Board 8 > Snake Ranks Anything Horror Related Vol. 4 *RANKINGS*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Honestly I hate what they did considering that the entire movie built up to her being redeemed and going to magical girl heaven with Madoka. But it was so satisfying to see Kyubey know fear and pain.
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77. Oldboy Octopus Scene (13 points)
Nominated by: BetrayedTangy (1/5 remaining)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH0cV8FcfV4" data-time="

Importance: 1
Fear: 5
Snake: 7

One of the most raw and visceral minutes you'll ever see in film. The camera does not shy away from showing this gag-worthy act, and there are several details that really build-up this scene the more you examine it. The squishy sounds of the octopus, how it wiggles and squirms in Choi Min-sik's mouth and hand, how one tentacle dangles out of this mouth when he's done. It's all disgusting, but then what really elevates it is the pure emotion behind this scene. Oh Dae-su's depression, feeding his desire to feel alive and to specifically EAT something alive, can 100% be felt throughout this scene, becoming an affirmation of life filled with deep sadness and a strange joyous calm after being captive for so many years. Compounded with this is that the octopus was real, Choi Min-sik had to do this four times, and, to cap it all off, was a devout Buddhist who prayed before and after every one. That is commitment, and it paid off because I won't ever forget this scene as long as I live.
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Don't want to watch that scene because I still really want to watch Oldboy
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76. Halloween of Horror (13 points)
Nominated by: Xeybozn (4/5 remaining)
https://www.simpsonsworld.com/video/770425923947

Importance: 3.5
Fear: 2.5
Snake: 7

It only took The Simpsons 27 seasons to do a Halloween episode outside of the typical Treehouse of Horror format. Not that I think it ever needed to, but still, it's a welcome addition to the show and a strong episode despite The Simpsons not being what it used to be. It's as scary as a Simpsons episode needs to be, acutely focusing on Lisa, specifically her facing her childhood trauma and fears, letting go of the past, and even facing the truth that parents aren't always the brave figures they can pretend to be. The three main antagonists, employees Homer gets fired from Apu's Halloween pop-up shop, are purposely shallow but act as appropriate conduits for developing Lisa's character and for lampooning traditional slasher tropes. I especially loved the gag of the blood writing on the walls, and both Homer and Lisa whistling the Halloween theme.

A b-plot involving Bart and Marge trying to have Halloween away from home is a little weaker, but there's still some emotion to it. As someone who misses trick-r-treating, that pain of Bart narrowly missing his window of oppurtunity hit close to home. However, it's followed-up with a painful parody of Rocky Horror's Time Warp, which isn't funny in the slightest. All's well that ends well though; I like the idea of using a combination of holidays the win the day, and seeing Lisa let go of Taily and conquer her fears is just universally inspiring. If you squint hard enough, you might see some commentary on over commercialization of holidays here, but the main ideas of facing your up to your fears as both a child and an adult come through strong and it's something I always love seeing, boiling down to what I love about the horror genre the most.
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75. Ghost Hunter TV Shows (13.5 points)
Nominated by: BetrayedTangy (0/5 remaining)
https://imgur.com/a/Jsr1G1k

