#But there's also the fact a lot of horror movies are rated r

[minty-bubblegum]

Everyone in this house is a scaredy cat and no one wants to watch a horror movie with me🙄(I'm not even allowed to watch some wtf let me watch horror movies😭)

LMAOOOOOO

[copingwithobsessions]

Billy is autistic ♾

Just me rambling about an headcanon I take wayyyy too seriously :)

Hyperfixation : horror movies (obviously)

He just keeps talking about it. All the time.

Like

Also him using his hands while talking in this scene

(There's also something to be said about him mentioning the queer actors and not the 'straight' characters but that will be for another post-)

Also in the phone call where we're sure it's him :

(If he was the one calling Casey then there's even more-)

Also him just constantly talking with movie-related things : "It was edited for TV- all the good stuff was cut out", "nice solid R rating, on our way to a NC-17", "lately we're just sort of edited for television", "Maybe your movie-freaked mind lost it's reality button","It's all a movie, it's all...one great big movie.Only you can't pick your genre","I think she wants a motive","I don't really believe in motive, Sid.", "See it's a lot scarier when there's no motive Sid", "Is that motive enough for you ?", "How's that for a motive ?", "Just pretend it's all a scary movie Sid...How do you think it's gonna end ?", "Perfect ending.", "Now Sid, don't you blame the movies. Movies don't create psychos, movies make psychos more creative !" and basing his killing spree on horror movie tropes : phone calls, masked killer, virgins being the final girls (literally having sex with Sidney to fulfill the trope), 'no motive' etc...

2. Abnormal posture

3. Staring (last 2 photos, both scenes in Sidney's room, police station scene...basically when there's Sid) or excessive blinking (doorway scene, kitchen scene...(basically when there's Stu)

4. Plans and changements

Billy (and Stu) planned their entire killing spree (from the dates it would be on : surrounding the one year anniversary of Maureen's death, to the person they would frame and his supposed motive as well as Casey and Steve's murders with the phone call, the attack at Sidney's house, Billy's incarceration, Stu's phone call following it, Billy's fake death, kidnapping Neil before his flight and using his phone, hiding his car, using a voice changer, stabbing each other to seem like victims, the party etc...)

When Billy's (and Stu's) plans get changed (Dewey, Gale and Kenny being present, Sid escaping the kitchen with her dad and Stu losing too much blood), Billy panics and goes into what could be defined as a meldown : throwing out insults, walking in circles, never going to check on the first floor, destroying Stu's living room and just panicking all around-

(When he fails getting Sidney to trust him and makes her escape to the toilets, he punches himself in frustation)

5. Insociability

Basically doesn't talk in the fountain scene

Awkward and Unsettling while talking, even to his friends

Doesn't pay attention to girls being interested in him

Doesn't seem at ease with the number of people leaving the party

(Even fidgeting though that may be just be him checking that the people are leaving for real)

6. Overdramatic

7. Favorite person/people

Okay this one's not that common in autistics but for Billy, he definitely has a special person, two in fact :

He literally started killing because his mom "moved out and abandoned" him.

For Stu, I will be vague cause I'll talk about it in detail in the other post 👀but basically he's not really himself unless Stu's there and planned a killing spree where only they would survive (+ trusted him to stab him).

Bonus : If Billy is the one who called Casey

"I only eat popcorn at the movies" Well I'm getting ready to watch a video "Really what ?" Oh, just some scary movie "You like scary movies ?" Huhuh "What's your favorite scary movie ?" Hum- I don't know... "You have to have a favorite, what comes to mind ?" Hum...Halloween ! You know the one with the guy in the white mask who walks around and stalks babysitters. "Yeah." What's yours ? "Guess." Hum- Nightmare on Elm Street ! "Isn't that the one where the guy had knives for fingers ?" Yeah, Freddy Krueger. "Freddy, that's right. I liked that movie.It was scary." Well the first one was but the rest sucked."

"It's an easy category : movie trivia"

"Come on, it's your favorite scary movie, remember ? He had a white mask, he stalked the babysitters"

"Then you should know Jason's mother, Mrs Vorhees, was the original killer ! Jason didn't show up until the sequel."

And that's it ! A complete analysis of what could be considered autistic traits from Billy that got way too long-

[heart-of-the-morningstar]

In Defense of the FNAF Movie…

I was thinking about the FNAF Movie again today and I wanted to go on a little tangent if that's alright with y'all lol.

I know most fans enjoyed the movie, which is great! But I did see some fans, especially some OG fans, who did not like the movie at all, saying it didn't take itself seriously enough, it was too campy, it wasn't scary enough, and it didn’t follow the lore. I can understand those criticisms to an extent. But as an OG fan myself, I think the movie captured the tone of FNAF perfectly.

FNAF at its core, is silly. The concept of kid-friendly animatronic characters that are mascots for a Chuck E Cheese type restaurant being possessed is a ridiculous concept. Granted, how they became possessed is where the horror of the franchise comes into play. FNAF was never all campy or all horror, it was always a mix of both, even in the first few games, just based on the concept alone.

I think too many people expected it to be really scary, but I believe that was the wrong perspective. There were jumpscares in the games, yeah, but I think the most prominent emotion from the early games would elicit dread, not horror. I went into the movie knowing it would be campy and goofy, but I also knew there would be some horror aspects. BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT FNAF IS!

I think if the movie took itself too seriously, no one else would, because fans know it’s not an overall serious franchise. This is the same franchise that brought in Exotic Butters and MPreg in one of their books! That’s not to say that there aren’t serious subjects in the game; a serial killer, multiple child murders, grusome deaths, loss of family members; the game is not all sunshine and rainbows.

But what I think FNAF does as a whole is mix those horror aspects with its campiness really well. You can’t have one without the other in this series. And that’s what I think the movie did a great job with. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much if it was too serious or if it relied on humor alone. Don’t get me wrong, this was not a perfect movie, there were definitely things that needed improvements. But I don’t think the tone was one of them.

At first I was a little disappointed that the movie wouldn’t be rated R, but now I can appreciate why they stuck to PG-13 instead. FNAF has never been bloody or gory, any deaths that would occur in the franchise would be off-screen or portrayed in the 8-bit mini games. I think the only time we see blood is during the springlock failure in FNAF 3, and again, it was 8-bit blood. Most of the horror is left up to the imagination of the viewer, which in my opinion, is a lot scarier than just outright showing you what happened. Fear of the unknown is extremely powerful.

