Archive for the ‘strange’ category

« FOXSYLVANIA home page
« Older Entries

Rock this “House” on Netflix!

April 14, 2023

Stop-motion animation has progressed a lot since the days of the 1960’s Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and The House on Netflix, like Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, illustrates this beautifully! The House is a trio of stories loosely centered around a house occupied by different parties, the house itself seemingly morphing in both size and location. Presenting as kind of a surreal, seductive nightmare, The House at times is quite charming before luring us into disturbing reality violations and explorations of themes like frustrated ambitions and appearances versus realities.

The first family to inhabit the house are human, and are rather whimsical, Muppet-appearing creatures, with something quite British about them. Living a happy but lackluster lower middle-class existence, they essentially buy into the plans of a mad architect to live in a house he builds for them, ultimately falling prey to their own greed and ignorance. Nothing is as it appears to be in The House…

Segments two and three involve anthropomorphic animals in the house, with the second chapter detailing a kind of rat real estate agent who tries to sell the house while battling the bugs that infest it. There is a musical song and dance extravaganza involving the “fur beetles,” the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the dancing cockroaches of the movie-version of Cats. It’s utterly nauseating, but you can’t look away from it, either. Horror mesmerizes…

Segment three, my personal favorite, is for the felines, with hard-working calico cat Rosa seeking to convert the house into rental units, dealing with constant setbacks and non-paying tenants. One of her renters tries to pay Rosa with a fish, whereas the other, a very new-age type of cat, offers a crystal in lieu of rent. Eventually the property is flood-inundated, and Rosa must join her tenants in a makeshift flotilla of boats, some crafted from timbers of the house. This actually represents a kind of liberation from the entrapments of possessions and materialism. The cats really don’t know what lies ahead, but really, do any of us?

Although heavy on anthropomorphic animals, The House is adult animation, not for children who might find its contents disturbing. Although it’s cute and cozy at times, The House has horrific elements, and kind of sneaks up on you at times. The best subtle horror can do that. The House will make you think, but you wouldn’t want to live within its walls, because it’s a stop-motion nightmare…

Categories: absurdities, alternative realities, anthropomorphic, furry, furry films, furry horror, horror, strange
Tags:

Comments: 3 Comments

Wednesday Addams Actress Dies, the Wednesday Character Still Vibrant…

February 2, 2023

I’m sad to note that Lisa Loring, who portrayed the original Wednesday on the old 1960’s The Addams Family, has died of a stroke at the early age of 64. She assumed the role of Wednesday at the age of five, taking the character from the nameless little girl portrayed first by Charles Addams in his memorable cartoons.

Now prior to the classic TV show, Wednesday didn’t even have a name, prompting Charles Addams himself to name the character, drawing from the rhyme that “Wednesday’s child is full of woe.” Now the early Wednesday character wasn’t as much full of woe as she celebrated it, walking around the mansion with her headless doll that was often identically attired as herself…

It was Christina Ricci who really made Wednesday Addams a breakout character in the two Addams Family movies, however. Her Wednesday was a dynamic, insurmountable force rich with the potential for almost infinite darkness. I really loved Ricci’s Wednesday, who was actually darker than her mother, Morticia.

Jenna Ortega is a worthy successor to the character in the Netflix series simply called, Wednesday. Having been thrown out of eight schools in five years, teenaged Wednesday is sent to Nevermore Academy, where she is depicted as being extremely bright, quite articulate, and of course, dark. She is also quite adept in fencing, archery, and the martial arts, plus plays dark pieces on the cello. Nevermore Academy itself is kind of like a darker version of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts, the student body consisting of vampires, werewolves, sirens, and those with extraordinary psychic abilities. Wednesday fits in there perfectly, and rises to the top of the crop. And yes, Thing is also well represented in the series as Wednesday’s defender and collaborator. Even Wednesday needs a hand sometimes…

Here is an image of the central Addams Family characters in the Tim Burton Wednesday Netflix series. I think that Gomez here actually comes closest to that character’s portrayal of him in the Charles Addams cartoons. Previous film versions were fun and memorable, but Gomez was simply too attractive, continental, and suave…

https://youtu.be/Di310WS8zLk

And imagine, just imagine Wednesday as a furry. She does don cat garb at one point for a competition. A black cat, of course… 🐈‍⬛

Categories: alternative realities, animal rights, Brilliant but twisted, furry, horror, paranormal, Questionably creepy, strange
Tags: ,

Comments: 3 Comments

“Lamb” is haunting…

June 17, 2022

You probably won’t see many Icelandic folk-horror/fantasy films in your day, and Lamb is one of them. From the A24 studio that gave us such films as Hereditary, their latest film crosses genres, confounds us, and almost defies description. I had earlier posted on Lamb as a unique film that was coming prior to being able to view it, and now having seen the flick, I can confirm that Lamb is extraordinary, even though it is likely to mess with your head. The best films often do…

So submitted for your approval is the strange tale of Ingvar and Maria, two childless sheep ranchers living in a remote part of Iceland who one night come upon the birth of a mutation in their livestock, a lamb with humanoid features. They basically take the newborn into their house, place it into a crib in their bedroom, and raise it as their own, a sweet child with an ovine head but scattered human features which despite being a hybrid adapts well to life in the isolated world with human foster parents. This is comical but touching at the same time, and her “parents” are quite happy with their non-traditional family…

Now as a furry, I can probably transition to the world of anthropomorphic animals and animal-human hybrids more easily than most people outside of the fandom. I’m totally cool with the notion of folks raising something that is neither fully animal nor human, and in fact I am envious of them! You can dress such a creature in human clothing, treat it as a loved member of family, and even take them places with you, messing with mundane people as you do so. – -What could be better than that?!

What usually happens, however, is that other people won’t understand, will judge and condemn you, and in some fashion come after you as one harboring an abomination. I rather expected a mob armed with torches and pitchforks to come calling, and demand that this lamb be surrendered to them. Fortunately, this does not happen although there are a few tense moments when we are led to believe that Ada’s “uncle” is leading her off to shotgun her. This too doesn’t happen, and “Uncle Petur” becomes a convert…

Now Ada the lamb-child is revealed to us gradually as a hybrid, having one human hand and a hoof. She uses bipedal locomotion, and is about the size of a four-year-old. She cannot speak, but understands and responds to human language. Ada plays with her human mother, and is very sweet! I’ve seen human brats behave far less lovably…

But unfortunately, the story doesn’t end well but in violence against a target we didn’t expect when Ada’s biological father comes calling, also anthropomorphic and true nightmare fuel. Talk about Ram Tough! When you mess with nature, there are consequences, it would seem. This points to the need to keep firearms out of the hands and hooves of beasts.- – Are you listening, Congress?!

At any rate, Lamb may leave you scratching your head, wondering what you have just seen, and perhaps questioning the lines of separation between humans and animals, as well as questioning our relationship with the natural world. And that’s a good thing, really….so two paws up for Lamb, which now can be seen on some premium networks... 🦊

Categories: absurdities, alternative realities, animal rights, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, furry, furry films, horror, movies, Mythological, Questionably creepy, strange, twisted reality
Tags: ,

Comments: 5 Comments

Tums Naturals Commercial, Camping Trip Chili…

January 20, 2021

 
It was the chili that drew it…the creature, the horrible thing out of the woods that reared up and tried to drag the woman from her campsite back to its unspeakable lair!

Add a new nightmare to your closet of anxieties.  Submitted for your approval in a brief new Tums commercial are two women enjoying a bowl of chili at a campsite in a peaceful, fern-covered forest.  Nice, huh?  But wait, eerie, forboding music is played, the woman is shown to have peppers in her chili bowl, and soon the stomach pains begin.  A huge pepper rears itself up behind the woman, the chili bowl is upturned, and soon the colossal pepper is dragging her helplessly backwards behind itself along the forest floor!  It moves with a powerful and remarkable locomotion, undulating like a gigantic worm from hell.  Is it taking her to feed its young?   Forget Bigfoot…fear the Pepper!

