October Staff Picks

Bea Basa

Pentiment (2022)

It’s not often a narrative moves me enough to warrant a permanent memento, but Obsidian Entertainment’s Pentiment (2022) has found a way—both in tattoo form and, more profoundly, in “emotional imprint” form. Lead writer Josh Sawyer (of Fallout: New Vegas fame) weaves a tale of change, conspiracy, and chronicle. And good lord, did it make me weep.

Set in 16th century Bavaria, Pentiment begins as the Middle Ages reach their final chapter. Players control journeyman artist Andreas Maler, who works as an illuminator in one of Germany’s last remaining scriptoriums, Kiersau Abbey in Tassing. But just as his apprenticeship nears completion, a murder shakes the small town—and is blamed on Andreas’ mentor, Brother Piero. It’s up to Andreas to clear his name and, in the coming years, unravel a much more sinister conspiracy in Tassing.

But make no mistake: this is no murder-mystery. Rather, Pentiment examines history as storytelling. How stories can transform as they pass down through the ages, the cyclical nature of life and death, and what it means to craft a legacy. Andreas’ story itself is a triptych illustrating three chapters of his life and involvement in Tassing across twenty-five years. His artistic occupation is reflected in the game’s manuscript-esque visual style; and as he and other characters change, hurt, and age, so do their colours. Like its namesake pentimenti, traces of paintings layered below a fresh piece, Pentiment places players at a temporal and emotional crossroads—and, I reiterate, it makes you care so fucking much.

If you, too, enjoy sobbing over the passage of time, Pentiment may just be the game for you.

Nate Ragolia

Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc

If you’re into anime, odds are good you’ve already checked out Chainsaw Man. As the surprise hit of the fall movie releases, Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc continues the show’s inventive storytelling style by steering directly into a genre Denji has yet to experience: Romantic Comedy.

The film, like the show, deftly juggles genres as it starts out as many Chainsaw Man episodes do before quickly clearing the table to treat you to an all new type of meal. The moment Denji meets Reze recalls all the meet cutes from film and literary history. Reze appears to be a bit of a manic pixie dream girl type, but Denji isn’t immediately smitten and even tries to resist her obvious flirtations.

And it’s all handled so nicely that the viewer gets comfortable, along with Denji, in this new normal. A girl actually likes Denji. Denji might be experiencing something like true love for the first time. And that’s when the film takes a stunning horror turn that invokes moody, ominous thrashers. As Reze is stalked by a psychopath, our sense of serene infatuation turns to terror… and Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc shows its true colors.

Where else can you get a truly sweet love story AND a man with chainsaw powers riding a shark monster into battle with a giant baby typhoon? The answer is nowhere else. Only this movie can do that for you, so don’t miss it. 

Kaitlin Lounsberry

IT: Welcome to Derry

Spin-off television of popular horror franchises seem to be having a moment across the major streaming platforms, to varying success. Hulu tackled Alien: Earth, Amazon gave I Know What You Did Last Summer a go, and MTV had a few enjoyable seasons of Scream: The TV Series, so naturally HBO had to join the ranks and throw their hat in the mix with IT: Welcome to Derry. As a mega horror fan, I’ve seen them all. Some I loved (Season 1 and Season 2 of Scream), some took a while before I got invested (*cough* Alien), and others probably should have never gotten the green light (I’m so sorry IKWYDLS). So where does IT: Welcome to Derry fall? Heavily on the love scale.

Though it should be noted the series has only released two episodes so far, but those two episodes have shown what can happen when a franchise is willing to fully commit to the world, characters, and stories they’re attempting to re-introduce. And IT is not an easy world to dive into. Arguably one of Steven King’s biggest hits, it’s already been readapted in 2017 and 2019 as a two-part, mega-Hollywood movie event. But IT: Welcome to Derry is going back in time and looking at earlier instances of Pennywise’s torment of Derry and its young inhabitants. It’s gory, it’s twisted, and it’s everything I’d expect from this world. And though we haven’t gotten to spot Pennywise yet (reprised by Bill Skarsgård, who is also executive producing), the team behind this series clearly understands what kind of haunted tomfoolery its audience wants to see.

There are rumors of what’s to come… rumors of heavier horror and whispered promises we’ll deep dive into why Pennywise loves his clown form above all. And if the first two episodes are any indication of what’s ahead, viewers are in for a bloody, nightmare-fueled treat.