#blood beast from outer space

[weirdlookindog]

The Night Caller (1965)

AKA Blood Beast from Outer Space, Night Caller from Outer Space

[movieposters1]

[rose-arwen-padme]

The Jedi Council waited respectfully so he could walk down the ship's ramp first.

Technically, the first boots that met the plaza floor were those of his new guard. New to him—not new to the position. Each of these stone-faced men was already tall, but the black plumes jetting out from their helmets added to their imposing frames. Neither the movement of their uniformed march nor the innocent wind could bend the stricken feathers. The uneducated eye would think these virile men in their metallic armor were the more formidable unit, in stark contrast to the variably aged Jedi Masters hanging behind in their soft, unassuming robes.

Their weapons were on full display. This was about presentation as much as it was about protection. The guards covered as much vertical air as the Neimoidians with their own high hats, yet in their bearing the sentries possessed none of the defeat or cowardliness.

He didn't look at the failed oppressors when he strolled right past them; there wasn't even an acknowledgment of their existence. Perhaps that should have been a sign, but clues are more difficult to spot when you aren't aware you should be looking for them. He was nothing but grins and celebration. Puffed sleeves swung left to right as he traveled forward. This was when he still infused his wardrobe with welcoming blues and browns in the fashion of Naboo's wealthiest—carryovers from decades spent representing them. Long fabrics in charcoal, black, and blood red came later.

I observed from afar as he cordially greeted Obi-Wan. The mild distance and the breeze prevented a clear listening, but I heard him say something about bravery. Then his eyes shifted to the blond-haired boy idling at the Jedi's hip. No amount of space between me and the trio could filter the beaming smile that spread till maxed, nor could I miss the way his eyes went from polite automation to enthralled.

Then I watched—as a pleased spectator to this event, and as a friend—when the new leader of the Galactic Republic placed his hand on Ani's shoulder. The boy was just as worthy of adoration and admiration as anyone, but I recognized what a special moment this was. Though he was so much more than his background, Ani was a former slave from the Outer Rim, only recently indoctrinated into our Republic's fold. Yet the Supreme Chancellor—the most powerful figure in the galaxy; a demon who knew exactly what he was doing—placed a hand of friendship and blessing on the very tunic Ani had worn in his slavery.

Claiming him. Publicly claiming him in front of all of us—the Jedi Council, Obi-Wan, and although I was the unexpected chess piece no one saw coming at the time, he even claimed Anakin right in front of me.

None of us realized what we had just witnessed. When we felt the breeze snake through our ranks, we never suspected it was Fate infiltrating the show. Brushing up against our shoulders. Whispering condolences behind our ears. I remember the weight of my black gown, donned for mourning. I remember the relief I felt at his victory with the Senate, though Naboo had already secured hers without it. I remember the paleness of his hand as it briefly rested next to the boy's tan neck. A bloodless beast touching the sun god heir.

Still grinning, he paraded next towards my group, success at his public and private triumphs electrifying his eyes. Congratulations were exchanged between us like tokens. He smiled at me, and he spoke pretty words for "peace" and "prosperity."

I smiled back and welcomed him inside the palace. Later that evening, we stood side-by-side as Qui-Gon Jinn burned.

If I'd known then what I know now, I would have run forward while Palpatine was still disembarking from the ship, put my body between him and Ani in order to shield the boy, and screamed.

Read more of Suppression, a fanfic telling the story of AOTC from Padmé’s POV, at Archive of Our Own.

[toweringclam]

TMA RPG Entities 4: The Beyond

Explanation, The Desolate, The Machine, The Hunger

AKA: The Celestial Piper, The Rancid Rainbow, The Infinite Canvas, Bremen, Splatter, It Goes Like "Tee-Tum-Tiddly-Tee" (quoted part varies)

Fears: Insanity, random violence, inability to communicate, earworms, disturbing art, outer space, things you don't understand

Manifestations: Captivating music, art made of human paint, non-euclidean sculpture, garish neon colors that push the limit of perception, creatures that look more like crayon drawings than anything real, animals only vaguely resembling anything on earth, ecstatic trances

Most similar: The Slaughter, The Spiral, cosmic horror aspects of the Vast

Avatars: A group of animal-masked lunatics who "make music" with clubs and knives, a lonely boy made of stars who gives potentially fatal "gifts" to his "friends," a pipe organ made of bones played by a many-armed pianist

There are things beyond human perception, and they are so beautiful. Can't you hear? Can't you see? Perhaps with the right instruments, the right paint, you could make sense of what you've seen. Maybe you could make others understand the beauty of that which lies beyond. If the Hunger is something basic and primal being stretched over human consciousness, the Beyond is something vast and incomprehensible being compressed into an unrecognizable slurry to fit within the human mind.

Colors, shapes, sounds... these are the basic building blocks of understanding. The way a child communicates with the world. Is the Beyond like some celestial child, unaware of the damage it causes? Or some cosmic vastness trying and failing to communicate with humans in a way we can comprehend? The undeniable beauty is at stark odds with the horrific violence. There's something disturbingly innocent about the Beyond, and it's almost more terrifying if it doesn't have any malice towards us.

A text in a language not from this world speaks of a celestial messenger carrying an urgent report through a divine battlefield. None could match its speed and its wit, as it darted beneath falling titans and evaded the swords of indescribable monstrosities. Yet as it ran, the message was splashed with the blood of countless horrors and the screams of the void-beasts caused cacophony in its song. The message continues to this day, distorted and incomprehensible, bringing ruin to all who think they alone understand it.

[monstersdownthepath]

Would a fiend associated with hair work?

Maybe a barber Velstrac or a demonic cousin Itt. A daemon of hair would pretty unique though.

------

Probably! It's a fun theme, and one I've pondered on two separate occasions myself; the Indomitable Radiance, an Outer God I've mentioned a few times in other articles, is partially associated with hair (though it's more concerned with hygiene and beauty as a whole), as its own luscious locks need to be pruned and cut to remain perfect. The castoffs become Shaggoths and Shaglings, hair-based creatures obsessed with their own hygiene.

I've also got a pair of fey nobles in the works: One who believes in the beauty of beards, and one who believes in the beauty of baldness. They're mortal enemies.

A barber-ous fiend is interesting design space! I like the thought that pops into my head when considering a barber velstrac, a small subsection of velstrac who cultivate amazing hairstyles on themselves and others before scalping themselves or their victims to preserve their "works." Hairy demons are also all over, but ones focused on hair are few and far between; you mention a demonic Cousin Itt, and that makes me think of some awful pillar of hair that spreads strands out like webbing to ensnare and slice people apart.

This isn't from Pathfinder, but in my love of Dead by Daylight, I've created quite a few fan-killers, one of which is called the Clog or the Clot. It is what happens when the blood of the eldritch Entity presiding over the game mixes with the effluvium and runoff from its infinite human victims, birthing a beast of unholy and slimy hair whose texture and smell can only be described with 30 seconds of retching. A demon (or even a qlippoth) along those lines would fit perfectly into the Pathfinder universe!

