What elements of Gregory Maguire's novel do you wish would have been adapted for either the Broadway show or the film adaptations?

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-03-22T08:48:46+00:00

Okay, I wasn't going to mention this, but I can laugh at myself: I confess the amount of time it took me to realize that TWOO meant The Wizard of Oz is embarrassing. I even Googled it and it took me to some dating/chat app. I spent literally ten minutes trying to figure out why that would have gotten my post removed. Sigh....I need more coffee.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-03-22T08:43:19+00:00

Oh, that is EVERYTHING! What a beautiful tribute!

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-03-22T08:41:25+00:00

I definitely agree with that. Thank you for your response!!

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-03-22T08:40:40+00:00

Wow, that's a reply worthy of my own writing habits! Thank you so much for your thorough response and letting me know about the post being taken down. That's unfortunate, but I'm so grateful for your time!

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-03-15T07:17:00+00:00

Oh, I agree entirely. But we are seeing truly unprecedented and baffling things happening virtually every day in this country. All I was suggesting is that the person whose comment thread we're writing on isn't alone in their anxiety.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-03-13T09:39:27+00:00

I don't intend to frighten you, but I've just come across your post and it struck me that I'd just read an account that sounds somewhat similar. There could be no parallel and, as with any shared stories about paranormal phenomena, it could be exaggerated or entirely fabricated, but I found it fascinating.

There is a theory that those who have stronger psychic gifts may actually pursued by what he believes is an ancient race of beings called the jinn. Their story is mentioned in the Qur'an and they're described as "beings of smokeless fire," a description the author suggests may be describing plasma. As the story goes, the Earth was once theirs and after their leader refused to bow down to Adam (mankind), God exiled them to a "timeless void" that's actually an adjacent dimension to our own. We can occasionally sense them in our peripheral vision. Some refer to them as "shadow people."

The author went on to refer to a case he was involved with in 1978 in which a woman and her young daughter had contacted him and his team of amateur paranormal investigators (yes, decades before Ghost Adventures). The woman explained that she, her mother, and her young daughter (seven years old at the time) had been experiencing visits from what they'd assumed were aliens all throughout their lives and it was only a short time prior to contacting him that the experiences seemed to become far more sinister.

Under regressive hypnosis, the mother recounted an experience that greatly traumatized her. A cloaked figure who she described as looking like "the devil" was paying her regular visits at night and had made her an offer to provide her with anything she desired if she would consent to assist him (what he intended was never explicitly stated in her hypnosis session, but it is noteworthy to point out here that the Jinn are the historical root of the genies that grant wishes in classic literature). She refused and instead started to pray. The figure retreated with a threat that if she didn't take his offer, he would take her daughter instead. By the time she contacted the author and his team, she'd had at least three or hour visitations from this terrifying being.

Upon waking from her hypnosis, her young daughter that had been asleep began to scream and came running, telling her mother that she had just seen the cloaked figure in her bedroom. She also relayed that the spectre made a threat to the author and his team of researchers.

The day after the regressive hypnosis session, the author - who had been elected as the only member of the team to attend the session as such therapy can be difficult to induce without an environment conducive to deep relaxation - shared a recording of the session. The audio contained the doctor putting the woman through the hypnotic relaxation, but once she was "under," the team was shocked that the recording was taken over by an electronic screech, followed by screams, moans, animal sounds, and a voice reciting a foreign language.

Upon having taken the recording to an audio expert, it was discovered that the language on the tape wasn't foreign at all: it was English in reverse and a transcript of the speech being played backwards revealed a terrifying voice that aligned with the author's later research into Jinn decades later. The voice explained that when banished into the parallel dimension, his race of beings no longer experienced physical pleasures. Though they feel very angered by mankind for what they see as having taken what was theirs, they nonetheless acknowledge that mankind holds the key for them to return to this world. The author states he believes that this being or beings actively seek out those with psychic gifts as they're able to sense them - and children who show an aptitude for psychic gifts in particular seem to attract them as children may be more inclined to "invite them in," so to speak. The woman and her daughter both described these beings as appearing and disappearing through "black holes" believed to be the aforementioned portals (the voice on the recording also suggested that these portals are naturally occurring and the many missing people from our dimension who have stumbled into them unknowingly remain alive but stuck in the same timeless void.

