One of the first articles I wrote on Substack was about how I didn’t think Gnarly was the best song of the year, but it also wasn’t the worst. I basically said that there’s nothing wrong with some cringy lyrics and a strange beat so long as everyone is in on the bit. And to my absolute shock, people actually bought into Gnarly. Not because of my article, I literally had like two subscribers at the time, but because of how people were able to buy into it thanks to the girls. Gnarly capitulated KATSEYE from general K-Pop fame, into global superstars. Everyone now knows KATSEYE, and they finally became what previous global groups inspired by K-Pop have been wanting to achieve. Olivia of 2025 should be over the moon, right? But cut to a full year later, and now I wish I had never written that article. 

I know I’m not necessarily at fault here, but I feel the need to explain myself and why I even defended Gnarly in the first place. My initial thinking when I wrote my article was that Gnarly was a viral tactic, and a one time thing. This EP was called Beautiful Chaos, it made sense that one of the songs on it was chaotic and loud. I also figured that since the EP was titled Beautiful Chaos, there’d be a juxtaposition. This is going to sound weird, but I know how HYBE works. I know they chose the worst song on the EP/album to be a pre-release single, but then the new single and the album convinces people that “oh yeah this was a marketing tactic,”. This isn’t with every HYBE group, but it’s been happening a lot lately (ILLIT better be a one time thing HYBE, I’m not fucking playing). All this to say, my reasoning for not being so harsh on it was because I figured this wasn’t going to be the only kind of music they’d make. Sure, it was a drastic change from their previous EP, but hey, it’s not like this is gonna be their identity, right? 

In the past year or so, I have become somewhat of a KATSEYE anti, but not in the traditional sense where I hate the members. On the contrary, I stuck up for KATSEYE last year because of how much I love the members. No, I’m a KATSEYE anti in the sense where I just hate their entire creative team and label which makes it very difficult when you want to see a group reach a certain artistic level of success, but then the people managing them see them as vessels to get as much money as possible. I think most adult Eyekons along with the general public fall into this boat. They so desperately want KATSEYE to make songs like Touch and Gabriela, and are willing to put up with the noise if it means there’s a chance they get that again. I used to be that person, but then y’know… things happened. 

Manon’s sudden hiatus announcement in February reminded me of two things. One, the music industry will always disrespect black women no matter the diversity of the group itself or how long time passes. Two, the K-Pop schedule does NOT work for the West. It’s become the norm in the West that artists should prioritize their health before their careers even if it means quitting music altogether. KATSEYE on the other hand is completely on the other spectrum. They released another EP less than a year after their previous and I do not care how you justify it, in the West, that is not normal. They spent half of last year promoting Beautiful Chaos only to then immediately move onto the next. That is crazy. They already have two documentaries about the group and they haven't even released their debut album. 

I can forgive Gnarly even if it’s the reason why KATSEYE’s music is the way it is now.  I can forgive Internet Girl even if the lyrics genuinely make no sense. I can even forgive PINKY UP even though I do not like that song at all because while the lyrics are questionable, at the very least, the dance break slaps. I can forgive wack lyrics, weird beats and bizarre choreography. I am literally a K-Pop fan, I’m used to it. But as much as I like K-Pop and can forgive a lot of the bullshit KATSEYE has released… I draw the line at Hootie Frutti. 

I knew that I wouldn’t like this song because it’s called Hootie Frutti. I knew that this song was going to be about how good their pussy tastes, which I know sounds vulgar and gross, but that prediction was so correct, I was appalled. I’m not even that dirty minded of a person, but I can recognize when a grown ass man tried to write a sex anthem for young girls. I didn’t think we could get worse than Internet Girl, but I seriously underestimated HxG. I don’t care how they explain it, that is what the song is about and that is what the internet is going to see. The thing is, like with most KATSEYE songs, I don’t even hate the instrumental. I actually like it, but it’s those lyrics. These lyrics, to me, are not camp like everyone loves saying. They’re just plain bad. As for the rest of WILD, the only songs I genuinely like are That Way and Unloveu but that song isn’t even on the EP. It’s a bonus song and it’s only a minute long. And yes, there are more vocals in this song which is nice compared to Beautiful Chaos but that’s literally the bare minimum of any artist. If people are praising this new album because they do more singing, then the bar is way too low. 

I’ve had this thought since WILD came out. This whole situation with KATSEYE is eerily similar to what happened with Fifth Harmony. A group with potential being forced to market to children and their label ruining everything. And I just want you to go through this with me before I make my point. 

Before I get into this, a couple of disclaimers. Mainly for the Eyekons in the very rare case this leaves my little circle or in case you yourself are an Eyekon. 

1. I am not comparing the downfall of Fifth Harmony to KATSEYE. Fifth Harmony’s situation was a result of their label constantly picking favorites which in turn caused a lot of strife amongst the members. KATSEYE’s situation is a huge lack of transparency on HxG’s part. It would be very easy just to say, “Hey, Manon’s still a member of KATSEYE. We don’t plan on kicking her out. We’re just giving her some time to rest,” or “Hey, between management and Manon herself, we decided it was best for her to exit the group quietly,” but they’re only dragging this out for engagement. They know the explosion that will happen if they just up and say “Yeah, Manon’s gone.” Not only would they lose like half of their fans, but the publicity of kicking out the only black member would be brutal. Just putting her on hiatus is creating this much backlash, can you even imagine how much negative press KATSEYE would get if they announced they removed her? HYBE has kicked out numerous members, but not even they are ready for that, no matter how long they drag this out and wait for it to be quiet. 

2. I will not be comparing Camila Cabello to Manon. Not even for a quick joke. Again, two different situations.

All this to say, let me take you back to 2013. After their elimination on Season Two of The X Factor, Fifth Harmony (previously Lylas and the 1432) signed under their mentor Simon Cowell and his label, Syco, along with Epic Records in 2013. The group released their first single, Miss Movin’ On that year and then their first EP, Better Together. Fifth Harmony’s image during this era was similar to that of KATSEYE during S.I.S. Innocent, sweet, soft, girly and much more 2010s pop focused. And that image was pretty appealing to kids, so naturally, it made sense to feed into that market. I mean, they were singing about hanging with the girls and getting their makeup done, it’s peak sleepover party music. However, two years later, they released Worth It, a staple of 2015 pop. This song and era would be much different compared to the previous. It would be more mature, more sensual. And as such, this capitulated them. This rebrand gave them a lot of new fans and they began charting like never before. However… they still marketed to kids. Shortly after Worth it, they released I’m In Love With a Monster, a song for Hotel Transylvania 2. They still performed at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards and Teen Choice Awards. They had a predominantly strong young fanbase, despite pivoting to a more mature image and sound. Now, tell me that’s not all what happened with KATSEYE. 

Granted, Fifth Harmony was slightly older than KATSEYE when they debuted, they were all legal adults. It’s not like Fifth Harmony pivoted because the youngest finally turned of age. Plus, as mentioned in the disclaimer, that was only one of the issues Fifth Harmony had as a group. I don’t believe that’s the case with KATSEYE, but again, I don’t know them as people. Additionally, KATSEYE uses K-Pop methodology whereas Fifth Harmony is more of a classic American girl group. But there is clearly a pattern here. The similarities are honestly pretty frightening, especially when considering what ended up happening to Fifth Harmony. But my point wasn’t to say that KATSEYE will 100% end up like Fifth Harmony because of their similarities. My point was that HxG isn’t the first major label to try this. Labels think that you can sexualize an artist while also marketing to children. They have literally done this for years. The problem with that is that it doesn’t fucking work. You can’t have both ways. You can’t have young women shaking ass, barely wearing clothing and singing about how good their pussy tastes, while also selling mobile games and toys. It puts everyone in a really uncomfortable position. You have the artists themselves who clearly want to be taken seriously and go all in on their mature concept, but they can’t because their label wants them to appeal to young kids. You also have the parents who have to make the decision if they want to either tell their child they can’t see their favorite artist or spend $200+ on tickets and then be horrified to see that these women are barely wearing clothing, singing about sex and twerking in front of their child. Then lastly, you have the older fans, aka the fans the artist actually wants to market to. 

All of this disconnect tells me that HxG does not care about them as people or as artists. They only see KATSEYE as cashcows. Instead of putting off the new EP and just letting the girls rest along with Manon, they decided to push through with it even though Manon’s hiatus caused the girls to get a ton of backlash. It’s why Sophia is now on hiatus because even she couldn’t handle all of the comments they’ve been getting as of late. Let’s also talk about how the moment Yoonchae, the youngest member, turned 18, HxG immediately started hyper-sexualizing the group. I don’t think I’ve seen a company do a complete 180 on a group’s image like this. It really shows how this company was always planning on sexualizing these girls, but they just couldn’t do it yet because if they did, it’d be weird. As if it isn’t weird that they immediately sexualized their group literally the moment their youngest turned 18. I also need to talk about how insane their product placement is. There is at least one product placement in every single music video. That is comical. I don’t think even artists that have been in the industry for a decade have that much product placement in their music videos. It robs any sense of artistic integrity they could have for more money. I’ve seen some people call KATSEYE sell outs, but how? Their company sold them out before they could be artists. 

Even if you like KATSEYE, you have to admit that HxG is holding them back because of how greedy they are and how they aren’t even trying anymore. Sure, this “release loud flashy single followed up by mid tier song with more general public appeal and then album with new single” might work short term. But how about five years from now? Where will KATSEYE be in five years if they continue this model? People right now are already sick of this bit, do you think they’ll still fall for it years later? HxG probably knows that people will get tired of this by the end of next year, which is why they’re trying to milk the girls right now for all their worth before dumping them for SAINT SATINE, which is HxG's upcoming girl group that’s already littered with issues. Even if the music isn’t good, even if the girls literally are deteriorating, even if the general public sees them as a laughing stock, it doesn’t matter. It’s all good for a quick buck. I know these girls will be paying the price for their greed, and it’s beyond unfair. I do wish the best for them, but I know the worst is coming. 

Officer Feather had definitely seen much bloodier and violent scenes before but none confused and frightened him more than this one. Not just the bizarre gruesomeness, but the sheer tragedy of it. This was a child. A boy with a future. How could someone just rip it away from him like this? Or worse, what could’ve possibly been going through August Oleander’s mind to make him believe that this was the only way out? It may have been selfish to think of another life while another laid dead, but all Feather thought about was Ronnie. This always happened when the victims were young, but it was hitting him particularly harder tonight. Ronnie, though five years younger than August, had already seen the darkest Pichor had to offer and while he had mostly recovered, Feather worried. Worried that there was something his son was hiding or considering. Worried that the burden of such trauma corrupted him to the point of no return.

Suddenly, a waft of cigarettes and cheap perfume walked into the bathroom and interrupted his thoughts. Officer Bleek had finally arrived. A woman in her mid-40s, deep amber skin, chestnut brown hair, stout stature, and horrible bedside manners. She walked behind Feather and looked at August’s corpse.

“Yeesh! That’s a makeup look gone wrong,” she said unprompted. Feather sighed, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes.

“Did you get a hold of the parents?” Feather asked, desperate to change the topic.

“Went straight to voicemail for both of them,” Bleek said. “I asked the neighbors. Apparently, they’re overseas. Some anniversary cruise.” The two stared at August for a good while. “How’s Ronnie?”

“Oh, um, he’s okay,” Feather said. “He’s got a math quiz tomorrow so I told the sitter to make sure he goes to bed early-”

“ACK-HOO!” Feather and Bleek yelped in shock. Standing next to them was a black and white blob that Feather couldn’t see, but he had an inkling. To confirm, he quickly put on his glasses, and sure enough, there she was. How Feather or Bleek didn’t sense she had come into the room was yet another mystery, then again Detective Moira Ghoel had a habit of just appearing without warning.

