Ep 2: Spooky Stories - Coraline & I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House

<p>Are you afraid of ghosts?  Alternate realities?  People with buttons for eyes?!  Join us on Parallel Fiction, where Jeff and Heather go through two stories that feature spooky elements. Heather covers the beloved graphic novel <i>Coraline</i>, while Jeff will be breaking down the Netflix ghost story <i>I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House.</i>  After a casual synopsis of each work, Heather and Jeff share their analyses and recommendations for similar films and books you might enjoy if you like spooky stories. In this episode, spooky was taken as a broad idea of paranormal, supernatural, or scary stories.</p><p> </p><p>Directed by Oz Perkins, <i>I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House</i> is a tense, psychological movie with very high contrast in dark scenes, and sterile brightness in day light.  Starring Ruth Wilson, Bob Balaban, Lucy Boynton, and Paulina Prentiss, the scares that come from this ghost story are built on anxiety and fear of the unknown.  This is the perfect movie for Halloween season, especially for viewers who aren’t too keen on movies with gore or jump scares.</p><p> </p><p><i>Fun fact: Director Osgood (Oz) Perkins is the son of Anthony Perkins, the original actor who portrayed Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho 1960</i></p><p> </p><p><i>Coraline</i>, written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by P. Craig Russell, is a young adult graphic novel following the life of young teenager Coraline.  The titular character is faced with being held hostage in an alternate reality by the “Other Mother” for all eternity, unless she can release the souls of her family and of ghost children stuck in the Other World.  Heather notes the award winning achievements of this story, even learning about it first in college where it was part of a young adult fiction course. </p><p> </p><p><i>Did you know? The name Coraline was a typo from writer Neil Gaiman.  He liked the sound so much he kept it in the book, replacing the intended name Caroline.</i></p><p> </p><p>Tune in to hear Jeff and Heather’s