It can be a little frightening when entering an unfamiliar place at night as you never know what the place can be hiding from you. This can apply to a house that you have not been inside before, to entering the woods to set up camp, either can come with different fears that you will never know about until you can put a light on it. While most of the time your fears are related to head games that you might play with yourself, sometimes, the fear can be justified. If you are willing to put yourself at risk to prove that everything will be okay, more power to you, since most of us will wait until someone else can prove that everything is all right.

Arriving at his first delivery of the night, the young man shoots a text message to his boss that he will be back in twenty minutes for his next pickup. Walking up to the door and knocking a couple times, the man hears a voice from inside saying; ‘Come In’. Entering the house and seeing an old woman sitting in the living room, the man brings her the pizza that she ordered, but there is an uncertain feel about the house that man cannot put his finger on. Inquiring about payment for the pizza, the old woman tells the delivery man that there is money in her bedroom at the end of the hall and he will need to go fetch it.
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After seeing a strange hand reaching around the corner of the hall and retracting into the bedroom, the young man is hesitant on proceeding, but getting messages from his boss to get back to work, the young man makes the venture. Arriving at the bedroom and not spotting anyone inside, he makes his way to the nightstand and picks up the cash that was left for him. Looking around the room however, the man spots what appears to be two glowing eyes staring at him. Picking up a letter opener to fend off whatever beast that could be looking to harm him, the delivery man runs back down the hallway to the old woman to complete the transaction, but little does he know who or what will be waiting for him.

This Horror Short is pretty creepy from the get go since when the delivery man enters the house the old woman does not even turn around to acknowledge him. Then the man hears a strange sound lurking in the distance and sees a creature’s hand disappearing into the darkness, and it’s obvious to me that he has got bigger stones than most people I know since everyone else would be running for their lives despite the bill and leaving without a tip. With a good build-up to the finale and a beast of nightmares looking to feed, it is a movie that will leave you wondering what is happening in your neighbor’s house when they are getting pizzas delivered on a daily basis. Stay Scared.

As I settled in to watch this week’s episode of Castle Rock on Hulu, I found myself quite curious as to which character would become the focus of this particular tale. Because this series has done a phenomenal job of becoming a grand character study over the past few weeks and while this week’s story lived up to that particular expectation with no problem at all, what I was ill prepared for was who exactly the story decided to focus upon and the fact that ‘Harvest’, more or less unleashed complete and utter hell upon this tiny, out of the way berg, a stroke of storytelling that flat out made this episode chilling in ways I never thought possible.
 
Because from the get go, this episode was uncomfortable and unsettling to watch, with a grand fire burning in the distance, one that claimed lives left and right as people tried to battle this blaze and while a fire doesn’t quite seem like a terrifying element to find in a horror tale, the coincidence that comes with this fire simply cannot be ignored. For everything strange in this particular tale, everything that gave me pause related to one specific element in this story that will likely have grave consequences for the plot for the rest of season one; the fact that Shawshank Prison, still reeling from the wholesale slaughter that Dennis Zalewski unleashed within its walls, decided it was time to release The Kid and move on from that mess.
 
Which means that this mystery man was in the fact the character that this episode focused heavily upon and well, his release led to some incredibly creepy moments in this tale. Because once again, it would seem that everywhere The Kid goes, dark trouble follows and the scene where he simply decides to waltz into a family’s house to observe a birthday party, only to have violence break out while he watches from the shadows, continues to lend credence to the fact that he’s somehow aligned with evil as a whole and can influence bad things to happen, and that was only compounded further when Ruth attempted to take her own life at a ceremony honoring Alan and the bridge named after him.

Yet despite all the chaos that came with his release, what is truly more frightening when it comes to having this man out on the streets, is that it would seem he finally remembers who and what he is exactly, and none of that bodes well for the future of this town. Because in the closing moments of this tale, while he denied being the Devil, it’s obvious he knows a few things, the kind of things that entice others to elicit his help since Alan is now considering his offer to heal Ruth and I’m fairly certain that kind of help comes with a price and when all is said and done, I have to admit that I absolutely and utterly loved this episode for so many reasons, the first one being how this story more or less felt like a waking nightmare since it was filled to the brim with surreal chaos and danger seemingly lurked behind every single scene.
 
