George du Maurier’s gothic horror novel Trilby is all but forgotten today, and to the extent that it is remembered, it is for introducing the term “svengali” into the popular lexicon. “Svengali” has been used as a term for the power behind the throne of an entertainer. He is more than just a business manager who negotiates contracts, although he may do that as well. A svengali is a puppeteer for whom the performer is his own creative outlet. He cultivates the performer’s image and makes artistic decisions for them. (more…)
Tag: horror movies
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A hard rain is gonna fall. — Bob Dylan
Jesus Christ, they’ve done it. — Bob, Threads
In late September of 1984 I was in my home town preparing to go back to university, having graduated with a good enough Bachelor’s degree to continue to a Master’s. (more…)
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October 31, 2022 Counter-Currents Radio
Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 500 Karl Thorburn Returns
Karl Thorburn returned for the first half of the latest broadcast of Counter-Currents Radio alongside Greg Johnson to discuss a number of issues, and it is now available for download and online listening.
Topics discussed include:
01:17 Is Bronze Age Pervert Jewish?
06:45 On Right-wing multiculturalism (more…) -
SPOILERS AHEAD
When I was a little girl, my parents wouldn’t allow me to go south of eight-mile . . . and I didn’t even know what that meant until I got a little older. And I started realizing that’s where the city started, and the suburbs ended. — Yara, It Follows
David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows is one of the best horror films of the twenty-first century. (more…)
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2,807 words
2,807 words
One of the smartest moves I ever made was becoming a “cord cutter.” Aside from the financial benefit, it has served to liberate my mind from the clutter of contemporary pop culture and media propaganda. Nevertheless, I occasionally indulge in streaming old movies, classics, whenever I can find them. (more…)
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5,153 words
5,153 words
The police are called, and Mitch is asked to meet the sheriff at the Fawcett farm. Some detectives from Santa Rosa are going to join them there. Presumably, Mitch is expected to repeat his mother’s account of finding the corpse of Dan Fawcett, its eyes pecked out by homicidal birds. (more…)
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Into the Dark: Pilgrim (2019)
Directed by Marcus Dunstan
Written by Noah Feinberg, Marcus Dunstan, & Patrick Melton
Starring Reign Edwards, Kerr Smith, & Courtney Henggeler -
What is the difference between a “psychological” horror movie and all the other kinds of horror movies? Probably in how slow-paced and bizarre the director is willing to make his final product. The Lighthouse, directed by Robert Eggers and featuring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattison, is a tall, creaking, alien edifice of the bizarre. And as with many a good psychological thriller, The Lighthouse offers several levels of exquisitely-rendered weirdness and forces the audience to figure out which level it’s on at any given point. (more…)
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John Krasinksi, probably best known as Jim in the long-running television series The Office, is the director and star of a unique 2018 horror film called A Quiet Place. Krasinki breaks from his typical casting as a smirking “soy boy” to play a gruff and serious survivalist in this post-apocalyptic drama. The film shows us what the world would be like if Earth became infested with monsters who attack any sound louder than a certain unspecified decibel level. These monsters are numerous and they move with lightning speed. The film begins after most of the human population has already been destroyed. (more…)
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It’s not clear why human beings enjoy being frightened. Indeed, in most circumstances we don’t. I find nothing particularly “thrilling,” for example, about the frightening threat posed by mass non-white migration into the lands of my ancestors. Nor do I enjoy how I feel when I’m the only white person on the J train at midnight. But I thoroughly enjoy the imaginary threats posed by ghosts, witches, and vampires. There’s a lot to be said here about the human fascination with the uncanny, and what it reveals about us. (more…)