Being Atheist obviously makes the real world concept of ghosts and spirits and similar spooky elements null and void, but despite that, I have always had a love of horror stories, movies and lately creepypastas, ones done right of course.
The good thing about it is that horror covers a wide range of subjects, ones based on real life events like serial killers, psychopaths, being stalked, cannibals, psychological horror. I became a fan of the works of Junji ito due to this and have brought some of his works.
Given that, I do enjoy classic haunting movies, to me a supernatural haunting or demonic entity movie is just as realistic and the alien franchise, which also has some great horror elements to it, you don't have to believe the stuff in real life to find them scary in escapist fantasy.
I use to love listening to horror collections on cassette tapes as a teen like dracula and the picture of dorian grey and Frankensteins monster. I even remember on a school camping trip sitting around a campfire on a freezing night and being told scary stories by one of the teachers.
I guess I'm just curious, since horror reaches a broader subject then just supernatural, are there movies or stories you found chilling or entertaining at least?
Here is something you can sign up for ...
https://www.hauntedrooms.co.uk/8-real-ghost-stories-uk-british-true
My two favorite British ghost stories ...
1. A British serviceman, in WW I, who came home on leave to his family estate in Ireland. He had a good stay and went back to the front. Later his shocked parents got news that he had died in combat, some time before his last visit home!!
2. A British family, was setting up a home on an old Scottish site. There was a tale, thereabouts, about a time several centuries past, when there was a war between clans. This site had been a clan hideout. At one point, the clan there had captured a piper from the enemy clan. He was told, in no way should he warn his clan, if they came into the area, to avoid a planned ambush. He did so anyway, with his pipes (coded message). The clan punished him by cutting off both his hands, so he couldn't play the pipes anymore. Under some flagstones, the modern family was excavating for a new foundation. They found some flagstones, and a pair of skeletal hands hidden underneath!!
I listen to horror stories and creepypastas all the time, the paranormal scholar has one of the most soothing voices I’ve ever heard and she’s virtually always on my listen list. Many of the stories are for good fun and the true ones make for interesting reads. Corpse husband was a good narrator but he vanished for some reason or another.
Quote from: GrinningYMIR on March 18, 2018, 09:40:35 PM
I listen to horror stories and creepypastas all the time, the paranormal scholar has one of the most soothing voices I’ve ever heard and she’s virtually always on my listen list. Many of the stories are for good fun and the true ones make for interesting reads. Corpse husband was a good narrator but he vanished for some reason or another.
I find Otis Jiry a very comforting voice to listen too. He's got a similar southern twang like Morgan Freeman
There's only been one creepypasta that I was unable to finish, because it hit too close to home. It involved a young boy, about the same age as my cousin-nephew, being vivisected by a demonic clown.
That said, I do enjoy a good horror story from time to time, and particularly horror mysteries. /r/NoSleep once had a series of posts narrated from the perspective of a park ranger, and these posts detailed his attempt to figure out why random staircases would appear and disappear in the forest, and why park management was so hush-hush about the whole thing. It was a really fascinating read, and I was a little sad when the guy finally ended the series.
I particularity like weird fiction and psychological horror.
Surreal horror is often very successful at changing how you look at the world, if only for a brief moment.
Quote from: Munch on March 18, 2018, 03:13:57 PM
Being Atheist obviously makes the real world concept of ghosts and spirits and similar spooky elements null and void, but despite that, I have always had a love of horror stories, movies and lately creepypastas, ones done right of course.
The good thing about it is that horror covers a wide range of subjects, ones based on real life events like serial killers, psychopaths, being stalked, cannibals, psychological horror. I became a fan of the works of Junji ito due to this and have brought some of his works.
Given that, I do enjoy classic haunting movies, to me a supernatural haunting or demonic entity movie is just as realistic and the alien franchise, which also has some great horror elements to it, you don't have to believe the stuff in real life to find them scary in escapist fantasy.
I use to love listening to horror collections on cassette tapes as a teen like dracula and the picture of dorian grey and Frankensteins monster. I even remember on a school camping trip sitting around a campfire on a freezing night and being told scary stories by one of the teachers.
I guess I'm just curious, since horror reaches a broader subject then just supernatural, are there movies or stories you found chilling or entertaining at least?
I liked Rob Zombie's "Halloween", it were funny! Never cared for "Alien", everything was in the critter's favor.
Quote from: Hydra009 on March 19, 2018, 01:40:24 AM
I particularity like weird fiction and psychological horror.
Surreal horror is often very successful at changing how you look at the world, if only for a brief moment.
American life is surreal horror. At least since Eisenhower. Ars verite'
I like the idea of spooky campfire stories. I just don't have any good ones, except for a couple of old classics like the hook hanging on to the car door handle.
Quote from: Hijiri Byakuren on March 18, 2018, 11:24:38 PM
There's only been one creepypasta that I was unable to finish, because it hit too close to home. It involved a young boy, about the same age as my cousin-nephew, being vivisected by a demonic clown.
