‘Jakob’s Wife’: part vampire movie, part female empowerment

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

There aren’t many B-movie Scream Queens left standing or working these days, so I guess that makes Barbara Crampton the queen of the Queens. Blonde, wide-eyed, perverse, and game for anything, she came to horror-movie fame with “Re-Animator” in 1985, tied to an operating table while a decapitated body lets its severed head have its evil way with her. (In the 1986 follow-up, “From Beyond,” she merely bit off the extruded pineal gland of a monster trying to eat her brain.)That was almost 40 years ago, but Crampton keeps going in high drive-in style with “Jakob’s Wife,” a tongue-in-cheek thriller that mixes the DNA of a vampire movie with a female empowerment Lifetime special, adding a little apostasy for good measure. It’s newly available on demand.

Top 10 Hollywood Movies That Explore Psychological Manipulation And Gaslighting 

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Ever seen a film where you were left scratching your head asking what was real and what was not? Where the truth is so distorted that you’re being gaslighted right along with the characters? Welcome to psychological manipulation in films—where everything is a lie, love turns into control, and reality isn’t what you think it is.Gaslighting and manipulation are the two most fascinating Hollywood storytelling devices. They lead us to question, dissect, and eventually re-think everything we believed we understood about human nature. So grab your popcorn, folks, because we’re taking a look at some of the best Hollywood films to tackle the art of lying and psychological warfare. Hollywood Movies that Explore Manipulation and Gaslighting1. Gone Girl (2014) – The Ultimate Mind Game Amy Dunne is the queen of gaslighting. ‘Gone Girl’ takes you on an emotional rollercoaster—one you can’t escape. The movie tracks the disappearance of Amy (Rosamund Pike) and the media frenzy about her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck), who becomes the main suspect.But that’s where the twist is—Amy’s no typical missing wife. No way. Amy has a plan so expertly laid out, so intricately built, that when you learn everything, you’re already trapped in her web of lies. This movie isn’t so much about manipulation, though, and more of an instruction on the way gaslighting dismembers perception from actuality.Read More: Gaslighting: A Hidden Emotional Abuse in a Need for AttentionAge Restriction: 18+Genre – Psychology thriller, Mystery OTT Platform – Netflix, Amazon Prime Video  Cast – Rosamund Pike, Ben Affleck, Neil Patrick Harris 2. Catch Me If You Can (2002)- The Art of Deception This movie is based on the real story of Frank Abagnale Jr. ( played by Leonardo Dicaprio) a kid who cons his way through becoming a pilot, doctor, and lawyer – all before he is 19 years old. Frank’s weapon of choice? Charm so strong you could spread it on a bagel.He cashes bad checks, fabricates his name, and stays one step ahead of FBI man Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks). Though not “technically” gaslighting, Frank’s ability to manipulate systems and people (even his own old man!) is downright hypnotic.Age Restriction: 13+Genre – Biographical crime , Drama OTT Platform – Netflix / Disney+Cast –  Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen3. The Image of You (2024) – Manipulation and Gaslighting This movie illustrates the complexities of twin relationships, and how a twin utilized the other to manipulate the individuals around them. The primary antagonist manipulates the individuals around her through her twin identity.Moving back and forth between places, and making up stories, the antagonist causes confusion among the other characters. This allows for a sense of gaslighting because the other characters do not know who precisely they are working with.Read More: How to Recognize and Respond to ManipulationAge Restriction: 16+Genre – Psychological thriller, Drama OTT Platform – Prime Video Cast – Sasha Pieterse, Mira Sorvino, Parker Young 4. Deep Water (2022) – Toxic Relationship Vic Van Allen and Melinda Van Allen have a pathological mind game dynamic, where deception and control define their toxic relationship. Vic psychologically manipulates Melinda by making her believe that he has eliminated her lovers, subtly fueling her fear and insecurity.He employs passive-aggressive tactics, implied threats, and cryptic remarks that keep Melinda in a constant state of doubt—questioning both her sanity and Vic’s true intentions. The film masterfully portrays the slow, insidious build-up of psychological manipulation in a relationship, where love and trust are gradually eroded, replaced by paranoia and power struggles.Age Restriction: 18+Genre – Psychological and Erotic thriller OTT Platform – Hulu/Amazon prime video Cast – Ben Affleck, Ana de Armas5. Mother! (2017) – A Nightmare Wrapped in Metaphor Picture this, you invite strangers into your house, and they go on to hijack your whole life. Horror film, right? It is. Jennifer Lawrence stars as a woman whose whole life is increasingly taken away from her by the individuals around her.Her husband (Javier Bardem) gaslights her into thinking she’s going crazy as their house is invaded, boundaries are crossed, and her sanity unravels. “Mother!” is an anxiety attack at the movies, and its metaphorical storyline makes it one of the most