#backwater gospel

[ms-scarletwings]

- The Animation Workshop’s “The Backwater Gospel”, 2011 (Directed by Bo Mathorne)

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

SUMMARY: As long as anyone can remember, the coming of The Undertaker has meant the coming of death. Until one day the grim promise fails and tension builds as the God fearing townsfolk of Backwater wait for someone to die.

Watch the short on Youtube

[murphychips]

in the ongoing adventures of Murphy Can Spot Plagiarism From 500 Feet, For Some Reason,

someone in a YT comment recommended a band called The Hu and i decided to check them out, and i decided to look at this music video since it was posted only a month ago:

and right away as SOON as i start watching i think to myself that the style is eerily reminiscent of Bo Mathorne's The Backwater Gospel, a short animated film posted 12 years ago:

so i'm like oh cool someone else has clearly seen his body of work and got inspired! very neat! so i keep watching... and then things get a little TOO familiar.

okay so; in the music video all the crowd gets into a fight with THIS specific transition:

with this effect running throughout the next scene:

which is EXTREMELY similar to the fight scene in The Backwater Gospel. how similar? uh--

that similar.

and again, with very similar framing:

this is pretty much the only scene that matches up with The Backwater Gospel, so the rest of it i'm... presuming is original content??? but i checked the credits and Bo Mathorne's name isn't there (nor the names of anyone else who also worked on The Backwater Gospel), so, yeah.

i guess maybe they figured nobody would recall a video from 12 years ago and connect the dots. thankfully, i'm a maniac, so, uh. i did.

[best-animated-short-tourney]

Choose Your Favorite!

Vote in the other polls

Where to find the shorts:

[sappho-ilmarinen]

Four horror shorts you might like

I want to share four of my favourite horror shorts with you, two being animated and two "live action". They're all a bit unconvential, but that's what I love about them.

1. The Backwater Gospel

Triggers: blood, gore, religous (christian) abuse, some sudden lights and sounds

The premise is that there is this Undertaker, and each time he appears at a town, a person dies. However, when he comes to This Town, nobody dies for seven days. It's a brutal and symbolic tale of death and blind religous fanatism presented with a very unique animation style.

2. Dead Horse

Triggers: animal death, gore, disturbing sounds, body horror

This is a very short but very eerie animation. I couldn't really talk about the story that much. There is this... dead horse that is corrupting every animal in its twisted and dark image. The animation is beautiful and the sound design is chilling.

3. Portait of God

Triggers: a little blood, VERY fucking disturbing imagery (this can be potentially paranoia inducing, if you have psychosis or anything of that sort, or paranoid, I would advise to be very wary)

I have to admit, when writing this post, I rewatched all the works I talk about. Except this. Because to me at least, this is the most terrifying. And it hits a few personal strings as well.

The premise is that there is a girl, a christian girl, who is rehersing what it looks like a school project on a painting. The portait of God. And the painting depicts nothing but a pitch black darkness. Except some people claim they see something in the darkness.

This whole film caused me immense paranoia when I watched it, so as I said in the beginning of this section, keep that in mind. Why do I recommend it then? Because as much as it freaked me out, it was an experience. It felt like I saw something truly forbidden.

4. ROOD

Triggers: nothing much, except the general eeriness. Well, one jumpscare and disturbing sounds

I could best describe it as atmospheric lovecraftian horror. But wait, where are the scary space squids? Well, to think Lovecraftian horror is about space squids is a bit... Missing the point.

You see, lovecraftian horror builds on the uncanny, the unfamiliar but strangely familiar. Like this film. There is a lonely man in a museum depot. A door. A book. These are all things we know. And yet, something is off, something that we cannot quite grasp. That is lovecraftian horror.

Also the outro music is fucking banger.

(Let me know if I missed any triggers. Also let me know your opinions on these. :D )

[cannibalistic-cucumber]

Everyone should watch these two in this order, I think

[meanbossart]

Since Bhaal was a human before he ascended, and the dead three were introduced between 2-3e before some things became standardized as they are now, I like the idea of Bhaal just not knowing what most non-humans look like. He knows the general idea, but if your Durge is a tiefling for example, he’s not sure about like, the foot situation. Are they like human feet (plantigrade) or like imp feet (digitigrade) they have tails… but do they taper or have a tuft at the end. That sort of thing.

So to most people outside of Durge’s “race” they just sort of shrug it off cause that’s not a question you ask a stranger, but it just amps up the unease when surrounded by others.

