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neechees · 1 year

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How is the cult from Midsommer white supremacist? Because they are swedish and borrow from paganism? The nazis appropriated Norse culture, they even misused different runes and symbols, and Scandinavia is one of the most tolerant regions in Europe.

There's Nazi imagery throughout the film, & the fact that all the poc die first is no mistake. Ari Aster himself has said that the Harga are White Supremacists:

Defying an outdated horror trope, Aster does not kill off Josh (William Jackson Harper) — the only black character for miles — first. As Aster points out, though, the Hårga are racist, a callback to “a part of Swedish history and European history,” and all of the “outsiders” or “new blood” recruited for mating are purposely white.

“He’s thrown away in a way that the other members of the main cast are not," Aster notes. “And that is because these people have no further use for him.”

The Harga, when not inbreeding with each other, go out and groom new members to either 1. Be sacrified or 2. Introduce new genes by manipulating people into the cult or drugging & raping them (what they did to Dani & Christian), & they ONLY pick white people for this. There are no nonwhite Harga & that's not an accident.

The script also makes it crystal clear that the nonwhite couple were specifically chosen (bc they are not white) & brought there to be sacrificed & were never going to live. The member that brought the nonwhite couple displays hatred & malice towards them when they're not looking, but doesn't do this with the other white outsiders

(Ingemar is the Harga that brought Connie & Simon, the nonwhite couple). Connie & Simon didn't do anything wrong, they didn't do anything outright to insult the Harga. The only thing they did was be shocked about seeing the ritual suicide & express desire to leave (and they weren't the only ones who did this, Dani also did). And yet they were some of the first to die.

Even the visuals-- the Harga wear all White, it's always in blinding daylight. Whiteness is a GLARING theme. There's also foreshadowing early on in the film, where a book titled "The secret Nazi language of the Uthark" featured in Christian's room just before they go to Sweden.

There's also other Nazi ideology present within the Harga, such as the strict gender roles (the women all wear dresses & cook & clean & care for the children together but the men butcher the bear together), eugenics & ableism (the elderly are killed off at a certain age because they see disability & needing to be cared for as an elder "shameful", which is what one Harga states at the ritual suicide scene, & of course killing off the nonwhite characters), the "return to tradition" ideology (there are NO modern technology in the community, & it's in the countryside).

You see a cult full of ONLY White people, using Norse paganism (something VERY popular with Nazis) in an isolated area, who routinely murder poc, don't intermix with poc, kill off their elderly, Dani (the blonde, light eyed white girl) is praised for her beauty & made their May queen by the Harga, with strict gender roles, & this film was made by a JEWISH MAN to show the Harga as the bad guys, & you don't have a hunch that the Harga are maybe supposed to be white supremacists/nazis? That doesn't raise any red flags for you?

& let's not forget how Scandanavia committed genocide against the Saami, the Indigenous population who were there for hundreds of years before anyone else. That's a little off topic, but as a First Nations Canadian I aint gunna let that just go unacknowledged. Scandanavia has a white supremacy problem too, & Ari Aster is right for pointing it out

#I've talked to other poc about this film & me & other ppl snuffed out that this movie would be about a nazi cult just from the trailer #nazi tw #being Scandanavian & being into paganism doesn't make you a white supremacist no.#but the film makes it obvious through the other clues that that's not what's going on here #anonymous #rape mention #cult tw #nazism tw

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makingqueerhistory · 1 year

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Queer Book Recommendations

Every once in a while I like sharing some queer book recommendations on here as I read a lot and I get requests to share some of the books I love, so here we go!

Tell Me I'm Worthless: Three years ago, Alice spent one night in an abandoned house with her friends Ila and Hannah. Since then, things have not been going well. Alice is living a haunted existence, selling videos of herself cleaning for money, going to parties she hates, drinking herself to sleep. She hasn’t spoken to Ila since they went into the House. She hasn’t seen Hannah either.

Our Wives Under The Sea: Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home.

