DAILY CALL SHEET: APRIL 3, 2026

Jabberwocky (1977) During the Middle Ages, the territories of King Bruno the Questionable are being terrorized by the titular monster, but this is of no concern to Dennis Cooper, who has just been disinherited by his father. Dennis only cares about getting to a city so he can get a job which will allow him to marry his beloved Griselda Fishfinger, not that she's in any way interested in such an arrangement. Dennis makes the trip to town, which leads to a series of misadventures and brings him to the attention of the princess, who mistakes him for a knight, as well as a cult who mistake him for Satan. Eventually, despite his overwhelming cowardice, Dennis ends up coming face to face with the Jabberwocky. Terry Gilliam's first solo outing as director has its moments, but it's a bit too rough around the edges and nowhere near the level of his films which would follow.

Although many scholars have made valiant attempts, Lewis Carroll's poem, Jabberwocky, purposely defies deep interpretation. In fact, Lewis would likely scoff at such efforts. His intention was to pen pure balderdash just for the linguistic fun of it. He would laugh at the notion of trying to find meaning in nonsense. Of course, some people carried this notion too far, declaring life itself nonsense, and therefore devoid of meaning. Albert Camus noted, "“The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need [for meaning] and the unreasonable silence of the world.” Naturally, the Church disagrees with this sentiment. She teaches that true meaning comes from orienting our entire life toward God—through worship, love of neighbor, living one’s vocation faithfully, and ultimately aiming for eternal communion with the Trinity. Without this relationship, human life can feel meaningless, but it doesn't have to.

Now Showing at a Blog Near You: Just in time for the Triduum, Scorsese' saints series takes up Mary. My latest for Aleteia at the link.

DAILY CALL SHEET: MARCH 27, 2026

Bloody Moon (1981) Released after five years in an asylum for murdering a young girl, the slightly disfigured Miguel is sent to live with his seriously over affectionate sister, Manuela. As if that wasn't icky enough, Manuela runs a boarding school full of teen (sort of) girls, one of whom Miguel starts creeping on, though he still prefers the company of his sibling. Naturally, a series of killings occur, with the obvious suspect being the facially-scarred guy who's killed before. But is there more going on than meets the eye at Europe's International Youth-Club Boarding School of Languages? Besides the need for a shorter school name, that is? With nearly 200 movies to his credit, most of them scuzzy to some degree or another, it's no surprise that director Jess Franco's stab at the slasher genre would have a bit of a sleazy feel as well. Jess is gonna Jess, I guess.

In the Bible, the authors of books like Joel and Revelation used the bloody color which the Moon takes on during a total lunar eclipse as a sign of divine judgment, a.k.a. the "great and terrible day of the Lord". In recent decades, end of times enthusiasts, the kind that like to sell books and rack up views on social media, have linked these verses to the phenomena of blood tetrads, rare astronomical events consisting of four consecutive total lunar eclipses spaced roughly six months apart. They claim such events are a sign the end is near. The main problem with this is that blood tetrads are entirely predictable natural events, with the next scheduled to occur between 2032 and 2033. Thankfully, Catholics are not obligated in any form or fashion to believe in any private revelation or prophecy. I would imagine that especially goes for ones that have a scientifically determined timetable.

Cutting Class (1989) The local D.A. is going hunting and leaving his daughter Paula at home by herself. Bad timing as her former boyfriend Brian, who has been locked away in an institution for a while for supposedly murdering his own father, is finally being released and returning to class. Naturally, Paula's current boyfriend Dwight isn't too pleased with this development, especially once a number of murders occur around the school. Is Brian up to his alleged old tricks, or is someone else wielding the weapons this time? Released in the waning days of the original slasher cycle, there's not a lot new in Cutting Class. The movie's main problem, though, is that it's meant to be a comedy rather than horror, but it takes way too long to let its viewers know that. Some might say it never does, making the whole thing just seem stupid. Still, Brad Pitt fans are gonna watch it anyway just to see what he was up to as a teenager.

Part of hermeneutics (the science and art of biblical interpretation) is figuring out which genre the individual books of the Bible fall into. Through inductive analysis of the text and knowledge of ancient literary conventions, the main genres in Scripture include: historical narratives (books like Kings, Chronicles, and Acts), law (most of Exodus and Deuteronomy), poetry (the Psalms and Song of Solomon obviously), wisdom literature (Job, Proverbs, and such), prophecy (all the prophets, of course), apocalyptic (Daniel and Revelation), gospels (self-explanatory), and epistles/letters (no explanation needed). Not understanding which genre an individual book belongs to can lead to errors in interpretation, such as mistaking poetry for history, or thinking some apocalyptic symbols are to be taken literally. If you take some time before reading a particular biblical text to identify what its genre is, it helps you to correctly identify what the author is trying to communicate.

DAILY CALL SHEET: MARCH 20, 2026

The Barbarians (1987) Renowned body building twins Peter and David Paul, better known by their stage name The Barbarian Brothers, star in this film about (wait for it) twin barbarian brothers separated while young and trained by Kadar, the man who slaughtered their village, to fight each other to the death once they come of age. However, for obvious reasons, the pair recognize each other and set out after Kadar instead. This leads to a series of adventures, including one of the more ridiculous scenes in B-movie history wherein the twins are sentenced to death by hanging, but manage to snap the nooses with their enormous neck muscles. Ludicrous as far as Conan rip-offs go, but the Barbarian Bros are so good natured it's hard not to like.