That said, I do enjoy a good horror story from time to time, and particularly horror mysteries. /r/NoSleep once had a series of posts narrated from the perspective of a park ranger, and these posts detailed his attempt to figure out why random staircases would appear and disappear in the forest, and why park management was so hush-hush about the whole thing. It was a really fascinating read, and I was a little sad when the guy finally ended the series.
o
I know That exact story, and I’ve acrually spoken to the author of that story too. It wa as great read/listen but unfortunately it’s over now. In her own words she’s too depresssd to ever run it again
The only things that bother me are real things. Hornets, poisonous snakes, large dogs.
Movie monsters, supernatural creatures, etc don't bother me at all. I do sometimes think about aliens. If we AREN'T alone, the odds are good there is something nastier "out there". But fortunately, it is unlikely we woukd ever meet. I mean, either anything that could get to us would be just way too far advanced to contend against, and they are either peaceful or not. Or they dangerous and can't get to us and are harmless or kind and neither matters.
I like creepypasta and horror movies. I'm actually fine with dead bodies, or bits of them. Supernatural spirits are not a problem.
The thing that really scares me though...
Spoiler tags don't work :(
Quote from: Jason78 on March 22, 2018, 08:27:01 PM
I like creepypasta and horror movies. I'm actually fine with dead bodies, or bits of them. Supernatural spirits are not a problem.
The thing that really scares me though...
Spoiler tags don't work :(
Spoiler tags are merely annoying, not dangerous.
I generally don't go in for horror tales -- when I do, it's either because they successfully sucked me into the world they've created for it (Lovecraft, Poe and Stoker come to mind here), or because they rejected supernatural horror and retained an air of plausibility, that it could be happening right next door and you'd never know it. I mean, there was nothing impossible about Norman Bates in Psychoâ€"and Bates was downright pedestrian compared to the real-life killer upon whom he was partially based, Ed Gein.
Outside of that, I prefer my horror diluted with humor, like Welcome to Night Vale.
Quote from: Cavebear on March 20, 2018, 03:35:37 AM
The only things that bother me are real things. Hornets, poisonous snakes, large dogs.
Movie monsters, supernatural creatures, etc don't bother me at all. I do sometimes think about aliens. If we AREN'T alone, the odds are good there is something nastier "out there". But fortunately, it is unlikely we woukd ever meet. I mean, either anything that could get to us would be just way too far advanced to contend against, and they are either peaceful or not. Or they dangerous and can't get to us and are harmless or kind and neither matters.
I'm the same way, all those fictional monsters don't scare me at all, because I know they're not real. But the real monsters, like the guy blowing shit up in Austin, or school shooters, those are truly frightening.
Quote from: Unbeliever on March 23, 2018, 01:09:09 PM
I'm the same way, all those fictional monsters don't scare me at all, because I know they're not real. But the real monsters, like the guy blowing shit up in Austin, or school shooters, those are truly frightening.
I work with fedex and ups packages on a daily basis, and I wont Lie, we were all resigned if something happened to blow up in our store.
I’m in Dallas fyi
Yeah, reality is a whole lot scarier than unreality, but its not like we have much choice.
Quote from: Cavebear on March 23, 2018, 03:48:17 PM
Yeah, reality is a whole lot scarier than unreality, but its not like we have much choice.
some of the scariest horror stories are ones of real life events. Stalkers, serial killers, psychological abuse, kidnapping.
Quote from: Munch on March 23, 2018, 04:10:07 PM
some of the scariest horror stories are ones of real life events. Stalkers, serial killers, psychological abuse, kidnapping.
Admittedly, I really don't watch those "don't go down those stairs, stupid" movies. LOL!
Quote from: Unbeliever on March 23, 2018, 01:09:09 PM
I'm the same way, all those fictional monsters don't scare me at all, because I know they're not real. But the real monsters, like the guy blowing shit up in Austin, or school shooters, those are truly frightening.
Nevertheless ... don't take counsel of your fears. Die young ... oh, you failed, didn't you ... so did I.
They say only the good die young, so I'm safe.
Quote from: Unbeliever on March 23, 2018, 07:05:23 PM
They say only the good die young, so I'm safe.
Does that make me evil by definition at 67? I'm not dead yet...
Quote from: Cavebear on March 23, 2018, 11:32:41 PM
Does that make me evil by definition at 67? I'm not dead yet...
The zombies are real ... people who are alive, but with dead hearts or dead heads (not you).
About the scariest monster I can think of right now is John Bolton as national security advisor.
Quote from: Unbeliever on March 24, 2018, 01:41:02 PM
About the scariest monster I can think of right now is John Bolton as national security advisor.
(https://media.giphy.com/media/hVWJ3uCuSlSMg/giphy.gif)
Quote from: Unbeliever on March 24, 2018, 01:41:02 PM
About the scariest monster I can think of right now is John Bolton as national security advisor.
All the alumni of the Bush Jr administration ... definitely zombies.
Quote from: Unbeliever on March 23, 2018, 01:09:09 PM
I'm the same way, all those fictional monsters don't scare me at all, because I know they're not real. But the real monsters, like the guy blowing shit up in Austin, or school shooters, those are truly frightening.
Some of the scariest horrors I've seen contain no supernatural creatures. The genuine horror comes from being reminded about what humans will do to each other.
Creepypasta? (Courtesy of Munch)
(https://i.imgur.com/dF1NqZO.jpg)
creepy to some, lovely to others.
kind of like children are.
