iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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It Slays Podcast @itslayspodcast.bsky.social · 8h

We want to hear your opinions on SPOOKIES (1986) Would you give it a NAY, OKAY, YAY or SLAY? There is 2 ways to do it: 1) Comment 2) Send a voice note to itslayspodcast@gmail.com

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 15h

If you liked this video essay then you'd probably also like my book CORPSES, FOOLS AND MONSTERS: THE HISTORY AND FUTURE OF TRANSNESS IN CINEMA. There's a substantial portion dedicated to the movies covered in the opening section of this video essay. bookshop.org/p/books/corp...

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

My 15th Bugs Bunny piece is up. There's some great stuff in this short revolving around Bugs using hypnosis to turn Elmer Fudd into a doppelganger of himself, breaking the fabric of accepted Bugs Bunny cartoon reality. A pretty good early Freleng/Maltese Bugs short.

strawberrypenguin.ca

The Hare-Brained Hypnotist (1942)

Premiering in cinemas on October 31st, The Hare-Brained Hypnotist (1942) isn’t soaked in Universal Monster or German Expressionist gothic imagery like future Bugs Bunny scare-fests Hair-Raising Har…

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 18h

Earlier this year, I stated that I was working on something comprehensive about CAMP MIASMA. This is a video essay on the history of trans psycho killers and how CAMP MIASMA uses that history for subversion and reclamation. I hope you enjoy it. mubi.com/en/program-n...

mubi.com

Loving the Monster

Watch truly great cinema. Wherever you are. From iconic, award-winning directors to emerging auteurs. Transformative films from all over the world. Stream Now. Download to watch Offline. Start your fr...

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Rob Dunson, Collateral Beautician @wormsgreenrealm.bsky.social · 20h

Made this last year and thought about making a brand new one for 2026 but I haven't really seen THAT much new stuff that would merit inclusion so I'm just sharing again. So once again: Rob's Spooky List for October Viewing. Mostly short work, mostly work you can watch easily for free online.

letterboxd.com

rob's spooky list

a vibes-based list for those looking for rob-core spooky season viewings, prioritizing short work links to ones available online in the notes

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 22h

May the spirits treat us well this month.

Betty Boop with open-mouthed ghostly apparitions behind her.

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Death Riders forever Pac forever

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Wrestling is special. Only a community like this can band together in moments of absolute darkness, put on a show that illustrates why you love this artform so much, and make you see the light.

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I believe that Mabel Cheung's AN AUTUMN'S TALE is currently available on the Criterion Channel. It is a fantastic film and a great place to start with Cheung. A sample of this essay can also be read over here: letterboxd.com/catelyn/film...

letterboxd.com

A review of Eight Taels of Gold (1989)

Some films feel as if they hold the entire world in the frame, because they are so lovingly detailed that our emotions feel as though they emanate from the characters. We’re right there with them. Che...

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I wrote about EIGHT TAELS OF GOLD, and Mabel Cheung's extraordinary abilities to tell romantic stories. She's an unbelievable director and I hope she will be widely rediscovered someday. www.patreon.com/willowcately...

The organic quality seen in her pauses, her integration of characters within the space, and the accumulation of little moments building to a whole is also emblematic of the strengths in her romantic film Eight Taels of Gold. Some films feel as if they hold the entire world in the frame, because they are so lovingly detailed that our emotions feel as though they emanate from the characters. We’re right there with them. Cheung’s characters in these two films encounter the great swell of meaning that can be achieved through romance, and her characters grasp its greatest possibilities of fulfillment and heartbreak. This sometimes even occurs in the same scene. The great David Bordwell called the temperament of Hong Kong cinema, “an unabashed appeal to emotion.”, and I think about this movie when I read that phrase. Romantic films are usually prone to contrivances of separation and reintegration—those operas of want—and while Cheung’s films may seem like they contain those devices of conflict, she makes them seem quotidian. It is a very hard trick to pull off, but she does so with the elegance of a David Lean, whose Brief Encounter (1945), remains the model for all romantic films.

a still image from EIGHT TAELS OF GOLD of a young couple (a man and a woman) approaching an older man who is sitting by a tree.

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I may have found the most disturbing pre-code cartoon. Caricatures of Hollywood icons in animation were common place by 1933, and the Scrappy series riffs on it in a horrifying manner and asks: What if these Hollywood personalities also had infant bodies? This is "Hollywood Babies" (1933).

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Movie titles have become such a bore. A movie about a man trapped inside of a whale's belly is called Whalefall? Cowardice. That movie should be titled "Swallowed By Whale: Must Escape!". I'd buy 10 tickets.