How do we buff up our spiritual muscle so we’re prepared for those time when it seems like the secular throng is trying to slip the noose over our necks? Tara Little, writing in the Arkansas Catholic, suggests something that may not come readily to mind when you’re thinking about bulking up; fasting. Ms. Little likens fasting to “a matter of stretching ‘the spiritual muscle’ the same way one exercises his or her body.” In the article, Msgr. James Mancini concurs, noting that by fasting we recognize "that the Spirit and the flesh are in battle with each other... The appetites are not wrong, God gave them to us for a purpose, but they definitely need discipline… Once we do start denying the flesh, we're able to sense Christ's influence much more [because] it's in our spirit that we're able to relate to him." 

Ravenous (1999) After accidentally ingesting a bit of blood following a scuffle during the Mexican-American War, soldier John Boyd mysteriously gains super-strength to defeat his enemy captors. Following his escape, Boyd is then transferred to a sparsely-manned remote outpost where he learns the legend of the Wendigo, a curse that turns anyone who eats human flesh into something akin to Wolverine (sans claws), but at the cost of eternal irresistible hunger for more flesh. As word of the curse spreads, it isn't long before everyone in the area is looking for a bite to eat, but there's only so many people to go around. Criminally unappreciated horror-comedy full of snarky critiques of the excesses of manifest destiny will leave you hungry for more.

I can't vouch for the mystical effects of eating regular human flesh, but the Church has some opinions on the benefits of eating that of Jesus. The Catechism lists a number of "fruits" of taking Holy Communion. These include an intimate union with Christ, a renewal of the life of grace, the wiping away of venial sins and the strength to resist them in the future, a deepening of love for neighbors, and a foretaste of heaven and the promise of resurrection. These effects aren't always immediate like in Ravenous, but gradual over time. Also, they only show up if the4 Eucharist was received worthily. Receiving Communion in a state of mortal sin can actually have the opposite results.

DAILY CALL SHEET: MARCH 6, 2026

The Reptile (1966) Back in Victorian England, young newlyweds Harry and Valerie move to the village of Clagmoor Heath, where it becomes obvious the neighbors don't want them around. The local crazy guy, Mad Pete, tries to warn the couple to flee, but he's soon killed horribly by something with large poisonous fangs. He's not the last. Harry and the local tavern keeper look into the murders, an investigation that brings them to the doorstep of the surly Dr. Franklyn, his standoffish daughter Anna, and their weird manservant from Malaysia, home to an ancient cult of snake worshipers. Could it be this trio has something to do with the large reptilian creature running around biting people? Another attempt by Hammer Studios to step outside the classic monster line-up they copied from Universal, full of their usual panache and Gothic sensibilities. Worth a look.

While there weren't actually any weird secret snake cults in Maylasia, some Hindu communities did sometimes incorporate Naga elements in their worship. Nagas were believed to be semi-divine beings, often manifesting as hooded serpents, who were symbols of fertility and protectors of treasures. Believers would protect the Nagas' groves and perform rituals, and in return it was expected they would grant blessings and avert curses. Obviously, the Church views divinization of serpents or nature spirits as completely incompatible with monotheistic Christian faith and doesn't try to hide that teaching. However, the Church tries to promote harmony through joint environmental efforts such as helping preserve the sacred groves. Some groups such as the Sisters of Our Lady of Missions run clinics that treat snake bites.

Tentacles (1977) Soundwaves from an underwater drilling operation are ticking off the local giant octopus, causing the irritated beast to eat everybody he can get his tentacles on. You might think this would cause the tourist trap of Solana Beach to call off its annual boat race, but nobody wants to give up all that out-of-town money. After the octopus racks up a body count large enough for several Jaws movies, the local marine expert and his trained killer whales decide to take things into their own flippers. This has a number of one-time headliners like John Huston, Shelley Winters, Claude Akins, and Henry Fonda taking up screen space, but it doesn't help much. Still, there are a few well done scenes and it's always welcome anytime composer Stelvio Cipriani recycles his excellent main theme from The Great Kidnapping.

Sadly for octopus fans, the eight-armed inklings get no mention in the Bible. That doesn't really mean anything other than the ancient Jews didn't interact with a lot of octopuses. However, the cephalopods do start showing up in medieval bestiaries where the use of their many tentacles to ensnare prey was sometimes compared to the use of fraud and deceit to trap the innocent, and in some manuscripts prepared by monks where their arms were used as pointers to emphasize long or noteworthy sections. Louis Charbonneau-Lassay's The Bestiary of Christ from the late 1800s mentions a monastery in Bosnia where octopuses adorn its cornices, perhaps as a remnant from the building's pre-Christian use. Alas, if anybody has ever found the place, they've never shared where. A 2,000-year-old institution like the Church is gonna have its mysteries.

DAILY CALL SHEET: FEBRUARY 24, 2026

Wishcraft (2002) Out of the blue and with no idea where it came from, meek high schooler Brett Bumpers receives a weird totem made from a bull phallus, along with a note claiming the object will grant him three wishes. Brett does what anyone who receives a strange bull phallus in the mail would do, I suppose, which is grab hold of it real hard and make the wishes. What Brett desires is for his classmate Samantha to fall for him, which she immediately does. What Brett doesn't wish for is that a hooded figure will begin killing Samantha's friends, but that happens as well. Can Brett solve the mystery of the murderer? And what will Samantha do when she learns her new found affections weren't really her own? Supernatural slasher fans will likely find something entertaining here, but Wishcraft is pretty average overall.

The Catechism specifically condemns superstition because it attributes to certain practices what belongs to God alone, or attributes magical efficacy to actions/objects in a way that denies God's sovereignty. But does superstition include wishing? Probably not if you stick to the Websters definition of a wish, which is to have a desire for (something, such as something unattainable). Even Jesus seemed to express a wish in Luke when he said, "How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" Basically, if your wishes are positive, hopeful, and ultimately entrusted to God's will, there's no issue. Wishing only veers into superstition if it relies on occult/magical forces instead of God or involves sinful content. Pretty sure wishing on a bull phallus falls into the superstition category.

