“They Have Awakened”, AI Short, Review by Case Wright

Posted on October 2, 2026 by casewright

Last year, I reviewed A LOT of AI horror films and yes…most were terrible. It is sad that these films exist and someone spend time making them. However, there are some that are not the worst.

“They Have Awakened” by Ethan is a super short film on Antarctic explorers who find a cave that is just chock full of Cthulhu…Cthulhus(?)…Cthulhossiers(?). Cthulhossiers are like other Cthulhus, but they’re mostly into college hoops.

The explorer team finding Cthulhus is essentially a sub-genre; the stories are always the same, BUT some times the rendering is slightly better. I am actually tired of explorers continuing to unleash Cthulhus- can’t they be like the other Antarctic scientists that I’ve met and just turn to alcoholism and amphetamines?

The film is aggressively mediocre, but it’s only 4 minutes and change; so, have an oat-forward pancake and spend four minutes watching.

Horror Film Review: Tony Manero (dir by Pablo Larrain)

Posted on October 2, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Pablo Larraín’s 2008 film Tony Manero tells the story of an odd man named Raúl (Alfredo Castro). At the height of the Pinochet dictatorship, Raúl lives in a dilapidated boarding house with his girlfriend’s family. The boarding house has a small stage for putting on shows, and Raúl uses it to choreograph dances that pay tribute to his favorite movie, Saturday Night Fever, and his favorite character, Tony Manero. Raúl is a quiet man who comes to life whenever he imitates John Travolta’s dance moves. He goes to see Saturday Night Fever on a daily basis and can recite all of the dialogue by heart. A Chilean TV show is hosting a Tony Manero look-alike contest, and Raúl is determined to win. He even gets a white suit and looks forward to becoming a star instead of just a poor nobody.

That may sound like the setup for a heartwarming, crowd-pleasing movie, but it is not. Raúl is a bitter and paranoid man in his 50s. He’s on the short side. Despite owning a white suit and being able to do all the moves, he really doesn’t look much like Tony Manero. Throughout the film, he goes out of his way to find the secret to becoming Tony Manero. (He becomes obsessed with making the boarding house stage light up just like the disco dance floor in the movie.) But the truth of the matter is that he is not Tony Manero. He is not a charismatic young man trying to find himself in Brooklyn. He is a rather creepy and obnoxious middle-aged man living under a dictatorship. The film turns into a full horror film as it becomes obvious how far Raúl will go to accomplish his dream. When the kindly theater owners swap out Saturday Night Fever for Grease, Raúl is not pleased.

There is a humorous scene early in the film in which Raúl shows up at the television studio in his Tony Manero costume, only to discover that he has gotten the date wrong and has shown up a week early. Everyone in the studio is dressed up to look like Chuck Norris. At the same time, the subtext is very serious. Director Pablo Larraín is showing the influence of American culture on Chile and commenting on American involvement in helping Pinochet take power in 1973. While Raúl tries to turn himself into Tony Manero, people are informing on their neighbors and dissidents are being executed in the streets. Raúl is indifferent to the violence around him. (When he witnesses an execution, his response is to loot the body.) While his girlfriend’s son gets involved with the anti-Pinochet underground, Raúl focuses on trying to transform himself into Tony Manero. In Saturday Night Fever, Tony Manero can escape his oppressive home life by riding the train to a different borough. Raúl doesn’t have that option.

Seen from today’s perspective, Tony Manero’s portrayal of Pinochet’s Chile brings to mind what a lot of people wanted America to become during the COVID era, complete with secret police, neighborhood informants, and the rich getting to flout the rules while the poor were expected to be happy with whatever crumbs were left over. If Raúl survived the Pinochet years, it is easy to imagine him in his 90s, reporting his neighbors for not wearing a face mask and then settling in to watch Saturday Night Fever for the thousandth time.