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Justine Peres Smith @redroomrantings.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

For those who missed it, I've launched a newsletter on Substack to write about movies and other stray thoughts. If you like my writing, I'd love if you could subscribe! afilmdiary.substack.com

afilmdiary.substack.com

Red Room Rantings | Substack

Justine Smith is a writer who has been published in Little White Lies, Roger Ebert and Ultra Dogma. She programs the Underground Section at the Fantasia International Film Frstival. Click to read Red ...

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Last December I began mapping out an approach to a gestating idea I had, to watch every early 1930s cartoon and chronicle the experience, a visual journal via a zine. By January the work had begun, and it became my new years resolution to construct and finish this zine, which I did after 8 months.

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

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Alex Kittle @alexxkittle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The first four illustrations of my 2027 Cinematic Cats calendar! Eight more to go! Now available for pre-order from both my etsy and ko-fi shops! www.etsy.com/listing/4583... ko-fi.com/s/1ae08cade0

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night illustration.

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Neely O'Horror @feminaridens.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

hard to really get across if you don't watch wrestling, but these ppl become part of the rhythms in your day-to-day life. watching aew, you are seeing a performer, live, on television up to twice a week for every week of the year. the wrestling world exists alongside you, and so do the ppl in it

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It is one of the greatest honors of my life to say that I helped with @arrowvideo.bsky.social upcoming 4k release of BLUE VELVET. I wrote an essay to accompany the film. www.arrowfilms.com/p/blue-velve...

arrowfilms.com

Blue Velvet Limited Edition 4K UHD | Arrow Films

Shop Blue Velvet Limited Edition 4K UHD at Arrow Films. Free UK Delivery

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

strawberrypenguin.ca

The Hare-Brained Hypnotist (1942)

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Unfortunately, I had lingering cold symptoms and recurring headaches for much of September and have been unable to stick to my goal of 4 Bugs Bunny posts this month. But I will have 3! The Hare-Brained Hypnotist will be up tomorrow.

Bugs Bunny pointing Elmer's gun down his own rabbit hole. Elmer looks on, smiling and holding a half-eaten carrot.

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EBT GOKU @ebtgoku.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I wrote about Return to Silent Hill, Super Eyepatch Wolf, and how the internet memes discussion out of the picture carolgrantr.substack.com/p/silent-hil...

carolgrantr.substack.com

Silent Hill, Eyepatch Wolf, and the Internet’s Phony ‘Common Knowledge’

How bad faith begets bad faith

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

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Kyrie Page @kyriepage.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Rest in peace to Richard Harrison, impeccable B-movie master, part of one of the funniest movie endings of all time.

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

We've been receiving a lot of start-and-stop rainfalls amid otherwise sunny days this week, resulting in a multitude of rainbows. Blue skies and golden sunshine all the way.

Rainbow above a cemetery. Blue skies above the rainbow.

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

From this pod I learned that Paul Westerberg recorded the soundtrack to this movie. Listened to a couple songs. They're good, as they would be. Too good for such a movie. YouTube comments is full of people crying over their favourite animated animal characters, Boog and Elliott.

YouTube comments section for the song "Good Day" include
-"every time I heard the song I keep picturing Beth saying goodbye to Boog"
-"Boog and Elliott <333333"
-"Open Season brought me here. NOW I share it with my friends because I know they have depression and need this more than anything "

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

One of my "In Case Of Emergency - Break Glass" movie-watching projects is Santo. Slapdash movies of Mexican wrestlers battling Universal monsters? And there's more than you can count? Whenever I start, I'll be afraid of not being able to stop.

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Bugs Bunny's first Canadian adventure doesn't go so well, and I've been informed he isn't allowed back in the country until he makes a public apology. New essay up, on Friz Freleng's Fresh Hare.

strawberrypenguin.ca

Fresh Hare (1942)

Fresh Hare (1942)’s opening images are a series of sign gags, beginning with a Wanted poster tacked to a tree. In the center is a crudely drawn Bugs Bunny, his name written on the poster as “Bugs” …

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I have only 10 episodes left to Cheers' 5th season, and I'm sad to see the Diane Chambers era come to an end. To make up for the lack of Diane in my later-seasons Cheers watch-thru, I'm gonna watch a lot of Shelley Long movies. I've seen almost none of her filmography.

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Now seated for this 2 30pm IMAX screening of the new Resident Evil. This begins a long day at the cinema.

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Catching up with an old friend* *(direct-to-video Takashi Miike films from the early 1990s)

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

One of the least-seen Miike films among English speakers (only 129 Letterboxd logs, his 93rd most popular film on the website) as subs only recently became available. Clunky meandering plotting, but it's charming with glimpses of that Miike magic to come. This is a film in love with Riki Takeuchi.