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty: Feyi Adekola wants to learn how to be alive again.It’s been five years since the accident that killed the love of her life and she’s almost a new person now—an artist with her own studio, and sharing a brownstone apartment with her ride-or-die best friend, Joy, who insists it’s time for Feyi to ease back into the dating scene. Feyi isn’t ready for anything serious, but a steamy encounter at a rooftop party cascades into a whirlwind summer she could have never imagined: a luxury trip to a tropical island, decadent meals in the glamorous home of a celebrity chef, and a major curator who wants to launch her art career.

Silver Under Nightfall: Remy Pendergast is many things: the only son of the Duke of Valenbonne (though his father might wish otherwise), an elite bounty hunter of rogue vampires, and an outcast among his fellow Reapers. His mother was the subject of gossip even before she eloped with a vampire, giving rise to the rumors that Remy is half-vampire himself. Though the kingdom of Aluria barely tolerates him, Remy’s father has been shaping him into a weapon to fight for the kingdom at any cost.

Disintegrate/Dissociate: In her powerful debut collection of poetry, Arielle Twist unravels the complexities of human relationships after death and metamorphosis. In these spare yet powerful poems, she explores, with both rage and tenderness, the parameters of grief, trauma, displacement, and identity. Weaving together a past made murky by uncertainty and a present which exists in multitudes, Arielle Twist poetically navigates through what it means to be an Indigenous trans woman, discovering the possibilities of a hopeful future and a transcendent, beautiful path to regaining softness.

The Perks of Loving a Wallflower: As a master of disguise, Thomasina Wynchester can be a polite young lady—or a bawdy old man. She’ll do whatever it takes to solve the cases her family takes on. But when Tommy’s beautiful new client turns out to be the highborn lady she’s secretly smitten with, more than her mission is at stake . . .

It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror: Horror movies hold a complicated space in the hearts of the queer community: historically misogynist, and often homo- and transphobic, the genre has also been inadvertently feminist and open to subversive readings. Common tropes—such as the circumspect and resilient “final girl,” body possession, costumed villains, secret identities, and things that lurk in the closet—spark moments of eerie familiarity and affective connection. Still, viewers often remain tasked with reading themselves into beloved films, seeking out characters and set pieces that speak to, mirror, and parallel the unique ways queerness encounters the world.

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture: Everything you know about sex and asexuality is (probably) wrong. The notion that everyone wants sex–and that we all have to have it–is false. It’s intertwined with our ideas about capitalism, race, gender, and queerness. And it impacts the most marginalized among us. For asexual folks, it means that ace and A-spec identity is often defined by a queerness that’s not queer enough, seen through a lens of perceived lack: lack of pleasure, connection, joy, maturity, and even humanity.

#refusing compulsory sexuality #it came from the closet #the perks of loving a wallflower #disintigrate/dissociate #silver under nightfall #you made a fool of death with your beauty #our wives under the sea #tell me im worthless #queer book recommendations #queer books #lgbt books #queer history

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hagire-nunokire · 9 months

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NO BARBENHEIMER

I find it very upsetting that there are so many stupid people out there enjoying the Birbenheimer meme and I fear for the future of this world.(As the context shows, I am criticising memes that consume the atomic bomb. I am not simply accusing people of hustling two films. Well, I also don't understand those who continue to use the term Barbenheimer, which has been hijacked by mushroom clouds.)

It is true that the Japanese military committed many atrocities and there were citizens who supported them, but that does not mean that it is okay to drop such horrible weapons. The bombed areas were where the citizens lived. It is the citizens, not the military, who have suffered from this damage. Among the Hibakusha(A-bomb victim) were newborn babies and small children, as well as Korean and Chinese residents in Japan. And, of course, the captured Allied soldiers. In Nagasaki it was dropped right over the church. And not only people, but also plants, trees, fish, dogs and cats died. Those who were near the blast centre were scattered by the blast and disappeared as if they had evaporated, leaving their shadows on the ground and walls like stains. Those who were barely breathing, their skin blistered and moaning for water, jumped into the river, which in turn filled up with dead people. Some eyeballs were spilling out due to the intense heat rays. Nuclear weapons are very frightening. Many others have also sacrificed their lives for nuclear development. And some people still suffer from its aftereffects to this day.

Have you ever seen a photograph of an hibakusha? Have you ever seen a photograph in which the shadow of the hibakusha remains as a stain? If not, then look at reality. Then you won't be able to call this meme just a joke.

