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Archive for May, 2025

Episode 651: Meditating in a Cave

May 30th, 2025 | Robin

Beloved Patreon backer beckons us to the Gaming Hut seeking tips on keeping PC hope alive when the bad guys run the authorities.

In the Tradecraft Hut estimable backer Scify wants to know if DOGE has been cutting funding for CIA front operations.

Urban cows are just the beginning as the Food Hut looks at the crusade against swill milk in mid-19th century NYC.

Finally formidable backer Kevin J. Maroney steps into the Eliptony Hut to inquire about the New England vampire panic.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Stop gazing lovingly at that seed catalogue and start pre-ordering Vicious Gardens from Atlas Games. This contemporary, distinctive, choice driven card game combines the joy of gardening with the thrill of being a total jerk. Strategically cultivate your garden, harvest plants, and sabotage others in a cut-throat competition.

A global mythos conspiracy ensnares the player characters in The Borellus Connection, Pelgrane Press’ new Fall of DELTA Green mega-campaign by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Kenneth Hite. Journey in the guise of federal narcotics agents to Saigon, Beirut, Prague and Bozukepe. Buy it for your GM and demand that she run it today!

Get caught in the spiral with God’s Teeth, a new set of pulse-pounding Delta Green scenarios dripping with the once and future corruption of a nation swirling into cruelty and spite. From a government panopticon to alien worms to an app-driven mass shooter, your agents have nothing to fear but every screaming headline.

Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: Pseudo-Pagan Goddesses, 60s K-Horror, and the Science Fiction of James H. Schmitz

May 27th, 2025 | Robin

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

The Pinnacle

Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe: An Investigation (Nonfiction, Ronald Hutton, 2022) Hutton applies his forensic scholarship to the genesis and spread of mythology concerning Mother Nature, the Fairy Queen, the Lady of the Night and the Cailleach, with an expose of the Green Man as a 20th century invention for dessert. Through these examples, and thorough kickings to the ideas of surviving paganism and the Frazerian monomyth, Hutton provides a compact, indispensable guide to the relative newness of supposedly ancient traditions, the surprising migratory paths of folkloric concepts, and the rapidity of their adoption, expiration, and revival.—RDL

Recommended

A Bloodthirsty Killer (Film, South Korea, Yong-min Lee, 1965) The undead revenant of a mining magnate’s first wife wages a campaign of murder and mayhem against his family. A constant stream of supernatural bedlam hurtles from the screen in this wild, dreamlike serving of early K-horror.—RDL

Bullet Train Explosion (Film, Japan, Shinji Higuchi, 2025) Intrepid crew members and station managers of the Kyoto to Tokyo bullet train discover that, copycatting a 1975 incident, someone has planted a bomb that will explode if it decelerates to 100 km/hr. The director of Shin Godzilla reverses its institutional nihilism with a celebration of can-do on-the ground management in a rail travel thriller that keeps the obstacles coming.—RDL

Cartouche (Film, France, Philippe de Broca, 1962) Puissant 18th century street thief (Jean-Paul Belmondo) becomes head of a brazen gang of Parisian bandits and wins the heart of a loyal counterpart (Claudia Cardinale) but can’t shake his yearning for the security minister’s wife (Odile Versois.) Glamorous satirical swashbuckler shifts into a study of existential compulsion.—RDL

The Hub: Dangerous Territory (Fiction, James H. Schmitz, 2001) These ten stories, written between 1955 and 1969, range from the amiable what-was-it “A Nice Day For Screaming,” through the brilliant heist-plus-alien-monster mashup “The Searcher,” to the absolute Pinnacle novel The Demon Breed, which pits one of Schmitz’ trademark capable heroines against an invasion force of water-worlders. Ecology, bluffing, and mutant otters: this novel has everything.—KH

I Called Him Morgan (Film, US, Kasper Collin, 2016) Documentary recounts the heartbreaking story of jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan and his wife Helen, who rescued him from the dregs of heroin addiction but wound up fatally shooting him.—RDL

