#true horror mysteries: the babysitter killer

[graphicpolicy]

Preview: True Horror Mysteries: The Babysitter Killer and Other Terrifying Tales

True Horror Mysteries: The Babysitter Killer and Other Terrifying Tales preview. Nearly 50 years ago, the youth of Oakland County, Michigan fell prey to the twisted whims of The Babysitter Killer #comics #comicbooks

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#comic books #Comics #gabriel jardim #juan francrisco mota #ken janssens #leonardo colapietro #massimilano la manno #maxflan araujo #taylor esposito #true horror mysteries #true horror mysteries: the babysitter killer #zenescope

[anotherrosesthatfell]

I honestly never make Alive angst opinion on everyone- 💀 (or if I did, then I forgot 💀) so let's go. I will also change some of his old opinion to new one because Cherry and I uncovered the dark side of Angst

Sunflower Au belong to @abloomingsunflower / @itzcherrybonbon

His personality explanation:

Angst is quiet and mysterious man. No one actually hang out with him expect for Gradient. (Plus Angst is depressing 💀)

He is a bookworm and very intelligent. Angst never reveal his full power unless he snapped.

Appearance:

He wear royal clothing in some occasions but mostly wear comfy clothing. On his daily life, you can see he wearing a red scarf and pairs of black earrings.

Magic/Power:

This dude is stronger than corrupted Nightmare. Only in E.L.A of course- yet, he never use his full power.

Angst power is almost alike to E.L.A Lily. His power is 10/10, second strongest after Dream. Even if Palette and Lux awaken their true form, Angst is still stronger.

Other than that, he has the ability to see ghosts even memories from the past when he touch an old object (or a person)

His opinion on people he knows

Adult

Dream

"Dream Light, the king of sun. Rumours says he committed many crimes years ago by letting the wars to happen. How did I know it? Well, let's just say I have little friends to tell me."

Ink

"Ink Comyet or her now name, Ink Light. Hmm.... Honestly this woman has another last name but I don't think I should mention it. She drinks to forget her loveless marriage. How sad..."

Swap/Blue

"The ex royal guard. He was very useful to the light kingdom. Sadly, father took his power away... This is why people sometimes should live quietly."

Hope

"The last witch of this generation or should I say the current Queen of witches? People think witches extinct but there are many of them, hiding and not knowing their abilities... Hope, she know witches are hiding but she didn't do a thing about it. All she said was 'it's better to move on'... ... But I am more interested about the revengeful spirit watching her."

Error

"the destroyer and the man who lose his wife. I am not fond of him and him too, hating me."

Alphonse (corrupted nightmare)

"I hate father."

Killer

"mother... I don't sympathize with mother at all. It feels bored to do it... Mother has the witch to support her."

Cross

"the babysitter, he had a crush on mother until he met Albedo. Hmm, I remember he used to protect mother and us from the abused... I don't like him after knowing what he has done to the king of light kingdom. He don't even know Lux is his daughter."

Dust

"A pawn of father. I am surprised she didn't run away with Swap when she had the chance... Stupid woman, she could live a happy life but instead she chose to stay."

Horror

"the most sympathetic man I know... I like to eat his cooking."

Albedo

"That Albedo guy, I seen him carries many sins in his back. His emotions are overwhelming and lots of negativity.."

Ship children

Palette

"a bothersome hero. Why grandma chose this weak boy to be a protagonist... He is nothing but a scared little kid. How annoying..."

Goth

"she live a quiet happy life. I am jealous, really. She somehow is able to sealed her ability to see spirits but that can't stop her curse of having a deadly touch."

Lux

"Ah yes, the antagonist of 'Palette story'. Can you believe it? A little girl who were abandoned by her parents and isolated from the world, was chosen to be the antagonist... Isn't it a sad reality? Yet, she is very intelligent which is I like it."

Merciless

"My heart dropped when I found out my dear little brother is the sidekick of the antagonist. Hmm... Well I don't mind it, he is strong one. I believe he do well to destroy this dammed world."

Crescent

"My 'twin brother'. I am ashamed to have someone like him to be my brother... He believes in whatsoever God and he is in love with Palette, someone who is younger than him... Love is love my ass.. All he love is the ideal of having Palette."

Artemis - @abloomingsunflower

"My little sister is the sidekick of the protagonist. Sad reality isn't it? Now my little brother has to fight our naive little sister. I wonder when will there's a timeline where she found out I know how many times she died. I want to laugh thinking about it, I hope she will start to live quietly when she found out."

Gradient

"My 'friend'. It's not like I love his attention or affection anyway, I just got used to him. Since he made me feels like this, he should take the responsibility."

Paperjam

"I don't know much about her. Gradient only says the same thing over and over again. Luckily, a silly ghost told me she has a crush on Crescent."

Spirits

Nim

"grandma can be nice sometime but mostly she just complain about her old life. It was nice when she sang a lullaby."

Passive nightmare

"The revengeful spirit who is guiding Lux and watching over Hope. He is the one my father hate the most... He look nothing like Merciless. If father open his eye, Merciless face resemble mother. He is a bit annoying and lose himself while playing this useless game."

Lanny

"The Queen of magic. She has no descendant to manage her kingdom. Now the magical kingdom is nothing but forest for remaining mystical creatures."

Quetzalcoatl

"He hates my father for taking over his kingdom and manages it badly."

Bonus (what if!)

Vivi - @canon-vi

"the daughter of Dream and Ink. She is not on Palette side rather on Merciless and Lux side. It was a nice sight. Just image having your own sister to choose people who killed you... Artemis can relate to that."

Starcross

"he was an annoying brat but I'll be glad to educate him some manners. Maybe I should let him know that he is capable of taking Palette's power."

Callisto

"The child of Hope and Dream. He has a very handsome face and very respectful despite hating me. Pfft, I like to see this now prince of witches capable of."

Tasya - @canon-vi

"Ah, Hope died because of her? Hmm... She has a little elemental magic such as to grow plants unfortunately she don't realize it yet. I should lend her some witchcraft books."

Shelki - @canon-vi

"A petty little ghost told me this little one got a deadly kiss as her curse. She can't see spirits that well... It should stay like that or else I'll to take action."

Lily

"she's a very interesting little one. Unfortunately, I must hate her actions on making my dear little brother traumatized. She can torture Palette as much as she want but she should never touch my little brother... And I will make her regret it."

#evil lux au #angst sans #undertale au #ship child #a sunflower in full bloom au #dream sans #ink sans #passive nightmare sans #corrupted nightmare sans #dust sans #horror sans #swap sans #Lux sans #merciless sans #crescent sans #Artemis sans #palette sans #lily sans #LilyLunætic

[spookyshipperfics]

Do You Like Scary Movies? Fic Masterlist

Find me on ao3

This collection of fics has Scully and Mulder entering the universes of iconic horror movies.

*MSR is always the main focus. *No knowledge of the movies is required before reading. *These are NOT scary, but any warnings will be provided when necessary.

**********

Bigger Boat - ao3

Scully and Mulder investigate a mysterious pair of shark attacks off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, but things aren’t exactly as they appear.

Jaws Inspired / Words: 9,658 / Rating: E

If You Were That Stoned, What? - ao3

Scully and Mulder head to Camp Crystal Lake to investigate the grounds, but things are derailed by partying camp counselors. Instead of breaking up the party, though, they become a part of it.

Friday the 13th Inspired / Words: 4,284 / Rating: M

Vacancy - a03

On the way to a case, Scully and Mulder lose their battle against the rain and have to spend the night at the Bates Motel. Smuttiness ensues.

Psycho Inspired / Words: 2,859 / Rating: E

I Don't Want to Talk - a03

Scully’s grief over losing Emily returns on a new case, and she turns to Mulder for unexpected comfort.

Rosemary's Baby Inspired / Words: 1,159 / Rating: M

What Lurks in the Forest - a03

Hikers are missing. Stories of an ancient being are whispered by the locals. Mulder drags Scully to the forest to investigate. Something strange is keeping them from the truth, but it only pushes them closer together.

The Ritual Inspired / Words: 8,285 / Rating: E

Darkened Skies - a03

Scully and Mulder help out Skinner when bird attacks derail his vacation to a seaside cottage. Everything changes after they are forced to take cover in a phone booth.

The Birds Inspired / Words: 1,719 / Rating: E

Viewing Experience - a03

Mulder and Scully have a scary movie night that inspires them to reveal their feelings. Basically, the ’90s version of “Netflix and Chill.”

The Exorcist Inspired / Words: 1,951 / Rating: T

These Dreams - a03

While unwinding at a bar, things get a little bit awkward, a little bit silly, and A LOT flirty when Mulder asks Scully about her dreams.

Nightmare on Elm Street Inspired / Words: 1,919 / Rating: M

These Dreams (Part 2) - a03

This is a follow-up to These Dreams. Now that Mulder and Scully have confessed their dirty, secret, and unprofessional dreams to each other, they set about making them come true.

Nightmare on Elm Street Inspired / Words: 1,655 / Rating: E

Talk to Me - a03

Scully and Mulder are broken up, but when feelings about William resurface, Mulder tries to comfort her in his own way. Takes place somewhere early in the revival, meaning there is angst.

Frankenstein Inspired / Words: 1,142 / Rating: E

Boyfriend - a03

Scully and Mulder might have recently crossed into a romantic relationship, but that doesn’t mean she wants to call him her boyfriend. However, when Mulder surprises her while babysitting her godson, it has Scully questioning her stance on labels.

Halloween Inspired / Words: 3,056 / Rating: M

The Finer Things - a03

Scully and Mulder are sent undercover onboard a luxury train to investigate the presence of a suspicious and undocumented train car. Playing a wealthy married couple is tricky, but they run into even bigger issues when an unwelcomed agent gets sent in for backup.

Horror Express Inspired / Words: 15,681 / Rating: E

Unprofessional - a03

Scully isn't happy when a case sends them to a New Orleans swamp. She's even less thrilled when a local tour guide gets the hots for Mulder and invites him to dinner.

Hatchet Inspired / Words: 1,876 / Rating: E

Something - a03

Mulder is ready for something more with Scully, but his hopes for romance shatter when he realizes Scully has reconnected with her ex-boyfriend.

Trick 'r Treat Inspired / Words: 1,787 / Rating: T

Discussing the Case - a03

While investigating the Babysitter Killer, the local PD files a misconduct complaint against Scully and Mulder. They swear it’s a misunderstanding, but if they want to keep their jobs, Skinner has to shadow them, ensuring the allegations of “unnecessary touching” and “standing too close together” aren’t true.

Halloween H20 Inspired / Words: 8,397 / Rating: E

Fascinating - a03

An awkward hiking scenario results in Mulder and Scully sharing a tent. The problem... Skinner is also there.

Blair Witch Inspired / Words: 1,405 / Rating: M

Fascinating (Part 2) - a03

Scully and Mulder continue their hike in the woods after the new development in their relationship. If only Skinner wasn't around to witness it.

Blair Witch Inspired / Words: 1,651 / Rating: T

#the x files fanfic #x files fanfic #msr fanfic #msr

[just-somehuman]

INTRODUCTION I'M POSTING TWO YEARS AFTER I STARTED THIS BLOG LMAO ✨

Silly Wanderer header lol

A little about me ~☆

Names I go by: Nemo, Lune or my username on any social platform you find me on (there's a lot)🕺

Gender and sexuality: Female, heterosexual

Religion/faith: Christianity. Denomination: protestant - methodist.

Interests: music, composition, writing, reading, gaming, astronomy, genetic engineering, science in general lol, programming

Instruments I play: piano (11 years), recorder (7 years), saxophone (2 years). The hand drum was my first instrument (11 years ago) but I stopped playing it after I started the piano 😭

Fanfictions I write: Obey Me!, AyakashiRR, AOT, and Genshin fanfictions. They are most commonly angst, however I do have two psychological and supernatural horrors in the works!

Novels I write: I actually have no idea. It's just a variety, I guess. My personal favourite that I've written is a fable (made that one wayyy too dark for a children's story). Currently, I'm writing a science fiction book.

_________________________________________

Fandoms I'm actively in ~☆

Games:

- Obey Me!

- Obey Me! Nightbringer

- Ayakashi: Romance Reborn

- Genshin Impact

- Honkai Star Rail

- Starry Love

- Legend of the Phoenix

- Tamashi: Rise of Yokai

- MazM: Phantom of the Opera

- My Child Lebensborn

- Mysterious Forum and Seven Rumours

- Matsuro Palette

- Guilty Parade

- Life Gallery

- Project Sekai

- Cat Museum

- Fran Bow

- Iron Lung

- Mr Hopp's Playhouse

- No Players Online

- Sentient

- I also play Roblox btw 💀 I've only been playing Royale High lately though.

- All Over Me (Roblox)

- Jim's Computer (Roblox)

Animes:

- Attack on Titan

- Himouto! Umaru-Chan

- Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto

- One Punch Man

- Junji Ito Collection

- School Babysitters

- Theater of Darkness: Yamishibai

- The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.

- Parasite: The Maxim

- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

- Kagewani

- Jujutsu Kaisen 0

- Orenchi no Furo Jijou

- I'm currently watching many, but these are all the ones I've finished

Web series:

- The Walten Files

- UrbanSPOOK

- Vita Carnis

- Interface

- Mandela Catalogue/Magazine

- Ashur Gharavi

- brandon works

Other:

- Hallo Aus Berlin ❤

- EKT

_________________________________________

Fandoms I'm not actively in ~☆

- Ikemen Vampire

- AFTERL!FE: The Sacred Kaleidoscope

- Midnight Cinderella

- Dangerous Fellows

- Mystic Messenger

- LoveUnholyc (dunno how to spell it 💀)

- Tears of Themis

- Vocaloid

- FNF

_________________________________________

Fandoms I'm interested in ~☆

- Twisted Wonderland

- Sally Face

- FNAF

- Omori

- The Backrooms

- Little Misfortune

- Little Nightmares

- Hazbin Hotel

- Danganronpa

- Undertale

- The Amazing Digital Circus

- Devil May Cry

- Final Fantasy

- Resident Evil

- my eyes deceive

_________________________________________

Content I post here ~☆

It's mainly Obey Me! and AyakashiRR, occasionally Genshin Impact or something else. I used to post a lot of AOT, I might get back into that. Anyways, what you can expect to find is:

- In game screenshots and my two cents 💀

- Memes/fake tweets

- Headcannons

- Fanfictions (mainly angst. I don't do NSFW)

- Theories. I theorise and over-analyse a lot 💀

- My rambling and ranting about random stuff 🤡

- SLANDER 💃

- Sometimes there's just completely random stuff that is completely out of place but whatever

_________________________________________

Other stuff I'm interested in ~☆

- Urban legends

- Paranormal stuff

- Internet mysteries

- True crime

- So you know Nexpo, Snarled's "Something Scary" volumes, Leminio, and the Infographics Show's serial killer videos? Yeah, that. All of that.

_________________________________________

This is just a summary of stuff. I've probably missed a lot since I'm focusing on not burning the brownies I have in the oven right now (it's my first time baking 💀) and I just wrote off the top of my head.

ANYWAYS, WELCOME TO MY BLOG. IF I WERE TO DESCRIBE IT IN A WORD, IT WOULD BE "CHAOTIC". OKAY BYE.

#AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THIS TOOK TOO LONG TO WRITE #gonna go check on my brownies brb #I WILL POST AN UPDATE #💃🕺

[sobbingdistantnoises]

1, 18, 24, 32, 34 and 40 for the obscure asks!

1. What's your favorite way to dress?

I honestly don't care too much about how I look, so I just put on a random shirt + leggings, and I'm good. I do really like wearing jackets and hoodies though, so that might count as a way to dress, lol

18. What animal would you keep as a pet if you could?

Probably a cat since that's my favorite animal, kinda doubt I'll ever get a pet though :')

24. What is your favorite thing to learn about?

Mostly random facts about bands!! It doesn't even matter whether I actively listen to the band a lot of the time, although I do tend to remember more stuff about bands I do like. Dee Dee Ramone's mom called herself Tony, there's a flower named after Freddie Mercury, Euronymous liked Coca-Cola, Sebastian Bach's babysitter did some ritual to him with a bunch of other people when he was a small child, Bruce Dickinson tried to start a pencil lending thing in school but only managed to get his pencils stolen. Just some random stuff off the top of my head!

