Stranger Things works a lot of well-tilled plots, familiar riffs from countless 80s horror and (predominantly) sci-fi films. But it also taps into real-life horrors that were playing out in the media in the early 1980s; the highly-publicized abductions of children, the rise of conspiracies over child trafficking, organized pedophilia and government coverups and the role of 24-hour TV news in feeding the fear over what seemed like a new plague descending over the country.
The Exorcist is suddenly everywhere these days: there's even now a theme-park attraction and FOX TV series based on the film. The Exorcist's new star expressed her hopes for new show on NBC's Today:
I wanted to make note of this remarkable video, from the popular Film Theory YouTube channel. It took a while but the message I was trying to put across several years ago seems to have finally sunk in here. And that is behind the disarming velvet glove of Star Trek's seductive techno-futurism and idealistic multiculturalism is the iron fist of militaristic totalitarianism and expansionist imperialism.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first episode of Star Trek to air, 'The Man Trap'. Not one of the more memorable episodes of the series, it still remains a cultural landmark, the launching point of a sci-fi franchise that continues to this day.
And notably it would prominently feature of number of people who'd previously worked on The Outer Limits, including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan, Grace Lee Whitney and Alfred Ryder.
