gytrash

joined 7 months ago
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Police and private companies in the UK are increasingly using facial recognition technology to monitor, categorise and track us. The technology works by creating a 'faceprint' of everyone who passes in front of camera — processing biometric data as sensitive as a fingerprint, often without our knowledge or consent. This dangerously authoritarian surveillance is a threat to our privacy and freedoms — it has no place on the streets of Britain.

We've just launched legal action against police and shops' use of live facial recognition surveillance.

We’re crowdfunding to grow the biggest possible campaign of resistance to an unprecedented Government and retail expansion of facial recognition surveillance in the UK. With your support, we can:

  • Take groundbreaking legal action against police and shops' use of facial recognition

  • Demand politicians roll back live facial recognition

  • Give legal advice & support to people affected by live facial recognition

  • Work with groups around the world fighting live facial recognition surveillance...

 

The wealth of the 10 richest people in the world – a list dominated by US tech billionaires – increased by a record amount after Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, according to a widely cited index.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated that the world’s 10 wealthiest people gained nearly $64bn (about £49.5bn) on Wednesday, the largest daily increase since the index began in 2012.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, registered the largest increase with a $26.5bn addition to his fortune, which now stands at $290bn. The prominent backer of Trump’s campaign, benefited from a surge in the share price of Tesla, the electric carmaker where he is chief executive and in which he owns a 13% stake.

The gains came as tech business leaders, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook parent Meta, and Apple’s Tim Cook publicly congratulated Trump on his election win...

 

I had been a huge fan of the Hell House LLC series since I stumbled across the first instalment on Shudder during a lazy weekend a few years ago. I often question whether I should cancel my subscription to the streaming platform that’s dedicated to horror and save a few pounds each month, but then there’s always one film that draws me back in.

The first Hell House LLC, released in 2015, was that rare gem and my only regret is that I didn’t discover it sooner.

It had everything I love watching in horror: A group of friends who make silly yet entertaining decisions; a seriously creepy venue like a haunted house; or, in this case, an abandoned hotel and clowns.

I actually have a genuine fear of clowns so the fact that I love films like Hell House and Terrifier will always be a mystery to me.

When I realised Hell House LLC was also found footage, I could not grab my snacks and press play fast enough. And just like that, I was gripped...

 

Some of the best folk horror movies of all time base their scares on the slow-burn creepiness of the rural setting. Others are terrifying movies about cults. David Bruckner's 2017 horror film "The Ritual" dabbles in both, and adds in a haunted house aspect with a strange settlement in the middle of a Swedish forest. Then, it becomes something else altogether.

As a group of hikers finds out to their detriment, all the folk horror elements in the movie come courtesy of a single entity: A supernatural beast known as Moder, which is both terrifying to behold and so utterly powerful that it might be able to go toe to toe with just about any other horror movie monster out there. Let's find out more about Moder, the animalistic horror movie god lurking at the center of "The Ritual"...

 

How do you like your horror? Elevated arthouse or sleazy splatter? Comfortably cliched or disturbingly groundbreaking? Disgustingly gruesome or so subtle you can’t work out why you’re uneasy? Do you limit your consumption of horror films to Halloween but steer clear the rest of the year? Or are you a horror fiend who just can’t get enough of it, whatever the season?

The good news is that the horror genre has been going strong for more than a century, so you’ll never run out of films to scare you. From early silents Le Manoir du diable (1896) and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) to this year’s genuinely gruesome slasher hit Terrifier 3 – which recently knocked Joker: Folie à Deux off the top of the US box office – there has never been any shortage of audiences lining up to be chilled, unsettled or downright freaked out. Just look at this year’s robust box office on Abigail, Immaculate and Longlegs, as well as artier offerings such as The Substance. The future of cinema, it seems, is horror. And not just in terms of profit, but in visual imagination, envelope-pushing and audience enjoyment.

Every genre fan knows Dracula and Frankenstein, King Kong, The Exorcist, Carrie, An American Werewolf in London, The Silence of the Lambs and so on. But behind every gamechanger, there are antecedents and influences, both direct and indirect. And however beloved the canon, there are always less familiar treasures to be unearthed. So here I have traced the evolution of the horror genre in 10 films. For the most part I have avoided the big beasts and instead highlighted some less familiar, but no less significant efforts in the long history of the genre.

If the most recent title in this selection is from 2001, it doesn’t mean 21st-century horror is in decline. On the contrary, the genre is thriving, with film-makers such as Jordan Peele exploring new avenues, more female directors adding their voices to the mix, and subgenres overlapping in surprising new ways. It takes time for trends to coalesce; it wasn’t until 30 years after its release that The Wicker Man (1973), and films with related themes, were given the label “folk horror”. But of one thing you can be sure: the genre is a constantly evolving beast, and horror films will continue to shock, delight and terrify us for many years to come...