The last point I wanna bring up is the fact some people do not like the deviation from the game’s lore. Need I remind you, this is not the first time the franchise has done this. The books have their own separate lore! Some of it lines up with the games, a lot of it doesn’t. But what all of these continuities have are animatronics who are possessed by children who were murdered by William Afton; that is the core story of FNAF no matter if you’re playing the games, reading the books, or watching the movie. They each take their own liberties in telling different versions of the story, but they all revolve around the same main focus. In my opinion, I think it would have been a little boring to see the movie play out one for one like the games, especially considering how confusing and convoluted the game lore is!I’m curious as to where they will go in future movies!

I can see why general audiences and critics would not like this movie, because they wouldn’t understand the tone that it was going for. They wouldn’t get the references or the story beats that the fans would. But it wasn’t really made for them, which is fine! I think the movie we got was really great, not a masterpiece, but just a really good adaption of what FNAF is: a campy horror game. And I’m looking forward to see where they take it next!

Also, if I hear one more person complain about the “Building a Fort” scene in the movie, I will gnaw your arm off. I’m happy we actually got to see the ghost children ACTING LIKE GOD DAMN CHILDREN!

[waivyjellyfish]

How do the prisoners react to meeting the Dokuro family and finding out that Es isn’t human?

Sorry it took so long, real world catched me. And thank you for your question.

Well. Like a lot of normal people, I think. They was shocked. And it was difficult to understand it.

It’s kind of hard to react any other way, when right in front of your eyes a little girl(no) appears through a breach in the wall and easily blowing your 15-year-old warden's head. And then the warden recovers from that as if nothing had happened and drags you out of prison as if it were meant to, brushing questions aside like annoying flies with short "later".

I mean, yes, the Milgram prison is frankly strange, no windows, no doors, no calendar, and some strange thing in the form of a giant machine to extract memories, or strange, unpleasantly shrill mental walls that forbid physical aggression against the warden at first, and later against the other prisoners too. A strange warden with a mind of their own, who's always talking with a terribly clever horned rabbit. (Are these real horns or are they attached to the hat?) And with meaningful dialogue. But the only one side of the conversation can be heard, so who knows if they really hears the rabbit voice or they're got nuts long time ago. And the claim that this rabbit is the one who cooks all dish. Honestly, it sounds more like an excuse for not respecting kitchen hygiene than the truth.

All this is, undoubtedly, strange and resembles some sci-fi movie with elements of psychological horror. But not a fantasy.

And yeah. The warden themself is strange, but not so to suspect a monster in them. Everything can be explained, right?

Yeah, they're talking to the rabbit. It’s weird, but some people with pets do it too. The warden is obviously lonely. Don't you think?

Blood craving? Well, there are people who have a craving for blood, aren’t there?

Sharp teeth? Fuuta has that too.

Gender is unknown? Androgynes exist, dears.

Their bruises and wounds heals in an hour or two? Well the warden is 15, children are healing at a fairly rapid rate, and also there is a fairly balanced diet. So everything kind of fits together… (exept the fact that the swollen eye after Mikoto’s interrogation disappeared the next day. this is strange of course)

Sometimes they says with certainty something that people can’t do, like that it’s actually possible to cut something off for better regeneration or talking to the dead, or that metal is edible. Well, the kid has no memory of what happened with them before Milgram, only the prisoners, the talking rabbit and the books in their private room can connect them with outside world in some ways. They're very impressionable, poor child. And they seems to lack iron.

(As my friend jocked: -I thought you were neurodivergent. -Nah, I just isn't human)

So, of course, the prisoners were not prepared for it. Not for a very radical way of warden's regeneration, nor for a one-eyed(no) giant-girl with a tail, nor for a guy in his 30+ who looks like a 14-15-year-old girl. Not for the fact that a very small group who came after their child is going to smash the prison building brick by brick and catch everyone who was involved in it in less than two hours after they broke into the panopticon.

----

Talking about the future. Later, some of the prisoners even managed to integrate into the family, albeit a little voluntarily forced. But there is one thing. To join Dokuro, you have to take their crazy rhythm of life, which means a partial loss of human common sense. In addition, few people with a long connection with Dokuro remain ordinary people. Wanting to keep up with monsters is fraught with the fact that you can become a monster yourself, relative to your past self. And given their longevity and their work, it’s easier to change to not to die too quickly.

This family is stupid in everything, absolutely mad and at first glance has no brakes. The sense in their actions is very difficult to catch. The constant replenishment of the family by children picked up on worlds during work, the frequent reckless actions that would have led them to death, but not, hard training to go beyond. It’s exhausting. But it’s probably the most fascinating.

[boasamishipper]

I was rereading Judicial Impropriety tonight (seriously so very hyped for Harry's POV!!) and I decided to go through your dan x harry tag and I saw that you mentioned a "they both raise abby" AU in one of the posts about slow burn but not really - is this another one of your WIPs because it sounds amazing! :D

hi nonny! it may please you to know that i've just posted the first chapter of Code of Conduct, aka harry's pov of how he and dan get together in Judicial Impropriety. hope you enjoy! 😄

to answer your question, the 'dan and harry raise abby' idea is an au that my dear friend @bornforastorm and i plotted together over discord one afternoon. will i ever write it? never say never. for now though it lives in my head rent free. here's the gist:

in the early 2000s, harry discovers that he actually Does Not Like living upstate and wants to move back to the city. gina wants to stay in skaneateles. they end up divorcing and harry gets full custody of abby - yay! except real estate in the city is So Expensive. luckily for harry, dan (who was widowed around a year before harry got divorced) has a spare bedroom and is more than willing to indefinitely put up his best friend / unrequited crush and his best friend / unrequited crush's precocious tween daughter.

harry is so busy trying to find a job (and so torn up about his marriage ending) that dan ends up taking abby out a lot. except he has no idea what to do with kids so they end up seeing r-rated horror movies together and throwing rocks at pigeons in the park and scamming people at fancy restaurants and toy stores by telling them that abby has six months to live.

abby may be perky and sweet but (like harry) she has no qualms about roasting dan like a melange of seasonal vegetables

abby: look at my dad's high-waisted roommate, he's got feminine hips! dan: no!! that's the thing i'm sensitive about!!

alternatively: dan: my hips are VERY manly excuse you!! tell her harry harry, so horny he's going to die: they're fine

turns out!! harry might have a thing for dan. a small, tiny, miniscule thing that he's pretty sure started the minute they shook hands in his chambers. this small tiny miniscule thing is not helped by the fact that harry now has to spend 24 hours a day in a two bedroom apartment with his unrequited crush of over a decade.

