The Shining, Possession & The Mothman Prophecies

What is mind control? MK Ultra? Are you being controlled by Instagram? Face Book? Your Smart Phone? Food? Love? Sex? Drugs? Have you ventured Somewhere Over the Rainbow?

I've heard & read many times that the powers which be hide under plain sight. Clues are thrown out obvious. It is my personal opinion certain people were privy of the New World Order agenda. Duh. For those who are living under a rock: We are currently in a Renaissance or Golden Age of it's engineered plan.

World Health Organization or WHO kinda sounds like an owl's hoot, don't it?



The Shining: Telekinesis. Abuse. Head Games. Repetition. Contempt. Location. Tarot symbolism. 

Yes. Tarot. 

In some instances, I can't help but realize how Shelly appears like the Queen of Swords & The Queen of Wands. The candle stick chandelier looming over her head sometimes crowns her even. Jack in the beginning might represent The Fool (Ullman The Magician & the chef The Chariot card, and so forth) and the world map next to him during the Interview scene may indicate that he is taking a chance. There is also a nifty, spooky picture in the background to the left of Jack. It appears like an initiation rite. Another cool tarot symbolism is when he is in the haunted room. During his embrace with the attractive ghost lady, they look exactly like The Lovers card. Also, when Danny is in the kitchen talking to the chef there are a whole bunch of knives looming over him, representing the card Nine of Swords which is a heavy duty card. Then towards the end in the b&w pic Jack is posing like The Devil card. C'mon folks! I can continue at length about the tarot symbolism. Its apparent and obvious. The pictures on the walls. Archetypes. Its all there.

What does this have to do with MK/Mind Control? Real smarty pants are forced to join. In the world of funky societies finger placement (The Grand Budapest Hotel is a perfect example of this. Here's an A OK sign right back at ya' Wes!), and where you rank in the totem pole is part of their pass time. Many even use the tarot. For instance Katy Perry's Dark Horse vid has the symbolism of The Chariot in it. Jay Z & Bey rep The Lovers. Know Your Place!

Back to The Shining. Kubrick was such a genius & this movie is one of the most perfect films out there, the layers in which it operates on are/(were) supremely subtle. 34 years later and we're still talking about it, and when it creeps up on TV you know you go on a break & take a quick peek for the fourteenth time. 


But two films which need to be watched with mind fucking in the fore front are Andrzej Zulawski's 1981 Possession & Mark Pellington's The Mothman Prophecies (I kinda wanna include Jacob's Ladder, Donnie Darko & The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, but I'll bow out gracefully).

Possession. Where do I begin? With the Clive Barkeresque monster which controls Anna's every waking moment? Or the mirroring/twin imaging theme which is also a prominent tactic in MK conditioning (aside from Ying Yang & whore/young maiden themes)? Or do I go in deep regarding the nice curve ball Zulawski throws in the final act of the film? The film turns into a whole political/anti corporate "them against us" shebang. Do I mention the rainbow on the son's shirt? For all who know about MK, the rainbow is a code.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow. But where? Loosing ones identity? Think selfies. You're being monitored, but ya'll know this. Kinda like how you stare at Instagram for hours on end. Hypnotism if you will. You have gone to the point of no return. Only deleting your account or having your phone seized will stop the madness. Right? Does Instagram still have the rainbow as its logo? I don't know anymore cause I clawed my way outta there. Granted I lost a close friend in the process (Yes. Relationships can and do end cuz of social control, I mean, social media). 

If you haven't seen Possession please do. With open eyes and mind.

The next film which deserves everyone's open mind & eyes is The Mothman Prophecies. First of all, one of Pellington's first gigs was taping Information Society's "I wanna Know What You're Thinking", aka Pure Energy vid (thanks Brits! google the band & marvel at the vast members it has had. Some becoming sound engineers, you know, controlling what's between your ears).

I just want to get this out of the way. I L O V E The Mothman Prophecies. The sound engineering is superior. It is Mark's masterpiece. Kinda how Spike Lee was born to make Do The Right Thing. Same here. Mark was meant to make Mothman. If you look up the specs the cameras he used were named MK! HA! It's almost as if Mothman is Mark's Shining. Its so layered and subtle it's genius. The wedding dress in the background bouncing off the mirror (engagement, twinning, loosing one's identity), The color spectrum (rainbow) in the awning. The clandestine meet at the electronic store. I can go on & on. I am a sucker for mise en scene. Especially when done right. So please, go watch The Mothman Prophecies and look for the little cool clues Mark is leaving behind. A la Kubrick. I'll take that over a wack cartoon of a dancing Stanley in credits or an insulting birthmark in the shape of my beautiful Mexico any day.

Yeah, clues have been left behind by Weird Al Yankovich, the opening credits of The X-Files, the Bushes, System Of A Down, Brian Helgeland (he hangs Heath upside down before Gilliam did), etc. But the three films I briefly mention above are in their own weird way so similar they are practically cousins. So go watch them back to back the next time you roll your eyes at a friend who claims Michael Jackson was warning us.

