#the way i keep going to start the blair witch project and then immediately backing out at the play button lol

[napping-sapphic]

Need an emotional support gf for horror movies because i really like horror stuff but i’m too anxious about the idea of getting scared to start it when i’m by myself

[beenbaanbuun]

NCT 127′s reaction to the reader comforting them during a scary movie

TAEIL

Taeil had a little plan; he knew you were terrified of clowns, so IT sounded like a great idea to get you to cuddle him. Little did he know, you’d seen it before and there was something about Pennywise that just wasn’t that scary to you. In fact, you really enjoyed the film. As soon as Taeil pressed play, he glanced in your direction only to see a smile on your face as you watched Georgie an Bill on screen. He was confused, to say the least.

It got to half way through the film and he was terrified. Why was the clown eating children? Why was there blood coming out of the sink? What was happening? He had his head in your shoulder; it was the easiest place to hide your eyes without you noticing. That’s what he thought anyway. It was quite obvious to you that he moved his head every time Pennywise came on screen, and you couldn’t help but smile every time it happened.

“We can watch something else if it’s too scary for you, Tae.” You could feel his eyes boring into the back of your head as you chuckled to yourself. 

“If you’re enjoying it, we can watch it. Please just let me hide my face in peace.”

JOHNNY

In his opinion, you didn’t cuddle him enough. That’s why he decided that night you’d watch Don’t Breathe. You never wanted to watch scary films with him, so he assumed that it was because you were too scared. In reality, you’d never found a scary film interesting so you never wanted to watch them. Your opinions still stood strong with Don’t Breathe. 

Johnny on the other hand was breathing hard, and his clammy hand squeezed yours every time something that was meant to be scary happened. You were really enjoying watching Johnny’s reactions to the film; it was more interesting than the shit show happening on the screen. Once again, Johnny gripped your hand and his nostrils flared as he tried to hide how tense he was, making you smile. It amused you how even though you’ve seen him at his worst, he still tries to amp up his masculinity in front of you.

“You don’t have to hide it Johnny. I can tell you’re scared.” You could see the sigh of relief he let out at your words. He shuffled closer to you making you coo, teasing him a little.

“How are you not terrified, baby?”

TAEYONG

You hadn’t seen each other in a while and he just wanted a cuddle from you, but he was way too shy to just ask for it, so he came up with a cunning plan to make you watch something that would terrify you into cuddling him. When he showed up at your house with Midsommar and a bag of popcorn, you instantly invited him in. Midsommar was such an amazing film, and Taeyong was such an amazing boyfriend.

You didn’t expect him to be so scared though. You’d barely even started the film and he already had his arms around your waist and a pillow in front of his face. Every so often, his arms tensed up, squeezing you a bit too tight. It was sweet, but was has making you a bit fidgety.

“Tae, sweetie, do you have to squeeze so tight? I know you’re scared, but its a bit tight for me.” He immediately loosened his arms slightly, and you could tell he was embarrassed by the way he hid his head in your shoulder and nuzzled down.

“Its scary, baby.”

YUTA

Yuta was waiting for you when you arrived at the 127 dorms with The Shining in his hands. He knew you’d never seen it, and he was terrified of it, but his hope was that you were too scared to realise that he was. After you got the popcorn and Yuta set his laptop and the blanket up, you were ready to watch it, and you couldn’t lie, you were excited. You sat down on Yuta’s lap, the blanket wrapped around you both, and started the film.

The film was scary, you had to admit, but the person behind you found it a lot scarier. The first thing you found odd was that whilst you were on his lap, he hadn’t tried to kiss your neck or cheek at all. The second thing was the heavy breathing in you ears and the way his thighs tensed every time something remotely scary happened.

When the film ended, you turned to Yuta, who had wide eyes and was still breathing heavily.

“You okay, baby?” You whispered, making him look at you with nervous eyes. He shut the laptop and put his lips to your neck. He whispered something into your neck, which you couldn’t hear. “Repeat that for me.”

“Can we never watch that again please?”

DOYOUNG

Movie night for you two was always special (and usually got interrupted by Donghyuck). This time, Doyoung wanted to watch The Wicker Man. You’d never watched a horror film before, mainly because you were scared of everything, and Doyoung knew this. You knew his plan; he wasn’t being very secretive with it to be honest. You played along anyway, knowing a good cuddle would be nice.

When it eventually came to it, you were both settled on his bed and ready for the film. You were lent on him and he had his hand nestled in your hair. Every so often, his hand in your hair would stop, his grip tightening ever so slightly. Sometimes, it was even to the point of it hurting. The film to you wasn’t even that scary, but it appeared to be that way to Doyoung. You shook his hand out of your hair and paused the film, turning to him.

“Do you want to turn it off, Doyoung.” You locked eyes with him, and he nodded. It shocked you a little; you’d never seen him so scared before. “Do you want me to stop the night, baby?” He glared at you slightly, hearing the teasing tone in your voice.

“If I wasn’t so scared right now, I’d say no.”

JAEHYUN

You were known to hate horror movies by all of NCT, so when Jaehyun suggested you watched Pet Sematary, you were very close to saying no. In all honesty, you felt quite bad for him; because of you, he never got to watch horror films. This led to you agreeing to watch it, making him extremely happy. Truth be told, he wanted to see how you’d react, and maybe get the chance to comfort you afterwards, not that he’d ever tell you that.

It got to halfway through the film and you were surprised at the fact you weren’t scared. Maybe it was Jaehyun’s presence, or maybe it was the fact that he was quite loudly chewing his nails and gasping whenever he got scared. You almost laughed a few times, shocked at the fact that he was scared, but you weren’t. 

“You okay, Jae?” The next time he gasped, you spoke, breaking out of the trance he was in. He glanced at you, his cheeks red with embarrassment. Truth me told, no he was not. Dead cats was not something that really appealed to him at all. “Do you want to turn it off?” You coo’d, making him blush even more.

“Please shut up...”

WINWIN

You were incredibly surprised when Winnie asked you to watch a quiet place with him; he really did not like horror films. What also surprised was the fact that he knew that you didn’t particularly like them either, not because you were too scared, but because they were just very, very boring. You agreed though, just because you didn’t want to let Winwin down.

When it came to watching it, he thought he could hide his fear, but that was not the case. Every time something remotely scary happened, he would jump and let out a little shriek of fear. You let him hide his face away in your shoulder, but you couldn’t help but giggle at his little squeaks. By the time the film finished, he was sulking into your neck.

“You okay, Winnie?” He just nodded his head into your neck and mumbled something incoherent. You nestled your hand into his hair and rubbed gently. “You sure about that, sweetie?”

“Can we just swear never to watch a horror film again?”

JUNGWOO

Jungwoo was very honest with his plans; he straight up told you that he wanted to watch a horror film so that you could cuddle. You had to be honest, you weren’t sold on the idea, but you agreed to it anyway because you loved him and couldn’t say no him. Part of you wanted to see how he’d react, because you had to be honest, you couldn’t see him keeping his chill through a horror film.

You were correct. He was absolutely terrified. You were halfway through The Witch and he was cuddling you, but you were the big spoon. Every time you tried to shuffle to get comfortable, his hands gripped your arms which were rapped around your waist, locking you in position. By the time you’d reached the end of the film, you were in tears from trying to hold in your laughter for so long.

“This was not a good plan, baby.” You both laughed at the predicament you were in. 

“I got you to cuddle me, didn’t I?”

MARK

You did not want to do this, but Mark desperately wanted to watch The Blair Witch project with you. You couldn’t say you knew why he wanted to watch it, but you had to agree with him; he rarely asked for anything. You sat down with him at the dorms whilst all the boys were out and set the film up. Mark got his bedding and placed it over the both of you, cuddling up close.

Mark was clearly enjoying the film a lot less than you. His clammy hand was resting on your thigh, and his fingertips dug into your skin. It didn’t hurt much, but it just made you jump when he did it. You took his hand in yours, removing it from your leg and forcing him to wipe it on his bedding. He glaned at you and smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry, babe. Its just a little bit stressful.” You coo’d at him and squeezed his cheek, making him jump away from you. His eyes narrowed at you, realising how this situation way going. “Stop teasing me!” 

“Sorry, baby, you’re just so cute.”

HAECHAN

You were worried when he asked you to watch Silence of the Lambs with you; he knew you hated films like this, so he obviously had ulterior motives. He either wanted to cuddle with you or tease you, it could go either way. He showed up with the film at your house and made his way to your bedroom where you’d already set up a blanket fort and were already tucked into the bowl of popcorn you’d prepared.

Haechan and you had managed to keep your cool so far, but that would soon change. The scene you were watching was pretty horrific, and you were both on edge. Haechan’s hand was gripping yours incredibly harshly, but you were too transfixed on the screen. Suddenly, something came up that scared you both, but Haechan more so than you. He jumped, making his head hit the top of the fort and the walls collapsed.

“Hyuck!” You laughed, watching as he writhed around trying to escape the blankets on top of me. “You need some help?” 

“Well obviously. Get me out!”

[fanfictiondotme]

I Will Help You

Fandom: Teen wolf

Characters: Pack, reader

Ship: Derek x Reader

Summary: Derek figures out something is wrong at a pack meeting.

Warnings: trigger warning!! Self-harm and depression

A/N: I do not condone such actions in this fic. If you need help please message me, call 1-800-273-8255 or chat with an online member willing to help at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat/

Reader POV

I was the first one to arrive at Derek’s house, knowing full well I could help Derek prepare the table for the dinner he always cooks. Something changed in Derek whenever it was his turn to host the pack, matter of fact, everyone stepped up their game. Scott always made sure the house was spotless, rented special movies, the pack even went in to get a new television. Stiles bought one too many games to play, Lydia was always overpacked with booze and drinking games. Once Liam got his own place he always made sure that their was a variety of menus and paid for everyone’s takeout. Everyone seemed to be more dedicated to the pack than anything else. Everyone but me.

Once I began thinking about how the pack had changed, my mind began to race, my thighs having ghost pains from previous days. I never hosted pack meetings, am I really that dedicated? I knocked and then entered into Derek’s place, smiling and turning my blasting music down in your ears. I smiled at Derek, walking into the kitchen. He gave me a million dollar smile and continued cooking. I danced around him to get the placemats you helped him pick out. I placed them gently and neatly down, carefully bringing plates back from the kitchen, happily distracting myself from the pit in my stomach. Once the table was set I went back into the kitchen and plopped myself down on the counter, watching the handsome man in a gentle setting calmed me.

Derek’s POV

Y/N reeked of doubt and dread as soon as she walked through the door, a smell the wolves in the pack had become accustomed to frequently smelling on her, never for too long, but enough to raise worries. As soon as she walked into the kitchen she smelled of joy. That was why I loved her so much, she was always happy to help anyone. I hadn’t ever smelled anything sweeter than when she went with me to pick out the placemats, which she did a wonderful job of finding, beautiful day and night comparison as a small reminder to the pack that with every bad day is a good night, and every bad night is a new day.

The pack had been trying to make sure that the meetings were a time of stress relief for Y/N, the wolves could smell her throughout her day, but things seemed to look up whenever she was around the pack. We had been trying so hard to help Y/N without making her feel trapped. She never liked talking about herself, always giving off the essence of anxiety whenever confronted. I am personally invested in her, and I loved it. Whenever I thought I was going to loose control, she would bring me back down, her beautiful Y/H/C wrapping beautifully around her neck, her skin touching mine, it was all grounding for me.

She plopped up on the counter, smelling of brief nervousness and her heart rate skyrocketing. I turned to her and brought the spoon to her mouth.

“Be my taste tester!” I placed my hand on her thigh, I watched her flinch and immediately felt a pang of guilt. I didn’t question her, just repeated “Test it!” She giggled and opened her mouth. That was the sound given by a god.

Readers POV

He touched my thigh, still sore from the night before. Derek seemed to not notice, which calmed my anxiety.

“Oh my GOD!” This was the best chili I had ever eaten. “This is absolutely the best thing that’s graced my lips!” I plopped down going for more.

“While I enjoy your flattery, you have to wait on the rest of the pack!” Derek booted after me, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me back. I screamed and giggled, squirming when he turned me around. Our moment was interrupted by a knock on the door and I slapped him on the shoulder before opening up.

Scott McCall standing bold faced with the entire pack trailing behind him. “It’s about damn time!” I giggled and escorted them to the dining room.

After dinner we all settled down to watch The Blair Witch Project, my night to pick. I snuggled close to Derek’s side while Lydia laid on Stiles in front on the couch, Liam hanging his legs over Scott and his head in my lap. The small boy always did take a liking to me, lord only knows why.

About halfway through the movie, I felt something wet on my hand after scratching my thigh. Goddamit. I smiled to Derek but his eyes blasted bright blue and I smiled dismissively. “I gotta go pee, I’ll be right back,” I gently lifted a sleeping Liam’s head off of my lap, looking back to a Scott who had his full attention on me, who briefly looked at Derek, sharing a secret conversation.

Derek’s POV

Blood. I smelled blood. It wasn’t the first time I had smelled it, and I knew who it belonged to. Sweet Y/N, but why? She headed off to the bathroom and I regretfully decided not to tune in. I don’t want to violate her privacy. She came back and cuddled back into me, I felt safe. I whispered in her ear, “Why did I smell blood hun?” She giggled and didn’t miss a beat, “Period Der, calm down,” she smelled of guilt and sorrow, maybe she felt ashamed of her period, but why?

I pulled her extra close to me, trying to make her more comfortable, I was still anxious about why I smelled blood on her. I smelled it last week, so it didn’t add up, but there could be another explanation, this is entirely too sensitive. I was the last to fall asleep of the pack, minus Y/N, who peacefully played another horror movie. I silently asked her to never move.

Readers POV

I very quietly woke the pack up, except Derek, and helped them out the door. “Th-“ Scott began, I cut him off. “Don’t you DARE wake that werewolf up on the couch, I will fucking tear your alpha eyes out.” I giggled and Scott put his hands up defensively. “Goodnight guys.” Scott gave me a hug, whispering in my ear, “We love you Y/N, Derek more than any of us, it will get better.” He smiles and walked out as I quietly shut the door behind him.

I began bouncing off the walls cleaning quietly. Picking up every dish in the house and washing it. Then wiping down the table, picking up the popcorn, the pop cans and finally felt accomplished after the packs’ mess was cleaned. I began to pick up Derek’s clothing and put them in the washer, picking up his bathroom, carrying out garbage but on the way out to carry out the garbage I caught my thigh on the corner of the table.

I cried out and covered my mouth. Breathing heavily and heart thumping in my chest. Goddamit, I know I woke that wolf up. I was right, he was on me in an instant. His eyes glowing brilliantly, looking around to a spotless house then to me. My thigh dripping with blood I know, hoping it was covered by the smell of garbage.

“You okay?” he wiped a tear away from my eye. “Yeah, hit my leg on the corner of the table, nothing serious,” I began to walk. He stopped me.”Goddamn, my house is spotless, how long have you been cleaning?” I giggle at his statement as he takes the garbage bag. “I’ll take this out, it’s the least I could do.” He kissed my forehead and walked out the door.

I took off running towards the bathroom, quickly replacing the gauze, and washing my hands, dabbing soap on the outside of the gauze to hide the smell of blood. These cuts were causing more issues than one tonight and I certainly didn’t need it. I walked out of the bathroom looking at the incredibly sculpted Derek, leaning against the counter.

“Y/N,” he looked guilty, “I don’t want to overstep, but I have to ask you.” He walked to me and guided me to the couch. “I have smelled blood on you one too many times this month.” My eyes went wide. I can’t do this, not to him, he is so strong, I can’t tell him, he will never look at me the same. “Derek, I don’t want to have this conversation,” I spoke softly, not to upset him. He intertwined his fingers in mine and smiled weakly, “Are you hurting yourself baby?”

My heart skipped a beat, not sure if it was because he called me baby or because I was caught. Do I come clean or do I keep lying? Handling this on my own was getting hard. “Yes.”

Derek swiftly brought his hand gently to my face and caressed it. “Why?” He put his forehead to mine. “I’m not ready for this conversation yet. Can you respect that?” I asked softly. “Of course I can. Will you at least stay with me tonight?” He looked at me with hopeful eyes. I nodded and he picked me up bridal style carrying me to his room. He softly asked me if I wanted him to change my clothes for me or if I wanted to do it. “Will you, please? I’m so tired Derek.” He easily undressed me, completely non-sexual, and redressed me, only taking a moment to make sure my cuts weren’t too extensive, taking his time to view the many scars plastered on my legs. He gently took my hair down, picking me back up and laying me on him.

Derek’s POV

“Hey Y/N,” he began and I acknowledged him with a hum, “I want you to stay here. I know we aren’t dating, but this way if you need me I’m right here.” She looked at me with confusion, reeking of sadness, “Why? Why would you want that? I’m not your problem, I do-“

“You most certainly are not a problem, you’re a person. My person. My heart and my safety. I’m just asking that you let me repay you. Please, baby.”

“Okay, but don’t call me that, I’m not your baby and you’re not going to lead me on Derek. I don’t need your pity. We can stay friends but please don’t, it will make it so much worse.”

My heart sunk. I did all I could think of and I kissed her.

Readers POV

My heart was busting out of my chest. Derek is kissing me. Derek is kissing me. Out of all of the things that could’ve happened tonight, him shunning me, him telling the pack, him hating me or him giving me pity, he kissed me. I kissed him feverishly, hoping it would never end. But I pulled back. “Wh-“ I started but stopped. “I don’t know what it is about you, my pretty Y/N, I don’t know if it’s love but it’s something. Something I’ve never felt with anyone else. I want to help you, not just now, but as long as you’ll let me. You can stay in the other bedroom if you want, that’s okay, we need to take this slow. I want to be your anchor, because you’re mine.” Derek confessed; laid it down on the line for me. I began to cry, “Okay Derek, okay, but we have to take it slow, you’re right. I need help, I admit it. I don’t know that I necessarily want it, but I need it.”

He held me, held me until I stopped crying and fell asleep, held me even when I woke up, held me through me explaining why cutting helped me. He was brilliant to me. Patient with me, understanding, comforting, helped me through my tough times, never judging me for relapses, always calm when he asked me to stop. Never losing composure, taking things slow. Never losing it, never being overbearing. It was going to be okay, I was going to make it. We were.

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

M. Night Shyamalan’s Greatest Magic Trick: THE SIXTH SENSE

When we think of horror storytellers it is extremely easy to associate them with a specific sub-genre and style. Wes Craven birthed a slew of slashers in different periods of horror with both A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger and Scream’s Ghostface, James Wan continues to construct a word of haunted homes starting with Insidious, Alfred Hitchcock trapped us in suspense with his first person point of view in Psycho. What comes to mind when you think of M. Night Shyamalan and The Sixth Sense?

The twist.

A few simple maneuvers here and there, a slip of the hand, a purposeful distraction, and a finale leaving us shocked, guessing how we could have missed such important parts of a sequence happening right before our very eyes only to be truly fooled in the end. It’s a magic trick, you see? A trick that can’t be taught and most certainly cannot be duplicated, its secret buried in the mind of a master, or so we thought.

Today Shyamalan shares his birthday with the theatrical release of The Sixth Sense, a great cinematic illusion that opened his mysterious act nineteen years ago, yet still demands the spotlight time and time again.

    The Setup

The Sixth Sense reeled eager audiences into theaters back in 1999, a year when horror pulled back its curtains to unleash a variety of new sub-genres ranging from Japanese adapted tales with The Ring, to highly stylized period pieces with Sleepy Hollow, to found footage releases with The Blair Witch Project. The shine of the 70’s classics was, forgive me, beginning to dim, the slasher formula was exhaustively recycled, and garish science fiction had lost its appeal. With the dawning of an exciting millennium approaching, a new wave of filmmakers began to pave the road of the unique with the greatest showman, Shyamalan, leading the way.

By now you’re surely educated on The Sixth Sense’s plot and are aware of the third act twist that reanimated horror from its stagnant evolution, but if you are not I beg you to do two things now: One, do not read any further than my next plea as there will be spoiler content, and two, contact me immediately so I may study your reaction after I’ve convinced you to finally watch it.

    We all know the story written and directed by Shyamalan, but in case you need a reminder: The Sixth Sense focuses on child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe, played by Bruce Willis (Die Hard), who is attacked by an old patient, Vincent Grey, played by Donnie Wahlberg (Dreamcatcher) after therapy treatment yielded no results in helping his “possible mood disorder”. He takes on a new patient after some time off in Cole Sear played by Haley Joel-Osment, a lonely sad boy who later reveals to Malcolm that he can see the spirits of the dead. As the two bond, Cole’s anxious mother Lynn played by Toni Colette (Hereditary) grows worried by her son’s behavior, and Malcolm’s wife Anna, played by Olivia Williams (Rushmore), grows colder towards him, their marriage borderline estranged. Malcolm concludes that Cole shares the same gift that Vincent had, realizing the only way for Cole to be fearless of these ghosts is to listen to them, helping them cross over from this life. What he does not realize is that he is one of them, having been dead since Vincent’s attack all along.

Whether you are a fan of his work or not, Shyamalan changed horror in more ways than one. His directing style – with single character angles, long drawn-out shots, and engaging dialogue, sometimes dubbed over a secondary occurring scene, was, and still is, freshly artistic and captivating. He signs his pieces with a twist you never saw coming, each ending laid beneath a veil intricately stitched with masterly duping mechanics and expertly hidden exposition.

After giving The Sixth Sense a very thorough viewing, I decided to aim this ��look back’ at one of horror’s most discussed films by laying out Shyamalan’s deliberate techniques, of which there are three: the first, obviously being the twist ending, the second is sudden “jump scares” throughout a relatively slow-paced story, and carefully placed audio pops contrasting with mostly quiet ambiance. It was not until I tuned my attention in on one scene in particular, possibly the least tense scene of the whole film, that I noticed how purposeful those specific techniques are and how he cleverly disguises this formula for all to see.

Ladies and gentleman, I give you…

    The Coin Trick.

