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1) why is cannibalism so fascinating to the modern media?

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Shows such as Yellowjackets on the rise 

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Shows such as Yellowjackets on the rise 

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It’s clear the media has an obsession with shows such as this, i wonder if this is due to desensitisation or just a need to view harsher content ect.

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The cruelty of teenage girls can often feel like life-or-death-but in Yellowjackets, Showtime's hit series about a New Jersey girl's soccer team that gets stranded in the wilderness, it really is. Starving, freezing, and with no animals to hunt and little else to lose, the teens have slowly transformed from classmates into cannibals.

It's not an unrealistic scenario-the show's creators have referenced the real-life catastrophes that inspired it, many of which devolved into cannibalism. But with a dozen mouths to feed, it seems like an unsustainable dietary strategy for the show's survivors. The show's creators are planning for three more seasons, so viewers are left to wonder: How can any of the Yellowjackets stay alive until their rescue?

What we know so far about the Yellowjackets timeline

The team's plane seems to crash in the spring, and they make it through the summer fairly easily by hunting animals. But once it starts snowing, the Yellowjackets-now a team of a different sort that includes their assistant coach Ben and their head coach's two sons, Travis and Javi-run out of food. After queen bee Jackie discovers that her best friend Shauna slept with (and got pregnant by) her boyfriend, but fails to make the group turn against her, Jackie retreats alone into the cold, where she freezes to death in an early-winter snowfall. Jackie becomes the first team member consumed around late November, after the team has been hungry (and storing her body) for about two months.

Sheer desperation is what first pushes the group to cross the line into eating one of their own, which aligns with what we know about the long history of human cannibalism. "We've seen cut marks and tooth marks on bones going back about a million years," says James Cole, a principal lecturer in archaeology at the University of Brighton in England. Eating animals has always been preferable to eating people, in part because humans have less meat on their frames compared to creatures like cows or mammoths. But when animals were scarce, due to disease, weather, or competition, people did resort to it, Cole says.

Jackie's ostracism from the group before her death may have made the act of eating her easier to sit with emotionally, says Cole (who does not watch the show). "Because she's no longer seen as an integral member of the group, their empathy is degraded," he says.

Probably a month later (judging by the length of Shauna's pregnancy), the team is again desperately hungry. Because we know the team ultimately spends 19 months in the wilderness, that leaves 10 more months between the meal they made of Javi in the season finale and their far-off rescue.

The terrifying science behind real-life cannibalism

So how much sustenance could a human body provide? Cole's 2017 paper published in Nature Scientific Reports, which explores cannibalism in Paleolithic times and how many calories the practice would likely render, offers some clues. Cole analyzed the total chemical breakdown of the human body and estimated that a Paleolithic man's skeletal muscle would contain 32,375 calories. Adding in the organs, skin, marrow, and other body parts that would likely be consumed in a survival situation would increase the count to about 125,822 calories.

The standard Paleolithic man from Cole's research weighed just 110 pounds, while the average weight of a 17-year-old girl during the Yellowjackets universe-set in the '90s-was 137 pounds, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of course, starvation can cause significant weight loss, the amount of which can vary greatly from person to person based on complex metabolic factors. Some data on formerly healthy hunger strikers suggest that severe medical issues begin when about 18% of body weight has been lost; though some Yellowjackets have surely crossed this line, using this as an approximation takes them down to 112 pounds each. Therefore, the average Yellowjacket (most of whom are high-school seniors) would yield about 128,109 edible calories. Because Travis and Coach Ben, two other survivors, are both male, they'd yield more calories: about 149,843 and 161,796 respectively, using the CDC's average weights for a 17-year-old boy and a man in his late 20's at that time and the same starvation-driven weight loss estimate.

Read More: How the Wild Yellowjackets Season 2 Finale Sets Up a Savage Path Forward

The worst-case scenario is that only Travis and the six girls we see as adults-Shauna, Natalie, Taissa, Van, Lottie, and Misty-survive, which would give them roughly four other Yellowjackets and Coach Ben to eat over 10 months, for a total calorie count of 674,235.

The Yellowjackets' wilderness diet

Sydney Daley, a team performance dietitian at the University of Michigan (who hasn't seen Yellowjackets), says that even athletes with high metabolic rates "can survive on very little food for quite some time." Water, which the Yellowjackets do have, is much more necessary. While the team would probably consume about 2,000 calories each per day back in New Jersey, a number closer to 800 or so could keep them going in a survival situation, she says. "But without the right amount of certain nutrients, you might run into really severe health issues," says Daley. Plus, after so many months, they've all lost weight and are running on empty.

We haven't seen the Yellowjackets eat much foraged vegetation apart from some weak-sounding soup. But the fact that they're all still alive after nine months in the wilderness, let alone healthy enough to run and try to hunt one another, likely means that they're nibbling trace amounts of something that isn't meat. "Strictly eating meat, whether it's human meat or animal meat, can just cause a lot of distress," says Daley, primarily "really horrible gut issues." Assuming our survivors are getting about 100 calories a day of things like berries, ferns, and belt soup, that puts their long-term survival needs after those snacks at 700 per day.

So, assuming the number of people splitting each caloric load decreases by one each hunt (and that they're only ever killing one teammate at a time), that means the seven surviving Yellowjackets would be able to last about 109 days on a diet of their teammates and meager foraged meals. But that's just a little over three months, when they have 10 more months to go in the wilderness. In fact, according to our calculations, only two Yellowjackets could survive until rescue with this diet alone-and that's even if they minimize sharing by saving Ben and Travis for last.

How will the show sustain the Yellowjackets through those remaining months? The stranded teammates could go back to hunting normal game when the snow melts and the animals return for the summer. Or maybe the wilderness has more surprises in store.

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The Frightening Science Behind the Cannibalism on Yellowjackets

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How could the stranded soccer teammates survive on cannibalism alone?

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Actually really interesting video essay 

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Actually really interesting video essay 

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“Cannibalism movies and shows are having such a huge spike right now and are so successful because it is a direct reaction to the pandemic”

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the REAL reason cannibalism movies are popular right now...

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Meat as an allegory for women and online dating

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After quitting dating apps, a woman meets the supposedly perfect man and accepts his invitation to a romantic weekend getaway, only to find that her new paramour has been hiding some unusual... Read all After quitting dating apps, a woman meets the supposedly perfect man and accepts his invitation to a romantic weekend getaway, only to find that her new paramour has been hiding some unusual appetites. After quitting dating apps, a woman meets the supposedly perfect man and accepts his invitation to a romantic weekend getaway, only to find that her new paramour has been hiding some unusual appetites.

Review

FRESH is an unforgettably shocking start to another Sundance Film Festival, holding all of the characteristics to end up as one of the absolute favorites.

If you enjoy reading my Spoiler-Free thoughts, please follow my blog to read my full review :)

"FRESH is an unforgettably shocking start to another Sundance Film Festival, holding all of the characteristics to end up as one of the absolute favorites.

Mimi Cave delivers an extraordinarily captivating, assertive directorial debut, taking Lauryn Kahn's original, gruesome screenplay to the next level. Sebastian Stan demonstrates his ludicrous range, while Daisy Edgar-Jones gives a breakthrough performance that may warrant a couple of awards by the end of the festival.

With an extremely engaging yet too quick first act, the viewers are immediately grabbed by the endearing love story that slowly builds up to a brutally impactful revelation, leading the movie into a rabbit hole of (in)tense, suspenseful, surprising developments.

The last twenty minutes are the definition of insanity."

Rating: A-

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What was the official certification given to Fresh (2022) in Japan?

