October Movie Challenge: The Initiation (1984)

Tonight’s movie is The Initiation, a 1984 slasher featuring college students, sorority pledges, buried family secrets, recurring nightmares, and a late-night trip to a department store that goes very badly.

This one has been on my list for a bit now. Despite the title, there really is not all that much initiation going on here.

The Initiation (1984)

Kelly Fairchild, played by Daphne Zuniga in her first major role, is in the midst of pledging a sorority but is also haunted by a recurring dream in which her parents and a stranger are being set on fire at her old home. With large holes in her memory of the event, she enlists the help of Peter (a pre-Charmed James Read), a psychology graduate student, in the hope a sleep study will jog things loose.

On the other hand, Kelly and the rest of the pledges have their work cut out for them in preparation for the big night. They are to make off with the night watchman’s uniform from the department store her family owns. It is a convenient way to get a bunch of students locked up in a sizeable commercial building after hours, which I do not mind. When the killer shows up, the matter of the initiation becomes secondary.

Larry Stewart has directed this from a Charles Pratt Jr. script. Along with Zuniga, you will see Vera Miles, Clu Gulager, James Read, and Marilyn Kagan in it. Some of the campus footage was done at Southern Methodist University, and the Dallas Market Center was used for the Fairchild store. Ignore the fact that the sign out front is just a banner draped over the real mall's sign. 

Zuniga is very good in what was her first major part. She has to be the anchor of the film as Kelly and, later, as the murderous twin, Terry Randall. The whole evil-twin business is straight melodrama, but she makes the difference between the two convincing enough for me to accept it. 

Then there is James Read as Peter. He is fine in the role, though these days I am more accustomed to him as Victor Bennett, the father on Charmed. There is something oddly fitting about the future dad of Prue and the girls delving into psychic dreams in an eighties horror.

College Horror 

I have to say the college atmosphere is what I enjoy most, even if the film could have made better use of it. There is a different dynamic to college horror than to high school horror. In high school, you are still tied to your family and the identity you have had since you were young. College is meant to be a chance to put that behind you, to leave home and figure out who you are going to be as an adult. I have brought this up with both college and boarding school movies this month and it is a fertile ground for a game.

So Kelly can't recall anything from her life before the age of 9. Which is convenient since there are plenty of red herrings here that make you believe she might be our killer. 

As Kelly is put through the motions of a ritual to induct her into a new social family, she is also starting to realize that her own flesh and blood are not what they seem. One could make the case for a better film that would have done more with such a parallel, but what is on offer here is sufficient to draw an audience to the multiplex.

The Mall After Dark

This is where The Initiation becomes a far more compelling affair. Even if it doesn't differ much from Chopping Mall in some respects. 

For the sorority challenge, Kelly and the rest of the pledges are tasked with going into the Fairchild department store after it closes. Some students slip in to put the frights on them, and before long all of them are trapped. The well-lit world of commerce is transformed into a slasher’s maze.

Using the Dallas Market Center as a stand-in gives the movie a scale you do not get from an average house or dorm setting. Malls and the like are fine horror territory precisely because an empty one is an entirely different place. I have already argued that malls are the second-best place for 80s horror, next to schools.

In the day, they are designed to put you at ease so you will part with your money; there is music, displays to catch the eye, and people about. But when the doors are locked, the mannequins, mirrors, and furniture are still there, and the people are not. The film makes good use of it. It is something I see in a lot of 1980s horror this month: the modern commercial world can be as haunted a castle as any isolated Gothic spot. You head to the mall, and the monster is already there. Or, more to the point, it follows you there.

Jackson finds this useful for Lincoln Square Mall. By day it is all very ordinary. Teenagers are shopping, parents are grumbling about the cost, kids are congregating at the food court, and Stephanie likely knows half the staff. Put out the lights and bar the doors and it is another matter altogether.

Family Secrets

Kelly’s nightmares turn out to be repressed memories. The man she recalls being burned is Jason Randall, her biological father, which means the tale her family has been telling is mostly lies.

But the real twist is yet to come.

There is a twin sister. If you want to say that in your best "Return of the Jedi" Darth Vader voice that is up to you. 

Terry Randall has been put away in an institution since she was a child and expunged from the family record. Daphne Zuniga is on hand to play both parts for us, delivering the kind of amnesia and secret parentage you would expect from a mix of soap opera and horror. She would later go on to "Melrose Place" so yeah, this is a good turn for her.

It is preposterous. Yet it works, perhaps better than it ought to. It's the 1980s. 

An evil twin is a straightforward notion for horror because it is an assault on identity, not just the body. A killer in a mask is concealing himself; an evil twin can take your place. Your friends will swear they were talking to you; your family will spot you in a place you have never been. You may have an alibi, but witnesses will vouch for having seen your face. That is a more interesting proposition than someone simply running after you with a blade.

The rest of the movie is fairly predictable, though. Terry kills all of Kelly's friends and decides to kill Kelly and take her place. Not sure if she really thought this one out well, but hey, she was crazy.

Jackson, IL Connections

I mentioned already I am a touch disappointed I didn't make Stephanie and Grant Vale twins. In truth, it does work better for Steph to have an older brother she thinks is great, but is also away at UIUC, so he doesn't pop in all the time except when I need him.

But near the end of this movie, I had an idea.

Why not make Stephanie into a forgotten twin? 

I would put this down as a Stephanie adventure. But as always, you sub in your Characters here.

Picture someone with the exact features of Stephanie Wren Vale making an appearance in Jackson. In the beginning, there is no violence to point to a monster, just oddities. A teacher is adamant he had words with her after school; one of the cheerleaders will tell you Stephanie called and was deliberately cruel. Then someone spots her coming out of Lincoln Square Mall, even though she was elsewhere.

Stephanie dismisses it as a joke until someone is actually hurt. The witness has no doubt that Stephanie is responsible, and suddenly she has a very personal problem.

Her first thought is likely to be something quite ordinary. She has a sister. Or at least that is what she comes to believe: that her parents have been keeping the existence of another daughter from her. So she starts to probe. She pokes around in the family records, puts questions to her parents, and reads their every hesitation as proof they are up to something.

"Do I have a sister?"

They say no, but are really cagey about it. Stephanie does not buy it. For a Vale, a family scandal is far more credible than a supernatural duplicate. It is only Larina who will eventually put forward the answer Stephanie is not looking for. What if the girl is not her sister? What if she is a doppelgänger?

That is where the story gets frightening. The copy is not content to simply resemble Stephanie; it is studying her. At first there are errors. A wrong nickname is used, or she is wearing something Stephanie would not touch. It knows the facts but not their significance. An associate of Stephanie’s might notice the smile is right on time but not in the right moment. With each meeting, the copy improves.

The doppelgänger is not so much trying to frame Stephanie as it is practicing. Its aim is to take her place. That is the true danger. Stephanie is adept at managing social spaces and how others view her; the creature turns that identity into a weapon.

For the climax, you want to be inside Lincoln Square Mall after hours. There are mirrors and mannequins and dressing rooms aplenty for the thing to vanish and come back a little more like Stephanie. By the end, Faye and Larina may find themselves confronted by two Stephanies, both claiming the other is the monster. Faye (you characters in your) is the one to sort it out. Not with some spell, but because she knows Stephanie.

