Ronald.phillips

Netflix has been reserved in promoting their sci-fi thriller "Spiderhead," and after watching the movie, I understand why. Starring Chris Hemsworth in a decidedly not heroic role, the movie is an odd blend of philosophical science-fiction, psychological thriller, and dystopian satire. This is a heady mix that feels designed by director Joseph Kosinski to pursue cult classic status, but whether or not the film will actually succeed in this aim remains to be seen. 

"Spiderhead" is the story of an experimental facility (deemed Spiderhead) where incarcerated felons are used to test experimental pharmaceuticals. The drug trials are run by warden Steve Abnesti (Chris Hemsworth), a scientist as brilliant as he is charismatic. Those at the facility enjoy the freedom to roam the halls of Spiderhead freely; however, this "freedom" is limited. The building is extremely isolated, and prisoners have very little — if any — contact with the outside world. Inmate Jeff (Miles Teller) finds himself at the center of an increasingly disturbing progression of experiments that eventually (and predictable) leads to tragedy.

Kosinski — who also directed the recent hit "Top Gun: Maverick" — designs a captivating world for "Spiderhead." Limiting the action to almost exclusively the facility itself, care went into making the space feel lived-in and realistic while also being claustrophobic and oppressive. There are glimpses of Abnesti's influence everywhere: his '80s playlist echoing through the halls, and splashes of bright yellow and orange on the walls, furniture, and decor; rather than add a friendly note to the surroundings, these serve as chilling reminders to those living in Spiderhead that they are in Abnesti's domain. Sure, these people enjoy privileges not afforded to those in the traditional prison system, but the cost is being completely vulnerable to the whims of a single, egomaniacal man.

Hemsworth Plays An American Psycho

In 2000, Mary Harron — a Canadian critic-turned-filmmaker — confused many people with her satirical thriller "American Psycho." Harron co-wrote the movie with Guinevere Turner, based on the 1991 novel "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis. The story is set in the '80s, using yuppie culture as a lens through which to condemn consumerism. The two women infused the story with a dry, darkly comedic edge that not only honors the novel's anti-capitalist themes and transgressive plot, but also offers a poignant message at the end: as a handsome, affluent, white, cis male, serial killer Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) will never get the punishment he deserves.

"Spiderhead" feels like a spiritual successor to "American Psycho," for better or worse. Steve Abnesti is clearly modeled after Patrick Bateman: his hair, glasses, and classic good looks are reminiscent of Christian Bale's interpretation of the character; his preference for decidedly '80 hits is almost certainly a nod to "American Pyscho's" setting; and, there are hints throughout that — like Patrick Bateman — Abnesti is a sociopath, driven by greed and incapable of empathy. 

Rather than criticize consumerism though, "Spiderhead" is more generally an allegory for abusive relationships, with Abnesti taking the role of abuser and his test subjects, victims. Abnesti presents himself as an affable, kind man, but he expertly manipulates and lies to those around him (including assistant Verlaine, played by Mark Paguio); he knows how to feign sympathy and concern while leveraging the situation for personal benefit. Jeff and Lizzy (Jurnee Smollett) feel powerless in the situation, admitting at one point that more than anything, Abnesti's treatment leaves them feeling ashamed. It's an interesting thesis for a film, but the nature of this topic isn't exactly ripe for satire. 

An Enjoyable Mixed Bag

The performances in "Spiderhead" propel the story forward. Chris Hemsworth — my favorite of the "Hollywood Chrises" — is in top form. Hemsworth steals every scene he's in, allowing Abnesti's dark impulses to simmer under his sexy surface. Smollett and Teller have excellent chemistry onscreen, giving the audience something to root for. Paguio's another standout: his looks of consternation and dismay set up Abnesti's dark turns. Even the most shocking twists are still organic to the story. Having said that, the tone and pacing are uneven; the story is smartly written, and it challenges audiences without being confusing, but the way events are presented and the approach to the content is inconsistent.

Unfortunately, "Spiderhead" lacks some of the bite of its inspiration "American Psycho." The target of satire here is less sharp, with Hemsworth's Steve Abnesti being the clear villain working against Jeff, the film's hero. Often, the film drifts into being a straightforward sci-fi thriller with Jeff and Abnesti working against each other's interests, and Kosinski struggles to balance the humor with earnest pathos. At first watch, it's not really clear what the movie is trying to do: Is it a comedy? A thriller? A message-driven sci-fi with satirical moments? Ultimately, I think the answer is all three. 

"Spiderhead" is a movie that defies conventional genre labels, and while Kosinski isn't always successful in balancing the various elements, I have to admit: this is one hell of a ride. The '80s pop soundtrack is super fun, and the production design consistently interesting. There are plenty of frills, chills and thrills in this tight 106-minute story. By no means a flawless execution, 'Spiderhead" is a compelling story that had me hooked from the opening shot to the closing credits. Fans of sci-fi, satire, and all things weird — this one is for you. 

/Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Read this next: 13 Box Office Bombs That Are Truly Worth A Watch

The post Spiderhead Review: An Odd Blend of Philosophical Sci-Fi, Psychological Thriller, and Dystopian Satire appeared first on /Film.

Folk horror is more than just pagan cults in the British Isles immolating Christians, or Christian cults in the American Midwest crucifying people on corn crosses. The genre is all about the old ways resurfacing. As the summer solstice approaches, and as films like "Men" and "You Won't Be Alone" keep folk horror alive, it seems appropriate, then, to unearth some older recommendations, dating all the way back to 1922, just as we've been doing with our "Year of the Vampire" series.

In recent years, we've examined the original "Wicker Man" and films like it from the 2010s folk horror revival, when "Midsommar" and other movies delivered new adventures in human sacrifice. We've also done a general folk horror ranking, and there's enough overlap between the two lists that you can tell who the usual suspects are by now. With this list, we'll avoid repeating any of the previous picks and instead dive into an all-new selection of folk horror movies from around the globe.

America has its own folk horror tradition, of course, from the urban folklore of "Candyman" to the prairie horror of "The Wind," but part of what makes the genre so rich is the ways in which it offers an ethnography of different places and world cultures. To that end, some of these are lesser-known foreign-language films, and some might challenge preconceived notions of what folk horror is or what it can be. Yet they share similar traits (witches, goats, devils, rural settings, etc.) and a certain abiding pull, like torches in the woods.

If you're still wedded to the modern world, not to worry. In the back half of the list (which is chronological), we'll also jump ahead in time and spotlight some films from the late 2010s and early 2020s.

Häxan (1922)

By turns academic, humorous, and disturbing, "Häxan" is something like a silent documentary that derives fiendish glee from its dramatic reenactments. It's been called an essay film, and the more intertitle-heavy parts do feel like the 1922 equivalent of a PowerPoint on witchcraft and medieval torture devices (via the "Malleus Maleficarum").

Written and directed by Benjamin Christensen, who receives literal butt kisses onscreen as the Devil, "Häxan" posited the forward-thinking idea that the persecutions of women as "witches" down through the ages arose out of fear and misunderstanding of natural phenomena like sleepwalking, kleptomania, and mass hysteria.

"Häxan" is Swedish for "The Witch," and in our interview with Robert Eggers, he revealed that this movie was one of the main influences on his own 2015 film, "The Witch." You can see it when "Häxan" delves into beliefs about witches preying on unchristened children, dancing naked in the Witches' Sabbath, and smearing their backs with flying ointment. Eggers said the film's close-ups also influenced "The Passion of Joan of Arc," which cast Joan (and by extension, other women burned at the stake) as a Christlike victim of priestly/patriarchal forces.

One scene in "Häxan" takes us into a witch's hovel, and it's as if we're visiting the prop department for the folk horror genre to come. Men carry in bundles of sticks ("The Wicker Man"), they unwrap a hand from one ("Blood on Satan's Claw"), there's a skull in the corner ("Hagazussa"), and a woman visits the witch, asking for a love potion ("The White Reindeer," "November"). We also hear of women being thrown into the water to test their guilt ("Witchfinder General").

Don't be shocked like Pixar fans when "Häxan" ends with the word "slut." It happens to mean "The End" in Swedish.

The White Reindeer (1952)

At 68 minutes, "The White Reindeer" is a short sleigh ride, but it's one you won't soon forget. It begins with a Finnish folk song about a woman "born a witch, evil in her belly." The film that unfolds from there bears the hallmarks of a nascent genre in which the sacred feminine would serve as a source of both desire and danger.

Mirjami Kuosmanen plays Pirita, who meets a reindeer herder and falls in love with him, only to find herself stuck waving goodbye and playing the neglected wife while he's off on his roundups in snowy Lapland (home of Santa Claus and pagan antler monuments). The unmistakable trappings of proto-folk horror begin to mount when Pirita consults a Sámi shaman. He's got a goat hanging out with him, and for his love potion to take effect, she needs to sacrifice the first living thing she encounters on her way home to the stone god.

The winning creature turns out to be a white reindeer fawn Pirita's husband had given her. Upon sacrificing it, she herself starts transforming into a reindeer, luring men to their deaths in Evil Valley.

Pirita is often described as a vampire or vampiric, but she can withstand sunlight and see herself in the mirror, and in fact, she rather enjoys admiring her fanged reflection. In the movie, the locals refer to her as "the white witch reindeer," which would seem to characterize her as something akin to a Navajo skin-walker (a witch that can morph into animals). With the way the full moon appears to trigger her transformations, she comes across as more of a were-reindeer, among the same class of therianthropes as werewolves and werecats. She might have made a better Mrs. Krampus instead.

Onibaba (1964)

The first image in "Onibaba," the title of which translates as "demon hag," is a windswept field of susuki (pampas grass), where the camera soon reveals a deep hole in the ground. Text informs us its "darkness has lasted since ancient times." By the end, it will come to signify the hole in the human heart, as a disfigured person leaps over it, shouting, "I'm a human being!"

During Japan's 14th-century period — a time of civil war when there are "two emperors" — an unnamed woman and her daughter-in-law are left to subsist as countryside bandits, stealing lives, weapons, and armor, and trading them for millet so they have something more to eat than dog meat. When a neighbor returns from the war with news of her son's death, the woman is forced to watch as he rejects her own advances and seduces her daughter-in-law.

Written and directed by Kaneto Shindo, "Onibaba" gives a few early intimations of horror, as the neighbor talks of strange things happening in Kyoto: horses giving birth to calves, and the sun rising black in the sky. The woman also tries to spook her daughter-in-law with stories of jigoku (hell), where a sinner like her might go for sleeping with her dead husband's friend. However, this isn't enough to stop the girl from sneaking out at night to the tune of jazzy taiko drumming and running through the reeds to meet her new lover, who insists "there is no Buddha" to mete out divine punishment.

The real horror comes when a samurai shows up one night wearing a demonic Hannya mask, which he refuses to take off. In Japanese Noh theater, the mask would evoke female jealousy, an emotion that does come into play in "Onibaba" — to gruesome results.

Witchfinder General (1968)

Directed by Michael Reeves, who died shortly after the film's release at the age of 25, "Witchfinder General" is the first of three movies that have come to be regarded as the Unholy Trinity of British folk horror (the other two being "Blood on Satan's Claw" and "The Wicker Man"). Released stateside as "The Conqueror Worm," it begins with a cold open that epitomizes the genre and terror of human history. A bucolic scene of sheep grazing and birds chirping is juxtaposed with a woman's wailing, as a mob of villagers leads her out to be hanged in the rolling green hills.

