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Hello all, I'm JJ, and welcome back to another episode of Southern Demonology. I apologize for the delay in getting this episode out. We changed locations, and that was about four days of utter hell. But luckily, it's done. However, it took quite a bit for me to regain that what little energy I happen to have these days. But the good news is that I'm in my new place, in my new office. I've got my trusty dog Daisy by my side, and today we are going to be talking about something a little bit lighter than what we have been going over for the past few days.
Today we're going to be talking about some good old horror movies and series, actually, now that I think about it. Um not only in just in terms of execution, but also just an unrealized potential that could have gone on. So first I want to say that I have lined up a really exciting guest for an upcoming episode. It is a um a lady who has studied the Ethiopian uh diaspora of the Jews, and it's a fascinating topic.
It's one that I unfortunately am not extremely knowledgeable in, besides having a few hit and run conversations about that in a various class or two that I had in um classical Ethiopic. But uh she has studied it a great bit. Uh got the pleasure of getting to meet her, and she agreed to come on. Uh, she's doing some refreshers on the topic now, and of course, with the global pandemic going on, it has slowed everything down just by quite a bit. So we will I will get that out as soon as I possibly can. I hope you look forward to that.
It will be a bit of a heavy topic, so we're probably going to be interspersing that with a few other uh items within that particular episode, but I uh I hope that it's something that everyone will enjoy. So let's go over the good first, since I rarely seem to really focus on that. Um if you happen to have a shutter subscription, which of course is one of the billion streaming uh options that are available to people now, uh one that's dedicated to horror, which is pretty decent. It's not the best thing in the world, but it does have some pretty good things in it.
One of the movies that they've added to their repertoire is one that's called We Go On. I didn't really have too much of a hope for it when I first started playing it, but it's one of those diamonds in the rough that I am so happy that I got to watch. Primarily because it's a breath of fresh air. It's not a series that throws tons of cheap jump scares at people, it's not something that is all CGI driven. Rather, it's a really thoughtful horror movie that really it really invites one to s take a step back and reevaluate one of the horror cliches that you find all over the place.
You know, whether it comes to individual monster lore or writ large kind of quote unquote rules that you know horror movies typically play by, one of the uh preconceptions that you find and that a lot of movies tend to push is that as people grow older their perceptions narrow. So that kids are much more open to paranormal experiences than adults are, and people kind of treat that as a truism, just like you know, without good there cannot be evil. That is a preconception that drives me up the wall because I fundamentally reject that idea.
And perhaps I will actually have a future episode about that if people are remotely interested enough to hear me blabber on for 30 minutes. Well, some people are you listening to me now, but sorry, I got a little bit off track there. Uh anyway. I I want to go through a little bit of a story about me, and actually I wasn't intending to take this episode in this direction.
It's something that randomly came up on a phone conversation between my mom and me where she was going back, Oh, do you remember back when blah blah blah and I did not, but then that reminded me of a time in which I fell into a cactus plant. So where I grew up, it was in a 200-year-old log cabin that had been transplanted plank by plank from its original location to where it stands now. And it's still there, believe it or not. The the flooring is pretty much rotted away, and it's a danger to try to get into the back door nowadays. However, it's still being used as a storage shed.
But right next door to uh where I lived was um the residence of my great aunt and uncle. And their house built in the same exact style as our old house, as we called it, which is a log cabin with siding tackled on the side and a tin roof. And it was a beautiful place to sleep when it was raining in both of the houses because you would lay in bed and you would hear the rain just ping off on the tin roof, and there is something so majestic about that sound that it would instantly lull you to sleep. It's still one of the best memories that I have.
But when I was a kid, I would often have strange dreams. Some of those dreams were extremely ominous, and I'll save those for another time. But I had a categorical uh a category of dreams that I would essentially call you know minor prophecy. And they were always in black and white, and the vision that I would have of myself was an idealized one. So when I was born, I was brought into the world with bright blue eyes and blonde hair. I have retained the blue eyes, but the hair, what little I have left now, uh, is you know black as spades. But then it was blonde.
And you know, gr in my early years I was skinny as a Maudrail fence because I had pretty severe form of tonsillitis, which meant that I really couldn't eat all that much. And after I had those removed, when I was what six years old or so, I suddenly had a gigantic appetite and I ballooned up to pretty much where I am now, uh, which isn't you know phenomenally bad, but still well off from you know my idealized version, I guess you could say. But anyway, uh when I would dream it would be of this skinny blonde-haired kid, and that was me in the dream.
However, each one of those dreams were always in black and white. Always. And they felt radically different than any other dream that I would have. But in it, whatever I happened to dream that would always, without exception, come true. And one night I dreamed that this idealized boy was running in the front yard of my great aunt's house, and he fell down inside of this round metal planter that happened to contain a very large cactus in the middle of it, and got hurt. And sure enough, four days later, same thing happened to me.