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Fresh: Directed by Mimi Cave. With Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sebastian Stan, Jojo T. Gibbs, Andrea Bang. After quitting dating apps, a woman meets the supposedly perfect man and accepts his invitation to a romantic weekend getaway, only to find that her new paramour has been hiding some unusual appetites.

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Consumerism and self loathing

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Explores in depth the year 2022 specifically- Covid ended 2020 (ish)

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A bizarre trend: Was 2022 the year of the cannibal? | CNN

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Whatever you craved from the content gods in 2022, one thing that probably wasn't on your preferred menu: Multiple stories that focused on, explored, and even celebrated cannibalism. Yes, movies and TV shows about people eating people.

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There is literally nothing more taboo than cannibalism:

because of the pandemic we want to experience something that will never happen to us

Searching for pure taboo as a form of escapism form the modern world

This is why we see less zombie movies post pandemic

We want to see something more anxious than us:

people in these situations are stuggling miles more than we are mentally which brings us comfort

Delusional

Cannibalism as an allegory:

its a great way to create symbolism for the upper classes

‘Eat the rich’ is often times the other way around

Meat as an allegory for woman

Blood symbolism for life and death

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Audiences not only enjoy cannibalism for its effective shock value but also for the fact that it is extremely thematically versatile. From a critique on commercialism in the original Dawn of the Dead to a sense of "all-consuming" power and control in Hannibal, cannibalism can represent a wide variety of themes.

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With popular shows like Yellowjackets and Monster: The Jeffery Dahmer Story, as well as movies like and Bones and All, it seems like audiences are currently obsessed with cannibalism. One of the great taboos, cannibalism has a long history in storytelling, with origins dating all the way back to Ancient Greece. Even William Shakespeare deals with cannibalism in Titus Andronicus when the titular Roman general bakes Tamora's sons into a pie and has her eat them. Cannibalism, as a theme, also shares a long history with film and television, with depictions in the film Doctor X that predate the Hays Code by several years.

However, with the current proliferation of cannibal media, it seems like modern audiences are especially enraptured by this particular taboo. Audiences not only enjoy cannibalism for its effective shock value but also for the fact that it is extremely thematically versatile. From a critique on commercialism in the original Dawn of the Dead to a sense of " all-consuming" power and control in cannibalism can represent a wide variety of themes.

Related: Why Cannibal Holocaust Was So Controversial

What Are Cannibal Movies And TV Shows Really About?

What cannibalism represents depends on the movie or TV show it's depicted in. As previously mentioned, George A. Romero used the metaphor of cannibalistic zombies within a shopping mall setting to create a satire on consumerism with Dawn of the Dead. In the later example of Yellowjackets, cannibalism serves as a metaphor for how the cannibalistic characters have rejected societal norms and the concept of taboo. The characters, by eating "pit girl," sacrifice their humanity for their own survival. Cannibalism in Yellowjackets is a commentary on how one's humanity is easily stripped in the face of survival.

By contrast, in Fresh, Steve's rich clientshave become so powerful and wealthy that the only way they can experience novelty, in a world where they can literally do anything, is by breaking taboo - much like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. In this particular case, they choose cannibalism. Fresh also explores cannibalism as an allegory for the objectification and consumption of women by men and of lower classes by the higher. Noa is literally objectified and commodified by Steve when he cuts off her body parts and sells them to the highest bidder.

Why There Are So Many Cannibal Movies And TV Shows

Audiences have always been fascinated with breaking societal taboos in movies: The Exorcist became the highest-grossing R-rated film ever when it was released in 1973, despite containing incredibly controversial scenes, such as the possessed Reagan masturbating with a crucifix. Recently, Game of Thrones broke ground with depictions of violence and sex, especially incest. Its prequel House of the Dragon has only further explored the taboo of incest with its focus on the Targaryen family tree. Like incest, cannibalism is another taboo that audiences are interested in seeing broken in media.

When greenlighting a project, executives will look to capitalize on a proven-popular premise or property. This means that they will look for something that looks similar, covers similar themes, or crosses similar boundaries. An example of this would be the increased popularity of science fiction media across film and television after the success of Star Wars in 1977. The current proliferation of cannibalism is simply part of the natural progression of how media companies capitalize on the popularity of breaking taboo.

Next: You're Not Ready For Timothée Chalamet's New Movie (It's Wild)

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Wait, Why Is Everyone Suddenly Obsessed With Cannibals?!

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With shows like Yellowjackets and movies like Fresh and Bones and All, modern audiences seem to be currently obsessed with cannibalism - here's why.

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2022 comes up again as a relevant year to explore the taboo

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A Taste for Cannibalism? (Published 2022)

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A spate of recent stomach-churning books, TV shows and films suggests we’ve never looked so delicious — to one another.

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If it feels like people eating people has been a bit everywhere lately, you're not wrong.

There's the cannibal romance Bones and All, starring Timothée Chalamet, that's now in theaters. Another current film, the darkly comic thriller The Menu, flirts with the subject matter by pairing food and death. Netflix recently had record viewership for September's Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. In January, we had the acclaimed cannibal horror film Fresh. Plus in recent years there was Showtime's Yellowjackets and the indie breakout Raw, among others.

So as you feast with family and friends this holiday weekend, we reached out to Long Island University emeritus professor of biology Bill Schutt, author of the acclaimed book Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History and Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures. Together we devoured the topic of cannibalism and entertainment, and what makes the biggest Western taboo so tantalizing.

I would assume we are biologically driven to be repulsed by the idea of cannibalism. But is that accurate?

I would say not. I think culture is king. That was a surprise when I started to write a book about cannibalism - that it was so widespread throughout nature. I'm talking about hundreds and thousands of species, from invertebrates to apes, that consume their young for reasons that we knew nothing about until recently. The party line was always that the only reason that you see cannibalism in the animal kingdom is if there were starvation conditions or you jammed creatures into captive conditions that were stressful - except for a few creatures like black widow spiders and praying mantis.

Scientists started to figure out that was not the case. There are all kinds of reasons cannibalism occurs - like parental care or unpredictable environmental conditions or sexual selection. For example, if you're a codfish and lay 5 million eggs, it's not like it's Tony and Tina over there. You're looking at the equivalent of raisins. They're nutritious. There's no danger from consuming them. Probably more fish are cannibals than not.

But humans aren't codfish. One would think that even if there are some human cultures that do this, that there would be some innateness about finding it wrong - like how we innately find incest wrong, even if it still happens.

With incest, you're limiting the gene pool, which is the problem. With cannibalism, there are diseases that relate to consuming humans - there was a disease in New Guinea, but I don't think it was ever spread worldwide.

Culturally, once you get into humans, we are the ones who decide whether it's OK to consume grandma after she dies because it's paying homage to her in some way - or if that's disgusting and you think she needs to be buried.

In Western culture - from the time of the Greeks and then passed on to the Romans and everyone else - there was this idea that cannibalism was the worst thing you could do. It ties into the idea of the Other. If you're a good Ancient Greek, you're not eating bodies. But those other guys do, so they're not even human. A lot of people jumped on that bandwagon in the West. It became arguably the number one Western taboo. If other cultures were practicing cannibalism when the Westerners showed up, they insisted this behavior was not going to cut it.

So in a world that became dominated by Western culture, any vestiges of cannibalism as a ritual went out the window. The guys handing out the T-shirts were not gonna stand for it. But there were cultures that did not have that Western influence where cannibalism took place for up until relatively recently for things like funerary rights. There were South American groups that were freaked out to hear from Western anthropologists that we buried our dead. So I don't think there's something evolutionary, or there's a gene, that prevents us from cannibalism. I think it's cultural.

Interesting. You noted it's the No. 1 Western taboo. Putting taboos in cinema is as old as cinema itself. But I cannot recall there ever being so many projects referencing this subject matter in such a short period of time.

