[fanfic] Yoko Tsuno – mme Ishida & Monya – PG | Ma cousine Monya
Oct. 5th, 2026 05:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
malurette posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
glyficTitre : Ma cousine Monya
Auteur :malurette
Base : Yoko Tsuno, La spirale du temps
Personnages/Couple : Izumi Ishida/sa femme, Yoko, Monya
Genre : chara study?
Gradation : PG / K+
Légalité : propriété de Roger Leoup, je ne cherche ni à tirer profit ni à manquer de respect.
Thème : « Relative values: Families » pourladiesbingo
ok ok ça se serait mieux prêté à "adoption" mais j'avais commencé ce brouillon spontanément il y a quelques mois en espérant bien avoir une case où le coller une fois fini
Note : si quelqu'un peut me suggérer un prénom pour cette dame..?
Nombre de mots : ~1000
( Elle avait bien songé un peu, autrefois, à adopter une enfant, et décidé de ne pas le faire. Maintenant en revanche... )
Auteur :
maluretteBase : Yoko Tsuno, La spirale du temps
Personnages/Couple : Izumi Ishida/sa femme, Yoko, Monya
Genre : chara study?
Gradation : PG / K+
Légalité : propriété de Roger Leoup, je ne cherche ni à tirer profit ni à manquer de respect.
Thème : « Relative values: Families » pour
ladiesbingo Note : si quelqu'un peut me suggérer un prénom pour cette dame..?
Nombre de mots : ~1000
( Elle avait bien songé un peu, autrefois, à adopter une enfant, et décidé de ne pas le faire. Maintenant en revanche... )
Robert Harris: Agrippa
Oct. 5th, 2026 12:12 pmselenakAnother solidly researched historical novel by Robert Harris I failed to emotionally connect with, despite being the target audience. Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa has more than deserved his own novel, and Harris with his background knowledge not just of the era but of political machinations, and with his interest in engineering as evidenced by his first historical novel, Pompeij, was practically predestined to deliver on this. (In addition to being Octavian/Augustus' primary military man, Agrippa was also responsible for renovating or just plain building a lot of civic infrastructure of the Augustan age, from the Cloaka Maxima to various aecqueducts to the Pantheon.) I think my failure to be more than interested, and the sense of being vaguely dissatisfied with the overall result, is mostly me, but at least a little bit also him.
( The structual problem any complete take on Agrippa's life runs into and what Harris does about it )
( On Robert Harris making a weird naming choice for one of Agrippa's daughters )
( My girl Julia as presented in this novel )
So much about my problems with the novel. Now about the good and the "hm, don't know whether I'm for or against" stuff. In a podcast where Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins interviewed Robert Harris, they did confront him with their impression that his versions of Agrippa, Octavian and Maecenas were at least party inspired by Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson, he copped to it. While for the life of me I cannot see Augustus as Tony Blair or vice versa, the Gordon Brownesque Agrippa works amazingly well, work ethic, dour yet determined nature and unglamorous yet quintessential contribution to the system and all. (Mandelson as Maecenas is perhaps a bit unkind to Maecenas, but hey.) Harris has also a lot of fun with some Roman in jokes like Agrippa being a guest ad Maecenas' one time and being bored by the poet going on about the joys of the countryside (i.e. V'irgil), and a hilariously inspired idea to account for the contrast between the physical description of young Octavian as provided by the sources and the young Adonis depicted in the famous statues - in the later stages of the Civil War, at one of many points Occtavian was sick yet again yet it was quintessential that he showed himself to the public, so Maecenas had the brianwave of just drafting a good looking young bloke to pose as Octavian (since in that time and age, no one who didn't personally know him would have known what he looked like), and far from minding this, a recovering Octavian later decided this was a great idea and kept emplyoying this handsome doppelganger for public occasions and for his marble portraits.
Another great strength of this novel is that it comes across how truly brutal the Civil War was. Young Agrippa joins (Gaius Julius) Caesar for his last campaign in Spain, and those battles are absolutely terrifying and chilling to read. It really helps selling why later the Romans were so ready to accept the Principate - because there finally was an end to the Roman-against-Roman versions of these wars. And the novel is equally good at selling the reader on how unlikely the success of Octavian and Agrippa versus Antony and (both before and after) versus Brutus, Cassius & Co. originally was: essentially two adolescents armed with little more than the prestige Caesar's name by adoption gave Octavian and (some) of his cash versus men who had far more political and military experience and who were thus far more likely to win. The combination of young Octavian's innate strategic talent (political strategy, that is) which enabled him to sell himself as the better alternative (to Antony) to Cicero and the ruthlessness that enabled him to ditch Cicero the moment he didn't need him anymore combined with Agrippa's military and organisational greatness, and the way they get underestimated right until it's too late by practically everyone comes across brilliantly. (Extra kudos for the novel including Fulvia who is a villainess in Harris' Cicero trilogy as not a very sympathetic but a formidable power player in her own right here in the early sections. F'ulvia has had bad luck in most historical fiction, being treated as little more than a footnote pre Cleopatra and/or as simply an evil bitch matreating dead Cicero's head, if she shows up at all, with the sole exception I can think of being Steven Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa novels, where she's introduced in the novel dealing with her first husband's Clodius' death as a formidable power player and remains on the scene in the background in subsequent books.)
As to the "I don't know about this" part, that one is extremely spoilery for Harris' version only: ( Spoilers waver between Did we need that? and Okay, but if you make it this way, why then do you weasel out of the logical follow up? )
In conclusion: entertaiining, well researched, but not the novel I have been hoping for about Agrippa.
