J-Horror Vibes: THE WOMAN IN THE YARD (2025)

December 30, 2025

Japanese horror is the superior horror, period. That is why when you hear me say that an original American movie had J-Horror vibes, it is the highest praise I could ever give to it. So, my dear horror friend, please join me today in complimenting The Woman in the Yard (2025) which, at five minutes into the movie, became my favorite release of the year.

The story focuses on Ramona, a widow struggling with mental illness, a farmhouse she does not want, and two kids. She used to be a painter back in the city. Even though she did not have the clarity and courage to tell her now-late husband she rather stayed there, she made sure to be passive-aggressive about the topic whenever she got into one of her moods. It cannot be stressed enough how talented Ramona was as an artist, and how miserable she was as a person.

She had trouble coping with everything, now more than ever, and her kids gave the impression of running the house themselves. The teenage son made sure to wake her up, feed her and her little sister and himself, feed the chickens and the dog, and, had he been a couple of years older, he would have known how to maintain the truck, pay the bills, and, most importantly, reaffirm his position as the new man of the house who had not only the instincts, but also the ability, to keep everyone safe. But he was just a boy, maybe fourteen, fifteen max. And the sister was just a kid, maybe six? Young enough to not know how to write properly yet, but smart enough to understand that her father was dead and would not come back. Smart enough to be on high alert whenever her mother had a bad day, staying small and quiet when the yelling and fighting and the throwing of things started.

Ramona prayed every morning that she had the strength, not to get out of bed, but to end it all. TODAY IS THE DAY.

An unknown woman appeared on the front yard. She was wearing all black. She was covered completely in black, head to toe, in a warm and sunny day which made it more unnerving. Jarring. A clear threat. You see, the farmhouse was in the middle of nowhere, with no neighbors for miles, a big house with two children, and a mentally unstable, suicidal, invalid mother still in crutches due to being in the car accident that killed her husband. They were sitting ducks. They could not call for help either as the power had been cut off due to lack of payment, the cellphones were out of battery, the truck was unable to start, and the shotgun was out of shells, except for one. TODAY IS THE DAY.

The woman in the yard was particularly threatening to look at as her attire evoked two foreign visuals: Victorian-era mourning rituals, and middle east dress codes. To witness that in rural America would be, to put it politely, quite a peculiar sight to see.

As you have guessed it by now, the woman in the yard was Ramona’s death. Ramona felt her kids would be better off without her. She was impatient with them and seemed to not know how to love them. She hated her life. Maybe she missed her husband, and maybe she felt guilty for having been the one driving angrily—while not paying attention to the road—during that rainy night. Maybe she wished it had been her who died. TODAY IS THE DAY.

Dread. Despair. Isolation. A broken soul. A broken body. The supernatural fighting the living and winning. Death. That is what I call good horror! #jhorrorvibes

The ending was almost perfect. The only thing missing was the sound of the shotgun blasting and echoing across the night. It was quite frustrating not having that detail in the film, as it would have made the story more compelling and effective. Because one thing is for certain, the reality of suicide is horrendous and heart-wrenching, and the more you are exposed to how nasty it is, should you ever feel compelled to think about it for yourself, the more you would realize how wrong and messy and ugly and destructive it is.

Don’t be like Ramona, and instead contact the “988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline” for help (just text 988 on your cellphone to get connected). It might not feel like it right now, but a universal truth is that your life (and my life, and your neighbor’s life, and each and every human life ever to exist) is valuable and worth fighting for, I promise you that.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. – 1 John 4:4

In Love and Fear,

—Marath

Winners and Losers – THE UGLY STEPSISTER (2025)

November 27, 2025

This movie reaffirmed a simple fact about happiness if you want to achieve it: DO NOT be someone you are not. Clear and to the point. Let’s begin.

Hello friend, thank you for stopping by, it is nice having you here. Today, I would like to talk about the Norwegian body horror-ish movie The Ugly Stepsister (2025) which tells the classic Cinderella fairytale, but all while focusing on the supporting character of the older stepsister, Elvira. To reiterate, even though Elvira was the main character in this new film, the story was still pretty much about the old Cinderella fairytale we all watched as children, so it ended just as we remembered it: with Cinderella getting the prince and living happily ever after.

But who was this Elvira person? She was a happy, immature eighteen-year-old, still wearing braces, big curls, with a big appetite, average face, naturally curious, extroverted, naïve, an avid reader, a good daughter, and a good big sister. And like all the maidens in the kingdom, she was infatuated with the handsome young prince thanks to his writings published in poetry books. She often daydreamt about him and it was lovely.

The problem with Elvira started when her mother remarried the local widower out of convenience, more specifically, after the mother found out—thanks to him dying unexpectedly of a heart attack—that the widower, her now late new husband, was penniless and their path to immediate financial security relied on the daughters marrying a rich man, or better yet, a rich prince. When the mother realized her prettier, younger child was too young to participate in matchmaking, her efforts focused on her less pretty, yet, age-appropriate older child, Elvira. For the record, Elvira was healthy and normal, and considered ugly and defective only by her own mother.

