Just the Ticket

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Ticketmaster My Ticketholders know that this all began because of research I did for my Grimm Fairy Tales Retrospective on the Curse Of the Winter Witch issue, where I was looking up things with "Curse" in the title. And of course, today's movie up for review (which I'd forgotten that I heard of before in an episode of Horror Timelines ) led me to H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out Of Space , which I reviewed on Tuesday. First of all, I love this poster! It's perfectly 80s in its cheese factor and epicness. Second, The Curse (1987) —not to be confused with the comedy series of the same title from 2023 —was directed by David Keith (the white guy from Firestarter and the awful Epoch movies, not to be confused with Keith David from The Thing and Men At Work ). Third, there's a link to Uncle Sam because Lucio Fulci was an associate producer on this and did some uncredited filming (though he's listed in the open...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Pun-master. Those who work with me know that I love puns, which playwright John Dennis once called "the lowest form of humor," and which the modern generation refers to as "Dad Jokes." But perhaps more cringeworthy than the pun itself is the teller's subsequent need for someone to "see what I did there," as if the thought behind, and telling of, a pun, is an accomplishment as worthy of witness and documentation as a billionaire's wedding or the approval of a bloated, economically cancerous bill by a bloated, economically cancerous approximation of a human being. But on a lighter note, did you hear who won the footrace in Bangkok? It was a Thai (tie)! SEE WHAT I DID THERE‽ (I am particularly proud of that one, though, so please clap). I bring up this scathing commentary on what can only be Donald Trump trying to fatigue Congress with a litigious paper burial only because the Big Butt-full of Billshit affects ...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Ticketmaster. H.P. Lovecraft has been dubbed "America's favorite racist" by some (overlapping time periods with America's favorite Nazi sympathizer, Henry Ford , and predating every modern conservative and our current POTUS by almost a century), and much like Ford's contributions to assembly line production efficiency, the effect that Howard Phillips Lovecraft has had on horror in all of its media forms is the chief reason he is less remembered for his questionable views on racial segregation and preservation (though, as you'll see later in the review, his racial purity, xenophobia, and Depression-era cosmic nihilism do come out in his writing). You may know from my GFT Retrospective  coverage that Lovecraft's work is a big inspiration for Zenescope 's Wonderland lore and some of the greater cosmology in the Grimm Universe. But before that, his influence can be felt in the works of fellow Noreasters Stephen King...

Content Calendar Announcement, Week of July 6, 2025 by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Ticketmaster. Though my work weeks are looking to be packed again, I have a ton planned for  Just the Ticket  over the next few months. I am currently finished rewatching  My Hero Academia  Season Six and the first two movies (of which my opinions haven't changed much since the original review), and procrastinating on starting Season Seven, with plans to have everything watched and reviewed by August. Because of a certain Villain's clear...inspiration (just like the King Of Fighters character Khronen/K'9999 was "inspired by" it), the movie review for the week of the MHA Update will be Akira ! As you'll see below, I am going to revive an old column this coming week, as well, and with two more episodes left of Poker Face , you can expect a new  Stay Tuned  before the month is out (though don't expect a Dexter: Resurrection review for quite awhile). Keep reading after the...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Ticketmaster Independence Day is on a Friday this year, and I've been devoting the majority of my review months to the films of Maniac Cop director William Lustig , so as you can probably figure out from the thumbnail, I'm reviewing the 1996 holiday slasher, Uncle Sam . It's not the first "killer dresses in holiday mascot costume and uses silly, thematically appropriate means to depopulate small-town America" movie (from the 70s to the early 90s, just about every holiday—especially Christmas and Halloween—got at least one), and with low-budget fare like Thankskilling and Bunnyman , revival-era mysteries like Valentine , and the fairly recent Grindhouse trailer adaptation, Thanksgiving , it certainly wasn't the last. But it was definitely one of them. Uncle Sam is at once an obscure relic of the 90s that somehow feels dated in its own decade, an after-school special PSA about domestic violence and war fanaticism, a Willi...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Summer Ticketmaster I've been a busy blogger, Ticketholders! Or that's what I would say if I hadn't discovered Balatro this past week. For those who don't yet know, Balatro is Poker if it was a Roguelike, with thousands of special Joker and playing card enhancements that come to you at random (which can make meeting the high-end achievement criteria incredibly frustrating), all without the financial stigma of predatory gacha mechanics. The only financial investment is the initial $9.99 purchase price (which I didn't have to pay thanks to Google Play's points and survey rewards systems). It's addictive and you can hit a difficulty wall pretty quickly, making it a satisfying, financially neutral (if you save up for it on Play like I did), but cursed experience. Speaking of curses, I am cursed with a lack of anything new to say about the Winter Witch after last week's issue and my review of the terrible, British, ...

