I grew up in St. Helens, Oregon. It’s a small town on the Columbia River about an hour from Portland, and right on Highway 30. There’s not much to see, and most people just pass it by without ever giving it a second thought. But we have one claim to fame – Halloweentown was shot in our Olde Towne district.

Made for the Disney Channel in 1998, the film follows Marney and her two siblings as they explore the town where Halloween was born. It’s a magical borough of ghosts, vampires, and all manner of extras weighed down by heavy prosthetics. The movie’s short, sweet and saw repeat airings during the spooky season.

Every October, my hometown celebrates this bit of pop culture history with a month-long “Spirit of Halloweentown” event. In past years, it’s been a humble event. Local businesses put up scarecrows, a replica of the iconic Jack-O-Lantern from the movie sits in front of City Hall. Costume parties and parades bring the community together

But this season has been different. Friends talked about plans to visit St. Helens over the weekend. Talk in the Emerald newsroom went around about “the real Halloweentown.” It blew my mind that my hometown was being talked up like a legitimate tourist destination. This small celebration has been going on for years, yet it’s never been a major tourist attraction until this year. On Friday, October 10th, over 10,000 people flocked to the city for a pumpkin-lighting ceremony with the film’s star Kimberly J. Brown.

10,000 people visiting St. Helens is an insane prospect. It’s a city of just over 13,000 residents, with the Oldetown district rarely seeing business outside of occasional events. The small town square that once contained a whole town of monsters was overflowing with bodies eager to get a snapshot with a replica Jack-O-Lantern modeled after the film’s iconic centerpiece.

Last year this same event drew only 700 people, and little about the proceedings have changed. The pumpkin is large, but it feels like decoration and not a main attraction. Store-bought skeletons haunt hay bales, and a pine tree is painted black with a light purple garland. For a small-town spectacle, it’s perfectly charming. But it’s not a sight worth planning a weekend around. So what convinced UO students to brave a three-hour drive for what amounts to a seasonal Instagram selfie?

If you look at the timing, the invasion of college-age tourists makes sense. Halloweentown premiered 17 years ago, so the kids who grew up with the film are now old enough to feel nostalgic for it. Combined with the viral effect of social media, all it takes is a spark of awareness to light a nostalgic fire. It’s not often that we see the birth of a new holiday tradition, but it’s easy to see the children of late-’90s cable TV flocking back to St. Helens year over year to recapture that youthful moment.

On October 21st, 2015, I witnessed Back to the Future for the first time in my life. The fact I’d never seen the film for so long baffled many of my close friends. But I’m a pop culture addict, and I thought I’d absorbed Back to the Future through references. I could’ve told you the plot before I even saw the film. Seeing it for the first time, it made immediate sense why I already knew every beat. It’s an incredible film, perfectly paced with quotable and recreatable scenes.

But the reason I saw that film on the day I did had little to do with Back to the Future, but rather Back to the Future: Part II – in which protagonist Marty McFly visits a neon-colored interpretation of October 21, 2015. Going into the sequel, I had a similar confidence I already knew the story. Hoverboards, Pepsi Perfect, and Jaws 19 had been all over social media thanks to the special date. Just as the original was a nostalgic journey through the culture and society of 1955, I assumed Part II would be a similar adventure through the future.

Yet as it turns out, pop culture has lied to me for my entire life about the second Back to the Future movie. Only the film’s first act takes place in 2015, with a short detour into a ruined version of 1985. The vast majority is Marty skirting through the background of the original film, attempting to grab a Sports Almanac from villain Biff Tannen without destroying the work of his past self. As a movie, it’s not as good as the original, but it serves as a solid sequel. It’s a clever next step for a series about time travel – which raises the question: why doesn’t anybody ever talk about it?

People aren’t nostalgic for Back to the Future: Part II – just the first thirty minutes of it. It’s not merely because the future sequences are most pertinent to life in 2015. This movie has been talked up for years, and elements of the alternate 1985 also get brought up in conversation. But the bulk of this movie has been forgotten in time, selectively recalled as something it isn’t.

