Silly Thoughts, volume 7

Somehow, we're here. November. I need to go around my house and collect up all the pumpkins, ghosts, and cats (not the real ones, though, they can stay). It makes me feel sad. Still, October may have come and gone, but spooky season is for life.

We signed up for a month of Shudder. It was a good choice. That, combined with the projector, means I basically don't ever want to get out of bed. Out of interest (read: boredom), I made a list of every horror film I've ever watched, which was a real test of my memory. I got up to 54. That is many hours of lovely terror.

Anyway, gaming has taken a massive back seat this month. Shudder has introduced me to some good movies, but the one I enjoyed the most is probably Late Night With the Devil (2022), in which a talk show host makes a last-ditch attempt to save his show, Night Owls with Jack Delroy. In a Halloween special, Jack invites a psychic medium, a self-righteous skeptic, and author Dr June Ross-Mitchell with the subject of her new book, Lilly. Lilly is thirteen, and she says she is possessed by a demon.

The setup is that we (the audience at home) are watching footage from the show after the fact, rather than live. From the get-go, you're on tenterhooks; I was scanning the background constantly, waiting to spot something that shouldn't be there. It strongly reminds me of the interview clips in Immortality, as well as the live episode of Inside No.9 (which is genuinely one of my favourite things ever).

It's a fun movie. It genuinely scared me, and the ending is (trying not to spoil anything here) quite dramatic in a kind of classic horror way. But I found out afterwards that three of the images used in the movie were generated using AI. (I vaguely recalled a horror movie and some sort of AI controversy a couple of years ago, but I didn't realise it was this one.)

The outcry got so big that the director had to release a response; it basically said 'Our artists played around with AI, and we edited it.' And there's a large section of the internet that responds: who cares?

I do get that argument. And to be honest, I'm so bored with both hearing and talking about AI. Three images don't seem like a big deal, especially when they take up mere seconds of screen time. But I feel (like many people) that it's a slippery slope. It's disappointing to see AI used in any creative endeavour. Ultimately, I'm passionate about smaller movies, I want to see interesting stories being told, and I want good horror movies. The acceptance of AI in the arts, which starts small, will snowball. It will actively remove opportunities for future creatives. When I see people using AI in art, it feels as though they're pulling a ladder up behind them. Screw younger generations and their opportunities to have art careers; using AI will save a bit of time and money in the present, and that's all that matters, right? It's all fun and games until it's your job at risk of being obliterated.

People instantly review-bombed the movie, saying it sucked anyway. But they're being disingenuous. It didn't suck, that's why it feels like such a letdown. Yes, it wasn't perfect (they dressed the teenager like a small child for some reason, and some of the hair/make-up was blatantly not '70's enough), but it was scary and fun and interesting, and you could tell a lot of love and passion for the genre was poured into it.

For what it's worth, it sounds like the artists working on Late Night with the Devil were literally just experimenting. If I want to be generous, it was done with curiosity about a new tool without thinking too much about the long-term consequences. I don't know. I'd call myself a casual horror fan, but the little I know about the community suggests that AI isn't welcome for the majority, so I imagine they'll steer clear of it for the next one.

I don't know what the future looks like for the arts. In the meantime, I'll still invest my time in books, movies, and art created by people, not generated by machines. And hopefully, one day, I won't have to keep thinking about bloody AI all the time.

On a lighter note, October has been a joyful, healing sort of month, and I feel like I'm making real progress.

Other things I've enjoyed:

• Oddity (2024). When a woman dies under mysterious circumstances, her psychic twin sister uses all the objects at her disposal to uncover the truth. This has some unbearably scary moments and, happily, it features a character who actually makes good decisions (rare).
• One Cut of the Dead (2017). I don't think I could describe this movie if I wanted to, but I also think you should go in as clueless as possible anyway. Watch and ... enjoy?
• Hayley Campbell's All the Living and the Dead: A Personal Investigation into the Death Industry. This goes beyond fascinating into life-changing, but I'll talk about it more another time.
• House, which I binge-watched while I had Covid and fell in love with, and now miss. Although I do think I had an unhealthy obsession with it.
• Strictly continues to bring us joy every week. I love watching it with the kids, cuddled up together, eating snacks, and shouting out scores. But I am very sad about the upcoming departure of both Tess and Claudia. 😦
• I played the demo of The Seance of Blake Manor and absolutely loved it. Bought the full version, fully expect it to dominate my thoughts over the next couple of weeks.
• We saw Låpsley live at Rough Trade this month, and she was incredible, obviously. But supporting her were Su, I Think and Gordi, who were both great too.

See you all next week. <3