#Stephen King based horror movies are usually the only ones that can actually get a scream out of me

[shivering-isles-cryptid]

Just remembered my first horror movie. It was the first scream and I watched it when I was 3.

The first horror movie to actually scare me was the OG Child’s Play when I was 7.

The first horror movie I watched on my own volition, without someone putting it in and making me watch, was Ouija

I’m still terrified of Chucky, I find serial killers ridiculous, and demons are a hobby.

No

(When I say I’m scared of Chucky, I mean OG Chucky. The current movies made him a little bitch, and the remake of Childs Play where he’s a robot/ai thing is just weird.)

[ranaged]

Why Are There No Great Authors Anymore?

Ah, yes, I can hear the hissing already!

‘No great authors!?  What about Some Guy, who wrote The Blahbity?  And how dare you denigrate Blahs Before Blah, the masterpiece series conjured up by the wits and exquisite grace of Some Lady, author and voice of the 21st century!’

Indeed, I hear your acid-toned responses and can feel the scorching wind jutting off from eyelids created by a sea of hard eye-rolls, so let me just begin my essay by defining what I mean by the word ‘great’.

Yes, there are many, many talented writers, authors, and journalists who live and breathe and type today; I’m not disputing this in any way.  JK Rowling is an actual billionaire (Nasdaq), James Patterson is worth $800 million (Nasdaq), and Stephen King has made around $500 million (Nasdaq).  Whether we agree or disagree that the previous authors are talented or not, it is hard to dispute that they are very successful ones.

But, again, I sense your lamentations.

‘Oh, so your version of so-called talent and greatness in writing rests upon an author ascending to the heights of meteoric financial stratospheres?!’

Awesome word choices in your rebukes, but no!

Saying the richest authors are the greatest authors is like saying the childish and god awful superhero remake/reimagining/retelling/rewhythefuckareyoupeoplemakingthiscrap movies of the last 15 years are the greatest movies of all time, based on their achieving the highest ever box office totals.  Only an individual whose brain has been deprived of oxygen for longer than five minutes would make that argument.

So, establishing my point that financial success is not necessarily to be equated with ‘greatness’, just what is greatness in a literary capacity?

One final point I must denote here before going on is that the lack of today’s great writers has nothing to do with the general public.  Although people tend to read less today than they used to, it is also true that not many folks read Herman Melville’s Moby Dick when it first came out before he was forgotten until being rediscovered in the 1930s, but does that take away anything from the book that justly may be called the definitive ��Great American Novel’?  No, unlike a nation producing garbage politicians (which is a direct result of the electorate), the audience is not responsible for an author’s creation.

Therefore, I humbly submit here that there are only two distinct markers for true authorial greatness: (1)inventors of new genres that spawn imitators or originators of new styles of writing and (2) remarkable chroniclers that document their time, space, and community’s zeitgeist in a fictional format.

Now, it may be accurately argued that these two distinctions are usually linked together, but they do not necessarily need to be so.  For example, without getting into a pissing match about the particulars, the great Edgar Allan Poe has been credited with creating the detective story and modernizing horror for the 19th century, as has the brilliant but bizarre H.P. Lovecraft has been credited with modernizing horror for the 20th century.  Although I declare that both of these authors are deserving of the title ‘great’, I think their greatness stems from their abilities to create new tropes and genres that are not relegated to their times; their stories and ideas can easily be transported into modern settings without losing any of their potency.  Does The Tell-Tale Heart really need to be set in the mid-1800s in order to breed the claustrophobic guilt rendered by the story’s protagonist?  Of course not.

No, creating a new genre, like science fiction or surrealism or New Journalism, is exceedingly rare and requires an author to possess a talent beyond once-in-a-generation; perhaps more akin to talent once-every-other-century.  Without Christopher Columbus’ existence, the European rediscovery of the Americas would have still happened, eventually.  However, can the same be said about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (a true original to both horror and science fiction) or the collected works of Shakespeare (a true original, which basically everything ‘new’ written since The Great Bard stems from)?  Possible but certainly not probable.

Okay, and what about the invention of new styles of writing?

There have been no new creations in this capacity to occur (worth mentioning) in the 21st century, and only a small handful to take place in the 20th century.

Although I genuinely like James Joyce’s short stories, I utterly despise his stream of conscious claptrap tomes, like Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake, and have been physically angered by reading William Faulkner’s The Sound and The Fury.  Theirs was indeed a new style of writing, and while I may beg to differ and argue that these works are literal garbage, I cannot disagree on the impact they have had upon the literary world, for better or worse.

More agreeable to my reading tastes is Ernest Hemingway’s innovative and potent short sentences and period riddled novels, which stands in stark contrast to many (but not all) writers of the 19th and early-20th centuries, with their flowery prose and often beating-around-the-bush descriptions.  For God’s sake, Flaubert could spend 20 pages describing the architecture of a room!

That leaves us with the documentation of the spirit of an age, which is more reliable but even less out of the grasping hands of an author to be able to ‘invent’.  No writer has ever ‘changed’ the world, but brilliant writers have recorded these changes and transmogrified human experience into the collective ether in a way that other folks who may also have lived through the changes but could not perhaps describe in words. 

It is rather unfortunate that worlds need to end, nations need to be revolutionized, or terrible calamities need to occur in order for true changes to take place in a society, in a set time, in order for a great writer to be born.

Miguel de Cervantes wrote what is regarded as the first novel, Don Quixote, in the spirit of the new Enlightenment period looking back and commentating upon the passing of the feudal medieval ages, the death of chivalrous knights of old.  With the birth of new ideas concerning science, art, religion, etc, the world of the early 17th century was conducive to a writing genius of Cervantes’ caliber.  He created the character of Don Quixote, but he did not invent the age and social mores in which he lived.  Much like a fish in water, even the greatest writers are relegated to swimming in the currents into which they are born.

When pondering terrific changes to a society, consider further the historic event known as the Dust Bowl of America.  What comes to your mind when considering this topic?  The Great Depression, so-called Okies from Oklahoma migrating to California, and…..yes, The Grapes of Wrath by the great John Steinbeck!  Steinbeck, himself native to California, spent several years writing about and interviewing the newcomers in their migrant camps and makeshift tents, and wrote several highly acclaimed newspaper articles in the few years preceding the publication of The Grapes of Wrath.  Again, Steinbeck was an author accidentally born into his time and place, with no personal control over what was transforming American society in that moment, but who nonetheless wrote the definitive fictional account of a major historical event as it was occurring.

In this spirit, I finally pose the question: why are there no more great authors?  Can you honestly imagine taking any random author from today, transporting them into 1930s civil war-era Spain, and expect to read a novel as powerful as Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls?

To highlight this, I want to quote the very good writer (but is he great?  Hmm), Tom Wolfe, with regards to what was happening in America in the 1960s (Esquire):

“I wrote The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and then waited for the novels that I was sure would come pouring out of the psychedelic experience ... but they never came forth, either. I learned later that publishers had been waiting, too. They had been practically crying for novels by the new writers who must be out there somewhere, the new writers who would do the big novels of the hippie life or campus life or radical movements or the war in Vietnam or dope or sex or black militancy or encounter groups or the whole whirlpool all at once. They waited, and all they got was the Prince of Alienation ... sailing off to Lonesome Island on his Tarot boat with his back turned and his Timeless cape on, reeking of camphor balls.”

Mr. Wolf’s point was that the novelists of sixty years ago, instead of documenting the spirit of change in their age, retreated into their minds with pseudo-new renderings of works that, although there are many that are good, none are in fact great.

Since then, where are the great novels considering technology’s impact on human society, not counting the realm of science fiction?  Where is the grand work that depicted the impact 9/11 and other terrorist attacks have had upon Western societies?  In 2024, we live in an age when freedom of speech is constantly under attack, but are we to be satisfied with Orwell's brilliant 1984, with no new commentary warranted for the updated 21st century?  And does anyone really think that at some point in the future an author is going to write an incredible fictional account of the ongoing Ukraine war?

No one can argue against great changes having occurred in the 21st century, so where are the great novels?  It is not for lack of talent.  Therefore, one is left with the uneasy feeling that authors today are not unable but perhaps unwilling to write a truly compelling account of the times in which we live in. Hey, but who can also argue against the fact that books about a boy in a wizard hat, an attorney not willing to sell-out her client, or an icky clown being scary sure do sell a hell of a lot of books, though, no?

This was originally published on ranaged.com

[advrik]

Books of the Year | 2022 Edition

I read a lot of books this year. Way more than on average. Partially thanks to a sudden overwhelming interest in the body horror genre, which I CAN link back to John Carpenter's 'The Thing' as being my favorite horror movie. I just love the concept of microscopic terrors getting into the living and turning them into horrific monstrosities.

As of the time of the first draft of this post (12.5), I had read a total of 15 books this year, with the 16th less than a hundred pages away from wrapping up. And while I don't think I'll be edging any more in that would make this list, I felt comfortable in compiling my thoughts of my Top Five for the year 2022.

#5

I had the Kingkiller books recommended to me multiple times throughout the years, but I just never got around to it until a co-worker gave me a few books that she didn't want anymore, one of which was the sequel and the novella. This had finally sparked the fire beneath me and I went out and bought The Name of the Wind shortly after.

And you know what? It is absolutely a must-read for fantasy fans. Heck, the school and emphasis on social links should put it on Persona fans' radars as well.

Rothfuss is a word wizard. The way that he writes is, to be frank, beautiful. Many times did I find myself re-reading whole pages just to fully absorb what he had written.

#4

I ended up picking up several books that were recommended to me based on my interest in parasitic-induced body horror. Most were good at best, while the rest were absolute filth (Scott Sigler and his Infected trilogy), it was Nick Cutter's 'The Troop' that stood out amongst the gross-out horror selection this year.

What Cutter delivered here was something very much akin to a Stephen King production, only it came at you much quicker than some of the long-winded tomes that King puts out. The violence was intense, the gore plentiful and the story fast-paced.

Without spoiling it, the interlude chapter that gave some background on the whole mess, the infected chimp and the following documentation of its horrific death from the second it was infected to the second it breathed its last breath was the type of horror that I had been looking for and will continue to look for.

Needless to say, however, if you are squeamish and/or are sensitive to violence against animals, steer clear of this one.

#3

If you're a creature-feature fanatic like myself, you've likely read one of Hunter Shea's books and you either loved it or you hated it.

I personally love his work as it's fast-paced, violent, and filled with cryptids.

But if you're of the latter and have not found much enjoyment in Shea's bread and butter, I suggest picking up 'Creature'. Now I'm not going to lie and say that it doesn't have any of the quality and monstrous charm that Shea is known for, but it IS a different beast from his normal output and one that DEFINITELY is not for the squeamish as the main character deals with a very real auto-immune disease that results in some horrific descriptions that had me clenching up on numerous occasions.

You really do end up feeling for the protag in this, you sympathize with her husband and can't help but commend his dedication to her. That's pure love, man, which was EXTREMELY refreshing to see in a book like this.

But again going back to the torture porn aspect of the book, the actual monster is hardly the most gruesome aspect of the book, and that is absolutely saying something when it's a Hunter Shea book.

#2

For years I've dreamed of a piece of zombie fiction that not only detailed the very chaotic beginnings of a zombie apocalypse in a realistic manner but also followed through to the very end while showing the collapse of the planet in between.

And The Living Dead delivered on that in more ways than I had imagined.

Now why The Living Dead is so high up on the list (It was originally #1) is because it's the Romero brand of zombie story; It has all his usual criticism of society at play, from consumerism to political and racial strife. It's all here and presented in a way that any fan of the Romero zombie flicks could immediately pick out. And for the real eagle-eyed reader and film connoisseur, there are references to particular places and events from the movies, though they are by no means pivotal to the stories being told within the book.

By the time the final pages flash by my eyes, I felt complete. That the story that George Romero started in Night of the Living Dead had finally seen a conclusion, even though it occurred years after his death. I was very much satisfied with how the ending came about, and just about every eventual happening along the way.

Honorable Mention:

The Shadow Glass from Josh Winning was a SUBSTANTIAL surprise to me when I stumbled across it while browsing the shelves at Barnes & Noble. It was accompanied by one of their hand-written placards that said "For fans of 80s dark fantasy like The Dark Crystal and The Labyrinth", and since The Dark Crystal is one of my favorite movies, period, I snatched the book up and began reading it before I even got out of the store.

#1

Oh boy. I was not prepared for this in the slightest.

I had this book recommended to me based on a request for Final Fantasy-like novels, and man did it deliver in spades on that front.

The Band, Book 1 is what I imagined the offspring would look like if Final Fantasy and Monty Python's Holy Grail had a child that grew up listening to rock & roll music from the 1960s and 1970s.

The characters are all extremely loveable despite being jaded middle-aged men. The fantasy elements more than makeup for the greater lack of it in modern fantasy following A Song of Ice and Fire's rise to popularity. Magic is plentiful, and monsters are everywhere, in every shape and size. There's no skimping on the fantasy elements at all, and I think that even before the hilarious dialogue and actions of the main band, were what kept me reading.

When I read epic fantasy, I want fantasy. Political strife is fine, but if that's ALL I'm going to be offered with the occasional reference to a dragon or some other common fantasy beastie, then you're not writing a book for fantasy readers. At least, that's how I feel about it. Warring kings are no different to me than a book/movie set in the modern day where two countries at going at each other's throats. It's not interesting, particularly BECAUSE it's constantly happening in the real world, and I read fantasy to escape this nonsense, not indulge in it.

And Nicholas Eames understands that.

I really was not expecting to read such a heavy hitter so deep into the year, but I'm glad I did because I can't stop thinking about the world within, nor can I wait to read the second (and eventual third!) book.

[awesomephd]

Watching Through My Collection: Day 4/36

Dreamcatcher (2003)

Day 3 / Day 5

TOILET WORM! TOILET WORM! TOILET WORM!

