twisted

‘They call this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania,” says tour guide Marius Lazin, his breath expelling a procession of cotton-wool ghosts into the sharp evening air. “So many people have disappeared here, some say it’s a portal to another dimension.” Marius is leading me on a night walk through what is often described as the world’s most haunted forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of old-growth native woodland on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca. He’s been coming here three nights a week for the past 12 years, but even he looks a little uneasy as he arcs his torch like a searchlight against the knotted walls of elm and beech trees which embrace us on all sides, looking so thick that they might be the boundary of the known world.

Marius motions with his torch towards several pairs of slender beech trees, eerie in their symmetry, branches intertwined to form arches – portals or stargates, you might speculate, were you possessed of a particularly febrile imagination. “Many came in here and never came out. But don’t worry,” he adds, turning to me with a grin. “Our tours have a 100% return rate.”

Reports of strange happenings here date back centuries – the forest is named after a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the distant past, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu came to international attention in 1968, when a military technician named Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a UFO hovering above a circular clearing in the centre of the forest. In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yogis, shamans, ufologists and paranormal investigators from across the world, curious to experience the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

It may be one of the world’s premier pilgrimage sites for lovers of the paranormal, but the forest is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, described as the Silicon Valley of eastern Europe – are encroaching, and developers are pushing for permission to clear the trees to build apartment blocks. Barring a few hectares home to locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, the forest is not officially protected, but Marius hopes that the company he co-founded – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will help to change that, encouraging the authorities to recognise the forest’s value as a tourist attraction. The company offers day and night walks in the forest, yoga sessions, paranormal lectures, treasure hunts and escape games – and even, for the particularly intrepid, overnight camping.

As twigs and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath our boots, Marius recounts some of the folk tales and alleged paranormal happenings here. One famous story describes a five-year-old girl disappearing during a family picnic, only to rematerialise five years later with no memory of what had happened to her, having not aged a day, her clothes shy of the slightest speck of dirt.

More common reports describe mobile phones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods, while emotional responses range from full-blown dread to states of ecstasy. Some people report seeing strange rashes on their skin, hearing disembodied whispers through the trees, or feel hands grabbing or pushing them, even when sure they are alone.

Marius pulls an iPad from his rucksack and shows me the UFO images which catapulted Hoia-Baciu to international attention in the 1960s. Grainy and monochrome, they appear to show a button-like flying saucer hovering above the trees. He flicks through dozens of other photographs taken in the years before and since, with similar saucer-like objects, glowing orbs or wraith-like apparitions. Enigmatic photographs of this nature have been a fixture of paranormal research for more than a century, not much use as evidence, but it’s worth noting that Barnea did not stand to profit from publishing his photographs – on the contrary, he lost his job in the military, with the communist government not looking kindly on anything with a supernatural tang. “Many of the old researchers who investigated the forest ended up in psychiatric wards,” Marius says. “Did the communist regime put them there? Or did something really happen to them, here in the forest?”

While many of the stories may be unverifiable, there is much before my eyes that is undeniably strange. All around are trees whose trunks are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes. Some bulge outwards at the base, their crowns disappearing into the black night, so they resemble giant meat hooks hanging from the heavens. Others droop like melted candles, or are bent in strange, spiralling patterns. Various suggestions have been given to explain the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have bent the saplings, or naturally high radiation levels in the soil account for their crooked growth. But scientific investigations have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

Marius’s tours allow visitors to take part in a little scientific inquiry of their own. As we approach the clearing in the trees where Barnea took his famous UFO photographs, he hands me an EMF meter, a stalwart of ghost-hunting kits which measures electromagnetic fields. “We’re entering the most active part of the forest,” he says. “See what you can find.”

The trees suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a perfect circle. The only greenery is the short grass beneath our feet; it’s clear that it hasn’t been mown, and appears that this strange clearing is natural, not the work of human hands.

Wielding my EMF meter, I sweep the clearing like a detectorist, briefly excited when the needle begins to tick madly back and forth, only for my vibrating phone to indicate that the electromagnetic disturbance was just an incoming text message. Despite spending several hours in the forest, and being genuinely baffled by the twisted trees and the strange clearing, I haven’t seen anything I’d describe as supernatural. Perhaps the forest is a blank canvas, on to which people project their own fears and desires.

Transylvania generally is a place which stirs the imagination, where the border is blurred between fact and folklore. In rural Romanian communities belief persists in strigoi (“screamers”) – undead, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who rise from their graves to terrorise local communities.

