#its not that i dislike horror movies its just that they end up being kind of boring a lot of the time

[camelspit]

not enough gay mystery movies. upsetting.

[zeldasnotes]

𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎 𝐎𝐁𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝟐𝟔

• With Hekate(100) conjunct Moon in synastry you both pick up on eachothers shadow side easily.

• Venus can really show what we get easily, without effort. For example: Venus 8th house = Easily gets money and support from others, attracts potential sex partners, deep connections and/or admirers wherever they go. Venus 10th house = Gets peoples respect, status and promotions easily. Venus 7th house = Attracts harmony, tons of friends and contacts wherever they go, ease with relationships.

• Ive seen Saturn conjunct Midheaven in the charts of people who are very rarely approached in public. They look hard to get or like they would not like it if you came up to them. I have a friend with this aspect and shes the sweetest person but so many people thought she was a bitch before talking to her.

• Sag Placements are so graceful and clumsy at the same time.

• If you have a plutonian Moon or Venus you might feel like when you hang out with another woman one on one its wonderful and you bond but when there us a group of women the energy changes completely and they turn on you.

• If you hate someone and want to take them down, tell a fixed moon, they will help you with revenge. They will hate that person just like you do, a Leo Moon might even fight them for you. BUT dont overexaggerate or lie to a fixed moon bc they will know.

• Want to make a Virgo or 6th house dominant happy when they are going through a hard time? Ask them to help you with something, we looove to feel needed and its so important for our self esteem. Or tell them that advice they gave you really helped.

• Ive noticed that a lot of 8th house and Pluto placements when younger dont know how to protect their energy. I see these people might have a lot of friends on social media that they dont even know, watch brutal horror movies that leave them in shock, be around people they dislike, expose themselves and then they slowly realize just how many secret enemies they have and how scary this world really is and they learn to protect themselves. Especially those with hard neptune aspects.

• Also if you have 8th house placements resting in peace is not an option. People are going to keep gossiping about you, dig into your background etc even more after you pass away.

• Ive noticed that men with Sun or Mars aspecting Pluto can attract a lot of envy from other men, especially the Square and Conjunction. Or just attract a lot of attention from other men.

• If you find yourself in a situation where you are being threathened or blackmailed or a situation that just seems impossible to get out of, ask a scorpio or cancer moon, mercury/pluto person OR someone with pluto/neptune 3rd house. These people know the human mind like nobody else and know how to solve any situation. They will know exactly how to scare your enemy.

• I know someone with Medusa conjunct Ascendant and she got a Medusa tattoo on her hand🐍 She knew of the myth and lived it which is why she got the tattoo but she didnt know about astrology and that the asteroid existed, I checked her chart because I saw the tattoo. Astrology really is amazing.

• Someone with Juno(3) Square Venus might marry a woman who acts like his Venus and try to make her be more like his Juno sign, or vice versa.

• Someone with Juno Square Moon might want to marry a woman whos NOT like their mother. Unfortunately they end up with someone whos much more like their mother than they thought which creates conflicts. For example: The man was treated badly by his own father, his mother did nothing because the mother was passive and chose her marriage before her son and turned against her son. The son grows up to be attracted to extremely combative women who picks fights. Unconsciously combative women seems like the kind of woman who would never let their son be beat. He marries the combative woman because she seem to be what he wish his mother was. The woman turn out to not be that protective over family at all and neglects and picks others over him just like his mother did.

• People with Nessus(7066) conjunct personal planets are VERY sexual.

• People with Waldemath Lilith (h58) in the 2nd house gives the sexiest voice.

• Some of the kindest people Ive met had Jupiter conjunct Venus or Moon. Pure kindness. The kind of people to give just to give not to make people like them.

• Virgos and Taurus Suns either have no temper at all or a horribly hot temper.

• Someone with Venus Square Ascendant might feel a need to constantly improve their appearance. They be like ”Just wait until I get my brows done” ”Just wait until I fix my nose” ”Im just gonna lose some more weight then Im fine.” And it can go on for a lifetime.

• If you have Neptune in the 1st house marry someone who got their Moon in your 1st house, they see you for who you really are.

©️ 2023 Zeldas Notes

[ewingstan]

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9-11 for whatever Worm characters come to mind! (Or Sophia/Calvert/Taylor/Krouse if you have any thoughts!)

Fuck it. All of em for all of em.

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

Sophia: I'll be real I don't feel super strongly about her. She's written to be hateable in an effective way, but she's less of a full character than Emma despite being in much more of the story. And her shit kinda gets bogged down by racist writing (a lot of the worst of it happening right before Aisha's introduction, which is also pretty racist). She's involved in a lot of cool and interesting moments but they're rarely interesting because of her.

Coil: Works really well as the first overarching villain in Taylor's story. He's able to sell the "I'm a bad guy but in an excusable way that's not really too bad" well enough, but also has a lot of obvious red flags even before the Dinah reveal. So you can understand perfectly well why Taylor, a kid who really wanted to continue hanging out with the undersiders and do things that made her feel like she had any control, would go along with him. But you can also take a step back and say Jesus, only a kid who really wanted to continue hanging out with the undersiders and do things that made her feel like she had any control would go along with him.

Taylor: Wildbow has a reoccurring tendency to focus on characters who are both incredibly smart and can get an incredible amount of info quickly, but only in specific limited ways. Its true of Taylor, Lisa, Sylvester, Kenzie, Mia—a lot of my favorites. But the interesting thing is that they're never smart in the same ways, never collect the same sort of info. Lisa has general super-induction but no great skill at making plans. Sylvester can read and manipulate people to a superhuman level but is constantly getting blinded by his own resentments and desires. Taylor's hyper-vigilance gave her the ability to see and react to everything external around her, but no means or real incentive to know whats going on internally with people around her. And it makes sense! She's incredibly afraid of letting people in who'll end up hurting her; people who've genuinely been kind to her in the past have used their previous closeness to hurt her later! Knowing that someone doesn't mean her harm now isn't gonna reassure her, so its safer to assume everyone's a threat and not worry too much about what they're actually thinking.

And then there's Rachel, who she not only connects with emotionally, but is the only person who's able to make an emotional connection with her! And since you understand why its not the norm, its all the more incredible to see!

Krouse: oh I'm glad you asked

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

Sophia: I like that she and Lung both get wrapped back up in the end for Skitter's Gold Morning missions. I wish she got to do more in those, but I do like it as a story beat.

Coil: How high he got and how far he fell.

Taylor: Man the escape from Coil's trap is a fucking great chapter. She's a one-woman horror movie. Single-handedly sells her as a villain who'd get national attention, and its not even a moment the public knows about. And its in such a great place in the story too, where all the tricks she's using have been established so its not feeling like a weird escalation in her abilities, but she hasn't all employed them at once or to such incredible effect yet. It’s the real culmination of her taking “lessons” from Bakuda about being scary.

Krouse: One of the moments that really sold me on him was when he was getting attacked by Case 53s, and immediately started thinking about how he could take them down, before he interrupts his own thoughts to go "wait, what am I doing, I should just run away." It just sells so much of his whole deal. He's a great on-his-feat thinker, he can be an incredible strategist when he's on his own, but he also doesn't share Taylor's suicidal urge to face any problem head-on. Its kind of the inverse of one of Taylor's early establishing moments: after getting attacked by Rachel, she reaches for a reason to calm down, realizes she doesn't have one, and immediately retaliates hard enough to get blood on her boots. God they're such good foils, its weird that the extent of their relationship is mutually disliking each other. Not even intense dislike in either case.

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

Sophia: That the black member of the trio is the one that consistently gets physically violent, is characterized as the athletic one compared to the others in general (instead of "the cute one" or "the prep" she's "the track star"), gets described as being savage multiple times, doesn't have much of a character outside of sucking despite being in a work that's otherwise really good at giving internality to people who act shitty, all that jazz.

Coil: How little sense we got of what Calvert's dominion would really look like. That we didn't get much of his takeover without other disasters interfering actually works—it fits the themes of constant conflict interfering with stability and safety. But I still want more of a sense of what Calvert wanted.

Taylor: I didn't care about her reunification with her mom. I say a lot that the ending of Worm is one of the best endings of any story I've read, and that's true of Gold Morning as a whole, but I don't actually care much about the last epilogue. The Brian reveal certainly doesn't help there.

Krouse: Do you know how much it sucks that when people ask me who my favorite worm character is, the tumblr sexyman is in contention?

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

Sophia: any story that takes her basic parts, gets rid of the obviously shitty stuff, and develops her into a real character.

Coil: Disney Channel sitcom

Taylor: Well I already tried expy-ing Khepri into my tabletop campaign, and that got mixed results, so I'll take TTRPGs off the list. I'd be interested in her getting put in a medium where you'd have to be creative with how to represent the bug cloud, like live theater.

Krouse: I was gonna say Mob Psycho but then I remembered that they already had a guy who teleported around being a jackass. But I would like too see a well-animated version of his fighting style.

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

Sophia: I'll Make You Sorry by Screaming Females

Coil: For some reason I get an Everything Everything vibe from him? Maybe Photoshop Handsome or Breadwinner.

Taylor: I don't actually read her as trans but Dysphoria Hoodie is what immediately came to mind. I'm at least theoretically still making a Cicada Days animatic about her. I think portions of BCNR's Sunglasses fits with whats going on internally with her in the Mannequin fight

Krouse: Want to make a Prowl Great Cain AMV for him one day. Lyrics fit perfectly, and the way its sung gets the same otherwise inexpressable intensity of how I feel about him. Darnielle said “This is a song about betrayal. A lot of songs about betrayal are about betrayal and redemption. Not this one.” And yeah, that's Krouse!

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

Sophia: Oh, no

Coil: It would prolly be fine except for how he'd torture a branch of my psychological continuity and then effectively kill it by destroying that reality whenever I leave the dishes out too long. Don't correct me on how his powers work

Taylor: Uhhh probably not. Even if I wasn't much older, I don't really talk to my roommates unless they're the talkative sort. She's been stuck living with clamshells before, it wasn't good for her.

Krouse: I'd have to kill him

10 and 11: alright these are "could you be best friends with" and "would you date" and in both cases the fact that I'm 23 means no. I don't have Blake's ability to form rich friendships with people much younger than me. And I'm not interested in Calvert as a friend or a lover.

[2n2n]

Thinking about escapism

I have been dwelling on Picture Perfect lately… it really is a lovely arc.

A lot of times… anti-escapism messages are very bleak and boring, and they don't really relay any kind of 'reason to stay in the real world'… they are either harsh, "you just have to grow up and accept reality, become a normal businessman" (I'd argue this is more common in anime/manga, though, with emphasis on childish phases, reluctance to engage in reality etc), or, more often (in American media), through contrivances, the world of 'fantasy', 'getting what you want' will simply be inexplicably more punishing and dangerous than the 'real world'… I would say both takes typically see & depict the escapist as childish and immature, refusing to accept simple hurdles in life (which they must learn to deal with).

continuing beneath the cut. Gonna ramble a lot.