Telzey Amberdon (Fiction, James H. Schmitz, 2000) In six pieces written between 1961 and 1971, Schmitz introduces us to his psionic super-heroine Telzey at the beginning of her adventures. The long novelette “The Lion Game” is an outstanding re-skin of “Red Nails” to psionic SF adventure; its (non-Telzey) prequel “The Vampirate” (1953) appears here under a differently bad title. Schmitz’ sense of scope, comfort with his future, story geometry, and believable heroines manifest throughout to good effect.—KH

Good

One Cut of the Dead (Film, Japan, Shin’ichirō Ueda, 2017) Realism-obsessed director Higurashi (Takayuki Hamatsu) tries to shoot a low-budget one-shot zombie film during a zombie attack, but things aren’t what they seem. Without giving away the twist, go into this movie expecting more comedy and camaraderie than your standard zombie film and you’ll probably find yourself charmed if not precisely enchanted.—KH

Okay

I Met Him in Paris (Film, US, Wesley Ruggles, 1937) After saving for years for a trip to Paris, a sensible clothing designer (Claudette Colbert) is whisked to snowy Switzerland by a glib novelist (Robert Young) and his pal, a sardonic playwright (Melvyn Douglas) bent on keeping them apart. Winter sports hijinks pad out a charming but slight love triangle romcom.—RDL

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Episode 650: LIGHTNING ROUND!!!

May 23rd, 2025 | Robin

Much has changed since our last anniversary episode, but one thing that remains the same is our dedication to celebratory LIGHTNING ROUND!!! questions from our beloved Patreon backers. In quick startling fashion we dispatch inquiries, most not lists, favorites, or lists of favorites, concerning tabletop games, time travel, food & drink, spy stories and horror history.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Stop gazing lovingly at that seed catalogue and start pre-ordering Vicious Gardens from Atlas Games. This contemporary, distinctive, choice driven card game combines the joy of gardening with the thrill of being a total jerk. Strategically cultivate your garden, harvest plants, and sabotage others in a cut-throat competition.

A global mythos conspiracy ensnares the player characters in The Borellus Connection, Pelgrane Press’ new Fall of DELTA Green mega-campaign by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Kenneth Hite. Journey in the guise of federal narcotics agents to Saigon, Beirut, Prague and Bozukepe. Buy it for your GM and demand that she run it today!

Get caught in the spiral with God’s Teeth, a new set of pulse-pounding Delta Green scenarios dripping with the once and future corruption of a nation swirling into cruelty and spite. From a government panopticon to alien worms to an app-driven mass shooter, your agents have nothing to fear but every screaming headline.

Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: Thunderbolts*, Final Destination, Daredevil

May 20th, 2025 | Robin

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

The Pinnacle

Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild’s Revenge (Film, Germany, Fritz Lang, 1924) With her brother King Gunther (Theodor Loos) refusing to turn over her husband Siegfried’s killer, his aggrieved widow (Margarete Schön) marries Attila the Hun (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), setting in motion her inevitable retribution. The second part of Lang’s seminal epic sets aside the fantasy tropes of part one for historical human tragedy with a mass-scale conclusion.—RDL

Recommended

Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 (Television, US, Disney+, Dario Scardapane, 2025) The assassination of friend Foggy Nelson and the rise of the Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) to the mayor’s office test the determination of Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) to put his vigilante past behind him at a new law firm. Surprisingly coherent for a show that underwent a conceptual correction in mid-shoot, this doesn’t reach the heights of the original first season but at least understands what was great about it. Unusually for Marvel, which usually vaguebooks its politics, this not only deals with authoritarian criminality in high office but, in a subplot showcasing the Punisher (Jon Bernthal), addresses rogue cops’ co-optation of the character’s insignia.—RDL

The Gilded Lily (Film, US, Wesley Ruggles, 1935) When the charming stenographer (Claudette Colbert) he loves falls for an incognito English lord (Ray Milland) a cynical reporter (Fred MacMurray) turns her into a tabloid sensation. Smart romcom tackles such classic 30s themes as reality stardom and the friend zone.—RDL

