#serial crawlers rise up

[girlsrawesome64]

What domestic hybrids (like a catgirl basically) the Cod men got >:D

Nikto, Krueger, König, Keegan, Ghost (Soap mention)

W: nonsexual petplay vibes (but romantic?: keegs), stuck kept in house=implied less rights/dependency (brief,: keegs), potential nasty-bleedy ankle injury, mentioned cat injuries/actively avoiding bite (niktokrueger), fear of dog bite/implied animal trauma (ghost), reader disliked, crack premise, dubcon if you think too hard about it, potential for suggestive interpretation, (implied head kinda empty) primal reader

Nikto and Krueger - The last pick, a disheveled erratic cat..thing? Sometimes completely chill, sometimes bouncing off the walls or randomly hostile/biting. Pupils always seem to be narrow and tail twitching no matter what. Krueger had his eye on the bunny, buttt.. You don't truly phase Nikto like you should, even when you're hanging off clamped bit on his bicep and he's shaking you off. Or pulling you off by the collar and affectionately carrying you instead as you scramble. Kitty! :3 Krueger however has a harder time adjusting, running around and keeping his ankles up when you leap on the floor to try and grab and bite them. Nikto makes no effort to stop this, shouting encouragement on which artery to aim for. Both of them have got a scar from you. Eventually you're curled up on Niktos chest, held, purring possessively with one narrow eye open at Krueger, who has been wordlessly banned from a 5ft radius.

König - Bunny. It's soothing to keep you on his lap. (I don't know shit about rabbits ; ELP)

Keegan - Distrusting aloof cat. Doesn't really bother you, but lets you come up to him. Wears you down with casual blissful-feeling pets and teasing praise. Until soon your routine is pacing by the door until he comes back. As soon as he opens it he's bombarded by you, and he hugs you up and kisses your face and neck in response. What's wrong, huh? Catches you hissing at other people that get too close to him and he scratches your head, amused.

Ghost (via Soap) - Ghost didn't want one. Soap got an adorable dog hybrid, with big opaque eyes and one spiky ear that still flops halfway sometimes. Developmental/ breeding flaw, they guess. Humans cruel mark. Ghost tries not to look at you. You're scary and weird. When you chomp down whatever you eat your fangs flash out and it's freaky. But you look at him, confused and innocently curious. He always smells weird. So you go to sniff his knee and he immediately bats you off, adjusting away. If it wasn't for Soap you wouldn't be anywhere near here. But he hangs out with Soap, which means hanging out with..you. His repeated instructions to get you to fuck off don't work, so he reluctantly takes Soaps suggestion and gets out a treat, grimacing at the way your eyes light up near his pliable hands before he chucks it across the room for you to chase. Which just makes it worse, you coming back to him, eyes wide and looking up hopefully at him by his knees. Now every time he comes by you have that hopeful look, sitting as politely and still as possible expecting another treat.

#im showing my cards here have mercy #serial crawlers rise up #cod x reader #cod #nikto #nikto x reader #sebastian krueger #sebastian krueger x reader #krueger x reader #nikto x krueger x reader #könig #könig x reader #konig #konig x reader #keegan p russ #keegan russ x reader #ghost x reader #simon ghost riley #simon riley x reader #soap mactavish #64sshit

[therealsaintscully]

Mary and butterflies - the inevitability of death, murderous calling cards and collectors

Some ramblings with links to other people’s excellent meta, in which I suggest that butterflies (and/or moths) symbolize Mary as Moriarty’s reincarnation and or calling card, while also hint at her inevitable death.

Disclaimers: credits are below the cut. I’m not an expert in any of these topics. Thank you, @thewatsonbeekeepers​​ for the beta. In this post I’ll be using moths and butterflies interchangeably, apologies to any entomologists.

Mary’s appearance in the show brings with it new imagery we haven’t seen prior to The Empty Hearse - butterflies. Once Mary’s in the picture, there are butterflies in some very strategic locations, all are either visually or subtextually leading to her. The show has done that previous to season 3; Moriarty is connected to some well established symbols like magpies, apples and IOUs. 

When I first started reading meta I used to think these themes were a bit of a stretch, but I’ve since accepted  that this is a show that puts barely noticeable phoenixes in a restaurant scene that shows us Sherlock rising from his death.

Here are some of the butterflies I spotted so far:

Butterflies (and in the case of this piece of meta, moth) symbolize most commonly resurrection, change and renewal. Behind the symbolism stands the transformation of a small, ungainly creature into something full-grown and unbound. In that case, in the simplest way, one could argue that butterflies were chosen to symbolize her because the ‘Mary Morstan’ persona was a stillborn’s identity that was stolen and used ‘reborn’ to create a new person.

But more than this simplistic idea; butterflies carry multiple symbolisms. When it comes to Sherlock, I and many others tend to look at Victorian symbolism, considering the detective’s Victorian roots. 

I find the appearance of butterflies interesting in Mary’s context, much like I find the skull interesting in Sherlock’s. The skulls, in Sherlock’s case, serve plenty of purposes, but one of them is the idea of memento mori.

Memento mori (Latin for 'remember that you [have to] die') is an artistic or symbolic reminder of the inevitability of death. These are representations that can appear in any form of art such as paintings, literature, poetry etc. It’s a concept that existed in many ancient cultures but is also deeply rooted in early Christianity. It serves to remind people of the inevitable; that even if we choose to ignore it, not think about it, it’s always there lurking, and the purpose is not to scare us but to encourage us to make good use of our time when we’re alive. Memento mori was the philosophy of reflecting on your own death as a form of spiritual improvement, and rejecting earthly vanities.