But wait…all is not lost!  The plucky woman extracts a bottle of Tums from her person, and brandishes it at the scarlet horror! Just the talisman needed at this crucial moment!  The pepper again rears up, but this time it is in fear, knowing that it’s outmatched, faintly making a high-pitched shrieking sound.  It retreats back into the depths of the woods, and once again the world is made safe from heartburn and the abominations that it spawns…

Tums has memorably shown us a number of culinary monsters run amok, including a parachuting meatball and a huge plucked headless chicken.  Can the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes be far behind?!  (*shudders*). 🙀 🌶🍅

Perhaps we will someday have inspired by this a feature-length Syfy Channel movie titled, Return of the Pepper, with an accompanying soundtrack by The Rolling Stones, containing their new hit song, Sympathy for the Pepper….

(exerp:  “I shouted out, ‘Who killed the broccoli?’  When after all, after all, it was you and me!”)

 

Categories: absurdities, advertising, alternative realities, anomalies, anthropomorphic, commercials, fantasy, strange, television, twisted reality
Tags: ,

Comments: 3 Comments

Progressive’s Motaur “Herd” Commercial…

July 3, 2020

 
Apparently, there are others of his kind…Terrence Terrell’s Motaur, that is!  We had previously seen Progressive’s unlikely motorcycle insurance icon in 2019 as a solitary bio-mechanical being appearing to wondering young humans at an isolated gas station.  In the latest commercial, our Motaur appears with a fully-human companion on a mesa, observing with binoculars at some distance a herd of other Motaurs milling about before them.

As his companion babbles about how amazing it is to see them in the wild, he is shushed by our familiar Motaur who just wishes to become lost in the moment…then we hear motor sounds of the dirt-biking Motaur herd, buzzing about like angry hornets.  They individually do wheelies, accelerate, and bound over the terrain.  Terrence Terrell then raises his front wheel in a salute to his “people.“

Viewers may find the commercial cool, creepy, or incomprehensible but it celebrates the close bond between many bikers and their “rides.”  I worry that perhaps these cyborgs have something to do with Skynet, soon to be followed by an imposing black leather-jacketed guy with sunglasses and an Austrian accent. Perhaps we really don’t have to be afraid of the Motaurs as those seen in the field appear strangely generic and not especially menacing…and hey, wouldn’t Don’t Fear the Motaurs be a great comeback song for Blue Oyster Cult?  Bio-mechanical beings just wanna have fun, after all, although if their herd passes through my neighborhood noise ordinances may need to be deployed.

The recurrence of Motaurs continues to pose unanswered and troubling questions for me.  Do they both eat and gas up, or is one act sufficient?  Do they see both doctors and mechanics?   How do they sleep, or do they? Are Motaurs born, assembled, or somehow pieced together in some kind of unspeakable Borg-type lab?  Is there a cross-over into the Transformer world, or would Motaurs be their rivals if not enemies? Do Motaurs reproduce, breed only with their own, and if so, how (now there’s a disquieting thought!)?  Anyhow, untold stories reside here, and inquiring minds want to know…

 

 

Categories: absurdities, advertising, biomechanical, commercials, Questionably creepy, strange, twisted reality
Tags: ,

Comments: 2 Comments

Of Anthropomorphic Horse Evolution…

April 30, 2020


Anthropomorphic horses have been on television for longer than one might suspect, perhaps beginning with the quirky but iconic 1960’s sitcom Mr. Ed that featured a talking palomino owned by an architect, Wilbur Post, portrayed by Alan Young. Those shows in turn were inspired by a series of children’s stories written by Walter R. Brooks.  Mr. Ed the horse was portrayed by a gelding named Bamboo Harvester, who was voiced on the series by former western actor Allan Lane.  Ed would only talk in person to Wilbur, although he would at times make phone calls, and be heard often talking to his owner by others, conversations for which Wilbur had constantly to offer false explanations.  The explanation for Ed’s origins as a sentient and articulate equine being was only touched upon once lightly and dismissively in the first episode in which Wilbur expresses his inability to understand the situation.  Ed replies to that confusion, “Don’t try.  It’s bigger than both of us!”  I can live with that, although alien genetic engineering seems to me one possible explanation.  “A horse is a horse, of course, of course…”

