Long Live the Undead!

If you love vampires as much as I do, take a look at the above special edition magazine about the undead on magazine racks everywhere! I am quoted extensively in this issue discussing the history of beliefs in vampires, and how these creatures have been such a fascinating open text for storytellers for perhaps as long as people have been telling scary stories. 

 

The magazine traces the history of vampires from ancient religions and folklore to literature and modern popular culture like films, TV shows, fashions, role-playing games, and even people who live the vampire lifestyle 24/7. From monstrous vampires to sexy vampires, immerse yourself in the world of the undead in this magazine and see why vampires are the most attractive of all supernatural being.

 

In the article “Undead Evolution,” check out my quotes on how even the narrative structure of such out-there conspiracy theories like Pizzagate and QAnon have incorporated the themes and plot structure of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” Diabolical elites with enormous wealth at their disposal hunting humans—especially children—for Satanic blood-drinking rites in a far-reaching plot to poison and undermine society sound familiar? Sure, it’s Count Dracula’s evil plan to buy up London real estate and prey on unsuspecting humans. And it’s also at the core of the QAnon mythos with its fantasies of blood-drinking elites in the Deep State and the New World Order running the world and sacrificing abducted children in catacombs under pizza parlors. For over a hundred years, however, no one has ever believed that “Dracula” was anything other than fiction. It’s a strange world we live in, though, when the high foolishness of QAnon has sucked in so many believers. It’s almost like modern conspiracism has become a mind-plague that spreads through the population like a vampire disease.  

The 1974 Conspiracy Classic, "The Parallax View"

Check out this recent episode of Cineverse where we discuss the seminal 1970s conspiracy thriller, director Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View, starring Warren Beatty. 

This is a film I discuss extensively in my book, CONSPIRACY FILMS: A TOUR OF DARK PLACES IN THE AMERICAN CONSCIOUS and it’s one of the films regularly screened in my class on the history of conspiracy theories and conspiracy films. As I argue in my book, The Parallax View is one of a small handful it films from the late 1960s and early 70s that established the conspiracy theory film as a distinct genre with its uniques set of archetypes that set it apart from other thrillers, mysteries, and action films. 

 

The narrative follows Joseph Frady, an intrepid reporter (Beatty), as he embarks on an investigation into a series of enigmatic deaths associated with the clandestine Parallax Corporation. Frady's pursuit unveils a perilous network of political intrigue and secrecy.

The Parallax View delves into government corruption, assassination, and the manipulation of public perception. The film benefits from the stylish guidance of Pakula, who adeptly weaves a web of tension and paranoia throughout the story. The cinematography, editing, and skillful use of visual symbolism further contribute to its lasting impact. 

 

As all successful films hold a mirror to their times, reflect the most unsettling freefolating anxieties of the culture that created them, The Parallax View shows us how the JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King assassinations, followed by the Pentagon Papers and Watergate scandals, birthed an era of suspicion and conspiracy theories. Speculations about conspiracies that have been proven nonexistent beyond a shadow of a doubt (JFK, RFK, MLK) and very real instances of corruption and conspiracy (Pentagon Papers, Watergate) birthed an era of justified and healthy suspicion and skepticism in officialdom, institutions of power, and the elites. But, as we see today, the reach of conspiracism is ongoing and often toxic and destructive to a society. Check out The Parallax View and ponder how we can spot that line between healthy suspicion and the poisonous fantasy worlds of Pizzagate and QAnon.

Examine a “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” on CineVerse

If you want to expand your cinematic horizons to acclaimed foreign films, check out this episode of Cineverse and Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a 2019 French film starring Noémie Merlant as painter Marianne and Adèle Haenel as Héloïse, the daughter of a countess who is determined to marry off her reluctant daughter to a wealthy Italian aristocrat and present him with a portrait of his future bride, who refuses to pose for the painting. Set in 18th-century France, this narrative emphasizes a blossoming romance between a female painter and her subject. 

See something "Indiscreet" on the CineVerse podcast!

 

As a fairly representational romcom from the 1950s, you can do a lot worse than Indiscreet, released in 1958 and brought to life by director Stanley Donen and screenwriter Norman Krasna, who adapted it from his own stage play titled Kind Sir and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. The film stars the legendary Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in the lead roles, accompanied by Cecil Parker and Phyllis Calvert. The picture tells the story of Anna Kalman (Bergman), an actress who finds herself entangled in a romantic affair with the charismatic diplomat Philip Adams (Grant). However, Anna soon discovers that Philip is married, leading to a series of humorous misunderstandings and complications.

