0552 – Mute (2018)

spacetime coordinates: 2030’s futuristic Berlin

Mute is a 2018 neo-noir science fiction film directed by Duncan Jones, who co-wrote the script with Michael Robert Johnson. It stars Alexander Skarsgård, Paul Rudd, and Justin Theroux, revolving around a mute bartender searching for the love of his life who has mysteriously disappeared.

Jones described the film as a “spiritual sequel” to Moon, heavily inspired by the Ridley Scott film Blade Runner (1982). Sam Rockwell reprises his role from Moon in a cameo appearance that acts as an epilogue for the character. The film is the second installment in a trilogy consisting of Moon, Mute and yet to be announced third film.

Clint Mansell composed the film’s score. In a series of Instagram posts titled Mute & Me, he cited the culture of 20th century Berlin and Jones’ father David Bowie‘s Berlin Trilogy of albums as being a major influence in terms of representing Berlin culture, along with other Brian Eno-produced albums like Ultravox!.

imdb   wiki   trivia

548 – The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (2014 video game)

spacetime coordinates: 1970s Red Creek Valley

Experience, in non/linear fashion, a story that combines the pleasures of pulp, private eye, and horror fiction, all of it inspired by writers such as Raymond Chandler, Algernon Blackwood, Stefan Grabinski, and H. P. Lovecraft.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a 2014 horror adventure video game developed and published by The Astronauts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a first-person story-driven mystery game that focuses entirely on exploration and discovery. Inspired by the weird fiction (and other tales of the macabre) from the early twentieth century, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter aims to significantly evolve immersive storytelling in games. While it features a private detective and quite a few mental challenges, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is not an especially puzzle-ridden game. Our focus is on atmosphere, mood, and the essential humanity of our characters.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (MINIMUM): OS: Windows 64-bit // Processor: Intel Core2 Duo or equivalent AMD // Memory: 6 GB RAM // Graphics: DirectX11 compliant card with 1GB of VRAM // DirectX: Version 11 // Storage: 9 GB available space // Sound Card: DirectX9c compliant

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Review

 http://store.steampowered.com/app/258520/The_Vanishing_of_Ethan_Carter/

0540 – Naked Lunch (1991)

spacetime coordinates: 1951 – ’53 New York City –  Interzone, a city somewhere in North Africa

Naked Lunch is a 1991 science fiction drama film co-written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, and Roy Scheider. It is an adaptation of William S. Burroughs‘ 1959 novel of the same name, and an international co-production of Canada, Britain and Japan.

The screenplay for Naked Lunch is based not only on Burroughs’ novel, but also on other fiction by him, and autobiographical accounts of his life. It can be seen as a metatextual adaptation, in that it depicts the writing of the novel itself. Several characters are loosely based on people that Burroughs knew: Hank and Martin are based on Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg (who assisted Burroughs in compiling the original novel), and Tom and Joan Frost on Paul and Jane Bowles whom Burroughs befriended in Tangier, Morocco.

The shooting of Joan Lee is based on the 1951 death of Joan Vollmer, Burroughs’ common-law wife.  Burroughs shot and killed Vollmer in a drunken game of “William Tell” at a party in Mexico City. He would later flee to the United States. Burroughs was convicted in absentia of homicide and sentenced to two years, which were suspended. Burroughs stated in the introduction to his book Queer that Joan’s death was the starting point of his literary career, saying: “I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would have never become a writer but for Joan’s death”. (wiki)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102511/

0538 – Chasing Coral (2017)

Chasing Coral is a 2017 documentary film about a team of divers, scientists and photographers around the world who document the disappearance of coral reefs.

“This is the most beautiful transformation in nature, the incredibly beautiful phase of death.”

https://www.chasingcoral.com/

http://catlinseaviewsurvey.com/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6333054/

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Koral (2019 video game)

A love letter to the ocean.