I’m rambling a bit, I see a lot of active Durges and tbh I feel like there’s a missed angle in regards to the fact they are a bit of rotten god meat given form and sapience. You ever see a short film called the backwater gospel? That’s the vibe I’m imagining

I get what you mean and I do like the concept! I think it can pretty reasonably go both ways. Either a at-a-glance perfectly normal normal member of X species made that way to be more easily embraced into every-day society and blend into its population, or something more "off-brand" for one reason or another. Bhaal is a weird guy who makes weird decisions, you can bend a lot of things to make them work in your favor lore-wise.

Also, I can't really be given much credit for this decision. Do not be mistaken: beefy drow came first, lore came later. I made DU drow huge and gave him cool eyes because I felt like it and wasn't expecting to play this game for very long. It took me getting sucked into the story and sucked into DnD as consequence for me to even care about DU drow not looking anything like... Well, a drow, and deciding I needed to justify it within the story in some way.

The (rather vague) way I choose to think about it, is that wherever Bhaal's flesh happened to land/sprout/spawn into existence, it was bound to roughly imitate it's surroundings, however badly. Like planting a tree in a biome where it doesn't usually thrive and watching it desperately try to adapt and flourish regardless.

I also choose to believe Bhaal wanted his spawn to suffer and develop a healthy dose of misanthropy, which is why he put him somewhere where he was VASTLY more likely to perish - if he lived despite all odds, then he would know for sure he was worthy of being his progeny.

[roseofhybrids]

Tried reblogging something a minute ago, but Tumblr gave me an error and now that post's gone into the void

but anyway, the point was that animated movies are still cinema and as such will have darker themes. And that those darker animated movies deserved to have their art direction, cinematography, and story telling appreciated beyond "wow isn't it kinda weird that this cartoon is so violent and bloody"

Not every animated movie/show is made for kids, and even when they ARE specifically made for children, toddlers even. They're still made by adult people, and sometimes those people have something to say with their art

anyway some recommendations:

There's a man in the woods

The Backwater Gospel

Sundown Any of the SIAMES, Rare Americans, or MILGRAM music videos, but I'll link to Summer Nights - Alone In The Darkness - Hullabaloo[flashing light warning] - Cats, Dogs, & Rats - The Purge March - and Cat anything by Cartoon Saloon

if you prefer anime: Bochi the Rock Odd Taxi Mob Psycho 100 [hi Mel] Perfect Blue

[fluff-and-such]

Since you might be interested (and likely read the Sin War trilogy) based on map and region information, Diablo IV lately hinted at the first novel taking place in Teganze (AKA: Diablo equivalent of African savanna). Thoughts on that?

Here's the thing about The Books.

The Sin War trilogy came out in 2006. Massive chunks of them have already been retconned (The Worldstone is a big one, Rathma being Not Dead is pretty significant. Apparently there was an active volcano somewhere in Estuar), and characters as they are in the books behave drastically different from how they do in the games. The geography was never that well laid out to begin with. At this point, they're more of a vague guide than gospel when it comes to the current series, so take anything you read in them with a grain of salt.

That being said.

If you get creative, and look at things a bit lopsided, and accept that some things just aren't going to perfectly slot together, you can kinda piece together roughly where/how things took place.

I've been thinking that Birthright actually starts up in the Fractured Peaks, and makes its way into and through Hawezar, ending at the very edge of Toraja. They do cross through some scrubland, which could be Teganze, but it's mentioned in one sentence and nothing of note happens there. Scales of the Serpent crosses south west down through Toraja, and eventually curves northwest up into Kehjan as they head for the City, before flipping up to head straight north to the Cathedral of Light. Exactly where Kehjan the city, and the Cathedral of Light are, is a bit of a mystery.

Seram is surrounded by a temperate forest, and Uldyssian and his companions who hale from the area are considered northerners/uplanders. Seram is possibly closer to the Cathedral of Light than any other location in the books, at least laterally. There are two zones in D4 that have temperate forest; the Peaks, and Scosglen. It should be noted that D4 takes place in the winter time, and the Sin War seems to be during the summer, or possibly spring (for being a farmer, Uldyssian makes no mention of when his next harvest might be. They have good weather through the entire series despite being in the 'north' though.)

Seram could be in either one; we don't know conclusively which side of the mountains its on. Being in the southern end of Scosglen would would put Kehjan/jistan immediately south of the town, when it's stated to be more westerly. Kehjan is also noted to be a few days ride-by-caravan to the nearest major seafaring ports, with travelers able to get lost and end up in Seram by accident.

The sea-port could be something on the Twin Seas, or it could be one on the Sea of Light. We don't know, either one could fit. Personally though, I like to think Backwater in Hawezar is our port-town, doing trade with the Western countries over the Sea of Light.

As the group plan to flee Partha in Birthright, Mendeln tells us that Toraja (present-day Nahantu) is still to the Southwest of Kehjan. They're two separate regions. The group plans to hide in the Torajan jungles to escape what Lilith started. Scales of the Serpent takes place entirely within the region of Toraja though. They rampage their way through the Torajian jungles on their mission to root out the Triune.

Kind of fitting that Mephisto's tomb and shenanigans are apparently in the same place as the original Temple of the Triune.

Now, the differences between Toraja and Kehjan are a little...muddy. There are multiple books and games that put them as being two different entitys, one entity, or sometimes even three.

The lands that make up Kehjan become Kehjistan after the conclusion of the Sin War. This was at the beginning of the Age of when the Vizjerei were in control, and they moved the capital from Kehjan the City to Viz-Jun, down in Toraja somewhere. During the Sin War, Kehjan contained parts of Kurast/Toraja/Nahantu, but lost them over time. Nowadays, Kehjistan mainly consists of the dried out borderlands. Big difference from the apparent verdant jungle that it was made up of in the books eh?

It could be that the various magical battles over the ages ruined the lands. That's actually the explanation given for the Desolate Sands; that the area used to be lush, but was blasted flat and ruined by a particularly nasty Mage Clan battle. It's not clear whether or not all the damage Uldyssian and Inarius do to the landscape surrounding the Cathedral is undone or not. One might imagine that such a clash would leave behind some kind of impact, but then, Uldyssian may have gone ahead and fixed everything when he ascended.

Kurast is it's own can of worms. In D2 its treated as a separate entity from Toraja, even though it actually makes up most of Toraja itself. Kehjistan 'owns' it at the time, along with their more northernly territories. After Mephisto thoroughly ruins the capital city of Travincal, the capital is transferred to Caldeum, which prospers.

Until it doesn't.

The most likely explanation here is that a powerful Kehjistan conquered or annexed the Torajian territories through an allyship with the Mage Clans, shortly after the Sin War. After the Mage Clan Wars, Kehjistan began a slow decline in power, and coincidentally a slow receding of land. By present-day Diablo IV, it is nothing more than the burnt out shell of a once-great empire.

Now, the Cathedral. We know it takes about a day and a half for the Edyrem to march from Kehjan to the Cathedral, although they have the benefit of mowing down the forest in their path. So lets say its about two days for a good ol' Pilgrim. Trouble is, we don't know exactly where Kehjan the City was. Maybe it became Caldeum itself, perhaps it is lost in the sands somewhere. Maybe Blizzard has changed all of this, and it is actually down in Nahantu somewhere.

Tbh I feel like Blizzard has shot themselves (and the rest of us) in the foot by not already showing where Kehjan + the Temple of the Triune + The Cathedral were. They're running out of space.

This is more of a side-note, but both Uldyssian and Mendeln make note that the landscape changes biome very abruptly while they travel. Almost like a patchwork quilt. Almost as though someone (or, quite possibly, multiple someones) built and stitched the place together. Or perhaps even like a bunch of video-game levels interconnected with one another.

Anyway. Have a boney-Lilith x Inarius that I never posted and prolly won't finish, since this is my art blog.

[black-star-kunzite]

I can’t get over the fucking gospel song in the middle of GloRilla’s new album like we out here sinning actin like backwater harlots and get sent to church, pray for a bit then wish death on my enemies after

Truly the most Christian experience may God bless big Glo

[doyourememberrocknrollradio]

Ghoultown "Bury Them Deep" ("The Backwater Gospel")

[tiredtief]

Bro I'm sorry but I'm really fed up about this topic as an animation nerd and I have to comment.

Whatever you think of V*vziepop and her content, you have to admit the fact that her shows have become synonymous with 'indie animation' (despite ostensibly being far from indie at this point, being now produced by a major studio and put on a huge streaming service) is a giant fucking disservice to the rest of the indie animation world and is actively harming the discussion on this topic.

You look up 'indie animation' on YouTube and a huge portion of what you get is video essays about how indie animation is toppling Disney with fucking H*zHo thumbnails, like that's the only example of indie animation that exists out there?? Why are there no extensive video essays about other indie animations like the gorgeous visuals of Lackadaisy, the subversive storytelling of Blackford Manor, the dark cynicism of Backwater Gospel, the impressive scope of Bigtop Burger, or the full animated show available on YouTube for free that was literally made by one person that is No Evil, or even just anything on the dozens of impressive projects in just this playlist? Do I really have to make those essays myself? The fact that Cartoon Saloon, the studio that made Song of the Sea and Wolfwalkers, has failed to turn a profit on any of their movies despite being ostensibly one of the best indie animation studios out there today is catastrophic.

