The ‘Walking Dead’ Comics Offer a Parade of Pain and Pleasure

This article is part of The Reading List, a monthly column in which we encourage you to take your enthusiasm for a particularly groovy TV show and direct it into a wide array of extracurricular studies. This entry explores The Walking Dead universe as seen in the comics and suggests a couple of titles to digest after you’re done with the main course.

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Halloween marks the tenth anniversary of The Walking Dead television series. With the release of the comedic film Zombieland a year prior, I remember thinking at the time that the gut-muncher genre had run its course. What more could be said that George Romero and his countless imitators had not already? A decade later and the bottomless bellies of the undead refuse to fill. Like Jell-O, there’s always more room for brains.

Under that logic, ten years of Walking Dead television is not enough. You crave more rot for your gut. If zombies are ravenous, their fans are even more so. Maybe you’ve already dabbled in The Walking Dead‘s comic book origins. Maybe you’ve always been curious but were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of issues to devour. This month’s Reading List is designed to give the reader a proper taste of the universe created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore and perfected by regular artist Charlie Adlard.

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The Walking Dead: Days Gone By

Here are the humble origins of the unlikely zombie blockbuster. Collecting the first six issues (the only ones drawn by Moore), Days Gone By introduces Rick Grimes as the do-gooder deputy sheriff from Kentucky. After nearly perishing in a gunfight, Grimes awakens from his coma to a world gone by. Stumbling through the halls of the hospital, crying out for anyone to come to his aid, Rick makes first contact with the walkers, for the z-word is merely too unimaginable.

Days Gone By tracks Rick’s journey to reunite with his wife Laurie and son Carl. It’s an arduous quest, and its climax lacks victory as he discovers his former friend and partner Shane has become pretty comfy with Laurie. The television show stretches this tension out for multiple seasons, but thankfully, the comic concludes the romantic turmoil by the end of this arc. Most importantly, the first volume establishes a rich base of characters and the agony of survival minus a governmental structure.

All we have is each other. Yikes. The dead might have it better off.

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The Walking Dead: The Heart’s Desire

Between the last volume and this one, Rick’s group of survivors take refuge in an abandoned prison. Well, not totally abandoned. A few leftover prisoners were doing just fine before Rick’s gang stormed in, but their worries matter little in the face of groupthink.

The Heart’s Desire opens with Michone, the badass katana-wielding doomsday samurai, who keeps a pair of armless zombies chained to her person as a means of bathing herself in their undead stink. To the non-discerning flesh-eater, she appears like one of the herd. To the reader, she’s a new cast favorite.

Determined to quell a rebellion led by the prisoners, Rick murders their leader. He attempts to cover up the killing as an accident, but the group eventually learns the truth. In this volume, Kirkman takes George Romero’s thesis that the true horror of any zombie apocalypse are those living bastards left behind and makes Rick scream the titular condemnation, “We are the Walking Dead!” You don’t watch zombie movies and TV series or read zombie comics for their subtlety.

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The Walking Dead: Something to Fear

Now, let us skip sixty or so issues (including everything to do with The Governor). At this point in the story, life is pretty good for Rick and his group. They’ve set up in a nice palatial estate in Alexandria. There’s plenty of food. The walkers are dealt with quickly and orderly. Not much to worry about.

Enter: Negan. When Rick first encounters the opposing force, he makes quick work of them. He’s confident. He’s cocky. He’s mean. These other survivors can’t possibly match Rick’s audacity.

Pride comes before the fall. Negan is Rick on steroids. He represents the person Rick is in danger of becoming, and the lesson he delivers comes at the end of a barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat named Lucille. Poor Glenn, there’s no talking out of this one.

After nearly one hundred issues, The Walking Dead still manages to shock. That’s the beauty of serialized entertainment. Month after month, the reader absorbs the essentials of the title. Rick is crucial. Michone is crucial. Glenn is crucial. You can’t have the comic without them. Kirkman scoffs at your notions of what is and is not The Walking Dead.

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The Walking Dead: All Out War Parts 1 & 2

The most exhilarating saga within The Walking Dead. All Out War is an epic and cannot be contained in one single trade paperback. It’s Rick vs. Negan. Who can out-savage the other?

Whether you’ve read the first hundred-plus issues of the comic or just the three other collections listed above, by this point, you’re invested in Team Rick. Sure, he’s a jackass, and he’s ruined the occasional life here and there, but he’s no monster.

On the other hand, monsters are appealing too, and Negan is about as vicious a beast as a human can get. The reader knows Rick deserves the beating he’s getting. The question becomes, can a human survive such a brawl and come out the other side a better person? Seems unlikely.

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The Walking Dead: The Whisperer War

There is always a bigger and badder threat awaiting around the corner. As Negan proved after The Governor, The Whisperers reveal the infinite possibilities of despair in this catastrophic landscape. These roving bands of humans dress in the rotting flesh of zombies to mask their presence and command control over the mindless dead. Yeah, that’s right. We’re talking the first walker/human team-up, and that means tremendous trouble for Rick and company.

In many ways, The Whisperer War operates like a game of one-upmanship for Charlie Adlard. Having already detailed numerous methods of shredding human anatomy, the artist somehow charts new ground in the realm of depravity. The Whisperer War is a hard read in that manner, but over the series, Adlard has fortified the reader’s stomachs. They can take what he can dish.

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The Walking Dead: Negan Lives

Kirkman and Adlard concluded The Walking Dead last year with issue #193. It was a surprise and came out of nowhere, requiring Kirkman to solicit fake plots to shops to keep the ruse under wraps. The final issue hit hard and serves as an absolute ending to The Walking Dead storyline. However…

The pandemic struck, and comic book shops were forced to close their doors for a good chunk of the year. When they did eventually open, Diamond Distributors struggled to get comics to the shelves. With an industry in peril, Kirkman sought a way to offer a slight boost in sales. The Walking Dead returned. Kinda.

Negan Lives is a one-shot comic that takes place shortly after issue #174 when Maggie refused to put Negan out of his misery. Some foul creatures deserve to live out their pain. Which is all well and good, except Negan is still going to perpetuate a whole lot of pain on others, as we see in these thirty-six pages.

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Marvel Zombies

Where do you go after scarfing your way through The Walking Dead? Hop on over to Marvel Comics with Marvel Zombies. Also written by Kirkman, this fan-favorite imagines your favorite superheroes in a Night of the Living Dead fringe universe. The spandex fetishists are no longer your friends.

Trust me; there is nothing sadder than a starving Peter Parker struggling with his guilt regarding the consumption of Aunt May. He still loves Mary Jane, but she also looks so, so tasty. Can his heart defeat his uncontrollable hunger? Don’t count on it. Remember, Kirkman is a real jerk when it comes to delivering pleasantries to his readers. He turns your love against you.

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Invincible

Have you seen the new trailer for the Amazon adaptation of Invincible? Like what you see? Well, that ain’t nothing.

What you find there is a fun, somewhat violent coming-of-age superhero story. Basically, the tale of Peter Parker told through a somewhat more adult lens. Robert Kirkman’s Invincible is so much more.

The comic is an epic saga of maintaining some semblance of morality in a universe where Earth is buffeted on all sides by aliens, demons, and supervillains. Kirkman uses his hero, Mark Grayson, and his world to work out his wildest fantasies regarding the more popular characters of Marvel and DC Comics. I’m sure you all have your Batman and Superman stories filed away in the back of your brains. Reading Invincible is to intimately experience Kirkman’s comic book wet dreams. Based on your time with The Walking Dead, you know it won’t always be pretty.

Don’t let anyone spoil the climax of Invincible‘s first two storylines. Just start reading. I guarantee stunned disbelief when you learn the fate of the Guardians of the Globe, aka not the Justice League of America.

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The 50 Best Horror Movies of the 1980s

October is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as “31 days of horror.” Don’t bother looking it up; it’s true. Most people take that to mean highlighting one horror movie a day, but here at FSR, we’ve taken that up a spooky notch or nine by celebrating each day with a top ten list. This article about the 50 best ’80s horror movies is part of our ongoing series 31 Days of Horror Lists.

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Ah, the ’80s. There are fantastic horror films from nearly every year since cinema began, but for many fans, the genre’s output doesn’t get any better than it did in the ’80s. The rise of practical effects and the artistry on display from masters like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Stan Winston, Screaming Mad George, and others played a big role, but equally important was the sense of fun that infused horror movies. Plenty of serious, soul-crushing horrors were released in the ’80s too, but the decade really saw the genre find an interest in delivering pure entertainment too.

