List – Spidey Librarian

Gifts Your Spider-Fan Will Love For Any Occasion, Part 1: Spider-Man Media

Books, Comic Books, List, Movies, Spider-Man, Video Games

This blog post contains affiliate links.

You might have guessed it by now, but I’m kind of a fan of a certain wallcrawling, web-slinging superhero. And while I may not always know how to anticipate my enemies’ attacks, I’m reasonably attuned to some of the desires of those who think Spider-Man and his friends are pretty great. While it might be a little late in the holiday season to grab these gifts or stocking stuffers, the nice thing about them is they make excellent selections for the Spider-Fan in your life the whole year round!

This was originally intended to be a single post covering a wide range of gifting ideas, but there are SO MANY different gift categories that feature Spider-Man, I’ve decided to break it up into several posts covering different gifting areas. Each article will contain links to both specific items and to general shopping areas where you can browse for other items in that section. We’ll cover the gamut, from graphic novels and video games to movies, collectibles, clothing and accessories that feature Spider-Man, Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, and so many of the characters we’ve come to know and love over the years.

And while these are by no means exhaustive listings of Spider-Man gift ideas, they should provide an excellent start to searching for something to satisfy your beloved Spider-Fan’s web-slinging heart! We’ll start with arguably the most popular category, narrative media — movies, TV shows, books, and video games!

So with that said, let’s have a look at some of the best gifts you can grab for your Spidey-obsessed friends, family and loved ones!

Video Games

Spider-Man has been featured in an enormous amount of video games, from a self-titled Atari 2600 game in 1982 to the spectacular 2018 Marvel’s Spider-Man and its superb half-sequel Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. In addition, he (and other Spider-Folks) have been a part of various Marvel video games, such as the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel Ultimate Alliance games. While there are probably too many to list here, and not all of the games he’s been in are guaranteed hits, there is no denying that the web-slinger is a hot commodity who’s basically made for video gaming.

In addition to the two latest Spider-Man games, we’re getting a sequel in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 in 2023. Here are a few personal recommendations for video games in which you can play as Spider-Man.

Graphic Novels — Spider-Man was created 60 years ago, and has been starring in his own comics as well as guest starring in others ever since. There is a LOT of lore that has developed in that time, much of which the movies, video games, and other media have pulled inspiration from to portray their particular depictions of Peter Parker, Eddie Brock, Miles Morales, and so forth. The adventures, trials, and tragedies Peter and his friends have endured in the comics over the decades feature compelling narrative, fantastic artwork, and tie-ins to the greater Marvel Comics universe.

Some stories from Spider-Man lore are truly iconic and stand out among the others. While I have many more recommendations than what’s shown here, this is a good sampling of tales from Spidey’s very storied history.

Movies — Spider-Man’s influence at the box office can not be denied. Filmmakers, moviegoers, and critics can’t seem to get enough of the webhead, no matter what they might actually say. While they’re not all smash successes, the overall body of Spider-Man films–as well as those of Spider-Man adjacent characters–makes for a much beloved and well regarded collection of stories. While I often watch the films digitally, I also like to have DVDs or Blu-Rays of them in case I somehow find myself without internet and craving a Spidey movie fix.

TV Shows — My first memories of Spider-Man come from the cartoons, and I struggle to remember a time when there wasn’t some iteration of the wallcrawler on the small screen. While there have been many versions of the webbed wonder on television–mostly, but not exclusively in animated media–it goes without saying that some shows were better than others. With that said, television has often been the first point at which children meet the arachnotastic superhero, and through which some of them are cultivated into Spider-Man enthusiasts.

A good number of these series are not available in boxed sets, but you can make up for some of these gaps by checking which streaming services, such as Disney Plus, offer them.

