horror

Clayface Review

Published on October 31, 2026October 30, 2026 by KyraLeave a comment

Happy Halloween, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. We have a special review in honor of Spooky Season and Halloween. All of our Geekly Writers watched Clayface together this past week, and we’ll share our thoughts on the latest entry in the DCU. We’ve only seen the movie once, so this will be more of a reaction than a full review. I’ll kick off this post by sharing my thoughts.

Kyra’s Thoughts

Clayface works well as an introduction to the character. Seriously, we watched the movie with someone who has never seen anything with Batman, and he left wanting to consume more. Clayface dives into the character’s psyche. As if we needed more evidence (beyond Joker and Penguin), Clayface proves that you don’t need Batman to tell a solid story steeped in Gotham City lore. These characters have pathos to spare. Clayface does an excellent job of showing how layered Matt Hagen is with a healthy side of body horror. For those who know the character, the movie goes how you would expect the movie to go. Clayface borrows plenty from Batman: The Animated Series, the Arkham video game series, and the comics. It’s a great watch. And I agree with Season’s sentiment (after leaving the theater), Clayface may have to go on our Halloween movie rotation.

I appreciate Clayface exploring Matt Hagen’s personality. Even before his “accident,” the movie presents Hagen as someone struggling with his identity. The moment he shares celebrating with his deceased mother. The scene with a late night show host asking him to do impressions and when he asks who the real Matt Hagen is, Hagen doesn’t have a good answer. He loses himself in his roles. He searches for himself. And I like how Clayface foreshadows with Hagen sharing with late show host Vic Chissler (great name) that he’s scared of finding his real self. Great foreshadowing.

This also ties into Clayface’s second half: the revenge plotline. I’m skipping over the body horror elements (which dominated Clayface’s first half) for now, so I can focus on Clayface/Matt Hagen as a character. I’ll return to the body horror. Don’t worry. Once Matt Hagen discovers his true self (Clayface), he goes on a killing spree. I want to share a great quote from the movie.

You wanna know how I feel? The people I trusted betrayed me. The justice system failed me. They stole my career, my money, my life! I’m a monster.

Clayface has great quotes to spare. I can see people reciting these for years. As you can tell from the above quote, the movie does a great job of building up Matt Hagen before he becomes Clayface. It puts in the work, so you care about who Hagen is as a person. While he does these horrible things, you can’t help but sympathize with him–to a point. And Clayface’s rampage borrows scenes straight from Batman: The Animated Series. Two of his kills are ripped right from the cartoon series. Ah! Now, I want watch BTAS again. Or at least “Feat of Clay” and “Mudslide.”

But Clayface explores the title character’s power set a little bit, providing a touch of new uses to his existing abilities. Clayface’s body always had the ability to reattach itself after getting flung elsewhere. Hagen uses this to his advantage, specifically his blood in a particularly gruesome death scene near the end. It makes sense for Hagen to cut himself, bleed into someone’s orifices, and wait for his blood to return to his body, ripping the other person apart from the inside. Ugh! So good though. The character who dies this way had it coming, and that’s a good segue to talk about Clayface’s body horror.

Our Geekly writers squirmed in their seats at the beginning of Clayface. It’s uncomfortable. By now, most of us have seen Clayface trailers that featured Matt Hagen’s eyes swelling shut. He runs to an airplane lavatory and uses a pair of scissors to cut open his eyelids. Despite having this scene spoiled (sort of) in the trailers, watching it in real time is something else. This was a tense scene, and there are a number of uncomfortable (in the best ways) scenes, but Clayface does drop the body horror midway through its runtime to focus on Hagen’s revenge story.

I appreciated Clayface’s practical effects, but the movie did use a handful of CGI sequences that looked painfully CGI. The story also tried to science up Clayface’s abilities. Let’s throw in nanobots, goofy futuristic medical jargon, and AI. What would happen if the AI goes rogue? That’s not as quotable as some of the other lines in Clayface. AI felt tacked on. The film doesn’t really explore the AI within Clayface’s body going rogue. This was a lame attempt to make the film feel “modern.” I could’ve done without the addition of AI. If you’re going to include AI, make it count.

I’ve mentioned the writing. A few hiccups aside, it’s solid. The direction and cinematography (outside of a couple of laughable CGI SNAFUs) are great. And the acting is spot on. Tom Rhys Harries nails it as Matt Hagen/Clayface. Naomi Ackie kills it as Dr. Corr. The supporting cast was phenomenal. They made Gotham City feel lived in. Clayface is a fun watch.

Clayface kind of has two endings. I prefer the second. It’s heartbreaking and shows Hagen/Clayface’s mental state. And we see Clayface in all his glory in the closing moments. Clayface made the right choice delaying its main character’s reveal. Clayface can be cartoony. I liked being grounded with the character and watching his descent.

Those are my thoughts on Clayface. Let’s check in with Skye.

Skye’s Thoughts

I’d like to start by saying that I was genuinely excited to see this movie. While Clayface isn’t my all-time favorite Batman villain, he’s one that I’ve been fascinated by for a long time, hasn’t had an official cinematic debut until now, and is a villain that has a lot of big-screen potential. After seeing Clayface in theaters with the rest of the Geekly Crew a few days ago, I’m very satisfied with the results. Clayface did a great job of delivering on the body horror elements built up in the trailers, and I liked the film the most when it made me squirm in my seat. Not only that, but Clayface managed to deliver a story that was both faithful to the character yet still felt fresh.

If I had to nitpick anything about Clayface, I’d say the romance didn’t quite fit with the tone of the rest of the film. While it’s necessary to humanize your characters from a storytelling standpoint, I don’t believe giving the lead a love-interest was the best way to do that in this case. Even if she was the best character in Clayface aside from Matt Hagen himself (Sidenote: the acting is stellar in this movie).

Overall, I had a very good time with Clayface and would enjoy doing a deeper dive on it after its inevitable release on streaming. Clayface is also a great spooky movie for Halloween, so if you’re looking for something creepy that’s hard to watch at times, Clayface might be the perfect fit for you. Happy Halloween!

Those are our writers’ thoughts on Clayface. What did you think of the movie? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Top 5 Movie Monsters

Published on October 31, 2026May 1, 2026 by KyraLeave a comment

Happy Halloween, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here with what should be a fun Top Five List for the holiday. That’s right. We’re celebrating Halloween with a list of the Top 5 Movie Monsters. There are so many to choose from, but we’ll try to keep this list to just five. I’m sure you’ll let us know if we got this list right in the comments. Let’s get to the Top 5 Movie Monsters.

5: King Kong

The Eighth Wonder of the World claims our fifth spot on this list. King Kong had to make this list, and he did, but just barely. In short, King Kong is iconic. He predates popular gigantic monsters (some of which may also make this list) by at least two decades. There’s a reason Kong also has the nickname, the King of Monsters. He dominated all other large monsters on his home, Skull Island. He tapped into viewers’ primal fear and took the movie-going public by storm. And while Kong terrified movie-goers in his 1933 debut, King Kong’s story is just as much about humanity exploiting the planet. And that gives his story weight.

Honestly, I didn’t think a 1930s United States director (Merian C. Cooper) would address an issue like humanity exploiting the planet in a story. To be fair, the original King Kong focused more on human greed and wanting to turn Kong into a “star,” but that still counts as exploitation. Humans kidnapped Kong and put him on a stage. Future directors, like Peter Jackson, leaned more into exploiting natural resources in more recent films. Regardless, King Kong gains more relevance because his story contains a message.

4: Godzilla

Eediga-Ooom! We didn’t need to wait long for another gigantic monster to make this list. Godzilla challenges King Kong for the title of King of the Monsters. Without question, he is the first kaiju. Like Kong before him, Godzilla explores another primal fear: nuclear weapons. That’s right. Godzilla’s origin centers around the aftermath of nuclear weapons. Following World War II, Japan was kind of obsessed with this topic. But the Godzilla films tackled more than the existential crisis of a nuclear war. At various times, Godzilla films challenged social and political views.

Despite frequent hiatuses, the Godzilla film franchise holds the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous movie franchise. After each hiatus, the tone of the movies could drastically change. Sometimes dark and brooding. Other times, over-the-top and silly. No matter the tone, I don’t mind watching the occasional Godzilla film.