WHY BIRDMAN IS A RIPP OFF

As a Mexican American I was kinda proud and surprised (my cynicism didn't allow me to imagine Mexicans winning awards two years in a row here up north), Birdman swept statues and paper weights. I loved the film. Thought it creative. Original even. Fast forward a month and on the all mighty YouTube/netflix I caught Pablo Larrain's Tony Manero. WHAT?! After watching Tony Manero's contained intensity, it immediately reminded me of Birdman, and only reinforced a particular theory I have about filmmakers. That when some directors gets so inspired by a movie, said person copies the inspirational material (always peppered with original nuances or extra themes). But disguises it in a Ying Yang homage of sorts. And yeah, my title is exaggerated, but if you read films like I do than you'll understand.

Similarities abound:

• The films follow distraught violent men. Literally. Cameras shadow - always looming behind catching a side glance or the back/shoulder of mentally wounded men. 
• Women are complimentary (some used, however you want to see it) and ever present marking relationships as crucial yet sidelined (or abused). 
• STAGES ABOUND BOTH FLIKS & 
• the cogs of what happens behind the scenes rehearsals and all, exposed. The act of creating! What a beauty. 
• Anyway, in both films performers are bonkers because some people are difficult one track minded creatures. Driven by fantasy, delusions or whatever.
• Disrobing.

Also, both films have open for interpretation endings. Kinda.

Remember the Wrestler (2008)? When Darren Aronofsky's leading fighter is flying in the air and it just ends? We know he has a heart condition, so it's up to us to finalize the ending. Does he live? Or does he die? Its up for interpretation. Same goes for Birdman. Dose he commit suicide? Is it a fantasy? Taking flight, the act of creating is beautiful, but not when it destroys you, consuming your every move like Pablo Larrain's leading man. So, when the ending comes around in Tony Manero, the viewer is scared shitless for the couple sitting inside the bus, ahead of Raul (watch the movie!). But to me, the messages are clear.

In Birdman a daughter tells off her dad letting him known he's basically worthless. In Tony Manero, a lady becomes excited by intense man but doesn't really need him. Earlier the lady is disrobed & toweled off almost like an offering. Later on - a steamy foreplay scene unfolds in what appears to be an approaching you know what - finishes off by the lady finishing herself off. Yes. Awkward but in a great way. In Birdman there is a staged sex scene where Ed gets a hardOn (creation is so intense that it's mojo for some) & Naomi proceeds to loose her mind back stage. Another awkward sex scene, of sorts.

Whether it's via a fightclub, a fantasy, escapism, delusions or just a nice CGI sequence the descent of an artist's/performer's soul is an interesting thing to watch. That's for sure.

Panos Cosmatos'

Beyond the Black Rainbow is a deep flickering trance of Jungian, twinning/reflection (pyramids turning into crystals, etc), dependence, mind control, murder, maiden, mother, crone, psychopathy, and homage to cinema & electronic sound ambiance engineering long passed, but not forgotten (if anything, it's absorbed/embedded into our psyche. C'mon, you know you watched channel 11 WPIX!). Anyhow, the black rainbow, at least for me, is the highway Elena crosses, which divide the row of houses filled with synthetic depravity and psychosis. & on the other side is a field. Nature. Barry drives on this highway, his journey long ago finished. Now he's just on maniacal auto-pilot. Sure they have award winning gardens, but that's all contained. Lab grown. Self enhancements\toupees and eye contacts are called appliances. Makes sense because you're applying it unto yourself. Kinda how generations have applied trillion dollars worth of self help "how to" books, pills, ego boosters whether by hormones (think a puffy puff daddy applying a deodorant made of testosterone, compliments of Biggie Smalls), accessories, or scientiological institutions, whatever.
But nothing can truly hide the vampire. Poor Barry. A married Igor. And doesn't Barry look like the evil child of Robert Altman & Tool's Maynard? The one eye monster Barry peels off his layers too, in exchange for more cocooning into Panamanian leather. Applications uninstalled. No choice but to go hunting.

Mercurio Arboria lies decrepit and just murdered, watching an original wikipedia on Haleakala. And on the mini screen a row of houses opposite side a vast coast. His death signaling and propelling his captive daughter's freedom. Not a sacrifice, but more like sweeping up old remnants of knowledge past. Via his eyes, Elena who is the true heir of Arboria, telepathically watches a nature show, hears a farewell, and all the while feeling Mercurio's death. A superior woman's multitasking/becoming one with her dying father never looked so good.

Elena, Rosemary, Anna & Margo. Typically the Maiden, Mother & Crone, but because humans decompose and get sick, Cosmatos added a modern day caregiver. Just for good measure. Margo the fake and cold nurse/servant. Elena the beautiful captive, but the person who truly evolved to possess full control & power (everything revolves around her, doesn't it?). Anna is a mom memory. Always in the background (or foreground). Rosemary the perpetual pothead crone is the anima Barry has vast amounts of contempt for. We've all been there. In all, Cosmatos inserted these female archetypes so subtly its practically genius.

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In conclusion, after you've ODed on BtBR you may counteract all the aftermath affects with this --->ANTEDOTE FOR BtBR<----- font="">