The Norliss Tapes (1973) While doing research for a book meant to debunk the supernatural, investigative reporter David Norliss disappears, leaving nothing behind but a box full of cassettes for his editor to sift through. Selecting a tape at random, the editor listens to Norliss relate the tale of a housewife whose dead husband won't stay in the grave. Digging into the story, Norliss discovers the somewhat dead man had been suffering from an incurable disease and became involved in ancient Egyptian sorcery as part of an attempt to cheat death and achieve immortality. Could that be why a super-strong ghoul is now stalking the suburbs of San Francisco trying to resurrect an Egyptian demon? And what, if anything, does it all have to do with Norliss' disappearance? This attempt by Dan Curtis to follow up the success of his Night Stalker movies with a similar themed television pilot doesn't reach the same heights, mostly because the character of Norliss just can't compare with Karl Kolchak (we miss you Darren McGavin). Still, for those monster kids whose viewing preferences were shaped in part by Curtis' modern gothic sensibilities, this is perfectly fine.

The implication in the Norliss Tapes is that we're likely listening to the posthumous reflections of the titular reporter as he details his encounters with the mysterious. If you want something similar, but with a more religious bent to it, try the writings of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska (St. Faustina for short). Assembled after her death, Faustina's notebooks detail her mystical experiences, inner conversations with Christ, her sufferings, and the messages she received that would lead to the devotion known as the Divine Mercy. The most mystical parts of her diaries include encounters with angels and saints, as well as visions of hell and purgatory. Mainly, though, her experiences were Eucharistic. She wrote, "Often during Mass, I see the Lord in my soul; I feel His presence which pervades my being. I sense His divine gaze; I have long talks with Him without saying a word; I know what His divine heart desires, and I always do what will please Him the most."

DAILY CALL SHEET: FEBRUARY 15, 2026

House of the Dead (2003) A group of college kids late for an island rave bribe gruff Captain Kirk to ferry them there quickly. However, instead of the soiree they were expecting, the kids arrive to find most of their fellow partygoers have been offed by zombies. As the group fights their way to the island's only structure, Kirk reveals the island was once home to an insane 15th century priest excommunicated from the Church for his attempts to create an immortality serum, as well as his penchant for enslaving the souls of the dead. One guess who's waiting for the kids when they reach the house. This is Uwe Boll's first video game adaptation (and amazingly not his last given this one's reception) and he leans into his source material, including on-screen character stat sheets and 360-degree death cut scenes, as well as actual low-res footage from the video game itself. You can't say Boll doesn't try, but you can say he doesn't succeed. At least Clint Howard and Jürgen Prochnow got paid.

Excommunication is pretty rare as the Church prefers pastoral warnings and dialogue first, but there are a number of things which can bring it about latae sententiae ("automatic" or "incurred by the fact itself") such as heresy, apostasy, schism, violence against the Pope, and procuring an abortion. Those things apply to all Catholics, but there are others that apply more directly to just the clergy. These include attempting to confer sacred ordination on a woman, throwing away consecrated Eucharistic species or retaining them for sacrilegious purposes, absolving an accomplice in a sin against chastity, and, particularly heinous, directly violating the sacramental seal of confession. Oddly enough, necromancy, which presumably would include trying to enslave the dead, is not an automatically excommunicable action, but rather ferendae sententiae (after a process), meaning the offending priest in House of the Dead would have had a judicial or administrative proceeding before getting the boot.

Mickey 17 (2025) Driven to desperation by financial woes, meek Mickey Barnes signs up to be an Expendable, someone who does all the dangerous work on other planets with the guarantee that he will be cloned with his memories intact each time he dies a grisly death. Which Mickey does a lot. While helping to colonize the ice world Niflheim, Mickey 17 is left to die at the paws of the planet's resident monsters, the Creepers. The creatures don't devour him, though, choosing instead to unexpectedly show mercy. A confused Mickey 17 returns to the colony, only to discover Mickey 18 has already been printed out. This leads to a rather uncomfortable love triangle, as well as triggering the law that all clones must be destroyed if multiples are ever made. On top of that, the expedition's leader decides that it's past time to destroy all of Mickey's new pals, the Creepers. Can the usually timid Mickey find a way to save himself, his clone, and an entire race of beings? Bong Joon Ho comes up with another darkly humorous winner sure to find its cult following in the coming years.

While Mickey 17 does take a few generalized potshots at religion, criticizing its use as a means of control by colonial capitalists, one can't help but find positive traces of Bong Joon Ho's Catholic upbringing sprinkled throughout the story. It's most evident in the movie's treatment of the subject of human cloning. In the Vatican document Dignitas Personae (Instruction on Certain Bioethical Questions), it warns that by denying the clone the right to be conceived within the secure context of marriage and filial identity tied to two parents, the process risks becoming a form of biological slavery. This is because using clones as a means to an end, even a very arguably good one like they do in Mickey 17, reduces persons to objects or biological material. This is another example of the Church opposing a technological "advancement" not because she's afraid of science, but rather on anthropological and theological principles regarding the sacredness of human life and procreation.

DAILY CALL SHEET: FEBRUARY 9, 2026

Killdozer! (1974) A crew of six construction workers are stationed on an uninhabited island to build an airstrip for their oil company employers. Not long after they start work, they uncover an ancient meteorite that sends a strange blue light into their bulldozer, causing the blade to start humming. Against the advice of the mechanic, the foreman orders the bulldozing to continue, but as soon as the machine is turned on, it sets about trying to kill off all the humans. Declaring the malevolent machine to be a murderer, the remaining crew try to figure out a way to execute it. If we're being honest, this isn't as good as my nostalgic brain wants it to be, but eight-year-old me who saw it when it first aired doesn't want to hear any of that.

