#saw longlegs and it ends with us

[girl-bateman]

UPDATE: I did that thing everyone always talks about doing, aka staying in the cinema to see more movies for free and it was awesome !! Highly recommend if you ain't got other shit to do that day

[yeahiwasintheshit]

finally watched 'longlegs' tonight, and man is it a beautifully made, expertly constructed film. mood and atmosphere felt so appropriate and put you in the right frame of mind for what they were trying to do. It felt creepy and dirty, ominous and threatening. shot compositions were gorgeous and the use of the 4:3 vignette or rounded edges (whatever its called) felt appropriate… for a minute i thought the whole movie was gonna be like that, thankfully it was only in a few scenes, and felt like it was for a purpose.

unfortunately i just didnt care for the story it was telling or rather I mean I was fine with the story they were telling, I just didnt think the story was executed linearly with as much care and precision as the look and feel of everything else in the movie. Its doing a bunch of things at first, but you start off thinking the movies going to be a like police procedural, and then they introduce some supernatural elements which then really takes it right out of the kind of cat and mouse / mystery movie you spend the first 10-15 mins thinking its going to be. Things you think should take some time to build up to, just happen. And I get it the movie is not really a police procedural, its more light supernatural horror but idk, theres that police procedural I was kinda wanting because of how the movie started. the supernatural thing kinda gets us to plot points quickly, and to me that felt a little too quick, a little too forced or something. Idk I mean I get why they do that, and why it all comes together at the end, but a little slower with the build up and police work would have helped build more of the tension, I think.

Also you can pretty much guess where its all going, I mean there are definitely some weird right turns you will not guess, and those are good moments, but almost from the beginning, they are like ‘who is the accomplice? Who is the accomplice?’ And its like yea, duh, we know, like they made that pretty clear almost right off the bat, so when it is revealed, you’re like, uh yeah, we knew that lol

also, what really took me out of the movie each and every time was Nic cage. They should have absolutely not had him in this role. His voice was so ridiculous, the choices in like singing were like not scary or creepy at all, it was just silly and each and every time all I saw was Nic cage, maybe if his voice was lower and creepier or something, idk, its just Nic cages voice, and it just didnt work for me. They should have had some unknown actor or anyone else in his role. Someone whos intimidating and actually creepy. I got nothing creepy or ominous about his choices. and I think its clear they knew that, cause they shellacked him in that makeup… anyway to not see Nic cage, but his voice was a dead giveaway each time.

Maika Monroe was fantastic tho, and it was really great to see Blair underwood coming out of wherever hes been for 30 years ago, back from la law I guess lol. He looks great, and he has such a great voice. Also really great to see Alicia Witt! Almost unrecognizable, I really hope they caked her in old age makeup, cause at first I was like is that her? Cant be, there’s no way Alia Atrides is old enough to have a 30+ year old child lol also nice to see sally draper in this, and that Oz Perkins has a cast of actors he likes working with. She was great in his other movie the blackcoats daughter.

Overall it was the visuals that were the standout in the movie, the director, Oz Perkins, who is the son of my bby Anthony Perkins, is really good at building these atmospheric moody visuals, he also did a movie called Gretel and Hansel which also was more visually appealing than it was a good story. and I just read that his brother, Elvis Perkins did the score. Ive loved his album Ash Wednesday for almost a couple decades now, and the score really helped build the tension and really worked with movie.

It got so much hype at first so Im glad I saw some reasonable reactions too, cause it lowered my expectation. At first I’d heard it was the scariest movie ever!! And it’s not. I’m glad I went in not thinking that. So its not a bad movie whatsoever, I def wouldnt say I loved it, there are choices that I dont think work with the story, and that really dampens what couldve been something special, cause visually and atmospherically its gorgeous.

[mikeylikeyou]

✸ ʟᴏɴɢʟᴇɢꜱ...

𖦹 I saw Longlegs around two days after it came out in theatres, and I have plenty to say about it. Starting off, this movie is so worth it to sit and watch in theatres. It's a beautifully shot and directed film with really artsy framing and coloring. Plot wise, I feel as if there was something missing near the end of it, but I still loved the film as it was. If you do not like non-jump scare-based horror films, this movie isn't for you! Although there are at least 2 jump scares that were notable yet not made just to scare the audience in a cheesy way. Due to the fact of this movie being released this year, I would say it sticks out the most from any other horror movies released in 2024, both artistically and uniqueness. I'd say, fans of movies like Hereditary, Creep, and many other psychological horrors, would love this movie dearly. I know I sure did!!! !!!SPOILER WARNING!!! 𖦹 Ending wise!! All I did not like was that the ending seemed very scrapped, almost like it needed a bit more umph yet if it were any more dramatized it would've been way too much. At most, I would have liked to see more about how Longlegs had manipulated Lee's mother into transporting the dolls to families and making the fathers kill the families. Even though it's shown that Lee's mother does it to keep her daughter safe, I would have liked to seen more trial and error of her "getting used" to the things she saw happen to victims of what she had been helping Longlegs do.

"The seventh she to be given the same choice they've all been given. Crimson, or clover..."

[destinyc1020]

I dont know if you're still doing Sunday confessions this week, but my confession is I'm tired of doomscrolling stans of TZ. I'm sorry to start this negative on your blog, but it's too much. As of recently, there have been certain anons who go on some blogs, including your own destiny, who are so negative at both of theirs career cause they can't compare it to strangers on stantwitter. It's the main reason I left the app because it gets so tribal and unnecessarily dramatic when it should just be fun and light-hearted.

Tom's on stage rn, and all you guys worry about is the films he's not going to do like it has any effect on you. I see some fans who are annoyed that there aren't any casting rumours for Z like she wasn't dominating the culture at the beginning of 2024 with Dune 2 and Challengers.

