jan 25, 2026

my husband and i have discovered a viewing pattern of 2 shows, made a decade apart, that is maybe splitting apart the fiber of the universe. its at the very least erasing my meories and putting worms in my blood.

watching alternating episodes of Once Upon a Time (season 1) and FROM (all 3 seasons) back to back has been the most fun i've had watching TV in YEARS. and that's really saying something bc i generally have a lot of fun when i watch TV!

these shows are similar in a lot of ways, but it makes sense!! not only are they the same "Mystery Box" genre, they both are projects from former Lost EPs. i haven't looked into it too much because i've been trying very hard to avoid spoilers, but i'm sure they are pulling from a lot of the same crew/directors/writers.

FROM is about a bunch of people trapped in a creepy old town, and everyone's being hunted by creatures that come out at night and will violently, horrifically torture you to death if they can getcha.

Once Upon a Time is about a bunch of fairy tale creatures trapped in a modern town and the mayor is like, mean.

and yet somehow they have the same exact tone? Once Upon a Time takes itsself SO seriously, but is about the dumbest shit. FROM is about serious shit, but is so committed to high strangeness that the stakes are RIDICULOUS. everything is always dialed up to 11. they both meet in the middle of being fucking crazy.

a little spoilers ahead, but just so you know the levels of insanity we're talking about here are some iconic moments from both shows so far:

• FROM - a character gets stabbed on accident and needs a blood transfusion from a family member, but the family member cant help because they have demon worms in their blood :(
• ONCE UPON A TIME - there were originally 8 dwarves in snow white in the 7 dwarves: the 8th one was named stealthy and he fucking DIED dude

but honestly the most important thing they have in common is not the premise, it's not the tone: it's the ENERGY. it's the unadulterated giving-a-shit that radiates from both shows. it's the want to take big swings, even if they dont have the budget or ability to execute those swings. both shows make incredibly smart production design decisions that imo make the worlds richer for it. they're imperfect, but they've got vision, and they're SO fucking entertaining!!!

if you only have time to watch one, FROM is the way to go. but i definitely recommend watching them back to back because i feel like it evens out the experience xD Once Upon a Time can be so stupid it gets frustrating, and FROM can be so heavy it gets to be a drag. Alternating between the two has been a really great viewing experience!

you can watch FROM free here on this site but PLEEEEAAASE please before you click make sure you're using a browser with a good ad blocker xD the ads on this site are aggressive af and very annoying!!! Here is the site link because i wanted to put it afterwards so you had to read the disclaimer, lol the 4th season is dropping later this spring and my husband and i are STOOOOKEEEED to watch >:D

and you can watch once upon a time free on this website! the ads are not bad at all!

oct 12, 2025

i got a youtube ad for a movie called "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You"! the teaser was intriguing, and i was feeling bad for being such a nostalgia consumer (see "something old"). so i let marketing win JUST THIS ONCE, and got tix to see it with some friends!

i REALLY ENJOYED IT!! It's a psychological thriller/dramedy about a mother struggling to juggle everything in her life that keeps going wrong alone, while her husband is out of town for work. It was WAY funnier than i was expecting (there's a whole bit with a hamster that's incredible)--like, laugh-out-loud funny, too, not just like a dark chuckle. If i had one critique it would be that we don't ever really see the main character take accountability for her actions, which soured the ending for me a little bit. But it was an absolute blast other than that! It had more slapstick than i expected, had more gore/outright horror elements than i expected, and i genuinely really enjoyed it! i'm excited to see what director Mary Bronstein does next, because it was super well done! I recommend going to see it if you get a chance! :)

September 12, 2025

The Oceangate hearings (AKA titan submersible that imploded by the Titanic) have had ALL my focus this week! i tried to watch them when they first started, but was unable to really understand what was going on until the Netflix doc put more of the timeline/company structure into context.

if you have netflix, i REALLY recommend checking out the documentary! there's a big focus on sound design that really pays off towards the end.

if you don't these are some hearing testimonials i think are EXTREMELY interesting and don't require too much pre-requisite understanding!

Antonella Wilby - Operations/Engineering Tech Contractor:
she has one of the most concise and compelling employee testimonials because she was only at the company for 3 WEEKS before she was fired for "not having an explorer mindset".

