#Stephen Volk

[addictivecontradiction]

Ghostwatch, 1992

[cannedbluesblog]

Gothic (1986)

[80smovies]

[everythingsecondhand]

Gothic, by Stephen Volk (Grafton Books, 1987).

From a charity shop in Nottingham.

[burningexeter]

All of these I can see being in the same crazy ass universe.

[thebutcher-5]

L'albero del male

Benvenuti o bentornati sul nostro blog. Nello scorso articolo abbiamo parlato di una pellicola basata su un famoso romanzo di formazione che ha fatto la storia e che continua a essere apprezzato ancora oggi, Il giardino segreto. La storia parla di Mary Lennox, una bambina che, rimasta orfana dei genitori in India, viene trasferita in Inghilterra dove vive il suo unico parente vivo, lo zio Craven.…

[zippocreed501]

Fay Wray as Ann Darrow

King Kong (1933)

I recommend After The Ape by Stephen Volk. You can find it on Tales To Terrify ep 26

[wine-porn]

OG Central Coast

In the grand scheme of super-black, long-aging, often un-approachable, odd red varieties: Petite Sirah, Petit Verdot, Tannat, etc., everything starts coalescing at 10. This has a year to go, but the beauty is beginning to show. Dark blood-red in the glass, hints of brick showing at the rim, a nose calm and fruity, while still mired in chalky under-pinnings and deep vegetal spice. Bright, while…

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

Ghostwatch

Since some sources have pointed to writer Stephen Volk’s GHOSTWATCH (1992, Shudder, On Demand at Prime and YouTube) as the inspiration for LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL, I felt compelled to watch it to see for myself. There are clear parallels, particularly in that they share similar dramatic arcs. But they both start from a different hook and diverge in a lot of details. That’s not to deny any influence but simply to put it into perspective. Oddly, GHOSTWATCH is classified as a mockumentary rather than a found-footage film. I suppose what keeps it from being found footage is that it’s purportedly a live telecast. It’s also formatted much more logically than most found footage films.

A BBC News show with actual BBC personalities (presenter Michael Parkinson and married reporters Sarah Greene and Mike Smith) is presenting a live Halloween broadcast about a haunted house, with Greene on the scene with the single mother and her two young daughters living there, Smith fielding phone calls from viewers with their own paranormal experiences to share and Parkinson anchoring the show from the studio alongside a paranormal investigator (Gillian Bevan) who’s been studying the case. Things start out simply, with the family sharing their stories while neighbors comment on the effect the haunting has had on their district. But then little things start happening — strange noises, a wet spot on the floor, falling pictures — until all hell breaks loose.

The program is remarkably effective (so much so some viewers believed it was real, despite disclaimers, and even complained of suffering from PTSD). Using real broadcast personalities helps greatly with verisimilitude. They don’t seem to be acting, even when Smith becomes genuinely concerned for his wife’s safety. And Bevan has captured the inflections of real people not accustomed to public speaking. Her voice keeps trailing off. There’s also a fascinating treatment of gender as Greene naturally falls into a motherly role with the two young girls, their mother (Brid Brennan) fights to protect her daughters and Parkinson attempts to exercise patriarchal authority over all concerned, particularly Bevan, whom he keeps trying to bully into giving concrete answers about her ever-evolving research. Her repeated, “I don’t know” becomes almost a mantra for the show. Volk also gets credit for cleverly constructing the script as if it were a mystery, with neighbors and callers offering pieces of the puzzle to explain what the source of the haunting might be. The result is one of the creepiest 90 minutes of TV you’re likely to see.

[byneddiedingo]

Myriam Cyr, Julian Sands, Gabriel Byrne, and Natasha Richardson in Gothic (Ken Russell, 1986)

Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, Natasha Richardon, Myriam Cyr, Timothy Spall. Screenplay: Stephen Volk. Cinematography: Mike Southon. Production design: Christopher Hobbs. Film editing: Michael Bradsell. Music: Thomas Dolby. 

