#ive read too much dracula

[xxanoncutiexx]

I sure hope no strong, mysterious vampire woman tries to bite me when I go wander in her castle on a dark, moonless night…

[13eyond13]

.

[glorfys-glorioushair]

I can get behind this!! Respect him for his name change 👏👏

Also this is a random thought, but perhaps not only does Alucard change his name to oppose his father, he does this as a way to show his identity as a dhampir, someone who isn't completely a vampire or a human. He's something completely different despite what his parents named him . I don't think I agree with this thought at all, just figured I'd toss it out there ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The real question I have is, does Alucard do the monster mash with dear old dad?

I don’t trust you if you call him Adrian and not Alucard.

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[c-schroed]

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) Or Why The Probably Most Accurate Movie Adaptation Of Dracula Still Is Not Accurate Enough

I mentioned some time ago - while salivating over the marvellous razor scene of Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula adaptation - that there is quite some stuff to unpack here. And now I found some time to unpack. So let's begin. I'll start with the good stuff, firstly the good stuff that's not in the book (i.e., the Flourishes), than the good stuff that's true to the book (the Well-Conserved). Thirdly, I'll make note of things that were, unnervingly, changed (by which I mean They Came Back Wrong), and then I'll deal with what is unfortunately left out from the book (the Missing). And finally, finally I'll rant over that two bad things that never were in the book in the first place (a section I'll call JUST WHY?).

So. A tragedy in five acts. Here we go.

Act I - The Flourishes

The razor scene. I think I dealt with this enough by now. It's perfection and I'll die on that hill.

The music. Obviously, Bram Stoker's gothic lil masterpiece is lacking some gorgeous score. But mourn no longer, because Wojciech Kilar cooked up some dashing, pushing tune for us, fitting perfectly to this dark tale of spreading darkness and deepening madness.

Some basic knowledge about blood groups. Yeah, Stoker can't be blamed for this, but still. It's a nice addition to remind us that we do indeed live in a world where blood groups exist.

The Westenra Estate. As much as I pity that the lovely town of Whitby did not make it into the movie, I do love Lucy Westenra's house. Because I'm a sucker for hedge mazes. Simple as that.

Those glasses. Those. Fucking. Nice. Glasses.

Act II - The Well-Conserved

The plot in general. Yes, there are a lot of maddening differences, as we will see soon. But still, this movie at least makes the impression that most of the people working on it had indeed read the darn novel. Which is something that I can't say about many other Dracula adaptations I have seen.

The costumes, the sets, the atmosphere. Well done, everyone!

The Actors. The good thing about being not native in a language is that one is not very prone to dialects that seem off. And as I happen to not be a native speaker of English, I have little problems with Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder adding some US touch to what should be very, very, v e r y British characters. I even find Reeves perfectly fitting for the oh so darn young Jonathan Harker. And the rest of the cast is marvellous, too (with the exception of Winona Ryder, see below for details). Especially Tom Waits, who is hard-wired to the name of Renfield in my brain ever since I first saw this movie. And Gary Oldman as Dracula… Well. I think I already made clear what opinion I have about that sexy bastard.

Some lucky few of lovely quotes made it over to the film. Dracula's welcome. The Fowl Bauble of Human Vanity, of course. And Qunincey almost making me faint when saying "Little girl" when I least expected it.

Act III - They Came Back Wrong

The dates. Goshdarnit, the dates! It's an epistolary novel, so why make the effort of making up completely new dates for events that already had a precise date in the novel? I just don't get it. And it unnerves me. Every. Fucking. Time.

Time in general. Watching the movie after Dracula Daily makes it feel so very, very hasty. Jonathan travels to Castle Dracula like it's no thing at all. And the first few days in Castle Dracula are condensed into one weird evening.

Dracula meeting Mina before Jonathan is back. I really, really loved the book for avoiding the most terrible tropes. And then comes this movie, and struts right into this terrible pitfall.

Mina. I'm sorry, usually I love the work of Winona Ryder, but here she was way too bland. Maybe it was because her character had quite a revamp (ha. ha.) and no one cared to tell her what new approach she should take. But whatever reason, the clever, adorable train fiend of the original did not deserve this!

