Tag: review

My Favorite (Actually Niche) Youtubers

I wasn’t sure what I wanted my last blog of the year to be, but I thought I’d leave you all with some recommendations for youtubers I love and watch all the time. There won’t be a specific order to this list, and these creators will range from a couple thousand subscribers to a million or so, but they are all under-appreciated and deserve more attention. They will also range drastically in what their content is about- some commentary and reaction channels, some movie/media reviewers, some who craft and sew, and even more. I highly recommend you check out these creators over the summer!

1. Kennie JD

I’ve been watching Kennie since quarantine- probably late 2019 into 2020 was when I really found her. She’s been on youtube for at least 12 years. For the first five years, she mainly posted about makeup and storytimes, but, in September of 2019, she found a new niche. She posted a video about the movie Tall Girl, joking about the plot and dramatics over a girl being tall- as if tall women are oppressed or something. Kennie herself is six foot and talks a lot about her own experiences in the video, which made it more immersive. She started a series called “Bad Movies and a Beat”, where she does her makeup while reacting to or giving her review of a bad movie. Sometimes she’ll switch it up with “Good Movies and a Glam”, where she does the same as before, but discusses a good movie instead. I tend to have similar opinions to her when it comes to movies and plot lines, so it’s nice to see someone else experiencing the same confusion I have when watching a certain movie. I also love learning about movies through her videos. She is extremely funny and I highly recommend going to check out her stuff. She talks about many types of movies; from rom coms to horror/thrillers to dramas to cheesy christmas movies. She also reviews reality TV shows sometimes. Her most recent videos have been her reacting to old 2000s reality TV and they are extremely funny. She’s also an extremely talented singer- check out her spotify!!

2. Micarah Tewers

I found Micarah about a year before quarantine, I believe. She is one of the most popular people on this list, with over 2 million followers, but I rarely see people talking about her. She’s been on youtube for at least 8 years now, consistently posting videos of her making costumes and clothing with fast paced and comedic tutorials that no one is necessarily intended to follow. Her videos almost always have a vlog-feel to them, even if they aren’t explicitly a vlog. She has pet parrots, chickens, and ducks who appear in many of her videos. There always seems to be a side-plot to each video where she has to rescue a wild animal or help her dad with something or prank her brother or visit her best friend. She’s extremely funny and there is never a dull moment in her videos. Even if you don’t like sewing or crafting, you will have fun with her channel.

3. Sarah Spaceman

I found Sarah almost two years ago. She really brought back my love for cosplay and cosplay conventions with her video series on how she made this extremely complex cosplay and then went to compete in it at a huge convention. She’s extremely talented and I’ve learned a lot about crafting and sewing through her videos. I also love her vlogs where she goes to conventions as the cons she attends are huge and expensive cons that I won’t be able to go to anytime soon, so I get to live vicariously through her videos. Once again, even if you don’t like sewing or cosplay, you will be entertained by her content. 

4. Izzyzzz

I believe I also found Izzy over quarantine, though I’m not sure. Their videos are primarily about nostalgic events, people, websites, and fandoms from the 2000s-2010s. Their deep dives on the video game The Path is where I discovered my love for that game and obscure media in general. They is extremely good at their research, and their videos are always very interesting both visually and auditorily. They always makes sure to give the full context for events and fandom discourse, which helps give an honest and neutral view of the topics being discussed. I highly recommend their videos about the brony history, their deep dive into Animal Crossing, and their deep dive into the Norm of the North twitter account. They’re also working on an animated series right now, so go check that out too!

5. Reilly Elaina

I found Reilly a few months back when I was trying to figure out why everyone on tik tok was mad at a certain creator. Reilly has only been posting for three months, but I predict her account will blow up in the next year or so. She has an extremely soft voice that is really satisfying to listen to (I know how weird that sounds, but I put her videos on in the background while I’m playing Stardew Valley and it’s really satisfying??). She mainly discusses internet discourse, typically things going down actively online. She does extreme deep dives and cites all her sources, which I applaud. She also gives really interesting perspectives to discourse topics that are more ignored/less talked about. For example, she has BPD and talks openly about it and how there are many creators with BPD on tik tok who are spreading misinformation about the disorder and further stigmatizing BPD. You should go give her a follow!

6. Trin Lovell

Another GOAT I found over quarantine. Trin does movie reactions/reviews, but she is extremely funny and out of pocket with her takes and she isn’t afraid to share said opinions. She will pause the movie to go on a fifteen minute rant about the scene and I will listen to the whole thing, nodding along to every word. My favorite series of hers is when she watches the best and worst rated episode of every season of Glee. She is also a self described scaredy-cat and had a series called “The Girl who’s Scared of Everything Watches [insert horror movie]”. Her reactions are very funny and I really enjoy her perspective of the movies she watches, even if I don’t always agree. She’s very entertaining and I highly recommend you go watch her reactions to horror movies if there’s ever a movie you’re too scared to watch alone.

