The Associative Memory Imp

I really like David Britland's Cyclic Aces. Easy to do, clever and fooling:

http://cardopolis.blogspot.com/2005/04/cyclic-aces-this-idea-was-first.html

Mark Elsdon recently praised the trick in one of his Hidden Gems ebooks as well.

Guy Hollingworth had this idea once of reciting a poem whilst he cut to the aces. So - if you think about it - this trick is sort of like a Universal Trick. The idea is that cutting the aces looks more impressive if you are doing something else at the same time.

I think this concept has a lot of potential. Since you can pretty much say anything you want, as you cut to the aces. So, I am just wondering what would be a good Jerx approach to this idea?

I just thought you might enjoy thinking this one over. The 'Cutting The Aces' trick - using this presentational framework - allows you to pretty much recite anything you want.—JM

Usually I’m not really into the idea of reciting anything, to be honest. It feels too performative for me.

But after thinking about this idea for a little bit, I did come up with a way to use it alongside an effect that would otherwise seem like a “show-off” type of moment.

I finally got an opening to try it last week when my friend Lena was visiting.

She saw my high school yearbook in my bookcase and that got us talking about high school and the classes we took and what we remembered. She mentioned her daughter was taking a high school class in “The History of Comic Book Art.” I was annoyed her daughter wasn’t suffering through the same boring classes I had to go through.

As we were having this discussion about classes and what we learned or failed to learn, I said, “Oh, you just reminded me of something I haven’t thought about in ages. It’s a little bizarre. Hold on. Let me see if that still works.” I looked around and grabbed a deck of cards off the end table. I shuffled a couple times and spun out a card from the middle of the deck. It was the 2 of Clubs. I shook my head and put the 2 back in the deck. I tried it again and it was another random card.

I pulled my focus back to my friend. “Uhm, so yeah. When I was in 11th grade I had to memorize a poem for English class. It’s called Invictus. Do you know it? It goes…,”Out of the night…,” uhm, “Out of the night it comes to me.” I think. I’m not sure. Anyway, I had to memorize that poem and I was spectacularly bad at it. So I spent like two weeks just drilling down on it constantly.

“Now, at the same time, I was also trying to learn this magic trick where you are able to produce the four aces from a shuffled deck of cards. It’s like a classically difficult effect that requires a ton of practice.

“And I was practicing these two things literally simultaneously. I’d sit on my bedroom floor, with the poetry book open at my side, and the deck of cards in front of me. And I’d repeat the poem as best as I could while I worked on the machinations of this trick.

“When the day came that I needed to recite it in class, I was fairly confident. But when I went in front of the class I realized I couldn’t remember the poem if I wasn’t doing the card trick. Fortunately, my teacher was cool about it and let me grab the deck I had in my backpack and do the trick while I recited the poem.

“The weirder thing is that I learned a few days later that not only could I not recite the poem unless I was doing the trick, but I also couldn’t do the trick unless I was reciting the poem. The muscle memory required for the trick and the actual memory required to recite the poem were so enmeshed in each other that I couldn’t separate them. I haven’t tried it in years, but I’m curious if it’s still the case. Here shuffle these up.”

Understand the concept? Sometimes your words and actions become so closely associated that you can’t do one without the other. If you’ve ever acted in something you’l find that you sometimes need to be up and moving around as you would in the scene in order to remember the dialogue. This just takes that idea a little bit further.

Okay, so she shuffled the deck. Unknown to her, the aces are out of the deck at this point. I palmed them back in when I got the deck back. 

The ace production I use is just a series of somewhat flashy moves I collected over time. Nothing original. I put it together years ago, when I was dumb enough to think anyone would possibly be impressed by one’s ability to produce the aces in a flashy way. 

So at this point I had the deck back into my hands and eased my way into the poem, shuffling and cutting during the stanzas.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

[I produce an Ace]

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud,
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed. 

[Second Ace produced]

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid. 

[Third Ace produced]

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
[I cut to and turn over random card. Seemingly a mistake. I turn it over and give it a little one-handed spin on my middle finger.]
I am the captain of my soul.

[I turn over the “random” card to reveal the last Ace.]