Act IV - The Missing

The Voyage of the Demeter is way too short. Where is "But I am captain, and I must not leave my ship"? Where is the poor sea captain tying himself to the wheel? And where is his funeral? Oh, I really missed all that. And, I mean, I don't mind hearing Anthony Hopkins read the lines, but would it have been such an expense to at least hire an additional actor to voice the correspondent or the sea captain?

Jonathan Holding Mina By the Arm. That's really not an objectively big issue. That's just me who fell in love with JonMina after reading this chapter. And almost no one does it properly. They deserve justice!

(Thanks a ton to @smieska for capturing my mood just perfectly!)

Act V - JUST WHY?

Elisabeta. Don't get me wrong here: All of the oh so tragic Drac backstory they invented for this movie is terribly unnecessary. But in this sea of uselessness, the tragically deceased wife of Vlad Țepeș that just so happens to perfectly resemble Mina Murray is an audience-insulting island of unoriginality. I mean, yeah, I guess someone wanted to add some romance to the story of Vlad the Fucking Impaler. Because, well, nineties or so. But Mina, of all women? Why not invent some new character that can be bothered with such stuff? Why ruin an all-nice JonMina ship? I don't get the whole new backstory, and I especially don't get this aspect.

Dracula raping Lucy in his shitty werewolf form. Everything about this is wrong. And it has no relevance for the plot. Just. Blergh.

Epilogue

It's cruel to watch Francis Ford Coppola's take on Dracula right after finishing @re-dracula. I know that now. Everything is still too fresh. It's a good movie, after all, but especially because it's quite good it is frustrating to be so terribly aware of all its shortcomings. In a few weeks or so, I would recommend it, again, I guess. As long as it's still Dracula off-season. 7 out of 10 points.

P. S. Wanna know what I think of a recent remake of a cheap Dracula-rip-off that turned into a masterpiece of film history? Then feel free to visit my review of Robert Eggers' Nosferatu.

[tsenya]

brief overview of some movies ive watched and rewatched over the last few months.

first time viewings:

strange darling - i liked it ! i waited months to watch it and deliberately avoided reading reviews and watching trailers for it and im glad i did.

leave my girl alone - honestly one of the funnest movies ive watched in months. i already want to rewatch. the last 30-60 seconds are glorious.

vhs beyond - ok i was a LITTLE harsh in my review. ok i was entirely petty because [SPOILER] they put real life youtubers in the movie and i was so discombobulated like what are YOUTUBERS doing in my HORROR MOVIE! i also have gripes with the 'little green men' subgenre that mostly stem from the fact that my dad believes in aliens and like im gonna be so honest with you i have 1000000 other things on my mind i dont have time or room to think about whether aliens are real and if the US government is using their technology or whatever i do not care. unless theyre giving me free healthcare i do not want to hear about it.

SEGMENTS I LIKED: Stowaway, Fur Babies, and Dream Girl. (tw for body horror, gore, animal death, etc etc etc)

cuckoo - i wanted a little bit more from it but it was good! i liked hunter schaefer as the lead. i think dan stevens should pull a brad dourif and play scuzzy dudes the rest of his career hes good at it and always looks like hes having fun. i will not pretend to understand what was going on i'll prolly have to rewatch

longlegs - full disclaimer i probably set my expectations too high and it's entirely possible that this movie simply wasnt for me. i really wanted to like it and expected to but. i did not. theres more i could say but i think i said enough. i'll try rewatching next year and see how i feel about it.

dracula 3000 - im not bringing this movie up because it's good, it was horrible, i just want to say that it's been 20 years can someone please make a movie about a vampire in space that's GOOD i know someone out there can do it PLEASE

rewatches:

pandorum - i couldnt tell you if this was a good movie or not i really couldnt i cannot objectively assess movies i watched when i was younger very well. all i can tell you is that i really really really liked the sci-fi/horror fusion. also the creature design still holds up i need to know who did it bec it looks better than some of the stuff out today

lake mungo - found footage horror movie OF ALL TIME

sunshine - im in love w this movie i love everything about it. also something i thought about was that it was weird watching chr*s ev*ns in something not marvel is was actually refreshing for once. we need to get cillian murphy into horror/suspenseful sci fi PLEASE.

the slumber party massacre - idk what to say other than 1) idc what i thought when i first watched it i was WRONG i love this movie so much and i do recommend all the reviews i liked if u want to know some of my thoughts/stuff i agree w 2) valerie bates is currently no. 1 girl in horror for me. as u could probably tell from my icon. and header. and sidebar image. and blog page. and

[alissssixx]

idk actually why but i randomly felt like starting tumblr so im here now. first post and some info about me (my fav song and me in pics!!):

~im Alice

~from Poland

~im 23

~im asexual/bi!! actually more gay than not and proud of it :3 🏳️‍🌈

~im a single🥲💔

~im a vegetarian!

