https://foritismansnumber.blogspot.com/2026/03/ready-or-not-2-here-i-come-2026.html
Got to the cinema at the weekend to see this one. Fun times.
#blog #blogger #review #MovieReview #ReadyOrNot2 #SamaraWeaving #KathrynNewton #film #filmastodon
Nouveau sur CinéSam:
Rue Málaga
http://cinesam.be/movies/calle-malaga/
Avis: 6/10
#cinesam #movie #moviereview #film #avis #MaryamTouzani #drama #CarmenMaura #MartaEtura #AhmedBoulane #MiguelGarcés #MaríaAlfonsaRosso #LaImèn #TarikRmili #MohamedNaimane #FouadMnebhi #SanaeRegragui
March 2026 Media Round-Up
The first day of March is St David’s Day, patron saint of Wales, so a retrospective Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus i chi, pawb! The ‘traditional’ flower is the daffodil, hence the image in the post this month, as it’s far more aesthetically pleasing than the national vegetable, the leek. To me, at least. You do you. Read more about Welsh national symbols. A bit of Welsh media never goes amiss, so I’ve got some of that on the list this time.
Read More about Eisteddfods+
At school (both Primary and Secondary), we would have our annual school Eisteddfod at some point around St David’s Day when it was at the weekend, or on the day itself it if it was in the week, when all the school Houses would compete against each other for points. We’d spend the run-up to the Eisteddfod working out what competitions to enter and making crafts, memorising poems and songs to perform, and so on.
Then we would enter all our stuff by the deadline and have a big assembly where the winners of each category would be announced, performances would be live, and the winning House announced. In High School we also had other awards and the person who had won the most points for their House would be presented with a small carved chair ornament (about 30cm high) based on the National Eisteddfod tradition of the Chairing of the Bard.
There was even a sword involved in ours too, if I recall, where it was sheathed and unsheathed over your head. It was quite fun. I even won the chair one year! It was a different design each year, like the life-size ones that are specially made for the big Eisteddfods, but one that the woodwork teacher could knock up in a reasonable amount of time. We just sat in a normal chair with a cloth thrown over it for the presentation. I still have mine to this day, and it sits on top of my shelf in my home office.
Obviously we did have winners for every competition, because it was school, and nobody was mean enough to tell little kids their cute little poems weren’t up to a high enough standard for anyone to win the poetry competition. And, of course, we weren’t expected to compose in strict cynghanedd style, or even to know what that was. In the ‘real’ Eisteddfods, that’s not always the case. If the judges decide that none of the entries are up to their standards, they don’t award the poetry prize at all. Read more on the Cadeirio’r Bardd.
March is not just about Cymru though. It’s also Women In Horror Month, which I’ve been supporting on this website. [There are other things it has been adopted for; diversity resources dot com has a list here.] I’ve been listening to the HorrorBabble podcast again this month, and prioritising short stories by women from their episodes. Check out the full list of stories under the details section below their entry in ‘Podcasts’ (click to expand).
I should mention for all my Irish friends, it was also St Patrick’s Day on 17th March, and I hope whoever celebrated that had a good day. Beannachtaí na Féile Padraig Ort!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Musical Greetings
Artists I’ve listened to a lot this month include The Struts, Neoni, Wild Youth, and Yonaka. If left to my own devices I would just listen to glam rock, pop rock, and alt rock stuff forever. I listen to them weekly on my main playlist, which I have on all the time when I’m at the shops or walking anywhere or commuting to and from work on our office days.
However, yet again, Qobuz magazine’s ‘Album of the Week’ feature has introduced me to new-to-me bands, artists, and albums. I’m loving it, honestly. I mostly listen to the same playlist over and over, but I do sometimes expand out, but I know what I’m picking for my albums(!) of the month…
Albums of the month
Altin Gün have released a new album – Garip (“Strange“). This album pays tribute to one of their seminal influences—Anatolian singer/songwriter Neşet Ertaş (1938-2012), covering 10 of his songs and giving them a different spin.
One Song Short of Never (Tales from The Luminous Everything) by Talis Kimberley. This 4-track British folk album was released this month. It’s not on Qobuz yet, but other albums are.
Live Music of the Month
The first wasn’t really a performance as such, it was a compline service with music by Ewan King, Chris Little and Friends (from Heath Street Baptist Church, London), featuring RS Thomas readings.
Expand to read more about this RS Thomas compline serviceRS Thomas (1913-2000) is one of my favourite 20thC Welsh poets writing in English.
I’ve never heard his poems set to music before, and certainly not to Sacred Harp-influenced post-rock chamber music; think Silver Mount Zion meets Taizé in terms of style, I guess.
The readings themselves were an inspired choice, designed to subvert the comfort of ordinary compline and make you feel less uncomfortable, more eviscerated.
The Porch and Raptor deeply impacted me, which were read aloud, as did Praise and Gift, which were sung (“Gift” especially works with the Taizé influence), but the whole service was really well put together. Other poems were also included, and I thought were really well chosen.
The main gig we went to was Joseph Tawadros, the oud virtuoso. It was held in OSLO, Hackney, a noisenight gig organised by Through the Noise.
Expand to read more about the Tawadros noisenight (Noisenight235)Through The Noise/Noisenight235
Confession: I’d never heard of Joseph Tawadros, but we’ve been to Through the Noise-organised noisenights before, like Ensemble Mi‘s Messiaen concert in London’s superclub Fabric back in December (not a sentence I ever thought I’d say). I love the range of artists Through the Noise has, and the venues they pick, so I was up for going to another one.
The upstairs room in OSLO was absolutely rammed, I think it was a fully sold-out show; we got 4 of the last 12 tickets. I learned from Ensemble Mi’s concert, which I found really hard to stand for, and snagged a space by the wall where I could lean! Next time, I might request a chair so I don’t do my back in.
I wasn’t expecting the stand-up (sitting down?) comedy between pieces, which was very Aussie humour (iykyk) and dark off-colour jokes, especially at the expense of the racists Tawadros experiences online. A really good night out and a good laugh. We went old-school and got 2 signed CDs at the end, and got to meet him and say hello.
My first time in OSLO, too, which has very cool architecture and used to be a railway station!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQXlD1H1wlc
Fiction & Poetry
What I’ve read this month. Mostly short fiction and a few poems – you’ll see from the list of HorrorBabble stories I’ve prioritised female authors for Women In Horror Month. I’ve also prioritised Welsh fiction this month, translated into English.
Queer Square Mile: Queer Short Stories from Wales, edited by Kirsti Bohata, Mihangel Morgan, and Huw Osborne.
The cover image features the Rebecca Riots/Terfsyg Beca. I’ve had this on my shelf for ages now, and I thought this was the time; it is 663 pages long, and covers a range of genres and authors and understandings of ‘queer’ across time periods. I dipped in and out, to be honest; there are over 40 stories here. Some stories aren’t for me, others I loved.
Here’s a timeline of LGBTQ+ short fiction from Wales, compiled by Swansea University: lgbtqcymru.swansea.ac.uk/2022/06/03/lgbtq-short-stories-of-wales (with links to several additional stories from the 1800s not included in this volume).
Stories I read from this volume (click to expand)+
Stories from the Section “Love, Loss, and the Art of Failure“, not read in the order presented in the book.
“The Fraying of the Thread” (1926) by Kathleen Freeman, originally in English – a moving story of obsessive compulsion, lesbian longing, and the potential for healing with the right person, set in the little seaside town of Port Hailey, Pembrokeshire.
“Christmas” (1929) by Kate Roberts, originally in Welsh, translated into English by Katie Gramich – another moving story of a young teacher, Olwen, who is to marry her young man (this is her second chance at love; her first died in WW1), but feels strongly that this good news comes at the expense of the companionship of her ‘great friend’, an older teacher approaching retirement, Miss Davies. As the story goes on, the understanding of the magnitude of this loss hits Olwen, and by the time she reaches the train station to meet her fiancé, all the shine has been knocked off her forthcoming marriage.
“The Mistake” (1926) by Kathleen Freeman, originally in English – linked to the other 2 by means of a letter device, this one is where a letter sets Miss Hilomax to reminiscing about the time she wrote a letter to her closest ‘friend’ Helen, complaining of Helen’s behaviour and neglect (the mistake of the title), only to have her go and marry and never reply.
This ground-breaking volume makes visible a long and diverse tradition of queer writing from Wales. Spanning genres from ghost stories and science fiction to industrial literature and surrealist modernism, these are stories of love, loss and transformation.
In these stories gender refuses to be fixed: a dashing travelling companion is not quite who he seems in the intimate darkness of a mail coach, a girl on the cusp of adulthood gamely takes her father’s place as head of the house, and an actor and patron are caught up in dangerous game-playing. In the more fantastical tales there are talking rats, flirtations with fascism, and escape from a post-virus ‘utopia’. These are stories of sexual awakening, coming out and redefining one’s place in the world.
Release and a certain heady license may be found in the distant cities of Europe or north Africa, but the stories are for the most part located in familiar Welsh settings – a schoolroom, a provincial town, a mining village, a tourist resort, a sacred island. The intensity of desire, whether overt, playful, or coded, makes this a rich and often surprising collection that reimagines what being queer and Welsh has meant in different times and places.
The first anthology of its kind in Wales, which finally sheds light on a largely hidden queer cultural history with the careful selection of over 40 short stories (1837-2018).
New translations of Kate Roberts, Mihangel Morgan, Jane Edwards, Pennar Davies and Dylan Huw make available their compelling stories for the first time to a non-Welsh speaking readership.
Previously unpublished works by writers such as Margiad Evans and Ken Etheridge appear alongside better known favourites.
Strange Horizons magazine.
The Special Caribbean Issue is on my book group’s reading list, but it led me to explore more issues. The poems and stories I read are listed below, ordered by issue – all links included.
Stories and Poems I read from the Special Caribbean Issue ed. Suzan Palumbo [Oct 2023]+
[Short story] On Fallow Fields Where Flames Once Bloomed by N. A. Blair
You’d hung suspended between living and unliving when the pastor spewed vitriol off the pulpit against people like you.
[Poem] Manman ak Pitit by Rachelle Saint Louis
can an island have ptsd?
maybe then, every earthquake
is just the land remembering
[Short Story] I Attack the Queen! by Sarah Ramdawar
I tellin’ all yuh the queen must be alien or something not of this earth, because in 1966 she come and visit Trinidad when I was just a schoolgirl
[Poem] Sonnet for Birds by Nadine Tomlinson
He pulled the slingshot taut, watched the stone fly.
[Short story] The fate of despair by Malena Salazar Maciá
Art by: Salomée Luce-Antoinette
Another escape pod of a stellar wreck. Different, older, but human-made, of an unusual yellow color. Its thrusters were working and it was closing in on yours.
Stories and Poems I read from the 19 January 2026 issue+
[Poem] Chang’e in Exile by Allison Zhang
The moon was not her destination.
It was a sentence.
[Poem] Priestess IV by Akua Lezli Hope
the black fairy in the village sold her a dime for a nickel
Stories and Poems I read from the 16 February 2026 issue+
[Short story] The River Speaks My Name by Ocoxōchitl la Coyota
Water is life here, and it’s evident in that if you stray too far off the beaten path and away from water, you will get lost and you’ll be lucky if anyone sees you again before sundown. My village is settled neatly between two gentle rolling mesas and along a thin river in a sparsely populated community lovingly called ‘the valley’.
[Poem] They Leave by Garth Upshaw
It’s me not you, and the
Hole in the sky still weeps sticky tears.
[Poem] The Secret to Being a Dragon by Carolina Marchioro
In the beginning, the ocean was lonely
and so she created a fifteen-year-old girl
(or was it the other way around?)
Another month, another session with The HorrorBabble podcast. This month, I’m prioritising short stories by women, and seeking out ones I know I like, and new-to-me stories. Some authors are also new to me this month! Check the list out in the details section below.
Fiction I listened to, narrated on HorrorBabble. Highlighted stories with an asterisk (*) stuck with me. Bold are re-listens/re-reads.+
With the exception of Idwal Jones, whom I put first to get him out of the way of the main list, the stories are in the order I listened to them, not in the order they appear in the podcast episodes, nor in chronological order of publication.
For chronological order by month/year, see my post, “Classic Short Horror Stories by Women“. I managed to listen to them all!
#
Author links are to their pages on the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, where you can find a summary bibliography for each author.
* “The Third Interne” by Idwal Jones (16:04) – Welsh-American Writer, born in Ffeistiniog in 1887 and moved to the US in 1902, so an exception made for his story!
* “The Demon Lover” by Elizabeth Bowen (19:32) – Irish author
* “House of Hate” by Allison V. Harding (32:34) – (USA)
“Candle-Light” by Louise Garwood (19:05) – (USA)
“The Seeking Thing” by Janet Hirsch (13:05) – ?
* “The Mortal Immortal” by Mary Shelley (42:13) – English author
“The Mark on the Wall” by Virginia Woolf (23:07) – English author
“Creeping Fingers” by Loretta Burrough (27:49) – (USA)
* “The Cat-Woman” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (13:09) – (USA)
* “The Black Crusader” by Alicia Ramsey (37:16) – English author
“The Hall Bedroom” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (44:45) – (USA)
* “The Ensouled Violin” by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (01:07:51) – Russian author
* “Afterward” by Edith Wharton (01:21:01) – (USA)
* “The Three Marked Pennies” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (20:44) – (USA)
“The City of Lost Souls” by Genevieve Larsson (33:14) – (USA)
* “The House of Shadows by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (22:48) – (USA)
* “The Sixth Tree” by Edith L. Stewart (13:38) – ?
“The Seven Seas are One” by Allison V. Harding (36:46) – (USA)
* “Mommy” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (24:20) – (USA)
“The Tree’s Wife” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (30:28) – (USA)
“What Waits in Darkness” by Loretta Burrough (17:47) – (USA)
“Night Must Not Come” by Allison V. Harding (29:44) – (USA)
* “The Snowman” by Loretta Burrough (29:33) – (USA)
* “The Ebony Frame” by Edith Nesbit (31:41) – English author
* “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (39:10) – (USA)
“The Black Stone Statue” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (32:40) – (USA)
“The Ocean Ogre” by Dana Carroll (26:04) – English author. Note that this story is a version of Frank Belknapp Long’s “The Sea Thing” (1925), and Carroll seems to have changed names and some elements of it, but otherwise it’s a very close clone.
“The Boat on the Beach” by Kadra Maysi (17:19) – (USA)
* “A Visitor from Far Away” by Loretta Burrough (18:52) – (USA)
* “Fog Country” by Allison V. Harding (36:55) – (USA)
“The Marmot” by Allison V. Harding (23:38) – (USA)
* “The Underbody” by Allison V. Harding (48:06) – (USA)
“The House of the Golden Eyes” by Theda Kenyon (33:35) – (USA)
* “The Phantom Coach” by Amelia B. Edwards (36:16) – (English author)
* “The Artist and the Door” by Dorothy Quick (34:27) – (USA)
“The Dark Castle” by Marion Brandon (35:15) – (? USA)
* “The Law of the Hills” by Grace M. Campbell (25:26) – (? USA)
* “Lost” by Alice-Mary Schnirring (12:20) – (USA)
* “Guard in the Dark” by Allison V. Harding (40:13) – (USA)
* “The Accursed Isle” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (33:56) – (USA)
“At the Gate” by Myla Jo Closser (14:27) – (USA)
* “Twister” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (33:32) – (USA)
In my effort to listen to other classic horror stories by women, not included in the HorrorBabble podcast (above), I went searching and discovered Just Chills – Short Scary Stories, narrated by podcaster and voice actor Taesha Glasgow. Have a look at the stories I listened to below.
Fiction I listened to, narrated on Just Chills – Short Scary Stories. Highlighted stories with an asterisk (*) stuck with me. Bold are re-listens/re-reads.+
* “The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth” by Rhoda Broughton (23:56) – Welsh author
“Under the Cloak” by Rhoda Broughton (25:44) – Welsh author
* “The New Mother” by Lucy Clifford (48:29) – English author (this story was inspiration for Coraline, so if you want to hear more without supporting NG then give this a go.)
“From the Dead” by Edith Nesbit (32:28) – English author
“A Tale Told By The Fireside” by M.A. Bird (27:00) – English author
* “A Strange Christmas Game” by Charlotte Riddell (26:46) – Irish author
“At Chrighton Abbey” by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (01:13:05) – English author
“The Real and the Counterfeit” by Louisa Baldwin (38:03) – English author
* “In the Dark” by Edith Nesbit (30:08) – English author
TV Shows & Mini Series
Here are the shows I’ve watched this month – the highlights are featured with their posters, and the list of others are in the details section below.
薬屋のひとりごと/The Apothecary Diaries (2023) dirs. Akinori Fudesaka, Kentaro Fujita, Kyohei Yamamoto, China, Gaku Shiga, Wataru Nakagawa, Tadao Okubo, Akira Koremoto, Erkin Kawabata, Yukihiko Asaki, Mitsuyo Yokono, Jun Owada, Akira Shimizu, So Toyama, Club Kadomatsu, Mayu Tanimoto, Yuushi Ibe, Tsuyoshi Nakano, Shintaro Itoga, Wazuka Komamiya, Oh Jin-koo, Masahiro Matsunaga, Kaho Asai, Misu Yamaneko, Yuu Kinome, Takanori Yano.
I really enjoy this and I needed a comfort rewatch, so I picked it up again! It’s one of my favourites. I tend to watch it all the way through (eps1-24) and then start again. I do the same thing with Danjon meshi/Delicious in Dungeon (2024-), and Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon/My Happy Marriage (2023-2025). I really liked Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and Black Clover as well but I haven’t had the same urge to rewatch those. I’m very excited for the upcoming The Apothecary Diaries film, which is currently slated for release December 2026.
Maomao lived a peaceful life with her apothecary father. Until one day, she’s sold as a lowly servant to the emperor’s palace. But she wasn’t meant for a compliant life among royalty. So when imperial heirs fall ill, she decides to step in and find a cure! This catches the eye of Jinshi, a handsome palace official who promotes her. Now, she’s making a name for herself solving medical mysteries!
Young Sherlock (2026-) dir. Guy Ritchie, Anders Engström, Tricia Brock, and Dennie Gordon, created by Peter Harness, Guy Ritchie, and Matthew Parkhill
Really enjoyed this one – I love Guy Ritchie’s stuff, his style, the pacing, and the vibes. I also enjoyed his Sherlock Holmes films, so this is a winner. It’s a very fun series.
A disgraced, young Sherlock Holmes finds himself wrapped up in a murder case that threatens his liberty. His first ever case unravels a globe-trotting conspiracy, culminating in an explosive showdown that changes his life forever.
खौफ/Khauf [“Fear“] (2025-) created & written by Smita Singh, dirs. Pankaj Kumar and Surya Balakrishnan.
Hard-hitting, woman-centred Hindi Horror series. This weaves issues of rape trauma and the prevalent issue of sexual violence against women in modern-day Delhi with a supernatural horror plotline. I really like that this was created, written, and co-directed by women – I also liked Kumar’s work on Tumbbad, so I thought this worked well.
A young woman’s hostel room in Delhi hides a history of violence. Haunted by her past, she battles inexplicable forces within the room’s confines and beyond.
Other TV Shows/Mini Series I watched in March+
Films
What I’ve watched this month goes here; highlights are with their posters, and the full list is below in the details section.
Voces / Don’t Listen (2020) dir. Ángel Gómez Hernández.
I was genuinely creeped out by parts of this, it’s a brutal Spanish horror. Don’t watch if you have issues with child harm/death. It gave me Aterrados (2017) vibes in places, and the same elements that freaked me out there also got me here. New-to-me.
Don’t listen to them.
After a tragic turn of events at the new home he’s fixing up, Daniel hears a ghostly plea for help, spurring him to seek out a famous paranormal expert.
M3GAN 2.0 (2025) dir. Gerard Johnstone.
This was a trip after listening to a 4-part series on the Zizians, and learning about the Rationalists, the AI God, and all that bullshit that permeates the San Francisco Bay tech bro community. It’s a fun action Sci-Fi, though, and when you know what buzzwords and philosophies exist out there in the real world where nobody touches grass, it’s quite interesting picking up those echoes in the script.
Miss me?
After the underlying tech for M3GAN is stolen and misused by a powerful defense contractor to create a military-grade weapon known as Amelia, M3GAN’s creator Gemma realizes that the only option is to resurrect M3GAN and give her a few upgrades, making her faster, stronger, and more lethal.
Jurassic World Rebirth (2025) dir. Gareth Edwards.
I really enjoy Gareth Edwards films. I’ve seen 4 of 7 now, and this was another enjoyable one. I loved the character dynamics, I always enjoy dinosaurs, and I like the way they are normal in society but still causing chaos just by being there. As a kid, I really wanted to live in this exact timeline. I’m glad I don’t. I’m also glad we’re back to our roots of Scary Dinosaur Island in this one.
A new era is born.
Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, covert operations expert Zora Bennett is contracted to lead a skilled team on a top-secret mission to secure genetic material from the world’s three most massive dinosaurs. When Zora’s operation intersects with a civilian family whose boating expedition was capsized, they all find themselves stranded on an island where they come face-to-face with a sinister, shocking discovery that’s been hidden from the world for decades.
Logan’s Run (1976) dir. Michael Anderson.
An oldie but a goodie; classic Sci-Fi Action film based on the 1967 novel by US-American writers William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. The film aged up the maximum limit to 30 (in the novel, it’s 21). The idea of kids living adult-free in a dome and killing each other for trying to escape makes a lot of sense…
Welcome to the 23rd century. The perfect world of total pleasure…there’s just one catch.
In the 23rd century, inhabitants of a domed city freely experience all of life’s pleasures — but no one is allowed to live past 30. Citizens can try for a chance at being “renewed” in a civic ceremony on their 30th birthday. Escape is the only other option.
Other Films Watched
Films that didn’t quite make it to the highlights, but I got something out of ! Check out the full list of everything I watched this month!Previous Media Round-ups
Everything I’ve read/watched/listened to in the month of March!
by cmrosensMarch 31, 2026March 31, 2026What I read, listened to, and watched in the month of February! Skim the highlights, or expand the details to see the full lists and my thoughts.
by cmrosensFebruary 28, 2026March 14, 2026My monthly media round-up for January 2026 – all the books, podcasts, tv shows, and films I’ve been enjoying this month!
by cmrosensFebruary 1, 2026February 1, 2026My monthly media round-up for December 2025 – all the books, podcasts, tv shows, and films I read/listened to/watched this month.
by cmrosensDecember 30, 2025March 14, 2026 #BookReview #filmReview #MovieReview #tvReview#MovieReview I'm sorry to report that you probably shouldn't bother watching "Hamnet."
Because you will cry so hard you will need to take electrolytes, and no other film will seem adequate for the next ten years, and you no longer will believe that Meryl Streep is the best actress ever.
A+++++. Now in my lifetime top 10.
Film Review: MARC BY SOFIA (2025): A24's Marc Jacobs Documentary is as Finely Crafted as the Designer's Quintessential Fashion Trends
#A24 #ChloëSevigny #CourtneyLove #MarcbySofia #MarcJacobs #MovieReview #ParisHilton #SofiaCoppola #SpikeJonze #WinonaRyder
An apartment block of wealthy Satanists pick the wrong maid to try and sacrifice in #theywillkillyou
#moviereview below
https://dansaysitsalright.blogspot.com/2026/03/hell-to-pay.html
#film #movies #horror #comedy #action #zaziebeetz #patriciaarquette #heathergraham #tomfelton

The cinematic representation of Britney Spears exists as a striking dichotomy between the highly controlled, studio-sanctioned narrative of her early stardom and the predatory, unauthorized dramati…
What a #cinematic joy #ProjectHailMary being on the #BigScreen (#IMAX is worth the price) with its #visuals #designs and #cinematography
Here are my thoughts...
#MovieReview #Movie #Movies
https://berningaway.wordpress.com/2026/03/30/project-hail-mary-2026/