Horror Report

Month: September 2017

  • spiPhone X: Brave new world with a filter

    spiPhone X: Brave new world with a filter

    It is hard to believe that only ten years ago, the technology that Apple would be selling the public was just about unfathomable.. Extremely fast processors. Facial recognition. Emojis that can make poop turn into your face and voice. 

    In 2007, people were happy with Myspace and turning ‘off’ the net in favor of a night out. Now they can’t leave home without the smartphone.
    Apple wants to capitalize further on the influencers: Those who we are told have ‘disposable income’ (credit cards) and are below the age of 25 .. those who care less about processor speed and more about selfie. Those who would indeed literally buy an iPhone simply because it can turn their face into an Emoji of feces…

    Let’s pause for a moment. The most precious few seconds of Apple’s big unveiling was a big flop: They tried to announce facial recognition but when they actually attempted to use it, it failed.

    Apple has offered an explanation for an embarrassing glitch at the launch of its most expensive iPhone ever, arguing that the phone didn’t make an error – the company’s staff did.

    During the first ever public demonstration of the expensive iPhone X, Apple executive Craig Federighi attempted to unlock the device using the company’s new Face ID feature, which scans a user’s face to ensure only they can unlock their phones. But the feature failed, bumping Federighi to an old-fashioned passcode entry screen and forcing him to switch to a backup phone.

    Too many people. Not tech. The people.

    The people ruin everything!

    But it’s pretty interesting to say the least: The biggest selling point of Apple in 2017 is a device that can see you, get to know you, and also stay knowing you even as you age. As your facial features change.  

    The cutting edge of yesterday was fingerprint.. now it’s motion sensing, unlocking with gestures, and facial definitions that will be forever surveiled by your very own pocket spiPhone.  How quaint.

    I am not going to lie to myself, though. AT this point there is really no way that technology slows down. There is no ability or us to quell the march of advancement. In a few years, when iPhones or smart phones of your own choice are firmly implanted in either your hand or buttocks, facial recognition will look so 2000 and late.

    Yes indeed… Things that would have been either laughed at or feared 20 years ago are completely and perfectly normal now. And expensive.

    Thankfully we all have that ‘disposable’ income… Income that is mostly disposed of in the form of debt payments, late payments, and school loans that are constantly being tinkered with because of how high a percentage of your take home pay they consume.

    But all that can be on hold for a while! 

    A new phone is out. And I can make by face an Emoji if shit. 

    2017, baby. The future is now.

  • THE CHAINSAW NUN AFTER IRMA

    THE CHAINSAW NUN AFTER IRMA

    An off-duty cop in Miami went to check out the damage Hurricane Irma brought to a local neighborhood when he encountered a nun cutting up trees to clear the roadways…with a chainsaw.

    Sister Margaret Ann wanted to help clean up damages after witnessing an almost car accident as a result of the storm. She took it upon herself to start the cleaning process.

    The Miami-Dade Police Department posted to Facebook, uploading the video and praising her for being the symbol of kindness in the community.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_imqdeTLbc]

  • EW shares exclusive details of IT 2

    EW shares exclusive details of IT 2

    ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY has some exclusive details concerning the upcoming IT film (so as long as perfect things happen and the film is made, which I assume it will be) .. from the report:

    MIKE HANLON

    “My idea of Mike in the second movie is quite darker from the book,” the filmmaker said. “I want to make his character the one pivotal character who brings them all together, but staying in Derry took a toll with him. I want him to be a junkie actually. A librarian junkie. When the second movie starts, he’s a wreck.”
    Muschietti said he wanted to “infuse more agency to him in those 30 years we don’t visit.”
    “He’s not just the collector of knowledge of what Pennywise has been doing in Derry. He will bear the role of trying to figure out how to defeat him. The only way he can do that is to take drugs and alter his mind.”


    Pennywise’s origin and weakness 

    “It resonates with what the kids do when they go to the smokehouse in the Barrens,” Andy Muschietti says. “By inhaling these fumes from the fire they have visions of It, and the origin of It, and the falling fire in the sky that crashed into Derry millions of years ago. We’ve brought that to Mike, by the end of those 30 years Mike has figured out the Ritual of Chüd.” 

    No, that’s not a reference to the 1984 schlock classic C.H.U.D., which stood for “Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers.” King’s Ritual of Chüd is more of a Lovecraftian spell, an old-world mysticism that involves a duel of imagination between the shapeshifting trickster and the children (now adults) who want to end It once and for all.
    But even as Hanlon sounds the alarm to his old friends that they must return, his addiction becomes just another demon he has to battle.
    When the Losers return, he won’t be facing it alone.


