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This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’ll be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 7 Zombies Ate My Neighbors Growing up, I was a huge fan of computer games developed by LucasArts. But before I even knew who they were, I was playing Zombies Ate My Neighbors on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.  Themed around 50’s horror monster movies, Zombies Ate My Neighbors is more arcade shooter than it is a spooky time. However, it has some great character and sound design. It also did strange weapons well before Dead Rising did with items like Weed Whackers, Soda Cans and other unconventional weaponry you can use against the evils you face. The goal of Zombies Ate My Neighbors is to save at least one civilian on each level. As long as you did that, it doesn’t matter how many of them die to the various ghouls wandering around. The only thing you have to do is survive long enough to find them all and make it to the exit of the next level. This is easier said than done, as Zombies Ate My Neighbors does get pretty difficult. Zombies Ate My Neighbors is also great fun if you’re playing couch co-op. You can choose between the appropriately 90’s rad Zeke or Julie. While they’re both identical in terms of gameplay, it gives you the chance to argue over who you get to play as. If you’re looking to play Zombies Ate My Neighbors today, you can actually find it bundled with its sequel Ghoul Patrol , released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’ll be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 6 System Shock 2 The System Shock remake made my 31 Days of Horror list last year for a good reason: it’s pretty darn scary. But I have to admit, the first time a video game every truly scared me was with System Shock 2 . Before that, every in game fear I had was anxiety-based - wondering if I'd be able to beat a boss with low health and no lives–stuff like that. But System Shock 2 introduced me to what video game horror could be. And it also introduced me to one of video games’ scariest (and most underrated) villains ever: Shodan. System Shock 2 is a first person shooter from a time when most first person shooters innovated only through different weapon types and enemies. Most of them were purely corridor shooters with the occasional secret or other reason to sidetrack. System Shock 2 bucked the norm by introducing RPG elements into the tried-and-true formula, much like its predecessor. This paved the way for other first person shooter x RPGs like the fantastic Deus Ex .  But System Shock 2 isn’t seminal just for its hybrid elements, it’s also a genuinely scary game. Part of the reason for that is its great atmosphere and world building. The other part is Shodan, the insane AI from the first game. Okay, mentioning Shodan is a bit of a spoiler, but I would be remiss not to mention her presence. And she’s reintroduced in a surreal but terrifying fashion that parallels Bioshock’s Atlas reveal in a few ways. The sound design in System Shock 2 really helps sell the dread and terror. As you roam the halls looking for precious items and ammunition, the infected moan and taunt you to join them.  System Shock 2 is available to play on Steam, but according to some Steam reviews, its clunkiness doesn’t hold up to modern gameplay standards. If you want a similar experience, and to start from the beginning of the story, Night Dive Studio’s fantastic System Shock remake is available on Steam and modern consoles. Hopefully Night Dive will get around to giving System Shock 2 the remake treatment, because this classic sci-fi horror game should be experienced by modern audiences.

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’re going to be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 5 Splatterhouse Splatterhouse has had a few iterations over the years, but when I was a kid I thought of it as “the game where you played as Jason.” I was referring, of course, to Jason Voorhees, the killer in Friday the 13th Part: 2 and onwards. As an adult, I can understand how young me came to that conclusion. Playing a cleaver wielding guy wearing a white mask that resembles Jason’s signature hockey mask comes pretty close. Despite how iconic Splatterhouse was in early video game history, it’s a game that’s relatively simple: there are only seven levels, and each is filled with enemies that have easy to remember patterns. I think a lot of the lasting appeal of Splatterhouse is its art design. It has an unabashedly horror theme that doesn’t shy away from gore and religious iconography–at least not in the arcade version. Splatterhouse has been ported to home consoles a number of times–originally to the Turbografx-16. This version was heavily censored with a lot of the gore toned down, and religious iconography removed. Despite the censorship, the home console version is a pretty good recreation of the arcade version of Splatterhouse . There were two sequels, Splatterhouse 2 and Splatterhouse 3,  but those were only released on the Sega Genesis.  While the console port of Splatterhouse is a little harder to play today, you can actually play the original arcade version easily if you have a Nintendo Switch. It’s released under the Arcade Archives series that is on the Nintendo eShop. If you want to play the console port, you have to get a hold of a retro console, as even the Wii eShop version is now inaccessible.