~i love coffee sooo much!!

~i love heavy screamy music. every metal and rock genre can be added to my playlists. but my favs r metalcore, post-hardcore, screamo and glam metal

~my fav band literal number one is Escape the Fate!!

~the rest from my fav bands: Falling In Reverse, Asking Alexandria, Motionless In White, Mötley Crüe, Get Scared, Dead Girls Academy, Vampires Everywhere, Ice Nine Kills, Dark Divine, My Chemical Romance, Violent New Breed and Black Veil Brides

~my fav solo artists are Yungblud and Kim Dracula

~my style is a literal mix of lots of subcultures (rocker, metalhead, corekid, emo, grunge, punk, 80s rocker literally lol) but rocker from 2000s and metalhead/corekid are like a base

~im like stuck in early 2000s era

~im obsessed with vampires

~i love horror movies and reading books

~i love watching shows. my number one show is Supernatural!!

~im a Monster High dolls collector :3 i also collect CDs

~im obsessed with The Sims 4, this game is literally my happy place

~i play guitar and bass. i wanna be a lead guitarist and have my own band🥲💔

~i have really low self esteem and im extremely antisocial. i never start a convo with someone or anything like that although id like to but im always too scared and feel like im annoying🥲🥲

~im also a writer!! ive been writing for literal years, i think i was like 9 when i wrote my first story

and now what’s gonna be here: im gonna post pics of my outfits, random selfies i guess and things related to my interests, bands, music, guitars, Monster High, maybe sims 4, books, horrors and stuff like this. totally random i guess

bye:3

[soulofamy]

as someone who loves classic literature, i really love how much it feels like each character in soulcalibur's story is influenced by the literature from the culture they come from. the japanese characters, especially mitsurugi and yoshimitsu, were probably the ones writers spent the most care with but i LOVE how much you see it in the european characters too. sophitia, cassandra, and aeon are all characters that feel like they were plucked out of a greek tragedy, and you can see so many echos of storybeats that many greek tragedies had. i guess its not hard to feel like that when the greek gods are so intertwined with their stories but still, it honestly feels so well thought out. to avoid being repetitive, im linking an in depth analysis from @laikaflash that talks about this right here

but i think my favorite example of this is raphael and amy tbh, but mostly raphael. as someone who so enjoys classic french literature, i cant help but see bits and pieces from the different stories i love laced throughout raphaels story. the fact that he was the head of his house at the beginning of his story and is in good standing with the king, but is then framed for conspiracy and has his life ruined, reminds me so much of what happened to edmond dantes from the counte of monte cristo. dantes had a much more humble beginning than raphael but still, that undeserved fall from grace at the hands of someone who was jealous of him, forcing him to be on the run from the law, i see that parallel.

then we have the fact that he adopted a little orphan girl while on the run from the law, and then was able to lie his way back to the top with the hopes of raising and protecting her, which makes me think of jean valjean and cosette from les miserables.

but i think the thing that gets me so excited thinking about this is that they chose not to give these storybeats to a character who is meant to be viewed as heroic, they gave them to someone who is objectively a terrible person. they flipped these stories from classic french literature on their heads, which i think makes it very exciting to try and speculate where his story will go from here because he as a person is such a departure from dantes or from jean valjean. it also makes me wonder what else they will take inspiration from for him going forward (minus the dracula stuff because that all feels more aesthetic than anything. then again ive never read bram stokers dracula so i could just not know what im talking about)

anyway im curious to know which other characters take inspiration from their country's classic literature. i know siegfried is literally named after a knight from legend, i know groh is supposed to be based on the knights of the round table, xiba is based on the monkey king from journey to the west, im not sure if kilik is either. but still, i would love to know about talim, about the koreans, xianghua, honestly everyone on the roster

