Truth be told, I have been a very staunch defender of the colossal irritations called the DC Extended Universe.
Man of Steel came out and I said, "Hey, at least it was better than 'Superman Returns.'" Bits and pieces of it were fun. Personally, I really enjoyed Amy Adams as Lois Lane. Visually, it was dark, but stunning.
Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice gave us Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and a decided under-rated Ben Affleck as Batman. I never really was a fan of that AWFUL Christian Bale voice. Also, again dark, but stunning. See a trend here?
Suicide Squad is a guilty pleasure of mine. Feel free to insult my intelligence in the comments section. I love the soundtrack, I love the colours (DC and colours in one article?!?), and I love, love, love Margot Robbie and Will Smith. They were excellent. "All my friends are Heathens, take it slow...." DAMN good soundtrack!!!
Buy the Soundtrack HERE!!!
Well, now comes Wonder Woman, the Wonder Woman film I have been waiting for since I was a child running around my neighbourhood, spinning around in paper bracelets and headband. I am genuinely proud of this film. Not because it's fun, because it is a blast. It was not because the incomparable Patty Jenkins directed and wrote it. It was because of the respect and care they took in knowing the audience and respecting the source material.
Now comes Justice League, the tent pole of the series. I HATE Aquaman, but this movie made me excited for damn Aquaman. Today, I have been faced with two news stories that I have not been able to avoid, because Hera knows I have been running from information.
The first one is the news that Rotten Tomatoes is not posting a score until Friday. Why? It has debuted in other countries, but you choose to wait. Do you really need clicks this bad, especially since there are dozens of reviews already out and most people have decided if they are going to "See It/Skip It. I know, first world problem.
The second item that I could not avoid, despite numerous attempts to, was the Amazon costume review. I have not been this blindsided by an obvious sexist attempt for jiggle dollars (not my term) since that incredibly stupid NBC Wonder Woman pilot from David E. Kelley. I understand that two different units designed the costumes. However, within the timeline, the Wonder Woman film's Amazonian uniforms were designed and established a full year before the American Gladiator wonderfest that we will be seeing on Friday.
DC, please click the links above for the comics you should read. READ the source material. STOP having Zack Snyder pull things out of his ass.
I am sitting at the day job, reflecting on my lousy day, wondering about my life choices and trying not to be grumpy. I admit it. Some of it is very first world problems based...some of it concerns my own mental issues with money and the struggles I have been through earlier in my life with security.
Life is good, don't get me wrong. I have a house. I have a kick-ass family. I have love. However, my soul yearns for happiness. I strive everyday with that goal in mind. I want to tell stories. I want to share the things I love. I WANT TO RULE THE WORLD!!!
Maybe, ignore that last part. The voices in my head are loud today;-)
This is why I am focusing my energies on two projects: Flaming Accordions, Maeghan Kimball and my always mutating love child, and Bitch Goddesses, a new lifestyle site focusing on ALL of the things I love, from my Witchly, CRAZY point of view.
I would love your feedback. I would love your perspective. I would love your ad revenue!
Thank you to all of my Witchlings and see you on the flip side, Wendy, the NOT so good Witch
Witch Which Witches Witchcraft Marvel DC Wonder Woman Catwoman Horror Hollywood Sci-Fi
If you are stupid enough to read past Ms. Song, you deserve to have the episode spoiled. Do not scroll past the logo when I post about easter eggs.
OK, my lovely readers, or my spoiler curious idiots (you know which one you are), this will be one of my final posts on this blog format. I have loved every second and I will be archiving my articles here, but you will be happy to know that I am expanding. Stay tuned. I love writing about trashy fun stuff not having to do with Cheetolini and his band of merry idiots. Well, with this season, it's all about the election of 2016. Yay?!?!
The episode started off beautifully with audiences on both sides of the aisle getting what they want out of the election of Donald J. Trump; craziness, mayhem, and the complete destruction of the concept of D.C.
I'm not going to do a complete breakdown of the episode. How about watching the episode, with the lights on, not near any watermelons....
Let's Go!
1) TWISTY the Clown is back!!!
