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Nightmare Fuel / Babylon (2022)

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  • The opening party features a young actress having an overdose while her very heavyset lover sobs in a panic. The scene's fast-paced editing will make you feel almost as freaked out and anxious as the characters, to the point where even the rest of the party can feel vaguely unsettling.
  • The crew member on Nellie’s first talking film that dies of heatstroke after being stuck in a hot booth, despite him earlier begging to be let out, but Max (Ruth’s assistant director) kept forcing him to stay in there until they got their shot.
  • The entire scene where Nellie fights a snake qualifies if you have ophidiophobia. It doesn’t help at all that Nellie actually gets bitten by the snake and its teeth likely stayed in her neck for several minutes until Fay cuts the snake off from her neck.
  • James McKay. Literally everything in the film involving him.
    • When we are first introduced to him, he appears normal, until a few closeups reveal he is emaciated, with heavy eyebags and using makeup to cover up... uh, whatever it is that's happening to his skin. When he laughs, his teeth are downright nasty and yellow.
    • Tobey Maguire's performance. We've seen him be rather mild mannered, we've seen him try to be threatening but fail. Here? There is nothing goofy on display, he's a downright slimy fuck and everything about him just feels off and disgusting. He can somehow make smearing makeup on his face feel disgusting.
    • He takes The Count and Manny to "the last place on earth anyone is allowed to have fun"... a literal hole in the desert, in a tunnel. He takes them into the tunnel and the first thing we see is a brutal, bloody cage fight, with weird synthesizer music. Unlike the previous fights seen in the movie, this is brutal and not fun to watch at all. Then they go a level deeper, and see several disfigured people lurking about, looking dazed out of their minds. At this point, you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd accidentally gotten the third act of a David Lynch movie. Then they go a level deeper, and run into an alligator... then beyond that, see a large, Herculean man who eats live rats. And then, he discovers the fact that the money Manny and The Count gave him is fake. Naturally, they're fucked. Manny then grabs a nearby mace, rams it into Wilson's neck, and the two run up the many levels to ground, narrowly escaping with their lives. To call this Surreal Horror would be an understatement.
      • It is no small exaggeration to say that it feels like the characters are descending deeper and deeper into hell.
    • And then when Manny goes to pick up The Count at his place, everything seems quiet for a moment. Until one of McKay’s associates suddenly barges into the place and shoots The Count and his roommate dead, with their blood splattering onto Manny. Even Manny wets himself from seeing this happen.

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