I gave my friend a look. Not a look like, “Hey, aren’t I something special?” But more of a look like, “Isn’t that strange?” 

I was very pleased by how well this went over. I used to do the ace production a lot when I was younger. As I said, it’s nothing original, just whatever moves feel right in the moment (one-handed cut where the bottom card gets dragged out by the fingers and produced, Benzais spin-out move, hot-shot cut, pop-out move, or just turning over the top card after a fancy-ish multi-packet cut), followed by the “mistake correction” ending. It’s the sort of thing that’s fun to practice and do, but any trick that is solely a “look what I can do” trick, just feels too desperate to me.

Adding the recitation to the trick should make it seem like even more of a show-off thing because now I’m doing two difficult things. But oddly, it has the reverse effect. Because the story is that I don’t have mastery of either of these things. It’s just in the circumstance that I do them together that I can do them at all. 

This is the sort of thing people can find understandable and relatable while at the same time finding it to be unreal and amazing. In all my work—and especially in the next book which is kind of devoted to this subject—that’s the sweet spot I try to shoot for.

Mailbag #33

Did you see Ellusionist’s “big” announcement? —JP

I did.

Listen, no matter how inconsequential you thought that announcement was going to be, Ellusionist managed to make it more so.

If you didn’t catch it, the big announcement was pretty much that they redesigned their site and gave it a black background.

And that’s because “a black site evokes mystery, secrecy, and power.”

As an Ellusionist fan, I feel bad that this was the best idea they had to celebrate 20 years in business. It’s too insignificant to even make fun of, unfortunately.

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You mention peek wallets frequently in your work. I wanted to know, what is your go-to wallet/handling. And what is your go-to reason for having the information written down and placed in the wallet. —KG

Okay, my go-to wallet is this peek wallet from Secret Tannery. I’ve bought a lot of peek wallets, and the Jaks style of wallet may be the least clever of them all, but I find it to be the most useful, most deceptive, and offer the most handling options. And it’s essentially examinable. I’ve bought some wallets with very ingenious peeks built in, but I never use them.

My go to handling is to return the card to the wallet while I’m mostly looking away. Fold the wallet with the peek on the outside of the wallet (head still turned away). And then get the peek as I ask someone to hold out their hand and I place the wallet in their palm. And then I have them place their other hand on top.

I don’t justify the writing or placing the card in the wallet. If I do, then it would be a trick-specific justification, not a general one. But more often than not, I don’t say anything about that part of the procedure. My reasoning as to why I don’t can be found in this post

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Apparently, the iridium flares ended last year. Only now that i was thinking of doing something else i noticed.

Are there any other kind of satellites you have found you are able to use for magic? (Thats a phrase I didnt think I would ever say) —JFC

Sadly, I don't know of anything else that works. You might be able to use the International Space Station, depending on if it matches the look you're going for.

What JFC is referring to is a trick that appeared in the JAMM #6. It’s one of the strongest tricks I’ve ever done (or that anybody has ever done). But sadly the satellites that allowed for the effect to happen have been decommissioned, so it doesn’t work anymore. In the trick you make a shooting star appear (or a moving pixel in the simulation, in an even more mindfucky variation I wrote about). And what made it so strong is that the spectator seemingly determined where the star would appear.

I still use the forcing procedure from that trick (which forced a certain area of the sky) for other purposes, but nothing quite that strong.

If you’re interested in reading about the trick just to see what you once could do, I’ve excised the trick from that issue and you can read it here.

While We Were Out

A couple days ago, Ellusionist’s website went offline as well as much of its social media presence. At some point today, they’re supposed to post “an important message” on their Youtube channel.

Now, there’s no legitimate reason why it would be necessary for them to shut their site down and not give people any warning and/or immediately communicate the reason why. So we’re forced to assume the reason is illegitimate: some sort of bumbling marketing ploy that wasn’t quite thought through very well. Instead of generating excitement of any kind, the only response has been, “Hey, am I going to be able to download the videos I paid for from your dumb site or what?” Unfortunately, there’s just not enough affection for Ellusionist as a company for a move like this to generate the response they were hoping for, which I’m guessing was excitement rather than annoyance.

