Nearly two months after photos of Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, Kate Upton, and other celebrities were reportedly stolen from Apple’s iCloud service and distributed online, links to sites hosting Lawrence’s photos have started being removed from Google.

According to the Guardian, Google removed two links to a site hosting the stolen photos, after Lawrence's lawyers filed takedown requests under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), claiming copyright infringement.

Google has been under intense scrutiny since the photos were leaked in late August. In early October, they were threatened with a $100 million lawsuit for failing to remove the stolen images a month after a takedown request. Entertainment lawyer Martin Singer, whose firm represents several of the women hacked, sent a letter to Google claiming, among other things, that the company “has turned a blind eye while its sites repeatedly exploit and victimize these women.”

In a response statement, Google staffers claimed they’ve “removed tens of thousands of pictures—within hours of the requests being made—and we have closed hundreds of accounts. The Internet is used for many good things. Stealing people’s private photos is not one of them.”

4chan, where the photos originated, has a copyright-violation policy, but the number of images that appear and quickly disappear on the site is so vast, the policy isn’t much help. Reddit did update its policy after the photos appeared and were removed, however.

While this is a small victory for Lawrence and her lawyers, there are still many more links to be removed, and noise to cut through. Earlier this month, Corynne McSherry, intellectual property director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the Daily Dot, "Google isn't required to go out and affirmatively search for, locate, and then take down all the examples of a certain piece of copyrighted content."

In an exclusive interview with Vanity Fair, Lawrence called out the sites hosting these photos for profit, and called the hack a sex crime.

H/T The Guardian | Photo via Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

While some people are blaming Google Glass for shattering their lives, others are finding creative uses for it. Singer FKA Twigs just debuted a concept film in collaboration with Google Glass, titled #throughglass.

The singer, who was recently the target of Twilight fan rage, created and directed the short clip, which includes fragments of her songs “Glass & Patron” and “Video Girl.” She meets lookalike versions of herself in the video’s white space, as FKA Twigs commands their performances through Glass. Perhaps it’s a commentary on the many online identities we create.

She might be the first person to actually make Google Glass look interesting, and highlight the creative and artistic potential of the technology. Perhaps this will create a shift from Glass’s usage among the tech elite to the artistic sphere. Perhaps Google’s trying to change Glass’s image. This is a good start.

H/T Fader | Screengrab via FKA twigs #throughglass/YouTube 

Sometimes admitting you ship isn’t as easy as you imagine, as we find out in a new, coming-of-age short that focuses on the world of breaking up and moving on in the digital age.

I Ship It is the brainchild of Yulin Kuang, who tackles the tumultuous world of Wizard Rockers, vloggers, and other digitally savvy folks in her short film, following two friends who’ve both recently been dumped. The film shows how they deal with those breakups by creating emotional songs inspired by their own lives and the world of Harry Potter, and how they become closer in the process until they might just, well, ship it. The film stars shippable digital celebrities, too. Zoe is played by Mary Kate Wiles of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries fame, her despicable ex is Joey Richter of StarKid Productions, and her new potential love interest is Sam Persuad of A Tale To Tell Vlog.

The world of Wizard Rock, or wrock, is no stranger to relationship drama, with many of the YouTubers accused of sexual misconduct in the past year involved in that music scene. Our villain here is just a general jerk, thankfully.

The film premiered on YouTube as part of the New Form Digital Incubator series aimed to help new filmmakers break out in the digital space. Kuang used the YouTube medium to create an immersive and extended experience for her short, including full music videos of sections seen in the film, as well as an alternate ending for fans demanding a little more oomph. More films from the series will also premiere on YouTube.

Screengrab via YouTube

YouTuber Anna Akana has been making visually engaging and dramatically satisfying content for years, but her most recent venture goes above and beyond with a sci-fi adventure we wouldn’t be shocked to see on the big screen.

In Miss Earth, Akana pulls double duty as a pair of twins, one whom is supposed to represent the Earth at an intergallactic competition to save the planet, while the other is winning beauty competitions at home. Naturally, the wrong twin ends up beamed up to the world-saving competition for which she’s wholly unprepared. It’s a mix of sibling rivalry and drama, as well as witty science fiction that keeps you on pins and needles as the fate of the world hangs in Akana’s hands.

The costuming and makeup of the intergalactic competitors rival anything you’d see on a mainstream sci-fi production, and the 13-minute film funtions as a first episode to an incomplete webseries. It's a part of the New Form Digital Incubator series aimed at supporting digitally emerging filmmakers, and hopefully this will be the push Akana needs to continue producing Miss Earth. We think there’s a lot more to mine here.

Screengrab via Miss Earth/YouTube

The Hunger Games has a long history of inventive marketing plans, from sorting fans into competitive Districts via social media, to managing a fashion-based Tumblr presence celebrating the outrageous looks of The Capital. The latest move follows the changes in the story and reflects the political propaganda of the Mockingjay Part 1 storyline.

Lionsgate has partnered with several YouTubers to create District Voices, a five-episode series that brings Panem to life through the eyes of creators aligned with a District’s unique industries. The first installment celebrates District 8 with Rob Czar and Corinne Leigh, co-helmers of the Threadbanger YouTube channel, who show how to best make use of excess Peacekeeper armor. Subsequent episodes will roll out the rest of the week, with Shane Fazen showcasing Peacekeeper training as District 2, Derek Muller of Veritasium doing electricity demonstrations for District 5, and iJustine of District 6 giving a glimpse into Panem’s transportation, among others.

