Announcements and Intentions

Welcome to Coffee with Frizzy J! I'm Frizzy J, and you know I've got a steaming mug beside me. So, if you are so inclined, grab yourself one, curl up, and hear me out for a spell. Let's start things out with a big shoutout to my friend, Katelyn Faith, an amazing artist and wordsmith that I grew up with here in the Midwest. She has crafted the new logos and neat art you will see around the site. You can find her at Katelyn Faith's Graphite Portraits and Prints, and here's a link.

I had a great Halloween! Anyone else? With the conclusion of this, arguably, best part of the year, I'd like to describe my activities and cultural indulgences. These indulgences fall into three categories, all beneath the umbrella genre of horror, because, well… that's what the season means to me.

We are going to look at the books, movies and video games that I put my time into over the span of October and early November in 2022. Most of these are old, as very few of the new products are of quality. However, I did not delve into the monumental and pivotal movies of the genre… No Halloween, nor Friday the 13th. No Nightmare on Elm Street, no Child's Play. I was on the hunt for something new, and that was perhaps my first mistake.

In all honesty, this is not a new issue. The horror genre is a landscape littered with nonsense and duds that help the greats, like The Exorcist, The Strangers, Alien, Hellraiser, and Halloween truly stand out as excellent examples of worthwhile culture. I hate to bring attention to terrible media, but to name a few tragic duds, I suppose we can look at… Ouija? Perhaps… Sinister? Even in prose the horror greats are mostly deceased. We have... who? Stephen King, Dean Koontz... R.L. Stine? (And as I've come to discover, Thomas Ligotti) As opposed to Lovecraft, Stoker, Shelley, Hitchcock and Poe? Don't get me wrong. I very much enjoy Stephen King and Dean Koontz. R.L. Stine is known for the Goosebumps series, but Fear Street was much more frightening. I would recommend the House on Fear Street trilogy as proof.

I work a job where I play a glorified nightwatchman, so I have ample time to take in streaming media or books. Unfortunately, the streaming platforms I utilize (No Netflix for me) were a minefield of horror trash with the occasional gem gleaming amongst the ashes and refuse.

I began with an old movie I had never seen, yet had been highly recommended to me on many occasions. Silent Hill came out when I was in middle school. Alas, I was long obsessed with chronology, so I wanted to play the games first. The rental store near had only Silent Hill 2 for the Playstation 2, and I could not figure out what to do in the beginning. Two days later, I had to admit defeat and return the rental. Years later, I tried playing Silent Hill: Homecoming, and had the same issue. I will say that the latter game had beautiful graphics and the steampunk gory "living walls" aesthetic is precisely what I would look for in a game. (Think Splatterhouse remake for the XBOX 360) So, perhaps a decade after that, I decided to watch the movie. I liked it. It had great suspense, and the typical horror movie/audience interaction we should all be familiar with: "Lady, you gotta get outta there. Nothing good can come of this."

For books, I read The Body Will Follow and My Work is Not Yet Done, by Rob E. Boley and Thomas Ligotti, respectively. I watched a plethora of movies, and found myself to be mostly disappointed by what Hulu and Amazon Prime had to offer. Hulu had some older movies that weren't too terrible, and I have to admit that Grimcutty, despite its terrible premise, was a decent flick. Amazon had nothing (free), it seemed.

I decided to check out the Resident Evil series of games, which I had downloaded prior, always meaning to play. The RE2 and RE3 remakes are phenomenal. I would imagine that the originals were as well. I still haven't looked into OG Resident Evil (remake, I must be clear. I operate in the digital age, and cannot be spending my time chasing down antiquated consoles and *shudder* memory cards), as I cannot stand the static camera angles and distance from the character. I will admit that the mansion and the atmosphere of the game is superbly creepy.

This then inspired me to watch the movies, despite their obvious nonconnection to the games that inspired them. I almost rented the first two movies when I realized that I still had them on DVD. This was a great reminder that would have really improved my Halloween experience had I remembered them earlier in the month. I found a lot of great horror movies among my diminished DVD collection. I guess there's always next year. Or, honestly, month.

So, thanks for listening. Look out for my honest opinion about some of the better movies I found and honest reviews of the books and games. I will strive to avoid spoilers in reviews. I have been kicking around the idea of writing some critical reviews of some of this material, and those, by virtue of definition, cannot be free of spoilers. Rest assured, I will make it clear in the title tag if that is indeed a thing I choose to attempt. Again, thank you for your time, and I'll catch you next time at Coffee with Frizzy J!