#(also not that you can tell from this but the Dracula one is comedy and the Jason one is fairly dark angst)

[zorilleerrant]

Heads Up, Seven Up

Tagged by @clockwayswrites: post the last 7 lines of your current WIP - of which I also currently have too many, so let's have some:

Back Compatible, my current Camp NaNo project

(Legal or not, that’s a career killer, and we literally all know that, I do not need your advice on any of it.) Whatever, the café the company liked was straight out of the box anyway, they didn’t even update the color scheme. I would’ve updated the color scheme. I love updating the color scheme. I change my whole house like every other day, just for fun, you can’t even customize a font for the signage? (The neon wasn’t even well shaded. At least our bar looks like actual neon.)

I think Bruce Wayne is a Dracula, my Dracula rewrite

Seeing bits of buildings, enormous skyscrapers blown apart, orbiting some other planet’s moon – there’s an ache to it, knowing something so awful happened here, but it’s not personal. It’s just a piece of a palace or an office building or a theme park, and you know real people were there, but you don’t – but I saw someone’s home. A child’s bed, I think, floating all alone, just the corner of a room with drawings on the wall and bright colors and a doll on the bed. I saw what I think was a calendar. I saw a piece of wood half-carved and intact, just floating along. Abstract figures starting to take form. And I keep seeing these escape pods, all working, all empty.

and but my dreams they aren't as empty, The Jason Fic, which I'm just about to actually write the chapter for so I can't give you the actual lines, but here's the end of my notes for this section:

Babs: You've got more people over there than we do. I bet you could take a vacation. Jason: Kind of what I'm doing Here. Babs: Hmm. Maybe you should stay home, then. Jason: And, what, watch Miriam plagiarize things? Babs: You take that back! That was an accident and she apologized and Vienna is actually completely in love with her about it if you were wondering. Okay. We're watching this. And you better not get a crush on the Smutty Professor, even once he takes his shirt off, you basic bitch. Jason: No promises. I am pretty basic. Babs: Ugh. Men.

in case any of you like tag games and have something you want to share: @wolfsbanesparks @theshaddowedsnow @zettelkaestchen @glassandmetalwings @teashoesandhair @rowandriftwood @ihavethreetimdrakeblogs

(also if I didn't tag you but you want to be tagged in these things let me know because I like tagging people but I just have to guess who's interested at any given time)

[thecheshirerat]

On TAZ-

Wow that sounds like I’m about to summarize some sort of discourse but I promise I’m not. I guess I’ll say that I really like this show and I will keep listening even if my worst fears come to pass, so keep that in mind!

For reference, I started listening near the end of Amnesty.

I’ve noticed, with the past few arcs- really since Ethersea- the narratives have just… not been fulfilling their promises, so to speak. They’ve been placing a lot of guns that don’t go off. What I mean by that is, the characters are great. Excellent, really. Lady Godwin? HELL YES. Emerich Dreadway? Fuck yeah! And so on! And the settings and premises have been epic- the goofiness and also horrifying nature of Engrave, the mad and thrilling world of Steeplechase- these things are COOL AS FUCK.

and then the actual narratives keep flopping?

And honestly, I notice it most in the endings, because you can really tell when an ending doesn’t land. You feel the sense of disappointment. But with vs. Dracula, for example, I could kinda see leading up to it that the ending couldn’t really BE anything special, because they lowkey didn’t set themselves up for it.

They spent the campaign fucking around in Engrave, finding clues and solving problems and not really experiencing any particularly meaningful character arcs or growth or, idk, forming relationships? So there wasn’t much to pay off, I’m not gonna lie!

Of course it doesn’t feel quite as dissatisfying when you’re in the thick of it, because they’re funny and the stuff is cool and- oh hey! Lady Godwin’s been turned into a werehorse against her will?? that’s got some real potential for a LOT of allegories and exploration of some fun character development! And then it’s kinda played as a joke. And then they do that again and again.

And they actually said that that was a move they made intentionally, in the TTAZZ. I’m not quoting them perfectly here, this is from memory, but I do remember them mentioning that they wanted lighthearted comedy without the burden of real life story stuff. And I get that, honestly, but… it’s not the choice I would’ve made. I do think you can keep a lighthearted tone while also, idk, forming relationships and wholesomely engaging with some amount of emotion. And sometimes going way too deep is funny as a tone shift!

But I digress. One thing that’s also popped out to me is the almost complete lack of any kind of romantic storyline or even references. This becomes obvious if you’re in a fandom because everyone is always dying to ship SOMEONE, and you can tell when people are really getting desperate. I don’t blame them for not wanting to roleplay romance with their family, and I do think stories lacking romance are COOL and SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED!

However if you can’t find ANYBODY to ship together… that may mean you just don’t have character bonds. The growing popularity of the PC polycule is interesting to me; I wonder if it’s partially because

a) none of the pcs have significant relationships outside of their party and

b) even within the party, there doesn’t seem to be much chemistry between any given pair of characters…? I hope I’m making my point well here- the PCs all seem equally close and have more or less the same relationship to all of their compatriots with little distinction, meaning, essentially, no shipping fodder that doesn’t involve just all of ‘em.

Either way, it makes me wonder if I can blame the “Graduation has too many NPCs!” critique. They really stopped giving the parties tag-along main NPCs after graduation, with the exception of maybe.. Urchin? Kodira? Shlabethany? Poppy? and even they get relatively little “screen” time. Steeplechase has great NPCs, I love them to death, but none of the PCs seem to ever have one on one conversations with NPCs or each other that do not explicitly focus on the plot. And I think that’s part of why the characters feel so underdeveloped despite having spent a lot of time with them- because in this character-driven genre, we get very little insight into their feelings or motivations or even their rudimentary backstories.

I started watching Fantasy High recently and it made me realize a couple things about TAZ.

1) Recently, TAZ has sooo few core NPCs, and it’s weird that the characters aren’t doing more one-on-one purely character based scenes. And that makes it really tough to develop them.

2) TAZ is- and I should have realized this before- one of many good dnd podcasts. They’re probably looking for a niche they can master.

And it sounds like they’re trying to get back to that old “Here there be Gerblins!” energy. They’ve referenced it so many times in recent TTAZZes- they wanted to be job-focused, allowing story stuff to happen organically, so they tried a more open world vibe with Ethersea. They wanted to be less afraid to kill stuff, so they tried playing criminals (and were still afraid to kill stuff). They wanted to be silly and light on character, as they tackled with taz vs dracula. Now they’re trying to bring in the silly cartoon vibe with Abnimals. I think they’re trying to make that family-friendly, funny and goofy show their niche. Something other actual plays can’t be better at them at.

And honestly it kinda makes me sad, that they keep trying to go back to Balance while ignoring everything they learned during it. Because I loved Dust. Because I loved Amnesty. Because I loved Ethersea. I loved these past arcs! But they keep doing their brilliant characters dirty for some reason!!! And i don’t know why!!!!

You know that meme about people who ask questions in movies and then the person responds “Have you ever been to a movie before? You watch them and the information is revealed.” There have been so many times in TAZ recently where information has Not been revealed and if they keep doing it the audience will stop bothering to suspend their disbelief, because the trust just isn’t there.

What is Montrose’s deal? What on earth was Carmine Denton’s whole thing? Tell me more about Zoox’s feelings, about Devo’s past, about Amber’s future. Show me how Lady Godwin feels about the body horror that is her life- like, seriously! WHY DID WE HAVE TO COMPLETELY DISMISS THE OPPORTUNITY TO DISCUSS GENERATIONAL TRAUMA IN MUTT’S LIFE FOR A JOKE??

Do you remember in Steeplechase where the boys were getting medical attention or something- i don’t remember, but they were all in one room and only talking about The Plot. And Poppy literally banged on the door (speaking for both Justin and me, tbh) and was like “does anyone want to share any feeeeelings??” and they were like NOPE! and they moved on!!

like. cmon. you can’t just put a character like montrose out there and then leave them severely underdeveloped to the point that what would be interesting in proper context, with audience insight, becomes confusing and chaotic.

I just wish they would take their stories as seriously as we do.

It feels to me like they don’t believe in themselves, and it makes me sad. Maybe they didn’t get the response they wanted from Ethersea and so they’ve been trying to pivot, hoping to recapture whatever it was that earned them a loyal audience.

Again, I love them. They’re so funny and I’ll keep listening until the day they stop making this show, and when it happens I’ll cry.

But i KNOW they have more in them. Remember the “we’ll grow gills” monologue from Justin in the Prologues? Remember Travis’s SOLID acting with Devo? Or his awesome choice to give Lyndon/Beef a clearly delineated work/irl identity? His excellent narration and prose? Remember when Montrose described being lonely?! Remember all those moments where Shit Got Real and you cared??? The nanofather said some dope shit! dracula and victor and sweater dracula had such a wild dynamic! Clint’s acting in Dust 2- I can’t remember the characters name right now- was ASTOUNDING, I genuinely didn’t know he had that in him and it blew me away!

I’m not referencing Balance on purpose, both because the fandom is way to hung up on it and because I want to prove that you don’t even have to look at Balance, or even Post-Balance arcs, to see this kind of good cool stuff!

GAAAAAAAGHHHH!!! I want them to have fun. But also. We’re starving out here.

[serial-serializednovelreader]

What other novels to your inbox do you recommend? I have done Dracula Daily for years and I want to expand my horizon. War is pretty much the only thing that I don't like. Thanks

Hi!

So funny story, contrary to my username and bio…I have not been keeping up with the classic novels in my emails lately. BUT. That does not mean I don’t have some recommendations for you!

Also, since you did mention you don’t like war, I made sure not to recommend any novels that heavily involve war (War & Peace & Emails, for instance). However, I do know some characters in these recommendations have history with war (e.g. Watson was a war doctor) and I’ve made sure to make mention of that wherever possible. So, I apologize if that comes off as annoying or stating the obvious, I just want you to be fully informed before you read. I’m also listing general content warnings as a rule to inform anyone who might be interested in these Substacks. :)

On to the recommendations!

If you’re looking for mystery…

Learn about the greatest detective of all time from his faithful partner — that’s right! Read Letters from Watson to get the scoop on Sherlock and solve mysteries alongside the legendary duo. I thought this was such a cool concept and I wish I had been able to keep up with it. But it was very fun for the time I did. It goes through the entire chronology of Sherlock stories (which is a lot, by the way) and they just started going through the “more complex cases” (aka, the 4 Sherlock novels) back in January. So, it might be a good time to start! There isn’t war in these cases (at least as far as I know, each email does have a list of content warnings for specifics), but Watson was a war doctor and this does come up frequently, just as a heads up.

If you’re looking for epistolary stories…

Literary Letters takes obscure epistolary novels from the public domain and puts them into your inbox! Right now they’re reading The Sorrows of Young Werther, which is about a guy who’s in love with a girl who’s betrothed to another and writes very passionate letters on the subject.

For a content warning, I’ve included the publisher’s note on this one: “There are passages where the book discusses Werther’s depression, despair, rationalizations for suicide, and the suicide itself at length, so please take whatever precautions you need to read the book safely, which may include buddy reading, mental health breaks, or skipping it altogether.”

So with that being said, the reason I got into this email chain was actually for their first novel they emailed - The Lightning Conductor. I absolutely loved this novel and I heavily recommend going back into the archives to read it and its sequel if you can (that one is in the “Side Stories” archive). It’s a very lighthearted read and a romance, told in epistolary format! Basically, it’s about this smart (yet a bit scatterbrained — not judging, because, same) woman who goes to Europe for the first time and she ends up meeting a gentleman when her car breaks down. Said gentleman is mistaken for a chauffeur and he goes along with it, just because she’s dreamy and he’s already smitten with her. Then there’s her “best guy friend” and her mom trying to throw a wrench in their plans. It’s utter chaos and I love it. I could go on for hours about this novel, but I won’t! I do highly recommended reading it if you ever get the chance.

If you’re looking for a read in verse format…

Check out Divine Comedy Weekly! It’s telling Dante’s Divine Comedy every Tuesday and Thursday. There’s not much to say about this one because I dropped out pretty early in the game, unfortunately. For some reason, stories told in a lyrical/verse format don’t seem to be my thing, but maybe they’re your thing! I think it’s a great concept and for that reason, I will recommend this.

If you’re looking for an all-new read…

North and South by Jane Austen is coming to your inbox this June! It’s apparently a bit like Pride and Prejudice but with the Industrial Revolution and labor relations. I actually just subscribed to this one and I’m excited to see how I enjoy it!

If you’re looking for a long haul read…

Buckle in! It’s time for Whale Weekly! That’s right, you’re in for a THREE YEAR TRIP with this bad boy because Ishmael is emailing you the tale of Moby Dick. Life has gotten in the way and I’ve fallen behind (though this is motivating me to catch up again), but this is actually really good as an email read because this guy goes on so many tangents, it’s more fun for me to absorb his thoughts in spaced out emails, rather than if I tried to read the book.

The memes are very fun with this one, but please keep in mind there is racism and foul language in this, as well as other heavy topics I can’t remember off the top of my head. Also, this does not take place in a war setting, but I do believe some characters have been in war in the past, so that is probably something to keep in mind with this one!

This one is coming to an end fairly soon (I didn’t realize we were on chapter 113/135 OOF), so I don’t know if they’re going to do another round after this or leave it. I imagine it would probably be hard to catch up at this point, but I’m going to link it anyway because I typed all of this up before realizing how far along we were and I do still recommend the read in email format rather than a novel format.

If you’re looking for horror…

I would recommend “The Beetle Weekly”. I wasn’t able to finish this one because LifeTM got in the way, but it is, for sure, one of the reads of all time. Probably the best and worst thing you could read ever tbh. It’s not very enjoyable and I’m not pitching it well at all, but for some reason, I am legitimately recommending this because it is hilarious to read with Tumblr memes by your side. As a heads up, this book does include racism, gore, sexism, transphobia (iirc?) and likely more content warnings I can’t remember. The reason I’m recommending it at all is because it does carry some of the same themes as Dracula and the characters are interesting. Plus, love it or hate it, I reacted while reading this book - a lot. Did I mention I have a bug phobia? Also, fun fact: it was published at the same time as Dracula and was actually MORE POPULAR than Dracula for a while before fading into obscurity.

The only thing is, it did just end last April so you might have to wait until December for it to crawl back into your inbox if you’re interested.

If you’re looking for a thriller…

Jekyll and Hyde Weekly. I absolutely LOVED THIS ONE!!!! Very much vibes of Dracula Daily. Immaculate stuff right there. This one has a lot more comedy than you’d think and was very enjoyable. Content warnings for violence against a child (mentioned, not shown), body horror, and there is one more I can’t say without spoiling the book (feel free to DM me if you’re interested in knowing).

Again, this is pretty short and it’s not currently active; it runs November through January, so that’s when you can look out for it!

I was hoping to recommend some more via a masterlist, I know someone made a post waaay back in 2022 when this serialized email novel thing first got started, but it looks like it got deleted, so if there is a new one, I would love for anyone to share it just for future reference!

I do have a couple of honorable mentions I’ll link that I haven’t read and know next to nothing about, but just so you can have even more recommendations. Please feel free to share your favorites!

[spacetrashpile]

DRACTOBER DAY FOUR: LOVE AT FIRST BITE

Welcome back to Dractober, where I watch and rank one film adaptation of Dracula for every day in October! I'll be ranking each film on two one to ten scales (was it a good adaptation of Dracula and did I enjoy it?) and giving the film a final score at the end by averaging out the other scores.

Today's film is Love At First Bite (1979) staring George Hamilton as Dracula who, after being evicted from his Transylvania castle, travels to New York to pursue the only woman he's ever loved, who's been reincarnated into a model. Also, I did actually watch this movie on the fourth, but I watched it in a triple feature movie night with my roommates, and then instantly went to bed, so you're getting two reviews today once I watch my next film.

Let's get into it!

So, if you couldn't tell from the brief description, today's film is a parody and comedy film. As such, the "is this a good adaptation of Dracula?" question seems very easy to answer.

No. No it is not!

However, this is somehow the first film I've watched this month that actually included Renfield, so at least there's that as a point towards it. He even eats bugs and rodents!

However, immediately negating that point, there's the whole reincarnated lover thing going on with Dracula and Cindy. I was hoping beyond hope that she wouldn't be Mina reincarnated, but alas, she was. Shakes my fist at the sky. I've established this is one of my least favorite Dracula adaptation/Dracula inspired story tropes and it did make me go "GOD DAMNIT" aloud when he said it, though it thankfully only came up like one time after that.

So, on the Dracula adaptation scale, I'll be giving this film a 1/10. Certainly some of the characters were there! That's about it though!

Now, did I enjoy this film? Yes! Yes I very much did!

This was another film that has my enjoyment upped by the fact that I watched it with my roommates, but it was also very solidly funny on it's own merit. George Hamilton was a really funny Dracula, and Richard Benjamin, who played Jeffrey Rosenburg (Abraham Van Helsing's grandson and Cindy's therapist/uncommitted boyfriend) stole almost every scene he was in.

I would usually use this portion to summarize the film and talk about my favorite parts, but I think that style is generally more suited to drama films or films that are actually trying to be adaptations. With this film, I think you can get from the one sentence summary what this movie is and if you'd be interested in it at all. But I can confirm, this was a lot of fun.

