Black Sabbath's Dark Influence

Black Sabbath's very own name was inspired by a 1963 Boris Karloff horror classic by the Italian director Mario Bava which the band stumbled across one day, but the bands cinematic influence didnt stop there, to the point that if a filmmaker used their music on a soundtrack it would probably be the most badass horror film ever. Songs like 'Children From The Grave', 'Iron Man', 'The Wizard' have immense power to transport the listener to a dark realm that creates vivid and terrifying pictures in your minds eye.

The newest filmmaker to take his battered camcorder as he steps into another world is British born movie-maker Fabrizio Federico. He directs with such exuberance it seems as if he and the camera are bound together by a dark magic spell. 

Call it alchemy, the occult, mysticism - Not every filmmaker is prepared to bewitch the spirits into leading you artistically. 

Here are some examples of filmmaker's who did:

Lucifer Rising (1972)
Lilith (1964)
Pregnant (2016)
Attenberg (2010)
Last Chants For a Slow Dance (1977)
Gummo (1997) 
Performance (1970)
Rosemary's Baby (1966)
The Devils (1971)
The Witches (1966)
Starry Eyes (2014)
The First Power (1990)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

As a massive Black Sabbath fan Federico has based his movie 'Teddy Bears Live Forever' around songs lyrics from Sabbath's classic 'Paranoid' about a character losing their mind. The filmmakers life has been filled with drama, he moved to Italy when he was five years old after surviving a house fire, after which the gifted child soon took to painting and learning guitar at an early age. By the age of fifteen he had become a teen prodigy at guitar and art, in America he discovered underground cinema.

This talented and complex artist with a wicked sense of humour has become a symbol for DIY revolt. Driven and self taught Federico is a visual-maestro with a globe trotting streak, having already filmed in Spain, Cuba, Hungary, France, Poland, Germany, Bermuda and Morocco. All his works are self financed by banks that he conned instead of producers or film studios. 

The sounds of Black Sabbath have also influenced the soundtracks to his movies, even going to Aleister Crowleys home in Scotland and recording an album as MAO full of eerie guitar solo's and sounds.

His raw style includes the complete disposal of scripts, actors or any other cinema norm. His debut film Black Biscuit (2012) became notorious. Confrontations would erupt at the mere mention of the movie between film fans both rigid and spirited, young and old on internet film forums, or vitriolic reviews, even on radio and at public appearances. When his movie 'Pregnant' premiered in England a riot broke out when the film was turned off by the theatres manager.

By the time his next feature Pregnant (2015) was released his reputation for being a possessed talent created problems and controversy in rigid mainstream film institutions. During Pregnant's pre-production arson charge surfaced which coincided with his ill health and isolation around this time. By this time he had created a Ziggy Stardust alter-ego called Jett Hollywood (a filmmaker from Mars) who was responsible for the films The Evolution Of The Earth Angel and later Anarchy In The UK. Jett Hollywood committed cinema suicide.

In 2016 Federico ran the first Straight-Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival, which incorporated experimental filmmakers from across the world. His films have been called psychedelic, nightmarish and angelic, all executed with a Peter Pan sense of wonder. He has even been called ''the devils filmmaker''. His PINK8 film manifesto even caused his films to be banned from universities after it was discovered that film groups were screening his films on campus including his new film Loon (2017) which is about a folie a deux relationship.

THE EVIL OF MICHAEL MYERS

Just about every horror fan knows the story of Michael Myers. Lunatic, killed his older sister when he was six, sat silently in a mental institution until he was 21 and decided it was time to kill his little sister. However, as most slasher fans know, there’s no indication Laurie is his sister in the first film, nor that those are his motives. The franchise, including the sequel penned by John Carpenter, do the original film and Michael’s motives therein a great disservice by reducing him to an immortal simpleton who wants to kill his family. Michael Myers is more than that. He is a force of nature. He’s judgment incarnate. Cult filmmaker Fabrizio Federico thinks hes the ultimate reincarnation of evil, in a par with the devil.

Halloween, the original Halloween, isn’t about a lineage of evil, or psychic kids, or druid cults, or live streamed haunted houses or even Busta Rhymes. Halloween is about Michael Myers and, perhaps most importantly, the concepts of fear and responsibility. 

