Chills. Also: tears. (Well, Winchester tears. You know what I mean.)

Damn, which Yoko Kanno record will you choose? (Which one would *I* choose? This is really tough.)

+1 for listening to KEXP.

My partner pointed out that Bobby's ghost was a metaphor for the series itself: unnaturally prolonged, increasingly senile, and slow to move. Dean's frustration is our frustration, or the frustration of sombody in the writer's room.

I guess they were referred to as "Formics" within official literature within the fictional world (i.e. press releases, etc.) but I remember them solely as the "buggers". That's the mask Peter was wearing when he nearly choked out Ender. A "Bugger" mask. Period. And the thing is, I think Uncle Orson knew exactly what…

The wolf's head on the wall. Thus the super-creepy music when Jules was making out with it.

Also there's the appearance of Jodelle Ferland, AKA Sharon and Alessa from the Silent Hill adaptation, as Patience Buckner. I thought that was a cute little in-joke for horror and gaming fans. (Ferland also plays the Little Sister in BioShock 2.)

I'm really pleased to see this article here. Thank you so much for posting it.

Nice.

No problem! I'd be terribly remiss if I didn't recommend it.

And let's not forget this little gem of Lovecraftian histori-sci-horror, about the Eugenics Record Office itself. (Charles Davenport shows up.)

Now I'm just imagining a version of 1984 populated entirely by the cast of Arrested Development.

Agency is something we talk about a lot in my workshop. Basically, it boils down to: "Can this character make what she wants happen?" or "Is this character in control of her own life?"

I would argue that the horror of Paranormal Activity isn't about failing to protect one's loved ones but rather about one's partner being a total braggart who listens to nothing you say, and would rather film your night terrors and insist he can help while doing absolutely nothing of any use as the situation grows…

Insidious scared me so badly I couldn't sleep for the rest of the night. I saw the kid at first, too. Made the person sitting next to me re-wind it, so he could see, too. To this day, he fixates on that scene. (Whereas for me, the flipbook effect with the old photos is just terrifying.)

I did, too! I was really lucky to win a copy of the limited edition hardcover at a viewing of the film in Toronto. Burgess is a sweetheart, and so is McHattie.

I think so, but not as frequently, and probably without the ludicrous titles featured on the covers.

Billy and the Boingers, AKA Deathtongue! (Yeah, I'm counting "Bloom County" as SF. Aliens who abducted Steve Dallas. And there were monsters in Binkley's Anxiety Closet. And Oliver Wendell Jones was always conducting a mad science experiment.)

"Someday my princess will come" really should not have been an article about pick-up lines.

I suspect that "Pontypool," both the novel and the film, did this better.