Yeah. I've got a hypothesis about that. Let's say cannibalism is the No. 1 taboo. Now you add food to that and you have a fascination. There's this sort of gory aspect to it that's attractive to people when looking at it through a filter of fiction, or these stories about crazy murderers, and you have an attraction. Twenty years ago, it was Hannibal Lecter; now it's Timothée Chalamet.

Why, if were you to guess, do you think there's been a surge of projects about this lately? Why here and now?

We are really numb to violence on screen, especially when you can put a filter of fictionalization on it. Now you can have the blood and guts and gore that people get off on, but also have this idea of food. There may be another reason, but to me that's the explanation for why this is so popular.

I suspect - and this sort of cross pollinates a bit with what you said - that it's also an issue of content maximization. There are regularly more than 400 scripted shows per year, plus plenty of movies. We're running out out of taboos to be taboo.

I think it started with Bonnie and Clyde, the movie in 1968, when you could splatter blood all over the place. We have become desensitized to extreme gore and violence. Also, there's a built-in attraction when you hear the word. You have a knee-jerk reaction when I say the word "cannibalism." So whether you're writing a news article or writing fiction, you've got a built-in hook.

True in the case of this story, as well. This feels awkward to ask, but I'm thinking about the romantic thriller Bones and All, and, to a lesser extent, projects like Fresh: Is there something sexy about cannibalism?

Good question. I'd say cannibalism is titillating in much the way vampirism has been - though the former is even more extreme. And once again, these topics only produce that effect if they can be viewed through a filter of fictionalization. Food - which is often viewed as sexy - plus taboo equals fascination.

There was also the Armie Hammer scandal. The idea of cannibalism as a real-life fetish is disturbing. How common is that?

I'm not a criminal psychologist, so I'm not a person who feels comfortable talking about this spectrum of criminality. There were many disorders that can lead to that type of behavior. I believe it might seem prevalent because it jumps off the page. If you hear somebody got stabbed death, then it doesn't make the newspapers. But if you hear somebody killed and consumed somebody, then everyone's hearing about it on the news.

Have you been surprised by the number of projects about this, the amount of interest?

I'm not. There was a fascination with the Donner Party and stories of survival cannibalism in the 1970s and with the book Alive - which was made into a very badly made movie.

Instead of Alive, are there movies or shows that tackle this subject matter that you thought were particularly, uh, well done?

There's a lot of good work that continues to be done on the Donner Party, which is arguably the most famous example of cannibalism in United States history. The Silence of the Lambs was a great thriller for many reasons. I don't think it's been topped [as a project with] aspects of cannibalism.

Was there anything I didn't ask about cannibalism and pop culture that you think our readers would be interested to know?

People often ask me what were the two most stunning things I came away with from writing the book. The first was how widespread cannibalism was in nature. But the second was that given the Western taboo regarding cannibalism, how widespread it was for hundreds of years in Europe. There was medicinal cannibalism, where just about every part of the human body was used to "cure" every type of illness or psychological malady. Body parts were prepared and powdered or drunk. And this lasted right up to the early 20th century. It was even in the Merck Index, the big pharmacological encyclopedia. Then it just disappeared from the history books. They just erased it.

The last vestiges of that now are people who consume their placentas after giving birth. That's the remnants of medicinal cannibalism. It's fallen into alternative medicine under the idea that if you consume your placenta, you are replacing the hormones that might have been lost after birth. That's not something that's widespread worldwide nowadays. It's mostly Americans that started in the 1970s.

And with that, I hope readers enjoy their cranberry sauce today.

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Why Cannibalism Is Suddenly Trendy on Screen

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A cannibalism expert explains why Hollywood is all about people eating people lately.

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Contains relevant interviews with directors of current films circulating the media

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In an undeniably great year for horror, the most unsettling scene from one of the more popular series featured a man offering his neighbor a sandwich. Granted, that man was cannibalistic serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, his neighbor the woman who got him evicted, and the sandwich possibly contained human flesh, but the menace and uncertainty of the exchange - and the show at large - captured the horrified attention of millions of viewers. Ryan Murphy's Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, starring Evan Peters, is one of Netflix 's most-watched (and most controversial) shows of all time, and just one of many cannibal narratives that kept viewers in its thrall this year.

From Dahmer - both the fictionalized series and an accompanying docuseries - to the insanely buzzy Showtime drama Yellowjackets to the horror-comedy of and achingly tragic Bones and All, flesh-eaters entered the ethos big-time in 2022 (and not just in a swaggering, Chianti-slurping Hannibal Lecter kind of way). This year, the horror trope undoubtedly mirrored the very unique concerns we're facing today: economic uncertainty, environmental anxiety and a distrust of the seemingly normal guy next door along with his cold cuts.

Zombie films have long served as an allegory for societal upheaval - starting with the legendary George A. Romero and his Night of the Living Dead series. Mass consumerism (1978's Dawn of the Dead), the military-industrial complex (1985's Day of the Dead) and the Iraq War (2005's Land of the Dead) - Romero skewered it all. Although that trope is still shambling along, the glut of cannibal movies in recent years signals to psychiatrist and horror aficionado Steven Schlozman that there's a whole new bogeyman in town through which to view our foibles.

"Any human eating another human is by definition the great taboo," Scholzman, who has both written zombie novels and collaborated with Romero, tells Rolling Stone. "The difference is, you can't get mad at a zombie - it's like getting mad at a crocodile. Cannibals ... they're sentient. They're eating with gusto - or because they need to." (Translation: society is afraid of itself these days; slow-walking monsters unthinkingly ransacking a shopping mall not so much.)

It's telling, then, that the year started off with roughly five million people a week tuning in to Showtime to see whether a girls' soccer team marooned in the Canadian wilderness will devour each other. Yellowjackets kicked off tantalizingly with scenes of a tribe of girls in antlers descending on their would-be victim, and although we'll have to wait until Season Two to see who (or if anyone) was eaten, that sense of dread propelled us through 10 increasingly tense episodes and left us wanting more.

"The show is not about if cannibalism, it's about why cannibalism, and how cannibalism," showrunner Jonathan Lisco has said. "[The girls] may have to resort to cannibalism. But it may not be just because of scarcity. It may be because of something much more complex: the new micro-society that they need to build, and the rules that they need to form to survive. Not just physically, but psychologically and mentally."

Scholzman compares that micro-society to social divisions that range from heightening political discord to the kind of vicious glee some denizens of social media seem to take in pillorying people for doing something as mundane as, say, bringing their neighbors chili or enjoying their garden with their husbands. "If anybody's going survive in their wilderness, it's going to be a team that's figuring out how to win," he says. "And yet they don't use the best parts of themselves. They use the worst parts of themselves. That to me seems like an important message. Like, we're pretty good as a species when we work together, but we seem not to be doing that so well lately."

The Luca Guadagnino-directed film Bones and All also deals with othering members of society - only this time, the outcasts are the eaters, not the eaten. That film follows two teen cannibals, played by Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell, as they travel across the country while dealing with the reality of what they need to do to survive. The announcement of the film came in tandem, quite unfortunately, with multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against Armie Hammer, including an alleged cannibalism fetish, but Guadagnino - who directed both Hammer and Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name - has denied any connection. "The relationship between this kind of digital muckraking and our wish to make this movie is non-existent, and it should be met with a shrug," he told Deadline in August.

In fact, the premise for the movie is around seven years old at this point; it was based on a YA novel of the same name by Camille DeAngelis. And the author tells Rolling Stone that she set out to tackle consumerism and self-loathing when she first conceptualized the story of Maren (Russell) and Lee (Chalamet). Going vegan, she says, gave her "a new perspective on why these monster narratives are so compelling. With zombies, everyone just thinks it's about overconsumption in general, mindless consumption. I'm thinking, more specifically, about who we consume."

