Ian Sacks

Been playing a lot of MTG Arena, along with my partner(and...may be mid-way through building a competitive paper deck). Increasing urge to reread Yu-Gi-Oh, a series about "What if MTG, but every game was literally life or death?"

I don't like the death-game genre very much, but there is something truly joyous when it crosses genres with another hobby. I didn't stick with it, admittedly, but I found the first several episodes of Blue Lock hilarious

aftermidnightlitmag.comFoldsHiroki hadn’t expected to hear his name. They were next to the construction site between the Miyada and Enoda homes. Toward the…

A short horror piece of mine about anomalous construction site trappings is out at @aftermidnightmag.bsky.social! Thrilled to be part of their first issue. aftermidnightlitmag.com/2026/09/29/f...

letterboxd.comA ★★½ review of Interstellar (2014)Something happens to me with Christopher Nolan films that breaks my brain. They are smarter and more emotionally affecting than most Hollywood spectacle films of their scope and scale, which makes me ...

22 Sept

I also finally saw Interstellar. Like basically all Nolan films except the Dark Knight, it made me feel like a big hater. Sorry. letterboxd.com/iansacks/fil...

letterboxd.comA ★★ review of Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)Saw at a 4K restoration screening in Yokohama, near the site of the film's climax. There's something fun and delightful about the way even the worst Toho Godzilla movies embrace sheer enthusiasm for m...

22 Sept

Braved the typhoon to catch a restoration screening of Godzilla vs. Mothra in Yokohama (the film's climax setting) yesterday. The most important review I've ever written of the most important film I've ever seen: letterboxd.com/iansacks/fil...

21 Sept

Canonical way to translate 色々訊きたい

Ian Sacks reposted

Horror Tree

@horrortree.com

13 Sept

🩸 🩸 Trembling With Fear🩸 🩸 Ian Sacks shows us the horror in forgetting in this week's feature story, ‘𝗘𝘅-𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻’. 💧 Tom Gdisis seeks what lurks beneath in 𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗲 👻 Stephen Tenerowicz teaches us not to trust our senses in 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗧𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘀 🧟‍♀️ Sean Sims undergoes a change in p

11 Sept

I dun started a Letterboxd, mostly to log horror-movie viewing as my partner and I are 1) doing a lot of it, and 2) have wound up with a pretty set 1 to 10 standard in terms of communicating our thoughts to each other afterward. Fillg out the last few months of viewing. letterboxd.com/IanSacks/

11 Sept

I say mostly for horror, but I do have to get MOTU on here so I can note both it and Backrooms as twin "I did not expect anything of this when I heard it was greenlit and it blew me away" surprise 2026 experiences.

Backrooms Twin Peaks 🤝 Using surreal horror to explore the inscrutability of subjective experience and the impossibility of receiving external meaning

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...and both left unsure of what space they occupy and urgently asking the other to make sense of it got me a little choked up, unexpectedly. Also, will be mad if it doesn't win some best set design awards, and not even just for the surreal spaces. For the pitch perfect uncanny '90s decor.

Only thing holding it back at all for me is Clark feeling slightly stock, but it is such a thematically tight script, expressed through a minimum of dialogue combined with suggestive visuals and a couple of key wording flags.

Backrooms Twin Peaks 🤝 Using surreal horror to explore the inscrutability of subjective experience and the impossibility of receiving external meaning

Anyway, it just came out in Japan, so I saw it late. Neck and neck with MOTU for my favorite film of 2026 so far for very different reasons. Maybe loved it? Final conversation with the memory/subjective world metaphor and two characters both dealing with exploration of the mind (MRIs, therapist)...

29 Aug

Resurrected my basically unused personal/professional Instagram: www.instagram.com/iansacks/ Looking to follow other writers and translators especially, so connect on there if it's your thing!

the-dread-literary-review.ghost.ioSUMMER 2026: Final Girl“Final Girl” by Lorrie Ness Like a corpse’s receding skin, the pram’s canopy shrivels from its overturned frame. Chrome supports jut from the brambles & weeds. Only the skeleton remains in...

