Poppy is a singer, songwriter, actress, author, YouTuber, model, and religious leader. That is what Wikipedia tells us, and it is quite a picture painted in just one sentence. She rose to prominence through a prolific YouTube channel full of surreal videos, where she among other things spoke nonsense and bled black sludge from her mouth. Her musical endeavors carried her to stardom, becoming not only a fashion icon but a literally worshiped pop idol through the Cult of Poppy. To look upon her is to look upon a personification of modern culture, of mass consumption and plastic appeal with a veneer of faux authenticity… but she is more. The casual observer might assume that Poppy is a puppet to some of Tiphareph’s servants, or perhaps (if you are truly deluded) an incarnate of the same. This is not only false, but dangerously so. No, the Truth of Poppy’s being and the path she has travelled is much more complex than that… and worrisome. We start from the beginning.
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A look at horror media through a Kult lens.
The Kult Take: It Follows
For this recurring segment of Beyond Elysium, I will step away from the nepharites and have a Kult-inspired look at other horror media. Welcome to The Kult Take.
The curse placed upon the characters in It Follows is a sexually transmitted mark of death. Early in the film, Jay has sex with her new boyfriend and finds herself stuck with the curse, the boyfriend abandoning her with only a warning to move fast and pass it on as quickly as possible. The curse manifests as a human, though its exact appearance can shift at any time. It is only visible to those who have been affected by the curse, others ignore its presence entirely. At a slow, steady pace, the manifestation walks towards the curse bearer with intent to kill. It can break through doors, cast others aside, and track its victim to the ends of the Earth. Once it kills its victim, the manifestation returns to whomever it last tormented. No matter what you do, it follows.
The Kult Take: 1st Summoning
For this recurring segment of Beyond Elysium, I will step away from the nepharites and have a Kult-inspired look at other horror media. Welcome to The Kult Take.
1st Summoning is a film in which an amateur director, Mark, convinces his friends to help him make a documentary film about an allegedly cursed factory. It’s said that the Millbrook Factory was built on grounds used for satanic rituals, and that supernatural phenomena continue to happen inside even forty years after its discontinuation. Mark’s concept is to film interviews with locals about the rumors surrounding this place, then head inside the factory on the night of October 6th to perform a ritual which allows you to ask for anything you want. As the movie progresses Mark’s fragile mental state deteriorates, and his friends and girlfriend become divided amongst themselves as they help him realize his vision, with a gruesome end result.
That’s a good Kult story. Unfortunately, the film is a mess. It is shot poorly even for a found footage film, the plot is at times nonsensical in a way that doesn’t tell us anything interesting, the horror isn’t impactful, and Mark’s acting is unfortunately the worst in the group of four main characters. I did not like it, but it did have some good ideas worth salvaging. What better way to do it than adapt it as a Kult one-shot?
SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Kult Take: Jacob’s Ladder
For this recurring segment of Beyond Elysium, I will step away from the nepharites and have a Kult-inspired look at other horror media. Welcome to The Kult Take.
Hello and welcome! This time on The Kult Take, we are delving into the madness of Jacob’s Ladder. This one’s been brought up many times in discussions about Kult-like films, and finally watching it after years of putting it off makes me understand why. It feels almost deliberately Kultish at times, until you remember that the film was released in 1990, a year before Kult first hit toy store shelves in Sweden and caused all sorts of ruckus.
Jacob’s Ladder blew me away. It’s a movie which defies a singular interpretation, and deliberately so. It is a movie which contradicts itself and hints at all sorts of possible truths. If you disagree with my understanding of the film, I encourage you to comment with your own thoughts.
SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Kult Take: Friend Request
For this recurring segment of Beyond Elysium, I will step away from the nepharites and have a Kult-inspired look at other horror media. Welcome to The Kult Take.
Friend Request is a 2016 horror movie in which Laura, a popular college girl with an active social media presence, tries to befriend the friendless freak Marina and gets punished for it. It has problems: it loses steam about one third through the movie but just keeps plodding on, the scares are lazy, and the message is, like, wow, mean spirited. BUT! Marina, presented in the film as a new age witch who sacrifices herself to curse Laura, is a delightful look at how Sathariel corrupts the miserable and lonely.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The Kult Take: Pet Sematary
When I read the Kult core book, I am again and again struck by the same feeling: The Kult universe is dark, and it is expansive. Every possible avenue is left open for you, nothing is absolute nor set in stone. While we know about the cairath and nachtschreck and azghouls, there are a million other horrors the book never explores. We learn about the Swap Dealer and Death Angel Incarnates, but there are thousands other gods and manifestations of them we might as well be dealing with.
What lies beyond the Illusion, and how it affects those that gaze through it, is entirely up to us. We can tie it to the book’s presented beings and conflicts as much or as little as we want. If we accept that, then Kult is so much more than a game about discovering lictors and zeloths and the Demiurge. Kult becomes a game where nearly any horror story can be told, and thanks to the game world’s malleability, we can seamlessly integrate it to any desired level we want for our story.
For this (hopefully frequently) recurring segment of Beyond Elysium, I will step away from the nepharites and have a Kult-inspired look at other horror media. Welcome to The Kult Take.
Beyond Elysium 