3: Bruce the Shark (Jaws)

Da-dum…Da-dum. Da-dum. Da-dum. Da-dum. Da-dum. Da-da-Dum! Be honest, you were singing the Jaws theme just now. We talked about primal fear in past entries. No other movie monster feeds into that more than the great white shark in Jaws. His nickname was Bruce, so we listed him as Bruce on this list. Also, “Bruce the Shark” in Finding Nemo is a nod to Jaws. Fish are friends, not food. Getting back to Jaws, Bruce is a great example of less is more. As you can see from the picture above, Jaws” animatronic shark looks a little fake, so Steven Spielberg opted to show Bruce as little as possible. The rest is movie history.

The movie Jaws is history’s first blockbuster film. It set the rules–or are they guidelines?–for what a summer blockbuster should look like. Jaws was also the highest-grossing film of all time after its release. Who cares if that only lasted two years, until Star Wars was released? Together with Star Wars, Jaws set the Hollywood standard and ushered in a new generation of auteurs. The movie itself holds up remarkably well decades after its original release. That may have a lot to do with Spielberg’s choice of showing the shark as little as possible. At first, I questioned Bruce the Shark’s entry on this list. Does a shark constitute a movie monster? It does if it’s this shark.

2: Xenomorph (Alien)

Stealth. Strength. Weapons. The xenomorph has it all. That deadly combination keeps most protagonists on their toes. Throw in the face-huggers, and the xenomorph may be the most iconic monsters in movie history. Like many other monsters on this list, the xenomorph is the icon of a trailblazing film series. Science fiction horror didn’t exist before Alien. The original Alien charted new territory. At the heart of that new territory lives the xenomorph.

You can’t separate Alien from Xenomorph or Xenomorph from Alien. They’re synonymous. The xenomorph’s design is genius. What would you expect from H. R. Giger? That sleek, sinister, almost sadistic design will strike fear in anyone. I don’t know what I fear the most from the xenomorph: its acid, its ability to strangle me with any one of its appendages, the face-huggers attaching to my face and then the xenomorph bursting from my gut. Whose sick mind thought of this thing? Right. Giger and Ridley Scott. The xenomorph is that movie monster you love to hate.

1: The Thing

The Thing takes the concept of Jaws‘ Bruce the Shark (show as little of the monster as possible) and adds the idea of a shapeshifting entity. In many ways, The Thing is a combination of Jaws and Alien. Why wouldn’t it claim our top spot? Don’t trust your eyes. They’ll deceive you. And when you catch a glimpse of The Thing, do so with the visceral imagery of a xenomorph. Set in Antarctica, The Thing takes the form of the last person it killed.

I can’t imagine watching The Thing take the form of one of my loved ones. This is what makes The Thing so terrifying. It lulls you into a false sense of security. It plays on your emotions. While The Thing may not have shown up in as many films as the other monsters on this list, there’s no doubt it leaves an impression. That’s why The Thing takes the top spot on our list.

But those are my thoughts. Which monsters would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Sweet Emoji: Horror Video Games 01

Published on October 27, 2026April 4, 2026 by KyraLeave a comment

Color Palette: Horror Movies 01

Published on October 22, 2026April 5, 2026 by KyraLeave a comment

Top 5 Horror-Themed Board Games

Published on October 17, 2026April 30, 2026 by KyraLeave a comment

Happy Spooky Season, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. We’re celebrating the season with our list of the top five horror-themed board games. There are way more horror-themed board games than you might think. Heck, there were way more horror-themed board games than I thought there were. I left a lot of great games and some former favorites off this list. So, you know we’ll have at least one honorable mention. Yay! Let’s see the game that just missed this list, before we get to the ones that made our Top 5 Horror-Themed Board Games List.

Honorable Mention: The Night Cage (2021)

The Night Cage just misses this list because I may not have played it enough. Plain and simple. I have yet to play enough of this title, and I’d love to see it hit the table more. The board doesn’t look like much (without the tiles it’s a simple grid), but pulling tiles from the candle-shaped draw pile is so thematic.