[oncamelliastreet]

how would u recommend getting into 5sos?? i have friends who think i'll like them but it feels like a daunting task

OOO OO OOOOO

okay A) do it, they’re the best band ever and literally so funny you’ll die and luke hemmings is the loml so like you need to

B) the way i did it was i just listened to their first album and worked from there, but if we’re being extremely honest here their first album is hardly anyone’s favorite and that’s for a reason, so if you’re gonna listen to an album first i’d say either work from the beginning because you’ll here their growth more, or their 4th album CALM is really good and it’s only like 12 songs plus a bonus track and it’s a really good intro to them, or youngblood is my fav album by them so i’d definitely throw that your way

C) if you don’t want to listen to an album first and just want to get a feel, here are my fav songs by them

- take my hand (joshua tree version) ((ashton, the drummer, has said that this is the song he would want to define their band))

- lie to me (NOT the version featuring julia michaels) (this one comes with an extremely sad music video which i would be glad to describe to you in depth

- bad omens (literally one of their best songs)

- teeth

- no shame

- jet black heart (this one is really personal to their guitarist michael and they’ve said that they’re never removing it from their set list because it’s just too good which is amazing news because this song live is CATHARTIC)

- outer space/carry on (don’t be confused by the random silence in the middle it’s the rain in outer space if you listen closely, also i listen to this one every new year’s eve because it’s very hopeful and comforting)

- older (luke hemmings ft. his wife basically but it’s literally the most beautiful depressing love song and they randomly released it one day so i was crying at the bank after school when it first came out)

- not in the same way (THEIR BEST BRIDGE)

- out of my limit

- gotta get out (the first song they wrote and it fucking slaps dude)

also for some background info: they started out as a pop rock-ish band and luke hemmings is their lead singer, but they all sing and play instruments.

luke hemmings - lead singer, rhythm guitar (but he can also fucking shred because he’s made of angel dust)

calum hood - bass, background vocals mostly (he sings the entirety of wildflower & babylon and has mixed verses here and there throughout all their albums)

michael clifford - lead guitar, background vocals (he also has mixed verses here and there and sings the entirety of emotions)

ashton irwin - drums (and a beast at them) and background vocals (he had verses here and there too but not as common)

if you listen to a song, for example, Teeth, and you pause and think wait, there’s no way that’s the same guy singing because the vocals go so high and they were so deep before, that’s not possible, ITS LUKE!!! HE HAS THE MOST AMAZING RANGE OF ANY MALE ARTIST ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET AND CAN AND WILL SING AS HIGH OR AS LOW AS HE WANTS BECAUSE HE IS AN ICON

and if you wanna get to know their personalities first, carpool karabloke was the first video i watched of them (their australian hence karabloke) and it’s literally just them fucking around in the car listening to their album CALM (side note, that albums is there names —calum, ashton, luke, michael—because if there’s one thing they love, it’s naming an album after themselves. see: 5 seconds of summer, livesos, CALM, 5sos5)

and one more thing, if you listen to them and don’t really fuck with them (you would be wrong, by the way, listen again) then two of their members have solo works!! ashton had two albums: blood on the drums and superbloom, and luke has an album: when facing the things we turn away from (this one i could really talk about for hours because it’s my favorite album of all time) and a long ep called “boy” which is also amazing, so i would check those out

okay sorry i totally just infodumped on you because i have so much 5sos info in my brain and nobody to share it with YAYAYAY so if you ever want like a super in depth breakdown of like one of their music videos or their history feel free to ask me about it because i would loooove to talk about this for hours

also you’ll have to wait a sec for your flower because my sister literally told me she got engaged in the middle of me writing this so i got distracted 😭

[tantalizingtopi]

Snow

Gortash x The Dark Urge

NSFW

Word count: 1110

Disclaimer: characters belong to Larian Studios and Baldur’s Gate 3

The Dark Urge discovers an intruder in their private oasis during a blizzard.

I’m longing for my bitter cold winter storms and wanted to pen a little something with two characters that live rent free in my brain. Enjoy!

The white comes in droves, the wind whipping the minuscule crystals into a raging silent blindness. Markings of those who may have ventured out into the abyss vanish almost as quickly as they appear. The streets of the city are devoid of any life as I make my way home, having quickly found my own place away from the temple so that I am not always consumed by my work, worship and surroundings.

Nothing special, a small one room house just barely in the outer city. Sceleritas had a fit when he discovered where I had been spending a fair share of my evenings. He had fretted, “Milady, this shack is so beneath your status, what will the others think of their vile leader if they knew you were staying here?”

I had slid my knife beneath his throat. “Then you will make sure they don’t find out, won’t you? You will stay away from this place, or I will cast you off.”

He had not returned for fear my threat may not be idle, and no one had mentioned my little hideaway. I had secured a more prominent residence in the Upper City as well, for dealings and clout. But my dirty little hole in the outer city is special. My little secret. Well, one of my little secrets.

So when I see the soft glow of the fire through the white, lashing out at the cold through the cracks in the doorframe, I stop short, electric alarm streaking down my spine. Someone unwanted in my space. My sacred space. Fury clamps down around my throat, my hand reaching into the folds of my cloak to pluck my knife from its strap. Flashes of beautiful blood spattering in the white snow, the heat of it melting into the white leaving behind stains that none will find until spring gnaw at my vision.

I fling open the door, intent on murderous happenings, only to freeze my blade centimeters from my partner's neck. He smiles. “I thought you might come here tonight.”

Maim, kill, destroy, murder, your spot your sacred spot your safe place violated, kill him kill him kill him! Do it now do it do it! My urge demands of me. My hand trembles, urging me to dig in, my heart screaming at me to stop. My eyes widen in fear as I fight against my nature, against what I know is best. I shudder out a noise akin to a displacer beast in agony.

His fingers wrap against my shaking wrist, pulling it away from his throat, where I can almost see his pulse thumping. His eyebrow quirks skyward as he watches my expression, his remaining neutral, if not almost pleased. He takes his other hand and pries my little finger from the handle and jerks it backwards, forcing the dagger to fall to the floor, sticking into the wood. He immediately laces his fingers with mine, quelling the shake, and bringing it to its original position, he presses his lips to the back of my hand, a flirtatious grin on his face.

A shuddering breath I didn’t realize I was holding escapes my lips, and I feel my body relax slightly, having been successful at defying the urges within. For now. I let this man lead me further into my own home, closing the door against the white sheets of snow behind us. “How did you find this place?”

“It’s merely good business sense to be aware of any and all assets my partner possesses,” his dark eyes lock onto my pale ones. “And anything that may possess them. I’m trusting you’re feeling… better now?”

“I am,” feeling the heat from the hearth beginning to warm the chill from my bones. “You are incredibly foolish, coming here, surprising me. If I don’t slay you, your dimwittedness will.”

He chuckles as he begins to put more wood into the fire, stirring errant sparks. “You find me just as brilliant as I find you.”

“That is the harshest insult I think I’ve ever received. You wound me, Gortash.”

His laughter booms throughout the small home, warming me more than the fire ever could. He finishes tending the fire and stands up, closer to me than before. He plucks at the hem of my cloak, his voice dropping lower. “Let’s get you out of these wet clothes.”

My tongue is suddenly thick and unmoving in my mouth, and all I can do is nod imperceptibly, dropping my gaze slightly. I move to pull the length of fabric from around my neck, but his fingers beat me to it, his hands skimming over my shoulders as he lets the cloak pool on the floor at my feet. He clucks his tongue. “These are wet too, just how long were you out in this weather dear?”

“I—“ My sentence dies in my mouth as he takes two fingers and pushes an errant strand of hair from my face, then trails them down my neck, running them along the collar of my top, feather light against the top of my breasts. He lets them drift down farther, hooking them into the top of my corset and pulling me forward, closer to him.

My eyes catch his again, deep dark pools of desire reflecting my image back at me. In a flash, our lips find one another, the months of coiled tension releasing. We make quick work of one another’s clothing, and his hands grab at my thighs, hauling me up and around him as he brings me to the small bed tucked in the corner. He drops me onto it, himself following right behind, hands and mouth marauding my skin, setting me aflame.

The unrelenting onslaught of his tongue against me has me shattering to pieces beneath him, and when he finally slots his hips against mine, I dig my nails into his back, earning a groan from him. He moves ruthlessly against me, pinning me between him and the mattress. I sink my teeth into his shoulder, attempting to drown my cry of pleasure with his flesh.

