#the boogie man has HORRIFIC endings

[pinkseas]

i genuinely cannot imagine going into the hanged man blind and getting one of the bad endings. like holy SHIT. “oh cool a little horror game” and then you get the cornered rat ending LIKEEEEEEEE. YIKERS !!!!!!!!!

[svthub]

welcome to the disco! choose your partner for a whirl around the dance floor to the grooviest tracks today. get funky as you boogie the night away.

This collab will contain a combination of SFW and NSFW works. See each individual fic for tags and warnings.

Join the 70s;teen taglist!

dancing queen ~*~ @duhnova

[NSFW] smut, fluff, tiny bit of angst ~*~ disco club owner!choi seungcheol x performer!reader (fem)

the stage is where you felt the most comfortable, letting go and singing for everyone that would sit and listen. but it was hard making a living in america, every corner you turned there was trouble waiting for you because you were too comfortable with your sexuality for the public’s liking. so when you stepped off the ship that took you to your new life in paris, you were surprised to collide with a disco club owner who was in a similar boat as you.

every summertime ~*~ @lovelyhan

[NSFW] smut ~*~ jeonghan x reader

you're not really interested in the run-down record shop back in your hometown. but people aren't oblivious to the way you keep trying to get into the owner's pants—not even the owner himself.

curse the stars ~*~ @shuadotcom

[NSFW] smut, fluff, strangers to lovers au, 70s au~*~ salesman!joshua x starlet afab!reader

meeting someone at the disco to take home for the night is customary for you, especially in your line of work. but meeting this man on this night at this disco feels more like fate as joshua becomes much more than just your routine one night stand.

do re mi ~*~ @onlymingyus

[NSFW] fluff, smut~*~ junhui x wife!reader

synopsis: you were from different worlds. he was responsible, frugal, and sensible. you were a child of the times, a free spirit. the house had problems and it was small, but at the end of the day it was home…you were home.

with the band ~*~ @the-boy-meets-evil

[NSFW] band!au, smut, angst ~*~ drummer!soonyoung x journalist!reader (afab)

you’re fresh out of college with big dreams about changing the world with your words on a page. the last thing you expect is to end up covering a tour and you certainly don’t expect to fight falling for the drummer. what happens on tour, stays on tour, right?

rogue ~*~ @smileysuh

[NSFW] strangers to lovers, slow burn, smut ~*~ wonwoo x afab reader

“lay back,” he instructs next. “I’m going to take your panties off.” your heart races in your chest as you realize what he’s about to do, and you fall onto your elbows on the hood of his car, breathing heavily as wonwoo leans down and begins to press kisses up your bare legs. his fingers hook in your panties, and he drags them down, exposing your hot core to the cool evening air. You can’t help the gasp that leaves you, and as wonwoo positions your thighs over his broad shoulders, you think you might actually faint from the tension.

all about that bass ~*~ @angelwoozi

[NSFW] fluff, smut, band!au, neighbour au ~*~ bassist!jihoon x reader (afab)

the first time you meet your neighbour, it's when he is rolling up to his driveway for the first time, the cheapest skates with him. after that, you always try to get a peek of him when you hear his door slam, because oh my my he is so cute. little did you know that your cute neighbour can also work a crowd like he owns it, all with his bass and his presence.

manhattan sunrise ~*~ @seokgyuu

[NSFW] detective!au, criminal minds! au, crime, exes to lovers, angst, smut ~*~ detective!seokmin x fbiagent!reader

lee seokmin is a very successful and admired detective in the NYPD. pp until now he has had no trouble catching the bad guys. but when an especially horrific serial killer starts roaming the streets of new york city and he faces perplexity for the first time in his career - his superiors send a unit from the FBI trained to profile serial killers, which contains none other than you - seokmin’s high school sweetheart.

tight laced ~*~ @drunk-on-dk

[NSFW] fluff, smut, roller rink au ~*~ shop clerk!mingyu x afab!reader

it was kim mingyu who sold you your first pair of roller skates. regardless of the fact you were born with two left feet, a tired student, and were running low on funds, the charming clerk somehow convinced you it would be worth every penny. maybe it would be worth it to join your friends for midnight skates rather than being cooped up studying on weekends. however, the main selling point? skating lessons were included

darling i’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream • @dkakapizzaboy

[NSFW] crime, mystery, suggestive ~*~ conman! minghao x fem! reader

minghao has had a pretty easy life…partly due to his sharp looks, but mostly due to his even sharper mind. his day job, you ask? oh, just your average little joe conning wealthy women out of thousands of dollars …until he meets you.

aretha franklin and otis redding ~*~ @wonwussy

[SFW] angst, fluff ~*~ seungkwan

your brother had been labeled mia soon after he left for the war. three years later, the war has ended, and you know he's not coming home. maybe this stranger can help you find a little peace.

remember when ~*~ @multi-kpop-fanfics

[NSFW] fluff, comedy, angst, suggestive, childhood friends to lovers to exes to friends ~*~ vernon x fem!reader

growing up in the suburbs of athens during the seventies was turbulent to say the least - but is it turbulent enough to break the backyard trio friendship? only time could tell.

mood rings, drive thru theaters, and the latest issue of tiger beat ~*~ @bitchlessdino

[NSFW] angst, smut, fluff ~*~ lee chan x college student!reader (afab)

when you fall in love, it can feel like you’ll be with that person forever, that there isn’t another being in the world you rather be with. This case is just as heavy in your youth, tutoring a boy you’ve only ever walked circles around, while you wear a mood ring from his parents souvenir shop so you could feel closer to him. When it happens, you don’t expect things to crash harder than the way they do.

[thedemonconnie]

The Third Circle

The third circle(the circle of sloth) is a giant desert-cave system, filled with sharp rocks and black sand 

It’s a mining city, filled with tracks, mine carts, forges, and valuable materials hiding in the rock,

The buildings here are mostly made of clay and stone, it’s widely regarded as a poor demon’s city, a city for peasants

Those who took credit for hard work at the expense of others, those who took the easy and destructive route instead of trying to find a sustainable workaround. Or those who simply ignored their or others problems, are being tortured, by being forced to mine the rock endlessly, or without food, water, rest or safety regulations, if a human stops working, they're beaten bloody by the demons who supervise the mining. If a human "dies" here their bodies regenerate in hell and they're forced back into work.  they also receive no protection from the occasional black sandstorms that blow through, If it gets in your eyes it can cause violent hallucinations and nightmares 

And no demons will come to help them if that happens just as they refused to help those who begged for it

Demons are provided with saftey equipment and maps, if a human tries to look at these maps, the writing will appear incomprehensible to the human making it useless

Occasionally demons will throw humans into the caves promising them they'll be free if they can find a way out; the thing is there is no way out

And most of the time the humans go mad and end up killings themselves the rest of the time they're hunted down for sport.

The ruler of this circle is the Prince of Sloth; Belphegor

He lives in dark cold stone palace covered overgrown with thick black roots of unknown plant these roots crowd the caves,  the palace overlooks the city portion of the circle 

He is a tall lanky creature standing at 8 feet, 6 inches tall, he has dark skin with black roots growing in it; Except his face on his face he has what looks like a deer skull painted on it, but it’s not paint at all, it’s part of his skin 

He has dark brown hair usually unbrushed and usually worn in a ponytail on his head he has huge antlers tainted with black sand, 

His legs bend backwards like the hind legs of a deer, his feet while having toes and made of flesh and bone are angled and snapped and bent to look like deer feet, also dusty looking

Thankfully they are often hidden by his shoes

His clothes are brown and a bit torn but he doesn’t care to fix them, He dresses like it’s the 70s all over again

His eyes are light brown on earth but in hell they  look completely black and sunken in with a light in the center, 

he doesn't do his princely duties very well because he prefers to focus his time and attention to his personal projects,

His voice is energetic and oddly enthusiastic 

But often distorted, and he can move VERY fast, he is also a master contortionist able to twist his body with ease, he can make his face claylike as well to twist it into horrific faces

He is also Lucifer's (self-admittedly)

least-favorite prince

He is able to become a shadow, creeping through the cracks in the walls, and is able to posses the shadows of others as well, he's a demon who gets High off the fear of others

, he's every moving shadow in your closet, every monster under the bed. He was very notorious for these acts to the point that he got a new name out of it; "The Boogie Man." He loves to terrorize children he finds their terrified expressions hilarious especially right before killing them. He relies on the doubt of his victims’s peers to get to them, for who would believe their ravings that a deer demon is stalking them. 

He also loooves horses, not just any horses mind you but his own personal horses, that he created himself, called night-mares, made of black sand, with curved horns, and flesh tearing teeth, with the ability to smell fear(it riled them up), and he loves them dearly, He loves petting with them, talking with them, riding them

Sometimes he’ll issue a mare to a high ranked demon (usually a knightly one) but they have to take good care of them!  

The consequences of Hurting a night mare.. are dire

[ordinaryschmuck]

Alright, Disney, I'm gonna level with you here. In the last ninety-six years you've been around, you have approved:

Ursula getting harpooned by a ship in The Little Mermaid

Clayton getting hanged in Tarzan

Dumbo being an underage drinker

Pinocchio being forced to watch the horrific display of one his friends being turned into a donkey. Followed up with a scene of the rest of his donkey friends being sold into slavery.

A scene in Gravity Falls where a kid gets eaten by a monster made of black licorice and candy corn while the same kid said he was traumatized at the end of the episode.

Mr. Incredible finding out that all his closest friends had died horrifically to the clutches of a mad man.

Mufasa getting thrown off a cliff by his brother, trampled to death by wildebeests and having Mufasa's corpse poked and prodded by Simba.

A scene in the Star Vs. The Forces of Evil series finale, where a character blows up into purple confetti, while everyone around him SCREAMS IN HORROR! I AM NOT MAKING THIS SHIT UP!

A clone of Wendy from Gravity Falls being hit in the stomach with a fire ax.

Santa Claus getting tortured by Oogie Boogie in The Nightmare Before Christmas.

The Toys in Toy Story 3 holding hands and accepting their fate of being fed to an incinerator.

Imply that Eugene from Tangled is going get hanged as punishment for stealing a tiara. And after he escapes that, he gets shanked by a bitch and actually dies! (It for a minute and a half, sure, but still.)

Have Skinner take advantage of Linguini while he's drunk off of wine.

The Horned King from The Black Cauldron.

A scene in Gravity Falls where Mr. Northwest has the functions of every hole in his face get shuffled like a deck of cards.

Cassandra's arm getting dissolved in Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure.

The entirity of "Night on Bald Mountain."

The anglerfish from Finding Nemo

The frogs of Amphibia accepting the idea that they're going to die, and say potential goodbyes to each other.

A scene where Vasquez from Big City Greens says that he's going to go back to being in the secret service. Which is followed up with a fantasy sequence of him SNAPPING A GUYS NECK AND HIDING THE BODY IN THE BUSHES! AGAIN, NOT MAKING THIS SHIT UP!

And the episode "Northwest Mansion Mystery" from Gravity Falls. Which has a scene where mounted animal heads are speaking a demonic language, while blood is dripping out of their eyes, mouths, and noses. And while that's going on, a flaming skeleton with an ax in his forehead is coming out of the fireplace as if he's crawling out of the pits of Hell itself. Once he's completely out, his body tissue reforms and he summons another ax, that is implied to be used on a twelve-year-old girl...A TWELVE-YEAR-OLD GIRL!

You approved of ALL OF THAT, and yet parents still haven't come down on you for bat-shit crazy y'all are. And if you can do that, then for once-just fricken' once-you can throw a certain group a bone and allow this:

Because if you don’t, I’m listing the racist stuff next.

