Movie Review: Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)

Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) co-written and directed by Emma Tammi

Based on the popular video game franchise, Five Nights at Freddy's tells the story of Mike (Josh Hutcherson), a guy failing at life, probably because he has too much baggage. His parents died and he's raising his eight-ish year old sister Abby (Piper Rubio). He is not good at parenting and has a hard time holding down a job. He's haunted by the memory of another sibling who disappeared during their childhood. He gets fired from his mall-cop job just when his aunt is trying to take over care of Abby. The aunt is undesirable to everyone but the aunt. Mike is desperate enough to take an overnight security job at an abandoned pizza place from the 1980s that features animatronic characters, video games, and other fun stuff. The fun is all gone, especially as viewers see in a pre-credits sequence where the previous guard is killed off by the animatronics. Will Mike fare any better?

Having never played the game but certainly hearing about the premise (homicidal Chuck E. Cheese horror), I came into this with not a lot of knowledge. I had enough to figure out the plot and its twists. Since the movie is PG-13, the horror is mild, with a few jump scares and occasional menacing moments. I did not find it scary since it was predictable. The actors are just okay. The animatronics are a little creepy but not scary enough to sustain the terror. The set-up took a while and they did too good of a job making Mike seem like a loser. He is not that great of a hero. Maybe if I had played the game(s), I'd appreciate this more.

Barely recommended--I don't regret watching it but I am not sure I would recommend it either.

Oktoberfest 2026

We went to the 2026 Oktoberfest at Schifferstadt Architectural Museum in Frederick, Maryland. 

The house was built in 1758 by Elias Brunner, who replaced the log cabin built by his parents. The house is open for tours though we did not take one. Maybe at a later visit? The house was named after the Brunner's hometown in Germany. It is one of the oldest houses in Frederick.

Schifferstadt House

Re-enactors were there, demonstrating open-air cooking and other crafts from the 18th century. 

Booth from the past

Outdoor kitchen

Another booth was demonstrating and selling crafts made by woodturners on lathes.

A more modern booth

The real action was at the back lawn, where they were selling food and drink. 

Back of the house

I had a bauernwurst, a pork and beef-based smoked sausage. I gave in and had sauerkraut on it, reminding me how I don't really like sauerkraut. Even so, it was still delicious.

Bauernwurst

Of course, I had some beer to go with it. In fact, I had two beers, though they were stretched out over the visit. With my meal I had Spaten Oktoberfest beer, an amber-colored marzen that was quite tasty.

Oktoberfest beer

Later I had a Franziskaner Hefe-weisen, a lighter wheat beer that was refreshing and fun to carry around. The beer tent was selling commemorative mugs but we already have enough glassware at home. Another booth was selling authentic German steins. We looked but didn't buy.

Hefe-weisen

As we walked around, we enjoyed the view of the house's garden. Like many other 18th century homes, they grew a lot of their own herbs and spices out back.

The garden

A large tent was up for the musical performers, The Polka Terps, a band made up of faculty, alumni, and students from the University of Maryland. They played the usual stuff for Oktoberfests--Beer Barrel Polka, a medley from Sound of Music, Ein Prosit, (the drinking song), and the Chicken Dance. One of the band members got up and led us through the lyrics of Ein Prosit, another led us in the moves for the Chicken Dance. 

The Polka Terps

A lot of vendors were selling wares. We bought some fancy bread and some "German roasted" hazelnuts. It was a fun afternoon. We will probably go back next year.

Book Review: Edgar Allan Poe Sampler

Recently, on A Good Story is Hard to Find Podcast #390, Julie and Scott discussed a sampling of Edgar Allan Poe's stories since it is the month of Halloween, after all. I decided to read along and give my two cents' worth...

The Cask of Amontillado--Montresor feels he's been insulted one time too many by Fortunato, a wine expert who is egotistical. Montresor plays it like their still friends and tricks Fortunato by telling him Montresor has purchased a cask of amontillado wine but isn't sure if it's the real thing. Fortunato is lured deep into Montresor's wine cellar. Fortunato is disoriented and a bit ill, so Montresor has no trouble chaining him to a back wall and sealing him up behind a brick wall. Montresor, the narrator, says he did that fifty years ago and still hasn't been found out.

The narrator clearly has an exaggerated sense of offense, especially considering the penalty he imposes. The "buried alive" situation is a recurring theme for Poe, a horrible situation to anybody. Fortunato does not live up to his name and seems to be more of a drunken buffoon than a haughty rival. Unraveling the guilt of both characters is a fascinating puzzle, making the story highly re-readable.