Importance: 6.5
Fear: 3
Snake: 4

These ghost hunter TV series are like the McDonald's of the horror world. A quick, cheap way to get a few spooks if you're ever in the mood for one. These shows always seem to carry the same format; they got the dudebro crew with token chicks, flimsy scientific analysis passed off as legitimate, night-vision cameras, and maybe something moving if you squint hard enough. That's really the root of the problem with the myriad of these various shows. They drag on for an hour with very little excitement or action. They feel like a total waste of time at their worst moments, and at best you might get some neat moment that will still leave you pondering at the reality of it all. I believe in ghosts myself and have experienced what I believe to paranormal happenings, and they don't feel anything like the shows. Still, they're a guilty pleasure for many, and even I don't totally hate watching them sometimes since the actual stories behind the hauntings can be genuinely interesting. I still find it weird that there's a million of these shows out there though, each more disingenuous and short-lived than the last. The fact is, these shows are appealing and easy to market and hype-up, and they have a dedicated audience hooked, line, and sinker. However, if 12 seasons of Ghost Hunters can't get anything concretely proven yet, I say, what's even the point?
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you know my apartment building's basement is terrifying and disgusting, maybe I should record a ghost hunter film down there
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It would be probably be scarier than any of the shows.
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shout out to paranormal home inspectors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wG9m-eYNiM" data-time="
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Did you ever see the YouTube ghost hunter channel where they accidentally uploaded a guy telling another guy to spookily open the door a little sooner next time?
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I have, I think that guy was actually from one of the ghost shows but I forget which one.
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My manager actually worked on one such show. She said they tried to keep actual fabrication to a minimal but...yeah, nothing really happened except for winds and stuff.
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74. Orphan of Kos (13.5 points)
Nominated by: Axl_Rose_85 (4/5 remaining)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxRvPgVijKo" data-time="

Importance: 1.5
Fear: 6
Snake: 6

A boss appropriately born of pain and misery, writhing out if its mother in what can only be described as a scene of great, slow-burning agony and distress that is really unnerving to witness, with sorrowful crying punctuating the emotion. The walk-up to the boss is excellent, as the Orphan will not attack at first, instead giving the player a sort of jump-scare attack that will definitely send the adrenaline pumping. Like a baby throwing a temper tantrum, Orphan of Kos also likes to spam its most powerful and dangerous attacks, creating a battle that's intense from start to end. Design-wise, it's certainly disturbing how The Orphan is born as a twisted elder, a paradox invoking the Old Gods and the works of Lovecraft, but then you have that extra flair of the Orphan using a placenta-like object as a weapon, a sentence almost too crazy to write out! Offering both challenge and horror up to the player, Orphan of Kos is a great cap to the Bloodborne experience and is sure to give many a hunter a run for their money.
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I think the one real shining quality you get out of the ghost hunter shows is the backstory on some of the really creepy locations they'll visit. Hearing about a particular locations horrific events is usually way more chilling than anything the rest of the episode has to offer.
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Yeah for sure! It makes me wish they would just focus on that.
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Snake, October is halfway complete!
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Going so fast this year! I'm gonna start ramping this up as much as I can.
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73. Ragnorra, the Mother of Monsters (14 points)
Nominated by: trdl23 (3/5 remaining)
https://dtdnd.neocities.org/books/dm/Elder%20Evils.pdf


Importance: 2.5
Fear: 5.5
Snake: 6

A face only a... unknown entity of pure evil horror could love...? Well, it doesn't really matter, because Ragnorra loves us, unconditionally, with a boundless love that will last eternities. Quite literally. Ragnorra prepares for her arrival every 1500 years, sowing the seeds of pure evil that will turn a planet into a realm of hideous monsters in her own image, impacting the planet with a huge force that can not only be seen globally, but affects it as well with destructive earthquakes that ensure everyone knows of Ragnorra's presence. The transformation process is painful and disgusting and starts even while Ragnorra is just in the atmosphere hurtling towards ground, as anything living or even non-living collapses into tumors that burst with horrific creatures born from your worst nightmares. There's a whole load more I won't get into to avoid having this read like a wiki article, but at times, Ragnorra seems more like an exercise or game where the next player has to keep adding a new feature to make Ragnorra more horrific than the previous addition. I like it though; Ragnorra's descriptive text does not leave a lot of room for hope unless of course you enjoy being a hideous aberration, or you have serious mommy issues. The one brief ray of hope is that Ragnorra can be killed, weakened by her ultimate ascension, and once dead everything turns back to normal more or less. Though I'm not fully sure of how D&D works and how you would go about making her appear in-game, I'm sure if it were to happen it would be quite a shock and I could see it being a fun twist to a campaign.
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72. Discomfort (14 points)
Nominated by: Ihatethiscpu (2/5 remaining)
https://mymadnessworks.itch.io/discomfort