“Our mission has always been to engage our Hunger Games fans in the most innovative and authentic ways possible,” said Lionsgate’s EVP of Digital Marketing Danielle De Palma in a press release.  “We cannot think of a better partner than these incredible YouTube stars, who truly bring new content to life in the world of Panem and extend our storytelling to online audiences in exciting new directions.”

Earlier this year Lionsgate launched Capitol Couture, fashion magazine built on Tumblr, to promote the film through glossy spreads and articles on Peeta and Joanna, the captured tributes. The YouTube series is part of Google’s Art, Copy & Code initiative, which helps brands connect with consumers through unique content experiences. It doesn't get more unique than a YouTuber teaching you how to cook with fictionally sanctioned grain rations. The Hunger Games continues to surprise us with its marketing efforts again and again.

Screengrab via YouTube

Spotify is going family-sized.

The streaming site is now offering a 50 percent discount rate for family members on the premium subscription service. Spotify Family allows you to add up to four premium accounts, but keep separate accounts, usernames, and playlists from other family members, so you won’t have to scroll through your mom’s Josh Groban playlists that you don’t totally DO NOT LISTEN TO.

Spotify’s chief content officer Ken Parks explained on the company blog today that this was one of the most requested features from users. The price for a premium subscription will still be $10 a month, but an extra account would be just $5. A family of five could have a subscription for $30 a month. 

This is a smart move by Spotify, as the streaming subscription service marketplace gets more and more crowded. Apple also wants to lower the subscription price for its Beats Music service to $5. Currently, the price of a Beats subscription is also $10, and as the service grows, Apple is no doubt going after Spotify users. It remains to be seen if labels bite at a $5-a-month deal, however. 

This new Spotify service will roll out over the next few weeks.

H/T Re/code | Photo via Philippe Put/Flickr (CC BY ND 2.0)

With its fifth season set to premiere in April, it’s difficult to imagine the Game of Thronescharacters that we’ve come to love being portrayed any differently. In the beginning, though, these actors won their roles via a battle royale auditioning process (with the exception of Peter Dinklage, because he’s Peter Dinklage). Here, we take a look at some special YouTube artifacts from those auditions.

Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo)

When Jason Momoa was first approached to audition for GoT, he wasn’t familiar with the source material; he just really wanted to work with HBO. That soon changed, however, when he locked himself away and devoured the source material like a Dothraki feasting on horse meat. As Momoa told AOL On, his audition was supposed to consist of Drogo simply saying “no” in an increasingly menacing manner. But Momoa wanted to explore a more intense Drogo, and, at the suggestion of actor/friend Michael Raymond-James, asked to perform a haka for the casting directors. The haka is a traditional war cry of the Maori people native to New Zealand, and Momoa evidently did it justice, as he was asked to return and perform it a second time. This footage comes from that second audition, and it speaks highly of his acting skills when you consider that no bath salts were ingested before the cameras started rolling.

Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner (Arya and Sansa Stark)

Maisie Williams was coming off the major disappointment of narrowly missing out on a role in Nanny McPhee 2 when she was offered an audition for GoT, which perhaps proves the old adage that it’s always darkest before the sun rises. The footage seen here is her second audition, and Sophie Turner’s first. Williams told Winter is Coming that the two immediately hit it off, with Turner confirming that the two would high-five after each take. Williams was awarded the role of Arya soon after this audition, while Turner, who was reading with several other potential Sansas on this occasion, was awarded her respective role after D.B. Weiss and David Benioff were impressed with a later audition in which she looked at various severed heads. The two claim that the showrunners made very certain that their moms were aware of the content before moving forward.

Rory McCann (The Hound/Sandor Clegane)

Do not look away from the video, as many an unfortunate YouTuber has done, before the 59-second mark. In case of a heart condition, it’s advised to skip past that mark entirely, as it makes Momoa’s haka look like a soothing lullaby in comparison. According to an interview with Rolling Stone, this scene was later given to Littlefinger, to be delivered to Arya as a second-hand account, when the showrunners decided to roll out The Hound’s personality over the course of a few seasons. McCann was evidently not happy when Benioff pushed Weiss into his trailer to deliver the news to him. "Why are you pushing the wee guy in? You got something to say?" he asked Benioff. They explained their new approach to him, and they each deserve major credit for not immediately hopping on a flight to another continent. As an interesting side note, McCann beat out Kristian Nairn for a role in Hot Fuzz, many years prior to this audition, for a character that delivered one line of dialogue (“Yarp”). In a strange sort of cosmic justice, Nairn would eventually appear on GoT as a character whose only line was, “Hodor.”

Conan Stevens (Season 1’s The Mountain/Gregor Clegane)

Not everybody ends up with the role they originally auditioned for, as seen by this footage of Conan Stevens reading for the part of Drogo. Stevens ultimately ended up playing The Mountain, which was, in fact, his original desire. The part wasn’t being cast yet when he landed a chance to audition, and he decided to read for whatever he could to get a leg up on the competition. This explains why Stevens plays up his size so much while auditioning for Drogo; he was really aiming for the part of an eight-foot-tall knight. Stevens didn’t end up returning after the show’s first season, but remains a fan favorite. After all, as he explains on his blog, landing the role in the first place was largely due to fans reaching out to him.

Photo by spratt504/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)

Taylor Swift contains multitudes. If that’s a sentiment you’re still unsure of, refer to the songstress's music video for “Shake it Off” in which she showcases a range of personalities that spans from ballerina to B-girl and everyone in between.

