Trophies of Victory: Public Building in Periklean Athens
Book
The Greek military victories at Marathon, Salamis, and Plataia during the Persian Wars profoundly...
Imagining the Divine: Art and the Rise of World Religions
Stefanie Lenk, Georgi Parpulov and Jas Elsner
Book
Religion has always been a fundamental force for constructing identity, from antiquity to the...
Darren (1599 KP) rated St. Agatha (2018) in Movies
Oct 2, 2019
Performances – Sabrina Kern in the leading role is great to watch, she brings the broken figure and shows us just how determined she is to make the most out of her life with her child. Carolyn Hennessy does bring us the strict figure required for her role which will show how capable to she to take control of the scenes through the film. the rest of the cast do a solid job throughout, they each get their moment to shine in the film’s story too.
Story – The story follows a young woman who seeks refuge in a convent to help her have her child only to find the convent is being controlled by nuns that don’t always follow the bible when it comes to helping the young women that come to them for help. With this story we do get to give until the personal life of Mary that does have a tragic past and does show how far she has had to go to fix the problems in her life. The main focus is on the convent which does keep us guessing to what the Mother Superior will do next because they want the babies and can’t risk damaging them, but do need to punish the women. We do get elements of the theme around the idea of cults which does play an important factor in just where the film ends up going. We also have women at different stages of pregnancy which shows us and Mary just what will happen to her if she stays.
Horror – The horror in the film follows the events in the convent, we get a mix of hauntings and torture, which are only making Mary look like she is losing her mind.
Settings – The film is set in the convent, we get to see how the locked doors keep people in and just how they are going to be forcing the woman to follow the rules.
Special Effects – The effects in this film are used to show the injuries which aren’t as graphic as they could have been, though they imply horrific injuries given.
Scene of the Movie – The baby is coming.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It could have gone a lot darker that is does go.
Final Thoughts – This is a solid enough horror that uses the themes of religious cults to make the horror seem more realistic and shocking.
Overall: Religious Cult 101
Leigh J (71 KP) rated Midsommar (2019) in Movies
Nov 11, 2019
I have to admit, Ari Aster hasn't had me from the jump. Hereditary in my opinion is a bit beige and "meh", but the Culty look of Midsommar attracted my attention straight away and did not disappoint! It's visually beautiful and the story is actually very tragic and gives you a realistic look as to why and how some people actually do join cults. It's an absolutely mind blowing watch and a Movie that I see myself watching many more times in the future. Well done, Ari Aster!
Brave
Book
"My life, as you will read, has taken me from one cult to another. BRAVE is the story of how I...
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper in Books
Feb 13, 2018
This was a fun book. Written by Hilary Liftin, a celebrity ghostwriter, Lizzie is a really enjoyable and insightful character. The book is clearly supposed to be based on Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. I kept imagining Rob Mars as a creepy twist between Tom Cruise and Rob Lowe, which was a little frightening. The One Cell piece is oddly disconcerting, as it's supposed to be, and made me want to delve more into the weirdness that is Scientology. Lizzie's evolution was fun to read about (I enjoyed, on a personal level, that she had twins) and she remained a realistic and relatable character, despite being elevated to movie star status. It truly makes you think about some of the insanity that movie stars have to go through, especially those that have children. It also gets you thinking about various religious cults and the power they have over people. In the end, probably a 3.5 star book, as it's a quick, fun read, but with a surprising depth behind it in places. After all, in the end, a marriage crumbling is a marriage crumbling, even in Hollywood.
b.Young (97 KP) rated Apocalypticon in Books
Jun 1, 2018
Apocalypticon is a story of two friends in Chicago that somehow survived M-Day, the day the monkey shaped missiles were launched from Jamaica to destroy most of the inhabitants of Earth, only to pack up 3 years later and make a whirlwind trip to visit Disney World, of all places.
Along the way, Patrick and Ben come across some very colorful survivors like Violet, a woman who runs the only bridge out of town like a restaurant: hostess stand, bus boys, wine and all; an Amtrak Captain who happens to be the only one left in the country, that is obsessed with keeping a schedule he never can seem to keep; a futune teller that warns Patrick of his fate; a couple of religious cults, each morbidly twisted in their own way; zombie-like creatures called Runners that snorted their way into the realm of the semi-undead; a gun-toting chick that thinks that the Runners can be cured; and journalist who is trying to make sense of why certain people survived the decimation of 98% of the world's population.
Now, don't get me wrong, there were plenty of action scenes where people and things got effed up, but not so much of the blood and gore that typically goes along with genre.
I surprised myself by actually laughing out loud while reading this...several times, I might add.
I recommend Apocalypticon to anyone who enjoys a good apocalypse story and can accept the hilarity of the situation at hand.
Blue Dahlia, Black Gold: A Journey into Angola
Book
"A rich and fascinating book about an overlooked African powerhouse by a travel writer of rare...
Viet Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present
Book
This book narrates the history of the different peoples who have lived in the three major regions of...
Terra Mystica
Tabletop Game
In the land of Terra Mystica dwell 14 different peoples in seven landscapes, and each group is bound...
Worker Placement Gaia Project