DAILY CALL SHEET: OCTOBER 24, 2026

Audition (1999) Seven years after the death of his wife, Shigeharu Aoyama is ready to get back out there on the dating scene. The problem is, he doesn't really know how to go about it anymore. Fortunately (or so he thinks), Shigeharu's producer pal Yasuhisa comes up with the brilliant idea to hold fake casting calls where young women will come thinking they are auditioning for a TV show, but they are really auditioning as potential dates for Shigeharu. When former ballerina Asami shows up for a reading, Shigeharu is immediately smitten, but complications arise when none of her references can be verified, most of them due to the fact that they have disappeared. Shigeharu  ignores these red flags, though, because he believes he's found love again. However, as romance begins to blossom between the two, Shigeharu learns Asami wasn't the only one auditioning for a role. While certainly not his first film, this is the one that put director Takashi Miike on everyone's radar, It's deservedly praised for its increasingly unnerving storyline and one of horror cinema's greatest WTF moments, which hopefully won't be ruined before you see it.

 

You don't get a lot of dating advice from the Early Church Fathers, Aquinas, and the lot because what we think of as dating these days is pretty much a 20th century invention. Even more recent Catholic writings often uses the older language of courtship rather than dating. Still, the principles of romantic relationships apply no matter what you call it. The Church views dating as a form of discernment ordered toward marriage, and any romantic date should be held to the same moral standards that govern chastity, the dignity of the person, and the goods of marriage. It should be fun, yes, but also a time of getting to know a date's character, faith, compatibility, and readiness for marriage. In fact, that's probably one of the reasons the Church still uses the language of courtship rather than that modern casual dating, because courtship makes the potential marital purpose of the act clearer.

 

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) What is the true origin of Michael Myers? What is the final fate of the character of his niece, Jamie Lloyd? Can Dr. Loomis put an end to the Boogie Man once and for all? All these questions and more are answered in the worst way possible in this patched together sequel that features a visibly ill Donald Pleasance, some new guy named Paul Rudd, unnecessary ickiness like incest by artificial insemination, and a bunch of gobbledygook about ancient druid curses that ends up diminishing the character of Michael Myers rather than adding to it. The film made money because it's a Halloween movie, but everyone disliked it so much the producers first tried releasing an alternate version on home video to calm fan outrage, then just gave up and erased all the niece and druid stuff from the timeline with the next film. On the positive side, at least Curse is not considered the worst Halloween movie simply because 2002's Halloween: Resurrection exists.

 

Before St. Patrick showed up to finish cleaning things up, a native group of clergymen now known as The Four Holy Bishops are believed to have evangelized the south and southeast parts of Ireland. Among the four was Ibar of Beggerin, a noble of Ulster who was reportedly educated by druids before entering the Church. Interestingly enough, while the Church would eventually forbid druidic practices as heretical, it was the 1st century Romans who actually suppressed and massacred most of them. In fact, though legend has it a few druids died while challenging Patrick to a miracle contest, there are no records of a single druid being executed by the Church. Like so many other pagan religions, the teachings and practices of the druids were simply found lacking when compared to Christianity and they faded away into history and storybooks.