The Uncanny Valley - Herald of Modern Horror

The uncanny valley, taking film, television and anime by storm is a theory of robotics that was first developed in the 1970s. This theory is the Uncanny Valley and was first identified by the professor of robotics, Masahiro Mori and describes a somewhat peculiar yet oddly familiar experience. The uncanny valley is the dip in a graph correlating people’s familiarity and comfort against the human likeness where human likeness is high and yet, strangely enough, people’s familiarity dropped drastically, even to the level of fear in some cases.

It is within this steep downwards decline away from the human comfort zone that sit zombies, puppets, clowns and other humanoid shaped fears reside. The issue, according to the uncanny valley, is that these things are so incredibly similar to what we consider a ‘normal human being’ and yet in some way intrinsically different that they become unnatural to us. It is therefore no surprise that content creators have used this psychological phenomenon as a device to sow discomfort and the eerie feeling of ‘wrong’ into audiences.

One example of the uncanny valley’s placehold in today’s pop-culture lifestyle is an iconic face (or rather mask). This face is the Star Wars saga’s ever memorable Sith Lord, Darth Vader. Whilst the beloved face of the entire epic saga is known to be human under his daunting black armoured exterior, the dark lord’s appearance is part of his chilling fear factor.

First in the many Uncanny Valley inducing aspects of Lord Vader is his height. Whilst tall men can be very common, with tall gentlemen even being regarded as an attractive trait, Vader’s daunting cybernetically heightened build holds him at a grand 6’ 8”, a height that by most common standards could be considered unnatural. This is not to say it’s impossible to be near 7 feet tall but it is just tall enough to make the villain stand out as something different to the other minions of the galactic empire; something different. Darth Vader’s other traits merely add to this atmosphere of unnaturalness, the mechanical breathing reminiscent to a hospital patient and the unmoving, emotionless, skull like face he is so well remembered for. It is safe to say that as examples go, the Uncanny Valley is strong in this one.

Masahiro’s Valley is also a key necessity in understanding the incredibly huge appeal for zombie horror franchises. George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, Dead Rising and the Walking Dead, all big names that found success in the iconic universe of the zombie apocalypse. But why are zombies such a staple creature in the halls of horror writing and how does the Uncanny Valley at all apply to shambling corpses? Arguably, it is because ‘creature’ is far from the right word to describe the living dead. The unnerving aspect of the infected humans, doomed to rise and devour the flesh of the living is that these monsters that stand so far apart from human’s with their mindless hunger are merely a bite away from what we are as living beings. Whilst some monsters are terrifying for their impossibility such as the creations of H. P. Lovecraft, the zombie is at its core so parallel to us yet made what it is by things that instinctively repulse us, death and cannibalism, but apart from these differences they are exactly like ourselves. Fear is spawned in us by the sheer possibility of an infectious zombie outbreak as whilst not many people have a backup plan for Mi-go descending from space or Cthulhu rising from the depths it is so common to have a ‘zombie apocalypse plan’ because whilst it is known fact that zombies are merely fiction there’s that nagging feeling that lasts at the end of the film. The feeling of ‘could it happen’?

Lastly, a very recent example of the Uncanny Valley’s presence in today’s pop culture is the hugely popular Japanese anime Shingeki no Kyojin or Attack or Titan. In the battle against the destructive titans humanity is beset by some truly grim sights. The titans resemble towering naked humanoids whose only goal is devouring the remnants of the walled of civilisation of humans. The Uncanny Valley sets off alarms at every turn with this gore packed action series with the human resemblance of the giant monsters so uncanny (bar their genderless form) that their every inhuman movement and interaction leaves a visceral reaction of discomfort in a great many fans. It is this, paired with the shows pull-no-punches attitude to death of the human characters that creates such a profound sense of horror throughout the anime and manga that has caught the attention of thousands of dedicated fans.