Horse Under Water (Fiction, Len Deighton, 1963) Jaundiced MI6 agent accepts a dodgy-seeming mission to retrieve counterfeit currency from a sunken U-boat near the Portuguese coast. Applies knowing bureaucratic realism to a pulpy spy mystery.—RDL

No Greater Glory (Film, US, Frank Borzage, 1934) A put-upon boy strives to prove himself to his military-styled kid gang as dirt bomb warfare with older rivals approaches. Borzage’s depth of feeling lifts this anti-war parable, based on a Ferenc Molnar novel, from stifling didacticism.—RDL

Good

Background to Danger (Film, US, Raoul Walsh, 1943) American visitor to Turkey (George Raft) accepts the plea of a distressed traveler (Osa Massen) to smuggle an envelope into the country, placing himself in the crosshairs of a voluble Nazi operative (Sydney Greenstreet) and the excitable Soviet counterpart (Peter Lorre) opposed to his disinformation scheme. One wonders what Cagney, Bogie or Flynn would have done with the material, and whether writers W. R. Burnett and William Faulkner pared it down to fit the limitations of its stolid, once-popular star. Nonetheless, Walsh moves this wartime Eric Ambler adaptation along and gives Greenstreet and Lorre plenty of room to play.—RDL

Final Destination Bloodlines (Film, US, Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, 2025) Fifty-plus years after a premonition of disaster allows her to prevent mass fatalities in a skyview restaurant in 1968, Iris’ (Brec Bassinger and Gabrielle Rose) granddaughter Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) inherits the premonition and (along with the rest of Iris’ bloodline) Death’s Rube-Goldbergesque attentions. From the heightened surrealism of the initial disaster to the cunning sadism of the multiple kills throughout, this is exactly what one wants from the franchise, plus a touching farewell from semi-regular Tony Todd. Recommended for fans of the series, so Good for more character- or motive-focused horror fans.—KH

Okay

A Guilty Conscience (Film, HK, Wai-Lun Ng, 2023) Irresponsible jerk lawyer (Dayo Wong) seeks a redemptive underdog win after an influential family frames his client for her young daughter’s murder. Part of the recent cycle of Hong Kong courtroom dramas, this gets you rooting for the comeuppance of the bad guys while showing as much concern for legal procedure as wuxia films do for gravity.—RDL

Thunderbolts* (Film, US, Jake Schreier, 2025) Duplicitous biotech corpo turned CIA director Valentina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) inadvertently creates a new albeit underpowered team when she tries to get her various loose-end semi-super contractors (Florence Pugh, et al.) to kill each other off. While superior to the recent ruck of Marvel outings, it’s not actually Good despite the presence of a Theme (depression), one (1) interesting super-encounter (Winter Soldier vs. three (3) Humvees), and Pugh’s actual acting chops. Moments of joy amid a tiresome slog are on theme, though, I guess.—KH

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Episode 649: I Should Join Your Undead Throng

May 16th, 2025 | Robin

The Gaming Hut finds reasons for player characters to show mercy toward defeated opponents.

Hoaxing is usually a white collar crime. Not so, as the Crime Blotter explores, in the case of Mark Hofmann, whose production of forged Church of Latter Day Saints historical documents escalated to murder.

The first installment of the Stock Character Hut looks at that comic perennial, the stuffed shirt.

Finally our intrepid chrononaut must use Ken’s Time Machine to keep kimchi in the timeline if the 16th century Japanese invasions of Korea, known as the Imjin War, don’t take place, and therefore don’t add hot red peppers to the Korean diet.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Stop gazing lovingly at that seed catalogue and start pre-ordering Vicious Gardens from Atlas Games. This contemporary, distinctive, choice driven card game combines the joy of gardening with the thrill of being a total jerk. Strategically cultivate your garden, harvest plants, and sabotage others in a cut-throat competition.

A global mythos conspiracy ensnares the player characters in The Borellus Connection, Pelgrane Press’ new Fall of DELTA Green mega-campaign by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Kenneth Hite. Journey in the guise of federal narcotics agents to Saigon, Beirut, Prague and Bozukepe. Buy it for your GM and demand that she run it today!

