Penelopebabs

Sorry, I can't come into the office because my cat would be sad.

Aurora borealis over Aviemore

🚨 Aurora alert! 🚨

A geomagnetic storm is expected over the next 48 hours due to the expected arrival of a coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on 18th January.

View the full forecast:

geomag.bgs.ac.uk/data_service...

📷 Aurora borealis over Aviemore - credit: J Orsi

Lemme tell you, getting locked out of my @letterboxd.social account because of a glitch in their system is annoying enough but the "it's probably due to human error" message I get when I try to reset my password has me seething with rage.

The cat peeks his head over a blanket to look at my laptop screen

A Thursday night spent researching EU online hate initiatives with my smol son.

Listening to Enshittification on audiobook and genuinely would like all audiobooks to be narrated by Cory Doctorow, please.

[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.] JANET: Ugh... LIZ: What's up? JANET: I am so bored of cooking peas! LIZ: Have you tried... AI peas? JANET: AI peas? LIZ: They're peas with AI! [Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI]. LIZ: Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas JANET: What LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines] Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas? [Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it] LIZ: Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine [Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas] LIZ: With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas! JANET: What LIZ: Shut up LIZ: Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow From opening the bag of peas to boiling the peas to eating the peas To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means. JANET: Is it really necessary to- LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]: THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET [Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan: AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas. [Ends]

Every ad now

We have upgraded our geomagnetic forecast today (12 November 2025) to the highest intensity level amid an ongoing solar storm.

Current predictions suggest that the activity will result in potentially the largest solar storm to hit our planet in over two decades.

Of course I've missed loads of other great films out (shout out Astron-6 who need their own thread, and the shorts, which similarly I could never include because that would take me many years).

Needless to say, I love Mayhem and can't wait for tonight 😍 See you there?

Phew, that took a lot longer than expected (sorry, uni work!). But there you are, my top films from each year of @mayhemfilmfestival.bsky.social. Happy to talk about any or all of them.

The Humanist Vampire... cover, which shows the main character looking out towards the audience. The image has a red hue over it. Text is in blue.

A terrifying image of someone covered in blood and gore looking skyward. The image is skewed so the eyes are in triple exposure. The title MADS sits in the middle of the image, and again, dropping off the bottom of the image.

The Korean poster, the title of which is JaBek. It shows the main actors across and into the distance from each side of the image. They do not look to each other. Both are in black and the background is grey.

2024! Another brilliant year, another three picks!

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Ariane Louis-Seize) What a way to start the fest! So sweet & widely loved

Mads (David Moreau) Psychedelic French zombies

Confession (Jong-seok Yoon) Gorgeous, twisty, locked box thrillier

The poster for The Anmial Kingdom, which shows a boy standing in the middle of a lush forest with the shadow of what looks like an angel above him. He looks up towards the creature.

A film poster for Hundreds of Beavers, showing a trapper in a dead beaver hat run away from - surprisingly - hundreds of beavers.

2023

The Animal Kingdom (Thomas Cailley) Another film to make me cry - & this is the true horror of Mayhem, you just don't know what emotion will hit you next. A family saga that's halfway between body horror and fantasy. Beautiful

Hundreds of Beavers (Mike Cheslik) Beavers, mate. Hundreds of 'em

The Unicorn Wars film poster, where three teddies stand in the jungle. Two wear hats, two hold bows and arrows. The arrow tips are hearts. The teddy in the centre has badly stitched cuts on his face.

"A bone-chilling paranoid thriller" is the quote from Dead Central on this poster for the watcher, with the tagline 'evil wants to be seen'. Maika Monroe is seen looking out from a window, next to a curtain, as a man in shadow in the distance - we can presume a block of flats across the way' looks back at her.

2022

Unicorn Wars (Alberto Vazquez) What to say about this one? A HORRIFYING, psychedelic vision of war but also cute

Watcher (Chloe Okuno) Brilliant and should be more popular. It's a twisty psychological thriller about gaslighting. We must believe women

The Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes poster, which shows a man in an apron holding a computer monitor. Behind him is a whirly mix of green and yellow squares, with random additions, like a clock and a leg.

An alien takes a bow to a clapping crowd in silhouette. A bus hovers in the background. The tagline is 'In Dorset no one can hear you scream'.