[addictivecontradiction]

Ghostwatch, 1992

[anaxerneas]

The claim is that a certain territory belongs as of right to a certain historical ethnic, or cultural, or linguistic, or religious identity, regardless of what other people are living there, even if they’ve been there for centuries. And so Hungarian nationalists laid claim to the lands of the Crown of St Stephen in the nineteenth Century, and the Bharatya Janata Party feels it can and must impose a “Hindutva” identity on all the immense diversity of India today. Even more gruesome examples of the working out of this kind of claim have been visible in recent years in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

The reflex of many people in liberal societies to this kind of thing is to blame “nationalism” and not democracy. But this is to take too quick a way with it. To start with, `nationalism’ has many senses. The original idea, for instance in its Herderian form, was a liberating one, and highly consonant with democracy. We don’t have to force ourselves into an artificial homogeneity in order to live together in peace. We can recognize different “national” (Volk) identities, even give them political expression, because each in this act of recognition acknowledges that it is not universal, that it has to co-exist with others which are equally legitimate. Herderian nationalism is a universalist idea, all Völker are equally worthy of respect; it can be used (and was so used by Herder) to defend Slavic people against German encroachment, as well as to defend German culture against the hegemonic claims of French. You don’t have to accept French as a universal language in order to live in freedom with guaranteed rights. The political identity under which you live can reflect you too. This demand allows of an impeccably democratic justification.

What this pushes us towards is the idea which I believe is the key to facing the dilemma of exclusion creatively, the idea of sharing identity space. Political identities have to be worked out, negotiated, creatively compromised between peoples who have to or want to live together under the same political roof (and this coexistence is always grounded in some mixture of necessity and choice). Moreover, these solutions are never meant to last for ever, but have to be discovered/invented anew by succeeding generations.

The idea of nationalism which creates bitter trouble is that defined by Gellner: the “political principle, which holds that the political and national unit should be congruent”. According to this idea, the problem of how to share identity space can be solved by giving each nation its territory, on which it can erect its sovereign state. The utopian, even absurd nature of the proposal immediately strikes the eye. Quite apart from the thousands of groups which can claim the status of “nation”, even giving each its parcel of land would still leave each pocket handkerchief state with national minorities, so inextricably mixed are the world’s peoples. The utopian scheme could only be carried through by massive ethnic cleansing. It is clear that this idea will only “work” by making certain nations more equal than others. These are to get their states, and the rest are to live in their shadow as minorities, if they are allowed to live at all. This idea of nationalism can only be applied by negating its own universalist ethical basis.

Charles Taylor, "Democratic exclusion (and its remedies?"

Is Herdian nationalism really "ur-nationalism" or just one possible variety?

[alchemy-fic]

My book wishlist!

Egyptian Magic by E.A. Wallis Budge (1901)

Magic of the Ordinary: Recovering the Shamanic in Judaism by Gershon Winkler, David Carson (2003)

Ashkenazi Herbalism: Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews by Deatra Cohen, Adam Siegel (2021)

Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion by Joshua Trachtenberg (1939)

Ancient Jewish Magic: A History by Gideon Bohak (2008)

The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic & Mysticism: Second Edition by Geoffrey W. Dennis (2007)

The Green Mysteries: An Occult Herbarium by Daniel A Schulke, Benjamin A Vierling (2023)

Reading Sumerian Poetry (Athlone Publications in Egyptology & Ancient Near Eastern Studies) by Jeremy Black (2001)

The Literature of Ancient Sumer by Jeremy Black, Graham Cunningham (2006)

Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia by Stephen Bertman (2002)

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East by Amanda H. Podany

Auguste Racinet. The Costume History (Bibliotheca Universalis) by Françoise Tétart-Vittu

The Arthur of the Welsh: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature by Rachel Bromwich (2009)

The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English: Seventh Edition (Penguin Classics) by Geza Vermes

Thomas Aquinas: Selected Writings (Penguin Classics) by Thomas Aquinas, Ralph McInerny

The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion by Thorkild Jacobsen

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by Graham Coleman, Thupten Jinpa

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Penguin Classics) by Wallace Budge, John Romer