Get caught in the spiral with God’s Teeth, a new set of pulse-pounding Delta Green scenarios dripping with the once and future corruption of a nation swirling into cruelty and spite. From a government panopticon to alien worms to an app-driven mass shooter, your agents have nothing to fear but every screaming headline.

Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.

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Rare Opportunity to Advertise on Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

May 13th, 2025 | Robin

For the first time in years the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast has a free ad slot coming up.

Our podcast about tabletop gaming, history, strangeness, cinema and, oddly enough, food, gets 15,000 unique downloads per episode. An unknown but large number of people listen through aggregators and outside platforms such as Spotify who do not generate unique downloads.

We prefer to deal with long-term advertisers and sell ad space in 26-episode blocks. You can supply audio ads of your own, give us a script to read from, or send bullet points which we will turn into a script to read.

The show has one available slot, for the ad that runs between the third and final segments of each episode.

We’re seeking to partner with advertisers who fit the content and ethos of our generally family-friendly show.

Bidding for the first 26 week block purchase starts at $1,000 USD. If interested ask questions or submit your bid at robinlaws AT robindlaws DOT com. Note the variation between address and domain.

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: Companion, The Shrouds, Dr. Mabuse

May 13th, 2025 | Robin

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

The Pinnacle

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Film, Germany, Fritz Lang, 1924) Impulsive, none-too-bright hero Siegfried (Paul Richter) gains invulnerability from dragon blood and makes an underhanded bargain in exchange for the hand of a king’s sister (Margarete Schön). As he did for so many genres, Lang creates a foundational text of fantasy cinema, in this case slyly undercutting the nationalist overtones of the source material.—RDL

Recommended

Agent of Vega and Other Stories (Fiction, James H. Schmitz, 2001) Thrilling SF tales of intrigue seem strong but unremarkable until you check the dates and discover that Schmitz is writing near-transhuman stories of duplicated consciousness, technical and informational near-omnipotence, human-weapon-ship symbiosis, and borderline nanotech between 1949 and 1963, mostly with female protagonists. The Agents of Vega sequence (included) handles the seemingly impossible task of cracking good espionage-adventure in a universe with omnipresent telepathy; Schmitz’ first (1943) story “Greenface” by contrast is just very capable man vs. monster horror-SF.—KH

Companion (Film, US, Drew Hancock, 2025) A shocking incident at a Russian mogul’s secluded manor reveals leads a drippy dude’s (Jack Quaid) devoted girlfriend (Sophie Thatcher) to the awful discovery that she is in fact an android programmed to adore him. Thatcher’s yearning, quicksilver performance goes straight to the horror hall of fame in this ingeniously twisty, comic reversal of robot terror tropes.—RDL

Drinking History: Fifteen Turning Points in the Making of American Beverages (Nonfiction, Andrew F. Smith, 2013) The development and reception of 15 beverages from cider to bottled water reflects on key developments in US history. Food historical overview dense with shareable factoids.—RDL

Escape (Film, South Korea, Lee Jong-pil, 2024) On the final day of his decade-long military deployment, a determined North Korean sergeant (Lee Je-hoon) makes a break for the south, pursued by a childhood friend turned twisted high-ranking officer (Koo Kyo-hwan.) High-energy chase thriller set against the soul-killing backdrop of the present Kim regime.—RDL

The Shrouds (Film, Canada/France, David Cronenberg, 2025) When his weird high-tech cemetery is vandalized and hacked, a grief-stricken entrepreneur (Vincent Cassel) becomes enmeshed in conspiracy, which his late wife’s neurotic sister (Diane Kruger) and her paranoid ex-husband (Guy Pearce) might help him solve, or might be implicated in. Cerebral, dialogue driven technothriller, unsettling in its placidity, strips body horror of its metaphorical layer.—RDL

