Room 237 Documentary

Apparently, The Shining is a holocaust metaphor about how the moon landing was fake. It sure sounds like these people are overanalyzing the movie, picking apart every scene as if every atom in the frame is a deliberate work of art. Maybe this movie really is chock full of symbolism. Yeah, and maybe I'm a Chinese jet pilot.

Underwater (2020)

I saw this recently. I basically can't say anything about it. I am glad I saw it though! It stars Vincent Cassel and Kristen Stewart (who really does a perfectly solid job here, so cut her some slack). I would say don't google it, or try to learn anything about it beforehand, and just watch it. I think you'll be glad you did.

Thor Heyerdahl-ish stuff

You guys, this is really interesting. I think I must have missed it when it was in the news, this feels like NEW news to me. Like, I don't think I knew about it until today.

I'm not saying Thor Heyerdahl was right about everything. In fact, I AM saying that he was definitely wrong about shitloads of things. But, it looks like he was right about this.

Here is the article. I hope it's clickable.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2487-2.epdf?sharing_token=YbYh7h-oFTVqiaIHO404B9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0NQ-GCGXs3b23XyInVhVtT1AdcNQHZodtkKNjeo_SR6zt9f9aL_AX33870N0wZrUnumb_oEV09bctmUoZF9efqVOMerEWxA71IrXlxocHJ7nd8Ys94Z733tZMsOGzx8ERRP41ktd_opbdkfBKR0OcXfUPTeeUVaxDDWG8Iet1QiGN_VAUdlEj562PopOAZimCyrYOBuv4MX9wbCoB48uMAtpZPiP6J-tw8R-CK2JARfi4GVwJqKXEnROmln3_VlD_Uze7YRCi9nKCVqY5cS6ibd4YcLCgY7iLejjR6ZnoRb8Xn2oJqriUF5KXEGhelNMW-FPhd-Z8aZuWMSsR3hwpJGrp-3nqr9e9Ct3Pm2DMQ7xq7Zr2BpKRbpnWXMSUypzpwciVg0GWkw2D_CeMT7Z7AE&tracking_referrer=www.iflscience.com

The idea is that Easter Island was partially settled by people of (partial) Native American descent. But, those people came to Easter Island from the WEST, not from the east. There was some kind of contact in about the 12th or 13th century A.D. (not that any of the people involved would known what that meant, obviously) between the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia and somewhere in northerly South America, probably the Zenu people in what is now the nation of Colombia. And, also, if I am understanding this correctly, maybe some contact between Polynesians and the Zapotec people of Mexico, possibly a few decades earlier than the Zenu contacts.

They don't seem to be clear on exactly what happened, but the way they talk about it makes it sound like there may have been some kind of Native American colony, waaayyy out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I love that idea... Either that, or Polynesians rowed all the way to South America, and then later took a few women back with them, to the Marquesas Islands area.

Thor Heyerdahl made some crazy claims, but just the basic idea that there may have been some contact between South America and Polynesia is apparently correct.

Some horror pranks

https://twitter.com/horrormuseum/status/1647692091554922496

3 favorite Masters of Horror episodes?

Cigarette Burns by John Carpenter
Imprint by Takashi Miike
Pelts by Dario Argento

Hm
Sick Girl by Lucky McKee
The Black Cat by Stuart Gordon

The Third Coast, by Thomas Dyja

You guys, I just saw this in a used bookstore today. It's about the significance of the city of Chicago to the sum total of what the United States became, to itself and to the world, during the early and mid-20th century.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/15811511

I wanted to put it here in a particular old thread, but I can't find it. It could be a year or two old... I don't know. The thread had something to do with the way New York City and Los Angeles dominate the national scene too muc and how even movies and fiction are just too heavily dominated by those two cities.

In the thread I'm thinking of, I also said something about how Boston has had more than its share of movies about it, in recent years. I can remember thinking, when I was a kid, that I wished there were more movies set in and around Boston. But, at this point, I think my home city has kind of worn out its welcome, and they should find other places to talk about, and other places to set movies and books. I might have asked, in that thread, what other cities anyone here thinks would make sense to set more movies in?? I remember thnking about that topic, I'm not sure if I actually went ahead and created a post about it here...