[maxjwritess]

max’s favorite books :D

i did the 2024 five star highlights but here are my favorite books in general / brief reasons why:

dracula - brahm stoker 🩸

been one of my fave books since high school. exactly the kind of prose i like to read, long, flowery, takes 7 pages to describe the way dust looks in the moonlight. yes yes yes. also classic vampire book of course, lots of wolves, lots of victorian sexy scenes and blood transfusions, a cowboy. what isn’t there to love?

a marvelous light - freya marske 🌟

literally the book that got me back into reading. i owe robin and edwin so much. a historical fantasy that checks all of my boxes and gave me a favorite character i will never forget… edwin courcey my beloved… just in general the characters in this book are so so strong. if you like romance with fantasy and mystery elements u neeed to read this book, and the second and the third books too.

(also the sex is good AND is plot relevant. one of the best books ive read that uses the sex scenes to actually elevate the stakes and answer questions. brilliant)

a swim in the pond in the rain - george saunders 💧

if you’re a writer, read this book. it quite literally changed the way i thought about story, character, stakes, and structure. i reference this book all the time. please read it if you’re a writer. or if your a reader. or if you’re just like alive. it’s so good

piranesi - susanna clarke 🐐

i already talked about this book in my other post but gaghh. it’s just so good. i think about it all the time. it really just throws you into the thick of things and then you’re buckled in for the ride. i have never fallen in love with a main character or a setting oh so fast. certainly read if you like academic fantasy. oh, and you better like footnotes

giovanni’s room - james baldwin 🚬

i also already talked about this book in my other post but again. graahahahahahfjfbf. one of the best books i’ve ever read. changed my life tbh. VERY IMPORTANT READ. gender and love, american puritanism and masculinity, european masculinity, a tragedy you know you can’t change by the third page… it’s brilliant (bcuz ofc it is. it’s baldwin)

i have more ofc i can keep going but i think this gives a good reading profile for me? from now on im gonna post about my currently reading and reviews for books that i finish, which will be much more indepth than these blurbs. i may go back and make individual review posts (containing spoilers) for the books listed above, but this is more like an intro to my bookshelf!

if u have similar tastes, maybe we can be mutuals? i’m still kinda new to this app (and in such new to making friends on this app) but i’d love to talk to anyone about books :,)

[frankendykes-monster]

Countdown to Halloween 2023, Ranked

43. Swamp Thing (1982)

42. Curse of Bigfoot (1975)

41. The Haunting (1999)

40. Orca (1977)

39. Teenagers Battle The Thing (1958)

38. The Beast (1975)

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

36. Countess Dracula (1971)

35. Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967)

34. Beware! The Blob (1972)

33. Alien Space Avenger (1989)

32. Baby Blood (1990)

31. Shriek of The Mutilated (1974)

30. The Mutations (1974)

29. Phase IV (1974)

28. Curse of The Faceless Man (1958)

27. The Sadist (1963)

26. Jennifer (1978)

25. The Wasp Woman (1959)

24. Noroi: The Curse (2005)

23. Girls Nite Out (1982)

22. The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959)

21. The Cat and The Canary (1927)

20. Tell Your Children (Reefer Madness, 1936)

19. The Company of Wolves (1984)

18. It's Alive (1974)

17. The Wolf House (2018)

16. Michael Jackson's Halloween (2017)

15. The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)

14. The Omega Man (1971)

13. Gamera: Rebirth (2023)

12. Student Bodies (1981)

11. Night Caller From Outer Space (1965)

10. Inhumanoids (episodes 1 - 5, 1986)

9. Blind Woman's Curse (1970)

8. Maniac (1980)

7. The Child (1977)

6. Zombie 3 (1988)

5. Return of The Living Dead (1985)

4. Spider Baby (1967)

3. Basket Case (1982)

2. Messiah of Evil (1973)

Godzilla (1954)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We can do this.

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

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

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

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

Our animated offerings this year...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[spinningbuster98]

Castlevania Symphony of the Night Part 1: Die Monster!.....in Japanese!!

