Back in 1961, Joseph Heller summarized the crux of paranoia in his seminal novel Catch-22 with one incredible sentence: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.” Paranoia is uncertainty manifest. As you begin to suspect your neighbors, your co-workers, your significant other, or even your very grasp on reality, the truth grows increasingly murky and dangerous. This sneaking suspicion can be terrifying, nauseating, paralyzing, or claustrophobic. Unsurprisingly, a few storytellers have made good use of this unsettling sensation by making great movies about it....

Deckbuilding board games and card games have a magical ingredient that separates them from other games: instead of simply playing the hand you’re dealt, you influence the kinds of hands you can be dealt. Unlike deck construction games, which involve crafting a preset deck before the actual game begins, deckbuilding games have you craft your deck while you play. The deck creation isn’t just setup; it’s the game itself. This meta-level shift in gameplay brings its own type of thrill to board games and card games....

It’s that time of the year when many TV shows unleash their Christmas specials to our screens. While the US and other parts of the world have their share of yuletide episodes, no other country does it as passionately as the United Kingdom. Think of your favorite British show—or any other show from the UK—and you’ll notice that most have a special Christmas-themed episode or one-hour holiday special. It’s very much a tradition, so much so that even dramas like Downton Abbey have their own specials....

Charles Dickens was among the most prolific authors of the 19th century, alongside contemporaries like Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen. He’s widely known—by kids and adults alike—for his detailed stories chock-full of eccentric characters (and a bit of the supernatural). Writing from his own experiences, Dickens’s canon mainly focuses on subjects like class divide, urban poverty, and the social degradation in Europe at the time. Somehow, all of these are still relevant today....

Netflix is packed with horror offerings that will have your spine crawling with chills. And if your preferred brand of horror is one filled with jump scares? Then you’re in luck! While Netflix’s library is cluttered with less-than-stellar films, dig around enough and you’ll find frightful films that inspire dread, eeriness, and nightmares—all on top of those jump scares. Here are my picks for the best horror movies on Netflix full of jump scares, perfect to watch for Halloween or any other night where you just want to be terrified....

Unlike fire users who throw fireballs and ice users who encase their targets in glacial cages, anime characters who have earth and nature powers tend to have really unique (and complex) skills that play with the different properties and qualities of stone, dirt, mud, and plants. While it’s usually disregarded as the weakest among the five basic elemental attributes—fire, water, air, earth, and spirit—it can be pretty badass depending on the creativity of a particular series....

Dungeon crawlers are a special breed of board games, as they distill the experiences found in tabletop RPGs (like Dungeons & Dragons ) and video game RPGs down into board game format. Sadly, a lot of dungeon crawler board games came out decades ago and are no longer in print, while modern dungeon crawlers can be hard to acquire if you missed their initial Kickstarter runs. The good news is, there are plenty of great in-print dungeon crawlers still worth playing....

We’ve all had sleepless nights that left us groggy and useless the next day, right? Sleep is a funny thing sometimes, and it can elude us for all kinds of reasons—both within our control or beyond. Whether it’s from late nights at the club, skyrocketing stress levels, or deep-rooted health issues, sleep deprivation and insomnia are never fun the following morning. Even worse when they’re for life! Here are my picks for the greatest movies about characters whose lives are affected by insomnia and other sleep problems....

Snow-dusted mountain ranges and wintry cottages, nestled between the fir trees… Winter landscapes can be so idyllic! Then again, the frozen tundra can also be harsh and unforgiving as it threatens us with deadly frostbite, black ice, and polar bears. Here are several great movies set in the snow and ice, surrounded by chilly terrain where the pretty snow could be a friend one moment but turn into a menacing foe in the blink of an eye....

For a while, video game narratives were seen by mainstream audiences as lesser than books, movies, and even TV shows—as if video games weren’t capable of telling intricate stories with deep characters. There have always been amazing video game stories and characters starting all the way back in the Super Nintendo era. But in the last decade or so, we’ve seen an explosion in video game narratives. Related: Why Indie Video Games Are Better Than AAA Video Games...

