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Just a thought on the Mary McAleese story about infant baptism - Jewish and muslim babies can't consent to circumcision. Does she consider this a breach of their human rights?
teapawt.net/kenoflynnTD/status/211…
Mary McAleese says baptising a baby is a breach of human rights because the child can't consent.
With respect, that's wrong.
Parents make decisions for their children every single day. What school they go to. What values they're raised with. What they eat, what they wear, who minds them. A baby can't consent to any of it. That's what being a parent is.
Faith is no different. If parents want to have their child christened, that's their call. If they'd rather not bring their child into any religion, that's their call too. It's a decision for the family, and nobody else.
Every child grows up and makes up their own mind. Plenty do.
Families in this country have enough to be worrying about without being told that bringing their child to be christened is a human rights abuse.
Leave parents alone. Let them raise their children as they see fit.
Who says the devil has all the best tunes? On The Rock Where Moses Stood by the Carter Family is beautiful. Simple, genuine faith set to music. The Wonderful City by Jimmie Rodgers and Sara Carter is lovely, too.
Metroid Dread Switch - £48 on CeX UK; secondhand Metroid Dread Switch on Amazon - £65. F*ck off Amazon.
The Thing (1982) is one of the great horror films. It's famous for its outrageous special effects, tension, and paranoia. One other element, perhaps overlooked, is the brilliance of the story construction, especially in the early stages of the film. I won't worry about spoilers from here on because every horror fan in the world must have seen the film by now.
The great opening sequence of the husky being chased by the Norwegians starts the story before we even realise it - the arrival of the Thing into the American camp, in the guise of a husky. Of course we're all on the dog's side at first, but it soon becomes clear there's something about this animal that just doesn't feel right. While McCready flies to the Norwegian camp to begin the second strand of the story, the dog explores the camp, finally wandering along a corridor until it sees a man sitting in a room, giving rise to the film's first mystery - who is the man in the room, the Thing's first victim?
Doc and McCready's discoveries in the Norwegian camp, and the dog's presence in the American camp, finally come together in the horrifying kennel scene. I'll never forget the first time I saw the Thing. The dog's head splitting open is still the most shocking sight I've ever seen in a horror film. But it's all set up by the buildup at the start. What happened at the Norwegian camp? What's the deal with the dog? The sight of the husky padding down that corridor, coming across its first victim, still chills me today.
I'm looking to buy Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, for the Switch. It's currently £18 on CeX UK and £57 on Amazon! Is there a reason it's 3 times more expensive on Amazon?
I've been working through the history of 15th century England. It's one of the most tumultuous periods and deserves to be studied in its own right, not just as a precursor to the 16th century. It starts with the usurpation of the throne by Henry 4 and the death of Richard 2, goes straight into Owen Glendower's rebellions in Wales, has the end of the 100 Years War, the Wars of the Roses, the rise and fall of the Lancastrians and Yorkists and the final usurpation of the century by Henry Tudor.
A time that has Henry 5 and Joan of Arc alive at the same time, just missing each other's campaigns by a few years clearly has a special dynamic. I'd rather see the 16th century as the prequel to the 17th century.
How about part of the BBC licence fee is given to victims of the perverts and predators who used the BBC as a cover for their crimes, like Jimmy Savile, Stuart Hall, and Rolf Harris? It might even make the licence fee a bit more acceptable to people.
It's the perfect time of year to read some classic horror fiction. Mrs Amworth, by E F Benson, is a great short story by a writer who knew how to say exactly what he wanted to say and not a word more. It was written in 1922 and set in a quintessential English village of pretty cottages with immaculate gardens, where men wear shirts, ties, and jackets even at the height of a summer heatwave and call each other by surnames. The story is fulfilled with economy and style, calmy leading the reader to the simple fact that there is a vampire in a small English village, feeding on young men, and it must be gotten rid of in a very traditional way.
Mrs Amworth is an excellent example of the qualities that make short fiction so readable. It's fast-paced but unhurried; there's enough plot to make the story work, and no more; a few vivid scenes of horror are enough to justify the ending and, when it is done, the uncanny atmosphere remains.
A few more points about Exorcist: Legion and Martyrs. If Scarlett Johansson is playing William Kinderman's daughter Julie, Martyrs must be set somewhere around 2010/12. Julie was in her late teens in Legion, set in 1990, and she is around 40 in Martyrs.
The Gemini Killer in Legion told Kinderman they would come back for Julie. Does that happen in Martyrs? Is she the real target?
Mike Flanagan said in his trailer breakdown interview that what scared him the most in the Exorcist was the idea that evil was rampant in the world and God was absent. Surely the point of the first Exorcist film was that God is not absent. The sacrifice of the two priests; the possession itself, aimed at producing despair in believing we were so damned that God could not love us, as Merrin tells Karras, meaning that demonic possession is an act aimed at separating us from the presence of God.
One more point I forgot earlier. In Exorcist 3 Kinderman states that Damian Karra was his best friend. In the original Exorcist film they only met a couple of times, so am I missing something? Is Kinderman reimagining his relationship with Karras? Also, Brad Dourif gives an incredible performance as the Gemini Killer and George C Scott is great as Kinderman. The image of a carp floating around in his bath is hard to forget. If you know, you know.
Andy Burnham claims, with no evidence given, that Russia interfered with the Brexit referendum. Russophobia strikes again, with the BBC backing him up in an article which, in best BBC fashion, insinuates that Russia has been undermining British politics for years. The fact there is no evidence for any of this doesn't stop the British establishment from pushing this narrative. The BBC. article even states a parliamentary committee report published in 2020 could not come to a conclusion on Russian interference. In other words it couldn't find any evidence but warned of interference anyway.
Burnham has proved himself a mouthpiece for western propaganda, following the agenda of attacking Russia, Iran and anyone else the foreign policy establishment in Britain tells him to.
The Exorcist: Martyrs trailer looks great, and although a great trailer doesn't mean a great film, I'm hopeful for this one. I'm not a great Mike Flanagan fan, but his trailer breakdown on IGN was very interesting. The serial killer/demonic possession connection raised in the trailer was pioneered by Exorcist 3: Legion, one of several references to William Peter Blatty's 1990 film, which is a good sign. Legion is a great film, the true sequel to the original and if Martyrs' story is descended from these two ancestors, I can't wait to see it!
A further thought - what if the Gemini Killer wasn.t expelled at the end of Legion by Kinderman shooting Damian Karras? What if he possessed Mr Sunday and carried on killing, the same way he possessed Karras previously? That would tie the three films together so tightly it would hurt!
I'm playing Castlevania Circle of the Moon again. It was the first Castlevania game I played, many years ago, and it's still special to me. It also raises the question of how a 20 year old 2D side scroller is better than the vast majority of games produced today.
When I think about psychological horror, I think of the entire works of Edgar Allan Poe, the film Repulsion by Roman Polanski, the anime film Perfect Blue. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde I would place somewhere between psychological and social horror. Jekyll's horror of society and its suffocating grip on him leads him to seek escape in the most extreme case of split personality in horror fiction.
The British State seems very keen to persuade us that war with Russia is just around the corner. We get stories weekly about Russian disinformation campaigns, with no evidence provided; there's a story today about satellite jamming operations. We have constant Red scare type stories about Russia on the verge of invading western Europe at the same time they are supposedly losing in Ukraine.
What is going on? Where is all this coming from? It's getting very worrying.