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kinetic-elaboration · 3 years

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December 14: 1x28 The City on the Edge of Forever (Also I’m 32)

For my birthday, I watched an ep of Star Trek, because I can. It was very good and I enjoyed watching but now I’m starting to get some pretty bad evening anxiety, so!! I’m going to try to ignore that.

Here are some thoughts:

I love this wavy camera work. Space turbulence.

I recognize that this intro really doesn’t have anything to do with anything but it’s still really, like, sudden--weird time things are happening and the ship keeps shaking!

Sulu’s looking damn good today. (I say this in every ep with a closeup of Sulu.)

That was a real rookie mistake on McCoy’s part there, stabbing himself with the hypo. (Harlan Ellison voice lol.) (Still better than the original script.)

“They’ll never catch me!”

Sulu and Spock have been trading eye shadow secrets obviously. It’s a real shame that the AOS movies didn’t give people awesome makeup. I mean heck if you couldn’t force yourself to give men obvious makeup (the horror!) you could have at least done something cool with Token Girl Uhura.

Kirk sounds very formal today. Idk why, but his tone is just slightly different--calling Scotty “Engineer” and something about his log... Probably just me being weird or an effect of there being so many writers on this thing.

Damn, McCoy was almost as good as Spock, the way he knocked that guy out so efficiently.

I’m pretty sure this is Uhura’s first landing party. And she barely gets to do anything because this is the Kirk and Spock Show today.

“Unbelievable.” / “That’s funny.” Is it though?

Legit laughed out loud when Bones popped up from behind that rock, right after Uhura said he wasn’t there.

I don’t think Spock likes the Guardian. “Primitive science knowledge? Excuse you, Sir.”

The Guardian really is just like hand-wave-y sci fi lol. Uh it’s really old and really advanced so it can’t really explain itself, the point is, time travel!!!! I mean I don’t hate it but still.

Kirk is very quick to want to play with time. A little vacation away from his usual work. Getting to satisfy his curiosity and be his nerdy self and learn things. Can you even imagine TOS Kirk in AOS???

Love the dramatic moments: Kirk looking very suddenly when the Guardian says “Behold.” Jumping into the sand as he fails to catch McCoy.

Kirk’s biggest fantasy--a vacation that’s also exploration--turns into his greatest nightmare--loneliness.

“No star date” Can you even imagine Starfleet HQ getting this? “Whoops we just destroyed literally everything. Don’t worry, we’ve probably fixed it if you’re reading this.”

History nerd Kirk. Correctly identifying the Great Depression. If Spock thinks THIS is barbaric, what would he think about today?

“I’m going to be difficult to explain in any case.” Truly, only Kirk, and his love goggles, would choose the ONE alien in his crew to take with him on the first expedition into the past. This was completely foreseeable guys.

Spock’s like “That’s a cool car. Let me examine it now. In the middle of the street. While people yell at me.”

This ep starts out so dramatic and now all of a sudden it’s a comedy, right down to the music. (Again, a sign of how many writers had their hands in this.)

“I’m going to like this century. Simpler, easier to manage.” LOL.

“You’re a police officer. I recognize the traditional accoutrements.” Spock is having such a good time watching this.

Really relying on American racism to explain the alien, huh? “I know you don’t know what Asians look like so.... he’s Chinese.”

“I double dog dare you to put together a computer, Mr. Spock.” Effective.

Put on the hat, the hat!!!!

Starfleet’s greatest Captain couldn’t come up with a fast fake name for Spock.

Kirk looks good in this outfit. Actually the outfits in general are great.

Honestly what does Edith think of these weirdos?

Kirk hears trash talk: “Shut up. SHUT UP.” No talking badly about women in THIS house.

She should have been living in our time. I wonder if she always thought space was cool or if Kirk (and uh literal actual alien Spock) inspired her.

Spock’s eye roll at “I find her most uncommon.”

Kirk definitely did manual labor in high school.

Spock really is building a whole-ass computer.

“I’ve brought you vegetables? What else do you want??” Is this the first reference to him being a vegetarian?

And there was only one bed...

Edith’s reaction to Spock’s sass is hilarious. She’s really not confused by him at all.

When Spock’s straightforward, honest answers about why he stole the tools don’t work, Kirk steps in with the charm offensive.

“By his side, as if you’ve always been there and always will” is basically the toast at their wedding.

Favorite thing about Edith remains that she meets an actual alien and says eh, not so weird, and then looks at the Iowa Farm Boy and is like ????????? does not compute.

“Why don’t you want to talk about the war? Are you a war criminal?”

I feel like Kirk gets a weird kick out of saying he and Spock “served together.” And like it’s literally the truth? But he has this little smile like he’s getting away with a cool lie.

Only about 10 years until we get the cool alien book about love!

Spock bringing out the big guns with today’s requisite “Jim.”

Imagine meeting McCoy like this: weird-ass uniform, rambling and paranoid. Thinks he’s met a humanoid alien. Getting so upset about 20th century hospitals he starts crying and rolling on the ground. He’s so empathetic. I love him.

What a way to go, killing yourself accidentally with a future weapon you steal from a 23rd century time traveler you mistake for a drunk.

Bones is so good at not being seen. That’s straight up comedy how he just passes by behind Spock. There are really weird, random comedy elements in this.

“She was right but at the wrong time.”

Kirk’s in love with Edith... I mean he’s not lol but that IS what a romantic such as him would say.

“I’m a surgeon, not a psychiatrist,” says the man who testified as a psychiatrist at a court martial in a previous episode.

How convenient that U.S.S. is an abbreviation she’d recognize.

“I don’t believe in YOU.”

I know this isn’t actually true, but it feels like Spock literally just came out of the room to be jealous while Kirk and Edith kiss.

Spock’s lesson “do[ing] as your heart tells you to do” is wrong.

So McCoy just got over it, I guess. Kirk was all ready to manipulate time to stop the accident but all they needed to do was find him, catch him, and sedate him a while I guess.

“My young man.” So cute.

The reunion hug with McCoy is adorable. I watched it 4 times.

Yet another Kirk vacation fantasy foiled.

No final talk on the bridge... Very dramatic and sad.

This IS a really good episode but I just still can’t get behind calling it the BEST Star Trek episode. To me, it doesn’t feel enough like Star Trek to be the best. It’s a really great story, and it’s entertaining to watch, but it’s not representative. Too few of the crew--not even really that sci-fi-ish at the end of the day. Like I said, the Guardian is really generic and ill-explained, just a prop for the main story. And while that main story is obviously all about time travel and the effects of time travel, even THAT is incidental to the real point, which is the moral question: save one or save many? But it’s not even a conundrum, like in TWOK/TSFS,because there is no real choice. Obviously Kirk is going to let Edith die. To do otherwise wouldn’t just damn many more people in the 20th century to death, it would damn his crew and his ship and, in a way, himself. So it’s more like, well, inevitably, she will die, and he will let her, but it will be really sad. So the point is just this tragic, doomed love story. Which is not a bad story in any sense, but it’s not what one generally primarily associates with TOS.

I’m not sure this is making sense because I’m just working out my thoughts as I type.

I do think there’s some interesting stuff here: I think one could do a lot with what this ep does for Spock’s development, since we don’t hear too much from him but he’s pretty intimately involved in all this. And the lessons it’s teaching him about feelings and vulnerability are...not great.

Also Uhura saying “at least be happy” in the beginning ties in interestingly to the rest of the narrative--he could have chosen his happiness, in a way, at least fleetingly. Perhaps it would have been more interesting if Kirk had ever really considered letting Edith live--but then, would he be Kirk if he ever considered it, seriously, out loud? Am I being dense by thinking the narrative should have said this in so many words, when it’s obvious enough as is?

I’m also not totally sure about the... message. I’d prefer to say there isn’t one, honestly, because of the way the conundrum is set up: as a non-conundrum. Because, obviously America should have entered WWII; if ever there was a war that was worth fighting, this would be it. Hence there’s no need to really interrogate whether or not Edith’s death was right. There’s no way it was not right. There’s no complication there, allowing the story to focus on the tragedy of Kirk’s inevitable decision instead. It could have been a different story, about weighing the pros and cons. And then possibly also a story with a moral lesson attached to the decision Kirk makes: about the many versus the few, for example, or about war specifically, since obviously this is airing with Vietnam as a background.

It could also have been a story about fate. Obviously, McCoy can and does change time. But you have all 3 of them ending up at the same place/time, right near this Big Event. You have the almost-fall on the stairs, implying death is out for Edith. You have the total set of circumstances around her death: as it actually plays out, she’s only there BECAUSE of Kirk and Spock. Were they always there? Does she get killed in a slightly different circumstance in timelines without them? The way the story plays out, all of these details seem so beside the point--again, the story uses time travel but isn’t really ABOUT time travel; it uses sci fi tools but is not telling a sci fi story--so it’s not even really worth interrogating.

(Other than just now, when I did.)

I think it’s pretty obvious that a lot of people had their hands in this story: Kirk’s very IC romantic nature is first and foremost and I like seeing this part of him, but the Command part is kind of hidden; there are moments of tragedy, in the traditional sense of the word, but also other parts that feel like Tomorrow Is Yesterday in terms of the style of comedy; the sci fi stuff is really random.

None of this is really criticism, just thoughts. It’s definitely a really interesting episode.

Next is the FINAL EPISODE of S1, which is RIDICULOUS imo. I’m fairly sure Operation Annihilate was one of the first TOS episodes I saw. I have a real soft spot for it so I’m looking forward to watching.

#star trek tos #the year 2020 #2020: fandom thoughts #2020: star trek #it's my birthday today

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penurnbra · 6 years

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here’s the fuckton of articles from the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts that I obsessively gathered + organized during last night’s sleep deprived, caffeine driven, depressive episode

Vol. 1

No. 1 (1988)

ARTICLES

JOURNAL OF THE FANTASTIC IN THE ARTS (JFA): Purpose

EDITORIAL COMMENTS

Was Zilla Right?: Fantasy and Truth

Children of a Darker God: A Taxonomy of Deep Horror Fiction and Film and Their Mass Popularity

The Artifact as Icon in Science Fiction

The Birth of a Fantastic World: C. S. Lewis's "The Magician's Nephew"

Fantasy's Reconstruction of Narrative Conventions

Postmodern Narrative and the Limits of Fantasy

No. 2 (1988)

ARTICLES

CRITICS IN THE GULAG

Decadence and Anguish: Edgar Allan Poe's Influence On Réjean Ducharme

Mervyn Peake: The Relativity of Perception

Nature's Nightmare: The Inner World Of Hauptmann's "Flagman Thiel"

"Tel art plus divin que humain": The Reality of Fantasy In Ronsard's Poetic Practice

Transvestites and Transformations, Or Take It Off and Get Real: Queneau's "Zazie dans le métro"

Structural and Psychological Aspects Of the Spider Woman Symbol In "Kiss of the Spider Woman"

REVIEWS

Snobbery, Seasoned with Bile, Clute Is (Strokes: Essays and Reviews 1966-1986, John Clute, Thomas M. Disch)

No. 3 (1988)

ARTICLES

Introduction: Beagle and Ellison: A Special Issue

The Wind Took Your Answer Away

The Fractured Whole: The Fictional World Of Harlan Ellison

The Ellison Personae: Author, Storyteller, Narrator

Symbolic Settings In Science Fiction: H. G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, and Harlan Ellison

Humankind and Reality: Illusion and Self-Deception In Peter S. Beagle's Fiction

Two Forms of Metafantasy

The Alchemy of Love In "A Fine and Private Place"

Fantastic Tropes In "The Folk of the Air"

No. 4 (1988)

ARTICLES

Overture: What Was Postmodernism?

The Decentered Absolute: Significance in the Postmodern Fantastic

Putting a Red Nose on the Text: Play and Performance In the Postmodern Fantastic

Theater for the Fin-du-Millennium: Playing (at) the End

De/Reconstructing the "I": PostFANTASTICmodernist Poetry

There's No Place Like Home: Simulating Postmodern America in "The Wizard of Oz" and "Blue Velvet"

Fictional Cultures in Postmodern Art

Deconstructing Deconstruction: Chimeras of Form and Content in Samuel R. Delany

Millhauser, Süskind, and the Postmodern Promise

Coda: Criticism in the Age of Borges

Vol. 2

No. 1 (1989)

ARTICLES

Phoenix Rising: Like Dracula from the Grave

The Vampire

Rising Like Old Corpses: Stephen King and the Horrors of Time-Past

Tanith Lee's Werewolves Within: Reversals of Gothic Traditions

Loving Death: The Meaning of Male Sexual Impotence in Vampire Literature

From Pathos To Tragedy: The Two Versions of The Fly

An Appreciation: Virgil Finlay

Courteous, Humble and Helpful: Sam as Squire in Lord of the Rings

Genetic Experimentation: Mad Scientists and The Beast

Native Sons: Regionalism in the Work of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Stephen King

The Femivore: An Unnamed Archetype

No. 2 (1989)

ARTICLES

From Trickery to Discovery: Old, New, and Nonexistent Trajectories of Science Fiction Film

The JFA Forum on SF Film

The Cybernetic (City) State: Terminal Space Becomes Phenomenal

Murray Tinkleman: An Appreciation

Video, Science Fiction, and the Cinema of Surveillance

Science-Fiction and Fantasy Film Criticism: The Case of Lucas and Spielberg

But Not the Blackness of Space: "The Brother From Another Planet" as Icon from the Underground

REVIEWS

'Weirdies' Point the Way (Teenagers and Teenpics: The Juvenilization of American Movies in the 1950s, Thomas Doherty)

Nirvana for Sleaze-lovers (Revenge of the Creature Features Movie Guide, revised by John Stanley)

Vol. 4

No. 2 (1992)

ARTICLES

"Poof! Now You See Me, Now You Don't"

Interpolation and Invisibility: From Herodotus to Cervantes's Don Quixote

Rings, Belts, and a Bird's Nest: Invisibility in German Literature

"Spells of Darkness": Invisibility in The White Witch of Rosehall

"Seeing" Invisibility: Or Invisibility as Metaphor in Thomas Berger's Being Invisible

Vol. 5

No. 1 (1992)

ARTICLES

The Craving for Meaning: Explicit Allegory in the Non-Implicit Age

Recent Trends in the Contemporary American Fairy Tale

The New Age Mage: Merlin as Contemporary Occult Icon

Dualism and Mirror Imagery in Anglo-Saxon Riddles

Vol. 6

No. 1 (1993; Special Issue: Richard Adams' "Watership Down")

ARTICLES

Introduction

The Significance of Myth in "Watership Down"

Shaping Self Through Spontaneous Oral Narration in Richard Adams' "Watership Down"

Shamanistic Mythmaking: From Civilization to Wilderness in "Watership Down"

Saturnalia and Sanctuary: The Role of the Tale in "Watership Down"

"Watership Down": A Genre Study

The Efrafan Hunt for Immortality in Richard Adam's "Watership Down"

No. 4 (1995)

ARTICLES

The Artisan in Modern Fantasy

The Symbolic versus the Fantastic: The Example of an Hungarian Painter

1920's Yellow Peril Science Fiction: Political Appropriations of the Asian Racial "Alien"

Religious Satire in Rushdie's "Satanic Verses"

Magic or Make-believe? Acquiring The COnventions of Witches and Witchcraft

REVIEWS

Encyclopedia Worth Waiting For (The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, John Clute, Peter Nicholls)

Fresh Approach to Nineteenth Century Science Fiction (Science Fiction Before 1900: Imagination Discovers Technology, Paul K. Alkon)

The Play of the Critic (Staging the Impossible: The Fantastic Mode in Modern Drama, Patrick D. Murphy)

Vol. 10

No. 1 (1998)

ARTICLES

Editor's Introduction

Stasis and Chaos: Some Dynamics of Popular Genres

Lois McMaster Bujold: Feminism and "The Gernsback Continuum" In Recent Woman's SF

"Who Am I, Really?" Myths of Maturation in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Series

Asimov's Crusade Against Bigotry: The Persistence of Prejudice as a Fractal Motif in the Robot/Empire/Foundation Metaseries

When Coyote Leaves the Res: Incarnations of the Trickster from Wile E. to Le Guin

Kurt Vonnegut's Fantastic Faces

Celtic Myth and English-Language Fantasy Literature: Possible New Directions

No. 2 (1999; A Century of Draculas)

ARTICLES

Introduction

A Century of Draculas

High Duty and Savage Delight: The Ambiguous Nature of Violence in "Dracula"

Bram Stoker and the London Stage

"If I had to write with a pen": Readership and Bram Stoker's Diary Narrative

Closure and Power in "Salem's Lot"

The Image of the Vampire in the Struggle for Societal Power: Dan Simmons' "Children of the Night"

Not All Fangs Are Phallic: Female Film Vampires

Madame Dracula: The Life of Emily Gerard

Back to the Basics: Re-Examining Stoker's Sources for "Dracula"

No. 4 (2000)

ARTICLES

Muggling On

Grail, Groundhog, Godgame: Or, Doing Fantasy

Something Hungry This Way Comes: Terrestrial and Ex-Terrestrial Feline Feeding Patterns and Behavior

Technology, Technophobia and Gynophobia in Gonzalo Torrente Ballesteas "Quizá nos lleve el viento al infinito"

Ready or Not, Here We Come: Metaphors of the Martian Megatext from Wells to Robinson

Bringing Chaos to Order. Vonnegut Criticism at Century's End

Resources for the Study of American Fantasy Literature Through 1998

REVIEWS

Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction, Russell Blackford, Russell Van Ikin, Sean McMullen

Edgar Allan Poe: Comprehensive Research and Study Guide, Harold Bloom

Warlocks and Warpdrive: Contemporary Fantasy Entertainments with Interactive and Virtual Environments, Kurt Lancaster

Nursery Realms: Children in the Worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, Gary Westfahl, George Slusser

Science Fiction Writers: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day, Richard Bleiler

Vol. 11

No. 4 (2001)

ARTICLES

When the Hungarian Literary Theorist, Györgyi Lukács Met The American Science Fiction Writer, Wayne Mark Chapman

Cultural Negotiation in Science Fiction Literature and Film

Episteme-ology of Science Fiction

Orchids in A Cage: Political Myths and Social Reality in East German Science Fiction (1949-1989)

Virtual Poltergeists and Memory: The Question of Ahistorcism in William Gibson's Neuromoncer(1984)

The Search for a Quantum Ethics: Michael Frayn's "Copenhagen" and Other Recent British Science Plays

Leakings: Reappropriating Science Fiction--The Case of Kurt Vonnegut

REVIEWS

Darwin's Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot, and Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Gillian Beer

Space and Beyond: The Frontier Theme in Science Fiction, Gary Westfahl

The Rise of Supernatural Fiction: 1762-1800. Cambridge Studies in Romanticism, E.J. Clery

Thrillers. "Genres in American Cinema" series, Martin Rubin

Othermindedness: The Emergence of Network Culture, Michael Joyce

A Century of Welsh Myth in Children's Literature, Donna White

That Other World. (The Princess Grace Irish Library), Bruce Stewart

Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Exhaustive Scholar's and Collector's Descriptive Bibliography of American Periodical, Hardcover, Paperback, and Reprint Editions, Robert B. Zeuschner, Philip José Farmer; The Burroughs Cyclopaedia: Characters, Places, Fauna, Flora, Technologies, Languages, Ideas and Terminologies Found in the Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Clark A. Brady

Italian Horror Films of the 1960s: A Critical Catalog of 62 Chillers, Lawrence McCallum

Vol. 14

No. 4 (2004)

ARTICLES

On Editing a Journal

"Hiro" of the Platonic: Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash"

Suicide and the Absurd: The Influence of Jean-Paul Sartre's and Albert Camus's Existentiafism on Stephen R. Donaldson's "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever"

The Monomyth in Daniel Keyes's "Flowers for Algernon": Keyes, Campbell and Plato

Writing the Possessed Child in British Culture: James Herbert's "Shrine"

Disney World: A Plastic Monument to Death: From Rabelais to Disney

REVIEWS

Uncharted Territory: An Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to Farscape, Scott Andrews

The Artist as Monster: The Cinema of David Cronenberg, William Beard; The Modern Fantastic: The Films of David Cronenberg, Michael Grant

Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years, Bruce Sterling

Monsters, Mushroom Clouds, and the Cold War: American Science Fiction and the Roots of Postmodernism, 1946-1964, M. Keith Booker

Harlan Ellison: The Edge of Forever, Gary K. Wolfe, Ellen Weil

One Ring to Bind them All: Tolkien's Mythology, Anne C. Petty; Tolkien's Ordinary Virtues: Exploring the Spitirtual Virtues of Lord of the Rings, Mark Eddy Smith; Frodo's Quest: Living the Myth in The Lord of the Rings, Robert Ellwood

Chaos Theory, Asimov's Foundations and Robots, and Herbert's Dune: The Fractal Aesthetic of Epic Science Fiction, Donald E. Palumbo

The Classic Era of American Pulp Magazines, Peter Haining

Vol. 25

No. 1 (2014)

ARTICLES

Introduction: Reinhabiting Fantasy

Reading Tolkien in Chinese

Convention Un-done: Un Lun Dun's Unchosen Heroine and Narrative (Re)Vision

"But what does it all mean?" Religious Reality as a Political Call in the Chronicles of Narnia

Telepathy and Cosmic Horror in Olaf Stapledon's "The Flames"

"I was a Ghetto Nerd Supreme": Science Fiction, Fantasy and Latina/o Futurity in Junot Díaz's "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao"

REVIEWS

St. Lovecraft (The Classic Horror Stories, Roger Luckhurst, H. P. Lovecraft; Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy, Graham Harman; Slime Dynamics: Generation, Mutation, and the Creep of Life, Ben Woodard; New Critical Essays on H.P. Lovecraft, David Simmons; H. P. Lovecraft's Dark Arcadia: The Satire, Symbology and Contradiction, Gavin Callaghan)

The Hobbit and Philosophy: For When You've Lost Your Dwarves, Your Wizard, And Your Way, Gregory Basham, Eric Bronson

Collision of Realities. Establishing Research on the Fantastic in Europe, Lars Schmeink, Astrid Böger (X)(X)

Hermione Granger Saves the World: Essays on the Feminist Heroine of Hogwarts, Christopher E. Bell

Horror Noir: Where Cinema's Dark Sisters Meet, Paul Meehan

The Mummy's Curse: The True History of a Dark Fantasy, Roger Luckhurst

Scottish Women's Gothic and Fantastic Writing: Fiction since 1978, Monica Germaná

The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre, Jack Zipes

Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal, Jeffrey J. Kripal

Philip K. Dick and Philosophy: Do Androids Have Kindred Spirits?, D. E. Wittkower

Animal Alterity: Science Fiction and the Question of the Animal, Sherryl Vint

Anime's Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan, Marc Steinberg

The Ghost Story 1840-1920: A Cultural History, Andrew Smith

Fairy Tales Framed: Early Forewords, Afterwords, and Critical Words, Ruth B. Bottigheimer

The Time Ship: A Chrononautical Journey, Enrique Gaspar, Yolanda Molina-Gavilán, Andrea L. Bell

Future Wars: The Anticipations and the Fears, David Seed

The Horror Sensorium: Media and the Senses, Angela Ndalianis

Inception and Philosophy: Ideas to Die For, Thorsten Botz-Bornstein

Antarctica in Fiction: Imaginative Narratives of the Far South, Elizabeth Leane

Green Suns and Faërie: Essays on Tolkien, Verlyn Flieger

No. 2 & 3 (2014)

ARTICLES

Elegy

Introduction: AfterLives: What's Next for Humanity

"Only We Have Perished": Karel Čapek's R.U.R. and the Catastrophe of Humankind

"From Zoo. to Bot.": (De)Composition in Jim Crace's "Being Dead"

Terminal Films

Living as a Zombie in Media is the Only Way to Survive

Zombie Republic: Property and the Propertyless Multitude in Romero's Dead Films and Kirkman's "The Walking Dead"

Thinking Blind

The Loveliness of Decay: Rotting Flesh, Literary Matter, and Dead Media

Post-Vampire: The Politics of Drinking Humans and Animals in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight", and "True Blood"

REVIEWS

Cyberpunk Women, Feminism and Science Fiction: A Critical Study, Carlen Lavigne

Under the Shadow: The Atomic Bomb and Cold War Narratives, David Seed

Undead in the West: Vampires, Zombies, Mummies, and Ghosts on the Cinematic Frontier, Cynthia J. Miller, A. Bowdoin Van Riper

Spanish Horror Film, Antonio Lázaro-Reboll

John Brunner, Jad Smith

The Irish Fairy Tale: A Narrative Tradition from the Middle Ages to Yeats and Stephens, Vito Carrassi

Fanged Fan Fiction: Variations on Twilight, True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries, Maria Lindgren Leavenworth, Malin Isaksson

Welsh Gothic, Jane Aaron

Puppet. An Essay on Uncanny Life, Kenneth Gross

The Ashgate Research Companion to Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism and the Occult, Tatiana Kontou, Sarah Willburn

Mechademia 7: Lines of Sight, Frenchy Lunning

Approaching The Hunger Games Trilogy: A Literary and Cultural Analysis, Tom Henthorne; Of Bread, Blood, and The Hunger Games: Critical Essays on the Suzanne Collins Trilogy, Mary F. Pharr, Leisa A. Clark

Dawn of an Evil Millennium: Horror/Kultur im neuen Jahrtausend, Jörg van Bebber

Solar Flares: Science Fiction in the 1970s, Andrew M. Butler

Becoming Ray Bradbury, Jonathan R. Eller

Beyond His Dark Materials: Innocence and Experience in the Fiction of Philip Pullman, Susan Redington Bobby

Postapocalyptic Fiction and the Social Contract: "We'll Not Go Home Again.", Claire P. Curtis

English Catholics and the Supernatural, 1553-1829, Francis Young

The Late Victorian Gothic: Mental Science, the Uncanny, and Scenes of Writing, Hilary Grimes

Bewitched Again: Supernaturally Powerful Women on Television, 1996-2011, Julie D. O'Reilly

A Hobbit Journey: Discovering the Enchantment of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth, Matthew Dickerson

Fear and Learning: Essays on the Pedagogy of Horror, Aalya Ahmad, Sean Moreland

Maps of Utopia: H. G. Wells, Modernity, and the End of Culture, Simon J. James

Dancing the Tao: Le Guin and Moral Development, Sandra J. Lindow

The Subversive Harry Potter: Adolescent Rebellion and Containment in the J.K. Rowling Novels, Vandana Saxena

As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality, Michael Saler

Enchanting: Beyond Disenchantment, Stephen David Ross

Ces français qui ont écrit demain. Utopie, anticipation et science-fiction au XXe siècle [Those Frenchmen Who Wrote Tomorrow: Utopia, Anticipation and Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century], Natacha Vas-Deyres

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, James Rose; The Descent, James Marriott

Teaching with Harry Potter, Valerie Estelle Frankel

William Gibson, Gary Westfahl

The Wizard of Oz as American Myth: A Critical Study of Six Versions of the Story, 1900-2007, Alissa Burger

Saw, Benjamin Poole

Scotland as Science Fiction, Caroline McCracken-Flesher

Gothic Music: The Sounds of the Uncanny, Isabella van Elferen

New Directions in the European Fantastic, Sabine Coelsch-Foisner, Sarah Herbe

Fantasy, Art and Life: Essays on George MacDonald, Robert Louis Stevenson and Other Fantasy Writers, William Gray

Extraterrestrials and the American Zeitgeist: Alien Contact Tales Since the 1950s, Aaron John Gulyas

To See the Saw Movies: Essays on Torture Porn and Post-9/11 Horror, James Aston, John Walliss

Science Fiction, Mark Bould

#ref #because sleep is for the weak i guess #how many of these can i share before i officially become a criminal in the eyes of jstor?

