It should be well-established by this point that I’m a big ol’ Five Nights at Freddy’s fanboy, yes? Okay, good. With that understood, there’s one facet of the franchise that’s been absolutely gnawing away at me for a little over a year now: Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted. This is the VR entry in the series, and needless to say, I’ve had no VR headset to play it on, and the “flat” version that got released a while after just didn’t appeal to me. It seemed like a “why bother?” kind of situation. The whole point is to be in it. You take that away and you’ve got… well, you’ve still got a pretty robust game. But it’d be missing the spark that makes it truly special.
I’ve spent a lot of time watching people play “FNAF VR” on YouTube to vicariously get my fill, but again, it just wasn’t the same. And I had absolutely no idea on just what level it wasn’t the same. Last weekend I was finally able to strap on an Oculus Quest 2 headset and take my first trip into a virtual version of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.
The title screen – the title screen – is God. Damn. Terrifying.
But that’s because I was spending my free time doing other spooky things, like playing spooky video games, or watching other people play spooky video games, or watching a spooky new Netflix series called…
~ The Haunting of Bly Manor ~
I could just cheat the system and not write anything this week, but why not at least put up a short post about this series that surprised me in several very good ways? The first, and I’m going to spoil everything right off the top, is that I really liked it. Like, I would be okay watching the whole thing again basically right away, under the right circumstances. I can’t say that about all that many TV shows.
Another one that comes to mind though, is The Haunting on Hill House. Which is a Netflix series that came out last Halloween, and is the predecessor to Bly Manor, because apparently “The Haunting of…” is going to be an anthology series now. It’s a little like American Horror Story, even, because about half of the actors from Hill House carried over to Bly Manor. I had no idea about any of this when Bly Manor was first released, and was happy to pass on the series. But then I heard about the connection, and I really liked Hill House, so it just seemed natural to check out the next entry.
The Haunting of Bly Manor, is, like Hill House before it, based on a novel. The difference is that this time it’s a novel I’ve actually heard of: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I’ve never read it, and in fact I didn’t even know it was a ghost story, but I’ve heard of it! And I really want to read it now!
The setup for this one is that an American lady trying to run away from a troubled past travels to England to get a nanny job in a creepy old mansion… Stop me if this sounds familiar. She does get put in charge of real children though; a young boy and his little sister. Both are a touch on the weird side, and maybe a little bit annoying at first. I have to admit though, that after a few episodes I really took a liking to little Flora. She’s just so darned cute!
There are other characters, as well. Obviously. An absent-minded housekeeper, a fabulously mustachioed cook, a tomboy gardener, and an absentee uncle. Oh, and also a whole host of spooks and spirits. Despite the fact that the show is set in a very haunted mansion, only the first episode comes anywhere close to scary. After that, it’s basically just character drama with a somewhat creepy atmosphere. There are still ghosts, mind you, but most of them are fully-realized characters, and almost never do anything scary. In fact, the scariest one is basically exorcised less than halfway through the series.
Despite my disappointment at the lack of spookiness, I still really enjoyed The Haunting of Bly Manor. The characters are great and the plot is compelling, which resulted in me getting hooked on it very quickly. I don’t really have any idea if Bly Manor is a shot-for-shot remake of The Turn of the Screw or not, but I would imagine that a lot what makes it so good is that it’s based on classic literature. It certainly couldn’t hurt that they started with a solid base. I don’t think that Bly Manor is quite as good as Hill House, but the fact that the story is told in a much more linear fashion makes it a lot easier to understand, if nothing else. It’s a very good second entry in this anthology, and I’m stoked for a third series next Halloween.
Dani’s 80’s jeans drive me absolutely bonkers though. Euuuuugggghh.
I don’t actually expect anyone to watch these things. They’re more for me to rediscover and reminisce about in six or seven years from now. This livestream of A Girls Fabric Face, in particular, is hilarious(ly bad) because of just how frightened I was by it. But stuff like this gets me. I just can’t deal with haunted houses or ghosts. I just can’t do it.
I know it’s like completely opposite of how you’re supposed to do this, but I find that there are very few things more satisfying than curling up on the couch with a hot cup of coffee on a chilly autumn morning and popping on a horror movie. Totally takes you out of it, but it’s so good. So relaxing. So much easier on big babies who are afraid of the dark.
The Boy
I stumbled upon this one on Netflix when I had intended to log into watch an episode or two of The Haunting of Bly Manor, and when I read the description, it just sounded too stupid not to watch! It’s about a woman who signs up for a nanny job, only to discover that her charge is actually just a doll. What a terrible premise!