But if you still need a little more convincing, refer to YouTuberChase Holfedler’s take on Swift’s “Out of the Woods.” Holfedler was challenged by a friend "to cover a song using only free music apps on my iPad." After choosing the singer's latest 1989 single he went about recreating her new over-the-top pop sound by employing seven different free music apps including a drum machine, keyboard, and harmonizer. 

His take was so original it even got a shout out on Twitter from Swift herself. 

This Out Of The Woods cover is one of the coolest I've seen.. So interesting and so well done! https://t.co/EQ3o1R7mMv#8DaysTil1989

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) October 20, 2014

While it doesn't have the soulful smoothness of Postmodern Jukebox's "Shake It Off" cover, Holfelder's cover just goes to show that good music doesn't have to cost a cent. 

Screeshot via YouTube

For those of us who slept through Econ 101 in college, this colorful, informative look at why there’s never enough money at the end of the month is a welcome tutorial.

At least, that’s the hope of the producers and directors behind the film series We the Economy. Spearheaded by Paul Allen's Vulcan Productions and Morgan Spurlock's Cinelan, this multidimensional digital classroom of 20 short films aims to help us better understand the financial forces that affect our daily lives. What causes a recession? Why do we give so much money in foreign aid? Are Chinese industrialists actually moving their manufacturing plants to the U.S.? There are plenty more economics lessons where those came from: To ensure that no audience is left out, the producers are launching an all-out attack across digital and non-digital platforms.

The process of putting the series together was a producer’s dream, Spurlock told the Daily Dot. “I got to put together a blend of folks that included A-list directors and some of the nation’s most noted economists,” he said. “It was a dream team.”

The project began with Spurlock asking luminaries from the world of economics like Dean Baker,Yoram Bauman, and NPR Planet Money co-host Adam Davidson what were the 20 issues that people most needed to understand about the economic world around them. Those 20 issues were assigned to the 20 filmmakers, who then each teamed up with an advisor to ensure that their cinematic work provided accurate and useful information.

The resulting films, which are each between five and eight minutes in length, feature notable directors like Adam McKay ( Anchorman), Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight), Bob Balaban (Gosford Park), and Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me). They use varied storytelling approaches ranging from humor to rather mundane talking heads. There’s animation in the form of clever Rainbow Brite camel-like creatures satirically pointing out the issues with workplace inequality (McKay’s The Unbelievably Sweet Alpacas) and an over-the-top JibJab homage in Chris Henchy’s somewhat off-kilter tutorial GDP Smackdown. Unfortunately, in some of the short films that use animation, the message gets lost when the style overtakes the substance.

What is of greatest importance—and perhaps this is the overall mission of the series—is what lessons can be learned from these vignettes. Do these infotainment pieces make us smarter and wiser about how we spend our money and allow us to decipher the daily economic news headlines? In some cases, yes, but mostly they are more ’tainment than info.

If you are looking for a crash course, start with Cave-O-Nomics from Spurlock. As with his previous documentaries like Inside Man and 30 Days, the award-winning filmmaker is a keen auteur who has the ability to interject a laugh or two into his narrative without burying the point. In explaining how marketplace economics work, Spurlock begins with cavemen trading pelts for spears and takes us to modern times—all in a matter of minutes. It works.

Another standout documentary, one that demolishes the common belief that the U.S. is an outsourcing-only nation, is Miao Wang’s Made by China in the U.S. This insightful gem shows how South Carolina’s textile manufacturing business is being revitalized thanks to overseas investment.

Rounding out the list of must-see digital economic lessons is Mary Harron’s This Won’t Hurt a Bit, a funny/not-so-funny view of the U.S. healthcare system. With the midterm elections less than a month away, the short film is a good primer on what healthcare questions to ask our lawmakers as they finish up their campaigns.

The distribution of the film series is so widespread that it will be difficult to miss. Included among the content and carrier partners areAmazon Instant Video, AOL On Network, CBS News, CinemaNow, The Scene powered by Conde Nast Entertainment, Crackle, Dailymotion, Facebook, Fandor, Funny or Die, CNBC, Comcast's Xfinity TV, Cox, iN DEMAND, Pivot TV, Suddenlink, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon FiOS.

Spurlock said that the long list of distribution partners—55 in all—marks a record for the number of outlets participating in a digital film showcase and speaks to the need to engage in conversations on topics of great societal importance.

“We are economically illiterate,” noted Spurlock. “When I sit down and read the Wall Street Journal, my eyes glaze over. The aim with We the Economy is to target all of us.”

Spurlock said that relying on people who are gifted writers and directors is the winning formula to meet that goal. “If you empower brilliant people to be brilliant,” he said, “you won’t be disappointed.”

Screengrab via We The Economy/YouTube

Is it possible to give yourself an education in horror without ever leaving Netflix? We don't know, but we bet you'll have fun finding out. 

We've compiled our absolute favorite horror titles straight from Netflix Instant's streaming library. Though some films come and go, most of these films have been around the library long enough they're probably not going anywhere. So whether you're looking for a refresher course on your favorite films and horror subgenres or you just want to know which are the most innovative new films on the horror scene, check out the list below for our picks.

Vintage classics

Photo via tom-margie/Flickr

Nosferatu (1929): We actually recommend seeing F.W. Murnau's vampire masterpiece outside of Netflix with a better soundtrack—the one on Netflix is actually pretty incongruous and jarring. Go see this silent classic as nature intended—in a theatre with live music.

White Zombie (1932): Cringe at the dated racial allegories, and enjoy Bela Lugosi at his most macabre.

Black Sunday (1960): Netflix has an entire collection of decadent Mario Bava films; if you only see one, make it this one.

Cult classics

Shivers (1975): David Cronenberg's film debut sets the tone for his sexually unleashed nightmare fests.

JD's Revenge (1976): This classic blaxploitation thriller features Lou Gossett as a mild-mannered law student who finds himself possessed by a vengeful 1940s mobster in mid-'70s New Orleans.

Re-Animator (1985): Perhaps the ultimate cult horror film: gory, funny, and Lovecraftian to the core.

Fright Night (1985): Chris Sarandon is at his sexiest and most diabolical here, just the way we like him. One of the spookiest kids' films ever.

Hellraiser (1987): Pinhead is easily the most debonair of the classic slasher villains, which makes a strange contrast to the gore he brings with him. Clive Barker's suburbia is the perfect backdrop for a tour de force in body mod horror.

The Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987): Do we even need to blurb this?

The Lair of the White Worm (1988): Ken Russell's cult classic about a giant worm-thing (and also worm-vampires—wormpires?) is a modern version of the weirdest Bram Stoker tale ever, a mix of the outrageously bizarre and campy. Needless to say, it's awesome.

Candyman (1992): Our favorite urban legend, Tony Todd's Candyman owes far more to Bela Lugosi and traditional gothic horror than to modern-day slasher films. If you haven't watched this one in a while, treat yourself.

Heavenly Creatures (1994): Peter Jackson's depiction of a real-life murder in 1950s New Zealand is a beautiful, loving tribute to the terrifying depths of teen friendship. 

Modern classics

The Craft screengrab via Netflix

Night of the Living Dead (1968): The zombie film from which all others spring—but this one probably has more door construction than the rest.

Rosemary's Baby (1968): Which is scarier, terrifying children or terrifying old people? You decide!

Carrie (1976): The only high school movie that matters.

Day of the Dead (1985): Netflix cruelly deprives fans of the middle (and best) of Romero's zombie trilogy masterpiece, Dawn of the Dead, but the finale is full of social commentary and iconic moments.

Silence of the Lambs (1991): Watch it back to back with Hannibal as dessert.

Scream, Scream 2, and Scream 3 (1996-2000): Don't just stop at Scream. Scream 2 is even more meta and, if possible, even more fun. And watch the third one back-to-back with the screwball mystery farce Clue for a greater appreciation of its underrated comic elements.

The Craft (1996). We're glad Netflix is bringing in a pack of subversive girl-powered horror flicks. Watch this back to back with American Mary and you'll pretty much feel invincible.

Ju-On (The Grudge) (2002): Unfairly overlooked compared to Ringu, this mainstay of modern Japanese horror remains utterly terrifying.

Oldboy (2003): This genre-bending action-suspense-macabre Korean vengeance thriller is well-nigh as indescribable as it is awesome. 

Let the Right One In (2008): Twilight for the indie set. The best modern vampire film in decades, and the best on Netflix. 

Black comedies

GIF via mariokayser/Tumblr

American Psycho (2000): It's hard to believe Mary Harron's superb satire of ’80s yuppiedom is over a decade old—it's as fresh and biting as ever. (But act soon: This title is leaving the instant library Nov. 1.)

Shadow of a Vampire (2000): Watch this back-to-back with the original Nosferatu and you'll understand instantly that this film's premise—that Max Schreck was so good he must have been an actual vampire—is the greatest thing ever.

Tucker and Dale vs, Evil (2010): This long-overdue subversion of the "evil redneck" trope is even more special because it inexplicably stars Alan Tudyk. Alan Tudyk!

John Dies at the End (2012): Tropes were made to be subverted, and this movie knows it.

New innovators

Rubber screengrab via Netflix

The Host (2006): This Korean creature film is jaw-droppingly good, the perfect mix of horror and suspense. The only downside is that it's raised the bar for monster films impossibly high.

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006): Amber Heard's thinly veiled contempt makes for a fab final girl manifesto.

Night Watch (2004) and Day Watch (2006): The first two films in a trilogy based on a bestselling Russian urban fantasy series. Night Watch won universal praise for its gorgeous special effects and gripping suspense, but the books are even better.

Pontypool(2008): This is it—the most underrated film on the list, and the one whose praises we can't sing highly enough. Pontypool is one-third apocalypse, one-third Northern Exposure, and one-third a postmodern treatise on linguistics—and if that blows you away, just wait till you see the film. Fans of Welcome to Night Vale, this film is perfect for you.

House of the Devil (2009): This film made Ti West a lauded new name in horror, and for good reason. As a slow-build homage to the classic incrementally paced horror films of the ’70s and ’80s, House of the Devil is spot-on and fantastic.

Rubber (2010): While this film is already infamous—it's ostensibly about a tire that kills people—we could never put it under comedy because it's actually a mesmerizing meta-commentary on the making of film and the role of the audience. Easily one of the best films on Netflix.

Absentia (2011): This low-budget Kickstarter-funded film packs a surprising amount of depth into a concept that manages to be as vague as possible. It's a horror film, but one owing more to philosophical brain-breakers like Glazer's Birth than to traditional horror tropes.

I Saw the Devil (2011): This Korean revenge fantasy is sleek and taut and utterly unforgiving.

Cabin in the Woods (2011): Yeah, yeah, Joss Whedon can do no wrong. Still not as scary as Hush, though.

You're Next (2011): 2011 was a great year for horror, and this film was one of the best. Woefully misrepresented by its marketing, You're Next is a smart, subversive take on home invasion films that starts out strong and stays that way.

Kill List(2011): If you love horror films like Audition that start off quiet and then go abruptly off the rails, then you'll love this tale of two doomed hitmen attempting to do the fabled One Last Job—for an employer with secrets they could never imagine.

The Innkeepers (2011): Another offering from Ti West, this film about a haunted inn is everything you want ghost stories to be—atmospheric and spine-tingling without feeling cliche. 

American Mary (2012): In our opinion, the reason this film about a hard-working medical student is titled American Mary is that you'll want to stand up and salute by the end of it. A fantastic, gritty film, Mary plays with revengesploitation and features an instantly iconic anti-heroine.

Citadel (2012): Fans of Dredd and Battle Royale will enjoy this brutal revenge film which turns Glasgow into a dystopic cityscape.

We Are What We Are (2013): Think Flowers in the Attic meets Deliverance, and you still won't be prepared for this slow-build shocker about a family of children forced to practice cannibalism by their grieving father. 

Just for fun

Dead Silence screengrab via Netflix

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2 (1985): The only Freddy installment on Netflix, this one would have little to recommend it, except it's also a notorious homoerotic smorgasbord of repressed gay teen fantasies. When viewed through this lens, this Nightmare is suddenly one of the highlights of the franchise.

Tamara (2005): A pleasingly positive take on the "girl gets bullied, comes back and kills everyone" subgenre. Perfect if you're feeling vengeful.

Dead Silence (2007): Mix True Blood's Ryan Kwanten with evil ventriloquism and we'll follow you anywhere.

Grave Encounters (2011): The Vicious Bros. try awfully hard to put a new spin on the "found footage goes to the haunted asylum" trope, and they get close enough to make this an interesting reality TV-inspired take. 

Alyce Kills (2011): A love-it-or-hate-it gore fest/psychological thriller, Alyce is a delightfully terrible B-movie romp with a surprising amount of depth at its center.

Maniac (2012): OK, maybe we shouldn't call Elijah Wood's psychopathic serial killer "fun," but he's definitely gleefully inhabiting the role.

Grabbers (2012): This movie has tentacle monsters, drunken monster-fighting, and Russell Tovey, all things we never knew we needed in a decent horror film. As a bonus, it's got a beautiful pastoral oceanside setting that makes the drunken monster-fighting that much more surreal.

Totally out there

Dead Snow screengrab via Netflix

The Initiation (1984): Easily one of the wackiest ’80s movies on Netflix, The Initiation is an utterly mesmerizing mismash of horror tropes, from evil sorority pledge rites to mistaken identities to escaped asylum inmates to giant abandoned malls. The film's centerpiece is a 40-minute climactic sequence filmed in a closed mall whose emptiness plays to great effect. We really love this one, guys.

Dead Snow (2009): Nazi zombies! This tongue-in-cheek horror film starts out somber and steadily unravels into a delightfully gory, campy climax.

Kaboom (2010): Gregg Araki's queer-tinged post-postmodern horror film is equal parts comedy, mystery, and WTF. Also, it's brilliant.

Here Comes the Devil (2012): An utterly unhinged, surreal Mexican masterpiece, this is a film that raises more questions than it answers—and most of the answers you'll be grateful you don't know.

The Secret Village (2013): There had to be one ironic rec on this list, and we've chosen a film so awful we can't even properly warn you for how dreadful it is—from the tedious "girl goes to remote village and uncovers secrets" premise to the stilted acting to the terrible camerawork to, especially, the nonsensical plot. It's like The Room if The Room were set in a tiny unincorporated Shyamalan village and all the terrible sex scenes were replaced with meandering footage of cars slowly following each other for no apparent reason. We recommend watching this with at least one friend; group support is the only way you'll make it through.

Absolutely terrifying

Antichrist screengrab via Netflix

Irreversible (2002): Gaspar Noé's dark and violent film takes the concept of a male revenge fantasy and inverts it to reveal the utterly hollow foundations of traditional masculinity, to devastating effect.

Antichrist (2009): In Lars von Trier's masterpiece, grief is the ultimate wellspring of the deepest layers of horror—and the beauty of the filmmaking just makes it that much worse.

Funny Games (1997): Michael Haneke's film has by now become the standard template for all other home-invasion films to follow in its wake, but the original will probably do what none of the others can: destroy you.

The Snowtown Murders (2011): Very closely based on the true story of Australia's worst serial killing and massacre, this film is absolutely bleak. Like other films featuring the Australian Outback like Walkabout or Wake in Fright, recently departed from Netflix, Snowtown derives a portion of its horror from the unending remoteness of the landscape. But the unknown actors, the unadorned filmmaking, and the devastating climax make Snowtown even more awful—and much like Van Sant's Elephant, the knowledge of the real-life events behind the film makes it a grim, necessary experience. 

•••

While there are many more horror films on Netflix just waiting to be explored, we think the ones on this list are an epic way to get started if you're looking to explore the world of horror or just gorge on scary movies during October.

What must-sees would be on your list?

Screengrab via Netflix

Even Jimmy Kimmel can indulge his inner science geek sometimes.

Last night, he had “Science Bob” Pflugfelder on to demonstrate how science affects our everyday lives, and he’s got more than enough on his hands to blow our collective minds—and maybe part of the studio. Most of us will never touch a Tesla coil gun, but it’s still neat to see something that looks like it came straight out of Ghostbusters appear in real life.