( The structual problem any complete take on Agrippa's life runs into and what Harris does about it )
( On Robert Harris making a weird naming choice for one of Agrippa's daughters )
( My girl Julia as presented in this novel )
So much about my problems with the novel. Now about the good and the "hm, don't know whether I'm for or against" stuff. In a podcast where Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins interviewed Robert Harris, they did confront him with their impression that his versions of Agrippa, Octavian and Maecenas were at least party inspired by Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson, he copped to it. While for the life of me I cannot see Augustus as Tony Blair or vice versa, the Gordon Brownesque Agrippa works amazingly well, work ethic, dour yet determined nature and unglamorous yet quintessential contribution to the system and all. (Mandelson as Maecenas is perhaps a bit unkind to Maecenas, but hey.) Harris has also a lot of fun with some Roman in jokes like Agrippa being a guest ad Maecenas' one time and being bored by the poet going on about the joys of the countryside (i.e. V'irgil), and a hilariously inspired idea to account for the contrast between the physical description of young Octavian as provided by the sources and the young Adonis depicted in the famous statues - in the later stages of the Civil War, at one of many points Occtavian was sick yet again yet it was quintessential that he showed himself to the public, so Maecenas had the brianwave of just drafting a good looking young bloke to pose as Octavian (since in that time and age, no one who didn't personally know him would have known what he looked like), and far from minding this, a recovering Octavian later decided this was a great idea and kept emplyoying this handsome doppelganger for public occasions and for his marble portraits.
Another great strength of this novel is that it comes across how truly brutal the Civil War was. Young Agrippa joins (Gaius Julius) Caesar for his last campaign in Spain, and those battles are absolutely terrifying and chilling to read. It really helps selling why later the Romans were so ready to accept the Principate - because there finally was an end to the Roman-against-Roman versions of these wars. And the novel is equally good at selling the reader on how unlikely the success of Octavian and Agrippa versus Antony and (both before and after) versus Brutus, Cassius & Co. originally was: essentially two adolescents armed with little more than the prestige Caesar's name by adoption gave Octavian and (some) of his cash versus men who had far more political and military experience and who were thus far more likely to win. The combination of young Octavian's innate strategic talent (political strategy, that is) which enabled him to sell himself as the better alternative (to Antony) to Cicero and the ruthlessness that enabled him to ditch Cicero the moment he didn't need him anymore combined with Agrippa's military and organisational greatness, and the way they get underestimated right until it's too late by practically everyone comes across brilliantly. (Extra kudos for the novel including Fulvia who is a villainess in Harris' Cicero trilogy as not a very sympathetic but a formidable power player in her own right here in the early sections. F'ulvia has had bad luck in most historical fiction, being treated as little more than a footnote pre Cleopatra and/or as simply an evil bitch matreating dead Cicero's head, if she shows up at all, with the sole exception I can think of being Steven Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa novels, where she's introduced in the novel dealing with her first husband's Clodius' death as a formidable power player and remains on the scene in the background in subsequent books.)
As to the "I don't know about this" part, that one is extremely spoilery for Harris' version only: ( Spoilers waver between Did we need that? and Okay, but if you make it this way, why then do you weasel out of the logical follow up? )
In conclusion: entertaiining, well researched, but not the novel I have been hoping for about Agrippa.
(no subject)
Oct. 4th, 2026 09:37 pmsnickficRegal is once again showing a horror movie a day for October. I managed to watch NONE of them last year, but maybe this year! To be determined! Full list is here, if anyone else is interested.
Here are the ones I'm most interested in:
• Saturday, October 10th - Pet Sematary
• Sunday, October 11th - Drag Me to Hell
• Friday, October 16 - Candyman (2021)
• Monday, October 19 - The Blob (1988)
• Thursday, October 29 - Christine
Bonus, that's 2/5 female directors. (Mary Lambert for Pet Sematary and Nia DaCosta for Candyman.)
Also there's Ginger Snaps on the 13th, separately. I didn't love it, wouldn't mind a rewatch, but is the custom Fangoria patch enough to get me there?
Here are the ones I'm most interested in:
• Saturday, October 10th - Pet Sematary
• Sunday, October 11th - Drag Me to Hell
• Friday, October 16 - Candyman (2021)
• Monday, October 19 - The Blob (1988)
• Thursday, October 29 - Christine
Bonus, that's 2/5 female directors. (Mary Lambert for Pet Sematary and Nia DaCosta for Candyman.)
Also there's Ginger Snaps on the 13th, separately. I didn't love it, wouldn't mind a rewatch, but is the custom Fangoria patch enough to get me there?
The Best Book You’ve Never Read? Mary Shelley’s Lodore
Oct. 4th, 2026 08:37 pmlabingiLodore is a Romantic novel by Mary Shelley published in 1833. It concerns the fortunes and interpersonal relationships of the family of Lord Lodore, and is divided into three volumes, the first focusing on the life of Lodore himself; the second on his daughter, Ethel; and the third (I’d argue) on his wife, Cornelia, though Ethel is still important.
As a fan of Mary Shelley, I bought this book out of curiosity, thinking it might give me some insight into Mary’s post-Percy life. It does, but, to my pleasant surprise, I also found it utterly engrossing on its own merits. I would describe its main theme as the way that miscommunication, lack of communication, and personal bias can create huge, damaging rifts, and how a broadened perspective can sometimes rapidly mend them.
Now that I’ve oversold it, some caveats. The writing style is very old fashioned, definitely pre-Victorian. In addition to the older prose, it has a narrative technique that strongly prioritizes “telling” over “showing.” It may well have more paragraphs discoursing on people’s psyches than it has actual scenes of people doing and saying things. Often, it reads more like a modern fan essay on characters from a beloved story than the story itself. (But I like that kind of fan essay, so it worked for me!)
The writing style aside, the content has two signal strengths. 1) It is deeply psychologically insightful. 2) Despite what some critics have said, it is strongly feminist. It is, however, feminist in quiet, personal way. It depicts female characters as complex and fully human as the male characters. It often centers women’s experience and relationships with each other. It refuses to confine itself to the usual domain of the 19th-century “woman’s” novel: how the girl won the man (or died). It involves some of this, but it’s mostly concerned with people’s lives after marriage. It also does some incisive “showing” and “telling” about the disempowerment of women; it’s just not polemical about it. The point of the book is to examine human lives, and unfair trials loaded on women, in particular, are a piece of that. Make no mistake, though: this is truly a book by Mary Wollstonecraft’s daughter.
Lodore has been called Shelley’s most Jane Austen-like book, but, in truth, it makes me think more of Oscar Wilde. To be clear, Shelley and Wilde have utterly different styles: where Wilde is witty, Shelley is invariably earnest. (For a modern reader, however, there is some unintentional hilarity, like "A smile irradiated her face.”) But both Wilde and Shelley are concerned with the exacting and shallow expectations of “society” and how the superficiality of "reputation" can damage relationships and hollow out people’s better selves.
Light Spoilers Follow:( Read more... )
As a fan of Mary Shelley, I bought this book out of curiosity, thinking it might give me some insight into Mary’s post-Percy life. It does, but, to my pleasant surprise, I also found it utterly engrossing on its own merits. I would describe its main theme as the way that miscommunication, lack of communication, and personal bias can create huge, damaging rifts, and how a broadened perspective can sometimes rapidly mend them.
Now that I’ve oversold it, some caveats. The writing style is very old fashioned, definitely pre-Victorian. In addition to the older prose, it has a narrative technique that strongly prioritizes “telling” over “showing.” It may well have more paragraphs discoursing on people’s psyches than it has actual scenes of people doing and saying things. Often, it reads more like a modern fan essay on characters from a beloved story than the story itself. (But I like that kind of fan essay, so it worked for me!)
The writing style aside, the content has two signal strengths. 1) It is deeply psychologically insightful. 2) Despite what some critics have said, it is strongly feminist. It is, however, feminist in quiet, personal way. It depicts female characters as complex and fully human as the male characters. It often centers women’s experience and relationships with each other. It refuses to confine itself to the usual domain of the 19th-century “woman’s” novel: how the girl won the man (or died). It involves some of this, but it’s mostly concerned with people’s lives after marriage. It also does some incisive “showing” and “telling” about the disempowerment of women; it’s just not polemical about it. The point of the book is to examine human lives, and unfair trials loaded on women, in particular, are a piece of that. Make no mistake, though: this is truly a book by Mary Wollstonecraft’s daughter.
Lodore has been called Shelley’s most Jane Austen-like book, but, in truth, it makes me think more of Oscar Wilde. To be clear, Shelley and Wilde have utterly different styles: where Wilde is witty, Shelley is invariably earnest. (For a modern reader, however, there is some unintentional hilarity, like "A smile irradiated her face.”) But both Wilde and Shelley are concerned with the exacting and shallow expectations of “society” and how the superficiality of "reputation" can damage relationships and hollow out people’s better selves.
Light Spoilers Follow:( Read more... )
just one thing in my way [Riddick | Riddick/Boss Johns]
Oct. 4th, 2026 01:00 pmjedibuttercup posting in iddyiddybangbangTitle: just one thing in my way
Author:jedibuttercup
Fandom: The Chronicles of Riddick series
Pairing: Riddick/Boss Johns
Word Count: 11,400
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings
Summary: Riddick didn't understand why a man like Johns, with the history they had between them, would offer him any chance at all. But what he did know was that no part of him felt trapped or bored anymore. He wanted to see how it all played out. Wanted to see just how much more he could get a certain merc to bend.
Link to: just one thing in my way (at AO3, or on DW)
Author:
jedibuttercupFandom: The Chronicles of Riddick series
Pairing: Riddick/Boss Johns
Word Count: 11,400
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings
Summary: Riddick didn't understand why a man like Johns, with the history they had between them, would offer him any chance at all. But what he did know was that no part of him felt trapped or bored anymore. He wanted to see how it all played out. Wanted to see just how much more he could get a certain merc to bend.
Link to: just one thing in my way (at AO3, or on DW)
movies: Hope, Resident Evil, Creepshow, In a Violent Nature
Oct. 4th, 2026 12:57 pmsnickficStill working through that backlog!! All I have left after these are the two I saw yesterday + the Oasis doc.
Hope (2026). A Korean movie about a small town near the border with North Korea disrupted by the appearance of very large, strong, and freaky alien monsters.
This is the purest sci-fi action monster movie I've seen in a long time. It kept reminding me of Independence Day, but this is a much smaller-scale movie, concerned entirely with this one town and its cast of residents, police officers, and local hicks toting illegal rifles. We spend the first forty minutes or so of the 160-minute runtime (oof) just chasing down the first monster, which is crashing through every building in town and entirely unfazed by a few bullets. The action is intense, breakneck, and generally well directed IMO.