“Fuck,” he snarls, twisting a hand in my hair and jerking my face to his, his lips bruising my own. He bites my lower lip and metallic taste blooms over my tongue, and we come apart together.

Outside, the snow continues to fall, wrapping around the one room home, blanketing our indiscretion. Tomorrow I know we will have to face what we have just done, but tonight, tonight I let Enver Gortash hold me close and whisper sweet nothings into my ear as I drift off, completely relaxed for the first time in recent memory.

[spacely0]

HORROR MOVIE RECS

♦ top tier ★ all-time fave

slashers: ♦intruder friday the 13th part 2 sleepaway camp 2 stage fright scream ★♦cold prey (Fritt velt) 1 & 2 texas chainsaw massacre 1 & 2 wrong turn halloween 1 & 2 & H2O A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors 1987 Child's Play 1 & ♦2 ★♦Curse of Chucky Phantom of the paradise Popcorn 1991 Club Dread My Bloody Valentine 1981 ★♦Society 1989 ♦Psychopath AKA Der Poppen Murders The Funhouse 1981 Peeping Tom happy brithday to me 1981 black christmas ★♦Sceance Maniac (the one with elijah wood) hell fest ♦Just before dawn 1981 Maniac Cop

scifi horror: The Curse of Frankenstein 1957 ♦The Revenge of Frankenstein 1958 ★♦Bride of Frankenstein 1935 ★♦the stuff ★♦the fly 1958 ★♦invasion of the body snatchers 1978 ★♦the thing ♦the faculty ★♦from beyond ★♦re-animator 2 ★♦prince of darkness 1987 Quatermass and the Pit 1967 ♦Pandorum Dr jekyll and sister hyde ★♦the brood ★♦its alive 1974 & it lives again 1978 killer klowns from outer space 1988 Quaatermass and the Pit 1967

hauntings/curses: ★♦burnt offerings 1976 haunting in connecticuit conjuring 1 & 2 insidious 1 & 2 & 3 & 5 ★♦ evil dead 1 & 2 & 2013 final destination 1 & 2 & 5 house (hausu) 1977 Kairo (pulse) 2001 the grudge (japanese & american) ♦ dark water Night of the Demon 1957 ♦The changeling 1980 ★♦The Hole in the Ground 2019 Whispering Corridors

folk horror: midsomar ♦ Viy 1967 ♦ impetigore 2019 ★♦ the wickerman 1973 Burn Witch Burn the medium

catholic horror: ♦ The Devil Rides Out 1968 ★♦ the sentinel 1977 nun II ♦ exorcist III

weirdos: ♦basket case 1 & 2 ♦it follows A dark song ★♦The Perfection The Empty Man ★♦The Skull 1965 Beyond the Black Rainbow dead ringers i, madman 1989 messiah of evil 1973 ★♦The People under the Stairs 1991 ★♦The Reflecting Skin 1990 ★♦Carnival of Souls

zombies: ★♦the video dead dawn of the dead 1978 & 2004 dead and buried i walked with a zombie ♦plague of the zombies The Serpent and the Rainbow

monsters: ★♦Sweetheart 2019 The Gate 1987 The invisible Man 1933 ♦Wishmaster 1997 Warlock ♦the mummy's shroud 1967

vampires: Shadow of the Vampire 2000 ★♦ Martin ★♦Captain Kronos -vampire hunter The Brides of Dracula 1960 ★♦the night stalker & the night strangler salems lot 1 & 2 ★♦son of dracula 1943 subspecies 1 & 2 & 4 from dusk til dawn Vampire Hunter D 1985

werewolves: the howling 1981 ginger snaps the beast must die!

death traps: ★♦The Pit and the Pendulum 1961 saw escape room ★♦Theatre of Blood 1973 The Abominable Dr. Phibes 1971 haunt

found footage: ♦Host 2020 Unfriended 1 & 2 Cloverfield Final Prayer Gonjiam: haunted asylum grave encounters hellhouse LLC ★♦Willow Creek ★♦noroi the curse occult ★♦ghostwatch ♦V/H/S 1 & 2 & viral

★♦ ALL the Amicus horror anthologies are worth watching

[frankendykes-monster]

Countdown to Halloween 2023, Ranked

43. Swamp Thing (1982)

42. Curse of Bigfoot (1975)

41. The Haunting (1999)

40. Orca (1977)

39. Teenagers Battle The Thing (1958)

38. The Beast (1975)

37. Don't Go in The House (1979)

36. Countess Dracula (1971)

35. Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967)

34. Beware! The Blob (1972)

33. Alien Space Avenger (1989)

32. Baby Blood (1990)

31. Shriek of The Mutilated (1974)

30. The Mutations (1974)

29. Phase IV (1974)

28. Curse of The Faceless Man (1958)

27. The Sadist (1963)

26. Jennifer (1978)

25. The Wasp Woman (1959)

24. Noroi: The Curse (2005)

23. Girls Nite Out (1982)

22. The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959)

21. The Cat and The Canary (1927)

20. Tell Your Children (Reefer Madness, 1936)

19. The Company of Wolves (1984)

18. It's Alive (1974)

17. The Wolf House (2018)

16. Michael Jackson's Halloween (2017)

15. The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)

14. The Omega Man (1971)

13. Gamera: Rebirth (2023)

12. Student Bodies (1981)

11. Night Caller From Outer Space (1965)

10. Inhumanoids (episodes 1 - 5, 1986)

9. Blind Woman's Curse (1970)

8. Maniac (1980)

7. The Child (1977)

6. Zombie 3 (1988)

5. Return of The Living Dead (1985)

4. Spider Baby (1967)

3. Basket Case (1982)

2. Messiah of Evil (1973)

Godzilla (1954)

Woof. Okay. This has been a mostly disappointing viewing experience.

Critical difference between this year's countdown and the past two is that now that I have stable employment, there is far less time to be watching horror films. I normally begin the countdown in September but we started in July of this year and still barely managed to crack 40, with my original goal being a full 100 this year. Timing. As such a lot of my plans and possible viewings were cut short and compared to last year specifically we fell back on a lot of "seen it already" at least for the top of the list.

This year's batch of viewings were largely blah, but a step up from the shitshow I put myself through last year (watching nearly every Texas Chainsaw sequel does things to a person). As such it'll be difficult to conjure up words for a decent chunk of these mostly because yes, these movies exist, I watched them, I would not recommend that you yourself watch them. That is all. If I write briefly on a given film that's not necessarily an indictment of its quality as there a decent number of these that I saw and enjoyed it's just their impact might be a bit fleeting. You will know which ones I actively disliked. I mostly just want to write about the top five or so but I will play fair.

Our grand loser this year is Swamp Thing, the DC Comics adaptation by Wes Craven. I watched this pretty much entirely because I finally got the Alan Moore Swamp Thing run in paperback this year after quite some time of having it on my to-buy list. Longtime Rachael/Ray/Ratchet fans may recall me reading it in early 2019 alongside [REDACTED]. Still one of the best Moore comics, and a second volume of Swamp Thing wouldn't have been possible without the success of this film. For context I did read the early Swampies by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson and my general reaction to those was a'ight but there was definitely material for a serviceable film adaptation there. This is not that serviceable film adaptation. I'm not hung up on details like how Abigail has no connection to Arcane now despite being his niece in the comics, but this film is just kind of painful in how relatively unambitious it is which is saying something for Swamp Thing sword fighting another human mutation at the end of this. It's just silly and stupid and not scary or awe inspiring or anything, the Swamp Thing suit sucks, the action sucks, any sense of pathos is not there or gone, it stretches for 30 minutes too long like it's a padded TV pilot, the only highlight is being able to see Adrienne Barbeau's breasts. Fuck this it's a miserable experience to sit through. My mistake for watching a Wes Craven film that doesn't have "Scream" in the title.