I'm pretty sure this was one of those movies I had seen a single scene from on TV at some point, and it was specifically and only the part with them catching one of the alien worms in a toilet, so that's all I knew about it going in.

As well as the usual Stephen King tropes.

CW: The magical disabled person trope

So if you grow up in Derry, Maine you either get hunted for food by an evil alien entity or you get cool psychic superpowers from a benevolent alien entity disguised as a mentally disabled kid. Either way, you'll be bonded for life and have to fight an alien as an adult, and also the one with glasses gets to say all the funny lines and has just so much tboy swag.

This was a really fun sci-fi horror movie with a lot of the fun banter between the characters as one can always look forward to from Stephen King.

It helps also having some faces I'm always happy to see. Timothy Olyphant, Jason Lee, and Morgan Freeman are all names I was pleasantly surprised to see in the opening credits. Damian Lewis, who plays Jonesy and carries a lot of the most direct conflict of the movie, adds a lot of charm too.

He looks at a man called Beaver like he's the prettiest girl in school I swear.

Unfortunately, despite Morgan Freeman putting his whole pussy into playing the ruthless military commander, the subplot involving the military was extremely boring. It made the movie feel like just another sci-fi action movie like Independence Day. It just didn't have nearly as interesting character interactions and a lot of the exposition they spout in the army base scenes feels redundant because we've already been shown more than enough about how the aliens work in action against the main group of guys.

I'm already afraid of these things and don't want them getting out into society. If you wanna explore some more stuff about the ruthless leader not caring about how many people he kills to get rid of the aliens, maybe show more people to remind the audience this isn't a secluded event? I think I saw like 7 people in the present day setting that weren't the main group or military personnel.

But around the weird army stuff, the actual interesting character moments and fun make up the majority of the movie.

My only regret is Beaver dying as early as he did to a penis with a vagina-mouth full of teeth.

[ghostflowerdreams]

Ghosts Films

It’s October! The month in which I watch even more horror movies than usual. Each year I tend to have a theme to help narrow down what to watch. So far I’ve done Zombie Films, Werewolf Films, Vampire Films and Slasher Films. This year’s theme will be the paranormal, specifically Ghosts.

The thing about me is that I’m not really phase by a lot of horror movies. They don’t scare me unless it’s a stupid jump scare which is more of a knee-jerk reaction of something unexpected. But the very few movies that have manage to get to me are those centered around hauntings. Even worst if they’re base on a true story.

I’m pretty excited to dive into this since I’m usually reluctant to watch them in the first place. I’m focusing only on films that I haven’t ever seen before, even if they’ll been out for years. This isn’t in any particular order either.

1408 (2007) -- is an American psychological horror film based on Stephen King's 1999 short story of the same name. It is directed by Mikael Håfström and stars John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. The film follows Mike Enslin, an author who investigates allegedly haunted houses and rents the titular room 1408 at a New York City hotel. Although skeptical of the paranormal, he is soon trapped in the room where he experiences bizarre events.

It's a simple, but an effective thriller and this horror is definitely more psychological than scary. I enjoyed it and thought it was a neat concept because it does something different than the usual ‘oh, look it’s a scary ghost’ that most horror movies do.

The Innkeepers (2011) -- is an American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Ti West. It stars Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, and Kelly McGillis. Its plot follows two employees at the Yankee Pedlar Inn who, during its last weekend of operations, attempt to document the alleged supernatural activity in the building.

It’s fine. I like the atmosphere, but it’s very slow paced and the horror is too low key for me to find it all that scary. It is nice to see a film that isn’t all about gore, special effects, and trying to scare you constantly, but it’s just not for me. Some people may like this. Just beware that there is a few loud-noise jump scares if you’re using headphones or earphones. I really hated it when the audio unexpectedly gets loud enough to cause physical discomfort.

The Canal (2014) -- is an Irish horror film that was directed and written by Ivan Kavanagh. The film stars Rupert Evans as a father investigating a horrific murder that took place in his home in the early 1900s.

It’s okay, nothing groundbreaking though. I liked the pacing and the atmosphere, but I found it very predictable. That’s because there's only so many directions that a horror film like this can go in. Is it an evil entity possession? Mental illness? Is it an actual monster or person behind it?

Even if It’s predictable, if the story is done well enough it should leave you with a sense of dread and goosebumps at not knowing for sure which is it. Unfortunely, this film didn’t invoke any dread, goosebumps or fear in me. It’s just an okay film.

Don’t Listen (2020) -- is also known as Voces is a Spanish supernatural horror film directed by Ángel Gómez Hernández. The movie follows a man who after the inexplicable death of his young son in their new home begins to experience ghostly phenomena, prompting him to seek the help of a paranormal expert.

Well, there’s two reasons I picked this movie. I want to expand my horror palette by watching more foreign movies. And I’m also trying to learn Spanish. I’m happy to report that I was able to understand half of it without relying too much on the English subtitles.

It’s good, but it didn’t scare me. I went into this expecting one thing and it turned out to be something else. That’s not a bad thing. I just don’t know whether to still include this in the list or not. I suppose me saying that is a hint in itself that’s not entire what you think it is..

Also, as a heads up because it caught me off guard. There’s several cats seen dead. You don’t see how it happens, just that they’re all hanging gruesomely from a tree around the 53 minute mark.

We Are Still Here (2015) -- is an American horror film written and directed by Ted Geoghegan and starring Andrew Sensenig and Barbara Crampton as grieving parents who find themselves the focus of an attack by vengeful spirits.

It’s great! The film didn’t waste any time and dive right into the spooks. It’s not scary for me, but it was still fun and entertaining to watch.

Housebound (2014) -- is a New Zealand horror comedy film written, edited, and directed by Gerard Johnstone. It is his feature film directorial debut. The film stars Morgana O'Reilly as a woman sentenced to house arrest in a potentially haunted house.

It’s great! It’s a perfect mixed of horror and comedy. I had fun watching it and would definitely recommend, especially when you want something that’s not so heavy on the horror.

The Devil's Backbone (2001) -- is also known as El Espinazo del Diablo is a Spanish gothic horror film directed by Guillermo del Toro, and written by del Toro, David Muñoz, and Antonio Trashorras. The film is set in Spain, 1939, during the final year of the Spanish Civil War.

After losing his father, 10-year-old Carlos arrives at the Santa Lucia School, which shelters orphans of the Republican militia and politicians, and is taken in by the steely headmistress, Carmen, and the kindly professor, Casares. Soon after his arrival, Carlos has a run-in with the violent caretaker, Jacinto. Gradually, Carlos uncovers the secrets of the school, including the youthful ghost that wanders the grounds.

It’s more sad than frightening. Sure, it’s advertise as a horror movie, but it’s actually a melodrama. There’s still ghost(s), but they’re not the main focus point. I’ve heard that this film is a spiritual companion piece to his Oscar-winning Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and I can see why. 

It shares similar themes and is also set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, a brutal conflict that turned ordinary men into monsters. The Devil’s Backbone is great, but I prefer Pan’s Labyrinth a whole lot more because I feel like it goes to a another level.

The Cellar (2022) -- is an Irish-Belgian supernatural horror film written and directed by Brendan Muldowney and starring Elisha Cuthbert and Eoin Macken. It follows a family whose daughter disappears in the cellar of the large estate they have just moved into.

I enjoyed it! At first I thought it was going be a typical haunted house story with maybe a demonic possession thrown in. But no, it pleasantly surprised me by going in another direction and I wasn’t expecting it at all: cosmic horror.

When it hit that point, it got me so excited and I was like yiss. I wanna know more. Some of my excitement fizzed out when the other layer was revealed, but not enough to ruin the whole thing.

I’m surprised there aren’t more people talking about this movie. So I looked it up and I don’t know why the critics are being so harsh on it with their ratings and reviews. It’s not 2-stars or trash. I’ve seen terrible films and this isn’t it. It’s not perfect. There are some parts that could’ve have been trimmed down, removed or improved upon, but for being filmed during COVID, in which wearing mask, social distancing and quarantine was in full effect, it turned out pretty decent.

Give the film some slack. They made do with the situation, their low-budget and time constraints. Oh, I didn’t find it scary, but I still enjoyed it. It’s not everyday I get surprised with elements of cosmic horror in a film.

His House (2020) -- is an British horror thriller film written and directed by Remi Weekes from a story by Felicity Evans and Toby Venables. It stars Wunmi Mosaku, Sope Dirisu and Matt Smith. The film tells the story of a refugee couple from South Sudan, struggling to adjust to their new life in an English town that has an evil lurking beneath the surface.

It’s definitely not a 'scary' movie by any means, but it effectively uses elements of horror. I still very much enjoyed it! It’s a multi-layered horror film that’s not just about a haunted house. It takes you on an interesting journey about grief, guilt, immigrant experience and the on-going refugee crisis. It’s a really well-done film and with great performances from Mosaku and Dirisu. I would recommend!

The Haunting in Connecticut (2009) -- is an American supernatural horror film produced by Gold Circle Films and directed by Peter Cornwell. The film is alleged to be about Carmen Snedeker and her family, though Ray Garton, author of In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting (1992), has publicly distanced himself from the accuracy of the events he depicted in the book.

The film's story follows the fictional Campbells as they move into a house (a former mortuary) to mitigate the strains of travel on their cancer-stricken son, Matt. The family soon becomes haunted by violent and traumatic events from supernatural forces occupying the house.

Eh, it’s okay. Throughout the entire movie I kept getting the sense that it was familiar. I was drawing a blank, but it wasn’t until halfway into movie that I remembered it.

This is the problem with including older movies onto my watch list and not keeping track of what I’ve seen already. If it's terrible, boring, or doesn’t bring something new to the genre. I will forget it.

Also, this is one of those movies where you have to constantly adjust the volume. I really hate it when the dialogue is super low, so you increase it only for the loud jump scare noise to nearly blast your ears out.

Note: What’s interesting is I went into this thinking I’m going to be scared, only to realize that none of these movies have managed to do so. I don’t know if it’s because I got a higher tolerance to spooky things now or if it’s because I’ve seen everything and it’s hard to be scared of something when you know what’s going to happen next (or can correctly predict it).

[popculturebuffet]

Reviews: The Stand: Captain Trips

Halloween Havoc rambles on!  I decided to read a Stephen King Classic via it’s comic book adaptation from Marvel Knights 4 and Afterlife with Archie scribe and future Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sarcasa. A deadly plauge sweeps across the US that kills in it’s wake while the goverment tries to cover it up. Because that’s not at all terrifingly close to home.  But as this pandemic creeps around the US we meet 5 dispearte people with a part to play in what the world becomes after the end: Stu, a hard nosed man who finds himself imprisoned by the government since he was next to patient zero for the outbreak and lived. Frannie, a young woman who finds herself pregnant and dealing with her disaproving mother and the babie’s less than ideal dad. Larry, a would be one hit wonder whose come home to new york to dry out and to let Stephen King go on for several pages about how much he fucking hates new york, because that was important. Nick, a deaf and mute teen drifter who finds himself subbing for a kind sherieff who sadly got the disease. And Lloyd, a dumb criminal who finds himself in jail after a robbery gone bad. And waiting in their dreams and the shadows for his acendency, the walking dude, Randall Flagg, evil itself. Waiting paitently for the soon dawning time of his ascendency. Spoilers and the review itself under the cut. 

So yeah i’m back to doing some comics reviews and I.. genuinely missed it. I did. I just needed to reajdust from doing one issue at a time to doing full arcs as well as get it in my head to do one.  And while I didn’t INTEND to review these, I ended up liking this series, at least for this mini, so much I couldn’t resist diving into them critically.  As for why I decided to read these comics it’s simple: i’ve never read the Stand but always wanted to. No real complex motives: I’ve liked some adaptations of King’s works with It: Chapter One being the reason I finally started watching horror movies after a good decade or two of avoiding them like the plauge, finally breaking down my squeamish cowardly barrier and opening up a greater world. Granted the sequel was a giant balloon parade of disapointment, but I can get to that some other day. Point is I like Stephen King: he seems like a decent enough guy, has had some good adaptations of his works and even the bad ones have some fun. Like this trailer for maximum overdrive where it’ shard to tell if it’s his tragic drug addiction or just him that’s responsibile for that wonderful delivery. 

So yeah, with little options to read the stand and the series out of print, I decided to dive into the comics because they seemed accurate enough from the way reviews had them and frankly before horror films, I really got into horror through comics, with my gateway there being Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s afterlife with archie. Many of you may know RAS, as i’m calling him so I don’t horribly mangle his namem, as the guy behind riverdale, sabrina, which is partialy based off his own sabrina comic and kathy keene, but before he became Archie’s golden boy, he was a writer at marvel, hence these mini series, and wrote the wonderful fantastic four series marvel knight’s 4, which I might cover at some point, which followed the four as they lost all their money and had to live like us normal folks. It’s really fucking good stuff and easily one of the best runs on the characters period. Afterlife with Archie is no slouch either so pairing both guys who brought me to the terrordance of horror seemed like a match made in heaven.  So that’s where we Stand, pun intended: I haven’t read the stand or watched the mini series, only know or remember some spoilers, and am walking into this blind but eager to see what happens. So if your willing to join me on the ride and on my fresh perspective, here’s Stephen King’s the stand by RAS and Mike Perkins.  Now since, at least at this early stage, The stand is divided up by the characters and what their going through as the virus hits, i’m going to cover this character by character, with an additional section on the progress of the pandemic itself and the government response.  Before I dig in I will say there is something I really love here: The Pacing. NOw I will grant it’s slow: By the end of this mini we only JUST meet big bad Randall Flag as the pademic and it’s goverment coverup both kick into high gear.  So why does it work? Simple: The characters. By opening up as the end of the world is happening instead of shortly before or after like most post apoclayptic stories, and focusing on each of our surivivors we get a real sense of who our heroes were before society collapsed as it collapses, and get to really care about them and WANT to see how they react to the end of the world and what they become. It justifies the series, and the book’s , massive length by using that giant stretch of time to get us invested in the cast and really want to see where this story goes. It’s really good storytelling and holds up really well. So with that out of the way, we can dive into the meat of the story itself. And before we can get to our protaganists, let’s get to the plauge itself 

THE OUTBREAK

The story starts with a soldier breaking out of quarantine after getting hit with a miltary virus, infecting his wife and child  while trying to go awol and dying.. thus starting the plauge known as Captain Tripps. It crashes into a small town gas station, where we met Stu, one of our heroes, more of him later and starts to slowly grip the nation as the book goes on.  The Goverment handles making a plauge that will end up dooming the human race.. by pretending it dosen’t exist, supressing the media, and cordening off whole cities and taking them over. An early attempt by the media to get the story out get the reporters shot horribly, and we get to see all the gore in this version. it’s not plesant but it’s a well done sequence. We get an even worse sequence where the general in charge of the facility captain tripps came from seeing tons of dead bodies in the cafeteria from their sceintests failed attempts at a cure, one of which is horribly bloated, and then shoots himself..... yeah I got nothing. Just.. wow. Good horrible stuff. 