Like "Onibaba," this film is set during a civil war — the one in England. Vincent Price stars as Matthew Hopkins, a witch-hunter whose torture methods include pricking people's backs in search of Satan's mark and subjecting them to swimming tests. If they bleed and if they drown, they're not witches, but they still suffer and die. Patrick Wymark, who starred as The Judge in "Blood on Satan's Claw," cameos as Oliver Cromwell.

British film censors saw the "Witchfinder General" script as "a study in sadism." "Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched" drew a connection between the scene where children roast potatoes in a woman's ashes and the opening scene of "The Wild Bunch," where kids watch ants devour a scorpion.

Here, the tropes of the genre were not yet fully formed, so the irrational forces of folk horror encroach on pockets of civilization, but they only hold partial reign. In fact, they themselves are threatened by agents of the military order. What's interesting about "Witchfinder General" is it shows soldiers fighting back against the evils of Hopkins and his partner, as if to restore the rightful social structure and overcome medieval brutality with modernity.

Wake In Fright (1971)

Folk horror films often begin with an establishing shot of the natural landscape. "Wake in Fright" goes all in on that, with the camera giving a 360-degree view of the Australian Outback, surrounding a desolate outpost that consists of only a schoolhouse, a hotel, and a single line of train tracks leading in and out of town.

Gary Bond stars as a schoolteacher whose financial bond with the government leaves him tethered to it as an indentured public servant. En route to Sydney for the holidays, he gets waylaid in the big little town of Bundanyabba. Here, Donald Pleasence and other men gather in bustling beer halls, get sucked into the gambling pit, and bond their fates to coin tosses.

Locals call it "the Yabba" and describe it as a "friendly place," but their "aggressive hospitality," as Bond's character terms it, is the type that has them asking, "New to the Yabba?" and "What about another beer?" before you've even sipped the one in your hand. Talking like a clever bloke breeds tension, and for some, the only way out of this Ozploitation land of the Lotus-eaters is by opting out of this life altogether.

Of all the films on this list, "Wake in Fright" is the one that most fits the "Wicker Man" mold of an outsider facing peril in a secluded community. Yet it departs from the focus on the feminine and instead plunges the viewer into a sun-baked masculine hell. ("All the little devils are proud" of it.)

Controversial for its footage of a real, nightmarish kangaroo hunt, "Wake in Fright" was once a lost film. John Scott's music keeps it bouncing along like an otherworldly excursion, employing instruments such as the ondes Martenot (which would later provide the spectral sounds of "Ghostbusters").

Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)

In "Picnic at Hanging Rock," British colonialism meets the untamed Aussie wild, and characters bring the folk horror home with them. Adapting Joan Lindsay's 1967 novel, Peter Weir — who would go on to direct such films as "Dead Poets Society" and "The Truman Show" — flips the genre script by having a group of schoolgirls and teachers take a field trip to the countryside. The group isn't physically stranded there like the protagonist in fellow Australian New Wave film "Wake in Fright," but some will go missing in the crevices of a rock formation, never to return, while others will remain mentally marooned there in the aftermath of the visit.

At the core of "Picnic at Hanging Rock" is the unsolved mystery of the disappearance of three girls and one teacher, and the destabilizing effect this has on their community as they are, to quote "Häxan," "confronted with something incomprehensible." The disappearance happens on Valentine's Day 1900, as if it's an affair of the heart, and its sheer inexplicability holds the potential to unravel even the stern headmistress' composure.

Hanging Rock is a place beyond the limits of human understanding, where watches stop ticking and time has no meaning. The rock provides an encounter with metaphysical chaos, with the girls stripping off their tight corsets and the social constraints that governed them at boarding school and entering the realm of the unanswerable and unknowable.

"Picnic at Hanging Rock" was an influence on "The Virgin Suicides" and HBO's "The Leftovers," the latter being a show where the song "Let the Mystery Be" played like a statement of theme over the season 2 opening credits. Like "Black Narcissus," this is a film where the strain between Nietzsche's Apollonian and Dionysian forces causes some to self-destruct.

November (2017)

You know how the commercial holiday of Halloween was born from the tradition of the spirits of the dead returning to their old homes on Earth? Well in "November," they wear white, and the whole village turns out to meet them as they make their ghostly procession in through the woods for All Souls Day.

It's a village that exists somewhere in the Venn diagram between Estonian mythology and offbeat Lynchian humor. Imagine if the Woodsman from the black-and-white episode of "Twin Peaks: The Return" had wandered off to Northern Europe and transformed into a pestilence of greed among 19th-century peasants.

Ghosts chewing on drumsticks are just one of the supernatural goings-on in Rainer Sarnet's film, which is based on a 2000 novel by Andrus Kivirähk. "November" begins with a kratt, a creature made of household tools and animal bones, wheeling across the ground, breaking down the barn door, stealing a cow, and then helicoptering away. Kratts, which sometimes take other eccentric forms, like that of a poetic snowman, gain sentience only after their master has gone out to the crossroads at night to make a blood pact with the devil. He's in this, too, as a rather buffoonish character who doesn't take kindly to being tricked.

"November" has it all. There's also a werewolf and a good old-fashioned fairytale love triangle at the heart of it. "The plague" can be a woman who needs to cross the swamp, or it can be a goat that gets confused and thinks people have two rear-ends when they put their pants on their head. Mart Taniel's Tribeca-winning cinematography grounds the weirdness in exquisite images, even as the stark setting upends folk horror conventions and leaves one spirit asking, "What flowers will you pick in November?"

Luz: The Flower Of Evil (2019)

At a time when too many movies and TV shows are draped in darkness, to the point where the viewer needs to adjust the brightness settings on their screen, "Luz: The Flower of Evil" makes an immediate impression with its vibrant, oversaturated colors. Juxtaposing rainbows, religion, and surreal mystical qualities with yet another lurking goat and a family in an isolated cabin, this Spanish-language film could be described as Alejandro Jodorowsky by way of "The Witch." There's also a drift toward Terrence Malick stylings in its reliance on whispery voice-overs and magic-hour vistas.

A hypocritical patriarch known only as El Señor lives a cultish life with his three daughters, only one of whom is related to him by blood. Like a televangelist-turned-mountain man, he believes a tape deck holds the devil's music and tends to make promises about the second coming. In this case, it's the Jesus-reincarnated-as-a-child type, with the mute kid acting as a blank canvas for projected beliefs.

The girls are at their most angelic, almost sirenlike, when bathing below a waterfall. But at the center of the movie is a fixation on the idea of good confused with evil and the coexistence or "cohabitation" of the two forces within people.

In terms of what happens onscreen, "Luz: The Flower of Evil" is a strange, rather oblique film: often meditative, occasionally eventful. Colombian writer-director Juan Diego Escobar Alzate prefers to use dialogue as the delivery system for his familiar folk horror themes, as if to simulate sermons through narration. Femininity and nature overthrow masculine oppression and its behavioral constructs. This is an international co-production; it has 10 different countries behind it, though it premiered in Spain at the Sitges Fantastic Film Festival before debuting on Shudder in 2020.

The Medium (2021)

Writer-director Na Hong-jin threaded a knotty nightmare with "The Wailing," a film that danced and drummed itself into a crescendo with an unforgettable shaman exorcism scene that proved South Korean villages were prime for folk horror. "The Medium" began life as a potential sequel anchored to that film's shaman, before Na decided to disconnect it from "The Wailing" and uproot the action to somewhere outside Korea, "a place where it rains a lot with a dense forest."

Acting as co-producer, he handed the original story off to director Banjong Pisanthanakun and other writers, who settled on the misty mountains and rice fields of Isan, a region in Northeast Thailand. "The Medium" starts out as a documentary about Nim (Sawanee Utoomma), whose family has spent generations channeling the ancestral goddess Ba Yan as shamans and mediums. Nim's sister was in line to be the next one, but she rejected her animistic birthright and converted to Christianity.

When Nim's adult niece, Mink (Narilya Gulmongkolpech), begins sending off bad vibes, hanging protective turmeric in her closet, picking fights on kiddie slides, and acting out in transgressive ways, Nim comes to believe she's possessed, perhaps because Ba Yan wants her as a vessel or because her dead brother and a family curse on her father's side have come back to haunt her.

"The Medium" isn't as deep or well-executed as "The Wailing." Its night-vision, found-footage, hold-the-camera-while-dying aesthetic sometimes feels a little schlocky, as if "Paranormal Activity" had spawned another Asian sidequel like "Tokyo Night." And whereas dog meat only received a passing mention in "Onibaba," here it's present in more than one way. However, the film has some creepy moments before it descends into third-act pandemonium, and the selling points here are the regional actors and setting.

Lamb (2021)

Between "Lamb" and "You Won't Be Alone," folk horror could have a new reigning May Queen in Noomi Rapace. But she's not the one wearing a crown of flowers in this movie.

"Lamb" begins with a Christmas night prologue in which horses literally turn tail and run as the POV of some rough beast slouches toward a barn instead of Bethlehem. We're on a remote Icelandic farm, where a childless married couple lives. The wife is named María, and the husband does carpentry, for good measure. One of their goats soon gives birth to an unnatural creature, leading them into an absurd living arrangement that sees María's brother-in-law speaking for the viewer, asking, "What the f*** is this?"

Co-written by Sjón ("The Northman") and Valdimar Jóhannsson in his feature-length directorial debut, "Lamb" is filled with quiet spaces. It's not until 10 minutes into the movie that the characters really say anything. Their first meal conversation — about the latest news in theoretical time travel — is a good example of dialogue that is more about what's left unsaid. It leaves the audience to surmise that María has some sort of regret, a thing she wishes she could go back and change.

Outside forces seem intent on disrupting her ephemeral happiness and returning her to a state of unresolved grief. When you steal from nature, it may demand bloody retribution, and when you watch an A24 film, it may contain sheep or billy goats.

"Lamb" is mostly a three-hander, similar to "Onibaba." It just goes to show that not every slice of folk horror need be about a pastoral community overpowering the individual. Sometimes the genre is just about a person coming up against the larger elemental forces that such communities represent.

Read this next: The 13 Best Movies About The Devil Ranked

The post Folk Horror World Tour: 10 International Titles from the Last 100 Years appeared first on /Film.

If there's one title you're sure to find on just about every list of the all-time best comic books out there ... it's "Watchmen," because best-of lists tend to be kind of predictable and boring that way (at least the non-chaotic ones are). But just as there's value in reading Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' famous deconstruction of the superhero genre anyway, you should also seek out the other graphic novel we nerds love to go on and on about: Neil Gaiman's original run of "The Sandman." 

Crafted by Gaiman in collaboration with a variety of talented comic book artists from 1989 to 1996, "The Sandman" is truly as layered and lyrical an attempt to grapple with the enormous complexities of existence, love, death, and dreams as any other graphic novel out there. Of course, if you're reading this, there's also a fair chance you've been told as much so many times that you're either scared to read it now for fear it can't possibly live up to all the hype, never had the time to make your way through Gaiman's tome (which spans 75 issues collected in 10 volumes), or gave up after being underwhelmed by its earlier chapters. Plus, with the live-action TV adaptation headed to Netflix, why bother at this stage?

