deerstalker
In the early 1990s, young director Brad Silberling (A Series of Unfortunate Events) was working in television when, out of the blue, he was contacted by Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park). After another project fell through, Spielberg tapped him to direct the live-action adaptation of Casper the Friendly Ghost. The huge IP would be his feature directorial debut, so no pressure.
Spielberg, serving as an executive producer, also had Sherri Stoner and Deanna Oliver (Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs) pen the script, later hiring a young J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) to do some uncredited rewrites.
Casper made it to theaters on May 26, 1995, Memorial Day weekend, and was a hit at the box office. It was also the first film with an entirely CGI lead character and similarly a milestone in cinema history like Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Director of Photography Dean Cundey and other crew members worked on both productions, including the talented animators over at George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic. However, many critics didn’t like the subject matter, believing it was too morose for a kids’ movie. But as we continue to revisit childhood favorites, we see that several shows and movies we watched were darker than we thought.
To kick off this family-friendly movie about death, we meet heiress Carrigan Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty), who just inherited the rundown Whipstaff Manor from her recently deceased father. After her initial tantrum, her attorney/assistant/errand boy Paul “Dibs” Plutzker (Eric Idle) finds a flimsy document suggesting there’s hidden treasure inside the mansion.
Without any further research or proof that it even exists, Carrigan makes it their mission to find the alleged treasure in the property she doesn’t want. However, they run into a snag when they’re eagerly greeted by Casper (Malachi Pearson). It takes less than five seconds before they start shrieking and fleeing.
With the help of the titular friendly ghost and his baffling ability to travel through phone lines, Carrigan sees a news story about Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman), a self-proclaimed therapist for the “living impaired” and his “loner” (an unnecessary and hilarious descriptor from the newscaster) daughter Kathleen “Kat” Harvey (Christina Ricci). Following the unsuccessful attempts of priests, construction workers, and a Ghostbuster, Carrigan hires Dr. Harvey to get the spirits to move on.
As the father-daughter duo make their way to Whipstaff Manor in Friendship, Maine, we learn that James’ real goal is to contact the ghost of his wife Amelia (Amy Brenneman). Unlike the stereotypical snarky tween, Kat is kind and understanding of her father’s obsession (to a point) but she’s also so over his cross-country quest and the intrusive media attention that follows.
For someone who works in the field of parapsychology, James is oddly disbelieving and terrified when he and Kat see Casper for the first time. Then enter the chaotic Ghostly Trio — Stretch (Joe Nipote), Stinkie (Joe Alaskey), and Fatso (Brad Garrett) — Casper’s supposed uncles. It’s safe to say that this is the first time James has actually seen ghosts but he recovers pretty quickly.
At school, Kat gets attention from a boy, Vic (Garette Ratliff Henson), which inadvertently makes her a target for the obligatory blonde mean girl, Amber (Jessica Wesson). In their first class, she’s asked to introduce herself, and after Amber gets in a few digs (which the teacher just lets her do, by the way), another kid volunteers Kat’s new abode as the venue for their Halloween party. Kat seems fine with the classmates she just met inviting themselves to her home and we don’t see her breaking the news to James, so he’s seemingly down with the inconvenient plan too.
A lot of the comedy comes from the Ghostly Trio, though Bill Pullman goes full Looney Tunes as a slightly clumsy, easily spooked, sweater-wearing dad. There are several pop culture references to celebrities like Markie Mark and Oprah. In addition to Ben Stein’s brief appearance (because it’s not a ’90s movie without Ben Stein), there are other random but impressive celebrity cameos from Clint Eastwood to the Crypt Keeper.
But it’s not all laughs. Aside from Kat and James still mourning the loss of their mother/wife, the eternally 12-year-old Casper lives with three abusive uncles in an empty mansion where he watched his father’s mental health decline. He’d forgotten most of his time as a human until he and Kat are in the attic.