  • Monsters: Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922)
  • Mad science: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931)
  • Satanism: The Seventh Victim (1943)
  • Dreams and hallucinations: Dead of Night (1945)
  • Aliens: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
  • Slashers: Peeping Tom (1960)
  • Sadeian cinema: Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964)
  • Zombies and gore: Dawn of the Dead (1978)
  • Body horror: Videodrome (1983)
  • Techno horror and ghosts: Kairo, AKA Pulse (2001)
 

Nick Frost both writes and stars in the folk horror comedy Get Away – a movie originally going by the name Svalta. The synopsis reads as follows:

"Looking forward to a vacation on the small Swedish island of Svälta, the Smith family is unsettled by the unfriendly mainlanders who advise them to avoid the island at all costs, especially during the Karantan festival. But the 4-member family is in deep need of some time away & stubbornly decides to take the ferry anyway. On the island, the locals are rather rude & unwelcoming, and their behavior suggests that some big event is about to happen. Is it a cult? Is there a sacrifice in the works? Seemingly unbothered by so much discourtesy and drama, the family enjoys a swim in the sea, treks in the woods, and, oh, the silent isolation… which turns out to be a pretty perfect situation for the Smiths, who have special plans of their own."

Get Away will be available to watch on Sky Cinema from the 10th January.

Watch the trailer...

 

... A truism of combat is that whoever shoots first wins, and having a drone wait while a human makes a decision can cede the initiative to the enemy. Warfare at its core is a competition—one with dire consequences for the losers. This makes walking away from any advantage difficult.

Experts believe the “man in the loop” is indispensable, now and for the foreseeable future, as a means of avoiding tragedy, says Zach Kallenborn, an expert on killer robots, weapons of mass destruction, and drone swarms with the Schar School of Policy and Government. “Current machine vision systems are prone to making unpredictable and easy mistakes.”

Mistakes could have major implications, such as spiraling a conflict out of control, causing accidental deaths and escalation of violence. “Imagine the autonomous weapon shoots a soldier not party to the conflict. The soldier’s death might draw his or her country into the conflict,” Kallenborn says. Or the autonomous weapon may cause an unintentional level of harm, especially if autonomous nuclear weapons are involved, he adds.

While physical courage may not be necessary to take lives, Kallenborn notes that the human factor retains one last form of courage in the act of killing: moral courage. That humans should have ultimate responsibility for taking a life is an old argument. “During the Civil War folks objected to the use of landmines because it was a dishonorable way of waging war. If you’re going to kill a man, have the decency to pull the trigger yourself.” Removing the human component leaves only the cold logic of an artificial intelligence…and whatever errors may be hidden in that programmed logic.

If autonomous weapons authorized to open fire on humans is an inevitable future, as some armies and experts think it is, will AI ever become as proficient as humans in discerning enemy combatants from innocent bystanders? Will the armies of the future simply accept civilian casualties as the price of a quicker end to the war? These questions remain unanswered for now. And humanity may not have much time to wrestle with these questions before the future arrives by force...

 

... You may have already seen some of those movies. But if you’re looking for more cinematic scares, here are 10 killer films that may have sneaked past your radar but are worth a scream, ahem, stream, in time for Halloween.

  • In a Violent Nature
  • MadS
  • It’s What’s Inside
  • Red Rooms
  • Out Come the Wolves
  • Caddo Lake
  • Daddy’s Head
  • What You Wish For
  • Infested
  • Oddity
 

It’s scary movie season, a time when many people watch films about zombies, serial killers, werewolves, magic and mysterious monsters who are impossible to kill.

However, as far as I know, there’s only one film that features all of those elements – and you’ve probably never seen it.

Made in 2007, “Trick ‛r Treat” consists of four interconnected horror stories, each about 15 to 20 minutes long, that all take place on a single Halloween night.

While characters from one story sometimes appear in other segments, the unifying force in the film is Sam, a mysterious creature wearing a burlap mask. He takes umbrage whenever a character disrespects a Halloween tradition, whether it’s by scaring away trick-or-treaters or blowing out a jack-o’-lantern before Halloween is over. Each meets a gruesome end.

Horror buffs eventually discovered the film. Today, it’s hailed as a modern classic...

 

Horror is the movie genre most positioned to take advantage of the fears and desires in the deepest parts of the human psyche. It’s also the genre that has pushed the boundaries of what can and should be seen on the screen, particularly in recent years. Horror films, particularly those released in the 1980s and afterward, have worked very hard to plumb the hearts and minds of viewers, bringing out those things that many people are afraid to face in their everyday lives and laying it all out on the screen. These films stay in the mind long after the final scene, demonstrating horror’s enduring power...

