Movies

Psychopomp [siko`pamp], n. (in Greek mythology): 1. a guide of souls to the place of the dead 2. the spiritual guide of a living person's soul

Of all the universal mysteries, none equals death. What occurs to each of us in that moment when our hearts cease to beat and our lungs no longer draw breath is the central enigma of life itself, the source of more rumination than any other subject and the crux of every religious ideology known to humankind. For in the cessation of life, the question remains: does it continue? Do our individual personalities--our loves, our hates, our passions--survive to transition to another realm of existence?

Image by Capital Dudes from Pixabay 

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there may not be a more polarizing sub-franchise than the Thor films. Director Kenneth Branagh did a good job with the first film, but played it mostly safe and straightforward, leaving the levity to a few sight gags where Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is shown as a stranger in a strange land. That was probably the correct approach for the early days of the MCU. Thor: The Dark World, attempted to be darker in tone under the direction of Alan Taylor, who was better known for his work in television. It didn't quite succeed and I found the overuse of Stellan Skarsgård as Erik Selvig and Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis watered down the threat of the Dark Elves--who themselves weren't the most menacing of foes--with comic relief that never resonated with me. 

Each year dozens of encounters with upright canids are reported in North America. Many reports recount a creature that is aggressive, ghastly and disturbing. While many theorize that the dogman is some sort of unidentified species of animal, many believe they were confronted by something else. Something more. A being that bent the very boundaries of reality itself and had stepped into our world from beyond…

photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

Evolving from the carnival fun houses, wax museums and gory Grand Guignol theater of times past, the first recorded haunted house intended to separate fun-loving All Hallow's Eve ghouls from their hard-earned pocket change was the Orton and Spooner Ghost House, which opened in 1915 in Liphook, England, and served as the inspirational template for the explosion of such attractions during the first half of the 20th century. With an estimated 2,000 Halloween-oriented establishments catering annually to over twelve million thrill-seeking customers in the United States alone, those quaint early seasonal sites have diversified into a myriad of more complex spooktacular destinations, from the commercialized screamparks, haunted hayrides, cornfield mazes and Christian-run 'Hell Houses' to the interactive yard attractions favored by eclectic suburban neighbors, the popularity of purpose-built haunted attractions is undeniable.

Jurassic World: Dominion is the sixth installment of the beloved dinosaur action-adventure franchise that has cost $714 million – including this film – to make and has earned over $5 billion dollars to date before this one opens in the U.S. market. It's safe to say that's an excellent return on investment. But more important to most moviegoers than the bottom line of any film’s final financials is the joy we all get from seeing these giant long extinct dinosaurs thrash and rampage wherever they wish on the biggest theater movie screens in town. Seeing these monstrous lizards instantly refills the viewer with our childhood love of these terrible beasts that we all seemed to share in our collective youth. I know I certainly would have liked to have been a paleontologist, long before I could even spell that word.

The webs of fate are oftentimes long, strange and intricate. What links the past to the present, the living to the dead, can be found in the thinnest and most inexplicable of threads. So it is with the connection between tragic cult horror film actor Rondo Hatton (1894-1946), whose unusual appearance earned him monstrous appeal in noir-era Hollywood, and the late Bob Burns (1944-2004), whose influential and iconic art direction on such movies as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, The Howling and Re-Animator was only one facet of his eccentric and obsessive personality.

There aren’t many horse racing movies that ever made the big screen, and there are several reasons for that. First of all, even though horse racing is one of the oldest sports in the world, it is still not as popular as other sports like soccer or basketball.

However, with the rise in popularity of horse racing, many movie-making companies and directors are looking to highlight some of the greatest stories from the sport’s rich tradition.

With that said, some horse racing movies managed to sneak through the radar and became very popular. One of which is Seabiscuit where the actor Tobey Maguire plays the main role. This movie is inspired by a true story, which you can read about here together with 10 interesting facts about Seabiscuit.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That's the takeaway from Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to 1986's Top Gun, directed by the late Tony Scott and starring 80s heartthrob action star Tom Cruise. It was the highest grossing film of the year, despite mixed reviews from the critics.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe can get pretty confusing even for die-hard fans. With the release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Marvel Studios is returning to the parallel world which was teased by last year’s popular film Spider-Man: No Way Home. The universe can get overwhelming, so much so that, a lot of the studio’s films, following and including, Avengers: Endgame have been based on the Multiverse and how it works.