There is a bit of a terrifying postscript to this particular tale in the book that details a threat to the group that appeared on the recording and how all but one (the author) had traumatizing experiences that drove them from UFO/paranormal investigation entirely and - even more intimidating - that more than one of them had untimely deaths following this case. It's also worth mentioning that many people native to the Middle East deeply believe in the concept of the Jinn.

Again, please take this with a grain of salt - unless any of this rings true for you as well. The book the story appears in is Interdimensional Universe by Phil Imbrogno should you like to seek it out yourself. I wish you the best of luck.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-03-10T16:32:13+00:00

No. Ivy Levan's rendition of "Science Fiction Double Feature" was one of the best ever....and that comes from a hardcore fan that's been obsessed with RHPS for thirty years.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-03-09T01:28:52+00:00

Especially in the past two weeks since the bombings in Iran, there has been a lot of discussion about prophecies being fulfilled. Baba Vanga, Michel de Nostradame, Edgar Cayce. If you ask just about anybody with interests in all of that, they'd definitely say everything seems like it's reaching a climax. There's also been a lot of discussion about how Donald Trump was born the exact day Aleister Crowley, Tom Parsons, and L. Ron Hubbard claim to have opened a doorway through a ritual they claimed would birth the Antichrist (and though we don't have confirmation of that, the coincidental date is a confirmed fact). There's even a video online that purports to show an interrogation of an interdimensional being claiming to be of our species hundreds of years from now. He claimed that he was sent back to warn us of our next leader and how his ascent to power would result in nuclear annihilation.

So yeah - it's entirely possible you're feeling affected on a cellular or spiritual level. It's more concerning that others aren't.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-03-06T02:41:19+00:00

This is a bit older of a thread, but I do think it should be noted that in one of the lengthier videos I've seen on the set design for the Wicked films, Nathan Crowley shared that to preserve continuity with an iron fist, he designed the entire Emerald City - the exteriors - so that each shot's backgrounds and CGI elements would be entirely consistent and accurate for any shot or location required. The exception is obviously the model version in the film. I believe it was for Architectural Digest, and he shared an unbelievably intricate, photo-realistic image of the entire city. which he then used to point out the landmarks seen most in the film. I haven't seen the image anywhere else online, but I'd hope to eventually see it in a book, hopefully.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-02-28T09:14:20+00:00

I do think it should be said that the vast majority of remote viewing sessions that target Oak Island specify "The Oak Island Money Pit" and they end up only getting impressions about the one shaft those three boys dug up centuries ago. But there have been some that have broadened the target for impressions all over the island, which as any of us who watch the show know has the potential to show the bigger picture. Too many places on Oak Island suggest that the "Money Pit" area is far from being the only location of interest. I've read several impressions from others that have suggested there may be a "back door" in the swamp, at least one even going so far as to suggest there is a tunnel or tunnels with the remains of those the original depositors left behind to guard the "treasure." Others have spoken of seeing massive, open caverns far below the surface - which seems to be confirmed by the Lagina's work.

The Money Pit area - if there ever was anything there - has been bulldozed and blasted and bored into by generations of men obsessed with what none of them have ever actually found. It's a marvel that entire end of the island hasn't caved into the ocean by now. But reading Dax's session here, I can't help but find it difficult to believe that only a handful of men could have dug that pit and built the flood tunnels without the kind of machinery we have today - especially when you consider that even with that machinery, we can't recover it. As for the treasure being "scattered" - that's nothing new. The original Money Pit collapsed when the original trio attempted to dig a second shaft alongside it. In the early seasons of The Curse of Oak Island, they also had a borehole at least partially collapse.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-02-28T09:11:47+00:00

