This month I deleted my letterboxd account because it seems valueless to me, I also pulled the trigger on my Mastodon account as my instance appeared to be dying down, and I got very frustrated that the anime Angel’s Egg is getting a bluray/4k release but only in Italy. Now, for this month I thought I’d try and cover more than just my reading for the month - which is lucky because I did very little. I don’t know if there will be such a comprehensive March in Review, but we shall see.
Books I done did read
I zoomed through The Erotic Engine by Patchen Barss, it was an interesting read - I had no idea as to the prevalence of (to use time-appropriate vernacular) netsex in the days of MUDs, and the amount of pornography traded around on Usenet. For anyone interested in the history of porn and of technology, this is good read; it’s also an interesting artifact of its publication date - 2010, it’s capped off before OnlyFans and VR. It has its other limitations, but it covers wide swath of both history and technology - and it introduced me to the term teledildonics for which I am eternally grateful.
I started The Golden Naginata by Jessica Amanda Salmonson after finishing the first of the Tomoe Gozen books, and it has been a fun read but I have had some hiccups with it - the romance of the first book has so far been thrown to the winds in favour of a somewhat stilted hetero pairing that I’m not a fan of. I still need to finish it, so we’ll see where things go. Still a fun adventure, another venture into the underworld (a different underworld this time), and magical weapons, all the fun stuff.
Games that I did played
Vital Shell
Vital Shell is a game by MarvinWizard that was released in January. It is one of many survivor-likes that follows in the wake of, among others, Brotato’s innovations on the style. This rendition of the ubiquitous gameplay loop features chunky mechs fighting through hordes of strange creatures, all rendered in a lovingly nostalgic PS!-style vibe. The music follows suit - simple but effective DnB beats, the sort of soundtrack you’d get in a dream after falling asleep while playing Ridge Racer. For fans of the genre, it comes highly recommended, the content scope is fairly small (this is an indie release after all), but it’s aesthetic is polished wonderfully and the gameplay fun.
Look Outside
Look Outside was a gift from an old friend who I hadn’t spoken to in a while. They bought it as an ice breaker and because it seemed like my sort of thing - and they were right! Look Outside is made in RPG Maker but don’t be swayed away if that sounds like something you don’t like, it really utilises the engine and doesn’t compromise on much, especially in terms of art. Echoing tales such as The Color Out of Space by H. P. Lovecraft, you are one of many living in an apartment building when a mysterious, astral-cum-eldritch creature ‘The Visitor’ passes by earth, and anyone that looks at the light from outside is mutated in bizarre and gruesome ways. This game has lots of choices, options and ways to complete it - my way was to get what I think is the rarest ending achievement which is to fail to complete the final ritual (only 4.6% of players!). I may wait a while before returning, I have a previous save that might let me go back and do more before ending it, but I’ve been trying to not be obsessed with seeing all content in a game, and appreciating what my playthrough was or is - that’s not that I won’t replay games, or do runs, but I need to space that out a bit.
Look Outside is full of wonderful pixel art and body horror, there’s thought and story added to the horror, real tragedy to the mutations of the unwitting souls who dared to look outside their windows. I highly recommend!
The Hole
This was a rough one - it dealt with some heavy subject matter, but was a good game overall. It claims to be based on true events/stories, which makes the whole story feel much, much sadder than it would have otherwise. The chunky PSX style is something I simply love stylistically, there is simply no better way to render disrepair. I am loathed to use the term, but The Hole is what would be considered a walking simulator but manages to avoid the trappings of the post-Layers of Fear world. The incessantly over-used repeating corridor is used once, and only once, there are no first person chase sequences (although there is a third-person chase section that I don’t think really counts - if you play it you’ll see what I mean), and the game makes good on its promise of ‘no cheap scares’. It’s short, but doesn’t outstay it’s welcome - overall I recommend, as long as your comfortable with what it tackles.
Dead Estate
This was my impulse buy of the month - a roguelike game that take clear inspiration from both The Binding of Isaac, and Enter the Gungeon. I’m not a fan of the latter, but am of the former - luckily for me the game feels more like TBOI than ENG. It’s fun, but I don’t know if I necessarily recommend - I probably need to play more to get a better opinion, so you’ll need to check it out at your own discretion.
Mewgenics
This game’s been a long time coming; I’ve been waiting for this game’s release since Edmund McMillan reveal it as a project - so expectations are high! Initially I wasn’t sure the game was for me, despite looking forward to it, it seemed a like it might have some of the same drawbacks I found with The Legend of Bumbo - Edmund Mcmillan’s last game, a spin-off of The Binding of Isaac which was a bit too difficult, ran horribly, and seemed to lack much in the way of content. Despite my early reservations, the game started to open up, I started to learn and acquire more items and unlocks that made things easier - and I’m now loving it! It was worth the wait, and having parties of cats I’ve bred charge into the dungeon-like sewers, scrapyard and semetary has become a real favourite adventure this month. Edmund’s style and humor continues from his previous work, full of poop jokes and weirdness that still feels very indie.
