#horror tv recap | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

billiewena · 2 months ago

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FOUR YEARS SINCE NOV 5TH, 2020, as summed up by Supernatural

past recaps: year one / year two / year three / year four

full context and sources below:

various explanations + resources/sources/extra reading on this year's recap:

balls deep: misha collins says the quiet part out loud at Cross Roads 8 Supernatural Convention, saying "if the CW wasn't so homophobic dean and cas would've been balls deep for sure" at a con (x) (x) (x)

garthbenny canon: supernatural actors DJ Qualls (who played hunter-turned-werewolf Garth Fitzgerald) and Ty Olsson (who played the vampire Benny Lafitte) reveal they're married, delighting crack shippers like myself everywhere (x)

spn spooky picture book: official supernatural children's picture book is released, retconning things like john winchester as a happy father figure and castiel being their cowardly childhood friend who sorta hangs around (x) (x)

boop button: tumblr introduces a feature people enjoy for once for april fool's day and halloween and allows users to boop each other, spn bloggers re-awake like sleeper agents to use it in full force (x) (x)

bedlund speaks on destiel: former spn writer ben edlund goes on a tweet fest replying to fans, talking about destiel multiple times including this profound tweet (x)

clear text, not subtext: jensen speaks out again on the confession at Purcon 8, this time taking a more open stance on how the relationship was textual, his take on dean's feelings about cas's feelings, and how the scene with cas deserved a resolution (x)

bury your gays: famed author chuck tingle (known for his plethora of highly specific and delightfully inclusive, if strange, indie erotica novels) publishes his second mainstream horror novel, inspired by TV network studios' infamous history of censoring LGBT relationships and openly killing off queer characters. In a non-subtle nod to supernatural fans, the main character is named misha. (sidenote: did end up reading this and this book is actually really good commentary on the industry in general and really good, 10/10 recommend) (x) also someone got the book signed by misha, to further break the fourth wall (x)

tracker: jensen ackles begins starring in a CBS show where he is basically csoplaying dean winchester, with the show featuring many non-subtle spn references (i.e. him pretending to almost get in an impala before going to his truck, characters wearing spn necklaces, etc.) (x) (x) (x) (special shout-out to clarice @youre-only-gay-once for expertly tracking the tracker show and these easter eggs, highly recommend their tag for their show)

cw's walker cancelled: fans rejoiced upon hearing the cancellation news for jared's post-supernatural show, walker, a remake of "walker texas ranger." in addition to generally being a copaganda show for the notoriously racist texas rangers, jared's inspiration for the show's direction caused much concern. the actor himself said the show was inspired by the US border crisis, not by the immigrant families affected by the separation and internment, but instead wanting exploring the POV of the law enforcement agents working at the border and the moral dilemmas they had to face (x)

pro-destiel Wonder Woman: Lynda Carter (aka the iconic and beloved original actress for Wonder Woman, not the z*onist one) says she could "go for some Destiel" when promoting #GeeksandNerdsforHarrisWalz and Misha's involvement (x) the rest of the spn cast and original Showrunner Kripke were also a big part of this event

chili's backfire: the chain restaurant chili's drags destiel while interacting with 9-1-1 bucktommy shippers on twitter, immediately gets backfire. notably, their stock takes a dip the next day. coincidence? maybe so, maybe not (x) (x)

samgirl voting fraud: "who is the gayest spn character" tumblr poll surprisingly gets heated, with a blogger straight-up admitting they used a bot on the "castiel vs. sam" poll to rig the poll in sam's favor, which they apparently also did for w*ncest in another poll in the past, and posting a guide on how anyone could do the same. luckily democracy wins in this one instance and castiel prevails anyways, leading to an also contested "castiel vs. charlie bradbury" round (x) (x)

pink pony jarpad: jared is spotted at lesbian pop star chappell roan's set at a festival, un-likely place for him to be (x) also may have been one of the "boring" people called out by chappell? (x)

pro-kamala castiel: in a last-ditch effort to get out the vote, misha uses the power of castiel photo ops to campaign for harris-walz and even shouts-out destiel. I feel depressed writing this sentence, if you've made it this long in your read and you're in the states I hope you're doing alright! maybe by the time I wake up things will be a little different though. (x)

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cleolinda · 1 year ago

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The Scariest Movie I Ever Saw in a Theater: The Ring

I'll tell you up front that the story I'm going to tell you is about "The Ring (2002)," in the sense that it is about The Ring in the year 2002.

See, I don't know what The Scariest Movie Ever is. A quick google says that the consensus is The Exorcist (I haven't seen it, because I never felt like scheduling a day to freak myself the entire fuck out). But horror is specific, and not just to a person, but to a time and place, even. When I saw The Shining as a teenager in a well-lit living room with other people, I didn't even really flinch, but I bet it would play very differently to me now. I don’t think The Ring is at the top of anyone’s list, but twenty years ago, I had a personal interest in it—at the time, I was running a dinky little Geocities site devoted to movie news. Links curated and compiled from all the other, bigger sites I followed—basically, it was the linkspam format I have used on multiple platforms, including here on Sundays. And so, as someone who followed theatrical releases pretty closely for two or three years, I saw the trailer for The Ring, and I immediately knew it was going to be huge.

To locate you in time, this was just after three self-satirizing Scream movies and the Overcomplicated Serial Killer films of the '90s. The Ring was something completely different: chill aqua-blue color grading a good 5-6 years before Twilight; a mournful Hans Zimmer score; no jokes, no quips; and a slow, inexorable sense of doom. Grief, even, given that the movie begins with the death of the main character's niece. What immediately struck me about the first trailer was 1) the melancholy of it, and 2) how much it doesn't explain. Onscreen, you get the title cards,

THERE IS A VIDEOTAPE IF YOU WATCH IT SEVEN DAYS LATER YOU DIE

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Concise! Understandable! A woman (Naomi Watts) is freaking out upon discovering that her young son has just watched it! Admirable job setting up the premise and the stakes of this entire movie in thirty seconds flat, without even any dialogue. That's all you need to know, and thus, the remaining minute of the trailer can do whatever it wants, and what it wants to do is be fucking weird. Echoing voices, TV static, a closeup of a horse's eye, ladders, a girl with dark hair, people reacting to things we don't see, drippy doorknobs, rain. Characters don't give us the whole plot in convenient soundbites of dialogue (like they do in a later trailer); we just hear lines, overlapping, murmured out of context—

did you see it in your head? she talks to you... leading you somewhere... showing you the horses... you saw it. did you see it in your head? she shows me things. Everyone suffers.

That you saw it has lived in my head ever since, and not once have I charged it rent. But the "best" part is Naomi Watts screaming at the end, because you don't hear her voice; you only hear this heartless telephonic beeeeeeep. It's 2002 and I'm watching this trailer, thinking, I have no idea what the fuck I just saw. This is going to be huge.

And it was, to the tune of $249 million on a $48M budget.

At risk of recapping what you might already know, Ringu, aka Ring, is a media franchise that spiraled out from a trio of Koji Suzuki novels into Hideo Nakata's film Ringu (1998), a landmark of Japanese horror, plus several other movies, some TV series, many comics, and even a couple of video games. The overarching story is about a murdered girl/vengeful ghost named Sadako Yamamura whose rage and pain have created a cursed video tape, you watch it and you die unless you pass the tape around like a virus, seven daaaaays, etc.

The "ring" in question is the rim of a well. Keep that well in mind.

The movie I saw is the U.S. remake, which itself had two sequels. (The iconic Sadako is now named Samara Morgan. Keep her in mind, too.) Director Gore Verbinski moved from The Ring to Pirates of the the Caribbean (!), and so Hideo Nakata himself would direct The Ring Two. I... honestly have only seen the first one. And I was right, it was huge, and it kicked off the American J-Horror Remake genre, for better or worse. But what gets forgotten about The Ring is its marketing campaign, which I followed pretty closely for my doofy little news site.

It was inspired.

The story of The Ring is partly the story of the sea change in the media landscape—how we watch movies. And the story of its marketing is a picture of the very last years before social media changed the wilderness of the internet into something that feels so big, like a billion people could see anything we say, and yet so small—only a tame handful of places to say it, owned by three or four companies, and corraled by algorithms.

Back around 1997-1998 or so, I worked at a video store (Movie Gallery, where the hits were there then, guaranteed) for about a year and a half. By the time I left, we had started adding DVDs to the VHS tapes on the shelves, but we hadn't replaced the entire stock. Video stores might have transitioned fully to DVD by 2002, I'm not sure, but people still commonly had both VCRs and DVD players in their homes. And I remember that The Ring was sold in both formats when it eventually hit home video. Which is to say—you know the analog horror genre today? Marble Hornets, Local 58, The Mandela Catalogue?

Analog horror is commonly characterized by low-fidelity graphics, cryptic messages, and visual styles reminiscent of late 20th-century television and analog recordings. This is done to match the setting, as analog horror works are typically set between the 1960s and 1990s. The name "analog horror" comes from the genre's aesthetic incorporation of elements related to analog electronics, such as analog television and VHS, the latter being an analog method of recording video.

Okay, but this is just what home media was like, and 2002 was at the very tail end of that—boxy black VHS tapes that degraded with time and reuse were just how we lived. At the same time, I'd been using CDs for music since about 1991, and all our software installs came on CD-ROM discs; a "mixtape" by that time had shifted to mean a rewriteable CD rather than a cassette tape. In college, I—well, I'll plead the Fifth as to whether I downloaded mp3s via Napster, but I was also taping Mystery Science Theater 3000 on VHS over the weekends. It was Every Format Everywhere, All At Once, and we kept half a dozen kinds of players around for them. Here in 2023, we stream and download everything invisibly, unless we choose to engage in format nostalgia. (I've already run into the problem of Apple Music deleting songs I really liked, due to this or that licensing issue, because I was really only renting them.) The year The Ring hit theaters was the edge of a last shimmering gasp of physical media where iTunes had only come into being the year before, and iridescent discs were still mostly what we used, but cassettes, both video and audio, were still viable. And so, people did not think it was terribly weird when they started finding unlabeled VHS tapes on their windshields.