Let's take Coraline as a western example of the latter category. Coraline is listless & neglected. Her friends are far away, her parents are inattentive, her mom is tired & catty, her new home is unfamiliar and scary. The lesson in the Other is simply one of, "you should be more GRATEFUL for what you HAVE, you'll be GRATEFUL if you were PUT INTO MORTAL PERIL HORROR MOVIE SCARY SITUATION" …. this is often ah, the way of … kids movies …! Not much actual chewing done on 'escapism', other than an almost conservative "just be glad you have a roof over your head, it's not that bad!" and in the worst case scenario, a kind of "don't bother fantasizing or dreaming of better; the world is hopeless by design". It Would Be Worse To Runaway To Be a Pirate, Actually. A lot of ah, more serious media, like an Oyasumi Punpun, or an Aku no Hana, on the former end, have a nihilistic view of reality being a harsh inevitability, and it being a childish thing, the wish for better, or the wish for love, or escape at all. There is often a letting go of passion/intensity, and an acceptance for mediocrity. The fantasies you have when young, are crushed into pulp by reality.

That is not to say I dislike those stories (I actually like them all!), but I think the least of what they are doing is trying to discuss fantasy or the purpose of it … or fantasy as something very layered.

it's kinda rare something goes into the actual limits of a fantasy! or the reasons for its occurrence...

As an artist… I spent my life making stories, fictions, other lives, embodied those. I did my best to imagine a kind of world, a kind of dynamic, what could happen between two people … and you know !!! what !!! IT WAS ALL VERY WEAK, VERY THREADBARE, COMPARED TO THE ACTUAL WONDER AND EUPHORIA OF FALLING IN LOVE FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!!!!!!! My fantasies-- SUCKED!!!! Because my mind SUCKED!!!! It was feeble, it couldn't imagine real adoration, acceptance, peace, serenity! I could not make up satisfaction, not really! Because I had never felt it, I couldn't simulate it with any depth!

There's such a cool thing about Picture Perfect, where, for Nene-chan, it's not the rejection of the world on the pure premise "it is fake" or "I do not like it" or "it is bad for me"-- the world will keep her safe, and it will tailor to her. The world is not evil. No giant spiders will come eat her skull suddenly. There will be no flying monkies throwing rocks at her…

but... she wants to see what will become of her real relationship. She likes the real Hanako, and, it is hope and aspiration, wishes for future experiences (naive as they can be) that make Nene-chan want to abandon the fantasy. The fantasy doesn't have to be bad … she can admit, it is nice. It can be beautiful, it can make her happy.

Hanako can make a lovely fantasy for her-- and, he wanted to … I can understand why Hanako takes it personally, as Nene-chan rejects his world. "I made this for you, to make you happy. Do you hate it?" … you can think of it as Hanako writing a story for Nene-chan, and writing his role in it. He thinks things like… "In the story I make, I'll be more polite to her. I won't make rude jokes. I'll be sociable, and have friends, and know all of her friends, too I'll be alive, and in her grade. I'll be charming, and, in my story, I'll just ask her out; I won't beat around the bush forever. I'll be athletic and a good student. I want her to have that kind of fantasy-life. I want to be that kind of fantasy-boy, for just a moment, for her."

It's coming from a sincere place… it's even coming from a place of self-hatred, for Hanako. Picture Perfect exposes that Hanako, for all his playfulness and sexual harassment, he doesn't actually think he's a good boyfriend. Obviously! He's a ghost. He tries to modify towards how he thinks Nene-chan's actual fantasy would go. It's not Hanako's dream world. It's the dream world he imagines Nene-chan wants.

If we want to put it in literal terms to relate to, you could think of Hanako as a writer, composing a story in which he is dreamy, and everything the girl he likes wants. Nene-chan sees this story, and says, "the boy I like isn't here."

She likes, HANAKO! the reality of him! Everything that he is! Jealous, possessive, sexually-harrassing, needy, cryptic, obtuse, condescending… that is, what she WANTS! REALLY! All of that!!

Nene-chan does not have to hate the world Amane made… she can admire that he made it for her. It's a sweet gesture, it is a sweet fantasy. But, she wants to live in the real world, with him. It's really true… that, if you love somebody, anything is fine-- all of those nasty thorns of reality, you want them, if it means you can be with the person you love. Hanako really can't imagine Nene-chan feeling something like that … but then she proves it, later, in the Far Shore, that she'd give up her entire life for Hanako, her every living luxury, her entire future...!

There was a period of time with my husband, before he was my husband, where, we didn't live in a great way, and, I knew it would be hard for both of us for a while, but … I would have lived in a cardboard box with him, I would eat nothing but beans and rice for weeks. I wouldn't want to be in a mansion with sashimi every day, if he wasn't there. I spent a long time not understanding that ... and I wanted him to be with people who could do more for him, financially, who could give him stability, running water haha, a secure roof. I had to come to understand how little any of that matters... love kind of makes the burdens of life un-burdenly.

Anyway... if we push the metaphor, the idea of being a writer composing romantic fantasies to please another-- then concept of escapism becomes both an obvious artistic beauty to admire and appreciate as a gesture, as part of their love, but ultimately, you don't want them to stow all of their feelings away into a fiction.

Furthermore... Hanako is comfortable finally pursuing romance with Nene-chan under the guise of false character, because it allows him to continue to hate himself, and believe loving him isn't a goal she meaningfully has. By creating a fake version of himself and making Nene-chan love it, he can rest well in his complexes, "ah, I was right, of course, she wants all of these things! These things I can't be, and can't do! ha-ha". In his mind, it must have been such a pleasant harsh reality, a good final note to end this relationship on (as he planned to abandon the world!)-- because in his mind, Nene-chan wouldn't miss the rude, dead, sexually harassing ghost. In his mind she'd be desperate for this normal boyfriend. You can see how convenient that is, as a final note.

Fantasies... you can use them to hurt yourself! You can make something contrary to your nature. You can make something laughably impossible to achieve, and that can be the point. Maybe you can make something too 'nice' for someone like yourself to have.

Rejection of his crafted Amane has layered pain for Hanako. Despite the point of this exercise, it still feels like rejection, when she doesn't fall head over heals for his presentation. If you wrote a romantic story for your friend, and, they rejected it ... it kind of wouldn't matter if you wrote it contrary to your heart, if you were only trying to please the idea of them with it. Don't you like it? I made it for you ...

It is beautiful that .... Nene-chan does still see Hanako in the obfuscating Amane, even as she is moving away from him. Of course... he's himself, and... as writers, as artists, we can't help but place ourselves in our work, we can't change our own voice so effectively. I like that aspect! I like how much distinction he wants there to be between Hanako and Amane. Himself, his character. I like how little there really is.

When we reach the crux of the arc, we get to the most complex layer:

The fictions we weave interpersonally, the selves we present for others to like. Hanako, he's so many layers deep. Poor Nene-chan takes the agonizing thought so gracefully.

We really don't entirely know the true Hanako, Yugi Amane, now, do we? What would he want? I don't believe any of this is his fantasy. It is a trap for Nene-chan.

I don't think what Hanako wants, would involve quite so many people, and so much normalcy. I don't think he'd be friends with Lemon and Akane. I don't think so much of this would be there. I don't think even Amane himself could tell you, what his ultimate fantasy world would be, if it was only to please himself.

Anyway....

As Shijima-san and Mei explore, art and fantasy can fuel our hope, and our desire to live. Shijima-san becomes bitter and resentful over how useless and meaningless fantasies were, as things that do not change reality. The manga doesn't feel that is true-- it's not pointless, it is not worthless, it is not meaningless, it's just also not all you should have. That's a far more sympathetic and nuanced view on fantasy than a lot of things offer .... but like, this is a fucking romance manga about being in love with a ghost, of course we can't demean the idea of a whimsical fantasy. We have to value it, to make such a story!! There is some part of ourselves in the fantasies we make, and we have to have them! It's not a nihilistic harsh reality story about needing to accept being a wagecuck. It is a story about how belief, wishes, and hope can shape things around us!!! Fantasies have a place in that... but they can't be used to confirm oblivion!!

Tsukasa has such an interesting role.... as someone who will allow you to access your present wish and actualize it, to confront if it's what you really want, or if you'll regret it. He's such the epitome of, seeking to get to the center of everyone. Sometimes wishes or fantasies come from a place of resentment, self hatred, hopelessness, agony....

sometimes a fantasy represents and upholds our helplessness, rather than our hopes. That's so interesting, isn't it? I think a lot of Picture Perfect represents Amane's present hopelessness towards his reality, but in the package of a sweet and beautiful fantasy-world.

We should just keep going until we can finally fantasize something better.

[frankendykes-monster]

Countdown to Halloween 2023, Ranked

43. Swamp Thing (1982)

42. Curse of Bigfoot (1975)

41. The Haunting (1999)

40. Orca (1977)

39. Teenagers Battle The Thing (1958)

38. The Beast (1975)

37. Don't Go in The House (1979)

36. Countess Dracula (1971)

35. Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967)

34. Beware! The Blob (1972)

33. Alien Space Avenger (1989)

32. Baby Blood (1990)

31. Shriek of The Mutilated (1974)

30. The Mutations (1974)

29. Phase IV (1974)

28. Curse of The Faceless Man (1958)

27. The Sadist (1963)

26. Jennifer (1978)

25. The Wasp Woman (1959)

24. Noroi: The Curse (2005)

23. Girls Nite Out (1982)

22. The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959)

21. The Cat and The Canary (1927)

20. Tell Your Children (Reefer Madness, 1936)

19. The Company of Wolves (1984)

18. It's Alive (1974)

17. The Wolf House (2018)

16. Michael Jackson's Halloween (2017)

15. The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)

14. The Omega Man (1971)

13. Gamera: Rebirth (2023)

12. Student Bodies (1981)

11. Night Caller From Outer Space (1965)

10. Inhumanoids (episodes 1 - 5, 1986)

9. Blind Woman's Curse (1970)

8. Maniac (1980)

7. The Child (1977)

6. Zombie 3 (1988)

5. Return of The Living Dead (1985)

4. Spider Baby (1967)

3. Basket Case (1982)

2. Messiah of Evil (1973)

Godzilla (1954)

Woof. Okay. This has been a mostly disappointing viewing experience.

Critical difference between this year's countdown and the past two is that now that I have stable employment, there is far less time to be watching horror films. I normally begin the countdown in September but we started in July of this year and still barely managed to crack 40, with my original goal being a full 100 this year. Timing. As such a lot of my plans and possible viewings were cut short and compared to last year specifically we fell back on a lot of "seen it already" at least for the top of the list.

This year's batch of viewings were largely blah, but a step up from the shitshow I put myself through last year (watching nearly every Texas Chainsaw sequel does things to a person). As such it'll be difficult to conjure up words for a decent chunk of these mostly because yes, these movies exist, I watched them, I would not recommend that you yourself watch them. That is all. If I write briefly on a given film that's not necessarily an indictment of its quality as there a decent number of these that I saw and enjoyed it's just their impact might be a bit fleeting. You will know which ones I actively disliked. I mostly just want to write about the top five or so but I will play fair.