He starts to remember the days leading up to his untimely death, how he went sledding with his dad and caught a fatal case of pneumonia. The heartbreaking backstory wasn’t from the Harvey Comics source material but was written specifically for the film. Pearson delivers the monologue with such sadness: “It got cold, I got sick, Dad got sad.” James Horner’s (Titanic, Jumanji) hauntingly beautiful score enhances this and the other melancholic moments throughout the film. In a behind-the-scenes featurette, Horner describes the melody as a fairy tale about Casper’s “lost quality of youth and childhood.”
The whole film is somewhat of a fairy tale. On the night of the party, Casper is granted time as a living human. He uses the brief time in corporeal form, famously played by the dreamy Devon Sawa, to slow dance with Kat and share a slightly awkward but sweet kiss on the dance floor and whispers, “Can I keep you?” He had said this to a sleeping Kat while he was a ghost, but this time it is a tad less creepy. Operating on a bizarre Cinderella time constraint, Casper only gets until the stroke of 10:00 PM (not even midnight) before he’s back to being translucent.
Despite being a Halloween favorite, Casper doesn’t exactly feel like it’s taking place during spooky season. The middle school costume party is really the only Halloween-related element. However, the nearly dilapidated gothic mansion provides an eerie atmosphere with and without any roaming ghouls, especially his father’s basement laboratory, accessed via a whiplash Haunted Mansion-type ride.
Like most of Whipstaff’s features (swirl designs, stained glass, huge machinery puffing smoke), the old lab is very Burton-esque, including the “Up and at ‘em” machine, a wild contraption you’d see in Edward Scissorhands. If Tim Burton made Casper, there’d be a larger ensemble cast of weird characters, Ricci would be pale and probably more Lydia Deetz-like, and Johnny Depp would have Bill Pullman’s role. I mean, I’d see it.
Casper is a deeply tragic yet oddly wholesome coming-of-age tale about loneliness and grief. Though the film is essentially a meditation on death, it isn’t all doom and gloom. It still has its zany moments and mid-’90s charm with just enough darkness to satisfy one’s inner goth.
In 2022, Peacock announced they had their own live-action on Casper in development from Kai Yu Wu (American Born Chinese). We’ve yet to hear any updates but we can only hope that Christina Ricci is asked to make a Wednesday-style appearance.
Catch Casper currently streaming on Netflix.
In the early 1990s, young director Brad Silberling (A Series of Unfortunate Events) was working in television when, out of the blue, he was contacted by Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park). After another project fell through, Spielberg tapped him to direct the live-action adaptation of Casper the Friendly Ghost. The huge IP would be his feature directorial debut, so no pressure.
Spielberg, serving as an executive producer, also had Sherri Stoner and Deanna Oliver (Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs) pen the script, later hiring a young J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) to do some uncredited rewrites.
Casper made it to theaters on May 26, 1995, Memorial Day weekend, and was a hit at the box office. It was also the first film with an entirely CGI lead character and similarly a milestone in cinema history like Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Director of Photography Dean Cundey and other crew members worked on both productions, including the talented animators over at George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic. However, many critics didn’t like the subject matter, believing it was too morose for a kids’ movie. But as we continue to revisit childhood favorites, we see that several shows and movies we watched were darker than we thought.
To kick off this family-friendly movie about death, we meet heiress Carrigan Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty), who just inherited the rundown Whipstaff Manor from her recently deceased father. After her initial tantrum, her attorney/assistant/errand boy Paul “Dibs” Plutzker (Eric Idle) finds a flimsy document suggesting there’s hidden treasure inside the mansion.
Without any further research or proof that it even exists, Carrigan makes it their mission to find the alleged treasure in the property she doesn’t want. However, they run into a snag when they’re eagerly greeted by Casper (Malachi Pearson). It takes less than five seconds before they start shrieking and fleeing.
With the help of the titular friendly ghost and his baffling ability to travel through phone lines, Carrigan sees a news story about Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman), a self-proclaimed therapist for the “living impaired” and his “loner” (an unnecessary and hilarious descriptor from the newscaster) daughter Kathleen “Kat” Harvey (Christina Ricci). Following the unsuccessful attempts of priests, construction workers, and a Ghostbuster, Carrigan hires Dr. Harvey to get the spirits to move on.
