Ever watched the original Hellraiser? Ever wonder how they did it, or who did it, or why, or any other relevant w regarding this masterful movie production of the exploration eighties?

Well then you might want to see this!

It's a solid documentary, though without much extra footage outside of new interviews with the cast, and clips from the movie. Not much material from behind the scenes back in the day. Would've liked more of that.

You do get some glimpses of a female Cenobite though, and oh boy is that a whole other world... I'm glad they didn't take the overly sexual route with the Hellraiser franchise as a whole, as it might've been just been buried in troves of B-movie sexploitation films then, but then again imagine if they had managed her well. Would've been a very different thing. I'm intrigued.

I have newfound respect for this series after seeing this too, for both the props and for the actors, and it's fascinating how the actor behind Pinhead almost seems to have actual pin imprints on his head - as if he became the role. Very different personality but not entirely unlike...

The only one in the cast who doesn't seem to get as much credit or praise is the girl (Imogen Boorman... was it?). It was her first role too, they said. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong name now, as it doesn't seem to have been Imogen's. Wonder what happened to her...

The rest of 'em are old now but: living the legacy.

Overall this feels like a somewhat late, but nevertheless interesting glimpse/set of interviews/showcase of pictures and other bits from the original films, and the legacy they left behind them.

 rated 3.5/5: not bad at all

1849. Victorian Internet crashed. Powerful sun storms. The Carrington event. It fried telegraph wires, batteries, and basically anything with a magnetic field.

Sun spots = magnetic fields showing through the sun's surface - the corona.

Only during a solar eclipse can you really see the sun's corona. It was first captured on film in black and white from a zeppelin in New York during the early 1900s.

They have space weather observation centrals now, to forewarn us if for example a Carrington event may come again, which at our particular all the more technology-reliant point in time would be all the more catastrophic.

It's a documentary about the sun y'all! And these are some of the things I learned here. Highlights in regard to that great solar spotlight in the sky above us, and the metaphorical dark side beyond it.

It was interesting, and starts good, though ends a bit like propaganda.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

On the cusp of fatherhood, a junior mechanic aboard an interstellar ark to New Earth must outwit a malevolent cosmic terror intent on using the spaceship as a weapon.

Bruce Willis! What's he doing with all these B-grade roles lately? Just having fun? Just getting by? Not thinking they are B-movie roles...?

It's like Resident Evil in a space ship, and it's not ALL bad but... Bruce just seems to have lost his touch with this one. He walks around and looks angry, and barks at people, and says stuff, but just doesn't have the authority he used to... until the very end maybe.

I'd say it was still better than DOOM: Annihilation though. Similar theme. Ghosts of Mars vibes too, a little. It feels like it could've become a cult classic in time too if they just hadn't chosen the wrong actors for the wrong roles. It's gritty. It's good. It's scary too sometimes. It just doesn't have that extra oomph it might've needed.

And I'm kinda disappointed in Willis and his all the more mediocre roles...

 rated 3.5/5: not bad at all

Stephen Lim, 1949 - 2015.

"He was a man, take for all in all: I shall not look upon his like again."

I miss the days when they could make a good movie with as restricted a set as this.

With two people, stuck in an undisclosed location, one of them behind a door, both kidnapped, and one of them the protagonist... though things aren't all as they seem.

It's a simple premise, but it does get a grip on you, and the rare moments they're outside you do get to see a dam for a moment. A strange yet appreciably stark contrast between the enclosed space and the momentary but all the more open one.

Well-played Sophie too.

It wasn't all that intense, but a good movie.

 rated 3.5/5: not bad at all

I wrote up a post a few days back that turned out so personal I hesitated to post it.

I didn't post it, actually. I still haven't. And that has me questioning why I do this in the first place. Why do I blog, if not to get out of my comfort zone? Not just to vent, but to explore the lesser known nooks and crannies of my turbulent psyche, and to put some of this potential greatness and/or weakness and/or revelation on paper, for me and for the world?

Be it on a low point or a high one. So that I may grow stronger, and better, and so that I may maybe live forever. If not as myself then at least in a formulated essence of my being that I leave behind.

And humans are complex individuals; not whole without the lows, so neither would my essence be.

This ain't social media. This isn't FB. I'm not trying to put on a façade here and be someone I'm really not. To portray me only in my more positive moments. Being introspective forces you to grow, and getting out of your comfort zone seems essential in being introspective.

Online these days it seems people would rather just hide, and be someone else. Pick up a fake online persona they stay behind, yet can't stand behind, and never reveal their true dreams or intentions to the world.

I don't want to be that way.

All the power to them, but I don't feel powerful in anonymity.

Or maybe that's the wrong word. I do. Maybe I do. Maybe that's just not the kind of power I want to have. A power that takes away my reason for being true to myself, and taking responsibility for my actions. I want to be present, in the world and in myself. I don't feel powerful in falsity.

And I feel the stamp of a true artist is to put out the full you, with flaws and defects and everything. You can't hold back, less you have no authenticity, and no purpose. What is art but a reflection of the self? And if you're too afraid to stand in front of a mirror then what's the point.

Just be a vampire instead.

I guess I should post that post after all...

This post ended up way less introspective than I planned it though.

Or just not long enough. Not lengthily introspective. Think I am out of word. Have other dues right now. Maybe I lost a bit of my drive with that hesitation?

I'll get back to this later. When I'm a better writer. When I can conclude with a little wisdom and vision and keep going on that inner mission, the rich one, all-nighter, not this one...

Aaand I posted that post, a little belated. And this one too.

Fuck you comfort.

Human meets AI. Human falls in love. It's the same old New Age story, though a bit more empathic than Ex Machina, and a bit more savage, too. Also more detective fiction than futuristic sci-fi action.

It feels a bit like Blade Runner, with a girl like Motoko from Ghost In The Shell, and a man the embodiment of her power... sort of.

Dystopian soundtrack, cyberpunk zone, not that much violence, heavy dialog... it's atmospheric more so than violent, this one. It's also not the brightest, not the happiest, and not one I'm sure I'll watch again, but if I do and like it as much as I did this time I just might give it a five then.

Travis Fimmel's God speech went a little overboard maybe, but everything else is great here. The main characters played by Guy Pearce and Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz were masterful. Olwen Fouéré was like a female Anthony Hopkins too. Powerful characters all around.

And I really like that girl in particular.

Ironic both David and his employer lose their girls... and replace them with synthetics.

Cure for a lonely world indeed.

 rated 4.5/5: almost awesome