1158 – Juan of the Dead / Juan de los muertos (2011)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s Cuba

Juan of the Dead (Spanish: Juan de los Muertos) is a 2010 zombie comedy film written and directed by Alejandro Brugués. A Spanish-Cuban co-production between La Zanfoña Producciones (Spain) and Producciones de la 5ta Avenida (Cuba) involving the participation of the ICAIC, Canal Sur and Televisión Española, the film won the Goya Award for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film in 2012. (wiki)

A group of slackers face an army of zombies. The Cuban government and media claim the living dead are dissidents revolting against the government. (imdb)

1156

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mathcore

1151 – Captive State (2019)

timespace coordinates: 2019 / 2028 Chicago

Captive State is a 2019 American science fiction thriller film directed by Rupert Wyatt and co-written by Wyatt and Erica Beeney. The film stars John Goodman, Ashton Sanders, Jonathan Majors, Machine Gun Kelly, and Vera Farmiga, and follows a young man who participates in a conspiracy to rebel against an alien race that has invaded Earth, and enforced strict martial law on all humans. (wiki)

imdb

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Chicago is the real star of the surprisingly powerful Captive State  – For those of us who love the city, more than just the plot is familiar in this sly takedown of gentrification and authoritarianism.  review by Dmitry Samarov

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(Trivia) In one of the early shots of the Chicago skyline the Ryugyong Hotel was added. The Ryugyong Hotel isn’t in Chicago, it’s in Pyongyang, North Korea. It was started in 1987 and still sits unfinished. It’s in the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest unused building.

1145 – ParaNorman (2012)

timespace coordinates: 1710s – 2012 small town of Blithe Hollow, Massachusetts

ParaNorman is a 2012 American stop-motion animated dark fantasy comedy horror film, produced by Laika and distributed by Focus Features. Directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler, from a screenplay by Butler, it stars the voices of Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch, Bernard Hill, Jodelle Ferland, Tempestt Bledsoe, Alex Borstein and John Goodman.

It is the first stop-motion film to use a 3D color printer to create character faces, and only the second to be shot in 3D. In the film, Norman, a young boy who can communicate with ghosts, is given the task of ending a 300 year-old witch’s curse on his Massachusetts town, despite being grounded by his father. (wiki)

imdb

1141 – Attack the Block (2011)

timespace coordinates: 2011 South London

Attack the Block is a 2011 British science fiction comedy horror film written and directed by Joe Cornish and starring John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker, and Nick Frost. It was the film debut of Cornish, Boyega, and composer Steven Price.

The film centres on a teenage street gang who have to defend themselves from predatory alien invaders on a council estate in South London on Guy Fawkes Night. (wiki)

imdb

1140 – Kamera o tomeru na! / One Cut of the Dead (2017)

One Cut of the Dead (カメラを止めるな! Kamera o Tomeru na!, transl. “Don’t Stop the Camera!”) is a 2017 Japanese zombie comedy film directed by Shin’ichirô Ueda. Made with a low budget of ¥3 million ($25,000) with a cast of unknown actors, the film opened in Japan in a small theatre for a six day run. Following its international success at its screening at the Udine Film Festival, the film began getting wider release, including a re-release in Japan. It grossed US $27,935,711 (¥3.12 billion) in Japan and $30.5 million worldwide, making box office history by earning over a thousand times its budget. The film also received universal critical acclaim, holding a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

imdb

1135 – Us (2019)

timespace coordinates: 1986 – 2019 Santa Cruz, California

Us is a 2019 American psychological horror thriller film written and directed by Jordan Peele, starring  Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Elisabeth Moss, and Tim Heidecker. The film follows a family who are confronted by murderous doppelgangers known as “the Tethered”.

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themes and interpretations

Critic Jim Vejvoda related the Tethered to “urban legends” and “xenophobic paranoia about the Other”, (…) Journalist Noel Ransome viewed the film as being about “the effects of classism and marginalization”, writing “the Tethered are effigies of this same situational classism. They’re trapped—mentally and physically—and ignored”. Joel Meares of Rotten Tomatoes also noted that the Tethered, referencing the “we’re Americans” line, are representatives of the duality of American society, how some citizens can afford to live on top of the class system, while others are stuck in illiterate poverty. He also noted the title Us could mean “U.S.”, or United States.

The Tethered’s red jump suits and single glove were an allusion to Michael Jackson along with the “Thriller” shirt seen on young Adelaide, and Peele has stated that Jackson was “the patron saint of duality”. Peele referenced many other instances of 1980s culture, including allusions to The Lost Boys and Hands Across America, stating “Everything in this movie was deliberate, that is one thing I can guarantee you. Unless you didn’t like something and that was a complete accident”.

The film contains numerous references to Jeremiah 11:11, which reads: “Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them'” (NIV). Critic Rosie Fletcher commented on the context, with Jeremiah warning Jerusalem was facing destruction due to false idols, and expressed the opinion that the film’s characters also “worshiped the wrong things”…  (wiki)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

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LUNIZ — I GOT 5 ON IT