As the father-daughter duo make their way to Whipstaff Manor in Friendship, Maine, we learn that James’ real goal is to contact the ghost of his wife Amelia (Amy Brenneman). Unlike the stereotypical snarky tween, Kat is kind and understanding of her father’s obsession (to a point) but she’s also so over his cross-country quest and the intrusive media attention that follows.
For someone who works in the field of parapsychology, James is oddly disbelieving and terrified when he and Kat see Casper for the first time. Then enter the chaotic Ghostly Trio — Stretch (Joe Nipote), Stinkie (Joe Alaskey), and Fatso (Brad Garrett) — Casper’s supposed uncles. It’s safe to say that this is the first time James has actually seen ghosts but he recovers pretty quickly.
At school, Kat gets attention from a boy, Vic (Garette Ratliff Henson), which inadvertently makes her a target for the obligatory blonde mean girl, Amber (Jessica Wesson). In their first class, she’s asked to introduce herself, and after Amber gets in a few digs (which the teacher just lets her do, by the way), another kid volunteers Kat’s new abode as the venue for their Halloween party. Kat seems fine with the classmates she just met inviting themselves to her home and we don’t see her breaking the news to James, so he’s seemingly down with the inconvenient plan too.
A lot of the comedy comes from the Ghostly Trio, though Bill Pullman goes full Looney Tunes as a slightly clumsy, easily spooked, sweater-wearing dad. There are several pop culture references to celebrities like Markie Mark and Oprah. In addition to Ben Stein’s brief appearance (because it’s not a ’90s movie without Ben Stein), there are other random but impressive celebrity cameos from Clint Eastwood to the Crypt Keeper.
But it’s not all laughs. Aside from Kat and James still mourning the loss of their mother/wife, the eternally 12-year-old Casper lives with three abusive uncles in an empty mansion where he watched his father’s mental health decline. He’d forgotten most of his time as a human until he and Kat are in the attic.
He starts to remember the days leading up to his untimely death, how he went sledding with his dad and caught a fatal case of pneumonia. The heartbreaking backstory wasn’t from the Harvey Comics source material but was written specifically for the film. Pearson delivers the monologue with such sadness: “It got cold, I got sick, Dad got sad.” James Horner’s (Titanic, Jumanji) hauntingly beautiful score enhances this and the other melancholic moments throughout the film. In a behind-the-scenes featurette, Horner describes the melody as a fairy tale about Casper’s “lost quality of youth and childhood.”
The whole film is somewhat of a fairy tale. On the night of the party, Casper is granted time as a living human. He uses the brief time in corporeal form, famously played by the dreamy Devon Sawa, to slow dance with Kat and share a slightly awkward but sweet kiss on the dance floor and whispers, “Can I keep you?” He had said this to a sleeping Kat while he was a ghost, but this time it is a tad less creepy. Operating on a bizarre Cinderella time constraint, Casper only gets until the stroke of 10:00 PM (not even midnight) before he’s back to being translucent.
Despite being a Halloween favorite, Casper doesn’t exactly feel like it’s taking place during spooky season. The middle school costume party is really the only Halloween-related element. However, the nearly dilapidated gothic mansion provides an eerie atmosphere with and without any roaming ghouls, especially his father’s basement laboratory, accessed via a whiplash Haunted Mansion-type ride.
Like most of Whipstaff’s features (swirl designs, stained glass, huge machinery puffing smoke), the old lab is very Burton-esque, including the “Up and at ‘em” machine, a wild contraption you’d see in Edward Scissorhands. If Tim Burton made Casper, there’d be a larger ensemble cast of weird characters, Ricci would be pale and probably more Lydia Deetz-like, and Johnny Depp would have Bill Pullman’s role. I mean, I’d see it.
Casper is a deeply tragic yet oddly wholesome coming-of-age tale about loneliness and grief. Though the film is essentially a meditation on death, it isn’t all doom and gloom. It still has its zany moments and mid-’90s charm with just enough darkness to satisfy one’s inner goth.
In 2022, Peacock announced they had their own live-action on Casper in development from Kai Yu Wu (American Born Chinese). We’ve yet to hear any updates but we can only hope that Christina Ricci is asked to make a Wednesday-style appearance.