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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HBO Max New Releases: September 2021

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The summer movie season may be winding down, but HBO Max is keeping the movie ball rolling in September 2021. HBO Max’s list of new releases this month is heavy on the film side of things – both in library and original offerings.

Two Warner Bros. films of note arrive this month. The James Wan-directed horror tale Malignant premieres on Sept. 10 and is followed by Clint Eastwood’s Cry Macho on Sept. 17. The next installment in Adventure Time: Distant Lands (which is kind of like a film series!) is titled Wizard City and opens the month on Sept. 2

Of course, it wouldn’t be a new month of HBO Max releases without some interesting evergreen Warner movie titles. Sept. 1 finds all eight Harry Potter movies returning to WarnerMedia’s streaming service. They will be accompanied by The Goonies, The Evil Dead, Cloverfield, and more. Later on in the month, Mortal Kombat (Sept. 9), Mad Max: Fury Road (Sept. 9), and Promising Young Woman (Sept. 25) all come back to the streaming world.

On the TV side of things, HBO Max is bringing back DC’s strangest heroes for season 3 of Doom Patrol on Sept. 23. And for those who need their true crime fix, The Way Down should fit the bill. This docuseries about a weight loss cult is timely for reasons you’ll definitely want to Google.

HBO Max New Releases – September 2021

September 1 A Hijacking, 2013 (HBO) The Animal, 2001 (HBO) Army Of Darkness, 1993 (HBO) The Benchwarmers, 2006 (HBO) Bodas de Oro (aka The Anniversary), 2019 (HBO) The Cell 2, 2009 (HBO) Cloverfield, 2008 (HBO) Dead Again, 1991 (HBO) Deck the Halls, 2006 (HBO) Detour, 2017 (HBO) Drinking Buddies, 2013 (HBO) Epic Movie, 2007 (Extended Version) (HBO) Event Horizon, 1997 (HBO) The Evil Dead, 1983 (HBO) Evil Dead 2, 1987 (HBO) Flawless, 2008 (HBO) The Forgotten, 2004 (HBO) Fun Size, 2012 (HBO) The Gallows, 2015 (HBO) The Good German, 2006 (HBO) The Good Heart, 2010 (HBO) The Goonies, 1985 Green Lantern 2011 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 2002 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, 2010 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, 2011 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2005 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2009 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 2007 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2004 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 2001 Impostor, 2002 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) Inheritance, 2020 (HBO) In the Heart of the Sea, 2015 (HBO) Kany Garcia: Soy Yo En Vivo, 2019 (HBO) King Kong, 2005 (Extended Version) HBO) Lady in the Water, 2006 (HBO) Meet Me in St. Louis, 1944 Mr. Nobody, 2013 (Extended Version) (HBO) My Golden Days, 2016 (HBO) Nanny McPhee, 2006 (HBO) Oblivion, 2013 (HBO) On the Town, 1949 Ouija: Origin of Evil, 2016 (HBO) Paulie, 1998 (HBO) The Poet Of Havana, 2015 (HBO) Prime, 2005 (HBO) Prince Avalanche, 2013 (HBO) Reik En Vivo Desde El Auditorio Nacional, 2015 (HBO) Rent, 2005 (HBO) Romeo Santos The King Stays King: Live At Madison Square Garden, 2012 (HBO) Santana – Corazon: Live From Mexico, Live It To Believe It, 2014 (HBO) Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, 2012 (HBO) Severance, 2007 (HBO) Showdown In Little Tokyo, 1991 (HBO) The Song Remains the Same, 1976 Taken 2, 2012 (Extended Version) (HBO) Thalia Viva Tour En Vivo, 2014 (HBO) That’s Entertainment!, 1974 That’s Entertainment! II, 1976 That’s Entertainment! III, 1994 Transformers, 2007 (HBO) Undisputed, 2002 (HBO) Vanilla Sky, 2001 (HBO) View from the Top, 2003 (HBO) What They Had, 2018 (HBO) What Women Want, 2000 (HBO) Yandel: Legacy – De Lider A Leyenda Tour, 2015 (HBO)

September 2 Adventure Time: Distant Lands – Wizard City, Max Original Special Premiere Sweet Life: Los Angeles, Max Original Season Finale

September 3 Amaraica, 2020 (HBO) At Last, 2020 Bittu, 2020 Coffee Shop Names, 2020 Liberty Kid, 2007

September 4 News of the World, 2020 (HBO)

September 7 Hard Knocks ’21: The Dallas Cowboys, Season Finale (HBO)

September 8 Nasciturus, 2021

September 9 Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015 Sweet Life: Los Angeles, Max Original Reunion Special Mortal Kombat, 2021 (HBO)

September 10 Elliott from Earth, Season 1 Malignant, Warner Bros. Film Premiere, 2021 (Available in 4K UHD, HDR10, Dolby Vision)

September 11 Ben 10, Season 4C NYC Epicenters 9/11→2021½, Documentary Series Finale (HBO) Walker, Season 1

September 12 Scenes from a Marriage, Limited Series Premiere (HBO)

September 13 Care Bears: Unlock the Magic I’m Sorry Little Ellen, Max Original Series Premiere

September 15 A La Calle, 2020 The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, 1966

September 16 Tig n’ Seek, Max Original Season 3 Premiere

September 17 Apple & Onion, Season 2B Cry Macho, Warner Bros. Film Premiere (Available in 4K UHD, HDR10, Dolby Vision) El Cuartito, 2021 (HBO) Superman & Lois, Season 1

September 18 The People v. The Klan

September 20 Hard, Season 3 Finale (HBO) Total Dramarama

September 21 Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO)

September 23 Ahir Shah: Dots, Max Original Special Premiere Doom Patrol, Max Original Season 3 Premiere The Other Two, Max Original Season 2 Finale

September 25 Promising Young Woman, 2020 (HBO)

September 26 Nuclear Family, Documentary Series Premiere (HBO)

September 27 Huesped Americano (aka The American Guest), Series Premiere (HBO) Little Sky, 2021 Asian Pacific American Visionaries Short (HBO) Neh, 2021 Asian Pacific American Visionaries Short (HBO) Unmothered, 2021 Asian Pacific American Visionaries Short (HBO)

September 29 Entre Hombres (aka Amongst Men), Series Premiere (HBO)

September 30 The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo, Max Original Season 2 Premiere Ten-Year-Old Tom, Max Original Series Premiere Those Who Wish Me Dead, 2021 (HBO) (Available in 4K UHD, HDR10, Dolby Vision) The Way Down, Max Original Series Premiere Yabba-Dabba Dinosaurs, Max Original Series Premiere

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Leaving HBO Max – September 2021

September 5 Lost Resort, 2020 The Suicide Squad, 2021

September 12 CHIPS, 2017 (HBO)

September 19 Ford V. Ferrari, 2019 (HBO) Norm Of The North: King Sized Adventure, 2019 Reminiscence, 2021

September 20 Doctor Sleep, 2020 (Director’s Cut) (HBO)

September 24 King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword, 2017 (HBO)

September 30 Abandon, 2002 (HBO) Abuela’s Luck, 2019 (HBO) Addicted to Love, 1997 American History X, 1998 The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, 1974 (HBO) Being Julia, 2004 The Butcher’s Wife, 1991 (HBO) Cabaret , 1972 Camelot, 1967 City of Angels, 1998 The Craft, 1996 Dark Shadows, 2012 (HBO) Deerskin, 2020 (HBO) Demolition Man, 1993 The Devil’s Advocate, 1997 Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, 2002 Drumline, 2002 (Extended Version) (HBO) Dumb & Dumber, 1994 The Electric Horseman, 1979 (HBO) Endings, Beginnings, 2019 (HBO) Escape from New York, 1981 Eye for an Eye, 1996 (HBO) Fierce People, 2007 (HBO) Final Analysis, 1992 (HBO) The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, 2000 (HBO) The Flintstones, 1994 (HBO) Fracture, 2007 From Dusk Till Dawn, 1996 Full Beat, 2018 (HBO) Ghosts of Mississippi, 1996 Gold Diggers of 1933, 1933 Gold Diggers of 1935, 1955 The Graduate, 1967 Hachi: A Dog’s Tale, 2009 Happy-Go-Lucky, 2008 (HBO) Hardball, 2001 (HBO) Haywire, 2012 (HBO) Honeymoon in Vegas, 1992 House Arrest, 2012 (HBO) House on Haunted Hill, 1999 In & Out, 1997 (HBO) Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, 1993 (HBO) Jason X, 2002 Jerry Maguire, 1996 JFK, 1991 Joe Versus the Volcano, 1990 Kicking & Screaming, 2005 (HBO) Klute, 1971 Labyrinth, 1986 Las Herederas (aka The Heiresses), 2019 (HBO) Last Action Hero, 1993 Leatherface Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, 1990 (HBO) The Longest Yard, 1974 (HBO) The Man With The Iron Fists, 2012 (Unrated Version) (HBO) Marie Antoinette, 2006 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, 1997 Midway, 2019 (HBO) Million Dollar Mermaid , 1952 Miss Firecracker, 1989 (HBO) Miss Sharon Jones!, 2015 Murder at 1600, 1997 Murder by Numbers, 2002 Must Love Dogs, 2005 My Bloody Valentine 3-D, 2009 (HBO) My Super Ex-Girlfriend, 2006 (HBO) Nights in Rodanthe, 2008 No Reservations, 2007 Not Another Teen Movie, 2001 Observe and Report, 2009 Ola de Crimenes (aka Crime Wave), 2018 (HBO) Once Upon a Time in Mexico, 2003 One Day, 2001 (HBO) Outbreak, 1995 Pleasantville, 1998 Point Break, 1991 (HBO) The Polar Express, 2004 Practical Magic, 1998 Primal Fear, 1996 (HBO) The Prince of Tides, 1991 Raw Deal, 1986 (HBO) The Return, 2006 (HBO) The Right Stuff, 1983 Rumor Has It…, 2005 Scary Movie, 2000 Scary Movie 2, 2001 Scary Movie 3, 2003 Scream, 1996 Scream 2, 1997 Scream 3, 2000 The Search for Santa Paws, 2010 (HBO) Short Circuit, 1986 Single White Female, 1992 Slackers, 2002 Snakes on a Plane, 2006 Soldier, 1998 The Sweetest Thing, 2002 Tango & Cash, 1989 Ted, 2012 (Unrated Version) (HBO) Tequila Sunrise, 1998 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, 2006 (Extended Version) (HBO) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 2003 The Time Machine, 1960 Tin Cup, 1996 Torch Song Trilogy, 1988 Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection, 2012 The Upside of Anger, 2005 Victor/Victoria, 1982 The Warriors, 1979 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) The Watch, 2012 (HBO) Willard, 1971 (HBO) Wings, 2012

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The Best Movies on Amazon Prime Video in India

Amazon Prime Video's movie acquisitions might not have the same international depth as Netflix, but it's undoubtedly stronger and richer in its local variety, with its titles spanning the Tamil, Telugu, and the Malayalam world of filmmaking in addition to Bollywood. And that's matched with a powerful collection of American imports, to deliver a collection that can more than stand its ground against the world's biggest streaming service. It lacks with its original efforts — a few are present below, for what it's worth — but it's also a lot more affordable at Rs. 999 per year, versus Netflix's Rs. 650 a month. To pick the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, we relied on Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, and IMDb ratings to create a shortlist. The last of them was preferred for Indian films given the shortfalls of reviews aggregators in that department. Additionally, we used our own editorial judgement to add or remove a few. This list will be updated once every few months if there are any worthy additions or if some movies are removed from the service, so bookmark this page and keep checking in. Here are the best films currently available on Amazon Prime Video in India, sorted alphabetically. 12 Years a Slave (2013) Duped into slavery on the account of a job, Steve McQueen's adaptation of a free New York black man's (Chiwetel Ejiofor) 19th-century memoir is an incredible true story, and an important watch. 3 Idiots (2009) In this satire of the Indian education system's social pressures, two friends recount their college days and how their third long-lost musketeer (Aamir Khan) inspired them to think creatively and independently in a heavily-conformist world. Co-written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, who stands accused in the #MeToo movement. Agantuk (1991) In Satyajit Ray's last film, a mysterious and world-weary explorer returns to India after 35 years to see his only surviving relative, his niece, but has trouble convincing the family who he claims to be. Aladdin (1992) Disney puts its animation flavour onto the famous folk tale of a street urchin who disguises himself as a wealthy prince after finding a genie in a magic lamp, in an attempt to impress the Sultan's daughter. Amal (2007) After a poor Delhi auto-rickshaw driver (Rupinder Nagra) is named as the sole inheritor by a local billionaire (Naseeruddin Shah) just before his death, he must decide whether to keep it. American Beauty (1999) A depressed advertising executive (Kevin Spacey) in the midst of a midlife crisis falls for his teenage daughter's best friend, in Sam Mendes' satire of American middle-class that ultimately won five Oscars including Best Picture. Anand (1971) Rajesh Khanna stars as the eponymous happy-go-lucky man, who doesn't let his diagnosis of a rare form of cancer get in the way of enjoying what's in front of him. Told from the viewpoint of his doctor friend (Amitabh Bachchan). Hrishikesh Mukherjee directs. Anbe Sivam (2003) Kamal Haasan and R. Madhavan star in this Tamil cult film, in which the two are stranded over a thousand kilometres from home after heavy rain cancels all flights and strike up an unlikely friendship on their way back. Haasan also wrote the script. Andaz Apna Apna (1994) Two slackers (Aamir Khan and Salman Khan) who belong to middle-class families vie for the affections of an heiress, and inadvertently become her protectors from a local gangster in Rajkumar Santoshi's cult comedy favourite.

Ankhon Dekhi (2014) After an eye-opening experience involving his daughter's marriage, a man in his late 50s (Sanjay Mishra) resolves that he won't believe anything he can't see, which naturally leads to some dramatic complications. Aruvi (2016) A social satire from a debutante writer-director, which follows an eponymous young woman (Aditi Balan), who going through a bout of existential crisis, decides to shine a light on the consumerist and misogynistic behaviours in her society. Back to the Future (1985) Not many films come close to the worldwide appeal and legacy left by this sci-fi entry featuring the iconic DeLorean that Michael J. Fox's character uses to (accidentally) time travel to when his parents were his age. Strange then that it didn't get the green light for years. Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) The heavily controversial Salman Khan stars as a devout Hindu Brahmin and an ardent devotee of Hanuman, who embarks on a journey to reunite a mute six-year-old Muslim girl, lost in India, with her parents in Pakistan. Kareena Kapoor co-stars. Salman is a convicted poacher, out on bail, and accused of culpable homicide, pending appeal. A Beautiful Mind (2001) The life of John Nash, a brilliant but asocial mathematician, from his spiral into paranoid schizophrenia and working on a secret project he made up, to regaining control over his life and becoming a Nobel Laureate. The Big Sick (2017) Kumail Nanjiani stars as himself in this rom-com loosely based on his romance with his wife, in which an aspiring comedian connects with his girlfriend's parents after she falls into a mysterious coma. Blood Diamond (2006) Set during the Sierra Leone Civil War at the turn of the century, an arms smuggler (Leonardo DiCaprio) promises to help a fisherman (Djimon Hounsou) find his family in exchange for a priceless diamond the latter found in a river. Bombay (1995) Set during the 1992–93 Bombay riots, writer-director Mani Ratnam offers a look at the communal tensions that cause a strain on the relationship between a Muslim woman (Manisha Koirala) and a Hindu man (Arvind Swamy). The Bourne trilogy (2002–07) Technically not a trilogy, but the first three chapters — Identity, Supremacy, and Ultimatum — starring Matt Damon in the lead as the titular CIA assassin suffering from amnesia were so good that they changed the longest-running spy franchise of all-time: James Bond. Brazil (1985) Terry Gilliam blends social satire with his signature visual inventiveness in this dystopian sci-fi set in a retro-future world, which follows a lowly clerk who becomes an enemy of the state after trying to correct an administrative error.

Captain Fantastic (2016) After his bipolar wife suddenly dies, a single father (Viggo Mortensen), who brought up his six children living off the grid and isolated from society, must introduce them to the real world for the first time. Carol (2015) Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara star in this intimate, thoughtful and gorgeous drama about two lesbians living in polar-opposite worlds in 1950s New York, as they navigate societal customs and their own wants. Based on Patricia Highsmith's novel, The Price of Salt. Cast Away (2000) After his plane crash-lands in the Pacific, a FedEx employee (Tom Hanks) wakes up on a deserted island and must use everything at his disposal and transform himself physically to survive living alone. Catch Me If You Can (2002) Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks star in Steven Spielberg's biopic of Frank Abagnale (DiCaprio), who forged millions of dollars' worth of cheques as a teenager, while being pursued by an FBI agent (Hanks). Chak De! India (2007) Ostracised and vilified by the press and public, a former Muslim men's hockey captain (Shah Rukh Khan) plans to redeem himself by coaching the unpolished Indian women's hockey team to glory. Charade (1963) After her husband is murdered while trying to leave Paris, a young woman (Audrey Hepburn) is pursued by three men, who want a fortune he had stolen, and seeks the help of a stranger (Cary Grant). Known as “the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made”. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) Frequent collaborators Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are behind this ‘remake' of the 1971 original based on Roald Dahl's 1964 book, in which the title character — a young boy (Freddie Highmore) — wins a tour of an imaginative chocolatier's chocolate factory with four other kids. Chhoti Si Baat (1976) This remake of the 1960 British film School for Scoundrels transports the story to then-Bombay, where a meek young man (Amol Palekar) turns to life-coach Colonel (Ashok Kumar) to battle a suave, bold man for the affections of a woman. Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, and Hema Malini cameo as themselves. Basu Chatterjee directs. Chupke Chupke (1975) Hrishikesh Mukherjee's remake of the Bengali film Chhadmabeshi, in which a newly-wedded husband (Dharmendra) decides to play pranks on his wife's (Sharmila Tagore) supposedly smart brother-in-law, released in the same year as Sholay. Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan also star. Collateral (2004) Tom Cruise plays a hitman who takes a taxi driver, played by Jamie Foxx, hostage in Michael Mann's neo-noir crime thriller, in which the latter must figure out how to stop the former. The Conjuring (2013) A pair of paranormal investigators (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) are hired by a family who have been experiencing increasingly disturbing events at their farmhouse, in this effective horror from James Wan.

Crazy Rich Asians (2018) Based on the novel of the same name, a Chinese-American professor travels halfway around the world to Singapore to meet her boyfriend's extremely-rich family, where she must contend with weird relatives, jealous socialites, and the boyfriend's disapproving mother (Michelle Yeoh). A Death in the Gunj (2016) In Konkona Sen Sharma's feature-length directorial debut, a shy and sensitive Indian student (Vikrant Massey) pays a heavy price for his gentleness, while on a road trip with his conceited relatives and family friends. Ranvir Shorey, Kalki Koechlin star alongside. The Death of Stalin (2017) Veep creator Armando Iannucci approaches this momentous occasion in the history of Russia through the lens of black comedy and political satire, depicting the power struggles that ensued following the titular dictator's death in 1953. Jeffrey Tambor, who stars, stands accused in the #MeToo movement. Dil Chahta Hai (2001) Farhan Akhtar's directorial debut about three inseparable childhood friends whose wildly different approach to relationships creates a strain on their friendship remains a cult favourite. Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, and Preity Zinta star. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol's characters fall in love during a trip to Europe with their friends in this now iconic film — which is still playing over two decades later in a single-screen Mumbai theatre — but face hurdles as the woman's conservative father has promised her hand in marriage to someone else. Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015) After a court order mandates a video cassette store owner and an RSS volunteer (Ayushmann Khurrana) and a plus-sized teacher-in-training (Bhumi Pednekar) to salvage their failing marriage, the two begin to put themselves in each other's shoes, before deciding to take part in a piggyback race. Won a National Award. Ee. Ma. Yau (2018) A son struggles to organise the grand burial he promised his dad in this Malayalam-language black comedy that's largely shot in natural light. Lijo Jose Pellissery directs. The Exorcist (1973) One of the greatest horror films of all time, that has left a lasting influence on the genre and beyond, is about the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl and her mother's attempts to save her with the help of two priests who perform exorcisms. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Roald Dahl's children's novel about a fox who steals food from three mean and wealthy farmers gets the stop-motion treatment from Wes Anderson, featuring the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and Michael Gambon. Fight Club (1999) Brad Pitt and Edward Norton star in this cult hit from David Fincher, about a white-collared insomniac disappointed with his capitalistic lifestyle, who forms an underground fight club with a devil-may-care soapmaker, which evolves into something much more.

Forrest Gump (1994) A slow-witted but kind-hearted man (Tom Hanks) takes part in a series of defining events of the second half of the 20th century in the US, while pining for his childhood love. Forushande (2016) Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi uses Arthur Miller's play “Death of a Salesman” as his story within a story, to depict thematic parallels with the deteriorating relationship of an Iranian couple after an assault on the wife. The husband wants to find out who the attacker is against her wishes, while she deals with post-trauma stress. Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) Inspired by the 2008 Tamil-language film Subramaniapuram, Anurag Kashyap concocts a gangster epic that blends politics, vengeance, and romance as it looks at the power struggles between three crime families in and around the Jharkhand city of Dhanbad, the epicentre of the coal mafia. Ghare Baire (1984) Based on Rabindranath Tagore's novel of the same name, and set in the chaotic aftermath of the partition of Bengal, writer-director Satyajit Ray tells the story of a woman married to a forward-thinking man whose lives are upended by the appearance of the husband's radical friend. Ghostbusters (1984) A bunch of eccentric paranormal enthusiasts start a ghost-catching business in New York, and then stumble upon a plot to wreak havoc by summoning ghosts. Gave birth to one of the most iconic song lyrics in history. Gladiator (2000) Winner of five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe, this Ridley Scott-directed film tells a moving story of a Roman general (Crowe) who loses everything — his family and rank —to end up as a slave and then seeks vengeance on the perpetrator (Joaquin Phoenix). The Godfather (1972) In what is considered one of the greatest films of all-time, an aging leader (Marlon Brando) of a New York mafia transfers control of his empire to his youngest son (Al Pacino), who goes from a reluctant outsider to a ruthless boss. The Godfather Part II (1974) Francis Ford Coppola's follow-up to his original, centering on Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) at the top of the pecking order while offering a look back at his father's (Robert De Niro) past, is considered by some to be better than its predecessor. Gol Maal (1979) A chartered accountant (Amol Palekar), with a knack for singing and acting, falls deep down the rabbit hole after lying to his boss that he has a twin, in this Hrishikesh Mukherjee comedy. Gone Girl (2014) Based on Gillian Flynn's best-selling novel and directed by David Fincher, a confounded husband (Ben Affleck) becomes the primary suspect in the sudden mystery disappearance of his wife (Rosamund Pike).

Gravity (2013) Two US astronauts, a first-timer (Sandra Bullock) and another on his final mission (George Clooney), are stranded in space after their shuttle is destroyed, and then must battle debris and challenging conditions to return home. Gully Boy (2019) An aspiring, young street rapper (Ranveer Singh) from the slums of Mumbai sets out to realise his dream, while dealing with the complications that arise out of his personal life and the socioeconomic strata to which he belongs. Zoya Akhtar directs, and Alia Bhatt stars alongside. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) Alfonso Cuarón stepped behind the camera for what many consider to be the best Harry Potter film, as the boy who lived enters his third year at Hogwarts, and is told that Sirus Black, an escapee from the wizarding world prison Azkaban, is after his life. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) Working off the tone set by Alfonso Cuarón, the fourth entry in the series finds the titular chosen one pulled into an inter-school magical tournament, while battling the disturbing visions and the aching pain that stem from his forehead scar. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) In this final thrilling chapter, the famous trio — Harry, Ron, and Hermione — face a race against time to find and destroy Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes, while the students and teachers of Hogwarts unite to defend the school. Heat (1995) Al Pacino and Robert De Niro star on opposite sides of the law — the former a detective, the latter a thief — in Michael Mann's stylistic crime drama, with a group of bank robbers planning a heist unaware the police are onto them. Hera Pheri (2000) Unemployed and struggling with money, a landlord and his two tenants (Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar, and Sunil Shetty) chance on a ransom phone call and plan to collect the ransom for themselves in this remake of the 1989 Malayalam film Ramji Rao Speaking. How to Train Your Dragon (2010) Brought up in a world where Vikings have a tradition of being dragon slayers, a young teenager becomes an unlikely friend with a young dragon and learns there may be more to the creatures than everyone thinks. The Hurt Locker (2008) Best picture winner at the Oscars, a new leader (Jeremy Renner) of a bomb disposal squad surprises his subordinates with his views and reckless approach to the job in the Iraqi capital. Kathryn Bigelow became first woman to win best director. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Directed by Steven Spielberg off a story by George Lucas, an eponymous archaeologist (Harrison Ford) travels the world and battles a group of Nazis while looking for a mysterious artefact, in what is now often considered as one of the greatest films of all-time.

Into The Wild (2007) Based on Jon Krakauer's nonfiction book, Sean Penn goes behind the camera to direct the story of a top student and athlete who gives up all possessions and savings to charity, and hitchhikes across America to live in the Alaskan wilderness. Iruvar (1997) Aishwarya Rai made her acting debut with a dual supporting role in Mani Ratnam's biographical film, which is inspired by the real-life rivalry of 1980s Tamil Nadu political icons M.G. Ramachandran (Mohanlal) and M. Karunanidhi (Prakash Raj). Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983) In this satire of politics, bureaucracy, and the media, two photographers (Naseeruddin Shah and Ravi Baswani) inadvertently capture a murder while trying to expose the rich. A Mahabharata dramatisation in the third act is a renowned highlight. JFK (1991) When a New Orleans district attorney (Kevin Costner) tries to unearth the mystery and possibly conspiracy behind the assassination of former US President John Kennedy, he's faced with considerable pressure from the government. Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman co-star. Oliver Stone directs. Jurassic Park (1993) It might be over 25 years old at this point but watching the very first Jurassic film from Steven Spielberg — based on Michael Crichton's novel, which he co-adapted — is a great way to remind yourself why the new series, Jurassic World, has no idea why it's doing. Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) Guru Dutt directed and starred in what is regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, about a famous director (Dutt) who casts an unknown woman (Waheeda Rehman) in his next film, and the opposing trajectories of their careers thereon. Kannathil Muthamittal (2002) Upon learning that she is adopted, a young girl embarks on a journey across civil war-ravaged Sri Lanka to find her biological mother who is part of the revolutionaries. Mani Ratnam directs. The King of Comedy (1982) In Martin Scorsese's overlooked satire of celebrity worship and media culture, an aspiring comic (Robert De Niro) stalks his late-night talk show idol to earn a big break, and then kidnaps him when things don't work out. Kumbalangi Nights (2019) Four brothers who share a love-hate relationship stand behind one of their own in matters of the heart in this Malayalam-language family drama that explores masculinity with nuance and in detail. Directorial debut of Madhu C. Narayanan. Kung Fu Panda (2008) After an obese kung fu enthusiast panda is supposedly mistakenly chosen as the Dragon Warrior to fight an impending threat, he is unwillingly taught by an elderly master and his students who have been training for years.