Movieweb, quoting TikTok user astro_nina:

"Their marketing strategy was essentially 'let's get this tape viewed by as many people as possible without these people being aware of what this is, sort of raising intrigue," she says. One way they achieved this was by airing the tape, which allegedly marks its viewers for death within seven days, as a commercial with no context. The video would air between late-night programming "with no words, no mention of a movie, for like a month...so people would run into it and it would just go on to the next thing, and people would be like, 'what the f--k is this?'"

I remember seeing the Cursed Video as an unexplained ad at least twice, by the way. That TikTok also indicates that DreamWorks straight-up sent copies of the tape to Hot Topic stores, as well as planting them under actual movie theater seats. While running my movie site, I heard at least one story of someone finding a tape on the sink counter of a restroom at a club. Did the marketing department actually plant tapes in bathrooms—or did a freaked-out recipient leave it there, hoping to dodge the "curse"?

(I haven't embedded the Cursed Video here, by the way—but I could have. If you'd like to see the American take on it, you can watch both the full version and the shorter variant that appeared in the movie itself. A text description of what the fuck you're even looking at is here [content note for both: blood, insects, animal death, body horror, and suicide by falling]. The original version from the Japanese film is shorter, and it's eerie rather than gruesome.)

BUT WAIT, THERE WAS MORE: DreamWorks had something of an alternate-reality campaign going with a handful of in-character websites. This was only a year after Warner Bros. ran the groundbreaking "The Beast" ARG for A.I.: Artificial Intelligence: "Ultimately, fifty websites with a total of about one thousand pages were created for the [A.I.] game." (I lurked in the Cloudmakers Yahoo group.) Marketing for The Ring did not go anywhere that in depth, nor did it need to; it was both a smaller film and a smaller story. I saw at least two “personal” websites (seemingly amateur and a little tacky, like my own), but the one I particularly remember was about someone who owned/trained horses? I'm not sure if it was meant to be the actual Anna Morgan character—Samara's mother—or maybe someone who had noticed that the Morgans' horses were disturbed? I'm not even sure anyone even remembers this but me. Reddit users dug up a few other archived websites, but they're about Sadako, the curse and/or videotape; they aren't as subtle or character-oriented as the site I remember. (Honestly, I wonder if weird shit like "What Scares Me" or "SEVEN DAYS TO LIVE" were made by fans rather than a marketing department, but who knows.)

[The “About” page from Seven Days to Live on the Internet Archive.]

[The entirety of An Open Letter on the Internet Archive. “UPDATE” is a now-blank pop-up. I would bet $5 that it was originally a pop-up of the cursed video.]

I need to point out here that Facebook did not exist in 2002. It would not exist for another two years, and Twitter wouldn't exist until 2006. Even MySpace was not a thing until the next year. I didn't start my Livejournal until October of 2003. What we had, for the most part, were independent forums and blogs. We also had Creepy Internet Fiction like "The Dionaea House" and "Ted the Caver"; their use of the blog format, of people out there seemingly living their lives until something fucked up went down, gave the stories the shape of reality. And it helped that these blogs had comment sections, sure—sometimes more story unfolded there—but for the most part, an author could "abandon" a blog, and you'd just find the story there via word of mouth. Like the Ring blogs I remember, it wouldn't seem strange if no one replied to you, whereas today, you'd have to hire a writer to sit on Twitter, or Reddit, or even Tumblr, and interact with people in character. Could you do something like The Ring's mysterious, weird-ass blogs today? Would anyone even notice?

So: It's 2002, my head is full of Alternate Reality and eerie images and you saw it, and I'm hype as hell to go out and see The Ring. I'm perfectly happy to go see movies by myself, so I went in the early afternoon (best time to get a good seat). The movie ended up being a sleeper hit, and the first weekend, the public was still sleeping on it, so there were only 7-8 other people in that theater, grouped in maybe two clusters. I was off in my own little pool of darkness in the upper right quadrant. Functionally, once the lights went down, I was alone.

Despite some middling reviews at the time, The Ring is something of a horror classic nowadays. If you want a scary movie this Spooky Season, check out The Ring. Or don't, because it nearly killed me.

We're at the last, I don't know, third of the movie? And Our Heroine has tracked down the origin of the Cursed Videotape to some creepy mountain motel or whatever. SPOILER, it turns out that it was built over the Cursed Well (everything in this movie is cursed) that Our Villain was thrown into—that's why Sadako/Samara is a vengeful wet murder ghost crawling out of TVs now. While investigating this decrepit hotel room, intrepid journalist Rachel and her, who is it, her ex-husband? her kid's dad, idk, discover the well under the creaky old floorboards. And then, wouldn't you know it,

NAOMI WATTS FALLS INTO THE WELL

NAOMI WATTS FALLS INTO THE FUCKING WELL

THAT'S WHERE SAMARA'S BODY IS

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[The rather slapstick moment when Rachel falls into the well. Does not include what actually happens next.]

I go absolutely rigid in my seat. Naomi Watts is splashing around this dark-ass death swamp of a well and I know, with as much certainty as I have ever known anything in my life, that Samara is about to pop up in all her pasty, waterlogged glory. All the sad creepy dread, all the desperation to figure out what the fuck all that shit on the tape was and stop Samara from killing Rachel's son, all the horrible contorted victim faces, all the alternate reality I’ve been soaking in, it has all come to this. I have to leave the theater. I cannot be having with this. I have to be gone from this place. My legs do not work. I cannot feel them. I am frozen. I want nothing more in this life or any other to get up and leave this cavernous pitch-black room, and I cannot. I start praying for death. I want you to understand that I am not trying to be flippant or humorous. This is genuinely what went through my head. I was too scared to even think, "You know, you could just pray to pass out or for motion to return to your limbs or something." No, I sat there in The Ring thinking, Please for the love of all mercy just let me cease being.

You know that scene in Mulholland Drive (also starring Naomi Watts)? Winkie's diner and the EXCRUCIATING tension? It was a little like that, except I wasn't watching it, I was experiencing it, and Samara was my dirt monster out behind the diner.

Except that the jump scare didn't actually happen. I mean, yes, Rachel finds Samara's body down there, but—I don't remember exactly, please don't make me go watch it again to tell you what actually happens. It's played more sympathetically on Rachel's part, as I recall, and she and her ex get Samara's body out so that she (Samara) can have a proper burial.

And then it turns out that this is not the end of the movie. It turns out that Rachel has Fucked Up.

I think I was relatively okay through the rest of it, although the climax is Samara emerging from a TV in her full glitching swampy glory to scare [SPOILER] to death. I don't recall praying for death twice. There's a point when you're so exhausted from fear chemicals that you're like, yeah, this might as well happen. Bring it, Soggy. I did have a hard time prying myself out of that seat afterwards, though, and my mom says that when I got home, I had the classic thousand-yard stare. How was the movie?

"It was great," I said, and I meant it.

I've seen things that were objectively scarier (I watched much of The Haunting of Hill House from behind a pillow, to be honest), and it's not like I've never experienced fear in real life. But I respect when a movie that can make me feel so intensely, and there's something weirdly precious about the way horror is a safe roller coaster, as it's often been said. So I love telling the story about The Time The Ring Nearly Killed Me—a movie that actually made my body stop working—and I love thinking of how embedded in a specific time and place that movie was for me. The last gasp of VHS when the Cursed Videotape still seemed plausible; the way the internet was still wild and weird and free; where I was in my life, keeping up so avidly with all the movie news, and finding myself in such a little pool of darkness early one afternoon. It's the scariest movie I saw in a theater; that's the alchemy of circumstance.

#the ring #ringu #horror #first look on patreon #movies #long post #spooky season #halloween everyday #long post is long #gifs

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ofmdrecaps · 4 months ago

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09/06-07/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; David Jenkins; Rhys Darby; Taika Waititi; Ruibo Qian; Vico Ortiz; Kristian Nairn; Anapela Polataivao; Erroll Shand; Andrew DeYoung; Kay Buchanen; RoseCityComicCon OFMD Panel; Tell Tale Voting Reminder; Another Call To Action; Help Matt Maher go to ECCC!; Love Notes; Daily Darby / Today's Taika;

Hey Crew, I'm working on reaching out to folks to get permission to post more Rose City Comic Con pictures! Hope to have more up tomorrow.

== David Jenkins ==

David and Kinga got married! So happy for you Chaos Dad!

Source: David and Kinga's Instagram

== Rhys Darby ==

SO MUCH RHYS today! He was out doing comedy at Largo LA!

Source: LargoLosAngelos More Comedy with Rhys, 9/10/24 at 8 PM in LA! Learn more!

Guess who's substack is up!?

Source: Rhys Darby's Instagram

== Taika Waititi ==

The Toronto International Film Festival is on! Indigenous.tv is reminding you to keep an eye out for Taika!

Source: Indigenous TV

== Ruibo Qian ==

Ruibo is in Shanghai!

Source: Ruibo Qian's Instagram

== Vico Ortiz ==

Vico and Ane are cosplaying Crowley and Aziraphale at Rose City Comic Con!

Vico will also be part of the Drag Pac's Youth Town Hall on Sept 14, 2024 at the Plaza De La Raza LA! Wanna check it out? Visit their site!

Source: Vico's Instagram

== Kristian Nairn ==

Kristian Djing "Hold the Decks" for us!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kristian Nairn (@kristiannairn)

instagram

Source: Kristian Nairn's Instagram

== Anapela Polataivao ==

Our beloved Auntie's movie TINĀ (MOTHER) will be premiering at the Hawaii Film Festival this year in October!

