On the Media Menu: From Slapstick Horror to Wholesome K-Pop

Enjoying some much-needed escapism with the silly Final Destination: Bloodlines and the earworm factory K-Pop Demon Hunters

Between Infinite Jest, Russian novels, and revisiting some late-seventies American literature, I’ve needed some lighter entertainment to finish what’s been a rather more stressful summer than I’d expected. That means plopping myself in front of a screen to partake in our national pastime, violent mayhem.

I’d been waiting for Final Destination: Bloodlines to hit one of the too-many streaming services I subscribe to, so when it turned up on HBO Max on Aug. 1, I was ready to dive in. I’ve loved scary movies since I first discovered the horror section in the cheapo, wood-paneled video store that sprung up in my hometown when I was a high school freshman.

Sure, I discovered and loved a lot of higher-brow cinema via VHS but it was blood-and-guts that kept me up late on weekend nights while my parents were asleep and wouldn’t be alarmed by the frankly disgusting stuff that I picked out. Especially from Italy, those films were wild. So my intestinal fortitude for gore and horror was set pretty …