We have arrived to the scariest month of the year! Whether you partake in the spooky movies or not, October is almost always set to be rife with them. While not officially part of the 31 Days of Horror series, you will not that some of the films featured in this round up are horror or horror adjacent! So stock up on the recommendations and get ready for some frights! The Blob - October 1 This is a re-release of the BestBuy exclusive steelbook, but with the big blue box out of the physical media game, it's t for everyone o get a crack at this. The movie is solid as solid gets with amazing visual effects, a fun script from Frank Darabond, and some pitch perfect action from the entire cast. Plus the steelbook looks great with the blob taking it's last (?) stand! Five Nights at Freddy's 4K - October 10 I'll say this right off the bat: this isn't the best horror movie by a long shot. But it's not a hot pile of trash that many would lead you to believe. It's a very dedicated ode to the videogame series that has had a strangle hold on kids for nearly a decade. If anything it should be lauded for getting a new generation of kids into horror and hopefully they'll expand into better fair. This is the 4K steelbook release, so the films been available for a bit, but why not splurge on the special packaging for the spookiest month of the year. Halloween Trilogy Steelbook 4K Ok. There's so much wrong here and I just want to get it off my chest. Technically the first Halloween (1978) is a part of this time line for this so technically it's a quadrilogy. Second, I wasn't crazy about the second Halloween (2017) but I don't hate it. I think it did its job a little haphazardly, but mostly succeeded. Halloween Kills (2019) is a misstep off a goddamn cliff, repeating past mistakes like taking place immediately after the previous installment, being set largely in a hospital, taking Michael to unwelcome territory. Plus that stupid chant (Evil. it dies tonight, y'know). Halloween Ends (2021) has masterpiece levels of idea but is crushed by the history of the series, incredibly silly writing decisions, and David Gordon Green's insanely odd direction. It borders on parody and while I did laugh, I sincerely don;'t think that was the intention. At least not entirely. Ends is bad, but somehow daring enough to maybe be ok, sort of, possibly. Trick 'r Treat 4K - October 29 WHY IS THIS COMING OUT SO LATE IN THE MONTH! Imagine a world where your guaranteed to have this for the pre-Halloween weekend and it's a part of you movie marathon. Trick 'r Treat is one of those tricky anthology films that actually gets it all pretty right. It's gory, mean, and a damn fun time. Highly recommended! MORE RELEASES TO BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR! Devil 4K is a silly M. Night Shyamalan penned trapped in a bottle (elevator) and while its not the best horror, it's still pretty damn fun. October 8 Dan Stevens continues being horror's (and films in general) most versatile weapon and Cuckoo is no exception October 22 Need a slow paced, violent, shot form the killers point of view film? Then In a Violent Nature is what you need October 22 Oddity is one I missed in theaters so I'm eagerly expecting this release October 22 Ghost 4K is a classic and while not entirely a horror film, the villain's comeuppance is forever sketched into my brain. October 22 Again, not exactly horror, but Zodiac 4K is creepy and utterly disturbing. October 22 Drag Me To Hell 4K  IS a horror movie and a great addition to the Sam Raimi horror library. October 29

Once or twice a year a movie comes out that is so weird, so off the wall, so over the top, so “for the sickos”, that my friends and family have dubbed them “Julian movies”. They're films that are so extreme that I could t possibly recommend them, but boy do I recommend them wholeheartedly and welcome the jeers. This year has been rife with them but The Substance may be my favorite. The film follows Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), an aging Oscar winner (which is mentioned off handedly) turned TV aerobic instructor/host who is let go due to her age. Despite this description the film doesn't take place in the 80s, rather there's a semblance of timelessness. Her