[Art historians Caroline and Patrick are unraveling the mystery behind the death of an artist with a twisted background and upbringing] Patrick: “Jesus, that family loves blackmail.”
–Ellery Lloyd, The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby.
Book Quote of the Day
[A group of five friends have established a ritual of holding funerals for each other while they’re still alive to witness them] ‘I was eighteen,’ Marielle corrected, and Jordan gritted his teeth. There was a reason funeral honorees were supposed to be dead.
‘She entered our lives before we were twenty, when the whole world felt exciting and fresh and possible. The first thing you need to know, Marielle, is that we have loved you since the moment we met.’
Marielle’s face scrunched with extreme displeasure.
‘What now?’ Jordan asked when her look could no longer be ignored.
Marielle shifted in her seat. ‘You have loved me?’
‘That’s right. Since the first night we met.’
‘Have loved.’
Jordan looked to the others for backup. Did they know what she was after?
Marielle scoffed. ‘What the hell tense is that?’
‘Tense?’
‘Verb tense. I’ve run that sentence back and forth in my head and I don’t get it. You have, present, loved, past, me, noun.’ Marielle shook her head, as if realizing for the first time that a funeral for a living person was ridiculous, just as the rest of them were finding meaning.
Jordan hung his head in defeat. ‘I’m sorry! You’re sitting right there!’
‘So?’
‘Do you know how hard it is to give a eulogy for a person making faces in response to everything you say?’
Marielle didn’t know and doubted anyone did. ‘What did you expect? I’m an open book.’
Craig leaned in and whispered, ‘How about you be less of an open book and more of an open casket.’ “
–Steven Rowley, The Celebrants.
‘Alice, Darling’ is Indeed a Horror Movie
*Content warning: The film depicts an emotionally abusive relationship. While I like to keep my reviews lighthearted, I am in no way trivializing the subject.
Alice (Anna Kendrick) is saddled with an emotionally abusive boyfriend, Simon (Charlie Carrick), who controls every aspect of her life. When she lies to him in order to get away for a week with her childhood friends Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku) and Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn), Simon tracks her down, with explosive results.
A big image system in the movie is eyes. We see tight closeups of Anna’s worry-face, watching Simon to gauge how he reacts and modifying her behavior accordingly. When Anna goes to the cottage with Sophie and Tess, we get more wide shots of beautiful countryside and the ladies having fun and Alice gradually (but not completely) letting her guard down. Bodies as a whole are emphasized, as in Simon’s dominance over Alice’s body. He decides what they eat; he always has his arm around her, reigning her in. He’s fiercely in charge of her sexuality. When they’re apart, he prompts her to send him pictures of her breasts, even when she’s out to dinner or on the supposed work trip. He won’t even let her shower by herself. The lake Anna swims in with her friends is heavily counterpointed by the shower, where she’s his prisoner. Seemingly the only thing Anna controls is her hair, which she pulls out when she’s overwhelmed by stress. Which is often. Really, her thick, gorgeous hair is a bit unrealistic–she should probably look more like this:
Maybe a little less lopsided. Aren’t AI-generated images as fun as they are terrifying?Okay, last one, promise:
It’s not a sensational movie, as in wildly violent or axe-murdery. There’s quite a low body count, in fact. The horror is built up from just how far Simon will go to keep his sway over Alice, and how much power she yields to him, and the realism makes it all the more disturbing. Simon is a quintessentially human monster, and his ordinariness underscores how much this really is happening in real life.
Sophie and Tess are a welcome contrast to Simon. A major theme is the magic of friendship. Yes, this kind.
Just imagine it with three ponies. Who have a deadly weapon.
I don’t have any major gripes. I would have liked more character development for Sophie, the voice of reason, and less about Tess’s angst over her stalled career. Check it out if you’re in the mood for something serious but ultimately uplifting. I lied, here’s the worst AI image yet, I found it in my media library and couldn’t resist.
Beware of the Blob! (review)
It’s been four years, but I made a YouTube video.
Book Quote of the Day
“[…] Anna dreamed of letting go and getting lost. She could do it, slide into the scene and vanish. Her family had always been terrible at Where’s Waldo? But she […] rode back with Mom and Dad so she wouldn’t have to listen to Christopher’s ‘check in with work’ call the whole way. Mm-hmming while Mom fretted about neighbor Miriam’s latest health issues, none of which were even close to life-threatening, was torture of a different and therefore refreshing variety.”