These are all valid points. "The Sandman" is clunky starting out, and there's a lot of it to get through — and who the heck has that kind of leisure time these days other than the Endless, if even them? Still, as is usually the case with Gaiman's work (and, as Death might tell you, life itself), "The Sandman" is more about the journey than the destination. And the journey of reading Gaiman's daunting, dazzling, boundlessly imaginative saga is as unique to the comic book medium as they come.

Humble Beginnings

"The Sandman" centers on Dream, the personification of dreams and a shape-shifting entity who's gone by many other names across eternity, most notably Morpheus. To quote Neil Gaiman's proposal for the comics from 1987 (which is featured in "The Absolute Sandman, Volume 1"):

He is not alive in the way we would understand living, nor could he ever die in the way we understand death. He exists because, since the first living being existed in the universe, there have been dreams, and in some obscure way, someone was needed to represent, personify, and control them.

Dream's real-world origins are, admittedly, less poetic. It began with Gaiman writing a treatment to reboot a 1970s DC Comics property called "The Sandman." Co-created by the legendary Jack Kirby, the series centers on the titular superhero, who battles monsters intent on attacking children through their nightmares. To his pleasant surprise, however, Gaiman would instead get the go-ahead to pen a brand-new comic under the same title.

For as different as these two versions of "The Sandman" would prove to be with time, Dream was not unlike a superhero himself starting out. Case in point, the first volume of "The Sandman" comics, "Preludes & Nocturnes," begins with Dream escaping captivity after being held captive for decades by a group of occultists who mistook him for his sister, Death. Upon finding that his kingdom, the Dreaming, has fallen into ruin in his absence, Dream sets out on a quest to recover three totems that are essential to his power in the hopes of rebuilding his domain. When you get down to the heart of the story, it's as basic a hero's journey as they come (albeit brought to life with Gaiman's elegant prose, coupled with his rich sense of horror and dark, disturbing fantasy).

Death And Nightmares

Reading them now, you get the sense that Neil Gaiman hadn't entirely figured out what he was aiming for with the earliest issues of "The Sandman," much less what his comics are about in a larger sense. Besides going a little overboard on the quasi-edgelord horror, these are the issues that play the most with the idea of Dream occupying the same reality as other major DC characters, to often clumsy results (save for John Constantine, who's gotten a fitting "upgrade" in "The Sandman" TV show). It's why there's an almost meta quality to the very last issue of "Preludes & Nocturnes," an epilogue in which Death shows up for the first time and pulls her brother out of the funk he's been in since completing his quest to regain his full powers. She pushes him to find a new purpose and even chucks a loaf of bread at the gloomy oaf's head for good measure.

Gaiman, like Dream, took her advice and ramped up the world-building with the next set of issues (collected in "The Doll's House"), introducing the other members of Dream's ageless family (the Endless) along with key characters who would show up again and again in future stories (Queen Nada, Rose Walker, Hob Gadling), and a rather gnarly living nightmare in the form of the Corinthian (watch out for his eyes!). This is also where Dream's personal odyssey evolves from the material (collecting MacGuffins to drive the plot) to the existential, as he takes his first steps towards atoning for the many mistakes he's made across eternity while pondering that question all us mortals have to wrestle with at some point: Can I change for the better? In doing so, "The Sandman" goes from being full of promise to fully realizing its potential.

What Dreams May Come

"Dream Country," the third volume of "The Sandman," finds Neil Gaiman evolving the very narrative fabric of his comic book series. Comprised of four short stories, these issues deconstruct the basic idea of what a "dream" even is and how the stories we tell about ourselves and our past can become more "real" than whatever actually happened. This, in turn, is where Gaiman begins to weave real-world mythologies into the tapestry of "The Sandman," uncovering new meaning in elements of classic Greek tragedy, transforming Element Girl from obscure DC superhero to a heart-breaking embodiment of the human experience, and even going so far as to make William Shakespeare a vital player in the saga of Dream.

Gaiman's ambitions only grow from there. Later issues of "The Sandman" forgo a linear path in favor of a winding yet pointed trajectory. They also embrace ever-more-challenging subject matter, tackling what were, for their time, landmark queer stories and enriching what once seemed like trivial plot points and characters from issues past. The various trials and tribulations of Dream's dysfunctional family (or, as Gaiman might put it, "family") thusly become potent metaphors for our own earthly troubles. Themes about the fluidity of gender and identity and the never-ending struggle to find meaning in a finite universe only take on greater significance and poignance thanks to the presence of the Endless and the residents of The Dreaming.

The further along you delve into "The Sandman," the more the series begins to take on a distinct shape narratively. Every tangent or standalone subplot comes back around at some point, right down to those pesky DC Comics cameos from early on. It why the experience of reading Gaiman's comics as a whole is far more rewarding than trying to cherry-pick the best sections.

Elusive Dreams

Just as there are things a TV show can do that a comic book cannot (like turn your favorite characters into figures made of flesh and blood), Neil Gaiman is deliberate in the way he uses the comics medium to serve the stories of "The Sandman." The idea that Dream is never the same thing to any two living beings, and all which that implies, comes across beautifully over the course of the comics as different artists create their personal visions of Dream, the Endless, and the very act of Dreaming. The look and shape of these things ebb and flow depending on who's drawing them, with no two interpretations exactly alike. It's a quality that simply cannot be fully replicated or carried over into a live-action format, even with the digital tools available today.

This then asks a big question: Can the "Sandman" TV show ever hope (Dream?) of reaching and perhaps even surpassing the heights of its source material, flaws and all? For all the advantages it has (namely, being able to modernize aspects of the comics that haven't aged so well), that's quite the tall order. Gaiman's graphic novels grow ever more complex and meticulous in their design over time, in ways that parallel the trajectory of revered TV series like "The Wire." If that's not incentive enough to give "The Sandman" comics a shot however the TV show fares, then, well, like Destruction, I take leave of my post.

"The Sandman" TV series will premiere on Netflix on August 5, 2022. Gaiman's comic books are available to purchase from a variety of outlets, and might even be available to borrow from your local library. That's how I first read them many years ago, and I'd like to think Gaiman would be pleased to know that.

Read this next: The 15 Best Batman: The Animated Series Episodes

The post Why You Need to Read Neil Gaiman's The Sandman Before the Netflix Series appeared first on /Film.

Bethesda’s open-world, space RPG Starfield will allow you to get a mortgage, harking back to the debt-ridden days of The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall – or more recently, Animal Crossing.

Summer Games Fest has given us a lot of tantalising new details about Starfield. It will have 1000 planets you can freely explore. You can customise your ship and have dogfights. There’s a photo mode, to capture the universe in all its glory. But what Bethesda didn’t mention – but that you can spot, if you pay eagle-eyed attention to the trailer for the game’s character creation screen – is that when you select your background trait, one of the options, ‘starter home’, lumps you with a 50,000 credit mortgage. Wow! Space debt!

Of course, you get something nice for your money – 'a small house on a peaceful little moon', according to the in-game description. But you’ll owe it all to the frankly sinister-sounding ‘GalBank’. We can only speculate what happens if you don’t make your payments, although ‘Space Bank Manager’ does sound like it would make for a pretty good boss fight.

RELATED LINKS: Starfield release date, Best space games, Elder Scrolls 6 release date

"You know, we are living in a world where a tiny percentage of people are preying on everybody else."

submitted by /u/ColinLab [link] [comments]

Windows and Linux systems are being targeted by a ransomware variant called HelloXD, with the infections also involving the deployment of a backdoor to facilitate persistent remote access to infected hosts. "Unlike other ransomware groups, this ransomware family doesn't have an active leak site; instead it prefers to direct the impacted victim to negotiations through Tox chat and onion-based

A new Elden Ring patch is now live on PC and consoles, bringing some changes for New Game Plus, PC-specific tweaks and additions, performance improvements, and more.

The 1.05 patch New Game Plus changes make it so that select Bell Bearing Items will be available on a new playthrough from the start. Additionally, the patch added emphasis to the choice of the Sacred Flask and several other options that can be improved in the grace menu as well as sound effects when other players' summon signs appear.

Elden Ring Patch 1.05 Additional elements

• In transactions with the NPC "Twin Maiden Husk", the following Bell Bearing items have been changed so that their liberated status will be carried over to the NG+ play.
• Bone Peddler's Bell Bearing/Meat Peddler's Bell Bearing/Medicine Peddler's Bell Bearing/Gravity Stone Peddler's Bell Bearing/Smithing-Stone Miner's Bell Bearing/Somberstone Miner's Bell Bearing/Glovewort Picker's Bell Bearing/Ghost-Glovewort Picker's Bell Bearing
• Added emphasis to the choice of the Sacred Flask and several other options that can be strengthened in the grace menu
• Added sound effects when other players' summon signs appear

The new Elden Ring patch also introduces some PC-specific additions and changes, such as changes for keyboard and mouse controls, a "Return to Desktop" option on the main menu, and more.

Additions and modifications for PC version only

• Added keyboard/mouse operations that can be input in "PRESS ANY BUTTON" on the title screen.
• Added "Return to Desktop" to the system item on the main menu for exiting the game.
• Changed so that mouse click input is not reflected when switching windows to active.
• Fixed a bug that slowed performance when changing "Screen Mode" and "Resolution" in a special procedure.

The Elden Ring 1.05 patch also introduces plenty of bug fixes and performance improvements on all platforms which you can find detailed below.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug where equipment could be changed from the equipment menu during the use of a skill under certain circumstances.
• Fixed a bug in the "War Cry" skill where the effect was applied to a weapon that was not the target of the skill.
• Fixed a bug where some actions of the "Barbaric Roar", "War Cry", and "Troll's Roar" recovery time was longer than expected.
• Fixed a bug where the effects of the "Determination" and "Royal Knight's Resolve" skill does not always wear off with certain weapons.
• Fixed a bug in which some attacks of the "Ice Spear" skill are unguardable.
• Fixed a bug that caused the attack power of some skills to be reduced when using the "Golden Vow" skill.
• Fixed a bug that the light wave of the "Moonlight Greatsword" skill sometimes does not aim at the locked-on target.
• Fixed a bug that caused damage to allies when using the "Seppuku" skill under certain circumstances.
• Fixed a bug that caused the increase in attack power of the "Seppuku" skill to be higher than expected for some attack motions.
• Fixed a bug in which a status effect was applied when using the "Hoarah Loux's Earthshaker" skill.
• Fixed a bug where the "Waves of Darkness" skill would not hit the enemy with a spinning cleave.
• Fixed a bug that caused unintended motions to be played when switching to a different sorceries or incantations while using a sorcery or incantation.
• Fixed a bug that the FP consumption increased when using the sorceries "Magma Shot" and "Roiling Magma" while riding a horse.
• Fixed a bug where the “Claw Talisman” effect was not applied when jumping with the "Starscourge Greatsword" in both hands.
• Fixed a bug that the power of two-handed attacks except jump attack of the weapon "Golem's Halberd " is different from expected.
• Fixed a bug that when using the weapon "Pulley Crossbow" with the left hand while the right hand weapon was given an attribute by magic or item, the effect was given to the "Pulley Crossbow" as well.
• Fixed a bug in which arrows and bolts that did not match the type of long-range weapon could be released in certain procedures.
• Fixed a bug in which guard boost was reduced when some weapons were strengthened to the maximum.
• Fixed a bug in which the attributes of weapons could be changed while the inventory had reached its maximum capacity and the ashes of war could not be changed.
• Fixed a bug that caused the boss "Malenia, Goddess of Rot" to have low HP under certain circumstances.
• Fixed a bug that allowed enemies to be attacked from outside the fog in certain areas.
• Fixed a bug in online multiplayer where, when a boss is defeated in the host's world as a cooperative player, the same boss may not appear in your world.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the battle with the boss "God-Devouring Serpent" from progressing under certain circumstances.
• Fixed a bug that prevented hostile NPCs from appearing under certain circumstances.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the event of the NPC "Alexander, Warrior Jar" from progressing under certain circumstances.
• Fixed an issue where the item "Sacred Flask" is not restored after destroying a group of enemies under certain circumstances.
• Fixed a bug that under certain circumstances, after defeating the boss "Starscourge Radahn", the user could not move from the map to the grace.