“Jesus, Ghoel!” Bleek sighed, trying to shake off the fear. “You could’ve knocked!” Ghoel looked up, her sea green eyes scanned the two. As if on cue, two streaks of blood began pouring down from her nose. Feather was wondering when the obligatory nose bleed would start. Ghoel mumbled a curse under her breath then reached into the pocket of black wool coat, and found a crumpled tissue. She unfolded it hastily and put the tissue to her nose. She tilted her head back, her long oily black fell behind her, and let out an elongated sigh.

“Is everything okay, detective?” Feather asked.

“I’m… fine,” she groaned. “I apologize. I believe there’s some sort of… substance my nose is sensitive to.” Ghoel had made quite an impression on the force. Mainly because there was an actual mystery around her. She was younger, in her thirties perhaps. She’d be around for only seven months, and people were still wondering how she even got here. She never attached herself to anyone, never talked about herself, hell, she didn’t even have a partner yet. No one ever saw her eat anything, or drink anything other than straight black coffee. She didn’t have a forwarding address, a cell-phone or ID aside from her badge. Her appearance wasn’t necessarily inviting either. Her skin was almost translucent at times. Her eyes always had a deadpan, blank, but frenzied stare complete with a copious amount of black eyeshadow and liner. A serious, cold expression remained permanent on her face, only ever accompanied by an occasional look of confusion or nervousness. She smelled like a doctor’s office, an overwhelming scent of rubbing alcohol followed her everywhere she went. She appeared like she was one breath away from collapsing. There was a general consensus in the department that something was off with her, but people couldn’t figure out exactly what. Feather had heard all kinds of theories. Escaped mental patient. Con woman. Drug addict. Alien was thrown around for a bit. Still, no one could quite figure her out or why the commissioner even let her join. Ghoel’s eyes peeled over towards August’s body, and started to walk around the bathroom. Bleek cleared her throat, as if to remind everyone that she was still in the room.

“So what do we think? Suicide or murder?” she asked as if it were some kind of wager. Ghoel didn’t look at her, which Feather could tell bothered Bleek. He scratched the back of his neck and looked at August’s body.

“I mean…” Feather started. “It just seems a bit elaborate for a suicide. The kid carves out his eyes and then sticks glitter in them. And this assumes he’s still alive to even put the glitter in his eye.”

“Not to mention…clean up the blood. The eyes are…incredibly vascular.” Ghoel tilted her head back down and wiped her nose, a streak of blood brushed across her nose. She put it back in her pocket as she slowly knelt right in front of August’s face.

“But no one broke in,” Bleek said. “There’s no evidence of it. No broken windows, no footprints, no signs of a fight. Kid was alone.” Bleek looked at Ghoel, who was examining the shimmering puddle on the ground. She put a gloved finger into the liquid and looked at it intensely. Ghoel began rubbing her index finger and thumb gently.

“Are we certain… this is glitter?” Ghoel pondered.

“The lab’s gonna need a few days to process it,” Bleek said. Feather walked over to Ghoel and knelt next to her. He quickly put on an electric blue latex glove and carefully dipped his finger in the glittering gold mix. He started rubbing his index finger and thumb together like the detective had. It was… thick. Thicker than any kind of glitter mixture, or water for that matter. But it was something that felt all too familiar.

“It doesn’t feel like glitter,” Feather murmured. “It feels like blood.”

Nothing’s forever, so nothing’s to fear

Ah, boompala, boompala, boompala, eh

It’s kind of incredible how such an introspective phrase is followed up by the word BOOMPALA which after some research, I’ve learned is a word that means nothing. That kind of juxtaposition is something I adore about LE SSERAFIM. I’ve always loved their music and their vibe as a group but I felt like there was something missing to get me to connect them. They had good music and their performances were always enjoyable to watch, but I never felt as close to them as I did with other groups. I felt like their whole concept was lacking somewhat. They had the confidence of people who are fearless, but I didn’t necessarily buy it. No one is without fear or flaws, and obviously I know K-Pop idols are not perfect people. But to claim that you are fearless no matter what… that can’t possibly be true. It’s why I was so curious behind the main concept of their 2nd studio album ‘PUREFLOW’ pt 1. “For we are not fearless, and therefore powerful,” is a rather ironic sentence coming from a group whose name is an anagram for IM FEARLESS and entire image has been about being fearless in the face of adversity. So needless to say, I was intrigued. My expectations weren’t necessarily high or low, they were in the middle. I didn’t really know exactly what we’d be getting, but I knew it would be different from their previous releases because of that tagline and everything I already knew about the group. I had a feeling this album, whether I liked it or not, would be yet another pivotable moment for the group. A concept we’d seen before, but wasn’t well received.

If you ask me, the real turning point in LE SSERAFIM’s career started back in February of 2024 with their 3rd extended play EASY. The concept of the album was showcasing their vulnerability and how they make difficult things look easy. Up until this point, LE SSERAFIM had rarely touched on insecurities. Their previous trilogy (and often regarded as their best trilogy), FEARLESS, ANTIFRAGILE and UNFORGIVEN, all focused on being impenetrable to fear and worry. FEARLESS focused on being unafraid of the unknown, fitting for a debut EP. Their follow-up EP, ANTIFRAGILE, focused on being unbreakable in the face of challenges and being able to break away from the mold that society wants them to fit in. This is best seen in songs like “No Celestial”, telling their audience they’re not angels or goddesses but regular people who happen to be in the limelight. And their first studio album UNFORGIVEN was about how they’ll always be unapologetically themselves and how no one can make them apologize for it. All of these albums were about showing their confidence and reassuring the audience that they could never be broken or afraid. While there were tracks that hinted at LE SSERAFIM’s fears—such as “Sour Grapes” touching on the fear of having your heart broken yet still desiring for a connection and “FEARNOT (Between you, me and the lampost)” discussing how while the members may not be strong on their own, their fans (FEARNOTs) make LE SSERAFIM stronger—the group strayed away from touching on their own personal issues. They felt like every other group with a “Haters can’t hurt me” concept and thus their music didn’t feel genuine (despite the music itself being pretty damn good). However, EASY was set to change that, and it did, for better or worse.

This era for LE SSERAFIM was the worst it had been since their debut era. From the controversy of them dancing in a church, to the questionable similarities of their second lead single “Smart” to that of “Water” by Tyla, fans and haters alike calling out their lack of vocal training and of course, the now infamous Coachella performance. What may have started as constructive criticism descended into merciless hate, with comments, TikToks, YouTube videos tearing into their vocals. It got to a point where all of the group’s accounts, even the members’ personal Instagrams, had the comments turned off for 7 months. It was brutal to witness as a fan, but at the same time something did have to be done. The public didn’t want to see them, so they went away for a bit. And during this time of silence, LE SSERAFIM released their documentary on YouTube, MAKE IT LOOK EASY. A documentary highlighting their internal struggles from debut to 2024. This was a side I rarely understood and saw in K-Pop. Companies do a lot to hide the imperfections, so while there definitely was a “dark side” to K-Pop, it was never on display long enough to get an actual understanding. I was expecting something similar to Light Up The Sky, the BLACKPINK documentary on Netflix or even like LE SSERAFIM’s previous documentary THE WORLD IS MY OYSTER, a documentary that highlights their formation as a group. Something that just gave fans a peek behind the curtain, and maybe get to know the members a bit better. But I wasn’t expecting anything this raw and emotional. This documentary didn’t shy away from anything. Seeing the members break down in tears, admit to how the fame has affected them, being terrified of doing anything knowing that they’re going to be ripped apart online and watching them rejoice over their success was so beautiful and heartbreaking. It’s extremely rare for K-Pop companies, much less a massive titan like HYBE, show their idols be so vulnerable. It really put a lot of perspective into who these women are and what all idols likely go through.

And it was at this moment where I really tuned into LE SSERAFIM. This is where I felt like I could understand them and approach them. After EASY, LE SSERAFIM felt more real to me. They didn’t just feel like some women I watched on a screen or whose voices I heard in my headphones when I needed an energy boost. These were women who despite going through some of the worst years in their career, despite all of the pressures put onto them and themselves, are still here. They could’ve given up. They could’ve quit right there and then. But they didn’t. Instead, they kept going and they’re still here and still relevant. And despite what TikTok will tell you, their music is still worth something.

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Something that I find really fascinating is that people seemed to be more interested in LE SSERAFIM’s music when it was more surface level. I remember when SPAGHETTI was released, people kept saying they “missed the old LE SSERAFIM”. People talk about FEARLESS, ANTIFRAGILE and UNFORGIVEN as if they’re K-Pop bibles but I honestly don’t think they’re even their best albums. They’re good, don’t get me wrong, and definitely iconic but in terms of the actual material of the songs, it’s rather boring. Like I’ve been saying, prior to EASY, their music felt lacking to me. I should also clarify, surface level is not a bad thing at all. Lots of things are good because they aren’t that deep, and can be enjoyed without really thinking. But that’s not the case with this album. The reason why I love this album so much is because knowing what they went through throughout their careers, seeing them actually take on their own personal struggles in their music makes me so happy. In pretty much all of ‘PUREFLOW’ pt 1, the songs tackle fear and insecurity, in one way or another. “Creatures” and “Irony” focus on overcoming fear by facing it directly, highlighting the group’s resilience against uncertainty and hardship. While “Sonder”, “iffy iffy”, “Need Your Company” and “Trust Exercise” focus on learning to accept flaws and being comfortable with uncertainty. Not only that, every song feels and sounds different yet the album’s message is so strong. Something LE SSERAFIM has been criticized for in the past is not having a “cohesive” albums. And while they do this kind of thing a lot, this is the first time it actually feels intentional. The songs that are about confronting fear are faster paced with more techno and rock focused instrumentals that barely give you time to breathe. The songs about accepting fear are slower with more minimal instrumentals to highlight the members’ voices. It’s also worth noting this is the best I have heard these women since their EPs CRAZY and HOT. They sound so into it and deliver every line with so much force and power. It’s very fitting that this album is an anagram for POWERFUL. That’s genuinely the best way to describe this album. In just 27 minutes, this is the most powerful LE SSERAFIM has ever been.

People have often argued that after UNFORGIVEN, LE SSERAFIM has completely lost their original concept. However, I strongly disagree. This group has never strayed from its concept. They were never models. They were never angels. They were always about being fearless in any form in any way. You shouldn’t look at their new releases from a surface level because then you’re robbing yourself of actually finding meaning in them. “SPAGHETTI” may sound like TikTok brainrot garbage and was definitely a risk, but those girls sold the HELL out of that song and concept. Selling real pasta ingredients as an album exclusive is genuinely so cool and the song being about how people don’t need to take them so seriously is kind of the best 'fuck you’ I’ve seen a K-Pop girl group do. “CELEBRATION” may be too loud and short, but the song and music video being about celebrating your flaws and learning to find people who appreciate them is such a powerful message. “BOOMPALA” may be a stupid word with a useless sample attached to it and only English lyrics, but the fact that that song’s main message is about enjoying yourself, taking a minute to breathe and not letting fear lead your life is genuinely so beautiful and I’ve never seen a K-Pop group actually tackle that kind of thing before. And only this group could pull all three of those things off. Not everyone is going to like the new LE SSERAFIM, but they don’t need everyone to like them to know that they truly are fearless.

