Checked Out with Green Hills Public Library District

Episode 2 - How Do You Like Your Horror?

• Green Hills Public Library District • Season 1 • Episode 2

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Join Klaudia, Sara, and Tessa in Checked Out’s Spook-tacular second episode, “How Do You Like Your Horror?” The trio talks about thrilling and chilling video games, films, and books. End the episode hearing their favorite October traditions, and opinions on movie remakes. 

Check out the media we talked about this episode here: 
https://ghs.swanlibraries.net/MyAccount/MyList/65864 

Goodreads "The 78 Most Popular Horror Novels of the Past 5 Years": 
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2846-the-78-most-popular-horror-novels-of-the-past-five-years 

Interested in hearing your favorite book, topic, or genre discussed? 
Send a recommendation to: ghpl@greenhillslibrary.org 

SPEAKER_02:

Hello everyone and welcome to episode two of our podcast. I'm Claudia.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm Sarah. I'm Tessa and this is Checked Out with Green Hills Public Library. Our second episode in the spirit of spooky season, we're gonna be talking about all things horror and Halloween. Woohoo! Happy Halloween, y'all.

SPEAKER_02:

But before we get into that, um, let's dive back in into what we were talking about, about what we were consuming before. No, I'm I'm not gonna lie, I I didn't finish Dune. I wanted to so badly, it just it it hasn't happened. That doesn't mean it will never happen. It was just not the vibe, but it's okay. I'll get back to it eventually. The saga continues. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

We're getting into winter. Yeah, so winter fall vibes. That's where like sci-fi fantasy belongs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

You get it. Yeah. I did watch the movies though. Oh, nice. I I really, really enjoyed them. They were really good. However, I will say the first movie got through like a whole a whole bunch of the book, a lot of the book, and then the second movie stretched out like the tail end of the book into one movie. I'm not sure if a second movie was necessary. However, I did enjoy it. I think Timothy Chalamet as Paul was a fantastic performance.

SPEAKER_01:

Willy Wonka himself.

SPEAKER_02:

Willy Wonka himself. Willy Wonka himself. Willy Wonka The Man, the myth, the legend. The man, the myth, the legend. Um, I think if you're not willing to read the books, I do think that the movies capture the essence of the first book really, really well. So I would recommend them. I think they did a great job. Obviously, like the score is already iconic, and when it was out, like everyone memed it already. Um, so I I do think it's kind of culturally iconic. So I'd give it I'd give it an 8.5 out of 10.

SPEAKER_00:

Ooh. Pretty high rating there. Yeah. Um, so I talked about reading Happiness Falls by Angie Kim, which No Judgment Here, please, I did not finish. Um, so I DNF'd it. If you know me, I do DNF things because I feel like I'm not gonna stick through reading something if I'm not feeling with it. Life is short, and I'm not gonna read something I don't like. It basically just follows the premise of a girl, and it's post-COVID, and she is trying to like solve the mystery of her father's disappearance. Um, and he disappeared while going on a walk with her nonverbal brother, and he returns to the house, but dad is just nowhere to be seen. And I got about 40% in um on audio, but I just couldn't do it. The main character was not likable, and it was just a slow kind of going book for me. So I DNF'd it, aka did not finish.

SPEAKER_01:

I think last time I was reading or going to read The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon. I got about a hundred pages into it on a plane, and I left it in the bag that I had on the plane, and I haven't picked it up since. I'm not far enough into it to know exactly how I feel about it. It's a little bit info-dumpy at the beginning, and that's all I remember. I couldn't even really tell you what it's about, other than I think it's clairvoyance. I'll I'll get back to it someday.

