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Let’s do something a little different this Dark Deviations. Everyone knows that I’m glued to the boob tube, but there’s other places to venture that I have a passion for. One of them is music.

Nerdcore hip hop artist Richie Branson (Marcus Brown II) first caught my eye a while back with his clever rhymes and shared passion for Gundam Wing. However, we’re not here for a nostalgic stroll down Toonami Lane. We’re here for that dark deviation in the path, straying in the shadows where something other may be lurking…

And Richie went there.

Well, thrice.

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Ghouls ‘N Ghosts II: Villains

Today we’re celebrating Richie Branson and Mega Ran’s terror-filled trio of EPs – Ghouls ‘N Ghosts, Ghouls ‘N Ghosts II, and Ghouls ‘N Ghosts 3: The Nightmare Before Christmas. But more specifically, a collaborative ode to The Villain in their second EP titled (properly), “Villain”, featuring Richie, Yung “King” Mavrick, Bambu, Rosebudd Red, and Mega Ran.

The song plays delightful homage to several horror icons, while focusing on the villain and what about them illicit fear, plus their own unique quirks. Narrated to introduce each artist, the song explains a cacophonous night of a villain free-for-all, announcing them like characters from a video game or anime. With Richie’s background in both video game development and nerdcore, I don’t believe that this is just a coincidence.

The Line-Up :

Richie Branson:

This was when I realized that I don’t draw beards well

Richie likens himself to more of an “every-man” homicidal maniac, conjuring images of Charles Manson, Jason, and Hyde. He calls himself a beast for having “felony dreams” of “killing every intelligent being”. He even advises the listener to stay away from him and to learn about him or else they may ends up as remains in his home, too.

Best line: (it’s an easy dig, but I like it) “You better get your mind right/Thinkin’ you’re hard/But you’re softer than Twilight”

Villain Level: 2/5 – Your average killer

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Rosebudd Red:

I could not find a picture

Rosebudd Red’s character is much more supernatural, conjuring superstitions and creepy atmosphere. “Insane” in his own right the character while being emotionally broken, his character focuses more on rampage due to his “heart filled with flame”. He’s also a wild card who revels in the chaos.

Best line: “Full moon and wolves howl/13 stories lookin’ down/Before sunset tryin’ to ruin the town/Any victims lemme look around”

Villain Level: 3/5 – You don’t know where or when he’ll be there, you just know he will…and will enjoy every minute of your terror…

Yung “King” Mavrick:

Don’t let the sensitive eyebrows fool you

Yung “King” Mavrick is the cold, hard and calculated kind. Lawful Evil, perhaps. Kind of a Kingpin-esque supervillain as he talks of breaking glass ceilings, prodigies, his team and literally “taking over the galaxy”. And with his promises of delights, he also brings promises of pain and torture if you do not abide by him.

Best line: If you ain’t down with my team/Pull up with the mask/No Halloween/No Courtney Cox/Just scream”

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Villain Level: 5/5 – It’s the methodical and careful ones to watch out for…

Bambu:

Don’t let his sensitive beard fool you

Bambu…um…is a zombie? Snake? Animal? Alien? That killed his friends? And was born on Mars…I think he’s a Martian that has been desensitized from killing his friends and not sleeping.

Best line: “Zombie life/I never sleep at night/And that’s the reason that I’m lookin’ like a fish tonight”

Villain Level: 1/5 – I…am not sure what kind of villain he is.

Mega Ran:

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Sorry, I had to draw him with a smile

Our final villain, Megan Ran pulls it all together. Mega Ran plays his villain classic with a twist: “Freddy Kruger screwed in the medulla”, being just as sadistic and playful as Freddy: “Man, I’m crazy c’mon/My cranium gone/Blade in my pocket/I’m happy to see you”. He is a confident and inviting villain, coaxing you to try your luck and see how far you can get before he tears you apart.

Best line: Makin’ you regret the day you were born/On this world like an alien swarm/Man, I’m crazy c’mon/My cranium gone”

Villain Level: 4/5 – a solid contender with both deadliness and creepiness

The Winner:

Can I name favorites? Of course.

All bow to the king!