Building out The Night Cage’s labyrinth is a lot of fun, too. And it doesn’t hurt that Smirk and Dagger Games produced an accompanying soundtrack for The Night Cage. Talk about going above and beyond with creating a mood. The Night Cage leans heavily into atmosphere. Each game is a tense prison break. You’ll need to keep your wits to survive.

This list was super tough to make. There are a lot of games that could’ve claimed the sole honorable mention spot: Kingdom Death Monster, Abomination, and Dead of Winter are just a few. We could make another list of the Top 5 Cthulhu-themed games. There are so many great horror-themed board games.

5: Cthulhu: Death May Die (2019)

Yes. I’m a Rob Daviau and Eric M. Lang fan. And yes, several other games can scratch the same itch as Cthulhu: Death May Die. Kingdom Death Monster comes to mind; Kingdom Death Monster is another game one could consider an honorable mention for this list. But I prefer Cthulhu: Death May Die. It would be higher on this list if I had played more than a handful of times.

Unique player powers and an ever-changing narrative that seldom plays out the same way twice. Cthulhu: Death May Die adds a bombastic sense of humor to a sometimes overly serious intellectual property. I appreciate that, too. This game needs to hit my table more often. Maybe then it’ll climb the ranks on a list like this.

4: Betrayal at House on the Hill (2004)

I love Betrayal at House on the Hill. It’s one of the first horror-themed board games I ever picked up after returning to the board game hobby. Again, I had plenty of great horror-themed board games to choose from for this list. Betrayal at House on the Hill (Betrayal for short) plays out like the movie Cabin in the Woods. Players search the titular house, a mansion players build as they play the game. Whenever an Omen card is drawn, the player who drew the card makes a haunt roll. If the roll fails, the haunt begins. Typically, one player works on behalf of the house, and the rest fight against the traitor.

Word of caution: Betrayal can crumble under the weight of the haunt. Some haunts prove difficult to understand, and gamers can misplay numerous aspects of the haunt. I played one where I was the traitor, my former teammates attacked me, but my character wanted to perish. The other players played into my win condition. No two haunts are the same, so just because players understand one, it doesn’t mean they’ll comprehend the next one. And many of the haunts are unbalanced. Some favor the explorers, while others favor the traitor. Still, my family plays Betrayal at House on the Hill at least once every Spooky Season. If you want a story and exploration, it’s an excellent pick.

3: Final Girl (2021)

I knew Final Girl would make this list, but placing the game would be difficult. I went with the classic three-spot for a game that fits this bill. Whenever I craft one of these Top 5 lists and have one odd entry in the list, not knowing where to place the game (or insert element here), that’s the one I place at three. Final Girl may be the best solo-only board game on the market. It’s definitely the most famous solo-only board game out there. I’ve played it a few times, and I’m hooked.

I can hear some of you complain that Final Girl has a lot of game for a solo board game. Just look at the picture above. You’d think this game facilitated four or five players. Nope. It’s a solo board game. Yowza! That’s a lot of table space for a solo-gaming experience. I’m getting off-topic, but I’ll just say that massive solo games are good for the hobby. Not everyone has enough friends to play games, or they struggle to find times that work to play with their game group. Quick rant over. If you’re going to play a solo board game, you can’t go wrong with Final Girl. It captures its theme brilliantly. You are a final girl trying to survive until the end of a horror movie. Final Girl may look complicated, but the elements work so well together that you can’t help but pick up the rules quickly.

Plus, Final Girl is the only solo board game to make BoardGameGeek’s Top 100 Games. I know that BoardGameGeek has its flaws, but Top 100 for a solo board game is impressive.

2: Mansions of Madness: Second Edition (2016)

Mansions of Madness: Second Edition does a great job of incorporating an app with a board game. I know. I know. This is yet another controversial pick. Two in a row. Some board gamers are purists. They don’t want to own a game that has an app you’ll need to download to a smart device. But Mansions of Madness: Second Edition is so worth it. The game does accommodate solo play, but part of the joy is teaming up with players to solve various puzzles and unearthing what the followers of Cthulhu have planned.