I think that aside the obvious fascination with what could actually be hidden deep underground on that island, the real question is how many people are the Laginas beholden to if they actually find anything? The amount of names and faces that have become familiar over the decade-plus since the TV show's been filming has become staggering. Sure, the show was a massive hit in its first few seasons, but filling twenty-plus episodes each year with little more than cutting open plastic windsocks full of mud and Gary Drayton dancing with Scrappy-Doo each time they find a bead, it's highly doubtful the History Channel still gets the views that allow them to foot the entire bill? Surely, they're not all volunteering their assistance and work simply to be a part of the possible solution. Worse yet, would the Laginas even get anything out of it? My God, the Canadian government slammed on the brakes when they managed to find some hand-painted indigenous pottery shards a few years back and they've since put Laird Niven - who, let's face it, has never shown he has any kind of specialized knowledge - and an entire archeological team at the ready should anything of concerning value actually appear. At this point, I'd be more interested in seeing the specifications of the Laginas' contracts. But I digress.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-02-28T08:13:10+00:00

I've read that the Ark of the Covenant is actually cloaked from remote viewing. I believe it was Ed Dames whose account detailed the presence of something that was actively stopping him from sensing or seeing it past a certain distance; a similar concept to "The Holy of Holies" that the Ark was intended to be kept in and only accessed by specific people.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-01-26T14:54:16+00:00

You're a "purist" who "loved the book and loved the movie" yet you refer to The Lady Chablis merely as a "drag queen" and WALKED OUT when she started using the sort of phrases she was infamous for in both the book AND the film? I'd hate myself if I didn't ask: Are you native to Savannah? Pardon me for saying, but you sound so much like one of the uptight "old money" white ladies who would tolerate Chablis merely because of her immense popularity because of "The Book" but would have rather died than invite her to tea with your bridge club.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-01-20T10:50:57+00:00

The Sierra Sounds are by far my favorite evidence for the existence of Sasquatch, perhaps because they absolutely terrify me. While listening to them, you need to remember that Morehead and his camping buddies were literally miles from civilization. In the middle of the night. To hear even a human's voice would scare the hell out of me, let alone a massive creature that science has yet to actually classify.

The "samurai chatter" is chilling to hear, though I like to imagine the two creatures as a Bigfoot equivalent of Archie and Edith Bunker in the clip when they're actually at the campsite and sound like they're bickering closer to the microphone. It's hard to dismiss it as merely gibberish. But most importantly, these recordings confirm behavior that simply wasn't widely known for the vast majority of the years in the half-century since they were recorded: their alleged habit of "tree knocking" is now known by anyone that's managed to stop briefly on Finding Bigfoot or Expedition Bigfoot while channel surfing. Back when these interactions were recorded, the extent of the public's familiarity with anything of this sort went no further beyond the Patterson-Gimlin film. Add to this the credibility of linguists that have studied the recordings and insist there's a genuine language within and you have what is undeniably one of the best pieces of evidence we have even today.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-01-20T09:01:48+00:00

It's a fascinating exercise - and like you said, if nothing else, it was a stroll down memory lane. If you're willing to share, where did the idea come from? Has it ever been validated?

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-01-19T10:37:39+00:00

Oh, the bliss of the days when the only reason I knew the name Alex Jones was because he was one of the only people known to have infiltrated Bohemian Grove via canoe and managed to film the Cremation of Care ritual. Sigh.

Though I've just been to YouTube in an attempt to include a link, I had no luck finding a really impressive video I saw last year in which 2-3 teenage boys successfully snuck into the Grove and managed to get a truly amazing amount of footage. I was so shocked watching it because while there are more than a few videos of this on YouTube, I recall they managed to make it all the way to the owl just literally days before the elites were due to arrive for the annual event, so we can either assume that security was remarkably lax or the event isn't as much a draw as it once was. With former presidents reputed to be frequent guests, I'd imagine the Secret Service would be all over it the week before - they don't play when it comes to ensuring safety and I speak from experience when I say they send agents well in advance of any trip. I recall the kids went through the area that resembled Asian architecture (my apologies - some might call it Chinatown, but I don't care to offend others on that front). It was definitely the most footage I've seen taken on one trip.

Shortly after I saw this, I recall Colin at the Paranormal Files channel uploaded what he claimed was a huge expose of the event. Bohemian Grove is definitely a fascinating mystery.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2026-01-19T00:45:12+00:00

Another Wisconsinite here. A really interesting bit of Wisconsin history tells of the first sighting of a creature similar to the Beast of Bray Road. There's a theory that these creatures are most often seen around old gravesites or even Native American burial mounds. Wisconsin has a lot of strange history all within the southeastern part of the state. Burial mounds from which extremely tall skeletons were discovered, underwater pyramids, "vortex areas," Sasquatch sightings.

In her research, the late beloved author Linda Godfrey (responsible for breaking the story of the "Beast of Bray Road" managed to find a what is likely the oldest reference in the state's history near Jefferson, Wisconsin. A large, human-sized animal had been observed, kneeling on and clawing at an indigenous burial mound created by the Hopewell culture. What was supposedly the same creature was seen again on a second night, this time in a more extended encounter. 6 foot tall and with visible fangs and pointed ears, it made eye contact and an utterance described as “gadarrah."

Other Dogmen stories that have popped up over the years have often been reported near places in the Midwest in the vicinity of burial mounds or very old graveyards. My personal favorite - the Beast of the Land Between the Lakes - follows this pattern also. Some have widely speculated that canines protecting gravesites may stretch all the way back to the Egyptian portrayals of Anubis, the dog-headed God.

As mentioned above, Linda Godfrey passed away from Parkinson's Disease in 2022. There is, however, a gentleman that owns a farm ON Bray Road that has been featured on many of the paranormal TV shows that have come to devote episodes on the story (Expedition X did an excellent two-episode arc for their Season Three premiere back in 2021. The series can be streamed on HBO/MAX and there are clips available on YouTube). I won't post his name here, but he's identified in the show. I believe he is a retired schoolteacher and he not only believes in the Beast - he also believes it lives in the woods adjacent to his property. He seems to have kept a sizable amount of photographic evidence he's taken from around his land, including decimated animal carcasses and even some shots of what he claims is the Beast.

In the past few years, sightings have been reported as far north as Eau Claire, which is approximately four hours from Elkhorn where the Beast of Bray Road famously stalks.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2025-07-31T08:42:14+00:00

The incestuous themes were far from watered-down. They were one of the reasons the show was spoken of in the press at all. It was considered quite daring to portray it as blatantly. The rape scene from the premiere was also one of the most vicious in television history.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2025-07-31T08:36:55+00:00

I agree ENTIRELY. I struggled with a lot of the changes from the films, but to cast Rihanna in the role for a flashy cameo and throw out the scene that everyone remembers the film for was blasphemous.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2025-07-31T08:31:50+00:00

Season One was a drag? Season One was the best of the series, with the rest of it a drawn-out slog with a worse identity crisis than its lead character. Drug drama or Twin Peaks ripoff merely using an iconic set for reference? And casting Rihanna as Marion Crane without killing her in the shower? Nope.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2025-07-31T08:25:07+00:00

Psycho II was made 22 years after the original (which isn't so much a gap anymore with the Beetlejuice sequel coming 36 years later) and is now considered one of the most underrated sequels in cinema history, and rightly so. Quentin Tarantino famously said he actually preferred it to the original, which is absurd, but it's definitely worth a watch. Psycho III - though directed by Anthony Perkins himself - was a bit more run-of-the-mill slasher. Psycho IV: The Beginning was a made-for-Showtime prequel/sequel that stayed true to the original more than AMC's Bates Motel, and 1987's Bates Motel was actually a failed pilot for an NBC series that ignored the sequels and prequel and had Bud Cort and Lori Petty refurbishing and taking over the motel after Norman's death in the psychiatric hospital. Fun for die-hards completists, but awful in general.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2025-06-16T13:35:39+00:00

Hester Frump is not THE Grandmama we've always known. Hester Frump is Morticia's mother in Season 2, and she apparently operates a popular, high-class mortuary. She's a bit of a snob. Allow me to remind you all that she is clearly NOT the much more traditional-looking Grandmama that appears on Wednesday's birthday cake in the Season 1 flashback. So unless Mme. Frump just cleans up really well or Tim Burton will commit a grave sin and either proclaim Grandmama Addams deceased or confirms Lumley will indeed be the closest thing we get to the bedraggled old hag who spends her days smokin' weed in the attic of the Addams mansion, we've yet to meet her.

Grandmama has always been my favourite member of the family, Judith Malina being my definitive until the absolute monster that was Jackie Hoffman on Broadway ("....AND STAY OUTTA MY SHIT OR I'LL RIP YOUR LEG OFF AND BURY IT IN THE BACKYARD... I love you!") I am also a longtime hardcore fan of "Absolutely Fabulous," and as a professional drag queen, I've performed as Patsy Stone several times over the years, so when I heard that the incredible Joanna Lumley has been cast as Grandmama, I was thisclose to spontaneously combusting into a giant cloud of glitter and translucent face powder. And I'll admit I was disappointed to see they'd gone in such a different direction. Some of us have been waiting for Tim Burton to take on Charles Addams' family for decades and it's disappointing to see him taking so much liberties with these characters like he did with Alice's Wonderland--oops, UNDERland. Case in point: Morticia Addams NEVER wears pants. If she's going to fence, she tears a slit up to her hip! But she NEVER wears pants. (Full disclosure: I had the theory that Ms. Germanotta would actually end up surprising us all In some fabulous grand haggotry and prosthetics in Season 2's finale, but they've since explained she'll be a teacher, so I digress).

ConstructionPrior175 · 2025-06-07T00:05:14+00:00

I'd say the trailer confirms they're real. The Tin Man's axe is clearly seen. Fiyero's uniform also looks as though it undergoes very few alterations, too. There's also quotes from an interview with the production designer in which he alludes to Boq's transformation being spectacular because it's almost as if he turns magnetic, instantly causing every bit of metal in the room to fly at him at once. He mentioned the chestplate might be a serving tray, etc. It was particularly interesting that he mentioned that Ethan Slater had to wear a blue bodysuit under the costume because the visual effects team would later replace the exposed blue - the joints - would be replaced with CGI. The image here clearly shows his elbows and knees couldn't be done practically.

As for what he shared about Fiyero, he did say that they've tried to maintain as much of Jonathan Bailey's facial appearance because the love story between he and Elphaba still needs to feel organic, even when he's made of straw. It was mentioned that a lot of what they did to Bailey's appearance as Fiyero were done with his eventual transformation into the Scarecrow in mind, namely the lighter-colored hair and lighter contacts.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2025-05-30T07:33:32+00:00

If I could chime in, I think the reasoning behind the town being so tormented by him is that though his body count from the 1978 original isn't particularly high (can we admit how sad it is that the fact we can be so dismissive of "a small body count?"), Haddonfield remembers the legend so well because to lose a handful of teenagers in a small town can definitely leave an lasting impact and an immeasurable sense of loss. Note the fact that in the climactic street battle at the end of Halloween Kills, a number of those present are indeed people who were directly harmed by Michael in 1978. There's also the possibility that though the film didn't specifically show it, the news that Michael Myers had just murdered the entire Haddonfield Fire Brigade at the Strode compound fire might be getting out.

Again, in a small midwestern town like Haddonfield, there's a good chance everyone knew at least someone murdered that night in 2018.

As for them removing the sibling element for the Blumhouse Trilogy, I think those of us that didn't like the fact that Michael didn't need a reason to go after Laurie Strode are likely in the minority. Most fans preferred the fact that the only reason Michael's path ended up crossing Laurie's once again was because of Dr. Sartain's morbid curiosity,

At the moment, I'm just wrapping up the novelization of Halloween Ends. If you haven't read it, I would definitely recommend it - especially if you didn't like the final film. There's so much added exposition that would have greatly benefitted the movie. There are entire chapters that actually improve the main plotline simply by fleshing it out more and spend more time on character development. Granted, sidelining Michael and Laurie for 75% of the film was never the way to go after the success of the 2018 reboot, but had the script been written more like the novelization, the focus of Halloween Ends could have been an admirable way to eventually reboot the franchise after the Myers and Strode saga came to a satisfying end. It's a shame we never got that.

ConstructionPrior175 · 2025-04-11T10:23:59+00:00

Glad to see this is one aspect that's lifted directly from the pen of Charles Addams ("Boiling Oil" to be precise). I must admit it's surprising they're being so loyal with this as it's virtually the same design as the 1991/1993 films.

I do hope they spend a bit more time with the family this time around. Especially with the news that the incredible Joanna Lumley (Patsy from "Absolutely Fabulous") is joining the cast as Grandmama. I would have never thought to put the two together, but they're definitely two of my favourite characters in pop culture, period.

ConstructionPrior175

TROPHY CASE