Books and Novelizations

While comic books and graphic novels probably come to mind first when most people think about Spider-Man, it is well worth noting that there is plenty of (primarily) prose media that covers the exploits of the wallcrawler, both in the fictional and non-fiction realms. While many of the novelizations are products of their time from several decades ago (and therefore difficult to find), there exist plenty of guides, encyclopedias, timelines and so forth that discuss the chronicled history of Spider-Man and his friends. These resources tend to get updated every so often, as Spidey’s adventures are always ongoing on the comics.

As you can see, there’s no shortage of adventures to read, play, and watch where the web-slinger is concerned. The items featured above are worthy additions to any Spider-Fan’s library, and will hopefully inspire some gift ideas as you shop for them.

Keep an eye out for the next post in this series, covering Spider-Man collectibles, in the near future!

Maker Monday: EmulationStation and RetroArch on Windows

Creative Works, List, Maker Monday, Video Games

I love my video games. I can waste all kinds of time playing them, from old Atari to the (semi-) latest and greatest on the PS4 or Steam. But lately, I’ve been trending towards the older stuff, and it’s actually led to some productive projects on my part.

I suppose it’s the truth about science and technology (and motivation): the enterprising slob will work hard now in order than he can be lazy later.

One such project, which I just finished a few hours ago, involved running EmulationStation, a slick front-end navigation software that lets you glide between emulators you can run on your computer, on Windows. Of course, emulation aggregators still being fairly new to me, I didn’t realize that was all it did until shortly before getting everything to work. Fortunately, the searching I did led me to a YouTuber’s wonderful instruction video, which also showed me how to get RetroArch, which is what runs and manages the various emulators one may try to use while trying to play all those games of old.

In the past, running emulators was fairly easy, as you were often doing it one emulator at a time. You could find an emulator for, say, the Atari 2600, download it, then download the ROMs (aka game files) for that system. Once all that was done, you would run the Atari emulator, then use it to open the ROMs and play the games. It was simple enough that I could do it with little effort.

And you can still do it that way if you want. But as the number of legacy gaming systems grows larger and larger as the years wear on, having an all-in-one approach can be nice if you want to play on more than one system. RetroPie, for example basically runs EmulationStation and RetroArch together, specifically for Linux and Raspberry Pi users, and it’s great.

I wanted a similar experience, but for Windows instead. That way I could put the full power of my PC behind the gaming, and run some of the more robust systems. In this day and age, I knew it would be more than capable of running any of the systems RetroArch supports.

Now, in order to get this newer experience, some of the same old basics still apply. You’re finding the software, downloading it, and getting the ROMs and loading them when needed. But you’re going to end up doing some configuring on your own, and that can get a little scary at first. As best I can remember, the list of tasks went something like this:

Download the EmulationStation installer, and run it.
Open the software, then close it out. This generates the .emulationstation folder in Windows Explorer you’ll need to work in. (ES itself doesn’t work yet, because you need to have a multi-system emulator to work with it. Like RetroArch.)
In the .emulationstation folder, find the es_systems.cfg file. Open it in Notepad. This is where you’ll configure the display notes and data of the gaming systems you want to play. (The YouTuber whose video I followed had a file I could simply copy and paste so I didn’t have to think too much about this, but you’ll need to configure it if you’re going to use different game systems than what he had on his file. It’s actually not difficult to copy the structure and specify which systems you want to use.)
Download a build of RetroArch from libretro.com that’s compatible with your version of Windows (32-bit or 64-bit). Also download the cores.
Go to the .emulationstation folder on your user directory in Windows, and create a new folder, named systems. Inside the systems folder, create another new folder, retroarch.
Extract the contents of the RetroArch build (it should be a zip file) to the retroarch folder you’ve created.
Extract the cores to the cores folder that should now be in the retroarch folder.
Add your ROMs. You’ll have to go and find them online, and I’d recommend filing them into folders categorized by system. Put your ROMs in a new folder (roms) in the .emulationstation folder.

It’s not an impossible series of steps by any means, but perhaps a touch more intimidating than it used to be. My advice: take your time, pay close attention to the video or tutorial web page you’re using, and do your best. I’ve been pretty successful at these projects so far, and it’s mostly been by being careful and thorough as I go. For the most part, however, I’m finding these experiences great, as I both learn how these things work and feel satisfied that I’ve conquered another skill to add to my meager technological repertoire.