Honestly, I might be giving this movie a 9 or 10 for enjoyment, if not for one notable factor. There are about four scenes in this movie that are just... straight up racist. These are all very weird and uncomfortable scenes centering around various Black minor characters, and they're basically only in there to make race jokes. These scenes are, thankfully, easily skipable and pretty short, but I wish they just hadn't been in the film at all.

There were also a few gay jokes and occasional moments of misogyny but honestly the gay jokes were (to me) a little funny, and the misogyny was significantly better than some other movies I've already watched this month, so it was significantly easier to brush off.

Overall, I had a really good time watching this movie and it was mostly extremely funny. However, those few random racist scenes took down my enjoyment, for obvious reasons. So while this could have gotten a much better score, I'm going to knock the enjoyment score down to a 7/10.

In the end, Love at First Bite gets a 4/10. Nonetheless, I do recommend it if you're looking for some campy and fun comedy this Halloween season! Just... put on fast forward in a few scenes.

[nicoleanell]

I would love to hear your meta on the scene from Renfield with the priest and the vampire hunter, if you’d be willing to share!

SURE, THANK GOD YOU ASKED.

My thing with that scene is it was peak Give Renfield A Hug and also the most irredeemable thing he does in the movie short of destroying some kid's ant farm, and that instantly made me fall in love with him.

I like the fact they made Renfield an aggressively sympathetic character and at the same time not wholly innocent. Robert Montague Renfield is neither a good guy or a bad guy but he deserves to be okay. (Also he may come off way more "sane" as movie Renfields go but he's not a well person lol, and the fact he's in an all-gender support group for abuse survivors very rapidly becomes not so much A Joke as it is the Entire Point of the movie.)

In the flashbacks, it's totes played for comedy and riffing on the 1931 movie and there's a little bit of an "unreliable narrator" vibe to it when Renfield's like, it was good we had great times etc. :))) We don't really know how in control of himself he is or how much he's whitewashing. But then we get the church/vampire killer thing and there's like... the first seed of something more real going on. The movie tells us upfront that the last time Dracula was almost defeated he stopped it, willingly, and it wasn't normal vampire enthrallment stuff as much as a very human emotional choice.

There's some heavy-handed manipulation happening and it's *completely* non-supernatural. They'll lock you away. I'll protect you. I care about you. And Nic Hoult's big woobie eyes hold all the sadness and isolation and genuine hope/desire to be loved, and it's unhealthy attention but there's nothing better out there for him. 🥺 <- emoji rendition of Renfield and also me.

Oh and for good measure his "he really means it this time" internal monologue is 100% meant to sound like toxic/abusive boyfriend stuff he's echoing from the support group, which is A Joke in this movie until it's not anymore.

(Side note, I saw you mention this in another post - the mental institution headcanon is Valid. I would've liked for it to be explicitly in there somewhere but as far as I'm concerned nothing *contradicts* it and it's one of like 3 facts people associate with Spiders Georg over here. So I'll take that crumb that the threat of him getting locked up is just as likely to be in an asylum (again) as a jail. And yikes the legitimate fear of that being WORSE than the hell he's currently in.)

And the second he does the thing, some priest *completely proves Dracula right* by immediately throwing more guilt and blame on Renfield and being like YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYONE ELSE HE KILLS NOW. Which, fair! But also, dude, you're being the opposite of helpful here! Lmao fucking Catholics. He knows this! It's why he can't get out! Of course he chose Dracula and he did it on purpose and he did it because of trauma and it *cemented* him being trapped forever. This is the climax of an entire other movie in which Renfield is probably not the main character but would definitely end up my problematic fave anyway.

SO YEAH. Between that and the reveal he left a whole wife & kid, there's such an interesting theme of guilt/shame on top of self-esteem and learned helplessness issues I was not anticipating in this movie. It's important for him to get to a place of: "I want to blame this legitimately awful monster but I also did SOME of this to myself, and when I can accept that without immediately going into a fetal position, it gives him less power over me."

Does not remove his power completely! 'Cause Renfield 2023 is also not, like, saying that you can just Easily Decide To Leave Your Violent Abuser. But the affirmations about being enough and deserving better and seeking better in spite of having failed or fucked up before are important.

[eating-plastic]

Headcanons: Roller Ricky General and Relationship Headcanons

A/N: Yes, I know I got done with a whole x reader fic with this man recently, but I got more ideas. This will include expansions on headcanons I mentioned in the fic and ones I didn’t. And yes, some of these will be relationship headcanons because I can’t help myself lol. That’s all for today. Bye!

🛼-It is implied that Roller Ricky would be in his mid-late thirties at the time of the game, but if I were to give him a specific age, I would say that he is 36-37 years old

🛼-He absolutely loves animals, and he occasionally volunteers at an animal shelter near Gallows Creek. While he has a preference for dogs, he doesn’t mind cats. Especially kittens, they are a close second to puppies when it comes to “warming his heart”

🛼-Speaking of animals, I should probably mention Maxy since he and Ricky are a package deal. I headcanon Max as being a German Shepherd. Idk why, that was just the first dog breed that comes to mind when I think of him

🛼-Ricky has a bunch of fun shirts that he sometimes dresses Max in. He even has some matching shirts of his own

🛼-Though he obviously doesn’t play the sport anymore, Ricky still enjoys watching football. He even bought a jersey of his favorite team for Maxy

🛼-While of course he loves roller disco, he also enjoys going on drives with Max in the front seat as a way to clear his head or get away from Gallows Creek for a bit

🛼-I can see him and Sandra being on good terms. While he’s not as crazy about jazzercise like she is, he doesn’t mind jogging with her from time to time

🛼-I see Ricky as being bisexual with a 50-50 spilt preference for men and women

🛼-This is because he is just looking for a person that he can hang out and have fun with. He wants someone who he can wake up with in the morning and go to bed with at night. Someone that he could see himself growing old with, and it doesn’t matter if that person is a man or a woman

🛼-This man is a massive cuddle bug. No one can tell me otherwise. Now, obviously he knows there is a time and a place for snuggling up with you and will respect your wishes on the matter, but if your down, he’ll be down. He also makes adjustments based on if you are shorter than him, taller than him, or the same height as him (I see him being 5′ 10″ / 178 cm)

🛼-While he does have his preferences when it comes to music, he’s not a music snob. If you listen to a genre or artist he’s not the biggest fan of, he’s not gonna tell you that “it sucks”. He’s more than happy that you can hear something in a song that he can’t

🛼-Speaking of music, Ricky will definitely make a relationship mixtape that contains songs that are significant to both of you

🛼-Dancing with him at the roller rink when it’s just you, him, and Max. That’s all. Just imagine that

🛼-This man is so good with kids. While he offers lessons for both adults and children alike, he often finds himself teaching kids. He’s encouraging, fun, and patient, which makes children like him. He also knows just what to say to calm down a kid that hurt themself or are getting discouraged at constantly falling over

🛼-All I’m saying is that if you and Ricky decided to have kids whether it be through adoption or ,if possible, getting you pregnant, he’s gonna be such a sweet dad  ❤️

🛼-As we know, he is apparently not too good with keeping secrets, so he would accidently tell you if he was going to propose to you. He’ll feel terrible about it, but you couldn’t care less. You’re happy to be his fiancé no matter how he pops the question 

🛼-His favorite movie genre is comedy, but he can sit through mostly anything. He’s not the biggest fan of horror movies. Especially ones that involve a masked psycho killing people. You can imagine why that might be a bit triggering for him. He’s cool with Universal monster movies like Dracula or Frankenstein tho

🛼-Ricky has a preference for spicy foods. I mean, he loves food in general, but the way to his heart is any dish with a bit of a kick to it

🛼-His love language is quality time. He loves spending time with you whether you’re going out to eat, taking Max for a walk, dancing with him at the roller rink, or just simply staying inside and watching TV

🛼-In conclusion, Roller Ricky is the ideal man and the reason why my standards have now skyrocketed. Thank you

[popironrye]

Cagula became a fave Dracula so fast for me, i think before he just hits every mark. When he wants to be scary, i was full of genuine dread, like Teddy finding the lair full of bodies felt like a Saw movie or something, it was really gripping and tense. And when he knocked the vase down, it was like all oxygen had been sucked from the room. But when he wants to be funny i really am giggling. The overdramatic 'oh do go on face' in the apartment, blood drunk Dracula sleazily going 'wooo" Like there's been scary Draculas, funny Draculas but Cage really was a perfect blend of horror-comedy. It made me appreciate him as an actor more. Like i used to think he was just a meme man, now im like 'i gotta watch more of him'

Nicolas Cage is such an amazing and acclaimed actor alongside the meme moments, not in spite of them. Sure, he's had some more memey over the top performances, but I can think of just as many that are less memey and more serious.