Good

Kill Me Again (Film, US, John Dahl, 1989) In debt to a loan shark, a traumatized Reno P.I. (Val Kilmer) agrees to fake the death of an alluring client (Joanne Whalley) who has not told him about her briefcase full of stolen mob cash. Sparely written neo-noir, shot in a restrained version of 80s style, suffers from a couple of ending problems, one of character motivation and the other of genre philosophy.—RDL

The Return of Dr. Mabuse (Film, West Germany, Harald Reinl, 1961) Newly collected on Blu-ray with the other 1960s Mabuse films, this first non-Fritz-Lang chronicle of the criminal mastermind/disguise artist rackets along from murder to murder as Inspector Lohmann (Gert Fröbe) and FBI agent Joe Como (Lex Barker) doggedly piece together the somewhat over-complicated truth. Seldom a dull moment, but not a particularly exciting film.—KH

Okay

The Invisible Dr. Mabuse (Film, West Germany, Harald Reinl, 1962) The third in the revived Mabuse postwar series is something of a misfire, with the mastermind going all out to get an invisibility device from its inventor, who uses it mostly to creep on an actress (Karin Dor). The low stakes, decentering of Mabuse, and galumphing presence of Lex Barker (returning as FBI agent Joe Como) in the lead all contribute to an air of pointless effort rather than Lang’s cool surveillance paranoia.—KH

Knight and Day (Film, US, James Mangold, 2010) Rogue manchild/superspy Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) uses, meets cute, and then serially rescues and endangers bystander June Havers (Cameron Diaz) in what Mangold apparently intended to be an action update of (near-Pinnacle) 1963 screwball thriller Charade. Cruise and Diaz pour their considerable charm into a black hole of a script, relieved by the occasional cool spy bit. Potentially recoverable if you watch it as a blackly humorous parody of every other 1990s/2000s action movie.—KH

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Episode 648: Hey Isn’t That Ezra Pound?

May 9th, 2025 | Robin

In Among My Many Hats, Robin tells all about Page Turners, his game of dramatic interaction for one player and one game moderator, in which he is joined as a scenario writer by Sarah Saltiel, Ruth Tillman, and Wade Rockett.

Beloved Patreon backer Michael David Jr. draws us into the Mythos Hut to cross Silver Age superheroes with Lovecraftian horror.

The Mythology Hut profiles Cloacina, goddess of Rome’s holiest sewer.

Finally the Consulting Occultist tells the tale of Florence Farr, an actor and Golden Dawn member whose artistic life intertwined with those of Shaw, Yeats, and Pound.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Stop gazing lovingly at that seed catalogue and start pre-ordering Vicious Gardens from Atlas Games. This contemporary, distinctive, choice driven card game combines the joy of gardening with the thrill of being a total jerk. Strategically cultivate your garden, harvest plants, and sabotage others in a cut-throat competition.

A global mythos conspiracy ensnares the player characters in The Borellus Connection, Pelgrane Press’ new Fall of DELTA Green mega-campaign by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Kenneth Hite. Journey in the guise of federal narcotics agents to Saigon, Beirut, Prague and Bozukepe. Buy it for your GM and demand that she run it today!

Brace for more Delta Green Mythos horror with Dead Drops, Arc Dream’s latest bone-chilling anthology of black bag scenarios. From a secret Missouri church to a frozen Alabama town, the top secret terrors keep on unfolding. Acquire the 288 page full color hardback from the Arc Dream store, or purchase, download, rate and review the PDF at DriveThru.

Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: Slow Horses, Blitz, and a Benedictine Occult Investigator

May 6th, 2025 | Robin

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Recommended

Blitz (Film, UK, Steve McQueen, 2024) Worried single mom (Saoirse Ronan) sends her son (Elliott Heffernan), who is sometimes bullied because he is black, out of London to avoid German bombardment, only to have him jump from the evacuation train to return to the city. Stunning depiction of life under falling bombs pairs the epic with the personal.—RDL

Honor Among Lovers (Film, US, Dorothy Arzner, 1931) Playboy financier (Fredric March) makes a clumsy play for his beloved personal assistant (Claudette Colbert), driving her to the altar with her weaselly beau (Monroe Owlsley.) Concisely told drama of power and class highlights the pained realism of Arzner’s treatment of romance.—RDL