Of course, there's a patron saint of construction workers, along with builders, brick makers, plumbers, tile makers, and related trades. That would be Saint Vincent Ferrer, who was a Dominican friar, preacher, and missionary in the late 1300s. Vincent wasn't actually a tradesman, so his patronage is more symbolic. He earned the title because of his heroic efforts in "building up" the Church through preaching, missionary work, and conversions. Perhaps most important was his work in undermining the antipope Benedict XIII, which helped bring a resolution to the Great Western Schism in 1417. Saint Joseph gets a nod as the patron of all workers, but if your need is particularly construction related, Saint Vincent Ferrer is your man.

Inferno (1980) While doing some research in New York City, poet Rose finds an ancient text detailing how The Three Mothers use their witchcraft to rule the world. And, wouldn't you know it, Rose discovers the Mother of Darkness might just be living in her apartment building. Rose's brother Mark tells her to keep her head until he can get there from Rome, but poor Rose ends up doing just the opposite. Arriving in the Big Apple to search for his missing sister, Mark finds himself embroiled in all kinds of supernatural shenanigans. This follow-up to Argento's Suspiria retains its predecessor's distinctive stylization, as well as its tenuous dream logic that sort of makes sense while you're experiencing it in the dark, but falls apart once you're back in the light and thinking about it too much. For proof, I offer the sequence involving a cat murdering antiques dealer, hundreds of rats, and an enraged hot dog vendor. Still, you don't really go into Argento looking for logic, do you? So, while Inferno never quite reaches the delirious heights of Suspiria, it's absolutely a worthy deranged sequel.

The word "Inferno" doesn't actually appear in the Bible or the writings of the Early Church Fathers. It's usage as a synonym for Hell is owed mostly to Dante's Divine Comedy and that work's influence on Western culture in general and medieval/Renaissance Christianity in particular. In fact, one could make an argument that Dante's fictional imaginings of Hell as a layered realm full of jail-keeping demons meting out tortuous punishments fit for each sinner's crimes is more ingrained in the public consciousness than the vague descriptions of Hell that are actually in the Bible. Even so, the Church has celebrated the Devine Comedy, emphasizing the work's alignment with Catholic theology through its portrayal of sin, redemption, mercy, and divine love. So, the work might not reflect the literal reality of Hell, but as St. Pope John Paull II noted, it is a "vision of reality that speaks of the life to come and the mystery of God with the vigor of theological thought transformed by the combined splendor of art and poetry."

DAILY CALL SHEET: FEBRUARY 2, 2026

Death Machine (1994) You know what's scarier than hiring Brad Dourif? Firing Brad Dourif. And that's just in real life. Now imagine you're his boss in a movie where he's a sociopathic weapons designer and hacker supreme who can send his murder machines to disembowel you in less than a minute, something he's already done to the person who previously held your position. Then, when you actually do work up the nerve to let him go, he develops a crush on you, and promises not to eviscerate you if you'll promise to schedule sex time with him. That's what happens to poor Hayden Cale in this near-future flick when she's put in charge of dealing with the public relations mess caused by one of Dourif's cybernetic solders malfunctioning. Soon, she's on the run for her life while being pursued by Dourif's invincible killer robot. And then the eco-terrorists show up. Definitely hampered by its relatively small budget, but with character names like John Carpenter, Sam Raimi, and Scott Ridley (huh?), you know right where the filmmakers' hearts are. They do their best with what they have to honor their influences.

Part of the Church's social doctrine is the principle of the dignity of work. Basically, this is the idea that workers are persons with inherent dignity and their employers have moral obligations to treat them accordingly, not just as disposable tools for profit. Under this theory, employers must pay a just wage, provide decent and safe working conditions, not hinder the right of workers to organize or defend their interests, and avoid placing unjust burdens on their employees. For their part, the workers are required to  carry out their assigned tasks, respect the employer and their property, contribute to a positive work environment, work with regard to others, and avoid violence or disorder when pursuing grievances. Obvious to say, Brad Dourif's character in Death Machine oversteps in regards to that last point. A bit.

Now Showing at a Blog Near You: Faith-filled and gritty? This week for Aleteia I take a look at the new film Moses the Black.

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 29, 2026

Diabolique (1955) When cruel boarding school headmaster Michel Delassalle isn't busy beating his sickly wife Christina, he's spending his spare time beating his mistress Nicole. Bonding over their common abuse, the two women plot to drug Michel and drown him in a bathtub, thereby solving both their problems at once. They run into a bit of a hiccup, however, when Michel's body disappears after the deed is done. Even worse, signs begin to appear that Michel might still be alive and well and ready to start the beatings again. With the clock ticking, the two new besties must solve the mystery of Michel before the police close in and/or Christina's weak heart gives out. Not all goes the way you might think. Diabolique is part suspense, part horror, and all classic, with one of the most recognizable and lauded set pieces in cinema history. Even for those who can't stand them, this one is definitely worth the subtitles.

Interestingly, while the film's source novel makes it pretty clear that the written versions of Christina and Nicole hook up with one another while plotting against Michel, the movie adaptation removes any explicit reference to such a relationship. The opposite occurs with the Bible. Other than a single verse which lumps female same-sex attraction in the same boat as all other sexual relationships outside of marriage between a man and a woman (that would be the "don't do it" boat), there are zero lesbians in Scripture. However, some modern LGBTQ+ scholars have tried hard to add such context to the story of Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi because the two women "clung" to each other after Ruth's husband died. That's not a widely held view, though. That's because it's usually considered infinitely more accurate to interpret the original texts in the context of when they were written rather than attempt to force your pet theory back through the ages to a time where they would be very unwelcome.

Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark (2014) Dr. Debbie Gibson is back, for a few minutes anyway, and she's here to offer advice on what to do after another megalodon  breaks free from the iceberg it was frozen in and destroys the Sphinx. Yes, a giant shark in the ocean destroys the Sphinx. Just take my word for it, okay. Two other scientists, having obviously seen their share of Godzilla movies, decide the best course of action is to build a giant robotic version of the megalodon and arrange a match-up. After a few rounds, though, Mecha Shark malfunctions and goes rogue, attacking anything it feels is a threat, even the good guys. Now, with two oversized menaces headed towards Australia intent on making it the land down underwater, what are the big brains to do? This is the third (let me repeat that, third) movie in the direct-to-video Mega Shark series from Asylum studios, so whatever you thought of the first two, this one isn't going to change your mind one little bit.

The book of Genesis does mention God creating the great sea monsters, but it's unlikely this meant megalodons, plesiosaurs, or anything else form the fossil records. This is because the Bible is interested in salvation history and could care less about prehistoric creatures. Alas, this hasn't stopped skeptics from trying one of their go-to gotchas; how can the book of Romans say that death came into the world through sin, when the fossil record shows the world was literally littered with animal bones by the time humans came along? Well, as Aquinas argued, the nature of non-human animals inherently involves mortality, predation, and decay as part of material creation's order, and therefore their deaths would naturally precede that of humanity's. Humans, on the other hand, were created in a state of original holiness and justice—free from sin, with preternatural gifts including immortality. Sin removed that gift, leaving humans as mortal as any other animal, which is what Romans was referring to.

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 25, 2026

Possessor (2020) Thanks to devices implanted in unwitting victim's brains, regret-ridden assassin Tasya Vos is able to transmit her mind into their bodies and use the controlled individuals to kill her real targets. However, this mingling of minds is beginning to interfere with Tasya's relationship with her husband and daughter, as she starts to have difficulty separating her own thoughts from the temporary ones she has usurped. Things go really awry when Tasya unwisely accepts one last assignment to kill a nigh untouchable executive using the body of his daughter's fiancé and her muddled mind gets stuck in it. Soon, other assassins enter the fray, including Tasya's boss, who is determined to squash Tasya's burgeoning sense of right and wrong. With bodies being possessed left and right, it becomes impossible to tell who is trying to kill who. Can Tasya and her conscience survive? Brandon Cronenberg does an excellent job carrying on his dad's legacy of body horror while also exploring the consequences of detachment and guilt.

In Catholic theology, charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things and love our neighbor as ourselves. The deliberate murder of another human being directly rejects charity. It places the killer's own will, passions (e.g., anger, envy, greed), or perceived good above their neighbor's dignity and above God's commandment not to murder. The resulting loss of sanctifying grace caused by murder is fundamentally a spiritual reality but, since humans are a unity of body and soul, this loss can also indirectly influence psychological and emotional well-being. Mortal sin, of which murder is definitely one, can burden the conscience, leading to guilt, anxiety, or desolation, all of which explains Tasya's problems as the movie starts. Sadly, repeated mortal sin can progressively weaken moral sensitivity, thereby deadening a person's conscience. Which is what Tasya's boss wants her problem to be by the end.

The Night House (2020) Following her husband's suicide, Beth spends most of her evenings getting plastered, especially since her own near-death experience left her with the belief that there is nothing beyond this life. Things get worse when Beth starts seeing frightened ghost women who look extremely similar to her jumping into the lake near her home. Following these apparitions across the water, Beth discovers her late husband has constructed a mirror image of her own home. Searching her husband's laptop for a reason, she discovers lots of photos of more lookalikes, as well as information on voodoo rituals. Has Beth discovered her husband was a satanic serial killer with a penchant for victims who looked like his wife, or was something much more weird going on? The movie's not entirely successful, but Rebecca Hall's performance as Beth is pretty great and there are some genuinely creepy moments.

One of the central conceits of The Night House is that death is terrifying because there is nothing awaiting you after it, no consciousness, no heaven, no continuation of any sort. There's one or two questionable plot points that seem to contradict this, but that's the movie's main gist. Obviously, the Church disagrees with this supposition, teaching that the soul's immortality can be satisfactorily known through natural reason alone. The seven proofs she offers include humankind's power of abstraction, our knowledge of immaterial realities (non-physical truths), the desire for immaterial goods, our ability to self-reflect, the innate desire for eternal life, the universal human testimony of nearly all cultures, and an objective morality that demands justice, especially if it's unrealized in this life. Each of these deserve their own discussion, which, of course, Aquinas is more than happy to give you if you're curious.

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 22, 2026

Now Showing at a Blog Near You: Need a little loveliness to counteract the ugliness cluttering up your screens? This week for Aleteia I take a look at EWTN's new series ‘Seeking Beauty’.

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010) City folk have always been a little leery of what lies beyond the suburbs, and after spending the early 70s watching Leatherface dance jigs with a chainsaw and Ned Beatty get forced to squeal like a pig, one might expect no self-respecting modern urbanite would be caught dead outside the city limits. According to Hollywood's hillbilly horror movies, however, dead is exactly the way they can be caught in the countryside, at least if the local yokels have anything to say about it.

In her book, Post-9/11 Heartland Horror: Rural Horror Films in an Era of Urban Terrorism, author Victoria McCollum, PhD notes, “The rural has loomed large in the popular imagination for some time and has served as a vast repertoire for cinematic terror. Considered the provincial cousin of the American slasher film, and a lower form of 'quintessentially low' cinema, the politics of 'hillbilly horror' are said to lay bare the flipside of popularly constructed rural idylls. In doing so, American rural horror of the 1970s exposed the onerous impact of social, cultural and economic processes on rural regions in the United States.”