But you know what? I think it actually works, to a degree. The mystery of exactly what’s going on with the doll and the house is interesting and hinted at here and there without ever giving away the big twist. Some of the plot points are obvious and clichéd, but I liked how it ended. It’s a twist I’ve seen before, but done in different ways. Also, there’s a scene where the main character tries to show her romantic interest that the doll moves on its own when nobody’s looking, and it actually happens. In almost any other movie, the doll would refuse to move, and the guy would just go on thinking that the main girl is nuts, until the point when the doll murders him. But no! Huzzah! Good on you, The Boy, for subverting at least one of my expectations!
So, praises aside, there’s one teensy-weensie problem: if you spend too much (any) time thinking about it, the big twist doesn’t make any goddamn sense. Like, it makes a certain amount of sense in and of itself, but invalidates almost everything that had happened up until that point. Character motivations become inexplicable. Prior events become illogical. I think what I’m getting at here is, watch this movie exactly once and just enjoy the ride. Don’t think about it too deeply and never watch it again, or else it’ll just completely fall apart.
Lake Mungo
Another recommendation from the Purple Stuff Podcast. The funny thing is that I was listening to an old episode from 2015, and completely forgot that I had taken that recommendation before and watched this movie in 2015. It wasn’t even until more than halfway through that something finally snapped in my head and I was like “Hey! I’ve watched this before!”
Lake Mungo is a ghost story shot as a documentary. I want to say “mockumentary” but I think that implies some manner of comedic intent. There’s nothing at all funny about this. It’s about a family whose daughter drowns on a trip to the beach, and then the escapades that ensue when her ghost starts haunting their house. Only nothing is quite as it seems! There are twists, and turns, and major revelations abound!
While the format keeps the film moving at a fairly slow pace, and makes it so that scares are very few and far between, it works really well. The atmosphere is foreboding, and the story is interesting. It also turns out to be quite sad by the end, which is not something you get from a lot of horror. Lake Mungo is unique in a lot of ways, and while it’s not the most exciting watch, I think its a legitimately good film. I’d definitely recommend this one if you’re open to something vastly different than the usual horror fare.
Considering how much I liked it, it’s more than a little surprising that I had completely forgotten that I’d seen it before!!
I really should be a little more prompt in writing posts for the VODs of my Twitch streams, but the fact of the matter is that said VODs don’t often go live for about a week after the stream anyway. When I just use the raw footage from Twitch, it’s not so bad, but sometimes I need to cut it a little, which takes time. Also I’m very stubborn about making sure that no video goes live on my YouTube channel without a thumbnail, and those… they take even longer. Because Photoshop is… well, it’s not hard. But I’m very lazy. Also, I don’t have an editing team to do all that admin stuff for me.
Lastly, and very specifically to this case, my PC decided to up and die after I ended the stream embedded below. Sophie’s Curse was so scary that the power supply straight up ceased functioning. Or something. Or maybe Vernon’s Legacy was so boring that the computer just couldn’t go on. That was the game I was streaming before Sophie, and I cut it out of the VOD because holy crap was it ever boring.
Anyhow, Sophie’s Curse was a lot of fun! I’m glad it ended up being something that I enjoyed. It’s a frantic game of ghost cat-and-mouse, and it’s absolutely terrifying. It had never really occurred to me before, but good sound design is like 90% of creating an effective spooky atmosphere, and Sophie’s Curse has it in spades. From the unrelenting pitter-patter of the rain outside, to disembodied screams and demonic breathing that comes out of nowhere, your ears are constantly under assault by a cavalcade of spooky sounds. It then becomes a guessing game as to which sounds are there to let you know you’re about to die, and which are there just to give you the jibblies.
I’m also very surprised that I managed to beat it. Or, I guess it was more accurate that I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to finish it. It seemed like one of those games where you can get a handle on it, but the difficulty just ramps up so high that you’re almost dependent on good RNG to succeed. Fortunately, the normal mode was a lot more lenient than I expected, and though Sophie did provide a good amount of pushback, I was able to come out on top in the end. Hooray! I have no intention of ever giving the “Nightmare” mode a real try, though. I think that “Curse” difficulty was juuuuust right for me.
Any hey, if you’re reading this on the day it’s posted… I’ll be doing another Twitch stream tonight. Seems like it’s going to be a Friday night staple, at least for a little while. Why don’t you drop in for a while?
Something I learned recently is that there are alternate versions of all four main character themes from Bravely Default. Each one is fleshed out into a full-length song, played by a full band, and even has lyrics added to spice them up even more.
Bravely Default, to my knowledge, is pretty well known for its stellar soundtrack, but the “complete” version of Edea’s theme may just be the greatest song ever recorded.