History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine Firsts in Recorded History by Samuel Noah Kramer (1981)

The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character (Phoenix Books) by Samuel Noah Kramer

Welsh Witchcraft: A Guide to the Spirits, Lore, and Magic of Wales by Mhara Starling

An Annotated Sumerian Dictionary by Mark E. Cohen

A Sumerian Chrestomathy by Konrad Volk

Toward the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on Mesopotamian History and Culture by Thorkild Jacobsen

Early Mesopotamia by Nicholas Postgate

Amulets and Talismans by E. A. Wallis Budge

Mundane Astrology by Michael Baigent, Campion, Nicholas, Harvey, Charles

[foxqueen-katarian]

My Life In Movies: The Guardian 1990 6.5/10

So I said a few months ago that I was going to undertake the arduous task of watching every movie released since my birth*, and this will be the first installment of my recording my thoughts about each film. So, right out the gate the first movie is Universal Pictures' Horror/Drama The Guardian, Directed by William Friedkin, Produced by Joe Wizan, and Written by Stephen Volk, Dan Greenburg, and William Friedkin. It stars Carey Lowell, Dwier Brown, and Jenny Seagrove. It grossed $16.1M and has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 25% (Audience Score of 32%). I don't have high hopes that I'm going to like this, Horror is not my genre and while the synopsis makes it sound like a solid concept I don't trust it's going to translate.

Oh boy was this movie interesting. As a reminder this movie can out in early 1990, so special effects, were limited to what could be done practically. There are a few quick cuts that are laughable by today's standards, but for the era it was made it's pretty solid. Overall I think it was an acceptable film, I would say there's not much (to me) that translates as 'horror'. There are two 'chase' scenes, and the final fifteen minutes of the movie that lean into the genre but don't fully commit to it. It was a much more enjoyable watch than I was expecting. I will say I spent the entire movie waiting for the moment where I was supposed to see the villain as the villain, and it never quite got there, which may be more indicative of my feeling about having children and how I'd actually probably be okay with it if a hot British druid showed up and took my baby away to sacrifice them to a tree, than the actually writing. True to concept: 4/5 - It stayed true to the overall concept, without any weird twists coming out of left field. Enjoyability: 4/5 - It was fun, very kitsch, it's not a movie everyone is going to enjoy but I had fun with it.

Rewatchability: 2/5 - I'm not going to go out of my way to rewatch it and unless someone else actively did want to watch it I'd probably skip it.

Cinematography: 3/5 - There's some weird cuts, and some interesting decisions made for how some scenes were filmed (there are at least two scenes from an infants POV shot with a fish bowl lens).

Overall: 6.5/10

[cultfaction]

Reposted from @dawnofthediscs ***NEW TITLE ANNOUNCEMENT*** Coming to Blu-ray 12/7 from @umbrellaentertainment Hammer Horror Vol. 1 Collector's Edition: The Evil Of Frankenstein + Paranoiac! + Nightmare (+Posters +Poster Cards) (LINK IN STORY) Extras: EXCLUSIVE TO THE UMBRELLA WEBSTORE! Featuring a hard case with custom design 2 double sided A3 posters 6 x poster cards THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN NEW! Audio Commentary by screenwriter and author Stephen Volk and actor John Voce NEW! Author and film historian Kim Newman discusses actor Peter Cushing NEW! HAMMER HOUSE OF PODCAST: THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN Stills gallery Trailer PARANOIAC! NEW! Audio Commentary by author and film historian Alan Jones NEW! Author and film historian Kim Newman discusses actor Oliver Reed NEW! HAMMER HOUSE OF PODCAST: PARANOIAC! Isolated music and effects audio track Stills gallery Trailer NIGHTMARE NEW! Audio Commentary by film historian and Dark Side magazine publisher Allan Bryce NEW! Author and film historian Kim Newman discusses director Freddie Francis NEW! HAMMER HOUSE OF PODCAST: NIGHTMARE Stills gallery Trailer https://www.instagram.com/p/CjDBCuhMe65/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=