#leigh whannell if you see this i will love you so much more if you bring back my guy

[derrydeer]

people are saying saw 10 possibly takes place either before the first movie or between 1 and 2 from john’s perspective and all i can say is…

BRING ADAM STANHEIGHT BACK TO ME!!

[goatcheesecak3]

Adam Stanheight Red Flag HCs

Adam stanheight x gn!reader

Warnings: jealousy, alcoholism, toxic relationship, vomit

DISCLAIMER: this isn't meant to romanticise any toxic behaviour or condone anything like that, I just want to add a bit more depth to his character and explore his flaws

A/n: I see far too much mischaracterisation with Adam, and it drives me CRAZY!! As much as I absolutely adore him, he's not as soft as he's made out to be in my opinion, so here are some of his red flags.

SUPER INSECURE to the point that he regularly accuses you of cheating, especially when he's drunk.

Speaking of which, Adam drinks far too much, after the first few rounds he's fun and upbeat, but he doesn't know when to stop. He can be a mean drunk, so by the end of the night he always manages to start an argument.

His response to the "would you still love me of I was a worm?" Test is "stop asking me those stupid fucking questions"

He's absolutely a music snob. He hates basically anything that he didn't discover first. God forbid he catches you listening to slipknot or system of a down, they're far too mainstream for his liking and he won't hesitate to shit on you for listening to them.

One of THOSE filmbros. He loves taxi driver but he gets really insufferable about it.

100% asks you to name 3 songs if you wear a band shirt

Will ghost you for days at a time and call you dramatic for being upset about it.

Is friends with Scott Tibbs

Comes home wasted and throws up all over your sofa, will absolutely not clean it up

Punches holes in walls

A/n let me know if you want any more red flag hcs! For Adam or other leigh whannell or saw characters!!

[bringmefoxgloves]

i want to get more into saw/saw blogs b4 X comes out - what r some of ur fave saw blogs

Hi! You caught me at a good time (one where I have energy) so let's see if I can pump this out. I am in no way an authority on the entire Saw fandom so I will only be talking about my little corner of the internet. Please forgive me, my beloved followers, mutuals, and other owners of posts I have loved in this very small fandom-because I may forget some of you. The brain fog sometimes gets the best of me and if I did a full complete list, it would be.... It would be so long. This is in no way in order of best or worst, and sometimes I just have no words for why I love a person's blog.

@turnipoddity - Oh, what an artist! Every single post I see, love it. So excited to see an artist acquiring the Saw brainrot.

@bloodcoveredgf - Luna! Also just all around funny & good posts in addition to the Saw insanities.

@dracofelin - Jay has such good writing, and will make you love the ship of Mark Hoffman/Peter Strahm (coffinshipping).

@thefoulbeast - Simply put, Will's art makes me want to bite my own arm off. If you're interested in the video game Pathologic, his blog is worth a follow for that too.

@bathroomtrapped - I sometimes get the honor of previewing Larry's art mid-construction (because with all those colors and layers, it looks like building a house) and even half finished, it blows my socks off <3

@sawtrapz - Kaz, oh Kaz (!!!), Kaz gets my brain clicking about some of the rarepairs of this fandom and I will always spin your boygirl Adam in my head.

@cl0wnb0yyy - Will is just a great person in the fandom, also if you like Midnight Mass or NBC's Hannibal.

@ispyspookymansion - Kora looms large in the Saw fandom in my mind so it would be impossible to assemble this list without him.

@3razyswfangirl / @kiramillet - Kira's pixel art is amazing!!! Bunny <3

@tibby - Take a look through Tibby's saw meta. You won't be disappointed.

@allegedly-writer - Contrary to Jack's url, Jack can sure damn write! He just posted a fic and guess who it's for <3

@hansy-pansy-art - OUGH another amazing amazing artist. Also currently in a Red Dead Redemption moment, which I love.

@piddgeon - Speaking of RDR.... Mercury! Ah, just. (Chef's kiss) of a human being.

@samwis - Jami, who hears all my most insane horny thoughts who is such a mainstay in my corner of Saw fandom.

@romanromulus - Adam writes fics that will make you scream and cry into your pillow at midnight.

@tapeworrmart - Just. Ough. Art that I dream of one day hanging on my wall.

@vanilladella - a.m.'s art is my discord header. Enough said.

@carouselcometh - Remy is hilarious and also you need to read his series on Ao3.

@onehandkilling / @fatmasc - Shlomo... What do I say? Just go. Follow. Also threw in their fat fashion blog because YES!!!

@angel-trapped - Téa, you absolute legend. Origin of angelshipping (to me) (aka Lindsey Perez/Allison Kerry)

@sawtrapx - Liv, such a fun human being!!!

@starlightsailfish - Star's Saw Warrior Cats makes me dance in excitement.

@iinsawdious - Adrien is the best champion of the Adam & David (Saw 0.5) & Specs (Character from the Insidious franchise, also played by Leigh Whannell) are family hc. I love his enthusiasm!!

@adrianicsea - Adrian! Just. AH!!! Adrian's Sleeping with Ghosts series was perhaps my first introduction (outside of Adam romanromulus) to the sheer brilliance of Saw fandom writers.

@dodddraws - Dodd's art is.... I'm just at a loss for words, scrolling back through his blog. So much nsfw goodness.

@sawvhs - Rar's art is so so so iconic.

Okay I have to cut this list off here, jfc. There's others I should probably put on here but I'm getting tired and sweaty and my hands are hurting. Follow these people, check who they're reblogging from or who is reblogging them, go forth, prosper anon. Welcome to the Saw brainrot.

[ojcobsessed]

Best known for his work in The Invisible Man and Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting shows, we chat to Oliver Jackson-Cohen about making Jackdaw.

A British crime thriller shot in record time across the North East of the country, Jackdaw is exactly the kind of movie we like to cover here at Film Stories. Directed and written by Jamie Childs, he knew exactly who he wanted to star in the film from the moment he met actor Oliver Jackson-Cohen.

He’s a talented performer who made a name for himself in the likes of Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man and Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting anthology series, but being the lead in an action-packed film was decidedly outside of his comfort zone. It took some convincing, but the actor eventually said yes to taking the role of Jackdaw's protagonist, Jack Dawson.

The character is an army veteran and former motocross champion who returns home to take care of his younger brother. Turning to less than legal means to do so, he agrees to pick up a mysterious package from the North Sea for some shady people, and soon finds that his actions will have dire repercussions for his family. Over the course of one night, he goes about trying to fix his mistake.

It’s an interesting and slightly mysterious role for Jackson-Cohen to take on. At first we don’t know much about Jack at all, but more is slowly revealed throughout the film. The actor very much suits the part, proving that he was right to take a chance on it, and showing his potential as a leading man.

Ahead of Jackdaw's theatrical release, we sat down with him to chat about taking on new roles, stepping outside of your comfort zone, and filming action scenes in -15 degree weather.

How did you first meet Jackdaw director Jamie Childs?

I was shooting [Wilderness]. We were shooting in New York and Jamie was a friend of someone on the shoot. He came to New York for a couple of days when we filmed. So I met him on set and then he followed us to Arizona, like the Grand Canyon. And then he told me one night in New York, he was like, ‘I’m sort of writing this thing. Like, I’ve been given this time frame to write this thing.’

And so he was talking to me about it over dinner and I was like, ‘That sounds great. What you should do is this,’ you know, ‘Maybe you should think about this. What about this?’ and it was completely sort of innocent, and then he just kept on writing it.

