Total Skull: The Best of October 2025

I used to post monthly "best of" posts recapping the coolest stuff that came my way every month. People seemed to like them, but I burned out on writing the posts. But--I'm giving it another go. What better month to kick things off again than October, the greatest month of all? 

The Savage Hunt of King Stakh

Among the rogue's gallery of horror movies I watched in October, The Savage Hunt of King Stakh really stood out as something special. Savage Hunt is a Belarussian film from 1980 that has recently been restored for the Deaf Crocodile imprint. The film is about a man who stumbles into the castle of a beautiful young woman who seems doomed to die from a horrible curse that haunts her family line; due to the misdeeds of the past, she believes she is fated to be killed by a spectral huntsman. Of course, there's more to the story that just the threat of looming catastrophe. Savage Hunt mixes folk horror, elements from from Euro Gothics, and a certain Radcliffean sensibility that feels rare in horror cinema. Beautifully filmed, this one haunted me for days after watching.

House of 1000 Corpses

I spent some time in October studying the Bible aka the recent House of 1000 Corpses production book. If you know me at all, you know that this movie means a whole hell of a lot to me. The book contains Rob Zombie's shooting script, behind the scenes and candid photographs, pre-production design illustrations, and stellar art by David Hartman. The House of 1000 Corpses book is probably only for the diehard fanatics, but fellow obsessives will thrill to see how lines from the film evolved, as well as all the material that was cut from the script. I love Rob Zombie's character drawings here; they absolutely capture the development of the film's grindhouse aesthetic. Also, the notes from the cast to Rob Zombie make it pretty clear that this project was a blast to work on. Now I gotta go watch the movie again for the thousandth time. 

Jo Kaplan, When the Night Bells Ring and It Will Just Be Us

I've been meaning to read a novel by Jo Kaplan for a while, so I decided there wouldn't be a better time than October. I read When the Night Bells Ring first and loved it so much that I immediately bought a copy of It Will Just Be Us to chase it with. (My copy of When the Night Bells Ring, purchased on eBay, came signed even though that wasn't mentioned in the listing--neat.) 

When the Night Bells Ring is a novel with dual timeless. In the "present," we follow a duo of women scavenging for resources in a world ravaged by a climate apocalypse. Their roving takes them into an abandoned mine, where one of them is injured and their means of egress is taken away. As they explore, they find the journal of a woman who moved to the town that used to work the mine back in the nineteenth century. Her story is one of a wary community of miners who fear the predatory attacks that came from within the mine itself. The storylines converge in a really interesting way, but I won't spoil that big reveal. Instead--just pick this up.

In some ways, It Will Just Be Us is a much more straightforward read: the hermetically sealed life of a reclusive woman living in a haunted house with her aging, increasingly erratic mother is shaken up by the arrival of her pregnant sister. When her sister comes to stay after a fight with her husband, a new specter comes to the fore--and it might be the "ghost" of the main character's unborn nephew, prophesizing the atrocities that he will commit later in life. But what can be done to stop the coming of a monster? Between It Will Just Be Us and When the Night Bells Ring, Jo Kaplan has become an author to watch.

Frayle, Heretics & Lullabies

Doom metal--with a pop sensibility? This shouldn't work, but it absolutely does. I've been a fan of Frayle for a while now, but it feels like they've been building up to their definitive release; their previous records are really good stuff, though you get the sense while listening to them that they were still assembling their unique voice. Heretics & Lullabies is the culmination of that effort--it's their first truly great album. The riffs are slow-moving and crushing, as the genre demands, but Gwyn Strang's whispery soft voice adds a texture you don't really get in doom metal. More importantly, the band isn't afraid of writing music with actual hooks in it. 

