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October Horror Debate: Should kids be watching horror movies?

Welcome viewers to this week’s horror Baugh blog debate! It is now October and you guys know what that means...things are going to get real spooky these coming weeks especially with the theatrical releases of “Happy Death Day” and “Jigsaw”. Both films seem to have a substantial amount of hype built up behind their release, and with that being the case, millions of families will likely go out to watch them and this then made me think; wow a lot of children will be traumatized this year (even though they probably have been terrified the previous years too haha)! Before people start getting all heated saying, “Oh well my kid is brave and wouldn’t get scared at all!” well I am not here to disagree and say all children should be shielded from horror content because for one, I would be a hypocrite if I said as a child I never was scared shitless to the point where I almost flooded my bed sheets with sweat and tears.

 Because honestly let’s face it, if your are a young parent with a 4-7 year old child and look forward to seeing a horror movie on its debut, what are you going to do? A. Leave your kid locked in your jeep outside the movie parking lot and enjoy your night before you go to jail. B. Leave them at home with a baby sitter because you know they are too wimp to handle the movie. C. Bring your scaredy cat kid inside the theater and make them watch the movie against their will. D. Put the little fella up for adoption. Okay... now while most will probably say B. is the most reasonable response, because it is not like you aren’t a struggling parent about to get evicted from your apartment for spending half of your rent money on a large popcorn and drink (you cannot tell me they don’t tax you till you’re homeless!). So you tell me...what would a parent most likely do? Okay yeah, C. that’s what I thought...

In all seriousness though, this raises the question of this long unsettled debate: Should kids in general be allowed to even view horror movies?

Before I start explaining my viewpoint on the whole idea of whether kids should be watching spooky content check out this hilarious video out below: 

The little girl on the left reaction is priceless.

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So What Do I Think?

Horror movies are great and I have been watching them ever since I was a little boy and I am sure there is a great number of other people likely reading this who have experienced/done the same thing. With that being said, I think that children should overall be allowed to watch horror movies, but only to a certain extent because it can cause negative long lasting effects such as anxiety, phobias, sleep disturbances, and violent behavior.

Now before anyone begins to disagree take this into consideration...

Many adults and children have difficulty sleeping, especially right after watching a scary movie late at night. Their fears may become more sensitive like shadows might seem more intimidating, dreams may turn nightmarish, the simple creaking of floor board may induce a lot of paranoia and so on. Now while for most people, these effects are short-lived (as they were for me), for others they might not be so short-lived due to the fact that everyone processes graphic content differently. For example, Imagine if after watching a movie like ‘IT’, you develop an intense phobia of storm drains and every noise you hear, you begin to believe it is Pennywise terrorizing you, because that is exactly what happened to me--my sleep disturbances will probably persist for months or even years to come. 

Well while that was just a joke, it may be the actual truth for young people that are more sensitive than the tough skins out there. If a child is not mature enough to determine what is real and what is fake, just think what a gory film will do to him or her right before bedtime and potentially the days to come. This is exactly why I think a line should definitely be drawn. I am not saying that any sensitive child should be sheltered completely from scary content because by claiming that something as simple as Goosebumps can disturb the development of a child would be just absurd. But I must reiterate that a line shouldn’t be crossed depending on how your child acts; like letting your small child or 11 year old that you know is easily disturbed for example, watch ‘Saw’ and expect them to be perfectly fine after. That is why I lean towards the idea that YOU SHOULD ONLY LET YOUR KID WATCH STUFF LIKE THAT IF YOU KNOW THEY CAN HANDLE IT. 

Despite all of the negatives listed, I think that horror movies can be positive in playing an important role in children’s development. I support this with the interesting concept presented by the psychologist Sigmund Freud, whom spoke of the shadow archetype. The shadow archetype is basically the collection of negative, socially unacceptable tendencies one may have that are a basic part of human nature. He believed that the shadow is what makes people truly human, and periodically confronting and fighting the shadow is essential to growth and development of finding . With this logic, that means that horror movie can provide a safe alternative for the real world, where kids can explore their darker impulses and fears to a certain extent without real-life consequences. Now like I said, while I personally loved horror movies as a kid and watched graphic things I probably shouldn’t have, I still turned out to be a good person and used my common sense to not let it influence my actions negatively and know that “After all it is just a movie.” Nonetheless, it is important to beware that logic like this differs from child to child. Therefore, intense violence intertwined with sexual scenes would be confusing and potentially harmful  to toddlers all the way up to young teenagers. While I do believe, the majority of older teens can handle complex, disturbing plots, I do not think a child is capable of interpreting content such as that in a safe or appropriate way. 

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Watch the Chilling Trailer for Netflix's New Series, DARK

New Post has been published on https://nofspodcast.com/watch-chilling-trailer-netflixs-new-series-dark/

Watch the Chilling Trailer for Netflix’s New Series, DARK

The trailer for the German mystery series, Dark, has just been released, and it promises to deliver a chilling new story to Netflix’s line up of original series. With the success of Stranger Things, it’s no doubt that Netflix would return to horror/mysteries with another series. And although the creators of the show, Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, don’t seem to mind the comparisons, the trailer for Dark shows elements that are very similar to those of Stranger Things.

Dark is a 10-part miniseries that wowed audiences at TIFF. Synopsis:

The series is set in a German town in present day where the disappearance of two young children exposes the double lives and fractured relationships among four families. In ten, hour-long episodes, the story takes on a supernatural twist that ties back to the same town in 1986.

The series will star German actors Louis Hofmann, Oliver Masucci, Karoline Eichhorn, Jördis Triebel, Maja Schöne, Stephan Kampwirth, Daan Lennard Liebrenz, Andreas Pietschmann, Deborah Kaufmann and Tatja Seibt.

Louis Hofmann, who will play Jonah Kahnwald, told Deadline:

“The story is about four families that are being sent on a frantic hunt after two children disappear. I am part of one family, of course… My character Jonas is very introverted and has recently lost his father that has, in a mysterious way, killed himself. Mikkel disappears, the little child. That’s where it all starts. Jonas is then trying to reveal a big family secret.”

Although the aesthetic may seem similar to Stranger Things, which premieres its second season on October 27th, the similarities stop there. As the trailer shows, the element of time seems to play a big part in Dark; as to what this part is, we will just have to wait and see.

The ten episode first season of Dark will be available for streaming on Netflix starting on December 1st, and you can watch the trailer above now.

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Hackers Can Program Robots to Become Killer Machines

Yup guys, you’ve heard it right here from Dee Baugh’s horror blog! If a creepy drooling clown convincing you to join him down in the sewers isn’t terrifying enough, then your latest horror might come in the form of Artificial Intelligence. While not a newfound thing, this trend is becoming more popular among hackers; rewiring AI systems used daily by humans to become killing machines. From self driving cars, drones to personal robots, is technology enhancing our day to day lives and making them more entertaining, interesting, and safer? Or is it simply evolving at a pace too fast for us to keep up? One could say AI is doing both, but one thing for sure is that hackers are using its rapid evolution as an advantage to control the lives of others. Therefore, I lean towards the idea that while Artificial Intelligence can serve for entertainment and help positively advance our lives, it will eventually spiral out of control if humans don’t get a good grasp on it now before it is TOO LATE.

You know things are getting real weird and creepy when according to The New York Post, a cybersecurity scientist by the name of Dr. Nick Patterson, has warned the population of people whom own robotic pleasure dolls. He claims “it would be a piece of cake compared to more sophisticated gadgets like cellphones and computers.” Patterson warns that it would be fairly easy for hackers to breach the robots code and take complete control of its realistic body parts such as arms, legs, and even tools like knives or welding devices and catch their owners when they least suspect it. 

Besides even the hacking of sex robots, there has been an increased trend within the past few years of people hacking vehicles that are connected to the internet (like Jeeps), and according to scientists, hacking them is just like breaching anything else linked to the internet. They have the ability to shut down safety features, randomly disable the breaks, turn the steering wheel at any speed, unintended acceleration, cutting off the transmission randomly while in motion, and much more. Just imagine fellas... You’re in Germany cruising at about 120 mph on the autobahn and a hacker causes your steering wheel to jerk aggressively at a 180 degree angle... Well... R.I.P. Real depressing, right? Well in the meantime, be very cautious my friends and know that no car with internet functions is safe on the roads these days. Matter of fact, nothing electronic is safe! Not drones, cars, robotic dolls, TV’s, phones, etc.! I trust NOTHING because When the IPhone X comes out I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to lock it in a steel box, in fear it will murder me in my sleep. I am just kidding, but in all seriousness, I think people need to be alert of what hackers are currently capable of and what these trends could potentially evolve into in the future. 

Lastly, check out the interesting video below where popular YouTuber “Lemmino” covers a broad range of AI research and tells his envision of whether man and machine can peacefully co-exist in the future.

