Since Jodee and I both like cooking I invited her over for a Kitchen Witch Occult Box unboxing video. I told her we are going to have a traditional meat and potatoes comfort food dinner ~ but with a twist ~ and she's welcome to bring the potatoes!

For the menu I made BBQ Turkey Meatloaf and Steamed Broccoli, Jodee brought Scalloped Potatoes, and I made Chocolate Tiger Cookies for dessert. I've included the recipes if you are interested...

BBQ Turkey Meatloaf 

2 lb. Ground Turkey
6 oz. box of Stove Top Stuffing
1/2 cup BBQ Sauce (I used Tastefully Simple's Smoky Bacon BBQ Sauce), divided
2 large Eggs, beaten
1 cup Water

Mix all the ingredients, but BBQ only use 1/2 cup. Place foil into a 13x9 in pan and spray with nonstick coating. Shape mixture into a loaf and brush with the rest of the BBQ sauce. Bake at 325 for an hour.

Tips: I premade it the day before.

Steamed Broccoli

Buy a frozen bag of steamer broccoli and nuke it. (I know fresh broccoli is better but I had to cheat on this since I was running from work to make dinner.)

 Scalloped Potatoes

1 Tbsp Butter
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
1 Tbsp Flour
1 cup Milk
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Pepper
1 Bay Leaf
1 large or 3 small Potatoes
1 cup Parmesan or Romano Cheese

Wash and thinly slice your potatoes with a mandolin or with a knife, place them into a bowl full of cold water and let them sit. Preheat your oven to °350.

In a pot, put your butter let it melt then add your flour let it absorb until it starts to smell nutty and add your milk and your spices as well as the crushed clove of garlic bring to a boil stirring. Then turn off the heat.

Butter your baking dish then start to line it with you drained potatoes, overlap then in the circular pattern and when all of them are arranged nicely take you sauce removing the garlic and the bay leaf then pour over your potatoes. (If the sauce doesn't quite cover it, add 1/4 cup of milk over it and give the dish a little shake.

Before you put your potatoes in the oven top with your cheese then place in the oven and bake for an hour. When the timer buzzes take the potatoes out an let them sit for 5 min just to let everything set! Top with green onion if you want.

Tips: You can use a teaspoon of garlic powder if you don't have fresh garlic, you can also add some dried thyme if you like as well or a little dried onion soup mix too.

Chocolate Tiger Cookies

1 1/2 cups granulated Sugar
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1/2 cup Hershey's Dutch Pressed Cocoa or Hershey's Cocoa
3 Eggs
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 3/4 cups Flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt

Powdered Sugar
40-48 Hershey's Kisses, unwrapped

Combine granulated sugar and oil in a large bowl. Add cocoa, beating until blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt, gradually add this mixture to the cocoa mixture. Mix well.

Refrigerate for at least 6 hours. I usually make the dough a day a ahead of time because it has to chill for 6 hours.

Heat oven to 350. Grease a cookie sheet. Shape dough into 1 inch balls and roll in powdered sugar to coat. Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake 13 min., remove from oven. Press Kiss into the center of each cookie. I flip them upside down so once cooled they are easier to stack. Let cool.

Now that we are full, let's unbox! Included in the Kitchen Witch Box...

*Note: Lots of kitty meows in the background and you can listen to us ramble on about hair. We also mention some of our favorite recipes including Alton Brown's Mac & Cheese (I love this Macaroni and Cheese so much that I eat it even though I'm lactose-intolerant) and Jodee's Lavender Cupcakes, she makes them with Lemon frosting.

1. Rosemary Sage Smudge Stick, you can even see the rosemary in it!

2. Black Salt.

3. Wooden Book Stand.

4. Floor Wash, smells like lemongrass.

5. Kitchen Witch Oven Mitt.

6. Mortar & Pestle. It's pretty heavy duty. I'm glad I have one. I just always used my little metal cauldron, but I feel like this will work much better.

7. Herb Packet. Rosemary, Chamomile, and Yarrow. Interested to try the yarrow out!

I like that although the things included in the box are staples every witch should have, it's a good refresher to have instructions and to restock!

You can check out my other Occult unboxing blog here:

 Samhain Occult Box

This month has flown by and I'm already getting another Pusheen Box! I have to admit when I saw the email previews of what would be included, I was not that excited, but life is all about balance, right? So there are some things in the box I think are stupid, but to counterbalance, there are some pretty PAW-some things in this box too. They exceed expectations.

Here's the unboxing video with a cameo by little Ginger Rogers at the end and Vicktor's collar bell ~ as always.

