[mask131]

My introduction to Madman Films' Youtube channel? The trio they threw at us of The Death of Robin Hood, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, plus the Australian/New-Zealand exportation of Jim Queen. I think it is enough to define a brand X)

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

“Do you hear that? Clara? Is that you?” // “Softly. The children are listening. Look at the children. The children are watching.”

THE INNOCENTS (1961) dir. Jack Clayton

NOSFERATU (2024) dir. Robert Eggers

[retro-scifi-and-fantasy-art]

Artist: Philippe Caza (b. 1941, France) Galaxie, #100, Sept. 1972

[mask131]

Ah, Galaxie! A whole bunch of memories

[incestling]

i wish more people would watch stephen king's rose red. is it good? no. but it is about a lesbian haunted house which is what you chucklefucks are always posting yearningly about.

[helena-thessa]

“No oogyman.”

“No boogyman?”

“Oogylady.”

[mask131]

Speaking of racism in horror movies... After the debate of whether it is good or bad, now an entire "racial implication" debate is starting around the Backrooms. Which was to be expected given the character we are talking about.

I have absolutely nothing to say about it, or rather the few things I could potentially say were already said - because people have finally reached the level of "let's go deep in a few seconds once the movie is done" where they end up laying out neatly and entirely the conondrum they place themselves into thinking of specific issues. (Or specific things, such as this movie).

I saw several Youtube comments that went down the exact thought-process I did when I heard people talk about the "racist implications" of the Backrooms movie, but also went even beyond and yeah... The result is one of those "No matter where we go it is racist" paradox.

Because people take issue with Clark, the character as written, being played by a Black actor as the way the character behaves echoes and ignites a WHOLE lot of old racist subtexts and stereotypes by the matter of the actor being Black. As a result people think that the role should have been played by a White person... YET! Yet when they say that they also openly admit that this would make it an all-white movie, and would just be erasure and racism too...

So they start thinking about where to put the "Black actor", but given all of the others are victims of Clark's behavior, to have Black actors playing tormented slain victims to a crazy White man is deemed just as unpleasant and unsatisfying as the situation we have. So the obvious solution would be to make everybody Black - but THEN people also point out that it would not have felt right because of how the creator of the movie and its artistic face is a young White man, which would make people raise eyebrows at (I quote some comments here) such a use of "Black-on-Black violence".

So... no matter what option you choose, all are unpleasant, all bear their own flavor of racism, and nobody will ever be satisfied with it.

Resulting in the Internet raising a "problematic issue" which, in the same breath, they recognize has no actual issue or solution, unless the story is rewritten. I had not seen widespread Internet discourse have such a self-awareness in... well I never saw it I think? Which results in people being much more calm and reasonable when talking about the problem and its inherent complexity. Very refreshing.

[mask131]

As promised, since the movie is out now, you can send anonymous asks again!

[portalibis]

The Jackal and the Serpent: A Rare Syncretic Anubis

Deep within the 2nd-century Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa in Alexandria, Egypt, stands a fascinating example of ancient religious fusion: the anguipede Anubis (serpent-legged Anubis).

This striking relief perfectly embodies the melting pot of the Greco-Roman-Egyptian world. The traditional Egyptian jackal-headed god is depicted wearing Roman military armor and holding a spear, while his lower body transforms into coiling serpent tails. By merging Anubis with the Hellenistic protective serpent deity Agathos Daimon, this unique imagery represents a powerful hybrid sentinel—a cosmic guardian tasked with warding off evil and shielding the threshold of the tomb.

Telegram / Facebook / Sacred Ibis fb group

[mask131]

When you take the two most syncretic and expensive pantheons of the Ancient Mediterranean sea and you have them meet, you get some EXPLOSIVE combo.

[surinnit]

Yes clark maybe you were the problem

[mask131]

Given I have no picture of the creature near hand, I will use this SUPERB fan art to share that, when I saw the design of this specific entity I was actually... not feeling anything because I JUST happened to have seen right before it "Keeper". Where you have the same facial distortion.

Not "exactly" the same, but the design of Keeper's creatures was an obvious direct (VERY direct) predecessor to the creatures' design in "Backrooms". I wonder if there's some shared artists among the special effects crews? Or if it just a strange coincidence (given the Backrooms humanoid entites are very VERY clearly inspired by the generative-AI body distortions)

[rosieandthemoon]

Art Nouveau Vanity from Paper Doll Vintage

[mask131]

There is this very specific aesthetic of pristine vintage-modern items placed in wild nature, and I love it though I don't know how to name it

[goryhorroor]

behind the scenes: horror movies pt 1

[mask131]

This is one of the good ways to be able to cope and deal with horror movies (if you can't stomach it) - look at the behind-the-scenes content to see the special effects being made, the monsters being human, and the actors goofing together outside of the carefully-crafted disturbing tragedy.