speaking of the two bedroom apartment thing. so abby takes the spare bedroom. obviously. that makes sense. harry crashes on the foldout sofa for about a week. then he learns one night that dan still has nightmares about the plane crash, so out of the goodness of his heart, he offers to stay with dan in dan's room until he falls asleep. and then they both fall asleep. and then the next night they fall asleep in the same bed. and the next night. and the next night. and every single night for the next year they platonically share a bed.

at the one year mark sleeping together becomes sleeping together. neither of them have gone out with or slept with anyone else in all that time. neither of them admit that they are in love with each other. after all having sex with each other is still totally platonic since they don't kiss.

they go to each other's work events and abby's parent teacher conferences as each other's completely platonic date.

harry: this is my best friend and platonic co-parent slash roommate dan: also bedmate harry: right that too abby: you sound like a yuppie harry: You Take That Back

abby: are you and dan dating harry: what!!!!!!!! no!!!!!!!!!!!!! why would you think that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! abby: you share a bed harry: to save space so you can have your own room!!!!! also because he has nightmares from almost dying and i have nightmares about him dying so it makes sense we sleep together!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! abby: wow you need help

abby: i can snort chocolate milk out of my nose, want to see dan: that's disgusting and also impossible abby: no it's not. i bet you could do it. here, drink some dan: [drinks] abby: are you in love with my dad dan: [snorts chocolate milk out of his nose] abby: [covered in milk and snot] i knew it 😈😈😈

the second she figures out they're both in love with each other abby tries to matchmake dan and harry. the subtle approach does not work since they're both idiots, so she stages a hunger strike until dan and harry kiss.

dan: [kisses harry on the cheek] abby: pathetic

this all culminates with abby telling dan that she and harry found a new place to live (they didn't) and dan runs to harry's office at columbia like Do Not Move Out, Live With Me Forever, I Love You (but if you don't feel the same way ignore that last part)

harry, extremely confused: i love you too????????? student taking a makeup exam in harry's office: i'm just gonna head out

harry and dan, who have been having sex for over a year but have yet to actually kiss, spend the next four hours making out on harry's desk

harry: i feel like i'm forgetting something dan: it's probably not important if you can't remember harry: you're right abby: [standing in the pouring rain at soccer practice] 😈 i'm gonna get so much mileage out of this 😈

things about abby stone-fielding:

she is the queen of Wait Til My Fathers Hear About This

she threatens people with I'll See You In Court every time something does not go her way

she takes after her fathers in that she is a very intense dork and a fiscal conservative and flirts like a fiend but is terrible at it

she pulls the 'if you do this for me you'll be my favorite father' trick on harry and dan constantly and they fall for it every time

she also calls dan and harry both 'dad' and expects everyone (including dan and harry) to figure out who she's talking about

she tells everyone she has a secret third dad named reinhold and dan threatens to emancipate her when he finds out harry, sliding her twenty dollars: keep it up

abby's teacher: so abby told the class her goal is to go to law school so she can sue the government and take over the country dan: she gets her ambition from me 🥰 abby's teacher: she then proceeded to put an apple in her mouth and played the flute with her nose harry: [crying] that's my girl

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Review: The Crow (1994)

A remake of The Crow just came out last weekend. I heard it sucked, so I decided to go back and watch the original instead.

The Crow (1994)

Rated R for a great amount of strong violence and language, and for drug use and some sexuality

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2024/08/review-crow-1994.html>

Score: 4 out of 5

Stop me if you've heard this one: exactly one year after they did something horrible, a group of hoodlums are stalked and murdered by a ruthless, seemingly supernatural killer who happens to look a lot like the man whose death they were responsible for. It's a setup for a slasher movie in the vein of Prom Night or I Know What You Did Last Summer, a mood that this film definitely tilts towards in how it frames its killer, but make no mistake: The Crow is not a slasher movie, and the killer is not a villain. Rather, Eric Draven is framed as a gothic superhero, somebody who makes Batman look like Superman, a fact that, together with its stunning style, an outstanding performance from Brandon Lee that would've made him a star under better circumstances, and the real-life on-set tragedy that made its production notorious, has made this film an enduring classic among generations of goth kids, horror fans, and superhero fans. It's a movie that's pure style over substance, but one where that style is so much fun to watch, and the substance just enough to hold it up, that I barely noticed the thinly-written supporting cast or the many moments where it was clear that they were working around Lee's death trying to get the film in a releasable state. Thirty years later, The Crow is a film that's simultaneously of its time but also timeless, and simply a rock-solid action thriller on top of it.

Set in Detroit, where the weak are killed and eaten (the film barely mentions the setting, but the comic it's based on makes it explicit), the film starts on Devil's Night where a young couple, the musician Eric Draven and his fiancé Shelly Webster, are brutally murdered in their apartment by a gang of criminals, who we later learn targeted them because Shelly was involved in community activism to prevent evictions in a neighborhood controlled by the ruthless crime lord Top Dollar. However, according to legend, the souls of the dead are taken to the afterlife by a crow, and if somebody died in an especially tragic way that they didn't deserve, then that crow can resurrect them to give them a chance to set things right. This is what happens to Eric exactly one year later, causing him to set out to take his revenge on his and Shelly's killers and protect those who they continue to menace.

A huge component of this film's mystique to this day revolves around Brandon Lee, and how it was intended as his big star vehicle that likely would've been his ticket to the A-list if not the fact that, thanks to its chaotic production and the crew's lackadaisical attitude towards safety, he wound up suffering a fatal accident on set with a prop gun that turned out to have not been as safe as the crew thought it was. (Chad Stahelski, who went on to direct the John Wick movies, was one of Lee's stunt doubles here, and now you know why production on the John Wick movies never uses real guns on set.) The tragedy alone would've given Lee an aura comparable to River Phoenix (who was also considered for the part), Heath Ledger, Paul Walker, or Chadwick Boseman, especially given how his father, martial arts legend Bruce Lee, also died young, but the truth is, watching him as Eric Draven, this really was the kind of star-in-the-making performance that makes you mourn the lost potential almost as much as the man himself. Lee walks a fine line here between playing an unstoppable killer who's framed as almost a horror monster on one hand and still making him sympathetic, charismatic, and attractive on the other, the result feeling like a man with a hole in his heart fueled by rage at what he lost who seems to be straight-up enjoying his revenge at times, especially with some of his one-liners. Had he lived, I could easily imagine Lee having had the career as an action hero that Keanu Reeves ultimately did, such was the strength of his performance in this one film. He kicks as much ass as you'd expect, especially given that he also handled much of the fight choreography and took every opportunity in the action scenes to show off how he was very much Bruce Lee's son, but he also brings a strange warmth to the character such that I didn't just wanna see him kick ass and take names, I wanted to see him win.