As a fan of musicians, it's normal for your fav artist to have quiet moments in their career. I'm so happy Sade was big in the 80s cause if she started in this gen, ppl would've called her a flop due to her personal choice to go on hiatus between albums😭.

Heck, Frank Ocean has only made two albums, I don't count that apple thing he was doing😭.

What I'm trying to say don't care because the quality of music they have made outways the quantity for me to consume as a fan so that it doesn't matter. Also, it's fun to miss ppl.

There have been ao many good films this yr, Bikeriders, I Saw the TV Glow, Inside Out 2, Longlegs, Twisters etc... Watching films that don't star your fav doesn't mean you're a bad fan. There was a time before online when a good trailer was the reason to watch film. Now it feels so competitive and tribal like it's not just a movie. I beg some of you unclench. That THR article was a mistake cause some if you guys sound like nicki on spaces, lol.

There is an abundance of art rn pls explore the range of great actors and films outside of TZ so you don't come across crazy that they aren't living for you, a stranger who consumes pls!!!!

End of rant, sorry😭

OMG THIS!!!!!!

YES! YES! YES! I agree with all of this Anon! 👏🏾

Fans are putting unnecessary pressure and negativity on themselves when they put so much undue attention and focus on an actor's career or future goals and prospects. Just ENJOY the ride!!!

I remember liking a BUNCH of different actors when I was younger, and I didn't care what they chose to do as far as a film next.... I was just excited to hear about a new project that they were doing, because it meant that I was going to get to see them again lol. 🤭 There wasn't this need to compare my faves to other actors. I appreciated other actors too! I didn't view it as a competition. I just viewed it as like colleagues all working for the same company (Hollywood).

There have been ao many good films this yr, Bikeriders, I Saw the TV Glow, Inside Out 2, Longlegs, Twisters etc... Watching films that don't star your fav doesn't mean you're a bad fan. There was a time before online when a good trailer was the reason to watch film. Now it feels so competitive and tribal like it's not just a movie. I beg some of you unclench. That THR article was a mistake cause some if you guys sound like nicki on spaces, lol.

THIS!!! Way too many people in fandoms these days either only watch their "faves", or watch films in silos and don't just view ALL film as just simply art. Even if they watch films of other actors from different fandoms, they watch them to simply criticize, look down upon, or find some kind of fault so that it doesn't somehow "take away" from their actor that they love. 🙄 Like, chill out!! It's much more fun to just be chill about all of this stuff.

And yes, I won't deny that some fandoms can be overly harsh towards our faves, and even put them down, or try to make us feel bad. But that doesn't mean that the ACTOR himself/herself feels this way, so why punish him/her just because of some immature nobodies in their fandom?? 🤔

There is an abundance of art rn pls explore the range of great actors and films outside of TZ so you don't come across crazy that they aren't living for you, a stranger who consumes pls!!!!

💯

Thank you!👏🏾 Anon...I've been preaching this and saying this on my blog for YEARS!! While I LOVE Tom and Zendaya, there are also a WIDE-range of various different other actors and films that I love too! 😃 When you just simply view films as just ART and don't view it as some type of competition all the time, you can just relax, and enjoy films from a VARIETY of actors, and appreciate them all for various reasons. Films are just supposed to be for enjoyment. Watching something of another actor or genre isn't going to make you a "bad fan" lol.

Say what you will about JE, but even HE denounced all of the silly comparisons btwn him and Austin and doesn't understand why fans turn art/acting into some type of "blood sport". I personally agree with him. It's so dumb!

X

(Btw what on EARTH are these stupid questions?? LOL 😅🤣)

[p1325]

Here's the list of the movies I used: - Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, In a Violent Nature, Robot Dreams, Am I Ok?, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Hit Man, I Used to Be Funny, The Watchers -Ghostlight, Inside Out 2, Treasure, Tuesday, The Bikeriders, Green Border, Janet Planet, Kinds of Kindness, Thelma, Kneecap -Trigger Warning, Daddio, Horizon Chapter 1, A Quiet Place: Day One, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, MaxXxine, Fly Me to the Moon -Longlegs, Sing Sing, Touch, Twisters, Deadpool & Wolverine, Didi, Cuckoo, Borderlands, Good One, Space Cadet, The Killer -Trap, Oddity, Alien: Romulus, Close to You, Blink Twice, The Crow, The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, They Listen -My Spy: The Eternal City, It Ends with Us, Despicable Me: 4, Descendants: The Rise of Red, I Saw the TV Glow, Back to Black, Mother of the Bride, Unfrosted, Find Me Falling, The Tiger's Apprentice, Kill -Fall Guy, The Idea of You, The Strangers: Chapter 1, If, Atlas, Touch -A Family Affair, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Tarot, The Fabulous Four, My Old Ass -Young Woman and the Sea, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Possum Trot, The Instigators, Babes, Exhuma, A Sacrifice, The Image of You, Ultraman: Rising, The Good Half, Lee, Fancy Dance, The Front Room, Rebel Moon: Director's Cut -One Fast Move, Lumina, Jackpot, Emmanuelle, Clear Cut, The Last Breath, Skincare, Place of Bones, Emilia Perez, Watchmen: Chapter 1 -The Killer's Game, Bookworm, Wolfs, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Longing -You're Cordially Invited, Mother Couch, Latency, Firebrand, The Count of Monte-Cristo, Boneyard, Transformers One, You Can't Run Forever, Speak No Evil, Saw XI, Under Paris

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #fanvidfeed #movie #mashup #summer #2024 #viddingisart

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Song: Summer Mashup 2024

Artist: BradMash

[rubyvroom]

The Halloween 2024 roster so far: leaning pretty heavily on new and indie horror this year. I actually liked most of these to some degree or other. Lots of unexpected sci-fi but I'm not complaining.