It is necessary for the Wajin people to reflect on the atrocious and diabolical acts of the past, and it is equally necessary to criticise the terrible weapons that some countries still possess today. Don't do whataboutism.

The Japanese Government seems to have forgotten not only the atrocities of the past, but also the horror of the atomic bomb. This is extremely frightening. Please put an end to this ridiculous meme now.

Imagine how many people actually collapse and groan under the pink mushroom cloud, the people who were in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the indigenous people who lived on the land where the nuclear tests were carried out. That weapons exist in this world today and that the tragedy could once again visit anyone anywhere.

Feminists, you haven't forgotten the American culture that has frivolously associated female eroticism with weapons (why do you call a bikini a bikini, women in mushroom cloud costumes), have you? Despite Barbie's attempts to destroy the image of the silly blonde woman, the official Twitter account is positive about this meme. Join us in saying NO.

全ての戦争に反対し、核兵器の廃絶を願う一市民としてこのミームを許しません。

p.s. This text may be difficult to read. I've rewritten and rewritten and rewritten and rewritten again and again because I can't stop being indignant.

#nobarbenheimer #barbenheimer #oppenheimer #barbie #barbie movie

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thoughtportal · 1 year

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indigenous horror films

https://www.tiktok.com/@mercilesssavagez

#tiktok #indigenous horror films #Indigenous artists #indigenous #horror #horror movies #watch this #film

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mariacallous · 2 months

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When Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, annexing the Crimean Peninsula and bringing turmoil and destruction to Ukraine’s eastern regions, many people—both outside Ukraine and inside it—found it easier to ignore the violence unfolding in the country’s east than admit that war had returned to Europe. This included creative artists, who rarely mentioned the war in their works, not least because they feared scaring off the Russian fans who constituted much of their audience.

As Ukrainians all over the country woke up to explosions on Feb. 24, 2022, the truth could no longer be ignored: The “big war” had truly begun. Today, the country’s art is catching up to the truth of war.

Before 2022, few Ukrainian artists and entertainers openly mentioned the ongoing war in their works. In fact, many pop stars like Ivan Dorn or Luna continued to perform in Russia and created works aimed, first and foremost, at the Russian market and in the Russian language. When criticized for this by their Ukrainian fans, many dodged the subject, claimed to be “apolitical,” or explained their actions as “trying to build a bridge” between Russia and Ukraine.

“My music isn’t about politics, it’s about healing souls,” Luna said in a lengthy interview with Russian opposition journalist Xenia Sobchak in 2021. “That’s why I don’t pay attention to the critics back home trying to make me feel guilty for giving concerts in Russia.” Similarly, Dorn claimed that by interacting with Russian listeners he was “trying to capture as many people as possible with my music so that they would never attack my own country.”

But the main reasons were pragmatic ones: The large and relatively rich Russian market has long been attractive to Ukrainian performers, much like the American market for the English-speaking world. Making films or music built around a Ukrainian context could scare off Russian fans, so the overwhelming majority of content made in the 2000s and 2010s was tailored to sound and look as neutral as possible, devoid of any references to local events or personalities. There were, of course, notable exceptions.

Musicians, such as singer and veteran military paramedic Anastasiia Shevchenko, better known by her pseudonym СТАСІK, wrote songs openly referencing the war in their lyrics and music videos. Indie rapper Stas Koroliov released an entire album in 2021 of tracks inspired by the war and society’s apathy toward it. It contained lyrics like “I now understand that to become a messiah you just need to state the obvious: My homeland is at war with Russia.”

While mainstream comedies that wanted both Ukrainian and Russian box office sales steered clear of any references to recent domestic events, independent movies were more willing to process the violence taking place in Ukraine’s eastern regions and the loss of Crimea. Wartime dramas such as Tymur Yashchenko’s U311 Cherkasy (named after the naval mine sweeper blocked by Russian forces during the capture of Crimea) and Maryna Er Gorbach’s Klondike addressed specific events of the Russo-Ukrainian war, while Nariman Aliev’s 2019 drama Homeward was a meditation on what the loss of Crimea meant for its indigenous Tatar population. Other films, such as Volodymyr Tykhyi’s dramedy Our Kitties, tried to find humor amid the heartbreak and horrors faced by the Ukrainian soldiers stationed on the frontlines.