distress over being fired by the sleazest ball of all Harvey (Dennis Quaid) leaves her distracted and she winds up in a car accident. It is here where a young doctor scopes her out and introduces Sparkle to The Substance. The Substance is a treatment that causes your body to under go mitosis, splitting a person in two and creating a double that is the best version of themselves. They are however expected and repeatedly told, they are one in the same and must only spend a week on each body at a time. In Sparkle’s case, her double is the ambiguously young and blindingly beautiful Sue (Margaret Qually) who ends up being everything Sparkle wanted to relive. Maybe a little too much as Sue wants to be in the driver seat longer than she's aloud. From here the film goes from 0 to a million in quick fashion. The film is a post modern marvel in every sense of the style, with certain characters embodying entire ideas. Hell the TV shows are often referred to as generically as possible, character are borderline pastiches of stereotypes, and the direction is so in your face you might mistake it for salacious. But it's all at the service of the themes films like beauty standards, fame, growing older, identity, and all the pitfalls in between. Director Coralie Fargeat deftly handles the audaciousness of these ideas, truly creating something wonderful. The Substances wears it's inspirations and references on its sleeve. From locations and shots that look straight out of The Shining, a story that harkens to The Picture of Dorian Grey and Neon Demon , to effects that recall early works of the Davids (Lynch and Cronenberg) or more directly Brian Yuzna. But it doesn't just copy them or play the “you remember” game. Instead it juxtaposes them hilariously with contrasting imagery to further enhance them. Now there's the ending, which if you have any familiarity with the stories The Substance is referencing throughout, you should be prepared for the worst. I'm not above being disgusted, but I think the actual grossness of the finale is overrated. Don't get me wrong, the ending is vile but the postmodern storytelling and direction really underlined the joyful ridiculousness of the grotesquery on hand. It made it make sense, at least as much sense that postmodernism allows. I was genuinely cackling throughout the audaciousness of the final 20 minutes and hope more people seek out this ins ane film. The Substance is currently playing in theaters. I highly suggest you make the trip out, this film deserves to be seen on the big screen.

At first, Wolf  seems like a standard issue 90s drama. . A film directed by Mike Nichols starring Jack Nicholson as Will Randall, an aging Editor in Chief who's publishing house is being taken over; Michele Phifer as Laura, the daughter of the tycoon who is doing the take over and ends up in a situationship with Will; and James Spader as Stewart, Will’s protege who is sleeping with wills wife and is taking over his position. That seems swell, but toss in a werewolf and you got yourself one if the most interesting oddities of the 90s. The film plays everything as straight as can be. Will gets bitten by a wolf after accidentally hitting it, sending his life down the path of heightened senses, enhanced endurance, and a personality change that makes him all the more savage. It plays out like you'd expect a werewolf movie to play out, but with the 90s couples drama as the backdrop.  The acting throughout is superb, Spader and Nicholson are known for chewing the scenery, but both are surprisingly subdued (until things get hairy that is). Phifer is fantastic as well, playing a realistic younger foil to Nicholson's aging publishing EiC.  Given how films about everyday adults have seemingly gone the way of the dodo, Wolf is a satisfying throwback. The whole fantastical element of the werewolf is treated with maturity that is rarely seen nowadays. Honesty, its as refreshing as the big fight in the film's third act, which gets silly but never falls over the “too much” edge.     So if you're looking for a 90s as hell movie with a fun plot, excellent acting, and just enough scares to justify being in the series, then give Wolf a try! Wolf is currently available to watch for FREE on Pluto TV!