heightened gaslighting films ever made.Read More: Understanding Dark Psychology and Manipulation TacticsAge Restriction: 18+Genre – Psychological Horror, Mystery OTT Platform – Paramount + Cast – Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem6. Nightcrawler (2014) – When Manipulation became a career path Louis Bloom is a sociopathic freelance cameraman driven by ambition, who manipulates individuals and crime scenes for personal professional gain. He manipulates situations, invents tales, and exploits desperation to achieve sensationalized shots.He is a maestro manipulator of the media, as much as he is of anyone that gets in his way, to get his things done.Age Restriction: 16+Genre – Crime thriller, Drama OTT Platform – Netflix Cast – Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo7. Every Breath You Take (2021) – Revenge When the therapist’s client dies, his brother (Sam Claflin) avenges his death—not murderously, but deceitfully. He insinuates himself in the therapist’s household, romances his wife, charms his daughter, and pulls their entire worlds apart piece by piece.His gaslighting is seamless, no one recognizes the destruction until it too late. If you’re a fan of psychological thrillers about revenge, this’s one you do not want to skip.Age Restriction: 16+Genre – Psychological Thriller OTT Platform – Hulu / Amazon Prime Video Cast – Casey Affleck , Michelle Monaghan 8. The Talented Mr.Ripley (1999) – Fake it till you make it Let’s meet Tom Ripley (Matt Damon), the good-looking, intelligent, and utterly ethically-challenged guy. His gift? Chameleon-like personality , he takes on whomever he must to make his way up the social ladder. When he befriends the rich and charismatic Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), he quickly becomes obsessed with his lavish lifestyle. But when envy turns deadly, Ripley takes gaslighting to a whole new level—assuming someone’s identity altogether. He weaves a web of lies so intricate that everyone around him (including himself) starts believing them. By the end of the movie, you’ll be questioning your own friendships.Read More: 8 Things to say When Someone Gaslights youAge Restriction: 16+Genre – Psychological thriller, Crime OTT Platform– Netflix / Prime Video Cast – Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett9. Cruel Intentions (1999)- Manipulation Gaslighting isn’t always criminal and fatal—occasionally it’s simply about Charismatic , privileged children destroying one another’s lives for fun. Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe) and Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar) bet: Sebastian must seduce pure Annette (Reese Witherspoon) and shatter her heart. But what starts as a game of manipulation becomes murderous. This is high-society manipulation at its best, demonstrating that emotional gaslighting is as damaging as any transgression.Age Restriction: 18+Genre– Romance , Drama OTT Platform – Hulu / Netflix Cast – Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon10. The Well (2024) In this just released movie, the term gaslighting has been utilized very exclusively and suffocatingly. The people are locked up in a well, and the primary villain uses the limited room and resources to create an air of desperation and fear. With constant rule-swapping, and getting other characters to doubt their own memory of things before they are imprisoned, the villain uses the classic gaslighting tactics to assert control.Age Restriction: 18+Genre – Psychological thriller OTT Platform – Hulu Cast – Sophia Lillis, McKenna Grace, Paul MescalFinal Thoughts Gaslighting and manipulation make for some of the most intense, mind-bending films out there. Whether it’s in relationships (Gone Girl), friendships (The Talented Mr. Ripley), or entire careers (Nightcrawler), these movies show just how powerful deception can be. So next time someone tells you, “You’re overreacting,” just remember—maybe you’re in a psychological thriller and don’t even know it.FAQs1. What is Gaslighting in Movies?Gaslighting in films refers to psychological manipulation where a character distorts reality, causing others to question their own perception, memory, or sanity. It is a key element in psychological thrillers and dramas.2. Are the movies on this list based on True Stories?Some are! Catch Me If You Can is based on the real-life story of Frank Abagnale Jr., while Gone Girl was inspired by real-life missing person cases. Others, like The Talented Mr. Ripley, are adaptations of fictional novels.3. Where can I watch these movies?The movies on this list are available on platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, and Paramount+. Availability may vary by region.4. Are there more Hollywood movies that explore gaslighting and manipulation?Yes! Some honorable mentions include Shutter Island (2010), The Girl on the Train (2016), and Prisoners (2013)—all of which feature complex psychological deception.5. Why do people enjoy watching Movies about Manipulation?Psychological thrillers challenge our perception of truth and reality. They keep audiences engaged by creating suspense, exploring the dark side of human nature, and delivering unexpected plot twists.References +Articles and reviews on psychological thrillers from The Hollywood Reporter and IndieWireNetflix & Amazon Prime Video listings for respective moviesRotten Tomatoes, Catch Me If You Can (2002) – RottenTomatoes.com