32. Do you have any strange interests?

My obsession with various bands would probably count as strange with the extent I go with it, but something else would probably be crime/horror/mystery type stuff

I was obsessive over Danganronpa (a series of visual novel games based on finding the killer from a group of people you're stuck in a place with) for an entire year, and I'm still waiting for the final chapter of Your Turn To Die (another visual novel game based on figuring things out, but this one's more about figuring out which person in your group of people gets to die each round + other puzzles based on that)

Stuff along the lines of true crime is also pretty interesting to me, although what I know is centered on a few things. The history of the band Mayhem is how I got into them (watched a half hour-ish? long documentary on them and got curious), and now I have a list of various crimes/generally concerning things various black metal musicians have done. Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen are also pretty interesting to me with their past histories and how it cumulated in Nancy's murder. Although it's not crime, I also spent a couple days fixated on Christine Chubbuck and her suicide

I just want to say though, especially with things that have actually happened, I'm definitely not making light of anyone's death or trauma, it's just something that interests me every once in a while!

34. What food do you binge on when you're lazy?

Not really food, but gum! I have a near empty can thing of it in my room right next to me right now honestly, sldfjsk, I'll probably need more soon

40. Do you like light blankets or heavy blankets?

Definitely heavy blankets! Light blankets are okay, but heavy blankets make me feel really safe and cozy :))

#river #asks

[j-o-e-y-22]

Should We Stop Remaking Horror?

The horror genre is no stranger to controversy, from the ‘Video Nasties’ moral panic in the early 1980s to the tying of certain films to real life crimes and murders, the genre has been littered with various things that either make former fans stray or new potential fans not want to engage with it. One type of controversy that many fans will usually agree on is that remakes are usually cash grabs and ghosts of the original source material they’re based off. Whenever the news breaks that a new remake of a beloved classic has started production, everyone goes wild. Sometimes you will hear people hopeful that you’re going to get something that’s on par or better than the original, but on the most part it’s complaints that “the original is perfect, why can’t they just leave it alone.” A lot of the time that statement is true but sometimes you get lucky and find a remake that really encapsulates the series or does something brilliant with the already available scripts.

A film that many feel like do not meet these criteria is the remake of the 1978 American classic Halloween (dir. John Carpenter). Halloween is one of many films people regard as one of the best horror movies of all time, with five different timelines resulting in twelve films (including sequels and two Rob Zombie remakes) with another due October 14th 2022 in the US at the time of writing. From the story of a six-year-old boy who kills his sister unprovoked on Halloween night, escaping the psychiatric hospital he has been held in for the past 15 years and spending the night tormenting and killing babysitters. The whole film has a dark, almost film noire feel to it. Set in middle-class suburbia, both Michael’s upbringing and later final girl Laurie Strode’s lives seem next to normal. Laurie is quiet, reserved and is prime example of the stereotyped ‘virginal final girl’. The remake Halloween (dir. Rob Zombie, 2007) gives us a look into Michael Myers’ childhood. For the first hour we are treated to a family that is unstable, neglectful and abusive. Michael’s mother works in a strip club as a dancer, which his classmates use to taunt and bully him. His sister Judith is rude and talks down to him, as well as ignoring and berating him when he asks to go trick or treating. His other sister, a baby girl named Boo, seems to be the only person other than his mother Michael cares about. Then finally, his abusive stepfather Ronnie, who taunts him with homophobic slurs, leers at his teenage sister and threatens his mother with sexual violence. His childhood painted as a picture of broken Americana; this was all to seemingly give Michael a reasoning for his crimes. “Unfortunately, what seemed like a good idea, humanising a character formerly known as The Shape, in reference to his robot-like demeanour, works against Myers’ strength as an unstoppable killer. No longer the mysterious, quasi-unbeatable, menace he was in the previous eight instalments.” (‘It Lives Again! Horror Movies in the New Millennium’, Carolyn, 2008, pg. 153). Zombie’s Michael has an obscene amount of backstory in the first hour of this film than most of the original series which strips away the mystique built around him, which is a problem a lot of people found when viewing the later sequels of the original series, like Michael’s occult ties. To give Michael a reason for his behaviour ends up being a weakness in every instance creators have tried to do it. As well as this Michael is played almost like Leatherface, but when you consider Zombie’s desperation to remake ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ this merging of personality and character makes a lot more sense. In typical Rob Zombie fashion, there’s plenty of gore and gross out moments, but you can have a fun gory film without gratuitous sexual assault and the overdramatization of Michael’s childhood.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a series with a legacy all horror creators wish for their projects to have. When Wes Craven read about refugees who came to the US for safety, and began to have nightmares, refusing to sleep and suddenly dying once they did, he didn’t realise that the story paired with his own childhood fears could become one of the most renowned series of all time and that it would be the birth of an iconic horror villain. Despite a lot of uncertainty from the people around him, the film was made and distributed by New Line Cinema, bringing it out of near bankruptcy and earning it the name “The House That Freddy Built”. It was finally released on November 9th 1984 in the US making $57 million in the box office, over 50 times it’s original $1.1 million budget. From here spawned six sequels, a tv show, a cross over film with Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th series and finally, the ill-fated remake.

Being produced by Michael Bay’s company Platinum Dunes as the last horror remake in a long line starting with their remake of “’The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2003), 2010’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street” was set up for negative criticism. The first problem with remaking it would most likely be the lack of consultation with the original director Wes Craven, which he later spoke about in a 2009 interview, saying he wouldn’t be seeing it. It released April 30th, 2010, in the US and made $117.7 million in the box office over their $35 million budget. It was a success for Platinum Dunes, but not for a vast amount of horror fans, who felt their favourite character and film had been brought down by lacklustre special effects and a complete disregard for the source material.  When you think about the original film, the practical effects were something that many got into the industry for.  The face pressing up against the wall, in the original being done with latex over a hole in the wall and being replaced with CGI in the remake removes all the creativity from the scenes. Freddy’s cartoonish and almost childish demeanour erased for a Freddy that’s more predatory. His quippy one-liners replaced with sexual innuendos, asking the new Nancy what game they should play, and when she says ‘fuck you’, his response being “sounds like fun.” It’s not even that Freddy has been reverted to Wes Craven’s original idea of having him be a child molester, it’s that his dialogue makes you cringe. Not even in the usual ‘this is wrong’ kind of cringe. Of course, we have the tongue through the phone scene in the original, but this fits in with Freddy’s cartoonish creepy demeanour. He almost loses what made him scary and unpredictable. The series has always been camp and I believe that you can turn a typically comedic horror film into something gritty and scary, but to sway so much with no consultation to the original creator, director Samuel Bayer and writers Eric Heisserer and Wesley Strick had a lot of upset fans on their hands.

But a remake can take a films original source material and turn it into something new and refreshing for the franchise, like Gore Verbinski’s ‘The Ring’ (2002, adapted from Hideo Nakata’s 1998 film ‘Ringu’), or Franck Khalfoun’s ‘Maniac’ (2012, adapted from William Lustig’s 1980 film of the same name).

Taking an overall look at Sam Raimi’s ‘Evil Dead’ series, you can see the clear influences it has borrowed from and leant to other films of its genre. The first film, released in 1981, was made with a budget between $350,000 and $375,000 and earning $2.4 million in the US, needless to say it was a success and since has achieved cult classic status as well as being one of 72 titles in the 'Video Nasties' moral panic of the early 1980s for its obscenity. Evil Dead 2 (1987, dir. Sam Raimi) coming back with a bigger budget, less characters (keeping everyone's favourite Bruce Campbell as Ashley Williams) and a more slapstick tone reminiscent of The Three Stooges. The only thing you can really describe the third instalment, Army of Darkness (1992, dir. Sam Raimi) is Monty Python's Holy Grail meets Evil Dead, set in the Middle Ages is definitely the most absurd and underappreciated entry. Finally, Ash Vs Evil Dead a series with three seasons spanning 2015-2018. “The Evil Dead” (2013, dir Fede Álverez) shows us a new selection of characters, our new Ash being Jane Levy’s Mia, a recovering heroin addict who goes away with her brother and friends so she can try to get clean. As usual, a book bound in human skin and inked in blood is found and read from. What this film does differently to the original is give a good basis for why the characters stay in the cabin, as well as why they don’t believe Mia when she says she was assaulted by something in the woods. However, something that lets this film down is the continued inclusion of the infamous tree scene, a scene director Fede Álvarez wanted to keep away from his film but was encouraged by studio executives to keep it in. This scene drags it down tremendously. Sam Raimi himself felt ashamed having the tree assault in the original film. The same as some horror remakes, The Evil Dead used a lot of blood, over 70,000 litres, 50,000 for the rain of blood in the final scene. But when thinking of a series as bizarre as The Evil Dead it makes sense. As well as the absurdity of the series, each film has something completely different to offer and for a film of the early 2010’s, The Evil Dead (2013) takes the material from all films and delivers a horrifying addition to a series known for its comedy and almost surrealist horror. As well as this, the film still retains all the grimy, gritty aesthetics of the original films and with Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi serving as producers, you can tell this was a film made with love, despite the excessive gore and self-dismemberment.

Horror is divisive, but when you decide to let down your guard around your favourite films of the genre, you may find one or two hidden gems in the remake category. If not, then off to the next one and hope to God that that studio doesn’t get its hands on your pride and joy.

       References

A Nightmare on Elm Street. 1984. [DVD] Directed by W. Craven. United States: New Line Cinema.

A Nightmare on Elm Street. 2010. [DVD] Directed by S. Bayer. United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.

BFI. 2022. Unspooling the history of the video nasty controversy. [online] Available at: <https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/history-british-video-nasties> [Accessed 16 May 2022].

Carolyn, A., 2008. It Lives Again! Horror Movies in the New Millenium. Telos Publishing Ltd.

Clover, C., 1996. Men, women, and chainsaws. London, Eng.: British Film Institute.

Halloween. 1978. [DVD] Directed by J. Carpenter. United States: Compass International Pictures.

Halloween. 2007. [DVD] Directed by R. Zombie. United States: The Weinstein Company.

Hollywoodreporter.com. 2022. Why Rob Zombie’s ‘Halloween’ Divided Audiences – The Hollywood Reporter. [online] Available at: <https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/why-rob-zombies-halloween-divided-audiences-1153213/> [Accessed 16 May 2022].

Nowell, R., 2011. Blood money. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.

Rawls, M. and Rawls, M., 2022. Ten Years Of 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' and the Pitfalls of Remaking A Classic Horror Film. [online] Substream Magazine. Available at: <https://substreammagazine.com/2020/05/ten-years-of-a-nightmare-on-elm-street-and-the-pitfalls-of-remaking-a-classic-horror-film/> [Accessed 16 May 2022].

Roche, D., 2015. Making and remaking horror in the 1970s and 2000s. [Place of publication not identified]: Univ Pr Of Mississippi.

The Evil Dead. 1981. [DVD] Directed by S. Raimi. United States: New Line Cinema.

The Evil Dead. 2013. [DVD] Directed by F. Álvarez. United States: Sony Pictures Releasing.

[brokehorrorfan]

Unboxing HorrorPack - March 2021

HorrorPack is a subscription box featuring monthly shipments of four different horror movies on your choice of Blu-ray or DVD, including a limited edition title. As someone who collects horror movies and enjoys mystery boxes, it's right up my alley. I’ve detailed the films included in the March 2021 shipment below.

The only title I was familiar with in the package was Critters Attack, the fifth installment in the Critters franchise. Bobby Miller (The Cleanse) directs from a script by Scott Lobdell (Happy Death Day). Dee Wallace (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), who starred in the 1986 original, returns to the series as a bounty hunter - although her character has a different name for apparent legal reasons. Tashiana Washington, Ava Preston (Rusty Rivets), Jack Fulton, and Jaeden Noel (Killjoys) also star, with Steve Blum (Star Wars Rebels) voicing the crites.

Despite being made on a low budget as a Syfy original movie, the film boasts impressive practical creatures. The designs are faithful to the Chiodo Brothers' classic crites, and they have just as much personality. The film introduces a friendly crite, like Gizmo to Gremlins; a bit of an odd choice but it mostly works. The one-dimensional human story - revolving around a babysitter (Washington) watching three kids when the small yet vicious aliens invade - is regularly broken up by bursts of carnage, earning the series' first R rating.

Critters Attack was released on Blu-ray (with DVD and Digital) in 2019 via Warner Brothers. Special features include: Engineering Gore: Designing Critters featurette, Critters: An Out-of-this-World Experience featurette, The Critter Ball featurette, and scene-specific audio commentary with Miller and a crite. It also came with a slipcover.

As a collector, the greatest appeal of HorrorPack is the exclusive Blu-ray. These limited edition titles are often indie movies that otherwise may never be available in high definition, with past exclusives including The Barn, Dead Hooker in a Trunk, Night of Something Strange, 4/20 Massacre, The Black Dahlia Haunting, and President's Day.

This month's limited edition Blu-ray is After Dark. The 2013 effort is directed by Rico Johnson, who co-wrote the script with Carl Earhart. Korrina Rico, Scott DeFalco, Jesse James Youngblood, Mekia Cox (Once Upon a Time), David Thomas Jenkins, Marisa Saks, Lane Compton, and Jonathan Nsien star. The only special feature is the trailer.

I was hoping to enjoy this one, but it's a painfully generic slasher with a finale reflecting the then-popular so-called "torture porn" trend. It also features hateful language that no longer flies in 2021. It follows a group of shallow teenagers - entitled bros and catty girls - on a Spring Break trip to the sand dunes. While the film is hindered by its low budget, no amount of money could have saved it. It's so cliche ridden that it almost feels like a parody - except it's not (intentionally) funny.

Killer Movie premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. Largely populated by TV talent, the cast features Paul Wesley (The Vampire Diaries), Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory), Gloria Votsis (White Collar), Jason London (Dazed and Confused), Al Santos (Jeepers Creepers 2), Adriana DeMeo (Without a Trace), Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl), Nestor Carbonell (Bates Motel), Torrey DeVitto (Pretty Little Liars), Robert Buckley (iZombie), and NSYNC's JC Chasez.

Reality TV director Jeff Fisher (The Challenge, The Simple Life) makes his feature debut as writer and director. Drawing on his background, the slasher follows a film crew in a small North Dakota town shooting a reality series about an underdog hockey team, but the focus shifts to true crime when a masked killer who films his murders strikes. The reality show-style talking head interstitials provide some levity but not enough to push it into horror-comedy territory, which could have improved the film. It has good production value, a strong cast, and a fun setup, but there are too many underdeveloped characters and subplots that merely pad the runtime.

Killer Movie was released on Blu-ray in 2009 by Phase 4 Films. Special features include a behind-the-scenes featurette and the theatrical trailer.

Child of Satan (also known as Neron) is a 2016 film co-directed by Mitesh Kumar Patel and Sam Son and written by Lekhraj Patel. Kacey Clarke (Resident Evil: Afterlife), Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight), Yves Bright, Caite Upton (The Amazing Race), James Martin Kelly, Raymond Forchion, Inger Tudor, and Kirk Bovill star.

Between the title and the artwork, it came as no surprise that this one is a riff on Rosemary's Baby. It doesn't bring anything new to the table, but it's so unintentionally campy that it's almost enjoyable... almost. After the premature birth of her son Neron (!), Allison (Clarke) begins to suspect there's something wrong with her baby, only to be dismissed by her husband (Bright) as the bodies of those close to her pile up. Roberts receives top billing despite limited screen time as a knowledgeable priest in an ill-fitting costume, though he earns his paycheck with his commitment to the balderdash he spews.

Child of Satan was released on Blu-ray in 2017 via Cinedigm and ITN Distribution. The lone special feature is a trailer.