Bram Stoker’s famous vampire Count Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith perched on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains around four hours’ drive south of Hoia-Baciu – is keenly marketed as “Dracula’s Castle”. While it bears little resemblance to the shadowy ruin described as Dracula’s dwelling, and there is no evidence that it inspired Stoker, it’s still a major attraction for fans of all things gothic and ghoulish – particularly around Halloween, when the castle hosts costumed parties.

But even myth-shrouded Transylvania – literally, “the place beyond the forest” – feels solid and predictable compared to these eerie woods, which seem to be, for reasons radioactive, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a nexus for human imaginative power. “In Hoia-Baciu,” Marius says, “the line between reality and imagination is very thin.”

Daniel Stables is the author of Fiesta: A Journey Through Festivity (Icon Books, £20). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply. A three-hour evening walking tour in Hoia-Baciu forest from 300 RON/£50. A five-hour night tour costs 500 RON/£85

AS I watched the scene playing out on the TV, my heart started pounding.

Estate agent Cherry was meeting her boyfriend’s mum, Laura, for the first time – bringing back memories of the real-life monster-in-law who tried to destroy me in ways you wouldn’t believe.

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Hoping to make a good impression, she arrived with a beautiful bunch of flowers, but her future mother–in-law callously tossed them on a table, dismissing them as rubbish.

It’s a tale as old as time: son introduces the woman he loves to his mum, who instantly feels jealous that a new female will take her place.

So she makes her life HELL.

The reason The Girlfriend had such a strong impact on me was because, in many ways, I’d been there myself.

My ex’s mum hadn’t just disliked me, she’d hated my guts from day one.

She too had thrown down the flowers I’d given her the first time we met – not onto a table, but on the floor.

And the memories of the awful things she did while I was with her son still make me shudder.

Courteous to my face, but nasty behind my back, my monster-in-law, Jackie, constantly bad-mouthed me to friends and family – even my own neighbours.

She regularly told her son, Simon, that I wasn’t good enough for him and urged him to leave me, despite us having a child together.

Eventually, she succeeded and we split up. I simply couldn’t cope with her twisted games anymore.

Thankfully I’ve had no contact with her since the split, but I still have nightmares about it – and watching TV show The Girlfriend brought them all back.

I won’t spoil the story for those who haven’t seen it, but although Cherry isn’t all that she seems, Laura’s actions beggar belief.

For me, though, there’s one big difference.

Courteous to my face, but nasty behind my back, my monster-in-law, Jackie, constantly bad-mouthed me to friends and family – even my own neighbours

Cherry

While Laura’s awful behaviour pushes her son into his lover’s arm, the same could not be said for me and my ex.

His mother’s constant interference created a crack so wide that we still don’t talk to one another, despite sharing a six-year-old.

‘Overbearing’

I’d hoped the unappreciated flowers might be a misunderstanding, but soon I was being subjected to constant put-downs.

Sometimes we’d pop to her house for breakfast and if I asked for a bit of fruit instead of bacon and egg, she’d tut and mutter that I was ‘strange’.

She’d also get in a huff if Simon chose to spend a Saturday night out with me, instead of going round to see her.

He’d tell me his mum was ‘in a mood’ because he wasn’t paying her as much attention now.

I thought he was joking – at that point I had no idea how bizarre their relationship was.

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Just like obsessed Laura in The Girlfriend, Jackie had to know where Simon was at all times.

She’d call and text him multiple times a day, despite only living around the corner.

On one occasion, we were having sex at 11am when she messaged him six times in a row.

“Can you turn it off?” I pleaded as Jackie’s impatient alerts threatened to kill the moment.

I’m not alone in having a difficult relationship with my partner’s mum.

A two-decade study by Dr Terri Apter, a University of Cambridge psychologist, found that more than 60 per cent of women admitted their relationship with their mother-in-law caused them long-term unhappiness and stress.

Two-thirds of daughters-in-law also believed that their husband’s mother frequently exhibited jealous, maternal love towards their sons.

This was definitely true of Jackie.

She relished standing in front of me with her arms wrapped around Simon’s waist or shoulders.

And she had a key to his flat, so would often turn up unannounced.

One morning I plodded, half-awake, into the kitchen wearing nothing but a pair of knickers, only to find Jackie casually washing his dishes.

I complained that I found her actions overbearing and gently tried to explain to Simon that it wasn’t normal for a mum to be so involved in her adult son’s life.

But he responded saying she only did so because she “cared about him so much” and wanted to help.

Two-thirds of daughters-in-law also believed that their husband’s mother frequently exhibited jealous, maternal love towards their sons

During the three years we were together, Jackie would constantly gaslight me, telling Simon she’d sent texts inviting me to the cinema, or out shopping, and that I’d ignored them.