We’re wrapping up this year’s 31 Days of Horror Lists with a big, bangin’ list of the 50 best horror movies of the ’80s. That might sound like a lot, but we could have easily made this list two or three times bigger. Pet Sematary, Pumpkinhead, Tenebrae, Friday the 13th, The Monster Squad, The Hidden, Angel Heart, Maniac, Dead Ringers, Waxwork, Anguish… none of these made the cut for the top 50. Can you believe that not even Michael Mann’s The Keep survived the voting process?! The list of movies that didn’t make the top 50 would make a great top 50 in their own right. That’s bonkers, but it goes to show just how many fantastically beloved horror films there are from that magical decade.

Now please join me and the crew (Chris Coffel, Valerie Ettenhofer, Kieran Fisher, Brad Gullickson, Meg Shields, Anna Swanson, Jacob Trussell) as we close out this year’s celebration with our picks for the 50 best horror movies of the ’80s!

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50. Possession (1981)

The fact that my personal number one pick for the best ’80s horror movie only landed in the fiftieth spot either says something terrible about our voting system or something incredible about the overall quality of films made in the decade. Let’s generously assume it’s the latter. Possession, perhaps alienating in its apparent freneticism, is unlike any other movie made in the ’80s. Or before the ’80s. Or since the ’80s.

Andrzej Żuławski’s masterpiece is turbulent and unnerving, yes, but the director has firm control over every frame. In this tale of a family in ruins over infidelity, paranoia, and… something else… the film abounds with gripping thrills and edge-of-your-seat scares. It also features one of the most fearless performances committed to celluloid courtesy of Isabelle Adjani. To say anything more would be to give the goods away, so let’s just say Possession is a film that has to be experienced firsthand (and hopefully as soon as possible). (Anna Swanson)

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49. Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

Here’s a movie that Disney wants you to forget. So much so that we probably won’t see it on Disney+ until all of the horror elements have been edited out by the fun police over at the House of Mouse. It’s a crime that it isn’t on the streaming service to introduce youngsters to horror. Then again, this adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s creepy carnival tale gives most adult horror movies a run for their money in the fright department.

Something Wicked This Way Comes boasts some very effective sequences, including a nightmare-inducing one involving spiders. The atmosphere is wonderfully eerie and carnivalesque, making for perfect viewing around the Halloween season. And every other time of year, for that matter. (Kieran Fisher)

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48. Friday the 13th – Part IV: The Final Chapter (1984)

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter ends with a young Corey Feldman, as Tommy Jarvis, shaving his head in an attempt to disguise himself as Jason Voorhees. Why does he do this? Well, so he can distract Jason by connecting with Jason on a personal level. And then kill him with a machete. And then when he’s not quite sure that Jason is dead, he repeatedly hacks away at him while screaming “die! die!” over and over again. Tommy’s approach is a smart one because far too often would-be victims just assume the killer is dead.

This is also one of the greatest endings to any slasher of all time. The build-up to it is pretty great too. The Final Chapter — what a lie this title proved to be — features some of Jason’s best kills, including a spear-gun to the crotch, and then there’s Crispin Glover and his wild dancing. What is he even doing? It doesn’t matter. This fourth installment in the Friday the 13th franchise is easily the best of the bunch. (Chris Coffel)

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47. Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)

When you think of Hellraiser and its cadre of sadist gods, you’re likely thinking of Hellbound: Hellraiser II. Not to disparage Clive Barker‘s original masterclass in horny Grand Guignol, but his initial gory romance doesn’t fully indulge in the Cenobite mayhem we always imagine typifying the series. If Pinhead and his posse were aperitifs in the first film, they are the main fucking course in a sequel that chooses excess over slow-building terror, and that is not a bad thing.

People slash themselves with razor blades, others convincingly wear full-body skin suits, a doctor goes into a Cenobite Easy Bake Oven and comes out with tentacle-knives for hands, and the entire climax takes place in a brutalist, M. C. Escher-esque labyrinth with an elaborate concrete design, countless stairs, and an unending sense of scale. If that doesn’t scream, “This movie was brought to you by cocaine,” I don’t know what does! The original Hellraiser may have introduced us to Barker’s incomparable creations, but it is Hellraiser II that turned those creations into enduring, fan-favorite movie maniacs. (Jacob Trussell)

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46. Maximum Overdrive (1986)

You can’t discuss Maximum Overdrive without talking about cocaine. It’s a helluva drug, and apparently, the delicacy of choice by the director at the time of the film’s making. Stephen King dare not blame his own mind for such a ridiculously strange movie, but let’s be real, cure the madman author of his addiction and the sober result would be just as ridiculous. Machines turn on their masters — cars, trucks, vending monstrosities. Even the watermelons get in on the head smashing. It’s eighties excess at its most flagrant and offensive. Bang your head to the AC/DC soundtrack. Take a big snort and let it take over. (Brad Gullickson)

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45. Creepshow (1982)

Everyone loves a good horror anthology, but so few filmmakers can deliver one. The genre format had its heyday back in the ’60s and ’70s with production outfits like the UK’s Amicus leading the way, but they quickly stumbled after that. Quantity rose, in part because they’re budget-friendly, but quality dipped. There are standouts, though, and the granddaddy of those highlights is 1982’s collaboration between George Romero and Stephen King.

The tales are brought to life with a glorious EC Comics vibe, comic book panels, and all, with tongue firmly planted in cheek the film manages to deliver some truly memorable segments involving reanimated corpses, alien moss, killer bugs, and more. The tone may not be for everyone — the film loves a laugh — but fans of old school Tales from the Crypt-style antics can’t help but fall in love more and more with each re-watch. (Rob Hunter)

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44. Society (1989)

The plot of Brian Yuzna’s body horror masterpiece is best articulated by the pop-punk poetic collective Sum 41. Quote: “I don’t want to waste my time/become another casualty of society.” How true, how true. This is, after all, the plight of Yuzna’s protagonist Bill: he’s pretty tired of his family’s lies, and he does not want to be liquified in their cult’s ritualistic flesh orgy.

Come to think of it, there’s more than one “Fat Lip” in Yuzna’s Society; stretched, dissented, and slippery in the masterful hands of practical effect wizard Screaming Mad George. Society gets a reputation for being weird and gross, which it is. But beneath all the slime and shunting, it’s a riotous skewering of the wealthy elite and their weird, kinky slug-eating sex parties. (Meg Shields)

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43. Silver Bullet (1985)

When people talk great werewolf movies they often zero in on 1982’s legendary doubleheader of An American Werewolf in London and The Howling. Both films are all-timers for a reason, but if talking top-five werewolf flicks you’re a tool to not include this mid-80s romp based on a novella by Stephen King (“Cycle of the Werewolf”).

People think just because it stars Gary Busey as a fun uncle and Corey Haim as a wheelchair-bound teen prone to pranks that it’s somehow a lesser effort, but that mentality blows. This is a fun flick that finds great character beats alongside its suspenseful monster sequences. Sure, the creature’s practical makeup can’t compete with the work of a Baker or a Bottin, but it’s still a great time in King country thanks to a commitment to deliver an entertaining slice of horror. (Rob Hunter)

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42. My Bloody Valentine (1981)

In the wake of Halloween, there was a rush to pervert every holiday. The Canadians were the first to take a stab at Valentine’s Day, producing one of the most gruesome slashers of the decade. My Bloody Valentine marries the manufactured greeting card celebration with a Nova Scotian mining aesthetic, and the result is an utterly deranged splash of gore. The killer miner, at the heart of this tale, is a gas-masked tyrant destined to dig a treacherous chasm in your psyche. Whether he dies at the end or not, he will forever be locked in your subconscious, waiting to erupt whenever the lights go out. (Brad Gullickson)

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41. Videodrome (1983)

Along with authentic maple syrup and basketball, Videodrome might be the greatest gift Canada has given the world. In 1983, David Cronenberg, Toronto’s own king of venereal horror, delivered his take on the classic story of a man who falls headfirst down a conspiracy rabbit hole. Max Renn (James Woods) is the head of a schlocky TV-station whose interest in exploitation programming leads to a mysterious broadcast where snuff films are only the beginning. Videodrome is a shocking and brutally prescient exploration of media consumption that was as groundbreaking in the ’80s as it is now, both for its daring narrative and technical prowess. Long live the new flesh, indeed. (Anna Swanson)

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Legendary Scottish Actor Sean Connery Has Passed Away at Age 90

Noooooooo not another!! The one-and-only Sean Connery has died at age 90. His family reports that he has been "unwell for some time" (via BBC), and passed away in the Bahamas with much of his family with him. The original James Bond! Indiana Jones' dad! And so many other iconic roles in so many outstanding movies - including The Man Who Would Be King, The Great Train Robbery, Murder on the Orient Express, Zardoz, Time Bandits, The Hunt for Red October, Medicine Man, The Rock, Dragonheart, Entrapment, and Finding Forrester. Connery only won one Academy Award in his lifetime - for Best Supporting Actor in The Untouchables (in 1987) but that's it. He also won one BAFTA Award for Best Actor in The Name of the Rose (in 1986). He proved himself over and over in different roles, and almost always charmed everyone. He has only one child, Jason Connery born in 1963, as well as a younger brother named Neil. A heartbreaking loss.

