Also announced, Scent of Decay, a more regular sized adventure collection for W5.
Saturday, 7 October 2023
V5: The Crimson Gutter
The Crimson Gutter sounds like it could be very helpful to new Storytellers. An example city setting and a season’s worth of plot hooks. The Vampire family as a whole didn’t get a book like this until Damnation City for Requiem first edition, which makes for bg boots to fill.
Friday, 6 October 2023
The Prophecy
31 Days Of Horror 13
Going to repost the more game-friendly ones here.
The Prophecy (1995)
Ironically not called anything to do with Relics.
From the writer of Highlander and it sure does show, as immortal beings with nice coats and a specific way to kill them gather for a final battle that draws in some normal mortals after police find one of the bodies. This is a more horror take on the setup, told from the possibly-helpless mortal perspective and with some added impaling and heart-eating. Christopher Walken eats scenery as well as hearts as rogue angel Gabriel. (He comes back for a couple of sequels, unlike everyone else. despite very clearly dying in the end.) Viggo Mortensen tries to out-melodrama him in a guest appearance as Lucifer. Eric Stoltz gets the less fun role of the sensible angel on humanity’s side, with Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen and Moriah Shining Dove Snyder as the main humans.
I was reminded that I haven’t watched this in a while. It lacks the big fights of the creator’s other urban fantasy franchise, but has its own odd little amusements. I particularly like the twist that this very Catholic mythic battle brings in a Native American exorcism along with questions of the importance of faith in all forms. But mostly it’s about angelic supervillains monologuing, and that’s not a complaint.
Oh, and the titular prophecy has already happened.
The medium: DVD with nothin' extra.
(I also watched Prophecy from 1979, where the prophecy is more a folk story being used as a name.)
WODtober 2023 6. Underground
WODtober 2023 6. Underground
The abandoned subway station was as grand a court as the Elysium in its way.
It’s only forever
Not long at all
David Bowie, Underground
(Take me down, six underground)
D&D's latest puzzling call
D&D no longer working with its distributor. They plan to go through Hasbro to stores direct, which... sure, I guess? It’s not as what-are-you-even-doing as the OGL revision that got canned in days...
Thursday, 5 October 2023
WODtober 2023 5. In The Shadows
WODtober 2023 5. In The Shadows
Preston knew Maria was here somewhere. She always was.
In the shadowplay acting out your own death knowing no more
Joy Division, Shadowplay
Wednesday, 4 October 2023
WODtober 2023 4. Taste Of The Moon
WODtober 2023 4. Taste Of The Moon
“We gather on this night out of sight of Man...”
Take off for safer places
Can’t you see
You’re losing me
Fields Of The Nephilim, Moonchild
Tuesday, 3 October 2023
WODtober 2023 3. Bloodlines
WODtober 2023 3. Bloodlines
“We can trace our lineage back to Cain himself. And some of our ancestors look younger than I do.”
I lost my soul to bloodlines
Ministry, Bloodlines
Only Murders In The Building season three
I actually figured a key thing out this year! And kinda worked out who the killer was eventually.
V5 The Crowded Streets references
Vampire: The Masquerade
The Crowded Streets
London is a stronghold of the Camarilla. Heart of a fallen empire. A monster of a city.
Monday, 2 October 2023
Relic
31 Days Of Horror 13
Relic (2020)
Trailer featuring a glimpse of the grossest thing in the film
Showing the variety of the genre in one title, Relic is clearly the result of melancholy horror films like The Babadook and Hereditary doing well as it features a family burdened by a supernatural take on a very real concern in a gloomy old house. The initial apparent setup of a mother with dementia going missing after claiming her house was haunted suggests one kind of story, this goes in another direction.
Ultimately I don’t need a horror metaphor to tell me dementia is horrible.
Well crafted, grim, and interesting if you go in knowing it’s not fun at all.
WODtober 2023 2. City By Night
WODtober 2023 2. City By Night
Everyone in the line for the club felt a chill as the “VIP” walked past them.
To the centre of the city in the night
Waiting for you
Joy Division, Shadowplay
The Creator
A new original big-budget SF movie. Well, not that original, but not directly based on anything.
Lots of overly familiar imagery - fast laser guns and ominous vehicles like The Terminator here used by humans against AI, the huge circular blast door with a similar surprise behind it from Akira, Wētā doing similar work from Chappie and a heroic Appleseed-y faceless but expressive robot, some very Simon Stålenhag looks and landscapes.
Gemma Chan so so typecast. Here she plays a human who is also copied by robots.
Calling it The Creator instead of the more interesting and more used Nirmata fits the first draft feel overall.
Sunday, 1 October 2023
The Relic
31 Days Of Horror 13
Have I really not talked about The Relic here? Huh. Okay.
1: The Relic (1997)
The Relic has been on the BBC’s free streaming service for years, due to them giving some money to this very American movie, so it’s always there if I’m stuck for something mildly horror-y.
It’s very much mid The X Files in its “sarcastic people with flashlights chasing a briefly-glimpsed pseudoscience monster” and also very early post Jurassic Park in its “Stan Winston Studio provides a great monster which does some action with CGI that had to be used so carefully and sparingly that it still mostly holds up” (behind the scenes article here with the best look you’ll ever get at the monster).
It’s goofy, gory fun. Many heads are chomped.
The pseudoscience “curse” is kicked off by an indigenous tribe but the film blames the spread on a know-it-all anthropologist.
The book it was based on got a sequel around the same time the film came out (and apparently some of the characters reappeared in more thrillers by the authors that don’t have monsters in them) and I would have happily watched more of these.
31 Days, 31 Horror Movies XIII
31 Days 13.
Happy October!
I have no real plan at all this year, I have a couple of discs waiting, and to start somewhere:
WODtober 2023 1. The Monster In Me
WODtober 2023 1. The Monster In Me
“What am I?”
You bring out the monster in me
L7, Monster
Month of Darkness and WODtober
Month of Darkness calendar
Just one WODtober prompt set this year. And having to take photographs of my drawings as my scanner was attached to my printer. The lack of a working printer and therefore scanner has delayed me, but clearly not enough.
So going a bit bigger. Will this help...?
And on Instagram I guess.
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