woman carries a light in a dark hallway while a baby crawls ahead
Posted on February 26, 2023

The Capitalist Creepiness of Enda Walsh’s The House

Guest Post

Is a house a structure inhabited by us, built for our protection and comfort, designed according to our needs? Or does the house live through us, sucking up our time and energy with constant needs for repair, changing us to fit it, all the time watching us die? The question of who owns whom, and the challenge posed by a capitalist culture of status defined by display of wealth, are at the heart of Enda Walsh’s amazing animated anthology The House (2022).

The titular building housing a trilogy of terror written by Walsh and directed by Emma de Swaef, Marc James Roels, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Johannes Nyholm, and Paloma Baeza looms threateningly like a toy shop model for Shirley Jackson’s Hill House. But the connective construction of the Irish playwright’s scary stories is in many ways much more material, even materialist, than Jackson’s quintessential haunted house: a metaphorical mansion whose creation, contrivance and contraptions unfold in Emma de Swaef’s and Marc James Roels’ first segment. Playing out like a puppeteering prologue, “And heard within, a lie is spun“ is the most dread-inducing and desolate of the features, each of which bears the unique artistic signature of its directors. Read more

Two young women stare into the distance. They both look very concerned.
Posted on February 17, 2023

A Divisive Slasher: Talking Sick (2022)

Podcast

John Hyam’s SICK (2022) is a wildly divisive film that had us debating both its merits and its place within slasher film canon. Situated in the early days of the pandemic, the film follows friends Parker (Gideon Adlon) and Miri (Beth Million) as they quarantine at a remote lake house owned by Parker’s parents. They are joined unexpectedly by DJ (Dylan Sprayberry), Parker’s friend with benefits, who is eager to make their relationship exclusive. But their idyllic reprieve is soon interrupted when an unexpected threat starts stalking them. 

On this episode, we debate the wisdom of setting a slasher within a real life collective trauma while also considering the importance of generational spectatorship in film reception. In the end, the only thing we agree on about this film is that Erasure’s “A Little Respect” still bangs. Listen to the full, spoiler-filled episode below! 

 

cover photo showing book cover of a girl carrying roller skates. Design is 80s inspired with lots of neon and graphics.
Posted on February 8, 2023

Time to Start Running: Talking Cirque Berzerk

Podcast

Horror friends! We’ve heard you loud and clear and will now be combining both our book and movie podcasts under the Horror Homeroom Conservations umbrella!

Speaking of which, we recently delved into 2020’s CIRQUE BERZERK by Jessica Guess. Part of the ‘Rewind or Die’ series, the story takes place 30 years after a group of kids went on a killing spree at a local carnival; a massacre that left a dozen people dead. Decades after the tragedy, a group of students, including best friends Sam and Rochelle, decide to visit the theme park for one last hurrah. But sometimes, the past refuses to stay dead. Did this slasher live up to expectations? Find out in our latest episode available wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

And if horror books are your jam, don’t forget these episodes of the late, great Bloodcurdling Book Club. A handy, dandy playlist is below for your listening pleasure.








Posted on February 4, 2023

Rewilding – A Thoughtful, Beautiful Folk Horror Anthology

Dawn Keetley

Rewilding is a folk horror anthology written and directed by Ric Rawlins. It includes three short films, “Stone Mothers,” “The Family Tree,” and “The Writer’s Enquiry” that all harken back to the stories of M. R. James and to their adaptation in the 1970s’ BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas series. The influence of James is especially strong in the first two, with “Stone Mothers” evoking “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” and “A Warning to the Curious,” while “The Family Tree” recalls “The Ash Tree.” The third installment, “The Writer’s Enquiry,” which has a brilliant ending, most definitely manifests the influence of Robin Hardy’s 1973 The Wicker Man – and is also akin to the recent “Mr. King” episode of Inside No. 9 (2022).

Any film that was so aware of tracing the influences of the tradition from which it emerged would be of interest to me – but that is by no means the only reason I highly recommend Rewilding. It is essential viewing for anyone interested in folk horror – or in slow-burn, thoughtful horror more generally. Each of the three short films is extremely well-written and directed; the settings are gorgeous, beautifully shot, and, in true folk horror fashion, contribute demonstrably to the meaning of the film; and the actors are all great. Rawlins obviously assembled a dedicated group for this project, and their investment in what they’re doing is palpable.

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Posted on January 25, 2023

Reclaiming Jewish Monsters in The Offering

Guest Post

J-horror is often used as shorthand for Japanese horror, but that “J” is a bit limiting.  It’s also required for Jewish horror, a subgenre that’s coming into its own.  In 2012 the Jewish possession movie titled, well, The Possession presented the world with a Hasidic exorcist.  Directed by Ole Bornedal, the film had a substantial budget and wide theatrical release. Played by the famed Hasidic rapper Matisyahu, the sympathetic exorcist has to assist a goy family who bought their way into trouble at a yard sale.  Em (Natasha Calis), a young girl from a broken family, asks her father to buy her an ornate box which, unbeknownst to them, contains a dybbuk. A dybbuk is essentially the ghost of a wicked person—a very powerful entity that, according to the movie, is capable of possession.  It turns out that this is actually the demon Abyzou.

Six years later, the famous Jewish monster, the golem, made an appearance in the Israeli horror film, Doron and Yoav Paz’s The Golem.  Set during a pogrom in seventeenth-century Lituania, it follows previous films that share both the monster and title. It does this in unique fashion, however, by making the golem a little boy in the shape of a grieving mother’s dead son. Hannah (Hani Furstenberg), the mother, creates the golem to protect the shtetl against hostile Christians. Golems do what golems do, and it saves the community but then turns violent on the Jews. Read more

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