Here’s the thing about me. I’m the type of person who struggles with asserting what she wants because I am a “recovering people pleaser”. I tended to do things and agree to things to make others happy without really thinking about what I genuinely wanted. Even though I am much better now, I’ll still occasionally catch myself doing it and then regretting it later. I realized that my inner people pleaser was truly amplified when I was constantly referring to my AD/co-logistics producer for approval on shots. They actually had to pull me aside and say, “You need to be more direct with what you want because this is your film. People aren’t gonna know what to do if you don’t know what you want.” This did wake something up in me, and everyday before going to set I would tell myself, “I’m going to be tough” and… well, I wasn’t necessarily tough but by the time our second weekend of filming rolled around, I had much more confidence about how I approached things. I got better at thinking of solutions quickly and y’know, directing people to do their jobs. Even so though, I still felt out of place which I know is the point because it was my first time and I’m learning but I felt like a car speeding up and then abruptly slowing down. I would do things and be direct, and then something would happen and I would be looking around trying to find someone to tell me what to do (more often than not it was my AD). I did everything I could to mask my anxiety from the other crew members, because the last thing they needed was their director having a panic attack because she didn’t feel like she belonged. However, I’m also not great at hiding panic so maybe they all knew I was freaking out.

I know I made it all seem like the entire time during the filming process I was either panicking internally or constantly asking my AD questions, but trust me I did genuinely have fun. The energy on my set was amazing, everyone got along and we did get all of the filming done. And I was happy with everything we shot, and I’m beyond excited for the final release. The thing is despite my hesitance on directing, it only motivates me to try it again. Maybe not this year (I’m still exhausted from the first one-), but definitely again. Knowing what I know now will definitely help me prepare for whatever I come with next, whenever that is.

I guess second time’s a charm :)

Clair was at Table No. 6, approximately seven feet away from her. Ever since he and her locked eyes six weeks ago, she’s been the main thing on his mind. And while every coming Sunday he would tell himself he was going to go over and talk to her, he never could muster the courage. Until today. Today, he was going to do it. He was going to talk to her. Luckily, he had already paid so he wouldn’t have to inconvenience the waiters or any other customers who wanted to sit there. Clair slowly stood up, grabbed his jacket and started walking over to Table No. 9. The gentle clinking of china and hushed voices of the rest of the tea parlor became muffled. Six feet. He did his best to make his footsteps soft. He had a horrible habit of stomping when he was nervous, and the last thing he wanted was to bother the other patrons. Five feet. He adjusted his tie and tried to smooth out any creases on his suit that the steamer might have missed. Four feet. He clasped his hands together in the hopes they would stop fidgeting. Three feet. He took slow deep breaths, hoping to stop the quivering. Two feet. He only heard his heart. One foot. He stopped walking and was right in front of her table. She didn’t look at him, and was solely focused on filling her cup. He took a slow deep breath and smiled.

“Hello,” Clair trembled.

At first, he thought the woman didn’t hear him. Perhaps he wasn’t loud enough. In fairness, he was trying to respect the volume of the space and his voice was naturally very meek. He was about to say ‘hello’ again, but then, the woman gradually looked up at him. Those fierce eyes of hers stabbing his own, and he could actually feel them watering. He felt his face flush, his fingers dance, and his legs quiver. He did his best to hide these things from the woman, but he knew, deep down, she saw every little detail. Her eyes moved away from his eyes and she started surveying him. From his toes to the top of his head. And it wasn’t a quick look either. It was a full scan. This woman was calibrating everything she noticed about Clair. She then steadily took a sip of her tea, and when she was finished, she placed it gently on the saucer. The woman met his eyes again, that piercing glare hitting him once more.

“Um, hi,” she said with a defensive confusion. His breathing hitched for a moment. I knew it. I knew this was a bad idea. She thinks I’m a stalker. She thinks I’m a pervert. She’s probably getting out her pepper spray at this very moment. She’s going to tell all of her friends about the weird guy who interrupted her tea time. I’m the reason she hates men- “Are you okay?” Her sharp yet snarky tone broke Clair out of his mind. He quickly collected himself as best he could and smiled nervously at the woman.

“Oh, yes, sorry! I was just….” He could feel his heart in his throat, and he was desperately trying to swallow it. Meanwhile, the woman was judging him immensely and her eyes did not leave his, no matter how much they zipped around. She’s waiting. He met her eyes again. “I was, um, I noticed that you started coming here every Sunday.” There. He had said it. The “hard part” was over. The woman’s eyes squinted skeptically.

“Uh huh.” Despite the “uh huh”, Clair could tell that the woman was even more confused than she was before he elaborated. Even though he had anticipated this kind of reaction, he still felt that rush of embarrassment and regret.

“Oh! No, no! Not in a creepy way! It’s not as if I’m watching you…” The woman’s eyebrows shot up in concern. Oh god! No! No, no, no, no, no! “I-I mean, I was watching you! Was! I’m not anymore, obviously.” The woman just stared, her black-brown blubs looked confused.

“So you were watching me,” she stated. His throat started drying up. Watching was definitely the wrong word. Why did he say watching? Watching is creepy and stalkerish. And sure, he may have been looking at her, but he wasn’t looking at her.

“Well, I-I mean, I wouldn’t necessarily call it watching-”

“Well, what else would you call looking at a woman you don’t know?” Clair’s mind was racing, thinking of any other word or perhaps a different phrase. Yet every word just sounded wrong.

“Appreciating.” The young woman looked rather puzzled.

“Appreciating?” she repeated, drawing out the word. “Appreciating what exactly?”

“You always get black tea with pistachio and cranberry scones.” She raised an eyebrow and leaned back in her seat.

“You have my order memorized?”

“When someone orders the same thing six times in a row, you tend to notice.” The woman scoffed, clearly unimpressed.

“Okay, well, what’s to appreciate about that?”

“It means you value consistency.” She tilted her head. The gears in her head seemed to understand what Clair meant by “appreciate”.

“What else?”

“You never bring any distractions.”

“Define distractions.”

“You don’t take out your phone, you don’t bring magazines or newspapers, you don’t wear headphones. You take everything in. You don’t let anything disrupt your

“Except for a strange man who has been watching me.” Clair laughed nervously and ran his fingers through his hair. “Anything else you appreciate?” He wanted to avoid making any comments about her appearance, even though he had nothing but nice things to say. But a part of him couldn’t help it. He wanted her to know that he found her beautiful. I’m probably going to regret this.

“You have the most captivating eyes I’ve ever seen.” Her sharp gaze turned soft. Her defensive attitude and intense stare shut down almost immediately. She blinked at him.

“Wow,” the woman breathed. Clair noticed her ears started turning red. And for the first time, she smiled. He shouldn’t have doubted that she would become more exquisite when she smiled. Because she did. “Wow.”

“Was that- Was that too much?” Clair asked.

“No, not at all,” she chuckled.

“Well, why don’t you sit down?” At long last, Clair had done it. It was a struggle for sure, but the result was more than worth it. He could finally breathe.

“I’d be delighted!” he exclaimed, still minding the volume. “Oh, I’m Clair, by the way.” He offered a hand for the woman to shake, and the woman grabbed it gently. Her hand was cold, but a relieving cold. It sent a chill down Clair’s spine, and he could feel his blood cool down. The woman gave him a smile.

“Donna. Nice to meet you.”

Until 4 hours ago…

I woke up at like 2 am this morning after dreaming that one of my ocs was attacked by a gorilla. I was then reminded of that meme that was funny like 6 months ago: who would win: 1 gorilla or 100 men? And so I thought hey, while I’m in this creative funk, wouldn’t it be fun to hypothesize each of my ocs in this situation? Besides, it gives me the opportunity to share some of my ocs with you all hehe

Round 1: The Bejeweled/Maren Moiss

• Character Premise: A massively successful popstar siren who suffers from constant imposter syndrome.

• Powers: hypnosis, siren song, gets their tail if water touches them

• Age: 27

• Pronouns: they/them

Their siren abilities might allow them to incapacitate the gorilla with a siren song. I think if the gorilla was getting fought in the water, The Bejeweled would definitely have the high ground as water is their territory. On land, Maren might have a slight disadvantage But Maren wouldn’t want to hurt the gorilla though, they don’t like hurting animals and are strictly vegetarian. Still, I think they have more of a chance than my other ocs so I’ll give the point to Maren.

My OCs: 1

Gorilla: 0

Round 2: Dr. Connie Valentine

• Character Premise: A genius mad scientist obsessed with creating the perfect love formula to find his one true love.

• Powers: none but he’s very smart

• Age: 35

• Pronouns: he/him

I don’t think he’s making it but he’d definitely try to flirt with the gorilla as a diversion. Maybe he’d be able to trick the gorilla but i fear the gorilla would kill him 😭 Sorry Connie

My OCs: 1

Gorilla: 1

Round 3: Bellamy

• Character Premise: A charming and kind Southern boogeyman who falls in love with a monster hunter.

• Powers: fear consumption, umbrakinesis

• Age: 16

• Pronouns: he/him

Considering that Bellamy hates inflicting pain, I fear he’d be cooked. I would usually give him the caveat of “well if his girlfriend was in trouble, then yeah he probably would win” but I think I already did that enough with The Bejeweled so in this case, I’m giving it to the gorilla.

My OCs: 1

Gorilla: 2

Round 4: Viper Archeron

• Character Premise: A skilled teen monster hunter who feels sympathy for monsters and wants to better understand them. (also this is Bellamy’s girlfriend)

• Powers: None but give her a bow and arrow and she’ll go sicko mode.

• Age: 16

• Pronouns: she/her

I absolutely love Viper, and while she is a pretty skilled hunter, she doesn’t necessarily love hunting. As much as I want to say that she’d fuck up the gorilla, I don’t think that’s true. She cares about life and wants to protect monsters so I don’t feel like she’d want to hurt a gorilla even if it attacked her unprovoked.

My OCs: 1

Gorilla: 3

Round 5: E.C. Landersnatch

• Character Premise: A demon butler who wants to take care of and protect children from the evils of the world.

• Powers: shapeshifting, telepathy, telekinesis, hypnosis, can control of insects

• Age: 35

• Pronouns: he/him

Yeah Landersnatch would kill that gorilla. He may be polite and well-mannered but make no mistake, when he senses a threat, he will take care of them. And if the gorilla tries going after the kids, dude that guy doesn’t stand a chance-

My OCs: 2

Gorilla: 3

Round 6: Rodrick Cherry

• Character Premise: A scorned desk clerk seeking revenge against his co-worker who was promoted instead of him.

• Powers: Able to be a nuisance without getting fired

• Age: 32

• Pronouns: he/him

I mean, he died in the dream so I think it’s safe to say he’d die in this scenario too. plus i hate this guy-

My OCs: 2

Gorilla: 4

Round 7: Callum Vale

• Character Premise: A vampire sheriff who kills the rabid vampires that plague his town.

• Powers: healing, enhanced agility and strength, blood sucking,

• Age: 40

• Pronouns: he/him

Callum would also fuck up the gorilla. He’s like Alucard from Hellsing but black, Southern and significantly not as overpowered. Make no mistake though, he will fuck you up if you threaten him or anyone he cares about.