SPEAKER_02:

So that's where we left off before. Let's get into the gory details of what we're gonna be talking about today. So personally, I am not a fan of horror. I am very, very afraid, just in general. Um, I'm a bit of a scaredy cat. Horror just sticks with me too much. That being said, I do love a horror video game, and I do love a s like a thriller, especially like a psychological or supernatural thriller. I feel like horror can just be too much for me almost. So I usually won't pick it up, but I know that that's not a very popular opinion. I know that horror often leads to like cult classics, people love horror. Um, but yeah, it's just never been for me.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't think you're alone in that. Yeah. I feel like lots of people get a little squeamish with it. I personally have been reading and watching horror for longer than I probably should have been. Uh, I grew up watching horror movies with my brother that's five years older. So I saw a lot of things at a young age. But it really made me fall in love with it. I read horror books um when I was in middle school. Mary Downing Hahn, crazy lady. She writes some like actually pretty intense um juvenile fiction horror books. So if we got any youngins out there who want to be a little scared, I would go for her. We do have her at the library. And then in high school I read Stephen King's entire backlist. So I read up to the Institute. Haven't brought myself back to him yet. Needed a break.

SPEAKER_00:

But it's always been something that I've like watched and read. So I think I'm a happy medium between the two of you. Um, my mom was a horror fanatic, so I have a little bit of background watching horror films that she would put on. But I'm a newly inducted member of the horror genre, at least for books. Um, and I think that I got my start through psychological thrillers. And then I'm really into the gory stuff, so the gorier the better. I recently started The Stand by Stephen King, and that's gonna be my first like full-length um work by him that he's written that I'm reading. So I'm diving headfirst in there. Um I really like it so far. I'm about 50 pages in. I'm not gonna hold myself to saying that I'll finish it by the next episode, because it is like 1200 pages, but we'll get somewhere with it and I'll keep you guys updated.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you picked a a long one to start.

unknown:

Right?

SPEAKER_01:

You were really going right for it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Head first. Oh yeah, I remember you showing me that one. I was reading the back of it and it kind of reminded me of the Resident Evil games, just like an apocalyptic world started by a virus, right? Yeah. That's kind of the same premise for like the original Resident Evil games, the Leon Kennedy storyline, if anyone is a Resident Evil fan out there. If you're not familiar with the games, it starts basically with a virus outbreak that was started by an evil pharmaceutical company called Umbrella. They're like pretty big in the Leon Kennedy storylines.

SPEAKER_01:

I do think, uh, having experience with both things, that there is like a certain ambiance and like setting, so to speak. I mean, obviously they're very different settings, but like when you're walking around in Resident Evil versus when characters are walking around in the stand, I do think there's like a a solid comparison there. I think it's really interesting for you, Claudia, that you enjoy playing horror video games. I also love them, but you don't want to read or watch it, but you like to play them.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, honestly, I think it's just the fact that you have control in the narrative that is what really makes it different for me. Also, in terms of horror games, because of the animation, it doesn't feel as real. I don't there's a bit of a disconnect there. Also, I feel like horror video games are just so goofy that like it just doesn't scare me. Like the be the beginning Resident Evil games are not scary at all, but the later ones are, but the beginning ones are kind of goofy. So that's what I like about horror video games too, is that they almost seem to be like a mockery of the genre.

SPEAKER_00:

So Claudia, I know you were saying that like you'd prefer to play like a horror video game because you have the choice there and it like eases a little bit of the fear factor. Yeah, for me, I will watch a trailer or read a whole synopsis of a horror film before I watch it, just to kind of ease my anxiety so that when I'm going in, I kind of know like, oh, there's gonna be a jump scare moment. Oh, this person, I need to keep a lookout for them. Um, so things like that kind of help ease the anxiety to make it less scary for me. Yeah. Uh if I think that I'm really gonna be scared of the film. I don't do that so much with books, although I do sometimes flip to the last couple pages to kind of see what was going on there.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, honestly, I'll do the same thing with horror movies too. I will honestly watch the trailers or like read the synopsis just so that it kind of helps ease the tension, like you said. Um, what I won't do that with though is like thrillers, because the whole suspense of it all is what keeps me engaged with it. So if I end up spoiling it for myself, I'm honestly just not gonna care anymore.