*If you cannot move from the map to the grace, you can move to the grace by touching the grace "Starscourge Radahn”.

• Fixed a bug that prevented found sites of grace from registering on the map under certain circumstances.
• Fixed a bug that prevented some graces from being able to be touched when approached under certain circumstances.
• Fixed a bug that allowed hostile guests to enter boss areas under certain circumstances.
• Fixed a bug that prevented a critical hit from behind from hitting in hostile multiplayer.
• Fixed a bug that caused performance to slow down when the "Sentry's Torch" weapon was equipped under certain circumstances.
• Improved stability of online multiplayer between PS4 and PS5
• Improved loading times for the Xbox Series X|S version
• Fixed a bug that the master volume setting was not reflected in some cutscenes
• Improved stability of online multiplayer.
• Fixed a bug that caused sounds to play differently than expected in some situations.
• Fixed a bug that caused the player to become inoperable and die in certain locations.
• Fixed a bug in which the drawing and hit detection were different than expected in some maps.
• Fixed a bug in some maps that allowed players to reach unexpected locations with certain procedures.
• Fixed some texts.
• Several other performance improvements and bug fixes

Elden Ring is now available on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and Xbox One worldwide.

The post Elden Ring Patch 1.05 Introduces Changes for New Game Plus, PC-Specific Additions, Performance Improvements and More by Francesco De Meo appeared first on Wccftech.

This patch builds on TeamX's 1.3.5 update, adding sfall and a couple of other fixes.

"Two CEOs on a podcast casually proposed a shareable database of worker performance that would follow them between companies, forever, and encouraged listeners to create one," writes Slashdot reader merauder128 , summarizing a recent article on Vice. "HR professionals say it's a terrible idea." Vice points out the podcast both the host and guest were CEOs of "data harvesters that package and resell data to other parties." Through one lens, it was a mundane musing between two CEOs of data companies talking about how awesome it would be to have more data on something. But in the context of experiments occurring in the tech industry around hiring practices, it was two influential CEOs encouraging other entrepreneurs to create a business that would be an absolute nightmare for workers, a type of credit score for workers that could be a permanent HR file that follows workers from one job to the next, and where a worker who struggles at one job may have trouble getting another.... It is also in line with a growing trend among tech companies that, spurred by work-from-home and hybrid work, are increasingly interested in quantifying employee performance. The most prominent example is Coinbase introducing an app so employees can constantly rate each other's performances, a scenario even the normally cheery TechCrunch said "sounds rough." Over the last several years, there has been a boom in employee management software solutions such as Workday, Lattice, CultureAmp that are used across thousands of companies for performance reviews and other sensitive HR tasks. Technologically speaking, what Youakim and Hoffman are talking about is opening those confidential resources — or some condensed version of them that can be easily digested and analyzed — up to everyone. None of these HR software companies have indicated that they have any intention of doing this. The article warns that experts who have studied hiring extensively believe a permanent database database "would allow this complete, random mess to follow workers their entire careers, affecting their job prospects, earning potential, and their broader lives." And the article summarizes a reaction to the idea from John Hausknecht, a professor of human resources at Cornell University. "It assumes people don't change, that jobs require similar attributes, that a person's experience at one company is relevant to another where they will be in a different environment with a different manager and different company culture.... "Or, to put it a different way, 'Just because we can track it, collect it, and ask about it,' Hausknecht said, 'doesn't necessarily mean we should.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase for 2022 has now wrapped, bringing plenty of trailers and announcements for upcoming games on Xbox and PC. The rule for this showcase, as outlined early on, is that every game shown will launch within the next 12 months. What the future will actually hold remains to be seen, but Xbox certainly sound optimistic at least. With Starfield, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Diablo IV, and much more shown at the event, there’s plenty to cover. Let's get started then, shall we? Here's a reminder of every announcement and trailer from the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022.

Read more

Still no release date

Nightdive Studios' System Shock remake was shown today at the PC Gaming Show, with a surprise appearance from classic game designer Warren Spector. He mused on how primitive the old UI was for the original, and the "unfortunate" nature of the modern era not really seeing the influence of System Shock.

He also told PC Gamer the following:

"I think of myself, as much as anything, as a relentless advocate for a particular kind of game, the genre we call immersive simulation. Games that are designed to let the player feel—basically force the player to feel—like it's them in the world, with as few distractions and 'game-y' things as possible. System Shock was really, at the time, the most advanced version of that, and I can't tell you how much the team is responsible for that."

It's still due out on PC, PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Xbox Series X. Keeping in time with every reveal so far, there is no release date in sight for it! If we eventually get a release date, or even a real window for this thing, it just wouldn't be a System Shock remake trailer.

PC Gaming Show System Shock trailer and brief talk with Warren Spector:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06lOzXU1F_M

Just the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2b1zQkYsyM

The post Finally, another look at System Shock, with Warren Spector, no less appeared first on Destructoid.

A new adventure from some of the community's best modders

Valve's catalog has been modded again and again, and has even given birth to iconic titles like Garry's Mod and The Stanley Parable. Now the modding community is taking on the studio's most recent release, Half-Life: Alyx, to build on the game's world and characters and deliver a whole new narrative adventure. It's called Half-Life Alyx: Leviathan, and we got a full eight-minute gameplay demo during today's PC Gaming Show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WE1qf3Z_-s

We got a look at some close encounters, tense shootouts, and even a brief cameo by the ever-iconic Gordon Freeman. Leviathan looks indistinguishable from the real Half-Life: Alyx experience, and it looks like it's shaping up to be a must-play for anyone with a VR headset.

The project was created by modders FMPONE and Corey Laddo, and is set to release sometime in 2022 on Steam.

The post Ambitious Half-Life: Alyx mod Leviathan brings a whole new adventure appeared first on Destructoid.

A panel at this week's RSA Conference argued that 90% of security buyers aren't getting the efficacy from their products that vendors claim they can deliver. Slashdot reader storagedude writes: Joe Hubback of cyber risk management startup ISTARI led both the panel and the study, which was based on in-depth interviews with more than a hundred high-level security officials, including CISOs, CIOs, CEOs, security and tech vendors, evaluation organizations and government organizations. Hubback said that "90% of the people that I spoke to said that the security technologies they were buying from the market are just not delivering the effect that the vendors claim they can deliver. Quite a shocking proportion of people are suffering from technology that doesn't deliver." A number of reasons for that product failure came out in the panel discussion, according to eSecurity Planet, but they can be boiled down to some key points: - Cybersecurity buyers are pressed for time and most don't test the products they buy. "They're basically just buying and hoping that the solutions they're buying are really going to work," Hubback said. - Vendors are under pressure from investors to get products to market quickly and from sales and marketing teams to make aggressive claims. - On top of those pressures, it's difficult to architect tools that are effective for a range of complex environments – and equally difficult for buyers to properly assess these "black box" solutions. Those conditions create an information asymmetry, said Hubback: "A vendor knows a lot more about the quality of the product than the buyer so the vendor is not incentivized to bring high-quality products to market because buyers can't properly evaluate what they're buying." Hubback and fellow panelists hope to create a GSMA-like process for evaluating security product abilities, and he invited RSA attendees to join the effort.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It was basically all games, which was nice

So that wasn't bad! No weird ads from The Rock peddling energy drinks and comic book movies. No awkward or cringeworthy skits. Just an hour and a half-ish of pure games: here's a Microsoft and Bethesda recap for the 2022 "E3" showcase stream.

We began with a new look at Redfall, which gave us an endearing showing of gameplay: noting its stark differences to other similar squad-based shooters. From there it shot into Hollow Knight: Silksong, and although we didn't get any concrete info on the release date, we know that it exists! I'm glad someone finally showed that thing at some stream in any form (how many Nintendo Directs was it rumored to be at? All of them?).

Those two kind of defined the Microsoft and Bethesda 2022 Games Showcase as a whole. We got some big AAA reveals and gameplay and a focus on indie games. I have to admit, it was weird to see Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV in there presented as "Microsoft" titles, but that's just how things will be going forward. It's wild to think about, if Microsoft can turn the company's reputation around, what a future Microsoft "E3" showcase might look like.

The "one more thing" was actual Starfield gameplay, which I was beginning to think we'd never see. It looks...fine! Some people will think it looks more than fine, and others will want to see more before making a firm decision: such is the life of a Bethesda Studios game in 2022 after some tumultuous launches.

The biggest reveal was arguably Persona coming to Xbox. The total proliferation of that series is something that needed to happen as quickly as possible! And that "everything today is focused on games you can play over the next 12 months" quote from the stream was reassuring. Good one, Microsoft!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOYnwhKwlw8

A 2022 "E3" stream Microsoft and Bethesda recap:

• We got another look at the vampire shooter Redfall at the Xbox conference
• Hollow Knight: Silksong will be on Game Pass day one
• Get High on Life Squanch Games’ super-gooey alien shooter
• Riot Games is coming to Game Pass with a ton of unlocks
• Forza Motorsport is still looking fantastic, two years on, out in spring 2023
• A Plague Tale: Requiem gets a chilling new trailer
• Microsoft Flight Simulator has a free Halo crossover out today
• Overwatch 2 enters early access as a free-to-play title October 4
• Microsoft teases Ark 2 for 2023
• Ara: History Untold is a new historical grand strategy game from Oxide Games
• Forza 5 gets its own Hot Wheels crossover expansion
• Scorn will be out just in time for Halloween
• Barbaric magic and wild adventure combine in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn
• Gunfire Reborn is coming to Xbox in October 2022
• Lightyear Frontier is a delightful space-themed farming sim
• Minecraft Legends heroically quests forth in 2023
• The Last Case of Benedict Fox is a cosmic horror metroidvania for PC and Xbox
• As Dusk Falls is described as an emotional, psychological drama of choice and consequence
• Grounded is FINALLY coming out of early access in September
• Pentiment is a medieval narrative adventure coming from Obsidian
• Naraka: Bladepoint comes to Xbox Series consoles on June 23
• The dead will walk with The Necromancer in Diablo IV, coming 2023
• Mystical stealth game Ereban: Shadow Legacy will be on Game Pass day one
• Whoa, Team Ninja’s Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty looks rad
• Cocoon is a colorful puzzle game from the designer of Inside and Limbo
• Ravenlok is a new adventure from the makers of Echo Generation, arriving in 2023
• Oh hell yeah, Persona 3, 4, 5 are headed to Xbox
• Hideo Kojima pops his head in to say ‘Yeah, I’m making something for Xbox’
• Starfield looks absolutely out of this world in new gameplay deep-dive

The post Recap: Everything that happened at the Microsoft and Bethesda “E3” 2022 showcase appeared first on Destructoid.

