[mask131]

I was speaking about "Garde à vue" with someone (the ORIGINAL French movie, thank you very much, not the American - and Americanized - remake "Under Suspicion") and... It is time for another strange TADC parallel! (you must be accustomed at this point to the way I link TADC to entirely unrelated things)

Given I have not watched the finale my point here might be already outdated and badly aged but who cares. See... Of course TADC and Garde à Vue have basically nothing at all to do with each other. Yet... Yet there IS something... There is.

A sort of core ambiance... People trapped together in a locked, empty space, while the rest of the world goes on out there... People being stuck trying to solve a mystery that cannot be solved, following false lead after false lead, to the point of believing and convincing themselves of false things... People who annoy, exhaust, anger, wear-out each other and yet seek a form of friendship, bonding, as they have to open themselves, to reveal more about themselves than they shared with anybody... People forced together in a situation they hate but sharing and understanding their misery until in the end they grow dependant on each other in the most dire conditions, yet with the suspicions of/the haunting of previous tragic disappearance and traumatic "deaths" hanging over their every gesture, every word...

(Well I say "people" in plural, but in the movie it is clearly just Martinaud)

And then, more obviously, the "shots of the outside world". This specific technique of reinforcing the inherent claustrophobia of the movie by having the past events and outside elements visually alluded by eerie, empty, fragmentary shots... The Jax flashbacks anybody? That one sudden creepy fragmentary IRL intrusion?

I could even go as far as to make a parallel between madame Martinaud and Abel.

I can go VERY far when I want to.

[mask131]

Luckhurst offers this fascinating interpretation of Jack's behavior when he goes "full crazy".

Jack is constantly quoting or paying homage to other things, outside references (which some might interpret as part of Kubrick's maybe intended parody of the horror genre). Luckhurst suggests that maybe it can translate how at this point the Overlook utterly "emptied" Jack, who is now but an empty shell, and thus can only imitate other or behave or pre-existing things. To loosely quote myself: "He steals a speech from Humbert Humbert. He tickles the locked door like Oliver Hardy. He limps like Fritz in 1931's Frankenstein. He recites the traditional story of the Three Little Pigs. He becomes an evil Johnny Carson. And his "Wendy, I'm home" rresonates with the line of Ricky Ricardo in "I Love Lucy" - likely chosen to corrupt the carefree spirit of this familial sitcom so typical of the 50s. This is in line with the decay Jack is undergoing."

[advancedessence]

Burnt Offerings (1976)

[mask131]

Burnt Offerings is one of those movies that feel disturbing enough for me (I wanted to say "horrible" as in "horror inducing" but I remembered that last time I used this word people thought I meant "bad quality") because, for a "haunted house/evil house" movie, it is not so much about the house. The house is not the mystery (everything is made clear and laid out early on in the movie, for the viewer to understand what story they are getting into) and isn't even truly a character (unlike other productions of the sort). Rather the story entirely focuses on the breaking down, the decay, the "burning" of the family - and thus it is more of a character-study movie. And I believe this movie will speak oh so much more to people who are used or have experienced dysfunctional families.

What made it echo with me, and thus made me feel "disturbed" (but in a good way) was the fact I actually knew all of these people IRL. Each and every of these characters (except for the chauffeur), I met IRL at different points in my life, in different places, but it is so eerie to see these fictional portraits of very real people - it added for me a level of "realism" which I don't think everybody will have when watching this obviously supernatural movie...

[rosieandthemoon]

by Belgian photographer Alfonse Van Besten, 1913

[mask131]

Pre-Raphaelite photography

[crooked-wasteland]

When it comes to TADC, I have one hefty criticism, one mild criticism, and one criticism where I hate it but I get it.

When you have a fandom this brainlessly literal who exist as emotional black holes, you don't have many choices. I think it was unnecessary for the story and broke the world just a bit. But if making your show worse makes them happy, why fight the rising tide?

I definitely felt Goose was trying to extend an olive branch to these people while simultaneously falling out of love with her own story due to the crushing expectations and the fact no one obviously wanted HER story. Just another mood board to say "omg that's me" about.

Still, for how much I hate it, she used it very well. It is such obvious training wheels for younger viewers, so I can respect it while still resenting it.

[mask131]

I hesitated reblogging this because I still don't know what the heck happened in this finale - I am still carefully waiting - but from the spoiler-free reviews, reactions and musings I have been blasted, I eerily had the exact same feeling as described in the third paragraph here.