Along with being a parable about environmentalism - which we see echoes of in the film as Maren and Lee share their first kiss at a slaughterhouse - Bones and All is more about life as an outsider, DeAngelis says. The author grew up feeling like she existed on the periphery, loathing herself for not fitting in and, then, for not trying harder to fit in. Her main character and proxy, Maren, wants love, a family, and a home, DeAngelis says, but she can't escape who she is - she has to feed. "This horrible compulsion traps her in an endless cycle of devouring and remorse," DeAngelis wrote in a previous blog post.

Chalamet echoed that same sentiment in an interview about the film. "To be young now, and to be young whenever - I can only speak for my generation - is to be intensely judged," he said. "I think it's tough to be alive now. I think societal collapse is in the air - it smells like it - and, without being pretentious, that's why hopefully movies matter, because that's the role of the artist... to shine a light on what's going on."

Schlozman - who also suggested the film echoes the current desolation of the opiate crisis - agrees. "It becomes this great metaphor for being othered - necessarily othered. You can't be part of this world," he says. The most horrifying character in the movie becomes, then, not Maren and Lee, but a cop-turned-drifter they meet along the way who chooses to be what they call an "Eater" - an obvious nod to the ongoing epidemic of police corruption. He's not eschewing the world and all its rules because he has to, but because he's curious. Because he can.

Curiosity - and excess - also factor deeply in Hulu's Fresh, which stars Sebastian Stan as a charming cannibalistic playboy and Daisy Edgar-Jones as his would-be prey. In order to feed the overly rich and easily bored men of the world, Stan poses as an eligible bachelor to flirt with and ensnare women, whom he packages bit by bit in nightmarish HelloFresh boxes. Director Mimi Cave says she was attracted to the script as part of the #MeToo conversation. "I've never had any fascination with cannibalism more than the average 'ew' and 'gross' curiosity, but there was something about the symbolism it held within the context of the story for me," she tells Rolling Stone. "Relating specifically to women's bodies, I immediately saw so many layers of visual metaphor in my mind."

" Fresh is an allegory for many things," Edgar-Jones previously told RS. "You could say it's an allegory for the commodification of females in society. And also it sort of explores the aspects of dating in the contemporary world - we almost shop for each other, you know, like you would for a jumper. There's also the balance of being open to meeting new people, but also knowing that there's a risk involved."

Schlozman notes that the film highlights a kind of repulsive consumerism - the kind that, perhaps, leads people with too much money to buy a social media platform for billions of dollars just to destroy it. "These people have so much money that when they get something they want everything," he says. "It might not even be great to eat someone, but it doesn't matter. They have a few billion. They'll find out. Which is creepy!" he pauses, laughing. "But the very, very, very rich are pretty creepy."

And then, of course, there's Jeffrey Dahmer - a sobering reminder that cannibals aren't usually lovesick teens who can't help themselves or handsome men with great jawlines shaking their hips as they make mincemeat of their latest conquest. They're monsters. And like many horrors, they're hard to look away from.

When Murphy's fictionalized Dahmer series premiered on Netflix almost in tandem with Joe Berlinger's docuseries Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, Berlinger recalled seeing the two side by side as the top trending series on the streaming service. The interest in the cannibal killer was there, and it was strong, but it was also fraught - especially after victims' family members began coming forward and asking why Murphy hasn't contacted them before turning their loved ones into characters (Murphy contested those claims). Dahmer killed several marginalized men before his capture in 1991 and dishonored their remains to the most extreme degree, and people weren't sure if they should be watching, rapt, as Evan Peters embodied him. But, obviously, they watched, even if they didn't talk about it. Peters picked up a Best Actor nomination at the upcoming Golden Globes and the show itself was nominated for Best Miniseries.

"What are the rules now? Should we never do a movie about a tyrant?" Murphy argued in a recent interview in response to heavy criticism, pointing out in a cast roundtable that the show isn't meant to be a lingering, voyeuristic look at one man's horrible acts, but an interrogation of an increasingly dark world. "I think it came out at a time where people are looking to put their anxieties into something to express anxiety, or maybe to watch something that's more anxious than the world they're experiencing," he said. "I also think that since COVID people are very interested in examining pieces that talk about mental health and all of your characters, every one of you, have those scenes. Where you're either at rock bottom and you ask for help or you say, 'I'm not doing very well.' Even Dahmer." (Murphy was not available for an interview for this story.)

Berlinger - who has not yet seen Murphy's series - also spoke about mental health while discussing his series with Rolling Stone. "Dahmer's cannibalism and entire MO to me is an issue of mental health - he was obviously very ill and his whole reason for killing and consuming was to be close to his victims - he didn't want them to leave, ever," he says. "If only someone had intervened... I am saying that a documentary about him might make a viewer realize that either they themselves need help or a viewer might recognize the need for help with someone they know."

Berlinger is no stranger to having to defend his work, which sometimes focuses on monsters; his Conversations series previously covered Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy. However, Berlinger says he was inspired to make the first when his daughter told him she didn't know who Bundy was, which worried him. Shouldn't young people be aware of monsters like Bundy - that even the most normal-seeming people can be dangerous?

"I think people are super sensitive about humanizing somebody who's done something so evil," he says. "To me, that's a slippery slope. I'm not saying this holds true for every show about a serial killer, but to me, the key to understanding this perversion and the reason to tell these stories is precisely because these are three-dimensional human beings that sometimes act like human beings. The people who do evil in this world, as someone who has covered crime, usually are not people who act like monsters 24/7."

Schlozman posits that the Dahmer story took off this year due to this distrust, fueled at times by the rampant popularity of true crime content. "There is a paranoia right now in the United States that we don't really know people the way we think we know people," he says. "And our fascination with Dahmer speaks to that."

And that brings us back to the sandwich: The dread we feel as we watch Peters' Dahmer offer a sandwich to his neighbor, played by Niecy Nash (in another Golden Globe-nominated role), as a supposed peace offering. It's may be just a normal sandwich, but given that Nash's character knows what Dahmer is up to next door, it's violence masquerading as normalcy. Just like Dahmer himself.

And what does that say about us? That we can't trust food from a neighbor, that we can't guarantee that our dates won't eat us or our own friends and teammates won't feast on our flesh? "If we put on a paranoid cloak, it occurs to you that anyone could do anything to you. We're trusting people to be good," Schlozman says. "The bottom line is, most of the time people are good. And then the big question is: Why are they good?"

Maybe that's a topic for 2023.

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2022 Was the Year of the Cannibal. What Does That Say About Us?

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From 'Dahmer' and 'Yellowjackets' to 'Fresh' and 'Bones and All,' flesh-eaters entered the culture big-time this year

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2) How far can an audience be pushed thematically before they switch off? 

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2) How far can an audience be pushed thematically before they switch off? 

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3) How has the pandemic fuelled escapism?

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3) How has the pandemic fuelled escapism?

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Exploring how blood unites and divides may be related to the idea of cannibalisms carnal nature bringing together people after Covid, as well as bringing blood back to its simplified forms

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"A fascinating exhibition"
Londonist

"The exhibition encourages us to think, hard, about the rich ambiguities that surround the notion of blood"
The Independent

"Remarkable...It's not often that an exhibition at a smallish museum makes such a big point."
The Times

This cutting edge exhibition examines the provocative and complex subject of blood. Blood draws together art, film and literature to present a rich exploration of how blood can unite and divide.

Looking at the theme through the lens of Jewish religion, culture and history, the exhibition reflects on how blood is an essential part of life as well as integral to rituals about food, sex, and circumcision.

