SPOOKTOBER BLOG
By Mario M. Casado
"Welcome to my house, come freely, go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring." — Dracula As October (aka Spooktober) is upon us again, I had an idea to make this month’s traditions artistically fruitful for a cinephile like myself. Every year, my fiancé and I put endless hours into curating a list of films to be watched during the month of Halloween (yes, it’s a month-long holiday for the both us). This made me ponder, how could I maximize the content I watch and get something out of it to present as justification for hours spent in front of a television screen? The answer was simple to me, watch tv, eat glutinous quantities of Thai food, and become a yelp reviewer. Only kidding, I have a life to tend to. The main goal of this endeavor, apart from justifying the aforementioned reason, is to become a better reviewer/writer and to tie in a complimentary artistic element to this practice. If you’re reading this its likely or unlikely that you know that I also have a YouTube channel (@Casabooks) where I read and talk about Science fiction novels. Since I’m still somewhat new to this, I often struggle expressing my opinions and offering valuable personal insights. In the hopes of enhancing my proficiency of said task, I turned to journaling and note taking, a daily practice I’ve been doing for the past eight years. And as of recently it has been helping me improve on the development of my literary criticism. It’s been such an elemental part of my life experience, that I sometimes feel naked without my planner (pictured below). Before going into detail of my October plans, I’ll go on a short tangent about how I got started with journaling, so heads up, if you just want the plan, skip to the next part.
NOT A SPONSOR
STOICS & JOURNALING
In university after going down the rabbit hole of stoic philosophy, as a lot of guys in my demographic tend to fall into. I came out the other side not with a stoic mindset but with a newfound appreciation for journaling. In Stoicism, journaling is a fundamental practice meant to serve as a mirror into one’s own personal life. And nothing gets more personal than Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, a semi autobiographical account of the greatest Roman Emperor to have lived and we know just how “great” he was because we read his most intimate possession, his diary. It was never intended to be published, but nonetheless, it was. In all fairness, I’m not the “Roman Empire” kind of guy anymore, sure it was a fascinating time in history, but only passing interest for me and I’m not one to keep up with trends that become centered around white males trying to tell people to chill out. Apart from my rant, Meditations is still very much a relevant and praise worthy book in today’s society, although some of the aphorisms are far from achievable given the preexisting human condition; we are emotional creatures. Or at least I am, it’s partly the reason why I decided to go to art school, in search for an outlet for my creative impulses. I won’t bore you with the details, we’ve all heard the story of the tortured artist. In short, I was just depressed and overemotional. Consequently, I found myself wanting a regulator or something to tune off the frequency of being over-emotional. So I did what every 19-year-old does when he has a life problem, I turned to YouTube. Soon after, I landed on a channel about philosophy where I was put on to the Stoics who offered a nonchalant approach to life, a noble concept in theory but not innate in my nature. My reading of the Stoics instead granted me a regulator for my emotions with pen and paper. I took up journaling the most mundane things, as one does believing his own life isn’t interesting enough to write about. However, after much practice and consistency it quickly became as intended, a safe space for self-examination and reflection. Now I don’t preach that philosophy will cure your depression, on the contrary, it often confuses and frustrates the reader who has to confront himself in the lines of a page. But I will go out of my way to encourage you, the reader, to pick up journaling as a daily practice. If not for self-improvement do it as a reminder that no matter how small you think your actions or thoughts may seem, they matter to you and should be treated as such. At some point, I’ll either write or make a video on my journey and fallout with Stoicism but for now this is the insight I have to offer so as to not wander too far from the main discourse. Moving on.
Church in Torrington, Connecticut near the Yankee Pedlar Inn. The historical filming location for the horror movie, Innkeepers (2011) written and directed by Ti West.