He is now a pop culture and dark web icon in AHS: Cult. Twitter went mental at this point. The amazing return of the AHS: Freak Show gem John Carroll Lynch as audience favourite Twisty. He is back to his murdering ways. I will not go into super detail, however the character is now seen as a pop culture icon with a comic book and footage shown to him by new addition Billie Lourd's Winter.
2) The tongue from Twisty's victim Not only have we gone back to AHS: Freak Show, but we got a small reference to AHS: Coven also. At the end of Twisty's scene, we see the woman's severed tongue fall to the ground, just like a particularly fun scene from AHS: Coven where we saw the coven's butler, Spalding (Denis O'Hare), cut off his own tongue with a razor in order to prove his love to Fiona (Jessica Lange). Yum... 3) Yes, THAT Billie Lourd!!! Billie Lourd has shifted to American Horror Story from Scream Queens in the Ryan Murphy universe.No earmuffs, but I am SO hoping for a reference. Billie does continue the tradition of winter-themed character names, including Lana Winters and Myrtle Snow. 4) OMG, the Piggy! In the grocery store scene, there were many loooonnnnggggg shots of the pig shouts on the grocer shelves. Will we see the Pigman from AHS: Roanoke after his unmasking in that season? 5) Movie References So far, there are A LOT of them. Most of them are because those damn clowns are everywhere. I saw a clown mask that is eerily close to the klowns who appear in Killer Klowns From Outer Space. PLEASE TELL ME YOU HAVE SEEN THIS FILM!!!
Also, there is a very subtle reference to the twins in The Shining. The opening has Pennywise's red balloon from IT. I was told, but I really don't see the Michael Myers mask (not close enough for me) and Freddie Kruger on the carousel? Let me know if you have good shots of these. In the grocery store, there is a clown assaulting Ally Mayfair-Richards (Sarah Paulson) that looks, to me, like a homage to a lead Droog Alex from A Clockwork Orange. I was told I was nuts on Twitter, but I have seen that movie a million times. Prove me wrong, BITCH! Bwhahaha!
Lastly, and my absolute favourite, the house from John Carpenter's Halloweenis behind the Ice Cream truck. I screamed at the television. Look, LOOK!!!
6) War for Sale, No Thank You Poster
I know very little about this poster, except for seeing it in books. I am a HUGE political nerd. However the great site MoviePlot.com had some information. "While #SarahPaulson's character breaks down in her home upstairs, eagle-eyed fans may have spotted a poster by Shepard Fairey in the background that perfectly encapsulates Ally's political views in one image. Given that American politics form the backbone of this season's narrative, it should come as no surprise that the artist best known for creating the famous 'Hope' poster during Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign would feature here in some form."
OK, kids and Witchlings, you now know as much as I do. If you saw something I didn't, share in the comments section or on my social media. Hopefully, even though I seriously doubt it this early, we'll get some burning answers to our burning questions like....