This isn’t to say Part II isn’t worth watching. As mentioned, it’s a clever expansion to the first film that has some inventive takes on our now-contemporary society. It’s also interesting to watch director Robert Zemeckis develop as a filmmaker. Much of Part II was shot on greenscreen, superimposing new footage on top of scenes from the first. It’s clearly ahead of its time. That same motivation clearly drove the same man to make movies like The Polar Express and Beowulf, where he pushed motion-capture technology a bit beyond its abilities to fit his artistic vision. Even the blatant cliffhanger at the end of the film (immediately followed by a full trailer for Part III) feels oddly prophetic of the after-credits stinger at the end of every Marvel movie. Auto-lacing Nikes and dehydrated Pizza Hut may still be ages off, but Part II managed to predict the future all the same.

With the rise of digital streaming services, torrenting and the brief window between theatrical and home releases, the cinema experience has fallen out of favor with the current generation. Going out to a multiplex, going broke on tickets and snacks and seeing a film front-loaded with advertisements just isn’t enticing to some. Which is understandable, but also a shame – especially in this month as horror films start to populate theaters. Some of the best theater experiences I’ve had have been with horror, and the most intense have been with the Paranormal Activity franchise.

It’s easy to mock Paranormal Activity. These films kick-started a trend of low-quality imitators, all cheap to make and heavily profitable. But as the last entry (The Ghost Dimension, now in eye-straining 3D) preps its release, I hope people will fill theater seats and go for one more ride.

In fall of 2009, word of a small horror film spread around social media – a micro-budget ghost story with a simple premise and wildly frightful execution. Horror fanatics had to “demand” the film come to their hometown, breeding a culture of loyalty for a film that nobody in the room had even seen. When the scares hit, an entire wave of screams rolled through the auditorium, followed by relieved laughter. That first Paranormal Activity was a moment in time, a shared experience that I’ll hold onto forever, and I’ve been lucky enough to recapture that moment with each entry of the franchise.

The first two sequels are some of the best horror follow-ups ever, forcing clever new restraints on the found-footage architecture. Plenty of genre franchises are willing to throw aside their original characters for a new slate of victims, but PA built a mythos around the original’s demonic possession. Paranormal Activities 2 and 3 are prequels, following the demon’s journey in reverse. The subsequent films (4 and The Marked Ones) aren’t as inventive or clever but continue on the legacy of this curse. There’s no reason for these films to have lore, yet they do. It’s a touch that adds something special, proving there’s passion inside of this blockbuster beast.

It’s the theater that makes these films memorable. Each one is an extremeky slow burn, with long stretches of inactivity to build tension. Watching the film on a smaller screen, it’s too easy to disconnect. Looking away seems inconsequential, but it rips you from the film’s stakes. The theater setting keeps you glued down, focusing on the banal. The seemingly mundane can become something terrifying.

During a midnight screening of Paranormal Activity 3, there was a moment when the entire audience was enraptured. The nighttime scene was eerily quiet, and the crowd was on mute. On the edge of the auditorium, one person’s keys fell out of their pocket with a startling clang. Half the audience jumped. That’s the experience that this franchise delivers, and one that has fallen out of favor with moviegoers.

Follow Chris Berg on Twitter, @Mushroomer25

With the rise of digital streaming services, torrenting and the brief window between theatrical and home releases, the cinema experience has fallen out of favor with the current generation. Going out to a multiplex, going broke on tickets and snacks and seeing a film front-loaded with advertisements just isn’t enticing to some. Which is understandable, but also a shame – especially in this month as horror films start to populate theaters. Some of the best theater experiences I’ve had have been with horror, and the most intense have been with the Paranormal Activity franchise.

It’s easy to mock Paranormal Activity. These films kick-started a trend of low-quality imitators, all cheap to make and heavily profitable. But as the last entry (The Ghost Dimension, now in eye-straining 3D) preps its release, I hope people will fill theater seats and go for one more ride.

