The new moon partial solar eclipse in Scorpio goes down on Tuesday, October 25, in tandem with the launch of the Harvey Weinstein LA Rape Trial. As this spring’s eclipse season fueled the vampire animus of the Depp-Heard catastrophe and the US Supreme Court’s attack on bodily rights, we can count on another Final Girl freakshow this time ‘round.
But as I write in my eclipse piece for NYLON, I see the protagonists of this season less as the suburban virgins of the first horror movie, but as the wiser, harder heroines of the sequels: think Sidney in Scream 2, and Katniss in Mockingjay. I link this eclipse to similar planetary convergences from past years, like 1995 and 2014, and inspect the movies of those periods — To Die For, The Net, Pocahontas, Gone Girl, Mockingjay: Part One, to awaken those Cassandras who see the game within the game, and know how to break the code. In this subtle war within the surveillance state, it all goes back to Persephone, ruling her throne in hell with ambivalence and awareness, unfazed by any horror.
To go deeper into this eclipse’s themes, consult this media list:
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm: A life-changing 70 minutes of heartbreak and revenge, yet to be topped by any real-life motion picture. Batman cries in the rain, grieving over his great love Andrea, the one who he’d have given it all up for. But fate breaks their union, sending them on converging paths of revenge and annihilation. I once saw Dana Delaney at Joe’s Pub, and told her what her voice acting in this movie meant to me. She knew.
Set It Off: Is it better to accept our place in the cage, rattle at it ‘til it breaks, or blow it up entirely? Jada, Kimberly, Vivica and Latifah become outlaws in this bank-robbing classic, but their liberation is pyrrhic, and spares none of them from the inferno.
The Scream films: I’ve written my share about Scream and its masterpiece sequels, but for a Scorpio eclipse, days before Halloween, awakening themes of women, fame addiction and distorted reality, there’s simply no other choice. Priority is on the original trilogy.
Cloud Atlas: Read the book first, then go off with the batshit, beautiful Wachowski adaptation (hitting its ten-year anniversary on the eclipse!). If you read my eclipse piece, you’ll know why messiah-martyr Somni is the all-star of this eclipse season.
Hannibal (TV): The greatest love story ever told? Three seasons of Scorpionic devastation, blood-soaked devotion, and Gillian Anderson in Venetian bathtubs. Go indulge.
Hit the David Odyssey site for more planetary reportage and horoscopes (should be out any minute now).
-David Odyssey