Outpost: Texas Renaissance Festival 2026

“Hoist the colours, lads.”

I attended the Texas Renaissance Festival for their Pirate Adventure Weekend this year. It took place on the weekend of October 24-25th. The day was warm but not too hot, and I got to take in my favorite shows and discovered a new favorite show as well.

I traveled to Todd Mission, TX early on Saturday morning. My trip to the festival was fairly event-free until I got into Conroe, where traffic and idiocy increased. I then took a wrong turn (my own fault) and ended up in the performer camping area. I turned around and managed to get a close parking spot in the general parking area. I bought my ticket just in time to hear the cannon announce the opening of the festival for the day. I entered the festival grounds and immediately sought out coffee and food. I opted for two kolaches and a cappuccino from the Queen’s Pantry. The kolaches were a tad dry, but the cappuccino was magnificent. After acquiring my breakfast, I headed straight to the Globe Theater to see my favorite act at TRF, the Clan Tynker Family Circus.

It was such a joy to see Sam, Rebekah, Elijah, Serendipity, and Santiago once again. I saw a few new tricks from them and had a fun time as always. At the end of the show, I tipped Sam and got a Clan Tynker pin. From there, I ventured into a few shops while making my way to the Magic Garden to consume a little bit of blackberry mead. The Magic Garden is where I always take a photo with one of the topless statues and visit with Saint Felix. From there, I headed over to Robert’s Revenge, a pirate museum that I’ve frequented every year since it opened on the festival grounds. I found Stinky Steven the cat and got a piece of eight for my success and then headed to the Greek Agora where I grabbed a gyro and settled in for the Pyrodruids show.

This was my first time seeing the Pyrodruids and I have to admit that they won me over heartily. The show centers around a battle between the gods Zeus and Hades as they use fire and acrobatics to challenge each other and wow the crowd. Along for the ride are Artemis, Aphrodite, and Athena, who performed amazing aerial acrobatics and death-defying stunts. The show mixed humor, music, and crowd interaction for an excellent show.

Next I visited Slayer’s Castle, where I got to see some cool film and television props from shows and movies like Doctor Who, Starship Troopers, The Mummy, and more. There are flashing lights, loud noises, and quick blasts of air throughout the museum, adding atmosphere to the place.

After hitting Slayer’s Castle, I returned to the Greek Agora to check out one of my other favorite shows, Global Dance Theater. The ladies of GDT danced and interacted with the crowd. They were funny, beautiful, and a real treat to watch. The only thing that I missed was the band, who was oddly absent. I’m not sure if they were part of other shows throughout the day or not, but I still had a great time at the Agora.

I completed my trip to the festival with Tartanic. The bagpipe and drum band put on an excellent show as always, but I was unable to get any good photos due to where I sat for the show. They always draw a big crowd, so quality seating goes quickly. I did pick up a USB drive of one of their albums, and I highly recommend checking them out if you ever get the chance.

I left the festival in the late afternoon and decided to take the long way home. I went through towns like Silsbee and Evadale and completely avoided Beaumont and its traffic. I also passed in front of Whispering Grove, a fairly new Renaissance festival that takes place just outside of Kountze, TX. I might check them out next year, as they are much closer than the Texas Renaissance Festival and my hectic work schedule makes longer drives a bit tougher to do these days.

Thanks for checking out my post. I’ve included a few more photos below. If you’ve attended TRF or Whispering Grove, let me know what you think of them. I hope to return to TRF again next year!

Throwback Thursday: The Wedding Singer (1998)

“I have the microphone….”

A 1998 film about a broken-hearted wedding singer in 1985 who falls in love with a woman who is engaged to a junk bonds investor might not sound like the type of romantic comedy you’d want to see, but The Wedding Singer is definitely worth a watch (or, in my case, a rewatch). The film stars Adam Sandler in one of his earliest romantic comedies and it is also the first of three such films to star both Sandler and Drew Barrymore. I saw this movie in the theater with my future wife and another really good friend. All three of us bonded with the film, with myself and my good friend loving the comedy and my future wife loving the nostalgia, especially the music.