The exhibition has been designed by Tom Piper and Alan Farlie.

Tom Piper is an award-winning designer who recently won the Sky Arts Award for Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, the poppies installation at the Tower of London in 2014. He is working with the architect Alan Farlie (Director and co-founder of RFK Architects).
#BloodExhibition
The exhibition has been developed in collaboration with the Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck, University of London.

This exhibition is generously supported by:
Kirsh Family Foundation
David Berg Foundation

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Blood: Uniting and Dividing - The Jewish Museum London

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"A fascinating exhibition" Londonist "The exhibition encourages us to think, hard, about the rich ambiguities that surround the notion of blood" The Independent "Remarkable...It's not often that an exhibition at a smallish museum makes such a big point." The Times This cutting edge exhibition examines the provocative and complex subject of blood.

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Self is a self-portrait of the artist, but one that literally uses his body as material since the cast of Quinn's head, immersed in frozen silicone, is created from ten pints of his own blood. In this way, the materiality of the sculpture has both a symbolic and real function. The work was made at a time when Quinn was an alcoholic and a notion of dependency – of things needing to be plugged in or connected to something to survive – is apparent since the work needs electricity to retain its frozen appearance. A further iteration made every five years, this series of sculptures presents a cumulative index of passing time and an ongoing self-portrait of the artist's ageing and changing self.

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Blood as dependancy, reflecting a vast history within the self and history

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Blood as dependancy, reflecting a vast history within the self and history

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4) How can cannibalism be used as an allegory?

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4) How can cannibalism be used as an allegory?

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5) exploration into modern day delusion 

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5) exploration into modern day delusion 

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“Any human eating another human is by definition the great taboo, The difference is, you can’t get mad at a zombie — it’s like getting mad at a crocodile. Cannibals… they’re sentient. They’re eating with gusto — or because they need to.” (Translation: society is afraid of itself these days; slow-walking monsters unthinkingly ransacking a shopping mall not so much.)

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6) What is so enticing about sentient villains?

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6) What is so enticing about sentient villains?

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“I’ve never had any fascination with cannibalism more than the average ‘ew’ and ‘gross’ curiosity, but there was something about the symbolism it held within the context of the story for me, Relating specifically to women’s bodies, I immediately saw so many layers of visual metaphor in my mind.”

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born 1997 in Hong Kong. Minh Lan Tran’s practice encompasses painting, writing, and performance, exploring the interplay and resistance between language, movement, and matter. Beginning with calligraphy, writing forms an important foundation of her artistic process. Embracing the principles of choreography, Tran carefully distributes different intensities, resulting in compositions that embody the fluidity of physicality. Rooted in diverse traditions and histories, her art addresses themes of social unrest and channels spiritual-political expressions of protest, including self-immolations. Through the convergence of these elements, the artist prioritizes embodiment over representation. Her works have been exhibited at venues including Harlesden High Street, London; the Museum of the Home, London; the Royal College of Art, London; the House of Annetta, London and the San Mei Gallery, London. She studied Art History at the Ecole du Louvre, Paris and the University of Oxford. She holds an MA in Byzantine studies and visual theology from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London (2020) and an MA in Painting from The Royal College of Art, London (2023).

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7) How can we show carnal hunger in artwork?

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7) How can we show carnal hunger in artwork?

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ARTWORK: ‘Autumnal Cannibalism’ - Salvador Dali (1936)

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ARTWORK: ‘Autumnal Cannibalism’ - Salvador Dali (1936)

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Salvador Dalí 1904-1989

Autumnal Cannibalism
1936
Oil paint on canvas
650 x 650mm
Purchased from the Edward James Foundation (Grant-in-Aid) in 1975
T01978

Ownership history:
Purchased from the artist by Edward James, Chichester in 1936; Edward James Foundation, on loan to the Tate Gallery from 1958 until acquired in 1975.

Autumnal Cannibalism depicts two interconnected figures within a scenic landscape, delicately devouring one another with disconcerting civility. The setting for the scene is the plain of Empordà, the region of Catalonia where the artist was born. Although the characters lack any distinguishable facial features, they are nonetheless sexualised: the male (on the right) dips his spoon into his partner's right breast, while the woman (on the left) gracefully reaches around her companion to cut the flesh that is actually her own elongated left breast thrown over the male's shoulder. Dalí positions the two beings on top of a chest of drawers littered with cutlery and foodstuffs. A cut of (presumably raw) meat rests on the masculine figure's head, providing a precarious pedestal for a conspicuous golden apple - a sure reference to the legend of the Swiss patriot William Tell, whose story of having to shoot an arrow at an apple on his own son's head moved Dalí to read it in Freudian terms as a son being 'castrated' by a dominant father-figure. Dalí executed a handful of paintings prior to 1936 that also referenced autumn in their titles, including Materialisation of Autumn (... at Seven it's Already Dark) [ Materialització de la tardor (... a les set ja és fosc)] c.1934 (whereabouts unknown) and Autumn Puzzle 1935 (The Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida). Perhaps he was attracted to autumn's poetic suggestion of melancholy, though as Jennifer Mundy has written, 'autumnal' may simply denote the season in which the pictures were painted: Autumnal Cannibalism, for instance,was not listed among the works shown in Dalí's solo exhibition at Alex Reid & Lefevre Gallery, London during the summer of 1936, but was exhibited for the first time at the Julien Levy Gallery, New York that December, suggesting it may indeed have been painted during the autumn. 1

It has been widely speculated that Autumnal Cannibalism reflects Dalí's views on the Spanish Civil War, which had erupted in July 1936, the year the painting was executed. Whereas his other great war work, Soft Construction with Boiled Beans - Premonition of Civil War 1936 (Philadelphia Museum of Art), presents a figure horrifically tearing itself apart as a powerful metaphor for civil war, Autumnal Cannibalism is far more delicate, offering an almost amorous situation of consensual consumption. Its relative tranquillity suggests that Dalí's position on the Spanish Civil War was not one of condemnation, or even partiality. Unlike Picasso or even his fellow Catalan Joan Miró, Dalí adopted a very passive attitude towards the conflict, following its events from the safety of London. Here, he claimed publically to be more or less indifferent to its outcome: the Nationalists assassinated his dear friend Federico Garcia Lorca, he admitted, but the Republicans had murdered nearly every bourgeois citizen in his hometown of Cadaqués (and would later imprison his sister, Ana María). Both factions were committing atrocities, and so Dalí refused to take sides - neutrality that disgusted the other Surrealists, who had been following the plight of the Frente Popular since 1931 and zealously supported the Republican Left.

Given Dalí's self-imposed distance from the Civil War, it is perhaps unsurprising that Autumnal Cannibalism appears cold towards the conflict; Dalí later illuminated this perspective in conversation with Robert Descharnes during their collaboration on the book Dalí de Gala, saying of Autumnal Cannibalism, 'Ces êtres ibériques, s'entre-dévorant en automne, expriment le pathos de la guerre civile considéree comme un phénomène d'histoire naturelle' (These Iberian creatures, devouring each other in autumn, symbolise the pathos of civil war seen as a phenomenon of natural history). 2 In fact, this is a slightly abbreviated version of a lengthier statement, later published in Descharnes' Dalí, l'oeuvre et l'homme, in which the artist added provocatively that his view of the Spanish Civil War as a 'phenomenon of natural history' was opposed to Picasso, 'who considered it a political phenomenon'. 3