SPEAKER_01:

I obviously I like to keep the element of suspense a lot of the time, but if I do find out or am spoiled for something that happens in thriller movies, books, horror in general, I almost kind of like to go backwards with it. Like I don't get too upset about knowing because then my brain wants to figure out all of like the little Easter eggs and like ways that we got there in the end. And like I'll reread or re mm, I won't reread thrillers, I'm lying. I'll re-watch movies for sure and look for those things. But I think maybe that's why I like it in books because I'm not I'm not gonna go back after I know what happens and read a whole thriller. But if I know who it is going in, I like to watch where it's like starting to form and where it's plotted at. Like listen for the lie, Amy Tintera. Yeah. The podcast one. Yeah. Uh Sarah read that before me, and I started it, and I was like, this is not really what I want from it, which is fine, but I made Sarah tell me who it was, so I could like figure out if I thought it was gonna be worth listening to the rest of it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, feeling like more engaged with it. Like I needed something to make me want to read it more. I feel that way too. Just circling back to what Claudia said earlier, too, about some video games that are horror being a little bit silly goofy. I think it's kind of interesting to explore what we think is horror.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I think that's a good, a good question. I feel like it's that like gauge is different for everyone. In a lot of horror stuff, there is like campy horror where it like you're not taking it too seriously. It's I feel like Grady Hendricks, as an author, does camp and scary horror at the same time very well. He's one of the few that I feel like can do that. Yeah. Where he's not taking himself too seriously, like he has scary puppets, and like he knows that that's kind of ridiculous, but then at the same time, he turns around and makes that puppet actually very scary in different scenes. Personally, what scares me is like real world stuff, never supernatural things. I love a ghost, I do, but like ghost possession, cursed objects, monster stuff doesn't actually scare me. Like, yeah, there's jump scares, but I think the things that get me to my core if I am going to get scared is like real life stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Like hush. Dude, hush is terrifying. Yeah. We're bringing it back to Mike Flanagan. Mike Flanagan, can't go to more.

SPEAKER_00:

I have to agree. I think it's the real life situations that kind of get me and make me scared too. Again, the supernatural stuff, it's not super scary to me because I'm like, oh, I'll never be in this situation. But the things where I can be put in that situation, those are scary to me. But recently, I started reading Chuck Tingle's Barrier Gaze, and it follows a screenwriter that writes for horror, and his characters come to life. And one of his characters like did really creep me out. I'm not gonna give away which one, but I was like, oh my god, this is kind of giving me the creeps a little bit. Yeah, it's definitely eerie with that character.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, there's the definite ambiance with him being there. What scares you, Claude?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh honestly, I will have to agree about the real life situations just because like it can happen to you in real life. There's been plenty of true crime podcast episodes or just like things in the news that talk about all those like home invasions or like really dark, sensitive topics, you know. So that definitely scares me. I won't lie. Sometimes a supernatural will scare me. I am a little bit afraid of ghosts. I love a ghost. Boom. But not as much, I feel like, as real things. To me, I really don't like body horror either. There's just something about people being hurt in any sort of capacity that just really gets me to my core, makes me feel squeamish. I really just almost empathize with the characters being hurt like too much. So I just I can't do it.

SPEAKER_01:

I've been there in horror things where like something is wrong. Like Wilder Girls by Rory Power. It's a YA horror. It's like dystopian horror almost. They're like on an island and they're like mutated. And there's like some pretty intense body horror described. The book itself isn't really that scary. I think it falls a little flat. But the descriptions of the body horror, I would find myself being like, oh, and making sure all my limbs are good.

SPEAKER_00:

How about having a clear-cut ending in your horror? I know that in some horror or psychological thrillers, I feel like we see it more. It kind of just ends at a point that kind of keeps you gripped to the edge of your seat. Personally, I don't think I could do it. I think I need it to end. I will say though, an author that is able to have that type of ending, like that craft is amazing. Like I really applaud them for being able to create something that works in that capacity.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I'm in the same boat as you. I really do need closure in my stories, especially in a thriller. If there is no answer to what has happened, I will be very upset that I spent so much time reading something or watching something just to not have an answer. I will demand a sequel, which I will probably not get, and then I'll just be very frustrated. So I do commend the authors that can just end their books and still have it feel satisfying, even if there isn't like a clear-cut answer. But I really, I just need answers. I need to know. That's my problem. I have to know.