Importance: 2
Fear: 5
Snake: 7

This guy sure makes some amazing games. What I think I love most about Discomfort is its startling mundanity. I kind of went in with expectations for this to be like imscared, but it's not really anything like that. The house you inhabit throughout the experience is just a house, in the real world, late at night just like any old typical day you could pick out of a hat. There's a bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, everything you would expect, it's all very unassuming, except for the one little detail of a dead body in the bedroom with some sort of satanic symbol drawn on the floor. The thing about this is that you just stumble upon it; there's no musical stinger, no reaction from your character (in fact, your character kind of seems to know what's up already), no scary thing that jumps out at you. Hell, you can barely even make it out because of the game's draw distance. It's weird and unsettling and gives you an odd pit in your stomach, and that's exactly what the game is going for. Going over to the computer, you can easily piece together what happened for yourself, as messages filled with occult readings, creep images (props for the Lake Mungo shout-out!), and those old cursed chain mails open up to you one-by-one. It's a great storytelling tool that once again plays into the mundanity, as you feel like this is something any old person could stumble upon and want to try for themselves to get a fun, quick scare for yourself. Yet, that dead body lingers in your mind, and all of a sudden you can feel something watching you at all times, the game's presentation making so that any step could lead you directly into something horrifying before you even realize it.

The game's weird control scheme where everything is done on keyboard (certainly atypical of first-person games), makes you feel as if you're not fully in control as well. As you go around the house collecting things to perform the ritual yourself, you will be scared at just how much nothing happens. It's such a breath of fresh air to play a game like this, where it seems like so many modern horror games feel the need to always have to throw something at you to make you engaged. The whole time I was expecting a jump scare or loud noise, conditioned and almost numbed to feel like this, but Discomfort really threw me off guard in a fantastic way. I won't discuss what happens in the end, you should play this for yourself (it's like a 5/10 minute play), but there are multiple endings and I'll just say the final scare definitely matches the game's tone superbly.
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Yeah, thats the main nemesis were up against in the D&D game that I am currently playing in. I appreciate you not going into too much detail since I should have warned you I hadnt read all of it myself, so your description already put down stuff we have encountered thus far. Her main lieutenant, Vane, is horrific too. And he really wants his ring back that I stole.

The most insidious part is that when she first begins to arrive, healing magic improves, and the undead weaken. Sounds great, right? We sure thought so at first, too...
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Oh damn, I read the title and thought this would be about the actual feeling of discomfort.
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trdl23 posted...

The most insidious part is that when she first begins to arrive, healing magic improves, and the undead weaken. Sounds great, right? We sure thought so at first, too...

Oh I love this part! It's such a great bait and switch.
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Snake5555555555 posted...

trdl23 posted...

The most insidious part is that when she first begins to arrive, healing magic improves, and the undead weaken. Sounds great, right? We sure thought so at first, too...

Oh I love this part! It's such a great bait and switch.

It also sets up problems where even though we know that healing magic is becoming dangerous, random cities and villages with clerics dont until its too late.
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Anagram posted...

Oh damn, I read the title and thought this would be about the actual feeling of discomfort.

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71. Large Marge (14.5 points)
Nominated by: GavsEvans123 (3/5 remaining)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPMSGTfK4Aw" data-time="

