0529 – Firewatch (2016 video game)

spacetime coordinates:  Shoshone National Forest (Wyoming wilderness) 1989

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 Remo, Jake 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.

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

 http://store.steampowered.com/app/383870/Firewatch/

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.)

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 Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva 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.

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

0515 – Street Trash (1987)

 spacetime coordinates: 1980s  Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York City

Street Trash is a 1987 American black comedy body horror film directed by J. Michael Muro (credited as Jim Muro). It won the Silver Raven at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film. The film has acquired a status as a cult classic independent horror-comedy and is one of a number of films known as “melt movies”

Roy Frumkes wrote the screenplay. In an NBR profile he later said: “I wrote it to democratically offend every group on the planet, and as a result the youth market embraced it as a renegade work, and it played midnight shows.”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094057/

505 – Downsizing (2017)

spacetime coordinates: near future Norway / NebraskaDownsizing is a 2017 american science fiction  / high-concept social satire / comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Payne, written by Payne and Jim Taylor and starring Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, and Kristen Wiig. It tells the story of a couple who decide to undertake a newly-invented procedure to shrink their bodies so they can start a new life in an experimental community.

Starting with Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, there exists a rich literature as well as many films dealing with mini-humans usually called dwarfs. The idea of shrinking human bodies in order to reduce the consumption of raw materials available on earth necessary for the life of mankind was presented for the first time in the novel Das Miniatom-Projekt (2006) by Richard M. Weiner. In the novel the miniaturization takes place at CERN by decreasing the sizes of atoms with the help of the world’s biggest particle accelerator, while in the Downsizing film the shrinkage is performed by bio-medical methods, by decreasing the sizes of cells.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1389072/

0490 – Novitiate (2017)

spacetime coordinates:  1960s Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Novitiate is a 2017 American drama film written and directed by Maggie Betts. Set in the early 1960s and during the era of Vatican II, a young woman in training to become a nun struggles with issues of faith, the changing church and sexuality.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4513316/

0487 – The Florida Project (2017)

spacetime coordinates: 2010’s Florida

The Florida Project is a 2017 American drama film directed by Sean Baker and written by Baker and Chris Bergoch. It stars Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Valeria Cotto, Christopher Rivera, and Caleb Landry Jones. The plot follows a six-year-old girl and with her rebellious mother living in a motel in Kissimmee, Florida outside Orlando as they try to stay out of trouble and make ends meet. The title is derived from the early name for Walt Disney World, located near the setting of the film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5649144/

486 – The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

The Cabin in the Woods is a 2012 American horror comedy film directed by Drew Goddard in his directorial debut, produced by Joss Whedon, and written by Whedon and Goddard.  The film stars Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford.

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Goddard and Whedon, having worked together previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, wrote the screenplay in three days, describing it as an attempt to “revitalize” the slasher film genre and as a critical satire on torture porn. The special effects, monster costumes, special makeup, and prosthetic makeup for the movie were done by veteran horror film actress Heather Langenkamp, her husband David LeRoy Anderson, and their company AFX Studio.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259521/