In my game this would work because Faye would be a good choice to spot an evil twin. 

Final Thoughts

I would not call The Initiation a great slasher of the decade. It's not even really a great slasher for 1984. The title sets you up for sorority stuff the film doesn't really deliver; the initiation is little more than a way to get everyone into the department store.

Still, there are merits, and I did enjoy the second half. The college environment allows Kelly the freedom to question what her family has told her, and the psychological side means her nightmares are not just foreshadowing for its own sake. Daphne Zuniga handles the double duty well in her first major outing, and James Read makes Peter likable enough to make the investigation bearable.

But my favorite part is the mall. There is nothing like a deserted one at night for 1980s horror. It strips the safety from a familiar place. And then you realize the one on your trail has your face. 

In Jackson’s case, I prefer the doppelgänger to the evil twin trope. One character goes through half the ordeal fearing her parents have kept a sister from her. Then the good news: there is no secret sister. Too bad something else is wearing her face. 

I am going to need more "Evil Twin" movies.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2026
Viewed: 23
First Time Views: 14

October Movie Challenge: The Power (1984)

Ok. I want to start out by saying this is not the movie I thought it was. I wanted a movie that was about psychic powers. This is about a cursed Aztec idol home to a demon.

So. A win? Yeah, it was still fun. At least I can log this as a first-time view. 

I am sure this movie has nothing to do with SNAP! nor being the lyrical Jessie James.

The Power (1984)

A college professor has an old idol containing an evil demon named Destacatyl. Before long, it is in the possession of some Los Angeles high-schoolers who see fit to put it to use at a séance by the cemetery.

The results are what one would anticipate.

It is a well-worn setup, yet I appreciate the cursed-object tale when the object in question is as unremarkable as this one. The idol is small and portable, hardly the sort of thing you would suspect of harboring an ancient demon. In that respect, it is very much a movie of its time.

One does not have to trek to a ruined temple or flout the increasingly urgent warnings of locals to desecrate a tomb. Some fool has already done the work and brought the damn thing home. It is a trend I have been seeing in these films: in the old days you had to hunt down the monster, but in the 1980s the monster comes back in your pocket.

The special effects are low-budget 1980s horror through and through. Some of it is better than others, but there is enough oddity to get by. Honestly, I really liked quite a lot of them. The American Genre Film Archive is fond of calling it a film of stage fog, plot holes, and monster makeup, which is a fair enough way to put it. I would take that as a compliment. Mostly. 

The demon Destacaty’s mythology is really thin, but what the idol does to people is the more compelling matter. It offers power (hey, that's the title!). This is much worse than killing you outright. You get something and then you want more and more. The myths, even the Aztec part, are almost unimportant at this point.

This the sort of movie that could only have thrived in the early VHS years. It is a little rough around the edges, the mythology is sketched in rather than fleshed out, and it never quite settles into being one thing or another, moving from creature effects to possession to teenagers. There is a charm to that. And the cover of the VHS case/movie poster promises a lot more than the movie actually delivers, but that is also fine.

It was not going to measure up to Poltergeist or *The Exorcist*, nor did it need to. A creepy object, a couple of good deaths, and some strange imagery were all it took to get someone to buy the box at the video store.

NIGHT SHIFT and Jackson Connections

I can make this work for NIGHT SHIFT with no trouble at all.

Let us have the Jackson version open with the parents coming back from a trip with an odd figurine. Perhaps from an antique shop, or maybe Morgan Chemical sent someone to Mexico for it. No one gives it a second thought until one of the kids has it over for a sleepover.

A séance is proposed.

Someone should be quick to call it a bad idea.

They will do it anyway.

The trick is to make the object unimpressive. Ugly, cheap, even a bit comical. It should make a real 80s kid think of the cursed idol from The Brady Bunch. If it is reeking of evil, they will leave it be. Then let it do the impossible. A candle is snuffed, a door that was locked swings open, a voice is heard.

That's my hook. 

At this point, what the idol does is incidental. As long as it threatens the characters and scares the players and characters alike. But for NIGHT SHIFT I would have the idol be tempting. Give the user a nudge of psychic ability, some better luck. At a certain point, he is no longer wondering if it is dangerous, but why everyone else is so keen to have it removed. The horror sets in then.

Do not mistake *The Power* for a great film. It is uneven, and the lack of budget shows. The mythology never lives up to its potential. But the core of it is good. An ancient evil is not left to rot under a temple. It is made portable. Someone takes it home and makes use of it. And the effects, even when cheap, are fun. 

You do not have to go seeking out the old evils.  As I have shown all month so far, in the 1980s the horrors come to you.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2026
Viewed: 22
First Time Views: 13

October Horror Movie Challenge: Ænigma (1987)

 Tonight I am heading back to school.

Unfortunately, it is a Lucio Fulci school, so this will probably not end well.  This one has been on my list for a while, but I never got around to watching it. It is *slightly* outside of my range, but 1987 is on my mind right now, and I thought a college-era movie with psychic shenanigans would fit well.

Ænigma (1987)

Kathy (Milijana Zirojevic) is a student at St. Mary’s, an exclusive girls’ boarding school outside Boston. She is lonely, awkward, and the target of a particularly cruel group of classmates. The girls convince Kathy that Fred, the school’s gym instructor, is romantically interested in her. Kathy believes them and meets him for what she thinks is a date. Kathy is excited and happy. 

But it is all a joke.

Her classmates are waiting nearby, and when they reveal themselves, laughing at her humiliation, Kathy panics and runs into the road. She is hit by a car. 

Kathy survives, but only barely. She remains unconscious in a hospital, trapped in a coma while her mother keeps watch over her.  Her doctor, Dr. Robert Anderson (played by Jared Martin from "The Fantastic Journey") kereps an eye on her and can't figure out how a girl who is pretty much brain dead is experiencing emotions. Especially when people at her old school start to die.

Then a new girl arrives at St. Mary’s.

Her name is Eva (Lara Lamberti).

And Kathy has found a way back into the school.

Directed by Lucio Fulci and written by Fulci and Giorgio Mariuzzo, Ænigma was an Italian-Yugoslav production shot in Sarajevo, despite the story being set around Boston. Fulci openly acknowledged Carrie as an influence, describing his film as essentially a version of Carrie split between two characters. 

I can't help but think about Phenomena (1985) from last week.

These movies have given me much to consider when it comes to boarding schools. We had a case in point with the one in Phenomena. It is a staple of Gothic fiction and horror for good reason. A normal high school has its way of emptying out; by a certain hour the hallways are quiet and everyone, teachers and students alike, has made their way back to their parents.

A boarding school does not afford that luxury. Class is over, but the kids stick around.

You cannot leave. Your home is your school, and your neighbors are your classmates. The girl in chemistry who can’t stand you is only three doors down. The teacher you hate may be in the same building. There is no line to be drawn between private life and school life since the institution holds sway over both.

That is what makes St. Mary’s so central to Aenigma. Kathy is not just put upon at school; she is living in the very social environment that has cast her out. There is no safe house for her at 3:30 and her tormentors are always on hand. But once she has the upper hand on Eva, the tables are turned. They can no longer go home. The victim has become part of the edifice, and the school is her hunting ground.