In fall of 2009, word of a small horror film spread around social media – a micro-budget ghost story with a simple premise and wildly frightful execution. Horror fanatics had to “demand” the film come to their hometown, breeding a culture of loyalty for a film that nobody in the room had even seen. When the scares hit, an entire wave of screams rolled through the auditorium, followed by relieved laughter. That first Paranormal Activity was a moment in time, a shared experience that I’ll hold onto forever, and I’ve been lucky enough to recapture that moment with each entry of the franchise.

The first two sequels are some of the best horror follow-ups ever, forcing clever new restraints on the found-footage architecture. Plenty of genre franchises are willing to throw aside their original characters for a new slate of victims, but PA built a mythos around the original’s demonic possession. Paranormal Activities 2 and 3 are prequels, following the demon’s journey in reverse. The subsequent films (4 and The Marked Ones) aren’t as inventive or clever but continue on the legacy of this curse. There’s no reason for these films to have lore, yet they do. It’s a touch that adds something special, proving there’s passion inside of this blockbuster beast.

It’s the theater that makes these films memorable. Each one is an extremeky slow burn, with long stretches of inactivity to build tension. Watching the film on a smaller screen, it’s too easy to disconnect. Looking away seems inconsequential, but it rips you from the film’s stakes. The theater setting keeps you glued down, focusing on the banal. The seemingly mundane can become something terrifying.

During a midnight screening of Paranormal Activity 3, there was a moment when the entire audience was enraptured. The nighttime scene was eerily quiet, and the crowd was on mute. On the edge of the auditorium, one person’s keys fell out of their pocket with a startling clang. Half the audience jumped. That’s the experience that this franchise delivers, and one that has fallen out of favor with moviegoers.

Follow Chris Berg on Twitter, @Mushroomer25

At its peak in the mid-2000s, the words Guitar Hero were synonymous with “stagnation.” From the original 2005 hit all the way through its rivalry with Rock Band, very little changed in the formula–a plastic guitar, five colored buttons, and a digital crowd rocking as you strum along to hits new and old. Over a dozen games were released with little more than minor updates, ultimately saturating the market. With Guitar Hero Live, Activision has produced something completely new–but not necessarily improved.

The highlight of the Guitar Hero Live experience is opening up the box and assembling the guitar. The peripheral is familiar, yet there are some massive upgrades. Detailed plastic molding on the six (yes, six) fret buttons helps the player differentiate between each one. It’s also usable on any console.

The change in the fretboard is Live‘s biggest feature. Notes are now represented in three rows opposed to five, but you can ask for either a high note, low note, or combination of the two. Dedicated Guitar Hero players will realize few of their old skills have carried over. This is a whole new instrument to learn.

For all the merits of the instrument, Guitar Hero Live itself is a scattered mess. It’s split into two modes: GH Live and GH TV. Live is the game’s single-player campaign, where you play songs against live-action video shot from the perspective of a guitarist on stage for various cover bands. Bad actors lip sync to the weakest track list in series history. At only 42 songs, it’s an afternoon’s worth of content at best.

Most likely, you’ll be spending most of your time in GH TV. This is an online streaming service for new song, and it adds an additional 200 tracks for you to play, all of them backed by music videos. This soundtrack is genuinely great, blending legendary acts with modern indie favorites. It’s also online, turning every performance into an active scoreboard chase against nine other players.

The catch is that you can’t play songs at will for free. You can either play the content currently being streamed or pick from the “On Demand” catalog. This costs a “Play,” which costs “coins,” which are earned by playing the game–or can be purchased for “Hero Cash,” which is bought with actual money. It’s an intentionally complicated system hiding a dirty fact–you have to pay real cash to play a song on your own terms. GH TV feels like the world’s most exploitative jukebox, one that I shouldn’t be paying $100 to access.

Ultimately, Guitar Hero Live is a sour deal. The touted Live content amounts to little more than four hours of shows. GH TV is well built but seems intentionally constructed to siphon more cash out of your bank account. The new fundamentals are great, but I can only hope Freestyle Games applies them to a better game next year.

