Countdown to Hallowe'en 26: Crowd-Funded and Bit Torrented Horror

The Tunnel (2011) poster. Image Source: Tribute.

Today for the countdown, see a very Millennial scary Australian film The Tunnel, which took Urbex to a dramatic level. The film begins with urban legends and conspiracy theories about unused train tunnels underneath Sydney. The plot hinges on the typical Millennial confusion between fiction and non-fiction in this faux found footage 'declassified' horror-mentary, complete with "candid interviews with the survivors." The story is very much Blair Witch meets Creep.

Plot aside, this film is also interesting because of its funding and distribution model: the film was partly crowd-funded and the film-makers altered its copyright to release the movie directly to DVD and the Internet. The film "garnered much attention for its unconventional release through BitTorrent. The Tunnel is the first Australian film to be distributed and promoted legally through the BitTorrent internet downloading platform, a release strategy which could potentially expose the film to tens of millions of people, for free."

The film-makers ask viewers to buy one frame of the film for one dollar, in exchange for a possible share in the profits: "On a date yet to be determined by the Producers, one of these frames will be selected at the sole discretion of the Producers to receive a 1% profit share in the movie. The 1% profit share will only produce revenue once the project is deemed to be in profit. Profit occurs after the US$135,000 to complete production has been recouped and all costs associated with further exploitation of the movie and other elements of the project have been reimbursed. The recipient of the 1% share will be contacted via email or telephone."

Countdown to Hallowe'en 27: Marking Time With CBC's Nightfall

Image Source: The Nightfall Project.

Time Management. Procrastination. Internet Use Disorder. Today's Countdown to Hallowe'en blogathon continues by looking at this blog's topics through a horror lens, in this case, how to slow down distracted Millennial sensibilities. Listening to radio drama is a step back to an earlier time, when people had longer attention spans; radio plays demand imagination and attention. They are an antidote for today's limitless multi-tasking.

From 1980 to 1983, Canada's CBC Radio produced a show called Nightfall, described as "one of the most disturbing radio series ever produced." The show's introduction, from the dedicated site, The Nightfall Project ran:

Welcome…to the Edge!

You stand at the rim of the abyss, gazing out over … nothing. Your fear mounts as you are compelled to move closer, to look deeper into the darkness. Your mind races as the many possible outcomes of your next step are considered. Your foot wavers above the abyss, and then — — you are falling, lost in the misty realm of your dreams. You see nothing clearly, yet it is frighteningly familiar. You feel terror swell in your throat, but force it back down. It's only a dream, you say to yourself. Dreams aren't real. They can't hurt me. There's no reason for me to panic. And then, dark locks in: it's NIGHTFALL.

Part of Nightfall's critically-acclaimed impact came from the fact that the show's creators adapted original Canadian horror plays as well as frightening British and European dramas. The latter were sometimes relocated in isolated Canadian towns, with electric effects. The Porch Light episode from 1982 is an example of a scary story set in a Canadian white-out blizzard, so that the characters have nowhere to run.

Another example is the episode, Wildcats, based on the Geman short story by Christian Noak. Wildkatzen oder Wenn die Dämmerung kommt was performed as a 1961 radio play in Germany by Westdeutschen Rundfunk and then adapted in Canada in 1981 by the much-loved Czech Canadian radio personality, the late Otto Lowy (when Lowy died in 2002, Canada's Senate delivered a tribute statement in his honour). The tale was originally about a passenger getting off at the wrong train stop in rural Germany, but it became much more threatening when the scene was eerily shifted to the Canadian wilderness by a broadcaster who was as acquainted with Europe as he was with Canada; the Nightfall Project comments:

For 22 years, up until his death in 2002, Lowy hosted The Transcontinental, CBC Radio's "musical train ride through Europe". During that time he also wrote and acted in several radio and television programs (including acting in two NIGHTFALL episodes, in addition to writing this one). 

In this episode, a man traveling by train (series regular Neil Dainard) disembarks at the wrong station and ends up having to spend the night at the old Blue Trout Inn, a run-down hotel from the days when the area was a major tourist attraction. The Inn is run by two elderly sisters (Jane Mallet and series regular Ruth Springford) who live in fear of the local wildcats. Having lived alone at the Inn alone for years, the two women realize they have a chance for company and plot to keep the man there by administering morphine and claiming he is ill. They also take advantage of the man's state to ask him detailed personal questions. Unfortunately for them, the man's truthful confessions inspire the women to make their own… 

This is one of the more unusual plays in the NIGHTFALL series and it merits more than one listen to really get the full effect of the story. A lot of key story points can be lost if you're not paying attention. I have tried for years to find the original short story this is based on, but I have so far drawn a blank. Perhaps a lead might be found if Otto Lowy's files have been archived somewhere.