It’s kind of sad. Ellusionist is like a girlfriend who—in a desperate attempt for her boyfriend to focus more attention on her—stops replying to his texts or calls. And the reaction of their customer base is like the boyfriend saying: “Hey, I don’t know what’s up with you. If this is the end between us or whatever. But are you going to let me get my softball mitt from your apartment or what?”

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A week ago there was a 4-day “virtual magic convention” with 100 different magicians, lecturing for 100 straight hours.

I didn’t check it out, so I don’t really have anything to say about it. However, I was definitely moved by this message on their site…

Finally! Someone has the goddamn balls to come out and speak the truth! All you ever hear on the news is some bullshit about first responders, or the world economy going in the toilet, or the increases of suicides and overdoses from the lockdowns, or that the corpses of the elderly are being stacked up like pancakes.

Fine. I’m not saying those issues are unimportant. But what’s with the total media blackout on those who have “suffered the most” through all of this: young magicians?

Here in the U.S., I watched the presidential debates just waiting for them to address this subject and somehow it never came up.

The World Health Organization doesn’t even mention it on their site.

Is anyone even taking this seriously?

I applaud the organizers of this event for highlighting the terrible toll this pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns have had on young magicians—a group that is most well known for the fact that they spend all their time sitting in their rooms alone and not socializing. I’m sure it’s been very hard on them.

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Bart N., passed along the following web apps for me to share.

Almost Real Prediction Generator: https://almostrealprediction.bartnijs.be/

Forcing Matrix Generator: https://forcingmatrix.bartnijs.be/

Keyword Progressive Anagram Generator: http://keywordprogressiveanagram.bartnijs.be/

Progressive Anagram Generator: https://progressiveanagram.bartnijs.be/

As it says on those pages, “If you don't know what this is for, don't ask.” For those who do work with these effects/techniques, you’ll likely find something of value here.

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I picked up the new Oculus Quest 2 VR headset while we were away.

It’s the sort of thing that’s really amazing for the first 30 minutes you have it, but I found there to be a pretty steep drop-off in enjoyment afterwards. I like some of the rhythm games and using it for light exercise, but beyond that I don’t get too much out of it.

If there’s something you like doing in the real world, I can’t imagine you being satisfied with the VR version of that thing. And if you don’t like doing it in the real world, I can’t imagine you wanting to do it in virtual reality.

I like snowboarding, but I want to be on the mountain in the cold.

I like sex, but I want to share it with a warm body with a personality. Not…

You might say, “Okay, it might not fully replicate real experiences. But it’s still got to be fun for gaming, right?”

Maybe. I don’t know. It might be a generational thing. I think I’d rather just look at a tv screen in most cases. I want to be able to eat doritos and check my phone and look around the room. I don’t need to be running in place through a fucking pac-man maze.

I’m not saying I don’t find it enjoyable. I do. But it’s probably telling that in the past few days I’ve only picked it up a couple of times. And that was to use the headset to show people Steel Cubes Under the Butthole from the JAMM #3. (Which this is great for.)

I have some other magic ideas brewing in my head for use with it as well. If anything comes from those ideas, I’ll let you know.

The Benefits of Lying to Yourself

I’ve written in the past (I think—I’m 1000+ posts in here, I don’t really remember what I did or didn’t write) about using the technique of lying to myself for the sake of impulse control. I don’t know if this works for everyone. You may have to be sort of dumb for this to work on you. Or you may just have to believe it will work.

It’s a technique you can use when dealing with a desire for something that your “higher self” doesn’t actually want you to indulge. This can be anything from “eating ice cream” to “strangling prostitutes.” Rather than debating with yourself about whether you’re going to do this thing or not, you just say to yourself, “I’ll do that tomorrow.” This ends the debate and—for me at least—satisfies the part of the brain that is pushing that desire

Of course, the idea is that you satisfy that part of the brain by always saying you’ll do it “tomorrow.” When the next day rolls around you just again tell yourself, “Yeah, we’re definitely going to do this tomorrow.” And what I’ve found is that the dumb part of my brain never catches on. It never says, “Hey, you said that yesterday!” It only looks forward, never back. So it’s satisfied just by thinking that “tomorrow” is coming. It’s like a moronic Annie.