My OCs: 3

Gorilla: 4

I’m realizing now that a lot of my ocs are men which i don’t know what that says about me but if i want to do this again, i will include more women ocs i promise 😭

hope you enjoyed this little random funny thought i had at 2 am i’ll see you guys in like a month

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I despise being negative about films, especially films that I wanted to succeed but didn’t. It’s why I’ve been avoiding talking about Opus. It feels like kicking a dead horse. Everyone knows it’s dead, and acknowledging that it’s dead isn’t going to the fact that it’s dead. I also hate wasted potential more than anything. When a good idea is spoiled either by studio interference or too many rewrites, I get so sad because there was a significantly better version of the story and due to either cold feet or constant notes, we get stuck with the worst version of that story. It sucks. I say all that because I’m not writing this with a shit-eating grin on my face. I’m not getting joy out of tearing someone’s project apart. This was something I was really excited for, and then when it didn’t live up to my expectations, I was disappointed immensely. So disappointed that I decided to write a needlessly long and detailed Substack post about a film you probably never heard of or don’t care for. Without drawing this intro out too long, let’s begin this essay on Opus and why it broke my heart.

Oh, and spoilers for Opus, The Menu and Midsommar.

Part I. The Premise and Why I Fell In Love With It

No, I’m not talking about the actual premise of the movie: a young journalist (Ayo Edebiri) goes to a remote compound to experience a reclusive pop star’s (John Malkovich) latest album and gets thrown in a strange and dark world. No, no. I’m talking about the premise that this movie sold me on. The premise that was all over the marketing. The premise that I fell in love with. If you haven’t seen the trailer for this film or just generally know nothing about Opus, take a look.

The initial trailer for this movie does an amazing job of hooking you. Setting up the story while also presenting interesting set pieces as an ominous score paired with groans and cheers of an audience plays. Near the end, the tagline, “there’s no cult like celebrity”, is intercut between scenes and this right here is when I actually got excited.

If you ask me, “there’s no cult like celebrity” is such a great premise for a film. It’s not only a fascinating concept, it’s also relevant. Thanks to the internet, fans are more rabid and delusional than ever. Stalking where celebrities live, creating parasocial fantasies around their favs, leaking their personal information, and many more horrible other things. To me, fan culture is just as complex as it is bizarre. There’s a sense of community and, at the same time, a sense of hostility when any aspect of the fanbase you’re apart of is criticized. It can be the greatest joy being part of a fandom and also the most stressful and frustrating thing you will ever be a part of. Personally, I was really excited to see that kind of behavior showcased and how that duality would be portrayed in a film. And, well, let’s just say Opus didn’t really deliver on that… at all. But before I dog on it too much, let me do what I always do when I review films: let’s talk about what I actually like.

Part II. Things I Genuinely Love About The Film

As I mentioned before, the cast is absolutely incredible. And I think with the material they were given, they all did a good job. The Levelists and Jon Malkovich steal the show with their strange creepy yet energetic aura. Amber Midthunder, who I already loved in Prey (2023), brings such an interesting laid back, yet aggressive energy to the film that feels so unique compared to the rest of the Levelists. Malkovich is clearly having the time of his life playing this character and anytime he’s on screen, you can expect a very entertaining scene. Edebiri does a great job, as always, and her delivery also works very well and comedic timing suits this film very well. Everyone else is doing what I consider to be the bare minimum when it comes to acting. No one in this movie is bad, I’ll leave it at that.

Additionally, the cinematography, while nothing insane, is simple, colorful, well lit and full of depth. In a world of “Netflix coloring and lighting”, it’s always nice to get a film that actually looks like a film. I love the warm colors, and the stunning contrast with dark shadows combined with the sunlight.

Piggybacking off of that, I like the use of blue throughout the film, especially near the end. It’s a good way of hinting at the Levelists and Morreti’s influence in this world without explicitly telling us (well, they do tell us at the end, but I like that it’s also sprinkled throughout).

Lastly, the little of Moretti’s music we get is honestly pretty damn good. “Dina, Simone” is genuinely a fire song that I occasionally will put on rotation, and I love the direction they went with these songs. They both feel modern yet very 90s with a very sinister darkness to them. To be fair, they did have Nile Rogers and The-Dream produce the songs, so it makes sense why the production quality is so high.

I’m afraid that’s where my praise for the film ends. If you’ve seen it, you could argue that I’m being a bit too forgiving. Honestly, that’s completely fair. I’m coming at this from a slightly more positive view than most actual film critics are. So, allow me to channel my inner film critic and rip into this immeasurable disappointment of a movie.

Part III. Where The Disappointment Set In

There’s a lot about this film that disappointed me, so allow me to list the three major things that pissed me off.

1. Too many themes

In an hour and forty four minutes, this film introduces themes regarding artistic integrity, artistic freedom, the vileness of the media, the insanity of fan culture, predator behaviors in the music industry, indoctrination, creative vs logic, and all press is good press. All of these themes are competing to be the main message of the movie and are abandoned almost as fast as they are introduced. I’m not a professional writer, hell I don’t even really see myself as a good one, but even I can recognize that this isn’t good writing. Introducing so many themes and then abandoning them only confuses the audience and leaves them questioning the point of the movie.

2. What even is a Levelist?

This movie spends a lot of time explaining what Level, a cult that’s providing, according to Jorg, Moretti’s right hand, “The one and only holistic path to prevent the obstruction of creativity and ensure the protection of those divinely burdened to wield it”. Now, that sounds incredibly convoluted (because it is) and the movie fails to properly explain what that actually means. To the best of my ability, I’m going to attempt to explain what Level is and what it means to be a Levelist. It seems they protect artistic integrity and creativity as a whole by serving the one they see as the most creative. Moretti also confirms at the end of the film that Level believes in the left-brain/right-brain theory aka the theory that your brain is split into two: your creative side (the right brain) and your logical side (the left brain). Level values creativity over everything else and seems to also believe in one supreme creative based on multiple pyramid graphics seen in the book the guests are given, The Meditations of Level, and on a chalkboard at the end. So, based on all of that, we can say that Level’s mission is to make way for the one supreme creative and their goal is protect that creative from others who threaten it such as media junkets, influences and potential exploiters.

I should point out I was only able to discern all of that because I watched this film seven times. If it took me that many watches to get that, the random guy who saw it in theaters most definitely did not. The average movie goer is not going to watch this film that scored a 2.9 on IMDB more than once.

3. Why the fuck did Moretti do that?

So… why the fuck did Moretti murder six people? I know why, I watched the movie, but… why? Sure, he says at the end of the film he wanted to spread his cult to the world, but I ask again, why? He also says that his cult is designed to promote right-brain, or the alleged creative part of your brain, ideology. Okay, I ask yet again, why? What makes right-brain ideology better than left-brain ideology? This movie doesn’t really explain, and doesn’t seem interested in explaining because this all comes in the last 15 minutes of the movie. I feel like I shouldn’t have to emphasize this, but endings are crucial in any story. The ending is what makes or breaks it, and this ending breaks it. Let me be clear, I’m not against the twist. I’m not against Moretti using Ariel as a vehicle to catapult Levelism. What I’m against it being so half assed. Sure, if you watched this film multiple times like I did, you could maybe see the signs but they’re so small that you’re not going to pick them up on a first watch.

3 1/2: Wait… I’ve seen this movie before…

I feel like I wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t address the BlinkTwiceMidsommarTheMenuDon’tWorryDarlingGetOut elephant in the room so… allow me explain.

Part IV. The Fuck Rich White People Indie Thriller Fatigue

As reductive as I think this Letterboxd comment is, I can’t deny that this is a factor into why Opus (2025) just felt flat to me. While watching it, it felt like the film was checking off boxes, doing things that it had to do in order to meet the requirements of an A24 thriller. Tell me if you’ve heard of this story before. A young, down-on-their-luck, working class person (typically a woman or person of color or both) is invited to a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience a reclusive, mysterious yet illustrious individual’s thing at a remote, isolating location. Joining our main protagonist is a cast of colorful supporting characters, each representing an issue in a specific industry or a much more general societal issue (or hell, why not both?). They are all vapid, and will be the victims in our recluse’s evil plan. Unlike the vapid supporting cast, our protagonist’s seems to be the only one curious and confused with the entire situation. This becomes apparent when they interact with the staff and find that them odd and 100% devoted to this recluse, almost to a cult-like level. There’s typically a right hand that our main protagonist interacts with the most but before they can get too suspicious, our recluse makes their grand entrance. They introduce the plan for the evening (or weekend or whatever) but then near the end of the first act, the host reveals their true intentions and tortures our guests for an lengthy period of time. However, the main protagonist is able to see through the host’s bullshit, is able to escape by flipping the script and leaves, traumatized, but determined and with a new outlook on life. Now, if your answer was The Menu (2022), Blink Twice (2024), or Don’t Worry Darling (2023), you wouldn’t be wrong. This right here is a pattern. A pattern that I’ve aptly named “The Fuck Rich White People Indie Thriller”. See, I don’t have any problem with a good ol’ fashion eat the rich type movie ESPECIALLY in today’s political climate. However, I can most definitely see this pattern getting overplayed hence this user’s comment. In fact, it already has. Every two years or so, we get another thriller surrounding a mysterious rich person with some dark secret Again, while I don’t have a problem with it, the point remains: it all comes down to execution. Despite people saying that they’re sick of this type of thriller, I don’t believe that’s the case. It’s similar to superhero movie fatigue. People aren’t tired of it, they’re just tired of seeing bad ones. This isn’t to say that any of these films are inherently bad, but they’re part of a growing trend. A trend that I have a feeling isn’t going to go away. When something is a trend, it tends to be predictable. People know what to expect, and for thrillers, predictability is bad.

Now, not all of the films Joosh list follow this pattern (like I’m sorry what does Get Out have to do with this movie aside from having a Black protagonist and creep white people-), but for the sake of this argument, let’s use The Menu (2022) and Midsommar (2019) as comparisons since they’re clearly inspiration for Opus and had wildly different executions.

1. The Menu

If you haven’t seen Mark Mylod’s dramady culinary horror film The Menu, first of all, I highly recommend it. Second, let me give you the rundown. The Menu follows a foodie and his girlfriend who attend a famous chef’s once-in-a-lifetime dining experience at a remote island; however the chef and his army of dedicated sous-chefs have many dark surprises in store for our guests. After watching The Menu and Opus back to back, it is so obvious that Green tried to emulate that energy especially in the third act. That scene where Moretti is revealing what Caesar’s Request means reeks of Chef Slowik’s monologues when he’s describing each dish. The execution of the scene just feels like a Not to mention, it doesn’t really suit Moretti’s personality and, while I know that’s the point, it doesn’t feel consistent. For comparison, Slowik, while pretty despicable, had a coldness to him so that when his plan to kill everyone including himself in his restaurant is revealed, it’s not too jarring. In Opus, Moretti seemed like a chill guy who was definitely creepy and weird, but didn’t show any sign of malice or hatred. And then, all of the sudden, he becomes a resentful artist who believes that he was exploited by the media. It feels like it comes out of nowhere, and only happens because it’s the third act and we need an “antagonist crashes out scene”. It also does not help that Moretti’s motivations aren’t revealed in this scene, but I’ve already gone in depth explaining how blurry his motives are and this essay is long enough as is so let’s move on to our next film comparison.

2. Midsommar

(trigger warning: brief mention of murder, suicide and emotional abuse)

Why Midsommar works as a cult film because that’s what that film is about. It’s about how cults are able to prey on the vulnerable and how they can claim to offer community when in actuality, they’re trying to isolate. Our main character, Dani, starts the film in an emotionally distant relationship and loses her parents and her sister due to her sister’s bipolar episode leading her to murder her parents and kill herself. She is the perfect prey to be indoctrinated in a cult. Another key aspect of cults is that they typically ask you to share something personal or even illegal that you did to get a hold over you and to keep you from leaving. In Midsommar, Dani ends up choosing to sacrifice Christian, her boyfriend, and while there’s nothing to suggest that the cult holds it against her, I have a feeling they would. These aspects are literally no where to be found in Opus and as such, it led me to ask how does Level actually function as a cult? How do they have so many members? I mean, clearly, they’re all only doing this because of Moretti but that’s not really an explanation. There has to be more to it than that, otherwise you just have a group of people who are in a cult because a celebrity is a leader in said cult. Okay, but call me overdramatic, that doesn’t mean anything. How do they convince people to join? What are they holding over people? Are they being blackmailed? Am I really expected to believe that all of these people joined this cult willingly? It may sound like I’m nitpicking, but when you dig into the film, more and more questions appear and are left unanswered.