–Jennifer Thorne, Diavola.
The Horrors of Adulting: Beatrix Potter
When I was a wee lass, I loved me some Beatrix Potter. I wanted to pass on that love to my eldest when she was a toddler, but I had apparently blocked out the more disturbing aspects of the stories. I didn’t get farther than “The Tale of Tom Kitten”, which concerns a clowder of feline siblings whose mum sends them out to play in their best clothes while she gets the house ready for company. When inevitably the clothes are ruined, “She pulled them off the wall, smacked them, and took them back to the house.”
I realized that my love of the books probably had less to do with the admittedly adorable illustrations and more to do with my growing fascination with things that were scary. A goodish amount of the tales have to do with anthropomorphic animal children behaving dangerously and risking getting in trouble with authority figures, a fear which haunts me to this day.
Consider “The Tale of Benjamin Bunny”, in which Benjamin and his famous cousin Peter run afoul of a cat. Benjamin’s father saves them, and then hits them with a switch. Beneath the threat of life and limb, there’s the threat of a violently miffed authority figure.
In “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”, Peter’s mother warns Peter and his sisters not to go into Mr. McGregor’s garden: “Your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.” Forget the switch; disobey your mother, and you get made into a pastry!
In “The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies” Benjamin Bunny grows up and has so many children with his cousin Flopsy that not even Potter knows their names, hence the title. The family is hungry, so the children head to Mr. McGregor’s garden to find some cabbages. Mr. McGregor throws them in a sack and has a lively debate with the missus about what to do with his catch. ” ‘Not fit to eat; but the skins will do fine to line my old cloak.’ ‘Line your old cloak?’ shouted Mr. McGregor–‘I shall sell them and buy myself baccy!’ ‘Rabbit tobacco! I shall skin them and cut off their heads.’ ” I don’t even know what the moral of this one is! Don’t be hungry?
Or there’s always “The Tale of Samuel Whiskers”. In this one, poor Tom Kitten gets himself hopelessly lost in the chimney of his house.
The funny smell is actually two scheming rats, one of whom wastes no time tying him up, while the other demands a “kitten dumpling roly-poly pudding”. Nightmare fuel!
The two rats proceed to wrap Tom Kitten in dough and tenderize him with a rolling pin. And then from there I guess they plan to cook him alive? Or eat him alive? I’m not sure which is worse.
Tom Kitten escapes, his mother bathes him (no description of corporal punishment this time), and the story ends on the cheerful note of Tom’s sisters becoming master rat catchers and keeping dozens and dozens of their tails as trophies.
And then there’s “The Story of A Fierce Bad Rabbit”. A good rabbit is eating a carrot and minding its own business when a bad rabbit snatches its carrot and roughs it up for good measure. The good rabbit hides in fear.
Good thing, too, because a hunter sees the bad rabbit and shoots at it, which somehow blows off its tail and whiskers but leaves it otherwise unscathed. The good rabbit sees it scampering by. The end.
And don’t get me started on the story about Jemima Puddleduck, who survives being outwitted by a fox who wants to eat her eggs, but then a troop of puppies gobble down her offspring instead, and she goes home crying. The end. As a palate cleanser, here’s a drawing from one of Potter’s more wholesome stories.
Alex Garland’s ‘Men’: Stylish and Thought-Provoking
Harper (Jessie Buckley) is a woman recovering from the shock of seeing her husband James (Paapa Essiedu) fall off the roof of their flat, maybe or maybe not on purpose. She takes a trip to a quiet English countryside only to find that her man troubles are just beginning.
It’s easy to read the film as man-hating. Literally every male Harper sees, including her husband, is trying to control her, manipulate her, hurt her, fuck her. Even the friendly Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear) trips over himself in his insistence to be her knight in shining armor, to carry her bags, pay for her drinks, save her from randos in the yard. Her only allies are her gal pal Riley (Gayle Rankin) and a sympathetic female police officer (Sarah Twomey) who shows up once, never to return.
Buuuut you can also interpret the film as misogynistic. A lot of the buildup of tension in the film is based on the concept of widdle Harper alone in the big, sprawling wilderness, being menaced by a disturbing parade of male psychopaths, including a naked guy. Imagine a horror movie with those gender roles reversed, a man being stalked by a naked woman:
Okay, not every man would react that way.
