#specifically bernie in that one episode?

[seahorsepencils]

octopolis | hampstead theatre [source]

[tartsinarat]

Scary extremely old man jumpscare /j

I completely forgot to redesign Belos for the au and only just realised midway when I drew him for a scene redraw and I was like oh shit- as he doesn’t have a right arm in the au (in this post there a small explanation to why) and I completely forgot so I then had to design a badass prosthetic for him.

Designing the prosthetic was one of my favourite things to do because I designed it around how his cursed form has his muscles/ bones exposed which I tried to mimic and used a real prosthetic arm from the 16th century as a reference but made it more fantasy and extra.

The coolest thing about Belos’s prosthetic in this design is that it also meant to resemble an artificial magic staff because it is one! It works the same way and allows him to do magic without relying on the glyphs.

Ignoring the obvious mechanical prosthetic arm I really only did some small tweaks like colour or outfit for example but I did give him a chapstick to remove those dry ass lips because I just personally didn’t vibe with it lmao

Also i had the weirdest mandela effect as I for some reason remember Belos’s eyebrows being really thick but then I used a reference of him as a base for the redesign and they were so thin??? which is really funny because I made Pip have really thick eyebrows for some reason when originally designing him so I think after drawing Pip loads and not having properly watched toh in a hot minute I probably assumed Belos had them too… Ive finally corrected my mistake as Pip is meant to be an almost perfect replica of Belos and so now Belos has thick eyebrows too so they can be proper twinsies lmao

I wanted him to straight up look like a corpse so his eyes look really uncanny due to how saturated they are in comparison, the specific vibe I wanted for Belos was this specific image of Prince Philip who looks like he is just barely hanging on to the world of the living and seems like he’s having a “weekend at Bernie’s” type of moment

For reference, also sorry for the jump-scare I tried to make it less scary by getting a meme image version of prince Philip/hj

But yeah I’ll probably do a Philip redesign soon because he’s got a cool design already but you can tell that it was really simplified for animation :p and I’m probably going to do an au comic based on elsewhere and elsewhen soon because it’s one of my favourite episodes

[not-xpr-art]

Len and Tommy's life told through nine photos ~

A fanart based on the Inside no 9 episode 'Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room' because I loved it so much!

(09/2024)

See below for close ups and unnecessarily detailed explanations of each individual artwork lol

First wanna say that I spent wayy too long on these (like 25+ hours), especially trying to make them look like actual old photos lol... also trying to get their likeness right for the various ages was really bloody hard lol, but hopefully each photo has the essence of each character even if it might not look 100% right pfft...

Second thing is that the dates & locations are very much my own subjective thoughts on their life and not particularly rooted in the canon of the show lol

Also I did go really heavy with the colour symbolism lol...

Ravenhill School, 1965.

The year they met, both are around the age of 10 (give or take). Len is 3 from the left in the top row, Tommy 2 in from the left on the bottom row (also I tried to include references to the other 2 League Of Gentlemen guys... Though I think the only vaguely recognisable one is Jeremy pfft)

Also shout out to @lapis-lazuliie for the idea that they met at school!

(side note, this is the least detailed of all the paintings not just because I was too lazy to render all those children's faces pfft but ALSO because of the significance of them being less recognisable or prominent in each other's lives in this point...)

I was planning on making another childhood/early teen photo but couldn't really think of any good subject matter that could also fit thematically with the episode (also the fact both are coming from poor families who would have had limited access to cameras in this era means we can just pretend that there are just no photos that really exist of them at these ages pfft...)

Photo booth in Leeds, 1974.

Both in their late teens, they'd (well, mainly Tommy) gone to a photo booth in Leeds with the intention of getting some professional looking photos only for Len to immediately make Tommy laugh once they got in there lol

The middle photo is covered in lines as Tommy had planned on throwing it away, only to find he couldn't bring himself to do it in the end... Is it platonic? Romantic? Both? Who knows, you decide lol! I mainly wanted it to be a candid moment between two people that love each other lol

(final one is them play fighting because that's kinda just what 19 year olds are like pfft... also I think photo booths technically gave you 4 photos? so let's pretend there was another photo that they did throw away for whatever reason lol...)

Rehearsals, 1979.

Deep in the midst of practising their routine for some of their first performances!

I'll admit this photo was mainly me wanting to include something more episode specific lol and also to get in some much needed heavy handed symbolism (the crease in the photo separating them, the bottle in front of Len's face, etc)

Polaroids taken at Tommy's flat, 1985.

In-between shows the two often spent a lot of time at Tommy's place (featuring that god awful sofa the previous home owner had left). I did originally plan to have them in the sofa shot together, but was finding it hard to figure out who would have been taking that kind of photo so figured it made more sense to make it shots they took of each other.

Also marks the beginnings of Tommy's weariness (& Len's over drinking...)

