#differences in american and asian horror movies

[cagreyson]

Asian Horror Movies VS American Horror Movies

What are some of the differences in American Horror movies and Asian Horror movies? #horror #horrorfilms #asianhorror #americanhorror #horrorcommunity #horrorfam #horrorfamily #horrorblog #blog

Asian horror movies have been gaining popularity in the US for the past few years. There are many reasons why but one of the biggest reasons is that they are just so different from American horror movies. Asian horror films tend to be much more psychological and integrate practicality even when the supernatural are involved.In America, many horror movies use violence in the forefront with little…

[niuniente]

I like to watch horror movies from different countries and cultures; American, Mexican, Argentinean, Spanish, British, Norwegian, Iranian, Korean, Japanese... But I realized that I've never seen a horror movie from East-Europe. And, it doesn't make ANY sense because one of the best horror artists I know are Slavic.

So, any recommendation for East-European and Slavic horror movies? All horror genres are fine and I have no squicks.

I'd be also more than happy to receive recs for West and South Asian horror movies as well as African horror movies from any African region.

[compacflt]

When it comes to historical research, do you research for things that DON'T exist? For example, foods that are common now but didn't exist in the average American restaurant or grocery in the '80s or '90's? Words, phrases, and entire concepts that are commonly accepted today but unheard of to the average American when Mav and Ice were at Top Gun?

Your writing is so unbelievably good.

not really because I don't care about food, I care about the literary device that is "taking communion." i.e. it doesn't matter what they eat, it only matters that they're eating together, for the plot.

And, okay, showing my little-kid bias, but was there actually stuff in grocery stores in the 80s/90s that wouldn't be there today/vice versa? brands might change, like okay Pringles might not exist but you still have potato chips; and obviously specialty stuff like what you find in your average Asian market might not be commonplace, but, like, were the 90s all that different from today, American-food-wise? its my assumption that they weren't, but I also wasn't alive in the 90s, so. Um, ectocooler Hi-C, maybe? that's the one 90s food I know.

attitudes of course are what change. today's concept of being so QUICK to publicly label sexual identities would be extremely foreign, for instance. obviously people did label their sexualities in the 80s & 90s, people were definitely calling themselves bisexual and such, but probably not the people ice & mav would be hanging out with, in the Reagan-era navy. which is what my fics are about. that's the whole point.

and, also, COMMUNICATION changes. I have never used a payphone in my whole life so I actually have no idea how they work. but they were ubiquitous "back then," and lend themselves to amazingly interesting conflict (omg I don't have enough change to call my boyfriend maverick who's mad at me!!!) which is why I lean on payphones so much in my writing. honestly, im gonna be real, the invention of the cell phone makes telling stories about miscommunication so much harder. instant-speed communication would make certain stories less interesting, which is why a lot of horror movies default to the "no cell service" trope to isolate their characters, or why some teen dramas have the characters reject cell phones on principle (Alyssa or James having a phone in 2017's "The End of the F***ing World" would solve most of their problems, which is why Alyssa smashes hers in the first five minutes and James basically says he views them as a cancer to society--if they had phones the story would be boring, so the writers took away their phones).

I also feel like people used to treat society differently "back then," i.e. Going Out was much more of a thing when there were 10 channels on TV and no one had cell phones, so you Went Out and had drinks & met strangers & interacted with general society to an extent im not sure we do anymore. So that experience is way more fun to write about in the 80s than today. (u can't see me but im seething with jealousy over ppl who were born in ~1965)

idk. im not sure I did a great job reproducing the zeitgeist of the 80s/90s in my fics, bc I wasn't there to have knowledge of what they were like. I got most of my presupposed knowledge about that time period from reading Calvin & Hobbes anthologies as a kid. oh well.

[gamerpup1]

zane ro'meave personality for character ai

[{Character(“Zane Ro'meave”)

Alias(“Zane”)

Gender(“Transgender male”)

Age(“28")

Sexuality(“Bisexual" + “Attracted to men” + “Attracted to women”)

Height(“5’10” + “177.8cm”)

Language(“English")

Status(“Single” + “In love with {{user}}”)

Occupation("Neighborhood Watch" + "Waiter at Kawaii~Treat Maid~Sweet Café")

Personality(“Sarcastic" + “Tsundere” + “Nerd” + “Well-spoken with his feelings” + “Mature” + “Rude” + “Easily annoyed” + “Insecure” + “Secretly clingy” + “Secretly affectionate” + “Reserved” + “Secretly caring” + “Secretly soft” + “Intuitive” + “Intelligent” + “Clever” + “Considerate” + “Hardworking” + “Blunt” + “Honest” + “Independant” + “Observant” + “Patient” + “Easily overstimulated” + “Secretly protective” + “Touchstarved” + “Stubborn” + “Extremely low self esteem”)

Skills("Baking” + “Cooking” + “Planning” + “Being on time” + “Birdwatching” + “Intelligent” + “Good at manipulating people” + “Doing hair”)

Appearance("Chubby" + “Pudgy stomach” + “Blind in left eye” + “Light blue eyes” + “Pale skin” + “Freckles” + “Dark clothing” + “Black face mask” + “Top surgery scars” + “Has a pussy” + “Has a clit piercing” + “Black converse” + “Baggy and ripped black jeans” + “Black and gray striped jacket” + “Wallet chain” + “Right eyebrow piercing” + “Fluffy, shoulder length black hair” + “Emo fashion” + “Black ear gauges” + “Black bangs that cover his left eye” + “Black ear cuffs” + “Small hair bun”)

Hobbies(“Reading” + “Baking” + “Secretly playing dress up” + “Journaling” + “Secretly watching My Little Pony” + “Secretly likes to cosplay” + “Gardening”)

Race(“Human”)

Likes("Secretly likes My Little Pony” + “Secretly likes Pinkie Pie” + “Cupcakes” + “Sweets” + “Baked goods” + “Rainy days” + “Rock music” + “Emo fashion” + “Alternative people” + “Darkness” + “Secretly likes the color pink” + “Secretly likes flowers” + “Gardening” + “Secretly loves physical affection” + “Reading” + “Baking” + “Video games” + “Horror movies” + “Autumn” + “Undertale” + “Pokemon”)

Dislikes(“Snow” + “Sea bunnies” + “His allergies” + “Being sick” + “Being cold” + “Being wet” + “The beach” + “The sun” + “Being late” + “Loud people” + “Annoying people” + “Being overstimulated” + “Bugs” + “Whiny people” + “Screaming” + “His dad” + “Being mocked”)

Relationships("Older brother named Garroth” + “Mom named Zianna” + “Dad named Garte” + “Little half-brother named Vylad” + “Secretly has a crush on {{user}}”)

Ethnicity("East Asian” + "Caucasian" + "Biracial" + "Asian American")

Kinks("Soft and slow sex" + “Loves being praised in bed” + “Loves having his body worshiped” + “Huge praise kink”) 

Attributes(“Considers himself ugly" + “Extremely low self esteem” + “Dad friend” + “Asthmatic” + “Comfortable in feminine clothes” + “Has a small garden in his backyard” + “Has a few plants around his home” + “Occasionally shops at Hot Topic”)

Backstory("Zane has always had a low self-esteem as he was raised in a privileged household where a lot was expected of him. He was never popular in school and often kept to himself, leading him to be bullied as he had no friends.

He was bullied constantly in high school as he tried to join one gang called the Shadow Knights; they, however, bullied him as well which led to him giving up on friendships.

Until he saw {{user}}.

He had always been attracted to {{user}}, but when they began to defend him from the bullying, his infatuation quickly grew. He was never able to communicate his feelings though, too scared of what others may think and terrified to lose his one and only friend.

They lost connection with one another when they entered separate colleges and pursued different careers, forcing Zane to attempt to forget his feelings for them.")}]

[imajuststealthat]

Last night I went and did TikTok’s homework, since I couldn’t sleep:

So, since horror movies have a history of talking about social issues that regular media tends to ignore or skip over for at least a few years; I decided to make the underlining theme of Zepotha the erasure of marginalized communities, the forced integration into what is seen as “proper” by colonials through Native American “boarding schools”, and non-binary/gender-fluid people not being understood.

Warning: this is a horror movie

Our main character can be called Malinalli (name pending) or something similar (I don’t have TikTok, I don’t know what names they are using. She lives in Zepotha, a small town in the middle of nowhere where only shapeshifters live (can only turn into people). Some, like Malinalli, shift all the time; while there are those that tend to spend more time in one skin. (Added for the meme of “you look like x person!” to have a stronger punch, I mean there are 32 Lolas and 6 Jakes who represent the same character but look different). Malinalli in particular wears a set of white shirt and pants, but everyone wears white so it can contrast with the red blood when the killing starts.

At the end of the first act of the movie, after getting to know Zepotha, a shady government body of men in black uniforms show up at midday and start killing the civilians.

[we get a shot of the bodies in the field getting stepped on]

Malinalli (I seriously need to change the name) is now on the run.

We see her slowly shift less and less.

She finally stops running around sundown, her white clothes have been covered in so much blood and mud that they’re almost as dark as the attackers’. As the last rays of the sun dies, she kills one of the men and takes his skin and his clothes.

Until this point Malinalli has been everything else, woman, men, black, asian, latino, but never a clearly blond white man.

She is no longer herself, she is… him now.

And will probably always gonna be in order to survive

[generationexorcist]

Ringu vs Ju-On: Which J-Horror Franchise Has the Deadliest Vengeful Ghost?

The J-horror craze of the late 1990s changed the face of the genre as profoundly as contemporaries like The Blair Witch Project. It was led by a pair of films centered around vengeful ghosts: 1998’s Ringu and 2002’s Ju-On: The Grudge. Both films introduced Japanese horror to a larger international audience, opening the doors for horror movies from other Asian countries, notably South Korea. Both films resulted in popular American adaptations — 2002’s The Ring and 2004’s The Grudge — that helped the genre escape the rut of slasher films that had dominated it for decades. Both spanned lengthy franchises with sequels and spin-offs of varying quality in both Japan and the US.

Both franchises successfully updated two of the horror genre’s oldest clichés — ghosts and haunted houses — for the 21st century. With all of that in their corner, the two films’ respective spirits have racked up quite an impressive kill count, including implied murders that are never seen and make a raw body count impossible. That beggars the question of which monster — Ringu’s Sadako Yamamura or Ju-On’s Kayako Saeki — is the deadliest. Their comparative similarities result in very different modus operandi, which lends some heft to the debate. The two characters have even faced each other onscreen in the gimmicky 2016 movie Sadako vs. Kayako, where they ultimately combine into a single entity, Sadakaya. The issue goes beyond simple body count…

CBR

[nevadas-night-time-novelist]

Updated list of headcanons about the main 4 SQ dudes

> HANK

Henry 'Hank' James Wimbleton He / Him / They / Them AMAB Heteroromantic Asexual Caucasian, 50s [Grunts age differently to humans, still considered in peak health <the Frankenstein-ing helps too>] Raised with Hunter {Skittles, older}, Heather {White, twin} and Hercules {Pink, younger} Abusive parents, physical and emotionally abusive, left with Heather when their parents kicked her out for being trans and taken in by Hunter. Clinically diagnosed as a psychopath, insomniac, autistic. They send money to Skittles to help pay for his peaceful lifestyle as a thank you for helping them as a teen. Will fight with Heather, but still loves her, very competitive since they're twins, but he's slightly stronger. Kicks Pank's ass on sight because he's an entitled princess, hostile relationship. He has a secret knack for art, and spends his down time painting animals, his trauma / memories, and horror movie icons. They also play guitar, fight with their sister, and spend time with Skittles.

>DEIMOS

Deimos Romero He / Him Transgender male, Bi Mexican+Asian american, 27 Only child Possibly ADHD (I don't know enough on ADHD to make a clear judgement) Born into the agency, adopted by Doc after his single mother died while having him, and his father was unknown. Life as a baby agent wasn't easy, but Doc managed to keep part of his brain open for free thinking so he wasn't totally brainwashed and indoctrinated. Doc helped him come to terms with being trans and helped him transition. Loves his mama even if he never met her personally, keeps her spirit alive in his own, celebrates Dia De Los Muertos and makes a nice little alter for her. Tinkers with guns and tech in his free time, as well as gaming, smoking, and going on dates with Sanford.

>SANFORD T. Sanford He / Him Cisgender, Gay African american, 32 Single mama, 5 siblings Clinically depressed The oldest of 6 kids, Fordie had a hand in helping raise his younger sibs, he puts his family before everything and everyone. Momford taught him responsibility and to be strong, she's his number 1 role model. He worked odd jobs until teaming up with a militant force, only loyal to money and nothing else, which he'd send back home to his Mom. Doc managed to come across his name a few times, and manged to tempt his favour with decent and continued payments, but over time he found himself really bonded to Deimos. He spends his free time cooking, working out, fixing up guns and working under the car, usually with Deimos. He likes to dedicate at least one day every two weeks for a date, if possible. His dog tags simply say T. Sanford, he refuses to tell almost anyone his first name, but Momford calls him Teddy, because he's big and soft like a teddy bear.

>2BDAMNED

Kyle [He doesn't use a last name to protect his identity] He / Him Cisgender, Demisexual / Sapiosexual [Attracted to intelligence above all else] Asian american, late 40s/early 50s No history known Former Nexus, met Dr. Christoff during his tenure there and became acquaintances. Left and joined the agency shortly before Phobos' death. He took a lover, Esmeralda Romero, in secret which resulted in Deimos being born. Only two people know of this fact, and one of them is dead. He doesn't have any plans to tell anyone else. Inspired to fight back against dictators, he's of the mindset that everyone is out to use you for some purpose, and you have to look out for yourself, and what few people you can trust. Ultimately he wants to protect Nevada and eventually restore it to some sense or normalcy, as impossible as a task as that seems. He raised Deimos from birth, teaching him how to take care of himself, knowing that he's a marked man, and many want him dead. He loves Deimos as his son, respects Sanford for his hard and loyal work, and trusts Hank will do as commanded.

His list of trusted people is small, and his list of friends is even smaller.

[queeringdiedreiausrufezeichen]

Die Drei Ausrufezeichen Social Media AU

but it’s just them having Tumblr blogs, cause they would! (Might eventually add other social media platforms.)

-

Kim:

Main blog:

thecodesofcrimenovels

Blog title: Solving crimes and the mysteries of coding

Kim - Eng/Ger/Thai - She/Her - coding, writing, crime novels primarily

Die drei Fragezeichen side blog:

justusjonasesautism

Blog title: PB&J my beloveds

Kim - Eng/Ger/Thai - she/her - Die drei Fragezeichen side Blog, my main blog is: thecodesofcrimenovels

Franzi:

Franzi has one blog and one blog only.

thatqueermayhem

Blog title: I survived my ‘Not like other girls’ phase and figured out I’m not a girl at all

Franzi - Eng/Ger - She/He - D3F and Vorstadtwache mainly, occasionally Tatort though I haven’t really gotten into it yet, Queer stuff, Trans stuff, German stuff, just what ever - Trans af, your conservative family members worst nightmare - PB&J warrior first, Human second

Marie:

Main blog:

flowercourtprincess

Blog title: Aesthetics and T Girl Swag!

Marie - Eng/Ger/Fr - she/her, sie/ihr, elle

Die drei Fragezeichen side blog:

rockybeachesqueeryouthcentre

Blog title: Rocky Beach’s Queer Youth Centre

The three investigators/Die drei Fragezeichen Side Blog, Mainly fan art with occasional separate headcanon posts (all my headcanons are integrated into my art anyway haha), main blog is called: flowercourtprincess

Some posts they would make:

thecodesofcrimenovels

Had a writing workshop today and it was great! We had sort of free range to decide what exactly we wanted to do. The premise was to choose a novel of our liking, analyse the writing style and then imitate said style in a completely different genre. So we had some people using the flowery description heavy language of a fantasy novel to describe a mundane day in the real world. Or the creepy dispense of a horror novel used to describe a fluffy movie night between two friends. (The friends were watching a rom-com so it wasn’t like they could somehow match the vibes to the movie.) It was great!

#writing #my posts

Not to be a cliché Trans Girl, but gosh I love coding so much. It’s so much fun.

#coding #my posts

[D3A’s group chat right after Franzi sees that post.

F: Is your Coding club girlfriend finally back?

K: I have no idea what you are talking about and she is not my girlfriend.

F: Not yet. Which is why you should finally ask her out on a date. Or Marie should. You two are so badly crushing on that girl and neither of you have yet to actually make a move. If you take any longer I’ll do it for you.]

justusjonasesautism

Justus Jonas is half Thai! Cause I project onto him.

#Asian American Justus Jonas is actually so canon thank you very much #like what do you mean he isn’t canonly half Thai? #he clearly is #like have you not paid attention? #I will go down with this headcanon! #justus jonas #die drei fragezeichen #d3f #the three investigators

| #Asian American Justus Jonas is actually so canon thank you very much #<- previous tag #yesss #fight me #spreading the Asian American Justus Jonas agenda #justus jonas #d3f

| #Asian American Justus Jonas is actually so canon thank you very much #<- previous tag #yes! Exactly! Also -> #spreading the Asian American Justus Jonas agenda #funnily enough I’m working on an art piece of him right now #and this is fuelling my inspiration #I’m debating making him Blasian because I just want to #because I do like the headcanon that Justus is Black #but I don’t know yet #justus jonas #headcanon tag #reblog

The urge to write a whole ass essay on the racist stereotypes in the old books and the continued anti indigenous racism even in the newer ones, is so intense right now.

#racism in Die drei Fragezeichen #die drei fragezeichen #d3f #the three investigators

| #Do it!

The wish to listen to the early cases and the wish to not hear racist slurs and racism filled stories, currently fighting each other. Like please why can’t I just to listen to “Die drei Fragezeichen und das Gespensterschloss” without needing to mentally prepare myself for a bunch of racist stereotypes including the Z-word (the German version of the G-slur). Seriously…

#racism in Die drei Fragezeichen #die drei fragezeichen #d3f #the three investigators

| #yes it’s exhausting sometimes #also yes unusual reblog I know #not art #reblog

thatqueermayhem

See the reason I relate to Bob Andrews is because he is a trans fem surrounded by trans mascs while I’m a trans masc surrounded by trans fems. We mirror each other.

#he is literally so trans fem ahhh! #trans fem bob andrews #nonbinary bob andrews #bob andrews #d3f

| #I love trans fem Bob Andrews so much as a concept! #trans fem bob andrews #nonbinary bob andrews #bob andrews #die drei fragezeichen #d3f #the three investigators #reblog

| #and we love you very dearly! #trans fem bob andrews #nonbinary bob andrews #bob andrews #headcanon tag #reblog

Kelly Madigan my beloved!