Lifetime For October: Nightmare PTA Moms (dir by Dave Thomas)

Posted on October 2, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

At the start of 2022’s Nightmare PTA Moms, Gayle (Brianna Cohen) and Rick (Jonathan Stoddard) have just relocated to Florida. Rick is the new regional manager for everyone’s favorite chic retail outfit, Jackie Z. Gayle is looking forward to reopening her bakery, Gayle’s Goodies. (If there’s anything that I’ve learned from watching Lifetime movies, it’s that there’s apparently nothing easier than opening up a bakery in a new town.) Gayle and Rick’s teenage daughter, Chloe (Madison Paige), will soon be starting at her new high school. When Gayle meets PTA president Vanessa VanDeBerg (Alison Filoramo), she’s invited to join. Gayle accepts.

Gayle has no idea what she’s getting into.

Under the velvet glove of Vanessa, the PTA has become a cult. No husbands are allowed at the after-meeting parties. They would ruin the mood as Vanessa hands out tequila shots and invites a male stripper into the house. Don’t tell, Vanessa orders, largely so she can seek revenge against anyone who does tell. Vanessa enjoys being PTA president and she’s not going to let anyone take that joy away from her. Of course, the only reason that Vanessa is president is because the woman who actually won the election, Lexie Wilson, supposedly committed suicide a month after his victory. And then Vanessa’s husband mysteriously fell to his death. “Vanessa doesn’t like to talk about that,” another member of the PTA warns Gayle.

Meanwhile, Chloe has befriended Vanessa’s daughter, Serena (Gracie Silva). Yay! Whenever you’re starting a new chapter in your life — whether it’s a new school or a new job — you should always befriend the most popular people around. However, Serena is soon taking advantage of Chloe’s friendship. Serena insists that Chloe use her Jackie Z discount card to pay for Serena’s purchases. Serena also steals a pair of sunglasses. I don’t really blame Serena. Those sunglasses were pretty cute.

Soon, Gayle is asking questions about all of the deaths surrounding the PTA and Vanessa is vamping it up whenever she stops by Jackie Z. Gayle worries that Rick is going to cheat. Rick worries that Gayle is going to get hurt if she doesn’t stop poking around the PTA. Chloe worries that she’s going to be friendless. The only person who doesn’t seem to be all that worried is Vanessa. That’s what makes her a great character. As played by Alison Filoramo, Vanessa is an unapologetic manipulator. She’s the epitome of the mean girl grown up, delivering every passive aggressive line with just the right amount of snarky menace. It’s not just that Vanessa’s bad. It’s that she has so much fun being bad. Gayle may be the hero but Vanessa is the character that most viewers are going to enjoy watching.

Nightmare PTA Moms is a delight, an unapologetically over-the-top film that is fully willing to embrace the melodrama. That said, there’s definitely an element of truth to the film’s portrayal of self-important, self-absorbed, affluent people who have joined the PTA not because they care about their children’s education but instead because they just love to wield even the smallest amout of power. As campy as the film may have been, it worked because there was just enough reality to make the film relatable. After living through the COVID lockdowns, it’s not longer a shock to see a movie about an entitled sociopath who thinks that she has the right to tell other people what to do, what to think and what to say.

In the end, the nightmare becomes reality.

Horror Film Review: The Mist (dir by Frank Darabont)

Posted on October 2, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Based on a novella by Stephen King, The Mist opens the morning after a sudden thunderstorm in Maine. Artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane) steps outside and sees that a tree has crashed through one of his front windows. Meanwhile, his neighbor, attorney Brent Norton (Andre Braugher), stares at the tree that has crushed his car. Though David and Brent are not exactly on friendly terms, the storm briefly brings them together. When David says that he’s going into town to pick up supplies, Norton asks if he can come with him. David’s wife stays back at the house while David drives his son (Nathan Gamble) and Brent to the local grocery store. Before David leaves, he notices a thick mist moving over a nearby lake.

The entire town is without power and the grocery store is crowded. Three soldiers, who are picking up supplies before going on leave, are told that the leave has been abruptly canceled. Once the mist surrounds the store, it soon becomes obvious why that is. There are monsters in the mist and David, Norton, and several others find themselves trapped in the store. Going outside, as some insist on doing, only leads to death at the hands of the Lovecraftian monsters that inhabit the mist.

The Mist was first released in 2007 and I have to admit that I didn’t care much for it the first time that I saw it. I thought that some of the performances were a bit too histrionic and the film’s dark ending was almost too portentous to be credible. When I first saw it, I thought the film was almost trying too hard with the tragic conclusion. However, when I recently rewatched the film, I discovered that it had grown on me. I was better able to appreciate the fact that the monsters were both ludicrous and deadly at the same time. Performances that once seemed over-the-top in 2007 now seemed almost subtle when compared to how I’ve seen people actually behave in the real world over the past ten years. Once you’ve been yelled at for not wearing a mask while jogging, it’s a lot easier to buy the idea of a bunch of people in a grocery store losing their collective minds. Even the film’s dark ending now seemed like the only honest way the film could have ended.

The Mist is a film that plays much differently in a post-COVID world. The idea of innocent people losing their lives because of an accident at a government lab no longer seems all that unbelievable. The argument about whether or not to leave the store mirrored many of the same arguments that I heard during the COVID lockdowns. If Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) and her followers originally seemed like standard Stephen King religious fanatics, Carmody now brings to mind the loathsome Randi Weingarten and her insistence that the only way to defeat COVID was to sacrifice the future of the young. Even the film’s final moments of self-destruction reflected the attitude that many had in 2020, that the situation was hopeless and that there was no escape beyond waiting for the world to end. The final image of one man, driven mad and screaming, brings to mind both the fate of the typical Lovecraftian explorer and also the excesses of the COVID era. That Stephen King continues to be one of the major defenders of these excesses brings a wonderful irony to the film’s subtext.

The Mist has definitely grown on me. It still has its flaws but those flaws are less of a problem now than they were in 2007. In 2007, The Mist seemed overlong. In 2026, that 2-hour running time feels like a relief from the slow-moving miniseries that have become a signature part of the streaming age. Even Thomas Jane’s performance, which seemed rather stiff when I first saw the movie, has improved in hindsight. His tight-jawed stoicism makes his eventual breakdown all the more effective. Everyone reaches the limit, the film seems to be saying.

The Mist is a film that has aged well. It’s one of the better Stephen King adaptations, one that largely stays true to the source material while still having the courage to develop its own identity. The first time I saw it, I was wrong about The Mist. It’s a film that deserves to be remembered as one of the most relevant horror films of the past 20 years.

Horror On The Lens: Planet of the Vampires (dir by Mario Bava)

Posted on October 2, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s horror on the lens is a true classic, 1965’s Planet of the Vampires!

Directed by the great Mario Bava, Planet of the Vampires follows a space expedition that lands on a seemingly dead planet. The members of the expedition soon discover that the undead aren’t just an Earth phenomenon. This atmospheric mix of horror and science fiction was later acknowledged as being a major inspiration for Alien.

Enjoy this classic from Mario Bava!

Lisa Marie Reviews The Amazing Race 39.2 “Are Tomatoes Good For Skin Care?”

Posted on October 2, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Up until I checked the schedule to see whether or not the Big Brother finale was going to be two hours, I didn’t realize that CBS was going to be airing the second leg of The Amazing Race on Friday. Since I already had something else planned for Thursday night, I didn’t get a chance to watch the latest episode of The Amazing Race until this morning.

I was really happy about the second leg taking place in Madrid. My maternal grandmother was born in Spain and came to the United States after World War II. (Growing up, I was usually the only girl in any of my classes who knew who General Franco was.) I love Spain, even if it is currently being governed by a smug Socialist.

My sister Erin Nicole and I often joke about trying out for The Amazing Race and I think we would have done well during this leg. I would have let her do the Roadblock with the tomatoes. We definitely would have been able to tell the difference between Puerta del Sol and Puerta del Sur. I would have totally dominated the Slice of History detour. Along with the fact that our grandmother was born in Spain, I’ve got a degree in art history and I’m a big history nerd in general. I would not have needed to ask the locals who Picasso was and who Dalí was. We would have made it to the pit stop without having to use the express pass and I totally would have hugged Phil when he said that we were team number one.

I rolled my eyes a bit when Ann-Marie and Riley decided to form the Boss Lady alliance with Ali & Joanna, Jody & Jenn, and Dafina & Saran. I always cringe whenever the people on this show, Big Brother, or Survivor try to do the “all-girls alliance” thing because it always starts with everyone going, “Girl power!” and it always ends with people getting mad over the pettiest of things. We saw some of that during last night’s episode, when Ali ignored Dafina at the roadblock. I also noticed that, for all the talk of women supporting other women, they didn’t bother to invite Katie & Charlotte to join the alliance. In truth, The Amazing Race is not a game that really benefits from alliances. I can think of one season in which an alliance really worked and most of the viewers hated that season because the alliance members were all so unlikable.

(Interestingly enough, Ann-Marie and Riley also suggested that all of the players doing the Slice of Ham roadblock should work together as well. Ann-Marie’s definition of working together appears to be that everyone else should do all the work while she benefits. If I seem to have issues with Ann-Marie, it’s just because I can imagine her being the passive-aggressive HOA president from Hell. Of course, if I was actually running the Race, I would want to get Ann-Marie eliminated because there’s only room for one Marie.)

In the end, the main lesson of this week’s episode was to always make sure that you’re on the right train. Katie and Charlotte got on a train going to Puerta del Sur instead of Puerta del Sol and it basically led to their elimination.

Here are my thoughts on how each team is looking after this leg.

Coming in first were the soccer players, Ali and Joanna. Ann-Marie and Riley really want to work with the soccer players but I never really got the feeling that Ali and Joanna really wanted to work with them. Ali and Joanna are too competitive for that. I personally would not enter into an alliance with Ali. It’s hard for me to trust someone who won’t stand up for her own country’s national anthem.

Coming in second were Michelle & Matthew. Michelle and Matthew are a strong team, even if Michelle did go a little bit overboard while yelling at Matthew during the Roadblock. So far, they’ve finished 3rd and 2nd and they’ve done it without wasting an express pass.

Coming in third were Cody and Jaime. Cody and Jaime used their express pass to get out of doing Slice of Ham. They seem like a strong team and I was touched by their backstory. I’m hoping for the best for them.

Coming in fourth were Ann-Marie and Riley. Initially, I liked the mother-daughter team but, after tonight’s episode, I just see them as being the type of neighbors who smile when they visit and then make fun of your furniture when they think you’re not listening.

Jody and Jenn came in fifth. They totally wasted their express pass to get out of doing the Slice of History detour. Jody said that, as a history teacher, she was embarrassed. She should have been. Seriously, I’ve got no respect for that team now.

Daisha and Dalton used their express pass to get out of doing the Roadblock and they still only came in sixth. If I were them, I would be worried.

Erin and Javi came in seventh. I actually liked Erin and Javi more during the second leg than I did the first. They work well together.

Coming in eighth were Anuar and Andrea. My main impression of them is that Andrea is one bad leg away from having a massive meltdown.

Conner and Garrett finished in ninth place. I was a bit surprised that they finished so far back. Conner and Garrett seem like a strong team, though. I expect they’ll be around for a while.

Doug and Dylan came in tenth. I like Doug and Dylan but they’ve really struggled and they no longer have an express pass. I don’t think they’re going to be racing for much longer.

Dafina and Saran came in eleventh. They were doing well until they hit the Slice of History detour. They no longer have an express pass but I think they’re still stronger than they seemed to be last night.

Finally, Charlotte and Katie came in last and were eliminated. They got on the wrong train and it cost them.

Six express passes have been used. The express passes are only good through the sixth leg. Here’s who still has them:

Ali & Joanna
Michelle & Matthew
Ann-Marie & Riley
Anuar & Andrea
Conner & Garrett

Next week, the teams head to Morocco and discover a whole new twist!

Previous Amazing Race 39 reviews

Sorry, Guys, We Used Our Express Pass

Horror Song of the Day: Willow’s Song by Magnet

Posted on October 2, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s song of the day comes from the soundtrack of 1973’s The Wicker Man.

Composed by Paul Giovanni, Willow’s Song was based on several songs that screenwriter Anthony Shaffer claimed to have heard at various spring pagan festivals. Magnet, who is credited with performing the song, was a band of sessions players that were brought together specifically to record the film’s score. According to Giovanni, the woman singing was Rachel Verney and not, as some people claimed, jazz performer Annie Ross.

Horror Film Review: The Bells (dir by James Young)

Posted on October 2, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

A silent film from 1926, The Bells stars Lionel Barrymore as Mathias, a businessman who lives in a small Austrian village during the 19th Century.

Mathias is the owner of the inn, the bar, and the local mill. He’s a popular man around town, specifically because he gives away drinks and meals on credit but he rarely bothers to collect. He’s hoping that his generosity will lead to him being elected burgomaster. Instead, it’s left him in debt to Frantz (Gustav von Seyffertitz), who threatens to take away everything that Mathias owns unless Mathias agrees to allow Frantz to marry his daughter, Annette (Lola Todd). Annette, however, is in love with Christian (Eddie Phillips).

On one snowy Christmas night, a traveler from Poland (E. Alyn Warren) enters the bar. Mathias befriends the man but, when he sees that the man is carrying a lot of gold, Mathias’s desperation takes over. He follows the man outside and stabs him. As the man dies, he shakes a set of horse bells at the man.

Mathias is soon out-of-debt and he is also elected burgomaster. His daughter is free to marry Christian. However, Mathias finds himself consumed with guilt. The ghost of the dead man continually appears to him and stares at him without saying a word. Mathias is haunted by the sound of the ringing bells. Soon, the man’s identical twin brother arrives in town, looking for the murderer. Accompanying him is a mesmerist (Boris Karloff) who claims that he can always get the guilty to confess.

The Bells is a surprisingly effective film. It’s a silent film so we don’t actually hear the sound of the bells. But we do see Mathias reacting to what he hears and we see him seeing the bells ringing and what we imagine is undoubtedly scarier than anything that a sound film could recreate. Meanwhile, the silence of the dead man’s ghost is far more ominous than if the ghost had spoken accusingly. Because the ghost does not speak, Mathias doesn’t know what it wants and neither do we. The Ghost itself never reacts to Mathias’s words. Instead, it just stares at him. We’re left to wonder if the ghost is real or if Mathias’s guilt-stricken mind is playing tricks on him. It’s also impossible not to notice that, though Frantz was the one who was causing Mathias so much worry, Mathias take his anger out on a stranger, on someone who he probably presumed wouldn’t be missed. In the film, it’s made clear that the traveler was also Jewish. He was an outsider, a Jew who came to an inn on Christmas and was murdered because someone else wanted to take his possessions. The film is not just about the guilt of one man but it’s also a portrait of the institutional anti-Semitism that has historically defined so much of Europe.

Lionel Barrymore gives a strong performance as Mathias. Since the film was made at a time when actors could not be heard, Barrymore uses his eyes and the tilt of his head to show us what Mathias is thinking and he does a great job showing us Mathias growing increasingly more and more desperate. Mathias is never portrayed as being a simple villain. Instead, he’s a man who lost control for one terrible moment and now has to live with the consequences of his actions. The film also makes good use of Boris Karloff’s imposing physical presence. Just as with the ghost, the film leaves it up to the viewer to decide whether the mesmerist has any powers or not. Karloff plays him as being a intimidating enigma.