Catch Casper currently streaming on Netflix.
For fans of the character, an Eddie Munson prequel book was always going to be a bittersweet offering. After all, many fell fast for Eddie in Stranger Things 4, only for him to meet a harsh death. The figure of Eddie Munson attracted so much love so quickly because his narrative, however short, resonated powerfully with anyone who had ever felt othered in their lives. And conversely, his death brought so much pain because it seemed like an undeserved end for a character who had already survived so much and in whom so many saw themselves. All of this left Stranger Things: Flight of Icarus with a tall order on its hands. Could going backward in Eddie Munson’s story be as satisfying as a much-hoped-for going forward?
The answer is complicated. But mostly, it boils down to the fact Stranger Things: Flight of Icarus by Caitlin Schneiderhan deeply understands what makes Eddie Munson so loved. Although delving into those purely good aspects of Eddie leaves a sting behind given his ending, the novel offers fans more time with their favorite character at his best.
Moved by forces unknown, the first part of the book I read was the acknowledgments. At the very end, author Caitlin Schneiderhan notes, “Thank you to everybody out there who has ever been an Eddie Munson, been saved by an Eddie Munson, or loved an Eddie Munson. You’re not alone.” And ultimately, that is the most powerful summary of this novel I could offer. Despite the balancing act it faced, Flight of Icarus shone because it was a love letter to Eddie, to the way the character has made many feel seen, and to the struggles he survived, which feel so resonant to those facing the same obstacles in reality.
Although a first-person narrative can be a tough sell, in this case, it worked because it brought the reader intimately into Eddie’s world, offering up his thoughts about himself and those around him, his hopes, and his fears, and allowing him to truly be at center. Stranger Things: Flight of Icarus lets readers sit next to Eddie for a time and experience another portion of his life with him. In that way, it let everyone feel less alone.
Stranger Things: Flight of Icarus‘ Plotlines Build Up the Eddie Munson We Know
In a more literal sense, three main plotlines run through Stranger Things: Flight of Icarus. One focuses on Eddie’s backstory and his fraught relationship with his wayward father, Al Munson, who envisions Eddie as his mini-me, at least when convenient. A second features an original character named Paige, who sees Eddie as a rock ‘n roll god and seeks to help him get his big break in music. And a third stars the Hellfire Club and Eddie’s at-the-time best friend named Ronnie, who really just wants Eddie to love himself.
Of the three, the strongest Flight of Icarus plot was the arc between Ronnie and Eddie. Although sadly, this arc was also the shortest of the trio. Ronnie and Eddie’s playful but snarky dynamic gives Eddie a confidant to challenge and check him and offers up that incredible “platonic life partners” dynamic that we don’t see enough of in fiction. It strongly calls to mind the friendship between Robin and Steve. There even seems to be a subtle implication Ronnie is also queer. (Eddie notes that “she didn’t think she’d have a crush on anybody.”) Suffice to say, this friendship definitely leaves fans wondering what mischief the four would have gotten up to in another life.
Meanwhile, the storyline between Eddie and Paige is fun and gives readers a look at an Eddie Munson romance if that’s what they’re into. For me, it was the plot that moved the story forward the least. But it did feature some poetic descriptions by Schneiderhan of Eddie immersing himself in his music which will stay with me. It also lets Eddie see that even a good vision of who he is that isn’t true to himself isn’t right.
Finally, of course, there’s Al Munson. Meeting Eddie’s dad puts an even sharper focus on the hardship Eddie has experienced his whole life. In Hawkins, Al Munson exists as a huge pariah. And Hawkins has tarred and feathered Eddie with the brush of perceptions only his father has earned. This, of course, does heap onto Eddie’s shoulders. But it’s not really the Munson-aversion that hurts the worst. In Stranger Things: Flight of Icarus, we learn Al Munson has been leaving Eddie behind his whole life. And, in a sense, no differently than Hawkins, Eddie’s father can’t truly see Eddie as a person, not unless he needs something from him. There’s more than one scene that will make your heart clench for Eddie, who truly just wants to be loved.