So yeah tha’ts basically how it goes: the goverment can’t figure out how to stop it and tries desperatley to cover it up or downplay it instead.. and why yes our own goverment’ sbungled handling of coronavirus, with our own PRESIDENT, in the hospital right now, does make this extra chilling to me thanks for asking!  It SOMEHOW gets worse with the final issue as various media outlets rebel against the goverment  supression with tv, newspaper and radio all reporting on this despite the risk.. that comes true as the goverment STILL dosen’t learn their lesson and kills them all and we end as the virus only gets worse and the president urges everyone that it’s all fine despite teh mass bodies dumped into the sea and to just take some juice. Just.... just..... 

Yes exactly thank you Jon. It’s good stark horrible stuff, I just have no more commentary other than please make it stop. I will say however it’s well done stuff that lets the creeping dread seep in until it really hits fever pitch at the end. 

Stu Redman: 

As I mentioned, we meet Stu very early on, as he’s on site when patient zero crashes his car into a gas station.  Unfortuntely for him this gets him and hsi town swept up to a goverment black site where as seen above, he has no time for the bullshit their feeding him and is in no mood to actually cooperate till they actually talk to them. Which.. yeah it’s entirely resonable: the Goverment is holding him here against his will, refusing to tell him anything and asking to get samples from him. How does he know their not just going to shoot him the second their done with him? He dosen’t and given what we’ve seen this version of the goverment, and hell the real goverment do, yeah. Maybe blind trust needs to be earned rather than demanded. Just saying.  Stu gets his answers, that everyone else they brought in and thus his whole town is dead, and they don’t know how to stop the virus.. and that they don’t know where it came from but as the above makes clear, that’s a load of garbage. So Stu relcutantly and grumpliy coperates. He’s basically if Ron Swanson got freaky friday’d into nick millers body. 

Stu eventually gets taken to a diffrent facility after the jounalist thing and becomes even more coperative, as they start bringing in an armed guard every time someone visits him.. and Stu starts to get even more wary of this shit as it’s very obvious he’s become expendable, he uses those exact words, and by the end of this mini is plotting his escape. He also has dreams.. of iowa cornfields.. and a sinster man in black floating above them.  I like stu a lot: A hard nosed down to earth guy who dosen’t take shit, but is clever enough to know when to bite his tounge and bide his time, easily sussing out both why he’d been moved to a new facility and just how disposable he now is: He’s a man who will fight when needed but knows when to hold back and wait for it. He’s also a nice protaganist ot be our main viewpoint in the goverment sections and is easily my second faviorite. My faviorite is coming shortly. 

Frannie Goldsmith: 

Frannie is a college student who just ended up pregnant by her  boyfriend Jesse. She dosen’t want to marry him despite him offering.. and given his reactions to her telling him this are to whine “but you were supposed to be on the pill”, which she was and gave plenty of reasons why that may not have worked, and then give a loud , what was probably groaning “Aw hell” before proposting.. yeah good call. 

Frannie’s dad takes it well as he’s sad, but he understands and loves his daughter and wants to support her. Her mother.. is a selfish nightmare who bearates her for it, berates her husband, who usually backs down as Frannie is used to at this point, for standing up for her and then just for added terrible points physically abuses Frannie, who is PREGNANT, by slapping her hard. I know that can’t hurt the baby but fucking really.  Thankfully Frannie’s father decides even if he wont’ divorce the crone to stand up to her at least, and points out she really hasn’t been the same since Frannie’s brother died, igorning her up until the pregnancy and calling her out. She leaves in a huff defeated, and Frannie leaves to go stay at a hotel for a bit while tryign to find somewhere to stay, with her mom not wanting to talk to her and her dad insiting she come around.  Given her mother had signs of the virus earlier.. she dosen’t. She dies, Frannie, having come home to help her is devistated and we actually get a devistating if confusing bit as she hugs her dad and talks about eating the pie. Something lost in translation but the visuals cover well enough. And that’s where he story ends, though with a montage in the last issue, which is all we get of htem as the issue is focused on Flagg and the pandemic response instead. Not a bad move mind as it’s easily the best issue of the series, just a note.  Frannie is a likeable enough character, a strong woman who knows what she wants, wants to keep her baby and has decent enough family drama.. if well worn at this point but fraknly the book was written all the way back in the late 70′s so this is forgivable as it probably wasn’t AS common as it is now. Frannie has plenty of personality but her plot is one of the less intresting as it’s pretty easy to tell where it’s going in comparison to the other, more intresting plots going on around it. That said you still connect to frannie enough for it to not feel like a drag on the story and to feel important, so it’s not too bad a section. 

Larry Underwood: Larry Underwood is a musician whose also a bit o fa scumbag, using people and drugs like theres no tommorow and riding high, in both senses, off the sucess of his single.. a title that sums up the 70′s in a nutshell “Baby Can You Dig Your Man?”. Just.. it sounds like a parody song from SCTV... so in other words good job on making a goofy 70′s pop hit title stephen. Respect. 

But yeah a friend of Larry’s seeing he’s hit bottom suggets he had back to new york. Larry bunks with his mom who worries it’s too late for him to change from the scumbag he is now and that only a great catstrophe could do that. 

So yeah obviously it’s gonna, but we’ll likely see that as the series goes on. So mostly Larry’s segment is one incident of him having a one night stand that seems a bit overblown.. I mean it is scummy of him but her screaming “your not a good guy and what not as seen above just seems narmy as hell and utterly stephen king in terms of writing.. but the scene of him trying to convince himself she’s wrong after is really strong. Larry’s self doubt, self hate and wondering if he’s that bad is really strong stuff and really godo character stuff showing he is an asshole who uses people including his own mom.. but also genuinely DOSEN’T want to be that person but dosen’t know how. We also get a crushing bit where he calls for his friend who helped him only to find out not only is the guy in the hopstial but it’s getting bad. As the chapter ends larry looses his mom too.  The one real weakness of this bit is King goes on a bit of an author tract that’s kept via larry’s narration, which by the way I love how the books narration is kept REALLY damn well via the caption boxes, it’s really nicely done and a way to help keep some of the bits from the book while still taking bits out where necessary. It’s a nice touch. But back on point yeah.. Larry REALLY hates new york.. which to me translates as Stephen King REALLY hating new york, and wanting you to know how much he hates new york, how much the city was festering back then, how much of a crap hole it is, how it farts turds during thunder storms etc. IT’s likely trimme down from the text but boy does it feel unecessary> We get it, 70′s pre clean-up intiative new york was REALLY fucking awful. You didn’t like it there. But if you want to rant about new york for several paragraphs.. 

Like I get that he’s TRYING to make the point Larry dosen’t like new york and dosen’t fit in at home but instead of trying into his character arc entirely it just feels like an excuse for King to ramble about his hatred of new york. I’ts easily the weakest part of this mini series and I only think it was kept because RAS, as made clear in the question and answer sessions with marvel.com in the back of one of the issues, is a huge king fan and wanted to keep as much as possible. It’s the one time I feel the comic, and the story it’s retelling, really stumbled that bad. Thankfully with that rant over we can get onto my faviorite character

Nick Andros: Nick is easily has both the most unique narriatve and is the most intresting character to me. A mute and deaf teenage drifter, he goes from town to town finding work.. and between towns get beatup by a bunch of local assholes the ringleader of which is your standard Stephen King bully because depending on the kindness of strangers in a stephen king story is just asking for a beating.  Though oddly enough that ends up working as Nick finds himself in a jail cell with the local Sheirff and after getting a pad and paper, not only verifies he was working with someone in town, and who he is , but also who beat him down. And oddly for a king story since while he DOES have a heroic sheirff i’ve heard of, most of his law enformcent seem to be corrupt hicks at best, this one.. is a nice guy who makes sure the assholes that assaulted nick are brought in despite the ringleader being his wife’s nephew and knowing he’ll get no sex for a while because of it.. the narrative points this out because we needed to knwo that apparently. 

But said wife happily takes Nick in along with the Shierff while the sheirff takes 3/4 of the assholes in, with said nephew booking it out of town. But soon our kindly sheiff takes ill from the virus and Nick gladly fills in for him as his new deputy to make sure the idiots at the jail don’t starve. He continues this throught the book even as he looses his new family tragically due to the virus.. and soon his prisoners catch it too and clearly aren’t long for the world.  Nick is a THROUGHly likeable character. Just from body laungage it’s clear there’s a bit of an edge and a bit of harshness to him.. but he’s mostly just a good kid who goes out of his way to make sure three assholes who tried beating him to death get fed and watered, and wants to do the right thing despite the world crappign on him constnatly. He’s throughly intresting and his disablity is nicely portrayed, with him being portrayed as a normal guy who simplyg ot dealt a really crappy hand and does his best with it. Easily the best part of this mini, closely followed by the last issue but we’ll get to that in a second. We have one more character to get through. 

Lloyd Henried This bit will go fast since he’s only in two sections this mini but Lloyd is a dimwitted crminal who clearly gets a thrill from the crime sprees and murders he and his pal have done but also dosen’t murder inscreimatley. Unfortunatley his partner in crime does and Lloyd gets arrested after his first scene and hsi friend gets his face gunned off. Lloyd is last scene with his lawyer teaching him to lie. He’s basically just a dumb criminal at this point who likes thrills. Not a lot to dig into comapred to the other characters soooooo let’s move on to our final focus character and the focus of the final issue only, but hitned at before... 

Randall Flagg The breakout character of the piece, one of king’s most loved and most used villians. The Walking Dude. The Devil HImself. I had high expecations of this character with all that hype and he did NOT disapoint. 

Flagg is a mysterious supernatural drifter who dosen’t even know how long he’s existed but is evil itself. He makes anyone he passes feel nervous, glass crack and everyone uneasy, yet when needed can slip in and out of any extremist or hate group easily and hands out pamphliets for whatever will get people riled up the most, good cause or bad. and easily worms his way in and out of heavily armed groups and into women’s beds. My words do not do kings words put onto the final issue justice. They jsut impart he is evil, he is here, and he is about to RISE. And you’d better be prepared to run. After a few issues of only appearing in one dream.. we meet our antagonist and he is a lot. Throughly engaging, throughly creepy and throughly unesettling we get a full sense of who flagg is a drifter who SEEMS resonable enough when talking but just.. gets under your skin, yhou just feel.. WRONG around him. This one sequence REALLY got me excited to see what this bastard does. Not a lot elsse to say  throughly engaging creepy impressive villian who lived up to the hype and star of one of the best single issues i’ve read. No notes. 

So yeah overall.. I really love this story so far. Obviously I have a LONNNG way to go and 5 more mini series to go so I hope you’ll join me but the art is good, the decisions fantastic and the writing adapted well, clearly compressed but in a way that works. A fantastic way to read the story for a newcomer such as myself and if you can find it somehwer,e read it. Ill continue with it as hte month, or months probably, go on. Until then check back on my blog for regular ducktales coverage and some more halloween fun, hit up my asks if you have some comics you’d like to see me cover, and until next time, happy halloween. 

[forasecondtherewedwon]

Hi! First of all, I can’t believe Affinity War is over! It’s my fav! Do you think you’ll ever write oneshots or something in that universe? Second! Maybe 19 for the prompts? :)

You’re so sweet, @hauntedmoondust! Thank you very much!! One-shots beyond these prompts? Hmm I don’t know yet. We’ll see!

Really Old Movie NightPairing:Peter Parker x Michelle Jones (Spideychelle)Rating: TWord count: 2290

19. “There’s so much blood.”

Friendships are something that seem to just happen to Peter.Like, boom, Mr. Stark shows up in his living room one day to recruit him to agroup of professional best buddies (thinly veiled as the Avengers). Or, boom,he’s a kid at science and engineering camp using Lego to assemble a scale modelof the Brooklyn Bridge when his hands bump into this kid called Ned’s hands,‘cause he’s been building from the other end, and they meet in the middle, likeLady and the Tramp, and become bestfriends. Or, subtler boom, the judgemental smart girl who’s always giving himthe finger offers up a nickname she’d like for him to call her one day andthat’s how Peter finds out that MJ doesn’t actively want to push him in frontof a bus.

Even including the surprise mission to Germany, it’s thelast one that surprises Peter the most. But then she just keeps doing it. Atlunch, MJ quits lurking with her novels at the far end of the table and slidesdown to eat with him and Ned. Every. Single. Day. She jokes with Peter between classes,which makes him start taking the scenic route from Chemistry to Spanish to givehimself more time to see her smile. Without anyone really making a big dealabout it, MJ becomes part of Peter and Ned’s sacred ritual of Homework Night;when it devolves into Lego Night, he really has to watch to catch the momentswhere she can’t stop herself from rolling her eyes. Soon, it feels like thethree of them are as cohesive together as when it was just him and Ned. Makessense―triangles are the strongest shape.

