#Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

[imaxyxia2]

[tctmp]

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones: Directed by Christopher Landon. With Andrew Jacobs, Jorge Diaz, Gabrielle Walsh, Renee Victor. When a young man becomes the target of a malevolent entity, he must uncover its true intentions before it takes complete control of him.

[texaschainsawmascara]

Richard Cabral for Man About Town

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

SUMMARY: After their friend is found murdered, a group of highschoolers find themselves in the middle of haunting supernatural events, threatening to take one of them with a terrifying paranormal entity.

mod chris loves paranormal activity and will watch this one with joy.

[thevideodungeon]

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014)

What can I say, it's another Paranormal Activity movie. Aside from a change of location that feels like a transparent attempt to appeal to a different demographic, it's basically more of the same. I will say that this one has more actual story than the previous four combined, but it's just thrown at you in the same incoherent style that the series is known for. It's an unfortunate situation where if you have seen the other movies it just feels incredibly derivative of those, but if you haven't then the significance of most of the lore—and especially the ending—will be completely lost on you.

4/10

[kidsomeday]

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is about how white women feel they have the ownership of Brown and Black bodies in this essay I will

[bpdamandayoung]

the first paranormal activity movie was scary bc it had the "it could've happened to you. it still could happen to you. are you brave enough to sleep with the lights out? is your house yours or do you belong to this house or something so sinister you couldn't see it in your worst nightmare?" factor which was amazing. the second and third one took that fear off bc the haunting/possession was linked to a family BUT the fear was replaced with "what if your family was also fucked up and someone made a deal with demon but you was never aware of it because that's not exactly the thing you'd talk about during family dinners? what if you were cursed bc someone in my family was greedy enough to sacrifice you even before i was born?". the ghost dimension however lifted both of those fears off to replace it with "oooh scary dark shadow thing just hanging around in a very specific house linked directly to the first haunting/possession. the child is becoming possessed in such a way it could have been an early season supernatural episode. scary shadow thing and scary little girl in a white nightgown ooooooo so scary so terrifying are you shaking in your boots yet or is another jumpscare necessary?" which was well. pissing on the whole franchise with a movie with plot so dense yet so disconnected to the main storylines it could've been a standalone movie not linked to ANY horror movie franchise and that separation, in my opinion, could've saved the whole thing

[avnj0gia]

Hmmmmmm…

[wastedutil]

[horrorlamb]

The Franchise Files - Paranormal Activity - The Conclusion.

So after watching almost 9 hours of Paranormal Activity movies, what are my thoughts? Well, if we pretend Next of Kin doesn’t exist, this is a pretty decent franchise. We stick with the same cult/coven and demon throughout all 6 movies. We get new characters every time, but the overarching story stays the same. The story itself has a very clear beginning, middle and end. The films just weren’t…

[thanatoseyes]

I dunno about you but when I'm near a secluded community that starts doing violent animal sacrifices and I find a church full of blood. Idk. I'd get the hell out of there.

[fangedsatyr]

hi work was rough but i cried abt it to salem and im fine now

[lilianade-comics]

Stolen Sanguine World-Building Dump

@taptrial2 asked and ye shall receive. What follows is a mass information pit for my Vlad Cleavage AU Danny Phantom vampire AU, Stolen Sanguine. This post will just be about world-building, the storyline will be covered separately.

The time period and culture influences are deliberately vague, but it's pseudo-Victorian, pseudo-fantasy, pseudo-pre Industrial Rev with no consistent clothing styles beyond the vampires being obnoxiously slutty.

Vampires live among humans and the ones that live the longest and thrive the most are the rich and powerful, highly immoral ones. Common people who are turned and not willing to become gluttonous murderers are usually swiftly dispatched by hunters. Being turned involves intent on the part of the vampire, and venom is the agent. New vampires are not common or accidental (unless you're Danny) because in general vampires like the status quo and creating more competition for territory isn't in anyone's best interest. Vampire on vampire murders aren't common for the same reasons. Vlad, however, is an insane little freak and has killed his own kind before. To drastically paraphrase one notable instance is Aragon, who once decided he'd pick on the new guy in town by kidnapping his four year old and turning her into his vampire bride. Vlad stabbed Aragon about three dozen times, recovered Dani safe and sound, and no one has bothered them since.

Society is entering an era where the general populace at large is becoming more collectively aware of the existence of vampires and other paranormal folk and it's more difficult to work in the shadows than it used to be. Hunters are becoming more mainstream, and while vampires have always placed emphasis on securing wealth and power, it's now more critical to have those societal protections in place.

Generally speaking, vampires are almost exclusively loners and not social with each other. This is mostly because every vampire believes that other vampires are insufferable, and they are the singular delightful exception. Penelope Spectra, Vlad's neighbor and ally, is an outlier, as she is very social for a vampire and often holds parties. She herself lives with Bertrand, whom she turned some years ago.

The vampiric power system revolves around blood. By consuming human blood, vampires regularly renew their immortality and their enhanced strength and healing. Vampiric blood itself is also endowed with certain powers, as it remains tied to the soul of the vampire even after it leaves their body. There's a culture of blood jewelry given as gifts to favorite thralls as a mark of ownership.

To say vampires merely consume blood is to ignore the whole reality. It's not just the blood, it's what the blood contains, that is, the vitality or life of the individual. Every time a vampire feeds off of someone they consume a bit of that person's life and soul. It's an active parasitic relationship that brings only misery to the consumed. Animal blood will keep a vampire alive, but it won't grant them the powers they rely on and it won't fully satisfy their hunger. Danny is doing his best, but he's basically starving himself.

A human that a vampire frequently feeds on turns into a thrall. Thralls are sickly, clingy and basically brainwashed into being willing juice boxes. You don't want to become one. Some vampires will keep them in their houses because it's very convenient. Vlad has his blood supply imported, because he's got a daughter to think of.

Vampiric weaknesses include sunlight, which burns them, and the need to be invited into dwellings or suffer the loss of their powers. There are ways to circumvent both weaknesses, however, and Vlad has found ways around both during his years of experimentation. The only way to kill a vampire is to destroy their heart, so the classic wooden stake is the weapon of choice for hunters. Jack and Maddie are particularly creative with their weaponry, though.

The GIW exist here, as a sort of white-tunic wearing anti-vampire cult/organization. Their designs are pending further thought, because white robes and hoods have some unfortunate connotations I'd prefer to avoid.

Werewolves and dragons exist here, but they're mostly mentioned in passing and also because I think it would be amusing if Danielle tried to date a werewolf prince while Vlad makes semi-serious plans to turn the poor boy into a rug if the relationship goes awry.

There is a Vampire King, but he's been sealed away in eternal slumber because he's more trouble than he's worth. Vampires will go through long periods of sleep every so often if things are going poorly for them, and it usually involves a coffin and a hidden crypt. They are of course, nocturnal beings, but they don't have to sleep as much as humans and Vlad is committed to raising Danielle diurnally. This causes some problems for him, but he's extremely stubborn and refuses to let the sun get between him and his daughter.

Other vampires consider Vlad to be completely out of his mind after the unfortunate Aragon incident. It's not normal to adopt your lunch. Spectra thinks Vlad's obvious mental illness is very attractive and she likes watching him kill people.

Vlad lived in a proper spooky castle before acquiring Danielle, but after he fled Jack and Maddie he moved extremely far away and settled into a smaller but no less creepy manor outside of a small rural village. Danielle is by no means forbidden from visiting the village and Vlad encourages the townsfolk to allow their children to befriend/suck up to her on a regular basis. Sometimes this involves blatant extortion, such as the time Vlad forcibly invited (kidnapped) a select handful of children and their trembling mothers to attend Danielle's birthday party.

Vlad likes to gaslight the people living in the village outside of his manor. They're all 95% sure he's a vampire, because he certainly couldn't look or act any more like one, but Vlad vehemently denies it. Danielle is accustomed to doing the same, and in reality she is actually the most compelling evidence that Vlad ISN'T a vampire. Because what vampire has a happy, healthy, bite-wound free child in their care?