7. Aust

I had to include a gamer here somewhere. I found Aust a few months ago, maybe closer to half a year. He posts longform videos of him playing (mostly) vanilla minecraft. I found him through his 100 Days in Harcore Minecraft series. He’s very funny and also extremely talented and it’s so cool to see everything he can accomplish in a minecraft world. He also has a really calm voice, which is a drastic contrast to a lot of minecraft youtubers. He really reminds me of gamerboy80, my favorite minecraft player of all time. They’re both really chill and really talented dudes who are way too good at minecraft. Go check him out if you like minecraft, or gaming in general.

8. Emma artly

I’m going to be real with you, I’ve only watched one of Emma’s videos all the way through, and it was her deep dive on the MLP youtube fan series “Bride of Discord”. She’s been posting for over two years and her channel has a mix of speedpaints, art tutorials, and commentaries on her interests. Her art style is adorable- kinda a mix of animal crossing, human MLP, and popular fan artists of the 2010s. I feel really nostalgic watching her videos. She’s also very funny, her commentary is really insightful, and I love hearing about topics and niche fandom events that I wouldn’t otherwise have known about.

9. Muldered

I found Muldered the other weekend while I was cleaning my room. I was looking for another deep dive video to throw on in the background while I cleaned, and I found his video about The Minerva Alliance; an analog horror series on youtube that was created by a number of popular analog horror creators. I love analog horror and supporting smaller artists on youtube, so I’m always down to watch their videos or listen to someone give a deep dive on the universe that their videos exist in. As I explored Muldered’s account, I found that his native language is Russian and he uses that to translate Russian analog horror series for his primarily English-speaking audience. I thought this was so cool and have been watching his videos a lot more since, as I love that I’m able to learn about a whole side of analog horror that I would never have been able to before because of the language barrier. He also has great comedic timing and I highly encourage giving him a watch if you also love analog horror.

10. Night Mind

Night Mind has grown in popularity over the years, especially within the analog horror/online horror fan communities. I’ve been watching him for maybe two years at this point and I love everything he puts out. I found him when I was searching for deep dives on the Marble Hornets series, which was a part of the internet that I grew up with but never really engaged with. His videos are extremely insightful and he gives productive critiques to the artists who create the analog horror he reviews. He also works with his community to find really small and under rated channels so he can bring attention to their art and share their creativity with his audience. His passion when talking about a piece he loves will never fail to make me smile. I can tell how much he cares about the art, writing, and filming, as well as all the work that goes into a good piece of analog horror. He’s extremely kind and fosters an amazing community with his followers, something that can be rare amongst youtubers these days. I highly encourage checking him out, his videos are amazing and definitely worth the watch. 

Thank you for reading! I hope you check out one or more of these creators, and I hope you have an amazing summer. This year was fantastic and I can’t wait to see you all, plus some juniors, next year! 

My Love-Hate Relationship With “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” (The Movie) Part One

As many of you are familiar with, “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” was a series of scary short stories written by Alvin Schwartz and released in various forms over the years. You’ve probably heard a story from these books, whether you know it or not. These were the type of scary stories that got passed around through elementary schools, all slightly different retellings and all under the pretense that the stories were true. These stories have always held a special place in my heart, so imagine my surprise when, in 2021, I discovered a movie adaptation of the books already existed.

In 2019, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was released. André Øverdal, probably best known for his movie The Autopsy of Jane Doe, directed this film. Guillermo del Toro helped produce this movie, one of my personal favorite filmmakers of all time. His more popular works include Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, as well as his work on The Hobbit films. Two extremely talented horror and sci-fi artists got together to produce an adaptation of the popular scary stories book trilogy and what they created was… definitely something. 

I want to start off this movie review by saying that I absolutely love this movie, probably more than most people did. I’ve been obsessed with it for the past four years. I’ve been obsessed with the actors and their other works as well. I’ve put a lot of mental space into thinking about this film. That is why I feel entitled to criticize the plot holes, concerning age gap relationships, misused politicism, and missed opportunity for an amazing sequel. I have an entire script in mind for a second movie so if anyone knows how to get in touch with Andre Overdal, that would be much appreciated.

