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Birthday Binging: Dragon Ball
Happy Birthday to me – The Ghoul, not the site. Getting older has been an interesting process of feeling more mentally accomplished than ever, but at the same time feeling my body slowly crumbling around me. Getting Older I cannot escape the fact that I am, in fact, ageing. Not rapidly. Pretty much at…
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Toxic Fandom – The Weight of Unrealistic Expectations
This isn’t just about the Stranger Things fandom, but this is a LOT about the Stranger Things fandom. I’ve noticed a trend of escalation over the past few years. People have developed parasocial relationships, not just with influencers but with brands and intellectual properties. The thoughts and concerns I’ve had crystalized over the past week or so while observing the behavior of…
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The Best of 2025: Anime and Horror
Best of Anime: It’s time again for the best of the year. I’ve heard this was a great year for anime. There were all kinds of deep and serious stories that covered heavy subjects like death, friendship, and trauma. I watched exactly none of them. For me, this was the year of the cozy show.…
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The Neo-Slasher : Redefining the Standards
In a post-Scream landscape, the expectations for slasher movies have never been higher. Audiences are no longer content with great kills and a cool-looking killer. Now, slashers have to bring something different. They need to be about something, have a strong cinematic point of view, twists and turns, or push audiences in ways they could not…
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A Perfect Movie
Every October, Variety brings out their list of top 100 horror films. They update it from time to time with new releases, but it’s a pretty consistent list. They usually favor classics over new releases, which I’m a fan of. I’m not here to argue for or against the list. I don’t overall find much…
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Happy Anniversary to The Ghoul’s Gaze
One year ago, I started this blog. Mostly because I could tell the people in my everyday life were getting tired of hearing my opinions on horror, and I certainly wasn’t going to stop having them. I wasn’t sure what I really wanted to do when I first started, other than write about horror and…
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The Long Walk: A Discussion on The Book
When I was younger, probably too young, The Bachman Books by Steven King was one of my favorite books. If you aren’t familiar with it, the original editions of this book collected four short novels by King. These are Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork and The Running Man. Bachman was a bit of an experiment for King. He wanted to find out if his…
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Comfort Horror
This was a rough week at the Ghoul household. After some bad news that was not entirely unexpected but still devastating, I found myself in need of comfort. For me, that comes in the form of the familiar. It may strike some people as odd to be soothed by frights or horror. For me, it’s always been…
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The existential horror of Superman.
“But Ghoul”, you say, “In no way is Superman a horror movie”. Ok, you’re right. But there is something horrific about the base concept that has always fascinated me. At its face it’s the story of an alien, like an extra-terrestrial, who invades earth, mimics humanity, and then surpasses it. This alien then proceeds to gather other equally powerful people…