Many celebrities are posting on Twitter about Sean Connery's passing with tributes & messages about him:

I grew up idolizing #SeanConnery. A legend on screen, and off. Rest In Peace. pic.twitter.com/OU9QEy5fTB

— Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) October 31, 2020

RIP Sean Connery. A character actor friend (who shall go unnamed) worked on “The Rock.” At one point Michael Bay tried to direct his acting. Sean casually turned to him & said, “Why don’t you go blow up a bridge?”

— Werebraunger (@Braunger) October 31, 2020

Every day on set with #SeanConnery was an object lesson in how to act on screen. But all that charisma and power- that was utterly unique to Sean . RIP that great man , that great actor . https://t.co/W8MQrFYlJ0

— Sam Neill (@TwoPaddocks) October 31, 2020

Sir Sean Connery has died at the age of 90. He was the first actor to play James Bond on the big screen in Dr. No in 1962, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever followed. pic.twitter.com/VaFPHCM5Ou

— James Bond (@007) October 31, 2020

Edinburgh milk boy to larger-than-life movie icon, Sean Connery commanded the screen and was a full-bodied Scot through-and-through a career marked by industry-defining and redefining work. Heartbroken is the tip of the iceberg on a loss, though predictable, still grief-striking. pic.twitter.com/rNiK4pJE68

— Dunh Dunh Drumm (@DianaDDrumm) October 31, 2020

A lovable rascal from Scotland. An incomparable legend of the screen. A titan of acting. He appeared in over 60 movies over 40 years, last seen in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in 2003. RIP, Mr. Connery.

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‘Over the Garden Wall’ Beautifully Challenges Childhood Hurt and Fear

Welcome to Saturday Morning Cartoons, our weekly column where we continue the animated boob tube ritual of yesteryear. Our lives may no longer be scheduled around small screen programming, but that doesn’t mean we should forget the necessary sanctuary of Saturday ‘toons. In this entry, we wander into the woods and foolishly resist the dread uncovered Over the Garden Wall.

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Grappling with fear is an essential component of existence and an all-encompassing battle as a child. There are monsters in the closet, under the bed, in the shadows, and in the hearts of others. The world is a swirling sandstorm of what-ifs. And the impossible knowledge of the future stunts most from acting on their aspirations. To do nothing is to remain safe from harm, both physical and psychological.

As we age, we pretend we’ve conquered fear, supplanting ideology atop the emotion to mask the jangling, shivering bones beneath our skin. The kids who stayed under the covers mature into sheepish followers of the status quo. The kids who kicked off their sheets and braved the immense chasm between bed and closet and flung open the door, exposing the dark to the light, develop into champions of change.

Over the Garden Wall presents two very different types of children. Wirt (voiced by Elijah Wood) is a quivering teen who obsessively considers every decision and the negative inevitabilities of every outcome. His younger half-brother Greg (voiced by Collin Dean) worries little, considers even less, and bounds down any path that reveals itself. Alone, neither would survive the peculiar and unfamiliar forest they’ve bumbled into. Together, with a little help from a talking bluebird, “The Unkown” bramble need not be their tomb.

The half-brothers challenge each other. Greg’s inability to contemplate doom even when seemingly staring into his assured destruction grates on Wirt’s carefully constructed neves. In return, Wirt is a mystery to Greg, who only wants his brother to be happy and cannot fathom the indecision that plagues the teen. Want something? Do something.

As they traverse the woods, Wirt and Greg continue to encounter impossible creatures and characters. We meet pumpkin people, fancy-dressed frogs, talking horses, and a circus performer imprisoned within a gorilla costume. There is also the Woodsman (Christopher Lloyd), who must keep the flame lit inside his lantern or his daughter’s soul will perish. He takes orders from the great shadow of this saga, The Beast, a nightmare entity who whispers soothing thoughts and makes large promises.

Created in 2014 by Adventure Time alum Patrick McHale, the ten-part Cartoon Network miniseries draws inspiration from Don Quixote, vintage Halloween cards, the bouncy linework of 1930s animated cartoons, the illustrations of John Tenniel, a 19th-century board game called Game of Frog Pond, and god-knows-what-else old-timey shinanigans. The cartoon appears paradoxically rooted in the past while emanating an utterly modern glee for absurdist fantasy. If Steven Universe, Regular Show, or Gravity Falls are your jam, Over the Garden Wall slots perfectly into place. Yet, it still manages to stand apart as something wholly original.

The series opens on a frog playing a piano swirling in empty blackness. A tune billows into song, the theme written by McHale and performed by Jack Jones. The lyrics are familiar and sound as if you heard them on your grandmother’s kitchen radio. You immediately question whether you read the book in elementary school. Didn’t your friend Beth slide you a copy when Mrs. G wasn’t looking?

“But where have we come?” Jones warbles. “And where shall we end? If dreams can’t come true, then why not pretend?”

With the introduction of one talking animal after another, followed by Wirt’s aghast condemnation, the viewer is asked to question the reality of the brothers’ situation. The thought is not there to dominate your mind, but the preposterousness of the realm aids you in adopting Greg’s carefree nature. Chillax, Wirt.

Judgment falls through observation. Fiction trains us to expect a hero’s rise. The fearful teen will gain his gumption. Hurry up already.

Greg is a delight. Through his comedy and blank optimism, we join his team first. We may relate to Wirt’s trepidation, but we don’t want to hang onto it for too long. We expect him to cast off his shackles of anxiety and become the big brother Greg needs. Whatever laughter we gain from him is tinged with mockery, a knowing self-mockery.

Entering the penultimate episode of Over the Garden Wall, we believe we comprehend The Unknown. It’s whimsical and purposefully obtuse, but that’s when McHale rips the carpet from under you. Via flashback, we come to learn the very real teenage relationship trauma that sent our heroes over the cemetery wall and into the nonsensical void.

Nothing more serious than a crush, but damn, is there anything more tormentful? The what-ifs of early romance torture most folks long into adulthood and will randomly spring to the forefront of their mind during the most random and inopportune moments of the day. Over the Garden Wall‘s secret origin slices into a wound that rarely scabs over.

Wirt desperately wants validation from Sara (Emily Brundige), mustering enough courage to trap his favorite bits of jazz and poetry onto a mixtape. However, his pluck ends there, especially with the appearance of the other suitor, Justin Funderberker (Cole Sanchez). With Wirt catatonic, Greg must act. He gets the tape where it needs to go, igniting Wirt’s final flight of terror, sending them over the wall where metaphor and magic can take over as teachers.

As we knew it would, as these stories go, Over the Garden Wall‘s final episode forces Wirt to confront his fear in the form of The Beast. He surpasses this stifling emotion by placing others (primarily Greg) ahead of himself. It’s a consideration or an equation– something Wirt has already mastered.

To not act, to cower from The Beast, would allow Greg to wither and die. It’s a negative thought so atrociously imaginable that Wirt shakily stands against evil. His love for his brother trumps his fear of everything else.

Love. Trumps. Fear.

There are countless sagas of children confronting the dangers of self-doubt and instinctive dread. Every generation needs a few dozen tales to gameplan real-world scenarios: The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, The Neverending Story, Moana, whatever. They’re dry-runs we take with us into adulthood, and if we’re smart enough, we continually replay them as a method of fortifying moral strength.

Over the Garden Wall is a cartoon destined to wriggle around your noodle. Every gag and jolt is recognizable. It sits snugly on the shelf with other children’s fables as if it was always there. The more, the merrier.

The universe is scary as hell, and it will never stop being so.

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Clever Girls: The Evolution of the Final Girl Trope

Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a montage of the evolution of the final girl.

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Final girls are as essential to horror as slasher villains and jump scares. But their legacy is a complicated one, to say the least. Final girls carry a lot of damage. And I don’t just mean a stray knife slash here and there.

Coined by Carol J. Clover in her book Men, Women, and Chainsaws, the “final girl” trope refers to the last woman standing at the end of a bloodbath who escapes and sometimes vanquishes her would-be killer. Even in the many incarnations since the trope’s first bonafide appearance in 1970s slashers, a number of troubling through-lines persist to this day.