Is Oz Tate's demon child from AHS: Murder House? Will Ally grow a pair of titanium ovaries and stop screaming? When will Lena Dunham show up? Gaga? Emma Roberts? Finn Wittrock? OMG??? Night, my Witchlings, Wendy, the NOT so good Witch Witchcraft Movies Television TV Witch Witches Mature Themes Ryan Murphy Horror Murder
There are many simple rituals practiced in the house that Katie Karpetz shares with her husband in Edmonton, Alberta, from yoga to herbalism to candle magic. In the morning, she often waits for inspiration to strike before posting a photo or found image to her Instagram feed, and the mood captured will go on to determine her activities for the day. Running her online store, The Witchery, from her home is a mixture of mundane, structured tasks, and more spontaneous and esoteric work. Sometimes she’s tracking, packing, and sending orders for the many hundreds of items she ships out to her customers in twice-weekly mail batches. Other times, she’s tapping into her own experiences and the knowledge contained in her many books on magic to create new blends of oil or incense with mystical properties ("bring luck in a hurry," "use to draw love to you"), or to cast spells on behalf of clients. Karpetz is one of many entrepreneurs blending a passion for the occult with an understanding of e-commerce to capture a share of the new economic activity surrounding witchcraft. “What I sell is basically what I’m interested in,” she says. “My business plan was always just, If I like it and no one else wants to buy it, well then I get to keep it!” It’s a project that has been years in the making, starting as a hobby and slowly developing into a steady source of income. But it’s also something that taps into a trend, which may seem hidden or ubiquitous depending on the circles you frequent: Witchcraft has undeniably become cool again. In the last quarter of 2013, the trend forecasting agency K-Hole published a report that came to define the overriding fashion trend of 2014: normcore. The document argued that young millennials were bored of the advertising industry's doctrine of individualism through brand consumption, and were instead adopting a kind of radical conformity that favored unadorned clothing and knowingly mainstream tastes. As a movement, “normcore” came and went — apparently there is only so long that the fashion world will entertain the idea of no style being a viable style — and two years later, the tastemakers at K-Hole published another report identifying the new cultural trends they had observed: Conformity was out. In its place? Chaos magic. Once again K-Hole was right on the zeitgeist. Individuality was back in, magic was cool, youth brands were making documentaries about covens in Bushwick, and seemingly everyone was carrying crystals. But belief in magic and witchcraft is old, far older than Christianity or any of the Abrahamic religions; it wasn't summoned into being by trend forecasters and it won't die out when the hype is over. So what does it mean in this cultural moment for witchcraft to be be both a spiritual practice and a brand aesthetic? The range of products now marketed as having some connection to witchcraft and the occult is truly vast, and while physical stores selling occult items have had a modest presence in small towns and big cities across North America for decades, online retail has really allowed the trade in all things witchy to take off. It’s now possible to sign up for monthly subscription boxes to deliver spiritual items to your door: The owner of one such business, Goddess Provisions, said her customer base has grown from 300 subscribers to almost 6,000 in the last year and a half. But the real gravitational centre of the online witchcraft economy is Etsy, the marketplace that has revolutionized the way handcraft makers of all kinds list and sell their products online.
A search on Etsy returns just over 28,000 results for the query "witchcraft," ranging from laurel wands to animal bones, leather-bound grimoires to tie-dye sigils. Data provided by the company confirmed that interest in witchcraft-related items has grown significantly, with searches up nearly 30% and purchases increasing by nearly 60% based on figures from 2015 to 2017. (In the past Etsy was involved in a small controversy over banning "metaphysical services" from making claims of efficacy, but the company permits the sale of a range of esoteric goods provided no concrete outcome is promised.) One popular seller in the occult category is Burke & Hare Co., a store selling “darkly inspired” candles and home decorations from a studio in Providence, Rhode Island. The store is a typical part of what could be called the auxiliary industry of occult products: items that are not claimed to be in themselves magical but draw on the general imagery and, according to owner Erica Molitor, are purchased by customers who may well have deeper ties to the lifestyle. "The witchy, occult community is very close-knit, so I have support from a lot of people in the community and other artists who are doing the same thing," Molitor says. “So although half of my candle line is just about the aesthetic, the reason it does so well is because of the community.” In just over five years of operation, Molitor has seen her business grow steadily, a sign that she, like many others, has tapped into a market that is booming, and a potential client base that is larger than you might imagine. In her 2015 book Witches of America, Alex Mar estimates that there are up to 1 million people practising some form of Paganism in the US (which for comparison is only slightly less than the number of Buddhists at 1.2 million). She writes of witches gathering in the deserts of California, the forests of Illinois, apartments in New Orleans, all embodying a wide variety of traditions and lifestyles with deep roots. But Mar's study, which saw her spend time with witches across the country over a number of years, also happened to coincide with a resurgence of interest in witchcraft in popular culture.
"When I started working on [the book], I would talk to people about the project and be met with blank looks," Mar told BuzzFeed News. "Then by the time the book came out, I was being accused of riding a trend. So much had changed in that few years ... There was much more of an appetite for the occult as being a hip thing." Part of this hipness, Mar says, translated into artists or musicians dabbling with the use of occult symbolism in their work (of which the early 2010s musical genre of “witch house” was a precocious but illustrative example), but it has also become an aesthetic that can lend an air of cool to products targeted at consumers with only a passing interest in the lifestyle.The number of Americans practicing various religions.
