damned-thoughts

[damned-thoughts]

braindead analysis 

Braindead, directed by Peter Jackson, is 1990s horror comedy starring Timothy Balme as the main character. 

In this zombie comedy, the virus is spread by an exotic monkey rat, as it bites the mother of the protagonist. She herself is very abusive but her behavior gets all bloody as she's starting to transform into a zombie. 

Even though it's supposed to be comedy, it takes a surprisingly serious turn. Since the protagonist's mother is infected, she decomposes as a zombie and craves human flesh, which doesn't have to be inherently serious, but if we look at the possible metaphors it might get pretty dark. 

The movie features disturbing concepts such as zombie sex and zombie baby, which suggests that zombies can feel something like love. 

With this in mind, we need to think of a new type of zombies. Zombies, that have feelings, zombies, that deserve compassion. And that's exactly the dilemma of the protagonist. He doesn't want to kill them, he just sedates them so that aren't able to do any harm.

Which brings me to the possible metaphor. Zombies in this movie symbolize mentally ill or elder patients. 

Anyone can become a zombie like anyone can suffer from some kind of illness causing mental "decay". 

The protagonist's mother is old, so she could be suddenly stricken with dementia causing her state of being. This change impacts every aspect of his life now, he has to take care of her. There's that scene, where she's clearly falling apart, but still desperately wants to appear normal for her guests. She can barely talk and her skin is falling of, but she's in denial and ignores she has a problem. Even though the dinner scene is played for jokes, it's a very sad look at someone trying to resist their illness. 

Later in the movie, we see two zombies falling in love and having a little zombie baby. Our hero won't kill them either suggesting this meaning : the decision whether or not to abort a disabled child of similarly disabled parents, and he decides the disabled people should live, as he has no right to kill them, because they are not less then him. 

After that, he has to take care of all zombies which prevents him from leading a normal life. He faced a dilemma and chose to sacrifice himself, which is similar to the situation people have to deal with when choosing if they want to have their disabled relatives at home with them or if they need to have them institutionalized. 

Having this idea in mind, I'm wondering who is the villain in this movie. Zombies are  innocent, it's not their fault they're the way they are. The real villain is the society not allowing zombies to be the part of it, discriminating them and giving up on protagonist casting his as a wierdo. 

Except for that, we have the mother indeed and the twisted love for her son. In the final scene - spoiler alert -, she devours him back into her womb, which is a fucked up thing to do, even for a zombie. It was the jealousy triggered by him hugging a girl and strong anxiety, the fear of losing him. 

These are not the only villains though. There's the greedy uncle with rapist tendencies who practically starts the final massacre. But he's good only for screenwriting purposes, he has not a deeper meaning. 

This movie tickles many important issues. From toxic mother son relationships to rape, but most importantly, it's about disabled people. In what point do we stop being people worth living and is anyone able to decide that? That's a question I cannot answer.

[damned-thoughts]

DWs scariest episode and its meaning

Warning: I'm not a professional, I only have some experience with psychology on a basic level. Therefore, this theory might be theoretically incorrect. But I'll try my best not to make any misleading mistakes. 

Doctor Who is usually known as a sci-fi show and not a horror show. Despite this, there are few pretty scary episodes that could fit the horror definition. 

One of those episodes is Midnight, from fourth series of Nu-who. 

The episode starts as the doctor travels with Donna to the wellness planet made entirely of diamonds, where they split up and Doctor decides to go to a trip through the dangerous planet with a travel agency by himself. 

But something goes horribly wrong. Suddenly, their vehicle stops in the middle of nowhere and is unable to move. Then, they hear a knocking from the outside, even though there can't be any life in the planet's environment. 

The knocking is getting louder and more urgent, scaring everyone on board, mostly a female presenting person named Sky. She's freaking out, screaming something's coming for her. 

Eventually, she becomes possessed by this unknown entity, which has been sleeping in the planet and now awaken by the unexpected visitors. 

Possessed Sky repeats every word said in a hungry and unsettling way, until she repeats only after the Doctor, he is chosen and then she consumes his speech, the Doctor is now the one repeating. 

But what does all that mean? 

It reflects multilayer psýché with something unexplainable and dark, which lurks inside of us. Lovecraftian transcendence, which is part of our reality albeit we don't want to admit it. 