Starfield is one of the most hotly-anticipated games coming out in the next year, and certainly the exciting Xbox exclusive on the near horizon, and yet, we’ve seen very little of the project. A teaser trailer and some concept art has really been it. Well, today at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, the curtain was finally pulled back on Starfield, with over 10 minutes of actual gameplay being shown.

We get a look at planetary exploration on the rocky moon of Kreet, including scanning, resource collecting, and more. We also get a look at some of the game’s colonies, including the Constellation headquarters of New Atlantis. Overall, Bethesda is promising over 1000 full explorable planets. Of course, customization will be a big part of the package, with players being able to create and customize their own characters, outposts, and yes, even spaceships. Perhaps most surprising, is the action, which is surprisingly intense looking. Starfield is more than just some laid back riff on Star Trek. But hey, enough of my preamble, check out the new Starfield footage for yourself, below.

It really looks like Bethesda is really going the extra step to make the most full-fledged sci-fi RPG possible. I’m ready to take off to the stars! Here's Bethesda's official description for Starfield:

The year is 2330. Humanity has ventured beyond our solar system, settling new planets, and living as a spacefaring people. From humble beginnings as a space miner, you will join Constellation — the last group of space explorers seeking rare artifacts throughout the galaxy — and navigate the vast expanse of the Settled Systems in Bethesda Game Studios’ biggest and most ambitious game. In this next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, you will create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey to answer humanity’s greatest question: What is out there?

Starfield launches on PC and Xbox Series X/S in the first half of 2023.

The post Starfield Shows First Open-World and Combat Footage, Game Offers 1000 Explorable Planets by Nathan Birch appeared first on Wccftech.

Starting from today until June 19th at 7:00 PM CET you can grab the open world survival game ARK: Survival Evolved for free on Steam!

The post Get ARK: Survival Evolved for FREE on Steam appeared first on Indie Game Bundles.

AMD’s Senior Graphics R&D Engineer, Dihara Wijetunga, is currently working on a Path Tracing Mod for Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Similarly to Quake 2 RTX, Doom Path Tracing and Serious Sam Path Tracing, this mod will introduce full real-time path tracing effects to the game. According to the developer, this mod is still in an … Continue reading AMD’s Senior Graphics R&D Engineer is working on a Path Tracing Mod for Return to Castle Wolfenstein →

The post AMD’s Senior Graphics R&D Engineer is working on a Path Tracing Mod for Return to Castle Wolfenstein appeared first on DSOGaming.

posted to the docs section.

submitted by /u/Twinkies100
[link] [comments]

The pressure was on. Someone, somewhere, was attacking computer systems so customers couldn’t reach certain websites. In a windowless room in Denver, Zack Privette had worked all morning with his security team to figure out what the cyber strangers were up to.

read more

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation's (SpaceX) Starlink satellite internet service is gearing up to activate its first batch of new satellites. Starlink is currently providing users with Internet coverage all over the globe through its network of small satellites, ground stations and user terminals. In order to diversify coverage, improve speeds and reduce costly infrastructure costs, Starlink has also deployed newer satellites that feature optical links, dubbed lasers. These will allow the spacecraft to transfer data within themselves and increase the range at which the network can operate without having to rely on the ground stations.

On this front, Starlink has submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking authority to activate spacecraft in polar orbits.

Starlink Assures FCC It Will Cooperate With OneWeb and Kepler In Polar Orbit Operations

The application was filed in the FCC's International Bureau's filing system in mid-June and the Commission accepted it for filing purposes earlier this month. It seeks the regulatory body's approval to temporarily operate Starlink satellites at latitudes higher than 53 degrees, which constitute remote regions of the Earth where Internet connectivity is hard to come by.

Starlink uses its satellites to transfer data between users with dishes to its ground stations. The ground stations then carry the data to the internet servers, after which they beam it back up to the spacecraft to complete the cycle SpaceX has built dozens of these stations all over the U.S., but placing them in the remote polar regions is harder than installing them in CONUS.

For these purposes, the company has focused on launching satellites with inter-optical connectivity, or lasers, to serve the polar regions. This was confirmed by SpaceX chief Mr. Elon Musk early last year, when he outlined that all satellites going up this year will feature lasers, and that his company had limited itself to launching the spacecraft back then only to polar regions.

In its application, Starlink explains to the FCC that the request is only temporary in nature as through it it will operate the satellites at a 10 degree elevation. Starlink is currently authorized to operate its satellites at a higher 25 degree elevation, and it outlined that the lower angles are a "stop gap" measure before the constellation is capable of providing service at 25 degrees. Lower angles allow for lesser spacecraft being able to communicate with the user terminals but also result in poor communication due to longer distances and terrain characteristics.

According to Starlink:

This application requests carefully limited, temporary authority solely to authorize communications between SpaceX satellites and user terminals at elevation angles no less than 10 degrees in polar regions — i.e., at latitudes above 53 degrees. This application does not seek authority to deploy any additional satellites or earth stations. It also does not seek any change in the technical or operating characteristics of the satellites and earth stations the Commission has already authorized, except for this narrow change to the minimum elevation angle observed in polar regions. This stop-gap operation will enable SpaceX to speed deployment of its high-speed, low-latency service to the polar regions of the United States in the interim period before SpaceX’s system is sufficiently deployed to provide polar service at its already authorized 25-degree minimum elevation angle.

Because of the lower angles, SpaceX also addresses concerns that its rivals might have. It assures the Commission that the 10 degree elevation will result in lesser interference with OneWeb's satellites since they operate at 45 degrees or higher. Additionally, it also intends to with Kepler based on data shared.

Starlink has recently opened up its service to mobile users in recreational vehicles, and as it struggles with excessive demand in some areas, the service has also started to warn users of low speeds during peak times.

The post Starlink Ready To Turn On Laser Satellites For Internet Coverage  by Ramish Zafar appeared first on Wccftech.

​​This article contains spoilers through episode 4 of "The Boys" season 3.

Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) never wanted to be part of a superhero-killing crusade, but sometimes life just happens. And after the first time you find yourself thoroughly traumatized and covered in whale guts, taking control of your life becomes a big priority — which is exactly why Hughie was so thrilled to take a job at the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, where he could spend the season filing papers and busting supes with the law, instead of using butt-bombs. 

Unfortunately, Hughie exists in the cruel and nasty world of "The Boys," where such ease is only temporary. By the time "Glorious Five Year Plan" comes along (the fourth episode of the third season), Hughie's suit and tie days are behind him and he's officially back in the chaos of Butcher's reckless crusade to take out supes by any means necessary. As it turns out, this means becoming supes themselves.

Thanks to the newly acquired Compound V-24 (aka Temp V), any idiot willing to inject themselves with the experimental drug can get superhuman abilities for 24 hours, which helps the Boys level the playing field a little. While Frenchie and MM charge into battle wielding guns, Butcher and Hughie are secretly wielding the power of V: during the fight to find the weapon that "killed" Soldier Boy, the duo unleash their powers in front of the team. While it definitely takes their fellow Boys by surprise, fans of the comics have seen this coming for a while. Hughie's powers are actually a big part of his character from the get-go, but with the Prime Video adaptation, there comes a couple of big changes.

Hughie's Supe Era: The Comics Vs The Show

First off, the actual power Hughie possesses is a little different than comic readers will remember, but superhuman strength and durability carry over in both iterations. After being injected with Temp V, Hughie becomes strong enough to punch a hole in a man's chest. In the show, the unlucky victim is a lab guard in the Russian-controlled facility that hides Soldier Boy, whereas in the comics Hughie takes down an actual supe with his punch — Teenage Kix member Blarney Cock.

Other than whose abdomen he puts his arm through, what else is different about Hughie's power? In the show, he also has the ability to teleport. Hughie can now disappear from one place and appear in another, with the minor caveat of losing his clothes in the process. The irony of this bonus power is hilarious — before being sucked into Butcher's orbit, Hughie's first instinct has always been to run away from danger. Now he has a power that lets him either dart the hell out of a bad situation or leap into battle.

There's also another layer of intrigue: Hughie's power resembles A-Train's, the very supe who put him on this path in the first place by killing his girlfriend. Similarly, Butcher's tangle with the V gives him laser eyes that are a lot like Homelander's, making him a mirror of the supe who ruined and continuously haunts his life. It's almost like there's a lesson to be learned about not becoming the thing you hate. Mother's Milk even tries to point this out to them ("the whole point of what we do is that no one should have that kind of power"), but it might be a while before Hughie and Butcher hear logic.

The Origin Of Hughie's Power

The most interesting difference between Hughie's powers in the comics vs. the show is the circumstances of the V injection. In the comics, Butcher forces the drug on him, catching Hughie by surprise and injecting him on their first mission. The results are permanent and Hughie is upset — partially because he had a needle jammed into his neck without permission, but even more so when he discovers why. Initially, his powers are difficult to control and when he kills Blarney with a punch, it's very upsetting. But this isn't quite the case for Prime Video's iteration of Hughie.

While punching through the Russian certainly catches Hughie off-guard (he follows it up with a reflexive "sorry!"), he isn't very torn up about it. When he pushes the corpse to the ground and examines his blood-soaked arm, Hughie is ecstatic to discover his power. It's a little troubling that he gets over the accidental death so quickly, but in all fairness, show Hughie has been at this for quite some time. In the comics this superpowered kill was his first, but onscreen Hughie has seen much worse. In the show, taking the V is Hughie's own choice. It helps that the effects are only temporary, but all things considered he is still thrilled to have powers. After a season spent worrying about his ability to protect Starlight and feeling inadequate in the presence of supes, he now has a fighting chance.

Is Hughie Heading Down A Dark Path?

In the comic world, Hughie punching through Blarney also signals another change in his character: he's horrified by his strength and resents Butcher for thrusting power on him. This sparks tension between the two that slowly intensifies. In the show, Butcher and Hughie are heading down a dark path together, both embracing the effects of the Temp V despite their comrades disapproving. Frenchie and MM are horrified, while Kimiko takes it personally: why would they do this to themselves willingly? She's hated her powers every day of her life. Odds are Starlight won't be a fan either, so if Hughie keeps it up, there's no telling how it might alter the relationships in his life.

When Hughie first discovered what Butcher was up to, he was warned: "It's not power. It's punishment." But Hughie has another perspective: having power is intoxicating, especially when you have the face and general demeanor of a kicked puppy. But if the V and the allure of power eclipse Hughie's better judgment, it won't be long before he loses his status as the team's "canary" and becomes just another Butcher that needs to be reigned in.

The first four episodes of "The Boys" season 3 are currently streaming on Prime Video, with new episodes coming every Friday.

Read this next: Joker's Wild: Ranking The Cinematic Versions Of The Clown Prince Of Crime

The post The Big Difference Between Hughie's Powers in The Boys Show and Comic Explained appeared first on /Film.