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’re going to be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 4 DOOM The seminal first person shooter. Not exactly a horror game, per se, but it's one that definitely reveled in its horror themes. Imps, demons and reanimated corpses fight alongside horrific cybernetic amalgamations of flesh and machine. While playing DOOM  you will often find yourself low on ammo, in dark corridors with unsettling flashing lights and monster growls coming from somewhere you can’t see. It’s only because of our overwhelming firepower do these monsters not feel as dangerous. DOOM isn’t just a game, it’s an entire phenomenon. Not only is it a series that is ongoing (thanks to 2016’s DOOM ) but it has been one of the faces of the video game industry–and not always in a good way. Inciting moral panic it sits alongside games like Mortal Kombat or Vice City’s “Hot Coffee” mod. But it left a lasting impression in the games industry beyond the controversy it garnered on release: it was one of the most played games of its time, partly in thanks to its shareware distribution. It was also lightning fast and incredibly addictive thanks to id software’s design team and the brilliant programming by John Carmack. People are still getting DOOM to run on various bits of hardware in an ongoing effort to answer the question, “can it run DOOM?” Due to its popularity DOOM has lept from its humble PC origins and ported to almost every game console that has come since its release. There were some truly impressive ports in the early days of Doom popularity, like the Super Nintendo version that seems almost magical in its ability to almost pull off a playable version of DOOM with its limited hardware. DOOM 64 added more to the story while completely changing the tone and atmosphere by changing the game’s visuals and removing the upbeat metal soundtrack and replacing it with one that is more ambient and gloomy. Then there’s the notoriously bad ports, like the 3DO version that runs at a less than tolerable framerate–but with a soundtrack that has been completely redone by a metal band. So at least that’s pretty cool. If you want to play DOOM today it’s not too hard–you can even Google “play doom in my browser” and you can probably find a way to play it in moments. There are official ways, too, however, like the recently released DOOM + DOOM II  pack by Bethesda. Not only does it offer both of the DOOM games, it gives you access to all of the expansions as well as community mods. And its available to play almost everywhere on modern systems, from Steam to Switch. Playing DOOM 64 is also pretty easy, as it was also recently rereleased for modern consoles. You have no excuse not to play DOOM.

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’re going to be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 3 The House of the Dead Released on arcades back in 1997, The House of the Dead was released about a year after Resident Evil . And even though they both take place in a house full of zombies and science gone awry, they’re vastly different experiences.  Resident Evil is known as an incredibly influential game that helped bring zombies into the modern zeitgeist. The House of the Dead and its sequels did a lot to push zombies into the mainstream too, but it's not brought up nearly as often. It doesn’t help that famed director Uwe Boll made an absolutely terrible adaptation of the arcade shooter. The House of the Dead is an on-rails light gun shooter by Sega and Wow Entertainment (as Sega Research and Development was named at the time). It used the Virtua Cop engine, with the developers originally wanting an ambitious branching story. And while The House of the Dead is known for its branching paths and three separate endings, apparently the developers had to back down from some of their more ambitious goals to meet a tight development timeline.  You might think that The House of the Dead is basically ripping off Resident Evil , and I’d forgive you, because that was the impression I had. But apparently the developers only settled on the game’s name because the arrangement of the english words The House of the Dead  was the most visually appealing.  The gameplay consists of frantic shooting as zombies and other creatures pop-out at you. You have to defeat all of the enemies on screen before the action progresses to the next area. Sometimes shooting crates and saving civilians can yield healing items, while shooting civilians takes away precious health.  At the time, The House of the Dead was received well by critics. It even spawned five mainline sequels, with the latest The House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn releasing in 2018. It also spawned a bunch of spin-offs, like Zombie Rampage for the Dreamcast, The Typing of the Dead for Dreamcast and PC, and The Pinball of the Dead among others.  It would be hard to play The House of the Dead  nowadays, unless you have access to an arcade that has it. The Sega Saturn port is prohibitively expensive (unless you buy the Japanese version, but that requires a Japanese Saturn or an Action Replay, etc.) You can also download the PC port from myabandonware.com , but that would probably take some finagling to work on modern systems. Luckily for those who absolutely have to experience this zombie shooter, there was a remake released in 2022 that brought The House of the Dead into the modern era with enhanced graphics. But there’s something lost when the game goes from pixelated 3D to HD.

