The New Mutants

31 Days Of Horror Movies 2026

Film 7 but entry 9, “PG-13” - wow, I have a lot of recent options, but have seen most of them. Mostly 15s here, some 12s.

(I will get to 7 and 8 with streaming trials.)

The New Mutants (2018-20)

Trailer

An X-Men movie-verse spinoff with no recurring characters, mixing its superheroic zapping with a horror-tinged story taken from the comic.

Some newly-empowered mutants who all have tragic backstories are being trained / imprisoned in a dingy old hospital, and now having mostly backstory-related nightmares that start to affect them physically. In the meantime they have some understandable YA issues, do some The Breakfast Club stuff unsurprisingly, and make existing fans wonder why Illyana has Kitty Pryde’s sidekick dragon as a hand puppet and is being so racist.

An outright horror with superhuman characters in danger is an interesting take, but does the tone mix work? Not really, no.

Not helped by some choices like the TV showing Buffy, where this does work, including an episode which draws immediate comparison to a much less scary monster design used here.

The medium: Disney+

Gameability: The trick would be balancing the horror stuff and the heroic stuff so it takes a while to get to the big zappy final battle.

Cyberpunk 2077 film coming?

News via Empire

Frag you Shadowrun

Malignant

31 Days Of Horror Movies 2026

“Not so imaginary friend” and someone else checking the list on Bluesky reminded me of this:

6.

Malignant (2021)

Trailer

First ten minutes

James Wan broke out with Saw but is best known for mostly grounded gloomy-house jumpscare-y horrors like The Conjuring (boo) and Insidious, and with its ominous (but in this case actually relevant!) single-word title this seemed like it might be more of the same. But after some Fast & Furiousees and between the Aquaman films he felt like something a little different. Did it work?

That opening scene is a clear indicator of the tone he’s going for - the hospital that looks like the one from House On Haunted Hill 1999, the melodramatic straight-to-camera delivery of “It’s time to cut out the cancer!” He’s trying for something more Sam Raimi or Joe Dante. But then the second scene introducing our hero Madison (Annabelle Wallis, again demonstrating she would have been a great lynchpin of the Dark Universe if it had gotten past The Mummy 2017) establishes a familiar gloomy old house and a grimly realistic starting setup for her. So are we in for a fun ride or not?

And the film pretty much stays like this. The villain Gabriel is purposely absurd but when he’s not in action things stop being heightened enough to fit, and the result is just... odd.

The medium: Prime

Gameability: The setup of someone seeing murders as they happen and trying to deal with that is a great hook. Just choose a tone.

It! The Terror From Beyond Space

31 Days Of Horror Movies 2026

Okay, going to use the Nightmare On Film Street 31 Days list as a springboard to avoid a total blank page but not adhere entirely to it, as it’s more for picking old favourites than going into the unknown, and indeed I’ll start by flipping #1 upside down for something I haven’t seen before.

1.

It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958)

Trailer with black on grey near subliminal titles

Nobody appears to have claimed that $50,000, presumably because going to Mars would cost more than that anyway.

The “Rad Remake” prompt suggests a remake you already know is good and I wanted to start on something new to me. And I just rewatched Alien last week because I'm getting a chance to play the RPG so I thought reverse it and watch one of the things it's half a remake of, along with Planet Of The Vampires which I got to see last year as well as two A. E Van Vogt stories as well as the work of people who were actually involved.

In the thrilling future on 1973, a mission to Mars ended in disaster and now a second mission has come to retrieve the sole survivor for court martial, accused of murdering the rest of the crew. Which is a great hook but also a very expensive dedication to giving him a fair hearing when pretty much everybody believes he’s guilty.

What actually happened is that “It” killed the crew, and snuck on board the new ship. Possibly a survivor from an ancient Martian civilisation (so not from beyond space, but never mind) It now craves moisture. They figure this out reasonably quickly and spend the rest of the film trying to get rid of It. It’s pretty tough - resistant to bullets, grenades and the radiation from the ship’s engine. (Good thing the ship is tough too - at no point do any of the compartments depressurise.)

There's a lot of The Thing From Another World here, with the lumbering take on the monster, the difficulty of killing It and some distrust among the crew.

It itself is pretty disappointing. The look is fine, especially when initially in shadow, but Ray “Crash” Corrigan plays It much like he often played gorillas, making It too expressive to seem really threatening. At one point It puts a claw to its chin to show it’s thinking, which is kind of adorable.