Everything changed in early 2022, when war—previously treated as a niche subject that was likely to scare off people looking for light entertainment—quickly became the only topic most Ukrainians were interested in. As missiles rained down, entertainers suddenly realized that they could not remain apolitical bystanders any longer.

Almost every popular musician spoke out against the invasion, with several (such as Dasha Astafieva and Vitaly Kozlovskiy) apologizing for performing in Russia and platforming their Russian colleagues in recent years. “I felt like a zombie while performing in Russia. I’d arrive, smile mechanically at everyone, do the set and return home. Russia has a lot of money but it’s a soulless place,” Astafieva wrote in a social media post shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion. Many artists—such as Antytila leader Taras Tolopya, singer Yarmak, and most of the lineup of cult Kharkiv-based hip-hop group TNMK—took up arms and joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine, while others took to volunteering by raising funds and sourcing equipment for Ukrainian soldiers, performing on the frontlines, or training as medics.

Some of their personal stories exemplified Ukraine’s modern civic identity, which has little to do with ethnicity or where you were born. Instead, for many, it’s a choice. Take Yulia Yurina: The Russian-born musician first came to Ukraine as a 18-year-old student in 2012 and soon joined forces with Ukrainian-born Stas Koroliov to form critically acclaimed pop-folk duo Yuko. Today, Yurina—still formally a Russian citizen despite publicly renouncing her citizenship and applying for a Ukrainian passport—is not only a beloved performer, whose recent album encapsulates much of the anger and grief felt by the average Ukrainian, but also a volunteer working tirelessly to provide the Ukrainian Armed Forces with weapons and equipment. “I dance through the bullets as air raid sirens sing to me,” Yurina sings on one of the album’s tracks. “I am disgusted by what you’ve done here, you’re killing souls but you won’t be able to kill our dreams. We are not your friends, your family, or your lovers.”

During the first months of the war, a new subgenre of locally produced music arose. “Bayraktar-core” (the semi-ironic name came from how often these songs mentioned the Turkish drones used to great effect by Ukrainian forces in the early stages of the war) songs were simple, composed over a mere few weeks, catchy, and characterized by their aggressive optimism, constant references to recent events, local politicians, wartime memes, and foreign allies (Boris Johnson, then British prime minister, was mentioned often).

What these songs lacked in lyrical nuance and musical innovation they more than made up for by giving millions of Ukrainians a sense of unity and community amid the chaos and horror. “Occupiers came to Ukraine, wearing new uniforms and driving military vehicles,” go the lyrics of one of the most popular “Bayraktar-core” songs. “But their equipment was soon ruined by the Bayraktar!” Some, such as a viral mashup sampling a folk tune and a phrase spoken by Johnson, made the leap over to English-language social media.

While simple war-themed entertainment (or even anything vaguely patriotic and uplifting) might have been enough for listeners and viewers in the early months of the war, the artistic questions got sharper as the fight went on.

Did performers who left the country soon after the full-scale invasion have a right to make money off of songs mentioning the horrors others faced while staying in Ukraine? Could writers who hadn’t personally experienced life under Russian occupation use the devastation in say, Bucha or Mariupol, in their stories? And what if they conducted interviews with the people who had? Many of these questions lack definite answers, but the public response to various works inspired by the war have been noticeably different.

When writer Daria Gnatko announced in late 2022 that she would be publishing a novel set in Russian-occupied Bucha, many pointed out that not enough time had passed to properly process the events that had transpired in the town, and wondered whether writing a story like this without conducting in-depth interviews with the survivors of the occupation was a form of exploitation. The book, along with another upcoming work by Gnatko, a novel inspired by the destruction and occupation of Mariupol, was postponed indefinitely by the publisher after a wave of public criticism.

Likewise, popular writer Kateryna Babkina’s latest novel Mom, Do You Remember? was met with controversy after the author, who had spent much of the war abroad, announced that the plot would be inspired by the occupation of Bucha. Some reviewers were concerned that not enough time had passed since the liberation of Kyiv Oblast and that the subject was still too triggering for most readers, while others darkly suspected Babkina had only mentioned the tragically famous town when announcing the book to draw more attention to her work.