Not only does this episode have properly developed characters and a great plot, it has also an interesting meaning. 

I presume the planet is our unconsciousness, being much larger then our consciousness, the bus. 

The outside of the planet is unreachable, full of secrets and they are unable to enter it, they're only allowed to observe it for a short time, otherwise they would die. They can't affect the planet, but the planet directly affects them. 

And somewhere in the unconscious, there's waiting a serious mental illness/personality disorder to be triggered. The entity, whose source is not known. Where did it come from? 

Once it's triggered, usually by an accident, it attacks the people exposed and they have different reactions. Some of them are immediately killed by the illness, like the driver, some of them remain frightened by it, as the entity knocks to the fragile walls of sanity, trying to reach them. 

Eventually, the person who had the strongest predispositions for it manifests some toxic traits, becomes possessed - narcissistic sociopath for example. Their soul is deep down inside paralyzed and the illness takes control. 

The person is not evil, the entity is displaying "toxic" behavior though. 

When such person has also a type A personality, the problem with sinister repeating emerges. 

The Type A personality behavior was first described as a potential risk factor for heart disease in the 1950s by cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman.

Type A is generally more aggressive and competitive than the calmer and more creative type B. If the type A suffers from specific kinds of mental disorder, they show pathological way of functioning in a society. They don't develop a personality, thus they have to copy one. Being type A makes them aggressive and they're trying to find a weak person, usually a type B, to steal from. 

In this case, The tenth Doctor represents type B personality, the one that's easier to steal from as it's less assertive. That's why he's chosen. At first Sky repeats after him, then she catches up and talks at the same time, which is terrifying, and at last she starts to talk before him, absorbs his personality and make it her own. The Doctor is now paralyzed.

The rest of the people on board are facing it and are weakened by their illnesses as well, so they panic and don't know what to do. They want to get rid of the toxic person from their group, but they aren't sure who is it, since Sky has manipulated them into thinking it's the Doctor. 

In the end, they decide they need to throw the Doctor out and almost succeed. However one of them becomes aware of the truth and saves the Doctor, sacrificing themselves while also killing Sky. 

In reality, the toxic people in our lives of course don't deserve to die. Despite this, they often deserve to be cut out of our lives, no matter how hard it is.

[damned-thoughts]

“The old cathedrals often have sublime artworks hidden away in the darkest corners for only God to see. The same goes for murder.”

- Jack, The House That Jack Built (Lars von Trier)

ζόφος

Každému umělci je jasné, že beze zla, toho nejtemnějšího, by žádné umění nebylo, ostatně, dle mého názoru, umění, které z tohoto hnusu nevychází, bývá zpravidla kýčem.

Tyto dva předpoklady spolu úzce souvisí, ono Zlo by bez duše nebylo a ani duše by se bez něj nemohla zvát duší.

Netvrdím ovšem, že to, co vychází ze zla, kýčem být nemůže, snad proto, že druhým předpokladem, bez něhož se nemůže pseudo umění oprostit od svého “pseudo”, je jakási “pravost”, ryzí upřímnost pocitů zahrabaných v hlubinách naší duše, dosažitelná pouze Imaginací.

Pomineme-li můj přehnaně metafyzický přístup k bytí (tedy že bytí samotné, případně duše, existuje jako jedna entita, která zároveň naplňuje svůj smysl tím, že prožívá veškeré možné existence, živoucí bytosti, a tímto prožitkem a sebenaplněním mizí, ∞ = 0), dalo by se říci, že život přebývá a může přebývat pouze v Infernu, které ve své masochistické podstatě dovede pouze utrpením vytvořit slast (na mysl mi hned vytane film Hellraiser). Jenže k tvorbě umění nestačí utrpení, protože jeho základním stavebním kamenem je Imaginace, brána mezi hlubinou duše a Infernem.

Ačkoli kýč umí dobře napodobit umění, jde o pouhou iluzi, je totiž zcela prázdný a nepřináší ani utrpení, ani slast. V duši je oproti tomu obsaženo jak utrpení, tak slast, protože přebývá v Infernu, zdroji utrpení a má přístup k Imaginaci (zdroji slasti). V umění, které je zrcadlem toho všeho, je taktéž obsaženo obojí.