If anything, it’s clear that the plot is ramping up from here on out, and The Kid’s release truly is the catalyst for that, but what’s more impressive is that the character study in this tale, was vague in its own right, and really all we learned about the man is that he’s trouble wherever he goes and this episode also reinforced the fact that touching the Kid leads to nothing but trouble since we saw in a flashback that Warden Lacy touched The Kid’s hand and his face when saying goodbye and well…look at how that ended for the Warden. But truly, what I loved most about this tale, is that it only gave us just enough, and that it was disjointed and unsettling, because that’s what great horror does, it shakes things up and leaves the worst to our imaginations…
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However, while it was wonderful to see this particular tale inject chaos into the overall story, we do need to take a minute to talk about the awesome King-verse Easter Eggs dropped in this one. Because it was quite surreal to see that a relative of the infamous Captain Hadley works with Shawshank prison and that…Jackie Torrance is indeed related to Jack Torrance from The Shining, and since that’s one of my all-time favorite King stories, I ate up every single second of Jackie’s (whose real name is Diane) excited re-telling of her uncle’s troubles at the Overlook Hotel. But, all Easter Eggs aside, this really was quite the cool episode and I am excited but nervous to see what happens next because I think we all know, things are only going to get darker from here on out. Until next time.

One of the greatest things about Halloween, aside from the awesome costumes, crazy parties or the chance to get candy in a bag, are the Haunted Houses that open up. I will admit that I have had some of the best times going through the doors of these houses, mainly because any chance to have a little scare, well, I am all for it. I love watching the reactions of the folks in front of and behind me, mainly because genuine fright is some that you don’t see any more. It is just supposed to be a good time had by all and there should be nothing to hold you back from attending them, especially when you want to make sure you are still alive in this wild and crazy world. 
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Walking up to the ticket window and noticing the lack of a line, Gene ‘The Ringmaster’ is beside himself. With no customers, he cannot make any money to keep this haunted house afloat and must come up with some sort of plan to get some action there again. As his employees are making sure that ‘The Ringmaster’ is feeling their pain as well, since they have yet to be paid, the boss sees something the on television that interests him; the not guilty verdict that a jury bestows upon a ‘possessed girl’ who went on a killing spree, because it would seem that her troubles came about from a game called ‘Charlie Charlie’, and that kind of wicked fun is something that Gene can get behind. Making up some fliers, ‘The Ringmaster’ is ready to put his haunted house back on the map, but little does he know what that will entail.

Deciding to take a detour on their way to a party to try out the Charlie Charlie Challenge in the haunted house, Sarah, Charlie, Pete, Skeeter and Gwen make their way into the attraction. Being given wavers to sign if something happens to them, the group is curious as to what the grand prize at the end of the night will be once they win. Skipping around the question and giving his guests a rather frightening backstory of the Charlie Charlie Challenge’s history, ‘The Ringmaster’ is off and leaves the kids to their own devices, since he has some attempted scaring to do.

Sitting around and wondering if they should really do this after being left alone, Charlie is urged to start the game and asks the spirit if he is there. Needing to ask several more times before getting a response, the pencils start to move around and nobody believes that what they are seeing is real. With a little orb leaving the table and traveling around the haunted house, the group has no idea their haunted house stalkers may be a little more demon than human. As the workers are picked off one by one and ‘The Ringmaster’ sees that there is something amiss, nobody knows that the only grand prize that will be handed out will be their lives, if they are able to end the game before it is too late.

Overall, this movie just has a fun tone to it throughout, even when the killing starts taking place. I did not know where it was going to go overall, but when it got there, it was pretty clever, as was the addition of another contestant during the game. While I did not get completely engulfed in the story, I did like the haunted house workers the best and what they were going to do to try and scare the kids was pretty funny, even after Charlie Charlie took care of them. With a failing haunted house, a popular internet game, a pissed off spirit, some pencils, some weapons, some blood and a Ringmaster who has no idea what he has unleashed, this movie just made me smile. While I am not sure why anyone would want to summon a spirit, I am sure that these crazy games are fun, but count me out, I already have enough bad juju following me around. Stay Scared.