Malcolm, being surprisingly uneasy around children given his profession, attempts to connect with Cole using a magic trick. He shows the boy a penny, claiming he will make it disappear from his right hand to his left hand with a Clap. He continues with a shake of the left hand (now supposedly holding the coin) and taps his jacket pocket, claiming the penny is now inside, magically transported. The end of the trick comes with him repeating the first step in reverse with the penny winding back where it started from, in his right hand. Cole is a little nonplussed, taking it for a joke and foiling the magic by letting Malcolm know he’s aware the penny never left his hand to begin with.

The joke is on us. What appears to be a charming scene interpreted as an appropriate chaism for the film’s events specifically, I found holds even more weight when looking at Shyamalan’s work as a whole combined with his first-born masterpiece. The whole film is one big coin trick, one he’s been pulling on us for well over a decade.

Let’s peek behind the curtain.

    Loud Claps

In the nearly two hours of runtime of The Sixth Sense, there are maybe only 7 minutes where the volume peaks over a whisper. And that includes its creeping score. Shyamalan advances this silence technique by working it with its significant other: booming interjection. I never noticed how sudden these loud pops of sound were until turning this on for a family movie night, my mother asking me to turn the volume up continuously throughout the first 10-minutes. Once we reached a comfortable level of being able to hear the soft dialogue, the first boom interjected: Anna’s gasp when Vincent’s shadow falls over her and Malcolm. Her quick, loud shock wailed through our television resulting in a few of our own follow-up yelps. Through Vincent’s angry screams and even the gunshot, we aren’t as shocked with sound like that of her gasp ripping through the quiet.

We’re met with that shock again almost 15 whole minutes later when Lynn enters the kitchen to find the drawers and cabinets hanging open out of nowhere. Long drawn out moments again filled with a murmuring tone only to be shattered by her jolting gasp. Another 20 or so minutes build up tension forcing us to pay attention to the characters and their conversations and we’re hit with the Stuttering Stanley scene. The intensity and the sound bursts into the scene, our hearing now completely out of focus. How about that balloon pop in conjunction with Cole’s screaming from the cupboard during the birthday party scene? The rock through Anna’s shop window? Each time the score’s instrumental pang comes out of nowhere as a ghost is suddenly present in a scene? All separated by consuming, purposeful quiet.

  “The intensity and the sound bursts into the scene, our hearing now completely out of focus. “

  With each segment of the coin trick, Malcolm makes a gesture with his hand, whether it be a wave or a shake, but his sudden clap is what throws the observer off-key. It’s a simple method, complete misdirection. The observer is busy keeping track of the movement when a sudden, loud CLAP interjects to knock them off their game.  What happened? Did I miss something? Wait, where did the coin go?

Sudden sounds, especially as we are conditioned to regular low, mellow notes over time (well over an hour’s worth), are used to distract us as viewers. It’s a tactic necessary to draw our attention inward, slowly and steadily leveling our consciousness, before the interjecting boom blares the nerves out of us just as the claps throughout the coin trick do to the observer.

    Waves and Shakes

As we’re relating Shyamalan’s cinematic moves to that of the coin trick, what some would consider “jump scares” mimic Malcolm’s wave and shake of the hand. These movements are the meat of the sequence, and they’re not particularly ‘jumpy’ in terms of action, but rather suddenly riddle us with fear. The Sixth Sense is full of waves and shakes, scenes created to develop the plot and warm up the brain.

We can separate a few of the slower monotone scenes from the ones that build in potency as the dialogue moves along, i.e. the “I see dead people” scene. The potent scenes, the waves and shakes that make up this film are Shyamalan’s most relied upon actions intentionally crafted with the end in mind.

Vincent’s scene at the very beginning, the wrist-cutting woman, the boy who was wreckless with a gun, the hanged fugitives, Stuttering Stanley, Vincent’s therapy audio recordings, and each scene with our semi-final ghost played by a young Micha Barton (The OC, Homecoming), Kyra, are all pieces of subject matter moving us towards the filmmaker’s endgame. Subject matter that is relatively scary to audiences honing in on those parts of the brain that force us to think about what’s happening.

Each of these scenes are building blocks adding one to the other as we reach The Sixth Sense’s end, yet each measured in simple, almost stabilized intensity. They are the movements of our sequence begging our attention and keeping us focused as the trick is being carried out before us.

Now, we give the penny another little shake, this one in particular being the scenes related to Kyra and Cole overcoming his fear to help her, as the coin has mysteriously made it way into Malcolm’s pocket. Problem solved? The end, right?

“But that’s not the end of the magic trick.”

  End at the Beginning

Malcolm gives one final shake and clap ending with the penny magically returning to his right hand. The subtext of this simple trick’s ending being that we’re right back where we started from. What Cole so appropriately points out is that Malcolm had the penny in his right hand the whole time, it never went anywhere. Cole is the observer of the crowd pointing out the truth behind the artifice of the magician’s act.

This comes across to the audience as Cole being the all-seeing entity of the story. He can see the dead, and therefore can see through the trick’s ploy. But what his deadpan comment suggests further, is that it is Malcolm himself who holds the key (or the penny) to the sequence of this story. It begins with his death and ends with his death, the whole twist of him being a ghost stuck among the living throughout his time with Cole running parallel to the penny remaining in his hand through the whole trick. He aids Cole in coming to terms with his fear of listening to the ghosts that haunt him, all the while Cole is aiding him through the afterlife’s ascension. Like the coin, Malcolm never moved onward from where he began in the first place, needing Cole to point out the obvious in order to come to terms with this trick he has (unknowingly) performed.

The syntax of Malcolm’s silly coin trick runs linear with Shyamalan’s profound formula. Like unsuspecting observers hoodwinked by a magician’s cunning strategy, audiences experiencing The Sixth Sense, or almost any Shyamalan film, we are nimbly deceived by the shakes and waves of his scare tactics, thrown off by the unexpected claps of sound, and ultimately trapped in this chaism’s last twist with the prominent clues hidden by waves, shakes, and claps, finally exposed by the enlightened observer.

    Repeat

Though many directors and writers have attempted to apply this method, it is my strong opinion that all films with a big twist ending pale in comparison to The Sixth Sense. As horror fans, we appreciate the common understanding that while there are great possession films out there, none can attain The Exorcist’s standards. Once a film has really broken ground in our genre by achieving that unique status, the films that attempt to follow in its footsteps will always remain beneath it. The Sixth Sense, like Shyamalan, leads at the forefront sheathing imitators and shams beneath its veil of success.

Shyamalan, being the experienced magician he is, recycles this trick throughout his career. However, what separates him from the one-trick-pony shows were often subjected to within the horror genre is that each time, this same trick is actually different. The sequence may remain, but Shyamalan has that special quality of shaking and waving the penny around in a multitude of ways that the only element we can expect when being participating in his audience is that, of course, there will be a twist in the third act.

Shyamalan is so skilled in the application of this coin trick that he can begin it by placing the penny in one hand and make it disappear… for 17 years before revealing it to be in that same hand all along.

After a scattered hiatus between the release of The Village in 2004, and the release of After Earth in 2013, the director seemed to fade into the background. Cue the dry ice and closed curtain, right? Many believed we had seen the last of the showman, that he had gifted us with his grand finale in his first release, until he reemerged relevantly successful with The Visit in 2015. Fans welcomed him, and his unmatched twist endings, back to the genre with open arms.

  “Fans welcomed him, and his unmatched twist endings, back to the genre with open arms.”

  The Visit wasn’t the only card up his sleeve. In 2016, Shyamalan pulled off the longest running coin trick in all of cinema’s magical history with the release of Split. I remember the slight feeling of disappointment run through me as the last few minutes of the film revealed no twist, just a well done, well acted flick. What happened to my penny?

Then, with a quick wave and a shake, Bruce Willis’ David Dunn of his second collaboration with Shyamalan, Unbreakable, a dark superhero tale released back in 2000, appears within the absolute last-minute of Split marrying the two films with a twist so bold I know I let out my own sudden dramatic gasp when I realized what was happening right before my very eyes. There’s my penny!

For 16 years there was a quiet stillness to Shyamalan’s career, few of his films making true movements within horror, but then came the CLAP! Multiple claps. An entire theater, actually.

Shortly after, a third installment of this ambiguous trilogy, Glass, was announced bringing the characters of Unbreakable and Split into one film that will surely leave us in the same mystified, gloriously shocked state we can only find ourselves in at Shyamalan’s hand. The Glass trailer recently premiered at the San Diego Comic Con in mid-July with reception all pointing to extremely high anticipation.

Like the penny, and like his first story’s iconic lead, Dr. Malcom Crowe, M. Night Shyamalan never left. He has always been present, watching, waiting, and planning his next trick to ascend above our beliefs.

This artist and the rich, phenomenal, complex worlds he shares with us, his observers, has proved one very important thing:

Some magic’s real.

  The post M. Night Shyamalan’s Greatest Magic Trick: THE SIXTH SENSE appeared first on Nightmare on Film Street - Horror Movie Podcast, News and Reviews.

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[prosciuttoe]

Halloween prompt: we saw IT and now I can't sleep. Can I sleep with you?

A|N: this + another prompt I received, which was, ‘hiding behind the other’s back while watching horror movies.’ hope you like! ___________________

Movie night remains to be one of the few traditions that Bellamy still appreciates, despite the group’s tendency to pick the worse, most B-rated like films there are. There’s a copious amount of popcorn, blanket forts (one of Jasper’s bright ideas) and alcohol, which means that there is always a 50/50 chance of them passing out in the living room by the time the credits roll out. Still, it’s definitely one of the few things that stay undisputed amongst them (much unlike poker night, Sunday brunch, and the concept of pizza rolls as a whole).

Which is why it’s so odd when no one but Clarke shows up.

“Remind me again why we’re watching this when it’s just us?” he points out, catching her flinch just as the music rises to a crescendo, the scene before them dissolving into a bloodbath.

“Because,” Clarke says, shrinking down in her seat, “I’m tired of not getting the memes that Jasper sends over, okay?” Then, scowling, “I want to be in on the jokes. I want to be able to laugh along with you guys whenever you all make fun of the people who unironically say they want to fuck clowns.”

It’s an effort to keep from laughing at the petulant, sulky expression on her face at that. “You can still make fun of them without having to watch the movie,” he reminds her, nudging lightly at her ribs.

“It’s not the same,” she declares stubbornly; a small, distressed noise escaping when the screaming starts, a maniacal laugh following. “Jesus, people do this for fun?”

“Unfortunately,” he agrees, rubbing at her back comfortingly when she turns her face away, burrowing into his side. (He’s probably enjoying it way more than he should— for purely platonic, friendship-like reasons, of course.)

Then he feels her phone buzz, the screen lighting up from where she had abandoned it against the seat cushions moments before.

Raven: so is it working??

Raven: are u guys making out yet

Raven: answer me!!!!!

It takes him a second to comprehend that they’re talking about him, really, and another second for him to wrap his head around the fact that Clarke Griffin wants to make out with him, holy fuck. It feels so far out of the realm of possibility that he has to resist the urge to pinch himself to make sure he’s not dreaming, or anything.

“Bell?”

He startles, snapping out of his reverie. She’s looking up at him, now, concern furrowing at her brow, and a memory rises up within him unwittingly— watching The Shining with Clarke, years back; the way she hadn’t even flinched when Jack had starting hacking at the door with the axe, and the cool, almost analytical way she had observed the whole chase through the hedge maze. She’s the most levelheaded, logical person he knows, really. The thought of her being genuinely frightened by a movie with a clown as the source of all evil seems kind of laughable, in hindsight.

