Blog Post #2
I really enjoyed “The Rider”, it had a southern gothic vibe to it which is a genre I like; it reminded me of a book I read in high school “Invisible Man”. I liked the environmentally conscious aspect of the book, although it was focused on jim crow and racism it also tied in land preservation. I believe the book had two separate messages. On the one hand, you have the karma/ you get what you deserve kind of message with the people who had “murder in their hearts” dying. On the other hand, you have industrialism coming in and trying to deforest this land with no regard to the people who previously lived there and in turn, the person in control of the bus ends up dying.
At the end of the story, the thoughts that the rider put in Pat’s head slightly confused me. It explained that it was awakened due to the construction on the highway and that it wouldn’t rest until its job of protecting the innocent from harm is fulfilled. I wonder if land preservation is one of The Riders goals or if that was a separate message in the book that just happened to be the means that the rider was introduced to the story through.
Of course I always like a happy ending for our protagonist in Black horrors and I enjoy that the sisters went their separate ways which further contributes to the karma message of the story. The sisters were trying to make a positive change for the black community and in turn found love while the people in the story that were hateful succumbed to their hate.
The movie US was another good one. This was my first time watching it and surprisingly I hadn’t been spoiled by now. Based on Jordan Peele's Get Out, it wasn’t what I expected. For some reason even though I think the movie was much more gruesome than Get Out it didn’t give me the same anxious feeling I got from Get Out; it felt lighter. I think it was because some of the family members' directions after doing certain things was almost comedic, for example when the children took out the twin doppelgangers their reaction took the tension away.
I'm not sure if it was just me who was confused or me not wanting to think anything bad happened to a child but it wasn’t clear to me that Adelaide and her shadow switched.
















