I'm posting this up a day early for Halloween, because I generally don't have the time to post *ON* Halloween. Besides, who wants to spend Halloween skulking on the Intertubes. I wanted to do a link post, but feel shamed by the epic past endeavors of certain Batgrl. She would flood the 'tubes with more Halloween goodness in one place than any human could stand. Perhaps that was her plan, to drive us mad with All-Hallows Eve joy. Regardless, I am not her, and can only make a shallow attempt at doing justice to this holiday.
In my neighborhood, there are usually no trick-or-treaters at all. So, when one does show up at the door, my beloved (and most everyone else in the hood) over indulges them with more candy than is sensible. So here is my indulgence; the title says 3; expect more.
First, I don't comment at Metafilter anymore, but I still read it. From there, I encountered one of the best analysis of monster might anywhere. From Threat Quality Press, A Hierarchy of Monsters. Please, do not stop there. The comments to the Metafilter thread are priceless, especially those from robocop is bleeding.
To really look at a hierarchy of threat, we need to start from the perspective of a potential victim and work our way up from there. As I can tell you from personal experience, there is little practical difference in being locked in a closet while the corpse of your dead wife, animated through dread magics, pounds on the door with cold, unyielding fists and being lost in a Bavarian forest, running from a chorus of howls and snarling, fanged mouths.
In the end, the victim's life will end. Whether it ends at the claws of a werewolf, fangs of a vampire, axe of a drowned kid, or nightmare of a dreamstalker doesn't matter.
This is quality stuff.
Second, the always clever Dave Merriman sends a link to the must-have insurance of the current century. The other poseurs can move aside. My Zombie Insurance is the product needed for the Zombpocalypse.
Third, enough with the imprecise verbiage! WonderMark gives us the terms we need. Presenting the Stoakes-Wibley Natural Index of Supernatural Collective Nouns. It should be no surprise that my favorite is 'a vexation of zombies'.
Finally, I am not a video gamer. I like games, and have played many. However, a game must have a certain something to appeal to me. Creepiness is high on my list of gaming joys. Doom 3 had it's moments; F.E.A.R. was just shock value lame. Undying remains one of my favorite games of all time. But back in the old dark days of DOS, Phantasmagoria was all that and then some. The video, filmed with live actors, was simply gravy to the creepy music and actual game exploration. It is the videos that brought out the creepy flavor of all the weird stuff you had to do to prepare *not* to get killed in a horrific manner. I know I'm probably johnny-come-lately to this, but the murderous cut-scenes have been posted online, and I-Mockery has compiled them in one handy spot for your horror viewing pleasure. Yes, I know the demon looks stupid in the extreme, but this was revolutionary stuff as regards gaming. And more to point, it was horrific.
Well, that's all I got. Except this:
Yes I know I've posted that before. But that video is becoming something of holiday tradition with me ...
Happy Halloween, folks.
Undying is STILL fantastic! I don't play the game much these days, but I've got the game's score on permanent rotation on my iPod . . . nice and CREEPY!
I love the My Zombie Insurance link! I'll have to mention that on my podcast!
Posted by: Derek M. Koch | October 30, 2009 at 04:26 PM
Yeah, I looked it up and there are Zilf's.
Posted by: bill | November 03, 2009 at 01:01 PM