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Here are links to some dope IT T-Shirts sold on Amazon that could make a great halloween outfit or regardless of the occasion... I personally think that they both fit very well and the artwork is pretty detailed in person and not too pricey. Some say that they had to go a size up on the one with Pennywise. Anyways, here are the links:

Superluxe™ Mens We All Float Down Here T-Shirt, Black, Large

Its Playtime Horror Movie Murder Scary Clown IT Mens Tshirt M

And also, for those of you who haven’t seen the movie yet, you can preorder the movie in HD on amazon for $19.99. Oh and by the way, to save some money, you can enter the discount code: PRIME10 in order to get $10 off on your first $20 purchase. Code expires 01/1/2018

Link:

IT

You’re welcome :) !

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Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.

Stephen King

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This isn't real enough for you, Billy? I'm not real enough for you? It was real enough for Georgie.

Pennywise

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September Horror Movie Review: ‘IT’ Overview

     Andre Muschietti’s “IT” has a great balance of comedy and horror. Complete with a talented and memorable cast, the actors make this adaptation both hilarious and terrifyingly brilliant enough to make you crack up laughing all while flinching in your seat. Those who are horror fanatics will be able to see that the film pays precise attention to the original’s details and delivers effective climatic storytelling, which ends up providing viewers with a fantastic sense of comic relief along with twisted and creepy visuals very similar to how Stephen King perfectly accomplished back in his 1986 novel.

**DISCLAIMER** For those of you who have not seen this film yet and do not want to know details about well…the ENTIRE film, then you guys are welcome to skip everything below and scroll all the way to the bottom and see my “Rating Baugh Machine” post of what rating I think this clownish movie deserves! *****  

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Directing and Writing

Andy Muschietti is no newcomer when it comes to horror films after directing the 2013 movie ‘Mama’ (which I personally was not really a fan of) but he really tests his limits and knocked it out the ballpark with his work on ‘IT.’ He has plenty of heart racing induced scenes that will have you jumping (and possibly peeing) out of your seat in terror.

    The script is clever and concise with a bunch of gut turning scares while including the amazing story put together by the talented cast of kids that make up the Loser’s Club. With every scary scene you will always be rooting for the kids to get away and just WIN…except perhaps the bullies. Unless I guess you’re just a big fat dickhead.

    Despite that some people undermine ‘IT’ for deeming Pennywise’s character to be too confusing, the story is not difficult to follow at all. Their perplexity may simply be attributed to the fact that the concept of Pennywise and what he is capable of flies right over their head. Probably the best part about ‘IT’ and its direction is how the script conveys the scares the characters can handle without taking away any major elements from the original story. Muschietti’s brilliance starts right from the opening of sinister children giggles, all the way up until the closing credits.

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What’s Wrong with ‘IT’

     Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis), pictured above, is one of the believable, strongest and most well written characters in the film. There is great insight on her background and she is portrayed very accurate to the novel’s character description of her. This deserves much praise to the screenwriters, but there is just one small problem I find with her story. Beverly knows how to evade and ignore the torment of bullies, her horribly abusive father, and even brave enough to violently retaliate against Pennywise but towards the ending scenes out of all characters, she becomes the damsel in distress. This is a little setback because none of the boys that come to rescue her are nearly as brave as she is. You would probably have expected anyone but her to have been kidnapped.

  Now I don’t want people coming all at my neck because I’m not here to argue that a female character cannot be rescued in a movie because after all we live in the year 2017 but when you see how Beverly is portrayed throughout the film, you get the sense that she would be the one rescuing others in the Loser’s Club rather than it being the other way around. Again, I must reiterate that this is a minor flaw in an otherwise excellent horror film but at the same time there have been many female unexpected heroines in horror movies, like Nancy from The Nightmare on Elm’s Street, Helen Lyle in Candyman, or even Kirsty Cotton in both Hellraiser movies.   

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Devil’s Advocate

     I have seen people giving the feedback that the CGI, (Computer Generated Imagery) was bad in some parts throughout the movie. But, I honestly have to disagree and say that the CGI did a good job and was purposely done that way because I think it was a director’s choice to make the scene more terrifying. 