I like that kind of horror. You do not need some contrived reason for why nobody is leaving, as you might in an old Gothic tale where a storm keeps them in the castle. At St. Mary’s you are there because you have class tomorrow.

The Other Girl

Then there is Eva Gordon. She is put in Kathy’s old room following the accident, which ought to have been a warning sign. Before long you see something amiss with her. She acts odd and knows more than she should. Her tie to Kathy is plain to see as the latter’s psychic output at the hospital picks up whenever the supernatural rears its head at the school.

This is where the film holds my interest.

It would be easy to say Kathy is possessing Eva in the demonic tradition but it feels more like a projection. Kathy is still alive, her body in the hospital, her brain working. Yet a piece of her consciousness has left her and gone into Eva.

The movie is not going to offer a rigorous account of the mechanics. Fulci is never helped by having rules imposed on him.

Kathy uses Eva as a physical proxy at St. Mary’s and can share senses or work her will on the environment from afar. Her comatose form is the transmitter and Eva the receiver. In a way she is haunting people without being dead. It blurs the line between "Psychic" and "Magic" very effectively.

Since this is horror and the Carrie influences abound, the deaths begin to pile up. 

Each of Kathy's tormentors dies in a horrible way (the snails and slugs are particularly nasty), with Eva as the common factor in all the deaths; she is nearby. 

The movie is about what I expected it to be, really. It was still a lot of fun, and I rather enjoyed it. It's not great, but also not terrible. It didn't give me anything new, but it didn't disappoint me either. 

Jackson, IL Connections

I don't need a long list of powers or effects for a psychic killer; I just need a good reason. Kathy, or someone like her, provides that. It's interesting in one respect. These movies are about someone coming back for revenge against the people who wronged them; if the person coming back is male, we get a slasher; if they are a woman, it results in psychic powers. 

I have not had any solid ideas for psychics yet in Jackson, though I really should, to be honest. I mean, I have Morgan, but he is not likely to go on a murderous rampage. He would find that sort of emotional outburst to be unbecoming. 

I still have a list of names that don't have NPCs yet. Maybe my psychic killer is there.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2026
Viewed: 21
First Time Views: 12

Tales of Jackson: Land of Confusion

 You know how it is. You want to run NIGHT SHIFT. Your players want to play Dungeons & Dragons. Well, my last Jackson, IL adventure shows you can do both!

Hey Look, A Dungeons & Dragons Ride!

This adventure idea began innocently enough back in September. It was September 17, and I noticed that it was the anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons animated series. I didn't watch it a lot back then; I had a job on Saturdays, but when my kids were growing up, I rediscovered it. We picked up the DVD set when the 3rd edition was popular, and I later got the Spanish-language DVD version to help with my Spanish.  I got to thinking. What if my Jackson kids found a "Dungeons & Dragons ride!"

Suddenly I had a very, very evil idea. Or a very silly one.

I loaded some movies into my queue for the October Horror Movie Marathon, knowing they would give me some good ideas. Largely because I had seen so many of them before. And I spent the month in between coming up with the ideas.

So I watched the movies last week and took the early shift in our Sunday game to run my adventure.

Enter the Dungeon

 Essentially, I had three basic problems in front of me. I knew the characters from Jackson were going to be transported to a "Dungeons & Dragons" world. But I needed to figure out who did it (which tells me why), how they did it, and what classes the characters would become in the new world.

I went with the last problem first. My three witches, Stephanie, Faye, and Larina, were easy. Too easy, as it turns out. Since I was using D&D 5.5 Rules-as-Written, I opted for Sorceress, Warlock, and Wizard, respectively. It was perfect. But I kept thinking these three were already powerful enough. So I set them aside and worked on all the other major NPCs/Characters. I didn't know who would take what, so I did everyone.

Here is how it shook out, and the surprises. One thing to keep in mind: I have also been considering a "Class Reunion" Adventure, so I have jotted down some ideas of where everyone is in 1992, 2007, and 2027. That is, if my players don't kill them.

Ami Reed: Ami was easy; she is based on Amiri from Pathfinder. If you recall Jackson's first game, I had a bunch of Pathfinder Iconics minis I was using. Amiri the Barbarian became Ami, the tough girl on the girls' softball team. Turning her back into a barbarian made sense.

Valentino Moreno: Likewise, Val is based on Valeros, the iconic fighter. So, fighter he remains.

Andy Thompson: Anderson is a Sage in the Jackson game, but he takes on his true role here as Bard. He has his trumpet, and when they later go fight the "Dragon Master," he belts out Asia's "Only Time Will Tell." At least that is the player's plan. They love the 80s and queueing up songs on Spotify. Andy is an original character, but from West Haven. 

Rowan McGowan: Rowan has been many things in my games before Jackson. Witch Knight, Protector, Paladin. But Rowan in Jackson has become something different. All those things still describe her, but a surprise later on made me re-evaluate her role. Here, she became a Gloom Stalker Ranger. Why? Because Rowan is all about making sure the creatures of the night have something to fear.

Kyra Bellamy: Kyra was also lifted from Pathfinder minis. She was Kyra, the iconic cleric. Here she is Kyra, the Preacher's Kid, who discovers her own true faith. So she is my Cleric of Light.

Meriko Hayashida: Meriko, Kyra's secret girlfriend, is also taken from Pathfinder's Merisiel, the iconic thief. Honestly, I took Kyra, and Meriko insisted on coming along. She is my thief. 

Tetsuya "Tetsu" Hayashida: Meriko's 12-year-old young brother. NPC at the moment, because I wanted her annoying younger brother to tag along (her mom made her take him to the movies). He is the comic relief and plays the annoying little-sibling trope. He is also a thief.

Benjamin Brown: "Benny" is a new character I haven't talked about much, but I wanted to bring him to the table here. Benny is a lot of things. He works with Faye at "Strawberry Fields." He is friends with Meriko and Kyra. He is the kid who wants to do everyone's star chart and horoscope. He is also the local pot dealer (he doesn't look the part at all, and only his friends know), and he is also my "Gay Kid" from the 80s. I like Ben. He is a complex character and much, much more than a stereotype. In the D&D world, he becomes a Druid of the Circle of Stars. And he has key information. And drugs.  

Note: this should also be the first clue that Darren is not 100% in control here. If Ben were to be transported to a D&D fantasy world, Darren would have been much crueler. Ben comes over not just largely intact, but key elements of his personality are enhanced.

Finally, we get to the two who should have been easy, but let me be honest: these two surprise me all freaking the time.

Candy and Denise are, rather obviously, based on Candella and Duchess from the classic D&D adventure B3: Palace of the Silver Princess. So they should be thieves, right?

Wrong. 

Candy and Denise have grown a lot as characters. I know who they will become when they get older (back to my proposed 2007 or 2013 Class Reunion idea): Candy becomes a nurse because she knows how to help people in times of crisis. Denise becomes a social worker because she stands up for kids and mothers who need someone. The magic of the land sees this. And this becomes the another clue as to what is going on, and not all of it is Darren.

Candance "Candy" Mercer: Candy is still that girl who can climb to the third story of a building to break in, but she is also the girl who stitches people up and gets them back into the fight. She is a Way of Mercy Monk. Her touch can heal or harm. Mercy is even in her name.