The Mansions of Madness app will also change details for each scenario between different plays. I played the exact same scenario twice in a row, figured I knew who the cultists were, and attacked those characters, only to realize that the details had changed, and they pointed the finger at different characters. My bad. We lost that game miserably. But the fact this can happen validates Mansions of Madness: Second Edition’s app. I don’t always have the time to invest in a scenario of Mansions of Madness, but whenever I do, it never fails to add a touch of cinema.

1: Horrified (2019)

Horrified has dominated the horror-themed board game category ever since it released in 2019. I have all the variants of this game, and we play every Horrified variant each Spooky Season. Ironically, I’ve played the original Horrified the least. I’ve enjoyed every play of the original, but we prefer American Monsters, Greek Monsters, and the Dungeons & Dragons variants best. Speaking of the Dungeons & Dragons Horrified game, I’m writing this post early and before the next variant, Horrified: Ravenloft, another Horrified game set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, releases. I can’t wait to add the new one to our yearly rounds of plays.

Each Horrified monster behaves differently. Some will openly attack players. Others, like Big Foot, will actively avoid players. Heck, you’ll have to prove Big Foot even exists. The original Horrified has a good mix of various difficulty-setting monsters. American Monsters and Greek Monsters up the ante. World of Monsters gets a little too tough with some monsters. And the Dungeons & Dragons Horrified adds D&D elements. What’s not to love?

Ultimately, pick a genre of monster you would like to face and throw down with that version of Horrified. Prospero Hall does a great job of capturing the essence of most of these monsters. The fact that players take on two or more of these monsters at a time means that you’ll seldom get the same game twice.

By the time you’re reading this, I’ll probably have played all or most of the titles on this list. Like I said, there are so many fantastic horror-themed board games. What are some of yours? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Sweet Emoji: Horror Board Games 01

Published on October 13, 2026April 4, 2026 by KyraLeave a comment

5: Alma (Fear)

Yes. The spooky girl trope is overplayed in horror. And yes. Alma from Fear looks a lot like Samara from The Ring. I’ll try not to spoil anything, because you should play Fear and its sequel. Trust me when I say Alma rises above the creepy child horror trope. She has a compelling backstory, and even though what she does in the first Fear can send shivers down your spine, Alma outdoes herself in the sequel. Fear 2 is unhinged. The sequel reaches maximum Alma, and it’s all the better for it.

4: Andrew Ryan (Bioshock)

Would you kindly add Andrew Ryan to the top five horror video game villains? Yes, Andrew, we would. Seriously, all I had to say was “would you kindly?” and some of you shivered. That’s the mark of a great horror video game villain and one hell of a line. The buildup makes Andrew Ryan work so well. Again, I’ll try not to spoil anything here, but it’s tough to do in these lists. Gamers grow accustomed to the line “would you kindly” that when the volta (the turn) happens, it’ll make your jaw drop the first time you hear it. It’s so good. Andrew Ryan could’ve easily moved up this list if it weren’t for a heap of blueblood horror video game villains.

Including Andrew Ryan disqualifies Shodan from System Shock, Bioshock’s spiritual prequel. We felt we needed to mention Shodan here, lest she lead the AI revolution and wipe out humanity. If AI decides to be our benevolent overlords, we love you, Shodan. Yas queen.

3: Scissorman (Clock Tower)

I struggled with where to place Scissorman on this list, so we’re going with the rule of three. If in doubt, place the character at the three spot. JK

Scissorman is one of the most bizarre horror video game villains. When the creators of Clock Tower decided which weapon to give their main antagonist, they went with a pair of giant scissors, because death by scissors would be a slow, painful demise. Yep. Clock Tower wanted maximum levels of torture and chose to give their villain a giant pair of scissors. That’s one way to go. I can’t imagine getting decapitated by a comically large pair of scissors. Clock Tower dominated the early days of the PlayStation 1, and Scissorman was one of the biggest reasons.

2: Pyramid Head (Silent Hill 2)

Face it. You read the title of this Top 5 and figured Silent Hill and Resident Evil would dominate this list. If it weren’t for our “one character per franchise rule,” those two games would saturate this list. So, we went with the big guns. Pyramid Head is iconic. He’s the first monster you think of when discussing the Silent Hill franchise. Well, it’s him or those headless nurses. Yikes!