"HIFF44 opens at the Consolidated Theatres Kahala with the World Premiere and directorial feature debut of Miki Magasiva’s nuanced drama from New Zealand/Aotearoa. Samoan actor Anapela Polata’ivao (ONE THOUSAND ROPES, OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH, SHORTLAND STREET) portrays Mareta, a well-respected and gifted vocal coach in her community, who finds herself at a crossroads, needing to find work after the tragic death of her daughter, a death she is still processing. Mareta goes out of her comfort zone to become a substitute teacher at an elite, all-white private school and forms a choir that begins her healing as a matriarch and caregiver. Director Miki Magasiva and actress Anapela Polata’ivao are scheduled to attend HIFF44 Opening Night."

New Zealand/Aotearoa 2024 | English, Samoan w/English Subtitles | 124M

Source: HIFF Instagram and Website

== Erroll Shand ==

Everyone's sending love to Erroll for his role in The Twelve! Really hoping it'll be available outside of NZ soon!

Source: Jodie Rimmer Instagram

== Andrew Deyoung ==

One of our writers had their new movie premiered at the TIFF!

Source: FilmAndy Instagram

== Kay Buchanan ==

Our fabulous leather worker-- Kay Buchanan has a new movie coming out that she worked on props for! Grafted, a AoNZ horror film will be released in AoNZ on Sept 12! Check out the trailer on her IG!

Source: Kay Buchanan's Instagram

== Rose City Comic Con ==

Our crewmates over at @adoptourcrew were kind enough to share updates from the Cast Panel at Rose City ComicCon this weekend! If you have twitter, you can check it out over at Adopt Our Crew Thread. If not, you can see them below!

Source: Adopt Our Crew Twitter

== Tell Tale Voting Reminders! ==

Only a few more days to vote for Stede and Ed in Tell Tale TV's Battle of the Ships! Please vote here when you get a chance!

Source: Tell Tale TV's Instagram

== Another Call to Action! ==

Sounds like there's going to be another anniversary trailer happening on 09/15! Several crewmates are asking to QRT David's Tweet here with the text "Because The Night Belongs To Lovers #OurFlagMeansDeath" and something a little extra to help keep from being flagged as spam! Let's get ofmd trending again that day!

Source: Lucy's Twitter

== Help Matt Maher go to ECCC! ==

Looks like a few of our crewmates talked to Matthew Maher (Black Pete) and he really wants to go to Seattle! Let's help him get to Emerald City Comic Con, if you have a moment, please put in a request to have him as a guest at their next con! Thank you to Mira (@/havethisonelife on twitter) and @/Callousnstrange for trying to help Matt!

Source: CallousnStrange / Mira (HaveThisOneLife)

== Fan Spotlight ==

= The Gay Pirate News Hour =

The inaugural episode of Gay Pirate News Hour is out now covering a month's worth of OFMD fandom news and speculation including David Jenkins getting married, Rose City Comic Con, and reasons to clown about season 3. GPNH will be live on youtube once a month!

youtube

Source: Our Flag Means Fanfiction Instagram/Youtube

== Loves Notes ==

Hey there lovelies! I've been sitting with my Dad in the hospital for a few days, and it's given me a lot to think about. Today especially was particularly hard, and I wanted to send out a couple reminders I think are important.

It's okay to be scared. Things don't always go as we plan, and scary things DO happen, and you are absolutely valid in feeling fear in the unknown.

It's okay to ask for help. Sometimes, even if you are the proudest person in the entire world, you need help, and it's okay to ask for that help. Even if you're estranged, or have difficult relationships, ask for help, the worst that can happen is someone says no. Better to know for sure then not ask.

You're absolutely wonderful lovelies. You. When you're scared, when you're happy, when you're sad, you're beautiful, and you're wonderful, and you deserve love and help just like anyone else. Please ask for it if you need it <3 Rest well, I'm rooting for you.

Source: MichellCClark Instagram

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika ==

Today's theme is hair, gifs courtesy of these wonderful folks, @piratesleeves and @unaragazzadelnord

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radiodust-heart · 8 months ago

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Alastor isnt a fan if tv of any kind. But Charlie started having movie nights were once a week someone picks a movie for them to watch. Her choice was rather heart felt and had her crying while no one really paid attention.

Vaggies pick was a movie about animals finding a way home. She just liked it was her comment.

Lucifer presented a musical about himself and a carnival he thought was funny.

Husker picked the first movie in the pile which ended up being a princess movie

Nifty picked a story about a bunchnof short stories that came together in the end. Each one more horrific then the last.

When it was Angels turn they all gave him a rule, no porn. So instead he set everyone up to watch heraditary/midsomer (havent figured out which ine would be funnier) the movie captured everyones attention, the film becoming worse as it went on but no one could look away. The whole time Angel grinned as he watched the movie. He ended up turning to Alastor who was situated beside him, whispering facts he knew about the movie and cult history hed picked up over his time.

Alastor enjoyed the growing horror of the group. But not as much as Angels consrent chatter. He had alot to say and it was all fascinating. He missed most of the movie as he was paying attention to Angel but the man recapped for him as the movie came to a gruesome close. With unsettling deaths and a cult celebrating the ritual. The room was clearly unsettled and nausiated all despersing at the end of the film.

Alastor didnt get a chance to pick a movie as movie nights were firmly canceled after the incedent but it was worth it. Instead he ended up chatting with Angel for the rest of the night on history of cults, illnesses, canniblisim.

Angel was a horror fanatic and when he found out Alastor was a cannible he had a million questions on the life style which Alastor was pleasently surprised. Use to peiple being creeped out by him at the knowledge. Counterly when Alastor found out Angel was a drag queen he had many questions himself on the artisty of the life style.

Charlies exercise did work to bring the resedence closer just not the way she thought

#hazbin hotel #hazbin angel dust #hazbin alastor #radiodust #headcanon

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peachyjinx · 1 year ago

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On the Edge- Ch 1- Pent Up

Word count: 2300

Summary: You're having trouble bringing yourself to orgasm, and and being around Loki isn't helping...

Day 7

You huffed in annoyance, the sheen of sweat dripping down your forehead onto the pillow. You had been trying to orgasm for over an hour now, but it was elusive. You've never had problems with this before, and especially not recently.

For the last couple of months, all it took was 15 minutes thinking about Loki while you pleasured yourself and you were tumbling into ecstasy. Tonight you had thought about a joke he had made at Tony’s expense. The way he said it with a wry smile and a wink he shot you in front of everyone made your cheeks burn. He always lit you on fire, either when you were around him or in the privacy of your own bed. But tonight, for some reason, you just couldn't come.

Your mind continued to dwell on Loki as you gave up on your missing orgasm and walked to your bathroom, running the shower, and thinking about your unsated lust. He had been with the Avengers over a year longer than you, but he still didn’t quite fit in. His sharp wit with his backhanded compliments to the others made you blush. His devious eyes would flash to yours, and sometimes you felt like he was showing off just for you. Recently, you found that you couldn’t contain yourself around him and began to flirt back.

But then you reminded yourself that Loki flirted with everyone. You'd even seen him jokingly make a pass at Steve, much to Steve’s horror. Steve immediately turned beet red and left the room, with Loki left cackling behind him while you tried to contain your own laughter in front of the others.

Your mind drifts more as you wash yourself absentmindedly. Not just to his mischievous nature, but to his body…that tall, strong build with a swagger that was unmatched by any human you knew and made you weak in the knees. Those intense blue eyes that always seem to be hiding his true thoughts. That sharp jawline that made you want to walk up to him and bite it while you twisted your fingers in his hair…

Okay, that's enough. No more thinking about Loki tonight.

You finish your shower and climb back into bed, with fresh soft pajamas cooling your skin.

Maybe I'm just tired. I just got home from a mission, and my body just isn't ready.

Your mind wanders to the last time you masturbated. When did you come last? A week ago.

It’ll be fine, I’m just tired, you assure yourself.