Sometimes you don’t need a destination when heading out, sometimes you just need to drive. There is something relaxing about taking to the open road, especially when you are the only one on it. Putting the top down and letting the wind blow through your hair, there is just something magical about it. But these types of drives are becoming few and far between for many of us as it seems that the world is getting smaller and there is literally traffic everywhere at all hours of the day. Once you are able to free yourself from the cities it does get a little better, so find an out of the way place to visit, because the joy of driving should never go away.
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Stumbling into a local bar, Jack and Steph are looking to get another drink and are making a big deal out of it. Upset over the new customers who cannot seem to keep to themselves, Rabbit excuses himself to the restroom, but cannot find any privacy as Jack has followed him. Throwing on a pair of handcuffs, Jack reveals that he is a Federal Agent and will be taking Rabbit back to Los Angeles to testify regarding the deal he is running away from. With only moments to make up his mind, Rabbit sees that his old crime family is coming to get him, so escaping with the marshals might not be the worst idea.

Escaping a Russian hit squad, Jack and his team take Route 66 to make it back to Los Angeles before Rabbit is due to testify, but there is one little problem, they are running out of road. Pulling up to a locked off portion of Route 66, the group finds out that the road was shut down years ago after having too many accidents. Being in charge of the situation, Jack will not listen to any of this craziness about the road being haunted, he needs to get Rabbit back to the city as quickly as possible. Shooting the lock off of the gate, the group heads onto the old Route 666 and it will change their lives forever.

After having a measuring contest with a local deputy, Jack sees something off the road that he has been having visions about, a graveyard. Making an unscheduled stop at the graveyard, Jack looks back to his visions and follows them to the grave of his father who he really never knew. Wanting to get the show back on the road, Federal Marshall P.T. tries to pull Jack away from the graves when he sees that the four men who were buried there were the most notorious killers the United States has ever known. As tensions run high between the two, they do not notice that one of the hit men has caught up with the convoy and is looking for blood. But there is something much more sinister about the road, for when blood is spilled, it comes to life with the four men who are looking to be made whole again and the only way they know how is to claim more victims for their road.

Wow. Talk about a movie that takes all kinds of twists and turns for no reason whatsoever. I am not sure if I am supposed to laugh at it or cry, but I made it all the way through. With very little being explained, with the exception of the local sheriff being a bad man, it was just pretty silly overall. I liked how Jack was able to forge a relationship with his partner Steph but was hated by everyone else on his team for being thrown into the leadership role. Rabbit was just fantastic and really the only person to cheer for throughout the movie, mainly because he was the only one who had any common sense about him. With a man running from his past, a haunted road, plenty of gun fire, a shaman, some doped up tea, some blood and a chain gang of killers who protect the road, it is really an interesting ride overall. I know that finding streets that go straight to where you need them to go is difficult, but I would avoid any routes out there that have the infamous triple six attached. Stay Scared.

Our dreams are quite the powerful motivator. They help us get up in the morning and deal with the hassles of another day because we firmly believe that someday, our dreams will come true and we’ll have that perfect career and the happiness that comes along with it. But, what is sometimes often forgotten when it comes to the wonder of the dream, is that nothing will ever quite fall into our laps in this life, and we have to work extremely hard and sacrifice plenty in order to make our dreams come true.
 
But for some, hard work seems like quite the waste of time. They have no desire to put their nose to the proverbial grindstone and find fulfillment in life through blood, sweat and tears, they want all the accolades that come with success with minimal fuss and they take every shortcut imaginable to get what they want, often times with disastrous results. But while failure is often a great motivator to get these people to either work hard or move on, some will become jaded and stilted from their failure, and push even harder to get what they want, and these are the people to avoid since they do anything and everything to be number one, regardless of who they step on and hurt and that particular notion is explored in extreme fashion in the horror film, Darkness Reigns.
 