[brentwatchesmovies]

Brent’s Top 10 Movies of 2019

Scorsese is probably my favorite living filmmaker, but I’ll be honest, when I heard that Scorsese was making this movie, and *how* he was making it (heavily digital de-aged actors) I was a bit skeptical. De Niro and Pacino haven’t been turning in interesting performances in quite awhile, and Pesci came out of a decades-long retirement for the movie as well. On top of that, the first trailer released did little for me. All that to say I was an idiot to doubt the master.

Scorsese returns to the crime genre that he re-invented many times over the years, this time with the eyes of a man in his 70’s, looking back on his life and career. The movie is very long, but in my opinion, it needs the length. The viewer needs to *feel* the totality of a life, and as is his intent with The Irishman, the *consequences* of this specific life. The final hour or so of this movie feels like a culmination of Scorsese’s career in many ways. The energy and entertainment of a crime/mob epic, with the fatalism and philosophical leanings of a movie like ‘Silence’. It’s a 3.5 hour movie that I’ve already rewatched, and actively want to again, so that alone ought to speak volumes.

Harmony Korine made one of my favorite movies of the 2010’s, the neon-soaked and often misunderstood ‘Spring Breakers’, so I was already in the bag for whatever he did next. When I heard it was a freewheeling stoner comedy where Matthew Mcconaughey plays a guy named ‘Moondog’ costarring Snoop Dogg, I reserved its location on my top 10 list.

This movie doesn’t have the empty heart at its core that defines Spring Breakers, opting instead for a character study about a ‘Florida man’ poet after his life pretty much falls apart. It’s basically plotless, stumbling from one insane, borderline hallucinatory sequence to the next, but I just loved living in the world of this movie. Beach Bum almost feels like a deliriously fun VR simulation of hanging out with Matt McConaughey and his weirdo friends down in the Florida keys. This is one that probably won’t pop up on many top 10 lists but I really adore, and will surely rewatch it a dozen times in the years to come.

Let the record show, I’ve been a huge fan of Bong Joon-ho since I first saw his monster movie/family drama ‘The Host’. Some time later, he went on to make ‘Snowpiercer’, one of my favorite movies of the last decade. All that to say, I think Parasite is probably his best movie, and a true masterwork of thriller direction. It also has his usual brand of social commentary and a script filled with darkness and humor, following a South Korean tendency to juggle multiple tones throughout, sometimes all in one moment or scene.

Parasite also follows a big 2019 trend of commenting on class and social dynamics between the rich and the poor. I think that’s part of why it’s done incredibly well at the box office (especially for a Korean language film), the fact that people can relate in a huge way, regardless of which country your from. Parasite is one of the most entertaining movie viewing experiences I’ve had this year and I’d recommend everyone check it out.

If you were to ask me what the funnest movie-going experience I had in 2019 was, I’d have to pick Rian Johnson’s ‘Knives Out’. Hot off making one of the best Star Wars movies ever made (don’t @ me) Johnson decided to make a passion project in the vein of classic Agatha Christie style murder mysteries, and the results are a total blast. Filled with clever twists and turns, weaponizing the structure of murder-mysteries against the audiences expectations, it stays one step ahead of you the entire time.

Aside from the clever mystery of it all, it’s the actors performances and chemistry that really sell this thing. Jamie Lee Curtis and Toni Collette are expectedly great per usual, and Daniel Craig is having the time of his life as Mississippi private-eye Benoit Blanc, but the heart of the movie is relative newcomer Ana de Armas. She brings an emotional weight and anchor to the movie that always keeps you emotionally invested amidst the terrible, money hungry backstabbing by the other heightened characters. I hope everyone sees this movie and Johnson is able to give us another Benoit Blanc adventure somewhere down the line, I’ll be there opening day.

Nobody makes an upbeat, feel-good movie like Ari Aster does! After last years light and breezy ‘Hereditary’ (which I liked a lot but didn’t totally love) he’s back with a completely riveting and emotionally draining (not to mention horrific) masterpiece. What I connected to most in Midsommar is the journey of Dani, played incredibly by Florence Pugh. The way the film portrays the relationship between her and her dog shit boyfriend played by the (usually) charming Jack Reynor keeps you invested in every twist, perfectly paced out over the movies admittedly long runtime.

I won’t get into spoiler territory, but where this movie goes in the end is what makes this a fully 5-star movie for me. After putting you through hell, like Aster loves to do with bells on, Midsommar ends in a euphoric, psychedelic orgy of music and violence that I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Midsommar rules so hard and I can’t wait for whatever twisted thing Aster cooks up next.

One of my increasingly favorite brands of movies is a finely crafted, primo slice of dad-movie cinema, and James Mangold has made one with Ford v Ferrari. The story chronicles the partnership of ex-racer and designer Carroll Shelby and racer Ken Miles as they work to make a Ford that can compete in the 24 hour race of Le Mans. Bale and Damon are a blast to watch bounce off each other and the race sequences are pretty damn thrilling, combining (what I expect is) a solid amount of great VFX with practical racing to great effect.

I also didn’t expect it to have as much to say about the struggle to create something special by passionate people and not committees while also inside the very machine that churns out products on an assembly line. Just a random note, this original movie was just put out by 20th Century Fox, now owned by Disney but that’s completely unrelated and I’m not sure why I’d even bring that up??? Anyway, I love this movie and dads, moms and everybody else should check it out.

If you saw my list last year, then it must appear like I’m some diehard Mr. Rogers fan. I don’t really have many memories watching his show as a child, but what the documentary ‘Won’t You be my Neighbor’ and this film by Marielle Heller have in common is a shared fascination of his immense empathy and character. It’s only right that America’s dad Tom Hanks should play him, and I was surprised at the end that I was able to get over his stardom and accept him as Rogers. He’s not doing a direct impersonation, and I think it’s all the better for it, instead opting for matching his soft tone and laid back movements.

On a pure emotional level, this movie was a freight train. It didn’t help that the movie covers a lot of father stuff, from losing your own to becoming one yourself (2 big boxes on the Brent bingo card). Heller’s direction is clever in its weaponizing of meta/post-modern techniques, such as one incredible fourth wall break in a diner scene. It literally breaks down the barrier between Mr. Rogers, we the audience, and the films intent to make us feel something.

I cry a lot at movies, that much is well known, but it’s rare that a movie makes me weep, and this one did. Even thinking about scenes right now, days later, my eyes are welling up with tears thinking about the messages of the movie. Mr. Rogers and his lessons of empathy and emotional understanding have rarely been as vital and important as they are right now in our world.

Robert Eggers first film ‘The Witch’ from 2015 is one of my favorite movies of this decade, possibly of all time, so my hype for his black and white, period piece two-hander ‘The Lighthouse’ was through the roof. Even with sky-high expectations, it still blew me away. With dialogue reminiscent of The Witch in its specific authenticity to its era, to the two lead actors giving all-time great performances, It was one of the most entertaining film viewing experiences I had this year.

There’s something about both of Egger’s movies that I really keyed into watching this one: his fascination with shame and the liberation from it. Where Witch was from the female perspective, Lighthouse literally has two farting, drunk men in a giant phallic symbol fighting for dominance. It’s less a horror film than his first, but still utterly engrossing, demented and specific to his singular vision. I can’t wait to see 20 more movies from this guy.

This is another big movie of 2019, like The Irishman, where you can see the director looking inward, at what his films mean and represent. It initially caught me so off guard that I really didn’t know how to feel about it, but after seeing it again, it’s one of my favorites of the year, and probably Tarantino’s filmography overall. More akin to something like Boogie Nights or Dazed and Confused, letting us live with and follow a small group of characters, it mostly doesn’t feel like a Tarantino movie (until the inevitable and shocking explosion of violence in the third act, of course).

‘Hollywood’ is the most sincere and loving movie Tarantino has made, interested in giving us a send off to an era of Hollywood and artists that have been lost or forgotten (Some more tragically than others). In the end, the movie functions similarly to ‘Inglorious Basterds’ in it’s rewriting of history to give us catharsis. “If only things could have worked out this way.” Luckily in movies, removed from the restrictions of reality, they can. And once upon a time in Hollywood, they did.

Uncut Gems probably tripled my blood pressure by the time the credits rolled. A slice-of-life story about a gambler/dealer in New York’s diamond district, the movie follows Howard Ratner, played by Adam Sandler in easily the best performance of his career. Ratner is basically addicted to living at the edge of a cliff, being chased by violent debt collectors, juggling a home life and a relationship with an employee, and fully relying on risky sports bets to stay afloat. It makes for a consistently tense and unique viewing experience, expertly directed by the Safdie brothers.

Something that might not work for everyone but that I personally loved, is the chaotic way in which the movie is shot. What feels like loosely directed scenes, with characters talking over each other and multiple conversations happening at once, adds an authenticity and reality lacking from most other movies. It’s more adjacent to Linklater (thanks to Adam for the comparison) or Scorsese’s earlier films (also fitting, that he’s a producer on this). Following Howard Ratner as his life descends into chaotic hell was one of the best times I’ve had watching a movie this year.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

AVENGERS ENDGAME

DOLEMITE IS MY NAME

BOOKSMART

JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3

THE FAREWELL

AD ASTRA

[baconsoupforthesoul]

The Ink Demonth - Day 2 - Memory

Ghosts of the Past

A/N: Since the first drabble I wrote for the Ink Demonth last year was for the Bioshock au, I figured I’d stick with tradition and whip something up for my fav AU. Also, the song I reference at the beginning is The Boogie Man by Todd Rollins which you can listen to here. As always, Henry belongs to the lovely @inkspottie​ and I hope you all enjoy~

“Boo, I'm the Boogie Man

The terrible, horrible Boogie Man

I come in the middle of the night and frighten, bad little girls like you~”

Henry shivered as he heard the music wafting out of a nearby speaker. He didn’t know if the music was a welcome change or not to the sounds of splicer chatter, or the uneasy vacant silence, punctured only by the groans of the aging underwater city. Henry shivers, feeling the cold wrench in his hand and the frigid air around him. His sweater didn’t help much here at the bottom of the ocean as he feels the chill seep down into his bones.

As Henry slowly makes his way past ripped banners and overturned chairs, he gulps when he sees a large bloodstain smeared along the carpet, leading to a decaying corpse leaning against the wall. He felt sick, his stomach heaving unpleasantly as he holds his hand over his mouth. Good god… how could a place this horrifying even exist? This dying city at the bottom of the sea. Who in the right minds would build something like this?

“Hey, what’s the holdup, boyo? If you don’t get moving the splicers will be coming outta the woodwork for ya. Get a move on!” An Irish accented voice chastised him over the radio hanging off his hip, shaking Henry out of his horror-filled stupor as he winced at the loud volume.

“I’m going, I’m going,” Henry answered back. “There’s no need to shout,” he mumbled to himself. While Shawn had said he wanted to help guide Henry out of this place, he could certainly have a harsh edge to him at times. It wasn’t helping Henry’s already fried nerves, that was for certain.

Henry tiptoed softly forward, trying his best to ignore the smell of decay hanging in the air. There was another foul stench in the air though, and Henry found its source when he turned a corner. The neon glow from the ‘Dames’ and ‘Gents’ bathroom signs flickered as Henry cautiously approached. The sweater-clad man hesitantly peeks around the corner of the ‘Gents’ bathroom and breathed a sigh of relief that it was vacant.

As he stepped lightly into the bathroom though, Henry’s vision started to get fuzzy around the edges. He hissed, feeling a sharp pain in his temple as he clutched at his head. Not again! His meds must really be wearing off cause the pain in his head just kept getting worse. As Henry looked up though, determined to press on despite the pain, he stopped. His eyes widened as he stood there, frozen to the spot. Everything seemed too… bright. This whole studio was so dark but it was like someone had just switched on the sun at the bottom of the ocean. But that wasn’t what gave Henry pause.