It also helps that, along with just being a great actor, he's a really great guy in general. You must watch the 'Renfield behind the scenes' if you haven't already. You feel for every other actor on set when Cage is with them. And Cage himself in interviews is so down to earth. You feel his love for his profession. You can tell he's having a blast, and that's why he's so fun to watch. I truly believe he loves acting.

As for Dracula, hands down. A role he was made to play. One of my favorites, no doubt. I can watch him for hours and hours. A good mix of everything that makes a character. He's funny. He's scary. He's treatening. He's a little silly. He's compelling but not justified.

Many criticisms for Renfield 2023 is that people have a problem with the cop/gang story. Saying it's clunky and/or gets in the way of more Dracula. As a Cageula devotee, I couldn't disagree more.

Would I have enjoyed less cop/gang stuff to see more conflict between Dracula and Renfield. Yes. Would I have enjoyed an entire movie of just Cage's Dracula preformance? Also yes. But what those criticisms miss is that Renfield is NoT a Dracula movie. It's a Renfield movie. (Pretty obvious from the title) The movie is about Renfield. And Renfield is the type of character who strives to do things for the good of others. So him getting involved with the police because one individual cop inspired him is great and flows well with his arc of overcoming Dracula.

As for the relationship between Renfield and Dracula, with all the little crumbs and the fantastic scenes between the two of them, I believe that to unpack just the two of them compellingly would require more than an hour and half to tell. That's more suited for a TV show.

🥰👏💬

[radiant-featherball]

Many other has better explained than I could of why it's annoying when people dismiss the Castlevania games or claiming it has no story.

But another reason I'm annoyed about it, it's seems like people have ha very weird standard what count as a proper story. Even if, IF it was true that Castlevania story is just "A guy whips Dracula and his monsters", that's still a premise. There already exists tons of media of that premise. You're only stopped by your creative limits (and lot of bullshit because we live in a capitalistic hellscape to be fair.).

You can have a movie about a guy beating up monsters. You have that premise in various of genres. Horror, action, comedy you name it. Make it a Hammer Horror tribute! The early games basically were, so would keep in spirit of the games!

And to the response of "It would be repeatedly, to have the same story over and over" First of all, that hasn't stopped franchises in the past. But also, if we adapt Castlevania why is the assumption it need to adapt every single game? Or just the majority? Why can't it just be a one off story?

Why does it have to be Deep™ Complex™ Story Here to Criticize™ Social Problems™? Why can't it just be a e.g cheesy-gore movie or something. Which wouldn't prevent it from actually be deep and meaningful, mind you. You don't always need the character telling you what the theme is, for it to have a theme. Let monsters be metaphors, add a subtext for the story, and just trust your audience just a little bit. Then again something something poor media literacy.

[madhogthymaster]

Master Recs: Horror Cinema!

Do you like Horror films? Yes, you do. Here is a modest selection of 13 cinematic offerings to quench your thirst for seasonal spooks, from lesser-known gems to entertaining schlock and everything in-between. I have good taste and you are welcome.

Renfield (2023), dir. Chris McKay

Renfield rules so hard it hurts, let me tell you. Nicolas Cage as Dracula is already the best selling point imaginable but if you look past the premise, you'll find a heartwarming story about overcoming abuse and codependency, with loads of great action and gore to boot. Good old Nic hams it up to eleven as the Prince of Darkness, channeling the verve of Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee and Lon Cheney all rolled into a deliciously evil sandwich. He's legitimately monstrous and intimidating in a way the character has not been in decades.

It's very effective when he's presented as the abusive "partner" from which Renfield (as in, classic Movie Renfield) is trying to escape. I'm surprised by the lengths the film goes into depicting the emotional trappings of such a relationship - amidst all the funny jokes, that is. It pulls off the unenviable task of being a tonally cohesive Horror comedy, one that leaves no room for doubt as to which moments deserve to be treated seriously or not. Its homage to Golden Age Hollywood cinema and unapologetic queerness are also appreciated.

The House (2022), dir. Emma De Swaef, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Paloma Baeza, Marc James Roels

The House is a stunning work of stop-motion animation and a solid anthology that explores the existential hang-ups and anxieties of the "Middle Class", crafting solid Horror (and not-so Horror) stories in the process. It has dancing bugs too! I recommend it.

Cocaine Bear (2023), dir. Elizabeth Banks

The last film appearance by the late Ray Liotta. Cocaine Bear is a gruesomely delightful time: a spunky schlock with a killer premise that hooks you up from the start, taking a self-indulgent, humorous sniff at its own status of being "Based on a True Story." This film had the audacity to feature a Wikipedia quote. It's great!

Sweet Home (1989), dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Delightedly, I beheld 1989's Sweet Home, as expertly remastered by Kineko Video. It's a cheesy good time with glorious practical effects and a few, effective low-budget trickeries. I personally give it props for an unexpected Laurel & Hardy's Fra Diavolo reference! This classic is mostly renowned for its videogame adaptation which became a major influence for decades to come.

At the time of writing, the film can be watched on YouTube, making it the most easily accessible entry in this entire column.

Jennifer's Body (2009), dir. Karyn Kusama

It took me this long to finally watch Jennifer's Body, an underrated Horror comedy starring Megan Fox that was unjustly dismissed back in the day. She plays as a literal man-eater, by the way.

There is definitely a lot to enjoy from a modern take on Carmilla whereas the delectably gory blood-feasting works as a backdrop for a toxic high school friendship as well as a commentary on the consequences of sexist exploitation, misogyny and trauma. Save for the occasional slur, it holds up very well.

The Color Out of Space (2019), dir. Richard Stanley

A proper skin-crawler based off the eponymous story by H.P. Lovecraft. Its psychedelic and Stuart Gordon-esque visceral interpretation of the source material is a clever way to circumvent the issue of portraying an "indescribable" alien entity. The Colour, being an unfathomable force outside our science and rationale, serves as a reminder of how insignificant we are in the face of a larger universe we can never hope to comprehend. It works as a metaphor for our atavistic fears.

The film is very much about powerlessness, losing control, losing oneself to the madness or, alternatively, to the realization that nothing was ever "under control." It's Cosmic Horror done right - and also without the racist subtext. Oh, and Nicolas Cage is also in it. I might have buried the lead there.

Gretel and Hansel (2020), dir. Oz Perkins

Here's a scary fairy tale that might have escaped everyone's radar, Gretel and Hansel: a beautifully crafted, meticulously composed film that drenches itself in a disquieting, surreal atmosphere subtly empowered by an alienating soundtrack. It's gripping, to say the least.

The Ritual (2017), dir. David Bruckner

Reviewing and discussing Horror cinema is hard as the truly notable films are best experienced without the burden of knowledge: the viewer should be blindsided by the unknowable terror as much as the characters. That is to say, I can't openly talk about why The Ritual (2017) is great. You should watch it for yourself and get absolutely smack-jawed by the experience.

Society: The Horror (1989), dir. Brian Yuzna

This is unpleasant on an existential level and that, in turn, makes it a really effective Horror. It builds itself as a Kafkian nightmare about the dread of Conformism, feeling out of place in a Society ruled by the white and wealthy, a classic Suburban nightmare scenario. It morphs into an indictment of Capitalism and Classism when the grotesque and revolting third act slimes its way into balls-to-the-wall satire. Bill Warlock (Eddie from Baywatch) puts on the performance of a lifetime as the justifiably paranoid teen protagonist. Shout out to the credited "surreal make-up artist", a man named Screaming Mad George. He did too much of a good job, let me tell you. Needless to say, I recommend this perturbing visual madness with all the content warnings imaginable.

Society waits for you.

Overlord (2018), dir. Julius Avery

I watched Overlord and you should too! It begins as a slickly directed World War II drama before it organically develops into a spectacularly gruesome, intense Action Horror punctuated by a Chef's Kiss of a climax. It gets a special recommendation for the cathartic abuse of nazies! This is the Wolfenstein adaptation you have always wanted.

Willy's Wonderland (2021), dir. Kevin Lewis

Since you can never have enough of Nicolas Cage, here's Willy's Wonderland: a self-aware, genre-flipping, D-grade schlock with the presence of our favourite actor silently and menacingly staring at things - which he does, in spades. The fact that he kills off a bunch of Not-FNAF animatronics is just the icing on the cake! Let me be clear: he does not speak a single word throughout the flick. He's effectively playing "Silent Videogame Protagonist" and his sheer magnetism carries this diegesis to the finish line. A lesser actor would have not been able to pull this off. In all seriousness, Willy's Wonderland works squarely because The Cage was onboard with it. The direction is otherwise unremarkable, the production is even cheaper that one might expect and the rest of the cast is mere fodder. The Cage was its only ace and it played the right hand! That's a whole lot more entertainment value than a film seemingly designed to anger Freddy Fazbear's gooners would realistically deserve. You should watch it if you really want to see Nicolas Cage make sweet love to a pinball machine. Apropos of nothing, did you know that pretentious hack/real life human piss stain Scott Cawthon is a top Republican donor and a pro-lifer? I thought that would be cool information to remember.