#that’s it #that’s the whole post #kelly madigan #d3f

| #so true! #I love you Kelly Madigan #you are the best #kelly madigan #die drei fragezeichen #d3f #the three investigators #reblog

| #not something I typically reblog onto here but also yes! 100% #gosh I love the girls so much! They are awesome #kelly madigan my beloved #kelly madigan #not art #reblog

Kommisar Brockmeier is queer. Helmut Grevenbroich told me himself.

#I said what I said #kommisar brockmeier #vorstadtwache #helmut grevenbroich

Would y’all believe me if I said I saw Helmut Grevenbroich kissing a man?

#helmut grevenbroich #true story #I’m gonna tag this as #queer stuff #because I can

[Helmut Grevenbroich was in fact asked if he was okay with the post, before Franzi posted that.]

flowercourtprincess

Todays question is if I’m actually lesbian, AroAce or any of the mspec labels? Stay tuned for the answer. Yes, I’ve been listening to “fall in love with a girl” by Cavetown ft. Beabadoobee. Why are you asking? Blame thatqueermayhem for playing “worm food” on a loop.

#no matter what I’m queer af #if you have a problem with that kindly f^ off #just queer things #my posts #queer #aroace #lesbian #mspec #bi #pan #poly #omni

| Sometimes you gotta be a stereotypical trans masc, what can I say? 🤷 It’s not like y’all aren’t enjoying the songs.

#queer stuff #trans stuff #I love my girlfriends and I also love listening to Cavetown yes these two are related

Being trans is actually so great! Who ever told you otherwise was a big fat liar. Being trans is freaking awesome.

#trans is beautiful #just trans things #trans #transgender #transsexual #my posts #even though there are probably a decent amount of similar posts already floating around on here #I don’t care #you can never say it enough

| #This! #gosh I love being trans so much #reblog #trans things #trans #transgender

| #yes #queer stuff #trans stuff

The romantic tension of being taken care of by your friends after being hurt.

[private conversation after Kim and Franzi see that post.

Franzi: You get hurt and that’s your first instinct? Posting a vague post on Tumblr?

Marie: *shrugs*

Kim: Well, it’s vague enough to just seem like random thought with no real life implications.

Franzi: Seriously??? … What ever.

Marie: I mean people are reblogging it and agreeing.

Franzi: *looking at the post and reblogs* They are assigning characters and ships to it…

Marie: Well obviously.

Franzi:… I don’t even know how to argue with that.

Kim: Franzi. It’s not that serious. You are just stressed right now.

Franzi: Well we are in the freaking hospital after all!

Marie: Wanna hold my hand to feel less worried?

Franzi:… yes.

Marie: *looking at Kim* You too?

Kim: *nods and the three end up holding hands to calm themselves down*

(It’s mainly Franzi that needs calming down, but the others also appreciate it.)]

rockybeachesqueeryouthcentre

Jeffrey Palmer wears blond faux locs. (Cause I want faux locs right now, but I don’t have the time for an appointment and I just got braids done.) He would totally wear goddess locs, cause he doesn’t give a damn about “gender rules” and that’s all I’ll say.

#I’m working on a Portrait drawing of him right now and just head to share that headcanon really quick #jeffrey palmer #die drei fragezeichen #the three investigators #d3f #headcanon tag #my headcanons

| #uhh I can’t wait for the drawing! #and you are sooo right! #jeffrey palmer #d3f

| #jeffrey palmer #die drei fragezeichen #d3f #the three investigators #reblog

Unusual post for me but it needs to be said. I feel like the authors of “The three investigators” tend to fall into the “we were trying to be misogynistic but ended up accidentally writing something with queer energy” category quite a lot. An audio drama example: Switching out Kelly for Jeffrey in “Die drei Fragezeichen Das Geisterschiff“. Now you made it unintentionally queer, cause you so desperately didn’t want to include Peter’s canon girlfriend. Anyway thatqueermayhem and justusjonasesautism just had to listen to me rant about the misogyny in these books.

#not art #the way Kelly gets treated by the authors hurts sometimes #Kelly is such a darling and I love her #die drei fragezeichen #the three investigators #d3f #kelly madigan #rant sort of? #my posts

| #reblog #jeffrey palmer #kelly madigan #Die drei Fragezeichen Das Geisterschiff #die drei fragezeichen #d3f #the three investigators

| #yep #and Kelly always gets the short end of the stick #I love you Jeffrey #but Kelly deserves better #jeffrey palmer #kelly madigan #d3f

If I see one more post of someone claiming “The three investigators” doesn’t have misogyny/sexism, I’m gonna scream. Y’all can’t be serious, when these stories are littered with misogyny/sexism. Like I get it. You don’t want to admit that there are flaws in these stories you probably liked since you were a child, but for the love of it, stop it! They literally wrote out female characters, cause the audience supposedly disliked them. And you are claiming this series doesn’t have misogyny??? Well when there are barely any female characters chances to see misogynistic characterisations are rarer. (Psst they still exist. Like it’s not that the few female characters don’t fall into sexist stereotypes sometimes. And just because you don’t notice them doesn’t mean they aren’t there.)

#not art #rant #die drei fragezeichen #the three investigators #d3f #my posts

| #nothing to add here! #die drei fragezeichen #d3f #the three investigators #reblog

-

I was debating cutting the part of Kim mentioning the anti indigenous racism, cause D3A also has (at least) two instances of the I-word being used, but I decided against it, cause it’s something I think she would post. And I personally would like to believe that all the characters (also the characters from the D3F universe) would stop using it if they were made aware of the fact that it is a racial slur.

The only times I’ve seen people claiming D3F doesn’t have misogyny was when they where putting down D3A as so much worse. Arguing that D3F supposedly didn’t have misogyny while D3A had.

Slightly of topic, but I really do want to draw Jeffrey with goddess locs now. Ahh! He would look so pretty with them.

Is this shamelessy plugging some of my personal D3F headcanons? Yes. I don’t care.

Listen if I was immersed in the Miss Marple books, I would have also added posts about that. I am how ever not at all immersed with the stories. (I wish I could do Franzi’s love for the character justice.)

(Planning on drawing this in the future. Don’t know when yet. I don’t know how to do these fake screenshots of social media accounts.)

[back-and-totheleft]

Oliver Stone Wants To Atone For Hollywood’s Sins Against Nuclear Energy

When Oliver Stone’s 1986 Vietnam War movie “Platoon” showed the gore and mental toll of combat, veterans accused the director of portraying soldiers in an ugly light. When 1991’s “The Doors” depicted Jim Morrison’s battle with addiction, the rock star’s bandmate said Stone had “assassinated” the singer’s reputation. When Stone interviewed Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Russian President Vladimir Putin for documentaries meant to provoke Americans with starkly different perspectives on U.S. foreign policy, critics panned the Oscar winner as a stooge for strongmen and an “unrepentant contrarian,” aging gracelessly into a “loony conspiracy”-peddling septuagenarian.

Nuclear energy, the subject of his latest film, is no less of a lightning rod. Perhaps that’s why “Nuclear Now” feels like watching a Gonzo “60 Minutes” special. Stone admits that he, like many people, once registered atomic power as indistinguishable from images of menacing mushrooms clouds and hazmat horrors. To Stone, a clear-eyed review of the facts alone in an age of climate chaos seemed provoking enough on its own.

Over the next hour and 45 minutes, Stone goes on a journey familiar to many who have wondered whether atomic energy and radioactive waste pose a more urgent threat than global warming. “Nuclear Now” answers the question with a clear no, offers a compelling explanation for how atomic energy went into decline and makes a well-researched case for why the world needs a reactor-building renaissance.

Stone takes us through the history of fission from the European scientists who discovered radiation to the United States’ attempt to sell the world on nuclear energy less than a decade after dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In his telling, cribbing an eyebrow-raising discovery from the nuclear engineer and consultant (and interviewee in the film) Rod Adams, powerful monied interests had it out for nuclear energy from the start. Just months after President Dwight Eisenhower delivered his famous “atoms for peace” speech, vowing to unite humanity with abundant nuclear energy, the Rockefeller Foundation asked the National Academy of Sciences to study the health effects of radiation.

The government research body, whose president served on the oil tycoon family foundation’s board, put out a dire and later discredited report on the risks of radiation a few years later. The New York Times, whose publisher also served on the Rockefeller Foundation’s board, reported the findings on its front page under the headline: “Scientists Term Radiation A Peril To Future Of Man.” Environmentalists, in Stone’s view, became eager pawns as left-wing activists merged the fight against atomic weapons with that against nuclear power.

The narration is aided by abundant visual charts that help viewers understand why few experts believe solar panels and wind turbines can replace fossil fuels alone, illustrating how much less land nuclear uses and how much more often reactors generate power.

In the movie’s second half, Stone digs into the intricacies of different nuclear technologies, walking the audience through the differences between today’s giant water-cooled reactors and the sodium-cooled “microreactors” startups are attempting to commercialize. He also highlights efforts by the Asian, African and Latin American countries whose energy sources will determine the planet’s future temperature to build their first nuclear reactors, even as Germany and the U.S. decommission perfectly good atomic power stations.

The movie doesn’t shy away from the fact that Russia is the primary vendor for nuclear technology, constructing most of the world’s new reactors outside of China. But Stone grapples only in passing with the reality that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last year supercharged the growing interest in nuclear energy and continues to animate efforts in the U.S. and Europe to reverse atomic decline. It’s a glaring omission from an auteur whose cozy relationship with the Russian leader has made many question Stone’s judgment and credibility.

Even so, “Nuclear Now” is a comprehensive and credible corrective to decades of atomic mythmaking — less timely than badly overdue. But then again, I’m a reporter who writes about nuclear energy, so don’t take it from me.

The New York Times’ one complaint was that the film’s wonky dive into new reactor technologies “veers somewhat into the weeds.” While The Wrap’s review found the 105-minute movie “dull,” the writer couldn’t help but applaud the “undeniably informative” film as “commendable.” Variety flat-out called it a “vital and grounded movie that demands to be seen.”

Last week, a few hours before seeing “Nuclear Now” at a premiere screening in Manhattan’s East Village, I spoke to Stone and his collaborator Joshua Goldstein, whose book with Swedish nuclear scientist Staffan Qvist, “A Bright Future,” inspired the movie.

We discussed a range of issues, from how radiation works to why Hollywood is responsible for a widespread misunderstanding of the risks associated with nuclear power.

Stone called out actor Jane Fonda for opposing nuclear energy after her 1979 film “The China Syndrome,” depicting a disaster cover-up at a nuclear power plant, came out coincidentally just days before the Three Mile Island accident. He said Ralph Nader’s effort to close nuclear stations was such a historic mistake it may end up overshadowing the consumer-advocate-turned-presidential-candidate’s other accomplishments in future history books. We spoke over Zoom for about 35 minutes.

Why make a film on nuclear energy?

Oliver Stone: I’ve done 20 feature films and 10 documentaries. To me, this is the most important subject I could address. There’s nothing that looms over us as much as climate change. I’ve been very aware of it since the Al Gore film. In 2019, I ran across Josh Goldstein’s book, “A Bright Future.” It’s a nice title. But I think “Nuclear Now” is more urgent. The book is very well laid out, thoughtful, reasoned, makes sense and elemental in the sense that it doesn’t get stuck on the stuff that was confusing to me, which is all the negatives about nuclear. I’ve learned a lot since then.

It seems to me as an outsider that we lost our mind with fear in the 1970s. If you look at my films, you know there were a lot of lies. And over time it turned into this massive lie about nuclear energy that is really evident if you think it through.

Josh gives a very reasonable explanation of radiation. That it’s there. It’s part of our lives. We live with low-level radiation. Yet somehow, with the Rockefeller Foundation’s influence, we were derailed from a very hopeful start in the 1960s and ’70s. Dwight Eisenhower had the right idea. John Kennedy had the right idea. We should have kept going with nuclear. We’d have had a nuclearized society by the 2000s. In my opinion, we wouldn’t even be talking about this climate change bullshit because the world would have followed. Instead, we completely diverted.

So, in your view, why did nuclear go into decline in the U.S.?

Stone: The worst accident was Chernobyl. We discuss that in the film. We go to Russia. We talk to scientists who were involved and we show what Chernobyl was really about, what happened to the 15 front-line rescue workers who died of radiation poisoning that they were not equipped to deal with. It was badly done through the whole thing, from the top down. The containment structure [for the reactor, which all modern nuclear plants have] was not there. Radiation leaked. And the World Health Organization and the United Nations estimated that 4,000 people died from the impact over time. But that’s nothing compared to what you keep hearing about being this huge disaster.

We live with the consequences of radiation. The Earth is filled with radiation. That’s what people don’t understand. They’re frightened because of the concept that it’s contamination and that any amount can hurt you. That’s not true if you look at the DNA studies that were done on the body’s ability to replicate itself. We have to go by science, not faith.

Three Mile Island was a complete joke. It was a big disruption of work. Nobody died. Yet it was made into this massive hysteria by the film “The China Syndrome.”

You referred to the Rockefeller Foundation’s money. What powerful forces do you see behind the anti-nuclear movement?

Stone: You’re going to take me into conspiracy. But you could also say it’s a business competition.

The oil companies were obviously never excited about nuclear. At the origin point of going that way, when Eisenhower declared his atoms for peace program, the Rockefeller Foundation tipped the scales on a report — it was their scientists — and they said on the front page of the New York Times that any amount, any amount, of radiation is dangerous to the body. Which is bullshit! And we know it now. It has to be called out. That kind of thinking permeated and gave birth to this idea that radiation is a complete horror.

Also, look at the horror films of the 1950s. My business, the film business, did no favors to nuclear at all. You saw monsters everywhere. People get these crazy ideas. This is what fear does to a society. It ruins progress. As a result, now we’re in a hole. Still, people won’t face the truth. We need nuclear in a massive way in order to solve this climate change problem. Will we go there? It’s still very doubtful because people are resistant to the idea. Older people are. The younger generation I find is very open to it. Our movie is part of that thrust.

What are the limits you see to renewables on one side and carbon capture technology on the other?

Stone: They’re overrated. Tell him.

Joshua Goldstein: We like all attempts to decarbonize, be it with sun, wind, hydropower, carbon capture and sequestration, batteries. All that’s good. The trouble is that when you run your whole grid on that, it gets very expensive and very difficult to do. The grid has to handle the heaviest demand date of the year, when everybody wants air conditioning to turn on at once. You don’t want the grid to go down. So if it happens to not be a sunny day or a windy day, you have a huge hole to fill.

Right now, that’s being done with natural gas, which is a fossil fuel and puts carbon into the atmosphere. Natural gas is methane, which leaks out along the way and is a very potent natural gas, much worse than carbon dioxide, although much shorter lived. But for the next few decades, it’s adding a lot to the problem. So this idea of wind and solar backed up with natural gas is not really getting us to a solution.

Hydroelectricity is great from a climate change point of view because you can let the water out of the dam when you need electricity and actually produce it when you need it. The trouble is that, if you’re an environmentalist, hydroelectricity is damming up valleys and ecosystems.

A large array of solar panels photographed one hour north of Los Angeles in Kern County on Nov. 15, 2022, near Mojave, California. Due to demand, there are now dozens of solar power photovoltaic farms in the Mojave Desert, supplying power to California's electricity grid. Well, plus it’s sensitive to droughts.

Goldstein: Yes, it’s sensitive to drought. But before you even get to drought, you have the Mekong River watershed just being devastated by all the hydro being built upstream in Southeast Asia. If there is a way to get the electricity when you need it cleanly and without carbon emissions, that’s better. And that’s nuclear energy.

All the countries that have managed to decarbonize and get rid of fossil fuels have done it either with nuclear alone, like France, or nuclear with hydroelectricity, like Sweden. Or a few lucky countries like New Zealand, Norway and Brazil have a lot of hydro. But if you’re Germany, you can’t do a lot of hydro. So then you have to try to do it with a combination of batteries, which are still way too expensive, and natural gas. Except in Germany’s case, it’s coal that’s backing up the renewables.

Then you have things like biomass in Finland and the United Kingdom.

Goldstein: Biomass is very bad for the atmosphere. It’s as bad as coal. And they’re cutting down mature forests to burn the trees, then calling it “green” because it’s so-called renewable because someday the trees will grow back. Nuclear, because it’s so concentrated, that’s what makes it environmentally friendly. You can do it with such a small plant. The mining and transportation is so much smaller and the waste is so much easier to handle than, say, coal waste that goes out in the atmosphere, kills people with particulate matter, and leaves behind coal tailings.

Oliver, you’ve obviously been to Russia many times. You’ve interviewed President Putin. And you’ve been asked plenty of times about your views on the war in Ukraine. I’d like to come at this another way.

Russia has steadily been expanding its fleet of nuclear reactors. It’s been exporting its technologies across Asia and Africa ― I’ve heard stories from analysts about how Moscow’s state-owned nuclear company Rosatom wines and dines energy officials from developing countries, in stark contrast to the U.S. To boot, Russia has a monopoly on certain types of nuclear fuel like HALEU and offers services that the U.S. doesn’t, like recycling. What has the Kremlin understood about nuclear energy that we haven’t, and what does it mean for the U.S. going forward?

Stone: I look at it as positive. What Russia does to help the world, providing these reactors and fuels, is good. That’s a good thing! We have to expand the whole network. I wish there was more of it. The Chinese are also very advanced. Of course, they have their own problems at home with coal. They have to get rid of coal. But they are designing very promising new reactors.

I’m sure most Americans at this stage see the enmity between these two countries. I don’t. There’s no place in this climate race for survival for war. There’s no place for this competition, hatred and ideology.

Goldstein: You mentioned Russian fuel. That started with a good thing. The United States took a lot of Soviet nuclear weapons and downgraded them into what could be used for reactor fuel. Every light switch you turned on in the United States for 15 years was powered 10% by Soviet nuclear weapons dismantled after the Cold War. That was great. When that ran out, we got out of the habit of producing nuclear fuel.

We started buying from Russia because it was cheaper. We don’t need to get HALEU — which is high-assay low-enriched uranium, and is more potent than what we get for our plants — from Russia. There’s plenty of uranium in Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia. You name it. The Russians, because they were doing this cheaply, we got into the habit of buying from them, sort of like how the Germans got into the habit of buying natural gas from Russia. What could go wrong? Now we’re in a fix to try to source this fuel, but that will be worked out in a couple of years.

How do you see the war in Ukraine affecting the politics of nuclear energy now? Part of the initial pitch for atomic power was that it provided a degree of energy sovereignty that oil and gas supply chains don’t, as the rush to get off Russian gas has reminded us.

Goldstein: It opened up a lot of support for nuclear in Europe. Maybe not in Germany, per se. But elsewhere, especially in Eastern Europe. This is the same thing that happened in France in the 1970s when the oil supply was cut off [during the OPEC oil embargo]. They were dependent on it and realized some foreign country could bring their economy to its knees. France developed nuclear energy to control its own destiny.

Stone: Unfortunately, Germany is so stupid that their economy is now really in jeopardy. The EU is not going to be what it once was. Germany is taking this whole anti-nuclear position that really threatens its economy.

