§1.0 - Points 1.0–1.11: THIS BLOG'S CONTENTS:
1.1 - THIS BLOG'S TITLE:
1.2 - PART IX. THE MOOGAI, THE BOGEYMAN, THE SATYR "KRAMPUS"—AND GOVERNMENTS STEALING CHILDREN—IN THE FILM: 'THE MOOGAI, 21 JANUARY 2024 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL, 86 MINUTES', DIRECTED BY JON BELL: A BLOG, 18 NOVEMBER 2024, BY CRAIG STEVEN JOSEPH LACEY /
1.3 - THIS BLOG'S LISTED SECTIONS AND NUMBERED POINTS:
1.4 - §2.0: Points 2.0–2.21:DISCLAIMER /1.5 - §3.0: Points 3.0–3.2: DATES OF RESEARCH, WRITING AND PUBLICATION /1.6 - §4.0: Points 4.0–4.25: THE MOOGAI: A FOLK-LORE OF AUSTRALIA /1.7 - §5.0: Points 5.0–5.25: THE UNDER-PINNING FOLK-LORE OF THE THREE FILMS: THE MOOGAI, 21 JANUARY 2024, 86 MINUTES, THE BABADOOK, 17 JANUARY 2014, 94 MINUTES, AND THE BOOGEYMAN, 2 JUNE 2023, 99 MINUTES /1.8 - §6.0: Points 6.0–6.29: THE FOLK-LORE OF THE SACK-MAN AND THE GOODLY PATRIARCH: SAINT NICHOLAS /1.9 - §7.0: Points 7.0–7.36: COMPARING THE AUSTRALIAN HORROR FILMS TO GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST CINEMA /1.10 - §8.0: Points 8.0–8.28: THE PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS AS TYPES OF CHANGELING OR VAMPIRE /1.11 - §9.0: Points 9.1–9.23: FROM GOVERNMENTAL, CUSTODIAL POSSESSIONS TO SPIRITUAL POSSESSIONS /
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§2.0 - THE DISCLAIMER—Refer directly beneath to points 2.0–2.21.
2.1 - All rights reserved © Craig Steven Joseph Lacey, 4 December 1976–, Australia. 2.2 - Changing the content or re-publishing this blog is strictly prohibited. 2.3 - This blog is protected by the: 2.4 - Privacy Act 1988 of Australia, against unauthorized access to Craig Steven Joseph Lacey's Samsung Galaxy A05s, and Google account; 2.5 - Cybercrime Act 2001 of Australia, against computer fraud or internet fraud; 2.6 - Copyright Act 1968 of Australia, against intellectual property theft; 2.7 - Universal Copyright Convention, circa 1952; 2.8 - Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, 9 September 1886. 2.9 - Fines and/or prosecution will apply according to Australian and International law in reference to unauthorized access and use of this blog published through the Blogger app of Google.com and the author's storage device(s) with the data. 2.10 - A total of ten images have been used within this blog, at: 2.11 - point 4.20, a film-still from: The Moogai, circa 2024; 2.12 - point 4.25, a film-still from The Moogai, circa 2024; 2.13 - point 5.15, an illustration of a 'Banksia Man' from Snugglepot And Cuddlepie, circa 1990; 2.14 - point 6.16, a greeting card of the 1900s that reads: 'Gruß vom Krampus / Greetings from Krampus' from The Krampus Devils website: <http://www.krampus-certi.cz/historie.html>; 2.15 - point 6.20 the theatrical release poster for the film: It Chapter One, 5 September 2017 Telephone Communication Limited Chinese Theatre California, 135 minutes, directed by Andy Muschietti; 2.16 - point 7.6 a film still of the character of the babadook as it crosses over from the two-dimensional world of the children's pop-up book to the real world of the film; 2.17 - point 7.8, a film-still of moogai's hands gesturing to take the baby Jacob; 2.18 - point 7.16, the theatrical release film poster for: M, 11 May 1931, 111 minutes, directed by Fritz Lang; production company: Nero-Film A.G.; 2.19 - point 7.29, a film still of a chicken fœtus broken from the shell and in a bowel; 2.20 - point 9.12, the film's theatrical release poster in which Precious Ann's eyes appear all-white. 2.21 - Strictly not for sale, now or in the future.
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§3.0 - DATES OF RESEARCH, WRITING AND PUBLICATION—Refer directly beneath to the points 3.0–3.3.
3.1 - This blog was started, 01.11.2024, and completed 18.11.2024, as researched and composed only by Craig Steven Joseph Lacey at Brisbane City, Queensland, Australia, 4000. 3.2 - Word count: 7,407 and characters count: 45,277. 3.3 - Last up-dated: 21:02, 19.11.2024, Australian Eastern Standard Time.
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§4.0 - THE MOOGAI: A FOLK-LORE OF AUSTRALIA—Refer directly beneath at points 4.1 to 4.25.