The Company of Wolves - beautiful, dreamlike, features not one but two of the craziest werewolf transformations I've ever seen. Mr. X insists this is not a horror film, but it has an Angela Carter screenplay and werewolves, so I say it counts.

Deathstream - Horror comedy with a very convincing YouTube channel spending the night alone in a haunted house. Some legitimately funny bits here and good use of the premise.

Army of Darkness - I've heard the quotes for many years but I had never actually seen the movie until now. Bruce Campbell really should have been allowed to star in more films. I enjoyed every minute of this, allowing for the bog-standard 80s-90s misogyny.

Speak No Evil (Denmark) - I am not watching the US one if they changed the ending. The ending is the entire point. It's a commentary on Danish society and if you couldn't adapt that to the US then why are you remaking the movie? Stop wasting my time. Anyway this was great. Frustrating, but again, that's the point.

Happy Death Day - Better than expected. Groundhog's Day slasher, has fun with the premise. The actress sells it.

Happy Death Day 2 - The same but make it sci-fi.

Synchronic - Cool concept, which I don't want to spoil too much except to say it's about a convenience store drug with an unexpected side effect. A little lazy as a film but I enjoy watching Anthony Mackie do his thing.

Something in the Dirt - This film and the one before are from the guys who made Resolution and The Endless. Neither are as good as those but worth seeing if you liked their other films. This film is again a sci-fi scenario, sort of cross-polinated with William Friedkin's Bug.

Bodies Bodies Bodies - Takes the slasher theme of "insufferable youths die one at a time" to its natural conclusion. Perfect casting. Had a great time with this.

I Saw the TV Glow - Magical, haunting, endlessly sad. Still thinking about it.

Oddity - NO THANK YOU SCARY WOODEN DOLL. THIS MADE ME UNCOMFORTABLE.

Freaky - Another comedy horror, a body-swap where a teenage slasher victim swaps bodies with the killer. Resulting in Vince Vaughn portraying a teenage girl and taking it pretty seriously? Like he's all in? But I enjoyed the teenage girl serial killer even more.

Abigail - The trailer gives most of the plot away but it's still really fun and the ballet really adds to the action scenes. Cast is really good. Goes in a couple unexpected directions, one of which had me saying oh THAT'S why Dan Stevens is in this, now I understand.

Hold Your Breath - Kind of meh but the setting itself was engrossing, in the middle of the dustbowl farmlands. Sarah Paulson doing the most again.

She Will - Lowkey involving, though I've forgotten most of what happens.

Immaculate - Search your feelings. Are you willing to cheer on a priest being strangled by his own rosary? If so, watch this immediately. As a heathen I found it, as Glen Weldon would say, a hoot and a half.

Caddo Lake - Did you like Dark, the twisty and moody german tv show? This is the American version. I mean it's not but it very much is.

Ghostwatch - the legendary banned BBC broadcast, which you can now watch on Prime, is still pretty effective.

The Dark and the Wicked - This was trying waaaaaay too hard to be Hereditary. Didn't really enjoy it.

We Are All Going to the World's Fair - Mr. X slept through this but I was hypnotized by it. There are two kinds of people.

Maxxxine - Not as good as X or Pearl, and it if was a stand-alone film it would be pretty incoherent. But it is very stylish and has a lot of fun with the 80s LA setting, and I can watch Mia Goth do her thing all day long.

Suspiria - Legendary. Loved it. When did we stop using COLORS in movies?

Longlegs - this one at least remembers the color red, for the very striking opening. It runs out of steam a little bit throughout but pretty exciting for a lot of the run. Liked the probably-autistic protagonist a lot. There are some Nicolas Cagisms and I never for a moment forgot it was him, but he does have some genuinely frightening moments.

The Quatermass Experiment - Most of my favorite things were influenced by this so figured it was time to check it out. Glad I did. Fascinating and makes good use of its low budget. Free on Youtube!

Eyes Without a Face - I may have had some nightmares after this.

Glorious - Surprise, you got some cosmic horror in your rest stop bathroom freakout, and JK Simmons is here!

Next on the list is probably Possession which I fully anticipate is gonna fuck me up.

Top films so far? Suspiria, Eyes Without a Face, Longlegs, I Saw the TV Glow, Bodies Bodies Bodies

[glossysoap]

Do you watch horror movies? And if you do what are the types you like to watch?

My fiance doesn't like to watch anything with ghosts or home invasion because for him "that shits too real, that shit actually happens." He's fine with movies like Saw or Carrie but he will not watch Conjuring or Hush. He also will not watch horror movies that have to do with children or animals in any way, shape, or form.

hi!!

yeah i love horror!! some movies i’ve watched lately are smile, hush (rewatch) and that one movie where the couple is trapped in a neighborhood and they never get out? i can’t remember the name of it but such a shitty ending.

now there’s some horror films that i just can’t get behind… 🐛 🦭 i’m sure you can guess which ones 😭

i NEED to watch longlegs. i’m sorry i know the reviews are scattered on it and the consensus is that it’s shitty from the 2nd act forward, but i don’t care 😭 i need to see it

i don’t mind ghost movies or stories, i used to love scouring r/nosleep for horror stories, even if they weren’t real.

midsommar!!! florence my queen 🙇🏼‍♀️

these might not be necessarily horror (compared to other ones) but alone, secret obsession, and intrusion.

i’m even more into horror games than horror movies. everything chilla’s art, everything fears to fathom. anything backrooms.

martha is dead is a good one, very triggering though so be aware.

layers of fear is always great! all the hallucinations and such!! great!

silent hill pt was my first intro to scary games back when i was… in middle school 😭

i love mortuary assistant. i love how every play through is different for every person, because all the jumpscarea are so varied and unique. then the storylines have multiple levels to them, and then they recently added a jumpscare scale where you can measure how scary you want them. it’s a bit triggering for people but i found it entertaining.

and i really enjoyed autopsy simulator, though it had so much potential for a good ending and instead it was dog shit. but if you just idk,, ignore that, it’s worth at least watching a play through lol 😭 triggering as well so be aware

i loved 12 minutes, it was a time loop psychological thriller/horror game that had a twist ending that was kind of a mind fuck for the main character. it had daisy ridley, james mcavoy and willem dafoe all as voice actors

if anyone ever has any suggestions hit me up <3

[icedhotcocoa]

I’ve been so worried and stressed these past few days. I found out about the attempted Trump assassination when I opened twitter at home after I saw the movie Longlegs. And it sucks cuz I was in a real good mood too. I know a doomer mindset won’t help us in the long run but I can’t help but be worried. I’m of course going to vote but one of my friends can’t vote cuz their mother won’t give them their social security number for them to register.