Ars Technica reports: Researchers have unearthed a discovery that doesn't occur all that often in the realm of malware: a mature, never-before-seen Linux backdoor that uses novel evasion techniques to conceal its presence on infected servers, in some cases even with a forensic investigation. On Thursday, researchers and the BlackBerry Threat Research & Intelligence Team said that the previously undetected backdoor combines high levels of access with the ability to scrub any sign of infection from the file system, system processes, and network traffic. Dubbed Symbiote, it targets financial institutions in Brazil and was first detected in November. Researchers for Intezer and BlackBerry wrote: "What makes Symbiote different from other Linux malware that we usually come across, is that it needs to infect other running processes to inflict damage on infected machines. Instead of being a standalone executable file that is run to infect a machine, it is a shared object (SO) library that is loaded into all running processes using LD_PRELOAD (T1574.006), and parasitically infects the machine. Once it has infected all the running processes, it provides the threat actor with rootkit functionality, the ability to harvest credentials, and remote access capability...." So far, there's no evidence of infections in the wild, only malware samples found online. It's unlikely this malware is widely active at the moment, but with stealth this robust, how can we be sure? "When hooked functions are called, the malware first dynamically loads libc and calls the original function..." according to Blackberry's blog post. "If the calling application is trying to access a file or folder under /proc, the malware scrubs the output from process names that are on its list.... If the calling application is not trying to access something under /proc, the malware instead scrubs the result from a file list.... "Symbiote also has functionality to hide network activity on the infected machine."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Picking up where I left off last time, I’d like to discuss a few more things when using video decoding libraries in your own graphics pipeline. Actually, the previous article was just meant as the introduction to the more technical implementation details, but I got carried away.

Video decoding… it’s a thing. A solved thing, if you just want your basic “I have a video and a window, and I want to display the video in the window”. There are various libraries that can do that for you (DirectShow, Media Foundation, VLC, FFmpeg etc), and generally they will use the GPU to accelerate the decoding. Which is pretty much a requirement for more high-end content, such as 4k 60 fps video.

But I want to talk about just how thin of a line that GPU-accelerated decoding is. Because as soon as you want to do anything other than just displaying the video content in a window managed by the library, you run into limitations. If you want to do anything with the video frames, you usually just want to get a pointer to the pixel data of the frame in some way.

And that is where things tend to fall apart. Such a pointer will have to be in system memory. Worst case (which used to be quite often) this will trigger a chain reaction of the library doing everything in system memory in that case, which means it will also use the CPU to decode, rather than the GPU. See, as long as the library can manage the entire decoding chain from start to finish, and has freedom to decide which buffers to allocate where, and how to output the data, things are fine. But as soon as you want to have access to these buffers in some way, it may falls apart.

In the average case, it may use GPU acceleration for the actual decoding, but then copy the internal GPU buffer to a system buffer. And then you will have to copy it BACK to the GPU in your own texture, to do some actual rendering with it. The higher the resolution and framerate, the more annoying this GPU<->CPU traffic is, because it takes up a lot of precious CPU time and bandwidth.

But there’s a tiny bit more to it…

RGB32 vs NV12 format

In the modern world of truecolour graphics, we tend to use RGB pixelformats for textures, the most common being 8 bits per pixel, packed into a 32-bit word. The remaining 8-bits may be left undefined, or used as an extra alpha (A) component. The exact order may differ between different hardware/software, so we can have RGBA, BGRA, ARGB and whatnot, but let’s call this class ‘RGB32’, as in: “some variation of RGB, stored in a 32-bit word”. That is the variation you will generally want to use when rendering with textures.

For video however, this is not ideal. YUV colour models were used by JPEG and MPEG, among other formats, because they have interesting properties for compression. A YUV (again an umbrella term for various different, but related pixel formats) colour model  takes human perception into consideration. It decomposes a colour into luminance (brightness) and chrominance (colour) values. The human eye is more sensitive to luminance than to chrominance, which means that you can store the chrominance values with a lower resolution than the luminance values, without having much of an effect on the perceived visual quality.

In fact, getting back to the old analog PAL and NTSC formats: These formats were originally black-and-white, so they contained only the luminance of the signal. When colour information (chrominance) was added later, it was added at a lower resolution than the luminance. PAL actually uses YUV, and NTSC uses the similar YIQ encoding. The lower resolution of the chroma signal leads to the phenomenon of artifacting, which was exploited on CGA in 8088 MPH.

In the digital world, the Y (luminance) component is stored at the full resolution, and the U and V (chrominance) components are stored at a reduced resolution. A common format is 4:2:0, which means that for every 4 Y samples, 1 U sample and 1 V sample is stored. In other words, for every 2×2 block of pixels, all Y-values are stored, and only the average U and V values of the block are stored.

When converting back to RGB, the U and V components can be scaled back up, usually with a bilinear filter or such. This can easily be implemented in hardware, so that the pixel data can be stored in the more compact YUV layout, reducing the required memory footprint and bandwidth when decoding video frames. With RGB32, you need 32 bits per pixel. With an YUV 4:2:0 format, for 4 pixels you need to store a total of 6 samples, so 6*8 = 48 bits. That is effectively 48/4 = 12 bits per pixel, so only 37.5% of RGB32. That matters.

When you want to get access to the frame data yourself, you generally have to tell the decoder which format to decode to. This is another pitfall where things may fall apart, performance-wise. That is, a lot of hardware-accelerated decoders will decode into a YUV-layout. If you specify that you want to decode the frame into an RGB32 format, this may cause the decoder to choose a decoding path that is partially or even entirely run on the CPU, and as such will perform considerably worse.

In practice, the most common format that accelerated decoders will decode to is NV12. For an overview of NV12 and various other pixel formats, see this MSDN page. In short, NV12 is a format that stores YUV data in a single buffer, with the Y component first, and then the U and V components packed together:

This format is supported in hardware on a wide range of devices, and is your best bet for efficient accelerated GPU decoding.

What’s more: this format is also supported as a texture format, so for example with Direct3D11, you can use NV12 textures directly inside a shader. The translation from YUV to RGB is not done automatically for you though, but can be done inside the shader.

The format is a bit quirky. As it is a single buffer, that contains two sets of data, at different resolutions, Direct3D11 solves this by allowing you to create two shader views on the texture. For the Y component, you create an ID3D11ShaderResourceView with the DXGI_FORMAT_R8_UNORM format. For the U and V components, you create an ID3D11ShaderResourceView with the DXGI_FORMAT_R8G8_UNORM format. You can then bind these views as two separate textures to the pipeline, and read the Y component from the R component of the R8_UNORM view, and the U and V components from the R and G components of the R8G8_UNORM view respectively. From there you can do the usual conversion to RGB.

So the ideal way to decode video is to have the hardware routine decode it to NV12, and then let you have access to the NV12 buffer.

Using Media Foundation

With Media Foundation, it is possible to share your Direct3D11 device between your application and the Media Foundation accelerated decoders. This can be done via the IMFDXGIDeviceManager, which you can create with the MFCreateDXGIDeviceManager function. You can then use IMFDXGIDeviceManager::ResetDevice() to connect your D3D11 device to MediaFoundation. Important is to set your device to multithread-protected via the ID3D10Manager interface first.

This IMFDXGIDeviceManager can then be connected for example to your IMFSourceReader by setting its MF_SOURCE_READER_D3D_MANAGER attribute. As a result, any GPU acceleration done through D3D11 will now be done with your device, and as such, the resources created will belong to your device, and as such can be accessed directly.

A quick-and-dirty way to get to the underlying DXGI buffers is to query the IMFMediaBuffer of a video sample for its IMFDXGIBuffer interface. This interface allows you to get to the underlying ID3D11Texture2D via its GetResource method. And there you are. You have access to the actual D3D11 texture that was used by the GPU-accelerated decoder.

You probably still need to make a copy of this texture to your own texture with the same format, because you need to have a texture that has the D3D11_BIND_SHADER_RESOURCE flag set, if you want to use it in a shader, and the decoder usually does not set that flag. But since it is all done on the GPU, this is reasonably efficient.

Timing on external clock

Another non-standard use of video decoding frameworks is to take matters in your own hand, and output the audio and video frames synchronized to an external clock. By default, the decoder framework will just output the frames in realtime, based on whatever clock source it uses internally. But if you want to output it to a device with an external clock, you need to sync the frames yourself.

With DirectShow and MediaFoundation, this is not that difficult: every audio and video sample that is decoded, is provided with a timestamp, with an accuracy of 100 ns. So you can simply buffer a number of samples, and send them out based on their timestamp, relative to the reference clock of your choice.

For some reason, LibVLC only provides timestamps with the audio samples, not with the video samples it decodes. So that makes it difficult to use LibVLC in this way. Initially it did not have an easy way to decode frames on-demand at all, but recently they added a libvlc_media_player_next_frame() function to skip to the next frame manually. Then it is up to you to figure out what the frame time should be exactly.

One issue here though, is that if you let the library decode the video in realtime, it will also automatically compensate for any performance problems. So it will automatically apply frame skipping when required. If you are decoding manually, at your own speed, then you will need to manually take care of a situation where you may not be able to keep your decode buffer full, when the decoder cannot keep up. You may need to manually skip the playback position in the decoder ahead to keep in sync with the video output speed.

All in all, things aren’t always that straightforward when you don’t just let the video library decode the video by itself, and letting it time and display the output itself.

If you’ve ever picked up an item in FromSoftware’s expansive open-world game and been confused about how it works, an Elden Ring mod has got you covered. The Detailed Item Descriptions mod does exactly what it says on the tin - adding new, extensive item descriptions complete with exact damage numbers and percentages for every single item in the RPG game. This includes spells, equipment, and weapon skills along with all of the usable items.

Dziggy, creator of the Detailed Item Descriptions Elden Ring mod, says they made the mod because they were “sick of looking up every item to see what it actually did.” As a result, they embarked on a mammoth undertaking to rewrite the descriptions for “every single item in the game, including spells, equipment, and weapon skills.” These descriptions now include accurate, often detailed text descriptions that explain how the item is used and what effects it can apply.

The mod also details exact numbers, breaking them down into individual statistics such as base physical damage, stat accumulation (for buildup effects such as sleep or bleed), and buff or debuff percentages applied to affected characters. It even uses coloured text to break things up nicely into an easily readable and understandable format.

RELATED LINKS: The best Elden Ring builds, Elden Ring bosses, The best Elden Ring classes

"Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin believes that unfriendly artificial intelligence poses the biggest risk to humanity..." reports a recent article from Benzinga: [In a tweet] Buterin shared a paper by AI theorist and writer Eliezer Yudkowsky that made a case for why the current research community isn't doing enough to prevent a potential future catastrophe at the hands of artificially generate intelligence. [The paper's title? "AGI Ruin: A List of Lethalities."] When one of Buterin's Twitter followers suggested that World War 3 is likely a bigger risk at the moment, the Ethereum co-founder disagreed. "Nah, WW3 may kill 1-2b (mostly from food supply chain disruption) if it's really bad, it won't kill off humanity. A bad AI could truly kill off humanity for good."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Xbox Bethesda showcase is sure to bring some Starfield news please, but many fans (including us) are hoping to finally get a Wolfenstein 3 reveal. Even if it does, it'll likely still be a long way off, but what might ease the wait is a Return to Castle Wolfenstein ray tracing mod.

