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Posted on September 15, 2018

Scared Sacred: Idolatry, Religion and Worship in the Horror Film

Dawn Keetley

We’re going to be posting a lot about the great projects the folks at House of Leaves Publishing are working on, including their first book, a collection of essays called Scared Sacred: Idolatry, Religion and Worship in the Horror Film. We’re committed to indie horror in all its forms, including writing and publishing, and we urge you to pre-order Scared Sacred House of Leaves Publishing’s websitefrom .

This week, House of Leaves shared a preview from Alexandra West’s chapter from Scared Sacred: “Onward Christian Soldiers: Eyes of the Believers in The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring 2 (2016).” You’ll find below an exclusive typeset sample of this preview, including John Sowder’s beautiful woodcut illustration. (Just click on the images to enlarge them.)

Posted on September 9, 2018

Mara: The Best Horror Feature about Sleep Paralysis

Dawn Keetley

Clive Tonge is from Northern England and has devoted his life to working in the film industry. While he has directed a couple of shorts, including the horror film “Sunday Best” (2011), Mara is his first feature film. Written by Jonathan Frank, Mara follows a criminal psychologist, Dr. Kate Fuller (Olga Kurylenko), as she arrives at a troubling murder site. A man is dead and it seems clear to everyone that his wife (Helena) did it. But she insists that her husband had been experiencing increasingly troubled sleep and that the night he died a “demon” entered their bedroom, sat on her husband’s chest, and choked him to death. As Kate investigates, she is led to a string of apparent strangers who have all shared the same terrifying night paralysis. More and more of them start dying inexplicably in their sleep, and soon Kate is investigating a phenomenon in which she too has become a victim.

Posted on August 18, 2018

Down a Dark Hall: Female Gothic and ‘The End of Men’

Dawn Keetley

Down a Dark Hall is directed by Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Cortés who directed the critically-acclaimed Buried (2010). The screenplay is written by Michael Goldbach and Chris Sparling and based on the 1974 novel by the young adult author Lois Duncan (who also wrote, among others, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Killing Mr. Griffin).

In a plot reminiscent of The Craft (1996) or American Horror Story’s third season, “Coven” (2013-14), Down a Dark Hall centers on five girls with troubled pasts who arrive at Blackwood Boarding School, sent their by their parents as a kind of last resort. They are the only five students in a vast isolated mansion presided over by the mysterious Madame Duret (Uma Thurman), who soon makes it clear that the girls have special abilities that she intends to foster. And, indeed, the girls soon display talents they didn’t know they had. Protagonist Kit (AnnaSophia Robb) blossoms into a master piano player; Ashley (Taylor Russell) starts writing brilliant poetry; Sierra (Rosie Day) paints captivating landscapes; and Izzy (Isabelle Fuhrman) transforms into a math genius. Their new abilities come with a price, however, as the girls get sicker and strange figures start haunting the long dark halls of Blackwood.

Posted on July 28, 2018

Our House: Great Characters, Unoriginal Story

Dawn Keetley

Our House is the feature-length directorial debut of Anthony Scott Burns, who also directed the excellent “Father’s Day” segment of Holidays (2016), reviewed here. Nathan Parker wrote the screenplay, based on a 2010 film, Ghost from the Machine, written by Matt Osterman.

Our House is set in a time that evokes the 80s (there’s an interesting ambiguity about time that resembles what David Robert Mitchell did in 2014’s It Follows). Our House centers on genius college student, Ethan (Thomas Mann) who is obsessed with creating a machine that forges a kind of wireless network of electricity (how it works exactly was a bit obscure). His scientific obsession, in time-honored fashion (going back as far as Frankenstein), causes him to neglect his family—something he soon lives to regret when his parents are killed in a car accident. In the wake of his parents’ death, Ethan must relinquish college and his fledgling career as an inventor to get a job, drive a minivan, and take care of his two younger siblings—Matt (Percy Hynes White) and Becca (Kate Moyer). As the months struggle by, Ethan is eventually lured back to his project, and it’s not long before he discovers that the device animates the dead—and not only the recent or the happy dead. Ethan unwittingly unleashes darker spirits that start to prey on his family and his neighbor, so he must, again, give up science and devote himself to protecting his family.

Posted on July 19, 2018

5 Twilight Zone Episodes That Influenced Modern Horror Film

Dawn Keetley

The Twilight Zone (1959-64) is not only one of the most acclaimed TV series but also one of the most influential on artists of all kinds, but especially on the creators of horror. The list below identifies five episodes that in my view powerfully shaped some of our best modern horror films. There are undoubtedly more, but this is a beginning.