Most of the gripes about sexism come from towards the end, when Harper goes from refusing to be a victim, saying things like, “I will fucking cut you!”
to damsel in distress, lying in the road and trembling when somone she trusted turns out to be her enemy.
Honestly though, I don’t know how to parse the image system throughout that is, shall we say, distinctly feminine:
However, while I can see the movie from both perspectives, ultimately Harper’s dilemma seems very personal. She’s dealing with her particular grief and guilt, and her surroundings and interactions reflect that. There’s a dreamlike quality throughout, especially toward the climax. While I might have liked to see her turn into a stabby, badass action hero, that’s not her character arc.
The movie flitted in and out of my radar for a couple of years. I think I put it on my watchlist after seeing it was written and directed by Alex Garland, of whom I am a fan. When I told my sister Leslie I enjoyed it, she asked, “Was it scary or just weird?” I responded, “Well it’s A24 lol.” Which means that it’s a bit of both, but mostly the latter. Give it a look if you’re in the mood for something challenging but easy on the eyes.
Book Quote of the Day
“The Gentleman Scientist was fooling with something dangerous and knew it but either wasn’t willing to stop or couldn’t and in the end those things come to the same. I could stop which made me a fool to go on, but there was another factor. Something had happened to me. I had grown curious. It was welcome and dreadful in equal measure. It was a feeling and in my world those had been in short supply. You see a man with his legs gone and his face sliding off even as he screams in agony, you see his teeth on his shirt like a barbaric necklace and know you were standing where he got it only seconds before and it stuns your feelings […] and when those feelings start to return you see the possibility that your humanity isn’t as gone as you thought it was.”
–Stephen King, “The Dreamers”, You Like It Darker, 2024.
Steve’s still got it!
‘The Exorcist Believer’: You’ve Seen Worse, You Know You Have!
Victor (Leslie Odom Jr.) is a widower raising his teenage daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett). After performing a seance with her friend Katherine (Olivia O’Neill), the two girls disappear in the woods for three days and come back decidedly more evil than they had been previously. It’s up to Victor, Katherine’s parents Tony (Norbert Leo Butz) and Miranda (Jennifer Nettles), Chris, the mother of the possessed girl from the very first film (Ellen Burstyn reprises her role), and a spunky coalition of religious leaders to save the day.
I didn’t go looking for other opinions, but the hatred for the movie is pretty loudly broadcast. I didn’t see what all the hubbub is about, though. Well, William Friedkin was pretty pissed off, but he hated all the other sequels too, even the arguably quite watchable Legion. I thought the first hour was really solid. I had a cup of coffee in the kitchen I very much wanted to drink, but I was too enthralled to either pause or make a quick run for it. After the first hour, it turns to poo for a bit, then comes back strong for the close. A lot of mainstream horror movies have that uneven feel of a team of writers that can’t agree on what they want to say, and a lot of them can’t even deliver a good ending.
People were also griping that it’s just a cheap remake, but the filmmakers put forth an effort to make this its own movie while skillfully tying it to the original. There aren’t a barrage of look-alike shots, no spider-walk, no peeing on the floor, no one in a fedora standing in front of the house. They do copy the quick, subliminal shots from the director’s cut released in the early aughts, there’s a distraught teen shrieking obscenities, and you bet your ass there’s a spinning head, but overall it’s pretty creative.
Personally, I’m a sucker for the cast. Leslie Odom Jr. is always phenomenal–I’m a major Hamilton nerd. Ann Dowd–the consummate creepy lady–in this one the creepy lady makes good! Ellen Burstyn is a national treasure–have you seen Requiem for a Dream? If you haven’t, I’ll wait. Speaking of Burstyn, this is my approximation of how she got involved: Studio exec [Let’s picture him as Ryan George]: “Be in my movie. Here’s money.” Burstyn: “Nah.” Studio exec: “Here’s a metric fuckton of money.” Burstyn: “Okay. But I’m giving it to charity. Also, I don’t want to have to do a lot of stuff.” Who cares if it’s stunt casting? She delivers her horrendous dialogue like a badass! And I honestly got choked up when Linda Blair pops in at the end.