“Sorry,” he recovers, biting at the inside of his cheek to keep a smile from showing, because Clarke Griffin is literally jumping through hoops so she can make out with him, when all she had to do was ask. (Hell, the act of her asking alone would probably render him unconscious, but the fact that she’s scheming her way to it is so typical of her that he wants to burst into laughter right there.) “Got a little lost in my thoughts.”

She frowns up at him, chin resting against his chest. “About what?”

He makes a nonchalant noise, brushing his fingers down the length of her spine and making her shiver. “Just, you know. About horror movies in general.”

“… Okay?”

“And, just,” Bellamy pauses, struggling to compose herself. It’s getting really difficult to keep from giving the game up right about now, but there’s a kind of satisfaction from making her squirm, just a little. Gently, he brings his hand up, grazing it at the side of her neck instead. “Remember when Jasper went through that phase of getting us to watch all the supposed horror classics?”

She stiffens at that, but it could be because he’s playing with her hair now; thumb brushing at her cheek every few minutes. “No.”

“Yeah, he did,” he shrugs, nudging at her temple with his nose. “I freaked out over The Blair Witch Project, remember? Miller had to sit in when I took my shower.”

He can hear the slight hitch in her breath when he ghosts his lips over her forehead. “I guess,” she says, shaky. “So?”

“So it’s kind of weird that you could watch all of that straightfaced when you’re freaking out over a PG13 clown movie now,” he says, wry. “I mean, clowns, Clarke—”

“That’s— just— I could have a phobia of clowns,” she sputters, flushing, “and it’s really unreasonable for you to assume that—”

He reaches forward, cupping at her cheek with his palm. It silences her immediately, her eyes going wide as she takes him in, her mouth dropping open to gape. “You know you didn’t have to go through all that effort just to get to snuggle with me, right?” he teases, pressing their foreheads together. “You could have just said so. I,” he stops, struggling to tamp down the surge of hope rushing through him, “I would have said yes. Always.”

A beat before she finally speaks, looking distinctly sheepish. “I mean, I want to do more than snuggle with you,” she mumbles, looking away. Then, biting at her lip apprehensively, “Raven told you?”

“You left your phone out, Princess. What kind of piss poor management is that? I feel like I should be offended, but—”

She kisses him before he can finish, determined and thorough and everything he thought kissing Clarke Griffin would be like. He can’t help it, he laughs, winding his fingers through her hair and pulling her on top of him, feeling her settle into his arms as if she’s belonged there all along.

“So, do you want to keep criticizing my methods of seduction or do you want to make out with me more?” she breathes, twisting her fingers into the fabric of his shirt.

“The latter,” he grins, hitting at the remote haphazardly until the screen goes to black before pulling her close once more, feeling her smile against his mouth. “Definitely the latter.”

[richonnejustdesserts]

Teacher’s Pet : A Richonne Round Robin Fanfic

A small town sheriff and preschool teacher find love thanks to the cutest little matchmaker around. [RATED: T]

Chapter 9 (written by @reciprocityfic)

Fridays were quickly becoming Rick’s favorite day of the week.

There was, of course, the ubiquitous appeal of Friday bringing the end of a long week at work, giving Rick the freedom to focus on Carl and Judith.  And when the kids were with Lori, Fridays signaled the start of some often much-needed alone time.

Of course, his alone time wasn’t quite alone anymore.  And Carl and Judith weren’t the only two people he got to spend extended time with over a weekend that always felt too short.

Michonne was there now, fitting into his family and his life like she was always meant to be there.  And he couldn’t have been happier.

Fridays were good for many reasons, but his absolute favorite one was that Fridays always ended with Michonne.

They’d started a tradition together, even though their relationship was still relatively new.  After dinner in and spending quality time with the kids playing board games or hanging out in the backyard before sending them off to bed, or going out to eat and exploring more of King County so Michonne could continue to learn more about her home on weekends they were alone, Fridays always ended with the two of them curled up on his couch watching movies.

It was easy, it was simple, and it was one of the best things in his life.

They usually only got through one movie before one or both of them couldn’t keep their eyes open anymore, but tonight they had made it to a second one.  Still, Rick was having trouble focusing on the television screen, but it wasn’t because he was tired.

He couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off the woman pressed into his side.

Her hair was pulled into a high ponytail, and she’d changed out of the outfit she wore to dinner and slipped on one of his spare t-shirts and a pair of sweatpants she’d started keeping at his house for lazy nights spent in.  She’d taken her contacts out and perched her glasses on her nose, and was intently concentrating on the movie before her.

He loved the gorgeous, sexy outfits she always put together for dates, but he couldn’t overstate how beautiful he found her whenever she was like this: casual, relaxed, so comfortable in his home and there with him.

It made his heart swell in his chest, and he was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t even notice that her gaze had shifted from the movie to him.

“Are you not enjoying my movie?”

He blinked and laughed lightly when he registered the disapproving look on her face, and he wrapped his arm around her more tightly as he looked towards the television and saw a scene from The Proposal playing out onscreen.

“Romantic comedies aren’t really my thing.”

“Well, it’s what I picked.  So don’t you even think about falling asleep on me.  You’re going to watch it till the end even if it kills you,” she warned, turning back towards the television.

He chuckled again.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And maybe I would’ve been more open to picking something we both would’ve liked,” she continued, eyes never leaving the screen, “if you hadn’t made me watch a movie about the ghost of a dead witch chase around and kill college kids in the woods beforehand.”

“Hey, The Blair Witch Project was a defining moment for the horror genre.  The found-footage filming style would’ve never caught on like it did if it wasn’t for that movie.”

“Yeah, I know, Mr. Scary Movie Aficionado.  That’s the third time you’ve told me.”

He could tell she was trying to sound stern, but he could see the smile she was trying to hold back just turning up the corners of her lips.

“I’m just trying to educate you,” he defended.

“Something tells me you’re trying to use the old ‘Watch a Horror Movie With a Girl So She’ll Cuddle With You’ move.”

He let out a short laugh.  He couldn’t deny that.

“Would it be so bad if I was?” he asked her.

“Nah,” she answered immediately, turning back towards him, letting her grin light up her entire face now.  “I like that reason a lot.”

“Good,” he murmured, smiling at her softly before leaning down and pressing a kiss to her forehead.  They both refocused their attention on the screen.

But, again, the movie couldn’t hold his thoughts for long.  Barely a few minutes had passed before his eyes wandered and found her beautiful face.

He was always in awe of her, and had been since the day they’d met.  Since he saw her smiling face, heard her smooth voice as she stood and addressed Judith’s classmates and their parents.  But tonight, as he watched light from the tv flicker across her skin in the dim room, something overwhelmed him.  Her presence filled the air around them and enveloped him in the best way.  His heart pounded in his chest, and he felt words bubble to his lips.

He had the urge to swallow them down, as he had always tended to do in the past.  Lori had often accused him of being too quiet, and in many instances, she was right.  

He would learn from past mistakes.  This was different.  Michonne was different.  He was determined to make it different.

“Chonne?”

“Yeah?” she murmured, eyes still trained on the tv.

He sat up and reached down to the coffee table in front of him, grabbing the remote and pausing the movie.

“Hey!” she protested immediately.  “What the hell?  I told you, you’re not getting out of this.”

She turned her whole body towards him, her arms crossed and her lips pressed together in a small pout.  She was so adorable he almost couldn’t stifle his laugh, so he leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to her lips.

“I know,” he assured her, “and we’ll finish it.  I promise.  I just wanted to…talk to you about something for a little bit.”

He saw her face fall the tiniest bit, but she recovered quickly, and quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Okay, but make it quick, Grimes.  We’re just getting to the good part.”

He laughed again, and his breath caught as he took her in.  Once again, he was overcome.  He got lost in her, so much so that he nearly forgot what he wanted to tell her.

“Rick?”

Her cautious voice pulled him from his thoughts, and when he refocused, he found that the hint of worry that had flashed across her face a few minutes ago was there again.  He reached his hand out and cupped her cheek, running his thumb over her cheekbone in an attempt to reassure her.

“I like you,” he said, finally.

Her eyes warmed, and she smiled, leaning into his palm.

“I like you, too.”

A grin that matched hers took over his face automatically when he heard her words, and he took a deep breath to steady himself.  To try and temper his happiness and slow his hammering heart so he could focus on what he wanted to say.

“I really like you, Michonne.”

Her smile grew, but she didn’t answer him this time.  Instead, she grabbed the hand that caressed her face and brought it to rest in her lap, intertwining their fingers.  She nodded gently for him to continue.  She could tell that he had more.

That feeling of shyness that had always stopped him from speaking before came over him all at once, and he dropped his gaze from her face to their clasped hands.  He swallowed once, and tightened his grip on her.

“I really like you.  And I know it hasn’t been that long, but you fit so well here.  Having you, and getting closer to you has been so natural.  And I’m not just talking about Carl and Judith adjusting.  I mean, they adore you, which is amazing, of course.  But with me, too.  I know that seems obvious, but sometimes with kids people can get so hung up on making sure they’re alright, that they can forget about the relationship they’re building.  And I don’t want that to ever happen with us.  I want you to know that when I say how good this is, and how happy I am, I’m not just talking about how it is with them.  I’m happy with you.”

He lifted his head and captured her gaze again.  Her eyes shined, and she shifted until she was on her knees.  Then, she leaned forward, resting her hands on his thighs.  She nodded again, urging him on.

“After Lori and I ended things, I was afraid,” he admitted.  “She was all I knew, since I was a kid.  And I was afraid that I’d never find anything like it again.  That I didn’t know how to anymore.  I wouldn’t say the right thing or look the right way or do what I was supposed to.  But then I met you, and everything was so easy.  Like I said, everything just fit so well.”

He paused, and brought his hands to rest on her hips, his thumb finding the hem of her shirt and dipping below it to stroke her smooth skin.

“I didn’t find what I had with Lori.  It’s different than it was with her.  It’s different than everything else before, but it’s a good different.  And I’m not even sure I can pinpoint what exactly that difference is.  I just know that it’s there.  And it’s us.”

He pulled her closer to him, until she was practically sitting in his lap.  She wrapped her arms around his neck, and her fingers began to fiddle with the ends of his hair.

“Rick,” she breathed.

“This is different,” he told her earnestly.  “And it’s real, and it’s good, and it’s ours.”

She brought her forehead to his, resting them against each other and closing her eyes.

“It is,” she agreed.

“I’m guess what I’m trying to say is, I want this,” he told her, trying to resist the urge to kiss her.  He wanted desperately to get the rest of his words out.  “I know it hasn’t been that long, and it all happened kinda fast, but you’re here.  And now that you’re here, I can’t imagine you not being here.  I want you here, for a long time.  I’ll work for it.  I’ll put the time in.  I’m in this, one hundred percent.”

He trailed off, his words lingering in the air.  He laughed once, self-consciously.

“I just hoping you are, too.”

And she laughed this time, a sweet, soft sound that filled him from his head to his feet.

“Holy shit, Rick Grimes, do you have a way with words.”

“Well, they’re not usually my strong suit.  Or so I’ve been told.”