The movie starts out with a short introduction of sorts from our main character, Stella. She makes a point to mention the importance of stories and how they can change your life. In the grand scheme of things, this introduction isn’t needed. It feels really cliche and also makes it feel that you’re about to watch a kids version of a horror movie, despite the PG-13 rating. I personally think they should’ve committed to an R rated horror movie, because then they wouldn’t have felt the need to have moments like this that cater to a younger audience. 

We are introduced to Stella as she bikes around her small town on a random day in the fall. The movie is set in the 1960s, and we are shown that through the characters’ wardrobe, appearance of cars and building, but most importantly, political propaganda. This leads to my second issue; politics are thrown around as a sort of C-plot in this movie and it comes off very weak. I would’ve loved if they dwelled more on the politics of the era at the time, but it almost feels like the political topics were included as an afterthought, and in a very lazy manner. For example, the next character we’re introduced to is Ramon. Ramon is a Mexican American who is fleeing the draft after his brother died in battle. This is a perfect opportunity to discuss the horrible reality that was the Vietnam war, and how many young people lost their lives during battle. However, this whole aspect of his character is pushed to the side as the supernatural aspects of the movie come into play.

Ramon’s character is extremely difficult for me to decide my feelings on. For one, he is obviously eighteen or older if he is being drafted by the military, yet he is supposed to be Stella’s love interest despite the fact that Stella is, at most, 16. I know that’s only a two year hypothetical age gap, but there’s a lot more about their relationship that bothers me. For one, he owns a car, is actively on the run and living on his own, and is extremely vague and secretive about his past. There’s a scene where Stella talks about how she dreams of leaving her small town and going to the big city to pursue writing. Ramon immediately shuts that down and says the city is bad. Later on in the movie he also snoops through her things and starts reading her journals??  On top of that, he is very controlling throughout the movie, despite having just met all of the characters. I want to root for Ramon, especially given that he’s the only person of color in this movie, but he is a weirdo the entire movie and it irks me to my core. 

Back on the timeline, we get to meet Stella’s two closest friends, Chuck and Auggie. These two are the epitome of the black cat and golden retriever duo. Chuck is a prankster, a jokester, a class clown if you will. Auggie is extremely serious, stone-faced, and pessimistic. At this point in the movie, we also get to see into their homes and we are shown how different all of the characters’ lives are. Chuck lives in a cramped, messier home with his mom and older sister, Ruth. His palette throughout the movie includes a range of colors, patterns and textures; his house, on the other hand, is very darkly lit and decorated. Auggie’s home is large and spacious, with brighter colors and symmetrical decoration. He lives with his mother and step father, who he has a strained relationship with. Stella lives in a small and cramped home with her father, though her home seems much more comfortable than Chuck’s. The rooms are lit with warm lights and warm colors, a contrast to the dark lighting and muted colors of Chuck’s house. I could go on and on about the fantastic set design and wardrobe of this movie as well as the implications of those things, but that is for another time.

Stella, Auggie, and Chuck are all getting ready for Halloween, despite being highschoolers. It’s not clear how old they are exactly, but they’re not seniors. I know that because Ruth, Chuck’s older sister, is a senior and her football boyfriend, Tommy, is also a senior. Tommy is one of this movie’s non-monster antagonists. He’s super racist towards Ramon, abusive to his girlfriend, and just a cartoonishly evil high school bully to everyone else. On top of that, he’s played by Austin Abrams (one of my favorite actors of my generation), who does an amazing job with whatever role he’s given. The acting in this movie ranges from really amazing to mediocre at best. For example, the racist cop is a very one dimensional character and it’s clear that the actor did the best he could with what he had. There are also a lot of tense scenes throughout the movie that certain actors and actresses had a difficult time with. There are plenty of reasons that might explain why the acting wasn’t top tier, but at the end of the day, it’s still extremely confusing (and pretty hilarious) to see a character remain pretty stone faced after their best friends just died. 

Anyways, back to the timeline, the three main characters get dressed up for halloween and go trick-or-treating. The whole reason they’re doing this is so they can prank the school bully, Tommy (Ruth’s boyfriend. Keep up, guys), by throwing a bag of flaming shit into his car. They end up getting chased by Tommy and his goons into a drive-in theater where they have to hide behind rows of cars. They end up seeing Ramon in his car and, for some reason, Stella open’s Ramon’s passenger side door and hops in. Does she know him? Nope. Do Chuck and Auggie follow right behind her? Yup. If I was Ramon, I would’ve lost my mind. To be fair, he is upset about Chuck and Auggie being there, but he was happy that Stella was there. He started blushing and got all nervous- like what?? I don’t care how hot someone is- if they break into my car, I’m losing my mind on them. 