Then we wrapped the shoot and got back home and he called me up and he was like, ‘Hey, do you remember that thing I was telling you about?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, is it finished?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, can I send it to you?’ I said, ‘Yeah, great, I’d love to read it’ and then he was like, ‘Will you do it?’ And I told him, ‘I really don’t think I’m the right person for it. I think you need to hire someone else.’

It wasn’t something that had even sort of crossed my mind. Or his, it felt like. But here we are.

What initially made you think you weren’t right for the role?

One of the first movies I ever did when I was like, 21 or something, was an action film and I didn’t have the best of times on it. And so I sort of stayed clear of that genre and up until Jackdaw just hadn’t sort of touched it again. I think Jamie is such a fascinating person and I think the way his mind works, his film references, they’re so mental and brilliant. And so I think all of us just sort of jumped on board, including the studio, but I think everyone just jumped on board because of their belief in Jamie.

I think he’s a really exciting director and I think he has quite a specific vision of what he wants to do. Something that was interesting about Jackdaw is that it’s a familiar story, but he’s kind of approached it in a way that I don’t necessarily think we see that often, specifically in the UK.

Jamie Childs said you did a lot of your own action choreography for the film.

That’s incredibly kind of him. I don’t know if that’s true, but that’s incredibly kind of him!

What was practicing for those action scenes like?

They set me up with this incredible team, and I think looking back on it they were trying to assess whether or not I could do any of it. And I think they were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, let’s just sort of set you up and see how you do, and see how comfortable you are with it all.’ They were just such an incredible team.

I’ve experienced this before with any kind of fight sequence, it can sometimes get quite tedious, you know? It has to be safe, so it’s sort of an orchestrated dance. They make you do it over and over and over again. But this team were incredibly safe, but they were not going to waste anyone’s time. It was an amazing group of people that we were surrounded by. Jamie Dobb, who is sort of the main guy – all those insane jumps in the movie on the bike, that’s all him. So he’s incredible.

But yeah, I kind of got into it. It’s quite fun. I guess it’s just sort of different, and I think that’s also why in the beginning I was unsure about it; it didn’t sort of feel like it was in my wheelhouse, a film like that, and I think I sort of surprised myself a bit because I actually really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed all the fight stuff.

I hear there was one particular night of the shoot where it got down to -15 degrees. What was that like for you?

The worst day of, I think, everyone’s life. It was so cold that the poor Jamie Dobb, who I mentioned before, who’s this incredible motocross champion, he got frostbite on his face. I mean, it was so unbelievably cold.

It was January time and it was just – no matter how much you wore, no matter how many thermals, we were shooting like three o’clock, four o’clock in the morning, up North, so it was bitter. I remember Jamie, Will [Baldy] who’s the DOP, and I just eating. Every 40 minutes just eating something. It was just insane. We were just eating and eating and eating because we were so cold. And then we went out and then they chucked me in the North Sea. That was fun in January. I don’t think I’ve ever been so cold.

This is quite a different role to the ones that you’re perhaps best known for, like The Invisible Man or Mike Flanagan’s Haunting shows. Do you think now that you’ve done it once you’d like to do more things like this?

I don’t know. I think it’s ultimately about character and story. I remember when I did the stuff with Mike, the amount of horror stuff that then ended up on my desk was insane. And I think that it wasn’t necessarily to do with genre, it was to do with those characters in that world and what you could tell through the veil of horror, you can tell all these quite interesting stories and sort of themes.

You know, Hill House was all about childhood trauma. And so it becomes, I think, more about the character than it does necessarily about the genre. But it was great; it was quite the experience, shooting Jackdaw. I got to learn how to ride motocross and lots of late night shoots and stunt work and spike training and all of that. It was great fun but I think ultimately it probably does come down to the character. I think there’s something so interesting about Jack Dawson that sort of switched on this light, I guess. And so yeah, I’d definitely work again with Jamie.

You say you got lots of horror stuff on your desk after working with Mike Flanagan. Are you looking to take on different types of projects to avoid being typecast?

Well, I think the whole idea of typecasting follows everyone, you know; I feel like people are desperate to put everyone in a box, sort of constantly. I don’t think that’s just particular to film, but I think within the film industry, the minute you do a romantic comedy, you become the go to person for romantic comedy. And I think there’s nothing wrong with just working within the same genre.

But I think I’ve never wanted to just do the one thing. You want to sort of experience a bit of everything and there’s some stuff that you end up being surprised by that you didn’t think you would like, and there’s stuff that you think you would like and actually doesn’t fit as much. So I think the whole thing is a bit of an experiment.

I think the typecasting will come whether or not any of us want it, so I think it’s just more about keeping it interesting for yourself, ultimately.

Jackdaw is in cinemas on 26th January.

[barkhoffman]

1, 23, 2, 4?

the character everyone gets wrong

honestly Adam, I think people forget his feminist vegan punk gf broke up with him for being "too angry" (which implies he is VERY angry due to the general stereotype of feminists, vegans, and punks all being angry types of people individually let alone when someone is all of those identities at once), like he's not a smol softe innocent bean he's a cunt LMAO

I also laugh every time I see that one post that says he's the one genuine person in Saw who doesn't lie when like. there's literally an entire scene with Gordon confronting him angrily for lying the entire movie KJFDLJFDL LIKE GUYS I KNOW YOU WANNA FUCK LEIGH WHANNELL BUT LET'S BE SERIOUS HERE

23. ship you've unwillingly come around to

this is going to sound weird but. I didn't actually even think about hoffstrahm until I realized it was already one of the Big 3 ships here LMFDKLFDJGDF like I wouldn't say I disliked it I just. never considered it before?? I got into this fandom with hoffdon on the mind if you can believe it

of course now I'm so coffinpilled that it's a category 5 autism event but

I guess as far as ones that I didn't really like the idea of too much at first, there's chainshipping, just because it's a lot softer than my usual tastes (she says, writing 10k+ words of soft fluffy coffinshipping), but no yeah I can see the appeal now it's pretty cute

2. a compelling argument for why your fav would never top or bottom

let's pretend I don't write everyone as vers for a minute and live in a world where I care

Hoffman would NOT top he is a little NEEDY BROKEN WHINER BOY with daddy issues who would imprint on a houseplant if he thought it might say it was proud of him, he needs DICK up his ASS and he needs it NOW

god I can't do this I need him to raw me and/or Strahm until I/we cry

4. what was the last straw that finally made you block that annoying person?

ok so I haven't blocked anyone in this fandom YET but I admit I get close whenever I see C/stas M/ndylor's stupid little ugly-ass right-wing face in the HOFFMAN tag when he's NOT BEING HOFFMAN like first of all he's only hot when he's Hoffman, if I have to see him with a mustache one more time I might end it all, secondly can we stop simping for actors and every role they've ever been in because we like one (1) role, down the road of simpery lies nothing but pain and disappointment

idk maybe it's because I've seen too many people decide they're in love with the actor because they love the character only to realize that the actor is a shit person and have a total fucking meltdown, but I Don't Trust Like That and I have very strong actor-character separation mentality lmao

also also if you mistag your posts (like making a post about Adam but tagging it with every character in the franchise) I'm thinking about killing you in a Saw trap I hope you all know this

[choose violence ask game]

[running-with-ur-scissors]

So. Hi. This is my bio for people curious about me. Warning: I'm a weirdo <3

I would rather not put my actual name here, but you can call me Viri or Ri. I'm 18, but I am kinda a weird fucker even though I am 18, so.

im fine with any pronouns. sometimes i prefer others, but im too tired to tell yall when so any work. im also bi, so thats cool.

