Sunday!
In the 1980’s, splat films tended to have a bit of a supernatural flavor. The Friday the 13ths (after the first one, anyway) had Jason Voorhees, the Nightmares had Freddy Krueger, the Hellraisers were, if not demons, something from another plane of existence, and I think that this was a welcome change from the splat films from the 70’s (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, Last House on the Left, etc).
Of course, things happen in cycles and we ebb and flow from “that couldn’t happen” to “let’s make a movie about what *COULD* happen” and the 80’s supernatural horror flicks were supplanted by another round of the not supernatural at all Screams and the Saws and the Hostels.
We had a bit of a supernatural resurgence with the movies like The Ring and The Grudge and, if this trailer is representative of anything at all, we’re going to be kicking off a nice little round of the exploration of the “theoretically feasible” horror flicks for a handful of years.
And, if I’m reading the trailer correctly, it looks like we’re getting back to the splat films where we can discuss the moral of the story after we get to the end of the film. Even if the moral is some “Brothers Grimm” level “don’t go into the houses of strangers, seriously” kind of morals.
So… what are you reading and/or watching?
(Featured Image is “Edison’s Telephonoscope” by George du Maurier from Punch Almanack for 1879)
This vacation has been good for reading. I finished Go Set a Watchman right away. I’m almost finished with Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell, and I’m halfway through The Sellout by Paul Beatty. This morning I started The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer. For the 16 hours of plane rides home on Wednesday, I’ll polish off those I haven’t finished and follow up with American Gods.
There’s no television of any kind on this vacation so I’ll have catch up on that later.
Also, Pandora has informed me that it does not work in Japan. What the fish?! 🙁Report
Maybe try a vpn or something that spoofs US local ip?Report
My wife and daughter are leaving town next week, and I have a whole bunch of chores I can do in front of the TV. I can even watch stuff I can’t watch in front of Lain.
On heavy recommendation, I’m pushing Stranger Things (or whatever it’s called) to the front of the queue. Need to get caught up on The Americans and close out Persons of Interest. I will probably not get to watch that much, but if I do then I have Arrow/Flash/etc after.
Audiobookwise, I’m listening to something nobody’s ever heard of. I did finally finish the Count of Monte Cristo!Report
Viewer discretion, Will. Watching Stranger Things will make you stay up late. Really late.Report
Just finished Look to Windward. Of the Culture books I’ve read, this was the biggest disappointment. Much too long for the story it tells, so it’s very repetitive, and the usual “this is what was really going on, but only the machines knew about it” ending fell flat.Report
Look to Windward — that’s the one focused on a specific orbital, right? Kind of a loose ending to Consider Phlebas?
That one’s got to be really read as a companion to Inversions and Excession. Those three books are kind of a view of how the Culture really sees and deals with other societies — specifically ones well below it technologically (a medieval-esque society in Inversions), one that surpasses the Culture like the do the medieval (Excession) and one (well really two) how the Culture handles other ‘similar’ level societies (Look to Windward and Consider Phlebas. CP Is more about how the Culture handles total war, and much prefers not to do that).
Then again, most of the Culture novels boil down to “We’re Utopia. To stay that way, we’re nasty, underhanded, cruel, and not above using ANYONE or ANYTHING. Or morals can be quite flexible, we can be quite nasty, and in general you should wish you were us. But we like playing space hippies, so as long as you don’t screw with us — or annoy us, or fail to live up to OUR morals — we won’t remake your society to something we like a little better”).
Sometimes they even feel bad about it. Doesn’t stop them.Report