Part V. How I Think This Could’ve Been Executed Better

I don’t like saying I could write something better because I’m an amateur. I’ve never actually written a feature length script before. However, I do think I’m capable of providing my criticism and input to how this film could’ve been better. Keep in mind that my changes are subjective.

1. Get rid of the Levelist shit.

This movie wastes so much time just explaining what Level is without actually explaining what it is. Instead of focusing on the interesting concepts that we have, we spend time focusing on the cult itself. Yes, it’s a key component of this movie but it doesn’t need to be this convoluted. It should simply be these cultists worship Moretti because he’s their favorite celebrity. He’s their idol, he’s an escape, he’s their everything. I don’t think we really need to explain why people worship their favorite celebrities. People are willing to forget their own humanity for their idols and do insane shit just to get the attention of their faves. Not to mention, artists tend to encourage these parasocial delusions because it’s how they make money. It’s a constant cycle, and no one is really sure how to stop it. So again, I think cutting all of that extra fluff with the Levelist and what Level is will allow us to explore what this movie should’ve been about: batshit fan behavior.

2. Focus more on the insanity of fan behavior.

The cultists are all presumed super fans of Moretti; it’s why he hired them in the first place. We know this because Jorg was a music school teacher that Moretti somehow discovered and immediately hired despite not knowing anything about him. I think it could be interesting if these cultists did something in particular as a sort of twisted way to earn Moretti’s respect and approval. Such as doxxing haters or even Moretti himself, throwing things at him at a concert, or collecting his body hair. Additionally, we could also focus on how the media perceives these fans. Remember, fans are an extension of that artist. Whatever they do represents what that artist is. Focusing on the rabidness of fans would not only be interesting from a fan perspective but also from a public perception perspective.

3. Get rid of the extra guests. Especially since they add nothing to the film.

We don’t need to do The Menu again. We don’t need characters that each represent an aspect that ruined Moretti’s passion for music or because they exploit musicians, especially if it’s going to be THIS underbaked. As much as I like this cast, if the story isn’t interested in doing anything with them aside from provide a couple jokes, they aren’t necessary. So, I say we limit it to maybe two other main characters including Ariel. Each character would play a part in experiencing Moretti: a shallow character looking to exploit Moretti, a character desperate to get Moretti’s approval and of course, our journalist Ariel who wants to get to the bottom of the mystery. Plus, it also saves us from that really weird subplot with Ariel and her boss that goes LITERALLY NOWHERE. I also believe that with this change, the exclusivity of the event makes it more intriguing. Why are so few people allowed at this event? It lets the character be curious as well as the audience. And that curiosity is key to this film’s success.

4. Commit to give us Caesar’s Request (aka this movie needed better marketing)

A massive missed opportunity that this movie didn’t take was actually giving us Moretti’s full album, Caesar’s Request. We only get three songs, “Dina, Simone”, “Tomorrow, My Love”, and “35 mm” (and “Dina, Simone” is already a pre-existing song in Moretti’s discography, so technically, we only get two new songs from his album). Now these songs are great, but I was expecting more from a movie about music. I also understand that Nile Rogers and The-Dream are very expensive and it was probably a lot of money to get them on board to produce these songs, but the lack of music just doesn’t feel convincing. I don’t really buy that Moretti is a massive global star like the movie constantly reminds us, and while I can get an idea of his sound, three songs isn’t a lot to work with. I think if we had a full album to actually consume, it would give Think of Daisy Jones & The Six. That series gave us an entire full album of songs, hell they even sold physical albums. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I honestly think if we had more music and more of a media presence, not only could this feel more like Moretti is an actual artist that could exist in our world but market the movie better which would’ve led to more people seeing it. Let me tell you that this movie did not make a lot of money, and usually that’s not a big deal especially for indie films like Opus, but this film cost $10 million and made back $2.2 million… globally. I think this movie really could’ve benefited from underground marketing that would’ve gone viral but I’m not in marketing so what do I know?

Part VI: My Final Thoughts

My changes and criticisms are subjective. While I think they make the film better, I can also understand that Mark Anthony Green had a vision for this movie but he presented an idea. An idea I was really excited to see. An idea that I’ll probably never see. I think I’ll always look back on this film with discontent and annoyance. It doesn’t matter how many times I watch it, it’ll always be a film that severely disappointed me. It’ll always be a film that broke my heart.

Now, whether this movement will actually be effective or not is still up in the air, but I wanted to specifically talk about what would I do if I were to take up the movement and could it actually help me? I’ve been meaning to start getting less attached to social media and start connecting more with life. I even downloaded a dumbphone app on my phone so that if I’m out with friends or my family, I’m not distracted by any notifications. However, it’s been getting harder and harder to disconnect. I know that I can easily delete every social media app I have, but I know me. I know that I’d instantly redownload it in about two weeks. I desperately want to stop being addicted and engaging with the endless cycle of mind numbing brainrot that I get thrown at every day. So… could physical media actually help me? I do believe that it could do me some good to look at a couple of magazines, read more books and not constantly be on my phone all the time. Would abandoning my cell phone and adopting the flip phone make me more attentive? More compassionate? I’m obviously being a bit dramatic here, but the point is would analog make us better people? If we eliminate all of the white noise that the Internet and social media makes and went back a couple years, could we become better individuals? The optimist in me would love to believe so and hope so. I think it it could not only b3 nourishing to go analog every once and a while, but also kind of fun! I think it could be to get fashion ideas from magazines, reading more books, and going out more to see movies in theaters. Having a more soothing algorithm as well, one that focuses more on art, self-love and carefully crafted work could also help me avoid doomscrolling and rotting in general. Going analog long term might not work for me, but I do see the benefits of integrating it more into my daily life.

It started when I begun hearing the phrase “not second-screen enough” in film forums. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, it’s this theory that these massive streaming platforms, such as Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max, don’t accept original scripts that aren’t “second-screen enough”. These are screenplays that are predictable enough that the viewer doesn’t have to really think, but loud enough that the viewer can have some vested interest. There needs to be a draw that would get the person to click on the movie or show, like a famous actor or a director, writer or producer. More often than not, these original projects are high budget concepts with a stacked cast, typically a mix of Hollywood legends and popular newcomers. The characters are archetypes, they don’t have any qualities that make them stand out aside from the ones that are predetermined. Reluctant hero, forgettable villain, quippy sidekick, mentor that is killed by the second act. These stories aren’t designed to challenge the audience, they’re designed to be background noise. Stuff you put on when you do your laundry or while you’re scrolling on TikTok. It’s easy to consume. It’s designed to be a distraction. Film and especially television are escapist art forms, so this approach is nothing really new. However, when did it become a bad thing to want audiences to care about what they’re watching?

I always appreciate movies and shows that demand your attention. That require you to actually think and analyze. That encourage you to watch multiple times. That trust you and your intellect. I love watching something and literally stopping what I’m doing to give it my full attention. That’s why I got into film. I want someone to see something I worked on and then decide to give it their full time and attention. I don’t even care if they like it or not, so long as they’re paying attention. If I work hard on something, I don’t want a person to pull out their phone and watch TikToks. I want them to fully engage. I want them to care. I want whatever I put out to stick with them for years. I want to make an impression on people. But how do I make an impression if I can’t even get a foot in the door? Realistically speaking, the chances of me working on my own show or directing my first feature in the next two decades is decreasing daily. So why do I want to continue to pursue this? It could be just because there’s nothing else I’d rather do and I’m already too deep to pivot. I think it’s because I care too much. I get too mad when I hear about AI. I get too excited about new releases. I get too much joy when I see a movie in theaters. Film has been my whole world for almost six years now. I wouldn’t be where I am without it and a world where I’m not in film is one I don’t want to be in.

1. Interview with the Vampire (2022)

Let’s start with Interview with the Vampire (2022). Upon its release, I had heard of the general premise, the books and was aware of the 1994 film, but I also had zero clue as to what I was getting into. I didn’t think a story with this premise could be adapted successfully into a film much less a TV show. And then I watched Interview with the Vampire and was immediately enthralled. As it stands, I adore this show. The performances, the set design, the costumes, the writing, the characters, there is so much to love about this show. I think the first season does a great job of setting up Louis and Lestat’s relationship and the second season does an even better job at creating tension in their relationship. I also love that pretty much every character is given a major flaw, and there’s no bias towards any character. What I mean by that second point is that I can tell that the writers aren’t trying to paint Louis or Lestat in a specific light. They aren’t trying to convince us that Lestat is some diabolical vampire or that Louis is some holy saint who was swindled. The writers clearly understand that these characters are people, people with flaws and strengths. I can appreciate a show that holds an impartial bias to its characters, and I feel in a story like Interview with the Vampire that works perfectly. All this to say I’m very excited for season three and cannot wait to see where the story goes from here.

2. The Craft (1996)

I love witches just as much as I love vampires, and if there was a movie that encapsulated my love for witches, it would be The Craft (1996). The fact I haven’t found a film that captures the same energy or vibe as this is pretty telling of how unique it is. It’s honestly kind of surprising how ahead of its time this film was. It has four female protagonists that all have flaws and unique personalities, it tackles themes of friendship and belonging, and it doesn’t end with our main characters in a romantic relationship. I find this movie to be really unique take on girlhood and female friendships. It’s why this film resonates with me so much, as someone who went to an all girls Catholic school. There’s the moments of joy and belonging, the infighting, the strange power dynamic, and eventually, the falling out. I think this film portrays all of that perfectly, while also still being an extremely enjoyable story. The idea of a coven being a group of friends is such a fun concept and I really love that this film embraces that. If you’ve never seen it, I highly recommend you do. It is so much fun, and you will by the end of it wish you could be a witch.

3. Death Becomes Her (1992)

Every time I watch Death Becomes Her (1996), I always enjoy a little more. It’s just such a delightfully strange movie and once again, a very unique take on witchcraft. This movie is pretty campy, and I don’t think I’ve seen Bruce Willis ham it up like this in a movie before so that in of itself is pretty enjoyable. It’s one of the things I love most about this movie. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is acting at 110% and are all in which if they didn’t, this movie would not work. And it’s not just the performances that I love. Along with the costumes and overall aesthetic, I find this film to be a really interesting take on women aging and pointing out the absurdity competing for male validation. It’s also just a very funny movie in general with extremely entertaining performances and a script that still manages to get a chuckle out of me.

4. Soul Eater

Soul Eater was the first anime series I ever watched. It’ll always hold a special place in my heart as the anime that introduced me to anime. I think what pulls me into this show every now and again is the atmosphere. The atmosphere is unlike any anime I’ve seen before. Death City, the city the characters live in, is a world of strangeness with a laughing sun and moon and witches and demons. The first episode (or issue if you’re reading the manga) does a really good job of throwing us into this world without making us feel overwhelmed. It also eases us into each of our core characters with each episode/issue. We get to spend time with them before we get into the main story and learn each of their dynamics. I think that respect for the viewer is why I love this series so much because too many animes feel like they’re either rushing into things or they’re wasting your time. Soul Eater both respects the viewer enough to ease them into the world and characters while also picking up the pace of the story when it’s necessary. This series can be extremely bizarre with its absurdity and genuinely creepy elements, but it’s also very fun show with quirky characters and a fascinating world.