i really like saw, cooties, psych, supernatural, and most slasher movies in general. and basically anything with leigh whannell in it.

i have a bunch of dogs, 4 of them. a German shepherd, a Rottweiler, a Mastiff mix, then a Rottweiler pup. I also have two cats. a Siamese(?) mix, and then another super fluffy one we don't know the breed of. I also have 7 chickens, but they're at my grandmas house.

im mostly gonna post horror stuff on here, probably saw mainly. i might post some stuff about my bsf or my family, but that'll be super duper occasional. im gonna post my outfits a lot, especially if i like them. i might post some cooking or baking. then some random stuff like photos, i do a lot of photo taking. you might see some of my art, and it'll probably have a gore or creepy vibe to it; probably some pink or sparkles too.

may seem random but I love the gorecore aesthetic, so if you aren't comfortable with gore please be careful! I might reblog some, but I like the cute gore stuff specifically, so I doubt (most of) it will be graphic, I also might say some creepy\gory shit so if that makes you uncomfy please block the tag!

and i promise im usually a lot more upbeat and stuff, but that would probably make this bio take longer so that isnt really an option. ill be much happier and less boring in my posts, i promise <3

[tibby]

Saw, Subtext, and My Ultra-Conservative Baby-Boomer Dad

My Dad will be 64 this autumn. My Dad is a die-hard Republican. My Dad was a Southern Baptist pastor for nearly 30 years. And my Dad is a Saw fan.

He’s always had horror movies he enjoyed (I grew up on John Carpenter.. it was kind of Our Thing), but he’s mostly a passive fan. The kind who is willing to wait until a movie watching opportunity presents itself, and decide that that’ll be the day he watched it.

So when my Dad called me a couple weeks ago, voice a little tremulous, begging me to send him a link whereby he could stream Saw (2004) and bypass the library DVD waiting period, I happily sent him the best one I’d found. He didn’t want to wait, he wanted to watch it NOW, and I could respect him for that. It was a pleasant surprise, him being interested in the movie so much he had to watch it NOW.

Today, I finally got the chance to ask him about it.

I was bouncing on my toes, excited to be fangirling about my fave show with my own father. “What did you think, Dad?”

I didn’t expect him to get a little choked up. His next words blew my mind.

He said, “Sweetie, I’m old. Set in my ways. I was taught, and adhered to, a certain way that people should be with each other. I preached it, and I voted in light of it, and I taught it to you and your sister. But I watched this movie. And I watched these two men fall in love with each other. And the only thing I could think was, ‘These two souls are meant to be together’. Lawrence Gorodon and Adam Faulkner-Stanheight are… soulmates. Over my years as a pastor, I’ve seen couples get married.. And couples get divorced.. It happens. But I’ve never seen two people who were more perfectly designed to fit together, and it broke my heart to see it not happen for them. I’m sorry I’ve been such an ass.”

Given that it was a brave moment, I blurted out, “Dad, I’m gay.”

And he turned to me and smiled, tears in his eyes, and said, “Just… be happy.”

Don’t fret that the press “has yet to discover” the “subtext” inherent in Saw. Don’t fret that Leigh Whannell still denies it. Because if my Dad can see it, then it’s crystal clear. My almost-64-yr-old-Dad ships Chainshipping. My SOUTHERN BAPTIST PASTOR Dad ships Chainshipping.

To the point that he internalized change in his thinking about same-sex relationships, and happily accepted my (rather abrupt) coming out.

Keep the faith.

This ship has sailed; and my Dad, of ALL people, is right on fucking board.

[batemanofficial]

ough all of them . but 17, 18, 30, 31, 34, 40, 42 for the movie asks

hiiiii jesse i also love film <3

17. favorite actress

i love jodie foster saurrr much and i litchrally cannot wait for her true detective season to come out. she's also so hot. who said that

18. favorite actor

i absolutely adore twink leigh whannel in saw it must be said. but i also love christian bale and ryan gosling - we need to give them both more interesting roles stat i cannot cope with another stoic action man out of either of them

30. are you looking forward to any upcoming releases?

i am so stoked for saw x (pronounced "socks"), and call me cringe but i cannot wait for the fnaf movie. i need to see the puppets

31. do you remember the first movie you saw in theaters?

the first movie i remember seeing in theaters was chicken little, but i'm told i was also brought to see national treasure when my parents went to see it? i was 3 so i really don't recall but i'll take my family's word for it

34. which film is the most visually beautiful?

i really loved the visuals in nomadland! i love chloé zhao's approach to lighting and how it plays with the scenery in the film, i especailly love the shot where frances macdormand's character is carrying a lamp across a field during sunset, it's incredible!

40. a film you think everyone should see at least once

hmmm i would say it's a tie between contact (with jodie foster) and les intouchables! contact is soooo good it's one of the few movies that can make me cry. plus it's got jodie so that's always a win. and les intouchables is in french, but it's also really good and really well-written. they did an american remake a few years back called 'the upside' with bryan cranston, i've not seen that version but i've heard the french version is better fwiw

42. show me a pic of your favorite movie poster

you know i gotta go amélie!!

[deakyjoe]

Same anon from the movie question: you're a Heath Ledger fan? Who are your other favourite actors?

I love these film related questions 😭

So here are my top actors. Some of them I have seen most of their filmography and others only a little but still think they are remarkably talented and/or entertaining. The favourites I’ve listed are purely about their performances, not necessarily the films themselves.

1) Heath Ledger. Obviously. I have loved him my whole life and I can barely think about the man without crying. He was phenomenal and could do anything. I’m so sad he didn’t get to see his own Oscar win. Favourites: 10TIHAY, A Knight’s Tale, Brokeback Mountain, The Dark Knight

2) Jake Gyllenhaal. Give this man an Oscar already. Every few months I suddenly remember his filmography exists and rewatch as much of it as I can. Favourites: Brokeback Mountain, Zodiac, Prisoners, Donnie Darko, Nightcrawler, Love & Other Drugs, (I could list several more)

3) Nicolas Cage. Okay so maybe he’s not the best actor in the world but I will watch anything this man is in. And I mean ANYTHING. Favourites: National Treasure, Knowing, TUWOMT, G-Force, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

4) Pedro Pascal. Another obvious one. He’s so good and I’m so glad he’s getting so much appreciation at the moment. Give him an Emmy please. Thank you. Maybe not the first that comes to mind when you think of “great actors” but certainly should be. Favourites: Prospect, TUWOMT, TLOU, The Mandalorian, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Narcos

5) Viola Davis. I cry every time she cries. She always hits me right in the gut and you can feel every ounce of pain. She’s EGOT for a reason. Favourites: HTGAWM, Prisoners, The Help, Fences

6) Angela Bassett. You know you’re going to see a good performance when Angela Bassett appears on your screen. Favourites: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, 911, AHS

7) Paul Dano. Soft-spoken and constantly being beat-up on screen. And yet he’s incredible every time. Favourites: The Batman, Little Miss Sunshine, Love and Mercy, Okja, There Will Be Blood, Prisoners, Swiss Army Man

8) Samuel L. Jackson. Every time this man says “motherfucker” I smile uncontrollably. Favourites: MCU, Pulp Fiction, The Incredibles, Star Wars, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Snakes on a Plane

9) Queen Latifah. Brings a certain energy that cannot be matched. Favourites: Chicago, Hairspray, Ice Age

10) Lucy Liu. I fell in love with her when I saw Charlie’s Angels for the first time. Favourites: Charlie’s Angels, Kung-Fu Panda, Chicago,

