Seth Harris

Podcast Mini-Series Preview: Love at First Laugh Episode 1 – His Girl Friday

Ariana and Seth kick off their six episode podcast mini-series exploring romantic comedies. This first episode sees them sharing their thoughts on the genre (what they love, what they loathe) and talking about the classic Howard Hawks comedy His Girl Friday starring Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant. All upcoming episodes will be available exclusively to our Patreon subscribers.

Movie Review – Hour of the Wolf

Hour of the Wolf (1968)
Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman

I can’t say I’ve fallen in love with the work of Ingmar Bergman. I’ve seen four of his works – Persona, Scenes from a Marriage (television version), Fanny and Alexander (film version), and now this movie. Of the four, Fanny and Alexander is my favorite because it feels like a mature take on the Christmas movie. Otherwise, I find Bergman’s work to come from an emotional place that isn’t culturally the same as mine. It makes sense. Sweden is very different from the United States. Even more so, Ingmar Bergman is very different from me, especially in how he treated his wives and consistently cheated on them with actresses he worked with. I feel at odds with Bergman, but I am still open to watching his films to try and understand what he is saying through his work.

Movie Review – House

House (1977)
Written by Chigumi Obayashi and Chiho Katsura
Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi

Following the phenomenal success of Jaws at the box office, Japanese film studio Toho went to Nobuhiko Obayashi and proposed he develop a similar script. Obayashi was an odd choice. His filmmaking career focused on personal, avant-garde experimental movies and TV ads, not big commercial hits. The director discussed the script with Chigumi, his preteen daughter, positing that telling everything from an adult perspective is limiting for films. From young Chigumi, he got several of the set pieces that would end up in House, including a mirror attacking the audience and a house eating a girl. The final product doesn’t have much in common with Jaws, but it is a film you won’t forget after watching it.

PopCult Podcast – Cuckoo/His Three Daughters

A teenage girl is taken to a strange German community by her family where dark secrets are hidden away. Three women gather in the apartment of their dying father to grieve and figure out who they are to each other when he passes.

TV Review – Northern Exposure Season Four

Northern Exposure Season Four (1992-93)
Written by Robin Green, Michael Katleman, Diane Frolov, Andrew Schneider, Jeff Vlaming, Mark B. Perry, Sy Rosen, Christian Williams, Mitchell Burgess, David Assael, Jeff Melvoin, Denise Dobbs, and Geoffrey Neigher
Directed by Dean Parisot, Michael Katleman, Nick Marck, Charles Braverman, Rob Thompson, Joan Tewkesbury, Randall Miller, Michael Fresco, Daniel Attias, Win Phelps, Joe Napolitano, Bill D’Elia, Adam Arkin, Michael Lange, Jim Charleston, and Frank Prinzi

Northern Exposure was coming off season three, for which it won several Emmys. Season Four was to be the largest season order for the series, with twenty-five episodes. These days, most shows we get on the variety of streaming services come in around 8-10 episodes per season. Thirteen episodes feel like an indulgence. One of the downsides of having such large season orders was that quantity did not equate to quality. There are some utterly fantastic parts of season four. Then, some episodes are cringingly wrong and outdated. Even so, I’d rather watch this season again than watch much contemporary television, especially the fare that leans into cynicism.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Supersworn: The Victory Academy Part Six

I chose to do something a little strange with this one. I wrote up two d6 lists of memories for Jude and Cortex, then scrambled those memories up. In this chapter we’ll float with Jude’s consciousness as it is pinballed through time and see how his power is unraveling reality.

Read the previous chapter here

Kismet – Jude Olmeda – knows he has a body that exists on the physical plane. Right now, all that exists is the endless void. He has no form but feels psychic extensions of his arms, legs, head, eyes, and mouth. There is something else here with him. It is metallic and cold. It pierces through his chest, tendrils linking up with a nervous system that floats aimlessly in the darkness of total oblivion. He has to reconnect with himself – his body to his mind before this alien thing replaces one or both.

Movie Review – Night of the Living Dead

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Written by John Russo and George A. Romero
Directed by George A. Romero

Certain films unexpectedly have an impact when they are released. As much as big Hollywood studios would like to think they’ve cracked the formula on that, they never will. Real breakthrough movies are always a surprise; they can’t be predicted by a focus group. Night of the Living Dead is one of these films. I don’t think it’s a particularly fantastic movie, but there is no denying the cultural impact it has and continues to have. Before this film, zombies were associated with voodoo and were often seen as a singular threat rather than a horde. Funnily, this film never uses the term “zombie” to refer to the monsters. Instead, they are called “ghouls,” and their origins are hinted to be associated with a recent space exploration mission that brought back some strange cosmic energy.

Comic Book Review – X-Men by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee Omnibus Volume Two

X-Men by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee Omnibus Volume Two (2022)
Reprints X-Factor #63-70, Uncanny X-Men #273-280, X-Men #1-11, and Ghost Rider #26-27
Written by Chris Claremont, Louise Simonson, Whilce Portacio, Jim Lee, Fabian Nicieza, Peter David, John Byrne, Scott Lobdell, and Howard Mackie
Art by Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Klaus Janson, Marc Silvestri, Rick Leonardi, Michael Golden, Larry Stroman, Paul Smith, Andy Kubert, Steven Butler, Kirk Jarvinen, Ron Wagner, Art Thibert, Scott Williams, Hilary Barta, Josef Rubenstein, Michael Bair, Mike Witherby, Karl Alstaetter, and Dan Panosian

The first X-Men comic I ever read in full was Chris Claremont’s final issue. I didn’t know it at the time. It was Christmas 1991. For the last couple of years, I had desperately wanted one of 22 issue comic book grab bags sold in the Sears Wishbook. Having grown up watching Challenge of the Superfriends, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, and other animated series, my interest had been piqued. Occasionally, I’d convince my mother to buy me a comic book at the grocery store, or I’d spend some birthday money to pick up a couple. That same year, I purchased some Superman books and a Wolverine comic. But this Christmas gift was the one that changed everything. This was the year I became a comic book collector, not for money, but because I was enamored with these complex worlds and their colorful characters.

Movie Review – Vampyr

Vampyr (1932)
Written by Christen Jul and Carl Theodor Dreyer
Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer

Vampyr is a strange, troubled movie. It was Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dryer’s follow-up to The Passion of Joan of Arc, one of the great silent masterpieces. Vampyr came about at a time of transition in films. Dreyer conceived of the film, based on a collection of ghost stories, as a silent picture. That DNA is still very present in the sparse spoken dialogue and the film’s emphasis on movement and camerawork. The end result is a mixed bag. There’s not enough story here to say it’s a compelling horror narrative. It feels more like an interesting mood piece that evokes the spooky tone of Halloween and creepy old houses.

Movie Review – The Wicker Man

The Wicker Man (1973)
Written by Anthony Shaffer
Directed by Robin Hardy

I had seen the Nicolas Cage-led sequel in all its wild, camp glory but had never watched the film that inspired it. With it being October – the spooky month – I decided to kick off my Horrorpalloza 2024 with The Wicker Man. Before I even watched the film, I knew of the ending decades ago thanks to a Bravo series about the scariest movie moments. I wondered what knowing the protagonist’s fate would do with my thoughts on the film, but thankfully, there was so much of this movie I didn’t know about that I never felt deprived of surprises. It’s a movie that clearly inspired so many more films in the folk horror genre and still holds up after fifty-one years.