The Ricochet Reviewer: Books, Movies, and Comics

  HALLOWEEN REVIEWS 2026 by Brian Lumley Harry Keogh, the necroscope who can talk with the dead, discovers that vampires are not supernatural creatures in the traditional sense but parasitic alien intelligences with their own biology, powers, and hidden history.  As his psychic abilities continue to evolve beyond simple communication with the dead and into stranger, more isolating territory, he is drawn into a deadly conflict involving psychic espionage, monstrous transformations, and the expanding threat of the vampiric race.  Brian Lumley’s vampires are not merely aristocrats with fangs, which allows them to stand apart from more traditional vampires, even when they still indulge in the old pleasures of blood, corruption, and ancient evil.  Brian Lumley This sequel also expands the story outward into cosmic horror, bringing in alternate dimensions, alien origins, psychic warfare, and ancient bloodlines until the vampire myth begins to feel much larger.  Harry ...

  HALLOWEEN REVIEWS 2026 Director: S.S. Wilson Writers: Scott Buck, story by S.S. Wilson & Brent Maddock & Nancy Roberts, based on characters created by S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, and Ron Underwood Stars: Michael Gross, Sara Botsford, Billy Drago, Brent Roam, August Schellenberg, J.E. Freeman, Ming Lo, Lydia Look, Sam Ly, Neal Kopit The best that can be said about this film is that it is better than Part 3 of this series that managed to produce two good films before taking a nosedive.  This time the action moves to the Old West, where the burrowing graboids (this time christened "dirt dragons" or something like that) have killed all the workers at a silver mine near the town of Rejection.  Prissy Eastern mine owner Hiram Gummer (Michael Gross), an ancestor of the later gun nut, comes out to investigate why profits from the mine have declined so precipitously.  Although the change of era is inspired, this film just seems to be going through the motions. ...

HALLOWEEN REVIEWS 2026 Writer: Steve Gerber Artist: Craig Russell Mad with hunger, Morbius attacks the first people he encounters in this strange new place. But he is in for a surprise. Fortunately for him, there is still a meal available. Sated, he explores, only to find more bizarre wonders. And some unwelcome news. The freaks of Arcturus are the survivors of a biological war who long for two things: their own destruction and to stop the Caretakers from causing another such disaster (though it seems that they are 10,000 years too late). A confrontation with the Caretakers has been set up, and I’m not sure it makes a lot of sense, but I’m here for it.  This is a weird, lonely, inter dimensional adventure that depends on cosmic strangeness rather than hoary horror tropes. Morbius’ essential conflict is compelling: hunger driving action, then conscience arriving a beat late, then Morbius trying to orient himself to a situation in which his moral crisis is irrelevant. The Last Stop A...

HALLOWEEN REVIEWS 2026 by Stephen King Jack Torrance takes a winter caretaker job at the isolated Overlook Hotel, bringing his wife Wendy and young son Danny with him in hopes of rebuilding his life and finishing his writing.  But Danny’s psychic sensitivity awakens a malevolent force, and the Overlook begins working on Jack’s anger, addiction, and resentment to turn him against his family, get access to his son’s gift, and manifest itself more fully in the world.  The setting is one of the book’s strengths, and Stephen King uses it effectively.  Stephen King Dread accumulates slowly as the supernatural elements exploit forces that already exist within the family.  The horror is grounded in real domestic fear, especially the fear of living with someone whose rage makes him unpredictable.  Jack Torrance is not simply a monster.  He is damaged, often sympathetic, and sometimes genuinely loving, but his alcoholism, self-pity, resentment, and lack of personal r...