He saw a figure of a person in front of him. Henry could just barely make out the outline of them as if they weren’t quite there. There was no color to them, just that same blinding white light that shown all around him.

Was… was that a ghost?

Henry couldn’t think of any other explanation as he stared wide eyed at the outline of a man leaning against a bathroom stall door. His heart started to pound in his chest as he took a step back, his whole body shaking. Henry suddenly jumped though when another indistinct figure walked right by him, approaching the other ghost in the bathroom.

“Why in the world are we meeting in a dump like this, huh?” the figure striding in asked.

“Listen, you think I like meeting here?” the other man scoffed. “There’s just eyes and ears everywhere around this place. Can’t be too careful.”

Henry felt frozen to the spot as he listened to the two figures converse as if he wasn’t even there. He could clearly hear their voices but… it was like it was coming in through a faulty radio, the volume shifting and the words fading in and out slightly.

“What’s this all ‘bout then?” the newcomer huffed, crossing his arms.

“Listen to me,” The first man stepped forward. “This studio… to put it bluntly… is going to hell in a hand basket. You know it as well as I.”

“Ain't that the understatement of the century,” the second ghost complained. “Any joker can see this place is going downhill fast.”

“Exactly,” the other one agreed vehemently, stepping forward. “We have to do something about it before it’s too late!”

“We sure do but…” the one who entered paused, scratching his chin. “While the man at the top has clearly lost his marbles… he’s still the head honcho. And there’s been… rumors… going around about what he’s doing to folks who step outta line...”

“I know, I know,” the first man butted in, his voice tinged with worry. “But we have to do something. Before… before it’s too late…” “Alright, alright,” the second one holds his hands up in surrender. “I’ll hear you out, but if this plan of yours sounds like a one-way ticket to getting us killed, I’m outta here.”

And with that final statement, the two figures vanished, as if they hadn’t been there in the first place.

Henry took in a sharp breath as he backed up, running into the wall behind him. He ran a hand through his hair, clutching at it as he tried to make sense of what he just saw. It was one thing to suddenly find oneself in an underwater city after being in a horrific plane crash but… ghosts? Was he seeing things? Had he finally lost it after not taking his meds and being stuck down here with a bunch of murderous splicers? He had never had a paranormal experience in his life and he had just seen not one but two full-body apparitions. What was even happening in this studio?

“I thought I said to get a move on!” Henry jumped as Shawn’s voice crackled over the radio again, clearly annoyed with him. “Are ya gonna stand there all day? Or do ya want ta get out of this hell hole?”

“Y-yeah… sorry…” Henry gulped, his whole body shaking as he unsteadily moved away from the wall. “I just… thought I saw something…”

He considered telling Shawn about what he just saw but… would that just make him sound like a lunatic? He needed the man’s help, he didn’t want Shawn to abandon him cause he thought he had a few screws loose. Best to keep this to himself for now.

But their voices… they had sounded so real. He could still hear them echoing in his head even now. Those weren’t just whispers… but coherent sentences. Could he really have hallucinated that?

Henry didn’t have any answers, and that just made it worse. He was stuck down here, lost and confused, with only the impatient man on the radio to guide him through it. There seemed to be no end to the strange and nightmarish phenomenon this studio had to offer, and Henry just prayed he would survive it to see the sun again.

[thefudge]

Just out of curiosity, did you read JK's essay? I don't support everything in it but many parts resonated with me. Not to mention the horrific online abuse hurled at her, especially the countless, countless "choke on my dick" phrases thrown at her which are so violently misogynistic, it left me with a deep seated feeling of not only discomfort but fear as well. Idk I guess I just felt safe sending this because your blog seems more open to discussion from the other side instead of instant cancel.

i’m glad you think so about this blog and i hope that remains the case.

i didn’t have a chance to read JK’s essay until today (my previous ask about her was written before that) but here are some very, very imperfect thoughts on it:

the essay confirmed my previous take that she has inoculated herself against certain outside arguments but it’s also made me wonder about JK’s understanding of gender and sex. She is very attached to “natal women” and calling all people who menstruate “women” because of “common experiences”, despite the fact that her beloved de Beauvoir, whom she quotes in the essay extensively, acknowledged that “woman” is a social construct. JK herself at one point complains about having to comply with the rules of femininity while growing up and how it made her want to stop being female, so what is the truth? She argues that young girls shouldn’t be thinking about transitioning just because they are made to hate their femaleness but that’s!!! exactly what!!! pushing the term “woman” as sacrosanct does to girls!!! most of what JK felt in her childhood was the kind of misogyny which connects women strictly to their uterus. it made being male a better alternative precisely because of the gate-keeping of penis/vagina. a young girl who acted like a tomboy, for instance, would be criticized for trying to deny her sex, because deep down her biology still made her a “woman”. both sex and gender cannot be divorced from socio-cultural realities, because we act with our bodies and embody what we act. so, if we expand what it means to be a “man” and a “woman”, we liberate, not confine. JK wants young people to feel free to be whoever they want to be, but they must be called “women” when discussing menstruation or else (i won’t even go into the obvious addition that many cis and trans women exist who cannot or no longer menstruate).

Now, she does bring up some fair points about cancel culture and freedom of expression that I will level with, but the problem is that the nuancing she is trying to achieve also serves as weirdly specific dog-whistling. So let me address that:

(warning: spoilers for the Cormoran Strike series)

Right off the bat, we have this explanation added in her intro: 

“On one level, my interest in this issue has been professional, because I’m writing a crime series, set in the present day, and my fictional female detective is of an age to be interested in, and affected by, these issues herself (...)”  

and already, i’m asking questions. how is Robin Ellacott, one of the protagonists of the Strike series, “affected" by these issues, personally? she’s “of an age” to...what? be gender critical? there’s not a lot of that in the novels (unless you count Robin being tall and knowing how to drive well being framed as anti-girly...).  How does crime relate to it? How is she connected to this really? 

the real connection JK wants us to see because she’ll reveal it later in the essay is that Robin was r*ped in college. she’s a sexual assault survivor, which must make her critically engaged with the fate of trans women because....because underneath JK’s empty statement about her female detective....is the correlation that men “disguised” as trans women can perpetrate the same sort of horrific abuse.  she keeps making this correlation throughout the essay.

Here she talks about various people who’ve reached out to her:

They’re worried about the dangers to young people, gay people and about the erosion of women’s and girl’s rights. Above all, they’re worried about a climate of fear that serves nobody – least of all trans youth – well.

And again here:

“So I want trans women to be safe. At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe. When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman – and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones – then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside. That is the simple truth.”

This one is my favorite because it’s so twisted (here she’s listing her charity work):

“The second reason is that I’m an ex-teacher and the founder of a children’s charity, which gives me an interest in both education and safeguarding. Like many others, I have deep concerns about the effect the trans rights movement is having on both.”

“safeguarding”

hmmmm

What JK wants to spell out with these “common sense” arguments is that she fears that trans women are predatory, and the most convincing argument she can bring, ultimately, is that she herself has been the victim of sexual abuse and therefore, that potential fear never goes away. That’s a very dangerous leap to make. The climate of “fear” she mentions is also connected to cancel culture, of course. She fears women won’t be able to express their opinions online without receiving various amounts of vitriol. But you see how she has merged all three issues together? So that if you agree with one, you must agree with the others. Because yes, cancel culture often goes too far, and yes it is a real issue, but to say that the trans community shutting her down foments the same atmosphere of “fear” as boogie trans women hurting children in bathrooms and her being abused by her cis husband… that’s a veeery slippery slope. Instead of sticking to “freedom of speech” and whatnot, she keeps correlating these issues that should not be correlated (some of them being false issues, as well).  

Is there too much opprobrium around discussions of trans identity? Yes. Are there worthy discussions to be had about young women, homophobia and gender dysphoria? Absolutely. Can being trans become a fashionable trend/identity among kids, like the bygone goth and emo labels? Sure, but these discussions shouldn’t be had at the expense of trans people who have to constantly prove that they “mean” it. Because by stringing up all these issues together, JK is saying “the kids don’t know any better, and the adults are faking it”. Yes, cancel culture is impeding dialogue, yes, we shouldn’t shy away from discussing young teens’ identity problems, but if you pile up all of these things in a giant “trans women are the problem and they might be predatory too” milkshake, you won’t get anywhere.

I want to come back to this quote:

The second reason is that I’m an ex-teacher and the founder of a children’s charity, which gives me an interest in both education and safeguarding. Like many others, I have deep concerns about the effect the trans rights movement is having on both.

Beyond the (in my opinion) not very tasteful enumeration of things she’s done to help, JK’s mention of “education” there is veeery interesting. On the one hand, she probably feels that schools will try to censor “free speech”, but on the other hand, I bet she’s also concerned schools will not do enough censoring, so that impressionable kids become pressured into adopting a trans identity. You see how it flips on a dime? What does she ultimately want children to learn about this? Does she want them to be kept in the dark completely? Does she want them to be allowed to critique or invalidate trans identities without being censored? On this second point, things get complicated. Schools and institutions will naturally censor free speech.  Kids are there to learn how to express that free speech; they will be told “hey, don’t say that to your colleague, it’s not very kind” or “you need to structure your argument appropriately instead of just saying “I don’t like it””. Is there room for criticism in how schools operate that benevolent censorship? Obviously. Hell, Foucault & co. have been talking about this for decades. So what does this argument about education ultimately mean? What are we protecting the kids from? Imo, it goes back to that covert argument about sexual violence.    

Since I’m a teacher too, I’ll talk about my own experience: I brought some texts to my undergrad class about the trans experience with the goal of 1) building empathy, because literature is the grand unifier of experience and 2) showing different literary perspectives which i also included within literary theory. ultimately, the trans experience is about being human. we were learning about being human, nothing more, nothing less. if younger kids end up treating it as a fad it means that a) they need more, not less education,  b) parents and schools should work together to make them understand that being trans is not the same as being “emo”, for instance. this partially resembles the trend of white kids adopting black culture just because it’s cool, but not actually engaging with the black experience. who do you sanction for this? black people? because in this analogy, the trans community should be responsible for children not benefiting from education and parental support.

oh, I know what JK is saying. the trans community is responsible for shutting down conversations about this. it’s part of the general climate of tiptoeing around trans issues. yes, here I can agree with her that Twitter discourse either helps build sympathy or loathing for the “cancelled” person instead of seriously grappling with what that person has done. it’s the nature of Twitter and I hate it, but to go from that to saying women and young girls are in danger from other “fake” women really undermines her own argument. There are normal pitfalls as we try to incrementally do some good in this world. Cancel culture and the deplatforming and ruining of lives of certain individuals will not promote the cause and is certainly to be frowned upon, but JK will be absolutely fine. there are hashtags right now like “istandwithJK” and there’s a slew of people who support her. the misogyny she faces is deplorable, but we shouldn’t conflate valid criticism with trollish vulgarities. I don’t want to minimize the dangers of online culture; I know people have lost jobs and livelihood, but that is a discussion to be had under different parameters, admitting the responsibility of both parties (for example, maya forstater realizing that maybe saying some hurtful things about public figures and proudly talking about the “delusion” of transwomen will come back to bite her in the ass) and the fact that under capitalism, your job is always at the whim of appearances and simulacrums. essentially, you are the job. this is a state of things that deserves a larger discussion not on the back of the trans community. should we live in a world where you are allowed to say anything, free of consequences? some of us do, because we can say whatever we want in our head, in our room, in our house (other ppl aren’t so lucky), but the trouble starts in the public sphere. even if we wanted to build a public sphere where everything goes, we’d be at each other’s throats in five seconds anyway because we’re human. the most we can do is educate and correct where we can.  “facts don’t care about your feelings” discourse is often not informed by facts at all and forgets the vital importance of feelings.

anyway, that’s my incomplete take. still lots to think about and debate. ultimately, i think any fair points JK brought up were tainted by other bad-faith arguments and i wish she’d use this time to self-reflect because this isn’t a topic that should be breezed past in 3k words. nor should young trans ppl be called “adorable” (facepalm). i myself have many questions and constantly grapple with all of this, but since she’s a writer (and for better or worse, i still like her books), she is in a perfect position to investigate the matter with kindness and stop giving ultimatums. and i hope this post fosters discussion and doesn’t shut anyone down.