This movie is doing a lot of things, and I'm not sure I totally understand all of them. I would love to hear from Korean folks or people more versed in Korean culture on some of them. There's the whole "redneck hunters as heroes" thing, which feels like it's borrowed from and/or maybe commenting on that same character type in American movies, as is the running joke about all these people using guns they should have no access to. There's the tone, which tends towards comedic in way that kept throwing me off guard, like the female police officer who responds to threats and conflict with a lot of OTT yelling like an anime character, or the whole sequence where our main policeman accidentally shoots a civilian, perhaps fatally, and then he and the guy he's hunting with argue about whose fault it was.
There's the fact that the aliens, when we properly encounter them, are all voiced and modeled on non-Asian actors like Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander. This probably is thematically related to the repeated theme early on in the film of signs and messaging around town warning people to watch for spies and invaders (from North Korea, I assume). And then, of course, there's the fact that ( big spoilers ) Also the fact that one of the last lines of the movie is (or at least was translated for English audiences as) a quote by an alien from the book of Hebrews about how hope is "the evidence of things not seen." What????
As mentioned, this movie is long, and while it kept things going at a steady clip throughout, it could definitely have been shorter. The characters are all very thin, and in a movie this long, it really feels like you should be able to give them at least some quirks that make them feel more real, even if you skip the Hollywoodesque sentimental backstory.
However, the movie's biggest weakness by far is the CG on the aliens. The designs are mostly okay, if a bit uncanny valley in places, but once they're in motion, OOF. Just awful. There's a point where one of them has had her leg literally blown off, and she's supposedly running on three limbs, but it's clear they just made the fourth one invisible because she's still moving like she has four. Brutal.
All that said, overall I had a good time and am glad I got to see it. I enjoyed the rural Korean setting, and a lot of the action set-pieces were top notch. If you want a big humans vs alien action movie, I recommend it.
-
Resident Evil (2026). Medical courier Bryan just found out his girlfriend is pregnant, and now before he can go home and work through that revelation with her, he has one last delivery to make to the isolated burg of Raccoon City.
This is the latest outing from Zach Cregger, director of Barbarian and Weapons, his first (and according to him, last) time tackling an existing IP. I had no interest in this when I first heard about it, but the trailer looked good and the reviews were stellar, so there I was on opening weekend.
I saw someone describe this as "empty calories" compared to Cregger's other movies, because those both have a LOT to chew on thematically, and this is kind of just a survival horror movie where the chances of survival keep getting worse and worse (inevitably, if you know even the basic premise of the game). And I do get that, but on the other hand: this is so much fun. If you want a survival horror romp, this is the movie for you.
The key is our main character Bryan, who's kind of a dumbass but so good-hearted. His survival instincts are extremely poor, but his impulse to help literally everyone he meets really drives the movie and makes the climax even more bitterly ironic. Austin Abrams plays him with so much charm and a ton of humor. Cregger's been quoted that after test audience feedback, he took out most of the jokes, which is really saying something because this movie still has many funny moments.
I will say it's wild to me that between this and Exit 8 I have now seen TWO video game adaptations this year that open with guys on the phone finding out their girlfriends are pregnant and then spending the whole movie working through that. In both cases the main characters are new ones created for the film, too. What's up with that.
Anyway, Cregger got asked to make a Resident Evil movie and he responded by creating an entirely standalone, canon-compliant story about his OC, and I respect that. I'm told it's also a real love letter to the franchise, with a lot of intention going into making it "feel" like a playing the games, which I can't comment on but certainly appreciate the spirit of.
On a personal level, I got very excited when Kali Reis (True Detective: Night Country) showed up for five minutes. I had no idea she was in it.
Overall: if you just want a fun ride for horror definitions thereof, I definitely recommend this.
-
Creepshow (1982). An anthology film written by Stephen King riffing on shlock horror comics from the 50s and including segments starring Leslie Nielsen, Ted Danson, and most memorably (IMO) King himself.
The motto of this movie is "it ain't over until we see some gnarly SFX prosthetics." The longest segment and the one that worked best for me is the one where Leslie Nielsen responds to his wife cheating on him by burying both her and the other man (Ted Danson) up their necks in sand and letting the tide drown them, which was all very effective and tense, not least because Nielsen is so terrifyingly affable about it all… and then the story kept going for another ten minutes because again, no crazy makeup prosthetics yet! Can't have that!
That said, the segment that's really going to stick with me is Stephen King playing a dumbass hick who gets infected by a glowing meteor, because the acting here is really, uh, it's something. I got onto the horror discord and was like WHAT IS HAPPENING. TO ME. Even having read this, I promise, you are not prepared for what you will experience if you watch this.
The other memorable segment defies the prosthetics motto, because it is instead about an evil Scrooge type terrified of germs and bugs whose clean room apartment has become infested with cockroaches, and friends, those sure are hundreds and hundreds of real live cockroaches on that set. Once you have them on set, I feel the key question is HOW DO YOU REMOVE THEM. Also, are there PETA guidelines for working with live insects? Many questions.
The other thing that struck me about the whole movie was how few women there were. On average I'd say King is really good with female characters, but here the only one who gets significant screentime is Adrienne Barbeau as an over the top drunken harridan who finally drives her husband to murder. It hit me when I was rewatching Insidious around the same time how nice it was to have multiple major female characters over the age of 50, and this has at least four or five men over that age and one female character total. Boo.
--
In a Violent Nature (2023). Some campers disturb a locket left at a fire tower, thus raising the violent undead spirit of a man killed there years earlier.
