Tumgik
#basically a story where you can explore the possibilities of danny being a victim of trafficking
cyrwrites · 1 year
Text
Somewhere Out There...
Danny is Catherine and Wills' kid and is separated from his brother, Jason, while they are being forced into Gotham's foster care system.
Being the trickier of the two, and by far the most experienced, Jason Todd managed to get away from the trafficking rings.
Daniel Todd most definitely did not.
In another news, Amity Park may be Danny's best home situation so far, even if he was killed by his adoptive parents' strange ghost science.
1K notes · View notes
the-desolated-quill · 6 years
Text
Under The Lake - Doctor Who blog
(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)
Tumblr media
After the truly awful opening two parter with Davros, seeing Toby Whithouse’s name show up came as a blessed relief. While not all his stories have been great, he’s by far the most consistently entertaining of New Who’s writers. Even his weaker episodes like The God Complex and A Town Called Mercy had a lot of good things to offer. And now he’s writing a two parter? Even better! 
So what’s Under The Lake like? Well I have to admit I’m very disappointed by the lack of original thinking here. Not only is this yet another base under siege story, it also bears a striking resemblance to another Who story from about 9 years prior. The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit two parter. Yes this base is underwater rather than orbiting a black hole and the crew are being threatened by ghosts rather than the Devil, but it’s basically the same. A military/scientific base that make a mysterious discovery. Writing on a wall that the TARDIS can’t translate. A distinctly ragtag bunch of misfits trying to survive. There’s even a bit where one of the characters gets sucked out of the base and we see their corpse bobbing about outside. The amount of recycling being done here is utterly shameful.
That being said, it’s execution that counts, and while Under The Lake isn’t particularly original or creative, it’s still quite enjoyable to watch. I really like the ghosts. It’s nice to have monsters that actually pose a genuine threat for once. The scene where one of them traps translator guy in an airlock was unbelievably tense. A lot of it is to do with the pacing and the atmosphere. Unlike The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar, which seemed to keep changing settings and plot points so fast it looked as though Moffat was suffering from some form of ADHD, Under The Lake slows right down and actually explores the setting. There’s a very compelling mystery at the heart the story with the ghosts and the mysterious transmission, and Whithouse really takes his time unveiling it over the course of the episode. It’s legitimately intriguing and keeps you engaged in a way the previous two parter didn’t. Under The Lake may be many things, but it certainly isn’t boring by any stretch of the imagination.
Characters are a bit of a mixed bag. I liked O’Donnell, played by Morven Christie. She seems like a less grating version of Osgood, with her fangasms toward the Doctor being mercifully kept to tolerant levels. Both Whithouse and Christie seem to be putting more effort into actually having her be a likeable and believable character rather than just an obsessive fangirl with a Time Lord fixation (Moffat, perhaps you should take notes). I also liked Cass, played by Sophie Stone. She’s intelligent and level-headed, plus it’s nice to see Doctor Who include a deaf character into one of their stories, specifically a deaf character who isn’t portrayed as an innocent or naive victim. Although, considering this story is set in the early 22nd Century, you’d think deaf people would have better means of support other than relying on another person to translate for them (I mean for Christ sake, the hearing impaired have better tech to help them here in the present day). The other characters however are a bit bland. Cass’ translator has no character other than just being Cass’ translator, Colin MacFarlane’s character gets killed off just minutes into the episode (what a waste of a great actor) followed by the stereotypical Evil Capitalist, and finally you have a Arsher Ali as Bennett who’s just your generic nerdy nice guy who may or may not have a crush on O’Donnell (I don’t know. It’s hard to tell) and doesn’t really have any good material to work with. It’s a two parter so maybe he’ll get more stuff to do in the next episode, so I won’t dismiss him just yet.
Then of course there’s the Doctor and Clara, and I can’t say I’m very happy with what’s happening with them. Clara is once again getting on my nerves, but Moffat and co seem to be trying to spin her behaviour into some kind of character arc. Apparently she’s becoming more and more like the Doctor, yearning for monsters and adventure, presumably as a form of escape from her unhappy home life and to distract herself about Danny. This could be interesting except for a few problems. The most obvious being I don’t care about Clara in the slightest. She’s never really had any real agency of her own, her character almost entirely revolving around the men in her life. Even with Danny dead, her life still utterly revolves around him, and her solution is to become more like another male character in her life; the Doctor. And I’m sure you all know how I feel about Clara becoming more like the Doctor.
