protean depravity

To ape someone. To monkey around. Monkey business. Ape arms. Monkey basket. Monkey see, monkey do. From the top of my head, I can think of quite a few idioms and sayings involving monkeys, and none of them have an even remotely positive connotation. Why is that? Well, I'm not an expert, but I think apart from their often aggressive and unpredictable nature, I would say that it's the same underlying fear as with dolls - their resemblance to us. Monkeys  look like humans, but they're not quite us. They surely act like us, but in a distorted way and that's eerie. We tend to be afraid of human-like things that look like us, but are underneath strange, that's somehow unsettling. So, take a doll, a toy in the shape of a monkey and it's double scary, especially with creepy eyes and teeth and a lethal music instrument, for whatever reason... Stephen King milks that fear to its full potential in his short story The Monkey , where such a toy monkey causes death every time...

Warning as usual, this article is full of spoilers, please see film first! Argh, new nightmare unlocked! On this planet, there is possibly nothing creepier than a surgically enhanced Nicolas Cage blowing you kisses, singing happy birthday. This is the gist of Oz Perkins' recently released horror picture Longlegs. But another paramount takeaway is that, congratulations Mr. Perkins, you are our new shooting star in the skies of horror, an auteur of our own! Let's first have a look at this delicious work of art which charms with beautiful and clever point of view shots, marvelous set designs and lightning, clashes of warm and cold colors in locations, and the combination of all these as a visual feast right from scene one!