It’s about The Boogeyman, a specter of judgment and fear designed to scare children into behaving and punish those who don’t.  Slasher films, which Halloween is widely considered to have spurred to popularity, are notoriously conservative when it comes to sex, drugs, drinking, and any other form of fun a teenager might be having. However, I don’t think Halloween as a franchise approaches these issues in quite the same way. Yes, Michael Myers is killing teenagers who are drinking, smoking pot, and having sex, but I think these murders are primarily motivated by the fact that these teenagers are throwing off their responsibilities in a way that reminds Michael of his first victim, his older sister Judith.   

One of the most obvious qualities of Michael Myers that sets him apart from his slasher brethren is that he is a stalker. He is methodical and calculated. He observes, he judges, and only then does he act. He’s not bringing down terror and death on the children of those that wronged him or any other of the later slasher tropes. Michael Myers weighs his observations of his would-be victims on some unknowable scale, and once his decision has been made, he kills. 

Halloween (1978) opens with one of the most memorable sequences in horror film history. That infamous continuous Panaglide shot (not Stedicam as most folks think) exploring the Myers home forces us, unknowingly, into Michael’s point of view in the minutes before his first kill. It is Halloween 1963 and Michael Myers has been left in the care of his older sister Judith. Unfortunately, Michael has been mostly forgotten, Judith favoring hooking up with her boyfriend to babysitting her weird little brother that chose to be a clown for Halloween.    

The opening sequence starts with the camera gazing through the frosted glass door at a teenage girl and her boyfriend kissing. We then move past the living room window, where we see the continuation of our first on-screen instance of irresponsibility as well as his first victim, his own sister, shirking her babysitting duties to make out with her boyfriend. 

I think one very important insight on his sociopathy is this quote from Dr. Loomis: 

“I met him, fifteen years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding; and even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes…the devil’s eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind that boy’s eyes was purely and simply…evil.”   

That is after he picked up Michael after he stabbed his own sister to death! Yes. Mikey started very early. And the fact that he already had a depleted amount of empathy by that point is absolutely frightening. Michael just kills people without any remorse or reason to do so other than for the sake of it. And he can do it with the most stoic body-language and expressions imaginable. In fact, he doesn’t actually lack empathy. He’s completely incapable of such a concept. There are some very rare moments of emotion from him, but he always goes back to his normal, stoic, murderous self in no time. Both attempts to appeal to his humanity get through to them, but it doesn’t last as he simply kills the people who did it. And it’s that first part of the quote that particularly catches your attention when discussing his sociopathy. “No reason, no conscience, no understanding; and even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong.”    

This is in line with the disorder to an absolute T. Sociopaths don’t even think twice about what’s right and wrong. They simply do what they do because they want to. And if anyone gets hurt because of it, too bad. It’s not their problem. Michael exemplifies this to the utmost degree by targeting innocent people for literally no reason at all.   

There are also signs of animal cruelty as well since he also kills dogs as well as humans. This is something that is seen in many actual examples of serial killers. They often kill and/or torture animals. And Michael does it remorselessly and unapologetically. He even eats one off-screen. There’s also his murder spree detailed in the expanded universe material. He is said to have killed an elementary school teacher and strung her up for the class to find. He also decapitated a beauty pageant winner. And he also gouged out a reporter’s eyes and replaced them with film reels. Afterwards, he goes on another random killing spree where he slices a child’s throat and kills people in some rather gruesome ways. Can you guess why he did all of this? If you’re guessing he did it for a reason, you’re dead wrong and you clearly haven’t been reading this profile up to this point.   

And while it isn’t obvious, he can be manipulative as well. While he doesn’t do it with words, he can strategically terrify people before trapping them. He is a hunter and he has to know his prey. He takes his time to torment Laurie by showing the bodies of his victims before attempting to kill her. With Lynda, he puts a bedsheet over his head and glasses on to make her think he’s her boyfriend just before brutally strangling her with a phone cord. There are also his attempts to mess with Loomis as he knows the man will stop at nothing to put him down. He will drive him to the brink of death by exhaustion and heart failure just to get back at him. While one could say this is revenge, it’s likely for the same (lack of a) reason he does anything other than eat, drink, and breath. There are signs of him being a sadist, though. Leaving the bodies in elaborate positions for people to find them have no real purpose other than to freak out anyone who may come across them. It’s a form of psychological torment. The same cannot definitively be said for his desire for killing. 

