In the latest attempt by the scientific community to offer algebraic explanations for the seemingly inexplicable, mathematicians have come up with a formula for the best kind of scary movie.
Using the equation (es + u + cs + t) squared + s + (tl + f) / 2 + (a + dr + fs) / n + sin x – 1, researchers have concluded that The Shining, the 1980 film starring a homicidal Jack Nicholson, is the ideal horror flick.
—Music + chase scenes = new formula for fear (Guardian)
Hmm… this project was commissioned by “Sky Movies,” a British which just happens to be holding a scary movie marathon this weekend.
My colleague Mike Arnzen reports he was interviewed by BBC News to respond to this finding. I didn’t know about it until it was over, though.
Similar:
The Adversary #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 3, Episode 22) A Changeling saboteur uses the...
Rewatching ST:DS9 The cold opening ha...
Media
In January 2001, I was blogging about Bill Clinton's #WhiteHouse security deposit, anachro...
In January 2001, I was blogging about
...
Academia
Confessions of a Nerdy Homeschooling Dad
Are you unexpectedly home-schooling your...
Culture
Churnalism Search
At the University of Virginia, one summe...
Culture
The YouTubers who blew the whistle on an anti-vax plot
While rational minds worry about the imp...
Current_Events
The Die Is Cast (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 21) Garak's mentor leads a pres...
Rewatching ST:DS9 After the recap of ...
Culture
The interview went well, but we never really spoke directly to the “formula” article, unfortunately. I think it’s a joke, ultimately, from Sky Movies…but it doesn’t really say a lot for my favorite genre. Maybe the films of recent notice have become formulaic, but a literary genre cannot be reduced to a formula, obviously. Especially in horror, it’s BREAKING the rules that make genre literature so exciting, even insomuch as they appear conventional in other ways. It’s commerce’s dream that there COULD be a bankable formula that’s responsible for wounding the arts in our culture. Wish I could have said something to that effect on the air…
— Mike A.
I can imagine working the qualitative characteristics of something into a formula-like mnemonic for the sake of organizing an argument, but the idea that a value such as (true life + fiction) / 2 is somehow quantifiable is ludicrous.