And if he dared take my side, she’d burst into tears on the phone so that he’d have to go round and console her.

Her words were vicious, but her actions were even worse.

If I invited her and her doormat of a husband round for dinner (yes, she controlled him too) she’d politely accept, then not turn up, secretly texting Simon afterwards to say she felt my invite was “fake”.

About a year into our relationship, I found out I was pregnant with our son, Josh.

For a while, Jackie softened – but within minutes of his birth, she reverted to type.

I had a terrible labour which culminated in an emergency c-section. Josh then had to be rushed to intensive care.

I felt exhausted, broken and bloody, so we requested that loved ones give us time to rest.

Everyone respected our wishes – except Jackie.

An hour after I’d got off the operating table, she burst into the room armed with balloons and a giant teddy bear.

“We’ve all been through it, you know,” she crowed as I burst into tears and begged Simon to get her out of there.

She even insisted on sneaking into the intensive care unit to see our newborn, even though I hadn’t been able to see him yet.

Jackie’s treatment only worsened when we finally brought Josh home.

She would message me constantly, telling me which wet wipes to use and what kind of vests I should be putting on him.

I even saw messages on Simon’s phone telling him to hide clothes I’d bought for the baby and replace them with ones she’d supplied instead.

The bullying was so bad, I even went to see a counsellor.

Jackie’s interference caused countless arguments and at one point, I even left Simon after she texted him claiming that I was “lazy” and “a useless mum”.

What hurt even more was that he never defended me.

That’s when I realised the level of control she really had over him.

It was relentless and in the end, I left for good.

I realised I would never be able to have a healthy relationship with such a mummy’s boy and that Jackie would never change.

Thankfully, I have little to do with her now, although she did try to continue her antics after we split.

She bombarded my friends and family with messages claiming that I was mentally ill, an unfit mother and needed help.

Luckily, they knew what she was like and blocked her.

But I’ve had to write my story anonymously, for fear of any backlash.

As a mother of a son myself, I understand it can be difficult seeing your child growing up, moving on and having another woman take centre stage.

But I’ve vowed never to be like my ex’s mum and to try to love whoever my son brings home.

I know all too well what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a hate campaign from a woman it is impossible to compete with.

The Girlfriend has just dropped on Prime Video and the ending of the series has left fans with their jaws on the floor as they discover what Cherry is really capable of

The Girlfriend, a new addition to Prime Video’s roster, centres around successful businesswoman, wife and mother, Laura, portrayed by Robin Wright.

Her idyllic life is thrown into chaos when her son Daniel (Laurie Davidson), the apple of her eye, introduces his new girlfriend, Cherry (Olivia Cooke).

Adapted from Michelle Frances’ novel of the same name, the series sees Laura growing increasingly suspicious of Cherry – but is she just being overly cautious?

Viewers are presented with two contrasting narratives – Laura’s and Cherry’s – both starkly different, but which one holds the truth?

Here’s everything you need to know about the shocking conclusion of The Girlfriend as fans uncover Cherry’s true colours.

READ MORE: ‘The Girlfriend’s sex scenes were not the most awkward part – there was one thing far worse’READ MORE: The Girlfriend star Olivia Cooke’s life off screen from One Direction link to co-star romance

WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS

In the series finale, Daniel pops the question to Cherry after regaining some of his memory post-accident.

While Daniel prefers to keep the engagement under wraps, Cherry insists on celebrating, persuading Daniel to throw a party.

Just as things start looking up for the couple, the relationship between Howard (Waleed Zuaiter) and Laura reaches breaking point, with Howard unable to tolerate his wife’s unsettling behaviour any longer.

Determined not to let go of her suspicions, Laura pays a visit to Cherry’s father at his care home, discovering that he had survived a fall from a building while working on a construction site.

Seeking more answers, Laura paid a visit to Cherry’s mum, Tracey (Karen Henthorn), who revealed that her husband had left both herself and Cherry in debt.

Cherry had managed to find her father in the hope of persuading him to return, but in a fit of anger she had pushed him from the building.

Laura, having recorded the conversation as evidence for Daniel, arranged a meeting to explain everything to her son.

In the meantime, Cherry vandalised Laura’s gallery after discovering what she had done, leaving Laura’s lover Lilith (Anna Chancellor) devastated.

Cherry was arrested at her engagement party for criminal damage, but her mum bailed her out, although she vowed not to keep Cherry’s secret about what she did to her dad any longer.

Back at Laura’s home, Daniel confronted his mother and vented his frustration about her controlling behaviour.

Wanting him to know the truth, Laura slipped sleeping pills into Daniel’s drink so he wouldn’t try to escape when she showed him the evidence.