And with all the doomers, anti voters, and pro Trump ppl I’ve seen online I’m scared that all our voting will be for nothing and that in the end I’ll only have 5 months left to live on planet earth. I was barely able to get out of bed Sunday and two days later I’m STILL terrified. I’m so scared for the future. It’s not like I WANT to vote for Biden. I do not like him, but it’s either him or a full on dictator.

I just want to live a good fulfilling life. I was already going through a lot of stuff in my personal life hoping things will get by and that I’ll come out on the other side but the state the political landscape is like a double wammy to my already bad mental state. And I start college next month and idk how I’m gonna be able to focus on that with all this stuff going on. I know I can’t lose hope especially not now..but I just feel so hopeless and helpless and terrified. And I feel like i won’t be able to go on

hi anon!! i understand everything you're going through. I think we all feel pretty similarly. i'm just a silly teenager on the internet and i don't know jack shit about fuck but i hope some of what i write can make you feel better-- 1. change is, unfortunately, slow. yes, that means that we can't snap our fingers, or shout loud enough, or even assassinate presidents effectively enough that everything will be better and we will immediately halt the worrying descent into global fascism that i fear might be coming--BUT, simultaneously, this is a good thing. you don't have to panic. even if trump wins this election, the world is not ending immediately. policies take time to enact, dictatorship doesn't happen in a day (yes we still have to be vigilant to prevent it, but no one electoral outcome is the be-all-end-all for our future).

2. STOP DOOMSCROLLING!! i know, i know, it's hard. focus on you. spend some time with your friends. you have a finite amount of empathy to give, everyone does, and that's okay. that's why collective action (yes, like voting), is so important: any one single person has very little time or effort to contribute to politics on a global, or even national scale. nobody is expecting anything from you--focus on yourself first

3. this is completely unrelated to politics and more personal but I actually just finished my freshman year of undergrad! it was spectacular! you will have an excellent time, i PROMISE--again, this is my personal experience as an extrovert, but basically all of my other friends loved their first years too. the leap from senior year of HS to first year of college isn't as big as it first seems, you have lots of people to support you and everyone is going through the same exact stuff you are :3 inbox and dms are of course always open

[scary-movies-on-netflix]

LONGLEGS (2024)

REMINDER: MY REVIEWS CONTAIN SPOILERS.  Also a spoiler, this was disappointing.  Almost meh. 

Basically, “Longlegs” is just some dude named Cobble, played ostentatiously by Nicholas Cage (caked in pale makeup, with numerous facial prosthetics).  Cobble worships Satan, and to serve Satan he makes dolls of little girls.  He has them delivered to the girls near their birthdays (which always take place on the 14th day of the month).  The Satan doll compels the father to kill the rest of the family and then to commit suicide.  Longlegs leaves behind notes in a type of cipher.  That’s it. 

The movie is placed in 1995 (I think).  “Lee Harker” is a new “SPECIAL AGENT” for the FBI, much like FBI trainee Clarice Starling in “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991).  Stuff happens, and Lee is tested for psychic abilities, so maybe she has some special skills, but after a few scenes we’ll drop that thread so it barely matters.  Anywho, her FBI boss, Carter, places her on the Longlegs case.  She goes home, and Longlegs is there!  He places a note on her desk, basically a key to his cipher, and she is then able to decipher his remaining notes.  This leads to a farmhouse where they find a doll, and also to the survivor of an earlier attack, who is Kiernan Shipka!  (We last saw her in "The Blackcoat's Daughter" (2015).)

Eventually, Carter digs into Lee’s past, and he informs her that on her ninth birthday her mother called in a police report about an intruder, who might have been Longlegs!  Lee visits her mother, who denies knowing anything but also makes some ominous statements.  Lee looks through some old Polaroids in her room, and there is Longlegs!  In a picture!  With the picture, Longlegs is captured really quickly, like the next day, it seems.  Under interrogation, he talks about knowing Lee.  Carter is satisfied that the crime is solved (even if he’s not sure how Longlegs managed to convince the dads to kill their families), but Lee is convinced that he must have had an accomplice.  She goes to talk to Nicholas Cage, I mean, Longlegs, and we have to suffer through an interminable scene of gross overacting.  He finally says something about Lee’s mother and then proceeds to bash his head into the table, killing himself.

Lee and another FBI  agent go to collect Lee’s mom, who is named Ruth.  Lee enters the home, but Ruth is not there!  Ruth is outside, with a shotgun!  She blasts the other FBI agent.  Lee chases her to a yard, where Ruth is pointing the shotgun at a doll of young Lee.  She shoots the doll, a black cloud floats away from Lee’s head, and Mom narrates how Longlegs came to their house for Lee’s ninth birthday.  In exchange for Lee’s safety, Ruth agreed to help Longlegs by dressing up as a nun to deliver the Satan dolls to various houses.  She was the accomplice!  All Ruth had to do was stay and watch and then take the dolls away when everyone was dead.

