'The Dyatlov Pass Incident' Review

‘The Dyatlov Pass Incident’ follows a group of student documentary makers and mountain climbers on a trek into the Russian Ural mountains to investigate the true life mystery of nine Russian skiers that died under mysterious circumstances in 1959.

The actual Dyatlov Pass Incident that the film takes inspiration from concerns a group of nine experienced skiers and hikers that went hiking through the Ural mountains but never reached their intended destination.  After two months the hikers were eventually found.

Their camp was abandoned, the tent half destroyed and cut open from the inside, filled with all of their equipment and shoes.  The hikers were found in the surrounding area in pairs or on their own, apparently dead from hypothermia.  A number of the hikers were, however, found with a number of injuries including skull fractures, destroyed rib cages and in the case of one woman a missing tongue.

The abandoned campsite from the real life Dyatlov Pass Incident.

Upon further investigation it was concluded that massive force was required to inflict the bodily damage that the hikers had sustained, yet there was no visible evidence of any external trauma.  In the end the authorities concluded that the hikers were killed by a ‘compelling natural force.’  To this day there has been no further explanation give for the bizarre events that happened at the Dyatlov Pass.

The film takes this event as their inspiration and is set around a group of five students that travel to Russia to attempt to investigate the incident and discover what actually led to the deaths of the hikers.  Although based upon a real world incident the film makers make some very brave and possibly bizarre choices in the direction they take the story.

The student film makers investigating the Incident.

Beginning as a simple investigation into the deaths it leads the way to a government plot to hide the truth of what actually lies at the heart of Dyatlov and their willingness to kill anyone that came close to discovering the truth.  Finding an abandoned underground facility the group discover strange phenomena, monstrous creatures and experiments leading back to the Philadelphia Experiment and the USS Eldridge.

A well made film shot on beautiful locations the writers and director create a tale that requires you to think outside of the box and make your own deductions based upon clues carefully laid out earlier on in the film.  The film suffers mainly from the sudden turn of events towards the end of the film that changes the tone fairly dramatically and some effects shots that aren’t quite up to par with the natural beauty of the filming locations.

Probably not to everyone’s tastes, but based upon extremely fascinating real world events the film is well worth a viewing for both horror fans and people interested in the actual Dyatlov Pass Incident.

Amy.
xx

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The Sarah Jane Adventures 'Invasion of the Bane' Review

‘Invasion of the Bane’ is the first episode of the Doctor Who spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures.  Though not a pilot in the traditional sense but a special, it still serves as the first episode of what would become a five series show, and an introduction to a number of the main characters.

The episode focuses on thirteen year old Maria Jackson who has just moved into Bannerman Road, opposite Sarah Jane Smith.  The night after moving in to her new home Maria is awakened by a strange light coming from Sarah Jane’s garden and goes to investigate.  She discovers Sarah Jane and an alien known as a Star Poet conversing, before the alien leaves, returning to the stars above.

The following day one of Marias neighbours invites Maria to join her on a free trip to the Bubble Shock factory to see how the new drink craze is being produced.  Overhearing the two girls talking Sarah Jane decides to investigate Bubble Shock to discover just how it’s becoming so popular so fast.

Mrs Wormwood leads the Bane.

 Sarah Jane interviews the boss of Bubble Shock, Mrs Wormwood, and tries to find out why the drink has been approved so fast, especially as their secret ingredient ‘Bane’ resists any kind of analysis.  As she is leaving the facility Sarah Jane is attacked and almost killed by Wormwood’s assistant. 

In the panic that ensues Sarah Jane and Maria discover that the people behind Bubble Shock are in fact aliens that are planning to use the Bubble Shock for some unknown reason.  They also discover ‘the archetype’, a composite human created by the Bane that the two of them help to liberate. 

Knowing that the Bane are planning to use both the Bubble Shock and ‘the archetype’ Sarah Jane and Maria must find a way to stop them.

The squid like Bane hunt Sarah Jane and her companions.

‘The Invasion of the Bane’ serves as a great introduction for the series, showing Sarah Jane continuing on her fight against alien threats and the affect that it has had on her life.  At the start she is much colder and closed off then we have seen her in the past, initially reluctant to have Maria involved in what is happening trying to encourage her to forget what she has seen and return to a normal life.