However, Cherry managed to break into the house and a fight broke out between Cherry and Laura, resulting in them both falling into the swimming pool.

As Daniel saw his mother trying to drown Cherry, he jumped in to rescue his fiancée and began holding his mother’s head under the water.

Cherry screamed for him to stop, but by then it was too late and Laura had drowned.

A flash forward revealed that Cherry and Daniel had gone ahead with their wedding and Cherry was expecting a baby.

In a chilling twist, Daniel stumbled upon Laura’s misplaced phone under the sideboard, revealing a recorded conversation with Cherry’s mum.

Upon hearing the shocking truth about Cherry’s violent tendencies, Daniel was forced to accept that his mother had been correct all along.

The Girlfriend is available on Prime Video.

New Emmerdale spoilers reveal the moment newcomer Celia goes back on her cruel plan with Joe Tate against Moira Dingle, leaving one character reeling on the ITV soap

There’s a bombshell for Moira Dingle next week on Emmerdale as she finally learns the truth that she’s being played by Celia. The new farmer confesses her twisted plan with Joe and Kim Tate, revealing Moira is the target of their schemes.

Just days ago viewers learned what was really going on after Celia offered Moira a joint deal with a local hotel restaurant, amid the latter’s serious financial woes. With the farm at risk, Moira believed things were on the up, only for Celia’s true intentions to be revealed.

Celia had called round to drop the bombshell that the contract had fallen through, fumbling an excuse about the chef not being happy with the produce. Moira fumed: “So now you’re telling me we’ve got to write off thousands of pounds that we can’t afford?”

Then shortly after in the same episode, Celia headed to Home Farm where it became apparent that she had been working with Joe and Kim to sabotage Moira’s business this entire time.

READ MORE: Emmerdale Mack spoilers after brutal murder as fans convinced he’s aliveREAD MORE: Emmerdale’s Mack actor Lawrence Robb addresses leaving soap as character ‘dead’

She coldly told Joe: “I have an update. I’ve just told Moira she’s laid out thousands of pounds on an order that won’t be paid. She delivered three orders without asking for a penny upfront, and she didn’t read the contract properly. The woman’s fool.”

With that it was clear there was never a business deal, and Celia was lying to Moira to get her to do all the work only to let her down. But it seems Celia is about to have a change of heart.

Amid Joe claiming it was very much Kim’s orders for them and Celia to target Moira, Joe was shown asking Celia how much longer Moira was likely to last in the business now that all this has been set up against her. We know that Joe and Kim were after Moira’s land where her farm is, turning to dirty tactics along the way to get her gone.

Celia seems to be the latest means of targeting Moira, and Celia told Joe: “She won’t make her water fine payment, let alone feed her livestock so my guess that it will all be over a week.” It was revealed that Celia had a deal in place with Kim to guarantee her six months rent-free with the option to lease extra land – meaning Celia was also lying about Kim upping her rent.

New spoilers for next week confirm a major change though, as Celia turns on Joe and Kim and tells Moira everything. It seems Joe pushes her too far with a threat, and Celia decides to expose them to Moira who is left reeling.

In the spoiler it says Joe pushes Celia for a progress report on the situation with Moira, but Celia has had second thoughts and wants out. Joe refuses to release her from their arrangement though, and Celia acts like she isn’t intimidated by what he says.

She ends up feeling even more guilty about what she’s done, and out of anger at Joe she sees no option but to spill the beans. Heading to Butlers, she tells a stunned Moira how she was manipulated into an arrangement with Joe and Kim.

Celia admits the deal would enable them to take Butlers land. Moira’s horrified to realise she has been duped all along by someone she trusts, so how will she react to this and what will she do about evil Joe?

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

Amanda Knox, who became an international headline in 2007, when, as an American student spending a year in Perugia, Italy, she was (wrongly) accused of the murder and sexual assault of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, is now the subject, and executive producer, of “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox,” an eight-part docudrama premiering Wednesday on Hulu. (Her boyfriend of one week, Raffaele Sollecito, also wrongly accused, does not seem to have garnered similar attention, which might tell you something about misogyny in the prurient press, and its audience.)

The “Twisted Tale” in the title — odd for a story of murder, rape and false imprisonment — suggests that we’re about to see something sort of delightful, like “The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack” or “The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants,” an impression underscored by a prologue in the style of “Amélie,” the whimsical French film the couple was elsewhere watching on the night of the murder; it ties the victim, the accused and her prosecutor/persecutor together in a sort of fairy tale. Like the very long end-title “any similarity” disclaimer, concluding “The series includes Amanda Knox’s perspective on events related to the murder of Meredith Kercher,” it allows the series to be something less than true: a tale.