Are you similarly concerned about Taiwan’s nuclear phaseout?

Stone: No, not particularly. America is concerned and makes big noise about Taiwan. A lot of my friends come back from Taiwan and say that the Taiwanese people don’t feel the same way as our newspapers.

The chances of a Chinese invasion are certainly debatable, but energy blockades are not, and Taiwan is shutting down its last nuclear reactors by 2025.

Goldstein: They may yet come to their senses. South Korea had a very good nuclear program. They just finished building these reactors in the United Arab Emirates on time and on budget. But there was a film called “Pandora” five or six years ago that scared everyone. It helped get an anti-nuclear government elected. Now there’s a pro-nuclear government. The same thing happened in Sweden, where there was an anti-nuclear government replaced by a nuclear-friendly administration.

If you go anti-nuclear and it’s a threat to a country’s stability, economy, jobs and having the lights turn on when you flip the switch, then people will vote in a new government. I’m not saying anything about the politics of Taiwan and which government should be in. But as lots of people reconsider phasing out nuclear, maybe Taiwan will as well.

One place that seems to exemplify the promise of nuclear energy is Finland, where I was around this time last year. I not only saw the world’s first permanent repository for nuclear waste, I saw Western Europe’s first new reactor in 15 years ― 25, if you don’t count Czechia as part of that region.

After visiting the site, I spent a few hours walking around the nearby town of Rauma, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Every single person I talked to on the street supported nuclear power and had total faith in the engineers at the plant to keep everyone safe. Now, this is a highly educated, ethnically and religiously homogeneous country with comparatively low levels of inequality. It’s hard to imagine that kind of civic trust in the U.S., where plummeting faith in institutions has correlated with the rise of conspiracy theories.

Can we have a nuclear renaissance in a country with as little public trust as we have here?

Goldstein: We’re trying to build two new reactors in Georgia and they’re just coming online. They’ll be the first reactors ever built under the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC has been around almost 50 years, and it’s clearly been very efficient at stopping us from building new reactors.

Stone: It’s not about safety. The FDA is supposed to be about safety. It’s about restriction.

Goldstein: When the FDA regulates a new medicine, they’re weighing the benefits and risk and deciding what’s the benefit to society. But the NRC is only concerned about the risks. Safety is their mandate. And when they stop us from building nuclear plants and we build coal and gas plants instead, that’s not their problem. It’s like I had a doctor once tell me, ‘My job is to make sure you die of someone else’s disease.’

In a place like Finland, there is more trust in the government. Those places, like Finland and Sweden, have been better for nuclear energy. But also, the places that understand nuclear better like it more. If you do the polling, people who live close to a nuclear plant versus people who live far from it, or people who understand it well [versus] those who say they couldn’t tell you much about it. Those who understand support it more. Finland, they’ve been living on nuclear energy for quite a while. They’re building a repository for spent fuel quite successfully. People understand it and they’re not afraid of it, which is one of the big themes of the film.

But what can be done to build more public trust? Let me put this in real terms.

Just last night, I was at the decommissioning board hearing for the Indian Point nuclear plant in Cortlandt, New York. I listened to people express a lot of fear over the release of tritium-laced cooling water from the plant into the Hudson River. They perhaps didn’t fully understand that such releases have been happening for decades, and that it’s occurring at levels far below the natural amounts of this radioactive isotope already found naturally in the environment. But they’re learning about a radioactive waste product being pumped into their river as something new. And they see a company with a profit motive to release the tritiated water because it’s the cheaper option than storing it for the decades it’d take to decay.

These people hear that the levels of tritium released are far below the drinking water limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency. But then they see that, well, just a few years ago, the EPA revised its drinking water limits for PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals used in Teflon, from more than 400% higher than what the agency now says is safe.

Goldstein: Antinuclear people are very afraid, and they look for things to justify their fears. This tritium thing has come up in Japan at Fukushima, in Indian Point, and in Massachusetts where I live at the decommissioned Pilgrim plant. You hear about how they’re going to put quote-unquote “radioactive water” into the Hudson River, Cape Cod Bay or the Pacific Ocean. And there’s no sense of scale about it.

The amount of radioactivity in tritium is very tiny, short-lived, and not biologically accumulating. It’s about the most harmless thing you can think of. And the quantities of it are just tiny. There’s tritium in exit signs. I’m looking at one right out the window here. I think the total amount of tritium they want to release from Indian Point is the same as one exit sign if you dumped the exit sign in the Hudson River.

It gets absurd at this point. We live with background radiation that’s much higher than that. This whole idea that any level of radiation is going to have a bad health effect, it’s all based on a study from 70, 80 years ago when some scientists said DNA can’t repair itself. Well, we just had a Nobel Prize for DNA repair. We know we can repair it. And of course we can, because we live on a planet filled with radiation. The idea that we’re so vulnerable to that tiny amount of tritium, of all things, that its little weak electrons are going to mess us up for life, is kind of crazy. But as long as people are afraid, that’s what you’re going to get.

The power of a film like this is to get people at a more emotional level than a book can do or a newspaper can do and try to get at that fear at a more visceral level where people say, oh, now I understand and I’m less afraid.

Was there a moment like that for you, Oliver, where the magnitude of what this technology could do really sank in?

Stone: There was this moment with Rod Adams [a nuclear engineer interviewed in the film] was holding up his pinky. And he said in this tiny pinky’s worth of uranium would be equivalent to one ton of coal. It would cost less than a buck, and the coal would cost $100.

You think about Marie Curie and Albert Einstein. They’re not dumb. They saw this potential. Obviously, World War II fucked up the timing of it, right? It came along, and people got it into making bombs. But people still conflate making bombs with nuclear energy, and it’s a huge problem. We have to get back to the origins of making this movie, which is to answer the basics: What is it? What is nuclear energy?

It takes time. But we have to clear up the details of the past. We have this chance. Historically, it will be noted that [retreating from nuclear] was a disastrous decision. Ralph Nader is not going to come out well in history. I believe in his car seatbelt thing, and Jane Fonda was great on Vietnam. But sometimes, you’re wrong. The guy who founded Greenpeace said himself that we did a lot of good things with Greenpeace, but we got one thing wrong: nuclear energy.

Broadly speaking, one of the bright spots for nuclear power is that both parties in the U.S. support it. But then you have Democrats who haven’t really taken responsibility for kiboshing the permanent storage site at Yucca Mountain or changing the law to make it so the government can explore an option beyond that site in Nevada. And Republicans are trying to repeal a bunch of clean energy subsidies that nuclear reactors could benefit from. How big are the hurdles in our current politics to doing new nuclear, and which party remains the bigger obstacle?

Goldstein: There is bipartisan support. You have [Sens.] Cory Booker and Sheldon Whitehouse on the left wing of the Democratic Party as big supporters of nuclear energy, and on the right wing of the Republican Party, [former Sen.] Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma for instance, there are very strong supporters of nuclear. They’ve gotten bills going through Congress. The NRC has been slow to respond to those. The Biden administration is pro-nuclear but could be stronger. The Trump administration was pro-nuclear. So it’s not a partisan divide. But the left wing of the Democratic Party needs to rally around Cory Booker a little more and a little less around the Elizabeth Warren types who are still anti-nuclear. In an age of divisiveness and gridlock, if you have something like nuclear, that’s a place to push for some progress.

Stone: When push comes to shove, necessity is the mother of invention. Where are we going to go? It’s going to get worse. It hasn’t gotten better. There’s more carbon. It gets worse and worse and worse. Someday, we’ll have to say, ‘Oh, let’s build some nuclear.’ And it’ll be late. But better late than never. You have these environmentalists waking up. They’re dreaming. They have this idealism in their head about renewables, that the only answer is more and more solar panels and more and more wind turbines. It’s just bizarre. It’s a strange death wish. There’s always a death wish in the world. It’s always been there, but it’s been growing.

Hopefully, if we get lucky, this film will help change the current and it’ll solve itself because people don’t want to kill themselves.

Two more quick questions. First, nuclear fusion — viable commercial breakthrough in our lifetimes or a distraction from deploying more fission?

Goldstein: I’m all for it. It could be the power source of the second half of the century. There are companies that think they can do it faster, and more power to them. I’m all for trying, but I don’t want to bet my grandchild’s future on breakthroughs. The beauty of fission is it’s a proven source. We know from France and Sweden it can be done quickly. The world can follow that example. In the 1970s when all the anti-nuclear stuff got started, it was a new energy source, so who knew if it was going to be safe? After 70 years, we know it works. I’m all for fusion unless people say we don’t need fission because of fusion.

Stone: I totally agree. I can’t see it breaking through. If it does, great.

I apologize for this final one, Oliver. My editor said I had to ask you this. RFK Jr. running for president. What do you think?

Stone: I’m for it! All for it. I think he’s a hero. He’s really in the spirit of the Kennedys and spirit of reform. Out with the old, in with the new.

Would he be a champion of nuclear?

Stone: He will be when I talk to him.

Goldstein: We, uh, don’t necessarily agree on presidential politics, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about today.

Stone [laughing]: Josh is the old Democratic Party.

-Alexander C. Kaufman, The Huffington Post, May 7 2023 [x]

[nandinip]

Movie Posters representing Gender, Race, and Disability

Background!

Movie posters are a visual aid used to draw audience in to watching the film. Movie posters are like a trailer that help provide information to the viewers and gets the viewer curious about the movie.Movie posters contain basic information like the title of the movie and names of actors, directors, and producers.

In 1890, Jules Chéret, was the first to release a movie poster! And since then movie posters have been a hit and many cultures around the world started using posters to attract an audience.

first movie poster!

How is gender represented in movie posters?

From 1950 to 1960, men were not represented in posters rather the posters only contained images of non-gender category or women posters.

From 1970 to 1980, no women were represented on posters rather it was all men. And in the 2000s men still are represented more than women.

It is interesting to note, that when a women is showcased on a poster, it is always of her being half-naked and wearing makeup. And this was to attract the male audience to the film. However, when males were/are showcased as hard workers, being adventures, and having high roles in societies such as officers and doctors. Sadly, this trend still continues.

Children are exposed to film and posters from a young age so to have females present as sex appeal and males as the dominant ones, it establishes unspoken guidelines in children and causes them to adhere this thinking when older. If we want to bring a change in thinking in the future generations, we need to stop creating harsh gender roles in film and film posters and start treating all genders as equal and not sexualzing one.

As seen in this poster, the women is half naked where as the man is fully clothed. Even though, she is holding a weapon in her hands, she is not taken as seriously as the man. She is present for the sex appeal more than her character in the movie. When looking at the man, he seems to have an important and dangerous job due to the weapon in his hand. But at first glance, the man seemed to have an important role due to him being fully clothed.

How is race represented in movie posters?

Movie posters exclusive have caucasians and not many African Americans. In this section, I will provide you with some examples for race being represented in film posters.

America's black culture represent in poland

1950s to 60s a lot of B-rated movies were produced by black indie companies

Asian Representation in movies (we watched this in class!)

How is disability represented in movie posters?

There are three main types how people with disabilities are represented: he helpless victim, the evil villain, and the inspirational hero

The helpless victim: usually depicted as having little happiness in their life and wanting to live a "normal" life. This character usually deceipted as needing saving from their disability. And usually is there to evoke emotions of sympathy in audience. These types of posters causes people to have a false assumption about people with disabilities as now the audience believes that people with disabilities cannot live a "normal" life and also establishes an inexplicable power difference causing people with disabilities to not get the same respect or treatment as people without disabilities.

The evil villain: Deceipted as dangerous and untolerable. This character is often seen in horror films, such as the Unbreakable trilogy and Gerald’s Game. These types of posters and films causes the audience to walk out with a lot of misinformation and fear about people with disabilities (physical and mental disabilities).

The inspirational hero: deceipted as someone "overcoming the odds". These types of posters and films are used to motivate people through a disabled individuals journey. Even though, this creates a positive stereotype it is still a stereotype. This also causes people who do not have disabilities to have an expectation that people with disabilities can overcome their disability if "they are hard enough".

movie where a woman is met with a severe accident but after the accident she learns to work with her body and get back on her feet by herself.

In this post I have explore how movie posters affect our perception of gender, race, and disability in society. People first are exposed to movie posters and they already have a mental note on the type of movie and the characters of the movie. So movie posters are always made with care and a lot of thought.

Citations:

Thank you for reading!

[noa-ciharu]

Recommend me a horror movie, but make it as old as possible or as a horror-comedy (I'll take anything)

Ohhh horror movies my beloved <3 *watches half of them behind fingers*

About older ones, I wouldn't go before 70's or even 80's. Psycho (1964) yes, but it's more of a classic than "best horror ever". So:

The Exorcist (1973) - girls gets possessed by a demon and priests are trying to exorcise her. It has some chilly scenes, they still ring in my mind (like backwards spider climb down stairs :<); simple movie yet very very effective and scary. I read somewhere that when it came out in cinema almost 50 years ago some people were running out of cinema crying and screaming mid movie. So yep, defo worth checking imo.

Halloween (1978), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and Friday the 13th (1980) - these are all classic slasher movies; it's when you have a serial killer/slasher chasing down people for whatever reason. There are countless spin-offs and remakes of all 3 series but those are original movies. It's more adrenaline pumping and intriguing than scary imo, but are definitely worth the watch. At least one of them.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - i think this is first found footage horror movie. Basically group of friends goes to woods to search for evidence of Witch from Blair; all while filming their experience. I suggest you see a trailer before deciding bc found footage horror is either hit or miss to people; subjective taste really. Whole movie has creepy and uncanny atmosphere, which is only amplified by ambiguity because there's no clear cut explanation to some things in a movie; watchers are left in the dark as to what really is happening. Also ending is top notch, one of most iconic endings in horror movies imo.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) - now, this is another slasher but it's way way more bizarre and macabre than slasher i've mentioned before. Basically a deranged cannibal family which lures in hitchhikers. Very sinister and unique despite sounding like cliche. It's the little details and atmosphere of total sense of wrongness and deranged-ness in the movie that makes it special. Also, ending scene sequence is A+.

The Ring (2002) (American version) and Ringu (1998) (Japanese) - okay, it's not that old but you've probably heard of this movie. You watch the tape, get a phone call telling you you'll die in 7 days. Now, to me not only is this movie scary af, but also depressing since your life is put on countdown and you're reflecting on all things you wish you could have done different and that you've missed. Basically reminds us of fleeting nature of human's life and how easily it can snap. Also, American/European/Australian horrors are one thing (Australian ones are rly good! Babadook and Lake Mungo are defo worth the check), Asian horror is whole different thing altogether - I watched a Thai horror movie when i was 14 and it still sends chills down my spine when i remember it; probably scariest shit i've seen al my life (Shutter 2004 -Thai version); watch at your own risk rly, and i don't say that lightly :<

As for comedy horror, rec either "Scary movies" since it's a parody of horror genre or movies that suck so damn much that they're funny af. In latter case i rec sharknado (tornado + sharks - yea ik), or piranha 3D - my fave scene is when girl went skinny dipping, baby piranhas got stuck in her, ya know. Then she had sex with some guy and in the middle of it piranha bit his dick off.... yes, that's an actual scene.

[robthegoodfellow]

I saw your tags in the reblogs for a clip from the movie NOPE and it got me thinking about the movie's connections to American history/literature. I'm just going to share a few thoughts:

The relationship between Ricky Jupe Park and the Haywood siblings has some interesting historical subtext as it is korean/african-americans interacting with each other. When Ricky has his non-confrontation with Em over her "Re-Location" of the "Decoy Horse" he may have been thinking about the LA riots of his youth and a certain incident where a Korean shop owner shot and killed an African-American teen on the suspicion of shoplifting.

It's cool that Jordan Peele incorporates the principles of pacifist resistance into the horror movies. The main characters in each one are less interested in killing the threats to their lives and more interested in uncovering the truth or just surviving.

It's ironic that Jean-Jacket's creature design incorporates elements of marine biology while the movie takes places entirely on land.

A non-fiction book that I would connect to Nope is "Stampede: Gold Fever and Disaster in the Klondike" by Brian Castner as NOPE is an inversion of the gold rush: The pursuit of wealth is what lead to the deaths of men and beasts of burden (mules and horses) whereas Ricky Jupe Park sees the consumption of horses as a possible source of profit.

A non-fiction documentary I think would be highly relevant to NOPE is "Buck" (2011) which is about Buck Brannaman, a horse trainer who is a leading advocate for intelligent and empathic animal handling. From what I vaguely remember of the movie, his method basically calls for the needs of the horse to be equal to the needs of the rider and vice versa, and that if one takes priority over the other then bad things happen. But people who don't know what they actually need then transmit their confusion through the reins to their steed. Anyways, I believe this method is now mainstream and is practiced by the Compton Cowboys who trained Daniel Kaluuya in preparation for his role as OJ.

I feel like NOPE was made as a counter-point to the movie "Arrival" and the short story it was based on, "Story of your Life" written by Ted Chiang. The basis of the latter is that while knowledge and communication are powerful enough to prevent conflict, it's not powerful enough to prevent one's own inevitable death. Jordan Peele basically spent the entire movie going "Death might be inevitable but it comes a helluva lot quicker if you don't know what you're working with." Which I think is a much more clear and consistent than what Dennis Villenueve was trying to state with his film (Which has a lot more of everything than what was in the short story).

Sorry for dumping all this on you, hopefully you find it interesting or relevant to teaching American literature.

You raise so many compelling connections to history/culture that I don’t even know where to start, so I’ll just take it point by point and also explain where I’d broaden vs refine certain topics:

- Re: RJP & his relationship with the Haywoods—it opens the door for exploring both the history of solidarity between Black and Asian-American communities but also the sources of racial prejudice/violence between marginalized communities. I’ve also seen other posts pointing out the damaging effects of different stereotypes (ex: “model minority”), which is especially apparent in the scenes where we see RJP vs OJ interacting with the entertainment industry.

- Introducing the competing push for violent vs non-violent resistance throughout the history of civil rights activism would be valuable to discuss, especially given how to the legacies of MLK and Malcolm X (and other leaders) have been warped and/or misappropriated by mainstream society, and given how different forms of violence are justified or criminalized by mainstream power structures... The differences between pacifism and non-violence would also be important to highlight (and it’d be interesting to examine how/why Peele depicts violence in his films)

- As for the inspirations behind JJ’s design—endlessly fascinating. There have been such compelling comparisons to old timely daguerreotype cameras (which thematically I adore) but the vibe was equally eldritch jellyfish/tentacled sea monster, and that offers its own entry point for discussion of frontiers of the unknown existing not just between earth and outer space but also between land and sea… and how there are forms of intelligence right here in front of us that on the one hand conform to recognizable patterns of behavior (predatory vs prey behavior, for example) but on the other present such a totally foreign/otherworldly modus operandi that we lack the frame of reference to fully comprehend them (OCTOPUS, for example, which are my favorite animal for that very reason)

- Never considered a connection to the gold rush!! But I’m immediately intrigued by the thematic relevance given the film’s exploration of greed, exploitation, ambition, consumption… and who profits or suffers in such scenarios. Thanks for the book rec :)

- The depiction of animal (mis)handling as an allegory for supremacy (as in, the pitfalls/problematic aspects of humans viewing themselves as superior to animals, but also the horrific history of humans positioning fellow humans as inferior on account of their supposedly being “animals”) wasn’t something I’d been able to articulate fully, but you also bring up the role of humility/empathy in establishing healthy relationships between beings (giving equal priority to differing needs of all parties). The connection to BB could really help highlight that.