In the movie, Sandler stars as Robbie Hart, a successful local wedding singer who is devastated and goes into a deep depression when he is stood up at the altar by his would-be bride, Linda (Angela Featherstone). As a result of his depression, he tanks his next wedding reception and has trouble finding different gigs for work. He befriends Julia (Barrymore), a new waitress that works for the catering company that serves at the receptions that Robbie’s band plays at regularly. She is set to marry Glenn (Matthew Glave), a sleazy Wall Street investor who is cheating behind her back and convinces her to plan their wedding so that he can have even more fun without her interference. Julia hires Robbie to help her plan the wedding and the two begin to fall for one another. Their close friends, Holly (Christine Taylor) and Sammy (Allen Covert) see that Robbie and Julia are in love with one another and set out to save their relationship before Julia marries Glenn and Robbie gives up music to pursue a different career. What happens? Watch The Wedding Singer to see if Robbie and Julia make it or if their worlds fall apart.

The film is full of classic 1980’s music and pop culture references. From “Who Shot J.R.?” to a cameo appearance by Billy Idol, this movie is a nice time capsule for those of us who grew up in the 80s. It also features a solid list of actors and comedians with small roles that were popular in the 90s or would become popular very soon. Steve Buscemi, Jon Lovitz, Peter Dante, Ellen Albertini Dow, Frank Sivero, Alexis Arquette, Brian Posehn, and Christina Pickles all had great small roles in the film.

Yeah, the movie can be a little cheesy at times, but that’s part of its appeal. Robbie Hart can be a goober at times and Julia can be a tad bit too optimistic, but Sandler and Barrymore have such great chemistry on screen that you can’t help but enjoy their performances. I’ve always had a massive crush on Barrymore, and seeing her play such a sweet, somewhat naive character was fun. Oh, and while she might have left Robbie at the you can’t deny that Angela Featherstone was smoking hot in that Van Halen shirt!

If you haven’t seen The Wedding Singer, it’s available on a Paramount+, Amazon Prime, and a number of other streamers as of this writing. It’s a really fun movie and I think that you’ll like it. Thanks for checking out my post!

Thirty-One Days O’Horror 2027!

It’s all in black and white!

Thirty-One Days O’Horror 2026 is in the books, so that means that I have to start preparing for 2027! For next year, Ken’s Alternate Universe is taking a deep dive back to the days of cinema past, when horror was in black and white and, sometimes, silent. I’ll be looking at movies from the beginning of cinema all the way through the 1960s. Some of the movies that I will be blogging about are silent, a few lost to time, the occasional Universal Monster, and a bunch of creature features from cinema’s golden age.

As usual, I’ll gladly take requests from you, the reader. Just drop into my DMs on Instagram or Facebook, or send me a message through this page. I’ll do my best to include any of your suggested films. I’ve already got a few films in mind for next year, but I’d love to get some input from all of you.

I’ll be chilling out for a few days this November, but I’m going to try and continue posting regularly until the end of the year. If there’s anything that you’d like me to review that outside of Thirty-One Days O’Horror, just let me know. I really appreciate all of you for reading my blog.

Thanks for all of your support!

Hungry (2026)

“The only cute hippo is a dead hippo.”

Written and directed by James Nunn, 2026’s Hungry is a surprisingly well done hippo horror film. While I’ve come across a number of articles and social media posts touting the film as a horror adaptation of the classic Hungry Hungry Hippos game, the only resemblance or mild reference to the Milton Bradley/Hasbro game is the title itself. For what it’s worth, an animated film version of the game has apparently been around since 2012, but hasn’t come to fruition yet.

