🎃 Matthew Jack-o'-lantern 🎃

Watching HALLOWEEN again for more essay stuff and this time I was really taken with the way Charles Cyphers plays Brackett in the scene in the Myers house. He's the only person who really stops and listens to Loomis all day. It's quite sweet.

Anyway, Charles Cyphers, legend.

Y'all kids do not understand, these things could hold like, two whole documents. Maybe three. If you dream big, four.

And we were so happy.

Fun fact about this guy: He was 95 when they taped this and died just months later. That is a man who will not go to his grave without proving to his entire family that the story he's been telling them for decades actually is still cool.

The best version of this for me is always the guy who went on a TV game show in 1956 to reveal that he *witnessed the Lincoln assassination.*

Super Mario’s design is based on PJ Soles’s character in Carrie

CON AIR and FACE/OFF were released 3 weeks apart in June of 1997.

a man in a suit and tie is sitting at a desk and making an ok sign . ALT: a man in a suit and tie is sitting at a desk and making an ok sign .

Every short fiction market lately (it seems like): No gore, please.

Me: Well, a guy literally pops like a rotting grape in this one, so...

YouTube video by Dino Jelusick Dino Jelusick, Mike Portnoy & Joel Hoekstra "Jane"

File under Songs I've Always Wished I Had the Range To Sing.

Rad cover. Worth it just to see the joy on Mike Portnoy's face when he gets to sit and play a cowbell.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOK6...

I'm the author of this quote and I stand by it! Can't say enough good things about this one, y'all.

I do not get a lot of time in my life to read books in one sitting anymore, but FRANK LIGHTNING forced me. Couldn't put it down.

Not too long ago I would have refused to post something like this, but life is short and I am trying to make dreams come true. I'm proud of this work and I want it to be out there.

Share the stuff you're proud of without reservations.

Whatever Shaq's wingspan is.

a man wearing a shirt that says yes is smiling ALT: a man wearing a shirt that says yes is smiling

This place has everything:

Lights

Trees

Presents

Santa

Queer subtext

Two different winter-themed wizards

And look over there, it's a vulture that wants to stop time and return the whole multiverse to a yawning void of sorrow by kidnapping a big-eared baby.

The Rankin/Bass Christmas Special Universe

Absolute legend

Not too long ago I would have refused to post something like this, but life is short and I am trying to make dreams come true. I'm proud of this work and I want it to be out there.

Share the stuff you're proud of without reservations.

Mary Pickford could have heard every original Ozzy era Black Sabbath album.

One week into Halloween Season, so here's your reminder that I wrote a slasher novel about teenagers trying to pull a quick heist who find a masked killer waiting in the basement of a mansion.

It's fun, it's scary, and it needs a good home.

#amquerying #amwriting #horrorsky

GI Joe recaps will return — after, uh, we move to Minneapolis and I get my life sorted out. But now, in time for HALLOWEEN, we have HANNIBAL recaps by @awalrusdarkly.bsky.social !

Surprise! I'm recapping HANNIBAL for Pop Heist!

Tracing The Shape 7: Night Falls on Haddonfield If you know anything about the production of Halloween, then you probably know that the film was shot not in Illinois in the fall, but in California in the spring. The streets of Haddonfield are quite...

It's a new Tracing The Shape, and all the pieces are moving into place to make Halloween into HALLOWEEN. This time around I'm mostly just focusing on how efficient the storytelling is in this section, with a few notes on Michael's added menace.

One week into Halloween Season, so here's your reminder that I wrote a slasher novel about teenagers trying to pull a quick heist who find a masked killer waiting in the basement of a mansion.

It's fun, it's scary, and it needs a good home.

#amquerying #amwriting #horrorsky

Tracing The Shape - Matthew Jackson and The Scares That Shaped Us

And of course if y'all missed any of the other essay, you can find them here:

matthewjacksonwrites.com/tag/tracing-...

Writing this one, I thought a lot about the conversations I've had with @sgj.bsky.social about slasher logistics, and how important it is to find organic ways to move pieces into place. I cover an eight-minute sequence in this essay, and it's kind of jaw-dropping how much gets done in that span.

Shouting "What the hell does any of this have to do with silent lambs?!" over the robotic drone in my earbuds and scaring everyone on the train. I am very intelligent.

Utterly delighted to speak to Anna whenever, about whatever - but I can think of no one else who i'd rather have done my first interview about my first book.

She's brilliant. She makes me feel old. Listen to her talk to me, and then listen to her talk to everyone else in horror.

BLACKSTREET NO DIGGITY

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The fun thing about recapping HANNIBAL is you look at your notes and sometimes there's this beautiful, poetic piece of dialogue you've written down and sometimes the note just says "JACK CRAWFORD'S CRIME GIMP."

all discourse aside, there is one machine with consciousness. it's printers. they are alive and conscious and they hate you and they'd take your arm clean off if you let them. never trust a printer.

Author interview with @talkscaredpod.bsky.social is LIVE! We chat about Good Boy, fighting the good fight, love stories in horror, and of course, Ted. I love this story so much, and I’m so fortunate to know someone like Neil, a powerful story teller and a wonderful soul. Links to listen:

I love SLEEPWALKERS so much.