In conclusion the Uncanny Valley, whilst originally born from a theory of robotics, has soaked the entire field of horror with a flawless method of birthing dread in the hearts of film fans, tv, anime and literary buffs across the globe. And with the track history for the tried and true method it will be no surprise to see this theory proven time and time again in the years to come in all areas of storytelling media. However do not misread into that and assume here at Pop Culture Bang the uncanny value is looked forward to with excitement; it is anticipated with dread in our hearts, for all of the right reasons.

Between Episode 1 Review - The PopBang Opinion

Netflix has produced some fantastic original shows and has always had a good track record of unique stories and a fantastic ensemble of intellectual writing and flawless performances from well-known names to new faces in acting. This brings us to the newly released Netflix original series Between which has thus far released its first episode with 5 more to be released weekly. Between, however has not caught the attention of this review in the best possible way and sadly lacks much basis to impress.

The plotline of the Netflix original is as such, a small unsuspecting town named Pretty Lake (presumably for the lake we, the audience, get to notice in the background of a shot of the sign diagnosing the town as having a lake. One that is presumably pretty when it is in focus) beset by a mystery disease that kills all adults aged 22 and older suddenly and without a sliver of warning. With the government putting up a quick and surprisingly prompt quarantine, leaving a town beset with a community of nothing but 21 year old and under kids to hold the peace in a world without adults, the law or any of the usual rules that should apply to children. Whilst the Lord of the Flies-esque setting has worked in many other works, such as James Dashner’s Maze Runner series and Stephen King’s Under the Dome, Between leaves this setting feeling bored with characters seemingly just going through the motions. Although there is so far only a single episode to explore the setting feels rushed and poorly delivered, something a first episode should be dedicated to putting into place above all else.

The various characters feel cheaply written, with all but 3 characters, pregnant teen and professional bitchface Wiley (Jeanette McCurdy), young genius and emotional void Adam (Jesse Carere) and Gord (Ryan Allen) who lives on a farm and that’s about as exciting as he gets, being intentionally written as unlikable characters lacking redeeming qualities and even less backstory. Among these characters the acting feels particularly poor and downright lifeless with the young men and women seeming downright apathetic when their parents die in front of them! Jesse Carere’s performance is, sad to say, the worst of all. The character of Adam is downright emotionless at every juncture he faces and never once really shows any motivation behind his actions. A small credit to Carere however is that neither himself, Jeanette McCurdy, nor any of the performers in this series can be expected to deliver any of their dialogue with feeling with the awful nonsense the writers has given to them all.

In conclusion I personally would not recommend this new show to anyone for entertainment purposes, not even for an old favourite of watching bad shows for the sake of laughs. I would say: Between is, however, a great example of how not to write a television series and therefore at least has its purpose among the archives of media. The future episodes of this won’t be reviewed by this blog as, although I hope future episodes somehow manage to repair the cracks riddled through the first impressions, I have been suitably put off by episode 1 of this show and that, is the PopBang opinion.

Body Image and Cosplaying - A Male Perspective

Cosplay has become a widely known and participated hobby amongst members of the pop-culture convention culture. From game characters, superheroes and heroines, anime characters and even original characters, there are thousands of costumes that come to and fro through the doors of game, comic and anime conventions around the globe.

Cosplay, in part, is such a popular hobby taken up by such a wide range of people from different backgrounds and lives is because it is open and unrestricted to anyone. Any cosplayer, new, amateur or veteran would hopefully all agree that the reason people should cosplay is solely for the love and enjoyment of the hobby itself and the costumes and characters that people choose to create. Therefore anybody can cosplay anybody. A black cosplayer is free to cosplay any white character they choose, a size 12 should feel no restrictions against cosplaying a character that it normally portrayed as a super-slim yet impressively busty and curvaceous size 4 and the popularity of both men and women creating ‘genderbend’ character cosplays in recent years is testament to the gender barrier surrounding cosplaying being taken down spectacularly.

 However, whilst the outward acceptance of all walks of live being able to experience cosplay is a welcoming gate to most people, a more inward barrier can still hold in some people. In a lot of media such as video games, comics, films and anime series, characters are designed in an idealised style. The voluptuous figure of Mad Moxxi from Borderlands and the revealing design of Yoko Littner of Gurren Lagann are just a few examples to name of the less than natural body types but idealised figures of the characters that some individuals may desire to cosplay. But recreating these costumes can arise some issues of personal body image acceptance.

This article is from the perspective of my own male perspective on how body image and pop culture character stereotypes can make confidence in creating a cosplay somewhat of an obstacle. Take the masculine creations of Marvel and DC for example, my first ever cosplay was of the boy wonder, Robin, as seen in the animated series ‘Young Justice’. The benefit of my body type, being somewhat short and very slim made fitting the size and shape of the character in my cosplay a simple task. However if I were to be faced with the concept of creating a cosplay of the famous sidekick’s mentor, the Dark Knight himself, I’d feel nothing but anxiety and fear over the fun centric hobby.

In personal experience, the idea of cosplaying a character such as DC’s Batman or Superman and Marvel’s Captain America or Thor is a daunting idea. As someone who is short and slim, cosplaying such stereotypes of the tall, square chinned and muscular Adonis heroes is difficult to replicate. Whilst there is no part of the community that would deny someone of any different stature to cosplay such characters, in personal experience it can be difficult to build the courage to portray a character that you can’t share physical traits with. Whilst wigs can help a cosplayer to take on the image of their favourite characters, size, weight and muscles can be incredibly difficult, even impossible, to recreate and this can very easily dissuade someone from taking the leap into a new project.

So what can we, as a community, do to alter this? Well the attitude of the community has already come forward in leaps and bounds with a fast growing freedom amongst cosplayers and a welcoming nature. The issue is merely, in my own experience, a personal one. Developing the confidence to really jump feet first into the hobby and cosplay characters that you may not necessarily already have the natural features for can be difficult as being a different body type, male or female, can be a frightening challenge. However, with encouragement from the community to overcome this fear that can affect some of us may just help new cosplayers really find their feet and develop the confidence to add even greater diversity and freedom to the ever expanding hobby.

Taylor Swift Buys Porn Domains and It's a Very Smart Move

Taylor Swift Buys Porn Domains and it’s a Very Smart Move

Taylor Swift is now the proud owner of her very own personal pornography website domain names. The American pop singer-songwriter from Pennsylvania is now the sole proprietor of Taylorswift.porn and Taylorswift.adult website domains.

    The purchase was prompted by the planned expansion of the generic top-level domains (gTLDs) set to be released to the public for claim and purchase on the 1^st of June. The results of this expansion and change being introduced by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) mean that websites with adult content that use the domains of .porn or .adult will be separated and easily identifiable from other sites with largely different content.

    The clever logic behind Taylor Swift being in control of her own porn name is not that we can expect to see any raunchy content from the 25 year old popstar, in fact Taylor’s ‘swift’ actions mean the complete opposite. With the Taylor Swift theme .porn and .adult domains already owned it means the singer has no fear of over-eager fans taking the domain name for themselves and creating a less than tasteful tribute to the idol.

    It will not be surprising to see if any other big names and A-list celebrities follow in Swift’s footsteps and fill in their own blank space with domain names to protect them from undesirable adult content. How much owning such domain names will prevent unwanted adult content finding its way online is yet to be seen as pornographic content has its ways of worming itself around the worldwide web. In the words of a wise musical man, ‘the internet, is for porn.’

New Age of Ultron Poster – Characters and Clues

The excitement for Marvel’s Avengers 2: Age of Ultron is ever growing stronger with the impending UK release on April the 23^rd and rightly so. Marvel fans have been looking forward to the sequel to the first box office smashing Avengers Assemble in 2012 when the big-screen superhero franchise got catapulted into popularity; a popularity that Marvel universe creations had been struggling with for years with the less than successful examples such as Fantastic Four, Daredevil and the infamous third instalments of Spider-Man and X-men.

     With our hearts and cinema ticket money firmly dedicated to the new wave of the Marvel cinematic universe it is with no doubt that Age of Ultron will have cinemas across the world packed full of dedicated fans ready to welcome in the next phase of the superhero continuity.

     Just to further peak the anticipation of the film franchises multitude of keen fans, Marvel Studios has released a new pre-release poster to wet our appetite for the hero-fest. This poster even features some clues and revelations of what we’ve got to look forward to the $250million budget production.

     As a friendly warning, this article may contain potential spoilers.

 

One of the most noticeable aspects of this poster is the presence of the highly anticipated hero, Vision. However as with the trailers and other posters the studios continue to tease the character’s appearance with leaving the new character a mere silhouette against the sky. However, could this be more of a hint than it seems?

     We see our new arrival to the film continuity against a backdrop of swarming Ultons pouncing upon the collected Avenger heroes. Vision however, does not seem to be the target for the androids. Could this be hinting that the Marvel hero may not be featuring in this film as a hero and the robotic character may be another pawn of the Ultron AI? Only the film itself can answer that question it seems.

     Also revealed in the newly released poster are the credits to a few familiar faces from past films. Hayley Atwell, Idris Elba, Anthony Mackie and Stellan Skarsgard are all credited no doubt to return as their respective roles as Peggy Carter, Heimdall, Falcon and  Erik Selvig. All this further revealing the huge cast the film will be using and raising plenty of curious questions as to how the plot and characters will all fit together.

   

 

     Finally is a sneaky look at the various costume changes coming to us in the new film. As we can see Captain America is donning a new set of freedom themed uniforms, a trend it seems the fashion conscious all-American hero is sticking to with each film he stars in features him in a whole new set of stars and stripes. This uniform however features itself an Avengers spin on it with the well-known logo proudly emblazoned on his super-soldier shoulders (trying saying that 5 times fast).

     Tony Stark too is featuring the next mark in his set of armour. This is unsurprising however as in his previous title, Iron Man 3, the billionaire playboy philanthropic genius destroyed his extensive collection of super suits and hung up his helmet. But what gadgets will the mechanics master be adding to his next suit’s arsenal? We can only wait and see.

    And finally, the Russian beauty Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow seems to have made some of her own upgrades as well. We see in the new poster not only the take-no-prisoners attitude stance of the master assassin but also some particularly groovy neon trimmings along her suit and already high-tech gadget wrist guard given a futuristic revamp. Could this be a sign that Tony Stark has taken some liberties and given the already deadly force of nature, Black Widow, an even deadlier upgrade?

    In overall the poster alone has raised numerous questions, hints and theories and yet Marvel still know how to play their cards close to the chest. As always the studios knows how to market their work and the anticipation is on the rise amongst fans across the globe. Will Avengers 2 meet the hype? Will our expectations be met and overcome just as the masterpiece Avengers Assemble supremely achieved? We can only hope. But hey, let’s be honest, don’t they always?

    So remember that on April 23^rd in the UK, Avengers Fans, Assemble!

The Interview - An Acceptable Film?

The Interview’s original intended Christmas Day release is back on the cards after the release of the Sony film was cancelled amid hacking threats towards the production company in recent days. The Interview is the most recent film starring duo Seth Rogen and James Franco in a comedic assassination plot of North Korea’s infamous leader, Kim Jong-Un. As a result of the controversial theme and even more from the recent hacking of Sony, the film has gained an incredible worldwide spotlight of attention. However, whilst every news website and blog worth their salt is reporting on the updates of both the film’s release status and Korea and America’s political dealing amid the Sony hackings this article will report something different. 

Is it okay to produce films like The Interview?

                The plot of The Interview is about famous talk show host Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his colleague and friend Dave Rapaport (Seth Rogen) being invited to interview Kim Jong-Un (Randall Park). The characters are then recruited by America’s CIA to assassinate the Korean leader and a series of hilarious and surreal events ensue. Being this is a personal blog and I am not a company name I am free to state my opinion. I don’t think a film of this concept is morally okay to produce.

                The first moral dilemma I see in a film of this nature is the simple fact that the target of the film’s fictional assassination is a very non-fictional, very much alive and real individual. Whilst Kim Jong-Un and his father before him have always had somewhat of an infamous reputation as world leaders is it truly okay to produce a film about their murder? It isn’t my belief that having a film made about yourself being the target of a CIA funded assassination leaves a great taste in Kim Jong-Un’s mouth and in his position I feel I too would be as vocally offended as he was when the film was first announced. We are talking about putting millions of dollars into the production of a film where the main plot is murdering a real person and portraying doing so in a comedy of all genres.

                Whilst I can appreciate that the film aims for a light, less than serious tone with its comedy setting I still feel this doesn’t detract from the plot of this film. I can only imagine the amount of individuals who would be vocally aggressive towards a comedy film being made about murdering the current reigning British monarch, Queen Elizabeth, or assassinating President Barack Obama. Yet the likes of George Clooney, Steve Carrel and even President Obama himself condemned Sony’s original cancellation of the film after threats were issued to Sony by the culprits of the recent hacking attack.

                In America freedom of speech and creative license is celebrated and has been quoted greatly in regards to The Interview being released, however freedom of speech does have a limit in the country. Offensive and particularly hateful speech is condemned in both the United States and the United Kingdom as hate crime and a film of this nature directed towards any of their own cultural figureheads would be the cause of uproar and rage. I, as an English writer, condemn peoples' acceptance of such a glorified acceptation of a film whose premise is to provide comedy in a film about killing a real living person who is the figurehead in his country.

                If I can say without doubt that I would personally be offended by a comedy snuff film being produced about my own death for people’s entertainment, is it really okay to produce a film to make people laugh about the murder Kim Jong-Un? That, I believe, is very much open and in dire need of debate.

Of Wizards And Handguns - Are MMORPGs And FPSs The Same?

When comparing genres of video games it’s a pretty safe bet to say that MMORPG games such as World of Warcraft and Everquest are thought of as incredibly different to FPS titles like Call of Duty and the Battlefield series. These games dominate our markets and the nuances of each genre are known well in near every self-proclaimed gamer with Call of Duty releasing its 11^th instalment, Advanced Warfare, in 2014 and Blizzard releasing World of Warcraft’s 5^th expansion, Warlords of Draenor, mere days later. These being only 2 of the MMORPG and FPS series currently dominating the video gaming market just go to show the ever present popularity and success of the genres.

However is it truly honest to say the designs and player goals for these wholly different genres are really as different as some may think? Everquest, created in 1999 and celebrating the game’s 21^st expansion release in October, is one of the oldest MMORPGs still running and featured the gameplay basis most of its genre follows. Players chose a class and levelled through defeating enemies and achieving given goals in the fantasy world. But how can a fantasy world of levelling and questing relate in any way to modern first-person shooters?

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the first Call of Duty to implement it’s not ever present levelling system into the multiplayer section of the game. Players achieve levels and increased ‘rank’ as a result of defeating other players, achieving game objectives and completing challenges and being rewarded experience points for doing so. With these levels a player can upgrade their equipment and skills. This is starting to sound familiar…

Borderlands, released by Gearbox Software in 2009, embraced the rpg design in their FPS with zany skills, talent trees, and varying equipment stats that alter the style of gameplay for your chosen and developed character. This in turn follows very similarly to Call of Duty’s various weapons and the altering ranges, fire rate and damage of those weapons and how players must also alter their play style to revolve around how they equip their characters.

So finally we ask, why do we love these various games and what seems to be the similar theme of design in them that gamers enjoy? Do players enjoy the rewarding aspect of increased level, the freedom of personal design of a player’s own playstyle? As well as this if the game genres really do hold such similarities then why is it some players do not like one but will play the other? It is a question that is so far unanswered but the similarities in what started as entirely opposite genres are nonetheless showing parallels in how their designers are building these new games. Is this a trend that will continue? With the popularity of the Call of Duty and Borderlands FPS series it wouldn’t at all be a farfetched claim to say, most likely.

(Disclaimer - I do not own or claim to own the featured images. All the images are property of original artists, designers and publishers.)