It really is bad writing. One example I can come up with atm was the live action adaptation of Winx where in the first five minutes it pivots from being a show about a magical girl doing magical girl stuff with her magical girlfriends into a long-winded manifesto about mansplaining. Did it fit within the story? Nope. Did it contribute to the source material, plot and character? Nope. All it did for me was to make me shut it off immediately. Because yes. It really does feel like you’re just having a good time with someone and all of a sudden they pull out the watch tower and starts asking you about jehova. I baked cookies and everything? The fuck is this? Get out of my house.
There is a right way to handle those topics, but it is always so shoehorned into things that you just end up repulsed by it. I think the new Nosferatu movie dealt with some of these themes of imposing men who don’t respect a woman and her autonomy in a way that made sense both to the story, the source material and that fit well with the characters. Hell, take the old animated Hunchback of Notre Dame movie that Disney released in 96. That movie is pretty much the embodiment of social justice, but it is done correctly because it isn’t preachy. It is compassionate and has a soul.
The very divisive way everything has been politicized in America and how it also bled onto the internet has eroded the ability to talk about important issues on both sides and everyone has been reduced to taking sides and being the embodiment of Bush’s “you’re either with us or you’re against us” speech from back in the day. No nuance. No middle ground. No one is allowed to question or disagree lest they get stamped with a negative label and treated like a leper. So lame.
Dude, I love horror too. I love sharing horror media with other people. I cast my net far and wide in that category. Movies, games, books, short stories, music, podcasts, art installations, internet horror stories, ARG’s, true crime etc. Name a category and I’ll recommend what I know and think is good.
I think you’re right. It’s two authoritarian mindsets that ended up clashing in the end and it has resulted in this weird revenge power trip when coming to voting. Fucking bizarre. There are plenty things on the left in my country that I roll my eyes at and don’t agree with, but just because a minority group in my country wants anarchism doesn’t mean I will start voting on the right-wing parties here. Because fuck man, I don’t agree with the right. I don’t agree with the anarchistic activists either, but they don’t represent all of the leftwing. I like that we have the values we have here. That sick people can get treatment and young people can study without being permanently crippled by debt. If some cringe activitist starts putting up posters about anarchism in my town I’ll just take a picture and move on with my day. They do cool art. Even if the messages on their posters makes me embarrassed for them.
My boyfriend thinks the simple answer as to why people voted for trump is that they probably just don’t care all that much about politics to really understand what they voted for. That some of them live rural enough that politics and societal problems feels far away from them and isn’t something they think about in the same way that city people do. He put it in more eloquent terms and I’m extremely tired after a long day of traveling, so forgive my clunky summary of his words. He has a lot of compassion for all Americans, and I like to listen to his view points when I get ass-mad about the news and am in my emotions. Because I largely agree with him. It’s just hard to be your rational reflected self when you’re in chimp mode because trump or Musk or vance or some other that did another stupid thing today that will have long lasting ramifications for everyone.
There is a right way to handle those topics, but it is always so shoehorned into things that you just end up repulsed by it. I think the new Nosferatu movie dealt with some of these themes of imposing men who don’t respect a woman and her autonomy in a way that made sense both to the story, the source material and that fit well with the characters. Hell, take the old animated Hunchback of Notre Dame movie that Disney released in 96. That movie is pretty much the embodiment of social justice, but it is done correctly because it isn’t preachy. It is compassionate and has a soul.
I have to check that movie out; keep meaning to.
Not horror, but I think one of the best and most natural ways that I saw women’s issues dealt with was in Mad Men. I mean, I remember my mother talking about how you could not have a bank account or a credit card without husband/father’s approval, even into the 70s. Which seems very abstract when she was saying this in the 80s or 90s to me. The show dealt with that kind of thing and so many others and it felt much more natural. It wasn’t this sudden halt in the narrative, with an “insert THE MESSAGE here” kind of feel. But if you were paying attention, it definitely made it clear what was happening and why. Same way they dealt with thing like ecological awareness - that scene where they just dump all the trash in a park after a picnic…I remember that kind of attitude among awful people in the 80s and even 90s all the time. Still see it sometimes - I just see people huck trash out of their car even now…but these characters are supposed to be middle America, and the “right” kind of people doing it…
That some of them live rural enough that politics and societal problems feels far away from them and isn’t something they think about in the same way that city people do.