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’re going to be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006. Day 2 : F.E.A.R. F.E.A.R. is a classic, and a game that had lasting effects on the first person shooter genre, not only for its horror elements, but also because of its great gunplay. It’s a game that doesn’t come up in conversations much anymore, but it’s still fun to play. It manages to blend psychological horror, first person shooting, and bullet-time combat seamlessly–which is something that would sound like a horrible game to my contemporary ears.  Despite the fact that F.E.A.R. is an action game, it’s great at creating atmosphere–even when you have the ability to mow down rooms full of people. Many modern games take away the player’s ability to fight back to create fear, while F.E.A.R. scared you despite your hefty arsenal and “reflex” abilities. . There aren’t that many games that blend psychological horror with action, especially to the degree that F.E.A.R. does. It’s a corridor shooter, sure, but they’re more like hallways in a haunted house–you don’t know if you’re going to get into a firefight, or get jump scared. And any meeting with Alma is usually scary, and often exciting. If there was a list of iconic video game monsters, I would argue that Alma should be on it. The shooting in F.E.A.R. is still visceral and fun. It isn’t quite modern, as even when you “aim” your weapon it doesn’t also aim down iron sights. But F.E.A.R. has an arsenal of well designed weapons, most of which were viscerally brutal because of the game’s particle effects and semi-destructible environments. If you shoot at a wall it’ll leave huge holes behind. Quaint to today’s standards, but impressive back then–and it’s still effective. One of the best parts of F.E.A.R. is that it can be played pretty easily today. It’s available to download on Steam, and can be played on most modern computers. You might need to download a user mod to deal with a framerate drop that has to do with Logitech devices, but for a game that’s almost 20 years old it’s pretty easy to get going. Too bad it’s not available digitally on the Xbox store anymore, but F.E.A.R. 2  and F.E.A.R. 3 are–both of which are flawed but worthy sequels. Even so, neither comes close to the greatness and influence of the first game.

Episode 3 of Agatha All Along was killer. Literally. Unfortunately for our hapless housewife Sharon, the cure for the poison didn’t reach her in time, and after only one trial, we’re also down a coven mate. This makes for a somber start back down the Witches’ Road. In the aftermath, there’s some trauma bonding among the women who remain (sans Agatha) and everyone starts to open up, including Alice, who reveals that “the road” her mom died on was actually NOT the Witches’ Road. Instead, her mom died in a hotel fire when she was out on the road on a tour.  Trials and tribulations aside, you can see the ties that might bind the group into a bonafide coven forming…until Agatha comes along and ruins the moment with a callous RIP to “Mrs. Hart” and tries to flip it into a positive by saying there’s more power to go around now. The witches ask Agatha how many people finished the road with her, and when she holds up one single finger, it’s clear the rest of the coven is going to have a hard time trusting Agatha “Coven Killer” Harkness in this journey. The argument continues,this time over whether they need all 5 witches in order to even finish. Agatha insists that based on the lyrics to the Witches Road, they only need two, while no one else agrees with her. They finally decide to summon a replacement green witch…but she’s not what anyone expected. But even Agatha is thrown for a loop when the powers that be send Rio Vidal to fill the vacancy. And it seems pretty evident that they likely had a past that might not be so much in the past. Plaza plays it subtle and absolutely nails her role as who we think may be more than meets the eye- perhaps Lady Death herself, or at least that’s a pet theory. She’s certainly something, or as she puts it “THE green witch.” Vidal is one of the few things that shakes Agatha’s confidence or even outright scares her, and that makes her integral to finding out where this is going. The comic and dramatic tension between Hahn and Plaza is absolutely perfect, and one of my favorite things about the show so far. As horrible and obnoxious as Agatha is, even she can be outdone with her own tricks. Teen’s taken to following Agatha around and her history with Rio has certainly piqued his curiosity. He asks if she wants to talk about her obvious discomfort with Rio being summoned into the fold, but she declines, and the group moves on down the road, entering the house that is hosting the second trial. This one’s for Alice, and as a set piece, it’s groovy as hell. Everyone’s gone 70’s glam, flower crowns, sequins, sunglasses and all. Hahn’s channeling Cher and Teen’s lookin’ rather Sonny, while Alice is giving Yoko. The Witches’ Road has given the set designers and wardrobe a whole lot of neat things to work with, and they’re absolutely taking advantage of it, as the second house is an homage to all things tacky and 70’s, from stone walls to bead curtains, shag carpet and privacy screens.  