We’re here folks

We’re finally here

And I’m playing the Japanese version! Why? Well let’s just say that there’s some content that was originally exclusive to the original japanese release which was cut from the international one. Said content was restored in the PSP version....but I decided against playing that. It’s a playable version, but it’s minor yet noticeable graphical downgrades compared to the original just bug me the wrong way

You can already spot a difference in the intro: the actual narrated text is english even in the Jpn version, and no it’s not due to me playing a translated rom, even untranslated it’s in english, just with a japanese voice over

What intrigues me is how the text itself was still largely rewritten in the international versions, yet even the japanese one calls Dracula’s Castle “Castlevania”, which I had always thought was just a quirk of the english localization and not something that was ever truly recognized by the japanese side of things, at least not until the mid 2000s when even the japanese versions started using that name as the series’ title for a time

However, while I can’t understand japanese, I can’t hear the narrator actually pronouncing the name “Castlevania” anywhere, so I’m going to guess that he’s reading from a different script?

Anyway there’s going to be...LOTS to talk about with this game, though luckily we’ll have plenty of parts to do so :)

Just to start off with something that everybody knows by now: this might just be the most beautiful sprite based game of its generation, probably of the whole decade of the 90s

Yeah sure there are a couple of weird imperfections here and there, namely Richter’s sprite still being from RoD instead of reflecting his redesign, except for one cutscene where he IS given an updated sprite (I guess that’s one point in favor of the Saturn version). This is pretty much the game that started the tradition of reusing old enemy sprites, especially guys from Rondo and a couple from Castlevania IV

But honestly? This stuff is barely even a blip on the radar here. Every sprite, every background is so detailed, so well animated, oozing with so much charm! Every enemy has their own unique death animation, there are a billion different animations for the various spells and secret moves, I could list stuff all night!

Alucard’s sprite and animations have entered into the realm of videogame legends now, which is funny because when you think about it his animations are just way too smooth compared to everything else he kinda sticks out, not to mention that the actual running animation looks silly with the way he moves his arms (not that the Belmonts in the previous games weren’t guilty of a similar running animation quirk with their ultra-manly walk cycles), but it’s just so mesmerizing to look at! He truly feels weightless, like some sort of wraith drifting through the night, with that cape, that hair, the after images etc

The funny part is that the game does implement a bunch of more typical PS1 3D effects, which you’d think would clash hard with the sprites and age the game badly but they actually end up giving it even MORE charm, because they’re usually relegated to 3D backgrounds, but the actual renders not only look pretty damn good usually, they actually help make some environments look more memorable and larger than life! The cathedral, the moving clouds, the houses in Olrox’s Quarters. The Magic Tomes that attack you in the Library technically clash so hard with the rest of the place, but the renders themsleves are nice and I fucking love watching them explode into a burst of flames as their letters just spill out from the pages!

I even love the SOUND EFFECTS in this game! I’m pretty sure that most of them are just stock effects, especially the ones for the transformations and whenever you use a potion....but I dunno they’re goofy in a good, charming way to me

And we haven’t even talked about the music! Oh God! I’ll save THAT for the next part!

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

i followed you because of darklina but i went down a rabbit hole bc half your listed fanfic was helsing (and im into dracula too a bit but i was only familiar with castlevania’s alucard) so i spent some time reading alutegra stuff and they sound interesting. i put the show on my list even though ive spoiled myself atp

the main point of my ask is if you think integra is a lesbian. I haven’t watched the show or read the manga but i came across a discussion where some fans were say alutegra shippers are erasing her lesbian identity and forcing feminine traits on her. idk. what are your thoughts?

second, in canon, if integra was to open up about romantic feelings once alucard came back, how do you think he would react?

sorry for all the questions and i hope you write more alutegra fic!! i need it for when i start and finish ultimate lol

Obviously I… do not think that considering how much ship fic I have posted? Like I’m not sure what you are expecting me to say here! I’m not interested in ship wars. And if someone is dead set on her being a lesbian then like good for them lmao. Canon tells us fuck all, interpret it however you want idc

But omg getting into Hellsing for ship content and then it’s ten hours of a wildly suicidal Dracula in a stupid hat goring nazi vampires. Good luck 😭

Fwiw, if you like manga, I think starting with the manga is a slightly better entry point. The Ultimate OVAs follow canon pretty closely but the first episodes make some odder stylistic choices, and the vibes just end up being a little different.

As for romance, like I struggle to see her doing that tbqh? We don’t talk about feelings in this house! And it’s literally a character choice that she keeps like three feet from him at all times in canon lmao.