Now in this particular tale, we are introduced to a director named Daniel who…isn’t exactly satisfied with how his career in filmmaking has turned out. Sure, he’s getting by, but not being at the helm of a revolutionary motion picture irks him to no end and his latest gig; shooting a behind the scenes documentary for a horror film entitled Defanatus Soul, only adds insult to injury. But, Daniel is going to be in for quite the surprise when it comes to this job. Because the creepy place where this movie is being filmed is legitimately haunted and he is about to get some incredibly terrifying footage that will change his life in more ways than one, since providing the world with definitive proof that there is life after death, will cost Daniel more than he could ever imagine…

​Truth be told, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I settled in to watch this film, simply because I’ve come to find that found footage movies tend to be either a dud, or something derivative since they often try to replicate the success and wonder of The Blair Witch Project. But this movie, well it turned out to be quite the pleasant surprise, because it actually had something new to offer at just about every single turn. There’s a solid story here, one that is filled with some serious twists and turns that I flat out didn’t see coming and all of that is further enhanced by the fact that this film has some genuinely disturbing moments to offer up.
 
In fact, some of the scares in this one genuinely took me off guard and gave me pause thanks to how disturbing they turned out to be because haunting stories tend to use jump scares and shadows in the dark to rattle their audience. But this one, well it injected a healthy dose of gore and psychological twists to mess with you and that definitely separated it from the pack and made for an enjoyable and twisted experience, and honesty, I also loved the tribute this film paid to The Shining as well, since it handled every last one of those moments in respectful and fun fashion. 
 
In the end however, what I truly enjoyed about this film the most, is how it manages to manipulate the audience. Because at first, the story doesn’t take itself seriously, and for proof, look no further than the meta, fourth wall moments with Casper Van Dien. But once the spirit comes to life, all bets are off and we get down to some serious scares and honestly, I really had blast watching this film, and I truly loved that twist ending and if you’re in the market for an entertaining and twisted horror flick, one that just focuses on the scares, then this is the one for you.    

It really is quite amazing what a difference a year can make when it comes to a television series. Take Outcast for example, because a year ago, this series was working to find its storytelling stride as it peppered in just hints of what was to come for the overall plot line all while delivering some supremely disturbing and brooding moments and now, a mere year later, this series has grown in ways I never thought imaginable. While the scares and quality writing remain, the series has found the perfect balance storytelling wise that it was searching for, to the point where season two is moving the plot forward at a breakneck pace and it’s packing in one incredible storyline after another into a single episode, and for proof, look no further than last night’s entry in Kyle Barnes’ harrowing journey, ‘Not My Job to Judge’.
 
Because this particular tale in essence ran several plotlines concurrently and really, perhaps the best place to start today is to pick up where we left with off Megan last week, since we discovered in this tale that the good Reverend rescued her from her suicide attempt and in an effort to put her life back together and put her pain behind her, Megan and Holly went back home…with disastrous results. Because everywhere Megan and her daughter looked, there were reminders of the horrors that happened under that roof and it was far worse for Megan since she seemed to vaguely recall her brief time as a demon, and well, her journey in this episode constantly had her teetering on the edge but eventually she seemed to agree with her daughter that the time had come to move on from this place and that was a fine realization on her part, especially when one considers that Megan is pregnant. 
 
While Megan dealt with her past and her pain, Anderson and Kyle more or less got back to work in putting an end to the evil that is slowly consuming Rome and, in the process, they uncovered quite a few surprises. The first one being, that Chief Giles is taking his hunt against the ‘infected’ to a whole new level, by having them kidnapped by a handyman named Bob, who just so happens to run the local junkyard in Rome and that’s quite the benefit to the Chief because Bob’s ultimate goal is to put the possessed down and hide the bodies and well, that’s not exactly a plan that Kyle is good with. Of course, Giles makes the case that this is the only way to deal with the matter since it seems so many of these souls cannot be saved, but Kyle reminds him that some lives can be saved and oddly enough, he inspires everyone in the room to help him deal with a particularly tough possession and it was quite cool to see Kyle play the hero in this fashion. 
 