(https://coubsecure-s.akamaihd.net/get/b85/p/coub/simple/cw_timeline_pic/475c23d062f/2772534662358c3d9d9da/med_1475467117_image.jpg)
Quote from: pr126 on March 25, 2018, 08:58:36 AM
Creepypasta? (Courtesy of Munch)
(https://i.imgur.com/dF1NqZO.jpg)
Cook pasta 9 minutes. Heat tomato sauce. Throw away pasta. Eat tomato sauce with hot italian sausage. YUM!
Just for the record, my boyfriend ate that bag of dicks.
Quote from: Munch on March 25, 2018, 09:11:35 PM
Just for the record, my boyfriend ate that bag of dicks.
There are times to not ask for details...
One of the best short horror stories I read was this one.
QuoteA young girl is playing in her bedroom when she hears her mother call to her from the kitchen, so she runs downstairs to meet her mother.
As she's running through the hallway, the door to the cupboard under the stairs opens, and a hand reaches out and pulls her in. It's her mother. She whispers to her child, "Don't go into the kitchen. I heard it too."
its perfectly chilling, short and sweet, and understands the fundamental concepts of horror, something like this gives me more chills then a hundred bargain horror movies
Quote from: Munch on March 26, 2018, 12:34:48 PM
One of the best short horror stories I read was this one.
its perfectly chilling, short and sweet, and understands the fundamental concepts of horror, something like this gives me more chills then a hundred bargain horror movies
Reminds me of scenes from Coraline:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-GyYBNLruI
I absolutely love Coraline, one of my fav animated movies.
Quote from: Munch on March 26, 2018, 07:55:32 PM
I absolutely love Coraline, one of my fav animated movies.
James and the Giant Peach?
Nightmare before Christmas?
Quote from: Munch on March 26, 2018, 07:55:32 PM
I absolutely love Coraline, one of my fav animated movies.
Just out of curiousity, why do horror movies interest you? I just don't find fictional horror villains all that frightening.
Quote from: Cavebear on March 26, 2018, 11:19:30 PM
Just out of curiousity, why do horror movies interest you? I just don't find fictional horror villains all that frightening.
for the same reason I find super heroes able to embolden, or comedians making me laugh. In terms of horror, I like at times to feel scared, or have something give me the chill. As someone who likes many different forms of fiction, horror is just one element of that, I can enjoy a story of a girl being demonically possessed as much as I enjoy seeing hulk smash loki about like a rag doll.
And just for the record, just cause someone is atheist, doesn't mean they can't enjoy fictional, fantasy, thrills and scares.
Quote from: Munch on March 27, 2018, 07:42:44 AM
for the same reason I find super heroes able to embolden, or comedians making me laugh. In terms of horror, I like at times to feel scared, or have something give me the chill. As someone who likes many different forms of fiction, horror is just one element of that, I can enjoy a story of a girl being demonically possessed as much as I enjoy seeing hulk smash loki about like a rag doll.
And just for the record, just cause someone is atheist, doesn't mean they can't enjoy fictional, fantasy, thrills and scares.
True enough; hell, I
write SF. I really should get back to the one where an alien race's first encounter with humans provides physical evidence for
their primary creation myth (and to a lesser extent kills off a human subset of myths by providing a non-metaphysical explanation)... anyway, while I prefer plausibility in fiction, that's very much second to
consistency. Doesn't matter how implausible an event or character is if they're consistent within the rules set up for that world, and the rules are applied evenly and fairly across the board (script immunity notwithstanding).
I sometimes wonder whether the multiverse might contain universes in which the laws of physics permit things that we would consider magic or supernatural. I have no idea what are the true limits of physical laws in other universes, so it seems like it could be that way. But I'm very glad that our own universe doesn't allow such things - that might be truly scary!
Quote from: Unbeliever on March 27, 2018, 01:38:29 PM
I sometimes wonder whether the multiverse might contain universes in which the laws of physics permit things that we would consider magic or supernatural. I have no idea what are the true limits of physical laws in other universes, so it seems like it could be that way. But I'm very glad that our own universe doesn't allow such things - that might be truly scary!
Let me ask, do you believe in the multiverse theory?
I suppose it's really one of those things we can't have legit proof of, likewise us knowing if there is another universe out there beyond the observable one in the infinite inky blackness
Going on that, all the monsters and creatures thought up in fantasy, imagine other planets and lifeforms out there, how they might view us as something terrifying to behold.
No, it's not a matter of belief, any more than I "believe in" Hawking radiation, which also hasn't been confirmed through experiment, but is on a solid theoretical footing.
Quote from: Unbeliever on March 27, 2018, 01:38:29 PM
I sometimes wonder whether the multiverse might contain universes in which the laws of physics permit things that we would consider magic or supernatural. I have no idea what are the true limits of physical laws in other universes, so it seems like it could be that way. But I'm very glad that our own universe doesn't allow such things - that might be truly scary!
I think the only real useful definition of 'magic' is 'that which we cannot (yet) explain' -- which says nothing about whether it's actually explicable or not, just that as of that moment, it lacks an explanation. There are a lot of things we have and do that we take for granted that even the best and brightest of an earlier age would have called sorcery.