Denise "Duchess" Carver: When the kids were pulled into the world the "Dragon Master" wanted to Denise to be a simple serving wench or better (for him) a slave. That didn't happen. Something (someone) saw into Denise's soul, and when she got here, her true self was revealed. 

Denise Carver, Paladin. Oath of Devotion.

She shows up in shining (literally) armor, wielding a sword. I justify this by stating the obvious (well, obvious to the other players and me). Denise wears "armor" all the time. In Jackson, her armor is sarcasm and attitude. When Candy was hurt, she picked up a crowbar and challenged the monster (a zombie) to "fucking come get some!" I don't care if she was a "thief" in another life. Denise is a protector. Denise gets in between her friends and danger. Or as I have said repeatedly, "Denise Carver fucking shows up."

I honestly can't explain how well they all fit their new roles. So now to figure out my other (many) problems.

I have guidelines for all the other major and minor NPCs as well.

The Dragon Master Summons

When putting together my list of movies, it became obvious that I needed a Big Bad, and this was the guy who pulls everyone into his realm. The answer was obvious before I finished my thoughts on it. 

Darren Vale AKA "The Dragon Master"

At the end of Am I Evil? Darren was in a coma. Well, somehow this little asshole managed to create an entire fantasy world in his mind. I cheated and just used a "cartoon" version of Yog. He wanted revenge against all the people who wronged him. So he first traps Stephanie, Faye, and Larina. How? No freaking idea; I am going to use horror-movie logic here and say they were performing some ritual, and Darren had already laid a trap for them. They are trapped in his Realm, and he thought he would get the other characters into his world as well, where he could torment them at his leisure while siphoning off the magic of my three witches.

This solved a lot of problems for me. It kept the witches out of the picture so my other characters (jokingly referred to as "The B Team") could shine. It gave Darren the magic power he needed to power his realm and draw others in.  AND it gave me the key to Darren's defeat.

The adventure in Jackson begins when all the characters receive an invitation to see a new fantasy movie at the Illinois Times theatre at midnight (Yes, cribbed from "Demons"). They are the only ones there. The movie is cheesy but looks realistic, and then a group of orcs jump out of the screen and drag the characters into the movie.

The Realms of Spellcraft & Swordplay

The characters come through, and many of them are much more powerful than I think Darren intended them to be. Candy, Denise, and Ben in particular. There are "copies" of all the other NPCs from Jackson, but they are all caricatures of who they really are. Coach Kurt is portrayed as a dumb jock, despite also teaching AP Calculus and serving as the Honor Society sponsor. Kerri is depicted as an alluring nymph (ok that is not too far from the truth), and Valerie as an old hag, because that is how Darren categorizes women. Thomas Avery is stereotypically gay and predatory. It is all an awful version of Jackson. That's Darren's vision. But there are other tells. 

First, there is no one here who showed up after Darren's coma. Renee is still here, for example, and she left to return to Finland at the end of the 1986 school year. BUT. Moria is here. And more to the point, she is here as a demon-girl. Moria was introduced after Darren, and only four people knew Moria was really a demon: the three witches and Candy. Something Darren would not have known.

Also, the characters are on a quest. To find and free the Three Witches from the dungeons of the Dragon Master. (again, obvious) BUT the names of the witches are The Sorceress (Stephanie), The Ash Witch (Larina), and The Thorn Child (Faye). Again, only four people know that "Thorn Child" was what Faye's aunts were trying to turn her into: the three witches and Ben. Faye works with Ben at Strawberry Fields.

I drop other little clues that only the characters know, but not Darren. 

Somehow Stephanie, Faye, and Larina's thoughts are getting into Darren's world. 

What follows is a really, really stereotypical D&D adventure. I wanted it that way. In fact, I wanted it to almost feel like a parody that was so earnest it became an homage. The Dragon Master's lair was just Module B1: In Search of the Unknown and B2: Keep on the Borderlands.

The party finds the witches and rescues them. Each witch is a separate quest. Doing so breaks the magical hold. So freeing Stephanie, the Red Sorceress, causes social interactions to loosen their magical bonds; all the NPCs remember who they really were/are, and Darren loses control of them. Freeing Faye, the Thorn Child, causes the land to begin to revert to normal. Finally freeing Larina, the Ash Witch, breaks the magical hold. Now the PCs have to confront the Dragon Master directly. Everyone wakes up in the theatre. The janitor wants to know why they are all still there at 3 in the morning. ("Those damn kids!")

BUT I haven't gotten to that in-game yet. My real-world players are just now finding clues.And this is looking like it will be a lot longer than the one-shot I had intended it to be.

What is good about this adventure? The witches are completely sidelined. They didn't have to do anything and gave me a chance to see how the other characters do without them.

Spoilers?

Given the influence of Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors, not just on this adventure, but on the genesis of AD&D Larina's daughter Taryn, I did add Taryn (in her Half-elf incarnation) here. She appears to know things and even understands that this is a trap. The players picked up right away that she was different, but I didn't tell them why. My oldest got it right away. In fact, his comment was, "What the hell is she doing here?"

Sorry, Liam, I don't really have a good answer for that other than "fan service." Now I need to figure out how/why she was there.

This game is going to go on much longer than expected, and it is already shaping up to be my proper "Season 2" of Jackson, just not in the way I expected. I had planned to bring in Taryn as a time traveler to return to the 1986-87 school year, but I never figured out why she was there. Other than a 21-year-old Taryn trying to deal with her mom when she was 17.

It will be fun to see where this one goes.

October Movie Challenge: Sotto il Vestito Niente (1985)

 Is it really an October Horror Movie Challenge without some sleazy Italian Giallo film? No, not really. But I am sticking with my theme of 1985-1986, though calling this one "Small town" is a huge stretch. Released in America as "Nothing Underneath." It is one of the few Giallo movies from the time I have not seen.

Sotto il Vestito Niente (1985)

This one falls under the theme of "an American has to search for a missing relative in Europe and strange things happen." In this case, our American is a Wyoming park ranger, "Bob Crane" (no relation), played by Tom Schanley, and the missing relative is his twin sister, Jessica (Nicola Perring), in Milan, Italy.  Oh, and they seem to be able to feel what the other is feeling, a bit like the Corsican Brothers. But he is also seeing premonitions of her death.

Bob flies to Italy to investigate on his own and discovers the underworld of the Italian jet-set. He fears Jessica is dead, but she is missing. The police, in the form of Donald Pleasence, do not seem to want to help. Granted, Bob does say that he saw it all happen while he was still in Wyoming. 

The film has a solid Brian dePalma feel to it. Especially with the psychic connection between the twins. Also, this was apparently based on a novel. 

The mystery, though, is pretty basic. I am not sure why it was classified under horror except for the psychic themes. Unless you count Bob's creepy interest in his sister's underwear.  

Bob does find his sister, and the killer is a twist, if a bit of a cliché, really, and kind of a downer. Odd that Bob didn't see it beforehand given the psychic connection between him and his sister.  

Jackson, IL Connections

I almost made Stephanie and Grant Vale into twins, but I decided against it. I did, however, figure she has twins of her own later in life. I do like the weirdness they can bring to a game.