The Endless (2017), dir. Justin Benson e Aaron Moorhead

Here's another cosmically disconcerting recommendation for the Lovecraft crowd in the back: if you're looking for a uniquely scary film that deals with the Fear of the Unknown, drowns itself in breath-taking atmosphere and exquisite Uncertainty, I recommend you to watch The Endless. It might knock your existential socks off!

Calamity of a Zombie Girl (2018), dir. Hideaki Iwami

I have kept the "best" for last! Calamity of a Zombie Girl is the weirdest Slasher I have ever seen, mostly due to its inability to keep track of its own genre. It's a B-movie with guts, blood and nudity, a supernatural lesbian romance, a martial arts film and a screwy, goofy comedy all rolled into one cheap-looking animated feature.

The editing is atrocious, constantly abusing the fade-to-black transition without rhyme or reason, the dialogues are inane and contrived, the animation is abysmal (it's a low-budget production by Gonzo, you see) and tonal consistency is downright mythical. In spite of all that, or because of it, the aforementioned bizarre nature of its premise and execution makes it incredibly fun (and funny) to behold, especially when genres collide with each other in relentless, brutal fashion. From the victims' point-of-view (the especially idiotic and ultimately useless extras, I should say) this film plays out like a traditional Slasher flick but from the perspective of the killer, the re-animated zombie girl herself, this is her own action packed Ecchi comedy.

Her first kill occurs as a goof on her part: she shoves a man off like a "dainty dame" and accidentally cracks his skull wide open on a column. Soon after, she rips a guy's arm because he was getting "too friendly" with her and scolds him for his inappropriate behaviour. She then proceeds to have a fight scene with one of the expendable extras because her opponent just happened to be a self-taught Kung Fu master. Also, her undead maid (because of course there's an undead maid) gets kidnapped and she must rescue her! This string of barely held-together nonsense leads to a spectacularly convoluted third act that somehow involves an old abandoned church, a school gym, a game of Anime Sports Ball and a literal Saved by the Bell moment. Did I mention this is all supposed to take place in a non-specific university campus in Japan? Because otherwise you might think the film is happening in two completely different continents! Aside from the immensely idiotic fading transitions, Calamity of a Zombie Girl is hilarious and enjoyable. It's pure, untainted, excellently awful schlock carried to the finish line by the sheer strength of its befuddling ideas. Watch it and tell your friends about it!

Merry Spookmas, you little freaks! --- Follow Madhog on:

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Also, here’s a helpful website: https://arab.org/

[popculturebuffet]

Next up for Cartoon Network era of shows, who is your favorite character from each of the 2000-03 half of the Cartoon Cartoons-era shows you've seen like: Sheep in the Big City, Time Squad, Samurai Jack, Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Evil Con Carne, Whatever Happened to Robot Jones, Codename Kids Next Door, and Star Wars Clone Wars 2003?

I realize now this was about CHARACTERS not just the shows in general. Since I did on the first one though, i'll give my opinons AND the characters to split the diffrence. First covering last time Dexter's Lab, Johnny Bravo, Cow & Chicken, I Am Weasel, The Powerpuff Girls 1998, Ed Edd n Eddy, Mike Lu and Og, and Courage the Cowardly Dog.

In order: DL: Dexter's Dad, easily one of Jeff Bennet's performances and I feel bad I had no idea it was him ands not phil hartman. Johnny Bravo: Carol, as him dating an antelope is just.. such a hilariousl awkward concept, and this is coming from a guy who dosen't have the best cringe comedy tolerance. Chronos MASTER OF TIME and the Nixon Shark are both close seconds. Cow and Chicken: The Big Red Guy: the sohw itself may be mixed but god I love him IAW: Weasel. Easily The Power Puff Girls: Hmmm this is a hard one but due to a thing i'm working on and his general meanace I have to go with him. He had a uniqueness to his apperances: It was always going to be terrifying unless it was with other villians and always something unique and memorable. EEE: Ed. He's truly the best and a meme machine fo ra reason Mike Lu and Og: Mike herself whose a nice mix of ignoarant yet still savy. Courage: The boy himself out of the main cast though pretty much every character here is fantastic. Kitty out of the antagonists, as she's the most tragic, has a truly creepy deisgn and was a gay character long before that was common OKay now onto the next era Sheep in the Big City: This is one I need to rewatch as my recent kablam retrospective (Please check it out), had me rewatch the off beats and I like Willems sense of humor and might ge tit more. The sheep himself is my faviorite, having a great design, likeable demeanor and nice bleats. Time Squad: Another one I need to revisit and a true classic: Simple premise, hilaroius characters and Larry 3000 is easly my faviorite. C3PO if they meant for him to be gay. Samurai Jack: Like most of these in this installment I need to revisit it. One of the best cartoons ever. Havne't checked out the last season, hear mixed things. Faviroite is the scotsman: he's hilaroius, fun to watch and a nice counterpart to jack being just as capable but everything our boy isn't. Billy and Mandy: A comedy classic. A bit too mean for i'ts own good sometimes, but a truely great horror comedy most of the time: creative premise, truly stacked cast of side characters, and richard steven horvitz greatest performance til lhelluva boss (zim is VERY close to billy though. ) Faviorite character is asking a lot of me, but I have to go with my childhood faviorite, Dracula. He could've aged poorly and shoudl have, he is making fun of blaxplotatoin.. but he never feels like a black sterotype, just a cranky throughly weird old man Evil Con Carne: One I need to revisit, yes AGAIN, and a show I always felt was undereatted. It just never took off the way Billy and Mandy did and you can tell maxwell atoms still had affection for it given he both ported skar over to billy and mandy (A really great decision and one I dearly love) and brought hector and ghastly back for one last hurrah. It was also one of my first exposures to Grey DeLise and Armin Shimmerman (Though I jus tlearned about the latter), and one of Phil LaMarr's best roles. With that last qualifier, Hector is my faviorite: his pomoposity, voice and being shoved in a bear are all great.

Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?: Need to revisit it you know the drill. Has a great title character, also my faviorite, concept but I don't remember it a ton. KND: Easily my third faviorite Cartoon Network show. A gloriously built world that's both nicely detailed and approriately childish, and a show that evolved from a pretty one note premise to a truly wonderfully thought out masterpiece that parodied just about everything with a nice chunk of x-men refrences. Faviorite is Numbah 2. Hoagie is just the best and his solo adventures tended to be some of the best of the series.

Clone Wars (Genndy's Version): Another one that, say it with me now "I need to revisit" and a true classic. Beautifully animated, great to watch. I will say the second season isn't quite AS good, trying a bit harder to be a lead int oa movie loosing the sheer flexiblity and cretivity season 1 had. I mean season 1 has mace windu going bare fisted monk on a bunch of droids alongside the ongoing arcs about ventress and whatever his name was. It also made general grevous a massive disapointment in the films.

[chiffonlime643]

Renfield and How it Handles Toxic Relationships and Trauma

// TWS: continuous mentions of manipulation, toxic/abusive relationships, trauma, etc. Please be careful!

!!! Disclaimer !!!

I am NOT a licensed professional; this is all from either personal experience or research/knowledge I have previously had. Please do not take things in this essay too seriously. (also yes i know it's a dark comedy but comedic movies can have serious undertones in them too)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Renfield is a movie that was released on April 14th, 2023. It follows Count Dracula’s (played by Nicolas Cage) assistant/servant, Renfield (Nicholas Hoult), and his efforts to escape his current lifestyle.

The movie has significant undertones, ranging from toxic, co-dependent relationships to extreme corruption of government. While the ‘undertones’ are more prevalent, they are still sometimes put in a more comedic light, to replicate the movie itself, as a dark comedy.

If you remove the comedic points, you’ll find a relatively serious movie with genuine character development and story.

Beginning with Renfield’s journey.

He was turned to Dracula’s assistant centuries before, going off of the original Dracula movie. Since then, he has been caring for Dracula and bringing him humans to feed off of. You can tell he’s sacrificed a lot in the process, essentially tossing away his own wants and needs for Dracula; and while it isn’t completely focused on, it leaves him with a sense of longing and apathy. 

He realises this after going to many anonymous meetings about toxic relationships, which is portrayed primarily as a way to find victims, but in reality is a scapegoat to listen to people talk about similar experiences to his. 

So when he saves many innocent people and gets called a ‘hero’ by someone, something changes in him. He truly comes to terms with the way he is treated; has been treated for many years. He goes to one more of those meetings, and begins his new life. Almost instantly, you can see genuine happiness and content, both with the way he acts, and his actions, in turn. 

It leaves a connection with the viewer and Renfield- a want for him to stay safe and happy, away from Dracula.

The events of the story play out, with Rebecca’s (Awkwafina) story being especially fleshed out.