Roy Thomas - Design Expert with a Classing Agency:
an extremely thorough presentation on why carbon fiber drew so much scrutiny from engineers and scientists. He also provides context for exactly how unsafely this company was operating by laying out a thorough example of how they would go about testing and classing a vessel made with an untested material.

Guillermo Solhein - Oceangate Co-Founder:
he essentially is the only person willing to openly describe the ways they tried to skirt regulation so they could get paying customers on an unclassed experimental vessel. probably because he left the company WAY before they ever took passengers, so is free from liability.

I'm not done watching yet though! and definitely still have a lot more to say. so don't be surprised if this topic pops up here again!

july 15, 2025

Bad Memory by Duane Franklet. you can read it for free on the internet archive, here!

It's about Barry Shephard, the president of a brand new direct-to-consumer computer shipping service for massive computer company Simtech. After a wave of incorrect shipments are sent out, angering customers, Barry unexpectedly becomes the point of contact for a ransom attempt on Simtech. They say no, underestimating the scope of the attack--but as the stakes raise for the company, so do the efforts to fight off the ransomers.

it's a computer/tech-based thriller written in 1997, which is soooo interesting from a modern perspective. there's like a revelation the characters have that the bad guy might not have direct access through a machine on site via ethernet. he might be using... a modem?! it also makes the technical stuff pretty easy to understand, since it's every day shit for most people now.

anyway, i found it to be satisfying and focused mostly on the action. while company politics and paranoia play a bit of a role, our main characters stay focused on finding solutions and not getting caught in the drama of it all! It reads like an 80's action movie, and watching the 2 sides trade blows is a LOT of fun!!

july 7, 2025

there is very little i enjoy in this world more than an action/horror creature feature, so i was overjoyed when i stumbled on this movie:

a bluray rip is available on archive.org!

Deep Rising feels like National Treasure with a monster & some gore. There's even a goofy tech guy! A proto-Riley! The visual effects were done by ILM, it looks shockingly great for 1998 and the monster design is fucking SO COOL!!!

Do be warned tho--while most of this movie keeps it light with Indiana Jones levels of gunfights and banter, there are a few sequences that are pretty gorey. If acid based deaths is something you're especially squickey about, you might wanna skip this one. without spoiling anything, there's one death that's so incredibly gruesome i'm shocked i hadn't heard of this movie before on a watchMojo "top 10 yucky deaths in horror movies" lists because yes--that is how i picked movies to watch when i was sick as a teenager.

it's an incredibly fun watch, with LOTS of bad guys to evelate that bodycount. it's goofy, gorey, and the vfx are awesome.

march 24, 2025

if you like grim history or gruesome deaths, you'll probably like this book Death in Yellowstone! fair warning tho, it is very graphic.

It's a collection of stories of times people have died in yellowstone, the chapter on hot spring burns is especially gruesome. this book was one of my favs as a kid!! you can read it for free on the internet archives if you make an account!

if yellowstone isn't your jam, lots of different national parks have one! there's one for yosemite, grand canyon (not free), and rocky mountain national park too (also not free). probably even more that i dont know about! aside from them just being morbidly fascinating, reading them is also great prep for going to a national park and learning what *not* to do.

jan 21, 2025

my husband and i were on a 6-day road trip recently and we were listening to this book on a recommendation:

and OMG is it FASCINATING! We're only halfway through but a few things that have particularly stood out to me so far are:

• the historical context totally explains why so many gen x/boomers are bootlickers AND fericiously "libertarian"--during the cold war and atomic panic, the US was afraid of looking "too communist" in putting together its emergency response. so they put the weight on individual citizens to become preppers. the orders to be self-sufficient and prep for disaster were coming FROM the us government, creating a sort of "follow the rules and be independent!" contradiction.
• "gun thy neighbor" was a huuuge cultural debate: do you help your neighbor if you're prepared? or do you shoot them? there were newsletters and advice about how to "deal with" (AKA kill) fleeing civilians from more populated areas. Can you guess where they always used as an example? CALIFORNIA! truly nothing has changed.
• similarly, the push for people to move to suburbs was partially because of atomic fearmongering. housing developments would advertise them as "outside the blast radius" of nearby major cities. omfg. this coinciding with the civil rights movement and and integration totally explains how suburbs became white nationalist prepper hotspots.

