Here are a few of my favorite things: Nintendo, Penny Arcade, The Legend of Zelda, Mario, Pokemon, Harvest Moon, Fallout, Dungeons and Dragons, books, dice, Professor Layton, Shadow of the Colossus, Minecraft, and so much more. I'm going to talk a lot about video games, I sincerely hope you don't mind.
A Bit of Geek was a good run and a good effort. It's done now though. I've transferred all of the content from the past two years back onto this blogspot account from Wordpress. I didn't want to lose anything and good ol' Google is here to save the day for me.
Thank you to Rachel, Zach, Tom, Eve, and Caleb for their contributions. At least this will be here for when we want to revisit what we've written, and we can always write something new for old time's sake!
I am proud to present the House from My Neighbor Totoro! This was a commission from my friend to his lovely wife. She, too, is enchanted by the amazing home in this Studio Ghibli classic :)
Life is funny. If you had told 8 year old me that someday she would get to have a personal email exchange with one of the co-creators of Toejam & Earl and ask him questions about the game, she would have been excited at the idea, and hopeful probably, but wouldn’t have thought it was possible.
Well 8 year old me, it happened, it was awesome, he’s super nice, he likes your art, AND you got one of your burning life-long questions answered: Are they saying, “Whoa, shit!” when they’re about to fall off the cliff?!
Sadly, no.
But onward to the story!
Some photos from a recent play through of Toejam & Earl for the Sega.
In January of this year (fabulous 2014) I completed a Toejam & Earl paper art piece. I was proud of it and thrilled to have made it. Toejam & Earl is a childhood and life-long favorite game of mine and my sister’s. If two video games defined my early years, they would be Mario 3 and Toejam & Earl. There were other games of course but those two were played the most, and they continue to be played by my sister and me even to this day. The first time we beat Toejam & Earl I was about 18 years old; we had been whole hog dedicated to that title for a solid 10 years!
The week before Thanksgiving I had a day like any other day. That is until I received an email alerting me to the presence of a new comment on my Toejam & Earl paper art photos. I checked it out and discovered that someone claiming to be one of the co-creators of Toejam & Earl had found my art and really liked it, and posted it on their official Facebook page. He invited me to check out the page and to e-mail him if I liked.
Now, I like to think I’m optimistic but I also don’t like to be fooled, and the internet is chock full of liars. So, I proceeded with caution. First I looked for the Facebook page, which I found, and sure enough there was my art! I scrolled for a bit and discovered that it was totally legit, and then I may have cried a little? But then I got it together and sent him (Greg Johnson) an email expressing my thanks for the comment and his compliment, as well as my unending love of the game series.
What followed was a very pleasant e-mail exchange where I was able to tell him everything I loved about Toejam & Earl and I got to ask any questions that had been on my mind for the last 20 years. He told me about the most recent game he’s made, Doki Doki Universe, and even gave me a download code so I could play it on my PS3. On top of that he offered to send me some signed Toejam & Earl art as a token of appreciation. Talk about a crazy nice guy!
(Note: I plan on writing a little about my experience with Doki Doki Universe once I've had a chance to dive into it!)
He had such wonderful and encouraging things to say about my paper art, and it was a wacky ass dream come true to get to talk to one of the people responsible for SO much happiness and gaming in my life.
A nice shout out to my sister from an email exchange from Greg.
Greg is currently working toward a new Toejam & Earl title and personally I could not be more excited. His Facebook page is promoting interest in the quirky series and he’s also hosting a lot of game-based quizzes with signed art up for prizes! He wants to hear from people on what they love and hate (who could hate any of it?) about the games, and what they hope to see in a new release. Any Toejam & Earl fans owe it to themselves to get in on the fun and have their voices heard!
So that’s my story. It was an honor to hear from him and a total thrill to have my art seen by one of THE creators of the game. He was also so kind and genuine, which is a rarity in my experience. I’m thankful that the internet exists and allowed this crazy thing to happen!
I know, I know. Halloween was LAST week. But A) My articles come out on the first of the month and B) Who cares? Scary movies are great all year round. So let's dig into this.
I love horror movies. Ever since I watched my first horror film as a kid(It was “Child's Play” and to make matters worse, I had one of those buddy dolls in my closet at the time), I've been enthralled with them. There's something so thrilling about watching a film that inspires true terror in you that it causes you to think about it in the darkness of your bed. As a filmmaker, it's a difficult feat to accomplish and one that depends on the individual viewer. But if it is achieved, it stays with that person and lingers in their psyche. And I love it.
I've watched my fair share of horror films, some good, some terrible. I wouldn't call myself a horror film connoisseur, but I do pride myself on having seen some truly horrifying films.
So here at A Bit of Geek, I'd like to present to you my own personal list of the top scary films.
*I preface the list with the claim that this list is subjective to my personal opinion. If you do not find these films scary, that's fine. But I do and I think they merit praise.