“You must’ve picked up some skills somewhere, then,” she surmised, leaning back and running her fingers through his brown hair.  A expression came over her face that almost seemed sentimental.

“You surprised me, you know.”

“Yeah?” he asked curiously.

“Yeah.  Before I moved here, I had a breakup that was not fun, to say the least.  It’s kind of what encouraged me to check out King County in the first place.  I was going to move to the country, swear off men, and find myself.  Or something like that.  Then Judith Grimes walked into my classroom, and she brought you with her, and I was pretty much a goner at that point.”

He smirked, and brought his hand up to tuck a lock of her hair that had fallen out of her ponytail behind her ear.

“And to answer your question - yes, I’m in.  Totally and completely.  I want what you want.  And I promise that someday I’ll tell you in a way that’s as beautiful as what you just told me, but right now I just want to curl up next to you and…bask in everything, if that’s alright.”

“I’d like that.  Plus, we have to finish our movie,” he told her, and then leaned forward to press a slow, lingering kiss to her smiling lips.  After a few, small, follow-up pecks, she shifted off of him, and returned to her original position, curled into his side and underneath his arm.  He picked up the remote, but before he pressed play, he spoke.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you - how have you been feeling about King County lately?  Still have that potential you were hoping for?”

He felt her laughter shake her body against his.

“I think it has a lot more than potential at this point.”

He chuckled, and pulled her closer to him as he started the movie back up.

“I do, too.”

And as the characters and stories played out on the screen before them, he savored her presence beside him.  The calm and joy she’d brought to his heart and his life.

Eventually, his eyelids grew heavy, as he was lulled by the comfort of being with her.  When they started to close, he snapped them open and blinked heavily a few times before glancing sideways to see if she’d caught him.

He found her fast asleep as she leaned her head against his shoulder.

He smiled, stifling his laugh so he didn’t wake her.  He took in her endearing, gorgeous, sleeping form and let it fill his heart, before plucking her glasses off her face.  He placed them on the table in front of them and then grabbed the blanket resting on the arm of the couch, draping it over them.  He stopped the movie, and turned off the television.

Darkness engulfed the room, and he closed his eyes, leaning his head against the back of the couch and falling asleep with Michonne in his arms.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3| Chapter 4| Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 |

Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 |

[adamwatchesmovies]

2017/10/01 - Adam Watches Movies’ Top 20

Before we dig in, I wanted to clarify a couple of things. This is my “Favorite Movies” list, not necessarily the ones I think are the best, but the ones I enjoy or cherish the most. There are so many to choose from that I expect this list to change significantly between now and the next time. My only rule was that I needed to have seen the film more than once. If there’s a title that you expect to see here, it’s likely because I’ve only viewed it that one time… or maybe I still haven’t watched it!

20. Seven Samurai (1954)

A recent addition to this list, I watched The Seven Samurai in order to get prepared for the 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven. I was blown away and wound up seeing it twice in a row. It may seem impulsive to include it, but it really made an impact on me.

19. 12 Angry Men (1957)

A lot of the pictures on this list could be categorized in the sci-fi, fantasy, or musical category. You will notice that a number of them also share a certain trait with 12 Angry Men in that they’re boiled down to their essence. There’s no fat to trim in this film. You don’t even find out a whole lot about the case the jurors are debating because you don’t need to. It’s all about that immediacy of what’s going on right there and then.

18. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

I vividly remember the first time I saw Singin’ in the Rain. A friend of mine invited me to see it with her in the theatre. I haven’t stopped thinking about Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds since. Like my #16 pick, it’s pure jubilation on-screen.

17. Beauty and the Beast (1946)

Similarly to the next film on my list, this version of the fairytale perfectly brings child-like wonder to life. I love the sets, the costumes, the black-and-white cinematography, the fact that it isn’t ashamed of being what it is. It never smirks or winks at the camera. Beauty and the Beast doesn’t need to; it enchants you from the very first frame. There are many other versions of this tale out there, but don’t overlook this one.

16. The Wizard of Oz (1939)

I literally just re-watched this musical last night. I’ve seen it many times and it never loses its charm. Everyone reading has probably seen this film, but have you REALLY seen it? I’m not talking about bits and pieces on TV with commercial breaks or fleeting glimpses between laundry being folded. To me, The Wizard of Oz isn’t just a movie, it’s a feeling that’s been captured and immortalized on film.

15. RoboCop (1987)

Dark, violent, funny and deceptively smart, this is much more than a story about a cyborg shooting criminals. The sequels weren’t kind to RoboCop and while the remake was ok, it isn’t on the same level as the original. It’s got great villains, many quotable lines, an iconic look and feel… so many of its scenes are permanently imprinted on my brain that this was an easy pick.

14. The Terminator (1984)

I remember the first time I watched The Terminator. I snuck downstairs while everyone else was asleep so that no one would know that I was viewing an R-Rated movie. That was the beginning. Over the years, I’ve flip-flopped between this first chapter in the series and its sequel. In fact, Terminator 2 was “my favorite movie” for a long time. Today, I’m giving my love to the one who started it all.

13. King Kong (1933)

One of my favorite things about this film is that it’s bigger than anyone working on it could’ve imagined. There’s a reason why we’re still talking about this movie today. I love the visuals, the storyline, and that ending; it’s unforgettable.

12. Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (1965)

This could’ve been any number of Godzilla films. I could’ve put anything from the 1954 original to last year’s Shin Godzilla in this spot, but Monster Zero is the one I’m most nostalgic for, the giant monster film I used to watch the most as a kid. There are so many lines from this one that I know by heart and wish I could quote… but how often do you get to slip “The Monster is Zero” in a conversation?

11. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

The most recent film on this list and one of the greatest action films ever made. It’s also beautiful and features surprisingly well-developed characters. This movie goes for it, all the way. There’re no superficial aspects. It’s just blazing action all the way through. I saw it what… Five times in the theatre? and it just keeps getting better.

10. The Iron Giant (1999)

Another childhood favorite of mine, I had the pleasure of watching the Signature Edition on the big screen with some friends when it was re-released in 2015 and it reignited something in me. I’m also fairly certain that I saw this one in its original theatrical run in 1999. It’s got so much heart and so many laughs. I fall in love with every detail of this Brad Bird film every time I watch it.

9. Batman (1989)

Tim Burton’s Batman is not a faithful adaptation of the comic book character. The Joker’s origin is different, Batman’s methods of fighting crime are not consistent with what’s been printed on the page for decades now, the characters’ dynamics have been vastly altered… but there’s something about it that captures the spirit of the character nonetheless. It all builds towards that final, epic shot with Danny Elfman’s music in the background that tells you what this character is all about. You watch this movie and it brings you back to when it was first released. You understand why it was such a big deal. You don’t get that feeling from any run-of-the-mill movie.

8. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

My #2 movie is another horror film, and I love it for its historical value. It’s higher on my list, but it doesn’t frighten me like this low-budget chiller does. When I pop The Blair Witch Project into my player, I’m immediately filled with a sentiment of dread. I don’t want to put my back to the window, I don’t want to go to bed afterward. It’s a film like none other because it doesn’t even feel like a film, it’s real footage of something horrible that happened. It doesn’t matter that I know that isn’t the case, that I know how it ends. The impact never diminishes.

7. Ben-Hur (1959)

1957’s 3:10 to Yuma was in this spot until the last second when I remembered Ben-Hur. How could I forget the betrayal, the galleys, the chariot race, the delicate balance of themes, the tale of vengeance? This list was hard to make and I’m sorry 3:10. You’re great, I love you very much but when a film lasts 212 minutes and never feels long, it absolutely must be placed on the list.

6. X2: X-Men United (2003)

This is how you do a sequel right. I could’ve put several of the X-Men films on this list, but this is the one I’ve seen the most times. I love the way it builds upon what we’ve seen before and raises the stakes. 

5. Star Wars (1977)

Surprisingly, I don’t really have nostalgia for Star Wars. I saw the originals as a kid a couple of times and of course saw the prequels when they were released, but my love for it comes from an adult viewpoint. The way this first chapter takes familiar story elements and makes them feel fresh again, the characters, the iconic moments, the things it brought to cinema as a whole is what made me go back to it over and over. Over the years, It’s brought me back to that time that didn’t actually happen but feels like it does, that moment where I first saw the colorful aliens and laser battles and was blown away.

4. Fantasia (1940)

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen Fantasia. As a kid, I loved the Rite of Spring segment. As an adult, it’s the combination of music and visuals that gets me. This would be a great first movie to show to your children. I think it would spark their imagination in the way few films would.

3. The Little Mermaid (1989)

My favorite Disney animated film, at least today. This could’ve easily been Snow White and the Seven Dwarves or Beauty and the Beast on a different day. I remember the moment I truly fell in love with this one. It was in high school and suddenly, something clicked. As soon as I got home, I scoured the shelves for our VHS copy and watched it. My family couldn’t understand why I suddenly needed to view this animated musical, but I sat there and drank it all in. The colors, the details, the character designs, the songs, they all work so well together. Ariel and I both have a passion for collecting and a ferocious curiosity. Maybe that has something to do with why I relate to her so much.

2. Halloween (1978)

When I think I get tired of this film, I find something new to like about it. Like in 12 Angry Men, I love the simplicity of the story. You’re home, alone. There’s a man with a mask and a knife. He’s trying to get you. That’s all you need for a horror story. Even the killer isn’t fancy, it’s just a white face, but if you saw that mask starring at you through the window late at night, you’d wet yourself.

1. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

I’ve mentioned my love for the Universal Monsters before. I could’ve put some of the other films on this list; Dracula and its Spanish Counterpart, The Invisible Man or The Creature from the Black Lagoon but I don’t like any of them as much as I do Frankenstein. Since this one squeaks past it by just a hair, it’s only fitting that it takes the #1 spot. Will it stay there the next time I make this list? I can’t say for sure, but I’m excited to find out.

[spookierswamp]

@questforsims tagged me in this questionnaire thing bc he knows they’re my favorite lmao, answers under the read more....

DO YOU SLEEP WITH YOUR CLOSET DOORS OPEN OR CLOSED? I'm literally terrified of people who can sleep with closet doors open like... do you fear nothing...?

DO YOU TAKE THE SHAMPOOS AND CONDITIONER BOTTLES FROM HOTELS? nah I usually end up using them all lmao

DO YOU SLEEP WITH YOUR SHEETS TUCKED IN OR OUT? untucked

HAVE YOU STOLEN A STREET SIGN BEFORE? not a street sign I guess but one time when I was 15 I was recovering from a party at a friends house in the middle of like, the Scottish nowherseville countryside and like 6am that morning we went out to take a walk and smoke and we ended up taking one of those roadworks signs back to her house for some reason... it was dumb lmao

DO YOU LIKE TO USE POST-IT NOTES? heck yeah there's a wall in my room that's just post-it notes lmao it calms me

DO YOU CUT OUT COUPONS BUT THEN NEVER USE THEM? we don't rly have coupon culture as much here but I probably would if I lived in America...