How long must a person be gone before they can become idolized? History has always elevated certain individuals to the rank of gods. They become part of folklore, defining figures of our collective culture. Steve Jobs may have only left us a few short years ago, yet it’s fair to say that the figurehead of Apple Computers has entered this reserved shelf of history. We tell tall tales about his methods (like when he drowned the first iPod prototype to emphasize there are still parts left to spare), compare all contemporaries to his style, and make movies like Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs is, predictably, a film that sets out to depict the globally famous CEO of Apple, chronicling some of his most tumultuous years. In the process, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, HBO’s The Newsroom) presents a polarizing picture of the man beneath. Despite all this, calling Steve Jobs a biopic yields hesitation. Rather, this feels like a modern piece of mythology – a story that takes pieces of history and sculpts them into a three-act play about creation, legacy, and ambition.

Sorkin’s script is the star of this picture, with every other element seeking to enhance the framework.

The majority of the film is told from Jobs’ perspective in the final minutes before the unveiling of the Mac (in 1984), NeXT (1988), and iMac (1998). These three arcs are told in real-time, applying a looming pressure to the experience.

You can hear Sorkin having tremendous fun with structure as he tells the story of Jobs from these contained moments in time. Brief flashbacks augment the narrative, but are scarce. It’s a ceaselessly paced film, engaging from the first frame to the last.

MIchael Fassbender takes on the titular role and gives a striking take on a cultural icon in multiple stages of his career.

Like the script itself, Fassbender’s portrayal of Jobs is somewhere between reality and fantasy. He looks the part, bright with the approachable confidence that defined Jobs’ stage presence.

Yet he underlines this with a constant intensity and creates a version distinctly different from reality. Each peripheral character – like Apple employees Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) and Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg) or Jobs’ ex-girlfriend Chrisann (Katherine Waterston) and their daughter Lisa – makes appearences within these moments if only to shoehorn more about Jobs’ life into the scenes and distill more of the fascinating biography into the two-hour runtime.

Kate Winslet, in particular, nails the role of Joanna Hoffman, Apple’s director of marketing. Her character could so easily come off as hollow, but Winslet elevates each scene against Fassbender into a potent, irresistible dynamic.

Danny Boyle’s direction feels luxurious for such a claustrophobic drama, which acts as both a benefit and deficit. While most of the story takes place backstage at various theaters and opera houses, Boyle finds space for interesting visuals. That accomplishment is oddly undermined by moments of unnecessary alteration to the scenery.

As Jobs quotes a Bob Dylan song backstage, the lyrics appear against the wall in an unprompted moment of visual poetry. Similar tricks are pulled seemingly at random, and it’s little more than a distracting gimmick used without narrative consistency. But at its best, Jobs plays out like a Shakespearean drama set against early Silicon Valley – occasionally overwrought, but never bland.

October is known for scares, comfortably cold weather, and gourd-flavored lattes. But let this October be an oasis of fun. Here are the biggest games of the season.

Rock Band 4 – October 6 (PS4, XBox ONE)

Few games have filled my weekend nights with more fun than Harmonix’s Rock Band series. A room full of friends, a couple of beers and hour after hour of great music accompanied by some plastic instrument theatrics. This fall, the iconic game comes to next-gen consoles with Rock Band 4. Featuring a new “Freestyle” mode for guitar solos and compatibility with the same peripherals and downloadable content you already own, it’s a party starter for sure.

Yoshi’s Wooly World – October 16 (WiiU)

Nintendo has always made games that stand out in a crowd, and Yoshi’s Wooly World is no exception. A natural evolution of the platforming formula defined by the Super Nientendo Entertainment System (SNES) classic Yoshi’s Island, Wooly World casts the entire landscape in fuzzy colors that span the full rainbow. Developer Good-Feel previously crafted the similar Kirby’s Epic Yarn, one of the most gleefully happy games of the Wii generation. If you need a bright spark in the dark fall season, be sure to snuggle up with Yoshi this October.