Witnessing Elvira’s journey from a happy young woman to a wretched one because of her selfish mom was, simply put, infuriating. I wanted to yell at the screen on more than one occasion, plead angrily to Elvira to just say No, mother! and run away from her destructive home. (Spoiler alert: that was exactly what the younger sister did at the end, so it was ultimately somewhat satisfying for me, I guess.)

Right, Elvira started second-guessing herself when her mother called her ugly and made her get cosmetic procedures: braces removal, nose job, eyelash extensions. However, she really started changing for the worse when the ballet instructor moved her all the way to the back of the class for being fat, and kept Agnes—her beautiful and svelte new stepsister—on the first row. Elvira was not fat, maybe a tiny bit plump, but that would have been also an exaggeration to say. Regardless, the finishing school headmistress gave her a tapeworm egg for her to ingest (ew) & help with losing weight quickly and without effort (o-o-o-ozempic).

Elvira, after three months of nursing a [primitive by today’s standards] nose job, was able to see on the mirror the perfect and enviable results. Her eyelash extensions had brought her much pain and temporary blindness, but had fully healed by now as well. She was thinner also as the tapeworm had worked as expected, even though it kept her hungry and malnourished, and made her hair fall out by the fistfuls due to said malnutrition. By the way, the ballet instructor noticed her new body and face and gave her the lead role as a reward. Elvira was gorgeous now, in her complete fabricated form: no braces, no big nose, no extra weight, beautiful eyelashes, and beautiful blonde wig (needed to cover the bald spots). From the outside, Elvira was a fake Agnes, except, of course, that Agnes was all natural and beautiful not only on the outside, but on the inside, even after all she was put through at the unfair, dishonest, and cruel hand of her unloving, selfish stepmother & ugly stepsister.

But who was this Agnes person? She was a kind and beautiful young woman, level-headed, well-mannered, hopeful, smart, traditional, religious, resilient, and, most importantly, a good daughter. She was also madly in-love with the stable boy and enjoyed a full, mature relationship with him (even though he and Agnes knew she would end up marrying someone much better than him, someone like a prince). When her father died, she mourned him deeply, but continued being kind. When she was made the house maid as punishment by her new stepmother for getting caught sleeping with the stable boy, she kept her head up high, worked hard, and remained being kind. Whenever she was kept isolated (no more school or ballet classes, no royal ball either) and heartbroken (the stable boy was fired and cast out of the manor), she sang quietly in gratitude and made the farm animals—her faithful work companions—her new friends, and remained kind.

Agnes was ordered by her stepmother to do personal tasks for Elvira which reduced her to a mere servant. Elvira, in disdain, mocked her and called her by the vile name of Cinderella (meaning, dirty girl by the cinders) and rejoiced in humiliating her. Elvira, in red-hot jealousy, celebrated Agnes misery. Agnes did not react, but simply kept busy and carried on. Later, when Agnes was aggressively harassed by Elvira’s ballgown dressmaker, she firmly refused his brutish advances and spat on his face; in return, he called her a whore and slapped her with force, but she did not react further, just got up and moved on.

Then, before the big day at the royal ball, and in the middle of the night while everyone was sleeping, a nostalgic Agnes quietly retrieved her old blue dress and baby shoes, but Elvira, after binge eating again in secret to satiate the tapeworm inside her, caught Agnes in the act and took the dress away from her and tore it, rendering it unwearable. Brokenhearted, Agnes ran into the room where her father’s decaying corpse was (the stepmother did not spend a penny on a proper burial), and cried and held tight to her chest the destroyed dress, she cried and pleaded to her dead father and mother, she cried some more and prayed and prayed… when all of the sudden her guardian angel (her mom’s spirit) showed up and magically repaired the dress and made it into a full evening gown, and transformed the old baby shoes into delicate heels for the ball. This was the classic Cinderella moment: an impossible wish granted, and a warning given—you shall be back before midnight.

Wait a second. What happened to Elvira? In short, she went crazy when the prince chose Agnes instead of her. All the pain and suffering she endured during those few past months were for naught. She was not the same person she was before; now she was mean, unpleasant, entitled, bitter, angry, and, the worst part, ugly on the inside. And ugly on the outside, too, thanks to her mental breakdown making her cut her own foot, falling down a flight of stairs and breaking her nose, chipping her teeth, losing the lashes and the wig. And do not forget the nasty tapeworm; when she finally and violently threw it up, it took all the light out of her eyes. Poor girl. She looked like a wretched old hag, like the hunchback of Notre Dame. Sad. This was her deformed and disabled final form – what a waste of a happy girl!

So yes, the moral of the story was to stay true to yourself (like Agnes) to have a chance at happiness, and to work with what you already have (looking at you, original Elvira) because it is yours and yours only. Clear and to the point. Goodbye.

In Love and Fear,

—Marath

Calming Horror – THE DEEP HOUSE (2021)

June 7, 2025

Hi. The other day while rewatching The Deep House (2021) I realized I’d never talked about it here in the blog. Odd. This French movie is one I regard dearly as it combines some of my favorite things: horror, large bodies of water, and relaxation. For me, nothing compares to the wonderful feeling I get while watching a slow-paced aquatic adventure with dire consequences. The warm and soothing embrace of darkness, the quiet isolation underwater, the battle with mortality, the absolute realization that nothing matters more than fresh air, the automatic agreement you make with yourself that if you make it out alive things will change, the deep knowledge that you will be alright, the calming horror of it all.

How do you call the total opposite of thalassophobia and submechanophobia? Whatever it is called, I have it. I love looking at pictures and videos of large and deep bodies of water as well as at man-made objects submerged underwater. I love that, I really do. The first time I noticed I had it was when I visited the Queen Mary in Long Beach:

Right. That is my deep connection with this movie.

The Deep House tells the story of Ben, his girlfriend Tina, and his 4K underwater drone Tom (as in Peeping Tom). At the moment, Ben was concentrated in growing his youtube channel where the average view count for his walk-through vlogs about far and secret ruins was 50K, but once he hit 1M views he promised he would propose and get married to Tina.

Their latest adventure took place at an abandoned asylum in Ukraine where nothing much happened; it was a run-of-the-mill old building in the forest with abandoned furniture, indoor vines, graffiti, and trash – if it weren’t for Ben’s pranks on Tina (he enjoyed scaring her) his content would be even less entertaining. An asylum in a forest in Ukraine was a dud, so maybe his next location, a total and complete secret spot, a submerged small town in a lake in France would get him closer to that elusive 1M.

Ben and Tina prepared and trained in scuba diving as their new adventure would be a challenging one. Ben was dialed in and excited and ready to go go go (!!), but Tina wasn’t, she even lied about her minute and a half record (she told Ben she could hold her breath underwater for three whole minutes), and even tried to charm and convince him with simply relaxing and being tourists for the day after finding out the ‘total and complete secret spot’ at Fress Lake was anything but. Ben might have been disappointed that all his planning was for naught, but at least was pleased Tina was by his side, so tourists it was, sadly.

When Ben went to purchase cheap wine at the food truck by the lake, he met a local, Pierre, who told him about a secret spot (a real one this time) away from all those loud and annoying tourists, so Ben decided to take the stranger’s offer and exchange money for information. The place was so private that the guy would have to take them there himself. Tina was hesitant once again, nevertheless, she pushed forward and supported Ben’s youtube hobby.

The place history went a little something like this: Forest Chanteloup, now called Fress Lake, was a small town in South West France which got severely flooded around fifty years ago, so when planning and construction was finally done to control and redirect waterflow in 1984, a year after local kids went missing, the village was voluntarily vacated and the valley was purposefully flooded, with all the damaged houses getting demolished prior to the scheduled flooding, that is. This last fact was hidden from the online world, thus Ben being blindsided and taking on a whim the stranger’s offer for the promise of an intact, one hundred percent well-preserved house that no one, absolutely no one but the stranger himself, knew about. All Ben could see was that big fat 1M, so much so that it eclipsed everything else: his girlfriend’s uneasiness, the stranger’s miraculous offer, the million and one red flags.

Underwater, deep down at the bottom of the lake was the promised house. Still standing. Intact. Maybe too intact? How could a flooding of such great magnitude not jeopardize the beautiful structure? How could the passing of time not be visible? And the inside of the house… of the home… why was everything still in its place? It is almost as if the structure was floating on the lake and it simply sank. You knew where you were. Yes. You were diving inside a lake in France, but you could have easily told yourself you were somewhere else, maybe in the Atlantic Ocean exploring the Titanic mere hours after its sinking on April 15, 1912. That would have made more sense. That would explain why everything was brand new and still in its place. The impossibility of what you were experiencing was unbelievable, but you were looking at it so it had to be… true? Or, maybe you died and this was all a nightmare; that being the case, who actually cares & let’s look around while the hallucination lasts, shall we?

**SPOILERS**

It turned out the deep house was haunted by its owners, the Montégnac’s, who were— surprise! —the mother, the father, and the sister of the stranger, Pierre. As a teenager in 1984, Pierre Montégnac was able to escape an attack against his family carried out by a few locals who were taking matters into their own hands because—surprise again! –they had found out the family was involved in the disappearance of the missing children. The vengeful locals ended up imprisoning the family inside their own house before the final flooding. There were no witnesses, just a son who, decades later, would take pleasure in tricking overzealous tourists and offering them as gift to his beloved, drown family.

Let’s be honest, nobody can escape alive from a haunted house underwater, mmh-kay? Especially if you suffer from panic attacks and your brain freaks out and makes you do stupid things like wasting time and precious oxygen from your oxygen tank. Moral of the story besides not going to haunted houses underwater? Listen to your girlfriend and ask for her honest opinion (if you must, ask her a couple of times if/when she replies "mmh, it’s fine” in a weird voice), but most importantly and for the love of God, DO NOT trust strangers.

In Love and Fear,

—Marath

P.S. Videos like these are my new ASMR: