I can't say I entirely understood what was going on here, but here are a few things that stood out:

1. The killer targets queer people, and trans women in particular. He can disguise himself in order to infiltrate the community, but his true face is a riot-cop mask. There might be another, more eldritch face under that one.

2. After 9/11, New York is a night-place full of secrets: a corporate cult, a neon green glow, a threatening moon,…

Paradise Hills begins on a deeply unsettling note: a new bride in the center of a lavish ballroom, singing to her new husband about her new role in life. "I'm yours to keep, your servant," she begins, her voice unpolished and unassuming. "I'll cater to you, all your needs." She slowly rotates as attendants circle her like a maypole, holding strands of her enormous veil. Horizontal strands of gold wire strung with pearls cover her face like a cage. The…

I saw this with my dad in an otherwise empty theater, which felt very on-theme. He remarked afterward that the Backrooms feel a lot like generative AI: something enormous that operates in ways we don't really understand, that can somewhat mimic humans and their creations but tends to get them unsettlingly wrong.

Parsons wisely avoids the internet's habit of filling these otherworldly spaces with generic r/nosleep monsters, instead focusing mainly (though not exclusively) on the strangeness of the architecture itself.…

There's a moment in Gender Troublemakers where Xanthra Philippa tells a story about a cis guy who insisted on calling her "Miss" instead of "Ms." When he ignored her attempts to correct him, she said, "This is really serious. I'm a transsexual. This is not a joke, this is life and death. How dare you tell me what you can call me?"

I recently had a conversation with a middle-aged trans woman who was very critical of people her age…