In the James Nunn film, a group of tourists and their boat captain head out into the Louisiana swamps just outside of New Orleans. One of the tourists, hoping to surprise her kids, tips the captain three hundred dollars to make sure that the group sees the biggest alligator in the swamp. The captain goes off course to find the alligator, but finds its mutilated remains instead. The boat is then attack by an unseen creature in the water. The group all manage to make it into the safety of the trees, but the captain is severely wounded during the rush to the trees. As time drags by, the group realizes that the creature that attacked them is a hippopotamus. The owner of the swamp tour heads out to find his missing boat, captain, and tourists, and everyone fights to survive the hungry hippo!

This film does an amazing job of making the viewer sympathize with most of the tourists and the swamp tour captain and owner. This is rare for a horror film, even the ones produced by the big studios, as most of them load up the cast with forgettable or unlikable characters that you want to see get ripped to pieces. In Hungry, though, you feel for the characters that die and the survivors as well. Is there one or two people that deserve to get offed in the film? Absolutely, but this film plays with viewer emotions in ways that I haven’t experienced in many horror films.

The film has a strong cast that includes Madison Davenport, Tracey Bonner, Joaquim de Almeida, Michel Curiel, Samantha Coughlan, Olivia Bernstone, River Codack, and Jim Meskimen. Your cheer and feel for the bulk of the cast, especially Meskimen and Davenport, but you also can’t wait for one particular character to meet their untimely end. The film uses a lot of practical effects for closeup shots of the hippopotamus and these scenes are excellent. Things get shaky when the hippo is created with CGI in some of the scenes. This is forgivable, though, due to the fact that the film is so strong in pretty much every other way. It does drag a tad at certain points but it is, overall, a very good film.

I definitely recommend Hungry. It’s currently available on Amazon Prime. It’s a cool thriller that gets the most out of its cast and special effects department. Thanks for checking out my review, now go watch Hungry!

IT: Welcome To Derry: A Story Of Derry (2026)

“Maturin won, and he banished that thing to Earth.”

On Halloween of this year, HBO Max surprised fans of IT: Welcome To Derry with a special prequel revealing the origin of the Kollu or Tha Galloo, better known to most fans in its most famous form as Pennywise The Clown. The short, which runs about thirty minutes, introduces us to a trio of Shokopiwah children who go into the forbidden Western Wood to find food for their tribe when meat becomes scarce due to the intrusion of settlers and their overhunting of the animals. They come across the Kollu and are rescued by a mysterious stranger. They learn how to trap the Kollu, but they also run into trouble. I’ll stop right there so as to not spoil the story.

The story doesn’t add anything special or extra to the world of IT, but there is one big surprise that longtime fans of the films, television series, or the written works of Stephen King will probably enjoy. If you want the surprise spoiled, simply search the web for a few seconds and you’ll find out the big reveal. I won’t say anything here. I will say that the episode is well done, the acting is very good, especially from the three young leads. The creature effects are achieved with some practical effects, but most of the gore and creature effects are CGI. The cinematography is exceptionally well done. The one thing that I can guarantee that you will not see in this episode is Pennywise the Clown. The character is absent for good reason: The Pennywise form of the being hasn’t been realized yet by the Kollu.

The episode is directed by Tazbah Chavez. It was written by Cheri DiMaline and Jasmyne Flournoy. It stars Kiawentiio as Necani, Isabel Deroy-Olson as Kino, Michael Podemski as Maneese, Zahn McClarnon, and Morningstar Angeline as Sesqui. It is available on HBO Max as of this writing.

Thanks for checking out my look at this surprise episode of IT: Welcome To Derry.

Clayface (2026)

“That’s my revenge inside of you.”

It is a well-known fact that I’m a huge DC Comics fan. Specifically, I’m a massive Batman fan. That means that a lot of people don’t trust my opinion on anything Batman or DC Comics related. Well, listen to me this time around and believe me whenever I say that Clayface (2026) is a very good film. It has been pitched as a body horror movie, and there’s definitely a lot of that in this film, but it is ultimately a film about revenge…..violent, brutal, gory revenge.