Guitar Hero Live – October 20 (PS4, XBox ONE, WiiU, PS3, XBox 360)

It’s been six years since video game publisher Activision last put out a Guitar Hero game and refurbished living rooms in America with plastic drums, guitars and microphones. For the reunion tour, developer Freestyle Games (who previously worked on the blissful DJ Hero series) have ditched the drums and bass in search of a more focused music experience. A new six-button guitar will attempt to better simulate the feeling of playing an instrument, new live-action video backgrounds capture the sights of taking the stage, and a new streaming service entitled “GH Live” hopes to free users from the tyranny of paying for countless downloadable songs. But at heart, it’s still about shredding along to great tracks and living the rock star fantasy.

Halo 5: Guardians – October 27 (XBox ONE)

Six installments, two studios and one disastrous compilation – the Halo series has seen it all. Guardians looks to bring the iconic shooter franchise back to the spotlight with a handful of major gameplay shifts. The campaign (now fully playable in four-player co-op) will expand the perspective beyond Master Chief with the introduction of Spartan Locke. The multiplayer modes you grew up loving are still fully intact, but the big push this year is on Warzone – a new 12-on-12 multiplayer mode designed for competitive play.

Follow Chris Berg on Twitter, @Mushroomer25

October is known for scares, comfortably cold weather, and gourd-flavored lattes. But let this October be an oasis of fun. Here are the biggest games of the season.

Rock Band 4 – October 6 (PS4, XBox ONE)

Few games have filled my weekend nights with more fun than Harmonix’s Rock Band series. A room full of friends, a couple of beers and hour after hour of great music accompanied by some plastic instrument theatrics. This fall, the iconic game comes to next-gen consoles with Rock Band 4. Featuring a new “Freestyle” mode for guitar solos and compatibility with the same peripherals and downloadable content you already own, it’s a party starter for sure.

Yoshi’s Wooly World – October 16 (WiiU)

Nintendo has always made games that stand out in a crowd, and Yoshi’s Wooly World is no exception. A natural evolution of the platforming formula defined by the Super Nientendo Entertainment System (SNES) classic Yoshi’s Island, Wooly World casts the entire landscape in fuzzy colors that span the full rainbow. Developer Good-Feel previously crafted the similar Kirby’s Epic Yarn, one of the most gleefully happy games of the Wii generation. If you need a bright spark in the dark fall season, be sure to snuggle up with Yoshi this October.

Guitar Hero Live – October 20 (PS4, XBox ONE, WiiU, PS3, XBox 360)

It’s been six years since video game publisher Activision last put out a Guitar Hero game and refurbished living rooms in America with plastic drums, guitars and microphones. For the reunion tour, developer Freestyle Games (who previously worked on the blissful DJ Hero series) have ditched the drums and bass in search of a more focused music experience. A new six-button guitar will attempt to better simulate the feeling of playing an instrument, new live-action video backgrounds capture the sights of taking the stage, and a new streaming service entitled “GH Live” hopes to free users from the tyranny of paying for countless downloadable songs. But at heart, it’s still about shredding along to great tracks and living the rock star fantasy.

Halo 5: Guardians – October 27 (XBox ONE)

Six installments, two studios and one disastrous compilation – the Halo series has seen it all. Guardians looks to bring the iconic shooter franchise back to the spotlight with a handful of major gameplay shifts. The campaign (now fully playable in four-player co-op) will expand the perspective beyond Master Chief with the introduction of Spartan Locke. The multiplayer modes you grew up loving are still fully intact, but the big push this year is on Warzone – a new 12-on-12 multiplayer mode designed for competitive play.

Follow Chris Berg on Twitter, @Mushroomer25

In the past few years, film fans have been lucky enough to experience a boom in science-fiction cinema grounded in science.

While everybody can love a space epic that paints as much fantasy as fact, there’s something special about a film that tackles an incredible premise within the restraints of our current scientific knowledge without making audacious leaps of faith.

Gravity showed us the horrors of space. Interstellar gave us a glimpse into the spiritual wonders of relativity.

The Martian, Ridley Scott’s newest film, is the latest member of this steadily growing club, tells a story of the human potential provided by science.

Set in a near future, The Martian follows Mark Watney (Matt Damon), a member of one of the first manned missions to Mars. After a storm forces a mission abort, Watney is left alone on the alien surface. While help is impossibly remote, Watney is left to his own devices to survive as NASA scrambles together a rescue mission. What follows is two hours of science porn, casting both planets with impossible tasks that require equally impossible solutions.