Its the smugness I really can’t stand, and I fail to see what the writers are trying to accomplish with this. One bit that really got me was when she and the Doctor come across a room where clearly some kind of fight had taken place, and her first reaction is to press the Doctor for a high five. It just makes her come across like a callous bitch. How about showing a little bit of concern? The crew could be injured or dead for all they know. Flatline had the same problem with Clara being more concerned with how good she was at being the Doctor rather than the lives that she failed to save, which I think any normal person in her position would be more concerned with. I especially don’t like the implication that this is how the Doctor acts because it simply isn’t. I’ve never liked the idea of the Doctor actively looking for trouble because I feel it makes him slightly less endearing. In the classic series, he was just a traveller who would occasionally help people out should they require his aid. I’ve always found New Who’s take of the Doctor being some kind of thrill seeker who craves danger and excitement to be an over-simplification (same with the Doctor’s knee-jerk reaction to guns and the military).
Speaking of the Doctor, I’m glad to see we’ve shifted away from the forced and awkward goofiness in the previous two parter (although sadly the sonic sunglasses are still with us). This is the kind of material Peter Capaldi is good at. This darkly sarcastic humour suits him so much better and I wish they’d stick to it. However, believe it or not, I feel Whithouse may have taken the Doctor slightly too far with it. I’m sorry, I know quite a few people like the gag, but I HATE the whole bit with the cue cards. The Doctor wouldn’t be this clueless about human empathy and it twists this Doctor’s character too far in an unnatural direction. Think back to episodes like Time Heist and Mummy On The Orient Express. Twelve is not incapable of caring or showing empathy. He’s clearly able to. He just doesn’t see it as a priority during moments of peril. You can see on his face brief flashes of concern, but unlike Ten and Eleven, he chooses not to express it so he can focus solely on the task at hand. So the whole idea of him needing cue cards to console someone just doesn’t ring true for me, plus after Series 8 with Twelve constantly seeking Clara’s validation for every little thing, the last thing I want to see is a repeat performance of that.
Under The Lake isn’t a bad episode by any means. Granted it’s not very creative or imaginative, and most of the characterisation is quite weak, but it’s still watchable and at times quite engaging. I was tentatively looking forward to Part 2, but then the episode ended with the Doctor’s ghost showing up as a cliffhanger, which caused me to groan. Not only am I getting so sick to death of the Doctor’s impending doom being teased over and over again like a broken record, it also completely strips the story of any potential threat because we know there’s no way the Doctor is really dead. Either the ghost isn’t real or Clara is going to find some miraculous way of bringing the Doctor back to life, and possibly everyone else too.
Sigh. We’ll just have to wait and see.
11 notes · View notes
joel-furniss-blog · 6 years
Text
True Crime and Serial Killer Art
Speaking on social taboos, the subject of death and surrounding issues regarding it remain one of the most prominent today. In multiple different societies there have been traditions to avoid omens relating to death or the deceased. The indigenous Shuswap people of Canada treat widows and widowers as unlucky to hunters and seclude them from the tribe. Among the Agutainos of the Philippines, widows may not leave their huts for seven days after a death, and it is said whoever looks upon her perishes suddenly. Although we have eased on the idea through the centuries and built a much more sound understanding of it, it still remains a subject that we don’t talk about on a regular basis, despite its presence and inevitability within our own lives. More than half of Britons are unaware of their partner’s end-of-life wishes and I’m assuming some don’t even know their own.
The reason is we don’t want to die. It’s simply in our nature to survive for as long as possible. But there remains an interesting case about dying that both intrigues and disgusts us. Murder.
In 2015, Making a Murderer was uploaded to Netflix, an episodic documentary detailing the story of Steven Avery, a man convicted for the murder of Teresa Halbach and the case surrounding it with the overarching question on whether Avery’s conviction and imprisonment was wrongful. The series received around 19.3 million viewers in the US alone, all watching the evidence unfold on whether Avery was wrongfully convicted or not, a real person in real life. The series was basically reality television at its logical peak, directly dealing with life and death. It’s interesting, we understand these subjects as demanding respect and reverence, but can’t help but gawk. Despite being a taboo, death fascinates us to no end, especially the subjects of these crimes or murder cases which breed intrigue into the reasoning on why we would kill our fellow humans.
This fascination is manifested within the True Crime genre, a non-fiction literary and film category in which actual criminal activities and details are analysed and recorded for entertainment. The genre appears in many forms, literary work such as the Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter detailing the Manson murders, television such as the previously mentioned Making a Murderer, films like the dramatized Zodiac by David Fincher retelling the Zodiac Killer’s crimes, or podcasts like the popular Serial which narrated the real life murder of Hae Min Lee. In other words the genre has spread itself over all media and has become virtually inescapable to most media-watching people and we can’t help but continue to watch due to a shared sense of morbid curiosity or perhaps an infatuation with these characters.