I've seen this described as a meta slasher. It is pure essence of slasher to an almost meditative degree; there's a lot of following Johnny from behind as he tromps through the forest. The sound design does a LOT of work here, because there isn't all that much dialogue.
There are some memorable kills here, all executed (heh) with a kind of plodding deadpan. Johnny is not angry or acting out of emotion; he simply is. The most memorable is what I will call the yoga kill (iykyk), but I think the one that worked the best for me is probably the one with the log splitter. If you're going to set a slasher at a defunct logging camp, gotta have a log splitter kill! And the grinding inevitability of the framing really works for that one in particular.
I also appreciated that the campers who run off to hook up and get picked off are two women this time.
I told someone going in that I expected to either love this or DNF it, but in fact I finished while feeling very little about it at all. In terms of meditative, dialogue-free horror, it turns out I'm much more into something like the maximalism of Mad God than this.
Hope (2026). A Korean movie about a small town near the border with North Korea disrupted by the appearance of very large, strong, and freaky alien monsters.
This is the purest sci-fi action monster movie I've seen in a long time. It kept reminding me of Independence Day, but this is a much smaller-scale movie, concerned entirely with this one town and its cast of residents, police officers, and local hicks toting illegal rifles. We spend the first forty minutes or so of the 160-minute runtime (oof) just chasing down the first monster, which is crashing through every building in town and entirely unfazed by a few bullets. The action is intense, breakneck, and generally well directed IMO.
This movie is doing a lot of things, and I'm not sure I totally understand all of them. I would love to hear from Korean folks or people more versed in Korean culture on some of them. There's the whole "redneck hunters as heroes" thing, which feels like it's borrowed from and/or maybe commenting on that same character type in American movies, as is the running joke about all these people using guns they should have no access to. There's the tone, which tends towards comedic in way that kept throwing me off guard, like the female police officer who responds to threats and conflict with a lot of OTT yelling like an anime character, or the whole sequence where our main policeman accidentally shoots a civilian, perhaps fatally, and then he and the guy he's hunting with argue about whose fault it was.
There's the fact that the aliens, when we properly encounter them, are all voiced and modeled on non-Asian actors like Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander. This probably is thematically related to the repeated theme early on in the film of signs and messaging around town warning people to watch for spies and invaders (from North Korea, I assume). And then, of course, there's the fact that ( big spoilers ) Also the fact that one of the last lines of the movie is (or at least was translated for English audiences as) a quote by an alien from the book of Hebrews about how hope is "the evidence of things not seen." What????
As mentioned, this movie is long, and while it kept things going at a steady clip throughout, it could definitely have been shorter. The characters are all very thin, and in a movie this long, it really feels like you should be able to give them at least some quirks that make them feel more real, even if you skip the Hollywoodesque sentimental backstory.
However, the movie's biggest weakness by far is the CG on the aliens. The designs are mostly okay, if a bit uncanny valley in places, but once they're in motion, OOF. Just awful. There's a point where one of them has had her leg literally blown off, and she's supposedly running on three limbs, but it's clear they just made the fourth one invisible because she's still moving like she has four. Brutal.
All that said, overall I had a good time and am glad I got to see it. I enjoyed the rural Korean setting, and a lot of the action set-pieces were top notch. If you want a big humans vs alien action movie, I recommend it.
-
Resident Evil (2026). Medical courier Bryan just found out his girlfriend is pregnant, and now before he can go home and work through that revelation with her, he has one last delivery to make to the isolated burg of Raccoon City.
This is the latest outing from Zach Cregger, director of Barbarian and Weapons, his first (and according to him, last) time tackling an existing IP. I had no interest in this when I first heard about it, but the trailer looked good and the reviews were stellar, so there I was on opening weekend.
I saw someone describe this as "empty calories" compared to Cregger's other movies, because those both have a LOT to chew on thematically, and this is kind of just a survival horror movie where the chances of survival keep getting worse and worse (inevitably, if you know even the basic premise of the game). And I do get that, but on the other hand: this is so much fun. If you want a survival horror romp, this is the movie for you.
The key is our main character Bryan, who's kind of a dumbass but so good-hearted. His survival instincts are extremely poor, but his impulse to help literally everyone he meets really drives the movie and makes the climax even more bitterly ironic. Austin Abrams plays him with so much charm and a ton of humor. Cregger's been quoted that after test audience feedback, he took out most of the jokes, which is really saying something because this movie still has many funny moments.
I will say it's wild to me that between this and Exit 8 I have now seen TWO video game adaptations this year that open with guys on the phone finding out their girlfriends are pregnant and then spending the whole movie working through that. In both cases the main characters are new ones created for the film, too. What's up with that.
Anyway, Cregger got asked to make a Resident Evil movie and he responded by creating an entirely standalone, canon-compliant story about his OC, and I respect that. I'm told it's also a real love letter to the franchise, with a lot of intention going into making it "feel" like a playing the games, which I can't comment on but certainly appreciate the spirit of.
On a personal level, I got very excited when Kali Reis (True Detective: Night Country) showed up for five minutes. I had no idea she was in it.
Overall: if you just want a fun ride for horror definitions thereof, I definitely recommend this.
-
Creepshow (1982). An anthology film written by Stephen King riffing on shlock horror comics from the 50s and including segments starring Leslie Nielsen, Ted Danson, and most memorably (IMO) King himself.
