Dark City: The Ante/Anti-Matrix

Like the The Matrix a year later, writer/director Alex Proyas’ Dark City offers up his take on Neo-Gnostic savior mythology, but shuns the Wachowskis’ intersectionalist/ queer-theory approach in favor of the fertility symbolism of the ancient Mystery cults.

Aliens Invade Laurel Canyon

I recently posted an audio podcast of my talk on Dave McGowan’s Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon over at the SSI. That raised the issue of Wavelength, a 1983 film that seems like a strange kind of companion piece to the book.

Entering the Kubrickon

Here's the second half of my talk with Jasun Horsley on his new book, The Kubrickon: The Cult of Kubrick, Attention Capture, and the Inception of AI.

Stranger Things 4 Livestream

Depressed the holiday's over? Don't be: we'll be capping off the long weekend tonight (July 4th) at 10 PM ET with a deep dive into the unspoken subtexts of Stranger Things 4...

Stranger Things Deep Dive Livestream

Come join us for an epic deep dive on the disturbing history (and unsettling future) behind the Stranger Things phenomenon. There's a lot more going on with this series besides monsters, mind control and Eighties nostalgia.

click on the Moon for details

Archived livestream is available for all Secret Sun Institute scholars now.  

You can enroll for as little as three dollars a month. 

There's also a Discord server for SSI patrons. Come meet the others there.

 

 

 

Sorry, Eternals. The Spell's Already Been Broken.

 

I haven't seen the Eternals movie yet, meaning I haven't yet seen the movie coming out today called Eternals. But I've seen The Eternals onscreen time and time and time again, and so have you. 

1983: The Year That Broke Reality

That helmet looks vaguely Kirbyesque

1983 hovers like a wraith over all of my work and I've never been quite sure why. All I know is that I sensed something definitively change in the spring and summer of that year, even if those changes have only become apparent in the past few years.

SynchroCinema Seminar: Midnight Special (2016)

Being the age I am and having consumed as much pop culture junk as I have, I’ve come to a point in which I have near-zero interest in "escapist" entertainment. 

The Birds Are Not What They Seem

Well, last week began with The Secret Sun delving into bird symbolism and UFO themes in the context of precognition, and ended with two major Presidential candidates inserting bird symbolism and UFO themes into the headlines all across the major media.

How about that?

Comics Are Magic: Intruders in the Skies

As you get older, it's all too easy to get lost in routine, to anesthetize yourself with ritual and television. It's why creative work is so often the province of the young. 

Sucking in the Seventies

Longtime TV fixture Gary Collins pierced the veil and left this mortal coil at the age of 74. 

Weekend Matinee: The Norliss Tapes

 

A Secret Sun board member recently asked me what I thought was Chris Carter's primary inspiration and the answer was simple: Dan Curtis. You see, the seeds of Ten Thirteen Productions can all be found in Curtis' legendary made-for-TV classics, everything from Dark Shadows to the The Night Stalker to Trilogy of Terror to Intruders.

Hanna Job: A True Hollywood Horror Story

In part one of this tragedy, I explained how my friend Steve and I had begun working on a screenplay in 1998 that recast Snow White as an action heroine. Unlike Snow White and the Huntsmen, our story was set in the present.

Ray Bradbury: Fare Thee Well, Rocket Man

I read a lot of sci-fi in my younger years, but mostly short stories. To me the short story was sci-fi's native form-- present an idea, initiate a conflict, resolve the conflict and see where the idea stands when the dust all settles.

The Fairest of Them All: A True Hollywood Horror Story

Sketch from 1999 Snow pitch

I was watching the revisionist Snow White boomlet (Mirror, Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman), having a somewhat vested interest in the phenomenon. But as happens so often on this blog, I started looking under rocks on the trail and discovered a deeper story behind the story, something that I will definitely have to look into.

The Avengers, or Jack Kirby Conquers the World

Now do you understand?

I've burned a lot of bandwidth on this blog -- too much, in some people's eyes -- obsessing on Jack Kirby, the visionary madman who unwittingly changed the face of popular culture. 

Alien Dreaming: Don't Pay the Ferryman

In our last installment, I mentioned how I've watched I Want to Believe about 40 times (give or take) and found some new easter egg each time. Well, shortly after writing that I took another pass at the film, and lo and behold, found more hidden symbolism. And this stuff is quite juicy....

Alien Hunter: The Secret Stargate Sequel

 

There was a sequel to the Stargate feature film, did you hear about it? No, not that glorified LARP of a series, Stargate SG-1. No, this sequel features James Spader reprising his role of Daniel Jackson. 

From Ausur to Oscar.

Well, it's that time of the year again. Yes, 3/7/10 is here, a clever little cryptogram for 3/17, the date of the death of Osiris. No surprise then that tonight we have the Ausurs Oscars, aka the Academy Awards.

 

The Hyper-Apotheosis of Cyberpunk

Vancouver- where else?

Since we're rapidly descending into the dystopian future that William Gibson prophesied in his sci-fi novels - particularly the Bridge Trilogy - I thought it would be an opportune time to look back on those heady days when geeks got cool and cool went geek.