Even the ones who try really hard to envision the future get it wrong. The original Star Trek communicator is a case in point -- it's little more than a walkie-talkie with a really great range. Compare it to the smart phone in your pocket. Unless you've held on to the same flip phone since 2002, the phone in your pocket wins over the communicator every time, and gives the tricorder a good run for its money.
Of course, if you were to take a smartphone back fifty years, it would still be recognized as technology. A typical person from the 1960s would look at it funny, but wouldn't call it magical.
If you took it back five hundred years, there's nothing
else they could call it other than 'magic'.
As far as the multiverse goes, there are several different types that have been proposed. The level 1 (quilted) multiverse is quite plausible, since it depends only on whether or not the universe is of infinite spatial extent, and whether the universe outside our Hubble bubble is approximately like that inside of it - which both seem to be the case.
QuoteLevel 1: Regions Beyond Cosmic Horizon - The universe is essentially infinitely big and contains matter at roughly the same distribution as we see it throughout the universe. Matter can combine in only so many different configurations. Given an infinite amount of space, it stands to reason there exists another portion of the universe in which an exact duplicate of our world â€" and, in fact, our entire visible universe â€" exists.
I also like the conformal and ekpyrotic cyclic models.
QuoteThe conformal cyclic cosmology (CCC) is a cosmological model in the framework of general relativity, advanced by the theoretical physicists Roger Penrose and Vahe Gurzadyan.[1][2][3] In CCC, the universe iterates through infinite cycles, with the future timelike infinity of each previous iteration being identified with the Big Bang singularity of the next.
QuoteThe cyclic multiverse (via the ekpyrotic scenario) has multiple branes (each a universe) that have collided, causing Big Bangs. The universes bounce back and pass through time until they are pulled back together and again collide, destroying the old contents and creating them anew.
I like cyclic models because they make it possible to have an
eternal return. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_return)
I was thinking more about magic, as magic is commonly understood in terms of fantasy fiction.
If magic functions in a predictable manner, such that casting Spell A always has Effect B, and burning herb C soaked in blood D always summons critter E, under those circumstances, magic would be a science and not paranormal. If it is consistent and testable, even if it's fucked up, it's a science.
Discuss. :D
I've seen some fantasy novels that treat magic as if it were a science. That seems to make it a bit more plausible, and easier to suspend disbelief.
Quote from: Unbeliever on March 27, 2018, 07:41:48 PM
I've seen some fantasy novels that treat magic as if it were a science. That seems to make it a bit more plausible, and easier to suspend disbelief.
I've seen a few like that, too, and those are generally the better ones. One of the reasons Diane Duane is my favorite fantasy writer is because even though her magic system was functionally 'point and poof', it was approached in a surprisingly rigorous way.
.
.
.
Well, okay, and the other reason is because I've had a major crush on Dusty ever since "The Door Into Fire" was first published in 1979. XD
Multiverse idea comes from infinite series solutions (badly converging usually) from the equations of QFT. Think of the Taylor expansion of the simple sine function ... it can be approximated by the sum of an infinite number of terms. Each term is a simple polynomial, but the sum is not a finite polynomial. In fact the sine function is an example of a cyclical function, of eternal return after a constant period.
On the other hand, you can take an infinite sum of those sine functions to approximate a polynomial of finite terms (Fourier analysis). So from one POV, the function has finite terms, but from the other POV it has infinite terms. If you imagine a representation made up of infinite terms (and you can choose to or not), and imagine each term is a "universe" then reality is made up of the infinite sum of those "universes".
But the point is, reality is the sum of these "universes", you can't entirely exist in just one of them, any more than you can exist in a changing 2d plane, or an unchanging 3d volume. Though statistical dimension reduction attempts just that (as an approximation to real data). All of these ideas are just variations on the story of Flatland, which actually predates Einstein's theory.
Quote from: Cavebear on March 26, 2018, 11:19:30 PM
Just out of curiousity, why do horror movies interest you? I just don't find fictional horror villains all that frightening.
It depends on the conception and implementation, but I find lot of horror villains to be extremely disturbing.
In Doctor Who, there's a shadow made up of swarms of carnivorous microscopic creatures. (Pretty low-budget, but Doctor Who villains tend to rely more heavily on reframing ordinary stuff as enormous threats and let your imagination do you in than wow you with special effects)
The result?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veV4EdTb344
J*S*S FUCKING ******!
Oh, and I find anything with Changelings/parasites to be EXTREMELY unnerving.
Everything from Star Trek TNG's episode Conspiracy (https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3rIkw1ee448/Ui0UR_03m1I/AAAAAAAABi0/KcpqL2rsgxI/s1600/ST+TNG+Remmick.gif) (which mentally scarred 10 year-old me) to Marvel's Secret Invasion (the invasion itself wasn't scary, it was the sheer uncertainty leading up to it and the horrific backstabbing from people you trust, maybe even love - HE LOVES YOU - *massive explosion*)
Even the DS9 changelings are kinda off-putting. Just imagine a team of them on Earth... (https://i0.wp.com/68.media.tumblr.com/6f008a5c68c8016206826120d0a269e7/tumblr_ov6ey0ik6O1qj6sk2o1_1280.gif?resize=350%2C200)
Except the MLP changelings. They're cute.
