That Horrible Pen

This piece contains spoilers for the film in the title as well as for Friday the 13th (2009) and Come True and Underwater (2020). The discussion is briefly NSFW. Content warning also for a good bit of exploration of potential transphobia in The Empty Man and the real-world implications. From The Empty Man , specifically one of its best horror sequences. Source .             Let me officially join the chorus of voices proclaiming that The Empty Man is a great film. Its title, trailer, and even a basic plot synopsis don’t do it full justice, in part because doing so means spoiling the things that make the movie special and because what is actually so meaningful and interesting about The Empty Man is also what makes it hard to market to a wide audience. It’s a horror movie, yes, and one in the tradition of other supernatural-horror-as-contagion tales like The Ring series or (yes) 2017’s The Bye Bye Man , but it doesn’t actually pr...

Born from the void and still pristine Tranquil, vast, and cold See the orb of blue and green When he spake, the light shone gold . . . . Joy and delight forever ceased Sufferings abloom Eaten alive by the cauldron beast Let the drones ring to the sound of doom -        Apocalypse Orchestra, “The Garden of Earthly Delights” (2017)     This essay offers a detailed look at the downloadable “Virtuous Cycle” expansion released back in August 2021 for the action-adventure “Soulslike” game Mortal Shell , coming out about a year after the base game’s original release. Fittingly, perhaps, this piece is going up about a year after that , though it wasn’t my intention and I’ll get into the reasons for what ended up being an especially protracted writing process a bit below. This finished piece is partly a review of the Mortal Shell DLC but will also contain a blend of “thoughts” on the mechanics and design of both the base game and its expa...