The book is SO fascinating, we are so stoked to read more. It does such a great job detailing the plans the US government made, and then breaking down exactly how they failed. The audiobook is free if you have spotify premium!

november 25, 2024

I love tubi.tv. It's SO much fun. I love going on and trying to find the most insane movies (usually found by searching "Bigfoot" and watching anything labelled a documentary), but I also love just seeing what B- and C-tier horror movies they have available. Sometimes even D or F. But last week I stumbled onto an amazing movie I'd never even heard of: The Cave

It's sorted under horror but it's way more an action movie than it is a horror movie. I'm aware that it's possible for something to be both, but the vibe (in my opinion) is a lot more similar to Disney's Animated Atlantis movie than it is the other cave diving horror movie, The Descent (which is also very good!, AAAAAND free on Tubi!). I'd heard of Descent before, as it's spoken highly of in horror fan communities, but had never heard of the cave despite the effects and production being really impressive, and there being several now a-list actors in its cast.

It has historical mysteries, choreographed fully underwater setpieces (not just stock footage of people swimming thru a cave!), and loads of different obstacles from caves full of fire, to underground river rapids, to a sheer cliff wall climb fight sequence. It's a really fun watch and even if you're not a horror fan I think this movie will still have something for you!!

october 15, 2024

It's BOOK TIME: THE SEQUEL

The book is called Dead by Selena Jacobs

While on vacation i also got this book which cost 25$ for some reason even though it was 2nd hand xD but i couldnt resist because OMG this cover is insane.

I was also enchanted by the fact the publisher is called Mosh Pit Publishing, and there was a link to a website called angelsgameproductions.com on the back. the website doesn't exist any more unfortunately, but you can still read some stuff on the wayback machine. Sounds like the author was in an ugly fight with her editor. Yeesh!

This book and I had quite a turbulent relationship but at the end of it all I find myself honestly quite delighted by the work. It's really corny, very self righteous at times, and reeks of Christian Edgelord circa 2008 (It honestly feels like a spiritual successor to those appocalypse books that were secretly about the rapture. I've never read them but it just has that vibe). But about halfway in when we're introduced to some characters named Mack and Sam I realized:

This book is a dumb action movie, told through the female gaze. The guys are rough and tumble scoundrels, but it's reiterated multiple times that they would never hurt a woman. The female characters are flawless and battle ready and the men exist to help them achieve their goals. The men are trustworthy, empathetic, and follow the main character Bethany's plans unquestioningly because "she knows what she's doing." The realization hit me like a truck full of fresh air and I found myself entirely able to look past any flaws from that point forward.

There are some lore things that didn't make any sense to me at the end, but I assume the author would have explained in the sequel that hasn't come out yet. I'm really wishing the website was still up because I'd love to reach out to her and let her know how much I loved her work. I also want her music recs, because from the book it sounded like we probably have similar tastes. Selena, if you're reading this, email me! boredomarchive@pm.me

september 11 2024

I've been on vacation for the past few weeks (thus the fact the weekly updates have not been weekly-oops!). I picked up a book of sci-fi and fantasy short stories in a secondhand bookshop and it had some real bangers in it! I thought the intention was supposed to be for it to be a scifi/horror thing, so heads up most of the stories do tend to be a little on the dark side. But i LIKE IT!!

If you want to, you can check out the whole collection on goodreads, but I have a few i want to recommend:

My 2 favorites were:

"Painlessness" by Kristyn McDermott - it's about a goth girl and her mysterious neighbor who's made an interesting business out of not being able to feel pain. it has loads of body horror and mystery, i read it 2 weeks ago and still haven't stopped thinking about how cool it is! PLUS, you can read for .50c here!

"Bitter Dreams" by Ian McHugh - a western horror story with a distinctively Australian voice. super spooky, gorey, and fucking COOL AS HELL. and the author published the whole thing for free to his blog!!

But I liked basically all of them except "Wives" by Paul Haines and "Gossel" by Margo Lanagan. So I feel comfortable recommending the whole book!

I got another book called "Dead" that I'm still reading but that'll probably be its own post. there's certainly a lot interesting about that one xD