Nowadays the documentary works account more sensationalist crimes and focus more on the profile of the committer rather than the crimes and victims themselves. The serial killers or mass shooters are displayed as psychologically layered and charismatic characters rather than morally reprehensible killers. People like Ted Bundy, Jeffry Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy are seen as pop culture figures subject to their own biopics and documentaries exploring their every move as if they were celebrities. Some murders even went on to inspire popular movie franchises such as Ed Gein, whose grisly habit or creating trophies from his victim’s skin and slight oedipal relationship with his deceased mother inspired famous movie villains Leatherface, Buffalo Bill, and Norman Bates. We’re infatuated with these people and their crimes, the idea of them taking the life of someone else and defacing their corpses is so alien to us as regular minded individuals that we can’t help but stop, stare, and shake our heads. But some people take it further than simply looking at a distance.
Hybristophilia (also known as Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome) is which one feels arousal and facilitation for someone who has committed a serious crime such as armed robbery, rape, and murder. The paraphilia can be experienced in either passive or aggressive ways, with passive hybristophiliacs often writing romantic or sexual fan mail to notorious criminals, sometimes even developing a romantic relationship with them resulting in marriages behind bars. Most hybristophiliacs have delusions about their idols, rationalising their crimes, believing they would never harm them, thinking they can change their lovers for the better, or actively putting themselves into positions in which they can be seduced or manipulated. Aggressive hybristophiliacs are different as they are willing to help their lovers with their criminal agenda via luring victims, hiding evidence, or even helping commit the crimes. They are attracted to their partners due to their psychotic actions and are unable to understand that they are often being manipulated or abused as well. Psychologist know little about this paraphilia but hypothesise that the hybristophiliacs are submissive victims, narcissistic enablers, or vicarious thrill-seekers. Some believe it’s the natural pinnacle of the ‘caveman’ mentality, where traditionally masculine and aggressive figures are seen as more attractive than others.
In this age it’s much easier to see examples of this paraphilia. On blogging site Tumblr there is a fandom of often teenage girls who obsess over Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the perpetrators of the Columbine high school massacre, and create video and photographic montages and tributes to the deranged teenagers they saw as outcasts and underdogs, even affectionately referring to themselves as ‘Columbiners’. Other internet communities such as ‘Incels’, a group of sexually frustrated men, herald Elliot Rodgers, a misogynistic mass shooter responsible for the 2014 Isla Vista killings as a saint figure due to him sharing some of their views. This is the case for many murderers online. You can type in the name of a famous serial killer into Tumblr and find blogs and posts dedicated to him, even sexual fanfictions between them and a non-descript self-insert character designed to represent the reader. Some of this worship is either ironic, for humours effect, or simply just to be edgy, (which is why I found interest within this) but many of them do see a small piece of themselves within these people, a cut of self-loathing outcast and edgy passion they can identify with. Because often the idols they herald are youthful and full of hate, and this overly emotional position can lead them to creative outlets.
For example, the previously mentioned Columbine shooters often expressed themselves through their uncommon fashion choices, enjoyment of alternate music, radical political opinions, and a series of videos for a school project entitled Hitmen for Hire in which the two swore and yelled violent statements at the camera in between acting out shootings on students in the school’s hallways. The video is embarrassing to watch and is reminiscent of many people’s cringeworthy teenage years when they thought rebelling against the norm was the coolest and a completely new idea, when in reality it always comes off as lame and a massive blunder in the future. The same goes for Isla Vista killer who wrote a 107,000-word manifesto entitled My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger, in which Rodger’s discusses key events in his life that led him to his delusional and psychopathic state. I haven’t read the entire document as I don’t have the ten hours it takes to read, but from the experts and snippets I have seen the document reads horribly and in explaining himself and trying to spur sympathy or profess his superiority, Rodgers comes across as a whiny, unaccepted 14-year-old too big for his britches rather than a twenty-two-year-old adult.
The reason I draw attention to these people is that I’m interested in the theme of creativity within murders and mass shooters. Many serial killers either produce drawings and paintings before or after they are incarcerated, drawings and paintings that are documented online. They range in quality and merit, with some being near photorealistic recreations, highly stylised sketches, and colourful and detailed paintings while others are the most basic of sketchbook doodles. But there always remains something interesting to each one, whether it be the execution (of the art, not the killers) or the subject matter. For example, John Wayne Gacy’s works were deeply rooted within pop culture with him painting figures such as Charles Manson, Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King’s It, the titular Seven Dwarfs from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and punk singer GG Allin. He even showed a small knowledge of the artworld with a grotesque painted recreation of Salvador Dali’s In Voluptas Mors. Another murderer who had a passion for the pencil was Danny Rolling who’s highly detailed and meticulously sketched pencil drawings show elements of surrealism, gothic and heavy metal imagery, and some running themes of popular figures such as Hitler. The drawings are disturbing yet technically impressive and stylistically interesting (some are even for sale online) and perhaps if he wasn’t a psychopath he could have found success.
