Emperor

Now conspiracy theories are the mainstream’s forte, there’s only one way a magazine on the paranormal can go: rational

I picked up the October issue of the Fortean Times the other day. For half a century, the magazine has been the go-to place for reports of the wildest conspiracy theories, of UFO sightings and poltergeists and frogs falling from the sky. Created by Bob Rickard, a British disciple of Charles Fort, the American investigator of the paranormal, the magazine has always been perfectly pitched somewhere between The X-Files and a parish council newsletter. I enjoyed a subscription for a while, but haven’t read the magazine for a few years.

Returning to it is a curious experience. In the intervening time, the “rational” news world has invaded traditional Fortean territory. Far from being a niche interest, unhinged conspiracy has become something like the political mainstream. Alongside “I was a teenage alien”, the October magazine contains a report into the theories circulating around the two failed assassination attempts against Donald Trump. It is – notably – about as circumspect as any New York Times editorial, warning against the infectious beliefs of the “lone nut fraternity”. Even the far-fetched, it seems, has gone way too far.

Concerns about the growth of self-styled fitness clubs organised by the far right have prompted calls for action to counter misogynistic messaging targeted at young men and boys.

Campaigners want the UK government to recognise the danger presented by so-called “active clubs” – a loose movement imported from the US – and use moments such as a review of the school curriculum to challenge their ideology.

While it has often been careful to avoid direct calls to violence, the decentralised grouping has links to the international far right and has a specific focus on developing members’ fitness with a view to being able to fight.

Thousands of subscribers across Britain are signed up to accounts on Telegram, the encrypted messaging app.

White nationalism, fascist imagery as well as homophobic and misogynistic language feature heavily, while many of the same fitness groups’ Telegram channels have been posting attempts to stir up tensions after the deaths of three young girls in Southport.

A range of active club groups in the UK had upwards of 6,000 subscribers on Telegram while the latest version of a group dedicated to England had almost 1,600 subscribers, a BBC investigation reported this week.

Evidence seen by the Guardian indicates that members of equivalent clubs in the US have travelled to the UK in recent months.

The groups’ relative growth – researchers regard the true number of participants as being a fraction of the thousands of subscribers – comes as more overtly political British far-right groups such as Patriotic Alternative have struggled.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18274702

The archaeologists unearthed structural features and materials dating to the Roman era and the early Medieval period during an excavation at a site near the Holt Roman tile and pottery works in Wrexham, North East Wales.

They also found the structure of an early Medieval longhouse — a long, narrow, building for communal dwelling.

“We were very hopeful of finding evidence of Roman life due to previous discoveries and geophysical surveys in the area, not to mention the presence of the legionary tileworks a few fields away, but did not expect our excavations to uncover what is believed to be an early Medieval longhouse,” said Dr. Caroline Pudney, senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Chester.

“The discovery of a Roman settlement is extremely important in building a bigger picture of Roman Wrexham and although early Medieval longhouses have been found in other parts of Wales, to unearth evidence of such a building in North East Wales is extremely rare.”

The archaeologists unearthed structural features and materials dating to the Roman era and the early Medieval period during an excavation at a site near the Holt Roman tile and pottery works in Wrexham, North East Wales.

They also found the structure of an early Medieval longhouse — a long, narrow, building for communal dwelling.

“We were very hopeful of finding evidence of Roman life due to previous discoveries and geophysical surveys in the area, not to mention the presence of the legionary tileworks a few fields away, but did not expect our excavations to uncover what is believed to be an early Medieval longhouse,” said Dr. Caroline Pudney, senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Chester.

“The discovery of a Roman settlement is extremely important in building a bigger picture of Roman Wrexham and although early Medieval longhouses have been found in other parts of Wales, to unearth evidence of such a building in North East Wales is extremely rare.”

Dakota Fanning is next teaming up with director Bryan Bertino (The Strangers, Dark and the Wicked) for the horror movie Vicious, which has received a new release date today.

Paramount Pictures will release Vicious on February 28, 2025.

The horror film had previously been set for August 8, 2025.

“The plot follows a young woman who must spend the night fighting for her existence as she slips down a disturbing rabbit hole contained inside a mysterious gift from a late-night visitor.”

Kathryn Hunter, Mary McCormack, Rachel Blanchard, and Devyn Nekoda also star

Any horror franchise that sticks around for more than a handful of entries becomes an institution by default. And few long-running horror franchises have provided genre fans with such a rollercoaster as "V/H/S," perhaps because each movie in the series feels like an unpredictable theme park ride in its own sick, twisted, ambitious way.

The first "V/H/S" film, released in 2012, laid out the endlessly adaptable format: a horror anthology consisting of "found footage" shorts, each of them directed by a different filmmaker, with only a thin (if that) thread connecting them all. Really, each "V/H/S" segment is an excuse for a director to cut loose, to run wild, and to tell a brisk, violent, sometimes funny and sometimes disturbing tale of terror. The only real rule is that it has to be found footage, but even that is malleable. Stories in the series are told from camcorders, GoPros, security cameras, smartphones, and so much more. The lack of rules, and the length of leash given to the filmmakers, means that each movie (even the weaker ones) have absurd highs are that worth experiencing.