From what I vaguely got, it had this sort of "rushed" feeling of a work that you want to wrap up for good despite having a lot more story to share, but it also had this "We'll make the fans happy" mindset, and so - without knowing exactly what this bloody ending is - the way people have been vaguely describing it evokes this exact feeling as said above. The feeling of someone writing an ending for a story they are growing distant with, but who still wants it to be a nice ending that will please people. Not a "spite" ending as some people feared, but just someone who wants to be at peace with a burial. A "tired but gentle farewell" ending.

Of course don't take my words for any worth, I still have NOT watched the ending... I am just wondering and pondering, and laying out my preliminary feels to compare them to what will actually appear on Youtube. And I have seen some people wonder if the ending would have been different, had there not been all this harassment, nonsensical drama and psychological mess that made Gooseworx decide to not continue anymore.

[helena-thessa]

TLDR; Representation of all different kinds is so fucking important and it's especially important for kids.

Rather niche post, considering the mini-series couldn't be found on streaming for years and years, but here goes.

I watched Stephen King's Rose Red several times as a kid and early teenager, but just watched it for the first time as an adult. I don't remember thinking of Joyce as an antagonist or someone capable of harm. I think, due to gendered norms and most media representation of women, I saw her doting over Annie as her nurturing tendencies and interpreted them as genuine care. When Joyce later becomes wild and explicitly violent, I think I understood that as her falling victim to the house.

She was always that way, though. Right under the surface. Watching as an adult now it's clearly obvious from the beginning that Joyce is obsessive, selfish, and reckless. She snaps at the student who approaches her outside of office hours. She clearly doesn't give two fucks about Steve as a significant other. She dismisses everyone else's contributions during the orientation even though they're the ones with lived experience. She smears blood on her colleague in front of an audience in broad daylight without thinking twice (unrelated: hands-down one of the greatest demonstrations and dialogue about the paranormal ever written, and also a fantastic reaction of female rage). She often gets that bright-eyed spark of a mad scientist in her eyes before masking or turning away.

Women can be cruel and mean and selfish. Not all women are maternal figures. Didn't really know that until much later in life though, did I? Gillian Flynn had to hammer the point home.

Also, even more egregious, certainly in part due to the heteronormative culture forced onto us: I totally missed that Ellen Rimbauer and Sukeena were evidently romantic companions.

I don't know the point of this post other than, man. How terrible is it that representation was so sparse back then that you couldn't see it when you did have it? How is it fair to raise kids in a world that hides reality? It's so shaming and unnecessary. I know there's a lot of backlash against more diverse representation, we need to keep shutting that shit down.

[mask131]

If I read this book correctly... When Kubrick started the project, he asked Wendy Carlos to read Stephen King's novel and produced some "samples of electronical sound illustration", as she did with Clockwork Orange, based solely on the original material - and this resulted in not one, but TWO albums of musical material... Of which only the Dies Irae of the opening sequence was used (though the text also says her creation "Shining / Heartbeat" is the one that is heard throughout the film recuringly, as the sign of any telepathic communication occuring)

Anybody knows if the unused material for the "Shining" soundtrack can be listened to anywhere?

[mask131]

I will say, while I was very venomous towards the people that shared their opinion and thoughts about the leak's content as if it was normal subject, at least THEY PUT SPOILER WARNINGS.

It is the actual loving/defensive fans of the show, the fans that can't stop babbling about the movie release, that are posting stuff WITHOUT HIDING THE SPOILERS. I wasn't expecting to get flash-spoiled by people who want to make a point as to why the finale is good.

REMEMBER YOUR SPOILER TAGS AND YOUR SPOILER CUTS PEOPLE.

[demilypyro]

Digital circus' biggest problem is that it was written to be a niche show aimed at weird analytical queers with actual media literacy and it accidentally blew tf up and hit the mainstream and a bunch of people who have never had a second thought about anything got into it

[mask131]

This is the most astute analysis of the core problem (or one of the core problems) of the TADC phenomenon I have seen.

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

Films that inspired “Nosferatu” (2024), according to Robert Eggers: Staging/Mise-en-scène and Collective Psychosis due to Sexual Repression

Jack Clayton, “The Innocents”, 1961

“Perhaps the largest cinematic influence on my “Nosferatu”, aside from the Murnau film. Freddy Francis, the DP, his staging with Jack Clayton in this […] But I also love when Freddy Frances directs like a Hammer horror movie with a bad script, the staging is always so elegant, and I strike to have that kind of elegance in movies that I make.”

Robert Eggers, le réalisateur de Nosferatu est dans le Vidéo Club

Dream of Death: Robert Eggers on “Nosferatu”

[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.