There’s a particular work by a particular murderer I would like to look at. Richard Ramirez AKA the Night Stalker was an American serial killer, rapist, and burglar who operated in the Southern California area between June 1984 and August 1985 before being convicted of thirteen counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, eleven counts of sexual assault, and fourteen accounts of burglary. Ramirez’s art was poor, mainly done on notebook paper with biro pen or coloured crayon and featured themes similar to the previously discussed killers, pop culture icons and gothic/heavy metal imagery to create unthreatening and frankly lame pieces. But one stands out from the rest by evoking an unsettling feeling within the viewer, an untitled drawing depicting Ramirez’s favourite actress Abigail Breslin. The drawing appears to be almost entirely made with black biro sans the lips which are a shade of deep crimson and scrawled with an unidentifiable material (possibly felt tip), all drawn on a piece of thin, folded, off-white paper. While the technical style of the portrait is poor and hasty, I find an infatuating quality surrounding it, one element is drawn from the style itself. It is a simple line study and form register, featuring no shading what so ever and sparse detail, for example, the ears are left blank, the natural flow of the hair is only alluded to with some scattered lines, the nose is only represented by a single line, and the eyes are totally undetailed except for a pair of pinprick pupils. Another factor is how some of the lines in the image falter before they can connect, examples found in the left shoulder line falling just short of the neck, ponytail trailing off into noting and right corner of the dress missing a connection. The most prominent feature of the drawing is the lips, almost grotesquely oversized and curled upwards in a sickeningly dead smile at the viewer, the deep red almost seeming like a bloody gash in the otherwise plain white image. The blood red slit for the mouth, the dead and unblinking eyes and the not-all-there composition make the image deeply unsettling even without the context of Ramirez’s heinous crimes and the knowledge that the subject was less the sixteen-years-old when Ramirez drew her. Paired with that knowledge it is a horrifying piece that can make the skin crawl.
While some might think that writing about and shinning a light on these deranged killers to advance my own visual art may be amoral or at least cause for concern, the idea is one I wanted to explore at the start of this project. I want to learn how one can be different, break taboos, transgress standards yet still be accepted, this is a good way to explore that. In dealing with this unspeakable yet fascinating taboo of murder and sexual assault I’m gaining key information and a creative stake in my project that will hopefully help advance it in a visual and conceptual way. Also, creating work based on serial killers is very edgy.
I would also like to stress that I do not support any act of murder, rape, or other crime done by anyone mentioned in this document.
2 notes · View notes
doomonfilm · 4 years
Text
Review : Doctor Sleep (2019)
Tumblr media
When you think about authors that have made an impact on the film industry, it’s hard to think of a name more prolific that Stephen King.  Countless books of his have been adapted into films, with scores more waiting in the wings.  Several of his books went from being single entries to series, and recently, one of his most famous books, The Shining, received a follow-up entry.  2019 saw this follow-up hit the big screen in the form of Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep. 
In the wake of the Overlook Hotel tragedy, Wendy Torrance (Alex Essoe) and her young son Danny (Roger Dale Floyd) have moved to Florida to try and bring normalcy back to their lives.  Danny, who is in a state of shock due to narrowly escaping the Overlook with his life, has not spoken since the incident, but with the help of Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly), Danny learns how to trap the ghosts from the Overlook in his head.  Meanwhile, a group known as the True Knot, led by the mysterious Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), seeks those with the Shining in hopes of capturing their essence, which they refer to as Steam.  In 2011, Dan (Ewan McGregor) finds himself in a worse alcoholic state than his father, wandering from city to city in hopes of escaping rock bottom and himself.  As he settles into a small New Hampshire town, he meets Billy (Cliff Curtis), who helps Dan secure work and join an AA group in hopes of cleaning up his life.  At this time, Rose the Hat and her group discover Snakebite Andi (Emily Alyn Lind), a young and talented drifter who uses her Shining talents to teach men who prey on young girls a dangerous lesson, and after a little convincing, Rose convinces Andi to join the True Knot fold.  Eight years pass by, and while Dan is thriving in his attempt at a new life, the True Knot finds themselves starving due to a lack of discovering sources of Steam.  In a drastic measure, the group kidnaps a young boy named Bradley (Jacob Tremblay) and tortures and murders him for Steam, which awakens a young and powerful Shining user named Abra (Kyliegh Curran), causing a ripple effect that connects Abra to Dan.  As Abra urges Dan to assist her in discovering the whereabouts of Bradley and the True Knot, she also makes attempts at getting into Rose’s head, causing a collision course between Dan, Abra, the True Knot, and eventually, the Overlook Hotel.