The film stars Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen/Clayface, Naomi Ackie as Dr. Caitlyn Corr, David Dencik as Szabo, and Max Minghella as Detective Borelli. The film also features a number of excellent supporting actors including Joshua James, Joana Ribeiro, Nancy Carroll, Jake Curran, and Corey Johnson. Of the cast, I was only familiar with Corey Johnson before seeing this film. He’s an excellent character actor that has been all over science fiction, action, and horror. He did a great job in this film, as did the rest of the cast. The movie was directed by James Watkins and Mike Flanagan and Houssein Amini.

The film opens with Matt Hagen, an up-and-coming actor from Lucas Heights, a low-income and crime-stricken district of Gotham City, who has just been nominated for an Oscar. Ecstatic about the honor, Matt goes out on the town with his friend and fellow actor Corey Bowery (James), and ends up having a one-night stand with a young woman named Mia (Ribeiro), who happens to be the girlfriend of a local crime boss named Szabo. Matt and Mia wake up the next morning to find themselves surrounded by Szabo and a number of his goons. As punishment for sleeping with Mia, Szabo slices up Matt’s face. He then becomes a victim of the corrupt Gotham City justice system, where Szabo makes it look like Matt sexually assaulted Mia. Matt loses his fame, his money, and his friends. Ostracized by pretty much everyone, including his agent, and suffering from numerous botched surgeries, Matt returns to Lucas Heights. He comes across an experimental scientist named Dr. Corr, who is working on nano-cell research and begs her to help him. She eventually agrees to help Matt. The initial tests miraculously heal Matt’s face. Despite warning him to wait until she does more research, Matt attends a premier, hoping to show off the fact that he is back and ready to be a star. His face begins to melt at the premier. He rushes back to Corr’s office and overdoses himself on the nanites. He recovers completely, feeling even better than he did prior to his attack. As time passes, however, he and Dr. Corr begin to realize that he can change his face and body when his emotions are unsettled. People connected to Szabo and his attack on Matt Hagen begin to die at the hands of an unknown murderer. Matt begins to have feelings for Dr. Corr, despite her being in a long-term relationship with Detective Borelli. Borelli begins to hunt for the mysterious killer. Watch Clayface to find out what’s really happening in Lucas Heights!

This is a very good film. It has some very tense moments and a wonderful blend of practical and CGI effects. Without giving away too much, just know that we do get to see Clayface in all of his glory…..eventually. The film does a great job of building up to Clayface’s ultimate reveal. I also liked the fact that Szabo is believable as a legitimate, immediate threat to the Lucas Heights area, but not a crime boss on the same level as Penguin, Carmine Falcone, or Sal Maroni. There’s also no mention of Batman in the film, which was refreshing to be honest. There was no attempt to ramrod him into the story.

As far as this film being a body horror flick, I’m on the fence. Yes, there’s plenty of body horror in the movie, and one particularly unnerving scene on an airplane that I won’t ruin here, but I viewed this film as a dramatic thriller, heck, even a sci-fi revenge film, more than body horror. The bottom line, though, is that this film is really good. It never makes you feel sorry for Matt Hagen. He has a run of bad luck, and instead of seeking redemption by making great movies, he goes on a revenge tour. It doesn’t make you feel sorry for the antagonists in the film, either. Yes, it had pacing problems and, yeah, I hated that one particular character is offed in the film, but it is definitely a very solid movie that introduces us to one of Batman’s more unique villains.

Go see Clayface. You will not regret it! Thanks for checking out my post.

TODOH #31: Halloween II (1981)

“I can’t stop until I’m certain that he’s dead.”

Happy Halloween, kids! It’s Day Thirty-One of Thirty-One Days O’Horror! I’ve got a little bit of a surprise for all of you, as I bet most of you were thinking that I’d be posting about the original Halloween film, but, nope! It’s true that Halloween is one of my favorite films, but its first sequel has a very special place in my heart and I just had to give the 1981 film its props. Halloween II had a lot going against it, but it managed to be one of the best sequels in a long line of Halloween sequels.