29 Aug

Two things to plug! My horror-adventure piece, "Speak If Though Wilt," is in The Dread Literary Review's "Final Girl" summer theme issue. It's a follow-up to a straight-forward horror piece coming out elsewhere 9/13, but meant to work on its own! the-dread-literary-review.ghost.io/summer-2026-...

macabremagazine.commacabremagazine.com

29 Aug

Elsewhere, a short doppelganger piece ran in the August issue of Macabre Magazine. While there's still one update to be made to the bio and some micro-edits to the text, formatting now displays correctly on mobile as well as desktop, so I'm excited to share it! macabremagazine.com?p=2532&previ...

28 Aug

@thegmcconnachie.bsky.social

27 Aug

Adverbs are codeswitching. They are freeing. During my MFA, I wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole. Writing genre though? Give me one. Give me ten. They are an invitation to the reader; come on in, we're having fun

Ian Sacks reposted

Garry

This is why Dolly Parton will be remembered and loved ❤️📚

Ian Sacks reposted

Evan Greer

@evangreer.bsky.social

in a world of JK Rowlings be a Dolly Parton

I have a short horror story in this one. It seems like a cool project, so if you follow me for lit or translation stuff (or even if you don't), give them a follow!

After Midnight Lit Mag@aftermidnightmag.bsky.social

Hey there, After-Midnighters! We're hard at work, copy editing Issue I. We're looking at a publication schedule of around early October—we'll let you know when it goes live! We're so excited to bring you our first issue. #booksky #writesky #poetrysky #pedagogy

@lethalityjane.bsky.social

Feedback logged. An artificial intelligence strategy in the cultural and creative sectors that is not "regulation" has no business being brought to the table.

This post is unavailable.

Ian Sacks reposted

ex-Lethality Jane

16 Aug

You played the recorder in part to strengthen your fine motor skills and in part to introduce you to basic music theory concepts like rhythm, the C-major scale, and reading basic music notes. Your teachers wanted to make elementary music education available to all, not just the rich.

reddit.comFrom the nosleep community on RedditExplore this post and more from the nosleep community

16 Aug

While waiting for four accepted short horror pieces (+ several drabbles) to come out, I used the Japanese holidays to do a little semi-comic nosleep post, a genre I am admittedly prone to not enjoying, engaging in all the tropes while seeing what I could get through. www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/co...

16 Aug

Based on an experience my partner and I had at sushi. This is still one of my least favorite sub-genres of horror (especially for the interplay between the posting artifice and the relatively conventional narrative prose that is expected to follow), but it was fun exercise.

Inbal Breda (Looking for work)

12 Aug

In the future we're going to treat this kind of self-destructive AI use like smoking cigarettes

Brandon Friedman@brandonfriedman.bsky.social

Axios writer: I melted my brain with AI. Not only can I no longer read, but I don't even understand the purpose of reading anymore. Here's how you can also do this. www.axios.com/2026/08/11/r...

Ian Sacks reposted

@greyannis.bsky.social

9 Aug

Might as well post it here! A magical girl animation I've been slowly chipping at over the weekends for ages.

Ian Sacks reposted

After Midnight Lit Mag

@aftermidnightmag.bsky.social

8 Aug

Y'aaall... We've gotten some amazing submissions so far! We're still open until August 15th, so send your #shortstory, #flashfiction, #poetry, #pedagogy, #bookreview, and #CNF our way! #writesky #booksky Link: www.aftermidnightlitmag.com

Ian Sacks reposted

Omoi: Manga App & Publisher

@omoi.com

7 Aug

Reminder: Omoi uses 100% human translators, letterers, proofreaders, and editors for our exclusive series. We're proud to publish high-quality releases from skilled localization workers!

8 Aug

Release the sex purge movie sex cut

DiscussingFilm@discussingfilm.net

‘ONE NIGHT ONLY’ director Will Gluck says they cut out “so much nudity” from the film because he thinks audiences dislike sex on screen. “Whenever people now see nudity or very adult situations in a big theater, they get uncomfortable.” (Source: variety.com/2026/film/fe...)