The way that this film manages to play fan service to both Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick fans is a truly fascinating feat.  Instantly, we are immersed into the familiar world of the Overlook hotel, and the choice to cast actors who resemble the original cast of The Shining immediately washes the viewer in a sense of familiarity.  Much of the expositional backstory need is eliminated because we under the circumstances that led up to where the story begins, and with a basic understanding of what practitioners of the Shining are capable of, the table is set for a wide range of new characters with a wide range of Shining-based powers to explore.  The sense of familiarity to a horror of the past permeates throughout the story, with references from Danny’s past finding their way back into his life, as well as echoes of the past occurring constantly, with Dan replacing Jack Torrance in plenty of iconic situations.
The film pays tons of respect to both King and Kubrick in terms of lore expansion and callback moments.  Giving the Shining an almost Force-like need for balance creates a mystical tug of war between Dan and Abra and the True Knot, with tons of psychic psychological warfare taking place between Shining users in the form of trickery, deception and dangerous traps with real world consequences.  Several interesting ideas are presented during the course of the narrative, many of which I am still dwelling on at the moment.  For example, the idea that technology and medication can dull the gift of the Shining, while not an original idea in terms of ‘mysticism’ and evolution, is presented without the need for heavy-handed examples to be shown.  One line of dialogue that stuck with me involved Dan mentioning to Abra about Tony being his imaginary friend, to which Abra responds that she thought Dan was her imaginary friend... does this mean that Tony is a real person that Dan never got the opportunity to cross paths with, simply because he didn’t understand his power at the time?  The idea that the Overlook cycles its victims through the numerous roles it casts its ghost in is also a fascinating one, as Jack replaces Lloyd, and Dan ultimately replaces Jack.
Normally, I wouldn’t go for what could be boiled down to big-budget fan-fiction, but execution of Doctor Sleep checks every box I imagine I would have.  The use of a nearly identical score keeps the ominous energy of The Shining present, but the bigger world expands the sense of danger.  Watching characters in the film return to the Overlook is crazy, as the callbacks to locations throughout are stunning and startling in terms of the way the original look and energy is re-created... sort of like a nostalgia aesthetic was the idea.  For fans of Kubrick’s interpretation of The Shining, and those who noticed its obvious influence on King’s dive into Doctor Sleep as a novel, this film is an answer to their prayers.
Ewan McGregor and his attempts at controlling his fear of what he’s capable of are portrayed well, especially with the red herring of alcoholism being the possible issue in his life (at least to strangers).  Kyliegh Curran does a great job of exuding confidence and curiosity in her powers that she does not fully understand, which in turn gets her in over her head before she realizes.  Rebecca Ferguson is captivating as Rose the Hat, using a magnetic personality to draw people into her fold.  Cliff Curtis is a solid representation for the support system that McGregor seeks, as well as serving as an audience avatar in a world full of mystic characters.  Emily Alyn Lind and Zahn McClarmon are standout members of the True Knot, paralleling off of one another as a showboat and someone who plays their cards close to the chest.  Carl Lumbly, Alex Essoe, Henry Thomas and Roger Dale Floyd manage to ring the bells of familiarity in their roles as the iconic characters from The Shining, and do so without upsetting our train of thought or enjoyment of the film.  Appearances by Bruce Greenwood, Jocelin Donahue, Zackary Momoh, Jacob Tremblay, the numerous members of the True Knot, and a cameo by Danny Lloyd round things out.
This film surprised me, despite there not being much definitive out in terms of critical or crowd reaction.  I went into it expecting to enjoy the experience, but I was surprised that Doctor Sleep left the impression on me that it did.  Look for this one to more than likely end up in my top ten of the year.
0 notes
ramajmedia · 5 years
Text
5 Best And Worst Episodes Of Tales From The Crypt (According to IMDb)
Tales from the Crypt first came to HBO back in 1989. The series ran for a total of seven seasons, all of which were introduced by the Crypt Keeper. Tales from the Crypt was an anthology horror series much like Goosebumps or Tales from the Darkside, that told a different chilling tale each week.