Shot on Canon AE-1
CREATOBER
THE PLAN
In planning for this somewhat ambitious project, I wanted to combine things I enjoy doing with something I’ve never done before (never have I ever written a blog, let alone have any sort of experience in writing movie reviews). So in taking up this challenge, I decided to mesh together Spooktober and a variation of “Inktober” into a blog on my website. Take into consideration this is my first blog ever… So it may suck ass (chuckles like The Count from Sesame Street). The known, I know how to doodle and I’m obsessed with horror films, these are factors I can confidently do and enjoy. That leaves the unknown factor, writing a blog/review. While in theory it seems simple enough to voice an opinion and give a rating, to me it’s new territory. I’ve always been good at recommending films to friends and at knowing how horror movie tropes work. So much so, as to being that annoying person at the movie theater who whispers to his companion; ha! I knew that was gonna happen. Writing has never been my strong suit but as I’ve matured out of being embarrassed over it, I strive to improve on this skill. Consciously, in hopes that I can supplement my execution in writing a science fiction novel in the foreseeable future. That’s a discussion for another time. Lets move on to framing this month long writing project. My first step in planning for this horror-induced experiment was to pick out the films to be watched. Unrealistically, I could do one each day, write about it and do some kind of sketch or art inspired by the film. Unfortunately, juggling between a busy life and work schedule outside of my artistic endeavors, I knew this was not an achievable goal. Instead, I broke it down into a an even eight films. For the selection I curated a list of newer films from this year (2026), alongside, with some that have been on my spooktober list for years. More importantly, none of these selected films are rewatches, they will be fresh to my eyes, In hopes of making the experience more difficult but also fun since I won’t have any preconceived notions. Without further ado, In no particular order, here are the films listed below;
TO INK OR NOT TO INK
The second half of this project is my variation of Inktober, a challenge I’ve been attempting since I was in high school and never have had any luck in completing in its entirety. In reality, it’s due to my laziness, if I don’t have a drive to create I simply won’t. Additionally, I will make this very clear from the beginning, my Inktober will be a tad different from the trademarked version. So much so that from now on I’ll be referring to it as “Creatober”. Not very original but its a working title, I’ll update it at some point, maybe? Initially I was gonna take the same approach of doing a drawing a day, but even this task seems daunting when you have a full-time job and are traveling between two cities twice a week. Alternately, I’m taking the same approach as with the films, I’ll be making eight works complementing or in theme with the films I watch. These works will be exclusively of a different medium, the proposed mediums I have in mind as of right now are; an ink drawing, a painting, a digital poster, a poem, a collage, a photograph, a sculpture, and lastly a short film. At this point, you’re probably wondering what this even has to do with Inktober. Well it doesn’t. This is CREATOBER dammit! I’m just trying to give myself an excuse to write and make stuff.
Here’s a glimpse into the first review that will be published here by the end of this weekend alongside a Creatober prompt. Enjoy! (No AI was used to write this!)
REVIEW PREVIEW
Deep in the desert lies waiting the most powerful substance in the known universe, the spice… Wait just a minute, this isn’t about Dune! Let’s shift focus into the opening scene of the first film of my Spooktober blog extravaganza, Hokum. Yes we are indeed in a desert, in Abu Dhabi, (I’ve been there! Check out my photos here) where we are presented with two storybook characters. A Don Quixote conquistador type and a scruffy-latino boy (no not me). As they wander through the desert in exhaustion from the unrelenting sun, the conquistador strips his armor and leaves his sword behind because he will definitely not need it later. Alright, enough of this, Its all happening in the mind of a writer, typing away at his keyboard in a poorly lit concrete box, his home. This is our supposed protagonist Mr. Ohm Bauman, portrayed by none other than Adam Scott. You may know him from Severance, the 10 Emmy Awarded Apple TV+ show that the corporate “turtle-neckers” blessed us with in 2022. However, this show was not my first encounter with Adam Scott. The first encounter with his acting was back in 2008 and from then on, I always remember him as the 3rd step brother in the raunchy comedy starring Will Ferrel and John C. Reilly, Step Brothers. Since then I always associate him to the character in that movie, consequently, I always picture him portraying a douchebag and that’s exactly the role he has in Hokum, the film I’m reviewing. Hokum is directed by Damian McCarthy an Irish filmmaker, who is also known for Caveat and Oddity.
Obsession Review coming soon
The past week of my life I've been holed up in a room alongside my fiancé/partner-in-flu, after going to a wedding in the “great” state of New Jersey. It was a beautiful ceremony and my best goes to the newly weds. I’m also doubtful anyone there contaminated us but I had to take an opportunity to take a jab at Jersey. Therefore, I proceed; “The air was putrid with that sweet smell of burning cabbage and as we rolled past Snookie territory, I knew this city of tan gods would leave a lasting mark on me; The Guido Flu.” I might actually turn this into a novel one day… Apologies, my sarcasm has dried up alongside with the inside of my throat. Anyways, I have not been this sick in a while, but nonetheless, I have fallen behind on my Spooktober blog. The true culprit for this is sheer laziness mixed with an undiagnosed case of CPS (Couch Potato Syndrome). You get the point I've been sulking around and not wanting to do much, so I did what I do best, I absorbed as much television as inhumanely possible. This included watching roughly 100 episodes of Naruto Shippuden, 4 seasons of Nathan For You and two films on my Spooktober list. The first of these films was Obsession, as the title of this review suggests, so without further complaint of my illness and Jersey, let’s talk.