However, most of this criticism was limited to social media, while the reviews in local publications were much more enthusiastic about the novel—which is told from the perspective of a teenage girl narrowly escaping from Russian occupation with her infant half-sister and trying to build a life for them both abroad—and described it as a touching and delicate work full of compassion.

“If for some Ukrainians the book is therapeutic, for foreigners, in particular for Poles, who can already read Babkina’s story, it gives a more internal context about what war victims experience—who walk the same streets and visit the same shops as they do—actually go through. What challenges and problems they face, what they feel, why some do not learn the language and choose to return home despite the missile attacks, and what is happening in the hearts of millions of children who were forced to grow up one day when their world was destroyed by Russia,” wrote a reviewer for the Polish-Ukrainian outlet Sestry.

The truth is that when it comes to describing experiences as traumatic as an ongoing war, there isn’t going to be a one-size-fits-all perspective or approach. Some readers find works written about or vaguely inspired by something they or their loved ones went through therapeutic, while others find them triggering or even offensive.

When it comes to film, meanwhile, the pre-2022 offerings were earnest but often unwatched. Reviewers treated these movies as important pieces of cinema, but ones that described horrors most Ukrainians preferred not to dwell on for too long. After the full-scale invasion, however, a dark realization dawned: The wartime dramas were now reflections of our own collective experience, and no romantic comedy or workplace drama was going to stop you from thinking about shrapnel and blood.

That was supplemented by the belief that Ukrainians had to bear witness. At a time when many civilians felt abandoned by human rights organizations’ failure to document Russian war crimes (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally called out the International Red Cross over its inaction after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, while Amnesty International found itself in hot water after publishing a much-criticized report accusing Ukraine of endangering its own civilians), filmmakers took this challenge upon themselves. Documentaries shot during the siege of Mariupol, after the liberation of Bucha, and during the near-constant shelling of Kharkiv became a powerful tool for cultural diplomacy, encouraging non-Ukrainians to support Ukraine, and an instrument to counter Russian propaganda and war fatigue in the West. Perhaps the best-known example is the Oscar-nominated documentary film 20 Days in Mariupol, which garnered universally positive reviews at home and abroad and offered viewers a unique glimpse into the horrors faced by the residents and defenders of the besieged city.

One unexpected wartime challenge is creating entertainment aimed at children. How do you keep kids of vastly different ages entertained while sitting in cold, poorly-lit bomb shelters for hours on end? How do you teach them the rules of wartime safety in an accessible and easy-to-remember format? How do you help them process the heartbreak of losing loved ones, having parents on the frontlines, or living in constant fear of missiles and drones? And perhaps most importantly, how do you begin to broach the topic that there are people who want these kids and their entire families dead? This is when Patron—a real-life sapper dog who became an unexpected celebrity among both kids and adults alike—came in handy.

The wildly popular Jack Russell Terrier, who works as a detection dog and mascot for the State Emergency Service of Ukraine first caught the public’s eye in early 2022, when the dog was awarded a medal for locating and helping defuse unexploded mines left behind by Russian forces after they were driven out of Chernihiv. A video of the bulletproof vest-wearing puppy went viral, and the newly famous dog was soon making charity appearances, visiting kids harmed by the war in hospitals across the country, and even got his own animated web show and book series. Content starring Patron is produced in partnership with UNICEF and aims to teach Ukrainian kids the importance of staying away from abandoned landmines, avoiding suspicious objects left behind by the invading army, and staying brave under difficult circumstances.

Undoubtedly, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has led to a heightened interest toward local art both among Ukrainians and foreigners, as well as provided an entire generation of artists with stories of sacrifice, courage, and defiance—stories that, despite their complexity, simply must be told, and that may well become modern classics at an international scale. When Penguin Press bought the rights to Ukrainian writer and soldier Oleksandr Mykhed’s autobiographical novel The Language of War, publishing director Casiana Ionita described the book as “a war book that will be read 10, 20, 50 years from now.” But it’s unclear if enough foreign publishers are ready to break their long-standing tradition of viewing events in Ukraine solely through the eyes of their Moscow-educated authors and allow Ukrainians on the frontlines to speak for themselves, like Mykhed, before the war claims them too.