( forgot to mention that other nifty subplot in the Strike series about these really unlikable kids who are transabled and experience BID ( Body integrity dysphoria)  and want to have a disability. Strike is super-offended by them since he’s genuinely disabled and we as readers are meant to think they’re real pieces of shit, and while transableism is suuuuper complicated and my thoughts on it vary wildly, i do think those BID kids also stand in for other folks in her mind..again, food for thought.)

[majorshiraharu]

can you do a fic for the bad batch, echo and the reader where they are at a kid’s birthday party that is Nightmare before Christmas themed? A kid asks the reader to play the song Oogie Boogie’s song from the movie. (They don’t know about her music/singing talent). The reader plays the song and sings it on the piano. The reader also does Oogie’s evil villain laugh after the line “I’m gonna do the best I can” and does it again in the end of the song. You should listen to the song first. Its good😉

---------------------------------------------------- I have actually never seen this movie or song, I took some time looking it up, so I hope this turned out well 💙 -------------------------------------- The laughter of children echos through the room, you had invited Echo, Tech, Wrecker, Crosshair, and Hunter to your nieces birthday party on your homeworld, hoping to get a nice break from the bounty missions you guys you had been taking too many of recently. The party was themed after a holofilm your niece loved, it was called 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', she would always get you to play a song from the film every time you visited her, the Bad Batch were unaware of your piano and singing skills but soon they'd be pleasantly surprised by this skill of yours. "Aunty Y/N can you please please play Oogie Boogie for me?!" your niece begged, pulling at your dress. "I play this song every time I see you are you sure you don't want me to play anything else?" "NOOO!! I want you to play this song!" she squeals with the most adorable pouting face. "Okay, only for you," you say as she takes your hand pulling you over the piano in the corner. The Bad Batch looked as you were pulled away from them and almost dragged over the instrument, they'd never seen anything like it, intrigued by what you were going to do they intently watched. "What's an Oogie Boogie?" Echo asks looking to Tech for a possible answer. "Why are you looking at me? How am I supposed to know," Tech says shrugging. "Well usually you know everything," Crosshair said shoving his brother's shoulder. "I know a lot of things but not much about civies' lives. If I had to guess based on what she said, it's a song that's probably related to whatever holofilm she was talking about." "Yeah, the decorations here seem to all be themed around it," Hunter says looking at the decorative cups with the film's name written in it. "I love it!" Wrecker said with excitement as he picked up some of the holofilm themed candies. After your niece got you all set up at the piano you began to play, firstly warming up with just some on the piano and humming to your niece. "Come on please play it!!" she said eagerly waiting for you to finally start playing and signing. "Okay," you say starting the song.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" you start signing. "Sandy Claws, huh? Ooh, I'm really scared! So you're the one everybody's talkin' about, ha ha ha! You're jokin', you're jokin' I can't believe my eyes You're jokin' me, you gotta be This can't be the right guy He's ancient, he's ugly- I don't know which is worse I might just split a seam now If I don't die laughing first," you sing making a spooky face at your niece before continuing, the Bad Batch looking ever so surprised at you. "When Mr. Oogie Boogie says There's trouble close at hand You'd better pay attention now 'Cause I'm the Boogie Man And if you aren't shakin' There's something very wrong 'Cause this may be the last time You hear the boogie song!" "Woah (Woah)," "Woah (Woah)," "Woah (Woah)," "Oh, he's the Oogie Boogie Man!" Your niece and you switching between each other before she sings the next part of the song. "Release me now Or you must face the dire consequences The children are expecting me So please, come to your senses!" "Ha! You're jokin', you're jokin' I can't believe my ears Would someone shut this fella up I'm drownin' in my tears It's funny, I'm laughing You really are too much And now, with your permission I'm going to do my stuff!" you sing reaching over to tickle her. Meanwhile the Bad Batch hum along. "What are you going to do?" she sings. "I'm gonna do the best I can --Woah, haha!," you add an evil laugh staring her down before you go on singing the song. "The sound of rollin' dice To me is music in the air 'Cause I'm a gamblin' Boogie Man Although I don't play fair It's much more fun, I must confess When lives are on the line Not mine, of course, but yours, old boy Now that'd be just fine." "Release me fast or you will have to Answer for this heinous act!" she sings in reply. "Oh, brother, you're something You put me in a spin! You aren't comprehending The position that you're in- It's hopeless, you're finished You haven't got a prayer! 'Cause I'm Mr. Oogie Boogie And you ain't going nowhere!!" "Muhahaha," you laugh as evil as you can tickling your niece as she runs off. --"That's a scary laugh," Wrecker says looking to his brothers. "That whole song was scary," Echo joked. "I didn't know she could sing, let alone that well," Hunter said. "Or play whatever that instrument is, clearly this isn't her first time," Crosshair adds. "Her niece seemed to enjoy it almost as much as us," Tech teased making his brothers laugh. "I think we all enjoyed it," Echo said as you walked over. "So you guys didn't find my singing that horrific," you chuckle at them. "Not at all," they reply with bright smiles on their faces. You sat down and joined them for some food, as your niece ran through the room singing the song again, making you and the Bad Batch join in on some parts, to your surprise they really enjoyed this and Echo had a lot of fun chasing your niece around. -As you all left the party and set off back into the unknown they talked to you about your singing and music skill, and you happily offered to sing and play for them sometimes too. The song referenced: https://youtu.be/clURHZ5TfCQ

[silveragelovechild]

TEN COMMENTS ABOUT “THE SHINING”

As part of the marketing plan for Stephen King’s new movie “Doctor Sleep”, some theater scheduled showing of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” (1980); since I am planning to see the new film I though I’d refresh my memory of the events at the Overlook Hotel.

“The Shining” is one of my three favorite King books (it’s easy to guess the other two).

“The Shining” was about a young boy named Danny with extra-sensory perception and his father who is influence by ghosts at the snowbound hotel where they are staying; “Doctor Sleep” is King’s sequel set many years later, following an adult Dan (played by Ewan McGregor) still trying to cope with the horrific event from his childhood.

There is a 2012 documentary that describes three theories about “The Shining” that have cropped up of the years: 1) Kubrick uses the film to confess he helped NASA fake the moon landing (Danny wears an Apollo 11 sweater); 2) the film is about the genocide of Native Americans (the Indian motifs on the walls and the cans of Calumet baking power); the holocaust (the Big Bad Wolf reference is suppose to be anti-Semitic).

But I think the film is actually about violence in the home - Jack Torrance has a history of alcoholism and clearly a misogynist who regularly brow beats his wife into submission, with a history of child abuse - that’s the real horror of the story, not ghosts.

King himself disliked Kubrick’s film - both because of the changes to the plot, but especially that Jack Nicholson was wrong for the role - the audience knows Nicholson’s Jack Torrance is unhinged almost immediately, whereas in the book is slowly become overtaking by the evil influences of the hotel.

I agree with King on this point; while fan of the actor seem to relish Nicholson’s scenery chewing, Nicholson comes off as a wife’s nightmare and a child’s boogie man in every shot; while another actor might have taken Jack from an emotional scale of 2 and gone up to 10 by the end - Nicholson starts at 5 and reaches level 20; he’s “Here’s Johnny” is more comic than threatening, it’s Shelley Duvall reaction that makes it frightening (he’s done something like this before).

And speaking of Shelley Duvall - King didn’t like her performance either, he has said, “She's most misogynistic characters ever put on film. She's basically just there to scream and be stupid." Duvall has a unique performance style - perfect for Olive Oyl, but I find her ticks and quirks off putting, watching her puts me on edge - especially when she’s running in fear - but it’s a weird slow trot with her arms flailing in the air like a chicken.

A favorite character is the film is Dick Hallorann (played by Scatman Crothers) - he plays the hotel chef who also has the “shining” and is the most human character; but it’s always bugged me how Hallorann is handled - in the book he rushes to the hotel and is instrumental in saving Wendy and Danny, but in the film his killed with an axe moments after entering the lobby - the moment felt like a big cheat.

The true standout performance is by Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance - he was about 6 when the movie was made and wasn’t aware of the horror nature of the story - Kubrick told him it was about a family living in a hotel. So he was directed to show the appropriate emotions and reaction. What ever the technique - it worked because I think Danny gives a trusty outstanding performance.

[dungeoneering102]

D&D Quest Idea: Nightmare Before Christmas

One of my followers, @chiefswampballs, wanted to find out if there’s a way to run an adventure themed around Nightmare Before Christmas, an animated film by Tim Burton. So I decided to look into it. First: let’s look at the interesting elements of Nightmare Before Christmas.

Interesting Elements

The movie is filled with very cool elements that make the audience excited to watch the movie. To have a game with a similar setting would require one to use these or similar elements, to generate the same feeling. Here are what elements I found that make NBC interesting:

Monster Design. Every monster is very unique and fun to look at.

Settings. NBC hints at multiple worlds, each based on a separate celebration. This very hint gets people’s imaginations going. What does the Easter land look like? Is there a St. Patrick’s land where everyone is drunk? A land dedicated to July 4th? Oktoberfest? Chinese New Year? So many possible setting to explore.

The Music. One thing anyone remembers from this movie are the songs and the tunes. They are just so damn catchy.

The Charming Characters. Jack and Sally are all very fun characters. We root for them all the way through. Even Oogie Boogie, the film’s antagonist, is very fun to watch and listen to.

Some Pitfalls:

When running games BASED on other stories a DM can often fall into pitfalls, namely the non PC Protagonist pitfall. This is when the PCs end up being observers to the main characters of the source material, who are the real heroes of the story. With NBC, a DM might want to show off how great of a character Jack is, but end up having Jack do all the cool stuff (defeating Oogie Boogie, for example) and leave the PCs just wondering around observing. Avoid this mistake. Do not prioritize the NPCs over the PCs. Keep as much of the cool stuff for the PCs as possible.

Game Idea: The Skeleton Who Stole Christmas

Background:

The Party starts in a town of your choice. Simple, medieval town. It’s wintertime and it is the day before Wintercrest. Now I am using Wintercrest as a stand in for Christmas (since my D&D world doesn’t have a Christ). You can have your own name for it. Whatever it is, it has to have these traits:

It is a holiday set during winter.

People get each other gifts during this Holiday.

Santa Claus (or some kind of stand-in for him) travels door to door delivering presents to the Children (ages 16 and below) on the night of this celebration.

The rest of the details you can work out. Now your Party is staying in this town that is celebration their version of Christmas, and they get to witness the preparations for the Christmas Eve. Let your Party participate as well, if they want. Come up with some games (more on that later). Whatever it is, set up the celebration that will happen the next day. Here is where it gets good.

The Party wakes up early morning to the sound of countless screaming children. Their toys are horrific items, small monsters, little quasits, body parts, whatever have you. And there is the hook:

Santa brought demonic gifts to the children. Travel to Santa’s home and make him pay for this mischief.