WOULD YOU RATHER BE ATTACKED BY A BIG BEAR OR A SWARM OF BEES? they don't allow you to have bees in here

DO YOU HAVE FRECKLES? no and thank goodness bc if I had freckles I'd be... too cute.... too powerful

DO YOU ALWAYS SMILE FOR PICTURES? like... in group photos sure but if it's a selfie I almost never smile lmao

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST PET PEEVE? loud/messy eaters tbh

DO YOU EVER COUNT YOUR STEPS WHEN YOU WALK? yeah I used to go on long hikes/walks in the forest and I'd be out for hours and like I'd take one of those pedometers w/ me and I'd feel so fuckin validated when I saw it get to 10,000 lmao...

HAVE YOU PEED IN THE WOODS? y'all foolin if you been out in the woods and you said you haven't tbh

HAVE YOU EVER POOPED IN THE WOODS? ok this is gross nevermind

DO YOU EVER DANCE EVEN IF THERE’S NO MUSIC PLAYING? nah but if you put a bop on i'll immediately start dancing

DO YOU CHEW YOUR PENS AND PENCILS? part of me is like 'nah that's p gross' but yeah i probably do

HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE YOU SLEPT WITH THIS WEEK? just one lmao

WHAT SIZE IS YOUR BED? like... it can fit me + another fully grown man so it's pretty big i guess

WHAT IS YOUR SONG OF THE WEEK? So Emotional by Whitney Houston

IS IT OK FOR GUYS TO WEAR PINK? I literally wear pink every day of my life you stupid bitch

DO YOU STILL WATCH CARTOONS? yeah but not like... with the intensity some of y'all do... i really liked Gravity Falls especially 

WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE MOVIE? most disney movies tbh... I'll never get the appeal of them as a genre lmao... special shoutout to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective for being absolute fucking garbage though

WHERE WOULD YOU BURY HIDDEN TREASURE IF YOU HAD SOME? I probably wouldn't even have time to hide it cause I'd immediately lose it somewhere lmao

WHAT DO YOU DRINK WITH DINNER? honestly it depends on what dinner is? mostly I'll drink soda or wine

WHAT DO YOU DIP A CHICKEN NUGGET IN? mustard, ketchup, bbq sauce, ranch

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FOOD? takoyaki! i also love any and all mexican food

WHAT MOVIES COULD YOU WATCH OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND STILL LOVE? there's literally... so many... lmao... Fire Walk With Me, The Birdcage, Scream, Wet Hot American Summer, Blair Witch Project, Donnie Darko, The Craft (like.. semi-ironically but I do love it lmao)

LAST PERSON YOU KISSED/KISSED YOU? a boy but he's lame so he won't be named here lmao

WERE YOU EVER A BOY/GIRL SCOUT? nah I always thought boy scouts were dumb but as an adult I kinda wish I'd been a part of something like that

WOULD YOU EVER STRIP OR POSE NUDE IN A MAGAZINE? what kinda magazine....

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WROTE A LETTER TO SOMEONE ON PAPER? me and my ex-boyfriend used to write letters to each other all the time! so probably like, last year

CAN YOU CHANGE THE OIL ON A CAR? nah, I've legit never even driven more than once lmao....

EVER GOTTEN A SPEEDING TICKET? ... the one time I drove around it was in an abandoned parking lot and my then-boyfriend was sitting next to me with one hand on the steering wheel it was fun...

EVER RAN OUT OF GAS? .... i almost hit another car that was doing the same thing but i didn't and i was so proud of myself lmao

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE KIND OF SANDWICH? meatball sub... or like.... steak & cheese

BEST THING TO EAT FOR BREAKFAST? pancakes, coffee, hashbrowns and/or a breakfast taco, at least two kolaches

WHAT IS YOUR USUAL BEDTIME? midnight or whenever i pass out after work

ARE YOU LAZY? yea

WHEN YOU WERE A KID, WHAT DID YOU DRESS UP AS FOR HALLOWEEN? aw heck so many things! Vampires have always been a big thing for me tho and I was both Spike and Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer multiple times lmao

WHAT IS YOUR CHINESE ASTROLOGICAL SIGN? I can never remember which one but either dog or pig

HOW MANY LANGUAGES CAN YOU SPEAK? I can barely speak my first language lmao but I can bluff my way thru German and I've made half-assed attempts at learning Russian, Japanese and Icelandic before...

DO YOU HAVE ANY MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS? nah

WHICH ARE BETTER: LEGOS OR LINCOLN LOGS? legos you dumb bitch

ARE YOU STUBBORN? sure

WHO IS BETTER: LENO OR LETTERMAN? whoms't?

EVER WATCH SOAP OPERAS? British soaps are genuinely class but I never rly keep up w/ them, also telenovelas are amazing and important...

ARE YOU AFRAID OF HEIGHTS? nah I love heights! I was afraid of them as a kid but ask any of my friends/boyfriends and they'll tell you I'm always trying to get people to go to the top of stuff lmao

DO YOU SING IN THE CAR? only during inebriated night-time road adventures

DO YOU SING IN THE SHOWER? pretty much constantly lmao

DO YOU DANCE IN THE CAR? like... how?

EVER USED A GUN? honestly I've never even touched a gun lmao

LAST TIME YOU GOT A PORTRAIT TAKEN BY A PHOTOGRAPHER? uuh high school I reckon

DO YOU THINK MUSICALS ARE CHEESY? yeah of course who doesn’t

IS CHRISTMAS STRESSFUL? very

EVER EAT A PIEROGI? no but it feels like my kind of shit

FAVORITE TYPE OF FRUIT PIE? (dale cooper voice) cherry pie

OCCUPATIONS YOU WANTED TO BE WHEN YOU WERE A KID? painter or director, something artistic or whatever, maybe something with computers I always figured I’d be good at

DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS? yeah I love ghosts they're all my good pals

EVER HAVE A DEJA-VU FEELING? yeah and I'll do things multiple times in a row just out of not paying attention lmao

DO YOU TAKE A VITAMIN DAILY? yeah I take an A-Z multivit and cod liver oil usually

DO YOU WEAR SLIPPERS? nah they make my feet too damn warm boy

DO YOU WEAR A BATHROBE? nah but when I'm a guest in a hotel w/ somebody I'm always claiming dibs on the complementary bathrobe lmao

WHAT DO YOU WEAR TO BED? if it's cold I'll wear like a t-shirt or something

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CONCERT? I went to a bunch of festivals and free concerts and stuff as a tiny lil' baby ten year old but the first one I went to without parents was probably like... Fall Out Boy? or another band from my 2007 - 2009 emo phase lmao

WALMART, TARGET, OR KMART? the only thing I learned when I was in America was that Walmart is both haunted and cursed, Target is The Promised Land and Kmart is a sensory hallucination

NIKE OR ADIDAS? Adidas.... also I like the new adidas NHL kits sue me....

CHEETOS OR FRITOS? the first time I had Fritos it was with a bean dip and I almost barfed so definitely Cheetos lmao

PEANUTS OR SUNFLOWER SEEDS? both are gross whatever

EVER HEAR OF THE GROUP TRES BIEN? no but they sound very good

EVER TAKE DANCE LESSONS? nah

IS THERE A PROFESSION YOU PICTURE YOUR FUTURE SPOUSE DOING? handsome genius/hockey player

CAN YOU CURL YOUR TONGUE? heck yeah

EVER WON A SPELLING BEE? I legit don't think we have those here but I definately would have if I competed because I was the best damn speller in my class

HAVE YOU EVER CRIED BECAUSE YOU WERE SO HAPPY? I laugh-cry more than anything tbh

OWN ANY RECORD ALBUMS? nah I used to have a record player and I've bought a bunch of records as gifts for people but like I download all my music anyway so I'm 2 lazy 2 cheap lmao

OWN A RECORD PLAYER? ^

DO YOU REGULARLY BURN INCENSE? nah but I love candles

EVER BEEN IN LOVE? yeah but honestly once was enough lmao

WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IN CONCERT? literally one of my only goals in life is to see Bjork live before she quits music or I die lmao... also Math the Band (again), Anamanaguchi, Mac Demarco, The Mountain Goats...

WHAT WAS THE LAST CONCERT YOU SAW? not like a concert I guess but I went to see Kim Chi perform in February and it was lit

HOT TEA OR COLD TEA? like... Iced Tea? the way this is worded is disgusting lmao I'll go with hot tea

TEA OR COFFEE? I literally make coffee every single fucking day of my life @ work and like... not only do I now hate it I hate anyone who drinks it lmao

SUGAR COOKIES OR SNICKERDOODLES? what the fuck does this mean

CAN YOU SWIM WELL? yeah!

CAN YOU HOLD YOUR BREATH WITHOUT HOLDING YOUR NOSE? yeah!

ARE YOU PATIENT? yeah!

DJ OR BAND AT A WEDDING? I'm not the kind of person to have friends who are in bands and not ask them to play at my wedding lmao also wedding DJ's are always weird old men

EVER WON A CONTEST? yeah I've won like.. talent shows and stupid semi-academic shit like that but nothing super cool

HAVE YOU EVER HAD PLASTIC SURGERY? nah but no question i'd absolutely get it

WHICH ARE BETTER: BLACK OR GREEN OLIVES? green

CAN YOU KNIT OR CROCHET? nah but i can kind of sew

BEST ROOM FOR A FIREPLACE? every room but only if you live in a log cabin or some shit

DO YOU WANT TO GET MARRIED? yeah but like, not for the sake of being married? 

IF MARRIED, HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN MARRIED? ^

WHO WAS YOUR HIGHSCHOOL CRUSH? aw man I threw a lot of time and energy into dating boys in high school but like... my biggest crushes were always unattainable and short-lived lmao so no-one notable...

DO YOU CRY AND THROW A FIT UNTIL YOU GET YOUR OWN WAY? god honestly any single one of my friends/previous boyfriends will tell you I throw tantrums over literally anything lmao... I usually act pretty stable and emotionally mature but when I'm comfortable with people I'll fuck shit up for no reason lmao

DO YOU HAVE KIDS? nah

DO YOU WANT KIDS? I'm way too self-centered and emotionally unavailable for any of that shit right now lmao but in like 10 years I'd be open to it for sure

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR? forest green, goth purples, black, pink, also what can only be described as like, Nickelodeon slime green

DO YOU MISS ANYONE RIGHT NOW? uhhhh pass

WHO ARE YOU GOING TO TAG TO DO THIS TAG NEXT? nobody! it's like, 100 questions long and I don't feel comfortable that tagging any of you won't be annoying lmao but if you wanna do this msg me and I'll tag you in it! ! ! ! 

[hey-kids-want-some-avengers]

To Build a Home (Pt. 2)

A/N: here’s part two! More Sam because I love my bird boy. _____________________________________

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Steve Rogers

Warnings: trans!Steve, needles, Testosterone, outing/being outed, protective!Bucky

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.

They’re sprawled out on their sectional couch in the living room with the lights almost all off, pizza in one hand and beer in the other, while a movie plays in the background over their talking. There’s two pizza boxes on the floor and several more on the coffee table Sam and Bucky both currently have their feet up on. To Sam’s shock, Steve’s packed away the most food so far. Bucky knows him too well to be surprised.

Steve, he eats like a pig. He can put away twice as much as Bucky can, especially for his overall weight and size. He put on a decent amount of weight just to start T, and even now he’s still skinny. The Testosterone has really only made his apatite increase too, which is fairly common.