John Carpenter initially didn’t want anything to do with the film. He refused to direct it, didn’t want to write the script, and felt that the first film was a standalone movie. He ultimately did co-write the script with Debra Hill (who co-wrote the original film with Carpenter) and also directed a few additional scenes against the wishes of the film’s actual director, Rick Rosenthal, when Carpenter felt that there wasn’t enough gore and nudity in the initial cut of the film. Carpenter’s music was also used in the film.

The film picks up where the first movie ends. It starts with a frantic search by Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) to find Myers after unloading his gun in him. Myers falls off of a second floor balcony with six bullets in his body, and then proceeds to get up, evade police, kill a young woman, and then make his way to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital to finish off Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Michael takes out any and every member of the hospital staff that gets in his way, but does he succeed in killing Laurie? Well, if you don’t know the answer to that, there are a few sequels that do answer that question for you!

The film is noted for having an increase in kills and the brutality with which they are executed. There’s also a bit more nudity in this film. Dick Warlock portrayed Michael Myers in the film and it was said that he took extra care when performing the murders to protect the actors in every scene. The film also establishes that Laurie and Michael are brother and sister. It also establishes that Michael Myers is supernatural, primarily thanks to the fact that Halloween III: Season Of The Witch failed to make the films an anthology series as anticipated.

Halloween II is not everybody’s cup of tea, but it definitely is one of the best Halloween sequels out there. It had some really inventive kills and, at least in my opinion, kept the vibe of the original film. Is it one of your favorite sequels?

Thanks for checking out today’s post. Happy Halloween!

TODOH #30: 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

“Don’t leave me. You don’t know what’s out there!”

As we near the end of this year’s Thirty-One Days O’Horror, I wanted to open tonight’s post with a big “Thank You” to everyone that has read any of my posts this year. I really appreciate all of you visiting my page, clicking on posts, and checking out my social media links on Facebook and Instagram. It really does mean a lot to me.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s hop into Day #30 of Thirty-One Days O’Horror!

Two of my favorite actors star in 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane, a sequel to Cloverfield (2008) and a standalone film that takes place within the same universe as that film. Those actors, John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, along with John Gallagher, Jr., compose the film’s primary cast, a trio of people living in a bunker somewhere roughly forty miles outside of Lake Charles, LA, after what is believed to be an attack on the United States or, possibly the whole world by another country or another world. The film was directed by Dan Trachtenberg, produced by J.J. Abrams, and written by Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken.

Winstead plays Michelle, a young woman who gets into a car accident somewhere in southwest Louisiana. When she awakens, she finds herself handcuffed to a bed with an IV in her arm and an injured leg. She is then greeted by Goodman’s Howard, an ex-Navy man-turned-survivalist who has constructed a bunker for himself and his daughter, who has unfortunately passed away. Also in the bunker is Emmett (Gallagher, Jr.), who assisted Howard in building the bunker and managed to slip in before the air outside became toxic. Howard didn’t want Emmett in the bunker at first, but ultimately allowed him to stay. As the days go by and the trio adjust to their new life, Michelle struggles to determine whether Howard and/or Emmett are legitimately helping her or if they have other, more nefarious reasons for keeping her in the bunker with them. She questions whether or not the air outside is safe and even begins to wonder if there was a cataclysmic event at all. She ultimately befriends Emmett and Howard’s behavior becomes erratic and driven by paranoia. Michelle and Emmett devise a plan to escape the bunker, but will they be successful? You’ll have to watch 10 Cloverfield Lane to see who the real villain is in the film.