There is absolutely no reason for what he does. It’s not like he particularly wants to as far as we know, but he doesn’t feel remorse about it either.   While the Joker kills people simply for the sake of killing people because it amuses him, there is still a humanizing purpose behind it: amusement. Any person can understand wanting to be amused by something even if the method of amusement is despicable in your eyes. Michael doesn’t even have that much. And that makes him exponentially scarier. It’s not surprising that most people consider him to not even be a human being. Combined with the fact that he’s very difficult to kill, he doesn’t show any signs of being anything other than what Loomis perceives him to be: purely and simply evil. Out of all the characters I’ve profiled, he is definitely the worst of the worst. Even though his crimes may not hold a candle to many of the others, his utterly inhuman nature is what sets him apart.

Jim Morrison & The Power Of Crowd Control

On August 3rd 1968, while 'Hello I Love You' is 1# on the national charts The Doors are on the road, having just rocked The Singer Bowl in NYC, Morrison is at his career best, creating controled chaos, resulting in riots and gaining them front page national headlines. By this stage Jim was now a charismatic psychedelic preacher winding up his fans with his dark poetry, shamanic dancing and antagonistic experimental theatre. The Cleveland gig starts off very shambolically, Jim had been backstage with fans smoking joints and drinking whiskey so by the time Break On Through ramps up the audience it sounds like satanic sludge vamp. 

Filmmaker Fabrizio Federico has studied crowd control and is amazed by Morrison's tactics.  The band are on form keeping a nihilistic demented nightmare vibe going as Jim threatens the audience ''if you dont keep quiet and get real soft im gonna come down there and kill some people!". The shenanigans continue when he starts teasing them ''hey listen I wanna tell you the history of me. I dont know how I got here but here I am''. Jim was fascinated with crowd control ever since attending college, even devouring Crowds & Power' by Elias Canetti. He states on asking questions: "On the questioner the effect is a feeling of enhanced power. He enjoys this and consequentially asks more and more questions; every answer he receives is an act of submission. Personal freedom consists largely in having a defense against questions. The most blatant tyranny is the one which asks the most blatant questions." During the gig Jim asked the crowd ''hey what do you guys wanna hear?'' and also ''what are we gonna get? We're gonna get everything!" Jim once told his Florida classmate Chris Kallivokas, from his Collective Behavior class, "You've got to make them believe you're doing them a favor by being onstage. The more abusive you are, the more they love it."

Canetti also describes a crowd as being a single living organism ''Ideally, all are equal there; no distinctions count, not even sex. The man pressed against him is the same as himself. He feels him as he feels himself. Suddenly it is as though everything were happening in one and the same body. This is perhaps one of the reasons why a crowd seeks to close in on itself: it wants to rid each individual as completely as possible of the fear of being touched. The more fiercely people press together, the more certain they feel that they do not fear each other. This reversal of the fear of being touched belongs to the nature of crowds. The feeling of relief is most striking where the density of the crowd is the greatest.''

Jim talked to the audience as one, ''Get it real soft, you know what im talking about, feels real good, you got a real dirty mind doncha'' - "i want you to feel it deep inside.''

Two years before his death with The Doors coming for their first Florida concert, Chris Kallivokas left a message with his old friend's record company. He says Jim called him back, loving life. "The chicks we get, the money. . . . It's great." "So that crowd control works," Kallivokas teased, talking about theories that intrigued Jim in Collective Behavior class at FSU. He said Jim answered: "You've got to make them believe you're doing them a favor by being onstage. The more abusive you are, the more they love it."

Canetti goes on to classify crowds according to their prevailing emotions, exploring how these dynamics shape everything from political movements to religion to music concerts and how they shed light on the complexities and true meaning of power.

Canetti outlines the four key defining attributes found in varying degrees in any crowd: The crowd always wants to grow. 1) There are no natural boundaries to its growth. Where such boundaries have been artificially created — e.g. in all institutions which are used for the preservation of closed crowds — an eruption of the crowd is always possible and will, in fact, happen from time to time. There are no institutions which can be absolutely relied on to prevent the growth of the crowd once and for all. 2) Within the crowd there is equality. This is absolute and indisputable and never questioned by the crowd itself. It is of fundamental importance and one might even define a crowd as a state of absolute equality. A head is a head, an arm is an arm, and differences between individual heads and arms are irrelevant. It is for the sake of this equality that people become a crowd and they need to overlook anything which might detract from it. All demands for justice and all theories of equality ultimately derive their energy from the actual experience of equality familiar to anyone who has been part of a crowd. 3) The crowd loves density. It can never feel too dense. Nothing must stand between its parts or divide them; everything must be the crowd itself. The feeling of density is strongest in the moment of discharge. One day it may be possible to determine this density more accurately and even to measure it. 4) The crowd needs a direction. It is in movement and it moves towards a goal. The direction, which is common to all its members, strengthens the feeling of equality. A goal outside the individual members and common to all of them drives underground all the private differing goals which are fatal to the crowd as such. Direction is essential for the continuing existence of the crowd. Its constant fear of disintegration means that it will accept any goal. A crowd exists so long as it has an unattained goal.