So, with the closeness they’ve all developed, it’s rational thatMJ would still come over for movie night after Ned has to cancel. And thatPeter won’t need to check with his aunt for permission to have MJ in theapartment when he knows that May’s going out. Because it’s just MJ. MJ’s hisfriend, his second Ned, the person whose every appearance is the highlight ofhis day, the girl who makes his enhanced biology forget how to take in oxygento let him do the breathing thing. Respiration. Right. He knew the word.

Peter is feeling very calm about this. He could sync hispulse to a meditation track of soothing beach sounds (if the beach was in thewrath-of-god grip of a cyclone). What he definitely does not do is backflip to the door when she knocks. He hasrestraint―not that he needs it,because, again, MJ is nothing more than a benign, Ned-type person.

…Who smells really good when she enters and brushes by him.Ned usually smells like a combination of soap, Doritos, and metal from whateverthey’ve been covertly tinkering with in shop class.

“Come in,” Peter says, about twelve seconds too late. MJglances back at him with an expression that confirms he needs to pull himselftogether now.

“So, movie,” he tries again, swinging his arms as he leadsher to the fridge so she can select her soda of choice. He already has thesnacks arrayed on the coffee table in front of the couch. May has raised anattentive host.

“Movie,” MJ echoes. She lifts her eyebrows while taking asip of some bubbly pomegranate drink his aunt has possibly recently becomeaddicted to.

“Um, yeah, in here.”

Peter stares hard at the middle distance like a furiousShakespearean actor as he walks ahead of her to the couch; this is awkward. He’s awkward. No amount of junk foodcoated in assorted cheese powders is going to mask how severely he is failingat cultivating a regular buddy-buddy hang-out.

He halts abruptly, realizing he should let MJ pick where shewants to sit first, which just makes her run into him.

“Oh shit,” she gasps, eyes on the can in her hand, but shedoesn’t spill a drop.

Instead, the carbonation of the drink asserts its presencethrough a high-pitched hiccup that reminds Peter of Dopey swallowing the soapin Snow White. (Only May knows that’shis favourite Disney movie.) Instinctively, he goes to pat MJ on the back inorder to―man, he really doesn’t know―pop any potential bubbles still inside herbody? Anyway, his arm goes up, she steps forward, and this time they collidehead-on. And since they were already close, a more accurate description wouldbe that they hug. Sort of.

Their cheeks touch when they both quickly step back. Peter’spretty sure he’s doing Thor’s party trick now, vibrating all over aselectricity runs through him. MJ’s face might be pink, but he’s too overwhelmedto give it more than a glimpse. Sitting. Sitting will be better. You can’t runinto someone when you’re nestled into a couch cushion. He coaches himself tobreathe. Naturally, he does it out loud by accident, but very quietly.

MJ heads to the far end of the couch and shrugs off herjacket. Ok, good news and bad news. Good: she’s protecting his sanity byleaving several feet between them. Bad: he forgot to offer to hang up herjacket when she came in.

Then she drops her jacket onto the end seat and sits on thecenter one, so Peter’s flustered all over again. What’s he going to do now? Siton the table? The floor? The ceiling? Haha No, that would give away hissuperpowers.

But, seriously, is the ceiling an option?

And he does have to choose one, because he’s still standingthere, watching MJ’s sweater slide momentarily off her shoulder as she getscomfortable on his (May’s) couch in his (May’s) living room and realizing thatMJ might not be a Ned-person at all. It’s actually looking more and more likeshe’s an MJ, his one and only MJ, and that he’s invited her into a situationthat is rapidly sharpening in focus to appear like a date.

He sits next to her, trying to keep his trembling to himselfas his crush hits like an earthquake.

“What are we watching?” she asks, mouth half-full of whitecheddar popcorn from the bowl on the table.

Peter reflexively licks his own lip when he sees the palepowder on hers.

“Uh, it’s this really old horror movie. The Shining?” he checks, like she’s the one who picked it and hejust found out.

“Ok, cool.”

He should ask if she’s seen it and, if she has, offer topick something else, but MJ has lifted one foot off the floor to tuck her legbeneath her where she sits―thereby putting her folded leg nearer to where he sits. So, yep, it’s a miracle that hecan grip the handrail on one train of thought long enough to cue the movie upand press play.

Beyond a lot of creepy music and scenes with garish hotelfurniture that remind him of Wes Anderson movies, Peter doesn’t have much ideaof what’s happening on the screen. He has a few (thousand) more thoughts aboutwhat’s happening on this couch. Where to start? MJ’s leaned forward and back afew times, taking sips of her drink and returning it to the table, and ended upcloser to him every time. Their legs are officially touching now. Peter couldput a hand on her shoulder, give her a little nudge, and she would lean rightinto him. That’s based on physics, of course. Gravity and potential energy andthat kinda thing. Doesn’t mean MJ wouldn’t immediately brace herself and thenlook at him like Jack Torrance is not the only psycho in the Parker livingroom.

That’s what Michelle would do, as she existed to him beforeshe declared them friends. Peter sneaks a look at his MJ. Woops, he needs toquit calling her that in his head. She’s leaning slightly towards him (unevencouch cushions are probably to blame) and not looking 100% relaxed. Hissuper-senses let him hear her breathing very clearly and see, when his gazelowers, her chest rising and falling with a heartrate too quick to be at rest.

Duh. They’re watching a horror movie.

Peter exhales heavily. He wants to put his head in his handsand collect himself, but he can’t do that in front of her. Can’t be obviouslike that.

“There’s so much blood,” MJ comments, making him forget hisinner turmoil.

“Um, yeah. That’s super gross, actually.”

His face scrunches up as he watches, like, a swimming pool’sworth of gore rush out of a red elevator. Was somebody murdered in there? Petertrusts his guess on that one less than on the precise shade of brown in MJ’seyes. Just when he’s getting into the movie, starting to piece together thestory, distinguish present from flashbacks from supernatural visions, MJ shuddersnext to him. His head turns so fast.

“Are… are you ok?”

He’s nervous asking, not wanting to embarrass her. Peter hasnever see her disturbed or vulnerable. Even when he ran up to her inWashington, behind his Spider-Man mask, she didn’t look afraid for theirteammates stuck inside the Monument so much as determined that they should andwould be rescued. But if a wave of blood is what gets to her, that’s alright.It doesn’t make her weak.

MJ turns her head to look at him―not quite straight-on, butmore attentively than just a glance from the corner of her eye. She gives asmall smile and a shrug.

“It’s my first Stephen King movie.”

“I think, technically, it’s a Stanley Kubrick movie, sincehe’s the director.”

He feels so much relief when she rolls her eyes and callshim a dork. Then elation as MJ shifts towards him and slouches into his side.

“You want me to turn it off?” Peter asks.

Right away, he’s worried his words have implied that themovie should be stopped so they can transition to something more physical. Betweenthe two of them. In, like, a way that comes burdened with countless baseballmetaphors. He fears he’s created a ‘Netflix and chill’ atmosphere and feelsabjectly douchey.

“Nah,” MJ says and sighs. His eyes widen, feeling her exhaleagainst him. “I’m just gonna… I’ll just… Is it ok if I sit like this?”

Holy crap, she’s close. Peter nods as his mouth goes dry.Before he presses play again, he gradually raises his arm and tucks it aroundMJ’s shoulders. It only encourages her to snuggle (snuggle? Are theysnuggling?) more tightly against him.

Once again, even the most major events of the movie eludePeter, but the plot points of what’s happening between him and MJ are theeasiest story he’s ever followed. First, her head lowers down onto hisshoulder. Second, she reaches up to feel the arm he has around her and tanglesher fingers with his. Third is the twist. The bombshell. The surprise you don’tsee coming.

Because she mutters, “Watch out, Hallorann,” right beforethe bald chef guy (who Peter vaguely remembers from the beginning of the movie)takes an axe to the chest.

Almost robotically, Peter straightens up and tilts his headaway to give himself the distance to look at MJ. She’s gone very still besidehim and, though she’s nowhere near as easy to read as he knows he is, he cantell from her face that she’s constructing an excuse behind those warm browneyes. His mind’s moving fast now, leaving the realization that MJ’s seen thismovie before in the dust. That means she isn’t really afraid; if Peter knowsanything about her, it’s that she wouldn’t suffer through something thathonestly terrifies her in order to impress him. She wouldn’t do that foranyone. The only logical conclusion is that she wanted this outcome, himholding her.

Slowly, MJ gives Peter the closest to sheepish that he’sever seen on her face. Yeah, well, he’s already blown past the thought ofconfronting her. She’s laid out the beginning and the middle. He thinks he canmanage the ending.

Peter wraps a palm around her round cheek and kisses her. Shetastes like fizzy pomegranate. The second that he starts doing it, the factthat he is doing it shocks him, butby now MJ’s evidently working from his script. Her hands are warm on the backof his neck as she kisses him, not letting him panic and bail out. The mainthing the kiss tells him is that she’s been thinking about doing this sincelong before the movie started. He’s always known she’s better at planning, plusshe has that enigmatic wisdom that really throws him sometimes. Peter justdidn’t expect to be one of those plans. He starts to grin into the kiss at theidea of MJ considering him a wise decision.

She draws back with her eyebrows pulling together, assessinghis euphoric expression.

“Show some respect, nerd. A man has just been murdered.”

“He seemed like the kind of guy who’d take comfort inknowing we’re continuing to live our lives,” Peter argues, unable to shake hissmile.

“You were barely even watching. Don’t pretend like it taughtyou some life lesson.”

“It did though! It taught me that Ned cancelling on ourplans isn’t always a bad thing.”

MJ gives him a wry smirk.

“I guess you’re not completelywrong.”

“Wow, so in your book, kissing comes before cutting me someslack?” Peter grins.

“I save the slack-cutting for the second date,” she informshim.

“Second date, huh? Let’s have that one on purpose.”

As soon as Peter says it, MJ brings her mouthback to his and they have their second kiss on purpose too.

Pick a prompt for a Spideychelle drabble!

[ladyofpurple]

answer all of the questions!!

holy SHIT ok bless you omg

(sorry it's a full day late i took this shit SERIOUSLY. don't ask me how many hours this took, i was in A Mood™️ last night. removed the ones already answered xoxo)

angel; have you ever been in love?

yeah. didn't end too well, but i loved him.

petal; favorite novel and author?

this is like asking me to pick a favorite child. i guess favorite author would be stephen king, if only based entirely on the sheer quantity of his books i own alone. favorite book would probably be special topics in calamity physics by marisha pessl, and i'm only saying that because it's been my go-to response for years. i have lots of favorite books. ask me again in five minutes and i'll give you another one.

honey perfume; favorite perfume/scent?

freshly made coffee. lilacs. jasmine. cut grass. the ground after it rains. chocolate chip cookies in the oven. cigarette smoke on skin. my mom's shampoo. my grandma. my dog when he's just had a bath. thanksgiving dinner. acrylic paint on canvas. sawdust. that one cologne i can't name but can smell on a guy from a mile away. mulled cranberry and apple juice. vanilla. coconut. fresh laundry. peppermint.

sweet pea; what’s your zodiac?

virgo sun, pisces moon, scorpio rising ✨

softie; talk about your sexuality.

i'm biromantic asexual, primarily attracted to men more than women (but have had too many crushes on girls to consider myself het), generally sex repulsed when it comes to the thought of having it myself. i prefer to call myself queer in passing conversation, it's easier than explaining asexuality and the differences between sexual and romantic attraction. if someone asks more specifically, i'll usually just call myself bi for simplicity's sake, even though the ace part is a much more important (to me) part of my identity. monogamous as fuck.

i'm still struggling with internalized homophobia and a lot of "am i even queer enough" thoughts, which is super fun. took me a long time to even consider the fact that i might like girls at all. i'll probably never come out to my parents. not that they'd, like, disown me or whatever, but they're juuuuust homophobic/transphobic enough that my few attempts to educate them when they say something A Little Yikes have shown me that i should probably just stay in the closet unless i absolutely have to come out. like i'm getting married to a woman or something.

sugarplum; what’s the color of your eyes and hair?

i usually say my eyes are green because it's easier, and they mostly are, but i have rings of greyish blue around the irises and sometimes they're more hazel in the middle. they always have a green tint to them though, even if the intensity of the green varies.

my natural hair is brown, a little on the darker and slightly ashy side of completely generic. currently a former blonde, although i'm hoping to bleach my fucking YEAR of growout soon, and then go some crazy color as a last hurrah before i have to go dark again. being broke fucking sucks.

wings; coffee or tea?

tea!! black tea. chai, to be specific, with an irresponsible amount of milk and sugar. chai lattes are a fucking drug okay? coffee makes me sick (not a judgement, a literal fact. last time i tried some i threw up).

fairytale; are you a cat or dog person?

cat!! but my family has a chihuahua named sonny and you can pry that little monster from my cold dead hands ok i will fight you.

snowflake; favorite time period?

okay, i wrote and rewrote my answer to this about 10 times. then i tried to divide it up into categories (aesthetics, history, fashion, vibes, geographical location, etc), but that didn't help. so basically: i don't have one, because i have too many.

i like the american 20s-60s for the aesthetic, music/movies, and the fashion. i also like the european 1600s-1800s for the interesting history and also vibe. i love the french and russian revolutions — the fashion! the art! the wars and political upheaval! I FUCKING LOVE HISTORY. then, of course, we can't forget the rennaisance. or the witch trials (pick your continent). and ancient greece? the roman empire? hello?? did i mention empires? how bout we mosy on over to south america — can i interest you in the mayans? incans? aztecs? what about china and japan? korea? vietnam? and don't even get me fucking STARTED on the black plague.