“Gonna leave any for the guest?” Bucky questions with a chuckle when Steve reaches over for another piece of pizza. Sam snorts and Steve glares at both of them right before stuffing half the piece into his mouth. Point made.

“Guess not,” Sam sighs, he’s smiling though and clearly joking. Sam’s on his second beer, and Bucky’s got his second open, he just hasn’t started on it yet. Thankfully, Steve’s still sipping at his first.

They’re currently watching ‘The Blair Witch Project’, because Bucky opened his fat mouth about it being a rip off of every other horror movie just like it. He’s learning to keep his mouth shut around not just one, but two cinema fanatics. So yeah, now they’re busy proving him wrong, and yes he now knows it was the first hand held, documentary type horror film of its kind. Let alone to be shown in theater.

It’s a good movie, he likes it and they’re paying attention for the most part, when they aren’t caught up in a sudden and pointless conversation.

It’s getting late, dark out by now and the street lights are on outside their large living room window, illuminating the hardwood floor. Honestly, Bucky’s pretty well sidetracked, between the food and beer, the movie playing in front of him, he’s relaxed. It’s not until his phone, sitting on the arm rest right next to him lights up with a small buzz, showing a little reminder on his screen, that he remembers what he’s forgotten.

Time to make a man out of Steve ;)

Fuck, there’s no subtle way to bring it up with Sam right next to Steve. Steve’s too engrossed in the movie to even look at Bucky, so he has no clue what he’s going to do. He actually thinks about just whispering it to him, but the both of them suddenly excusing themselves in the middle of a movie for seemingly no reason? It’s a little suspicious. He can’t say anything upfront either, he would never do that to Steve.

“What’s wrong with you?” Sam says after a long drink from his beer. He’s smiling though, so he’s probably not being serious. It gets Steve’s attention regardless.

“Work stuff,” Bucky says awkwardly, which is such bullshit and everyone knows it.

Steve looks utterly confused. “Work? Is everything okay?” Steve asks. He’s frowning, looking like a guilty puppy.

“Yeah, uh, can I talk to you?” He uses the excuse anyways, it’ll work and he’s not seeing any other chances coming up. “Alone?”

Steve’s still frowning at him, and Sam’s expression is a carbon copy. Steve nods, glancing at Sam with a apologetic look.

“Hey man, it’s fine. I’ll be here getting the last of the pizza while I still can,” he grins, winking at them as Bucky stands up.

“Thanks,” Bucky says before he heads out of the room, towards the stairs. Steve gets up, he hears him say something to Sam before he’s hurrying after Bucky. They could have gone into the hall if they just needed to talk, but if he’s going to give him his shot, they have to be in their bedroom. Which yeah, it draws slightly more attention to the issue, since its all the way upstairs, but it’ll work.

“Buck, what’s wrong?” Steve asks again as he follows after Bucky. He looks like ten different kinds of worried, it’s a pitiful look on him, one he hasn’t had to see since they moved.

“Time for your shot,” Bucky answers as he closes the door behind Steve.

Steve makes a noise, not quite a gasp but it’s an excited noise. “I almost completely forgot,” he says, looking at Bucky with a small grin. “smooth by the way– downstairs?”

Bucky rolls his eyes, grinning briefly as he goes over to the cabinet that their TV sits on and pulls out the little cooler box they keep the sharps container and shots in. “You’re welcome.”

Steve chuckles. He sits on the edge of their bed and the springs creak underneath his shifting weight as he struggles to get his pants down around his ankles. He’s nervously messing with a stray string coming off his boxers while Bucky readies the injection. He always gets himself worked up, he has to shut his eyes so he won’t see the needle and send himself into a panic attack. He’s gotten a little better, but he still can’t do it himself or even watch.

“Ready?” Bucky asks as he crouches down in front of Steve. He’s holding the needle out of sight for Steve’s sake. He looks a little pale and he’s bouncing his knee but he nods anyways.

“Just hurry?” He asks nervously, rubbing his knuckles. “Sam’s waiting.”

Bucky smiles and pecks his lips quickly. “Alright, close your eyes, we’ll do it on three.” He says, putting his free hand on Steve’s other leg, rubbing it comfortingly as he wipes the injection sight with rubbing alcohol. The smell hits them both at roughly the same time and Steve breathes out sharply. It’s been almost four and a half months since he’s started hormones and he still manages to get himself worked up every time. Bucky got over the initial panic that came with stabbing your boyfriend with a needle after the second time he gave it to him.

Bucky gives Steve’s leg a gentle squeeze. “It’s okay, deep breathes.”

“Okay, yeah,” Steve hisses, trying to make his breathing a little less strained.

“One,” Bucky says softly as he airs off the last of the rubbing alcohol and checks the needle for any bubbles or clouding. There’s none, of course, but it’s important to check. “Two,” he taps the side and Steve squirms a little in anticipation. He panics if he goes too fast, but he hates when Bucky takes too long, so far there hasn’t been a happy medium. “Okay, deep breath, and three.”

He pokes the needle into the meat of Steve’s thigh and slowly lets the liquid empty. Steve holds his breath even despite Bucky’s advice, but at least it’s over.

“There. All done,” Bucky promises as he pulls the needle out and tosses it into the sharps container. Steve opens his eyes to look, instead he looks behind Bucky over his shoulder and his mouth just sort of hangs open.

“Shit, this isn’t the bathroom, huh?” Sam says from the doorway and Bucky stands up immediately. He looks at Sam sternly, standing in front of Steve in an instant like it might shield him. It only does a little.

“Get out,” Bucky snaps and Sam puts his hands up in surrender.

“Hey man, it was just an accident, for real,” Sam says, brow furrowing. He backs up slightly more into the doorway than before regardless.

Steve makes a small noise of disapproval and tugs Bucky’s shirt from behind but he ignores it. This exactly what he was trying to avoid. “Get out.”

“Bucky, please–it’s too late,” Steve says pathetically and Bucky’s stomach clenches. He feels so fucking bad. Why couldn’t he lock a door? It should’ve been common sense.

Meanwhile, Sam’s hovering like he isn’t quite sure what he’s supposed to do. Bucky sighs heavily and folds his arms over his chest. It’s a move he knows for a fact is fairly intimidating.

“Just come in, it’s…fine,” Steve says, still clutching the back of Bucky’s shirt. Steve sounds far from fine himself, he sounds scared and upset. He has every right to be. With the situation, with Bucky.

Sam nods, walks in all the way and shuts the door behind him. He’s apparently more intelligent than Bucky’s been giving him credit for though, because he keeps his mouth shut and doesn’t say word. He stays silent, staring at them blankly.

“If you say a god damn word-”

“Bucky,” Steve frowns, standing up and tugging his pants back onto his hips. He steps to the side, so Bucky’s no longer covering him. He’s not terribly happy about that, because now he isn’t really doing much to protect him, or much of anything really, but he lets Steve speak for himself.

He doesn’t say anything though, he’s looking at Sam waiting for the questions he’s sure will come.

“You’re uh, so you’re a girl?” Sam asks, and he’s blatantly aware he’s walking on thin ice. Bucky’s about ready to snap the guy’s neck. The worst part, is he looks genuinely confused, like he’s actually not sure. How fucking dumb can you be?

Bucky practically growls, “No, he’s not a girl.” Is this asshole serious right now? He looks serious. Bucky can’t fathom the idiocy it takes to assume, after everything, that Steve is a girl.

Steve sighs, his lip is pink and a little puffy from where he’s been biting and pulling at it for the majority of the conversation. He’s considerably calmer than Bucky, and it’s probably because he’s dealt with this before, but that just makes him even more angry. He shouldn’t have to. “I’m a guy, I’m trans,” Steve responds simply, and he puts it in a way that’s sweet and fairly blatant, while he’s still leaving room for question. He’s not sure how Steve does it.

A little lightbulb might as well appear over Sam’s head, judging by the way his eyes light up in understanding. Fucking finally. “So like,” he pauses, looking at Steve like he doesn’t want to say the wrong thing, but Steve nods at him to continue. He’s pointedly not looking at Bucky, by the way, which is even more annoying. “Born female? But, you’re a dude?”

Steve actually laughs, “yeah, pretty much.” He looks hopeful, like he’s practically praying Sam’s going to understand and actually accept it. It makes Bucky’s stomach get knots in it, because Steve deserves all the acceptance in the world, even from this moron.

Sam nods again. “Okay,” he says simply and Bucky’s going to scream. Okay? That’s what he has to say?

“That’s okay?”

Sam snorts, shrugging. “Yeah, that’s okay. I’ve always known you as Steve, so, you’re Steve,” Sam says like it’s the obvious answer. It should be, but it isn’t always.

Bucky’s a little more relaxed, but his guard is still on high.

“Thank you,” Steve smiles, Sam shoves his hands in his pockets and nods with a small smile.

“Yeah, I had to pause the damn movie for you two though, you were taking forever.”

Bucky glares at him, because really? “I was giving my boyfriend a fucking testosterone shot,” he says incredulously.

“Bucky, it’s okay, relax,” Steve smiles. He turns and stands in front of him, wrapping his arms around Bucky’s middle. He lets him because it’s his Steve, and he can do whatever he wants as far as he’s concerned.

“I don’t see him lining up to jab metal and liquid into you,” Bucky grumbles back. He cards a hand through Steve’s hair while pointedly glaring at Sam over his shoulder.

“The shot? I can, next time,” Sam offers like it’s seriously no big deal.

Steve grins at Bucky, looking up the little ways he has to in order to make eye contact. “Not happening,” Bucky says flatly and Sam grins. It’s a challenged sort of look regardless.

“Don’t say I didn’t offer,” Sam responds with a smirk.

The way Bucky sees it, since he’s been putting up with Sam all day, the witty comments, idiocy, and overall stress, he better get laid later.

[rejeansthoughts]

“Content Creation”

It is now week 4 of my Intro to Social Media lecture and with the exception of me not being late to class for once, it has been mainly the same so far; interesting. The lessons continue to be of an informative nature that plays into my interests with social media in the PR field. This week’s lesson dealt with the content ecosystem which highlights how many different digital/social communication outlets there are and to be honest, it is quite overwhelming. Looking at the PowerPoint slides outlining each one with their respective categories made my head hurt a bit and makes me wonder how some people keep track of all these outlets but hey, that’s why I’m here in this program.


The lecture led to sites that deal with content creation like YouTube, fanfiction, and blogs like the one you are currently wasting your time reading….unless you’re my professor. There are so many different ways you can create and release content online with all these different outlets to different audiences and niches. Even a review you left on TripAdvisor for that 2-star motel you stayed in to save money or the 12th Reddit post about your dog on r/aww is considered content creation. No matter the idea you have, there is somewhere online that you can post it to which is incredible. There’s so much out there to be discovered, created, and shared online which this lesson conveys.



Our third segment of the class went into Social Media campaigns, specifically for Television and Movies which I felt was the cherry on top of the lecture. The slide led to a picture of the ad campaign for the film District 9 and immediately, my nerd instincts started to fight to come out. It hurt just a little bit knowing my classmates didn’t recognize the movie but I digress. It highlighted how companies tend to go outside of the norm to promote their product. In this case, the ad campaign for District 9 was reminiscent of the days of colored segregation in the United States but with Extra Terrestrials. The posters of the film were placed around conventions like Comic-Con to get people talking about what they are seeing and to investigate.