Now the town Mayor or local King puts up a job posting saying something like

Any brave warrior willing to travel to the frozen wastes of North Pole and punish the mischievous spirit that betrayed our trust on this, most Holy of nights, will be rewarded 20,000 gp. Seek Archmage Duvalt in the court of his majesty.

Keep in mind, all the names, the reward, everything can be tailored to fit your style. Since the Party already has some reputation from being adventurers (start them at level 4-5), the townsfolk quickly go to them asking for them to take up the job. Through peer pressure, the Party agrees to take up the job. Now here’s how the plot will vaguely go:

Party goes to King, accepting the job.

King’s archmage plane shifts them to the Christmas Land.

The Party travels through a sad and gloomy Christmas town, full of unhappy elves, only to come up to Santa’s workshop, and discover that Santa has been kidnapped.

Throw in some clues for the Party here. After investigating the clues the Party figures out that someone from Halloween land was here.

Party goes to Halloween land to find its King, Jack the Skeleton.

Party has to fight through a dungeon of monsters and beasts to get to Jack.

Once they get there they see King Jack, his queen Sally, and his advisor, Oogie Boogie.

Party demands for Santa to be freed, but Jack, thinking they’re just there to ruin his fun has none of it.

Fight with Jack commences. Some 4-5 rounds in, Jack gets stabbed in the back by Oogie Boogie.

Boogie reveals that this was a plan he hatched, tricking jack to give the wrong kind of presents, to get the humans to dethrone Jack so he can get the throne of Halloween Land.

Boogie Man then offers monetary reward to the Party if they finish off Jack and give him the throne.

The Party then decides who to side with, fights the appropriate character. Whoever wins, they agree to hand over Santa, who returns to his home.

If Party sides with Jack, Santa blesses them for their kindness and gives them gifts (magic items). Otherwise, he gets upset with them and leaves them gift-less.

QUESTIONS

What if the Players Don’t Accept the Job?

If you’re not sure weather your PCs will accept the job or not, here are some options:

Tell them, before the game, to accept the job when its given. Most of your players (unless they’re horrible people), will go with it.

Just narrate the intro. Don’t give them the choice of declining. Players like this less, but it speeds up the process.

Have the local king/lord/mayor hear that there’s a band of adventurers in town, and physically come down offering the job. If your Party did something shady in the past, the king can blackmail them with that. Or he can be super nice, and double the reward money.

What Clues should I leave the Party?

When the Party is investigating Christmas Land, only to discover that Santa is missing, they need to find some clues as to where he was taken. These ought to be Halloween decorations. Stuff like: a broken pumpkin, torn paper bat, torn scary mask, a box of candy, whatever.

I also suggest you MAKE these clues (since they’re just decoration you can find anywhere) and give it to your Party. This will make it easier for them to figure out whats going on.

Be sure to have the archmage that teleported them explain that there are other realms, each dedicated to a Holiday. If you don’t explain this, they might not understand what the Halloween trinkets mean. By telling them this, they understand that there is a Halloween land somewhere. If they still don’t understand, have them return to the Archmage and show him the clues. He will then figure out who the culprit is, and send them on their merry way.

Setting

Christmas Land

This place only needs a single town. Have some generic locations for the Party to explore and interact with, such as:

Temple/shrine dedicated to the goddess of winter.

A general goods store

A magical item store

A toys store

Some kind of playground

Be sure to populate this place with elves. It’s up to you if you wanna throw in any elf, or high elves only. I recommend NOT putting drow (dark elves) into this land, and you’ll see why in a bit (even though toys made by the drow would be very fun to see). Make sure the elves are sad and unhappy. Not too gloom and doom, but really bummed and worried. If you want, you can have your Party try to cheer them up, and if they succeed to make the elves hopeful, the elves will gift them equipment to save Santa with

In the end of the town is a mansion. Its empty, ransacked, and that’s where Santa lived. Make it a puzzle for the Party to get into the house. Have some weird locked door. This increases the build up to the reveal.

Halloween Land. Halloween Land consists of two parts: a town and a dungeon.

The town is the same as before, except this time it’s all horror themed. All the items sold are horrific or in some way creepy. For a list of interesting, horror themed trinkets, look into Curse of Strahd, Find the “Gothic Trinkets” table and use that to generate creepy items. There is some information that the Party ought to learn in the town. Namely the Party should learn that...

The town is ruled by Skeleton Jack, King of Halloween, his queen Sally, and his advisor, Oogie Boogie.

King Jack has announced an upcoming “makeover” of the town, to a more “cheery” theme. The residents don’t really like this idea however.

The dungeon is Jack the Skeleton’s castle. It’s filled with ghosts, ghouls, and monsters that have been ordered by Boogie Man to hunt down all intruders. The good news is, since they’re all dead they don’t really die. The Party won’t have to feel bad about “killing” them in the end, when it’s revealed that the Party was being manipulated by Oogie Boogie.

Of course, the final stage of the Dungeon should be the boss fight with Jack/Oogie Boogie.

Final Thoughts

Feel free to modify the info I provide here as you wish. Remember that you can change the names of key characters, so as to not make the source material quite so obvious (call him the Pumpkin King instead of Jack the Skeleton). But here is my take on the whole Nightmare Before Christmas in D&D. I hope you enjoyed the read.

If you guys liked or disliked this post, please be sure to send me your thoughts. I’d love to hear them. Tell me, is there any way you’d change this? What holiday themed D&D games would you run?

The Unfair DM

[orchidvioletindigo]

It still pisses me off that one of the only villains in early RWBY who wasn’t sympathetic to some degree was our representative of the only minority rights organization in universe.

Shortly before his anticlimactic demise, Roman revealed in a monologue that he was aiding Cinder simply in a desperate bid to survive because he had lost faith in getting by without being on the side of evil. It was a cowardly and cynical position, but I think to a degree most of us can understand that selfish, panicked survival instinct that kicks in when we’re faced with immense danger. It’s a very human reaction, one which Roman followed through on where others might have turned away. Roman was also meant as a villainous audience surrogate, constantly lampshading weird story elements in a very relatable way.

Emerald was a street rat using her semblance for petty thievery in order to feed herself before Cinder came along and offered her the chance to never go hungry again. This girl was alone, hungry, and desperate, and from subtext we can infer that Cinder not only offered Emerald the comfort of financial security but also emotionally manipulated her by making her feel valued and important. That’s a hard position to be in and a damn difficult offer to refuse when you’re that vulnerable. Moreover, we see that Emerald may be the only early villain who felt remorse for her actions (with the possible exception being the unexplained tears in Cinder’s eyes before she killed Pyrrha).

The first time we see Mercury in the villain flashback episode, he's battered and bruised, standing over his father’s corpse with a burning house in the background. We’re informed that Mercury’s father was violently abusive towards Mercury, and the scene before us was the final conclusion of Mercury putting an end to the abuse he suffered growing up which likely led to him becoming a sociopath. It’s a really stark reveal that ties everything Mercury is back to a horrific childhood that broke him in more ways than one. The picture we get is a child who had to kill his father to save what was left of himself.

Cinder’s monologue at the end of Volume Three echoed many of my own thoughts about the combat schools and the generally fucked up attitude that the allegedly “good” guys in charge have towards using children as soldiers and pawns. Cinder was a strong villain because she raised valid counterpoints to the status quo and went so far as to find ways to undermine and sabotage “the system” currently in place in order to underscore the weaknesses she spoke about. Whether the monologue was really things Cinder believed or whether she was simply parroting a script designed for her by Salem is unknown, but since Salem’s reveal doesn’t come until the tail end of the Volume Three finale, we’re given the impression that what Cinder preaches is what Cinder believes.

However, Adam from the very start has been a cardboard cutout. We’re given neither details about his past nor any monologue that attempts to convince us to see things his way. He kills indiscriminately, both humans and any faunus who get in his way. The motive we’re told is that he’s pissed about anti-faunus racism. But aside from a bit of harsh dialogue from Weiss and Roman and a scene of Cardin pulling Velvet’s ear, we don’t see or hear firsthand about most of the examples and effects of anti-faunus racism that Professor Oobleck and the World of Remnant episode inform us of, and we certainly don’t ever learn about how this racism has affected Adam personally. In fact, second only to Neo, Adam is the early RWBY villain we know the least about; we’ve never even seen the guy without his mask on. Blake tells us that Adam “changed,” but she doesn’t specify how, when, or why. This lack of characterization means that Adam can easily fill the role of the quintessential minority boogie man - a minority who’s so upset by a vague theory of oppression that he decides the solution is to murder everyone who isn’t a minority as well as any good minorities who try to interfere.

Anyways thanks for coming to my TEDTalk, be sure to like, comment, and subscribe.

[dinoandrade]

“DRACULA”: BOOK vs. MOVIES

Part 3: The Rest Of The Characters

Welcome to part three of my five part essay comparing Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula” to those film versions most commonly referred to as those “faithful to the novel.” To understand why I wrote this please check out parts one & two.

BUT FIRST...

This essay is NOT spoiler free. And whether you love or hate any of the films being compared here is beside the point and a subject best left to posts dedicated to film critique. This essay is SOLELY about which films are the most faithful to the novel... period.

Reminder: those versions most touted as “faithful” that I compared are:

“Nosferatu: a Symphony of Horror” (1922) aka “Max Schreck Version”.

“Count Dracula” (1970) aka “Christopher Lee Version”.

“Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1973) retitled “Dan Curtis’ Dracula” aka “Jack Palance Version”.

“Count Dracula” (1977) aka “Louis Jordan version.”

“Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992) aka “Coppola version”.

And now...

PART THREE: THE REST OF THE CHARACTERS

LUCY WESTENRA

Mina’s best friend and Dracula’s first victim in England that is a major character. Lucy is a free-spirit who is so vivacious that she has not one, not two, but three suitors for her hand in marriage. Tragically, Lucy becomes a vampire that preys on children who have chillingly come to think of her as a sort of boogie man they call the “Bloofer Lady” - all before Van Helsing and the vampire hunters destroy her.

The depiction of Lucy in the Jordan and Coppola versions are the most novel accurate to Stoker’s shockingly modern, effervescent character. The Coppola version is more stylized, bawdy and horrific while the Jordan version is more gothic Hammer Horror. If not for Coppola’s embellishments regarding her free-spiritedness (and Dracula’s beastial/demonic seduction of Lucy) the end result would have been a tie.

Winner: Jordan Version

ARTHUR HOLMWOOD & QUINCEY MORRIS

These are two of Lucy Westenra’s suitors and future vampire hunters under Van Helsing. Arthur Homewood is the rich son of an English Lord. Arthur wins the heart of Lucy only to then be the hand who stakes her when she’s turned, thus freeing her soul. Quincey Morris is a rich Texas Cowboy who wields a Bowie knife to great effect against Dracula in the final battle before losing his life to Dracula’s Gypsy minions. In the epilogue of the novel Johnathan and Mina have a child whom they name Quincey in honor of the fallen cowboy.

These characters are left out of most tellings of “Dracula”, or transposed for other characters. In the Palance version Arthur is a leading character taking the place of Johnathan Harker who in that film never escapes Castle Dracula. In the Christopher Lee version only Arthur Homewood appears and while largely novel accurate he oddly has the name Quincey Morris.

They appear in the Jordan version as a composite character named “Quincey Homewood” an American aristocrat with a hinky Texas accent (rivaling Keanu Reeves’ hinky British accent) who wins Lucy’s hand but winds up staking her. Though still a Texan he is no cowboy, nor does he carry a Bowie knife. He is shot by the Gypsies in the final battle, but appears to survive.

However, the Coppola version is the only one in which both characters appear and are portrayed with surprising accuracy to the novel. In fact, Coppola’s is the ONLY version to depict the tragic hero cowboy at all.

Winner: Coppola version

DR. SEWARD

A brilliant young psychologist who runs an asylum. He is the 3rd suitor for the hand of Lucy Westenra and is crushed when she chooses Arthur Homewood over him. When Lucy’s mysterious illness baffles him, he’s the one who brings in Van Helsing, eventually becoming one of Van Helsing’s vampire hunters alongside Johnathan Harker, Arthur Homewood and Quincey Morris.

Next to Mina, this is the character who gets short-changed the most. A third of the way into the novel Dr. Seward’s audio diaries become the most frequent entries and longest in the novel. If word count alone determined billing, Dr. Seward would be the star of “Dracula”. I mean the guy even rides into the final battle against Dracula’s minions with a blazing Winchester rifle. Instead, in most filmed versions Dr. Seward is reduced to a stuffy old doctor, more akin to Lucy’s father than a young heartbroken suitor willing to go to war against evil. And that’s if at all... he doesn’t even appear in either the Max Schreck or Palance versions.

Once again the Louis Jordan and Coppola versions come closest but both fail to be absolutely faithful. In the Jordan version Dr. Seward is screwed by way of omission. Here he is no longer a suitor of Lucy. With no romantic interest he is merely there as a concerned friend and clinician. In Coppola’s version he’s screwed by way of embellishment. Here he’s so heartbroken by Lucy choosing Arthur that he turns to using drugs from his asylum to kill the pain. Poor guy.

Despite the embellishment I’d have to go with Coppola’s for like the novel, it is his broken heart that is his chief motivator in bringing in Van Helsing and eventually riding into battle for vengeance against the Count.

Winner: (by default) Coppola version.

RENFIELD

A lunatic in Dr. Seward’s asylum who is psychically connected to Dracula. He foretells the coming of the vampire and is promised eternal life by the Count. Upon meeting Mina he has a turn of conscience and warns her to escape Dracula before it is too late. For this transgression Dracula savagely beats Renfield to death in his cell.

Personally, this is the one character in the novel I always had a problem with as Stoker never truly explains how Renfield acquired his psychic connection with Dracula as it precedes the Count coming to England. Nor the purpose of the connection or why Dracula would even care. It’s like the author had this vague idea of Dracula’s powers including power over the insane (though apparently only one) but then Stoker forgot to flesh it out.

Side Note: this perceived flaw was brilliantly corrected in both the 1931 Lugosi and Spanish versions (and by extension the ‘79 Langella version) wherein, Harker was replaced with Renfield as the solicitor who first goes the Castle Dracula. There he is set upon by Dracula and his brides. Renfield is then driven mad as he is telepathically enslaved, making him a minion, bound to do the Vampire’s bidding in daylight and protect the Count on the journey to England. Once captured and thrown in Dr. Seward’s asylum, Renfied struggles to escape so he may return to his master.

To these alterations that finally gave Renfield true purpose, I have a feeling Stoker might have said: “Why didn’t I think of that?”

And on a more personal note, I admit that some of my disappointment also comes from the fact that I played Renfield a zillion years ago in a high school production of the Deane/Balderson play which is what lead me to read “Dracula” in the first place. Imagine my shock as I read Stoker’s novel for the very first time and screamed: “Really?! That’s it?! THAT’S RENFIELD???!!!

Anyway... as it stands, the Louis Jordan version’s 100% faithful depiction of Renfield reveals the same flaw as the novel in that the viewer might find themselves wondering why this character was even necessary? Though not as unnecessary as the Renfield in the Christopher Lee version who is just this morose figure who eventually keels over and dies in peace for no apparent reason making that depiction of Renfield the most pointless. But which version is the “most pointless” is not the focus of this essay, so....

Winner (as it were): Louis Jordan version

COMING TOMORROW...

PART FOUR: NOVEL DETAILS

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

Savage Gods by Peter Boland

John Savage Action Thriller #4

Wow...just WOW!

This book started with John on the way to cool down at the beach although he never did put his toes in the water because he was too busy thwarting evil before it could take place on said beach. It moved on from that introduction to DCI Jane Roberts and DI Roberts in a horrific murder scene followed by another linked murder. The police become involved in solving the murders and protecting potential victims that might be next in line to be killed by a suspected serial murderer. DCI Roberts requests the assistance of John and Tannaz and they accept. By the end of the book more than one case being tied up in a bow although there is a BIG question I have that I won’t voice here as it would definitely be a spoiler!

What I liked:

* John: I so admire John! He has been through so much, is so strong and yet he does have issues he has to deal with. I would love to get to know him better and hope to do so in the future. He is a man among men.

* Tannaz: John’s friend and surrogate daughter is brilliant and a person I want to get to know better. She has skills on the computer, in combat and in keeping the boogie man away.

* DCI Roberts: I want to know more about her. She is a tiny but mighty force to be reckoned with

* The plot and story with its twists and turns

* The action scenes and how they played out.

* The police procedural aspects

* The solving of the mysteries

* How John and Tannaz took some bad guys down

What I did not like:

* The bad guys I was meant not to like

* The callous greediness some characters exhibited

* That the book ended and I want to find out what happens next knowing I will have to wait…

Thank you to the author and BOTBS for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

Book Description:

FROM #1 BEST-SELLING AUTHOR IN AMAZON CRIME ACTION & ADVENTURE. He only kills atheists. Pray that God’s on your side. A serial killer stalks the streets of London, murdering atheists in the most horrific ways. So far, it’s only the loud, outspoken ones who’ve been targeted. Specifically, a controversial group of intellectuals called The Four Pillars of Atheism. Attacking religion and angering believers, they’ve amassed enough hate mail and death threats to keep the police busy until hell freezes over. DCI Roberts and her team have too many suspects and are drowning in leads. The pressure is on her to catch the killer before another horrific murder is committed. Not helped by the fact that London is in the grip of a sweltering heat wave. Desperate times call for desperate measures. DCI Roberts reaches out to John Savage and Tannaz to help her find the killer. Trouble is, Savage has his own personal demon to battle. Can he defeat one and catch the other?  

Author Bio:

After studying to be an architect, Pete realised he wasn’t very good at it. He liked designing buildings he just couldn’t make them stand up, which is a bit of a handicap in an industry that likes to keep things upright. So he switched to advertising, writing ads for everything from cruise lines to zombie video games.

After becoming disillusioned with working in ad agencies, he switched to writing novels (or was it because he just wanted to work at home in his pyjamas?). He soon realised there’s no magic formula. You just have to put one word in front of the other (and keep doing that for about a year). It also helps if you can resist the lure of surfing, playing Nintendo Switch with his son, watching America’s Next Top Model with his daughter and drinking beer in a garden chair.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PeterBolandWriter/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PeterBoland19

Goodreads Author Page: 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7102414.Peter_Boland

[horrible-monstrosity]

menwhie in buugiepoppu

What happened to random gay kid? He got mindblastered, told he could never be saved for no reason and left to cry in the nurses office while everyone has le earned emotional moment because the girl was saved with the power of love!!! Wow good for fucking you, what about that kid, huh? While you all are having your nothing's-wrong-happy-ending literally the fuck where did he end up after all this? I don't think I like this show.

Bias jokes aside, there's just something about this show that's not clicking with me. I know I know it's supposed to be le 2deep4u achronological order, but there's no real payoff to putting things together; the first arc has basically no satisfying conclusion and possibly even contradicts itself (Boogie says at the end of ep 1 that she wasn't the one who took care of the problem, but she was instrumental in stopping the manticore and even recruited the kid who dealt the finishing blow; unless she was talking about something else then in which case I don't even fucking know), then the alien guy just randomly declares he can turn himself into data and beam up back to the mothership and this is treated like a sacrifice(?????). Which also he explained clearly even though he's only supposed to be able to repeat things. Okay And the next arc... well, like I said, they brought up a potentially interesting character, destroyed him and then tossed him aside like no one was ever supposed to care- not even a horrific death that we were supposed to feel appalled by, just lol, he can never feel emotions again but he keeps randomly crying, whatever man. Leaving plot threads hanging by itself is a bad sign in most cases but this is just... painful. Someone give that poor kid a... something, anything. Poor cunt.

(Plus I had this plot point sold to me, by most likely a bunch of socjus-addled tards with their typical interpretations of everything in retrospect but still, as a "conversion therapy", but even that doesn't come up. He's targeted for stalking the *girl* and brainblasted just because he's a nuisance or a convenient target. Nothing would have changed if he had been interested in the girl, except I can almost see him actually being treated normally if that was the case, instead of this weird dismissive shit.)

And then there's shit like flower guy never noticing that the girl's perfect flower wasn't a human flower or whatever. Why does she even have the perfect flower, anyway? She has all sorts of angst and doubts, compared to the mild "pain" of just not having found interest in something yet. And flower guy never ever saw someone's flower grow over time, either, even though that totally happens? Even though he was the fucking school counselor or some shit, whose job was to tell people things that would help them flourish, and he never saw a student's flower budge over the course of multiple visit? This just gets worse and worse the more I think about it, and yet I feel like any criticism voiced outside of this dead-ass blog would just get met with "wel yew just didnnt unnderstaaand" by people who didn't understand it either but insist on liking it anyway.

At times the show seems like it's doing some "coming of age as psychological horror" thing, where people changing as they do naturally especially around high school age is painted as the work of evil organizations or malicious forces- if your friend starts doing drugs or buckling down to study, they might have been replaced with a replicant or brainwashed by electric dudes or some shit- but then the show goes and ruins the illusion by having some chuuni shit happen like random high schooler being able to beat up 12 adults because they studied martial arts or because we called her "fire witch" or some shit, making it clear that this is not some well-thought-out intellectual endeavor but some edgy 2kewl nonsense that puts on the trappings of intellectualism because thats is also kewl. And then of course there's the "WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY AND THAT SUCKS SOMETIMES MAN" boilerplate defeatist social commentary that just means nothing and adds nothing to anything, but is presented as if it's profound and should make us realize something.

Oh, and you can just see where Suzumiya Haruhi ripped off from it fucking everywhere. Which isn't the show's fault, but being reminded of Hurrhurrhi constantly doesn't exactly make me any happier with it.

[netunleashed-blog]

The best movies on Stan: a list of the top films streaming in Australia now

http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=4959 The best movies on Stan: a list of the top films streaming in Australia now - http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=4959 UPDATE: Celebrate Friday the 13th by watching one of the greatest horror movies of all time: Carrie! Find out more about it on Page 3!As each streaming service's content library continues to grow, it's hard to keep track of the best movies these platforms have to offer. When it comes to the Australian streaming service Stan, there's an enormous amount of films of variable quality available to stream instantly. Our job is to sift through that huge catalogue and pick out the 'crème de la crème' for you. Don't have Stan? These are the best movies on Netflix: great films you can watch in Australia right now To make things as straightforward as possible, we've separated our choices into genres, so that you can jump straight to the type of movie you actually feel like watching. Curated by TechRadar editors and backed up with ratings from IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, these films should offer something for everyone. We'll keep this list up to date with must-watch movies, so you can spend less time browsing and more time watching! Here are the best movies on Stan. TV shows more your thing? Here are the best TV shows to stream on Stan Need some kid-friendly content to entertain the family with? Stan has a number of great kids and family movies on offer that should keep everyone happy. These films are guaranteed to please the whole family. Red Dog An Australian family favourite, Red Dog tells the heartwarming true story of a delightful pooch that united an entire community while roaming the Outback looking for his actual owner. The dog brings people together everywhere he goes – some people find love, others find themselves. Starring Josh Lucas and Rachael Taylor, Red Dog is a beautiful movie that the whole family will enjoy. Though the dog is red, this is a true-blue Aussie classic. IMDB Rating: 7.5, Rotten Tomatoes 82% Speed Racer A movie that's way better than its reputation would suggest (the film was derided upon its initial release but has steadily grown a cult following), Speed Racer was clearly a passion project for the Wachowskis, directors of The Matrix. A tale of integrity, family and standing up to corruption, Speed Racer is much more than a sugary kids film (though it is that, too). Featuring some of the most mind-blowing and cartoony visuals of any live action film in existence, Speed Racer puts its pedal to the metal and achieves some deliriously psychedelic race sequences in the process. Sure, it'll still have its fair share of detractors who refuse to get behind its incredibly vibrant and overwhelming visuals, but give it a chance and you might just find it to be a sensational family film with a huge heart. IMDB Rating: 6.0, Rotten Tomatoes 40% Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole When one thinks of director Zack Snyder, the mind often goes to his violent action films, such as 300, Watchmen and Batman v Superman. But did you know he also directed an Australian animated kids film about warrior owls? While obviously lighter in tone than some of his other works, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole is just as stylish as you'd expect from Zack Snyder, with his liberal use of slow-motion and speed-ramping giving the film that unmistakable Snyder look and feel. Featuring stunning animation and terrific voice performances from Aussie actors like Ryan Kwanten, Essie Davis, Abbie Cornish, Richard Roxburgh and Joel Edgerton, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole is a real hoot.IMDB Rating: 7.0, Rotten Tomatoes 50% Happy Feet Another Australian animated kids film about birds, Happy Feet took the world by storm when it released in 2006. A delightful family film from director George Miller (Babe, Mad Max: Fury Road), Happy Feet follows a penguin named mumble whose lack of singing talent leads him to dance to find his mate. With an all-star cast featuring Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman and Brittany Murphy, Happy Feet is guaranteed to make you tap your feet. IMDB Rating: 6.5, Rotten Tomatoes 75% Where the Wild Things Are Based on the classic children's book by Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are is an awe-inspiring story of a young boy named Max (Max Records) who runs away from home after an argument with his mum (Cathertine Keener), only to end up on an island filled with creatures who name him as their king. Max instantly befriends a gentle giant named Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini) and while everything is going well for a while, things start to turn dark, leading Max to realise how much he misses home. Directed by Spike Jonze (Her, Being John Malkovich), Where the Wild Things Are is an artful family film that hits you right in the heart.IMDB Rating: 6.8, Rotten Tomatoes: 73% Feel like watching something that'll put a tingle in your spine? Well, look no further, because Stan has a large selection of horror films that should please even the most hardened gore-hound. These are some of the best. Carrie There have been countless Stephen King film adaptations over the last few decades, but Carrie was the first (and arguably best). Sissy Spacek plays a tormented teenage girl who is pushed over the edge by her mean classmates and domineering mother – with incredibly violent results. A bloody classic. IMDB Rating: 7.4, Rotten Tomatoes: 93% The Descent Not one for claustrophobic types, The Descent follows a caving expedition that goes horribly wrong, leaving a group of women to fend for themselves against some truly terrifying cave-dwelling creatures. An absolute masterpiece of terror, The Descent is one of the best horror movies to come out of the UK.IMDB Rating: 7.2, Rotten Tomatoes: 85% Scream The late, great horror director Wes Craven had a habit of making a game-changing fright flick at least once per decade. In the '70s, it was The Last House on the Left. In the '80s, he birthed the horror icon Freddy Kruger in A Nightmare on Elm Street. The kids of the '90s, however, had grown accustomed to the usual horror tropes, which is why Craven's self-aware slasher Scream became such a sensation. The characters in this knew they were in a horror film, which allowed the movie to exploit the genre's rules at every turn. IMDB Rating: 7.2, Rotten Tomatoes: 79% Wolf Creek Loosely inspired by actual events, Wolf Creek gave birth to Australia's first real horror icon in Mick Taylor (John Jarratt), a sadistic bushman who enjoys nothing more than hunting and killing tourists in the middle of the Outback. Once you've watched this, check out its sequel, Wolf Creek 2, as well as the incredible Stan Original series. IMDB Rating: 6.3, Rotten Tomatoes: 53% Cabin in the Woods Another self-aware horror movie in the vein of Scream, Cabin in the Woods acts as a meta-commentary of the horror genre and its audience. We've all seen countless horror films set in a cabin, each one featuring a different group of stock characters facing some form of horrific demise – we don't even seem to mind that only the threat itself ever really seems to change. The joke here is that there are actually people behind the scenes who are pulling the strings – it's all a matter of re-arranging the pieces to see what happens next. Starring Chris Hemsworth (before he was famous) and written by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Avengers), Cabin in the Woods is both clever and scary.IMDB Rating: 7.0, Rotten Tomatoes: 9.2 In the mood for a good tear-jerker? What about a serious, high-brow piece of cinema? The films below should do the trick. Here are our picks for the best dramas on Stan.  Patriots Day A harrowing (and eventually) uplifting retelling of the events surrounding the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013 which killed three people and injured hundreds of others. Directed by Peter Berg (Deepwater Horizon, Lone Survivor), Patriots Day plays out like a procedural thriller that begins with the morning in question and follows through to the aftermath, including the ensuing manhunt that saw brave police officers and federal agents (played by Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Bacon and John Goodman, among others) track down and confront the terrorists responsible. Emotionally devastating yet hopeful for the future, Patriots Day is a powerful film that's filled with heart, showing how the inhabitants of a city can come together to rise up against hatred.IMDB Rating: 7.4, Rotten Tomatoes: 80% There Will Be Blood A stunning commentary on the nature of greed and morality, Boogie Nights director Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood is a blistering examination of how easy it is for a soulless man to prosper in a morally bankrupt world, while those who attempt to sink to his level find only their own demise. Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for his portrayal of Daniel Plainview, an unscrupulous prospector who will stop at nothing to achieve wealth and power as an oil magnate, even if that means wrenching away oil rights from people who don't know any better. On the other side of the coin is Paul Dano's character of Eli Sunday, a preacher whose family was swindled by Plainview for their oil rights. Though Sunday, as a man of God, attempts to take the moral high ground against Plainview, his soul is quickly corrupted by greed and a need to overpower his adversary, demonstrating how religion can be poisoned by capitalism. If you come into the film looking for a plot, you may find yourself disappointed. However, if you're after a story filled with big, overarching themes that explore the very essence of human nature, almost like a biblical parable, you might find There Will Be Blood to be a stone-cold masterpiece. IMDB Rating: 8.1, Rotten Tomatoes: 91% The Social Network Based on true events, The Social Network gives us an insight into the crazy drama behind the formation of Facebook, in which founder Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is sued by his co-founder Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) for squeezing him out of the business, as well as the Winklevoss twins (both played by Armie Hammer), who claim that Zuckerberg stole their idea for the whole site. With sharp, elegant direction from David Fincher (Fight Club, Gone Girl), a cracking script from Aaron Sorkin (The Newsroom, Steve Jobs), and a classic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), The Social Network is one of the best films about the tech industry ever made. Needless to say, we certainly 'Like' this film.IMDB Rating: 7.7, Rotten Tomatoes: 96% Good Will Hunting Matt Damon and Ben Affleck became global megastars off the back of Good Will Hunting, each bagging an Oscar for writing the film's incredible screenplay. Damon plays Will, a troubled young man from the South Boston projects who is gifted with unparalleled intellect and a photographic memory. When his gift is discovered by a genius M.I.T. professor (Stellan Skarsgård), Will is sent to see a psychologist (Robin Williams) in an attempt to get his life back in order so that he can reach his full potential. A tear-jerking masterpiece.IMDB Rating: 8.3,  Rotten Tomatoes: 93% Chopper Playing Australia's most notorious criminal, Eric Bana absolutely disappears into the role of Chopper Read. At the time, it was unthinkable that the TV funnyman could convince in such a dark and intense role, but his comedic edge, backed by the hulking frame he developed for the film, turned out to be a match made in heaven. Perhaps the best and most quotable Aussie true(ish) crime movie ever made. IMDB Rating: 7.2, Rotten Tomatoes: 72% Moonlight Winner of the Best Picture award at the 2017 Oscars, Moonlight is a shattering chronicle of the childhood, adolescence and adulthood of a gay African-American male. Told in three segments, the lead role of Chiron is portrayed by three different actors, each facing the struggles of growing up in a poor neighbourhood in Miami. Burdened by drug-addicted mother, Chiron's only guidance comes from an unlikely source in local drug dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali in his Oscar winning role). Gripping and powerful, Moonlight is a triumph.IMDB Rating: 7.5, Rotten Tomatoes: 98%  Animal Kingdom After the death of his mum, Joshua (James Frecheville) is forced to live with his maternal grandmother (Jacki Weaver), the matriarch of a crime family that starts to fall apart after the after one of her sons is killed by police and the others kill a random cop in retaliation. Will Joshua fall into this cycle of violence, or will he resist it? Playing out like a Greek tragedy in the suburbs of Melbourne, Animal Kingdom is one of the most powerful Australian films of all time.IMDB Rating: 7.3, Rotten Tomatoes: 95% Raging Bull Based on the life of real life boxing champ Ray LaMotta (Robert De Niro giving what is perhaps the most powerful performance of his career), Raging Bull explores a man gripped by insecurity – one who'd rather get his face bashed in than confront his own demons. Abusive to his wife (Cathy Moriarty) and violent towards his brother (Joe Pesci, also magnificent), LaMotta frequently attempts to pay for his sins in the ring, each gruelling fight feeling like a culmination of his troubles at home. De Niro famously packed on the kilos to portray an out of shape LaMotta past his prime, but that's arguably the least impressive aspect of this amazingly raw and ferocious performance. One of director Martin Scorsese's greatest achievements, Raging Bull is a gripping study of toxic masculinity.IMDB Rating: 8.2, Rotten Tomatoes: 95% Need a good laugh? Stan has a number of great comedies in its library, and these are some of our favourites. Here are the best comedies currently streaming on Stan. Goon Perhaps the best ice hockey movie since Slap Shot, Goon follows Doug 'The Thug' Glatt (Seann William Scott), a loveable meathead with fists of steel who becomes the enforcer on a minor-league hockey team. An enforcer's role is to forcibly protect his teammates and have their backs when opposing players mess with them on the ice. That also means handing out beatings, something that Glatt is quite adept at doing. But when famously-ruthless enforcer Ross 'The Boss' Rhea returns from suspension (for seriously injuring the star player of Doug's team), he and Glatt are destined to throw down in a bout of on-ice fisticuffs for the ages where only one man will walk away. A sports comedy with Fight Club-level violence, Goon might be a bit much for the squeamish. That said, if you're well aware of how bloody ice hockey can be and think you can handle it, this is a seriously great sports movie. If you do like what you see, you might also want to hit up its sequel, Goon: Last of the Enforcers, which is also on Stan.IMDB Rating: 6.8, Rotten Tomatoes: 82% Ghostbusters When there's something strange in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call? Ghostbusters, that's who! Released in 1984, Ivan Reitman's spooky comedy achieved instant-classic status, thanks in part to a brilliant and hilarious script by stars Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. But it would be Bill Murray's burgeoning star-power and wise-ass demeanour that would bring the whole film, which is about ghost hunting scientists in New York City, together so perfectly. Equal-parts hair-raising and rib-tickling, Ghostbusters is a positively ghoulish movie that the whole family can enjoy. IMDB Rating: 7.8, Rotten Tomatoes: 97% Zoolander Though it wasn't immediately loved at release, Zoolander has grown over the years into an honest-to-goodness comedy classic. Ben Stiller is the titular beef-witted male model that is duped into a plot to assassinate the Malaysian Prime Minister. Owen Wilson plays Hansel, an up-and-coming rival to Zoolander. Though the two initially hate each other, they soon come together in an attempt to stop the evil plan that has been orchestrated by the truly ridiculous fashion designer, Mugatu (Will Ferrell). Backed with quotable lines and hilarious scenes, Zoolander is really, really, really, ridiculously funny. IMDB Rating: 6.6, Rotten Tomatoes: 64% Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Jim Carrey was an unstoppable force in the early nineties, and along with The Mark and Dumb and Dumber, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective solidified him as the world's biggest comedy star. Carrey plays a ridiculously over-the-top private dick who specialises in animal-related cases. When the NFL's Miami Dolphins mascot is stolen, it's up to Ace to find out where it is and who was behind it. Cue a whole lot of hilarious tomfoolery!IMDB Rating: 6.9, Rotten Tomatoes: 46% American Ultra Like Pineapple Express meets The Bourne Identity, American Ultra is much better than it has any right to be. Jesse Eisenberg plays a stoner convenience store clerk who hears some specific words and is promptly activated into a CIA killing machine. In an effort to cover up this mess, the agency sends two agents (Topher Grace and Connie Britton) to neutralise the situation, but things don't fly as smoothly as they'd hoped. Playing opposite Kristen Stewart, Eisenberg does a decent job of playing an action hero. Funny and surprisingly violent and action packed, American Ultra is an underrated gem. IMDB Rating: 6.1 In Bruges A hilariously dark comedy about hit men who must lay low in Belgium after a hit gone wrong, In Bruges is the type of movie that will have you laughing uncontrollably one minute, then crying the next. Writer/director Martin McDonagh (Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) delivers a witty script filled with sudden moments of brutal violence that will leave you speechless. IMDB Rating: 7.9, Rotten Tomatoes: 84% If you're a fan of muscular action films, you've come to the right place. Stan has a great selection of high-octane, testosterone-fuelled movies for adrenaline junkies. Here are our picks for best action movies on Stan. The Expendables The film that rounded up some of the greatest action movie stars of the '80s and '90s (along with a couple of newcomers), Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables will bring a huge smile to the face of anyone who grew up during this high-testosterone era. Joining Stallone are the likes of Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Terry Crews and more. While the film itself is far from perfect, we can't help but get a kick out of seeing our heroes fighting alongside each other. IMDB Rating: 6.5, Rotten Tomatoes: 42% Kill Bill Quentin Tarantino's grand homage to exploitation cinema, Kill Bill sees star Uma Thurman go on a roaring rampage of revenge, killing everyone who was involved in her attempted assassination. Fresh out of a coma after several years, this former assassin will make her old associates pay, one-by-one, for ruining her life. And when that's done, she's taking her blood-drenched katana on a trip to meet Bill (David Carradine), her former boss and lover. Split into two pieces (both of which are now streaming on Stan), Kill Bill is a violent revenge masterpiece. IMDB Rating: 8.1, Rotten Tomatoes: 85% The Terminator James Cameron made his career with this time travel-themed action thriller, which also worked to solidify Arnold Schwarzenegger as one of the biggest stars on the planet. Arnold plays a Terminator – a cyborg killing machine that's sent back in time to kill a great military leader's mother (Linda Hamilton) before he's ever conceived. This mother's child will eventually be responsible for defeating the machines in the distant future. Thankfully, a human soldier (Michael Biehn) has also travelled back in time to protect her. Perfectly mixing action, sci-fi and horror, The Terminator is a white-knuckle experience from beginning to end.IMDB Rating: 8.0, Rotten Tomatoes: 100% Mad Max Long before he reached Fury Road, Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) was a highway cop in a particularly rough part of Australia – his beat ravaged by murderous and borderline savage street cretins. When Max's family and partner are killed by a gang with a vendetta, he gets mad. Extremely mad. One of Australian cinema's most classic films, Mad Max is high-octane revenge thriller that boasts some of the greatest scenes of vehicular carnage ever committed to celluloid. Max would eventually end up in a post-apocalyptic future, but his humble origins should never be forgotten.IMDB Rating: 7.0, Rotten Tomatoes: 90% The Nice Guys Shane Black, writer and director of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, returns to the world of gumshoe detectives with The Nice Guys, a smart and funny mystery that establishes Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling as a comedic match made in heaven. Set in the late '70s, Crowe's tough guy enforcer teams up with Gosling's bumbling private eye to solve the mystery of a dead porn star. Filled with hilarious one-liners and terrific action sequences, The Nice Guys is the kind of movie they really don't make anymore, which makes its very existence something of a miracle, wouldn't you say?IMDB Rating: 7.4, Rotten Tomatoes: 92% We all like a good thriller, and Stan is chock-full of them. If you want a film that will have you on the edge of your seat, you've come to the right place. Below is a list of some of the best thrillers currently available on Stan. Nightcrawler Jake Gyllenhaal is incredibly creepy as Louis Bloom, a man who makes money by filming grisly crime footage and selling it to news stations in Los Angeles. Driven by greed and hubris, Louis starts blurring the line between observer and active participant, eventually instigating violent incidents in order to get the scoop. A cutting commentary on our modern news cycle obsession, Nightcrawler is a riveting thriller with terrific performances.IMDB Rating: 7.9, Rotten Tomatoes: 95% Wake in Fright An absolutely brilliant and confronting critique of Australian drinking culture and 'mateship', Canadian director Ted Kotchoff (First Blood) does not hold back at all when it comes to showing some of our country's uglier aspects with Wake in Fright. A school teacher finds himself trapped in an Outback mining town after losing all his money in a two-up game, leading him to go on a night of binge-drinking, fighting and kangaroo shooting with some unhinged locals. It's safe to say that he may never be the same again after this night...IMDB Rating: 7.7, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%  Léon: The Professional French director Luc Besson has made several cult classic films (The Fifth Element, La Femme Nikita, The Big Blue), but perhaps none is more beloved than Léon: The Professional. Notable for being Natalie Portman's first film, Léon tells the story of a lonely assassin (Jean Reno) who befriends a young girl after her whole family is killed by a crooked cop (Gary Oldman). Violent and thrilling, yet filled with warmth and heart, Léon: The Professional is bloody fantastic. IMDB Rating: 8.6, Rotten Tomatoes: 71% Science fiction films offer us visions of the future (well, from the perspective of the times in which they were made) that open our minds to the possibilities of what humankind might be capable of, in both the good and bad sense. These are some of the best sci-fi films on Stan. Blade Runner Ridley Scott's thought-provoking cyberpunk masterpiece wasn't fully appreciated until a decade after its release, where it received a director's cut that addressed and excised some of the studio interference that plagued the theatrical version of the film. Harrison Ford plays Deckard, the titular Blade Runner. He's a cop of sorts whose job is to hunt down and eliminate rogue replicants, which are like artificial humans created as off-world slave labour. When a group of them decide they'd rather live, going on a killing spree in the process, Deckard sets out to take them down, but maybe this time it won't be so easy... IMDB Rating: 8.2, Rotten Tomatoes: 90% RoboCop A cutting satire of corporate greed in the '80s, Robocop is more than the sum of its parts. Brilliantly directed by Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Starship Troopers), the film sees a rookie cop viciously murdered by a group of criminals, only to be revived by a corporation and used as a robotic crime-fighting product. Pretty soon, his memories start to return, and it's only a matter of time before he tracks down his killers and discovers the real intents of his makers. IMDB Rating: 7.5, Rotten Tomatoes: 88% The Matrix A science fiction classic, The Matrix is a cautionary tale about artificial intelligence packaged as an action-packed, visual effects spectacular. Inspired by martial arts films, anime and cyberpunk literature, The Matrix sees Neo (Keanu Reeves) discover that the world as we know it is an elaborate computer simulation that masks the real truth – Earth is a wasteland and humans are being kept alive in chambers to act as the batteries powering our new machine overlords. Whoa. IMDB Rating: 8.7, Rotten Tomatoes: 87% E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Steven Spielberg is known for making heart-warming, sentimental movies, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial might be the one that best embodies that. A classic family film about a lonely kid (Henry Thomas) who develops a bond with a friendly alien marooned on our planet, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is capable of melting even the coldest of hearts. IMDB Rating: 7.9, Rotten Tomatoes: 98% Source link