Our next shitter is the two-for-one abomination that is Teenagers Battle The Thing (1958) and Curse of Bigfoot (1975); these are the same movie except Curse of Bigfoot has a 25 minute opening scene framing device that is bizarre given that "The Thing" of the original film is a Native American mummy of some sort unearthed by a group of white high school students. It's the rare personal pet project movie made for fun by some locals but the only highlights are the occasional kill scene, Curse of Bigfoot ranks lower just for making me sit through it longer. Blah.

Speedrunning through a bunch of these because theyre all varying degrees of bad and I don't want to spend any longer writing about these than you probably do reading about them: The Haunting is awful and I don't even super care for the original film so adding shitty CGI monsters and a moral lesson of "it's about family!" doesn't help. Orca is a shitty Jaws cash-in that's like a reverse Moby Dick where the sea animal hunts down the human, nice finale where the orca and shitty poacher guy are fighting it out in the Arctic but otherwise avoid. Don't Go in The House is a mysoginistic torture porn movie that really doesn't sell the "seemingly normal guy is a closet nutcase" thing even though movies made before and after have done it well (see Maniac several paragraphs below). The Beast is advertised as this really scandalous porno film but most of it is French aristocrats sitting around in stuffy rooms arguing about real estate. I think I only watched Countess Dracula for its inclusion in the "if this is her vibe I would fucking cum" meme and it's barely worth bringing up at all. Hillbillys in a Haunted House has an absolutely lovely Tennessee country soundtrack that I wish I could listen to without having to watch the actual movie which is devoid of both scares and laughs. Beware! The Blob gives off the feeling of sitting at a funeral for a family member that was just distant enough for you to be aware of them but not actually be upset but it's still a funeral so it's not like you're smiling, stick with the 1988 Blob film. Alien Space Avenger has some decent gore effects but that's all I can recall from it. Shriek of The Mutilated has one of the best titles for an otherwise uninspired yeti movie that has a needless third act twist about it being a cover for a cult and blah blah blah fuck you. Baby Blood has an alien mutant whatever crawl up a woman's vagina into her womb and she has to eat people to feed it and yeah I'm actually struggling to remember what happens here. The Mutations has a scene where a guy cuts into a tree and it bleeds, I think he's played by Donald Pleasance. Yeah, it's like Freaks except it plays to the freak show straight so you get to laugh at all the outcasts of society, no thank you.

Some odds and ends that I'd say are decent-to-pretty-good: Phase IV has some footage of ants and synth music. All you need is some footage of ants and synth music. Curse of The Faceless Man employs a rarely seen archetype of the living statue monster, it's cute. The Sadist is another starring vehicle for Arch Hall Jr., who was also the star of last Halloween's Eegah! (1962), though this film is a bold trendsetter for the 1960's with Hall being a unhinged killer holding people for ransom until they can fix his car and he can make a getaway. The film lives and dies by Hall's performance and it's mostly the latter until we get to an absolutely superb final act with him hunting down his remaining victims, it makes the whole film worth seeing. Jennifer is an oddball that plays out mostly like a character drama ("It wasn't my fault Daddy it was that stupid hillbilly bitch Jennifer") that suddenly remembers that it's supposed to be a cash-in of Carrie (1976) in the last 20 minutes and cue our titular character being able to summon and control snakes to send after her tormentors. Girls Nite Out is a plodding meandering slasher that's oddly hypnotizing considering so much of it takes place in pitch-black night and the killer is wearing a bear mascot costume with serrated knives hidden under the glove, not sure what fully to make of it. The Monster of Piedras Blancas is made up of leftover parts from the Gillman, Mole People, and Metaluna Mutant, but still manages to star in a decent enough film that gives a sense of what a series of monster attacks would do to a small seaside community. The Cat and The Canary is "cute" for lack of a better term being a horror comedy before the former genre had fully crystalized. Reefer Madness is horror adjacent more than anything but a hilariously good time about how the use of "marihuana" will drive today's youth into becoming crazed fiends and get involved in organized crime.

We can do this.

The Company of Wolves has an excellent story book like setting an atmosphere that you can't get in films nowadays and it's a shame that it's mostly remembered for its transformation sequences. it's Alive is the best Larry Cohen film by default of not sucking but it's still not "great", genius however for playing the concept of mutant newborn killer baby completely seriously without any sense of humor to the proceedings. The Girl Who Knew Too Much is almost a parody of giallo films which is interesting given those hadn't fully sprang up in 1963; absolute highlight is the main character being interviewed in bed by doctors and reporters and the like that yes she did see a murder and no she doesn't drink. I've always been fascinated and haunted by I Am Legend and while The Omega Man doesn't really capture the novel to a superb degree it's so beautifully shot that it lands high in the rankings for that alone. Night Caller From Outer Space is hilarious to me because of how it shifts halfway through from a Hammer-esque mystery about a meteorite with radioactive properties to a film about an alien that lures women in through a modeling advertisement. Blind Woman's Curse I've mentally confused with Irezumi for a while now (haha all 1960's Japanese genre films where woman have large animal tattoos on their backs are the saaame), and it's one I mostly watched for being directed by Teruo Ishii, but there's enough bloody yakuza fights and cats licking up blood for me to stick around; not the strongest Meiko Kaiji vehicle compared to Female Prisoner Scorpion or Lady Snowblood. Maniac I find mostly interesting as a precursor to American Psycho (2000) but also it's probably the only serious film to successfully pull off it's ending trope (which I will not spoil here). The Child is an absolutely lovely 1970's only-a-dozen-people-made-this-and-not-much-more-watched-it horror that oozes atmosphere, I could watch stuff like this all day. Aaand Zombie 3 is far and away the best film that Lucio Fulci has been involved with that I've ever seen. I love random scenes and set pieces of ghouls just massacring people that are shit out out of luck.

Okay, now for the ones I actually want to write about.

The Wasp Woman is one that sticks in my head way more than any other random monster movie that Roger Corman directed in the latw 1950's. I've said on here and Letterboxd that it could have served as a standard pop-feminist piece about how the cosmetology industry is built on misogyny and invariably a monster is accidentally created because of that, but this most recent viewing has made me sort of "get it" because that might be what the film is going for considering Susan Cabot's performance leads me to believe that she is aware that she is becoming a homicidal wasp monster but views it as a tragic means to an end where she still has the ability to have a new advertising campaign with her as the star. Tragic. This is why you don't wear make up.

Both Noroi: The Curse and The Wolf House are ones I didn't care for whatsoever but I put them in places on the ranking that I thought were fair given that people should probably watch them regardless of my personal thoughts. Noroi's format didn't really lend itself to the escalation of tension and reveal of information that the plot demanded and I found myself thinking it meanders quite a bit. The Wolf House was an odd one where everything that was happening onscreen bounced off of me mostly because I felt intimately aware that I was watching a movie, that someone had made something and that I was now being shown it. Blah. People like these so don't let me stop you.

Our animated offerings this year...

Michael Jackson's Halloween more than anything feels like an unlicensed creation that later had an English fan dub commissioned, not something that actually aired on CBS twice. Any laughs that I found in this thing were the unintentional type as we open up with Bubbles talking and being Jackson's chauffeur; you know exactly what you're getting into. Very little of the plot is explained but I'm assuming Jackson (who has no lines given this was made posthumously) orchestrates a dark fantasy adventure to hook two...teenagers? People in their late 20's? And convince them to follow their dreams of performing instead of working a deadend dayjob. I'm not sure who the actual audience for this was given it feels like so much of it was made for children but I will say anything that has this much of Michael Jackson's music in it can't be all bad, though I'm not sure why they didn't largely stick with tracks from the album Thriller (in the contention for best album ever, I don't care).