So without further delay, I present
MY TOP 10 HORROR FILMS
10. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who hasn't heard of this movie. It was a big hit in its time and is arguably the predecessor of the “Found Footage” horror genre of movies.
And while I will openly admit the movie doesn't have a satisfying payoff, the build up is still terrifying to watch. From the fearful frustration of the filmmakers as they wander through the woods to the subtle torture by the Blair Witch, it's a fright to watch unfold. You can almost feel the fear of these filmmakers. Definitely worth a viewing(even if you can cut out the last 10 minutes of the film)
The Scariest Scene of the Movie:
At this point in the film, the filmmakers have been lost for some time and been harassed by the Blair Witch each night. So they decided to make their tent and try to sleep out the night, hoping for peace....
9. Dead Silence (2007)
There are some things that are inherently scary to us as human beings: clowns, spiders, the dark, Beliebers and, of course, puppets. It's hard to say why we have such a fear of puppets. Maybe it's their lifeless eyes or the fact that they can't tell a lie, but something about them unnerves us.
Which is exactly the kind of fear that Dead Silence drives into us as viewers. It starts as a simple ghost story: a barren old woman crafted puppets in lieu of children but when some children went missing, the townsfolk blamed her and killed her. Now her spirit lingers as vengeful ghost story the people tell their children. It's a simple concept that I feel the film pulls off wonderfully, if only because of the grim creep factor of the woman and her puppets. Don't watch this one in the dark.
The Scariest Scene of the Movie:
During a recounting of the legend of the woman, one of the townsfolk recalls an incident when he was a boy. His father was the mortician and had worked on the woman's body. But when the boy went to see the body at night, he accidentally knocks the coffin over....
8. Evil Dead (2013)
Now don't get me wrong: I'm not saying this remake was better than the original series. As a huge fan of the originals, I can say they are a marvel to watch and a testament to the horror genre. But it's not the scariest of the series. The remake is.
Sure, the first Evil Dead was purely a horror film. But while it was great, the effects had a tendency to break the immersion of the film. Milk-blood and claymation just doesn't quite make the cut.
But the remake upped the production value and brought the feel of the first film to a better quality.
The grisly scenes of gore looked authentic but never over-saturated the horror of the film. It was, in my opinion, perfectly balanced between the two. One of the best remakes I've ever seen and I'm glad they did the original series justice.
The Scariest Scene in the Movie:
By this point, the evil book(Necronomicon in the originals, “Naturon Demonto” in this one) has been read and the evil is creeping into the cabin-dwellers. After being barfed on by a possessed friend, one of the girls goes to clean herself up in the bathroom. But there's more than cleanliness waiting for her there....
7. Event Horizon (1997)
I really love this movie, not only for its dark and gruesome horror, but also for its premise. The story goes that in the distant future, an experimental spaceship(named “Event Horizon”) designed to warp space vanished on its test flight. Now, seven years later, it reappears with only the haunting message of a distress signal. So a research team is sent to investigate, slowly learning that the Event Horizon did indeed warp space....with a small detour into Hell. Now the ship has a dark will of its own as the crew try to escape the horrors of Hell in space. Brilliant concept, in my opinion.
The Scariest Scene of the Movie:
When the Event Horizon sent its distress signal, a lot of the video was garbled and not a lot could be made out. But when the research team finally unscrambles the video, they suddenly wish that they had left it garbled.....(Warning: the video is not for the squeamish)
(Side note: Laurence Fishburne's line at the end? Perfect response.)
6. Jeepers Creepers (2001)
I'll admit, this movie is a bit of a nostalgia pick. When I first watched this movie, I was a teenager and my friends and I gathered around to watch it in the dark. But even today, this movie still holds some terror for me. It tells the story of two siblings, Darry and Trish, as they make their way cross-country to their mom's house for break. But on the way, they catch the notice of a grim figure who they quickly learn is anything but human. It stalks them as they unravel its dark handiwork from sewing people onto walls to cutting out whole parts of body parts. And it never stops. Not until it has one of them...
The Scariest Scene of the Movie:
The scariest part to me comes near the beginning of the movie. On the road, Darry and Trish had nearly got ran over by a large truck with the vanity plate “BEATINGU”(Which you learn later on stands for something else..). They siblings continue on the road until they see a house on the left. And BEATINGU....
5. The Conjuring (2013)
When I first went into The Conjuring, I'll admit I was a little skeptical. It was made by the James Wan, the director of the Insidious movies and like Insidious, even starred Patrick Wilson as the lead. And while the Insidious movies were fine in their own right, I went into The Conjuring thinking it was just going to be an Insidious-clone. But I was wrong. It actually had a compelling story about two paranormal investigators as they looking into a family's haunting. It quickly begins to escalate and soon, all hell breaks loose(so to speak). It exceeded my expectations and left me feeling satisfied as a horror lover.
