Horror Homeroom

Posted on October 25, 2015

Why Horror? (2014) Film Review

Why Horror?

Not Rated | 81 min | Nicolas Kleiman & Rob Lindsay | (Canada) | 2014

Sound byte Review: Talking about horror seriously and in a variety of contexts while still celebrating the experiences of fans makes Why Horror? a unique experience for viewers who both enjoy and are repulsed by the genre.

Grade: A-

As someone who writes about horror and has a special appreciation for extreme gore, my sense of discomfort this past summer with the way some fan fiction was handling those perversions (murder, rape, incest, etc.) often tackled in horror was unexpected. And so as I was already beginning to question my own involvement in the genre, I was perfectly primed for the topic of this compelling documentary that seeks to answer why it is that people are drawn to horror. While I can’t say that it revolutionized my thinking on the topic, the film does illustrate the importance of opening up a conversation on why it is that we fear the things we do.

Premiering Friday on Showtime, Why Horror? is an interesting exercise in exploring all the varied reasons why horror resonates with fans. Examining everything from film to art to psychology, this POV documentary works largely because of its commitment to not exploring the genre in a vacuum. What I especially appreciated was the way in which the film wove in discussions of culture and gender to consider the myriad of ways in which horror has the power to impact society. Less in-depth exploration and more personal journey, the film is best suited to those viewers who can’t quite grasp why it is that people would find enjoyment in depictions of explicit gore and violence.

Posted on October 23, 2015

9 Questions Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension Must Answer

Dawn Keetley

The sixth and possibly final installment of the Paranormal Activity series (2007 – 2015), Ghost Dimension, is due out today (Friday October 23)—in limited release—and the word is it will answer all fans’ questions about the franchise.

So, what questions do we have? As it turns out, I, at least, have plenty.

-1. Most pressingly, what do the witches (and Toby) want?

Hints about what the witches and their demonic leader, Toby, want have been slowly doled out across all five films, but they are still not at all clear. They seem mostly to be after boys. In PA2, Kristi’s step-daughter Ali reads something online about how people have been known to make a demonic pact by which they get power or wealth in exchange for offering up the first-born male in their family. The suggestion is that Kristi and Katie’s grandmother (Lois), who is part of a coven of witches, made such a pact and so Toby now wants Kristi’s son, Hunter.

The coven clearly pre-dates Lois, though, since, in PA3, Dennis shows Kristi and Katie’s mother, Julie, a photograph of a witch coven from the 1930s and reads from a book about a ceremony by which the witches would take the sons of pregnant girls, brainwashing them (it’s not clear if they brainwash the boys or the girls) so they remember nothing.

Posted on October 21, 2015

Halls of Horror Attraction Review

Gwen

Halls Of Horror

Web address: http://www.hallsofhorror.net

Location: Palmerton, PA (Carbon County)

Full body immersion into the depths of horror

The Nuts and Bolts:

Halls of Horror is one main attraction. Parking is free on the street and there seemed to be plenty of spaces. Entry is $15 to go through the haunt or $25 to upgrade to the Blood Experience. The blood experience is what it sounds like, bloody, messy, and intense! No matter which experience you choose, you will sign a release and the actors WILL touch you. The Blood Experience offers more extreme levels of actor interaction with the guests.

Posted on October 19, 2015

The Ward (2011) Review

Guest Post

The Ward

July 2011 | (USA) | John Carpenter | 89 min | R

Synopsis: Kristen (Amber Heard) is admitted to the North Bend Psychiatric Hospital in 1966 after she sets fire to a house. As she acclimates to this new setting of locked doors, restricted company, frequent medications, and forced treatments, she learns that there is an additional threat to the ward and its patients: the ghost of Alice Hudson. Alice, out for revenge, chases the girls slasher-style throughout the asylum until the film culminates in an unsurprising twist ending.

Review: Wrong monster, wrong place. The slasher/haunting plot is misplaced in a setting rich with its own horrors, none of which are fully taken advantage of.

Grade: C

It’s either fitting or extremely inappropriate that I’m writing this review on the tenth of October, World Mental Health Day. Because I have an interest in the history and cultural construction of mental illness, I was excited about The Ward’s setting in a 1960s asylum, a time and place when mental illness was a potent source of fear, not just fear of one’s own psychological demons but of how those demons might be “treated.” The opening credits immediately locate the film’s themes amongst barbaric treatments with splintered images of actual woodcuts, illustrations, and black-and-white photographs, all depicting patients undergoing agonizing treatment. The homage to these historical treatments gives Carpenter a promising starting point on which to build his narrative of horror.

Posted on October 17, 2015

Knock Knock (2015)- Rape & Revenge?

Dawn Keetley

KNOCK KNOCK: RAPE AND REVENGE?

Synopsis: While his wife and children are at the beach, Evan (Keanu Reeves) opens the door late at night to find two apparently stranded rain-drenched young women—Genesis (Lorenza Izzo) and Bel (Ana de Armas)—at his door. He lets them in, lets them dry their clothes, and calls a car for them. They successfully “seduce” him, however, which begins their sadistic weekend-long “game” with him.

Genesis (Lorenza Izzo) and Bel (Ana de Armas) arrive at the door

Eli Roth’s Knock Knock has been receiving mostly dismal reviews, as well as a few more outraged assessments. Revenge Honey of The Horror Honeys launches an angry attack on the politics of the film, and she nails its more objectionable qualities—its racism and homophobia as well as the way it can certainly be viewed as making a mockery of child abuse. She writes that she considers the film “frontrunner for the worst film of 2015” and that it’s “downright disgusting.”[i]

I get how someone could feel that way about Knock Knock, but then horror films are supposed to push people’s buttons—and “downright disgusting” is a phrase that signals there’s probably something interesting going on.