“He was always like that, even from the beginning,” Doors guitarist Robby Krieger tells me today. “We just dealt with it. That was part of the reason that people wanted to see us, they wanted to see what would happen next. It was kinda crazy but we were not a band that just played the same set every night the same way. It was always different and Jim would always lead us somewhere that we didn’t go the night before. He just liked to f*** with people. He hated the fact that some of these bands would just play the same songs night after night the same way and all of us were from a jazz-influenced place, where you did improvisation. So every night the song was different, which kept it interesting.”

The Doors take the stage, and the delay further aggravates the impatient audience. As soon as the Doors appear, they are greeted with a thunderous assault of screaming fans, and segments of the crowd begin rushing the stage. A column of policemen are stationed at the front of the platform to curtail this onrush of people, while Morrison fiercely jostles his way through them to face the crowd. The chaos escalates continuously during the performance, with fights erupting throughout the hall. Morrison who usually sings with a very precise and articulate emphasis on the lyrics, and most of the time actually appears to be substantially more sober than the crowd, but in Cleveland he is blind drunk and stoned. Morrison spun around and ground the songs out half-heartedly, ad libbing, improvising, doing an ominous dance. Hysteria was building. Morrison shrieked, moaned, gyrated, and minced to the edge of the stage, hovering. Hands reached out and grabbed him and the cops had to pry them away. The camera crew ducked a piece of broken chair which came flying onto the stage. Morrison caught it and heaved it back into the crowd. The Doors were hardly visible from any angle because there were about twenty cops onstage." By the time the Doors begin to perform "When The Musics Over," the crowd is in an incredible uproar. Morrison vainly attempts to "sssshhhh" the audience and bum cigarettes ''anyone got a Marlboro? They're the best'', but there is no response and he begins the opening stanzas of the song, Morrison drifts into an expansive passage of poetry. With decidedly steady pacing, he advances through a series of poems, then teases the rowdy audience ''are you reeeeaaadddy???", until he unexpectedly screams, "We want the world & we want it NOW!!!".

On some nights Jim has the atmosphere of 'I'm going down and I'm taking you guys with me' but that did disguise his power to evoke an audience reaction wherever he played. He then starts asking the audience ''hey you guys what do you wanna hear? - one at a time!'' as the whole crowd screams out song titles. During the gig Morrison has a playful but genuine menace in his voice, especially while screaming 'Five To One' over its relentless proto-heavy metal riff. Sounding both threatening and sinister. ''Hey listen we travel from city to city, and we're from California so lets have some fun''. By the time the funky Soul Kitchen and the finale Light My Fire rolls around the audience is in a rapture of excitment. By the end of the Light My Fire solos are over Morrison is trying to quiet the audience down ''come on do it, be quiet!". And then just like that in a flash The Doors have left the building.

Freud said that a crowd demands “strength or even violence” of its leaders: “It wants to be ruled and oppressed and to fear its master”. Sigmund Freud stated that groups tend to have the characteristics of “weakness of intellectual ability,…lack of emotional restraint,...incapacity for moderation and delay, [and] the inclination to exceed every limit in the expression of emotion.” Freud went on to say that groups “show an unmistakable picture of a regression of mental activity to an earlier stage such as…children” 