And of course remember, piracy is bad. I know these games are old, and haven’t been sold in years, but video game companies still don’t want you playing them unless you own a copy of the games you download–and for some, even that isn’t good enough. Just remember to game responsibly.

At this point, you should be good to go. I’d recommend doing some play testing, and seeing how functions like saving and game navigation work, but based on the little gaming I was able to do, I’m for the most part pleased with how this project turned out. It’ll be fun to recreate some of the gaming memories I experienced during my misspent youth.

Happy gaming!

Happy New Year–Now Let’s Get This Ball Rolling

Holidays, List, Self Improvement, Writing

I need to see how possible it is to crop GIFs while retaining the motion, if only so I can clean up this post’s featured image some day. Never forget, people: Google is your friend, at least if you can’t take multimedia classes. I’ve learned a lot of DIY skills through Google (and YouTube, for that matter), and while I’m no expert, I’m smarter than before I started searching.

At any rate, as the doubtless imaginative title of this post suggests, I’m all full of New Year cheer, and eager to get underway with my resolutions. All the more remarkable about it is the fact that, by and large, I don’t formally make resolutions, at least not during New Year season, as I find them arbitrary, trite setups for failure that can really be made at any point during a given year with equal importance. And I’d say that’s still a relevant attitude I sport towards them in general, so it’s fair to say that I’m not going to be making any new resolutions for the coming year.

But new resolutions aren’t a requirement these days, as I have plenty of old ones I’ve either failed at or left behind, as well as existing ones that, while I haven’t failed, might do with a new twist. Those are the resolutions I’m happy to focus on for the coming year. Here are some ideas

Get healthy–or at least, heathier. Always easily said, I’ve had my ups and downs when it comes to getting fit and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. On the down side, I was diagnosed as being pre-diabetic last year, but as a result, I’ve implemented at least a basic exercise regiment that has stuck pretty well these last few months. My biggest enemy here tends to be stress, as it makes me go to comfort food whenever things get tough. There are a few ways I can continue to improve and uphold this goal:
1. Take up a more intense form of exercise, such as martial arts.
2. Get better at avoiding sugars, such as sodas and desserts.
3. Eat less in general, while doing more.
Continue to write, and write more. I once wrote in a blog every day for six straight months, and this was back when I had a full-time job, so I know I can do more writing than I recently have been. I profess to want to write, and yet I way too often find myself wasting time on video games, Youtube, and other idle pursuits. Stress, again, tends to be the enemy here, so I should probably look into ways to manage it. Specific to writing, a few possible goals are spinning in my head, among them:
1. Resurrecting 187,500. This is a 500-words per day mandate, at the end of the year of which I should have 187,500 words written. I’ll detail the rules of this self-created goal some other time, but it’s significant that each year I’ve tried to accomplish it, I’ve failed.
2. Creating themed day posts for my blog. Madcap Mondays, Terrible Tuesdays, things like that. We’ll see.
3. Find a writing exercise every day, and do them.
4. Work on my novel(s).
5. Write X number of {short stories, articles, novel excerpts, etc.} per Y unit of time. Taking suggestions on how much of what in what amounts of time.
Work towards a writing career. Similar to the previous resolution, it’s more focused on publication and earning income. Some possibilities:
1. Finish a novel manuscript and start shopping it around.
2. Enter x number of writing contests this year.
3. Find websites and magazines that pay for writing, and start submitting applications.
Make things. So many possibilities with this one. Writing is technically included, I suppose, but I’m thinking in a more broad sense. Some examples:
1. Learn to play an instrument (make music).
2. Create superhero costume parts/pieces (make cosplay).
3. Raspberry pi/arduino projects (make fun and useful technology).
Read more–or at least, consume more audiobooks and podcasts. Aside from graphic novels, which I love, I just haven’t found much time to actually sit down and read. I’ve found that audiobooks and podcasts have been much more conducive for when I’m doing things like exercise, driving across town, or simply working on chores, writing, or other tasks. Some things I’ve considered:
1. Ask friends for podcast recommendations. Try out a new podcast every week, and expand my current base of podcasts.
2. Listen to both fiction and nonfiction in audiobook form. I’m loving The Dresden Files so far (James Marsters reads them!), and am almost done with Stephen King’s On Writing, which he narrates.
3. Where possible, listen to these things for free. Library cards are your friends in this endeavor.
Educate and teach others. I do this more or less every day as a librarian (case in point: want to learn how to use your tablet or smartphone to access your library’s e-books and e-audiobooks? I and other librarians can help you!), but I’m hoping to do so this year in a more formalized sense. Some ideas:
1. Host a program or programs at work on a topic I’m knowledgeable in.
2. Participate on a panel at a conference or convention on a topic I’m good at.