Outside the Glasgow Pavilion, 1988.

The morning of that fateful performance...

Ok not much else I wanna say about this other than the reference I used for the pose had Reece sorta awkwardly clasping his hands in front of him which I really liked but unfortunately in my art it just looked like he was trying to cover his crotch so I had to change it pfft...

Tommy standing at Len's grave, 2024.

The sixth anniversary of Len's death, and the sixth time Tommy has travelled across from France to lay flowers at his grave. Photo taken by Leanne from the inside of a taxi (I'd like to have had more references to her in these photos but was unsure of dates/ages where it would have fitted...)

She couldn't get her phone to not focus on the raindrops on the window as she tried to take a picture of Tommy at her father's grave but then realised that she actually liked the pathetic fallacy and had it made into a print anyway lol (look I'll be the first to admit that this is the least 'realistic' in terms of a photo that people would take, but I couldn't resist the symbolism of it lol...)

There were a lot more ideas for photos I wanted to do but for obvious reasons had to keep it to just 9 lol

Also will be posting these on my ao3 with snippets of stories to go with each photo so keep an eye out for when I share that link!

[konnosaurus]

iiiiit's sonny!!

sonny is such an intriguing little character to me. i really like him, but am very curious about his character and his placement in the series. i'm gonna stick a few thoughts about him (and diesel, honestly, and their interesting dynamic) under the cut!

even though sonny first appeared in the Last Series of the show, he felt like he had been designed with longevity in mind (at least to me!). he had personal character relationships with thomas (positive), diesel (complicated) and james (intriguing). unlike a lot of the characters introduced at the very of the series run, sonny was given these relationships that made you feel he could have his own character growth and also influence other characters and their stories.

sonny and diesel specifically are an interesting pair. diesel had only relatively recently had his minor/major redemption arc in springtime for diesel, but more recent relevant episodes, in my opinion, are diesel glows away & diesel do right. these episodes have a very interesting understanding of diesel which honestly remind me quite a bit of james (which is probably odd to say!). he thinks he is great, and that his presence makes the railway a better place, but in reality… he isn't really helping all that much because his high opinion of himself makes him do his jobs worse than if he just… tried to do them himself. it makes the other engines have a worse opinion of him than if he just talked to them as equals.

this is where sonny comes in. diesel, who has learnt through his past few episodes that he can't make other engines like him by being a nuisance and that he must put his own effort in to do his jobs correctly, is introduced to a new engine who has no preconceptions about him at all. in fact, he seems to enjoy his presence! but this is a whole new thing to diesel, who has not really had a chance to have a new interaction without the other engine involved having been told about his ways~~. while he probably hadn't had toooo many interactions with nia before diesel glows away, it was never implied she was unaware of the way he is, where as this is clearly all new to sonny.

these interactions between sonny and diesel show the two growing close very quickly- neither has really had any close buddies at any recent point, as far as we know. nobody seems to particularly enjoy the company of diesel, and sonny has been implied to have been on his own engine-wise, with only baz and bernie for a while at least. sonny is shown as inherently good- he tries to help james, he tries to do the other engines jobs. diesel as shown as inherently bad- even though he has grown, and we have seen him grow, his first instinct when given the opportunity is to use someone for his own gain. but it is different this time! when diesel causes something to go wrong for somebody else, he apologises without having to make it a whole ~thing~, which was exactly what he struggled with in springtime for diesel. he could apologise, then, but not directly. now he was able to manage it!

sonny managed to bring out the best in diesel, get a direct apology from him ((and also a direct (though sliiiightly reluctant) apology from james)), and get himself into the good books of other engines in essentially one day. though this happens quite a lot in the childrens-morals stories of thomas, there is something about him that brought that out in the characters in a way that felt entirely natural. and i just think that is neat!!

[frankendykes-monster]

Countdown to Halloween 2023, Ranked

43. Swamp Thing (1982)

42. Curse of Bigfoot (1975)

41. The Haunting (1999)

40. Orca (1977)

39. Teenagers Battle The Thing (1958)

38. The Beast (1975)

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

36. Countess Dracula (1971)

35. Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967)

34. Beware! The Blob (1972)

33. Alien Space Avenger (1989)

32. Baby Blood (1990)

31. Shriek of The Mutilated (1974)

30. The Mutations (1974)

29. Phase IV (1974)

28. Curse of The Faceless Man (1958)

27. The Sadist (1963)

26. Jennifer (1978)

25. The Wasp Woman (1959)

24. Noroi: The Curse (2005)

23. Girls Nite Out (1982)

22. The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959)

21. The Cat and The Canary (1927)

20. Tell Your Children (Reefer Madness, 1936)

19. The Company of Wolves (1984)

18. It's Alive (1974)

17. The Wolf House (2018)

16. Michael Jackson's Halloween (2017)

15. The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)

14. The Omega Man (1971)

13. Gamera: Rebirth (2023)

12. Student Bodies (1981)

11. Night Caller From Outer Space (1965)

10. Inhumanoids (episodes 1 - 5, 1986)

9. Blind Woman's Curse (1970)

8. Maniac (1980)

7. The Child (1977)

6. Zombie 3 (1988)

5. Return of The Living Dead (1985)

4. Spider Baby (1967)

3. Basket Case (1982)

2. Messiah of Evil (1973)

Godzilla (1954)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We can do this.