It’s more Mythbusters than late-night variety game, and it just looks plain fun, even when Kimmel notes that he looks like Shaq at the free-throw line.

He can’t win everything.

Screengrab via Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube

Last Thursday at a show in Philadelphia, comedian Hannibal Buress told one of the most taboo stories there is to tell: He called out Bill Cosby, a Philadelphia native, for his history of rape accusations.  

Buress, an entertainer who also appears on Broad City, isn’t known for calling out comedy legends on stage. His brand of humor is more observational. But on Thursday, Buress wanted us to think about something else—specifically, the number of women who have accused Cosby of sexual assault. 

Thirteen. It’s even worse because Bill Cosby has the fucking smuggest old black man public persona that I hate. He gets on TV, ‘Pull your pants up black people, I was on TV in the 80s! I can talk down to you because I had a successful sitcom!’ Yeah, but you rape women, Bill Cosby, so turn the crazy down a couple notches.

He wonders aloud why he’s telling the audience this, then says:

I guess I want to just at least make it weird for you to watch Cosby Show reruns. Dude’s image, for the most part, is a public Teflon image. I've done this bit on stage and people don’t believe me, people think I'm making it up. ‘Bill Cosby has a lot of rape allegations.’ ‘No, you do!’... When you leave here, Google 'Bill Cosby rape.' That shit has more results than 'Hannibal Buress.'

Cosby has been accused of sexually assaulting 14 women. In 2006, Cosby settled a lawsuit against a woman who claimed he raped her in 2004. Since he settled, none of the 13 other women who agreed to testify got to do so. Several of his accusers have given interviews to media outlets. Cosby’s newly published biography obviously omits any mention of these allegations. When asked why, author Mark Strickland explained, “I was aware of the allegations, but ultimately decided not to include them in my book. I didn’t want to print allegations that I couldn’t confirm independently.”

Good for @HannibalBuress. Just because something is crushingly sad doesn't mean it isn't reality. We need more men speaking against rape.

— Jesse Thorn (@JesseThorn) October 21, 2014

We don’t want to talk about this, of course. Everyone loves Bill Cosby and no one wants to think he's capable of being a rapist. This story has been told so many times before, but the allegations have effectively been swept under the rug. Cosby continues to work and take speaking engagements. Sometimes it takes another person with a stage to say what no one wants to.

Apparently, right after Buress’s Cosby’s bit, someone in the audience vomited. What a punchline. 

Apparently there was a guy projectile vomiting in the back rows while I was performing in Philly yesterday. I was super oblivious.

— Hannibal Buress (@hannibalburess) October 17, 2014

H/T Philly Mag | Photo via Fuzzy Gerdes/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

BY CHRIS E. HAYNER

Finally, "The Simpsons" can be streamed online. The "Simpsons World" app that was announced during the summer press tour has arrived and it's amazing. Zap2it was among the media outlets invited to a demonstration about the app, so here's what you need to know about this cool new "Simpsons" companion site. 

The most important thing about "Simpsons World" is it allows you to watch every single episode of the series however you want. "We recognize that 'The Simpsons' was found linearly on television for the last 25-plus years in syndication, where any episode could be served up in a given night," says FX Networks COO Chuck Saftler. However, they know times have changes and a non-linear viewing experience like this allows for endless possibilities.

For instance, the moment you log into "Simpsons World," you are dropped in the "Everything Simpsons" hub. On that page a random episode will begin playing. However you'll also have access to regularly updated playlists from FX, some of which will shadow mini-marathons being airing on FXX. You'll also be able to seek out episodes you want to watch and create your own playlists.

If your playlist is good enough, it might even end up getting shared with the rest of the app's users. "We curate for you, you curate for us," Saftler explains.

Another way to decide what to watch is based on how many other users watch an episode. Below the player is a popularity bar graph, showing how the various episodes stack up against each other. It's an easy way to make sure you check out all the fan favorites without having to try too hard.

Watching episodes isn't all you can do with the app, though. The idea is to make it a one-stop shop for anything you could need related to "The Simpsons." That's where the "Everything Simpsons" hub comes into play.

Below the player, curated "Simpsons" content appears, including news pulled from around the internet, fun facts, Twitter and Facebook posts, and access to new playlists.

Beyond all that, the best is yet to come. FX plans to roll out regular updates, with several major features on the horizon. For instance, the ability to create and share clips. Never again will you have to track down a clip of the show on YouTube. Instead, you can just create your own and share it on Facebook, Twitter or wherever you choose.

Then there's the search feature. When completed, every word of dialogue spoken by every character in every episode will be searchable. Have some random line you remember from an episode 15 years ago? Type it in and the episode will pop up for you.

There are also steaming channels, character biographies and more on the way. Luckily, it won't take too long. It's expected that a large update for the app will roll out in early 2015.

"Simpsons World" is available on iOS and Android devices, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Apple TV and Samsung Smart TVs as of Tuesday, Oct. 21. All you need to do is authenticate your FXX subscription though your cable or satellite provider via the FX Now app. If you don't have a subscription to FXX, you'll be given access to a massive collection of clips from the series through the app.

Photos via FX

BY BREE BROUWER

Harley Morenstein will soon be busy driving a motorcycle instead of eating massive amounts of food. Crackle and Legendary Entertainment have cast the Epic Meal Time star as one of the lead roles in the companies’ upcoming feature-length film, Dead Rising: Watchtower.

Morenstein will play the role of biker-gang member Pyro, who is second-in-command to the gang leader and criminal Logan. Crackle and Legendary tapped Aleks Paunovic from This Means War to play Logan. Additionally, the two companies announced Rob Riggle (of Let’s Be Cops and 21 Jump Street fame) has signed on as photo-journalist Frank West, and Keegan Connor Tracy (from Bates Motel and Once Upon a Time) will take on the role of Jordan, a prim and proper journalist. Morenstein and company join cast members Jesse Metcalfe, Meghan Ory, Virginia Madsen, and Dennis Haysbert, all of whom Crackle previously announced at the end of September.

Dead Rising: Watchtower will follow the four main characters as they try to figure out how a zombie outbreak was started. The four soon suspect a conspiracy when a required government vaccine doesn’t stop the zombie infection from spreading like it was supposed to. Morenstein, Paunovic, Riggle, and Tracy’s characters must fight to survive if they hope to uncover the secret behind the zombie invasion.

Produced by Contradiction Films and executive produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Transformers, G.I. Joe), Dead Rising: Watchtower will first debut exclusively on Crackle before moving to SVOD, TV, and DVD platforms. A release date for the film hasn’t yet been announced.

The flick will also be the second major motion picture film appearance for Morenstein, who recently had a fantastic cameo in Kevin Smith‘s Canadian horror film, Tusk.

Screengrab via Epic Meal Time/YouTube

Not even rainbows are safe from Ice Cube’s angry demeanor.

The last time he stopped by to talk to Jimmy Kimmel, Ice Cube read off some pleasant phrases and compliments angrily, and the crowd loved it—YouTubedid too. So the next time he showed up, he was asked to do the same exact thing, but only in a different shirt this time around.

Can it strike gold just like last time? Probably, because his takes on receiving a gift card and picking up a friend at the airport are just as amusing.

If nothing else, it’ll remind us how beautiful life truly is.

Photo via Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube

Kian Lawley, one fifth of YouTuber super collab Our2ndLife, did something unthinkable in October. He went completely silent for days on social media, whirling fans into a frenzy.

Lawley’s disappearance was part of a branded tie-in for Ouija, a horror film hitting theaters Friday, Oct. 24. Fullscreen, the group’s multichannel network, brokered the deal between the film studio and the vloggers, setting up a series of videos that unravel the mystery of Lawley’s social media silence. After posting a video playing with a Ouija board, a mysterious found-footage video appeared on Lawley’s channel showing him being dragged through a doorway. Four days later he broke his silence.

I'm editing tmrw's vid & something weird keeps happening in my room ...

— KEY-YUHN! (@KianLawley) October 5, 2014

HI FREND... #Ouija

— KEY-YUHN! (@KianLawley) October 8, 2014

Fellow members Jc Caylen and Ricky Dillon held a seance, uncovering that Lawley was in Chicago and tracked him down in a haunted house, where the boys reunited along with over 600 excited fans.

Marketing departments are increasingly tapping YouTubers for their campaigns, with major blockbusters like The Hunger Games using YouTubers as fictional hosts and Warner Bros. getting adventurous creators to partake in a Tough Mudders course to promote Tom Cruise vehicles. But the O2L stunt went beyond a branded video, engaging the boys’ fanbase across multiple platforms, from YouTube to Twitter to Snapchat, generating 5.6 million video views, 510,000 social engagements, and 17.3 million hashtag impressions for #ouijawhereiskian

Finally kian is back ! I was telling my mom i was going to chicago to find kian @KianLawley#OuijaWhereIsKian

— ☪5 Days☪/PLS SHAWN (@like_apple_pie_) October 13, 2014

imagine something really happened to kian and we think this is a prank omg but no thats impossible #OuijaWhereIsKian

— trev 6/6? | rt bio! (@avonsdillon) October 6, 2014

*auditions for x-factor* *enters stage* *clears throat* *takes deep breath* #OuijaWhereIsKian *drops mic* *leaves*

— was @lovesicklawley (@frickmyfranta) October 7, 2014

I swear, if Kian doesn't come back... I'm gonna put these up everywhere! @KianLawley@RickyPDillon#Ouijawhereiskianpic.twitter.com/F0Jnvacev0

— lacie (@thatssocashew) October 8, 2014

While not all YouTubers could have the draw that Our2ndLife demonstrates, marketing efforts like this definitely increase what is possible when traditional marketing teams up with YouTube.

Screengrab via Jc Caylen/YouTube

Rappers El-P and Killer Mike have combined forces to form duo Run the Jewels, and they’ve been touring ahead of the release of their upcoming album, Run the Jewels 2, out Oct. 28. However, since the Internet can sometimes be a magical place, they’ve also recently crowdfunded a remix of the album, featuring only cat sounds.

Yes, Meow the Jewels has been successfully crowdfunded, a week ahead of its end date, and fans of Run the Jewels and feline rap have blown through the $40,000 goal. Big-name producers like Dan the Automator, Prince Paul, and Geoff Barrow of Portishead are also on board. So very soon, this track will be remixed with meows and purrs and hisses, because this is what the Internet wants. I mean, look at this promo video. 

El-P recently visited an animal shelter for Mass Appeal, to audition cats for the album. And because cats are cats, he didn’t get the best results.

“This is gonna be tough,” El-P laments as sad piano music plays in the background. “They keep showing me their assholes.”

El-P’s forgetting the golden rule of getting cats to meow for your remix album: Pretend you don’t care and they'll be all over it. 