The newer Wolfenstein games by Machine Games are fantastic but there's something really special about 2001's Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It's had plenty of mods in its time - including a recent effort to recreate the lost Enemy Territory single-player expansion - but it's still looking a bit long in the tooth at this point, despite the overhaul mod released a few years ago.

Well, if Doom can get ray tracing, so can the best Wolfenstein game - and this isn't coming from a regular fan, either. Dihara Wijetunga is a senior graphics research and development engineer at AMD and they're creating a Wolf PT mod - no, not that PT, this is a "real-time path tracer" mod with "a custom DX12 backend."

The episode 1 title has been revealed for the Amazon show.

Specters and poltergeists and ghosts, oh my! 

Haunted houses litter the horror landscape, but some are eerier than others. From family-friendly features to truly terrifying tales, ghost stories can span a wide range of themes and play out in a million different ways to varying degrees of success. So what makes a ghost story truly great? And what are some of the best ghost movies of all time? Well, you've come to the right place! The /Film team put their heads together and came up with a huge list of potential titles, only to whittle them down to the top 15 movies on this list. From classics like "The Changeling" to potentially unexpected gems like "Casper" (yes, the one starring Christina Ricci and Devon Sawa as the ghost's human form), your bases are well covered here. 

So turn out the lights, grab some popcorn, and listen closely as we tell you about these essential spectral stories you have to watch. 

Casper

Perhaps one of the best transitional horror movies ever made, the family flick "Casper," is an all-time ghostly great. 

Based on the popular Harvey comics series "Casper the Friendly Ghost," the 1995 supernatural, dark fantasy dramedy has a lot more going for it than most remember. Often remembered as a silly children's movie about a CGI ghost kid looking for a friend, "Casper" is a surprisingly powerful examination of neglect, grief, and our inability to process the finality of death. Paranormal therapist James Harvey (Bill Pullman) moves into the haunted Whipstaff manor with his daughter Kat (Christina Ricci), desperately trying to contact the spirit of his deceased wife. After initially being scared of the ghosts inhabiting the manor, Kat befriends Casper (voiced by Malachi Pearson), the son of an inventor who eventually drove himself into madness trying to bring him back from the dead. 

There's a sinking sadness to "Casper" that is effortlessly offset by its moments of joy, allowing the problems in the Harvey family's life to hold equal weight to the desires of Casper and his trio of ghostly uncles also residing in the home. Death is not treated as a taboo subject too difficult for young viewers to understand but is also presented in a way that emphasizes the severity of pain that can occur after losing a loved one. Mourning is difficult and people process death in a variety of different ways, and few movies showcase this truth quite like this one. "Casper" is equal parts fun as it is frightening, making it an incredible way to introduce the themes of mortality to audiences of all ages. (BJ Colangelo)

The Haunting

Long before Mike Flanagan terrified audiences with "The Haunting of Hill House," there was Robert Wise's 1963 adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel, "The Haunting." 

Robert Wise is truly one of the greatest directors to ever put moving pictures to celluloid, and "The Haunting" is an absolute masterclass in tension. Wise perfected the modern Gothic drama and did so without needing to rely on graphic, revolting imagery, or jarring editing techniques. Rather, Wise utilized the set design, cinematographic framing, lighting, split diopters, and an effective sound design to keep his audience keyed up. When we think of the expression "less is more," few films encapsulate the practice quite like this film. 

There's something in this house, but the audience is never given the chance to see just what that something is. The power of "The Haunting" is its constant sense of creeping dread, and while the atmosphere is eerily restrained, it works in perfect juxtaposition against Julie Harris' performance as Eleanor. Harris delivers one of the all-time great horror movie performances as a woman constantly on edge, with a palpable sense of anxiety and genuine fear. When the frightening moments strike, it is Harris who helps raise the stakes, as her reactions are oftentimes more horrific than the actual hauntings. 

Martin Scorsese has gone on record to declare "The Haunting" as the scariest horror movie he's ever seen, and it's hard to argue his point. "The Haunting" is a phenomenal work of art and without the film's success, the subgenre of ghost movies may not have been possible. (BJ Colangelo)

Ju-On: The Grudge

There was a huge boom in Japanese horror films around the turn of the 20th century as filmmakers like Takashi Miike and Hideo Nakata unleashed their terrifying tales on unsuspecting audiences. Many of these films were remade in America, including the 2002 classic "Ju-On: The Grudge," though they rarely held a candle to the originals. "Ju-On," written and directed by Takashi Shimizu, is a deeply disturbing ghost story that transcends cultures and never really needed a remake, even if Shimizu himself directed it."Ju-On" is technically the third movie in the franchise, though it's the first one to get a theatrical release. The first two films, "Ju-On: The Curse," and "Ju-On: The Curse 2," were only released on television in Japan, and thus "Ju-On: The Grudge" was the first part of the franchise to make it overseas. The movie follows a young woman named Rika, played by Megumi Okina, who works as a social worker and caretaker for the elderly. While she takes care of an old woman, she discovers a curse in the house and its not-so-friendly ghost inhabitants.A big part of the success of "Ju-On" was just how creepy its two ghosts managed to be. The young boy ghost, Toshio, and his murdered mother Kayako are two of the scariest spirits in horror history, and Kayako's unnerving staircase walk is unforgettable. "Ju-On" is a distinctly Japanese story that manages universal appeal, using traditional imagery and themes to tell a terrifying story anyone can relate to. While many ghost movies hesitate to reveal their creepiest cast members, "Ju-On: The Grudge" utilizes them to perfection. (Danielle Ryan)

Kwaidan

It's about time that a horror anthology made the list. "Kwaidan" is a 1964 four-part feature pulled from Lafcadio Hearn's retold collection of Japanese ghost tales. The segments, each rooted in a morality lesson, run from mournful to "Twilight Zone"-levels of surreal. The strongest segment in the assembly is "Hoichi the Earless," a sweeping story shot on elaborate theatrical sets showcasing this mythic, larger-than-life feel. In it, a young musician is summoned from his temple to perform an epic poem for a dead emperor and his court. Hoichi can't see the phantoms, but the viewer can, and the saga is delivered with plenty of time for ornate displays of life and death, at a three-hour runtime. The U.S. premiere saw the movie's wings clipped a little bit more, lopping off the entirety of the segment "The Woman of the Snow." 

Potential spoiler: the plottings of the story's lady monster resemble those of the morbid "Lover's Vow" segment from John Harrison's 1980 anthology "Tales From the Darkside," culled from the same Hearn collection, "Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things." 

Don't come for scares, even though there are some unnerving parts; come for the polish on it. The sight of the samurai clan battle from the poem isn't going to be as violent as a horror fan might expect, and the film holds back from gruesomeness. In "Kwaidan," ghosts are accepted as real and part of everyday life instead of something to be debunked. They're both eerie and gorgeous, unnerving and magnetic. Every story swings like this, back and forth between the dead and the living, and the balance keeps going with a soundtrack from composer Toru Takemitsu, who gave an equally ambitious score to Akira Kurosawa's "Ran." The result is so immersive that walking away after the end of Kobayashi's "Kwaidan" feels like barely escaping with one's life, and living to tell the tale. (Anya Stanley)

Stir Of Echoes

There were two great ghost movies in 1999, and one of them was David Koepp's "Stir of Echoes." It's an adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1958 novel about an average working-class guy named Tom who has a kind of second sight awakened within him, and how that sends his life into a tailspin.

The film stars Kevin Bacon as a cynic who gains the ability to communicate with the dead after being hypnotized. He goes from not believing in ghosts to seeing one in an instant. Not only can he see this off-putting apparition, but he can also see the circumstances of her death. As he begins to piece together exactly what happened to her, he gets closer and closer to a revelation that will not only put him and his family in danger but could very well tear his seemingly happy little neighborhood apart.

While it was a moderate hit, "Stir of Echoes" got drowned out by the monster success of "The Sixth Sense" which hit screens just one month prior to its release. This was a huge shame because Koepp's movie is skillfully made all around. The acting is top tier, the mystery is compelling, the scary stuff is legitimately disturbing, and it's all told in a tight one-hour and 39-minute story.

"Stir of Echoes" and "The Sixth Sense" complement each other really nicely: they're both tales about how ghosts aren't nearly as scary as the living and both have cute little kids that can speak with dead people.

While "Stir of Echoes" might never have the same impact on pop culture as its spooky 1999 twin, expect it to have a longer than average shelf life for a genre film. (Eric Vespe)

The Changeling

Horror cinema owes a great debt of gratitude to Peter Medak's "The Changeling." The truly iconic ghost story starring George C. Scott influenced some of cinema's greatest filmmakers including Martin Scorsese and Guillermo del Toro. "The Changeling" is the reason we have much of the "Conjuring" universe, moments from the "Insidious" franchise, and seems to have been a big influence on "The Ring." Not to mention the film's influence on "Poltergeist" and the fact that "The Others" literally would not exist without it.

After losing his wife and daughter in a tragic car accident, John Russell (Scott) moves from Manhattan to Seattle for a position teaching music composition at the local college. He rents an old Victorian mansion, the perfect place for him to live and work, except it seems he's not alone. A presence resides within its weary walls, the spirit of a little boy who was murdered by his father and replaced with a changeling. He wants something, but what is unclear, and only John can help.

Like some of the best titles on this list, "The Changeling" masters the elements of a memorable ghost story: humanity, grief, and loss. The film is a poignant meditation on the way we process grief and how that pain is part of the healing process. It weaponizes happy memories, turning keepsakes into nightmare fuel with the power to destroy you.

"The Changeling" is timeless, a haunting story about loss and grief that resonates with everyone, regardless of age. The older you get, the more horrifying and heartbreaking it becomes. It truly gets better with age. (Ariel Fisher)

Thirteen Ghosts

Following in the footsteps of the Dark Castle Remake of "The House on Haunted Hill," the adventurous "Thirteen Ghosts" (or "Thir13en Ghosts" according to the marketing) took Y2K-era horror sensibilities and combined them with a terrifying rogues' gallery of brilliant ghost characterizations. 

Steve Beck's "Thirteen Ghosts" gave the William Castle story much-needed defibrillation, exchanging the funhouse aesthetic of slamming doors and throwing dishes for extreme violence and graphic deaths. The original film centered on an occultist who captured ghosts from around the world, and for the most part, "Thirteen Ghosts" follows a similar premise. However, it's the inclusion of the ghosts as part of the Black Zodiac that has given the film its staying power after all these years. Characters like The Angry Princess, The Juggernaut, and The Jackal became nightmare fuel for a generation, and continue to terrify audiences even today. 

At the turn of the millennium, filmmakers were fascinated with the advances in technology and often incorporated these elements into their work. The house of the "Thirteen Ghosts" remake trades in the classic residential home of yesteryear for a high-tech glass home with inscriptions embossed on the walls. The new setting immediately adds an increased level of anxiety for the viewer, with the sliding, mechanical doors providing the constant threat that the inhabitants are never safe. At any moment, a malfunction could occur, unleashing the vengeful spirits to enact a reign of terror. 