Victorians were obsessed with the concept (weren’t Victorians obsessed with everything?). They would take photographs of the dead and keep locks of hair of those who died in mourning brooches. It is said that they found these practices comforting. 

Another expression of the ‘remember that you must die’ concept was vanitas art;  vanitas is a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. The Latin noun vanitas (from the Latin adjective vanus 'empty') means 'emptiness', 'futility', or 'worthlessness', the traditional Christian view being that earthly goods and pursuits are transient and worthless. It alludes to Ecclesiastes 1:2; 12:8, where vanitas translates the Hebrew word hevel (הבל), which also includes the concept of transitoriness. 

This concept reminds me, most especially, of the skull used in The Abominable Bride, which is actually Charles Allen Gilbert's 'All is Vanity' Illusion art.

Back to butterflies - butterflies are a staple component of vanitas art - paintings executed in the vanitas style were meant to remind viewers of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. They also provided a moral justification for painting attractive objects - in a way, it’s a justification for the vanity, or the human need of enjoyment of beautiful things.  Below is a vanitas by Jan Sanders van Hemessen:

But butterflies are also considered an omen of death: 

“Butterflies and moths were associated with death, sometimes merely as omens, sometimes as the soul or ghost.” These butterfly omens came in many ways.  For example, in the nineteenth century United States, some people thought that a trio of butterflies was an omen of death.” [x]

Oh.

But I also think there’s more to the butterfly symbolism than Mary’s imminent death; I suggest that, in keeping with @loudest-subtext-in-tv​ M-Theory (suggesting that Mary was planted in John’s life by Moriarty), they symbolize Mary as Moriarty reincarnated following his death in TRF. That Moriarty had indeed not disappointed Sherlock - there was a posthumous game after all! That Sherlock was supposed to understand that while one form of Moriarty died on that roof, another had emerged, continuing the mission of burning Sherlock’s heart. Mary is Moriarty’s calling card, left behind in the crime scene. They’re different, but not separate, which is why Sherlock is so obsessed with Moriarty between HLV-T6T; he’s both wrong and correct at the same time.

So far, what I’ve suggested is that in Sherlock, skulls are Sherlock’s symbolic memento mori - the skulls are associated with Sherlock in some very significant ways. 

However, Mary’s character was doomed from the start - she dies during Sherlock’s hiatus in ACD canon. I believe many fans assumed Sherlock’s Mary expected the same fate when she was introduced to the show. Although the story of Samarra is told by Sherlock, who expects his own death in T6T, Mary is the one who ends up dying. 

Butterflies in ACD canon

Searching for the significance of butterflies in the ACD and BBC canon led me to a number of interesting directions in meta written by others. 

The first and probably the best place to start is this meta post by @tendergingergirl​​, which I strongly suggest you read in full: Butterflies, Sexual Deviancy & The Bloodline Theory in The Hound of The Baskervilles. 

Stapleton also has a hobby. He collects bugs…Butterflies, to be exact. This can often be seen as purely academic, but depending on the actions of the hobbyist, they can indicate more disturbing things. That of holding something vulnerable captive, treating it as your hostage, pinning it down. The torture of animals has come to be a good indicator of someone who would do this to a human. He had already shown callousness by laughing as he recounts to Holmes of ponies wandering onto the Moor, becoming trapped, and dying. In 1974, there was a release of a new edition of Sherlock Holmes stories, with the forward of The Hound of The Baskervilles written by British author, John Fowles. He is responsible for several well-known works, including The French Lieutenant’s Wife. Another, was a novel that Mason finds himself wondering why Fowles doesn’t mention in his introduction, since the villain is such a close parallel to Stapleton.(but as we have learned through the study of ACD, most writers will not come right out and say where they got their inspiration. They like for you to guess!)

A lonely young man, works as a clerk, and collects butterflies, becomes obsessed with a pretty young girl, Miranda, an art student. He chloroforms, and kidnaps her, taking her to his cellar basement, to add Miranda to his collection. That book was called The Collector. But what else does it sound like?

“So yes, I googled. From an article on the release of the movie’s Documentary. "The docu proves a poor reference point for anyone who wants to understand the literary and movie links for “Lambs.” There’s no mention, for example, of how Harris partly based the butterfly-loving Bill on John Fowles’ kidnapper in “The Collector” …And here I thought Mofftiss added allusions to Silence of The Lambs into Sherlock just for fun. SMH.”

@tendergingergirl​ also added this photo to their post:

So what we have here is a chain of metatextualities/inspiration, starting with ACD’s THOB, where Jack Stapelton inspires a book about a disturbed butterfly collector (The Collector by John Fowles), which inspires a the author of Silence of the Lambs in creation of his character Buffalo Bill, a serial murderer who inserts a death's head moth into the victim's throat because he is fascinated by the insect's metamorphosis. Silence of the Lambs served as inspiration for Sherlock  as analyzed by @garkgatiss​ in Bond, Hannibal, and Holmes (I suggest you read the whole Hannibal section) . 

Let’s look again at some imagery from His Last Vow. Mary shoots Sherlock’s heart, essentially burning his heart out, and who does Sherlock meet in his Mind Palace in a very cocoon-like straightjacket? Yes, the dead dude who encourages him to die already (“one more push, and off you pop”).