You roll over and turn on your tv in your bedroom as you drift off to sleep.

~~~~~~

You slowly followed Nat into the conference room for the post mission meeting, the members of your team grumbling at the audacity of Steve’s 6 am assembly.

Your eyes casually glanced around the room and landed on Loki. He looked as bored as he always does in these meetings. He thinks they are a waste of time, and makes no attempt to hide his disdain.

What was it he said that one time?

“The trials of battle are meant to be discussed over a feast and surrounded by loose companions, not in a hideous board room with poor quality breakfast foods!,” Loki spat at Steve at one particularly boring recap meeting as he dramatically left the room.

You grin to yourself as you doodle in your notes, trying not to look up at the other attendees sitting down- Nat, Clint, and Loki.

It was extra hard to avoid looking at Loki this morning, he had his hair in a loose bun, with little wisps of black tendrils framing his face. He dressed in his casual Earth clothes, which still managed to make you feel underdressed around him. His clothes were always the best that money can buy, and perfectly tailored to his form. Even though he's supposed to “blend in” on Earth, he still looked every bit the rich Prince from another world that he is.

You zoned out as you watched Steve talk in the front of the room, not thinking about anything in particular.

“...we obtained the data we needed, so kudos to everyone on the team,” Steve congratulated his exhausted audience with a professional smile.

“But it’s important that even though we came out unscathed, our mission wasn’t without its flaws. I’m of course speaking about the incident at the bar,” Steve continued in a casual, but firm tone.

All eyes look to Loki, who's staring at the ceiling. Sensing the room’s focus on him, he lowers his jaw down and his blue eyes scan the faces of those around the table with a sly grin.

“Just say what’s on your mind, Captain”, Loki feigns annoyance, though you could tell he was enjoying the attention.

“We almost didn’t get the information we needed because you were obviously distracted. Do I need to read all of my notes?,” Steve shot back, trying to maintain his casual demeanor.

“Did we get the information or not?” Loki nonchalantly replied to Steve, looking around the table to discern what his teammates thought.

“If it weren’t for Nat and Clint’s quick thinking, you could’ve compromised everything!”, Steve raised his voice, gesturing with the file in his hand.

“It was just a bit of fun,” Loki smiled to himself, raising his hands behind his head as he leaned back in his chair.

“Loki, you started hitting on some random woman in the bar! If Nat and I hadn’t intervened, we could’ve gotten the attention of the Hydra agents in there! Hell, she could’ve been one!”, Clint glared at Loki from across the table. He never hid his dislike for the God, but it didn’t bother Loki.

“Well I think your missions- and your team- are incredibly dull. You need to liven things up,” Loki mocked, sitting straighter in his chair now, his devious grin looking for someone to challenge him.

You didn’t speak up. It had been hard enough watching Loki woo a gorgeous woman at the bar, his hands trailing her back while she giggled and played with her cocktail straw. He had laid it on thick, you vividly remembered the way he leaned in close to her while whispering in her ear…

Your attention snapped back to the meeting and watching your teammates argue. When these guys fought, it was best to just stay out of it.

“Loki, you nearly started a bar fight when her boyfriend came back!”, Nat was now raising her voice, glaring at him with Clint.

“You asked the God of Chaos to join your team- what did you expect?! It’s in my nature!,” he smiled and his attention turned to you.

“And what do you think?”, Loki shifted, leaning forward to look at you with his hands clasped on the desk. You felt heat on your cheeks as he inquisitively looked at you. It felt like his beautiful eyes pierced into your soul, his complete focus on you feeling like too much and not enough at the same time. You looked up at Steve, hoping to stay neutral even though you weren’t.

“Well, I think it was a dick move by Loki. But he's right, what do you guys expect? And we got the facility location and completed the reconnaissance successfully. So what does it matter that he almost started shit? He probably would have fixed it with his magic anyways…”, you trailed off, looking between Steve and Loki.

A smug smile spreads across Loki’s face as he raised his hands expressively.

“See?? I was merely playing and at no time was the mission in threat of failing!,” he proudly declared as if your comment cleared the matter up.

“Loki. I need you to reign it in. I know you’re bored, and this is nothing like your Asgard missions, but you’re here with us now. You need to tone it down- lives could’ve been endangered,” Steve warned, not budging.

Loki stood up, showing he was once again done with another mission recap meeting (or with Steve telling him what to do).

“Ah yes, but of course, Captain. I will make sure to take your commands into consideration in the future. Thank you for the support, Darling,” he shot you a devilish smile and a wink before stepping out of the room. Your body flushed with heat as you tried not to look at your teammates.

He had you good.

~~~~~~

Day 10

You screamed out in frustration at another failed attempt, slamming your fists on the bed next to you. You panted heavily, concern seeping into your mind.

What the hell is wrong with me? Is it mental? Is it physical?

You sat up and looked around at the toys scattered across the bed. Clit stimulators, vibrators, your favorite dildo- you had tried it all, and nothing. You took a deep breath and reassured yourself.

No, it’s never been a problem before. I just need to wait it out some more.

You opened up the calendar on your phone, thinking back to the last time you came. You had been thinking about Loki railing you, of course. You marked the last day you had an orgasm and sighed. Hopefully this is over soon.

You looked out the window to see the daylight shining in, and decided the best way to move past your problem is to pretend it wasn’t a problem. And since you had no Avengers things going on, you could actually relax and take in some sights of the city and explore as you wanted.

You threw on a t- shirt and jeans and ventured out into the bustling city. As soon as your feet hit the pavement, you felt better. You decided to treat yourself with your favorite coffee shop, getting a flavored coffee and a couple chocolate croissants.

The spring air swirled around you as you entered Central Park with your snack, the faint smell of flowers blooming improving your mood already. This is just what you needed- some nature to ground you. You wouldn’t be surprised if this would be over after today.

You found the perfect bench across from Belvedere castle and sat down, taking in a deep breath and sighing as you appreciated your view. Everything else was going great, you really needed this moment to think about all that you do have, not what you don’t.

“Mind if I join you?”

Shit. You know that voice.

You looked up from your pastry to see Loki taking a seat next to you. Wearing a dark green fitted sweater with his tight black dress slacks, he looked as polished as ever. As he sat, his legs sprawled out a bit, to where your knees were almost touching. You told yourself to remain calm and not think about how sexy he looks.

“Not at all,” you shrugged, trying to remain as casual as possible.

“It’s quite lovely in this spot, I must say,” Loki stretched his arms along the back of the bench, and you felt your heart flutter at his closeness.

“Yea it’s not all bad here on “Midgard”,” you joked, making him smirk. It made your stomach flip.

The two of you sat in silence, and if you had been in a relationship, this would be incredibly romantic. The cherry blossoms were blooming and there were flower petals in the air- it was just perfect. You tried to think of something to talk to him about that wasn’t work- you were rarely alone with him outside of the tower or on a mission. Loki shifted and his knee touched yours, and you stifled a moan and felt your body go tense.

“Does the castle remind you of home?,” you asked with a friendly tone, trying to keep things light and prevent your mind from obsessing about the fact that the two of you were casually touching one another. You’re not going to let him get to you.

“A bit. If it were nicer, perhaps,” he grinned down at you and you took another bite, while acting engrossed in a family that was strolling by.

“What’s that you’re eating?,” he asked, his tone still relaxed, as if it was normal for him to sit so close to you, alone, in a romantic setting. Your conversation was friendly and innocent enough, but you could feel the heat rising in you, and you fought to ignore it as you chewed.

“A chocolate croissant from Lulu’s. They get the lamination perfect, they’re so buttery and they use the best chocolate- would you like a bite?,” you excitedly offered him.

“I’ve been around for more than a thousand years, I have eaten foods and drank spirits so divine that you couldn’t imagine. I doubt it could compare,” Loki looked down at you play mockingly, with a sparkle of mischief in his eye.

You rolled your eyes at him, “Alright, fine, your loss.” You took another bite, thankful you had another croissant to stress eat when you got back to the tower.

You could feel Loki’s eyes still on you, when he reached his hand out and cupped your chin to look up at him. Loki slowly brought his thumb up to your cheek, gently wiping a stray crumb at the corner of your mouth. His eyes studied you now, intensely.

“…though there are some things on Earth that still surprise me,” Loki smiled affectionately at you.

You swallowed your bite and looked into his eyes, dazzling a blue as bright as the sky, sucking you into his world. You wanted to stare into those eyes for eternity. You felt your face get hot and your core ached, reminding you of what you needed so desperately. You resisted the urge to clench your thighs, afraid he would notice.

“Alright, let me have a bite,” he unceremoniously demanded as if you weren’t just having a moment.

You moved your hand towards his mouth and he took a bite from the croissant, a thoughtful look on his face as he savored it. You watched him slowly chew and you tried not to be in awe of the God, and the fact that he wanted you to share something with him.

“Not bad, ” he raised his eyebrows and smiled at you, setting his large hand gently on your knee.

You will never recover from this.

------

Chapter 2: Stormy Weather

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On the Edge Chapter List

Peachyjinx Master List

#loki smut #loki x reader #dom!loki x sub!reader #dom!loki smut #loki fanfic #loki #loki series #loki mcu #mcu loki

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djwiththejd · 1 year ago

Text

The Fall of the House of Usher (2023) Episode 1

A foreword, of sorts: If someone had told me in high school or even college that I would willingly sit down to watch a horror tv show, I would have laughed in their face. Who knew it would take my college professor Emma's teachings of Pym and my first foray into Critical Theory that I brought with me to law school to get to this point. I haven't even finished watching School Spirits yet so the depression has really taken me for a ride, but my boyfriend says I need a hobby, and I spent two and a half hours and 7 and a half pages of notes on just the first episode of this show, so I'm going to write about it because I miss writing.

If you're here from twitter, may the gods have mercy on your soul.

Now, let's move on to business. My recap of Episode 1 of The Fall of The House of Usher. There will be spoilers for the Poe stories as well as detailed commentary of the events within the episode, so obviously I'm going to put a SPOILER WARNING for whatever you read below. Also, since the first episode introduces the story and the characters, it will probably be long as heck and full of background that no one but me cares about because I'm a huge nerd. I don't care if you skim. Read at your own peril; stay tuned for danger.

Firstly, let's talk about the original short story and see if Wikipedia can help me write a good, short summary of the premise/plot of that story. From within the first two minutes of the show, I can tell that we are going to deviate wildly from the plot.

In the original short story, published in 1839, the tale is told by an unnamed narrator who has been called to the House of Usher at the behest of his childhood friend Roderick Usher who is ill and needs help. Roderick and his twin Madeline are the only living members of the Usher family left alive in their family mansion. One thing that high school teachers everywhere probably tried to teach their students is to pay attention to the narrator's notice of a thin crack that extends from the roof, down the house, and into the nearby lake. This may be important later, but for me right now, I view it as a double entendre. Spoiler alert, at the end of the original short story, both Roderick and Madeline die, leading to the "fall" of the House of Usher, in that the last two living descendants die and therefore end the family name, and also the literal "fall" of the house, the family mansion that they lived in.

I have to admit I watched the first two minutes, tweeted about it, then got so engrossed about halfway through the episode that I grabbed a legal pad and started the episode from the beginning.

Firstly, the opening starts with a countdown to New Year's 1980 before we see a quick image of a cawing raven and a creepy vision of Carla Gugino's smiling face. The episode is titled "A Midnight Dreary," a line from Poe's "The Raven," so at this point I'm confused because obviously this is a completely different short story, but I roll with it. Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight last night to look ahead and see what the other episode titles were, because then I would have probably understood the plot a little better.