But I am certainly going to try to figure out what I can use for my Advanced Mystics & Mentalists book. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2026
Viewed: 20
First Time Views: 11

October Movie Challenge: Necropolis (1986)

 White-haired, evil Immortal witch? Hell yes! But is the rest of the movie any good? Well...

Necropolis (1986)

It is 1686, and we are in "New Amsterdam" (minor quibble: it was renamed to "New York" in 1866), and we are following a witch (LeeAnne Baker) with long white hair. She sacrifices a young woman who was about to get married. Her husband-to-be and the locals find her, and they kill all the Satanists .

300 years later, Eva is back, only now she rides a motorcycle and wears a leather jacket over her lingerie. She kills all over town, draining the victims of their life-force so she can, and I shit you not, feeds it back to her growing army of undead via one of her six breasts. Gee, to think I was worried about the New Amsterdam goof.

BTW. If you took a drink any time someone calls a woman "baby," you would be dead by the end of the movie. 

Look, the acting is really sub-par, but LeeAnne Baker gives it her all, and honestly I kinda enjoyed her portrayal of evil Eva. The other characters, such as they are, barely rise above caricature. 

Like Eva, William and Dawn are reincarnated from the would-be husband and wife from 1686. Neither actor is very good, and the character of William, the Police Lt. Cervetti, is particularly distasteful. Though the coroner is likely the worst character here in terms of redeemable qualities. Yes, it is even worse than the zombie that screams after its head is ripped off.

There is only one reason to watch this film, and it is to see LeeAnne Baker strut around in high heels and overact her heart out.

Jackson, IL Connections

This movie doesn't bring anything new to the table, but I do like the idea of a witch coming back. In 1686, Jackson, the town, would not exist, but the Mauvaisterre land did. In 1786, there would be French settlers in the area, and in 1886, the village of Jackson is growing. So, given that these things typically pop up in 100-year cycles, I could do something with that. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2026
Viewed: 9
First Time Views: 6

October Movie Challenge: Phenomena (1985)

Going back to 1985, to another Argento giallo, and another rewatch. Though it has been a little bit since I saw this one. This movie is notable for being one of the earliest roles for actress Jennifer Connley. This is not her first role, but it is one of her breakout ones along with Labyrinth of the same year.

Phenomena (1985)

This movie has it all: a serial killer and a Swiss boarding school, Donald Pleasence and some heavy metal, psychic insects, and even a chimp with a straight razor. And yet one would be hard-pressed to call that a full description of what is on screen. It is bonkers. I kinda love it.

We begin with the murder of a young girl. By the way, what is it with Argento and scissors? Anyway, as it turns out, her murder isn't the important piece, well at least at first. What is important are the bugs. 

The story soon follows Jennifer Corvino (Connley), the teen daughter of a well-known American actor. He has put her in the Richard Wagner Academy for Girls (yup, that is the name), an exclusive institution in the Swiss countryside. The locals have a way of calling the region "Swiss Transylvania," which might have given her father pause before he left her there.

Jennifer is prone to sleepwalking. On one such nocturnal wandering, she comes across the murder of a young woman and makes her way to forensic entomologist Professor John McGregor (Donald Pleasence). McGregor examines the insects on a corpse to tell the police where and when a death occurred. He is also the owner of Inga, a very smart chimpanzee who acts as his aide and nurse.

Jennifer realizes she has a peculiar rapport with insects; they do not go after her. She can sense them, talk to them, maybe even put them to work. McGregor figures this talent could be put to use in tracking down the man responsible for the deaths of young women in the vicinity of the school. Because of course that is what you do.

Like I said. Completely insane.

Again, this is like four movies. A serial killer, psychic girl, bugs, and whatever the hell is supposed to be up with that chimp. Not to mention the Swiss Transylvania thing, the headmistress who missed the casting call for a Nazi She-wolf of the SS movie,  and the asylum next door to the school. Most directors would have whittled that list down to two or three concepts. Not Argento.

Connelly is good and is showing some of the promise that will feature in her future roles. Hard to believe she is only 14-15 here. I mean, yes, she looks young, but she has solid acting skills. Her character is scared of the goings on around her but at the same time drawn to the insects; she has no desire to be cured of it, only to make sense of it.  Of course, the adults in her life are of little assistance. The school thinks her unstable, her peers make fun of her, and a doctor wants to write it off as mental illness. Then there is McGregor. He wants to use her as the bug-whisperer. It is the sort of role Pleasence excelled at in the 1970s and 1980s. Brilliant, eccentric, and likely clued in to something the rest of the cast can only guess at.  His and Connely's interaction is one of the best things in the movie.  A movie of just these two exploring her psychic ability would have been good.

The soundtrack is an odd mix of songs from Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Andi Sex Gang, and the like with Goblin and Claudio Simonetti. To have heavy metal intrude on a scene of Gothic suspense can be jarring, but it puts an identity on the film. At times it is brilliant; at others one gets the impression someone has put on the wrong record. I can't deny the soundtrack, on its own, is great. 

In the final act, Phenomena lets go of any pretense of restraint.  Typical for the time and typical for Argento really. We are treated to a decaying house with a secret basement, a pool of decomposing bodies and maggots, a murderous mutant child and some violent turns of events. There is even a chimpanzee of unexpected utility. In the last twenty minutes, Jennifer endures an extraordinary ordeal. By the time she is done, caked in filth, blood and bugs, she has stopped running from what she is capable of. For me, that is what makes the film. 

She starts out as the kind of odd girl everyone wants to dismiss or put in her place, but she is not so easily put down because the source of her strangeness is real and potent.

Is this one of Argento’s finest? Not likely. It is erratic and too given to substituting one bizarre notion for logic. But it is fun, often gorgeous and horrific to look at in equal measure.

I watched the longer Italian cut. That is the one I recommend over the shorter "Creepers" version. Though it does remind me I really need to learn Italian. 

Jackson, IL Connections

Jennifer Corvino is right at home in NIGHT SHIFT. As a psychic who channels her gifts through insects, she can quiet a dangerous bug or get an impression from those congregating on a corpse, and in time turn them into a threat. That ought to be frightening to all concerned.

So, take an adventure where a student at a private academy claims to have seen a murder in her sleep. The adults don’t believe her, but a forensic entomologist notes the swarm outside her window is arranging itself into a map. The insects are telling her where the dead are buried. A bit heavy-handed? Yeah, but I lack Argento's style.

Phenomena is a supernatural giallo, a heavy-metal nightmare, an origin story of sorts. It has no business working. Yet it does.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2026
Viewed: 8
First Time Views: 5

October Movie Challenge: Dark Tower (1987)

 Tonight’s movie is not based on Stephen King. 

It does have a haunted tower, though. More importantly, it has Jenny Agutter, who has long been a favorite of mine.  It is also an "Attack of Opportunity" movie of sorts. I mean it has been on my list, just not the one I was planning for this Challenge. So it almost fits my time frame. Plus it has Jenny Agutter (I know, I have said this twice, expect it again), so there is that.

Dark Tower (1987)

Carolyn Page (Agutter) is an architect of some success. She has been put in charge of an enormous new office tower in Barcelona, a modern and costly edifice that is almost ready for its opening. Headed to her office, she sees a window washer outside, and suddenly he is fighting with something outside, and he falls 28 stories to his death.