I was running around the planter being chased by one of my numerous cousins at the time, I believe, and fell flat on my face inside of the cactus planter. I had needles stuck everywhere in my legs, took them for my mom and various members of my family, e what felt like eons to pluck them all out of me. It s you know, they thankfully succeeded in that, but you know, and after every single one of these occurrences, I would remember the dream. I had the dream before, but after the occurrence, it was almost like a chime went off in my head.
Something pointed at me saying, See, you knew this was going to happen. And I haven't had one of those dreams. After I would say the age of nine or ten, something like that. And I've always wondered about those. You know, and I I'm not saying that when I was a kid I was a precog or had some sort of, you know, strange ability or affinity. But I will say that, you know, there is always a layer of magic, of mystery, of something or other that could overlay any kind of experience. And as I have gotten older, your world does narrow. It narrows to such a significant extent.
You know, before I don't even know if I can truly explain it or not, but you know, I was more open to experiences. You know, uh hey, just just take amusement parts for once. You know, I was the world's biggest afectionado for roller coasters. Absolutely loved them. If I saw one, the scarier it was, the better off I was going to be. It was phenomenal. And then maybe two or three years ago, the company that I was working with at the time had a summer carnival where they gave every employee the day off.
They would rent out one of the major amusement parks uh just for their employees, and you could go there and ride to your heart's content. And my my the rest of my family, they are not big roller coaster people. So I said fine, I'll go on one by myself. And I did. And I went through with it. I got in the front seat, I slapped the bar on and I simply did not enjoy it. There was m you know, before the fear enhanced the excitement.
But after you become aware of how fragile your life is, after you become aware that yes, it's not a question of if I die, it's a question of when and how soon I am going to die. That excitement kind of fades away, and all you're left with is the fear. And that's what I really enjoyed about this movie. We go on. It's not a huge production value to it. The emphasis is much more so on the actors and the storyline. But in it one of the scenarios that they go through is this idea of I'm going to make you become just as open to the world around you as you were when you were a kid.
And that was so beautifully done as was the rest of the movie. Now again, I'm not going to pretend like I am being objective here. I can't be objective. To me, the movies that I enjoy, they are ones that prevent me from thinking outside of myself. It is something that I can watch, and it is such a smooth and beautiful ride that I never once look down to my clo watch.
And say, how much longer does this thing have to go? When can I actually leave and go back home? If you can mesmerize me for an hour and a half, then you are by definition a good movie. Other people have, you know, much more cerebral concepts going on. They like to analyze everything while the movie's going on. You know, some people like to ask tons of questions. Me, I just like to shut up and watch the movie. And if you can make me forget about everything else that's going on, then you deserve something.
However, if you can actually make me reminisce and if you stay in my head for days afterwards, then you have gone from a good movie to a fantastic movie. And that's what this one did. So if you haven't seen it, I highly encourage you to watch it. I would love to see to find out what your opinions are about this. Have you seen it? What did you think about it? What was your favorite part? Yeah, uh as always, feel free to go to our website at um southerndemonology.com, go to our Facebook page, uh, or go to our YouTube channel, um, or send me a message to the website itself.
However, you want to do it, feel free to you know get in contact and share what you happen to think about this. I would love to get your opinion on it. Anyway, we're going to take a real quick musical interlude and be back in just a few minutes. Thank y'all very much and welcome back. So the next thing I wanted to talk about was is also a shutter thing. So I was browsing along and they have a seri uh uh a section which is their most popular series, and I saw Creepshow there.
And I thought it was just referring to the old eighties movies that were so cheesy yet still really, really good, and so I kind of skipped over it until I finally realized one day, wait, that is actually a new production. And it's a series, uh it's a TV series, it's not actually a movie, and I got so excited, I could not believe it. And so I watched it and I could not stop watching it. It was really, really good. Um, I forget how many episodes of it, it's maybe you know anywhere from six to ten, it's somewhere in that range. Sorry, my brain's just not quite firing. But it was phenomenal.
And if you've listened to a previous episode in which I was where I was going Through what made the Twilight Zone, the original Twilight Zone, not any of the bastardized remakes of it, so good. It was that it blends in, you know, humor and mystery and horror all into one amazing package. And that's what the new creep show series does. Uh it has, you know, it it doesn't take itself seriously. Some of them are, you know, they they're really die hard. You you know, we're trying to scare the crap out of you. It doesn't really succeed, but yeah, that's what the goal is.
But then there are other ones that are so tongue-in-cheek that it's amazing to get to watch. If you haven't seen it, I so highly encourage it. I really hope that they make a second series of this one. I I absolutely loved it, and it was just a beautiful, beautiful thing to witness. But now we're going to divert away for a little bit and go into some of the bad horror movies that are out there. And God, there you know so horror is pretty much the one thing that I watch on a continual basis.
You know, whether it's Netflix or Amazon Prime or what uh what other ones that I happen to watch, it's the horror section that I go to time and time and time again. And by and far most of them are complete and utter schlock. You know, I can appreciate along with everyone else, a good B grade movie. But yet what I cannot excuse are cheap horror movies that are simply cash grabs or they're so poorly executed with nothing but jump scares that they become meaningless trouble. And one of the movies that fit that bill more so than uh any other that I can think of is definitely the forest.