4.1 - This blog discusses the Australian film: 4.2 - The Moogai, 21 January 2024 Sundance Film Festival, (31 October 2024 Australia), 86 minutes, directed by Jon Bell; the production companies: Causeway Films and No Coincidence Media; 4.3 - with references and commentaries extended to a number of similar films and written texts, some of which are found to represent the symbolic characterisation of "the child-eater", an essentially gothic figure—notably prevalent throughout world-wide cultures—and that is in representation regarding general Australian and black Australian Aboriginal cultures as evidenced by this film. 4.4 - The filming locations of: The Moogai, 21 January 2024, 86 minutes, according to an internet source, include: 4.5 - Western Sydney; 4.6 - Leichhardt; 4.7 - Randwick; 4.8 - Marrickville; 4.9 - Moore Park; 4.10 - Botany Bay; 4.11 - Waverley. 4.12 - There are few visual indicators of these cities' localities within the film—for example, there are none of the standard land-marks, such as: the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, or Sydney's North shore beaches, or Parramatta Park's River Walk, etc. 4.13 - Such psychological / horror genre films can involve a narration of the 'dissociative fugue', where wanderings happen similar to sleep walking, in which case nothing much is recognisable—further compare the Australian phrase: "to have gone walk-about", that alludes to temporarily leaving, or completely disappearing, and the North American military-based acronym: 'AWOL: absent without official leave', that has become a noun: ''awol'. 4.14 - This film contains aspects of the British Victorian night-marish fugue, such as narrated by: 4.15 - The Yellow Wallpaper, circa 1892, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; re-published in: The Yellow Wall-Paper And Selected Writings, 3 March 2020, Penguin Classics, 400 pages, ISBN: 9780143134794; 4.16 - but there are none of the British Victorian-era preoccupations of "the damsel in distress". 4.17 - Instead women are portrayed as confronting the monster of their night-mares—the monster that has crossed-over from the dream world to the so-called real world of every-day suburbia, where women know how to fight. 4.18 - In many respects this film avoids the tourist icons of the Australian landscape to reveal "the back-yard" as being a literal and figurative place, a locus amœnus, that symbolizes a private space, such as "the family closet", that is opened up as a sort of shared commons—the bourgeois obsession with the limits of the family home are thrown-off for a shared reality of experience against the hardships among the ghosts of the past connected to the dictatorship of the British-Australian monarchy / government. 4.19 - Out in Parramatta's / Sydney's back-yard, Ruth, acted by Tessa Rose, Sarah, acted by Shari Sebbens, Chloe, acted by Jahdeana Mary, and the infant son, Jacob, are shown to confront the moogai's unwanted presence upon the land and its threats to permanently take away the new-born son. 4.20 - Refer directly beneath to a film-still of Ruth, Sarah and her children "out in the back-yard", with the Iron-bark Eucalyptus tree, girt by many photographs of the moogai's victims.
4.21 - First portrayed during the initial mise-en-scene of the bush-land of Parramatta's outer western suburbs, the moogai is seen as attached to the dark interior of the earth, viz. within a cave, yet its legacy is greater than any attachment to the land, as it later attaches itself to Ruth's daughter, Sarah and her new-born son, who live at the city—seemingly, its mission is to perpetuate the antiquated doctrines of 'The Stolen Generation', an odious sort of tax. 4.22 - To defeat the moogai, Sarah must connect with her biological mother's lore and draw strength from her black Australian Aboriginal culture, at a site marked by an Iron-bark Eucalyptus, around which Ruth creates two concentric circles of fire to reinforce their stand against the tyranny the moogai symbolizes. 4.23 - Refer directly beneath at the film-still that depicts Ruth, Sarah, Chloe and the baby Jacob, behind rings of fire.
4.24 - Further the film represents the socio-cultural concerns of contemporary Australian society, with moments of Australian English usage and the Australian accent; moments of distinctly Australian and Indigenous history and culture; scenes of the Australian bush-land at the outer edges of the city distinguished by the stoic, Iron-bark Eucalyptus trees, amid the tall grass and "scrub", viz. dense thickets; lastly, but not least, a system of education, hospitalization and policing ("government") that most Australian people must work-around or risk imprisonment. 4.25 - Considering a monster lurks in many Australians' pasts and households, or "out in the back-yard" of Australia, comparatively the government's regulations are found to be out of place with such experiences, such that it is to culture and religion the people must turn for strength of identity and purpose.
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§5.0 - THE UNDER-PINNING FOLK-LORE OF THE THREE FILMS: THE MOOGAI, 21 JANUARY 2024, 86 MINUTES, THE BABADOOK, 17 JANUARY 2014, 94 MINUTES, AND THE BOOGEYMAN, 2 JUNE 2023, 99 MINUTES—Refer directly beneath to points 5.1 to 5.25.