People tell themselves stories to live, to haul out that Joan Didion quote once again, which unavoidably requires making up stories about other people. These events involved a lot of people, only one of whom is an executive producer of this series, based on her memoir, “Waiting To Be Heard.” (Knox co-wrote the finale, as well.) One assumes that some of those other people might see this project as exploitation, or object to how they’ve been represented, though any dissenting voices will be drowned by a publicity machine that will market this as a true story, disclaimer aside. In light of the series, Knox has been recently profiled in the New York Times, alongside star Grace Van Patten, and in the Hollywood Reporter, alongside fellow executive producer and scandal survivor Monica Lewinsky, who encouraged her to make the series.

These are qualities — faults? — “Twisted Tale” shares with every docudrama ever, a problematic genre much beloved by filmmakers and actors; still, as frequently as such projects arise, especially in the age of true crime, we wouldn’t still be talking about “Citizen Kane” today if it simply had been “Citizen Hearst.” We should at least keep in mind as responsible viewers and citizens that what we’re seeing here, however factual in its crucial points, scrupulous in its details, and engaging in its philosophy, and however faithfully the actors embody their real-life models, it’s unavoidably an impression of the truth, built out with imagined scenes and conversations and made to play upon your feelings. It isn’t journalism. And to be clear, when I speak of these characters below, I’m referring only to how they’re portrayed in the series, not to the people whose names they share.

Francesco Acquaroli as Giuliano Mignini and Roberta Mattei as Monica Napoleoni, the investigators on the case, in “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox.”

(Andrea Miconi / Disney)

Created by K.J. Steinberg (“This Is Us”), the series is well-acted, well-written, impressively mounted, tonally contradictory, chronologically disjointed, overlong, stressful, exhausting, interesting both for its subject and stagecraft, and briefly inspirational, as Amanda (Van Patten) — arrested, jailed, convicted, acquitted, re-convicted and definitely re-acquitted — becomes a voice in the innocence movement (“My freedom mattered and I was going to make the most of it as long as I had it”) and returns to Italy, a wife and mother, for something like closure.

Echoing the 2016 Netflix documentary “Amanda Knox,” which tells the story (up to that point) in a streamlined but thought-provoking 90 minutes, there has been some care to represent different points of view, with episodes dedicated to Raffaele and prosecutor cum investigator Giuliano Mignini (Francesco Acquaroli), also introduced “Amélie”-style. (As to Kercher, we hear only that “she likes to sunbathe and dance and read mystery novels” — though anything more would be presumptuous.) Raffaele, the superhero-loving son of a troubled mother, made himself into a “protector.” Mignini, who lost a brother to “lawlessness,” sees his work as heaven-sent — though he was also inspired by Gino Cervi as Georges Simenon’s detective hero in the 1960s TV series “Le inchieste del commissario Maigret.” (He adopts that character’s pipe and hat.) “I made a vow to God,” he says, narrating, “no matter the disapproval or dissent, deviant, ritual murders would not go unpunished on my watch.”

On the basis of Amanda being a loud American, and a self-described weirdo, whose response to news of the murder struck some as insufficiently emotional; from bits and pieces of supposed physical evidence, later discounted; and from Mignini’s own notions — including his feeling regarding the body, that “only a woman would cover a woman with a blanket” — the police quickly assemble an elaborate, completely imagined theory based on a sex game gone wrong. (That Knox was in possession of a vibrator and some condoms and brought men to the apartment she shared with Kercher and two Italian girls seemingly branded her, in 2007, as a pervert.)

Subjected to an extremely long interrogation without adequate representation in a language she imperfectly understands, and in which she has trouble making herself understood — detective superintendent Monica Napoleoni (Roberta Mattei) is the angry Javert — Knox signs a false confession that also implicates her sometimes boss, Patrick Lumumba (Souleymane Seye Ndiaye). She quickly recants, to little avail. (Knox has not been acquitted of slandering Lumumba.) That the actual killer is arrested, and convicted, merely causes the police to rewrite their story a little, while still focusing on Amanda and Raffaele. The press runs leaks and accusations from the authorities; and a fascinated public eats it up, spitting out opinions onto social media.

Director Michael Uppendahl employs a variety of styles to get the story told. Some scenes are so natural as to seem improvised; others employ heavy tactics — an assaultive sound design, flash cuts — to evoke the pressure Amanda is under, from both the self-satisfied authorities and a hectoring press. (Paparazzi is an Italian word, after all.) Stirring music underlies her final statement to the court; a letter sent by Amanda to Mignini is lit from within, like the deadly glass of milk in Hitchcock’s “Notorious.” While not inappropriate to a story in which fictions swamp facts, these zigs and zags can pull you out of the story rather than drawing you deeper in.