How to deflect questions

1. Enlist the help of a friend - "oh come on you know they dont want to talk about that.''
2. Prepare a canned answer in advance - Let's say you're going into an interview and [you know they will] ask about your managerial experience and you don't have much," she says. "You can use their question as the topic of your answer or just a pivot point. Say, 'I'm so glad you asked! One of the reasons I'm looking for new opportunities is that I anticipate much growth opportunity for managing teams, and that's work I really enjoy and do well."
3. Use a bridge response to chance the subject - if you really don't care to discuss your views on healthcare with someone, talk about a headline-grabbing (and non-controversial) news story that's tangentially related. According to manuals your classic bridge phrases are going to be "I don't know about that, but here's something interesting…" and "I can't tell you that for sure, but here's something I do know…"
4. Restate & Re-frame the question - Here are your key phrases: "I think what you're really trying to ask me is…" and "I think what you're really trying to get at is…." For example, if Aunt Margaret asks when you're going to finally get promoted, you can respond with something like, "I think what you're really trying to ask me is how I'm enjoying this exciting time in my career," and go on from there.
5. Excuse your self - tell them you need to go to the restroom.
6. Be straight forward about feeling uncomfortable - "Be direct and then pivot,". It's always within your rights to respond to an unwanted question with something like, "It's kind of emotionally fraught, so I'd rather not talk about it. But I'd love to hear about your new [project/job/baby/house]!" See, that wasn't so hard!
7. Use humour - For example, an intrusive "How much money do you make?" can be waved off with a simple joke, like, "Not enough!" Most people will realize they've overstepped and change the subject.
8. Answer ambiguously - If someone asks why you haven't quit your miserable job yet to look for a new one, a simple "Who knows? I've still gotta pay the bills in the meantime!" will do. To, "When are you going to graduate?" respond with a vague, "I'm not sure, I guess we'll see!"
9. Offer advice instead of an answer - For example, if someone asks about your recent weight loss and you don't want to get into the gritty details, simply share a tip about your favorite trainer in town and offer to put the person in touch with them. Or, rather than answering an invasive question about your recent breakup, tell the group about a book recommendation that helped you heal after the separation.
10. Shame them - Do it in a joking way to keep things light. Something like, "Wow, you're quite the curious one, aren't you?" or "Whoa, I think that's a bit heavy for a party" will shut things down pretty quickly.
11. Deflect with a compliment - If someone comments on your weight loss or gain in a way that makes you uncomfortable, for example, you could compliment their own appearance. Or, if someone asks you the inevitable "When are you getting married?" or "When are you having kids?" you can change the subject by complimenting the asker's beautiful wedding a few years ago or saying something nice about their child's latest accomplishment. Distraction is key!
12. Ask a question of your own - If they ask about your relationship status, try something like, "Are you worried that I'm lonely?" To a question about your dissertation or job search, you can say, "Are you concerned about my financial status?"
13. Ask for advice - For example, if a married person asks you why you're not engaged to your partner yet, you can ask them for their tips on making a relationship work long-term. If someone asks you personal questions about your children or parenting, ask them for tips on how they raised their own kids effectively.
14. Turn the tables - If they ask about your relationship, evade the question by asking about theirs. If they ask about your frustrating boss at work, ask them how their own job is going.
15. Create a distraction - ''does anybody want dessert?'' or pop in a movie, or to start a game of football. Especially in a crowd, it's easy to pretend you didn't hear the asker's question and turn to another family member to start a new activity.
16. Address a related but safer topic - When you're asked about your finances, for example, shift into a story about how you recently started crafting a more effective budget. Instead of answering questions about why you were recently laid off, talk about your new job or how you're approaching your job hunt. Act as if you're addressing exactly what they asked, and the questioner will probably drop it.
17. Respond with a general answer - For example, if someone asks you about your personal political views around a controversial subject, talk about how frustrated you are with the political climate in general, or mention how great it would be if everyone could come together to have a productive dialogue. In particular, if you shift the tone from negative to positive, the nosy questioner will have to be the downer if they want to bring the conversation back to the original question.

1. Acknowledge the question without answering it.

(“That’s a good question, and I think we should consider the implications by looking at…” [avoiding an answer].)

2. Ignore the question completely.

However, this is a high-risk approach because the interviewer may repeat the question or reword it slightly to return to the subject. This tends to make the interviewee look evasive.

3. Question the question.

(a) Request clarification or further information about the question. This works as a delaying tactic in a short interview.
(b) Reflect the question back to the interviewer (“Why do you ask me that?”)

4. Attack the question,

on the basis of:
(a) The question fails to tackle the important issue.
(b) The question is based on a false assumption.
(c) The question is factually inaccurate.
(d) The question is too personal or objectionable.

5. Decline to answer.

Refuse to answer on the basis that it is not your area of responsibility. (“You will have to ask [name, or ‘someone else’] about that because I’m not involved at all in that part of the situation.”)

6. Give an incomplete answer.

(a) Partial answer.
(b) Start to answer but change the subject.
(c) Negative answer. You state what won’t happen instead of what will happen.

7. State or imply the question has already been answered.

(“I’m not going to go over old ground.”)