L.A. Confidential (1997) As corruption brews in post-war Los Angeles, three police officers — one sordid (Kevin Spacey), one brutal (Russell Crowe) and one moralistic (Guy Pearce) — investigate a series of murders in their own way, and form an uneasy alliance. Spacey stands accused in the #MeToo movement. Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) In this sequel to the 2003 original (also on the list), the Mumbai underworld don (Sanjay Dutt) starts to live by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi to impress a radio jockey (Vidya Balan) he's smitten with. Some felt it dumbed down Gandhism. Co-written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, who stands accused in the #MeToo movement. The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002) Ajay Devgn plays the titular socialist revolutionary and freedom fighter in writer-director Rajkumar Santoshi's biopic, which follows Singh — and later his associates, Shivaram Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar, and Chandra Shekhar Azad — from the Jallianwala Bagh massacre to the bombing of Parliament House. Some did not like its treatment of Gandhi. The Lego Movie (2014) An ordinary, rules-following Lego minifigure (Chris Pratt) is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world from an evil tyrant, for which he is hilariously underprepared. It spawned the hit single, "Everything Is Awesome". Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016) Denied for a release for six months, this black comedy centres on four women in small town India who set out on a journey to discover freedom and happiness in a conservative society. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003) Peter Jackson brought J.R.R. Tolkien's expansive Middle-Earth to life in these three three-hour epics, which charts the journey of a meek hobbit (Elijah Wood) and his various companions, as they try to stop the Dark Lord Sauron by destroying the source of his power, the One Ring. Maanagaram (2017) Crises befall a few youngsters — a cab driver, a BPO interviewee, and a hot-headed lover — whose lives are interlinked after they arrive in a big city in this Tamil-language thriller. Feature-length debut for writer-director Lokesh Kanagaraj. Manichitrathazhu (1993) In this Malayalam-language psychological thriller classic, a young wife (Shobana) is possessed by the spirit of a vengeful dancer after she opens a locked room in their new haunted mansion. To help get rid of it, the husband's psychiatrist friend (Mohanlal) suggests an unusual cure. Mean Girls (2004) Tina Fey's cult hit teen comedy follows a home-schooled 16-year-old (Lindsay Lohan) who's an instant hit with A-list girl clique at her new school, until she makes the mistake of falling for the ex-boyfriend of the clique's alpha.

Men in Black (1997) Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones star as two agents of an eponymous secret organisation, whose job is to monitor extraterrestrial life on Earth and hide their presence from humans, using neuralysers to erase memories if need be. Mera Naam Joker (1970) By far the longest film on this list with a four-hour runtime, this semi-autobiographical take on director, producer, and lead star Raj Kapoor's own life is about a circus clown (Kapoor) who must make his audience laugh no matter how unhappy he is within. Told in three chapters, it features three women — Simi Garewal, Kseniya Ryabinkina, and Padmini — who shaped his world. Negatively received upon release, it later underwent a critical revaluation. Minority Report (2002) Steven Spielberg loosely adapts Philip K. Dick's short story of a future where a special police unit can catch criminals before a crime is committed thanks to a technology, and what happens when an officer from that unit (Tom Cruise) is himself accused of a murder. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) After the agency he works for is wrongly implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and a new team are forced to go rogue and clear their employer's name in this fourth entry of the franchise. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) With the organisation he works for disbanded and his country after him, Hunt (Cruise) races against time to prove the existence of the schemers pulling the strings in this fifth chapter. Introduced Rebecca Ferguson to the franchise. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) In what is arguably the best entry in the franchise yet — sixth, if you're counting — intelligence agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) & Co. set off on a globe-trotting adventure from Europe to Kashmir, to retrieve three plutonium cores from the hands of terrorists. Henry Cavill joins the fun. Moneyball (2011) Based on the true story of Oakland Athletics and manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), it follows the latter's attempts to build a competitive team by relying solely on statistical analysis, with help from a Yale graduate (Jonah Hill). Munich (2005) After a Palestinian terrorist group kills 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, the latter's government launches a secret retaliation, tasking five men to hunt and kill those responsible for the massacre. Steven Spielberg directs, based on a true story. Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003) After his parents find out he has been pretending to be a doctor, a good-natured Mumbai underworld don (Sanjay Dutt) tries to redeem himself by enrolling in a medical college, where his compassion brushes up against the authoritarian dean (Boman Irani). Co-written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, who stands accused in the #MeToo movement. Mustang (2015) Set in a remote Turkish village, this debut feature by a Turkish-French director depicts the lives of five young orphaned sisters and the challenges they face growing up in a conservative society.

Nayakan (1987) Inspired by The Godfather — though good luck getting writer-director Mani Ratnam to admit it — and the life of Bombay (now Mumbai) crime boss Varadarajan Mudaliar, it depicts and the life and death of Velu (Kamal Haasan) who becomes a gangster and builds an empire. Newton (2017) Winner of the National Award for best Hindi film, in which Rajkummar Rao stars as a government clerk who tries to run a free and fair election in the Naxal-controlled conflict-ridden jungles of India. Once Upon A Time in America (1984) Spanning four decades, Sergio Leone's final sprawling film about a kid in a Jewish slum (Robert De Niro) who rises to prominence in New York's world of organised crime remains one of the greatest gangster films of all-time. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019) Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie lead the ensemble cast of Quentin Tarantino's “fairy tale tribute” to the waning days of Hollywood's golden age, which follows an ageing actor (DiCaprio) and his long-time friend and stunt double (Pitt) as they navigate a changing industry. Padosan (1968) Sunil Dutt, Saira Banu, Mehmood, and Kishore Kumar star in this remake of the 1952 Bengali film Pasher Bari, about a young man (Dutt) who falls in love with his new neighbour (Banu) and then enlists the help of his singer-actor friend (Kumar) to woo her away from her music teacher (Mehmood). Pariyerum Perumal (2018) An idealistic young man from a poor, oppressed caste family strikes a friendship with a much wealthier female classmate at law school in this Tamil-language film, earning him the wrath of her relatives and the society at large. Debut for writer-director Mari Selvaraj. Peranbu (2019) After his wife abandons him and their cerebral palsy daughter for another man, a single father (Mammooty) working as a cab driver in Dubai must return home and raise his only kid, while on the brink of homelessness. Pinjar (2003) Based on Amrita Pritam's Punjabi novel of the same name and set in the years before and after the Partition, a Hindu woman (Urmila Matondkar) returns to her Muslim kidnapper (Manoj Bajpayee) after she's disowned by her family upon escaping. Won a National Award. The Prestige (2006) After a tragic accident, two fellow magicians (Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale) turn bitter enemies in this thriller from Christopher Nolan, and engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion, while sacrificing everything they have. Prisoners (2013) After his daughter and her friend are kidnapped, a father (Hugh Jackman) takes matters into his own hands while the police methodically track down multiple leads, getting himself into trouble. Jake Gyllenhaal co-stars. Pyaasa (1957) Guru Dutt directed and starred in this classic set in then-Calcutta which follows a struggling, anguished poet named Vijay (Dutt) who is unable to get recognition for his work until he meets Gulab (Waheeda Rehman), a prostitute with a heart of gold. Raazi (2018) Based on the real-life events depicted in Harinder Sikka's 2008 novel “Calling Sehmat”, Alia Bhatt stars as an undercover Kashmiri RAW agent who marries into a Pakistani military family to spy on the enemy prior to and during the 1971 Indo-Pak War. Some critics found it improbable.

The Report (2019) An idealistic government investigator (Adam Driver) uncovers shocking secrets as he dives into the CIA's post-9/11 use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” — in simpler words, torture — and faces severe pushback from those in the know. Roja (1992) Before Dil Se.. and Bombay, Mani Ratnam's exploration of human relationships against the backdrop of politics began with this Tamil-language film, about a newly-wed woman who moves to Kashmir and struggles to find her husband after he is kidnapped by Kashmiri separatists. Rosemary's Baby (1968) In this psychological horror based on Ira Levin's best-selling novel, a young pregnant woman (Mia Farrow) suspects an evil cult — involving her neighbours — wants to take her baby for use in their rituals. Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) Based on Bimal Mitra's similarly-titled 1953 Bengali novel and set during the fall of British Raj feudalism, a part-time servant (Guru Dutt) develops a close, platonic bond with the ignored, lonely wife (Meena Kumari) of an aristocrat (Rehman). Waheeda Rehman also stars. Sankarabharanam (1980) Winner of four National Awards, a classical music legend faces ruin in this Telugu-language drama owing to changing music trends and the unexpected bond he forms with a prostitute's daughter, who is driven into exceptional circumstances. Saving Private Ryan (1998) In Steven Spielberg's World War II drama, while war rages on in Normandy, an army captain (Tom Hanks) is given the task of searching for a particular private (Matt Damon), whose three brothers have already been killed. Searching (2018) Told entirely through screens — computers and smartphones — a father (John Cho) breaks into his teenage daughter's laptop after she goes missing and detectives are unable to find a single lead. A Separation (2011) Asghar Farhadi's Oscar-winning drama follows an Iranian middle-class couple, whose 14-year-old marriage begins to dissolve after they reach a crossroads over the wife's wishes to leave the country and the husband's concerns for his elderly Alzheimer's father. Sholay (1975) Not many films have a level of prominence in popular Indian culture that is enjoyed by this fine example of “Curry Western”, which blends real-life elements with the works of Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone. Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Sanjeev Kumar, and Jaya Bhaduri (now Bachchan) star. Shutter Island (2010) Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese collaborate for this adaptation of Dennis Lehane's 2003 novel, about two US Marshals (DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) investigating the disappearance of a criminally-insane patient, who was imprisoned for drowning her three children. Siddharth (2013) After a poor Delhi man's (Rajesh Tailang) 12-year-old son goes missing while away on work hundreds of kilometres away in Punjab, he sets out across the country to find him, fearing he's been trafficked.

Spider-Man 2 (2004) In what many consider the best Spider-Man movie of all-time, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) can't catch a break. He loses his job, his powers, and the love of his life Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst). And his best friend (James Franco) is out for Spider-Man's blood to avenge the death of his father. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) Drawn with a mix of computer-generated and hand-drawn art, Miles Morales is drawn into an inter-dimensional conflict soon after he's bit by a spider and gains superpowers, pushing him to team up to save the multiverse. Set for a 2022 sequel. A Star Is Born (2018) Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga star in this latest — fourth, if you're counting — remake of the 1937 classic tale, of an alcoholic fading star (Cooper) meeting and discovering a future star (Gaga). Cooper marks his directorial debut. Star Trek (2009) J.J. Abrams reboots the Trek film franchise by taking it into an alternate reality, where the young Kirk and Spock aboard USS Enterprise must combat a determined enemy from the future, who's creating black holes to destroy planets one by one. Sully (2016) The true story of the 2009 emergency plane landing on New York's Hudson River gets the everyday-hero treatment from Clint Eastwood, focusing on the pilot's (Tom Hanks) heroics and the subsequent investigation that tried to paint him otherwise. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as the android, now reprogrammed and sent back in time (again) to protect a younger version of a resistance leader, in James Cameron's sequel to the original that is considered one of the greatest films of all time. Thalapathi (1991) Mani Ratnam directs this Tamil-language crime drama loosely based on Karna and Duryodhana's friendship from Mahabharata, in which everything changes for a slum-dwelling orphan (Rajinikanth) who's taken under the wing of a local gang lord (Mammooty) with the arrival of a new district magistrate. Tumbbad (2018) While looking for a secret treasure in a village in 20th-century Maharashtra, a man and his son face the consequences of building a temple for a legendary demon who's not supposed to be worshipped in this psychological horror film. Unda (2019) Based on a true story, a nine-man Kerala police unit (Mammootty among them) must ensure peaceful elections in the Maoist-prone areas of Chhattisgarh with an insufficient number of bullets — unda is Malayalam for “bullet”. Vaastav: The Reality (1999) Loosely based on the life of Mumbai gangster Chhota Rajan, a young man (Sanjay Dutt) from the ghettos accidentally murders someone, which leads him into a life of crime where he swiftly climbs up the ladder — before launching into a spiral. Virus (2019) Set against the backdrop of the 2018 Nipah virus outbreak in the Indian state of Kerala, individuals from various walks of life come together to contain its spread in this gripping Malayalam-language thriller. Parvathy, Tovino Thomas, and Revathi star. Whiplash (2014) An ambitious young drummer (Miles Teller) is pushed to his limits and beyond by an abusive instructor (J.K. Simmons) in what became writer-director Damien Chazelle's breakthrough. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a real-life stockbroker who swindled over $100 million from buyers and scammed his way to the top, before he was caught and charged with fraud, corruption, and money laundering. Martin Scorsese directs, in ways that were accused of glorifying its protagonist's reprehensible actions. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, and Abhay Deol star as three childhood friends who set off on a bachelor trip across Spain, which becomes an opportunity to heal past wounds, combat their worst fears, and fall in love with life. Source link Read the full article

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captainbobbin · 7 years

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Final Dissertation -

A STUDY ON THE GENRE OF BODY HORROR, FOCUSING ON THE CULTURAL INFLUENCES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EAST AND WEST

Word Count - 8396.

Its a long essay, its under the read more!

INTRODUCTION

“Horror entwines spectacle and reality in an indeterminate scene of effects and affects that, further, engage and repulse audiences in the staging of often overwhelming and unbearable images.” (Bottling, 2011)

For as long as people have spoken, stories have been told and as long as stories have been told so have cautionary tales. Horror is a genre that has dates back to first being documented in the 18th century and as our ability to tell and show stories have developed, so has the genre of horror as a whole.

The Oxford dictionary describes the genre of horror as one that is concerned with arousing feelings of horror…. fear, shock, or disgust, (Oxford Living Dictionary, 2017), while author Rick Worland states that horror ‘achieves its greatest impact when it exposes or flaunts cultural taboos’ and ‘aims foremost to scare us’. The genre of horror ‘evokes deeper, more personal psychological fears in the starkest terms’, despite other genres, with examples of ‘a war story, disaster movie, or crime drama’, also invoking powerful emotions to affect the audience. (Worland, 2007, p.3-7). If any form of media, whether it be film, animation, short story, or prose, that intends to frighten or unnerve its audience can be classed as a part or in a way a family member of the horror genre. J. A. Cuddon described horror stories as "a piece of fiction in prose of variable length... which shocks or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing". (Cuddon, 1992, p.11)

Many horror films focus on mythical beings such as ghosts, monsters, vampires, cryptids and beings from mythological backgrounds, and the overall genre of horror can branch into many subgenres, such as Found Footage, ESP/Psychic Horror, Psychological horror, Sci-Fi Horror and even Comedy-Horror, but this dissertation will focus on Body Horror. Body Horror is a subgenre of the horror genre - while horror as a whole can contain aspects of gore, monsters, mutation and such, Body Horror focuses on the human body forcibly being mutated, mutilated and manipulated to grotesque proportions to unnerve the audience and, specifically, to make them uncomfortable. Many forms of body horror film utilize both visual and computerized special effects to ensure the audience remains disgusted and intrigued.

The adaptation of ‘the primal scene, the scene of birth’ is one of the key aspects in sci-fi horror, and while this is true in the genre of sci-fi, it is also true for the subgenre of body horror; the tissue is being formed, or reformed, created from either nothing or from something familiar, fleshy, obscure but altogether something human, but not entirely (Creed, p.17). A rapid expansion of flesh or slow mutation of cells is the central part of any body-horror film, and the theme of being reborn or made into something new is a constant cliché of these films.

In the Western world, perhaps the most prominent and important filmmaker in the subgenre of body horror is David Cronenberg, director of cult classic body horrors The Fly (1986), Videodrome (1983), Dead Ringers (1988), and Shivers (1975). His usage of repulsive physical effects and the device of building tension throughout his films has concreted his status as one of the greatest body horror auteurs. Meanwhile one of the most popular and prominent body-horror movies from the east is Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira (1988), an animated movie that gained a cult status and mass following due to its creative style and graphic content. Written by Otomo and Izo Hashimoto, the film is based on Otomo's manga of the same name which was originally a series in Shonen Jump Magazine. The film focuses mainly on the first half of the story in the manga, with an alternate ending, yet is famed for its intriguing imagery and fluid animation style. Akira went on to inspire multiple significant films, including other body horror flicks such as Tetsuo: The Iron Man.

The first chapter of this dissertation will show and explore cultural between the east and west and the ways in which film and animation shows the themes of the body and the mutation of such within the genre of horror. The inspiration for horror movies often stem from cultural fears, experiences and influences and so the first chapter will define the specific fears that divide the East and West and how films have adapted and become microcosms of individual societies.

The second chapter will outline the aspects of Cronenbergs works that highlight the popular tropes of the genre and explore what makes his films so poignant and effective within the overall genre of horror, and what specifically makes his works focus on the body.

The final chapter will explore the film Akira, specifically, one of the strongest contenders of the title of most influential movies of our generation, animated or otherwise, and the techniques used to push this feature film from an animation adaption film into a body-horror classic.

CHAPTER 1:

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES AND INFLUENCES BETWEEN THE HORROR FILMS OF JAPAN AND AMERICA

“There are two different stories in horror: internal and external. In external horror films, the evil comes from the outside, the other tribe, this thing in the darkness that we don't understand. Internal is the human heart.”

- John Carpenter, (2011)

“I think of horror films as art, as films of confrontation. Films that make you confront aspects of your own life that are difficult to face. Just because you're making a horror film doesn't mean you can't make an artful film."

- David Cronenberg (1997)

While West and East, specifically the U.S and Japan, separately have different views on horror, individual areas have their own views.

Wetmore describes horror as a genre that “concerns the fears and anxieties of the society that produced it,” (Wetmore, 2008, p48), meaning that a society creates film, books, and all kinds of media as a microcosm of the issues surrounding the creating society. For example, a society fearful of starvation may create a piece of media about a character struggling to survive in a desert. Thus we need to examine cultural differences between the U.S and Japan in relation to the genre of horror in order to understand how they produce and show differences in body horror.

Eastern parts of Asia often use folklore and religious traditions for tales, including creatures with the ability to transform; most famously the Japanese kitsune or Chinese huli jing that are traditionally wise and compassionate, whereas the Korea foxes in folklore are traditionally malevolent and cunning, going as far as to devouring human organs to achieve power and become human itself (Perise and Martin, 2013, p35).

Korean horror film focuses on the wonhon, a 'cliché of Asian horror films' (Perise and Martin, 2013, p23). The wonhon is a female spirit, trapped within our realm that aims to seek revenge on the typically masculine figures that wronged her in life. This trend was prominent in the 1960s, when 'film uses the female body as a metaphor for a nation that suffers from repressive expectations about gender, sexuality and the family' (ib33). Her appearance is based on purity and confliction; a white gown to symbolise ‘the chastity of a widow’ and a link between the realms of living and dead while having bedraggled, uncontrollable long hair which signifies a rejection of Confucian customs as well as adding to the sinister overall look of the spirit. During the time period of the 1960s in general, Korean cinema was heavily informed by its traditional views of socially acceptable behaviour; purity and having an untainted body were the ultimate conditions of marriage, while infertility, jealousy, adultery and corruptibility were ‘fatal attributes’. Utmost purity and righteousness was quintessential in Korean horror tales, and while the body may not be a paramount aspect of this subgenre of horror, the underlying feeling of purity versus impurity still makes the body an important part of this cliché (Perise and Martin, 2013, p24). The wonhon is very similar to the Japanese trend of angered spirits called kaidan, which is further discussed later in this dissertation.

Many American films, like European horror films, are able to be traced back to folklore, short stories from the times of Gothic fiction, true stories of crimes and witness reports of supernatural beings and occurrences. Some examples, including the works of Edgar Allan Poe, have been re-imagined and shown in different mediums since their first publications. Some examples of these adaptions include readings from famous horror stars (Christopher Lee, Vincent Price and James Earl Jones being the most prominent examples of readings of The Raven), film and television adaptations and even a comic book form. This may possibly show that despite the original source materials and texts being over a century old, American audiences still appreciate the slow build of tension. Some examples of 'true' stories being adapted into popular film include The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper, 1974), which is very roughly based on the Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein, The Girl Next Door (Wilson, 2007), which is loosely inspired by the death of Sylvia Likens, Wes Cravens The Hills Have Eyes (1977) which is instilled by the legend of Alexander 'Sawney' Bean, and David Cronenbergs Dead Ringers (1988), a film influenced by the discovery of the dead and decomposing bodies of 45-year-old twin gynaecologists.

Valerie Wee describes American cinema as historically seen as an 'extension of photography’, as 'a new way of taking pictures', where photography was a way of capturing and representing lifelike familiarities (a trend which body-horror frequently embraces, the sensation of mixing familiar and too familiar to create discomfort), and so classic Hollywood cinema, leading from silent films, embraced this, creating a protagonist that focuses on getting to a singular goal with a cause-and-effect style of storytelling to create a 'neat narrative closure'. Around the 1960s and continuing into the 70s, movies began to embrace a more ambiguous feel, open endings where hints of humanities fallings linger in the distance or its efforts to eradicate a creature of evil endures, possibly unlikeable protagonists to challenge audiences and minimal plot developments; this shift may be a reflection of 'cultural paranoia' and It possibly could also be inferred as part of a larger affinity with Western cinemas habit of implementing foreign films' ethos as 'the New American Cinema movement' begins towards the 1970s. (Wee, 2011, p53)

However many American horror films can be traced to European and Japanese cinema, adaptations and tweaks on Eastern and European stories and films are surprisingly prominent in mainstream media. Some may argue that America homogenizes cultures into part of its own; as a society it frequently takes desirable sections of other cultures and adapts it to shape to fit into their way of thinking. Historically this idea is hard to argue with; taking the land from Native Americans, introducing slavery and the adaptation of cultural aspects that non-American born immigrants bring to the country as examples of ways the USA has taken aspects of alternate nations.

Examples of the homogenization of Eastern cinema by include The Ring, adapted from the Japanese horror Ringu (1998), The Grudge (2004) which was adapted from Ju-on (2002), and even several American remakes of Gojira (1954), turning it into the famous Godzilla along with several reboots and sequels over time.

This leads into films from Japan specifically. 'Often based on kabuki stage pieces,' (Newman,1996), Japanese horror is an important cultural presence with the genre and its global significance is far-reaching. Japanese horror movies generally fell into two dominant genres: ghost stories or 'kaidan', "dominated by the onryou (avenging spirit) motif", and the disaster movie” (McRoy, 2008, 6), populated by monstrosities named ‘kaiju’ intent on destroying Tokyo and other large cities within Japan. When considering Japanese Horror movies, or J-Horror as it is often referred to, a western audience often imagines movies such as Ringu and Ju-on, due to their identifiability and very Eastern style – ‘The revenge of the female ghost is a cliché of Asian horror films. (With a) female ghost in a white gown with long black hair’. (Perise and Martin, 2013, 23). This is a parallel to Korea’s wonhon. The kaidan is a ‘flexible trope’ in Japanese horror, but typically a female entity focused on exacting revenge on a living person after being wronged. The popularity of the kaidan may be the result of the emergence of more and more women becoming single parents and active members of Japans workforce as Japan has become more industrialised. (McRoy, 2008, 11) Cinema is an outlet for people; we produce media content that represent our needs and fears and so we create movies that mirror the society and culture of the nation that produces them. Japan was aware of women changing roles within society and so used this as fuel to create a new branch in the horror medium.

Nevertheless the monster movies became famous with the creation of Gojira in 1954, nine years after the nuclear bombings on Japan.

In 1945, the USA dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history. The destruction and devastation of the fallout clearly impacted Eastern culture, shown through the medium of film; Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Lucky Dragon No. 5 (1959), and, most famously, Gojira (1954) are just three examples of Japanese films showing the devastating effects of nuclear fallout in one form or another. Gojira is a prominent film in film history, Asian or otherwise, which arguably can be due to the destructive undertones. The Kaiju is awoken by H-bomb tests in the beginning of the movie, its footprint is monitored for intense radioactivity and newscasters repeatedly call Gojiras ability to breath radioactive fiery breath a 'sea of flames', recalling Nagasaki and Hiroshima. (Brothers, 2011) Gojira is a metaphor for the Fat Man and Little Boy bombs, annihilating all structure within Tokyo and having no regard for human life. McRoy describes the relationship between the bombings and the creation of the kaiju as a “devastating incident followed by decades of exposure to US military exercises and atomic tests in the Pacific, these mutated monstrosities aquatic and aerial assaults seem only appropriate,” and Susan J. Napier describes Japanese stories as “often reveal(ing) a much bleaker world view that such western fantasies as star trek or even Terminator". (Napier, 2005, 90, McRoy, 2008, 7)

This leads into one of the catalysts for the body horror genre; causing horrific mutations, monstrous entities and graphic imagery is nuclear fallout and radiation. The Toxic Avenger (and its sequels) is one of the most prolific examples of radioactive interference in the body horror genre, but there are others including The Incredible Melting Man (1977), the Fallout video game series (1997-present) and Spontaneous Combustion (1990).

Tropes of radiation and nuclear activity continue throughout Japan’s history, from small nods to more direct referencing. For example, the popular Mega-Man (1987 - present) franchise of Japanese video games has Dr Wily as its main antagonist, a character who creates machines of destruction and whose appearance is based on Albert Einstein; Einstein’s theories led to discovery and creation and nuclear energy and then weaponry and so it can be argued that he, through association, lead to the Japan bombings and can be seen as a villainous character.

Akira itself can be seen as a metaphor for the bombings, though not an entirely subtle one; the manga and animated movie, (the movie opening with an enormous, all-consuming blast of energy,) are both set in a post-apocalyptic futuristic Neo-Tokyo where the central characters are parentless adolescents fighting for a purpose. Tetsuo, while a member of the gang, is still a low member of the pecking order and feels like he cannot achieve anything purposeful as he has limited potential and a lack of education and structure besides that of the films prominent street gangs. Tetsuo could be a metaphor for children of the bombings struggling to survive in the fallout post-war.

In the manga, the vaporizing of 1980s Tokyo by the first psychic bomb spurred reconstruction and urban development; by the twenty-first century, Neo-Tokyo has been rebuilt on a vaster scale around the Akira bomb crater, a massive urban sprawl circling an empty center (just as the Tokyo destroyed with firebombs in 1945 had emerged from its ashes on a vaster scale by 1983, and just as Hiroshima and Nagasaki were reconstructed after the atomic bombs). Thus Akira inexorably links nuclear destruction and economic reconstruction.

