horror – Page 6 – PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Godzilla, King of Monsters

Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1956)
Written by Shigeru Kayama, Takeo Murata, and Ishirō Honda
Directed by Ishirō Honda

6 August 1945. Hiroshima, Japan. Three American B-29 heavy bombers passed over the city. One of them, the Enola Gay, dropped a 15-kiloton atomic bomb. That is the equivalent of about 15 thousand tons of TNT. Over 100,000 Japanese civilians were killed. Those who didn’t die immediately were blinded by the flash of the bomb, were crushed under the weight of collapsing buildings, suffered radiation poisoning the following days and months, and more. The U.S. would drop another even larger bomb on Nagasaki. There were plans to drop yet a third bomb on Japanese civilians. Japan had been in talks with the Soviet Union to surrender and end the war. For the United States, a post-war era in which the USSR was seen as a hero was a danger. The atomic bombings of Japan are up there with the Holocaust as some of the most horrific acts of violence humanity has committed on itself. It’s no surprise that many films have been made about this event and the atomic bomb itself. In this series, I want to look at how the bombing is analyzed and made a part of the culture, both through the eyes of the Japanese and the perpetrating nation, the United States.

Solo Tabletop Actual Play – Kids on Bikes Solo Part Four

You can purchase Kids on Bikes here.

You can purchase the Plot Unfolding Machine here.

Read about our previous session here

Scene 10 – Rising Action 6 of 8 – Westgrove PD
Modified proposal: Make the location less favorable
Danger: Risk honor or reputation
Who: A political or reasonable person

Waldo is awakened in the early morning hours by Clem shouting at him. Reid is there too and also, Mayor Sartain. The Mayor looks irritated and starts screaming at Waldo.

“Where are the kids, Holman? Tell us, you fucking freak!” the Mayor rages. Reid steps between the Mayor and the bars of the cell.

Solo Tabletop Actual Play – Kids on Bikes Solo Part Three

You can purchase Kids on Bikes here.

You can purchase the Plot Unfolding Machine here.

Read our previous session here

Scene 4 – Rising Action 1 of 8 – Waldo’s House

Modified proposal: Add some trouble or bad news
Oracle question: Is this trouble a person? No, not yet.
Danger: Expose one weakness

Waldo and Bopper pull into the driveway. Waldo immediately notices his front door is open.

PopCult Podcast – In a Violent Age/The Bikeriders

One film deconstructs the tropes of the lakeside slasher genre of horror. The other follows the rise & fall of a motorcycle club in the 1960s/70s US Midwest.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Kids on Bikes Solo Part Two

You can purchase Kids on Bikes here.

You can purchase the Plot Unfolding Machine here.

Read our previous session setting up our game here.

Before jumping into our story, I want to talk about the tool I will use to make Kids on Bikes solo. I have chosen to go with Jeansen Vars’s Plot Unfolding Machine. I genuinely love the structures and tools Mythic GM Emulator and Mythic Magazine provide. However, they are more about creating frameworks but don’t prompt the story beyond a general direction. The Plot Unfolding Machine delivers a bit more guidance, and for the purposes of this game, I thought that would be a fun change of pace.

Movie Review – Ernest Scared Stupid

Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)
Written by John Cherry, Charlie Gale, and Coke Sams
Directed by John Cherry

Of all the Ernest films, this is the closest we got to perfect synergy between a big Hollywood production and the particular sense of humor John Cherry & his collaborators shared. Every Ernest film had made more money than the last, which led to this being the highest budget Touchstone had ever given the production team, $9.6 million. Ernest Scared Stupid made less than Goes to Jail – $14 million compared to $25 million. This was also the final film handled by Disney, fulfilling the original four-film deal that started with Ernest Goes to Camp. Scared Stupid would mark the end of an era for Jim Varney and lead to a very different type of Ernest movie for the rest of the 1990s.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Kids on Bikes Solo Part One

While the hit Netflix series Stranger Things was inspired by classic games of Dungeons & Dragons, it seems like a no-brainer that someone would develop a tabletop RPG system to make playing the show possible. That’s the basic premise of Kids on Bikes, a game where players are the inhabitants of a small town where mystery and horror are bubbling to the service. Despite the title, PCs can be kids, teens, or adults and use pre-made archetypes to quickly take on a role you would expect to find in such a story. A unique powered character is shared narratively between all the players, a la Eleven or E.T.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Mothership 1e Part Four

You can purchase the Mothership 1e Core Set here.
You can purchase Dead Planet here.
You can read the rules for solo and wardenless play in Mothership 1e here.

Read the previous chapter here

Scene 1 – Starting in the Engines – Chaos Factor: 8

Jerome makes the decision to run as the creature’s snapping mandibles float closer

(Speed check – 35 vs. 32 – Success)

Turning tail, Jerome runs back out to the decimated cryochamber. He has to grab the locked military case, get to the boarding skiff, and return to the patrol ship. Navarro has to answer their questions. She has to explain this…this insanity.

Book Update – May/June 2024

A Feast of Snakes by Harry Crews

Without a doubt, this was the best thing I read over these last two months. I found a scanned PDF of the Salon.Com Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Authors online. That book played a pivotal role in shaping my reading as an undergrad. It was published in 2000 and has never been updated, providing a snapshot of what was seen as prominent contemporary lit circa the turn of the century. Crews has a write-up in that book where his work is compared with Kafkas and described as presenting a parade of social misfits against a Gothic Southern backdrop. That explains A Feast of Snakes perfectly.

Movie Review – Vampire’s Kiss

Vampire’s Kiss (1989)
Written by Joseph Minion
Directed by Robert Bierman

The trailer for Robert Eggers’s Nosferatu was released online a few days ago and it looks to be quite the descent into classic Gothic horror. Vampires have been a part of cinema for over a century and have appeared in all forms. The recent Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person purports to take a modern satirical look at the monster, while another recent release, Abigail, places the vampire in an action-comedy horror scenario. I don’t think any of these takes on the vampire could ever match the frenzy and unhinged energy Nicolas Cage brings to the monster in Vampire’s Kiss. I was shocked in a way no film has made me in a long time watching the actor’s choices.