SPEAKER_01:

I I feel like I have a different answer than the two of you. With a thriller, 100%, you need to wrap that up. You need to make me believe that this person did X, Y, and Z. Especially if it's a character that you brought in the fourth page of the book. You have to make me feel like, okay, yeah, you're right. As far as like movies and specifically horror books, I love an ambiguous ending. I love a book that just stops. For example, Cabin at the end of the world by Paul Tremblay. The movie that came out is Knock at the Cabin.

SPEAKER_00:

Horrible title.

SPEAKER_01:

Terrible. Why didn't we not just keep it? I don't know. Cabin at the End of the World's pretty good, in my opinion. That book is centered around a family who is in a cabin and the world is ending. Question mark. People show up at their door and tell them that the world is ending and like kind of hold them hostage. And you're left in the dark for pretty much everything. A lot of people don't enjoy that book because it just stops and you kind of have to figure out what you think. There's a lot of people who feel healed by the movie because it did a different ending. To the best of my knowledge. Don't quote me on that. I haven't seen the movie, but I recall knowing that information. If I'm wrong, sorry. But especially in horror, I don't need super long explanations because I feel like that's where they kind of lose me. When they start over-explaining what's going on, I'm like, okay, this feels like Scooby-Doo. Okay. Yeah. We've ripped the costume off, and it's the guy next door, and he would have gotten away with it if it weren't for the medal in cats.

SPEAKER_02:

I really resonate with what you said about uh Cabin at the end of the world. Um, I think it's really, really impressive when authors are able to just stop a book and that leads to speculation, or like stop a movie and that leads to speculation. Sometimes I think there's certainly a time and a place for those kinds of endings.

SPEAKER_00:

So I'm not familiar with Cabin at the end of the world, but Tessa, how would you describe that? Like, is that more of a thriller or more of a horror? And then I guess just general question is how are we defining horror and thriller?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think that's a super good question. Everyone has kind of a different answer to that. For me, I would say Kevin at the end of the world leans more psychological thriller. I would say there's horror aspects. I feel like generally people think gore and horror go hand in hand. And there's some gore in there. I mean, it's people holding people hostage, but I think more than anything it plays on the psychological. And I do think you can have psychological thrillers and horror depending. I personally would categorize it as a thriller more than anything. I think my line between thriller and horror exists in the ambiance that it builds. In horror, in my mind, things are constantly building to make it seem more eerie. Things are getting layered on. Whereas in my experience, categorized thrillers are someone's dead, someone's missing, and it's your main character and her random love interests or her best friend that's trying to help her like solve this. So it's like mystery, but we get a little bit of gore in it. That's how I count our war as thrillers from horror. But there's a lot of gray area.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. I agree. I feel like a lot of thrillers do tend to be mystery-based or focused on trying to usually like solve solve a murder or a disappearance of someone. For me, I feel like the line of when it crosses into horror is when bodily harm is starting to take place, or like the focus is on bodily harm or body horror. I also feel as though the line tends to be like when the focus is on gore. I don't know. I feel like everyone defines horror as something different. Maybe to me, horror is just things that I really can't handle in in my stories.

SPEAKER_00:

That makes sense. As someone that moved from thriller to horror, my line between the two is very blurry. A lot of the books that I read that are thriller, I'm like, oh, this is giving horror. Like this is a little spooky to me. But I think that when it doesn't have that gore, like you mentioned, that's kind of where I'll place it more in a thriller category. Right. So like one of the first ones that I read was None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell. And I would say like that's a thriller rather than a horror. Yeah. But if we're gonna do like a Grady Hendricks, then I feel like that's more of a horror book to me. And it might also just be that it deals with something that is paranormal. So like he has demons or vampires. So maybe that's where the line is for me, but definitely still figuring out. It out for myself.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I agree with that. I feel like horror does generally get the rap of gore, but for me personally, I think the ambiance outweighs the gore. Like I've read some thrillers where like they're finding bodies in terrible ways. And like it's gore, but I wouldn't say it's horror. I feel like there's there's like a sense of ambiance atmosphere that you have to build for me to like be like, oh okay, you're going for horror, not just like horror elements.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. That yeah, that makes sense. I feel like the lines can definitely be blurry. I feel like also in horror, a lot of times the the difference is that the gore is happening to the main character, or the main character is witnessing like the gore happen in real time, not like after the fact, too. I also think about psychological horror and psychological thrillers and what the difference is between that. I think a good example of that might be I'm thinking of ending things. I feel like it has some horror elements, but it also has a lot of thriller elements. I honestly don't even want to spoil it for you by telling you what it's about. It's just it's a very short novella, great spooky read if you haven't read it. I would recommend it for teenagers and up. There is a Netflix movie if you wanted to watch it. I don't think the Netflix movie is as good or the twist is as good as it is when you're reading it, just because you're more involved in the story when you're reading it. But if that's something that you're interested in, I would say totally go for it. But I feel like that is one of the first examples that comes to mind for me when I think about what I categorize this as a psychological horror or a psychological thriller. And I'm not really sure about that, to be honest.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I feel like every book changes my mind about what I would think.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. It's really a truly, I feel like a personal decision. Although I do agree that we have set like some parameters about what is horror or what is distinctively thriller. Like how you said that most thriller thrillers are about solving mysteries or finding mysteries, and that a lot of horror, I feel like the focus is mainly on scaring you through the main character or through what the main character is witnessing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, like Claudia said, I think that we have set pretty general parameters and then decided to define things differently ourselves. Before we jump into more just Halloween versus horror, we should all give one or two things in the horror genre movies, video games, books, so we would recommend.

SPEAKER_02:

So I know I plugged this book in the last episode, but I will plug it again. If you like psychological thrillers and you're like me, you don't really want to read horror or you get really, really scared by horror. I totally recommend Bad Cree by Jessica Johns. We have it on shelf at the library if you wanted to pick it up here. It is just a fantastic debut novel. It's got psychological elements, it's got supernatural elements, it's a great story about family and sisterhood. I really, really recommend it to everyone that I talk to. It's a great Halloween read, so if you want to read it, go for it. I am awaiting her next book. If she ever writes it, I really hope she does. I'll also recommend some video games. I know I mentioned it beforehand, but Resident Evil, fantastic, fantastic series. If you want to delve more into the horror aspect of it, I would totally recommend the Ethan Winters storyline, which starts with number seven, which is Biohazard, and then number eight, which is Village. Those are definitely way scarier and take on a much different vibe than the Leon Kennedy storyline, which is most popularly like number two and number four. Those, I feel like, are a little bit more goofy if you wanted to watch the animated movies that they put out for Resident Evil. They are also very, very funny. I totally recommend watching them if you just want something silly to watch. I'll also recommend the Dark Pictures anthology. It's made by the same company that made Until Dawn or The Quarry, whichever one that you guys played, if you played both. They also made the Dark Pictures anthology, which are also choice-based games. Each one is different. I really like Little Hope, which is about a group of tourists who crash into like an abandoned town. And that's all I'll say about that, because if I say more, I'll spoil it. They're creating a brand new season, and the next one is going to be a space horror, which is going to be interesting. So can't wait to see that.

SPEAKER_01:

I really didn't think my segue would be as good as it is with space horror. My top horror that I read is Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes. Think Titanic, but it's a spaceship and it's haunted, and you have a super unreliable narrator trying to figure out what happened to this missing ship that's just been floating in space for however long. It's atmospheric, it's creepy. If you're put off by me saying space, I promise it's way less spacey than you think it is because so much of it takes place on the ship and trying to figure out what all these people went through. My next one is a young adult new release called Immortal Dark by Tiggest Gurma. And it's Vampire, which I don't always think that vampires are horror. I think it depends on how you write them. But this one is Dark Academia, Vampires, Enemies to Lovers, but like actually enemies to lovers, like knife at throat, enemies to lovers. Um at a vampire school. The world is super expansive, and honestly, there were a lot of scenes that like actually made me feel uncomfortable. It's not gory, but obviously it's vampires. There's gonna be some blood. The way that those scenes are described kind of get pretty gory.