It’s true that disproportionally women are vessels for much of the world’s violence. But the expectation that victimhood is a singularly feminine burden exposes a less empathetic angle. Namely, that audiences will not identify with men in similar peril. That a virginal man cowering in a closet fumbling tearfully with a defensive coat hanger just isn’t someone audiences can root for.

Which is to say nothing of the fact that even the most subversive final girls are overwhelmingly white. That even when ostensibly metacritical films like Midsommar and Scream 2 challenge traditional character structures, Black survival is not guaranteed.

While all of this sounds like a colossal bummer, as the video essay below emphasizes, knowing the history of the trope is important, and slowly but surely, things are changing. The movement of “social horror” is gaining more traction. And with that, the final girl is steadily shifting towards a more intersectional view of peril, victimhood, and what it takes to survive.

Watch “The Final Girl Trope, Explianed“:

Who made this?

This video comes courtesy of The Take (formerly ScreenPrism), a channel dedicated to analyzing film, television, and pop culture. They specialize in the “ending explained” genre of video essays. They also have a sizeable library of character studies, director profiles, and symbol breakdowns. You can check out their YouTube account here. You can also follow them on Twitter here.

More Videos Like This

• For another sample of The Take, check out a video on the “angry young man” trope. They describe the archetype and ask: who are the angry young men we listen to? And who are the angry young men we challenge?
• And here’s The Take looking into the “fridged woman” trope, which is about women who are killed off to motivate a male character’s story.
• Here’s GammaRay on why final girls don’t just change; final girls change the genre.
• Jamie Lee Curtis wasn’t the first final girl, but the impact of Laurie Strode in Halloween is undeniable. Here’s Curtis and John Carpenter on Laurie’s legacy.

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Demonic Animatronics + Nicolas Cage in 'Willy's Wonderland' Teaser

"Hey kids, do you know what time it is?!" Well, I'm sold! Screen Media has released an official trailer for a wacky action horror coming up next year titled Willy's Wonderland. There's no date set - they're holding it until sometime in 2021 - but I'm already looking forward to it. A quiet drifter is tricked into a janitorial job at the now condemned Willy's Wonderland - which seems to be mocking Chuck E. Cheese. The mundane tasks suddenly become an all-T fight for survival against wave after wave of demonic animatronics. Fists fly, kicks land, titans clash -- and only one side will make it out alive. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Emily Tosta, Beth Grant, Ric Reitz, and Chris Warner. There's only a few glimpses in this teaser trailer, but it's more than enough for me. This is going to be wild! And I can't wait to watch! Bring on Willy's madness.

Here's the first teaser trailer (+ poster) for Kevin Lewis' Willy's Wonderland, direct from YouTube:

A quiet drifter is tricked into a janitorial job at the now condemned Willy’s Wonderland. The mundane tasks suddenly become an all-out fight for survival against wave after wave of demonic animatronics. Fists fly, kicks land, titans clash — and only one side will make it out alive. Willy's Wonderland is directed by American writer / filmmaker Kevin Lewis, director of the films The Method, Andrew Jackson White Elk, Downward Angel, Malibu Spring Break, Dark Heart, The Drop, and The Third Nail previously. The screenplay is written by G.O. Parsons. It's produced by Grant Cramer, Jeremy Davis, Bryan Lord, Michael Nilon, and David Ozer. Screen Media Films will release Lewis' Willy's Wonderland in select theaters + on VOD sometime in 2021 - no date has been set yet. Stay tuned for updates. First impression? Who's excited?

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One of the Best ‘Mad Men’ Episodes is All About the Women

This essay is part of our series Episodes, a bi-weekly column in which senior contributor Valerie Ettenhofer digs into the singular chapters of television that make the medium great. This entry revisits “The Other Woman,” a Mad Men Season 5 episode in which Joan faces an impossible choice.

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Mad Men, despite its title, has always been anchored by its women. There’s Betty (January Jones), whose dissatisfaction is sublimated into the confines of domesticity. There’s Peggy (Elisabeth Moss), hungry for recognition and a boys’ club type of freedom. There’s hopeful Megan (Jessica Paré), imprisoned in the glossy, simple image that Don (Jon Hamm) has created for her. There’s Sally (Kiernan Shipka), coming-of-age in a decade of painful change. And then there’s Joan.

Joan Holloway Harris, played to perfection by Christina Hendricks, seems to be everything a man would want. She’s drop-dead gorgeous, with curvy measurements that boggle the mind, and she never has so much as a painted nail out of place. She’s also incredibly competent, excellent at both her surface-level job as an ad agency office manager and her unstated job, which she describes in the first season as “something between a mother and a waitress,” with an expectation of occasional sexual harassment. Joan is, above all else, practiced and unshakeable.

Mad Men is a subtextually rich series that’s ideal for academic interpretation, so it makes sense that when I think of Joan, I can’t help but think of the 1988 essay “Foucault, Femininity and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power” by feminist scholar Sandra Bartky. The author compares the patriarchy’s influence to philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s idea of a prison system called the Panopticon, in which fearful inmates are well-behaved because they always think they’re being watched. Bartky says: “The woman who checks her make-up half a dozen times a day to see if her foundation has caked or her mascara run, who worries that the wind or rain may spoil her hairdo…has become, just as surely as an inmate of the Panopticon, a self-policing subject, self committed to a relentless self-surveillance.”

Joan endures much of the personal prison of 1960s womanhood with a tight but convincing smile on her face. Every choice she makes — especially early in the series — is an attempt to meet the paradoxical standards of what the men of the world want. And her social confines are never more poignantly rendered and subverted than in the Emmy-nominated Mad Men Season 5 episode “The Other Woman.”

As the episode opens, the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce team is working on their pitch for the Jaguar account. Landing the car brand would be huge for the burgeoning business. The ad copy guys are stumped, stuck trying to figure out how to evoke the idea of a mistress with their presentation without actually saying the word “mistress.” As with the series’ best ad-related plots, the Jaguar pitch parallels the main characters’ episode trajectory, resulting in a climax that intertwines the personal and professional to profound effect.

Early on in “The Other Woman,” Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) and Ken (Aaron Staton) go to dinner with Jaguar’s Herb Rennet (Gary Basaraba). He’s an off-putting bigwig who tells them that he’s hard to please and needs whoever lands his account to go the extra mile. His intentions soon become clear; Herb won’t give SCDP the Jaguar account unless Joan has sex with him. “She’s one of these free spirits, open to ideas?” he asks. Actually, Joan isn’t. Despite her romantic entanglement with Roger Sterling (John Slattery), she’s mostly been a traditionalist up until this point, sticking with her awful husband despite his violence against her and scoffing at Peggy’s public attempts to nudge up against prescribed gender roles.

Still, morally flexible Pete isn’t about to let the Jaguar account get away. He approaches Joan in her office, putting the onus of the decision on her while framing the conversation like an apology. This exchange, like most in the episode, is spoken in a sort of coded language, moral depravity polished up with a thin coat of decency. Episode writers Semi Chellas and Matthew Weiner craft a fitting strain of dialogue for an episode that centers Joan, a character who measures nearly every word she speaks.

Line for line, “The Other Woman” is as well-written as any other across Mad Men’s seven seasons, with exchanges that appear cool on the surface but are built to elicit audience gasps, cheers, or tears. One of the first great bits comes up when Pete compares Joan’s potential dip into prostitution to Cleopatra’s rise to power. “She was a queen,” he says. “What would it take to make you a queen?” “I don’t think you could afford it,” she snaps back.

Pete takes Joan’s words about the right price rather seriously, telling the partners that she could be bought for the right offer. Each man’s reaction is telling. Mild-mannered Lane Pryce (Jared Harris), who harbors feelings for Joan, is appalled but unwilling to make waves. After the men’s meeting, he goes to Joan and discreetly advises her to ask for a permanent partnership rather than the partners’ proposed one-time payment of $50,000.

Unflappable, Joan doesn’t bat an eye when Lane reveals the high number to her, though she later notes that it’s four times her annual salary. In the context of the season, “The Other Woman” is part of an emotional one-two punch with “Commissions and Fees,” as the next episode ends with Lane’s finance-related suicide. The exchange between the two here is especially meaningful when you realize it’s one of the last times they ever talk to one another.

“The Other Woman” isn’t about whether or not Joan sleeps with Herb, though she ultimately does. It’s about the commodification of women, the sneaky hypocrisy of misogyny, and the varied ways in which women cope with that ever-present prison guard that is the male gaze. It’s about a woman whose learned wariness is as practiced as her perfect posture, a woman who is repaid for her relentless commitment to feminine composure by being valued in the same bracket as an impractical sports car.