First off, Pyramid Head doesn’t have a pyramid on top of his head. His head is a pyramid. Second, Pyramid Head doesn’t follow the typical role of a stalking villain. Sure, he stalks you, but Pyramid Head suddenly makes an appearance, and what he does to other horrific creatures makes you dread facing him. Pyramid Head pours gasoline on the Andrew Ryan idea of building up the game’s main villain. This guy is one of the most recognizable horror video game villains in history. I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone dressed as Pyramid Head at my local Comic-Con.

1: Albert Wesker (Resident Evil)

Albert Wesker defies conventional horror video game villain logic. He’s not a one-off villain. He lurks in the shadows, plotting the player’s demise. Originally killed off in the first Resident Evil, Wesker injects himself with the T-Virus, turning him into a superhuman who will stop at nothing to take out the heroes. Evil to his core, Albert Wesker refuses to go down without a fight. Players’ familiarity with the character breeds animosity. And the feeling is more than mutual.

Like Pyramid Head and most of the characters on this list, Albert Wesker is the first villain one thinks of when discussing Resident Evil. But Resident Evil isn’t just another horror video game. It began the survival horror video game genre. Albert Wesker is the granddaddy of all survival horror video game villains. Wesker even trumps this post’s featured image villain, Nemesis from Resident Evil 2. Ah! Nemesis was such a menace. Love him.

That’s our list of the Top 5 Horror Video Game Villains. Who would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Color Palette: Horror Video Games 01

Published on October 8, 2026April 5, 2026 by KyraLeave a comment

Skye’s Halloween Favorite Movies

Published on October 31, 2025October 28, 2025 by Kyra4 Comments

Hooray! It’s that day again. Happy Halloween! To honor Spooky Season, I’d like to discuss my favorite movies to watch for Halloween. We all have our go-tos for holiday movies. What are some of your favorite Halloween movies? You may find some of your favorites among my list. With all that said, let me walk you through my favorite Halloween movies.

5) Coraline (2009)

While Coraline doesn’t take place during Spooky Season, the themes and tone are a perfect fit. This’ll be a common thread among many of my picks. I first saw Coraline as a kid with my family soon after it was released, and I didn’t fully understand it. In fact, my main takeaway was “Huh…that was weird.” Despite being a chronically terrified child (so much so, I couldn’t bear to look at horror movie DVD covers), Coraline didn’t scare me. Now that I’m older–and a very weird person–Coraline is one of my ideal Halloween movies. Given my love of stop-motion animation and the freakish imagery its creepy movement creates, Coraline remains a solid Spooky Season film.

**4) Beetlejuice (1988)**

I’m glad I didn’t have Beetlejuice growing up. Considering how impressionable I was as a kid and the adult content it contains, Beetlejuice would’ve rubbed off on me in all the wrong ways. I first watched it 3 years ago when I was feeling desperate to find a new classic Halloween film. As you can see, I found one. Beetlejuice scratched all the right itches, and now, I’m happy to say it’s joined the list of movies I watch during Halloween. Beetlejuice is a beautiful blend of contradictions. It doesn’t always make sense, but I forgive it since that’s part of the joke. While Beetlejuice is funny, it can also be dramatic, heartfelt, and creepy. Some of the effects are outstanding while others are laughably terrible, and I’d expect nothing less from Tim Burton.

**3) The Thing (1982)**

I love monster movies. Just check out my Halloween movie post from last year. I’m also a die-hard practical effects lover. Enter The Thing. The Thing is one of the quintessential monster films for any monster fan. It gives us outstanding scenes of ooey-gooey transformations, while not boring us with slow moments. Like other classic sci-fi monster flicks (like Alien), it’s the slow, quiet moments that add to the scare factor. The Thing is, first and foremost, a survival film. Each of the men at the Antarctic research base is well-qualified and competent, unlike several other horror film protagonists. You want to see them make it out alive. Unfortunately, they’re dealing with something that’s way beyond their understanding.

**2) Trick ‘r Treat (1986)**

Trick ‘r’ Treat is a favorite of mine, given how much it’s covered in Halloween. It has a lot of personality, but I enjoy how it respects Halloween. Despite being an adult film, Trick ‘r’ Treat manages to speak to my inner child with its aesthetic and emphasis on classic Halloween traditions. While watching Trick ‘r’ Treat, I can’t help but look back on the years I walked door-to-door in a costume and getting wasted on candy. Ah, those were the days. Also, the protagonist, Sam, reflects my attitude towards folks who don’t enjoy Halloween. You’d better watch out.