Gamera: Rebirth is one I feel like I'm on the outside on compared to most other tokusatsu fans because I didn't really *love* to a serious degree even though, yes, Gamera is finally back. The first three episodes are mostly just kind of a slog for me with the backhalf not doing enough to retroactively make me think highly of it, though giving off End of Evangelion vibes may make me consider that a second viewing must be in order down the line. Rebirth's strongest attribute is that it feels like it takes into consideration and influence from every prior era of Gamera, no stone is left unturned, and it's a marked contrast from how every recent Godzilla property only captures a single facet of their respective character. But that also creates unique issues like how a lot of criticism of ongoing US military presence in Japan is undercut so there can be a white kid in the main cast (because white children were always present in half of the Showa series) or having the ancient civilization that genetically engineered the kaiju now being malicious and actively sacrificing children as a means of reshaping the world gives me vaguely anti-semitic tones, I don't know, Gamera is still here, I guess.

"I was just a little twerp who liked Scooby-Doo and Smurfs, now I was viewing Cthulhu mutants ruin the Earth."

Everyday that we have Inhumanoids is a gift. Inhumanoids is another Hasbro/Sunbow production like G. I. Joe, Transformers, or Jem and The Holograms, and it is truly tragic that it never got anywhere near that level of attention compared to its siblings. The fact that a 1980's action figure tie-in cartoon is named for its antagonists is only the start; the series follows a small paramilitary outfit of scientists named Earth Core that are tasked with more or less saving the world alongside the Mutores, elemental beings, when the Inhumanoids, eldritch abominations, are unleashed. The degree of world-building beyond your typical "good guys vs. bad guys" affair is astounding with villainous humans and virtuous monsters abounding, but Inhumanoids is mostly magical and remembered for saying fuck all to any type of broadcast standards. Seeing giant monsters destroy cities, undead armies, and spelunking deep into the Earth (where nightmares begin...) are just standard fair here, as are witnessing the actual Inhumanoids such as Metlar (basically the devil) or D'Compose (giant undead entity that can zombify people by touching them and uses his ribcage like a jail cell) in action. The first five episodes here are the pilot movie of sorts for the series which only lasted thirteen overall, and they get more grissly from here on out, but maybe it's best that Inhumanoids is the short lived cartoon and no the cartoon that went soft as early as its second season. I will never not love this show, to this day it's one of my favorite animated series from any decade, much less the 1980's.

Back to our regularly scheduled live-action programming...

Student Bodies is a fascinating film for a myriad of reasons the first of which is that there were somehow enough slasher films by 1981 for there to be a comedy poking fun at all the already established genre-cliches. It's essentially Scary Movie (2000) a full 20 years ahead of the curve only actually funny in spite of the subject matter frequently being as juvenile and prejudiced; but it also reminds me quite a bit of Scream (1996) with stuff like two killers working together. All I know is I was in for a decent time when the film opens with three identical shots of a house just with different framing text: "HALLOWEEN," "FRIDAY THE 13TH," "JAMIE LEE CURTIS' BIRTHDAY" and then the killer, The Breather, calls the opening kill girl doing nothing but breathing heavily, she hangs up, he calls back with "I SAID [heavy breathing]."

Return of The Living Dead is one of those films that should have destroyed the any artifically-imposed boundaries between "high" and "low" art. Every aspect of this film is brilliantly made, it just so happens to be made for stuff like Scooby-Doo music overlaid on top of thunderstorms over graveyards where one female character is stripping to the concept of dying. Media involving ghouls is incredibly oversaturated, and this was still the case in the 1980's where a film like this had to redefine the rules to make it so killing ghouls was basically a non-option. It only recently struck me on this viewing that that's the whole purpose of removing virtually all weaknesses they have, to keep the characters as the nail instead of the hammer. Compared to the Romero films, there's never a point where anyone is in control of the situation, it just escalates further and further until there is literally no way out. Taking that into consideration, there's no way this film couldn't have been a comedy that frames people getting swarmed and eaten by ghouls as hilarious.

The soundtrack and the faux-punk sensibilities lend this a daft feeling of "you shouldn't be watching this" in spite of it not being one of the MOST gory horror films of the 1980's. I still don't get how this never broke into the mainstream. I mean somehow people know that ghouls (in this film) speak and only eat brains but I can't go down to Target and get a Tarman action figure like I can one of Michael Myers. As such Return of The Living Dead remains a criminally overlooked film regardless of its subject matter. It's made me laugh and cringe and feel disgusted and revolt at the concept at dying but mostly it's made me feel a delicious sense of joy at seeing corpses rise out of the ground to the tune of "Do you wanna party? IT'S PARTY TIIIME!" Some of you need to sit in the corner and think about your life choices for making stupid shit like Re-Animator (1985) or fucking Shaun of The Dead (2004) more popular than this, fuck you.

The act of watching Spider Baby is like discovering the missing link. For as much as 1960 gave us an explosion of horror (Eyes Without a Face, The Ship of Monsters, Psycho, Jigoku, Black Sunday, etc.) and Night of The Living Dead (1968) reins as the perennial transition point of the genre, Spider Baby is the road by which we go from The Cat and The Canary and The Old Dark House to the likes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Eraserhead, it's magical finding an essential piece of a genre you love so much. Both the former and latter points of comparison are apt as a family of now only children [and their butler] suffering from Poe-esque hereditary illness have their condemned house set upon by distant relatives and everything slowly unravels.

Lon Chaney Jr. is an actor who for the longest time I felt never got a proper chance to shine wherein the last 25 years or so of his career was spent playing as side character actor in independent films. Spider Baby is his crowning achievement. Seeing him smile through almost tears on several occasions as he has to play bridge between worlds of sanity and madness and lie to everyone that he has some sense of control over the situation is brilliant in ways I always knew he was capable of but had never seen before this point. Bravo.

I will never not love Basket Case with everything I've got. This is the epitome of 1980's horror and my clear pick for best of the decade. It has everything from being a grungy putrid grindhouse spectacle to being an intimate character drama to everything presented through a wry ironic lense where you can't tell if any "bad" performances are all done on purpose. Between this, Brain Damage (1988), and Frankenhooker (1990), there is literally absolutely no reason why Frank Henenlotter shouldn't be more popular than Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna, and Lloyd Kaufman *combined*. It's tragic that the world of cinema being enclosed and captured by studios again in the late 1980's prevented us from getting more from him, but realistically could we ask anymore than what we already got from Basket Case? I could watch this every day and never grow tired of it. I will never stop making more and more people watch this.

If Basket Case is the apex of 1980's horror, then Messiah of Evil is the same for 1970's horror. This is one of the most efficient horror films ever made in how not a single frame is wasted, the opening scene is literally a guy running from unseen force, seeking refuge, getting his throat slit, cue title card with synth music that then leads us to a sunburnt hallway as our narrator descends into acceptance of complete lack of control of the situation. Every night shot in this film must be 50 - 75% completely black with whatever headlight or store front there is just making the scenery look like a dollhouse that our characters are trapped inside. There's so many shots of people running away or walking down streets that make them look tiny as the camera is so far.

Every scene is an exercise in building up dread. There's no point where the film relents, something awful is not only coming, it's already here and there's nothing anyone can do. What I love particularly is that the mystery being laid out doesn't offer any answers because there's another mystery on top of what our characters find out only too late. Layers upon layers of dread that even the titular Messiah of Evil isn't the center of. The world is a cruel fucking place where this film languishes in obscurity whilst shit like The Exorcist enjoys mainstream attention. A lot of my taste amounts to "why isn't this thing I like more popular" and cases like Messiah of Evil vindicate me.