Importance: 2.5
Fear: 5
Snake: 7

This scene is spectacular in many ways. It's a small, out of left-field turn in an otherwise goofy comedy film, with a gloomy atmosphere standing out from the rest of the bright, colorful movie. The shot of the truck pulling up in the thick fog with headlights beaming is right out of a horror film, and Pee-wee's innocence combined with Marge's blank stare creates the feeling that something bad is about to happen. Marge goes into a story about the worst accident she's ever seen, cutting back to Pee-wee's reaction after each line, which adds a well-needed element of humor to the scene to catch you off guard when Marge's face goes all ooga-booga-booga at Pee-wee in what might be the most horrifying special effect you may ever see from what is largely an "all-ages" film. This is such a great to nod to Tim Burton's background in horror, and also feels like an effect that would be seen in Burton's next film after Pee-wee, Beetlejuice. It feels like a progenitor for the present, as horror directors like James Wan or David F. Sandberg direct these big tentpole superhero films with nods to their past films like Annabelle and Lights Out. What pushes the Large Marge scene even further is that isn't just glossed over here. Pee-wee later goes on to find out Large Marge was a ghost the whole time and that she is a well-known legend around those parts. Great comedy and great horror is all about build-up and execution, and this right here is a wonderful little slice of how to pull off both flawlessly.
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That thing is the reason why orbital bombardment should be a thing.
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70. Chills (14.5 points)
Nominated by: Great_Paul (1/5 remaining)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN64HIrZNqFQYZ2BuyY-4zg

Importance: 3
Fear: 4.5
Snake: 7

Known for his trademark voice, Chills is as much a meme as he is a serious horror channel, but I think it also helps his identity a lot too. His voice has personally never bothered me much, but I know it is a point of contention for many. Like jilted voice acting in Resident Evil or Silent Hill, Chills' narration adds an extra layer of creepiness that enhances the videos for me. All-around, these countdowns are entirely guilty pleasures for me, and though sometimes feeling cheap and lazy, there's always that occasional video that really draws you in with either strange but true facts or extremely interesting paranormal videos. That's it really, not too much else to talk about here, if you can get past Chills' voice, I think there's at least one video out of hundreds that will certainly pique your interest.
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Large Marge too low - the claymation scare freaked the hell outta me as a kid

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The first time I watched a Chills video was on the Top15s channel. At first I didnt think I could keep watching because of the voice, but I ended up getting used to it and now I like how it adds to the atmosphere of his videos.

Also the Burger King Foot Lettuce reference in that recent-ish ERB was great.
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69. Kingdom of Boletaria lore (Demon's Souls) (15 points)
Nominated by: Axl_Rose_85 (3/5 remaining)
https://demonssouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Lore

Importance: 3
Fear: 5
Snake: 7

The world of Demon's Souls is directly inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, right down to the mention of an Old One, and I think it's very cool that you pretty much play through a game like this, experiencing humanity's mistakes and despair first hand as you explore the various regions of Boletaria. The Old One, an entity of unknown power and origins, awakens only to unleash terrible demons unto the world, and is so powerful it is capable of wiping out at least half of humanity whilst active. It is able to be defeated however, or at least put back to rest. Cut to Demon's Souls, where the current king of Boletaria strikes up a sort of deal with the Old One, in exchange for limitless wealth for his kingdom and people. Unsurprisingly, this backfires, corrupting the kingdom once more, leaving it up to the player to sort it all out. It's not wholly original, but Demon's Souls commits to this hard, reflected in its depressive atmosphere, grim architecture and monster design, a cursed feeling permeating every corner of the game. It's a classic horror story where the mistakes of an individual can end up affecting thousands, and when we ourselves are part of those consequences, the rest of the story just falls into place in a satisfying way.
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68. Jigoku Sensei Nube (manga) (15.5 points)
Nominated by: Raka_Putra (2/5 remaining)
https://imgur.com/a/wya7Lcd

Importance: 4.5
Fear: 6
Snake: 5

Jigoku Sensei Nube is a decent manga that's filled with glorious moments of body horror in between dull characters and romantic moments. See, Jigoku is mostly a comedy manga before it's a horror one, and while some of the character designs are horrific, they lost a little impact for me when wedged between the goofy antics of the classroom and beyond. The manga is mostly made of short vignettes with longer arcs down the line, and I do enjoy this format. There are definite points where the manga works, for sure, and I can absolutely see some of the more gruesome moments shaking people to the core. One of my favorite volumes was Mystery of the Cannibalistic Mona Lisa, which shows the absolutely terrifying Mona Lisa painting coming to life in a way that feels very Junji Ito inspired. It just always wasn't my cup of tea, with some goofy panels taking me out of the story sometimes. Some arcs towards the end also tend to be more action anime inspired rather than horror.