But also yeah I mean he’d go along with it? He has zero boundaries + probably views a sexual relationship of some sort between them an inevitability— like I HC that he was absolutely fucking Arthur and Van Helsing too. If she reads into that context though, she would HATE it.

And then there’s the element where… he doesn’t do well if offered like. actual kindness. So if she’s unmistakably talking about feelings and making it clear she cares about him, then very high chance he’s going to either write it off as her being young and silly, or he might just think that she’s mocking him. Idk it would just be very thorny regardless.

OH I just scrolled up and saw the “when he came back” bit. Idk man honestly that’s harder to parse. I typically think they’re even more dysfunctional after the timeskip because they barely know each other anymore at that point.

[rulers-of-hungary-tournament]

ROUND 2, MATCH 7

Admin's commentary: This one is probably going to come down to people who love vs people who hate Sigismund of Luxembourg. Good thing there aren't that many Czechs among the electorate haha.

***

WHAT MY PROFESSOR OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY SAID ABOUT THEM

Zsigmond (Žigmund Luxemburský) 1387-1437

also king of Bohemia and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, elsewhere best known from what he did to Jan Hus, but we don't have enough time to unpack that, needless to say he's responsible for the bratríks (branch of hussites that went on supply raids into Hungary), so fuck him just for that

his rule in Hungary was long and eventful, after he secured the throne, his first order of business was a war with Ottomans, which ended in the catastrophic battle of Nicopolis, later another war, during which he regained Beograd, but lost Golubac, which was an important fortress

after the Hungarian nobles were found to conspire against him, he instituted harsh repressions, destroying many important noble houses, which he then tried to replace with a nobility faithful to him - but that just caused yet another conspiracy, which Zsigmond had to appease by marrying Barbara of Celle

founded the Order Of The Dragon, which is how Vlad II. Dracul and after him his son Vlad III. Dracula got their monikers

supported the rights of cities, especially in his Minor Decree, but lest our fellow medieval city kinnies start liking him too much, he was also the guy who lended several cities in Spiš to the Poles (cities formally stayed part of Hungary, but the profits from them went to the king od Poland; which is basically how it stayed untill the divisions of Poland)

he also instituted another two law codes concerning courts and army, gave himself placetum regium (right to veto reading of papal bulls on his territories, which meant he could witheld the orders of the pope itself from his people; @best-habsburg-monarch might recognize this one)... basically for better or for worse, he was a Big Damn Deal here, truly one of the most important monarchs of Hungary, just look at how long his entry is

II.Géza (Gejza II.) 1141-1162

married Yevfrosinia of Kyiv, which raised the international prestige of his kingdom, only to fuck said prestige up by unsuccessful invasions to the Rus' and the Byzantine Empire

first one to invite Saxons and Walloons to Transsylvania, mostly to use their expertise in mining to develop local mines, at which point he also gave him some autonomy from the local feudal lords; his strategy was later repeated on a larger scale by Béla IV. after the devastation of the country by Mongols, and that kids is how we got free royal cities of Hungary

he also invited cistercians to Hungary

[beevean]

I’ve had a lot of problems with Netflix’s Castlevania but I’ve never played the games so all my complaints about it were never from it being a poor adaptation. So reading your posts about just how much it differs has been super interesting and kinda makes me wanna check out the games because the lore and themes just seem so much more unique? Like all the stuff with the Belmont Family and Dracula’s destinies being so intertwined and how that effects the descendants (like Richter) and Dracula being less of a vampire and more like some satan figure in service of Chaos, sounds so much more original than Netflix’s version which just seems like a really generic dark fantasy, but like worse, with all the swearing and sex and just general dismal tone. I feel a bit robbed now because a good adaptation actually sounds like it would really stand out from all the other fantasy shows I see on Netflix and HBO.

Oh 🥰 first of all, it's always nice to hear when people have issues with NFCV without having played the games, because it proves that complaints go far beyond "it's too different :<" (implying everyone who dislikes the show is nothing more than a grumpy old purist, which is not the case). Trust me, as a Berserk fan, NFCV doesn't do anything groundbreaking, and somehow it manages to be more outdated and offensive than a manga started in 1990. Second, I'm very glad you are interested in trying the games! They're a lot of fun :D

I wrote a list of my first picks to play here. However, I skipped on the Classic games on the asker's request: if you're interested, I'd start with Rondo of Blood (appropriate, as it's the game Nocturne allegedly adapts) or Super Castlevania IV. Nocturne also takes a lot of cues from Bloodlines, which is fun but a bit harder, and ofc the original NFCV started off as an adaptation of Dracula's Curse - a good game with quite a bit of replay value, but hard in the Japanese version and outright sadistic in the American version lmao. So I'd save it for later.