I had a feeling throughout of grudgingly liking the unintentionally silly parts. There’s just something that tickles me about two snarky teenage demons mocking a grouchy nurse for having an abortion: Possessed Katherine [pouting]: “You were to honor your mother with a child in her name.” [fake cries] Possessed Angela: “Did the power of Christ compel you?” And the scene with all the religious folks coming together for a big group exorcism! A Baptist, a Pentecostal, a Catholic, and a Rootwork healer…it sounds like a “walk into a bar” joke. It’s just too precious. The filmmakers try to put forth a theme of “The power of Christ speaks through all of us,” but during the exorcism when the Catholic priest shows up belatedly, everyone looks relieved.
It was a weird coincidence at twenty-one minutes to the end when my ten-year-old came back from visiting friends saying his stomach hurt, and then he promptly projectile vomited all over the floor. Thankfully, he’s not possessed. Unless you count being obsessed with Fortnite as possession. Anywho, check it out if you’re in the mood for something competently made and even trying to approach diversity.
Top 25 Movie Quotes: Part XXII
Ever seen the American Film Institute’s list of movie quotes? Let me sum up: of the hundred, about 25 are Casablanca and Gone with the Wind. Most of the rest are from the other golden oldies that are revered by the writers of film studies textbooks; they may be well-made, but they’re also very much a reminder of how discriminatory Hollywood was in terms of race, gender, and sexual orientation. Though I give big ups for including Jaws, Psycho, and The Sixth Sense, the AFI’s selections just don’t speak to me, and if you’re on this site, perhaps they don’t speak to you, either. Though many of the movies I quote from aren’t horror, they are all delightful (the quotes, not necessarily the movies). After trying and failing to narrow down my own list to a slim ten squared, here is part twenty-two. (And no, I had no idea how many of these I would write when I started in with the Roman numerals–I keep watching movies!) In no particular order:
25.) George (Shea Whigham) has just watched his teenage daughter, who recently revealed to him that she’s a superhero, step into a portal to another universe: “Parenting stuff is a big-ass mystery.” (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, 2023)
24.) Possessed Daniel (Otis Dhanji), to his girlfriend: “He hates when you touch him. You make him soft.” Hayley (Zoe Terakes): “Yo, this spirit’s a cunt.” (Talk to Me, 2022)
23.) [Max (Adam Sandler) has a magic sewing machine that allows him to impersonate the owner of shoes that he repairs, and one such owner is a corpse, making him look like a zombie] Kid: “Hey, Mister, you okay?” Max: “Huh?” Kid: “Don’t eat me! Please don’t eat me!” Max: “All right. All right. [Takes off a shoe, which returns him to his normal appearance] I’m not! I’m not gonna eat you! [Kid faints] Kid! Kid, wake up! I’m not gonna eat you!” (The Cobbler, 2014)
22.) Reggie (Marque Richardson): “Tell me, man, what’s harder? Being Black enough for the Black kids or Black enough for the white ones?” Lionel (Tyler James Williams): “Being neither.” (Dear White People, 2014)
21.) Charlie (Joel Edgerton), doing maths in order to start producing shoes durable enough for men dressed as women: “How much do you weigh?” Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor), aghast: “The right amount!” (Kinky Boots, 2005)
20.) Jones (Jason Schwartzman) is auditioning for a role with playwright Conrad (Edward Norton): “It’s a fact, we’re not alone. The alien stole the asteroid. Long thought to be a lunar splinter fragmented from the lesser moon of the hypothetical planet Magnavox-27, now considered a rogue pygmy cometette, according to the encyclopedia. Obviously, she would’ve said something to him. I’m certain of it. Your mother, I mean. She would’ve gotten him to tell us the secrets of the universe or yelled at him or made him laugh. She would’ve had a hypothesis. You remind me of her more than ever. She wasn’t shy. You’ll grow out of that. I think your sisters might be aliens, too, by the way. When I met your mother, she was only 19. She was smoking a cigarette, reading a paperback, taking a bath in a swimsuit on a rusty fire escape a flight and a half below my camera position. Sometimes, I sometimes still think I still hear her here [points to temple] breathing in the dark. Who knows, Woodrow? Maybe she is in the stars.” [Conrad stares silently for a moment] “You’re perfect.” Jones: “Okay?” Conrad: “Okay.” [They kiss.] (Asteroid City, 2023)