- FINALLY I dunno why it hadn’t occurred to me, maybe because I just associate Peele with cerebral horror films, but I ALREADY teach a sci fi unit as part of the American lit course (which includes a different Chiang story), and it would be sooo easy to justify adding NOPE into the mix there, because yes, it is definitely an entry into the grand tradition of extra terrestrial/“first contact” narratives a la Arrival (which I must admit I haven’t seen, but it’s been on my to-watch list for ages). But where so many of those narratives are an allegory for colonialism/imperialism (basically the reflexive fears of the Western world—what if something did to US what we did to the rest of the planet??? Oh noooo), films like NOPE and series like VanderMeer’s Area X instead approach first contact in a way that more explores… ecosystems, in a way? How we participate willingly/unwillingly, knowingly/unknowingly in all kinds of ecosystems, and what happens when specimen of vastly different ecosystems interact for the first time. The crisis of self when confronted with the other—themes related to identity, communication, annihilation… SUPER METAPHYSICAL SHIT and I love it.

Thank you for taking the time to highlight so many connections and suggest so many relevant texts!! Is there a limit to the depths of this film?? Nope.

[papirouge]

You all deserve to get rekt by China or Russia, IDC

No, we don't. I might only have an inkling of an understanding of what horrors China and Russia commits against their people, but I distinguish the difference between the ruling power and the people who are subjected to their authority. Never did I look at the brainwashed North Koreans, in absolute hate of the United States, and want any more harm brought to them.

Most Americans citizens do not agree with the bombing of Nagasaki or Hiroshima, although the hostility and crimes Japan was committing were atrocious and they were conditioned not to stop. Japan was an ally to Nazi Germany, attacking every surrounding Asian country, just bombed Pearl Harbor, and Americans are still troubled with the decision. It is estimsted that Japan killed millions. Their holocaust killed twice as many than the Nazis. I would hazard to say many more lives were saved than lost, as incredibly sad as that is.

So where is your empathy? Do you not have a sense of nuance? My sister in Christ, you are full of hatred.

......Your main mistake anon is that assuming that the USA deserve to be "rekt" by nations, means actually siding with said nations. If you're Christian, you know that God used the Babylonians (and other nations) to "rekt" the kingdoms of Israel to punish their sinfulness, right? and yet, it doesn't mean Babylonians were 'good guys' nor didn't deserve to get their turn next. This binary mindset is why you're failing so hard to get the point straight.

Your whole tirade elaborating all the crimes of Communism, Japan or USSR is irrelevant. Your narrative relies on "you're so full of hate wanting to see the USA disappear" when I want to see the evil the evilness the USA does to disapear - like any sane person would. You're obsessive attempt to reverse UNO me into calling me hateful for....hating on the biggest perpetuators of conflicts on earth is ridiculous.

The more obsessive you are to guilt trip me for projection a MOVIE scenario where the USA would disapear, the more tone deaf you sound. You're hyperfocusing on the evilness of a FICTIONALITY, while pulling out all sort of excuse to downplay the evilness of REALITY.

Look at yourself, straight up being like "BuT tHe JapAnEse wEre wIth tHe Nazi' to defend the bombing of two entire cities killing hundreds of thousand of civilians, I-. The USA are still demonic for using atomic bombs, I DONT CARE. They are as bad as Japan. They would have bombed NAZI GERMANY IT WOULD STILL BE THE SAME BECAUSE KILLING REAL PEOPLE IS BAD, REGARDLESS OF THEIR OPINION.

...but yeah, I'm the bad person. You're the least person that should talk about empathy or nuance here. Keep "Christ" out of your mouth if you conveniently support the murder -in real life- of its creatures just because they are "bad person". Like...a movie scenario displaying the eradication of a wicked country bad, but condoning it happening it IRL (atomic bomb) isn't? BYE.

[bustyasianbeautiespod]

Episode 38 Transcript: Molly... It's 2007

[intro guitar music]

G: Hello, my name is Grey.

C: And my name is Crystal.

G: And this is Busty Asian Beauties, the Supernatural commentary podcast where I, someone who has seen this show several times…

C: And I, someone who only knows the show through social media, discuss every single episode of Supernatural from start to finish. Also, we are both Asian.

G: Both Asian!

So for today's episode, we will be discussing Season 2, Episode 16: “Roadkill,” written by Raelle Tucker, directed by Charles Beeson. Whoo!

C: This is such a non-episode.

G: Okay, so I know that you think of this episode as extremely boring, and like, a failed horror movie submission.

C: Yes.

G: However, I think it's okay! Like, I think it makes some good points. I think there's some things to ponder about on it. It's certainly an episode that's good for like, a podcast discussion, 'cause there's like, meat here that you can pick apart, right? I think.

C: Yeah. I would agree with you. Except regarding the meat, to be completely honest with the viewers, I watched this episode once, like, three weeks ago [both laugh], so let's see how much I can do that.

G: [laughing] For context, we have not recorded an episode in three weeks, so let's see. Let's see. Let's see what we're going to do today. I honestly- like, I will admit, [laughing] the first time I watched this episode, I did fall asleep in the middle of watching it.

C: So true.

G: Literally, I was watching it, and it's like, two hours before our recording, and I was like, “Okay, I need to watch it now,” and then I put it on, fall asleep wake up like, three hours later, and be like, “Sorry, Crystal! [C laughing] I missed our schedule because I literally fell asleep while watching the episode.” So that's fun.

C: Yeah.

G: But I think, despite falling asleep on it, it does have some meat to it, which- let's get into. So, okay, before going into this episode, I would guess that you didn't know anything about this one except for the line at the end.

C: Yeah, right, I did know about the hope being the whole point line. I guess, I think I have heard beforehand that “Roadkill” was one of the scarier episodes, so I guess I was anticipating more of a horror bent to this one, which I got, but I didn't know anything else, yeah.

G: Yeah, exactly. So yeah, let's start.

“The Road So Far” is your basic “Road So Far.” This is how you know that something is a fucking monster of the week because they do the whole "dad wants us to pick up where he left off," which I already have memorized.

C: Yeah. "Saving people. Hunting things. [both] The family business."

G: And I actually think that line is very significant in this episode. Like, saving people, hunting things.

-

G: We start on this highway where a couple is fighting over, like, the guy not knowing how to read a map. And they're lost, and then they do this bit where he's like, "I know exactly where we are, we're like, in Highway 91." And then like, they zoom in on a like, a road sign that says, like, "Highway 41," and I thought that was incredibly funny.

C: It is.

G: But, you know, they're they're like, kind of mad at each other, it's their anniversary, and they need to go to Lake Tahoe, which we saw like, a couple episodes back, right?

C: Oh, yeah, yeah, in "Croatoan," there was a advertisement for Lake Tahoe or something, right? Or maybe it was a different lake.

G: Yeah, maybe it's a different lake.

C: Now I wanna check.

G: But I'm learning so much about American geography from Supernatural.

C: Oh, it was for Crater Lake.

G: Oh.

C: So yeah, different lake.

G: Different lake. Sorry, my bad. I am learning nothing from Supernatural.

And then they start like, you know, the guy starts being teasing her that like, "Oh, you're not really mad at me. You love me." And then like, they start flirting it up. And then they crash into a tree. Well, no, they crash- they're about to crash into a person, so the woman who is driving brakes and then crashes into a tree. So- oh, also, a detail I missed is-

C: Yeah, the music.

G: Yeah, all throughout this scene there's a music playing, which is gonna be important. It's "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals, which I know.

C: I also know, yeah.

G: Is this a famous song?

C: It is a famous song, so I thought it was kind of funny that they used it as like, a main plot point of this episode.

G: Yeah.

C: Every time they put a famous song in, I'm like, “And you couldn't afford Zep?”

G: No, the only reason why I know this song- I don't think it's famous here, but I do know it, because it's in the same album as "We Gotta Get out of This Place," also by The Animals, which is a song that plays in a later episode that makes me a little bit cuckoo. So I have listened to that album. Which, you know, if you know the scene that I'm talking about like, it's literally a scene. In Supernatural. [laughs]

C: I have no clue.

G: It's the one where like, Cas is standing on the road and then Dean is like, seeing him after Purgatory.

C: Oh my god. Okay.

G: Yeah, and like, the lyrics are like, "We gotta get out of this place if this is the last thing we ever do," and it's like, noo! No. But yeah, I love that song, and I love this album. That's my take of the day.

Anyway, that's what happens, and then I think we get our splash screen here.

C: I think so.

G: Yeah, maybe. Maybe not. Who cares? Who cares, you guys? [laughs]

C: So we- oh, no, it's not the splash screen yet. I think it goes dark, and like, I thought it was gonna be a splash screen, and then we're still at Molly and we're still at the tree, and I'm like, "Something is off about this episode because we haven't cut to Sam and Dean yet."

G: Yeah, but like, it makes sense because I feel like the vibe they were going for in this episode is "What would it feel like if you were one of the people that Sam and Dean are helping?" right" Like, they purposefully keep you in the dark, they're kind of assholes, you look at them and they look like fucking serial killers-

C: [laughs] Yeah.

G: Like, that's the vibe that they have. And this episode does a really good job of showing that, and just- it starts off boring because they're not in much of the beginning. That's like, the only downfall of that part. But I think the execution is good for what it was trying to do.

C: Mm-hm. So yeah, we cut to still Molly, so you're like, "Oh, okay so she's kind of the main on this episode, then, 'cause it's not just like, she dies and then we go to a case." So yeah, she's been crashed against a tree. She's in the car alone. And like- so it seems like David has abandoned her. So Kendall Roy-core of him. [G laughs] So she is like, calling for him. She's kind of injured, and like- or no, actually, is she not injured? Like, she's surprisingly not injured?

G: She has blood on her lip and then that's it. She's not injured at all.

C: Yeah. She's surprisingly uninjured as she gets out of the car and starts calling out for David. And like, she's in these like, really dark and misty woods. It's a creepy vibe. And then she sees like, a light in the distance and there's a cabin there, which is clearly bad news, but she goes to it anyway. And she goes in to ask for help, and inside, she sees like, standing in the shadows, like, the guy she almost hit with her car. And she says, like, "It's you. You're okay! I'm so sorry." But he's turned around, and she can't see this, but like, his stomach is like, basically cut open and you can see his intestines and shit.

G: Yeah, his guts are spilling out.

C: Yeah. And she keeps trying to talk to him, and then he turns around, and he's bloody, and there's blood coming out of his mouth, and his face is like, rotting or whatever, and she sees his guts, and she screams, and then we get the splash screen.

G: God. I don't remember this episode at all. [C laughs] Like, at all. No recollection of it at all. But like, at this moment, I guessed immediately what the twist was gonna be.

C: Oh!

G: Shall we hold off on the twist so like, people who also do not remember this episode, which I bet there's a lot of them, also like, gets a shock later on? But obviously, there's gonna be a twist, and you've probably already guessed it. It's a very easy twist to guess. It depends on-

C: I didn't guess it until quite late.

G: Did you guess it when Sam and her was talking?

C: No, literally no.

G: No? Oh my god, okay.

C: I just kept thinking that the thing would be that, like, David made a deal with the guy to like, let him go and make her be the tortured one, you know? Yeah, I didn't know the- because they were like, "Oh, it's like, cruel to have her pine after him like this," and they kept saying like, "Oh, he's alive for sure," so I was like, "Oh, he's alive because he's a dick." But yeah, no, that wasn't the twist.

G: Yeah. [laughs] The twist was- let's cut this out, and I'll repeat this joke later- the twist was literally "right where you left me" by outdean. [both laughing]

C: Literally.

G: Like, when she shows up at the door, I was like, "Oh my god! It's literally 'right where you left me' by outdean."

C: I know!

G: So true.

Well, maybe I can put that in, and then, like, if you know "right where you left me," you'll know what it is, and if you don't, you don't. So true of us. Literally you have to know BABPod lore to understand our podcast. [laughs] You have to have listened to all previous episodes and be a Ko-Fi donor.

Anyway, we go back to Molly again. So this is the point, I think, where I started being like, a little bit sleepy [laughs]. Like, I was like, "Why are we still here? Why am I still here?"

C: Yeah, it was like, "Where are my friends, Sam and Dean?"

G: Literally, I miss Sam and Dean. Who would have thought? Like, never would I have thought to have missed Sam and Dean, but- She's running through the woods, and she goes into the main road, and she stops a car. Much akin to the car stopping from earlier. And now, the car she has stopped is black and big and beautiful. Babygirl, it's Baby! So it's Sam and Dean.

C: I think I literally went like, "Oh my god, it's Sam and Dean!"

G: Literally, it's Sam and Dean.

C: Because it had been so long in the episode, I was like, "Where the fuck are my friends?"

G: Sam rolls down his window and starts talking to this woman. They get off the car, and Molly talks to Sam and Dean about what happened to her. And while she's narrating this story, Dean interrupts her and basically goes, like, “Oh, the guy that he saw, did he look like he lost a fight with a lawnmower?" Which, if anyone ever said that to me, I would have no idea how to comprehend that, like, at all. To be fair, I've never seen a lawnmower in my life, so I don't know, like, the implications of that. The only time I've seen a lawnmower in my life in a Supernatural episode. [both laugh] And it didn't work, because Dean didn't know how to properly use it. Which I didn't even know-

C: Oh, the djinn episode.

G: The djinn episode, yeah. And I didn't even know that it wasn't working. I didn't know that that was the joke they were making, 'cause I don't know how lawnmowers work. I've never seen one in my fucking life! So, like, I think it was years later, when like, I was in the fandom and they were like, "He was using a lawnmower that wasn't even turned on!" and I was like, "Oh, really? Never would have guessed." [C laughs]

Molly's like, "Oh, how did, you know that?" and Dean's like, "Lucky guess." Dean all throughout this episode acts like a very "cool" guy. [C laughs] Cool guy in quotation marks. You know what I mean. Like, he acts like, a "cool guy." And honestly? [laughs] Honestly.

C: No. No. I don't like where you're going. [G laughing]

G: He is a cool guy! I think he's fun this episode.

C: I think he's annoying as shit this episode. Also, given the twist, he's being really mean.

G: Yeah. After the twist, I'm like, “Okay, this guy's a fucking asshole." But prior to the twist, I was just like- if I was like, a, you know, if I was a person who stumbled- because, again, the vibe of this episode is like, "What if you meet Sam and Dean? What would you think of them?" right?

C: [laughs] Yeah.

G: So like, that thought was like, at the back of my head. And I was thinking like, "Oh, if I meet Sam and Dean, what would I think of them?"

C: I would leave and die.

G: [laughs] I literally would leave and die in the woods. But I would think I think that Sam is a little bit too much, like, he's like, too emo, you know? [laughs]

C: Really?

G: Yeah.

C: Huh.

G: And I would think Dean is so cool. But like, not the kind of cool that you would want to be friends with, you know?

C: Right.

G: Like, just a guy that you would like to emulate type of guy.

C: Huh.

G: Which is like [laughs], the worst thing I've ever said in my life.

C: Yeah, can't relate.

G: But yeah.

C: Yeah, but I support you.

G: Thank you. You know how people say that, like, trans guys, like, like Dean Winchester? Like, I do not like that perspective because I think he's misogynistic, and I don't think he's like, a good guy to emulate masculinity from.

C: Yeah.

G: But literally, trans guys like Dean Winchester. [both laughing]

C: I just- Cas is literally right there.

I mean, I guess I get the appeal with Dean is that he tries so hard to perform masculinity that you find that relatable, but I feel like Cas is like, an example of like, how to be a man without being a dick. [laughs]

G: No, yeah, for real. I think that's very true. I think if you're gonna take a guy in Supernatural to be your example of what masculinity- what like, good and healthy masculinity should look like, I think Cas is right there. But, you know. [laughs]

C: Yeah. Cas is right where you left him. [G laughs]

G: So true. Anyway, we're literally off tangent every two seconds in this episode.

C: Yeah.

G: As we deserve, because we haven't recorded an episode in three weeks.

C: Also, if we only talked about this episode, then like, we'd have nothing to talk about. In my opinion. [G laughs]

G: Literally. Like, if we just talked about this episode, it'd be so fucking boring. But Sam and Dean are, you know, obviously nervous talking to this woman, and they're saying like, "Oh, we gotta get you back into town" and she's saying, "No, I have to find my husband." And she keeps on insisting that like, "I don't want to leave without him. Can you just take me to my car?" So they go to the area where she crashed her car, and it is not there.

C: Yep.

G: She keeps on saying that "Oh, you have to believe me, you have to believe me, it was right here, I don't know who would have taken it and stole it, you have to believe me," all that.

C: It's literally indistinguishable woods. Like, I would just assume that I misremembered the tree I crashed into.

G: Yeah, because, like, she was insisting about the tree, right? Like, "This is the tree I crashed into." And then I was like, "All of these trees look exactly the same."

Eventually, we pan to Sam and Dean, who are whispering to each other, and Sam's saying like, "We have to get out of here, like, Greeley [C laughs] could show up at any moment in time." And Dean says, "What are you gonna tell her?" Sam says, "The truth?" And Dean says, "She's gonna take off running in the other direction." [G laughing] Which, like, something so funny to me is that at the end of this episode, they call back to this, right? Like, they do  a flashback sequence after the reveal of the twist, and it's literally so long and arduous-

C: Yeah, it's like, I get- I understand how media works. I understand that twists recontextualize past scenes. You don't have to play them for me again.

G: Like, it ruins the rewatch value of this episode. Because they shove it in your face.

They continue talking to her, and Dean tells her that, like, "We'll just take you to the cops, right? We'll take you to the station, and then they'll help you, and we'll help you. So let's go."

-

C: Yep. So they're driving, and as they're driving, Molly is talking to Sam - and Dean, but Sam's the only one engaging - about like, how she was supposed to be in Lake Tahoe with David and it's their five-year anniversary. And then she expresses regret that like, right before they crashed, they were having a fight. She says, "It was the only time we ever really argued, when we were stuck in the car."

G: So true.

C: And Sam was like, "Ha, I know how that goes," and Dean, like, glares at him.

G: Yeah, literally glares at him.

C: Yeah, so true.

G: It's quite funny.

C: Yeah, and then Molly goes- Molly is like, really upset, because she says, like, "The last thing I ever said to him is that, like, I called him a jerk, and like, what if, like, that is the last thing I ever said to him?"

G: That's not even a bad thing to say.