As Amanda, Van Patten (of the Van Patten acting/directing dynasty — Dick, Joyce, Tim, Vincent, with Grace’s sister Anna playing Amanda’s younger sister) is quite remarkable, switching between English and an ever-improving Italian. Acquaroli, quietly astonishing, brings humanity and the merest touch of weary humor to his stubborn policeman. Sharon Horgan plays Amanda’s intense, demanding mother, with John Hoogenakker as her more subdued father. In a scene pulled straight from the “Amanda Knox” documentary, a reporter asks him when there’ll be a film: “The longer you wait the less her story is going to be worth.” “We do not think of our daughter as a hot property,” he replies.

Meta.

Social News reporter Jess Flaherty recently started watching a smash hit crime show which first aired in the mid 00s but the huge twist at the end of one episode was tough viewing

Jess Flaherty is a Senior News Reporter for the Social Newsdesk, working across multiple titles including the Mirror, OK! online, Daily Star and more. She previously worked for the Liverpool ECHO, where she covered breaking news, events and entertainment in Merseyside.

Recently, I’ve started binge-watching the original series of Dexter, and the ending of one particular episode has left me in a state of grief. Okay, maybe I’m being a bit dramatic, but it did shatter me. Any Dexter fans likely knows what I’m referring to, but if you’re yet to watch the show and want to avoid any spoilers, look away now.

Consider yourself warned. Obviously, I’m referring to the shocking twist in the season four finale episode, The Getaway. Dexter, which originally aired from 2006 to 2013, chronicles the life of Dexter Morgan, a serial killer with a moral compass, who works as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department by day, maintaining his “normal” persona while satisfying his urge to kill by night.

Dexter, played by Michael C Hall, is led to believe he’s a sociopath and a “monster” by his adoptive father, police officer Harry Morgan, who discovered him as a three-year-old child, sitting in a pool of his mother’s blood after she was brutally murdered in front of him.

Harry notices Dexter’s violent tendencies and emotional detachment and, instead of seeking professional psychological help for his clearly traumatised son, he teaches him “the code”.

Dexter harbours a desire to kill, but only those who fit Harry’s code – they must be murderers themselves. Over the years, he carries out ritualistic killings of numerous violent criminals who seem to have slipped through the justice system’s net.

As the series unfolds, Dexter’s actions continue to catch up with him – to devastating effect. In some cases, he even sabotages evidence to let culprits slip through the law’s grasp, just so he can savour the thrill of killing them himself.

This is most evident in season four, where we’re introduced to Arthur ‘the Trinity Killer’ Mitchell, portrayed by the brilliantly terrifying John Lithgow. His performance was so compelling that he bagged a Golden Globe award for his role as the chilling serial killer.

Now, given the show has been around for years, some spoilers are inevitable – I’m bracing myself for the much-maligned ending, and I already knew that the main antagonist in the first season was Dexter’s long-lost brother.

But what season four had in store for viewers took me completely by surprise.

By this stage in the series, Dexter is married to Rita – brought to life with a delightful blend of sweetness and charm by the talented Julie Benz.

Initially, Dexter was attracted to Rita to help maintain his façade of being a “nice, normal guy”, but as the story progresses, it becomes clear he genuinely cares for her. I adored Rita and hoped her influence on Dexter would have a positive effect on him.

However, Dexter’s fixation with the Trinity Killer led to her downfall.

After a tense game of cat-and-mouse, during which Dexter adopts a false identity to get close to Arthur Mitchell and his family, things begin to fall apart.

Mitchell soon realises Dexter isn’t who he claims to be and tracks him down. The Trinity Killer visits him at the police station, where he casually peruses photos of his own violent crime scenes without a care in the world.

Dexter sends Rita and their son away on a belated honeymoon to ensure she’s safe from the sadistic killer.

After some serious tension, Dexter seemingly prevails – he traps Arthur Mitchell on his trusty table and kills him, tossing his hacked up body parts into the ocean.

We’ve seen this scene before – Dexter is nothing if not consistent when it comes to how he completes his crimes.

When he returns home, he discovers a voicemail message from Rita saying she forgot her passport so had to return home to get it.

He calls her, but her phone rings in their house. Dexter walks into the bathroom and there, in a harrowing full circle moment, is his son sitting in a pool of his mother’s blood.

Rita is laying dead in the bathtub, the water crimson – one of the Trinity Killer’s trademarks.

I was hysterical.

The show did an excellent job of convincing us Dexter had won and got the better of the Trinity Killer.