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Watching a new-to-me Takashi Miike film: Peanuts (1996) starring V-Cinema legend Riki Takeuchi. Looks like a modern-day yakuza film with leads who anachronistically dress up like classic movie gangsters.

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

If only I could split myself into three separate me's, Multiple Man-style, to devote equal time to my projects at once without anything getting left behind.

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

This was a success. An evening of pre-code cartoons held the attention of a group full of friends. I was probably levitating with enthusiasm, myself, as host. The zine is now in the homes of others. And I'll be handing some over to a local indie shop later this week.

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Getting ready to show some friends a 95 minute block of cartoons from 1930 & 1931 and hand out my zine. Besides myself and Willow, this is the first time other people will get a chance to see the zine. This is the first chapter of its distribution.

9 copies of a zine (with alternating yellow, orange and red covers) laid out on a table next to some Blu-ray and DVD cases of Disney, Fleischer and Flip the Frog collections (with other cases not visible).

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER is currently streaming on Criterion and you can read a slightly longer sample of this essay below. If you like what I do, please consider subscribing to my patreon. Love y'all <3 letterboxd.com/catelyn/film...

letterboxd.com

A review of The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Many critics over the years have written about Robert Mitchum’s handling of the character as cartoonish, but there is truth in his buttery drawl, and his commitment to his own interpretation of God as...

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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I wrote about THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER for my horror column. I feel as though this is one of the best pieces I have written this year. It is always an energizing experience to write about a film that I consider an all time great. www.patreon.com/willowcately...

a still image from The Night of the Hunter. Robert Mitchum is in silhouette in a bedroom with sharp angles pointing upward. It has both the feel and the temper of a sacred space, perhaps a church, perhaps a womb. Shelley Winters lay on the bed. He is about to do something bad to her

The Night of the Hunter’s legacy is intertwined with the Southern Gothic, and it may in fact be the primary film befitting the categorization, but when director Charles Laughton set out to make his feature directorial debut, the notion of the Southern Gothic was one that was unfamiliar to most audiences. Hunter is adapted from Davis Grubb’s 1953 novel of the same name, and the text is widely considered a modest example of a genre that contains such powerhouse writers as William Faulkner and Flannery O’Conner. It’s possible that Laughton may have been familiar with these titans of the South’s tortured conscious, because he initially sought out Tennessee-born writer James Agee to adapt the screenplay. Agee had previously found success with John Huston for The African Queen, but his prose for Hunter proved unwieldy. He turned in a 254 page behemoth that was reportedly magnificent, but it had to be trimmed down for the picture. Laughton eventually ended up ignoring the script and began carrying around the novel on-set, along with the Bible, which he was reading continuously at the time. Laughton’s position as a closeted gay man, but one who was fascinated by God and religion provokes ample contradictions in The Night of the Hunter; something like an intellectual who has convinced himself of the primacy of spirituality. The film is driven by a childlike wonder, and eager to indulge in fantastical fairy-tale imagery and morals, and he found the bedrock for Hunter’s gripping images of black and white silhouette, and light and shadow, by looking back to the heydey of silent film. A seance for the old language. During production, he sought out the films of D.W. Griffith in particular; a director whose own lineage with the American South is central and problematically racist. Laughton wanted to make a movie that would grab audiences by the collar and never let go. The trouble was that no one ever saw The Night of the Hunter when it eventually came out.....

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I used to watch 1930s film serials on YouTube, and it was fine for a while, but then they started doing this annoying thing of pop-up thumbnails in the final seconds of every video, which ruins serials because it visually blocks out the cliffhanger of every episode! I never did get back into serials

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Neely O'Horror @feminaridens.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

the end of summer is hectic, so our latest ep of The Power of '73 Compels Us will release next friday!!! meaning you'll get 2 episodes in september! join us for our convo on 2 lesser seen japanese independent productions: masahiro shinoda's the petrified forest & kōichi saitō's tsugaru folk song!!

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

The trailer dropped for a feature-length documentary film about the UPA animation studio that's coming out next year. It would be nice if this led to a larger renewed cultural interest in this incredible catalog of animated work.

youtu.be

Animation Mavericks: The Forgotten Story of UPA (2027) - Trailer

YouTube video by Animation Mavericks: The Forgotten Story of UPA

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

youtu.be

Animation Mavericks: The Forgotten Story of UPA (2027) - Trailer

YouTube video by Animation Mavericks: The Forgotten Story of UPA

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T. J. Dobbin @tjamesdobbin.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

What if I watched every Takashi Miike Film again (and catch up on the few I missed)? Those give me joy. Most I haven't seen in over ten years.

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