Train to Busan, the new Naked Gun, spooky gaming, and more!
Nov 08, 2025
Last week, I highlighted several established Spooky Movie Season staples. This week, I’m highlighting more first-time spooky movie—and TV?!—watches from October, as well as a recent non-spooky comedy.
I don’t know how much appeal my video game articles really have, so for this roundup, I’m abridging my latest full game review to include it here.
I’m now structuring the book section in these roundups differently than the previous sections because books are harder for me to pay attention to.
Finally, I’m linking to a couple of creative projects I published last month.
WATCHED
TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016)
I tend to dislike zombie media, for both its gore and its nihilism (i.e. where it all started with Night of the Living Dead, later The Last of Us…). As such, I gave this a chance because I was told it ends hopefully. While the journey would be too freaky and bloody to get away with a PG-13, it’s never mutilative. Heck, my biggest gripe is that it kills too many innocent characters it gets us invested in! But the most heroic of those deaths, the themes of fatherhood and selflessness, and the light at the end of the tunnel make it the most powerful zombie story I’ve ever known. The physical acting behind the zombies also blows me away!
MORBIUS (2022)
I’m not highlighting one of the most infamous comic book movies ever made because I think contrarily about it. As everyone says, the very premiseis very silly, and its unintended humor includes a guy getting his throat slit and acting like blood’s spraying everywhere when we don’t see any. Good ol’ PG-13! But, I was surprised by how genuinely compelling I found some of its ideas, such as the dichotomy between Morbius and Milo, where they both have vampiric inclinations, but one tries to overcome them while the other gives into them.
THE NAKED GUN (2025)
My grandmother once thought Liam Neeson passed away because of Leslie Nielson’s passing, so the idea of Neeson replacing Nielson here personally resonates with me. Like the original, this reboot has its rather raunchy moments, but it’s still a blast to see such old-school absurdity revived today! It also has the first time I’ve seen a Mission: Impossible movie other than the first one get spoofed, and an escapade into a romantic getaway takes an astounding left turn that managed to make me laugh even harder on second viewing!
OTHER
The biggest highlight of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) is that it got me to finally watch the original Twilight Zone’s “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” (1963), arguably the most enduring TV episode of all time. And I can see why! Spooky, suspenseful, and goofy all at once. Funny how the movie’s retelling of it manages to be way more dramatic than the version with William Shatner, and how the original gremlin’s design would seem like it’s capitalizing on 60s Bigfoot Fever if it hadn’t beaten the Patterson-Gimlin film by a few years!
PLAYED
SOLAR ASH (2022)
Next to boss fights that require precisely timed attacks and a sect of New Age-y humanoid fungi we meet in these shattered worlds, what conflicted me most about this 3D platformer how the side quests take so many tragic turns, and how so many characters struggle with despair. Would nihilism have the final say? Thankfully, that final say, while still challenging, is more hopeful than I feared: that we can never reverse disaster, but we can always rebuild from it. And that makes Solar Ash as poignant as it is intriguing and inventive.
OUT OF SIGHT (2025)
This is the darkest E-rated game I’ve played since 2000’s Legend ofZelda:Majora’s Mask! Granted, the creepy witch’s house we’re trying to escape did put me in the Halloween spirit, but it may prove too upsetting for the younger players that the simple puzzles seem geared toward; the unanswered questions and sequel bait also end the story on a less-than-satisfying note. And yet, the way that we as precious blind Sophie see through our teddy bear’s eyes—switching from first-person as we carry him to third-person as we set him down—makes for one of the most memorable game mechanics I’ve ever seen.
OTHER
I started Half-Life 2 (2004) for the first time in a while and remembered how it’s designed too well for me, because I end up thinking obsessively about it, and shooting even evil people isn’t something I want on my mind all the time, nor are those horrifying zombie sounds. It’s technically the greatest shooter ever made, but playing it isn’t healthy for my OCD personally. Its 20th anniversary doc also gives a compelling look into its development (strong language warning).
As its Steam page says, the demo for Motorslice (TBA) combines THREE of my all-time favorites: Prince of Persia, Mirror’s Edge, and Shadow of the Colossus! AND we can travel along certain walls using a CHAINSAW SWORD! The only downside so far—aside from a jarringly gory death every time we die—is how the protagonist is laughably blatant waifu bait (or, an anime girl who’s designed to be your crush). Otherwise, I feel like I’M its specific target audience!
READ
CHRIST THE KING, LORD OF HISTORY (1994)~ Anne W. Carroll The story of Western Civilization and how the Catholic Church shaped it.
THE FALL OF ARTHUR (2013)~ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (Editor) Tolkien’s thrilling unfinished poem about King Arthur’s last stand, followed by his son’s essays about its conclusion, inspirations, and evolution.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ZELDA (2019)~ Dr. Anthony Bean (Editor) Compiles eye-opening essays from various psychologists about the Zelda games’ universal truths that resonate with so many players.
A WOLF CALLED WANDER (2019)~ Rosanne Parry A compelling journey told through a wolf’s eyes inspired by OR-7, later renamed Journey—a specimen who scientists tracked.