Recently, I’ve found another circumstance where lying to myself seems to work, and that’s when dealing with impatience.

It’s specifically been helpful with household chores, which typically I would rush through and do an adequate job, rather than take my time and do a good job. My mind is always so focused on being done with this thing I have to do, and getting to some other thing that I want to do.

So, for example, imagine there are a bunch of dishes piled up in the sink. My usual feeling upon seeing that would be a low level dread. And I would either spend the 30 minutes it took to clean them feeling restless and wanting to do something else. Or I’d do a rush-job and get the dishes “clean enough” in half the time. Neither situation seemed ideal.

Then I started lying to myself. I’d say, “I’m going to take the next five hours and wash these dishes.” I’d pick up a pan and think, “I’m going to spend 15 minutes getting this pan completely clean.” These would both be wild over-estimates, but I found that going in telling myself it would take an absurdly long time ended up making the time it did take feel much less cumbersome.

I’ve been using this technique when learning new things as well. For example, I like to learn to play different instruments. And what I do when I pick up a new instrument is tell myself, “If I practice this half an hour a day, in five years I’ll be able to play a song. This mindset gets me past the hardest thing about learning something new: the frustration that comes with a lack of skill and progress.

In fact, I have a whole new mindset i use when learning new things. I imagine we live in a world where progress doesn’t exist.

There is no such thing as progress. You just pay your dues by doing something poorly enough times and then you’re gifted the ability to do it well. Like the flip of a switch.

So let’s say I’m learning the second deal. I don’t say to myself, “If I do this 20 minutes a day, I’ll have the basics down in a week. In a month I’ll have something that works well for most circumstance. And in six months I’ll have something that will even fool magicians.”

Instead I tell myself, “I’m going to do this poorly for 20 minutes a day for the next 700 days. And then on day 701, I’ll be able to do it well.”

Learning something is just about repetition and time. So this mindset emphasizes those things while taking the notion of progress off the table.

Of course, it doesn’t take 200+ hours to learn a decent second deal. I’d have a workable version of the second deal in a fraction of that time. But I just tell myself that’s not how it works. It’s not that I don’t want progress, or that there won’t be progress. It’s just that the thing that is most likely to sabotage you efforts when trying to learn something new is feeling a lack of progress. So rather than give progress any weight, I just like to allow it to be the inevitable byproduct of repetition and time.

As always, this is just a way of thinking that has been useful for me. I don’t expect that it’s universal in any way. But perhaps some of you will find some value in it.

Until November...

I’ll start today with a couple of sites you might want to look at for presentational embellishments. When it comes to interweaving your magic with the real world, a legit website can be a good starting point. Then you slowly transition from this real site/real concept into something unbelievable.

Now, to be clear, my goal isn’t to “fool” people by making them think we’re talking about something real, and then have it turn into a trick. It’s actually kind of the opposite of that. I want them to know a trick is coming but have it start in a way that feels very grounded and real.

Imagine I said to you, “I’m going to tell you a bedtime story.” If I begin with, “Once upon a time, an elf was riding a dragon to the Chocolate City in the clouds,” that starts you off in fantasyland. But if I begin with, “So this guy at work, Kurt, keeps taking extra long lunch breaks and is expecting me to pick up the slack,” and somehow that turns into a fantasy story, that—to me—is more interesting.

Similarly, if I say, “Hey, I have a magic trick I want to show you,” you might be expecting the Chinese Linking Rings or something. But if I then say, “So, I saw this interesting website…,” you will realize it’s going to be a different sort of experience.

What I’ve noticed when performing magic is that it seems to be more fun for people to have the real world slowly fade away into the Twilight Zone rather than to start in the Twilight Zone.

That’s a long preamble, let’s get to the sites…

First, there’s this article, sent to me by Kevin M., which discusses “gravity anomalies” and how gravity varies by location. If you do some further research, you’ll see it’s actually a hyper-localized phenomenon. In fact, there’s a “hot spot” about a mile and a half from where you are now. About 50 yards off the road by the tree in that field. Couldn’t you make a little field trip to show someone something strange at that gravitational anomaly?