"Godzilla is the son of the atomic bomb. He is a nightmare created out of the darkness of the human soul. He is the sacred beast of the apocalypse." - Tomoyuki Tanaka

Generally a yearly trend is that a #1 pick for Halloween is self-evident to me and this year it was Basket Case for all of 30 seconds until I picked Godzilla back up.

There's something to be said how Godzilla isn't quite a horror monster? Terrifying but not necessarily creepy, but what power do things that go bump in the night have against the destruction of everything you know? Everytime I watch Godzilla is like the very first time, when flashing lights out at sea destroy fishing ships I have no idea what happened, or at least any much of a clue as anyone in film does when we're told that the entire ocean exploded.

Godzilla is a reptile, but lacks scales and its entire body is coated in keloid scars. In 1954 Godzilla must have been the largest monster every committed to film, trains are derailed from running against its ankle and bell and radio towers are throttled for being a sensory inconvenience. Godzilla's first on-screen appearance on Odo Island is obscured by a hurricane but the impression is clear; you can't fight Godzilla in the same way you can't fight a natural disaster. When Tokyo is reduced to complete ruin amidst a sea of flames, it's an onslaught of destruction never before seen in a film of this genre. Survivors being afflicted with radiation poisoning shows that Godzilla will claim victims long after being driven back to sea.

There's a sheer apocalyptic dread to all of this sensed by all the characters. Love tries to exist on the edge of annihilation. There's nothing that can be done but persevere and maybe hope tomorrow will be better. A scene that always strikes me is when Serizawa is adamant about not using the Oxygen Destroyer until forcibly confronted with the results of one night of Godzilla making landfall in Japan. The absolute pain felt by everyone in the finale starts here, things couldn't play out any differently as the "scientist of the century" can't join in and celebrate his victory.

Godzilla is a rare perfect film. I will never tire of it.

[brutalisttarot]

Pick A Card: You as a movie character

Pile 1

The traveller, lone ninja that can teleport from the earth to the outer space. An edgy warrior with a ‘giver’ vibe, saving and empowering nature, commanding bats and telekinesis of water to drive a wooden ship. Nights are spent being a spy with other undercover hooded cult members with red torches. Dressed similar to Maka Albarn.

Pile 2

Emerging from the depths of sand, you awake into physical form with a sword flung out with grains of sand forming a miniature Milky Way. Your gigantic stature rises above the world’s extinct, fierce creatures in the earliest age, a widow learning to tame the blood of the beast with kindness over violence. A hunter with a blind eye to cruelty, leeching off a tree with blood. Your home is a cave with carved out paisley designs with a small open roof, resembling that of an igloo shape. You live in a bird’s nest with worms and soil. You gave the opportunity to transcend to enter the void state.

Pile 3

Elsa vibes. In your own castle. Sanctuary. In a sea of terror, you triumph under a purple moon, ripping apart the voices of villagers in a torn out armor. There are multiple versions of you destroying the existence of all things tangible. You then reside under the black moon with the ring of azazel, having a ritual of meditating and juggling 3 emerald blades, sitting cross legged in the mountains. You step out of your throne to sleep on your chair. A symbol of lost royalty with no town, no individual to rule. The last one existing.

[weirdlookindog]

The Night Caller (1965) - Italian poster

[ronmerchant]

the LAST WAR (1961), the VIOLENT ONES (1967), and BLOOD BEAST FROM OUTER SPACE (1965)

[catcas22]

I am curious: unless some of these are plot relevant and therefore spoilers, how do you imagine the other Outer Gods' vassal beasts to look? The Greater Will has the Elden Beast, of course, and I've always taken the Twinbird to be Destined Death's envoy rather than the god itself. And as far as I could understand your Prehistory fic, Placidusax may have once been the Dark Moon's vassal, an original idea if I've ever seen one. So have you considered how the vassals of the Frenzied Flame, Scarlet Rot (likely the Great Scorpion), Formless Mother (the Blood Star perhaps?) and so on would look and function?

Thanks for the ask! I'd draw these if I were better at creature design, but... Well, I'll find a couple reference images for each.

I've got the clearest mental picture of the God of Rot. Definitely a scorpion body (maybe a more stretched and segmented body, sort of like Astel). Or maybe something more akin to a camel spider. I've seen designs that are sort of a scorpion centaur with a human upper body. But if I were designing the beast, I'd go with just a human face, sort of like Koh the Face Stealer.

For the Dark Moon, I'd picture something a bit more traditionally lovecraftian. Lots of tentacles, inhuman form, looks like something you might find lurking in deep space. I can't help but think of the Moon Presence from Bloodborne whenever I try to picture this god lol. I could also see basing the design off of a deep-sea squid or jellyfish.

The Formless Mother I see being the most humanoid of the lot -- or at least, the one making the greatest effort to appear human shaped. Her true form is horrific and incomprehensible, but when she appears to her vassals, she looks like a ghostly red woman in head-to-toe robes. But something's always... Off. I'm picturing something like an onryo (as they're portrayed in movies like Ju-On and Ringu). Not the long-black-hair-with-pallid-skin aesthetic, but occupying that same corner of the uncanny valley. The way she moves, you can almost hear her bones breaking with every step. Or maybe she doesn't have bones at all. Catching a glimpse of the face under that hood will keep you awake for weeks. You can't quite tell if she's something horrible or if something horrible has been done to her.

The Fell God is interesting, because we actually have ingame depictions of his face. At first I pictured him as a bigger, better fire giant. But that's not very fun. So what if he's only a face/head? A big, fire-breathing head that floats around like a blimp full of flaming gas? That would dovetail nicely with my theory that the Fell God was associated with/was the sun in the previous age.

And finally, the Frenzied Flame. This one I never really pictured as having a physical manifestation -- it seemed more like an abstract force to me, despair made manifest. But two pieces of imagery keep cropping up around the Frenzied Flame. Flame (obviously), and eyes. So I wouldn't want to just straight up steal Peter Jackson's design for the Eye of Sauron... But that's definitely moving in the right direction.

Thanks for the ask!

[henrysglock]

Stranger Things: The Upside Down and The Divine Comedy

Okay, as you all know I'm not a religious nut. However, I did enjoy Dante's Divine Comedy when I read it for school.

That is to say...I don't call the UD "The Hell Dimension/Super-Hell" for nothing.

I think I can prove which crimes Henry actually committed, and what was a setup, using Dante's Inferno as a framework. I can also feasibly explain the existence, aesthetics, and chronological order of appearance of the different versions of the Upside Down that we see in the show.

To kick this off, I want to talk a little bit about the areas involved:

Paradise: A place of goodness, light, and truth. Many who reside here are concerned with worldly injustices.

Purgatory: A place of change, a crossroads, a holding space to decide whether one goes to heaven or hell.

The 7th Circle of Hell: Violence. The 7th circle has 3 rings: Outer is violence against people/property (murder/pillaging/rape), and filled with fire and blood. Middle is violence against the self (suicide), and those there are eaten by harpies. Inner is blasphemy, or violence against God and nature (including sodomy and usury), and those there are made to wander in burning sands.

The 9th Circle of Hell: Treachery. This circle is a frozen hell split into 4 sections, where sinners are frozen in an icy lake: Caina, Antenora, Ptolemaea, and Judecca. Caina is for betrayal of family. Antenora is for betrayal of one's nation. Ptolemaea is for betrayal of guests/those one has entered into a willing relationship with. Judecca is for betrayal of benefactors/masters.

The Pit of Hell: The very depths of Hell, where Satan, depicted as a three headed beast, feasts upon Judas, Brutus, and Cassius.

Cool. What does that have to do with anything?

It. Is. Everything.

