5 Cozy Horror Books to Read This Fall That Are Perfect From Start to Finish

A hooded figure emerges slowly from the floor of a cavernous art-deco space — supposedly the hallway of his house, although it looks like a theater stage. He dramatically plays an organ mounted on a hydraulic platform. The organ is flanked by a sinister clockwork jazz band with papier-mâché heads. The hooded figure sets the band in motion and a beautiful young woman appears in a fantastical white gown. The pair dance together in courtly fashion. Then they go and murder a guy by lowering a cage full of ravenous bats into his bedroom through a skylight. The bats eat the man alive. The woman and the hooded man return home and he plays his organ again, sinking slowly into the floor. We are 10 minutes into The Abominable Dr. Phibes, and nobody has spoken a word. Robert Fuest’s 1971 horror film is a surreal, kitsch, and intentionally funny murder-museum of a movie. But it's also dreamlike and deeply strange in a way that lingers after you've watched it.

Sundays are, again, for running taxi duty for relatives visiting from overseas. If I had a nickel for every time I had an early morning Gatwick run in tandem with a Sunday Papers post, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird than I’m being paid in USD when I live in the United Kingdom. In that international spirit, here are some fine writings from around the globe. For Stop Caring, Artemis Octavio interviewed Jeremy Couillard, the multimedia artist behind such offbeat indie experiments as Soul Injector Commando: an FPS about shooting a sense of humanity into enemies based on real-life billionaires.

Last night, I sat down with a greasy pizza and a few bottles of beer and braced myself for 10 episodes of heartbreak. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' second season is out, and it follows in the footsteps of Studio Trigger's beloved, and tragic, debut. My expectations were way off. Not because it wasn't good: Edgerunners Season 2 is fantastic. Packed with a wonderful cast of troubled characters, their story brought to life with gorgeous and often unorthodox animation. The soundtrack, the voice acting... Quality-wise the bar is as high as the first season. What surprised me was the decision to bring something many may find peculiar given Cyberpunk's dire setting and desperate energy. The show is hopeful. Defiant, even.

5 great psychological thrillers you can watch online for free Psychological thrillers trigger a fight-or-flight response within a controlled environment and entertain us at the same time. Interpersonal relationships become the source of anxiety, as there’s more at stake than someone’s physical safety — their very sanity is on the line. The novelty of great psychological thrillers like Rear Window (1954), Memento (2000), or Mulholland Drive (2001) does not wear off after a first watch. There’s more to glean than suspense or twist, as catharsis is an integral part of the experience. Unfortunately, all those movies are locked up behind various streaming service subscriptions (if they're available to stream at all).

Jake is a journalist, editor, and critic with over a decade of experience covering entertainment, gaming, culture and more. His writing has been published in WIRED, The Ringer, Rolling Stone, Vice, Men's Health, HuffPost, and more. Before joining Polygon, he was the Executive Editor of Inverse. James Marsters' snarky vampire remains one of the show's most memorable characters

Paul's quote about cyclical violence is a seminal aspect of Dune Frank Herbert’s Dune novels were once considered unfilmable. This makes sense, since Herbert’s world is chock-full of ecological details and complex characters. It is a cautionary tale about unchecked power, nestled within a vast setting with several dense subplots. David Lynch tried to make sense of Herbert’s saga in his flawed 1984 adaptation, while Alejandro Jodorowsky was unsuccessful in bringing his eccentric vision for Dune to life.