The gender politics have not aged well, two of the crew are women and one of them is medical officer but they both serve dinner and coffee for the men, but at least the alternate poster showing It carrying one of them doesn’t actually happen - It carries off quite a few of the men instead. (The Thing From Another World was better about this seven years earlier so that’s no excuse.)

Favourite bit that didn’t get into Alien - one of the crew is cornered but has a flamethrower, so he’s stuck there fending It off for quite a while, getting increasingly cranky over the radio as he waits for rescue.

I also liked the lack of sound in space, though the electronic music cue gets really repetitive - and it didn’t help that Sam Raimi used something very like it in Evil Dead II when Ash is alone in the cabin and dealing with the empty rocking chair, and my mind will take any excuse to think about Evil Dead II.

So not a huge fan, but it has some nice moments of its own as well as the bits Alien reused, and the quickly discarded initial setup is great too.

Gameability: small group of people in an enclosed space trying to get rid of a monster, yes that's gameable.

Mission: Impossible at 60

Mission: Impossible first aired September 17 1966. A straightforward idea for a show even if the episodes often weren’t, the setup making a rotating cast for isolated episodes a key and advertised part of the design, full of charming gimmicks like the masks and “This message will self-destruct in five seconds” and an absolute all-timer of a theme and credits sequence. I’ve often said that the Tom Cruise movies are an adaptation of the credits more than the show.

What would freak out a superhero?

Just saw a retrospective of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films, mostly about the first two of course, but little bits from 3 including the shot where Spidey punches through the Sandman. I always thought he should have freaked out and gone “Oh God, are you okay?!”

Grand Theft Auto VI

A twenty-five minute first look at Grand Theft Auto VI premiered on Netflix ahead of YouTube (not a gull-on story like the time they got The Road director John Hillcoat to make a short film in Red Dead Redemption) showing off the various things you can do it in, including two whole examples of stealing cars. The first thing the protagonist couple do is head into and then shoot corrupt cops to get out of a drug deal gone wrong. We also see them have a meeting, deliver a getaway vehicle, do some James Bond underwater stuff and basejumping, and then a big bit as security for a corporate party under attack Die Hard style, which seems like a setup for a whole different game.

Visually it looks still kinda cel-shady and oddly clean so not my aesthetic as much as RDR.

The city looks nice, I could imagine Other Places doing something with it.

The couple are young up-and-comers, as the closing narration tells them these are their glory days, unlike V’s weary veterans or IV’s more sympathetic to me soldier dragged into the life or III’s vengeance-focused silent nobody. Or the little overhead sprites you played in the originals, which was as far as I really got as a player rather than an interested observer in a cultural phenomenon because playing crooks in a jokey way for that long doesn’t really appeal to me

(GTA Online has various subgenres with its expansions including the most recent Museum Art Heist scenario which is more my thing.)

But I do find the shift from a quick in-and-out power fantasy to big stories about the characters in between the various car chases and gun battles interesting.

RPGaDAY 2026 27. Hunger

#RPGaDAY 2026

27. Hunger

27. What do you hunger for most from a session?

What is the game meant to do? I want experience X from game X, Y from game Y - a bit of Z might be a fun addition or might spoil the whole thing for me.

This is a formative preference going all the way back to my first couple of games, where Middle-earth Roleplaying gave me no Tolkien feel and TOON gave me a lot of Looney Tunes feel.

I want my superheroes to be amazing at something, my horror protagonists to be at risk though not necessarily doomed but sometimes doomed works too, my cool vampires to be cool and my sad vampires to be sad, my teenage monster hunters to be badass and funny and occasionally emotional wrecks. I want a moment creating the kind of thing that makes a genre appealing. If it feels wrong, I’m probably not going to play that game for long.

Also, Hunger Dice are the most evocative version of blood use in a Vampire game so far.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

RPGaDAY 2026 18. Directness

#RPGaDAY 2026

18. Directness

18. A fast introduction of a new PC or player?

If I know players are likely to come and go I’ll try to have onboarding options and avoid cliffhangers. Emphasis on try.

Some games and settings are better for this than others, mechanically and narratively.

Overlooking the old “why do we trust this total stranger walking up to us in the middle of a secret mission?” and the magic power of the PC Glow...

