Archive for the ‘paranormal’ category

The Werewolf of “Wednesday…”

September 14, 2025

To my knowledge, there hasn’t been an on-going werewolf character in a regular TV series since Oz on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Josh in Being Human. Fortunately, the Wednesday series on Netflix has introduced a leading werewolf character, a female no less, in the person of Enid, the roommate of Wednesday Addams.

Now Enid is not your typical dark and tormented werewolf character, but instead a rather cheerful and bright-spirited young lady who is just at the start of her werewolf journey, in the process of discovering herself and experiencing her first transformations. She contrasts almost completely with the darkness of Wednesday, having her half of their shared room in bright colors whereas Wednesday’s half is black and gothic. When asked at one point how she feels, Enid responds, “warm and fuzzy!”

Her upbeat nature initially causes Wednesday to keep Enid at some distance, but their relationship grows during the series, and in the second season now completed it’s revealed that Enid is not only a werewolf but an Alpha, capable of changing into her wolf form willfully without a full moon. Should she do so at this point, however, she will be permanently locked into her werewolf form, unable to transform back to human status…

Well, it turns out that when Wednesday is prematurely buried by a series villain and in danger of death by suffocation, Enid’s powerful werewolf form is needed to excavate Wednesday from her grave just in time. Fearless and unshaken, Wednesday declares “I enjoyed that” of her burial experience; you gotta love this dark girl! Enid, however, is locked in her werewolf form and feral, and goes on the lam. She is pursued by (hooray!) Uncle Fester and Wednesday at the end of the second season, with Wednesday riding in the sidecar of Fester’s motorcycle, and Fester ecstatic about the fun they’ll have pursuing such a dangerous creature!

It will be interesting to see the further development of Enid’s werewolf character, who Wednesday promised to pursue and restore. One hopes that Season 3 of Wednesday will not be long in coming…

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Reboot…

June 28, 2025

I’ve got good news, and bad news for y’all. First, the good news…the Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV series is having a reboot! Now the bad news…it will be behind the paywall of Hulu…

Technically more of a sequel than a reboot, the new Buffy series will introduce a new Slayer (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) who is mentored by Sarah Michelle Geller as Buffy. This is probably a good thing as the original series aired largely in the 1990’s, and that cast can no longer really hope to pass as people in their late teens to early 20’s. Reboots and sequels are seldom as satisfying as their originals, and some are outright travesties that should never have been made. Given how influential, compelling, and loved the original series was, however, a reboot or sequel is worthy of consideration. It’s just that there’s a lot at stakehehehe!

Some of the original cast members will be returning, but unfortunately Oz the Werewolf as played by Sean Green won’t be among them…

The reboot will supposedly balance new and legacy story lines, but is unlikely to premier until 2026 as it’s still in the early stages of development, and little information is available…

“Secrets Declassified” With David Duchovny Is Coming!

March 15, 2025

It’s hard to believe that The X-Files aired thirty years ago, and equally hard to fathom that David Duchovny is now 64 years old. Rejoice at least that the guy who brought Fox Mulder of the FBI to life is hosting and producing a new 10-part documentary show on the History Channel called, “Secrets Declassified” that may at least have something of an X-Files vibe to it…

David Duchovny and mysterious secrets seem to go together, and the series promises to “profile the government’s most secretive, strange and mind-blowing activities that have been declassified throughout history.” Topics will, of course, include Area 51...

Secrets Declassified will premiere on The History Channel April 4th, and I’m on board for it!

The truth is out there” – –Fox Mulder

Prepare for “Spooky Season!”

August 22, 2024

“Stranger Things” a Multidimensional Delight!

October 16, 2023

Of Mummified Alien Corpses…

September 15, 2023

“Howl;” Werewolves on a Train!

August 20, 2023

Of AI’s and Androids…

July 3, 2023

With Artificial Intelligence and robotics improving and growing exponentially, we are seeing more speculations about their evolving role in the future in the media and film. The question is, will we get lovable, benign intellectual androids like Star Trek’s Data, or Terminators that are our intellectual and physical superiors, and relentlessly intent on our destruction?

Until fairly recently with the notable exception of the robotic Maria in the 1927 film Metropolis, many androids were depicted as styled after males. That boy’s club was recently invaded by the arrival of M3gan in the movie, and Arisa in the Netflix series, Better than Us.

Now Arisa (above) was styled as an attractive young woman, and her intended marketing in this country was as a sentient companion and sex toy. Surprise, however…her origin was in China, where she was originally designed as a kill-bot! When her perceived adopted family is endangered, Arisa shifts instantly into that mode, neutralizing threats with extreme prejudice, and absorbing gunfire with only cosmetic damage…

M3gan (Model 3 Generative Android) is created by a brilliant robotics engineer as a playmate, teacher, and care provider for her niece when that girl’s parents die in a road accident. Standing about 4’ tall and resembling a 10-year-old girl, M3gan is intended to protect her charge from physical and emotional harm, but exceeds the limits of her programming and soon eliminates a dog, a neighbor, a bully of a peer, and eventually the CEO of the company who intends to merchandise her, performing a memorable and inhumanly lithe dance before she does so. It’s kind of a pre-slaughter celebratory thing, ‘ya see…and who can blame the girl, since the CEO is only getting what he deserves?!