Light years away was the adult animated Netflix series BoJack Horseman, which ran for six seasons and 77 episodes from 2014 to 2020.  BoJack was essentially an animal-person, equine from the neck up, but with human features below that point.  This presents as a rather disturbing combination at first glance, but it grows on you rather quickly, especially since BoJack is but one of a number of animal-persons of different species coexisting with mundane humans on the series.  BoJack is a middle-aged male whose heyday occurred in the 1990’s with a sitcom called Horsin’ Around.  That show abruptly cancelled, BoJack now seeks to restore his celebrity status in a dark series which satirizes Hollywood but touches on depression, addiction, self-destructive behavior, sexuality, and many other aspects of the human condition.

 

Mr. Ed was essentially a horse who acted like a human, whereas BoJack Horseman was a human who acted like a horse.  As to whether BoJack was Mr. Ed, the former once tweeted, “NO I AM NOT MR ED OPEN YOUR EYES.”  That seems pretty definitive to me…

 

Categories: absurdities, anthropomorphic, furry, strange, television, Vintage
Tags: , ,

Comments: 4 Comments

Krampus, and Having a Scary Little Christmas…

December 11, 2019


He just might be the perfect antidote for too much enforced Christmas sweetness…Krampus, that is, the nightmarish figure with goatish and demonic features  out of European folklore.  He’d be right at home pursued by paranormal or cryptic investigators as he’s usually portrayed with hooves, claw-like fingers, long spiraled horns, and covered with dark hair.  His tongue is long and protrusive, and his specialty is dealing with naughty children, beating them with birch switches and stuffing them in his sack for transport back to his lair, perhaps to become dinner…

The worst that Santa would do to you is put you on his “Naughty List,” or perhaps leave you a lump of coal. Santa’s a milquetoast compared to Krampus, who would terrorize you as kind of an anti-Santa.  In “Old World” Europe, fairy tales weren’t always for entertainment…they could be morality plays intended to scare children into good or at least compliant behavior.  Grimm’s fairy tales in the original could actually be pretty grim.

In Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, adults get involved in a chaotic Krampus tribute involving public drunkenness and men running through the streets dressed as devils, with Krampus Night traditionally December 5th.  In recent years, some people in the U.S. have begun throwing Krampus parties as a sort of twisted, anti-Christmas celebration. Krampus has enjoyed kind of a renaissance lately, and been featured in horror movies.  So be good, for goodness sake! – -Ahh,  I do so like Old World traditions… 🐺

 

Categories: anomalies, anthropomorphic, furry, historical perspectives, seasonal, strange, twisted reality
Tags:

Comments: 3 Comments

Jif’s “Squirrel” Commercial…

September 8, 2019

 
I would probably have long since starved to death were it not for peanut butter.  I’ve eaten it since childhood, and continue to turn to it several times a week.  At times, I even crave it; peanut butter is my go-to lunch and snack of choice when I don’t know what to eat. That being said, I indulge my guilty pleasure at home; even I may not be seen at a park, slathering peanut butter on a slice of bread.  I’ve never been known to carry a jar of peanut butter around with me; I’m just not that hard-core…

…not so the curly-haired young lady in our Jif commercial!  Seated on a park bench, she whips herself up a thickly-spread slice of peanut butter bread, only to find herself approached by a squirrel.  Aww…isn’t he cute?  Who could deny him?  So she gives him a tidbit, and is soon approached by another squirrel, then another! No good deed goes unpunished, after all.  Soon the woman is surrounded by dozens of squirrels, kinda like what happens when you feed french fries to sea gulls at the beach…