Then more strange deaths start to happen. It becomes clear, at least to the cast, that it is a supernatural element and not, say, just a series of malfunctions. 

Dennis Randall (Michael Moriarty), a security consultant, is on hand to look into it. He starts by seeking out the practical side of things, but the body count soon tells him otherwise. Well, that and seeing ghosts. He enlists the aid of Max Gold (Theodore Bikel, who is actually not all that bad here), a paranormal investigator, and he sets about examining the history of the tower and its designer. That would be Carolyn’s late husband. Oh, Kevin McCarthy is in it as a drunk psychic playing pretty much to type. 

So Agutter is good, but not up to the standards I have for her. Michael Moriarty is ok, but like Agutter, he is not given a lot to work with here. Neither lives up to their acting chops.

So yeah, the building is haunted. Haunted houses are good, haunted castles are better, so a 28-story haunted high-rise is the best of all, right? Well...not in this case.  Note: this movie came out a year before Poltergeist III, which also features a haunted high-rise. 

I did want to like this one more; the cast is good. Some of the acting is good, others less so. The idea is good. It just never came together.

Jackson, IL Connections

I said before that you don't always need a haunted castle, or in Jackson's case, a haunted abandoned hospital (seriously, what the hell is up with my town?), a brand new building can have ghosts too.

It does give some ideas on what to do with my psychics, though. But that will have to wait a bit more.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2026
Viewed: 7
First Time Views: 5

October Movie Challenge: Chopping Mall (1986)

Time to hit that other center of teen action outside of the high school in the 1980s; the mall. 

Oh. So, I decided that this year, even when I watch multiple movies on the same day, I am going to give them each their own post unless they are obviously related by theme or sequels and the like. It makes it easier for me to come back and find a particular movie if I need to. 

Chopping Mall (1986)

Ok. I'll admit it. I like this movie. It is goofy and weird. Plus, it has a strong cast, including the always-fantastic Barbara Crampton. Back in the mid-80s, that was usually enough to get me to watch a movie. Plus, it has Dick Miller in it, and he is always fun to have in a flick. As is Kelli Maroney of Night of the Comet fame. 

The premise is dirt-simple. The mall has a new security system in the form of three Daleks Killbots Protector Robots. Lightning strikes the mall, messing up the computers, and the robots go on a killing rampage. The plot is essentially the same as Jurassic Park.

It's not high art, but it is a lot of fun.

The teens/young adults are not the typical victims. I mean, they are partying in the mall after hours, but that is hardly typical horror movie bait. I mean, yeah, they are all having sex and the women walk around in various stages of undress, but again, that is really just 80s-typical. I mean, who hasn't run through a mall in their underwear, amiright?

This one also has scenes that are basically an (overt) homage to Rambo, but here it makes sense.

Filming took place in a real mall with a few shots at Roger Corman's studios.

The cast is great and above your normal horror movie fare. Of course, everyone in this cast has been in multiple horror flicks, and honestly it looks like they had a good time. I know that Barbara Crampton is a big fan of this movie. 

I watched "In Search of Darkness: A Journey into Iconic '80s Horror" prior to all of these so I could get a better idea of what to watch. Barbara Crampton talks about filming at night after the stores close and needing to wrap up before they all open. And she loves the kill where Leslie Todd's (played by Suzee Slater) head gets lasered and explodes. Note: some online sites say it was Crampton's character, "Suzie Lynn," who gets lasered; I think that's because the character's and actor's names get confused. And both are blonde. And most likely, people were not paying attention. 

There are a lot of horror movie Easter Eggs in this one too, which is a lot of fun.

Jackson, IL Connections

Jackson, IL is based on a real place, Jacksonville, IL. It has worked out great for me so far except for one little problem. Jacksonville, IL did not (and still doesn't) have a mall. So I had to invent one. It doesn't look like the one here. Though the pizza guy here may have helped me figure out who Sal was (and an old boss I had when I worked at Pizza Hut myself), there is still a lot to like about this movie.

I have always wanted to do an adventure in an old mall with zombies. Zombies. Kill-bots. About the same thing.  

NIGHT SHIFT has zombies covered, and if you want kill-bots, then Thirteen Parsecs has you covered. 

I might need to write up Lincoln Square Mall now. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2026
Viewed: 6
First Time Views: 4

October Movie Challenge: The Majorettes (1986)

Going back to 1986 again with some of the oldest-looking high school students so far.  I will say this, I am going be completely burned out on canned 80s synth-pop by November.  Though in typical 80s slasher flick fashion, we get about 5 minutes in before there is any gratuitous nudity or creepy stalkery types. This one gives us two, Harry AND his mother, Helga Schuler. Harry is a creepy Peeping Tom, and Helga is a live-in nurse who wants to kill her patient. Fun times.

The Majorettes (1986)

Someone is murdering the majorettes of a small Pennsylvania high school. For the record, I don't think my school had Majorettes. We had cheerleaders and pom-pom girls. Also, I don't know if I honestly know the difference, really. 

Anyway, the killings start right away. Our first victims are Tommy and Nicole. 

The killer wears military camouflage and a hood, stalks the girls when they are alone, and leaves their bodies in or near water. The murders appear to be part of some twisted religious ritual, with the killer believing he is cleansing the girls before they can become corrupted adults. The slasher is a surprise. 

The acting is, well, fairly terrible. But I wasn't expecting much. But seriously though, the gang is some of the worst acting I have seen in a long time. 

So it is based on a novel by John Russo, who also wrote the screenplay. It was filmed in western Pennsylvania. So maybe it would be closer to my Sunny Valley setting than Jackson or Carbon Vale.

That is, until the movie turns into a low-budget Rambo wannabe. I get it. It was the 80s. It feels like two movies that were being filmed at the same time with the same cast and then accidentally spliced together. The Slasher flick and the High School drug turf war. And in this case, the two halves don't add up to a good single movie. At all. 

Bottom line here is it doesn't matter if it is good or not; I am looking for the vibe. Majorettes by 1986 doesn't give us anything we have not already seen a 100 times. I mean, its competition is movies like Friday the 13th, Halloween, and Nightmare on Elm Street. This would have been better if it had come out in, say, 1982. 

Jackson, IL Connections

So the ending got me thinking. Cheerleaders are favored prey of these slashers. And that could be true in Jackson too, except for one thing: my head cheerleader is a witch. And the football team's co-captain is a Divine Warrior. So my kids have teeth. 

Granted, this is not terribly different than the premise of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," NIGHT SHIFT's older step-sister, and I do like subverting clichés too. The pretty blonde cheerleader does not have to be the first victim. The football player does not have to be the dumb jock who wanders off alone. They can be the people the monster should have avoided.

Stephanie would take an attack on herself personally, of course, but she would handle it. An attack on one of her cheerleaders would be something else entirely. Stephanie does not merely lead the squad. She knows those girls, watches over them, and considers their safety part of her responsibility. She is their protector. 

As she might tell the killer:

"Come after me, and I'll deal with it. Come after my girls? We are going to have a fucking problem. And by 'we,' I mean 'you.'" 

The dynamic changes when the supposed helpless victim start to throw fireballs. "Oh! You have a knife." Her hands burst into flames. "That's just adorable."