H/T Pitchfork | Screengrab via massappeal/YouTube

The San Francisco Giants sparked an absurd pop radio beef when two Bay Area radio stations—KFOG and KOIT—banned Lorde’s “Royals” during the World Series as a sign of baseball solidarity last week. Kansas City, Mo.’s KZPT is retaliating by playing “Royals” every hour from 7am to 7 pm CT Tuesday, just as the Giants and Royals are set to begin Game 1.

Lorde has said that seeing an old photo of Kansas City Royals legend George Brett inspired her when working on the Grammy-winning single. There’s something to avoiding the 2013 track, I suppose. But in the spirit of consistency, both cities should really expand their respective blacklists.

Most obvious for San Francisco residents is “Kansas City.” Which sucks for them—The Beatles’s cover of “Kansas City” from 1964’s Beatles For Sale is one of the most righteously enduring black music heists in pop history. Little Willie Littlefield took the Leiber and Stoller song to No. 1 in 1952. Wilbert Harrison did the same seven years later, and since then it’s one of the most covered blues tracks, with versions floating out there from: Muddy Waters, Fats Domino, Dion & The Belmonts, Wanda Jackson, Willie Nelson, Albert King, James Brown, and many more.

I’ve made two, 12-song playlists for each city as a public service. These are songs to avoid, that are specifically about the rival World Series city, or that recall the team itself. We have ruled out artists and bands from those cities for eligibility here. Panda Bear’s “Comfy In Nautica” made the Kansas City mix because Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval looks like a panda and that’s a rallying point for his team’s fans; and because the song is from 2007’s Person Pitch, which is kind of eerie because this is a baseball-inspired project. Let’s get it.

San Francisco’s Do Not Playlist

Kansas City’s Do Not Playlist

Here’s to a clean series and cleaner living. 

Photo via Casimaria/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

For those who lived during Richard Nixon’s presidency, it’s difficult to forget his smiling face adorning the red, white and blue campaign button for his 1968 campaign. It read: "Nixon’s the One."

Nixon will always be the one. And now we can relive that era all over again with comedian/renaissance man Harry Shearer’s masterful six-part series, Nixon’s The One, which has made its way to YouTube after a successful run on British TV. 

Under the My Damn Channel banner, the show will debut a new episode each week beginning with the pilot, a 21-minute historical tour de force based on the infamous White House tapes. With minimal makeup, Shearer is remarkable in his ability to capture the personality and mannerisms of the 37th president with uncanny realism.

Shearer and historian Stanley Kutler studied hundreds of hours of the White House tapes with the purpose of capturing and staging a number of Nixon’s oddest and unintentionally hilarious moments inside the Oval Office. The show first aired back in 2012 as a one-episode TV special on the Sky Arts channel in the U.K. with an outpouring of praise, which led to the production of five additional episodes.

The pilot of Nixon’s The One exposes Nixon as a megalomaniac narcissist as he fishes for praise from Henry Kissinger (played brilliantly by Henry Goodman) for a minor speech he gave about the U.S. position in Vietnam. Later, in reaction to some financial issues facing his pal Reverend Billy Graham, Nixon rails against Jewish people for getting favoritism from the Internal Revenue Service. And then there’s the marketing lesson the president gives dairy-farmer lobbyists over their need to downplay the role they played in raising cholesterol.

The pilot skips around from 1971 to 1973, but continuity is never an issue. Each segment stands well on its own, but the thread of Nixon’s paranoia and singular point-of-view on race, religion, and world politics carries seamlessly through the opening episode.

Despite a string of commercial and financial successes, Shearer generally avoids the limelight, focusing more on smaller projects, such as a public radio show and the social and economic issues of his hometown, New Orleans. His film, The Big Uneasy, is a critically acclaimed look at New Orleans prior to and after Hurricane Katrina. For most TV fans, Shearer is best known as the voice of a range of Simpsons characters, including Principal Skinner, Monty Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders and Reverend Lovejoy. He was also a member of Saturday Night Live circa 1979. In films, Shearer is part of the troupe featured in such faux-documentaries as Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind.

H/T Nola.com |Screengrab via MyDamnChannel/YouTube

Like a dog returning to its vomit, the creators of viral Internet hits cannot help but try to recreate past successes. Most of the time this is a terrible idea, but this new Shia LaBeouf video is a rare exception.

Rob Cantor’s surreal comedy song Shia LaBeouf won hearts and minds back in 2012 with its deadpan narration of a horror story about “actual cannibal” Shia LaBeouf. Somehow the song caught on, and it continued to spread online as the real (and hopefully non-cannibalistic) LaBeouf began behaving more and more strangely in his public life.

Shia LaBeouf (song, not actor) captured the public’s imagination in the way that Shia LaBeouf (actor, not song) had not been able to manage in years. Soon, Tumblr was overflowing with parody videos, the song had its own Know Your Meme page, and the Washington Post was publishing a mini-profile on songwriter Rob Cantor, who is better known for his work with the band Tally Hall. Now, Cantor is back with an extended Shia LaBeouf video adaptation that can only be described as epic.

Acrobats. Interpretive dance. Giant papercraft Shia LaBeouf heads. A children’s choir. And, of course, all this is accompanied by the eerie tones of Cantor’s radio announcer voice as he narrates your blood-soaked fight with Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf. This video is preposterously overblown in a way that is absolutely, 100 percent appropriate for the topic at hand. 

Naturally, the performance ends with an obligatory cameo from the real Shia LaBeouf. At last, he has inspired the kind of performance art weirdness that he himself has been trying so hard to create in real life, for years. 

Photo via YouTube/Rob Cantor