Later, Dracula learns of Renfield’s disobeyment.

He arrives at Renfield’s apartment, acting nonchalant and almost kind. Renfield lies to him, saying that he had retrieved many bodies to feed Dracula. Of course, due to previous information and context clues, it was expected that Dracula knew the real actions Renfield had taken.

What was a silly, comedic, yet slightly anxiety-inducing moment turned to pure dread. Dracula becomes increasingly angered, to which Renfield attempts to stand up to him.

This is one of the most serious parts of the underlying message.

Many people in toxic/co-dependent relationships take a long time to realise their situation, and even longer to stand up to their abuser. This is typically due to the extreme emotional manipulation the other may use.

While it did take Renfield quite a while to fully realise and come to terms with his situation (a few centuries at least), he is portrayed to almost instantly stand up to Dracula- which is fantastic! To be that prepared to stand up to someone like that is very hard. 

Which is why the viewer’s heart breaks when Renfield eventually closes in on himself. When he is cornered, and clearly afraid.

This can be seen as him being afraid of a vampire with God-like powers- which does make sense.

But it hits even harder when you see it as just Renfield and Dracula; how Renfield is so fearful of what Dracula could do, despite Renfield’s vampire-like powers. He could defend himself.

So why does he nearly break down?

People who are/have been in abusive relationships like this, between friends, partners, positions of power, etc. can understand this reaction.

You get scared of what the other is going to do.

When viewing this scene of Renfield and Dracula through a lens of a realistic toxic relationship, instead of one between a human and vampire, you feel Renfield’s experience differently.

Obviously, he is scared due to Dracula’s vampiristic abilities. But, there’s something else there. Earlier, he was attacked, nearly killed, due to making a mistake with the bodies he brought to Dracula. Then, he was healed.

This brings us to another part of the toxic relationship.

Renfield is constantly revived/healed by Dracula. Yes, Renfield does technically do this for Dracula as well, but much less, and in different circumstances.

And, judging by the previous scene where Renfield’s scar was reopened by Dracula, then healed, a significant amount of these injuries followed by healing could be caused by Dracula himself.

This is one of the main building blocks of a co-dependent relationship. What people in co-dependent relationships are often manipulated into believing are statements similar to this: “I am keeping you safe. I am keeping you alive. I am helping you. You cannot survive without me. You will not survive without me. You need me.”

Through this action, Dracula is essentially telling Renfield that he needs him. That Renfield would die without Dracula.

This is reinforced when Dracula directly says this to Renfield.

The previous time Dracula was ‘killed’, Renfield was being told by the Church that he would be free from Dracula, saved.

To this, Dracula instead implanted the thought that Renfield would be killed by the Church, that he wouldn’t survive. Not without Dracula.

This co-dependency built on emotional manipulation is what toxic relationships thrive on. Renfield feels he cannot leave because Dracula is the one keeping him alive. 

So, bring this back to the scene where Renfield first stands up to Dracula. All the previous events of pain, of manipulation, slowly being stacked back onto him as Dracula continues his angered yelling. 

The scene gets significantly harder to watch, as time goes on. It begins with Dracula first having an outburst towards Renfield, then consistently berating him. 

I have yet to watch the original movie (no idea where to find it), so I have no clue whether or not the claims made by Dracula about Renfield’s greed/abandonment of his family is true, but if they are not, Dracula is also gaslighting him- a commonly used form of manipulation, especially in co-dependent relationships.

Renfield makes an effort to stand up to Dracula, to stop him, to which Dracula laughs at his efforts, then tells him that he isn’t worthy of love- another way for people to keep a hold on their victims- slowly backing him into a both literal and metaphorical corner. 

He threatens others that Renfield is in contact with. Keeping victims away from other outside people is a common practice for abusers to keep a hold on them as well.

After Dracula figures out who he needs to kill, he throws Renfield’s book at him, before disappearing. After Renfield is hit, he goes into a really defensive position, trying to shield himself from other possible attacks. He is clearly surprised when Dracula is gone instead, which implies that this may be common, and that Dracula suddenly disappearing is not the usual.

He realises, almost instantly after glancing at the logo on his book, that Dracula was going to kill his friends.

The carnage that ensues after is, obviously, terrifying for Renfield.

However, after Dracula confirms that after what Renfield did, he would be destroying the entirety of the human race, just because Renfield wanted to be a part of it again, Renfield is left on the edge of a panic attack- just sitting there, holding the meeting leader’s hand, despite him being a corpse.

At the scene of the crime, he goes with the police with no attempt at escaping their grasp despite him being framed, which matters especially since his friend was the one to find him there. His face throughout the scenes prominently don a solemn, given up look.

Rebecca is cornered after putting Renfield in the car, by both corrupt policemen, and the crime family who is linked to their corruption.

This movie has a significant part of its story driven by the town having a severely corrupt police force- most people dislike the cops in this movie, and I completely agree. However, they can't really be removed from the story, as they are important to show the severe corruption. I feel a better course of action would be to have Rebecca's character stop being a cop by the end of the movie, but that is just my opinion.

Corruption is like this in real life, and it affects many people and places. While I am most definitely not the person to talk about it, the movie’s plot including the way government corruption works and how anyone in power can go mad with it soon enough, actually helped the story- especially Rebecca’s backstory, which we will get into later.

Later on, after Rebecca and Renfield go to the café to meet up with Rebecca’s sister, Renfield talks about his experience.

He talks about the manipulation Dracula uses to get people under his thumb, and Renfield’s (at that time) greed and desire for more power that got him into this situation.

Rebecca, understanding of this, talks to him about how life can throw you situations that are hard to manoeuvre around.

 After it is revealed that Rebecca’s sister has been captured, the two head to the Lobos’ house, to which a long fight ensues.

Rebecca reaches Dracula first, and he begins trying to manipulate her- it is hard to tell whether or not she is somewhat susceptible, but she definitely does not fall for it.

She had a plan. A plan to trick Dracula.

Now, whether or not Renfield was aware of it or not is also hard to tell, but judging by the way he is portrayed, it appears to be he was unaware.

Instead of overly yelling for her to not fall for it, it almost feels like he’s come to terms with it. Like he knows that she can’t say no. This would make sense, after all; he fell into Dracula’s trap the same way.

And as Rebecca is embraced in Dracula’s arms, Dracula stares at Renfield with a triumphant expression.

To Renfield, it’s over. Dracula won. She’s enveloped in Dracula’s lies too.

However, she turns off the blinds- burning Dracula and accidentally guiding the three of them to the torture room of the house.

Renfield is killed- or at least severely injured- by the bats Dracula turns into temporarily.

Rebecca is left to fight Dracula, and he drags her into the air after taunting her. She shoots him in the foot, causing his blood, which has reviving/healing powers, to revive Renfield. 

To which, he stops Dracula’s fangs with his own hands, drags him to the ground, to which Dracula appears behind him and puts him in a chokehold.

Renfield is (now physically) stuck in the same position he has always been in, controlled by Dracula.

However, now he has himself to guide him- his self-love, his strength.

Dracula asks “Do you know what you are?”, expecting Renfield to give in, to answer with what Dracula wants, to keep Renfield under his thumb.

Instead, Renfield gets out of the chokehold and pins Dracula to the ground, continuously punching his face in while repeating similar lines to that of the earlier scene where Dracula cornered Renfield- but this time, Renfield has all the power. He admits that he was the one to give his power to Dracula; it wasn’t taken from him. While Dracula overpowers him eventually, Dracula is caught in a protection circle laid down by Rebecca.

This is a parallel to the introduction sequence, where Dracula is saved from a protection circle by Renfield- instead, now he’s trapped in it thanks to the both of them.

The two completely destroy the physical body of Dracula, tossing the remains down the drain.

With that, now that Dracula is gone, he uses some of Dracula’s Blood to help Rebecca’s sister and revive his previously-mauled support group.

Finally, after centuries of confinement to Count Dracula, Robert Montague Renfield is free.

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So… how did Rebecca fare through all this?

Her character, upon the release of Renfield, was not entirely liked by most. Oftentimes, people thought her character was annoying and selfish, other times they disliked her being played by an actress who has been in many other movies and was thought of as annoying, once again.

I do not care about the personal strife between people who like/dislike Rebecca or the actress, Awkwafina, who plays her.

However, whether or not you like her character, she is rather nuanced and has trauma of her own, along with her (sadly very rarely seen) sister.

Rebecca is seen as a strong, smart policewoman with an ‘idgaf’ attitude towards most things and people. Despite this, she is given very small jobs within the district.

She is very angered at this (and the police’s corruption and ignorance when it comes to the Lobo family), and continuously calls the police out on their negative aspects.

Part of her anger, however, is due to the loss of her father, who worked as one of the best policemen and was murdered.

