BOO! It's a very special spooky edition of the Five on Friday to creep you out and scare your pants off during the week leading up to Halloween!

1. Hack/Slash (comic). Tim Seeley created this genre-bending comic book series back in 2004 to answer the question, "what happens when a horror movie victim becomes the hunter?" It may be a question that you didn't know you wanted to ask, but should be glad that Seeley answered it. The series follows Cassie Hack, former slasher prey, now fighting the same type of monster villains that ruined her life. Of course all this ass-kicking occurs with the help of her faithful companion, Vlad. I've been reading the first collected volume of a bunch of Hack/Slash one-shots and it is exactly everything I hoped it would be. It's gory, weird, has fun with preexisting horror tropes, and questions who the true villains are. I also discovered that there's an eventual crossover with the Evil Dead AND the series being developed for TV, so let's see how that goes. You can pick the first volume on Amazon.

2. American Horror Story: Hotel (tv show). AHS changes dramatically from season to season, with mixed results. They are all creepy and disturbing in their own special ways, but I was most haunted by the first season (Murder House) and the first half of the second season (Asylum). The third season (Coven) had it's moments (I'm looking at you Delphine LaLaurie), but was mainly a weird witchy prep school teen drama, while the forth season (Freak Show) had tons of potential because of the theme, but fell flat for me. I did not have high hopes for Hotel because of the lackluster previous seasons and the theme didn't seem particularly scary. I was WRONG. The overall story of this season is a little lacking, but the grotesque and creepy style is on show big time. I can't look away when Lady Gaga is on screen and can only peek through my fingers when something scary is about to happen. It's definitely not perfect (Evan Peters with another weird accent? Come on, really?), but it's creeping me out. Catch up with it on Hulu, while you can.

3. You Must Remember This (podcast). You wouldn't think that a podcast about "the secret and/or forgotten history of Hollywood's first century" would be something to listen to to get into the Halloween mood. Well, let me tell you, Karina Longworth's series on "Charles Manson's Hollywood" is fascinating and terrifying at the same time. I had no idea the Manson Family was not some fringe cult, but just one of many during the 60s (granted the only ones, I think, that went on a crazy murder spree) and Manson had some legitimate ties to Hollywood stars. I won't spoil it anymore than that, because you HAVE to listen to it yourself. It's 12 parts and delves into everything from Charles Manson's upbringing to history of his followers to lives of his victims to the murders and eventual creepy trial. And everything in between. As I said before, all fascinating. All terrifyingly macabre. I'm also looking forward to listening to Longworth's hopefully less creepy offerings. Check it out here.

4. Housebound (movie). Last week, I released a post about some streaming horror movies to get you in that spooky mood and I found a couple that looked interesting, but had yet to see. I've only watched Housebound so far, but it is by far the best horror movie I've seen in a long time. Housebound is about a young Kiwi woman, who has gotten into trouble with the law and has been sentenced to house arrest at her mother's house. But the house seems like it might be haunted. Wacky, scary hijinks ensue. There are a lot of hilarious horror movies out there and a lot of truly frightening horror movies out there, but I've never seen one movie combine those two so well. It's funny without being ridiculous, but still scared and really surprised me with the ending. Once again NO SPOILERS. I'm just sad that I can't experience it for the first time again. It's on Netflix.

5. Does the Dog Die? (website). If you're like me, you can deal with people getting hurt in movies because they can take of themselves. Animals on the other hand, if animals get hurt, I am not pleased. That is why doesthedogdie.com is the best. Type in a movie and they'll tell you want happens to the animals in question. They have a cute little pet emoji to let you know and if you click on the title (why would you?) it gives you spoilers detailing what happens. I have literally decided not to watch movies that have the sad puppy emoji, even when people rave about them, because I don't need more gratuitous animal sadness in my life. (Undead animal violence is ok though. They are dead, it can't be helped. That's why the first issue of Hack/Slash is ok in my book. Oops spoilers, not really!)

On top of all that I was very industrious this week and put together this little video of this week's picks. Check it out and keep reading for more of my thoughts.

Well that's all the spookiness I have for this week. I might have a few more scary pics next week, but it will basically already be Halloween then and who has time for terrifying post-Halloween? Anyways, check me out on social media to find out when I post new content. Thanks for visiting. See you again soon. <evil laughter>