The true throughline of every part of the Flight of Icarus is Eddie Munson learning what it means to be just Eddie Munson and not only squaring with that but celebrating it. Every argument, aspiration, disappointment, and joy in the novel steps him closer to figuring out that Eddie being happy with Eddie is the most crucial success of all. And that’s exactly the journey we and Eddie deserve to go on.
Stranger Things Cameos in Flight of the Icarus
When it comes to Stranger Things cameos beyond Eddie Munson, fans can expect some treats. It’s clear that Flight of Icarus saw at least a portion of what the internet was asking for. HellCheer fans get an extended and emotional memory of Eddie and Chrissy meeting at the school talent show, cementing headcanons for how their friendship and romance could have blossomed. Wayne Munson appears as the father figure that Eddie sorely needs, a true voice of love in Eddie’s life who encourages him, more than anyone, to just be himself. Reefer Rick has some jovial and hilarious moments as Stranger Things gives us the origin story of Eddie’s business ventures. Gareth and Jeff get more flesh on their bones. The cherry on top is Will Byers and Eddie Munson finally getting to meet. (And make one another smile. And talk Dungeons & Dragons, kind of.)
To all my Steddie comrades-in-arms, I am honor-bound to say that although Steve Harrington does not appear in Stranger Things: Flight of Icarus, he is confirmed to not approve of any beating up of freshmen… And the one mention Eddie makes of him does feature an, ehm, interesting body part, so we’ll take it.
Eddie Munson’s Backstory Is Beautiful, but It Hurts Us
Ultimately, getting lost in Stranger Things: Flight of Icarus is an excellent adventure for Eddie Munson fans. But the journey Eddie goes on to embrace himself, the figure he becomes to all the other “freaks” around him, and all the pains, hopes, and dreams we learn he has do converge to make his ultimate death an even tougher pill to swallow. Flight of the Icarus would become that much more of a satisfying origin and backstory for Eddie Munson if we could one day see him triumph in the face of all his naysayers by the simple act of getting to live on. It’s your move, Stranger Things 5.
But, in the meanwhile, Eddie Munson got to live a little longer in our world, and that, we will celebrate.
⭐ (3.75 of 5)
The post STRANGER THINGS: FLIGHT OF ICARUS Offers Excellent But Painful Eddie Munson Quality Time appeared first on Nerdist.
On December 23, 2022, Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o surprised us on social media when she introduced her romance with television host and designer Selema Masekela.
“We just click!” Lupita wrote on Instagram. “@selema #thisismylove #nuffsaid.”
Selema also confirmed their romance with his own post, writing, “Hearts are synched. My whole and actual love @lupitanyongo. #outkickedthecoverage.”
Throughout Nyong’o’s career, she has discussed her choice to keep her private life out of the public eye — and rightfully so, as social media can be a war zone when you share parts of your life. Yet, she more recently shared a message on Instagram that she is “dissociating herself from someone she can no longer trust” within her “season of heartbreak.”
While she didn’t expressly give a name, removing photos of Masekela from her Instagram and not following each other anymore told us all we needed to know. The post comes one day after photos of Nyong’o and actor Joshua Jackson were taken at a Janelle Monae concert in Los Angeles. Jackson is newly split from his wife Jodie Turner-Smith.
I know, it’s a lot. You may be wondering how news of yet another Hollywood breakup could possibly add value to your life. Nyong’o shared for “someone else out there experiencing the grip of heartbreak who is poised to try and escape from the pain and miss out on the wisdom that comes from it.”
Her post sparks the conversation about how women, particularly Black women, overcome breakups and heartache and move forward from them.
Over a decade ago, I found myself going through a divorce. It was painful and I chose not to share what I was going through. Even after I finally confided in people close to me, I still felt alone and had to navigate how to get through that difficult time. People will have their opinions and actually take sides. Your feelings will be dismissed, and you’re almost forced to become bulletproof.
Black women are consistently isolated by society and then punished for speaking about their pain. When we choose to speak about loneliness and lack of care in romantic relationships, people downplay our vulnerability because we are supposed to be so strong all the time.