SPEAKER_00:

So if you want something that is really gory, I would recommend The Eyes of the Best Part by Monica Kim. She writes about a narrator whose mom wants her to eat eyes as like a delicacy out of like their fish eyes. And then she just becomes so enthralled with the texture and the flavor that she decides that she wants to take revenge on the men in her life by plucking their eyeballs out and eating them. It's definitely on the gorier side there, less gory, maybe more a little bit campy, as we mentioned earlier. Anything by Grady Hendricks. I recently read my best friend's exorcism, which takes place in the 90s, which I thought was really fun. And they are these two high school-aged girls. One of them gets possessed by a demon, and the other friend is trying to figure out what is wrong with her and how to save her friend to get her back to being her normal self. Also, if you would like more horror recommendations, I definitely recommend checking out Goodreads 78 horror titles from the last five years. We were just talking about this in our back office and it kind of sparked a little bit of conversation between us. So I think that you guys should give them a look if you want to get started reading some horror.

SPEAKER_01:

That list is pretty cohesive on like the top horror books. And I feel like generally with horror, things that are beloved are usually what is good, quote unquote. We'll leave the link to it in our podcast description so you guys have super easy access. When I counted, I'd read like 30 something of them, and they are subtle flex.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

They are um they are some of the top that I would say. They're definitely on that list for a reason. So I think getting a little less scary now. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. Okay. Let's do it. We all kind of wanted to talk about just like generally Halloween, things that we do on Halloween, maybe something a little less gory.

SPEAKER_00:

I can start us off. I don't think it'll be less gory, but maybe a little bit. So a tradition that my family and I always have when October rolls around, which we're nearing the end now, but we always get together and watch the Scream franchise. I think that the Scream franchise is my favorite horror franchise. I, of course, am speaking of Scream 1 and 2. The other ones, I will claim them, but not wholeheartedly.

SPEAKER_01:

I also grew up watching the Scream movies. My mom was also a huge, huge fan of Scream. I don't claim Scream 3. I don't. Okay. I have made peace with the Geno Ortega Screams existing. The way that you feel about three is how I feel about both. Okay. But I I don't enjoy Scream 3. But Scream 1 and 2 are classics. I think that a lot of people probably watch them around this time of year. Claudia, have you seen Scream?

SPEAKER_02:

I have a confession to make. I have never watched the Scream movies. I know. I'll add them to my rotation this year. Usually what I do during Halloween is I'll I'll pop on one of those classic Disney movies like Hocus Pocus or Halloween Town. You really just can't beat that cozy 90s aesthetic. I mean, it's like the reason why I watch Gilmore Girls all the time, because of that cozy early 2000s 90s aesthetic. But yeah, I'll I'll do that. I'll watch those Disney movies and I'll eat more candy than I really should, to be honest.

SPEAKER_00:

I will say I do love a cozy Disney movie. Uh especially Hocus Pocus. I named my cat after Binx, the cat of Hocus Pocus. So big fan over here. Speaking of, have you guys seen part two?

SPEAKER_02:

I have. I would not recommend it, to be honest. I think the entire poll of it is Hocus Pocus one just because it's so iconic. But the second movie is just it was not it for me. I think it really fell flat on the story and the characters, and the only thing that I really cared about was seeing the Sanderson sisters again. And even then, I just don't think it was written very well. It seemed like a quick cash grab.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think we can kind of use this conversation as a way to get into our hot or not for this episode. Um how how do we feel about remakes, sequels of classic, nostalgic movies for us? I know we've got the Hocus Pocus. I've never seen it, don't plan to.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I'm not seeing that second one. Um I think that remakes are a not for me. I feel like don't fix something if it's not broken. We're like early 2000s babies, and the movies that we're talking about are like 90s movies or early 2000 movies, and you know, we still enjoy them and like them, and I think that you know, younger generations will too. So I don't feel that there is a need to have to remake these things for this new generation. They can just enjoy the originals.

SPEAKER_01:

I agree with that with the sequel epidemic we're having with hocus pocus, with bringing back scream, even though they said they wouldn't, with with the new Beetlejuice coming out. I can get my head around a remake, like an actual like remake. Like I'm talking when they made the new It movies as an answer and remake to the It mini series. I can stomach that because you're doing it, you're just doing it in a world where we can have effects that hopefully look better. Pennywise doesn't, it's okay. Um I can't take them seriously. Where the technology and stuff might allow you to have a better looking piece of content, but yeah, I haven't seen the Beetlejuice sequel that it didn't come out that long ago, but I don't really plan to. I like we've all kind of said, it kind of just feels like a cash grab. Like I don't feel like there's the amount of care put into it that if someone like actually really cared about they were doing, they would have.

SPEAKER_02:

What about you, Claude? So before I get into my opinion, I have another confession to make. I've never watched the Beetlejuice movie. You should. I know. I'll have to add it to my rotation.

SPEAKER_01:

They are.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. It doesn't look scary. I feel like you would like Beetlejuice before you would like Scream, actually. Yeah. I mean they're both iconic, and I honestly know what they're about.

SPEAKER_01:

So I think you'll come back being like, wait, Beetlejuice was like so silly goofy.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, for for sure. Well, then I'll have to add them to my Halloween rotation, and then next time we reconvene, I'll have to tell you guys what I thought. But if you want to know my opinion, obviously I think that like remakes and sequels after like a long, long, long, long time is a big not for me. Like you guys said before, cash grabs, they don't care about what they're making. I don't think that the people who make those remakes are understanding what made the original so special to everyone. So I think a lot of that gets lost in translation too. I also noticed that in a lot of these like remakes slash sequels after a long time, they try to cater it to like a younger audience by writing like what they think young people want to see. So they have a lot of by the time like the movie comes out, the references that they're making, like internet references, are really outdated or they're just made in really poor taste.

SPEAKER_01:

It gets old so fast. Some sequels that I'm gonna let live are as follows Finding Dory. You're not a finding dory girl? No, I'm I'm shaking my head.

SPEAKER_00:

No. Why? Uh what'd she do to you? I I just didn't feel that it needed a sequel. The story was told.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm not gonna say that I feel like it needed a sequel, but I do think the sequel has the same vibes that Nemo brought to the world. Okay, another one, literally no one likes these movies. This is just like me on my little island. Incredibles 2. Okay. Hmm. Incredibles 2, far superior to the first Incredibles movie.

SPEAKER_00:

Incredibles 2 is the one with the babysitter guy, right? The one with the hair? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

That's one. Oh no. Incredibles 2 is like when Alaska Girl gets to go be cool mom and Mr. Incredible has to stay at home with Jenny. I'm okay with that one. It's better than the first one. I love Incredibles 2, and I don't care who knows it. I'll get you a t-shirt. No one literally no one likes that movie. It's fine. It's okay. It's okay. I'll live on my island with it, but it is a sequel that I will allow.

SPEAKER_02:

But then we'll also think about like while we're on the topic of of remakes, um, it makes me think about like, for example, like Dune, right? Would I don't I'm not sure if this would be considered a remake or just another adaptation of a s of a book, since it's based off of a book. The Dune movies, the David Lynch movies, like from the 80s, if you look at them, they're really funny. It's because the CGI just doesn't allow for the story to be told in the right way. Obviously, the new ones are just far superior to that. So I'm not sure if I would consider that like a remake, but those are good. Or like Pride and Prejudice. If you're a Jane Austen fan like me, some really diehard Jane Austen fans prefer the BBC version of it just because it's, I guess, closer to the story, but other people such as myself prefer the 2005 version. The 2005 version is fantastic, wonderful aesthetic, and I still think he gets the story across. Just because it's not a heart, like a completely heart-to-heart, um die hard retelling or adaptation of the book doesn't mean that it's bad by any means.

SPEAKER_00:

The 2005 version is the only version that exists to me. Yeah. The hand grab, unmatched. The hand flex? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02:

Even better.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, fantastic movie. I have a competition. Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_00:

I've never seen it. Oh my god. Sorry. You have to watch it. But you have to watch it. I mean, both of you guys are walking away today with lists of things you gotta watch. What about what about you?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, you need horror? I need anything. I'll take anything. My Darling Dreadful Thing by Joanna Van Veen.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I feel good now. I'm walking away with something.