5.1 - The film: The Moogai, 21 January 2024, 86 minutes, directed by Jon Bell, involves a similar thematic subject of "the bogeyman" as another Australian film but which is set at Adelaide, South Australia, ten years earlier: 5.2 - The Babadook, 17 January 2014 Sundance Film Festival, (22 May 2014 Australia), 94 minutes, written and directed by Jennifer Kent; production companies: Screen Australia, Causeway Films, South Australian Film Corporation, Smoking Gun Productions and Entertainment One. 5.3 - The thematic subject for both Australian horror genre films is to an extent the already extensively narrated: "monster under the bed", or the monster in the basement or the monster lurking in the cave that has become the monster under the bed or in the closet. 5.4 - More specifically, the 'babadook' is supposedly an invented word by the film's director Jennifer Kent, improvised from the Serbo-Croatian language for 'bogeyman', viz. 'babaroga'. 5.5 - The 'moogai' is said to be a noun of the black Australian Aboriginal Bundjalung language, that refers to a 'ghost' as a type of man / beast which crosses over from the spirit world to chase after children in the fulfilment of a type of curse. 5.6 - Comparing the moogai to the babadook, the under-pinning figure that emerges is that of 'the bogeyman', a noun which derives from the global folk-lores of the 'scare-crow' or 'sack man'. 5.7 - Being Australian, the first association to a monster of black Australian Aboriginal folk-lore, is the 'Bunyip', though the bunyip is a creature considered to be of the billabong or water-hole, not a cave—the bunyip is a chimera of sorts, but disconnected to the history of the bogeyman's kid-napping and child killing or eating as shared by the moogai too. 5.8 - The 'Yowie' may be a closer Australian match to the moogai, as an humanoid spirit that is known to roam the earth and eat humans, and that is comparable to 'wild men', as of Jonathan Swift's characters: 'yahoo': 'a brute in human form', from the text: 5.9 - Gulliver's Travels, Or Travels In to Several Remote Nations Of The World; In Four Parts; By Lemuel Gulliver, First A Surgeon, And Then A Captain Of Several Ships, circa 1726 by Jonathan Swift; re-published Gulliver's Travels, circa 1997, 360 pages, Puffin Books, ISBN 9781442039513—and adapted for film: 5.10 - Gulliver's Travels, premiered in the United States Of America, NBC, 4–5 February 1996, 186 minutes, directed by Charles Sturridge, production companies: Jim Henson Productions and Hallmark Entertainment; 5.11 - texts that arguably portray Australia before the British claimed it as theirs, though this is an arguable point rather than consensual, historical fact. 5.12 - The yowie or yahoo are possibly similar to the wild-men, such as the 'Squatch' of Hood Mountain Park, Oregon, as already discussed in my blog thoughtsdisjectamembra: 'Part VII Changeling Chased By Satyr', 22 September 2024'. 5.13 - There are further allusions to the 'green man', a pagan symbol associated with satyrs, though in Australia the equivalent is most probably the 'Banksia Man', who has been popularized by May Gibbs' bush babies series, such as: 5.14 - The Complete Adventures Of Snugglepot And Cuddlepie, circa 1940, Sydney: Angus & Robertson; re-published as: Snugglepot And Cuddlepie, circa 1990, North Ryde, New South Wales: Collins /Angus & Robertson, 228 pages, ISBN 0207167303, 9780207167300. 5.15 - Refer directly beneath to an illustration of a Banksia man from: Snugglepot And Cuddlepie, circa 1990.
5.16 - To further follow the etymological analysis of the noun: 'bogeyman', the scare-crow's symbolism of a 'bug-bear', that is a dummy or mannequin used to scare away predators from a place, is considered to continue the relevance of a bug-bear, though the moogai scares away children who dwell about a place, not predators. 5.17 - The tendency is to perceive the bogeyman as a thing such as an object, not dissimilar to the scare-crow, but as a ghost it is somewhere between a person and thing: as that inanimate object possessed of a spirit, a medium or conduit through which the doll may become possessed and animated. 5.18 - The noun: 'bogeyman' derives from the phrase: 'black man / Der Schwarze Mann', in which case 'black' refers not to the colour of a man's skin, but to the places where he resides, viz. in caves, the closet or under the bed. 5.19 - Der Schwarze Mann / The Black Man is the title of a game popular throughout Europe from the 16th century onwards; colloquially known as: 'Who is afraid of the black man?', it is a game in which a number of participants must avoid being captured by "the black man", viz. the personification of 'The Black Death' of mid 14th century Europe, that is, the bubonic plague, and The Grim Reaper—refer to: "The Disappearance Of The Plague: Social And Cultural Consequences In Europe Around 1700" by Achim Landwehr in: editors Wolfgang Benz and Georg Iggers, Journal Of History, Zeitschrift Für Geschichtswissenschaft, circa 2006, Metropol Verlag, Berlin Volume 54, ISSN 0044-2828, page 761. 5.20 - Broadly interpreted the game's principal chase is entertained by the above mentioned films: the moogai chases Ruth, Sarah, Chloe and baby Jacob at the urban apartment and bush-land, and the babadook relentlessly pursues Amelia and Samuel in their Victorian-style home with its up-stairs and basement. 5.21 - However, each of the films' monsters are of a white appearance. 5.22 - The third film commented upon in this section of the blog is of New Orleans, Louisiana, with its eponymous subject of the bogeyman: 5.23 - The Boogeyman, 2 June 2023, 99 minutes, directed by Rob Savage; production companies: 20th Century Studios, 21 Laps Entertainment, NeoReel, TSG Entertainment; 5.24 - in which the spirit of the bogeyman is represented as a shadow, without any distinct ethnic traits, such as to attribute the creature to a specific race. 5.25 - Here the semiotics of darkness is associated to an absence of sight and ignorance that can be preyed upon by "predators"; typically envisaged as dæmons according to the Judeo-Christian cultures which narrate of limbo, hell or sheol as places of darkness and shadowy ghosts, viz. shades.
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§6.0 - THE FOLK-LORE OF THE SACK-MAN AND THE GOODLY PATRIARCH: SAINT NICHOLAS—Refer directly beneath to points 6.1 to 6.29.