ancient egypt? sign me the FUCK UP. vikings? yes please. the celts? oh boy. the MYTHOLOGY. the ARCHITECTURE. the LANGUAGES and POLITICS and LITERATURE and REVOLUTIONS and GOD HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN ANY OF THESE

i uh. might have gotten a little excited. basically i like history a lot. and mythology. and linguistics. and cultural practices. and the politics and prejudices behind wars and stuff. and learning in general. moving on.

vanilla; do you believe in ghosts?

let's put it this way: i don't not believe in ghosts??

listen. we don't know jack shit. we don't know what happens after we die, there are constant scientific revelations that turn our understanding of the universe completely upside-down, and there is literally no way to know which religions or myths or urban legends could have some grain of truth to them. like, dude, i've literally thought i was haunted before. psychology is bananas and the universe is infinite.

demons could be real. ghosts could be real. what if we just haven't invented the necessary technology to prove it yet? what if we never do, and they just fuck around alongside us, moving furniture and making shadow puppets on the walls just for kicks until the earth explodes? what if that one tumblr post was right and ghosts are actually real people from alternate universes or timelines that we see accidentally bc some cosmic wires got crossed? who fucking knows.

i love horror movies and scary stories and ghost hunter shows just as much as the next gal. but listen. psychics? mediums? people who accept every single creepypasta retold third-hand from their neighbor's kid's classmate's second cousin who "totally knows a guy"? doubt.jpeg

i don't understand the sheer amount of assumptions made willy-nilly about the nature of ghosts and demons and things that go bump in the night. the assumption that "oh this machine that totally doesn't look like a coathanger taped to a walkman will work because ghosts have this temperature and can always communicate like this and are electromagnetic" or whatever just baffles me. to a certain degree, following a general consensus is one thing — some basic things everyone can agree on? that's cool. ghosts can walk through walls and are probably dead people or whatever. but oh my god, taking every single story as absolute, undeniable proof?? taking these stories and expanding on them to infer intentions and scientific facts to something that by it's very nature is unknowable and assuming, like, every spirit is created equal?? and yeah, ghost hunting shows are fun and campy and kinda creepy but like. you really, genuinely don't think any of them have ever faked anything at all??? even if ghosts are real, it's fucking reality tv, my dude. it's the entertainment industry. at least maintain the slightest ounce of critical thought before taking zak bagans' word as the goddamn gospel.

and sidenote, maybe it's just my limited exposure as a white woman in the western world, but of all the shows and podcasts and movies and documentaries and whatnot i've been able to find and consume, there's the constant use of christian ideology applied to every situation that just really burns my bacon. what, there's never been an atheist ghost? if you see a shadow person and you don't know the lord's prayer by heart, are you automatically fucked? why are there never stories about, i don't know, viking ghosts? does your religion in life preclude you from becoming a ghost in the first place? is that why people never mention buddhist ghosts? i don't get it, and that's why even though i'm self-admittedly the most superstitious person i've ever met, true believers make me roll my eyes so hard they almost fall out. makes me come across as more skeptical than i theoretically am. I HAVE VERY STRONG FEELINGS ABOUT THIS OK

but like, you couldn't pay me to fuck with a ouija board. i'm not stupid.

delicate; diamonds or pearls?

both have their appeal and their place, but diamonds, i guess. i like the sparkle. but fake ones!! or synthetic. diamonds are overpriced and artificial scarcity is a scam and i don't need a dumb rock that some poor person in a mine somewhere was exploited and possibly died for. no blood diamonds in this house, thank you very much.

if i ever get engaged, i don't want a diamond ring. i'd want something cool, a little unusual, like a ruby or a sapphire or some other sparkly gem that isn't literally shoved in your face every waking moment as the expected standard symbol of True Love. they're cheaper, they're cool-looking, as a ring they still hold the cultural symbolism of an engagement/wedding ring. and honestly, as long as it's well-made and durable, whatever hypothetical gem it is doesn't have to be real either. i'm a woman of simple needs and demonstrably low standards. no point in going into debt for a fucking piece of jewelry, regardless of ~tradition~.

lavender dream; favorite album?

oh lord. welcome to the black parade, i guess. or anything by panic! at the disco. there are dozens of possible options — my interests are mercurial and my memory is garbage. but i'll always be an emo little shit. black parade and vices and virtues were also the first two albums i ever listened to where i loved every single song on them, and i happened to listen to them for the first time at around the same point in my life (i got into mcr super late. like, 2012 late. rip).

silky; what’s your biggest dream?

it's cheesy but i guess i just want stability and, by extension, happiness. emotional stability, mental stability, financial stability, stable living situation, stable routines, stable relationships... you get the idea. i have ambitions and passions, of course, but my ultimate goal is happiness at this point in my life, and i'm pretty sure stabilizing all those things would go a pretty long way in achieving that goal.

a little apartment with walls i can paint because white walls make me angry. bookshelves and posters and fandom merch on every wall. a computer i can actually play games on again, and somewhere i can paint and draw and record my podcasts. someone who loves me, maybe. a cat, if i'm stable enough. space for people to come visit me, and a place for them to sleep if they need. a tiny balcony, if i really want to shoot for the stars. a job i don't hate. the spoons to hang out with my friends, and the money to not worry about buying little presents for the people i care about sometimes. i don't need much.

strawberry kiss; do you have a crush right now?

nope.

glitter; favorite fictional character?

another loaded question. like books, if you ask me again in five minutes i'll probably give you a different answer. but in this particular moment, caleb and jester from critical role (please don't make me choose between them). i won't go full shipping mode rn, but jester is so funny and silly and sweet, so much more complex than she seems, and she tries so hard to make everyone happy even when she's so sad inside. the healer who treats healing as an inconvenience in battle (she's so fucking valid and also mood), the glue that keeps the party together. and caleb learning to trust again, facing his trauma and coming out of his shell. he loves his friends so much he plays wizard as a support class and i love him so much.

i love the mighty nein in general, of course, and all the guests/honorary members they've had. pumat!! pls don't be evil reani!! keg!! shakäste and grand duchess anastasia!! cali!! kiri!!!! the brotps! empire siblings! chaos crew! nott the best detective agency! i still love molly and all his assholery to bits (fight me), and mourn his lost potential. i adore yasha, even when she's gone; fjord has grown so much; beau and nott and caduceus — i love all their flaws and disagreements and their character arcs and the excitement of watching them grow and learn. but if i had to choose, caleb, jester and molly have always been my top 3 since day 1 and, well, molly isn't really an option anymore.

but like i said, ask me again in a minute. i have a fucking list.

swan; share a quote or passage that means something to you.

a collection of things off the top of my head:

Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition. — Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen

a tired feminist Mood™️

"What I say is, a town isn't a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it's got a bookstore, it knows it's not foolin' a soul." — American Gods, Neil Gaiman

i got my love of books from my grandma — some of my favorites i got from her. sometimes, as a treat, she used to take my sister and i to bookstores and we'd stay there for ages, getting to pick one out, roaming the shelves, the mental torture of having to choose. the peace of being surrounded by thousands of potential worlds, so much information, so many stories just waiting to be told; being surrounded by strangers who share that same wonder. the anxious drive home so we could read them, being unable to wait that long so i inevitably start reading in the car and make myself sick. telling her in excited detail all my favorite parts. if we were lucky, maybe we got to split a bear claw, or she'd drive past starbucks and get us something there too (tall vanilla soy steamer with one pump of vanilla syrup, whipped cream on top that always melted too quickly and squirted out the hole in the lid, so hot it burned my tongue but so good i didn't care). i have never felt more at home than i do when i'm surrounded by books.

"There are a lot of different types of freedom. We talk about freedom the same way we talk about art, like it was a statement of quality rather than a description. “Art” doesn’t mean good or bad. Art just means art. It can be terrible and still be art. Freedom can be good or bad, too. There can be terrible freedom. You freed me, and I didn’t ask you to." — Alice Isn't Dead, season 1, chapter 2: Alice

as cringey as it is to admit it, this line made me cry a lot after my breakup.

"So you aren't American?" asked Shadow.

"Nobody's American," said Wednesday. "Not originally. That's my point." — American Gods, Neil Gaiman

[side-eyes white america real hard]

there's more, of course. there's always more. don't even get me started on song lyrics, we'll be here all day.

lace; what’s your favorite plant/flower?

lilacs and roses.

mermaid; do you prefer the forest or the ocean? why?

both, i guess. but in different ways, and in different circumstances.

the sea is wild. it is endless and deep and unknowable. it is beautiful and dangerous. i am terrified of the ocean, and yet my favorite place in the world is an empty beach on the oregon coast. i have picked sand from between my toes for days with hair crusted in salt, danced around bonfires and watched the stars while marshmallows burn, gotten pulled under the waves as a child and nearly swept out to sea. picked starfish and crabs from small pools in the rocks, and swum (accidentally) with wild sea lions. in a long skirt, too early in the year to be swimming, i once took off my shoes and waded fully clothed into the water to my waist and just... danced. splashed and kicked and laughed with a boy i barely knew until our throats were sore and our toes were numb, walking home hours later with our soaked clothes clinging to our legs, shoes squelching, dripping algae as we went. the ocean is freeing and overwhelming all at once. i love it and am petrified by it in equal measure.

the forest is beautiful in a different way. it is silent and dense and serene. you are surrounded by life and yet, somehow, completely alone. there is magic in the forest, and history, and even when all else dies, that will remain. the trees grow from the corpses of their ancestors, and some have lived dozens of our lifetimes — with luck, a few dozen more. it is quiet there, peaceful, even the tiniest wood in the middle of a city muffling the outside world through the trees. you can feel the ancient ways deep in your soul as you follow winding paths strewn with fallen leaves, the mystery and wonder and superstitions of your forefathers. you wonder what it would be like, to run your fingers over the moss, to take off your shoes and socks and just run, leaping and dancing over rocks and roots, hair wild and air filling your lungs in deep, pure gulps as you shed the responsibilities and struggles of modern life, for just a moment remembering what freedom tastes like. it is primal, this connection to nature, one we have nearly forgotten over time. and as the sky grows dark and the silence of night presses against you, shadows looming, every footfall deafening, perhaps you begin to understand why some believed in monsters.

honeymoon; do you keep a journal?

i used to. honestly, that's a good idea, i should start doing that again. lord knows i have enough empty journal-type books.

starlight; do you believe in love at first sight and soulmates? why/why not?

i want to. i want to believe there's someone out there for me, the love of my life, someone to whom i'll be the love of their life, and that when i meet them i'll just... know.

but when i met my ex, i didn't really look twice at him for a while — no love at first sight. and when we were together, when i loved him and he swore he loved me back, i thought he hung the stars in the sky and knew i would marry him someday. couldn't even consider the idea that that wouldn't happen. and then when he broke up with me, he ghosted me so suddenly and thoroughly that he even preemptively cut contact with every single one of our mutual friends he thought might side with me in the breakup, before anybody even knew we'd had a fight. so, not soulmates either.

i really want to believe that someday the perfect romance will just fall into place and i can have the happily ever after i've always dreamed of. but the reality is i might never even have another s.o. for the rest of my life. maybe i'll get hit by a car tomorrow, or my hypothetical soulmate moves to argentina to become an alpaca farmer on a mountain somewhere and we never even meet. maybe i'm so traumatized by the betrayal and lies that i'll never have the courage to even try again.

and even so, happily ever after doesn't have to include a fairytale romance, regardless of whether i want it or not. i still like to cling to that hope though, deep down.

princess; what do you value most in people?

i'm going to assume you mean "real people" as in people i have positive relationships with, and not random strangers on the street.

loyalty. kindness. support. humor. similar values. patience. being able to grow together and teach each other things, so we can make each other better. honesty. trust. compassion. confidence. emotional vulnerability. communication. intelligence, or at least a willingness to learn. strength.

[nelayn]

11 questions meme

I was tagged by @zeroatthebone! Thank you <3 

Answer the 11 questions, come up with 11 questions of your own, and tag 11 people!

1. Who is your favorite visual artist?

That’s a very interesting question- I don’t have any...visceral favourites, like I do with writers, but Vincent van Gogh always enchanted me. 

2. Who is your favorite character to write and/or draw?

I haven’t written anything in aaaaages, but I loved writing for Finarfin, Earwen and Galadriel...

3.If you had to live somewhere in Middle-earth, where would you choose?

It’s a tosh-up between Imladris and Lothlorien, most days- but I’d definitely love to visit the Shire and also Fourth Age Ithilien...

4.What are your favorite and least favorite horror movies?

Horror as a whole is not really my genre, but I remember 8 year old me had a weirdly fond memory of the original Stephen King’s IT  movie? Like... I was very little so I couldn’t stay up all the way through to the end and I really wanted to find out what happened? And I was weirdly not that scared by it? I don’t have a particular least favourite because I usually stay away from ones that I know I won’t like. Unless the one time my friends dragged me to see a film where vampires exploded in the sun and I sat with my hands covering my eyes 85% of the time counts :p I don’t even remember its name :p

5. Bigfoot or Mothman?

I am largely unfamiliar with the concept of the Mothman, so I think that means the answer is Bigfoot by default.

6.What piece of advice would you give to 18-year-old self?

Have more fun. Love yourself more. Do more things. All the things you’re worried about are going to be okay.

7. What is the most interesting museum you’ve ever been to?

I went to the UK national Science Museum in London last week, that was pretty interesting! Getting to see the double helix model up close and personal was really awe-inspiring on the eve of starting a PhD in Biochemistry-also our volunteer guide was awesome and he gave all due credit to Rosalind Franklin and his stories were generally so engaging! Like- the perfect balance between emotionally engaging human stories and scientifically intriguing information.

8.What is the origin of your username?

My childhood LOTR self-insert (yes, I had one of those). I’ve actually been thinking, recently, how so many of us just spontaneously start making up stories in our heads (I think I started when I was about 7 or 8) and what kind of path of cognitive/psychological development that is based on. Are there people who do not do this? Where does it come from?

