Is “Horror Drama” A Thing Now?//October 233rd, 2020

I’m going to guess that everyone has, at least once, clicked on a movie on a streaming service and had it not turn out to be what they were expecting.

Sometimes it’s for the better. Last summer I found an amazing hidden gem of a Halloween-themed movie called Lost Creek on Amazon Prime. I clicked on it thinking it would be as mediocre and silly as most of the other little known movies I try to watch based solely on the fact that they have the word “Halloween” in the title or a pumpkin somewhere in the poster, but it surprised me in the best way. I will write a full review of it one day (in short, I will say it’s required viewing if you’re a 90s kid who loved Are You Afraid Of The Dark?) but today I want to talk about a movie that I just watched that, sadly, surprised me in the opposite direction.

SPOILER WARNING: I will reveal the ending in this post!

Let me start off by saying, I went into this movie knowing absolutely nothing about it, but when you find a movie marketed to be about zombies in the horror section, and it stars Arnold Schwarzenegger of all people, you do go in with a certain sort of expectation. I expected to see a movie about a man tearing through anything, human, zombie or otherwise, in the race to save his daughter from turning into a zombie herself. I honestly wasn’t expecting a whole lot of gore, but surely action would be on the menu, right? And a satisfying conclusion?

Sadly, no.

I have watched some bleak stuff in my time, horror and otherwise, but I’ll start this off by saying, no movie I’ve watched in a one time has actually depressed me as much as Maggie did, right from the very start. Honestly, the movie does what it sets out to do as far as creating a heartbreaking and hopeless atmosphere, I can say that much. Many times throughout the movie, I found myself near tears, which isn’t a bad thing. I like when movies create emotion, there’s little point if they don’t make you feel something, but this was just...not what I was expecting at all.

By the time we hit the halfway mark, it becomes pretty clear that this is not a horror movie, at least not in the traditional sense. I was starting to develop the same issue with Maggie that I’ve always had with The Walking Dead (and I know I’m in the minority with the latter, don’t @ me, it’s just a personal opinion I have): Too much about the people themselves, not enough actual horror for me. I am generally not a person who enjoys drama as a movie or TV genre, and Maggie is infinitely more drama than horror, or even action.

Still though, having invested so much time into the movie, and feeling the grim determination of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character throughout, I felt there had to be a solid climax coming. He was either going to find a cure or have to end the story on an even more depressing note by having to put his beloved daughter out of her misery himself, right? Both options were eluded to (though more so the latter) at different points throughout the movie. I had a feeling a happy ending was out of the question, just with the overall depressing tone of things.

But is there some amazing climax here? Even a depressing one?

No, not really.

The movie ends with Maggie throwing herself off the roof of her home, while thinking about her long-deceased mother. And that’s it.

I’m not going to say it was really a bad movie. It was emotional and poignant, and it is interesting to see the other side of the zombie apocalypse and what a person would go through while making a more gradual change, it just wasn’t at all what I thought it was going to be, and I feel like nothing really happened over the course of the movie. It was literally just the last bits of a dying girl’s life, and when the movie was finally over, it occurred to me that this could very easily have been a Lifetime-esque movie about a girl with cancer or any other incurable disease. It was almost as if someone decided to try to make a “Fault In Our Stars” type movie for horror fans. And, personally, while I won’t deny enjoying the occasional chick flick, this just wasn’t my cup of tea. Not necessarily bad, just not what I was expecting and not what I felt like seeing tonight.

I suppose it’s worth a watch if you’re into zombie stuff, but be warned: It is not a horror movie and very easily could’ve been written about any other affliction.

Stay spooky, my friends.

The Long Way Back//October 32nd, 2023

Every year I talk about November 1st...it's such a confusing day. It makes me feel so many emotions all at once. Mournful, depressed, angry...It's like a slap in the face shoving us into a new month, forcing us to forget what came just hours before. Last year, I did have somewhat of an epiphany regarding the month of November as a whole, and while I do my best to keep my own past words in mind, that doesn't make today any easier. Or easy to explain, for that matter. I suppose I should speak from my heart. Today I feel detached from reality, as if I don't really exist. Like there is no longer a place in the world for me. Just yesterday everything I loved made sense, and was loved and revered by everyone else as well. I felt like I fit. But now, today, I see those same things being quickly shoved away. Less than twenty-four hours after trick-or-treating time began, it's all being swept under the rug. The season culminated and the world is no longer a place I recog

The Spooky Community Has No Entrance Fee//October 288th, 2023

Something I’ve been seeing a lot this year around the Halloween community, possibly more than any other year, has been talk of consumerism, how much money spent on Halloween is too much, whether collecting is really that important or if it’s somehow required to truly be a part of the community, etc. I’m in no way trying to copy anyone else who’s already spoken on this subject, but I thought I would chime in and share my thoughts, as it is something I definitely think about. Now, I’ve always been relatively fortunate when it comes to how much money I have to spend on Halloween goodies. As a child, I often received money for my birthday, September 8th, at the height of the shopping season, at least as I knew it back then. No, it wasn’t enough to collect the way I do now, but it was enough to make me happy, and you also could get a lot more for a lot less back then. I didn’t necessarily stop to think about my “hauls”, but I knew even at a young age that there was nothing I’d rather be sp

Here’s Where The Story Ends//October 337th, 2020

Everyone has moments in their life when they feel like giving up. That feeling of “This is never going to happen, so why keep trying?” Sometimes it relates to a thing that would be trivial to anyone else, sometimes it’s about something more life-altering. But, we’ve all been there. I have moments of discouragement with this blog. Times I’ve told myself, “No one cares”, or “No one will read this”, etc., but I continue on, for the joy of it. And sometimes, something amazing happens. If you haven’t read my previous post, Have You Seen This Pumpkin? , I would strongly suggest doing so before continuing on with this story. The short version is, I saw a pumpkin in someone’s window when I was twelve years old, and have spent the last twenty-one years trying to find it for myself. When I published that post, I wasn’t expecting much of a response. I was really just hoping to hear someone say, “Yes, my family had this pumpkin when I was a kid!” Or “I once saw this in a neighbor’s window while

Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

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