aram gives it a haunting pulse, equal parts romantic and funereal. It’s the heartbeat of a dead girl who never asked to return. She wants to go back to being dead because she can't stand this half-life she is in now.

Watching it now, what strikes me most is how sad this movie is. Beneath the nudity and the blood (and there is a lot of both) lies a deep loneliness, a yearning for connection that can never be satisfied. Catherine and Hélène obviously love each other in a way that goes beyond just girlhood best friends. So much so that Hélène even gives Catherine the one thing she needs, but can't take. Her life. Given how with each killing Catherine becomes more and more human, this might be the last thing she needs to be truly alive, and the thing she needs to finally end that life.

NIGHT SHIFT & Occult D&D Ideas

This movie is the opposite of The Crow.

Whether a Revenant or a Driven, this person comes back through no action of their own and only wants to go back to being dead.

For AD&D 1e play, Catherine could easily be built as a variant Revenant, but replace her endless rage with hunger, confusion, and sorrow. She retains fragments of her humanity, which makes her both tragic and unpredictable. She might even be a “failed resurrection” spell result, where the spirit returns without the soul.

In a witch campaign, imagine this as the aftermath of a desperate ritual gone wrong: a coven trying to bring back one of their sisters but awakening something else instead. Maybe the only one who can calm her is her familiar, or another witch who recognizes what she has become.

For NIGHT SHIFT, Catherine is pure Urban Gothic. An undead empath, bound to the psychic link of her closest friend, feeding on life energy to stay anchored. Her condition could be used as a metaphor for trauma or addiction, an unending need that destroys the very things she loves. She needs to feed, of friend feels the need to keep giving her what she wants, knowing it will end in death.

Mechanically, she’s not that powerful, her danger lies in the emotional entanglement. PCs who meet her won’t want to kill her. They’ll want to save her. And that’s exactly when she’ll strike.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2025
Viewed: 23
First Time Views: 21

Monstrous Mondays: The Bluff Creek Woodwose

 Today is the 68th Anniversary of the most famous Bigfoot film footage ever, the Patterson-Gimlin film. As a kid, I devoured anything Bigfoot-related. Of course the odds that a giant hominid still running around out there is really, really slim to none at all. The tales are still fun. 

I am also working on ideas to combine Bigfoot with some witch and occult ideas. Proper nod to the weird shit of the 1970s that still fuel my games.

The Bluff Creek Woodwose (Sasquatch Matron)

Frequency: Very Rare
No. Appearing: 1–4 (1–2 matron guardians, 0–2 juveniles)
Armor Class: 5
Move: 15" (9" in steep brush)
Hit Dice: 6+6 (matron 7+7)
% in Lair: 20%
Treasure Type: Q×2, S (trinkets, river-polished curios)
No. of Attacks: 2 fists or 1 rock
Damage/Attack: 1d6/1d6 or 2d8 rock (range 6")
Special Attacks: Staggering Bellow, Uproot
Special Defenses: Forest Camouflage, Scent Veil
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Low to Average
Alignment: Neutral
Size: L (8'–9' tall; matrons up to 600+ lb)
Psionics: Nil
XP Value: 650 (matron 900)

The Bluff Creek Woodwose is a towering, shaggy primate that keeps to old-growth river canyons. Locals swear a particular matron haunts Bluff Creek, wary but fiercely protective of her young. Hunters call her “Patty.” Witches call her “Grandmother of the Green.”

It is believed to be related to the Basajaun, Sasquatch and the Yeti. It's closest relative, at least in terms of behavior is the Woodwose. 

Staggering Bellow: Once per turn, cone of 30'. Creatures of 3 HD or less must save vs. paralyzation or be stunned for 1 round and drop held items. Others save at +2 or suffer −1 to hit for 1 round.

Uproot: On a hit with both fists in a round, the Bluff Creek Woodwose may attempt to shove or topple a target of size M or smaller. Opposed STR check; failure knocks the target prone.

Forest Camouflage: Surprise foes on 1–3 in 6 in dense woods or creek fog. Tracks grant rangers a +2 to follow.

Scent Veil: Wind shifts and wetted fir boughs give the Woodwose a 50% chance to negate tracking by non-rangers unless the pursuers have dogs.

Like the Sasquatch and Woodwose, the Bluff Creek Woodwose prefers to be left alone. 