- Lamarre, 2008, 136

Tetsuo’s eventual mutation into a fleshy, grotesque mass may also be a representation of the effects of nuclear fallout. While radiation sickness does not tend to induce growths or mutations shown in popular media form and instead cause illnesses including infertility, blood disorders, tissue damage from heat and a heightened rate of cancer, the rapid and graphic explosion of Tetsuo’s flesh in the final scenes of Akira may be an exaggerated representation of the gratuitous devastation nuclear destruction has caused. While “his monstrous transformation occurs because of his rampant desire” in the manga and film, he Tetsuo may be a representation of the trauma that occurs when ‘rampant desire’ from hostile countries cause. (Miller, 2008, 145-166)

However, East and West view nuclear powers and its attributes extremely differently from a cultural perspective.

The U.S has different views on nuclear activity in cinema compared to Japan, however, particularly the horror film. It appears that the United States did not receive any negative back-lash from the bombings, and so while Japan sees nuclear devices as weapons that devastate and decimate innocent lives, America used them as a pre-emptive liberator, a means of keeping an enemy away and glorifying their military might. The USA didn’t experience any of the nuclear fallout or destruction from the bombings on Japan, only a sense of superiority; hence their viewpoint of nuclear radiation is one of positivity rather than desolation.

The aforementioned Toxic Avenger is a prime example of nuclear energy (radioactive waste in this case) mutating and transforming the protagonist into a super-human character. Famous comic-book and film characters originating from U.S sources often have nuclear energy and/or radiation as a positive part of their back-story and reinforce of identity; the Hulk, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Fantastic Four, Spider-man, the Battletoads, Superman and many of the X-men characters are revered as popular and famous heroes to an American audience and feature nuclear radiation, and many of these characters have multiple back stories, reincarnations and reimaginings to keep them appealing to a younger audience in a possible attempt to reinforce the idea to children and impressionable Americans that nuclear involvement and radioactivity has multiple benefits. This is a clear example of America homogenising the history of nuclear power into positive stories and culture. Winkler describes a ‘wave of enthusiasm’ rippling through the United States after the Hiroshima bombing that was only ‘periodically’ tainted by discomfort at the thought of the destructive potential of the bombs. While this may be due to the fact officials and policymakers chose only to release specific information and highlighted the positive aspects concerning nuclear weaponry, Americans believed the bombs' role was one of benefit to the U.S., especially as President Truman reinforced the idea that the atomic blast was one that ‘had to be used to end the unnecessary slaughter on both sides.’. Winkler confirms this in saying that despite the ‘carnage’ caused by the bombs dropping, it was ‘justified in the end’ when comparing the lives of Americans saved. (Winkler, 1993, 25-27)

To some extent, some may argue that David Cronenberg's character Seth Brundle from The Fly mutates through radiation. However, in this instance the radiation acts as a double-edged sword; Brundle experiences superhuman strength, agility and feelings of euphoria, but this quickly descends into feelings of addiction and rapid deterioration. Perhaps this is a nod by Cronenberg to show that he does recognise how negative radiation impacts on individuals and is a way of de-glorifying the stigma of nuclear activity.

It’s very possible that while the nuclear bombings, as the most gratuitous and devastating attack in Japanese history, led into inspiring a series of horror movies, terrorism of the U.S has also had an impact on cinema. The infamous attack of 9/11could be seen to perpetuate a series of American horror films revolving around themes of gory ‘torture and imprisonment’ such as the Saw series (2004-present), The Purge series (2013-2016), Hostel (2005) and The Human Centipede (2009), where audiences view characters subjected to ‘physical’ and ‘psychological torture’. US cinema reflects the fear or terrorism, especially in films showing depictions of claustrophobia, faceless malevolent entities and the feeling of being trapped to reflect the effect 9/11 had. This is not to mention the slew of 'dystopian future' set films, video games and novels that contain corrupt or non-existent governmental societies, a possible vision of fear from a society that wants security and sustainability.

“After 9/11, nihilism, despair, random violence and death, combined with tropes and images generated by the terrorist attacks began to assume far greater prominence in horror cinema,” States Wetmore (Wetmore 2008, 72-82). He goes on to describe that typically in American disaster, action and horror movies that New York is seen as “‘ground zero’, a term usually associated with nuclear destruction.” While the 9/11 attacks did not destroy the entirety of New York the way the bombings destroyed entire cities in Japan, the imagery of destruction of the 11th of September is all-too familiar – ‘deserted streets, and conversely larger crowds fleeing, combined with grey ash, dust and debris covering everything and everyone’ was the overriding image of New York as a destroyed city flooded with catastrophic ruin. ‘Ground Zero’ is a term used to specify ‘the heart of an attack’ and the heart of New York was truly shaken by these attacks. While previously Los Angeles was the ‘preferred’ city to face destruction in cinematography, this changed rapidly after the turning of the millennium - New York had always been a familiar setting within film, including horror, Wetmore states that ‘9/11 made it the site of horror’, which is a very concrete statement when regarding the films produced since. (2012, ps.3 and 24)

Even Gojira made its way to New York, when the 2014 remake was released; while the main introductory setting of the film is Janjira, Japan, (a possible homage to the original source material), we also have scenes of San Francisco, California where civilians are evacuated, the Golden Gate Bridge is decimated and the threat of a nuclear warhead violently detonating hangs over the city. It could be argued that this is the USA reshaping and familiarising the trauma of the nuclear blasts of Japan with America; perhaps the shift from New York to San Francisco was to avoid the reality of the destruction of a famous landmark reminiscent of the 9/11 attacks being all-too familiar.

Post-9/11 United States and post-bombed Japan are both in periods of cultural adaptation and transition, coping with the emotional, sociological and psychological trauma that both events caused the nations by using cinema as an emotional outlet and a way of coming to terms with “the irrational, the horrific, the uncanny, and the issues with which we are most concerned in the post-industrial era: family, the economy, identity, terrorism, etc.” (Wetmore 2008, 73) American adaptations of Japanese (and other cultures) horror films monopolize on the familiarity and creativity of the original idea but adjust the narrative, techniques and style of the original concept to best represent American ideals and fulfil the sociological needs of the post-9/11 USA audience.

Wee describes how J-horror shifts slowly away from its traditional views of genre; the movies involving kaidan ghost maidens motivated by vengeance, anger and a need to punish their wrong-doers in life slowly amalgamated into movies such as Toshiharu Ikeda's Evil Dead Trap (1988), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Red Room (1999), House (1977) and Jigoku (1960). These films shift from the 'familiar, iconic images and conventions' that originate from the tropes and settings from theatrical stage performances and classical influences from contemporary Japan and instead embracing the more Western tropes of gore, entrapment and confined spaces. It may be that while American film is adapting aspects of Asian film and J-Horror into a conglomeration of culture, perhaps in its own way, J-Horror is slowly doing the same through adapting aspects of Western-centric movies rather than full on adapting entire films -

(Ringu) also reveals the influence of the Hollywood horror tradition, perhaps most clearly in the visual and narrative borrowings in the film's opening sequence and in the inclusion of narrative developments that privilege the female survivor and the enduring power of the monster.

- Wee, 2013, 97

- while McRoy iterates that J-Horror of the 1980s ‘was painted in bright streaks of red, spurting from gashing wounds and blood-spouting intestinal spillings’ that was an extreme contrast to the movies that took over in the 1990s where horror was more subdued yet ominous with ’young women simply standing there with hair hanging over their face.’ This may be a metaphor for the transition in radioactive presence in society (McRoy, 2008, 9).

Nuclear activity in a military sense has diminished over time. The ‘gashing wounds’ and ‘spillings’ McRoy describes above could signify the outright casualties of the World War II bombings, of the heavily wounded and permanently disfigured survivors and ‘bright streaks of red’ a visceral reminder of the death and destruction overall. The 1990s ‘young women’ could possibly be a representation of innocent lives ruined by the devastation of the attacks, but their anger is now subdued, dulled by time. (Wee, 2011, 59). The horror of the nuclear attacks is still there, still fresh, but subtle and perhaps not as prominent as it once was. A dull buzz that is still a part of day-to-day life, but no longer an open wound, but instead a fading scar.

CHAPTER 2:

THE WORKS OF DAVID CRONENBERG AND HOW THEY HAVE INFLUENCED AND IMPACTED THE GENRE OF BODY HORROR

“The redundancy of flesh, he thinks, the helplessness of meat, how can we conjure spirit from a bone?” ― Ian McGuire, The North Water

David Cronenbergs films are some of the most widespread and symbolic in the genre of body horror.

Hawker calls Cronenberg a 'body artist', a 'visceral and cerebral filmmaker' who can utilize the body 'in all its sticky, treacherous, terrifying complexity, with its vulnerabilities, drives and tendency towards transformation'. She goes on to call The Fly ' a soulful yet grotesque vision' and states that Cronenberg creates 'provocative challenges to the status quo' to intice and shock his audience. (Hawker, 2017)

One of the aspects that ensured the popularity and timelessness of his work is the usage of physical and practical effects in lieu of special and computer generated effects.

Some of the earliest examples of horror movies using practical effects include The Phantom of the Opera (1925), Frankenstein (1931), The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and Gojira (1954), where make-up, crude stop-frame animatronics and foam suits were essential in creating deformed monsters and on-screen beasts. As time went on, however, practical effects advanced alongside horror movies - as the 1970s emerged The Exorcist (1973) and Alien (1979) became two classic films that feature incredibly impressive physical effects that are unparalleled to this day. Special make-up effect artist Dick Smith, known as “The Godfather of Makeup”, achieved masterful effects by overlapping foam latex to ensure actors to have a full range of facial expressions and created Reagan's (Linda Blair's) neon green projectile vomit by creating a system of tubes that fitted into her prosthetic cheeks. Stan Winston learnt his craft from Smith and directed Alien, where sheep and cow innards were used to replicate human organs in the infamous chest-burster scene while the alien spawn was a puppet. The use of fake blood and puppetry using hosing was a concept entirely unknown to the cast and so the hysterical response of actress Veronica Cartwright was entirely honest. (Barnes, 2014)

Some modern day horrors, while still having computer-generated effects present, incorporate practical effects as an homage to the classics of the past and to emulate the too-close-to-real-life feel that many (such as animator and illustrator Nick Criscuolo) argue CG cannot quite give. Criscuolo explains that 'practical effects have the advantage in being made from real things' and so one of the only downfalls with using practical effects is using the correct materials, explaining that the effects can look false if used by 'the wrong thing pretending to be something else' while acknowledging that while computer-generated animation and effects in film can look very polished and perfect, it has to 'not only does it have to look realistic, it also has to look as though it belongs in the scene' which can be where computer generated effects can seem subpar to well-made practical effects (Criscuolo, 2012)

Todd Masters, who also learnt his trade from the aforementioned Smith, worked on the physical effects of Slither (Directed by James Gunn, 2006), a body horror revolving around an average man becoming infected and then controlled by an alien parasite that slowly and gorily transmorphs him into a fleshy puddle of tentacles and gooey appendages' in a style incredibly reminiscent of the work of Chris Walas, the effects supervisor on Cronenbergs The Fly and Naked Lunch (1991).

It could be incredibly plausible that Gunn took inspiration from Cronenbergs work, particularly The Fly; both films feature the main character, (Jeff Goldblum as Seth Brundle and Michael Rooker as Grant Grant) mutating slowly over each passing scene into a non-human, or rather part-human, entity as Brundles DNA is replaced with that of the titular Flys and Grant being slowly eaten from the inside out by the sentient extraterrestrial within him. Both characters start their mutation with feelings of positivity: increased appetite, sexual vigour and athletic capabilities. However as time passes their flesh starts to reflect the decline of their humanity as growths form over their bodies and their skin decays rapidly after initially appearing sallow or inflamed. Both characters tear themselves away from the female lead (Geena Davis as Veronica and Elizabeth Banks as Starla in The Fly and Slither respectively) in favour of an alternate woman in order to instil the same rush of positivity into the alternate female. This is shown as Brundle (or Brundlefly) has a sexual encounter with Tawny (Joy Boushel) and then proceeds to try and force her into undergoing the same transformation as him before being stopped by Veronica and Grant lures in Brenda (played by Brenda James) with the intent to have sex with her, only to forcibly impregnate her with alien parasites which cause her to mutate also. Eventually both protagonists-turned-antagonists mutate beyond their control and become more alien entity than human.

The usage of practical effects in both of these movies have concreted their statuses of cult-classics; the usage of foam and latex reminiscent of flesh and muscle and food substances for bodily fluids (Brundleflys vomit consisted of honey, egg and milk) have aided in giving these movies (and other cinematic pieces using practical effects) a timeless quality, in comparison to using digitally animated effects that arguably can look dated and less believable as time passes.

A good example of CG having less impact than practical effects is the body horror film The Lawnmower Man (Brett Leonard, 1992). While Stephen Kings The Lawnmower man is a body horror revolving around the usage of technology to manipulate the brain and body (and so the usage of computer generated effects are entirely justified and make sense), it follows similar trends to Cronenbergs The Fly, as Slither does. Jobe (Jeff Fahey) undergoes experimental treatment by using computer-generated virtual reality to become more intelligent and the movie follows the pattern that Cronenbergs The Fly lays out perfectly; Jobes experimentation is initially successful and he becomes more intellectual and experiences sensations of increased confidence, athletic capability and becoming sexually active. However, as time passes his abilities become more aggressive and he becomes obsessed with using virtual reality to increase his grasp on his newfound telekinetic and pyrokinetic powers, similar to Brundles obsession with his own developing mutations.

The original The Fly (Kurt Neumann, 1958) used practical effects. A small animatronic figure with a moving head and arm was used for actors Vincent Price and Herbert Marshall, spider-webbing was creating from superglue being strung from pieces of wood and a mask made of latex sponge pieces, beads and metallic framework created the head of the titular Fly (Biodrowski, 2007). It is an interesting point of discussion that in the original The Fly, it is only the head of Andre Delambre (David Hedison credited as Al Hedison) that is altered, possibly due to technological and restrictions of the time period, whereas Cronenberg alters the entirety of Goldblums body in his remake. It could be argued that this is a sign of the audience developing to expect more from horror movies, to want to see more visceral action rather than the more subtle horrors history has given them.

While The Fly, as one of Cronenbergs most prolific pieces, has been the main portion of this discussion so far, it is notable that Cronenbergs other works follow a familiar method.

Dead Ringers, Cronenbergs 1988 film about twin gynaecologists, shows throughout the theme of the body being something whole and human despite its flaws, eating and being sexually active as normal and natural occurrences, and while a mutation doesn't occur to manipulate the protagonists outlook drugs do alter the mindset of Beverly, played by Jeremy Irons. Beverly has nightmares of his body being physically conjoined to that of his identical twin, Elliot (played also by Irons). The connection is a fleshy grown extending from twin navels, and is severed by a bite by their bed mate Claire (Geneviève Bujold) which results in Beverly to wake up screaming, frantic, before taking more prescription drugs. ' Shaw explains that the 'dream is an obvious embodiment of Beverly's fears of being separated from Elliot', and goes on to explain that if we follow the Freudian theory that dreams are expressions of desire that there is a possibility that subconsciously Beverley wishes to be forcibly separated from his brother. (Shaw, 1996)

As Beverly continues to take more mind-altering drugs, more visions of bodily harm appear to the point where Beverly has metallic gynaecological tools created to inspect women's bodies that he deems 'mutated', claiming that "the patients are getting strange. They look alright on the outside, but their insides...they're deformed." showing how altered his view of reality is. As his reliance on drugs grow and his brothers attempts to sober Beverly fail, we see this movie become more of a psychological horror with body horror elements rather than a body horror with psychological elements.

As both twins become drugged and despondent, however, they attempt to 'separate' themselves using the aforementioned gynaecological tools in a scene that cements Dead Ringers firmly in the body horror genre. Beverly traces his hand over Elliots stomach before carving into it with the sharpest of the tools, claiming that "separation can be a terrifying thing." We see Elliot die before Beverly plunges the tool in further with a resounding 'squish', the entire scene more subtle and playing on the viewers senses and fears rather than outright gore (initially).

Despite the scenes almost spontaneous nature, the clinical feel created by Beverly's preparation and medical tools plays on needle and doctor phobias, separate Dead Ringers from The Fly, which has a more monstrous out-of-control feeling

As Beverly awakes sometime later, confused and disconsolate, he repeated Elliots nickname continuously while refusing to look at the almost autopsied body of his brother that lays prominent in the background. Beverly redresses, the act seeming sinister and a juxtaposition to the procedure just witnessed, and yet the aforementioned clinical feel withstands, as perhaps Beverly is given a moment of clarity enough to control his body in a 'normal' way. He attempts to all Claire, who asks "Who is this?” which has been an overarching theme throughout Dead Ringers; the concept of unknowing whether the twins who they say they are, or even if Beverly knows who he is anymore. He walks back to his brother in a zombie-like state, catatonic, as panning shots of the bloodied needles and tools are shown. His confused and vacant mind leads him to lay against his brother’s body and the pair are reunited in death. (Cronenberg, 1988)

It is a credit to Cronenberg in that despite following similar methods of the mind and body declining together, the physical and mental aspects connected just as the twins in Dead Ringers are, that in each of his films there is a unique spin on what triggers the initial downfall of his characters. The decline of mind and body and connected entities together is a theme throughout Cronenbergs work that has extended to be a part in almost all pieces of the body-horror genre; it is hard to name a piece of fiction in the genre that does not follow the ideology of the mind and body being connected as that as one deteriorates, mutates or is manipulated, the other follows in some form.

CHAPTER 3:

AKIRA AND TETSUO; AKIRAS INFLUENCE AND TECHNOLOGICAL IMPACT IN COMPARISON TO FLESH

“Japanese medical people are traditionally very strange and creepily poetic.”

― David Cronenberg, Consumed

"I see technology as being an extension of the human body."

- David Cronenberg, Cronenberg on Cronenberg

Katsuhiro Otomos Akira was released in 1988 as an adaption of the popular series published in Weekly Young Jump Magazine under the same name that ran from 1982 to 1990. While the film differs greatly from its original source material in terms of character development and its ending point, the theme of the body mutating is prevalent in both the manga and animated movie. Napier describes anime as a genre that often focuses on the process of bodily change, ‘from cyborgs to superheroes on the positive side, and from mutants to monsters on the negative,’ (Napier, 2005, 37)

Akira revolutionised the way the world viewed eastern animation and became known as the cinematic adaptation that inspired visual effects and animation in many films. Some films influenced by Akira and its content include the Dragonball Z series (1989) with the characters ‘powering-up’ by yelling and manipulating the landscape around them, The Matrix (1999) with Neo dodging bullets and using his mind as a weapon, Parasyte (2014) which is a series revolving around body-snatching creature that mutate the body into fleshy weapons and even television series Stranger Things (2016), a series involving a young child learning to control telekinetic abilities. Marvels release of Akira even became the first Japanese manga to be translated into English and released in the west and is widely renowned as the film that caused manga and anime to become popular in the west. (Christmas, 2015)

Akira is animated on ones (meaning it is animated at 24 frames per second, rather than the standard 12 frames per second. This leads to the final animation being incredibly fluid,) and utilizes the entirety of the characters faces, techniques rarely used in eastern animation due to how much time animating would take This is often the case due to dialogue being recorded post-animation, whereas Akira had all the sound files ready before animating any facial synchronisation. However this works for Akira, as we can see into every instance of the character’s emotions and mindset rather than the typically mouth and eye only movement that prevails eastern animation.

The film opens with shots of Neo-Tokyo, 31 years post World War Three, the prevailing theme of war and terror already an undertone within this body horror. However the main over-arching theme throughout both the manga and anime of Akira is that the mind and body are linked and that as one expands, the other must expand with it.

As Tetsuos physic abilities are first awakened in the film, the concept of body horror is purely conjectural; he has premonitions of his body rapidly expanding and his internal organs erupting out of his stomach as the ground collapses beneath him at several different points. This can be seen as a matching concept as in Dead Ringers, with Beverly’s dreams of his body being physically conjoined with Elliot. For a film-goer, these forewarnings are a welcome thing; showing hints of the climax of the film to keep the viewer interested in seeing how the gore and visceral imagery of the film develops as the film progresses.

While both the animated movie and manga show aspects of bodily mutation, they portray Tetsuos downfall in different ways. In the film Tetsuo remains intact and human as his abilities develop; he takes medication to subdue his head pain as a way of keeping his powers at bay - the usage of drugs are a point of interest in the film; unlike Dead Ringers, where drugs are a catalyst that create the body horror element and leads to the protagonists breakdowns, Akira shows drugs as one of the few things restraining Tetsuos chronic migraines that lead to his bursts of telekinetic energy and therefore his eventual mutation - but as the climax unfolds he connects technological aspects into his arm for structure before his body rapidly expands and mutates into a fleshy childlike entity as a visual metaphors the lack of control over his telekinetic powers despite trying to retain in charge of his own body. In the manga, however, the mutation is drawn out and slow. ‘(A)s Tetsuo becomes more and more powerful, he also becomes less and less human.’(Anderson, 2015). In the manga Tetsuos body doesn’t explode rapidly as a way of reaching the climax of the story but instead mutates slowly as his abilities increase; as his telekinetic powers increase, his body increases in size (along with amassing technological elements) as a way of amassing ‘inorganic matter to contain the absurd amount of power awakening inside him.’ (Cinefix, 2015) Tetsuo still ends up becoming a fleshy mass and then eventually turns into pure telekinetic energy, but the process is much slower and shown in more detail in the manga compared to the films rapid finale. He is even shown to have some control over his transformations, going so far as to willingly mutate rapidly to force bullets out of his body.

‘He metamorphoses into a pulsating, pustulating mass of flesh and machinery that explodes outward, absorbing or consuming everything in its path.’, writes Bolton, describing Tetsuos mutation. (Bolton, 2014, 304) The linkage of organic and synthetic materials is a curious aspect of body horror and is shown interestingly in Akira; Gottesman explains that in 1988, the year of Akiras release, Emperor Shōwa was close to death and was ‘only kept alive by machines’, Japan was facing financial and economic ruin and its structure as a country was in flux. The Emperor was seen as a symbol of traditional values and his connection with machinery to elongate his life shows a realistic view of ‘melding of machine and man’. Gottesman goes on to explain how Tetsuos bodily presence is ‘overwhelming’ and that “rather than celebratory, the force of technology in Akira is purely destructive, as the atomic bomb was in Japan…” This links back to my previous points of pieces of media reflecting the culture they come from; Akira represented Japan and its fear and fascination with the body becoming conjoined to technology in times of need. (Gottesman, 11)

The linking of technological materials and human matter is one that Cronenberg also explores in the ending scenes of the Fly: as Brundles mutation into the Brundlefly is complete and his mind-set is altered he fuses himself with the teleportation pod itself, the prosthetic fly flesh connecting with chunks of metal similarly to Tetsuos fluctuating arm merging with protruding wires. The connection of flesh and metal is a fusion that, while not present in every body horror, helps in creating the aspect of perversion in the genre; a connection that is unnatural yet is something partially human that fits right into the uncanny valley of what the viewer perceives as both familiar and comfortable yet also alien and unnatural. Body horror as a genre aims to arouse disgust ‘- and in its own way pleasure –‘ and the combination of human and non-human is the perfect way to both intrigue and trepidation. (Hurley, 1995, 203)

Akira inspired a live-action film called Tetsuo: The Iron Man, a film revolving around a man slowly devolving into a pile of metallic scraps. The use of practical effects is Cronenberg-esque, possibly showing that despite being an Eastern film the usage of decent practical effects with the intent to disgust and instil terror is overarching despite cultural differences, as well as cementing the fusion of man and metal as a body horror principal. While the animated Akira has inorganic matter as only a smaller part of Tetsuos fusion, Tetsuo: The Iron Man has metal as the films prominent source of repulsion and horror. The jarring flickering effect of the camera twinned with the haunting monochrome adds to the sense of Tetsuo being in the uncanny valley, further repulsing the audience, but the rotting of flesh and replacement with machinery is truly where the audience's discomfort lies.

The joining of flesh and machinery creates a sense of new-ness despite corruption; both Tetsuo and Brundlefly end up being fused with technological aspects in an attempt to strengthen and purify themselves in some way, yet 'the emphasis is much more on the protagonists dehumanization by the alienating powers of technology', describes Napier. While some depictions of human and robotic fusions focus on the protagonist learning to control and use their mechanical aspects for benefit, such as Robocop (1987) or Megaman, pieces of media like these tend not to be focused on the horror aspects of the body, whereas the ungodly 'fusion of human pilot inside armoured machine' in (typically Eastern) body horror media show how unnatural the synthesis of organic and inorganic matter can be. Technology, while initially having the potential to be something positive, ultimately ends up corrupting its hosts humanity more than anything and leads them to their inevitable downfall in the majority of body horror films the usage of it is a staple in. (Napier, 2005, 90)

Ultimately, the animated Akira is an incomplete companion piece to the manga, but this does not take away from the widespread cultural and cinematic impact it produced. Akira gave the western audience a glimpse into the future and created a wave of new ideas and stylistic challenges that continue to this day, it inspired classic movies that will forever be hailed as success stories, and will likely be seen as a pinnacle point in cinematic history for many years to come.

CONCLUSION

“I am a man. I am good and not a beast. I am an animal with reason. I have flesh, I am flesh, I am not descended from flesh. Flesh is created by God. I am God. I am God. I am God.” ― Vaslav Nijinsky, The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky

"Cronenbergs images, it was said, might be shocking, perverse, even disgusting, but they revealed a fascination with the myriad ways that we can be betrayed by our minds and bodies." Writes Morris (1994) is his description of Cronenbergs work, and the same can be said for Akira and other works of the body horror genre; the aim of body horror is to repulse its audience but also spark a primal intrigue. As a species we are fascinated with seeing how far our bodies can be pushed, and the genre of body horror encapsulates this fascination in all its gory, twisted, unnatural glory. Whether through slow build up or sudden expansion, body horror is genre that causes 'recoil and repulsion' but also a feeling of interest and perverse wonder, 'something incomprehensible', (Botting, 2011, 148) and whether the film comes from East or West, body horror will always invoke these feelings.

Society creates media to reflect itself. The fact that cultures of all kinds depict versions of the body mutating surely represents that through humanity faces different hardships and struggles depending on what part of the planet the media is produced, we always fear ourselves, the over arcing theme throughout the human race is the fear of loss of control of oneself, whether it be piece by piece or all at once. Both Akira and Cronenbergs work share themes of the mind and body being linked and as one grows, the other joins it - whether this is growing in size or growing unstable.

Cronenberg is aware of Western society's primal fears and plays with them to gauge a response. Despite its daily usage in our everyday lives we fear technology overtaking humanity, and so body horror films with that aspect show machinery corrupting the flesh and eroding humanity away, Western society being left behind, and so Cronenberg shows Brundle merging with the teleportation pod and portrayed man melding with technology in Videodrome.

Otomos work on Akira represents Japans fear of instability, of a loss of traditional values and lack of control. The culture of Japan was fluctuation with new technology overcoming traditional values, and Napier describes animation at the time as being the ' ideal artistic vessel for expressing....[Japans] obsession with fluctuating identity’ (Napier 2001, 12). Tetsuos fusion of flesh and nonorganic matter is a "metaphor for the loss of control" (Gottesman, 2016, 110) during Japans capitalistic and fascist period and his expansion into the famous mechanical flesh-baby could be seen as a metaphor for Japan rising from that period of time and being reborn into a society that embraces technological advances in its culture.

