StarDestroyer.Net BBS

And this was a kid's show. That's a great Satan, more like a serial killer/sociopath of Lector scale than a megalomaniac Bond villain.

I believe that this has been posted numerous times in multiple forums. Search for "Mysterious Stranger" or Mark Twain in either OT or this forum.

Either way it's still creepy. I can never seem to find it on my own.

Ah well, it's interesting what you can find that would never get aired at all today. The short stories by student film makers, like The Cat With Hands, Channel 4 used to air during long commercial breaks late at night had a similar atmosphere.

It's too bad Hollywood is so up itself with CGI and remakes of classic or Asian horrors. This kind of thing is far more effective if taken to extremes.

I faintly remember that from my childhood. That satan representation is friggin' sweet.

Also, the cat with hands? *points to his avatar* Awesome short film.

Thats is quite possibly the best coolest and creepiest Satan I have ever seen.

That was really fucking creepy, but that is probably the most original depiction of Satan I have ever seen.

"I am an Angel."
"What's your name?"
"Satan."

That sent a chill up my spine.

"I can do no evil, for I do not know what it is".

As well as testifying that this is fairly creepy, that sounds familiar. Does anyone have it in their sig or something?

Yes, I posted this creepy segment from a forgotten claymation film from the 1980s a few months ago now, very good animation. Here is a drawing of Twain Satan I done here. I've got the androgynous part right if it is wearing a skirt

Zablorg wrote:"I can do no evil, for I do not know what it is".

As well as testifying that this is fairly creepy, that sounds familiar. Does anyone have it in their sig or something?

Does sound familiar, could still be used elsewhere though. Anyone else have any disturbing short films like this with surrealism?

That movie scared the PISS out of me when I was a kid. I had nightmares about Injun Joe.

I guess there's no way to see the series legally then. Shame, because it looks very well done and the morbid nature has sold it for me. The Mysterious Stranger rendition sealed the deal.

The Satan depection was the most frightening example I have ever seen. He doesn't hate humanity with intensity, merely is annoyed by it and he is a very powerful entity. A bit Lovecraftian, perhaps?

Zixinus wrote:The Satan depection was the most frightening example I have ever seen. He doesn't hate humanity with intensity, merely is annoyed by it and he is a very powerful entity. A bit Lovecraftian, perhaps?

Like a child? It is a young Satan sibling, and that in itself is scary. The power, curiosity and total disregard for anything makes it a cold character with an eerie appearance that just oozes malevolence and power.

I'd say he relates more to God than Satan: petulant, vindictive, arrogant, impulsive, callous, always giving with one hand and taking with the other.

I'm about half way through watching the whole thing and yeah, it's pretty freaky but it's also damn good.

This is what happens when you make a movie of a Novella Mark Twain wrote about the duality of existence.

Seriously, who thought kids would like it?

Back then, children's programming was ballsy and certainly less braindead than it can be today. I remember a lot of my fave programmes back then being far more violent, intelligent and original than what I see on the screens now, barring some exceptions.

This kind of thing being banned because of the morbidity of the content just shows that we seemingly molly coddle the kids a little more each generation. I'm not saying we should make shows that have them slashing their wrists, but it's just good to see something that not only conveys something with a point about a popular character that is often poorly portrayed; it also doesn't pull the punches. There are movies under the horror genre title that are less spine tingling than five seconds of this Satan on screen.

CaptainChewbacca wrote:This is what happens when you make a movie of a Novella Mark Twain wrote about the duality of existence.

Seriously, who thought kids would like it?

I would've fucking loved that at about 9 or 10.

Zixinus wrote:The Satan depection was the most frightening example I have ever seen. He doesn't hate humanity with intensity, merely is annoyed by it and he is a very powerful entity. A bit Lovecraftian, perhaps?

Its pretty odd, but I got the feeling that he is annoyed by us because we do wrong. Notice how he doesn't really start getting annoyed until after those dudes develop jealousy.

Well Aardman Animation did a short animation called Stage Fright which was made as relatively recently as 1999, which was a pretty damn creepy:

Part 1

Part 2

And here is a better drawing of Twain Satan:

Darth Ruinus wrote:

Its pretty odd, but I got the feeling that he is annoyed by us because we do wrong. Notice how he doesn't really start getting annoyed until after those dudes develop jealousy.

True, it did look like he was benevolent up until free will showed what petty things humans can be cropped up. Rather than smite over arbitrary rules like God, the idea of letting people know they brought wrath on themselves thanks to irrational and unkind behaviour seems more logical and instructive. It's still a very simplistic, child-like approach to justice from an otherwise supreme being. A bit like how Skynet justified its actions in the Terminator franchise.

The cataclysm depicted is actually more reminiscent of one of the sumerian flood myths, where basically, the world got flooded because mankind was being annoying and too damn loud for the gods to tolerate.

Zuul wrote:The cataclysm depicted is actually more reminiscent of one of the sumerian flood myths, where basically, the world got flooded because mankind was being annoying and too damn loud for the gods to tolerate.

Although it was almost fully incorporated into the Old Testament, along with various other Southern European, Middle Eastern and North African myths and legends. But as said before this Satan is more like the psychopathic God from the Old Testament, although he was provoked by two of the clay people childishly squabbling over a clay cow (but that didn't warrant him to massacre the rest of the clay people, who were in mourning after he squished the two squabbling farmers). Satan seems very aloof and impossible to relate to anything, while Skynet likely has a similar problem (but Skynet remains unseen and utterly inscrutable).

Big Orange wrote:although he was provoked by two of the clay people childishly squabbling over a clay cow (but that didn't warrant him to massacre the rest of the clay people, who were in mourning after he squished the two squabbling farmers).

If you watch the video again, you see that all the villagers joined in and started fighting over that one cow. They simply scattered faster when Satan smushed the first original two.

The more I think about it, it seemed that Satan was not only annoyed that people had developed jealousy and that they had pretty much destroyed the tranquility of that little village, but that the people who were mourning the two dead villagers were showing extreme hypocrisy. Crying and cherishing someone only after they had died, while in life they had fought with them over a damn cow.

CaptainChewbacca wrote: Seriously, who thought kids would like it?

A lot of children's programming is written for the adults who will be watching it with them. Writer's can safely assume that if the child is young enough, the more mature themes will go right over their heads and amuse the adults, so everyone is happy.

That being said. Fucking creepy.