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Posted on May 6, 2015

The Generational Horror of Scream

While the films within the franchise have been hit or miss, there is no denying that the original Scream film injected the horror genre with a much needed shot of self-awareness. From Drew Barrymore unexpectedly getting killed within the film’s opening moments to the script’s self-referential humor, Scream is the film that used the conventions of the slasher horror film against itself to create a new breed of terror.

Like most slasher films, the premise is simple. Sydney Prescott, a girl who is still reeling from her mother’s death one year prior, is being stalked by the same unknown killer who claimed the life of her mother. What follows is a fascinating blend of meta horror in which classic slasher tropes are openly mocked even as they are deployed successfully[i]
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Posted on May 4, 2015

Violence and The Purge Franchise

Dawn Keetley

As someone who writes about horror, I was interested in the eruption of The Purge into the news this week after Freddie Gray died in police custody. As a story on CNN.com put it: “In a sobering example of life imitating art, the chaos sweeping the streets of Baltimore may have been partly inspired by a series of action-horror movies.” Some high-school kids apparently circulated plans about a “purge” on social media on Monday afternoon (April 27). ‘Baltimore going purge,” read one tweet.[i] And the riots themselves, later that night, were compared to The Purge: “The purge is happening in Baltimore,” tweeted at least one observer.[ii]

Posted on April 30, 2015

Horror’s Creepiest Kids Roundup

Gwen

I must begin with a disclaimer that I am quite possibly incapable of keeping this top ten list narrowed down to ten creepy kids. Since scary little children are one of my passions within the horror genre, I especially found it hard to narrow the field. In addition, I historically struggle with being concise if you haven’t noticed. On that note, I hope to distinguish my list from the many others on the web. I did not choose these children because they appear physically horrific or unnerving. Many will be disappointed that I left off such notable creepy kids as Reagan from the Exorcist, Carol Ann from Poltergeist, or Toshio from the Grudge. I tried to pick children who had leading roles, spent the whole movie outside of the womb, and who are uniquely evil kids. Historically the horror genre uses its creepy kids as an indicator of other societal ills. Often films justify the child’s horrific nature by making them possessed, adopted, abused etc. What makes a kid especially scary to me, is when they are utterly unpredictable, they appear normal, and there is little to no explanation for their horrific actions. My list argues that some of the best creepy kids are so scary because they challenge the way we see children. They take away our comfort by illuminating the fact that childhood and innocence are not synonymous. Furthermore, some people are really born bad and you can’t always tell.

Posted on April 29, 2015

The Pyramid (2014) Film Review

Dawn Keetley

If you were at all tempted to spend money on The Pyramid, now available on video on demand (and coming out on DVD on May 5, 2015), don’t! Directed by Grégory Levasseur (who directed the 2006 re-make of The Hills Have Eyes), written by Daniel Meersand and Nick Simon, and produced by Alexandre Aja, The Pyramid is valuable mostly as an exercise in how not to make a horror film. The writing is bad; the plot is utterly predictable, the acting is shocking flat; and the film is, quite simply, tedious.

Posted on April 27, 2015

Trapped In a Mall: Consumerism & Religion in The Dawn Of The Dead (2004)

Elizabeth Erwin

With the hiatus of The Walking Dead, I’ve been missing my daily zombie fix and so I wanted to do a rewatch of The Dawn of the Dead (2004), a surprisingly satisfying remake of the 1978 original. While the two films share zombies, that’s about the only point of comparison. Unlike its predecessors, this film features zombies of a more threatening variety and is meant to critique American consumerism. In the wake of a zombie outbreak, a group of people take refuge in a mall where they attempt to salvage a little of their humanity.