Henry exists in five different settings at four different times chronologically:

First: He is physically and mentally in the Creel house, which is initially described as a fairytale. It's the place where Henry develops his abilities and begins to obsess over the injustices in the world.

Second: Hawkins National Lab, which is his turning point, the fork in the road between returning to Paradise or proceeding to Hell. He does not get a choice, here. By his nature, his hand is forced. It's a tragedy.

Third: He is in the Yellow UD both physically and mentally.

Fourth: He is physically in the Blue UD and mentally in the Red Mindscape in varying degrees. He never physically exists in the Red Mindscape.

(The five vs four will be important later when we talk about what Henry is by nature, and how that affects his location)

I think these different settings can be fit into the framework of the Divine Comedy

That is to say:

Paradise: The Creel House

Purgatory: Hawkins National Lab

The 7th Circle, Blasphemy Ring: Yellow UD

The 7th Circle, Murder Ring: Red Mindscape

The 9th Circle...multiple sections: Blue UD

The Pit of Hell: We have not seen this yet, but given the painting of the three-headed dragon and Nancy's beast with a gaping mouth...I think we will in ST5.

Based on this, I also think I can prove that a) Henry didn't kill his family, b) the 1979 Massacre was something Brenner planned out, and c) the 1979 Massacre was staged.

So...let's map this out from Henry's banishment to current day.

We're told during the 1979 massacre, which is painted as a betrayal of Brenner, that Henry killed his family. Point blank. That should land him square in the frozen 9th Circle, in Judecca or Caina. He...doesn't end up there, and we know there's a lot of shit about his backstory that doesn't line up.

Our first clue into this is where Henry initially ends up.

El pushes him, covered in blood, into the hell dimension. There, he's burnt and scarred before ending up in a rocky, yellow version of the UD which we have not seen until this point.

You would think he'd end up in the Blue UD, since that's the one we're most familiar with, but it seems that the Blue UD doesn't exist yet.

Either that, or Henry does not have access to it.

Why? Because Henry has not committed the deserving sins yet.

Henry arguable passes through the Outer 7th Ring, where he is briefly burned, likely for the murders in the lab regardless of their status as self-defense.

It's still murder in the eyes of the church, because it did not strictly require lethal force due to there being no deadly weapons present, as per St. Thomas:

"Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow: If a man in self-defense uses more than necessary violence, it will be unlawful: whereas if he repels force with moderation, his defense will be lawful...Nor is it necessary for salvation that a man omit the act of moderate self-defense to avoid killing the other man, since one is bound to take more care of one’s own life than of another’s."

Essentially: St. Thomas says: "Don't bring a gun to a knife fight, man. That's uncool."

Henry brought a nuclear bomb to a knife fight. He has to get zapped a little for it.

However, he does not stay burning. He is only spattered in blood. There is no sea of blood. Henry ends up in and stays in the rocky, yellow UD. Why wouldn't he stay in the Murder Ring...unless he hasn't actually killed anyone unnecessarily yet?

This ties into the Creel Massacre fuckery re: Virginia and Alice. Henry could not have killed Alice. Point Blank. Period. It's also highly unlikely that he actually killed Virginia. Even if he did, it was self defense. No betrayal of family. No Caina.

(Although: I'd argue that's where Virginia is ending up for that shit she pulled on Henry re: Brenner and the lab)

No Murder Ring...No murders. Self defense, plus a good bit of zapping for unnecessary roughness, but no sin worthy of the Murder Ring.

You'd think, though, that Henry would at least end up in Judecca, though, right? He'd end up there for betraying Brenner, his "master"...unless there was no betrayal. Unless it was Brenner's plan to incite the massacre, Henry was actually doing exactly as his "master" bid, killing the guards/orderlies was self-defense at its base, and he may or may not have murdered the numbers. It may very well have been staged.

This lack of Murder Ring and 9th Circle imagery majorly ties into the fuckery with the bloodstains, bodies, and perspective fuckery in NINA. It's possible Henry only killed guards/orderlies and 002. We don't even know why he was killing 002, or why 002 was in there in the first place. We don't know why bodies show up in places they shouldn't, or why bloodstains show up in completely different patterns, or even disappear entirely. We don't know why the actors playing the dead numbers switch between child and adult, and why they shift position so often. (All of this is Aemiron's baby, and he has way more to say about it, so I'm going to leave that there.)

Either way...Henry ends up in the Blasphemy Ring.

And what is one thing we know about Henry, based on his parallels to Will? He's gay.

Sodomy. Blasphemy.

("Fruit on pizza? That's blasphemy")

Anyway, the most heinous crime this man has actually committed at this point is homosexuality. Homosexuality is a sin of both body and mind...for the Original Henry (NOT something that happened due to the absorption or due to his hive-mind status. That will come into play later), thus Henry ends up in the Blasphemy Ring in both body and mind.

So...Yellow UD: Blasphemy Ring.

In conclusion: It's likely that Henry was set up...for all of it, pre-1983, and his worst sins were homosexuality and being excessive with his self defense actions. However, he ended up absorbing horrible people, which condemned him to deeper parts of Hell in the future.

Okay, neat. So...what about the Blue UD and Red Mindscape?

What's interesting about both of these settings is that we only see them after the events of 1983 (the Gate, the killings, Will). Up until 1983, Henry wasn't physically able to commit any other sins. It's likely that we only see those two realms after 1983 because Henry didn't have reason to exist there yet.

He hadn't done anything worthy of the 9th circle.

So...why 1983? Wasn't that murder, rape, sodomy, and property destruction? Shouldn't that keep him firmly in the 7th circle?

Not necessarily.

Let's think about the 9th circle, and about what Henry encounters in the Yellow UD.

Henry encounters the Shadow Monster and we see at least one demogorgon, which were relatively docile at that point...but which we know go on to be the vessels for Henry's major crimes of the series. We see him enter a willing symbiotic relationship with the creatures of the Yellow UD via the Shadow Monster, which changes/shapes it.

And then, in 1983, when El opens the gate, everything changes. A "demogorgon" (likely, if not definitely, Henry) takes Will.

The Blue UD was, presumably, created and frozen on that date.

So what does that have to do with the 9th Circle?

The demogorgon and Shadow Monster were non-aggressive pre-Henry. Henry, in a betrayal of a willing relationship, corrupts the creatures to continuously harm Will. Ptolemaea.

It is also a betrayal of a benefactor. Judecca.

It is also a betrayal of his nation, as he attacks the citizens and government officials of Hawkins. (This concept becomes even more relevant in ST3, when Henry uses the Russian gate to enter Hawkins.) Antenora.

All the creatures involved physically end up in the 9th circle/Blue UD with Henry because they are a symbiotic hive mind, regardless of whether the Yellow UD even exists anymore or not. The sins of one (Haha...001) become the sins of all.

That's great, but what about the Red Mindscape?

This is where absorption comes in...and where I bring back our five settings at four times.

Everything we've talked about so far has been physical and mental, or solely physical. We haven't touched on Original Henry vs Henry et. al vs Henry the Super-Organism.

Henry is not alone in his body. Henry's body is a super-organism. He's many people in one, many beings in one. What the body commits, the original mind may or may not. Due to the fact that he literally contains multitudes, being part of the hive mind, Henry the Mind is somewhat separate from Henry the Body.

That is what the Red Mindscape is for.

The Red Mindscape, where Henry mentally commits his murders from in his bids for freedom, is distinctly wet...and red...like blood. That is to say...like the Murder Ring of the 7th Circle.

Henry's mind, which contains multitudes of other people influencing his original self, is usually in the Outer/Blood-Sea Ring of the 7th circle, and not always in the 9th circle with his body. When he is in his body, when he is with the multitudes of creatures and people, he is in the 9th Circle because the post-absorption, post-hive-mind body committed 9th circle sins. When Henry leaves his body, when he commits the murders with his mental powers...he ends up in the Outer 7th...the Murder Ring...because that is the worst sin that Henry alone, as the composite human mind, has committed, regardless of the influence on him by others within his mind.