6.1 - The 'sack-man' is known in Dutch as: 'Zwarte Piet' / Indonesian: 'Pit Hitam', viz. 'Black Pete', said to be the servant of Saint Nicholas, such as portrayed in the Dutch Christmas book: 6.2 - Sint Nikolaas En Zijn Knecht, circa 1850, Amsterdam: Gerardus Theodorus Bom and re-published circa 1907, by Jan Schenkman. 6.3 - 'Black Pete' is described as a black Moor as based on the legend: Saint Nicholas tamed dæmons to help in his Christmas tasks—refer to: The Cult Of Saint Nicholas And Its Customs In The West: A Cultural-Geographical-Ethnographic Study / Research on Folklore, Issues 9-12, circa 1931, by Karl Meissen, Düsseldorf. 6.4 - According to the Spanish and Latin American cultures: 'Coco / Cucuy / Cuco / Cuca / El-Cucuí' is the ghostly monster which may "spirit away" viz. kid-nap disobedient children, to eat, as it is a child-eater. 6.5 - More specifically, 'Coco' is a reference to the 'skull', which recalls the similar Mexican and South American figure of 'Calaca', that literally translated as 'skeleton', which is further associated with the macabre "danse of the dead" and is part of the festivities of the Catholic tradition, All Soul's Day, 2 November, such as celebrated by the film: 6.6 - The Book Of Life, 17 October 2014 the United States Of America, 95 minutes, directed by Jorge R. Gutierrez. 6.7 - There are similarities between the film mentioned directly above and the film directly beneath: 6.8 - Coco, 20 October 2017 Morelia, 105 minutes, directed by Lee Unkrich; production company: Pixar Animation Studios. 6.9 - The figures of Coco or Calaca are more definitively of The Grim Reaper, the personification of death, such as of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse of the Christian New Testament: Chapter 6 of The Book Of Revelation. 6.10 - Regarding the film: The Moogai, 21 January 2024, 86 minutes, the figure of the sack-man as the bogeyman—the moogai—who is a child-eater differs from The Grim Reaper, for a focus upon children or disobedient children as its victims; on which point it is more comparable to the French 'Père Fouettard / Father Whipper / Old Man Whipper', a companion of Santa Claus the festive spirit of Saint Nicholas, the Christmas gift-bringer. 6.11 - The dark companion of Santa Claus is prevalent throughout many cultures, such as at Germany: 'Knecht Ruprecht'; at Austria and Bavaria: 'Krampus'; at Slovenia: 'Parkelj'; Croatia and Hungary: 'Friuli'; at Palatinate and Pennsylvania: 'Belsnickel'; at Augsburg: 'Buzebergt'; at Switzerland: 'Schmutzli'; at the Czech Republic, Saint Nicholas or svatý Mikuláš is accompanied by the čert (the Devil) and anděl (the Angel). 6.12 - This "dark companion" of Santa Claus delivers bags of presents, 5 December, but in the empty bags takes the naughty children to the place of no return, 6 December, the Feast of Saint Nicholas. 6.13 - Such figures feature less in the contemporary cinematic representations of the traditions of Christian festivities that focus on children, such as: Martinmas 11 November, Christmas 25 December, The Feast Of The Holy Innocents 28 December and New Year's Day 1 January—with the one exception being the recent film: 6.14 - Terrifier 3, 19 September 2024 Fantastic Fest, 125 minutes, directed by Damien Leone; production companies: Dark Age Cinema, Bloody Disgusting, The Coven and Fuzz on the Lens Productions; 6.15 - though the figure of 'Art the Clown' is an hybrid of the Christmas satyr, such as Krampus / Knecht Ruprecht, and the clown of the commedia dell'arte, 'Brighella'. 6.16 - Refer directly beneath to a greeting card of the 1900s that reads: 'Gruß vom Krampus / Greetings from Krampus' from The Krampus Devils website:<http://www.krampus-certi.cz/historie.html>, in which the figure of Krampus resembles a satyr with an obvious cannibalistic motive due to the extension of his tongue, but the child could be destined to enslavement with the shackles on the floor, and it is the boy being sacked by the child-eater to suggest the boy has been badly behaved, not the girl.6.17 - The permutation of the clown figure is a modern twist to the representation of the sack-man, such as epitomized by the film: 6.18 - It Chapter One, 5 September 2017 Telephone Communication Limited Chinese Theatre California, 135 minutes, directed by Andy Muschietti—based on the text by celebrated author of the macabre, Stephen King: 6.19 - IT, 15 September 1986, by Stephen King, Viking, United States Of America, 1,138 pages, ISBN: 0-670-81302-8. 6.20 - Refer directly beneath to the film's theatrical release poster in which a clown stares from a storm drain with the play things of a boy, a red balloon and a paper boat: either lures or remnants of earlier victims.