5. The Love Witch (2016)

I could write a 15 page essay on why The Love Witch (2016) is one of the greatest modern films of all time, but we don’t have the time to do that. I adore everything that this film is. The homage to Technicolor and 60s films, the concept, the performances, the aesthetic, the costumes, the sets, the music, the practical effects, everything about this film makes me so happy. I’m not joking when I say that when I watched this film for the first time last year, it permanently altered my brain chemistry. This movie is so much more than just a good Halloween movie. You can watch this film at any time during the year and it will be worth your while. I honestly don’t have too much to say about this one because I feel like it’s one of those movies that you have to experience yourself. Because sure, I could tell you why this film is amazing but you won’t really understand what I’m talking about unless you watch it.

6. Hellsing

If you know me personally, this probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Hellsing is my favorite manga and anime of all time. It is incredibly difficult for me to put properly into words why I love this series so much, but to give you a short version it literally has everything I could ask for in an anime. It’s got action, memorable and well developed characters, a unique atmosphere, and most importantly, vampires. I have read/watched a lot vampire animes, but none of them and I mean none of them hold a candle to Hellsing. Like with The Love Witch, I feel like explaining why this series is so good robs you of actually experiencing it. However, I will say, if you’re looking for a creepy atmosphere, I would watch Hellsing (2001) but if you’re looking for straight gore and violence, I’d recommend Hellsing: Ultimate (2006).

That’s all of my spooky recommendations for now! I hope you enjoyed this and that I inspired to check out some of my favorite Halloween favs!

however

I’ll be so honest, most of these creepypastas have not aged well. Not because they’re offensive, but mainly because they’re not…really scary. For instance, I recently reread Jeff the Killer, an iconic creepypasta telling the story of a young man named Jeffery “Jeff” Woods who becomes a deranged serial killer due to a very traumatic incident where some bullies doused him in bleach and set him on fire. This leads to his face becoming disfigured, catalyzing in a breakdown in which he scars his cheeks and cuts off his eyelids, and leads him to kill his mother and his brother in their sleep. This was the first creepypasta I ever read and the one I was most scared of for the longest time. So, for fun and the sake of this essay, I figured I would go back and revisit this story. And to my surprise, it was…not as scary as I remember it.

“Later that night, Jeff's mother woke to a sound coming from the bathroom. It sounded as if someone was crying. She slowly walked over to see what it was. When she looked into the bathroom she saw a horrendous sight. Jeff had taken a knife and carved a smile into his cheeks.

“‘Jeff, what are you doing?" asked his mother. Jeff looked over to his mother.

‘I couldn't keep smiling mommy. It hurt after a while. Now, I can smile forever.’ Jeff's mother noticed his eyes, ringed in black.

‘Jeff, your eyes!’ His eyes were seemingly never closing.

‘I couldn't see my face. I got tired and my eyes started to close. I burned out the eyelids so I could forever see myself; my new face." Jeff's mother slowly started to back away, seeing that her son was going insane. ‘What's wrong mommy? Aren't I beautiful?’”

Now, I don’t know if it was just because I was eight and had way too much access to the internet, but I genuinely do not know what it is that scared me about this story. I know I’m pretty easy to scare, and I especially was when I was younger, but looking at this now, I seriously don’t know what I was so scared of. I think—in retrospect—I was more afraid of the photo of Jeff the Killer than of the actual story. And many other creepypasta characters followed in a similar pattern. Eyeless Jack, Ticci-Toby, Jane the Killer, and many more. Out of all of these stories though, one stood out. One still sends shivers down my spine even til this day. One of the more underrated Jacks out of the scary Jacks out there. That is…Laughing Jack.

hi hello! hope you’re enjoying this so far! before we get into this story in particular, I just want to give a MASSIVE trigger warning for some really gruesome descriptions of violence, as well as very brief mentions of physical, verbal and sexual abuse. if you are sensitive with any of these topics, please don’t read this any further. just want to clear the air on that before we get into the story and my analysis of it. you have been warned.

also spoilers for Laughing Jack and The Origins of Laughing Jack.

Laughing Jack was written by DeviantArt user SnuffBomb on March 3rd, 2013. The story follows a young boy named James who encounters Laughing Jack, a terrifying clown that brutally torments children, and is narrated from the perspective of his mother who at first thinks Laughing Jack is just an imaginary friend. However, things become sinister when the mother notices some disturbing occurrences such as stuffed animals hanging from nooses, children being mutilated and the song “Pop Goes the Weasel” that comes from a jack-in-the-box. The story ends with James’ mother attempting to kill Laughing Jack when he appears in front of her, but she ends up killing James instead. She’s then arrested and tried for insanity. While not at all perfect, I think the story does a good job of creating the foundations of the character. I hadn’t read this in a while, and I do think it’s one of the stronger of the old creepypastas. I like that we get to see the horrors of Laughing Jack from the perspective of James’ mother was both really interesting yet also really heartbreaking at the same time. However, the story that followed is what I really want to talk about. The Origin of Laughing Jack is a short story written by the same author, SnuffBomb, in December 2013, and it is SIGNIFICANTLY better than the original story. In fact, it’s even more popular than the first version of the story. It’s likely the story that you read if you were or are still into creepypastas. There’s a very good reason for that. This story is horrifying. And what made The Origin of Laughing Jack stand out to me in contrast to Jeff the Killer, Eyeless Jack, and even the original Laughing Jack was that its themes were much more consistent and clear than those other stories. The Origin of Laughing Jack tackles themes of growing up, the cycle of abuse and violence, and most importantly: loneliness. These themes are applicable to both of our protagonists: our murderous clown and Issac, our seemingly “hapless creepypasta victim”. The story takes place in London during the 1800s (which in full honesty is something that isn’t necessarily relevant and you can imagine this takes place in any time frame and it will work just the same) grew up alone and isolated with literally no friends or love in his life. His father would physically abuse and sexually abuse his mother, and his mother would verbally and physically abuse Issac. This violent cycle materialized in Issac as well, which can be seen when Jack accidentally kills the neighbor’s cat while the two are playing pirates together:

“There was hush silence as the two observed the cat’s now twisted and mangled corpse. The silence was finally broken by an uproarious laughter… coming from Isaac…”

After this incident, Issac gets sent to boarding school and while it’s unclear as to what happens to him during his time at boarding school, clearly it had a detrimental effect on him and his mental health. We see that Issac as an adult has seemed to have adopted his father’s temper, after violently killing a girl who rejected his sexual advances, as well as his sadistic nature. In a shocking twist, Issac doesn’t turn out to be our “hapless creepypasta victim”, at least not in the traditional sense. Issac grows up a serial killer…like an actual serial killer. He has a lair, he has a mask, he has an M.O. which is skinning his victims to make chairs, even using the bones to make the structure. All the while, Laughing Jack sits there and watches. And because Jack’s personality adapts to whatever Issac’s is, he begins to get genuine enjoyment from watching his best friend for life brutalize people.

“He smashed it [a boy’s skull] over and over, until it was nothing but a bloody caved in mass of flesh, pouring with thick, red blood and oozing out chunks of brain matter. From across the room, Laughing Jack gleefully observed the grand finale, which had lived up to his expectations quite wonderfully.”

After killing this child, Issac then finds the old jack-in-the-box and plays it, which releases Laughing Jack from his prison. He then tortures Issac by using magician and clown tactics in a much more sadistic manner such as pulling out his intestines like magicians pull cloths out of pockets and even blowing up the intestines like balloon animals (how Issac survived anything past that is beyond me but anyways). The story ends with Laughing Jack ripping out Issac’s heart but not before telling him:

“‘It’s been a blast kido, but it looks like our time together is about up. No need for tears though, because I plan to spread my friendship to all the lonely kids of the world!’”

While The Origin of Laughing Jack isn’t a masterpiece of fiction, I think it’s a really strong story with decent character work and great grotesque moments. The story is extremely graphic, there’s no doubt about that and it’s not an easy read but I think it works. The violence is nonsensical and over the top, which makes sense; this is a story about a murderous, demonic clown, how that clown kills people shouldn’t make sense. The characters are pretty simple, yet still have enough depth to carry the story. Laughing Jack definitely benefits from having a backstory. He’s one of those characters likely didn’t needed it, but he certainly is better for it. Understanding why he is the way he is, where he came from and why he goes after children gives him more depth. Does it justify what he does? No. But we do at the very least understand where here’s coming from.

To me, this isn’t a story about a murderous clown killing a man. I mean, it is obviously. But there’s much more to it. Issac has spent his entire life living in a world of pain, the abuse from his father and mother and the torment from the kids. He had no one, aside from Jack, to go to for comfort. For all we know, he never experienced true happiness until he killed that cat and murdered that girl. Issac’s lack of power in his upbringing is what leads him to see out violence. In a way, it’s his reclamation of power. In Jack’s case, he’s discovering what his power is. Laughing Jack never really had much power, at least in the sense of control. Before he snapped, he had a very little control in his relationship with Issac. He doesn’t even have control over his personality as it adapts to whatever Issac is going through. Whatever he likes, Laughing Jack likes. So, when Issac returns as a violent, brutal man with a sadistic appetite, Jack begins liking those same things. This not only continues this cycle of madness that started with Issac’s father, it also begins extending past Issac’s family as Laughing Jack swears to continue their “friendship”. This isn’t a story about a demon clown. To me, this is a story about two lonely, resentful creatures who have bottled up their anger, pain and fear for years and are now expressing these emotions through violence.

This may sound odd, but I find Laughing Jack to be somewhat relatable, especially now that I’m older and have had a lot more experiences than I did when I was eight. Now, one might wonder why a 19 year old would find a violent evil clown who murders children and occasionally fills their insides with candy relatable. I mentioned earlier that one of the main themes of Laughing Jack is loneliness. Well, loneliness is something that I’m all too familiar with. The same can be with resentment, something that Jack also deals with The combination can do a number on a person; I speak from experience. It can leave you disillusioned, jaded, and you can forget who are. It’s…an isolating experience. It genuinely is the worst kind of feeling I think. And you might think it’s easy to get out of but trust me, it’s not. It takes a harsh dose of reality for you finally realize that you are truly alone. I know I’m young and all, but I don’t think I’ll ever experience loneliness like that again. Nor do I want to. Now, would I rip my ex-best friend’s organs because I was abandoned? No. But I can’t help but empathize with what Laughing Jack has been through. And I think after all this time I know the real reason why this story was scary to me, then and now. It’s because I have the same fears as Jack. I’m afraid of being left alone. Perhaps not in a hellish jack-in-the-box, but in the horrific sense of internal isolation.