I grew up in a VERY rural area. Probably about 4-to-1 Republican to Democratic voters. And yes, I think it’s a very tribal thing. The Republicans there seem to think Democrats are a bunch of snobby smartypants that think they know what’s best for everyone and wants to disrupt their lifestyle, and that “the cities” were dangerous and filled with scary POC and libertines, with weird food and strange religions. Or no religion. Near as I could tell, it was not much of a lifestyle? The hobbies mostly seemed to boil down to hunting/fishing and drinking/smoking ditchweed. I have some fond memories, but then, I tend to try to make the best of whatever situation I’m in. I think QOL of was actually quite miserable for most of my peers, and more than a few were deep in denial. But they were on their team: daddy and mommy always voted Republican and they always did these low-paying jobs/gig/seasonal type of work even if it was thankless and in some cases pretty dangerous, so we can expect no better for ourselves and we’ll never move out of this place because we have too much family in the area. Death from things like drinking and driving, prison time for various petty crimes was pretty high. I bet anything meth hit the place pretty hard when it was hitting other white rural ares, too, but I mostly lost touch with people that still live there…
That’s not to say that some people living in cities don’t have really skewed ideas about people in the country. While it really does frustrate me of having the idea that people living in the hinterland actually have an outsized influence on out politics, it’s not like they don’t have any legitimate concerns. The thing is, it’s often that Democratic politicians are probably their most likely option for having those concerns heard…I never understood why even the most backwoods of rednecks don’t see right through some of the performative bullshit the Republican hucksters do…donning cowboy hats and boots, firing guns, waving the flag, saluting, talking about “the troops” and so on. It’s so cringe. But they eat it up, I just don’t get that at all.
Oooh, I haven’t seen Mad Men, but I remember it being all the rage back in the day. Sounds like it deserved all the talk it got.
It’s very interesting to hear about your experiences there! We have a very toned down version of that here in Denmark too. Folks living in rural areas tend to skew right wing and people in the cities are more left. Granted, here left and right is different from America. To us, the Democrats in America would also be very much right wing. Farmers like liberals here because they fight for the farmers to have all the money all the rights and none of the responsibility that comes with it. The left wants to force farmers to take responsibility and they don’t like that. Our liberal party recently changed their tune a little bit when it comes to farmers because we are literally killing our ecosystems right as we speak because of the farmers but now the farmers are crying that they don’t get to ride the gravy train anymore. The good news is that younger generations of farmers seem more interested in changing for the benefit of the environment so in a few generations things might look a bit better for everybody. But currently we are dealing with a very spoiled generation og farmers who are welfare queens, possess at least 60 to 70% of the land to grow food for their pigs and then export all that meat to other countries, contributing a whopping 2% to our BNP when all is said and done. They also take the second place on the podium of the biggest polluters in Denmark, only outdone by transportation (planes, trucks, cars).
I grew up in a rural area too and was raised in a very leftwing family and that wasn’t fun when my peers got old enough to understand politics, lol. People I grew up with mostly seem to have stayed in their local area and taken blue collar jobs, which is perfectly fine jobs. I have no contact with any of them and couldn’t tell you how they are doing, but I spoke woth one former classmate some years ago and she told me that the people we used to know and the town is very small town, small minds vibe. Which I can totally believe. No idea how anyone votes, but wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of them were on the right. And again, our version of the right wing is a lot tamer than yours. American Republicans are considered extreme and far right in my country. To an almost comical degree. We have a few extreme right wing parties but the only one that has any real traction nowadays is LA = Liberal Alliance which is basically a manosphere party. I can’t stand them lol. Never could. That party is such a shit show.