We cut now to a stained glass window in a church (hello Jesus symbolism, can't wait to ponder you later) and then the pastor seems to be giving a eulogy about three dead people. We cut to an older gentleman with a teen girl sitting behind him who seems to be remembering 6 different visions. Side note: I googled the eulogy, and it cobbles together various lines from Poe's poems as well as quotes that are ascribed to Poe. At this point I guess that the older man and older women in sunglasses are the twins, and wonder who the teen girls are behind each of them before seeing MARK MOTHERFUCKING HAMILL on the screen. Even in my notes I just write him down as Mark Hamill, or MH, which is a real shame because his character's name is Arthur Pym, which is the main character from the only "book" Poe ever wrote, and there's a lot of controversy around whether it was finished or not, but I spent several classes in undergrad analyzing that book in particular, so it has a very soft spot in my heart.

Roderick(?) turns back and sees a figure with a blacked out face in the rafters, but then the girl turns around, nobody is there. When she turns to him, she calls him Grampus, so I can assume this girl is his granddaughter and not his daughter. Then Roderick (?) says, "She's here." Not quite to his granddaughter, but mostly to himself. How cryptic. I'm sure we won't think about that until it jumps right into our faces. At this point, in hindsight I had assumed that the "very pale girl" behind Madeline was her granddaughter, but oh how wrong I was.

Outside the church, we see press all over, but the church itself was noticeably empty. Then, then, we cut to a cork board. This confirms Roderick and Madeline are who I thought I was, and also gives Mark Hamill the name of Arthur Pym. Then, I painstakingly went in and paused at nearly every second of the next scene to read the details on the children, their dates of death, and any bits of information I could get from the articles about cause of death (aka COD.) The death dates are clustered very closely together. I don't know quite yet if it goes from youngest to eldest, but I'm sure we shall find out.

Then, the big reveal. Well, to me at least. I saw that the Assistant U.S. Attorney was C. Auguste Dupin, and let me tell you I pumped my fist in the air and nearly woke up my sleeping boyfriend next to me. Why? You don't care but I'm going to tell you. Dupin was introduced in The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), my favorite Poe short story, and also the first ever piece of writing ever coined as "detective fiction." Yes, my absolute favorite genre of writing was created by Edgar Allan Poe, so as problematic as he may have been, I will always be grateful to him for this. Besides, the plot for Rue Morgue was so wild, I saw Dupin's name and had to pause and tweet about it. Specifically, I tweeted about hoping that one of the CODs would be strangulation by an escaped monkey. Mind you, like an idiot, I still haven't looked at the damn names of all of the episodes of the series. Since last night, I have been told to keep an eye out, so that's fun.

I can't believe I typed all of that up from the first like, three minutes of the show. I warned you this was going to be long.

Then, we pan out to the corkboard being a whole ass murder board. We love that. Still no clue who Pym is and why he's alive, but the random guy who walked into the office to talk to Dupin just said something about a Pym Reaper, so I got a chuckle out of that. There's emphasis here about "him" wanting to talk. Obviously, by process of elimination, this him is Roderick.

Dupin takes a taxi (oooh, vintage) to this location, and we see it is a dilapidated house. The "House" of Usher, methinks? I will say it definitely gives rise to the gothic vibe of terror and dread, but thankfully we're not going into Gothic architecture, that would have been a little too on the nose. The clothing I've seen is very modern and the death dates are all in November, so I genuinely thought it was set last year but it wasn't. Everything is apparently set to happen next month. In the future. How foreboding.

Roderick invites Dupin in and Dupin attempts to console Roderick for his losses, but Roderick seems much more focused on the drink in his hand. Henri IV Dudognon Heritage Cognac Grande Champagne. I googled it and apparently it is a real drink. I have to say, Roderick really doesn't seem to curry favor with Dupin when he suggests "a single pour is probably worth double your annual salary" but then he offers a glass to Dupin. This man is clearly going through something. By now, I can surmise it is the death of his family, but is this The House of Usher? Is this dilapidated building the same setting that we see in the original tale? Is Dupin now taking the place of the unnamed narrator of past?

Dupin still tries to apologize, but Roderick just seems...resigned to his fate. Also, Dupin asks where Mr. Pym is and we find out that Mark Hamill is playing a defense attorney. Amazing. Three years of law school and a JD later, and Mark Hamill, one of my favorite actors, is playing an attorney with the name of one of my most intriguing literary characters. All of my worlds have collided.

Roderick waives his right to an attorney and sits Dupin down across from him to talk. Dupin says Roderick got away with it, Roderick says no one really ever gets away with anything, not really. Dupin pushes back and says Madeline would beg to differ. Roderick says you can ask yourself, she's downstairs in the basement. At this point, I am convinced that Madeline is dead and buried, but this episode will not reveal that information to me. Trust me, I'm holding onto that theory because it is close in parallel to the original story, but I am soooo open at this point to being surprised because the actor for Roderick has sucked me in completely. Bruce Greenwood. I have painfully powerful facial recognition, so it delights me that I've never seen him in anything before so I can get sucked into his acting completely. Seriously, I just recently recognized the brother in Get Out from a single episode of Victorious because that one episode is my favorite. It can ruin my immersion sometimes.

Anyhow, back to the story. I'm rambling, but I have ADHD and I miss stream of consciousness writing so this is more for me than it is for you.

Roderick's phone vibrates, he says it is his granddaughter, Lenore. My eyeballs are rolling back into my head. We have a connection to The Raven, finally. She's not dead at present, so we shall see if she follows her namesake into the Great Beyond. Dupin tries to graciously allow Roderick to take that call and cites that "grandkids take priority" but Roderick calls him out!

He says "Don't lecture me about family values. You're just as shit in that department as I am."

At this point I am confused but I can't look away. Roderick says he wants to give his confession. Dupin whips out a recorder. November 20th, 2023. Roderick confirms we are in his childhood home. I am vibrating like a cat because I think my theory is correct, and I realize that based off of the death dates of his children, that much of this series will be told from this setting, in those chairs, and with flashbacks to important moments.

I was not prepared for the beginning of this story. In 1953, the house is warmer, more cheerful. R and M are just children, and Roderick speaks about "the woman who would shape every choice we would ever make." Their mother. Eliza. Aptly given the same name as Poe's mother. Personal secretary to the CEO of Fortunato Pharmaceuticals. The same company the Ushers own in modern times. Already I have questions about the lineage of the twins, but you know how it is.

"Not here. Not ever. We agreed." Very cryptic words, Mr. Longfellow. Madeline always hated him, she "always knew." Knew he was a liar? A terrible person? Or did she know he was their father?

Then we get into the religious phrases the mom uses. "Like Jesus, he loves from afar." "He's complicated, like God." I always find it very interesting but also very sad when the words a woman uses to justify a man's abuse is cloaked in a veil of religion. I won't go into detail on that, though. There just isn't time.

Jump to 1962. Nine years later, the twins look to be teenagers. Their studying is interrupted by a bell, and we cut to Eliza ringing a bell in bed. There is a plethora of crosses now hanging on the wall behind her, so that's...lovely. Both twins rush to her, and Eliza pushes a glass of water away. At first I thought it was rabies, but then Eliza seems to be suffering from pain in her pelvic region based off of how her actress was portraying her pain. Honestly, my theory is that she probably had an untreated STI which may have spread to other organs. Either way, her denial of medication or a doctor horrifies me. The screaming and the vitriol is a complete tone shift to who she was prior. But what I really find interesting is that Madeline, not Roderick, seems to be the brains of the pair. She is the one who coaches Roderick on what to say and how to say it to Longfellow, even though Roderick eventually messes up. There seems to be a double entendre in the way Madeline says "it's the least he can do." Because I have suspicions that Madeline knows he is their father, I keep autofilling this in my head. The shift in Mr. Longfellow's mood from humorous, almost mocking disbelief to anger and contemptuous pushback against the twins when Roderick tells him "she loves you" is enough for me. Even Madeline following up with "It's the least you could do. For her. For us." isn't necessary anymore for me to believe he is the father.

Longfellow's denial only seals the deal.

Cut to Eliza's...corpse. She didn't make it, but in trying to keep with her wishes, they tear apart the shed and build her a coffin and bury her in the backyard. Of course, because *spoiler alert* Madeline was accidentally buried alive, I had a hunch Eliza might climb out of her grave. I was proven right, and Eliza wakes up, tries to attack Roderick, but stops when Eliza calls her "Mommy" and grabs her arm. (Actress for teen Madeline is also fantastic, her look of horror was evocative as fuck. 10/10. No notes.) ELiza then walks out, goes into the gates of Longfellow's house and proceeds to choke him to death (with apparently superhuman strength) before finally collapsing next to his body.

What I *love* about this all is that when we cut back to the present, and Dupin asks about why Roderick is telling him all this, Roderick says it is because she's standing right behind Dupin! And you know what drives me nuts? SHE IS. SHE'S TOTALLY THERE AND HE DOESN'T TURN AROUND! Dupin does not see her and we see eliza walk out of the frame.

It is important to note that Roderick talks about the cleanup of that story to spare "his" family, the Usher family, of any embarrassment. He confirms that Longfellow was his father but doesn't claim him as family because Longfellow never claimed him, but it explains why he acknowledges all six of his children from five different mothers.Roderick wouldn't close the gates. Finally, we have confirmation, verbal confirmation from Roderick about who his father was.

Side note: Dupin has a husband, how progressive. I'm down for it. We love it when the elderly LGBTQ+ community is acknowledged.