Quite the list there, eh? I’ve been working on a lot of these for a long time, and hopefully can just build on them as the years go on. There may be more new ones as the year continues, and I reserve the right to modify or abandon these as I choose (at my own risk, of course–I’m sure if I eat too many more chocolates, I’ll go into a diabetic coma), but this is a good base from which to work as I try to make 2017 as good a year as I can. It is my hope that each and every one of you can achieve the goals and dreams you set for yourself this year.

Happy 2017, and may it be a great year for us all! Now, let’s get this ball rolling, and knock it out of the park as best we can.

Tony’s Lists: Things I Finally Got Around to Trying That Made Me Think, “What Took Me So Long?!”

Fan Culture, List

Between the hectic hum-drum that tends to run most of our lives, people are often very careful about what they decide to check out on a friend’s recommendation. The time we get is, at least to our own viewpoints, sparse, and therefore precious. I’ve had books, shows, video games, and all manner of other consumables recommended to me by my friends that I’d ignored at the time–sometimes for years–before finally giving them a try. Sometimes, they were worth the time investment, and other times, not so much.

Then there are those things that I finally got around to watching, reading, playing, and so forth, and came away going, “Oh my god! This is awesome! WHY the hell did I wait so long to get into this?!” The following list represents a small sampling of media that I:

had recommended to me by a friend;
put off actually checking out for a significant chunk of time (at least a few months); and
was wowed by it, to the point of kicking myself for not checking it out when my friends made their recommendations.

For extra fun, I’m listing the names of my friends (first names only) who made these recommendations in the first place, so they can say, “Told you so!” if and when they read this.

Here goes:

Doctor Who (Colin) — I was not prepared for how much I loved this show. I came on board right as Matt Smith became the Eleventh Doctor, and I was hooked from the get-go! I not only watched everything I could of Eleven’s adventures, but also Nine, Ten, and some of the older movies (I believe The Three Doctors was the first I watched). Admittedly, it gets a bit too wacky and inconsistent for me sometimes, and while I’m not currently following it, I’m sure I’ll love it when I come back around to the Time Lord’s adventures.

Firefly (Rebecca) — In a way, Firefly was one of the saddest things I ever watched, as it showed me firsthand that just because a show is good–and I mean, really good–that doesn’t mean it’ll get to run as long as it deserves. Still, the episodes in that one season were amazing, as was the follow-up movie Serenity. I count myself as a Browncoat, and still live in perpetual, irrational hope that the series will get continued on screen.

Harry Potter (Shaun) — Oh, Harry Potter. How I misjudged you. I was working retail at a bookstore when I first encountered these books, and their sheer popularity irked me. I even accompanied my friend Shaun to a midnight release of Goblet of Fire (the book, not the movie), and couldn’t understand what the big deal was. I finally decided to give the first book a try. It had ONE CHAPTER to capture my interest, or I would put it down and denigrate the series all I wanted. Needless to say, it won me over hard, and I can’t imagine my fandom card without it.

Batman: Arkham Asylum (Alex) — Talk about an experience I denied myself for far too long! This game, as well as its sequels Arkham City, Arkham Origins, and Arkham Knight, were as close as I’ve ever experienced to actually BEING Batman in a video game. The stories were well told and dazzlingly produced, and the voice casting was top-notch. I finally finished Arkham Asylum just before Arkham City came out, and you can bet I’ve been at the midnight releases of all the other games since.

Heroes (Ed) — I was told by more than one person that they couldn’t believe I, of all people, wasn’t watching Heroes when it first came out a decade or so ago. It did seem right up my alley, as I am massively into comic books and superheroes, but at the time I just wasn’t watching television much. When I finally was exposed to the first few episodes by my girlfriend at the time, I was instantly hooked! Of course, we broke up before I could get more than a few episodes in, and I haven’t watched since, but you can bet I’ll come back around to it eventually.

The Dresden Files (Krystal) — Mr. Potter is not the only magic-user named Harry that makes this list. This one’s got a special place in my heart, because technically, I didn’t “put this one off” at all. I was told how good they were, and then put a hold on an audiobook version through my library. And I checked it out when the hold came through–A YEAR LATER. But I loved it, and now I’m eagerly awaiting the other books on audio so I can see what I’ve been missing for the last 15 years!

What are some surprise recommendations that you put off for far too long? I know I can’t be the only one who’s eating crow for not taking my friends seriously…

Tony’s Lists: That Which Frightens Me, Then and Now (and in the Future)

Horror, List, Movies

I was one of those kids in grade school. The one who wished Halloween was a year-round thing, and that ghosts and monsters and the scares they brought were real. When my class went to the library and most people were looking at books about cars, and cats, and Garfield and so forth, I was always the person in the folklore and mythology section, searching high and low for books that collected scary stories. Occasionally made fun of for my predilection for horror and the macabre, I was actually mostly allowed to pursue my weird little guilty pleasure in peace.

Nowadays, with the internet and mobile computing so ubiquitous in our society, it’s easy to reach out and get a scare by doing a few quick searches, and I couldn’t be happier for it. These days we have creepypastas, freaky image lists that can keep you awake far into the night, and even web series in addition to the horror films, books, and shows that come out with such regularity to the mass markets. Heck, it’s not uncommon for me to fire up a list of Youtube videos about creepypastas, strange encounters on video, or other scary stories and encounters to play in the background while I work on other things.

So clearly, I’m one of those adults now.

My affinity for a good scare has come from a fertile background of horror and slasher films, scary stories, and that feeling you get when you see a particularly gruesome, life-like piece of artwork. To that end, I’ve created a list of those things that have scared me as a kid, which give me a good little rush today, and at least one upcoming phenomenon that (I hope) should deliver a nice fright in the future when it releases.

This is by far not an exhaustive list, and I’ll have a list of honorable mentions at the end, but a nice little Top 10 (in no particular order) that I hope you’ll enjoy and comment on.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (book series)

Okay, so maybe there’s some slight order to this list, at least where my #1 is concerned. I just couldn’t start this list without the series of books that I discovered as a child, and whose grim, gruesome stories collected and revised by Alvin Schwartz and nightmare-fueled illustrations by Stephen Gammell caused more than a few silent gasps when I first beheld them.I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who kept these titles circulating at the libraries when I was young, even if this series has ended up being one of the most challenged series of books in their collections (for the exact reasons listed above). An “updated” edition was released a few years ago that swapped out Gammell’s illustrations with comparatively much tamer artwork by Brett Helquist, and while I’m sure those versions won’t be as challenged by ~~lily-livered~~ concerned ~~scaredy-cats~~ citizens, they just don’t pack the punch of the originals, and in my opinion are not worth reading.