Lee wakes up from her memory.  She gets a weird phone call, that she is missing the birthday party of Carter’s daughter (whom she met earlier in the movie).  Lee rushes to Carter’s house, but Ruth is already there, with a doll of the little girl!  Carter is acting weird.  He takes his wife into the kitchen and kills her.  Lee does absolutely nothing to stop him. He’s coming back out to kill his daughter, but Lee finally shoots him.  Then Ruth’s mother is going to kill the girl, because she is now a Satanist, but Lee shoots her too.  Lee tries to shoot the doll, but she is out of bullets.  She says something about leaving and that’s the end.

So, if you follow this genre (horror) you’ve no doubt seen the multiple trailers, which provided scant details about the story but teased us with plenty of cool, intriguing images.  Our problem is that the movie barely filled in the rest of the plot!  The movie has pretensions, perhaps, to be the next “The Silence of Lambs,” but it fails on so many levels.  It lacks any verisimilitude as a “horror crime procedural,” like "Seven" (1995) or any of the "True Detective" seasons.  The acting is dull and lifeless.  Yes, I understand the Lee is supposed to be withdrawn and introverted, but even so, she’s just a blank cutout of a character.  As for Nicholas Cage, I have a running hypothesis that he ruins movies he’s in, and “Longlegs” does nothing to disprove my hypothesis.  (See, "Color Out of Space" (2019).) He speaks in a sing-song voice, he bellows and yells, he lowers his voice to sound menacing.  There are a few goods lines.  He talks about “Mr. Downstairs,” (who sounded intriguing, but was nothing in the end!*).  He says, “Hail, Satan!” like the cultists from “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968).  From a certain point of view, this is a bravura performance, but I still hate it! There are certainly moments of creepiness, but as a movie serial killer, he's hard to take seriously.

Overall, this was ok.  I won’t say it’s meh, as there are plenty of successful images and instances of genuine unease.  The plot picks up and drops threads too easily, nothing is filled out to satisfaction.  There’s no central set piece.  Nothing will linger in the memory for long, which is the worst fate for a movie.

*Except, he's the Devil!

[west-tokyo-incidents]

"...So why are the machines getting so upset?"

A young Fusataro stares at the machine that's sitting in the back of their caravan, being pulled by a pair of old Striders.

The human-like machine had recognized them as old enough to have not been affected by the breakdown of command. Blinders on their optics kept them from spooking at the sight of the humans, and cords tied to the wires on the sides of their faces acted like brindles. They were this travelling clans' pack mules, essentially. This caravan made out of the carcass of a train of some kind, combined with pieces of different machines.

He tilts his chin up, humming under his breath, "We're not sure, any of us." Rage tapped his fingers on the edge of the caravan's floor, "My birds were never supposed to be seen by humans, we were supposed to stay way up in the sky. Something's gone wrong."

Fusataro frowned at him, but fell silent. The only sound remaining is the steps of the tribe and the rolling rattle of the caravan wheels.

Rage sighs and looks away, towards the setting sun. He's not lying. He just can't say the whole truth. The distress signal Gaia had sent out, a silent warning to the douji, followed by deathly silence. He's spoken with others, but no one was told, not even Paresse, who once had a direct line to Gaia.

Just a scream. And then silence.

He'd gone there, to Gaia Prime, when he'd gotten the distress signal. He'd seen the great crater. But it was too hot for even him to approach. Orghullo has been considering going, given he and Eater are meant to tread into the places where stone rolls molten out of the earth. But the two have their own tribes to look after.

He'd never really spoken much with the humans. Not until the Stormbirds began to swoop. To stay near the ground.

In the past few years, this small tribe had graduated from hunting the smaller birds--like Longlegs, Glinthawks, Skydrifters, Waterwings, and Sunwings--on to the Dreadwings and the great Stormbirds. Members of the clan all had some piece of a machine's wing on their armor, fanning out in displays bot decorative and defensive. Overlapping light metal over light-colored clothing. They'd once been more attuned to the machines, able to approach Glinthawks by offering them pieces of other machines to occupy them. Some had learned to watch how Dreadwings use their cloaking and the technology was applied to some of their hunters' armor. But now they were in dire straits. The birds had become far more aggressive. And Rage had followed the Stormbirds down, trying to figure out why they were going down. He'd witnessed the travelling tribe cleverly tie down and dispatch the giant machine, then celebrate and camp in its carcass.

He'd approached as he saw them beginning to dig into it, not to strip it bare, but to look into its head and body, like they were investigating it.

That was a mere eleven hours ago. And they'd called him a god. He knew many of the other douji had been called as such, and many reveled in the role. But he corrected them. He was just a machine, but one with a mind like a human. Many of the tribe insisted on calling him a god, but not this young woman and her four friends. The daughter of the head hunter and the boys who made up her hunting party. They were given him as their charge, to guard until they arrived at one of their repeat stomping grounds. He tilted his head towards the north, to the back of the caravan. Away from the Sufa and Higani lands. They were heading towards the Idesh for trading, carrying supplies from the swampy northern lands.

"Why are you staying?"

He looks back at Fusataro and her sparse facial hair, brown eyes intense under her braided hair, only a small few fragments of Sunwing panels decorating them.

He shrugs, "I like you all. And without the Stormbirds in the sky, it gets lonely."

"A machine? Lonely?" One of the other four laughs, but is jabbed by the butt end of anothers' spear. Rage smiles in amusement, reminded of Avaro and Eater's antics before they were released from their own cauldrons.

"Yeah. A Grazer wants a herd, a Scrapper wants a pack, and I appreciate a flock. Is that so bad?" He smiles.