8. Defer to the will of others.

Refer to the will of constituents or shareholders etc and imply you are doing your duty by complying with their will. (“Shareholders have asked me to take a firm line on this issue.”)

PARANOID ALICE - ''We write the greatest songs and wear the best jeans.''

 

The rock band Paranoid Alice is preparing to go supernova with their huge songs celebrating stardom, black magic and tight jeans. The three-piece have declared that they have the best jeans in the music industry and that their music is so loud it creates an orgasm in the listeners pants.

''As soon as the Covid situation is over we'll go on the road and play everywhere, our last gig will be in Liverpool as a tribute to The Beatles who we have so much in common with.''

The band have their sights on Hollywood and also want to create the soundtrack for Avatar 2 stating that their music is the future of rock.

Stay tuned for their 1st gig of 2021 soon.

Top 20 Badass Blaxploitation Films, Can you dig it?

 

No other genre has been as fly as the 1970's bad ass Blaxploitation phenomenon. These movies had a special thrilling power to make you feel 10ft tall, with a mojo tooth, and wha-wha guitar licks gallore underground filmmaker Fabrizio Federico gives you the lowdown on his Top 20 favourite.

1) Dolemite (1975)

2) The Mack (1973)

3) Sweet Sweetbacks Badassss Song (1971)

4) Black Gunn (1972)

5) Superfly (1972)

6) Peety Wheatstraw (1977)

7) Trick Baby (1972)

8) Boss Nigger (1975)

9) The Education Of Sonny Carson (1974)

10) Coffy (1973)

11) Hit Man (1972)

12) Cooley High (1975)

13) Trouble Man (1972)

14) Black Gestapo (1975)

15) Foxy Brown (1974)

16) Black Shampoo (1976)

17) Willie Dynamite (1974)

18) Black Caesar (1973)

19) Three The Hard Way (1974)

20) Truck Turner (1974)

With its main years of production being between 1972 and 1975, blaxploitation cinema was a contradictory, confrontational and controversial beast that both smashed and reinforced stereotypes of ‘blackness’, reflected and exaggerated life on the streets and in the ghettos and, despite its crossover appeal with white audiences, alienated as many viewers, critics and activist groups as it attracted. 

Blaxploitation’s often regressive representation of African-American women and its numerous anti-hero pimps and pushers were elements that drew criticism from all corners. 

On the positive front, African-American music, fashions, celebrities, social issues and political viewpoints became regular sights and sounds on the big screen as a wave of movies capitalised on the unexpected box office success of these classics.

THE SON OF SAM'S SICK WORLD

New York city 1976, a long pained ear-piercing scream filled a sticky night as violence exploded amid the shattered car glass. The Son Of Sam has just come face to face with the first of his six victims. He was only 23. This was the begining of an odyssey which will include violence, witchcraft, Satanism and black magic. New York will become a primeval disaster zone.

The media has everyone believing that the Son of Sam was only following orders to kill from his dog, but in reality the reasons are much darker. A night cult called 'The Children' are filming these killings as part of a snuff video ring run by The Process, a sactificial death organization who have ties with the the Manson Family. This Halloween world of sensuous evil only came to light in the 80's during the Satanic Panic Craze, and now with the Netflix documentary 'The Sons Of Sam' where we hear David Berkowitz explain his motivations to super sleuth Maury Terry who's creepy book 'Ultimate Evil' the show is based on. 

Revolt, disorder and chaos are on display in this 4 part documentary full of psychic jolts and loaded with a steel chill similar to a cult underground Fabrizio Federico movie. Watch as the crowds of photographers smash into the Son Of Sam like bugs exploding into a radiator grill upon his arrest in 1977.

The letters The Son Of Sam was sending to the NYPD are also on display, full of Freudian symbolism, transcendental death imagery reminiscent of an Edgar Allan Poe poem. 

Not unlike those who could never accept that Oswald acted alone, self-motivated journalist Maury Terry—an IBM employee when Berkowitz went on his killing spree—fully believed the delusional postal worker's later claim (from prison) that he was part of a satanic cult whose members also included brothers John and Michael Carr, the actual human sons of Sam Carr, owner of the devilish dog in question.

The twist and turns will define how slippery true steel evil really is, as the dark side of the psyche is displayed here in full force.