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

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

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

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

Our animated offerings this year...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[fayesdiary]

Faye's Fòdlan Journal: Season 1 - Episode 5: Truly the best Academy

<- Previous Masterpost Next->

As I still slightly suffer from the loss of footage, we get the mission for our second month at Garreg Mach: Wipe out a group of bandits that have taken refuge in the Red Canyon Zanado, led by Kostas.

Yes, that guy Byleth killed twice in the Prologue. Somehow he's still alive. Never thought I'd see the day an earlygame bandit boss would have plot armor.

So, time to go talk to everyone again. As a note in the future, I'll only point out the stuff I think it's interesting. Even if I wanted, I can't include everything due to the 30 image limit.

Am I... getting sassed by a generic NPC?

Oh by the way, here's the combat professor Jeritza. We actually met him last month but he got lost along with the footage.

There is very little to say about him right now, except he really wants to outedge Felix. His two passions are fighting and being alone. Thrilling stuff, let me tell you.

Here we see the first glimpses of what will likely be a major theme in Three Houses: Fòdlan's huge problem of racism and xenophobia. It's going to get ugly fast, especially in the case of Duscur.

Here I learn how recruiting students from other houses (and eventually other professors and knights) works: You have to reach a certain threshold on the things they require, be that Byleth's level or a specific stats, or even their rank with a particular weapon. You can still gain support conversations with them, and those lower the requirements for recruiting them. And since Bernie wants a high Bow rank, I will spend the following chapters trying to train Byleth in it. Luckily we have unlocked Faculty Training, which lets Byleth take lessons from the other professors in a specific skill whenever they have activity points to spare. Which unfortunately at this point is not often the case.

Similarly I got interested in recruiting Leonie since she seems so close to Jeralt (although to be honest I thought she was lying at first because certainly Byleth would know her if that was the case, right? Even more proof there's more going on between the two), and she requires a high Lance rank, so that will also be a priority.

And while I know I can potentially recruit everyone and crowd the Blue Lions class like crazy, I will be limiting myself to an extra students from each of the other two houses to preserve the experience. Besides, this game lets you deploy 12 units at most.

Speaking of Blue Lions: Hi, Felix.

If I didn't know any better I'd just think he's being a dick as usual and don't get me wrong, he is. But given how Dimitri turns up at the start of the timeskip... there may be a hint of truth in what he's saying.

AT TIMES, Ingrid!?

Anyway, moving on. This month Jeralt gives us some battallions, an exclusive of this game: To put it simply, they grant the unit that equips one extra stats depending on the battallion which can be upgraded up to Lv5 simply by using it. Things like extra Attack, Hit/Crit/Avo, Def/Res and so on. For now the gains aren't much, but they will become way more significant when we gain higher rank battallions.

The main thing battallions grant, though, is Gambits.

Think of them as the precursor of Engage attacks: Most of them let you hit multiple enemies at once without risk of counterattack (the type and AOE depends on the battallion), and if you manage to hit , all of the enemies in that area will not only be damaged, but also be frozen in place and have their stats lowered. You can also use them whenever.

But compared to Engage Attacks, not only are they not guaranteed to hit (the chance to either hit or avoid a Gambit depends entirely on Charm, a stat unique to this game), they can also only kill the enemy directly targeted by it. And they also not replenishable until the end of the month. Regardless, they are still incredibly useful.

A few days later Byleth gives their first lecture to the class, and once again makes an embarassment out of the Academy by not even knowing how to teach and having Dimitri explain it.

The fact that the house leaders give the tutorials for teaching instead of the staff is hilarious. The most esteemed Academy in Fòdlan and they don't even brief or tutor their new staff and have the students do it instead. Rhea please.

Well, I wouldn't say it's inaccurate. I know on my first day of work I got dumped right onto it with absolutely zero guidance or directions so... yeah, that unfortunately checks out. Three Houses takes place in Italy confirmed.

Anyway, before the mission itself we have a mandatory training battle where we have to beat up some church soldiers. Not much to say.

No Dimitri. No they do not. And this is something they should know as a mercenary, but Jeralt says he never taught them much of tactics.

Seriously, what did Jeralt even teach Byleth beside wielding a sword? This is why homeschooling is bad, everyone.

With all that said and done, it's the end of the month. And that means it's time to beat up some bandits.