In addition to the manga, there was an anime produced, three films, three OVAs, and even some video games. Though a decently sized franchise, surprisingly Jigoku Sensei Nube has never recieved any official releases in the west, with the exception of an appearance in the video game, J-Stars Victory VS.
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this has been the section of the rankings where I've never heard of anything

got a lot to try to go through
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I'm right there with you, I'm glad I gave myself 2 weeks to prep this year!
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67. 35:38 - 38:00 of Jon Bois's "The Bob Emergency Part 2" (15.5 points)
Nominated by: jcgamer107 (4/5 remaining)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcGamPqUIxI" data-time="&start=2135

Importance: 3
Fear: 5.5
Snake: 7

This is a whole lot of "no thanks"! Bob Burnquist, the most awarded skater in X-Games history, attempted this dangerous BASE jump into the Grand Canyon back in 2006, that involved skating off a rail leading into a parachute jump. If you don't want to watch the video, spoiler alert, the first attempt went very poorly and Bob nearly died after missing the rail and almost didn't pull his parachute in time after entering free fall. Luckily though, he survived, and he went out to perform the trick again with better safety measures and it went flawlessly. Despite the scary features of this stunt and the terrifying first attempt, I quite enjoy the resilient nature of Mr. Burnquist and this really ended up having a nice, happy ending I wasn't expecting. I consider myself a pretty fearless person, but all I know is, I wouldn't be caught dead doing this!
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Yeah, I agree with your assessment. A fair number of horror manga (and anime) made their way to Indonesia and Nube is one of those and quite popular at the time. Unfortunately we got some chapters cut due to the ecchi content.

Since it's targeted for young/teenage boys (serialized in Shonen Jump), I guess that's why it can't be too scary. But when it's effective it's really pretty good. One of my favorite later chapters was the one with the ghost that insta-kills anyone who sees its face so they have to walk blindly. I also like the more Twilight Zone-y chapters like the one where Kyoko wakes up in a possible bad(-ish) future.

I'm surprised it got a recent sequel but nobody translated that yet...
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Jon Bois, inventor of the "horror sports documentary" subgenre

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I'm definitely gonna have to watch these in full sometime.
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66. The Fiend (15.5 points)
Nominated by: Paulg235 (3/4 remaining)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SSiTdO5PE0" data-time="

Importance: 3
Fear: 5.5
Snake: 7

The Fiend is quite possibly the most exciting and unique face in the horror realm of wrestling I've seen yet. The techniques employed by The Fiend turns each match he's involved in into a pop-up horror film, complete with jump scares and musical stinger, an undefeatable aura, unnatural movements, and a signature move that brings most every wrestler down to their knees. The Fiend is simply a terrifying sight to behold in the ring, and I love he incorporates horror tropes into his wrestling. For example, in a recent Hell in a Cell match, The Fiend seemed to be "killed" after being hit with a sledgehammer and buried under a ladder, but even as the match seemed to be over, The Fiend rose again and took out Seth Rollins with his signature move. Now, I know this was a very controversial and much maligned match and I can see why, but I'm just sitting here, from the perspective of a horror fan, and I'm just like, "this is cool". It shows to me how horror has no boundaries and can be pushed in any medium successfully, and in such creative ways.

Off-the-ring, The Fiend alter ego Bray Wyatt hosts a show called Firefly Fun House, a sort of children's show with a twisted angle that's possibly set in the mind of The Fiend. Some episodes include deranged use of a chainsaw and a creepy talking puppet. In another controversial move, Seth Rollins just destroyed the fun house in a way that undermined a lot of the creepy momentum Wyatt was building up. It's a little sad to me to see the wind being taken out of the sails of The Fiend for many wrestling fans, but I still love what I've seen and there's huge potential for The Fiend to make an unforgettable mark on WWE history as the premier way to do horror in wrestling.
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jcgamer107 posted...