2021

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (Junta Yamaguchi) One take J-weird 2 minutes into the future, & again, & again

Alien on Stage (Lucy Harvey/Danielle Kummer) Did I think I'd cry a Mayhem film (other than from laughter)? No. Did I cry? Yes. A group of Dorset bus drivers take Alien to the stage

2020

Sadly, this year there was only the skeleton session, and I could only make it to the shorts. However, I've seen Psycho Goreman and The Boys from County Hell since and both of them are well worth a watch.

The Why Don't You Just Die! poster, with the name written in Russian at the front. A family stands together in the background, with the father covered in blood.

Imogen Poots to the left, and Jesse Eisenberg to the right, circles upon circles show them getting smaller, into a central image of a young boy.

2019

Why Don’t You Just Die! (Kirill Sokolov) My god, it's so frustrating! But very, very funny and incredibly well shot

Vivarium (Lorcan Finnegan) Immogen Poots and Jesse Eisenburg get stuck in their suburban life, quite literally. An uncomfy psychological thriller

The Number 37 poster. A man holds bincoluars while also holding a burning cigarette. He looks into the far right. Three other characters are protrayed just below his face.

The One Cut of the Dead poster, which showcases all of the films' many, many awards and nominations. In the foreground stands the main character, holding a film camera.

The Anna and the Apocalypse film poster. Anna stands at the front, wearing a bloodsoaked school uniform and holding a huge candy cane with a pointed end. Zombies try to get thorugh a light festooned door in the background. Two other main characters stand in the mid-ground.

2018 - my favourite year yet

Number 37 (Nosipho Dumisa) A South African Rear Window. Tense & wildly underrated

One Cut of the Dead (Shin'inchiro Ueda) Incredibly smart filmmaking, another classic J-weird. Everyone enjoyed this

Anna and the Apocalypse (John McPail) My favourite Christmas musical

The Tag film poster, which shows the three main characters in the foreground, with classmates also fleeing in the background. The main character, Mitsuko stands in the middle looking shocked.

The M.F.A poster, which shows a woman in a pink wig stabbing a man. The picture is close up, so we can only see their faces and the knife handle. It's intimate, but frightening. M.F.A is scrawled in bright pink.

2017

Tag (Sion Sono) It starts with a murderous wind, and then gets weirder. A feminist time-hopping Groundhog Day

M.F.A (Natalia Leite) A trigger-warning for this brutal, underappreciated rape revenge film. Francesca Eastwood gives an icredible performance

The movie poster for Raw,where a young girl is pictured to the right, looking to the left. There is a yellow-wash over the poster.

A very busy cover, with all of the main characters in The Greasy Strangler. Featuring a quote from the Guardian: "A playful oasis of filth and depravity" and from Empire: "Insanely compelling and funny, one of the best movies of 2016"

2016 - another classic year, with so many great films spanning sci-fi, horror and comedy

Raw (Julia Ducournau) A cannibal film with a lot to say about women's bodies. Utterly gripping

The Greasy Strangler (Jim Hosking) Stupid, hilarious, gross and endlessly quoteable. A must-see

The Crumbs movie poster, which says 'Crumbs' in large, script font. In the background is an empty, but interesting landscape.

The poster for Nina Forever. In it, a naked Nina sits in reverse on a chair, waving to you. There are rose petals around her, and splashes of blood. One of her legs is broken.

The poster for The Invitation. A man looks to the camera. He is standing behind a wine glass but the aspect trickery makes it look like he is within the glass. It is full of what could be red wine, or blood.

2015 - an absolutely vintage year! Another 3 pic(k)s.

Crumbs (Miguel Llansó) devisive but I thought it was so smart and fun. A guy travereses a post-apocalyptic wasteland to board a spaceship

Nina Forever (Ben Blaine) she's yours... always

The Invitation (Karyn Kusama) So slick. That last scene!

The What We Do in the Shadows poster, featuring the three main vampires, each in coffins. The picture is black and white, with neon highlights.

Poster for The Town that Dreaded Sundown. A killer with a cloth covering his head stands with his back to the camera, looking over his shoulder. He holds a knift. In the background the trees and sundown form an image of a skull.

2014

What We Do in the Shadows (Jermaine Clement / Taika Waititi) Needs no intro. "We're werewolves, not swearwolves"

The Town that Dreaded Sundown (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon) A fun slasher & meta-sequel to the 1976 film itself based on the Phantom Killer murders. Produced by Jason Blum and Ryan Murphy

The Borderlands poster, featuring a twisted church. The poster has been blue-washed.

The poster for Strange Colour, in French L'etrange Couleur des Larmes de ton Cords. A woman holds a man in her hand and looks at him. In the background is a circle of stained glass, around which the title sits. The background is black.

2013

The Borderlands (Elliot Goldner) Folklore, found footage, ghosts. These are a few of my favourite things, all in one film

The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears (Bruno Forzani, Hélène Cattet) Utterly stunning, weird and sensual. I think this film cemented my love of Mayhem

The film poster for Chained, which shows a man standing next to a taxi looking down. The taxi, a yellow New York style one has a bloody hand pressed to the window.

The film cover. A blood covered sushi chef looks down at an illustration of a salmon nigiri with teeth, which has just bitten a hand. At the bottom is text which reads 'the sushi bites back'

A poster for Sightseers, with the tagline 'horror has a knitted jumper'. Alice Lowe stands in the front of the image, wearing a knitted jumper. In the background Steve Oram stands next to a caravan in front of a viaduct.

2012 - vintage year. I might have to pick 3.

Chained (Jennifer Chambers-Lynch) Still haunts my dreams

Dead Sushi (Noburu Iguchi) Killer sushi Hilarious fun, a classic J-weird (is that a sub-genre? It is now) that Mayhem delights in

Sightseers (Ben Wheatley) Classic Ben Wheatley, beloved by all

The poster for Sint, which says 'het originele filmscript'. A zombie St Nick rides a giant white horse and holds a staff. A full moon is in the background and it is snowing.

The Eyes Without a Face film poster. A young girl lies prone on the floor wearing a mask. In the background is a big image of her face in the mask. It is an illustrated cover.

So here we go. My first year, 2011. I do miss the experimental elements of the first years - Thrill Lab was always fun, as was the quiz

Sint (Dick Maas) Old St Nick gets murdery

Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju) A plastic surgeon murders women to make a new face for his daughter

Poster of Viy, with Viy written in Russian. A candle takes centre stage, and a young witch is in the background. A priest reads from a text in between the other two images.

The cover for Stagefright. A man with the head of an owl holds a chainsaw.

The cover for Phantom of the Paradise featuring all of the main characters.

The cover for Don't Look Now, with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland both sides of an illustration of a long passageway.

I've left out the oldies, some of which I'd seen and some of which became new favourites

Society / Stagefright / Suspiria / Vampire’s Kiss / Viy / Phantom of the Paradise / Door

Special mention: Don't Look Now, which seeing at St. Mary's church with intro from Nicolas Roeg was pretty damn cool

Today is my Christmas day! It's the start of @mayhemfilmfestival.bsky.social! Which is the weekend in my calendar I look forward to most.

This year is my 14th year, so I'm going to do a little rundown of my two favourite films of each year, covering the past 14 years

We used AI to analyse three cities. It’s true: we now walk more quickly and socialise less | Carlo Ratti Social media and the climate crisis present a real challenge to how we socialise outside. AI, however, can help us find a solution, says Carlo Ratti, the director of Venice’s 2025 Biennale Architettur...

"Optimising public life through data". This is a fascinating piece.

We used AI to analyse three cities. It’s true: we now walk more quickly and socialise less | Carlo Ratti www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Opinion | How I Built My Ruthless Summer Reading List

I felt this article in my very bones.

The act of choosing holiday reads, to me is a sacred death match. My lists boil down fiction (dutiful), fiction (fun), and non-fiction. I always hunt out a book about the place I'm visiting too.

A neverending, joyful activity.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/o...

A National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) diagram illustrating how tsunami wave information in the deep ocean is transmitted to tsunami warning centers (right)

Kamchatka earthquake highlights the advances in tsunami early warning systems 🌊 🛰️

BGS Prof David Tappin, Marine Geologist & tsunami expert explains how the Kamchatka event highlighted the improved mitigation measures now in place.

www.bgs.ac.uk/news/kamchat...

I shall look forward to that. If you do see me climbing the walls on Sunday, please point me to the nearest chair.

Tickets booked for @mayhemfilmfestival.bsky.social. Cannot overstate how much I enjoy sitting in a cinema screen for 4 straight days, which inevitably results in me hallucinating I am in a movie. It is, without a doubt, my favourite weekend of the year.