By the end of the episode Sarah Jane has warmed considerably, accepting that both Maria and Luke, formerly the ‘archetype’ and now her adopted son, are now a part of something bigger and important to her.

The Bane themselves are a great creation, with top notch effects.  Despite being the first episode of a spin-off the aliens are just as amazing and beautiful as they would be in their parent show.  They are also something very un-human, with an almost squid like appearance, which gives us something new and interesting to look at.

Though the show was initially created for the child audience of Doctor Who, and at times it can be very childish, it also has a lot of heart, and Elizabeth Sladen brings such heart and wisdom to the series that it’s impossible not to fall in love with it.  A good introduction to what is a great series to come.  7/10

Amy.
xx

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Transphobia or a Joke Taken Too Far?

A few months ago a friend of mine that is also a passionate gamer introduced me to the online game reviewer ‘Zero Punctuation’.  Staring Ben ‘Yahtzee’ Crowshaw Zero Punctuation offers a comical video review of a video game every week, complete with animation and fun facts.

The reviews are almost always humorous, and often can be very scathing towards the games faults or certain companies.  Crowshaw will even at times turn his jokes around upon himself and make himself the butt of the jokes.

However, one of his latest videos, in which he reviews two downloadable games seems to take a particular joke aimed at trans people and uses it repeatedly to the point where I have to question if it is even a joke anymore or just straight up Transphobia.

I’ve watched loads of these videos, so I know how his sense of humour works and that he can sometimes pick on people but it just seems like this time he’s crossed the line from cheap joke to something a little nastier.  I particularly object to the work ‘Trannies’ being used onscreen repeatedly during the video.

It’s all down to personal interpretation though, an I urge you all to watch it yourselves and give your comments on the video bellow, I for one though feel that perhaps this was one joke too far and is just another in a long line of examples of how trans people are used as a source of humour and a target of thinly veiled insults.

Amy.
xx


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Stephen Fry and the Winter Olympics

Stephen Frys recent letter to the government and Olympic Committee advocating the removal of the 2014 Winter Olympics from Russia due to its extreme anti gay laws was a brilliantly written, well thought out and emotional piece. 

Unfortunately not everyone agrees with him, and low and behold the Daily Mail in on the front lines of those attacking Stephen Fry for not just standing up for his personal beliefs but also for sanity and the goodness of human spirit.

The Daily Mail launches a vicious article that attacks Fry personally, and calls for people to do the exact opposite of what he advocates. Instead of boycotting the Olympic games in what is fast becoming one of the most extreme anti LGBT countries in the world their reporter, Andrew Pierce is urging people to not only attend the games but to openly protest them once there.

How is it that someone in the media could be so blinded to the previous violence against LGBT people and threats made by the Russian government should people attempt to do the same that they would encourage their readers put themselves in danger? If anything it appears to me that the Daily Mail, and Pierce in particular, are simply trying to place LGBT people in harms way.

Some might find this a somewhat ludicrous thought, but simply look at their past record of anti LGBT sentiment and the vicious hounding of school teacher Lucy Meadows, a campaign of hatred and harassment that led to Miss Meadows taking her own life.

I for one share Stephen Fry's views that attending the winter Olympics in such an anti LGBT country goes against everything that the Olympics stands for and common human decency.

Amy.
xx

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An Open Letter on Transphobia

Today I was made aware of an amazing video.  It is a response to the Julie Burchil article from several months ago that descended into pure hate speech towards transgender women.  The young woman in this video is not transgender, her views do not come from a place of hurt or anger from Burchil's comments, but rather from a detached and level headed point of view.

I hope that this video is interesting and thought provoking to people, and that you reallise just how much the trans community comes under attack in the modern media, and just how 'accepted' it is by people over other forms of desrimination.  Only with everyone working together can we stop this kind of thing happening again in the future.

Amy.
xx

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Bullying in the Trans Community

About a week ago someone posted a very rude and sexual comment on the  Face Book page for Trans Girl Writer.  This was not the first such message that I’ve received, but it was the first openly public one.  I was quite understandably upset and angry with this comment and went on something of a rant on Face Book about receiving these kinds of messages and being the focus of some peoples fetishes.