     For example, the CGI style in some parts make it in my opinion look more creepy than if it looked perfectly realistic - because that is the whole point of Pennywise. Pennywise’s preferred form is a clown, so he is imitating the children’s greatest fear, just like how in real life when people imitate something, such as other people or certain objects, it is not always going to be 100% spot on or perfect, and that is why I think it worked out so well. Pennywise imitates children’s fears because he believes children have more simplistic fears, and due to the reason that their flesh tastes better that way to him, but as one may know, a child’s mind can have the most ridiculous/outlandish looking imagination ever. So rather than have everything look spot on real, I think this movie does an effective job in pulling off effective scares with Pennywise’s sometimes clay or unrealistic toy like movements.

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I WANT ANSWERS

Here are just a few questions a lot of the people who saw IT probably want the answers to...

1. When IT eats you: Are you dead? Does your soul rest in heaven or some type of afterlife? Are you floating around in IT’s macroverse in pain for eternity?!

2. Who and what is Pennywise? Where does he come from?

3. Why are the adult’s so naive and seem completely content with the disappearances of all these children? I guess the town is just as corrupt as its killer...

BUT DO NOT WORRY VIEWERS!! I am sure Muschietti will furher explore and answer these questions in chapter 2. Or... perhaps you could spoil it by reading the entire novel if you have not already. 

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Now Let’s Get to the Review...

    When you get older, lets face it - no movie will ever truly terrify you. But to be reasonable, I believe as a generation, we have been so desensitized to horror and violence as a whole that it does not get to us anymore. I must make it clear though - ‘IT’ is SCARY!

***WARNING: I am going to start talking about scenes from the movie in detail! So those of you whom have not seen it yet do not go cry saying you didn’t want ‘IT’ to be spoiled! So with that…******SPOILER ALERT AHEAD*****

    Throughout the movie, you learn little about Pennywise, besides a brief history of what happened to the first colonists to settle there. This film takes place in a small town called Derry, Maine where Pennywise haunts children every 27 years. Normally movies in general are not as graphic or violent towards children but NOT “IT.” The first scene of the movie depicts the first onscreen main character, Bill, and then of course his little brother, Georgie, getting his whole arm viciously bitten off from Pennywise’s razor sharp teeth. This then causes a mini river of blood to gush everywhere and flow with the currents of the flooded street. Poor little Georgie eventually is aggressively yanked down the sewer by the demonic clown. After this scene most would conclude that the poor little Georgie has been killed but from that moment alone, I knew sitting in the theater I was in for a ride with ‘IT’ and thought in shock to myself, “Wow…Stephen King really is a sick sick man…dang no mercy for these children huh?!” After Georgie, appearing to be brutally murdered by Pennywise, goes missing without evidence and from then on the mysterious disappearances of other local Derry kids begin.

    Fast forward a year later, and Bill and his friends call themselves the “Loser’s Club,” and ever since Georgie went missing Bill tries his hardest to find any clues to figure out and help cope in what happened to his little brother. His support system, the Loser’s Club, consisted of a newcomer Ben Hanscomb, who has been tortured all year long by a group of bullies led by mullet-headed Henry Bowers. Beverly Marsh, also joins the group, she is a tough girl from the wrong side of the tracks; constantly tormented both at home and in school. Then joins, Mike Hanlon, a homeschooled kid who also runs afoul of Henry Bowers. The group comes together as friends but soon find out they have got all one terrifying thing in common…

    Over the course of this movie, each individual Loser encounters an experience with Pennywise. Pennywise displays and takes shape of their worst fears and uses this as an advantage to basically season them; because nothing is better than the taste of their flesh once they are afraid. For example, Pennywise has a disgusting Leper come after and terrorize Eddie, whose worst fear is germs. He had the Leper chase him and get all close to Eddie, attempting to corner Eddie and scare him by holding a bunch of balloons asking him to come over to him (This scene can be partially viewed in the spooky gif below). Eddie luckily gets out of there and avoid his visit with Penny Wise. Ben Hanscomb, the chubby new addition to the Loser’s club (one of my personal favorite actors in the film) is briefly traumatized in the library by Pennywise’s imitation of a headless walking zombie monster…wow, this scene was kind of funny but scared me enough to jump in my seat at the same time.