Terry discovered an abandoned pump house in Untermeyer Park in Yonkers, N.Y., that was nicknamed Devil’s Cave, where he believed Berkowitz first became indoctrinated into the cult. There were reports from neighbors that groups of people with hoods and torches would gather in the woods near the structure, and multiple people, including Berkowitz, said cult initiations happened there where members would sacrifice dogs and drink their blood.  While investigating Devil’s Cave, Terry discovered that it was mere steps from Berkowitz’s single-room apartment. He also found satanic symbols covering the walls of the cave and German Shepherd carcasses in the nearby woods.  

To Terry, this was proof of satanic cult activity going on near Berkowitz, and further fueled his theory that the cult — which he determined was called The Children — were involved in the killings.  

Occult research often winds into endless loops and chasms of connections, which haunted Terry the longer he worked on the Son of Sam case. The connections he found that are unveiled in Netflix’s series are wide-reaching, to say the least. The cult Terry determined was operating in Yonkers, called The Children, had ties to Scientology and the West Coast. The Children was an offshoot of a cult called the Process Church of the Final Judgement, a group formed in Britain during 1966. Leaders Robert de Grimston and Mary Ann MacLean defected from a British division of L. Ron Hubbard’s Church of Scientology and brought their satanic teachings to the U.S. in the early 1970s. 

The group eventually splintered into smaller factions, each with different names but a similar core belief — that their satanic and murderous practices could bring about the end of the world. Terry reasoned that’s how The Children ended up in Yonkers and in Berkowitz’s backyard. He also discovered proof that de Grimston and Charles Manson attended a party together in California in the late 1960s, and theorized that meeting de Grimston influenced Manson’s apocalyptic visions of a race war that he used to incite his followers into murdering five people in the summer of 1969.

One of Berkowitz’s most talked-about killings was the murder of 20-year-old Stacy Moskowitz, who was shot in the head while sitting in the car with her boyfriend, Robert Violante, who was blinded by the attack but survived. Moskowitz was the Son of Sam’s sixth and final murder victim.  

Terry’s investigation led him to several sources who claimed Moskowitz was killed for a snuff film because The Children wanted to record her execution and sell it “to the highest bidder.”  

The film never materialized, but Terry uncovered anecdotal evidence through a prison informant known only as Vinny that there were people in a van stationed near the lover’s lane where Moskowitz was killed, ready to film the murder. The informant claimed that a photographer named Ron Sisman — who was later murdered with a student, Elizabeth Platzman — filmed the murders. The informant linked Sisman to Hollywood producer and millionaire Roy Radin, who did have a penchant for throwing cocaine-fueled orgies and was linked to a rape. But it was never proven that Radin (identified as RR) had anything to do with the cult or the killings.

MISRULE CINEMA: A SECRET UNCUT TRIBE

 

Films made outside the established studio system with affordable equipment (toy cameras, CCTV video, iPhone's) proves anyone with an inclination to make a movie can now do so, but when you mix that with a powerful dose of adrenaline and confidence, then that my friend creates cinema heat. 

This pro-active independent filmmaking community is part of the Misrule Movement. A boom of arthouse films originally came out of the UK under this banner and then spread across the world, pushing the boundaries of cinema and its power to enchant and transfix viewers. This enlivened film-making as an art form and a new wave was born. YouTube directors obsessed with European cinema and countercultural attitudes set the world alight with their micro budget masterpieces. Philosophical, commercial and occult styles blended with experimental elliptical Pick-A-Mix editing techniques. Add a dose of sex, violence and psychedelics and you have a Molotov cocktail approach to filmmaking.

Taboo topics such as social problems, poverty, abortion, drug addiction and prostitution are also tackled giving it a human connection as well as an esoteric champagne pop-culture aura. Both zippy, suggestive and also deliriously good fun.

Internationally recognized as an agent provocateur, controversial British filmmaker Fabrizio Federico led the charge with his provocative movies and the Straight-Jacked Film Festival, bringing together an army of new filmmakers  who's movies run the gauntlet of outrageous themes such as espionage, marriage, mind control and radiation challenge the viewers conceptions. These auteurs explore timeless subjects with a new richer and unhinged eye. The language of cinema  who's tools of sound, moving images and music was revolutionized when these filmmakers bestowed their individual vision, style & themes onto the international stage.

Ochmoneks - Legendary Boston post punk band

 

Interview with Artporn Magazine founder Nektar

Who inspired you to create Artporn? A dream I had once, about the birth of colors out of the black.

What is your mission? Transition of brain boners.

What type of art qualifies as art porn? Whatever gives ME a brain boner. I would define my self as sapiosexual.