Click here to listen to a recording of our CineVerse group discussion of Indiscreet, conducted last week.

Indiscreet thrives on star power. It reunited two iconic Hollywood actors, Grant and Bergman, in their second and final collaboration, after their first appearance together in Hitchcock’s Notorious. Both actors were renowned for their on-screen charm and charisma, and their chemistry in the film adds to its appeal.

Talking Religion and Science Fiction on Angel Studios' "Lightwise"

What are the connections between science fiction and religion? How are they different and how are they the same? What kinds of questions do they ask and what kinds of answers do they usually provide? 

I was excited to be the first guest on the new Angel Studios filmed podcast, “Lightwise,” a biweekly program that examines topics in the arts, movies, and TV in a way that amplifies the light, or are founded on inspirational and optimistic messages. Angel Studios, producing various films, documentaries, and live action and animated shows through crowd funding, has been making waves in the entertainment industry by garnering smash hit viewership numbers for its products that are rivaling major Hollywood productions. Their TV series “The Chosen,” about the life of Jesus Christ, is not only a major hit, but recently its theatrical release of a special edition of several of their season 3 episodes outperformed mainstream releases from much bigger studios.

 

In the pilot episode you can watch right here, host Joel Ackerman and I talked about how science fiction and religious faith intersect, where they are similar, and how they are different. Both religion and scientific inquiry—and science fiction by extension—I argue, are on the same basic quest. They are both asking the similar big questions of who we are, where is our place in the universe where did we come from, whether or not a sentient being created us, and where we might be going in the future. How those questions are answered, however, is where the two approaches can diverge…but not as much as some might think.

 

So check out the episode and hear us tackle these big questions and discuss how they are reflected in major sci fi entertainment like “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “The Matrix,” and literary classics by Mary Shelley, Isaac Asimov, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells.

Facts, fiction, conspiracies, and Dungeons and Dragons

A new film based on the venerable Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game opened this weekend and I am quoted in this special edition magazine exploring all aspects of the game, its history, development, fan community, and fans who had played the games since childhood who are now major A-list stars.

If you see the magazine above on rack in a store, be sure and pick up a copy—or 5—for all of your friends and family members.

 

But most of my quotes appear in story about one of the strangest controversies that engulfed the game starting in the late 1970s. Following the suicide of James Dallas Egbert, a mentally ill college student in 1979 who also happened to be an avid D&D player, unwarranted speculation followed that perhaps the immersive fantasy world of D&D had the power to push young people to self-destruction and violence. But Egbert’s death also coincided with the “Satanic Panic” of that decade, a bizarre moral panic about a vast, international conspiracy of Satanists running daycare centers across America, sexually assaulting and murdering children in occult rituals, and seducing other youngsters to Devil-worship through heavy metal music, violent films, and, of course, a fantasy-oriented game like Dungeons and Dragons.

 

Check out a more detailed read of the history of the Satanic panic right here. I also wrote about the phenomenon in my book, CONSPIRACY FILMS: A TOUR OF DARK PLACES IN THE AMERICAN CONSCIOUS.

 

What is more bizarre than the claims of this layered, convoluted myth is how long the moral panic it created lasted. It took another decade until level-headed, intelligent people finally made peace with the fact there was no vast underground of Satanists, despite the fact that there was barely a scintilla of evidence for any of these allegations from the moment the very panic began. The reason for this, however, is the conspiratorial mindset it was all founded on. Conspiracism is founded on the very logical fallacy that no evidence for the existence of a massive conspiracy theory is evidence in itself. There is no evidence of a massive conspiracy of the Dallas Police Department, the FBI, CIA, oil barons, bankers, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines, or weapons manufacturers having killed Joh F. Kennedy, this line of thinking argues, because the evil cabal behind the conspiracy made all the evidence disappear. There isn’t a shred of credible evidence for the Moon-landing-hoax conspiracy theory or the 9/11 conspiracy theories because the hidden forces of evil made that evidence disappear. The result of all of this, however, is that the conspiracists will wind up living in a fantasy land, in a delusion created by their own minds.

 

At least people playing Dungeons and Dragons know that it’s all a game, it’s all make-believe. It was only their critics, the conspiracy theorists, and the moral crusaders who wound up not being able to tell fact from fiction.

We're working on The Florida Project on the CineVerse podcast

Is it possible to depict the life of children in a feature film without cloying themes and situations, overscripted dialogue, and implausible performances? The Florida Project by director Sean Baker proves this is more than possible. Recently CineVerse spent some quality time with this film and arrived at several key conclusions (to listen to a recording of our group discussion, click here)