11) Michelle Yeoh. She’s just cool, man. I don’t know what else to say. Favourites: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Last Christmas, Reign of Assassins

12) Jeff Goldblum. He plays every character the same but IT WORKS and I love it every single time. Favourites: The Fly, Cats & Dogs, Thor: Ragnarok

13) Willem Dafoe. I never intentionally watch films with him in them but always get a million times more excited when he shows up in them. Favourites: Spider-Man, American Psycho, The Great Wall

14) Joe Mazzello. Underrated actor honestly, deserves a lot more appreciation and better roles. Petition to get him a better agent. A lot of his work as a child are great as well. Favourites: Bohemian Rhapsody, Jurassic Park, The Pacific, Undrafted, Dear Sidewalk, The Cure

15) Leigh Whannell. The guy is Australian and plays whiney, pathetic characters. What’s not to love? He’s also a great writer and director! Favourites: Saw, Dying Breed, Cooties, Insidious

[adrianicsea]

saw character etymologies

so etymology has always been an armchair interest of mine, and i think it’s always interesting to see how the names that writers choose for their characters reflect the character’s personality or narrative arc! with all that said, i’ve done a good bit of research into the name meanings and origins of various saw characters, and i’ve been meaning to share my findings for awhile! so here we are. this post isn’t going to cover every single major character in the franchise, just the ones i’ve looked into so far (and could fit into one post)!

of COURSE we have to start with adam!! he’s pretty damn unique in that he’s had no less than THREE last names over the course of the franchise— radford in the original screenplay, faulkner in the first movie (as confirmed by producers, but never spoken or seen within the movies), then retroactively changed to stanheight in one of the hoffman movies. faulkner-stanheight has since been adopted as adam’s canon last name, both by the fandom and (at least somewhat) by the powers that be; in the 2014 tenth anniversary q&a panel, leigh whannell’s name card listed him as playing adam faulkner-stanheight.

so, the breakdown goes:

adam- first man, “man from the red earth.” of course, it’s hard to ignore the biblical connotations of this name— we’ll see a lot of biblical names here, so i would assume that we’re MEANT to make those connections. in adam’s case, he literally IS the first man we meet in the saw franchise, and his life and death have far-reaching consequences for most every other main character in the franchise. it’s also fitting that leigh, the progenitor of the series, would name his self-insert adam.

radford- an alternate spelling of redford, which simply means “ford of the red river.” a lot of characters in the hoffman movies have these sorts of geological names, but it’s slightly less common in the amanda trilogy. a ford is a place to safely cross a body of water, somewhat akin to a bridge. the red earth/red river connection is interesting, too. much has been made of james wan’s love for the color red and the way it’s used in his movies, and we see that in saw, as well— the movies are overwhelmingly blue and green, which only makes the red of the apprentices’ cloaks, billy’s eyes, and all the blood stand out more. afaik, nobody’s ever said why adam’s name was changed from radford to faulkner, so i guess we’ll never know!

faulkner- this is literally just the old english word for “falconer,” someone who trains and uses falcons to hunt. adam loves animals, so it’s nice to see that reflected somewhat in his name. additionally, you could view this as a reflection of his job and his attitude— as a photographer, he keeps himself at a distance and observes or scouts from afar, instead of getting right up in the middle of things, similar to how a falconer would use their bird to assist them with hunting.

stanheight- presumably, this name was added in the later movies because the last name faulkner had been forgotten about— which makes sense, given that we never SEE the name faulkner anywhere in the movie. stanheight is another geographic name, meaning “stone heights.” shocking! this name gives me the same sort of distant, watch-from-afar vibes that faulkner does, and i think the two complement each other in a really interesting way.

next up is the gordon family, starting with my beloved lawrence <3

he’s an interesting (but not TOTALLY unique) case of a saw character who owes his name, at least partially, to another franchise. but we’ll get into that momentarily!

lawrence means “shining one” and originates from the roman city of laurentium, known for its laurel trees. the romans are also the ones who popularized using laurel wreaths as a symbol of status or exaltation! all very fitting for a high and mighty doctor like lawrence. the “shining one” epithet can apply in multiple ways— lawrence is the lightbringer of the first movie in that he has control over the light switch, but you can also read that as him becoming john kramer’s best/favorite apprentice. lawrence’s name ALSO serves as a nice reflection of diana’s, but we’ll get into that later as well. for a more christian/biblical read on his name, there IS a saint lawrence, who was also active in ancient rome. he was martyred by being pressed over a hot gridiron, and is considered the patron saint of cooks, comedians, butchers, archives/libraries, deacons, and the poor. patron saint of butchers is pretty raw, given lawrence’s eventual apprentice status, but i don’t think any of saint lawrence’s other correspondences apply to our lawrence quite so easily/obviously.

gordon is a scottish surname, meaning “fortress.” he’s a very reserved, guarded individual, so that perfectly fits him— but in lawrence’s case, the name gordon has another origin, too! leigh whannell is famously a wes craven enthusiast, and in craven’s a nightmare on elm street part 3: dream warriors, we’re introduced to a new character in... doctor neil gordon. now, leigh has never (to my knowledge) confirmed that lawrence’s last name was lifted from this movie/character, but i don’t think it’s a HUGE leap to make that assumption, given that both characters are doctors and whannell is such an avowed craven stan.

moving right along through the gordon family, we’ve got alison:

alison is a norman french/germanic name meaning “of a noble kind.” clearly, this has a lot of thematic resonance with lawrence’s name meaning, and as we’ll find out in a moment, with diana’s as well. what a well-named family!

(we aren’t going to get into kerry and rigg in this post, but since kerry shares her first name with alison, obviously this applies to her too. why both kerry and rigg share their first names with other established characters, i’ll never know.)

rounding out the gordon family, we have diana!!

those of you who are familiar with roman mythology, have read rick riordan, and/or have taken a middle school social studies class in the united states might remember that diana is the name of the roman goddess of the moon, closely analogous with the greek goddess artemis. literally, the name diana means “divine” or “godesslike,” which you might expect from the origin. diana’s name combines the nobility of alison’s with the roman influence of lawrence’s! god i’ll never get over the gordon family etymology. great stuff.

we’ll next move onto the kramer family— john, jill, and gideon. we’ll look at amanda here, as well.

john is an anglicization of the hebrew name yohanan, meaning “graced by god.” i would hardly call john kramer’s life graced, considering just about every bad thing that you can imagine happens to him over the course of it, but alas! one could make the argument that this could refer to john taking on the role of a judge, baptist, and/or “re-creator” to his test subjects and apprentices— deciding that he has been “graced” from above with the authority to do that. and indeed, the bible does feature a john the baptist, said to have performed jesus’ baptism. many people who look at the saw franchise in biblical terms see john as the god figure of the series, which is the reading i usually take, as well.

kramer, meanwhile, finds its origin in both high and low german, and referred to traveling merchants. nowadays, the name is mostly interpreted to mean “merchant”or “peddler.” you could connect this to the wide array of businesses that john has owned or been involved with, or the idea that that he’s “selling” his philosophy!

jill is most commonly understood to be latin in origin and means “youthful.” she certainly is much younger than john, and you could draw parallels between her name and her relationship to/with amanda!

tuck, variously given as norman, english, or scottish, apparently has its roots in WAY early norse. this website gives tuck’s origin as a shortened form of the name “thorketill,” which references the norse god thor and “ketill,” the word for a cauldron. there’s some connection to be made between jill’s medical career and a cauldron as an object you could associate with making medicine, i suppose. but in all likelihood, jill was given the last name tuck because tuck is also the surname of leigh whannell’s wife. which frankly is no less baffling to me, but he did what he had to do i suppose!