Cartoon Roots: Halloween Haunts

I picked up this disc of olde timey Halloween-themed cartoons dating from 1907-1936 on a whim. I went into this expecting nothing more than a collection of historical curiosities, but I came away pretty impressed by the inventiveness of these animated shorts; in particular, the way that older cartoons approach animation--the frenetic chaos of it, the melodramatic repetition of gesture--stands up pretty well for itself against more modern techniques and conventions. There is also a real willingness to get weird with it, possibly because there was no set template yet for what a cartoon should look like. Some of these are manic fever dreams, and they're all the more entertaining because of it.

Harris Lahti, Foreclosure Gothic

I was expecting a novel about the Gothic menace of the housing market--something dealing with the horror of losing a house to foreclosure or the ghosts of a failed home inherited by a new buyer--but what I got instead was a powerful, literary slice of life that is rich with the small triumphs and inevitable defeats that come with the human condition. And I am not mad about it. There are definitely creepy, supernatural things going on in this book, but it is in no way a "horror novel." Hopefully that warning will spare some of you from disappointment, but I do think this is a book worth checking out. The way it follows a man from his idealistic dreams of making it in Hollywood, falling in love with a enigmatic woman, changing the course of his life to become a house-flipper so he can have a family with her, etc. is done masterfully; both the broad brushstrokes and minute details used to portray a man's life are wondrous, and the use of voice in Foreclosure Gothic is a revelation. 

Frankenstein

We drove a hour each way to go to a one-screen theater in Manlius, NY to catch Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein before it hits Netflix. There I am, in front of the theater. As expected, del Toro beautifully captures the visual language of the Gothic; every scenic tableau is a field of morbid possibility and dread. Fair warning, though: anyone expecting a movie "accurate" to Mary Shelley's vision is bound to be disappointed. There are many changes in this version of the tale, particularly in the moral nature and tone of the ending. Personally, I'm fine with the changes--they're interesting, and they serve del Toro's purpose. 

The one thing I was less enthused about was that the subtext is often made text by bits of ham-fisted dialog. When a character says "Victor--you are the monster" with his dying breath--it feels like the film isn't taking its audience seriously.

Jacob Elordi is especially fantastic as the monster. His performance is nuanced, capturing everything from a childlike misapprehension of the world around him to a seething cauldron of hatred and rage. I don't put much stock in film awards, but Elordi's work in Frankenstein should be recognized!

Caitlin Starling, The Graceview Patient

Of all the types of "body horror," medical horror seems to hit the hardest, for me. Caitlin Starling's The Graceview Patient is about a woman at the end of her rope dealing with an autoimmune disorder. When she's offered the chance to take part in the clinical trial for a revolutionary, experimental treatment--well, she doesn't necessarily jump at the chance, but like many people facing a medical crisis it's the only hope she has left. Obviously, nothing is quite what it seems in the hospital, though the main character's perceptions are always in doubt due to her illness and the extreme nature of the treatment she's undergoing. 

WNUF Halloween Special and Out There Halloween Mega Tape

I spied this blu ray set of the WNUF Halloween Special and the Out There Halloween Mega Tape and just had to pick it up because of the retro-style art on the slipcase. I didn't even really know what I was getting; the copy on the back really played up the idea that this was a compilation of a local TV broadcast from yesteryear. Well, that's the conceit, at least. The WNUF Halloween Special looks like an 80s broadcast of a haunted house investigation, complete with pitch-perfect local TV commercials, but things go horribly wrong. The Out There Halloween Mega Tape is supposed to be a 90s broadcast on the same channel, but this time it focuses on the possibility of an alien visitation. These movies are hilarious, and they absolutely capture the retro Halloween feeling, but they're also totally credible as movies in their own rights. Pick this double-disc set up while you still can!

The Autumnal Pilgrimage

No October is complete without a trip to the Corn Maize out at Stoughton Farm in Newark Valley, NY. This year I think we did a personal best: we finished both mazes in 36 minutes. I also love to hit up their refreshments. Got a bottle of my favorite root beer and tried Wild Bill soda, which was great. We topped the day off with a visit to Brickhouse Pizza Co. in Owego for one of their awesome pizzas. They have the little pepperoni that curls up into glorious cups of delicious grease. Best pizza in Owego.