Most typical monster movies feature wild chase scenes, bloody atmospheres, and gruesome deaths. But all of that gets ramped up when the featured monster is actually intelligent. I’m talking about monsters that plan how to catch their prey rather than instinctively chasing them on sight, monsters that can strategize traps, even monsters that torture for sport. A level above that and you get monsters that aren’t necessarily violent. They might aid the main characters against other monstrous beings that do pose threats to humans....

Hunter X Hunter is one of the best shonen anime series, in the same tier as many big-name anime series. Not only is its story unique with its own vibe, its not-so-long list of characters (including those in the HXH movies) contribute to the series’ lasting popularity among fans. While there are characters with strengths that are too much to handle (but haven’t yet been shown in the anime), there have also been characters with great potential that were (sadly) nerfed or omitted entirely from the anime adaptation....

Tycoon games are great because they put the potential of capitalism right in our own fingers, allowing us to build up our own empires of industry with the promise of wealth and fortune. You can think of tycoon games as a subgenre of simulation games, which place you in the midst of a sandbox-style world that you get to shape with greater influence as you unlock greater possibilities. Notable tycoon games include RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 , Planet Zoo , Prison Architect , Megaquarium , Two Point Hospital , and Surviving Mars ....

Nobody deserves to live through the experience of war. All war is a hellish trial that too many end up enduring, and there’s nothing quite like fighting a distant enemy across battlefields. For some, war is a stark reality. For the rest of us, we only know about it from what we read in news articles and from what we see in movies, documentaries, and TV shows. A skilled director is able to bring the truths of war to life on the screen, even if it’s filtered through a camera lens for entertainment value....

Genre fiction is full of creepy-crawlies that go bump in the night. From bizarre plants that talk to their owners, to sentient forests and plant-like space invaders, our fear of the natural world reclaiming the manmade one has seeped out of our subconscious into creative media. The trope of the strange, deadly plant in science fiction and fantasy is a fun one, and you’ve probably seen it before. Here are some of the most famous examples....

Almost everyone has some degree of fascination with robots, whether those robots are huge mechas from the Gundam series or cute, pet-like robots like Pino from Ergo Proxy . But robots are even cooler in real life! The complexity of their circuitry and the creativity that goes into their builds are just a few of the factors that make robots—and other manmade machines—so intriguing. That’s why many so robot fans find themselves enamored with the BattleBots TV series, which features custom-built robots with various weaponry that fight each other in an open arena....

Despite a relatively short list of films under his belt, Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón has already cemented himself as one of the greatest living directors currently working in Hollywood. Cuarón holds the record as one of only four people to have been nominated for Academy Awards in six different categories, and he was the first Mexican-born filmmaker to win the Oscar for Best Director. Over the course of 30 years, Cuarón has delved into and made his mark across numerous film genres, from fantasy to sci-fi, from romantic drama and coming-of-age stories, with many more to come....

In comic book movie history, only one character has led to an actor winning awards and highest acclaim for their role: The Joker. Both Joaquin Phoenix and Heath Ledger won Academy Awards for their starkly different portrayals of The Clown Prince of Crime. Their wins are the only two performances in comic book films to garner such acclaim. But, why? What makes The Joker such a fun and complex character to portray, just as compelling to watch no matter which way the character is taken in terms of personality and tendencies?...

The red spider lily (commonly called higanbana in Japanese) will sometimes appear in anime to impart ominous meaning to a scene. But why the red spider lily instead of, say, a black rose? Surely that would be more disturbing and evidently bad? Well, manga and anime use symbolism just like any other narrative medium, and these symbols are usually rooted in traditions, legends, folklore, myths, etc. That’s the case here, as there’s a history that links the red spider lily with death, tragedy, and hell....

Are you tired of shonen anime’s usual tropes and clichés, like senseless fights and action at the expense of character development? Then you might want to try Tokyo Revengers ! Tokyo Revengers is an anime series that premiered in April 2021, adapted by Liden Films from the manga of the same name (written and illustrated by Ken Wakui). It’s only been a few months, but it’s already exploding in popularity—and for good reason....