no picture for gideon, sadly, but his name is also hebrew in origin, and comes from Gidon, referring to a great warrior. more literal interpretations find gideon can mean “hewer” or “he with a stump for a hand,” but i doubt this name was chosen with those interpretations in mind.

i started working on this post on a mandy monday.... and here she is ❤️

amanda means “lovable” or “worthy of love.” given that so much of amanda’s character arc centers around her desire to find someone who will show her love and compassion, this is both a very fitting name and an absolutely HEARTBREAKING one. amanda also shares with lawrence the distinction of being named after a nightmare on elm street character— in her case, amanda krueger, ALSO introduced in the third elm street movie. amanda k was a nun who was captured and assaulted by disturbed, violent prison/asylum inmates, leading to the birth of freddy krueger and amanda’s subsequent death by suicide. that idea of innocence being taken advantage of and birthing great evil as a result is something we see played out in amanda young’s arc, too.

in the original screenplay for the first movie, amanda was given the last name “denlon,” which of course was later given to lynn and jeff. so we’ll save that for those two!

as for her surname... well. it’s young. we all know what that means. we often conflate the idea of youth with concepts of naivety, innocence, or being childlike, and these are all ideas that we see reflected in amanda’s arc throughout her trilogy.

before we move onto characters introduced in the later movies, we’ll take a minute to look at some stragglers from the first movie who don’t show up again.

first up we have zep, a character who goes almost COMICALLY unremembered and undiscussed, given his role in the first movie and the entire series’ theme song using his name.

zep is a nickname, of course, and likely refers to the floor cleaning agent of the same name, given that zep was a hospital orderly.

his real name is shepard, as in “person who guards and watches over sheep.” this ties in nicely with his hospital job, and it also serves him ironically, as his “guardianship” over alison and diana is anything but. the bible is also rife with allegories about shepherds and sheep, so you could draw the connection between zep being a proto-pseudo-apprentice to john and him being a shepherd for john’s message.

hindle is an english compound name, and when you translate those component parts, you get “valley of the hind,” a hind being a female deer. this also has a peaceful, pastoral sound to it, which both reinforces zep’s job description and ironically contrasts his true disposition and attitude.

ah, good old david tapp, who (i believe) has the honor of being the saw character who’s been in the most video games!

david is yet another hebrew name, meaning “beloved.” king david, the second king of israel, is a very important figure in both judaism and christianity.

tapp, while not a conventional or common last name, sounds an awful lot like tapping a phone, doesn’t it? i think both tapp and sing’s last names were chosen to call to mind ideas of surveillance, detective work, and other “police procedural” associations. tapp DOES have an old english root, where it was used to refer to a tall or thin person... but this was a nickname based on a tap, as in the object you use to get sap out of a tree. so one way or another, tapp’s last name is VERY literal.

steven has its origins in greek, where it means “crown,” “reward,” or “high honor.” christianity also has a saint stephen, who wikipedia tells me was killed by being stoned to death and is widely considered the first martyr of the christian church. perhaps fittingly, sing is the first onscreen death of a major character in the franchise— while we see victims die before sing in the first movie, we never get to know them. sing is the first character we have a chance to get attached to, only to see him killed for it.

sing, much like tapp, has a police connotation to it— to get someone to confess a crime, or to snitch on their coconspirators, is to “make them sing.” in english, the name sing has a pretty obvious/literal meaning, but in a ton of south asian and southeast asian languages/cultures, the names sing, singh, and variations thereupon appear. all these names share a common origin in a sanskrit word meaning “lion,” in the connotation of a hero.

tumblr tells me that i’ve hit image limit on this post, so i suppose i’ll wrap this up here. i hope y’all find this interesting, helpful, and/or insightful! the next etymology post i make (whenever that is) will cover the matthews family, the denlon family, the hoffman/alcomb family, strahm, and perez.

[doomednarrative]

Hehehehe....chainshipping >:3

You all are Determined to enable me today and I am living for it!

Whether I ship it or not: OF COURSE I DO!! Why I ship it or not: Oh where the fuck to even Start with that...The heart analogy in Lawrence's tape, the fact that Adam killed a man just to save Lawrence even when he was shot and in pain, the fact that Lawrence was bleeding out but still dragged himself over to comfort Adam when he needed it most, the fact that LEIGH WHANNELL CALLS THAT WHOLE SCENE "THE LOVE SCENE,"...Everything about their narritive is so queer coded in so many ways its almost impossible to read it as anything But setting them up to be together in a better timeline that isn't filled with tragedy. My opinion on their canon potential (chemistry, canon interactions, etc): Honestly if they'd both managed to get out I could see it being a thing. I don't think (realistically) it'd be the most smooth sailing of relationships, I think they'd have a lot of ups and downs just for the kind of people they are and the fact that they met thru such a traumatic shared event. It'd take a lot of effort from both of them to make it work. But I Could see it working. My opinion on fanon interpretations/fandom around it (Favorite widespread hcs, pet-peeves, etc): For the most part I enjoy the fanon of it that I've seen, though I definitely have my favorite interpretations of course. I love how @tibby portrays them whenever they talk about more Jigsquad related dynamics, it feels very organic there. @hyrude's fic "Strip The Paint" I think is a much more realistic portrayal of how they'd go in canon and I'm extremely fond of that version of events. But obviously my favorite interpretation as I've said many times is @adrianicsea's boys from "Sleeping With Ghosts," I think he really gets to the heart of why they're so appealing as a pairing and I have not been able to stop thinking about them for a solid month now. I Do have my own thoughts on making apprentice content for them as well, which I'll get into in other posts, but that can be the One area I'd critique certain fanon stuff on, solely because I think theres a delicate balance you have to strike to make it work for both of them and not everyone gets that sometimes.

[sweetsmellosuccess]

The Best Films of 2020

The 15 Best Films of 2020

Normally, when I assess a full year of cinematic offerings, I consider both sides of that coin  —  the outstanding entities, and the least successful —  but the year of our lord two thousand and twenty provided more than enough misery for all of us, I do believe. Ergo, in my own small way to bring better vibes into the universe, for this year’s round-up, I’m staying solely on the positive tip, highlighting those films whose unfortunate release date during the Year of the Hex shouldn’t preclude them for being fully appreciated. Let’s take a year off from negativity and schadenfreude, shall we, and just stroll amongst the poppies and bright sunshine of some of the best releases of the year.  

15. The Invisible Man

“Leigh Whannell’s film is thoroughly modern in approach and sophistication, but the film it most reminded me of was made back in 1944. George Cukor’s Gaslight starred Charles Boyer as a loathsome husband who attempts to convince his already anxious wife (Ingrid Bergman) that she’s going insane by secretly rearranging things in their house and taking things from her so she thinks she’s always misplacing them. He preys on her emotional vulnerability in order to mask his own pathology and emotional detachment. The effect is absolutely enraging: Onscreen, he’s one of the more hateful villains ever committed to celluloid.”

Full Review

14. The Killing of Two Lovers

“From the opening sequence, with a distraught, estranged husband standing over the bed of his wife and her new boyfriend with malice in his heart, and a gun in hand, the film spirals out into incredibly well structured compositions, taking us inside and outside of David’s recurring psychosis, utilizing a bevy of techniques: The framing shrinks down around him, the sound gets muffled, as if underwater, save for the incredibly unnerving metallic sound of cables being stretched taut, and the sickening kathunk of a heavy car door slamming shut.”