Horror from the aughts is often dismissed as a sea of slasher remakes in the wake of "Scream," but the 2000s delivered plenty of quality films, and "Thirteen Ghosts" is one of them. (BJ Colangelo)

The Devil's Backbone

There's plenty of Gothic horror to be found on any list of the best ghost stories, but "The Devil's Backbone" stands head and shoulders above most. The Spanish-Mexican effort follows in the Guillermo del Toro spirit his work is known for, of allegory infused with the supernatural. 

Set in 1939 in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, a young orphaned boy named Carlos (Fernando Tielve) struggles to fit in at a remote orphanage, where he's subjected to bullying and crime, and that's before the specter of a dead boy shows up. Instead of a haunted castle in this ghost story, the orphanage is the isolated setting — and it is isolated, even tomb-like. The danger becomes even more insistent with an unexploded bomb sitting in the courtyard, just another consequence of war for these kids. 

Like many of his other films, some adults are safer than others, and certain humans are bigger threats than the spirits. While the ghost haunting the orphanage is good for creepy moments, the film is more obsessed with conceptual and generational specters, and the way that war irritates and complicates the healing process for everyone. "The Devil's Backbone" is anchored by a luminous cast that includes prolific Argentine actor and three-time del Toro collaborator Federico Luppi, also seen in "Cronos." Richly textured in warm sepia and icy blues and deliberately paced to give as much life to its characters as possible, "The Devil's Backbone" is both warm and icy, tender and distraught. (Anya Stanley)

Hausu

Ghost movies are typically associated with the familiar, dreary aesthetic of dusty old houses and spirits donning antique garb, but 1977's "Hausu" couldn't be more different. Known to English-speaking viewers as "House," Nobuhiko Obayashi's paranormal psychedelic masterpiece is an assaulting visual buffet of disembodied heads ready to bite a victim in the rear, random bursts of animation, a piano that chomps people into little pieces, dancing skeleton puppets, and a painting of cat with the ability to spit enough blood to drown an entire house. 

After a young woman named "Gorgeous" invites her friends to her aunt's countryside manor, the group is terrorized by the colorful and outlandish haunts that await them. Obayashi wrote the film with influences from his young daughter, Chigumi Obayashi, not unlike how Robert Rodriguez wrote "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl." The result was a disturbingly imaginative ghost story that leaned into frenetic and camp aesthetics, reveled in less-than-stellar special effects, and threw audiences into a fever dream that only a small child could have concocted. The bizarre presentation feels like a precursor to horror greats like Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson, playfully incorporating absurdist humor against the backdrop of graphic horror. 

Ghost movies don't often get the chance to have fun, but "Hausu" is as hilarious as it is effectively creepy. Despite the constant barrage of disturbing (albeit silly) imagery, there's something whimsical about "Hausu" that entices audiences and makes it difficult to look away. "Hausu" continues to be hailed as one of the best Japanese horror films ever made, and truly showcases the potential of ghost movies if creatives are willing to take a wild swing. (BJ Colangelo)

The Frighteners

Before he made "The Lord of the Rings," director Peter Jackson made a handful of horror movies, including the horrifying and hilarious "The Frighteners" in 1996. 

"The Frighteners" stars Michael J. Fox as Frank Bannister, an architect whose wife dies in a tragic accident that also leaves him with the ability to see and talk to ghosts. Instead of dealing with his trauma and grief and continuing his life, Frank becomes a con man, befriending a trio of ghosts played by Jim Fyfe, Chi McBride, and John Astin. The ghosts help him haunt the town, and he charges unsuspecting homeowners to "exorcise" the spirits. The real problem starts when a demon starts haunting the town for real, and Frank is the only one who could possibly stop him."The Frighteners" is a horror-comedy that leans harder into being funny than scary, but Jackson's ability to frighten is still on full display. It's rated R for violence and terror and isn't the kind of fluffy, family-friendly fare you'd expect from his later films or Fox's usual oeuvre. Fox also plays against type a bit, portraying a character that's likable enough but does a lot of scummy things. He's a far cry from Marty McFly, but he's still hilarious and charming in a much more adult way.What's so fascinating about "The Frighteners" is that it manages to balance gross-out humor and intense violence with a warm, gooey center that's as much marshmallow fluff as it is blood and guts. This is a unique horror-comedy directed by one of the genre's best, and its ghostly characters are some of the most "fleshed out" in all of cinema. (Danielle Ryan)

The Others

Alejandro Amenábar's 2001 thriller "The Others" is impressively frightening given its simplicity. This Hitchcockian tale follows a woman named Grace, played perfectly by Nicole Kidman, who lives with her two children in a mansion in Bailiwick of Jersey while she waits for her husband to return from World War II. The children are photosensitive, meaning that they cannot be in direct sunlight or it will hurt them, and so Grace enacts strict rules to allegedly keep them safe. When she hires a group of servants to help her care for the house and her children, the carefully crafted environment begins to crumble, and the family's true horrors are revealed."The Others" is an unconventional ghost story with all of the usual set pieces: creepy kids, a sprawling mansion, and mildly terrified visitors. It's a slow burn that builds gradual dread instead of relying on jump scares or scary imagery, playing a psychological game with both its characters and the viewer. Kidman's performance is the glue that holds everything together, giving it her all and delivering a complex character. Having children is like having a piece of your heart outside of your body, and having children with such debilitating conditions must be absolutely terrifying. As much as audiences fear the ghosts the children talk about, they also fear for the children's safety from the outside world and the thing that usually helps humans thrive: the sun.With "The Others," the less you know, the better. It's a smartly subversive thriller that flips some tropes on their heads while leaning into others, held together by excellent performances and even better cinematography. It's also not terribly violent, so this PG-13 horror can be shared with some younger viewers. (Danielle Ryan)

The Sixth Sense

"The Sixth Sense" is not only one of the best genre movies ever made, but it is also one of the highest-grossing ghost stories of all time, coming in at $672.8 million in box office receipts. The "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies and "Coco" rank higher on the all-time box office and are obviously ghost stories, but not ones focused on frights. In fact, the only flat-out horror movie that has outgrossed "The Sixth Sense" is 2017's "It."

"The Sixth Sense" was such a cultural phenomenon that it has been the go-to example of a twist ending for over 20 years. The reason the movie has lived on in the hearts and minds of film fans the world over, however, is that the twist is only the cherry on top. The real staying power of "The Sixth Sense" is on the shoulders of writer/director M. Night Shyamalan and stars Haley Joel Osment, Bruce Willis, and Toni Collette.

This story of a little boy cursed with the ability to see dead people and the lost psychiatrist who sees him as a way to make up for failing a previous patient is immaculately written, performed, and shot. Shyamalan takes his time, really setting the stage to get to know and love these characters before we start seeing the horrific images this poor kid is faced with on a daily basis.

Yes, the twist is all-timer stuff. It's perfectly set up and the revelation is a gut punch on an emotional level, but the story isn't about the trick and that's why people still hold it up as one of the best genre movies in recent memory. (Eric Vespe)

A Tale Of Two Sisters

Since so many ghost stories blur the boundaries between the internal and the external, many of the best ones are devastating tiptoes toward the edge of someone's unstable psyche. "A Tale of Two Sisters" is one such masterpiece where the hauntings are coming from inside the house on a psychological level as well as a physical one. 

Kim Jee-woon's modern folktale is adapted from a classic one — in which two young sisters are killed by their vicious stepmother — hailing from Korea's Joseon Dynasty and getting about as many adaptations as Charles Perrault's "Bluebeard" tale. The story follows a young woman, eldest daughter Su–mi (Im Soo-jung), fresh out of a mental institution. Su-mi struggles with herself and the cryptic question asked at the beginning, "Who do you think you are?" She goes back to her confined childhood home along with her sister where disquieting events unfold that seem tied to their judgmental stepmother, Eun–joo (Yum Jung-ah), and a grim, mysterious family past, while Su-Mi's distant father, Moo–hyeon (Kim Kap-soo), hints that something is off about the family dynamic. 

It unravels alongside Lee Byung-woo's masterful score; the epilogue music conjures up a swell of emotions as conflicted as its story. But the conflict is on purpose, because "A Tale of Two Sisters" is a ghost story about perspective, and about the triage of reality that deploys in people's memories. The movie hits hard not with ghostly moans, but with the heartfelt wails and dread-filled silence of a Shakespearean tragedy where the human mind rebels more than a creaky house, and everyone is punished for their past decisions, with hellish consequences. (Anya Stanley)

Lake Mungo

Joel Anderson's devastating 2008 Australian psychological horror film "Lake Mungo" came along at a wild time for the found footage subgenre. It was the same year that shaky-cam scares chronicled a kaiju attack in "Cloverfield" and an L.A. apartment under government lockdown in "Quarantine," itself a remake of the 2007 Spanish film "REC." Only the year before, Oren Peli's "Paranormal Activity" screened at Screamfest Horror Film Festival, starting the journey towards Jason Blum and a megahit wide release that made a found-footage movie one of the most profitable horror movies ever. What makes "Lake Mungo'' different is its marriage of found footage and mockumentary approaches used to tell what appears to be a ghost story. 

The story chronicles a family's search for answers in the wake of sixteen-year-old Alice Palmer's (Talia Zucker) drowning death. When her brother Mathew (Martin Sharpe) captures images that look vaguely like Alice on and around the family's property, the narrative takes several ghastly, soul-crushing turns. Not much more can be said without spoiling the movie, but its scare power lies not in jumps and shocks, but in imagery that lies in plain sight, priming the pump for similar dread-filled revelatory scares in Ari Aster's "Hereditary" and Andy Mitton's "The Witch in the Window." Presented docu-fiction style, the movie hits like something lurid found on tv during the insomniac witching hours. Not only does the footage manipulate, but Anderson includes sly judgment on the viewer who falls for it, all while keeping grief and bereavement due north throughout the story. 

"Lake Mungo" is not a movie to put on in the background; for the brave and bold movie watchers unafraid to lean into the screen, this is a lights-out, sound-up kind of experience. (Anya Stanley)

Poltergeist

"Poltergeist" scarred a whole generation who will never trust static on TVs or creepy clown dolls as long as they live. It also happened to modernize the ghost story in a whole new way. 

Horror in the 1970s and 1980s was all about bringing the monsters of yore into a recognizable world, away from gothic castles and foggy European graveyards. Tobe Hooper did that with "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre," bringing his iconic killer into recognizable small-town Texas, and Steven Spielberg delivered a believable great white shark to the shores of a small coastal town in "Jaws." It was only fitting that the two would team up to completely redefine how audiences saw ghosts on film in "Poltergeist."Spielberg wrote the script himself, his first screenplay credit since "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," which tells the story of the Freelings who could be the family up the block. Ghosts in suburbia were not a common thing at this point, which makes their appearance here all the more shocking."Poltergeist" doesn't pull any punches. Kids are constantly in danger, when the ghosts show up they're far more terrifying than just spectral shapes or people in ratty clothes and white pancake makeup, and all that tension is only heightened because you care about this family. It could be your own! One day you might wake up to find the old backyard tree trying to eat your kid!With a wonderful Jerry Goldsmith score, beautiful cinematography, fantastic performances, and ILM at their best, "Poltergeist" remains a classic. (Eric Vespe)

Read this next: The Horror Movies We Can't Wait To See In 2022

The post The 15 Best Ghost Movies Of All Time, Ranked appeared first on /Film.