1. Silky feeling double-sided pillowcase set.

2. Snow Day Vinyl Figure.

3. Fuzzy Pusheen Slipper Socks.

4. Pusheen Ear Muffs!!!! My fav thing in the box.

5. Set of two Holiday Cards.

6. Pusheen Stencils. I guess you could use them for other things. Meh.

7. Felt Garland. I think I'm going to hang this in the bathroom at work. I have the soap dispenser and towels there too.

8. Hooded Blanket that snaps on! Wearing my new socks and Pusheen mug from Winter 2017.

I was disappointed there was no plush Pusheen. I would rather have the plush than the vinyl figures.

You can see past boxes too: Fall 2017 Pusheen Box, Winter 2017 Pusheen Box and Spring 2018 Pusheen Box, Summer 2018 Psuheen Box, Fall 2018 Pusheen Box.

I've been MIA lately because running Cats Like Us during the holidays takes up a lot of time, BUT I did have minute to squeeze in watching Martyrs (2015). I read all the hype surrounding the movie and how people can't get through viewing it in it's entirety because of all the graphic content. Hmmm, we'll see about that! I rented the disc from Netflix and popped it in. It started and I thought it was supposed to be in French and subtitled. Derp, I ended up with the American version! Netflix doesn't have Martyrs (2008), so that was a little disappointing. I continued to watch it though. From what I can tell, the stories are the same. (Side note: I did watch what I could find online of the French version. Not as gory as you would think, but gorier than this one. Maybe I'm just desensitized?)

***Warning Spoilers***

From the get-go you are sucked into a train ride of a movie. It starts with a young girl ~ Lucie ~ running away from captors, or at least that's what's hinted at by her clothes, chains, and bruises. You never see who else was with her and they are never found or shown.

She gets placed in an orphanage and becomes best friends with a girl named Anna. Anna is sympathetic to Lucie's past monsters but doesn't fully trust that it's not all in her head. They grow up together and go their separate ways until...ten years later...Lucie finds her torturers. Ironically, they look like a quaint and loving family.

Anna & Lucie at school.

Lucie is a tour de force. She storms their house shooting mom, dad, son, and daughter in a wave of blood splatter and bullets. Lucie calls Anna to show her. Anna arrives and is stunned at what she did, still questioning if Lucie is fabricating parts if her past. Anna begins to call 911, but stops because of Lucie. While cleaning up the house and bodies Anna finds a hidden basement prison where young girls are being tortured. Lucie was telling the truth the whole time!

The house is then taken over by men and one leader (?) woman that were tipped off by the unfinished 911 call. We find out that they are part of a cult that experiments on young women to cause them so much pain they transcend this mortal plane and see what's on the other side of living. They see past the pain. Some victims have a mental break. Lucie shows some signs of that. Few women can survive the trials, but the organization always felt that Lucie could physically endure the torture. They are excited to have her back.

Lucie  gets chained back up. Meanwhile they try to bury Anna alive. Little do they know she's a survivor too! She gets out and this time Anna is the one rage killing. She makes her way to Lucie in the basement, but not without getting fatally wounded. She finds Lucie who has now been partially skinned alive, drilled through, burned and is hanging on a cross like Jesus in front of all the followers that want to know more about the after life.

In the end, Lucie whispers to Anna, possibly what she has seen on the other side. (It's undecipherable to the viewer.) The priest of the cult hears it and kills himself. The cult disperses. Police finally arrive. No final girls left in this story. The end.

Overall, I thought the acting was good, the story original ~ even though it wasn't the original movie version ~ and the gore was there. I wanted to know more about the cult. Unlike the creepy basement experiments that were held in Get Out, the only explanation you get is that this group has people in it looking to find out what you see when you die. Their proof that something is seen when you die comes from looking at photographed pictures of dead people, specifically their eyes. This didn't explain enough for me. I give it 3.5 bullets out of 5. I've included the trailer for the French version at the end, I think it's helps the back story a little more, plus you can see Lucie completely skinned alive except for her face. Unsettling right?!

The eyes have it? Or do they?

Trailer for Martyrs (2015)...

Trailer for Martyrs (2008)...

I wasn't planning to write about the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. (Surprise! I really don't write about everything I watch.) But seriously, I really got sucked into it and with only 10 episodes it's low commitment too!

What I know of Sabrina is that Sabrina the Teenage Witch was a spin-off of Archie Comics in the 1960s, and the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a spin-off of Archie Horror Comics from a few years ago. The difference is that the newer version is for a more mature audience, think less comedy and more horror.

Sabrina 1962.

I did catch a couple of episodes of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch starring Melissa Joan Hart when it originally aired in the late 1990s. I remember thinking the show was hokey and being annoyed that they had an episode where they go to Salem, MA, ONLY IT WASN'T ANYTHING LIKE SALEM! They used a fake talking cat for most of the episodes, and my friends tell me it was their favorite part of the show, but I found it painful to watch.

 Sabrina with fake cat playing Salem 1990s.

So this new version hooked me with a preview. It has horror, current fashion does 1960s style (although some of the dresses look like true vintage), dry humor, and a REAL cat actor to play Salem, Sabrina's familiar. (p.s. Black cats are the best.)

Who knew the Satanic Temple would get their panties in a bunch over a TV show based on a comic book? Well they did! In the show Sabrina attends a witch school that has a giant statue of Baphomet ~ symbol of the modern Satanist movement ~ in the center of the doorway when you walk into the school. I immediately recognized it, as I'm sure everyone else did. It's a copyrighted by the Satanic Temple. Whoever was in charge of props for the show really should have either done their research, changed it enough to make it a little less recognizable, or got an "ok" from the Satanic Temple. As a result, the Satanic Temple has sued to the tune of 50 million dollars. Nov. 21, 2018 the lawsuit was been settled, but damn Satanic Temple needs to chill. If anything it's great publicity.

Satanic Temple vs. poor knock-off Sabrina statue.

On a similar topic, why is there a Satanic symbol in a school of witches?  I would venture to guess that it's just an interpretation from a comic book and practicing pagans and witches shouldn't get too bent out of shape about it. Witches do not equal devil worshipers. Here's a nice article addressing the topic.

Overall, the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a timeless show. It does address current hot button topics like misogyny, discrimination, domestic violence etc., but those things have been going on behind closed doors forever. I'm glad it was renewed for another season, and I'm looking forward to watching the other Archie fan-favorite Riverdale.

The "Glamour Ghoul Craft Box" sounds funny, like it should have spiderweb eyelashes and blood vile paint, but the theme is from The Craft movie! It should come as no surprise that The Craft is a favorite movie of mine. I blogged about it back in May 2017. I even ordered the Coven Creeper Crate last year in the hopes of getting lots of Craft themed goodies. You can read about that unboxing here. The movie came out when I was in college and when I was finally feeling secure in my gothiness ~ I found my cult of weirdos! I was excited to see that Glamour Ghoul chose The Craft as it's next theme, so I ordered the box.

Here's the video with a rare glimpse of my little Ginger kitty and Vicktor's collar bell in the background. Awww...

Included in the box is...

Bath Dust from Pop! Natural. It was really messy in the box. 

I tried their facial mask and it was really nice, curious to see how this is.

Nancy Pin from Tenth Dimension Art. This is hilarious. 

It available in a different colorway on their website! 

Wax Melt from Ritual and Venom. This smells SOOOO good.

Witchcraft Eye Shadow from Rebel Rouge Labs. Excited to try this!

Planchette Mirror from Misfit Mombie Bootique. Reads "Bad & Bruja".

Thanks for watching and/ or reading! Stay weird.

Other PAST Fluffy Glamour Ghoul unboxings include:

Glamour Ghoul All Hallow's Eve Box

Glamour Ghoul Hellraiser Box w Jodee Bowie

Glamour Ghoul Labyrinth Box w Jodee Bowie

Glamour Ghoul Batty Box

Glamour Ghoul Classic Horror Box

Glamour Ghoul Luna Box

Suspiria (1977) is in my top ten movies of all time, and when I heard about the remake I was skeptical. I even wrote in my past Suspiria blog that I might see the new version. Well kids, the other night I drove across town to the only theater nearby that was showing Suspiria (2018). I will say it was a good movie, but not as amazing as the first one. It does have worthy horror elements though.

The posters for the new Suspiria are jarring and fully represent the movie. (Info on the poster below.) Both of them awakened the Art History lover in me. They are stunning pieces that have a 1970s vibe with a De Stijl or even a Bauhaus aesthetic. The sharp lines and primary colors stand out. They are easily pictured on the wall of the dance school in the movie. They are the push I needed to decide to see it.

***Warning Spoilers***

The Suspiria story for the most part is the same ~ there is a foreign dance school run by witches and they need a new student to groom and help restore/ become a vessel for one of the elder gross decaying witches.

Let me begin with the things I didn't like...the new movie is bland. Of course the music is not nearly as atmospheric as Goblin's score. It's done by Thom Yorke and seems almost like an after thought. It's stark and sad...too gentle for the nightmarish story line. The colors throughout the movie are the complete opposite of the garish neon blood and flashing lights in the original. Everything is dull, neutral, and beige. I know it takes place in the 1970s ~ the height of brown ~ but 'cmon. The only bright colors come at the end, maybe to emphasis the characters and finale? The brightness is a light at the end of the cold dark underground witch tunnel.

So many neutrals in sharp contrast to the posters.

The story is less mysterious than the original. It reveals more behind the scenes of the witches and their power struggle ~ amongst themselves ~ to get their house in order. There's also a side love story about a therapist and his wife. In my opinion, the love story takes up too much time, but as a reprieve Jessica Harper from the original Suspiria plays the therapist's wife. This could have been cut down by 15 minutes ~ or instead ~ have a focus on the main character's Mennonite background. That would have been more interesting. All of this is set against the backdrop of Cold War Germany.