As the show is years old, I have nobody to talk to about this gut punch of a twist so I scoured social media and saw it’s still a widely discussed episode to this day.

I know it’s not an episode I’ll ever forget, no matter what direction the show – and its subsequent spin-offs – takes from here.

A TEEN boy who tortured, killed and dismembered two kittens with a girl in a warped bid to reduce his urge to kill a human has been locked up.

The depraved pair used rope to tie up the defenceless animals before “mutilating” them.

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One of the kittens was found cut open on the ground in Ruislip, North West London, while the other was hanging from a tree.

Chillingly, the boy, 17, wrote how he “really wanted to murder someone” and killed cats to “reduce my urges”.

He also made a number of harrowing searches about sacrificing animals to Satan.

The boy has been detained for 12 months after pleading guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to the protected animals by “mutilating and killing” them.

His co-defendant will be sentenced for the same charge this afternoon.

The teens, who legally can’t be named, also admitted one count of possession of a knife.

Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court was told the horror unfolded on May 3.

Footage released by police showed the girl, 16, and 17-year-old boy strolling through a residential street.

The boy could be seen clutching a bag that is believed to have been used to carry the kittens.

CCTV then captured the twisted pair running back down the same street after killing the baby cats.

Prosecutor Valerie Benjamin said the animals were discovered with their flesh and fur cut off and burnt.

As well as the tragic kittens, knives, blowtorches and scissors were found at the scene.

Police later discovered a note on the boy’s phone that read: “I really wanted to murder someone and I was searching how to get away with murder.

“I have come close.

“I have killed cats to reduce my urges.

“I have skinned strangled and stabbed cats.”

The boy had also carried out a number of chilling searches for “killing cats and dogs” and “how to kill a human”.

Ms Benjamin said: “There were concerns about his desire to go on to killing humans.

“He questioned how easy it would be get away with murder and how to kill homeless people.”

It also emerged the teens had chillingly put out adverts for the kittens and went to pick them up before killing them.

Sentencing, Judge Hina Rai also imposed a lifetime ban from caring for animals on the boy.

She said: “You have caused extreme suffering to those two kittens. You knew exactly what you were doing and it would result in their suffering.

“Without a doubt these are the most awful offences I have seen against animals in this court.”

A controversial thriller that left fans feeling uneasy is leaving Netflix soon

Netflix subscribers have just a limited time to stream a controversial thriller that left fans unable to sleep.

American Psycho was released in 2000, and is the film adaptation of the 1991 bestselling novel of the same name, written by Bret Easton Ellis.

Directed by Mary Harron, the horror thriller stars Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, a narcissistic banker living in New York during the 80s, who is leading a double life as a serial killer.

Seeming normal to the outside world, behind closed doors Patrick is hiding an extreme violent streak as he commits unhinged and brutal acts of murder and torture.

Packed within its 102 minute run-time, American Psycho has plenty of kills, drug-taking and sex. In one notable scene, an axe-wielding Patrick goes on a killer rampage, murdering Jared Leto’s character Paul Allen.

The cast of the film – which developed a cult following in the decades since its release -also includes stars like Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux and Reese Witherspoon.

What’s more, the critical response to American Psycho was fairly good. On Rotten Tomatoes, it was given a 68% “fresh” rating based on over 100 reviews from 2000 to 2023.

The movie – which leaves Netflix on August 10 – fared pretty well at the box office too, grossing $34 million from a $7 million budget.

As for fan reaction, American Psycho certainly left people divided. Online, one person said: “It was so twisted I loved it.” Someone else fumed: “Not a fan, gross and too violent for me.”

A third chimed in: “I couldn’t sleep after watching it! One of those that sticks with you for sure.” Another also wrote: “It’s my favorite movie and it’s the movie I’ve seen the most times. I never get bored of it since there are so many great details.”

Meanwhile, last year it was reported that Austin Butler is set to take on the role of Patrick in a modern remake of American Psycho.

Best known for his Academy Award-nominated performance as Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, Austin is said to be collaborating with acclaimed director Luca Guadagnino for a fresh cinematic interpretation of the film.

Variety confirmed the casting and announced that the project is being developed by Lionsgate and will bring a bold new vision to the 2000s thriller.

GRETA Thunberg has arrived on dry land and is to likely be deported after Israel seized the “Freedom Flotilla” stunt ship.

The climate campaigner, 22, alongside 11 other activists on board, is expected to appear in court on Tuesday morning having been taken to the Israeli port city of Ashdod.

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Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed on X: “The ‘Selfie Yacht’ docked at Ashdod Port a short while ago.

“The passengers are currently undergoing medical examinations to ensure they are in good health.”

