monalizard

If you asked me how I felt about 'horror' media, my first instict is to say I can't consider myself an aficionado for the genre. I thought for a long time that I was averse to gorey visuals because of squemishness, or to jumpscares because sudden loud things in my face just makes my head hurt. But that's obviously a really simplified take on what counts as horror, and its not like the sight of fake guts or a screaming mascot can't be done in a good or bad way too.

The kind of stories I think I've enjoyed most that would fall under the 'horror' genre are definitely the ones that had me going "thats so cool 😲" either because of some terrfying or existential concept/premise I've never thought of before, or just something executed in a really striking/compelling way. Something doesn't even have to be 'scary' to fit that label for me, like halloween decorations, or 'spooky' shows like Courage the cowardly dog. At least that's just me trying to make sense of why I suddenly decided I wanted to watch a bunch of different horror stuff starting from last year-ish.

Not gonna share opinons about every single thing I watched, read or played though because there was a lot. Instead maybe to try and cover a variety of feelings, I'll just talk about one thing from each kind of media.

Among a bunch of movies, I watched all the Final Destination films at some point



There's like five or six of these movies, I often forget the exact number. The first two movies I totally get why they're classics. In case you're reading this and you don't know of it, the first movie released in 2000 (I remember seeing a DVD for it! 👵) is about a boy who sees a premonition of him and his friends all dying in plane crash right before they're about to board a plane at the airport. He saves them all from dying in that crash, but then his friends start dying one-by-one under improbable accidents, like Death itself is coming after them to correct this mistake...

Watching a down-to-earth protagonist trying to save themselves and others from being killed by the very universe itself is really gripping. And honestly, there's something about the specific tone and aesthetic of a movie from this time that hits really well for me. A movie like this made this year might try too hard to be profound or artsy in every scene and be kinda minimal in its soundtrack, but in 2000 its totally fine to play action-scene strings during a tense moment or throw in a rock song somewhere. It's 'comfy' to me in a way. Granted I also watched Saw (Really good movie by the way...!) which was from 2004 which I thought was considerably more cinematic in its tone and aesthetic despite the even smaller scale of its events, so maybe Final Destination is just uniquely quirky in that way?

I'd say only the first two movies have an actual 'story', or at least one that matters! Like the first movie has our protagonist desperately try to figure out the rules behind Death's design and how to navigate it, and he does just a good enough job that at some points I truly had no idea whether he'd succeed in saving someone or not. The second movies follows a new cast, adds a few twists to the rules that act as a follow-up to the first movie's events, and reaches what I think is a satisfying ending overall.

And after that point, they definitely realised they had nailed down a pretty perfect format to keep pumping out movies because every Final Destination after that is more or less the same movie. Protagonist gets a premonition and avoids a terrible accident, death then stalks and kills the survivors one by one, ends with the remaining survivors thinking they're safe but then killed right before credits.

Not that I'm necessarily saying all of that is a bad thing though 😆! It's just that since there's no longer any mystery or discoveries about the mecahnics of death in these movies, it feels like the only reason to watch them is to the different and increasingly over-the-top-ways that people get killed. And that's like totally fine if that's all you want, but I definitely do prefer when there is kind of a story to chew on or concepts to think about in the background too. On top of that, I think violence and gore can be done in a way that's interesting, but the in these movies it's usually just plain gross which isn't to my taste 😅

Although despite me saying that, I actually really liked the climax in Final Destination 4 (which is just called The Final Destination, which lol because there were two more moves after) in particular. The protagonist rushes to stop an explosion caused by a fire breaking out near some explosive barrels. It takes place in just one room where the barrles are and should be simple, but stuff just keeps Happening to stop him, like the fire alarm breaks or a nailgun near him goes off. Its like a final battle with the villain in any other movie, except the 'villain' here is the forces of the universe itself conspiring to stop you. Thought that was really memorable!

A game I really like is the survival horror rpg called Look Outside made with good ol' RPGMaker



This game's pretty recent but I wouldn't be surprised if it's already considered a rpgmaer classic along so many others. The game in its entirety takes place within an appartment building where just about everyone has turned into some form of monster, and you have to explore the various parts of the building, finding supplies and making friends (or enemies) with all sorts of weird people/creatures along the way.

This game is actually a good example of what I said about liking horror that fits a more 'spooky' label like Courage. I say that because this game is only actively scary maybe half the time? The rest of the time its eithr really funny or sweet or just classic exciting RPG action. But even when its not actively trying to unsettle you, its filled to brim with so many amazingly terrifying designs and concepts. Grotesque body horror mutations, parasites that take over your mind and body, dopplegangers stealing your face, a car that eats you... There's no shortage of creative monstrosities to run into. I really love the wide variety of things you can come across.

Some events or plot threads are existentially terrifying. And then right afterwards I can run into another story that's just plain goofy. And it all manages to feel cohesive. Like one event that's really memorable to me is when you watch a guy get infected by a worm that enters him through his eye and splits his body apart. Then his severed head goes off to violently take over a different guy's body by replacing that guy's head while keeping him alive... 😨

On the other end of the spectrum, my favourite among the large cast of possible party members is when you befriend enough cockroaches, a bunch of them will collectively come together into the shape of a man in a trenchcoat and join your party to repay your kindness. 🕵️‍♂️🧡

I like it a lot, and apparently there was a really big update recently that added a hundred new things, so I'll have to check it out again sometime.

...Anyway, since its on my mind, here's a Touhou doujin music album I listened to a very long time ago

I was thinking about media that 'scared' me in a good way and suddenly got nostalgic over this. I think its relevant enough to the rest of what I've been talking about?




夢 (utsutsu, or Dream or Reality?) is an album from 2016 probably my favourite circle Diao Ye Zong (凋叶棕). A lot of RD-Sounds' works have been inspiring to me in one way or another, but this album in particular is really special. I've talked about the album many years ago in this tumblr post here, and I'm scared to look at my own posts from that long ago so I'm not going to 😑. Regardless I'll try to sum it up real quick here:

The theme of the album and all of its songs are dreams, obviously. The most prominent song centers on Sumireko and the idea of her being trapped within her dreams. It plays at the midway of the setlist, is called 無終祭 (Endless Festival) and is about being trapped in an endless dream, and marks the exact point of the album where the songs shift from being about sweet dreams to nightmares.

First thing I want to mention is that this album was released in 2016. That's two years before ZUN released Violet Detector, the actual official touhou game about Sumireko being trapped in her dreams! Talking about being ahead of the curve... 🧠

I like this album a lot but when it comes to Endless Festival specifically, I think I've maybe only ever listened to that song... once? But it was a really impactful listen. I'm worried about overselling this song because in truth its a fairly simple idea in execution. It starts off as a cheerful festive chant about having fun, but it starts distorting in places and then repeating unnaturally in places, arguably climaxing in a sudden moment where it just cuts to the sound of a flatline... before picking back up like nothing is wrong. (And then the themes of the album are carried through in the secret bonus true final song of the album but that's a whole other thing to unpack)

It's a pretty straightforward idea, but I think its wonderfully done and incredibly chilling, especially when taken with the context of the album as a whole. I enjoy a lot of dyz albums and the way some of them they carry a consistent theme or story throughout, and this album is probably a top example.

...I don't have a conclusion

At some point I'm probably going to watch the latest V/H/S horror anthology movies because I've seen the first several already, and rewatch a playthrough of Silent Hill 4 because I think that game is really cool.