Perhaps as modern-day technology continues to advance to higher planes each passing year, the next generation of body horror cinema will continue to show grotesque fusions of man and machine. As cinema continues to develop, adapt and reflect society's ever-changing views, it can only be assumed that the future of the body horror genre will continue to strike fear and fascination into the hearts of its viewers.

#captainbobbin #writing #dissertation #body horror #essay #japan #usa #america #east vs west #flesh #horror #cronenberg #akira #otomo #uni stuff

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tube-thoughts-blog · 7 years

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tube thoughts vol. 6

zero stars - terrible, 1/2 a star - dull, 1 star - folly, 1 1/2 stars - lacking, 2 stars - fair, 2 1/2 stars - decent, 3 stars - terrific

Joe Bob's SummerSchool edition of Monstervision with special guests a blonde Bride of Frankenstein and a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon plus the feature movie "The Surgeon" *The striking black and white intro flashback throws light on what this flick really is. It's a tribute to those 30s/40s/50s mad doctor horror shows, with quirky 1990s sensibilities laced throughout.* 2 1/2 stars

Everything is Terrible: Summer Fun --------------

*Psalty: Dramatic kids hang out with a blue, scripture talking song book.* 2 stars

*Bike Safety Rap: Don't skin your knees or risk your life.* 1 star

*Central Florida Hell: Dump elderly dad down where Chi Chi Rodriguez dwells.* 2 1/2 stars

*2 Minute Boat Trip: Goober Pudding Jr. is not a COCKSUCKER! Horatio Sanz... who knows?* 2 stars

*3 Minute Heavy Metal Summer: Shock rockers, with a heart of gold, versus yuppy prejudice and slimeball business types at a camp/resort.* 3 stars

*Acting with Tom Hanks: Swimsuit models wanna make their silly dreams come true.* 2 stars

*Conceal and Carry: Speed, women, fanny pack!* 3 stars

*Kidz Conquer Mexico: Another culture exploited by brats.* 2 1/2 stars

*Message in a Cell Phone: Crack the code and get Chad's dad out of prison.* 3 stars

*Birthdays Faith First: Father Tim loves his birthday and Uncle Sam.* 2 1/2 stars

*2 Minute Beach Fever: Kato Kaelin and Jacki Chan enjoy the fruits of rabor.* 2 1/2 stars

======================================================

I'm Alan Partridge: I Know What Alan Did Last Summer *Dodging the tax man.* between 2 1/2 and 3 stars

"The Day After" --1983-- *"World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones."* 3 stars

The Twilight Zone: The Midnight Sun *Fever dream.* 3 stars

Heart She Holler: Klansgender Rights *We're all the same underneath a clean, white sheet.* 2 stars

Squidbillies: Granny Hot Foot *Happier than a pig, in shit, who just won the Daytona 500.* 2 1/2 stars

Adult Swim --infomercials-- In Search of the Miracle Man *Interviewing people on the street about their love for a yet to be seen super guru and asking them how often they masturbate, plus keeping a close watch on a sunbathing beauty, in case the guru shows up there. Add in a sing along, act unfunny along, self aware studio audience for even less laughs. A guy from Mighty Boosh and Snuff Box (Rich Fulcher) and a guy from Upright Citizens Brigade and Crossballs (Matt Besser), along with another recognizable face from the Sarah Silverman Show, can all do better and funnier in 12 minutes. Drunk History for example.* 1 star

Freddy's Nightmares: Rebel Without A Car -----

*A mullet-motor-head thinks a cursed muscle-car is his ticket out of Springwood, but maybe he should have taken his girl's advice and sought a smarter path.* 2 1/2 stars

*A girl, from the wrong side of the tracks, gets accepted to be a Cinderella slave for snobbish sorrority sisters, during hellish hazing, where they hope to put her on the road.Instead, she turns Carrie, on the cunts, and burns the house to the ground.* 2 1/2 stars

------------------------

Swamp Thing: Falco *"Nature is a maniac!" That's pretty existential for a falcon unwillingly turned half human by the arrogant Arcane. Overly dramatic and unintentionally funny.* 3 stars

Jonny Quest: Treasure of the Temple *Masterfully animated Mayan adventure.* 3 stars

Kolchak, the Night Stalker: The Night Strangler *Gritty Civil War era alchemy, and a Victorian Era style Jack the Ripper killer, in the dark alleys and underground of a Pacific Northwest seaport town.* 3 stars

12:01 Beyond --Halloween special-- -2014- =====================

*The Victim's Family - Have A Nice Day (music video): Skeletal puppets kick your face in and tell you to enjoy your shitty job and life.* close to 3 stars

*Fulfilled, A Halloween Story: A modern Lovecraftian tragic figure refuses to join in on the pop culture / commercial celebrations of Halloween and instead chooses to spend All Hallow's Eve, and possibly eternity, in the Twilight Zone.* close to 3 stars

*Trailer for Dario Argento's "Creepers": 3 stars

*Vintage WXXA cHANNEL 23 - Halloween movie marathon commercial for their movie lineup including 'An American Werewolf in London', 'House', 'Videodrome', 'Psycho 3': 3 stars

*"Horror of the Zombies" 1973: A millionaire, a money hungry mercenary type, and an agency of modeling get involved in a publicity stunt that would leave some models stranded in a boat on the sea. However, they all wind up in some interdimensional fog and end up boarding a ghost-ship where the blind monks of Mestophilles roam.* 2 stars

*Monster Rally Movie: Advertisement for an old horror host Channel 4 show.* 3 stars

*Pumpkin Madness 2: Ordinary pumpkins let loose destructive behavior.* 2 1/2 stars

*Animation in the style of Superjail or the video for Paranoid Android by Mariola Brillowska.* 3 stars

*Phantasm's 'The Tall Man' promotes Fangoria magazine.* 2 1/2 stars

*Fleishcher Studios- Superman - The Mummy Strikes.* 3 stars

*A Republic Pictures serial - The Crimson Ghost - Atomic Peril: A criminal mastermimd is so determined to get his hands on a device that will bring the world's electrical will to its knees, that he's willing to prevent its use in bringing the Cold War to a close.* 2 1/2 stars

*Fight the monster of pay and or cable tv in an awesome retro anti-cable tv advertisement shown to a paying movie theater audience.* 3 stars

======================================================

Star Wars Rebels: Rise of the Old Masters *A Sith inquisitor lures roam Jedi to their doom, using the bones of a Jedi Master.the Empire is putting out false distress signals saying that the master is alive and in need of a prison escape rescue.* 3 stars

TMNT: The Croaking *After watching Thundarr the Barbarian, Mikey spazzes out and destroys the farmhouse. When scolded, flees to the forest where he encounters Napoleon Bonafrog (voiced by Napoleon Dynamite) who happens to be the outcast of his own tree-frog human-hating society.* 3 stars

Everything is Terrible --Halloween Bonus-- --2012-- =========================

*Cosby Nightmarez: Bill takes a break from drugging women to have his own bad dream.* 3 stars

*Tim Curry Halloween Song: A crooning wizard makes the witches howl.* 3 stars

*Vincent Price: An elderly icon shills 3D film cameras.* 2 stars

*3 Minute Grandpa is a Vampire: Grandpa Munster hangs out with his radical 90s grandson and his grandson's friend while grandma tries to cheat on him and put a stake thru his old heart.* 2 1/2 stars

*Boogie Bonez: "Knick Knack Paddywhack"* 3 stars

*Death Spa: Don't let an exorcist hacker control your electronic gym, if you're a cheating ex and give memberships to jerk yuppies.* 3 stars

*Halloween Propaganda: "Every Halloween, children are dying."* 3 stars

*Lovely Little Monster: Anne Rice chick hip hop. Dance routine sign language. Rick James voodoo zombie. Bathsalt freakout Twilight romance.* 3 stars

*Pops Ghostly: A Casper family man vents on his family's hellcat home invasion frustration.* 2 1/2 stars

*Punkinman: The Bob Villa (this old house) / Bob Ross (happy clouds painter) of stickin' it in a pumpkin and getting the best out.* 2 1/2 stars

*Zombie Workout: Spunky Linnea Quigley criticizes the falling apart shape of the undead and has them working out their rotten flesh.* close to 3 stars

*3 Minute Ghosthouse: A Back to the Future Michael J. Fox wannabe look-a-like goes up against some zany frighteners.* 3 stars

======================================================================

Z Nation: Doctor of the Dead *Not much soap opera for a zombie series finale, mostly just zombie stuff. A shadowy scientist running around globally, pre zombie outbreak, conducting gruesome, and unknown for purposes, field experiments. Creepy CDC style medical lab, in Colorado, filled with zombie testing gone wrong. Tiny Asian chick is dying but comes back as a kung fu z with Alice from Resident Evil maneuvers (not a big fan of that). Cameo from the doomed lovers to show they'll be back next season (Oh, great... yawn). And a big finish cliffhanger with Murphy "shedding his skin" (could be creepy and great) and running off leaving everyone else, including Citizen Z at the North Pole, to stare dumbly at their impending demise which is nuclear missiles dropping in to say hi.* 3 stars

Scare Tactics -season 2 -episode 14 "My Guests Are Mannequins" ---------------

*Antonio, Tone Loc's cousin, volunteers to help park rangers clean the roadkill off of a bridge that a Chupacabra lives under.* between 2 1/2 and 3 stars

*A 'You Betcha' cocktail waitress serves cheeze and ritz crackers to a honky's stuffy mannequin party guests and is scared to refuse his offer to "Party Forever" with him.* 3 stars

*A crematorium trainee turns white as a ghost, and he was black to begin with, when he flips the flame switch and a woman's husband pops out still alive just crispy.* 3 stars

==============================================================

X Files: Conduit *Alien abductee or possible runaway of ill-refute and her baby brother who can read into the matrix.* 2 1/2 stars

Sam Raimi presents American Gothic: Pilot Episode *What if Sheriff Andy Taylor were a controlling psycho who'd go as far as framing his own deputy, Barney, for murder, and what if Opie had a William Faulkner and Ambrose Bierce childhood...?* between 2 1/2 and 3 stars

Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs: "The Wraith" (Summer School Session - Driver's Education with the author of the NYC cab driver joke book) *It was inevitable that the spirit of the American Highway would be symbolized by a fiery car crash.* 3 stars

The Outer Limits: Caught in the Act *A college virgin, Alyssa Milano, gives the worst case of blue balls, until an alien parasite turns her into a raging nympho succubus.* 2 stars slipping towards 1 1/2 stars

Paranormal State -season 1 -episode 11 *A nice, retired, Queens NY lady needed the Penn State crew and a noted medium, in demons, to tell her to stop trying to contact the dead through the use of evp.* 2 stars

Bob and Margaret: The Burglary *The couple get a little too greedy, themselves, after their old stuff gets stolen and they have to replace it with all new stuff.* 3 stars

The Prisoner: A, B, and C *Number 6 continues to be defiant, even in his dreams. Dreams that The Village is now determined to surveillance.* 3 stars

Mike Tyson Mysteries: Is Magic Real? *Mike is the only non skeptic concerning Mexican leprechauns.* 3 stars

Town of the Living Dead: Dong of the Dead *Two words... butt auditions.* 3 stars

Ken Russell's "Crimes of Passion" *It's sleazy Charles Bukowski meets Russ Meyer. Kathleen Turner is a Gloria Steinem behind a glory hole. Anthony Perkins is like a Jerry Falwell who jerks off to crime scene photos of the Black Dahlia. And John Laughlin is Tim 'The Tool Man' Taylor who can't get his jackhammer plugged into a hot electrical outlet.* 3 stars

Hill Street Blues: Can World War 3 Be An Attitude? *"You're okay. I'm okay. We're okay. Okay?"* 3 stars

Max Headroom: Security Systems *A way ahead of its time investigative look at security organizations (*cough* the N.S.A. *cough*) and how complete access to so much information, personal and otherwise, can only lead to that kind of knowledge being abusively used.* 3 stars

South Park: Cock Magic *Magic the Gathering greater than girls volleyball.* 3 stars

American Horror Story -Freakshow- "Bloodbath" *From the head to the legs. From the body to the mind.* 2 stars

Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs: "The Time Machine" 1960 *Joe Bob and Rusty the mail girl demonstrate worm hole theory using a dirty bedsheet and a bowling ball. Meanwhile, Rod Taylor zips from turn of the 20th century England to thousands of years in the future where angelic, naive youth live in a garden of eden paradise as cattle for cavern dwelling commie cannibals.* 3 stars

Farscape: Til the Blood Runs Clear *Being the 'big dog' with a pair of Beavis & Butthead moron bloodhound bounty hunters, and getting ripped off at a spacecraft repair shop ran by a Roseanne type.* 3 stars

Thundarr, the Barbarian: Wizard Wars *The cybernetic oversized head of a warlock Fred Flinstone uses hypnotized sandpeople as slaves to lay siege on another magician's desert stronghold.* 3 stars

Tosh.0 -Who Shot Black Santa? -2014 *The greatest Christmas present is hot cocoa served with love.* 2 1/2 stars

SyFy presents "End of the World" 2014 *Generic doomsday movie junkies, who work at a videostore, must break a scientist (Brad Dourif) out of the nuthouse so that he can help them save the world from being destroyed by a heliosphere.* 1 1/2 stars for aesthetics and special fx 2 stars for plot and characters and 2 1/2 stars for oddly humorous moments like hicks with guns getting in the way of nerds that are mankind's only hope, and randomly timed deaths

Tru Tv presents: World's Smartest Inventions 11 *Using robots for end of life care. No shame in hanging from a tree, on a hiking trail, and pooping, or standing on a sidewalk and pissing out the bottom of pant legs using a tube. Or having a doctor recommend to "ice the balls" in order to conceive, so a guy runs out and invents chilled underwear.* 2 1/2 stars

Everything is Terrible --Christmas Bonus-- 2012 --------------------------

*Snowdogs vs. Chillydogs: They're basically the same movie, give or take a few minor differences.* 2 1/2 stars

*Hanukkah Homeboy: "Don't noodge me."* 2 1/2 stars

*Celebrity Guide to X-Mas: Ed Begley Jr. can't relax his environmental beliefs in order to not ruin Christmas.* 2 1/2 stars

*Dr. Christmas: Artificial tree tips for a superficial Christmas.* 2 1/2 stars

*Gerbert Christmas Wish: A muppet's melancholy holiday.* 2 1/2 stars

*Holiday Showtime: Branson, Missouri is holiday purgatory.* 3 stars

*Jingle Cats: Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.* 3 stars

*Lawrence Welk Holiday Song: From now on our troubles will be miles awayayayaya.* 2 stars

*Natural Professional Tree: Step back and check for a natural appearance.* 2 stars

*Visit with Santa: Santa Q & A with dumb kids.* 3 stars

*Brent the Christmas Bear: Marvin Gaye gaiety.* 3 stars

*Glitter n Gold: A plea for puppet peace and relationship harmony.* 3 stars

*Kathy Lee Hip Hop: Horrid.* 1 star

*2 Minute Parental Guidance: Deck the halls and shake dat ass.* 3 stars

*Reggae Deck the Halls: Farmyard follalollalah.* 2 1/2 stars

*Santa with Muscles: Scrooge Ed Begley Jr. wants to close down the orphanage and exploit the kids as elf miners, but not if amnesiac, department store Santa Hulk Hogan has anything to say about it.* 2 1/2 stars

*X-Mas Nightmare 2012: Santa can't be asked to do the impossible, like alleviating the cynicism that comes with adulthood.* 2 1/2 stars

*Fuck Christmas: A humble shoemaker has had it up to here with the holidays, in this heartwarming tale.* 3 stars

*Chipper's X-Mas Adventure: A chipmunk goes crazy when his treehome is chopped down by joyous honkys.* 3 stars

*E.T. Porno: Smell E.T.'s finger.* 2 1/2 stars

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Freddy's Nightmares: The Bride Wore Red *A groom's cold feet get raked over hot coals. Also, rappin' Freddy.* 2 stars *For the bride with daddy issues, divorce is a fate worse than death.* 3 stars

Tales from the Crypt: The Thing from the Grave *A lesson about not getting in between a no-nonsense, jealous boyfriend with a short-fuse (Miguel Ferrer) and his prized piece of cooze (Teri Garr). That is unless one has a charm necklace that can bring a vengeful corpse back from its shallow grave.* 3 stars

"Mirror Mirror" -1991- *A shy ugly duckling begins to flower when she embraces her dark reflection.* 3 stars

American Horror Story -Asylum- "I Am Anne Frank" *Auschwitz. Axe murder. Aversion therapy. Amputee monstrosity. Acceptance of guilt. Absentee motherhood. Alcoholic relapse. Alien abduction. Alma's alive!* 3 stars

Lars Von Trier's "Melancholia" *3 stars for gorgeously moody photography and score. 2 1/2 stars for symbolism (melancholia is here to stay). 2 stars for rogue planet collision apocalypse scenario. 1 1/2 stars for insufferable characters (mopey rich women). 1 star for pretentiousness 1/2 a star for snail pacing (2 hours felt like 5 hours). zero stars for jerky handheld camerwork

Gargoyles: Enter MacBeth *Another MacBeth who likes to do things on his own turf, and yet again all because of a lady.* 3 stars

Game of Thrones: -season 3 -episode 5 *"The birds have scales and the fish take wing."* 3 stars

Paranormal State: -season 1 -episode 12 *A psychic can't get her stories straight when it comes to a former schoolhouse's spirits. Credit to the Penn State crew for seeing through her b.s.* 2 stars

The Outer Limits: The Voyage Home *On the first manned mission to mars, a space bug is snagged, and one giant step for mankind turns into a suicidal leap.* 2 1/2 stars

Scare Tactics: The Chef Cooks a Human --------------

*Safe installation turns out to be a safe cracking burglary.* 2 1/2 stars

*Rear Window scenario where peeping at a neighbor who is an escort loses its thrill when she stabs an abusive client and informs her big heavy pimp that there are witnesses to the crime.* 2 1/2 stars

*Finding a ring in the hamburger meat and a bloody, armless dude in the freezer.* 3 stars

*Parents meet their teenage son's new girlfriend and find out she's already pregnant, but only it's from an alien, not the teenage son.* 2 1/2 stars

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Russell Mulcahy's "The Shadow" -1994- *Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Alec Baldwin knows.* between 2 and 2 1/2 stars

Swamp Thing: From Beyond the Grave *"See the ship, hear it speak from deep down in the hold." Lyrics from a song sang by Jim's dead grandma. Words directing Jim, and his mom, to granny's last will and testament, hidden, in the swamp, so that Arcane can't take possession of her property and pollute and further exploit it.* 2 1/2 stars

Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital: -season 1 -episode 4 *Dream perchance debenture.* 2 1/2 stars

"Slipstream" *A loveable scoundrel (Bill Paxton) steals away a messiah-like android, from a hardline bountyhunter (Mark Hammil), on a journey across a windswept wasteland in a post-cataclysm story filled with hot air balloons, small airplanes, and eccentric nomads.* 2 1/2 stars

Christmas with Rifftrax: Santa's Village of Madness / K. Gordan Murray shorts *Never has the mythology of Saint Nick been more mucked with.* 2 1/2 stars with riffing 1 star without

Jonny Quest: Werewolf of the Timberland *Gold smuggling lumberjacks in the French Canadian forest.* 3 stars

Bob and Margaret: Shopping *"Cheese of the week." The convenient inconvenience of supermarkets.* 3 stars

I'm Alan Partridge: Alan Wide Shut *"Hot floppy bread." Needless to say, Alan had the last laugh. Now, fuck off!.* 3 stars

True Life: I Want Respect For My Sect *A Juggalo bride's parents opt out of their daughter's Juggalo themed wedding. Pretentious vampires, in the pretentious Texas city of Austin, have a coming out party in order to gain new members and understanding. A cute 18 year old "furry" seems genuinely happy to have her parents acceptance at being able to attend her first convention.* 2 stars

Ghost Adventures: Dungeons & Demons *"Something just grabbed my ass!" The three bros travel to some of the world's most tainted holes.* 2 stars

Adventure Time: Holly Jolly Secrets *Deciphering the Ice King's weirdo home movies becomes a holiday tradition.* 2 stars

Farscape: Rhapsody in Blue *Madness is the mind's co-pilot.* between 2 and 2 1/2 stars

X Files: The Jersey Devil *Naked Neanderthals on the outskirts of Atlantic City.* 3 stars

12:01 Beyond: Kneel Before the Future ----------------------

*D.O.A. - Behind the Smile: Things are looking bright for election 2016.* 3 stars

*Commander Lobo trips and falls heading out to the wasteland.* 2 stars

*Ninja Force, the Mission: Bacon jitsu vs. cheese.* between 2 and 2 1/2 stars

*Silverball Heroes versus Video Invaders in Arcade Attack* 3 stars

*Lobo in the wasteland sponsored by...* 2 1/2 stars

*A vintage trailer for Terminal City Ricochet.* 3 stars

*-984- Prisoner of the Future: Detained to desolation.* 3 stars

*Lobo thirsts and pines in the wasteland.* 3 stars

*Intimate Secrets - Secrets that have to be told - 1 900 - adults only - $2.00 per minute* 3 stars

*iBraineater - Modern Man (music video)* 3 stars

*JacMac & RadBoy GO!: Wow, did Mike Judge rip this off?* 3 stars

*Commander Lobo finds ThunderDome covered in feces.* 3 stars

*Robotistory: A video history of robots in pop culture entertainment.* 2 1/2 stars

*Lobo wants to go back home to his bunker.* 2 stars

*Max Fleischer's Superman - The Mechanical Monsters* 3 stars

*Vintage 1990 Live Psychic Readings commercial that's in the style of the X-Files intro. Eerie nostalgia.* 3 stars

*Republic Pictures serial The Crimson Ghost - Chapter 2 - Thunderbolt: Death ray escape debacle.* 2 1/2 stars

*Tex Avery's Jerky Turkey: Skipped. already viewed and reviewed

*Lobo has a biohazard demise.* 2 stars

-------------------------------------------------------------

Tales from the Crypt: The Sacrifice *"Money, pussy, and bullshit." Also a few cussing parrots and a sleazy & kinky Michael Ironside.* 3 stars

"Howling 4, the Original Nightmare" *A novelist, with a vivid imagination, would rather chase the ghost of a nun, hangout with a lesbian ex-nun and search for clues to a legend of a werewolf church burning, and listen to howls on the wind in the night than have sex with her feathered-hair-do, five o'clock shadow bearded bohunk cheating husband.* 2 stars

American Horror Story -Freakshow- "Tupperware Party Massacre" *Avon culling. Chubby Chaser. Liquored lobster. Lingering Ethel. Privileged killer. Suicide letter. Shamelessly long pecker. Playing doctor. Tearjerker. Siamese threeway offer rejection. Jimmy sober and smitten. Framejob bloody mitten.* 2 1/2 to 3 stars

Friday the 13th, the series: The Great Montarro *Sarcophagus artifice.* 3 stars

"Dragonslayer" 1981 *Not the sorcerer that we want right now, but the sorcerer that we need. The lottery where the winner gets spit-roasted by Smaug has to be the absolute worst. There may have never been more themes of gender inequality, social-political injustice, and the transition between Paganism and Christianity ever before in a Sword & Sorcery flick.* 3 stars

Paranormal State: -season 1 -episode 13 *Cursed and mice infested piano for free on Craigslist.* 2 to 1 1/2 stars

Bob and Margaret: Trick or Treat *"the misery of eternal non-existence"* 2 1/2 stars

"Loose Shoes" -1980- ---------------------------------------------------

*The Howard Huge Story: "His hobby was watching planes fuck."* 3 stars

*Skateboarders From Hell: "Lock up your sons and daughters."* 3 stars

*The Invasion of the Penis Snatchers: "Coming at you in 3-D!"* 3 stars

*Three Chairs For Lefty: Bill Murray on death row.* 3 stars

*The Sneaker: Woody Allen parody.* 2 1/2 stars

*The Magic and Mystery of the Gobi* 3 stars

*Buddy Hackett on behalf of this nation's bed-wetters* 3 stars

*Don't forget organic chocolate covered beanettes.* 2 1/2 stars

*Ditch your kids at the matinee.* 2 1/2 stars

*The Shaggy Studio Chief plus the Calf Who Thought She Was A Chicken* 2 stars

*The Bad News Bares in Getting Laid* 3 stars

*A Visit With Ma and Pa: Ma and Pa take a talking pig to New York City* 3 stars

*The Birth of a Nation, parody* 2 1/2 stars

*The Kid and the Yid. Charlie the bum was a hebrew commie jew* 3 stars

*The Ballerina Is Dead in "Scuffed Shoes"* 2 1/2 stars

*Just a Run in the Sun: Cynical and funny war tragedy story.* 3 stars

*Fistful of Something: Sid Haig in a Spaghetti Western spoof.* 3 stars

*Welcome to Bacon County: Hicksploitation hilarity.* 3 stars

*That's Sexploitation! Under 18 must sneak in.* 3 stars

*The Return of the Pom Pom Boys: Sex comedy with a twist. This time it's the guys who are getting exploited.* 3 stars

*Billy Jerk Goes To Oz: Sticking up for the little man.* 3 stars

*Darktown After Dark: The first all black musical.* 3 stars

*Star (of David) Wars* 2 1/2 stars

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Scare Tactics: season 2 -episode 20 "Weirdo in the Haunted House" ----------

*Taking high school chemistry doesn't make one a chemist, especially evident when green goop, accidentally poured down the sink, by said non-chemist, comes gushing through the ceiling, doors, cracks, vents, and walls.* 3 stars

*Almost torched alive, in a van, by a psycho hitchhiker.* 3 stars

*Stripper audition interrupted by a jealous, meathead boyfriend who likes to throw guys out of windows.* 2 1/2 stars

*A closed down haunted house attraction, and former crime scene, has an uninvited guest who doesn't want to be disturbed.* 2 stars

--------------------------------------------------------------------

"Phantasm 4, Oblivion" *On the other side of morning.* 3 stars

Max Headroom: War *Network 23's poodle and pony show has the advertising bulls and bears instead hitching up to the war hysteria for profit media wagon.* 3 stars

The Outer Limits: The New Breed *Nanobots don't know when to stop. They turn a terminally ill man into a Frankenstein's monster of evolution.* 3 stars

Freddy's Nightmares: Do Dreams Bleed? *The lingering trauma of having witnessed a brutal slaying.* 2 1/2 stars *Intimate personal closeness with a possible deranged killer can play foul with the mind.* 2 stars

"The Blair Witch Project" *"We're still alive because we got cigarettes, and we're smoking." Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians have a Deliverance weekend where they get choked in the shallow waters before they get too deep. The grunge era Autumn setting, lost in the woods paranoia, and low fi minimalist creative use of limited fx (stick figures and bundles of sticks with bloody body parts along with the noises and the spooky house) make up for the film students arguing in the middle of nowhere with a shaking camera nonsense that takes place for more than half of the film.* between 2 and 2 1/2 stars

X Files: Shadows *Mulder: *whispering* psycho-kinetic-manipulation / Scully: *amused* You mean like Carrie at the prom? --- Turns out it was a Ghost versus some terrorists and a jerk boss. Also, a missed opportunity to have Patrick Swayze as a guest star on the X Files.* 2 1/2 stars