This ad campaign made me think back to some of my favorite ad campaigns for media which went outside of the norm. The Blair Witch Project film in the 90s went against other run of the mill horror movies by advertising the movie as if it was a real documentary and not just a feature film, and it worked in their favor making millions. Paranormal Activity in recent years as well succeeded by doing this, but by advertising only the audience watching the movie. Just the clips of the audience sitting in a dark theater getting the shit scared out of them were enough to make a massive profit. Lastly, the film Chronicle had an ad campaign where the creators of the film made human-like figures from pieces of plastic and attached them to drones to fly around New York. This represented the main characters in the film gaining powers and being able to fly.

I enjoyed the lesson for what it was, especially the ad campaign discussion. Maybe I’ll look into getting into ad campaign creation for the film industry if my current path seems to fall through.

[char27martin]

Writing Monsters: What Makes a Monster Scary?

Editor’s Note: The following excerpt is composed of selections from the second chapter of Writing Monsters by Philip Athans. Don’t miss Athans’ live webcast, Scare and Share Alike: Writing and Selling Horror Fiction, on Halloween (10/31/17). 

Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash

What Makes a Monster Scary?

by Philip Athans

I’d like to meet the first person who ever ate a lobster.

Imagine being the first woman or man to pick up that horrible, red-brown spider-thing with terrifying claws and twitching antennae and saying, “Yum!” To me, a lobster is a giant bug with claws—I’d have run screaming from a lobster. But now we know what a lobster is and what it tastes like and that it isn’t really dangerous. The only thing scary about it is the unknowable mystery of its “market price.”

We’ll want our monsters to maintain a greater degree of mystery, or at least begin with a greater degree of mystery than that.

Start by asking …

WHAT ARE PEOPLE AFRAID OF?

I asked myself this question while working on a fantasy novel in which I envisioned a world overrun by demons. In an effort to build a sense of increasing danger in the book, each new sort of demon my characters meet is more dangerous, more powerful, and more frightening than the last. To do this, I decided to look at my readers’ deepest fears and inject those fears into the demons. So off to the Internet I went in search of the top ten phobias. This is what I found:

1. Arachnophobia (fear of spiders) 2. Social Phobia (fear of a hostile audience) 3. Pteromerhanophobia (fear of flying) 4. Agoraphobia (fear of an inability to escape) 5. Claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces) 6. Acrophobia (fear of heights) 7. Emetophobia (fear of vomit or vomiting) 8. Carcinophobia (fear of cancer) 9. Astraphobia (fear of thunder and lightning) 10. Taphophobia (fear of being buried alive)

… Phobias take common fears to the pathological level. If these are the ten most common phobias (and I’ve found a few different lists, so your search may yield slightly different results), then there’s a good chance that someone who is reading your book, seeing your movie, or playing your game will have one or more of them to some degree. And even if your readers don’t completely collapse at the sight of a spider, they probably share at least a common uneasiness in the presence of one … or worse, many spiders!

To create that sense of progression and escalation of danger, I simply reversed that top ten list so the final, scariest demon embodies the most prevalent phobia. That means the lowest-level demon comes up from underground and pulls you down and buries you alive, and the “boss” demon is a spider, or something that looks and/or behaves like a spider. As it turns out, those are fairly easy fears to apply to a monster or demon, but what about pteromerhanophobia, the fear of flying? Richard Matheson made quite a splash in 1961 with the short story “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” in which a poor soul suffering from pteromerhanophobia encounters the dreaded gremlin tearing pieces out of the wing of the plane he’s flying in. This story became one of the most famous episodes of The Twilight Zone, a vehicle for a young William Shatner. […]

But please don’t think that triggering your audience’s phobic responses is the only way to make your monsters terrifying. In a broader sense, monsters are scary because …

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THEY ARE UNPREDICTABLE

Can that lobster take your hand off with one of those claws? Turns out, no, but if it could and you weren’t expecting it … that would be pretty scary, right? In real life we know they can’t hurt us, and that makes them predictable, and predictability is the enemy of horror. But add an unexpected element to a predictable situation and you enhance the potential for fear.

Humans tend to have a pretty good sense of what another human is going to do next. We can tell via body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice when someone is getting angry or upset. We sense when things might get out of control or violent. But monsters don’t necessarily give out those human signals. This is a creature, after all, outside our normal experience. Who knows what it’ll do next?

We’ll discuss setting rules for your monsters and how important it is that you follow those rules, but keep in mind that while you know the rules that govern your monster, your characters don’t. In fact, the less your characters know about what a monster can and can’t do, the better. It’s this unpredictability that will keep your readers on the edge of their seats, playing into the power of the imagination.

THEY HAVE A DISTURBING CAPACITY FOR VIOLENCE

Monsters don’t just attack you; they attack you in particularly gruesome ways, as shown

in this paragraph from the short story “The Little Green God of Agony” by horror master Stephen King.

Melissa had seen where the thing came from and even in her panic was wise enough to cover her own mouth with both hands. The thing skittered up her neck, over her cheek, and squatted on her left eye. The wind screamed and Melissa screamed with it. It was the cry of a woman drowning in the kind of pain the charts in the hospitals can never describe. The charts go from one to ten; Melissa’s agony was well over one hundred—that of someone being boiled alive. She staggered backwards, clawing at the thing on her eye. It was pulsing faster now, and Kat could hear a low, liquid sound as the thing resumed feeding. It was a slushy sound.  (From the anthology The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Four, edited by Ellen Datlow.)

Want to scare the crap out of someone? Go for the eyes. It’s up to you to set the degree of “goriness” your story will contain. Movies like The Blair Witch Project are terrifying without spilling a drop of blood, while some contemporary “torture porn” films, like the movie Hostel, are gross, even disturbing, but scary?

I tend to describe “gore” as unmotivated violence—a violent scene done badly, in which all the reader gets is a sense of the quantity of blood and guts without the emotional and psychological (read: character) connection of well-written violent action. ��� Take a second look at the example [above] from Stephen King. No blood. There is some yucky language in there (“It was a slushy sound.”) but mostly we get Melissa’s experience of this cringeworthy act of violence and her efforts, however vain, to make it stop.

Exploring truly disturbing events can be difficult for many authors to work through, in the horror genre in particular. But fantasy and science fiction—really any genre of fiction—can ask you to plumb your own psychological depths. So what scares you? A little creature that eats your eyes first? Is that disturbing enough for the psychological sweet spot you’re trying to hit? […]

OUR IMAGINATION MAKES THEM SCARIER

Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” And the human imagination is pretty powerful. How many times have you imagined something will be absolutely terrifying—a roller coaster, a job interview, a scary movie—and when it’s over you immediately say, “That wasn’t so bad.”

And another great quote: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Franklin Roosevelt wasn’t talking about Godzilla or Dracula, but he may as well have been. This plays back to the idea of unpredictability and “otherness.”

We have no idea what to expect from this thing and no way to determine its motives, so we start to fill in the blanks with conjecture, which tends to make something quite a bit more terrifying than it should be. Our imagination, and thus our fears, becomes the true monster in this case.

This application of our imagination can work in many ways. As stated above, we can fear something we don’t know, but a lot of monster stories start with monsters that are scary and then turn out to be nice. Th e Beast from Beauty and the Beast is an example from classic fairy tales, and  Frankenstein’s monster is another, a creature who looks terrifying but is layered, emotional, and yearning for understanding … and later, revenge.

In another way, creatures may seem harmless because they appeal to the softer, friendlier side of our imagination, but become monstrous when their true nature is revealed. Star Trek’s tribbles are an excellent example for this. When the crew of the Enterprise first encounters tribbles, their assumptions take over. They imagine the tribbles to be cute and harmless but have no specific information about their true nature. The tribbles slowly reveal themselves over the course of the story to be a sort of plague, like a swarm of locusts. Assumption and imagination can be very dangerous.

Play with the assumptions of your characters in this way, and you’ll be playing with the assumptions of your readers right along with them. We also have a tendency to assume that many of the sentient beings we encounter have a certain sense of right and wrong, or at the very least a sense of their role in relation to other beings around them and what they must do to not just survive but coexist and thrive, but monsters can be particularly scary when they seem to lack these assumed morals. …

THEY ARE BEYOND OUR CONTROL

Humans generally like to be in charge. We spend a lot of time trying to control our weight, our relationships, our personal finances, our schedules, everything. We even try to control others by taking classes to learn how to train our dogs, motivate our employees, and so on. So what happens when a monster makes its way onto our starship and simply won’t follow our rules? It eats what and when—and who—it wants to eat. It bleeds metal-dissolving acid all over the place without regard for the hard vacuum of space just a bulkhead away. You can’t negotiate with a monster. You can’t calmly tell a Denebian slime devil, “Okay, wait. I’m going to go to the store and buy you a bunch of steak—don’t eat me in the meantime.” That monster does what it does, and it neither seeks nor respects your opinion.

Simply put, monsters don’t play by our rules—and that scares us.

THEY ARE TERRIFYING IN APPEARANCE

Here’s another example from H.P. Lovecraft , from the classic short story “Pickman’s Model.”

It was a colossal and nameless blasphemy with glaring red eyes, and it held in bony claws a thing that had been a man, gnawing at the head as a child nibbles at a stick of candy. Its position was a kind of crouch, and as one looked one felt that at any moment it might drop its present prey and seek a juicier morsel. But damn it all, it wasn’t even the fiendish subject that made it such an immortal fountainhead of all panic—not that, nor the dog face with its pointed ears, bloodshot eyes, flat nose, and drooling lips. It wasn’t the scaly claws nor the mould-caked body nor the half-hooved feet—none of these, though any one of them might well have driven an excitable man to madness.

Frightening, but here’s an interesting take on description: Lovecraft goes to great length to describe a foul-looking creature here, but it is made more ominous by also describing what it’s doing (gnawing on “… a thing that had been a man …”) and what it might do next (“… seek a juicier morsel.”). And it’s important to keep in mind that not all monsters have to appear classically “scary” in order to be so.

In Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, author Ransom Riggs describes a less traditional but no less unsettling creature.

But these weren’t the kind of monsters that had tentacles and rotting skin, the kind a seven-year-old might be able to wrap his mind around—they were monsters with human faces, in crisp uniforms, marching in lockstep, so banal you don’t recognize them for what they are until it’s too late.

This monster has the ability to hit closer to home, describing the human potential to become inhuman through political, military, and/or social assimilation. Not as frightening as a “nameless blasphemy with glaring red eyes,” but equally monstrous on the inside.

Read more about what makes monsters scary and learn more about creating them in Writing Monsters.

This excerpt is from Writing Monsters by Philip Athans. Athans is the founding partner of Athans & Associates Creative Consulting, and the New York Times best-selling author of Annihilation and more than a dozen other fantasy and horror books including The Guide to Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction. Born in Rochester, New York he grew up in suburban Chicago, where he published the literary magazine Alternative Fiction & Poetry. His blog, Fantasy Author’s Handbook, is updated every Tuesday, and you can follow him on Twitter @PhilAthans. He makes his home in the foothills of the Washington Cascades, east of Seattle.

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