(https://pm1.narvii.com/6709/d301ef7b4fef38e00fdf2ec5938eb14278a64f03_00.jpg)
14/10 Would stand by and let it genocide the cute citizens of wuvy-dovey land.
Hostile parasites are bad, but I find cooperative parasites off putting ... Trill symbiont much? It would be more like The Man With Two Brains.
Quote from: Munch on March 27, 2018, 07:42:44 AM
for the same reason I find super heroes able to embolden, or comedians making me laugh. In terms of horror, I like at times to feel scared, or have something give me the chill. As someone who likes many different forms of fiction, horror is just one element of that, I can enjoy a story of a girl being demonically possessed as much as I enjoy seeing hulk smash loki about like a rag doll.
And just for the record, just cause someone is atheist, doesn't mean they can't enjoy fictional, fantasy, thrills and scares.
That is actually a very good answer! I always like to see one that makes me think. Also because I like Sci-fi and am never sure how to justify it. You really got me when you mentioned Hulk smashing Loki around like a rag doll, too. I CRACKED UP at that scene. "Puny gods". LOL!
I don't get enough of posts like these...
Funny thing is, I never use to like really scary stuff at one point in my life. When I was like 7-11, my brother did this thing where when my gran stayed round, she'd have my room to sleep in, and I had to sleep on a fold out bed in my brothers room. He always intentionally put on horror movies when in there, that he borrowed from an older friend of his, things like Childs Play, IT, classic horror movies, and I'd lay there under my sleeping bag peaking out to see the horror on screen.
This lead to me being so afraid of the idea of horror for some years, that even when for example the nightmare before christmas came out, and a friend wanted to see it with me, I didn't, thinking it would be a horror movie.
The irony now is i now love that movie, as well as loving horror, sort of like it finally caught up to me after spending younger years being to afraid to watch some of them. I count movies like the babadook, the shining, insidious, as some of my fav movies now, along with the avengers, x-men, lord of the rings and brokeback mountain.
I am reminded of the time our department (internal tech support for a major midwestern bank) met for a matinee showing of 'The Blair Witch Project'. We all looked a little shell-shocked when we leftâ€"I know I felt like we'd been in there for three or four hours, but I think most of that is because it's a movie without music so your ear is forced to be attentive at all times and that's tiring. The movie didn't come home to land until several hours later when I went to bed. When I tried to go to bed. As soon as I turned out the lights, every normal sound that an apartment with one human and two cats in the middle of a large city makes suddenly sounded... deeply abnormal.
The lights came back on after about ten minutes. I ended up staying up until it was physically impossible to stay awake any longer. No monsters, no special effects, no gallons of stage blood... it just turned my own brain against me. But... it's a trick that only worked on first viewing. I've watched it since, and it just doesn't do it anymore.
Curious.
thats the curious thing about the different types of horror movies. There are different types of ones that will appeal to everyone in different ways, from psychological to shock to gore. The horror element is an aspect and part of it, but with a horror movie you can create the horror elements, without any real depth and story, or you can.
Think about something like insidious, which set up the world is was based in, how the spirit world called the further exists in that setting and how that builds on three of the movies around it and the associated characters, you have the horror elements like shock horror and slow scares, but you also have characters and an progressive story, and you may even care about the plot and characters.
In other horrors, it can have little developing characters and setting, and just exists for the horror element, to shock and scare, like Human Centipede 2, or evil dead, you don't watch them for the story, you watch them for the grotesque horror and shock value.
Quote from: Munch on March 30, 2018, 02:53:30 PM
thats the curious thing about the different types of horror movies. There are different types of ones that will appeal to everyone in different ways, from psychological to shock to gore. The horror element is an aspect and part of it, but with a horror movie you can create the horror elements, without any real depth and story, or you can.
Think about something like insidious, which set up the world is was based in, how the spirit world called the further exists in that setting and how that builds on three of the movies around it and the associated characters, you have the horror elements like shock horror and slow scares, but you also have characters and an progressive story, and you may even care about the plot and characters.
In other horrors, it can have little developing characters and setting, and just exists for the horror element, to shock and scare, like Human Centipede 2, or evil dead, you don't watch them for the story, you watch them for the grotesque horror and shock value.
Me, I'll pick the psychological horror almost every time, and when I don't, it's the camp horror of the Phibes movies or Theatre of Blood... well, really, almost anything Vincent Price was doing from the 50s onward. Saw, Human Centipede... nope. No desire whatsoever. I can't say I've heard of Insidious.
I have also, thanks to the local Fritz the Nite Owl showings, become a fan of Michael Dougherty. I quite enjoyed both
Trick 'r Treat and
Krampus, even though I went into both with no expectation of liking either of them (I was going for Fritz and the movie was the price I would have to pay), and ended up loving them both. I can't wait for his
Godzilla: King of the Monsters next spring. But then, Dougherty has found a fantastic balance between horror and humor.