Jon Bois, inventor of the "horror sports documentary" subgenre

Speaking of Jon Bois, I was looking up some of his other work and I really like the sound of this NBA Y2k thing. Do you know anything about it? @jcgamer107
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Yesssss I recommend the most recent version he did, the Fumble Dimension one

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65. Repo The Genetic Opera (15.5 points)
Nominated by: Place (4/5 remaining)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzgpU25C6fg" data-time="

Importance: 3
Fear: 5
Snake: 7.5

A cult favorite much in the vein of Rocky Horror Picture Show, Repo! The Genetic Opera can also be a test of patience for many a viewer. If you're not hooked on to the concept from the get-go, you're probably not going to like this. I'll be the first to admit it has problems. Some of the acting is downright awful, the plot has no substance, and many of the songs drag on too long. Rocky Horror has this problem too, but the thing about these films for me is their feeling. Their commitment to the weird and bombastic, excessive rock opera is nearly unparalleled here, with repulsively creepy characters and a seedy undertone that just makes you feel sort of dirty and uncomfortable. Anthony Stewart Head definitely stands out as Nathan Wallace, the psychotic head repo man. I will say his inner conflict between quitting his job or having his darker side take over is one of the few deeper threads in the film. Though earlier I complained about song length, in general I do like the tone and sound of the performances, but being real, some of the talk singing and lyric writing aren't always the strongest. It's performed with conviction, it's just the actual writing isn't enough to carry it sometimes. Some stand out songs though included Legal Assassin and Zydrate Anatomy. Overall, it has issues but is a solid horror musical offering which is a rare beast and even rarer to pull off in a way people like. Though this film was much maligned upon release, especially in the critics sphere, strong fan support has kept Repo trucking through many years, enough to boast annual viewings and shadowcasts to keep the fans ever so engaged.
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I love Chase the Morning and Zydrate Anatomy!
It's too bad the film version album isn't on Spotify...
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64. What Remains of Edith Finch (15.5 points)
Nominated by: Johnbobb (4/5 remaining)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mrx1G26GTQ" data-time="

Importance: 3
Fear: 5
Snake: 7.5

Set-up just like any another first-person indie horror game, What Remains of Edith Finch is a deeply affecting piece of game media that plays with gaming narrative in a unique way, playing with horror and gaming tropes to deliver a rich story of one family's extremely fucked-up family tree. The whole set-up is classic horror material. A ferry to a mysterious island ala The Wicker Man, a long trek through the forest invokes memories of Slender, and the creepy abandoned mansion feels like the game is priming a Resident Evil like survival horror experience. But you explore the house a little bit, and yeah there's a little bit of puzzle solving and muscle grease to get to different parts of the house, but you kind of just realize this is just a house of empty rooms & long-forgotten memories. The first story you uncover, about Molly Finch, seems like the joyous, wild fantasy of a little girl, and there's a little bit of player-controlled horror as you control this weird tentacle eating men on a ship. The story becomes much darker though when you realize Molly died from poisoning due to eating holly berries and toothpaste, and that everything the player just experienced was this dying girl's hallucinations.

The stories only get darker from there, and I do not want to spoil many of them since they rely on extremely shocking moments you get to experience first hand. One of my favorites though, and the most horror-inspired one, is the story of Barbara Finch, a child actress known for her "scream queen" status. You play out the story through a comic issue, inspired by comics like Tales from the Crypt. Barbara and her boyfriend are attacked in their home by these hoodlum killers, and it's genuinely a creepy sequence with some jump scares and a dark atmosphere. In the end, Barbara is cannibalized by the hoodlums, but it being a comic, it's cool that it's left ambiguous if that actually happened or not.

Perhaps the most depressing story is of Lewis Finch, a cannery worker with a vivid imagination. As the player cuts the heads of fish, you also play a side game carrying out Lewis' detailed fantasies, but you eventually realize the extent of Lewis' troubled depression. It's scary how accurately the game conveys the mundanity and oppressiveness of repetitive work, as you start to understand all too well how a person could end up like this.