With the series currently numbering seven entries (the sci-fi horror-themed entry "V/H/S/Beyond" is now streaming on Shudder), the /Film team put their heads together to rank this sometimes inconsistent but always entertaining film series from worst to best. And that was a tough thing to figure out, because yes, even the worst "V/H/S" movie has at least one killer segment that makes you wonder "Wait, should this one be one spot higher on the list?"

You can listen to the creation of this list on this episode of the /Film Daily podcast:

1. V/H/S/2 (2013)
2. V/H/S/94 (2021)
3. V/H/S/Beyond (2024)
4. V/H/S (2012)
5. V/H/S/99 (2022)
6. V/H/S/85 (2023)
7. V/H/S: Viral (2014)

Director Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance is rightfully drawing praise from critics and body horror fans these days. It’s a colorful, creative, and surprisingly entertaining examination of the self-loathing generated by society’s expectations of the female body.

If you’ve heard nothing else about the film so far, you still probably know that it is one of the most violent and disturbing horror movies to come along in quite some time. The internet—or at least the film-obsessed corners of social media—is already filled with stories of people leaving their screenings, vomiting outside the theater, or otherwise finding themselves unable to process what they’ve just witnessed. Such reactions are more than understandable.

But if you were one of those viewers who found themselves intrigued by The Substance and hungry for more, I’ll let you in on a dark secret. The Substance isn’t the most disturbing body horror film out there. It’s barely a blip on the radar in that particular category. If you’re willing to see just how dark that rabbit hole is, then here are some notable body horror movies that put The Substance to shame in terms of sheer audacity.

• The Fly (1986)
• Street Trash (1987)
• Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
• Society (1989)
• In My Skin (2002)
• Taxidermia (2006)
• Teeth (2007)
• The Human Centipede (2009)
• American Mary (2012)
• Swallowed (2022)

Ahead of its Spanish premiere at the 2024 Sitges Film Festival, Shudder have acquired the North American, UK, and Ireland rights to Sasha Rainbow’s satirical body horror Grafted, which will release on the horror streamer on January 24, 2025.

Starring Joyena Sun, Jess Hong, and Jared Turner, Grafted is Rainbow's feature debut, and follows:

… Chinese scholarship student Wei, who travels to New Zealand to study medical research at a prestigious university. Shy, introverted, and hiding a genetic facial birthmark, Wei is shunned by her social butterfly cousin Angela and her glamorous friends.

Determined to change her fate, Wei immerses herself in her late father's research, working on a revolutionary skin grafting procedure that could cure her deformity. As her experiments take a dark turn, she becomes more dangerous and unhinged, willing to eliminate anyone who threatens her secret.

GB News has asked a High Court judge to temporarily block Ofcom from sanctioning it for what the regulator says would be the channel’s 12th breach of its code in less than two years.

The channel is seeking to challenge Ofcom’s provisional decision that a Q&A with then-prime minister Rishi Sunak, which aired on February 12, was a “serious” breach of its rules, and that attempts to adhere to them were “wholly insufficient”.

In a hearing on Thursday, lawyers for the broadcaster said that the regulator had acted unlawfully by finding that the breach was “serious and repeated”, and asked a judge to pause Ofcom’s “sanctions process”, pending it getting the green light to challenge the watchdog’s decision.

An unusual substance found on the necklace of a 3,500-year-old mummy has rewritten part of human history.

Archaeologists say the bizarre jewellery is adorned with what is thought to be the world's oldest cheese. It was found on a body entombed in an ancient burial site in Xinjiang in northwestern China.

Throughout history, humans have been buried with treasures and times of great cultural significance. And archaeologists say the Chinese “cheese necklaces” are a thrilling piece of ancient history that offers an insight into the region’s dairy-producing past during the Bronze Age.

Archive

The two biggest news items in there, I’d say:

Ahsoka saw a decline of 829 million minutes for its debut, around Mando season 3 levels, to 570 million for the rest of its run. But still, season 2 is happening, and it will go into production next year, leaving a sprawling gap between seasons of the show. Almost three years, most likely.

The report says that the Mandalorian and Grogu movie is replacing season 4 of The Mandalorian, rather than joining it, where THR says “it also looks like Disney spent many years and untold capital struggling develop a new Star Wars movie and its best idea was an extra-long episode of a TV show.”

...

The end result on the TV side is…there is literally one show that is still considered to be actively ongoing, Ahsoka, and that second season will arrive almost three years after the first. Andor has season 2 coming but it’s over after that. Skeleton Crew has to perform well to be renewed and we have no idea what it’s budget is.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18243363

A group of wild boar have been spotted wandering past a pub.

The footage was captured outside the Golden Lion in Cinderford, Gloucestershire, on 2 October.

Boar were hunted to extinction 700 years ago, but became established again in the Forest of Dean in the 1990s.

Forestry Commission wildlife rangers monitor numbers in the Forest of Dean each spring and carry out culls, if necessary, to keep the target population to about 400.

The boars have been known to go hunting for food in the local neighbourhoods when foraging becomes harder in the nearby forest.