Capsule Review

13. Another Round

“Typically, Vinterberg avoids simple conclusions  —  and God help us all if this film gets picked up by a U.S. studio and remade with, say, Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, and Chris Rock  —  providing more or less equal examples of the delirious fun drinking with your friends can be (the film opens with a group of high schoolers gleefully doing “lake races” whereby teams compete to drink a case of beer while running around the nearby body of water; and closes with the same teen crew, and some of their teachers, whooping it up in celebrating their graduation); and the horrorshow it can become (one teacher ends up peeing the bed, and on his wife in the process, another wakes up bloodied and out of it in front of his neighbor’s house), leading to very real and horrible consequences.”

Capsule Review

12. Soul

“Co-director Pete Docter is the creative force behind many of Pixar's best titles, having a hand in the Toy Story franchise, WALL-E, Up, and also directing Inside Out, a brilliantly moving treatise on the subject of emotional upheaval. This film, which he co-wrote and made along with fellow co-director Kemp Powers, is his first film back at the helm since that high-water mark, and he has again dug into the fertile earth of our mortality and come back with a particularly vibrant crop.”

Full Review

11. The Burnt Orange Heresy

“Based on the novel by Charles Willeford, the film briskly moves through its paces, clouding the waters with the schemes of duplicitous men, who have sold out any love of art for their greater obsession of cash and prestige. A literary thriller in the vein of The Talented Mr. Ripley, it’s become a genre all too rare in the era of blockbuster bravado. This film will remind you what a mistake that is.”

Full Review

10. Lovers Rock

“In the course of the party, the fuses blow while the house DJ is spinning Janet Kay's "Silly Games," a fan favorite at the time. Undaunted, the guests continue dancing away, singing the lyrics a capella in delirious unison, as McQueen's camera swirls around the living room as if nothing happened. Such a heartfelt moment of unbridled togetherness, putting into distinct bas relief the sense of community we've been denied as a species in 2020, feels like a benediction, an epitaph for the year, and a salve for what we've all been so desperately missing.”

Capsule Review

9. Time

“Ostensibly, it’s about the strain of incarceration on even the most grounded of families (an experience naturally disproportionate for POCs); but, on a deeper level, it’s also about the manner of our use of the limited number of revolutions we get to enjoy situated on this earth. It is a profound knock-out.”

Full Review

8. New Order

“Meet the new boss, only in Michel Franco’s damning portrait of a society locked forever in cycles of oppression, revolution, and new oppression, it makes no difference who you are, what your belief system is, or whether or not you subscribe to a moral set of ethics.”

Capsule Review

7. Dick Johnson is Dead

“Utilizing stunt people and special effects, Johnson kills her father off a number of different gruesome ways, as a means of softening the blow of actually losing him as his mind slowly slips away. This eventually culminates in a final gambit, both acutely painful and deeply moving, in which our sense of things gets seriously upended. As Johnson put it during the post-screening Q&A, the film serves as a “doomed experiment trying to keep my father alive forever.” This film won’t make him immortal, alas, but it does make him indelible.”

Capsule Review

6. Martin Eden

“Marcello packs the film with offbeat bits and pieces of other films, including strips of what appear to be vintage home movies, sometimes in juxtaposition to what Martin is feeling  —  a group of kids swinging wildly from the bar of a fence, to a full galley ship taking in water and suddenly sinking like an iron ingot – which adds a more winsome, timeless element to the narrative. It’s clearly set in the past, but avoids being too dependent on that particular sense of place and time. Martin is a young man, at first, just coming into himself, and the actions he takes, what he goes through, the film seems to suggest, would be similar in any age.”

Full Review

5. Minari

“The film is certainly charming, but that’s not to diminish its straightforward approach to its characters’ plight. It doesn’t shy away from their difficulties, and as a result, it doesn’t cheat towards smarmy emotional closure.”

Capsule Review

4. Collective

“The breath of hope in the film, when the inept Minister of Health resigns, leading to the placing of a new, emboldened director who works quickly to clean the quagmire left by his predecessors, is just as quickly expelled after the next round of elections, in which the Social Democrat party  —  the very ones in charge of this catastrophe in the first place  —  gets re-elected with an even greater majority than what they had before. A perfect reflection of what happens when a government is allowed to exist without any meaningful oversight, other than from a bedraggled press and a disenchanted electorate.”

Full Review

3. First Cow

“Reichardt, a naturalist at heart, is not known much as a humorist, but there is a lightness to her screenplay -- co-written by Jonathan Raymond, her frequent collaborator, who wrote the original novel upon which its based -- that keeps it as sweetly airy as one of Cookie's fried confections. The two friends are so out of step with their surroundings -- the party of men Cookie initially travels with are little more than brutish thugs, and the fort upon which they end up is no better -- they almost had to find each other. They are reunited in the local bar of the fort only because literally every other patron runs out to egg on a brawl between two loutish combatants.”

Full Review

2. Never Rarely Sometimes Always

“Hittman’s eye for detail and emotional complexity  —  her characters can rarely articulate anything they’re experiencing  —  is incredibly acute, and she pulls tremendously understated performances out of her two leads.”

Capsule Review

1. Nomadland

“Perhaps no American director since Terrance Malick has made more of the collapsing light of dusk and twilight than Chloe Zhao. Much of her new film, which stars Frances McDormand as a transigent woman (“not homeless, houseless”), who traverses back and forth across the west in her beat up live-in van, doing seasonal work, takes place in that particular kind of vibrant half-darkness that shrouds the desert and its mountains with a magic kind of mystery.”

Capsule Review

Other Worthy Mentions: 7500; Assassins; Bacurau; Beanpole; Beginning; Black Bear; Bloody Nose Empty Pockets; Boys State; Come Play; Emma; Gunda; His House; Horse Girl; I Am Greta; Jacinta; La Llorona; Let Him Go; Limbo; Mangrove; Mayor; MLK/FBI; One Night in Miami…; Palm Springs; Possessor Uncut; Red, White & Blue; Relic; She Dies Tomorrow; Shirley; Shithouse; Shiva Baby; Some Kind of Heaven; Spring Blossom; Swallow; Tenet; The Dissident; The Invisible Man; The Nest; Sound of Metal; The Vast of Night; The Viewing Booth; The Way I See It; Vitalina Varella; Welcome to Chechnya

Inexplicably Underrated: 7500; Shithouse

Biggest Welcome Surprise(s): The Vast of Night; His House; She Dies Tomorrow

The Best Two Films I Saw This Year, Period: Satantango (1994); Harlan County, USA (1976)

[goatcheesecak3]

i agree about bringing adam back!! like as much as i want to see him again and see leigh be involved again somehow (which is never gonna happen oof) it would feel cheap if adam was just another twist apprentice. i used to love the theory but the more i think about it he would NEVER do that and if anything id just want to see the thought of him haunt lawrence lol

Yes yes!!!! Like I could make allowances for ghost Adam (as in like Lawrence or Amanda hallucinating, not an actual ghost lmao). I feel like some people might think it would border on pandering, but saw x was SO for the fans, but not in an "in your face" way yk? I feel like whoever is in charge of that decision would find a tasteful way to do it. But either way, I'm not really too fussed about seeing Adam in the next saw, what I REALLY want, is leigh back in the writers room, or at least leigh or James directing. Leigh whannell and James wan I heart you both so very much

[nonagesiimus]

19 for the saw ask thingy i honestly know almost nothing abt saw but i love to hear drama

Which ending twist surprised you the most?