"Alice Sweet Alice" -1977- *Impolite middle class Catholic society, cruel aunts, spoiled siblings, flamboyantly slobbish perverts, snap to judgement child psychologists, and pinch faced old church women with religious hangups are all worse than slightly odd and so called out of control tweens. Also, it's a shame that Brooke Shields' name is at the top of the movie's poster. She's barely in it, and the other little girl along with the rest of the cast are the soul of the movie.* 3 stars

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Girls Town *Scat and slang.* between 2 & 2 1/2 stars with riffing, between 1 1/2 & 2 stars without

Joe Bob's Hollywood Saturday Night: To The Limit *"Anna Nicole Smith gives retired, Texas strippers a bad name." Joe Bob Briggs* between 1 and 1 1/2 stars for this heavy edited softcore stinker

Weird Science: She's Alive *"a scathing indictment of a braindead, sexist MTV generation" 3 stars

Are You Afraid of the Dark: The Tale of the Phantom Cab *The Midnight Society start out by having a pair of lost Hansel & Hansel brothers putting a hole in a barrel out in the Canadian forest with a reject teacher from Hogwarts.* 3 stars

American Gothic: A Tree Grows In Trinity *Let Heaven and nature sting.* 3 stars

The Tom Green Show on Canadian television circa 1996(?) *"Who's the champ -NOW- champ?" Tom strangely bothers teachers on strike, concert goers, drugists, mall shoppers, poor fishermen, and former bowling league champions. He also plays footsie with a dating service lady.* 2 stars

Kung Fu, the series: Pilot Episode *Sometimes one must cut off a finger in order to save a hand, and sometimes one must hang himself in order to get off. Inner strength incapacitates ignorance.* 3 stars

"Country Hooker" *In the tune of a CB radio listenin' truck drivin' country western croon, "Doin' what they damn well please..." That is until their demented Tennessee Ernie Ford -esque pimpdaddy finds out. There are some freaks in this flick, and I don't mean the tricks, it's the johns and the honky tonk patrons.* 2 1/2 stars

"Christmas Evil" aka "You Better Watch Out" *If it's not a Jolly Dream, it's not worth having.* 3 stars

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Village of the Giants *These days, kids are getting too big for their britches. Of course, I'm talking about a Mousketeer, Opie, the kid from The Rifleman, and Beau Bridges.* 3 stars with riffing or 2 stars without

Tales from the Crypt: For Cryin' Out Loud *A real high pitched squealer with a weasel, rock promoter whose clients like Iggy Pop and Donny Osmond get on his nerves, a seductress blackmailer Katey Sagal trying to reach in his pants to snatch half of a million smackers, and an angry voice of reason Sam Kinison screaming his tell tell heart out constantly.* between 2 and 2 1/2 stars

New World Pictures "Candy Stripe Nurses" 1974 *A socially conscious skin-flick with sophisticated modern women who are smarter than the bohunks they seduce, Gran Torino type bitter old men griping about the decline of their local neighborhoods, commentary on a flawed justice system for minorities, student athlete doping controversy, medical malpractice issuing of needless prescriptions scandal, sexually repressed and spoiled rockstar, seventees era streaking, existential conversations while flirting, and just enough hospital setting hanky panky.* 3 stars

American Horror Story --Coven-- "Bitchcraft" *The part where Darren walked in on Tabitha going down on Elvira while Melissa Joan Hart cut herself with a razor blade for attention and the cast of Designing Women boiled that poor black guy (Meshach Taylor) alive in a caldron... hocus whoa...cus* 2 1/2 stars

Doctor Who (fourth doctor) "Pyramid of Mars" *Imprisoned ancient gods are always showing up in the isolated British countryside and killing 3 or 4 old men in their plot to destroy the world. Thanks to the Doctor, nobody else in the world ever notices.* 2 1/2 stars

TMNT: Mazes & Mutants *A lonely live action roleplayer gasses the turtles so that he can play a game with them in the sewers.* 2 1/2 stars

He-Man & She-Ra, A Christmas Special *Horde Prime wishes to stop Orko and two adorable Earth children from bringing the gospel of Chris Cringle to Eternia. Special guests the Smurf Transformers, the Eternian Decepticons, the Little Mermaid, and Skeletor's heart grew 3 sizes that day.* 2 1/2 stars

Are You Afraid of the Dark: The Tale of the Pinball Wizard *Super-soaker, now that's playing with power. A compulsive free play gamer gets trapped in the mall, inside a pinball machine, with a princess in distress, and is Sixpence None the Richer for it.* between 2 and 2 1/2 stars

Swamp Thing: The Shipment *Arcane corrupts the local law enforcement into mutant trafficking and the crooked Sheriff helps kidnap Jim, fake Jim's death, and ship Jim off to South America. We finally get to see Swamp Thing show some physical muscle in a brawl with a stunt man and it's revealed what had to be painfully obvious all along, that the town had to have a corrupt police force in order for Arcane to be doing so many vile things without it coming to legal light.* 3 stars

"Neon City" 1991 *A disgruntled, former lawman (Michael Ironside) begrudgingly runs protection for a RV stagecoach of ragtag wayfarers across the cursed earth.* 2 1/2 stars

The Outer Limits: The Message *Binary E.T. S.O.S. for a deaf woman with a defective ear implant and new mother depression along with voices in her head making the domestic partner daddy think she's schizoid because she runs off with a looney janitor / UFO believer.* 3 stars

Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs: Warlock the Armageddon *Runes and Druids. Smalltown fear and hatred of devil worship. Two young should destined to be lovers who are kept apart by ignorance and circumstance. Parents of the picturesque smalltown trying to protect a dark secret. Some horribly dated CGI (forgivable). Nice and twistedly gruesome gore fx to make up for the bad CGI. A charismatic villain (Julian Sands) who is just as good as Marvel's Loki (Tom Hiddleston).* 2 1/2 stars

Paranormal State: season 1 -episode 14 *In a house that was once a part of the underground railroad, there's a clash of values between a modern inter-racial family and a strict religious spirit of a lady who was an abolitionist.* 2 stars

"Home for the Holidays" 1972 *"There's nothing more chilling than a warm family gathering." An And Then There Were None style story at a stormy, secluded setting where the more stable sibling is the most sinister.* between 2 1/2 and 3 stars

--- Freddy's Nightmares: The End of the World

*Hazy earliest memories are repressed because they involve accidentally killing mommy and crippling a childhood friend, but a girl discovers she can dream things differently and it will fix the present. But unfortunately, there's a butterfly effect.* 2 1/2 stars

*The same girl, from before, is now having prophetic dreams of a nuclear warhead going off on U.S. soil. The C.I.A. is extra curious as to how she got launch codes, and once they figure out she's not fooling or getting tipped off from the inside, well they want to exploit her in their cold war pursuits, while she just wants to make sure that a disturbed sleepwalking missile defense employee doesn't make his Christmas nightmares of melting his son's favorite cartoon character Gumby's face off along with his own son's innocent face as well come true.* 3 stars

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"Class of 1984" *An irresponsible idiot subjects his pregnant wife to a brutal gang rape and torture all because he wants to be an inspirational music educator at one of those imaginary innercity hell highschools where he can't help but feud with the worst gang in a school that has its disciplinary hands tied with the usual red tape bullshit. This was way before zero tolerance. When teach has to turn vigilante just to earn 30k a year, a mild mannered biology professor (Roddy McDowall) has to hold a gun on his pupils just to get their focus on his lessons, and a timid tattle tell (Michael J. Fox) winds up shanked in the liver, just to name a few things, there might be good reason to move back to a smalltown or the suburbs and spare the rod.* 3 stars

Shaw Brothers: Fists of the White Lotus *White Lotus can't be touched because he fights hammer style. A lesson about a gentle approach and pinpointing the right pulse.* 3 stars

Scare Tactics: season 2 episode 22 "Mom's Crazy" -------------

*Little grey men nick around a ranch house near area 51.* between 1 1/2 and 2 stars

*Falling into a wanted by the government hacker's booby trap.* 2 1/2 stars

*Having a nice evening with a psycho park ranger.* 2 1/2 stars

*Mommie dearest keeps her abducted little girl in a cage.* 3 stars

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"Ultra Flesh" 1980 *Sugar (cocaine?) is making the world's men impotent and the President of the United States pays a visit to a third world dictator (Jamie Gillis) whose people seem to have no problem snorting and screwing. Secretly, however, the dictator is a Mr. Freeze type alien who uses his dwarf henchmen to plot against the earth women. An intergalactic group of horny aliens send down Ultra Flesh, a vixen from Venus, to shoot laser beams out of her poonanny and help earth propagate again.* 3 stars

The Prisoner: Free For All *Who are you voting for? Which puppet candidate will it be? "You wouldn't deny the rite of proper procedure?"* 3 stars

New World Pictures presents Larry Cohen's "God Told Me To" --1976-- *Urban upheaval caused by a lot of gristle in the melting pot. The doggedly determined forced by personal convictions that are of soul tearing origins. The easily swayed are proned to random acts of violence. The new age fortunate are full of fallacy with their fancy notions. And the pitiful and holy are just as much victims as they inadvertently victimize others in their own inability to face up to the burden of consequences that come with cruel circumstance.* 3 stars

X Files: Ghost in the Machine *Interfacing Promethean resistively. The machine is dead. Long live the machine.* 2 1/2 stars

"Silent Night, Bloody Night" --1972-- *A season of violence come to bare its withered, ugly fruit. The sepia soaked orgy of murder by the mental patients along with the undertones of incest, then father assuming the identity of his dead daughter, whom he fathered a child with, is all rather haunting/disturbing.* close to 3 stars

Paranormal State: season 1 -episode 15 *The spirit of a war veteran still haunts the barn where he committed suicide after a alzheimer's diagnosis. So, the team brings in an army honor guard to have a memorial service where a piece of his skull was buried, by his wife, on the property. Also, a little boy, from before the middle of the 20th century, who died of the croop, on the property, is sensed as just a mischevious spirit by medium Chip Coffey.* 2 1/2 stars

American Horror Story --Murder House-- "Open House" *Squint and bite down. There will be no sale. These spirits won't be built over, smothered out, skull fucked, love requited, or made to polish their own silver again.* 2 1/2 stars

Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs: Twilight Zone the movie *John Landis does okay thanks to the tragically killed Vic Morrow . Spielberg can only do schmaltzy Spielberg. Joe Dante puts some thrilling touches on a classic. Lithgow trumps Shatner in the freakout department, but none of these outings are as good as Rod Serling and the original.* 2 1/2 stars

Everything is Terrible --Holiday Special-- -2012- *"He sees you eat your pizza. He sees you eat your pizza."* 3 stars

Tales from the Crypt: Four-Sided Triangle *The sour couple from the Grant Wood American Gothic painting think they can hold captive a farmgirl to do all their chores. And Patricia Arquette is sure purty enough to make the crops grow. But the farmer's horny ignorance coupled with his wife's jealous mean streak are no match for the cow milking maiden's cleverness.* 3 stars

The Tom Green Show on Canadian television circa the late 1990s *Somewhere between Andy Kaufman and the geek who bites the heads off chickens at the county fair.* close to 2 1/2 stars

William Peter Blatty's "The Ninth Configuration" --1980-- *"Consider the lillies of the field."* 3 stars

Hill Street Blues: Double Jeopardy *"You figure that you're owed something for all the love and compassion that you carry in you..." A liberal cop comes face to face with the harsh reflection of reality in an oily mudpuddle on the other side of the rainbow. One of many storyline elements including Dan Hedaya as a dirty cop who turns out surprisingly to be easily deeply sympathetic for.* 3 stars

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Dead Talk Back *A model murdered by crossbow. Was it the amateur necromancer, the hip richboy, the confrontational preacher, the quiet abuser, the German pervert, or the nervous pornographer? If the dead girl can't tell us, we'll never know. Detective work depends on kooky science and no forensic nonsense.* 2 stars with riffing 1 star without

"The Conjuring" --2013-- *It's surprising to learn that famed demonologists The Warrens were actually selfless truthseekers and not the scam artists they were proven to be.* close to 3 stars

Jonny Quest: The Dreadful Doll *Witchdoctor Beavis working for a mercenary Fred Flintstone.* 2 1/2 stars

"Phase IV" --1974-- *The perceived terror of a terrrestrial advancement not our own.* 3 stars

The Outer Limits: I Robot *What is the value of conceived worth? Adam Link, the first sentient robot, has an amount of quality, as relating to empathy, greater than most humans.* 3 stars

South Park: #Rehash *Commentary and clit rubbing, both by obnoxious social media celebrities, is the entertainment content of the future.* 3 stars

South Park: #Happy Holograms *The most ignorant Christas special ever is now trending.* 3 stars

Swamp Thing: Birth Marks *Kari Wuhrer joins the cast as a test tube teen, and Jim's older brother -Will- becomes the central character as ST's link to the human world.* 2 1/2 stars

"Rewind This" --2013-- *"Don't let your mom tell you that you can't make a monster movie." *quoting* a door to door monster movie salesman and the self proclaimed Ed Wood of the 21st century. That pretty much sums up the 30 plus year culture, that became a cult, of video.* 3 stars

"Forced Entry" --1974-- *One of the first movies to deal with post traumatic stress disorder also happens to be a gritty 1970s NYC serial killer study mixed with a sleazy 42nd street rough porno. This is when skin flicks tried to be film art and this one is bold enough to juxtapose a home invasion sicko's forced oral money shot with scenes of burning Vietnamese villages and crying villagers.* either zero stars or 2 1/2 stars

David Cronenberg's "Dead Ringers" *One never has to feel alone what with shared life experiences, sexual opponents, the psychic connection between siblings, or the prescribed lifeline of addiction.* 3 stars

Weird Science: Universal Remote *Skipping through the boring parts of life just to hurry up and get to second base with girls.* between 2 and 2 1/2 stars

Tim & Eric -Awesome Show- Great Job! ---Chrimbus Special--- -2010- *"The Winter Man wants you to eat a pound of hair per year."* close to 2 1/2 stars

Bob & Margaret: The Holiday *Hijacked hip hip hooray.* 3 stars

Thundarr the Barbarian: Battle of the Barbarians *Big barbarians in little Beijing.* 3 stars

Game of Thrones: season 3 -episode 6 *There's more than one way to kindle a fire, skin a rabbit, marry into an inbred family, serve a deity, shoot arrows, inflict torture, or climb an icy face of a wall.* 3 stars

Twin Peaks: Beyond Life and Death *Wow, Bob, Wow!* 3 stars

The Tom Green Show -Rogers Community TV- The Comedy Network --1998(?)-- *Tom Green seemed funny when I was around sixteen, now, sixteen years later, he seems more like a shithead.* either zero stars or 2 stars

Are You Afraid of the Dark: The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors *The people who just moved in next door are nocturnal freaks with fridges full of blood in their basement. A Nickelodeon version of Fright Night.* 2 stars

Friday the 13th, the series: Doctor Jack *The key to a disgraced surgeon's miracle surgeries is a scalpel that hungers for shadowy street murders.* 3 stars

Farscape: The Flax *Scavenging, self preservation, strategic chessgames, sweet romance, and sacrifice all at the flypaper snare strip in the pirate portion of the universe.* 3 stars

Max Headroom: The Blanks *The Blanks (anonymous), for highly justified political reasons of freeing unjustly imprisoned Blanks, hack into and threatened to shut down a technology dependent society ran by corrupt corporations and politicians.* 3 stars

X Files: Ice *Who goes there? Another tense, paranoid version of the classic sci fi story involving a parasitic alien in an arctic setting.* 3 stars

Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital: season 1 -episode 5 *Memorial shrine to regretful medical malpractice.* 3 stars

American Horror Story: Asylum --Origins of Monstrosity-- *Skin to skin. A mother's touch.* 3 stars --Dark Cousin-- *Summon the angel of death.* 3 stars --Unholy Night-- *Satan frees Santa from solitary.* 3 stars

Paranormal State: season 1 -episode 16 *A strange, and humorously titled, ghost communication device called "Frank's Box" is used to speak to spirits trapped by a demon inside an insane asylum with a dark history and many unmarked graves on its grounds.* between 2 1/2 and 3 stars

"The Dark Secret of Harvest Home" *"What men may never know and what women may never tell." Townies from NYC accidentally take a wrong turn across a picturesque covered bridge into a frozen in colonial times New England village where the townfolk have strange customs involving corn and keeping to the old ways. The more the inquisitive sketch artist husband digs into the secrets surrounding a strange death, the more the mother and daughter get caught up in the cult nature of the many festivals. It turns out to be a fertility cult where the new blood wife is mounted and humped in front of the cuckold hubbie by a bohunk who is then beheaded. As tradition, the husband's eyes are then scratched out by the white robed pagan women for having witnessed the sacred act. See, this is why I fully throw my hat behind the patriarchy and not mother earth religions.* 3 stars

"Hot Summer in the City" ---sexploitation--- --1976-- *While a soundtrack of songs like AM radio gold classic "Everlasting Love" played as militant black power jive bruthas took turns on a scared Alice in Wonderland captive piece of "white pussy" and the group's cockeyed idiot gets brow beaten and bitch slapped for getting his "finger stuck in her asshole," I realized why this movie is self hating, w.a.s.p. hating, obvious subversive, ugly mongoloid looking Quentin Tarantino's favorite dirty movie.* either zero stars or close to 2 1/2 stars

American Horror Story --Coven-- "Boy Parts" *Extra piece of fried chicken. Frankenstein boyfriend. Ghetto hair extensions. 180 year old racist. Poisoned buckwheat. Alligator dung. Snake eggs. Stevie Nicks. Deep fried revenge. Poaching game. Minotaur Mandingo. Woman on top.* between 2 1/2 & 3 stars

King of the Nerds: Imaginary Realms *Cosplay challenge. The only cosplay that ever interested me was the scene from Revenge of the Nerds where there's spacesuit deception in order to get nookie from a cheerleader inside a moonwalk attraction at the fair.* 2 stars

Kung Fu, the series: King of the Mountain *Confrontation is not courageous, but it is indeed cool when it is combat, on the side of a cliff, between David Carradine and a cowboy bounty hunter John Saxon.* 3 stars

American Gothic: Eye of the Beholder *Faust Gump* 3 stars

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youbetterworkcovergirl · 7 years

Text

2018 Movies Watched

Mayhem

Creep 2

The Vault

Super Dark Times

Haunters

Lady Gaga Five Foot Two

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle

Coco

Flatliners (2017)

Madman

Oxygen

Before I Wake

The Lodger

Marshall

Airheads

The Snowman

Rewind This

Big Business

The Crucifixion

Dinner with Friends

Natural Selection

When A Stranger Calls Back

Hairspray (original)

Geostorm

Return of the Living Dead 3

Empire Records

Heathers

Keep Watching

A Bad Moms Christmas

I, Tonya

Suburbicon

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Only The Brave

Mr. Mom

Girls Against Boys

The Cloverfield Paradox

The Open House

Seed of Chucky

Trick or Treats

#Horror

The Blob (1988)

The Stuff

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

American Satan

Insidious 4: The Last Key

My Friend Dahmer

Waco

The Ritual

Black Panther

Nothing But Trouble

Deadly Blessing

Dismissed

Manson

Student Bodies

The Silent Scream

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missuori

The Buttercream Gang

House of Long Shadows

The Babysitters Club

Veronica

The Man Who Invented Christmas

The Shape of Water

So I Married an Axe Murder

Honey We Shrunk Ourselves

The First Wives Club

The Devil’s Arithmetic

Tom and Huck

Backdraft

The Brady Bunch Movie

Problem Child

Pitch Perfect 3

Winchester

Tormented

Prophet of Evil

Vincent

The Bat

The Comedy of Terrors

Witness To Waco

Echoes in the Darkness

To Catch A Killer

The Haunted

Seduced by Madness

True Crime

Night of the Creeps

Return of the Living Dead

Love Potion #9

Tragedy Girls

Fallen Angel

Adam: His Story Continues

The True Story: The Amityville Horror

Fatal Charm

The Zodiac Killer

The Real Amityville Horror

The Calendar Girl Murders

Terrifier

Cocktail

LA 92

Once Bitten

Explorers

Soulman

April Fool’s Day

Chopping Mall

Twins

Spookies

Crawlspace

Twins

Two Night Stand

Mr. Right

Spice World

Vibes

Behind the Curtain: Todrick Hall

The Truth About Cats and Dogs

The Big Green

Happily Ever After

Halloween Documentary

Poison Ivy

Singles

Gia

Forbidden

9/11

The Space Between

Rampage

Never Hike Alone

Who Put the Klan in the Klu Klux Klan

Frontier(s)

Four Rooms

The Strangers: Prey at Night

Poison Ivy II

Goodfellas

Detroit Rock City

Spaceballs

Soul Man

Space Camp

TerrorVision

Sometimes They Come Back

Hell High

Freaked

The Making of Halloween II

Going Postal

Tuff Turf

The Making of Prom Night

Exorcists: The True Story

Halloween: The Inside Story

Return To Crystal Lake

Rock and Roll High School

Rush Week

Maid to Order

Scream: The Inside Story

Iced

The Lightning Incident

Not Our Son

Glory Daze: The Life and Times of Michael Alig

Monster Night

HouseSitter

The OJ Simpson Story

Mister Frost

The Story of Motley Crue

Star Trek:Beyond

In Cold Blood: The Chris Lane Story

More Brains: The Making of Return of the Living Dead

Sidekicks

The Disaster Artist

Embrace the Vampire

Day of the Dead: Bloodline

Wish Upon a Star

Avengers: Infinity War

Stand and Deliver

Sphere

Forever My Girl

Earth Girls Are Easy

Cry Baby Lane

The Karate Kid

The Karate Kid Part 2

Sound of my Voice

A Quiet Place

Trust Fund

A Killing In A Small Town

Kristy

Hush

The Greatest Showman

November 13: Attack on Paris

Maze Runner: The Death Cure

Martyrs

Last Shift

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Amityville: Horror or Hoax

Amityville: The Haunting

The Love Witch

The Psycho Legacy

The Great Los Angles Earthquake

Stag Night

Overboard

Hell House LLC

Truth or Dare

Mom and Dad

Event Horizon

Deadpool2

Nobody Gets Out Alive

Love, Simon

No One Lives

Summer of Love

Snowbound

Bones

Hereditary

Justice Leauge

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Blockers

Breaking In

House II: The Second Story

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Pacific Rim: Uprising

The Incredibles 2

Jurassic World

Amityville 3-D

Monkey Shines

Regression

L.A . Slasher

Dog Soldiers

The Wave

All Eyez On Me

Notorious

Inside

Killing For Love

Playback

Pacific Heights

Love At First Bite

The Sisterhood

Deceived

A Horrible Place To Die

True Story

The Gift

The Roost

Masterminds

Preservation

Untraceable

The Crow: Wicked City

Never Talk To Strangers

Blow Out

The Decade You Were Born: the 1980s

9/11: Fifteen Years Later

78/52 Hitchcock’s Shower Scene

Copycat

The Blackcoat’s Daughter

The Unspoken

The Ritual

I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House

House of the Witch

The Vanishing

The First Purge

Tales of the Grim Sleeper

Rebirth

Don’t Hang Up

To Die For

Diary of a Serial Killer

Held for Ransom

Don’t Look Behind You

Menace II Society

Aftershock

10x10

The New Daughter

Spooked: The Ghosts of Waverly Hills

The Secret Life of Bees

Ready Player One

The Boston Strangler

Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael

Ricky 6

The Day It Happened: Columbine

Satan in the Suburbs

Deadly Detention

A Cry In The Dark

Girl in the Bunker

Unsane

The Haunted History of Halloween

DC 9/11: Time of Crisis

The Meg

Overboard (2018)

I Feel Pretty

Life Of The Party

In Memoriam: New York City 9-11-2001

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before

Virginia Tech documentary

Columbine documentary

Nothing Left to Fear

If...

The 6th Day

Black Circle Boys

Splinter

The Tie That Binds

Bad Samaritan

Salem’s Lot

The Midnight Man

I Spit on Your Grave 2

The Tenant

Birth of the Living Dead

Shadow of the Vampire

Mimic

Halloween H20

The Midnight Man

The Endless

Summer of ‘84

Delirium

A Return to Salem’s Lot

An American Ghost Story

Won’t You Be My Neighbor

Frantic

Nosferatu The Vampyre

Pieces

Peter Rabbit

Ingrid Goes West

Pumpkinhead 2

Fear Inc.

The Nun

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Indecent Proposal

Snow White: A Tale of Terror

Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Harry and the Henderson’s

Bride of Frankenstein

Silent Night

Fahrenheit 451

Don’t Look Under The Bed

Devil’s Backbone Texas

American Psycho 2

Solo

the Cabinet of Dr. Calgari (1920)

Howling II

Scary Mary

The Looming Tower

Truth or Dare (2017)

Raising Cain

No Vacancy

Freaks of Nature

Munger Road

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do The Time Warp Again

Malevolent

The Phantom Of the Opera

The Divide

One Day At Horrorland

Casper

Night of the Demons 2

Hayride

I’ve Been Waiting For You

The Haunting of Hill House

The China Syndrome

Ghost Stories

Pyewacket

The Haunting

The Wolfman

Unfriended: The Dark Web

Jason X

Night of the Demons (2009)

Unlikely Angel

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Oujia Origin of Evil

Survival of the Dead

Swamp Thing

Halloween (2018)

A League of their Own

Down A Dark Hall

Milk Money

Blown Away

Freeway

Intruder

Slender Man

Book Club

ShowBusiness: The Road To Broadway

Dick Tracy

My Brother The Serial Killer

Joe Versus the Volcano

Mother’s Boys

Leap of Faith

Escape from L.A

Kid

P.U.N.K.S

Three Identical Strangers

RBG

Something Wild

Overloard

The Grinch

Fantastic Beasts 2

Office Christmas Party

Like Father Like Son

Harry Potter: A History of Magic

Men At Work

The Christmas Chronicles

The Wizard

Son In Law

Crocodile Dundee

Breakdown

Needle

Crazy Rich Asians

Searching

A Diva’s Christmas Carol

The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story

Toni Braxton: Unbreak My Heart

A Christmas Carol

Life-Size 2

The Christmas Toy

The Unauthorized Full House Story

After Hours

I’ll Be Home For Christmas

Whitney

Mrs. Santa Claus

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Blood Rage

A Very Claymation Christmas

Claymation Easter

Claymation Comedy of Horrors

The Show

Jingle All The Way

The Road Killers

A Regular Frankie Fan

Betty and Coretta

Blackkklansman

Devil’s Gate

Hamilton

Newsies

Newsies: The Musical

Demon House

Bird Box

The Rosa Parks Story

Patient Zero

0 notes

tothemetaverseandbeyond · 7 years

Text

NEW CAA STUDY SAYS DIVERSE CASTING INCREASES BOX OFFICE POTENTIAL ACROSS ALL BUDGETS

by Tre'vell Anderson Contact Reporter via latimes.com

There’s been little debate over the moral arguments behind increasing diversity on- and off-screen in Hollywood, but the economic arguments haven’t always been so clear.