    Then there is Mike Hanlon whom is brutally being attacked by Bowers, but as he is being pinned to the ground he looks over and sees Penny Wise, with his mouth and face covered with blood holding which appeared to be Georgie’s forearm… See what I’m saying? Again, this scene was just downright disturbing! Although I find this to be one of the most unsettling scenes of the movie, Pennywise uses Mike’s fear of seeing his parent’s burn in a house fire as an advantage to weaken him whenever the opportunity is present. Another scene that I found very effective in pulling of scares was when Wise did something very cruel and heartbreaking: Bill wakes up during the night by a leak coming from the ceiling of his room, so he grabs a bucket from the closet. While grabbing it he sees a figure that looks like Georgie the day he went missing, dressed with his yellow rain jacket on and boots. This cruel trickery then leads Bill to the basement and the basement is flooded and Georgie is standing in the corner. Bill and him have a conversation but Bill notices that something is off about Georgie, and then starts to repeat over and over again in a more aggressive tone “You’ll float too…” and while Georgie is going crazy Penny Wise creeps up from the water, jumps up and runs after Bill in the most sinister way you could see something run. I do not know about you guys… but this would definitely warrant me getting checked into a mental institution.

    One MAJOR thing that I think made this movie extremely successful as it is in the horror genre is the phenomenal soundtrack. The sounds, like most horror movies when combined with the scenes without a doubt, are undeniably the scariest part of the movie. This can be criticized as both a positive and negative thing. I think this can be at times detrimental to most horror films, but I tend to think that Muschietti did an overall good job in balancing it out and not relying too heavily on just sounds to generate cheap scares. In addition, one other thing I feel that needs to be addressed is Pennywise’s character…Do not get me wrong, I think this film did an excellent job in portraying his demonic nature just like in the novel, but I feel like there is a problem that resides within King’s development of him. Pennywise’s whole concept seems very solid at first glance- but his motive as a villain is a bit lackluster in my opinion. Pennywise can shape-shift to people’s fears, teleport seemingly anywhere he pleases, ingest limbs with ease, and use telekinesis—and yet you’re telling me this monster still can’t easily kill a bunch of nerdy kids? Well I mean the character has to scare people in order to murder them so what if they just say “I’m not afraid of you…So uhh I’m just gonna tip-toe away now buddy..” Does Pennywise just become a useless circus clown and starve to death?! And also, as stated before his desire is to scare children because they are easy to frighten before feasting upon them, so why doesn’t he just target a bunch of toddlers or infants? I mean seriously, no one can deny that babies get scared for literally NO LOGICAL REASON! If I were Pennywise I would just teleport straight to the local Derry mother-baby care unit and gobble up all the babies I could make cry with ease! See how easy a villain like Pennywise created with such a complex design and goal could easily be solved? It shouldn’t be that easy…but again guys, I consider this not necessarily a problem with the movie, but instead more so an issue within the novel.

    While I do believe this movie is extremely great, ‘IT’ is not without its minor flaws such as certain content inclusion but after all, one must take into account that all 1,138 pages could not have been possibly fitted into a two hour film (exactly why there will be chapter 2 fellas). With that being said, to end this review I would like to deeply praise director Muschietti for his ability to stay true to Stephen King’s 1986 masterpiece, and manage to fit a lot of major chilling scenes/content within 2 hours; something that I believe a lot of move directors now struggle with.

    With that, I definitely recommend horror fans to go out and give ‘IT’ a chance. Also those who really like IT, please don’t go too crazy please. And by crazy, I mean start up the whole psycho clown dressing trend thing again these coming months…because that might be even more scarier than this film making me want to go to sleep with a loaded glock under my pillow :) Haha! Like I said, if you are into chilling horror films I definitely recommend this clownish EVIL movie!

P.S. And no I would not teleport to the mother-baby unit and commit such a horrendous crime!  I was just kidding that would be just terrible and sick on all levels LMAO…!

The Baugh Rating Machine:

I give this innovative horror movie a solid 9.5/10.

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The Bridges

     If you went out to the theaters this past week and saw ‘IT’ then you will know exactly what is in the first picture, and what happened here. This bridge is where a few important scenes occurred. It was chilling when I saw the scene with the red covered bridge displayed in the first picture because it looked identical to this red covered bridge, called Jericho Bridge displayed in the second picture near me that is haunted and very scary. Whilst I did not see anything necessariy paranormal, the atmosphere definitely felt very unsettling and locals tell that the rafters were a commonplace for suicides and also haunted by the soul of an Amish woman, who could be seen in passing driver’s rearview mirrors when stopping inside the bridge. Those who have seen her claim that she carries a basket of something and wanted to make passerby's aware of the horror hanging above you by looking distressed, pointing to the bodies hanging above. Others say they can hear voices and strange noises coming from the water below. My friends and I went to this bridge located in Kingsville, MD for a scary midnight adventure in the summer and the flashback the bridge in the movie gave me made the scene a bit more chilling.