This is a good video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIIA6QDgl2M
I've become a fan of Junji Itos work, not so much for the graphic imagery of his work, but just the nature of it, he works so hard on drawing something that fills us with dread and an uncomfortable feeling. Also as the guy in the video said, how Ito creates the sense of horror in his work, is in making full use of the medium he's using, its a comic, so you need to turn the page, the suspense is built on the page prior, and then the full horror hits you as you turn over, and its all from your own choice.
Thats how horror works, in this format anyway, kind of like how in a game, its our choice to open the door ahead, and face whatevers inside.
To me, Junju Ito's work is in the same method of horror as H.P lovecraft, subverting the normal and creating something in the realm of the uncanny, something our brain knows is horrible, but we can't fully understand or reason at it.
Quote from: trdsf on March 30, 2018, 11:59:10 AM
I am reminded of the time our department (internal tech support for a major midwestern bank) met for a matinee showing of 'The Blair Witch Project'. We all looked a little shell-shocked when we leftâ€"I know I felt like we'd been in there for three or four hours, but I think most of that is because it's a movie without music so your ear is forced to be attentive at all times and that's tiring. The movie didn't come home to land until several hours later when I went to bed. When I tried to go to bed. As soon as I turned out the lights, every normal sound that an apartment with one human and two cats in the middle of a large city makes suddenly sounded... deeply abnormal.
The lights came back on after about ten minutes. I ended up staying up until it was physically impossible to stay awake any longer. No monsters, no special effects, no gallons of stage blood... it just turned my own brain against me. But... it's a trick that only worked on first viewing. I've watched it since, and it just doesn't do it anymore.
Curious.
There's no witch; the two guys actually lured her out into the woods, got "lost", scared the bejeebus out of her over the course of a couple days, then murdered her. The real threat isn't some supernatural horror lurking in the woods, it's man's inhumanity to man.
Quote from: Hydra009 on March 30, 2018, 08:25:43 PM
There's no witch; the two guys actually lured her out into the woods, got "lost", scared the bejeebus out of her over the course of a couple days, then murdered her. The real threat isn't some supernatural horror lurking in the woods, it's man's inhumanity to man.
guess that's one interpretation of it.
Quote from: Munch on March 30, 2018, 08:33:30 PM
guess that's one interpretation of it.
Film Theory has a pretty convincing case for it. The film has a few things that don't make much sense unless it was a murder (Mike's blase reaction to losing the map, the 'mysterious' rocks, calling out where you're going in the house, hidden communication between the guys, etc)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YASj8IuQ_Yw
Aka Alfred Hitchcock, The Rope 1948 and Strangers On A Train 1951. And the psychological innuendo of Rear Window 1954.
Ah tis Easter, time for something festive.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yIvqrbHEr1g
My cats love to catch bunnies. Well, young ones anyway.
Horror taps into “could this actually happen?†And that’s what scares me. lol
Quote from: Deidre32 on April 05, 2018, 02:26:41 PM
Horror taps into “could this actually happen?†And that’s what scares me. lol
That's where the horror genre fails me generally. I can't take most horror films seriously. I watched all those with mixed emotions. I laughed at the premises, but I did seriously admire the creativity of how they killed multiple victims
What worries ME is that we might someday meet some alien species from outer space and NOT be "the baddest ones around". And the more you meet, the more likely it is that you will find "the badder guys". Some sextuple-legged tentacled land shark that thinks faster than we can.
It won't be "Independence Day. It will be they day the Incans met the Spanish, and we won't be the Spanish, And the difference will be 10X more unequal. It won't even be a contest.
Or we are the most intelligent life in the universe.
Guess which is more likely?
Quote from: Cavebear on April 07, 2018, 02:04:28 AM
That's where the horror genre fails me generally. I can't take most horror films seriously. I watched all those with mixed emotions. I laughed at the premises, but I did seriously admire the creativity of how they killed multiple victims
What worries ME is that we might someday meet some alien species from outer space and NOT be "the baddest ones around". And the more you meet, the more likely it is that you will find "the badder guys". Some sextuple-legged tentacled land shark that thinks faster than we can.
It won't be "Independence Day. It will be they day the Incans met the Spanish, and we won't be the Spanish, And the difference will be 10X more unequal. It won't even be a contest.
Or we are the most intelligent life in the universe.
Guess which is more likely?
Or maybe we are the least intelligent, and the bad guys, and all the other aliens are more benevolent than us. Maybe they are afraid of us, but the movies project that we should be afraid of them. lol
Quote from: Deidre32 on April 07, 2018, 12:19:42 PM
Or maybe we are the least intelligent, and the bad guys, and all the other aliens are more benevolent than us. Maybe they are afraid of us, but the movies project that we should be afraid of them. lol
Our media about aliens is like 90% alien genocide, so they might be a little put off by that. In addition to our propensity for incredible violence, pathogens explode out of our noses all the time, we reproduce like rabbits, and we bounce back from almost any injury/illness.
Humans are incredibly violent, irrational, and resilient. And they're also insatiably driven to explore and expand. People have embarked on what were basically suicide missions to explore every corner of our planet long before they invented drone technology to do it safely.
We're the kind of people who have to hide the exact location of the world's oldest tree from ourselves, lest someone cut it down.
Aliens would definitely be at least a little worried about us.
