C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 46

The Division (video game) review

    I'm preparing to do my second update of my corona virus self-quarantine journal but thought I'd take a time to talk about my experience playing through The Division games by Ubisoft. They are a very different game to play through than they were when they were first released. Both because both of them have been updated extensively and the whole viral apocalypse thing currently going on right now. This is not me attempting to undermine the real life tragedy going on but the...

Star Trek: Picard season one review

    Picard was a series that I was tremendously excited about. Like a lot of Trekkies my age, I grew up on the adventures of Captain Jean Luc Picard rather than Captain Kirk, Sisko, Janeway, or Archer. I watched him and the Galaxy-Class version of the Enterprise deal with everything from Q to the Borg. The Next Generation may not have always been amazing. I slightly prefer Deep Space Nine, but it was a classic that stands alongside the best of the original series or movies....

Foreword to Psycho Killers: A Love Story

 
    I love slashers.

    A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween are the ones most people know but I'm a fan of many more. I also love the parodies, deconstructions, and homages that they've created over the years. You haven't got a full appreciation for the genre until you've tried Scream, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, and Tim Seeley's Hack/Slash. At the end of the book, I'll have a whole list of recommendations for movies and...

There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins review

    THERE'S SOMEONE INSIDE YOUR HOUSE by Stephanie Perkins is a weird combination from the beginning as it's a Young Adult slasher novel. I spent much of my childhood watching R-rated movies like Alien, Robocop, Friday the 13th, and Terminator but the illicit thrill was in watching something you weren't supposed to. This is a rather strange combination of sweet teenage romance and then gutting people.

    I'm not sure that it wouldn't be R-Rated given the level of...

My coronavirus story so far part 1 (3/19/20)

Month 1#
Month 2#

Hey folks,

    I thought I'd give an insight into what's going on in my life while things are happening across the world. I'm self-isolating here in Ashland, Ky, which isn't that much different from the rest of my life since I work at home. On the other hand, my family wasn't too well-prepared for the corona apocalypse so we were out of canned goods, food in the freezer, and essentials that would potentially come in handy with the mass shut-down ordered by...

My coronavirus story so far

Hey folks,

    I thought I'd give an insight into what's going on in my life while things are happening across the world. I'm self-isolating here in Ashland, Ky, which isn't that much different from the rest of my life since I work at home. On the other hand, my family wasn't too well-prepared for the corona apocalypse so we were out of canned goods, food in the freezer, and essentials that would potentially come in handy with the mass shut-down ordered by Governor Steve...

Final Girls by Riley Sager review

    FINAL GIRLS by Riley Sager is right up my wheelhouse since I am the kind of guy who read MEN, WOMEN, AND CHAINSAWS by Carol J. Clover for the intellectual stimulating discussion of the slasher movie with not a trace of irony. The premise of the novel is a simple and intriguing one: what if a typical slasher movie plot "really" happened? Well, the survivors would be traumatized as well as media sensations.
    Quincy Carpenter, a nice reference to Quincy...

Book Announcement: Psycho Killers in Love

What if all the cheesy horror movies of the 1980s were based on true stories?

William England knows that they are for a fact. His father, Billy the Undying, was one of the most notorious slashers of all time. Wrongfully imprisoned in a mental institution with his ax-crazy sister, Carrie, William has escaped with his sibling out into the real world. Unfortunately, he's literally haunted by his father's ghost and has found himself driving to a small town in Kansas that is the center of murderous...

Escape from Happydale: The Last Final Girl by Jack Quaid review

    THE LAST FINAL GIRL: ESCAPE FROM HAPPYDALE is a homage to 80s slasher movies that I very much enjoyed. It is a quick, solid, and entertaining read that has an interesting (albeit unnecessary) gimmick that makes me want to read the rest of the series. It is also a story that I am going to read the sequels too and probably pick up the omnibus collection for because it is a work that deserves the attention. This is one of those self-published indie treats that I think would do...

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon review

    This movie should have really been a bigger hit than it was. I am a huge slasher fan if you've ever checked out my many reviews on the subject and commentary but it's a genre that doesn't get much critical love. If you actually want to talk about good slasher movies versus fun ones, there's only about a handful of them: Halloween, Scream, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Until Dawn (which was a video game), and this movie right here.

Leslie in costume.    You can...