This trial is all about Alice, and her mother. Teen proves the unifying voice once again as he gets the gang exploring, but when things really unfold is when Alice finds her mom’s picture and starts to recall the details of her childhood and her mom’s tragic death. As we know from before, Alice’s mother recorded the most popular version of the ballad of the Witches Road. Not only that, her version was different from the “original” and that difference turns out to be the key to everything.As it turns out, Alice’s mom was trying to open the road with her concerts, using the audience/fan base as her coven. While that detail isn’t particularly important, I thought it was an interesting concept and a different spin on the “power of music.” In the midst of this flashback, Lillia jolts out of the moment and into another, suddenly urging Alice “Don’t!” but before Alice can get any answers as to what she means, she’s back and missing all memory of her brief mental departure. It seems like Lillia’s abilities might just include involuntary time jumps, and this seems like it’ll be an important piece of the puzzle down the road. For now though, the table’s set for the second trial. Teen suggests exploring the place for a riddle or clue to get them started, and everyone goes their own way, with Agatha taking a very pregnant pause with Rio in the soundbooth. At this point their former intimate relationship is more or less confirmed, as well as Rio’s power over Agatha, and the fear she can instill in her. And while Agatha’s usually the one at the controls, this time it’s Rio, broadcasting a warning to the rest of the coven that Agatha isn’t to be trusted - which is already fairly apparent, honestly. Agatha notices and tries to spin the message, but she has no time when the record player starts playing the ballad - backward, and things go bad quickly. Lillia jumps back and forth again, warning that the group is cursed as a metronome starts ticking on its own. Trial begin! At first, the mood remains semi-giddy, but then Lillia catches fire. As she writes in agony on the floor, Alice jumps to her aid, drawing a circle of protection around her. Before they have much time to recover from that sizzler, another of the group catches fire, this time, Jen. It’s clear they’re going to have to heed Lillia’s jump advice and face the curse to break it. At the same time, the pieces are coming together for Alice - as it turns out, the ballad was for her - a variation of the original that served as a protection spell for Alice. Not a second later they’re face to face with a demon, and it’s a musical interlude. I’ve got to congratulate a show that can keep the action and tension high while also interjecting with a musical number. It’s a feat. The song’s the thing, it turns out, and though everyone takes a turn to burn, save Rio, who mostly hangs around to read magazines, complain about the lack of murder, and play drums. So, I guess she helped?  Just when everyone’s sighing in relief, they notice Teen’s been gravely injured with a piece of glass to the gut. Back on the road, the coven is scrambling to save him. Agatha is far more invested in helping Teen than she was about saving Sharon, and shares a very loaded glance with Rio who’s lurking in the background observing rather than joining the others in trying to heal him. Agatha’s actually hysterical, breathing heavy and pleading for things to be different. Luckily for all of us who love Teen (who doesn’t?) he pulls through. While the coven regroups and starts to bond again, Agatha and Teen once again meet up for a chat. They talk about the sigil, and why it was placed. Agatha tells Teen that even the witch who placed the sigil will have no memory of it, and that the sigil will break when it’s no longer needed. So much is revealed and the two seem to be bonding, but when Teen asks about Agatha’s son, the moment’s gone, and so is Agatha. She’s back to the bonfire with the rest of the crew, and the group shares war stories - more specifically stories of how they got their scars. Rio explains that her scar is a person who she loves that she shouldn’t, but can’t avoid. Before there’s any doubt, reader, it’s Agatha, and the two finally embrace, though there’s still some venom, as Rio tells Agatha ‘the boy isn’t yours.’ Fade to black. This recap might seem long but there’s a lot to unpack in this week’s episode. Why’d Rio take the place of the green witch? Who exactly is Rio? Who placed the sigil and why? Is Lillia jumping around in time? And what cool theme will next week’s trial house have? I just started the series in time to take over these recaps and let me tell you, I’m hooked. Same bat time, same bat channel next week, and let’s see what’s on the road ahead.