Now, if you're playing from the plot, I must say that the games as a standalone tend to be somewhat light in story, and even the most elaborated ones are usually limited by scope or budget and/or feel a little cliché. A good chunk of the lore that connects the whole timeline is tied to manuals (mostly the Japanese ones, because sometimes the English translations made a mess, as it was custom in the '80s), outside materials like mangas, or even character bios in the games' official websites that have long shut down. But it's worth doing some research!

Personally I love this website, for example:

In any case, have fun! 💖

[ah0yh0y]

tagged by @ribcagelikepiano for the get to know you game!! thx friend !!!!!

questions: last song you listened to, currently watching, currently reading, current obsession

last song: Come Hang Out by AJR off the top of my head by my tabs say Providence by Poor Mans Poison . Come Hang Out feels so nostalgic to me even if i only listened to it recently reminds me of a graduation song (it came out 5 yrs ago so it makes sense. I just really love Poor Mans Poison's vibes generally great fuel for daydream and also matches well with the feeling of revolution (and seeing everything collapse i guess.) (ish) mentally listening to Your Love is All I Need by Sami Yusuf tho at all times lately, probs because i have been trying to wean myself off listening to music for like the 50th time. (its slow going but IM GONNA TRY inshaallah ill be able to do it) (he also took the old nasheed music video off his channel? sad its so good)

currently watching: does d20 mentopolis count? only watched one ep but its good. i havent watched anything regularly besides like school vids for a bit. tried watching the dragon prince s5 when it came out but buffering (the video player i mean) and dissatisfaction at the pacing and characterization kinda stopped me. ill back on it at the end of the yr when everything is settled. if we are talking about podcasts started relistening to wolf 359 and keeping up with the greater gatsby (the latter has SUBLIME noir vibes as it is a noir i bloody love shipwreck's work it scratches that itch in my brain so well) . i may have seen spoilers for wolf 359 so i am anxiously waiting to see if i am proved wrong but im on s4 so its soon prepare for a barrage of reblogs for it. watched s4 of malory towers it was very nice i cant wait for s5 - the pantomime hopefully we get new members for the older years next season i miss the larger cast

currently reading: not much really. fanfic alot. i guess. caught up to the end of the To Make a Legend series on ao3 (pjo) and other fics for a couple of other fandoms (in one false move by Kalidium is really good if your into murder most unladylike - spoilers for A Spoonful of Murder though) also been reading barbie 2023 fanfic? was bored and started hunting for good ones (slim picking at the moments but if you want character study and grief and some bloody good writing def read something in me in you by telm_393 i cant explain it its that good) also reread My Memories Came Back in the Form of Someone Else by Lucy_Luna yes its that really good spiderverse fanfic do check it out

BESIDES THAT THO in terms of actual books. have the audiobook saved for The Valley and The Flood so gonna listen to that later. Have to read The Hate Race for class (not my fave but i need for analysis ive read it like 3 times but I STILL DONT REMEMBER ANYTHING) .

started rereading The Ballad Of Songbirds and Snakes a couple of weeks ago ahead of the movie coming out at the end of this year but never got the chance to finish it so ill have to get on that too.

also dracula ive been reading as well but more on that the next section.

current obsession: re:dracula is the first that comes to mind im so bloody invested in jonathan's wellbeing and his relationship wiht mina and the whole story its insane . i should read more older books its good . re;dracula DOES SUCH A GOOD JOB AT SUCKING YOU INTO THE STORY THE VOICE ACTORS REALLY MADE IT FOR ME i just cant with ti it makes me so bloody happy!! Renfield's voice actor is a standout for me everytime he's there i just have to pause and stare at a wall. also jonathan's actor as well hes SO GOOD i was geniunly worried about jonathan not sending me voicemails into my phone i was THAT endeared to him