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History Book: John Newton’s storm

Arts & Culture, Books

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, March 17th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.
MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, the WORLD History Book, where we travel back to this week in the year 17-48.
A violent storm rages in the Atlantic Ocean, and John Newton, just 23 years old, believes he’s about to die.
EICHER: Before this moment, Newton was no saint.
He’d made up songs to entertain his crewmates, but not the kind you’d find in the hymnal.
Newton’s known as a profane man, contemptuous of authority.
REICHARD: And Newton has no idea that someday people all around the world will sing his songs about the grace of God. Here’s WORLD correspondent Caleb Welde.
SOUND: [CREAKING/SEA STORM]
CALEB WELDE: John Newton’s cabin is filling with water. It’s March 21st, 1748. Newton is aboard the British merchant vessel Greyhound. He and another man rush up to the deck when the Captain calls to Newton to bring a knife with him. Newton turns around while the other man continues up to the deck. The man is immediately swept overboard.
At three a.m. Newton is assigned to a pump. Each time the ship descends into the sea, he believes it won’t come back up. The ship’s captain tells Newton about once an hour that he believes Newton is the sole cause of the storm. And that if they threw him overboard, maybe the rest of them would be saved.
Newton pumps nine hours to exhaustion. He’s allowed to return to his bed for an hour. Then he’s assigned to work the helm of the ship.
Tied to the helm Newton reflects on his life.
The night before the storm hit, he’d found a book. Thomas à Kempis “Imitation of Christ.” He wonders:, “What if those things are true?” but pushes the thought aside thinking there’s no way God could forgive him.
His mother had been very godly but died when Newton was seven. She’d read him Bible stories and she loved the hymns of Issac Watts. His father remarried within weeks. He’s a stern and well-known merchant ship captain.
At eleven, Newton’s father put him to work on one of his ships. But then he was forcefully conscripted or “press-ganged” onto a Royal Navy vessel. Here, he found a book that fit well with his crewmates. “The Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times.” The book gave him permission to choose his own moral code.
EDWARDS: Now it was a book that led his mind well away from any faith in God.
Brian Edwards is a Newton Biographer.
EDWARDS: And it helped him on his downhill spiral, morally and philosophically, because it now gave him the reasons why he was not a Christian.
Newton tries to desert his warship but is caught almost immediately. He’s returned to the ship and flogged.
AITKEN: He thought of suicide. He thought of killing his captain, and the ship sailed.
Jonathan Aitken is author of “From Disgrace to Amazing Grace.”
Newton’s captain was fed up by this point, so he traded Newton onto a merchant ship. From here, Newton was taken to the coast of Africa where a human slave trade thrived. Here, Newton himself was put in chains and treated like a slave for a while.
But then a different white slaver bought him and he treated Newton much better. Things were looking up and Newton had no plans to return to England. It was shocking when he got word the captain of a passing ship was asking about him!?
Newton’s father had paid a captain to search for Newton and he’d actually found him.
EDWARDS: There were only two things that enticed him back home. One was the story that Newton had inherited quite a small fortune, and if he were to come back, he could enjoy it. But the other thing attracted him was the thought of Mary.
Newton had met Mary when he was fourteen and, in his own words, immediately fell in love. He was excited about the fortune because it’d give him enough money to marry Mary. He says he thought about her every day. Newton boarded the Greyhound…where he now finds himself tied to the helm of his rescue ship.
EDWARDS: He found himself condemned by the verses he knew. And it was at that time that, in his own words, God reached down and plucked him out of the depths and he put a very wavering faith in God, acknowledging that his life had been a complete mess and he had ruined all that God had given him and spoiled the treasure that his mother had taught him.
In Newton’s words, “I began to think of Jesus, whom I had so often derided. I recollected the particulars of his life and of his death—a death for sins not His own, but, as I remembered, for the sake of those who in their distress should put their trust in Him.”
Two weeks later and almost out of food, the ship is able to limp into a port off the Irish coast. Newton goes to the nearest church to thank God for saving him. Then, he looks up Mary. She gives him a little hope but no certainty.
And as far as the small fortune he’d been told about…totally fabricated. He spends the next six years working his way up to captain moving slaves and “other cargo” across the Atlantic.
AITKEN: The general view of England, including Christian England, was that the slave trade was a respectable economic form of activity.
He visits Mary in between voyages and the two do get married in 1750.
EDWARDS: There wasn’t the media. Nobody was going out there taking films of slaves and the way they were treated and the cruelty and bestiality of it all. And so people didn’t know.
But Newton… does know. He’s reading Christian books aboard these slave ships, and the Bible.
EDWARDS: He didn’t like what he was doing. His conscience was stirring.
Then, God says, “Enough.” Newton has a seizure preparing for his next voyage.
AITKEN: And that was gave John Newton a great fright, and also gave the owner of the ship a great fright, because you couldn’t have a captain who was liable to suddenly collapse through a seizure.
Newton and the owner of the ship agreed, his career is over. Newton is twenty-nine.
He lives another five decades. Newton becomes a pastor for four of those five decades. He writes almost three-hundred hymns. He’s friends with William Wilberforce and plays an instrumental part in ending the slave trade revealing its horrors. Newton’s letters reveal a particular compassion for people. He never got over God’s grace to him.
AMAZING GRACE: Twas grace that taught my heart to fear. And grace, my fears relieved.
EDWARDS: He continually comes back to the word grace, which for John Newton, meant God’s undeserved mercy in forgiving him through the merits of Jesus Christ and because of nothing he himself had done.
Audio of the John Newton biographers comes from the Vision Video documentary John Newton. For WORLD, I’m Caleb Welde.
AMAZING GRACE: Amazing grace, how sweet the sound…