  • 'Bone Tomahawk'
  • 'The Wicker Man'
  • 'Speak No Evil'
  • 'The Witch'
  • 'The Fly'
  • 'Tusk'
  • 'Jeepers Creepers'
  • 'In a Violent Nature'
  • 'Saint Maud'
  • 'Funny Games'
  • 'A Serbian Film'
  • 'Martyrs'
  • 'Cannibal Holocaust'
  • 'The Human Centipede'
  • 'Hostel'
  • 'The First Omen'
  • 'Get Out'
  • 'Annihilation'
  • 'Hereditary'
  • 'Midsommar'
 

Horror movies often thrill audiences with their high-stakes tension, but a unique sense of discomfort comes from a movie where no one makes it out alive. Instead of a great "Final Girl" braving her way through a scary situation, nihilistic endings strip away any hope of survival, leaving viewers with a chilling sense of dread. Horror movies where absolutely everyone dies highlight the genre's darkest, most unforgiving conclusions.

Whether it's through ritualistic sacrifices, supernatural forces, deadly creatures, apocalyptic circumstances, or deadly viral outbreaks, a horror film may present a relentless march toward doom with a story that refuses to let anyone escape death. They don't just frighten with jump scares and gore but also emphasize the inevitability of death by creating movie endings so bleak that they linger even longer. Some horror movies don't let anyone escape, instead reminding audiences that sometimes the greatest terror is the absence of hope...

  • The Thing (1982)
  • Quarantine (2008)
  • Unfriended (2014)
  • The Blair Witch Project (1999)
  • Dead Silence (2007)
  • Cabin Fever (2002)
  • House Of 1000 Corpses (2003)
  • Final Destination 5 (2011)
  • Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
  • The Cabin In The Woods (2011)
 

... Before remains more of a mood piece than a full-on ghost or gory horror story. It is at least as interested in the manifestations of guilt in real life as it is using them as fuel for the supernatural narrative, and maintains the grief-stricken atmosphere as well as it does the spine-tingling stuff.

And Crystal is brilliant. His commitment to the part and this new mode is total. He never takes refuge in his comedy persona, and he utterly convinces as a man struggling with experiences he never imagined he would have to go through. His pain is both acute and chronic as he learns more about his wife, how he failed her, and how she turned to others to help her process what he could not. What kind of man, what kind of husband, what kind of therapist would allow that are questions that haunt him as deeply as Noah’s visions do him. Speaking of whom – as someone old enough to remember when the sight of a child actor made the spirit quail because children couldn’t act, I remain beyond grateful that those days are behind us and that Jupe only adds to the lustre of the new age. I don’t know what mighty forces are responsible for the change, but thank you, thank you.

[–] gytrash@feddit.uk 2 points 4 months ago

Totally passed me by this one. I love a good demon film!

[–] gytrash@feddit.uk 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I loved Dark Harvest and 30 Days of Night. Just added The Watchers and Disappearance to my Watch List.

[–] gytrash@feddit.uk 19 points 4 months ago

Nah. You'll just have to spend it on air conditioning instead!

[–] gytrash@feddit.uk 2 points 4 months ago

Yeah, it was fun! One of only 3 I've seen on that list. Tales From The Darkside I've seen a couple of times - cheesy but entertaining. And Silver Bullet I watch every so often, it's a classic.

[–] gytrash@feddit.uk 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Remember the film Poltergeist? Ever since I saw that in the 80s I've wondered how many houses have been built on actual cemeteries!

[–] gytrash@feddit.uk 4 points 4 months ago

Horror films that scared me as a kid/teenager: A Nightmare On Elm Street, Jaws, Poltergeist, The Shining. Films that scared me as a 20-something: Event Horizon. (I rewatched Event Horizon a few years ago and it wasn't half as scary as I remember it though!).

[–] gytrash@feddit.uk 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Is Silver Bullet an unheard of movie?

[–] gytrash@feddit.uk 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I loved the old forums, and couldn't quite see the point of Facebook when it came out. I thought it was just for self-obsessed 'models' and wannabe 'celebs' when I first heard about it! I joined it eventually of course, as all my friends did and I wanted to see what it was all about. Over the years I've had a love/hate thing with FB and only check in a couple of times a week now.

I liked Reddit, it reminded me of the old forums. I like Lemmy more though. It's still got that feeling I remember back in the old forum days before everyone and his dog got online on their phones and things seemed to go downhill.

[–] gytrash@feddit.uk 1 points 5 months ago

Not lazy, I just don't see the point in posting a list. I thought it was an interesting article and the discussion about the individual films are worth reading.

[–] gytrash@feddit.uk 3 points 5 months ago

Just watched it. Enjoyable. I won't spoil the plot. One of those films that make you think.

Caveat: My standards are low. I love a lot of horror films that others eschew.

[–] gytrash@feddit.uk 2 points 5 months ago

Just watched the trailer and it looks like it might be a bit corny! Added it to my Watch List anyway. Might give it a go later tonight.

[–] gytrash@feddit.uk 4 points 5 months ago (3 children)
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