I also agree with you. There are definitely some goofy opinions held by city people too. I’m in this weird position of holding many left wing views and values, but I also see city people as a bit snobbish sometimes. I have noticed in this thread alone that some Americans on this platform struggle to pin point what type of a person I am and assume I’m a right wing fascist for using the word woke to describe some things. I guess my boyfriend was right that America is currently so polarized that people like me will be whatever they hate and deem the enemy since I don’t fit neatly into this black and white world view. It is very foreign and weird to me how extreme politics is in America and how much worse it has gotten in recent years because where I live, we are still able to communicate and share ideas across the political spectrum without turning it into a bloodbath. It’s very weird talking with people here who seem entirely deaf to anything you say and just label you a fascist because you used a word they don’t like. It’s like they forget there is a world outside of the US that has its own views and impressions on what is happening around it.
Dude, I love horror too. I love sharing horror media with other people. I cast my net far and wide in that category. Movies, games, books, short stories, music, podcasts, art installations, internet horror stories, ARG’s, true crime etc. Name a category and I’ll recommend what I know and think is good.
I tend to lurk on r/horror. Sure, throw some recommends my way!
I’ve watched the bad and the great and most everything in between, from the 1960s and especially the 1970s (probably my overall favorite era) forward to whatever is most recent and available on Netflix, Prime or the high seas…but so often I miss some deep cut or some indie thing in more recent times, so I’m game to hear your input.
I actually wrote you a long message with recommendations and then the comment crashed because I wrote too much (I guess?) So I’ll just stick to just movie recommendations this time. I’ve tried to stick to lesser known horror movies that I think are either brilliant or interesting or both. There are some movies I’d like to put on the list, but since you say you are well versed in horror, I assume you know those already as they are pretty mainstream. I will make a few exceptions along the way, though, as I may consider some of them mainstream, but they might still be movies that someone could have missed.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1920 - surreal horror
Possession, 1981 - surreal body horror
Felidae, 1994 - animation
Perfect Blue, 1997 - animation
Snow White: A Tale of Terror, 1997 - fairytale horror
Audition, 1999 - horror drama
May, 2002 - horror drama
Rabbits, 2002 - surreal horror (David Lynch)
A Tale of Two Sisters, 2003 - mystery horror
The Signal, 2007 - anthology horror
Wind Chill, 2007 - popcorn horror
Lake Mungo, 2008 - found footage
Eden Lake, 2008 - survival horror
Pontypool, 2008 - surreal horror
AM1200, 2008 - horror short
Thirst, 2009 - vampire movie
Triangle, 2009 - psychological horror
I Saw the Devil, 2010 - crime thriller
Beyond the Black Rainbow, 2010 - surreal horror
The Strange Thing About the Johnsons, 2011 - horror short
Silent House, 2011 - psychological horror
Evidence, 2011 - found footage
Grave Encounters, 2011 - surreal horror
The Skin I Live In, 2011 - psychological horror
Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared, 2011 - surreal internet horror series
Resolution, 2012 - mystery horror
Maniac, 2012 - psychological horror
Excision, 2012 - psychological horror
Chained, 2012 - psychological horror
American Mary, 2012 - popcorn horror
Afflicted, 2013 - found footage
Proxy 2013 - surreal horror
The Borderlands, 2013 - found footage
The Voices, 2013 - surreal horror comedy
Starry Eyes, 2014 - body horror
Creep, 2014 - found footage
Human Form, 2014 - horror short
Housebound, 2014 - horror comedy
Black Mountain Side, 2014 - mystery horror
The Invitation, 2015 - mystery horror
The Boy, 2015 - psychological horror (the one with the boy with antlers and fire in the background on the poster. NOT the one with the doll)
When Evil Lurks, 2023 - dystopian horror (Evil Dead vibes without the haha’s)
The Conference, 2023 - horror comedy
Abigail, 2024 - popcorn horror
I think that is all for now. Hopefully there will be a few films on this list you haven’t come across yet. They aren’t all masterpieces, but I tried to pick films that I found entertaining and/or interesting and that I think deserve more recognition.
It really is bad writing. One example I can come up with atm was the live action adaptation of Winx where in the first five minutes it pivots from being a show about a magical girl doing magical girl stuff with her magical girlfriends into a long-winded manifesto about mansplaining. Did it fit within the story? Nope. Did it contribute to the source material, plot and character? Nope. All it did for me was to make me shut it off immediately. Because yes. It really does feel like you’re just having a good time with someone and all of a sudden they pull out the watch tower and starts asking you about jehova. I baked cookies and everything? The fuck is this? Get out of my house.
There is a right way to handle those topics, but it is always so shoehorned into things that you just end up repulsed by it. I think the new Nosferatu movie dealt with some of these themes of imposing men who don’t respect a woman and her autonomy in a way that made sense both to the story, the source material and that fit well with the characters. Hell, take the old animated Hunchback of Notre Dame movie that Disney released in 96. That movie is pretty much the embodiment of social justice, but it is done correctly because it isn’t preachy. It is compassionate and has a soul.
The very divisive way everything has been politicized in America and how it also bled onto the internet has eroded the ability to talk about important issues on both sides and everyone has been reduced to taking sides and being the embodiment of Bush’s “you’re either with us or you’re against us” speech from back in the day. No nuance. No middle ground. No one is allowed to question or disagree lest they get stamped with a negative label and treated like a leper. So lame.
Dude, I love horror too. I love sharing horror media with other people. I cast my net far and wide in that category. Movies, games, books, short stories, music, podcasts, art installations, internet horror stories, ARG’s, true crime etc. Name a category and I’ll recommend what I know and think is good.
I think you’re right. It’s two authoritarian mindsets that ended up clashing in the end and it has resulted in this weird revenge power trip when coming to voting. Fucking bizarre. There are plenty things on the left in my country that I roll my eyes at and don’t agree with, but just because a minority group in my country wants anarchism doesn’t mean I will start voting on the right-wing parties here. Because fuck man, I don’t agree with the right. I don’t agree with the anarchistic activists either, but they don’t represent all of the leftwing. I like that we have the values we have here. That sick people can get treatment and young people can study without being permanently crippled by debt. If some cringe activitist starts putting up posters about anarchism in my town I’ll just take a picture and move on with my day. They do cool art. Even if the messages on their posters makes me embarrassed for them.
My boyfriend thinks the simple answer as to why people voted for trump is that they probably just don’t care all that much about politics to really understand what they voted for. That some of them live rural enough that politics and societal problems feels far away from them and isn’t something they think about in the same way that city people do. He put it in more eloquent terms and I’m extremely tired after a long day of traveling, so forgive my clunky summary of his words. He has a lot of compassion for all Americans, and I like to listen to his view points when I get ass-mad about the news and am in my emotions. Because I largely agree with him. It’s just hard to be your rational reflected self when you’re in chimp mode because trump or Musk or vance or some other that did another stupid thing today that will have long lasting ramifications for everyone.
I have to check that movie out; keep meaning to.
Not horror, but I think one of the best and most natural ways that I saw women’s issues dealt with was in Mad Men. I mean, I remember my mother talking about how you could not have a bank account or a credit card without husband/father’s approval, even into the 70s. Which seems very abstract when she was saying this in the 80s or 90s to me. The show dealt with that kind of thing and so many others and it felt much more natural. It wasn’t this sudden halt in the narrative, with an “insert THE MESSAGE here” kind of feel. But if you were paying attention, it definitely made it clear what was happening and why. Same way they dealt with thing like ecological awareness - that scene where they just dump all the trash in a park after a picnic…I remember that kind of attitude among awful people in the 80s and even 90s all the time. Still see it sometimes - I just see people huck trash out of their car even now…but these characters are supposed to be middle America, and the “right” kind of people doing it…
I grew up in a VERY rural area. Probably about 4-to-1 Republican to Democratic voters. And yes, I think it’s a very tribal thing. The Republicans there seem to think Democrats are a bunch of snobby smartypants that think they know what’s best for everyone and wants to disrupt their lifestyle, and that “the cities” were dangerous and filled with scary POC and libertines, with weird food and strange religions. Or no religion. Near as I could tell, it was not much of a lifestyle? The hobbies mostly seemed to boil down to hunting/fishing and drinking/smoking ditchweed. I have some fond memories, but then, I tend to try to make the best of whatever situation I’m in. I think QOL of was actually quite miserable for most of my peers, and more than a few were deep in denial. But they were on their team: daddy and mommy always voted Republican and they always did these low-paying jobs/gig/seasonal type of work even if it was thankless and in some cases pretty dangerous, so we can expect no better for ourselves and we’ll never move out of this place because we have too much family in the area. Death from things like drinking and driving, prison time for various petty crimes was pretty high. I bet anything meth hit the place pretty hard when it was hitting other white rural ares, too, but I mostly lost touch with people that still live there…
That’s not to say that some people living in cities don’t have really skewed ideas about people in the country. While it really does frustrate me of having the idea that people living in the hinterland actually have an outsized influence on out politics, it’s not like they don’t have any legitimate concerns. The thing is, it’s often that Democratic politicians are probably their most likely option for having those concerns heard…I never understood why even the most backwoods of rednecks don’t see right through some of the performative bullshit the Republican hucksters do…donning cowboy hats and boots, firing guns, waving the flag, saluting, talking about “the troops” and so on. It’s so cringe. But they eat it up, I just don’t get that at all.