    Stan Uris 

    “There is something in the future for him, taking his own life, that finds its seed in this film,” Andy Muschietti said. “He is the one who doesn’t want to accept what’s going on. And being the one who didn’t want to participate he gets the worst part.”
    Those who’ve seen the movie know the part: deep in Derry’s sewer system, Stan separates from the group and comes face-to-uh-something with It in the form of the creepy woman from the painting in his father’s study. 

    When his friends finally find him, It has its comb-toothed jaws around his head and is sucking Stan’s face into its mouth. Although he survives, the memory and the traumatic stress he lives with makes him decide it’s a horror he can’t confront again.

  • What did NOT make it into IT and why it may be best it didn’t.

    What did NOT make it into IT and why it may be best it didn’t.

    IF you read IT by Stephen King, you may recall there were some elements that could have garnered the film an NC17 or above rating.. Group sex.. masturbation while torturing animals.. and Bevvie’s dad doing MORE to Bevvie than worrying about her..

    Lots.
    Lots of things could have upset the apple cart.

    What resulted was a stellar film that, in a perfect would, would be worthy of some Oscars (we know Hollywood doesn’t like to reward horror often however) .. If these few elements would have been included, perhaps the movie’s successful script would never have made it to cinemas..

    MOVIEPILOT has a bit more on the items that floated from the script into oblivion.  Read with caution.

    Concerning the MOST controversial of all (and there are a LOT), this:


    Lost in the sewers and with nowhere to turn, Beverley realizes that the only way for the group to escape is for each boy to take it in turns and put their “thing” inside of her. By losing their virginity together, the Losers’ Club can then once more tap into the power of the Turtle and find their way to safety. Yes, this scene is even more insane than the Deadlights themselves, no Muschietti didn’t include it in his adaptation and yes, Stephen King himself continues to defend the sequence, even now.

    Whether you believe that the sewer gang-bang should have appeared in the movie or not, it’s fascinating to see how Muschietti tried to remain faithful to #IT while still navigating the controversy of #StephenKing‘s original text. It’s no wonder then that Cary Fukunaga’s original script never made it into production. After all, there’s only so many controversial plot points one can add to a movie before the inevitable starfish attacks and incestuous rapes take things a step too far.

    The HORROR REPORT ponders if these omissions are such a bad thing. After all, the film was WILDLY successful and will most likely continue to be throughout at least the early autumn.. Ignoring some of these aspects of the book, even with Stephen King adamantly defending them, may have been the best decision ever made.. mainstream for the masses! The Loser’s Club wins.

  • LIFE IN SPACE

    LIFE IN SPACE

    If you never saw the movie called LIFE with Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds, you should. It is about a life form discovered on Mars. The entire world changes.. the space station changes too when the life form begins to rapidly get intelligent and gigantic, devouring astronauts and taking over the vessel..  

    The horror movie aside, there is something equally strange afoot on the space station.

    Bacterial cells treated with a common antibiotic have been spotted changing shape to survive while aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

    The way bacteria act in near-zero gravity environments could pose a serious problem for treating astronauts with infections.

    The “clever shape-shifting” was detected in bacteria being experimented on in the near-weightlessness of space, and is believed to help the bacteria survive.

    An experiment on the common E coli bacteria subjected it to different concentrations of the antibiotic gentamicin sulfate, a drug which kills the bug on Earth.

  • THE US VIRGIN ISLANDS IN CRISIS AFTER IRMA

    THE US VIRGIN ISLANDS IN CRISIS AFTER IRMA

    As the Earth Changes..

    This is reporting from the WASHINGTON POST (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/after-irma-a-once-lush-gem-in-the-us-virgin-islands-reduced-to-battered-wasteland/2017/09/12/b49532e0-9736-11e7-af6a-6555caaeb8dc_story.html?utm_term=.4b43fb7b69f2) along with a must-read article about the devastation in the wake of Hurricane Irma and the destruction being seen in the islands:

    CRUZ BAY, U.S. Virgin Islands — The Asolare restaurant is gone, practically blown off its cliff, along with its world-famous carrot ginger soup. The facade of Margarita Phil’s is a junkyard of yellow and vermilion planks. Multimillion-dollar homes and aluminum huts alike lie in ruins.

    On the island of St. John, that was only Irma’s beginning. Once a lush gem in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a chain steeped in the lore of pirates and killer storms, this 20-square-mile island is now perhaps the site of Irma’s worst devastation on American soil.

    Six days after the storm — some say several days too late — the island finally has an active-theater disaster zone. Military helicopters buzz overhead and a Navy aircraft carrier is anchored off the coast, as the National Guard patrols the streets.

  • The ‘prince of horror’ promises a new Halloween

    The ‘prince of horror’ promises a new Halloween

    Producer Jason Blum, the CEO of the budget-conscious and incredibly successful Blumhouse Productions (Get Out, Paranormal Activity, Insidious, The Purge) has promised that their planned Halloween sequel – the one written by Danny McBride and David Gordon Greenand directed by Green – will definitely be released by its planned date in October of 2018. And additionally, there’s word that Carpenter himself is still interested in providing the score. 




    All seemingly good news for Halloween fans for the man who once dubbed himself the Prince of Horror..

    The newest incarnation of Halloween, is hoping that viewers ignore Halloweens 4-infinity in place of this one, as it takes place immediately after the Rosenthal Halloween 2.

    Getting confusing?
    Yes.

    And that it why it seems Halloween films have become a mockery of themselves. Nothing serious anymore in the way of actual scares or storylines.. 

    John Carpenter being included, along with a catchy piano song, may help… but I get the feeling that we have been down this long path before.  And it leads to nothing but sequels drowning in misadventure and contempt for premise and character development. I’ll give it a chance.

    …got to be better than the Rob Zombie versions, no?

  • Irma making one last stop–in Texas!?

    Irma making one last stop–in Texas!?

    Hurricane Irma has ventured on a remarkable 5,000 mile plus journey from the African coast all the way through the island nations of the Caribbean..Florida.. the Southeast United States. And now TEXAS!?


    Seriously.. Check out this current national satellite composite .. The low pressure that was once Irma is now slowly expanding enough that a portion of it has made it to Houston and other flood-ravaged locations that Harvey rampaged in August.




    There is no damage expected..even radar shows that little rainfall is taking place as IRMA finishes off her long voyage across the United States..

    But 5,000 miles?  Only an armchair analyst of weather, but that seems incredible.

    The trouble facing Florida right now includes power outages that may extend weeks, and 90 degree heat that is about to hit in many places where senior citizens and fragile citizens have no access to cool air conditioning.. 

    The situation facing placing like Barbuda and St. Martin are so much worse: People roaming streets with machetes or others looting.. the island nations have turned into desperate zones that seemingly have been forgotten.

    It is storm fatigue.. the summer of crippling category 5s.. And Jose? No way.. stay away. 

  • ‘Uncontacted’ Amazon Tribe Members Reported Killed in Brazil

    ‘Uncontacted’ Amazon Tribe Members Reported Killed in Brazil

    ‘Uncontacted’ Amazon Tribe Members Reported Killed in Brazil :

    The New York Times reports

    SÃO PAULO, Brazil — They were members of an uncontacted tribe gathering eggs along the river in a remote part of the Amazon. Then, it appears, they had the bad luck of running into gold miners.

    Now, federal prosecutors in Brazil have opened an investigation into the reported massacre of about 10 members of the tribe, the latest evidence that threats to endangered indigenous groups are on the rise in the country.

    The Brazilian agency on indigenous affairs, Funai, said it had lodged a complaint with the prosecutor’s office in the state of Amazonas after the gold miners went to a bar near the border with Colombia, and bragged about the killings. They brandished a hand-carved paddle that they said had come from the tribe, the agency said.

    “It was crude bar talk,” said Leila Silvia Burger Sotto-Maior, Funai’s coordinator for uncontacted and recently contacted tribes. “They even bragged about cutting up the bodies and throwing them in the river.”

    from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2f33O58

  • THE PARABLE. Stephen King’s ‘It’: Pennywise vs. ‘The Losers’ Is a Parable for a Tormented Nation

    THE PARABLE. Stephen King’s ‘It’: Pennywise vs. ‘The Losers’ Is a Parable for a Tormented Nation

    THE PARABLE. Stephen King’s ‘It’: Pennywise vs. ‘The Losers’ Is a Parable for a Tormented Nation:

    The movie is a surprise blockbuster at $123 million. Here’s one reason why.

    “Everyone needs reassurance that it’s good to be part of a group, and it’s great to come together against division and fear,” Andy Muschietti told EW on Monday morning. “Fear is used as a tool these days to divide and control and conquer. And hate is a tool. And that’s something Pennywise does, so that’s something resonating in our society right now.”

    One things that contributes to the frustration are those under the sway of the monster, who refuse to see the reality of what’s happening — much like the adults in It, all of them grotesques whose darkest sides are activated by the monster lurking below.

    King himself hit this comparison right on the red nose, joking in a speech at the Women’s March in Sarasota, Fla., last January: “We just elected Pennywise as president.”

    That is an observation I can believe in.. I just wrote about PENNYWISE’S HURRICANE WEEKEND at box offices … how we are ALL members of the losers club.. and how we are actually potentially united more if we unite against fear, whether it is a clown or a natural disaster. Nice to see that Muschietti agrees..

    from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2wmEfyv