Surges of interest in witchcraft have happened on a roughly 20-year cycle since the mid-20th century, often corresponding to changing perceptions of women in popular consciousness and new strains of feminist thought. In the 1970s, a boom of interest in the occult throughout the cultural underground dovetailed with a growing recognition of female potency in both creative and sexual terms, and a form of spirituality focused on the Goddess(es) and the divine feminine. Then in the 1990s, movies like The Craft and TV shows like Charmed, Buffy, and of course Sabrina the Teenage Witch tapped into another cultural archetype of the time, portraying witches as women who were independent and quietly powerful, not to mention smarter than the mostly oblivious men in their lives. We’re now seeing another of those high-water marks, spurred on by the hyperconnected world of social media. It’s no surprise then that another witchcraft renaissance is at hand, and one that makes heavy use of the same media to disseminate text and image representations of the craft in a way that speaks to a new audience of digital natives.
The same media that connects witches to one another also connects the subculture to the world of business, brands, and profit, and it is hard to say exactly how long the modern incarnation of witchcraft can hold out against capitalism's rapacious desire to commodify the authentic symbols of rebellion, or the tendency of trends (by definition) to come and go. But if the pattern of past cycles holds true for the future, it won't be the last time that pop culture rediscovers witchcraft — and in the meantime, as interest waxes and wanes like the moon, the witches will be there, waiting. Corin Faife is a freelance journalist covering technology and social issues, based in Montreal, Canada.
Be one of the first to see the next chapter in The Conjuring universe as Bloody Disgusting invites you to several advanced screenings of Annabelle: Creationthis coming Wednesday, July 27th, all taking place @ 7:30 PM.
In Annabelle: Creation, which opens in theaters August 11th: “Several years after the tragic death of their little girl, a dollmaker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home, soon becoming the target of the dollmaker’s possessed creation, Annabelle.”
The full cast includes Stephanie Sigman (Spectre), Talitha Bateman (The 5th Wave), Lulu Wilson (Ouija 2), Philippa Anne Coulthard (After the Dark), Grace Fulton (Badland), Lou Lou Safran (The Choice), Samara Lee (The Last Witch Hunter), Tayler Buck, Anthony LaPaglia (TV’s Without a Trace) and Miranda Otto (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy). Sandberg directed from a screenplay by Gary Dauberman, who also wrote Annabelle.
On the same day Warner Bros. wowed fans with trailers for “Justice League” and “Ready Player One” at Comic-Con, “Wonder Woman” passed “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” to become the highest domestic-grossing film of the summer.
In addition, the estimated $50.5 million opening for Christopher Nolan’s WWII film “Dunkirk” has pushed WB past the $1 billion domestic mark for the 17th consecutive year, a streak longer than any other in Hollywood.
“Wonder Woman” grossed an estimated $4.6 million in its eighth weekend in theaters, bringing its domestic total to $389 million. “Wonder Woman” has shown incredible staying power, currently holding a 3.77x multiple after its $103 million opening. With a worldwide total of $779 million, it has already passed the global run of “Suicide Squad” and the domestic run of “Batman v Superman.” When compared to Marvel movies, “Wonder Woman” ranks sixth domestically between the $387.2 million of “GotG Vol. 2” and the $403 million of the original “Spider-Man.”
Meanwhile, the opening for “Dunkirk” has made WB the third studio in 2017 to cross the $1 billion domestic mark, joining Disney and Universal. According to Box Office Mojo, WB stands in third among all studios this year with a 15.2 percent market share. While the studio suffered a bomb with “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword,” which grossed $39.1 million stateside against a $175 million budget, its domestic totals have been lifted thanks to three big hits.
In addition to “Wonder Woman,” “The Lego Batman Movie” won over comic book fans and family audiences with $175.7 million from its February release, while Legendary’s “Kong: Skull Island” beat expectations with $168 million. “Dunkirk” is likely to continue to boost WB’s stateside numbers, as previous Nolan-directed films like “Interstellar” and “Inception” have posted high multiples.