Yeah. I might need to find some other victims.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2026
Viewed: 5
First Time Views: 4

October Movie Challenge: Demons 2 (1986)

Given the disappointment of Dracula 2025 I went back to the fertile ground of Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava for the sequel to the 1985 Demons movie. "Sequel" is generous since it is essentially the same plot.

Demons 2 (1986)

Demons (1985) had a bunch of people meeting up in a theatre when a bunch of demons attacked and killed or infected them all. 

Demons 2 (1986) had a bunch of people meeting up in a high-rise when a bunch of demons attacked and killed or infected them all. This one, though, also features a 10-year-old Asia Argento. It also assumes that the events of the first movie are now known to the whole world. 

This is not a great flick. It's also not a very coherent one. There is a group of young adults investigating "the restricted zone," and people are watching it on TV, but who is filming them? Is it live? If they are doing something they are not supposed to be doing, then where are the authorities? Of course, one of them bleeds on a demon, and it comes back to life. And then one of the demons comes through the TV to attack a woman in the high rise. And is it coming through the other TVs? 

The special effects are mostly, well, hysterical. Some are remarkably effective, and others are just remarkably bad. 

The soundtrack is pretty cool ,though. 

Jackson, IL Connections

So, I never quite understood why these are "demons" and not just some sort of mutant disease. Well, I guess "Demons" fits better on a movie poster. In truth, they are more like fast zombies. In a NIGHT SHIFT game, the infections could still be in place, and it could even be demonic in nature.

I'd have to figure out what makes them demonic rather than just really ugly zombies.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2026
Viewed: 4
First Time Views: 3

October Movie Challenge: Fear No Evil (1981)

 This movie is a little outside my time frame, but it is a foundational movie for my ideas of Jackson. I used to have this poster on my wall for a while, and I later gave it to a friend. Long story short, I wanted to give him one of The Omen, but this worked. 

Fear No Evil (1981)

Andrew Williams (Stefan Arngrim), an eighteen-year-old high-schooler of some brilliance but also of a withdrawn nature. His classmates make life difficult for him, his father is afraid of him, and he has put himself at odds with everyone in his vicinity.

Likely because he is the reincarnation of Lucifer.

There are three archangels who have been reborn to stand against him, which is fortunate. Unfortunately, only two of them are aware of it.

We start the tale a few years earlier, when Father Damon (the Archangel Rafael) kills a man he is convinced is Lucifer. But evil has a way of not staying dead, especially in the movies. Lucifer comes back as Andrew, born in 1963 into a Catholic home where they will come to understand that there is something very wrong with their boy.

Fast forward to 1980, and Andrew is a senior. Columbia, Harvard, and Yale would all have him, but he has no use for college, his peers, or anything else, for that matter. His father has turned to drink and abuse; he thinks Andrew is evil and has no better way to deal with it. Honestly, his father is a huge jerk from the word go. 

Then there is Margaret, the sister of Father Damon. She sees the signs of Lucifer’s return and is under the impression she and her late brother were two of the archangels meant to put a stop to it. The third is Julie, an Andrew classmate who is quite unaware of her true self. It is a bit convoluted, to be honest.

On top of that, you have zombies, a haunted island fortress, demonic transformations, a Passion play gone horribly awry, some punk rock, resurrection, glowing crosses, and Lucifer about in full dramatic makeup like a methed-up Dr. Frank N Furter. And more special effects that an Earth, Wind and Fire video.  It is not exactly subtle.

Frank LaLoggia, who would go on to do Lady in White, wrote and directed this as his first feature. For a low-budget affair, it is wildly ambitious. LaLoggia has no intention of making a run-of-the-mill Antichrist picture; he wants a religious epic, a Gothic tale, a story of teenage rebellion and a horror film all in one. He did not always succeed. Though I prefer a film to overreach and fail rather than phone it in and call it a day.

Stefan Arngrim gives a performance as Andrew that is cold and still. He says little and looks at people with a good deal of contempt and resentment. In the early going, he is more sympathetic than those around him. His mother loves him but can do nothing to shield him; his father torments him out of fear; his classmates do what they can to torment him. They have already made up their minds he is a monster before he has even taken to his supernatural side. 

LaLoggia puts together a fine soundtrack from the Boomtown Rats, the Ramones, Patti Smith, the Sex Pistols and the like that lends the school scenes an energy at odds with the solemnity of the religious fare. You get the sense of a film made at the crossroads of old religious fears and new ones concerning punk and social mores, with the Satanic Panic on the horizon.

And in the final act, any pretense of restraint is dropped entirely. 

The special effects are as wonderfully cheap as they are effective. LaLoggia may have had certain visions for some scenes, but the film does not have the funds to realize them; instead, you are left with smoke, colored lighting, and some rather frantic editing, all delivered with complete sincerity. You know what? it still works.

I saw this when it was new, yet very little of the plot has stuck with me over the years. I could put my finger on the Satanic horror vibe and Andrew, but nothing about the high-school play or the reincarnated archangels, nor how odd things get in the final act. Perhaps because Fear No Evil is less a movie in the conventional sense and more like four horror movies in a trench coat. It is part *The Omen*, part Catholic nightmare, part low-budget epic, and part high-school supernatural drama. To say it lacks focus is an understatement.

I would be hard-pressed to call it a great movie, or even a good one. But still it was a fun one. 

Jackson, IL Connections

So Darren Vale is pretty much my homage to Andrew Williams and Fear No Evil. No. He is Andrew with the serial numbers filed off. Like I have said before, sometimes embracing the cliché is the way to go. 

Now this movie also has archangels, something I have not used in Jackson even though they are something that would work fine in any NIGHT SHIFT game. Honestly, I have not given them a thought really. I don't think they belong, to be honest. Jackson is hometown horror where the responsibility of fighting the forces of darkness belongs to ordinary people. Well...normal people and some supernatural people. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2026
Viewed: 3
First Time Views: 2

October Movie Challenge: Slaughter High (1986)

Let's get into this properly now.

I am going to spend this year's October Horror Movie Challenge with a couple of themes in mind. The first is movies from 1985 to 1986 and movies featuring high schools and small towns.  There is some overlap between these two themes, so I am going to start with those. I am actually a little surprised by how many I haven't seen.

Slaughter High (1985)

Pretty much in the center of my Venn diagram is 1985's Slaughter High. Now I was sure I saw this back then; I mean, it has Caroline Munro in it, and I tried to catch anything she was in.  But I have no memory of this one. I mean, there is nothing special about it, to be honest; it is a fairly predictable flick but that doesn't not make it fun. Plus, there are some good ideas here. Though I wonder, are they predictable or did I see this and just forgot it? It does have an old abandoned high school, like my Jackson setting, but in my defense, I actually stole that idea from my own hometown.

The film starts in 1976, but the bulk takes place later on in 1986 during the high school class reunion. 

The idea of a class reunion to bring all the school bullies is a fun one. Too bad the acting is fairly terrible. 

Marty is the local geeky kid who gets picked on. So ten years after the accident on April Fools' Day that disfigures him, he gets all his former bullies to a fake high school reunion where he kills them off one by one. 

Sadly, Simon Scuddamore, who played Marty the slasher, died of a drug overdose shortly after filming.