So bring on the killer fem-bots! I confess to being in love with robots and androids since first laying eyes on Robby the Robot in Forbidden Planet….💕 🦊

(…and so successful was M3gan that a sequel is in the works! Catch Better Than Us on Netflix, and M3gan on Amazon Prime Video…)

Wednesday Addams Actress Dies, the Wednesday Character Still Vibrant…

February 2, 2023

I’m sad to note that Lisa Loring, who portrayed the original Wednesday on the old 1960’s The Addams Family, has died of a stroke at the early age of 64. She assumed the role of Wednesday at the age of five, taking the character from the nameless little girl portrayed first by Charles Addams in his memorable cartoons.

Now prior to the classic TV show, Wednesday didn’t even have a name, prompting Charles Addams himself to name the character, drawing from the rhyme that “Wednesday’s child is full of woe.” Now the early Wednesday character wasn’t as much full of woe as she celebrated it, walking around the mansion with her headless doll that was often identically attired as herself…

It was Christina Ricci who really made Wednesday Addams a breakout character in the two Addams Family movies, however. Her Wednesday was a dynamic, insurmountable force rich with the potential for almost infinite darkness. I really loved Ricci’s Wednesday, who was actually darker than her mother, Morticia.

Jenna Ortega is a worthy successor to the character in the Netflix series simply called, Wednesday. Having been thrown out of eight schools in five years, teenaged Wednesday is sent to Nevermore Academy, where she is depicted as being extremely bright, quite articulate, and of course, dark. She is also quite adept in fencing, archery, and the martial arts, plus plays dark pieces on the cello. Nevermore Academy itself is kind of like a darker version of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts, the student body consisting of vampires, werewolves, sirens, and those with extraordinary psychic abilities. Wednesday fits in there perfectly, and rises to the top of the crop. And yes, Thing is also well represented in the series as Wednesday’s defender and collaborator. Even Wednesday needs a hand sometimes…

Here is an image of the central Addams Family characters in the Tim Burton Wednesday Netflix series. I think that Gomez here actually comes closest to that character’s portrayal of him in the Charles Addams cartoons. Previous film versions were fun and memorable, but Gomez was simply too attractive, continental, and suave…

https://youtu.be/Di310WS8zLk

And imagine, just imagine Wednesday as a furry. She does don cat garb at one point for a competition. A black cat, of course… 🐈‍⬛

“I’m Looking at a Werewolf,” from Terror in the Woods

September 9, 2022

Terror in the Woods isn’t a bad show, although it’s largely for entertainment value, with documentation sparse and scientific rigor non-existent. The episodes vary from ho-hum to compelling, and if you select the episodes of your viewing carefully, you may find them worthwhile and even compelling to watch…

Season 3, Episode 3 of the series first aired in September 2021, and it’s hard to resist the luring title of one segment, “I’m looking at a (bleeping) werewolf, and it’s trying to kill me!” Well, it turns out that the werewolf in question is kind of the Louisiana bayou variety, which stands about 7′ to 8′ tall, and has larger-than-human-like features with a wolf-like head. Known as a Rougarou, such shape-shifting creatures appear human if sickly in the daytime, reverting to a werewolf form at night with a thirst for blood. ..

Now there are as many ways to become a Rougarou as there are ways to spell it, with methods involving the classic bite to a witch’s spell. The cultural background of the creature is rich and diverse, originating from tales told by French Canadians in Louisiana to keep their kids in line, and out of the woods at night! – – Gotta keep the little buggers scared to get them compliant, ‘ya know!

While Rougarou have some commonalities with both vampires and traditional werewolves, they differ as well. They’re unbothered by silver bullets or religious artifacts, and to kill one usually requires decapitation and preferably burning or severe mutilation of the body.

In the series episode, a young guy hits on a strangely feral girl at the clothing store where he works, booking a date with her that evening. The hours pass but the girl never appears at the appointed site, so the guy plays basketball with other guys at the site for four hours before leaving with them at midnight when the court automatic lights go off. Hearing an unnatural noise behind them, the guys perceive something threatening and inhuman, and attempt to run away. One slips and falls, and the creature is upon him. Seeking to save their comrade, one of the others pulls a .38 from his pack and fires at the beast, because this is ‘Merica, after all! The presumed Rougarou is driven off but not killed, and the narrator of the tale suffers from nightmares thereafter…

So if you’re Louisiana-bound, enjoy some cool jazz and hot Cajun cookin’…but beware of the Rougarou, especially if you unknowingly arrange a date with one!