The Masque of the Red Death--Prince Prospero invites a thousand guests to one of his remote converted abbeys. The walls are high enough and robust enough that Prospero can seal them, keeping everyone inside for the foreseeable future. He is shutting out the Red Death, a virulent and deadly plague. Prospero has customized the former abbey with a string of ballrooms, each decorated in a specific color and lit by a stained glass window of the same color, from the blue room in the east to the black room in the west. After a few months, he holds a masquerade ball, a very debauched celebration. Only two things ruin the mood. The ebony clock in the black room chimes the hour in a sinister way, though the party goers recover quickly from the creepy sound. The second disruption is a seeming guest who has dressed as a bloody corpse suggesting the Red Death. Prospero challenges the figure and demands he be thrown out but no one wants to get close to him. Prospero chases him through the rooms but the figure turns to confront Prospero, causing the prince to die before he hits the floor. The rest of the revelers suffer a similar fate. That's the surface level of the story.

Prospero, like many of Poe's main characters, is full of himself and overestimates his ability, especially to get away with things (well, Montressor did get away with things, so not every Poe character). He is his own god, ruling over a kingdom he shuts off from the rest of reality. His false world seems like it has everything, e.g. a set of fabulous ballrooms and plenty of food and wine to wait out the plague. But he's not God and can't keep away the hardships of the plague, try as he might. Like his guests, he really doesn't have the courage to cast out the Red Death figure, just like he really does not have control over his world. Everything falls apart for him and his guests. Not even Propero can guarantee his own prosperity.

The Tell-Tale Heart--The narrator constantly insists that he is not mad as he describes his plan to kill an old man who never did him any harm. The old man does have a dodgy eye, with a film over it. The narrator calls it his "Evil Eye" and it drives him crazy motivates him to kill the old man. After maticulously executing his plan, he chops up the old man's body and buries the parts under the floorboards. Soon enough, some police show up about a report of someone crying out as if foul play had happened. The narrator shows them around the house and even gets them chairs to relax, chairs placed right over where the body is buried. As they wait, he can hear the beating of the dead man's heart. Sure the cops can hear it too, he cracks under the pressure of their cool demeanor and shouts that the body is buried under the floor.

It's another case of mistaken ego as the narrator is unaware of his own unjustified animosity and of the old man's supposed guilt. The first person narration gives the story a vitality and suddenness that is alarming and engrossing. The reader (hopefully) doesn't identify with the narrator but his palpable anxiety and horror are hard to miss and easy to see. The stressful shout at the end is a release for the narrator and the reader, a catharsis of the villainy in the story.

Highly recommended--these are classics for a reason.

Don't forget to check out the podcast here.

TV Review: Alien: Earth Season 1 (2025)

Alien: Earth Season 1 (2025) created for television by Noah Hawley based on elements created by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett

A Wayland-Yutani Corporation science freighter is on its way home to Earth when it goes out of control and crashes into a city. The Earth is divvied up among several different mega-corporations. The space ship crashes into territory controlled by Prodigy, a recent success led by an obsessive, self-described "boy genius" (Samuel Blenkin). His main project is creating synthetic bodies for people to inhabit so that they can be immortal. He's acquired a group of terminally-ill children and used them as the first test subjects. He renames them after the Lost Boys from Peter Pan, imagining himself as Pan. But the new freighter is full of biological specimens gathered across the galaxy, including a sentient and malevolent eyeball, a Venus flytrap-type plant, and the eggs that hatch xenomorphs, the iconic Alien of the franchise. The boy genius sends in his forces to contain the specimens and bring them to the island where he's developing the synths. He has a lot of obstacles, including the executive from Wayland-Yutani, an obsessive (and lone) survivor from the freighter, and the brother of one of the synths who wants to bring her home.

The focus isn't so much on the boy genius (though he is the catalyst for a lot of the dramatic turns). The synths are the most developed character, especially Wendy (Sydney Chandler), whose brother (Alex Lawther) gets to the island in a desperate attempt to free her from Prodigy. The other main actor is the survivor (Babou Ceesay) whose focus on getting the "cargo" back is more a personal vendetta than an effort to secure his share of the payday. 

As anyone should expect for the Alien franchise, the show is fairly gory and horrifying. The new creatures on the ship add to the tension and danger as they find ways to escape or to manipulate the scientists and caretakers trying to keep them in their containers. Many situations spiral out of control, leading to awful consequences. The human characters make bad choices or are pushed into hard situations that they can't get themselves out of. Things go from bad to worse all the time in this show.

That result became a problem for me. The few sympathetic characters in the show are either killed off or start favoring the evil choices that are open to them. It's an embodiments of Hobbes's "nature red in tooth and claw" idea, with the victors at the end promising to take their turn as the oppressors. The ending was very bleak and a little implausible.

