The Pickety Witch — New Beginnings

New newsletter day, new us? Whatever, it’s weird. But we’ll all get used to Thursdays together!

Fancy parties are weird. I went to one. I didn’t spontaneously combust, despite it being a remarkably stressful day. But most importantly can we please revel at the fact that perspective makes me (the shortest) look like I’m taller than everyone else in our lil fancy picture? I love these goons.

Due to schedule shifts, Critics Choice overlapped with SXSW. This made for an interesting week even though I’m not technically covering the festival, but there have been some goodies.

We had the opportunity to see a special screening of X here in L.A. the Q&A was, well let’s just say that there were some choices. But the film was quite fun. We love a good original slasher!

Sissy and Deadstream were both quite fun as well. Both have been picked up by Shudder, so keep your peepers peeled for some exciting influencer horror.

For those curious: yes, Batman is still making up the entirety of my identity. To be fair, it already had for a solid two decades before I got gaslit into thinking that maybe my favorite superhero’s big screen iteration simply wasn’t for me anymore. So, really, we’re just right back where we started and I am very fucking excited to be here.

Anywhoo, I’ve burned through Year One, The Long Halloween, and The Court of Owls and am currently on my re-read of Hush. Then it’s Arkham Asylum and then a full re-read of both contemporary Batgirl omnibuses in preparation for her HBO Max movie.

Truly can’t express how hyped I am for this Arkham Asylum series, either. Especially given the information we learned in The Batman which will not be discussed here because I know not everyone’s ready for theaters again yet.

What I will say is that The Batman dove into Bruce’s empathy more than I ever could have expected. Which is great, because empathy is Bats’ actual super power. I went long on that in the above story. I loved a lot of things about this movie, but Matt Reeves’ understanding of what makes The Bat special was really, really important to me.

It’s rough out there, folks. Take care of you and yours, and anyone else you can when you have the space. You’re not being selfish, you’re securing your oxygen mask before you help other passengers. You’re no use to anyone burnt out or sick.

Try to focus on one thing at a time. Giving your attention in one direction doesn’t mean you don’t care about everything happening. It means you have enough awareness to know that pulling yourself in every direction there’s chaos or despair will literally tear you apart. The people you can’t help this week will still be there the next one, and the ones that need your attention right now won’t wither and fail when you take time for yourself or other folks who need you.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint, is what all them babbly words are trying to say.

Certified Forgotten highlights the horror films that fall through the cracks of modern distribution. The Matts™ host a bi-weekly podcast featuring forgotten gems with ten reviews or less on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as acting as a home for new voices in the horror genre! You can follow them on both Twitter and Instagram.