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.

How ‘jugaad’ derailed Facebook’s Free Basics in India: Sarah Wynn-Williams’ book

Arts & Culture, Books

Sarah Wynn-Williams Meta memoir exposes how Indian official derailed Facebook’s Free Basics by ‘jugaad’. What happened… | Company Business Newsvar _comscore = _comscore || [];_comscore.push({ c1:”2″, c2:”6035286″, options: {enableFirstPartyCookie: true, bypassUserConsentRequirementFor1PCookie:true }});( function() {var s = document.createElement(“script”), el = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.async = true; s.src = “https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/cs/6035286/beacon.js”; el.parentNode.insertBefore(s, el);})();SubscribeSign in

It’s Not My Film review – relationship-crisis movie takes the long road through the Baltics

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

The endgame of a relationship – or maybe the crisis from which the relationship will emerge reinvigorated – is the subject of this likable, low-key two-hander from Polish film-maker Maria Zbaska. A couple is in crisis; one half is musician Zofia Chabiera who is making her confident acting debut as Wanda, bored and aimless, feeling those first intimations of mortality as people in their late 30s tend to; her unused and thwarted passion is beginning to curdle within her.Wanda is in a stagnant relationship with Jan, played by Marcin Sztabinski, a heavy-set guy who maybe wasn’t quite as heavy-set when they first got together; he runs a bike repair shop, a situation to which he has dwindled having once dreamed of biking around the world. Wanda is irritated beyond endurance at the way Jan does nothing but doom scroll. (Rather shrewdly, she points out that people who spend their time knitting at least have a scarf to show for it.)But it is Jan who has had the imagination to dream up a plan to challenge them both: they will hike along the remote and icy Baltic coastline, sleeping in a tent and generally braving the terrible cold. If they stay the course, they will stay together – but if either loses heart and leaves the sandy shore, then they are finished as a couple.Well, perhaps there are no prizes for guessing whether they have cathartic rows and revelations and quirky serendipitous encounters with unusual people along the way. But the relationship between Jan and Wanda looks very real as they trudge along the vast and freezing seascape, like an ice-cold version of David Lean’s desert. And what does it all add up to? Perhaps not all that much: but it’s a charming and plausible relationship drama featuring people who look as if they might actually be in a relationship.

Well-known writer presents his book in Baku

Arts & Culture, Books

By Laman IsmayilovaA book “1000000 Codes of Intelligence” by writer and publicist Aydin Taghiyev, a member of the Azerbaijan Writers’ Union, has been presented at Nizami Cinema Center.Representatives of culture, art and other guests attended the ceremony. The event began with a minute of silence in memory of the martyrs and the playing of the National Anthem of Azerbaijan.Well-known scientists, parliamentarians, intellectuals, pen pals of the writer, media representatives and book lovers attended the book presentation.At the presentation, Aydin Taghiyev spoke about the purpose, content and main idea of ????the book.The writer stated that his third book aims to instil a deep way of thinking in readers and increase their intellectual potential. Noting that he wrote the book with readers of all age categories in mind, the author gave a detailed explanation of the various sections in the work.Later, scientists, intellectuals, writers, as well as people who contributed to the creation of the book and the team that carried out the organizational issues of the event, made speeches. The guests spoke about the scientific and philosophical value of the book and highly appreciated the author’s creativity. It was noted that “1000000 Codes of Intelligence” is not only a book, but also a work that brings a new perspective to human thought.In the conclusion, Aydin Taghiyev presented his books to the readers.Aydin Taghiyev is the author of the “First Victory March” and “Homeland March”. The list of authors’ books include “Fathers for the sake of a great cause” and “101 Martyrs of the Great Victory” dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the National Leader Heydar Aliyev.

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