[tanadrin]

Revised version of "polytheism vs elaborateness" religion chart. I started with a list of around 150 religions, sects, denominations, philosophies, and spiritual tendencies, whittled down to 100 based on what I could find information on and what meaningful differences would actually show up in a chart like this. Dark blue is Christianity and Christian-derived tendencies; light blue is Judaism and Jewish-derived tendencies; green is Islam and Islam-influenced tendencies; purple is ancient Mediterranean polytheism and related schools of thought; red is Dharmic/Hindu-influenced schools of thought; tan is Chinese religion and philosophy; orange is new religious movements; black is other, unaffiliated religions and movements.

Obviously, "what is a religion" is a complicated topic. Some of the things on this chart might strike you more as philosophical schools (Carvaka, Stoicism), epistemological approaches (Unitarian Universalism), or different ways of slicing the same tradition. The scholarly definition of "religion" is sort of fundamentally circular, and that's not something I'm interested in trying to untangle for this entirely non-scientific exercise.

Religions etc. are scored on two axis: polytheism vs elaborateness of practice. Polytheism is a rank from zero to 11, thus:

0. Strict atheist and materialist, denying the possibility of both gods and the supernatural, e.g., Carvaka.

1. Atheist. Denies the existence of significant supernatural agents worthy of worship, but may not deny all supernatural (or psychic, paranormal, etc.) beings and phenomena (e.g., Mimamsa).

2. Agnostic. This religion makes no dogmatic claims about the existence of supernatural beings worthy of worship, and it may not matter for this religion if such beings exist (e.g., Unitarian Universalists). It does not preclude--and may actually incorporate--other supernatural, psychic, or paranormal phenomena (e.g., Scientology).

3. Deist. This religion acknowledges at least one god or Supreme Being, but rejects this being's active intervention in the world after its creation (e.g., Christian Deism). Deism is marked with a gray line on the chart, in case you want to distinguish religions that specifically care about all this God business from ones that don't.

4. Tawhid monotheist. This religion acknowledges only a single transcendent god above all other natural or supernatural beings, who is usually the creator of the universe and the ground of being, and is without parts, division, or internal distinction (e.g., Islam).

5. Formal monotheism. This religion acknowledges a single god, usually transcendent above all other natural or supernatural beings, but who may have aspects, hypostases, or distinct parts (e.g., Trinitarian Christianity). Pantheism may be considered a special case of formal monotheism that identifies the universe and its many discrete phenomena with a single god or divine force.

6. Dualism. This religion acknowledges a single god worthy of worship, alongside a second inferior, often malevolent being that nevertheless wields great power in or over the world (e.g., Zoroastrianism or Gnosticism).

7. Monolatrist. This religion or practice acknowledges the existence of many gods or divine beings worthy of worship, but focuses on, or happens to be devoted to only one of them (e.g., ancient mystery cults; pre-exilic Judaism).

8. Oligotheist. This religion worships a small group of divine beings, who may function for devotional or rhetorical purposes as a single entity (e.g., Mormonism, Smartism).

9. Monogenic polytheism/Henotheism. This religion worships many gods, which it sees as proceeding from or owing their existence to, a single underlying or overarching force or supreme god (e.g., many forms of Hinduism).

10. Heterogenic polytheism. This religion worships many gods, who have diverse origins and/or natures. Though the number of gods is in practical terms probably unlimited, gods are discrete entities or personalities, i.e., they are "countably infinite" (e.g., many polytheistic traditions).

11. Animism. This religion worships many gods which may or may not be discrete entities, and which may or may not be innumerable even in principle, i.e., they are "uncountably infinite" (e.g., many animist traditions).

What counts as a god is naturally a bit of a judgement call, as is exactly where a religion falls on this scale.

Elaborateness of practice is based on assigning one point per feature from the following list of features:

Uses vs forbids accompanied music in worship

Saints or intermediary beings accept prayers/devotion

Liturgical calendar with specific rituals or festivals

Practices monasticism

Venerates relics or holy objects

Clerics have special, elaborate clothing

Clerics have special qualificiations, e.g., must be celibate or must go through elaborate initiation/training

Elaborate sacred art or architecture used in places of worship

Sites of pilgrimage, or other form of cult centralization

Sophisticated religious hierarchy beyond the congregational level

Mandatory periods of fasting and/or complex dietary rules

Specific clothing requirements for laypeople

Specific body modifications either required or forbidden for laypeople

Liturgical language

Complex ritual purity rules

Performs sacrifice

Performs human sacrifice (or cannibalism)

Uses entheogens

Uses meditation or engages in mystical practice

Additionally, a point is taken away for austerity for each of the following features:

Forbids secular music outside worship

Claims sola scriptura tradition

Practices pacifism or ahimsa

Requires vegetarianism of all adherents

These scores are probably pretty inexact, since I am not a scholar of world religion.

