Matt Denny
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mattdenny.bsky.social
Matt Denny
@mattdenny.bsky.social
120 followers 97 following 290 posts
Film & TV Studies Teaching Fellow interested in the gothic, theories of authorship, postmodernism, post-classical style & robots. Tony Scott evangelist (he/him/his)
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mattdenny.bsky.social
And of course the most important "inspired by Michael" creation, Tom Bombadil
Tom Bombadil was a well-known figure in the Tolkien family, for the character was based on a Dutch doll that belonged to Michael. The doll looked very splendid with the feather in its hat, but John did not like it and one day stuffed it down the lavatory. Tom was rescued and survived to become the hero of a poem by the children’s father, ‘The Adventures of Tom Bombadil’, which was published in the Oxford Magazine in 1934. It tells of Tom’s encounters with ‘Goldberry, the River-woman’s daughter’, with the ‘Old Man Willow’ which shuts him up in a crack of its bole…with a family of badgers, and with a ‘Barrow-wight’, a ghost from a prehistoric grave of the type found on the Berkshire Downs not far from Oxford. Humphery Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien, A Biography, “The Storyteller”
November 18, 2025 at 6:21 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
Spent a good portion of my lecture yesterday telling my students about Fearless Nadia/Mary Ann Evans and lamenting that I still can't track down a copy of Hunterwali.
Any advice on sourcing this 1930s Indian stunt film, for research?
Black and white promo still for Hunterwali, showing Fearless Nadia (australian-indian stunter Mary Ann Evans) in Fairbanks style swashbuckling gear standing a pathetic looking guy in a shoot. The image deliberately showcases Nadia's thighs
November 18, 2025 at 10:55 AM
mattdenny.bsky.social
"I'm not owned! I'm not owned!!"
A corn cob, half shucked to display the yellow grains within. A frowning musk head is superimposed on the corn
November 10, 2025 at 8:29 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
The Shining is not actually a very good horror film and its status as masterpiece has irreparably harmed the aesthetics of horror cinema
Painting of a man in blue flannel shirt and a canvas(?) blouson (?) jacket takes a stand in Norman Rockwell's Freedom of speech war bonds poster thing
November 7, 2025 at 8:18 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
An incredulous Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon in the Da Vinci Code. He wears a grey suit and is sat in the window seat of a private plane holding a cryptex (brass cylinder with ceramic [?] dials with latin alphabet letters)
November 3, 2025 at 6:58 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
Amanda Seyfried as Karen in Mean Girls, pointing out the obviousness of her halloween costume, emphatically captioned "I'm a mouse, duh" Karen is a blonde teen in a black dress. She is wearing grey mouse ears and an expression that somehow manages to be vacant and insistent at the same time
October 31, 2025 at 8:12 AM
mattdenny.bsky.social
It's revenge week on Transnational Action Cinema, which means John Wick, and with Wick my annual reminder that much of the John Wick promotional material suggests an attempted pun that only works if you are unaware that a wick and a fuse are not the same thing
Poster for John Wick, showing the head of keanu Reeves isolated on a solid black background (the collar of his shirt blends into this) above white lettering (centred) announcing the star's name, the film title, and the tagline "don't set him off". The lone of wick's tie continues Being the lettering and merged with a fuse, the the end of witch has been lit
October 27, 2025 at 7:48 AM
mattdenny.bsky.social
I refuse to believe that this was written by someone who has seen the film.
The John Barleycorn bread guy is pretty neat, I'll give them that, and the may pole is no more disturbing than all may poles and morris dancing adjacent activites
If you can separate them from all the horrors that follow, the songs, dances, costumes, and traditions that animate the island are beautiful in their quaintness and communality. It's easy to see how they could tempt someone away from the hustle and bustle of the real world — even if that means participating in a bit of sacrifice.
October 21, 2025 at 8:55 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
I am weirdly invested in our institution's plan for windows 10 EOL. It's like some horribly perverted form of sports fandom and there is clearly something wrong with me
An unsavory looking hirsute man with pointed teeth, bushy brows stubble, and a black shirt reading "sickos" is pushed up against a six pane window. A speech bubble pronounces "Yes... Ha Ha Ha... YES" the final yes is bolder and emphatically underlined. A crescent moon and three stars indicate that the scene takes place at night
October 15, 2025 at 3:54 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
At a fringe event in Manchester one member sought to bring some hope, boasting that Keele University Conservative Society now had its biggest membership in a decade. “We now have 11 members,” he said.
October 9, 2025 at 1:40 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
Left my office to be confronted by this - surely a sign to go all in on Untitled Goose Studies and leave Film Studies behind?
A large white inflatable goose sits outside Warwick university SU, a building of deeply confusing geometry and clashing materials. The goose is in front of some bricks. It has an orange conical beak and dull black eyes, like a shark
October 8, 2025 at 2:53 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
Was just browsing the files of my copy of X-Wing vs TIE Fighter (steam download) and there is a file named Glup Shitto0.plt which I promise I did not create
Photographic evidence of the Gulp Shitto0.plt file, surround by more sensible files such as Install.bat
September 24, 2025 at 3:39 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
The Greens have the same number of MPs as Reform. Four.

Sinn Féin have seven

As far as I'm aware neither the greens nor Sinn Féin have policies explicitly promising to cut university funding or restrict UG numbers because "too many courses are not good enough"
Screenshot from the Reform manifesto/policy documents with the following text visible Scrap Interest on Student Loans Extend loan capital repayment periods to 45 years. Restrict undergraduate numbers well below current levels, too many courses are not good enough and students are being ripped off. Enforce minimum entry standards. Thereafter: Cut Funding to Universities that Undermine Free Speech The government’s Free Speech Act is toothless. Allowing political bias or cancel culture must face heavy financial penalties.
September 11, 2025 at 4:14 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
One must imagine the rock happy
Screenshot from Hades showing the pc zagreus interacting witsaxz h Sisyphus in the background but more importantly a prominent close up of bouldy, the rock Sisyphus must push. Bouldy is round, friendly, and tinted a nice grey green that is remarkably like the green used in WWII British aircraft interiors
September 10, 2025 at 12:15 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
Screen cap of Guardian news head line "Palantir's tools pose an invisible danger we are just beginning to comprehend | Juan Sebastian Pinto. Above the headline is a photo of two people in side profile wearing white headsets with Palantir written on the headband Cropped still from Return of the King. Pippin holds the palantir of Orthanc in his hands and screams as the black crystalline orb is wreathed in magical flame
August 29, 2025 at 8:17 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
Share some of the best eye[s] in movies
One of the many eyes of the HAL 9000 installed on the Discovery for the Jupiter mission in 2001, portrayed by a Nikon fisheye lens
August 25, 2025 at 7:19 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
The actors Tom Hollander and Elizabeth Debicki stand in a minimalist white bathroom. Hollander is a white man, 5'5" tall, in black tie. Debicki is a white woman, 6'3" tall, dressed in a black split skirt and what seems to be some sort tight fitting doublet??? With an asymmetric zip. Despite Hollander being posed notably closer to the camera and Debicki in the background the height difference is notable
August 4, 2025 at 6:43 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
I quite like The Last Broadcast, an interesting film that is also a great record for a very specific media moment but I cannot stop laughing at the pull quote on my DVD copy
May have influenced Blair Witch -- it certainly preceded it -Indiewire
July 24, 2025 at 10:39 AM
mattdenny.bsky.social
I mean that entirely depends on a) whether you think this will bring back their apples b) how you feel about the rare gift of a martyr's death c) how you personally feel about one important character being alive or not
Still of Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man, wearing a mustard yellow turtleneck(?) under a tweed jacket with elbow patches and one shoulder patch (for the butt of a shotgun, presumably) his arms are raised in praise/supplication and his hair is whipped by the wind The text below reads 'One of the best British horror movies of all time with iconic "feelbad ending" is on TV tonight'
July 9, 2025 at 9:24 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
And now the Youth and Horror conference comes to an end
GIF of Taran (a very slim white boy with big ears mostly hidden by shaggy medieval hair) crying from The Black Cauldron (animated film)
July 2, 2025 at 4:21 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
Great day two at Youth and Horror - with really interesting papers looking at video nasties from interesting new angles, exploring notions of childness and horror, and a very interesting panel on methodology that sparked lots of ideas for this old school "look at a thing and think about it" scholar
A large pink humanoid leans against a post, legs jauntily crossed. He is rotund and his flesh is unpleasantly yielding. He wears a collar and large bowtie and nothing else. He is covered in yellow spots. His large hairless head connects directly to his torso. He has large green eyes and troublingly large thin lipped mouth in a fixed carmine grin
July 2, 2025 at 11:39 AM
mattdenny.bsky.social
It is Youth and Horror time! I am not presenting anything so looking forward for the opportunity to just enjoy learning new things. Great range of papers on the programme and hopefully a chance to catch up with some folks in the horror studies community
Still from ParaNorman, a stop motion film. High angle shot of a stocky redheaded boy in a hockey mask standing between white sheets on washing line. The shot recalls both Halloween in it's framing and mise-en-scene, which the hockey mask evokes Jason from the Friday 13th Franchise
July 1, 2025 at 7:16 AM
mattdenny.bsky.social
Yes
Promotional still for Ron Howard's Eden showing Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby against a forest backdrop. Law is slightly sweaty and shirtless, holding an exotic fruit that I'm going to guess is a papaya. Kirby is next to him in an oversized white shirt with rolled sleeves. She looks over her shoulder in what should be a coquettish pose but due to her sneer has big "I'd kill you if I thought you were worth the bother" vibes
June 26, 2025 at 7:27 AM
mattdenny.bsky.social
Disclaimer: This is almost certainly clickbait. I went to read the article but it needs me to be subscribed so I'm just going to make my little joke and move on.

"Joke": These folks are sure going to be surprised when they read Idylls of the King, any Walter Scott, most Shakespeare, or Beowulf
Headline "TV Period dramas accused of imposing modern values" illustrated by an excellent picture of Natalie Dormer in the scandalous lady W. Dormer has a fantastic sneer is in a tightly fitted military style jacket (maybe hunting pinks?) and a huge black hat with plumes perched on her powdered coiffure
May 31, 2025 at 1:11 PM
mattdenny.bsky.social
Apparently John Wick was supposed to be called Scorn but is called John Wick because Keanu kept calling it John Wick

However I agree that Ballerina seems an odd choice for both the reasons you say!

comicbook.com/movies/news/...
That’s when the writer told us of the Reeves folly that changed the name of the entire franchise. “The only reason it’s called John Wick is that Keanu kept referring to it as John Wick,” Kolstad says, adding, “Marketing was like, ‘Dude, that’s four to five million dollars in free advertising so far, so it’s John Wick instead of Scorn.’ I can’t imagine it being Scorn now.”
May 28, 2025 at 12:09 PM