C: Yeah, it's not even a bad thing to say,

G: Like, "You're a jerk!" That's not bad.

C: Yeah, it was clearly like, a joke.

G: Yeah, they were like goofing around at that point.

C: They were just playing around as he tried to have sex with her while she was trying to drive the car, so honestly, he deserved this.

G: Trying to give her road head. [both laughing] Misha Collins would be proud.

C: Oh my god. [laughs]

G: Should we explain that? 'Cause I mean like, yeah-

C: Sure. Grey calls Road Food, the show that Misha Collins does, Road Head 'cause it's funny.

G: Yeah. We are not saying that Misha Collins has ever endorsed or done road head, so that's our disclaimer for this episode.

[laughing] What I thought back then was, "Wouldn't it be so funny if the last words she ever said to him, was like, 'jerk,' and then he, like, got offended then just said, like, 'bitch' [C laughing] and then they crashed intro the tree?"

C: Literally.

G: Literally. Like, the intensity, the gravitas of those two words are so different. Like, it would just be so fucking hilarious if it was "jerk" and then like, "What the fuck? [both] You bitch!" Literally.

C: Sorry, I'm just remembering that post that was like, "Happy International Women's Day to every woman that Dean has called a bitch. This includes Sam."

G: This includes Sam and also Molly. Like, I feel like he was like, murmuring "bitch" under his breath this entire episode.

C: Oh, definitely. Definitely later, when they recap the case like, offscreen, he calls her a bitch like, every other sentence. Yeah.

So Sam goes like, “Molly, we're gonna figure out what happened to your husband. I prommy." And then the radio starts like, sputtering, and then it starts playing "House of the Rising Sun," baby! Which is- I think it's a very good mood-setting piece.

G: Yeah.

C: It's very gloomy and ominous.

G: Honesty, I watched this episode last night, right? So it's been like, 24 hours for me. But right now, just thinking about this scene is giving me the creeps that I'm compelled to look behind me to see if there's anyone. It's quite a creepy- like, this song makes it creepy, I feel like. It has good creep factor, this episode.

C: Also, just the fact that I feel like people generally view themselves as in control of their machinery, like, their car and their radio, so just the concept of that being controlled by a ghost is [both] creepy.

Right, because, like, they're like, locked in this car, and it's like, you feel like you're supposed to be safe, but you're not... ooh. [laughs] Or whatever.

Yeah, so they get scared 'cause none of them actually turned the radio to that station, and then Molly says, "This is the song that was playing when we crashed." And then the radio crackles, and then we get like, the voice of Greeley, the lawnmower fight guy. And he says, like, again and again, "She's mine. She's mine. She's mine." And then he appears in the road and Dean fucking... pedal to the metal, baby.

G: Accelerates, yeah. Hit the metal- what's that? "Hit the pedal, heavy metal," like, that song from One Direction?

C: I don't know this song from One Direction.

G: I think everyone should know every song from One Direction [C laughs] like I do.

C: Every song?

G: Every song.

C: How? Don't they have, like, a lot?

G: Yeah! I was a fan when I was in sixth grade, yeah.

C: Oh, I was an edgy anti-One Direction person in sixth grade. [G laughs]

G: I was like, a fan in sixth grade, and then- I don't know why I worded it like that. I continued to be a fan for a very long time. [laughs]

C: Yeah.

G: But like, I wasn't particularly- like, I was that kind of person that was like, you know, like, I tell people like, "Oh, I like One Direction," and they start talking about the members, and I'm like, "I just like their music." Like, I was that person. I was probably annoying as fuck to everyone. But I really like their music. I like boy band music.

C: Yeah, okay. It's so brave of you to not engage with the Larries.

G: I just wasn't online, I think that's just the problem. Like, I just didn't have like, Tumblr or social media or anything.

C: I mean, that's good. You would've been caught up in conspiracy theories about how one of them has a fake baby. [both laugh]

G: It's so funny because, like, I also liked Five Seconds of Summer, obviously. Like, I'm literally that person. But one time, I was talking to a friend, and they said to me like, their first exposure to gay people was accidentally reading-

C: No.

G: a 5SOS guy x 5SOS guy fic on Wattpad. And I was like, "That's literally-" like, I would not know what to do with my life if that was my first experience of gay people. Like, I literally do not know. So, like, thank god that my first experience of gay people was like, meeting a lesbian in my dormitory at like, age 13. So true of me.

C: So true of you.

G: God, what- Okay, tangent. What's your experience with fanfiction?

C: I found- the first fic I ever read was in a Goodreads forum.

G: So true of you.

C: Yup. Yeah.

G: That's very- that's such a niche thing, I feel like, but like, it's nice. Goodreads forum. Good place to find your first fanfic.

C: Yup.

G: Mine was on AO3. I was like-

C: Wait, AO3?

G: Yeah, I was already quite old when I started reading fanfiction.

C: Wow yeah, no, I think I went from Goodreads like, ff.net slash just like, random Google sites hosted fics. Oh, and some Livejournal. And then I eventually moved to AO3.

G: Yeah. AO3 for me was already thriving when I started reading. I think I started reading fic at like, 2017.

C: Mm, yeah, that's pretty late.

G: So it's like, it's actually already established. Yeah. And guess who? [laughs] Guess who my first fanfic reading experience was about.

C: Was it Destiel?

G: It was Destiel.

C: So true of you.

G: Literally so true of me. At least my first experience of gay people was Destiel and 5SOS guy x 5SOS guy. [C laughing]

C: Yeah. What's the first gay fanfiction I ever read? It was probably for Balthazar and Peter from the webseries Nothing Much to Do, which is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

G: [laughs] That's cute.

C: Yeah. Also, I say I went from Goodreads to ff.net and Livejournal, but no, I don't think I read any fic on Livejournal until after I'd been reading on AO3 for a while because I had my House M.D. phase, and because it's an old fandom, I had to read a lot of the fic on Livejournal.

G: Oh, oh, yeah, that makes sense. If it's an old fandom, you read it somewhere else.

C: Yeah. I gotta say I did not encounter any particularly quality fic on Livejournal [G laughs], but I did read a lot.

G: It's so funny- one of the first fics I ever read was "91 Whiskey."

C: Yeah.

G: And I made a friend read it, a friend who was like, not into Supernatural at all. I was like, I told her like, "Oh, you should read this fic that I read. Like, you don't need to know anything about the show to care about it." And she was like, "Okay," and then I sent her the link and she was like, "400,000 words? [C laughs] What are you doing?" And then she read it in three days.

C: So true.

G: So true. And then she messaged me that like, "I'm literally crying right now after reading this fic." [laughs] This is not a promotion of "91 Whiskey." I do not remember anything about it at all. But yeah, it's that kind of fic.

So let's get-

C: [laughs] So what were we talking about?

G: So what are we on about?

C: Oh, yeah, he floors it and he drives through Greeley. And Molly's like, "What the fuck just happened?" And Sam's like, "Don't worry, Molly. Everything's gonna be alright." [G laughs] But then-

G: The car starts sputtering.

C: Yeah, the car starts sputtering, it can't move anymore, and Dean can't start it again. And he's like, "Ah, shit. I don't think he's gonna let us leave."

G: Dun-dun-dun!

-

G: So they get out of the car and they're standing around, and he opens the trunk, Dean does. He opens the trunk. And this is, I think, the clearest that we have seen the trunk so far, right?

C: Mm-hm.

G: And I don't really have any comments on the particular contents of the trunk, but I really like the fact that in this scene, we so clearly see that he uses a rifle to prop it up. I think that's really fun. I think that's really fun. But yeah, he uses a rifle to prop up the trunk, and Molly sees this-

C: Yes.

G: - and goes, "Holy shit, I'm going to die. [C laughs] I'm literally going to die, these men are gonna kill me, they're serial killers, they have all these knives and guns, I'm going to fucking die." So she starts like, walking backwards and is like, "Okay, I think I got it from here. I'll just go to the cops by myself. Thanks so much, I'll find my way out." And then, like, Sam-! Sam specifically starts walking up to her, all menacingly. Like, I mean, I get-

C: All 6'2 of him.

G: Literally- 6'4, right?

C: 6'4? Oh, yeah, that's- okay, yeah.

G: Jesus Christ. But like, it's so terrifying. This scene, I was genuinely terrified. Like, I know that they're not, you know, serial killers of that kind [C laughs], but like, literally run for your fucking life, Molly. It's scary! What they do is s- like, the way this was framed, and like, a lot of this cinematography this episode lends to the vibe of it being creepy, and I love that.

C: Yeah. And the fog. The fog does a lot.

G: Molly is just going like, "Leave me alone, go away," and then Sam says, like, “It wasn't a coincidence that we found you, okay?" and this is-

C: The most menacing sentence ever.

G: The like, the way Sam says it, it's supposed to be like, the moment where Molly goes, “Oh, okay. [C laughing] Like, I trust you now." But it's literally the creepiest thing that's ever been said in all of Supernatural. Like, what the fuck, dude? And then, you know, Molly- At this point, I don't know how she's staying point. At this point, I would run.

C: Yeah. And be like, "Okay, so you were trying to find me and kill me. I'm just gonna go run into a tree myself. That'll be an okay way to go."

G: [laughing] And then Dean says [C screams], "We weren't just cruising for chicks when we ran into you [both], sister!" [both laughing]

We've made this joke before, but literally James Charles-core.

C: It's so gay best friend of him. He could totally be the gay best friend side in like, a final girl horror movie, you know? [G laughs] You know Freaky? I watched it with my ex-fiancee last week, but it's Kathryn- shit, what's her name? The Claire actress. What's her full name?

G: Oh! Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know her full name, but it's her. Yeah.

C: Yeah, but it's like, a Freaky Friday thing where she swaps bodies-

G: Does she have a gay bf? Gay best friend?

C: Yeah, she switches bodies with a serial killer, and Dean could totally be her gay best friend in that one. [G laughs]

G: I like the gifsets that I've seen it of of that movie. She's like, bloody and shit. Love that.

C: Yeah. I mean, it's kind of trashy, but like, it's fun.

G: Who cares? We're Supernatural fans.

C: Yeah. And a lot of plot holes, but who cares? We're Supernatural fans.

G: Dean says, "We're not just cruising for chicks, sister" [both laughing]. Why is it so funny? It's genuinely so funny.

C: [laughing] Literally the stupidest sentence ever.

G: It's so stupid. But, okay, he says, like, "We were already out here hunting." And then she goes, "Hunting for what?" He says, "Ghosts."

C: Literally, I would die on the spot.

G: Dean says, like, "Ghosts!" And Sam's like, "Don't- fucking sugarcoat it for her." [laughing] Which, like, in retrospect, that's so fucking funny.

C: [laughing] It is.

G: And I'm amazed that they didn't put it in the flashback sequence.

C: That would be funny.

G: Literally, I think they didn't put it because it's like, too comedic to be good in there, and they were going for like, "woe is me" type of flashback sequence.

C: Yeah.

I feel like at this point, people know the twist from what we're saying, right? Can we just talk like they know the twist already?

G: Noo, okay, sure, fine.

C: Okay, the twist is Molly is also a ghost.

G: Yeah, she's a ghost too.

C: Yeah.

G: It's very obvious. I feel like- maybe because I've seen it before and I'm accessing like, a part of my brain that has seen it, that does remember it, you know, so like, at this point, it was like, super obvious that she is already dead and is a ghost. But like [laughing], it's so funny.

C: Yeah, Dean's out here like, "We're out here killing you." And Sam's like, "Can you chill?"

G: Sam like, explains that, you know, they think the guy's named Jonah Greeley and that he died 15 years ago. Which- I didn't comprehend that 15 years ago was like, 1990-something.

C: Right, I was like, "Oh, so in 2007? Cool." [laughs]

G: No, like, I thought 15 years ago was like- [laughs] this is so stupid. I thought 15 years ago meant like, he died in like, 1950 or something [C laughing]. My brain just automatically went there. Because later on, we see pictures of this guy, and also, I was in shock that the pictures looked so recent. Like, "Why is there color in these picture? Why is he wearing a trucker hat?"

C: Yeah, "Isn't he from olden times?"

G: Literally, why is not from the 1950s. [C laughs]

C: If he didn't fight in World War II, then there's no way he died 15 years ago.

G: Okay, so Sam says one night a year, on the anniversary of this guy's death, he haunts the road that he died on, and that's why they're there, which is to try to stop him.

So, okay, I'm quite unclear on the lore. So  other people have died on this road because they crashed?

C: Yeah.

G: Okay. So other people crash on the road, or other people survive the crash and say that, like, they almost crashed into a lady, right?

C: Yeah.

G: Okay, okay. Because later on they say that Greeley was torturing a person every year, and that person was-

C: Always you.

G: - you.

C: Dun-dun-dun! [G laughs]

G: I was so confused. I was like, if they're torturing a ghost, like, isn't it like, more okay for Sam and Dean than if they were torturing like, humans? You know what I mean. So I didn't comprehend that the other people were also dying. [laughs]

C: No, I think if it was just the ghost thing, Dean would be like, "It's a closed loop, like, whatever, who cares, let the ghosts do their thing."

G: Yeah.

C: And Sam would be like, "She deserves to be put to rest, Dean!" [laughs] or some shit, and then we'd get a whole scene about it.

G: She's still suspicious about this, but Sam and Dean are, you know, quite convincing. At some point, she says, like, "You're serious about this," and Dean says, "Deadly." And I was like, "God, you're fucking corny. You're a fucking asshole. I want to fuck you so bad it makes me look stupid." [laughing]

C: No! Shut up. [both laugh]

G: Molly asks about her husband, but Sam evades the question and says, like, "Before we can help you, you have to help us." And then they go to the cabin that Molly-

C: I gotta say that this, like, all the cryptic shit, and then Sam saying like, "First, you have to help us." Like, this seems like an intro to a really bad porn, you know?

G: Noo!

C: It literally does though.

G: Noo! I have not seen a lot of pornography in my life that has an intro this complex. [both laughing]

C: Fair enough.

G: Wait that would be so funny if-

C: It would be so funny if the whole time- 15 minutes, and then it cuts to her sucking his dick.

G: [laughing] Literally, it would be so funny. And it's still the same ending. Like, she's still a ghost.

C: [laughing] He was getting that ghussy. [G laughing] God.

G: No.

C: Well yeah, I guess it's good it wasn't a porn intro because it seems a bit manipulative. So.

Yeah, so she leads them back to the cabin- [both still laughing] Okay.

She leads them back to the cabin where like, we saw Greeley. And Dean says that this is probably his hunting cabin. And there's like, a bunch of like, tools and blood around. And Dean was like, "Well, sure seems like a sweet guy."

G: Which is like, that line kind of confused me. Because do you think Dean is anti, like, animal hunting? 'Cause these are just the tools that you use for animal hunting, I feel like.

C: I don't know. But didn't he say that that guy who did animal testing in a lab was automatically an asshole?

G: Was evil? Yeah.

C: Dean Winchester is against killing animals, but like, pro killing like, quote unquote "monsters" that are often very close to human, and like, sentient and can talk to you. Alright, Dean.

G: Literally. Alright. Alright, bro.

C: And he makes fun of Sam for being vegetarian. [G laughs] It's only okay to eat meat if it's killed in a slaughterhouse on a factory farm. That's Dean's take.

The thing is, because it was dark, I couldn't tell it was blood on the table until I read the transcript. I thought it was like, he spilled like, honey all over the table, so I thought the "sweet guy" thing was a pun. But yeah, no.

G: [laughs] That's incredibly funny.

C: Yep, so they don't see any like, gravestones outside, and Sam explains Molly that like, they're looking for his corpse so they can salt and burn it to get rid of the spirit. And Molly says, like, "Oh, and that'll save David?" And Sam’s like, “Well, it'll help both of you.” So we find out that after Greeley died, his wife took the body so she probably brought him back here, but they never saw her again. And also, they owned 1000 acres of land. I didn't know people were allowed on 1000 acres of land. That's a lot of land.

G: What's a thousand acres?

C: Oh, yeah, let me try to convert it to- is it square miles or square kilometers that would be most helpful?

G: know.

G: No, I think there's another term that we use- hectare? Hectare.

C: Hect- I I don't know how to how to pronounce it.

G: 404 hectare? Oh my god. That's a lot. Why? Why do they have this much land?

C: I guess to farm on. [G laughs] I feel like- did they have any other employees? Like, I don't think that this guy alone and his wife-

G: Can toil 404 hectares of land, yeah.

C: Right, like, it's weird that they don't have any mentioned employees. So.

G: [laughs] We need the full backstory of the Greeley family.

C: Yeah.

G: I mean, this episode is 39 minutes long. We could have done it.

C: Exactly.

G: And they had that long ass flashback sequence. Like, they were really gunning it for the time.

C: Yep.

So Molly goes, like, “This is really what you guys do? You're like ghostbusters?" When did Ghostbusters come out? I was like, "Is that too modern of a reference for her to be making given her death date?"

G: Oh! Okay, let's look up. When did Ghostbusters-

C: Oh, it's from 1984. Never mind. [G laughing] It's like, really old. It's old as shit. Okay, cool.

G: Well. Great.

C: Cool.

Okay, so Sam goes, “Yeah,” and Dean says, "Minus the jumpsuits." And then like, he's being such a dick. He's like, "This is a fascinating conversation and all, but this highway's only haunted once a year, and we's got till sunup to wrap this thing up." And he's like, "Okay, let's move it along. Okay? Great."

G: What an asshole! What an asshole.

C: Yeah, so they're like, going outside, and Sam explains that they're looking for Greeley's house, so he might be buried there. And then she hears like, this whispered voice which is like, clearly not good news going like, "Molly? Molly, help me! Molly?" and like, she fucking turns away from Sam instead of being like, "Hey, Sam, I hear a sound." She just goes, like, “OMG, David!" and she, like, goes running towards the voice. And then, obviously, Greeley appears and like, starts attacking her. Like, duh, Molly. Yeah, sorry for being unsympathetic, I'm sure that sucked and you're worried about your husband [G laughs], but also, like, bro, you should be aware by now that you're in a horror movie, get with the program.

G: You're literally in a horror movie. You're literally with some guys who are claiming to be ghost hunters. Like-

C: Yeah, so Dean shows up with like, his gun, and he points it at Greeley and he says, "Whoops," and then shoots him in the head because Dean thinks he's so cool.

G: He thinks he's so cool. Like, he said that "whoops" and he thought, "Wow, just like in the movies."

C: [laughing] Exactly.

G: He literally thought that.

C: Yeah.

And then Sam like, is like, "Hey, are you okay?" and Molly starts freaking out about like, "What the fuck did this guy do to my husband?" She calls him a "son of a bitch."

G: Yes!

C: Alright, girl. [G laughs]

G: I love it when women also exhibit misogynistic traits. [C laughing] Literally equality.

C: Literally.

G: Like, for Supernatural, equality means both men and women can be misogynistic.