besides that PLAY IT BY EAR the musical improv show by dropout is also a obsession of mine i cannot with their talent. the MUSIC so good i want to play it all the bloody time . i am in absolute awe in the performers ability to create a story and TIE IT ALL TOGHETER SO WELL like every piece of information is used whether you expect it or not . DN THE BAND OH GOD I DONT KNOW HOW THEY SO IT THE MUSIC IS SO FUN AND CREATIVE AND FITS THE MOOD AND MADE UP ON THE SPOT???!!! HOW I DONT KNOW (if u ask me who my favourite guest star is at the moment its ross byant hes an absolute delight whenever he is on a d20 show- the improvised shakespear episode blew my mind)

anway THIS SI LONGGGGGGGG soz

no pressure tags: @filmloser04 @mistichallow @charlies-a-thief

@literallymahir @quotidian-oblivion @monochrome-anomaly @suksiili @miseria-fortes-viros and anyone else that wants to join!!!! (you dont have to do a brain dump like me i always go overboard)

[netherfeildren]

wait wait you like minari too? your taste is impecabble<3 just wondering, do you have any other favourite movies/recs?

sat on this bc I wanted to give a detailed response lolz I love minari so much I thought about youn yuh-jung's performance in that film for such a long time after watching it she was so gorgeous and so phenomenal and when she won the best supporting actress Oscar I about lost my damn mind, so so deserved

other things I love in no particular order:

-the favourite (I love Yorgos Lanthimos' work the lobster is another favorite and his new one coming out poor things looks AMAZING and like it was constructed specifically with all of my own personal tastes in mind - I'm so excited for it and need to read the book immediately)

-not to be a film bro but interstellar is top two of my favorite films of all times idc Nolan is a master and I watch and love everything he makes (ive watched tenet like 10 times and still have no idea wtf is going on and I LIKE THAT about it )

-not to be a basic bitch now but pride and prejudice is my favorite movie ever ever I watch it at least once a month every single month it'll never get old and yes I do cry at the end every time

-to go hand in hand with my love of historical romance novels I am also a great lover of period dramas obviously I love Emma (2020) so much it's a gorgeous work of art, Jane eyre (2011) I love Mia wasikowska, Marie Antoinette and anything else Sofia Coppola has ever made, Anna karenina (another Joe wright masterpiece)

-anything Wes Anderson but particularly Rushmore (1998) which is one of his lesser known films I feel like but it means a lot to me for various very personal reasons and I wish more people talked about it (I need to watch asteroid city immediately)

-PHANTOM THREAD greatest romcom of all time (jk hehe) but fuck Paul Thomas Anderson I don't like that dude

-everything guillermo del torro but particularly crimson peak (guillermo my man pls pls pls plsssssssss do Dracula and cast Adam driver I'll give u my first born plsssss splsssssss guillermo father pleaaassseeeeee!!!!)

-the green knight !!!!!!!!!!!! changed my brain when I watched it dev Patel is so fucking hot but also like it was just so gorgeous and such a wonderful adaptation and the monster fucker in me low key liked the green knight himself likeeeeeeee idk what to say I am the way I am

-Robert Eggers the light house, the man from uncle (I love most guy Richie films I love his high paced action and all that fun stuff), park chan-wook's STOKER !!!!!!!! I fucking love that film omg, everything Denise villeneuve too but particularly arrival is a goddamn masterpiece and it's so wrong that Amy Adams didn't win the Oscar for that (poor Amy with the no Oscar curse)

-for like comfort movies stepmom (1998) - devastating but I watch it all the time if I could live in any house from a movie ever it'd be Susan Sarandon's house in that movie, billy elliot (2000), 20th century women (2016), lady bird, funny girl - BARBARA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!, howl's moving castle, this is 40 (my favorite comedy ever), paterson (2016), uptown girls, the rocky horror picture show

-oh and more recently the banshees of inisherin moved me so incredibly deeply I actually recently got in an argument with someone who said that it was pointless and stupid and I was SO OFFENDED devastating funny introspective all the things I was very sad when Collin ferrel didn't win the academy award for it I thought he was so ... I don't know what the right word is I guess like changed? in the role of padraic and GOD BERRY KEOGHAN there goes that dream I cried so hard so beautiful Kerry Condon also they were all so spectacularly devastating in that film I could go on about it for days

sorry this was so long you guys know I love to run my mouth when given the opportunity hehe