Despite spending more on health care than any other country in the world, Americans rank last compared to citizens in peer nations in healthcare, according to a new report  from the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that advocates for better healthcare in the United States.  “The U.S. continues to be in a class by itself in the underperformance of its health care sector,” reads the report. “While the other nine countries differ in the details of their systems and in their performance on domains, unlike the U.S., they all have found a way to meet their residents’ most basic health care needs, including universal coverage.” The Commonwealth Fund has compared healthcare systems among 10 high-income countries since 2004 according to access to care, care process, administrative efficiency, equity, and health outcomes. In the eight reports issued since then, the US has ranked last overall every time. According to the report released Thursday, Americans have the shortest lives and most avoidable deaths, face the most barriers to obtaining and affording healthcare, and experience some of the “greatest burdens” in billing and payment. The United States is ranked lowest alongside New Zealand when it comes to health equity. “I see the human toll of these shortcomings on a daily basis,” Dr Joseph Betancourt, the president of the Commonwealth Fund, told The Guardian . “I see patients who cannot afford their medications…I see older patients arrive sicker than they should because they spent the majority of their lives uninsured. It’s time we finally build a health system that delivers quality affordable healthcare for all Americans.” While it might appear that for some time during the 2024 election cycle, healthcare took something of a backseat to hotter button issues such as immigration or the economy, aspects are still near the forefront of the minds of voters. According to a Pew Research poll  conducted near the beginning of September, 65 percent of voters overall consider health care a “very important issue.” Some 51 percent of voters overall consider abortion - an integral part of healthcare - a “very important issue.” There does not appear, however, to be much movement electorally to further move forward from the poor position the American healthcare system is in overall. Instead it seems we merely have a choice between protecting the little access to affordable healthcare people currently have or dismantling it completely.  Since it was first passed, Republicans swore they would dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which helped provide insurance coverage for tens of millions of Americans. Former President Donald Trump made it a core campaign issue in 2016, spent plenty of time during his presidency aiding congressional efforts to repeal it, and has continued to promise to “repeal and replace” it. Despite having nearly a decade to tell Americans exactly what he means by replacing the ACA with “something terrific,” the most detail Trump has been able to muster is that he has “concepts of a plan.”  Trump’s running mate JD Vance gave a small window into what could be part of Trump’s “concept of a plan” over the weekend. On Meet the Press, Vance said that the best way to make sure Americans are covered is to “promote some more choice in our health-care system and not have a one-size-fits-all approach.” According to Washington Post  columnist Catherine Rampell, that word salad is pretty much code for upending the current system we have and allowing insurance companies to once again discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.  “Higher-risk people require more medical care, which is expensive. Segregating these people into their own separate pool would drive up their premiums. This would lead to some less sick people in that pool dropping their coverage, while the very sick people would remain. This in turn would drive premiums even higher, prompting even more people to drop out.” The Harris campaign has continually said it would protect the current system in place from Republican attacks. The campaign’s rapid response director Ammar Moussa recently tweeted  that “healthcare is back on the ballot,” adding that Harris would “protect and expand the ACA.” Merely protecting or even expanding the ACA though, won’t be enough to dig the United States out of the healthcare hole it’s been in for decades. There are still more than 26 million Americans without health insurance, and millions more have insurance