No Man’s Sky
I heard that No Man’s Sky was receiving further updates and new ship building - and jumped in to check it out as it was something I felt was missing from the last time I played. This game is well remembered for its initial backlash - something I I heard about, not something I experienced as I bought this game long after - but it is more and more, day by day, being reappraised following a consistent stream of free updates that have added so much to the game. I’ve always enjoyed the space-sim travelling and exploring - there were parts I felt were tough climbs with little reward, but a lot of that has been reworked, and I have enjoyed jumping back into things (Also, multiplayer works on Linux now!).
Berry Bury Berry
Picked this up after seeing a YouTube video of the first 20 minutes, I’m a sucker for an incremental game - and the retro stylings of Berry Bury Berry caught my attention. You feed berries into a hole and buy upgrades that make doing that easier or more profitable. Simple game loop, simple fun. There’s a horror-esque story too, no jumpscares or nonsense - it’s a simple plot that doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. If you too like incremental games were number go up - then I very much recommend.
Films I all went and watched
Blood Cult (1985)
dir Christopher Lewis
Blood Cult is a low-budget slasher that was shot-on- and direct-to- video. It’s fairly bad, although not offensively so - it just lacks any suspense or excitement. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some violence and some gruesome props and fun effects - but what holds them together is bland. Corny as it is, Blood Cult had some notoriety as ‘The first Horror film shot exclusively for the home video market’, or so is claimed.
Forgotten Gialli Volume 8
The following three films are those included in Vinegar Syndrome’s 8th installment of their Forgotten Gialli series.
A.A.A. Masseuse, Good-Looking, Offers Her Services (1978)
dir Demofilo Fidani
A fairly good Giallo that was an enjoyable watch for those into the genre. A story of a young prostitute and murder - I can’t help but think the greater themes and ideas this one had were stymied by something; lots of things felt rushed and the film created a claustrophobic vibe with it’s tight camera work, but unfortunately this also made many scenes feel too run-on from each other, despite a couple of really great transitions, the film stuck to one focal length and that was it. I don’t know if the main character was flat, or if her lack of personality was a part of the wider theme of men’s control over women - and I mean that sincerely, no snark intended. Also, a fun fact: the director, Demofilo Fidani, was a medium 🔮.
At the end of the film, as the credits begin, they play a song that got under my skin before it had finished and I quickly scrolled back to see what it was and who had performed it. These credits were, of course, in Italian, so it took a while to properly identify it - “Circus Mind” performed by Mack Porter*. As far as I can find, there is no other recording of this online or possibly even released - Mack Porter was a Ghanaian musician, son of the former queen of Ghana Affipong II, who came to Italy to complete his university studies he was able to release a few singles and an album, Peace On You in 1972. HE retired from music mid-70’s and went into the fashion industry, after that I couldn’t find anything - I assume researching him in Italian would probably wield more information, but alas I am restricted to a machine-translated Italian Wikipedia page. So this song, (written by ‘Larici Descnidado’) doesn’t appear to exist anywhere but within this film. So I’ve uploaded both the ending of the film, and the song on its own - you may notice that there is some car noises near the start, unfortunately the audio editing know-how to remove that is beyond me.
Circus Mind - Credits to A.A.A. Masseuse, Good-Looking, Offers Her Services (1978)
Circus Mind - Audio Only
Mack Porter
Red Rings of Fear (1978)
dir Alberto Negrin
Red Rings of Fear is one of three films that are together referred to as the Schoolgirls in Peril trilogy. I have seen the second of these, What have they done to Your Daughters? and found it a tough watch, but my memory is that it dealt with teenage prostitution with seriousness and weight if not necessarily tact. Now Red Rings of Fear is focused on the death of sexually active 17 year olds and it follows plenty of well-trod beats, including the twist. If you take out a troubling shower scene and the baffling decision of our protagonist at the very end, the film is a serviceable Giallo - but I would recommend A.A.A. Masseuse, Good-Looking, Offers Her Services (1978) over this.
Reflections in Black (1975)
dir Tano Cimarosa
This one had some good visuals, I can’t tell if I felt much character in anyone, but I was maybe a little distracted when watching. There’s some homophobia in this one, or at least in the attitudes of some characters if I felt like being kind to the film.
The Stepford Wives (1975)
dir Bryan Forbes
Notable for being Drew’s favourite film, I watched this with friends-of-the-site Ghosty, Wing and Drew himself; fantastic build up and scene setting - tension and intrigue abound, the film pays off and frankly its message is, disturbingly, still relevant. There’s not too much I have to stay about this film, it gets a high rating - I’d rather not spoil any of the story, and, well - it just rocks.
*Originally I was going to complain about not being able to identify the song through the translation, but after checking my work I was able to both translate the music credits in their entirety and see that it clearly has both the song’s and Mack Porter’s name in all caps… Although the existence of the band ‘Circus Mind’ did make things difficult.