Anyways, Ramon doesn’t have any survival instincts and that becomes more and more clear throughout the film. He ends up defending the three from Tommy, and they all decide to leave the drive-in theater and drive to a spooky old house in the middle of nowhere. This is when we’re introduced to the main supernatural elements of this movie. This old house was owned by the Bellows family, a wealthy family who helped put their town on the map. However, legend says that the Bellows had a secret daughter, named Sarah, that they hid away because she was so… ugly? It’s not exactly clear what about her was so off putting- I believe she had albinism, but that is never directly said in the movie. It is how she is portrayed, though. Anyways, legend says that Sarah Bellows would write these stories that she would read the kids in the town through a pipe or hole in the wall that led out of the house. It’s also kinda unclear how she was able to read to these kids if she was locked away… but she’s magic so who cares. Anyways, the Bellows family found out she was reading to kids and they got super mad and tried to punish her, but legend says she ended up massacring her family. Good for her, they all sucked. 

Like any teenagers in a horror movie, the main four decide to break into the old haunted house. Almost immediately, Chuck and Auggie run off together. Considering it was the sixties, they never made it canon that the two of them were in love, but they were. This is another detail of this movie I could go on and on about, but I’ll save that for another time. Anyways, Stella and Ramon explore the house together and end up finding the secret room where the Bellows family kept Sarah Bellows hostage. Auggie and Chuck are upstairs at this point, playing hide and seek. Chuck hides in a closet (like come on…) but he suddenly sees light coming from the other side. He opens in slowly and finds that the old room he once was in was now restored to its original form. There is a large bed in the middle of the room, and an old woman sits on it with her giant dog. They stare at him- he gets scared and slams the closet doors. Auggie eventually finds him and teases him about freaking out, but Chuck is ready to get the hell out of there- and I don’t blame him. However, he and Auggie end up joining Stella and Ramon in the secret basement room. 

Okay, considering I’m barely a fourth into the movie recap and I’m already nearing 2000 words, I’m gonna call it here. Next week will be part two- Hopefully I can be more productive in that part and less ramble-y. Anyways, thank you for joining me on this ride. If you are at all interested in this movie and have never seen it, PLEASE watch it. The only reason I like picking this movie apart so much is because of how much I love it. Also, if you’re interested in any of the mini tangents I went on in here and want me to expand on them, feel free to let me know! I could talk about this movie for literal years. 

Best and Worst Soulmate AUs

If you were in any fandom spaces in the 2000s-2010s, you’d know how prevalent soulmate AUs (alternate universes) were. I could probably write a whole thesis on why that happened, but that’s a rant for another blog. For those of you who don’t know, these soulmate AUs were writing or art prompts based around a piece of media and typically a specific ship (couple) from that fandom. Each soulmate AU was different, and I want to talk about some of my favorites, as well as some I despise. This will not even scrape the surface of all of them. I’m sure there are videos on youtube doing deep dives into this if you’re interested in learning more. I’ve been thinking about different fanfic tropes recently and I wanted to rate some of the ones I enjoy and diss the ones I don’t like. I’ll be doing multiple parts to this series, so stay tuned. 

1. Soulmate Initials AU

The premise of this AU is pretty self explanatory. Characters in this universe are born with the initials of their soulmate somewhere on their body, typically their wrist. Sometimes it’s not something they’re born with; rather, they receive the initials on their 18th birthday or some other special day. This AU is pretty solid and leads to a lot of really funny miscommunication tropes where a character thinks their soulmate is one person who’s initials match their wrist, while in reality it’s someone entirely different (ie, character A thinks their soulmate is Jane Smith, when actually it’s their sworn enemy, John Smitty). 

At the same time, if you have a character with a really unique name, it’s hard to create any of those miscommunication plot lines. It’s something hard to misunderstand and it makes finding one’s soulmate generally easy. I’m a sucker for a pining slow burn, so this trope isn’t always my favorite. However, I am also partial to the “finding out your soulmate is your enemy” trope, and this AU is perfect for that. In the end, I give this AU a solid 7/10.

2. Soulmate Writing Transfer AU

This AU can differentiate depending on the author, but the general premise is as follows. Characters in this universe will be able to write, draw, or doodle on their skin in any form of ink and said writing will appear on the skin of their soulmate. Some authors include tattoos into this, while others write that tattoos stay only on the one getting the tattoo willingly, rather than both the character and their soulmate. Besides the ambiguous state of tattoos in this trope, the writing on your soulmate’s skin will eventually wash off as it washes off your own skin. However, you and your soulmate would not be able to wash off something drawn by the other person. 