We are never entirely told the circumstances of her father’s death, however. It is implied that the police station did nothing about it, and that he was killed by the Lobo family after investigating some of their crimes. Rebecca is fully aware of this, as well as her sister.

While Rebecca is willing to face the corruption head-on, her sister tends to do so silently, being careful with her job.

The two bicker a lot, but it is shown that they care about each other a lot.

So when Rebecca’s sister is captured and then killed, it strikes a nerve.

She seems slightly less careful while fighting the Lobo family (though she wasn’t very careful before), while also very calculative- more than she had shown previously.

So when she talks to Dracula about reviving her sister, both Renfield and the audience feel that she actually will do it.

She doesn’t join him. It’s a shock to most, especially due to her losing an important family figure at such a young age and only having one other person, who at that point, was on the brink of death/already dead.

For her to take that risk so they could take down Dracula is amazing, especially since her character was shown to care about family first, everything else second.

(and I'm still very annoyed she stayed a cop by the end)

[gellavonhamster]

monthly media recap: august 2023

read:

The Song of Roland - I wouldn't have picked it up if I didn't chance upon a neat old copy for free. It's, uh, educational? And the translation into Russian is quite beautiful

Angélique and the Demon, Angélique and the Ghosts, Angélique in Québec by Anne Golon - still reading this series and honestly can't wait to finish it - not because I don't like the books, but because the translation gets progressively worse with each volume. Someone please tell these people there's a difference between a wolverine and a lynx, or between a guinea pig and a porpoise (I know the latter two are called almost the same in Russian, but context, man. Context. Guinea pigs don't frolic in the waves). Story-wise, however, I am still having a great time

+ currently reading the next Angélique book and Ten Thousand Stitches by Olivia Atwater (the sequel to Half a Soul I read last month)

watched:

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) - honestly, I watched it because: 1) I wanted to check out the show but thought I won't understand anything without the movie; 2) Salma Hayek pretty. I didn't expect to enjoy it because it's written by Tarantino and I really, really don't vibe with Tarantino, but enjoy it I did. The hostage-taking part was actually unsettling and the vampire-fighting part was fun; the family dynamics were also good. Again, Salma Hayek pretty, which also helps

From Dusk till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999) - empty, skippable

From Dusk till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter (1999) - now that's better, if only for the period setting. Ara Celi has perfect looks for a sweet kind girl tragically turned into a monster. I think the moral here is that if you're physically abusive to your kid, then your kid is better off being a vampire, what do you mean I'm misinterpreting?

From Dusk till Dawn: The Series (s1-3, 2014-2016) - as you could probably tell from the amount of gifsets I keep reblogging, I loved this one. Mythology, westerns, reluctant teamwork, family feels, hot people fighting and drinking blood - what's not to love? (Actually, that one character death is not to love, and the last episode is hella rushed, but what can you do). It actually isn't necessary to watch the film to understand it, but the knowledge of it makes it very interesting to compare the two and notice the cameos from the actors who were in the film. S3 kind of reminded me of Teen Wolf, which isn't much of a compliment, but this show overall had the same ambience as a lot of stuff I watched as a teen/in my early 20s (understandable, being made in that exact period), so that was nice.

Oak Thorn & The Old Rose of Love (2022) - this is like 20 minutes long but deserves to be on the list, because it's the story of Merlin and Nimue made by the director of The Green Knight, and it's beautiful

The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023) - it's good! Not "wow, incredible" good, but good, and I'm glad it is, because it's such a powerful and underrated chapter of Dracula. A slightly more detailed review with spoilers here

Woe Is No Big Deal / Раз, два — горе не беда! (1988) - rewatched this gem and dying to know if Leigh Bardugo has seen it, because this satirical fairytale/Cold War allegory was doing ~tsarpunk~ long before her

Wild Nights with Emily (2018) - that's right, there's more than one comedy about Emily Dickinson. This one's based on a play and feels like a play, which took some time getting used to, but in the end I enjoyed it

[zoophagist]

Do you have any hopes/predictions for the upcoming movie?

ooc;; predictions? maybe. hopes? ... in spite of much, yes :')

i'm already committed to see it, but i'm also worried about how it will be, given the trailer and the earlier comments from creatives about the hyper-violent comedy angle. i'm full of worry that they're going to go for that snarky superhero writing style and not embrace how truly weird and fun this could be...

but you want to know about hopes and predictions :) here are some of my thoughts!

i'm hopeful that there will be lots of references to dwight frye's incarnation of renfield, being based around the '31 film.

i think nicholas hoult was a really good pick for that type of renfield. i see it for sure just looking at his other work, and i do like him as an actor, so i'm hopeful that he'll bring an interesting characterization (but i do worry from the trailer that the script may be working against any acting chops he's bringing...).

i'm predicting a lot of marvel style action scenes that... honestly i don't want to see, but... will almost certainly take up a good chunk of the run time.

but i hope that we'll get some kind of interesting backstory for renfield too! pinning the movie on him and his relationship to dracula means we can make it a storytelling priority to explain how he met dracula, what he was like before that, and what exactly he feels about dracula

since they're going for some like... popeye angle of "eat bug, get super strength" i'm hoping for an absolutely bonkers explanation of that. like. it's not the choice i would have made for bringing in the bugs, but if we're doing it, please make it as freaky and fun as possible. please explain the bug powers.

hoping for some 'that's my wife' energy from his love interest. she is a cop, so that's not a great start :/ but i feel like when your male protagonist naturally has such wet cat energy, folks love to throw a kickass woman at him. and rolling my eyes though i am at the Implications™ of framing drac/ren as humorously pseudo-romantic and then giving renfield a female love interest who's Better For Him..... i do also enjoy the idea of renfield with a absolute powerhouse of a woman. but like. universal renfield is also one of the queerest coded renfields ever. and bi people exist (hello hi that's me) but that specific renfield is often seen as just... such a gay man, it just seems wild to give him a woman love interest. so. this aspect is probably going to be messy all over and i don't know if i'll be able to get into it given the weird vibes it may have of "pulled from my toxic GAY relationship by a good, wholesome straight love" but by god please at least let it have 'that's my wife"'energy if it's going to be there.

next hope is just "please god let me be wrong about the above Saved By Straight vibe and let it not be the case at all!!" i mean maybe... maybe he and the cop won't even date, who can say...

possibly i missed some verbage saying this outright, so if i'm stating the obvious sorry about it, but the trailer has some set dressing that implies they're set in new orleans (mulate's cajun restaurant) and i'm hopeful this will be a really fun place to drop dracula and renfield into! (maybe we get lucky and see a vampire chronicles joke?)

and i hope most of all that more casual watchers take away an interest in renfield and learn more about other versions of him! we're right on the heels of dracula daily so i know so, so deeply that more interest doesn't always mean good interest, and people come up with the weirdest takes about my favorite little flyman, but i'm hopeful at least it may turn a few more eyes onto other renfields. :) like me. :)

that's all i can think of at the moment, but i mean i have a myriad of thoughts stewing on this movie... i will be there on opening night, i'm gonna tell you that. so hope the followers are ready to hear about it. i'd also love to hear what others think we might see! please do share your own predictions either in the notes or in my askbox!!

[why-is-it-always-autumn]

Some arguments for each:

The Romanian Woman or her baby: Did nothing wrong. Did not deserve to be eaten. Note that you can only save one, so either the woman continues wailing and mourning but does not get eaten by wolves or the baby survives but is orphaned (or maybe... vampire baby?)

Any of the Crew of the Demeter: One survivor makes it back to port. Possibly ends up confined in Seward's asylum, or locked in prison for the murder of the other crewmen. Potential lead for the heroes to investigate later

Mr. Swales: Let him continue telling long, nigh-incomprehensible stories! He deserves it. Also, adds tragedy if the 90 year old man attends young, lively Lucy's funeral

Mrs. Westenra: They're doing all the same things but they have to navigate around Lucy's grieving mother who is also one sudden shock away from a fatal heart attack. Potential obstacle to investigating Lucy's death

Lucy: This is what the characters want. They were so close in-universe! If you were making a condensed adaptation you could probably pull it off, maybe combine her and Mina's roles a bit.

Arthur's Father: They're trying to fight Dracula but Art has to keep going to his dad for bribe money. Add some comedy or tension with his increasingly implausible explanations for what exactly he and his friends are up to

Mr. Hawkins: You could probably have some sort of confrontation about how much exactly Mr. Hawkins knew about this when he sent Jonathan to Dracula in the first place. Or he could just be a loving father figure who cares about Jonathan and Mina but survives the story.

The Bloofer Lady: Vampire Lucy as token evil teammate? They can't bring themselves to re-kill her so she's just hanging out in her crypt feeding on random children. This is definitely going to be a problem in the future but that's a problem for the future! They ask her for information on Dracula but he doesn't tell her anything about his plans and she doesn't really care

Renfield: They let him out of the asylum and bring him along. The drama! The shenanigans! The gossip among the orderlies!