The motto of this movie is "it ain't over until we see some gnarly SFX prosthetics." The longest segment and the one that worked best for me is the one where Leslie Nielsen responds to his wife cheating on him by burying both her and the other man (Ted Danson) up their necks in sand and letting the tide drown them, which was all very effective and tense, not least because Nielsen is so terrifyingly affable about it all… and then the story kept going for another ten minutes because again, no crazy makeup prosthetics yet! Can't have that!
That said, the segment that's really going to stick with me is Stephen King playing a dumbass hick who gets infected by a glowing meteor, because the acting here is really, uh, it's something. I got onto the horror discord and was like WHAT IS HAPPENING. TO ME. Even having read this, I promise, you are not prepared for what you will experience if you watch this.
The other memorable segment defies the prosthetics motto, because it is instead about an evil Scrooge type terrified of germs and bugs whose clean room apartment has become infested with cockroaches, and friends, those sure are hundreds and hundreds of real live cockroaches on that set. Once you have them on set, I feel the key question is HOW DO YOU REMOVE THEM. Also, are there PETA guidelines for working with live insects? Many questions.
The other thing that struck me about the whole movie was how few women there were. On average I'd say King is really good with female characters, but here the only one who gets significant screentime is Adrienne Barbeau as an over the top drunken harridan who finally drives her husband to murder. It hit me when I was rewatching Insidious around the same time how nice it was to have multiple major female characters over the age of 50, and this has at least four or five men over that age and one female character total. Boo.
--
In a Violent Nature (2023). Some campers disturb a locket left at a fire tower, thus raising the violent undead spirit of a man killed there years earlier.
I've seen this described as a meta slasher. It is pure essence of slasher to an almost meditative degree; there's a lot of following Johnny from behind as he tromps through the forest. The sound design does a LOT of work here, because there isn't all that much dialogue.
There are some memorable kills here, all executed (heh) with a kind of plodding deadpan. Johnny is not angry or acting out of emotion; he simply is. The most memorable is what I will call the yoga kill (iykyk), but I think the one that worked the best for me is probably the one with the log splitter. If you're going to set a slasher at a defunct logging camp, gotta have a log splitter kill! And the grinding inevitability of the framing really works for that one in particular.
I also appreciated that the campers who run off to hook up and get picked off are two women this time.
I told someone going in that I expected to either love this or DNF it, but in fact I finished while feeling very little about it at all. In terms of meditative, dialogue-free horror, it turns out I'm much more into something like the maximalism of Mad God than this.
(no subject)
Oct. 4th, 2026 08:51 pmshadowhiveSpooky Season Day 3
Games - Dreamlight, Fortnite
Again these were both just doing random stuff, more enjoying the themeing of both than doing more spooky,
Shudder - Infirmary (new to me)
The description from shudder: Recovered bodycam footage reveals a security guard's first night inside an abandoned hospital, where disturbing incidents and a sinister intruder send his shift spiraling out of control.
As this is a new release (only being added to shudder Friday) further thoughts are under the cut.
( Read more... )
I also had some spooky streams on, but it was more to listen to than watch as my focus was pretty off.
***
Not much else to ramble about though last night when I went to bed something unusual happened.
I’d just gone up and got in bed, pulling the covers over me. Naryu was curled at the end of the bed (I say curled it’s more stretched out). I’d just settled in and I felt movement on the bed, though it wasn’t Naryu. I expected it to be Leia so I reached an arm out (expecting to feel soft fur or her to zoom off) but it wasn’t.
Instead I felt Midna! She never comes up on my bed at nighttime so it was so strange. Not only that but she wanted to come under the covers, bumping her lil head against me and wanting head rubs while purring loudly. It was so sweet but so strange. 🖤 she stayed on my chest for a bit until she wandered off.
Today’s been uneventful really. I did finish Benidorm is Murder (odd way to end the series), then Taskmaster catch up (pretty fun especially the hiding thing) and now I’m watching Celebrity Pottery Throw Down. Tonight I’m gonna watch something spooky but I’m not sure if it’ll be a film or just an ep of Tales From 85 (and I wanna try fic too)
Tomorrow is gonna be the trip to see Hope which is good cause it means I’m avoiding mums friend coming (cause Hope’s first showing is 11:30, so I have to leave at about 10:30-10:45.
Games - Dreamlight, Fortnite
Again these were both just doing random stuff, more enjoying the themeing of both than doing more spooky,
Shudder - Infirmary (new to me)
The description from shudder: Recovered bodycam footage reveals a security guard's first night inside an abandoned hospital, where disturbing incidents and a sinister intruder send his shift spiraling out of control.
As this is a new release (only being added to shudder Friday) further thoughts are under the cut.
( Read more... )
I also had some spooky streams on, but it was more to listen to than watch as my focus was pretty off.
***
Not much else to ramble about though last night when I went to bed something unusual happened.
I’d just gone up and got in bed, pulling the covers over me. Naryu was curled at the end of the bed (I say curled it’s more stretched out). I’d just settled in and I felt movement on the bed, though it wasn’t Naryu. I expected it to be Leia so I reached an arm out (expecting to feel soft fur or her to zoom off) but it wasn’t.
Instead I felt Midna! She never comes up on my bed at nighttime so it was so strange. Not only that but she wanted to come under the covers, bumping her lil head against me and wanting head rubs while purring loudly. It was so sweet but so strange. 🖤 she stayed on my chest for a bit until she wandered off.
Today’s been uneventful really. I did finish Benidorm is Murder (odd way to end the series), then Taskmaster catch up (pretty fun especially the hiding thing) and now I’m watching Celebrity Pottery Throw Down. Tonight I’m gonna watch something spooky but I’m not sure if it’ll be a film or just an ep of Tales From 85 (and I wanna try fic too)
Tomorrow is gonna be the trip to see Hope which is good cause it means I’m avoiding mums friend coming (cause Hope’s first showing is 11:30, so I have to leave at about 10:30-10:45.
Brief Update
Oct. 4th, 2026 11:57 ammarthawellsI got the surgery a couple weeks ago and it went great, but it's been a really painful process, even with painkillers, etc.
The surgeon gave me options for what kind of anathesia and I opted for the nerve block on my arm and a lighter anathesia so I could sleep through the surgery, which I think was the best way to go. Apparently without the nerve block you have to have deeper anasthesia to keep from waking up during the surgery because it hurts so much.
Getting the nerve block was interesting in that it didn't hurt, but that was because before they started they gave me the drugs they give people on The Pitt when they can't stop screaming. Which sort of implied that I would have been screaming if I got it without medication.
I'm still typing one-handed but gradually getting movement back in my fingers.
ETA And I won the Ember Award yesterday, which really blew me away.
https://bsky.app/profile/theignyteawards.bsky.social/post/3mwycfv6wz22o
The surgeon gave me options for what kind of anathesia and I opted for the nerve block on my arm and a lighter anathesia so I could sleep through the surgery, which I think was the best way to go. Apparently without the nerve block you have to have deeper anasthesia to keep from waking up during the surgery because it hurts so much.
Getting the nerve block was interesting in that it didn't hurt, but that was because before they started they gave me the drugs they give people on The Pitt when they can't stop screaming. Which sort of implied that I would have been screaming if I got it without medication.
I'm still typing one-handed but gradually getting movement back in my fingers.
ETA And I won the Ember Award yesterday, which really blew me away.
https://bsky.app/profile/theignyteawards.bsky.social/post/3mwycfv6wz22o
Marvel Dimensions
Oct. 4th, 2026 09:16 amsuperboyprime posting in scans_daily
'The cues are all there in the story. And there's a whole subtext to my book that I've been warned directly, "Do not directly tell people what it is."' - Alex Ross
'In some ways, there's overtones that are very peaked, and that's one of the reasons I was warned, "Don't go into all this. Don't explain to people what you were thinking because then you're going to piss off somebody," and eventually there are enough things in here to get one cancelled over.' - Alex Ross
( Read more... )
Fandom 50 S4 Post 35: All abt doggies and kitties getting bathed and brushed.
Oct. 4th, 2026 12:56 pmglitteryvNGL, I have ZERO idea of how I stumbled upon one of Vanessa's videos. She's a pet groomer from Cananda whose channel (Girl with the Dogs 2) is jam-packed with lots of videos of her handling all kinds of dogs and cats. The majority of the grooming is done for free AND on animals that have been turned away from other places due to being difficult.
I find her videos extreeemely soothing to watch, occasionally funny, and almost always v. touching. Particularly for the toughest (or saddest) cases of neglected pets. NB: the neglect is almost always due to major reasons (owner had health issues and couldn't bathe their dog OR the animal's a rescue). Here are three of the videos I've enjoyed the most.
Staring with Magic, who is a void that's the cat representation of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ in terms of getting brushed, bathed, and blow-dried. His whole vibe, but especially his eyes, made me LOL for realsies.
Ace is a gremlin of a dog that's part of Vanessa's pets (IIRC, she's got 2 cats and 5 dogs?). He's approximately 14 years old and not happy abt the whole grooming process. I love how Vanessa talks to him AND abt him. NB: At one point in the video, she does mention that she's become more and more aware of him aging and a bit abt pet mortality. I can see how that might be a tender point for some ppl. Therefore, the heads up.
Tonka is malamute (not a husky as Vanessa refers to--she posted a note on the replies to this video to correct herself) that has A LOT OF FUR. As in, enough to make a sweater and maybe two pairs of socks?
This happens to be the first of Vanessa's videos I ever saw and it's, for obvious reasons, an incredibly memorable one. SO MUCH FUR, OMG. It's also one of the longest at 41 mins. Though I have to point out that, according to Vanessa, the entire process took close to 4 hrs and change PLUS an additional 2 and a half hours to clean up her shop. O__o
NB: Tonka is a super vocal dog. He whines and makes all kinds of "OUCH, I'm in PAAAAAAAIN!" type of noises from beginning to end. As someone who has watched many, many of Vanessa's videos, I can say that she's NOT hurting him. If anything, she takes extra care to avoid causing him ANY type of harm. It just happens that Tonka IS a v. DRAMATIQUE dog.
I've opted to include this whole note in case hearing a dog making sounds of (v. obviously faked) distress upsets anyone. Again, Vanessa knows how to handle all types of nervous, anxious, 'problematic' kinds of dogs and cats. She'd be the LAST person to treat them roughly or whanot. (I feel the need to emphasize that because of Tonka's non-stop noise.)
FWIW, I have to admit that I did watched this video with lower volume and made sure the CC were on because Tonka's OPERATIC WHINING got to me at the 50% mark. YMMV.
I find her videos extreeemely soothing to watch, occasionally funny, and almost always v. touching. Particularly for the toughest (or saddest) cases of neglected pets. NB: the neglect is almost always due to major reasons (owner had health issues and couldn't bathe their dog OR the animal's a rescue). Here are three of the videos I've enjoyed the most.
Staring with Magic, who is a void that's the cat representation of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ in terms of getting brushed, bathed, and blow-dried. His whole vibe, but especially his eyes, made me LOL for realsies.
Ace is a gremlin of a dog that's part of Vanessa's pets (IIRC, she's got 2 cats and 5 dogs?). He's approximately 14 years old and not happy abt the whole grooming process. I love how Vanessa talks to him AND abt him. NB: At one point in the video, she does mention that she's become more and more aware of him aging and a bit abt pet mortality. I can see how that might be a tender point for some ppl. Therefore, the heads up.
Tonka is malamute (not a husky as Vanessa refers to--she posted a note on the replies to this video to correct herself) that has A LOT OF FUR. As in, enough to make a sweater and maybe two pairs of socks?
This happens to be the first of Vanessa's videos I ever saw and it's, for obvious reasons, an incredibly memorable one. SO MUCH FUR, OMG. It's also one of the longest at 41 mins. Though I have to point out that, according to Vanessa, the entire process took close to 4 hrs and change PLUS an additional 2 and a half hours to clean up her shop. O__o
NB: Tonka is a super vocal dog. He whines and makes all kinds of "OUCH, I'm in PAAAAAAAIN!" type of noises from beginning to end. As someone who has watched many, many of Vanessa's videos, I can say that she's NOT hurting him. If anything, she takes extra care to avoid causing him ANY type of harm. It just happens that Tonka IS a v. DRAMATIQUE dog.
I've opted to include this whole note in case hearing a dog making sounds of (v. obviously faked) distress upsets anyone. Again, Vanessa knows how to handle all types of nervous, anxious, 'problematic' kinds of dogs and cats. She'd be the LAST person to treat them roughly or whanot. (I feel the need to emphasize that because of Tonka's non-stop noise.)
FWIW, I have to admit that I did watched this video with lower volume and made sure the CC were on because Tonka's OPERATIC WHINING got to me at the 50% mark. YMMV.
[doodle] Seuls/Soda – Leïla & Linda – PG | Arrange-moi cette posture
Oct. 4th, 2026 05:52 pmmalurette posting in glyficTitre : Arrange-moi cette posture
Auteur :![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
maluron
Bases : Seul & SoDa
Personnages : Leïla et Linda Tchaikowsky
Gradation : PG / K+
Légalité : propriété de Tome, Velhman et Gazotti ; je ne cherche pas à me faire de sous avec.
(yay même dessinateur !)
Prompt : c'est la faute autournoi-des-femmes-de-vos-vies ♥
( C'est toujours pas ça qui le fera aimer tirer. )T
Auteur :
Bases : Seul & SoDa
Personnages : Leïla et Linda Tchaikowsky
Gradation : PG / K+
Légalité : propriété de Tome, Velhman et Gazotti ; je ne cherche pas à me faire de sous avec.
(yay même dessinateur !)
Prompt : c'est la faute au
( C'est toujours pas ça qui le fera aimer tirer. )T
The Mercy Makers by Tessa Gratton
Oct. 4th, 2026 05:30 pmprofiterole_readsIn The Mercy Makers by Tessa Gratton (Strange Grace, Night Shine), apostate Iriset tries to save her father from the Empire by using human architecture (= by using magic on the human body).
The first half of this novel was a masterpiece. Then, the author did the unforgivable, and I disliked most of the second half, even though the writing style was wonderful and the magic system was absolutely fascinating.
Iriset is bisexual and there's major m/f. Names include a particle to specify the person's gender. Two minor characters are enby (an/an/ans and it/it/its) and another one is a trans woman.
The first half of this novel was a masterpiece. Then, the author did the unforgivable, and I disliked most of the second half, even though the writing style was wonderful and the magic system was absolutely fascinating.
Iriset is bisexual and there's major m/f. Names include a particle to specify the person's gender. Two minor characters are enby (an/an/ans and it/it/its) and another one is a trans woman.
(no subject)
Oct. 4th, 2026 03:40 pmmichifuguI just finished watching Chiikawa movie on my local cinema.
I think it was fun movies, but people exaggerated it darker element.
Like it's not that dark or edgy. It's mild at best
the darker undertones in Chiikawa movie is akin to classic children stories / folklore.
It's still lighthearted movie at the end of day.
I think it was fun movies, but people exaggerated it darker element.
Like it's not that dark or edgy. It's mild at best
the darker undertones in Chiikawa movie is akin to classic children stories / folklore.
It's still lighthearted movie at the end of day.
Prisoner Route (Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy)
Oct. 4th, 2026 03:02 amiddybangmod posting in iddyiddybangbangTitle: Prisoner Route
Author: Anonymous
Fandom: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
Word Count: 7.8K
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings, Canon-Typical Violence, Death, Dehumanization, Mental Coercion, Getting Stitches without Anaesthetic, Rape/Non-Con, Bad Ending
Summary: Takumi gets captured and taken to the enemy base, and for some reason is not immediately killed.
OR: It's kinda like Route 0/First Scenario but instead of the SDU taking someone prisoner, Takumi is captured by V'ehxness' army when invading their base, leading to massive canon divergence.
Author: Anonymous
Fandom: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
Word Count: 7.8K
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings, Canon-Typical Violence, Death, Dehumanization, Mental Coercion, Getting Stitches without Anaesthetic, Rape/Non-Con, Bad Ending
Summary: Takumi gets captured and taken to the enemy base, and for some reason is not immediately killed.
OR: It's kinda like Route 0/First Scenario but instead of the SDU taking someone prisoner, Takumi is captured by V'ehxness' army when invading their base, leading to massive canon divergence.