D&D style fantasy calls it “West Marches” when every session begins and ends with the PCs in their base and venturing out from it. That cuts off things like multi-session dungeons and heavier ongoing plots unless you use the old un-narrative kludge of teleporting PCs in, but it’s a good idea for an open table.

Star Trek (a setting where characters can just teleport in and out mid adventure) would do this if it were realistic about its Luxury Space Communism and faster-than-light travel. Ha ha. Star Trek Adventures makes you pay player resources to get specialist NPC crew to go on camera, which is the model-the-show way of dealing with this. Star Fleet Battles RPG Prime Directive goes the other way and has a completely different command structure for its variant universe.

Mission: Impossible on TV started with selecting agents with relevant skillsets. I’ve seen someone suggest pregens in dossiers before.

(Note that the films acquire a consistent team as they go along, leading to narrative issues like needing something for both the computer geniuses to do.)

Last academic year I had a large amount of player turnover in Vampire: The Masquerade and that isn’t ideal for it or how I run it. Even then, if I’d known I could have tailored the chronicle setup to PCs being part of a group that could explain PCs coming and going and make sessions less serialised. Not ideal for personal horror or slow unravelling of mysteries but I could give it a go. Hmm.

My most setting-of-the-week one-and-done game is Doctor Who, which also has fast character creation... but following the series model really expects the PCs to be the one point of consistency.

If I want to go full “jump in any session” open table, I might go with a light superhero game like ICONS with a big team. Fast character creation, largely self-contained adventures. I’m sure threads would reappear at some point, but I can juggle and improvise so we don’t end up with too many “this should be a Penguin adventure but Batman’s player isn’t here” situations.

A large kitchen sink also helps if I want to come up with a largely standalone adventure every week.

Hey, Buffy is a light superhero game too! Albeit one that also expects a consistent Scooby Gang.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

Hope (2026)

I’ve now seen Na Hong-jin’s SF action horror comedy Hope thanks to the Film Festival getting its UK premiere. It’s a mix of tones that just about works, it’s a lot funnier than the trailer makes it look although it does include one of the best jokes, and the use of some European stars is hilarious.

RPGaDAY 2026 14. Regard

#RPGaDAY 2026

14. Regard

14. What is a game held in high regard you have yet to play?

They’ve been piling up for the past few years while I mostly run and play (usually new versions of) old favourites.

Blades In The Dark, Daggerheart, Good Society, Masks: A New Generation, Eat The Reich. I’ve looked at some, figured Daggerheart isn’t the sort of thing I’d run, made a Masks character for a CC challenge, that’s all really. I could probably grab some indie RPG types and a long weekend and work on this.

For the longest I haven’t played an acclaimed game, I’ve had a copy of RuneQuest since I was about fifteen and done nothing with it. Call Of Cthulhu yes, Stormbringer yes, anything Glorantha no. Ultimately it’s not really my kind of thing so I don’t much mind, but it’s still on that shelf.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

John Wick: With The Animals

A video essay on the John Wick series with various asides but mostly about how assassin society works and how it could stop working. Sharing my biggest problem with IV while also having good things to say about some of its featured ideas, And a great point about markers and coins being overridden by the connections and relationships they abstract.

RPGaDAY 2026 6. Reach

#RPGaDAY 2026

6. Reach

6. Who would you like to be able to share RPGs with?

Some people, maybe not a lot but some, would probably be interested in RPGs in their preferred genres outside of the usual SF/F/H which we call genre because we’re in it. Of course I’m saying this as a genre kid, and I know SF/F/H makes the improv with action rules nature of RPGs easier to keep going - it’s much easier to improvise a locked room mystery if you can say “a wizard did it” when you get stuck - but the hobby has definitely grown and expanded when taking in genre edge cases.

Horror and mystery with Call Of Cthulhu - straight mystery largely stayed with prepared one-shots like Murder Mystery Party for the above hard to improvise reasons. Horror with heavy drama and romance with Vampire: The Masquerade, leading to more fully emotionally focused games like MonsterHearts - which still has monsters.

(Though Avery Alder is working on a new no-monsters game based on sports drama like Friday Night Lights.)

Not full-on mundane reality, but genre-ish asides. There aren’t many straight cop games but there are plenty of action movie and TV games where cops taking on somewhat or very heightened criminals works fine.

And in the general SF/F/H space there are a few subgenres that seem like they could be the basis for RPGs.

I’m still puzzled that we didn’t get a big obvious YA Dystopia RPG during the genre’s heyday.

And mentioning romance, there isn’t a big romantasy game yet either. (Blue Rose for its forerunners?) And how come we got an RPG for Battlestar Galactica but not for Outlander? I say this as a non-fan but a romance-focused game with sword fights and time travel seems like it would work.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

RPGaDAY 2026 3. Poise

>#RPGaDAY 2026

3. Poise

3. How does one character present themselves?

Of my current PCs this leans towards:

Paris, the Toreador events promoter in Vampire: The Masquerade - City Of Angels. High Charisma and Presence, different outfits for different occasions, active code switching. And the literal poise power of Cat’s Grace which gives her perfect balance, mostly used for running in high heels.

Olivia Holt
Not my original visual reference but Paris went more girlish than expected

And so naturally I talk about all my current PCs - and my first ever - to show variety.

Michael Sorensen, Tremere occult investigator, wears black. He wore black tie to Elysium, saying he’d go full white tie for a special occasion like a formal dance or being sentenced to Final Death.

Matthieu Lasalle, French Revolution Brujah, was scruffily handsome but his main note of poise was his tendency to start an attack on an enemy of the people by kicking a door open, making a proclamation about justice, and either firing his flintlock or otherwise drawing attacks to him.

Elsewhere, Cara Lawson in Mage: The Ascension is mostly practical but will dress up nice if she thinks it won’t stop her fighting. She has to rely on her high Dexterity for running in high heels.

She is currently in the 1880s and hoping that having to dress like a lady doesn’t get her or anyone else killed.

A screenshot from Assassin's Creed Syndicate with the alert
"EVIE's movements are RESTRICTED by her dress"

Captain Diana Carter in current Star Trek Adventures is kind of a Pike, diplomatic but direct, friendly until not. Her main tic is a wry smile when threatened.

A certain amount of looking cool when player charactering goes all the way back to my first session, where despite no rules for elves or archers in Fighting Fantasy I used an elven archer miniature. With an eyepatch, no less.

Oreon, leader of a Regiments Of Renown army set
Painted and photographed by The Stuff Of Legends.
I went more olive drab IIRC

As a GM, I often have a social episode here and there. My Vampire: The Masquerade band game Last Dance was all about that side of the setting, with just a few fights and chases.

Some day I’d like to go full Good Society and run a full high society game... with or without vampires.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

I got Spider-Man versus the Hulk in live action, which I’ve wanted since I was about five, and it exceeded my expectations.

And also a fun Spider-Man movie, if kinda busy here and there. The bodily changes didn’t really do much except set up that it was possible for we could get another example.

I saw it in 3D because apparently that’s a thing again? The soaring used it nicely, as that’s one of the things it does.

The Thomas Crown Affair (2027)

First look at The Thomas Crown Affair starring and directed by Michael B. Jordan, due March 5th next year, looking even more James Bond than the Pierce Brosnan version. And more Trinity Continuum Assassins than Les Fantômes but I’ll allow it. Though after Sinners I now want a gentleman thief to also fight vampires.

Neuromancer trailer

I like how un-slick the Neuromancer trailer looks, streets that largely just look like advertising-saturated streets in a modern city.

In fact I now kind of wish they’d gone all in with that and made it a modern setting where the story-required cyberpunk elements are the only SF stuff present.

(Not an original idea - I remember William Gibson mentioning a plan to film one of his stories in Tokyo and just emphasise how cyberpunky it was anyway.)

Indiana Jones and the Sword of Pandemonium

Indiana Jones and the Sword of Pandemonium, the first miniseries from Marvel, set soon after Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Five issues starting in December, a reminder that news from San Diego Comic-Con is sometimes about comics.

The Alex Ross variant cover is an homage to issue 1 of The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones. And it’s getting a hardcover reprint set.

Merryshire Detective Club

Merryshire Detective Club, a cosy fantasy mystery RPG from Pelgrane, Backerkitting now.

You play amateur detectives in a cosy-fantasy setting. Your band of plucky investigators solves mysteries (quite often, murder mysteries) that crop up with remarkable regularity in the lovely little halfling village you design together.

One of the General abilities is called Risky Nonsense.

BLADE

How hard is it to make Blade? Come on!

Tacit acknowledgment that they just can’t find the current equivalent of that New Order Pump Panel remix.

Justin Achilli

I'd be curious to know what people remember from Blade that isn't Blade in black leather killing vampires

Kyle Marquis