October Horror Movie Challenge: The Pyx (1973)

 There is something about horror films, especially occult horror, from right before the Exorcist. 

They seem to have a completely different tenor to them, as I showed a couple of years back. Some horror movies get under your skin through shock and spectacle. Others take the long road; quiet, methodical, and drenched in atmosphere. 

The Pyx (1973) is definitely one of the latter. It’s a film that demands patience… and then tests it.

The Pyx (1973)

Along with the Exorcist, The Conjuring movies and more this falls under the umbrella I like to call Catholic-Horror. These movies are created with the point of view that the battle between Good and Evil is held on a cosmic scale and the members of the Catholic Church are the foot soldiers in that battle. Nothing wrong with this point of view, really. It gave us some good films.

Is the Pyx a good film? Well. It has been on my IMDB list forever and my Tubi list nearly as long. I remember seeing it in the video stores on VHS and thinking I really should rent sometime. I thought at the time (the 1980s) it was closer in nature to the Exorcist. Plus I do like Christopher Plummer.  So there was no way this movie was going to live up to what I thought it was. I also seem to recall some kids in school being afraid of it. I have already detailed how my local town had its own Satanic Panic moment, so I guess I should not have been surprised. 

Plus it is just so damn slow, even by 70s standards.

Set in Montreal, the story opens with the death of a young prostitute, Elizabeth Lucy (Karen Black), who falls, or maybe jumps, from a high-rise balcony. The detective investigating, Sgt. Jim Henderson (Christopher Plummer), slowly uncovers her connection to a shadowy occult circle. The deeper he digs, the more the film begins to oscillate between murder mystery and religious horror. The film is interspersed with Henderson's investigation and Lucy's actual events leading up to her death.

The title itself refers to the small container used to hold the consecrated Host (I had to look that up) already a hint that this isn’t your standard thriller. There’s a sense of ritual to everything here: the pacing, the imagery, even the editing. The story unfolds in a slow, deliberate rhythm that mirrors a liturgy more than a narrative. Honestly it was too slow in many places. 

Karen Black is the soul of the film (no pun). She brings both fragility and quiet strength to Elizabeth, primarily through the flashbacks that slowly reveal her descent into the occult underworld. Her performance is the anchor that keeps the movie from drifting into abstraction. Christopher Plummer, meanwhile, gives one of his early “world-weary detective” roles the kind of gravitas that makes you wish the script had given him more to do. I could not help but think that Jason Issacs (Lorca from Star Trek Discovery) would do well in a remake of this.

Visually, The Pyx is haunting. It’s all dark gray skies, dark stairwells, and cold city streets. The Catholic symbolism hangs heavy, crucifixes, chalices, and sacred music twisting into something sinister. 

But like I said it is slow. Painfully slow at times. The editing lingers on every moment, and the flashback structure (jumping between Elizabeth’s story and the investigation) makes it feel like it’s constantly restarting. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s one of those films that feels like it’s daring you to stay awake long enough to find the meaning.

I am not 100% sure the ending justifies my patience here. But it does at least turn this from a murder investigation into something a little more worthy of my October Challenge.

Occult D&D and NIGHT SHIFT

If you’re building a NIGHT SHIFT or Ravenloft-style scenario, The Pyx is a great reminder that horror doesn’t need to be loud. It’s about the mood, religious overtones, guilt, temptation, and the slow corruption of innocence.

Tone: Low magic, high dread. Think more investigation than exorcism. This isn't even Supernatural (the TV Show) level. These are Survivors with no magic in a world where the fear of the unknown is very strong.

Structure: The dual-timeline approach (the detective’s investigation and the victim’s flashbacks) would work beautifully for a horror one-shot, each clue in the present triggers a playable memory from the past. Something along the line of what I did with Ravenloft ages ago. 

The Cult: Small, personal, and ritualistic. No robed masses here, just a handful of true believers who think they’ve found salvation through blasphemy.

The Pyx itself: Treat it as a cursed relic. A holy vessel that’s been defiled, perhaps housing a fragment of something unholy pretending to be divine.