Doctor Strange will be the latest Marvel movie following countless of successes, including the latest Spider-Man: No Way Home. Marvel and its characters have seeped into various industries including the movie world and the game world with various video games involving a number of characters and slot games from Playtech offering some of the best online slots to casinos all over the world.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is the 28th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Benedict Cumberbatch returns as Dr. Stephen Strange, the Master of the Mystic Arts. Continuing directly from the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Strange faces monstrous threats like Gargantos (Shuma-Gorath in the comics, named changed due to copyright reasons) alongside his friend and colleague Wong, (Benedict Wong), the Sorcerer Supreme. But since Spider-man wouldn't shut up during Strange's spell of forgetfulness, the Multiverse is slowly coming apart at the seams. To fix the damage, Strange recruits new allies, including Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), a teleporter from a different dimension. Wanda soons succumbs to the influence of the Darkhold, a tomb of evil magic that corrupts anyone who reads it.

Watching movies is considered the most favored recreation since the world of entertainment started in the 19th century. It had evolved since the innovation of photography started the moving still image was introduced and later on the motion picture was introduced to give movement to people and animals.

Film production is the procedure of making a movie that involves a storyline, the idea, screenwriting, production, shooting, sound recording, post-production, screening then finally the film release. It introduces different genres according to the viewer’s choice, the latest trend, or the rating system. 

Find out which sci-fi movies are the greatest of all time.

According to the Internet Movie Car Database (IMCDb), the most popular car ever used in movies is the Ford Mustang, which has featured in 809 movies including Bullitt, Goldfinger, Death Race and Gone in 60 Seconds. Some of the most successful movies not only bring us car chases and races, but also feature the car as being one of the main characters. Let us not forget Christine, Herbie, and of course Lightning McQueen. These iconic movie cars were a delight to watch on the big screen, and also inspired a new generation of motor enthusiasts to buy the car of their dreams.

You love movies and TV. In fact, you dream about someday selling something to Netflix or even seeing your work on the big screen. If this seems like something that will just have to stay a distant dream, think again. Talent, persistence and the right idea at the right time can make your dream come true, but you'll need to work hard to get there. A great way to get some experience and create a kind of calling card for yourself is to make a short film. The tips below can help you accomplish this.

There can be few traumas, if any, that exceed the loss of a loved one. Where once was a person, full of vibrancy and passion, hopes and dreams, there remains afterward a void framed only with deteriorating memories and the sober profundity of grief. When the loss comes unexpectedly or at a young age--taken too soon, we say--due to illness, accidents, overdoses or, most tragically, from self-inflicted means, the despair is bleakest of all, for the questions and doubts thereafter that linger, the what-ifs and what-might-have-beens, can and often do haunt some individuals forever.

Where the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been so intent on the continuity of portrayal in their films (to the extent they'd rather kill off the Black Panther rather than recast him), it seems DC and Warner Brothers have no issue playing "Batman, Batman, Who Plays the Batman?" Coming off a DCEU film series with Ben Affleck, the franchise finds itself bouncing back to Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight for the upcoming The Flash and Batgirl films. But neither Affleck nor Keaton would have been right for Matt Reeves' The Batman, a story set in the second year of Batman's career, and Robert Pattinson fills the cape and cowl quite fittingly.

Beginning in the late 13th century, the papal bull, led by Pope Gregory IX, established a new branch of the church in France intended to eliminate heretical Christian groups. The Inquisition, once formed, eventually evolved into the most zealous persecutors of persons accused of witchcraft, and its barbarous methods were preserved for posterity in the Malleus Malieficarum (The Witch Hammer), a notorious tome that served as the guidebook for Inquisitors designed to aid in the identification, prosecution and dispatching (read: execution) of witches. It’s estimated some 50,000 people, mostly women, were put to death between 1580 and 1630 in Europe alone. In North America, the hysteria continued well into the early colonial period, most infamously at the Salem, Massachusetts trials, and even into the new millennium, 3,000 accused individuals were killed by lynch mobs in the African nation of Tanzania from 2005 until 2011 for allegedly being witches.

Every moviegoer has differing tastes, and just as there are varieties of food, a veritable smorgasbord of comparable film styles exists. There’s the elegant haute cuisine of an arty foreign film, the spiciness of a romantic comedy, the burger-and-beer chest-thumping of action flicks. Certain motion pictures, however, like some culinary fare, are stale, their ingredients long-past the plainly stamped expiration date and sickening enough to audiences that their regurgitated story elements become toxic to the cinematic system. Their recipes are flat, over-processed imitations of earlier, superior silver screen outings, combined in ever-more-unpalatable flavors.