I did like the exploration of the human children being "ported" into the synths. Eight- to ten-year olds are give adult-sized bodies and some superhuman strength and other abilities that they clearly aren't ready to handle. At least that's clear to the viewers, not so much to the characters in the story. Their struggles with their identities were the most interesting parts of the show for me, though it was only part of larger story lines.

Mildly recommended--this is better than a lot of the Alien content out there, but still has a lot of flaws.

Book Review: Tomb of Dracula: Day of Blood! Night of Redemption! by M. Wolfman et al.

Tomb of Dracula: Day of Blood! Night of Redemption! written by Marv Wolfman, pencilled by Gene Colan, and inked by Al Williamson

After a lot of deaths, including the supposed death of Dracula, Frank Drake is trying to live a normal life ten years after the events of the original run of Tomb of Dracula. He's married to a nice girl Marlene, recovering from the death of his former girlfriend Jeanie and his paramour Rachel Van Helsing. Marlene is tortured by nightmares, leading her into a seeming possession by Rachel's soul. If that wasn't bad enough, her doctor, Gregor Smirnoff is manipulating both her and a lot of college students for his own plan. He wants to become immortal, which means finding Dracula and reviving him and forcing Dracula to grant everlasting life. Smirnoff succeeds in the first two, but Dracula has his own plans that don't involve Smirnoff's ambitions.

The story is interesting enough, with a return of Blade the vampire hunter who is just as caustic and bent on destroying Dracula. The plot moves along with the occasional twist or embellishment. The art style is very creative, depicting the supernatural horrors in a weird and occasionally inexplicable way. It supports the narrative well. I enjoyed this return to Dracula's world even though I did not read all of the original series.

Recommended.

Movie Review: Near Dark (1987)

Near Dark (1987) co-written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) is trying to wheedle a beer out of his friends outside an Oklahoma honkytonk when they spot a cute blonde just down the street. Caleb goes to flirt with her. Mae (Jenny Wright) loves the nighttime and can hear sounds and see things that Caleb can't. She's worried about it being late and asks for a ride home. Caleb is more than happy to oblige. The drive is a long way as Caleb tries to find out more about Mae. They pull over for a bit and, in the throes of passion, she winds up biting him on the neck. She runs away, faster than him. He tries to drive back home but the pickup won't start. He walks back to the farm where his dad (Tim Thomerson) and young sister (Marcie Leeds) are worried about him. Before he can make it home, a winnebago comes by and snatches him, which is probably good since he is starting to smoke all over from sunlight exposure. The kidnappers are Mae and her group of friends. They are vampires in all but name and most are unhappy to bring him on board. Mae really likes him and wants to take care of him. The other vamps expect him to step up and start killing his own food or he can't be with them. The weirdest, most violent love story spins out from there.

Nobody in the film uses the term "vampire" though it's very clear that's what they are. They enjoy their destructive lifestyle, killing people and burning down places as they make their way across the country. Caleb becomes a problem for them since he isn't so aggressive aside from his romantic side. The story is mostly bleak though entertaining. Bill Paxton chews the scenery with glee as one with a sadistic sense of humor. The central relationship is not so well developed but the actors sell it. Viewers root for Caleb and maybe for Mae. The movie makes for an interesting, dark urban horror with some road trip vibes. The score definitely puts it in the 1980s which viewers might or might not appreciate.

Mildly recommended--you could do worse for a vampire movie.

TV Review: Salem's Lot (1979)

Salem's Lot (1979) directed by Tobe Hooper based on the Stephen King novel

Ben Mears (David Soule) returns to his home town of Salem's Lot, a small, isolated town in Maine. He's a novelist and wants to write his next book about the local Marsten House. His aunt used to work there and died under mysterious circumstances. The house itself has a bleak history. When he gets to the local realtor (Fred Savage), he finds out the house has already been rented to Mr. Straker (James Mason) and his not-yet-arrived partner Mr. Barlow (Reggie Nalder). They are opening an antique shop in town with Straker doing the set-up. A late-night delivery of a large crate to the house is the harbinger of a lot of grief and horror as various townsfolk disappear or slowly die from anemia-like problems. Ben's strong feeling that the house is a lightening rod for evil puts him on the front line of fighting an unthinkable threat--vampires.

The story goes through a lot of small town drama (romantic affairs including adulterous ones) before it gets to the vampire stuff. Those bits set up a lot of the characters but not all of them last very long. The direction is tight and effective, creating the uneasy atmosphere as the small town falls apart. The vampire makeup is unnerving, especially when paired with sinister visuals like the famous window scenes. The actors all do a good job. The pacing is slow by modern standards and many of the townsfolk stories could probably be cut or pared back to make a leaner product. This was originally shown as a two-part miniseries on television in the 1970s, so the gore is very limited which probably works in favor of the show.

Recommended, highly for vampire fans. I haven't read the book but maybe I will give it a go if the library has it.