It’s good to be the king

Bottom-line:

This is an extremely fun song full of immensely talented artists, so I recommend that you check it out and check out the artists, too (hint hint; Mega Ran is currently on tour, maybe near you!) But the song itself is full of 80’s horror icons, mixed in with a great beat and a terrific collaboration/showcase of each artist. Check it out for yourself sometime.

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When not ravaging through the wilds of Detroit with Jellybeans the Cat, J.M. Brannyk (a.k.a. Boxhuman) reviews mostly supernatural and slasher films from the 70's-90's and is dubiously HauntedMTL's Voice of Reason. Aside from writing, Brannyk dips into the podcasts, and is the composer of many of HauntedMTL's podcast themes.

Original Creations

Kaidenkai Around the Campfire

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I just wanted to post a brief shoutout to Linda Gould of the Kaidenkai to say thank you for including my Around the Campfire story. Feel free to follow this link and give it a listen. I especially love how Ed’s voice is conveyed. You really feel as if you are on the camping trip with everyone.

Around the Campfire sets the tone for the month of August wherein authors are invited to participate in telling tales as part of a whole campfire series, kind of like it did here originally on Haunted MTL in 2022.

Ascension from Reversals series of digital artworks by Jennifer Weigel - image features orange sunset clouds overlaid atop one another to form a sort of smoky hazy patterning, perfect for Around the Campfire stories on the Kaidenkai podcast.
Ascension from Reversals series of digital artworks by Jennifer Weigel

I am among the authors who read their own works as well, with The Fur Coat. You can listen to my own reading on the Kaidenkai here. You can also read along with the original as posted here to Haunted MTL in 2020.

Portrait of myself with dark makeup and crow skull headdress, backlit by the sun.
Portrait of myself with dark makeup and crow skull headdress, backlit by the sun.

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Dolores Roach, The Greatest Threat to Our Survival

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We have reached the last episode of the podcast, Dolores Roach. No, this really is the end. There are no more episodes unless they’re hidden away on some Patreon page I don’t have access to.

The reason I’m being clear upfront about this is because, after you listen to this episode, the fact that there are no more episodes is going to be both confusing and infuriating.

The story

This episode begins with Dolores in a tunnel, being chased down by a train. She barely manages to escape, jumping onto a subway platform and then boarding the train that almost hit her.

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Dolores is in a state of panic. She just escaped the tunnels. She just saw Mother Cleats killed. Now, she’s on a subway train, surrounded by people she doesn’t know. And she is a mess. She hasn’t showered since going down in the tunnel, after all. She probably doesn’t smell great.

Dolores rides the train to Coney Island and gets off. She walks to the ocean and gets in the water to wash herself. And when she comes out, she’s recognized by an old friend, Georgie.

And it is then that we realize that it’s been Georgie she’s been telling this whole story to.

Seeing the state Dolores is in, Georgie insists that she come home with her. She gets Dolores some clothes and something to eat and makes her tell her everything that happened down in the tunnels.

And then, Georgie’s son comes home. A seventeen-year-old son who looks exactly like Dominic.

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That’s where the story ends.

What worked

I had a hard time finding much to like about this finale. If it hadn’t been the last episode it would have been great, but it was.

However, I did like the shift in perspective that takes place when it’s revealed that Dolores has been telling this whole story to Georgie this season. Because of course, up until now, it’s felt like she was talking to us and only us.

What didn’t work

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This episode had a lot of problems. For one thing, I didn’t trust Georgie from the start. And that distrust just got worse the more we saw of her. She’s a true crime writer who just happens to find Dolores when she comes out of the tunnels after two months. No, Dolores isn’t buying it and neither am I. And inviting a woman you have reason to believe is dangerous into your home is stupid. No one in their right mind would have done that. No parent would have allowed Dolores within the same block as their child. The whole thing was unbelievable.

But that complaint pales to the largest issue I have for this season finale. For this episode that is, as far as I can tell, a series finale.

I say that because I cannot find another episode listed anywhere. If I were to have just listened to this episode without knowing that, I would have assumed this was just a mid-season twist.

Because that’s what this feels like, a mid-season twist. It answers nothing. It wraps up nothing. It gives us no satisfaction at all. And that is more than frustrating. It is infuriating. It ruins any joy we might have gotten from the rest of the season.