9. What is your favorite childhood book?

My first favourite is a book by Evgenios Trivizas, called “The Pirates of the Chimney”, which is fantastic- and then we have things like the “Three Investigators” books and the Narnia books and A Series of Unfortunate Events and of course Lord of the Rings, which probably counts as a childhood favourite because  I am positive I read the trilogy before the films came out- but considering that happened in 2001, when I was in second grade, I’m really wondering where on earth I got the reading level for it.

10. Can you juggle?

Absolutely not.

11. What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

I am ashamed to say that I had to look up the reference. (Monty Python ftw).

Tagging: (only if you want to and have nothing better to do, and with no obligation to follow all the rules) @anghraine, @swampdiamonds, @crocordile, @gloriousmonsters, @squirrelwrangler, @zeroatthebone, @valarhalla, @kanafinwhy, @allonsymiddleearth, @idleleaves, @kcrabb88

My questions: 

1. Autumn or spring? 

2. What (if any) is a favourite holiday for you and why? 

3. Do you have any personal traditions? 

4. Top 5 countries that you haven’t been to and you would like to visit? 

5. What’s a fictional character that makes you go “IT ME” ? 

6. Favourite comfort food? 

7. Movies for when you are sick? 

8. Books that you can read over and over? 

9. What’s a song that never fails to cheer you up? 

10. What’s your favourite hobby? 

11. How old where you when you went abroad for the first time?

[bradycore]

Horror Movie

For @sanderssidesspook 's spooky month and the prompt scary movie night!

Words: 1,115

Pairings: platonic Analogical

Warnings: screaming, being scared, not really anything else-- I've never really seen a horror movie so no details

***

Virgil grudgingly removed his headphones at the knock on the door. “What is it?”

“It’s Logan. Do you think I could come in?” came the voice through the mahogany wood. The door had been added to the main hallway at Patton’s request after Virgil started getting more used to being a part of their famILY.

“Sure.” The teacher stepped inside, giving a grimace as he motioned out to where Virgil could hear the two right brain traits laughing about something from all the way downstairs. “They were being a bit too much..my apologies for disturbing you.”

“It’s fine.” Virgil decided to take pity on the formal side and refrained from adding a ‘dude.’ “At least you knocked and didn’t just barge in like the others usually do. Though I have to ask, wouldn't you have rather been alone?”

Logan came to sit on the bed, pink grazing his cheeks. “I have to admit, I enjoy your company. Besides,” he added, “I finished a very good book today, and I don't quite know what to do with myself.”

Virgil flopped down onto his back. “I've been bored too. So what should we do then?”

A minute of contemplation that got them nowhere passed before they glanced toward Virgil’s laptop at seemingly the same time. “More conspiracy theory videos?”

“I...think there might be none we haven’t seen.” What, they’d only spent a few nights this past month up late, sucked in to youtube.

(Okay, it was more than a few nights. But it turned out it was something they both enjoyed. Logan would figure out how likely the conspiracies were to be true, Virgil would have an existential crisis, and in the morning they would exchange tired glances as they downed their caffeinated tea. Bonding.)

Logan’s eyes glowed a faint blue for a second as he got an idea.

“It’s close to Halloween...does your laptop have movies?”

The anxious trait knew instantly what Logan was thinking. “Do we really want to watch a horror movie?”

“I've never seen one,” Logan admitted. “Thomas has stayed away from them--”

“Thankfully,” Virgil muttered.

“--and I have to admit they intrigue me. Based on collected data, I believe movies are better to watch with other people, so I've never watched one on my own.”

“I started a Stephen King movie once and I couldn't even finish it, but sure, sounds fun.”

They spent a few minutes trying to figure out what they wanted to watch-- “I’m ruling out Stephen King, because you've read all the books so you'd know what's going to happen and have an advantage.” “Fair enough. I doubt I'm going to get too scared anyway but--" “Hey, I can't freak out alone. Now we gotta find a really creepy one. If you don't get scared the whole experience will be ruined. And we’re staying in my room, too"-- before settling on one and placing themselves on the floor to watch it.

The emo side lay on his stomach and pulled it up on Netflix. Logan carefully sat down and crossed his legs, wondering for a second how Virgil could be comfortable until he got pulled down in the same position by Virgil, who then snapped his fingers to turn off the lights.

“Ready?”

Nod.

Click.

They spent the first while watching in mostly silence, occasionally making fun of the over-exaggerated romance or cliche backdrops, but it was overall a well done movie and found both of them internally shivering whenever they caught something purposefully slightly...off in a scene, getting caught up in the building tension(though Logan grudgingly).

Then it started to get scary. Real scary.

---

Downstairs, Patton and Roman had popped up to say hello to Thomas, and they started chatting about video ideas.

“Getting something out on Halloween would be cool--"

“That would be MARVELOUS!” Roman agreed.

“But,” Thomas started to continue, before getting interrupted by an excited exclamation from Patton. “We could do costumes and then guess who’s who! Or if you didn't want to do a Sanders Sides--"

“Oh my-a Angelou, you could do a cover of This is Halloween! Even Virgil would agree to that!”

“Guys! Let’s--"

“Or a trick-or-treating vlog!”

“Or--”

Thomas clapped, loudly. “Hey. Can we bring in Logan and Virgil? I think you guys might be getting a little over excited...I would appreciate some balance to this conversation.”

Roman pouted but gave a summoning motion towards Logan’s spot.

“Maybe he’s in Virgil’s room,” Patton suggested, when the logical side didn't appear.

“I don't see why he would be. --Oof, that sounded mean, I didn't mean it like that, I swear.” Roman gestured in an upwards motion, and this time, it worked.

Which was sort of unfortunate timing, since back with the two left brains, a jumpscare had caused Logan to let out a loud curse as Virgil’s reflexes kicked in and he flung the laptop away from them, just as they popped into the real-world living room.

Thomas ducked just in time. “I am so done with these flying computers, guys, I swear--"

Virgil and Logan looked up in spooked alarm at the change in surrounding. They were now huddled close together, a blanket around them for extra protection. (It felt safe at the time, though it must be made known that fabric actually isn't that good of a defensive item.)

“Um...do we want to know,” said Roman carefully, as tinny screams came from the fallen laptop.

Virgil squinted his eyes against the sudden bright lights. “Come on, we were just at a good part.”

“What's your definition of good, because your voice is shaking right now.”

Patton peered at the upside down screen before shuddering. “Ew ew ew!”

“We were just watching a horror movie,” Logan said (in a voice quite different than he usually had since internally he was still screaming with fear.)

Thomas reached down and closed the computer, and you could practically see Logan and Virgil’s tense shoulders relaxing in relief as the sound finally shut off.

“Are you kiddos gonna be okay?”

“Of course, soon we’ll be acclimated to the relative calm and safety of reality again. In any case, fear is illogical.”

Virgil allowed himself a snicker. “Huh, that's strange, Logic, because you were definitely afraid.”

“Well, yes, and I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep tonight, but--"

Virgil started laughing(though it might have been a bit hysterical).

“Okay, well,” said Thomas, deciding as he often did when it came to his personality that the best course of action might be to push the situation in a more sane direction, “we were just talking about videos for Halloween. I'm guessing a horror movie react is out of the question?”

Two normally calmer voices gave a yelped “YEP.” (And no, neither slept that night...they might’ve finished the movie and then sat staring at the wall in paralyzed fear til dawn came, but shh.)

[robbyrobinson]

So, Valentine's Day. A day for love and chocolate. A perfect day to discuss yanderes. A yandere is a Japanese stock character which discusses a character who would normally appear loving and affectionate, but they would often take their affection for the person they're attracted to to some brutal and/or devastating lengths. It also goes without saying that while this term is usually applied to females, there are some rare occurrences in which a male can become one. With that being said, let's begin:

My Favorite Yanderes

Monika (Doki Doki Literature Club): As of the beginning of this year, one of my favorite games has been Doki Doki Literature Club! In DDLC, you play as a character who was a childhood friend of a young girl named Sayori. One day, she decides to invite you to join the Literature Club which consists of Sayori (as the vice president), Natsuki, Yuri, and Monika. The game seems to be all lighthearted and fun where your objective is to woo the heart of one of the girls. However, things take a dark turn when at the end of Act I, you learn that each girl has a deep, dark secret. Sayori puts on a facade of happiness in order to build others up when in actuality, she is clinically depressed. Yuri begins to become more and more psychotic, and she is aware of that, but she cannot do anything about it, and Natsuki is abrasive with the heavy implication that she has an abusive dad who hardly feeds her or let alone takes care of her. But that doesn't beat the icing of the cake. That would be Monika. You see, she is the only girl who doesn't have a route with the player despite her popularity, beauty, and her position as the class president. And so, she sets out to do something about that. What makes Monika horrifying is how she is aware that she is a fictional character in a video game, and so she tries to make her advances on you as in not the character you play as, but you the player. She knows when you're playing the game, she knows when you're off it, she even has access to files on your computer. But that doesn't beat what she had done to the girls. As I have stated, each girl has a different character flaw, but because of Monika's tampering with their character files, each girls' negative traits are amplified all so they would be unappealing to you. And if that's not enough, she outright deletes the girls from the game, and rewrites it so that she could be alone with you in the Literature Club room as you both seemingly float in space. As for you, she could care less on whether you're a boy or girl: she doesn't love you, but she loves what you represent. As a character who knows that the world they live in is fictional, she tries to cling onto you because to her, you're the only real thing she can try to form a relationship with. Despite her monstrous actions, if you delete Monika's character file, she realizes how horrible she had been acting, and she erases the entire game. It also turns out that she didn't have the heart to permanently delete the other girls, and she can bring them back. However, once she is out of the game, Sayori takes her place as the class president, and she now realizes the reality of her world. Overall, Monika is a really interesting character from a game that I didn't think much of. The game shows you how depression functions and hoaw each of these girls could be seen as rejects of society who can only express their desires by writing them. But hey, it's just Monika. Just Monika. Just Monika. JUST MONIKA. J U S T M O N I K A. J U S T M O N I K A....

Judge Claude Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame): As I have said: there are some instances where yanderes can be men. In this adaptation of Victor Hugo's famous novel, Frollo is the self-proclaimed Minister of Justice out to exterminate the Gypsy race. With Frollo, he is undoubtedly one of the more complex of the Disney Villains. Unlike other Disney Villains who know that they're evil and revel in it, Frollo legitimately thinks that he is a good person, seeing himself as being so much purer than the common, vulgar, weak licentious crowd while committing actions that are horrible whether it be genocide, murdering a mother and nearly drowning her baby boy, raising said baby and mentally abusing him for twenty years, and trying to burn Paris to the ground all for a woman who is a member of the race that he despises. Oh, yes; he tries to burn Paris to the ground all because of his obsession with Esmeralda. In addition, Frollo has an awesome song called "Hellfire" which he sings about how Esmeralda is driving him to sin and that unless she be his and his alone, he would kill her. The song is up there with "Be Prepared" from The Lion King as being one of my favorite villain songs, though the subject matter behind the song is unnerving and maybe too adult for Disney. In fact, if it wasn't for the insistence of the writers to keep the song, this amazing song most likely wouldn't have made the cut. And when Frollo catches Esmeralda and sentences her to be burned at the stake, he tries to give her one last chance which she refuses.

Yuno Gasai (Future Diary): Yes. The Yandere Queen herself. What's there to be said for her? The fact that she is obsessed with Yukiteru Amano to the point that she commits murders in order to protect him? Or that one time where she orchestrates a plan which leads to his friends getting killed. The only reason as to why she isn't number one is because it'd be too easy.

Shion Sonozaki (Higurashi: When They Cry): Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni was one of my favorite animes. The show revolves around a boy named Keiichi Maebara who moves into a small village known as Hinamizawa. Things seem all find and dandy, until he becomes suspicious of his friends. He learns that every year on the Cotton Drifting Festival, one person gets murdered whilst another person goes missing. And then it seems that the characters are reliving events over and over again even if they were to die horribly one day and everything resets. Think of it as Groundhog Day but written by a horror writer. The resident yandere in this show is named Shion. Shion is the twin sister of Mion Sonozaki, the Sonozaki family being one of the more noted families of the village. Shion ends up meeting a boy named Satoshi Houjo. Now, the issue being that the Houjo family were supporters of a Dam project...basically where Hinamizawa itself would be flooded. As such Satoshi and his little sister Satoko are distrusted by the community. Eventually, Satoshi seemingly disappers, and Shion takes it upon herself to look after his sister. However, she kind of goes off the deep end by killing her grandparents, imprisoning her twin sister, and stabbing Satoko to death while she is on a cross. Yeah, the Sonozaki family has a torture room. Shion is really one of the main reasons as to why this series was notorious for its horror elements, but she also has her reasons for what she does such as being mistreated by her family, and being forced to have three of her finger nails ripped off by a torture device. That, and she actually is under the influence of a disease known as the Hinamizawa Syndrome which gives its victims paranoia, insanity, and often leads to them acting out extremely through murder, or by committing suicide by clawing their throats out. And you could say that she gets better at the end, so there's that.

Yandere Chan (Yandere Simulator): This one is more based on the yandere character type. Yandere Chan couldn't feel any emotions until she laid her eyes on Senpai, so now she has to keep others from between her and Senpai so that she could get Senpai to notice her. I don't know if this game is finished yet which is why I was initially going to keep her off the list, but it wouldn't feel complete without a slight mention of her.