@mostlyghostly.bsky.social

8 Aug

Also bro what Anora won best picture in 2025 what are you talking about Own your weird movie

Ian Sacks reposted

Aidan Clarke

@cranchyroll.com

7 Aug

Thinking about the way Wayne Truman drew sound effects for manga that didn't match the style of the originals but still burst with energy. The full color version of Dragon Ball has the original sound effects so it's used for comparison here.

Ian Sacks reposted

_Mostly_Ghostly_

11 July

Really old Ultraman doodles that I still find relatable 💀

bit.lyMamdani's city-owned grocery stores are a socialist trap | OpinionNo matter how good Zohran Mamdani makes grocery affordability sound, he's selling New Yorkers the same broken promise that has failed everywhere else.

4 Aug

I have bad news about how *checks notes* society and business function if you're this nervous over your labor subsidizing things from which you might never personally benefit

USA TODAY Opinion@usatodayopinion.usatoday.com

Opinion: Mamdani's idea may sound appealing, but it's NYC taxpayers who will take the hit, subsidizing discounts they may never even use.

4 Aug

Setting up a line of dominoes that starts with "Fourth grade teacher reading Harry Potter to kids in class" and ends with "Voting to determine wether staff must examine kids' genitals so they can play soccer" because we live in hell

Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social

An initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play

3 Aug

Nosleep as a genre: Now, I'm not a writer. I'd never even thought to tell anyone this before, but my friend said I should post my story, so I'm giving it a go. It all started when *proceeds to deliver the most purple and descriptive prose imaginable while discussing their encounter with the unknown*

3 Aug

This is highly specific, but I love scripting secondary plot-driving female characters in isekai manga translations who are purposefully given more characterization than the main guy

2 Aug

Rewatched Heretic, the 2024 horror film with Hugh Grant. Partner and I are in agreement that it's probably a perfect movie and it bumped itself into the "love it" category for me. Such a tight, tense, well-characterized and ultimately human script, explored through a horror lens

31 July

This but also for lit mag visuals and self-publishing art

rax ‘levon honkers’ king@raxkingisdead.bsky.social

'but AI is the only way i can afford to make an event flyer' notebook paper. sharpie. here is my event. photograph with phone. post. be less stupid in the future

29 July

Wake up babe come play the blood Game Boy

Bucket Mouse@mousebitelabs.bsky.social

The chintzy-looking M64 clone console of the N64 by a company named ModRetro has been released, I think, I don't pay attention that closely to shit. But as the great @frankcifaldi.bsky.social posted before, it is our civic duty to push back against this company and shun ANYONE who doesn't.

Find yourself someone who loves you as much as Toyotaro loves drawing hands

I'm reading a Stephen King story for the first time in ages, and I admire his creativity and passion infinitely, but his work always reads like he's never cut a sentence in his life Which, fair enough, go off King

joshmalerman.com Incidents Around the House

So, look, I read Incidents Around the House over two days after seeing the Other Mommy trailer because I was like, "Uncanny doppelganger horror? There's a book? This is for me!" It is disgustingly, unreasonably good, and I have no doubt the loose film adaptation will do it no justice. I loved it.

I have since seen some online discourse call it "not that well written," I think is an absolutely unhinged opinion. Its scares are incredibly well-paced, it manages a consistent and non-cloying child voice, its characters are well-rendered and its observations canny. Imo the craft is unassailable.

Earlier scenes genuinely had me tiptoeing around the house in the dark alert to noises, which almost never happens to me with prose horror at this point. I was genuinely affected by the end. Cannot recommend it enough.

Bringing attention to this thread of great untranslated micro-horror stories once again

Buddy Waters@buddywaters.bsky.social

One Hundred Late Night Tarous A massive 856 page collection of a hundred micro shorts Maijo Otaro apparently tweeted out once a day for a few months back in 2015. Should I do a thread listing them all? Probably not on this site but yolo.