…It’s then that the commercial takes a surreal turn, for towering above the sea of squirrels is a creepy man-squirrel, wearing a squirrel mask that covers his entire head.  He, too, is seeking a hand-out, and even making beseeching squirrel-noises.  Is this a peanut butter pervert?  And what should the young lady do?  Mace him, scream for help, or try to bean him with the peanut butter jar? This question is left unanswered, but some people will go to any lengths for the product.  It’s that Jif’ing good, we’re told.  I do sympathize, honestly, sharing the addiction…

…but in my twisted mind fed by a love for horror, the question lingers;  what happens when the woman runs out of peanut butter?  Do the legion of squirrels and their squirrel-headed human-sized leader decide that the lady might be tasty, too?  A few pounce on her to take a tentative nibble, and soon she is writhing under a blanket of them…Aieee! (The screen fades to black as we hear squirrels chittering…the Day of the Squirrel is at hand!)

 

Categories: absurdities, advertising, animals, anomalies, anthropomorphic, bizarre, Brilliant but twisted, furry, furry commercials, humor, Questionably creepy, strange, television
Tags:

Comments: 7 Comments

“Preacher” vs. Furries…

August 18, 2019

(Advisory:  some mature content)

AMC’s show Preacher  is one of the most over-the-top shows on television, outrageous yet compelling, and definitely not for children, those easily offended, or squeamish about blood and violence.  The series is complex and twisted, and so I won’t begin to attempt to explain it here; it even has Hitler and a likable vampire as recurring characters!  At any rate, in the Deviant episode of the current season (Season 4, Episode 3), central character Jesse Custer enters DeSade’s House of Entertainment to rescue a child, and winds up fighting and prevailing against a small army within that included furries, people costumed as anthropomorphic animals. 

The fight scene was extended, epic, and spectacular, beginning with fists and progressing from there to blunt objects, then knives, and finally guns.  Preacher Jesse was victorious, of course, because it is after all, his show!  I’m not quite comfortable with the portrayal of furries on the episode and I’ve seen far better fursuits,  but it was all intended to be outrageous in keeping with the general tone of the series, which has previously given us the divinity in a Dalmatian suit…

  

 

 

Categories: anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, fantasy, furries, strange, television, twisted reality
Tags:

Comments: 4 Comments

Liberty Mutual’s “Zoltar”

July 24, 2019

Some of you may remember those creepy but cool, coin-operated fortune-telling booths from years ago that featured a glass booth enclosing most often a stereotypic gypsy, witch, mystic, or psychic seer. You simply dropped a quarter into the booth’s coin slot, and the costumed character’s crystal ball lit up, he or she made a few robotic movements, and the booth spit out a slip of paper with your supposed fortune on it, usually something general enough that it would apply to almost anyone.

Well, in this Liberty Mutual commercial, we are shown such a fortune-telling booth in an unusual outdoor location overlooking the Statue of Liberty, undoubtedly symbolic of Liberty Mutual. Such booths were usually housed indoors in arcades. When a lady drops a coin into this fortune teller, the robotic seer, Zoltar, intones that great fortune will find the woman when she allows Liberty Mutual to customize her insurance, permitting her to pay for only what she needs. Grateful for this info, the woman asks Zoltar how she could ever thank him. Eerily, the mechanical seer swivels his head towards her, and mentions that maybe she could “Free Zoltar.”  Well, there’s a convenient button for this purpose on the front of the booth which the woman depresses.  Instantly the walls of the booth drop, revealing our seer clad in colorful shorts and seated atop a unicycle!  He cries “Thanks lady!” and pedals away, a bag held in each hand, and calls for a taxi…

I love happy endings!  Perhaps someday someone will free the fortune-telling Elvis that I’ve seen awaiting business out of a booth…

 

Categories: absurdities, advertising, Brilliant but twisted, strange, television
Tags:

Comments: 3 Comments

« Older Entries