Horror Homeroom

Posted on June 5, 2018

Cargo and the Rise of the Fungal Zombie

Guest Post

The new zombie film just released on Netflix, Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke’s Cargo (2017) showcases a new kind of zombie–the fungal zombie–and ushers in a whole new kind of horror.

I have to start by saying that I was never really afraid of zombies as a kid. Even today, when I re-watch movies featuring a bunch of shambling corpses, or when I break out the first Resident Evil games to get away from work, it is never the hordes of infected or the walking dead that scare me. For me, they have always been collateral monsters, byproducts of a deep-seated flaw in the living subjects that flee them. In fact, the humans in these films are what terrified me—they are brutal, cold, and animalistic. Which, I guess, is the point.

However, within the past five years, I’ve seen an evolution in zombie film and videogames. No longer are the zombies signifying elements of our humanity let wild, but rather are showcasing a whole new type of non-human sentience: a collective intelligence that can plan, navigate, and communicate much like we do, but without the need of complex technology. I mean, of course, fungi.[i]

Posted on May 31, 2018

The Twilight Zone Episode That Anticipates Get Out

Dawn Keetley

Jordan Peele is on board as one of the executive producers of a reboot of The Twilight Zone, apparently coming to CBS All Access. Even without this clear evidence, Peele’s interest in Rod Serling’s classic series, which ran on CBS from 1959-64, is manifest in his 2017 horror film, Get Out. Indeed, The Verge has called Get Out a “Twilight Zone-esque horror thriller.” Any fan of The Twilight Zone will, I’m sure, be able to point to many episodes whose influence seeped into Peele’s film. I want to point out one dramatic predecessor, however, in the season 3 episodes, “The Trade-Ins,” which originally aired on April 13, 1962 and which was written by Serling himself and directed by Elliot Silverstein.

Posted on May 28, 2018

George Romero’s Martin: Pop Culture’s Vampire Rebuked

Guest Post

George A. Romero’s 1978 film Martin stands as a brilliant early example of the metafictional film. The rise of the metafictional film is perhaps the most notable innovation within postmodern film, acknowledging itself as a film, accepting that it is a work of fiction, and making this an aspect of the plot. This can be brought about in a myriad of ways: characters addressing the camera and speaking to the audience, characters acknowledging cliches of the genre, as well as the insertion of the film process itself into the film.

The most popular metafictional films are often reactionary in nature, parodying a modern trend of filmmaking and exploring its shortcomings and repetitive structures. This is why so many metafictional films come out either when a genre is at its height, as in the case of Deadpool (2016) or Wayne’s World (1992), the former parodying the modern world-building superhero epic and the latter parodying the shoehorning of sketch comedy characters into a feature length cinematic world. Others, like Scream, come at a time when a genre or subgenre has reached something of a low point, as was happening in 1996 when the only slashers were either franchise sequels of diminishing quality and direct-to-video shlock. These metafictional films act almost like a friend sitting next to you in the theater, questioning the logic of what’s onscreen and saying things like, “haven’t we seen all this before?”

The temptation with meta-horror films is to assign a starting point- which was the first? Scream is commonly given the credit for starting the trend in mainstream cinema, while films like There’s Nothing Out There (1991) and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) are often cited as predecessors to Scream’s particular brand of metafiction. Additionally, one can point to 1980s classics like Friday The 13th Part 6: Jason Lives (1986) and Fright Night (1985) as paving the way for Scream by embracing and subverting horror tropes. One pivotal film that is often left out of the conversation, however, is George Romero’s classic 1978 vampire film Martin.

Posted on May 24, 2018

I Spit on Your Grave: The Original Rape-Revenge Film

Guest Post

With the new French exploitation film Revenge gaining a heap of media attention, the majority of it referencing it as an up-dated I Spit On Your Grave, it is pertinent to examine why the original film – and the rape-revenge genre in general – refuses to be buried, despite its being condemned as sexist, misogynistic and demeaning to women.

There is no denying that the original I Spit On Your Grave (1978)—released 40 years ago this year—is one of the most controversial films ever made. With its unflinching subject matter (the brutal gang-rape of a beautiful career woman and her subsequent revenge), its battles with censors, critics, feminists and politicians have ensured that it remains a film that divides opinion and inflames passions. While its reputation would have been cemented by its unique position in the 1970s/80s exploitation era and the ‘video nasties’ scandal, it has also become mythologised by the countless rape-revenge films that have followed.

Posted on May 22, 2018

Revenge and the Power of the Gaze

Guest Post

In the era of the Women’s March and the #MeToo Movement, Revenge (2017), directed and written by Coralie Fargeat, is a must-see, a film critical of the male gaze, hyper-masculinity, and rape culture. It reverses the gaze and empowers its female protagonist, Jen (Matilida Anna Ingrid Lutz), who seeks retaliation against her rapist and his wealthy enablers.

The plot of the film is rather simple. Jen is the mistress of 1 percenter Richard (Kevin Janssens), who takes her to an isolated location via helicopter. He invites his rich buddies along, Dimitri (Guillaume Bouchède) and Stan (Vincent Colombe). Stan rapes Jen when Richard is not around, assuming that she wanted it because she danced with him once.