But lawyer Nariman Shehade Zoabi said they haven’t been able to contact the activists yet.

She told Expressen: “We demand information about the whereabouts of our clients and the right to meet them.”

Lawyer Zoabi added that Greta and the others would be taken to a “Givon prison” near the town Ramle where “illegal immigrants are detained” and there is a “court that can quickly decide on deportation”.

She is waiting in Ashdod with five others, and explained that the process of deportation could be fast.

Zoabi said: “Israel has no interest in detaining them and they themselves do not want to stay in the country.”

Israel accused the group who were aboard the boat of supporting Hamas terrorists who detonated Middle East mayhem by massacring 1,200 and kidnapping 251 hostages.

And all of those detained will be made to watch a screening of video footage showing innocents including children being slaughter by Hamas savages during the attacks.

The “selfie yacht” operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition was said to be “safely making its way to the shores of Israel”, Israel’s Foreign Minsitry said.

All passengers were safe and unharmed and activists handed sandwiches and water before the vessel docked at the southern Israeli port of Ashdod.

The boat was carrying a “tiny amount of aid” on board – which will be sent to Gaza.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said that he has instructed the Israeli Defence Forces to screen footage of the 7 October attacks as soon as they arrive.

The disturbing footage – titled “Bearing Witness” – shows innocent people being massacred and mutilated.

And all the footage was taken from the Hamas terrorists’ bodycams as they filmed their massacre.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said early on Monday that Israeli forces had boarded the charity vessel.

Shortly before the FFC statement, the Israeli Foreign Ministry posted a video on X showing the Israeli Navy communicating with the Madleen over a loudspeaker, urging it to change course.

“The maritime zone off the coast of Gaza is closed to naval traffic as part of a legal naval blockade,” a soldier said.

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“If you wish to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, you are able to do so through the (Israeli) port of Ashdod.”

The campaigners had said they are hoping to “break the siege” and raise “international awareness” of the humanitarian crisis on the Gaza Strip.

But Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant issued a warning as the vessel entered the final stretch of its journey, saying: “You should turn back – because you will not reach Gaza.”

Thunberg, 22, has posted on social media with a Palestine flag and wearing a keffiyeh scarf while on the journey.

Travelling alongside her is Rima Hassan, a French member of the European parliament of Palestinian descent.

She has previously been barred from entering Israel due to her outspoken criticism of the country’s policies towards Palestinians.

Organisers claim the voyage is “a non-violent, direct action to challenge Israel’s illegal siege” – and is carrying essential supplies to a population at risk of famine.

Israel imposed a near-total blockade on Gaza in late 2023, following Hamas’s horror massacre on southern Israel on October 7.

Though some limited aid has been allowed in since last month, aid agencies claim it is nowhere near enough.

Ahead of the journey, Thunberg said through tears: “We are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying.

“Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity.”

CONTROVERSIAL CREW

The flotilla’s latest voyage follows a failed attempt in May, when another of its vessels was struck by two drones in international waters off Malta.

The group accused Israel of being behind the attack.

Despite the risks, activists aboard the Madleen have said they plan to enter Gaza’s territorial waters as early as Sunday.

The vessel’s controversial crew includes figures who have openly supported terrorist organizations and have made inflammatory public statements.

Brazilian activist Thiago Avila attended the funeral of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, calling the terrorist a “beloved” leader and a “martyr”.

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Avila said he was “very honoured” and “very happy” to attend, and described the funeral as something that “amazed him”.

He wrote that Nasrallah was an “important figure” who “inspired people all over the world”.

Also on board was Yasemin Acar from Berlin, who reportedly danced as Iranian rockets rained down on Israel and once told a white woman at a protest: “You’re a white person, you shouldn’t tell us what to do.”

French journalist Omar Faiad, of Al-Jazeera, sparked outrage for comparing the IDF to Nazis.

On X, he wrote: “The Israeli army resembles the Nazi army,” and claimed: “Israel is committing a new Holocaust in Gaza.”

Rima Hassan, meanwhile, previously tweeted:  “Kfir, Ariel, and Shiri Bibas were killed by an Israeli attack,” despite Hamas being responsible for their abduction and deaths.

She was also seen at a protest where demonstrators chanted: “We die for jihad.”

And it included included a London-based Palestinian named in Parliament in 2023 as being a London-based Hamas operative.

Zaher Birawi was at the launch of the Madleen and live streamed from the dock in Greece and is chair of the International Committee to Break the siege of Gaza.

Birawi, 62, has been photographed with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and runs UK-registered charity, Education Aid for Palestinians, which has raised more than £3 million since 2017.

Irish Game of Thrones star Liam Cunningham was also on the boat.