That strange warmth is ultimately the film's secret weapon. Its dark aesthetics and tone and grisly violence go hand-in-hand with a story about loving life, because this is the one life we have to live and it could easily be taken away from us. Gothic it may be, but nihilistic it is not. Eric may look like a horror movie monster, but he is still a hero, a man who goes out of his way to help and protect the innocent and redirect those who are on the wrong path just as he goes after the unrepentant bastards who bring misery to the community. He felt more like a proper superhero than a lot of examples from movies in the last ten years, which seem more interested in the "super" part of the equation and the awesome fight scenes it enables than the "hero" part. There's a reason the tagline on the poster is "Believe in Angels," and not "Vengeance is Coming" or something along those lines. At its core, this is a movie about getting a second chance to set things right, one in which the things that have to be set right just so happen to involve a lot of righteous violence, and by the time the credits rolled, I felt oddly uplifted having seen it. Not exactly the feeling you expect to have when you watch a film with this one's reputation!

The villains here are mostly one-note caricatures, working largely in the context of the film as a whole and because of the actors playing them. Top Dollar is a cartoonish, if charismatic, madman who wants to burn down the city just for the hell of it, his half-sister/incestuous lover Myca is a sadistic vamp who cuts out women's eyes, and his assorted goons all constantly behave in ghoulish ways so that you don't feel bad when Eric kills them. Ernie Hudson's character, the police officer Albrecht, exists largely to serve as a stand-in for the audience learning who and what Eric is. They work less as characters than as part of the fabric of the world that this movie builds, a version of Detroit that resembles a mix of Gotham City out of Tim Burton's Batman and something close to a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It's a city where the streets are winding, decrepit, shrouded in darkness, and all too often devoid of people, as though everybody moved out to the suburbs a long time ago, with the only centers of activity being nightclubs, bars, and pawn shops that are all run by gangsters. Between this and Dark City, it definitely feels like director Alex Proyas has a thing for this style of urban noir setting taken all the way into the realm of the utterly fantastical, and he makes the city feel... well, "alive" isn't the right word given that it's depicted as a place that's falling to pieces, but definitely a character in its own right. He does a lot to build this film's mood, staging much of it like a horror movie whether it's in the scenes of Eric stalking his prey or the action scenes where an unstoppable supernatural killer shrugs off everything that gets thrown at him like Jason Voorhees, and it works wonders in making for a very unique take on the superhero genre, especially thirty years later when the genre has come to be associated with blockbuster action. The soundtrack, too, does wonders to set the mood, loaded with '80s goth rock and '90s alternative that pairs well with Eric Draven's backstory as a rock star (especially when paired with the scenes of him playing guitar on the roof in the dead of night) and which I imagine turned a lot of young Gen-Xers into fans of The Cure. That kind of music might be a cliché today, but there's a reason it endures.

The Bottom Line

Skip the remake and check out the original, which remains a classic for a reason. It's not a perfect film, but it's one that still holds up to this day as not just a monument to a man who died too soon but also as a very well-made action/horror flick that I'm surprised more superhero movies since haven't tried to imitate.

[weirdbooksifoundatwork]

More new DVD processing. I have to unpack hundreds of DVDs, open the cases, take the paper cover out and apply a bunch of stickers on it: barcode, sticker marking it property of the library, etc. One of the most crucial ones is the rating sticker, which all fictional visual media are required to have.

Fun fact: a bunch of movies and most TV shows come in ‘unrated’ and I need to ask the A/V guy to look up the ratings or, failing that, look up the content warnings on independent parental review websites and make his own determination. ‘Unrated’ can mean a bunch of things. A lot of independent movies come in unrated, and a lot of horror films seem to do it deliberately. Our Rule of Thumb is that if it’s got a bloody clown on the cover it’s probably an ‘R’

But every single Hallmark movie also comes unrated. Very silly to consider “Love in the Great Smoky Mountains: a National Park Romance” belonging to the same category as “Terrifier 2”, but such is the case.

We gave this one a ‘G’.

[funnywormz]

really random thought but i rlly like how lister is tough and brave and deeply masculine but he also has an empathetic and nurturing side to him and does some things that are traditionally considered "feminine". it doesn't come up a lot but when it does it makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside like man........ i adore him so much......... he's a rough and tumble messy gross little guy but he's also sensitive and sweet and caring and an artist <3 he might not always have particularly high emotional intelligence or know the right thing to say but he absolutely tries his best i think.

side note but i rlly like how he mellows out in the later seasons as well (like rimmer does too), it's just rlly sweet to see him become a little more gentle and try to take the feelings of his friends into account more often. like how in tpl he genuinely tries to encourage rimmer and comfort him when he's upset bc he cares abt him........ yeah it's kinda clumsy but he tries his best and speaks from his heart and it works! it's sweet

another side note. i think he would have been a great dad and it seems like a big part of his depression/feeling of lacking purpose in the show is tied up in him not being able to be a proper dad to any of his kids and it makes me so sad.......... i think he'd be great with kids and i can totally imagine him just lighting up and being so happy around them. yeah he wouldn't be a perfect dad by any stretch of the imagination lol but i know he would be so loving and try his absolute hardest. it makes me rlly sad that he never got the opportunity to be a parent to jim and bexley (and himself) :-(

also it would have been so funny to see him and rimmer try to be dads. i think it would be so fun if a little role reversal happened and lister was more of a "mother hen" type to his kids and tried to advise them against being like himself or making bad decisions (if "fathers and suns" is anything to go by, strict dad lister is a very real possibility imo), whereas rimmer is the "fun dad" who lets the kids have sweets when lister isn't looking and tells lister he doesn't know where they are when he knows full well they're in the cinema watching r-rated horror movies and covers for them when they cause trouble, bc he enjoys seeing them have fun and let loose in a way that he never could as a child......

of course, there is always the fact that deb and arlene raised jim and bexley, so for all we know this kind of thing may well have happened with them. i like to think that the experience of caring for the twins may have brought them closer together as well, and i may or may not be working on a short little comic involving that premise atm 👀

anyways sorry this post got off topic as hell lmao

[fandom-which-one]

The FNAF movie was awesome. I think the direction they took the characters makes sense and I feel like the plot they chose and developed works well for trying to translate the complex and complicated lore of the rest of the franchise.

Also anyone who complains that it isn't r rated are being overly picky. The pg-13 rating is accurate to the film and honestly the movie was exactly what I was wanting for what it's based on.