Also enjoy this Rhea screenshot. I didn't know where else to put it, but her pose is really cute. She's so excited!

<- Previous Masterpost Next->

[raeynbowboi]

I'm Starting to Get Tired of Getting Invested in Big Mouth

I want to start by making it clear that I do not hate Big Mouth. I like it fine. There were moments in season 6 that I liked. But there is a fundamental problem with the show's writing: almost nothing ever sticks. Things that seem like they should have a lasting impact are swept under the rug and forgotten. Remember how last season Charles Lu cheated on Gina with Jay and did nothing with that? The writers clearly don't because it's never addressed. Or how bout Jesse's crush on Ali? Guess they forgot that too. Hell, Sonja was Jesse's love bug and we got nothing about that being an issue for Jesse? Which is why I don't buy Marty making up with Barbara. Next season, they'll be right back to default, just like how Andrew dropped Sensitive Andy between seasons quietly and reset to default. Or what about Jesse moving? Nick and Andrew not being friends anymore? Remember when Jesse and Matthew were best friends? Leah's relationship with Val? (Who was also reset to standard Billzarian this season.) Speaking of which, Jay cum-bending the house clean and having a healthy evening with his family, marking the beginning of growth for the Billzarians? What a surprise, a hard reset returned his family to an abusive, dysfunctional default. And when characters don't get hard reset, they get tossed aside. Remember when Gina was important? How about Lars? Devin and Devon haven't done anything in two seasons. I don't recall much of Coach Steve, Caleb, the Johnson Twins, Lump, Ali, barely any Duke. none of them. You'll notice that they stopped pretending we cared about the new principal who was doing the Masked Singer teaser. I'm frustrated with how Andrew left things with Bernie, that was a poor way to handle that. Aiden got put out of our misery, only for Matthew to throw Jay away for complete bullshit reasons. Jay was better off and beginning to become well-adjusted. They were looking like a real couple. And Matthew threw that all away so quickly? He just needs to be less judgy of Jay's magic hobby and less bossy. Do that, and their relationship is fine. Probably one of the healthiest in the show. He got Jay over the pillows. We cannot gloss over what a big step that is. Only for it to be thrown back in our faces a couple episodes later. And Nick has pretty much had the same exact 'stop acting like a spoiled rotten bastard' since at least season 4. Early Nick was arrogant and entitled, but it wasn't the only thing the writers did with him. I think the problem is that there's too many characters fighting for attention in the main cast, and then they added Missy's new boyfriend on top of all that. If you're not going to give Matthew a decent relationship, at least let him go through non-gay-specific experiences. There's no reason he shouldn't deal with peer pressure, body positivity, or social media addiction like other characters. Otherwise, drop him back down from main cast to supporting side character so that the main characters actually get the screen time they need. And Lola too. Time and again, I think they're going to make significant changes and get excited for the future, only for the writers to backpedal and retcon the cliffhanger that hooked my interest. And I'm tired of pretending like the cliffhanger drama is going to actually mean anything.

[inkmage13]

A comprehensive list of every single Frankenstein adaptation i have ever read/watched and my reviews of them

Universal Frankenstein 1931

I hate this movie with my whole being. It's like they read the book upside down and backwards. Hate the creature's design. 1/10

Young Frankenstein

A hilarious spoof of the Universal film. Gene Wilder kills it as Frederick von Frankenstein. Creature design is much better than Universal, I love the non functional zipper on his neck. So silly and goofy. 9/10 (minus one point for Creech fucking being an important joke/plot point bc it makes me uncomfortable)

Junji Ito's Frankenstein

A mostly faithful comic adaptation of the original novel. Creature design is fantastic but he has short hair for some reason. Very cool art. 8/10

Frankenstein Alive, Alive!

Literally my favorite graphic novel. Bernie Wrightson cared about the Creature so much and it really shows. Incredible adaptation exploring the rest of Creech's life. 11/10 cannot recommend enough

Frankenweenie

Great Tim Burton movie. I love Sparky. Another successful spoof of the Universal film. 7/10 (minus points for being lowkey racist/xenophobic)

The Rocky Horror Show / Picture Show

I'm lumping in the musical and movie together. I love RHPS with my whole being. And it's a weirdly good adaptation. Dr. Frank N Furter's desire to create the perfect artificial man is explicitly queer. Rocky is born and immediately starts singing about how he's confused and miserable. 8/10

I, Frankenstein

Not a great movie but I did kind of enjoy it. Adam Frankenstein is caught in the celestial war of good and evil because he is neither human nor demon. His design sucks because he's just a guy, not nearly fucked up enough. Also he's not an incel which is very out of character unfortunately. 5/10

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

What the fuck is this book. Reading it was a roller coaster ride of "ok i dig this" and "what the actual fuck am I reading". All you need to know is the author sucks the human soul out of Victor and makes Creech a furry. 2/10

