More like Paranormal Activity I thought. A rabbit you say? We don't own a rabbit.

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Radio: My favorite discovery of 2012 is "Radio Lab", a story telling show reminiscent of another favorite, 'This American Life', but with a much more sophisticated sound design. All episodes are available for free in the podcast section of iTunes.

Music: I fell in love with the New Orleans second line scene after Issy and I paid a visit to the crescent city this year. We saw the 'Rebirth Brass Band' live and had a great time. We also had a mini-meetup at the show with @dotdude. New Orleans music culture is like no other.

Music: Louis Cole & Genevieve Artadi: Highly unique and energetic electro-acoustic music. Hard to explain.

Music: Austin Texas band 'The Black Angels' - Dark, bluesy rock obviously influenced by the Doors. To be honest, I'm not crazy about blues rock or the Doors, but 'The Black Angels' manage to meld these influences into something I really dig.

Music: UK band, 'Metronomy'. Their sound is eclectic, hooky and heavily influenced by all the cool British 80's bands I loved as a kid. Goes down easy. Works in the background as well as the fore.

Movies: Django and Looper were the two films that captivated me from start to finish. Both films by gifted auteurs, one at the top of his game, the other on the rise. Great writing. Great Directing. Great performances.

Horror movies: The Cabin in the Woods (A clever and absurd meta-horror mashup) and the The Lady in Black (A classic, classy ghost story) both satisfied. It's nice that there were a couple of diamonds in sea of Paranormal-Activity-esque-found-footage detritus.

TV: same stuff that everyone else likes - BB, GoT, DoAb and Sherlock. I also got into Always Sunny in Philadelphia this year - very dark, very funny.

Books: Started a bunch, finished very few. Nothing to recommend. "Checklist Manifesto" is pretty interesting so far - it's about how the brain functions (or fails to function) in the information-dense present.

Games: 'Xcom' was a worthy update of the original. Loved all the detailed micro/macro strategy. 'Journey' was beautiful and fairly moving for a videogame.

(from YouTube)

Movies in order of appearance:

Halloween
Freddy VS. Jason
Resident Evil
The Amityville Horror
Night of the Demons
Christine
Shocker
From Dusk Till Dawn
Planet Terror
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
The Thing
Alice Sweet Alice
Don't Look Now
The Town That Dreaded Sundown
Madman
The Shining
The Exorcist
Poltergeist
Child's Play
28 Days Later
Psycho
Cemetery Man
Salem's Lot
Hellraiser II: Hellbound
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Jacob's Ladder
Suspiria
Slither
Trick R Treat
Re-Animator
Killer Klowns From Outer Space
Creepshow
American Psycho
Leprechaun
The Dark Half
The Hitcher
The Final Destination
Zombi 2
Audition
The Changeling
The Omen
Drag Me To Hell
The Crazies
The Ring
Jaws
The Descent
When a Stranger Calls
Dawn of the Dead
The Devil's Rejects
The Exorcist
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Near Dark
Motel Hell
Carrie
Spontaneous Combustion
An American Werewolf in London
The Blair Witch Project
[REC]
Paranormal Activity
Day of the Dead
Cube Zero
Ichi the Killer
Dead Snow
The Machine Girl
Wrong Turn 2
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead
Black Sheep
Saw III
Freddy VS. Jason
Hatchet II
The Descent
Braindead (Dead Alive)
Day of the Dead
Troll 2
Shaun of the Dead
Phantasm
Profondo Rosso (Deep Red)
Return of the Living Dead
Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn
C.H.U.D.
Baby Blood
Slugs
Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight
Bride of Chucky
976-EVIL
Tremors
The Devil's Backbone
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
A Tale of Two Sisters
Jeepers Creepers II
Basket Case
Alien
Cujo
Rosemary's Baby
Interview with the Vampire
Let the Right One In
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Scream
Chakushin Ari (One Missed Call)
Ju-On (The Grudge)
House on Haunted Hill
Hostel
Candyman
Insidious
The Orphanage
Black Christmas
Pet Semetary
Fright Night
The Exorcist
Mother's Day
Scanners
The Shining
The Evil Dead
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Chopping Mall
Braindead (Dead Alive)

Fuck Paranormal Activity 3, this is the shit that is going to give me nightmares, kitty caterpillar <<shudder>>.

I think there's something you should know about traditional photographs... people have been manipulating them either in camera or in the darkroom for as long as photography has been around. Jimbo's big bag'o'trivia article on the subject is rather conservative, but cites a portrait of Abraham Lincoln from the 1860s which was manipulated - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_manipulation

Your concerns have been valid as long as there have been images to manipulate, distort, and finangle... and one more tool doesn't really change much.

Edit: Although it is an extremely cool tool It looks like you could have quite a lot of fun with it.
>> ^A10anis:

The old statement; "The camera never lies," has forever been changed to; "never trust any image taken by a camera." When this technology becomes widely available, I predict an upsurge in "real" UFO, Ghost, and paranormal activity, allegedly captured on camera. Sad really, what can we say is real anymore, what can we say is true, and how will we know the difference?

The old statement; "The camera never lies," has forever been changed to; "never trust any image taken by a camera." When this technology becomes widely available, I predict an upsurge in "real" UFO, Ghost, and paranormal activity, allegedly captured on camera. Sad really, what can we say is real anymore, what can we say is true, and how will we know the difference?

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY III - Fall 2011

Oh, but there's one more on the way, my little pussy fart.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
*brief *wheels *books

Thanks!

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
*promote *quality *length=35

*brief *wheels *books

Thanks!

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
*promote *quality *length=35

I'm late to this best of party, and I haven't seen 'In the Loop', 'Moon' and a few others that people have included in their lists, but here goes....

Best (in no particular order):

-Inglorious Basterds
-Where the Wild Things Are
-Watchmen
-Yeardly
-District 9
-Up in the Air
-Mr. Fantastic Fox
-The Hangover
-Capitalism (Not Moore's best, but any film that attempts to make honest discussion of capitalism less taboo in American culture earns my respect. Despite a meandering structure and the inclusion of youtube videos on the big screen, there is plenty to like here.)

Worst (It's pretty easy to avoid bad movies these days, but I managed to see a few)

-Antichrist - I usually like movies by Lars, but he seems to have purposely made this ode to genital mutilation to be unlikable/unwatchable, which must make its inclusion in my list a badge of honor. Well done, you sick pretentious fuck.
-Paranormal Activity - At 90 minutes, this over-hyped D grade student film was 70 minutes too long, with across the board failings in direction, acting and writing categories..... but still infinitely better than....
-2012 - One of the worst films I've ever seen. Mind bogglingly dumb, boring and entirely too long. Even the elaborate, expensive CGI/action sequences were lifeless, dull and uninspired. Zero entertainment value. When you can't make the destruction of the Earth even vaguely entertaining, you should probably stop making movies.

Good call. I awoke this morning with disgusting imagery in my head. Maybe I'll throw in a Pixar movie to cleanse the palette.

Yes, I did see Paranormal Activity. I thought it was boring, amateurish, un-scary and about an hour too long. Antichrist isn't so much scary as it is just foul. Since you aren't going to see it, I'll tell you what you're missing:

(SPOILERS)

*A woman hitting a man in the penis with a log.

*A woman masturbating said penis, which ejaculates blood.

*A woman drilling a hole through a man's leg and attaching a heavy weight, secured by a large bolt.

*A woman cutting off her own clitoris.


In reply to this comment by EndAll:
Wow. So it really lives up to the hype, eh? I don't think I'd make it through the whole thing, based off your description.. couldn't even make it through 'Paranormal Activity', although that was kinda shitty to be fair. You seen it? Kinda Blair-Witchy. Thanks for the heads up about this Antichrist, though. I'd rather watch a movie and have to think and be entertained than be revolted and scared! Horror movies never really appealed to me because of that, but some of them do indeed make for great cinema. If anything, I'd watch Antichrist for the cinematography - it looked beautiful.

Wow. So it really lives up to the hype, eh? I don't think I'd make it through the whole thing, based off your description.. couldn't even make it through 'Paranormal Activity', although that was kinda shitty to be fair. You seen it? Kinda Blair-Witchy. Thanks for the heads up about this Antichrist, though. I'd rather watch a movie and have to think and be entertained than be revolted and scared! Horror movies never really appealed to me because of that, but some of them do indeed make for great cinema. If anything, I'd watch Antichrist for the cinematography - it looked beautiful.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
OK, I can honestly say that Antichrist is the most disturbing film I've ever seen. I'm a fan of horror and a fan of dark, but the final act of this film pretty much put me in a fetal position. I have no idea what this film is supposed to mean. Though it touches subjects of grief, evil, nature, human nature, misogyny and sexuality, I came away with nothing but nausea.

That said, I can't give it a thumbs down, because it is a well made, well shot, well directed, well lit, well acted, provocative piece of art. Even before the brutality begins, the sense of dread and gloom that LvT creates using hushed voices and darkness left me breathless and uncomfortable, and the moments that come later on...... It takes some doing to create something this truly bleak and brutal without causing me to just shutdown and move on to something else.

That said, I can't give this flick a thumbs up either, because it's so self-consciously offensive in the way it pushes the bounderies as to what constitutes art and entertainment.

No thumbs up, no thumbs down. Instead I'll go with two thumbs covered in menstrual blood shoved deep into my skull, via the eye sockets.

It's a fucked up film. I wouldn't recommend taking a loved one unless they have a cast iron stomach. Whatever horrors you might have imagined over my description will pale in comparison to reality. You may be better off just skipping it. If your curiousity does get the better of you, you've been warned.

If you need me, I'll be in the bathroom vomiting.

In reply to this comment by EndAll:
Thanks DFT! Have you seen the full thing yet?

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
*quality
*horrorshow

Actually, yaroslavvb, hypnosis does indeed work. Yes, the participant has to be willing, but the brain patterns displayed by those under hypnosis are not witnessed during any other state of mind, be it wakefulness, meditation, or any of the sleep stages. It is a state of mind that one must be willing to reach, but it is indeed a true state of mind. I didn't believe in hypnosis either until I actually took some classes and did some research on the subject.

As far as paranormal activity, supernatural events, and visits from aliens (the extra-terrestrial kind), well, they're bunk.

southblvd -- you are making it sound like there is a hypnotist show that *isn't* an act, lol

Hypnosis belongs in the same category as paranormal activity and aliens, in that there's little evidence to support the practitioners' claims, yet many people believe in it nonetheless. Conventional explanation is that hypnosis "works" because some people are willing to play along. This is why using acting students is good -- they are good at pretending.

If you remember other clips of Darren Brown that made it to Video Sift, you'll see that he tends to "explain" his tricks through his knowledge of psychology. But that's standard magician practice -- to mislead the people into thinking their tricks are done through some hard to grasp/reproduce technique. For instance David Copperfield does it -- a friend of mine was called into David Copperfield number where she disappeared from the stage, and David Copperfield asked her to tell friends he did this trick with mirrors (or each friend will tell 2 friends, and years of work will be wasted, blabla)

I'm not the only one that thinks that Derren Brown's tricks have nothing to do with psychology
http://www.simonsingh.net/Derren_Brown_Article.html