Let's talk about ghosts...(and a bit of grief)
In a more personal article, I reminisce of my late grandfather and how the thought of ghosts have grown to be really comforting.
HELLO! BOO!
My newsletter is back from a brief hiatus. I’m not putting any expectations on myself with writing these anymore! I’ll write them when the feeling hits.
Quite a lot has happened in the past few months. I’m not planning on getting super personal with these (I would like to contain an air of mystery after all) but this has been on my mind lately.
So yeah, my Pop (My Dad’s Dad) passed away about two weeks ago (as of this writing of course) and the feelings around it are…a bit complicated. He’s had cancer for years and had been going steadily these past few months, we knew he wouldn’t be around for much longer but when he passed it didn’t feel real. I still don’t think it’s hit me yet.
I loved Pop obviously. I credit him for actually getting me really into film. My favorite movie of all time ‘The Never-ending Story’ I watched at his house with him and my brother for the first time. He took us to the movies, we rented a movie at BlockBuster whenever I was over (well, when BlockBuster was still a thing) and my most formative movie watches stemmed from him.
He was also a big horror nut as well, so we always had recommendations for each other. I remember one time when I was probably 9 or 10 we went to the Halloween store sometime in like May and he bought me a blood capsule pack because I thought it would look cool in one of my short films.
Like I said, I don’t think his passing has quite hit me yet. Grief obviously hits different for everyone and emotion can strike at random times. I’ll randomly get a wave of emotion hit but I don’t think I’ve TRULY felt his passing yet, y’know?
My dad’s currently in the hospital for his own cancer treatment (he’ll be fine, thankfully) and I’ve always been told I look a lot like him and my dad looks a lot like his dad. Naturally, it makes me wonder if I’ll have cancer when I get older (probably) and I hope I’ll get it (relatively) easier like my dad did.
Well, the other day I watched a super low-budget film called ‘Jethica’ (one of the characters says the name ‘Jessica’ a lot and he has a lisp, hence the title lol), an offbeat supernatural dramedy/satire? The genre’s hard to pin down.
When Jessica's stalker surprises her in New Mexico, she must seek help from beyond the grave to get rid of him for good.
I’m not gonna get fully into the details of the film cause I don’t wanna spoil it, but the way the film treats the idea of ghosts and spirits I found to be surprisingly touching in its own sort-of-niche way. Ghosts, the idea of them, have changed a lot for me since I was a kid.
I used to think (like most kids and probably a good portion of adults) that ghosts are inherently scary thing like ‘The Conjuring’, ‘Insidious’, etc. It’s interesting that as I’ve gotten older they’re an extremely comforting thing, like spirits can go on after death. I’d like to imagine Pop with his family somewhere, it’s a nice thought.
In the meantime, all you can do is try to keep your departed loved ones alive through yourself and keep on living with their memories in your heart and hope you can reunite someday.
Well, that’s all folks!
In all serious-ness, I know this isn’t a ‘fun’ newsletter by any stretch, but it’s one I felt like I had to write before I get back into my horror nerd shit.
I’m genuinely trying to keep these newsletters going and I can promise I’m actively trying to get back on a once-a-week posting. Some things you can look forward to you ask? I’m talking my thoughts on some horror novels I’ve read, my thoughts on 2023 genre cinema (so far) and more…
See you soon!
Keep on keeping on.