POPPIES OF TERRA is a pop culture column featuring exclusive editorial content by Hugo Award Finalist Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, whose non-fiction has appeared in markets like the Los Angeles Review of Books, Strange Horizons, Asimov's, Clarkesworld, The New York Review of Science Fiction and Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in these articles reflect the author's opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Hex Publishers, its editorial team or affiliates.
The Poppies of Terra #56 - Carpe Diestination
Published: 2025-05-21 09:00:28
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As I rewatched the first five entries in the Final Destination (2000-present) film franchise this past week in anticipation of the sixth release, I…
...The Poppies of Terra #55 - Refuse/Resist
Published: 2025-05-07 09:00:56
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“Technological salvation,” writes Adam Becker in the first chapter of his new book, “is being used as an excuse to steer society in a…
...The Poppies of Terra #54 - The Wages of Sin
Published: 2025-04-23 09:00:31
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Cinema is alive and well. And no, I’m not talking about the virality of A Minecraft Movie’s chicken jockey scene, as culturally interesting as…
...The Poppies of Terra #53 - Re-embodied
Published: 2025-04-09 09:00:23
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If you’re reading this, it’s thanks to an incredibly complex living matrix whose workings may well be largely, or at least in part, mysterious…
...The Poppies of Terra #52 - Wild Ride Unlocked
Published: 2025-03-26 09:00:46
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The Latin word “dolus” translates to trickery or deception, and in a legal context denotes intentional wrongdoing. In Locked, the new, claustrophobic, single-setting, multi-location thriller…
...The Poppies of Terra #51 - Strange Wonders
Published: 2025-03-12 09:00:16
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Imagine chancing upon a museum of literary sculptures. Each one is sinewy, casting deep shadows that evoke the big mysteries of existence. But the…
...The Poppies of Terra #50 - Golden Jubilee
Published: 2025-02-26 09:00:11
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Half a hundred columns!
This seems like an opportune moment to look back on this series of commentaries as a whole.
On occasion, through the writing of…
...The Poppies of Terra #49 - Love Is In the Script
Published: 2025-02-12 09:00:41
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Cultural programming, or laboratory coding; organic emotions, or synthetic heuristics; committed connection, or substrate obeisance; forever together, or a fAIry tale ending? The world…
...The Poppies of Terra #48 - Old Wolves, New Tricks
Published: 2025-01-29 09:00:58
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I enjoyed Leigh Whannel’s Upgrade (2018) and had a blast with his re-imagining of The Invisible Man (2020), so unsurprisingly…
...The Poppies of Terra #47 - My Top 10 Films of 2024
Published: 2025-01-15 09:00:16
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This year is already shaping up to be a big one in terms of new film releases, and we’re probably not even aware of…
...The Poppies of Terra #46 - We Suck Young Blood
Published: 2025-01-01 09:00:47
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Happy New Year all and sundry!
I recently attended an IMAX screening of Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu and it proved an exhilarating experience. The screenplay by…
...The Poppies of Terra #45 - Sony's Last Hunt?
Published: 2024-12-18 09:00:07
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I reviewed Venom back in 2018, and as I didn’t think the second or third installments in the series improved on the first,…
...The Poppies of Terra #44 - Loscon and Found
Published: 2024-12-04 09:00:11
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Over the long Thanksgiving weekend I was fortunate to travel, figuratively and literally, through fascinating realms of the fantastic.
On Friday, the irrepressible and indefatigable…
...The Poppies of Terra #43 - Hereditary Heresies
Published: 2024-11-20 09:00:02
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Heretic, directed by filmmaking duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (Haunt; 65), opens with two young female members of the Church of Jesus Christ…
...The Poppies of Terra #42 - Music for a Lifetime
Published: 2024-11-06 09:00:53
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Music producer, multi-instrumentalist and popular pundit Rick Beato a few months back posted a video titled “The MOST Well-Known Musical Artist In History?...…
...The Poppies of Terra #41 - A Woman's Trek
Published: 2024-10-23 09:00:15
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999) remains my favorite Star Trek series, and Kira Nerys, as portrayed by Nana Visitor, remains my all-time favorite…
...The Poppies of Terra #40 - How Am I Not Myself?