The fake hair was a little distracting. I found myself staring at everyone's foreheads.

Forehead.

Like the first movie, the uneasy feeling is the same, but for different reasons. I enjoyed the avant garde camera angles, whereas the original has wide views of the whole scene, the new one has close-ups and cuts to inanimate objects with odd spacial relations making everything seem off balance.

The school is renowned for it's modern dance. It should be known for all the turn over it has with it's students! It's no surprise the witches manipulate the dancers. The most disturbing example is one of the main character's first dances, she kills another student in a locked room through her animalistic movement. This is probably the most powerful scene, and the most horrific in the whole movie. I was impressed with the graphic body gore. It's violent without the direct violence! Damn this school is unstable and bodies just pile up.

There's no Udo Kier, but there is a Tilda Swinton. She is creepy in her own right. (I'm convinced she's an alien, a beautiful alien.) She was great, although I feel she was under utilized in the role of Madame Blanc. She played the old man therapist too, or so some articles say. His mouth and voice in the movie were out of sync in the close-ups, but the director denies that she played him? Not sure why she needed to be this character too? It's just odd. Is it to hype the mystery of the movie?

 Tilda Swinton always looks like a painting or a wax sculpture.
I wonder what her moisturizing routine is. 

Although I never studied modern dance, I do have a dance background and the choreography was great. It was sharp, intense and moving, very well done. The costuming is ugly for the final performance, however it's modern and mimics the underground rooms of the school...and blood, and shows continual movement emphasizing the physicality and ritual of witchcraft. I enjoyed that this movie had dance sequences in it, after all it takes place in a dance academy!

1970s macrame costumes.

The witch instructors that run the school are cackling and annoying. As a result, I found the plot twist at the end enjoyable. I won't give that away, you'll just have to see it for yourself. The new Suspiria is a fresh take on the original and a welcome addition to the horror genre. I give it 4 Mater Suspiriorums out of 5.

Now does this mean Argento's other Mother movies will be remade? Hmmm...

Here's the trailer...

First of all, get your mind out of the gutter! A horny growth is not what you think, let me tell you about it... this past week we had to take Vicktor Frankenstein kitty to his vet. Both of our cats have their claws, and we trim the front ones on a regular basis, but noticed that Vicktor's one claw looked like it was growing into his paw pad. He didn't seem to be bothered by it. We weren't sure if it was an ingrown nail, going to become an ingrown nail, or a claw that didn't lose it's sheath yet.

Here's a picture of an ingrown cat claw. It grows and curls into the paw pad. Note: this is NOT Vicktor, but we were concerned that his nail was going to turn into this. Yikes! Better safe than sorry. Well the good news is that this DID NOT happen.

The vet tech looked at Vicktor's paw (our vet hospital is great because this time of year they perform free cat nail trimming with a donation of a non-perishable food item for the local food pantry) and she said after trimming all of his nails, "he has a horny growth" (the twelve year old in me smirked) and she took the nail clippers and simply cut the lump from his paw pad. Wha? I was dumbfounded. What the heck is a horny growth and how did you just clip it off?!!!

I learned something that day, a horny growth is also known as a cutaneous horn. It's composed of keratin overgrowth and usually found on one or more of the foot pads of some cats. If the horns are not causing lameness or discomfort they can be ignored or removed by trimming, however there may be regrowth, so basically for now we are just keeping an eye on it.

I tried to get a picture of the trimmed growth. It's really hard to see but it was on the far left paw pad that's pictured.

Here's what it could turn into! Again, NOT my Vicktor. This is gross looking, gnarly, and weird. He sure keeps us on our paw pads...er toes.

The Occult Box is Creeper Crate's sister box, and this was my first time ordering one. It's the Samhain themed box for Halloween. I LOVE THIS BOX. It just might be my favorite of the boxes so far.

My Halloween is anything but calm. I usually work and it's my wedding anniversary. We have an "open house" with friends and family with appetizers while giving out candy to the Trick or Treaters. Needless to say I'm trying to catch up on my videos and blogs. lol.

You can watch the Occult unboxing video here...Vicktor's collar bell is in full force, and there's a rare appearance from Vincent Price.

Included in the box is...

Samhain Ritual Bath Soak from DeargDue. It smells delicious.

Samhain Candle from DeargDue.

Samhain Ritual Bag.

Season of the Witch Soap from DeargDue.

 Black Sage Smudge Stick. I feel like I can always use one of these.

All Hallow's Cauldron Incense.

Samhain Oil Spray from DeargDue. I like that this is an oil. The scent seems to stay on better.

I did order the Kitchen Witch Occult Box for November, so keep an eye out and thanks for reading!