With such a small cast and an even smaller area to work in, this film desperately needed strong performances from its three main characters. It got that in spades. Goodman is both humorous and sinister as the twisted Howard. Gallagher, Jr. keeps audiences on their toes early on, wondering if he’s a good guy or just another pawn in Howard’s plans. Winstead plays Michelle with a frantic intelligence that makes her character very believable. The set itself is also a character, as it is such a confined space that it actually increases the tension growing within the trio of survivors. I won’t get into too many more details about the film because I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s definitely worth checking out for yourself.

Whether you’ve seen Cloverfield or not, you need to watch 10 Cloverfield Lane. Seeing the first film doesn’t add or take away from the brilliance of this Winstead-driven sequel. It isn’t perfect, especially when it comes to the idea that someone would be crazy enough to build a bunker in southwest Louisiana (I’ve lived my entire life here, so I know just how insane building a bunker down here would be), and no matter which direction you go forty miles from Lake Charles, the soil just doesn’t work for bunker building unless you’ve got a lot of money and water pumps. As strong as the story is, though, I’m willing to overlook this and a few other Louisiana-based misfires in the film. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that Winstead is absolutely gorgeous. Call me a chauvinist. I don’t care. She’s beautiful and I’d watch her in pretty much any film. Yes, she’s also an amazing actress, and that’s just one more reason to check out her work. Okay, enough of that. Check out this film. You won’t regret it!

Thanks for checking out my post!

TODOH #29: The Phantom Of The Opera (1925)

“I will not be cheated of my happiness!”

While modern audiences tend to shrug off silent and/or black and white films, they deny themselves the opportunity to see some of the greatest films ever made. One of those films, today’s Thirty-One Days O’Horror entry, is a veritable masterpiece. That film is 1925’s The Phantom Of The Opera. Although it was preceded by two other films, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1913) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), it is considered by many to be the film that started the Universal Monsters legacy. The movie starred the legendary Lon Chaney as Erik, better known as The Phantom, and Mary Philbin as Christine, the woman that he falls madly in love with and secretly works with in order to make her a great performer. In addition, the cast includes John St. Polis, Gibson Gowland, Norman Kerry, Virginia Pearson, and Snitz Edwards.

Erik believes that Christine can become an amazing performer with his guidance, and when he takes her with him to his home beneath the opera house, he tells her that he will teach her to be a star…..but never touch his mask. Erik is also deeply in love with Christine and when she takes his mask off, exposing his disfigured face, he declares her his prisoner and begins terrorizing actors and workers at the opera house and battles with Raoul, Christine’s boyfriend, and Inspector Ledouz, an officer who has been tracking Erik for some time. The film’s ending is quite brutal, and if you’d like more information on the film and a deeper look at the opera house stage, check out my post here.

This is one of the best movies that you’ll ever lay your eyes upon. Whether it’s the wonderful story based upon the 1910 novel by Gaston Leroux, the lavish sets, or the amazing practical makeup effects by Lon Chaney, this film has something for everyone. I hope that you check it out for yourself.

Thanks for checking out my post!

TODOH #28: The Prowler (1981)

“I want you to be my date, Rose.”

A jilted WWII veteran gets revenge against his would-be girlfriend and then returns thirty-five years later to wreak havoc on more students when the school revives the dance where he claimed his first victims. The 1981 film didn’t win over audiences in its initial release, but has since gained a massive cult following, namely for the brutal and inventive kills in the film created with practical effects by effects legend Tom Savini. Outside of Savini’s dazzling special effects, the film is a fairly standard slasher. That being said, it’s still one of my favorite horror films of all time.

The film starred Vicky Dawson, Christopher Goutman, Lawrence Tierney, and Cindy Weintraub. Tom Savini portrayed the Prowler in all of the kill scenes in order to make sure they were executed properly and in a believable way. In all of the other scenes (except for the reveal), he is portrayed by Peter Giuliano. The acting is just fine for an 80s slasher, but there are no real standout performances.

I recommend checking out The Prowler. Watch it for the amazing work of Tom Savini, who has declared this film’s effects as his best work, and the cool look of the slasher in the film.

Thanks for checking out my review!