**1) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)**

Could any other movie claim the top spot? The Nightmare Before Christmas has long been my #1 Halloween movie. In fact, it’s the movie I always watch on Halloween itself. While I was lukewarm towards Nightmare Before Christmas as a kid, as I’ve gotten older, I absolutely love it. Nightmare Before Christmas was the movie that got me interested in the art of stop-motion and fascinated me with its fantastic yet relatable story and characters. By now, I’ve seen this movie so many times that I can practically recite it from memory. Sometimes I feel like Jack and am desperate to find a new Halloween movie to add to my Spooky Season tradition (like I mentioned earlier with Beetlejuice). But I’ll never stop watching The Nightmare Before Christmas around Halloween. It was and remains my #1 Spooky Season movie.

Those are my picks for Halloween movies. I hope you had as much fun as I did on this road of spooks, nostalgia, and holiday cheer. What are your favorite movies to watch around Spooky Season? I can’t wait to hear from y’all in the comments, and I hope you have a fabulous Halloween.

Quirky Video Game Review: Organ Trail

Published on October 25, 2025October 25, 2025 by Kyra5 Comments

Organ Trail gives a zombie apocalypse twist to the classic Oregon Trail. Not to be confused with the 2023 film of the same name, Organ Trail was developed by Men Who Wear Many Hats in 2010. 2010! That makes this game a decade and a half old. Yikes! Organ Trail began as a web game before a 2012 Kickstarter campaign expanded its release to Steam and iOS. Organ Trail has gone on to sell over half a million copies.

Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. Today, we’re reviewing the 2013 Organ Trail: Director’s Cut. The developer claims that this version moves past the original’s pure parody of Oregon Trail to become a game in its own right. Trade in your Conestoga wagon for a station wagon. It’s time to see how Organ Trail rates against our criteria.

Game Mechanisms: 8/10

Organ Trail follows its inspiration’s lead (Oregon Trail) with its game mechanisms, but it differs enough to warrant a higher than average score. The Director’s Cut adds Choose Your Own Adventure aspects to the original’s release. Fighting off biker gangs and avoiding zombie deer stampedes are nice touches. But the bulk of the game (at least for me) was with scavenging. Honestly, I spent most of Oregon Trail hunting, so spending a lot of time scavenging (Organ Trail’s version of hunting) makes sense.

Despite being essentially the same mini-game, scavenging (in Organ Trail) feels far different from hunting (in Oregon Trail). First, the zombies are heading toward you. While you may find the occasional wild animal that will attack you (like a bear), animals like deer in (Oregon Trail) run away from you. Organ Trail even references the bear by having a bear be a boss fight, so there is a tip of the cap there. Second, killing zombies doesn’t give you any resources. Instead, you must pick up randomly generated items in the wilderness. While this makes thematic sense, I kind of miss the push and pull of do I use bullets to kill animals for food, trading one resource for another. But ultimately, the zombies are fun.

I do my best to dodge zombies, which is easy to do if you don’t face a horde. Zombies in the scavenging mini-game will follow your movements, so you can trap them behind fences, walls, trees, and other obstacles. The other mini-games, like avoiding a zombie deer stampede, shake up the doldrums, but repairing your station wagon is the most pervasive mini-game outside of scavenging. Repairing your car is a timing mini-game, and I stink at it. Looks like I’ll have to carry plenty of extra scrap. Even so, the trickiest mini-game to master is the one where a bandit randomly picks one of your friends/family members to kidnap. You’ll only get one shot to shoot the bandit in the head. Don’t miss.

There are 20 stops before you reach your destination, Safe Haven (in the Pacific Northwest), and each stop has some combination of an Auto Shop, Combat Training, and supplies for you to purchase, but every stop has a Job Board. Jobs add even more mini-games. These jobs become more important at higher difficulty settings. If you begin on “Easy” mode, you won’t need to do them beyond the halfway point on your trip. Player choice is paramount in Organ Trail.