I saw one review where the complaint was that the film was character focused, and not "horror focused" enough because there isn't a lot of gore but honestly that fits the franchise most of the games only ever allude to the gore that is happening just out of sight or on 8-bit . The thing I love about the franchise is the endless search for new clues to a storyline that is always being added to and changed and trying to make pieces fit together so character focus makes my brain go "LORE!!!!" Something I feel most fans probably resonate with. And the fact that they kept it jumpscare and suspense horror is great because, personally, I feel that a lot of horror today is treated like the slasher sub genre and there is not enough distinction.

Sorry about the ramble, I'm sure none of it makes sense and is like 4 different trains of thoughtm

Basically, GO SEE THE MOVIE!!!

I really don't think you will regret it.

[despair-to-future-arcs]

Anything else on the Nevermind family?

CHIAKI: So your father let you see an R-rated film?

Well not exactly, I think he was expecting me to pick a more child-friendly film and his film was starting so he didn't have time, I know mother was pretty cross with him but we did laugh about it as it was a mistake.

CHIAKI: Well at least there were no hard feelings...

No and if asking, I do get along well with my other relatives; in fact my cousin, Gordana show me more horror films whenever I visit uncle Daniel which I was quite close to them.

CHIAKI: Gordana? hmm, I'm checking your family folder and it says that there is no family member named that - I did find Gordan, however.

Oh wait, you did? I guess they didn't update it and using her dead name instead.

CHIAKI: A dead name...?

Oh sorry, I'm sure you must be confused but the thing is that Gordana was transitioning around 2009, the thing is that Gordana was originally born a boy name 'Gordon' but was transition when I was going to enroll, we all been quite supportive of her for the transition as well when she discover this at 18.

CHIAKI: Right I see, thank you for the correction - I'll be sure to update the information, anyway can you speak about your relationship with your cousin?

Well as say, me and my cousin were getting ready to watch a film...

But she was also helping me calm my nerves as my coronation was coming quite soon and of course, I was nervous.

...

...

...

Date: October 11th, 2009

*As then the door open*

Oh Sonia, how've you been?

Wonderful, Gordana! Thank you for asking - I'm honestly quite excited to watch some horror movies and anime with you.

Oh yes of course, come with me - we can start watching together.

*the 2 walk down the hall, seeing images which Sonia came across 2*

So how has the transitioning so far?

Been taking some medication which has been a bit hard to do, they say that my operation could start around spring, maybe March or April at the latest.

To be honest I was nervous of how father and the rest of the family would respond given how other countries are far worse about this.

Nonsense Gordana, you know that Novoselic is quite safe with LGBT rights and was one of the first country's to recognize trans people.

After all, I think regardless of gender; your still quite beautiful and people should not judge you for that.

Right... thank you, Sonia - at least the rest of the family have been quite supportive of my transitioning and honestly it was silly how it was for assuming the worse.

Anyway, here we are - I got a bunch of movies and anime we can watch so pick whatever you like.

Oh that's great, I really want to watch some anime and Japanese drama! *Sonia rushes over and looks at the set*

Oh hey Gordana, what about this one? I really want to watch this one.

Oh, death note? I suppose we can watch that, I suppose the mystery aspect gets you?

Well yes, of course - as say I think the premise does look interesting and a lot of fun so let's watch that.

Okay, let's do that then Sonia.

*Gordana sets the DVD which the 2 began watching...*

...

...

...

*After a couple of hours, they were finish the last episode...*

...Goodness, so that's how Kira was caught.

Right... honestly I felt it was more exciting when L was alive, I think their rivalry was the best part.

Right, honestly I feel the same too; I think Light had a pretty good rival but still a really good mystery no doubt.

And my birthday is coming up, honestly I'm rather nervous...

Right... your going to be coronated as your mother's heir, correct?

[epicmiscellaneousponderings]

Top Thirteen Thursday

It's spooky season and while it has been some time since my last post. So let's make a change about that! Have some of my Top Thirteen movies, more or less ;) to watch for Halloween in no particular order. As always feel free to buy me a coffee and to leave your favorite Halloween movies in the comments!

The Canterville Ghost (1996) staring Sir Patrick Stewart. This is an easy and mild movie for Halloween but a classic non the less.

2. Winchester (2018). This another fairly mild movie with a rating of PG-13 that has some well placed jump scares and tense moments, overall a more story driven movie with supernatural/ghost elements.

3. Tower of Terror (1997). This is a Disney movie and honestly just a lot of good fun, it is not rated oddly enough though I can't really see it being rated more than PG-13 at most.

4. What Lies Beneath (2000). Rated PG-13 and staring Harrison Ford. This is more of a psychological supernatural story. Fun fact is that it's screenplay was written by Clark Gregg so that's cool!

5. When A Stranger Call (1979 rated R & 2006 rated PG-13). So speaking of Clark Gregg, he shows up momentarily in the 2006 version of this movie. Both of these versions are a good suspense thriller as the protagonist tries to stay alive with killer playing cat and mouse with them. Also When a Stranger Calls Back (1993 rated R) is worth a look if you like the 1979 movie.

6. Dream House (2011). Rated PG-13 staring Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, and Naomi Watts. A simple plot with a mystery. The actors do a good job of carrying the story, which yes isn't very deed but it is well executed.

7. Sleepy Hollow (1999). Rated R and staring Johnny Depp. It's a ride wild on Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow and slightly odd at times but a good watch and an interesting take on the characters involved.

8. House on Haunted Hill (1959). Not Rated and staring Vincent Price. Five guests in a maybe haunted mansion and murder afoot. Honestly just about anything staring Vincent Price will more than likely fit right on in with the spooky season!

9. A Quiet Place (2018). Rated PG-13 and more of a science fiction suspense than a horror, but let me tell you that had to be the quietest theater full of people ever when I went and saw it with family.

10. The Sixth Sense (1999). Rated PG-13 this movie is a classic with it's famous line of "I see dead people" and if you don't know the twist I most certainly am not going to spoil it.

11. Shutter Island (2010). Rated R and staring Mark Ruffalo, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Ben Kingsley. This is categorized as a Thriller/Mystery and the story that is told has re-watch value to notice all the details that the makers made sure to put in there. I'm not saying a lot here cause I don't want to spoil it but my family when we first watched went right back and watched it immediately again, not because we were confused but because you can get a new experience with knowing eyes the second time around.

12. Stonehearst Asylum (2014). Rated PG-13 and staring Ben Kingsley, Micheal Caine, and David Thewlis. This is a Thriller/Mystery/Horror mix that keeps you on your toes trying to guess what is really going on and who the main character can actually trust.