What’s the next thing we as an audience see once Sherlock opens his eyes? Mary coming to the hospital to hear that Sherlock had, in fact, survived. And what is she wearing? Her butterfly scarf, one which will another appearance later in the episode, during the tarmac scene.

I also find it interesting that in the context of Sherlock and Silence of the Lamb, there’s an element of gender-switching between Moriarty and Mary. Buffalo Bill, the murderer from Silence of the Lambs, skins bodies of women to create himself a woman’s 'suit’; in Sherlock, Moriarty is a man-villain who transforms into a female-villain in the form of a bride and/or Mary. 

By the way, who else is obsessed with his suits?

Also, let’s not forget the worms, maggots and other such crawlers in the grave scene:

Now, let’s go over some of the photos I included in the beginning of this post a bit further.

Mrs. Hudson’s butterfly tea set is first shown in TEH - she uses it to serve John tea when he comes visiting her and tellis her about Mary. We also see it near John’s chair on the day of the wedding. This isn’t Sherlock’s set - his set is different, featuring the British Isles. Moriarty drinks from it in TRF. The next tea set we see, now that Moriarty is dead, is the butterflies one. In TLD, Mrs. Hudson uses Sherlock’s tea set - the butterflies are gone.

Mary’s bedroom wallpaper is very feminine, with flowers and butterflies, both complementing symbols while also very common in vanitas art. Much like Mrs. Hudson’s wallpaper in Baker Street, Mary’s wallpaper is supposed to show the contrast between Mary’s flat/Mary and Sherlock’s flat/Sherlock.

There’s an interesting moth reference in The Empty Hearse, which in my opinion, is Mary & Moriarty related. In short, in a previous piece of meta I wrote, I suggested that the Jack the Ripper case in TEH is subtext alluding to Mary’s skeletons, which Sherlock ignores because he’s upset by his reception by John. And what’s one of the first things Sherlock notices about the skeleton? New mothballs smell, hinting at an attempt to get rid of moth/butterflies - maybe a hint to  the fact that Sherlock has a chance to discover the truth about Mary but misses it. Also, in the context of Mary and the Jack the Ripper case, notice this transition:

Transitions are important on Sherlock - they’re nearly always there to draw our attention.

This, I think, is perhaps the most telling about a possible connection between Mary and Moriarty: we have both magpies (a Moriarty hint) and butterflies together here. This isn’t the only hint of Mary’s past we get in the wedding; there is, after all, the telegram from CAM.

Mary’s scarf is colorful, and it appears by the time Sherlock’s subconscious suspects Mary. Mary’s black butterfly dress - an ominous dress, I’d say - is the one she wears during the labour scene in the car. The third photo is a behind the scenes photo uploaded by Amanda Abbington, although I’m unsure whether this necklace is AA’s or Mary’s (but I couldn’t pass on including this).

Interestingly, the butterflies do not appear in Rosie’s context - either because it’s a telling sign that Mary won’t be with us much longer, or because Rosie is spared being considered a part of the ‘burning Sherlock’s heart’ plan. Sherlock, on the surface, seems to love Rosie and accepts her.

Also, another BTS photograph I came across during my research which I’ve never seen before and ties nicely to the vanity topic is this one (found here):

The Death's-head hawkmoth and ‘Death with Interruptions’

You’ll recall that I referenced The Collector and Silence of the Lambs, both featuring butterflies on their cover art. 

The Silence of the Lambs cover features Acherontia atropos, otherwise known as the death's-head hawkmoth. It gets its name from the sinister-looking skull shape on its back. In many cultures it is thought to be an omen of death. In a bit of another coincidental but stunning piece of symbolism, all three species of the Death's-head hawkmoth are commonly observed raiding beehives of different species of honey bee; A. atropos only invades colonies of the well-known western honey bee, Apis mellifera, and feeds on both nectar and honey. They can move about in hives without being disturbed because they mimic the scent of the bees and are not recognised as intruders.

Anyway, the use of Acherontia atropos reminded me of the book ‘Death with Interruptions’ by Jose Saramago. Interestingly, this is another book about a deathly collector with a butterfly on the cover:

In Death with Interruptions death is a woman, and she falls in love with one of her future victims. She decides to spare his life: Every time death sends him his letter [notifying him of his imminent death], it gets returned. death discovers that, without reason, this man has mistakenly not been killed. Although originally intending merely to analyse this man and discover why he is unique, death eventually becomes infatuated with him, so much so that she takes on human form to meet him. Upon visiting the cellist, she plans to personally give him the letter; instead, she falls in love with him, and, by doing so, she becomes even more human-like.

It’s pretty common to read theories about Mary who maybe was one of the assassins due to kill John both at the pool and in front of Barts. So we have a death harbinger trying to kill someone twice and failing. She then falls in love with him.

But how does the butterfly fit in?

Well, at some point in the story, death (that’s her name, sans a capital d), contemplates that using the death head butterfly, instead of a violet piece of paper, would have sent a much stronger message to those whose death is coming for.

And here’s another last bit of coincidental reference to Sherlock: I’d argue shades of purple, among them shades of violet, are associated with Mary and her secrets. There’s the purple dress she wears in TEH, her bridesmaids’ dresses include various shades of purple (including what I would argue was a violet sash) and let’s not forget:

Oh and, by the way, remember the song Donde Estas, Yolanda from TEH, about a woman called Yolanda? Always thought it was a bit of an odd choice for a song?

