Media for a rainy day
The other day, clouds gathered in the air, turning evening to night, gathering with such swift surprise as if they were meant for some other state and had gotten off at a wrong station. While the clouds were in my city, they decided to rain.
Kids be watching movies tonight
The world stops under bridges waiting out the downpour. Then someone passes small talk around; a vendor puts on a kettle, and chimneys bellow all over the city as if having a collective smoke. Everyone slows down. A sense of rest spreads with no qualms of guilt. The school is out, says the inner child. Let us sink our teeth into the mysterious ambience and put on a thriller or read a mystery—board a spaceship with the pilot dead and an alien prowling the vents or solve a murder in the Alps. Shall we journey to the Arctic and find a lost artifact? Let us go climbing the hill where windows light up the night, and kids will be watching movies tonight.
Recommendations for a day in
1. Last of us
Imagine a café with its walls falling apart, a gruff character looking at a coffee machine and sighing as he remembers the smell of coffee in the morning; another scene of the rain pattering on the window, searchlights flashing in the distance, and a little girl marveling at the scene. She has never been this close to the outside.
The world of The Last of Us is like a highway of abandoned cars, its skylines leaning on a broken leg, and the ground ahead falling into the abyss where the bombs dropped; the cupboards of its existence were picked clean long ago, with only music records left in stores to gather dust and books in libraries that don’t speak to anyone other than fire. The only way forward is through that skyscraper leaning on another of its kind and creaking with the wind. Then a scream tears through the night.
And on the other side you are greeted with the silence of the Sun, with lush greens reclaiming the world. A silence disturbed by the odyssey of Joel and Ellie as they navigate a bygone world, looking after each other and sharing the occasional dad joke. It’s in these moments of levity in between the horror, with Ellie whistling or pulling out dad jokes, that the world breathes a sigh of relief from the disturbance.
On a rainy day when things slow down, it’s nice to remind ourselves of things that we take for granted.
Related: Walking dead, Silo, The Road
2. Alien
If you prefer to leave the earth altogether and spend some time in isolation on a space station with the sparks flying from computer panels and the emergency lights blinking; I’d recommend following Sigourney Weaver in the Alien franchise as she creeps down a narrow corridor. Oh wait, a dot is beeping on the motion detector. Is that a scaly tail descending behind her?
On a rainy evening with the grey skies and isolation of shelter, it is easy to pretend that you are on a lonely space station “researching” when everything goes wrong or right, depending on how you look at things. And enjoy sinking your teeth in the lore and mysteries of the franchise. You can do all that while lazing under a bed sheets with a torch—if you can find batteries for one.
Related: The Thing, Alien Isolation, Predator
3. Narnia
Ever since I picked up a Narnia book as a child, I’ve preferred opening wardrobes in hopes of tumbling into a magical land where animals talk, witches and Santa are real, and actions have weight regardless of one’s age. And as I remember, it is because of a rainy day that the Pevensie children end up playing hide-and-seek indoors and discovering Narnia.
It is this childlike wonder that is at the centre of the otherworld genre: that ordinary objects and places in the world, like a hole in a tree or a painting, can take you on an adventure. And there you might face mortal danger, but you’ll also discover heroic courage. Your actions there have meaning and weight. It’s nice to wrap yourself in this blanket of wonder once in a while when the atmosphere strikes true; pretend that you can walk into a painting.
Related: Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, Lord of the rings
4. Sherlock
When it comes to traveling, I prefer a rendezvous to old English country with a man running away from a curse. A curse that’s been haunting his family for generations, and then a shadow of a beast lengthens over his screaming features. By all shapes, colors, and angles, the murder seems like a supernatural phenomenon: an improbability that requires an improbable detective. Then the bell rings at 221b Baker Street, and here begins a game of deductions and hunting for clues.
If you are a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle, you know the detective I’m referring to. Now, I don’t want to give an impression that all of Sherlock’s stories feature supernatural elements, but I do prefer when the mystery is so unusual that all the clues hint at a culprit of a metaphysical nature. For the atmosphere it creates. Of course, Sherlock comes in at the end and explains everything logically, but it’s fun to speculate that perhaps it really was a ghost this time that did it.
Related: Hercule Poirot, The Mentalist, House M.D
