Posts Tagged ‘Halloween’

Of Political Correctness and Man at Yale

Posted: November 10, 2015 in Threat Quality
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Yale! A-ahh!

Yale! A-ahh!

Every week it’s a new adventure.  This time I would like to break my historic silence on “Things Happening at Places I Don’t Care About” to discuss the Halloween hang-ups that have been occurring at Yale – namely, a ruckus that is somehow ensuing because the administration sent a politely-worded email asking students not to dress up in racist Halloween costumes, and then a professor replied all with a politely-worded email saying that they could have racist Halloween costumes if they wanted.

For some reason, kids got mad about this and started yelling, and internet commentators have gathered like a parliament of dyspeptic hens to cluck with disapproval at kids today and their lack of respect for the intellectual traditions of Yale.

Good gravy.

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Eigen League of Monsters, Part 7: The Stalker

Posted: October 29, 2011 in Braak, crotchety ranting, Horror
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Part of my ONGOING SERIES about just what distinguishes the classic monsters in my WORLD FAMOUS Monster Hierarchy from each other.  The first part was about the Vampire, and it’s also got my thoughts about what an “Eigen League” is and why I think it’s meritorious to discuss this subject.  Long story short:  in a group of monsters like the kind on the hierarchy, my theory is that they sufficiently fulfill a necessary number of roles in the human consciousness with regards to horror.

Up today is the Stalker, which is a name I’m using for a whole category of nasty suckers that you’d probably recognize on sight:  Michael Meyers, Jason Vorhees, you know them, they’ve been terrorizing sexed-up teenagers for a hundred years.

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Eigen League of Monsters Part 6: Creatures, Frankenstein’s

Posted: October 25, 2011 in Braak, crotchety ranting, Horror
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Part of my ONGOING SERIES about just what distinguishes the classic monsters in my WORLD FAMOUS Monster Hierarchy from each other.  The first part was about the Vampire, and it’s also got my thoughts about what an “Eigen League” is and why I think it’s meritorious to discuss this subject.  Long story short:  in a group of monsters like the kind on the hierarchy, my theory is that they sufficiently fulfill a necessary number of roles in the human consciousness with regards to horror.

This one is about Creatures in the subcategory of “Made by Dr. Frankenstein.”

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Eigen League of Monsters, Part Five: Creatures, Lagoon-Based

Posted: October 21, 2011 in Braak, crotchety ranting, Horror, October Horror
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Part of my ONGOING SERIES about just what distinguishes the classic monsters in my WORLD FAMOUS Monster Hierarchy from each other.  The first part was about the Vampire, and it’s also got my thoughts about what an “Eigen League” is and why I think it’s meritorious to discuss this subject.  Long story short:  in a group of monsters like the kind on the hierarchy, my theory is that they sufficiently fulfill a necessary number of roles in the human consciousness with regards to horror.

This one is about Creatures in the sub-category, “from Lagoons and Such, Black or Otherwise.”

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Eigen League of Monsters, Part Four: Witches

Posted: October 20, 2011 in Braak, crotchety ranting, monsters, October Horror
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Part of my ONGOING SERIES about just what distinguishes the classic monsters in my WORLD FAMOUS Monster Hierarchy from each other.  The first part was about the Vampire, and it’s also got my thoughts about what an “Eigen League” is and why I think it’s meritorious to discuss this subject.  Long story short:  in a group of monsters like the kind on the hierarchy, my theory is that they sufficiently fulfill a necessary number of roles in the human consciousness with regards to horror.  Today I am going to talk about witches, because witches are a kind of monster and…

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Eigen League of Monsters, Part Three: G-g-g-g-ghosts!

Posted: October 19, 2011 in Braak, crotchety ranting, monsters, October Horror
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Part of my ONGOING SERIES about just what distinguishes the classic monsters in my WORLD FAMOUS Monster Hierarchy from each other.  The first part was about the Vampire, and it’s also got my thoughts about what an “Eigen League” is and why I think it’s meritorious to discuss this subject.  Long story short:  in a group of monsters like the kind on the hierarchy, my theory is that they sufficiently fulfill a necessary number of roles in the human consciousness with regards to horror.

Today I’m going to talk about two things, for reasons that I hope will be eventually made clear:  1) Unclean Spirits, and 2) Malphas, a Mighty Prince of Hell (&. al).

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Eigen League of Monsters, Part-Two: Wolf-Man

Posted: October 18, 2011 in Braak, crotchety ranting, Horror, monsters, October Horror
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Part of my ONGOING SERIES about just what distinguishes the classic monsters in my WORLD FAMOUS Monster Hierarchy from each other.  The first part was about the Vampire, and it’s also got my thoughts about what an “Eigen League” is and why I think it’s meritorious to discuss this subject.  Long story short:  in a group of monsters like the kind on the hierarchy, my theory is that they sufficiently fulfill a necessary number of roles in the human consciousness with regards to horror.  Today, the Wolf-Man.

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Eigen League of Monsters, Part One: The Vampire

Posted: October 17, 2011 in Braak, crotchety ranting, Horror, monsters, October Horror
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It has been nearly TWO YEARS since I first published the Hierarchy of Monsters, and in the subsequent time no one has published any modified hierarchy that is more accurate, complete, or awesome.  This means that, by default, I am the internet’s leading Monsterologist.  Suck it up, kids, you lost this round.

In my role as the Internet’s the World’s the Universe’s leading Monsterologist, I have come to discuss something that I’ve been thinking of as the monster Eigen League.

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DRACULA UNCONQUERED! The Chris Sims Interview

Posted: October 7, 2011 in Braak, comic books
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So, Chris Sims –of ComicsAlliance and Invincible Super-Blog fame — is working on a new comic called Dracula the Unconquered along with Steve Downer and Josh Krach.  The comic comes out at the end of October and, as a prelude to that, I — BRAAK! — was privileged to interview Mr. Sims and discuss some important issues.  Mainly about the comic, though, we didn’t talk about the merits of ontological determinism or anything.  Some good stuff, though.  Here is the interview!

(And some art, mostly pilfered from Steve Downer’s twitter feed — @downersteve)

Returned to life ten years after being chained in the Tower of London, the former Lord of the Vampires and his new assistant, Thalia, battle to stop their enemies from unleashing an undead army on the world. Action Age Comics proudly presents an adventure into the heart of horror: Dracula the Unconquered!

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Halloween Movie Playlist: 10+ Recommendations

Posted: October 28, 2010 in Horror, Jeff Holland, October Horror, reviews, Threat Quality
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(OR: “Stomping Around in the Dark: A 5-Year Retrospective!”)

(OR: “The Scary Things don’t seem too concerned with hiding in big shadows. They just wait for you to look at them.”)

As Halloween weekend approaches, you’re probably lining up your movie selections with your own personal playlist of great horror/suspense/sci-fi/dark-fantasy/what-have-you films.

You’ve probably got some zombie flicks lined up (Romero, 28 Days/Weeks Later, even Shaun of the Dead), maybe a good vampire movie (Let the Right One In), a classic or two (Cat People on TCM Sunday, 2 AM), and probably a couple fun schlock-fests (Re-Animator, or hey – Evil Dead 2 is on AMC Sunday at 6 AM!). All solid choices, I’m sure.

Now, these last five years, I’ve devoted each October to catching up with all the horror films I’ve missed in my lifetime, while also sussing out which new ones are worth adding to the canon.

Representing the best of the last five years of having to put up with crap like Candyman so I can occasionally stumble onto something good, I humbly submit these TQP-approved entries for a quality movie-viewing weekend:  (more…)