RELATED: 10 Best Episodes Of Goosebumps, Ranked
Most of the episodes were adaptations of the 1950s EC Comics, but not all of the episodes were well-received by fans. The series ended in 1996 after 93 episodes, resulting in an average IMDb score of 8.0 out of 10. How were individual episodes received on the site, though? Here are the best and worst installments of the show, by IMDb ranking.
10 Best: "Death of Some Salesmen" - 8.0
Tumblr media
One of the highest-rated episodes of Tales From the Crypt was “Death of Some Salesmen.” The episode was not only directed by one of the show’s long-running producers, Gilbert Adler, but it also had some big-name actors in the starring roles. The episode stars Ed Begley Jr. as a con-man named Judd who travels around as a salesman.
Judd first visits a woman named Mrs. Jones, who is played by Yvonne De Carlo (Lily Munster from The Munsters). The episode also stars Tim Curry, who plays Ma and Pa Brackett. Like most Tales From the Crypt episodes, this episode has a twist which ends with the Bracketts conning Judd.
9 Worst: "The Pit" - 5.6
Tumblr media
On the other end of the spectrum is the episode “The Pit.” This episode aired during the show’s sixth season and is also one of the worst-rated episodes of the series. The episode opens with two boxers fighting each other, which ultimately ends in a tie. The wives of the fighters are equally competitive and make a deal to get their husbands a lead role in a 20th Century Fox film called The Pulverizer.
The winner of the fight gets the lead in the movie and $100 million, while the loser will die but gets $10 million for his wife. The women get tricked into fighting by their husbands and they soon realize that they are actually the stars of a film called The Pulverizers.
8 Best: "Abra Cadaver" - 8.0
Tumblr media
The fourth episode of Season 3 is another one of the best-rated episodes of Tales From the Crypt. It revolves around Martin Fairbanks, who was on his way to becoming a surgeon before his brother played a prank on him that ruined his career.
RELATED: 10 Campy Horror Movies To Watch If You Love Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
After being demoted to a research assistant, Martin begins to research a serum that causes the body to basically play dead. Martin tries to get revenge on his brother Carl, but things don’t go exactly to plan. This was also one of the episodes that was adapted straight from a comic book: Tales From the Crypt #37 to be exact.
7 Worst: "Report From The Grave" - 5.6
Tumblr media
To fans' dismay, Tales From the Crypt ended after seven seasons. Unfortunately, the final season ended up being one of the worst seasons to date, partly because of the episode “Report From the Grave.” This episode starred James Frain as a scientist who wants to learn how to read the memories of dead people.
Eventually, Frain successfully builds a machine that allows him to do so and tries to read the memories of a deceased serial killer. This episode got a lot of complaints about being confusing, due to its poor editing, storyline, and overall direction.
6 Best: "Television Terror" - 8.2
Tumblr media
Jumping back to one of the highlights of the series, it's the episode “Television Terror” from season 2. In this episode, a television crew explores a haunted house while live on the air. The house is notorious for housing victims of Ada Ritter: a caretaker who killed her patients to collect their money. As the television crew film the inside of the house, ghosts start to appear, one of which kills a cameraman.
RELATED: 10 Best Horror TV Shows Available On Netflix 
The host of the show then sees a ghost holding the camera, but before he can escape, the ghost kills him and throws him through a window. Despite the graphic content, the fictional producers are thrilled, since the horror of it all boosted the show's ratings.
5 Worst: "Smoke Wrings" - 5.5
Tumblr media
Before Daniel Craig would become known as James Bond, he appeared in an episode of Tales From the Crypt called “Smoke Wrings” in 1996. Craig’s character, Barry, has gotten his hands on a device that can control people’s thoughts, which becomes incredibly handy in his advertising company.
What Barry doesn’t know is that his partner is actually working with his boss to test the device on him, to see how well it really works. Despite Craig’s performance and jokes about The Godfather from the Cryptkeeper, the episode used too much cheap humor that detracted from the clever plot.
4 Best: "Yellow" - 8.3
Tumblr media
Season 3 episode 14, titled “Yellow,” takes viewers back to World War I, where a father and son are working in the military as a general and lieutenant. While General Kalthrob is a brave man who is good at his job, his son Lt. Kalthrob is a coward who is often called “Yellow.”
After Lt. Kalthrob leaves his men to die on the battlefield, the general has no choice but to order his son to death by firing squad. Visiting his son in prison, the general tells his son he will load the soldiers’ guns with blanks so that he can fake his death, but only if he faces the firing squad bravely. Unfortunately for Lt. Kalthrob, his father didn’t keep his word, as he considered it more important that his son die with confidence then live as a coward.