[misslycoris]

(spoiler-free post)

wtf was everyone talking about when it got leaked, did they see the same movie? the ending was okay, may not have been what most of us were expecting but it ties up everything alright, I am free to speculate some details that weren't explained but I'm not left like a madman trying to decipher what the ending meant

[mask131]

An exact continuation of what I posted previously. Once I went down the tag and discovered that the most vocal people after the leak (on this website at least) were haters ("critical"), I knew their position would be VERY biased and I expected to have such an EXACT reaction as above ("Is it the same movie we saw?") to appear once people got to actually see the movie.

When you start listening to haters without seeing the actual material, you will always end up having a cognitive dissonance.

[mask131]

I posted this point a bit too early, so I waited a tiny bit more for some time to pass and I am re-posting it (don't worry, your mind is not playing tricks on you, I just redid the post)

I think it is very telling how different the general vibe of reception is when it comes to peope who watched the leak as soon as it arrived (intense negativeness, ranging from hatred to intense disappointment) versus those that watched the finale in theater (general positiveness, ranging from "it was excellent" to "it had its flaws but it was a good experience").

As I said before, a quick search of those that posted "reviews" and so-called "opinions" after (and out of) the leak were firmy set in the hatedom (or "critical-dom") of the show, whereas, you know, those that went in the theaters are mainly actual fans. Information conveyed by peope out to get the show versus the show finding its audience.

And then you have the Youtube reactions which are very split and much more neutral, acting as a sort of middle-ground.

[mask131]

At least Luckhurst is honest when it comes to Halloran's role in Shining (it is part of a sequence studying the "Magical Negro" stereotype). Even though Halloran's position, dialogue and interactions in Kubrick's movie help to carry the metaphor of the oppressed fighting against "the murderous force of white masculinity", how the "children, women and the black" are the neglected ones and marginal ones of this murderous America that they need to band together against... Even the greatest fans of Kubrick can't ignore how disdaindful and condescending Kubrick seems in his handling of Halloran's character, especially compared to King's original, more "positive" and fleshed out treatment of the character.

I also love how Luckhurst purposefully decided to place next to each other, in his logical train of thought, Halloran's character and Nicholson's worries about the health of Scatman Crothers, by his section about Wendy's character and the awful treatment of Shelley Duvall. He literaly concludes about Kubrick's disdainful words towards Halloran in his interview with Michel Ciment, and the next paragraph opens with "And poor Shelley Duvall!". (Also, Luckhurst points out that the character of the fearful and persecuted mother in Diane Johnson's "The Shadow Knows" can be taken into account as a reflection of how Johnson's originally wrote Wendy's character, for the first drafts of the movie).

He has quite sweet words to defend her (especially since he is in a historical perspective and has to comment on the reviews at the time of the movie's released which claimed her acting was one of the bad parts of the movie) - he notably claims his belief that, unlike what pop culture claims, it is not Nicholson's caricatural performance that made the "axing down the door" scene so effective and impactful, but Duvall playing perfectly well the terror of the victim, her fright helping the scene work and not making it utterly goofy. And of course, while he admits that Kubrick's treatment of Duvall was clearly part of him enforcing an extreme format of "character acting", something Duvall herself recognized and seemingly made peace with to public eyes ("seemingly" because the way her career changed after this betrays the trauma that was working with Kubrick), he also reminds us that Kubrick never wrote his movies for women and that the closest thing Kubrick ever had to a complex female character was Nicole Kidman's role in "Eyes Wide Shut" - only for her character to also be pushed on the side.

Which, as he (I think rightfully) concludes, makes Duvall's performance one of the best women performances in the entire work of Kubrick - this perpetually uncomfortable woman constantly seeking the approbation of irritated men only to spiral into despair and terror feels more "real" than a lot of the other women Kubrick "wrote" in his movies... Despite Kubrick precisely cutting down, simplifying and reducing Stephen King's original, complex, strong and heroic character to what he intended to be a weak, passive, masochistic element here to only represent one half of a toxic relationship.

[mask131]

You probably guessed what this post is about given my previous reblogs... But maybe not? I don't know how much it has been spoken about outside of France... In case you have not heard, Marjane Satrapi, the famous creator of "Persepolis" (among other works), died today.

[luvinaeverdene]

Persepolis (2007) Directed by Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud

[morphine-king]

Persepolis (2007) – Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi

[rini-descartes]

Persepolis (2007)