Annalee Newitz

Awesome 1980s Retro Satanism in “House of the Devil”

A weird indie horror gem crept into theaters last week while you weren’t looking. Called House of the Devil, it’s a smart, spare homage to early-80s B-grade horror movies that pleasingly overturns nearly all the conventions of the genre. Showing in a few select theaters in the US, House of the Devil has been a…

Join the Conversation in io9’s Observation Deck

Want to chat with your fellow io9ers about any topic you want? We’ve got an open discussion forum going 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in a place we call the Observation Deck. What movies are you watching this Thanksgiving? Can anyone help you remember the name of that book you read 10…

An Industrial Lady Machine Menaces Our Heroine! [NSFW]

If you’ve never seen The Perils of Gwendoline In The Land Of The Yik Yak, then allow me to enlighten you about this glorious moment in the history of exploitation cinema. This soft-core mindbender from the mid-1980s was directed by none other than Just Jaeckin, the French filmmaker who brought the classic flesh flick Emmanuel…

General conversation for readers of io9. Talk amongst yourselves!

Would “The Matrix” Have Been Better As A 1930s Musical?

This semi-funny parody of The Matrix picks up on something serious, which is that the Matrix flicks were heavily-inspired by 1930s iconography. I do love the 30s-style trailer, showing the dance sequence. Compare it with a real 30s trailer! Here’s the trailer for Busby Berkeley musical classic Gold Diggers of 1933. And let’s compare the…

Twilight’s Bella Is “The Sexual Aggressor”

Over at Strange Horizons, author Karen Healey has an amazing essay about body transformations in young adult fiction. She looks at adolescent physical changes in several novels, including the Twilight series. Vamp-loving hero Bella, she argues, is hardly passive. Healey writes: Bella is often accused of passivity, but although there are certainly faults to be…

For Thanksgiving, Heroes Embraces Mutant Family Dysfunction

Monday’s episode of Heroes, “Thanksgiving,” represented one of those rare moments when everything wrong with this show suddenly became right. It was a soapy tale of three intertwined, dysfunctional mutant family dinners – and it was old-fashioned freaky fun. For some reason, everything related to Claire is great this season. Her lesbotic leanings brought in…

“The Road” Leads to a Sentimental Post-Apocalypse

The vast, dying landscapes in The Road are edged with flame, telling a story of the world unmade in stark images. While the design in this film is eloquent, its characters aren’t. What lurks beneath their silence? The Road, which opens today, is based on a bleak novel by Cormac McCarthy where a man and…

The Clearest View Yet Of A 1,000 Year Old Explosion

In 1054, humans recorded sightings of the mega-star explosion that created the Crab Nebula. It was so bright it was visible to the naked eye. Now three space telescopes have together created a more complete picture of the debris. According to National Geographic: This new picture of the Crab Nebula combines data from the Chandra…

On Supernatural, We Take Family Snapshots Before the Apocalypse

Last week’s episode of Supernatural, “Abandon All Hope…” was jam-packed with action and heartbreak. Lucifer is back, engineering a mega-slaughter in Missouri, and the brothers find a strange ally in a homoerotic demon. Written by Ben Edlund, this story was full of beautifully weird moments juxtaposed with plot developments that were sometimes a bit unsatisfying.…

All Systems Go For Large Hadron Collider – Stay Tuned for Collisions!

Discover has a blow-by-blow account of today’s tests on the Large Hadron Collider, the massive physics experiment that will eventually recreate the conditions during the Big Bang. Everything worked perfectly. Get ready for particle collisions next week! [via Discover]

Scientology Trial Reveals Alleged Work Camps and Baby-Killing

Not only was Scientology founded by a scifi writer, but its greatest enemy – the Anonymous group – models itself after a comic book character. Now members of the alien-loving religion are on trial in Australia for torture and baby-killing. In New South Wales, Australia, members of the local Church of Scientology are being investigated…

New Moon, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Celibacy

You’ve heard it’s bad. You’ve heard it’s sexy. But you haven’t heard the truth about New Moon, which is that it’s actually a not-so-stealthy satire of itself. If you don’t realize that, you’re the butt of the joke. The Twilight series, whose second installment hits theaters tonight in the weird form of New Moon, has…

The Best Places To Find Your Next Free Book Online

You need some science fiction, and you need it now. Unfortunately, you don’t have a ton of money to spend. But as long as you have an internet connection, these resources will help you get free books and stories online. Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg is the premiere spot for finding free books online, and they’ve…

io9 Book Club, Winter Edition: Jacqueline Carey’s “Santa Olivia”

It’s time for the io9 book club to meet again. Get ready for some swashbuckling justice with Jacqueline Carey‘s Santa Olivia, the near-future story of a half-mutant girl who lives in the militarized border zone between the US and Mexico. For our last book club meeting, we read Paul McAuley’s eco-political epic The Quiet War,…

Join your fellow io9 bookworms in our monthly book club, where we read an interesting work of science fiction and discuss it. Often, the authors of the books drop by to talk too!

Join your fellow io9 book worms in our monthly book club, where we read an interesting work of science fiction and discuss it. Often, the authors of the books drop by to talk too!

Intel Is Developing Brain Implants So You Can Channel Surf With Your Mind

Chipmaker Intel is throwing a ton of cash into developing brain implants to help people send text messages with their minds. They are also predicting these implants will be the main way you turn on the TV in 10 years. According to Computerworld: Scientists at Intel’s research lab in Pittsburgh are working to find ways…

Predators Just Want to Have Fun – A Cosplay Gallery

You’ve probably heard about people who dress up like Stormtroopers, but what about Predators? Oh hell yes. As you can see in our gallery, Predators are everywhere: In parking lots, in suburbia, and even among the Sith! What I love about these pictures, taken from premiere Predator community site Hunter’s Lair, is how incredibly beautiful…

Get Ready for the Next Generation of Painkillers

Why do injuries continue to hurt, even when they are healing? New research reveals why we feel certain kinds of post-injury pain – and possibly how to stop it. A group of researchers in San Francisco published a paper in this week’s Nature that explores one of the many mysteries about pain: Why do light…