Welcome one and all to We Have Always Lived in the Kraken, a pop culture blog transmitted directly to you from the belly of the beast. Each week, your humble authors will endeavor to showcase our unique perspectives on the vast and fascinating sea of culture through which the Kraken stalks. There will be new, exciting content available every single week, featuring a variety of awesome voices, subjects, and pop culture obsessions. We’re tremendously pleased to be here in our new internet home, and we hope you poke around, find something cool, and come back to visit us for years to come.
David Robertson, Editor in Chief
Starting next week every Sunday night we’ll be showcasing content scheduled for the upcoming week, as well as highlighting posts from the inky depths of our archive. Most weeks we’ll also provide a little Seafood for Thought, but for today, let’s get right to the awesome. Here’s what’s coming this week:
Monday: The official launch of our site sees an explosion of first day content!
- Unless you have been living under a rock (and even then, probably) you’ve heard that Hollywood has a problem with gender. Special contributor Amy Davidson brings her take on this issue to the Kraken in our spotlight piece of the week, Atomika vs The Hollywood Gender Paradigm.
- What’s that you say? It’s October? Around these parts there is only Killtober, as Josh Kyu Saiewitz embarks on his yearly Killtoberfest quest to watch and review a horror film for every day in October. He’ll try and stick to his schedule to accomplish that goal, but fair warning, life may intervene. The ‘fest is already in full swing, so see the fruits of his progress to date, as well as a new entry for today on the ultraviolent French thriller High Tension.
- Kyu doesn’t only talk about horror films, however, so enjoy his examination of the use of z-axis-based cinematography to emphasize the distance and difference between two colliding communities in Peter Weir’s Witness.
- It’s easy to talk about the TV shows you actually want to watch each week, but what if instead you left the show you are reviewing up to chance? Join me for my new feature, TV Roulette, as I navigate fall television week-to-week in the most random way possible. Of course, the fall TV season started three weeks ago, but never fear, as a number of reviews have been prepared to cover those three weeks and catch us up to right now, starting with a review of one of the most ambitious pilots of the fall television season: ABC’s Quantico.
Tuesday:
- Killtoberfest continues as Kyu explores the weirdness that is Taxidermia.
Wednesday:
- It’s only fitting that the first official week-to-week TV Roulette post is for Fox’s Scream Queens. My relationship with Ryan Murphy shows has always been love/hate at best, but maybe Scream Queens will be different. Let me dream, please…
- Have you had your daily Killtoberfest fix for the day? If not, check in to see Kyu’s review of what he can only assume is a movie about the sport of kings, Boxing Helena.
Thursday:
- Killtoberfest was canceled today after Kyu inherited a spooky mansion on the condition that he spend 24 hours inside.
Friday:
- Killtoberfest is still on hold today, as Kyu hasn’t been seen since a series of screams were heard in the vicinity of the spooky mansion. Hopefully the feature will resume Monday.
Saturday:
- Nana-nana-nana-nana Baturdays! Kyu is our resident Batman expert, and has engaged in a noble pursuit to read and review all Batman media from the very beginning in chronological order. Is this goal completely crazy and impossible? Probably, but it’s going to be an enjoyable ride. In the feature’s inaugural post, Kyu looks at the place where it all began, Detective Comics #27.
Spotlight on Blogs Past:
Each week I will shine a spotlight on a post from the archive of our old blog, The Thieves’ Den. The archives are still under renovation though, while we hollow out a few more Kraken ribs, so watch this space.
Catch of the Week:
Each and every week the residents here in the Kraken will offer one recommendation for the week that we think you all would enjoy. It might be a movie. It might be a book. Who knows? We call this our Catch of the Week.
David: Everyone is loving The Martian right now, and it is good and all, but people shouldn’t forget about Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, one of the best films this year. Villeneuve’s ability to rev up the tension in this film will leave your heart pounding long after the film finishes. Combined with the superb cinematography of Roger Deakins, one of the five greatest cinematographers alive, and this is an action movie you will be talking about for a long time.
Kyu: 8 friends. One snowbound winter cabin. A mysterious killer in the storm. It may sound like a slasher film, but Until Dawn is a fully interactive video game where you’re the one fighting to survive. The story twists and changes depending on if (and when) your characters die, and although it might be cheesy, you’ll still spend the game’s 8-12 hours in a state of wonderfully high tension.
Keskel: Ever want to see the existential crisis of being the best, from Superman’s perspective? Check out One Punch Man, the new anime based on the long-running Japanese webcomic.
That’s all for this week! Once again, welcome, and we hope you enjoy your time in the Kraken. Do note that renovations are still ongoing, and the site is likely to shift and change as we get used to our new home.