Next we have this site from Stephen P., which is designed to help identify “Superforecasters” (people who are very good at predicting what’s going to happen in the world). Maybe since signing up for this site, you’re just learning you have a talent for predicting things. Or maybe they kicked you off because they thought you were somehow cheating the system because you were so accurate. Or maybe (as I would likely say) you’ve been doing the challenges and just doing okay… but you met this one guy through the site who is incredible. “He sent me an email of this game I should play with the next person who visits me, and he has predicted the outcome. And I’m so glad you’re here tonight because I’ve been waiting to try this out….”

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Matt from the UK sent along this progressive anagram for a trick he’s planning that includes every celebrity who has died in 2020 (last names). It’s more than 120 people. It’s probably more of a curiosity than something you’ll be able to use. It’s done in the transgressive style which prioritizes speed over hits. But even so, it still requires seven or eight guesses to get the name. So it might be hard justifying all those guesses. (Matt suggests doing it over video chat—so you have access to the crib—and using a Ouija board to offer up the letters.) It’s definitely doable, it will take some finessing.

Although it would be great to have someone think of any celebrity who died in 2020, get 7 “NOs” in a row, and then be like, “I’m just fucking with you. You’re thinking of former bass player for the band UFO, Pete Way.”

Of course if you wanted to use this past today, then whenever someone new dies, you’d need to add another letter guess or re-write the entire anagram. (For example, this was made before Eddie Van Halen died, so you’d want to use him as an example to disqualify him.)

I think you’d probably have to give people access to a list of celebrities that died in 2020. Otherwise there’s probably only 3 or 4 they could think of off the top of their head, so figuring it out wouldn’t seem that difficult.

Regardless of the practicality of this, I think it’s pretty cool to see the extent of the anagram, and I’m glad he’s letting me share it here. If you end up doing anything with it, let me know. (He sets up his chart a little differently than the ones I’ve shown in the past, but you’ll figure it out.)

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Kyle O. sent me this video clip from the show Dave. The maid of honor speech at 1:27 into the video really does sound like it could have been pulled from something I wrote…

“I realized something about magic. […] The magic behind magic isn’t the illusion. It’s that someone cared enough to create the illusion for you.”

I realize I’m taking this out of context, but that sentiment is something I’ve touched on in one or two of my books and at least somewhat in this post.

Our magic should be a chance to make someone else feel special (that we put in the effort to create this moment for them). But usually we’re so focused on ourselves and how good the trick makes us look, that we lose that benefit completely.

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Hey all, have a Happy Halloween. Stay spooky. See you in November.

Monday Mailbag #32

I discovered your site back in March. I started reading from the beginning, but being a father of five I couldn’t “binge” the site so I set aside 30 minutes in the morning before everyone woke up to read through it. I went at a leisurely pace and took notes and finally today [Oct 14th] I am caught up. That’s almost 200 days of reading half an hour a day.

[…]

I just want to know what your “best case scenario” for the site was before all this started. It doesn’t seem like you intended on writing it for years. Did you have a plan for how it would go when you began writing? What was the ultimate reward?—BH

First off, that’s insane. I feel weird that anyone has spent that much time reading this site. And then, extrapolating from that, how much time I’ve spent writing it makes me feel doubly weird.

No one is more surprised than me that this site is still here and readership is still growing. I had planned to write the site for a few months while I had scheduled some downtime between work projects. But then it just got momentum and people got behind it and it just made sense to keep it going.

My best case scenario? I’m not sure I started the site with any best case scenario in mind. I don’t think I ever planned to be “rewarded” in any way. Although when the readership for the site started going up I did think some magic companies would come calling and I do remember having two thoughts related to that at the time.

First thought: “One of these magic companies—or maybe a few of them—are going to give me access to all their downloads and/or lectures. “ That seemed like a no-brainer to me. It would cost the company essentially nothing, and by being exposed to these thing, there was a good chance I’d end up mentioning something on the site. It was free advertising. But nothing close to that ever happened. Maybe they thought there was just as likely a chance I would trash their products as praise them. I don’t know. (This was before I realized getting free stuff was a burden, more so than a gift.)