Sources I used:

https://creepypastaclassics.fandom.com/wiki/Jeff_the_Killer

https://www.dictionary.com/e/fictional-characters/laughing-jack/

https://nightscribe.co/s/9938/the-origin-of-laughing-jack

I’ll be honest, this didn’t surprise me. It makes sense that younger adults have been in this kind of relationship more than older adults. Situationship is a relatively new term, so most older adults likely aren’t familiar with what it actually mean. But the data did spark a long series of questions in my mind. I decided to see how many adults have been in summer flings, which is a concept that both young adults and older adults are familiar with. In an OZFM survey done in July of last year, approximately 41% of sexually active adults were interested engaging in summer flings; the survey also considered the potential of cheating, as 95% of people in existing relationships weren’t planning on breaking up but 26% were still interested in having a summer fling. This led me to wonder why we’ve become so afraid of permanence in relationships. Why are we so afraid to commit? Why must our relationships have expiration dates? Why aren’t we allowed to catch feelings when someone does something romantic? Situationships, summer flings and breakup pacts are things designed to be low effort, low commitment and painless relationships that get all of our stresses out before we snap back to reality. As someone who’s never been in any kind of romantic relationship, this is uncharted territory for me. However, I am a sucker for classic romance. Romance where you and your partner work together, commit to each other and love each other til the end. I of course respect and trust people in these low commitment relationships so long as there is a mutual agreement between both parties. However, I still struggle to understand why people get involved in these kinds of relationships; not in a judgmental way, but in a psychological way. The list of cons seems without end. Catching feelings, broken boundaries, hurt feelings, misinterpreting hints, ruined friendships. It led me to question what the point is. Why bother starting a relationship with someone with the caveat being you aren’t allowed to feel any sort of romantic attraction to them?

Just wanted to quickly clarify something before I go into this. I am not against the concept of situationships/summer flings/breakup pacts. This post isn’t designed to attack those who are in or have been in these kinds of relationships. It’s to articulate my thoughts on the concept respectfully while posing some questions to think about. If you are in a healthy (emphasis on healthy) situationship, summer fling or breakup pact, that’s great! If it makes you happy and all parties are being considered, then I’m happy for you. I wish the best for you and your partner. Now, let’s get into it!

It’s important to understand what these words mean before unpacking the psychological reasons for why people get into low-commitment type relationships. For starters, situationship is essentially the new word for friends with benefits. It’s a no-commitment, no expectations type of relationship where people, typically friends, engage in romantic or sexual activities while still considering themselves to be friends. However, these kinds of relationships are often ambiguous and can lead to multiple complications such as developing romantic feelings, feelings of abandonment, or worse, a broken friendship. With summer flings, they are pretty similar to situationships, but unlike situationships, summer flings actually have expiration dates. Once June, July and August are through, the relationship ends. These are romances that happen in the heat of the moment, hence why they’re called “summer flings”. Since people may have more down time in the summer, they’re able to release some of their sexual frustrations that they might have been repressing as a result from their other life commitment. As for breakup pasts, the concept is pretty straightforward and, once again, comparable to a summer fling. Two individuals choose to get into a romantic relationship, and then break up on a certain time. There aren’t as many statistics on which age demographic partakes in breakup pacts the most, since they’ve never been surveyed. It can be assumed, however, based on data from summer flings and situationships that young adults, maybe even teens, participate in breakup pacts. While doing research on all three of these relationship dynamics, I was mainly interested as to what the benefits were to low-effort relationships. Based on what I’ve read from articles and blog posts, many say that it can be freeing to be in a relationship where there’s not much commitment aside from sex and a few romantic favors here and there. It allows them to engage in sexual activities without feeling guilt or pressure from a partner. However, the anxiety they get when the other person is starting to feel a certain way around them causes them a lot of stress. It again causes me to wonder why go through that kind of anxiety? Why is this a preferred relationship dynamic for some?

In an article from Psychology Today titled “Why Situationships Rarely Evolve into Relationships”, behavioral psychologist Jennice Vilhaur explains some of the more psychological reasons for why someone would be interested in getting into a situationship.

There are many reasons someone would intentionally choose to be in a situationship—including wanting companionship but not being ready or available for a relationship; not believing the person they are with is "relationship-worthy," although they enjoy the low effort benefits they are getting; or they feel fearful of a relationship and want to keep their options open while they make up their mind1.

That phrase, “relationship-worthy”, is curious to me. Obviously, it makes sense for a person to decide when they’re ready for a relationship, and to want the benefits of a relationship if they aren’t ready to commit to that one person. Humans crave companionship even if they claim they don’t want to. If there’s one thing that the human race hates, it’s being alone. And even if we don’t have a human companion in our lives, we either get an animal companion or plant companions. People tend to latch onto someone or something that they deeply care about, whether it be a specific piece of media, a pet, a plant or a person. These things shape who we are and our experiences, especially the people around us. However, sometimes when people become involved with someone else, especially someone we want to please, they may start to lose our individuality. In an attempt to appeal to their likes and dislikes, we can occasionally lose ourselves and perhaps even our agency. We obviously want to make the people who love us happy, but we also deserve to want our own individuality. We want our own jobs, our own lives, our own interests, our own ways to identify ourselves. While the people in our lives do define us, we still want to be somewhat separate from them. A relationship similar to that of a situationship, a summer fling or a breakup pact may provide them with that freedom, and lift some of the pressure off. It might allow them to learn who they are and who they want to be, before they eventually decide to find someone who they want to be with.

In Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between, when Clare is asked why she wants the relationship to end, she says:

It’s for the best. I’m not going to be like my parents, Stel. I’m not doing that2.

Clare’s parents are divorced and aren’t even on speaking terms anymore. She’s also moved around quite a lot, and solely been focused on getting into a good college. Her mother also constantly has a new boyfriend, and only recently settled down with Clare’s stepdad. Additionally, Clare going into political science, a field that requires a lot of commitment and energy. The fear of ending up like her parents while also going into an area where she has to spend a lot of time alone seems to be her main motivation for why she wanted to start the breakup pact. I wasn’t exactly sure what I would learn during my research but something I did learn was that a lot of these relationships are formed due to a fear of getting hurt. Humans don’t like pain, emotional and physical, and when we have option to avoid getting hurt over getting hurt, we’re more likely to choose the latter. However, realistically, you cannot live without getting hurt. Pain is how we learn. It’s how we know to avoid certain things. Whether it be running too fast or having our heart broken by our partner, we learn more about ourselves by getting hurt. In a way, these relationships are a learning experience. That’s the best thing that I’ve come away after doing my research. You learn about what you want, what you don’t want and who you are. Even if the relationship or situation is temporary, the lesson sticks with you.

First, I find the supernatural aspect of the film to be quite interesting. The way I interpret it is it represents the cycle of pain that these young musicians constantly put themselves through and how nothing seems to be done to help break this cycle. The first victim, Moira, kills herself in the opening scene after playing a piece on the violin and that the enchanted notebook belonged to her. The notebook contains drawings of artistic interpretations of the tragedies in Moira’s life, such as her mother being put in a coma after a skiing accident and her father killing himself in a self-inflicted house fire. This trauma is passed down to Juliet who, for all intents and purposes, didn’t suffer any deaths or experience much trauma in her life. But now, she has to bare them along with her own internal struggles. Another detail that I love is that it’s not clear if the book was actually enchanted or if Juliet’s own delusions were so extreme that she imagined it. It has that element of mystery, and I do like that aspect. However, the incidents depicted in the notebook aren’t very consistent. It’s as if the writers couldn’t decide whether or not they wanted them to be literal or metaphorical, and so the writers chose both. The problem with this is that it’s much harder to follow the story if we can’t tell what moments to take literally or symbolically. To illustrate this point, I’m going to quickly summarize the events that happen in the film. The first incident is when Juliet chooses to take three of her anxiety meds before she tries out for the solo. The second incident is when she confronts her music teacher for not allowing her to express her full capabilities out of jealousy and he slaps her. The third incident is when Vivian falls off of a ledge and breaks her arm (which by the way, considering this is how she fell, I’m more surprised that that’s all she broke).

The fourth incident is when Juliet and Vivian’s boyfriend, Max, have sex. The fifth incident is when Juliet throws Dr. Cask’s old conductor’s wand into a fire. And the final incident is when Juliet walks off the roof of the school and falls to her death. To me, incidents one, two and five are metaphorical of Juliet’s overall transformation while three, four, and six are literal. The problem is that when writers choose to do both, it makes it that much harder for the audience to follow the character’s journey. I think since the notebook is, for the most part, metaphorical, it would make the most sense if the incidents happening to Juliet were as well. This slight change would not only make the chain of events more clear, but also remain consistent with the overall mystery of the notebook.

Second, the transformation aspect of this film and how the fashion reflects that. In my opinion, the transformation of Juliet was not dramatic enough, especially the internal change. Juliet starts meek and quiet, and ends the film still pretty meek and quiet. Given what happened to her in the film, she should’ve had a complete personality switch. This is where I get into the fashion of the film. Good lord, the fashion in this movie pisses me off especially Juliet’s. I understand that, at first, Juliet’s more reserved so her clothes are to reflect that but again we need a physical transformation to go with the internal transformation. Her makeup and clothes should’ve been darker and more bold as the film progressed. This would not only help show the audience how Juliet is changing, but it could also reflect her mental state as the story unfolds. Again, Juliet’s transformation shouldn’t just affect her, it should affect the people around her as well including Vivian. I speak from experience, I am a twin and I relate a lot to Juliet. Being overshadowed by someone you know is better than you is a devastating feeling, and you find yourself constantly scraping the barrel to get the slightest bit of attention. However, that’s something that this movie barely touches on. In addition to Juliet’s fashion being lackluster, Vivian’s is severely worse. She’s supposed to be the charismatic, alluring and favorable sister, and yet she dresses like a Gap commercial. Her clothes do not reflect her personality or what she’s meant to represent at all. Now, I’m not asking for Euphoria level of clothing because that’s not what this film is about, but something different would be nice. I do like the “darker” elements of her style but again, it should be more dramatic. One outfit that I did genuinely like was this trench coat and lace top combo that she wore near the end of the first act (I couldn’t find a still of it online but if you’ve seen the film, hopefully you know what I’m talking about). I actually loved this look because it’s dark but attention grabbing. The lace offers a layer of sweetness but sensuality as well. The trench coat is mysterious yet flowy. It reflects the darkness that Vivian has, but it also highlights her more relaxed nature. And you might be wondering why I’m focusing so much on fashion in this movie, and that’s because fashion is such an important element in film. Not only does it showcase how the characters express themselves, it also tells the audience what that character is going through. A white outfit can represent purity and innocence, and a black outfit can represent darkness and sensuality. These simple colors can tell us all we need to know about a character before they even say their first line. When a character goes through a shift, their style should reflect that shift. That doesn’t really happen in this film. It feels as if the movie wants us to root for Juliet’s change, but doesn’t actually show us the process of that change.

Third, the soundtrack of the film bothers me greatly. This is not a knock on Gazelle Twin, who composed and produced it. It’s a great soundtrack, don’t get me wrong, but it just does not work for this film. I don’t listen to Gazelle Twin frequently, but I did manage to listen to a couple of her songs after my first viewing. If you’ve never heard of her, she’s an electronic and experimental composer and producer. After listening to the soundtrack of this film, she clearly has a lot of talent. I would love to see her compose a sci-fi horror or even a drama. However, I think for the context of this film, it does not work. And again, this isn’t a slight on her, but the song ‘Unflesh’ is in this film so much and it genuinely got on my nerves, especially when you consider that I watched this film multiple times. What I don’t understand is why this film didn’t utilize classical music in its soundtrack. This is literally a movie about classical music, its importance in history and the toxicity that the art industry perpetrates. There should be an emphasis on it. Hell, there’s a whole scene in this film that’s devoted to explaining how the new generation isn’t as interested in classical music anymore, and prefer electronic beats, and the concerns that classical music will not only no longer be remembered, but classical musicians will no longer be relevant. It would make so much more sense if the soundtrack for this film were reinterpretations of classical piano pieces. Again, think Whiplash (2014). The use of drums and jazz created a really stressful and compelling score that fit the story. It also reflected the characters’ mood as the film progressed, which helped the audience relate and feel for them. If Nocturne (2020) did a sort of haunting piano or a deconstructed take on specific piano pieces, it would not only elevate the story but establish the mood way better.

