Oh So Geeky

I'm a huge nerd for questionaires. On a little old website called LiveJournal, friends could send each other questions and memes about their favorite fandoms and life in general. Mostly these days "ask box" challenges are passed around on tumblr. Grabbing a  Halloween-themed ask  over on tumblr, I thought it'd be fun to answer some of them here. I tag anyone who wants to do the same thing here or on tumblr, and feel free to leave a comment of your answers! Bat:  If you could transform into any kind of animal, what animal would you be? As a swimmer, and someone who loves to travel, I'd transform into a bird - probably a duck. A lame choice probably but they are so cute and have the best of both worlds: land, water and people at parks feed them all the time. They have it made! Black Cat:  Are you superstitious? If so, what are you superstitious about? I'm not superstitious but I'm a little stitious. Broomstick:  If you could travel anywhere in...

Photo Credit: Crimson Peak / Universal Pictures Set in the early 19th century, Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) is a vibrant aspiring writer penning ghost stories. Her work is turned down by possible publications with editors suggesting to add a twist of romance, something she won't adhere to. When a mysterious aristocratic inventor Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) lures her into a whirlwind romance and marriage, she is whisked away to his and his sister's (Jessica Chastain) mansion after her father's death. But, there is terrible secret surrounding her new home and life. Edith's mother visited her as a ghost with a warning to beware of Crimson Peak. It is one that she does not heed until it is too late, Like Cushing's novel, director Guillermo del Toro's highly anticipated gothic film is not about the horror, but romance. It's hard not to fall in love with the extraordinary detail of this world exploding with color and detail. The golden and bold h...

Photo Credit: The Walking Dead / Gene Page Last weeks  Just Survive Somehow  ( JSS ) took on an even deeper message with this week's Thank You. What was a mantra for Enid has now taken on a new effect for the whole series and the fandom community. The aftermath of the zombie hoard setting out for Alexandria continues to be answered. We witnessed how a narrow margin the civilians from the safe zone survived from the Wolves last week, but what would be Rick's plan to deter the walkers from the town's walls? What would his and the others reaction be to the atrocious violence that took place while they were gone? We find out!

Photo Credit: The Walking Dead / Gene Page The premiere episode of The Walking Dead left us in turmoil as thousands of walkers wandered towards Alexandria. As the final moments of First Time Again faded to black, an unknown culprit blaring a truck horn instigated a domino effect to Rick's plan of directing those walkers out of a massive quarry. For only the second episode of the newest season, JSS may be at the top of the pack of favorite episodes. When the producers and writers declared that this sixth season was bigger and better, they weren't kidding! It left us catching our breath after nearly an hour of action-packed gore and subtle character conflicts.

Photo Credit: Dracula Dead and Loving It / Columbia Pictures Director, writer, and actor Mel Brooks is the king of parodies. No matter how many modern films come out satirizing horror or romantic comedies, no one can do it like the master. Best known for transforming Mary Shelley's tale of Frankenstein into a classic comedy, Brooks does so again with Brahm Stoker's Dracula . Taking creative liberties from the classic tale, solicitor Thomas Reinfeld (Peter anacNicol) becomes a insect-eating delusional ward to Dracula (Leslie Nielsen), a vampire - obviously. They journey from Transylvania to London where he has bought a castle. Crossing paths with his new neighbors Dr. Seward, his daughter Mina, her fiance Jonathan, and his ward Lucy, Dracula's true identity is closed in on by vampire hunter Van Helsing. Young Frankenstein,  starring Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle, is one of Brook's most popular parodies. The 1974 comedy fares a little better with the production v...

Photo Credit: 28 Days Later / Fox Searchlight Pictures Zombies are "in" right now, thanks to mega-popular comic book/tv series The Walking Dead and films like Shaun of the Dead . In 2002, the undead was just coming back onto the scene thanks to a revitalizing spin from director Danny Boyle, 28 Days Later isn't exactly about an undead apocalypse. A virus causing a violent rage unleashes when an animal-rights groups' mission to rescue lab-tested monkeys fails. People don't die and come back as zombies though, as is the lore of the genre. The rampant disease spreads when uninfected humans come in contact with the carriers with contaminated blood or saliva. Instead the infected become animalistic having no conscious and are ignited with a bloodthirsty rage, but aren't technically flesh-eaters. Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up in a hospital smack dab in the middle of the post-apocalypse. The streets are barren, the government has fallen, and the world appe...