Akane Hiyama (Love Tyrant): this one is from an anime I watched last year. In it, the show revolves around a young ,man named Seiji Aino who finds himself looped into circumstances between him and a cupid named Guri. As a cupid, Guri must write names into a book known as a Kiss Note (ha). Anyone's names who are written into it are automatically bonded for life. Akane is a girl that Seiji has feelings for, but he was unable to figure out how to tell her. So Guri suggests that he go kiss her. But then Akane comes to the conclusion that Seiji and Guri were dating, and produces two knives with the clear intention of killing them both. She goes onto explain that she knew how Seiji felt about her, but was heartbroken because he never told. Despite Aino's apology, Akane still tries to murder him, but this ends with her accidentally kissing Seiji. And the two get their names written in the Kiss Note...only for Guri to write her name into it as well. This leads to Akane stabbing Aino repeatedly with the knives, but it's revealed that because Guri is included in the relationship, the two are immortal. It still hurts, though.

Helga Pataki (Hey Arnold): Really more of a mixture with this and Tsundere, but Helga does have her moments. For one, there's the shrine that she made of Arnold which is borderline disturbing. She writes poems about Arnold, she actually tries to sabotage most of his attempts at going further with his crushes namely Ruth and Lila, and if the Jungle Movie is any indication, she had secretly recorded nearly all of Arnold's best moments which raises questions now that I think of it.

Alex Forrest (Fatal Attraction): Two words: "bunny-boiler."

Annie Wilkes (Misery): One of the better adaptations of a Stephen King book. While initially seeming to be friendly, Annie is actually a psychotic woman who keeps Paul hostage after finding out he was intending to kill off her favorite character. To that end, she forces him to revise the ending, murders a sheriff when he arrived to the cottage, and in the most messed up scene of the movie, Annie breaks both of Paul's legs to keep him from leaving. At least that's relatively better than what she did in the movie.

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

Revisiting CREEPSHOW 2 After 31 Years

It’s been 31 years since The Creep arrived in Dexter, Maine with his truck full of Creepshow comics. With a gleeful grimness, he delivered a copy to young Billy, who served as our animated guide through the horror anthology Creepshow 2.

Fans and critics alike have been split on their opinions of Creepshow 2 since its 1987 release. However, many fans regard it as an entertaining continuation of the original Creepshow from 1982. Both feature short stories of the supernatural and horror from the minds of Stephen King and George Romero. (The shorts are based on stories by King that were adapted into a screenplay by Romero). And while Creepshow 2 seemingly falls short, fans were still eager to get their hands on the 2016 Blu-Ray release from Arrow Video. This special edition includes interviews with the cast and crew as well as behind the scenes footage.

What is it about Creepshow 2 that has viewers so split for over 30 years? Let’s revisit the stories and find out.

  Interludes

During our opening sequence and the interludes between stories, we have the animated versions of Billy and The Creeper to guide us. Some may complain that the animation is subpar, but it actually seems fitting of the time. While not as stylistic as Heavy Metal, it does make me a bit nostalgic for Don Bluth films or even Rainbow Brite and The Star Stealer.  The animated backgrounds and setting have an eerie feel that helps set the tone for the film. Plus Billy has his own short adventure that The Creeper keeps us updated on. This involves ordering giant Venus flytraps from the back of the Creepshow comic. What we discover by the conclusion is that the enormous plants really are carnivorous. Billy’s closing line, “THEY EAT MEAT!” has stuck with me since my youth.

  Old Chief Wood’nhead

Just one of many 1980s nightmares that made me nervous about inanimate objects as a kid, Old Chief Wood’nhead (Dan Kamin) kicks off the live-action vignettes. Chief, a vintage cigar store Indian, stands proudly outside a general store in a rundown town called Dead River. The shop is owned by a senior couple named Ray and Martha Spruce (George Kennedy and Dorothy Lamour). When the couple is savagely attacked by local teen hooligans, Old Chief Wood’nhead sets off to avenge them.

To be honest, this was my least favorite of the three stories growing up. I think because the real monsters in the story happen to be the humans and not the supernatural being. Maybe that felt more disturbing than anything else. However, seeing the wooden Native American smash through walls to get at Sam Whitemoon (Holt McCallany) was chilling. Chief Wood’nhead was invulnerable, determined, and set on retribution. The special effects used to bring Chief to life are quite admirable, especially considering the over-use of CGI in today’s films.

We close the story with Old Chief Wood’nhead clutching the bloody scalp of Sam Whitemoon and fresh warpaint upon his cheekbones, having avenged The Spruces. 

    The Raft

Quite possibly my favorite of the three stories, The Raft is simple, straightforward, and scary. Four college students fitting in the usual ’80s archetypes drive to a remote location for a swim. For some odd reason they decide taking a swim in autumn is a great idea.  After swimming out to the raft in the middle of the lake, the foursome quickly discover a strange-looking oil slick traveling around on the lake’s surface.

Randy, (Daniel Beer), notices ducks getting pulled into the oil slick and starts to get freaked out. The others give him a hard time about needing to sober up. But then they each snap out of their stoner haze when Rachel (Page Hannah) gets yanked off the raft. The friends watch in horror as she’s eaten by the floating blob. As the remaining trio start to realize no one knows where they are, panic starts to set in. Deke, the jock played by Paul Satterfield, decides he can out swim the goopy monster. Instead, he gets yanked through the slats in the raft before he gets the chance. This leaves Laverne (Jeremy Green) and Randy shivering on the raft overnight.

The thing that bothers me the most about this segment (besides the comical overuse of the word “poncho”) is how Randy disregards Laverne. After waking up with Laverne in his arms, Randy puts her down on the raft (despite knowing how Deke met his demise) and decides to cop a feel while she’s snoozing. This results in the watery monstrosity eating half of her face off while she’s lying there! As Laverne screams his name while being devoured, Randy decides to make a break for it. It’s a tense scene with fun overhead angles of Randy swimming with the slick coming up right behind him.

Randy makes it to the shore, breathlessly calling, “I beat you!” before the slick transforms into a wave and washes over him, taking him into the lake. We hear the aquatic blob belch as the radio from the now abandoned car continues to blare. The camera then pans over to the overgrown brush where a sign reads, “NO SWIMMING.”

I always thought this was this was the strongest of the three stories. I enjoyed that it had more of a monster movie feel to it. The oil slick creature in The Raft really is like an aquatic version of The Blob. Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water…

  The Hitchhiker

In the final story we meet Annie Lansing (Lois Chiles). Annie is having an affair with a gigolo while her attorney husband works nights. When she over sleeps because of a faulty alarm clock, Annie has just seven minutes to make a 20 mile drive in order to beat her husband home. It’s during that drive that she encounters The Hitchhiker. In addition to speeding and talking to herself, the overtired Annie also lights a cigarette. After a puff or two, she drops the butt on the seat of her Mercedes (It’s real leather, Mrs. Lansing. That’ll cost you!) and begins losing control of the car.

As she rounds a corner and begins taking out road reflectors on the Massachusetts highway, we get a brief glimpse of a man in a yellow rain coat. Too startled to get out the way, The Hitchhiker (Tom Wright) is struck and sent sprawling into the street. His bloodied sign reading DOVER dances in the wind around his limp body as the stunned Annie looks on.

Annie then makes the split-second decision to leave the scene of the crime when she realizes another car is coming down the road. She turns off her lights and speeds away in an effort to go unnoticed. A man driving a BMW (Richard Parks) and a truck driver (Stephen King himself) stop at the scene of the crime and call 911. From there, Annie has to decide if she can live with killing a man and tells herself that if she can’t, she can always turn herself in later. However, during the remainder of her ride, The Hitchhiker keeps making appearances and attempts to get into her car.

In a panic, Annie drives off the road, through trees and practically totals her car in an effort to shake The Hitchhiker. Each time he appears, he’s sure to say “Thanks for the ride, lady!” which only shakes her up more. Never have five words made someone question their sanity as much as these have. (Repeated a dozen times over 24 minutes, some viewers questioned their sanity as well. In my house, however, it was one of my mother’s favorite movie quotes, so I’ve always had a soft spot for this segment).

When Annie eventually finds her way home, she believes a concussion caused her to see The Hitchhiker repeatedly. But her dirty deed catches up with her when he shows up from under her car. His monstrous, mangled voice screams, “THANKS FOR THE RIDE LADY!” as he strangles her. Afterward, he leaves his DOVER sign sprawled across her chest as a clue to her misdeeds.

Perhaps the most interesting twist I noticed years later as an adult was that Annie’s husband was the man in the BMW who called 911. So, the only reason she actually arrived home before he did was because he stopped for the hit and run accident she was responsible for. Speed kills, kiddies.

  When it comes down to it, Creepshow 2 may not have impressed critics as much as it’s predecessor, but it’s an eerie compilation of campy creeps. It’s also a complete nostalgia-fest for anyone who hasn’t viewed it in a few years. Personally, I find it to be an enjoyable, fun fright. Thanks for the ride, Stephen and George!

What side of the fence do you fall on when it comes to Creepshow 2? Tell us…

  The post Revisiting CREEPSHOW 2 After 31 Years appeared first on Nightmare on Film Street - Horror Movie Podcast, News and Reviews.

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[toycarousel]

What is kin/kinning?

Ahahahaha~! I figured I’d get asked the question after reblogging that post.  :’) Well, kinning in the case of the joke I reblogged, kinda just means talking about/being somewhat openly kin on your main blog.  It’s a kin community joke, I guess.  ; P

Now, what kin itself is, is a lot more complicated to explain, and I’ll try to be concise about it, because I know I ramble a whole lot, and I don’t want to make things even more perplexing, but I have a feeling I’m going down the rabbit hole here.  :’)

***Essentially, being kin means that you are you, but also someone/something/some other essence or being.  This conviction can be spiritual in nature, it can be related to mental illness, or it can simply be a person feeling like they identify so much with a certain animal, concept, character, etc., that they are exactly that thing they identify with~!!! And they use the term kin to communicate that to other ppl~!!!

***So, to boil it down, say a person refers to themselves as doll-kin.  That means that, on a fundamental level of what that person considers their existence as, they believe they are, in addition to being themselves, also a literal doll.  Same can be said of space-kin, ghost-kin, tiger-kin; anything at all~!!!***

My Personal Conception of Kin: For me, specifically, it’s maaaaaainly kind of a spiritual (???) thing (it’s a spiritual thing for a lot of otherkin, but they may or may not share my exact spiritual beliefs).  I believe in parallel or alternate planes of existence that may have existed before, after, or at the same time as ours.  In addition to that, I believe that creative energy (that writers, artists, original creators of any sort) draw a lot of what they create from the prior existence of parallel Universes.  I think that they have the unique ability to tap into what Stephen King referred to in his novel “Lisey’s Story” as:

“...the pool where we all go down to drink, to swim, to catch a little fish from the edge of the shore; it's also the pool where some hardy souls go out in their flimsy wooden boats after the big ones. It is the pool of life, the cup of imagination, and she has an idea that different people see different versions of it, but with two things ever in common: it's always about a mile deep in the Fairy Forest, and it's always sad.  Because imagination isn't the only thing this place is about.”

A related belief is that when someone comes up with a story, they’re either telling the story of a Universe that actually exists; or, they’re creating a Universe as they make the story (in some Pagan circles, there’s a belief that if you can imagine something, it already exists somewhere, and sometimes by imagining a world, we create worlds -- this stuff is all basically preamble as to what fiction-kin is, though).  

And I know this is going to sound p wild to ppl who aren’t super spiritual, or who don’t believe in unproven/vague scientific theories, or who just have their own set of beliefs that clash will all this, and that’s okay~! I don’t feel the need to argue with anyone about whether or not kinfolk, therians, fickin, etc., exist.  It’s a set of convictions that I, and many other kinfolk, have based on our fundamental beliefs, current spiritual beliefs, and deeply-felt instincts/intuition.

Fickin (fiction kin), which is more related to the spiritual beliefs that I talked about above, is basically when someone believes that they are a fictional character that exists atm.  As an example of that, someone could say that they’re kin with Link, from Legend of Zelda, and that means that they literally are Link, and comprehend a part or a whole of their own identity as being Link. 

Some common/reasonable misconceptions about what is and isn’t related to ppl who are otherkin:

Therians are often mixed up with kinfolk, and I am not very well educated on therians, so here’s a link as to what they could be defined as, by many actual therians (some also call themselves kin, and some don’t): http://otherkin.wikia.com/wiki/Therians (I wish I had a more comprehensive link -- if anyone out there does, feel free to send it my way, and I’ll publish it for anyone who’s curious~! I just don’t feel qualified to talk about it in-depth myself~!)

Alters are also confused with kins a lot of the time.  Alters are usually more specific to people with Dissociative Identity Disorder.  Alters can be characters, animals, concepts/objects, or individual personalities.  They’re different from ppl who are kin, because these individuals exist on their own, but within one body.  This state of being used to be called multiple personality disorder, to clarify (but don’t be fooled by media depictions -- they’re really not how they’re portrayed in horror movies and other things like that).  Dissociative identity disorder is complex, and I’m also not an expert on it, so I won’t go deep into that one either.  The difference between an alter and a kin could be very loosely described as:

kin = a person themselves, who has a singular consciousness, but believes that they are in some way non-human, or essentially different from how they currently live/present themselves.alter = someone else (or multiple beings, with their own personalities, lives, and memories) living within an individual, and who sometimes operate that person’s body, or “front.”

***I thiiiiiiiiiink that’s as short an explanation as I can make it, but I gotta clarify again that being kin is viewed somewhat (or even extremely) differently by every person who is kin.  For me, it’s spiritual; for some people, it mainly means that they don’t feel like they literally are their kin, but they identify with whatever being/concept/character so strongly that they still feel they are kin; and for some people, they feel like being kin is related to specific ways of existing within a mental illness (I’m not mentioning this to say that kin ppl are mentally ill, or vice verse, I just happen to know a lot of ppl who do feel that they’re, personally, kin because of their mental illness(es)).

