In Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun’s phantasmagorical slasher-cum-orgasm-comedy, Hanna Einbinder’s Kris laments her childhood: “I think I watched too many movies at a young age and it fucked me up.” Right there with you, buddy.

Part 2 of the ongoing blogification of my dissertation on what I call elegiac sequels, aka legacyquels. In this part, I begin to talk about a spectrum on which elegiac sequels lie based on the stance they take towards the original films (and tv) they are sequels to.

In the third-to-last episode of The Leftovers, Laurie Garvey becomes an audience surrogate character who allows audiences to see just how weird things have gotten and stands as a reminder of how TV can be so good.

A short essay about Diabolique (1955), genre, twists, ghosts, and Columbo.

A looser, more bloggish version of the part of my dissertation that explains why I coined the term “elegiac sequel.” I hope it will also give me a bit of a push to continue adapting segments of my dissertation into more easily accessible blog posts and, if I can keep myself to it, write some of the things I always wanted to include in the dissertation but didn’t have the time or energy to put into words. Think of it as a chiller, more fun version of a dissertation in bite-size chunks. Who doesn’t love chunks!

Wow, who would have thought there were 10 great movies already released in 2026? Here are a few capsule reviews of those 10. Hope you enjoy horror!