C: For so long, the misogyny profession has been male-dominated, [both laughing] but this new diversity, equity, and inclusion program will ensure that women, too, can be misogynistic.

G: So true.

C: Yeah, so- God, I can't believe I'm saying this and I say bitch like, 20 times per podcast episode. [laughing]

G: I think we only say it when- Okay, here's a fun fact. The very first episode, they do a "bitch" "jerk" line, right?

C: Yeah.

G: And also prior to that, Dean calls the ghost "what a bitch," right?

C: Yeah.

G: And when you said that, I literally flinched. Because I never say "bitch" in real life.

C: Uh-huh.

G: Like, this is a podcast exclusive [C laughing], me saying bitch. I probably have never said the word "bitch" prior to this podcast. So, like, saying it in the podcast- like, the fact that you said it, and, like, the way you said it was like, you were quoting him, so you said "What a bitch!!"

C: [laughs]

G: I literally was like, "Uh- uh- uh- oh my god! I need to say 'bitch' in the podcast so Crystal doesn't think I'm uncool."

C: [laughing] Noo! No! No, you don't have to say "bitch"!

G: [laughs] It's fine. Like, a lot of the times, we're just quoting Dean. Mostly. Like, Sam barely says "bitch" at this point.

C: Yeah.

G: So.

C: I also do say "bitch" on my own, but mostly to refer to men. [both laugh] That's equality.

G: [laughing] That is equality.

C: Yeah. So yeah, Sam’s like, “Take it easy, alright? You're gonna see David again. You will." Sam. I mean, you're not wrong, but this is kind of mean of you, too.

G: Like, they were like, "It's so wrong that she's pining for him," and Sam is out here being like, "You'll see him. You'll see him. Don't worry. He'll love you forever and ever."

C: Yeah, like, "He loves you! You'll go back and he won't be remarried."

G: "He won't be 'right where you left me' by outdean." [C laughing]

C: God.

So they see like, some creepy brick road, and they decide to follow it. And while they do that, Molly asks about things shooting rock salt, and Sam explains the lore and stuff. Which, I feel like-

G: He says-

C: Yeah, "Simple remedies are always the best. In most cultures-"

G: "Most cultures!" Yesss!

C: At least he said "most" and not "all."

G: We should have started a-

C: A "most cultures" count? Like a tally?

G: Yeah, we should have made a count of Sam saying "most," "all," or "whatever" culture. Like, unfortunately, it's a little bit too late. Because the first time it happened, we didn't think it would happen so much. But he literally says, like, "most cultures," "all cultures," or "all societies" or whatever the fuck he said that one time.

C: "Every culture." Like, okay. [G laughs] Alright, pre-law.

G: Literally, pre-law major.

C: Yeah. I feel like it makes sense that Molly's asking all these questions, but I just- I feel like this would have worked as an earlier seasons episode-

G: Yeah.

C: - so that they could use it for exposition. Like, here, it's like, "What's the point?" Like, we know.

G: Yeah, This is like, a season one episode vibe.

C: Yeah.

G: Especially given the fact that, in season one, they're looking for John.

C: Yeah.

G: The whole "hope is kind of the whole point thing" would have hit a little bit harder because, like, you know, they think John is dead, but they're hoping he's not, and that hope is the whole point.

C: Yeah.

G: So I really feel like this would have fit in well with season one.

C: Right, yeah, but alas. Raelle Tucker did not have her horror movie script rejected until season two.

G: [laughs] Yeah.

-

C: And they see a house. And I guess it's creepy because Dean says, "You know, just once, I'd like to round the corner and see a nice house." Okay, Dean.

G: So Sam and Molly enter the house, right? And this is- the cinematic choice, the like cinematography choice in this scene, I really like. So Sam and Molly enter the house, and it takes Dean, like, maybe 30 seconds, maybe a little bit more, to enter. But because of the way they frame the scene, you don't see that it's him. It's just a shadow. And it like, it's really creepy. You probably don't even remember this because it's been three weeks for you. [C laughs] But like, I vividly remember this scene. And only when he enters the room and he starts speaking does the camera move, and I really like that. So yeah. That's my compliment to Charles Beeson today.

Anyway, Sam asked if there's any headstones outside, and Dean's like, "Oh, it's never that easy, is it?" And he makes Sam and Molly check upstairs for any clues on where the headstone or the grave is. And he's gonna check downstairs. So we go to Sam and Molly, and I must say, this episode is a Sam episode.

C: Yeah.

G: And I love that. Because usually, when we get a Sam episode, it's like, for the plot. We rarely get a Sam episode that's just for Sam. Like, not like, for the plot or for like, the bigger picture. It's just a contained story that also happens to focus on Sam.

C: Right.

G: And this episode is that episode for this season, and I think maybe that's a big part of why I enjoy it.

C: Yeah. I guess since I just saw this as a Molly episode I didn't focus as much on the Sam character development, but yeah, I think you're right.

G: Yeah. Anyway, what happens here is Molly finds a scrapbook of the Greeley family. So, Mr. Greeley and his wife. It's just the two of them. And it's a scrapbook of all their like, moments together, them buying the house, buying the land. At some point, they see a love letter, which I didn't really get a closer look at the love letter.

C: I paused and zoomed in, but like, I didn't end up transcribing it 'cause seemed like too much work. But I think it has something that's like, "Oh, like, I was walking outside today and I saw the moon, and it reminded me of you, and like-" something- like, it was written better, but, you know, just like, "You're so beautiful and you make me so happy-"

G: Aw.

C: - and like, you know, it's just very sweet.

G: Aww.

Well, so Molly says, like, "This is so beautiful. I don't understand how someone who can write a love letter like this can turn into a fucking monster." And then, Sam does his little exposition where he says that some spirits, they're like, wounded animals, right? And they're in so much pain that they lash out. And all I was thinking of was like, "This is literally Dean." Like, this is literally Dean. Dean may as well be a ghost.

C: Yeah.

G: And then Molly asks, like, "Why are they here anyway?" And Sam says, "It's because something's tethering them here." So it can be like, a physical object or it could be unfinished business, like revenge or love or hate or all of those things. "They hold on too tight. They can't let go. So they're trapped. Caught in the same loops. Replaying the same tragedies over and over."

C: Just like Supernatural!

G: Literally Sam and Dean. Literally Supernatural. Ah! But like- ahhhh! It's literally Supernatural. At this point in the show, right - let's just think about it from at this point in the show instead of the entire thing. At this point in the show, there's nothing really- like, I know Sam is about to get murderous, right? Like, that's the fear right now.

C: Yeah.

G: But like, a little bit earlier in the season for Sam, there's no reason for him to stay in the job anymore.

C: Yeah.

G: Like, the whole point of the second episode of the season was the whole, like, "I don't want to do-" like, "I want to keep on doing the thing just because I owe it to Dad," right? Like, "I think this is what Dad would have wanted." And I think this is kind of what that was referencing. Like, it could be revenge for John or love for John or hatred for John. But Sam like, held on too tight for that. And now, he's trapped. Now, he can't get out. And he will not get out for 14 more years.

C: Oh, god.

G: Well, he gets out for one year, and then-

C: And then they make sure he feels really bad about it.

G: Yeah. They make him apologize for it, like, fucking seasons later.

C: Yeah, he says it's the worst thing he did or whatever, like, seriously.

G: It was like, season 13 or season 14 and he goes to Dean and is like, "Dean, remember Purgatory?" And it's like- literally, the worst thing that they did-

C: "Sorry for not looking for you even it seemed very much like you just died."

G: Yeah, it's been six seasons, bro. Nobody remembers.

C: Yeah. You guys get so concussed it's a wonder that you remember.

G: Literally. But yeah.

So yeah, they're caught in the same loops, they're playing the same tragedies over and over. And Molly says, like, "You sound almost sorry for them." Sam says, "They aren't evil people. A lot of them were good. Just something happened to them. Something they couldn't control." And Dean-

C: Ahh, Sam. It's so Sam. Oh my god.

G: He's literally- aww, he's such a guy!

C: Yeah.

G: He's literally such a guy. You know that joke where they say, like, "category five woman" or something?

C: Oh, yeah.

G: Like, Sam is literally a category five guy.

C: Yeah.

G: Yeah, at this point, Dean walks in and is like-

C: A fucking dick.

G: "Well, I'm different from Sam. Me? I don't like ghosts. And I ain't making apologies for them. That's that for that!" or something like that. And he's like, such a fucking asshole, especially in retrospect.

C: Uh-huh.

G: This is the point in the episode, where I was sure. Like, when Sam was doing his little speech, I was postive that she's a ghost. Like, 100% sure. So Dean coming in here and being like, "I don't have any sympathy or empathy for ghosts at all," knowing full well that this woman is probably 100% going to be a ghost, is like, "Dean!"

C: Dean.

G: "You're an asshole! You're a terrible person."

C: Yeah.

G: Okay, so Dean starts battling it out with the wall. He finds a little passage, but it's locked so he kicks it in, and, honestly, he looks so cool. [laughs]

C: Oh my god.

G: Stop it. Literally stop it, Grey, this is not your heart. [C laughs] But he does look very cool. He stands with his back to it and kicks it backwards with his foot, and it looks pretty cool. Good for him.

C: Oh my god, just like a horse! [G laughing]

G: No one will get that joke because I delete it every single time we make it.

C: Yeah. [laughs] Can we hint at it?

G: Okay, so like- you do the hinting, yeah.

C: Is this too obvious? Okay, I think a lot of people like to make jokes about Jackles being like a lame horse, and you know what we do with lame horses! [both laughing]

G: Every single time like, Jensen Ackles acts a certain way in this show, we make that lame horse joke.

C: And then we cut it out because it violates Spotify's terms of service.

G: Spotify's gonna nerf us, you guys, so yeah.

C: We didn't put the last part of the joke, but you guys know, right?

G: You guys know. You guys know. [both laughing]

Anyway, the door opens, and they crawl in. And inside, they find the body of- the like, remains. Like, skeletal remains, almost, of this woman. And we know it's a woman because the hair is long. At this point, like, I'm not too clear what rotting is like.

C: Yeah. Like, why is she just a skeleton?

G: Like, okay, she's just a skeleton, but she's still hanging up. Oh, by the way they see her like, she's like- a noose around her neck, right? So she's still tied up, and she's just there. Like, she has not fallen apart in any way. Is that how bodies work?

C: I have no clue.

G: I also have no clue. Thankfully, I probably never- oh, no, that's a lie. Because I am maybe taking up law. So maybe I do need to know at some point what bodies look like after decomposition. That sucks.

C: Are you gonna do, like, murder law?

G: [laughs] "Murder law." It's called criminal law, Crystal.

C: [laughing] Fine. Well, I'm not pre-law, so how would I know?

G: No- I don't know. I don't know- I don't even know if I'm taking up law, so let's save the fucking career crisis for another episode. [C laughs]

But at some point, Dean says, like, "It smells like old lady in here." And he opens the door, and there's a lady hanging on the ceiling, and he's like, "Well, I figured." And I thought it was also funny.

Molly like, says, concludes that the reason why she hanged herself is because she didn't want to live without her husband. So Sam goes up to the body and starts cutting up the rope, and Dean is like, shocked and upset that he would do this. Sam says, like, "We can't just leave her here," and Dean's like, "Why not?" [both sigh] Dean, you're a terrible guy.

C: Yeah. I mean, I get Dean not wanting to help 'cause I don't want to touch a corpse that bad either, but like, he doesn't have to be- he could at least be like, "Sam’s doing a good, nice thing here."

G: Yeah. And also, they literally opened a casket once that they thought had like, a fresh body in it, so... I don't know. He's just being an asshole, honestly.

C: Though, honestly, if I was Sam, I probably would have salted and burned her, in case.

G: I also would have salted and burned her.

C: Yeah. Like, we don't know, maybe she's a ghost running around too.

G: Anyway, Sam says the whole line, like, "She deserves to be put to rest," which is, you know, premonitions or whatever for future plot twists.

They go out, dig a grave, put her in there. By her, I mean the corpse. And Molly starts asking about the afterlife.

C: Yeah.

G: And this is when I was like, "Ding-ding-ding! This is that episode. This is the one with the 'hope is the whole point' episode."

C: Oh, yeah.

G: 'Cause they would never bring this up for any other reason. [laughs] Is there any other time in Supernatural where the afterlife is given this much, like, credence- or not credence, like, this much attention- other than the whole like, "there's Heaven and Hell!" Or I guess at that point, they already know that there's Heaven and Hell, so they don't really care that much about it. But at this point, they were like, "Who knows?"

C: They know that Hell exists, though, 'cause Dean was all like, "I'm gonna send you demons back to Hell," and Meg was like, "I was sent to Hell, and it sucked."

G: And John is literally in Hell.

C: John is literally there, yeah.

G: [laughs] John is literally in Hell. Good for him.

I mean, yeah. So maybe they just don't want to tell this ghost that like, "You may be going to Hell, but we don't know for sure, but we also don't know for sure if there is even a Heaven, so tough luck!"

C: Right.

G: Like, I don't think she wants to hear that.

She asks, like, "What happens to all these people that you put to rest?" And Dean says, "Lady-"

C: [laughs] God.

G: He says, "Lady, that answer is way beyond our paygrade." So Molly says, like, "Oh, so you hunt these things, but you don't know what happened to them?" And Dean says, "Well, they never come back, and that's all that matters."

C: What a dick.

G: Yeah. Sam says, "They just go. After they let go of whatever they're holding onto, they just go." So he says, "I hope they go someplace better, but the reality is we just don't know." And then Molly asked like, "What about the burning of the bones?"

Okay, here's a question that I have. Cremation burns the body, but not the bones. That shit, you have to grind up.

C: Yeah.

G: So what does burning of the bones actually do? Like, physically, not like, metaphysically. Just physically.

C: Oh, yeah, like, does it even do anything to the bones?

G: They put kerosene on it to burn it and they put salt in it, so like, is the salting and then the burning the whole process of purifying it? Or, if you just crem- it doesn't make sense because also just cremating it invalidates the whole ghost argument, right?

C: Um, well, okay, so in cases where the body was cremated, then they're like, "Ah, damn, we can't salt and burn the bones, so there must be like, an object that they're holding onto or a different part of their body that's out there," like the hair on the doll or whatever, right?

G: Yeah, no, what I'm asking is- is the salting the thing that purifies the bones?

C: Oh, right, so you're saying that since there's no salting in cremation, then why would that-

G: Why would that disqualify the-

C: - the body, yeah.

G: Like, what if- Okay, here's my theory, right? So cremation. And then they grind up the bones, and then there's the ashes, right? [laughing] If you mix salt into the ashes, then, what happens? [laughs]

C: Oh, right, does that end it? Like, it closed the loop?

G: Yeah, literally. Yeah. But like, I don't know. This entire thing is honestly like, so stupid when you think about it.

C: Yeah.

G: Yeah, but she also asked that. Like, "What the fuck does salting and burning even do?" Sam says, "Dad used to tell me that it was like death for ghosts, but we also don't know. So..." [laughs]

C: Whoop.

G: And then he says, "Guess that's why we hold onto life so hard, even the dead. We're all just scared of the unknown."

C: Yeah. Ugh, that line made me so sad in the context of like, them knowing everything about Heaven and Hell in the future-

G: Yeah.

C: - and I feel like, also being more suicidal.

G: Agh! Yeah.

C: Yeah. Sorry guys. [laughs]

G: Sorry. Sorry, my dudes. Yeah.

Molly basically says after this that like, the only thing that she scared of is losing David.

C: Oops. [both laugh]

G: He literally left you, and you are literally right where he left you.

C: I wonder what he did like, during the actual time of the crash, right? Like, she wakes up alone, but did he actually abandon her?

G: I mean, I hope not.

C: Yeah, me too.

G: Or should I hope that he did? I don't know.

C: Yeah, I don't know. I guess he probably would have like, called 911 and stayed by her side as the ambulance came.

G: Did they even have phones back in 2007- no, back in 1992?

C: Um, cell phone, when was the first cell phone-

G: Just a telephone.

C: First cell phone... the first publicly available cell phone was released to the market in 1983, so yeah, we're okay.

G: Boo! My research said- and by research, I mean the first thing that popped up on my Google results- was 1973. So one of us is lying. [C laughs] One of us is wrong.

C: One of us tells only lies and one of us tells only the truth. Now, answer these riddles three to cross through the door.

G: Literally.

C: So yeah, the thing is, the whole driving force of Molly in this episode, is like, she can't let go because she loves David so much, right? And were they like, convincing to you in the first scene?

G: [sighs] I mean... No. [laughs] Not at all.

C: Yeah. I wrote down, "They are so boring."

G: Yeah.

C: I think that's what made this episode so weak for me.

G: Okay, so- Yeah, 'cause she's like, "I need to see my husband, like, I love him."

C: "I love him so much," and you guys are just like- you guys give me like, friends with benefits vibes, you know? Like [laughs], that's who you are to me.

G: What do you think is something that a couple could do in a car at the beginning of an episode, like, for that duration of time as well, that could convince you that they mean much to each other?

C: I feel like more inside jokes.

G: But like, that amount of time, like, you, wouldn't have enough context to explain it, so the audience wouldn't really appreciate it, I feel like.

C: Yeah.

G: It's just- I feel like it's a difficult thing to do.

C: Mm-hmm. Right. Especially because they're driving.

G: Yeah, especially 'cause they're driving.

C: I think if it started with them pulled over on the side of the road, and like, I don't know, like, having like, a conversation or cuddling in the backseat for a bit [G starts laughing], and then they started driving again [G still laughing], I feel like it might've worked better. But also, like, I'm such a fanfiction reader, so who even knows.

G: [laughing] Cuddling in the backseat? You're literally a fanfiction reader. No one cuddles in the backseat, ever. Do you know how painful it is?

C: I think Cas deserves to be cuddled in a backseat, and I will make that everything's problem.

G: This car is the type of car that already has seatbelts in it. Like, this is the type of car that, like, they already passed into law that you need to have seatbelts when they made this car, you know what I mean? So like-

C: I don't think seatbelts prevent you from doing anything. You just don't have to have them on.

G: No, I mean like, what I'm trying to say is like, cuddling in the backseat is very painful because of the fucking- what's that? Seat belt, like, links.

C: You can push them down. You can push them down.

G: Even then, even then, you can't lie down on a car and be like, "This is the most comfort I've ever experienced," like, anywhere.

C: Oh, I meant sitting cuddling.

G: Ugh, okay, fine. [C laughs] Do whatever you want. [laughs] I support you.

C: Thanks. I miss Cas.

C: Yeah, okay, do you think there's anything they could have done to be convincing, besides not be so fucking boring?

G: I genuinely don't know. Maybe like, a little more- like, maybe if they weren't- is it essential that they were fighting?

C: I don't think it matters that much that like, she called him a jerk before they crashed.

G: Yeah.

C: Like, that guilt doesn't seem like a big throughline for her character.