3 Worst: "Whirlpool" - 5.4
Tumblr media
The episode “Whirlpool” from Season 6 begins with an interesting premise, as an artist loses her job at EC Comics. Rolanda is shot by the police, only to end up living the same day over and over again (similar to the idea of the film Groundhog Day). "Whirlpool" ends when it is revealed that the entire episode was a comic book and that Rolanda is actually the boss at the comic company.
Some didn’t enjoy the episode, due to its campy comedy and predictability. The episode also happens to be a shorter Tales From the Crypt installment (coming in around 20 minutes compared to 30), so there could also be the argument that this story wasn’t really strong enough for a full episode.
2 Best: "What’s Cookin’" - 8.5
Tumblr media
The sixth episode of Season 4 immediately grabbed people’s attention, since it featured Superman star Christopher Reeve. In “What’s Cookin,’” Reeve is the owner of a restaurant that only serves squid. Customers aren’t taking to his menu, so Gaston suggests a BBQ menu after the landlord named Chumley intimidates Fred.
Fred ends up killing Chumley and even uses his body as meat for the new BBQ. Gaston tries to blackmail Fred, which doesn’t go over well as he ends up being burned alive by Fred and his associates. Everyone has their favorite episode of Tales From the Crypt, but “What’s Cookin’” boasts the highest score of any of them, with an 8.5 on IMDb.
1 Worst: "The Kidnapper" - 5.2
Tumblr media
Yet another lackluster episode from Season 7, it's "The Kidnapper.” After a pawn shop owner falls in love with a pregnant woman, he sets out to get rid of her child so that he can spend as much time as possible with his new lover.
This backfires on Danny (played by Steve Coogan), as his partner Teresa is, of course, deeply affected by his actions. Danny then tries to kidnap another baby for her, but the episode ends with a cheap conclusion as Danny is beaten to death by community members. Dark humor tends to be the show's style, but this episode was simply dark and uncomfortable.
NEXT: 10 Best Netflix Original Horror TV Shows
source https://screenrant.com/tales-crypt-greatest-worst-episodes-imdb-ranked/
0 notes
jam2289 · 5 years
Text
Fighting Local Government Corruption - Part 6 of ?
Why do some people feel that they can trample other people's rights and that's fine? This article will be fast and heavy. We are going to see the eight ways that people detach morality from their actions, why it's hard to tell when politicians are lying, a disturbing statistic related to the dark triad, two experiments that show the tendency of some people to abuse power and other people to follow bad orders, how stories reveal some of these processes, and the possibility for redemption.
Tumblr media
There are eight techniques that people use to make the bad things that they do seem okay. The psychologist Albert Bandura wrote the book "Moral Disengagement". He also has a five page paper by the same name. By knowing about these you can be more alert and aware of the various manipulation techniques that are used. This will be a short overview. They have semi-confusing names, so I'll break down what they really mean.
Moral Justification
This is simply doing bad things as a means to a "good" end. "I'll sacrifice those people over there so that I can get to this thing I want." Those other people are just collateral damage. It's all for the greater good anyway. This basic view is that humans aren't really ends in themselves, they are just tools or obstacles. (It's disturbing, I know, but it will get worse. Still, it's important to know these things.)
Euphemistic Labeling
This is how politicians talk. It's why it's often confusing and boring to listen to them. If, for instance, they were to tell the truth they wouldn't say, "I lied." Nope, they will say something like, "I presented the information through a medium in which I believed we would be able to protect the lives of innocent children." What does that have to do with it? We'll all wonder what they're talking about, because they aren't really talking about anything. It's often worse than that too. Sometimes they do something like this, "Things that were untrue were communicated." It means the same thing as "I lied.", it just sounds like they didn't do anything wrong, and that's why they use it.
Exonerative Comparison; or, Advantageous Comparison
"Maybe I've done bad things, but look at that guy over there, he does even worse things. So, maybe I'm not really that bad."
Displacement of Responsibility
"Someone else told me to do this bad thing, so it's not really my fault."
Diffusion of Responsibility
"I wasn't alone in doing this, a bunch of other people were part of it too, so you can't really blame me."
Minimizing, Ignoring, or Misconstruing the Consequences; or Disregarding or Misrepresenting Injurious Consequences
There are a lot of examples that fall into this category, but here's one simple example: "It's not really hurting them that bad."
Dehumanization
This is where you think of other humans as not human. It's often used in atrocities of various sorts, like when the Nazis called Jews pests. "These people are lower than us, they don't have rights because they don't deserve rights." (I think this is the most disturbing.)