Even taking into account Dalí's view of warfare as 'natural history', there is remarkably little in Autumnal Cannibalism that firmly connects it to a war narrative beyond, perchance, the inclusion of boiled beans, which also figure prominently in Soft Construction with Boiled Beans - Premonition of Civil War. Indeed, the non sequitur golden apple suggests less warfare than Dalí's own personal mythology: he frequently identified himself with William Tell's son and with other episodes of a son being 'conquered' by his father (e.g. Saturn devouring his children, God the Father sacrificing Jesus Christ, Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac). 4 It is for this reason that more attention should perhaps be given to an alternative interpretation for the painting that Dalí advanced in Max Gérard's book, Dalí de Draeger, published in1968. Here, Dalí omitted any reference to politics, insinuating instead that the figures' anthropophagy was more romantic than hostile: 'Devant ce paysage, des personages s'entredévorent, s'avaident pour s'identifier totalement et de la façon la plus absolue à l'être aimé' (In the foreground of this landscape, the figures devour one another, swallow each other in order to become totally and completely identified with the loved one). 5 Provocatively, Max Gérard infers from this that the masculine and feminine figures in Autumnal Cannibalism represent Dalí himself and his wife Gala, and their ravenous courtship as reported in The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí (1942):

And this first kiss, mixed with tears and saliva, punctuated by the audible contact of our teeth and furiously working tongues, touched only the fringe of the libidinous famine that made us bite and eat everything to the last! Meanwhile I was eating that mouth, whose blood already mingled with mine.6

Gérard adds significantly that according to The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, Dalí and Gala first consummated their love in the autumn of 1929. According to this interpretation, therefore, Autumnal Cannibalism can be read as an anthropophagous portrait of the artist and his wife/muse. Pierre Roumeguère's 1974 essay, 'Cannibalisme et esthetique', published as the preface to Gérard's subsequent book Dalí ... Dalí ... Dalí ... would later support this interpretation. A trained psychoanalyst, Roumeguère theorised that cannibalism was the by-product of Dalí's subconscious urge to ingest whatever - or whomever - he desired. 7 Noting that, in 1971, Dalí had expressed his enthusiasm for holography because he said it would allow him to accomplish one of his heart's 'plus chers désirs: manger l'être adoré Gala' (dearest desires: to eat the adored being Gala), 8 and that the tenth chapter of his 1973 book, Les Dîners de Gala, was titled 'Je mange Gala' (I eat Gala), 9 Roumeguère concluded that the artist's 'cannibalistic tendency [...] both to eat and to be eaten' was strongest with his 'companion spouse', Gala. 10

As there do not appear to be any statements from Dalí contemporaneous with the execution of Autumnal Cannibalism, it is unclear which of these post-facto interpretations - reading the painting as a metaphor for mutually-consuming love or as a detached comment on the Spanish Civil War - was truest to his original idea. Indeed, both may be only reflections of his later preoccupations and his unending propensity to mythologise himself and his intentions.

Elliott H. King
December 2007

Supported by The AHRC Research Centre for the Study of Surrealism and its Legacies.

Notes:

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'Autumnal Cannibalism', Salvador Dalí, 1936 | Tate

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Artwork page for 'Autumnal Cannibalism', Salvador Dalí, 1936 on display at Tate Modern. Two faceless figures are devouring each other. As their heads and bodies merge, they dig knives and spoons into each other's flesh. The surrounding landscape is Empordà, in Catalonia, where Dalí was born.

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Art cannot always be beautiful and comfortable, he says. “This performance has a very clear metaphor – even too clear for neo-conceptual art, and if you wish to comprehend the idea, it is up to you. And if you avoid the comprehension, you will see everything literally.” And regarding cannibalism: “Maybe fingernail gnawing or snot devouring also can be considered as a crime?”

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Latvian Artist Is Accused of Promoting Cannibalism After Facebook Live Stream of Controversial Performance | Artnet News

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A Latvian artist called Arthur Berzinsh is being slammed online for a controversial “cannibal” performance piece.

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The artist-philosopher explains that consumerism is the religion of our times; in modern society we have yet to discover greater meaning in our lives, so we fill ourselves by endlessly “consuming, products, resources, and each other,” albeit mentally rather than physically.

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Artist John Boriso included relevant themes of harsh imagery and realism to add a sublime nature to his partings I’m particularly interested by.

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love love love

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The perfect read for Hallowe'en, this new hardback volume of Jackson's finest stories reveals the queen of American gothic at her unsettling, mesmerising best

There's something nasty in suburbia. In these deliciously dark tales, the daily commute turns into a nightmarish game of hide and seek, the loving wife hides homicidal thoughts and the concerned citizen might just be an infamous serial killer. In the haunting world of Shirley Jackson, nothing is as it seems and nowhere is safe, from the city streets to the country manor, and from the small-town apartment to the dark, dark woods...

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Buy Dark Tales by Jackson, Shirley (ISBN: 9780241295427) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

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May be an interesting read on London and modern grotesque art

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Tessa Ditner, London and the Grotesque, World Literature Today, Vol. 86, No. 3 (May/June 2012), pp. 24-27

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10) what is grotesquery in art now we are so desensitised?

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10) what is grotesquery in art now we are so desensitised?

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From interactive experiences and augmented reality to walking among the famous works of Van Gogh, Monet or Wes Anderson, our city has really stepped things up a notch when it comes to viewing art. Forget your bog-standard gallery visits and silent spaces, these are the best immersive art exhibitions in London to book now.

🖼️🎨🌌

Ongoing Availability, Marble Arch

When you want a whole gallery of immersive art,London is your best bet. Featuring the works of multiple famous artists - think Klimt, Monet, Rousseau and more - across many rooms, there are plenty of sights to behold here. Motion sensors change the artwork as you pass, while the variety of themed spaces range from Abstract to Surrealism and even landscapes mixed with cityscapes.

Illusionaries

Permanent, Canary Wharf

A revolutionary space for contemporary digital art, Illusionaries is a series of artist-led exhibitions with a changing roster of experiential offerings. Immerse yourself in light, sound and motion at their latest: Latent Spaces by Markos Kay. This ethereal work explores the role of artificial intelligence in humanity to blur the lines between reality and simulation.

Van Gogh Exhibit: The Immersive Experience

Ongoing Availability, Shoreditch

Chances are, you've heard of Van Gogh London Exhibit: The Immersive Experience tickets. Perhaps one of the most famous (and tragic) artists, the Dutchman can be appreciated through two-storey projections of his greatest works. But this isn't just a visual and VR masterpiece, as there's ethereal soundscapes to accompany your journey through the space too.

Claude Monet: The Immersive Experience

Ongoing Availability, Brick Lane

The Brick House in Shoreditch, a stunning former warehouse from the 1830s, plays host to something even more beautiful - Monet: The Immersive Experience. From 'Poppies' to 'Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies' and 'Haystacks (End of Summer)', many of Claude Monet's greatest pieces are brought to life in 360 digital art, VR, cascading interactive flowers and more - perfect for being plunged into every detail of his impressionist genius.

Delight: Media Art Exhibition

Ongoing Availability, Southwark

Delight is an absolute mecca of interactive art, promising you the the chance to journey through 25 immersive installations that help you uncover the city ofSeoul without stepping a foot outside of London. Artists, designers, engineers and storytellers have come together to create rooms of illuminated lanterns, mythical forests where the Gods dwell and much more in a merging of culture and technology.

Dopamine Land: Immersive Multisensory Experience

Ongoing Availability, South Kensington

Doing exactly what it says on the tin, Dopamine Land aims to leave you with that inexplicably warm, fuzzy feeling that only comes from joy. Sip bubble tea under a bubbling installation, be mesmerised by meditative fire lanterns, and even venture inside a popcorn room to evoke childhood nostalgia or get a taste. Plus, if you're a fan of pillow fights, there's a place for that too.