Above all, The Martian, as well as Andy Weir’s book upon which it’s based, aims to tell the most realistic version of this story possible. Each piece of technology in the plot has a distinct practicality in its design, every insane maneuver just believable enough to work. But much like science itself, this leaves the plot of The Martian without much room for personality. We join these characters mid-mission, only seeing cursory glances at who they are beyond a job title. With a massive ensemble cast, the plot has no time for detailed character development. This leaves the script to fill in the personality gap.

While The Martian could easily have been adapted to film as a dry ‘what-if” scenario, Drew Goddard’s script smartly interjects moments of attitude and humor wherever possible. Watney is a foul-mouthed smart-ass, always ready to monologue with a piece of dry wit. Damon’s performance is what keeps the film relatable, and his natural charisma keeps the tension honest.

Hollywood often loves to exploit science into reductive convenience for the story, to combine every area of expertise into one character that has the solution to every problem. In reality, the skill set comes from a collaborative effort. The Martian represents this with a massive ensemble cast, loaded with top-end talent. Combined, they form a fascinating unit to attempt the impossible. Individually they feel hollow, their only moments of humanity an odd quip or joke. A few actors achieve a memorable performance out of their limited screen time (Donald Glover as a reclusive astrophysicist, Chiwetel Ejiofor as mission director Vincent Kapoor), but most get lost in the bigger stakes.

The Martian is a deeply engaging film about watching a convoluted plan come together, seeing the challenges on the road ahead, and pushing through in the face of overwhelming odds. Scott directs the picture with the same cold eye that made Blade Runner and Alien immediate classics in their day. At some point in the future, we can imagine a generation in the stars looking back on The Martian as a love letter to human ability. It’s inspiring, harrowing and, above all, optimistic – a utopian snapshot of a scientifically infatuated future that almost seems plausible.

What do we mean when we call a game “timeless”? The video game industry has spent its life in a state of constant technological innovation. A game produced 10 years ago feels more dated in 2015 than a film or an album created at the same time. But, the best franchises are those whose core mechanics are so strong that they can be loved even outside their time. No series is more timeless than Super Mario. Super Mario Maker offers proof of that fact.

Super Mario Maker is a level creation tool for Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U.

Nintendo has made the act of building Mario just as fun as playing it. Using the WiiU’s touchscreen, you place blocks, enemies and obstacles on a grid structure. You’re given a toolbox filled with items, enemies and obstacles from each game, and you can flip between the four titles in a snap. Then with a quick tap, you can go from creating a level to playing it.

Mario Maker shines on the back of the original games. The physics of Super Mario Bros. are acutely different from those in Super Mario Bros. 3. These games were made years ago, yet the music and art design still appeal to the eye. The creation tool doesn’t cover every nuance of the originals (no Hammer suit or Star Coins, just to name a few), but I was satisfied with my options.

However, I would’ve appreciated mid-course checkpoints. Their absence can make playing through some of the community’s hardest levels frustrating.

Plenty of games encourage users to create their own levels, but most run into a roadblock with the creation tool itself. Super Mario Maker bypasses this. If you’ve ever played a Mario game before, you understand the flow. You know how a Goomba can be defeated and where it’d best be placed in a level. Mario Maker lets you subvert that nostalgia, using Spiny shells as helmets, putting giant Piranha Plants on moving conveyors and even importing new Nintendo characters into the world of Super Mario Bros. It’s a beautiful piece of fan service, one that leverages the fans themselves to survive.

Once a level is made, and proven to be finish-able, you can upload it to the greater Mario Maker community for the world to play. The game features a search tool to curate the best new content, as judged by the players. You can also hop into the 100 Mario Challenge, which throws 16 randomly picked levels between you and the Princess.

Mario Maker has only been out for a little more than a week, and the game is already bursting with inventive new content. Even if you never build a single level, Mario Maker will be worth the price of admission just to see what people can dream up with its tools.

Follow Chris Berg on Twitter @Mushroomer25