Attribution of Blame
This one seems odd at first, but it's common. They just blame the victim for what they're doing to them. "You brought this on yourself."
Obviously some of these techniques are also why it's hard to tell when politicians are lying, but there is specific research into this too. Here is a tiny look into that. This is a piece of the abstract from the paper "Manipulating Public Opinion with Moral Justification" by Kathleen McGraw.
- - - - - - -
...why it is so difficult to detect deceptive moral justifications. The difficulty arises because (1) people are not very good at detecting deception in general; (2) the mediated nature of political communication eliminates the nonverbal cues that are the most predictive of deception; (3) social judgment biases lead people to focus on the individual and inhibit suspicion; (4) the norms of political culture constrain politicians from accusing each other of lying, so that the public is not prompted by other sources to regard moral claims with suspicion.
- - - - - - -
Luckily, not everyone is so constrained. For instance, let me reveal some information for you.
- - - - - - -
This is from the Muskegon Circuit Court's website showing the township suing Hidden Creek Farm.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ynL4G4o3kY1ZCX8UB3nKQoWt1JFt8JWQ
Here's the township supervisor lying about it.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1X9TVcNZIubvTI49iR7ZOnxtuWuzo0kQM
Here's a recording of the township lying about it. (It's a phone call just over 6 minutes long. You'll have to download it to listen to it.)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YDg8L1yU6xfO99ggWTw-YcR3GePglc9O
Here's a trustee saying he wasn't informed.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mcDn0hBEHCiPpl3VTui_Z3GsOgT9bcwN
Here are the minutes before the lawsuit and injunction showing that it wasn't discussed in an open meeting.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=11ou0UvSKl8Ddpd0tkv3ECCWSo4B8hb78
Here are the minutes after the lawsuit and injunction. The lawsuit still isn't discussed, and the injunction is voted on after it was already done.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BpP4jVZ34d0VErSIEGFzjRLFs3mWkFMA
- - - - - - -
Next, there truly are dark individuals. Most reasonable people know this, but they never expect to interact with them. They think they only exist on the news or in drama shows.
The dark triad is a set of three dangerous traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Narcissism means the person lacks empathy and has an overly grandiose view of themselves. Machiavellianism means the person manipulates and exploits people, doesn't worry about morality, and uses deception to get their way. Psychopathy means the person can be remorselessly antisocial.
There are people out there with these traits. Here's the scary statistic: one percent of people are psychopaths. That means that out of the next 100 people you see... yeah. Add sociopaths into the mix and you at least double that number. Think about that when you're at a large gathering of people, look around, think about it, it's scary.
The environment makes a strong difference as well. The controversial Stanford Prison Experiment was funded by the Navy to see how and why abuse comes about in prisons. Students were randomly assigned to be guards or prisoners. With small suggestions to do what was necessary to keep the "prisoners" in line, the "guards" quickly turned to classic methods of prisoner abuse. Power and authority given to the wrong people in the wrong situation results in bad things.
Not always is it even the people with the most authority that do the actual deeds, sometimes they are just ordered to. Stanley Milgram did experiments to see if it might be true that the people that committed atrocities in the Holocaust felt like they were truly "just following orders." As it turns out, most people are willing to give massive electric shocks to people if they are told to do so by an authority figure. They are uncomfortable doing it, but they still do it. People question it, they feel like it's wrong, but when reassured and told to continue, they do. In the struggle between obedience and conscience, the conscience usually loses.
Some narratives do a good job of exploring these processes. For instance, in the television show "Poldark" Elizabeth makes small compromises. Slowly, over years of moral compromises, she puts herself in a position where she has to do bad things to try to justify the previous compromises she has made. Her bad decisions and bad deeds grow over the years until they become destructively large. It was bad at the beginning, but because it was small she got away with it, she thought.
Another way it can happen is like Danny from "Game of Thrones". At first she is doing bad things to bad people, and it's justified. But, over time she keeps doing those bad things, even when she is crushing innocent people.
This all brings us to the possibility for redemption. I believe that there is always some possibility for redemption in life, even Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol". But, if there is a jewel thief that is seeking for redemption, he still shouldn't be left alone in a jewelry store at night with a key. It's the same with positions of authority. When moral and legal violations have been made I believe there should be attempts to restore justice by the individuals that committed those wrongs. That process is best completed as a personal journey, after those people are removed from their positions of authority, by themselves or by the citizens.
Many of the things mentioned in this article are unsavory to look at, to listen to, to think about, but if we forgo our responsibility of being aware, then who will stop them?
________________________________________________
You can find more of what I'm doing at http://www.JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com
0 notes