The Moonwalkers: A Journey With Tom Hanks

Until April 2024, King's Cross

Tom Hanks narrates The Moonwalkers, an immersive insight into the Apollo missions and the impending return of crewed surface exploration in the Artemis Programme. Lightroom's projection takes you on a voyage to the moon itself, all while behind-the-scenes details are unveiled and an original score from Anne Nikitin - performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - is played.

Bubble Planet: An Immersive Experience

Ongoing Availability, Wembley

Forget ya standard ol' bubble bath or wand, Bubble Planet is making sure you can experience this globular fun to the absolute max. Spanning everything from glowing infinity rooms with light-up spheres to giant ball pits, inflatable playgrounds, VR and even a hot air balloon simulator, this interactive exhibition aims to stimulate all five of your senses.

Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms

Until April 2024, Tate Modern

Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirror Rooms are world-famous, popping up across Instagram feeds and TikTok alike. Having extended its stay at Tate Modern multiple times due to incredible demand, it's still a mad rush to get weekend tickets for this twinkling beauty, where the light display is magnified by reflective water and mirrors. Just don't fall off the walkway and take an unexpected dip.

Accidentally Wes Anderson: The Exhibition

Ongoing Availability, South Kensington

Bringing the aesthetics of the famous film director to life with examples from across the globe is Accidentally Wes Anderson. This unique photography exhibition has the signature focus on symmetry and warm colour that we all know and love, alongside themed rooms with immersive elements to capture your own Anderson-inspired moment.

Outernet

Permanent, Charing Cross Road

After free immersive art exhibitions near London's Tottenham Court Road station? Outernet is an interactive entertainment district where the latest technology awaits. Having featured The Spaces In-Between - works from visual light artist Rupert Newman that respond to body movement - The Now Building has since played host to The Summer Palace, The Butterfly Experience and even seasonal snow showers for Christmas.

Twist Museum

Permanent, Oxford Street

Twist Museum is a collaboration between artists, neuroscientists and philosophers. There's a whole world of illusion to be found here, with a range of rooms helping you to uncover how your brain responds to reality being twisted. From not knowing which way is up to corridors that seem to go on forever, each interactive element is mind-bending at this top pick of immersive museum exhibitions.

Can't get enough? This guide to immersive experiences in London should give you more to try. Otherwise, sign up to our newsletter for inspo.

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Your Guide To London's 12 Best Immersive Art Exhibitions In 2024

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The demand for art experiences and immersive exhibitions in London is high, so there's lots out there to uncover. But, how to find the top ones to book? Take a look at our guide here, which includes everything from Van Gogh to Wes Anderson and a collaboration with Tom Hanks.

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11) why is immersive art so lucrative currently? 

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11) why is immersive art so lucrative currently? 

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12) how can i use immersive art to create a space inspired by escapism?

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12) how can i use immersive art to create a space inspired by escapism?

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After free immersive art exhibitions near London's Tottenham Court Road station? Outernet is an interactive entertainment district where the latest technology awaits. Having featured The Spaces In-Between - works from visual light artist Rupert Newman that respond to body movement - The Now Building has since played host to The Summer Palace, The Butterfly Experience and even seasonal snow showers for Christmas.

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Our extraordinary entertainment district brings you a daily schedule of music, arts and entertainment programming presented on the world's largest LED screens, along with exciting places to eat, drink and watch live music.

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Find out all about Outernet London - retail, restaurants, leisure, hotel, live music venue, broadcast studio and much more.

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Another film ——> made 2016

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A young woman, studying to be a vet, develops a craving for human flesh. A young woman, studying to be a vet, develops a craving for human flesh. A young woman, studying to be a vet, develops a craving for human flesh.

Videos8

Justine, raised as a rigorous vegetarian, arrives as a freshman at the reputable Saint-Exupéry Veterinary School. As she leaves the family home, Justine abruptly moves into a mad new world of strange school traditions and vicious initiation tests, and before long, she must chew over her unshakable herbivorous beliefs. More and more, as Justine descends deeper and deeper into a hidden world of uncharted animalistic tendencies, an unprecedented and equally morbid craving for meat will transform her into a very different being, but now that her corporeal awakening is finally complete, is there a point in denying her hunger for raw flesh? - Nick Riganas

Best french horror film since Martyrs.

Influenced by David Cronenberg's early work (his so called body horror movies) but having all the features of the gory new french wave, Raw is a frequency of big, which get even bigger, shocks. This is a dark, cruel and disturbing horror film which gets even unbearable, but everything that take place work for the sake of a truly inspiring screenplay which provides amazingly well-written characters (one of the best character studies i have ever seen in horror film) and also runs as a clever allegory about the awaking of sexuality in a repressed environment. Direction and cinematography are really amazing likewise all the performances while the special effect and make up department made an astonishing work. Best french horror film since Martyrs. 8,5/10

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What is the streaming release date of Grave (2016) in Brazil?

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A young woman, studying to be a vet, develops a craving for human flesh. A young woman, studying to be a vet, develops a craving for human flesh. A young woman, studying to be a vet, develops a craving for human flesh.

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Will be interesting to see documentation of Covid and its effects

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The Museum of London is adding to its collection to be able to tell future generations about life in the capital during the pandemic. Here you can find out more about the project and what we have collected.

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Explore it themes of power and feminist undertones in a more physical form

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February 13 - May 26, 2024

Barbican Art Gallery
Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS

This exhibition is co-curated by the Barbican, London and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam,where it will be on show from September 14, 2024 to January 5, 2025.

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Louise Bourgeois at Barbican Art Gallery, London

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Louise Bourgeois at Barbican Art Gallery, London

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13) what can be considered a villain in the modern world?

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13) what can be considered a villain in the modern world?

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13) how can I explore cannibalism in a more physical sense?

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13) how can I explore cannibalism in a more physical sense?

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I sae this show at LACMA in 2022, would be great to re visit it in the context of this project

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American artist Barbara Kruger (b. 1945, Newark, New Jersey, USA) is widely known for her impactful work with images and words. Drawing from an early career as a graphic designer for magazines, Kruger developed an iconic visual language that frequently borrows from the techniques and aesthetics of advertising and other media. Since the 1970s, her artworks have continually explored complex mechanisms of power, gender, class, consumerism, and capital.
at Serpentine South is Kruger's first solo institutional show in London in over twenty years. It features a unique selection of installations alongside moving image works and multiple soundscapes. The exhibition is the UK premiere of  Untitled (No Comment) (2020). This immersive three-channel video installation explores contemporary modes of creating and consuming content online. In the work, Kruger combines text, audio clips, and a barrage of found images and memes, ranging from blurred-out selfies to animated photos of cats.

The exhibition also features recent video reconfigurations - or, as the artist calls them, - of several of Kruger's most iconic pieces from the 1980s, including Untitled (I shop therefore I am) (1987) and Untitled (Your body is a battleground) (1989). Over decades, Kruger has presented her work across various spaces and forms, including on buildings, billboards, hoardings, buses, and skate parks. For this exhibition, the artist has adapted works , which were recently presented at museums in the United States, to specific locations within Serpentine, both indoors and outdoors .

Please be advised, this exhibition contains works with strong language, nudity, flashing images and sudden loud noises. For more information, please contact information@serpentinegalleries.org.

A special Limited Edition has been released on the occasion of the exhibition Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. at Serpentine. Discover the edition and further information here.

Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. at Serpentine is curated by the artist in close collaboration with Natalia Grabowska, Curator at Large, Architecture and Site-specific Projects.