Second thought: “I bet some magic company is going to hire me to write for their site or write their marketing emails.” You know when a trick is released and you get five identical boring emails from five different magic companies? I thought someone would approach me to come up with something different. But that may have been naive of me to think. They would probably be concerned that I was going to say “cunt” or “go choke on a dog’s cock” or something when describing a trick. Like I’m some retarded animal who can’t adjust his writing for the audience.

So, early on, those were the ways I thought I might be “rewarded” for the time I was putting into the site. I’m glad neither of those things happened though, or the site would not be what it is.

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In your blog posts you mentioned that if you want to leave people a strong experience for long time you will make sure there is no "Easy Answer"...So they don’t just create a solution and dismiss the magic experience.

But in this post you mentioned the following....it makes me a little confused because in my understanding these concepts go against each other..

Now, here's the thing. That final effect only fooled me for a matter of moments. I experienced the effect, was blown away by it, but almost immediately knew what must have occurred. (Or, at least, I have a workable theory of what occurred.) And I don't think that's just true of me as a magician. I think any intelligent audience member would say, "Ah, when we were looking here, this must have happened over here." (I'm being coy to preserve the moment for those who haven't seen it yet.)

But that moment was still powerful to me. Even though it didn't "fool" me in the long run, it was still so surprising and visually and conceptually interesting that it's one of my favorite pieces of magic I've ever seen.

—LC

Yeah, I can see how that would seem contradictory, but I’m really talking about two different things.

For the sake of the magic trick and the feeling of mystery, you can’t have any Easy Answers.

For the sake of a memorable experience, then I would value thrilling an audience over fooling them.

If my options are between thrilling them, but not fooling them long-term or fooling them but not thrilling them. I’m going to go with the former.

What do you think spectators would rather experience:

A) looking out the window and seeing what looks like a real live dinosaur (even if they realize it’s only an illusion seconds later)

B) a boring card trick that fools them

It’s going to be option A 100% of the time.

But the two concepts aren’t at odds with each other. Ideally you want both. Methodologically you want something that has no Easy Answers. Presentationally you want something that thrills the audience. Not every trick we do will live up to those standards, but that’s the goal.

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I mentioned [in a previous email] that I figured out Duplicity from Bannon's own performance video. I may or may not ever perform it, but should I? I have figured out other tricks, some I'll never do (e.g., D'Angelo's Touch) and others I'd really like to do (e.g., Shuffle Bored, which I figured out watching Lennart Green perform it).

Here's what I'm leaning toward. I think it would be wrong for me to reveal a trick I've figured out to someone else. I also personally feel it would be wrong to perform it in a paid gig (which is not and most likely never will be an issue for me). Where I'm a little stuck is performing a trick just for fun for a friend or whatever. It feels to me like if I was able to figure it out from a demo or performance, it's probably ok to perform it in that kind of context, provided I don't reveal it.

On the other hand, of course, Bannon for example certainly deserves compensation for developing such awesome stuff. I have his books and videos on my list of stuff to get hold of when I'm able. But in the meantime, what would be your sense of whether it's ok to perform, say, Duplicity, AK-47, Collusion, Prophet Motive III, etc., all of which I've figure out (at least I think I have!) from watching them? —LT

My rule is simple: If I’m going to perform something, I pay for it.

There’s a practical reason for this; the fact that you’re going to end up picking up on nuances of the trick that you wouldn’t otherwise.

There’s an ethical reason for this; that fact that, as you said, people deserve compensation for the time and effort they put into coming up with this stuff.

But my rationale is more of a cosmic one: I want to keep the scales balanced. I don’t want to be a taker.

This is not a rule I’ve implemented for the sake of others. I do it for myself. It keeps me happy.

If there is something I like, something I use, or something I get value from in some way, I don’t ever try and get around paying the price for that thing. (It may not always be a monetary price.) I know it sounds corny, but I’m convinced this practice plays a part in me being pretty damn content and happy. And while I’m just one data point, it’s also true that 100% of the most miserable people I know are all takers.