Two weeks ago:

Then we switch to a trial against Fortunato Pharmaceuticals and the Usher "crime" family, according to Dupin's opening statement. As someone who did pretty damn well in both evidence and criminal law, I'm side-eyeing this opening statement. Let me tell you, law school ruins your ability to suspend disbelief for so many court things in television and movies. Also Fortunato? After The Cask of Amontillado? That's the short story I had to read in high school, and I enjoyed it enough. It does, however, tie in well if the company is also destroyed, locked away, hidden from society, whatever you want to call it to tie into the ending of Cask.

I will say this, Roderick fathered gorgeous children nonstop. Every one of these actors is stunning. I found it odd that the camera panned to Lenore and her mother(?) for a close up when Dupin talks about corruption ut when panned out Lenore is hidden from the view of the audience. At this point, I had not drawn any conclusions as to why that is. I kept fixating on "The Pale Girl," who we later find out is Juno, Roderick's newest wife. Let me tell you, that revelation was crazy because I thought she was Madeline's sole daughter who idolized Dita Von Teese and Dolores Umbridge in the worst hybridization of ways, but Ruth Codd's facial expressions are stunning. I'm visibly uncomfortable when I look at her, and that's fantastic. She's showing me so much with her body language, I can't stand how good she is. Anyhow, I love her. I will be following more of her.

Then, Dupin drops the bomb. The bomb. The thing that makes Madeline's face go from quiet amusement to concern. The statement that makes every Usher child react. There's an informant in the midst. And it is one of them.

Pym, in my opinion, correctly calls out the failure to disclose the identity of this informant. When counsel approaches the bench, this opening statement about the family witness is struck from the record, but it does what Dupin intends it to do. It rattles the whole family. Pym probably makes so much damn money off of these people.

Roderick calls a family dinner for everyone and their spouses. Then we cut to introductions of each family member. Frederick turns out to be the father of Lenore, and his wife's name is Morrie, I think? I had to check Wikipedia for this, but her name is Morella, she's a former actress and model, and now she makes hyper-realistic cakes. Freddie gives me Dan Levy vibes. He blames Perrie, who I assume is Prospero. Lenore calls out that the informant would "have to be pretty brave, I guess" and asks if the charges are true. At this point, there is a massive, MASSIVe red flag waving in my head. Is Lenore the informant? Or is she the red herring? It gets more juicy when she suggests that "if someone really broke the law, shouldn't they be punished?" The red flag...of justice? Morrie casually warns that breaking away from family rank would get you written out of the will, highlighting the difference in values between Lenore and the rest of the family.

Then we cut to Tamerlane and her husband, Bill T. Wilson. (Very cute reference to a short story Poe wrote called William Wilson.) She also says her money on the informant is "one of the bastards." All this does it solidify her and Freddie as the two children Roderick had "in wedlock." Bill suggests the informant is Freddie, and Tamerlane pushes back. She muses that it might be Perry, Bill suggests Juno, her "new stepmom." Tamerlane bristles at this, but also drops that Juno doesn't "know anything." If she really is so new to the family she doesn't know its secrets, then she's the most innocent one there and is also the only one who took the charges against the family seriously enough to not be able to hide it on her face. Tamerlane mentions Goldbug, a short story I have not read, and Tamerlane drops an important tidbit: She doesn't care about the world, she cares about what her dad thinks." I had to google who tf Blippi is for this conversation. Also, they do threesomes? Also, TEST MONKEYS?

Yep. We're going to have the true Rue Morgue murder. We are now introduced to Victorine. And her surgical partner/life partner. They have a successful surgery of some sort on a test monkey. Post-op the women are seen talking about struggling to get peer review because of nightshade. Whatever this nightshade powder Roderick sent over, it's working, but it is the same stuff that paralyzes South American tourists who get it blown in their face. Spooky. Victorine jokes about keeping away from Perry. That boy does not have anyone on his side for this. He's painted as young, immature, and apparently a date rapist so far. However, Victorine points the finger at Camille!

We jump to Leo, apparently on the phone with his boyfriend Julius. He convinces Julius to not come to the family dinner, but he finds out that Julius is on his way up while he's getting head from a woman. So Leo is a bisexual and he's a cheater. Love that about him. Has a black cat named Pluto.

We shift to Camille, apparently the HBIC of the family's PR. She tosses out orders to her drab little assistants hastily scribbling down notes. Her comment about Victorine is not unnoticed, but Camille puts aside her own feelings about her sister in order to push ahead of the PR disaster of the trial. When asked about Juno, Camille has a lot more frustration there for the massive age gap and lack of, idk, decorum about Juno? I'm intrigued as to what "Scraped her off the emergency room floor" means but I'm sure I will find out. Her main priority is sniffing out the informant, she also points to Perry but also claims she doesn't think he's clever enough to talk to the Feds without it ending up on Tiktok. Ouch. Give Perry a damn break. Or don't. He sounds awful. They all certainly seem awful. Like Tamerlane, Camille seems eager to please her father, emphasizing that she wants to be the one who finds the informant to deliver their head to her father.

Juno speaks! and she's Irish. I love that. Apparently she moderated an NA meeting once, so she's either a drug addict or a drug addict seriously affected her family. Tie-in to the Fortunato company? Possible motive? Possible mole? We shall wait and see. I love the comedy Roderick drops in about how the children have to love Juno because the only thing stronger than love is their fear of getting written out of the will.

Then the family doctor arrives with private news on Roderick should hear...My money is either terminal cancer or a slow poisoning. Either way, we don't know what's up before- Surprise! Prospero, aka Perrie shows up.

We see him pour Glenfiddich '96 and I find out he and I are the same age...He pitches a nightclub to Roderick and Madeline who magically shows up and Juno flicks off to Godzilla-knows-where. Apparently he had a full year to come up with a proposal for his first business venture and his idea for a super exclusive nightclub gets shut down mercilessly because the Ushers are about "changing the fucking world." Perrie walks away with his tail between his legs and Madeline checks in with Roderick before heading off to the dining room. She claims when the paperwork is passed out, she'll be able to tell. Apparently she can always tell when someone is...lying? We shall see.

Briefly, we see Carla Gugino put down a drink and say "For the road" which clearly freaks Roderick out because how did this strange woman show up in his mansion's bar?

Cut to dinner, Morrie presents a textbook and Starbucks and we have an Is It Cake momen to light applause from everyone. I can't quite tell if he's being sarcastic about him marrying Morrie, but Freddie moves on to suck up to Roerick by complimenting Juno.

Madeline passes out a new and improved NDA (thank you Pym for your tireless work, I hope you are paid handsomely for this) including details about forfeiture of inheritance, etc regarding being the informant and the consequences that ensue. Victorine's partner Alessandra tries to not sign it until her own lawyer looks it over but one look from the family makes her change her mind.

The siblings bicker before Madeline shuts it down, explains the importance of Fortunato and threatens the informant with certain death. I know it is meant to be serious but I admit I had a little giggle. Then Roderick says "Fifty million dollars." The twins have placed a bounty on the unknown informant's head, effectively pitting the family against each other.

In the present, Roderick laments that this was the last time he saw all of them together, and the last time he saw some of them alive. He claims responsibility for the deaths of all of his children. Even though Dupin claims that these bizarre deaths are all verified to not be linked, Roderick doubles down, and then finally brings up "a woman." Now things are getting juicy. Carla Gugino appears in a variety of lighting and with different hair, so that suggests we'll see here several times throughout the show.

We cut now to New Year's Eve, 1979 heading into 1980. The twins are dressed as Gatbsy and Daisy, I gag a little at the incestual implications even though I knew they were coming, and sit back and watch how the twins first meet the woman, now known as Verna. Apparently they enter a bar hoping for enough people to be around to provide them with an alibi. Whatever they came from at Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, they need witnesses. We see again that Madeline is the mastermind behind every plan. A conversation about resolutions with Verna ensues.

We pan to the present. Dupin talks about some other event that happens that night. Verna predicts their lives will take a complete change of course on that night. Roderick again tells Dupin that every piece of this story is important. We flash back to the funeral. Roderick sees the faceless woman in the back, but then the next time he looks back, he sees the mangled corpses of his six children. When he exits the church, he sees a creepy court jester, like a malevolent joker from the playing card, briefly waiting for him in the car. He starts, notices his nose is bleeding, and then suddenly falls backward. Madeline and Pym rush to him, but arthur stares ahead to *gasp* a raven, and he says "It's time. It's time. It's time." How mysterious.

The episode ends and I finally look ahead to all the episode names like I should have done before. Each episode is based off of a different Poe story, and probably relates to the cause of death for each character. I haven't read some of them, but I feel like I will before I start each next episode. Or I will let myself be surprised. We shall see. Anyhow, I have spent all morning typing this. If you've read this far, I salute you. I'm tired, but also satisfied.

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"The last thing my mother did in this life was kill a powerful man. And we carried that secret with us and we loved her all the more."

#edgar allan poe #the fall of the house of usher #house of usher #fall of the house of usher #tv series review #i have 3 degrees and a fondness of a problematic american author for this exact moment in my life #netflix #netflix series #television #tv show

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sharpth1ng · 5 months ago

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what would squilliam and shoehorn think of the stab movies?

So in-universe they're considered kind of bad and trashy when they come out, and from what we see they play in to a lot of the cheesy slasher tropes that scream subverts (ex. turning Casey's death into a shower scene for no reason). Later on in the franchise we find out they've developed a cult following, and from what we see of them on screen they're very campy. There's lots of movies IRL that follow this pattern going from bomb to cult classic: Dead Alive, The Thing, Slither, Phantom of the Paradise, ect, ect.

We also know that at least the first 3 Stab movies are directed by Robert Rodriguez who is a real (and kind of awesome) director known for stuff like From Dusk Till Dawn, Spy Kids, Machete, Sin City, and Planet Terror. I genuinely like a lot of his work but its pretty over the top, over campy, silly, fun so I think that gives us a sense of how those first three Stab movies feel.