Yolanda is a female given name, of Greek origin, meaning Violet.

:)

Thoughts?

Credits: thank you @lukessense​ for directing me to @tendergingergirl​ meta about butterflies. Episode screenshots are from kissthemgoodbye.net.

@sarahthecoat​  @tjlcisthenewsexy​ @devoursjohnlock​ @inevitably-johnlocked​ @shylockgnomes​ @possiblyimbiassed​ @raggedyblue​ @ebaeschnbliah​ @gosherlocked​ @waitedforgarridebs​ @helloliriels​ 

#mary mosrtan #butterflies #silence of the lambs #the collector #meta #sherlock meta #tjlc #johnlockendgame #jim moriarty

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND September 20, 2019  - VILLAINS, BLOODLINE, DOWNTON ABBEY, AD ASTRA, RAMBO: LAST BLOOD

It’s hard to believe that September is almost over, and we’re just sailing through the September festival season with the New York Film Festival starting (for real) next week.  There are three wide releases, but I will only have seen one of them before writing this, so instead, I’ll talk about a couple genre movies opening Friday, both of which played at Lincoln Center’s “Scary Movies XII” last month.

I remember writing quite extensively about VILLAINS (Alter/Gunpowder and Sky) when I was over at the Tracking Board, mainly about the casting of Bill Skarsgard from It, Maika Monroe from It Follows, as well as Jeffrey Donovan and Kyra Sedgwick. It’s the new movie from Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, who directed the horror sequel The Stakelander and have written a pretty amazing comedy-thriller twist on the home invasion movie. Skarsgard and Monroe play a young couple who hide out in a seemingly abandoned house after robbing a store. They soon learn that not only is it not abandoned, but there is a young girl chained in the basement. The owners of the home, played by Kyra Sedgwick and Jeffrey Donovan, then return and things go sideways for the young couple as they find that maybe their petty crimes make them the good guys in this scenario.  Villains is getting a fairly hearty release into roughly 100 theaters across the country, so check your listings to see if/where it will be playing near you. (It mainly seems to be playing in Regal theaters across the country.)

Another interesting genre film opening Friday is Henry Jacobson’s psychological thriller BLOODLINE (Momentum Pictures), starring Seann William Scott as Evan, a high school social worker with a secret – he’s also a serial killer who tries to help his patients by ridding them of their issues. Evan is also experiencing a new baby with his wife, which might keep him from his killing habits, except that his mother (Dale Dickey) has shown up to help them, and she was the one who taught him his ways. This is a really dark and gory film that I quite enjoyed in a similar way as some of my favorite serial killer thrillers, from Hitchcock’s Psychoto Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer and others. It honestly can’t be a better time for this with all the true crime television we’re getting, and I was pretty blown away by Scott’s performance in this. Bloodlineisplaying at the IFC Center for Friday and Saturday late night screenings and probably will be available On Demand as well.

You can read my interview with Seann William Scott and the directors of VILLAINS over at The Beat, the latter posting Friday.

The one wide release I have seen this weekend is Focus Features’ DOWNTOWN ABBEY, a continuation of the PBS series with an absolutely amazing British cast that includes Dame Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton and so many more that I won’t name all of them. I feel that I’m not the best person to properly review the movie since I haven’t seen a second of the series, but I generally liked what I saw and might give it a look if I can find a good streaming source on which to binge it. I actually liked the movie enough to recommend it without having any previous knowledge of the series.

Probably my biggest disappointment of this week is that I didn’t have a chance to see James Gray’s AD ASTRA (20thCentury Fox), starring Brad Pitt, before Thursday night, because I wasn’t able to get to the press screening. It’s been one of my more anticipated movies of the year, mainly because I generally love outer space movies, but I also have been interested in seeing what Gray and Pitt do with the material, especially with such a great supporting cast.

Another movie that I only got to see just before this column posts is Sylvester Stallone’s RAMBO: LAST BLOOD (Lionsgate), which I reviewed over at The Beat. I had very few expectations for the movie, as I’ve never been a huge Rambo fan. I’m not sure why, but I guess I just never got into the Rah! Rah! USA! Stuff that permeated the United States in the ‘80s, and I was more into music than movies at the time. Reading my review, it’s obvious that Stallone’s latest attempt to revive a franchise didn’t do much for me.

You can read what I think of the above’s box office prospects over at The Beat, as well.

LIMITED RELEASES

I’m not quite sure why there are so many limited releases this weekend –I count almost 30 (!!!!) over on Rotten Tomatoes– but I’ll see what I can get to this week since I’m already a little behind. If you missed, Rob Zombie’s 3 FROM HELL on Monday and Tuesday night and more importantly, missed my scathing review of it over at The Beat, well, then you’ve missed it since this column is posting after it played its last night before its blu-ray release next month. Sorry!

A fantastic documentary opening at the Metrograph this week is Jacqueline Olive’s directorial debut ALWAYS IN SEASON (Multitude Films), a stirring film about the history of lynching, circling around the death of 17-year-old Lennon Lacy from Bladenboro, North Carolina, which is ruled as a suicide but his mother Claudia is convince that her son was lynched. Olive’s powerful film provides a background for how lynching became so prevalent in the early part of the 20thCentury, including an eerie annual reenactment by the town of Monroe, Georgia that wants to make sure that the county’s atrocities aren’t forgiven or forgotten.  Narrated by Danny Glover, Olive’s directorial debut is powerful and moving and a film that must not be missed – maybe it’s no surprise that it won a Special Jury prize at Sundance Film Festival for “Moral Urgency” earlier this year. I was pretty shaken up when I saw it at this year’s Oxford Film Festival.