I posted this rant on a couple of Face Book pages that are designed for transgender people, for them to share their thoughts and feelings and talk to other people in the same situation as them.  For the most part people were of the same opinion as me and I received a lot of positive feedback about what I had written.

However, on one particular group, which I will not name, I began to receive negative comments.  Rather than these comments being targeted at what I had written though, they were targeted towards me.  The comments became directed towards how it was my fault for attracting these kinds of comments and messages towards myself.

After a while these comments began to change towards people turning around and accusing me of making the whole thing up, and even lying about being transgender in the first place.  Their basis for such conclusions are based in the fact that I don’t have any pictures of myself on my Face Book page.

I’m early on in my transition, I’ve never lied about what stage I’m in, so I don’t like the way I look.  I don’t like to look in the mirror and see a man looking back at me, so there is no way on earth that I’d post pictures of a body that I would hate on my Face Book for the whole world to see.  I’ve read countless accounts of transgender people that don’t like pictures of themselves pre or early transition and have even gone so far as to destroy these pictures of themselves.

For another transgender person to turn around to me and say that unless I post a picture of myself then they’re going to assume that I’m a guy just pretending to be a girl is horrible.  Even when trying to put my point across to them that I am being truthful and indeed transgender they just continued to bombard me with insulting and hurtful comments, even going so far as to advising me to ‘seek professional help’.

It’s bad enough that we become the target of bullying from the rest of the world, simply for being born different from everyone else, but to have people within the community turn on you because you don’t fit into their opinion of what a trans person is or should be doing is terrible.  We should be helping each other and giving our support to fellow transgender people, not attacking them.

The comments made have since disappeared from he conversation thread, either by an admin removing them or the original commenter taking back what they have said, but the damage from these comments has already been made.  It’s ruined my day.  I feel like complete shit and just want to break down into tears.

It wasn’t a trans hater or a bigot who made me feel like that, it was another transgender person.  This elitism of ‘I’m more of a trans person than you’ or ‘if you don’t do it a certain way you’re not really trans’ is disgusting and destructive to the community.  We need to work together here people.  If we can’t even accept and support each other how can we expect the rest of the world to do so?

Amy.
xx

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Peter Capaldi - Doctor 12

Sunday the 4th of August saw the worldwide reveal of the actor that will play the twelfth incarnation of the television legend, the Doctor.  After weeks of speculation on who would take over the ionic role from current Doctor Matt Smith it was announced that Scottish born actor, film director and screen writer Peter Capaldi will step into part.

Possibly best known for his role in ‘The Thick of It’ as foul mouthed Director of Communications for the British government, he has also appeared in a number of other well known television shows, including two separate roles in both Doctor Who and it’s spin-off show Torchwood.

When the announcement was made I was very happy with the choice and found myself looking forward to him taking over the role more than I am the upcoming 50th anniversary special.  Capaldi has always been an actor that I have liked whenever I’ve seen him in anything and I think that he will be able to bring a level of age and authority to the role that has been missing since the 70’s.

I know that a number of people on the internet have been complaining that he’s too old to play the part, but being the same age as William Hartnell when the role was first created for me means that he is in no way too old.  I can’t help but to feel that the people that are first in line to complain that he is too old to play the Doctor are people that are only familiar with the new series of the show, and haven’t had the pleasure of watching Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee, three of the oldest Doctors, play the part so absolutely brilliantly.

When the series was first announced back in 2005 I was excited by the return of the show, but had no real opinion on Eccleston in the role.  When it was announced that Tennant was taking over the role my heart sank and I found myself thinking ‘oh god not that twat from that awful Casanova show!’  With Matt Smith being an unknown I had no real opinion on him in the role when it was first announced.  Capaldi is the first Doctor since the show returned to television where I am really excited to see him in the role.

I know that many people are going to be polarised by this announcement, as they are every time a new Doctor is announced, but people need to calm down a little and wait to see him in the role before they make any snap decisions.  The people who are making harsh comments on the internet, saying that he’s too old and that they will never watch him as the Doctor are just being plain stupid.

I personally think that Capaldi could be the best Doctor we’ve had since the show returned and that the fans just need to relax and give him a chance to win them over.

Amy.
xx

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