Anyway if you care about real indie animation, do yourself a favor and go find animation channels/studios and follow them, watch and appreciate their work. Not only will you make someone's day but you'll be doing a hell of a lot more for supporting indie animation than the show hosted on Amazon fucking Prime with Broadway stars for voice actors and the backing of a studio worth $2.5 billion.

[best-animated-short-tourney]

Choose Your Favorite!

Vote in the other polls here

Where to find the shorts:

[zackthebrown2]

because i have an incessant need to curate lists....

i feel like short films, in general, get sort of overlooked. so for halloween, here are some horror/horror-adjacent recommendations. i split the list between animation and live action, and i ordered them by length. also, a general tw: blood, gore, etc... not all of them have any of that, but just a heads up.

Animation: Perihelion (2013) - dir. Nick Cross (2:51) [Nick Cross was the art director on Over the Garden Wall] There's a Man in the Woods (2014) - dir. Jacob Streilein (3:35) Teeth (2015) - dir. Tom Brown & Daniel Gray (6:02) Winston (2017) - dir. Aram Sarkisian (6:24) 100.000 Acres of Pine (2020) - dir. Jennifer Alice Wright (7:13) The Backwater Gospel (2011) - dir. Bo Mathorne (9:32) Coyote (2021) - dir. Lorenz Wunderle (9:55) Ghost Dogs (2022) - dir. Joe Cappa (10:45) Jack Stauber's OPAL (2020) - dir. Jack Stauber (12:30) [this one's a mix of live action and claymation]

Live Action: The Cat with Hands (2001) - dir. Robert Morgan (3:31) Portrait of God (2022) - dir. Dylan Clark (7:30) Creep Box (2022) - dir. Patrick Biesemans (9:16) Curve (2016) - dir. Tim Egan (9:51) Unedited Footage of a Bear (2014) - dir. Alan Resnick & Ben O'Brian (10:28) Eyes of Eidolon (2020) - dir. Davi Pena (11:02) This House Has People in It (2016) - dir. Alan Resnick (11:55) Angel (2022) - dir. Dicky Chalmers (16:10) Moshari (2022) - dir. Nuhash Humayun (22:05) Zygote (2017) - dir. Neill Blomkamp (22:23) The Chair (2023) - dir. Curry Barker (24:22)

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Mark Fulton

“Jesus loves me! This I know, For the Bible tells me so” (Traditional, Words by Anna B. Warner)

Most Christians assume Jesus loved anyone who accepted him; that Jesus had a personal interest in each and every individual. Yet they misunderstand their main man. Jesus did not love Gentiles (who he referred to as pagans.) He told his disciples:

“Do not turn your steps to pagan territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel”  (Matt. 10:6, NJB.)

He said:

“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of  Israel”  (Matt. 15:24, NJB.)

Jesus even told his fellow Jews not to pray like pagans (non Jewish people):

“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:7–8, NJB.)

Here is Jesus’ encounter with a Greek (i.e. non-Jewish) woman:

“He left that place and set out for the territory of Tyre. There he went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he could not pass unrecognized. A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him straight away and came and fell at his feet. Now the woman was pagan, by birth a Syrophonecian and she begged him to cast the devil out of her daughter and he said to her ‘the children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house dogs’. But she spoke up ‘Ah yes sir’ she replied ‘but the house dogs under the table can eat the children’s scraps’. And he said to her ‘for saying this, you may go home happy; the devil has gone out of your daughter.’ So she went off to her home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone” (Mark 7:24–30, NJB.)

Caesaria was the capital of Judea and Sepphoris the capital of Galilee, yet there is no record that Jesus ever visited either city, despite their size and importance, possibly because Gentiles populated them.

Jesus could have taken his mission outside Palestine. Egyptians, Greeks, Africans, and Romans might have been wowed by his words of wisdom, yet he did not bother with them either, as they too were in Gentile territories.

People who push the “Jesus loves you” line need to read their Bibles more carefully, and should try to understand the real history. It is obvious Jesus did not even like you unless you were Jewish.

The man portrayed in the Gospels was often not meek, mild or tolerant. Consider how Jesus threatened people with hell, and bad-mouthed anyone who did not worship him. The Gospels’ authors were not even consistent enough to create an attractive image of Jesus.

Yeshua, the real historical character, if he ever existed, grew up uneducated in the violent xenophobic backwater that was first century Galilee. He was executed by the Romans because he was a militant sectarian zealot. It is obvious that his image as a peace loving, benevolent, humanitarian preacher is a fiction, written by propagandists decades after his death. They were intent on creating an image of him that was the opposite of who he really was.

==

The bible, like the quran and any other cult doctrine, doesn't advocate for universal love. Only for those in the author's tribe.