The show adapted classics such as The Monkey's Paw (listen to this searing warning against bending fate and cheating death here), The Telltale Heart, The Body Snatchers, Young Goodman Brown, and The Signalman. The show also covered science fiction, such as the post-apocalyptic mutant tale, The Chrysalids. Many episodes depended upon arcane glimpses into the future, evil predictions and frightening time loops. A good example is the episode, Mkara: "Ethiopia, 1938. After killing a sacred elephant for ivory, Charles Woodley is told he is cursed, that he will die five years later, on the same date he killed the animal. Ethiopia, 1943. Woodley, believing in the curse ... has deteriorated, is waiting to die. A friend, a doctor, comes to visit."

Sometimes, the listening environment brings out the depth of radio dramas: the most harrowing episode of Nightfall I heard in 1982 was The Debt: "A fraternity initiation ritual goes too far, and the young man being initiated is killed. And that's the end of that. Or is it..."  I listened to it over a scratchy car radio, while driving on an endless rural stretch in Quebec (where an old seigneurial east-west road is called a rang and a north-south highway is called a montée) in the middle of the night.

Montée Rockburn sideroad, Quebec. Image Source: Cycle Fun Montreal.

Turn the lights down low and listen to stories from the gathering dark...



You can listen to many of the total 100 episodes, here or directly above (scroll up and down the right hand menu to see all the episode selections), with summaries and reviews here and here. Recommended episodes include The Devil's Backbone and Wind Chill. For a horror take on American presidential elections, listen to The Monkey's Raincoat, "A satirical vision of the future of American politics, as a freshly inaugurated President must prove his caliber (pun intended) by eliminating several assassins on his way to the White House." Nightfall gained an audience in the United States when it was rebroadcast by National Public Radio.

Countdown to Hallowe'en 28: Circadian Rhythms and the Witching Hour

The Witching Hour © by Miriam Escofet.

Legend has it that the witching hour is midnight. But in modern horror films and online lore, the so-called hour of the devil is variously pegged at 2 a.m., 3 a.m. or 3:15 a.m. The Onion lampooned this superstition, proclaiming these hours to be unholy, but it is a common myth. Genesis 3:15 refers to the enmity between the serpent and woman; the phallic symbolism of the devil as serpent, combined with the temporal translation of the biblical reference, implies that this is the point when the estrangement between man and woman is greatest. 3 a.m. is supposedly the time when black masses are held, to invert the purported time of Christ's death at 3 p.m. Of course, a trinity is implied, in unholy and holy cases. A 2009 Eminem song, 3 a.m., related all these ideas to Millennial conspiracy theories about Freemasons and the Illuminati (see the video here).

In the lingo of modern investing, the witching hour flips the clock and refers to the hour between 3 p.m. EST when the bond market closes, and 4 p.m. EST when the stock market closes.

Is there anything to this superstition that is based in substantial physical fact, and not religious fears or the occult? Yes, in fact, there is.

Countdown to Hallowe'en 29: Anti-ageing at CBS Radio Mystery Theater

The Ageing Face. Image Source: Top News.

Generations and changing social values, ageing and anti-ageing are all themes on this blog. For centuries, anti-ageing gone wrong has been a constant horror theme, because it concerns a reversal of the natural order of things. As Millennial genetics and advanced medical research make that reversal the new normal, fears of unnatural immortality seem increasingly outdated.

Anti-ageing taps into other social values and trends, such as relations between the sexes, physical enhancement through medical technologies, the increasingly complex human relationship with machines and the dawn of transhumanism.

Two examples of scary story-telling show how fears around this family of issues are cryptically related and how they changed over time: the 367th episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater, broadcast on 24 October 1975 - and the 1,345th episode, broadcast on 30 June 1982.

CBSRMT's main site, where you can hear all 1,399 episodes, is here. Broadcast each weeknight, this American radio series ran ghostly and horror dramas from 1974 to 1982. This show was part of what could be called the last blossoming of the golden era of radio drama.

Countdown to Hallowe'en 30: The Hands of Orlac

Scene from The Hands of Orlac (1924). Image Source: Old Hollywood.

For today, see one of the world's earliest horror films: The Hands of Orlac (1924). With its costumes and eerie acting, the late Expressionist Austrian silent Orlacs Hände is as fascinating as a window onto bygone culture as it is surprisingly modern. Directed by Robert Wiene, the plot is an account of fractured identity and overlapping realities, with some posthuman themes now familiar to us: "A concert pianist, Paul Orlac (Conrad Veidt), loses his hands in a railway accident. Replacement hands are transplanted onto him in an experimental procedure, but the hands are those of a recently-executed murderer." The film has some genuinely creepy moments. The movie was remade in 1935 and 1960, although the theme of an alien body part transplant having a life of its own has been repeated in many other films. See the film below the jump.