Our grand loser this year is Swamp Thing, the DC Comics adaptation by Wes Craven. I watched this pretty much entirely because I finally got the Alan Moore Swamp Thing run in paperback this year after quite some time of having it on my to-buy list. Longtime Rachael/Ray/Ratchet fans may recall me reading it in early 2019 alongside [REDACTED]. Still one of the best Moore comics, and a second volume of Swamp Thing wouldn't have been possible without the success of this film. For context I did read the early Swampies by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson and my general reaction to those was a'ight but there was definitely material for a serviceable film adaptation there. This is not that serviceable film adaptation. I'm not hung up on details like how Abigail has no connection to Arcane now despite being his niece in the comics, but this film is just kind of painful in how relatively unambitious it is which is saying something for Swamp Thing sword fighting another human mutation at the end of this. It's just silly and stupid and not scary or awe inspiring or anything, the Swamp Thing suit sucks, the action sucks, any sense of pathos is not there or gone, it stretches for 30 minutes too long like it's a padded TV pilot, the only highlight is being able to see Adrienne Barbeau's breasts. Fuck this it's a miserable experience to sit through. My mistake for watching a Wes Craven film that doesn't have "Scream" in the title.

Our next shitter is the two-for-one abomination that is Teenagers Battle The Thing (1958) and Curse of Bigfoot (1975); these are the same movie except Curse of Bigfoot has a 25 minute opening scene framing device that is bizarre given that "The Thing" of the original film is a Native American mummy of some sort unearthed by a group of white high school students. It's the rare personal pet project movie made for fun by some locals but the only highlights are the occasional kill scene, Curse of Bigfoot ranks lower just for making me sit through it longer. Blah.

Speedrunning through a bunch of these because theyre all varying degrees of bad and I don't want to spend any longer writing about these than you probably do reading about them: The Haunting is awful and I don't even super care for the original film so adding shitty CGI monsters and a moral lesson of "it's about family!" doesn't help. Orca is a shitty Jaws cash-in that's like a reverse Moby Dick where the sea animal hunts down the human, nice finale where the orca and shitty poacher guy are fighting it out in the Arctic but otherwise avoid. Don't Go in The House is a mysoginistic torture porn movie that really doesn't sell the "seemingly normal guy is a closet nutcase" thing even though movies made before and after have done it well (see Maniac several paragraphs below). The Beast is advertised as this really scandalous porno film but most of it is French aristocrats sitting around in stuffy rooms arguing about real estate. I think I only watched Countess Dracula for its inclusion in the "if this is her vibe I would fucking cum" meme and it's barely worth bringing up at all. Hillbillys in a Haunted House has an absolutely lovely Tennessee country soundtrack that I wish I could listen to without having to watch the actual movie which is devoid of both scares and laughs. Beware! The Blob gives off the feeling of sitting at a funeral for a family member that was just distant enough for you to be aware of them but not actually be upset but it's still a funeral so it's not like you're smiling, stick with the 1988 Blob film. Alien Space Avenger has some decent gore effects but that's all I can recall from it. Shriek of The Mutilated has one of the best titles for an otherwise uninspired yeti movie that has a needless third act twist about it being a cover for a cult and blah blah blah fuck you. Baby Blood has an alien mutant whatever crawl up a woman's vagina into her womb and she has to eat people to feed it and yeah I'm actually struggling to remember what happens here. The Mutations has a scene where a guy cuts into a tree and it bleeds, I think he's played by Donald Pleasance. Yeah, it's like Freaks except it plays to the freak show straight so you get to laugh at all the outcasts of society, no thank you.

Some odds and ends that I'd say are decent-to-pretty-good: Phase IV has some footage of ants and synth music. All you need is some footage of ants and synth music. Curse of The Faceless Man employs a rarely seen archetype of the living statue monster, it's cute. The Sadist is another starring vehicle for Arch Hall Jr., who was also the star of last Halloween's Eegah! (1962), though this film is a bold trendsetter for the 1960's with Hall being a unhinged killer holding people for ransom until they can fix his car and he can make a getaway. The film lives and dies by Hall's performance and it's mostly the latter until we get to an absolutely superb final act with him hunting down his remaining victims, it makes the whole film worth seeing. Jennifer is an oddball that plays out mostly like a character drama ("It wasn't my fault Daddy it was that stupid hillbilly bitch Jennifer") that suddenly remembers that it's supposed to be a cash-in of Carrie (1976) in the last 20 minutes and cue our titular character being able to summon and control snakes to send after her tormentors. Girls Nite Out is a plodding meandering slasher that's oddly hypnotizing considering so much of it takes place in pitch-black night and the killer is wearing a bear mascot costume with serrated knives hidden under the glove, not sure what fully to make of it. The Monster of Piedras Blancas is made up of leftover parts from the Gillman, Mole People, and Metaluna Mutant, but still manages to star in a decent enough film that gives a sense of what a series of monster attacks would do to a small seaside community. The Cat and The Canary is "cute" for lack of a better term being a horror comedy before the former genre had fully crystalized. Reefer Madness is horror adjacent more than anything but a hilariously good time about how the use of "marihuana" will drive today's youth into becoming crazed fiends and get involved in organized crime.

We can do this.

The Company of Wolves has an excellent story book like setting an atmosphere that you can't get in films nowadays and it's a shame that it's mostly remembered for its transformation sequences. it's Alive is the best Larry Cohen film by default of not sucking but it's still not "great", genius however for playing the concept of mutant newborn killer baby completely seriously without any sense of humor to the proceedings. The Girl Who Knew Too Much is almost a parody of giallo films which is interesting given those hadn't fully sprang up in 1963; absolute highlight is the main character being interviewed in bed by doctors and reporters and the like that yes she did see a murder and no she doesn't drink. I've always been fascinated and haunted by I Am Legend and while The Omega Man doesn't really capture the novel to a superb degree it's so beautifully shot that it lands high in the rankings for that alone. Night Caller From Outer Space is hilarious to me because of how it shifts halfway through from a Hammer-esque mystery about a meteorite with radioactive properties to a film about an alien that lures women in through a modeling advertisement. Blind Woman's Curse I've mentally confused with Irezumi for a while now (haha all 1960's Japanese genre films where woman have large animal tattoos on their backs are the saaame), and it's one I mostly watched for being directed by Teruo Ishii, but there's enough bloody yakuza fights and cats licking up blood for me to stick around; not the strongest Meiko Kaiji vehicle compared to Female Prisoner Scorpion or Lady Snowblood. Maniac I find mostly interesting as a precursor to American Psycho (2000) but also it's probably the only serious film to successfully pull off it's ending trope (which I will not spoil here). The Child is an absolutely lovely 1970's only-a-dozen-people-made-this-and-not-much-more-watched-it horror that oozes atmosphere, I could watch stuff like this all day. Aaand Zombie 3 is far and away the best film that Lucio Fulci has been involved with that I've ever seen. I love random scenes and set pieces of ghouls just massacring people that are shit out out of luck.

Okay, now for the ones I actually want to write about.

The Wasp Woman is one that sticks in my head way more than any other random monster movie that Roger Corman directed in the latw 1950's. I've said on here and Letterboxd that it could have served as a standard pop-feminist piece about how the cosmetology industry is built on misogyny and invariably a monster is accidentally created because of that, but this most recent viewing has made me sort of "get it" because that might be what the film is going for considering Susan Cabot's performance leads me to believe that she is aware that she is becoming a homicidal wasp monster but views it as a tragic means to an end where she still has the ability to have a new advertising campaign with her as the star. Tragic. This is why you don't wear make up.

Both Noroi: The Curse and The Wolf House are ones I didn't care for whatsoever but I put them in places on the ranking that I thought were fair given that people should probably watch them regardless of my personal thoughts. Noroi's format didn't really lend itself to the escalation of tension and reveal of information that the plot demanded and I found myself thinking it meanders quite a bit. The Wolf House was an odd one where everything that was happening onscreen bounced off of me mostly because I felt intimately aware that I was watching a movie, that someone had made something and that I was now being shown it. Blah. People like these so don't let me stop you.

Our animated offerings this year...

Michael Jackson's Halloween more than anything feels like an unlicensed creation that later had an English fan dub commissioned, not something that actually aired on CBS twice. Any laughs that I found in this thing were the unintentional type as we open up with Bubbles talking and being Jackson's chauffeur; you know exactly what you're getting into. Very little of the plot is explained but I'm assuming Jackson (who has no lines given this was made posthumously) orchestrates a dark fantasy adventure to hook two...teenagers? People in their late 20's? And convince them to follow their dreams of performing instead of working a deadend dayjob. I'm not sure who the actual audience for this was given it feels like so much of it was made for children but I will say anything that has this much of Michael Jackson's music in it can't be all bad, though I'm not sure why they didn't largely stick with tracks from the album Thriller (in the contention for best album ever, I don't care).

Gamera: Rebirth is one I feel like I'm on the outside on compared to most other tokusatsu fans because I didn't really *love* to a serious degree even though, yes, Gamera is finally back. The first three episodes are mostly just kind of a slog for me with the backhalf not doing enough to retroactively make me think highly of it, though giving off End of Evangelion vibes may make me consider that a second viewing must be in order down the line. Rebirth's strongest attribute is that it feels like it takes into consideration and influence from every prior era of Gamera, no stone is left unturned, and it's a marked contrast from how every recent Godzilla property only captures a single facet of their respective character. But that also creates unique issues like how a lot of criticism of ongoing US military presence in Japan is undercut so there can be a white kid in the main cast (because white children were always present in half of the Showa series) or having the ancient civilization that genetically engineered the kaiju now being malicious and actively sacrificing children as a means of reshaping the world gives me vaguely anti-semitic tones, I don't know, Gamera is still here, I guess.

"I was just a little twerp who liked Scooby-Doo and Smurfs, now I was viewing Cthulhu mutants ruin the Earth."

Everyday that we have Inhumanoids is a gift. Inhumanoids is another Hasbro/Sunbow production like G. I. Joe, Transformers, or Jem and The Holograms, and it is truly tragic that it never got anywhere near that level of attention compared to its siblings. The fact that a 1980's action figure tie-in cartoon is named for its antagonists is only the start; the series follows a small paramilitary outfit of scientists named Earth Core that are tasked with more or less saving the world alongside the Mutores, elemental beings, when the Inhumanoids, eldritch abominations, are unleashed. The degree of world-building beyond your typical "good guys vs. bad guys" affair is astounding with villainous humans and virtuous monsters abounding, but Inhumanoids is mostly magical and remembered for saying fuck all to any type of broadcast standards. Seeing giant monsters destroy cities, undead armies, and spelunking deep into the Earth (where nightmares begin...) are just standard fair here, as are witnessing the actual Inhumanoids such as Metlar (basically the devil) or D'Compose (giant undead entity that can zombify people by touching them and uses his ribcage like a jail cell) in action. The first five episodes here are the pilot movie of sorts for the series which only lasted thirteen overall, and they get more grissly from here on out, but maybe it's best that Inhumanoids is the short lived cartoon and no the cartoon that went soft as early as its second season. I will never not love this show, to this day it's one of my favorite animated series from any decade, much less the 1980's.

Back to our regularly scheduled live-action programming...

Student Bodies is a fascinating film for a myriad of reasons the first of which is that there were somehow enough slasher films by 1981 for there to be a comedy poking fun at all the already established genre-cliches. It's essentially Scary Movie (2000) a full 20 years ahead of the curve only actually funny in spite of the subject matter frequently being as juvenile and prejudiced; but it also reminds me quite a bit of Scream (1996) with stuff like two killers working together. All I know is I was in for a decent time when the film opens with three identical shots of a house just with different framing text: "HALLOWEEN," "FRIDAY THE 13TH," "JAMIE LEE CURTIS' BIRTHDAY" and then the killer, The Breather, calls the opening kill girl doing nothing but breathing heavily, she hangs up, he calls back with "I SAID [heavy breathing]."