tldr the body in the bathroom trap BUT let me explain under the cut just in case someone who follows me hasnt been spoiled for the entire franchise

so in the first movie, lawrence and adam wake up chained to pipes on opposite sides of this dilapidated bathroom, right, and theres a dead body on the floor between them. heres a shitty early sketch leigh whannell did of the bathroom set:

the basic premise of this game is that lawrence is supposed to kill adam by 6 o'clock. obviously theres like. weird hints and clues and shit around the room so they could MAYBE find another way out but like. come on.

anyway imagine you're adam and you've been in this room for hours, you've been shot, you killed a man defending the guy who shot you, and you watched that guy saw his own foot off all while you were chained to a pipe. you are now alone in the bathroom with two dead bodies. except the one in the middle of the room, the one you didnt kill, starts to fucking STAND UP??? as though it hasnt been dead all day??? and the body that is NOT dead and VERY MUCH JIGSAW tells you that the key to unlock your shackle was in the bathtub you woke up in (accidentally went down the drain), and he turns the lights off and shuts the door and you understand that you were in the room with the guy who put you there the entire time

they explain this in i think??? saw 3, they show the set up for the trap and you see jigsaw injecting himself with something to relax his muscles and slow his heart rate but honestly its still insane. the reason this one fucked me up more than any other twist is a) i didnt know anything about saw before watching it and so never would have fucking guessed and b) since the first movie does an insane twist, none of the twists that follow it can surprise me as much. because now i know saw does twists.

i know this is way too much information i just feel like i cant explain the feeling of watching this blind for the first time and jigsaw fucking standing up. you all should have seen my fucking face

[ojcobsessed]

Oliver Jackson-Cohen, on Bly Manor and Other Things That Haunt Him

by Diana Colcer for Cosmopolitan Romania, 24 October 2020

Energetic, suave, and anchored in the reality of the problems around us, Oliver Jackson-Cohen is part of a generation of actors looking for something else, something that will remain imprinted in the collective memory. I talked about this with the actor you know from The Haunting - by the way, the latest season, The Haunting of Bly Manor, now on Netflix, is the ideal choice for a scary night, if you want to spend Halloween at home this year. Let's see what Oliver Jackson-Cohen has to say about Bly Manor and other things that haunt him.

"Why choose a role that's safe when you can take risks?" This is the question that came to my mind as I was documenting the interview with Oliver Jackson-Cohen. Because that's what I was gathering from the things we know about him. You first saw Oliver as Luke in The Haunting of Hill House - and now, just in time for Halloween, you can see him again alongside Victoria Pedretti in the even scarier second season, The Haunting of Bly Manor. In this adaptation of the short ghost story The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, Oliver Jackson-Cohen plays the charming and manipulative Peter Quint, a character who hides many scary secrets and… I won't give away more!

So you understand what I'm talking about: Oliver is used to playing characters haunted both by their own inner conflicts (PTSD due to childhood traumas, drug addiction, etc.) and, well, ghosts. And the answer to the question at the beginning of the text, which I did not ask out loud, was given to me while I was talking to him. Born in London, Oliver, the son of fashion designer Betty Jackson, has dedicated his entire career to a different philosophy of acting, starting from the premise that fear makes you grow, develop and get out of your comfort zone.

And that's exactly how most of his roles are. After the BBC drama Larkrise to Candleford, he starred in the Emmy Award-nominated mini-series World Without End, then in shows such as Dracula and Man in an Orange Shirt. In real life, when he "strips off" his characters, Oliver is a guy oozing charisma and sex appeal: he’s 1.91m tall and has a pair of blue eyes in which you can get really lost, an extremely attractive and a style of being (and, let’s face it, dressing) extremely cool. 

So, he’s one to watch, and, as such, we invite you to read the interview he gave us exclusively for Cosmopolitan Romania, after which we found out spectacular details about the unseen parts of horror, fashion, lifestyle and what Oliver Jackson-Cohen has something to say about Bly Manor and other things that haunt him.

What made you determined, at only 6 years old, to become an actor? Simple! I saw Home Alone at the movies and suddenly I wanted to be Kevin McAllister. I just couldn't believe a child was appearing in a movie. I remember my father explaining to me that he was an actor and then I said to myself, "Well, I'll do all that, too."

Many people who discover their dream at such a young age change their minds later. How did you stay in acting?

Looking back, it was probably a stupid thought [process]. But I became fascinated by how you can disappear into another world and how you can become whoever you want. I still think that these things are what kept up my passion for acting. I love the whole process behind this job and the way you translate into reality something that is not, in fact, real. It's also been about luck, I admit - that people pay me to do that, and that's how I make a living.

You appeared in the first season of The Haunting of Hill House as Luke Crain. I was impressed with how you managed to get Luke away from the typical drug addict stereotype. How did you avoid this cliché? I have seen many portrayals of drug addicts over the years and I wanted to show what the person behind the addiction is like, the one who is not defined by this addiction. I think that's an extremely important thing. All over the world, people are struggling with drug addiction and, most of the time, they are excluded and marginalised because of this, but also because they are seen only in this way, as addicts. I didn't intend to do this with Luke. I felt that it was essential for the public to see the man in him, to see that he is someone who is really shaken inside, someone who has lost control of what is happening to him, but who is always trying to control his addiction. 

As a society, we usually condemn or shun such people. We need more empathy in these cases, and these people need to receive the attention shown primarily to them, not to the addiction they suffer from.

When your work is so rigorous, so emotional, I imagine it consumes you a lot to play a character who has struggled with addictions all his life. How do you detach yourself from this intensity? I can't tell you exactly. I don't think you can, to be honest. For the series The Haunting… the filming was long and stressful for all the actors, but also for the crew. I think you have to gradually detach yourself from the story, as much as you can, when you get home, but at the same time, you have to stay in the character's shoes, because the next day you return to the set for a new round of filming. It was a demanding experience, but it was worth it.

Is there anything you wish you’d known before you started working a horror TV show? Or about a series with an intense family drama? Know that it's not that scary when you're filming. Not at all. I started working from the pre-production phase and I knew it was going to be a ghost series… and, initially, I had the impression that there was always “someone” in my Atlanta apartment. But from the moment you get on set, you realise that the series about ghosts is just another job. The coolest thing when you are part of a horror series is when you realise, in the end, that you can watch it [later] without any problems, because all the tension and panic are built up in the editing process.

I know you're a big fan of the horror genre in general. Is it an area you want to explore further? I think so. But I wouldn't say that I intended, from the beginning, specifically, to explore any certain genre. Everything is, in fact, in the characters. Always. If it's an interesting role, I definitely want it. But what I find incredible about this genre is that the dose of horror is often a metaphor for other elements of our lives. But when horror is done properly, it can affect us incredibly, which is true.

You're back to haunt us again in the second season of the Netflix anthology series, this time called The Haunting of Bly Manor. What can you tell me about the new character you play? I'm afraid I don't want to reveal too much and I'd rather you watch the show and form your own impression. All I can say is that the new series, Bly Manor, is completely different from the first, which I like. My current character, a young man named Peter, is the polar opposite of Luke, so for me, as an actor, he was wonderful. Ah, also don’t even try to watch this season at night, alone at home, because the plot is really creepy!

About The Invisible Man, another classic monster comeback, in which you play alongside Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale), what can you tell me? The film debates the notion of ownership of a person (editor’s note: Jackson-Cohen's character is a sociopath obsessed with control, and we don't know if he terrorises his ex-girlfriend as a ghost or if he actually staged his death). I look forward to seeing how this film will be received by the public, because Leigh Whannell is an incredible screenwriter and director. He wrote a fresh story, which I find brilliant, which follows the Invisible Man in the context of connections with other characters, but also with real people. It's a very clever movie.