Despite the solemnity at its core, the whole episode is brimming with dynamic tension and unpredictability. Thus, the scene in which Joan chooses to meet Herb feels like a punch to the gut. It’s not that Joan should be judged for her choice; sex work itself isn’t shameful, although in this setting it was certainly taboo. No, the emotions come from a deeper place here, one that involves Joan’s carefully cultivated self-image. The scene is cleverly crosscut with Don’s pitch to Jaguar the next day, in which he describes the perfect woman as unattainable, “beyond our reach and a little out of our control.”

In the next moment, Herb, with his slicked-back hair and deep-necked robe, crassly demands to see Joan’s breasts. She is under his control, no longer unattainable but now a thing that can be bought. It’s almost as if we can read Joan’s thoughts at this moment. It doesn’t matter how hard you work to maintain an image, the scene communicates; these men will always see you the way they want to. Clever, strong, fierce, loyal Joan is temporarily reduced to some soft body parts.

Don is the only person at SCDP who tries to play hero and stop the arrangement. After he hears about Herb’s proposition, he scraps the mistress pitch idea, angrily calling it “vulgar.” When he later gets word that Joan is considering the offer, he rushes out of the office and to her apartment. But we’re shown via a series of trickily time-scrambled scenes that he arrived too late. He finds Joan in her bathrobe and tells her that Jaguar isn’t worth it.

She blinks once, closing her eyes for a moment, and that careful batting of her eyelashes is the most emotion she allows herself throughout the episode. If she’d known that Don wanted better for her, maybe she wouldn’t have gone through with it. “You’re a good one, aren’t you?” she says and touches his face sweetly. She lets him leave believing that her honor is intact, while in fact, she’s already home from her visit to Herb’s hotel room.

Don’s urgent crusade to stop Joan is a gesture that would be nobler if he didn’t also attempt to control Peggy and Megan earlier in the episode, angrily throwing a handful of money at the first and demanding that the other give up a job that would require her to travel. His hypocrisy contrasts sharply with the gentleness that we see at that moment with Joan, and he quickly and cynically abandons his role as the protector the next day when Joan walks into a partner’s meeting, making her decision the night before clear once and for all.

By this point, the series has carefully unraveled Don’s psychology, so it’s easy to see that he’s not so much a true ally to Joan as he is a man with a perpetual soft spot for mothers and prostitutes. Hamm’s performance conveys these emotional contradictions with fantastic nuance, evoking deep feelings with a single sidelong glance.

In “The Other Woman,” two of Mad Men’s central female characters — Megan and Joan — grow jaded through their experiences with men, while a third, Peggy, begins successfully navigating the men’s’ world in contrast. A scene in which she meets Ted Chaough and accepts a deal to leave SCDP crackles with live-wire energy. When she writes a proposed salary number on a piece of paper without hesitation, Ted assumes a man taught her that trick.

Later, she momentarily balks at the idea of telling Don she’s quitting when he asks her to drink with him, a gesture of approval that she’s always sought from him as a mentor. When she finally goes, she offers him a handshake, but instead, he softly kisses her hand. That moment alone warrants an essay all its own, but in the simplest sense, it’s a reminder that she’s a woman, and he’s a man, and that he more than anyone else realizes how much she’s given up — namely, a secret child — to get to this point.

By the episode’s end, Peggy has a new job, Joan has a partnership position, and Megan has Don’s support in her career path. They’ve moved up in the world, so why do we feel like crying? Perhaps it all goes back to Jaguar. The tagline Don finally goes with is a great one: “At last, something beautiful you can truly own.” It’s obviously targeted at men alone. The women of Mad Men will always be entrenched in the quicksand of patriarchy no matter how far up the social ladder they climb. In the eyes of almost every man they meet, they’re little more than beautiful things.

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Jackie Chan is an Accountant in Explosive 'Vanguard' Action Trailer

"The enemy has moved in." Gravitas has released a new US trailer for the crazy cool action film Vanguard, starring Jackie Chan - who is still making action films despite announcing he would retire. This time he re-teams with the HK director of his classic action films Supercop, Supercop 2, Rumble in the Bronx, and First Strike - Stanley Tong. An accountant is threatened by the world's deadliest mercenary organization and Covert security company Vanguard is the last hope of survival for him. Of course. This is basically a Michael Bay film made by a Hong Kong director instead. Also starring Yang Yang, Miya Muqi, Lun Ai, Ruohan Xu, and Zhengting Zhu. As brainless as this movie will be, I must admit it looks like a massive amount of explosive action fun - with drones and lions and gatling guns and more. Might be worth a watch.

Here's the latest official trailer (+ posters) for Stanley Tong's Vanguard, direct from YouTube:

Covert security company Vanguard is the last hope of survival for an accountant (Jackie Chan) after he is targeted by the world's deadliest mercenary organization. Vanguard, also known as Ji xian feng or 急先锋 in China, is directed by Hong Kong producer / filmmaker Stanley Tong, director of the films Iron Angels 3, The Stone Age Warriors, Swordsman II, Supercop, Supercop 2, Rumble in the Bronx, First Strike, Mr. Magoo, China Strike Force, Fox Ghost, The Myth, and Kung Fu Yoga previously. The screenplay is written by Stanley Tong, with English dialogue by Tiffany Alycia Tong. It's produced by Barbie Tung, Eddie Wong, Baolin Zhou, and Jackson Pat. The film already opened in China and Taiwan at the end of September this year. Gravitas will release Tong's Vanguard in theaters (+ large format screens) starting November 20th, with a special fan event screening on November 19th this fall, then on VOD later. How cool does that look?!

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Official Trailer for Relationship Drama 'The Killing of Two Lovers' Film

"You need to fight. You need to fight for us." Neon has released the first official trailer for the indie small town relationship drama The Killing of Two Lovers, which originally premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. David desperately tries to keep his family of six together during a separation from his wife. They both agree to see other people but David struggles to grapple with his wife's new relationship. The film, with its honest and sometimes brutal portrayals of marriage, is driven by impressively nuanced performances by stars Clayne Crawford, Sepideh Moafi, Chris Coy, Avery Pizzuto, Arri Graham, and Ezra Graham. Featuring some fantastic cinematography by Oscar Ignacio Jiménez. This looks a brutal exploration of family and emotional frustration, and the look and feel really makes it stand out. Take a look.

Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Robert Machoian's The Killing of Two Lovers, from YouTube:

The Killing of Two Lovers follows David (Clayne Crawford), who desperately tries to keep his family of six together during a separation from his wife, Nikki (Sepideh Moafi). They both agree to see other people but David struggles to grapple with his wife's new relationship. THR called the film "a transfixing drama without a wasted word or a single inessential scene." The Killing of Two Lovers is both written & directed by American writer / filmmaker Robert Machoian, director of the films Forty Years from Yesterday, God Bless the Child, and When She Runs previously, as well as numerous other shorts. This originally premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Neon will release Machoian's The Killing of Two Lovers in select US theaters starting February 23rd, 2021 early next year. Look any good? Interested in watching?

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Ema Horvath Meets a Very Strange Man in 'What Lies Below' Trailer

"You're kind of, uh, a weird dude." "Yes I am. But I mean, weird is cool. Right…?" Vertical Ent + XYZ Films has unveiled an official trailer for What Lies Below, a dark mystery thriller that is the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Braden R. Duemmler. The film is about a teenager who returns from two months away to discover her mother has a new stud fiancé named John Smith. But he's too ideal of a man to be human - everything about him is so perfect that she starts to suspect he might be something else. The film stars Ema Horvath as Liberty, Mena Suvari, Haskiri Velazquez, and Trey Tucker as the man. There is a mega creepy Under the Skin shot in this trailer that's definitely a wink at him being some kind of alien or creature.

Here's the first official trailer for Braden R. Duemmler's What Lies Below, from Fandango's YouTube:

Liberty (Ema Horvath), a socially awkward 16-year-old, returns from two months at camp to a blindsided introduction of her Mother's fiancé, John Smith, whose charm, intelligence, and beauty paint the picture of a man too perfect to be human. Is he something else…? What Lies Below is both written and directed by American filmmaker Braden R. Duemmler, making his feature directorial debut after a few other short films previously, and some cinematography work. It's produced by Kristina Esposito, Stephen Stanley, and Abel Vang. This hasn't premiered at any festivals or elsewhere, as far as we know. Vertical Entertainment will release Duemmler's What Lies Below direct-to-VOD starting December 4th this fall. Anyone curious?