In Koral the player will dive into the beautiful underwater world as a sea current. Solve puzzles to bring back to life coral reefs and spread the beauty of the oceans in 15 different sea ecosystems. Flow anywhere you want to find for ways to transport healing energy for other corals and heal entire reefs and watch in realtime how the seafloor becomes colorful and vibrant with life and diversity.

Koral Is A Moving Video Game Tribute To Ocean Life (youtube)

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steam

0534 – Machines (2016)

spacetime coordinates: 2010’s Gujarat, India

Director Rahul Jain presents an intimate, observantly portrayal of the rhythm of life and work in a gigantic textile factory in Gujarat, India. Moving through the corridors and bowels of the enormous and disorientating structure, the camera takes the viewer on a journey to a place of dehumanising physical labor and intense hardship, provoking cause for thought about persistent pre-industrial working conditions and the huge divide between first world and developing countries. Since the 1960s the area of Sachin in western India has undergone unprecedented, unregulated industrialisation, exemplified in its numerous textile factories. MACHINES portraits only one of these factories, while at the same time representing the thousands of labourers working, living and suffering in an environment they can’t escape. With strong visual language, memorable images and carefully selected interviews of the workers themselves, Jain tells a story of inequality and oppression, humans and machines.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5690244/

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/machines_2016/

0527 – The Conjuring (film series)

spacetime coordinates: farmhouse in Rhode Island in 1971 //  London suburb of Enfield 1977

The Conjuring is an American horror film series distributed by the New Line Cinema division of Warner Bros. Pictures. The films present a dramatized take on the real-life cases of Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators and authors associated with prominent yet controversial cases of haunting. The main series follows their attempts to assist people who find themselves possessed by demonic spirits, while the spin-off films focus on the origins of some of the entities the Warrens have come across.

The franchise currently consists of two films in the main series, The Conjuring (2013) (imdb) and The Conjuring 2 (2016) (imdb), both directed by James Wan, co-produced by Peter Safran and Rob Cowan, and co-written by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes. The installments revolve around two of the many famous paranormal cases the Warrens have been a part of, with the first film depicting the case of the Perron family, who are experiencing disturbing events in their newly acquired house in Rhode Island, and the second entry focusing on the controversial case of the Enfield Poltergeist while briefly referencing the events that inspired The Amityville Horror. A third film in the main series is currently in development.

by rainny_yu_1995

The franchise also includes Annabelle (2014), a prequel directed by The Conjuring cinematographer John R. Leonetti and produced by Safran and Wan, which developed the origins of the doll of the same name before the Warrens came into contact with it at the start of the first film. An Annabelle prequel, Annabelle: Creation (2017), directed by David F. Sandberg, was also produced. A spin-off film, The Nun, is currently in post-production, based on a character introduced in The Conjuring 2. A further spin-off film, The Crooked Man, also based on a character introduced in The Conjuring 2, is in development.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valac

Horror films based on actual events

0525 – Cold Skin (2017)

spacetime coordinates: desolate South Atlantic island the edge of the Antarctic Circle 1914, just after of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination that eventually caused World War I

Cold Skin is a 2017 French-Spanish fantasy adventure /  sci-fi horror film directed by Xavier Gens based on Albert Sánchez Piñol’s novel of the same name. The film owes a good deal to HP Lovecraft’s tales of Innsmouth folk.

“cinematographer Daniel Aranyó takes the pebble-strewn shores and grey skies of the island and fills them with uncertainty, finding in all that bleakness something that beguiles and something that chills. The waves that swirl up against the shore can be cool, clear turquoise or a deep, obscure blue-black, and either way they could be hiding something deadly just beneath the surface. Though at times we glimpse an awful tide of grey flesh like that once said to have pursued a man who stayed overnight in an Innsmouth hotel, there’s a sense that the real horror here is just out of sight – perhaps because we dare not look at it. And still, when morning comes, we can almost taste the salt air and the sweet fresh water from the fountain by the shore: the island is undeniably beautiful.”  Review by Jennie Kermode

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034385/

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The Shadow Over Innsmouth – read by Mike Bennett (YouTube)