Return of The Living Dead is one of those films that should have destroyed the any artifically-imposed boundaries between "high" and "low" art. Every aspect of this film is brilliantly made, it just so happens to be made for stuff like Scooby-Doo music overlaid on top of thunderstorms over graveyards where one female character is stripping to the concept of dying. Media involving ghouls is incredibly oversaturated, and this was still the case in the 1980's where a film like this had to redefine the rules to make it so killing ghouls was basically a non-option. It only recently struck me on this viewing that that's the whole purpose of removing virtually all weaknesses they have, to keep the characters as the nail instead of the hammer. Compared to the Romero films, there's never a point where anyone is in control of the situation, it just escalates further and further until there is literally no way out. Taking that into consideration, there's no way this film couldn't have been a comedy that frames people getting swarmed and eaten by ghouls as hilarious.

The soundtrack and the faux-punk sensibilities lend this a daft feeling of "you shouldn't be watching this" in spite of it not being one of the MOST gory horror films of the 1980's. I still don't get how this never broke into the mainstream. I mean somehow people know that ghouls (in this film) speak and only eat brains but I can't go down to Target and get a Tarman action figure like I can one of Michael Myers. As such Return of The Living Dead remains a criminally overlooked film regardless of its subject matter. It's made me laugh and cringe and feel disgusted and revolt at the concept at dying but mostly it's made me feel a delicious sense of joy at seeing corpses rise out of the ground to the tune of "Do you wanna party? IT'S PARTY TIIIME!" Some of you need to sit in the corner and think about your life choices for making stupid shit like Re-Animator (1985) or fucking Shaun of The Dead (2004) more popular than this, fuck you.

The act of watching Spider Baby is like discovering the missing link. For as much as 1960 gave us an explosion of horror (Eyes Without a Face, The Ship of Monsters, Psycho, Jigoku, Black Sunday, etc.) and Night of The Living Dead (1968) reins as the perennial transition point of the genre, Spider Baby is the road by which we go from The Cat and The Canary and The Old Dark House to the likes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Eraserhead, it's magical finding an essential piece of a genre you love so much. Both the former and latter points of comparison are apt as a family of now only children [and their butler] suffering from Poe-esque hereditary illness have their condemned house set upon by distant relatives and everything slowly unravels.

Lon Chaney Jr. is an actor who for the longest time I felt never got a proper chance to shine wherein the last 25 years or so of his career was spent playing as side character actor in independent films. Spider Baby is his crowning achievement. Seeing him smile through almost tears on several occasions as he has to play bridge between worlds of sanity and madness and lie to everyone that he has some sense of control over the situation is brilliant in ways I always knew he was capable of but had never seen before this point. Bravo.

I will never not love Basket Case with everything I've got. This is the epitome of 1980's horror and my clear pick for best of the decade. It has everything from being a grungy putrid grindhouse spectacle to being an intimate character drama to everything presented through a wry ironic lense where you can't tell if any "bad" performances are all done on purpose. Between this, Brain Damage (1988), and Frankenhooker (1990), there is literally absolutely no reason why Frank Henenlotter shouldn't be more popular than Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna, and Lloyd Kaufman *combined*. It's tragic that the world of cinema being enclosed and captured by studios again in the late 1980's prevented us from getting more from him, but realistically could we ask anymore than what we already got from Basket Case? I could watch this every day and never grow tired of it. I will never stop making more and more people watch this.

If Basket Case is the apex of 1980's horror, then Messiah of Evil is the same for 1970's horror. This is one of the most efficient horror films ever made in how not a single frame is wasted, the opening scene is literally a guy running from unseen force, seeking refuge, getting his throat slit, cue title card with synth music that then leads us to a sunburnt hallway as our narrator descends into acceptance of complete lack of control of the situation. Every night shot in this film must be 50 - 75% completely black with whatever headlight or store front there is just making the scenery look like a dollhouse that our characters are trapped inside. There's so many shots of people running away or walking down streets that make them look tiny as the camera is so far.

Every scene is an exercise in building up dread. There's no point where the film relents, something awful is not only coming, it's already here and there's nothing anyone can do. What I love particularly is that the mystery being laid out doesn't offer any answers because there's another mystery on top of what our characters find out only too late. Layers upon layers of dread that even the titular Messiah of Evil isn't the center of. The world is a cruel fucking place where this film languishes in obscurity whilst shit like The Exorcist enjoys mainstream attention. A lot of my taste amounts to "why isn't this thing I like more popular" and cases like Messiah of Evil vindicate me.

"Godzilla is the son of the atomic bomb. He is a nightmare created out of the darkness of the human soul. He is the sacred beast of the apocalypse." - Tomoyuki Tanaka

Generally a yearly trend is that a #1 pick for Halloween is self-evident to me and this year it was Basket Case for all of 30 seconds until I picked Godzilla back up.

There's something to be said how Godzilla isn't quite a horror monster? Terrifying but not necessarily creepy, but what power do things that go bump in the night have against the destruction of everything you know? Everytime I watch Godzilla is like the very first time, when flashing lights out at sea destroy fishing ships I have no idea what happened, or at least any much of a clue as anyone in film does when we're told that the entire ocean exploded.

Godzilla is a reptile, but lacks scales and its entire body is coated in keloid scars. In 1954 Godzilla must have been the largest monster every committed to film, trains are derailed from running against its ankle and bell and radio towers are throttled for being a sensory inconvenience. Godzilla's first on-screen appearance on Odo Island is obscured by a hurricane but the impression is clear; you can't fight Godzilla in the same way you can't fight a natural disaster. When Tokyo is reduced to complete ruin amidst a sea of flames, it's an onslaught of destruction never before seen in a film of this genre. Survivors being afflicted with radiation poisoning shows that Godzilla will claim victims long after being driven back to sea.

There's a sheer apocalyptic dread to all of this sensed by all the characters. Love tries to exist on the edge of annihilation. There's nothing that can be done but persevere and maybe hope tomorrow will be better. A scene that always strikes me is when Serizawa is adamant about not using the Oxygen Destroyer until forcibly confronted with the results of one night of Godzilla making landfall in Japan. The absolute pain felt by everyone in the finale starts here, things couldn't play out any differently as the "scientist of the century" can't join in and celebrate his victory.

Godzilla is a rare perfect film. I will never tire of it.

[getmymetal]

Jujutsu Kaisen Band AU - General Info & Headcanons

(This is a post containing some of the lore for my AU bots on janitor. Some of the bots themselves are still works in progress. I will link them here as I upload them. Lessons In Malevolence is the first of two bands I plan on introducing in this AU. Gojo's band, Void The Infinity, will be covered in a separate post.)

Lessons In Malevolence

Current members: Suguru, Sukuna, Choso, Toji

Former members: Mahito

A heavy metal band with a gothic/industrial aesthetic. The name is often shortened to LiM. Their music focuses heavily on horror, fantasy, the idea of sin and virtue, and forbidden love. The band had a bit of a cult following in the underground community since its conception, but only recently gained mainstream popularity with a change to a new vocalist.

Story behind the name: Sukuna simply thought the word "malevolent" sounded cool, but Choso didn't want the band's name to be just one word, so they worked in 'Lessons In Malevolence'. According to both Sukuna and Choso, the original members of the band, the name is reminiscent of how their songs can be seen as a sort of 'guide to rebellion'.

Top Musical Influences: Type O Negative, Nine Inch Nails, Orgy, A Perfect Circle, Rob Zombie, Orgy, Marilyn Manson, Candlemass, Slipknot, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Disturbed, Cradle of Filth, Opeth, Korn

Frontman: Suguru Geto

28 years old. Likes cats, reading, zaru soba, studying philosophy, practicing martial arts, and intelligent discussion. Dislikes Satoru Gojo, simpletons, people prying into his past.

Serves as both the lead vocalist and backup guitarist of the band. He isn't an original member, even so, he remains the most popular member. Suguru initially auditioned to be the band's bassist (after Choso and Sukuna kicked Mahito out).

Wanted to join the band out of pure spite for Satoru, the frontman of LiM's rival band, Void The Infinity. He ended up loving Lessons In Malevolence.

After joining LiM, he quickly rose to the top of the hierarchy of the band. He's active on social media, and has the most followers of all LiM's members. Suguru has a bit of a cult following online.

Suguru also has some solo projects he works on that aren't music related. He is an aspiring author, dabbling in the fiction world.

He thoroughly loves having his ego stroked. Being the lead vocalist of Lessons In Malevolence fuels this, he loves having most of the spotlight, something he couldn't achieve when he was a member of Satoru's band. He feels like he's only just now being recognized for his talents.

His role as the unofficial leader of the band has given him a bit of a god complex. He calls the fans of the band the "malevolent legion" or "the malevolent cult". He enjoys feeling like he's being worshiped by his fans, and embraces the title of "cult leader" that the media has given him.

The cause of the falling out between himself and Satoru, and the following heated rivalry between the two, is still unknown, and a topic of debate among fans. Suguru refuses to elaborate on it during any interviews. His most dedicated fans have many theories about it.

Drums: Sukuna Ryomen

28 years old (acts like a teenager). Likes partying, loud music, annoying his manager, watching wrestling, horror and action movies, videogames, all kinds of meat, all-you-can-eat buffets, reading and writing poetry (surprisingly). Dislikes nothing in particular, but he is ever so slightly annoyed by his bandmates sometimes.

Sukuna has a younger brother, Yuji Itadori, who looks nearly identical to him. Sukuna was raised by their dad, while Yuji was raised by their mom. The two would look like twins if it weren't for Sukuna's tattoos and taller height, even though Sukuna is a decade older than Yuji.

Sukuna is extremely musically talented, despite his abrasive personality. He plays drums for the band, but he also covered vocals on LiM's first studio album, and he's also capable of playing guitar as well.

Much like Suguru, Sukuna basks in the fame and popularity of the band. He is a man who lives by his instincts and whims, he does whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and he often takes advantage of his fame (more often than not, to get into someone's bed).

Sukuna is a bully, and a competitive person. He won't shy away from tests of brute strength, or back down from any sort of challenge. He is very into underground fighting, so much so that he started his own fight club, much to the dismay of his PR manager.

Sukuna and Choso have been friends since highschool. They started the band in Sukuna's garage, and it was his idea.

Lead Guitar: Choso Kamo

28 years old. Likes his brothers back home, songwriting, practicing his guitar playing, drawing, watching movies, hanging out with Yuji, giving tattoos, anime and manga, and he may or may not have a soft spot for cute things.

Choso is one of the founding members of Lessons In Malevolence along with Sukuna. He tends to stay out of the spotlight, unlike Sukuna and Suguru, but behind the scenes, he makes a lot of creative decisions for the band.

He writes almost all of the lyrics for the band's songs, as well as having designed the band's logo.

Choso is the only member of the band that doesn't party after every single show. He is a bit of a wallflower, and values his alone time.

Choso works at a tattoo parlor on occasion while he's not touring or recording music. The parlor is run by one of Choso's friends, Yuki Tsukumo.

Choso comes from a huge family, being the oldest of ten brothers. Two of his brothers, Eso and Kechizu, run a restaurant back in his hometown. While on the road, Choso has become particularly close with Sukuna's younger brother, Yuji, who often travels with them. Yuji, as well as Choso's blood related brothers, are the most precious thing in the world to him.

