Dear Weirdlings,
Welcome to this week in the weird. We have killer objects, space fairing bounty hunters, strange places around the world, and other scary stories to keep you entertained.
Movies
Schlock and Awe: Killer Objects Reflect More Than The Absurd (Shudder)
Exploring the sub-genre movies explores the improbably terror of being hunted by monstrous inanimate objects, Heather Wixson describes what these movies reveal about ourselves:
"In many cases, these films are often reflective of our own innate desires for a taste of the better life, whether it’s purchasing a fancy dress as a means of recapturing your sense of femininity, wearing — but haunted — jeans that promise you an ideal figure, a classic car that helps you find the confidence you otherwise lack, or even hair extensions that have been created as a means to adhere to society’s oppressive beauty standards... They connect with our own sense of longing for the feelings of acceptance and worth that we ascribe to these tokens of consumerism."
TV
Cowboy Bebop: First Images (IGN)
Netflix's revealed its first images from the live action adaptation of Cowboy Beebop, which is set to star John Cho as the swaggering bounty hunter Spike Spiegel. By the way, if you haven't seen the original anime yet, you should. It's amazing.
Guillermo del Toro's Netflix Horror Series Is Overflowing With Talent (i09)
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is a new anthology series of curated "unprecedented and genre-defining stories meant to challenge our traditional notions of horror." I can't wait.
Games
Dicebreaker Recommends: Dread, a survival-horror tabletop RPG played using a Jenga tower (Eurogamer)
Unlike most table top horror games, Dread uses the Jenga tower to determine the fates of the players as they try to survive various horror settings. Alex Meehan writes,
"Just as the tower rises and falls, so does the feeling of tension in a session of Dread. It's a genius technique of getting the players to actively engage in the pacing of the story. As more blocks are gradually removed, actions become harder to perform without the threat of the tower falling. Dread is rather merciless in this regard, as any player that causes the tower to fall spells instant death for their character — with no exceptions."
Life & Lore
7 Intriguing Places Around the World That You’re Not Allowed to Visit (Matador Network)
From gateways to the underworld to former quarantine sites — here are seven forbidden destinations around the world.
Literature
Creepypasta: A Guide to Horror Stories in the Digital Age (Scary Studies)
"Horror is, in a way, a historical artifact," writes Ben Mangelsdorf. "Our scary stories reflect what we are frightened of and offer deep insights into certain time periods." As he explains, Creepypasta is "a genre of horror that feels incredibly pertinent to our modern times"
Short of the Week
Speaking of deadly inanimate objects, "Killer Kart," written and directed by James Feeney, tells the story of a murderous shopping cart at a grocery store. (Found via Screamfest.)