This is why we no longer see the Yellow UD for any form of Henry post-1983, regardless of whether we think the Red Mindscape/Blue UD replaced the Yellow UD or we think Henry was moved and split into the different realms. Whatever the case may be, he has progressed into a different level of hell. Homosexuality is no longer his worst sin as a whole super-organism or as a composite mind.

We don't know what Original Henry's setting is as a single person, or if he exists distinguishably. He may exist solely in the Red Mindscape. He may be along for the ride with the composite mind. We haven't seen Original Henry outside of pre-massacre NINA, and even that was debatable at best due to Brenner's influence.

I hate to make a Shrek reference...but by God the man is an ONION. He has so many layers, and we've only actually seen two of them...maximum.

A note just in case anyone asks: Dante traveled through all these different places without having committed any of the sins. Thus, he was only educated, not punished. Hence why everyone who comes and goes from the UD without having committed the deserving sin, can come and go without receiving punishment.

So what about Barb and Will? The ST4 victims? What did they do?

Well. That depends on your point of view and how extreme you take betrayals/sins.

It could very well go like this:

9th circle: Blue UD

Ptolemaea. Betrayal of a willingly entered relationship.

Barb betrays Nancy by not supporting her with Steve...but it's also implied that Barb is into Nancy. This could be perceived, by some, as a betrayal of Nancy's trust in a platonic relationship. Ptolemaea.

Will betrays Dustin immediately before he is taken. He cheats in the race home. He also, as we know now, is into Mike. Another betrayal of a platonic relationship. Ptolemaea.

Max mentally betrays Billy by wishing he was dead. Thus, her mindscape is the Blue UD graveyard. Caina.

7th Circle: Murder Ring

Red Mindscape

Chrissy betrays Jason by turning to Eddie for help/drugs, which is what spirals the situation into Jason's death. Murder.

Fred betrays the victim of the car accident by not getting help. Murder.

Max wishes death on Billy and stands by while he dies. Murder.

Patrick aids Jason in his attempt to murder Eddie, which spirals into Eddie's death later on. Murder.

Interesting to note here: Both Barb and Will get slugged by Henry...but not in the Blasphemy Ring/Yellow UD. It clearly has something to do with sodomy, homosexuality, and betrayal...but not on the level of setting/location. This is Henry-specific behavior, not realm behavior. They're in the Blue UD/9th circle on the basis of the betrayal, but the slugging? That's pure Henry. I want to visit this on a Creelarke basis re: my DALDOM thoughts from earlier. I think Henry is projecting himself onto others the same way he does when he chooses his victims in ST4. Local man punishes the new round of gays using sodomy-type behavior because he a) was not permitted to have a healthy relationship with homosexuality in his formative years, b) perceived his nature as a betrayal or was made to perceive it that way, and c) was then abused using his own sexuality against him for two decades afterward in the form of MKULTRA.

Or we can see them as the objects of Henry's sins.

Barb and Will are the objects of Henry's sins, his crimes in the pursuit of freedom, and they exist as the reason Henry is in the Blue UD, not necessarily that they did anything wrong. Chrissy, Fred, Patrick, and Max exist as the objects of Henry's sins, while not having actually done anything wrong.

I also have some supporting evidence for this framework outside of Henry's narrative re: the Upside Down:

Dante's Divine Comedy is his progression from doubt to faith via revelation of truths re: the afterlife. Henry's story almost exactly maps it in reverse: He starts out happy and normal in his fairytale home, but then begins to doubt and distrust the world. After experiencing untold abuses, he ends up in Hell.

Henry's story very much feels like a Lucifer tale: God's favorite angel, a creative, intelligent boy with incredible abilities, ending up cast into Hell by the inevitability of his circumstances and his own inevitable, inborn fatal flaw.

Henry comes from what is at least a somewhat religious family: Victor speaks of demons and angels readily, and even hired a priest/had an exorcism done.

Henry encounters all sorts of creatures in the Yellow UD. He encounters the Shadow Monster, the demogorgons, and arguably demodogs and demobats: Demobats, like harpies...which go on to eat Steve and Eddie, who are both self-sacrificial to a fault. It's also implied that the 1979 Massacre may have been a suicide-by-cop/"I'll take out as many as I can before they kill me, because there's no saving me anyway" type deal, given that Henry does not request El's assistance once he realizes he's absorbing the lead guard. He goes it alone, without knowing what effect years of Soteria had on his abilities. He had no way of knowing his limits. He would have been expecting them to use lethal force...but then there was no one left to kill him. On top of that, it's implied via Henry's monologue that he's at least passively suicidal regardless. Hence, demobats in the 9th circle hive-mind functioning as harpies from the Suicide Ring of the 7th circle.

Brenner "dies" in the burning sands of Nevada: This happens after decades of harming children, namely...three-legged Papa. Sodomy is defined as any non-reproductive sexual intercourse. Three. Legged. Papa.

In the Blasphemy Ring of the 7th circle, Dante meets his late teacher...and speaks to him kindly: Brenner "dies" in the burning sands of Nevada, much like the burning sands of the Blasphemy Ring...and El speaks to him kindly. She doesn't rant at him in anger while he "dies". She holds his hand, and says goodbye.

Will's S2 Visions: Will sees the Blue UD multiple times throughout early S2. He's seeing visions of the 9th circle without actually being in it...but why? Well. He then goes on to (while possessed) indirectly kill Bob, a father figure, and directly strangle his mother. Caina.

All the religious/spiritual imagery in ST4: The Russian church, the Binghams, "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With GOD)", Victor's demons and angels, "[Spiders] are the gods of this world", Henry's Christ pose while El disintegrates him, Hellfire club, the article Eddie reads at lunch about D&D being linked to sodomy, suicide, and murder.

[mintoxhitsuji]

Hoshihiko Mikami is a 25 years old aestere. He is 198 cm tall, goes by he/him and is aroace.

Aestere are humanoid beings that came from outer space. They are entirely made out of stardust and their blood is said to be sparkly as the stars in the night sky. They came to Earth to peacefully coexist with the earthlings and settled here a long time ago. They are quite elusive these days.

Hoshihiko is timid to a fault and always daydreaming. Many people know the florist for his scary oni mask but beneath that hides a gentle, shy soul that just wants to do his thing and spend time stargazing with his friends.

The aestere grew up in Kyosato's center district called Swali'ha, together with his parents and his older brother Seiya. Ever since childhood, he has been obsessed with plants and flowers, to his dismay of his parents, who were insisting that he becomes something useful to society like a doctor or lawyer. They said his hobby was not useful, even useless and a waste of time. The young boy thus became very secretive about his interest. As soon as he became an adult, he moved out, and did his own thing, becoming a florist in the cursed but very popular city district Maskema. His little flower shop is right underneath his flat and very popular. However, Hoshihiko caught the curse of Maskema: The thing he loves the most is his biggest bane, overgrowing him or turning him into a beast.

[moviesandmania]

THE BRAIN EATERS Reviews and free on Plex, Pluto TV, Tubi and YouTube

‘Crawling, slimy-things terror-bent on destroying the world!’ The Brain Eaters is a 1958 sci-fi horror film directed by actor Bruno VeSota (Invasion of the Star Creatures) from a screenplay written by Gordon Urquhart. The Corinthian Productions movie stars Ed Nelson (Devil’s Partner; Night of the Blood Beast; Attack of the Crab Monsters), Alan Jay Factor, Joanna Lee (Plan Nine from Outer Space),…