But whatever socio-political relevance hillbilly horrors may have held in the 70s, it had all but vanished come the new millennium. By the time such films as Wrong Turn arrived, backwoods bad guys were serving a less lofty purpose. As the fine folks at the TV Tropes website explain, hillbilly horror “too often crosses into unfortunate implications and is swiftly falling into being a discredited trope, as the social construction of the ignorant hillbilly has been compared to blackface in terms of being an unfounded stereotype used to make people living in cities and the suburbs feel better about themselves.” In short, politics has given way to prejudice.

Now, when it comes to dealing with an evil like unwarranted bigotry towards bumpkins, or any evil for that matter, there are a lot of ways to combat it. One of the most successful approaches, however, is to ridicule it. As St. Thomas More once pointed out, even the Devil himself cannot endure to be mocked. His pride makes him so vulnerable to scorn that some well-done mocking can actually cause him to withdraw rather than persist in futile temptations. Well, nothing mocks hillbilly horror better than Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.

As is the custom in the genre, the movie begins with a group of mostly obnoxious college kids headed into the wilderness for some camping and drinking, though more of the latter than the former. Stopping at a small country store to restock their beer supply, the kids bump into Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine), two happy-go-lucky hicks on their way to a newly purchased vacation shack in the woods. The bashful Dale is immediately smitten with one of the girls, Allison (Katrina Bowden), and though he assumes she would never be interested in someone with his appearance, he gives in to Tucker's urgings to go introduce himself.

Unfortunately, upon approaching Allison, all the socially awkward Dale can manage is a few incoherent mumblings. No doubt having seen Wrong Turn (not to mention Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead, Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings, Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines, and Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort), the young campers immediately assume the flustered Dale is some sort of semi-mute backwoods maniac and chase him off.

As fate would have it, Allison and her pals decide to setup camp not too far from Tucker and Dale's cabin. That evening while fishing, Tucker and Dale observe Allison bump her head and fall into the lake. The pair manage to pull the unconscious girl from the water, but when they try to call out to her fellow campers for help, their cries of “we've got your friend” are mistaken as hostile. Assuming Allison has been kidnapped, the rest of the kids make plans to rescue their friend from being tortured or eaten or whatever it is the movies say hillbillies do to interlopers in their territory.

Frightened upon first awakening, Allison quickly discovers that Tucker and Dale are actually nice guys who have only her best interests at heart. But before she can communicate this discovery to her friends, the terrified twenty-somethings launch an attack (of sorts) on the cabin. In the chaos that ensues, one of the boys manages to gruesomely impale himself on a log. Once again assuming Tucker and Dale are responsible, the remaining kids vow vengeance on the confused clodhoppers.

To reveal more would be to ruin a lot of the fun. Suffice to say that the remainder of Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is “splatstick” at its finest as both the mutual misunderstandings and the bloody body count continue to rise. With likable leads in Labine and Tudyk, a pitch-perfect mix of humor and cartoonish gore, and plenty of lighthearted jabs at the underlying provincial undertones of the hillbilly horror genre, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is one of the finer horror-comedies of its decade. Even most city folk might agree.

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 18, 2026

Island of the Fishmen (1979) Castaway military doctor Claude de Ross and a bunch of shipwrecked convicts (aka fishman fodder) wash up on an uncharted island where Professor Marvin is transforming humans in Creature from the Black Lagoon knock-offs. The well-meaning Marvin hopes to save the planet's ecology by creating fish/human hybrids who can live off the unlimited resources of the ocean, but his evil benefactor Rackham just wants to use the scientist's creations to plunder the lost city of Atlantis. Smitten with Rackham's daughter (Barbara Bach), Clause decides to try and escape with the girl. Meanwhile, the island's local voodoo priestess Shakira (no, she doesn't dance) plots to destroy the entire island. If released 10-15 years earlier, Island of the Fishmen might be more fondly remembered for the Hammer-style creature feature it is. Alas, post-Star Wars, it was a bit too old-fashioned to make many waves.

There are, of course, no patron saint for fishmen. For fishermen, though, there's a few. St. Andrew the Apostle, who was himself a fisherman, is traditionally the go to for this role. However, St. Anthony of Padua is often invoked as well, particularly in the coastal regions of Portugal, Italy, France, and Spain, due to a famous miracle known as the "Sermon to the Fishes." The story goes that while preaching in Rimini, St. Anthony couldn't get the local heretics listen to him. Irritated, he went to the seashore and called on the fish to listen instead since the heretics were too stupid to do so. So many fish poked their heads up to hear Anthony's sermon that the heretics were shamed into converting. Interestingly enough, St. Anthony is also the patron saint of lost things and lost people, so if you combine his different patronages, he could qualify to be the patron saint of people lost at sea, which works pretty good for the characters in Island of the Fishmen.

The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964) Although America hasn't entered WWII yet, milquetoast Mr. Limpet attempts to enlist in the military to please his super-patriotic wife, but is rejected due to his weak eyesight (and weak everything else to be honest). Wishing he could just be a fish, which he prefers to humans, Limpet accidentally falls into the ocean and finds himself transformed into an animated denizen of the deep (who still needs glasses). In no time at all, Limpet befriends Crusty the hermit crab, gets a girlfriend he names Ladyfish, and discovers he has the ability to unleash a massive underwater roar he calls a thrum. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Limpet offers his services to the Navy, using his thrum to signal the location of German U-boats. But what happens when the Nazis catch on and develop thrum-seeking torpedoes? And what will Limpet's wife have to say about his new finny female friend? There are better Don Knotts movies from this time period, but this will do in a pinch.