Finally, the characters in the story are so underdeveloped, it’s almost insulting. I’ve already talked about how Juliet’s character was barely developed, so let’s talk about who should’ve been the second main character, Vivian. To say that Vivian is a crucial character in this film is an understatement. She is the entire crux of the film, there is no film if she doesn’t exist and Juliet’s entire character doesn’t exist if she doesn’t have Vivian. So why is she barely in it? The focus should have been on the two of them, and yes, I understand that this film is about Juliet, we still should have seen Vivian more. If Juliet’s biggest fear is being a shadow to her sister, then we should be constantly reminded of that in subtle and simple ways. It cannot just be she chooses the same music piece and likes her boyfriend. As Juliet becomes more popular and confident, Vivian should become more like her. She can still keep her edge, but we see that she’s not as confident in herself as she used to be. Something that happens to Juliet constantly in this film is she gets the confidence to finally confront the people in her life, then those people insult her, she starts crying and then she insults them back. Dr. Cask is supposed to be Juliet’s idol and mentor, and yet he is SO boring. In my opinion, they should have made him similar to Terence Fisher in Whiplash (2014). Perhaps not as abusive, but he should still carry that same intensity and energy as Fisher. He should have an aura to him, something that makes him seem untouchable yet alluring. He’s supposed to be the “intense music teacher” and yet he is so monotone and dull. This is no slight on the actor because I’m sure he was just doing his best, but there’s a moment near the end of the film where he’s supposed to have this big dramatic outburst towards Juliet and his performance is very dull. Not only does this outburst come out of a fresh 18 year old kissing him, it also doesn’t feel like we’ve spent enough time with the two of them together. And yet, the movie is trying to convince us that this is important and that we should feel something during it. In full honesty, the biggest problem with this film is that it lacks the proper build up for what should be climatic moments. A majority of the moments in this film lack so much emotional weight, and that’s because we aren’t given reasons to care about Juliet or any of the other characters. How am I supposed to care about the story if I don’t care about the characters?

Now, you may have noticed that I’ve avoided trying to rewrite this movie, and you’d be right to ask why. See, I am an amateur screenwriter and college filmmaker. I do not have the credentials to be attempting a rewrite on a film made by professionals in the industry. I don’t like saying things like “I could do better”, because I know that I can’t. The purpose of this post is highlight a film that I think had genuine potential, but due to a very underdeveloped script, that potential was lost. I made some basic suggestions that I think would enhance the film, and I pointed out the many flaws that is holding this film back. If you haven’t seen it or are in need of a movie to do your laundry to, I would recommend checking it out Nocturne (2020). And who knows? Perhaps this film will become your temporary hyper-fixation too.

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For starters, KATSEYE is a global girl group under HYBE and Geffen Records. They’re based in LA but they operate similar to that of a K-Pop group. They have choreographies, promote on Korean music shows, and have ‘comebacks’. They were formed on the survival show Dream Academy, a show that operated very similarly to other Korean music survival shows such as Produce 48 or Boys Planet. Their new song, ‘Gnarly’, is a mix of hyperpop and electropop. Electropop is not the same as hyperpop. Electropop combines electronic elements with pop music and uses a distinct synthesizer sound. Think ‘Radar’ by Britney Spears or ‘Love Game’ by Lady Gaga. These songs are still pop songs but they incorporate electronic synths and sounds to elevate it to electropop. Hyperpop on the other hand is mostly known for its computerized sound and aggressive beats. Thanks to artists such as Charli xcx, SOPHIE, 100 gecs, A.G. Cook and many others, hyperpop has become more well known in the mainstream and respected as a genre. Now, it should be noted that even though hyperpop is more respected today, it is still an extremely divisive genre. It’s not for everyone. Those who get it, get it. Those who don’t, don’t. This is important because the main producer of ‘Gnarly’, Alice Longyu Gao, is a well known hyperpop artist. Gao is mostly known for her intense and abrasive beats, as well as her unconventional lyricism. Some lyrics of hers include, “I’m just having my resting bitch face,” (Rich Bitch Juice) “Every time I slay people like geez,” (Karma Is a Witch) and “You’re not kawaii, I just cannot fuck with you,” (I <3 Harajuku). I knew about Gao before ‘Gnarly’ was released. Now perhaps I’m biased because I like Alice Longyu Gao, but I love her lyrics. They’re silly, goofy and maybe even a little cringey. I bring all of this up because one of the main complaints people have about this song is the lyrics are, for lack of better words, absolute ass. What I find interesting about these complaints is that for the most part, they’re coming from K-Pop fans. K-Pop fans have had deal with some wack lyrics such as “I don’t want to play this ping pong. I’d rather film a TikTok,” (Tomboy - i-dle), “You baddie, rizz me tonight,” (TTYL - Loossemble), the entirety of ‘Woke Up In Tokyo’ by BABYMONSTER’s ASA and RUKA. They’ve listened to a lot of cringe lyrics over the years and yet the K-Pop genre has continued to thrive, so why is this any different? Perhaps, it’s the switch in attitude and tone.

Something that many fans have brought up is the jump from ‘Touch’, their massively successful single from their previous EP, SIS (Soft Is Strong), to something like ‘Gnarly'. Lots of people would agree an artist changing their image and concept only nine months into their career is not usually the best strategy. Typically, artists stick with one concept and one sound to get a general audience before venturing out into different styles and genres. KATSEYE is taking a huge risk by switching up so quickly, and I honestly applaud them for that. In my opinion, SIS (Soft Is Strong) was not at all what I had in mind for the group and is probably the safest thing the label could’ve given them. With a member lineup that stacked, I was severely disappointed with how basic their songs were. However, when I saw the teasers for ‘Gnarly’, I was genuinely intrigued. Then we got those music video teasers and I was hyped. Additionally, the “back off haters” thing doesn’t hold as much weight if you’re a group with only one EP and one successful single. KATSEYE also had this issue with their debut song ‘Debut’. A song about rising up against the haters, even though it hadn’t been a full 12 hours since their debut and they definitely didn’t have time to get any haters. This sort of song can come across as cringey. Telling imaginary haters to back off is admittedly very cringey. Telling the public that everyone’s trying to copy you when you’re only a rookie in the industry is even worse. Put that and the lyrics together, mix that up with an experimental beat, and you have a very gnarly mess.

Let’s discuss what the word gnarly actually means. Gnarly means something that is very difficult, intense, awesome, or even unpleasant. In terms of the song itself, KATSEYE is using the word in the intense/unpleasant direction. The beat is unnatural and discordant. The vocals are fried and computerized. The adlibs are Cupcakke moans, swearing and laughter. The lyrics are cringe. I’ve seen many people online trying to defend this song by saying that the song has a message about overconsumption. And while I agree the music video definitely leans to that, I cannot say that that’s what the song itself is about. I hate to tell you this, but music isn’t always that deep. Sometimes, a song is about nothing more than just being hot and feeling yourself. While that may come across as superficial to some, I don’t think there’s anything wrong superficiality in music. At times, it can be more relatable to a general audience than some of the more vulnerable song. That’s what I like about ‘Gnarly’. It’s not trying to be some thought-provoking, ground-breaking or deep. It’s just a song to dance with your friends to. Sure, it has strange lyrics, it’s a bit tone deaf and you have to listen to it at least 10 times to finally get it, but at the end of the day, it’s all about the vibes and the energy the song brings. So in conclusion, cringe is gnarly, hyperpop is gnarly and KATSEYE’s ‘Gnarly’ is gnarly.

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Before I actually talk about Sleep Token, I want to explain my history with metal and why I’m (technically) not a fan. I was raised in a rather PG household, meaning that from ages 4 to 14, all content was child locked, including music. For a while, my sisters and I only listened to music that my parents had downloaded on iTunes: Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, P!nk, Lady Gaga, Lenny Kravitz, Fleetwood Mac, and jazz. There wasn't a lot of metal on there at all. When I did eventually learn about the metal genre, and got to listen to some of it, I was unimpressed. This is absolute trash! 14 year old me had thought at the time. People are dressing up in black, painting their faces, wearing black and being angry all the time over this?! My first ever metal song was “Saint Anger” by Metallica. If you’ve never heard it, it's considered to be one of the worst metal songs of all time. The drums sound like literal oil drums, James Hetfield (the lead singer) for some reason sounds…weird, and the whole production of the song just feels rushed. But even after I discovered the rest of Metallica’s discography, and other metal bands, I never understood the hype behind metal. Like sure, it’s fun to throw your head back and forth to a beat, and I love wearing all black as much as the next person, but I genuinely did not see any reason to care about metal. And then, Sleep Token ruined my life (for everyone’s sake, this is a joke).

If you’ve never heard of Sleep Token, they’re a metal band based in the UK composed of Vessel (vocals), II (drums), III (bass), and IV (guitar) that debuted in 2016 with their self-released extended play One. The band’s lore follows Vessel, a man who explores an extremely manipulative yet intoxicating relationship with a deity by the name of Sleep. The members are a cult that worship Sleep, and the music they release are considered offerings—“tokens”—to Sleep. The band shrouds themselves in mystery, and their real identities are concealed to the public (despite multiple doxxing incidents). They don’t do interviews, and, on the rare occasion when they do speak, they use voice modulators. They’re the kind of artists who allow their music to speak for itself. Needless to say, I was intrigued. I’m a sucker for artists who hide in the shadows, and have a well-thought mythology behind them. But how is the actual music? As a person who’s only experience with the metal genre is “Enter Sandman” (Metallica) and “Girls, Girls, Girls” (Mötley Crüe), I was taken aback, but in a good way. I started listening to their second album, This Place Will Become Your Tomb, which is still my favorite Sleep Token album to this day. I was so stunned by this band. Again, I was under the impression that metal was just grown men screaming into a microphone while the guitarist goes sicko mode in the back. This, on the other hand, was something unlike anything I had ever heard before. This was ethereal, emotional, and—dare I say—still very metal. The best way I can describe this album, and the band as a whole, is “out of body”. Their music almost doesn’t feel like it’s from this world. This album is where I saw the potential of the band, but “Emergence” was where I finally understood them.

On March 13th, Sleep Token released their pre-release single “Emergence” ahead of their upcoming fourth album, Even in Arcadia. I knew that this was happening when my friend would not stop texting me about it (good thing e kept texting me). I was in my sister’s dorm room when I decided to give it a listen, figuring I’d find it fine, and move on. Vessel started singing—as Vessel often does—and it was at this point that I thought, “Okay cool, this is nice but I don’t know,”. Right then (you can change this or not; it’s good either way), the pre-chorus started. There were synths, and then this absolutely sick beat started playing, and Vessel was suddenly asking if I am carbide on his nano. All doubt had left my mind. Somehow, this song had completely entrenched me in the span of a minute. It was at this moment where I knew Sleep Token was something else. It was at this moment where I understood all of the ravings and ramblings from my friend, and why e hyped them up for so long and so much. It was at this moment, where I finally decided that I was a Sleep Token fan.

i decided to start blogging which is something that i’ve been interested in but for some reason never actually did it. this is gonna be something that i do whenever i feel like it so don’t expect a new post every week.

a lot of this will contain extended film reviews that i post on my letterboxd, some niche thing that i really like, some struggles ive gone through as an aspiring writer and hopefully director, album reviews and more! it’s gonna be very lowkey nothing crazy, just things that i enjoy and want to share with other people.

that’s it for now! bye bye! see you soon!

sincerely, via