Quote from: Hydra009 on April 07, 2018, 12:40:39 PM
Our media about aliens is like 90% alien genocide, so they might be a little put off by that. In addition to our propensity for incredible violence, pathogens explode out of our noses all the time, we reproduce like rabbits, and we bounce back from almost any injury/illness.
Humans are incredibly violent, irrational, and resilient. And they're also insatiably driven to explore and expand. People have embarked on what were basically suicide missions to explore every corner of our planet long before they invented drone technology to do it safely.
We're the kind of people who have to hide the exact location of the world's oldest tree from ourselves, lest someone cut it down.
Aliens would definitely be at least a little worried about us.
I wonder if other alien civilizations are as easily offended as humans are? Or are they more drone like? Is there a race for power always going on, and what is their currency, if they have one? Are they like ants, entirely altruistic, or are they individuals, with dreams and goals like us humans? Those types of things would be interesting to learn.
There are no good aliens. They're OK if they stay on their own planet, but I don't want them in my neighborhood.
Quote from: Cavebear on April 07, 2018, 02:04:28 AM
That's where the horror genre fails me generally. I can't take most horror films seriously. I watched all those with mixed emotions. I laughed at the premises, but I did seriously admire the creativity of how they killed multiple victims
What worries ME is that we might someday meet some alien species from outer space and NOT be "the baddest ones around". And the more you meet, the more likely it is that you will find "the badder guys". Some sextuple-legged tentacled land shark that thinks faster than we can.
It won't be "Independence Day. It will be they day the Incans met the Spanish, and we won't be the Spanish, And the difference will be 10X more unequal. It won't even be a contest.
Or we are the most intelligent life in the universe.
Guess which is more likely?
Theres's also the possibility of n-dimensional critters coming through portals to farm us for our bio-fluids, as in the mini-series
Invasion: Earth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion:_Earth_(TV_series)).
But I figure we're the smartest things going now - not in the whole universe, necessarily, but at least in our neck of the cosmos, our galaxy, maybe even the whole local group. It's even possible that we're the first really smart life forms to evolve in the observable universe, it wouldn't surprise me if that were the case. I expect that eventually others will come along, but we may well be it for the time being.
Quote from: Deidre32 on April 07, 2018, 12:52:53 PM
I wonder if other alien civilizations are as easily offended as humans are? Or are they more drone like? Is there a race for power always going on, and what is their currency, if they have one? Are they like ants, entirely altruistic, or are they individuals, with dreams and goals like us humans? Those types of things would be interesting to learn.
Another thing I wonder about is how much long term thinking they do. If they think on really long time scales, then they might realize that eventually the easily-harvested resources of the galaxy will run out, since there's only a finite amount of the stuff. If they decide they'll need it all for themselves, they may want to obliterate any competition they might have from other tech-life, like, say, us. Or we may end up doing that ourselves, if we can think about that far in the future.
Quote from: Unbeliever on April 07, 2018, 01:25:52 PM
But I figure we're the smartest things going now - not in the whole universe, necessarily, but at least in our neck of the cosmos, our galaxy, maybe even the whole local group. It's even possible that we're the first really smart life forms to evolve in the observable universe, it wouldn't surprise me if that were the case. I expect that eventually others will come along, but we may well be it for the time being.
How about the possibility that other more intelligent life in the galaxy came before us, but has since gone extinct? I read someplace that the fate of all life is to become extinct. Well, at least somewhere between 99 and 100 percent of all species.
Yeah, species on Earth only last an average of about a million years, but once a civilization colonizes a large part of its space environment, especially a big chunk of its home galaxy, it should be much more difficult to kill it all the way off. So if they were there in that capacity, they should still be there, and they should be here, as well, which is what prompted Fermi's question: where are they?
Quote from: Deidre32 on April 07, 2018, 12:52:53 PMI wonder if other alien civilizations are as easily offended as humans are? Or are they more drone like? Is there a race for power always going on, and what is their currency, if they have one? Are they like ants, entirely altruistic, or are they individuals, with dreams and goals like us humans? Those types of things would be interesting to learn.
Humans are descended from apes who cooperated within a tribe and yet also formed murder gangs attack members of other tribes and sometimes also brawled within the tribe for dominance. So human nature swings wildly between peacefulness and incredible violence.
I expect aliens, especially herbivores, to lean far more towards cooperation. Maybe more communal and less individualistic than humans, but just as prone to self-reflection and long-term planning as humans. Probably less religious.
I guess it all depends on how often and the magnitude at which intelligence evolves in the galaxy. From our own planet, we know that human-like intelligence is pretty rare. But humans also have a propensity to build human-like machines. Run similar scenarios on hundreds, maybe thousands of different planets in the Milky Way alone, and you get some pretty amazing islands of intelligence. And islanders eventually set sail...
Quote from: SGOS on April 07, 2018, 01:43:17 PM
How about the possibility that other more intelligent life in the galaxy came before us, but has since gone extinct? I read someplace that the fate of all life is to become extinct. Well, at least somewhere between 99 and 100 percent of all species.
Good thing ... what about Apatosaurus or T-Rex blocking highway traffic, because the tree-huggers want them protected?