Next on WB’s slate are two horror films from New Line Cinema: “Annabelle: Creation,” which comes out Aug. 11, and a remake of Stephen King’s “It,” due out Sept. 8. Following that is “Blade Runner 2049” in October and the big DC crossover “Justice League” in November.
One of Gadot’s “Justice League” co-stars joined in.
“You’re a warrior,” said Ezra Miller, who plays the Flash in an upcoming film. “Your ability to cry is what makes you such a warrior. Come join the Justice League whenever you get ready.”
Keller, author of “The Adventures of Danica Dreamer,” said the encounter had a big impact on her little girl.
“These characters matter and can have a huge influence on young people,” Keller wrote on her “Danica Dreamer” Facebook page. “What a great role model and genuine, nice person. My daughter will always remember this moment for the rest of her life.”
It wasn’t just Wonder Woman making an impression. The same footage also briefly showed an excited little boy with tears in his eyes as he met Ben Affleck, current star of the “Batman” franchise as well as “Justice League.”
American Horror Story has its title for season seven which debuts in September.
On Thursday creator Ryan Murphy tweeted it out when he was attending the San Diego, California, Comic-Con convention.
The next installment of the FX anthology series will be American Horror Story: Cult. Previous seasons have been titled Murder House (2011), Asylum (2012), Coven (2013), Freak Show (2014), Hotel (2015) and Roanoke (2016).
New: Season seven of American Horror Story will be called Cult, creator Ryan Murphy (pictured in March) tweeted on Thursday
His big news announcement: Murphy kept it short and sweet with his tweet
The next season will star Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Billie Lourd, Billy Eichner, Cheyenne Jackson, Alison Pill and Colton Haynes.
Earlier this week it was announced Lena Dunham of Girls fame would be joining the cast.
After Ryan tweeted Cult, Paulson tweeted: 'Here we go: AHS7 CULT. Sh-t goes down. Woof.'
Jackson added: '#Scerred.'
Also at the Comic-Con event a video of scary clowns were seen. They were marching together. The clip was tagged AHS7.com.
New look: Here is the logo and a look at the scary clowns in the new video
Spooky stuff: After Ryan tweeted Cult, Paulson tweeted: 'Here we go: AHS7 CULT. Sh-t goes down. Woof'
American Horror Story: Cult debuts on FX on Tuesday, September 5.
American Horror Story is an American anthology horror series created and produced by Murphy and Brad Falchuk (who dated Gwyneth Paltrow).
Each season is conceived as a self-contained miniseries, following a disparate set of characters and settings, and a storyline with its own 'beginning, middle, and end.'
Some plot elements of each season are loosely inspired by true events.
New gig: Earlier this week it was announced Lena Dunham of Girls fame would be joining the cast; seen in May
More ladies: Billie Lourd, left, is also in the cast with Paulson, right
The response to Jodie Whittaker’s casting has been overwhelming. For a series that regularly switches out its central, quasi-immortal character for a new leading actor every few years or so, a certain amount of fandom ferocity was expected. But Whittaker’s announcement was different, because come December, she will be the 50-year-old franchise’s first female lead.
As expected, a certain amount of “furious sexist backlash” greeted Whittaker’s casting, as some uneasy fans balked at the prospect of a long-running male hero suddenly becoming a female one. (Never mind that the Doctor protagonist has switched physical identities a dozen times before this, or that the show itself reflects a fantasy, alien world with far more unbelievable scenarios.) Louder than the detractors, though, was a flood of genuinely ecstatic fans overjoyed by the series’ decision to shunt the usual casting type in favor of a bolder, history-defining decision. Videos of young girls screaming with joy upon seeing Whittaker’s face in BBC promos quickly went viral.