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‘The Mandalorian’ Explained: Chapter 9 Redeems an Action Figure

The Mandalorian Explained is our ongoing series that keeps an eye on Lucasfilm’s saga about the Galaxy’s most dangerous single dad. In this entry, we look at what went down in The Mandalorian Chapter 9 — the first episode of Season 2 — and explain how its shocker ending compares to the original premiere reveal. Yes, there be spoilers here.

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The task of topping The Mandalorian‘s first season premiere surprise is difficult, if not impossible, but the Season 2 debut does its darndest and will surely ignite the enthusiasm of certain desperate fandom offshoots. The final shot re-introduces the most iconic character of the Star Wars franchise who really never did much of anything. Is that as revelatory as a force-wielding cutie-pie Baby Yoda, or whatever their name is? Uh, let’s hold that thought for a second.

Entitled “The Marshall,” The Mandalorian Chapter 9 begins relatively where the first season dumped our characters. Mando, or Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), seeks answers regarding the Baby’s origins. The universe is an infinite landscape. He can’t simply start knocking on houses. He needs a game plan.

As explained by The Armorer (Emily Swallow), the little creature displays gifts similar to those once honed by the Jedi Order. She knows not where Mando might find them, so he sets off to find other Mandalorians who might have a clue or two. After some aggressive negotiations with a one-eyed mob boss named Gor Koresh (John Leguizamo), Mando learns of a Mandalorian who calls Tatooine his home.

We will never be rid of the desert planet. It may orbit the Outer Rim, described as the galaxy’s armpit, but movie after movie, episode after episode, we return to Tatooine. Be it by fate, nostalgia, or branding, there is no escaping Star Wars’ first planetary environment.

Chapter 9 is The Mandalorian‘s second visit to the backwater hive of scum and villainy. The show last skulked these sandy streets in Chapter 5. At the end of that episode, we saw and heard a pair of jangly boots stroll upon the corpse of Fennec Shand and considered the possibility of Boba Fett’s return.

As speculated sometime later, the spurs don’t belong to Kenner’s most popular action figure, but to those of Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant). The character strolls right out of author Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath novels, written to bridge the gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. In those books, we learn that Vanth was a former slave who rose to the rank of Mos Pelgo marshall after he liberated Boba Fett’s armor from a band of Jawas.

The name Boba Fett never comes up in Aftermath, nor is it ever uttered in The Mandalorian Chapter 9. However, there is no mistaking the armor we see in this episode. The color, the blaster scoring, the forehead dent — these details are tattooed on every collector’s psyche.

The story Vanth tells Mando of how he acquired the armor from the Jawas differs slightly from Wendig’s depiction. There’s no mention of Lorgan Movellan, the Red Key Raider whom Vanth gunned down while procuring the suit, or the fact that Vanth already negotiated with the Tusken Raiders to act as bodyguards against any Red Key goon seeking retaliation. Either Vanth wants to keep a few sins to himself, or these Expanded Universe (EU) novels are exactly what we’ve always known them to be: mere test runs for the authentic adventures of the live-action entertainment.

Honestly, it doesn’t matter.

Mando does not care how Vanth got the Mandalorian armor. He just wants it back. The two characters nearly draw on each other upon meeting, but their duel is interrupted when a gargantuan Krayt sand dragon rips down Mos Pelgo’s main street. We’ve never seen one of these beasties on screen before, but in A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi did imitate its cacophonous roar to scare off the Tusken Raiders from making a meal out of Luke Skywalker’s body. At least, that’s what the EU would have you believe.

Every frame of The Mandalorian is creator Jon Favreau validating his childhood action figure collection. The Tusken Raiders may have only nabbed a few moments of screentime in the original films, but Favreau, and many of those watching, built massive Tolkienian epics around those characters through their toy collections. The Mandalorian is his chance to realize those molded plastic fantasies.

This effect occurred nowhere more powerfully than around Boba Fett. The Joe Johnston design, a sci-fi fetishization of The Man With No Name, tingled all the right parts of our brain. Thanks to the Star Wars Holiday Special, we were already in love with the character before he ever shimmied into The Empire Strikes Back. George Lucas barely gave us scraps when it came to Fett’s narrative, but EU writers would happily dump bounty hunter backstory whenever allowed.

Then, Han Solo blindly bumped into Fett during the first few minutes of Return of the Jedi and sent our beloved galactic gunslinger into the belly of the Sarlacc Pit. Our most precious action figure left this universe like a chump. The sequence stung, and over the years, more and more EU writers attempted to bring new life to Boba Fett.

Mando is another extension of that fannish desire. He’s the badass we always wanted Boba Fett to be. Over the course of the first season, whatever sore feelings still lingered as a result of Return of the Jedi faded. Fett, we don’t need you. We finally got The Mandalorian we always wanted.

Timothy Olyphant playing cowboy inside Boba Fett’s armor is all of us. We want to be cool. We want to give respect back to the dope who practically tripped into a monster’s mouth. We’re never gonna achieve this dream, though. It’s best to give up the armor and let Mando do something respectable with it.

And that’s exactly what Cobb Vanth does. After Mando brings the Tusken Raiders and the people of Mos Pelgo together, and they successfully slay the Krayt dragon, Vanth relinquishes Fett’s clothing. Mando and the Child return to their Razor Crest and happily put Tatooine in their rearview.

We’re free of Boba Fett! He’s dead and digested. His armor is back with the people whom his father Jango Fett clearly idolized.

Oh wait, there’s that final shot. We’re not yet in the clear. As the Razor Crest zooms skyward and Tatooine’s twin suns set in the distance, we catch a silhouette in the foreground.

A bald man with a Tusken Raider blaster rifle and gaffi stick slung over his back watches from a hilltop. How much of the Krayt conflict did he see? Did he get a good look at the two men in Mandalorian armor? Who cares? Oh, just everyone watching this program.

The man turns, and we see the face of Temuera Morrison. It’s the face of Jango Fett and every clone soldier who marched to the beat of the crumbling Republic’s drum. As a clone child of Jango, Boba Fett would sport the same face. So, yes, indeed, Boba Fett lives.

We don’t know how, but at some point, Boba Fett dug his way out of the Sarlacc. He either sold his armor to the Jawas, or they picked up the parts after he cast them off. Having faced such a pathetic end, it appears the bounty hunter chose a life of exile as a Tatooine hermit. Hey, what worked for Obi-Wan Kenobi should work for him.

Boba Fett was never a Mandalorian. He wore the armor cuz his dad wore the armor. Who knows what emotions seeing a real-deal Mandalorian square off against a Krayt dragon will spark in Fett? What’s for certain is that this will not be the last time we see the character this season.

Favreau seems determined to bring respect back to Boba Fett. He wants to redeem that toy he clutched so tightly in his kiddie fist so many moons ago. Wish him luck. The Mandalorian had already cured me of such a desire, and it’s a little concerning to see Favreau drudge up these old fanboy feelings. Please, don’t hurt me again.

The reveal of Boba Fett is not as catastrophic to the Star Wars universe as Baby Yoda’s first appearance. It’s more of a step backward than a game-changer, a secondary mystery to occupy our minds while the series delays its answers regarding the Child’s origins. The fact that Morrison takes the same spot Baby Yoda did in the first season’s premiere suggests a level of import that may not be.

Baby Yoda directed where the second episode of the first season would go next. Boba Fett has zero impact on the plot of next week’s episode. The Mandalorian Chapter 9 behaves as its number suggests; one more episode in a much longer story.

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10 Most Harrowing Horror Movie Pregnancies

October is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as “31 days of horror.” Don’t bother looking it up; it’s true. Most people take that to mean highlighting one horror movie a day, but here at FSR, we’ve taken that up a spooky notch or nine by celebrating each day with a top ten list. This article about the most harrowing horror movie pregnancies is part of our ongoing series 31 Days of Horror Lists.

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Pregnancy: it’s the thing that made us, yet it’s also a topic that’s plagued by taboos, frequently politicized, and for roughly half the population, shrouded in unknowable mystery. It’s also, despite the pastel-hued Instagram posts that will try to convince you otherwise, bloody and gross and alien and primal.

All of this makes pregnancy a theme that naturally fits well with horror movies. What happens when a parent doesn’t feel a connection to their child, or can’t keep their kid safe? What if outside forces take control of a woman’s body? The often-unspoken anxieties that go hand-in-hand with human reproduction have been channeled through the safely metaphorical conduit of horror for decades, resulting in films that expose tough truths and reveal deep-seated fears.

Here are ten films that do an excellent job making the magic of giving life look horrific… it’s the harrowing horror movie pregnancies as voted on by Brad Gullickson, Chris Coffel, Kieran Fisher, Rob Hunter, Meg Shields, Anna Swanson, Jacob Trussell, and yours truly.