The ending of Dolores Roach was, in short, not an ending. It stopped in the middle of the story, there’s just no way around it. And this episode came out in October of 2019, almost five years ago! I know that podcasts are rather notorious for having long periods between seasons. Mine is no exception, season three of AA will likely not see the light of day until 2025 at the earliest. But after five years I think we can all safely assume that we’re not getting any more episodes. And so Dolores is always going to be in limbo. We are never going to know whether or not Georgie was telling her the truth. We’ll never know what happened to Ginger or Ephraim. We’ll never know what Dolores does, standing in her old friend’s house with what appears to be Dominic’s seventeen-year-old son standing in front of her.

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We will never know, because the show is taking an entirely different turn. And so, I’m afraid I have to add Dolores Roach to the same infamous list as Lime Town or The Black Tapes. This podcast was great until they decided to just not end it.

If you’ve waited this long to see if you should listen to Dolores Roach, here’s my advice. Listen to season one, it had a reliable and satisfying ending. But season two should be left in obscurity where all half-finished stories belong.

1 out of 5 stars (1 / 5)

If you’re a fan of my work, please check out my latest story, Nova, on Paper Beats World. New chapters every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

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Dolores Roach, Still Twitching

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We’ve reached not only the second to last episode of this Dolores Roach season but the series as a whole. If you’ll recall, last episode we were riding the high of a great new villain. We had an unexpected and shocking story arc.

Now, after listening to this second-to-last episode, that high is gone. And we are left with disappointment, lamenting what might have been.

The story

We begin our story with Dolores being shown to her new home. The home she’s to share with Ephraim is considerably smaller than the home they were sharing before.

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Ephraim is thrilled. He’s read Mother Cleats’ treatment and is all in.

This doesn’t make sense to Dolores. To her, this place seems like a downgrade. But for Ephraim, it’s a chance to belong. A chance to feel safe, to not fear hunger or violence.

Dolores has no illusions of being safe from that, though. And she’s not thrilled with being drafted as the Chain’s new killer and cook.

She tries to get Ephraim to run with her. Even prison would be better than what she’s facing. But he doesn’t intend to go anywhere.

Next, Dolores tries to get Ginger to go with her. She points out that having a baby in a tunnel instead of a hospital is probably not her ideal birth plan. But Ginger has some sort of strange fit and screams at her.

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Dolores is lost, unsure how she’ll ever fight her way through all of these people to get out of the tunnels. But at the last moment, she gets unexpected help from a very unexpected source.

What worked

Let me begin by saying that it’s honestly hard to say that anything worked in this episode. Which isn’t to say that it was bad. The acting was as wonderful as it’s been the whole series. The sound editing was wonderful.

But everything that did work suffered from the pacing. We’ll discuss that more later.

This episode was full of sudden yet inevitable betrayals that I love. I don’t want to ruin the fun for you. But it’s safe to say that no one is on good terms with anyone at the end of this. At least, the people still alive.

I also appreciated the setup for a pivotal death. Early in the season, Ephraim told us that the middle rail was certain death to touch. I think we all knew that this was going to come up eventually. That we would, sooner or later, see someone’s eyes melt out of their sockets. And yes, I’m pleased to say that did happen.

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What didn’t work

If the podcast Dolores Roach has a flaw it is in its pacing. And that flaw came very much to light in this episode. Because this should have been at least two episodes.

It was not as fun to see the ending of this episode as it would have been if there had been more build-up. An important character betrayal didn’t mean as much as if there had been more of a build-up.

Overall, this story would have felt so much richer if there had been more room to breathe and experience them. It was as if we were to be served a wonderful meal. And instead of savoring it, we shoveled it down without truly tasting it. And that’s a shame. This seemed like a delicious story. I wish we could have tasted more of it.

Even though there should be more, there is only one episode left of Dolores Roach. And I don’t know how to feel about that. They’ve done everything they set up to do already. So, what’s left for Dolores now? That’s the only question we have left to answer.

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3 out of 5 stars (3 / 5)

If you’re a fan of my work, please check out my latest story, Nova, on Paper Beats World. New chapters every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

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