6.21 - The figure of the child-eater, while derivative of the Christian cultures based on Christmas festivities, is found throughout Eastern Asian countries, such as: 6.22 - at Northern India the 'Bori Baba', that translates as "Father Sack", carries a sack in which he places children he captures; 6.23 - at Ghana the Madam Koi Koi / Lady Koi Koi / Madam Moke, a Nigerian urban legend, is a vengeful ghost who haunts dormitories, hall-ways and toilets at boarding-schools during night-time to enforce sleep among the children; 6.24 - regarding which is based the Netflicks television two part film: 6.25 - The Origin: Madam Koi-Koi, Part One 31 October 2023 and Part Two 7 November 2023, Nigeria, directed by Jay Franklyn Jituboh. 6.26 - At Turkey, 'Harkıt' refers to 'sack man' known as "Öcü, Böcü" or "Torbalı" who carries misbehaved children away to eat or sell. 6.27 - During the dictatorship of Papa Doc Duvalier, 22 October 1957 – 21 April 1971, the Haitian secret police were referred to by the name: 'Tontons Macoutes / Uncle Gunnysack' due to their disappearing of Papa Doc Duvalier's political opponents—refer to: "The Roots Of Haitian Vodou" in: The Haitian Vodou Handbook: Protocols For Riding With The Lwa, circa 2007, by Kenaz Filan, Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books, ISBN 978-1-59477-995-4, page 21. 6.28 - There may be no exact correlative, cultural equivalent, but there is the character of "The Oogie-Boogie Man" in the animated film by the producer Tim Burton, that retains the macabre association of Krampus to Christmas: 6.29 - The Nightmare Before Christmas, 9 October 1993 New York Film Festival, 76 minutes, directed by Henry Seligk; production companies: Touchstone Pictures and Skellington Production.
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§7.0 - COMPARING THE AUSTRALIAN HORROR FILMS TO GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST CINEMA—Refer directly beneath to points 7.1 to 7.36.
7.1 - As with most contemporary horror genre films, audiences partake in films with narratives that offer predictable, often clichéd denouements. 7.2 - Arguably, it is the quality of the strangeness of the horrific as a gothic expressionist style that compels a curiosity at the screen's unveiling of the dark secrets of a family or community or nation. 7.3 - The gothic style of film derives from film's early beginnings in German Expressionist cinema, from the late 1910s to early 1920s, in which the spectre of our own mortality is mirrored back to us from the cinematic screen, often in all its morbid fascination with the spectacle of death—death is, after all, the strangest thing. 7.4 - Death is not entertained as a moral play, though injustice may be inferred as comparable to the film noir's conceit of the detective's search for justice amid a world sub-dued by darkness and often madness, and the expressionist cinema has provided a modality that could communicate something of Golgotha, the world of death. 7.5 - I continue to ask how much is fiction really, regarding such narratives that have been stylised to almost a caricature—a point that the film: The Babadook, 17 January 2014, 94 minutes, seems to demonstrate, because the children's book's gothic illustrations of the babadook is witnessed to cross-over from the book's world to the real-world, albeit with a card-board cut-out vestige of appearance. 7.6 - Refer directly beneath at the film still of the character of the babadook as it crosses over from the two-dimensional world of the children's pop-up book to the real world of the film.
7.7 - If the modality of the cartoon permits truth-telling, perhaps the animated films mentioned in this blog may provide something of an answer, but as discussed in a future blog? 7.8 - In reference to this film by Jon Bell and similar films, truth-telling can only be done partially, viz. through "part truths". 7.9 - The moogai similar to the babadook is represented as lurking at the edges of the camera's frame or at door-ways or down hall-ways and resists a complete revelation of its form—for example, its long, dirty hands are shown near the baby Jacob, or its face or eyes stare out from the darkness pars pro toto. 7.10 - Refer directly beneath to the film-still of moogai's hands gesturing to take the baby.
7.11 - Not until both Australian films' climax is the monster revealed in its whole form: regarding the moogai, it is a freakish sight as it appears two-faced with one face at the back of its head, used as it walks on all fours, with another face that is distinguished by a large grimace, almost a rictus grin, as it faces its victims. 7.12 - The two-faced anatomy suggests it is a deceiver, but it further suggests a split personality not dissimilar to the character of Doctor Jekyll, Mister Hyde from the British Victorian novel: 7.13 - The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde, 5 January 1886, by Robert Louis Stevenson, Longmans, Green & Co., Britain, First edition, 141 pages, ISBN 978-0-553-21277-8; 7.14 - that was made in to the German Expressionist filmic adaptation: 7.15 - Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, 28 March 1920 New York premiere, 79 minutes, directed by John S. Robertson; production company: Famous Players–Lasky / Artcraft Pictures; 7.16 - in which a dualism is shown to take effect of a man: one, appears as a man, the other, an animal. 7.17 - Such monsters are taken to be fantastic, gothic monstrosities, rather than the truth. 7.18 - Closer to the real monster and in reference to German Expressionist cinema, the film: 7.19 - M, 11 May 1931, 111 minutes, directed by Fritz Lang; production company: Nero-Film A.G.;
7.20 - offers the spectre of the serial killer, Hans Beckert, and it retains the factor of the killer targeting children, possibly as a re-versioning of the Krampus satyr, though there are some allusions to trolls through the music composed by Edvard Grieg viz. In The Hall Of The Mountain King, written for Henrik Ibsen's play: 7.21 - Peer Gynt, 24 February 1876, re-published as 'Peer Gynt' And 'Brand', 15 August 2016, 1st edition, with a translation by Geoffrey Hill, Penguin, 400 pages, ISBN-10: 0141197587, ISBN-13: 978-0141197586. 7.22 - Undoubtedly, the anxiety of parents in losing their child to a killer is exploited by such films through the figure of the child-killer. 7.23 - The notion of such a man was unthought of in old Christendom, whereas in the Teutonic cultures, often filled with dread, blood-shed and tyranny, such forms of cultural expression spread their influence to Western Europe—Germany's The Weimar Republic after the first world war is said to have been tinctured by modernity's post-industrial machine, as imbuing a strange sort of mechanical systemization of the person and society, that is, when Orientalism had transformed much of Western Europe already. 7.24 - Regarding the notion of man as a machine, the über-mensch, it ought to be remembered cinema is an effect of technologies: architecture / interior design, cameras, projection, screen, audio, etc.: such that create artistic expression, yet to what extent is cinema expressive; to what extent propaganda? 7.25 - As the early silent films indicate, the cinematic experience is primarily a visual one that explores voyeurism—the power of sight to identify the mysteries lurking at the bottom of the pit—and yet vision is thwart with dupes of illusion, mirages in which the power to see gives way to a seduction of seeing only what one wishes to see, rather than what is truly revealed. 7.26 - This observation draws from the psychology of perception: do the audience see the veil or the painting that has been painted on the veil? 7.27 - The filmic treatments which involve an under-stated, almost incidental set of special effects, specifically of the monster, that inter-weave with the daily, realistic aspects of the narrative, arguably meets the standard of the super-realist æsthetics of which I have argued in my series of blogs here at 'Thoughtsdisjectamembra', which exist in relation to these psychological, super-natural thriller genre films, that are therefore reminiscent of the Italian film genre of 'giallo'. 7.28 - The special effects are restrained in both films, which is far from being a symptom of a low-budget, but contributes to the films' art-house expression—particularly with a "cluey" focus upon the indexical, viz. long hands, an old man's face, growls, fœtuses, cock-roach infestations, etc. 7.29 - The under-pinning psychology maintains that anxiety only involves a partial or clouded sight: the thing is known in parts, and known in reference to its association with other things. 7.30 - The scene of Sarah, who while preparing a meal, breaks open a number of eggs to discover chicken fœtuses within: one fœtus being shown to twitch and respond to Sarah's prodding for its signs of life, refer to the post-natal anxieties of mother-hood and the fears of leaving a child behind—arguably, permutations of the thing that is the moogai. 7.31 - Refer directly beneath at a film still of a chicken fœtus broken from the shell and in a bowel.
7.32 - Another comparable moment of anxiety is of Amelia Vanek, acted by Edie Davis, tearing away wall-paper from behind the fridge to expose a hole through which cock-roaches crawl in ever increasing numbers—Amelia is immediately after the scene interviewed by child protection officers to verify her fear of parental incompetence, though Amelia unconsciously associates the death of her husband with the birth of Samuel, acted by Noah Wiseman, who is analogous to the cockroach emerging from her own guilt-ridden uterus. 7.33 - These are the fugue states in which the thing behind which everything is enacted, emerges as an accumulation of effects, most of an incidental quality, such that no serious complaint can be petitioned in relation to it, and it is left to perniciously play upon one's doubt and eventually sanity. 7.34 - The circumstantial evidence must be relied upon as proof, rather than any great moment of revelatory confession or moment in flagrante delicto—but Amelia burns the children's book without which the police can offer no investigation; and Sarah turns to Ruth's teachings of the spiritual in an Australian society of bureaucratic indifference as she is accused of alcoholism by a teacher and forced in to hospital by her physician. 7.35 - The on-going inference of such films suggests that the spiritual realm is only thinly disguised from the real world: the super-natural and horror narratives speak of the mythic and eternal amid every-day, suburban life as it exists as 'urban legend'. 7.36 - Historical and meta-narrational elements inter-weave in the films to create an almost 'magical realist' piece of cinema of the psychological / horror film genre, in which the moogai might further be considered a metaphor of the recurring pattern in families' lives to involve the impending loss of a child, or at least, the second child, or of the imposition of an ordeal that a parent must pass to remain a parent.
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§8.0 - REGARDING THE HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN BLACK ABORIGINES' STOLEN GENERATIONS, THE CHANGELING FOLK-LORE AND GOTHIC HUN CULTURES—Refer directly beneath to points 8.1 to 8.28.
8.1 - In reference to the film: The Moogai 21 January 2024, 86 minutes, the socio-historical setting is of that involving 'The Stolen Generations', a title used to refer to children deemed to be "half-caste" among black Australian Aboriginal families, who were removed to institutions throughout Australia for "re-education" in to British Australian society, such as identified by the report: 8.2 - the: Bringing Them Home Report, subtitled: A Report Of The National Inquiry Into The Separation Of Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Children From Their Families, Circa 1997, a 700-page document. 8.3 - There were an estimated hundred thousand children removed from the custody of their parents on the basis of racial segregation, conducted during the periods circa 1905, circa 1967, and further, in some places of Australia, circa 1970. 8.4 - While at the start of the film: The Moogai, 21 January 2024, 86 minutes, two police officers are portrayed as chasing the half-caste children, they are both shown to be scared away by the animal sounds and foreboding presence of the moogai in a dark cave near to where the children live. 8.5 - It seems the monster of the moogai over-takes the monstrosity of the British-Australian officers, who typically hunted the children down and treated them as animals, such as portrayed by the film: 8.7 - Rabbit-Proof Fence, 4 February 2002, 93 minutes, directed by Phillip Noyce, production companies: Rumbalara Films, Olsen Levy and Showtime Australia. 8.8 - A chase made by the police for the half-caste children is narrated throughout the entire film by Philip Noyce, whereas in this film by Jon Bell, the chase is initiated, only to fall away as a supposed hiding place is revealed: the cave of the moogai. 8.9 - The inference is, that the police officers who conducted such chases, frightened the children with the folk-lore of the moogai as an alternative ending to the one the children might receive under institutional care—though this is a point hardly emphasized by the film. 8.10 - The correlation of the moogai's mythos such as to the aforementioned sack-man is suggested, given its wild man / yowie environment and similar motive to capture children to carry them to a place of no return or to eat. 8.11 - Because the sack-man or yahoo have existed for centuries, at least as folk-lore tales, as discussed above, the suggestion is the practice of governments to steal children has been on-going for centuries world-wide—that is, while using such folk-lorish propaganda as the child-eater. 8.12 - The governments base their rationale upon an essentially racist ideology in which miscegenated children, said to be of 'mixed blood', who are sometimes referred to as a 'mongrel', are deemed wild or "out of control", because similar to the breeding of dogs, mongrels occur outside the controlled environment defined by its breeding programs. 8.13 - Many Australian black Aboriginal children are referred to as a 'quadroon' or 'quarteron', nouns which represent the notion of a 'quarter-caste', in which the referred person is, for example, one-quarter African / Aboriginal combined with three-quarters European ancestry. 8.14 - Similar classifications are the 'octoroon' for one-eighth black (the Latin root 'octo-' translates as 'eight') and 'quintroon' for one-sixteenth black. 8.15 - The German Nazi ideological term: 'mischling', a noun that refers to a child of mixed ethnicity, is deemed a half-caste who may hold the seeds of unwanted change, particularly in the setting of the extremely controlled societies governed by fascists, viz. the Nazi / Neo-Nazi—though Communism can be found to be fascistic, even during contemporary times, such as exemplified by North Korea with its cult of personality, based on the patriarch: Kim Jong-Un. 8.16 - Further, there are indications that the half-caste or mischling refers to 'the changeling', regarding which I have argued here in this blog-site: 'Thoughtsdisjectamembra', that I have been labeled and persecuted over throughout my child-hood at Australia and other countries—yet not ever in the contexts of being a 'half-caste' or 'mischling': those terms being obviously racist are substituted for 'changeling' to establish a term of 'disguised racism'. 8.17 - Whether approached through a racist ideology or superstition, the Gothic Hun and Berber cultures are indicated as less concerned with the mitigation of the harsh realities of life to promulgate child-hood than the Christian cultures—and further that the superstitions of folk-lore are shared by child and adult alike; a perception less shared by Christians who follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. 8.18 - Nonetheless, from a general perspective, it would be a dire vision, sickening to its audiences, were a film to reveal a world in which the children suffer greater than the adults; mostly due to the fact children are vulnerable and often have less of a capacity to make decisions to change their own circumstances than adults. 8.19 - If there is a "Krampus" for the children, there is inferred some sort of cannibalistic monster for the adults—presumably, a cannibal of the women who, similar to children, are less physically strong than the men, provide easy targets—though arguably, world-wide, popular cultures represent cannibalism as a genderless phenomena, such as reflected by the films of the so-called "cannibal boom" of the 1970s and 1980s of the horror sub-genre: 'cannibal film', that involves a zombie-type "free-for-all". 8.20 - In the film: The Moogai, 21 January 2024, 86 minutes, the women with the children are left by the men to fend for themselves, but within such circumstances Sarah is forced to embrace her black Australian Aboriginal culture that she had previously denied—she uses a ceremonial paint to render herself invisible to attack the moogai that is witless against her strikes. 8.21 - In keeping with the earlier Germanic cultural comparison to Expressionist cinema, Sarah's capacity to become invisible alludes to the Germanic, Gothic Hun-based cultures, such as represented by the celebrated composer Richard Wagner's opera: 8.22 - Der Ring Des Nibelungen / English: The Ring Of The Nibelung, 22 September 1869; 8.23 - in which the helmut, the 'Tarnhelm / stealth helmet' renders its wearer invisible. 8.24 - This series of operas by Richard Wagner has obviously influenced the better known work of the author J.R.R. Tolkien, viz. his celebrated fantasy genre trilogy: 8.25 - The Lord Of The Rings, 20 October 1955, Allen & Unwin, first single-volume edition 1,077 pages; re-published circa 1988, 1st Edition by Unwin Hyman Limited, London, with the Index and Appendices, 1,193 pages, ISBN: 9780044403050; 8.26 - in which the character, the princess of the Rohan, Éowyn, adopts the man's name 'Dernhelm' (the Old English equivalent of 'Tarnhelm') in order she participate in the battle of Helm's Deep, when she slays the great enemy, the Witch-King of Angmar. 8.27 - The Song Of The Nibelungs, an epic poem of the early 13th century, written in Middle High German, arguably the basis of both Richard Wagner's and J.R.R. Tolkien's texts, mentioned above, portrays a heroine, Kriemheld, slaying the treacherous Hagen, and despite her murder over her killing of the hero, is a part of a precedent in the texts which portray women as something akin to great warriors. 8.28 - The later scenes of Sarah with her biological mother, Ruth, and children inside the rings of fire around the Iron-bark Eucalyptus tree may further reinforce the allusions to the Teutonic texts discussed here with their focus upon a ring of power.
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§9.0 - FROM GOVERNMENTAL, CUSTODIAL POSSESSIONS TO SPIRITUAL POSSESSIONS—Refer directly beneath to points 9.1 to 9.23.