Published: 2024-10-09 09:00:35
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How to snag that dream role? How about that dream life? Must these dreams possess a certain ineluctable intensity to metamorphose into reality, or are…
...The Poppies of Terra #39 - How They Spent Their Summer
Published: 2024-09-25 09:00:10
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Summer officially ended a few days ago, but for those who wish to cradle or even cling onto its sun-soaked carefree spirit and usher…
...The Poppies of Terra #38 - Red Rooms
Published: 2024-09-11 09:00:47
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Avoid, at all costs, rooms referred to by their colors. The Blue Room (2014)–desire, guilt, and crime, à la Simenon. Green Room (2015)–welcome to…
...The Poppies of Terra #37 - The March of Our Penguin Friends
Published: 2024-08-28 09:00:14
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One day a fisherman in the tropical and mostly serene Proveta Beach, in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, spots something unusual in the water…
...The Poppies of Terra #35 - Dreams and Oddities
Published: 2024-07-31 09:00:45
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Summer is here, flexing and in full force, bringing with it the animated titans, the blockbusters and tentpole movies, like Inside Out 2, Despicable…
...The Poppies of Terra #34 - Filmmaking Generations
Published: 2024-07-17 09:00:19
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A little past the midpoint of the year, it’s interesting to look back and note that at least five genre films have been made…
...The Poppies of Terra #33 - A Literary Tastemaker
Published: 2024-07-03 09:00:51
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In the Introduction to The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America, Sara B. Franklin notes that “rather than exhaustive, I’ve…
...The Poppies of Terra #32 - Cinemaxtrapolation
Published: 2024-06-19 09:00:24
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Like last year, in 2024 I’ve been averaging about two visits to the movie theater per week.
On certain days it feels like living through…
...The Poppies of Terra #31 - Naughty By Nature
Published: 2024-06-05 09:00:00
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I’ve seen the future of horror, and it’s looking back at us.
In a Violent Nature, the feature directorial debut of Chris Nash, depicts a…
...The Poppies of Terra #30 - I Saw I Saw the TV Glow
Published: 2024-05-22 09:00:43
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Jane Schoenbrun (A Self-Induced Hallucination; We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) has talked about filmmaking as an act of faith, and for the…
...The Poppies of Terra #29 - Women! In! Peril!
Published: 2024-05-08 09:00:05
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We tend to think of a plan B as a fallback option in case our plan A doesn’t materialize, but as Jessie Ren Marshall…
...The Poppies of Terra #28 - Our Living World
Published: 2024-04-24 09:00:10
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Our current entertainment landscape is evergreen with fictional bounty, which may sometimes distract us from the fact that it’s also brimming with nonfiction wonders…
...The Poppies of Terra #26 - Sloane Crosley Is For People
Published: 2024-03-27 09:00:29
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Please be advised, the following piece deals with mourning and suicide.
“All burglaries are alike, but every burglary is uninsured in its own…
...The Poppies of Terra #25 - Stream and Stream Again
Published: 2024-03-13 09:00:49
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What’s left of 2024 promises to bring shovelfuls of theatrical thrills and chills, with Neon alone releasing Immaculate, Cuckoo, and Longlegs between March and…
...The Poppies of Terra #24 - A Tale of Three Picards
Published: 2024-02-28 09:00:36
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In the just-published Star Trek: Picard: The Art and Making of the Series, visual effects editor and author Joe Fordham (Star Trek: First Contact:…
...The Poppies of Terra #23 - Novel Kid on the Block
Published: 2024-02-14 09:00:46
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In Chapter Eight of Lisa Goldstein’s The Dream Years there’s a beautiful moment of reflection that goes like this:
“Life goes on, he…
...The Poppies of Terra #22 - Orbiting Meaning
Published: 2024-01-31 09:00:52
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Early on in David Fincher’s film version of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, the narrator reflects on the nature of his constant travels: “You wake…
...The Poppies of Terra #21 - For All Fankind
Published: 2024-01-17 09:00:44
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Last week I enjoyed an experience of a type I haven’t had in over a decade.
To wit: on Thursday April 25th of 2013 I…
...The Poppies of Terra #20 - My Top 10 of 2023
Published: 2024-01-03 09:00:59
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Esteemed readers, happy 2024; best wishes, on this dank and overcast day in Southern California, to all and sundry.
The freshly minted year already promises a…
...The Poppies of Terra #19 - Shadow Horror
Published: 2023-12-20 09:00:17
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Back to the Future (1985); Groundhog Day (1993); Freaky Friday (1976 & 2003); films like these are entertainment staples, evergreen joyrides of the imagination.…
...The Poppies of Terra #18 - Adventures In Time
Published: 2023-12-06 09:00:30
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As a teen who started exploring science fiction movie history in the 90s, the posters for seemingly ancient films–how much more ancient now!–like Conquest…
...The Poppies of Terra #17 - Of Thumbs Opposable But Unopposed
Published: 2023-11-22 09:00:09
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Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert are undoubtedly the most famous reviewing act in film history. They were notable critics individually before joining forces, somewhat…
...The Poppies of Terra #16 - Happy Ninety
Published: 2023-11-08 09:00:10
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Two columns ago, at the start of October, I talked about seven disquieting recent releases. Halloween may now be departed, but its spirit…
...The Poppies of Terra #15 - Pigeon Tunnel Vision
Published: 2023-10-25 09:00:20
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The Pigeon Tunnel, the new documentary by Errol Morris about intelligence-officer-turned-famous-writer John le Carré (writing pseudonym of David Cornwell), is a tease, a rehearsal…
...The Poppies of Terra #14 - Seven Haunted Train Cars
Published: 2023-10-11 09:00:24
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The Halloween-bound fright train is picking up speed; so much spookiness, so little time. Here are my capsule thoughts on seven recent releases. Down…
...The Poppies of Terra #13 - Where the Greydads Sing
Published: 2023-09-27 09:00:36
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No One Will Save You, directed by Brian Duffield (dir. Spontaneous; multiple writing credits), ambitiously mashes up a half-dozen science fiction and horror scenarios in…
...The Poppies of Terra #12 - Fit For a King?
Published: 2023-09-13 09:00:49
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Daphné Baiwir’s documentary King on Screen, about film and television adaptations of the famous author’s work, recently had a short theatrical run leading up…
...The Poppies of Terra #11 - Animalia Farm
Published: 2023-08-30 09:00:30
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I cited work in the very first of these columns showing that big box-office films have been getting longer. Data (about a decade…
...The Poppies of Terra #10 - Four Score and Seven Exorcisms Ago
Published: 2023-08-16 09:00:08
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It’s difficult for audiences who didn’t experience William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) during its original theatrical run to appreciate the visceral nature of the…
...The Poppies of Terra #9 - Weaving Secrets
Published: 2023-08-02 09:00:50
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One night, eight-year-old Peter (Woody Norman) hears a knock coming from inside his bedroom wall.
Is the sound the product of what his mother Carol…
...The Poppies of Terra #8 - Red Door, Blue Pill
Published: 2023-07-19 09:00:12
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Lambert family, we missed you.
The Insidious movies have perhaps one of the fussiest timelines of any horror series. In Insidious (2010) Josh and Renai…
...The Poppies of Terra #7 - They Were Making This Up As They Went
Published: 2023-07-05 10:00:20
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My favorite Indiana Jones movie line occurs at the end of my least favorite film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull…
...The Poppies of Terra #6 - No Foolish Heroics, If You Please
Published: 2023-06-21 09:00:22
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No matter which way you ride the lightning, The Flash is a weird beast of a franchise movie. It’s the penultimate entry in the…
...The Poppies of Terra #5 - Boogeypalooza
Published: 2023-06-07 09:00:50
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“...when Andy was one, we moved to Waterbury. The old place had too many bad memories.
And too many closets.”
...The Poppies of Terra #4 - Who Will Drive Your Hearse?
Published: 2023-05-24 09:15:07
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On August 6th, 1982, The Tonight Show’s Johnny Carson prophetically said, “I think you’re going to find him a little different.” Moments later Steven…
...The Poppies of Terra #3 - My Little Assistant Health Monitor
Published: 2023-05-10 10:00:24
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The age-old question of what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object may have at long last been answered, courtesy of Ari Aster’s…
...The Poppies of Terra #2 - Sound Familiar?
Published: 2023-04-26 09:01:40
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A few minutes before stepping into my screening of Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise, I exchanged words with a fellow series enthusiast, who excitedly wondered…
...The Poppies of Terra #1 - New Ideas
Published: 2023-04-12 09:15:00
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Welcome to The Poppies of Terra. What’s up with the name of the column, you ask? Well, I’m planning to use this space to talk…
...Previous posts can be found in Words Archive.