Bass: Toji Fushiguro

38 years old. Likes gambling, flirting with rich older women, working out, and animals. Dislikes alcohol (no matter how much he drinks, he can never get drunk), and his family, apart from his son.

Toji is the newest member of the band, as well as the oldest. He didn't actually expect to get the gig when he auditioned, he just tried because it was around, and he needed the money. It was only by chance he decided to do so after a little bit of practice with his old guitar.

Toji is a single father, his wife passed soon after his son was born. His son, Megumi, is the same age as Yuji Itadori. Wanting to foster a better relationship with his son back home, Toji often attempts to talk to Yuji, but it's usually awkward and tense unless Choso is there.

Although Toji can play bass well enough, he is still adjusting to being on tour with the band. He feels a bit of a disconnect with the other members, being older than them. He does, however, get along rather well with Sukuna, who often goes gambling and casino hopping with him.

Toji has a pet horned lizard which he named 'Inventory' for some reason. He seems to adore the tiny reptile, perhaps doting on it more than he does his own son. He doesn't know whether it's male or female, but he adores it nonetheless. He insisted on bringing Inventory on the tour bus, saying that he never goes anywhere without it. He wasn't taking no for an answer, so the rest of the band reluctantly agreed. (Unbeknownst to Toji, Suguru has grown quite fond of Inventory, and feeds it and pets it while Toji is away. Toji would get extremely jealous if he knew this.)

[lycanlovingvampyre]

MAG 143 Relisten

Activity on my first listen: mowing the lawn.

BASIRA: "Eyes peeled." [PAUSE.] JON: "Was that a joke?" BASIRA: "Yeah." That is exactly my kind of joke! xD Absolutely love it!

BASIRA: "Where is everybody?" MANUELA: (scoffs) "Go to hell!" JON: (overlapping) "Answer her." [BIG, BOOMING STATIC AGAIN.] MANUELA: "They’re dead. Because of you.” So yes, following up on MAG 141 (Jon telling Floyd to take a break, though that seemed to be more hypnotic than compulsive), can Jon just tell people what to do, is that something that was included in the latest compulsion patch? I don't think it happens again... Yeah, Jon tells Manuela (and also Peter in MAG 159) "tell me", but that’s just a follow-up to the question he already asked.

"Three hundred years from the failure that birthed the thing that preached from the depths of Maxwell Rayner." Wait, so is it not Halley in there anymore? Or am I taking it too literally, and it was still him but now one with the Dark.

"It was to be a week of night and horror, culminating in the eclipse that passed over Ny-Ålesund on the 20th of March, 2015" So on the 15th of March/May/whatever it was still the buildup phase of the ritual. Which was convenient for Gertrude, because she didn't have to rely so much on just one specific point in time to get her plan done. (Didn't work out in the end though, but well...) Also coming back to March/May, May for the Hither Green collapse doesn’t make any sense. MAG 11 was in March, in MAG 40 Elias says March. In rl the eclipse in Norway was also on the 20th March 2015, not May. 

"To begin our seven day feast, we slew the still and lightless beast, and drank of its stagnant blood, submerging the first of the sacrifices in the brackish water it had blessed with its stillness." The Lightless Beast was my favorite monster, RIP v.v So sad it ended that way, I wish there would have been more. Whenever it got some screen time, I got goosebumps.

"But I remember her brute of a husband. He fed the beast for us, you know, when first he believed Lynette might still be saved. Then, later, we faithful served as his fuel to banish it." Okay, am I understanding this correctly: First Robert Montauk fed the beast, then he tried to banish the beast. So which one of those two where the hearts for? I'd say banishing it? Because he did that right until he got arrested, so if the banishment came later, that would match. Also in that moment, when he stabbed the heart, the beast vanished (and that blue light - the light also probably being more a sign of banishment than feeding). Also Rayner says “You didn’t think you could kill it for long, did you?" Kill it sounds more like banishing. What was feeding it then? Those victims on the photos with the symbols on their faces?

"That’s the thing about darkness, isn’t it? You try your hardest to eradicate, flood your surroundings with light, but it’s always there at the edges, waiting for the glow to weaken, to return and cover you forever." Hmmm. If I recall correctly, that is what they used in Lights Out, the feature length film to the eponymous short movie it was based on. God, that short film was excellent, the feature length not so much. Some things only work as short stories and trying to stretch it out and add more and more makes it feel forced.

Just quickly pointing out that Manuela is such a theater kid... the drama of her phrasing! xD

This statement is, I think, the closest we ever get to "delusional" rambling of a cult member about their god(s). I very much dislike those, not because they're scary, but because I find them annoying. It’s the reason why I have such a hard time with The Silt Verses and it also annoyed me in Tunnels. It's just not something for me. And yet, while this statement also has the overly dramatic tone and rambling about worshiping and such, it doesn't annoy me. It's not that strong in a way that I have encountered in other stories. But, it's also not something I find particularly engaging for me.

BASIRA: "Ask her how we can destroy it." JON: "I know how. I just need to see it." The Dark is antithetical to the Eye. The Dark Sun, in its ritual purpose, is supposed to erase sight forever. A thing like this being actually seen by someone who is all about sight, who then even lived to tell the tale makes it lose its power. I love how everything makes sense in this goddamn podcast (except for a few timelines xD).

BASIRA: (overlapping) "Look, it’s okay, John. No one else knows it’s here. And if we just leave it, no one will know." JON: "No, I – (inhale) I’m doing this." What is it, that makes Jon want to see it so badly? (Eye-related) curiosity? Self-destructiveness? The wish to actually destroy the Dark Sun so they can be sure that it won't do any further harm? ... A little spider tugging him towards his second to last mark?

JON: “Get out.” [BASIRA LEAVES. THE ARCHIVIST TAKES SEVERAL STEADYING BREATHS, AND THEN OPENS THE DOOR.] [THE DARK SUN SOUNDS MELODIC, LIKE PIPES GROANING HARMONICS INTO THE WIND, LIKE THE MOURNFUL NOTES OF A CREAKING IRON GATE AS IT IS OPENED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS.] [AN ENORMOUS RUSH OF STATIC BEGINS BUILDING; IT IS NOT THE ARCHIVIST’S STATIC, IS MUCH TOO REEDY AND WISPY FOR THAT.] JON: "It’s – It’s beautiful." [THE STATIC OVERTAKES THE AUDIO FIELD; MANUELA GASPS AND SCREAMS –] MANUELA: "No – NO!" [ALL AT ONCE THE STATIC RUSHES AWAY.] BASIRA: "Jon!" Okay this is the scene I probably have the most critique for when it comes to its execution. But first I also wanna say that the "THE ARCHIVIST TAKES SEVERAL STEADYING BREATHS" ist great acting-wise again. Cause while these breaths are steady, they also get kinda trembling then. Like psyching yourself up to do something you're really afraid of and you are getting more and more afraid in anticipation. And there is a lot of emphasis on how afraid Jon is of his marks in this season (MAG 132 - "I'm scared? When does the fear go away?" / MAG 158 - Elias: "Are you scared, Jon?" - Jon: "Yes."). So, I personally think there should have been a biiiit more time between Jon saying "It's beautiful" and everything suddenly stopping and Basira coming back. It kinda loses weight for me here since it's so short, like it was nothing at all. Just a few more seconds to let it build a bit more, that is all. Am I the only one with this? Any opinions? Also did Jon collapse there again after Basira calls out to him? xD There is a "thud" to be heard before he answers. It's in neither the fan transcript nor the official one, but I'd say it's very clear.

[THEN A SOFT STATIC BEGINS TO FUZZ IN THE BACKGROUND. IT IS ONE WE KNOW, ONE WE HAVE HEARD MANY TIMES BEFORE. A DOOR CREAKS OPEN.] JON: "Did you catch her?" HELEN: "Yes." [THE ARCHIVIST GASPS: THIS IS NOT WHO HE HAD BEEN EXPECTING.] This is pretty much prove that no one can hear the staticky or squealing interference the Fears leave upon the tapes. Otherwise Jon would have already known it's Helen (or something else). I've read this a few times to be a little pet peeve for fan fictions and while I agree that I'd say it's not audible for the characters experiencing it live and it only distorts the tape, I do like to read them as a sort of change in atmosphere. Sort of like a gut feeling you get. The Distortion gives you a headache or makes you get a bit nauseous. The Vast gives you vertigo. With the Lonely it gets colder and such. Maybe not necessary every person is receptive to them, be it at all or just certain Fears, but I think it gives it a bit more spookiness.

HELEN: "How was it?" JON: "Hm?" HELEN: "Looking upon the Dark." JON: "I thought I was going to die." HELEN: "You seem to think that a lot. I remember when you thought you were going to die at my threshold." Classic Distortion move... Jon just had a horrific experience and Helen devalues it. And then she reminds him of another horrific experience like "Haha, remember that, good times"... Helen plays that game so much better than Michael did. She says things that really get me thinking for a long time after the scene.

@a-mag-a-day

[cheddar-baby]

So prefacing this with no one but me cares but i've got beef with the new reboot of the Cube movie

Maybe its because im canadian and i cherish the cube series for being one of the only good horror movies to come out of canada but i personally love the series i think cube, cube 2: hypercube, and cube zero (to a lesser degree) are masterpieces of dumb horror shlock. The beauty of the cube series is that you're just plopped into this giant nightmare lifeless metal box that has traps randomly placed throughout it maybe with a little puzzle for you to solve along the way. The cube is not a character its just sorta there and the movie functions as a vessel for fun trap ideas, your characters are disposable and we know very little about them. Its an ideal dumb horror movie. Cube 2: hypercube is the jason in space varient where theres just like future space magic but its the same you're just in a giant cube that just functions on its own and is just kinda there killing people for no reason.

Now my problem with the remake... They leaned so heavily into it being some sort of character drama that the cube itself was just kind of forgotten about. They seemed so invested in building these characters that they didnt want to kill any of them off. There was very little imagination in the traps it was just kind of like 3-4 picked from the original movie but with meh cgi. Super quick they found 2 seperate ways to avoid the traps entirely so from that point on there was really no traps seen. The movie became just a vessel for this singular guy to get a strange redemption arc for not managing to save his brother from killing himself because a small child just decides hes mad at him and blames him for his brothers death, immedietly tossing himself into a trapped room to get back at him. Also theres a woman they introduce at the start who you forget is in the movie because she has a single line of dialog and then from that point is barely if ever on screen who is later revealed to just be the cube and she has magic mind palace powers. But onto my reasons for disliking this change. I really feel like the original cube film is a really clever critique of capitalist beurocracy in that the cube is just this monolithic object. It is an insane massive structure that no one knows how it really got there who built it or why, it is just there, no one really controls it. Its just this immovable object that just functions totally independantly and does not feel or care. People are placed into it against their will by unseen forces and then are unceremoniously killed and disposed of. Its an endlessly moving and restructuring beast that seemingly has no end.