The Metrograph is also screening two National Geographic shorts, Alexander A. Mora’s The Night Crawlers and Orlando von Einsiedel’sLost and Found, over the next week. The Night Crawlers looks at a group of Filipino journalists known as the “Manila Nightcrawlers” who seek to expose the truth about President Duterte’s war on drugs and the number of people who lost their lives over it. Lost and Foundi s a new doc short from the director of the Netflix doc The White Helmets which looks at the Myanmar’s ethnic violence against the Rohingya people through the eyes of a man in a refugee camp seeking to reunite children with parents.

Japanese animation house Studio TRIGGER’s first feature film PROMARE (GKIDS) will get a limited release on Friday, following Fathom Events showings on Tuesday (already passed) and Thursday (tonight). It will then be opening in New York at the Metrograph and AMC Empire on Friday for a one-week run. It’s an apocalyptic sci-fi thriller set in a world thirty years after a race of flame-wielding mutant beings called the Burnish set half the world on fire an the battle between the anti-Burnish Burning Rescue and Lio Fotia, leader of the aggressive new “Mad Burnish” mutants.

Paolo Sorrentino, director of the Oscar-winning The Great Beauty and its follow-up Youth, returns with LORO (Sundance Selects), about a young hustler named Sergio (Riccardo Scamarcio) managing an escort service who sets his sights on the egotistical billionaire Italian ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (Tony Servillo) who is trying to bribe his way back into power. It will open at the IFC Center Friday.

A couple other docs opening this weekend, the first two opening at New York’s Film Forum…

Now playing is Hassan Fazili’s Midnight Traveler (Oscilloscope) about how the filmmaker received death threats from the Taliban in 2015 for running Kabul, Afghanistan’s Art Café, a progressive meeting place, so he, his wife and two young daughters must travel 3,500 miles over 3 years across four countries to get to Hungary, a journey documented via mobile phone cameras. It will open in L.A. on October 4.

Then on Friday, there’s Matt Tyrnauer’s new film WHERE’S MY ROY COHN? (Sony Pictures Classics) looks at the lawyer and power broker who was part of Joe McCarthy’s anti-Communist activities and who was pivotal in molding a young Queens developer named Donald Trump. I wanted to like this movie more because Roy Cohn is such an interesting human being in such a despicable way, but this doc really didn’t do much for me.

Opening in New York (Cinema Village) and L.A. (Laemmle Glendale) is DIEGO MARADONA (HBO Sports), the new doc from Asif Kapadia (Amy, Senna), which will show on HBO on October 1. If you don’t know international football (or soccer), the Argentine Maradona is one of the most famous footballers of all time, a bit of a legend since signing to Naples in 1984 for a record-setting fee. I haven’t watched this yet but hope to soon.

Opening at New York’s IFC Center Friday is Max Powers’ Don’t Be Nice (Juno Films), focusing on the Bowery Slam Poetry Team as they head to the national championships, and there will be QnAs almost every night in its week-long run, and then it will open in L.A. on September 27.

Completely unrelated but also at the IFC Center is a full-week run of National Theatre Live: Fleabag, screening a pre-recorded performance of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s one-woman show that inspired her hit Emmy-nominated show from the Soho Playhousein London’s West End. Heck, I might try to get to one of these since it won’t be on television or any other format for at least a year.

After opening for “one night only” on Tuesday, Louie (The Cove) Psihoyos’ new movie The Game Changers will get a release on New York this Friday and L.A. the 27th. Exec. produced by James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan, it explores the rise of plant-based eating in professional sports along with Special Forces trainer James Wilks and features segments on Schwarzenegger, Formula One racer Lewis Hamilton, tennis player Novak Djokovic and NBA star Chris Paul.

Demi Moore, Ed Helms, Karan Soni (from the “Deadpool” movies) and Jessica Williams star in the horror-comedy Corporate Animals (Screen Media), the new comedy from Patrick Brice (Creep, The Overnight) about a corporate team-building adventure that turns to cannibalism when an office group find themselves trapped in a cave system. The movie has a great cast but the strange concept and weak screenplay really keeps the movie from delivering.

Other movies out this weekend include James Franco’s Zeroville (MyCinema), co-starring Megan Fox and Seth Rogen; Nicolas Cage’s new movie Running with the Devil (Quiver DIstribution), a drug thriller co-starring Laurence Fishburne, Barry Pepper, Leslie Bibb and more; and the award-winning Chinese drama Send Me to the Clouds (Cheng Cheng Films), opening in L.A., NY, Toronto and Vancouver.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Maybe the movie I’m most excited for this week is Zak Galifianakis’ BETWEEN TWO FERNS: THE MOVIE (Netflix), which I’m sure is going to be silly, maybe even stupid, but I’m still amused by his style of humor. I also haven’t seen the new Netflix doc Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates, and I also no absolutely nothing about the movie other than what’s in the title.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

On Tuesday, the Metrograph began a series called “Bleecker Street: The First Five Years” running through Thursday withsingle screenings of Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace, Sebastian Lelio’s Disobediance and Brett Haley’s I’ll See You in My Dreams with talent doing QnAs. On the weekend, the theater has special screenings of the dance film The Red Shoes   (1948) on Saturday with an introduction by Jillian McManemin – I honestly have no idea who that is. On Saturday, the Academy is back with its monthly series, this month showing Milos Forman’s 1979 musical Hair with actor Treat Williams and Annie Golden in person. On Sunday, there’s a similarly special screening of Martin Scorsese’s 1990 crime classic Goodfellas with producer Irwin Winkler and screenwriter Nick Pileggi -- $35 tickets, a little pricey for me. You also have just two more days (today and tomorrow) to see Satoshi Kon’s Millennium Actress on the big screen.

This weekend’s Welcome To Metrograph: Redux offering is Jean Vigo’s 1934 film L’Atalante,  Late Nites at Metrograph is showing Fantastic Planet(again) and the Japanese horror film Hausu (1977). This weekend’s Playtime: Family Matinees is Alfonso Cuaron’s fantasy A Little Princess (1995)

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE BROOKLYN (NYC)

The Alamo is also celebrating “Arthouse Theater Day” on Wednesday with Robert Downey Sr.’s Putney Swope. They’re also doing a “Rambo Marathon” on Sunday to tie-in with Stallone’s latest Rambo movie -- $35 for all five Rambo movies. Now THAT is a great deal, and there are a few tickets left. On Saturday afternoon, the Alamo is showing Almodovar’s 2000 classic All About My Mother to celebrate the Spanish filmmaker before the release of his newest film Pain and Glory.  Monday’s “Out of Tune” is Lars von Trier’s 2000 film Dancer in the Dark, starring Bjork. Next week’s “Terror Tuesday” is the amazing Vera Farmiga thriller Orphan from 2009, and the Alamo is also playing Almodovar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown from 1988. Next week’s “Weird Wednesday” is 1995’s Tank Girl, starring Lori Petty.

AERO  (LA):

Wednesday is (or rather, was) a screening of the 1969 film Putney Swope as part of Art House Theater Day 2019, Thursday is a screening of the 1984 adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s 2010: The Year We Made Contact. In honor of Downton Abbey (I guess?), the Aero is beginning a series called “Upstairs, Downstairs,” beginning Friday with a 70mm print of 1993’s The Remains of the Day, starring Anthony Hopkins an Emma Thompson, then Saturday is a double feature of Hitchcock’s Rebecca  (1940) and Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol  (1948), and then on Sunday is a double feature of Ruggles of Red Cap (1935) and By Candlelight  (1933), as well as a separate free member screening of Downton Abbey with some of the cast in person.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Robert Altman’s classic 1975 film Nashville will screen as a new 4k restoration for the next week with screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury appearing on Saturday night. This weekend’s “Film Forum Jr.” is Howard Hawk’s 1940 movie His Girl Friday, starring Cary Grant.  Joseph Losey’s Holocaust drama Mr. Klein ends on Thursday.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

The Quad is back with another great series called “Laws of Desire: The Films of Antonio Banderas” beginning Wednesday, showing so many films starring the Spanish actor who is likely to get nominated for his first Oscar for Almodovar’s Pain and Glory.  It will even show Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming The Laundromat, which premieres on Netflix next week. Instead of going through all 13 of the movies, click on the link above and get ready to be Banderasized!

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Weekend Classics: Staff Picks Summer 2019 is Tony Scott’s vampire flick The Hunger (1983), chosen by “Todd,” Waverly Midnights: Staff Picks Summer 2019 is the anime classic Akira, chosen by “Katie,” and Late Night Favorites: Summer 2019 is Satoshi Kon’s Paprika(again?)

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

This weekend begins a “See It Big! Ghost Stories” series with the Japanese horror Ugetsu from 1953, then Saturday is The Phantom Carriage (1921) – this is with live piano accompaniment! --The Ghost and Mrs. Muir(1947), and then Sunday they’re screening Olivier Assayas’ more recent Personal Shopper (2006) with Kristen Stewart.

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER (NYC):

Although Lincoln Center is preparing for next week’s New York Film Festival, this weekend it’s holding special screenings of two Gershwin films, Otto Preminger’s 1959 musical Porgy and Bess on Thursday (with panel) and then Vincente Minelli’s An American in Paris on Friday.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

“The Purpose and Passion: the Cinema of John Singleton” ends on Friday, but there are screenings of his 2000 Shaft movie, starring Samuel L. Jackson, and another screening of Boyz n the Hood before then.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Thursday night is a screening of David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai  (1957), but the rest of the weekend is the “Guadalajara Film Festival.”

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

Friday night’s midnight offering is John Waters’ 2004 movie A Dirty Shame, starring Tracey Ullman, Johnny Knoxville and Selma Blair.

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

The New Bev continues its “time out” at the bottom of this section as long as Tarantino uses his repertory theater to show Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, and currently it’s booked through the end of September. Since this week’s column is late, you already missed the 1952 film The Narrow Marginas the Weds. matinee, the New Bev will also show the Hanna/Barbera animated feature Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear (1964) as this weekend’s “Kiddee Matinee.” Tarantino’s Jackie Brown is the Saturday night midnight movie, and then on Monday, the theater will show David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive  (2000) in two matinees (the 2pm is already sold out).

A quieter week with only one wide release, the Universal/DreamWorks animation fantasy-adventure Abominable.

#WhatToWatchThisWeekend Movies Reviews Villains Bloodline Downton Abbey AlwaysInSeason

[diversegaminglists]

Eldrich/Cosmic Horror/Lovecraftian Themed Games

Still a WIP and not everything has been sorted yet.

Major Theme (Serious/Horror):

Alan Wake

Alone in the Dark Franchise

Alpha Polaris : A Horror Adventure Game

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

Anchorhead

Aquaria

Arcane Mystery Serial (Link goes to the first episode, the rest of the series can be found in the sidebar)

Arkham Nightmares

Astray

At the Mountains of Madness (Early Access)

Ayumi: Enhanced Edition

Bayonetta (The creator the angels keep going on about isn’t an Abrahamic god...)

Blackbay Asylum

Bloodborne

Bloodrayne 1 & 2

The Breach

Call of Cthulhu: The Official Video Game (Upcoming game due 2018)

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (Basically an adaptation of the Shadow Over Insmouth with slightly less racism, the PC port is very buggy because it was made by literally one person after studio closures, but there are fan patches to help.)

Call of Cthulhu: Prisoner of Ice

Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet

Cards of Cthulhu

Cata Cthulhu

Chronicle of Innsmouth

Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross

Chzo Mythos (Yahtzee’s adventure series)

Clive Barker’s Jerico

Clive Barker’s The Undying

Clockwork Express

Conarium

The Consuming Shadow

Crawl

Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason

Crysis Franchise

CTHON

CthulhuMud

cthulhu fhtagn

Cthulhu Realms

Cult of Cthulhu (Mod for Plague Inc. Evolved)

Daily Chthonical

Dark Scavenger

Darkwood (Early Access)

The Dark Stone from Mebara

Darkest Dungeon

The Darkness Within Franchise

Dark Souls Franchise

Dawn of War

Dead Space Franchise

Deadly Premonition

Demon’s Souls

Dead by Daylight

Deathstate

Demonbane Franchise

Demon’s Souls

Discworld: Noir

Doorways: Holy Mountains of Flesh

Downwell

Earnest Evans Franchise (Hastur)

The Elder Scrolls Franchise (Most obviously with House Dagoth in Morrowind and Skyrim’s Dragonborn DLC)

Elder Sign: Omens

Elder Sign: Portents

Eldrich (Roguelike where you explore a library and enter worlds inside several Lovecraft books)

Eldritch Hunter

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

Euclidean

Eversion

The Evil Within

Evolve

Fallen London

Fallout 3: Point Lookout (DLC)

FEAR Franchise (Alma herself)

Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Gloom (2017, not to be confused with the 90s Amiga Doom clone)

Green Mirror

Grim Dawn

Half-Life Franchise

Haunted Hotel 4

The Hound of Shadow (Text Adventure)

The Hunt for the Red Cthulhu

The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker

Inner Voices

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

The King of Shreds and Patches (Text Adventure)

Kingdom Hearts (The Heartless, The Nobodies and Kingdom Hearts itself)

Kingdom of Loathing

The Last Door Franchise

Layers of Fear (This is really up to interpretation of the game’s plot but it uses many of the traditional story devices associated with “lovecraftian” horror and there are rats in the walls.)

LIMBO

Lobotomy Corporation (Early Access)

Lost Souls (MUD)

The Lurking Horror (Text Adventure)

Lusternia (free 2 play MMO)

Magrunner: Dark Pulse

The Majesty of Colors

Mansions of Madness (free steam version of the board game)

Marathon Franchise

The Moaning Words

Monria (MMO)

Mystery Of Mortlake Mansion

Mystery Stories: Mountains of Madness

Mythos: The Beginning

Muv-Luv Franchise

Nasuverse Franchise (This includes games like Fate/stay night and Tsukihime)

Necronomicon (An old Japanese game, haven’t found an English translation yet, but including for completeness)

Necronomicon: The Dawning of Darkness

The Necronomicon & Necronomicon - Book of Dead Names

Nexus War (defunct) & Nexus Clash

Nightmare on Azathoth

The Nightmare from Beyond

NoseBound

Oracle of Tao

Oxenfree

Pandora's Tower

Parasite Eve Franchise

The Park (Set in the same universe as The Secret World)

Path of Exile

Pathways into Darkness

Penumbra Franchise (From the same developer as Amnesia: The Dark Descent)

Phantasmal: Survival Horror Roguelike aka Phantasmal: City of Darkness

Phoenix Point (Upcoming 2018)

Poacher

Pony Island (It’s the Devil rather than a Lovecraftian style monster, but it features many of the usual devices)

Prey (2006)

Prey (2017)

Prototype Franchise

Quake (Shub-Niggurath)

Quest Fantasy

Red Haze

Resident Evil 4 (others in the franchise may qualify but 4 is the most obvious)

Reveal the Deep

The Rise of Cthulhu: Demo

Robert D. Anderson and the Legacy of Cthulhu

Rogue Stormers

Sanity: Aiken's Artifact

Saya no Uta (A man has an accident that makes him perceive normal people as horrendous eldrich monstrosities and then he meets a girl who... looks like a pretty girl. Rape and sexual assault warnings.)

SCP Foundation Games

The Secret World (MMO)

Secret World Legends

Shadow Hearts Franchise

Shadow Over Isolation

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened

Shikkoku No Sharnoth (Looking at screenshots I think this one might involve tentacles. Possible sexual assault warning.)