Quote from: Deidre32 on April 07, 2018, 12:52:53 PM
I wonder if other alien civilizations are as easily offended as humans are? Or are they more drone like? Is there a race for power always going on, and what is their currency, if they have one? Are they like ants, entirely altruistic, or are they individuals, with dreams and goals like us humans? Those types of things would be interesting to learn.
Well, Starship Troopers explored that. Got a really big can of Raid? The Borg are a version of social insect too (created artificially). I don't think their emotional state is nearly as important as their predatory proclivities. Got army ants? Even giant leaf cutter ants would be bothersome as they gobble up all our plant life for their fungus farms.
Quote from: Cavebear on April 07, 2018, 02:04:28 AM
What worries ME is that we might someday meet some alien species from outer space and NOT be "the baddest ones around". And the more you meet, the more likely it is that you will find "the badder guys". Some sextuple-legged tentacled land shark that thinks faster than we can.
It won't be "Independence Day. It will be they day the Incans met the Spanish, and we won't be the Spanish, And the difference will be 10X more unequal. It won't even be a contest.
Or we are the most intelligent life in the universe.
Guess which is more likely?
This is essentially the Hawking objection to SETI/METI: he thought any actual encounter between humanity and an alien intelligence was more likely to be disastrous than enlightening. I don't find it convincing, but I do find it worth keeping in mind. Fortunately, we're well-insulated by space, and even if we
did make contact with another race, there are several objections to the notion that that puts us at risk.
First is the Adams objection: space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. Barring some sort of sociological drive to conquer or destroy simply for the sake of conquering or destroying, the amount of resources and effort it would take to get even a basic military force from point A several light years away to point B is staggering. We simply can not have anything that would make it worth the effort, that wouldn't be much much much
much much more easily mined from their own asteroids, gas giants, and uninhabitable worlds.
Second is the Einstein objection: barring development of an Alcubierre warp or Kip Thorne's wormholes, the speed of light minus epsilon is it. That puts some definite barriers between us and other planets, and raises the relative values of resources mentioned above.
Granted, if we actually meet (as opposed to merely communicate with) an alien intelligence any time soon, it's going to be because they came to us because we sure as shit can't get to them. And then, yeah, we're the Meso-americans and they're the Spanish
conquistadores.
Side note: I tend to agree with Seth Shostak on the question of whether or not we already have been visited. When the Spanish arrived in the Western hemisphere, they didn't lurk tantalizingly on the horizon while the natives debated on the 15th century equivalent of Art Bell, 'are we being visited by men from Out There'. The evidence was obvious and overwhelming: in very short order, the natives around the landing areas were either dead or enslaved by the newcomers. If an alien race is going to go to the phenomenal expense and effort of sending a interstellar distances to make contact, they're going to
make contact. If they're going to observe without being seen, then what chance do we have of seeing a technology advanced enough to flip a ship through interstellar space?
And the third objection is that it's too late to hide anyway. Even though our broadcast leakage is growing smaller over time as signals are transmitted either more tightly or in non-radiating transmissions like fiber optics, we don't need to be heard in the radio spectrum to give away the fact that something's going on here. Any alien intelligence that can a) detect a terrestrial planet around our sun (technology we already have) and b) can resolve the planet independently of the sun (technology we are on the cusp of having) can (and surely will) do a spectrographic analysis, which will tell them that this planet has more oxygen than can be easily explained without having to posit life. Any technologically advanced life within about 200 light years will also see the introduction of industrial pollutants, and observing over time will show them increasingâ€"a strong indicator of the development of mass technology and its widening use.
In short, anyone out there who has an automated system looking for stars with worlds will stumble across us eventually, and anyone close enough (in an ever-expanding sphere) will be able to tell that there's something worth investigating going on.
I can't even anwer this without insulting friends...
been a while since this thread had any love, but figured better to use this then make a new thread for it.
I found this really awesome video series made by this guy, where in the world of creepypastas and ghost stories, a good narrator is key. I've not bothered with some series based purely on how bad a narrator is.
This guy though is pretty good, and he has a awesome spin to his storytelling. He doesn't just narrate the stories, but he draws charcoal pictures relating to the story in question to give the videos some weight to them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YiZiCuuM_k&t=35s
something about his presentation gives me the chills. He's done a lot of ghost and conspiracy stories that I imagine a few here wouldn't find that scary.
But then, he's also one real life themed accounts of real horror, including one that honestly made me feel unwell after listening to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWTwbJgIoFE&list=PLNA8VwprukJ2vsxU--kIz2ChUxkZa8xIC
I was still young when the story broke about what happened at 25 Cromwell street, I can remember my mums horror at reading about it, she even wanted to shield me from it when the papers released accounts of what happened in that house. It was one of those things when knowing the small details of it, I tried to shut it out of my mind that such a fucked up event could occur, so it wasn't until years later when i was more stable a person, did i read up on the case.
This gives me more chills then any horror monster in fiction ever can, knowing it happened here, in my country, it could have even happened right next door to me without even knowing it.
Anyone whos never read up about fred and rose west, this video is probably the better method of listening to the case, since knowing what happened, just looking at photos of the two should make anyone sick to their stomach. And since this guy does everything in charcoal or sketched drawings it makes it a little easier.