The Scariest Scene of the Movie:
Funnily enough, the scariest scene of the movie for me didn't have actually have anything to do with the main story. It was the opening sequence, where the investigators are looking into a demon-possessed doll named Annabelle. And yes, it was just a setup for the spinoff movie, but the scene was actually a great little horror story within a bigger horror story. It started off the movie on a good note and kept that level of quality all throughout the film.
4. Slither (2006)
I was hesitant to add this film to the list because a lot of times, it's almost a comedic film. But it left me with a such a sense of disturbance and terror at the mere premise of it that it merited a rank on my list.
It's a classic alien-in-the-hometown story: an alien crashes near a home town, terrorizes it and then the heroes of the film have to figure out a way to kill the creature. Simple stuff, right?
Wrong. Slither takes that premise and runs wild with it, making the alien create such nauseating horrors that they will haunt your mind even after you're done filming. Things like worms infesting your brain, mutations that force you to eat until you explode or giving your body to become part of a hive-mind of human body mass. It disturbed me, but not in a gruesome way, which is how it should be. Would definitely recommend this movie(And it's got Nathan Fillion in it!)
The Scariest Scene of the Movie:
The scariest part for me was what the alien does to some of the townsfolk: implanting a special slug that forces them to eat and eat. One of main characters, who had survived until the end of the film, meets this fate and begins to eat people against his will. Eventually, he is mercy killed but the thought of this fate haunts me even today.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a clip of this, so instead, here's a clip of a bloated-infected woman bursting at the seams!
3. Paranormal Activity (2007)
I really liked this film. I know a lot of you have probably already seen it and have your own opinions on the movie, but I for one really liked it(the first one, at least). For those not aware, the story follows a young couple as they video tape their experience of being haunted from what they at first assume to be a ghost(but later learn it is a demon...muhahaha!). What I really enjoyed about this film was the natural progression of the terror and how the escalation felt natural. In the beginning, there's not much. A few doors that open on their own or sounds coming from other areas of the house. But then it intensifies, eventually leaving the young couple crippled in terror. And while the ending had as much satisfaction as any other Found Footage movie, I felt like as a stand alone movie, Paranormal Activity was excellent. One of my favorites.
Scariest Scene in the Movie:
It's near the end of the film, when the demon has become overly aggressive in its hauntings. The demon enters the bedroom and, seeing Katie's overhanging foot, decides to have a little fun. I remember being the film, watching this scene, and knowing that that's when the shit really hit the fan. Best scene, in my opinion.
2. The Fly (1986)
This movie is one of my all-time favorite horror films. It took an old film's concept(scientist accidentally crosses himself with a fly) and brought it to a gruesome and repulsive level. With better production value and a more modern take, this version brings real terror as you watch the gradual change from man to fly-man hybrid. Not to mention Jeff Goldblum's performance was beyond superb. And the effects? Breathtaking. I myself am more of a practical effects kind of guy and this movie nails it on the head. Watching Goldblum's devolution into the fly-man is grisly and fascinating at the same time. Definitely worth watching if you love horror films.
The Scariest Scene of the Movie:
I know I am doing the movie a discredit by showing you this, but really the best(and scariest) part of the film is the ending, when you finally see the full transformation of the Brindle-Fly. Not only this, but his twisted plan is appaling and terrifying to consider and poor Geena Davis is helpless to fight it. Really fantastic. But if you want to watch the movie, skip this scene for right now because the build up makes this scene all the more powerful.
1. The Thing (1982)
To those whom know me, this comes as no surprise that my all-time favorite horror film is John Carpenter's “The Thing.” The movie is such a brilliant film in so many ways that I can only scratch the surface in this review. To those not familiar, the movie focuses on an American research station in Antarctica as they come under attack by a shape shifting alien. It's a being that can perfectly replicate an organism as the researchers soon learn when some of their own are replicated. From then, the movie is all about the paranoia of the researchers as they abandon their trust of one another and try to survive the deceptions of the Thing. Not only is this compelling storytelling at first impression, but the effects are fantastic, even for an 80's film. When the Thing is caught on occasion, it transforms into a form to fight off its attackers, assuming whatever shape it deems necessary. And it's disturbing.
I've seen this film nearly a hundred times and it still enthralls me. If you can only see one film from this list, make it John Carpenter's “The Thing.”
Scariest Scene from the Movie:
One of the best scenes in the film comes after the Thing has already imitated some of the researchers. While in a squabble amongst themselves, one of the researchers has a heart attack. So they pull him into one of the rooms and the doctor attempts to restart his heart with a defibrillator....
So that's my list, ABOGers! I hope you enjoyed it and make a point to go out and give these films a try.
If you have thoughts on the movies listed or want to add some favorites of your own, leave a comment below or say so on our Facebook page.