From best to worst, I'd rank HorrorPack's March 2021 films as follows: Critters Attack, Killer Movie, Child of Satan, After Dark. While I wasn't a big fan of any of the selections this time around, the thrill of the unknown is what makes a mystery box so appealing. HorrorPack certainly delivers in that sense, along with the added allure of an exclusive/limited edition release. HorrorPack Blu-ray plans start at $24.99 for a single month and go as low as $22.74/month with an annual plan.

#critters attack #killer movie #child of satan #after dark #horrorpack #horror pack #unboxing #review #article #critters #dee wallace #eric roberts #kaley cuoco #leighton meester #paul wesley #jc chasez #torrey devitto

[tlbodine]

A Brief History of the Slasher

Is there a more iconic face for the horror genre than the knife-wielding psychopath? Many would say no. Although the tried-and-true slasher formula is so played out as to be a cliche -- and fresh examples played straight are tough to come by in the modern age -- for many, slasher films are the heart and soul of horror movies. 

How did that happen? What do they say about us on a cultural level? And where should you start when it comes to a formal study of the topic? Let’s delve deep and find out! 

Murder and mayhem are evergreen topics of fascination for humans, and we’ve been telling stories about murderers since Cain killed Abel. But these stories didn’t become what we would formally call “slashers” until the 1970s. 

So what is a slasher? 

Slasher films are defined by a few shared characteristics: 

A high body count (multiple victims) 

Murders are shown on-screen and often from the POV of the killer 

The murders happen one by one, incorporating pursuit, struggle, and finally death

The killer may have a supernatural influence, but it will have the physical appearance of a human (and may often simply be a human)

In almost every instance, the killer is portrayed as being insane or rendered deeply troubled by a past trauma which had triggered the murderous impulse. The killer is frequently dehumanized, and the victims are usually young. 

Slashers often adhere to their own sort of moral logic, more closely resembling Medieval morality plays than perhaps any other modern genre of storytelling. By utilizing a cast of archetypes, various virtues and flaws can be represented among the victims. 

These traits are what differentiate slashers from other murder-focused horror, thriller and mystery tales. 

Consider, for example, the narrative structure of an Agatha Christie murder mystery like And Then There Were None. In this book, a group of strangers are brought under mysterious circumstances to a remote location, where they are systematically murdered as an act of vengeance. In concept, this seems like it should be a slasher -- but its execution is quite different. In the book, the murders are a backdrop; the characters (and reader) are confronted with bodies rather than scenes of overt violence. 

The First Slasher

In 1974, two films came out that gave birth to the modern slasher. 

The first, released in October, was Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The second, released in the USA in December of that year, was Bob Clark’s Black Christmas. 

Texas Chainsaw Massacre tells the story of a group of friends who run afoul of a family of cannibals living in a rural farmhouse. Black Christmas is about the systemic murder of sorority girls during Christmas break. And both left an indelible mark on horror history. 

It’s important to put some context on the world these films were created in: 

The recent dissolution of the Hays production code meant that movies could be more graphically violent and morally depraved than ever before

The Vietnam war was raging, and for the first time in history, televised footage of the battle was piped into living rooms on the evening news

Multiple serial killers were active in the country, and their exploits also graced the daily newspapers and nightly news to sow terror 

Richard Nixon’s presidency was marked by an as-then unprecedented level of corruption and scandal

Gender politics provided both sexual freedom and career ambitions to a generation of women, and the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade case legalizing abortions played a massive role in both gender relations and the way we would think about life and bodily autonomy. 

The 1970s provided, in other words, a perfect storm of circumstances that collided to give birth to slashers, and neither Hooper nor Clark are shy about citing these as their inspiration. Texas Chainsaw was billed in theaters as a true story as an act of political defiance against newscasts that spread misinformation; Black Christmas is at its heart a film about abortion and a woman’s right to leave an abusive relationship. They were undeniably films of their time. 

Texas Chainsaw inspired a wave of sensationalist "ripped from the headlines" murder movies loosely based on real killers, such as Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (1977), which was based on the Sawney Bean legend or Charles B. Pierce's The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976), which was based on the Texarkana Phantom Killer.

And Black Christmas, of course, served as the thematic springboard for a little film called Halloween.

Halloween and the Final Girl 

In 1978, a little-known small-time director named John Carpenter was hired to make a movie with the working title, The Babysitter Murders. It would be about -- you guessed it -- babysitters who got murdered. The idea was later adapted to take place on Halloween, likely for commercial reasons: People like watching scary movies in October, so setting a film on Halloween night would surely help with popularity.

John Carpenter certainly did not wholly plagiarize Black Christmas with his holiday-themed slasher, but the earlier film's influence is visible all the same -- from a shared lineage of "the call is coming from inside the house" babysitter folk legend, to the perspective work on establishing shots of the house and the ambiguously bleak ending.

But compared to Black Christmas, Halloween is horror with its edges filed down so it'll be easier to swallow. Both films have predominately female casts, but the sorority girls in Black Christmas have sexual agency and outspoken opinions that are nowhere to be found in Carpenter's work. In fact, Halloween so aggressively fails the Bechdel Test that it seems to do so on purpose -- there is not a single scene with two girls where they are not talking about a boy. And while Black Christmas deals with complex topics like abortion, domestic violence, and the unreliability of the police, Halloween simplifies its formula down to the utterly basic: Michael Myers kills because he is pure evil, and that is simply what evil does.

Despite its flaws -- or perhaps because of them -- Halloween became an immediate and enormous hit. It also introduced several clever storytelling techniques that were crucial to the advancement and development of the slasher genre:

The introduction of a Final Girl, the lone survivor who holds out against the onslaught of terror. (Carpenter denies that Laurie Strode’s virginal innocence has anything to do with her survival, but “final girl as virgin” would persist as a trope for a very long time) 

A masked killer. Although we’d seen masked murders in many films before (I’ve talked in the past about the trope of the mask-wearing murderer, and the way it is both thematically and logistically useful in storytelling: https://tlbodine.tumblr.com/post/189658195609/the-masked-knife-wielding-psycho), the “look” of Michael Myers is so iconic that it inspired a need for future killers to have a similarly thoughtful design, decking them out almost like comic book superheroes. 

Franchising opportunities. Although earlier movies had spawned sequels, Halloween exploded as a franchise thanks in large part to the iconic design and the simplistic good-vs-evil storytelling formula. Future slashers would latch onto this killer-centric franchise formula for over a decade. 

Halloween became the most profitable independent film, holding the record for 16 years, which goes to show just how successful the formula truly was. 

The Golden Age of Slashers 

As the 1970s gave way to the 1980s, the advent of VHS and Betamax formats created a market for low-budget straight-to-video films. Because slashers are so cheap to make (you don't need any famous actors, can film entirely in one location, and practical effects can be as simple as a few gallons of stage blood), they were ideal candidates for the job. On the big screen, horror was enjoying an unusually high level of popularity, a proven money-maker, simultaneously commercial and subversive in a decade of opulence and social conservativism.

So onto that stage walks Sean S. Cunningham's gory slasher, Friday the 13th, where a group of teenage camp counselors are brutally murdered, frequently wile having sex. The film spawned a widely successful franchise, which swiftly began borrowing elements of Halloween -- a silent and indestructible masked killer, a signature musical score -- to become a pop culture mainstay. The 1983 Robert Hiltzik film, Sleepaway Camp, cashes in on the "death to camp counselor" plot in the same way that Fred Walton's When a Stranger Calls touched on babysitter murders in 1979.

A whole slew of less-successful films would follow, most of them lost to the history books but still living in dollar-bin DVD collections. Some, like Prom Night and My Bloody Valentine, would earn a cult following. One noteworthy cult favorite is Slumber Party Massacre, directed and written by women (Amy Holden Jones and Rita Mae Brown, respectively), which turns some slasher tropes in their head.

A glut of films, most of them instantly forgettable, led to a decline in slasher popularity -- until Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984.

Cracking Wise and Slashing Teens 

A Nightmare on Elm Street introduces Freddy Krueger, a different sort of horror villain than audiences had seen before. Krueger is a supernatural killer who stalks his victims in their dreams, bringing a fresh supernatural twist to the slasher genre. And, unlike Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, Freddy is anything but silent. Thanks in part to the charisma of lead actor Robert Englund, the character's darkly comedic personality became utterly riveting.

Plenty of dream-related horrors would follow, none of which would make much of a splash. But one film franchise did latch on to a similar formula: Child's Play, directed by Tom Holland in 1988, introduced another supernatural wisecracking killer in the form of Chucky, a murderous doll possessed by the soul of as serial killer.

These major film franchises -- Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Child’s Play -- would go on to spawn numerous sequels and become such a thoroughly pervasive part of pop culture that you can find their likeness everywhere. But despite the many imitators, there was little in the way of innovation in the genre until the mid 90s. 

Do You Like Scary Movies? 

Wes Craven toyed with the idea of self-referential horror in New Nightmare, a Freddy Krueger film that was itself a meta-analysis of Freddy Krueger films. But he would revisit the idea with far greater success in 1996 with Scream. 

Created by horror lovers, for horror lovers, Scream is designed to be the most quintessential slasher film ever created. Relying on a hip, young cast to draw in a fresh audience, Scream works by combining nostalgia, meta-analysis, humor, and buckets of blood into a single film. The opening scene is a direct homage to When a Stranger Calls, and the masked killer is a deliberate call-back to earlier films. 

Unsurprisingly, Scream was a huge hit that ushered in a brief but furious wave of slashers, like the star-studded I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and Urban Legend (1998), and Scream itself had several sequels and even a TV series. But the 1990s were something of a dark era for the slasher film, seeing the release of some spectacularly lackluster franchise installments. One exception to that was the fan-favorite Freddy vs Jason, which pits the two killers against one another -- a delightful premise, but one that had strayed far from the slasher roots. 

Modern Slasher Films 

The 1990s slasher reboot was short-lived and mostly forgettable, and by the 2000s filmmakers had mostly turned away from the genre entirely, except for a slew of nostalgia cash-in reboots of every popular franchise. 

The one exception was meta-analysis -- building on Scream, these films began to deconstruct the genre in a way that would combine horror, humor, and criticism. 

The Final Girls (2015), directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson, takes this sort of meta approach. The Cabin in the Woods (2012), directed by Drew Goddard but bearing the fingerprints of co-writer and producer Joss Whedon, takes it to even further excess, providing both a thorough deconstruction of horror gropes and an entirely new mythos to give it a fresh framework.

But the problem with deconstructions is that, once a few truly successful ones have been made, it becomes essentially impossible to create the original thing in earnest anymore. And so the slasher as a sub-genre has reached its bloody end. 

Where Did All The Slashers Go? 

With dozens of slashers spanning more than 40 years of film history, it’s pretty hard to create something new with the format. Which is not to say that people aren’t still making them -- they are -- but there is less room to innovate within the notoriously rigid and simplistic slasher formula. 

Culturally, we’ve moved on a lot from the 1970s as well. For one, serial killers are no longer the threat they once were. Babysitters and camp counselors are rarely teenagers, either -- in fact, teens aren’t leaving the house as much in general. And a rise in information technology, communications and surveillance has made it harder to isolate victims and commit murders over a long period of time -- our mass murders tend to happen in shooting sprees instead these days. For another, that same information technology has made us extremely jaded and hard to impress with gore. 

The 2000s delivered violence at levels utterly beyond anything in history. The rise of the so-called torture porn -- a genre that dispenses with the stalking and killing of multiple victims in favor of lingering on the painful mutilation of a small handful -- delivered gore unlike any seen in earlier slashers. Cable television series like The Walking Dead deliver graphic violence with unprecedented regularity -- you no longer need to pick up a “video nasty” to indulge in some gruesome gore. 

And, well, unfortunately, the internet has made it easier than ever to see real violence, from terrorist beheading videos to medical gore to live-streamed murders. 

Gore for gore’s sake is simply not as compelling in the 21st century, and that takes away much of the slasher’s appeal. 

Slashers have had to morph and adapt to find a foothold for survival. In the 2000s, we saw their metamorphosis in real time: From torture porn to home invasion to a cornucopia of more innovative horrors dwelling on fears both large and small. 

We’ve probably seen the last of masked knife-wielding, babysitter-killing psychos...but the horror genre is richer for it. 

#horror movies #slahsers #slasher films #horror #horror analysis

[gravecinema]

Top 10 Horror Movie Franchises - 07/06/2020

Number 10 – Phantasm

Number of movies - 5

In the first movie of this series, the residents of a small town have begun dying under mysterious circumstances, leading the young boy Mike to investigate. After discovering that the town's mortician -- known as the Tall Man -- is killing and reanimating the dead, Mike seeks help from his older brother, Jody, and local ice cream man Reggie. Working together, they try to lure out and kill the Tall Man, all while avoiding his zombie minions and a deadly flying silver sphere.

Featuring a beautiful Plymouth Hemi Cuda, a four-barrel shotgun-toting ice cream man, and a menacing tall and creepy antagonist with a ton of iconic flying silver balls of death, the Phantasm series is one the best and most enduring franchises in all of horror. With most of the main cast and actors returning and being featured in all five films, the quality of the series rarely dips, which can always be a detriment for other franchises. This is extra impressive considering the first film came out in 1979, with the final one being released 37 years later in 2016.

The character of Reggie would go on to become a great horror hero on par with the character of Ash from the Evil Dead series. His character becomes the main heart of the series, and really gives the audience someone to root for in each of the films. Combine that with the great villain of the Tall Man and the unforgettable killer flying spheres, and the Phantasm series is definitely deserving of the number 10 spot in the top 10 horror franchises of all time.

Number 9 – Saw

Number of movies - 9

In the first Saw movie, a photographer and an oncologist wake up in a dark and dirty bathroom while chained to pipes at either end. The two men soon realize that they've been trapped by a sadistic serial killer nicknamed "Jigsaw." Jigsaw then forces them to complete his perverse puzzle to live, while flashbacks reveal the fates of his previous victims. Meanwhile, the Dr.'s wife and young daughter are forced to watch his torture via closed-circuit video.

That first Saw movie is intense and suspenseful with a great twist ending. Working off a low budget, it would become one of the highest grossing movies of the year, and spawn 8 sequels, with the latest one set to be released within the near future. For seven years, the Saw franchised owned the Halloween movie season, with a new installment of the series being released every year. The low cost of the production of the movies pretty much guaranteed a high return at the box office for as long as the movies remained popular.

The character of Jigsaw would go on to become an Icon of the new millennium of horror. The movies would coin a new subgenre of horror known as torture porn. They have certainly left their mark and continue to inspire newer filmmakers today. They will always make us want to answer the question of whether or not we want to play one of Jigsaw’s games.

Number 8 – Psycho

Number of movies - 6  

Secretary Marion Crane is fleeing after stealing $40,000 from her employer in order to run away with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis. She buys a new car and soon gets caught in a heavy rainstorm. Traveling on the back roads to avoid the police, she stops for the night at the small Bates Motel and meets the polite but odd proprietor Norman Bates, a young man with an interest in taxidermy and possessing a difficult relationship with his mother. One fateful shower later, and Psycho would then transform itself into a landmark of horror cinema.

The original Psycho movie by Alfred Hitchcock is one of the great masterpieces of horror. It made an entire generation afraid to take a shower the same way Jaws made people afraid to go into the ocean. The shower scene is one of the true iconic moments of horror with a great soundtrack to go with it. The great twist at the end would give Anthony Perkins one of the most memorable roles in horror, and he would go on to give equally great performances in the next three sequels.

The first Psycho sequel released 23 years after the original is one of the best sequels I have ever seen and is just as pleasing to watch as the first movie, with another great ending. While the quality of the other films may be questionable, Anthony Perkins always gives a great performance and makes the movies well worth a watch. That’s why the Psycho series is one of my favorites, and worthy of a spot in my top 10.

Number 7 – Evil Dead

Number of movies - 4

Ashley "Ash" Williams played by the great Bruce Campbell, his girlfriend Linda, and three friends drive into the woods to a cabin for a fun night away. There they find an old book bound in human flesh and inked in blood called the Necronomicon, whose text reawakens and possesses the dead when it's read aloud. The friends inadvertently release the evil from the book and must fight for their lives or become one of the evil dead. Ash watches his friends become possessed one by one and must make a difficult decision before dawn in order to save his own life in the first of Sam Raimi's great trilogy.

The first movie of the series is a landmark in independent horror, and the next movies would each outdo the other in their own way, with Evil Dead 2 being more of a horror comedy, and Army of Darkness being more of a horror fantasy adventure. There would also be a remake released in 2013 that would take the series back to its terror roots and it is one of the better remakes of the genre. Bruce Campbell would also return as Ash in the Starz series Ash vs. Evil Dead in 2015 for three seasons.

There is not a weak installment in the entire series, and the character of Ash continues to be one the most iconic heroes in all of horror. When you have a chainsaw for a hand, and a boomstick in the other, the cool factor is definitely on your side. Another movie installment has recently been announced, and that is sure to be another great watch in one of the greatest horror series ever produced.

Number 6 – Frankenstein

Number of movies - 7

Released in 1931, The first iconic Universal horror film of this series follows the mad scientist Dr. Henry Frankenstein as he attempts to create life by assembling a creature from body parts grave robbed of the deceased. Helped by his loyal hunchback assistant, Fritz, Frankenstein succeeds in animating his great monster, played by Boris Karloff in his breakout role, but, confused and possessing an abnormal brain, it escapes into the countryside and begins to wreak havoc on the local villagers. Frankenstein searches for the elusive creature, and eventually must confront his tormented creation.

The original Frankenstein series of movies is among the most historical and iconic in all of horror. It was the original series to bring true terror to audiences starting all the way back in the 30’s. It is the most successful and prolific series of the original Universal horror monsters and maintains a high level of quality with each film. Bride of Frankenstein is highly regarded as one of the best sequels ever made. Each film has some of the best actors of their time, and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man kicked off the very first cinematic universe of films.

This universe reaches its zenith with the final film of this franchise in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948. This classic film can be considered the first horror comedy, and brings together the classic monsters of Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf Man, with even the Invisible Man making a quick cameo at the end. It features only the second and last cinematic performance of the great Bela Lugosi as Dracula and has as great an ending as any horror franchise can ask for, inspiring even greater franchises in the years to come. This landmark horror series of cinema more than earns its place in the top 10.

Number 5 – Child's Play

Number of movies - 8

Gunned down by a detective, dying murderer Charles Lee Ray, played by the great Brad Dourif, uses black magic to put his soul inside a buddi doll named Chucky, which an unsuspecting mother then buys for her young son, Andy. When Chucky kills Andy's babysitter, the boy realizes that his new doll is alive and he tries to warn people, but he's institutionalized. Now his mom must convince the detective of the existence of the murderous doll, before Andy becomes Chucky's next victim, and the next vessel for the killer’s soul.

The greatness of the Child’s Play series is the ongoing story of the killer doll Chucky. Aside from the recent remake, all the movies in the series are written by Don Mancini, which provides the series with great continuity. Once the series starts getting named for Chucky and drops the Child’s Play title, each installment offers something new and different from the previous one. The introduction of killer doll Tiffany in Bride of Chucky breathes new life into the series, and her character soon becomes just as iconic as Chucky himself.

After the events of the most recent film which ended in a bit of a cliffhanger, a new television series will soon be released further exploring these characters and expanding the mythology in this great and ongoing franchise that started in 1988. The length of this franchise, it’s iconic status, and the continuing installments of the series has this franchise earning its place in the top half of my top 10 horror franchises.

Number 4 – Halloween

Number of movies - 11

On Halloween night in 1963, six-year-old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister, Judith. He was then locked away in and institution for 15 years. But on October 30, 1978, while being transferred for a court date, a now adult Michael Myers steals a car and escapes. He returns to his quiet hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, donning a simple white mask where he looks for his next victims, including that of Laurie Strode, played by Jamie Lee Curtis in her first starring role.

The very first Halloween movie has to be the most iconic in all of slasher-horror. It has spawned a franchise that has released 11 theatrical movies, with 2 more soon to be released within the next two years. The memorable theme song can be considered to be the finest in all of horror. Laurie Strode is also known as one of the best final girls of all time. Even after the series gets a little tired, every now and again, a new semi reboot gets released to install new life into the series, such as the most recent installment in 2018.

Even though the Halloween series is probably the most well-known horror franchise, the inconsistent quality of the movies and multiple restarts of continuity keeps this series out of my top 3. Starting with the third film, the series starts to branch off in multiple directions and continuities that essentially turn the Halloween franchise into a choose-your-own-adventure series. However, just like Michael Myers, the Halloween franchise never stays dead for long and always finds a way to come back.

Number 3 – Scream

Number of movies - 4

In 1996, writer Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven re-invented and revitalized the slasher-horror genre with this modern horror classic, which manages to be funny, clever and scary. The movie starts with the finest opening scene in all of horror and shocks the audience into believing that no one is safe and that anything can happen. As a ghost-faced knife-wielding maniac stalks high school students in the remote town of Woodsboro, a who-dun-it takes place as the cast tries to figure out who the killer is as they all start to die one by one.  

With the first few sequels, the Scream franchise single handedly revitalized the entire horror genre that had been on a downward trend in the 90’s, with each film being a commentary on certain aspects of the genre. After the initial trilogy, a fourth film was released a decade later to add another self-aware take on reboots and remakes that had been happening more widely during that time period. With each movie being directed by Wes Craven and with the main surviving characters returning for each one, the quality and continuity of this series remains higher than any other franchise in horror.  

With the announcement of a new movie planning to be released within the next few years, the Scream series continues to live on. Even with the sad passing of Wes Craven, the willingness of cast members to keep returning to this series almost guarantees that the quality of movies will remain to be high. As Sydney Prescott, Neve Campbell will go on as possibly the greatest final girl in all of horror, starring and surviving in each installment of the series. The sheer force of creative nature that keeps the quality of each movie insanely high earns this franchise my number 3 spot.

Number 2 – Friday the 13th

Number of Movies - 12

In the first movie of this classic and iconic horror series, Crystal Lake's history of murder doesn't deter a young group of counselors from setting up a summer camp in the woodsy area. Superstitious locals warn against it, but the fresh-faced and lusty young people pay little heed to crazy Ralph. Then they find themselves stalked by a brutal killer. As they're slashed, maimed, and stabbed, the counselors struggle to stay alive against a merciless and unseen killer.

If Halloween started the slasher craze, then the Friday the 13th series launched it into the stratosphere. With 8 installments released in the decade with varying degrees of quality, Friday the 13th lorded over 80’s horror. After a brief cameo in the first movie, the character of Jason Vorhees would go on to become one of the titans of horror. Donning his iconic hockey mask for the first time in part 3, the image of the machete-wielding hockey-masked killer would live on as one of the most recognizable and greatest in all of horror.  

Since the remake that was released in 2009, the franchise has remained stagnant and caught in litigation hell, preventing another movie from being released for the time being. However, that will eventually pass, and just like Jason Vorhees himself, there will be no stopping this behemoth of a franchise from returning from the dead with a new movie in the near future. The only thing keeping this series out of my top spot is the franchise performance of Jason’s greatest rival in horror...

Number 1 – A Nightmare on Elm Street

Number of movies - 9

In Wes Craven's classic slasher film, several teenagers fall prey to Freddy Krueger, played by the charismatic Robert Englund, a disfigured fedora-wearing murderer known as the Springwood Slasher who preys on the teenagers in their dreams -- which, in turn, kills them in reality. After investigating the phenomenon, Nancy begins to suspect that a dark secret kept by her and her friends' parents may be the key to solving the mystery, and finally defeating Freddy Krueger once and for all.

Released in 1984, A Nightmare on Elm Street is quite possibly the most unique and best horror film ever made. The story terrorized audiences, and throughout the sequels, Freddy Krueger became a household name. Each movie launched Freddy more and more into the spotlight, giving us a killer who was not only scary, but also funny. The success of these movies single handedly turned a small movie studio into a major player in Hollywood. There’s a reason why New Line Cinema is known as the house that Freddy built. No other horror franchise can lay claim to that honor.

With the rights to Freddy Krueger recently reverting to the Craven estate, rumors continue to run rampant on the possibility of Robert Englund returning for at least one more movie as Freddy. His last movie as Freddy was when his character finally faced off against that other titan of 80’s horror, Jason Vorhees, in Freddy vs. Jason from 2003. If that movie should ever come, you can be certain that it will be the king of the box office just like the Freddy films of old. Even though Freddy may have lost his fight against Jason in Freddy vs. Jason, the massive success of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and the continued adoration of the Freddy character has let A Nightmare on Elm Street claim the top spot as my top horror franchise of all time.

#grave cinema #top 10 #horror #horror franchises #movies #scary #review #critique #essay #a nightmare on elm street #friday the 13th #scream #halloween #child's play #frankenstein #evil dead #psycho #saw #phantasm

[thefinalgirlspeaks]

The Future of the Final Girl

“She is the one who encounters the mutilated bodies of her friends and perceives the full extent of the horror and of her own peril; who is chased, cornered, wounded; whom we see scream, stagger, fall, rise, and scream again. She alone looks death in the face, but she also finds the strength either to stay the killer long enough to be rescued or to kill him herself.” [Clover, Men, Women and Chainsaws].

As women watching horror films through the lens of the male gaze, we are often encouraged to place ourselves in the inappropriate kitten heels of the terrorised girl running screaming from the killer. This girl has become a horror staple, the one we can root for, hitch our hopes onto. This girl, unlikely as she seems, will provide the eventual satisfying final blow to whichever murderous villain has slain everyone else.

She is the Final Girl.

As feminism progresses, so must the reflection of women in the media; much of horror is historically misogynistic, which is all the more reason to encourage the effects of female empowerment to trickle through to the way women are represented in horror films. There is a change happening, slowly but surely - the Final Girl is morphing from shrieking, inept victim, to armed, prepared badass. For a comprehensive overview of this mutation, we can examine and score a selection of films from each decade since the beginning of this Final Girl phenomenon and track her progression right up to the present.

“Why not more and better female killers, and why not Pauls as well as Paulines?”  [Clover, Men, Women and Chainsaws].

Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

Every horror enthusiast knows that Hitchcock changed the game when he killed off Marion Crane, who - until the infamous shower scene – viewers suppose to be the heroine of Psycho. Instead, the film’s true Final Girl is Marion’s sister Lila, a tenacious, petite woman who arrives late to the party bearing no distinguishable personality besides being Marion’s concerned sibling.

Despite the disapproving way Lila speaks about Marion and her light fingers, she is determined to uncover the truth about what happened to her. She does this by immediately roping in a man to assist her: Marion’s boyfriend Sam. Unlike, Lila, Sam’s actions are helpful and smart – he drives them to the Bates Motel, insists on inspecting motel logbook to find Marion’s name, and even distracts creepy Norman Bates while Lila snoops around Marion’s old hotel room (it should be noted that she discovers nothing of import).

Eventually however, despite the ineptitude that she has displayed throughout the rest of her screen time, it is Lila that, while hiding, stumbles upon the corpse of Norman’s mother, thereby accidentally revealing his ‘psychosis’. As a starter Final Girl, Lila is pretty average. She screams and runs about, prattles on about her inaccurate theories, and annoys the hell out of every male character she interacts with.

Final Girl Rating: 4/10

 Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)

 Italian maestro of horror direction Dario Argento is notorious for his gratuitous, often near-unwatchable depictions of slaughtered women. His most famous films form a trilogy, known as ‘The Three Mothers’, consisting of Suspiria (1977), Inferno (1980), and The Mother of Tears (2007). The most famous of these is the first; Suspiria immerses the viewer in a visceral, melodramatic murder-mystery. Within the first few minutes, a young blonde woman is being terrorised, chased, strangled, stabbed, and eventually made to plummet through a glass ceiling, to be hanged before a (different) screaming lady.

I will dub this character, often a feature of the horror formula, the ‘First Girl’. The First Girl is both a decoy and a necessity. In the same way that Psycho’s First Girl Marion makes way for Final Girl Lila, Suspiria’s Pat makes way for Suzy. Suzy is a shy, American sweetheart with a serious case of underdeveloped personality disorder. As a foreign student coming to join a German dance school, she is the perfect outsider, made evident from the beginning, when a few of the other girls are immediately snarky towards her.

It takes a while for Suzy to cotton on to the sinister goings-on behind the scenes of the Tanz Dance Academy, partly due to the mysterious and sudden malady that has her bedridden and unable to participate in classes very soon after she arrives. The creepy doctor prescribes her nightly doses of alcohol to help her sleep, and it isn’t until token ‘Foolish Friend’ Sara points out that she can’t be roused once she’s drunk it, that she realises it might be laced with something else.

Inevitably, after Sara’s mysterious demise, Suzy is the only girl left in the school clued in enough to understand that it’s all a front for a murderous witch coven and must try to defeat the evil. As you may have gathered from the poster, she does this mostly by creeping through the darkened corridors with a lamp, slowly opening doors and sweeping back curtains until she suffers another jump scare and screams.

“The Final Girl looks for the killer, even tracking him to his forest hut or his underground labyrinth, and then at him, therewith bringing him, often for the first time, into our vision as well.” [Clover, Men, Women and Chainsaws].

Although it is relatively unclear whether or not Suzy does succeed in destroying the coven altogether, it is probable that the fire she sets does consume everyone inside the academy. She also earns points for tracking down an outside opinion from a local professor not associated with the school to learn how to take down witches. Still, a fairly standard performance; Argento gives us a disturbingly young-looking Final Girl, whose capabilities do not extend much beyond childlike ignorance. She is perpetually stricken by her own paralyzing fear, and only finds the courage to battle the evil right at the last second, by which time her friends are already dead.

Final Girl Rating: 5/10

 Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)

“The Final Girl of the slasher film is presented from the outset as the main character. The practiced viewer distinguishes her from her friends minutes into the film. She is the Girl Scout, the bookworm, the mechanic.” [Clover, Men, Women and Chainsaws].

Halloween’s Final Girl is perhaps the most notorious of all time, Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie, a smart, introverted babysitter overshadowed by her two promiscuous and outlandish friends. As a sexually inexperienced, rule-following young woman, she is the epitome of what it takes to be a Final Girl, as her survival strategy will not be muddied by drugs, alcohol, or lust. Although Laurie must suffer the horror of seeing her friends be slaughtered and their corpses displayed in macabre dioramas, she is feisty enough to last until the very end. She even manages to fight her way through Halloween II, using her past experience to chase off the dogged Michael Myers a second time.

Laurie is not given a lot of backstory, but as successful Final Girls go, she is one of the first, and the best. She endures the horror, but does not let it weaken her. She channels the injustice of her friends’ murders into anger, and strikes the killer down, very nearly succeeding in killing him before she is rescued. Arguably, Laurie paves the way for future Final Girls in the 80’s boom of female-driven horror, out of which spring Alice of Friday the 13th (Cunningham, 1980), and Nancy of Nightmare on Elm Street (Craven, 1984).

Final Girl Rating: 7/10

 Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)

From the outset of Alien, it is made clear that the only rational voice amongst the crew of the Nostromo spaceship is Ellen Ripley, the second in command officer. There are two females amongst the seven members of the Alien cast (not including Jonesy the cat): Ripley and Lambert, and they are polar opposites. Lambert is the embodiment of weakness; actress Veronica Cartwright was told by director Ridley Scott that her character was ‘the audience's fears; a reflection of what the audience is feeling’. As such, she tackles the unfortunate situation of a rogue alien slithering about the ship eating crew members by making rash, stupid decisions, crying, shrieking, and being generally unhelpful. 

Lambert is merely a foil, however, for the strong, smart, rebellious performance given by Ripley, the lone survivor of the Nostromo - along with Jonesy. She alone, with her unwavering pragmatism, her cunning strategic mind, and her aptitude for wielding a flamethrower, manages to outsmart the terrifying alien creature, and jet off to safety in the ship’s emergency shuttle.

Treading into and deepening the prints made by Laurie’s dainty feet comes Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, a Final Girl to be revered. She was so impressive to audiences world over that she earned herself three sequels.

 Final Girl Rating: 8/10

 The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2005)

This early noughties British flick was an innovation when it emerged due to its all female cast. The Descent follows six adventurous young women who decide to go caving as a bonding exercise following an awful tragedy. The husband and child of one of the group (Sarah), die in a car accident, and in a valiant attempt to move on, she decides to squeeze herself through some narrow underground passages with her friends. Unbeknownst to the rest of the group however, Juno, the organiser of the expedition, has led them into an entirely unexplored cave system, hoping that in discovering the way through, they would all be brought closer together. Unfortunately, this plan goes awry when the passage they came through caves in behind them, and they have no idea of the way out. Left with no other choice, they push further into the caves, only to discover that they are not the only creatures alive down there.

The basis of this film is, unusually, based on the complexity of female relationships. Rather than deriving conflict from sexual dynamics, The Descent uses Juno and Sarah’s strained friendship to maximise the dramatic tension.

“...other filmmakers figured that the only thing better than one beautiful woman being gruesomely murdered was a whole series of women being gruesomely murdered.” [Schoell, Stay Out Of The Shower].

Juno’s immediate reaction to Sarah’s initial misfortune is to run from it, meaning that later in the film, when the group meet to ‘descend’ into the caves, her motivation is guilt. She is desperate to make amends for her cowardice in the face of Sarah’s grief, which is why she makes the foolish decision to lead them all into a death trap.

When Juno explains her reasoning to Sarah moments after they become trapped, Sarah is unmoved by her apologies, and thus the circle of their six-way female bond is broken. From that moment on, each woman has to fend for themselves. By the end of the film, Sarah has accumulated enough reasons to wound Juno and leave her to the mercy of the ravenous ‘crawlers’ while she scrambles for escape. Juno cowered away when Sarah needed her after her family were killed, she led them into an underground labyrinth filled with monsters with no escape, she accidentally murdered Beth with a pick-axe thinking she was one of the creatures, and finally, it is heavily implied that she had been having an affair with Sarah’s husband, Paul. The case for her death sentence in comparison to Sarah, who lost everything and was unwillingly lured into a monster-filled hellscape, is strong; even we, as an audience, want to see her devoured. 

The downfall of this mostly progressive horror narrative is that it does, inevitably, play on a fight for a man’s affections. There is no need for the suggested affair between Juno and Paul given all the other reasons there are for Sarah to sacrifice her in the final few minutes, yet it is slipped in as an unnecessary extra motivator. As Final Girls go, Sarah is an inspiration. To go into the cave at all would be a nightmarish adventure for most women, particularly since she is still reeling from the gruesome deaths of her husband and child. But not only does Sarah keep it together in the face of Juno’s treachery, the deaths of all of her friends, and the horrifying ‘crawlers’ that lurk in the caves, she lurks in wait in muddy pools, wields pick-axes, flares, and grapple hooks, spares nobody mercy, and fights her way, bloodied and wild-eyed back to the surface.

 Final Girl rating: 8/10.

 Halloween (Green, 2018)

In recent years, the most positive representation of women in horror is a Reformed Final Girl: Jamie Lee Curtis from Halloween, who reprises her role as Laurie in a continuation story of the same name. In this 2018 Halloween, Laurie is a weathered, tough old woman with her own daughter Karen, and granddaughter Allyson. It is revealed quickly that Karen was removed from her mother’s guardianship by the state as a result of the strict, overbearing and military parenting style of Laurie the Myers veteran. As a result, Karen and her mother do not see eye to eye; this is the central conflict of the film behind the horror, as Laurie is still convinced that Myers is alive and coming for them all (spoiler: he is), whereas Karen is strongly of the opinion that her mother is deranged from the trauma of watching her friends be murdered as a teenager.

There is, of course, great appeal to the idea of the terrorised Final Girl growing up to be a shotgun-wielding badass with a fully fortified house and zero tolerance for unexpected visitors. My problem with this aged-up Laurie is that, despite how she clawed her way through three films to survive, her life, as it turns out, was hardly worth living. By the end of the film Karen and Laurie are back on good terms, but it is implied that they spent most of Karen’s life estranged from one another. Laurie does not have friends, or a partner, only a drinking problem and a psychotic paranoia about a killer returning to slaughter her once and for all. Props to Laurie for being smarter than everyone else around her that underestimated Michael Myers’ ability to spring back up after being stabbed, shot, or blown up, but I can’t help but feel that as a representative of the Future of the trope, she is almost there, but not quite.

Final Girl Rating: 9/10

 To consider the future of the Final Girl is to consider the future of female representation. As a character, she is in one way admirable, and in another, a tool to provide public satisfaction of bloodlust. The horror spectator should ask oneself what it is that they truly want to see from a protagonist, particularly a female one, and why. The Final Girl should be a weapon with which the viewer can arm themselves, a lens in front of the most unspeakable situations of horror through which anyone can align their own eye.

The Final Girl has the potential to represent all women, to define our strength and capability through her response to the worst catastrophe, and the resilience of moving on from it, to enjoy the life she has fought for. As feminism progresses, and the constraints of male-authored  perversity are lifted from the horror genre, we will surely begin to see more Ripleys, and less Lilas. We will be able to cheer on our Final Girl as she takes ownership of her body, as opposed to having it plundered by knives and saws. The Future Final Girl will rise up against both the killer, and the oppression of generic, outdated horror tropes, and slash her way through to a more hopeful, equal future. 

#final girl #horror #horror film #halloween #suspiria #horror trope #feminism

[unkindrewind]

GENERAL >

FULL NAME: Charles Matthew Ayers NICKNAME: Charlie // Preferred, only his mother calls him by his first name . Ken // Around campus by peers due to attachment to Sarah. Charliebear // by Sarah .  Space-case. Airhead. Dunce cap. Nimrod, Etc // by Christopher AGE: 19 - 20 // Verse Dependent  BIRTH DATE: December 19th , 1964 ZODIAC: Sagittarius ETHNICITY: White GENDER: Cis Male PLACE OF RESIDENCE: Craven Creek , Washington SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Bisexual // Closeted would imply awareness of some kind , most attraction to those male presenting is seen as ‘ just being friendly’ in his eyes. Coming from a very traditional small town in the 70s & 80s with no obvious LGBTQ representation. . He is oblivious to his sexuality for the most part. RELIGION: Raised Protestant // Personally non - practicing , or practices only around family SPOKEN LANGUAGE: English . Handful of French and Spanish CURRENT LIVING CONDITIONS: Living within his messy dorm at SCU EDUCATION: EDUCATION: High-school graduate from Carpenter High // Had to repeat a few classes making him graduate a year later than his peers. Freshman at Silas Craven University - SCU - on a sports scholarship. OCCUPATION: Part time // Usually night - shift at Flick Picks Video Rentals. TRANSPORTATION: 1970  Ford Mustang Sportroof // Sky blue, basic model. TYPICAL LOCATIONS [ FOR PLOTS ETC ]:  Flick Picks Video Rental shop. SCU campus // Class, dorm and frat parties, hockey arena, pool . Movie theater.

RELATIONSHIPS >

PARENTS: Denise Ayers // Mother . Richard Ayers // Father - On friendly enough terms with the two of them, but the institutionalized 'parent /child' detachment has always been present . Richard, the businessman always on the go, has never taken a moment away from his work. And Denise, though a stay - at - home mother, often spends her time in the company of fellow mothers and projects around the house. Beyond the basics, they know very little about their children and hold to the belief their main job is to provide and care for them, not be their best friends. SIBLINGS:  - Christopher Ayers // Older brother, by three years - A very complicated relationship. Christopher is, in the eyes of everyone and especially their parents, the proverbial 'golden boy' : Smart. Handsome. Charismatic.  Popular. The desire of every girl's heart. Captain of every sports team he's been a part of, that position currently being in SCU's lacrosse and basketball teams. From the outside looking in, he is by old school terms, perfect, though few see or even know of the rather aggressive and twisted side of him, including their mother and father. That side is and, since their childhood, has been reserved for Charlie's eyes only. Yet despite taking the brunt of Chris's cruelty and jokes at his expense, Charlie has always admired and looked up to him. And sadly, still does. - Robert ‘Robbie’ Ayers // 12 year old brother - Close, though sadly not as close as they once were. Moving away from home has created a bit of an inevitable distance. Between games, parties, and basic expectations of highschool, Charlie had been Robbie's go-to babysitter. The two had been thick as thieves - Robbie being among the rare few to not only know of Charlie’s dabble in home-movie horror, but even star in a few films himself - and whenever a need for brotherly bonding and advice was warranted, Charlie was there. -Rosie Ayers // 3 year old sister - Sadly, Charlie isn't as close with her as he'd like to be. Born when he was just beginning his escalation in popularity, he didn't spend much time with her, and over all still hasnt. NOTABLE CONNECTIONS:  - Irene Fernandez // @gcrefxed Close Friend Fellow target of the mysterious killer .  - Sarah Reed // @killerxquccn Best Friend since middleschool. The term 'soulmate' has been thrown around [ Much to the annoyance of Charlie's exes ] due to how close they are and how well they get along. As have many other affectionate monikers; 'Sarah Sunshine' among them, inspired by the bright and warming smile that since knowing her the mere presence of has never failed to make Charlie's day all the better. A matching pair : The jock and the cheerleader. A match that due to their popularity hasn't gone unnoticed ; people speculating they are dating or saying they should be, and earning them the nicknames ' Barbie and Ken ' since highschool, and often heard around campus. Girlfriends and latenight partners come and go, but Sarah has always remained. She is considered by far one of the most important people in Charlie's life. One he could never - and would never - imagine living without. Fate, however, has different plans. SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Jessica Thompson // Recent Ex Girlfriend.  Beautiful, upper middle class, and notable mean girl. Well, notable only to those she targets ;  mainly fellow girls lower on the popularity totem pole. Sly and clever Jessica  knows who to target, how, and how to get away with it. Which is precisely what happens, and has her entire school career..  Charlie in particular was never aware of her actions, as she is always careful to show her cruelty when few are around and those least likely to spread word,  though to anyone else in his position the writing was very clearly on the wall. Through most of their close to two year relationship, Jessica used Charlie's good-hearted nature, penchant to fall hard for pretty girls, and unfortunate tendency to be too forgiving to the point of becoming a pushover to those he cares for to her advantage: taking more than giving, but giving just enough to make him believe there was more requited love than there really was. In truth, her sights - like many- had always been on Charlie's older brother, Christopher, ever since highschool, but being the revolving door of women type, his sights were never aimed in her direction. To Jessica, Charlie was merely a fall back; if you can't get the prize, second best was better than nothing. Until one fateful night, Charlie decided to stop by Jessica's dorm and found none other than his older brother there to greet him. Half dressed and radiating smugness. In no way did either Chris nor Jessica attempt to deny what had happened between them, Chris giving Charlie a pitying pat to the shoulder and leaving the scene with a final jab, ' Guess she wanted a real man. '  While it was a dream come true for Jessica, to Chris it was nothing more than a one night only event, with the added enjoyment of his conquest being his brother's girlfriend . Despite the betrayal, Charlie not only wanted to fix their relationship but blamed himself for her act, asking what he had done to drive her to it. Jessica, seeing Charlie's devotion as weakness, was merely disgusted.  Simply giving a cutting, curt 'There's nothing to fix.' And like that, it was over. Leaving Charlie heartbroken and devastated, with that wound never able to fully close seeing Jessica around campus often. SEXUAL / DATING HISTORY: Has had quite a few partners and girlfriends, but wouldn't be considered a playboy like his older brother by any means. While he can be on the promiscuous side, generally he wants more meaningful connections. Sadly, without realizing, he tends to lean towards more superficial relationships -not helped by his worry to open up about his true interests and passions in life- which takes a toll on said relationships longevity.

PHYSICAL TRAITS >

EYE COLOUR: Hazel // Warm brown with small flecks of mossy green HAIR: Dark Auburn // Kept short // Wavy HEIGHT: 6 ‘ 3 ” BODY BUILD: Athletic // Fit , broad shouldered NOTABLE PHYSICAL TRAITS: Has a very slight crookedness to nose after having it broken during hockey practice in highschool.   . A warm , sometimes described ‘dopey’ grin . Kind eyes. FACECLAIM: Ross Lynch

PERSONALITY >

INTELLIGENCE:Not the sharpest tool in the shed. Academically, he can be a bit slow. Emotionally and creatively, however, very adept and intelligent. More right brained. INTERESTS: Film fanatic . Horror movies // Has an interest in one day becoming a movie director but keeps it very close to the vest. Sports enthusiast . Hockey // Plays for SCU’s  team. Swimming // On SCU’s swim team.  Attending every party he can. STRENGTHS: Easy going . Understanding . Empathetic . Great sense of humor . Determined . Playful . Outgoing . Sweet . Loyal . Imaginative . Open - minded . Supportive . Energetic. Congenial. WEAKNESSES: Insecure // mostly about intelligence . Stubborn . Blunt // Says the first thing that comes to mind without thinking it through . Apologetic or sometimes overlooks the bad actions of those he cares for / his family . Gullible . Occasionally reckless // especially when stressed .  Too forgiving . Christopher. DISPOSITION: Very laid back, friendly and approachable // easy to strike up a conversation with on just about anything SOCIAL STANDING: Popular // Both he and his older brother Christopher have been since Highschool SLASHER TROPES: Dumb Jock // The Nice guy

SYNOPSIS >

Nice house. Nice yard. White-picket fence. Mother, the home - maker. Father, the shrewd businessman. Children, well behaved and well liked. The Ayers family lives the ideal cookie-cutter simplicity of upper middle - class conservative America. And for most that's enough. For Charlie Ayers, the second eldest son, it is. At least, he thinks so. An upbringing of keeping to the status quo, hard rigidity to conform, is all he knows. Evident in his persistent standing as another popular jock continuing into college . In 1983 small town suburbia, minor deviations from the expected norm is a thing balked or crucified. Even something simple as an innocuous interest. And therein lies the reason his true love, of media, of a genre most consider ghoulish and the dream to DIRECT and make such films , has been kept a secret from most.          A JOCK WITH A HORROR MOVIE FETISH? WEIRD!  A silly thing to hide, perhaps. Yet hide he does. Perhaps not entirely well, as the few home-made films in his repertoire have been surreptitiously added onto the shelves of the VHS rental store he clocks into most weekdays. But he'll take the fact he hasn't been reprimanded by his superior as a win. Flick Picks Video Rentals is, in many ways, a haven. A place where for the first time, Charlie could feel at home with his covert passions for film in which he would be expected to be ashamed anywhere else. A small respite, that unbeknownst to young Charlie, wouldn't last. Despite the kindly reminder to rewind before returning, most seldom listened. In the quiet and uneventful hours of the night, that became Charlie's job. VHS popped into the rewinder, eyes on the CTR TV to check for any scratches or tangling of the tape, slide into its box upon completion, rinse and repeat. It was a tedious task to be sure, but something Charlie found mildly comforting in its predictable repetition. One that seldom provided any surprises. 

               Until ONE TAPE …

It wasn't unheard of for someone to record over one of the rentals. Uncommon, yes, as it was guaranteed to earn you a ten dollar fine to replace what was lost, but not unheard of. Usually in such a case, rewinding was stopped, the tape set aside with a note. Yet something- … something wasn't right. This tape wasn't one of theirs. Or professionally made for that matter. The film had the signature grain, bad lighting and time code at the bottom of something made at home. But the stationary upward framing, fixed on a single person. A single tied person. Bloodied. Sobbing. This wasn't right. A masked figure stepping into view. Toying with the other. Armed with a knife. This definitely wasn't right. The one tied, turned frantic. The knife slicing. The blood. It couldn't have been real, right? Someone trying their hand at horror like he did. And effectively at that. It was unsettling to say the least. Something he brought up, showed to a coworker the next day, and was assured in a chiding manner it was fake. Even he in what film making experience he possessed, had reservations. Why, then, he remained uncertain he wasn't sure. 