Halloween is the perfect time of year to watch scary movies. A group of high school students are attacked by Ghost Face. A hotel won't let you leave one of its rooms. A family won't leave the house they just bought, even though it's filled with poltergeists or ghosts. As we watch in terror as characters try to evade their serial killers or phantom hosts, at times don't we all think we have what it takes to survive a horror movie? Well, we're in luck!  ManCrates  focuses on creating awesome gifts for men in custom wooden crates that he has to open with a crowbar. In celebration of the Halloween season, the awesome people at ManCrates asked me to come up with what I would want in my own dream crate that would help me and others make it to the end credits of a horror flick. There are a few obvious essentials to surviving a horror movie like being familiar with the commandments and carrying a few in-case-of-emergency aids (flashlight, phone chargers, etc)....

Photo Credit: The Walking Dead / Gene Page In the fifth season finale of  The Walking Dead,  its concluding moments left us in an epic wake of confrontations. Rick, drenched in walker guts, gave an impassioned speech to the community's members and its skeptic leader Deanna. He declared that they needed to learn how to protect themselves from walkers, asking  how many of you would I have to kill to save you? Pete, an alcoholic husband Rick had a previous violent brawl with, interrupted his rally cry and slashed Reg's (Deanna's husband) throat with a sword. Soaked in her husbands' blood, Deanna delivered a swift kill-order. Without the hestitation or moral conscious Rick used to exude, he executed Pete. Just in time one of the show's favorite characters and mysterious madmen Morgan walked in to witness it.

Not hooking an audience from the get-go can end a series in a second these days. Networks don't take a chance on shows like this anymore, even if characters are loved and the story is interesting. At season three the characters have us us hooked, but  X-Files  struggles with what it wants to be. The major constant for X-Files is FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Each have separate beliefs about "the truth" - mystery, faith, the paranormal and supernatural. They solve a different case every episode, and many of them don't have an overall arc, except for their interests and partnership. The core episodes where Mulder and Scully get in too deep with leper experiments, her sister's murder, and his sister's disappearance is when they evolve as individuals and grow closer. On top of that, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are exemplary with their chemistry. They are a duo that comes around very rarely, where they are seamless and just click.  X-Files  ...

Photo Credit: Cinderella / Walt Disney Studios Cinderella has been reinvented numerous times. A story of a young girl whose parents passed away and is left to serve her wicked step-family. Banished from attending a grand ball held by the prince, a fairy godmother makes her dreams come true. Once again, the Disney company re-imagines their classic animated film into a live-action delight. As the titular character, 25-year-old Lily James glides into center stage as Ella giving a wondrously charming performance. Being cast a role in a Disney film for a character of such an iconic reputation is like winning the Hollywood lottery. She's innocent and charming, but also a grounded fresh face offering delicate charisma. Holding onto her morals as the heroine, the British native brings a truthful, inner peace rare as the main character whose animated version has left a signature influence. In trying not to compare the original Evil Stepmother to her version, it was hard...

133 episodes in 113 days! Challenge Accepted.  Besides the first season of House of Cards (and The Walking Dead marathons on AMC), I would not call myself a binge-watcher per say - but for X-Files I've made the sacrifice. Three episodes a day, sometimes more on the weekend, keeps me generally on track to watching all the seasons before the epic revival. Speaking of which, did you see the trailer - like the trailer Fox released? I did, and only rewatched it a million times. MULDER. THE RIPPED POSTER. SCULLY. SKINNER. THE RIPPED POSTER. FLASHLIGHTS. Yes, it was very exciting. Spectacularly in my quest to watch X-Files, I have not encountered any spoilers - even when I've bookmarked countless pages to read as I move through each season, even as I've been reblogging gifs on tumblr galore and really only following X-Files blogs. A part of me doesn't want to enter the world known as season four, where feelings are going to get more and more complicated between Mulde...