But the reboot takes this and gives it a face as this random quiet lady who is doing some sort of squid games game but we never learn her motives and it kind of seems like shes just oblivious to everything. She has 0 stakes in anything happening and is just there. But the cube now has rooms that beam into your brain and show cinematic recreations of your traumatic memories (just for a single guy in a room full of 3 people) onto a wall projector. Seemingly to teach you that being a child in a traumatic situation is your fault and you should repent for not being perfect. It really muddles the themes of the original to the point it feels like a saw movie thats confused about itself and what its doing. It also brings into question why have so many people in the cube if its just a vessel for a single person to get some character arc? Are the rest of them just disposable? Do their lives not matter? What is this trying to say? Its just all so strange and muddy when the base concept of the cube movies is so stripped down and simple. You literally just need people to traverse a giant cube and get senselessly killed in fun and interesting ways and there you go. Somehow this new movie managed to mess that up and it hurts me as a cube lover.

[ifuckinglovedinosaurssomuchjesus]

GODZILLA MOVIE MARATHON: Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)

We are now in the back half of the 60s Godzilla movies, a string of films that are very... Well they're known for... It's kind like...

Yeah they're just bad.

Budgets were on the floor, pandering to children was the explicit goal, and titans like Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya would start packing up to leave the franchise.

It doesn't help that this isn't even really a Godzilla movie, it was written as a King Kong movie with the two Kaiju being swapped because the creators of the King Kong cartoon of the time didn't like the story. Why Toho cared about what they thought is beyond me, but they liked the script enough to keep it mostly intact with Godzilla stapled into all of Kong's scenes instead.

The colorful, summer, island aesthetic and music straight out of Baywatch absolutely does feel more like Kong than Godzilla, but in a weird way letting Godzilla have a smaller story like this is kind of refreshing after the last two movies focused on world ending threats.

The story is remarkably simple, focusing on some shipwreck survivors stuck on an island full of terrorists making atom bombs and enslaving the locals from the nearby Infant island. There's some Scooby Doo shenanigans for an hour with an admittedly funny character who's a thief that physically cannot stop himself from breaking into locks, and then, I cannot stress this enough, the story just ends. They wake up Godzilla and he goes on a rampage, smashing the terrorist base and killing all the bad guys, chasing off Ebirah, and causing them to blow up the island. It's honestly hilarious, he literally hijacks the movie, it's like he himself recognizes that the human story wasn't cutting it so he decides to just prematurely end everything by stepping on it.

On the subject of Ebirah, what a joke. It's honestly a really cool suit, but really? The name is the Japanese word "Ebi" for Shrimp and "Ra" which is a character used for big monsters. So if you wanted to translate it accurately, it's literally just called "Shrimpzilla." I can't help but think it's intentionally meant to be a little lame, especially off the coat tails of Ghidorah.

I did think the fight was kind of fun though, with parts being underwater and Godzilla ripping its claws off, but again it does feel more like a Kong villain. Godzilla literally blasts it into the air with atomic breath, something that Anguirus and Rodan casually shook off, just to show you the power scaling here.

I really wish it stayed a Kong movie, not only does everything fit better with Kong, but if nothing else it'd be cool to see Kong and Mothra tussle for a second. That's my favorite moment in the movie, Mothra just slapping Godzilla to the ground because she's on a schedule and does not have time for him.

There's a lot wrong with this movie, and there's a lot to enjoy. I like the colorful beach aesthetic, the characters are one dimensional but can be fun to watch the antics of, and there's at least some enjoyment in laughing at how terrible the Godzilla suit looks. I'd give it a 5/10, I don't like it but that doesn't necessarily mean I dislike it. It's the movie equivalent of seeing something funny enough to let out a nose exhale but not enough to make you laugh.

[robbyrobinson]

NOPE (Review)

So my full thoughts on Nope. Will be entirely honest, but I really liked the film, more so than Us namely because it doesn't suffer the issue of an exposition dump like the previous film did. I completely understand why some dislike the film or view Peele as overrated because, in some way, he is because some movie critics put him on that high a pedestal even when he refuses to identify himself as being close to the likes of John Carpenter. But I do enjoy his films for the most part because I can tell he is passionate about what he is doing.

In terms of the narrative, Nope is a simple story about two siblings trying to keep their ranch afloat by taking authentic pictures of a UFO but they are way out of their league when it comes to what the UFO truly is.

If anything, the story feels by the book and safe. But I don't see how anyone could come out of the film thinking it was boring. The first two acts of the film I felt were great but the third act is the one that is easily hit or miss. I loved the climax of the film, but I won't lie when saying the film felt incomplete/half-baked with the ending being abrupt. But that is more because I was truly invested with the film up to that point and I wanted there to be more to it.

If anything, the film is more a character study than a horror film despite having scary moments. Daniel's character OJ is vanilla at best. I disagree with the idea he is boring or uninteresting because he is monotonous, but I would argue that the film isn't entirely about him, but more that he serves as an outlet for more eccentric characters like Emerald, Angel, and Jupe. Even then, his stoic nature proves to be crucial when it comes to understanding the beast.

Emerald carries the movie with how she is more energetic than her brother and does have a semblance of a character arc where she tries to help snap a picture of the UFO not just because she wants to save the ranch, but also because she wanted to make it big herself. She also has some slight resentment toward her late father as well. In addition, she is funny.

Angel is an okay addition. He also has his humorous moments such as his musing of Ancient Aliens and he is by no means stupid.

Jupe I admit I was somewhat disappointed that he wasn't in the film for about 2/3 of it despite us spending time developing his character and childhood trauma. At first, I did dislike that, but I did feel like it was enough.

It all goes back to the underlying message of how people are willing to do anything to get that perfect spectacle even and how Hollywood treats its performing animals like living props that they chew up and discard. With that kind of disrespect, it leads to bad consequences for the people much like what happened with Gordy the Chimp which is definitely the scariest part of the film.

After surviving his encounter with the crazed chimp, Ricky believed that he was able to have some control over wild animals which I feel comes from the fact he was not looking directly at Gordy but instead looking at a shoe bizarrely standing on its heel. In my interpretation, the shoe is one of the "bad miracles" OJ was talking about. It saves Ricky at that moment but he did not take that as a cautionary tale instead doubling down on that due to his obsession with reclaiming his lost fame.

As for everything else, the soundtrack is excellent, and I did not think the acting was bad as there were several good performances to list. The cinematography is especially fantastic befitting the spectacle notion Peele was wanting.

So...I was satisfied for the most part with the film. Sure, I did want more in the film to make it feel more tightly wound, but I nevertheless did enjoy it.

Final score:

7/10

[not-poignant]

Not the same anon as the one that sent the previous ask, but now I'm curious if there were any shows or movies you thought you wouldn't like but surprised you?

There's been a bunch, but the two that stand out the most are The Office: US, which has the most trash first season ever, and Mob Psycho 100.

These were both shows which I didn't like when I started watching them, and only started liking them later. In the case of The Office, it was because they knew their first season was almost completely terrible, and completely revamped the character of Michael Scott, and a few other dynamics, and made it a gentler show. For anyone who gave up on The Office in season 1, I see you. I was that person for years.

And Mob Psycho 100 I really struggled with the ugliness/aesthetic of the show, along with the fact that the first few episodes feel like meaningless filler, and I thought that was going to be what the whole show was like. If it wasn't for the fact that like, a really close friend told me to stick it out to episode 5, I would have shot it off a catapult into the moon. Really glad I stuck it out though, it's one of my favourite shows. But I still think the first 2 eps of every season are meaningless filler that I mostly ignore, lol.

In terms of shows I thought I wouldn't like before I started watching them, but ended up liking them... *thinks* This one's harder to answer because there are genres I totally skip because I know I won't like them (horror, supernatural thriller, high gore (the reason I stopped watching Daredevil and quite a few other shows) and some kinds of drama), and then for everything else, I'm generally very open minded for that first episode. I'm not going to give a horror a try, I know I won't like it, because I have severe C-PTSD, and I'm not going to sit down and trigger myself on purpose. Ditto with high gore and so on.

Also, Glen (the guy I live with) and I are both graduates from Media and Communications at university, I targeted Media Studies and Mass Comm (and Scriptwriting) and he targeted Film and Journalism. As a result, we're both generally extremely open-minded about shows that fit us broadly in terms of genre, but also very quick to know what genres won't suit us at all. For example, I'm not likely to be open minded about westerns, I've never liked a single one. So I'm not going out of my way to torment myself on the off-chance there's a winner, when I have like around 500 shows and movies in my backlog to watch of stuff I want to watch.

But as a result, I can't think of something I haven't liked based on say, a trailer or a gif, and then watched and liked it. I can think of stuff I didn't like when I started watching it, and then came around though!

There's definitely film / television that surprises me in terms of its quality, especially when it's nicely unexpected (the scriptwriting in the latest season of Stranger Things was amazingly tight and well-crafted, and was kind of a master class in not being at all wasteful with a single moment while still giving the characters time to breathe, and after the last season of ST I had kind of given up lmao).

I generally don't have a policy of disliking things in advance, I just know which genres are likely to trigger my PTSD, and I want to put all westerns in the bin, lmao.

[blaberid]

halloween ends SECOND impressions

after a second viewing and a couple of nights’ sleep of varying quality i think i have gained a little more clarity... but only a little.

there will be spoilers this time!!!

i think i’m having such a hard time figuring out how to even feel about this movie because honestly... there were things i liked and things i disliked and it’s just really hard to make up my mind. but maybe i don’t have to. maybe it can just exist somewhere in the middle. floating around with no clear placement on my halloween movie ranking list.

it’s definitely hard to come to terms with the fact that this won’t be another halloween kills for me. i swear to frick that movie helped me through some tough times. i would reward myself by going to see it for getting further on my thesis, and over the span of a little less than a month, i went to see it eight times in total. it became the movie i saw in theaters the most times by a MASSIVE margin so it’s immensely special to me... not to mention that it catapulted me right back into my horror movie obsession after pretty much sleeping on it for many years... kind of like... michael myers himself!!

so yeah it’s been a year where i’ve been living and breathing horror, giddily looking forward to the release of halloween ends, while also dreading it, cuz after it’s out, it’ll all be over... and like i KNOW even though they’ve gone out of their way to proclaim this as the absolute final movie, we all know our slashers and how much hollywood love to bullshit but like... it’s still quite a shock to deal with... i can’t see them making more movies in the franchise for several years at least. but like. what do i know?

the moment they started advertising this movie as being “different” and that there was only going to be “one survivor” out of the two main driving forces i already started to brace myself, but i still kept clinging to the hope that it would be satisfying and that i would love it...

soooo yeah, i really truly desperately wanted this to be my halloween kills experience 2.0. and now i need to come to terms with the fact that it won’t be that.

my personal circumstances aside...

the movie was... fine. it was fun. it entertained me, kept me on edge, and introduced some interesting concepts. michael was in it sometimes and he was very cute. he even did his iconic head tilt a few times. it would have made an excellent middle movie or a side story. if i had watched it in bulk as part of my halloween movie marathon i would really have enjoyed it. it was definitely more fun and campy than gritty and nasty, which is exactly what my taste in horror is like. but as the grand finale for an excellent trilogy and one i had been hyped for for an entire year, it fell flat on its face. the promotional material was completely false advertising. like it really made it seem like the movie would be all about the epic final battle when in reality that plotline was sidelined and tacked onto the ending while the majority of the movie was about a completely new character.

the corey in the room...

