Views - Sketching Details (Page 3)

On Captioning Social Video

For years, TikTok users have been asking TikTok to add a captioning feature to the social video making app. TikTok so far has ignored the requests. It is frustrating, for sure, since the TikTok video making features are actually pretty advanced and robust.

Games

Dead by Daylight No Bloodlust Test Weekend

From Friday, 20 November until today, 22 November, Behaviour Interactive turned off the Bloodlust mechanic in Dead by Daylight. DBD is an asymmetrical 4v1 survival horror game where a team of four survivors try to finish five generators and escape the trial before a monstrous killer sacrifices them

Film

Spookier Times Episode 5: Into the Fog with Dead by Daylight and Other Post-Modern Genre-Mash Horror

The new episode of Spookier Times is all about Dead by Daylight’s lore. Fun fact: Spookier Times was almost a podcast about video game lore specifically because of DBD.

Film

On Advocating for Accessibility in Digital Space

We all still have a lot of work to do to make the Internet and digital technology an accessible space for all people.

News

A Reflection on the 74th Annual Tony Award Nominations

On 15 October, the Tony Award nominations for the truncated 2019-2020 season finally came out. We all knew that it was going to be a different kind of list since so few shows opened between May 2019 and March 2020, but I don’t think anyone anticipated some of the more unusual results.

Games

Doki Doki Literature Club and the Ethics of Horror

In 2007, the indie horror game Doki Doki Literature Club! was released to itchi.io. This free visual novel very quickly became popular, especially in livestream and video playthroughs, due to its chaotic style of horror. What starts as a sweet and innocent anime-styled dating sim set around a high s

Views

On Being a TikTok Creator Who Doesn't Dance

My experience on TikTok is not the typical experience, what with me being an elder millennial media critic on an app that champions teenagers dancing to the latest hits.

Announcements

Announcing: Spookier Times

Introducing Spookier Times. This is a new biweekly podcast about everything horror, Gothic, and weird fiction across media. I’m incredibly proud of the project and the opportunities it affords in media criticism.

Film

The "Authorship" of Poltergeist

The big question that always surrounds Poltergeist is essentially an authorship debate. Tobe Hooper, a horror director best known at that point for incredibly violent B-movies like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Eaten Alive, was chosen to direct Poltergeist by producer/screenwriter Steven Spielber

Film

5 Family Friendly Horror Films

For younger horror fans, the choices are few and far between. Halloween specials are abundant, but actual stories about learning to confront and overcome fear are still not the most common. By all means, share the joy of some truly wonderful animated films like The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Ad

Games

Strategy Guide: Dead by Daylight: Chapter XVII: Descend Beyond

Here’s my strategy guide for the new perks introduced in Dead by Daylight: Chapter XVII: Descend Beyond.

News

On Creating through Trauma in a Time of Uncertainty

Writing has always been an escape for me. I used to find a quiet corner to hide in and form my thoughts and feelings into bizarre pieces of weird fiction. It was a way of reflecting on the world and what happened to me in my day to day life. I’m not going into past trauma right now, but my writing w

Games

Falling Out of Love with a Game

If you haven’t picked up on a trend in my gaming coverage at Sketching Details, I’ll clue you in on some constants. The games I enjoy are horror games, rhythm games, and rpg/adventure games. I like Rogue-like mechanics and the ability to play a game over and over with new experiences each time. I am

Film

Problematic Horror Tropes

What I’m not loving is reliving the problematic horror tropes of my formative years with the genre. I’ve been doing content warnings here for a good while now. I think it’s responsible media criticism. I’ve made videos about it. I’m alarmed by how often I have to repeat certain warnings. It feels li

Views

Why I Write What I Write

I’m going to take a step back today. Do you know why I write about media? I like discussing media. I like having deep, meaningful discussions about film and television, games and theatre, and everything in between. I specifically like talking about horror, fantasy, and sci-fi. But when I tried to ha

Film

The Silence, A Quiet Place, and the Subtle Art of Coincidence

My focus today is on shared inspiration in creative fields. The biggest story when A Quiet Place came out was its similarities to Tim Lebbon’s novel The Silence. People who read Lebbon’s book (or even the dust-cover summary) could see a lot of unlikely coincidences in the narrative.

News

About that RuPaul's Drag Race Disqualification

World of Wonder (the producers of RuPaul’s Drag Race) and VH1 (the network airing the series) have disqualified a contestant after the majority of the season already filmed. Sherry Pie is no longer eligible to win the competition (if she made it to the finale) and will not even be allowed to attend

Film

The Legacy of The Candyman

I used to be equally terrified and obsessed with horror film trailers as a child. Let’s set the scene. It’s 1989. I’m four years old. 7pm hits and the TV is suddenly filled with trailers for the newest Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th sequel. I live close enough to NYC that our TV feeds we

Film

Ari Aster and The Horror of Grieving

Love him or hate him, Ari Aster has quickly made a name for himself in horror. In two short years, he released two of most talked about films in recent years. He broke the rules of horror to create a conversation about what defines terror in cinema.

Film

Fueled by Nostalgia: Revisiting Beloved Films in New Animated Forms

Did I ever expect to be comparing a big budget Disney remake with an accidentally absurdist Tom and Jerry film? No. But here we are.

Film

Superlatives: Best in Film 2019

Like I said in my Best Films of 2019 post [https://sketchydetails.us/sketchy-details/bestfilmsof2019], I really can’t remember a year where I swapped so many films in and out of my Top 10 to find the combination that made sense to me. I wanted to take the time to recognize more of the films and show

Film

Best Films of 2019

The year in film was a quite a journey for me. There were projects I looked forward to getting my eyes on for months that I wound up being utterly disappointed in. There were projects I had no interest in seeing that I took a chance on and fell in love with. Nothing shook out how I expected and it r

Film

Top 25 Films of the 2010s

One thing I always make it a point to do, no matter how busy my schedule, is a year-end wrap-up. I have a few more 2019 features to take in before I commit to a Best Films of 2019 list. However, I’ve seen enough films in the past 10 years to comfortable evaluate what I believe to be the best 25 of t

Film

Cats Review: An Addendum

I stand by every word of my unconventional review of the Cats film [https://sketchydetails.us/sketchy-details/catsreview2019]. The version released in theaters Thursday, 19 December 2019 was an unprecedented mess, filled with digital glitches rarely seen out of video games being beta tested. The use

Film

My Favorite Christmas Movies

There is no shortage of Christmas films. Lifetime, Hallmark Channel, and Netflix have gone all in on producing these heartwarming tales for the holiday season. They’re fun, they’re silly, and they’re all about positivity and joy. My own take on a holiday film is different.