 That uncertainty nagged. Knotted his stomach. And eventually, sent him in an unorthodox direction to his university's theater department for answers. The course of logic he followed said if it was fake, a third and perhaps more experienced opinion wouldn't hurt. It was by pure luck and happenstance that one person with such qualifications was there. While the two had apparently gone to the same highschool, Irene Fernandez had been a complete stranger to him. Might have had something to do with them traveling within social circles so different they might as well have been separate planets altogether. Her skill and knowledge in special effects, however, made her essential to his needs. Was a random encounter over a gory VHS tape an awkward first meeting? Yes. Yet it was not nearly so bad at its beginning as it became in the end, when upon repeated viewing with Irene, Charlie's fears were proven right. No dyed corn syrup or tubes used to spurt it. No retractable prop blades. The blood, murder, all of it was REAL. Which meant the killer was as well. 

 Such a realization made all the more terrifying as another tape appeared in the return slot ...

#pgs >

[internethorrorfan]

Commentarypasta: Slenderman vs. Eyeless Jack (originally posted on deviantart in 2017)

You know what's almost as creatively bankrupt as Jeff the Killer wannabe stories and Slender Mansion fics? Versus stories. Today's gem, hailing from the Spinpasta wiki, is one such story. Because why write original suspenseful horror stories or possibly put a new creative spin on an older idea or character when you can just take two unrelated creepypasta icons and have them lay a WWE smack down on each other, right? Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story... Slenderman vs. Eyeless Jack by OptimusPrime27 There are legends of the Slender Man. Some say he's a kind nurturing father figure that lives in a big beautiful mansion full of other monsters and killers as one big happy loving family who do all sorts of cute family activities with each other when they're not going on mass murder sprees. Nobody over the age of 12 believes such things.

He is a dark spirit. He is truly evil. Wait, what you mean to tell me is that the murderous, child snatching eldritch abomination who forces people to become his slaves in order to commit horrific acts on his behalf is evil? You don't say? He stalks people and murders them. But now he is gone. He's been gone. People don't know why, but he just... disappeared. Everything changed after the Fire Nation attacked. One day, he just left. Never to be seen again. Except in terrible fanfiction written by pre teen girls. Only a few people still remember him. This sentence is so easily contestable that I won't even bother. I wouldn't even know he existed if it wasn't for that dark, dark night... and that video-game that made. That sort of helped... This joke might have been funny is the grammar wasn't messed up.

You see, Slender Man disappeared because less people feared him. This sounds awfully similar to Freddy's plot in Freddy vs. Jason. Instead of that dark, mysterious force he became that cool, popular guy. "Yo Slenderbro, pass me that brewski when you're done droppin' those phat beats!" Just that guy. People didn't care how terrifying he really was, they just liked him. What if people liked him because he was terrifying? I like Slenderman because he's creepy.  Creepy if done well at any rate. Video-games, toys, shirts, Hold the phone here, since when has there official Slenderman merch? he was everywhere. Less people feared him, and he became more of an internet icon than a despicable creature. So you can't be a despicable creature and internet icon at the same time? Someone better tell [insert well known internet personality who gets a lot of hate here)! More people knew him and they learned to stay away from him, how to avoid him, There's no official way to avoid Slenderman. and thus he didn't get their souls. Many people don't know this, but Slender Man needs souls. Many people don't know this because you completely made it up. They give him energy. He harvests them. He feeds of them. He lives. But now people don't fear him at all. He's just that guy.

That guy. He's just that guy who stalks people, kidnaps kids and drives people insane. Ya know, nothin' special.

But you see, Eyeless Jack is a different story. A story so bad its own writer personally asked for it to be deleted from the creepypasta wiki.

Eyeless Jack is a dark, undead spirit. Says who? A young boy brutally murdered, his eyes ripped out of their sockets. A vengeful spirit, Eyeless Jack's a ghost now? he spent the rest of his eternity getting his revenge. Which he accomplishes by eating random people's kidneys. Out to find the man who killed him. Until then, he could never truly be at peace. Less powerful and less famous, Jack was just a little kid compared to Slender Man. Which might have something to do with Slenderman being 6-10 feet tall. No match for this monster. Stories over! Goodnight everybody! Slender Man is basically the king of modern horror. I'm a huge Slender-verse fan and even I think that's bit of an overstatement. How can he be the king of modern horror anyway if supposedly no one takes him seriously or cares about him anymore? Creepy, mysterious. Slender Man has given existence to many wannabes and copy-cats like Jeff the Killer or Laughing Jack. Laughing Jack and Jeff the Killer have nothing at all to do with each other let alone Slenderman.

Slender Man saw potential in Eyeless Jack, and decided to use his superior power to manipulate the poor lost soul. This is literally just the plot of Freddy vs. Jason. One night, Jack was lurking through the forest, when Slender Man, now weak but still more powerful than Jack, appeared before him. Jack was shocked, but then the figure seemed to disappear into thin air. Jack turned around as Slender Man reappeared in front of him. Slender Man began to stalk the evil spirit as he ran through the forest. What sounded like static assaulted Jack's ears. He fell down and began to faint, everything else in the world fading away... Slender Man was now in control of Jack, and ready for the harvest. Now this is where I get involved. Me and my friends were having a sleep-over. It was a dark, rainy night. Lemme guess: You really wanted to write "it was a dark and stormy night" but you realized that was too cliché even for something called "Slenderman vs. Eyeless Jack" so you thought wording it differently would mask the unoriginality.  Newsflash: it didn't. We were watching a crappy, blood-filled generic horror film, yet we kept screeching. We didn't know what true horror was yet. It's certainly not this story, I'll tell you that much. Not yet. You could’ve removed those last two words entirely and just said you "didn’t know what true horror was. Yet". We heard the back door creek open, so me and my friend Anne went to go see. The suspense was killing us. Suspense from what? The door creaking open? Do you guys flip out every time there's a light breeze? The entire house was pitch black. Turn on the lights then. We stepped into the dark hallway and slowly stepped closer and closer to the door. We heard heavy breathing from behind the door. And...JUMPSCARE! We went to grab the door knob, and when we saw what was behind it, we shrieked in terror. It was just our friend Mark. You held the tension here for 1 sentence. He and his friends Brad and Chuck were here. The idiots tried to scare us. "They're gonna be dead soon is what I'm saying." Me and Mark are sort of more than friends, but not really dating. Just sort of... into each other or something. It's complicated. We watched the movie together, and the guys kept making fun of us when we got scared, but they themselves kept getting freaked out now and then. Suddenly, we heard glass breaking. Mark volunteered to go check it out because how we were such "chickens". His words, not mine. I'd say that last sentence was completely superfluous but this whole story is completely superfluous. He walked into the hallways, closing the door behind him. He saw broken glass on the floor. He knew somebody had broken in. He turned around to warn us, but saw a masked, hoody-wearing creature. I thought he was a spirit. Now he's a creature? The mask was blue, with deep, empty, black holes where the eyes were supposed to be. I asked myself this same question when reading the original Eyeless Jack but how can they tell he has no eyes when he's wearing a mask in the dark?

The creature grabbed Mark's throat, squeezing it tightly. Mark gasped for breath, but the grasp on Mark's throat increased in strength. Tighter, tighter, until Mark couldn't breathe. Mark closed his eyes and dropped down onto the ground as the creature finally let him go. The creature observed his corpse, as if marveling at his own work of demented art. Oh no, not Mark! He was such a well developed character that we knew so well!

It was half an hour later, and we were worrying. I went to go check on him and found his corpse. So all of you just stood there and waited for 30 minutes while a monster choked Mark to death instead of alerting the police? What truly wonderful people you guys are.  I nearly puked. There was no brutal damage or harm to it, but that's what scared me. In the movies it's always bloody and chopped up, nearly unrecognizable. But this was... was so real. Just a lifeless body there on the ground, nothing more to it. The police said he was strangled to death by... something. Poor Eyeless Jack always getting described as a "something". The finger prints on his neck Fingerprints is one word. Like, nobody writes "head aches" or "bed rooms" do they? were something odd. They tasted great! They scanned them and all, but the person they belonged to was murdered long ago. Jack Robins was a young boy who was brutally killed back in the 1970's. I sure am glad these cops committed every important detail of this decades old case to memory. His parents were on a date, and he was being babysat by a local teen trying to get some quick cash. You say that as if all teen babysitters aren't just looking for quick cash.

A strange man broke in while he was asleep and the sitter was busy on the phone. Being on the phone doesn't automatically cancel out all other sounds. I think she'd be able to hear someone breaking in. The man went through the house stealing everything he found useful. The sitter saw him and shrieked, only to be shot down by the robber. The robber found Jack and pulled out his carving knife. Jack saw him and shrieked. The robber, not wanting to get caught, shot him, and then cut his eyes out with the knife. Why? How could cutting out Jack's eyes possibly benefit him in any way? If he's trying to be sneaky then carrying someone's eyeballs around would be super easy to trace. There is literally absolutely no reason for this guy to cut out Jack's eyes other than "well he's gotta become Eyeless Jack somehow!"

I was shocked when I heard this. That poor kid. But what was the killer doing with his fingerprints? Was it a coincidence? You don't know what coincidences are, do you? Was the killer the same one who did this terrible, terrible thing all those years back, and the sicko kept Jack's hands with him? If the killer took Jack's hands the cops would've said that. How is that your first thought? Why would a robber cut off the hand of someone they murdered, keep it on their person and use it decades later to strangle some random person to death? I was scared. Me and my parents were staying in a hotel room since the murder, but I couldn't help but wonder if he was still in the house... Meanwhile, in the woods, Jack woke up. He saw that he was in Slender Man's body. I'm sorry, what? This is a body swapping story now? Why does "Slenderman vs. Eyeless Jack" need to be about body swapping? But more importantly, he actually saw. He discovered that Slender Man didn't just take over his body, he switched both of their souls into each other's bodies. I have so many questions. This story keeps calling Jack a spirit so how can he have even have a body/soul to swap? Since when did Slenderman have a soul? Didn't this story also say Slenderman ate souls?  How would swapping souls allow Eyeless Jack to see? How can EJ do all the things he does if he can't see? I have the sneaking suspicion that none of these questions will go answered. Jack, now able to see, used this to follow the Slender Man's foot prints to the house. The police were investigating the scene of the crime, and went into the basement. The entire house was totally dark. If the power went out it'd be nice of you to let us know that. The two police man walked slowly down the stairs, and entered the dark room. The basement was flooded up to the police men's ankles because of the rain. Our house was an old one and it was always in a really crappy condition. Get it remodeled it then.

They found the old light switch and flipped it, only to be attacked and killed by Slender Man in Jack's body. He took on the other cops as they ran down the stairs. Their bullets did nothing. The body may have been harmed, but it was just flesh and bones. Useless flesh and bones. If they're so useless why did Slenderman even do this whole body swapping thing in the first place? How does switching souls with Eyeless Jack benefit Slenderman in anyway?

As the battle in the basement was going on, Jack in Slender Man's body broke down the front door, searching for his impostor. He rushed down the stairs to confront Slender Man. Slender threw his knife into Jack's face, distracting him as he grabbed a metal pipe up from off the floor. He hit the already dazed Jack in the head, knocking him to the floor. Remember: Jack's in Slenderman's body. So according to this story Slenderman can be stabbed, dazed and knocked to the ground. Jack got up and pulled the knife out of his head, impaling Slender Man with it. Slender Man seemed to slow down for a bit, but no real harm was done. "Besides the gaping chest wound I mean." Slender Man tore the knife out and dropped it to the ground. It was useless. Slender Man hit Jack with an uppercut, grabbed him and threw him into the furnace, closing him in and turning it on. Jack struggled to break free, but Slender Man was holding him in with all his strength. Eyeless Jack's body is capable of picking up and throwing the body of Slenderman, who is a 6-10 foot monster with teleportation powers, tentacles, and psychic abilities. Ok then. Jack pushed against the furnace with all his might, and finally jumped out, tackling Slender Man over. He held Slender Man's face down under the water, trying to drown him, but Slender Man managed to push up and knock Eyeless Jak down. Wow, Slenderman knocked Eyeless Jack down so hard the c fell out of his name! Jack reached for a nearby tool bag and pulled out a drill, sticking it into Slender Man's face. He turned it on, and it began to cut into his face. Why is EJ trying to kill Slenderman when they've switched bodies? I assume the body swapping is the reason EJ is mad at Slenderman in the first place so why would he ruin his chances of ever getting his real body back? Guys, Eyeless Jack is drilling into his own face. Slender Man grabbed the drill and pulled it out, throwing it over onto the stair case. Getting shot, drowned and stabbed didn't kill him so cutting into his face with a drill probably wouldn't either. Shouldn't Eyeless Jack know the limitations of his own body? Slender picked up the carving knife, slashed Jack across the chest with it, and jumped up and cut a pipe above Jack's head. Tons of sewage poured down onto Jack, knocking him to the ground and covering him with the slop. Did the writer of this even know Slenderman's power set?

Slender Man left, leaving Jack to die. Slender Man grabbed a thing of matches on the kitchen counter, lit one, and threw it to the ground, burning down the building as he turned and ran out the back door. The entire house burnt up and collapsed in, crushing Jack completely and seemingly finishing him off. Slenderman is leaving his own body to burn to death. Slenderman of all beings should know fire doesn't hurt him! The police told me and my parents about what happened. The cops that were there were killed before any of this crap even happened. They didn't know anything about the two killers or what really went on, but they knew that the house burnt down. I was devastated, but I was hoping that... that THING... was killed in the fire. Can't be, the story's not over yet. Unfortunately. I thought it was all over. I wish it were all over so I could do something more productive with my time like watching paint dry. I told my parents I was ready to go back to school, but they hesitated to let me. We talked it through, and they decided I was okay.  What teenager wants to go to school?

The next day at school, my friends from the sleepover, Anne and Lauren, asked me what happened. I told them everything. Jack, how Mark died, the house burning down, etc.,etc. They were shocked. Everyone who overheard was shocked too. One kid approached us. He said that Jack never really died, and that he is still alive. Everybody that he was crazy, but he said that Jack's spirit still wanders the Earth, searching for the man who killed him. Who is this kid and how does he know any of this? The janitor saw all the commotion, and told the kid to go down to the principal's office. He turned to the rest of us and said to get to class. The principal told the kid that the legend of Eyeless Jack was just crazy talk.

Rumor spread that all these stories of monsters and ghosts and stuff was all actually real and the adults were keeping it from us, like some crazy conspiracy. This kind of conspiracy I hope. Now it was like a rebellion was on the horizon. How could these things really exist without anybody letting us know? It's our right to know these kinds of things! If they're trying to protect us it clearly isn't working because now Mark has been murdered! OK we get it author, you really like Freddy vs. Jason. Can you please quit rehashing plot elements from it?

I was angry. We were all angry. I'm angry because it feels like this story should be over by now. But we still had to carry on. The prom was coming soon, and I planned on asking Mark to go with me and maybe we could officially start dating, but then this whole crazy thing happened. Multiple people, including your own boyfriend,  have been brutally killed by supernatural forces and you're worrying about the damn prom? I went with Brad, Mark's friend, but I felt really guilty. Just because Mark was killed I went out with his best friend? It was messed up, I knew it. Yeah, taking your boyfriend's best friend to the prom the day after said boyfriend was murdered is pretty messed up.

Everything was fine at the prom, until... it happened. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xe0Ba… Chuck and Anne sneaked away to make out or something dumb, and then he came. Obvious joke is obvious. They went over by the lockers and made sure nobody was looking, but then they heard footsteps. They thought they were caught, but it was much worse. That masked man that strangled Mark. It was here! It grabbed Chuck and held him up against the wall by his throat. Anne shrieked in terror as the creature stared into Chuck's eyes. Stared deep down into his soul. You'd think someone called "Eyeless Jack" would have a hard time staring at people. Then it took him and it threw him straight out the window. A car was driving by, and Chuck's body landed straight on the windshield, nearly shattering the glass. The principal and the gym teacher both came running to help us out, but they were no match. The masked man grabbed both of the two and hit their heads together, knocking them unconscious, and then he stuffed both of their bodies into a locker. He slammed the door, locking them inside, and then turned around to face Anne. He ripped a locker door off of the wall and hit her upside the head with it, knocking her down. Why is Slendy-in-Jack's body here in the first place? Doesn't he have better things to be doing than picking off stupid teenagers? She got up and ran, and the man... no, not a man... the DEMON rushed after her. Demon? Wasn't he a spirit earlier?