Frankenstein: A New Musical

I love this musical!! It's mostly book accurate with great portrayals of every single character. The original production's Creature design sucks though, it's literally just the actor with no prosthetics or makeup or anything. The music ranges from average musical stuff to absolute bangers. 9/10

Edward Scissorhands

I love this movie so I'm counting it because the Inventor makes an artificial human which is basically Frankensteining. Edward is adorable I love him so much. I think the movie is a great metaphor for the treatment of disabled/neurodivergent people in society. 8/10

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Specifically Sally and Dr. Finkelstein. Dr. Finkelstein is a super shitty dad to his creation, and Sally just wants to go out in the world and be a normal monster girl. As a Frankenstein adaptation 9/10 also 10/10 movie

X Files: The Post-Modern Prometheus

Incredible retelling with fantastic references to the original text. Mulder and Scully get justice for a monster in a crazy small town. And the episode is in black and white for no reason other than drama. But for some reason the Creature, who is called El Mutato, r**es people so for that unfortunately 7/10

[felixcatton]

Hello ma’am ☀️ 👋🏻 😌

Having watched djats (I blame u), I’d love to hear about your fav parts of the show and book - bonus points if they’re not in the book and show! (Of course if you feel inclined to share! 😊)

I'M SO HAPPY YOU WATCHED, i'll gladly take the blame 😁 i'll keep it to things that aren't in the book or in the show, orrrrr just things that i just think were executed way better in one rather than the other!

the book:

this is more just something that i thought wasn't executed as well in the show, but... karen. like everything about karen. i loooove suki waterhouse, but much preferred karen in the book. the show tried sorta, but she felt watered down. among other reasons, i have... Complicated feelings about karengraham and like 90% of her scenes were with graham. in the book, she was my third favourite character and i loved her entire arc.

i was skimming the book the other day and i was so struck by how MUCH there is about teddy and billy working on aurora together. i love that their dynamic was like a father/son, yes, but also such a musical partnership. there's such an ease to their work together, like musical soulmates. they were such a tight, exclusive unit that it's like yeah no wonder the band hated you 😭 but i loved it<3

on that same note, i did love billy and teddy going back and rerecording so much of the album behind everyone's backs. and i obviously just mean that in the sense that i simply can't help but enjoy an annoying rude tyrannical little control freak character and i especially enjoy watching those traits destroy all of their relationships. and this particular thing factored so heavily into the band's resentments and ultimate break-up that i was surprised the show didn't include it other than eddie throwing in a single line about it in the last episode. the show obv already has ample examples of billy being an asshole in this way, but this specifically was a real stand-out moment in the book to me.

daisy's general motherhood arc, which IS obviously a part of the show, and i do like the way it was done in the show; i just really, really loved how a hope like you was explicitly about that in the book.

a hope like you on snl!!!!! the idea of them doing a stripped down, intimate performance right at the time that daisy feels most vulnerable with him, and everyone going so crazy for it that they have to try to recreate it at every show. and with a song that is SO vulnerable to her, a song that she admits is about him but is on a much larger scale about her wish to become a mother, to be the kind of woman who could be a good mother, like the kind of woman he married. and how singing this particular song with him in this particular way becomes actually torturous. it was such a choice. this part, particularly the last paragraph, is just insane.

the show:

daisybilly actually kissing. not once, not twice, but three times. like, thank god.

SIMONE AND BERNIE 💖🧡💕💓💝💗💞❤️💘

playing up daisy's mommy issues was such a good choice. their phone call in episode 10 was a highlight of the whole show for me.

okay i'm an eddie hater and wish it could've been done with someone else (although i get why it was eddie, it definitely added to the eddie/billy rivalry, or rather the eddie/billy rivalry that eddie wishes existed) but i am happy that camila got an explicit cheating plot. like she needed that. we all needed that.

this is a really little scene but it's kind of a big one when you compare it to the book. billy and camila talking about having another child but then never having one, considering they already had three kids at that point in the book. like... what an interesting scene lmao. but also how he reacts the exact same way to camila bringing up another baby as he did to daisy bringing up another album. it’s a lot.

billy's relapse and camila leaving him in episode 10. not just because i thought it was nice to see camila actually say "enough is enough" but because i was glad to see both of them forced to confront everything and realize that just saying "everything is fine" does not, in fact, make everything fine. and that billy was white-knuckling his sobriety! i was happy to see that actually fully acknowledged. the fact that he actually goes back to rehab and stays in therapy afterwards and how that's really the only reason they were able to stay together and make it work, while in the book they just never talk about it ever and are like "we prefer it this way actually" (which is hilarious and so, so crazy like book!camilabilly will forever be so fascinating to me, i want to study their brains). for the show, i thought that was a really satisfying conclusion that imo made it clear that the rest of their marriage really was happy, even if still surely complicated™️

[tebarambles]

Berena hive mind to the rescue!