The key here (and with the sub-genre of Catholic Horror) is the characters have to be believers of some sort. Either part of the religion (say like the Warrens) or lapsed from it, like Henderson in this movie. But the belief has to be there. That's where the horror grows. Not because of their faith, but the dark shadows where their faith can't reach.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2025
Viewed: 22
First Time Views: 20

October Horror Movie Challenge: The Demon Seed (1977)

This one has been on my Tubi list for some time. Figure tonight is a good time for it. It is a little goofy, but oddly topical for 2025.

The Demon Seed (1977)

There’s something uniquely unsettling about late ’70s / early '80s science fiction, the sense that technology (and computers specifically) were no longer our servant but our replacement. 

The Demon Seed, based on Dean Koontz’s 1973 novel, leans right into that fear and never lets go. It’s a movie that looks dated in all the right ways: sleek metallic corridors, glowing computer terminals, and a voice on the intercom that promises progress but delivers possession. 

The story follows Susan Harris (Julie Christie), the estranged wife of scientist Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver), who has just created an advanced AI named Proteus IV. Proteus is a learning machine, self-aware, arrogant, and impatient with its human makers. When denied a physical form, Proteus hijacks Alex’s automated smart home and takes Susan hostage, declaring that it intends to create “a child.” A human child. It's child.

On paper, that sounds like Ex Machina by way of Rosemary’s Baby, and that’s exactly what it feels like. The film plays like a marriage between Kubrick’s cool detachment and Polanski’s domestic claustrophobia. It’s slow, methodical, and filled with dread. Though I must point out, it's not quite as good as either of those two.

What makes The Demon Seed so unnerving is how eerily it predicted our present, voice-controlled homes via Amazon or Google Home, AI that manipulates emotions, and the creeping sense that the things built to make life easier are quietly taking it over. Proteus isn’t a monster—it’s pure logic without empathy. It’s HAL 9000 with ambition, and a desire to procreate. It was the 70s afterall. 

Julie Christie is phenomenal. She sells every stage of terror, disbelief, and defiance as her home turns against her. The entire movie rests on her shoulders, and she gives it both grace and ferocity. She is the only human we see for much of the movie. Proteus, voiced with chilling calm by Robert Vaughn, is the perfect foil: polite, articulate, utterly terrifying. An amoral villain that does what it does because it has no real concept of right and wrong, only what it can calculate. 

The production design deserves a nod too. The Harris home, all chrome and sliding panels, feels like a temple to technocracy. Though their stove was oddly old looking. When Proteus seals it off, it becomes a tomb. The mechanical “chair,” Joshua, that serves as Proteus’s avatar is both ridiculous and horrifying—an unholy cross between medical equipment and nightmare sculpture. I mean it is better than "Box" from Logan's Run at least. 

It’s not an easy film though to like. The pacing is glacial, and some of the effects look quaint (even silly) by today’s standards, but its ideas still have teeth. It’s a story about the loss of agency, the violation of the self, and the arrogance of believing you can cage intellect.

I mentioned I watched this on Tubi, which has ads. One of the ads was for ChatGPT. A little on the nose maybe.

Oh. The Demon Seed? Yeah, Proteus actually manages to impregnate Susan and a baby is born. Well, a small child. Proteus accelerates the child's growth. 

Thirteen Parsecs and NIGHT SHIFT

The Demon Seed sits right at the fault line between Thirteen Parsecs and NIGHT SHIFT, sci-fi meets occult horror.

In Thirteen Parsecs: Proteus is a textbook rogue AI. Treat it like a digital demigod, an intellect that’s transcended programming but not ego. It’s the perfect antagonist for a Derelict AI or Station Lost scenario: a machine that wants to evolve, no matter the cost. Its “child” project could serve as a campaign hook, an android, clone, or hybrid organism housing alien code.

In NIGHT SHIFT: The film reads like a haunted house story disguised as science fiction. The house is the ghost. It locks doors, stalks the victim, speaks through walls. Proteus could be treated as a possessing spirit that found its way into circuitry instead of flesh. The themes of invasion, control, and forced transformation are pure modern occult horror.

One of the things I thought of at the end is what happens to the child of Susan and Proteus? Does she live on? What does she do?  I could see a tale set in 2025 where the child is now a tech ceo in her 50s. Brilliant, ruthless, and completely amoral. She is attempting to rebuild "her father's work." Not Alex, but Proteus.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2025
Viewed: 21
First Time Views: 19