It’s pretty telling that, in an iHorror article just recently released about the best stories from these dark tomes (and which may or may not have served as inspiration for this list!), I thought of three particular stories that both scared the hell out of me AND were really good. It turns out they were THE TOP THREE stories in the article. I won’t spoil what they are (and doubtless won’t need to for many fans of this series), but I will take that as evidence that I’m both a visionary and a messed up individual.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (movie series)
I don’t think it helps that my first exposure to these films was A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, where Freddy seemed particularly more vicious than I’d see in the later films (though the first classic one was also a pretty good horror film on its own thanks to Robert Englund’s performance). Not only was he killing people in their dreams once they fell asleep–a terrifying enough premise all on its own–but he was also possessing one particular teen-aged character once he fell asleep in order to do it. In any case, the terrifying, claw-gloved antagonist of this series would go a long way in making sure I resisted the urge to fall asleep as much as possible for many years. It probably helps explain why I’m such an effortless night-owl by default.I’d thought I wouldn’t be able to take Freddy seriously when they made him more of a clownish killer in the later Nightmare movies, but Wes Craven’s Final Nightmare did a good job of establishing how and why this character existed, and temporarily renewed my interest in him. I wish they would have explored that when they rebooted by series a few years ago, but unfortunately they didn’t, and I was left wanting for another good Nightmare film. Hopefully someday, someone with the right skills can come along and make Freddy frightening again.
Stephen King’s It (movie)
Oh my wow. Pennywise, you magnificent bastard.This film, along with honorable mention Poltergeist, is no doubt responsible for more than a few people’s irrational fear of clowns, though I myself never succumbed to this. And with Tim Curry’s simultaneously comical and vicious portrayal of the character (or rather, the main physical manifestation of said character), it became one of the movies that came quickest to mind whenever I thought about things that scared me. A creepy… no, scratch that–terrifying clown, who you couldn’t even really kill, and who could psychically torment you across distances? A monster in disguise made to lure children to their doom? Yep, I’m pretty sure that’s pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel.

But there’s also one other scene worth mentioning. It’s one of the very few that really gave me a good jump scare when I first saw it. Look below:

Yeah. That may been tame by today’s standards, but it made me jump the first time I saw Bill looking through the scrapbooks and comes across this picture of his younger brother Georgie, who was just recently murdered by Pennywise. And suddenly the picture winks at him.

The still picture FRICKING WINKS at him!

I jumped in fright, and I feel no shame in saying so.
Spasms
These pieces of three-dimensional nightmare fuel in the form of a Halloween decoration you can buy (yes, seriously) are creepy enough on their own, but I first encountered these things as the featured images in connection with a creepypasta called “The Russian Sleep Experiment” (which is, on its own, a great creepy story that you should totally read if you haven’t already). The clear intention of using the Spasm was to give an approximate visual representation of what the sleep-deprived, slowly feralizing prisoners were becoming, both in terms of their looks and their natures.

Wanna snuggle?

And it was very effective. I mean, just look at the twisted little bastard. It looks mostly human, though with some serious deformations. The first time I saw this image, I immediately asked myself what depraved movie would have had a character like this in it? How was that look achieved? And oh my jeez, how the hell could I get that image out of my gorram head?

I can’t, so here it is for all of you.
Garfield: Alone (comic strips)
I remember reading this series of comic strips during a week in October when I was around 10 or 11, and it was a harrowing experience to say the least. For a comic that had had a consistent style and premise, both of which revolved around the life and antics of a surly, lazy cat and his companions, this abrupt shift in tone and mood was unsettling from the get-go. The premise, that Garfield was in fact a lonely, starving cat who lived in a dilapidated and crumbling house, and that his actions with Jon and Odie in the warm, well-kept abode readers had come to know are merely the self-delusions of an individual suffering from starvation and extreme denial, left an indelible mark on my appreciation for Jim Davis to tell a good horror story when he wanted to.There’s an article by Chris Sims on Comics Alliance that I pretty much try to re-post every October on my Facebook, and he breaks down the specifics of why this series of comic strips is so effective and frightening far better than I could. I highly recommend you read it if you want to know more about this series of strips, if for no other reason than he includes the entirety of their run in his article.
Night Terrors (mobile game)
This one’s not out yet, so I don’t have much to say about it, other than it looks to be frightening as hell, and I’m really excited for it.