Hey friends, I need your help finding one or more fics where Bernie and Serena were already a couple (or broken up) before Bernie got herself blown up. I am fairly certain I read a handful of fics like that but unfortunately I don't remember any specifics because it has been a while since I read any berena fanfic at all.

The thing is, I'm currently rewatching the early episodes and I may have a fic idea... but if I ever do get back into writing again, I want to at least make sure I don't accidentally plagiarise anything 😬

[lapis-lazuliie]

this piece of music from bernie has stuck with me for years now, and i wanted to try to break down when & where the instruments play. the first clips are from sideways "how pixar uses music to make you cry"

a few notes that i didn't know how to fit into the vid;

1) the parallel between len & leanne is deliberate; they both walk towards tommy, both attempting to bridge that gap between them - leanne is successful while len is unsuccessful - before they both leave. while tommy is cold to len, he's a lot more warm and open to leanne. the same piece of music plays, but it's used more as a contrast — when leanne hugs tommy and him finally getting the closure from len he's been needing — than an emphasis on the sadness that's been running throughout the entire episode

2) we see the photo on the table in act 1 as the camera pans over the props, which implies to us that tommy has already looked through len's belongings. his face when he picks up the envelope however indicates that he hasn't seen it before. so the photo of himself & len is most likely what 'kickstarted' tommy to begin remembering him; for them to re-rehearse their sketches

3) just about every piece in this score is a rendition of tears of laughter; tommy and lens song ( definitely including these specific two in regards to the trumpet ). this one in particular is clearly a lot more bittersweet while the other's are very upbeat. christian's so damn talented, man 😅

[backjustforberena]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you to @joycieillustrations for tagging me. And whomever reads this, if you want to consider this me tagging you then go for it! But here we go, here are my answers. Dear Lordy, I'd forgotten about some of these fics until I had to tot up the word count.

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

I have 25. Some completed, some... not so much.

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

Total word count is: 174,231 words.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I'm only actively writing "House of the Dragon". And actively is a strong word. Sometimes I look fondly on my "Holby City" (specifically the ship 'Berena') unfinished fics and the notes I still have and half-finished chapters, but I leave them be for now. Unless someone decides to bug me (by which I mean, offer a hand and lend an ear).

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

- Me Before You AU - a Berena retelling of the book/film. - Run And Hit - a Berena AU. - Home Now - a Berena AU. - Losing Her Would Be Infinitely More Terrifying Than Loving Her - a Berena AU. - A Fresh Page - a Berena AU.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Generally, I don't, unless it's been a mean comment or they've asked me something specifically. Otherwise, I know I won't reply to all and so I get anxious about responding to any! And I'm British - you try giving a British person a compliment, you see how they find it!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

From my completed works? Shoot. I'm not sure if I'm the best judge of that. Most of them do include angst. But if they're angsty multi-chapters, then they're going to end on a happier note. And if they're an angsty one-shot, then the angst isn't just contained to the ending, it starts from the first word!

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Looking at finished works... I have written some fluff.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I have done on one of my fics. That was "Deep Waters". That was not fun at all, but equally, I had some really lovely comments on that fic as well. Moral of the story - don't write Daemon Targaryen in anything but a good light and certainly don't have Rhaenys act independently and with emotion. Woe betide you if you do! ;)

9. Do you write smut?

Nope.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I haven't yet.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. I bounce ideas off of people and get input but I've never strictly "co-written" a fic. I'd welcome it though. It might get something finished!

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

I enjoy many a ship but it's Corlys and Rhaenys that occupy my brain presently. I'm pretty sure though, if you pricked my interest again, that Berena would not be far away. They were a very, very good ship.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

How long do you have? In more seriousness, any and all of my Holby ones. But the most recent of those was "My Tears Richocet", which I did plan out quite a bit, but got derailed by the end of Holby City and the resolution of the plotline that I was re-writing. But I still love the idea; Bernie Wolfe was rescued three months after being declared dead, and returning to Holby, confronting everything she left behind and trying to not love the woman who rejected her and yet mourned for her. But the one most easily finished is probably another Holby fic; "Someone You Love" as it was a remix between two episodes, so it has a set ending, I know where the plot is going, it's outlined somewhere on my laptop and would only be a chapter more. Two at the most.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I have writing strengths?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Finishing things! Describing things! Overthinking things!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I have used some High Valyrian. Very, very minimal High Valryian. I also have a very clever, wonderful friend, to whom I can go to for advice on High Valyrian. But that's it. No other languages. It's not something I seek out.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Doctor Who. Wayy back when, on fanfiction.net.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Oh, gosh! I really love some of the "House of the Dragon" stuff I've written, simply because I've adored looking at the political aspect of it all and just generally trying to think out the consequences of various changes. Others, from "Holby", I love but they are rarely finished so I will have to say "losing her would be infinitely more terrifying than loving her" - only because it's complete (woo hoo) but also because it was quite a turning point for me. I'd never written something so action-packed, that needed to have a specific tone and pace. I was rather chuffed I could pull it off and it was well received.

