#oozepunk

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The early 90s live action The Guyver movie, starring: Mark Hamill, the mayor of Detroit from Robocop 2, featuring an unauthorized cameo from my cat.

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Recently made this custom character in Sonic Forces that I've really taken a liking to.

Came up with a backstory for him which boils down to him being a Resistance member who had an unfortunate accident in one of Eggman's Chemical Plant bases in which he fell into a pool of that pink, chemically tainted water (sometimes referred to as "Mega Mack"). In this incident, he almost drowned before being rescued, and had swallowed a significant amount of the substance. The result of this is that his body turned magenta and he developed breathing problems due to overexposure to the chemicals in the water.

Tails was able to fashion a special apparatus to ease his breathing problems, which resembles a gas mask. He won't die without it, but it keeps his breathing regular so he can continue to go on missions, at his own insistence.

His personality is pretty laid back and some might describe him as cynical, though that doesn't stop him from giving his all during missions, and ever since his unfortunate incident he's become more determined than ever to take Eggman down.

I'm thinking of naming this guy "Scuzz". lol

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The Toxic Avenger (1984)

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New Toxic Avenger absolutely whips ass, homies. Highly recommend!

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Toxic Avenger is to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as Robocop is to Inspector Gadget? 🤔

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OOZEPUNK

WHAT IS OOZEPUNK?

Oozepunk is the term I'm coining for the microgenre of urban heroic sci-fi horror-fantasy that first exploded in the mid-80s with movies, shows, and comics like Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Toxic Avenger, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Hellboy, Street Sharks, and others. Lots of natural crossover with Biopunk and Cyberpunk, aesthetically and philosophically.

Your childhood trauma didn't let you forget Roger Rabbit heavily featured colorful nightmare slime, did it?

A ragtag gang of weirdos (often horribly mutated--more on that soon) band together to save a city that doesn't understand them. Grimy sewers, abandoned buildings and graffiti'd brick walls are lit up by neon lights, streams of mysterious, glowing goo and/or the unearthly lights of futuristic particle weapons--ideally all of the above!

Beyond the "cracked concrete and gutters full of liquid plutonium" aesthetic, Oozepunk prankishly asks "What if catastrophic aberrations of science, particularly DUMPING TOXIC FUCKING WASTE STRAIGHT INTO THE ENVIRONMENT created fucked-up monsters... but they're HEROIC fucked-up monsters!" These catastrophic aberrations of science grant the heroes incredible powers, but COST them their place in human society. (Ghostbusters and Roger Rabbit eschew character mutation in favor of discovering that the undead and olde tymey cartoons are real [and exploitable!], respectively. 'Busters and 'Toon sympathizers alike are treated like insane idiots and/or frauds in their respective universes.)

Oozepunk heroes are challenged not only by strange supernatural beings, but by human society itself. The Ghostbusters battle with local politicians as much as they do the undead. In the recent (and delightful) TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, Splinter warns the Turtles of humans and their obsession with "milking" mutants for their blood--on top of the villainous mutants they're trying to thwart!

Crank up the creep factor in Oozepunk and you get awesome anti-establishment goo-horror like 1988's The Blob, The Stuff, Street Trash, and probably a bunch more. Toxic Avenger is a batshit crazy splatter-comedy (i.e. classic Troma)... and still garnered sequels, a kid's cartoon and toyline!

And there's a Shredder's Revenge-style Crusaders beat-em-up coming out next year??

This looks dope as shit

Ghostbusters and TMNT are the only current, "evergreen" (or radioactive green!) Oozepunk franchises I can think of off the top of my head, but Oozepunk elements are buried in almost all of the stories and settings I love the most. Heroic kaiju like King Kong, Godzilla and Gamera paved the way for our freaky friends, but so did comics characters like Fantastic Four's Ben "The Thing" Grimm, The Hulk and Swamp Thing. Hell, I think I blame SESAME STREET of all things for starting me down the Oozepunk path.

Surprise! I've loved screaming trash monsters with secret hearts of gold since I was a fucking baby, and they've ALWAYS been there for me!

But it's not just Oscar, Sesame Street as a whole is a proto-Oozepunk utopia, years before the big Ooze-splosion of the 80s. Muppets, monsters, talking animals and chill humans all live and work together to scrape by with a little dignity in a gritty-but-wholesome urban world!

Sesame Street, a decades-long reminder that educational childrens' programming can and SHOULD be cool as hell looking and loaded with all kinds of friendly mutant freakuloids.

OOZEPUNK! Whaddya think?

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Swamps are a cottagecore variant of oozepunk

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Ghostbusters Frozen Empire rewatch random thoughts and series analysis

Ghostbusters Frozen Empire asks: what if the family from National Lampoon's Vacation fell ass backwards into Ghostbusting? Answer: it would be cool and fun and funny.

