As the haunting season winds down, I often think about how much I just love horror. I’ve always loved to be scared, even if I didn’t want to be. Some folks ride rollercoasters for the adrenaline, but I watch horror movies I go to haunted houses and love to feel terrified as a masked scareactor pops out from behind a false wall.
While I watch a ton of movies and shows of all sorts of genres and subgenres, horror always feels cozy and warm, like settling onto a couch with fluffy pillows and a soft blanket. And though it’s a genre full of many faults and issues, it is comfort for me. Horror is home.
Seeing Myself in Los Espookys
This section is part TV show recommendation and part me being in my feelings.
I didn’t grow up seeing brown and Black goths or alt kids represented in media. It always felt like I wouldn’t be emo or alt “enough” because I wasn’t white, because I couldn’t get my hands on the clothes or hair dye that the popular kids in the subcultures had. Like me? Asking my mother to let me dye my hair electric green? Absolutely not.
Thanks to social media, I’ve just found so many more goths/emos/alt people of color and it’s truly inspiring and heartening. I follow so many cool creators on TikTok and on Instagram that I am constantly in awe of. I’ve also just grown more as a person. I’ve grown to feel more comfortable with who I am.
Then, Los Espookys was announced for HBO. And I lost my shit. It’s so surreal, hilarious, bilingual, and set between L.A. and an unspecified country in Latin America (on purpose due to the cast and crew being from a diverse group of countries). Here, a group of Latinx goths who love the genre so much that they’re trying to follow their dreams of providing horror to those who need it. While there are characters arc that stretch across the six-episode first season, each episode plays on a specific subgenre or tropes of horror.
There’s a scene where Renaldo’s mom (pictured left above) chastizes him about chasing his “hobby.” Renaldo replies to her, “It’s not a hobby, Mom. It’s my life.” Same, Renaldo.
It really makes me feel so happy to watch and have this show. This show is just one of my favorite things ever. The representation is so good. It’s just overall fun and incredibly funny. If you’re not too into horror, this show isn’t scary at all. There are some really weird moments, but it’s just a good ride.
31 Nights of Horror and Counting…
I obviously watch horror movies all year round. But every October, I do try to do a 31 horror movies marathon. This year, probably partly thanks to us being stuck at home, is my most successful year thus far I’ve had to double up on some weekends and have taken a few breaks. I’ve watched some new flicks and some classics. Halloween night will be a double feature of the original Halloween and Halloween (2018). While there is still 6 days left, I present you my in-progress 31 Nights of Horror watchlist.
The Conjuring 2
Vampires vs. The Bronx
The Mothman Prophecies
The Thing 2011
Scream
Trick ‘r Treat
Aliens
The Gallows
Shaun of the Dead
Us
Dead Silence
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
The Girl With All the Gifts
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Evil Eye
The Blair Witch Project
Texas Chainsaw (2013)
Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost
What We Do in the Shadows
Killer Klowns From Outer Space
The Mummy (Hammer Horror)
Sleepy Hollow
Constantine
Saw III
Bones
Let me know in the comments if you’ve seen any of these and which you liked!
One Good Scare — The Invitation (2015)
TW/CW: child loss/death mention
There are some movies that I’ve only ever just seen once. No matter how much I enjoyed them or how much I’ve wanted to rewatch them. I just can’t bring myself to. The Invitation, directed by Karyn Kusama, is one of those movies.
My college used to have an independent women’s film festival named Citizen Jane (CJFF). It was absolutely one of the best parts about the college and something I always looked toward to in the fall. One year, CJFF brought several more horror/thrillers to its programming including an event called Citizen Jane Under the Moon where we watched horror shorts while sitting on hay barrels in the outdoor lawn of a local brewery.
During the festival weekend, The Invitation was a midnight showing that took place in the Warehouse Theatre of my college. And let me tell y’all, the walk back in the middle of the night on a eerily quiet old campus was just fuel for my anxiety after that movie.
So what’s it about? The Invitation can be simply summed up as one hell of a dinner party. It’s anxiety-inducing from start to finish and all set in an isolating, almost claustrophobic home. It stars Logan Marshall-Green as Will, divorcee who is being accompanied by his new girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) up to the Hollywood Hills for a dinner party hosted by Will’s ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard). The couple divorced after tragically losing their young son Ty. Eden has remarried David (Michiel Huisman) after meeting him at a retreat for grieving persons. As with divorced couples, compounded by the fact that they experienced something incredibly traumatic, the dinner party is as awkward as you’d expect. Throughout the night, we follow Will and keep our focus on him. As all of the dinner guests arrive and begin to have uncomfortable conversations, Will begins to get paranoid. Do Eden and David have ulterior motives? Is the dinner party more than it seems? Who are the strangers that are “friends” with Eden and David?
This film is a masterpiece of a slow-burn. It builds on the awkwardness, the uncomfortable conversations, the tragic history between Will and Eden and their lingering trauma. It puts you on the edge of your seat and keeps you there whether you like it or not. I can’t recommend this movie enough if you’re into more suspense, thrillers, and slow-burns. It never feels like it drags on.
But again, despite really enjoying this movie, it’s a one and done for me!
It’s the Parasite Eve!
TW/CW: body horror, horror, gore
Like a lot of people, when I find a new song that I really love, I listen to it over and over again until I’ve exhausted it. “Parasite Eve” by Bring Me The Horizon (BMTH). I love it whenever bands or artists use horror elements or inspiration in their music videos. Billie Eilish’s “Bury a Friend” video is one of my recent favorites.
I used to listen to a song or two from BMTH when I was in middle school. It was the era of screamo, swoopy haired band members, and angst lyrics. But I never really got that into them until earlier this year. Like a lot of bands, BMTH has changed up their sound. There’s still a lot of great riffs, some screaming vocals, and heavy drums, but they’ve grown a lot from their “Chelsea Smile” days. I had listened to their new song, “Ludens,” a while back when I first got the Death Stranding video game, but “Parasite Eve” was the first single off of their new upcoming record that I heard.
And does it just resonate with everything going on right now. The lyrics are incredible. The visuals of the band members having body-horror galore face-masks and rapid motion is *chef kiss*. The band shot the video during the pandemic with a small team, minimal budget, and even with one band member stuck stateside.
My favorite part of the song is the chorus. The lyrics are so timely and the half-singing, half-screaming vocals are incredible. Check them and the video out below!
It's the parasite eve
Got a feeling in your stomach 'cause you know that it's coming for ya
Leave your flowers and grieve
Don't forget what they told ya
When we forget the infection
Will we remember the lesson?
If the suspense doesn't kill you
Something else will
A Reminder: Cultures Aren’t Costumes
It should go without saying, but as Halloween quickly approaches this weekend, some folks need the reminder that cultures and people aren’t and never will be costumes.
I recently got a promo email from NYX cosmetics promoting a new palette for face makeup. It it they used La Catrina, also known as La Catrina Calavera — a cultural figure from Mexico that is a part of the Día de Muertos celebration, as part of the promo. Shit like this is unacceptable. It’s not “appreciation,” it’s all appropriation. Blackface, brownface, yellowface, any kind of shit like that is also racist and unacceptable. There’s a way to dress up like your favorite fictional characters without being appropriative and offensive.
For further reading of cultural appropriation’s relationship with the holiday, check out these articles from NPR and AP.
Halloween may not be the same this year, but I hope everyone gets to celebrate in some way or another. Make some popcorn, turn off the lights, and press play on a horror flick. Walk around the neighborhood in a costume with a mask. Carve pumpkins and roast the seeds in the oven. It’s still the best time of the year and we should all celebrate the little things, because they matter.
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