As for the other surprise in question, well we finally learned exactly who the mystery woman is/was that Sydney was mourning over in the last episode. It turns out that she was a prior iteration of Sydney and thirty years ago Bob was able to stop her machinations with the help of another Barnes, Kyle’s father, and well, that’s quite the revelation to have drop in our laps because it’s a tad terrifying to know that this is the second time now that anyone has had to deal with such a disturbing matter and it’s stunning to know that the Barnes family continues to be involved with such a mess and it would seem that the problem is only going to get worse before it gets better. Because somewhere, hidden away from prying eyes, Sydney is working hard to build a new triage center for the newly possessed so that he can continue to build and nourish his Army and it would also seem that he has a new ally in Aaron, who despite being badly burned and in pain, is filled to the brim with hate and is ready to unleash whatever hell Sydney has in mind…
 
In fact, perhaps the most disturbing revelation to come out of Sydney’s story in this tale, is that he may in fact be the Devil since he hinted strongly at that possibility and even rattled off the many names/forms mankind has come to identify him with. But, when all is said and done, this was just a magnificent episode. Sure, it may not have left us with a ton of cerebral moments to chew on, but it didn’t have to. It’s moving us toward something larger, and the revelation about Kyle’s father is fascinating to say the least and I love that this season truly is balancing out its overall story by giving us a combination of thoughtful and powerhouse episodes and I can only imagine what kinds of new horrors and wonders await us in the weeks to come as Kyle continues his uphill battle against this strange and powerful evil. Until next time.   

There are really only a handful of television shows out there that excite and inspire my imagination to the point where I’m quite literally counting down the minutes to the next episode, and after everything I witnessed last week, we can add Hulu’s latest offering, Castle Rock, to that extremely tiny list. Because not only is this new series the first Stephen King related offering on television in years, it’s just downright quality television through and through and yesterday’s brand-new episode of the series, ‘The Box’, is no exception to that particular rule.
 
Because this particular tale was downright captivating, and that’s thanks in large part to the fact that the series is staying true to a storytelling element that was introduced the prior episode since once again, the characters and what makes them tick were the focal points to this story and this time around, the series turned its attention to one Mister Henry Deaver, and his sorted and mysterious past and perhaps the biggest surprise about Henry that we learned in this tale, is that shortly after he re-appeared in the middle of the wilderness a mere eleven days after he went missing, is that a halfhearted effort went into figuring out exactly what happened to him during that time frame.
 
But, the decision to move Henry’s father’s body back home to Castle Rock, and a strange dream wherein Henry seemed to recall being trapped in a cage himself, prompted him to finally dig deep into what happened to him during those eleven days and his search eventually led him to the Desjardins property (a name King fans may recall from The Body) since it showed up as an area of interest in Pangborn’s investigation into Henry’s disappearance. And while Henry was able to at least recover his own police file on the matter, his search turned out to be quite fruitless at that property and in general, and the attempt to discuss it with his mother ended in a fight since she was wise to his plan to move her an assisted living facility and she made that the focus of their conversation and Pangborn went so far as to say he went through the motions during his investigation because in the end, he firmly believed that Henry did indeed kill his father, though we know that’s simply not the case. 
 
If anything, all of this broke Henry to say the least, to the point where he found comfort in Molly’s arms, ironically, and it led him to decide to take the buyout from Shawshank and get the hell out of dodge and his decision, led to the darkest moment of the night. Because our favorite Shawshank guard, Dennis Zalewski, snapped upon hearing this news, since he firmly thought that Henry was going to be Shawshank’s knight in shining armor, and help Dennis expose the corruption in this place and with no hope left…he grabbed his side arm, and dealt with every disgusting guard in the prison with lethal force, losing his own life in the process and well, one has to wonder if his twisted decision will keep Henry in town for a just a little bit longer.
 
Yet, while that was supremely stunning to watch, I find myself quite bothered by Zalewski’s decision a day later simply because a few episodes ago, he was going on about how his wife and daughter meant the world to him and how he would never do anything that would put his ability to care for them in jeopardy and honestly, the fact that he fist-bumped ‘The Kid’, and that touching him results in bad things, makes me wonder if that physical contact influenced the bloody choice in this tale, and if so, that’s damn scary. Because that lends credence to the notion that the Kid is the Devil, and it adds more mystery to a tale already swimming in it and well, it’s the questions that this episode leaves us with that makes it so magical, because it’s clear something incredible is brewing in the shadows of this story and I’m hesitant yet anxious to see it all come together in the weeks ahead. Until next time.