SPEAKER_01:

It's sleeper horror. Oh. What's that? Yeah. It is my coined term. Something that builds an atmosphere for a while. It might be a little bit unassuming. Like you know how the eyes are the best part starts? Yeah. And she's just kind of like there with her family for a while. Yeah. And then all of a sudden she's eating eyes. Yep. Ew. I feel like that's it's not similar in storyline at all. But that's kind of what I like in horror. I like when it builds, like you're starting out pretty normal and it just keeps getting eerier and eerier. I think uh Diabola is another one, which I know you read. I I think my darling dreadful thing does Diabola better.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, good. Because that one was it was okay for me. But I alright, I'll add then my darling dreadful thing, Joanna Van Veen. All right. I'll add it to my TBR. There you go. Now we all got something to walk away with. So, so glad. Thank you guys. So, speaking of our TBRs, let's uh wrap up maybe with what we're currently reading.

SPEAKER_02:

So I just finished reading a book called Tangled Up in You by Christina Lauren. If you're not familiar with Christina Lauren, it's a team of authors. They write romance. I read The Unhoneymooners by Them, which I thought was a really great book. They write some pretty good romance. They have like a really vast collection of romance, much bigger than I originally thought. But Tangled Up in You is basically a retelling of the Disney movie Tangled. It's part of a series where different Disney princess movies are being retold and it's all written by different authors. But I if you know me, I am a diehard Tangled fan. So I just I had to read it. I really liked it, I enjoyed it, I like comparing the book to the movie. I thought they did a great job. It's basically like an alternate universe if Rapunzel was like a college student and Flynn was also a college student and they go on a road trip together. I think it gets the characters really well. So I just finished reading that. I give it a solid 10 out of 10 because I love a good tangled story. I love more tangled content. But I'm not really sure what I'll read next. I was looking through our catalog and I did see that in our YA uh section we have a new book by Ransom Riggs called The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry. I really, really liked uh Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children as a teenager, so I'm really excited to read this new book. It's about a teenage boy who gets sucked into his favorite media series. Oh I think it might be movies. I'm not sure though. And he ends up finding out that he's the chosen one. It's kind of sci-fi, but I also kind of picked up on the fact that it might be a bit of like a psychological thriller almost. Yeah, I think there's some thriller elements to it. So I'm really excited to read that one. Maybe I will check it out on Libby and put it on my Kindle if we have an ebook version of it. So I'm excited to read that next. And hopefully by the time we have our next episode, I will tell you all about it. Woohoo!

SPEAKER_01:

I'm definitely excited to hear what you think about it. It's on my never ending list because I just catalogued it last week and was like, wow, that's for me. I'm in the middle of like eight things right now, as per usual for me. I'll pick one. Right now, I think I'm gonna focus on an Academy for Live. By Alexis Henderson. It is. I had a lot to say about dark academia today.

SPEAKER_00:

It's okay. It's fine.

SPEAKER_01:

That's just like the vibe. I don't know. It's fall. It's fine.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know what to do with myself. It's October. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Or the end of it. It is Dark Academia Fantasy Horror. Ooh. And it's about a school that like doesn't exist, but it does. And our main character ends up there and learns that she's going to be learning the art of persuasion. Oh. And I'm not leaving it there because it gets weird.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh. Is it a YA or an adult book? Adult. Nice. So to round us out, I just finished Ninth House by Lee Bardugo. Love. Oh my god. I have so much to say. Darlington, he's amazing. Um, it's also Dark Academia, just kind of going off of that. It was very fitting for fall. Um, it is about um a girl that ends up going to Yale to be a part of this like secret society. Um, and they all deal with magic and different types of magic. And she kind of has to be like the checks and balances person to make sure that these groups of people are not misusing their power that they're given. All the while she's trying to solve a murder that happened and just kind of figure out if it's connected to this magical society that she's a part of. I think I'm gonna be picking up the sequel, which is Hellbent, and I'm super excited to start that. So hopefully by the time we meet next, I will have an update for you guys. I can't wait to hear what you think. Yeah, me too. I'm pumped. I will put it on the record. I love both of them very much. I'll have to add that to my list then. Yes, I love it. All right, so that concludes this episode. If you all have any recommendations for us about future topics you want us to talk about, books or other media you want us to check out, please let us know. Our email is ghpl at greenhillslibrary.org.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you guys so much for listening. This has been episode two. How do you like your horror? I'm Tessa. I'm Sarah. I'm Claudia, and we're checked out.