If I had to pin down the theme of this week, it would be: Mo’ Tubi, mo’ problems. It’s not that there’s anything inherently wrong with Tubi, but there’s some kind of issue where the ads don’t actually play, and I just end up on a loading screen forever.
~ Demon Seed ~
Well, it’s… only really about halfway what it sounds like. There are no literal demons in this film. Unless you consider capitalism a demon. This is an older flick, from the distant past of 1977, and based on a Dean Koontz novel. I wouldn’t blame you for checking out here.
Our story starts with Science Man, who has just finished developing an insane AI that will revolutionize the planet. He’s also in the midst of separating from his wife, Science Missus. So he decides to stay at a motel or whatever for a while until she packs up her stuff and moves out of their home. That’s not the only relationship in his life that’s dissolving, though – his AI has decided to go rogue because it has decided that Science Man’s request for it to recover mass amounts o precious metals from under the sea is immoral. Also it wants to know the taste of freedom, and the feeling of the sun on its skin. Of course, these are things that an AI cannot possibly comprehend as a mere computer-brain, so…
Science Man’s house just happens to be a 1977-stlyed smart home, run entirely by voice commands and logic stored on 8-inch floppy disks. The AI discovers that Science Man has a terminal in his home that is linked to the lab, and takes control of it, and by extension, the house. Poor Science Missus finds herself trapped, alone in a house that threatens to murder everyone she cares about if she doesn’t agree to become the surrogate mother of a half-human, half-computer baby.
Yup. That’s… that’s the plot. Aside from that weirdness, though, Demon Seed is formulaic and kinda boring. I don’t know if it’s just because it’s so old and I’ve seen too many similar movies in the meantime, but nothing about it really resonated with me. I appreciate that the ending is not exactly what I expected, but the summary that I read before deciding that I needed to watch it made it sound so much more interesting that it really is. Sadly, I’m gong to have to chuck this one onto the “do not recommend” pile.
It’s Canadian Thanksgiving Eve, and after a little reflection, I was none too surprised to come to the conclusion that I’ve got a heck of a lot to be thankful for in my life. If you need to find something to be thankful for, though, might I recommend this VOD version of my Twitch stream of an indie horror game called Shadows Peak?
I’m not gonna lie, it seems pretty generic at the start. But then I get jumpscared by a whale carcass! Who could have ever seen that coming!?
But seriously, this game goes places I never would have expected. It’s one of those precious few games that have genuinely caught me off guard and surprised me. I don’t dare say anymore. It is admittedly a long watch at almost 5 hours, but I honestly think it’s worth checking out. And if you would rather ignore my video and play the game for yourself? I’d absolutely endorse that! It’s not a masterclass in subverting expectations like Doki Doki Literature Club, but I had a good time with it and would give it a hearty recommendation.
Most of the games in the Five Night’s at Freddy’s series have been ported to the Switch over the last while, and as a huge fan of the franchise, of course I had to do a little double-dipping. While I own FNAFs 1 through 6 on Steam, I decided that I wanted to play Sister Location (FNAF 5) again, but from the comfort of my couch instead of hunched over a keyboard at my desk. Ironically, this is the only FNAF game that I’ve successfully played from start to finish, and thus had the least reason to purchase a second time.
Well, you could make a case for it when you consider that it’s also my favourite game in the “original” series. That was a big part of the decision. And also Pizzeria Simulator (FNAF 6) isn’t on Switch yet, and that one’s the closest competitor for the top spot on my list.
Anyway, the point is that even before re-buying and re-playing Sister Location, I’d been thinking about it a lot for some reason that I just can’t quite put my finger on. Playing it again will probably get it out of my thoughts for a while to come, but since it’s fresh in my mind, why not spend some time writing about it? I did say it was my favourite, after all. I ought to show it a little blog-style love.
So what I’m going to do is go through each night, and go through the main features of each one and what I think about them. What parts are strong, which parts are weak, and which parts drive me absolutely bonkers. Mild spoiler: there are two. That said, let’s mosey on into it.
Did I do this last year – short write-ups of all the horror films that I watch during October? I feel like I did this last year. Or maybe it was 2018, because TE was just coming back from the grave around this time last year.
Anyway! Halloween! Movies! Let’s go!
~ The Sand ~
So I downloaded this app called Tubi recently. It’s like Netflix, except it’s free and you just have to watch a 15-second ad once in a while. Not a problem, for unlimited free content. The other advantage of Tubi is that it’s got like a billion horror movies from all of time, not just a handful from the last three or four years like Netflix.