This AU is easily one of my favorites. I love the trope of an artistic character drawing on their hands all day while their soulmate is someone who has never even colored in a coloring book. There is an obvious caveat to this AU, which is that you could easily write sentences on your skin and quickly find out who your soulmate is. I think that takes the fun out of this AU, but it is still undeniably a possibility. I love this trope because I think that mindless doodles are sometimes the best way to get to know someone on a deeper level. Like, yeah, there is a reason I like to doodle cats on every blank piece of paper I see. Anyways, this AU is a 9/10 for me.

3. Color Blind Soulmate AU

This AU is difficult to explain because it ranges in complexity, but I’ll do my best to explain the general idea. In this universe, characters are born with the inability to see color, and won’t be able to see color until they meet their soulmate. It’s typically a gradual process of them gaining the ability to see color, but it’s generally obvious who/what caused the color to appear. In other versions of this AU, characters aren’t able to see a specific color, until they meet their soulmate. Often, this AU has a moment where character A looks into character B’s (their soulmate) eyes and suddenly they can see the color of their eyes after never being able to.

I forgot how much I loved this AU. If you’re a Homestuck like me, you’re probably familiar with this trope. There was a specific human character in Homestuck who had red eyes, which he hid with sunglasses, and this spurred a lot of fanfics with this AU. I think it’s a really sweet idea and I love how it plays on the concepts of color being brought back into someone’s life, metaphorically and literally. My only note is that this AU isn’t sad enough. I know that’s a weird issue to have, but I think a good AU has conflict built in, and this AU is pretty plain on that front. It’s something you’d see in a K-Drama, which isn’t bad by any means, but it is definitely a level of soft, fluffy romance that I’m not personally interested in. I give this AU a soft 8/10.

4. First/Last Words Soulmate AU

This AU is once again, pretty self explanatory. Characters in this universe are born with the first (or last) words that their soulmate will ever say to them. Typically, this is found on their wrist. Similar to the Soulmate Initials AU, there are versions of this AU where the words won’t appear till a certain age. This makes for a pretty cut and dry storyline. Often, stories with this AU will follow a character who is either desperate to find their soulmate and thus trying to manipulate conversations to lead into the quote on their wrist, or the exact opposite and the main character barely talks to anyone because they don’t want to meet their soulmate.

Finally an AU I absolutely hate. There is so much of this AU that I want to nit pick. What if my soulmate likes to talk and their first words to me span over the entirety of my forearm? What if their first word is something lame like “Hey” and I meet twenty other people whose first word to me is also “Hey”- How do I tell which is my soulmate? To be fair, some authors will work around this and write that the words on the character’s wrist will disappear/fade after they meet their soulmate. The only aspect of this AU that I’m interested in is the concept of knowing your soulmate’s late words to you. This easily leads to some of the most gut-wrenching angst you’ve ever read. One thing about me, I love some angst (if it isn’t obvious). However, this AU leans too far into the territory of those POV Tik Toks where the main character knows how long they have left to live. I don’t like those, I don’t wanna know when I’m gonna die, LAME. Only story that’s ever done that AU well is “They Both Die at the End” by Adam Silvera, and that’s strictly because of how well the universe around the characters is developed. Anyways, I hate this trope but it has the capability to be good so 4/10.

5. Soulmate First Touch AU

This AU is very much a dealer’s choice situation. The main version of this AU centers around a universe where characters will have some sort of marking on their body which indicates the point where their soulmate will first touch them. Sometimes these markings are  distinct birthmarks, moles, or freckles. Other times the markings will be less natural, like inky blobs or a clear imprint of a hand. This is not the only version of this AU though. Sometimes the first touch of a soulmate will lead into other AUs. For example, a character unable to see color might be touched by their soulmate and suddenly they can see color. Or a character may get visions of their future with their soulmate when they first touch. There are a lot of ways to play around with the other versions of this AU.

The base of this AU is something I enjoy quite a bit. I’ve always loved the idea of freckles being “angel kisses” and I find it even sweeter if those freckles/moles/birthmarks were given to you from a soulmate. This AU also leads to a lot of really silly, stupid moments in stories, like jokes about where a character’s soulmate mark is located. Like, what do you mean you have a giant birthmark on your neck? Is your soulmate going to choke you out the first time you meet??? As for the other versions of this AU, I’m not sure how I feel. It feels like an afterthought that ties this AU into other, previously existing AUs. I think this AU works well on its own and I really love the implications of it. I especially love an AU that goes hand in hand with this one; a universe where your birthmark(s) is where you suffered a fatal injury in another life OR your birthmark(s) show where you will suffer a fatal injury in the future. Once again, this spurs so many questions and interesting plot points. Anyways, solid AU and as someone with a lot of moles and freckles, I hold this AU dear to me. 10/10