Camp Crystal Meth

My pal Mattie ran her first game last Friday, and it was a hoot and a half. Super fun time, she had a great sense for pacing right out of the gate, and she really hit all the raunchy notes that make a PLANET MOTHERFUCKER game feel like a night out at the local Waffle House. Also, it was my first time actually getting to be a player in a PMF game (I've only ever been in the driver's seat), so that was extra cool.

Here's what went down.

There were four of us, a scumbag with a mohawk, a preacher who didn't seem to know much about religion, a werewolf with movie-star looks, and an erection-poppin' goon, and we were on our way to Gnawlins when we realized we took a wrong turn and were almost out of gas. Luckily, we made it to a farmhouse where we bartered with an old coot named Willard--he'd give us a can of gas and map if we agreed to head over to Camp Crystal Meth and clear out whoever was killing off the nubile, sexed-up, and drugged-out teenagers that liked to congregate there.

As red-blooded Americans, it was our duty to make sure those kids had a safe place to do meth and screw.

Over at the camp, we encountered a number of horrors: a blood-soaked crime scene, a girl with a genuine WAP, and a dude fighting for his life as he took a monstrous shit. We also agreed to retrieve a girl's vibrator from where she lost it in the camp's barn--she rewarded us with a sweet bow and bunch of arrows. We also traded a box of Twinkies to another chick for the promise of medical treatment in case we got our shit wrecked at some point at the camp.

Crossing the lake in a kayak and a rowboat, we got ambushed by a fucked-up gillman, but we ruined his fucking day. When we found a stereo to play a cassette we discovered early in the adventure, we learned that the killer--who was attacking the kids with a variety of gardening implements--was probably the grown-up child of a lady with a less-than-savory approach to childrearing. Back on the lake, we went behind the waterfall and found a grotto where the killer was making his lair. He was a tough fucker, but we filled him full of holes too.

Camp Crystal Meth was now clear for teenagers to get knocked up and addicted to drugs in once more. All in a day's work, really. We got our map and our gas, and were off to Gnawlins. After all, them beads ain't gonna throw themselves.

Hotel Transylvania

Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 88: Hotel Transylvania

Hotel Transylvania (1978) is the first of 25 novels and two short story collections in Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s epic vampire series centering around the adventures of the Comte de Saint-Germain. Steeped in the court intrigues of 1740s Paris, Kate and Jack will encounter headstrong virgins, wicked yet incompetent Satanists, and a rather surprising amount of swashbuckling action.

Why didn’t Saint-Germain achieve the same heights of popularity as Anne Rice’s Lestat? How do you handle a bunch of couch-surfing alchemists? What the hell is romantasy, anyway? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of the podcast.

That Asshole Dracula is Back (Again)

I got the chance to run Vampyrvania for the first time as part of my Halloween season game offerings. This post will be part recap of what happened, part review of the game. For our session, I cobbed together an adventure from the stuff at the back of the core rules, The Clock Tower supplement, and a few of my own additions. (My copy of The Clock Tower was printed kinda crooked and it was surprising how much a little skew made it harder to navigate in play.)

Vampyrvania is very much a "Castlevania simulator," and I didn't bother to hide that fact. The premise was that Dracula was back, and an assortment of brave heroes descended upon the clocktower he had taken over. Our characters for the session included Alucard (son of Dracula), Fiona Belmont (the latest Belmont heir), Wulf Nedazni (a pirate whose ship was wrecked by Dracula), and Tulfa and Orsil (twin magicians who were palette swaps of each other; one had fire powers, the other had ice powers).

The game began with the characters marching through the gates of an undead-infested Targovishte. After fighting some introductory skeletons, they were faced with a branching path as a horde of zombies closed in: head to the inn or proceed to through the center of the town. They chose to head to the inn; inside, they fought more skeletons that were trying to hack down the door to the kitchen. 

Once vanquished, they were given a few power-ups by the townsfolk hiding in the kitchen, then they climbed the stairs and ended up to the inn's roof. They now had to master a platforming section as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop. Failed rolls meant crashing down into a room below with another fight against skeletons.

When they reached a ladder, they climbed down and discovered that they were by the town's well. Of course, bones erupted from the well and then a dragon skull snake thing emerged to fight them. When that fight was over, they scarfed some wall meat and touched the pulsating orb that fell from the sky--initiating a level up sequence. (Having all the character sheets on an editable google doc meant the players could do their level ups as a group in real time. Neat.)

They made their way up Targovishte's cemetery hill and found themselves before the clocktower. Of course, some enemies dropped down before they could enter, but that didn't slow them down much. The doors opened ominously, and the characters marched inside. 

On the first floor, they learned they could destroy the spawning point so they weren't overrun by vampire bats. They also fought a suit of armor and jumped over a spiked pit--well, most of them made it over the bit, at least. They also found a hidden room where a hooded stranger traded coins they had gathered for subweapons and the hearts needed to use them.

The second floor was full of tricky jumps involving large, spinning gears and eyeballs rolling down the stairs. It looked like it might be GAME OVER when a bunch of the characters got knocked down to a lower level with a giant eyeball rolling back and forth.

The third floor had them climbing ropes, getting more wall meat, and fighting blood-gooped skeletons and gargoyles. At the top of the clocktower, a ghost indicated that they needed to go through a door to the outside of the clocktower for a boss fight.

Of course, Dracula awaited them! The outside of the clocktower's apex had several platforms, so they had to master the art of jumping and attacking at the same time. At one point, Dracula did the Dracula thing and burst into a horde of bats, hitting everyone on the screen in a really cheap attack. However, that didn't stop Tulfa from draining his health bar with a well-paced pillar of fire. 

Dracula was vanquished once more! Will it last? No, there will be another game coming out just before Christmas, most likely.

So, how well did Vampyrvania capture the 8-bit Castlevania experience? Pretty perfectly, I think. Collecting hearts to power subweapons and eating meat found in cracked walls hit the right notes, as did the character types on offer. The system was a tad fiddly in some areas, but overall it was pretty light and the action kept flowing. This is a great "beer-and-pretzels" rpg and it is especially well-suited for one-shots. I don't really see much potential for a long campaign here (I think the shtick would wear out sooner rather than lately) but we had a blast leaning into the "game-y" nature of it for a night. That said, I would love to see a future supplement that adds rules for a Symphony of the Night-style Metroidvania experience...

The Jaeganrad, the Linden Gallows Gang, and the Syndikor Ministry

Below are three groups that are new additions to Krevborna. We have a version of the mythical "Wild Hunt" that is actually anti-human insurgents, a Wild West-esque gang of banditos, and a group of Church-sanctioned exorcists.

The Jaeganrad

The Jaeganrad is a group of pomenysh insurgents regarded as savage, inhuman terrorists.

    • The Jaeganrad fights a guerrilla war against mankind in Krevborna, hoping to one day reclaim their land.

    • The Jaeganrad ventures forth from Aeldentree to raid human settlements and wage a war of terror against humanity.

    • Powerful fey from the Verdant Lodge support the Jaeganrad.

The Linden Gallows Gang

Squires who do are judged unworthy to join the Knights Labyrinthian are cast out into the wilderness in shame. Most die. A handful of the survivors have found each other and banded together as a posse of bandits calling themselves the Linden Gallows Gang.

    • The Linden Gallows Gang share the Knights Labyrinthian’s mania to collect artifacts from Grail Tombs, but they are more apt to ambush successful delvers than they are to explore vlaak dungeons themselves.

    • Like the Knights Labyrinthian, the Linden Gallows Gang are skilled gunfighters, though they lack the Knights’ mystical techniques.