The little fish outline decal many Christians have on their cars is actually one of the oldest and most recognizable symbols of Christianity in history. The Ichthys (from the Greek word ἰχθύς, meaning "fish") was adopted by Christians in the 2nd century AD as way to identify other believers during the Roman persecutions. One person would draw part of the symbol in the sand, and if the other person was able to complete the fish shape, then both parties knew they were safe. It was also used to identify Christian meeting places. The name of the symbol is actually an acrostic. The Greek letters ΙΧΘΥΣ stand for:

 Ι — Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous) = Jesus

Χ — Χριστός (Christos) = Christ

Θ — Θεοῦ (Theou) = of God

Υ — Υἱός (Yios) = Son 

Σ — Σωτήρ (Sōtēr) = Savior.

Combined, this forms the phrase "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior."

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 15, 2026

The Invisible Man Returns (1940) Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe is falsely accused of killing his brother and sentenced to death. To help him escape so he can ferret out the true murderer and avoid the electric chair, Radcliffe's pal Dr. Frank Griffin—the brother of the original invisible man—slips Sir Geoffrey some invisibility serum. However, Griffin warns Radcliffe that he has limited time to succeed in his mission as the serum inevitably drives anyone who takes it stark raving mad. The guilty party is soon revealed, but is it too late to prevent another invisible maniac from being set loose on society? A young Vincent Price (sans mustache, which is kind of weird) dons the obligatory sunglasses and bandages in this first sequel to the Universal classic and that, along with some nifty effects for the time period, help make this a pretty satisfying sci-fi romp.

Because life, and by association physical health, are gifts from God, the Church teaches we have a serious moral duty to preserve both of them through reasonable care. However, this is not an absolute duty. Given specific situations, some risks to one's health are morally permissible. Vocational duties like law enforcement, the military, or healthcare goes without saying as they save lives by risking theirs. Living organ donation and medical research are allowable within reason. Normal everyday things like sports and travel are fine, assuming they aren't done recklessly. As for the scenario in The Invisible Man Returns, it probably gets a pass as well as one may endanger their health to save others, or oneself. The key principle in all cases is proportionality: a risk to health or life is allowable if it is proportionate to the good being sought and there is grave reason for the risk.

Virus (1999) A sentient electrical surge from outer space transfers itself to a Russian research vessel and begins turning the crew into killer cyborg slaves. A week later, a down on his luck tugboat captain and his crew come upon the ship and decide to claim it as salvage. The surge has its own plans, though, which include murdering all humans on the face of the planet because it sees us as little more than a virus infecting Earth, and good for little more than spare cyborg parts. Lots of man versus machine violence ensues. Directed by a special effects artist, all the practical cyborg-thingies are definitely cool, and much gooier than the Borg for what that's worth. Unfortunately, Donald Sutherland, Jamie Lee Curtis, and the rest of the human actors are pretty much wasted.

There are a number of fringe philosophical and activist movements that view humanity as something akin to a virus on the planet. Many of these groups are either Antinatalists, who purport that procreation is morally wrong due to the inevitable suffering human existence brings, or Ecofascists, who believe overpopulation has transformed mankind into a destructive cancer on nature. Either way, they are all anti-human life. Pope Francis was having none of such nonsense. In the encyclical Laudato Si', he noted that blaming population growth instead of extreme and selective consumerism is simply refusing to realistically face the issues. The real solution to the problems pointed out by the anti-lifers is responsible stewardship of Earth's resources, not depopulation or extinction.

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 11, 2026

The Godsend (1980) The Marlowe family meets a strange pregnant woman in the park and end up inviting her home for dinner. To their horror, she goes into labor. Worse yet, once she gives birth, she disappears, leaving the baby behind. Though Mr. Marlowe has serious reservations, Mrs. Marlowe insists on adopting the child and names her Bonnie. Over the next few years, the Marlowe's four biological children begin to fall victim to a series of unfortunate accidents, with young Bonnie never too far away from the scene of their demise. Mr. Marlowe blames Bonnie, but his wife has become more and more attached to the girl, and won't hear of it. What can Marlowe do to save what's left of his family? For some reason, this one doesn't have too many fans, but I've always enjoyed its atmosphere and '70s aesthetic. Plus, little Bonnie herself is just creepy. It's easy to imagine her enjoying a nice playdate with Damien.

TIL: Okay, so adoption doesn't always turn out so well in the movies; almost never if it's a horror film. In real life, though, while there can be challenges, adoption is most often a profound act of love, mercy, and charity. As a bonus, there's also a theological aspect to adoption in that it mirrors our own adoption by God through the act of baptism. Reflecting on Jesus' adoptive father, St. Joseph, Pope Francis noted, "We should not be afraid to choose the path of adoption, to take the 'risk' of welcoming children … It is a risk, yes: having a child is always a risk, either naturally or by adoption. But it is riskier not to have them. It is riskier to deny fatherhood, or to deny motherhood, be it real or spiritual. But denial, a man or woman who do not develop the sense of fatherhood or motherhood, they are lacking something, something fundamental, something important."

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) Slimy obstetrician Victor Mott commits suicide after his patient Claire Bartel reports him to the police for sexual abuse, the shock of which causes the doctor's own pregnant wife Peyton to have a miscarriage. Following the birth of Claire's child, the perfect nanny shows up to help out, but of course it's Peyton Mott in disguise. It seems Peyton has nefarious plans to usurp Claire's place as mother and wife in the Bartel household, and she'll dispose of anyone who gets in the way of her manipulations. This is an absolute top tier entry in the 90's "From Hell" genre, and one that is best watched with as large a group of women as possible because they will have opinions and won't be shy to vocalize them as the movie plays out.

TIL: The Church has no official doctrine prohibiting institutional or in-house childcare, and she certainly doesn't mandate that parents maintain a constant physical presence, especially when economic necessities require the parents to be away from home. However, the Catechism is quick to point out that "parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children." As Pope Francis noted in a 2015 General Audience, "[Parents] tend to entrust them more and more to the 'experts', even in the most delicate and personal aspects of their lives, putting themselves alone in a corner; and thus parents today run the risk of excluding themselves from the lives of their children. And this is very grave! … parents should not exclude themselves from their children’s education."