he was pretty interesting. i don’t hate him. i hate that they made such a significant movie all about him, but i found the concept behind him and his story pretty fun, and an interesting side project for michael to explore. i spent the entire movie dreading where they were going with him, from the moment they showed him wearing identical coveralls to michael... they really had me thinking they could be planning to retire michael and replace him with a new character. the absolute highlight of the movie was when michael showed up and nipped that in the bud and i could breathe easily. good job.

laurie’s ending line about evil changing shape has me a little worried not gonna lie. michael is irreplaceable. don’t even think about it. if you want a new character, make up a new franchise. please...

it did feel kinda off as a sequel to halloween kills (especially if you’ve seen the alternate extended ending but yeah)... like... maybe a bit too abrupt of a change... like i can see laurie having a change of heart to be more like her daughter wanted her to be, especially after the mass tragedies, but it was overall pretty jarring. she felt like she was from an alternate timeline for most of the movie.

i absolutely do not agree with the decision to seemingly have michael killed off and frankly i will never forgive them for it, but i understand why they did it especially in the light of the current political climate... i guess team laurie deserve a timeline where she comes out victorious... but i don’t think this timeline was the right one for it, due to how it was heavily implied that michael wasn’t even particularly focused on her this time around and that she was the one who put herself in his path... and ymmv of course but to me at least halloween is all about michael and his indestructibility and him coming out on top no matter the odds. i really wish they’d left it ambiguous... it really doesn’t feel like it aligns with the spirit of the halloween franchise. this was my favorite halloween sequel timeline, and i ended up disagreeing with how it ended. i am frankly heartbroken! but i’ll always have halloween kills... nothing can change that... it’s just... man. i wanted to love this. it’s such a massive L to take that i’m going to need some time to like... go through the five stages of grief.

i never did like the idea of michael being imprisoned for such a long ass time to begin with so maybe the only halloween timeline that is canon in my heart begins and ends with halloween (1978). i can still enjoy the other movies (halloween 5 my beloved)... but yeah. it’s such a strange jumbled franchise with so many timelines but the beauty of it is that you can just kind of pick and choose how you want the story to go personally. i mean that’s true with all fiction when all comes down to it, but it’s ESPECIALLY true with halloween.

i am really sad to see them close the curtains on this timeline, but nothing lasts forever. if there’s one thing slashers have taught us it is that no death can ever be 100% confirmed but yeah... this time it did seem really deliberate so i doubt they’re gonna follow up with anything...

...

ONLY HE CAN SAVE US NOW!!!!!!!

WHERE IS HE WHEN WE NEED HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[blissfulalchemist]

✨ 🙋‍♀️🏆❌ and 👀 for the writer emoji asks please :3

Ahh!! Thank you Lydia! I uh...got a little long at the end there because I just decided to be an over sharer. Apologies if I’ve posted any of them before!

🙋‍♀️ Do any irl people know you write fanfic?

.....Listen....people may not know exactly what I write but I tend to tell people that I write fanfic in my free time. I just get excited to share my stories and characters with people that will listen that it just kind of comes out before I can stop myself. I do also uh use it for job interviewing as it does help in showing I have something of a hobby that isn’t just watching tv and playing games. 

🏆 What's your most popular fic?

So I believe on here it’s still the phone sex piece I wrote for Hayat and Mason with that being a stand alone work that isn’t attached to a commission, in which case it would be one of the first Cat and John scenes I wrote ever! (Like even when I first started to write for them before joining the fandom on tumblr.

On my Ao3 if you go by views alone its “A Chance for Faith”, but if you go by kudos then its “A Little More Complicated Than That” which is my Sahar and tv Marc Spector.

❌ What's a trope you will never write?

Other than your standard like icky things I won’t really write things I’m not personally interested in reading or just don’t have a good handle on just what it is. Like I can’t really list off tropes as I genuinely don’t know what things are specifically all the time. While I may say I don’t like a/b/o that doesn’t mean I haven’t already possibly written it on accident (I am fairly certain though I haven’t written it as its not something that sounds like my tastes) as I just write with little regard to genre at the time of writing. I guess horror might be the only one I won’t write as like a trope because its not that I dislike it (I quite enjoy me some good horror!) I just don’t know how to and I have very little frame of reference as to what it means to create good horror that fits my style and characters, I will simply leave it to the professionals (yeah mutuals that write horror I’m looking at you!)!

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

alkdjfldjgl! Uhm....hmmm....I think I have to compliment on the ability I have to put emotions into my writing that people seem to like a lot! I always have a goal in mind that when I write things it should feel like you are feeling what the character is feeling (and hopefully not in a way that acts like I’m telling you the reader exactly how you should feel about it). I use styling of how words look, placement, and body language since these were things that I saw and read growing up that influenced how I also convey a scene. So apologies to those that don’t like the abundant use of italics, exclimations, ellipsis, single word paragraphs, and those times I just smush words together making it hard to read, its just the best way I can make the scene feel like the movie I see in my head.

I will also give a shout out to the times that I managed to subvert the intention of prompts sent in to me. Again most of the time I just let a piece take me and sometimes that means making very fluffy and domestic kind of prompts into angst sagas. 

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

God! I really haven’t written anything more significant in a long while! I have things started but nothing that hasn’t been shared before and that isn’t FFXIV related. Like I’ve touched on things but they’ve been little notes here and there so I could have reminders as to what I was thinking about with certain pieces going. In the mean time I’m gonna catch up on wip tags and sharing a little bit of everything that I think is new. There might be some stuff that gives away plot pionts to ffxiv so please be warned! 

To start here’s a little Demos from FF during Heavensward:

“Come here to drag me back to Alphinaud’s side, Yugiri,” he asks with a smile, not ready to face her quite yet.

“I actually thought I’d join you for a bit, Demos.” He nods, sitting up right to give her more space, “Why do you come up here? It’s not the easiest of places to get too.”

He shrugs, “Not that hard, but no one thinks to look up here.” They sit in silence looking over the city for a few minutes, Demos watching her relax out of the corner of his eye. “How did you know I’d be up here anyway?”

“Hm,” she looks over at him and down to the journal stuffed into the band of his belt, “Tataru gave me one of your drawings to use as a map, the perspective of it could have only been achieved from some place up high. So I just looked towards the sky.”

“I should have known it was her that’s been taking my cityscapes,” he laughs, “Was it helpful at least?”

“Quite. I use it to show the other shinobi where to be when the need arises.” She tilts her head, nodding to the journal, “Have you done anything new?”

In truth he hadn’t drawn more than a few lines for almost two weeks now, nothing here felt new or inspiring. Still she looked at him so expectantly and gods he didn’t want to disappoint her. He pulls the journal free, quickly flipping through the mass of blank pages before landing on a random one, “Oh plenty! Here take a look.” She looks at the page confused, “I call it Blizzard Forest,” he flips to a different page, “This one is more abstract and titled Collection of Snowflakes.” She looks up at his smiling face that’s holding back some laughter, the next page he flips to having a few rushed lines, “Oh this one is of the area just past the gates.” Yugiri laughs, making his smile grow as he picks yet another blank page, “This one is just a snow covered rock. And this one-.”

“Wow you really love to draw the snow don’t you,” she teases, handing the book back, “I was hoping to see something different of yours.” He sighs, giving another shrug, “Guess you would need a bit more variety of surroundings.”

“Most of my other works are either at home or Revenant's Toll….along with the better supplies.”

“Can you not find them here?”

“I can, it's just,” Demos shakes his head, “Well there’s something about using your older stuff. Like it’s not fair to give new life to something when the others have so much more to give still.” He leans forward, brown hair falling into his eyes, “It’s a weird sentiment but it’s just….” Demos gives a shrug, shaking away the thought.

“I don’t find it weird at all,” he glances up at her soft smile with wide eyes, “Sounds almost like something an old friend of mine would say.”

“From back in Doma?” She nods, eyes filling with melancholy as she looks straight ahead, “What was it like there?” He asks, pulling out the journal and pencil from his pocket, “Describe it to me.”

Here’s a little Sahar post Moon Knight show events:

“It was me,” she repeats, “I made sure Ammit was dead.” She steps forward, “Marc and Steven knew nothing about it.”

“Well clearly,” she hears Steven mumble.

“I am the current High Priestess of Khonshu, I was simply following my duty.”

“And what duty is that? By my understanding you have been very vocal about your distrust of our brethren.”

“I swore to protect the travelers in the night, to enact vengeance and justice on those that deserve it,” she tilts her head, daring them to look her in the eye, “I may be from another earth but I will not stray from my purpose.”

“Are you implying that you have become his most current avatar?”

She swallows, rolling her lips, “He needed one and I am the most qualified, don’t you agree?”

“Sahar you shouldn’t have done that,” Marc growls out, “You know what he’s capable of.”

She crosses her arms, glancing at Marc, “Exactly. The Khonshu of my earth was an opportunistic dick that had many more tricks up his sleeve making it harder to tell him no. This one is a cakewalk.”

“Is this an agreeable arrangement, Khonshu?” A goddess asks, lifting her hand prompting the old bird to speak. You better get the hint, Khonshu, After a moment she feels a chill throughout her body and a force slam into her back, gasping as she no longer feels her limbs.

“It’s not like I have much of a choice,” she says in a deeper tone, “Don’t worry I will help in keeping Jake a secret.”, “This world still needs justice to be served.”

“Are you saying that you’d rather have Marc back?”

“Well sad to say that even if he did, he can’t have us back,” Steven asserts, “We made a deal.”

“And I will uphold that deal.” Khonshu flexes her hands, “Though I could grow to like this one. She’s gained more training-.”

“And she’s stubborn enough to keep you in line. Don’t go thinkin’ we haven’t forgotten about how she’s stood up to her universe’s version of you,” Steven narrows his eyes, “Not that I like this idea of her being your avatar.”

Here’s a little bit of Anthea and their first meeting of Hythlodaeus:

The person sitting across from them exhales removing their mask and hood revealing lavender hair that goes just past the shoulders braided loosely, paired with sparkling amethyst eyes that keep Anthea entranced until he smiles softening the angles of his fair, lightly sun-kissed face. He’s one of the most beautiful people they’d seen, their brain already spouting out ideas on flowers that could be made based around him. “You‘re free to remove your mask if you’d like.” Anthea stiffens recognizing the man’s voice as the same one from the stranger she fell into. He gives a nod, “Do you wish to begin, then?”

“Hm,” Anthea blinks a few times while the words he says gain meaning in their brain, “Oh right. Yes, sorry. Uhm….” They look down in their lap at the plant bag and stack of papers beneath it, deciding to put the plant between them hoping it can mask the blush they’re sure can be seen through the one they already wear. “Apologies, normally I just send paperwork in or someone else takes it for me, rarely do I ever make the trip myself, but I felt it necessary this time around.” They take a breath, shuffling papers before looking up to see the new centerpiece does wonders to block the distraction his all too pretty face can cause. Anthea clears their throat, “Right, well, my name is Anthea and I am here to submit new flora for approval to be studied on Elpis.”

“Wonderful,” he says cheerfully, peeking around to meet their eyes, “I’ve seen the design and have been most curious about the finished product.”

His hands reach out to open the bag, Anthea quickly shooing them away, “Well see here’s the issue, mister…,” they look around the desk hoping to find a name plate before-.

“Hythlodaeus,” he smiles, folding his hands in front of him politely, “Pleasure to meet you, Anthea.”