2020 Horror Movie Month Halfway Report

In October I watch a horror movie every night. Usually I watch ones I’ve never seen before, with the exception of one older franchise that I revisit (this year it’s A Nightmare On Elm Street). Below is my list of movies from the first half of the month, along with a brief note on each. These aren’t “reviews” because my taste in movies is not that nuanced. I like pretty much everything in the horror/thriller genre. Well, “like” might be too strong of a word. But I have no problem sitting through most horror movies. The ones in bold below are the ones that I would watch again in the future. I’ll also include on what streaming service they’re currently available. Otherwise they’re all likely available on Amazon to rent. A good site to find where a movie is streaming is justwatch.com.

A ⭐️ means it was one of my favorites of the month so far.

A 💀 means I thought there was some legitimately scary moments (beyond just a jump scare or something like that)

Oct. 1 - The Invisible Man (2020) - I realize I don’t know the story of the original Invisible Man flick. Does he drink a potion or some shit like that? Well, whatever, this new version was pretty solid. (HBOMax)

Oct. 2 - A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) - This actually holds up surprisingly well. I was sort of surprised by that.

Oct. 3 - Blood Rage (1983) - If you schlocky 80s horror, you’ll enjoy this. That’s not really my scene. Filmed in 1983 and released in 1987, I have a feeling it probably felt dated even upon its release. (AmazonPrime)

⭐️ Oct. 4 - Better Watch Out (2016) - This has been one of my favorites this month. Not “scary” really, but I had no idea where it was going, so that’s why I found it so enjoyable. If you’re going to watch it, don’t read anything about it. Just fire it up and watch. (AmazonPrime)

⭐️ 💀 Oct. 5 - The Hole In the Ground (2019) - Very good movie in the “creepy kid” genre. (Amazon Prime)

⭐️ Oct. 6 - Triangle (2009) - More existentially scary than spooky scary. This is a mind-bending movie. The kind of one you go to youtube after to fully unravel.

Oct. 7 - Afflicted (2013) - A well done found-footage style horror movie with some scary moments.

Oct. 8 - Hubie Halloween (2020) - Adam Sandler’s new Netflix movie. It’s about what you’d expect it to be. (Netflix)

Oct. 9 - A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) - A big drop-off from the first film. It doesn’t even have the same mythology. Freddy—a monster who attacks you in dreams—is now crashing pool parties in the real world. The movie is probably more interesting sociologically. It was a mainstream horror release in the 80s but it has been described as “gloriously gay.”

Oct. 10 - Stake Land (2010) - Like a season of the Walking Dead condensed into a movie (and not about zombies). Not bad. (AmazonPrime)

💀 Oct. 11 - As Above So Below (2014) - This got pretty bad reviews, so I didn’t watch it when it was originally released. Watching it now, I enjoyed it. It’s a found-footage style movie that mostly takes place underground in the Catacombs of Paris. I found that setting very effective for a horror movie. (Netflix)

💀 Oct. 12 - The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) - Good. Scary setting. Lots of creepy visuals. (Netflix)

Oct. 13 - Happy Death Day 2U (2019) - Not as good as the first movie in the series. But this gets points for combining so many genres in one film. It’s as much or more a comedy film and a sci-fi film as it is a horror film. There’s even some family drama elements to it. My eyes legitimately got teary at one point. I think this is the only movie on the list to do that.

Oct. 14 - The Loved Ones (2009) - A well done torture porn type of film. If you had asked me 10 years ago, I probably would have really liked this. But I guess I’m mellowing or something because it was almost too much for me in some spots. (AmazonPrime)

Oct. 15 - Zombieland: Double Tap (2019) - I remember really enjoying the first one. This one didn’t quite do it for me. Some funny moments, but overall just a weaker version of the original.

Oct. 16 - A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) - This gets the series back on track. Some fun visuals and Freddy starts calling people “bitch.”

⭐️ 💀 Oct. 17 - Haunt (2019) - This was just a really well executed horror movie. It doesn’t really try to do anything too crazy. The set-up (young adults go to an “extreme haunted house “ attraction out in the middle of nowhere) is something that could have been done in the 80s. But it’s really effective and I found the “monsters” to be pretty unsettling. If you think of yourself as a horror movie fan, then I think you’ll like this one.