Frozen Empire is a visual and vibe-perfect follow-up to Ghostbusters (1984) that incorporates the best bits of The Real Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, Ghostbusters Afterlife, and Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed.

Secret sauce(s) of Ghostbusters:

Frozen Empire follows what I call Aykroyd's array, the formula to '84 Ghostbusters: 30% funny as hell (10% of which is horny-type funny), 30% scary, 30% weird and cool as shit.

Ghostbusters is really about the unexplored science and undeniable power of vibes.

Horny and screwball romantic comedy are essentially one in the same in Ghostbusting terms. Unlikely, powerful connections are a recurring motif since '84.

Ghostbusters is about brutally honest and embarrassingly uncool/real reactions to the terrifying, the supernatural, and the overwhelming.

The proton-paneled ghost zoo in Winston's secret R&D headquarters absolutely rules, as does seeing the new, different branches of paranormal investigation and elimination. The quick moment of ectoplasmic Jurassic Park is genius and honestly could power an entire movie or at least a TV episode.

Venkman is a slimeball manipulator but also a genius-level psychologist and masterful people-reader. Like a lovable dipshit cross between Frasier and Dr. House and a carnie. Also the ultimate hotshot gunslinger Ghostbuster. Like Doc Holliday with multiple PhDs and the ability to bully/dunk on the undead. Ice in his veins, but not a serious bone in his body.

Aykroyd's Ray and Hudson's Winston are the ever-beating hearts of Ghostbusters.

Phoebe calling Stantz "Dr. Ray" is precious, protect her at all costs. 

Ecto-C is fucking dope as hell and probably a wink to Ecto-Cooler.

I hate that they don't make Slimer glowing and translucent like in '84, but the puppet is so goddamn good and expressive I understand why they made him as visible as possible. 

Pukey, the little vomit ghost, is the rare barf joke that I enjoy. Great character design, tastefully restrained geyser of ecto-vomit. Vastly preferred over the obvious Exorcist parody-puke in Answer the Call. (THE CAST WASN'T THE PROBLEM PAUL FEIG WAS I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL AND HAUNT IT AND THEN BE BUSTED BY PARANORMAL INVESTIGATORS OF ANY GENDER). Anyway the Ghostbusters Wiki says that Pukey's Occupation is Projectile Vomiting. Which like, I'm just glad he found his niche, you know?

Atherton as Mayor Peck is the perfect heartless asshole (who once again has a point! FUCK)

WINSTON AND RAY HAVE TOUGH TALKS BECAUSE THEY CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER FUUUUCK MAN 

Ghostbusters deal with weird-ass and/or insane humans as much as they deal with ghosts and goblins. Kumail Nanjiani is the perfect modern influencer gymbro equivalent to 84's neurotic-accountant-turned-dimensional-fuck-dog-demon Rick Moranis. An unparallelled supply of eccentric, hilarious freakazoids makes New York City vital to Ghostbustmanship IMO.

The Stranger Things-ification of Ghostbusters is sub-optimal IMO but has more pros than cons (moreso in Frozen Empire than Afterlife for my money). It speaks to kids' instinctual understanding of the power of vibes and how kids have always been drawn to the scary but scientifically weird and wonderful world of Ghostbusters. What kid doesn't want to kick the boogeyman's ratchet ass with firehose lasers and devastating sick burns?

"Golden years?!" "Golden years!" 

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire both revolve around a villain that uses deadly ice powers and end with an instantly frozen beach disaster sequence. And both have a "something Empire" subtitle. What's that about?

I also love both movies. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?!

Finn Wolfhard as a hapless young wiener is by far his best, funniest, most human work. Like a baby Luis Tully (compliment).

Paul Rudd as a Clark W. Griswold-esque stepdad/Ghostbuster is inspired.

They originated in Afterlife but the Mini-Pufts are a perfect add to the Ghostbusterverse. Stay-Puft is too good to not bring back, but Gozer is donezo for good so he needs to appear in some different form. It'd feel stale if it was a single, kaiju-sized marshmallow man again. Lots of tiny psycho Stay-Pufts gives us a fresh new angle on the confectionary creep, and feels like a loving nod (or shameless ripoff if you're a dick) to the Gremlins movies. The fact the Mini-Pufts are so focused on and delighted by torturing and killing themselves is a hilariously dark, weird new twist, and as Ghostbustery as it gets IMO. These are ethereal abominations, after all.

Carrie Coon is hot. Annie Potts is hot. Ghostbusters has always been inherently a little bit/safely horny. This is because GB is about vibes, and horniness is a normal healthy part of being human.

The quiet importance of human connection/horniness feels Freudian/Jungian--psychology and parapsychology are to Ghostbusters as archeology and anthropology are to Indiana Jones. They're baked into the DNA of the story, characters and world, just turnt up to 11(million). Unlikely supernatural trips to pound town are a recurring motif and literally alter the fate of reality in this franchise. Just like in real life.

As ever, bustin' makes me feel good. 👻💦