[whispering-kavka]

gross/scary under the cut !

so today my dad had a house showing scheduled w/ a potential buyer and i wanted to come with him to see if there's any cool stuff my grandma had (she did and i brought some of them home ^-^ i now have a cute silver/mirror-like tray, a decorative fruit bowl and a fish pitcher!!) so he was just telling the guy about the house and i was just looking around on my own time we ended up kinda splitting, they left the upstairs as i was done with the ground floor, and went to the basement while i went upstairs and here comes the horrid part so the house has many holes in the roof meaning it's very uh. wet in there. one room (kitchen??) had a small pond forming there . but then to my horror i saw the cobwebs. there were so many of them . that on it's own wouldn't be terrible, of course spiders run wild when there's nobody around ! but they were just so . large and they were hanging from places i really wasn't used to seeing them in. that was only a bit unnerving but then i found the spiders. in total, there were only two alive daddy longlegs on the ground floor. the absurd amount of huge spider corpses were almost everywhere. and completely covered in fluffy white mold. after i noticed that fuzz i got real worried about touching any and all cobwebs because 1) GROSS 2)DANGEROUS MAYBE?

obviously mold grows on everything when the right conditions are met but like. it was really spooky seeing all those spiders like this 😰

now a smart person after witnessing that would go "huh! better leave and not come back any time soon :)" but as we all know i have about 1 braincell to my name and wanted to see what the attic looked like NEWSFLASH IDIOT IT'S ALSO FULL OF HUGE COBWEBS AND DEAD SPIDERS COVERED IN MOLD . also i managed to ram my head right into the roof while i was entering and tbh that's probably for the better because the attic was dark as hell and my phone flashlight was too weak for that darkness. but i did get a glimpse of all the same things i've screamed about before but somehow the one spider was even bigger than the others . must've had a good life there before the mold hit . but that was the moment i decided i was done with it and went downstairs only to find out that the door is fucking locked . that entire trip felt like a goddamn tma episode but thankfully the door's lock just got a bit jammed and my dad came to rescue me after i called him :')

so after being repeatedly spooked by scary mold, hitting my head hard enough to feel my teeth rattle and getting locked in, you'd think "yeah that's enough for kavvie for today :)" but you'd be WRONG because i also wanted to see the basement and [literally nothing new. more dead spiders and cobwebs.]

in conclusion, i would be perfectly fine if the spiders were alive and not consumed by the mold thank you and goodnight

[el-smacko]

So I saw Longlegs yesterday and it was a really good twist on the serial killer genre and flipped a couple tropes on their head. The only victim of the “scary” trans suspect is themselves, the real killer is a person dressed as a nun who gives them a choice: your daughter never grows up (dead) or lives with a noxious void in their skull who may either be catatonic while their doll is kept in the dark under a cross (“X marks the spot”) or, like the main character, become a cop. The film-length search for the killer ends with it not being a serial killer but the cop’s boss, who wanted to solve the case to keep his own daughter safe. At one point you find out that the call is literally coming from inside the house. The book used to decode the suspect’s cipher is literally the Bible itself, illustrating that Christianity and putatively panicking “Satanism” share a canon (particularly Revelation, the title of which they can’t even get right, indicative of how little Christians and authorities actually know about the Bible). That the gender-ambiguous suspect (a parody of how killers like Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs are imagined) is a Satanist—in a context where Christianity is called the true “Satanism” in contrast to the Satanic Panic—their suicide “for Satanism” means trans-exclusive Christian purity culture motivated their death. The main character’s mother who delivers the dolls dressed as a nun says the suspect is “free” after their death. Further, they were ultimately a doll-maker, that is, making the girlhood that Christians wanted instead of their daughters, a girlhood they deny to young trans women. The doll’s black veil is an inversion of the white veil indicating a bride’s purity because the quest for purity is the true source of evil contemporary with the Satanic Panic. Going into more symbolic territory, the “triangle,” which is found in the stages of a butterfly’s metamorphosis (illustrated in the main character’s old room), is what the FBI wants to defer by finding “the” killer and what the true killers want to defer with death or by keeping her in the cocoon phase (a doll frozenly prepubescent). That the triangle is also symbolic of a vulva symbolizes the obsession of Christian men with what’s in young women’s pants, i.e., exactly what they attribute to “Satanism.”

Also the movie is phenomenal and I recommend it.

Serial killer horror almost always falls flat with me, not only because by default it has to frame the police (usually the literal FBI) as an unquestionable force of good, but because I know just enough about IRL serial killers (thanks 3 years of my life I wasted "studying" criminology) to know they are unanimously deeply uninteresting and pathetic people. The most common type of serial killer is a guy who kills vulnerable people (sex workers, substance users, racialized women and girls, queer people) because he can and gets away with it for a while because he's targeting people whose lives are explicitly devalued by the society he lives in. That's it. There's no secret pattern that needs to be uncovered, no cryptic messages that need to be decoded, and definitely no "Satanic" shit. The handful of times there is weird "occult" stuff involved it's literally just untreated mental illness or fascist mysticism/religiosity. There's genuinely nothing interesting or scary about these people, just a bitter and depressing distillation of the thousands of routine violences needed to maintain the status quo.

[sinemascope]

- Movies of 2024 -

This is a list of movies seen for the first time in the year 2024. It does not include rewatches. It will be updated periodically until December 31st, 2024. ______________________________________________________________ Key: 🔴 - hated / disliked / would not watch again 🟡 - it was fine / might watch again 🟢 - liked / loved / will watch again ______________________________________________________________

Action / Adventure 🟢The Crow (1994) 🟢The Crow (2024) 🔴Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) 🟡Justice League (2017) 🔴Madame Webb (2024) 🟡The Marvels (2023)

Animated / Family 🟢The Little Mermaid (2023)

Classics 🔴American Graffiti (1973) 🔴The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) *this was so disappointing. 45 minutes of idiotic screeching.