No, it did not come out this year or last year. It came out a few years before, but it is set in Okigahata, which is the suicide forest in Japan that is essentially it's a gigantic forest that's like 33 kilometers wide, uh, that sits at the base of Mount Fuji. And it is one of the scariest places that you could ever go to. The ground is utter volcanic rock, so compasses don't work. The trees act as the ultimate screen. So once you walk ten feet into the forest, all sound dies. You hear nothing but the low grade hum of forest life. And even that is somehow strangely muted.
I did not go far into that forest when I visited. And this was oh god, back in 2011 is when I went. And I already had just chills running up and down my spine. Okigahada is the world's second most famous suicide spot behind the Golden Gate Bridge. It has a long evil history. This is a forest in which when Muda villages could not support people that could not actively work for themselves, they would take their elderly and dump them in the forest to die. And that tradition continues, not with the elderly, but for those who decide that they just simply do not want to live anymore.
And there are documentaries out there about this forest, about the people that choose to go buy a tent, and they live in the forest and for a day or a week or however long it is until they decide to take their own life. You know, Japanese society carries along with it some of the most beautiful and intricate traditions. I'm in love with the culture, I'm in love with the language, but I will admit it is a culture that can produce a lot of stress, especially the business culture. So it's easy to see how, you know, such a culturally bound place can produce hickey commodities.
Uh people that are afraid to leave their room or their house for fear that they're going to be laughed at or looked down upon. And these societal pressures can i it can lead people to do the worst thing imaginable. So and I am not criticizing criticizing Japanese culture. I am a hongophile to the extreme. Uh if it's Japanese, I'm in love with it. Um except for the business culture. I I've actively lived that for two plus years, and I'm not sure if I would want to dip my feet back into those uh uh waters again.
I love the dedication, I'm not quite so in love with the uh rigid power structures and y y you get a lot of strangeness there. Um but anyway, I'm not coming at this from a level of of criticism. I'm just saying I can understand how this can happen. So you take one of just if you look at the statistics, one of the strangest places that exist on the planet Earth you then topple upon that just the eeriness, the subjective eeriness of someone who walks into that forest and knows that there is something not right going on. And then you attempt to make a movie about it.
And you whitewash it, number one. Number two, you take nothing about the place and carry it on. And number three, you make it as boring and derivative as humanly possible, and you have wasted absolutely wasted the potential that you could do. Now, I mean, to truly do this place justice you would have to create a work of art along the lines of like Noroi, which is perhaps not only the greatest found footage movie ever made, but one of the best Japanese horror movies I've ever seen. Noroi translates to the curse, and I think I've talked about it before.
But regardless it is just such a shame to waste that potential. And another movie that it does the exact same thing Color from Outer Space One of the best HP Lovecraft stories ever produced. It's beautiful. It captures all of the negative aspersions that he casts upon New England society in general, translates that into nature, and then has that nature run rampant against humanity. It's beautiful. The the po the prose is beautiful, everything about it. And they just recently released a movie about this. Uh it actually stars of of all people, Nicolas Cage.
I mean, that should give you an idea of how bad this movie's going to be. And to I I will say, to my surprise, it wasn't horrible. Like it wasn't as bad as what I thought it was going to be. I'll put it that way. Because I expected it to just be absolute drivel. And it wasn't. It was several categories ahead of like just take, for example, The Forest.
Um, it it was actually a coherent movie, it was kind of well done, but again, the disparity between the source material and the actual production of this movie is so vast that no matter how decent a job that movie um, you know, came out to be, if it doesn't even come close to living up to the to its, you know, origins, then it's just going to fail every single time. And that's what this movie did. Um there is a particular scene that meant you know that kind of envisions what the cosmic horror that lies behind the you know the color is.
And that piece was actually really well done, I will have to say. But yeah, it was too little, too late. It just yeah. So I mean if you haven't seen it, I I wouldn't say that you're wasting your time if you do, but just you know, don't be prepared to walk away just blown away. It's just gonna be something that you watch on a Sunday night to kill some time before you go to bed, and that's about all that came out of that. Well, looking at the clock, I have ran out of time. I didn't even get to cover some of the greater independent movies that I've gotten to watch as of late.
So we will have to continue this conversation another time. Thank you all for being with us, for being patient. I truly, truly appreciate it. Uh, I really hope you enjoyed it. Please reach out if there's any particular topics that you want to cover, whether that's through Facebook or through our website at southerndemonology.com. But regardless, hope you join us next time and that everyone's staying safe. I hope everyone is practicing good social distancing during this time.
Uh, my actually the company that I work for was extremely um foresightful, and so I've actually been working from home for a week now, and it's been great just being able to help flatten the curve, as they say. But please stay safe, don't hoard, be considerate, look after each other, and we'll see you next time. This has been Southern Demonology. Please feel free to contact us at Southern Demonology at gmail.com. We hope that you join us again for our next episode.