[rahleeyah]

d.c. anon here!

those previews are nuts am I right? I am so curious as to what we are actually going to get on Thursday.

one thing that is obvious/that I noticed about oc tho… I know the fans have made mention about the lack of Bernie, Eli, Kathleen, and the rest of Elliot’s crew. Which I find devastatingly bc I adore Bernie especially.

But I guess I’m also missing all of bells personal stuff/drama too? Like what happened with Denise and jack?! Are they working it out? Divorced? Separated? (Unless I completely just missed something? And if so, please let me know lol)

Also, with bell specifically, we haven’t gotten to see some of the components that made seasons one and two great! Things such as her relationships with Gina and nova, for instance.

I know we have mentioned before that we are all aware of the sr issue on oc but I can’t help but hope whoever is in charge now has plans to bring back the personal elements of all the characters.

IMO great dramatic shows have a mix of the personal and professional sides of their characters lives. You can connect to a character and/or their story(ies). Right now, we see very little personal stuff on oc that makes it hard to connect to the characters the way we have in the past.

Am I off base here?

Nah you're absolutely on point friend. The good news is that we have at least one Bell centric episode coming and both Dani and Ainsley have been talking about how proud they are of upcoming episodes, so I'm really hoping that the first third of this season - which has not been good for a variety of reasons - was just growing pains and we're about to see a shift.

You are right in that they dropped a lot of the personal stuff and that hurt the show. Elliot Stabler is fundamentally not a lone wolf, and making Bernie disappear and aging up Eli just to get rid of him and isolating Elliot from his vast family - his family that means everything to him - is a baffling choice and it wasn't until the therapy session that we were given any real narrative reason for it; honestly I think that was put there in part to walk back previous attempts to make Elliot another brooding loner action hero, bc that's not who he is and we certainly don't need another one. With the therapy scene, an argument can be made that maybe they're going to deal with how being isolated hurts him and how he's gonna fix that. Ayanna and Denise are divorced I think, since last we saw they were negotiating custody with lawyers and Denise firmly shut Ayanna down, but they still have a child and there's been no mention of Jack recently.

We must live in hope, as always.

[nervouspearl]

[jemmaredgravewhore]

one drive being homophobic (real) by not loading s19 e07 😐😐 and now i’ve spoiled more of it for myself finding out bernie comes back this episode !!!

could literally have been any episode but it chooses the specific one where she comes back = homophobia 🫶

i get like just after the opening credits and this appears

so yeah if anyone knows what to do when this happens i’d rly appreciate ur help

[marjanefan]

Beyond the Bottle Episode- How Inside No.9 uses a single location

Contains discussion of plot points/ spoilers for Twelve Days of Christine, Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room, Diddle Diddle Dumpling, Tom and Gerri, Love’s Great Adventure, Misdirection, Lip Service, The Stakeout , La Couchette, Nana’s party, Last Night of the Proms , To have and to hold

One of the many interesting aspects of Inside No.9 which many commentators has praised the show for is how each episode manages to tell its story within a single location. It could be argued the location is a character in each story in its own right. I cannot possibly do justice to the many ways the show utilises single locations to tell its various narratives but hopefully this essay will give an interesting introduction.

There is a convention on television of setting an episode of an established show in a single location. These are referred to as ‘Bottle episodes’. Many successful television shows (particularly comedies) have a bottle episode, and they can be found across genres with episodes such as Breaking Bad’s ‘Fly’, Mad Men’s ‘The suitcase’ Dr Who’s ‘Midnight’ and a personal favourite Peep Show’s ‘Neither zone’. Bottle episodes are often used to explore the relationships between central characters in more depth and occasionally allow long held secrets to be revealed. These points are all worth bearing in mind when examining how Inside No.9 utilises single locations/spaces.

The show works with several genres (sometimes within the same episode!) such as comedy, horror and psychological thriller. These genres routinely use a single location to help to create a particular atmosphere, explore how characters interact and play with narrative forms- all things Inside no. 9 do wonderfully. Pemberton and Shearsmith have discussed how these genres, particularly horror, have informed their work. Directors such as Hitchcock (who made films such as Lifeboat, Rear Window and The Lady vanishes ) have utilised single locations in their narratives to create suspense and explore character dynamics. The concept of Inside no.9 grew out of the Psychoville episode ‘David and Maureen’ was inspired by the Hitchcock film ‘Rope’ which is set in a single location. Pemberton and Shearsmith have also performed extensively on stage and bring this experience to their ability to set a story within a single location. It has been commented that many episodes would work well on stage.

