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Halloween and stop motion go hand in hand in most of our minds, thanks to movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Mad Monster Party. Now, there’s a new stop-motion addition to your Halloween viewing list this year. Thanks to Boing Boing, we’ve discovered this delightfully quirky stop-motion music video from Boston’s indie rock darlings Hallelujah the Hills for their song “The Memory Tree.”

The whole music video was made in quarantine. It tells the story of a spooky lil’ ghost on an existential journey of self-discovery through the multiverse. You can watch the full video for “The Memory Tree” above.

Hallelujah the Hills’ singer Ryan Walsh spent several months making all these miniature handcrafted ghost puppets. As well as the teeny tiny ghost homes they inhabit. All in order to create a world for this little spook and his friends to live in. Or, as the case may be, to not live in. The attention to detail in the ghost house is pretty great, especially the Ouija board the ghosts use to contact the living. There is some live-action mixed in to the proceedings as well, towards the end of the video. Once the ghost seemingly makes it to our reality, he becomes a dude in a sheet.

AllThisPaperwork

The aesthetic of the video is that of an old silent film from the ‘20s.  The main narrative of the six-minute short is that of a ghost traveling through the many layers of reality, until he makes it out his world into the land of the living. The video is also eerily relevant. It starts with a title card that says “tired of more misfortune, he has not left the house in a full year.” In 2020, those words are all too relatable for most of us.

Featured Image: AllThisPaperwork

The post This Ghostly Stop-Motion Music Video is Eerily Delightful appeared first on Nerdist.

Few actors possessed the gravitas, the wiliness, the star power of Scottish film icon Sean Connery. In a career spanning six decades, Connery portrayed some of Hollywood’s greatest men of action, and some real-life legends. Still best remembered for originating the role of super spy James Bond on the big screen, Connery’s career highlights read as some of the latter-20th Century’s best, and worked with some of the great filmmakers of the age. Sean Connery passed away on Halloween at the age of 90.

Hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland, Connery began his acting career in the mid-1950s with supporting roles in British film and television productions. His first brush with American films was the Disney children’s fantasy Darby O’Gill and the Little People in 1959. By 1962, at the age of 32, Connery hit the big time as the lead role of James Bond in Dr. No, the first in 007 film franchise. He’d go on to play Bond in a further five official films and a sixth out of continuity.

While Connery is arguably the best actor to play James Bond, perhaps neck-and-neck with Daniel Craig, he’s certainly the best actor at playing James Bond. Though Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, and Craig all have their fans, it’s Connery’s portrayal of Bond that is still the gold standard. The dashing ruthlessness with which he played the spy has yet to be matched. And while several of his films feel downright barbaric today in their treatment of women—a mentality, sad to say, it seemed Connery shared—they remain the most faithful to the spirit of Ian Fleming’s original novels. From Russia with Love is my personal favorite.

In addition to the Bond franchise, Connery boasts a wide array of films and collaborations. These include Marnie for Alfred Hitchcock in 1964; The Molly Maguires in 1970 for Martin Ritt; Sidney Lumet’s Murder on the Orient Express in 1974; The Man Who Would Be King for John Huston in 1975; The Untouchables for Brian DePalma in 1987, which won Connery his sole Oscar; and Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989, which is possibly his second most beloved role.

Connery also did his fair share of bizarre genre fare, with John Boorman’s Zardoz from 1974 as the most baffling. If you haven’t seen Zardoz you owe it to yourself. Other such films include Outland from 1983; Highlander in 1986 and its sequel Highlander 2: The Quickening in 1991; DragonHeart and Michael Bay’s The Rock in 1996; the truly terrible The Avengers in 1998; and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in 2003, sadly the movie that led to his retirement.

While in relative seclusion for close to 20 years, Connery’s iconic status never diminished. New generations of film fans discovered his great performances with each successive year, and anywhere there’s a 007 marathon on some cable channel, you’ll never be too far from Sean Connery.

Featured Image: MGM

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!

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There’s no shortage of streaming horror these days. But not everything is a winner. In a vast sea of spooky content, only some things need your utmost attention. And we’re here today to give you the perfect creepy binge suggestion. It isn’t brand new, but it’s worthy of your renewed attention if you missed it. And if you already have Apple TV+, then you can start that binge today, just in time for Halloween. The show is called Servant and it’s one of the best pieces of horror television I’ve seen. You do not want to miss this one.

What’s it about? Servant follows a couple named Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) and Sean (Toby Kebbell) Turner, wealthy Philadelphians who’ve suffered a terrible tragedy: the apparent crib death of their infant son Jericho. Dorothy is so grief stricken that she believes a reborn doll modeled after Jericho is her real son. She treats the doll with affection and devotion, never acknowledging that it isn’t really her child. Sean puts up with the act to salvage his relationship and to keep Dorothy from the brink of mental collapse. Her brother Julian (Rupert Grint) is also in on the act.

But things get really creepy when the couple hires a nanny named Leanne (Nell Tiger Free). The strange girl shows up to their decadent brownstone with only a few humble belongings. She’s devoutly religious, which troubles Sean. And like Dorothy, she refuses to acknowledge that Jericho is actually a doll. Soon, odd things begin to happen, seemingly triggered by Leanne’s appearance.

I won’t spoil the show for you. It really hinges on its surprises—and there are plenty. But I did want to offer up a few more reasons why you should watch Servant, and what makes it the perfect Halloween binge.