(About the joke I reblogged): Ppl who are kin are usually made fun of on this website (aaaaaand p much everywhere else), and a lot of us are p relaxed about that and feel comfortable with making jokes about ourselves -- I’m one of those ppl.  I feel fine with taking the piss out of myself a lot, and that’s basically what the joke I reblogged was: a variation of a meme, but this time centring the fact that a lot of ppl reasonably don’t admit to being kin on their main blog because of the negative attention it garners.

I know I said this would be short, but goodness, if I don’t have a whole lot to say about the topic.  :’) I did try to be succinct, so if a lot is missing (according to other kinfolk), pls go easy on me~! Feel free to send in your own experiences with being kin, and I’ll be happy to publish/talk about them, if y’all are interested~!

*******tl;dr: Here’s a link to someone else’s more comprehensive/direct definition and FAQ about otherkin, if you feel like reading it~

[mushroomhedgehog]

FILM REVIEW: Stephen King's It (2017), Spoiler Free *Before I start, I would like to apologize to any coulrophobics (people afraid of clowns) that I teased for not wanting to see this movie. This film is a nightmare even for people who aren't initially afraid of clowns. But that doesn't mean you should avoid it, as there's so much more to it than just the scares. There's a lot of drama and emotional moments between the kids that make this an overall great movie, rather than just a great horror movie.* In 1986, Stephen King released one of his many famous novels, simply known as "It." Referring to the main antagonist of the tale, the book chronicled the journey of several children living in a small town of Derry, Maine, and their efforts to defeat a mysterious creature that has been responsible for many unsolved murders and disappearances in Derry. The creature primarily takes the form of a clown named Pennywise, and terrorizes the children multiple times throughout the story. The book was later adapted for a miniseries in 1990, with Tim Curry as the title character. Now, as the legend of the creature says, twenty-seven years have passed, and It has returned. A new film starring Bill Skarsgard as the creature in his clown form has emerged from the darkness, and it had a lot of hype to live up to. The question is, did it manage to meet the expectations of the hype? You bet it did. If you think watching the miniseries will prepare you for what you're about to face in this film, you are dead wrong. Not only is this a fantastic film for how scary it is, but it also has incredible emotional elements between the main actors. There is an incredibly bright future for all of the young actors who appear in this movie. They interact with each other like actual kids, and not like a typical live-action Disney Channel/Nickelodeon show. Their fear and emotions in the film seem incredibly real. I haven't been this convinced by a performance in a horror film since The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And finally, there's a lot of horror movies that make me just want to watch the victims just die like Friday the13th, but this is a massive exception. Every moment of the movie had me concerned for what was going to happen to these kids, whether Pennywise was responsible for it or not. When you get the audience to connect with your characters like that, especially for a horror movie, you have a good movie. As for Pennywise? Bill Skarsgard completely nailed the role. As Bill himself said, there's no point in making comparisons to Tim Curry. This is a completely new take on Pennywise, but he definitely instills fear in a much different way that will haunt you. Bill not only manages to act like a clown with his voice and mannerisms, but he also puts on a very serious look and a devilish grin at the right times when you know something terrible is bound to happen. This is a horror icon that is among the ranks of Freddy Krueger, Norman Bates, and plenty of other horror antagonists that managed to do their job so well that they are still remembered to this day. I honestly hope Bill is nominated for some kind of award for his performance as Pennywise. Credit should also be given to the makeup and special effects team, as they had just as much of an impact on the scare factor of Pennywise as Bill's acting did. In conclusion, do not, I repeat, DO NOT, let the usual argument that a remake is usually worse than the original keep you from seeing this movie. This is not only one of the best remakes in film history, but it's also one of the best movies based on a Stephen King work since The Shining, Misery, and The Shawshank Redemption. If you want to really treat yourself to some scares this Halloween, please see this movie. It deserves all the support it can get. It (2017) gets an A+ from me. It has managed to dethrone Wonder Woman as my favorite film of the year, and was incredibly close to dethroning The Shining as one of my all-time favorite horror movies. Make it a priority to see this movie if you love scary movies.

[nonbinarypastels]

about your post on how liking certain fiction doesnt make you a bad person i really don't get it. if you're not a bad person why like bad things in fiction? how does what you read not show what kind of person you are?

Because life and humanity are not just not that simple. It seems easy to believe something like "person likes horror = person is obviously a horrific human being" until you actually take a closer look at people, until you actually think about the complexity and depth of human thoughts, feelings, and desires, and you realize that to boil all of human personality down to what someone has read in a book or watched in a movie is reductive black and white thinking at it's worst.

Let's talk about popular media for a minute:

The book 'The Silence of the Lambs' and the rest of the Hannibal Lecter book series which feature a cannibal as a main character and shows other such delightful past-times such as loving moths and making trench coats out of people has won multiple awards and sold millions of copies. The show 'Hannibal' that was adapted from the book series (and, it should be noted, was 1000x more gorey than the books) had millions of viewers and continues to have an active fandom who have created thousands of pieces of fanworks based on the show that are just as bloody (if not more) than what is seen on screen. The 'A Song of Ice and Fire' books which are 90% murder and 10% incest have also sold millions of copies, saying nothing of Game of Thrones which everyone should know is also widely popular. On a similar note, the book 'Flowers in the Attic'---everybody and their mother's original problematic fave---has sold over forty million copies worldwide and has been adapted onto screen several times.

These are only a few examples of books---there are millions more. Crime thrillers routinely top best seller lists, as does dark fiction in general, where the more horrifying and devastating the plot twist the more people tend to love the book. This is to say nothing of fanfiction (of which there are millions upon millions out there) which have as much, if not more, variety as published work.

Moving on to shows and movies: new horror movies are released every year because people can't get enough of them. The 'Scream' movie franchise, for example, is one of the most profitable ones out there and has made hundreds of millions of dollars in the United States alone. A new version of the movie 'It', based on Stephen King's highly popular horror book, will be coming out later this year along with over a dozen other horror flicks. Horror shows aren't quite as common but crime dramas are a dime a dozen. See: Criminal Minds which depicts horrible things being done to people in as much detail as you can get on network tv, a show that is going into its 13th season in September and continues to be popular.

Horror is also a rather popular game genre. See: the Silent Hill franchise, Resident Evil, Until Dawn, and many others. It's also a popular genre in comics, such as The Walking Dead which turned into a highly popular tv adaptation. This is all not even getting into music or art, both of which are mediums that can contain content that is just as 'problematic' as anything you'd find in books or on screen, because if I keep going on about this I'll be typing all day.

So

Take allll of that in. Take in all the examples I haven't mentioned, all of the millions of shows and movies and books and songs and comics and whatever else. Take that in and think of how many people those examples translate into. Millions of books sold = millions of people reading them. Millions of viewers = millions of people sitting down to watch these shows every week. Millions of dollars at the box office = millions of people giving their money in order to sit down and watch these movies.

That's millions and millions and millions of people who are consuming content which contains "bad" or "problematic" material. I feel it's completely accurate to state that these people are your family, your friends, your neighbors, probably even yourself because the probability that you've never consumed any of this content or don't know anyone who has is astronomical.

These are millions and millions and millions of people who, according to you, would be bad people simply because they consumed this content. And if you have consumed any of this content---which, again, you probably have at some point---that would make you a bad person too.

Does that honestly make sense to you? Do you honestly think that there are THAT many terrible people in the world? That the millions of people who, for example, sat down and watched Hannibal every week condone cannibalism in real life? That the people who have read the Game of Thrones books and loved them are all on the same level as someone who would screw his sister and push a kid out of a window? That the people who have watched every Scream movie are all a step away from putting on a mask and going on a stabbing spree?

If people were defined by the media they consumed and only the media they consumed with no other factors (such as what they actually believe is moral and ethical IRL, such as how they actually treat other people) then god help us all because the world would be a fucking utterly horrid place to be.

But, people aren't defined only by the media they consume because---again---people are much more complex than that and are so much more than only the kind of books they read or shows they watch.

This then begs the question: why do people consume this content? Why, if you're not condoning something, would you want to read about it or watch a movie about it? What do people get out of consuming fucked up media?

This isn't a new question. It's one that's been asked hundreds upon hundreds of time. If you only google "why do people like horror" you'll get page after page of results of laypeople and psychologists alike trying to explain it. The simple answer is basically that human beings as a whole like to feel intense emotions in a controlled, safe setting and as complex as we are we're also interested in the complexity of other people, even when they're fictional.

Most of us would not want to actually live in a horror movie, we wouldn't want to actually be locked in a closet with a guy on the other side breaking in with an ax and we wouldn't want to live in a haunted house surrounded by ghosts hellbent on murder and property damage. But in the safety of our own homes, a library, a movie theatre? We can sit down and read our books and watch our movies and feel terrified to our heart's blood-pumping content without ever having to actually put ourselves in harm's way. The same situation applies to other emotions: love, sadness, heartbreak, humor. Fiction gives people a chance to feel things as intensely as possible in a way that is, ultimately, safe. It gives people a way to escape and cope and be entertained and in a way live a life and experience things that it wouldn't be safe or practical or even desirable for them to experience in the real world.

And then there are plenty of people who like to consume this kind of media because they're simply fascinated by the psychology of the fictional characters involved. Like you want to know why people would want to consume this 'bad' content, the people who consume this content usually do so because they want to know what motivates these characters---what makes a person into a monster? What makes a monster into a person? And what does it say about us as people that we emphasize so strongly with monsters? There are entire swaths of people who find something almost addictive, almost holy about looking at the absolute darkest aspects of life and humanity and things beyond humanity and finding something in there that they can relate to and understand.

Human beings are, generally, an emotional species. We want to feel things. We want to feel things about people. We want to feel love and pain and fear and every single emotion there is to feel but we don't want to put ourselves in an unsafe position in order to do that. Fiction gives us a happy medium. The kind of fiction we consume doesn't make us bad people, it just makes us people, period, because people are complicated and flawed and messy and to try and apply black and white thinking to people as a whole is an exercise in futility. People aren't either good or evil, moral or immoral, "pure" or impure. It's more complicated than that, people are more complicated than that.

I've said it before and I'll say it a thousand more times: there are better ways to judge a person than by what fiction they like, by what movies or shows or books they prefer. The way people treat others matters. The way people talk about others matters. The way people believe things should be in real life matters. All a person's taste in fiction shows about them is their taste in fiction. You can't make any other assumptions about them based only on that because to do so is to try and apply an overly simple concept (liking fiction that contains bad things = you are a bad person) to something that isn't simple at all. Now, you don't have to like what another person likes or even understand it and you are 100% allowed to be critical of the media itself but if you go throughout life under the idea that people are defined by the media they consume then the world you believe you are in is going to look like a godawful place and every single person you ever meet is going to disappoint you because I think it's safe to say that there's not a single person on this earth who has only ever consumed 'morally pure' media. Everyone has watched a crime show, everyone has watched a horror movie, everyone has read a book or a fanfic with some fucked up things happening in it and anyone who says they haven't is lying their ass off.

The only way to not consume 'problematic' media is to never consume any media at all and if we are all defined by the media we consume, if we are all guilty of everything we have read about or watched on screen, then by that logic we are all bad people - we are all monsters - and that's just...not something that I believe in whatsoever, at all, because I think people are more complex than that and I have more faith in humanity than that.

[laylainalaska]

I've recently started posting and reblogging stuff about Stranger Things, and even writing fic for it, so how about I actually talk about what it is?

Stranger Things is an 8-episode horror/suspense miniseries on Netflix. There's a second season coming in October, but the first one is nicely self-contained. (It sets up a hook for the second season at the end, but all the major plot points are resolved, and resolved in a very satisfying way from my point of view.)

It's not seriously gory horror. It's similar to Stephen King or Supernatural. If you can handle those, you should be fine with this. Like a lot of Stephen King's stuff, the everyday details of the characters' lives and relationships are as important, and get at least as much screen time, as the meta-plot involving monsters, secret government experiments, and ghostly creepiness.

So what's it about?

It's late fall, 1983. A group of middle schoolers are playing Dungeons & Dragons. After one kid's character is killed by a monster, the group breaks up and takes off on their bikes -- but that kid never makes it home.

Soon the cops are investigating, the kids and their older brothers and sisters are investigating ... and some mysterious scientists from the top-secret-but-not-actually-secret government facility in town are also investigating, for reasons of their own. Meanwhile, in the process of looking for their missing friend, the kids meet a runaway their own age in the woods, who seems to have mysterious powers.

(All this basically happens in the first episode, so I haven't told you too much.)

As you can see, there is a LOT going on. There are three main groups of characters: the little kids (around whom the plot is mostly focused), the teenage Scoobies who are their big brothers/sisters, and the adults (a gruff, alcoholic cop who's lead investigator on the case, the missing kid's single mom, the government scientists). The plot moves back and forth between different sets of characters, as different individuals and groups pick up different pieces of the mystery and try not to die in the process.

It's a very well-done series: well written, strongly character focused, atmospherically creepy with a great period ambiance. There's a heavy focus on friendship and family, a neat redemption arc, and a lot of humor to balance the serious/dark parts. It’s obviously influenced by Stephen King and ‘80s slasher flicks (and probably by more recent stuff like Buffy and Supernatural as well). It has a bunch of the usual genre tropes (creepy psychic kids, evil government agents, teenagers running around screaming in the woods, maverick cops who are Out For Justice), but the show does a good job of making the characters feel grounded and real, and putting together the tropes in ways that are fresh and surprising.

What you won’t find here are any subversions in particular. Demographically it’s very similar to the source material it’s based on (mostly white cast, all het romances, etc); it’s effectively a loving, slightly more self-aware and genre-savvy homage to the ‘80s horror movies it’s based on, so let that be your guide to whether this might be your thing.

Personally, I loved it -- it hits a ton of my childhood nostalgia buttons, as well as being a really well-done series on its own. Feel free to ask me if you have any questions. :D It’s only 8 episodes and it’s streaming on Netflix, so it’s a pretty quick watch if you want to give it a try.