Comedy 🔴(500) Days of Summer (2009) *disappointing. Don't get the hype at all. 🟡Best in Show (2000) 🟢CODA (2021) 🟡The Favourite (2018) 🟢The First Wives Club (1996) 🟡Gosford Park (2001) 🟢Hot Shots! (1991) 🔴The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) 🟡Quartet (2012) 🟡Thelma (2024) 🟢What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

Crime 🟡The Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Documentary / Docu-series 🟡20 Days in Mariupol (2024) 🟡Captains of the World (2023) 🟢The Greatest Night in Pop (2024)

Drama 🔴Players (2024) 🟢Rustin (2023) 🟢Victoria & Abdul (2017)

Fantasy / Sci-fi 🟡Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring [Extended] (2001) 🟡Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers [Extended] (2002) 🟡Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King [Extended] (2003)

Horror / Suspense 🟢30 Days of Night (2007) 🟡A Different Man (2024) 🟡Abigail (2024) 🟢Apartment 7A (2024) *prequel to Rosemary's Baby (1968) 🟡Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) 🟡Cobweb (2023) 🟢Cuckoo (2024) 🟢The Curse of La Llorona (2019) 🔴The Darker the Lake (2022) 🔴Frogman (2024) 🟢Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2019) 🟢Halloween II (1981) 🔴Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) 🟡Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) 🟢Immaculate (2024) 🟢Infested / Vermines (2023) 🟡Late Night with the Devil (2023) 🟡The Lighthouse (2019) 🔴Longlegs (2024) 🟡MaXXXine (2024) 🔴Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) 🟡Oddity (2024) 🔴Pearl (2022) 🟢The Substance (2024) 🔴The Thing (1982) 🟢X (2022)

Musical 🔴Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)

Romance 🔴Accidentally Engaged (2016) 🔴Ammonite (2020) 🟡Anna Karenina (2012) 🟢The Duchess (2008) 🟢Far From the Madding Crowd (2015) 🔴The Hating Game (2021) 🟡It Ends With Us (2024) 🟡Little Children (2006) 🟡Mr. Malcolm's List (2022) 🔴My Summer Prince (2016) 🔴No Sleep 'Til Christmas (2018) 🔴Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) 🔴Perfect Addiction (2023) 🔴Wuthering Heights (2011)

Thriller 🟡Amber Alert (2024) *the 2012 version was better imo 🟡Anatomy of a Fall (2023) 🟡The Beguiled (2017) 🟢Blink Twice (2024) 🟢Boston Strangler (2023) 🟢Dark Waters (2019) 🟢Erin Brockovich (2000) 🟡The Good Shepherd (2006) 🟢Nyad (2023) 🟢Oppenheimer (2023) 🟡The Post (2017) 🟢Society of the Snow (2023) 🟡Spencer (2021) 🟡Trapped (2002)

[abigailspinach]

Sporting Jeffrey Dahmer specs and a cardigan he has described offscreen as “wanky,” Grant plays the seemingly genial Mr. Reed, but before we get to his lived-in but oddly forbidding cottage we meet the film’s leading ladies: Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East). From their opening discussion of condoms, sex and porn, it is clear that, though they are both devout, they are probably a bit more questioning and self-aware than some other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, aka Mormons. “People think we’re weird,” notes Sister Paxton. “That South Park musical kind of makes fun of us.”

Sister Barnes, however, is holding steady, and, though a storm is coming in, she insists the pair stop off to make one last house call, where Mr. Reed is waiting, having filled in a form stating that he’d “like to know more” about their religion. Indeed, he is most enthused by their visit and invites them in. The girls demur, since their religion (and their fear for their own personal safety) demands they not be alone with a man in the absence of another woman. Problem immediately solved. “Do you like pie?” he counters. Because it appears there is a Mrs. Reed, and she’s busy in the kitchen baking a blueberry dessert.

The two Mormons, assuaged by this — not to mention the alluring scent of blueberry pie that is wafting through the house — step right in and get down to work. “Are you ready to hear our heavenly father’s plan for you?” they ask. But Mr. Reed is not, as Joe Biden might say, kidding around. Mr. Reed has brought them here for a very specific purpose; having researched every religion across the globe, he is not so much interested in their religion but the depth of their belief. “It’s impossible to find a faith and a doctrine you believe in,” he complains, having (presumably) window-shopped his way through the whole lot of ’em.

Mr. Reed’s question is a simple one — “What is the one true religion?” — and the girls are out of their depth here. For one thing, Mr. Reed is a master of comparative religion and uses some spectacular analogies — notably the board game Monopoly and Radiohead’s song “Creep” — to make his point that their religion, like all the rest, is just another iteration of a pre-existing I.P. To add to the intensity of his thunderous speechifying, the lights keep flickering (“A foible of the house”) and the storm is getting steadily worse.

Why don’t they just leave, you start to wonder, and it occurs to them too. But Mr. Reed has their coats, which also contain the keys to their bicycle locks. At which point we discover the Saw-like information that the front door is on a timer and will not open until morning. There are, however, two exits that lead out to the back way, down to the sea (no, that doesn’t make much sense either, but the film is ahead of you on that point). Just to heighten the tension, Mr. Reed chalks the words “BELIEF” and “DISBELIEF” on each door.

Like all good low-budget, high-concept horrors, Heretic never leaves this location and commits wholly to its concept, like a gender-switch version of Eli Roth’s underappreciated 2015 home-invasion movie Knock Knock (itself an iteration of 1977’s Death Game). It gets a little wayward towards the end, adding some more lurid surprises in the vein of 2022’s Barbarian (and, in a way, the much more extreme 2008 French movie Martyrs), but Heretic doesn’t go full Cabin in the Woods when it comes to wrapping itself up.

In fact, it’s like a more sensible, more satisfying Longlegs, a game of cat and mouse that extends to include the audience. “Have you figured it out yet?” asks Mr. Reed, but this film is much more than a whodunnit. In fact, there’s a lot going on in the title alone. Who is the heretic? The subtle thrill of this deceptively intelligent thrill ride is that, after listening to all of Mr. Reed’s beautifully cogent arguments, by the end of the movie it could well be you.