Who are some of your favourite artists? El Greco, Andy Warhol, Banksy... 

What do you think of the NFT art world that is exploding globally right now? I find it a revolutionary act and a benefit for artists.

Interview with author Irene Husk

BUY 'PERHAPS IT WAS JANE' HERE

(1) What inspired you to write this book? I have always wanted to write stories and I have often theorized that Jack the Ripper was female as she would easily have been able to slip in and out of the darkness, unsuspected and under the cover of perhaps a lady of the night herself. I also have a morbid interest in what it is, that can make humans become so cruel to others and why. The ripper story is intriguing as it has never been solved, despite the efforts of many intelligent and forthright individuals. Throughout the years there has been so much speculation and guesswork that it has managed to colour any feasible evidence and investigative ideaology. Now there is nothing left for modern day Ripperologists to perceive as real evidence. 

(2) How come the myth that Jack the Ripper might be a woman, refuses to go away? I honestly don’t think it’s too far-fetched to consider that Jack the Ripper might have been a woman. The myth that the ripper may have been a woman will probably never go away, as it has to be taken into consideration that although great strength and callousness were imperative traits in order to commit the murders, we all know how strong and resilient women can be. Speed and camouflage could be used just as effectively as brute strength and we all know the old saying about a woman scorned! There have been many female serial killers convicted throughout history, for example, Mary Ann Cotton, Myra Hindley and Rose West to name just a few. There are those that scoff at the idea of a female Ripper but I don’t believe it should ever be ruled out. 

(3) Which actress would be a good lead to play the Ripper? I think the perfect actress would be Morven Christie who recently starred in The Bay, she has the ability to look extremely elegant but can also portray a woman with a temper and a cool calm exterior, I think she would be really appropriate for the role rather than using a glossy well known actress. 

 (4) What do you think of Whitechapel these days? I think that Whitechapel will continue to be shadowed by its worldwide reputation for being the location of so many unsolved and heinous murders and I believe that the network of streets will always hold on to its unique fame. The area has moved on and is now a much nicer place to visit but the Ripper’s rule will never be forgotten. 

 (5) Will we ever find out who the Ripper was? I believe that the Ripper will forever remain a phantom and he or she is an enigma that will hold the interest of many for the duration.

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John Lennon's Willd Sonic Experiments

During the late 60's John Lennon met his muse Yoko Ono & decided to dive into 3 years of wild, mercurial sonic experimentation that brought Avant-Garde music into the mainstream which felt like a body-blow to the conformist barbarians.

Starting with the LP's Two Virgins & Life With The Lions in 1968 & 1969 the couple embraced their surroundings and used the sounds that were at hand to inspire them. Creating tape-loops with experimental sounds. Dying child heartbeats, tape manipulation, interviews, various noises, whispers, cries and screams of varying tempos. Comprising vocal improv, birdsong, feedback, chatter and novelty tunes.

Experimental filmmaker Fabrizio Federico has embraced these techniques and lists these albums, along with Yoko's solo efforts Plastic Ono Band & Fly as inspirations for his movies, ''This music was hated with a vengence when it was first released because it fucked with his fans minds and ears, plus John reinvented his image as a revolurionary, this wasnt A Hard Days Night any longer folks. My fav Beatles song is Revolution #9 its the future.''

These techniques were also incorporated into The Beatles song Revolution #9. Avant-garde, LSD & Eastern philosophy had already been embraced by the Fab Four including this pick-a-mix style of backwards tapes, jump cuts, subliminal messages, montage, phasing, cut-up's, tape loops, smash cuts, musique concrète, double exposure, sound fx, varispeed, surrealism & electronic absurdism. 

Revolution #9 is a kinetic experimental sound film full of sonic poetry, happenings and be-ins are all associated in an anti-establishment state of mind. 

After this hectic recording schedule John & Yoko eloped and recorded the Wedding Album which created even more confusion and debate that Lennon had gone bananas. If anything these albums rejuvinated John and allowed him to start over from the Beatles huge myth.

Pop music had experienced a cataclysmic shock to the system with these albums, similar to what The Sex Pistols achieved in 1977, John even returned his MBE which was a humiliation to the establishment. 

With heroin, love and music in his heart Lennon created a cannon of futuristic music unequaled in pop music. On the track Cambrige 1969 him and Yoko torture the audience with screams and feedback for 30min in a theatre of cruelty stunt that would carry over into their live festival performance in Toronto. Their mission was accomplished. The freak flag had won for now.

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