Slow Horses Season 4 (Television, Apple+, 2024) An assassination attempt on his mentally failing grandfather (Jonathan Pryce) takes River (Jack Lowden) on a rogue mission to France and an unwelcome family secret. Strips away the large scale threat part of the series formula for character-driven suspense, though that means Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) and Diana Taverner (Kristen Scott Thomas) have less to do this time.—RDL

Good

24×36: A Movie About Movie Posters (Film, Canada, Kevin Burke, 2016) A new generation of illustrators pay homage to the classic pre-90s movie poster era, inflaming collectors’ passions and wallets with hip, stunning screenprints. Zippy, historically tethered arts scene documentary.—RDL

HIT: The Third Case (Film, India, Sailesh Kolanu, 2025) Supercop on the edge Arjun Sarkaar (Nani) gets embroiled with a serial-killing cult, and even his trusty interrogating bat may not be enough to get the answers. City-hopping crime flick expands into melodramatic gore, ending in a festival of edged weapon combats and cameos from the first two HIT (Homicide Intervention Teams) films. Fans of picking a lane and sticking to it likely bump this bloody mulligatawny down to Okay.—KH

The Horror of Abbot’s Grange (Fiction, Frederick Cowles, 1936) A collection of (mostly) ghost stories misleadingly marketed as “in the M.R. James tradition.” Cowles, a folklorist rather than an antiquarian by tendency, provides blunt and often physical horrors in tales with simple structure and language. The best of them, “The House on the Marsh,” “One Side Only,” and “The Bell,” are quite effective shorts; others provide good scares somewhat vitiated by explanations or exorcisms. The Benedictine Father Placid delivers some of both, in several tales; he’s an under-rated ghost-breaking occult detective.—KH

Okay

The Empty Man (Film, US, David Prior, 2020) Guilt-stricken ex-cop (James Badge Dale) investigates the disappearance of his ex-lover’s daughter and its connection to an urban legend and a conspiratorial cult. Compelling composition and staging distinguish a graphic novel adaptation packed with competing elements. I really wanted to like this, for its Esoterror vibe and another reason I shouldn’t spoil.—RDL

Not Recommended

The Phantom Carriage (Film, Sweden, Victor Sjöström, 1921) The drinking buddy (Tore Svennberg) who started a disease spreading reprobate (Sjöström) on the road to perdition appears on New Year’s Eve as the Grim Reaper to explain why he must now step in as next year’s herald of death. Lauded as a world classic and early fantasy essential, but the script is a straight-up Salvation Army temperance tract.—RDL

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Episode 647: Live at THE KRAKEN

May 2nd, 2025 | Robin

For the first time at THE KRAKEN, the legendary Gaming Retreat held in the remote yet cozy environs of the Schloss Neuhausen in what used to be Prussia, Ken and Robin talk live to a group of rapt attendees. After nerdtroping Stalin and an alien invasion, we field questions on German cuisine, the economics of printing in Europe, adding a post-credits sequence to a game session, and whether there might one day be a Ken and Robin book.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Stop gazing lovingly at that seed catalogue and start pre-ordering Vicious Gardens from Atlas Games. This contemporary, distinctive, choice driven card game combines the joy of gardening with the thrill of being a total jerk. Strategically cultivate your garden, harvest plants, and sabotage others in a cut-throat competition.

A global mythos conspiracy ensnares the player characters in The Borellus Connection, Pelgrane Press’ new Fall of DELTA Green mega-campaign by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Kenneth Hite. Journey in the guise of federal narcotics agents to Saigon, Beirut, Prague and Bozukepe. Buy it for your GM and demand that she run it today!

Brace for more Delta Green Mythos horror with Dead Drops, Arc Dream’s latest bone-chilling anthology of black bag scenarios. From a secret Missouri church to a frozen Alabama town, the top secret terrors keep on unfolding. Acquire the 288 page full color hardback from the Arc Dream store, or purchase, download, rate and review the PDF at DriveThru.

Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Film Cannister