Produced by:

Brittany Stewart, Creative Producer

Mike Gaughan, Gallery Manager

Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. is an adaptation of the exhibition organised by the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. was on view at the Art Institute of Chicago from September 19, 2021 to January 24, 2022, and was co-organised by James Rondeau, President and Eloise W. Martin Director, and Robyn Farrell, Senior Curator at the Kitchen and former Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. At LACMA, the exhibition was presented March 20, 2022 to July 17, 2022 and was organised by Michael Govan, CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, and Rebecca Morse, Curator, Wallis Annenberg Photography Department. The installation at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, was on view from July 18, 2022 to January 2, 2023 and was organised by Peter Eleey, former Chief Curator, MoMA PS1, and Lanka Tattersall, Laurenz Foundation Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints.

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Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. - Serpentine Galleries

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The artist's first solo exhibition in London in 20 years, featuring a unique selection of installations alongside moving image works and multiple soundscapes.

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15) exploring surrealism within the context of cannibalism allegory’s 

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15) exploring surrealism within the context of cannibalism allegory’s 

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16) what does escapism mean to my generation?

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16) what does escapism mean to my generation?

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17) how much did lockdown really effect the media/mind?

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17) how much did lockdown really effect the media/mind?

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18) where is the line between immersion and reality 

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18) where is the line between immersion and reality 

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I was thinking about Darma and how much Evan Peters was edited in the series because he is an attractive man, this made me think about how the same thing happened to Sebastian Stan in Fresh as well as Timothee Chalamet in Bones and All. I think this is an incredibly telling response from my generation, instead f being disgusted we make edits of the villains and glorify them.

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In this streamable time of movies, it's easy to get bored. And we busy 21st-century people do not like to be bored. Perhaps that is why, in recent years, we have seen a shift in the Hollywood point of view. The good protagonists are still here (what with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and their horde of heroes), but villain and anti-hero movies are on the rise now. A simple scroll through your Netflix homepage or a look at the list of top box office movies can tell you that. Some prime examples in 2019: "The Irishman," "Catch-22," and "Joker." Even antagonists in superhero movies nowadays sound move valid and less dominate-the-world-ahahaha, such as Screenslaver in "Incredibles 2" or Mysterio in "Spider-man: Far from Home."

"There's a long tradition in pop culture of audiences embracing antiheroes and, in many cases, outright villains," said Andrew Farago, curator of the Cartoon Art museum in san Francisco in an interview with The Washington Post.

In the present turbulent and hyper-aware social climate, it seems like morally ambiguous and thematically provocative titles are even trendier than before. Even simple, anti-traditional rewrites such as "Maleficent" that turn stories on their heads and offer sympathy to the well-known villain prove to be very successful. And we get it. Bad guys are alluring. They stir the imagination. We want to know just how and why they are bad, what had society done to them that made them that way. No more Voldemort-type antagonists that were born evil. This is a new age of two-sided stories where villains and anti-heroes, rather than represent the menace of society, represent its byproduct.

But precisely because they are provocative and ambiguous, these types of movies need to be executed with care. We all remember the spat over "Joker" where one side of viewers and critics proclaimed it "Movie of the Year" while the other side accused it of endorsing violence. It feels like sometimes people forget that in order to make a villain your protagonist, your movie would have to tolerate and condone the villain to a certain degree. Take the famous "The Wolf of Wall Street" for example: Jordan Belfort is a horrible person who the audience loves and wants to see succeed. However, the way that the movie portrays his life recognized and didn't glorify its problems. This is the trick that many villain movies seem to miss. Recognize the villain. Sympathize with them. But don't glorify them.

This becomes even more problematic when it comes to historical pieces and real-life villains, especially those from the near past. Alejandro Bastidas, a SCAD writing student, in one Medium article, criticizes how the Netflix show "Narcos" romanticizes Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, painting him as a "Robin Hood" and ignores his victims.

"Is it good television? Certainly. Is it responsible television? Not in the slightest," writes Bastidas. "For just one second, think of a streaming network releasing a show titled 'Bin Laden,' and glorifying the terrorist on every episode. [...] Would that be accepted by society?"

Drug lords, terrorists, dictators, criminals and gangsters are impressive characters. They exude a sense of paralleled power that we meek, couch-lounging viewers find captivating. We enjoy the thrill of second-hand violence, so much so that studios are willing to give us the worst of the worst even if it means distorting history and, effectively, insulting the victims, while under the protective cover of "artistic liberty." The question to be raised here is does art have a moral responsibility to society?

I say yes. Things fulfilling their moral responsibility to others is how we as a society have not descended into chaos. It is why children are taught at school what is right and what is wrong, why the justice system is constantly changing for fairer punishment. Order is fragile, and the moment we are taught to ignore, accept, or covet the bad, the order will corrode.

With that in mind, I think it's fair to say this:

Dear studios-please keep making villain movies. They're fun and spark great Twitter threads. But if the art of cinema and its place in our civilization means anything to you, perhaps consider NOT chasing sensationalism and think when you dissect a villain. Do you really want to condone people history hasn't yet forgiven?

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Don't love the devil, unless he's on screen: the glorification of villains

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In this streamable time of movies, it's easy to get bored. And we busy 21st-century people do not like to be bored. Perhaps that is why, in recent years, we have seen a shift in the Hollywood point...

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19) is it normal to find someone ‘evil’ attractive?

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19) is it normal to find someone ‘evil’ attractive?

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I wonder if we find villains so attractive, especially in these movies because they are in acting something we ourselves we could never imagine doing. In this way the taboo is exemplified by someone attractive and therefore becomes sexy and appealing instead of gross.

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300 words of reflective writing discussing experimentation.

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300 words of reflective writing discussing experimentation.

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During FMP I hope to best explore experimentation most, I have chosen to focus the most on this one because i seem to mostly work towards an outcome. I found this the most during one of my major film pieces, ‘all i ask is you devour me’ in this work, I threw myself so  much into the research and planning the final outcome I realised afterwards that i had not exprent,ents as much as I should have when the film was comeleate. While I don’t feel this massively affected the final outcome of the work, it would have been really helpful to me to plan out what I really wanted to achieve with smaller works, this would most likely have made the imagery feel more intentional and created other works I could reference when speaking to people about the film instead of just showing the final film. It’s because of this that I would like to focus on this with my FMP project. Within this project I feel that experimentation is going to be key to create something really effective that can have a strong effect on the intended audience and send the right message, especially as I hope to create an immersive installation type piece that can really capture the essence of the research. I feel that I should implement this as much as possible during planning the outcome to create something truly meaningful and effective. Overall I feel that focusing on this aspect will lead to a well structured and productive piece that will be backed by both research and smaller pieces I can refer to and use to explore the topic to my best ability.

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My subject area evolved after I watched Nicole Rafiee’s video titled, ‘The real reason cannibal movies are so popular right now.’ In this video essay she discusses why, in her opinion, cannibalism is so prevalent in the media presently. Within this she references why she feels this is because of Covid and this generation's need for escapism as well as the glorification of these villains as a result. This immediately resonated with me as I have a really strong interest in the grotesque so the imagery immediately caught my attention as being incredibly emotive, and had also noticed the influx of cannibalism. After researching into the topic more, I found so many interesting articles on the topic, what I discovered is how much Covid affected the minds of young people and how many of us are so numb to the incredibly graphic content of something to taboo and how many of us are searching for shows that are more anxious we are. The use of the subject as an allegory is definitely an effective way to send a deeper message to audiences, with cannibalism used to make statements on consumerism and women's bodies as meat. I believe I found this so interesting because of how relatable I found it. I do believe that I found so many of these movies so interesting because it allowed me a form of escapism able to remove me completely from reality. I found that when discussing this with my peers many were immediately very shocked but always wanted to know more - I believe this is because the taboo can be used to draw in people no matter how ‘gross.’ Because of AI I do feel that it is much harder to impress my generation however this topic expresses such a unique form of taboo that it really captures us for at least a moment, allowing us and most importantly me to forget the anxieties of life.