guillermo del toro quest

and i brought up the tactic used by cults to force vulnerablility->create a sense of shared intimacy->weaponise guilt. because that is something that our perspective character of the priest does very early on into the fim, he reproduces the same tactics that probably brought him into the church, well-meaningly, and finds himself on the recieving end of the guilt and weaponisation of the members of the group he is trying to connect with due to the whole cult of personality situation.

because we both agreed that the protagonist was trying to uphold an ideal of forgiveness and acceptance as a positive model of how faith can function. but i think it matters that he tries and fails to implement the toxic cult like methods of the church because he bought into the illusion of closeness they create, and that this is contrasted with moments of real connection and support in ways that are about empathy not pity.

Television is not the truth. Television's a goddamned amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business!

“An assassination live on television coast to coast? That’s entertainment!”

Drácula | 1931 | dir. George Melford