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 8, 2026

Strait-Jacket (1964) Upon catching her husband in the act of adultery with another woman, Lucy goes all Old Testament and chops their heads off with an axe. Twenty years later, after she's released from the insane asylum, Lucy goes to live with her brother. There, she tries to reconnect with her daughter, whose future in-laws aren't too happy a murderess' daughter is joining their family. It doesn't help that Lucy's nightmares of severed heads make everyone question her release, especially once people around her start losing theirs in real life. Has Lucy relapsed into her old habits, or is a new axe-wielding maniac on the loose? After What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? kicked off the hagsploitation genre, it didn't take William Castle long to take a stab at it. Of course, Castle's effort is on a much less grand scale, but everyone's favorite psycho-biddy, Joan Crawford, classes things up just fine.

TIL: The ancient Jews were a kinship-based society, so adultery was a big deal in that it undermined the foundational institution of marriage, threatening a family's lineage and inheritance. In a sense, adultery murders families, so under the eye-for-an-eye justice system in place at the time, the death penalty was an appropriate punishment for such a transgression. There was also a holiness aspect to adultery laws, as marriage was believed to be a mirror image of Israel's covenant with God. So, you weren't just cheating on your spouse, but God as well. The Church believes that Jesus further elevated the institution of marriage to a sacrament signifying the union of Christ and the Church. Fortunately for adulterers, Jesus was also big on redemption, so he did away with the death penalty for the action, as evidenced by his preventing the stoning of an adulterer in the gospels.

Agent for H.A.R.M. (1966) When Soviet scientist Dr. Jan Steffanic, inventor of a new weapon that fires flesh-eating spores, defects to the United States, he and his niece are placed in protective custody by H.A.R.M., aka the Human Aetiological Relations Machine, whatever that's supposed to mean. (We'll get to that in a minute.) Anyway, H.A.R.M. assigns their best agent, Adam Chance, to hang out at a beach house with the good doctor. Naturally, Russia still wants the spores to destroy America, so communist spies inevitably show up. Despite adopting all the tropes its budget will allow, this is about as blandly generic as Bond ripoffs get, with little to offer fans of the genre except for maybe Barbara Bouchet, who did get to play Moneypenny in the comedy version of Casino Royale, but deserved to be a real Bond girl rather than being stuck in this. 

TIL: To save you from having to look it up, aetiology (or etiology if you're not British) refers to any study of causes, causation, or causality, as in philosophy, biology, or physics. In literature, a narrative is said to be etiological when it attempts to explain the origins of some custom, institution, natural phenomenon, etc. The Bible is full of such narratives, such as all the stories in Genesis of how certain people and places got their names, or the ones that detail how the various Jewish feasts originated. Some are more profound, though, as with the second creation story in Genesis, which tells how the distinction between the sexes and their complimentary unity came about because it was willed by God. Neat, huh? Now if only someone could come up with an etiological narrative explaining why a super-secret spy organization would use that word in their name, that would be great.

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 4, 2026

The Flying Saucer (1950) As reports come in of a UFO buzzing around Alaska, both the United States and the Soviet Union send agents to find out what's going on. The American team consists of Mike Trent, a boozy Bruce Wayne type, and Vee Langley, the best looking female Secret Service agent Uncle Sam could find. This doesn't necessarily mean romance between the two is inevitable, but things do happen when you play co-ed tackle football. As for the Russian, he isn't immediately identified, but it's quite possible it might be the caretaker of the cabin the Americans are staying in as he is constantly pointing guns at the couple when they're not looking. The flying saucer turns out to be real, but where it comes from and who will gain control of it remains a mystery. This is mostly a plodding and dull travelogue for Alaska, but it gets some respect as the first motion picture to ever involve UFOs.

TIL: While the Church didn't unconditionally support the United States during the Cold War, her feelings towards the other side were made pretty obvious when, in 1949, the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office issued the Decree Against Communism. Approved by Pope Pius XII, this document declared that any and all Catholics who professed materialistic and atheistic communist doctrine were automatically (latae sententiae) excommunicated as apostates. The automatic part of the penalty was eventually removed in the 1983 Code of Canon Law (CIC), but don't go flaunting your Marxist manifestos just yet. The Church's doctrinal opposition to atheistic communism remains, and openly professing such views could potentially fall under Canon 1364 (§1), which still imposes automatic excommunication for apostasy, heresy, or schism.

The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969) College nerd Dexter (hard to believe there was a time Kurt Russell ever played a character with that name) convinces local businessman Arno to donate a computer to the university. When lightning strikes the machine while Dexter is working on it, the lad discovers his mind has been super-charged, granting him encyclopedic knowledge and the ability to make calculations almost instantaneously. It also transfers all of the contents of the computer into Dexter's brain, including evidence of Arno's illegal gambling operation. Needless to say, this causes Arno to mark Dexter for immediate deletion. This is another pleasant enough distraction made back in the days when Disney's live-action movies were original ideas rather than rehashed versions of their animated hits.

TIL: While The Church views human intelligence (aka reason) as a gift from God, it also recognizes it has limits due to its created, finite nature and the effects of sin. For instance, the document Dei Filius notes that the intellect (presumably even a computer boosted one) can never fully comprehend divine mysteries like the Trinity and Incarnation, even with the revelations that have been given. The encyclical Fides et Ratio recognizes further restrictions on human intelligence due to sin, including impediments such the tendency of modern philosophies to reduce reason to subjectivity, relativism, or empiricism, causing it to, in JPII's words, wilt under the weight of so much "knowledge" that it loses its orientation toward ultimate being.