And it wasn’t just young girls who seemed genuinely enlivened by the announcement. Overall, “Doctor Who” ratings had been slipping under star Peter Capaldi, the 12th white man to take on the decades-old hero. A jolt of electricity had seemed necessary for some time. The best way to create one was to introduce something new into the “Who” series ― something guaranteed to satisfy a horde of followers waiting on the edge of their seats for a new anything to complicate their vastly interconnected sci-fi universe. But those young girls’ reactions bottled up the purest kind of response to Whittaker’s casting: After over 800 episodes filled with a male Doctor saving the world, we’re finally going to see a woman ― hailed as more clever than any being in existence, heretofore undefeated against all adversaries, infused with a kind of confidence that only comes with lifetimes of experience ― reigning supreme on the BBC.
We’re mesmerized by stories of limitless imagination, by the notion that anything is possible, but we’re often tethered to them by their characters, especially the ones that remind us of ourselves and our place in the world.
When Rey (Daisy Ridley) first grabbed a lightsaber in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” unabashedly charging at Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) with a weapon viewers had seen only in the hands of men for years, fans watching felt similarly. When Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) catapulted herself through a glass window having just finished cleaning up an entire fight scene on her own, superhero fans used to seeing men commanding battles felt similarly.
When ghostbuster Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) licked her gun before literally whipping a crowd of destructive ghosts into submission, fans felt similarly. Science fiction and fantasy are built on these kinds of fan reflexes: immersed in a story so far-fetched and extraordinary, we explode with goosebumps, butterflies and tears when moments of unmistakable humanity appear abruptly before us. We’re mesmerized by stories of limitless imagination, by the notion that anything is possible, but we’re often tethered to them by their characters, especially the ones that remind us of ourselves and our place in the world.
For decades, it’s been easier for straight, white men to find those characters, as Lukes and Captain Americas and Peter Venkmans stood at the center of profound scenes. When Whittaker brought down her hood to reveal the new face of “Doctor Who,” some women experienced that connection, too. Sci-fi and fantasy have surely had their fair shares of female characters before them (from “Alien” to “X-Files” to “Star Trek” to “Buffy”), but TV shows and movies like “Doctor Who,” “Star Wars,” “Wonder Women” and “Ghostbusters” are lately giving us something relatively new, if not under-explored until now: women-led sci-fi franchises.
When the trailer for Ava DuVernay’s “A Wrinkle in Time” debuted ― the same weekend as Whittaker’s casting announcement ― women, particularly women of color, had another reason to scream for joy. DuVernay took a familiar story, Madeleine L’Engle’s 1960s book about a young girl on an interplanetary adventure, and cast characters coded white in the source material as women of color ― Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling, Storm Reid. “My whole process with this film was, what if?” the director told EW. “With these women, I wondered, could we make them women of different ages, body types, races? Could we bring in culture, bring in history in their costumes? And in the women themselves, could we just reflect a fuller breadth of femininity?” She has, if the movie turns into a franchise, four more adaptable L’Engle books in the series to explore this goal.DuVernay’s focus on “what if” embraces so perfectly the potential for innovation built right into fantasy. It’s one of the elements that drives fans back to the genre, this idea that a boundless universe can help us explore questions reality has yet to answer. (One need only look at how effective Hulu’s women-led “Handmaid’s Tale” has been at driving the concept “what if” closer to the concept of “what now.”) But beyond that, DuVernay recognizes the power of humanity. She recognizes that representation ― the simple idea that every fan deserves to see themselves in characters on screen ― only deepens the connections people form with stories, which make up the very foundation upon which fandom is built.
Calls for expanded representation (including those for queer, trans, disabled people) are, in the end, just appeals to the boundaries of fandom: Let us in. We’ve been watching from the edges for a while now, but we’d like to fall into a world, headfirst and headstrong, the way you can. What you see as a continuity error, a divergence from canon that quakes your understanding of a fictional world, we see as a doorway in, something that you’ve had access to for years.
Whittaker’s casting, like Reid’s and Ridley’s and Gadot’s and McKinnon’s, is a doorway in. There should be more.
![No Thank You [Credit: Shepard Fairey]](https://images.moviepilot.com/images/c_limit,q_auto:good,w_600/rjjazyj50tyu6k4wmy8e/no-thank-you-credit-shepard-fairey.jpg)
The number of Americans practicing various religions.