Note: I’ve played the PlayStation4 and Steam versions. The PlayStation version is better than Steam’s. Unfortunately, players have fewer options if they play on Steam, so I’d lower the rating by a point for the Steam version.

Gameplay Loop: 9/10

Organ Trail’s core gameplay loop of scavenge, repair, shop, rest, and travel is a satisfying one, especially when you throw in the day/night cycle. You may want to rest or repair during the evening, when zombie activity is higher. This is a consideration when leaving a stop. There’s a percentage chance you’ll encounter a zombie horde, but player choice comes into play. You can sneak past the horde, floor the gas and try to speed past them, or bust out your shotguns and shoot while you drive. Even with a set gameplay, Organ Trail offers micro choices that have a profound impact.

Just like Oregon Trail, random events occur while you drive. Some are silly, like “Mike gets bored and starts making an annoying noise.” Others are more serious, like “Your mom has dysentery,” and you may need to stop and rest or risk her dying. And since Organ Trail is set in a zombie apocalypse, someone, like Jamie, could be bitten by a zombie (which is indicated by a green skull). So long as you keep them healthy with med packs, which aren’t cheap, they won’t turn. I hear there’s a weirdo at Safe Haven who pays for someone who’s infected.

Add in some combat upgrades for yourself and some car upgrades, and Organ Trail has plenty of options for you to explore. This improves Organ Trail’s already stellar gameplay loop.

Narrative/Storytelling: 8/10

Organ Trail has a simple but effective narrative. You’re traveling from one side of the United States to the other. The game uses liminal space to tell its story. I could see plenty of gamers missing Organ Trail’s story. To get the most out of Organ Trail (from a narrative perspective), it’s best to talk to strangers at each stop. They fill in the gaps by asking why the government thought nuking its people would “solve” the zombie crisis.

Nuclear strikes are the reason why you must take an indirect route to make it from Washington DC to Safe Haven. Other tidbits of information are sprinkled during these interactions. Organ Trail manages to add in a few more with merchants and the random bandits who abduct your passengers. Organ Trail has an interesting world. How did the disease (if zombism is a disease) cross over from humans to deer and bears?

User Interface: 8/10

While clunky (or outdated) at times, Organ Trail has a simple-to-understand and navigate user interface. If you’ve ever played Oregon Trail, you’ll know how to play Organ Trail. The game keeps players informed with specific details about their party. You can check the map and see how many stops you have remaining, and if you know anything about geography, you can plan when you may need certain upgrades like snow tires. Hint: most likely when you’re traveling through the Rockies.

Notifications will pop up on the main screen if any major issues occur. The tabs work and are self-explanatory. I have few issues with Organ Trail’s user interface.

Graphics: 6/10

I struggled with scoring Organ Trail’s graphics. Yes. The graphics aren’t the best, but they’re not meant to be the best. Organ Trail is a retro game, parodying a video game released in the mid-80s. And yet, Organ Trail finds ways to make its graphics unsettling. This works to steep the game in atmosphere.

Audio: 8/10

Organ Trail has a good mix of sound effects meant to mimic Oregon Trail (like clinks and bloops after a stage is complete) and others that subtly suggest a game with a darker subject matter (like splattering brains and cocking a gun). Organ Trail’s soundtrack, by Ben Crossbones, does a lot of heavy lifting. I often play video games on mute; I didn’t with Organ Trail. Crossbones does a great job of capturing the game’s mood and theme without going too over the top. Organ Trail’s soundtrack is the right level of creepy.

Replay Factor: 7/10

Organ Trail plays quickly, no less than five hours, so it’s easy to replay this title. It offers multiple difficulty settings, and the higher ones offer a good challenge. There’s even a leaderboard (Organ Trail grades your accomplishments during each playthrough). I even like the addition of finding your tombstone from a previous playthrough. All of this is fantastic, but I don’t see gamers playing Organ Trail more than a handful of times. I could see replaying it after several years. I sure have. I can only give this game a slightly above-average replay factor.

Organ Trail is typically sold for $5-10. That’s a steal for the amount of game you get. I recommend giving it a try, especially if you like zombie apocalypses and the original Oregon Trail.