We also know that Stab 8 was directed by Rian Johnson, director of Knives Out, Glass Onion, and the TV show Poker Face- all stuff that can have a bit of a lighter tone, not devoid of camp, but generally movies that take themselves a little more seriously. To illustrate the difference between these guys I could imagine Rian Johnson actually directing a modern Scream movie, but I can't really see Robert Rodriguez doing the same. This is far from an insult to Robert Rodriguez by the way, I just think his style is better suited to other stuff. So I think probably the later Stab movies feel a bit more like the Scream movies, while the earlier ones exist in a different media space.

To recap, based on what we see in the Scream movies, Stab is a bit cheesy and trashy, pretty campy, but they do ultimately develop an audience later on. So far, this sounds like something Stu would be into tbh, I think he likes the silly stuff as much as the really fucked up stuff, and the fact that its based on his own story would be hilarious to him. Like he would find it so fucking funny that they inserted a random shower scene in for Casey, and he would find his own portrayal by Vince Vaughn to be hilarious.

Billy is another story. I do think that Billy can enjoy a sillier slasher, especially if it has other stuff going for it (eg. gore, creative kills ect, insane body horror), but he can't buy in to the same amount of ridiculousness as Stu can. Beyond that there's the fact that the Stab movies are a bastardization of his story, like Billy already considers the massacre his movie, so the Stab movies are a bad remake to him. I think especially the idea that his killings aren't being taken seriously would aggravate him.

And then there's the fact that he's played by Luke Wilson. And like. Listen. I don't have anything against Luke Wilson, I know very little about him but I know Billy Wouldn't be happy about this:

Honestly I don't know who they could have cast as Billy that wouldn't have pissed him off. I think that as much as he would want the notoriety of his story being adapted into a movie, he would functionally enjoy being portrayed by someone else.

In the context of my writing, where he and Stu survive this is especially true because the Stab movies in Debaserverse will have Billy and Stu as final boys. Realistically this means they'll be shoved into tropey archetypes, a number of which Billy would hate for himself.

Stab is absolutely going to come into play in WoM by the way! I won't go into much detail about that right now but let it be known. There will be Stab.

#Stab 1997 #Stab movies #scream 1996 #character analysis #billy loomis #stu macher #stuilly #wave of mutilation fanfic #debaserverse #ask

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renthony · 8 months ago

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You've sorta made me want to watch Chucky, and I don't know how I feel about this. Do you have recommendations for where to start, or what to watch first?

Start with the movies! The TV show is done in such a way that it recaps important events from the films as needed, but in order to experience the full journey, you gotta watch the movies.

The first three movies (Child's Play, Child's Play 2, and Child's Play 3) focus on Andy, the first child that Chucky terrorizes. They're much more serious in tone, and focused on the scares.

The plot is that the serial killer Charles Lee Ray is killed in a police shootout in a toy store, and his soul winds up in a doll given to Andy as a birthday gift.

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The fourth movie (Bride of Chucky) and fifth movie (Seed of Chucky) are pure camp. They focus on Chucky and his wife Tiffany, and the story of their relationship. The focus is on getting Chucky and Tiffany's souls back into human bodies after they have both been turned into killer dolls. They also have a child. It's been described as a domestic drama with dolls, and that's not wrong.

The tone is much, much more zany. Some people hate these two movies, and those people are so, so, so wrong. John Waters is in Seed of Chucky. Don Mancini has given interviews saying Seed of Chucky nearly got buried because the studio thought it was "too gay and too funny." It's art.

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The sixth movie (Curse of Chucky) and seventh movie (Cult of Chucky) shift the series back into a serious, scary, psychological tone. One is a haunted house movie, one is an asylum horror (which imo is done respectfully and centers the patients--the staff are portrayed as abusive and shitty).

Both of these films focus on the character Nica, whose family has been targeted by Chucky over years. Chucky wants to finish the job, and so he stalks and terrorizes Nica specifically.

A fun fact about this act of the series is that Nica's actor, Fiona Dourif, is the daughter of Chucky's actor, Brad Dourif. They apparently really love working together on this series.

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After all of that, watch the TV show. The TV show focuses on a trio of teenagers--Jake, Devon, and Lexy--as they deal with Chucky's latest plans. As for what those plans are, it's a mystery the teens have to solve together. The first season is set in the hometown of Charles Lee Ray, the serial killer who became Chucky. The second season is set in a Catholic school, and the third season is set in the motherfucking White House, which is directly called the most evil building in the world.

The show brings together all the characters from the films, so we get to see Andy and Nica and Tiffany all interact, along with all the rest. Like I said, the show catches you up on vital info from the films, but I cannot fathom starting with the show. The films are amazing.

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Also, if you're interested in any of the behind-the-scenes info, or you're not sure you can handle the horror aspects, I highly recommend checking out the Kill Count playlist for the full series (watch the ones labelled Recount, they're updated versions and have more info).

#child's play #chucky #uncaptioned video #original post #ren's media recs

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bookhouseboy1980-blog · 1 year ago

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What We've Been watching this month thingy (August 2023)

For more sub to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/@borednow5838/videos

Also follow Yellowjackets Hive podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@yellowjacketshive/videos

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nishayuro · 1 year ago

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I have an ask! Supervillain Sukuna + UA Student Child!

It’s hard to be a hero in an evil household……and keep your dear old dad’s “career” as secret.

Supervillain! Sukuna with UA Student! Reader who is his child

A/N: Thank you so much for this request! This is an interesting prompt! I really love MHA x JJK crossover series LMAOO Also I’m so sorry for not answering this sooner, I was really conflicted with how I wanted this to go lmao

Genre: Angst-ish

GN!Reader (Your hero name is Cleave)

Since you were small, you’ve always dreamt of becoming a hero. You found out about it from seeing heroes such as All Might on TV.

You had a strong quirk, so your chances of becoming a hero is strong

What’s stopping you, you ask? Well…

Your father, Ryomen Sukuna, is a well known supervillain in Japan… Although no one really knows what he looks like nor his real name.

He goes by the name “king of curses” and has never shown his face

Ironic, isn’t it? It’s not your fault that you don’t know that your beloved dad is one of Japan’s most wanted. He never told you and you never found out, all you know is that he is a normal father with a normal job.

And with a dream of being a hero, asking your dad to let you go to UA highschool

At first he refused, you don’t know why, he only said for your safety

But then he allowed you because he thought it would benefit him.

When you got into UA, Sukuna congratulated you!

After the USJ attack happened, when your father found out, he was pissed.

He might be a villain, but you are still his child and no one dares hurt his child

Let's just say the League of Villains was greeted by your father’s wrath for a while.

You began to suspect your dad after a few encounters with villains, memories of when you were a child and he’d have to leave late at night and the conversations he’s been having on the phone have started making sense.

You decided to do a little digging, and to your luck, your hero work had a meeting about an important mission, and got like, a good chunk of Japan’s heroes in a conference along with their student interns.

It turns out they have information on the “King of curses”, and a debriefing was in order for the next move.

The hero in front started with a recap about the villains involved, and finally, they revealed that they got a photo of the king of curses.

They flashed a slightly blurred, yet still recognizable photo…

To your horror, a side profile photo of you dad was on the screen, you can’t mistake it. You’ve known this man all your life to know him even if it was just his back.

You stared at the photo in horror. Is your father… really the king of curses? One of Japan’s most wanted villains who has escaped even All Might himself? You thought about all the stories you’ve told your dad about U.A. About the teachers, your friends, the staff. To think that he could potentially use them against your peers. You spaced out during the meeting, inner turmoil eating at you.

“Cleave, you alright?” You were pulled out of your trance by Edgeshot, the hero you were interning with. “Oh, yeah, sorry. It was just too much information I got mentally blocked.” You lied. “We’ll definitely have to work on your concentration then” He commented.

The briefing lasted another hour, with the heroes planning what action to take. They also revealed that they were aware of one of the King of curses’ hideouts, which they found by spying on him. They decided for an ambush next week. You knew your father will be on a “business trip” next week, so the dates check out. You knew, you knew information. You knew some things and a few from whenever you’d overhear your dad in calls. Suddenly all his gibberish made sense in context.

And yet even when you knew, you still kept quiet. Feigning ignorance, unable to provide the team with crucial evidence that could help this whole mission ten fold.

You’re conflicted, your moral values are in shambles. And as the meeting ended, and you were dismissed to go home, with the promise of no information getting out. You arrived home, where your father greeted you. Asking about your day.

‘Family… or the citizen’s safety…?’ you thought, eyes cast downwards, unable to look your dad in the eyes. However, you’ve already made your choice on the way home.

“It was okay, just did some patrolling and handled a few robberies. Nothing special today”

masterlist

navigation

#boku no hero academia #my hero academia #jujutsu kaisen #mha x reader #sukuna!reader #jjk #jujutsu kaisen x my hero academia

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warningsine · 6 months ago

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For as much as I admire the incredible seventh episode of “Interview With the Vampire” Season 2, I cannot, in good faith, suggest other shows follow its lead. There are too many trapdoors lurking just behind the stage curtains, too many tonal shifts to ride out without being thrown from one’s motorcycle, and, quite frankly, too much patience required of the audience, human or vampire, given streaming executives think what viewers really want is a show that only requires half their attention. But despite all these challenges, “IWTV” persevered, the hard work of its true-blue theater troupe paying off in Episode 7, “I Could Not Prevent It” — an audacious endeavor that deserves to be recognized as one of the year’s most rewarding and remarkable hours of television.