19.) Chris (Sinclair Daniel), to her possessed friend: “Dalton, I know you’re in there. But if you touch me again, I’m gonna fuck you up.” (Insidious: The Red Door, 2023)
18.) [Talk show host Katherine (Emma Thompson) is debating with her boss] Caroline (Amy Ryan): “Do you want to know who Jimmy Fallon had on last Tuesday when you had Doris Kearns Goodwin? Robert Downey Jr. They washed a sheepdog together. It was fucking glorious.” Katherine: “I’m sorry, Caroline. Should I have played giant Connect Four with her or perhaps sung a karaoke song on the back of a tandem bicycle? It’s Doris Kearns Goodwin. She’s a national treasure.” Caroline: “Agreed. I only wish she’d been an Avenger instead of writing books about Abraham Lincoln.” Katherine: “She could be an Avenger if she tried!” (Late Night, 2019)
17.) Amos (Blair Underwood), to his niece, who has scoffed at the study of Black folklore: “How does one group of people subjugate another?” Maxine (Michelle Hurd): “Uh, Amos…” Amos: “No, no, no. I’m just educating the girl. You subjugate a people by telling them their science is superstition, their faith is heresy, and their wisdom is make-believe.” (Bad Hair, 2020)
16.) Héctor (Gael García Bernal): “We really need to borrow your guitar.” Chicharrón (Edward James Olmos): “My guitar?” Héctor: “Yes.” Chicharrón: “My prized, beloved guitar?” Héctor: “I promise we’ll bring it right back.” Chicharrón: “Like the time you promised to bring back my van?” Héctor: “Uh…” Chicharrón: “Or my mini-fridge?” Héctor: “Ah, you see–” Chicharrón: “Or my good napkins? My lasso? My femur?!” (Coco, 2017)
15.) Voice on answering machine: “Miss Johnson, I hate to be the one to tell you this on an answering machine, but your fathers, they were killed by a pack of ninjas. But I just want you to know that they died as they lived. Gay and proud and defending your fair city. I hope this news doesn’t bring you to a life full of skateboarding and drinking and going down a path of evil.” (Black Holler, 2017)
14.) [Brad (Ben Stiller) has been rambling about his upper-middle-class-white-guy problems to Ananya (Shazi Raja)] Brad: “What…what is that look?” Ananya: “What?” Brad: “That…No, what are you thinking?” Ananya: “What am I thinking?” Brad: “Yeah, please, tell me.” Ananya: “Honestly, I’m thinking you’re really lucky. You’re 50 years old, and you still think that the world was made for you.” Brad: “Uh, I’m 47.” Ananya: “Do you even know poor people?” Brad: “Of course.” Ananya: “Okay, well, when I visit my mother’s family in Delhi, a lot of people out there only live on two dollars a day. They’re not complaining about being ignored at a dinner party. They’re happy they get dinner.”(Brad’s Status, 2017)
13.) Nick (Adam Sandler): “And, Inspector, we tried to start your car up, but, uh, couldn’t get it done, so we left it there.” Inspector Delacroix (Dany Boon): “What?” Nick: “We stole a Lamborghini. You can have that when we’re done with it.” Delacroix, content: “Okay.” (Murder Mystery 2, 2023)
12.) Sergio (Laia Costa): “Nima. Look at me. Look. You are so beautiful. You are so, so, so beautiful. Say it. Shout it. Shout it to the fucking moon.” Naima (Alia Shawkat): “I can’t!” Sergio: “Yeah, you can. Say it to her.” Naima: “And you have to say it with me.” Sergio: “Yeah.” [In unison] Naima: “I am so beautiful!” Sergio: “She is so beautiful! [Sergio, to the moon] Stop being jealous! Stop it!” (Duck Butter, 2018)
11.) Sadie (Maude Apatow), hitting puberty hard: “Mom, why can’t I get new clothes? What the fuck?! Nothing fits me! God damn it!” (This is 40, 2012)
10.) Curtis (Craig Robinson): “I know you don’t want to hear this right now, but one day, when you lighting the hip-hop world on fire, it’ll be because you have a unique perspective. And when you collecting all your Source Awards, you’ll thank me.” Morris (Markees Christmas): “Source Awards?” Curtis: “Mm-hmm.” Morris: “Is that as far as I get in your dreams?” Curtis: “All right. All right. You right.” Morris: “Can I get a Grammy or something?” Curtis: “Nobel Prize! How bout that? Thank me in that speech.” (Morris from America), 2016