What Remains of Edith Finch is an experience that deserves to be played. No matter your opinion on walking sims or strictly narrative focused games, the story telling and variety of human experiences portrayed in this game makes this an essential play for just about anybody.
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63. SCP-701 (The Hanged King's Tragedy) (15.5 points)
Nominated by: Raka_Putra (1/5 remaining)
http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-701

Importance: 1.5
Fear: 6
Snake: 8

Our second and last SCP on the list, I really like this one a lot. I've always liked that SCPs don't have to just be monsters; they can be common household items, or like 701, a whole five act play. This cursed production drives both actors and viewers alike to become psychotic, though this actually doesn't always have to be the case. This SCP has a creature associated with it, who appears in the play when performed, incorporated into the story, and seems to be a major player in the play's twisted influence. I think what I love most about The Hanged King's Tragedy is how it unfolds and gets progressively worse as the play develops. From the script going through unnoticed changes to the actors straight-up slaughtering each other on stage, it's quite an interesting beast. I love the idea of cursed videos and films and the like, depicted in Cigarette Burns or even seen in the real life tragedies of Poltergeist, and I think the Hanged King's Tragedy plays into that superstitious fear many actors have before a big production, pushed to the extreme. It's creepy, it's clever, and like a lot of SCPs, closer to reality than we may think.
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62. Hellblazer: All His Engines (15.5 points)
Nominated by: scarletspeed7 (3/5 remaining)
https://imgur.com/a/GwEyIqZ


Importance: 3.5
Fear: 3.5
Snake: 8.5

This is definitely one of my favorite Hellblazer stories. All His Engines is a stand-alone graphic novel, written all as one instead of being a collection of Hellblazer issues. In the story, a mysterious coma infection spreads around the world, even affecting Chas Chandler's niece Tricia. This of course grabs the attention of Constantine, travelling with Chas to uncover the source of the plague and to put a stop to it. Major players include the demon Beroul and the death god Mictlantecuhtli, and All His Engines incorporates a lot of Aztec lore into the backstory here. Beroul, responsible for the coma plague, strikes up a deal with Constantine: Tricia's soul in exchange for Constantine eliminating some of Beroul's troubling enemies. As all this occurs, we get some classic Constantine moves & troubles; the deals, the betrayals, the machinations of Constantine's planning marching towards the greater good at the cost of personal relationships and mistrust among friends. I think this story is a great starting point for those interested in Constantine actually, really boiling down the character to his essence. His intense loneliness, his inner turmoil and tortured psyche, his sarcastic wit even in the face of great, hellish horrors. This is all quintessential Constantine. The artwork is fantastic, a real mood setter than plays as realistic but with intense depictions of hell that have an incredible amount of detail and love put into them. You can easily spend a couple of minutes analyzing the panel up above for example, meticulously crafted to be as horrifying as possible.

All His Engines was the adapted for the short animated series, Constantine: City of Demons, a decent if a little forgettable addition to the DC Animated Movie canon. The comic is not forgettable in the slightest though, and is a must for hardcore Hellblazers or those just dabbling in the dark arts.
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Damn, Hellblazer dropped fast!
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It's weird, even though the artwork is powerful and detailed I still never find it that scary personally. I wish I could rank it higher in that department, but to me Hellblazer is more about the mystery and investigation.
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Hellblazer's art lingers with me as unsettling way more than most horror films. I think being able to convey something only an imagination can create through art is powerful.
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Oh no, sad to see Edith Finch drop

easily one of my favorite indie games of all time. The thought put into each story and the way it tells them is just incredible. Years later I still think about that game constantly, especially Lewis
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scarletspeed7 posted...

Hellblazer's art lingers with me as unsettling way more than most horror films. I think being able to convey something only an imagination can create through art is powerful.

Oh yes of course! I'm specifically referring to All His Engines when I say that. Some other Hellblazer issues would definitely rank high in the fear department.
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I think the Aztec art is personally extremely unsettling, but I don't begrudge you not being bothered by it.
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