She ran into the gymnasium, where we all were, and told us to run. Too late. The creature bursted in and impaled her with a leg he tore off a desk. Ah yes desks: a common thing to find in gymnasiums. She dropped to the floor, and he tore the leg out of her corpse. We all ran out screaming, but some of us weren't as lucky. Me, Brad, Lauren, and the janitor all got out alive and took off in Brad's van. The janitor drove us away, and said that he knew about Eyeless Jack. What a totally non contrived coincidence that some random janitor at some non descript school knows all about Eyeless Jack, Slenderman and the conspiracy covering them up. He confessed to us, telling us that the kid from the hallway was right all along. He was privy to this information how exactly? They just didn't want kids knowing to try and keep them safe, but it clearly didn't work. As we were driving, a flaming man in a tuxedo ran out into the road,   Tuxedos and business suits aren't the same thing. and we accidentally hit him. The janitor thought it was a victim of Jack from the prom, He didn't notice that Slenderman was 6 feet tall and you know, lacking a face? so he rushed out to save him, but the faceless man got up and grabbed him, throwing him into the sky with all his might. We screamed in horror, and Brad leaped into the driver's seat, ramming over the man. So did the janitor come down or did he fly into outer space or something?

We drived off as it tried chasing us on feet, but we managed to escape. We were all scared, and none of us knew what was going on. I remembered the faceless tuxedo man, though. I could never forget him. It was the Slender Man. But he was real? Of course he's real! You've seen him attack people and you just ran him over with your car. UGH. We didn't know what was happening, You and me both. we just knew to get away as quick as possible. Meanwhile, Slender Man and Jack had a score to settle themselves. Jack (in Slender Man's body)arrived at the school to face his foe. A high school: truly the best place to stage the climatic showdown of your story.  The two saw each other, and nothing could stop them. Nothing else in the world mattered. It was just them, face to face again at last. Sure, Slender Man had won it the last two times, but now Jack knew better. Jack grabbed the knocked-over punch table, lifted it up over his head, and threw it right at Slender Man, knocking him over. It's damn confusing reading this and having to remember that EJ and Slenderman have switched bodies. Almost like it's pointless or something. Jack quickly ran over and started punching Slender Man repeatedly. Is EJ gonna use a single one of Slenderman's powers while inhabiting his body? Slender Man kicked Jack in the chest and knocked him over. Guess that answers my question. Slender Man started to kick Jack in the face over and over, even stomping on his head. Jack got up and overpowered Slender Man, picking him up and throwing him up on the stage. Jack ran over and jumped up, hitting Slender Man in the chest several times and damaging his decaying ribcage. Jack grabbed Slender Man by the throat and threw him down onto the ground. Jack grabbed one of the band's amps, lifted it up with all his strength, and dropped it down onto Slender Man. Jack picked up a bottle of water off the floor and poured onto his semi-crushed opponent, frying him completely. Eyeless Jack has apparently succeed in destroying his own body. Hooray?

Jack, victorious, left to find me and the others. We were at Brad's house, Can we please just stop with the constant POV and tense changes because this story is testing my patience as it is. and we went inside we saw his dad, dead, hanging from the ceiling by a rusty metal chain. NO! Not Brad's dad! He was almost as well developed a character as Mark! We were shocked, and Brad broke out crying. Me and Lauren let him have his moment, so we went in his room to discuss it. Lauren said that maybe somebody in the town was the one who killed him and that's why this is happening, but I knew it had to be something more. You think it might have something to do with those 2 monster guys running around? You know, the ones you killed your friend and that janitor right in front of you?

I mean, why was Slender Man there? Better question: why is this story still going? Brad walked in, still sad, and asked what was going on. Lauren told him her theory, but he didn't believe it either. Suddenly, a corpse was thrown straight through the window, crashing onto the foor. We all shrieked in terror as we saw the message. It was... written in blood on his chest! It said "If you yourself do not release than it will come to take a piece". "YOU ARE WRONG". He was spying on our conversation? How? Why? For what reason? Suddenly, Jack kicked the door down. Of course, he was in Slender Man's body so we couldn't tell it was Jack at first. How could you tell it was Jack after the fact? How do you know any of this crap involving Jack and Slenderman? He as holding the corpse of Brad's dad, and threw it right at Brad, knocking him to the ground. Brad screamed, and we all ran off, being chased by Jack. We got outside and into the van, but the tires were slashed. Suddenly, Jack ran out of the house and jumped up on the hood of the car, kicking the windshield. It shatter and broke open, and he reached in to get us. Brad kicked him in the face and we ran out, trying to escape on foot. Suddenly, a beaten up and bloodied Slender Man (in Jack's body) I think everybody knows they've switched bodies by now! ambushed us and stabbed Brad in the heart several times with his knife. We shrieked and ran off, when suddenly a car stopped right in front of us on the road. It was Brad's mom, home from shopping! How wonderfully contrived. She said she heard about what was happening and immediately left the store to get us! We drove off as the two monsters fought each other once again. Slender Man stabbed Jack in the face several times, but Jack was unharmed. Which Slenderman should know wouldn't work because it's his body. He grabbed Slender Man, lifting him up off the ground, and threw him into the streets. Jack charged at him, but Slendy kicked him in the stomach and then got up and punched his face several times. Jack overpowered Slendy and pushed him down to the ground, elbowing him in the face. The two struggled and pushed eachother around, until Slender Man managed to push Jack up and throw him off of him. Slender Man got up and ran off to find us, leaving behind Jack. Just finish him off already! There's no reason whatsoever to chase after these dumb kids!

We told Brad's mom what happened, from what happened to Mark, to Jack, to the house burning down, and what happened at the prom. She was depressed that her husband and her son were both murdered, and we were sad about all the murders too. "All these murders are a major bummer, man."

Suddenly, a truck rammed into the car and sent us off road into the forest. The truck chased us into the woods until we hit a tree and the car went tumbling down a path. We jumped out the first chance we got and watched in horror as the car rolled down the nearby docks and fell into the water. You're still alive...how, exactly? 

The truck came crashing after us, and Slender Man stepped out. He began to chase us, and we managed to get to an abandoned factory. We picked up a wooden plank and put in through the door handles, locking him out. If Slenderman was in his own body he could just teleport in the building. Hell, he could've teleport them outside the building if he had his old body. See what I mean about how switching bodies with Eyeless Jack doesn't benefit him in anyway? We went into another room so we wouldn't be able to hear the freak pounding on the door. We were terrified. There was no hope left. What could save us now? Hopefully nobody because all of you are such bland characters that I couldn't care less whether you lived or died.

Suddenly, Jack arrived. Slender Man turned around to face the creature, and was immediately kicked in the gut. He stumbled backwards and slammed into the door. Oh goody, another fight scene. Because we haven't had enough of those now, have we? He grabbed Jack by the throat and began to strangle him. He eventually just lifted Jack up by the throat and threw him down into the ground. He kicked Jack in the face several times, but Jack got back up. How do you kick a faceless man in the face? Jack grabbed Slender Man and threw him over into the distance. Slender Man saw a little canoe and picked up the ore, charging at Jack and impaling him through the ribs with it. Slenderman's body can apparently be impaled with a rock. Sure. Why not?

Jack pulled the ore out and hit Slender Man upside the head, knocking him down. Slender Man got up again, only to be smacked by the ore and sent flying. Slender Man landed on the docks, and Jack ran over at him. Meanwhile, we thought the coast was clear so we opened the door and looked outside, stupidly enough. We saw the two fighting on the docks and couldn't help but watch. Standing there and watching the two fight is obviously a better option than running away.

Jack hit Slender Man with an uppercut, knocking him over. Slender Man got back up and punched Jack in the face repeatedly, knocking him back a bit. Jack picked the ore back up and hit Slender Man in the face with it, knocking him down. Jack was serious now. This time...it's personal. He lifted the ore up above his head and pushed it down into Slender Man's chest. He kept stabbing him and stabbing him with it until Slender Man managed to get up and take the ore from him, throwing it into the water.

Lauren yelled out to us, pointing at a stick of dynamite she found. Oh there just happened to be a stick of dynamite lying around on these boat docks? Oh how convenient. What's next, is Brad's mom going to pull out a lighter she just so happened to have and use it to light the dynamite so they can kill Slenderman and Eyeless Jack? Brad's mom pulled out her lighter and lit it. I was joking! We threw it onto the dock as the two were fighting. This was it. Our last hope. Slender Man and Jack were brutally beating each other, and didn't notice the TNT. Suddenly, it finally went off, and it blew the two into the air. They went off into the sky, and crashed down into their watery graves. It was finally over! Oh thank God! Finally I can move on with my life! We were saved! We ran out to get back to town, but little did we know it wasn't over. Why not? Everything's been resolved. There's no reason to keep going.

Slender Man and Eyeless Jack awoke in a fiery pit, surrounded by a whole crowd of demons. They seemed to be chanting some weird spell, when a strange, creepy statue of Link from the Legend of Zelda series Oh come on! appeared before the two, and smiled deviously.

"Men..." he said, "What seems to be the problem?" You couldn't even have BEN say either of his catchphrases? Either "You shouldn't have done that." or "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" would have worked here. I sort of appreciate the shout out to one of the unused endings from Freddy vs. Jason but missed opportunity here, come on. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And that, my friends was "Slenderman vs. Eyeless Jack". I have but 1 question to ask: What the hell was the point of any of that? Slenderman eating souls, Eyeless Jack being a spirit, the town trying to cover them both up, Slenderman needing people to fear him in order to gain power and Eyeless Jack's whole backstory were all introduced and then forgotten about. None of the human characters were interesting and they barley impacted the plot at all. The body swapping was completely unnecessary and just made everything extra confusing for no reason and there were just way too many fight scenes. The whole thing just dragged. On the plus side the sentence structure was good and there were relatively few grammar mistakes. It's just that on top of all the other problems the whole premise was silly and it took itself way too seriously from the get go, which is my problem with most vs. fics to be honest.

#old stuff from my deviantart

[constablegoo]

HORROR AESTHETICS

you know how it goes! repost, don’t reblog / bold whatever applies / tag however many people you want / feel free to add stuff in any category, too!

tagged by:  the One True  @brashir​  !

tagging:  @octaviusindustries  /  @brazenlass  /  @relativehumanity  /  @softestmood  /  @trektm  /  @sochya​  /  &  anyone else who’d like to get funky with this  !

gothic horror.           gaslights. corsets. ballrooms. candlelight. mist. starless nights. full moons. cobbled streets. horse-drawn carriages. mysterious strangers. bogs. moors. forests. mountains. castles. velvet. silver. brass. gold. jewels. domino masks. the opera. dangerous romances. tragic romances. violins. roses. lilies. empty graves. crosses. cemeteries. snow. ice. the gallows. crows. milk-white skin. ambiguous illness. fangs. pointed nails. something howling in the night. capes. gloves. top hats. straight razors. lightning. pipe organs. underground caverns. bats. mice. rats. ravens. cats. pearls. attics. talismans. axes. wood. isolation in a room full of people. vampires. werewolves. ghosts. coffins. western europe. eastern europe. bones. churches. catacombs. mausoleums. books.

classic horror.           black and white. powder puffs. red lipstick. winged eyeliner. white kitten heels. black lace lingerie. icy blue eyes. rain. abandoned cars. skeletons. acid. poison. voyeurism. switchblades. strangling. overcoats. looking over your shoulder. trans-atlantic accents. private detectives. dinner parties. haunted mansions. alcohol in glass decanters. cobwebs. perfect blonde curls. kitchen knives. shock. cellars. dust. dark alleys. empty streets. driving at night. horn-rimmed glasses. radiation. zombies. serial murder. suspicion. paranoia. the city. witches. the devil. cannibalism. conspiracies. amulets. abject terror. the american south. the american northeast. england. analog cameras.

slashers.           bloodbaths. massacres. wanton nudity. newspapers. leather jackets. letterman jackets. converse sneakers. obscured faces. social unrest. bonfires. lakes. babysitters. suburbia. high school. lockers. dead leaves in the fall. jack-o’-lanterns. outdated television sets. nightmares. psychiatrists. hospitals. unstoppable forces. gunfire. police. landline telephones. household objects turned into improvised weapons. halloween. secrets. revelations. character masks. scrunchies. queerness. wild curls. jeering children. parties. fire. swearing. revulsion. california. the american midwest. ambulances.

paranormal horror.           malevolent spirits. seances. spells. missing bodies. hidden graves. white noise. static. flickering lights. rings of salt. demons. poltergeists. dark histories. old buildings. cold air. mausoleums. wells. urban exploration. a dog barking at something you can’t see. black ooze. old photographs. faces you can swear you’ve seen before but can’t for the life of you figure out where. dark bodies of water. crucifixes. priests. possession. exorcisms. dolls.

cryptid & urban legend horror.           aliens. blinding light. dark woods. claw-marks. bite-marks. men in black. memory loss. dismembered bodies. sewers. flashlights. cell phones. video cameras. cars with tinted windows. unlabeled casette tapes. bugs. big cities. urban crimes. clowns. something rustling outside your window. glowing light. unsolved mysteries. suburbia. mirrors. the american pacific northwest. the american midwest. hiking / backpacking.

thrillers.           daylight. fluorescent lighting. morgues. asylums. unwavering eye contact. tension. lit rooms with no one inside them. a dog digging in the newly-planted flower bed. steely gazes. paperwork. anagrams. codes. convicted killers. missing persons. law enforcement. federal agents. small towns. suspicion. paranoia. subdued terror. dimly-lit parking lots.

#[ art : godsgrief on tumblr ] #viv dont look / #mo r e horror odo m MORE H O RROR ODO #⌀ EVERY SIXTEEN HOURS I TURN INTO A LIQUID! [ about. ]

[bryonyashaw]

140 things to watch this October for both family, children and horror lovers!

If there is anything I've missed - which no doubt I have as there are thousands of movies and TV series to watch - then feel free to add what you recommend and I can pin your comment.

On the first swipe I've put together 45 films to watch for those Horror lovers out there! Before anyone potentially nitpicks yes I've put 45 Horror films to watch as the title because although the movie Get Out is more of a thriller and The Dead Don't Die is more satire they still come under the same bracket of Horror on Google. Donnie Darko isn't a Horror but I also didn't want to spend hours on specific genres and sub-genres. I've seen every single film on this list and all offer (I think) varying degrees of tension and suspense but to make a deep analysis of each movie would take FORREVVEER. If you want more comedy Horror I'd suggest Zombieland. If you want more suspense I'd suggest A Quiet Place. If you fancy more slasher I'd suggest Halloween.

Happy Death Day, Freaky, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, Chucky, Hush, The Final Girls, Final Destination, Children of the Corn, Woman in Black aren't on the list but I also recommend as I think they are good to watch. I think it really depends on your own taste and comfortability levels, for example, some films can be utter rubbish and I just love them for it!

The second swipe is 45 family movies to binge watch in October! Once again Hocus Pocus is considered a family/fantasy movie but Beetlejuice I would say isn't for the younger audience as its more comedy/fantasy.

Third swipe 45 TV shows to binge watch this October. I really enjoy TV series whether it's Netflix Haunting of Hill House to HBO True Blood and the ones I've listed I think are perfect to watch. I love anything Sci-fi and shows like Dark which is a mystery/drama of time travel and intriguing twists really pique my interest. There are of course new shows on on @netflixuk like You and Into The Night that I think are worth mentioning.

Fourth swipe you'll find The Shaw kids recommendations which all in all brings the list on this post to 140 things to watch!

What's your fave on the lists?

#movies to watch #horror #halloween #movies for halloween #sci fi #family movies #movies #netflix #hbo #spooky #halloween movies #creepy #Instagram

[aion-rsa]

Framing Britney Spears Review: FX Doc Is a Pop Horror Story

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The FX docuseries The New York Times Presents takes a celebrity turn on the installment “Framing Britney.” But this is no tabloid exposé, even as the gossip rags and paparazzi become inadvertently complicit. The series provides consistently dedicated longform journalism as a matter of course. Their beat is varied. It’s covered front line workers, booted a hacking network, and chased a killer.