Content Calendar Announcement, Week of June 29, 2025 by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Ticketmaster. The increase in my work hours is no longer a projection, Ticketholders!  As of this week, I am back up to a financially functioning level, so I will be posting less content and consuming more in the weeks ahead. That means nothing but Retrospective / Omnibusted posts and TBT '25 pushes until I get caught back up on My Hero Academia . This content trend will also continue into July, but for a 4th of July review of a slasher classic and the possibility of a series review or two you should  Stay Tuned   for. No bullshit. You'll also be happy to know that Just the Ticket passed three hundred thousand all-time views this past weekend, and you can check out my New Piece Offerings post on the subject here . Even with the massive slowdown in traffic at the end of 2024 that has continued into this year, we managed to reach another hundred thousand in less than a year's time. M...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Summer Ticketmaster. You all know by now that I am a critical but stalwart Zenescope fan, meaning that I can appreciate their work for its big moments and ambition despite its many flaws and early missteps. But rarely has the company's output led me to consume external media that I hate, and my research for Wednesday's Retrospective on The Winter Witch has done just that. In the article I mentioned there , the author shares the history of the character Mother Holle, a.k.a Frau Perchta, a witch of winter and fate who rewards the beautiful, industrious, and kind with riches and sweets, and punishes those who are ugly, evil, and lazy by disembowelment and filling their stomach cavities with stones. Let's just say that despite its apparent lack of budget, I won't be giving 2022's The Winter Witch any riches or sweets today. Written and directed by Richard John Taylor (director of three of the many, many low-budget British film...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Summer Ticketmaster. Yeah, this isn't really the appropriate season to be reviewing a comic book titled The Winter Witch  (let alone a movie with that title , which I will be eviscerating on Friday), but it's also maybe the perfect season for it because we modern humans are such wimps about temperatures that summer heat makes us beg for winter and the winter chill makes us pray for an early thaw. So to any of my Ticketholders who are living with triple-digit heat right now, you're welcome for the next four weeks of making you think about winter; I hope the power of suggestion will help you cool off when air conditioning fails. As you can see from the above and right images, the Grimm Fairy Tales Retrospective is now officially into Volume Twelve, and I discovered something amiss with the ComiXology edition that I mentioned in my review of A Drink and A Tale from a few weeks ago. Said issue not being mentioned in the Table Of Conten...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Ticketmaster. I don't know exactly which Tuesday I'm posting this on because at the time I am writing this, Just the Ticket is around two hundred views short of hitting 300K. But back when I did a TBT '25 push of Just the Ticket #66: State of the Grand Address , I promised to do an updated version to show you all where things are thirteen years later. First, let's look at every stat and review I mentioned in that original post and compare them to how far the blog has come since. In 2012, Just the Ticket had passed eight thousand all-time pageviews for its first ten months. As of now, well, you know what milestone we're at now because it's in the title. And that's a hundred thousand more views than I had around this time last year. My  Slither   review, then just past the 200 mark, now sits at over 2100 views. After a dirty joke about the disturbing love life of an egg, my A Little Bit Of Heaven  issue went on a little...