[bedroom-dw3ller]

This week has been really bad so here’s a recap with everything I can remember

Monday

I woke up pretty early so I got to paint for a couple hours then my boyfriend texted me and said he wanted to go to our university and find all our classes and buildings before school started. We took the bus into the city and we got to walk around for a couple hours before it started raining really hard. We decided it wasn’t worth it to find a couple more buildings and went to get food instead. We bussed home and he came over to my house and stayed the night and we watched longlegs cause I’ve wanted to see it for a while. Not a good movie :P we both fell asleep to it

Tuesday

TMI warning !!

My bf stayed over all day Tuesday and we were home alone for the first time in a really long time so I asked him if he wanted to go all the way with me and he said he did but he was too scared of hurting me. We didn’t end up doing anything. So im still a virgin, which I think is a good thing because later in the week I started to freak out a little. Most of Tuesday was just being lazy in bed and watching tv and sleeping

Wednesday

Worst day of the week. My whole family came to visit for my grandfathers birthday and they drive me crazy. I hate them. I relapsed because I always relapse when I see my family. My boyfriend texted me and said he thinks he got lice and I’m 100% sure it’s from my little brother because I thought my mom had killed them all and I didn’t tell him. I felt so guilty for letting it happen I texted him a huge apology and cried for the whole day. I wanted to die. Half way through the day I realized I had gotten my period and I kept crying because of it. I think I cried myself to sleep that day.

Thursday

I stayed in bed all day Thursday because my cramps were so bad and I refused to take and pain killers because I was still feeling super guilty and depressed from Wednesday. It felt like pain I deserved. It was the easiest self harm I had ever done. So I stayed in bed and cried. I played a lot of franbow and I watched YouTube in between my crying. My dad told me my family wanted my bf to come to my grandfathers birthday dinner because they wanted to meet him so I told my bf and he said he’d come.

Friday

I stayed in bed and panicked about my bf meeting my family for half of the day. My family is made up of alcoholics and conservatives and I didn’t want my boyfriend to be uncomfortable or think they are anything like me. He came over a little before we had to go and he saw the bandaid on my arm and started asking what it was and I didn’t want to lie to him so i told him to ignore it. We went to my grandparents house and he met everyone and it was actually really fun. My family didn’t really talk to us a lot so we just talked to my cousin and watched my little brother play with his friend. We went home at 10 ish and went to sleep.

Saturday

My parents left really early in the morning to go to the beach but we stayed home and we stayed in bed all day again. We watched a whole season of adventure time in one day which was fun but it totally rotted our brains and I don’t think I can do it again. We made cookies and I watered my garden and we had a lot of fun doing nothing together. We started talking about university again and his schedule is so full and mine isn’t really. He said it’s going to be hard to find time for each other. I got really really upset. I started spiraling really bad and I had a breakdown. I told him I was scared of him leaving me for someone better and I was scared that I would get in the way of his studying. It eventually turned into me crying because I’m scared of being abandoned and I scared him really bad because I kept talking about how I hate myself and I want to die. I told him I loved him. I wanted to tell him I loved him in a better context but it slipped out. He said he loved me too. I kept telling him he could go home and I didn’t need him to stay for the third night in a row but every time I told him I’d be ok I’d start crying again because I know if he had left I would have cut myself. I’ve only ever felt out of control of my self harm a couple times. Sometimes I feel the urge to cut so so bad I know I’d do it even if I didn’t want to I just knew if he had left I was going to do it and I was scared. He didn’t leave. He felt to bad and I felt guilty again.

We woke up today and I had to get up to go out with my friend and he had work today but I still felt so guilty. He said he loved me still and when I said goodbye to him he said it again. I’m happy. I love him. I’m happy he loves me. I hope he’s not upset with me. I want to get better for him.

[thisislizheather]

Summer Saturdays Vol. 9

Welcome to the final Summer Saturdays! Yes, I missed the last two weeks of this series but all we can do is move forward. I know that summer technically ends in a few weeks, but this year it’s over for me as of August 31st (today). Autumn will start as usual on September 22nd, but I would like the first three weeks on the month to remain seasonless. I can decide that, right? I have no desire to prolong summer and I refuse to start buying pumpkins. I intend to use this period of time to focus on myself and myself alone. The most self-involved three weeks I can imagine. But for now, here’s how my final week of summer went.

BAKING

These bran muffins are so incredible with added blueberries.

COOKING

Corn-on-the-cob is perfect right now, so it’s the only reason I turn on my stove these days.

CRAVING

One final lap swim of the season.

DRINKING

Nathan got this peanut butter coffee that’s actually delicious.

EATING

I had this perfect baked haddock when we were upstate that I’m still thinking about.

EXPERIENCING

Jeez, so many things have happened in the past few weeks. My dear friend Marla came to visit me and we had such a great time. Nathan and I also went to Cooperstown, NY this week, which was last minute but so nice. (There are highlights from that trip over here.)

Above Photo: Marla!

LISTENING

Since there was a roadtrip, I made this playlist for the drive.

LOVING

The gluten-free restaurant Thyme & Tonic on the upper west side. The noodles and the popcorn chicken were unholy.

Above Photo: Noodles from Thyme & Tonic

SHOPPING

The autumn candle trio from Bath & Body Works.

Above Photo: They always know how to take my money

WATCHING

Saw Longlegs in theatres and Nic Cage was great (duh). Love an original horror movie. My only notes? Legs could’ve been longer.

WEARING

I will continue to dream about this Dior skirt.

Above Photo: Dior skirt at Beacon's Closet

The previous Summer Saturdays Vol. 8 can be found over here and I have a summer highlights section over here.

Thank you for caring about any of these summer posts! I’ll likely be back for Fall Fridays on September 27th.