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M. Night Shyamalan is a producer

Yes, one of the biggest names in horror is responsible for Servant. M. Night Shyamalan, who brought us classics like The Sixth Sense and Signs, is an executive producer on Servant. You can tell right away that the show is operating in that familiar Shyamalan landscape. It’s set in Pennsylvania, his home state and the setting for many of his films. It’s also instantly foreboding, for reasons you can’t really grasp. Like the best Shyamalan projects, this thing is dripping with a dread that’s hard to name. You’re uncomfortable, and you don’t know why. Something is just off.

Shyamalan didn’t just executive produce the series. He also directed the superb pilot, titled “Reborn,” and the penultimate first season episode “Jericho.” If you’re a fan of his films, just you wait. This is one of the best things he’s been a part of in years.

Apple TV+

The atmosphere is a character

There’s something immediately decadent about Servant. It starts with the beautiful Philadelphia brownstone the Turners occupy. Immediately, we’re placed in this almost regal setting, where surfaces shine and wall patterns come to life. And like another one of my favorite horror shows, Hannibal, food plays a huge role in the series. Sean is a chef, so food is everywhere. (The show actually had a food consultant: chef Marc Vetri.) Plates of seafood and vegetables are both beautiful and ominous. And dinner scenes between the family are fully of unspeakable tension.

These things, paired with the autumn timeframe, lend a ton of necessary atmosphere to the show. You’re placed in a setting both beautiful and terrifying. There is so much emptiness in this great big house. So much to look at that you fear objects might come to life. And that’s to say nothing of the baby doll perched in an upstairs bedroom, and the strange girl who cares for him.

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It bolsters amazing central performances 

Really, Servant sings because of its performances. Lauren Ambrose is terrific as Dorothy, a woman on the edge of so much danger. We empathize with her, we worry for her, and we watch as she navigates this tightrope of maternal expectations and woes. She is really dazzling in the part; the show wouldn’t work without her. Likewise, Toby Kebbell puts in a strong performance as Sean. He’s on his own tightrope, one laced with grief and trauma and anxiety and anger. Together, they make for a couple just seconds away from dissolution. And we care for them so much.

Rupert Grint is a welcome addition to the cast, and he really does bear a strong resemblance to Ambrose. But the real standout here is Nell Tiger Free, who you might recognize as the second Myrcella from Game of Thrones. She’s absolutely mesmerizing as Leanne. This strange, devout, creepy little thing. One look at her icy eyes and you know something is wrong. But what, exactly? The show—and her chilling performance—keeps us guessing at every turn.

That’s really as much as I can say without spoiling the show. And trust me, you don’t want to know any spoilers headed in. And there’s good new if you watch and enjoy: Servant is coming back for season two next year! Get caught up ahead of time. You won’t regret it.

Featured Image: Apple TV+

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Hi everyone! I have some bad news that I want to share with you all. At Walt Disney World, it appears that they are laying off show entertainers, casts a dark shadow on popular Disney attractions such as ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ ‘Monsters Inc.’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ were affected, among others. The Orlando Sentinel first reported that entertainers of some of its most popular live shows, including “Festival of the Lion King” or “Finding Nemo: The Musical,” were let go on Tuesday.

Performers on Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom park and entertainers of the Citizens of Hollywood at Disney’s Hollywood Studios were reportedly also included in the cuts. The Disney website lists the aforementioned shows as “temporarily unavailable” but it’s important to note those statuses have appeared on the website for months, as a majority of them had already been shut down due to social distancing requirements.

Disney World is also laying off 720 performers because of the pandemic. Only 60 Equity performers are working or returning to work at the Orlando, Florida-based theme park resort, the union said in a statement.

The performer layoffs come weeks after The Walt Disney Co. announced it was eliminating 28,000 jobs in its park’s division in California and Florida because of restrictions and costs from the pandemic. Two-thirds of the planned layoffs involve part-time workers.

 “Our hearts go out to all the cast members at Walt Disney World,” said Kate Shindle, president of Actors’ Equity Association. “Disney has made it clear that our members would face work reductions since they announced layoffs of nearly 28,000 employees. That does not make this news any less painful.”

Across Florida, the numbers of those testing positive — while still way down from the state’s summertime peak — have begun inching up over the past week, prompting a school in Orlando to return to virtual classes and the mayor of Jacksonville has extended a mask mandate through Thanksgiving Day.

On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said during an appearance in central Florida that he has lobbied President Donald Trump to loosen travel restrictions from critical travel markets like Brazil and Europe, in hopes of jump-starting tourism into the state’s tourist attractions and beaches.

 On Wednesday, Florida health officials confirmed 4,115 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the statewide total since the pandemic began to 790,426. The state also confirmed 66 new deaths on Wednesday, bringing the death toll from COVID-19 to 16,775.

There were 2,336 people being treated for the disease in Florida hospitals in the late morning Wednesday, according to a state online census of hospital beds. That figure reached nearly 10,000 in late July, then declined steadily until late September when it began hovering between 2,000 and 2,200 for several weeks.

In Fort Lauderdale, City Manager Chris Lagerbloom is among a dozen city employees to test positive for the coronavirus, the South Florida SunSentinel reported. Listed among those employees who are quarantining are 10 police officers and eight firefighters who may have come into contact with an infected individual while responding to calls.

Disneyland Paris is closing on October 30 which is this Friday due to the Covid-19 lockdown and it may last through December 1, but it will reevaluate every two weeks.

All of this information came from the Disney news I look at.

So, what do you guys think about this Disney information?

I would like to hear some comments, thoughts, or opinions down below.

Stay tuned for more Disney updates.

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