Oooh, I haven’t seen Mad Men, but I remember it being all the rage back in the day. Sounds like it deserved all the talk it got.
It’s very interesting to hear about your experiences there! We have a very toned down version of that here in Denmark too. Folks living in rural areas tend to skew right wing and people in the cities are more left. Granted, here left and right is different from America. To us, the Democrats in America would also be very much right wing. Farmers like liberals here because they fight for the farmers to have all the money all the rights and none of the responsibility that comes with it. The left wants to force farmers to take responsibility and they don’t like that. Our liberal party recently changed their tune a little bit when it comes to farmers because we are literally killing our ecosystems right as we speak because of the farmers but now the farmers are crying that they don’t get to ride the gravy train anymore. The good news is that younger generations of farmers seem more interested in changing for the benefit of the environment so in a few generations things might look a bit better for everybody. But currently we are dealing with a very spoiled generation og farmers who are welfare queens, possess at least 60 to 70% of the land to grow food for their pigs and then export all that meat to other countries, contributing a whopping 2% to our BNP when all is said and done. They also take the second place on the podium of the biggest polluters in Denmark, only outdone by transportation (planes, trucks, cars).
I grew up in a rural area too and was raised in a very leftwing family and that wasn’t fun when my peers got old enough to understand politics, lol. People I grew up with mostly seem to have stayed in their local area and taken blue collar jobs, which is perfectly fine jobs. I have no contact with any of them and couldn’t tell you how they are doing, but I spoke woth one former classmate some years ago and she told me that the people we used to know and the town is very small town, small minds vibe. Which I can totally believe. No idea how anyone votes, but wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of them were on the right. And again, our version of the right wing is a lot tamer than yours. American Republicans are considered extreme and far right in my country. To an almost comical degree. We have a few extreme right wing parties but the only one that has any real traction nowadays is LA = Liberal Alliance which is basically a manosphere party. I can’t stand them lol. Never could. That party is such a shit show.
I also agree with you. There are definitely some goofy opinions held by city people too. I’m in this weird position of holding many left wing views and values, but I also see city people as a bit snobbish sometimes. I have noticed in this thread alone that some Americans on this platform struggle to pin point what type of a person I am and assume I’m a right wing fascist for using the word woke to describe some things. I guess my boyfriend was right that America is currently so polarized that people like me will be whatever they hate and deem the enemy since I don’t fit neatly into this black and white world view. It is very foreign and weird to me how extreme politics is in America and how much worse it has gotten in recent years because where I live, we are still able to communicate and share ideas across the political spectrum without turning it into a bloodbath. It’s very weird talking with people here who seem entirely deaf to anything you say and just label you a fascist because you used a word they don’t like. It’s like they forget there is a world outside of the US that has its own views and impressions on what is happening around it.
I tend to lurk on r/horror. Sure, throw some recommends my way!
I’ve watched the bad and the great and most everything in between, from the 1960s and especially the 1970s (probably my overall favorite era) forward to whatever is most recent and available on Netflix, Prime or the high seas…but so often I miss some deep cut or some indie thing in more recent times, so I’m game to hear your input.