Considering the limits of the era in which it wad made, The Bells holds up well. Director James Young emphasizes the story’s ominous atmosphere. His direction of the snowstorm and the murder is especially impressive. The sight of the victim’s blood falling onto the snow remains a haunting one. One hundred years after it was released, The Bells remains a memorable look at the haunting power of guilt.

Music Video of The Day: Burn The Witch by Radiohead (2016, dir by Chris Hopewell)

Posted on October 2, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, we have the video for Radiohead’s Burn the Witch. Through the use of stop motion animation, Burn the Witch tells a disturbing little story, one that deals with an inspector who comes to a seemingly idyllic English village and who eventually ends up getting trapped in a wicker man. If any of this sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen either the original Wicker Man or the remake starring Nicolas Cage. The video for Burn the Witch is actually a bit more positive than the film that inspired it. In the video, the inspector escapes at the end. Neither Edward Woodward nor Nic Cage were quite as lucky.

As for the song itself, it deals with the dangers of groupthink and blind obedience to authority. Since Radiohead’s music has always possessed a libertarian streak, that’s certainly not a shock. The video condemns not only those who would demand blind obedience but also on those who are foolish enough to give it. First released in 2016, this video easily predicted much of what would happen in 2020s, from the COVID hysteria on down.

Of course, with The Wicker Man theme, it’s also perfect for October!

Enjoy!

October Positivity: Forgiven (dir by Kevan Otto)

Posted on October 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

On a snowy night, a desperate man named James (Casey Fuller) enters a church with a gun. He’s on the run from the law and fearful that, if he’s arrested, he’ll be charged with murder. James holds a pastor (Steven Flanigan) and his two daughters, Elizabeth and Naomi (played, respectively, by Jenn Gotzon Chandler and Amy Sutton Hethcoat), hostage. While Lt. Morgan (Kevin Sorbo) coordinates the police outside the church, Elizabeth tries to reason with James and convince him to turn himself in. James feels that there can be no forgiveness for the mistakes that he’s made in his life. Elizabeth disagrees.

Normally, I can’t stand films about hostage situations. With a few notable exceptions (like Dog Day Afternoon), they tend to be dramatically inert and they also tend to features characters who spend more time filibustering than actually saying anything interesting. Inevitably, there’s a harried but idealistic hostage negotiator who tries to convince the main criminal to surrender before things get out of control. There’s always a lot of yelling, which tends to get old quickly. Because the film can’t really move anywhere beyond the hostage situation, there’s usually at least an hour of people refusing to answer the phone or the negotiator saying, “Hold on, I need more time!” It’s predicable and it’s boring.

There are certain elements of all of that in 2016’s Forgiven. This is a talky film and, because it takes place in only two locations, it’s also a rather stagey film. There were times when I definitely got tired of listening to James complain about his life. But, as annoyed as I got with James complaining, it was even worse when he would just silently look around with an annoyed look on his face. At times, the film is pretty predictable.

That said, Forgiven does have a few things to recommend it.

First off, it’s short. It clocks in at 79 minutes and that includes the closing credits. It may sound like a backhanded compliment to praise a film for being short but, in this age of 8-part docuseries and three-hour super hero films, it was a relief to see a film that didn’t take forever to make its point.

Secondly, for a faith-based film about a hostage situation, it was generally well-acted. Kevin Sorbo was properly world weary as the hostage negotiator. Casey Fuller was convincing as a desperate man who is essentially in over his head. Jenn Gotzon Chandler had the most difficult role and she played it well.

Third, in this age of cartoonish violence, I appreciated the fact that Forgiven actually was about forgiveness. Though James may not be a master criminal at heart, he still does some pretty bad things and there are definitely consequences to his actions. And yet, Elizabeth forgives him for his mistakes and she actually plays a positive role in his life. That’s certainly not a bad message.

Indeed, forgiveness is a concept that the world could stand to once again embrace. We live in an age of partisan bickering and grudge-holding. This film has the courage to say the forgiveness is better for the heart than revenge.