Countdown to Hallowe'en 31: The Blair Witch Generation

Blair Witch Project Still. Image Source: BluRay Definition.

This year, Histories of Things to Come is one of the cryptkeepers in the Countdown to Hallowe'en blogathon. Every day this month, I will highlight different themes on this blog when skewed through a horror lens, from transhumanism to anniversaries; from generations to comics; from time-keeping to anti-ageing.

First up, The Blair Witch Project (1999), which together with its accompanying faux-documentary, Curse of the Blair Witch, proved that before the Internet hit full force, people still believed that something fake was real if its producers said it was real. The film has been extensively parodied and diminished by a poor sequel that turned the tropes of the original into clichés. But for a tiny pre-Millennial niche in time, this film owed its astronomical success to a perfect balance between 90s' grunge and a high-tech future. Although it had clear precedents, this was the beginning of Reality Horror.

Made for an initial (later expanded) budget of $20,000, Blair Witch made almost $250 million. It was the first film to be mainly marketed on the Internet. The film-makers exploited the public's pre- and early Web credulity. Wiki: "The film's official website featured fake police reports and 'newsreel-style' interviews. Due to this, audiences and critics initially thought it was an actual documentary about the 'missing' teenagers. These augmented the film's convincing found footage style to spark heated debates across the internet over whether the film was a real-life documentary or a work of fiction." You can see some of that fake supporting information at the film's official site here.

Thus, the bulk of the film's profits came from the technological innocence of a departing century. Because it walked the line between past and future so exactly, it is also a quintessential Generation X film. With that precedent set, this generation has continued to push the envelope in the grey area between reality and virtual reality.

The film also depended on a pared-down, classic horror plot. Its believability depended on a real historical resonance still lingering from Hawthorne-esque memories of Colonial America. Ironically, as the Web-savvy public have become much more cynical about found footage and other fake-reality new media gimmicks (Postmodern and post-Postmodern), it is Blair Witch's purely modern take on colonial witchery - its grounding in the past - that makes it hold up over time.

Harvest Moon Myths of the Past, Present and Future

Image Source: Crystalinks.

Tonight there is a full moon, known in northern climes as the Harvest Moon or Full Corn Moon in North America. It rises at 11:19 ET (3:19 GMT). Seemingly this is a harmless good old full moon that appears closest to the September equinox and has shorter rising times; under this moon, farmers work into the night bringing in their crops. Oddly, a great deal of online chatter casts this moon in a different and frightening light.

Psychics and spiritualists worry (in very unusual ways) that the full moon may spark castastrophic earthquakes. Astrologer Susan Miller calls this full moon a 'Monster Moon.' Miller's Twitter feed and other astrologers' remarks confirm that many people who are already stressed are reading into the stars around this full moon to support their sense of uneasiness about their private concerns, politics, the environment, world affairs and the economy. Miller suffered personal bereavement on 27 September and read it as part of the full moon's influence. Her fellow astrologers believe that this full moon in Aries is the most powerful full moon of the year; Anne Reith explains their reasoning:

I have spoken to so many people during the past week who are going through MAJOR shifts in their lives, both externally (e.g., losing jobs, death of loved ones) and internally (e.g., major insights, emotional breakdowns leading to breakthroughs). ...  

This is the most powerful Full Moon of the year because it is connected to the ongoing square (90°) between Uranus (the planet of change revolution) and Pluto (the planet of transformation and deep healing). As with any Full Moon, the Sun and the Moon are in opposition (180°) to each other. But the Moon is also conjunct Uranus, and both the Sun and Moon are squaring (90°) Pluto. This forms a very powerful astrological configuration called a T-Square (with very tight orbs). And all of these planets are in cardinal signs, which heralds in new beginnings and new energy. Overall, the wheels of change are turning, and this change can be revolutionary. This energy is so great that it can topple governments, shake up corporations, and be the catalyst for major personal transformations. On the one hand, this energy can evoke insecurities by washing away well-laid plans; but on the other hand, it can be seen as the inspiration for breakthroughs that will shape individual and collective visions of the future. It is riskier now to stand still than it is to move ahead. It is important now to make smart decisions regarding the concepts and values that are worth fighting for and which are best left behind. Adapting to uncertain circumstances and avoiding overreaction will help all of us to ride out these storms in relative safety.

The moon's aspects will primarily affect the sun signs Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.