[dmydfilmreviews]

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

 Giving up on this whole idea of the Andersons being brothers, letting the joke die, that’s not half-arsed. That’s not realising it’s a bit of a one note joke, and slowly giving it up in the face of cinematic masterpiece after cinematic masterpiece making you a bit ashamed. It’s not getting to sad to carry it on every time Philip Seymour Hoffmann appears, from Hard Eight, to that post-awful OD entrance in Boogie Nights, to the sad angel he’d become in Magnolia. It’s not that. Giving up on the joke is a brilliantly clever meta parable for Wes Anderson’s work. Because everything’s serious now.

 At first glance Grand Budapest Hotel looks like a lot of Wes’ others; the minutiae of design, the wide cast of eccentric characters, the development of a closed-off world. There’s plenty of great performances from old hands and a class new class of Saoirse Ronan, Tony Revolori and a wonderful Ralph Fiennes, finally finding in Anderson’s words a likeability that’s evaded his career up to this point. His Monsieur Gustave is a great, lost man from another time, a totem of the charm, warmth and decency that’s long been the hallmark of Anderson’s films. The design work’s impeccable. There’s a lot of cake. But The Grand Budapest Hotel is Wes Anderson’s masterpiece because it’s the one where his closed off world meets reality.

 It looked like simple history in 2014. A period piece, a remembrance. But the director was obviously paying attention: just two years later, in the blink of an eye, as Fascism, ignorance and intolerance infest their way across the interwebs, institutions and voting booths, the movie looks like a plea, an echo from a time already gone. That it’s so funny, sweet and fresh adds to the heartache; by setting his lovely story full of lovely people within a story within another story Anderson reminds us of the importance of remembrance itself, of one reader under a statue of a dead author, reading his autobiography on the tale he retold long ago. It’s about how this decency won’t ever be buried, as long as there’s someone left to read.

 The mix of sweet and horrific makes it pretty bleak, especially for Anderson. People die. Cats are thrown out of windows. People age. But it all comes back to that death of decency again, of a mourning for a lost world; Anderson was heavily inspired by the work of Stefan Zweig, a popular Austrian author of the first half of the twentieth century.  Zweig wrote biographies, essays, novellas, criticised as lightweight by some, praised as simplistic by others. In 1942 he and his wife held hands and died of a barbiturate overdose, unable to get past the horrors of the German Reich they were living in. Anderson says that many things in Grand Budapest Hotel are inspired by Zweig – the characters of the authors and M. Gustave, the idea of a story within a story within a story. But as an entire film it also takes on the ideals and dimensions of its inspiration’s dreams; Zweig was an avid collector of curios from around Europe, collecting them all together in a cabinet that served as a microcosm of the continent being blown to hell around him. It’s easy to see Anderson’s film as that same cabinet, a celluloid sanctuary for a world lost, destroyed by the borders that sprung up so easily in real life, the controls and despotism that dominate the final third of the film. Lost romance. A single painting. An assortment of wonderful tasting confectionaries. As the past two years have gone by this tribute to a man and an age of decency has grown larger, into an example of a world lost to darkness and totalitarianism, the same way ours is going with every new horror. But we’re not The Grand Budapest Hotel, duh, we’re not a film. We’re not Stefan Zweig, unable to see an end to the darkness, because we’ve lived in the light he never saw. We’ll see it again.

 Trailer

 D