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10. A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)

Some critics would have you believe that the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise gets sillier in its later installments. However, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child set out to address issues such as abortion and teen pregnancy, so it can’t be accused of being devoid of ideas or not confronting hot-button topics.

In some ways, this is one of the more mature movies of the bunch. But the story is also a testament to Freddy Krueger’s never-die attitude, as he uses a pregnant woman’s baby’s dreams to continue his murderous rampage. Of course, it’s only a matter of time until Baby Freddy makes an appearance, and he’s as cute as a button. (Kieran Fisher)

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9. Beyond The Door (1974)

If you ever watched Rosemary’s Baby and thought, “Shit, man, I really wish this had the energy of The Exorcist,” then do I have a movie for you. A shlockbuster before the term was invented, Ovidio G. Assonitis’s Beyond the Door mashes up two of the finest horror films in such a way that it would almost become an incoherent mess if it wasn’t held together by Juliet Mills’ committed performance as a pregnant woman possessed by the spawn of Satan growing in her belly.

The film veered so close to William Friedkin’s classic that Warner Brothers actually sued the producers of Beyond the Door, who eventually settled five years later. I’d like to believe that Assonitis was successful in mitigating the illegality of his movie by pointing out that the film is brazenly a parody of The Exorcist, featuring a twelve-year-old girl who doesn’t need Satan’s help to have the mouth of a sailor and her little brother who has a heavy addiction to slurping Campbell’s Pea Soup like it was a Coca-Cola.

Nothing can accurately describe how fucking crazy this film is, but if you want a kaleidoscopic trip into the world of 1970s Italian knock-offs, then Beyond the Door is required viewing. (Jacob Trussell)

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8. Eraserhead (1977)

The pregnancy plot in David Lynch’s experimental debut feature would almost be absurdly funny if it wasn’t also a source of tremendous existential dread. In the film, a man named Henry (Jack Nance) has an unusual dinner with his girlfriend Mary (Charlotte Stewart), which ends with the revelation that Mary had a child… or… something child-like. This is unusual for many reasons, one of them being that traditional pregnancy was never mentioned, with a surreal and cosmic opening scene standing in for conception.

Nonetheless, the couple moves in together to take care of the deformed being, which looks nothing like a human but a bit like an unformed alien fetus swaddled in bandages. At first, this all seems like a strange and detached artistic exercise on Lynch’s part, but when things begin to go grotesquely wrong with the creature, Eraserhead invokes a sense of inexplicable parental protectiveness mingled with disgust. Though pregnancy itself isn’t examined closely, Eraserhead is a fever dream that’s overwhelmed by palpable anxiety around the topic of accidental parenthood. (Valerie Ettenhofer)

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7. The Seventh Sign (1988)

If you make a face at any film’s inclusion on this list it will probably be this underappreciated tale of horror on a biblically apocalyptic level. I’ve been a fan since its release in the late 80s, and while it’s never quite found the reappraisal it deserves — either from audiences or critics — it delivers when it comes to featuring a harrowing pregnancy.

Demi Moore plays Abby, a young pregnant woman whose cynical view on life is shaken by a confluence of events including the arrival of a man (Jürgen Prochnow) who just might be Jesus Christ. Disasters, both natural and supernaturally ordained, ravage the planet and an undeserving human species, and only Abby holds the key to our salvation. It’s an appealingly emotional sentiment confirming that only we can save ourselves… from ourselves. (Rob Hunter)

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6. The House of the Devil (2009)

Ti West’s atmospheric, slow-burn chamber piece about a babysitter in the ‘80s doesn’t advertise itself as pregnancy horror, but the all-in third act takes it to some unexpected places with a final stop at motherhood. The House of the Devil follows Samantha (Jocelin Donahue), a college student who takes a babysitting job in a creepy mansion to make ends meet. By the end of the night, Sam has become pregnant by way of a forced cult ritual.

On one level, West’s movie is a stylish, deftly-made throwback that offers homage to several genre classics. On another, it’s a harrowing film about a trusting young woman who’s manipulated into increasingly uncomfortable situations, culminating in an unwanted pregnancy. The House of The Devil might not be that deep on purpose, but by treading the hallowed ground of Rosemary’s Baby, it highlights horror’s long legacy of provocative takes on reproductive narratives. (Valerie Ettenhofer)

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Fun First Trailer for 'The Stand In' Comedy Starring Drew Barrymore

"Okay everybody, let's flush this turd down the toilet!" Hollywood, eh? Saban Films has released an official trailer for an indie comedy titled The Stand In, an amusing Hollywood-life comedy about an actress and her stand in. From filmmaker Jamie Babbit, The Stand In is the story of a disaffected comedy actress and her ambitious stand-in trading places. Drew Barrymore stars in both roles, and hires her stand-in to take her place at rehab. But of course they both learn lessons in the process. Also starring Michael Zegen, TJ Miller, Holland Taylor, Michelle Buteau, and Ellie Kemper. This looks like a fun concept to mess around with but it seems a bit meh overall. At least Barrymore looks like she's having good fun making this.

Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Jamie Babbit's The Stand In, direct from Saban's YouTube:

When ordered to serve a year in rehab, actress Candy (Drew Barrymore) hires her on set stand-in to take her place. The unassuming woman flips the script and steals her identity, career and boyfriend in this hilarious comedy about trading places. The Stand In is directed by American writer / filmmaker Jamie Babbit, director of the films But I'm a Cheerleader, The Quiet, Itty Bitty Titty Committee, Breaking the Girls, and Addicted to Fresno previously, and a director for various TV shows including "Silicon Valley", "Girlboss", "Girls", "Russian Doll", and the upcoming "A League of Their Own". The screenplay is written by Sam Bain. This hasn't premiered at any festivals or elsewhere, as far as we know. Saban Films will release Babbit's The Stand In in select US theaters + on VOD starting December 11th this fall. Anyone interested?

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Shira Haas & Lior Ashkenazi in Trailer for Israeli Bakery Drama 'Esau'

"You feel this sour smell? It's the dough starting to rise… Nothing can stop it now." ShineHouse Group has debuted an official US trailer for an indie drama titled Esau an Israeli drama made by a Russian filmmaker. This originally premiered at the Shanghai Film Festival last year, and arrives on VOD in the US this month. A 40-year-old writer returns home to his family house where he was raised and that he escaped after half a lifetime - to face his brother who stayed instead, inherited their family bakery and married the woman who they both loved. The film stars Harvey Keitel, Lior Ashkenazi, Mark Ivanir, and Shira Haas. The cinematography is a bit basic, but the film seems to have a lot of heart and a lot of authentic emotion worked into it. Not only a story about going home and family, but also the struggles of love and following your heart.

Here's the new official US trailer (+ poster) for Pavel Lungin's Esau, direct from YouTube:

A writer (Lior Ashkenazi) returns to the family home in Israel to care for his ailing father (Harvey Keitel) and must face his embittered younger brother, who assumed all responsibility for their family bakery… and married the woman (Shira Haas) whom they both loved. Esau is directed by Russian filmmaker Pavel Lungin, director of many films including Taxi Blues, Luna Park, Russian Mafia, Tycoon: A New Russian, Roots, The Island, Tsar, The Conductor, The Queen of Spades, and Leaving Afghanistan previously. The screenplay is written by Pavel Lungin and Evgeny Ruman, adapted from the novel by Meir Shalev. This originally premiered at the Shanghai Film Festival last year, and also played at the Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival. ShineHouse Group will release Lungin's Esau direct-to-VOD in the US starting on December 1st.

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How They Did the “Birth of Frank” Sequence in ‘Hellraiser’

Welcome to How’d They Do That? — , a bi-monthly column that unpacks moments of movie magic and celebrates the technical wizards who pulled them off. This entry looks into the reverse melt sequence in Hellraiser.

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At its core, Hellraiser offers a perverse portrait of domestic debauchery: Macbeth by way of interdimensional S&M. Released in 1987, the film marks the directorial debut of macabre renaissance man Clive Barker, whose dissatisfaction with prior cinematic adaptations of his work pushed him to finally take the reins himself.

When Hellraiser begins, meek but loving Larry (Andrew Robinson) is moving his family into the derelict house of his brother Frank (Sean Chapman). The move, Larry hopes, will act as a fresh start. A new beginning, and maybe even an opportunity to re-light the spark with his cold, unloving wife, Julia (Clare Higgins).