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graciecatfamilyband · 1 year

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The Info-Dumpers who Love Characters Website is totally sleeping on the best Info-Dumping Character of All Time:

Jade Daniels, the 17 year-old half-indigenous girl from Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart is a Chainsaw.

In everyone’s defense, character-driven slow-burn literary fiction that is also a slasher (stab stab 🔪🔪🩸) is a hard genre to sell. Many of us who love one part of this equation don’t love the other.

But Jade has captured my whole chainsaw ♥️, and I CANNOT be normal about it. Jade has never met a person at whom she wasn’t willing to spout random facts that they have exhibited no interest in. She can bring ANYTHING back around to connect to her hyperfixation which is, coincidentally, slasher movies. And she is the most vivid, alive, real-to-me protagonist I have ever encountered. Because of the way she hyperfixates and info dumps, not in spite of it. (Which surely says something about me but again, I am among friends on this webbed site!)

Jade makes completely normal, totally hinged choices like:

(When we the audience are first introduced to her) Going up to a group of construction workers having a trash fire in the middle of the night and being like, “If we were in a slasher right now, this is what the plot line would be. Also, have some random slasher movie facts.” (Their response: Are you okay? You seem like you are not okay.)

Writing extra credit essays for her history teacher about the tropes and conventions of the slasher genre. For four years. Not what he asked for, but what he got. (These essays are included in the book and are a godsend for those of us who are not already slasher fans! They literally help the reader understand the story beats as they unfold, while simultaneously giving life to Jade’s voice and helping us understand what makes her tick.)

Deciding the New Girl At School has all the qualities of a Final Girl, the slasher film trope in which there is one girl left alive to confront the killer and stop the slasher cycle.

Trying to warn the New Girl At School that she is going to be The Final Girl, by putting a VHS copy of the 1971 slasher Bay of Blood and all of Jade’s slasher extra credit essays in her mailbox. With a note. A note that says that she is going to be The Final Girl in a slasher cycle that seems to be starting up. (Jade is just trying to help! So helpful.)

Of course, the core of this novel is: What is going on with Jade? After all, she actually wants a slasher cycle to start in her town. (She also wants the slasher cycle to be stopped at the proper moment, to ensure that the vengeance of the slasher is balanced by the justice of the Final Girl.) She does not see herself as a possible Final Girl, but she is willing to help the richer, prettier, more appropriate classmate who she thinks is that girl. Why, why, why?

To be clear, the novel does not posit that something must be wrong with a person to be intensely, obsessively interested in something or for that thing to be horror- even slashers! But Jade’s behavior is, like I said, not entirely hinged, even for a slasher fan. Something must be up.

The novel gives us all the clues we need to peel back the layers of what’s really happening, and when truths are revealed, everything just *clicks.* Themes are introduced and then reinforced on multiple levels. There is a bear. 🐻 (The bear is the not the slasher.)

And throughout, Jade gets to be fully-human and fully seven-fucking-teen. Even though she is on the cusp of adulthood, she is still a child, and a wounded one at that. (Her wounds in no way fucking diminish her.) Her judgment is often impaired. Her actions are often questionable. Her hair-dye jobs gets so bad, even she thinks its gross. She is so alive, and so deserving of love. 🥹

I love her.

I would fight for her.

I desperately want to make soup for her, and let her tell me about the Scream franchise (I do not care about the Scream franchise), and give her a safe place to sleep. Even if doing so makes it way more likely that I’m about to get murdered.

Jade Fucking Daniels. My chainsaw-hearted, info-dumping hero protagonist. I salute you, my final girl.

#my heart is a chainsaw #jade daniels #stephen graham jones #info-dumper extraordinaire #my most alive protagonist ever <3 #my final girl #i just CANNOT be normal about this one #i'm rereading and #it's making me FERAL #*vibrates*#no spoilers for don't fear the reaper please!#story-telling #books #letha mondragon is also a fantastic character fyi

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cleolinda · 10 months

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Weekend links

My posts

No perfume or vampire recap this week, although I have one of each about 3/4 drafted. New Medication Side Effects are slowing me down (but I'm doing well on it otherwise).