13. It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (1966). A classic and only 25 minutes long, I got a rock.

And there you have my Top Thirteen Halloween movies! There is certainly a list I could make of Honorable Mentions, but maybe I'll do that next year... Stay Spooky!

[winchesternova-k]

finally watched texas chainsaw massacre tonight

i rlly liked it but i think the part that i found most interesting was it’s impact on horror. the influence on aesthetics in particular rlly stood out to me (different shots made me think of outlast, spn, resident evil, nbc hannibal and other things i couldn’t rlly place)

the cinematography was gorgeous tbh tho the dinner table scene was so hard for me to watch. the constant screaming and the way the shots bounced around with such intensity was a lot on a sensory level but sally’s terror was rlly palpable

i have Thoughts abt franklin from a disabled perspective (particularly the way his opinion was overlooked constantly as Just Being Crazy bc he was disabled filled the same role more recent horror has women in and that they experience misogyny for instead of ableism) but i’m too tired to rlly articulate them

i’m also fascinated that texas chainsaw massacre was considered super gory at the time but tbh i barely noticed it in comparison to the horror media im more familiar with (and is more modern) i think it’s interesting that it originally had an r rating when i found the gore more comparable to an m movie (by australian classification) idk i just think it’s interesting how much what goes on screen has changed and what that means for horror (also the fact that what i would consider minimal gore was equally terrifying to say outlast)

[haleviyah]

What do you think of The Passion of the Christ as a movie?

Forgive me if I dive into my inner filmography geek here but I just came back from hearing a recent interview of Jim Caviezel covering his next film coming out in July, and I have to give my two cents:

Looking back as a pre-grad film student I'll give a list:

What I like:

Authenticity

If there is anything Mel is good at is the factor of authenticity in a film. Every film from "The Patriot" to "Apocalypto" he does his homework, which I will give credit for. Not a lot of directors do that these days - they rather insert social norms or social justice where they don't belong for money and cheating the audience out of learning a real life lesson.

2. Cinematography

I'll be honest the cinematography did a great job with shots and color schemes to set the mood fairly well. Despite the fact these guys had to redo SO MANY scenes due to threat of an "NC-17" rating, it was done well even though there are some hiccups here and there in the editing. That shows the crew did alright under pressure, not perfect but alright.

3. Cultural emphasis

Despite the film didn't nail it quite yet because of religious doctrine, the film did emphasize the fact that "this is a different time, different language, and different zeitgeist". ; nothing the modern church can interpret via doctrines and solely pulpit even if it tried.

4. Wardrobe

You can tell these guys took some notes from "Gladiator" because - Damn, they nailed the costumes pretty good!

Now for what I'd rebuke the team for:

This is where Jim and I are going to bonk heads a bit, and you know what that's okay. Different perspectives are the spice of life... Mel on the other hand... someone might come out with a concussion... might.

Anti-semitism

Not to be fair here, despite the arguments that the film isn't anti-semitic keep in mind the Jews portrayed in the film aside from Yeshua and his network were not given the time of day to explain themselves and were expressed in almost "cartoonish" dimensions (I blame both doctrines and editing for that).

The Pharisees and Sadducees as always portrayed as bitter and harshly divided because of "Yeshua breathing air". Personally, as someone who has studied the First Century Judaic culture, that is far from the truth! According to historical records (and my handy-dandy Ashkenazi study book - its a wedding gift) Pharisees were every communal, philanthropists, and open, whereas Sadducees were very busy-body but politics breathing down their neck. Both sects had the best intentions at heart but stress was no stranger and stumbling was not a sin but rather growth.

It's also against Leviticus 19 for Jews to hate each other. Even if you have staunch opinions politically, socially or even religiously speaking or even if you are an American Jew or an Israeli Jew, wishing ill upon your fellow Jew is beyond inexcusable.

So to say that Sadducees and Pharisees hated the Rebbe of Nazareth would be a grossly absurd misinterpretation. I vowed to not give too much info, but the best way I can interpret it was their worry for Yehoshua's well-being in those last moments bled into frustration over his stubbornness getting the better of him before he died. The actual turn of events is still hard for me to stomach so I'll just move on...

2. Yeshua's Arc

Before you choke me, I understand this is his last 24 hours and we only see a "itty-bitty-bit" of his life as it's flashing before his eyes. I get that! On the contrary, it's obvious that the character design of Yeshua is conflicting with himself: the church version of him vs. the historical Rebbe. I understand Mel is trying to be authentic, but him trying to tie the religious Jesus to R. Yehoshua Bar Yosef of Nazareth is like giving an amputee a prosthetic arm donated from marble statue. It's not going to work and both the person and the statue are going to irreparable to everyone's horror. I suppose the word I'm looking for is "Identity crisis". Not between Yeshua choosing integrity over selfishness, but rather Christian Jesus vs. Jewish Yehoshua... There were moments where I was struggling to understand who had the spotlight in Mel's eyes: the icon or the person.

Yes, the film expressed his loving and compassionate side enough and I appreciate that, but if we saw more of that inner combat he was dealing with (which would have worked swell represented by the Pharisees trying to look out for him, telling him 'you don't have to do this') it would have executed that relatable inner-battle better.

(I once again, blame editing and lack of resources...)

3. Side Characters.

There were some side characters that were not there historically speaking such as Veronica. Knowing the Jewish community if there is anything they are "anal" about its keeping track of everyone. This practice later became known as "taglit" which was a procedure done by tracing family documents to ensure if someone was truly Jewish or not, and to ensure if they had family they could reconnect with. We see a demonstration of "taglit" in the book of Matthew where he explains Yehoshua's genealogy. However, this was 2002 - 2004 and the Jewish community were not going to share whatever with some Aussie Catholic who is notorious for his temper. So I'll cut a little slack there (hell, it took me a while to crack the shell). Regardless of the grey area here, it comes off bit hypocritical to insert Catholic icons who probably never existed/folk legends (like the Lady of Guadalupe) when the director's philosophy is literally "authenticity".

In short TL;DR:

The film is groundbreaking in one or two ways, however I believe that was the peak of Christian/Catholic cinema. There is nothing the West can produce that will top it ever even if it divorced religion and try to understand Jewish culture in a very "Scott bros" fashion. Hell, the film PoC has been followed poorly by "The Bible Series" and "The Chosen"; both series' made it their obligated mission to try and beat the film at its own game or make it more Christian to appeal the audience without - again - JEWISH INPUT.