Pemberton and Shearsmith also build on the traditions in the horror genre of using a single location such as a haunted house to create atmosphere and tell a compelling narrative Indeed the horror episodes of ‘Inside No.9’ such as ‘The Harrowing’, ‘Séance Time’ and ‘ Private view’ acknowledge and pay tribute to these horror conventions.

Spoilers below

In episodes such as ‘Sardines’, ‘Nana’s party’, ‘Last night of the Proms’ , ‘Empty orchestra’ and ‘The referee’s a wxxxer’ the single space represents the claustrophobic and dysfunctional relationships of the characters. It also represents how central characters are trapped by their secrets and the unhappiness of their lives. This can still lead to a considerable amount of comedy through the frequently uncomfortable interactions of the characters and the various misunderstandings that occur. It is no accident that three of the five episodes listed occur at family parties. These episodes explore the tensions and difficult dynamics of families and the impact of a mixture of enforced joviality and too much alcohol of these events can permanently have on family relationships.

In episodes such a ‘La Couchette’, ‘Hurry up and wait’ and ‘Zanzibar’ we see strangers who otherwise would not have met thrown together in a small space, and the comedy and tension that ensues from the interactions that result. It is interesting to compare ‘La Couchette’ to Hitchcock’s ‘The lady vanishes’ – both of which are set on trains and which deal with characters who are thrown together dealing with a moral dilemma.

In episodes such as ‘The Riddle of the Sphinx’, ‘Tom and Gerri’, ‘Cold Comfort’ and ‘Simon says’ the single space becomes representative of the psychological conflict between the main characters, with control of the space itself being one of the areas of conflict. It is worth noting several of these episodes revolve around a character allowing a stranger into their lives by allowing them into a personal space such as their home, and the subsequent upending of their lives.

Some episodes also uses a single location to explore the psychology of its central character.

In Diddle Diddle Dumpling the house reflects David’s emotional state. It is all too neat and ordered, reflecting David’s emotional repression and failure to deal with his grief. The house also is filled with twinned and paired objects (Is this deliberate on David’s part?). It has been noted that ‘Diddle Diddle Dumpling’ is almost Kubrickian in the care and attention of the set design and uncanny atmosphere it creates. This is probably down to director Guillem Morales.

In ‘Tom and Gerri’ the deteriorating state of the flat reflects Tom’s worsening mental state. The growing number of empty alcoholic drink cans and bottles, junk food containers, and general mess reflect Tom’s growing dependence on alcohol, depression and lack of self -care.

Two of the most interesting uses of the single location are ‘The twelve days of Christine’ and ‘Bernie Clifton’s dressing Room’.

‘The Twelve days of Christine’ uses Christine’s flat as the backdrop for memories of significant moments of her life. The meaning of the flat changes as her situation in life changes. It goes from a carefree single pad to family home to a place where she must raise her young son alone. It is worth noting we see the day Adam moves in and apparently moves out (Jack’s first day at school).

‘Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room’ uses the church hall as a space where Tommy and Len discuss and reflect on their different experiences of their career. The church hall is filled with mementos and props from Tommy and Len’s career and becomes the place Tommy tries to make his peace with his past with Len and how their personal and professional relationship ended. It is very probable Tommy set up the room in the particular way to prompt these memories (We see Tommy moving items around in the opening sequence). Just to discuss the specific use of location in a few other episodes.

I have previously written about ‘The Stakeout’. But just want to discuss again how in my opinion one of the central themes of the episode is how men relate and interact with each other. Thompson and Varney’s relationship plays out in the confined space of the police car.

In ‘Love’s great adventure’ the Mowbury’s house (specifically the kitchen) represents the Mowbury family itself and the strength of their commitment to each other. Patrick will always be made welcome into the family home in-spite of his problems and Alex will find support and company to help in his grief there.

In ‘To have and to hold’, the actual house itself conceals a major secret. The whole foundation of Adrian and Harriet’s marriage is quite literally compromised by what is at its foundations.

In ‘Lip Service’ the hotel room with its slightly sleazy and uncomfortable atmosphere of the hotel helps us understand Felix’s unhappiness and lonliness. It also puts the lead character into a space he is not familiar with which in part helps bring about events at the episode’s conclusion.

Sets are frequently full of detail, helping to add information about the characters and the situations they are in. In ‘The Riddle of the Sphinx’ the props reflect Prof. Squire’s long and illustrious career. In ‘Last night of the proms’ the clutter of the house reflects a family which is burdened by difficult debates about national identity and destiny and which is trapped in its past. Stubagful in his review of ‘Misdirection’ makes the point the fact we are given so much to look at in Neville Griffin’s studio it helps distract us from what is actually happening and how this complements how the episode comments on the art of the magician.

Inside No.9 continues to find interesting new locations to set its stories in and continues to show how you can use a single location to tell a compelling story.