While women, people of color, LGBTQ folk and other historically marginalized communities in Hollywood continue to insist “diversity pays,” the box office success of films with diverse casts such as “Hidden Figures” ($230.1 million worldwide) and “Get Out” ($251.2 million worldwide) is inevitably deemed a “surprise.”

A new study and database crafted by Creative Artists Agency, however, is aiming to take some of the surprise out of box office performance, noting that across every budget level a film with a diverse cast outperforms a release not so diversified.

Additionally, the data, to be released during a private leadership conference dubbed Amplify on Wednesday in Laguna Beach, demonstrates that the average opening weekend for a film that attracts a diverse audience, often the result of having a diverse cast, is nearly three times on average a film with non-diverse audiences.

"One of the interesting things that the most successful movies share is that they’re broadly appealing to diverse audiences." — Christy Haubegger

“One of the interesting things that the most successful movies share is that they’re broadly appealing to diverse audiences,” said Christy Haubegger, leader of CAA’s multicultural development group, who oversaw the study along with agency executive Talitha Watkins. “People want to see a world that looks like theirs.”

The impetus for the talent agency’s Motion Picture Diversity Index came following the release of the Motion Picture Assn. of America’s Theatrical Market Statistics report, which found that non-white moviegoers made up 49% of tickets sold in 2016, and 45% in 2015. Because the numbers outpace the 38% of the U.S. population who are non-white, CAA became interested in the audience makeup of the top-grossing films of the year. With additional data from comScore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak and Gracenote’s Studio System, the goal was to determine the correlative factors of diverse casting, diverse audiences and box office success.

CAA examined 413 theatrical films released from January 2014 through December 2016, detailing cast ethnicity for the top 10 billed actors per movie, a total of 2,800 people. They found that for the top 10 grossing movies in 2016, 47% of the opening weekend audience (and 45% in 2015) were people of color. Moreover, seven of the 10 highest-grossing movies from 2016 (and four from 2015’s top 10) delivered opening weekend audiences that were more than 50% non-white.

From there, the study notes that at every budget level, a film with a cast that is at least 30% non-white — CAA’s definition of a “truly diverse” film — outperforms a release that is not truly diverse in opening weekend box office. And on the audience side of things, the average opening weekend for a film that has a “truly diverse” audience, pegged at 38% to 70% non-white, is $31 million versus $12 million for films with non-diverse audiences.

The numbers suggest a more diverse cast brings a more diverse audience, which brings in more money.

The best-performing movie of the films evaluated, which had an approximately 40% diverse cast and a 38% diverse audience, was “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” starring Daisy Ridley and John Boyega.

Also of note was the study’s evaluation of racial casting by genre. According to the study, the whitest genres casting-wise are horror and fantasy, and the most diverse genres are comedy and thriller.

As for what audiences want to see, white people are more likely to flock to drama and romance; black people to biopics and thrillers; Hispanics to horror and animation, and Asians to fantasy and animation.

“The hope is that seeing real numbers attached to the success of the inclusion of more voices and diverse casts will be further motivation for studios, networks and others to be really conscious of the opportunity,” said Richard Lovett, CAA’s president.

He highlighted the study as yet another way that the agency has made diversity a “moral imperative.” In the #OscarsSoWhite furor, many studios laid blame at the agencies’ collective feet.

But already in 2005, CAA began diversifying its internship pipeline by recruiting from top colleges with large black, Latino and female populations. In 2015, it created a traveling Road Show to brief film and television studios and networks on content that appeals to multicultural audiences and the availability of diverse artists working across all areas of the industry. It also continues to seek out and support diverse clients through various writing and leadership programs.

The efforts are paying off, as CAA’s revenue from multicultural clients increased 14% from 2015 to 2016, and the company was highlighted in a USC study for representing the largest share of female and African American directors.

The agency’s leadership conference Amplify is gathering multicultural artists and leaders into one space for network-building and information-sharing, with an eye to accelerating the growth of diversity trends. Some of the attendees and speakers include writer-directors J.J. Abrams and Ava DuVernay, producer Will Packer, former White House advisers Susan Rice and Valerie Jarrett, Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, Warner Bros. head Kevin Tsujihara, Define American founder Jose Antonio Vargas, actor-producer Kerry Washington and Stevie Wonder.

#diversity #diverse #CAA #study #USC #color #women #gendre #audiences #boxoffice #Amplify #OscarsSoWhite #HiddenFigures #GetOut #wonderwoman #StarWars #Rey

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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HBO Max New Releases: February 2021

https://ift.tt/2MlHkNh

When it released Wonder Woman 1984 to its HBO Max servers in December, WarnerMedia made it abundantly clear that it was ready for a new era of movie distribution. Now, in its list of new releases for February 2021, Warner is attempting another grand experiment for HBO Max.

Judas and the Black Messiah premieres on HBO Max this Feb. 12 and is by every indication the kind of film that awards shows go gaga over. Both Daniel Kaluuya and and Lakeith Stanfield look to be at the top of their respective games in this story about Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton and the FBI that wants to take him down. Will this have the same rhetorical oomph on the small screen? Guess we’ll find out!

Movies

How Wonder Woman 1984’s Practical Effects Set it Apart

By Delia Harrington

Movies

Why It’s Important that Themyscira Is Back for Wonder Woman 1984

By Rosie Fletcher

The rest of HBO Max’s February 2021 offerings are uncommonly film heavy. The other two original movies of note are quite different from one another. There is No “I” in Threesome arrives on Feb. 11 and the decidedly more family friendly Tom & Jerry premieres on Feb. 26.

HBO Max will feature the U.S. premiere of It’s a Sin on Feb. 18. Beyond that, however, it’s another round of intriguing library title additions. A whole host of Batman films and DC properties arrive throughout the month including Batman (1989) and Aquaman (2018).

Here is everything else coming to HBO Max this month.

HBO Max New Releases – February 2021

TBA Close Enough, Season 2 Premiere Esme & Roy, Max Original Series Season 2D Premiere

February 1 All Good Things, 2010 (HBO) The Amityville Horror, 1979 (HBO) The Amityville Horror, 2005 (HBO) American Style The Apparition, 2012 (HBO) Austin Powers in Goldmember, 2002 Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery, 1997 Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, 1999 Backdraft, 1991 (HBO) Batman & Robin, 1997 Batman Forever, 1995 Batman Returns, 1992 Batman, 1989 Batman: The Brave and the Bold Be Cool, 2005 (HBO) Blade Runner: The Final Cut, 2007 Butter, 2012 (HBO) Captain Blood, 1935 Chewing Gum Death Row Stories, Season 5 Deep Down, 2021 (HBO) Drumline, 2002 (Extended Version) (HBO) The Four Feathers, 2002 (HBO) Get A Job, 2016 (HBO) Get Shorty, 1995 (HBO) Getting Even With Dad, 1994 (HBO) Ghoulies II, 1987 (HBO) Ghoulies, 1985 (HBO) Giant, 1956 The Graduate, 1967 Growing Up Milwaukee, 2020 Head of the Class The Investigation, Limited Series Premiere (HBO) Jacob’s Ladder, 1990 (HBO) Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday, 1993 (HBO) Justice League Justice League Unlimited La Deuda, 2021 (HBO) Lars And The Real Girl, 2007 (HBO) The Last Exorcism, 2010 (Extended Version) (HBO) Lay The Favorite, 2012 (HBO) Life Of Pi, 2012 (HBO) Love & Basketball, 2000 The Lucky One, 2012 (HBO) Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, 1983 Man of Steel, 2013 The Matrix, 1999 The Matrix Reloaded, 2003 The Matrix Revolutions, 2003 Monkey Shines, 1988 (HBO) Murder On The Orient Express, 1974 (HBO) My Bloody Valentine 3-D, 2009 (HBO) The Neverending Story II The Next Chapter, 1991 (HBO) Outbreak, 1995 Pathfinder, 2007 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) Presumed Innocent, 1990 Raw Deal, 1986 (HBO) Robot Chicken, Season 10B Safe House, 2012 (HBO) Saw II, 2005 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) Saw III, 2006 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) Saw IV, 2007 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) Saw V, 2008 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) Saw VI, 2009 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) Saw, 2004 (Extended Version) (HBO) Saw: The Final Chapter, 2010 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) Selena, 1997 The Shadow, 1994 (HBO) Sling Blade, 1996 (HBO) Stop-Loss, 2008 (HBO) Sunshine Cleaning, 2009 (HBO) The Goonies, 1985 The Tank, 2017 (HBO) This Must Be The Place, 2012 (HBO) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, 2011 (HBO) Training Day, 2001 Unforgiven, 1992 United Shades of America, Season 5 Up In The Air, 2009 (HBO) Wildcats, 1986 (HBO) Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, 1971

February 2 A Rodeo Film, ABFF HBO Short Film Competition Finalist (HBO) A Storybook Ending, ABFF HBO Short Film Competition Finalist (HBO) Black Boy Joy, ABFF HBO Short Film Competition Finalist (HBO) The Cypher, ABFF HBO Short Film Competition Finalist (HBO) Dolapo Is Fine, ABFF HBO Short Film Competition Winner (HBO) Fake Famous, Documentary Premiere (HBO)

February 3 Tacoma FD, Season 2

February 4 Haute Dog (S1C), Max Original Series Selena + Chef, Season 2 Finale

February 5 Aquaman , 2018 Earwig and the Witch (Studio Ghibli Premiere), 2021 In Other Words, 2021 (HBO) Vengeance: Killer Coworkers Vengeance: Killer Lovers Vengeance: Killer Neighbors

February 6 Irresistible, 2020 (HBO) The Windsors: Inside the Royal Dynasty, 2019

February 7 We Bare Bears: The Movie, 2020

February 9 Black Art: In the Absence of Light, 2021 (HBO) Gen:Lock, Season 1

February 10 C.B. Strike: Lethal White, Season Finale (HBO)

February 11 There Is No “I” In Threesome, HBO Max Documentary Premiere

Does Game of Thrones Really Need to Be a Shared Universe?

By David Crow

Harry Potter: What an HBO Max TV Series Could Be About

By Nick Harley

February 12 Dunkirk, 2017 (HBO) El Inconveniente (AKA One Careful Owner), 2021 (HBO) Havana Street Party Presents: Beatriz Luengo (HBO) Judas and the Black Messiah, Warner Bros. Film Premiere, 2021 Very Scary People, Season 2

February 13 The Book of Eli, 2010 (HBO)

February 14 The Lady And The Dale, Documentary Series Finale (HBO) Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, Season 8 Premiere (HBO)

February 15 30 Coins, Season Finale (HBO) The Batman Food Wars! The Fourth Plate (Dubbed) (Crunchyroll Collection) Hot Ones, Season 1 Jimmy Carter: Rock and Roll President, 2020 Static Shock

February 18 Arthur’s Law (Dubbed), Max Original Series Premiere Ben 10, Season 4B It’s a Sin, Max Original Limited Series Premiere

February 19 The Killer Truth, Season 1

February 20 Argo, 2012 (Extended Version) (HBO)

February 22 Beartown, Series Premiere (HBO)

February 23 Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel (HBO)

February 26 Blade Runner 2049, 2017 (HBO) Lupe, 2021 (HBO) Painting With John, Season Finale (HBO) Tom & Jerry, Warner Bros. Film Premiere, 2021

February 27 Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey, 1991 (HBO) Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure, 1989 (HBO) How It Really Happened, Season 5

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Leaving HBO Max – February 2021

February 5 Storks, 2016 (HBO)

February 15 Little, 2019 (HBO)

February 20 The Conjuring, 2013

February 22 Us, 2019 (HBO)

February 28 American Pie, 1999 (HBO) The Astronaut’s Wife, 1999 Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, 2012 (HBO) Blow-Up, 1966 Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, 2005 Chinatown, 1974 Cold Mountain, 2003 (HBO) Congo, 1995 (HBO) Cowboys & Aliens, 2011 (Unrated Version) (HBO) Crazy Rich Asians, 2018 The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, 2008 (HBO) The Descendants, 2011 (HBO) The Devil Inside, 2012 (HBO) Dick Tracy, 1990 (HBO) Doctor Sleep, 2020 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) Dolphin Tale, 2011 G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra, 2009 Gangs Of New York, 2002 (HBO) The Good Liar, 2019 (HBO) Gun Crazy, 1950 Happy Feet Two, 2011 (HBO) Harriet, 2019 (HBO) I Think I Love My Wife, 2007 (HBO) Idiocracy, 2006 (HBO) Lean On Me, 1989 The Legend Of Bagger Vance, 2000 Life, 1999 (HBO) The Little Things, 2021 Logan’s Run, 1976 Lola Versus, 2012 (HBO) Motherless Brooklyn, 2019 (HBO) Muriel’s Wedding, 1995 (HBO) The Mustang, 2019 (HBO) My Dream Is Yours, 1949 The Omega Man, 1971 On Moonlight Bay, 1951 The Sitter, 2011 (Unrated Version) (HBO) Soldier, 1998 Soylent Green, 1973 Spies Like Us, 1985 Stephen King’s Needful Things, 1993 Tango & Cash, 1989 Teen Witch, 1989 (HBO) Westworld (Movie), 1973 Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, 1971

The post HBO Max New Releases: February 2021 appeared first on Den of Geek.

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tube-thoughts-blog · 7 years

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tube thoughts vol. 3

zero stars - terrible, 1/2 a star- dull, 1 star - folly, 1 1/2 stars - lacking, 2 stars - fair, 2 1/2 stars - decent, 3 stars - terrific

GLOW 'The Story of the Glorious Ladies of Wrestling' *What they lack in testosterone they make up for in tenacity and triumph.* 3 stars

'Heavy Metal' *You don't have to be high on cat piss, like the southpark heavy metal homage, for this trip.* 3 stars

G.I. Joe 'Retaliation' *Joe Pros: Firefly portrayal, really badass toys/tech and actor. Cobra Commander, creepy even in a prison fishtank. Brief Storm Shadow vs. Snake Eyes faceoff (wish was longer). Red Ninjas. The Rock's tumbler tank & hover-boat-gun-boat. Bruce Willis' stash of high powered weapons littered throughout his suburban home (quite funny). Cobra Cons: All the pop culture references. RZA's acting. Moronic score/soundtrack. Roland Emmerich style large scale CGI destruction of a major city. Cliche'd walking away from an explosion while not looking back -scene.* 2 stars

"Second Glance" 1992 --Christian themed after school special-- *A Jason Segel look-a-like gets really pushy about his politeness and preachiness getting in the way of his puerile attempts at procuring poontang at a 1980s style high school where the people, and setting, are so awkward that it must be the town over from Napoleon Dynamite.* 2 1/2 stars

Russel Mulcahy's 'Tale of the Mummy' *When the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars, dirty toilet paper will CGI creep across the planet. Cursed with some of the flaws of other late 90s horror thrillers, this movie at least tries and is earnest in its attempt at an homage and modern updating of a classic genre. Moreso than Brendan Fraser's 'The Mummy' which was somewhat entertaining but chose to take the Universal Monster character and turn him into a showy villain in an action adventure movie.* 2 1/2 stars

Fox's "Gotham" Season 1 Episode 1 *I'm not a fan of shoehorning Renee Montoya into Jim & Barbara Gordon's relationship. Jada Pinkett Smith's character Fish Mooney looks to play too much of a major role in the show. I don't care about seeing a child version of Ivy or Catwoman looking like cosplay fan service early versions of both characters. Not liking the new character relationships, like mentioned above, and the inclusion of the Fish Mooney character's overbearing presence just might keep me from coming back to see what I do like most about the show, which is Bullock, Penguin, and Jim Gordon's personal quest to make things right with the Wayne homicide and corruption surrounding it.* 2 1/2 stars

Captain America: "The Winter Soldier" *A couple of old song and dance(s). Would you feel safer with guns pointed at everyone on the globe? Sometimes you have to say you don't know the people that you used to know.* 3 stars

Guillermo Del Toro's "Pacific Rim" *It's easy to believe a mad scientist would try to synch his brain with a giant lizard, from another dimension, when you've already seen the same actor eat the cheese from slum land rat-traps and digest catfood in a sleep experiment. Asian women driving cars is bad enough, let alone giving them the keys to a transformer. In this world, the weather channel is better than the WWE.* 3 stars

Farscape: "Thank God It's Friday, Again" *Wastin' Away In Margarita Village of the Damned Josefine Stalin Turnip Farm Rave Party* 2 1/2 stars

The Outer Limits: "White Light Fever" starring Bruce Davison *To hell with natural death. The heart wants what the heart wants, but the reaper gets the final jolt.* 3 stars

X Men: "Days of Future Past" *The Sentinels are realized, on film, in the scary and overwhelming manner they should be. And you can't go wrong with Peter Dinklage.* 3 stars

Transformers: "More Than Meets The Eye" (3 part 1984 debut) *Dear diary, Otimus Prime would make a neat president. 1984 presidential election-- Otimus Prime & Michael Jackson vs. Megatron & Ronald Regan* 3 stars

Fred Dekker & Stan Winston present "Monster Squad" *The only time you'll see Dracula dynamite a kids' clubhouse in order to make a statement.* 3 stars

SYFY & The Asylum present--- Z Nation: "Puppies & Kittens" *Captures the style of AMC's "The Walking Dead" closely except for the great storytelling and practical visual fx of Robert Kirkman & Greg Nicotero. That being said, it's debatable whether DJ Qualls as disc jokey of the z nation is more debonair than Daryl Dixon, the possum eating sex symbol of the world of "Walkers."--* 2 Stars

Charles Band presents "Ghost Town" *Going mad, on the lone prairie, chasing tumbleweeds. A role reversal High Plains Drifter.* 3 stars

Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs presents Larry Cohen's "It Lives Again" *The still grieving father, from the first film, leads a fringe group of citizens and scientists who fight the pro-life fight for the killer mutant babies because they believe the distubing infants could be the next step in human evolution. Yep, another misguided organization, like PETA, this time with even more disastrous results.* 3 stars

Masters of Horror: "Dream Cruise" *The Japanese tell a decent ghost story. This one involves treachery, trying to forget, and the curse of the dead at sea.* 3 stars

The Outer Limits: "The Choice" *Paige Fletcher, The Hitchhiker, hires a scanner nanny to look after his American Beauty daughter who suffers the same condition. The nanny wants to abduct the daughter into a Lillith cult, while a G-man witchhunter searches for the cult, the little girl, and the nanny to experiment on them in a concentration camp.* 3 stars

"Without Warning" (1980) *You don't want to be stranded in the middle of B.F.E. stuck between batshit Martin Landau, batshit Jack Palance, and a shadowy Slender Man like alien with his flying leeches.* 3 stars

Thundarr: The Barbarian-- "Secret of the Black Pearl" *Nomads living in the ruins of Manhattan, after a great cataclysm, discover a power to fight against an evil two-faced sorcerer. They entrust it to a Conan, with a lightsaber, his musclebound Wookie, and a hot sorceress. The heroes use it to fight off Two-Face and his torch flamethrower wielding animated Statue of Liberty.* 3 stars

"Hot Dog: The Movie" guest starring Shannon Tweed and the guy from American Werewolf in London-- *Sex crazed 1980s party animals versus stuck up German snobs on the ski slopes of Squaw Valley, USA.* 3 stars

Doctor Who (4th Doctor Tom Baker) "Genesis of the Daleks" *The Daleks originated on a planet where two civilizations fought in their own version of WW1, WW2, and the Cold War for over a thousand years.* 3 stars

Disney's Gummi Bears "A New Adventure" *A kid in a king's court stumbles onto the truth about his favorite fairy tale creatures. They're real. He teams up with these Renaissance Beverly Hillbilly bears to stop a dastardly duke, and his bumbling ogre henchmen, from catapulting the king's castle to ruins.* 3 stars

"The Peanut Butter Solution" (1985) *Polite, Canadian hair'em scare'em. A kid gets a strange fright. His hair falls out like Uncle Fester. Two ghosts convince the kid to spread mudpie on his scalp. The kid turns into Cousin It. Then, the kids, in town, all get abducted by the Frenchy former art teacher and he puts them to work in a sweat shop making brushes out of the kid's long hair so that Frenchy can paint magical paintings of his dog.* 3 stars

Tobe Hooper presents Stephen King's "Salem's Lot" *The sweetest singing and a feeling like drowning* 3 stars

rifftrax riffs "It's like Rob Schneider's "The Animal," only this is a comedy." & Richard Stanley(sort of), John Frankenheimer, Stan Winston, and H.G. Wells(sort of) present "The Island of Dr. Moreau" *Distractingly bizarre / defiant / spaced out / aloof / odd for odd's sake are Brando and Kilmer. Their enemy is not the cruel repression of a species, but instead the art of filmmaking as they figuratively fling thespian poo like dramatic monkeys at the zoo.* 3 stars with riffing 2 stars without

Cowboy Bebop "Asteroid Blues" *Coyote, with red eye, on the run to mars. A couple of bounty hunters looking for beef.* 3 stars

The Galaxy Invader (1985) *"The greatest scientific discovery, of the century, gets lasso'd by rednecks."* 2 stars

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 *Crucified to the supper table. "There's roadkill all over Texas." A subpar, but still somewhat sinister, Sawyer family portrayal.* 2 stars

Hammer Films "The Curse of Frankenstein" starring Peter Cushing as the Baron Frankenstein & Christopher Lee as the monster *Cushing's descent into madness is mesmerizing.* 3 stars

Kolchak, The Night Stalker "Demon In Lace" *Co-ed blueballs and the stench of brimstone* 3 stars

Something Weird Video presents "Trouble Down Below" ---xxx--- (1981) *Warning! This is not a daring expose' on downstairs mixups. It's instead the slow-hell of having to stare at the shriveled coin purses of men from the era of Ron Burgundy.* 2 stars

Victor Salva's "Clownhouse" *The director is a perv for little boys, Sam Rockwell bullies his two younger brothers, and three escaped mental patients stalk about in the shadows.* 3 stars

New World Pictures "Saturday, the 14th" (1981) *Arrested development in Eerie P.A., where you can't piss on hospitality, the necronomicon,or an electric can opener.* 2 1/2 stars

"Student Bodies" (1981) *Psycho-sexual-slap-stick* 3 stars

"The Kindred" (1987) *Aquatic hybrid sibling. A forgotten special fx gem.* 3 stars

"Queen of Blood" (1966) starring Dennis Hopper & John Saxon-- *She has glowing eyes, green skin, a beehive hair-do, and likes to slurp spacemen as if they were Hi-C.* 2 1/2 stars

New World Pictures "Reform School Girls" (1986) *Trashy twats terrorizing troubled tarts.* 3 stars

"Don't Go In The House" (1980) *There are no haunted places, only haunted people. Yet another Ed Gein, this one with a dragon in his guilty belly, 'cause mama tried to purify "his evil" using flame.* 3 stars

--- Joe Bob's Hollywood Halloween (1999)

in search of The Nair Witch segments

and the feature movie Don Coscarelli's "Phantasm" (1979)

*Here we have an outdated skit comedy about a late 90s found footage horror movie, and the braintrust at TNT's moronic attempts to turn Monstervision into Three's Company with Joe Bob hanging out with two babes in the Hollywood hills.

He gets to talk about the movie, a little bit, but not enough.

The TNT censors also butcher some of the great gore special fx, but the eerie setting and story still holds up as classic.

A story about a boy who should be dealing with coming of age problems instead of morbid things like the loss surrounding death.*

1 1/2 stars for the Nair Witch garbage

2 1/2 stars for the censored version of Phantasm as it's sandwiched between all of that

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Walking Dead: "No Sanctuary" *No Safeway, either, and very little humanity, but they've got a people Piggly Wiggly, or maybe it's a Publix, these cannibals are rather new age in attitude.* 2 1/2 stars

Twin Peaks: "Variations and Relations" *sonnets and soirees* 2 1/2 stars

Farscape: "PK Tech Girl" *Ghost-ship grievances, goading smokescreen, attracting polarities, fireball spitting frog fiends.* 3 stars

The Outer Limits: "Virtual Future" *Lawnmower Man computer program wiz, Josh Brolin, gets caught up in his corrupt boss' (David Warner) Dead Zone political run.* 2 stars

Dario Argento's "Creepers" (1985) *"Fate... up against your will..." It also doesn't hurt to have telepathic control over insects and a chimpanzee backup.* 3 stars

"Skin Games" (1985) ---xxx--- appearance by Peter North *A lotta lovemaking. Not a lotta creativity or allure.* 1 1/2 stars

The Nether Horror Collection (1996) ------------------------------------

"The Bitch Is Back" *A man has a bloody tussle with his movie quoting, maniacal blowup doll. Though, a guy with an Alien 3 poster on his bedroom door kind of deserves what's coming to him.* 2 stars

"Burp" *A hooker and a business man have a bad night on the surreal streets of some European city.* 2 stars

"The Prodigal Son" *A gigolo gets purchased for a golden girl mom who sucks and bites his nipple off. Then, all hell breaks loose when the jealous brother shows up.* 3 stars

"Pick Nick" *A man tries to trick a nagging blind woman to get out of the car at a lion preserve.* 2 1/2 stars

"Zombi Orignale" *"The statue needs blood, human blood, or else the gates of hell will open and the dead will rise." Great, little homage to Night of the Living Dead and the king of gore, Lucio Fulci, too.* 3 stars

"La Mouche" *Plodding, and plodding some more, man versus fly.* 1/2 a star despite ok end

"The Great Rock & Roll Massacre" *A nerdy Colonel Sanders finger licks a guitar while some youth and a critter-esque muppet get depraved.* 2 1/2 stars

"The Great Rock & Roll Massacre 2: The Resurrection" *Bloody guitar player rises from the grave to rock out, once more.* 2 stars

"Inkt" *A Victorian lifelong fear/obsession with squid leads to time spent in a watery and nightmarish asylum.* 2 1/2 stars

"Visire" *Black & white short about grey, dreary European city life where the maggot covered dead body of your upstairs neighbor falls onto your bowl of cereal as you try to watch Looney Tunes.* 2 stars

"Bloody Mary" *Big, bald bully bothers a barmaid before getting a bloody boo boo and blacking out, bringing the barmaid to bare her fangs.* 2 1/2 stars

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transformers: Transport to Oblivion *Megatron's hard ticket to Cybertron* 2 1/2 stars

Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs presents "Project Metal-Beast" *Corrupt and crazy CIA man thaws his old werewolf buddy out of storage so that some young military scientists can have an ethical dilemma hissyfit over sewing patchwork synthetic, so-called indestructible skin all over him, when he's not gnawing on them.* 2 stars

Sundown, The Vampire in Retreat (Shouldn't it be Sunup?) featuring M. Emmett Walsh, George 'Buck' Flower, Bruce Campbell, & David Carradine *A family goes on a trip to a sleepy, desert town where the dad is helping set up a Snapple-esque blood substitute plant for the incognito vampire town residents who have given up their gruesome ways, for the most part, and are living a gentle life behind sunscreen, umbrellas, big floppy hats & sunglasses. There's also a hokey deal about Dracula getting forgiveness from Jesus, a group of dissident cave cowboy vampires, and a Straw Dog love triangle between the husband, the wife, and an old friend who has gone over to the darkside.* 3 stars

Roger Corman presents "Space Raiders" (1983) *Little Anikin Menace Phone Home Alone* 1 1/2 stars