While some see the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement as indications of larger rebellion, other chatter focuses on radical individual change and personal transformation; Alexis Mincolla wrote: "uninstall your bullshit this saturday and be cleansed by fire." Sherene Schostak feels that this Harvest Moon is about personal revolutions:

On Saturday, September 29, the full Moon in Aries could be one of the most explosive lunations of the year as it stands right on the precipice of many incendiary factors. For one thing, the Uranus-Pluto square becomes activated by this full Moon, setting off the urgent need for cataclysmic breakthrough. 

Mars, the ruler of Aries, is incredibly strong at the moment in Scorpio, which makes our determination to break through stagnation, denial and repression a do-or-die situation. The time is right now. It is a time for action. We are feeling the dire need to change and let go of what no longer serves the authentic “I am” self -- even if it kills us (or before it does). 

If that isn’t enough of edge: Serious Saturn is about to change signs next week after spending two-and-a-half years in the opposite sign of this full Moon (Libra). The cosmic taskmaster will be moving into the same sign as Mars: Scorpio. So again, the theme of letting go, shedding skin and killing the killers in our lives becomes extremely pronounced. 

Aries (Mars) is about bringing out the big guns and taking no prisoners. Don’t ever ask an Aries or person with heavy Mars in their chart to wait patiently. You get the idea: this full Moon is screaming at us to wake up and stand our ground. If we’ve been too nice and people-pleasing (Libra) at the expense of honoring our true self, this full Moon will light the fire needed to burn that nonsense down to the ground.

On the other hand, some astrologers think that this full moon is about history repeating itself, from 1933 to 1966 to 2013. They claim that this moon is influenced (so to speak) by the second of seven ominous and revolutionary confrontational squares between Uranus (electric change) and Pluto (death, the Underworld and transformation), an aspect last evident between 1932 and 1934. By contrast, the two planets entered into a synod, or synthetic conjunction, between 1964 and 1967, often deemed to be a positive revolutionary trend. You can read an astrological geometry and history of Uranus and Pluto interactions here. This interpretation suggests that we are somehow entering a celestial time loop, or perhaps a symbolic period of déjà vu, in which the conditions of the 1930s are being revisited in order to deliver a harsh karmic response to the revolutions of the 1960s.

Birds, Animals and Insects Hold Funerals for Their Dead?

Image Source: I09.

Animals, birds and insects all show strange behaviour when one of their number dies. Researchers debate whether this is an auto-reponse based on their sensitivity to chemicals produced by creatures' bodies after death; or whether this behaviour, in the case of some highly intelligent species, indicates a level of rudimentary consciousness. I09 complements my earlier post, "Do Animals Sense Death?" with a report on recent research that Scrub Jays gather together they lose a member of their flock:

Researchers at UC Davis have observed this funereal behavior in western scrub jays. When one bird spots a dead jay on the ground, it stops what it was doing and starts sending out loud alarm calls. The calls bring in jays from all over, who gather around the body and continue sending out the alarm calls so that as many jays as possible show up near the dead body.

Of course, it's unlikely that these alarm calls are the western scrub jay equivalent of a eulogy. Instead, the researchers are pretty sure that the dead body functions as a warning that predators are nearby, and the jays treat this information seriously enough to gather their entire population around the site of the death. The sight of death had a profound enough effect on the jays that they stopped foraging for the rest of the day, although exactly why this behavior change occurred is difficult to say. It's tempting to say they were too grief-stricken to eat, but we simply don't have enough information to make that assumption.

To better understand what drove the reactions of the jays to the dead bird, the UC Davis researchers presented them with various objects, including recently dead jays, stuffed jays, colored pieces of woods, and stuffed great horn owls (their main predator). A BBC news story charts the birds' reactions:

When the birds were fooled into thinking a predator had arrived, by being exposed to a mounted owl, they also gathered together and made a series of alarm calls. They also swooped down at the supposed predator, to scare it off. But the jays never swooped at the body of a dead bird. The birds also occasionally mobbed the stuffed jays; a behaviour they are known to do in the wild when they attack competitors or sick birds. The fact that the jays didn't react to the wooden objects shows that it is not the novelty of a dead bird appearing that triggers the reaction. The results show that "without witnessing the struggle and manner of death", the researchers write, the jays see the presence of a dead bird as information to be publicly shared, just as they do the presence of a predator.

Read the full scientific paper in Animal Behavior.

The BBC observes that whole disciplines of research are devoted to whether animals and birds display comprehension or distress when one of their number dies. Of course, awareness of death has long commonly been considered to be the hallmark of human consciousness. The language of death is the language (we think) of our knowledge of our own souls.