Dracula: Surprise! He isn't really dead! Setup for a sequel.

One of Dracula's Roommates: Oh no! They only killed two of the three! And now the survivor is out for revenge! Also setup for a sequel, but they still get the victory of killing Dracula himself for real and saving Mina.

Quincey: cowboy rights

*This can be any reason from "I think it would be really funny if he was still around for the rest of the story" to "I don't think this death serves much purpose and could easily be cut to streamline the plot" to "I love him and want him to not be dead" to "I want more scenes with this character" to "This would make everything worse but I want to cause problems on purpose"

[boombox-fuckboy]

Hi! Weird ask: but do you have any podcast recs where the voices are mainly British ? (Including Irish and Scottish). I know it’s silly but I like to have podcasts on in the background and I find American voices too distracting. I really like wooden overcoats , Magnus archives and the beef and dairy network. Thanks 😊

I do! Here's 20 podcasts from around the UK and Ireland that I've quite enjoyed:

The Amelia Project: Comedy. The Amelia Project is a secret organisation, highly specialised in faking people's deaths! A new client each episode, with their own wacky backstories, followed by the client and interviewer planning how to fake the death. Very funny and never a dull moment.

The Antique Shop: Urban Fantasy. Maya, a university student in desperate need of work, finds a part-time job at an old antique shop under the eye of the enigmatic Madam Norna and surrounded with items far from mundane. A new customer every episode, and a new item each time, every one as strange and interesting as the last.

I Am In Eskew: Horror. Tales from a man living in something which desperately wants to be a city, and from an investigator who was, in her words, hired to kill a ghost. Told with gentle voices and unending rain. Some of the most creative horror I've encountered, and I really enjoy the writing style too.

The Lost Cat Podcast: Horror (Cosmic, Soft), Weird Fiction(?). A man loses parts of himself, befriends strange entities, and drinks an awful lot of wine as he searches for his missing cat. Fun horror which values kindness and connection, with great writing which has always stuck with me but is also just the right amount of cliché to be very satisfying in the moment.

Lost Terminal: Sci-fi, Hopepunk. Gentle podcast about a lonely AI living in a space station as he contemplates life, learns more about the world around him, and makes friends. Really charming, great music, takes a respectful look into mental health (including anxiety, depression, ocd, did, loneliness) and talks about all kinds of fun topics like radio, D&D, orbital mechanics, and plants. Big favourite of mine.

Maps of the Lost: Supernatural, New Weird(?), Urban Fantasy, Light Horror. A guidebook style podcast to the strange happenings, people, places, and creatures around the UK. A few of these per episode in an almost microfiction format, all really fun and creative, and read in a wonderfully soothing voice.

Middle:Below: Supernatural, Mystery, Adventure, Comedy & Horror Elements. Ghost adventures! Humans Taylor and Heather, Gil the Ghost, and occasionally Sans the Cat travel to the Below, the land of ghosts, to solve mysteries and to help or contain the spirits that live there. This one makes me feel a bit like a kid again, it's very fun and has really crisp audio.

Modem Prometheus: Urban Fantasy, (Horror?). From the same team as Lost Terminal, this is a newer podcast featuring 'modern folktales', stories which feel like myths but are set in the city in the modern day. Each one tells it's own story, but in a shared world established by subtle consistant elements and sneaky references to the other tales. Good audio, music, writing, and I like the narrator's voice.

Monstrous Agonies: Supernatural. "Agony Aunt" radio show (where listeners can write in with their problems and receive advice), but for the supernatural in a modern world where humans, former humans, and people who were never human, live together. Featuring one of the most soothing voices in audio drama, really well written, supportive, full of fantastic advice, and very queer. Another big favourite of mine.

Murray Mysteries: Comedy, Supernatural. A queer, comedic, modern, and delightfully faithful adaptation of Dracula. Taking the form of Mina's podcast, I really enjoy how it's subtley altered the characters to fit a modern setting.

Neighbourly: Horror, Supernatural, (New Weird?), Some Sci-Fi Elements. Welcome to Little Street, where behind each door lives one or more residents with their own strange lives and curious secrets. Narrator has a great voice and you can never be quite sure what flavour of strangeness you'll be in for.

The Orphans: Sci-Fi, Thriller, (Horror?): While I could spoil this podcast and it'd still be great, I'm not going to. I will say it's a very well made, far future sci-fi featuring AI, unethical science, quality worldbuilding, heart-crushing tragedies, and a dash of political intrigue.

The Petrol Station: Horror. A short podcast featuring stories of the weird encounters of a petrol station attendant living in an isolated British village. If you enjoyed TMA, you'll probably like this a lot as well, it's very well written and I have all my fingers crossed for new episodes.

The Secret of St Kilda: Mystery? Thriller-ish? Cult Horror? Unsure. Podcast about a former conman who moves to the mysterious island of St Kilda, fleeing his past and into the arms of the strange island cult, who both think they need him, and deeply distrust him.

Spirit Box Radio: Supernatural, Mystery, Horror Elements. After the famous and supposedly powerful radio psychic Madam Marie goes missing, her enthusiastic young assistant takes over in her place. The first, but certainly not only, problem is he's never had much talent for the arcane before... Not that he can remember learning much to begin with, anyway.

Tartarus: Horror, Sci-Fi. An astrobiologist gets a job at a research facility in Antarctica which isn't quite what she'd expected. Along with the tearse station manager, and facility AI, she finds herself now responsible for protecting humanity from the monsters contained within. Really new but full of promise, looking forward to seeing where it goes.

The Tower: New Weird? Magical Realism? Idk. Short, meditative podcast about a young woman who decides to climb a seemingly endless tower. Modern setting with it's own delightful ancient lore. Fantastic music, quality soundwork, strange, reflective and enchanting. By the same folks as Middle:Below (Above).

VAST Horizon: Sci-Fi (space), Horror, Thriller(?). An agronomist tasked with kickstarting agriculture on a new world wakes on the ship before they arrive, to discover something has gone horribly wrong. The ship is adrift and riddled with issues, and nobody but the malfuctioning AI is left aboard... Right? She must do her best to save the ship and herself, and work out what happened. Stellar piece of audio by Fool & Scholar, who also do arctic horror podcast The White Vault, which has a very international cast and also highly recommended.

Victoriocity: Mystery, Adventure, Steampunk, Comedy. In an alternate steampunk 1887 London, an inspector and a journalist team up to solve a bizzare mystery, possibly even a conspiracy. Full cast, great sound design, full of wacky characters.

We Fix Space Junk: Sci-fi, Comedy, Adventure. An interstellar repairwoman, her AI best friend, and their brand new fugitive socialite assistant travel the stars to complete various tasks at the behest of the evil monolith of a company they are in debt to. A new job every episode, full cast, crisp audio and sound design.

I hope you can find one here which appeals to you!

[sepublic]

If there’s one solace Jonathan has in this mess, it’s in his writing where he can at least record his thoughts and express his feelings. But when he visits Dracula, he ends up having to hide and censor them with shorthand, knowing Drac is invading his privacy or at least fully capable by reading Jonathan’s letters behind his back; But at least he has something.

And now Dracula is just being BLATANT about it, he’s completely invaded this intimate space of reprieve that Jonathan has, stepping in between us and our protagonist. Breathing down his neck, forcibly participating and taking away any chances of writing secret messages, the actual truth, in shorthand; And so we’re losing our understanding of what Jonathan is going through as Dracula takes him from us as he’s taken him from Mina. When he alludes to the letters and eventually interferes it hurts; These entries, they’re supposed to be OUR shared secret with Jonathan, no Dracula involved!

And it just makes the thing all the more an infuriating violation of boundaries. It’s like having a save room in a horror game only to find the boss chilling there, waiting for you. And he’s acting like it’s ALL fine and dandy when both he and Jonathan both know, and know that the other knows and so forth, that it’s not. Dracula really looked Jonathan dead in the eye and said, “I need you to help me create an alibi for your own murder. Thanks!” The audacity. The nerve. Like telling his own soldiers to sacrifice themselves for him because their whole existence is meaningless without their grand leader to define it.

There’s the classic dissonance with people saying one thing where it very much isn’t, essential to both comedy but also horror, hence the meta of Jordan Peele the comedian hitting a home run when it comes to Get Out and Us. In another context it’d be funny and it still is tbh, but with a bleak and mocking undertone that’s hard to shake off. A gaslighting “This is fine” reassurance by Dracula, WHOOF. It’s like a big joke to him, fittingly, and I can imagine Jonathan at some point snapping and asking if HE’s a joke himself to Dracula. Honestly, probably. Jonathan is writing less and less as is, but that’s likely gonna get even worse; It’s hard to feel incentivized to bare his soul knowing Dracula is going to be seeing it.