I watched the film PoC when I was 16, and sure it shook me a bit for newbie to the Christian faith, but now I am mature a decade later it doesn't hit me hard as much. I'll be honest my mind travels to what I have learned rather than what the film is telling me, none of which is bad. I just see it as two different movements in a music piece - PoC was the heroic overture and I am now at the somber ballad - different keys, different time signature but two sides of the same story.

To wrap it up I will end it with this: It's weird and sobering when you hear a man twice your age speak in the same language like you did during your comeuppance decade ago. I still debate wether it's a good or bad thing to see the youth beat the elder to the punchline...

[popentertainment-moviereviews]

Y2K (2024)

Starring Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, Julian Dennison, Daniel Zolghadri, Lachlan Watson, Eduardo Franco, Fred Durst, Kyle Mooney, Mason Gooding, The Kid Laroi, Miles Robbins, Alicia Silverstone, Tim Heidecker, Lauren Balone, Kevin Mangold, Maureen Sebastian, Ellie Ricker, Jacob Moskovitz, Daniel Dale, Luca R. Stagnitta and Anzi DeBenedetto.

Screenplay by Kyle Mooney.

Directed by Kyle Mooney and Evan Winter.

Distributed by A24. 93 minutes. Rated R.

Y2K was an interesting time in history. A mini panic was sparked for one of the most ridiculous reasons in the world. I still remember being told by people at the time how it was supposed to work. At the time, computer dates only had two-digit years (for example 12/31/99). In the late 90s computers and the internet would think that when the date changed to 01/01/00 that the machines would not be able to compute why we were suddenly in 1900 again and it would cause a massive crash of technology – not just affecting the computers and internets but all things that had a computer footprint – like say electrical plants, airports, banks, etc. Many people were quite concerned that technology would grind to a halt as the calendar turned.

Funny personal Y2K story. On New Years Eve 1999, I was at a party at my friend John’s house. At the stroke of midnight, just as the ball fell on Times Square on TV, a friend had found the house circuit breaker and turned off all the electricity for about a minute before turning it back on, trying to trick the partygoers into thinking the world was coming to an end.

Obviously, the Y2K threat turned out to be much ado about nothing. The New Year came and none of the dire predictions came to pass. Life went on.

The movie Y2K is a comedy horror that takes that basic fear and juices it. What if, instead of all of the computers potentially crashing once the New Year hit, instead that fabled date would have led to a rise of the machines? What if computers took over, violently killing or subjugating all of mankind?

It’s an interesting idea, both for a comedy and a horror film. (Y2K tries to straddle that line, leaning into the humor of the situation while also having quite a few bloody deaths. Honestly, it works better as a comedy than horror – sort of an odd mashup of Superbad and The Terminator – but even the funny parts eventually spin out of control.

Much of Y2K’s humor is a simple matter of showing off outdated technology. Which is fine and funny in doses – I’m sure lots of 90s kids will get a little chill of nostalgia when they hear a dial-up modem or the America Online “You’ve Got Mail” guy. However, that can get a little tiring after a while – particularly since Y2K has gotten some of the dates of their anachronisms wrong and use things that were not available when the story is supposed to be taking place. For example, Sisqo’s hit “Thong Song” wasn’t big until the year 2000 and USB flash drives (which end up playing a huge part in the storyline) were not available until around 2001.

However, beyond that eventually you have to do something with these obsolete gadgets. Y2K has decided to turn them into instruments of death. Well, that’s something.

And early on, Y2K’s technological kills are kind of funny in a sick way, things like people having their hands eaten off by a sink garbage disposal or someone being impaled by flying CDs. However, when the machines start to merge together and become big shambling killer robots, it all gets kind of ridiculous.

It’s probably not a complete surprise that Y2K leans on the comedy more than the scares because it was co-written and directed by Saturday Night Live alumni Kyle Mooney. (He was on SNL from 2013-2022.) It also may help explain why he got some of the Y2K details off – he had just turned 15 when it all happened.

It also has a talented cast – led by Jaeden Martell (It and It Chapter Two) and Rachel Zegler (West Side Story) – in fact, they may be a bit more talented than their roles need.

Still, even if in the long run Y2K doesn’t really work, you have to give them credit for taking a big swing.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2024 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: December 5, 2024.

[knowyourbmovieactors]

OCTOBER HORROR MOVIES #3: PROM NIGHT

OCTOBER HORROR MOVIES (DVD EDITION) #3

PROM NIGHT

As kids, four young friends accidentally kill one of their classmates while they're playing in an abandoned building. The swear each other to secrecy and keep their mouths shut as the local cops immediately pin the crime on a random dude who happened to be nearby. Six years later, they are suddenly 25-year-olds in high school, excitedly getting ready for prom, and they begin to receive mysterious phone calls from someone who's looking for revenge. Of course, the murder and mayhem will all go down on prom night. Congratulations, you have your new slasher movie template!

This proto version of "I Know What You Did Last Summer" is mired right there in the murky beginnings of the slasher genre. It was made only a couple of years after "Halloween" and "Black Christmas", and because "Halloween" star Jamie Lee Curtis was also in "Prom Night", it did a lot to cement her status as a "scream queen". Despite all that, "Prom Night" is remarkably free of gore. Often, you will see someone as their throat is about to be slashed, only to have the camera zoom in on the victim's eyes at the moment the knife moves. In fact, the movie was so gore-free that its first cut ended up being rated PG by the MPAA. The producers actually insisted that director Paul Lynch recut the film to get an R rating, because they didn't believe audiences would take it seriously otherwise.

It takes so long for the actual killing to start in "Prom Night" that it's easy to forget that it's supposed to be a slasher film and not some polyester-clad '70s version of "The O.C." Most of the runtime is taken up with the petty minutiae of getting ready for prom and all the jockeying for social position that these "teenagers" engage in around that. When the black-clad killer does finally show up, I actually thought, "Oh, that's right! This isn't just an excuse for an extended disco scene at a high school dance."

And let's address that disco scene, because it goes on and on and on. Jamie Lee Curtis and Casey Stevens perform an entire choreographed dance that lasts the entirety of a song, and just when you think it's finally over, the song goes into an interminable coda. The audience is not spared one single hand jive, high kick, or confounding synthesizer lick. We have to watch Leslie Nielsen squander one of his last fleeting moments as a serious dramatic actor awkwardly shimmying on the disco floor. Every disco song sounds disturbingly similar to an actually famous song, but none of them are entirely correct. I didn't think it was possible for music to exist in the Uncanny Valley, but here we are. Apparently, the scene was filmed with actual popular disco songs from the time, but the producers didn't want to pay for the rights, so music director Paul Zaza had five days to write and record sound-alikes that were different enough to avoid being sued. It didn't work. The production company was immediately sued by a couple record labels and they settled out of court for an amount that was probably greater than if they had just paid for the damn rights in the first place. I didn't have any particular hatred for disco going into this, but I sure did by the time this scene was over. "Oh, thank god!" I said aloud as the killer rolled a severed head out onto the dance floor and the music finally came to a halt.