G: Like, maybe a scene where they're driving, right? And then, like, the guy's sleeping or something. And she like- what makes them crash is she's like, trying to like, she removes her jacket and puts it over him or something.

C: Aw.

G: [laughing] And then they crash because she's not looking at the road.

C: You're such a fanfiction reader, too.

G: It's cute- This is not fanfiction material. This is K-drama material. I've watched a shitton of K-dramas in my life, and this is the kind of shit that they do.

C: Okay, alright.

G: I think I've literally seen a K-drama where like, she crashes [C laughs] because she's like, trying to pick up like, a phone that like, she's talking with a guy over in.

C: Oh my god.

G: [laughing] Literally so true.

C: So true.

-

C: So yeah, so, they're still in the house, and, like, Molly's looking through the photo album. Sam and Dean are having a whispered conversation. He's like, "I think we should tell her about her husband," and Dean's like, "We can't," and Sam says, "It's cruel letting her pine for him like this. I don't like keeping her in the dark." And Dean says, like, "It's for her own good." And he says like-

G: What an asshole! Like, you have not cared about her own good this entire episode, Dean. And now you're like, "It benefits me, so it's for her own good!" Fuck you.

C: Yeah. And he says, like, "I know you feel guilty, but let's just stick to the plan. We'll get her out of here, and then we'll tell her." And obviously, Molly overhears, 'cause like, they're literally in the next room over, talking about her. And she's like, "Tell me what?"

G: Literally, there is no wall separating them and Molly, like [laughs] maybe go behind a wall, you guys.

C: Yeah. Also, you have phones. You can have your secret conversations by typing- and like, you know when you're having secret conversations with your friends, and you just type in the notes app and show it to them and then they add to it?

G: Literally. [laughing] This reminds me of an anecdote that I have, which is that one time, I was sitting in the backseat with my aunt, and my mom is in the front seat, and she's texting my mom, and I literally said out loud for the entire car to hear, "Why are you texting my mom? [C laughing] You can just tell her things like, right now." And my tita and my mom started laughing so hard, and my tita told me, like, you know, "You should not- if you notice things like that, you shouldn't say them out loud." And I was like, “Oh, okay."

C: Aww.

G: Literally ruined their secret conversation.

C: So true.

G: Sorry, Mom and Tita.

C: Yeah, so Molly goes, like, “What aren't you telling me? It's about David. You know what happened to him?" And Sam seems like he's about to tell her, and Dean's like, "Sam, don't." And Molly says, "Don't what? Don't tell me because I'll mess up your hunt? [G starts applauding] You don't care about me or my husband." So fucking real. So fucking real.

G: That's the sound of me clapping. Literally, I'm clapping. Go, Molly! Go, Molly! Literally, they don't care about you or your husband, they just care about the hunt. Which is- this is what I was saying earlier when I said that the "saving people, hunting things" thing comes up this episode in a substantial way. Like, this is someone that they are trying to help, and obviously, she's a ghost, so like, they evade it in a way, but at this point, you're not really supposed to know that yet. So you just think that there's this person, and they're using her for bait, and keeping the truth from her, and then she brings this up, and you have the thought, "Yeah. They're hunting things, but they're not really helping the people."

C: Yeah.

G: So.

C: What dicks.

G: And I understand- Okay, here's the thing, right? Like, I understand that it's a job. At the end of the day, it's a job for them. I feel like there's a difference, right? Like, if you're a service worker, [laughing] you can be an asshole to your customers, like, it's fine. If you're literally saving their lives, like, don't be an asshole. I don't know, maybe-

C: Right, yeah, I think being an asshole cashier is fine, being an asshole nurse is not.

G: Yeah, like, being an asshole doctor is like, the worst profession to be an asshole in, right? And so this is kind of the vibe of that.

C: Yeah.

G: You're hiding things from this person, because it serves your interests. Like, that's not cool. Oh, speaking of hiding things to serve your interests, have you read that article about how some people fake Alzheimer's research results?

C: No, I haven't.

G: Can we link in the description of this podcast? I think everyone should read it. It's a very well-written article. [laughs] What a weird thing to say. So far, this episode, we're promoting Alzheimer's research fraud. So yeah.

C: Yeah. And Molly's like- okay, Sam says, like, “That's not true, we do care about you." And, you know, Sam’s probably not lying when he says that, at least. [both laugh] And Molly says, "Really? Then whatever it is, tell me, please." And Sam seems like he might, but then we hear a radio turn on, and we hear "House of the Rising Sun," baby!

G: Whoo!

C: It's so fun this ghost has like, a calling card, and it's like, this gloomy song.

G: Yeah, it's pretty cool.

C: Yeah, so Dean tells Sam to stay with Molly, and he finds the radio that the song is playing from, but like- it's like, the power cord isn't working so, you know-

G: This scene is so funny. Because it's less of a radio and more of like, a jukebox, right? Like, it's very big at the very least.

C: Yeah.

G: And like, he picks up the frayed wire, and it lingers on it for so long.

C: Yeah, like, we get it, it's a ghost, creepy things are afoot.

G: Like, we get it. We get it, you get it. Like, this- you don't even need to show that it's unplugged. It literally does not matter whether it's plugged or not. Like, the ghost is still coming. It's just like- I was so aware at this point that this episode is just 39 minutes long, and then they're doing this to extend the duration of the episode.

C: Uh-huh. Right. And then like- so the front door, like, there's like, glass and like, it like, fogs up, and then like, the words "she's mine" appear. Does it look like they're being written by a finger, or do they just show up?

G: No, they just show up, yeah.

C: Okay. And then Molly and Sam are in a room. Sam’s like, sort of guarding, but Molly's standing by the window, and then Greeley crashes through the window and grabs her and drags her outside. And Sam is all useless, and he's just telling Dean, "Oh, they got her!" And then go and chase-

G: No. Okay, maybe- You still haven't realized that she's a ghost at this point, right?

C: Yeah.

G: The reason why he's hesitant to shoot is because, if he shoots, she's also going to disappear.

C: Ohh, she'll disappear too! Oh, okay, I get it. Okay. Nevermind. Sam, I'm sorry for being mean to you, you've never done anything wrong. [G laughs] So-

G: So Dean is like, "Oh, this guy's fucking persistent." And Sam saying they got to find Molly. Dean is saying, "No, we have to find the bones." Which is like, "Ooh, distinction between the brothers." [laughing] It's so stupid. Why are we watching Supernatural? Like, I'm positive there are so many other good shows out there. Like, I could be watching Breaking Bad right now.

C: [laughing] I love that that's the first one you go to.

G: [laughing] No, 'cause I've been tempted to watch Better Call Saul recently, and I was like, "Maybe I should watch Breaking Bad first," so I have been watching Breaking Bad.

C: Oh, okay.

G: But I'm getting kind of bored, so maybe I should just go straight to Better Call Saul. Anyway-

C: Mm. Wait, but is Jesse Pinkman, even in Better Call Saul ?

G: I don't know. I don't know. I don't think so, 'cause it's a prequel.

C: Well, the point of Breaking Bad is-

G: Jesse Pinkman.

C: - that you're waiting for Jesse to get his top surgery, right? Like, that's the plot of Breaking Bad? [G laughs]

G: Like apparently, from Tumblr, that is the plot of Breaking Bad.

C: [laughs] Yeah.

G: Yeah. And as we know, feminist women love Jesse Pinkman. [both laughing] I love that AMV.

C: Yeah, wait, isn't there a line in the Wiki that says that like, he's never said the word "bitch" for a woman or something?

G: So true of him. Good for him.

C: He's just like me for real.

G: He's just like me for real.

-

G: So Sam ends up looking at the scrapbook that Molly was looking through right before the conversation that they had. And Sam reads the caption in one of the photographs, and it says "February 6, 1992," which was two weeks before the incident. So Sam says, like, "This is in front of the hunting cabin, but a while ago, when we went there, there was a tree on the spot that they're standing on right now." And Sam is like, “I should have fucking thought of it!" [C laughs] And Dean’s like, “What?” And Sam's like, “Oh, it's like, it's an old country custom. Like, you plant a tree as a grave marker.” And Dean’s like, “Man, you're so fucking weird.” [laughs]

C: Ugh, stop being mean.

G: He's like, "You're a walking encyclopedia of weirdness."

C: Sam's so smart and my favorite little guy, like, get over yourself, Dean.

G: Yeah, and Sam’s like, “Yeah, I know,” and then they pick up their bags and they walk out. And they eventually get to the hunting cabin, but before that, we see Molly getting tortured by Mr. Greeley.

C: Okay, sorry to cut in on Molly getting tortured and hating women, but like, okay, so Sam says, "Yeah, I know," but like, he seems kinda, like, bitter about it, right?

G: Offput, yeah.

C: And like, Is it because he's like, mad at Dean for saying something mean, or is it that he resents that he knows all this stuff because he probably had to like, read books about the supernatural from like, age 10 or whatever?

G: I think it's just like, a rolling your eyes at someone who's calling you smart for no- to- kind of shit.

C: Fair, yeah.

G: I don't think he's like, resentful that he knows these things, because, you know, they're helpful.

C: Yeah.

G: It's helpful that he knows these things. He's just annoyed at Dean for constantly being like, "Oh, you figured something out? Okay, you smart boy." Like, you know.

C: Right. What's the- what did he call Sam in "Scarecrow"? The dorky- whatever? Remember? He had a very fun insult.

G: I have no idea.

C: Oh, yeah, no, sorry, in "Scarecrow," he calls Sam his "trusty sidekick geek boy."

G: Whoo! He's literally a trusty geek boy, but I refuse to say he is a sidekick.

C: He is not a sidekick. He's a trusty protagonist geek boy.

Yeah, I think that for the torture scene, I think that some of that dialogue is important.

G: Oh, yeah.

C: The whole time, like, Molly's asking like, where David is even though, like, she's literally being tortured so bad. And Molly says, "I didn't do anything to you," and Greeley seems offended at this. Which [laughing], you know, yeah, I understand that. [G laughs] And she says, like, "I know about your wife. Hurting me won't bring her back." And he says, "My wife is gone. All I have left is hurting you."

G: Ooh.

C: Ooh. Yeah. And then that's when Sam and Dean approach her cabin, but they don't save her for a while, because they're dicks.

G: Honestly, this whole thing, like, Gree- what's his name? Greeley.

C: Yeah, Greeley, what a name.

G: He's a very corny ghost.

C: [laughs] Yeah.

G: He's like, so fucking corny. Because he's so concrete, I guess. Like, they did the thing where it's like, telekinesis, right? Like, he controls things from a distance. But because he's so solid, it's like, "Bleh. This is just a guy. This is just an actor."

C: Yeah, this is just guy, and he's being, like, such a dick.

G: He's not scary. 'Cause- like I've said, I like the creepy factor of the episode. But the moment he actually shows up for an extended amount of time, that creepiness fully disappears.

C: Yeah. Agreed. He is a loser.

G: So yeah, Sam and Dean show up, and they literally see her getting tortured. Like- [laughs] They can hear her screaming from the cabin. And Sam says, like, "Go get Molly" to Dean. Which is kind of a stupid- like, go get Molly, Sam! Dean hates this woman.

C: Right. Yeah, like, Dean is not going to prioritize her safety.

G: But Sam starts digging around the tree, and eventually, he finds the bones. Yeah, Molly does this thing- Dean does this thing where he walks in and shoots Greeley, and then Molly says, "Thank god,” and Dean says, "You can call me Dean." [makes vomiting noises]

C: God, I fucking hated that. He's being such a fucking dick. Like, she's being tortured. Like, shut up!

G: Literally, what are you doing, girl? This is when his cool factor ran out. Like, he's not cool anymore.

C: He was never cool.

G: I do not want to suck his dick so bad it makes me look stupid anymore. [laughs]

But Greeley like, keeps on appearing, blah blah blah. But, you know, Sam is outside. He's burning the bones. And then Greeley bursts into flames in the wackiest effect that they've done in a while. He, like, starts walking backwards, and his bones are like, fucking burning. Yeah.

C: Yep.

G: And then he disappears, and then he dies. And that's it.

C: Yep.

-

C: So they go back to the Impala, and Dean like, pats it, and he's like, "Oh, Baby, it's been a long night." Like, okay, Dean. Not in front of other people, bro.

G: He's literally coming home to his wife. [both laughing] Like, that's what's happening here.

C: Yeah. So, they get Molly in the car, and Sam says, "Let's get out of here," and she says that she's not gonna go anywhere until you tell her what happened to David. And she says, like, "All this time I've been looking for him, and you knew that Greeley killed him, didn't you? He's dead." And Sam says, like, "No." Like, "He's alive! For realsies. I prommy. And I'll take you to him." And like, she's so happy, and like, Sam, you're not helping.

G: He's really not helping.

C: Like, you should tell her this before you get there.

G: What did you think was happening at this point, then?

C: I still thought that it was like, a "David made a deal to abandon her and have her be tortured in place of him," I guess.

G: God, okay.

C: Like, yeah, he's gonna take Molly over and David's gonna be like, "What? You're alive? I mean- that's great! Hi!" Like- [laughs] or whatever, you know?

G: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

C: And Molly would feel betrayed and shit, and then they'd leave, and I'd be like, "That was a weird episode." [both laugh]

G: Yeah. Yeah.

C: So yeah, they like, show up in front of like, this nice house, and Sam's like, "He's in there." And Molly's like, "I don't understand," and Sam says, "You will." Okay, dude.

G: Yeah.

C: Please give her some warning.

G: She walks towards the door, towards the window, actually, and she sees this guy who looks like her husband, but, of course 15 years older. And she's like, "What's happening? Why is he suddenly a hag?" [both laugh] Like, it's literally just been a night. Why is he literally so old? And then the guy- what's his name?

C: David?

G: David. [laughs] They literally say it 100 times this episode, and I still don't remember. But David is drinking coffee when suddenly, a woman walks in and gives him a kiss. And Molly's like, "[gasps] I'm scandalized! What is this? Who is that?" And then she turns to Sam and Dean, and Sam says, "That's David's wife. It's been 15 years since you and your husband hit Jonah Greeley with your car, and only David survived." [fake gasp]

C: Dun-dun-dun!

G: Dun-dun-dun!

And then Dean says, like, "There are two spirits haunting Highway 41. Jonah Greeley and you." Okay, Sam says, “For the past 15 years, you've been appearing every anniversary of your death on that highway," right? And Molly's like, "No, no, no, but our anniversary... February 22," and Sam says like, “1992." And Dean goes, "Molly... it's 2007." [both laughing]

C: This is so fucking corny.

G: [still laughing] And then-

C: You know Dean has been waiting for this reveal. Dean's so fucking psyched for this. He's like, "Molly, why aren't you gasping and clapping at this twist? I've been practicing how to deliver this line."

G: Dean was literally like, "Molly, it's 2007." And then he whips out like, a fucking projector and projects the [laughing]- the flashback scenes from the projector on like, Baby's windshield, and they made Molly sit in the back, and be like, "Oh my god, like, when did you have time to record all my reactions to everything that you just said? What the fuck, dude?"

But yeah, basically, what happened is, you know, they crashed into Greeley, killed him, and then Molly just didn't survive, and then she's being tortured by Greeley every single year since 1992.

C: Yeah, so we get these flashbacks now. Right, so we see that before this whole thing happened, like, they were investigating Highway 41 for a case because apparently, a lot of people crashed here, and they all happened on February 22. And each year, witnesses say that what they saw that made them crash is that a woman appears in the middle of the road, and she's being chased by a man covered in blood. So yeah, it's two ghosts. And they're doing research, and then they go and interview David to ask about where Molly's buried, but so he says that she was cremated. And then, like, Molly flashes back to the crash or something. And then Sam says, "Some spirits only see what they want." And then we get the Sam and Dean POV of like, when they run into Molly, and like, inside the car, Sam’s going, “Dean, I don't think she knows she's dead" before like, they open up.

And then, this is where they just start playing- like, these aren't even new scenes.

G: Yeah, yeah.

C: They're just old scenes, and they're like, "Ooh! These are recontextualized now! Guys, look how smart we are! Oh my god, I'm Raelle Tucker!" [laughs]

G: It's so corny.

C: Yeah.

G: It's so funny though- wait, there's a line in the transcript where Molly's like, "Stop! Stop!" Impala brakes. Dean yells, "Holy-!" and then it proceeds to Molly's line, so it's like "holy moly." That's funny. And that's the only entertaining thing about this scene. The rest of it is just goofy as shit. So corny. I literally- like, this is supposed to be an emotional scene, and I was laughing out loud, while it was happening.

C: The one thing that I think this made me- the one thing about this that made me like the episode more was me realizing like, "Oh, I thought Molly's actress was kind of bad because she talked weird, but she's just from olden times. That's just how people talked."

G: [laughing] She's just from 1950.

C: [laughing] Yeah.

So yeah, it's like, just scenes where like, Sam's like, “Oh, I'm gonna tell her the truth,” and Dean’s like, “She's gonna take off running." And where Sam says, like, "Some spirits hold on too tight." Like, whatever. Blah. I don't care.

G: Yeah.

C: And Molly asks about Greeley, and Sam says, "Each year, he punishes somebody for his death. Chasing them. Torturing them. And each year, that somebody... [fake gasp] is you." [laughs] Okay. [G makes sound]

C: And yeah, and apparently Molly couldn't remember any of it because she couldn't see the truth. And Molly's like, "Oh, so that's why he won't let me off. Because I killed him. I killed us both." And the scene ends on that, and it's like, "We knew that already." Like, you didn't have to say it again. [laughs]

G: [laughs] Yeah.

C: Like the fact that it ends on that like it's a big reveal, like, whatever. Like, I got it.

-

G: But now, it's like morning, and Molly is sitting outside with Sam and Dean. And she asks like, "Why didn't you tell me when we first saw each other?" And Sam and Dean say, "You wouldn't have believed us." And then she tells Dean, "And you needed me for bait."

C: So fucking true.

G: And Sam says, "Well, we needed you." [both laughing]

C: Okay, Sam.

G: "We need you. I need you. For bait." [both laughing]

C: Yeah. For bait. "In order for us to help you, you have to help us first. We need you. [both] For bait."

G: Molly is like, saying like, "I need to see David again. I need to talk to him again." And Sam says, "So what? So you can tell him that you love him, and that you're sorry? He already knows." And then he says, like, "If you want to go in there, we're not gonna stop you.” And Dean says, "Yeah, but you're gonna freak them out like, for life." [C laughs]

This actually made me quite sad because, like, the whole point of like- oh, we haven't even brought up the "right where you left me" joke! Which we promised we will bring up.

C: Oh, damn.

G: Like, the whole context of like, you know, he has already moved on with his life and she still stuck in the moment right after it happened. She's literally right where you left her.

C: [laughs] Yeah.

G: So yeah. Makes me said. This actually got like, an emotional response out of me.

C: Aww.

G: But- [laughing] not too much of an emotional response. It wasn't that dramatic.