Social media hell

Threads was a mistake. For me, not Zuckerberg; I'm sure it's great for him. In theory I was trying it out so you wouldn't have to, but I regret all the choices that led me to this. It is the tenth circle of privacy hell. Someone else can try out the bad idea next time. Save yourself.

After discussing the difficulty of getting on Mastodon, I actually did manage to wrestle my way through the signup process, because I felt like it wasn't fair to complain if I didn't at least try. I am now on mastodon.world. I'm not sure if I want to be there ("Shitposting is not allowed")? Can I go somewhere else? What... what are the somewhere elses? I am currently reading up on this.

I have wrangled a Bluesky invite! "What's Hot" seems a lot like the list of media journalists I follow on Twitter, which I haven't been on full-time in years. Bluesky will probably be more enjoyable once more people I know get on, which they might be able to do if Jack Dorsey would open Bluesky to the public already.

I feel very out of step with microblogging culture after years away—oddly, I got back on Tumblr full-time late last year and I felt at home pretty much immediately, which means that you're stuck with me now.

Reblogs of interest

20,000 Pounds of Trash Removed From Pacific Garbage Patch: ‘Holy mother of god. It worked!’

Search engines and databases that aren't Google

G/O Media forced a nonsensical AI-generated Star Wars article onto io9, and the staff is pissed

Video

Indigenous Horror Films

Sparrow Tarot: Judgment and the Ace of Pentacles

Dance Here ⭕️

Dug in Real Life

The sacred texts

Tama the Eternal Stationmaster

Me getting up in the morning like

Tony Hawk's existential nightmare

IF YOU LIKE PIÑA COLADA

Personal tags of the week

One orange braincell (see also the subreddit of the same name devoted to doofy orange cats)

Fashion, some of it from the Fall 2023 runways

#weekend links #odds and ends #linkspam #social media

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thewarmestplacetohide · 23 days

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With gore and such in horror movies, particularly where the victims are women, where do you typically draw the line between genuine horror and just torture porn? I've seen a lot of debate about the Terrifier franchise in light of the new one - I've not seen any of the movies, and I'm also not super well-versed in horror film in general. What do you consider gore/slashers done well?

this is going to be long and a tangent. apologies ahead of time.

1 - i rarely, if ever, use the term "torture porn." i think it's a means of classifying movies that needs to be retired.

this is not a criticism of you, just to be clear. it's just that:

i have seen people apply it to fantastic movies solely because they disapprove of/dislike gore. this unfairly maligns films while perpetuating the idea that violence is always cheap, tasteless, and without purpose or meaning.

i have also seen it used to frame horror fans as twisted "degenerates," which is very ugly when you consider horror is often used to challenge societal norms, and many horror fans are marginalized people. additionally, liking gory movies =/= approving of real violence or being turned on by it.

on the flip side, using it as a classification can also lead people to overlook issues present in many horror movies. calling Cannibal Holocaust, for example, "torture porn" is reductive in its own way. it ends the conversation. it says, "this was bad because it was shallow violence," when, in reality, it is so much worse than that as a deeply racist and misogynistic piece of media that exploited indigenous people and facilitated real animal abuse.

2 - i can't really draw any kind of universal line. the necessity of gore is a film-by-film issue. rather than asking, "is this movie too violent," i typically ask "why does this movie feature graphic violence? what does it do with it?"

graphic violence can be:

used to portray horrific historical events honestly (ex: Come and See),

used to drive home points about violence, those who perform it, and/or those who endure it (ex: Pan's Labyrinth, Lady Vengeance)

used to evoke strong emotions from shock and disgust to grief and rage in audiences (ex: Oldboy, The Sadness)

exaggerated for comedic effect (ex: Evil Dead II)

and/or implemented solely to show off impressive effects work and artistry (ex: Terrifier 2).

3 - women being victims of violence in horror movies is not inherently misogynistic. i'm not saying you're implying this, just pointing out that this is a fact worth keeping in mind. i've seen people act like violence is inherently anti-woman solely because it's happening to a female character, which is ridiculous.

i can also personally watch movies with problematic elements, like misogyny, if i enjoy other aspects of them. what matters is that i consume them critically.

4 - i do want to clarify that i dislike Terrifier. i find its plot shallow and most of the performances bad. it's just a vehicle for violence that, imo, is far too directed at women. it left a bad taste in my mouth.

at the same time, i enjoyed Terrifier 2, which i thought was flawed but sincerely funny with a great villain and some awesome special effects. (even then, there is an overly-long torture scene that i found weirdly mean-spirited and uncomfortable to watch as a woman).

5 - i'm not the best person to ask about slashers! i like some but it's far from my favorite sub-genre. off the top of my head, some good proto-slashers are:

The Virgin Spring (1960)

Psycho (1960)

Blood and Black Lace (1964)

and some good slashers are:

Straw Dogs (1971)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Deep Red (1975)

Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)

Halloween (1978)

Opera (1987)

Scream (1996)

Inside (2007)

Sweeney Todd (2007)

Eden Lake (2008)

Midnight Meat Train (2008)

The Loved Ones (2009)

Dream Home (2010)

The Woman (2011)

Green Room (2015)

Don't Breathe (2016)

Hush (2016)

Revenge (2017)

Halloween (2018)

Darlin' (2019)

Pearl (2022)

as always, i recommend checking for trigger warnings before watching films.

#ask #long post

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wormwoodandhoney · 9 months

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If you’ve got the time, I was wondering if you’d be able to share any final-girl-esque book recommendations! I just finished My Heart is A Chainsaw and You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight, and they’ve got me on a bit of a kick. Love your blog and your book roundups! ♥️

my dude, i always have time for final girls! unfortunately, you named two of my faves, but let's goooo! this is an interesting conundrum for me because i love final girls SO MUCH that my bar is super high and only a few of them reach it haha. to those of you who haven't read the above mentioned, those are two of the best! my favorites tend to be ones with a unique or interesting take on the trope, but i'll try to recommend a variety. general slasher-related trigger warnings for all, but i'll try to add specific ones that i remember:

if you liked my heart is a chainsaw, check out the only good indians. it may not sound like there is a final girl, but one appears and i love her. even if you didn't like chainsaw, try this one. i think it's more accessible, though still that sgj weirdness. this one is about four indigenous men who are haunted by a strange deer woman. tw for animal death and body horror.

this is not my personal favorite, but clown in a cornfield is super popular. there is a clown and there are teens and there is a cornfield. murrrrrder occurs.

there are another couple of popular ones that i didn't totally love: the final girl support group by grady hendrix and final girls by riley sager. both feature now-adult final girls who are friends with other now-adult final girls, and murders occur.

no exit by taylor adams is not exactly a slasher, but the protagonist gives me some of the same vibes. note: the synopsis makes this sound like a mystery, but it's not. it's really more of a what would you do thriller! a young woman is stranded with a group of strangers during a snowstorm at a rest stop. she discovers a kidnapped child in one of their cars.

also not a slasher, but the honeys features a genderfluid protagonist and bee-based body horror. weird horror at a summer camp. tw for bees and body horror, probably trypophobia i think.

the night shift is about some similar murders in a small town fifteen years apart- a group of teen girls are murdered with only one survivor.

the shining girls is a cool take on the trope. a serial killer with the ability to travel through time kills particular girls to further his immortality, and one of them survives and tries to take him down. this is also a show now i think but i haven't watched it!

UPCOMING FINAL GIRLS

i'm so excited for there's no way i'd die first is a slasher coming out in september! it looks like a pretty classic clown slasher with a horror loving protagonist.

gorgeous gruesome faces may or may not be a final girl based on the description- could be ghosts or a slasher. maybe both?? but "queer kpop horror" sold me immediately.

burn the negative features one of my favorite tropes in fiction, which is like... fictional pop culture? the protagonist is a former child actress who starred in an infamous horror film in which many of the crew/cast died. when a remake begins, she has to stop more deaths.

i can't tell if the lake house is a final girl story or not... i'll investigate.

#book recs #final girls #horror

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