Anyway, the book I saw is an effort to discuss the significance and importance of Chicago. So, just the type of thing I had in mind.

Had to share.

Penpal, by Dathan Auerbach

Has anybody here read this? I just finished it yesterday, and want to talk about it a little. It's very short, but it took me three or four days anyway, just because I kept getting distracted.

Spoilers coming up. Go somewhere else if you don't want to read them.

I think the story was some kind of Creepypasta or Reddit thread that evolved over time, or was built incrementally somehow. I'm seing people say different things online, about that, soooo I'm still sorting it out.

Spoilers coming now. Really.

I read almost the entire thing before I really understood what kind of horror story it is. I had it in my mind that it would end up being something like The Institute or Tommyknockers, both by Stephen King. Or possibly something supernatural. Maybe something along the lines of the Mothman... I hought of that possibility several times, especially regarding the Polaroids. There are things going on that are just a little beyond the narrator's circle of awareness... the narrator is supposed to be remembering himself as a child, depicted at various ages. He describes things happen that he doesn't understand at the time, but tries to come up with explanations to help himself understand, usually wrongly. He is supposed to be remembering all the events in the story from some future point. The events are told out of linear order... it's like he's just trying to sort out his own memories, and doesn't know exactly where to start, or how to proceed. You can tell that someone or something is observing or stalking him, but you can't tell who or what it might be. As I said, I had it in my brain for some reason that he was being cultivated or "groomed" by some nefarious organization, for purposes that we may or may not ever learn.

One question I have that isn't a total spoiler, exactly... if you have read it, do you think the person with the bandaged face who co-inhabited Veronica's hospital room was, um, the bad guy? That would make some sense, but I'm not 100% sure.

Another question: do you think the bad guy could have been the narrator's father?!? Is that possible?

What else, what else... um... people generally seem to really like the story, in the comments section under YouTube videos about it, and in Reddits and probably Quora threads. But, I get the sense that a lot of people reading it are kids, or people in their early 20s. I did not understand that, when I started reading it. I had just vaguely heard that it was a good story. What I'm saying is that I can see how people that age would find it particularly powerful and gripping, but all of us here are so desensitized to all kinds of horror that we mostly just kind of take it in stride. The kind of horror that it is is kind of a real world horror, like, it is something that basically could probably happen to someone. People reacting to it in comments threads are probably fairly average, normal people, having an authentically horrified reaction, not hardcore gorehounds or horror fans at all, particularly. So, yah, just think about it in that way, if you have yet to read it.

I'm still mulling the story over. It is certainly disturbing, and horrifying for any empathetic human being, but it isn't exactly what we here might think of when we hear the word horror.

Anybody have any thoughts on any of this?

The conspiracy thread

Instead of polluting the main shoutbox we can chuck it all here

Challenge schedule 2024

Here is a list of all the challenges coming up in 2024 and when to mark them down in your diaries. I've also nominated hosts for the challenges, so if you don't want to do it then... nominate someone else!:

January: Break
February: Documentary challenge - hosted by Markus
March: Trash challenge - hosted by Troma
April: Animation challenge - hosted by Ballz
May: Crime challenge - hosted by Box
June: The "different genre every week challenge" (Comedy/Action/War/Western)• - hosted by Markus
July: World Cinema challenge - hosted by zed
August: A-Z challenge - hosted by Zombie
September: Sci-Fi & Fantasy challenge - hosted by Ballz
October: October challenge - hosted by Markus
November: Turkey challenge - hosted by Zombie
December: Christmas movie challenge - hosted by Box

Also, if you don't intend to compete in any of them then... •beep• you!

Free Guy

Any big fans of Free Guy here? I am right in the middle of watching it for the first time. I had vaguely heard about it when they were filming it in Boston, but this is the first time I've seen it.

So far, my verdict is.... not bad at all. They make a huge deal about sunglasses being the key to a realm of higher awareness, which is clearly borrowed at least a little from They Live. But the overall plot, at least so far reminds me mostly of the "Everything is Awesome" scene from The Lego Movie. Just that whole idea of a lowly but cheerful worker drone dude in a cutthroat world, who begins to get a clue.

It also reminds me, at times, of Tron, and of Ready Player One. Not hard to see why. Anyway, I'm right in the middle of it, but so far I like it.