games

0529 – Firewatch (2016 video game)

spacetime coordinates:  Shoshone National Forest (Wyoming wilderness) 1989

firewatch1jpg

Firewatch is a first-person mystery adventure game developed by Campo Santo and published by Campo Santo and Panic. The game was released in February 2016 for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, and PlayStation 4, and for Xbox One in September 2016.

The story follows a Shoshone National Forest fire lookout named Henry in 1989, following the Yellowstone fires of 1988. A month after his first day at work, strange things begin happening to both him and his supervisor Delilah, which connects to a conspired mystery that happened years ago. Henry interacts with Delilah using a walkie-talkie, with the player choosing from dialog options to communicate. His exchanges with Delilah inform the process by which their relationship is developed.

The game was directed by Olly Moss and Sean Vanaman, written by Chris RemoJake Rodkin, Moss and Vanaman, and produced by Gabe McGill and artist Jane Ng. The game’s environment was modelled by Ng, based on a single painting by Moss. The design draws inspiration from New Deal advertisements by the National Park Service and field research conducted in Yosemite National Park.

firewatch-poster

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (MINIMUM):  OS: Windows 7 or higher 64bit // Processor: Intel Core i3 2.00 GHz or AMD equivalent // Memory: 6 GB RAM // Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 450 or higher with 1GB Memory // DirectX: Version 11 // Storage: 4 GB available space

movies, series

0527 – The Conjuring (film series)

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

conjuring-poster1

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 Warrenparanormal 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.

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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

movies

0516 – Annihilation (2018)

 spacetime coordinates: 2010’s U.S. government’s Area X facility (The Shimmer, a mysterious jungle that appeared on a United States coastline after a meteor strike.)

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Annihilation is a 2018 science fiction horror film written and directed by Alex Garland (imdb), based on the novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer. The film stars Natalie PortmanJennifer Jason LeighGina RodriguezTessa ThompsonTuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac, and follows a group of military scientists who enter “The Shimmer,” a mysterious quarantined zone that is full of mutating landscapes and creatures.

Annihilation-2018-movie-poster

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2798920/   /   posterart

games, movies

509 – Far Cry 5: Inside Eden’s Gate (2018)

 spacetime coordinates: 2010’s Hope County, Montana

In preparation for the release of upcoming open-world shooter Far Cry 5, Ubisoft have made a short prequel movie, introducing us to the game’s setting, Hope County,  Joseph Seed and his cult in Inside Eden’s Gate.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt8095034/

movies

502 – El cuerpo / The Body (2012)

spacetime coordinates: 2012 Barcelona Spain

The Body (Spanish: El cuerpo) is a 2012 Spanish crime thriller mystery film directed by Oriol Paulo. The plot follows a detective searching for the body of a femme fatale which has gone missing from a morgue.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1937149/

movies

0478 – Shutter Island (2010)

spacetime coordinates: 1954  Shutter Island in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts

shutter island poster

Shutter Island is a 2010 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Laeta Kalogridis, based on Dennis Lehane‘s 2003 novel of the same nameLeonardo DiCaprio stars as U.S. Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels who is investigating a psychiatric facility on Shutter Island after one of the patients goes missing.

shutter_island_poster_by_sinhar97-d75dsfj

Shutter Island is a period piece with nods to different films in the film noir and horror genres, paying particular homage to Alfred Hitchcock‘s works. Scorsese stated in an interview that the main reference to Teddy Daniels was Dana Andrews‘ character in Laura, and that he was also influenced by several very low-budget 1940s zombie movies made by Val LewtonThe main frame of the plot resembles that of William Peter Blatty‘s The Ninth Configuration, as well as The Cabinet of Dr. CaligariLa Croix noted that Shutter Island was a “complex and puzzling” work which borrowed from genres as diverse as detective, fantasy, and the psychological thriller.

wiki   imdb

documentary, quotes, Uncategorized

474 – Finding Vivian Maier (2013)

 spacetime coordinates: 20th century // 2000/10’s Chicago,  the Alpine village of Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur > street scenes in Chicago and New York during the 1950s and 1960sfinding_vivian_maierFinding Vivian Maier is a 2013 American documentary film about the photographer Vivian Maier  (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) written, directed, and produced by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, and executive produced by Jeff Garlin.

Maier was a French-American woman who worked most of her life as a nanny and housekeeper to a multitude of Chicago families. She carried a camera everywhere she went, but Maier’s photographic legacy was largely unknown during her lifetime. The film documents how Maloof discovered her work and, after her death, uncovered her life through interviews with people who knew her. Maloof had purchased a box of photo negatives at a 2007 Chicago auction, then scanned the images and put them on the Internet. News articles began to come out about Maier and a Kickstarter campaign for the documentary was soon underway.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2714900/

“the poor are too poor to die”