A bit of context: Rolin Jones’ serialized adaptation of Anne Rice’s gothic horror classic began its journey to Sunday’s staggering episode by modernizing a nearly 50-year-old story and, in doing so, playfully yet purposefully toying with expectations. The subtextual attraction between newly bitten vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (played by Jacob Anderson) and his maker, Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid), became beautifully, ferociously sexual (and thus textual). Louis’ identity in the novel — as a white plantation owner in Louisiana — was flipped into a Black, closeted, Creole businessman running a brothel in New Orleans. Finally, the interview was brought to the forefront as well. Rather than simply acting as a framing device, the veteran journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) interrogates Louis as he recounts his memories in the present. Is his account trustworthy? Is Daniel being purposefully deceived? Is Louis?

Floating in the periphery (where it belongs), there’s talk of a vampire uprising and clandestine meetings with a secret agent (Justin Kirk!) working to save humanity, but let’s not bother with AMC‘s “Immortal Universe” right now since it’s not a huge priority in this series (and it’s not proven to be worth the same level of investment outside of “IWTV”). What matters is that the show’s boldest, biggest choices from the start led them here, to “I Could Not Prevent It,” where they paid off in ways both long-established and unexpected.

To be clear: Episode 7 should not work. The primary story takes place on a stage (which can be visually static and tiresome). What’s said on said stage is almost entirely a recap of events covered in the previous 13 episodes, and what transpires is largely foreseeable. (We’re told the “trial” isn’t real, its outcome is fixed, and the accused are merely “props.”) From a bird’s eye view, “I Could Not Prevent It” is set up to fail. Instead, the same facets that have sustained “Interview With the Vampire” thus far — its meticulous character work, its loud-and-proud melodrama, and its persistent questioning of its unreliable narrator — send the most pivotal hour yet soaring to new heights (even by Lestat’s standards).

An Unreliable Narrator Becomes Even Less Reliable

Let’s start in the same place the series does: with the interview. Daniel has long played the pot-stirrer, both narratively and formally. He asks the questions, he pushes Louis to delve deeper here or skip ahead there, and he will ultimately be penning the book that doubles as an annoucnement that vampires exist and a memoir, of sorts, for Louis. But his interruptions don’t just keep his subject honest. They keep the series honest, as well. If a scene’s sympathies feel misplaced (like when Daniel won’t stop asking “Did you eat the baby?” as Louis recounts how difficult that moment was for him) or when dramatic situations start to tip into hammy territory (as they regularly, wonderfully do), the candid questioner will break his subject’s highfalutin reverie and bluntly return them both to Earth. His recurring interjections may be frustrating for audiences wholly enraptured by the primary timeline (aka the past), but they serve a higher purpose: making it clear that Louis is an unreliable narrator. (And, I would argue, they’re fun! Go Daniel!)

The legitimacy of Louis’ storytelling is more heavily scrutinized than ever in Episode 7, although Daniel doesn’t deserve the credit for calling him out. It’s Lestat, albeit still via Louis’ memory, who provides an alternate version of various milestones, as he tells the “jury” of his companion’s alleged transgressions. First he argues, way back when they met, it was Louis who hunted him, not the other way around. “How do you not know that it was your own voice, Louis? Speaking your own unspeakable desires? Screaming them in the darkness in the hopes that I would come to you.” Their he said/he said back and forth isn’t a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but — much like earlier rebuttals from Daniel made us wary of taking Louis’ word as gospel — the dispute over their origin story does plant the seed of doubt in Louis’ version of events.

And tees up Lestat’s next accusation: that Louis blackmails him into turning Claudia (Delainey Hayles) into a vampire, despite Lestat’s vehement, law-abiding protests. The scene itself plays out fairly close to what we saw before, but what may seem like trivial details to the less-than-impartial jury are hugely meaningful to the “IWTV” audience. The basic proceedings don’t change, but the motivations for them do. In Lestat’s recounting, Louis’ desperation to have a daughter is clearly misguided — what first seemed like a compassionate gesture on Louis’ part is now painted as a selfish act that would (and did) damage Claudia’s life as much as her makers’. Remembering it again, back in the present, Louis cannot deny his actions and admits that Lestat’s retelling is more truthful. “That is how it happened,” he says. “I didn’t think it at the time, but yeah.”

Louis’ ugly makeover (if, of course, we can believe anything Lestat claims) continues when Lestat shares his side of the couple’s physical fight from Season 1 — a vicious beatdown fans have long-suspected had more going on than what was shown (given that the couple disappeared upstairs for a significant portion of their brouhaha). The original depiction saw a jealous, vengeful Lestat use his superior powers to pummel his partner bloody. Now, in Lestat’s apologetic recital, he’s still the aggressor who goes too far, but he was also reacting to Louis’ own ruthlessness. Lestat, he claims, asked to stop, but Louis insisted on seeing their brawl through to a mortal end. “I’m gonna take this hand here and wrap it around that scrawny neck of yours,” a maniacally laughing Louis said. “I ain’t gonna stop until your eyes pop. Then I’m gonna find a big ol’ butcher knife and chop your head off.”

While not intended to justify Lestat’s frightful reaction, seeing Louis in such a state reframes the target of Lestat’s vitriol. It shows the audience a vampire literally begging for a fight, rather than a victim getting tossed around like a ragdoll, and it makes Lestat’s ensuing apology — on stage, in front of humans and vampires alike — all the more affecting. (As does Reid’s heartrendingly earnest performance.) The blame is shared. The results are, too. And their romantic saga grows all the more complex.

Nothing Tops a TV Show That Uses Its Time To Dive Deep into Characters

Phew! All these (alleged) twists and turns within established lore are enough to spin superfans’ heads, but “I Could Not Prevent It” isn’t focused on easter eggs or fan(g) service. It’s focused on characters. In addition to introducing all the aforementioned layers of our main duo — strengthening their twisted love story as much as it expands their emotional depth — Episode 7 doesn’t forget about its other creatures of the night. Santiago (Ben Daniels), as the prosecutor in a trial without a defense attorney, elevates himself to coven leader and gets to savor every second of his vengeance (except for those delightful moments when Lestat goes off book and puts Santiago in check). Madeleine (Roxane Duran) is mostly playing catch-up (she’s new to the group), but she still gets to flex her unbreakable backbone when she sacrifices her life by pledging loyalty to Claudia instead of the coven. Armand is similarly sidelined — made to watch as the vampires he betrayed are put through “a stoning” — but steps up in the only way he can, when he uses his powers to manipulate the audience/jury into saving Louis’ life.

Speaking of: For as much of the hour is dedicated to reappraising the past, Episode 7 isn’t strictly relegated to looking backward. Major, major shit goes down in “I Could Not Prevent It,” from Armand’s last-minute attempt at a do-over (tune in next week to see how he and Louis got over Armand’s betrayal) and Claudia’s tragic demise. Oh, Claudia. Always forced to be her own lone advocate, she doesn’t let Lestat’s apology mid-murder go unchallenged. “Real pretty. You dropped him like an egg from an airplane — he’s fine now, you apologize, and all is forgiven. We poisoned him, he’s not dead — he’s standing right in front of us — can I cry and say that I’m sorry, too?” She goes on to cite how she’s always been caught in Louis and Lestat’s “stormy romance,” which makes her fate here all the more fitting, and all the more tragic. Like she says, Lestat didn’t return for her. He didn’t travel across an ocean to seek revenge on his pseudo-daughter. He’s there for Louis, and just as she was born to heal their marriage, she dies because she helped break it.

Watching the sun steadily eradicate every particle of Claudia, as she sings the song she came to hate yet still tied her to the coven she longed to join, is painful, memorable, and fitting. Too often, Louis and Lestat treated her as a prop in their play, but she never accepted that reductive assessment. She always fought for herself, and she continued to do so until the bitter, all-too-early end.

If You’re Gonna Go Big, Go BIG

Which leads us to the final key element that makes both the series and the episode so successful: unabashed theatricality. Beyond setting so much of Season 2 — and even more of Episode 7 — in a literal theater, during an actual play, “Interview With the Vampire” is fearless in its willingness to go for those big melodramatic moments. Claudia’s death is harrowing enough before adding the song, and doing so could’ve tipped the scene into moment-ruining soap. The same risk applies to Lestat’s lengthy apology (not to mention his overt scenery-chewing throughout the “trial”) and so much of Louis’ grandiose storytelling to this point.

Trusting the actors to sell these scenes is half the battle, and even though it was clear from Episode 1 that Reid, especially, could sell sunlight to a coffin-dweller, seeing what he does with his brightest spotlight so far is nothing short of spectacular. But it’s just as impressive that Jones and his writing team, along with directors Craig Zisk, Levan Akin, and Episodes 6 & 7 helmer Emma Freeman can balance so many shifting tones without sacrificing any emotional weight. How? I don’t pretend to know, but “IWTV’s” extensive range seems to be rooted in character. The vampires’ god-like perception of themselves justifies the excess, and their inextinguishable humanity keeps them grounded. Lestat and Louis may be immortal (and thus more amenable to the pretentious, narcissistic depictions of whatever they deem important), but they also can’t repress the human nature they were born with. They’re still caught up in petty grievances, a desire for community, and individual attachments, which makes them immensely relatable even when they’re mocking us, their human viewers, as “complicit, repugnant, and appalling.” (Don’t worry, Santiago — we love you for it.)

Episode 7 combines the same moments of unblushing camp, biting humor, and piercing drama as the rest of the series, yet it’s able to hone them all to fit a hard-hitting hour of television. There are still lingering questions waiting to be answered in next week’s finale, but Jones has set up his last hour to focus more on resolution and catharsis than teases and cliffhangers. I still can’t believe Season 2 was able to keep the real Lestat offscreen for six of its eight episodes without spiraling out of control. Using visions of absent characters to make up for their absence is typically a terrible idea, yet “IWTV” proves itself the exception to a very good rule once again. Even as a rare example of courage in a timid TV climate, the audacity inherent to this choice and so many others isn’t notable solely for its bravery. It’s necessary for the show to work as well as it does.

To these vampires, anything less wouldn’t be enough.

Grade: A

#interview with the vampire

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