I actually wrote you a long message with recommendations and then the comment crashed because I wrote too much (I guess?) So I’ll just stick to just movie recommendations this time. I’ve tried to stick to lesser known horror movies that I think are either brilliant or interesting or both. There are some movies I’d like to put on the list, but since you say you are well versed in horror, I assume you know those already as they are pretty mainstream. I will make a few exceptions along the way, though, as I may consider some of them mainstream, but they might still be movies that someone could have missed.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1920 - surreal horror
Possession, 1981 - surreal body horror
Felidae, 1994 - animation
Perfect Blue, 1997 - animation
Snow White: A Tale of Terror, 1997 - fairytale horror
Audition, 1999 - horror drama
May, 2002 - horror drama
Rabbits, 2002 - surreal horror (David Lynch)
A Tale of Two Sisters, 2003 - mystery horror
The Signal, 2007 - anthology horror
Wind Chill, 2007 - popcorn horror
Lake Mungo, 2008 - found footage
Eden Lake, 2008 - survival horror
Pontypool, 2008 - surreal horror
AM1200, 2008 - horror short
Thirst, 2009 - vampire movie
Triangle, 2009 - psychological horror
I Saw the Devil, 2010 - crime thriller
Beyond the Black Rainbow, 2010 - surreal horror
The Strange Thing About the Johnsons, 2011 - horror short
Silent House, 2011 - psychological horror
Evidence, 2011 - found footage
Grave Encounters, 2011 - surreal horror
The Skin I Live In, 2011 - psychological horror
Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared, 2011 - surreal internet horror series
Resolution, 2012 - mystery horror
Maniac, 2012 - psychological horror
Excision, 2012 - psychological horror
Chained, 2012 - psychological horror
American Mary, 2012 - popcorn horror
Afflicted, 2013 - found footage
Proxy 2013 - surreal horror
The Borderlands, 2013 - found footage
The Voices, 2013 - surreal horror comedy
Starry Eyes, 2014 - body horror
Creep, 2014 - found footage
Human Form, 2014 - horror short
Housebound, 2014 - horror comedy
Black Mountain Side, 2014 - mystery horror
The Invitation, 2015 - mystery horror
The Boy, 2015 - psychological horror (the one with the boy with antlers and fire in the background on the poster. NOT the one with the doll)
Maggie, 2015 - horror drama
The Silenced, 2015 - mystery horror
Deathgasm, 2015 - horror comedy
The Balckcoat’s Daughter, 2015 - mystery horror
The Devil’s Candy, 2015 - popcorn horror
Southbound, 2015 - anthology horror
Demon, 2015 - horror drama
Bone Tomahawk, 2015 - horror western
Krampus, 2015 - Christmas horror
The Eyes of My Mother, 2016 - fairytale horror
The Wailing, 2016 - folklore/crime horror
A Dark Song, 2016 - mystery horror
Berlin Syndrome, 2017 - psychological horror
The Evil Within, 2017 - surreal horror
Zygote, 2017 - horror short
Lords of Chaos, 2018 - horror/crime drama
Elizabeth Harvest, 2018 - mystery horror
Climax, 2018 - surreal horror
Suspiria, 2018 - surreal horror
Come To Daddy, 2019 - horror comedy
The Night House, 2020 - mystery horror
His House, 2020 - psychological horror
The Invisible Man, 2020 - psychological horror
Run, 2020 - horror drama
All My Friends Hate Me, 2021 - horror comedy
Blood Red Sky, 2021 - popcorn horror
The House, 2022 - stop motion anthology horror
Something In the Dirt, 2022 - surreal horror
Men, 2022 - folklore horror
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, 2023 - horror comedy
When Evil Lurks, 2023 - dystopian horror (Evil Dead vibes without the haha’s)
The Conference, 2023 - horror comedy
Abigail, 2024 - popcorn horror
I think that is all for now. Hopefully there will be a few films on this list you haven’t come across yet. They aren’t all masterpieces, but I tried to pick films that I found entertaining and/or interesting and that I think deserve more recognition.