Frank, you see, is missing. Torn to shreds, quite literally, in his hedonistic quest to experience the full spectrum of pain and pleasure. As far as Larry is concerned, Frank’s mysterious disappearance is par for the course. But Frank’s absence haunts Julia. For this is, in fact, a tragic love triangle: a familial struggle between a pervert, his lover, and her husband.

Lurching into memories of her affair with Frank, Julia’s longing for her lost passion inevitably releases something nasty. While she reminisces vividly, Larry slices his hand open on a stray nail. Dizzy at the sight of blood, Larry finds his wife, lost in thought, in the attic. In the very room where Frank unlocked the occult puzzle box that tore his soul (and his body) apart.

While Larry leaks profusely onto the floor, a disgruntled Julia accompanies her pitiful husband downstairs. And so, the couple inadvertently perform a sacrifice. Part blood, part divination: flesh to flesh, as it were. Something dormant awakens beneath the floorboards: something fleshy, stubborn, and determined to live again.

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How it started // How it’s going

Christopher Young‘s excellent, sadistic score kicks into high gear. And steadily, painfully, Frank pulls himself back together again. Liquid willfully materializes. A slimy spinal column reattaches to the base of a reconstituted brain. Veins and nerves form out of thick, cloudy puddles. Eyes push out and sockets snap open.

This isn’t just one of the best special makeup effects in the film. This is one of the most memorable effects sequences in ’80s horror, period. Iconic cenobites notwithstanding, this is Hellraiser‘s greatest visual achievement: a startling transformation in which the germ of a man rips himself out of one world and back into ours.

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How’d they do that?

Long story short:

With a false floor, lubed-up puppets, and reverse-photography of melting wax.

Long story long:

The great Bob Keen designed the special makeup effects for Hellraiser. While only in his mid-twenties, Keen had amassed an impressive list of credits that included the likes of the original Star Wars trilogy, multiple Jim Henson films, and a handful of projects under his mentor Nick Maley. It was through Maley (or rather, through Maley getting sick) that Keen was tasked with designing the makeup effects for Highlander, which put Keen on the radar of Hellraiser producer Christopher Figg. Hellraiser would be the first feature film of the upstart SFX studio Image Animation, which Keen co-founded with Hellraiser‘s workshop supervisor, Geoff Portass.

According to Portass in the impressively long making-of documentary Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II, the “birth of Frank” sequence as we know it almost didn’t happen. The initial approach of the financiers was to treat the project like a cult object. One that, on the strength of Barker’s literary reputation, would prove a safe investment. However, after the backers obtained a post-production cut of the movie, they liked what they saw. And so they smartly threw more money at the film. Ultimately, a good chunk of that money went into the “birth of Frank” sequence.

That original cut of the film went something like this: clumsy Larry slices his hand open, the camera cuts away, and bam: Julia finds skinless Frank in the attic. This extra dough allowed Keen and a small team to bring to life the nasty shit that took place during that cut.

In the script, as written, the idea was that Frank, or what was left of Frank, had been splattered all over the walls and dried up over time. As scripted, the husk of Frank was supposed to materialize out of a wall and start talking. The original plan was to accomplish this with animatronics. The team even built a cable-controlled lip-synching puppet. However, according to makeup crew member Cliff Wallace, the puppet proved “too complicated for its own good.”

Instinctually, Keen knew something was missing from the birth sequence. Over the course of principal photography, “the film had become something else.” And the dry birth, as scripted, just “wasn’t visceral” enough. As a result, the team scrapped the idea of dusty Frank in favor of a… wetter approach. One that, according to Barker, Keen had conceptually wanted to do for a very long time: a living corpse reconstituting itself from the ground up.

“I found it interesting to start with the bare bones and work up to something quite skinny but definitely alive,” recalls Keen in Fangoria #66. “A total reversal to the usual effect where you’re making someone decompose.” (Speaking of “quite skinny but definitely alive,” wispy actor Oliver Smith was the one who embodied “Frank the Monster.”)

The realized birthing sequence is an entirely in-camera effect, shot on a stage in South London well after principal photography had wrapped. The re-constituted attic was, in fact, the only part of the film shot in a studio. Where, helpfully, the crew had the luxury of a raised stage. This allowed for the effects team to operate the puppets and pumps from underneath the floor.

The shot of Larry’s blood seeping unnaturally through the floor was a simple reverse shot of a red fluid being pumped up through rigged nail holes in the floorboard.

The false floor allowed for the establishing downward pan revealing the pulsing heart-like mass. This “embryo” was designed by John Cormican. And as Keen relays to Heather A. Wixton in her book Monster Squad, the effect was “made out of a condom, a piece of tubing, some glue, and some bits and pieces to pull the whole thing together to make it look like a real human organ.”

According to the crew, the backbone of Hellraiser‘s special effects was, in fact, lube and condoms. Which, given the erotic nature of the film, is quite fitting. The crew actively sought out condoms because they were made out of latex. And sheet latex was something constantly in need if you were doing SFX makeup in the ’80s. Lube made things look wet (and stay wet) under the camera lights. According to the crew, they were mortified whenever they’d have to make a run to a shop to load up on what surely looked like a king’s ransom of orgy supplies.

As for the birthing sequence, the SFX gang actually used a step up from lube. That’s right: it’s the return of our good friend methylcellulose, the food thickener/SFX mainstay. “We would pump up methylcellulose by the gallon” recalls Keen. You can see the pump in action early in the sequence, as pools of clear goop ooze up from the floorboards. The thick, snot-like strands coating Frank’s in-progress body are also likely methylcellulose.

When Frank’s “arm stumps” (what else to call them?) erupt from the pools of ooze, those are two animatronics. “We built lots and lots of puppet rigs,” stresses Keen. Watching the sequence, the puppetry is especially apparent when you know about the false floor. You can just imagine the operators, huddled below, pushing out fingers, and pulling on shuddering spinal stalks.

The forming flesh effect itself — where bone, muscle, and tendons reconstitute Frank’s skinless body — was accomplished with wax and reverse photography. The team constructed models of body parts out of different waxes with different melting points, layering them as needed. Burned and filmed in reverse, the effect is that of re-forming flesh. This required a multitude of stages as well as close-up appliances to show the growth of Frank’s hands and organs.

The crew also used colored thread for Frank’s veins, which when pulled and played in reverse, looks like conscious, slime mold-like sinew. As mentioned above, puppet rigs also featured in the “reverse melt” parts of the sequence. Wires were used to pull away pieces of Frank apart bit by bit, mimicking, in reverse, the in-film demise of the character himself.

“The sequence involves a whole bunch of ideas merged into one, and I don’t think that’s been done before,” emphasizes Keen.

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What’s the precedent?

As far as reverse decompositions go, Keen is probably correct in saying that there is no precedent. Especially at this scale. However, I can think of at least two pieces of early ’80s SFX that put some of Hellraiser‘s ingenuity in context.

The first is a melt. In fact, maybe one of the most famous melts of all time. And, like the Frank birth effect, it made use of heat and liquifying materials layered to give the impression of human flesh. That’s right, we’re talking Raiders of the Lost Ark. In which, near the end of the film, Steven Spielberg treats us to the unforgettable image of two Nazis’ faces melting off.

Luckily for us, the good folks at Industrial Light & Magic have spoken about the effect at length. Probably because traumatized kids who are now entertainment journalists won’t stop asking them to foot their therapy bill.

After making molds of the actors’ heads using alginate (a rubbery substance used in dental molds), the artists sculpted the heads and added eyes and skulls made out of a material that could withstand the face-melting heat. Instead of wax, ILM used different colored layers of a gelatin formula with a low melting point. Then it was just a matter of aiming the heat guns at the heads and speeding up the recorded footage.

The other effect I want to mention is from John Carpenter’s The Thing. We’ve covered the Norris-Thing effect on the column before (and at length). But I want to highlight one moment from the sequence in particular: when Norris-Thing’s fleeing head defensively sprouts legs and eyestalks. In terms of “pushing gross spindly shit up through a fake floor,” it’s the effect that springs to mind. So to speak.

The Norris-Thing’s transformation isn’t all that dissimilar from what Keen and co. did for Frank’s limbs in Hellraiser. To achieve the effect of the metamorphosing Norris head, The Thing SFX team, lead by wunderkind Rob Bottin, worked on an elevated set with a fake floor. This allowed the operators below to push everything up and out through Norris-Thing’s hollow head.

There’s a lot of love out there for 1980s special makeup effects. And I’d venture a guess that a good part of that love is rooted in the period’s penchant for texture. Whether it’s a crab-head, a goopy corpse, or a melting Nazi head, these are effects with an endearing tactility. They certainly touched audiences. Whether audiences would have the guts to reach out and touch them back is another matter.

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