Halloween 2023: Day 15

The Witches Have a Fire Again, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Smoldering spiced oak boughs and pine pitch crackling with golden sap.

Hellraiser: Bloodline

I think this is slightly better overall than the previous film, but its ideas are less interesting and it doesn’t really have any high points that make you say “that deserves to be in a better movie.”

I also read the original screenplay, which has some interesting differences but in the end I don’t think it would have shifted my opinion much. It still feels fairly generically Hell Demon, while my ideal Cenobites are sacral and eldritch, not intrinsically evil.

Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco (Stalking Jack the Ripper #2)

Second in a YA series about a young woman studying to be a forensic pathologist in the late 19th century. Refreshingly free of any “maybe it is supernatural” woo (which many authors are tempted into in this situation,) and the murder mystery is played fairly with no vital information hidden from the reader. ⭐⭐⭐