Thundarr, The Barbarian: "Harvest of Doom" *Snakes, on a train, delivering poppies to the wizard, and a swamp girl, Huck Finn, who wants the train as her own personal playset.* 3 stars

The Outer Limits: "Living Hell" *A drifter, and all around nice guy, with a scarred past, becomes a gunshot, to the head, victim. He receives a revolutionary brain chip that saves his life, but also allows visions from the mind of a serial killer who has the same kind of bug in his head. The nice guy's sympathetic, and beautiful, brain surgeon helps him as he deals with the gruesome visions and they try to stop the killer.* 3 stars

Cowboy Bebop: "Stray Dog Strut" *Give him the once over, twice, and get enough for duck. Bumbling a bounty, but scoring a sought after puppy stuffed with precious data.* 2 1/2 stars

"Ghostwatch" (1992) *BBC mockumentary about a live, Halloween night paranormal investigation at a suburban home in London. The two girls and mother do a believable job, some of the reporters make it a little more silly than it should be, but maybe that works to the advantage of making the viewer comfortable and then disturbing them. The comments on having created a social t.v. seance and having other viewers and the studio experience outlandishly spooky events might have been a little over the top, but all in all very entertaining.* 3 stars

Gargoyles: "Awakening" *Betrayed, a millenium ago, by the humans they were sworn to protect, a group of winged beasts awake from a rocky slumber in pre-9-11 NYC. A ponytailed, shady and extremely wealthy CEO hopes to use their battle skills to wage corporate espionage from high atop a castle above the largest skyscraper in the city. Realizing the trickery, the leader, of the gargoyles, Goliath, severs ties with an old love who is showing too much of a demonic side like the human who awakened them and attempted to exploit them. The gargoyles don't lose complete love for humanity, however, as many of them find that they love modern city life and Goliath catches urban fever from a saucy, lady detective, friend. The show has a similar moody, gorgeous, compelling style as Batman: The Animated Series.* 3 stars

Tim & Eric, Bedtime Stories: "Angel Boy" *A dorky dad becomes eeriely enamored with a fairylike neighbor boy's Lady Gaga wannabe avant garde singing. So much so that he surprises his own aggressive whiteboy monstertruck driving son with a special musical performance of Angel Boy at a pool party for bitches and bros. They of course begin to haze Angel Boy, to the idiotic shock of the dad, and make him face his worst fear, water, when they toss him into the pool. He boils like a mogwai, for a moment, and then rises above the pool, in the air, and makes a demonic pitch of sound that causes everyone to shit their pants. Aside from the painfully non-humor music video moment, the story sticks to the point and manages to poke fun at people in Tim & Eric's unique and sort of spot on way.* 2 1/2 stars

Guillermo Del Toro's "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army" *It comes down to the imaginative creatures being more interesting than the dark elf plot to unleash tin man terminators on the world.* 2 1/2 stars

Farscape: "That Old Black Magic" *An evil being savors suffering and is willing to make you feel shitty in order to get his own star destroyer spaceship.* 3 stars

Martin Landau, Ruth Buzzi, and Jose Ferrer in "The Being" *Dazed & Confused town is more concerned with selling potatoes and stopping so-called smut than they are the toxic waste dump that's spawning gooey cyclops menaces.* 3 stars

Dr. Who (4th Doctor Tom Baker) "Revenge of the Cybermen" *Metal Slug induced "plague", dastardly double agent, satellite collision course, moon-planet of gold, human detonators for the biggest explosion in the solar system, generational power struggle, Tin Man Butcherers with a 14 karrot Achilles' heel.* 2 1/2 stars

Thundarr, The Barbarian: "Mindok, The Mind Menace" *Doctor-Doom-esque villain's brain refuses to die, so he seeks out frozen scientists from the 20th century to help build a giant robotic body to house his vile intellect. Our boneheaded hero, his even more boneheaded bigfoot friend, and the only smart one, the sorceress, try to free the scientists and stop Mindok. The awkward line delivery and odd moments of animation make this show unintentionally hilarious, often.* 2 1/2 stars

"Spookies" (1986) *Farting mummies killed by red wine, 13 year old boy who gets a surprise birthday party at a haunted mansion and then buried in a shallow grave by a werewolf, Jersey Shore couple victims, Grim Reaper that explodes when it falls off the 2 story roof, graveyard full of groping zombies (no flesh eating), Aleister Crowley type who is playing a big game of chess with victims for a brought back from the dead bride who never loved him, wolfboy with a hook for a hand, girlfriend possessed by demon, dorky mustache guy with puppet who gets the life, literally, sucked out of him by an Asian spiderlady, British prude lady who controls her boyfriend and they both get eaten by creatures from the black lagoon big & small. Some okay gooey special fx creatures and makeup mixed in with some cheap and crappy Halloween makeup on ghouls and an unfocused story/climax/ending that felt like they didn't know what to do and just gave up.* 2 stars

"Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy" --------------------

*Nightmare 1: Smug filmmakers think they're above the slasher genre. Bob Shea is responsible for the great 'gotcha' ending.

Freddy's Revenge: It's realized how important Englund is. Actors, screenwriter, production crew look back fondly on the silliness and gay over/under tones.

Dream Warriors: The boy actors crush on Patricia Arquette. The director is manic and jerkish about making a bold production.

Dream Master: Everyone disappointed Arquette doesn't return. Viking director takes Freddy into MTV pop culture direction. Freddy is now mainstream. We, the public, felt it.

Dream Child: Bug eyed kid actor would make a great Golum in LOTR. Fresh influences help series, including splatterpunk writers and visionary KNB special fx guys.

Freddy's Dead: Hack director gets praise for over the top looney tunes crap filmmaking. Publicity stunts help New Line and the director con people into thinking it's bye bye.

New Nightmare: Wes Craven returns to take the movie in a meta as meta can get direction. More smugness and even more Heather Lagenkampf. She's no Jamie Lee or Sigourney.

Freddy vs. Jason: In gestation for years. Many scripts. A director who didn't like the characters. An ending no one can decide on. Test audiences. Apologies. It's no Frankenstein vs. The Wolfman.*

2 stars

--------------------------------------------------------------

Barbara Hershey in "The Entity" (1980) *Psychologists are stuffy foggies puffing pipes. Parapsychologists are vibrant, videoage pioneers. Hysterical, lonely women with child abuse / unwanted motherhood regret invent undefinable, unstopabble forces of nature to avert dealing with menopausal personal crisis, or do they?* 3 stars

American Horror Story -- Freakshow -- "Monsters Among Us" *Paints with very broad strokes and overacting and power guitar performances in the wrong era. It's not as garish and actually shocking like Tod Browning's 'Freaks.' It's not moody and timeless like 'Carnivale.' It's not compelling like 'Fur: A Portrait of Diane Arbus.' And it's not truly weird like Harmony Korine's "Mister Lonely." It's a cliche killer clown, here, a fornicating lobster boy, there, and more uninterestingly freakish characters aside from the cgi siamese twin and the overbearing cabaret leader.* 2 stars

Town of the Living Dead: "Zombie Karate" *It's hard to tell whether these characters are a creation of the show's production or if these smalltown, extremely passionate moviemakers are really this stupid and odd.* 1 1/2 stars

"Motel Hell" (1980) *"It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's fritters." Those fritters include hippy bandmates, nosey health inspector, and kinky husband & wife swingers to name a few. "Meat is meat, and people gotta eat."... in this Jimmy Dean smokehouse massacre.* 3 stars

"Basket Case 2" (1990) *The Times Square Freak Twins flee to Staten Island where they find sanctuary with a Nightbreed Muppet Babies group lead by a loving granny. They're hounded by a weekly world news type tabloid reporter and both find out how tragic love and acceptance can be.* 3 stars

---- "The Willies" (1990)

*Sean Astin (LOTR & Rudy) is on a backyard campout, with his cousins, telling kid-friendly tales of terror. One tale is about a piggy lady who finds a fried rat in her KFC.

Another tale is about an old man who dies on a haunted house ride at the carnival.

Then there's the tale of the the monster who wears a janitor's skin and eats elementary school bullies who have mullets and wear iron maiden t-shirts along with pinch faced teachers, but he spares the picked on nerds who pee their pants.

The final tale is about a live action Eric Cartman. Gordy Belcher (Donkey Lips from Salute Your Shorts) gets twisted pleasure from the misfortune of others and stealing whatever he wants to the point of everyone in town, even his parents, disliking him. He also is methodical in his perverse obsession with flies. He experiments with them, like a god or mad scientist. The Weird Science comic covers taped to his bedroom wall reflect his personality. He has more problems than suspension from school, and punishment from his parents, when he ticks off a crazy farmer who has came up with a smelly solution to get rid of Gordy for good.*

2 1/2 stars

---------------------------------------------------------

---- "Fear No Evil" (1981)

*The pubescent Prince of Darkness mopes around, like the lead singer of Bauhaus, at his 1980s highschool where there's always MTV rock music playing, like The Ramones.

He's picked on in homo-erotic ways by the school's John Travolta look-a-act a-like, and they share a homo-erotic-satanic kiss in the showers.

He's a straight A student, accepted into every ivy league college imaginable, but his presence, since his botched baptism, has put his folks into a deep depression as they walk around like shells of human beings- in a decrepit, falling apart house they no longer tend to.

The dad just drinks and tells people, at the bar, that his son is the devil.

They laugh him off and say there's is too.

The prince tries to mind rape a girl he's obssessed with and ends up causing the stereotypical crazy gym teacher to kill her boyfriend with a dodgeball.

The girl goes into mourning and finds out she's one of three reincarnated angels sent to stop Satan.

The prince goes all Caligula on his town during a Jesus play and the low budget horror fx begin, including a hilarious scene where he gives Travolta guy breasts, playing off a joke/dare Travolta kid teased Satan kid with earlier when he wouldn't share a homo-erotic puff puff pass pot joint with him.*

2 stars

--------------------------------------------------------------

Cowboy Bebop: "Honky Tonk Women" *The giant roulette wheel in the upper atmosphere.* 3 stars

Transformers: "Roll For It" *(with enthusiasm) "It's time to create anti-matter!" Megatron, again, comes close to causing himself to become permanent, 'instant junk.'* 3 stars

Dino De Laurentiis presents Stephen King's "Cat's Eyes" *This cat really got around in the 80s. In the 90s, not so much. But man, the 80s... if it went down, the cat was somewhere lurking about. Lionel Richie walking on the ceiling, the cat was down on the floor saving Billy Ocean's breath, while he was napping, and being the inspiration for 'Get Out of My Dreams, Get into My car.' The night that the Elephant Man's bones came alive and attacked Liz Taylor because Michael accidentally let her get drunk and do witchcraft, the cat was there to save the day. The only time that the cat ever did wrong was when he watched a guy drown, and didn't lend a hand, luckily Phil Collins was there to witness it, and shame the cat, later, in song.* 3 stars

"Pulse" (1988) *Tense horror thriller where phenomena thrives in the disbelief it allows in some and the despair it causes in others. Set in the 1980s revival of the love for modern, electrical conveniences and the fact that there might be some sinister force dwelling on the edges of that lifestyle. Added twitch of the personal drama of how distance and divorce does disrepair to developmental years, for a child, if not dealt with in a down to earth and off the grid manner.* 3 stars

Thundarr, The Barbarian: "Raiders of the Abyss" *It's death from above as foul, shriveled monks on massive mutated bats pluck stranded passengers off of an ancient cruiseliner impaled sideways on a sharp mountain. The flying mouse brigade wanna sniff the life out of the captured, like a glade plug in, so's they can be young again. Thundarr, and his trusty wookie, are willing to blindly ride their horses off any chasm to save a fellow hugh-man, but the sorceress is wise enough to use logic and light bridges to make plausible path, and risks her skin- more than once- to save the day.* 3 stars

"The Midnight Hour" (1985) *For a town with a lynching past, 1985 seemed pretty light-hearted and accepting. How can you not like a movie with Thriller style dance numbers, Kurtwood Smith as the sheriff, Wolfman Jack as the disc jockey, LaVar Burton as a horny teenager, and an earth angel style ghost romance that saves Halloween from a vampire herpes outbreak?* 2 1/2 stars

The Walking Dead: "Strangers" *How many times has this happened, on the show,... our heroes regroup after a highly tense battle, divisive and long drawn out disputes are settled with a pat on the back and words of understanding, it's decided that a supply run is once again needed, a handful of zombies stand in the way and are quickly/watchoutohno/easily dispatched, someone in the group feels angsty, anxiety & mistrust settles back in during a comfortable moment, the show ends on a cliffhanger? We come back the next week, like the suckers we are...* 2 stars

Lost and Found Video Night Vol 4: All Musical Edition *"In a room with no windows, in the corner, I found truth."* 2 stars

Z Nation: "Fracking Zombies" *Post-zombie tech support outsourced to the polar ice caps. Zombie sled dogs in the snow. Sons of Anarchy Sex slave ring? Zombie oil spill. Zombie boredom game of 'Go Fish.' Zombie s.u.v. leering hissyfit. Z nation satellite surveillance spots a rare telephone booth. Zeriously, zthough, DJ Qualls lonely and wanting a puppy pulls at my heart strings more than Rick & Carl have in a while.* 2 1/2 stars

"The Supernaturals" (1986) *A platoon of privates, stranded in the deep south wilderness, encounter some undead rebel soldiers and a resurrected civil war army mother/widow. The hundred plus year old son has been keeping dear old mom alive since a group of yanks caused her death during cruel torture/execution at a confederate minefield. Our hero, one of the army privates, has to convince the son (who he might actually be the father of in a past life) to stop using his supernatural powers to keep these old war wounds open.* 2 1/2 stars

"Lady in White" *Charmingly crafted tale of a writer who returns to his smalltown where, during his childhood, a Halloween prank puts him on the path of ghosts, and a child murderer, set against the backdrop of a quirky schoolroom, a quirky Italian family with sweet & silly grandparents, and the issues of race during the early days of the civil rights movement.* 3 stars

Linda Blair in "Summer of Fear" aka "Stranger In Our House" a Wes Craven tv movie (1978) *An Ozark Mountains witch poses as a distant cousin so that she can spellcast her way into the top spot in a California ranch home and ruin the teenage life of the family's spunky, horse-lovin' daughter. The Poison Ivy plot can be forgiven, for it was fresh at the time, but some of the silly moments like the notion that a witch can't be photographed, and that the dad doesn't remember the entire week where he was cheating on mom, with the witch, are harder to not criticize.* 2 1/2 stars

"In Search of the Wild Beaver" ---xxx--- (1986) *College buddies devise a plan to fur-trap some girl game and pop their poindexter friend's cherry so that he'll let them take his winnebago on a raunchy roadtrip.* 2 stars

"Taking Tiger Mountain" (1983) *Feminist fascist scientists chemically castrate, sexually re-engineer, and generally just mind fuck typically horny young males, like Bill Paxton's character, in order to experiment in the balancing of the sexes. When they're royally screwed up, they send these fuck fixated fellas out into the world as sleeper agent assassins against the femi-nazi's political enemies. Europe is full of North American expatriates, due to a state of post-apocalyptic chaos west of the atlantic. We hear this on a constant radio broadcast in our head. Europe isn't much better as radicals try to overthrow the patriarchy and groups of young people are auctioned off in prostitution meat markets. Aesthetically more of a filmschool artfilm than a surreal masterpiece like Cronenberg's "Naked Lunch."* 2 1/2 stars

Thundarr, The Barbarian: "Treasure of the Moks" *River-Queen pirate raids the village of legendary rich Wookies using salvaged torpedos from a Naval graveyard. She's sitting pretty on the deck of a battleship nailed to a raft of logs. Her crew looks like casino drunks or adam west batman's penguin henchmen with their navy frog suits with skull and crossbones on the front. She's more of a villainess fashion victim with a men's necktie substituting for a pirate's bandana. On a serious note, this episode is great because it's the first time we see actual human beings as the greedy, dangerous ones in this post-apocalypse instead of the usual mutant creature, sub-species, or inhuman tech or magic entity.* 3 stars

Doctor Who (Tom Baker) "Terror of the Zygons" *Loch Nessie in a fetching scarf floating up the Thames.* 3 stars

42nd Street Forever Vol 2: Grindhouse Exploitation Trailers *Fast rides, wild teens, hot women, hard edged bruthas, controversial facts of life, unspeakable creatures, inhuman terrors, horrors of science, rowdy rednecks, energetic espionage, sword and sandal, roller disco.* 3 stars

The State "43rd Annual" All-Star Halloween Special on CBS (1995) *MTV's The State get subversive on network tv with stunts like coming out to an opening musical number through the legs of hanged men, having a well adjusted kid smoke a joint, for the first time, and take a police station hostage, and showing soldiers holding a dying squad mate and being uncomfortable with his last wish for them to tell him they love him because it would be gay and ending the skit with the soldiers 'making out' over the dead soldier's body.* 3 stars

Night Stand: Death in the Trailer Park aka Homicide in a Double-Wide *Billy Ray Jim Dick's mama is still sore at her slut daughter in law for hitching up with two-ton tubbie trailer salesman after her son's tragic truck accident. Surprise, though, Billy Ray faked his death and is now a Joan instead of a Jim. Night Stand, a great parody of Jerry Springer.* 3 stars

Disney's DTV Monster Hits (10-30-87) --------------------

*Electric Light Orchestra's 'Evil Woman' plays over a montage of Disney villainesses,

awesome 80s Pepsi & Burger King commercials -one with the Miami Sound Machine,

Donald Duck delivers a package to an unlucky address as Stevie Wonder's 'Very Superstitious' plays,

Pat Benatar's 'You Better Run' plays as Snow White flees for her life into the forest,

Spike Jones' 'That Old Black Magic' plays during some of Mickey & friends more mystical moments,

Hershey's Bar-None candybar commercial about satisfying the hungry beast,

Michael Landon promises new surprises in this upcoming season of 'Highway to Heaven,'

Daryl Hall's 'Dreamtime' plays along with gorgeous hand-drawn classic Disney animation,

"Heffalumps and Woozles" for Winnie the Pooh,

Ronald & Grimace in the story of Cosmic- a cheeseburger sharing lesson,

Golden Girls in the U.S.S.R. preview,

Annie Lennox sings 'Sweet Dreams' during a dream sequence,

all hosted by the Man in the Magic Mirror.*

3 stars

==============================================================

Halloween 666: The Curse of Michael Myers *Satanic cursed child cult, Tommy Doyle Rear Window style watcher, Laurie's daughter's baby, Dr. Loomis comes out of retirement, runes, Strode family strife.* 2 1/2 stars

Freddy's Nightmares: Tobe Hooper's "No More Mr. Nice Guy" *I had imagined Freddy being more cowardly in his life and not releshing in his own execution.* 2 1/2 stars

Frank Grillo in "The Purge: Anarchy" *A young Charles Bronson type takes by the hand and leads Fred Sanford's girls and a car trouble couple through a dream night for supporters of the NRA and players of GTA. Meanwhile, Chuck D & the Public Enemy try to lead a anti purge revolution that will not be televised.* 3 stars

Town of the Living Dead: Jasper Needs Zombies *The inept, bumbling director name drops Robert Rodriguez. The crazy investor lady has spent tens of thousands of dollars on a movie that was doomed to make nothing until SYFY stepped in. Six years of everyone involved wasting their time on a movie in a tired, oversaturated genre... I will give them credit for exploiting their crassness on cable as a way of maybe recouping some of what they've lost in this venture and gaining a coin or two of fame/shame.* 1 star

"The Simpsons Guy" *Long awaited crossover. Too bad SouthPark already pointed out how Bart's rebellious antics are nowhere near as sadistic as other cartoon bad boys in Cartoon Wars where Bart meets Cartman and too bad they wasted so much of the episode with the tired, uncomfortable Meg moments and the 'chicken fight' between Peter & Homer. I would have liked to seen more how Quahog and Springfield clashed in cultures and attitudes.* 2 stars

Tim & Eric, Bedtime Stories: "Toes" *Patients pay Dr. Bob Odenkirk to butcher their piggies. Detective M. Emmett Walsh sniffs around, making Dr. Bob uncomfortable, wanting to be his sailing buddy, but Emmett knows Bob's dark secret. He eats the toes.* 3 stars

Three Stooges Fright Night TBS Superstation (1992) --------------------

*Stop seeing things, before I gouge your eyes out. Go to sleep, before I murder you, ya sonambulist. - a few great quotes by Moe in this first 'Old Dark House' horror comedy.

Then there's a truly horrific commercial about a grown woman who was a botch aborted fetus at seven months.

Then an awesome commercial for Copolla's Dracula coming out the 13th of November.

Next is 'I Want My Mummy' about the curse of King Rooten Tooten, where the Stooges are Sherlock Holmes investigators who catch a cab from NY to Cairo to find a corpse of a midget and destroy his wife Hotsie Totsie.

Followed by 'Dopey with Dicks' (featuring Shemp) A mad scientist seeking a human brain for a mechanical man and maybe the first comedic mention of 'braaaaiiins' in a horror/comedy.

Lastly, it's 'Pests in a Mess' Stooges think they're trying to hide a stiff, they never bothered to look and see it was a mannequin, and wind up in a spooky cemetery where the scares literally cause the boys to jump out of their shoes.*

3 stars

-----------------------------------------------------------

Swamp Thing: "The Emerald Heart" *A little boy with a questionable imagination gets to spend the Summer in the swamp, and meets the Swamp Thing. Yuppy douchebag mad scientist toys with his skanky girlfriend and moreso with a poor dwarf.* 2 stars

Thundarr, The Barbarian: "Attack of the Amazon Women" *Han and Chewie get all sexist caught in the midst of a shark ridin', amphibian, estrogen civil war. Also a laser tentacles Kracken, a patriot missile trojan horse, & a lady-magic showdown.* 3 stars

Friday Night Videos (10-30-1987) hosted by Elvira special Halloween Edition ---------------------------

*Springsteen strumming alone in his kitchen, late at night.

Earth Wind & Fire show us innercity life in 'System of Survival' an awesome retro street video.

Cheesy lifesavers and scruples commercials where nerdy yuppies love & hangout.

White man blues Levis 501 blues.

Elvira answers (valley girl voice) "So Weiiird" fan letters from the likes of Madonna & Jon 'bulge in the pants' Bon Jovi.

REM sends one out to 'The One I Love.'

Phillip Morris wants to know if Elvira smokes after sex, Elvira doesn't know, she's never looked.

Tammy Faye Baker thinks Elivra exploits her body. Ha.

Then a flat busted girl wants Elvira's advice in dressing as her for Halloween, Elvira says to dress like Cher, only backwards.

Then the video for that cheesy love song from the end of 'Dirty Dancing' by Billy Medley and Jennifer Warren. Swayze crazy. These two singers must be really ugly, as they're kept in total shadow. Ha.

Jon Cryer is Hiding Out rated PG 13.

3D Toyota car for 1988.

Hershey's one of the all time greats, just ask Van Gogh and Mona Lisa.

Joe Montana knows about Nissan 'built for the human race' automobiles.

A pumpkin head helps sell us water & sofa beds.

Elvira teases us some more with her incredible legs and invites women to wear mattresses on their back, having one eye brow like brooke shields, and wearing a box on their head like Max Headroom.

Steve Winwood uses blurry 80s video editing to ask Valerie to 'Call on Me.'

Squeeze get all Renee Margarite artsy in 'Hourglass.'

Andrew McCarthy, Robert Downey Jr, and James Spader are 'Less Than Zero.'

Grab a stick, take a sniff, pull it out, on the ski slopes 'cause Juicy Fruit is gonna move ya.

"Hey, where did you learn about COMPUTERs?" response "In the Army." "

The Nighttime is the Right Time" to be with the one ya love and to drink Michelob, so tells us a bluesy beer commercial. Man, 80s yuppies loved them some white man's blues.

Elvira gives tips not tits... tips for a safe Halloween. No Smurfs covered sheets ghost costume, take trick instead of treat, and accept no candy apples that you can shave with.

U2 where the streets have no names but do have rooftop spastic Bono belting out a soaring anthem.

Whatzit? board game.

New fresher taste Baby Ruth for letter jacket wearers.

Claim to Fame the gameshow where kids, dressed as Freddy Kruger, juggle fire.

Elvira says not to give out 8 track Frampton or bakedbeans/sushi to trick or treaters, but Sony Walk-man instead.

'Blue Heaven is a Place on Earth' and Belinda Carlisle a dreamy chick on earth.

Cajun spiced Ruffle chips

and spoken word white guy Levi 501 blues.

Crocodile Dundee's buddies sell us Matilda Bay brew.

Flashdance esque advertisement for a hot Pontiac ride.

Stevie Wonder is in suburbia talkin' bout Skeletons in your Closet' and keepin' an eye on the scandalous goings on.

A chick with a Michael Jackson hat and huge earings wants more comfortable contacts.

Get a better butterfinger now.

Dreyfuss & Devito duel in a new comedy.

Not agent Dale Cooper must stop a female alien in The Hidden.

Elvira wraps it up for the Halloween weenies.*

3 stars

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The CW's "The Reaper" unaired pilot *A slacker gets special powers, from Satan, on his 21st birthday because his parents sold his soul to the devil before he was even born. The guy has to go around with a mini-vac and suck up escaped souls and send them back to the pits. The devil turns out to be a decent mentor for the guy to get his life back together. Along with his new Jedi powers and his Tucker & Dale versus Evil buddy, he's able to snare a firebug. This show is like a cross between the teen horror comedy Idle Hands and the S-Mart stuff from Evil Dead.* 3 stars

Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs special guest Chucky from Bride of Chucky "The Gate" *Before Steven Dwarf stunted his size by smoking, he was listening to Satanic rock and summoning Stygian, synchronized- shape-shifting shorties and having to stop them from summoning their Set-like snake-god via a second sacrifice* 2 stars

American Horror Story: Murder House episode 1 *Filthy horror show. Haunted victorian house, 1970s horror vibe, screwed up characters. my curiousity is peaked.* 3 stars

South Park: The Cissy *Cartman finds a new, controversial scheme to exploit a civic issue, and this time Randy, through his strangeness,brings everyone together, uninentionally, to throw a wrench in Eric's plans. This show needs to quit following the same pattern, though, I appreciate the mentions to recent episode events. It gives the show a touch of continuity.* 2 stars

Z Nation: Philly Feast *Trailer trash cannibal cult use whores to lure unlucky men to the meat freezer. The Liberty Bell rolls down the streets of the City of Brotherly Love smashing zombies.* 2 stars

Z Nation: Full Metal Zombie *Amish Zombies, Romero mentioned (interesting self aware moment. Has it been done before, in a zombie show/movie?), zombies liking to eat brains mentioned (hmmm, kind of dumb self aware moment), toilet paper rationing moment (ha), carjacked by phony zombies, nice family carjacks phony zombie carjackers and then violently executes them, nice family (including kids) get eaten (wow, TWD wouldn't show a kid getting eaten), using a fast food drive thru to talk to DJ Qualls *Citizen Z* in his igloo, old hippie shotguns pot with a zombie, horror icon Bill Moseley as a crazy army official with a ridiculously over the top death, giant zombie chokehold, only one moment where they seem to really rip off TWD in where they mistake the old man as a zombie like Rick's group almost shot and killed Daryl after his bloody zombie walk.* 2 1/2 stars

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