What I know for sure is that heartache is something to move through and not necessarily move on from. The idea of moving on gives the impression that there are specific steps you can take and that, if followed correctly, one day you’ll be good as new. Moving through allows the space to go as far as you can but give yourself grace to take a step back if needed. Moving through does not force you to rush and feel better. The only way to heal from a breakup is to move through the pain until it’s done. As Nyong’o said, if we try and escape the pain, we might miss out on the wisdom it provides.
According to Dr. Gary W. Lewandowski Jr., professor and former chair in the Department of Psychology at Monmouth University in New Jersey, a social media purge can protect your heart. Nyong’o certainly took note of this by deleting all the photos from her Instagram account. Lewandowski says that Facebook and Instagram can be pure poison for the brokenhearted. “Though it may be temporarily gratifying to satisfy your curiosity,” regarding what the ex is up to, “it’s best not to look back.”
As Lewandowski describes in his TEDx talk, Break-Ups Don’t Have to Leave You Broken, it’s important to become reacquainted with “parts of yourself that you may have deemphasized or neglected during the relationship” in order to “remember who you are separate from the relationship.” He encourages asking yourself what activities your relationship may have been blocking and then rediscovering that part of yourself.
Nyong’o being spotted with Joshua Jackson allows us to speculate. New relationship, or simply friends having a night out? It’s true that some people try to cope with a breakup by jumping into another relationship. I have seen friends do this, and it doesn’t allow time to actually process emotions and get to know yourself again. This should be a time for self-discovery and reflection. The pain is so present that you need time to let it subside.
We’ve all seen the posts on social media about Black women living a “soft life,” and what that actually looks like. It’s about living life in a way that creates space for vulnerability and peace. Simply existing in this world as a Black woman is hard. The truth is it feels harder than ever these days.
In the early days of the lockdown, we focused on being our best selves through the harder-better-faster-stronger trope. There was a time when the mandate of the strong Black woman gave so many us the edge we needed to survive. But it also gave us burnout. In addition to balancing work and our physical and mental health, we’ve also had to carry the weight in our personal lives, making sure that everyone else is okay while we’re just out here suffering. So many of our connections often feel unfulfilling because we’re pouring from an empty cup, providing unconditional love and support without being met with reciprocity.
There is no rule book for what to do when a relationship ends. But one interesting notion comes from Habiba Jessica Zaman, a professional counselor: “Our healing time will depend on the meaning the relationship held, as well as the length of the relationship.”
Nyong’o shared a message of gratitude to followers who have sent her messages of support. “Thank you for all the kindness I have received from sharing my heartbreak news,” Lupita wrote on her Instagram Story on October 22. She continued, “And it feels comforting to have a little corner online for the romantically heartbroken to gather.”
Nyong’o taking to social media to express her pain and loss about a relationship is what people consistently do these days. We allow the world into our most vulnerable spaces, in the hopes that we’ll feel better or possibly gain some acknowledgment of our feelings. I believe she also recognizes that she is not alone in what she’s going through. With her massive platform, she has the reach to actually help someone going through the same. We see that she’s just like us, doing our best moving through.
Horror is a genre that disturbs many people. At the same time, many are drawn to it and want more. That’s exactly what it’s supposed to do. Over the last few years, I have been reading a lot of horror books, more intentionally Black horror. Although it’s not a new genre, it has commanded popular and critical attention, bringing it into American mainstream like never before.
Tananarive Due has been a remarkable voice in Black speculative fiction for decades, best known for her supernatural suspense and mystery novels and short stories, including Ghost Summer: Stories, My Soul to Keep, Blood Colony, The Living Blood and The Good House. Her writing has been included in Jordan Peele’s recent anthology Out There Screaming, as well as other anthology collections. The Miami native has received the American Book Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a British Fantasy Award.
Due’s recent work, The Reformatory, takes place in Florida during Jim Crow, so that alone should warn you about the triggers this book has: racism, child abuse, massive amounts of racial slurs, severe violence, just to name a few. She brings us a terrifying ghost story, some very dark history, and a story that is terrifyingly relevant today.
Robbie, Gloria, and the boys at the Reformatory were so innocent, and what happens in the book just strips that innocence from them time and again. But even as some parts are extremely hard to read, Due’s writing style is engaging and the plot is a page-turner. You won’t be disappointed whether you’re here for the ghost story or the history. It’s horrifying, yet well-done.
The Reformatory is based on the true story of the Dozier School for Boys in Florida. Due dedicates the book to Robert Stephens, her great-uncle who died there in 1937 when he was just fifteen years old. The story begins in Gracetown, Florida, in 1950 with 12-year-old Robbie Stephens Jr. and his sister Gloria. Robbie is sentenced to six months at Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory school, after kicking Lyle, the son of Red McCormick (a powerful landowner in town), after Lyle tried to make advances towards Robbie’s sister. After Robbie is arrested and sentenced, Gloria realizes that this is all a set up to destroy Robbie and her family and tries to act quickly to save him.
When Robbie arrives to the Reformatory, he starts seeing the horrors that were rumored to be true. Robbie has the ability to see ghosts (or in this case, they’re called haints) and sees the torture that they endured. It is not long before Robbie witnesses these horrors for himself.
While at the Reformatory, Robbie’s ability to see ghosts turns into a window to see the truth of what really happens there. Boys forced to work to remediate their crimes have gone missing without a trace, but the ghosts have shown Robbie what happened to them. While he is learning how to survive, his sister Gloria is rallying everyone she knows and trying every possible thing she can to get Robbie out of the reformatory before it’s too late.
I had a huge mix of emotions while reading this book. Yes, it’s a ghost story, but the horror really came from Jim Crow South being portrayed so explicitly. Books like The Reformatory are powerful reminders that we have to always remember this happened. There are a lot of triggers. At times, it was difficult to even read, struggling with the graphic depictions of violence against children. I was in constant fear for the main characters.
Due lets the characters explore every avenue of escaping their fates and builds tension with every page by shutting them down one at a time — in the dead of night among the spirits of half-burned corpses, in the broad daylight of a public road, in the chambers of a racist judge whose shield of privilege allows for state-sanctioned kidnapping, assault, and murder.
That being said, I believe Due’s purpose is to make the reader uncomfortable since it’s based on a horrifying true story. Due’s storytelling is bar none; it’s one of the strongest depictions of this horrendous time period in American history. I am shocked at how fast I read this book — at nearly 600 pages. Don’t be intimidated by the length because the story flows quite fast. The author truly needed this amount of content to accurately characterize and strengthen the story.
The truth is, most of what we consider to be classic horror was created for us. The genre is inundated by white male gatekeeping that most entertainment is subject to. I believe that part of horror’s attraction is its charge to invent and create. However, the unfortunate outcome of this gatekeeping is that it gives us limited freedom to access that imagination.
The thing with horror is that we are able to pick up a book such as this and experience fear without actually having to face it. No matter how horrified you are or how difficult it is to get through, the genre feels acceptable because it’s not actually happening to us. We can stop reading and turn away.
For Black readers, horror doesn’t have to extend far. Have you ever been the only Black woman at your job or the only Black family in your neighborhood? Have you ever been Black or Brown and pulled over by the police? This is horror, too. Unfortunately, we can’t turn away.
The Reformatory is the too-real fear of being in a Black body, a trauma that is always present and never lets us go. Just like towards the end of the book when Robbie is safe with his sister: “The Reformatory was the Hell from Pastor Jenkin’s sermons, hidden at the edge of Gracetown while people drove their cars and played with their children and ate ice cream cones on Main Street… so normal and everyday, with Hell so close by.”
This made me reflect on how we go about our daily lives, knowing that evil lurks between the everyday normal that we see. The theme that resonated with me was the exploration of power dynamics: color, gender, ability, age, and even living status. Who creates the systems, who enforces the systems to benefit from privilege, who inherits power, who earns it, and who could have it if only they knew the strength of their numbers? It’s deplorable that the Dozier school was allowed to stay open for over 100 years.
I give this book a 5/5 stars. The Reformatory is a beautifully written book about a truly horrible story. There is a lot of darkness but it does shine light on a history that is so important to focus on and never forget. It is haunting and will stay with you for a long time after reading.
The Reformatory is available October 31, 2023, wherever books are sold.