This chart is not scientific, it's just a goof based on that @apricops post.

Other fun dimensions along which to chart religions might be:

Orthodoxy vs orthopraxy

Authoritarianism/control of members. This would add some much needed distinctions to Christian sects in particular, and to the new religious movements.

Elaborateness of cosmological claims. Some religions (looking at you, Buddhism) really go hog-wild here.

Social egalitarianism. Even within the same framework/tradition/philosophy, some practices differ radically on how egalitarian they are.

[blue-sadie]

Love Even In Death

Halloween Special

Colby Brock x Ghost Reader

Summary: the story of a haunted school in the eye of a ghost, the investigators being the new owners which some ghost might not like

Warning: murder (described)

Yn/2nd person pov

You've seen the paranormal explorers come and go, none of them ever intriguing you, Farrar school has been your home for quite some time now since 1927 the day you came to pick up your baby sister and you were both killed there, she moved on while you were stuck here.

Your case was closed and said to be unsolvable no evidence or leads so the police said but the other ghosts know it all, they saw the male teacher hit you over the head with a metal pipe, they saw how he dragged you and your sister as she struggled all the way down to the boiler room.

They saw how he strangled your sister to death and tied you against the boiler, they saw the sick things he did before leaving you there, they watched as you sobbed for your sister and how you screamed in agony as your body burned against the boiler, they saw as you died from the pain You and your sisters body were only found 2 weeks later.

You kept to yourself not bothering any of the others especially the principal, you've never seen him and you never bothered to look, you heard enough of the other ghosts whisper of how horrifying his is and you don't want to be around men in general.

Since the day of your death your body would shake whenever your around them, goosebumps would raise upon your skin and your breath would cut short, the others felt almost sorry for you but their stories weren't any better.

"Welcome guys to HELLS WEEK" I rolled my eyes as I heard male voices down the hall I watched as the little children went to go see our new visitors they were always exciting to make new friends but they would get all sad when they leave.

"Are you gonna come with us to meet them" my eyes turned to Lilian a young former student at the school I smiled slightly as I looked at her, she had strawberry blonde hair that was slightly frazzled her skin pale but clear except for around the neck which held marks of her death.

I leaned down to her level raising my hand and tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear "you know I won't but you have so much fun Lilian" I murmured making her slightly huff and pout out her lip "but it will be different this time I can feel lit" I smiled at her whines.

"It might but you go ahead" I said she smiled at me before running off down the hall I waited for a bit trying to hear their conversation but I was too far I soon gave up and walked down the hall into whichever classroom I found first.

The three explorers came and went into every single room looking around and talking they all looked the same to me but there was one that caught my attention his dark hair and blue eyes just mesmerized me he felt different.

"Ok guys we're about to go head down to the boiler, Colby and I will start there looking for activity" his blonde haired friend said as he placed his hand onto Colby's shoulder "Colby" I said to myself.

I followed them down the stairs almost against my will, my body moved on it's own, I was following them just behind the group of kids following them Lilian joined me by walking beside me "they said their the new owners, I don't think he'd like that" my gaze turned to her as she spoke her eyes where fixed to the explorers.

I knew who she was referring to "he'll hurt them" she paused as she looked up to me "like he did to the others" I grabbed her hand and slightly squeezed it as reassurance as we continued down as soon as we reached the room I stopped at the doorframe not daring to go further.

"this place just feels terrible this room in particular" Colby muttered taking a seat in one of the abandoned chairs, I watched as they started trying different methods, the kids playing with them and only answering every few minutes and they laugh at their reactions.

I was enjoying myself until I heard the nearing footsteps from behind me, a shiver ran down my back "hide" I muttered for everyone to hear me "hide hide" I said moving into the room ushering everyone into different spots as i dragged along Lilian with me and at the end pushed her into a hiding spot before finding my own "run" I shouted loud enough for the monitor to hear me the boys looked shocked.

"Hes coming"