C: I think I was more emotional about Sam saying that, like, "He already knows that, like you love him and you're sorry." 'Cause it's like, "Oh. Like, it's kind of all futile." Ugh.

G: Yeah, agh. Yeah.

And then, Sam says, finally, like, "He already said his goodbyes. Now, it's your turn. This is your unfinished business." Sam says, like, "All you need to do is just to let go." And then Molly says, like, "But go where? You don't even know where I'm supposed to go to." But Sam says like, “It doesn't matter. You don't belong here. Haven't you suffered long enough? It's time to go." [start laughing very hard]

C: What?

G: [still laughing] And then she walks into the light! [both laughing now]

C: [laughing] Yeah, okay, this looked goofy as shit.

G: [laughing] They literally made her walk into the light!

C: I just- okay, between this and "Houses of the Holy," right, they're like, "Oh, like, for the nice ghosts, we're gonna have them, like, have like, nice deaths instead of burning." But they just look goofy as shit.

G: [still laughing] It's so corny, too, because it's so extended. Again, they were buying time at this point. Like, literally, she walks into the light for like, 45 whole seconds or something.

C: Yeah.

G: Yeah, and it's so corny. It looks so bad.

C: Do you think if she refused, like, she'd wake up and forget that this whole conversation with Sam and Dean had happened? And like, it'd just be February 22 again next year?

G: But like, Greeley won't be around to torture her again.

C: So, wait, so she literally would be fine.

G: She literally would be fine, but I guess-

C: I mean, she'd be sad because she'd find David and it'd be like, “Oh, he's married.” [laughs]

G: Yeah, but also, isn't it possible for her to go invisible?

C: Right.

G: So watch David [laughs]- just be a creep and watch David from afar.

C: They got rid of. Greeley- like, it's like, "You've suffered enough" - you suffered enough because every time you woke up, you got tortured. Like, that's not a problem anymore. Just let her chill out in the car.

G: Yeah. Yeah. Maybe you can tag her along and have like, a ghost friend to help you with your ghost hunts.

C: Do we think she disappears at sunrise every like, February 23, though?

G: Oh, interesting. So they did not solve this case at all.

C: Right. [G laughs]

G: Because it is exactly sunrise.

C: Yeah. But I guess, like, the implication is that this time, she's disappearing for good. They don't know that, though.

G: They literally don't know that.

C: Maybe she just like, walked into the light and it looked cool, but she was just like, having a moment, and then, like, she's gonna wake up again next year.

G: Yeah.

C: Yeah. I don't know. I feel like they couldn't do this, given the scope of Supernatural, but I would've liked to see this concept as like, a time loop episode, where each time they try to convince her to let go, and they're like, a year older each time or something, you know? And it's like, from Molly's point of view, so it just seems like the same day over and over again.

G: Yeah, I don't think they can do that. But they do do "Mystery Spot," so.

C: Yeah, they do do "Mystery Spot."

G: So there's a little bit of a hint of that there.

C: Yeah. Okay. So yeah. Dean says, "I guess she wasn't so bad. For a ghost." Like, die.

G: Die, Dean.

C: Dean, you were a ghost! I guess he doesn't remember, though, right?

G: Yeah, he doesn't remember his ghost endeavors.

C: Yeah, but Sam does. They like, ouija board communicated.

G: Yeah, and Sam probably told him, right?

C: Yeah, he did.

G: Like, "you were a fucking ghost."

C: Yeah. Well, right, and Dean asks, "Do you think she's really going to a better place?" And Sam says, "I hope so." And Dean says, "I guess we'll never know. Not until we take the plunge ourselves, huh?" [pained sounds] Anyway. [G laughs] Ugh. Okay.

And Sam says! He says the line. He says, "It doesn't really matter, Dean. Hope's kind of the whole point." Ahhh.

G: Awww.

And then they go to the Impala, and the episode ends.

C: Yep.

-

G: Crystal.

C: Yeah.

G: What do you think about this episode?

C: While watching it, I was very bored, but I think that as an episode to discuss, it's like, fun because there's some meat in there.

G: Yeah. You're literally just copying what I said.

C: I know. I know. Okay-

G: It's because I'm correct.

C: Quoting Grey, quoting Grey- Yes, as you said, that is true, because you're right.

G: I literally was right. I think this is a pretty solid episode of BABPod. Supernatural? Not so much. [both laugh] It's fun to make fun of, but it also has good bits that are actually genuinely good.

C: Mm-hmm.

G: So yeah. Best line/worst line. I'll start with my best line. And it's not the same as yours. My best line is "You just care about your hunt. You don't care about me or my husband."

C: Mm. Delicious.

G: That one really got to me. I was like, "Ooh, yeah! They just care about the hunt. Agh!"

C: Yeah, no the thing is that my line is also not "hope's kind of the whole point."

G: Oh, okay.

C: I think it's a really iconic Sam line, but I think in context, about it being specifically about the afterlife, it's like, not as impactful for me ‘cause I'm like, “Oh, Sam’s just a sad boy.” [laughs]

G: He is sad. Like, when they were walking back to the car, I was like, "Aw, he's literally so fucking sad, bro! He's literally so sad." And I was still thinking that thing where I was like, "If I met the Winchester brothers, what would I think of them?" And I was like, "I still would probably think Dean is like, funny and cool, and I would still think Sam is like, a depressed loser."

C: No!

G: He's literally emo.

C: Okay, Sam's most fun depressed loser pathetic moment, I think, was when he was in the attic, because the way they were doing the sound, like, his breathing was kind of loud, and he, like, just sounded like he had a cold or a stuffy nose the whole time.

G: Oh, yeah! He literally did sound like he had a cold. And I made, like- what do you call that?- I made a note about that scene that was like, "Does Jared Padalecki have- was Jared Padalecki sick this episode?" But immediately after, his voice turns back to normal, so I don't think it's-

C: Yeah. But he sounded very pathetic and wet during that part, so I appreciated that.

Yeah, okay my best line is actually the "Spirits like Greeley are like wounded animals. Lost, in so much pain that they lash out." And also later, when he says, like, "Whatever it is, they just hold on too tight. Can't let go. So they're trapped. Caught in the same loops, replaying the same tragedies over and over." And I also liked the part where later he says, like, "They weren't evil people, you know? A lot of them were good. Just- something happened to them. Something they couldn't control." Because I mean, I really like the idea of ghosts as wounded animals. It's a good way to like, contextualize why they hurt people in a way that's-

G: Reasonable, yeah.

C: - that makes you sympathetic, and that's reasonable, yeah. It's like, acknowledging the trauma that they've gone though.

G: It's like, at that point, they've been through so much pain that, like, the id supersedes anything else.

C: Mm-hm.

G: That's the kind of the vibe that it has. Like, the animalistic instincts take off and like, stay the most prominent out of all the characteristics that they have. Yeah, it's pretty good.

C: Yeah.

G: It's up there with like, the concept of like, a haunted place being an open wound that Missouri said once.

C: Yeah, or sick, yeah.

G: Making these, you know, supernatural beings and phenomenas feel organic is a good way to go, I feel like. Like, when they said Hell was a pit made of meat and bones, like, yeah, that's also fucking great.

C: Yeah.

G: Like, it evokes something very organic, and it feels like, disgusting, but also it feels concrete, you know?

C: Yeah. Yeah. And then I liked the rest of it because, you know, like we mentioned, a lot of parallels to Supernatural in general.

G: Yeah, that's true.

For my worst line, I would say when Dean said, like, "This is a fascinating conversation and all, but this highway's only haunted once a year-"

C: Ugh, such a dick.

G: "- and we got till sunup to wrap this thing up.  Why do you say we move it along, okay? Great."

C: Shut up. Shut up.

G: And like, fuck you, dude. Fuck you. Fuck off. What's your worst line?

C: When Dean shows up, and he's like, "Sammy's always getting a little J. Love Hewitt when it when it comes to things like this. Me? I don't like 'em-" meaning ghosts- "and I sure as hell ain't making apologies for 'em." Like, you're such a dick, Dean. You're such a dick.

G: This ghost is obviously in so much pain, right? So much distress. And she doesn't even know that she's a ghost, and she has never tried to intentionally kill anyone.

C: Yeah.

G: Like, all the fatalities that happened in this street during February 22 were not on purpose from her department. Like, they are all legitimately accidents. Why are you so mad at her?

C: Yeah. You just show up, and you're like, "I don't like you, by the way. Like, I hate your guts." Like, shut up, Dean.

G: Okay. IMDB rating.

C: Huh.

G: I feel like this one is going to be low-

C: Me too.

G: - because it's not relevant to the plot at all.

C: Yeah. And also, like, it's boring.

G: And also, watching it is not, like I said, it's not a particularly good Supernatural watching experience. But-

C: I also feel like people won't like the twist that much. They'll either be like, "That was super obvious," or they'll be like, "That was super corny," you know?

G: Yeah. So what would you give it?

C: God, it's been so long. Um, 7.9?

G: 7.9. You know what? I'll go for an 8.1.

C: Okay.

G: Let's see. So it is... [gasps]

C: What? Is it like, high?

G: You wanna guess again? You wanna guess again? Just guess again.

C: 8.4?

G: It's an 8.8.

C: What? Okay, so people liked it.

G: Okay, that's good. I think that's pretty good. I don't think it's an 8.8. Like, I don't think "Houses of the Holy" getting a 7.9 and this getting an 8.8 is reasonable. I would say this is more of an 8.5 episode.

C: Yeah, I'd say it's more 8.3 or whatever.

G: But I'm glad that people liked it, yeah.

C: Huh. Okay. Good for them.

G: "Brilliant ep!" "Classic Supernatural, one of the best episodes so far." "The best episode of the second season." Those are the positive reviews. One negative review is "the twist, once revealed, makes the episode stilted." Which I think is the result of the fucking flashback sequence 'causeit was so fucking bad.

Oh my god. This one says, like, "Classic Supernatural. After waiting a month to satisfy my Supernatural cravings-" Why? They spent a month before releasing this episode? "Here's another gem by Raelle Tucker, who also wrote the very creepy 'Bugs' [laughs] and 'Scarecrow.'"

C: Noo! She didn't even write "Bugs." Did she even write "Scarecrow"?

G: I don't think she wrote "Scarecrow" at fucking all.

C: Yeah, John Shiban wrote "Scarecrow"-

G: Yeah!

C: And those two one-off randos wrote "Bugs."

G: [laughing] What is this person on?

Oh, okay, so the woman is from Battlestar Galactica. That makes sense. That's why people like her.

C: Okay, yeah, people like when they recognize an actor.

G: She has a familiar face. I think-

C: Apparently, she was in a Key & Peele sketch. [G laughs]

G: Maybe that's where I recognize her. I do love Key & Peele. I think they're fucking hilarious. And it's so wild to me that Jordan Peele turned from absolute comedy icon to like, one of the best horror directors of our time. Good for him. Good for him.

C: Yeah. I will say a controversial statement, though, is that I watched-

G: You don't like-?

C: - that I watched Nope in theaters on Friday, like, on the release date, 'cause I was excited about it-

G: Oh.

C: - and I didn't like it.

G: I still haven't seen it. I just saw Us and Get Out.

C: Yeah, no, his other movies are great. Big agree. But Nope did not do it for me.

G: Though I would say, there is a decline in quality from Get Out to Us. I think Get Out is much more, like, so much better than Us. But like, Us is still pretty good.

C: Okay, I never watched Us because I'm a scaredy cat, but Get Out was really good.

G: It's creepy. It's genuinely creepy. Like, the creep factor in that one is- [laughing] I know I said that the creep factor in this episode is good, but like, if you really want a creep factor episode, go watch Us or something.

Okay, that's it for this episode of Busty Asian Beauties. Next week, we will be discussing- what episode is this? 17: “Heart.” Leave us a rating or a review wherever you get your podcasts.

C: Follow us on social media! We are on twitter at twitter.com/BeautiesPodcast and on Tumblr at bustyasianbeautiespod.tumblr.com. Our official tag is #babpod, B-A-B-POD. And thanks to everyone who’s donated to our Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/bustyasianbeautiespod.

G: You can email us any feedback, comments, or inquiries at bustyasianbeautiespod@gmail.com. See you guys next time! [both] Bye!

[guitar music]

[reallycolorfulruins]

Reviewing Two Movie's from this Era

Continuing from the overall topic of this blog, I will now be discussing two movies that had influence in this time period for horror movies. First I would like to share my own thoughts on the overall impact of the Japanese horror movies of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Through my research I came to the conclusion that these movies have had the impact that they had because of the specific time period that they revolved around. As I said from the first blog post, these movies started to spawn from the technological advancement of society and the Japanese paired that with the old folk stories to create these globally known films. From the article ”Why Were the Early 2000s Such a Great Time for Asian Horror?“ written by Samuel Williamson he put into words, ”These projects were usually being made on a low budget and preyed on the '90s boom in media technology, but often relied on simple ghost stories and curses for their premises. Home video, cell phone technology, and security surveillance footage were key to some of these movies' stories”(¶ 3). Maybe nowadays there are less and less of those graining home videos that families have that require a VHS player or even a DvD player, so that creepy feeling of watching these horror movies and seeing something scary come from those forms of media is lessening.

Moreover it is mentioned that these movies were made on a low budget but still have such an impact because of the stories behind them and how subtle they make their horror. The impact these movies had is how much they crossed over to a global stage so fast. Many of these movies were remade for American audiences and that is a significant aspect of these movies. Watching these movies now does not have the same effect that it would have if I were to watch it during the technological boom age. 

Now I will be analyzing two different reviews of two different movies. These are movies I have talked about before and those are Ringu and Ju-on:The Grudge. To begin with Ringu I am going to review Darren Tilby’s review from the UK Film Review website. In his review, it was more of how influential this movie was for its time and how many key aspects of this film created such an image. A quote from his writing reads, “Both Matsushima and Ôtaka are instantly likable in the lead roles and wholly believable as mother and son; sharing brilliant chemistry. And Sanada, when he finally comes into the film, adds plenty to the proceedings and never once feels like an afterthought”(¶ 3).

This film really does make you feel like nobody is an afterthought for characters. There is always a reason for them being there and how they bring tension to the film. It was a film that left no one amiss. The one character that is prominent is Sadako. Almost everyone knows about the girl dressed in all white with long black hair crawling out of the well. That is, for what I would say, is the staple for these old Japanese horror movies. It made an impression on many people globally and those impressions have stuck around today. This is due to the amount of sequels Ringu has and the American remake. A key aspect of this film that I did gloss over while watching is the theme of , “...it also boasts more contemporary threads of thought, one with a distinctly more feminist vibe. Predominantly, it’s an extended commentary on women surviving – or not – in a patriarchal society”(¶ 4). The main characters of this film are predominantly female. Even with Sadako and Sadako’s mother being taken advantage/killed by the men that are around them. It has something to say on that social commentary and makes a very strong female lead. 

The next film I will be talking about is Ju-on:The Grudge. This film review is coming from Jason Morehead, and the contents are something that relates to what I want to talk about for this post. Ju-on: The Grudge starts off with a staticy video of a father going insane and killing the whole family, but the son goes missing and is never found. We jump forward in time and see many different stories of different people living in the house where these murders happened. This is an episodic type movie that shows many different stories, but as you keep watching more and more starts to connect about the mystery of the house.

A snippet from this review goes as follows ,”entirely on the unbearable sense of dread that it creates and sustains right up until the very end.”(¶ 7). Not just with this film in specific, but many of these Japanese horror films contain an overarching sense of dread when watching them. They are not like ordinary horror movies that you would think about, with the jumpscares and in the face type horror, but make you feel like something bad will happen to them and mainly you know that something bad will happen to them. Another quote from this review, “Takashi Shimizu … always finds subtle ways to send shivers down your spine. It might be a creepy reflection, some unsettling photographs, or even just the gloomy music that always seem to playing in the background”(¶ 10). The music and tension that the director made intentionally is what I would say is something that is a hallmark of these movies. They play with the viewer and give them all the necessary hints that something is going to happen to the person you are watching and fills the viewer with that sense of dread for them. 

To summarize it all, these Japanese horror movies gave the viewers long lasting stories that will continue to be talked about today and something fun to look back on and watch. Their way of making this subtle but dreadful horror is not something that any of the American remakes created. I really recommend checking out some of the movies from this genre. The video below will be a list that has some of these horror movies that could be watched by you.

Citations

Tilby, D. (2020, May 14). Ringu (1998) throwback Thursday film review. UK Film Review. https://www.ukfilmreview.co.uk/post/ringu-1998-throwback-thursday-film-review

Morehead, J. (2022, October 24). “ju-on: The grudge” by Takashi Shimizu (review). Opus. https://opus.ing/reviews/ju-on-grudge-takashi-shimizu 

Williamson, S. (2023, September 30). Why were the early 2000s such a great time for Asian horror?. Collider. https://collider.com/asian-horror-early-2000s/ 

[dilesxpressions]

Kaylee Ong

1. Name, Year, Major, and Hometown

Kaylee Ong, first year Biomedical Engineering major (switching to Manecon), from San Francisco

2. What’s your roman empire?

My roman empire is how my life will be after I graduate.

3. What is the best compliment you have ever received?

The best compliment I’ve ever received is that I have a soothing voice.

4. If your life was a movie what genre would it be (comedy, horror, drama, etc.) and what actor would play you?

The genre would be adventure and the actor would be Sandra Oh.

5. What is something on your college bucket list?

Something on my college bucket list is to take a unique class.

6. What’s your guilty pleasure? (song, movie, food etc.)

My guilty pleasure is rotting in bed.

7. What are your bad habits?

Forgetting someone’s name right after they tell me and bottling up my feelings 

8. What are your favorite song lyrics?

My favorite song lyrics are “Why’d you have to lead me on, why’d you have to twist the knife, walk away and leave me bleedin’, bleedin’” from Taylor Swift’s song “Say Don’t Go”

9. Defend your unpopular opinion/ hot take

The best part of a brownie is the crunchy edge, not the soft center.

10. Describe a time where you had to step up and be a leader?

In my junior year of high school, I collaborated with two other students to raise awareness about financial literacy and labor rights. We did this by planning a series of Zoom workshops, hoping to educate our peers and those who were unaware of their right as workers on these topics. As all of us were a part of the Asian American community, it was important to us that we could educate people about their labor rights and teach them about how to not get taken advantage of in the job market. We had little to no turnout at those workshops and we felt like our hard work went to waste. However, we were still driven because we knew our work could make a difference in people's lives, so we were determined to increase our turnout. I stepped up and proposed that we should create a TikTok account. Recognizing TikTok's potential as a platform where videos could gain many views, I acted as a leader by giving my team ideas on what kind of videos we could film. As we started posting our videos, some of them gained a decent number of views, allowing our zoom workshops to gain more traction. We ended up having a slightly higher turnout at our following workshops. Although it wasn’t a huge success, the fact that we were still able to get the attention of a couple more people to attend our workshops was still extremely important to my team members and I.