Returning a Time or Two

My Dearest Weirdlings,

I offer infinite apologies for disappearing into the ether over the past few weeks. As much as I would like to maintain the weekly schedule, I sometimes get lost along the way. I'm grateful to those of you who remain patient and stick around these strange shores.

With that said, I hope you'll kickback, relax, and enjoy this week’s roundup of the weird. Here you'll find aliens, martial arts, slashers, squid games, haunted vacations, and teen horror.

Movies

Balls to the Wall with Prisoners of the Ghostland (Letterboxd)

Mitchell Beaupre speaks with filmmaker Sion Sono speaks about his latest film starring Nicolas Cage and the ways in which it draws influences from Spaghetti Westerns, samurai films, and more. Sono explains,

"There was a parity in this film when mashing up those East-meets-West elements. I wanted to take those unique areas and push them together into one box. The result was creating something in between those two worlds, and thus it became completely original, which was an idea I really liked to explore."

TV

The Most Anticipated Horror TV Shows Of October 2021 (Screen Rant)

From slashers to the supernatural, these horror shows will "keep the screams going."

Games

Netflix Has Acquired Its First Video Game Studio (Gizmodo)

The major TV streaming company has reportedly acquired Night School Studio, an indie game developer known for its story-based titles, such as Oxenfree and Afterparty.

Squid Game Video Game Being Looked Into by Netflix (Screen Rant)

According to Minyoung Kim, Netflix's VP of content for the Asia-Pacific, the company plans to expand the Squid Game IP, following the immense success of the show.

Life & Lore

Stay at These 8 Haunted Airbnbs for a Truly Terrifying Halloween Night (Matador Network)

If you're the sort of soul that longs to have a ghostly experience, then this list is for you.

Literature

The ‘90s Teen Horror Landscape: The Babysitter and The Lifeguard (Tor.com)

Alissa Burger discusses the explosion of horror paperbacks for teen readers that came out in the lat '80s and early '90s. She notes,

"Drawing on Gothic horror traditions, slasher film conventions, and over-the-top soap opera-style melodrama, these books were enormously popular among teen readers, who flocked to their local mall to hit up the B. Dalton or Waldenbooks for the latest scares, which ranged from the supernatural (vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and Lovecraftian-style horrors) to the all too real (mean girls, peer pressure, stalking, intimate partner violence, or loss of a loved one). Regardless of the nature of the specific threat, there was a preponderance of dark secrets, mistaken identity, and one “terrible accident” after another."

Eight Horror Books About the Ocean That Will Make You Glad Summer is Over (Book Riot)

According to Addison Rizer, "Ocean-focused horror is often less about the water itself and more about the unknown. The depths that are unexplored and the creatures lurking there. Things with teeth and spikes and appetites."

Short of the Week

In "Yellow Belt Fury," written and directed by Katherine Hughes, a women decides to learn karate and seek revenge after her husband is killed by alien invaders. (Found via Short of the Week.)