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Are hardcore horror fans cultists?

Started by Kester Pelagius, April 20, 2009, 11:47:52 AM

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Kester Pelagius

Hop over to my blog and read the entry Are Bloggers Cultists? to see what precipitated this question.

So what do you think?
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ghouck

In short, the answer is largely NO. It's not a cult if it isn't packaged as a religion, and I don't think it is for 99.9% of horror fans. If hobbyist are labeled cultists just because of the dark nature of their interest, then the same should be said about D&D fans, civil war re-enactors, Renascence festival participants, star wars and star trek conventioneers, etc. 'Cultist' is just another word extremists throw around for shock value, nothing more.
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RCMerchant

Horror fans cultists? No...unless they belong to some blood drinking Satan worship church on the side. Then I guess they would be. Most horror fans are pretty nice people. Mebbe watching people getting wasted with chainsaws releases agressions in a harmless manner.
Supernatural?...perhaps. Baloney?...Perhaps not!" Bela Lugosi-the BLACK CAT (1934)
Interviewer-"Does Dracula ever end for you?
Lugosi-"No. Dracula-never ends."
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MilkManPictures

Of course if you somehow convinced us all to drink the kool-aid here on the forum perhaps we could start a cult... :wink:

RCMerchant

#4
Quote from: MilkManPictures on April 20, 2009, 04:51:31 PM
Of course if you somehow convinced us all to drink the kool-aid here on the forum perhaps we could start a cult... :wink:

It's Kool Aid! Oh Yeah!!! Kool Aids HERE!  :hot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCLx9Tr3CSk

Cults and Bad Movies....PROOF THEY EXIST!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYtcE95QCWc
Supernatural?...perhaps. Baloney?...Perhaps not!" Bela Lugosi-the BLACK CAT (1934)
Interviewer-"Does Dracula ever end for you?
Lugosi-"No. Dracula-never ends."
Slobber, Drool, Drip!
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Javakoala

We're only cultists if we do it right. According to friends and family, I haven't done anything right in years....

:bluesad: :bluesad: :bluesad: :bluesad: :bluesad: :bluesad: :bouncegiggle:

Kester Pelagius

ghouck,

But is it "shock value" or ignorance?  Don't mean to sound like a grammar Nazi but words have meaning and to use a word so far outside it's context just smacks of lazy stupidity.  Not everyone owns a dictionary, I know, but if you're online you can type a word into just about any search engine and get a definition of it.  This sort of thing really makes my brain hurt.

Just me?

RCMerchant,

Agreed.  Even those with movies like NUDE FOR SATAN, HOUSE OF EXORCISM, EXORCISMS, BLACK CANDLES, THE ANTICHRIST, THE DUNWICH HORROR, THE DEVIL INSIDE HER, and the remake of THE FOG and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR in their collections are probably decent folk who have those more as curiosities than any real interest in the occult.

The real satanic bass turds are the people who own every Disney movie ever produced!   :wink:   :bouncegiggle:

MilkManPictures,

No kool aide here.  Do have some black tea.  Makes a great brew, especially if you put in equal portions of brown sugar, honey, and natural cane sugar.  Chill, pour over ice, with lemon optional.  It's Mmm good.

Here, have a glass. . . .

:cheers:
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ghouck

Quote from: Kester Pelagius on April 21, 2009, 11:55:49 AM
ghouck,

But is it "shock value" or ignorance?  Don't mean to sound like a grammar Nazi but words have meaning and to use a word so far outside it's context just smacks of lazy stupidity.  Not everyone owns a dictionary, I know, but if you're online you can type a word into just about any search engine and get a definition of it.  This sort of thing really makes my brain hurt.

Just me?

I believe it's shock value. I see it being no different than when people claim eating a hamburger is paramount to MURDER. Yes, many of those people are just plainly stupid, but in modern society, it's all about shock value. Heck, even read your own post: At some point in time, someone got tired of being railed for poor grammar, and decided to label people that corrected them "Grammar Nazis", as if any complain regarding someone's Grammar could possibly approach the actions of the Nazi party. The definition of 'cult' is irrelevant  because the people complaining and accusing don't even know WHAT the people they are complaining about do with their time. It's just too easy: Take something you don't like (horror movies), accuse the people that are fans, thus responsible for it's existence of the worst you can (CULTIST), and fill in the blanks (And after they watch those movies, they probably re-enact the scenes of animal sacrifice and perform rituals to try and become VAMPIRES or whatever.) :rolleyes: It's the too-easy, too-often traveled route of 1) Decide you don't like something 2) Mark it in as extreme way as possible to gather support 3) Go after it, citing you own extreme interpretation of it example of how it effects you PERSONALLY.

Funny thing is though, Religion does the same thing to get it's point across.
Raw bacon is GREAT! It's like regular bacon, only faster, and it doesn't burn the roof of your mouth!

Happiness is green text in the "Stuff To Watch For" section.

James James: The man so nice, they named him twice.

"Aw man, this thong is chafing my balls" -Lloyd Kaufman in Poultrygeist.

"There's always time for lubricant" -Orlando Jones in Evolution

Saucerman

I'm very strongly in agreement with ghouck here.  I've seen that scenario play out too many times (I'm still p**sed that my first set of D&D books were burned as "Satanic").  "Occult" movies are no different than heavy metal, role-playing games, rock and roll, jazz, pants on women, and everything else overbearing busybodies have found to complain about and label as being "of the devil." 

Kester Pelagius

Quote from: Saucerman on April 22, 2009, 11:36:18 AM
I'm very strongly in agreement with ghouck here.  I've seen that scenario play out too many times (I'm still p**sed that my first set of D&D books were burned as "Satanic").  "Occult" movies are no different than heavy metal, role-playing games, rock and roll, jazz, pants on women, and everything else overbearing busybodies have found to complain about and label as being "of the devil." 

But what qualifies as occult?

Let's examine a few "horror" movies with blatant satansploitation themes:

THE ANTICHRIST - This is a knock-off of the Exorcist, which isn't occult, per se, so much as being a movie exploiting Catholic dogmas and religious mythology.  Yes, one could argue that the inclusion of the paranormal in the guise of demonic possession insinuates demonology, and it certainly does make free use of occult symbology, but shouldn't the logical deduction be to call the producers and directors to the mat rather than labelling the audience or those who might like such movies?  After all some of us may find these sorts of movies hysterical, does that mean we're Dark Comedy Cultists?

I think not.

*warning pretension ahead*

PRIME EVIL - This one really tries to play up the evil cultists/Satanists angle.  Alas, like so many movies of this ilk, it is merely a puzzling slasher slash gore poser hidden behind the pretext of an examination of evil versus good.  It uses standard Catholic symbology (don't they all) yet seems almost like a movie made by aging Levay-ites.  It's the sort of confused mess you'd find in the wake of a dyslexic grave robber's crime spree.  Again not the audience's fault.

BLACK CANDLES - Also a movie apparently made to cash in on the Exorcist.  Alas I'm not really sure what to make of this.  This was either a poorly edited bit of euro trash or the version on DVD is a hacked edit not representative of the original feature.  Either way this plays like a sanitized porno and is about as coherent as you'd expect such a movie to be.  It's also not an true occult piece so much as a mind numbing meditation on the sexual/power politics of insulated elites who've created their own dingy ivory tower world wherein the mores of commoners don't apply.

One could call someone that likes these sorts of movies a masochist or a bad movie sadist but that doesn't make them cultist, does it?

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ghouck

Quote from: Saucerman on April 22, 2009, 11:36:18 AM
I've seen that scenario play out too many times (I'm still p**sed that my first set of D&D books were burned as "Satanic"). 

Yea, D&D books don't make one satanic, , , it makes them nerds, , , or geeks, , , or spaz, , or  dorks, dweebs, but not satanic. .  :teddyr:
Raw bacon is GREAT! It's like regular bacon, only faster, and it doesn't burn the roof of your mouth!

Happiness is green text in the "Stuff To Watch For" section.

James James: The man so nice, they named him twice.

"Aw man, this thong is chafing my balls" -Lloyd Kaufman in Poultrygeist.

"There's always time for lubricant" -Orlando Jones in Evolution

Saucerman

Quote from: ghouck on April 22, 2009, 01:51:23 PM
Quote from: Saucerman on April 22, 2009, 11:36:18 AM
I've seen that scenario play out too many times (I'm still p**sed that my first set of D&D books were burned as "Satanic"). 

Yea, D&D books don't make one satanic, , , it makes them nerds, , , or geeks, , , or spaz, , or  dorks, dweebs, but not satanic. .  :teddyr:

Exactly.  Watching "occult" movies no more makes me an occultist than does playing Dungeons and Dragons or listening to heavy metal. 

Hammock Rider

 Tend to your won laundry that's what I say. Doesn't the bible say something about dealing with the beam in your own eye before worrying about the mote in your neighbors'? If people worried more about improving their own shortcomings and less about what everyone else was doing this world would be a better place.

Are sports fans cultists? What about oprah fans? How about people who get really amped up about Christmas?  I agree, they're just trying to slander something by association.
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Doc Daneeka

It sounds like he was basically saying it to sound smart... as though being a fan makes you a mindless follower, unable to see (Or care about) the difference between Scarecrows ('88) and Scarecrow ('04) ;)

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Kester Pelagius

Quote from: Mr. Briggs Inc. on April 25, 2009, 09:55:59 AM
It sounds like he was basically saying it to sound smart... as though being a fan makes you a mindless follower

You're right.  Sometimes being a fan just blows.   :tongueout:



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