    • The biggest coup a gang member can achieve is to kill a Knight Labyrinthian in a duel.

    • The Linden Gallows Gang are led by a dhampir pistolero named Wagner Highcross.

The Syndikor Ministry

The Syndikor Ministry is a special branch of the Church of the Holy Blood tasked with performing the sacred rite of exorcism. 

    • Clergy selected to join the Syndikor Ministry are invariably marked from birth by obvious spiritual gifts.

    • Though some Syndikor exorcists are permanently stationed in the Church’s larger bastions, others wander the land to confront malicious demons and spirits.

    • As an occupational hazard, members of the Syndikor Ministry are prone to becoming hosts for unclean spirits; “fallen” Syndikor are mercilessly hunted by their compatriots.

Logan Tithe

The Vespermark’s most powerful villain is Logan Tithe, a vengeful undead gunslinger. The inspiration behind Logan Tithe is extremely simple: do you remember the undead gunslinger that Brom did for the cover of the old Deadlands? That shit rules.

Logan Tithe

Once a celebrated gunslinger of the Knights Labyrinthian, Logan Tithe was slain in a pitched battle with highwaymen. Unable to go to a quiet grave, Logan rose from the dead as a revenant with murder on his mind. After all of the brigands who participated in the ambush that took his life had been killed, he still found that death would not take him. For reasons he does not understand, Logan is cursed to ride the Vespermark, sending others to an eternal rest that has been denied him. He runs down travelers and caravans on a rotting stallion, but he does not ride alone—he is almost always accompanied by a posse of dead-eyed wights.

    • Appearance: Logan Tithe appears to be a worm-riddled corpse clad in a moth-eaten duster and a black wide-brimmed hat; he bears two hellfire-spewing six shooters at his hips. 

    • Personality: Though the embrace of death refuses him, he relishes sending others to their doom. 

    • Motive: He cannot still the Hell that's in his hands.

    • Flaw: Logan fears being hunted down by his compatriots in the Knights Labyrinthian.

The Saturnine Chalice

As is the custom, I ran a Call of Cthulhu one-shot because the calendar has ticked over into Spooky Month. The premise for this one-shot was that the four characters were a gang of bank robbers (Tiny, Wildman, Goon, and Mouse) who had just pulled off a heist in Ithaca, NY and were now en route to Buffalo via some backwoods roads. In case you want to avoid spoilers, the scenario I ran was "The Saturnine Chalice." I didn't quite manage a Total Party Kill, but three out of four characters ain't bad.

Events

Tiny was at the wheel of the getaway car; Wildman was in the passenger seat acting as navigator--he found an isolated road for them to stick to. Unfortunately, something went wrong with the car; despite the gas gauge reading "Full," it sputtered to a stop at the side of the road, apparently out of fuel. Fortunately, they spotted a driveway winding up a wooded hill. Surely, the residents might have some gas to spare or at least had a phone to call into town? 

After they rang the bell, an old man answered the door. Dressed in the uniform of a butler, he invited them inside and asked them to steady the step ladder he was using to change the lightbulbs in the chandelier overhead. Goon helped him, but failed to notice that the wires were actually too frayed for the chandelier to be operational.

The characters were joined in the hallway by an older man (Augustus, the master of the house), Veronica (his daughter), and Rosemary (the maid). Veronica was wearing mourning dress, but everyone else was dressed normally. Rosemary had a disconcertingly wide smile.

The group requested aid, so Augustus had the butler (Jeremiah) take the characters out to the garage to fetch some gas. Unfortunately, the gas cans were empty and Jeremiah said that the family's Rolls-Royce was nonfunctional. Back in the house, they used the family's phone to request that the general store in the next town over deliver a few cans of gas so they could get their car started.

At this point, August and Veronica invited them to have tea in the dining room while they waited. The long dining room table was already set for an astounding twenty-two people. They explained that they were expecting guests for a dinner party later that night. However, the characters noticed that the candles in the candelabras on the table weren't actually burning down. 

They also spotted a small lead sculpture of an ox with a strange symbol inscribed on its base: a square subdivided into nine numbered squares with a line moving from one square to another. Augustus told them that the symbol was a kamea and pointed out that the sum of the numbers in the squares all added up to fifteen in every direction. He said he couldn't remember where he picked up the item. When Goon asked about Veronica's mourning clothes, neither of them could remember who she was grieving. Clearly, something strange was going on in the house.

The characters were left on their own in the dining room, which gave them a chance to explore further. They found a lounge with bright white walls. The room had several paintings of the family, including Augustus's wife (whom they hadn't encountered in the house), as well as a metal bust of Augustus. The bust was positioned to look out the window. When Wildman examined it, he saw that it was inscribed with a different kamea. Beneath it was a scrap of paper that offered a clue on how to decipher the kamea's hidden message. 

Veronica came in to play the piano while they worked on the code. They also noted that the library was full of occult and theological works, particularly focused on the role of angels in the Abrahamic religious traditions. Engaging the group in light conversation, she said that she loved to travel. When pressed further, she said that she had just been in Scotland before returning home--but couldn't remember why she had left to come back to her father's house.

The group moved upstairs to explore further. Strangely, none of the residents of the house tried to stop them from poking around. The upstairs bedroom featured a desk with more books. From the materials on the desktop, it was obvious that someone in the house had an interest in the Book of Abramelin, an occult tome focused on summoning a guardian angel. 

Mouse tried to open the door leading to the balcony, but it was nailed shut and the gaps around it were sealed with red wax. She noticed that although it should have been just past noon, it was now dark outside. She also saw a line of identical cars approaching the house.

Wildman tried to leave the house, but found the space beyond the front door barred by a stout brick wall. He yelled for Jeremiah, but the butler insisted that he couldn't see any wall.

Back upstairs, Mouse found an oratory room with whitewashed walls. There was a stone altar in the room; hanging over the altar was a odd-looking lamp. When Mouse climbed up onto the altar to get a better look at the lamp, she saw the corpse of a woman in mourning dress hidden behind it. The dead woman had a three-foot wooden wand driven through her chest. Undeterred, Mouse clambered onto the altar and saw that the lamp's glass sides were crystalline and unusually clear. There was a wick inside, but the lamp was out of oil.

Meanwhile, back downstairs, the guests for the dinner party arrived. There were all identical middle-aged men, and all of them went by the name Lester Goodman. The Lester Goodmans had no trouble simply walking through the brick wall in front of the door. There were sixteen of them in total. (Sixteen of them, plus the four characters, plus Augustus and Veronica added up to the twenty-two settings on the dining room table.)

Frantic to figure out what was going on, the characters descended into the basement, where they found the corpses of a man in a butler's uniform and a woman in a maid's uniform clutching each other in death. They noticed a shadow move across the wall; it was unusually tall and seemed to have feathered wings on its back. 

They returned to the room with the altar, bringing with them a bottle of lamp oil from the pantry. When the lamp was lit, they found themselves in the presence of a winged angel who said "Be not afraid." The characters involuntarily dropped to their knees before the angel. The angel told them that all they needed to do to escape the house was to destroy or deface one of the kamea statues in the house; he explained that the family had botched a magical ritual and had inadvertently turned the house into a prison.

Tiny rushed downstairs and toppled the Augustus's bust onto the floor, breaking it. 

Back in the altar room, the others watched in horror as the angel began to glow brighter and brighter, until the being's innermost light burned out their minds, leaving them catatonic. The angel, which was never an angel, was now free. It then departed to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting world.

Tiny found that he was also now free--the house was empty and there were no bricks between him and freedom. Returning to the garage, he found that the gas cans were actually full and that the Rolls-Royce was perfectly operational. Leaving his co-conspirators to their grim fates, Tiny departed with all the loot from the bank job and put the horrors of the Saturnine Chalice behind him.