"Prom Night" went on to have three sequels and the obligatory 2000s "gritty reboot", and it's often cited by horror aficionados as being the wellspring from whence many a horror trope has progressed. I'm not 100% on board with that assessment, since many of the particulars of this film have largely been abandoned by modern slashers. The movie uses a lot of camera and editing tricks to avoid the actual gore. The killer is very, very human and easily knocked on his ass by a decent punch. The "teenagers" are not largely snarky and quippy. The teen girl who decides to stay pure and NOT have sex is actually the FIRST one to die. "Prom Night" was considered a hit at the time (it grossed 10x its budget at the box office alone), but it was released at pretty much the same time as the original "Friday the 13th", which completely buried it in the cultural zeitgeist. I think of "Prom Night" less as a direct ancestor to modern slashers and more as an interesting move in a slightly different direction before the genre was codified into what we know today.

THINGS I LEARNED FROM THE DVD EXTRAS

Unfortunately, my copy of "Prom Night" came on a compilation disc entitled "10-MOVIE CONTEMPORARY CULT CLASSICS" and as such has no DVD extras. It is, however, accompanied almost entirely by the lesser sequels to iconic film franchises, like "Halloween: H20", "Hellraiser: Inferno", "Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror", "Dracula II: Ascension", and "Howling IV: The Original Nightmare".

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

Longtime follower here. You’ve gotten me curious about musicals but I don’t think I’ve ever watched one. Only thing close to a musical I’ve seen is ABBA (the film)? I did like that one (I do love ABBA) Does that count? Any recommendations for a newbie?

Oh, dear follower, you’ve unknowingly set me off.

The ABBA musical is Mamma Mia, a jukebox musical. I hate jukebox musicals. They’re cheap and lazy and appeal to the average person already knowing and liking the pre-written songs. I was just talking to one of my friends recently and he said he liked Mamma Mia, and I said, “No you don’t, you like ABBA.”

He thought about it and said, “…Oh yeah, you’re right. I thought the story was really stupid.”

The reason why jukebox musicals fail is because they’re pretty much antithetical to how a musical is supposed to work. In a good musical, each song is supposed to reveal something new about a character, move the plot forward, or both. A musical is an album telling a single story. Jukebox musicals inherently cannot do this, or at least not do it well, because the songs weren’t originally written to tell a larger story or be part of a character’s larger arc! Pop songs are always written to be standalone, so they cannot be squished together to tell a larger story in a coherent, well-thought-out way. The songs just weren’t designed for that. That’s why the stories of jukebox musicals are typically so threadbare and the songs are really forced.

I’m saying all of this to explain why I hate them lol, instead of giving a simplistic, “they’re not real musicals.” But they’re not, and that’s^ why. Even Queen has a jukebox musical, and I have no interest in it lol

So let’s talk about real musicals!

If you’ve never really sat down and watched one before, there are some I wouldn’t recommend right away, so let me see:

Sweeney Todd. It’s my favorite show of all time and one of the most complex musical scores in American theater. It’s dark, it’s sometimes comedic, it’s screwed up and presents everything in a very matter of fact way instead of an edgelord way. There are a lot of differences between the film and stage show—in summary, the film actually adapted the show into a movie while the stage show works as a Broadway show!—but I’m not going to go into all of that in this post. If it’s your first musical, watch the movie. It’s played much more straight and with faster pacing that makes it more accessible to a non-theater-going audience. This is a film about a man who returns to London after being wrongly imprisoned for 15 years and seeks revenge on the man who ruined his life, raped his wife, and stole his baby daughter, all the while his former landlady is in love with him and an accomplice to his serial killing, so be warned that the film is rated R. Bonus points for eventual implied cannibalism. Sweeney Todd is insane to talk about out of context lmao but trust me, give it a chance. It was written as a horror movie for the stage

Into the Woods. This is also by American theater god Stephen Sondheim, and yes there’s a movie, but it got the tone completely wrong. The entire Broadway production with the original cast is right on YouTube! It’s a satire on fairy tales, and it’s what happens when multiple fairy tale characters collide in pursuit of their wishes. Act One ends with happily ever after—and Act Two is when everything goes wrong and multiple people die! It’s a really funny show, but it’s genuinely moving and sad by the end. Like any good fairy tale, there’s a moral of the story. It’s among Sondheim’s greatest work.

Jesus Christ Superstar. This is by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. It’s a 1970s rock opera about the last week of Jesus’ life, heavily featuring Judas as a sympathetic character, a tortured soul. The 1973 film is the best version out there and there are many clips on YouTube. Listen: it’s a period piece. It’s hilariously, amazingly 1970s, but the music is genuinely great, it presents Christ as a troubled man and not a god, and Judas is a compelling character. Start with the song “Heaven on Their Minds” at the beginning of the show to see if you’re interested

Fiddler on the Roof. Oh man, this one gets me. The entire film is also on YouTube right now. It’s about a small, traditional Jewish village in Czarist Russia in about 1910, and centers around Tevye, a loud, devoutly religious man who believes in the Jewish traditions of his village, but has his ways directly challenged when his daughters each gradually step away from tradition with who they want to marry. There’s also political tensions with the Russian government growing gradually hostile to Jews, so the story is about a lot of things, a lot of different ways a person’s way of life, beliefs, and traditions are challenged in life. It’s another show that’s kind of hard to describe, but trust me, it’s a funny, beautiful, and well-written show and it makes me cry.

Hamilton. Yes, it really is that good. No, don’t listen to this insane website about it. It’s well-written, engaging, entertaining, and does highlight an important figure on American history while sending the message through the music and diverse casting that the story and founding “myth” of America is for everyone, even people who look very different from the way the actual Founding Fathers did, because one of the messages is that you have no control over who tells your story.

Les Misérables. It’s just a great story with a lot of universal themes, like oppression, poverty, faith, misery, unrequited love, rising up against corruption (and failing 🙃). It’s a long story in post-revolutionary France, but I think the movie tells it pretty coherently. The movie does have problems though, like Russel Crowe as Javert was a huge disappointment because that’s such a great part, but it might be the most accessible version of the show. I like the 10th anniversary concert a lot, but yeah, it’s in concert and not staged out like in an actual production

I’d say start with those and then get back to me if you want any more lol. If you have any questions, come back here