Shin Megami Tensei Franchise (including Persona 1, 2, and 3)

Shoggoth Rising

Shrouded In Sanity

The Shrouded Isle

Silent Hill Franchise (The town itself is alive even before you consider all the other thingies)

The Sinking City (upcoming game)

Siren (aka Forbiden Siren) Franchise

Skullgirls

Sons of Uruzime

South of Real

Splatterhouse

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Franchise

Strife

The Suffering Franchise

Sunless Sea

System Shock 2 (The Many)

Tales From the Void

Tattletail

The Terrible Old Man

They Bleed Pixels

They Breathe

This Book Is A Dungeon

Tormentum - Dark Sorrow

Transistor

Twisted Lands: Shadow Town

Undertale

Utawarerumono Franchise

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

VHS

Wait - Extended

We Need to Go Deeper

The Whisperer in Darkness

The Worry of Newport (Mod for Crysis 1)

X-COM: Terror From the Deep

Themed but Comedy/Non-Horror:

Army of Tentacles Franchise

Baobabs Mausoleum Ep. 1 Ovnifagos Don´t Eat Flamingos

The Bizarre Adventures Of Woodruff And The Schnibble

Cthulhu Saves the World

Flappy Monsters of Lovecraft

Hearthstone: Whispers Of The Old Gods

Howard Phillips Lovecar (Early Access)

Leave Cthulhu Alone

Lovecraft Word Search

Magicka: The Stars Are Left (DLC)

Mormonoids from the Deep

Pray For Death (Playable Cthulhu)

Project Starship

The Rapture Is Here And You Will Be Forcibly Removed From Your Home

Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse

Tesla vs Lovecraft

Where is the Lovecraft?

Wynken, Blynken, Cthulhu, and Nod

Minor appearances:

Age of Decadence

Ancient Domains of Mystery aka ADOM

Baldur’s Gate 2 (Planar travel, the Demogorgon, and probably the final boss)

Battleborn

Beyond Good and Evil

The Binding of Isaac Franchise

Blood Franchise

Borderlands Franchise (Some of the vaults have big nasties in them, some of the raid bosses also qualify)

Bravely Default

Breath of Fire IV

Castlevania Franchise

Cookie Clicker

Copy Kitty

Crusader Kings II (Yes, really)

Cultist Simulator

Deadly Rooms of Death aka DROD Franchise

Destiny (The Vex and The Darkness)

Destiny: The Taken King (Raid bosses)

Dishonored Franchise

Defense of the Ancients aka DotA Franchise

Dragon Age Franchise

Drakengard Franchise

Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun

Dwarf Fortress

Pikmin Franchise (Final bosses)

Elona

Epic Mickey

Etrian Odyssey Franchise

Everlong

Fable (Jack of All Blades)

Fable III (The Crawler)

Fable: The Journey

Fatal Frame 2 (An optional boss in Survival Mode is the malice from the hellgates made manifest, rather than a ghost)

Final Fantasy Franchise (It would be easier to list which games don’t have some kind of cosmic horror eldritch abomination things in them. The most obvious ones are Jenova, Sin, and The Cloud of Darkness)

Five Nights At Freddy’s Franchise

Grey Goo

Guild Wars Franchise

Half-Life Franchise

Halo Franchise

Hatoful Boyfriend Franchise

Homeworld: Cataclysm

Immortal Defense

Jak 3: Wastelander

Knights and Dragons

La-Mulana

Legacy of Kain Franchise

League of Legends

The Legend of Spyro: Dawn Of The Dragon

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

LittleBigPlanet 2

Lunar: Eternal Blue aka Lunar 2

Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis

Mass Effect Franchise

Metroid Franchise

Minecraft: Story Mode

Mother Franchise

Mugen Souls Franchise

NeverWinter Nights 2

Paradigm

Pathologic

Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium

Pokemon Platinum

Return to Krondor (The God of Evil)

Rift (MMO)

RuneScape

SaGa 3 aka Final Fantasy Legend III

Scribblenauts Franchise (You can summon Cthulhu and Shogoths)

Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator

Shadow of the Colossus (becomes more and more obvious towards the end of the game)

Slash Em Extended

SMITE

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

SoulCalibur Franchise (The Soul Edge and SoulCalibur themselves)

Stories Untold

Terraria

Thief: The Dark Project & Thief: Deadly Shadows

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines

Warcraft 3

The Witcher (Dagon)

World of Warcraft

Xenogears

Xenosaga Franchise

Easter Eggs only:

Civilisation VI (A steam achievement)

PAYDAY 2 (A Cthulhu mask)

Dating Eldrich Monsters (both serious and non-serious):

Cthulhu Saves the World

Demonbane Franchise

Dra+Koi

Saya no Uta (A man has an accident that makes him perceive normal people as horrendous eldrich monstrosities and then he meets a girl who... looks like a pretty girl. Rape and sexual assault warnings.)

Unsorted:                                                                                                                 

Sonic Adventure

Sonic: Unleashed

Space Station 13

Spectrobes Franchise

The Stanley Parable

Star Control Franchise

Starbound

StarCraft

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Stellaris

Sundered

Sword of the Stars Franchise

Tales of Vesperia

Tentacult!

Turok Franchise

Touhou Franchise

UFO Afterblank

Warcraft Franchise

Warframe

Warriors Orochi

We Know the Devil

Ys Franchise

#list actually #rape mention #cosmic horror #eldrich horror #lovecraftian horror