they can barely afford that barely covers the most minimal of care. According to the report from Commonwealth: “In the U.S., lack of affordability is a pervasive problem. With a fragmented insurance system, a near majority of Americans receive their health coverage through their employer.10 While the ACA’s Medicaid expansions and subsidized private coverage have helped fill the gap, 26 million Americans are still uninsured, leaving them fully exposed to the cost drivers in the system. Cost has also fueled growth of private plan deductibles, leaving about a quarter of the working-age population underinsured. In other words, extensive cost-sharing requirements render many patients unable to visit a doctor when medical issues arise, causing them to skip medical tests, treatments, or follow-up visits, and avoid filling prescriptions or skip doses of their medications. In terms of care availability, U.S. patients are more likely than their peers in most other countries to report they don’t have a regular doctor or place of care and face limited options for getting treatment after regular office hours. Shortages of primary care services add to these availability problems.” Backsliding from where we are currently on healthcare or fully dismantling it would be a disaster for most Americans, and that’s despite our current system being an unmitigated disaster for most Americans.  “The U.S. is failing one of its principal obligations as a nation: to protect the health and welfare of its people,” Betancourt said in a press release. “The status quo — continually spending the most and getting the least for our health care dollars — is not sustainable. It isn’t about lack of resources — it’s clearly about how they are being spent. Too many Americans are living shorter, sicker lives because of this failure. We need to build a health system that is affordable and that works for everyone. It’s past time that we step up to this challenge.” We would do well to learn from our peer countries in the Commonwealth report and build a system based on providing the most equitable care for the most people possible in the nearest possible future. Ping-ponging from complete disaster to near disaster is literally killing us.

Thalia Hall was originally designed and built in 1892 as an opera venue, but in 2013, was repurposed for medium crowds and the bands that come through Chicago. On Saturday September 14th and 15th were strictly reserved for two sold out shows of the synth pop stylings of Magdalena Bay. Originally from Miami Florida, Mica and Matthew, two high school friends who have found success in the electronic pop scene. Now coming to Chicago, hot off their second album  Imaginal Disk, their live show was a technicolor spectacle full of costume changes and intricate story telling.  Before Magdalena Bay hit the stage though, the psychedelic indie electronica pop group Valgur, out of Mexico, got the crowd warmed up with their hypnotic and cryptic beats. While now blowing the crowd away, we definitely left being very intrigued for more Valgur in the future. Once it was time, the Florida duo entered the stage along with a few backing musicians to help with the more technical songs. The stage was set with an armchair and a sheet tightened around a loop with angel wings, mimicking a mirror. As the new album has a lot to do with mirror portals to other dimensions, this would make sense.  Once the band got going, it was a full on dance party. The mirror now had varying hypnotic imagery and copies of the band for some real mind-bending visuals to go with each song. The set was an impressive mix of tracks off their multiple EPs and albums that had the crowd jumping to the beat. Some of the crowd favorites were such songs as Chaeri, Death & Romance, Secrets and closing out the night with an encore performance of The Beginning.  Along with the music, there was a story element with the light visuals, and roughly 5-6 costume changes, with Mica herself, going into a chrysalis to reappear with wings and Matthew adorning the villainous star face from their music videos. They even found time to play an instrumental version of Feeling DiskInserted? Between costume changes. Magdalena Bay definitely rocked some great performances in Thalia hall those two nights. If you haven’t checked this band out, we’d highly recommend them, especially for their live performances.  Were you at the show? What’d you guys think? Imaginal Disk album of the year? Sound off in the comments!