One note. I am watching this on Tubi, where I am planning to watch a lot of these movies, and it is so dark it is hard to see anything at all in some scenes. Not sure if it is Tubi, the copy they have, or if that is how the movie was. I know it is not my TV, at least.

Jackson, IL Connections

I am also going to try, where possible, to talk about what I can use from these movies for my Jackson, IL Night World for NIGHT SHIFT. Failing that, NIGHT SHIFT, Thirteen Parsecs, and/or Advanced Witches & Warlocks. For AW&W in particular, it will be more of a tonal thing; these are the things in the media around 1985-86 that might have influenced me. 

Slaughter High at least gives me some ideas for class reunions, not necessarily for the current group of characters (and my much-talked-about NPCs), but maybe for the Class of 1976 back for their 10th reunion. This shows that the horrors of this town keep happening over and over again. In truth I kind of like that idea. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2026
Viewed: 2
First Time Views: 2

Mirror Mondays: The Witches of 1986, The School as Haunted Castle

Despite its smallish size, my old hometown had three high schools. There was the public school, Jacksonville High School (JHS), the Catholic school, Routt, and Westfair Christian Academy. But there was also a fourth one. Or more accurately, a first one. The Newton Bateman High School was the home to JHS for many years. It had students who had seen WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. It had history, stories, and legends. 

It was also scary as hell by the mid 1980s.

Jackson Public High School by day and after dark. Mouse over the image, if you dare.

In my personal, real-world history, the Newton Bateman building (named after a local educator) opened its doors in 1921 and then closed them in 1982. Meaning I never walked those halls, and it sat like a grim reminder of a different age. My High School, also then called the "New" High School, was brand new. Slick. The halls were all carpeted, and the HVAC system was brand new. We had, for the time, a state-of-the-art Science Center named for astronaut Neil Armstrong, which included great chemistry labs and a planetarium. We had a great computer lab stocked with all sorts of new TRS-80 computers. And one of the best theatres in all of downstate Illinois. The place was massive and impressive.

It made the "Old" High School, then abandoned, look even older and more grim.

In my Jackson, IL setting, I rather shamelessly copy all of this.

There is the Public School, Jackson Public High School (JPHS), and the Catholic School, St. Michaels Catholic School (formerly called St. Michaels Academy and still called that by some). No stand-in for Westfair, really. I really didn't know much about that school and didn't even know it existed until they posted their graduating class in my then local newspaper.

There is the old High School building, the Thompson-Morgan building, paid for and built by the Thompson and Morgan families back in the 1910s and long before the two families had their falling out. 

The official word in Jackson is that the school closed because it was unsafe. Asbestos, lead, radon, or something. The students would spread rumors that the Morgans used it to dump chemical waste (at least that explains the food in the lunchroom) or that the Thompsons used it for their evil magic to stay in power. The Class of 1983 was the last class to graduate from there. The deaths of Selene "Lena" Marquette and Keely "Q" Ellison were the final judgments on the school. Everyone began the 83-84 school year in the new school.

But the Thompson-Morgan school was not torn down. And the reasons for its closure were never really revealed. 

When my "Tales from Jackson, IL" began, it was this school that called to all the supernatural creatures in the area. The witches, Stephanie, Larina, and Faye, all heard the old bell ring, even though it could not ring. Candy and Denise heard it as well, even though they are not supernatural.

The bell is the important part. A school bell tells students where to go, when to move, when to stop, when to gather, when to leave. In a haunted school, the bell does the same thing. It still gives orders. The problem is that no one knows who is ringing it anymore. 

In the new high school, both in Jackson and in my real-world school, the "bell" was an electronic beep. I mean yeah, it was bell-like, but it was also very, very 1980s. It had more in common with an 8-bit video game than a bell cast in iron or even brass. 

The old school had a proper bell. 

The old school has become something akin to a haunted castle in my game. Old, abandoned, and scary.

In teen horror from the 1980s, one of the unspoken but important characters is the High School itself. Look at the "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies, or even newer takes like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (80s in all but name) and even "School Spirits." The High School *IS* an important place.

But I get to play around with that idea some. Yes, there are scary things happening at the new High School. But those are not old hauntings. They are new monsters coming to school because, well, supernatural things are attracted to the angst and melodrama of teens. You say "Sturm und Drang" and a supernatural creature hears "Bon appétit."

The new high school is always busy, day and night, so there are plenty of opportunities for me to use it.

The old high school, though, is the Mines of Moria, Dracula's Castle, The Caves of Chaos. Vampires can be nesting in the basement, or the sub-basement with tunnels connecting to the hospital tunnels underground where things still live. There are ghosts in the hallways from 70+ years of student deaths. 

The new high school is where the town is still pretending everything is normal. The old high school is where that lie went to die.

The place isn't just haunted. It is haunted haunted.

And there is no good reason to go there unless you have to.

The cops keep an eye on it all the time. If anything is seen there, well, the newer cops will investigate. The older ones on the force will call it in and then stay the hell away.

Many years ago my younger sister called our hometown a "sinkhole of evil." This was long, long before anyone ever said the phrase "hell mouth." And I want to keep that idea; it isn't just the high school; it is the whole damn town. The high school just has a high concentration of weirdness.

In truth, I have avoided the urge to fill it with monsters. Yes, I know there are plenty of ghosts in the place; that is a given, but I am waiting to see what else *needs* to be there. I think the Hollow King is there, feeding off of the residual emotions of the place, but so far he is the only one I know for sure. 

That is a compelling image, really. All these ghosts, all these monsters, and they are afraid of something hiding in the lowest level (or maybe the Bell Tower). What scares the monsters?

Should it scare you as well?

Mirror Shard: The Bell That Should Not Ring

There has not been a student in the Thompson-Morgan school building since Spring 1983. The place is dark, the windows are boarded up, and the doors have chains on them. Even the bell tower had been out of commission for years before the school closed.

Yet at times the bell will ring.

Not everyone, though, can hear it. Witches and sensitives will hear it, as will ghosts. But some ordinary folk do too, and that is always worse. Denise and Candy heard it, and they had no right to be hearing a dead school calling their names.

When characters hear that bell, something has shifted in the old building. A door stands open where it was shut. A ghost has had a recollection. Perhaps a monster has made its way in or a room has come back into being. Maybe a student who died there is once more in the halls, or the Hollow King needs feeding.

Treat the bell as an adventure call, but do not make it so straightforward that it amounts to "go to the school and have your fight with the monster." It should convey that something is underway, and that ignoring it is to invite something worse later on. 

The Bell is not a call. It is a warning. But a warning the characters have to answer sooner or later.

After the bell rings, the characters might notice something like these:

• The clocks at the new high school are all stuck on 3:33. 
• An old hall pass from the Thompson-Morgan 3rd floor is found in a student’s locker (the new school only has a single floor). 
• A yearbook lies open to the Class of 1983 of its own accord. 
• The school nurse puts down her work to hear students laughing in an empty corridor. 
• By morning, a window at the old school has been unboarded, and unbroken. 
• There is a name on the detention list from 1974. 
• Or the ringing follows one home.

In AD&D terms, this is your haunted castle or ruined abbey bell, the kind from a village chapel whose tower fell thirty years ago, or the warning from the old keep for those with a curse on them.

But in Jackson it is a school bell. And it still expects obedience. It expects the high school students to obey it as they did in the old days.