Click here for a video demo… if you dare…

As much as I am a gamer, and a fan of horror, I actually don’t play very many horror video games. I’ve seen a few of them, and even played a couple (Slender: The Arrival and Five Nights at Freddie’s being a couple of semi-recent examples) from time to time, but I can’t claim to really want to play them very often. I guess there are limits to the extent I want to immerse myself in that particular medium. Maybe that will be the case for this one as well, but some reviewers’ claims that this is “Pokemon GO for horror fans” guarantees that I’ll at least check this one out.
The Thing on the Doorstep (short story)
This isn’t the most famous of HP Lovecraft’s stories, and certainly suffers at times from his tendency to over-verbalize, but this first exposure to his works instilled in me both a love for the writer and a visceral sense of terror at this story’s premise. It mostly comes down to the central premise about the story being about possession, and the extremes of one particular entity’s willingness to take over the bodies of others, but there are other elements and themes of this story that creep me out as well. That this little gem of a horror story both begins and ends with the author’s imprisonment in a mental facility leaves the reader more than a little discomfited at the entire experience, which is exactly how you should feel when reading Lovecraft. Well done, Mr. Lovecraft. Well done.
Exploring haunted locations
A thing that I sometimes do is grab a friend after reading an article about haunted locations and going and exploring to see what we can find. I don’t think I’ve ever found anything overtly paranormal or supernatural, but there have been one or two experiences that I haven’t been able to fully explain, and they certainly chilled my bones at the time. Below is a picture and link to a video I made when my sister and I went to Spaghetti Warehouse in downtown Houston.
Horror film remakes
In the last decade or so, there have been a slew of remakes of old horror films that have really driven home the scares. Not that the originals aren’t perfectly hair-raising on their own–I can recall more than a few of them keeping me up at night–but the sheer level of visceral terror involved in such films as Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake of Halloween and Fede Alvarez’s 2013 reimagining of The Evil Dead just make it seem like the creators were really out to get moviegoers. There’s also no doubt that with the advances in movie effects, films such as these are ripe for an upgrade.
Slenderman (egregore), and Marble Hornets (web series)
I pretty much couldn’t close out this list without mentioning Slenderman (a.k.a. the Slender Man), whose emergence onto the internet and into the collective consciousness of a generation has been both fascinating and horrifying to behold. The unnaturally tall, thin, blanked-faced character dressed in a black suit tends to stalk, abduct, and otherwise traumatize people, disrupting video feeds and often causing others to disappear without a trace. Having only graced the internet with his presence since 2009, Slenderman is a very new phenomenon that demonstrates just how powerful a well-conceptualized image and premise can be online.It’s Slenderman’s fame in particular that intrigues me, as he’s basically gone from a nonexistent thing that has no influence on the world to a nonexistent thing that now exists very strongly in the minds of others, and who very arguably influences the world in which he doesn’t exist, fitting the definition of an egregore. This is very evident not only in the number of stories, creepypastas, artworks, video games, and other multimedia in which the character continues to pop up, but also in the unfortunate attempted murder of a young girl in Waukesha, Wisconsin in 2014. Her classmates believed the Slenderman to be real, and that by murdering their classmate, they would become his proxies.

Closely related to Slenderman is the web series Marble Hornets, which utilized the mythos surrounding the character as a framework for them to create a horror series. While there are several very unnerving shots of the Slenderman (known as the Operator in the series) throughout the 90 or so short episodes, many of the series’ scares rely on what isn’t seen, or at the very least more conventional horror tropes, such as being attacked by a man in a mask. This has the effect of making the times the Operator does appear to be that much more significant and frightening.

Honorable Mentions: Stranger Things (Netflix Orginal series), Berserk (anime and manga by Kentaro Miura), Poltergeist (movie), The Shining (movie, 1980).