How would you best describe yourself using the title of a movie?

Hm… The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, the classic directed by Sergio Leone in 1966.

Are you into fashion? Yes, I really am. I was raised by my parents who worked in the fashion industry, which influenced me quite a lot over the years.

Do you wear high-fashion pieces in everyday life? Why not?!

Your mother is the designer Betty Jackson. Has he ever given you advice on clothing style?

I don't know if she gave me style advice in the true sense of the word, but it's great to talk to her about style and clothes. Her belief has always been one like "Wear something that makes you feel good,” so I adopted this perspective as well. She is an incredible woman, with a good eye for fashion, so she often helps me.

You divide your life between London and Los Angeles. How do men groom themselves in the two cities? Have you noticed different approaches?

Probably. LA is a more eccentric place in terms of style and fashion, with more pressure to that end, at least from what I've noticed. In Los Angeles, it's more important to look good physically. In London, on the other hand, it seems more important to combine clothes and accessories in a cool and smart way.

How do you stay in shape?

I honestly don’t care. I only exercise when I have to, and when I don't have to, I eat everything I can. I go to the gym if I notice that my weight is getting out of control.

What do you like to do in your free time?

To be the laziest person. Seriously. I would love to count all the hours I’ve spent sleeping or lazing around!

[brendanmoviedate]

We fought in an immoral war that wasn't ours for rights we didn't have.

I’ve been trying to write the blog post for 4 months but haven’t been struggling to find the motivation after a terrifying 2020 that’s drained me of the will to do much of anything. So far, 2021 has been much of the same, except it seems like the solidarity that my community shared in 2020 has given way to frustration and defiance. Social distancing and community safety seem to be the furtherest thing from many people’s minds all while our COVID cases are constantly breaking single-day records. While the hope that we’ll soon be out of this is bright, the accumulating darkness and death we’re experiencing right now really nails home how trivial it is to be watching and writing about movies.

Normally, watching a good movie is one of the best ways to escape the banality of everyday life, but without theatres, the movie-going experience is inextricably tied to the banality of being locked down in your own home. For that reason, a number of the movies that I would have enjoyed seeing in the theatre, or even with home viewing in a different context, didn’t resonate with me. Films like Nomadland, which has received unanimous acclaim, or I’m Thinking of Ending Things, which is totally in my wheelhouse, didn’t resonate with me. 

Originally I excused my lateness in writing this post as an opportunity to catch up on 2020 releases that I hadn’t gotten around to (like Minari or Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), but with April almost over, I still haven’t been able to find the energy to watch them. Instead, I’ve been watching mostly 90′s junk thrillers or pure escapist action movies. Quickly realizing that I probably wasn’t going to get around to the rest of my 2020 watchlist anytime soon, I set the Oscars as my next goal. If I missed that deadline, then nothing was going to get me motivated to write this (I’m actually just finishing it up after a break to watch the Oscars).

Every year I put together a collage image of 30 films that make up my short list. Normally finding the last couple of films to fill it out to 30 is a struggle as is narrowing down the list to the top 10. Oddly, this year, there was no shortage of films for my short list, but I had a hell of a time finding enough of them that I wanted to put in the top 10. So a couple of films that might not have made it in past years have popped into the top 10 because I actually got to see them in theatres (you’ll know when you see them).

10. The Trial of the Chicago 7

Aaron Sorkin’s sophomore directorial effort was one of the biggest films to be sold to streaming because of the theatre shutdown. Featuring a stacked cast and the typical Sorkin pacing and dialogue, The Trial of the Chicago 7 is an actors showcase, with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Rylance standing out.

9. Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a hard film to describe. It’s essentially a road movie about the difficulty of having an abortion as a minor. The film’s mood is played sullenly for the most part, so when the emotion breaks through in the second act during the questionnaire that the film takes its name from, the impact it has is immeasurable. 

8. The Invisible Man

The Invisible Man was the last movie I saw in theatres before theatres were shut down. Being the only movie on this list from the “before times” probably endears me to it, but nevertheless it was a solidly crafted film. It’s brutal, mean, and scary in a way that horror thrillers too often fail to be. Director Leigh Whannel had a really solid debut with 2018′s Upgrade and proves that wasn’t a fluke with a worthy followup. 

7. Tenet

A new Christopher Nolan movie will always be an event for me. As one of the only blockbuster auteurs, his movies are spectacular and uncompromising at the same time. Tenet came out in theatres at a time where COVID seemed to be under control in Vancouver, allowing me a chance to see it twice on the big screen. My first screening was in IMAX and was rife with the sound problems that made the dialogue unintelligible. However, my second viewing at a different theatre had no such issues, allowing me to fully appreciate the intricate plot. 

Tenet is a much more stylized Nolan film, with the whole thing feeling like a riff on a Bond movie. Despite some of the heavy-handed dialogue (”including my son!”), awkward backwards walking, and underwhelming final set piece, Tenet was the biggest event film of 2020 and was one that I’ll be glad to revisit.

6. Bacurau

Bacurau is a modern day Western set in a fictional town in Brazil that I went into knowing nothing about beforehand, which is the best way to see it. All I’ll say is that Udo Kier comes to town and things get weird. Bacurau made me feel horrified, uncomfortable, and celebratory at different times. 

5. Palm Springs

Palm Springs follows the surprisingly growing trend of Groundhog Day style time loop movies. While Happy Death Day and Edge of Tomorrow apply it to another genre, Palm Springs stays firmly within the romantic comedy genre of its predecessor and provides a goofy yet sentimental story. The timing of Palm Springs’ release couldn’t be more appropriate, as it unintentionally depicts what being in lockdown feels like while simultaneously providing a lighthearted break from it.

4. Undine

As one of the films I watched as part of VIFF’s at home event, Undine was the most compelling of the dozen I watched. It’s a film about jilted lovers, underwater welders, and mermaids that threads the line between romantic drama and fairytale expertly.

3. Da 5 Bloods

Da 5 Bloods is the latest in Spike Lee’s exploration of being black in America throughout different periods of time. Like with BlackkKlansmen, Lee crosscuts real life footage from present day to nail down the connection between the treatment of black people in the United States in the present and the past. While the film is a little shaggy and shifts tone and genre, it’s incredibly compelling and features the best performance of the year in Delroy Lindo’s Paul.

2. Possessor

Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor has all of the body horror of his father’s early work with a meanness that feels appropriate for such a shitty year. The film looked great and featured a great lead performance from Andrea Riseborough who, between this and Mandy, seems to be the new star of weird horror.

1. Another Round

As much as I love Mads Mikkelsen’s Hollywood work, he’s on a whole other level in his Danish work. In Another Round, he plays a jaded school teacher who starts to appreciate life once he and his friends start maintaining a constant blood alcohol level. It’s funny, tragic, and powerful and the best movie I saw in 2020.

Honourable Mentions

As I mentioned earlier, I had a hard time filling the top 10, so I don’t really have any honourable mentions. However, Mank was originally in there before I actually started to write the list.

2021

Dune, No Time to Die, and Last Night in Soho are holdovers from last year that I’m still dying to see in theatres. Other than that, I’m not super excited about much, as I don’t want to look forward to a movie only to have it delayed or released on a streaming platform. 

At this point I’m more looking forward to a post-COVID world and being able to watch movies in theatres again. I don’t care what the film is, I’ll watch it.