“Framing Britney” doesn’t present a homicide case, though legal minds might argue a life has been taken away. It is a true crime documentary, but the truth hasn’t been determined, and the crime is hard to define. There is a fiduciary element, and questionable mental health is a contributory factor. It is also a missing person’s case where the exact location of the victim-at-large is known. Well known and splashed across newsfeeds at a moment’s notice if there’s even a hint of a move. That’s part of the problem.

“Framing Britney” does a very good job of breaking down the incredibly confusing legal details. Since what has been called a very public breakdown in 2008, Spears has been under her father Jamie Spears’ conservatorship. This is also known as a guardianship and it is normally limited to people with diminished capacity who might not be capable of making decisions. Spears entered the conservatorship at age 26. She acknowledged it was necessary when it began, but at 39, wants the conditions changed.

The court documents call Britney a “high-functioning conservatee” who is still raking in the bucks. James Spears’ conservatorship may have been legally dubious, but it has been profitable, bringing the star from the depths of a bottomless spending spree to a net worth of well over $60 million. The conservatorship has done so well, even James’ initial co-guardian, the aptly named Andrew Wallet, wants a raise, and The New York Times Presents wants to know why. Britney’s attorney Samuel D. Ingham III tries to explain as much as he can, but he’s only privy to so much information. The documentary makes it seem Spears’ case is too profitable to get resolved. It’s not about health, but money. Even the Los Angeles Superior Court Judge is named Brenda Penny.

The subtext of the documentary has even saturated Spears’ song titles. “Work Bitch,” “I’m a Slave 4U,” “Overprotected,” all describe the neverland Britney inhabits, and “Framing Britney” lets you know it without stating it explicitly. Baby, she’s been hit more than one too many times. And it drives her crazy. It drives her fans mad as well. They’re only angry but they’ve been labeled insane by the opposition. Britney’s father dismisses them as “conspiracy theorists.” Some members of the #FreeBritney movement say they feel so gaslighted they sometimes doubt what they know. But they know, and are very good at getting the inside scoop.

One sequence recounts an anonymous voicemail message to the fan-produced podcast “Britney’s Gram.” It is obviously big news, and the fans who produce it do the right thing. They make all the right disclaimers. They do their due diligence, vetting as much as possible, cross-checking as much information as they can get. The self-appointed Britney-fan-journalists are organized, intelligent, and so well-informed Britney herself thanks them on record highlighting the word. They go to the hearings, take minutes and share them via google doc, insiders confess to them. They are a serious media concern, and this writer hopes when they achieve this goal, they don’t give up on their network and what it can do.

The fan/journalists dig through every conservatorship document available to the public. This may be part of a New York Times series, but they are star stringers, and director Samantha Stark is absolutely justified in treating them this way, albeit with tight editorial restrictions.

This may be the most innovative aspect of the episode. New York Times journalists Jason Stallman, Sam Dolnick, and Stephanie Preiss teamed with Left/Right’s Ken Druckerman, Banks Tarver, and Mary Robertson on this project. They enthusiastically analyze and incorporate the information they get from the grassroots fan-based press which sparked The Free Britney movement. Over the past few years, cellphone-recorded incidents and social media feeds have been changing the way news is gathered, providing first-hand accounts of harassment, protests and aggravated law enforcement tactics. The New York Times Presents produces one of the best mixes of the evolving media landscape. It is a transitional program, adhering to traditional journalistic values while vetting the upstart alternative media.

“Framing Britney” watches Spears’ followers as they scrutinize the star’s Instagram posts. Since disappearing from public view, these are the only glimpses into the megastar’s life, and she appears to be packing as much into the short clips as she can. Almost every post artfully weaves a mysterious clue, but even the fans admit, anyone can read anything into all of them. Spears’ lyrics have come under similar microscopes leading to vast and dark conspiracies. Britney could be singing about watching The Sixth Sense in “Girl in the Mirror.” The lyrics to “911” could be interpreted as a plea from a monarch-programmed sex-kitten. She never even officially released her response to a famous ex-boyfriend’s teary-eyed breakup song.

The documentary includes insightful interviews, especially with Felicia Culotta, who was with Spears from the very beginning of her career. She is to Britney what Mal Evans was to the Beatles, the one who did the day to day work. She was hand-picked by Britney’s mother and James Spears’ ex-wife Lynne Spears. Culotta stood with Britney for Times Square selfies on the first trip to New York. An early talent manager talks about how dedicated Britney was to her musical and performance studies, and the documentary shows stills of the singer on different instruments. We see the rise of a female pop phenomenon in the age of the boy band.

This is where “Framing Britney” earns its title. The directors indirectly infer not only has Spears been set up for some kind of blame, the entire picture is off-center. Sure, the #FreeBritney movement has become a cause célèbre, and the documentary shows Cher, Miley Cyrus, and others hoisting flags during concerts. But when Britney shaved her head and told people to stop touching her, she was a late-night talk show joke regurgitated on daytime game shows.

The documentary highlights how, from the moment Britney took off Mouseketeer ears and got ground through the American pop-star machine, she was a target and an easy score. “Her rise was a global phenomenon,” the FX advance press promised. “Her downfall was a cruel national sport.” One segment of the documentary shows a chorus line of well-known names making sport of Spears. The series shows Justin Timberlake treating radio interviews like locker rooms, and Us Weekly heading the cheerleading squad.

The piece sheds a completely different light on Spears’ public breakdown in 2007 and 2008. While an interview with former MTV VJ Dave Holmes reveals how professional, friendly and focused she was on set, one the paparazzi squad talks about ducking the famous umbrella attack. Even in retrospect, he doesn’t get it. He still doesn’t think his actions, chasing the pop singer around in a car while she tended intricate family business, had anything to do with her beating on his car door with an umbrella in the middle of the night. He acknowledges Britney had told him to lay off, but the cameraman assumed the requests applied to specific moments, not forever. It makes it seem Britney had to advise the paparazzi on a case-by-case photo op basis. Who does that?

One of the highlights of the documentary comes at a big announcement of her second Las Vegas residency in early 2019. Britney, who did her share of comedy acting on Saturday Night Live, does a perfectly broad impression of a Mel Brooks late-night Tonight Show appearance. She walks onto the stage and keeps walking. It is art. It is a major statement from the fabricated pop star.

One of the sad truths the documentary inadvertently points out is a series of artistic “what might have been” scenarios. Known only as a singer and dancer, we’ve never gotten to know the singer as a musician, because everyone cared about the gossip. People dismiss Britney as a dance pop artist without thinking that dance pop is an art. In spite of its intentionally static rhythms, it is often more intricate musically than rock. Britney, the artist, never stopped looking to expand the sounds. She was one of the pioneers of dubstep, taking it from the London club scene to the tops of all international charts. The documentary shows a series of unrelentingly harrowing questions about dating, boys, and the dangers of her young feminine sexuality. At one point Britney has to respond on camera to the news that some mother in the Bible Belt wants to shoot her dead. “I’m nobody’s babysitter,” the singer mouths, ad-libbing like the young professional she is, before cameras linger a little too long.

Ultimately, The New York Times Presents gives us a horror documentary, as scary and unfathomable as The Blair Witch Project, only more chilling because it is not fiction. Even Stephen King veers from this kind of harrowing suspense. It’s a pop-up, and you have to wait for it. They don’t reveal it until the end credits, though we’ve known it from the beginning. As the producers are thanking their contributors, they mention they reached out to Britney Spears herself. She never responded. They don’t even know if she got the message. This is dramatic brilliance. It is subtle, effective, and as the final visual burning in the mind’s eye, provocatively expansive.

“Framing Britney” is worth watching for the details, the history it tells, and the history it captures inadvertently by virtue of its hybrid journalistic filmmaking. This is Millennial Media and it is fitting the subject is Britney Spears, the most iconic figure of that generation. The full-length documentary, without ever expressly proclaiming it, shows how the star is being saved by her peers. An entire community, linked with nothing but love for their favorite singer, comes together to do right by her. It’s their prerogative. K-Pop fans showed the power of their stans as political weapons. “Framing Britney” presents entirely new possibilities.

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The New York Times Presents “Framing Britney Spears” debuts Feb. 5 on FX and FX on Hulu.

The post Framing Britney Spears Review: FX Doc Is a Pop Horror Story appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[jadedresearcher]

All possible chatHandles:

Someone on discord wanted to know what chatHandles were possible in the sim, so I figured maybe I should post it somewhere for posterity as well:

Prepare your eyes for code:

//get something that matches your class/aspect title on your own. var maid_handles = ["meandering","motley","musing","mischievous","macabre", "maiden"]; var page_handles = ["passionate","patient","peaceful","perfect","perceptive", "practical"]; var mage_handles = ["magnificent","managerial","major","majestic","mannerly"]; var knight_handles = ["keen","knightly","kooky","kindred"]; var rogue_handles = ["rouge","radical","retrobate","roguish","retroactive"]; var sylph_handles = ["surly","sour","sweet","stylish","soaring", "serene"]; var thief_handles = ["talented","terrible","talkative","tenacious","tried"]; var heir_handles = ["honorable","humble","hot","horrific","hardened"]; var bard_handles = ["benign","blissful","boisterous","bonkers","broken"]; var prince_handles = ["precocious","priceless","proficient","prominent","proper"]; var witch_handles = ["wondering","wonderful","wacky","withering","worldly"]; var seer_handles = ["sightly","sanctimonious","sarcastic","sassy","scintillating","synergistic"];

var music_handles1 = ["musical","pianist","melodious","keyboard","rhythmic","singing","tuneful","harmonious","beating","pitch","waltzing","synthesized","piano","serenading"]; var culture_handles1 = ["monochrome","poetic","majestic","keen","realistic","serious","theatrical","haute","beautiful","priceless","watercolor","sensational", "highbrow"]; var writing_handles1 = ["wordy","scribbling","meandering","pageturning","mysterious","knowledgeable","reporting","scribing","tricky","hardcover","bookish","page","writing","scribbler"]; var pop_culture_handles1 = ["worthy","mega","player","mighty","knightly","roguish","super","turbo","titanic","heroic","bitchin","power","wonder","wonderful", "sensational"]; var technology_handles1 = ["kludge", "pixel","machinist","programming","mechanical","kilo","robotic","silicon","techno","hardware","battery","python","windows","serial"]; var social_handles1 = ["master","playful","matchmaking","kind","regular","social","trusting","honest","benign","precious","wondering","sarcastic", "talkative"]; var romantic_handles1 = ["wishful","matchmaking","passionate","kinky","romantic","serendipitous","true","hearts","blushing","precious","warm","serenading","mesmerizing"]; var academic_handles1 = ["researching","machiavellian","princeton","pedagogical","theoretical","hypothetical","meandering","scholarly","biological","pants","spectacled","scientist","scholastic"]; var comedy_handles1 = ["mischievous","knavish","mercurial","beagle","sarcastic","satirical","mime","pantomime","practicing","pranking","wokka","kooky","haha","humor","talkative"]; var domestic_handles1 = ["motherly","patient","missing","knitting","rising","stylish","trendy","homey","baking","recipe","",""]; var athletic_handles1 = ["kinetic", "muscley", "preening", "mighty", "running", "sporty", "tennis", "hard", "ball", "winning", "trophey", "sports", "physical", "sturdy", "strapping", "hardy", "brawny", "burly", "robust", "strong", "muscular", "phenomenal"]; var terrible_handles1 = ["tyranical","heretical","murderous","persnickety","mundane","killer","rough","sneering","hateful","bastard","pungent","wasted","snooty","wicked"]; var fantasy_handles1 = ["musing","pacific","minotaurs","kappas","restful","serene","titans","hazy","best","peaceful","witchs","sylphic"] var justice_handles1 = ["karmic","mysterious","police","mind","keen","retribution","saving","tracking","hardboiled","broken","perceptive","watching","searching"];

var space_handles = ["Salamander","Salientia","Spacer","Scientist","Synergy"]; var time_handles = ["Teetotaler","Traveler","Tailor","Taster","Target", "Teacher", "Therapist"]; var breath_handles = ["Biologist","Backpacker","Babysitter","Baker","Balooner"]; var doom_handles = ["Dancer","Dean","Decorator","Deliverer","Director"]; var blood_handles = ["Buyer","Butler","Butcher","Barber","Bowler"]; var heart_handles = ["Heart","Hacker","Harbinger","Handler","Helper", "Historian", "Hobbyist"]; var mind_handles = ["Machine","Magician","Magistrate","Mechanic","Mediator", "Messenger"]; var light_handles = ["Laborer","Launderer","Layabout","Legend","Lawyer", "Lifeguard"]; var void_handles = ["Vagrant","Vegetarian","Veterinarian","Vigilante","Virtuoso"]; var rage_handles = ["Raconteur","Reveler","Reader","Reporter","Racketeer"]; var hope_handles = ["Honcho","Humorist","Horse","Haberdasher","Hooligan"]; var life_handles = ["Leader","Lecturer","Liason","Loyalist","Lyricist"];

var music_handles2 = ["Siren","Singer","Tenor","Trumpeter","Baritone","Dancer","Ballerina","Harpsicordist","Musician","Lutist","Violist","Rapper","Harpist","Lyricist","Virtuoso"]; var culture_handles2 = ["Dramatist","Repository","Museum","Librarian","Hegemony","Hierarchy","Davinci","Renaissance","Viniculture","Treaty","Balmoral","Beauty"]; var writing_handles2 = ["Shakespeare","Host","Bard","Drifter","Reader","Booker","Missive","Labret","Lacuna","Varvel","Hagiomaniac","Traveler"]; var pop_culture_handles2 = ["Superhero","Supervillain","Hero","Villain","Liason","Director","Repeat","Blockbuster","Movie","Mission","Legend","Buddy","Spy","Bystander"]; var technology_handles2 = ["Roboticist","Hacker","Haxor","Technologist","Robot","Machine","Machinist","Droid","Binary","Breaker","Vaporware","Lag","Laptop"]; var social_handles2 = ["Socialist","Defender","Mentor","Leader","Veterinarian","Therapist","Buddy","Healer","Helper","Mender","Lender","Dog","Bishop"]; var romantic_handles2 = ["Romantic","Dreamer","Beau","Hearthrob","Virtue","Beauty","Rainbow","Heart","Magnet","Miracle","Serendipity","Team"]; var academic_handles2 = ["Student","Scholar","Researcher","Scientist","Trainee","Biologist","Minerologist","Lecturer","Herbalist","Dean","Director","Honcho","Minder","Verbalist"]; var comedy_handles2 = ["Laugher","Humorist","Trickster","Sellout","Dummy","Silly","Bum","Huckster","Raconteur","Mime","Leaper","Vaudevillian","Baboon","Boor"]; var domestic_handles2 = ["Baker","Darner","Mender","Mentor","Launderer","Vegetarian","Tailor","Teacher","Hestia","Helper","Decorator","Sewer"]; var athletic_handles2 = ["Swimmer","Trainer","Baller","Handler","Runner","Leaper","Racer","Vaulter","Major","Tracker","Heavy","Brawn","Darter"]; var terrible_handles2 = ["Butcher","Blasphemer","Barbarian","Tyrant","Superior","Bastard","Dastard","Despot","Bitch","Horror","Victim","Hellhound","Devil","Demon","Shark","Lupin", "Mindflayer","Mummy","Hoarder"]; var fantasy_handles2 = ["Believer","Dragon","Magician","Sandman","Shinigami","Tengu","Harpy","Dwarf","Vampire","Lamia","Roc","Mermaid","Siren","Manticore","Banshee","Basilisk","Boggart"]; var justice_handles2 = ["Detective","Defender","Laywer","Loyalist","Liason","Vigilante","Tracker","Moralist","Retribution","Watchman","Searcher","Perception","Rebel"];

Basically,  the sim will try to find a handle that relates to either of a Player’s interests, that starts with the same letter as the class (for first word) and aspect(for second word), or will randomly use the generic class or aspect handles. 

#homestuck #SBURB #simulator #chatHandles