site banner
PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   2423 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 24, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Continuing on the movies I'm watching for Spooky Season.

Last night I tried showing herself The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but halfway through she asked me to turn it off because it was stressing her out too much. She's more of a psychological horror gal — slashers aren't really her bag.

Tonight is We Need to Talk About Kevin, which I haven't seen since it came out.

Last night we rewatched Sinister. It pains me to see horror films using jump scares as a crutch, especially when the film has already demonstrated that the crutch isn't called for. There were several points in the film in which something scary appears onscreen accompanied by a sudden loud noise, and I found myself thinking it would actually be more scary without the loud noise. I'd actually love to do a fan edit with all the silly jump scares removed, especially the one immediately before the closing credits. (The one such scare that I found worked exactly as intended was the "Lawn Work" one.)

But for all that, it's an intelligent, well-acted, well-paced movie that makes the most of its limited budget, displays admirable restraint in its use of violence and gore, and knows just when to deploy a comic relief character to defuse the tension. For my money I can't think of a better Hollywood horror film from the 2010s: in terms of scares and atmosphere, it's obviously superior to such critical darlings as It Follows and The Lighthouse. There's even a bit of wry social commentary in its characterisation of true crime writers as muckraking, narcissistic glory hounds who never let the facts get in the way of a good story. My girlfriend says she's hit her quota for horror films for the rest of the year, and was so scared that when she went to the bathroom to brush her teeth, she asked me to stand guard outside with a baseball bat.

Last night we watched We Need to Talk About Kevin, the latest in a series of not-quite-horror movies.

Hypnotic, unnerving and merciless. It wasn't marketed as a horror film, and yet is more frightening than most straight examples of the genre. Impeccable performances from Tilda Swinton and Ezra Miller, and the actor who plays Kevin from the ages of 6-8 might be the best child actor I've seen in a film (except maybe Haley Joel Osment): he has to portray the character for a longer chunk of the film's runtime than I'd remembered, and pulls it off. Lynne Ramsay's control of the camera, editing and sound design is exceptional: I really ought to watch her earlier films. I wouldn't change a thing, but I won't be watching this again for quite some time.

Also curious to see how the book compares, especially given that Lionel Shriver is arguably more famous as a culture warrior than a novelist these days (I've read some of her columns in Unherd and elsewhere and enthusiastically agreed with them).

Texas Chainsaw Massacre was infamous for being forbidden in Finland for decades. When the law was finally changed in the late 90s, we went to watch it with friends. Our conclusion was that it should have stayed forbidden. Not because of the violence and gore but because it was just so bad.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats