LOUIS THEROUX: Inside the Manosphere (2026) interviews a number of online misogynist influencers about their attitudes, their careers and the women in their lives (the interview with one guy’s mother is memorable). While their views are often horrifying, they’re also nothing new to me, though I imagine plenty of people will find the documentary enlightening. And I think Theroux manages to cover their views without presenting them as a reasonable point of view.
What was new to me was how much of these guys shtick is bait for suckers. The hook? Online classes and various supposedly lucrative investments. This isn’t new — Alex Jones made a lot of money peddling crap to suckers — but it’s interesting (and does not excuse peddling misogyny). “When they talk about misinforation on the Internet, this is what they’re talking abouThist.”
As a big fan of Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass films, including the horror teleplay The Woman in Black, I had high hopes for THE STONE TAPE (1972). An electronics team working off the radar in an old house (their goal is a crash research program developing tech that will leave Japanese electronics in the dust) discovers weird screams and ghostly visions in the room where they set up their computers. The top guy doesn’t believe in ghosts but in the possibility mental impressions from intense events have been recorded in the stones themselves. Hmm, if they could learn how those impressions reach their brains, that would outdo anything in Japan’s arsenal. Even though it appears this theory is right, unsurprisingly this proves a very bad decision …
This is well acted and well written but it’s never quite chilling enough. The ghosts don’t appear to pose a real threat and the balance between the parapsychological investigation and corporate politics undercutting the research feels off. And the big manifestation at the climax is unconvincing, nothing but a display of flashing lights. Not awful but not good enough. “Look at the words — ‘pray … pray.’”
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