“Same to you,” they respond quickly, looking down at their paperwork once more, I swear he’s purposely trying to show off his face which is wholly unfair. “The issue, Hythlodaeus, is that this particular flora wasn’t approved prior. It just….happened. I didn’t mean to make something so far from the design already approved, so I’m hoping for a retro approval and approval to allow Elpis to study it.”

“Hmm, I see.” He looks to their lap, “Might I see what you have written so that I can prepare myself.”

“I could uhm also just show you.”

He laughs, “I do try to be prepared for my appointments, Anthea, and I read that the last time something like this occurred you brought in a carnivorous plant of some kind.”

“No one’s going to let that one go are they,” they grumble.

And finally a little bit of Siberite during Heavensward:

She shakes her head, “No, everything is fine. I apologize for waking you.”

His body relaxes giving her an easy smile, “Good, good. No need to apologize. You just, well, you just never know in these times,” he assures with a chuckle, “How may I be of service to you?” She looks down, absently tearing at her nails, Was it truly not enough to just lay in silence?. He cocks his head to the side looking at her curiously, “What’s wrong, my friend? What’s happened?”

She takes a deep breath, “I uhm-. I was-. It’s too cold in my room, I was hoping to stay with you?”

“I can arrange to have a fire started for you.”

“No, thank you,” she says, shaking her head.

He opens his mouth only to shut it once more, giving a solemn nod with the understanding finally hitting him. “Of course,” he says, opening the door wider, “I can sleep on the chair over-.”

“No. No need to give up your bed for me.”

“Well I certainly can’t have you sleeping in the chair, it's simply not right of a gentleman to do so.”

“Then we share the bed, Haurchefant.” She looks up at him, the words having slipped out before she had a chance to stop them or even phrase the whole thing in a less direct manner. “Unless you don’t feel comfortable with that idea.”

He gives her a soft smile, “Of course not, your comfort comes first, Siberite.” She gives a single nod, finding a place easily in the bed, Haurchefant covering her delicately with the blankets before laying down next to her. Her eyes close with ease into a dreamless sleep with his even breathing as her lullabye and his warmth melting away the last of the lingering nightmare. 

When she wakes, his hand is pressed to her chest underneath her own smaller hand, leg tossed between his, and her head using his free arm as a pillow, all the while his fingers trace patterns up and down her arm with a small smile. She blinks a few times until the ash blonde hair turns back to the silver of who really is tangled up in her limbs. “Good morning,” he says with a light laugh once she finally focuses on him, “Did you sleep well?” She nods, releasing his hand and sliding back to free him fully of her grasp, the ache and pain starting once again the instant his skin is no longer in contact with hers. She stands from the bed, Haurchefant reaching for her hand, “Wait, there’s no rush. Stay. Have something to eat before you run off to be a hero.”

Siberite hugs herself, shaking her head, “I should really be going. Thank you, though, for coming to my rescue last night.”

“No need to thank me, just send for me and I’ll be there.”

His never ending smile falters as he sits up, tugging at her heart. “I’m sorry for my behavior, it-. It wasn’t fair of me to throw myself at you like that.”

[fizziepopangel]

Wrong Turn (2021, Horror)

While I wasn't aware that there was another Wrong Turn installment, I believe this is a was a kind of continuation of the Wrong Turn series. For anyone who isn't familiar with the Wrong Turn movies, the movies all six movies are based around a family of inbred cannibals. In this case, I don't believe there's much evidence of cannibals outside of a single scene set very, very late in the movie, so I'm not quite sure if this really has much to do with the original series... Either way, I watched it and now I wanna talk about it, so let's get into it.

I want to start off by saying that the movie had a solid plot in my opinion. I mean, was a bit cliched in the sense that the story centers around three couples hiking in the Appalachian Mountains and despite seemingly harmless idea of their hike, they are warned by locals in the town they're staying in while hiking that they need to stay on the marked trail because there are dangers within the forest.... And of course, being young and dumb, the group chalks these warnings up to ramblings from a town of hillbillies, and they do end up straying from the path. Anyone who has seen a horror movie and has even a quarter of a braincell could've told you that they wouldn't stay on the path, so it wasn't all that original in that sense of things, just like anyone who has seen the original Wrong Turn series could tell you that there would be a lot of traps set for the purpose of hunting, and that a lot of those traps would involve some very pointy spikes. While I appreciated the gore that came from both of these decisions, I saw them coming based on my knowledge of the common sense of most people in horror movies and my prior knowledge of the series I believe this to be a part of. The real thing that was interesting to me was the hunters.

Now, as I previously mentioned, the original Wrong Turn series featured a family of inbred cannibals. For anyone who doesn't know how inbreeding happens, the technical meaning of it is when breeding happens between 2 closely related people or animals.... It tends to be what people call it when incest occurs over generations. On top of being plain icky, inbreeding can cause a whole host of issues in a person's genetic make-up because it increases the chances of the next generation to inherit genetic disorders. After generations of this, the people who are products of this can have physical deformities and mental disorders that drastically effect their quality of life. In the original series, the cannibals in question had been the product of generations of inbreeding that resulted in a host of issues ranging from things that seemed to effect their physical appearances to things that effected their communication abilities, leaving them to communicate in mainly animalistic grunts....

The 2021 take doesn't seem to have any of that. The hunters in this movie are actually villagers from a town called The Foundation that formed in 1859 before the war and the village inhabitants have no outright signs of inbreeding. Though they speak a different language and honestly appear to have a very cult-ish look, members of the village seem to be well spoken and don't seem to have any deformities or disabilities; when spoken to, the leader of the village even goes as far as telling the group of hikers that they have no cancer due to their way of life within the mountains. And despite the cannibalistic nature of those in the original movies, the villagers within this take hunt for game within the forest and burn the bodies of the dead rather than eating them. The village even has its own justice system that comes complete with a sort of prison where people are put for trespassing or stealing from the village community, and though we only get a glimpse of it, it seems to be filled with the outsiders who wandered into the forest and never wandered back out. I'm not gonna say that I disliked this change, but I did feel kinda cheated out of the classic cannibal aspect of the series.

Ok, so plot changes aside, I want to talk about the level of gore. I am a strong believer that there's never such a thing as too much gore as long as it's well done and doesn't subtract from the plot of the story being told. Gore is actually the biggest reason I enjoyed the original Wrong Turn movies, and honestly tends to play a big role in most of the horror movies I enjoy, but I will admit that I wasn't as focused on the bloody part of the 2021 take on Wrong Turn as I was on the plot and the changes I mentioned before, but there were still a few gorier scenes that definitely deserve some props for the makeup, prosthetics, and use of fake blood. It was extremely well done and started early enough to keep me entertained since we got to see the aftermath of an incident withing the first 20 minutes of the movie!

In all honesty, the biggest issue I had with this instalment was actually that I wished it ended more like my favorite instalment of the series, Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings.... If you know you know. Aside from that little note on the beginning, I actually quite liked the movie as a whole and would absolutely recommend this to someone looking for something good to watch, especially since the movie is different enough that it can be watched as a complete stand alone for anyone who isn't interested in the inbred cannibal bit of the series. It's a shoe in for my official recommendation list when it comes to horror movies and eared itself a solid 8/10

[minmos]

for the horror ask - 2, 5, 8, 10 and 26

ty for the ask!! >:)

2. answered!

5. bright red blood or dark red blood?

dark red blood all the way!

8. a beloved movie you dislike

sorry i hated halloween. i barely remember anything from it except that i hated it.

10. answered!

26. body horror vs gore?

omg... i like body horror better personally just bc its fun to Get Weird with It! a lot of gore sfx kind of looks the same and when they do get original with it, it ends up being ridiculous enough that i get taken out of it LOL

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION, A LITTLE MORE REACTION

Check out Your Humble Narrator's short article, online at Phoenix Magazine, about the upcoming TCM/Fathom Events revival of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at select AMC Theatres on Sunday, September 4, Monday September 5 and Thursday September 8...

...and also of the showing of Nosferatu at the Orpheum Theatre here in Phoenix next Tuesday.

It's bad enough that Nosferatu is marking its centennial this year, but it's really irksome that Wrath of Khan is being shown in observance of its fortieth anniversary. Wrath of Khan is forty freakin' years old.

I have a bit of personal history with this film. My review of Wrath of Khan was the first movie review of mine ever to appear in a daily newspaper, the Erie Times-News. I was twenty years old, and had been submitting my work to the editors there for a while without success. My break came because the regular reviewer disliked sci-fi, and horror, and action pictures, and pretty much any kind of movie in which, as he liked to put it, "the dialogue appears in word balloons over the characters' heads."

Needless to say, I was more than happy to relieve him of this beat, and Wrath of Khan was my first opportunity to do so. I dragged my then-girlfriend to it at the Strand on 10th Street in Erie. I think she was a little taken aback at how much I responded to it. She knew I was a nerd; she didn't know I was that much of a nerd.

Forty years later, it's still a favorite of mine. All these years, however, I've had a complaint about the movie, and I doubt there will be a better occasion than now to air it. But it involves a moment at the very climatic moment of the film, so if you've never seen it, and want to discover it for yourself, consider this a MAJOR SPOILER warning.

Okay, for those still reading: Near the end of Wrath of Khan, Kirk's titular nemesis, grandly played by Ricardo Montalban, is dying aboard the starship Reliant, scarred by radiation burns, but still lashing out at Kirk by trying to detonate the Genesis Device, spewing Ahab's invective toward Moby-Dick all the while. Meanwhile Kirk, aboard the Enterprise, and his crew are frantically trying to regain warp speed so that they can escape the blast zone. The director, Nicholas Meyer, cuts between the two vessels, with Khan's crazed, disfigured face gleefully watching the Enterprise on his viewscreen.

At the last second, of course, warp speed is attained, and the Enterprise zips away to safety as the Reliant explodes behind her. Yay, the good guys win; all is well, except...Meyer doesn't cut to a reaction shot so that we can see Khan register, in that final second, that Kirk has defeated him once and for all.

I've never understood this omission. Everything about the way the scene is shot and edited up to that point seems to set up such a reaction shot, maybe even a final "NOOOOO!" from Montalban. It would have been the perfect payoff to Kirk's much-parodied roar of "KHAAAAAN!" earlier in the film.

I'm well aware that the reason for the dissatisfaction I feel at the lack of this shot has to do with my persistent, spiteful feelings about revenge in melodramas. Khan himself, in this movie, quotes a "Klingon proverb" that "revenge is a dish best served cold," but the innumerable action pictures that end with the bad guy simply being killed leave me cold; they're entirely unsatisfying. Far better that they should live long to wallow in their defeat; at a minimum, they should die knowing that they've lost. There are a few movies that have grasped this: the original Cape Fear, also The Princess Bride among them. But few movies have ever left me hanging in this regard as badly as Wrath of Khan, wonderful as it is.

Was such a shot planned, but never shot? Was it shot, but cut for some deliberate reason, or just for time? Did Montalban have to leave early that day? Or was it truly never considered? If I ever get the chance to interview Meyer (no matter what the subject of the interview is supposed to be), these are likely to be the first questions I ask him. Or, by some chance, does the shot exist after all, and is it at last included in the "Director's Cut" being shown at the TCM/Fathom Events revival?

In the meantime, I'll ask you: Am I the only one that ever noticed this or felt this way?