Gather ‘round horror fiends because we’re about to unleash some tasty morsels for you to feast upon!
The way we see it, the only downside to everyone talking about the horror genre is that there’s never enough time to read everything. So we’ve decided to whip up a new monthly feature called Creepy Cliff Notes where we give you a heads up on some think pieces or news items you may have missed. Think of it as syllabus reading you’ll actually want to do.
We’re Gremlins getting fed after midnight levels of excited!
It’s been a busy month at Horror Homeroom. While others have been soaking up the final days of summer, we’ve been hunkered down in our lair writing about how Down a Dark Hall takes on the female Gothic and our deep love for Summer of 84 and its powerful deconstruction of cinematic nostalgia. We’ve also featured a number of fantastic pieces by guest authors covering everything from Fallen Kingdom’s empathy for dinosaurs, to the random strangeness of The Foaming Node to a great exploration of how The Secret of Marrowbone plays with the domestically entrapped male. And if that wasn’t enough there were also great reads on how Mohawk and Downrange capture a specific time and place, the way one arts festival tackled Lovecraft and the way in which horror tends to depict deafness as a survival strength.
Whew, we’re ready to take a page from Dracula and sleep for 100 years! But should you require more horror goodness, the links below are guaranteed to keep you up on all the goretastic genre news!
// This piece on Mario Bava’s Gory ‘A Bay of Blood’ and its impact on the slasher genre is so good you’ll want to take notes!
// Fashion mavens will find a lot of inspiration in this article on the enduring fashion of the Final Girl. We don’t know about you, but we’d still rock Laurie Strode’s jeans.
// If you feel like the unholy nun from The Conjuring is your sister from another mister, you’ll want to snag these limited edition enamel pins before they sell out.
// Torture porn for teen readers? Believe it or not, that was an actual thing in the 80s. NPR takes a dive into the wild and wacky world of 80s/90s pulp horror serials that made a cottage industry out of evil, killer kids.
// We’re particularly excited about the fact that this novel from 1975, Joan Samson’s The Auctioneer, just got a reissue. We’re always looking for more horror by women. You can buy it here:
// This chart on How Hollywood became hooked on the ‘jump scare’ is making us rethink our favorite horror moments.
// The “Scream Comes Home” event taking place this October may just be the ultimate fan shindig and we’re already scheming over how to make our attendance work related!
// If you dig female driven, whip smart analysis of the genre, you’ll want hightail it up to Salem Horror Fest this year where Faculty of Horror will be doing a special live episode. They’ll be talking about The House of the Devil which, for the uninitiated, is a smart melding of subgenres featuring one of our favorite horror tropes: the plucky babysitter!
// The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen Featuring Poisoned Milk is easily the best movie list making the rounds.
// Blood Money: A History of the First Teen Slasher Film Cycle: We don’t know about you but few subgenres get us excited quite like a good, old-fashioned slasher and this book by Richard Nowell captures all the reasons why. Well researched and accessible, this is a must read for anyone interested in the cultural politics that informed the rise of American slasher horror in the 1970s and 1980s.
Published by Bloomsbury, you can get Blood Money here:
// Some argue that zombies are so 2017 but we still say they have a lot to teach us and this great piece on what zombie movies tell us about cultural attitudes toward science explains why!
// Fans of Ruiz Zafón won’t want to miss Why the Spanish Civil War continues to haunt Gothic literature.
// The Camp Crystal Lake Tour Lottery is our version of the Golden Ticket. We want it now!
// Book fans will want to keep an eye on Scared Sacred: Idolatry, Religion and Worship in the Horror Film, forthcoming from House of Leaves Publishing in early 2019. Check out their website for chapters and contributors, and get ready to pre-order during a crowdfunding campaign that kicks off in September.
// And if you’re looking for a new podcast to enjoy while sipping on your criminally released too early pumpkin spiced latte, look no further than FriGay the 13th. We especially recommend Pride Month’s Episode 6!
// And last, but not least, our book The Politics of Race, Gender and Sexuality in The Walking Dead is available for order. We’ll be posting follow up pieces to some of the chapters on Horror Homeroom so be on the lookout!
We could go on and on so if you want us to shout out something we’ve missed, hit us up on Twitter and tell us about it. Until then friends, just remember…..
