The fall of Napoleon is given exactly the spectacle it deserves — Initial release: October 26, 1970 Director: Sergei Bondarchuk You’ve got to hand it to Napoleon Bonaparte: a guy who came up from nothing, who took advantage of the collapse of the French monarchy to crown himself Emperor yet used his position to consolidate the reforms of the French Revolution, setting a standard of laws and practices that has…

FromSoftware’s best Soulslike? Maybe — if you don’t let it get to you — Initial release: 2015 Platform: PlayStation 4 (so far) Developer: FromSoftware Did you know I used to dislike Bloodborne? It’s true. I’d muddled my way through Demon’s Souls (the original PlayStation 3 version) and the Dark Souls cycle, but when first I fired up Bloodborne about five years ago I was immediately in trouble. The gameplay was fast, brutal and uncompromising…

“A dark interpretation of Alice In Wonderland” is not a phrase anyone wants to hear, but this game’s alright regardless — This review was originally posted to Twitter on March 4, 2019 Initial release: 2000 Platform: PC Developer: Rogue Entertainment Late 90s pop culture is perhaps best defined as “for people who took Johnny the Homicidal Maniac seriously.” There’s an aesthetic to stuff marketed to edgy kids in their teens and early twenties at the time that’s instantly recognizable…

To werewolves what Dracula was for vampires… but not as good — This review was originally posted on Twitter on March 2, 2019 Initial release: 1933 Author: Guy Endore Look, I’m unrepentant furry trash with a thing for transformation and I still think werewolves are kinda wack. …

The OG lesbian vampire, as close as Victorian values will let her get — This review was originally posted to Twitter on February 28th, 2019 Initial release: 1872 Author: Sheridan Le Fanu A quarter century before Bram Stoker wrote Dracula came this seminal work in the lesbian vampire genre, written, of course, by a man. And as such, it’s practically a monument to men’s…

They’re classic children’s novels — but what do we know about the author? — This review was originally posted to Twitter on February 25, 2019. Initial release: 1865 and 1871 Author: Lewis Carroll For what’s probably the most well-known, imitated, referenced, and parodied work of children’s literature in the world, there sure is an awful lot to discuss about its author. …

Haunted house horror amidst the Civil War — This review was originally posted to Twitter on February 24th, 2019 Initial release: 2004 Director: Alex Turner The horror western is an underrated genre. The chaos of the American Civil War, the untamed frontier, or the darkness of the deep South, all are ripe material for a good spooky campfire yarn. …

A vegetarian’s horror movie — This review was originally posted to Twitter on February 24, 2019. Initial release: 1999 Director: Antonia Bird David Arquette might have been a bit of a media darling in the late 1990s with the success of the self-referential slasher flick Scream, but even appearing in this film didn’t earn it the recognition it deserves. …

Bringing Dan Simmons’ frosty horror to television — and sprucing it up a bit — This review was posted to Twitter on February 23, 2019 Initial release: 2018 (First season, ten episodes) Network: AMC Of all the possible things to get made into a TV show, Dan Simmons’ sometimes-gripping, sometimes-turgid historical horror fiction, his enormous novel about the failed Franklin expedition, The Terror, is not something I would have expected, and yet not only…