1 of My Stories

This is a spoiler-free review.
After the juggernaut that is Stranger Things season 2 Netflix dropped in October of 2017, everyone binge-watched it within 24 hours, looked around in a daze, and wondered out-loud, what do I watch next?

One of the recommendations I heard repeated multiple times is the German language thriller, Dark. All I knew is that there were missing children, kids on bikes, monolithic power plants, and creepy vibes. I began to watch the show, muddling my way through it at first, but fell deeply into the storytelling. I am currently re-watching the first season, as season 2 is scheduled to drop in June 2019.

Here's a snapshot. Our story takes place in a fictional small town of Winden, somewhere in Germany. The town is in a tizzy because there is a teenage boy missing, Erik Obendorf. The police have been unable to solve the crime, and so everyone is understandably upset and on high-alert. We also learn that another boy went missing under similar circumstances back …

Under the crimson primordial sky, 
the wretched warlock reached into the dark embrace
His fist closed around the serpent’s eye, strange and eternal.

My most loved movie of 2018 was Mandy, written and directed by Panos Cosmatos, and starring the ever-divisive Nicolas Cage. Red and Mandy live a peaceful life in the woods until a crazed cult leader decides he has to have Mandy. After his gang and some otherworldly creatures attack the couple, Mandy ends up being killed. Red spends the rest of the film getting revenge.

Cosmatos has directed only one other film, a trippy dreamy picture called Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010). Beyond the Black Rainbow takes place in a scientific institute where plants are grown that can supposedly make people feel enlightened and happy. But inside the institute, a young girl who is telepathic is kept captive. We see her plight, and then she escapes. Although Beyond is clearly an inferior film to Mandy, it has all the clear markings of its director’s paintbrus…