9.) Sonia (Salma Hayek): “If you don’t help me, I am gonna put my strap-on on and I am gonna fuck your dreams until they wish they were your nightmares. [Shooting at attackers] Motherfuckers!” Bryce (Ryan Reynolds): “First of all, your mouth needs an exorcism.” (Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, 2021)
8.) Young Woman (Jessie Buckley): “Everything has to die. That’s the truth. One likes to think that there is always hope. That you can live above death. And it’s a uniquely human fantasy that things will get better, born perhaps of the uniquely human understanding that things will not.” (I’m Thinking of Ending Things, 2020)
7.) [A group of high school students have been targeted by a killer] Scuba (Gabriel Davenport): “If it makes you feel better, you’ll be killed before you get suspended for plagiarism.” Gabby (Addison Rae): “Scuba. Don’t joke about that.” Scuba: “My bad, you’re right. Plagiarism’s serious.” (Thanksgiving, 2023)
6.) Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson): “You know what this is like? It’s like those old movies we both love. Now, I’m going to tell you my whole convoluted plan, and then I’m going to come up with some absurd and convoluted way to kill you, and you’ll find an equally convoluted way to escape.” Harry (Colin Firth): “Sounds good to me.” Valentine: “Well, this ain’t that kind of movie.” (Kingsman: The Secret Service, 2014)
5.) [It’s the rural South in the aftermath of WWII, and veteran Ronsel (Jason Mitchell) is being confronted by white dudes for using the front door of a general store] Pappy (Jonathan Banks): “You must be confused as to your whereabouts. Well, that explains why you’re tryin to leave by the front door.” Ronsel: “No, sir, I’m not confused at all.” Pappy: “Oh, I think you are, boy. I don’t know what they let you do over there, but you’re in Mississippi now, n*****. You use the back door.” Henry (Jason Clarke): “Go on, son. Son, we don’t want no trouble here. Go on.” Ronsel: “You know what? You’re absolutely right. When we was overseas, they didn’t make us use the back door. General Patton put us on the front line. Yes, sir. You know what we did? We kicked the hell out of Hitler and them Jerries. While ya’ll at home safe and sound.” (Mudbound, 2017)
4.) [It’s 1968, and a group of gay friends have gathered for a birthday party; they’re playing a game that involves calling the man they love and saying so] Hank (Tuc Watkins): “I’d like to leave a message.” Michael (Jim Parsons): “Oh, not in. One point.” Hank: “Would you say that Hank called? Yes, it is. Oh, good evening. How are you?” [Hank’s boyfriend] Larry (Andrew Rannells): “Who the hell is that?” Hank: “Yes, that’s right. The message is for my roommate, Larry. Just say that I called…” Larry: “It’s our answering service.” Hank: “…and said I love you.” Alan, Michael’s heterosexual roommate who wasn’t invited (Brian Hutchison): “Hank, are you crazy?” Hank: “You heard me correctly. That’s what I said. The message is for Larry. It’s from me, Hank, and it is just as I said. I love you.” (The Boys in the Band, 2020)
3.) Rei (Kiko Mizuhara), to her unrequited high school crush Nanae (Honami Satô): “You smile when you lie. And you look really cute when you do it. My entire life crumbles with just a single smile of yours!” (Kanojo, AKA Ride or Die, 2021)
2.) [Cassie (Carey Mulligan) has tricked and bound the man who sexually assaulted her best friend] Al (Christopher Lowell) “You know, I was affected by it too, okay? I mean, it’s every guy’s worst nightmare, getting accused like that.” Cassie: “Can you guess what every woman’s worst nightmare is?” (Promising Young Woman, 2020)
1.) Gabbie (Rosario Dawson), to her son Travis (Chase Dillon): “Pumpkin? What’s wrong?” Travis: “This place is haunted!” Gabbie: “All right, now hang on. Now, I know this place isn’t as warm as I had hoped. [A ghost, which Travis sees but Gabbie doesn’t, is creeping up] But, you know, I think we get some daylight in here, it’s gonna feel better. Hey, I’m gonna light a vanilla candle and it’s gonna be a game changer.” Travis: “Will it, though?” Gabbie: “Sweetie, I need you to give this place a chance. This is our home now. [Sees the ghost] Nah. We’re out.” (Haunted Mansion, 2023)
Author’s note: I have extensively relied on IMDb for help, both with dates and with some of the quotes.
GhoulieJoe 