9.1 - Further the film: The Moogai, 21 January 2024, 86 minutes, embraces metaphysical aspects of the art-house horror genre film—similar to its predecessor: The Babadook, 17 January 2014, 94 minutes—the spirit of the moogai itself, unearthed at a critical time in the life of a young family, during the birth of a second child, when two children may be considered two too much, compares to a prosperity that may be permitted to some families, but not other families, such as Sarah's family of "half-castes". 9.2 - With the notions of the development of the family, accumulation and abundance, questions of ownership may be asked: not necessarily in the legal context regulated by government, but in the metaphysical and spiritual contexts as possession or re-possession or abandonment. 9.3 - Possession is comparable to a cultural imperialism in which, as in the case of Sarah, no identification exists to her own black Australian Aboriginal culture, rather Sarah is deracinated or enmeshed in the system of society, even as a successful lawyer. 9.4 - It is inferred, Sarah is found to experience a limit in having two too many children, due to her racial heritage, and the 'biological reality' of a new-born out-weighs any other factor, particularly when the new-born is a son, at least according to the patriarchal order that continues to dominate Australian society. 9.5 - The analogy is, if the moogai still exerts its haunting vexations and eventual child-eating, then the government—which is at some level always inferred to know about this "skeleton in the closet" (even when it denies it)—and is involved in a similar sort of hindrance upon the family that has "two too much", such as Sarah's is inferred to. 9.6 - The British-Australian government, that enforced the removal of half-caste children from their homes, still exerts a power to stymie the success of such children, the so-called mischlings or changelings. 9.7 - The power imposed is impossible to pin-point in any substantive way, because it is diffused and pervasive, and should it be given a face it is metaphorical or spiritual, as the moogai, regarding which no-one really would take seriously to act against. 9.8 - Possession emerges as a subject in the film: The Moogai, 21 January 2024, 86 minutes, in which children are represented as possessed by the all-white vacancy of colour in their eyes, in which the all white eyes may allude to the effects of opium that roll back the eyes and cause a possessed-like state of mind. 9.9 - The statute: Aboriginals Protection And Restriction Of The Sale Of Opium Act 1897 of Queensland, indicates that opium was mèted out to Queensland's black aborigines, such that the association of the all-white eyes to the rolled-back eyes caused by the throes of opium use is highly probable; in which case the black Aboriginal Australians became possessed by the British Australian imperialistic ideology that alienates them and the symptoms point to a government that allowed opium to poison the black Australian Aborigines' families until the statute of circa 1897, when addiction had already become entrenched (and possibly still is). 9.10 - The symbolism of the moogai as the monster of opium addiction could be interpreted, but there are no further indicators of opium addiction in the film to indicate that line of analysis accurate—though the trauma of opium addiction as part of the tyranny of the British Australian government in such matters is taken to inform the all-white eyes of the possessed characters. 9.11 - The possession of the dead aunt as a girl, Precious Ann, acted by Agnes, and the baby boy, Jacob, are further likely allusions to blindness, viz. that children under the state ward's care may have been left to go blind—this was done to Christian orphans or "changelings" throughout Britain and Ireland. 9.12 - Refer to the film's theatrical release poster in which Precious Ann's eyes appear all-white.9.13 - Further, the metaphor of possession by a spirit could be interpreted as enslavement: the tyrannical spirit invades its host to compel the host to do its bidding—the reverence of the British monarchy and its order upon Australia could be interpreted along such lines. 9.14 - There is "little to hold on to" under the weight of such tyranny, though a recent Australian film, the art-house, supernatural, thriller genre film: 9.15 - Talk To Me, 30 October 2022 Adelaide, 95 minutes, directed by Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou; production companies: Screen Australia, South Australian Film Corporation et al.; 9.16 - provides a literal and metaphysical / spiritual symbol as a relic, a statue of a hand, upon which some-one grasps to enter a period of mediation with the spiritual world, that is, by becoming possessed. 9.17 - The fears of superstition of the unknown can exclude new experiences and people, in which case the people encased in fear become enclosed in their own world, comparable to a ghost or clichéd figure of tragic description, such as the Victorian-esque Charles Dickens's character of "Miss Havisham" from the novel: 9.18 - Great Expectations, 18 August 1997, Doubleday, 608 pages, ISBN-10: 0385487215, ISBN-13: 978-0385487214. 9.19 - Arguably, becoming the cultural stereotype of the existing order demonstrates an unconscious compliance to such an order, but the mentioned Australian films appear to resist such compliance, or appear to express a cultural space in which defiance can be negotiated. 9.20 - To an extent stereotypes and predictable cycles of narratives define human life: there must be some cultural space permitted to express culture regionally defined and not as the clichèd cultural other of an hegemonic cultural centre. 9.21 - The film by black Australian Aboriginal artist Tracey Moffatt: 9.22 - beDevil, 28 October 1993, 90 minutes; produced by Anthony Buckley and Carol Hughes; 9.23 - while embraces the folk-lore of hauntings, avoids stereotypes or treats the cliché with a style of strangeness, such as that which defines the aforementioned German Expressionist cinema, though not necessarily in the gothically macabre; it rather contains elements of the kitsch as an ironically ersatz glamour that only thinly covers the tragedy pervading the lives of many Australians.
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