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Posted on September 17, 2020

Is The Invisible Man What It Seems?

Guest Post

Based on the 1897 H. G. Wells novel, The Invisible Man (2020), written and directed by Leigh Whannell, involves a woman who believes she is being stalked by her now invisible wealthy ex-boyfriend following his suicide. However, things may not be as they seem in this modern tale of trauma and psychological terror.

On the surface the film’s synopsis sees Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) leave violent boyfriend Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and subsequently suffer the traumatic after-effects of a violently abusive relationship. She goes to stay with childhood friend Detective James Lanier (Aldi Hodge) and his daughter Sydney (Storm Reid) to make a fresh start. But it does not end there: even after Adrian’s supposed suicide, Cecilia believes she is being hunted by an invisible Adrian, and she struggles to convince her friends and family of her unseen torment. After suffering further at the hands of the invisible man, Cecilia is eventually admitted to a mental hospital following her sister Emily’s (Harriet Dyer) murder in a restaurant; Cecilia claims she is being framed for the murder by the invisible man. She manages to escape the hospital after confronting her unseen attacker, but he takes the fight to her friend James’s house. After Cecilia shoots the invisible man, he is unveiled as Adrian’s lawyer brother, Tom (Michael Dorman), and Adrian is discovered imprisoned in his home. Not convinced it was Tom taunting her, Cecilia arrives to have dinner and ends up adopting the invisible suit herself and murdering Adrian, making it appear to be suicide. Cecilia is free at last.

Posted on September 14, 2020

Horror Homeroom Special Issue #3 – Lovecraft Country CFP

Call for Papers

Horror Homeroom, Special Issue #3: LOVECRAFT COUNTRY (Winter 2021)

****EXTENDED DEADLINE – Abstracts due Sunday November 8, 2020 ****

Lovecraft Country is a radical new intervention in the horror world. Based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Matt Ruff, the 10-episode HBO series is produced and written by Misha Green, who serves as the series showrunner. Jordan Peele and J. J. Abrams are also involved as producers, and the series showcases a diverse array of directors (including Cheryl Dunye).

The series premiered on August 16, 2020 and will end on October 18–and it’s already generating a lot of discussion around its use of horror tropes to tell the story of racism in the US. As Misha Green has said of living in the US as a Black woman, “It’s literally, you’re in a horror movie [with] monsters at every turn” (Stidhum). At least one commentator (in The Atlantic) has argued that Lovecraft Country is not well-served by “its white characters’ near-comic monstrousness” (Giorgis)–and there are already syllabi! Erica Buddington and the Langston League are putting together a syllabus for each episode. (Here’s the syllabus for episode 1.)

Posted on September 12, 2020

Gothic Nature Journal — TV/Film Reviews

Call for Papers

Gothic Nature is seeking TV/ film reviews for its next issue. The show or film reviewed must have a clear thematic link to ecohorror/ecoGothic and have first appeared in 2020-21 (see some possibilities below). Reviews should aim for about 1,000 words in length (Harvard style and British spelling and punctuation conventions appreciated). Send inquiries and submissions to Sara L. Crosby at crosby.sara@gmail.com. For further information about the journal, please visit: https://gothicnaturejournal.com/.

Deadline for submissions: February 1, 2021

Posted on September 10, 2020

Us & the Horror of the Class System

Guest Post

Privilege and classism are vivid themes of Jordan Peele’s second feature, Us (2019), both working as accompaniment to the core subject of social separation: topographically, physically and ultimately, by a drastic act of metaphoric self-restriction, mentally. By re-imagining an eerie scenario nearly as old as horror cinema itself (dating back to the earliest expressionist films like 1913’s The Student of Prague), Peele exposes the concept of social advancement as a fairy tale, established to silence the conscience of the advantaged and to denounce the frustration of the disadvantaged.

Although exploitative structures are less obvious than in Peele’s astute debut Get Out (2017), the Tethered’s puppet-like subjection to their upper-world doubles indicates the underprivileged’s subordination to the actions of the prosperous. In this world of Us – or ours, as Red’s declaration “We are Americans“ emphasizes – decline comes as easy as stepping on an escalator. However, the only way up from mind-numbing deprivation is hostile acquisition. Red turns out to be the little girl who entered the hall of mirrors in the prologue and now reclaims her place from an imposter.

Posted on September 4, 2020

Horror Homeroom, Special Issue: CANDYMAN, CFP

Call for Papers

UPDATE: due to the just-announced indefinite postponement of Candyman‘s release (sometime in 2021), we are also delaying our special issue on the Candyman films. Our third special issue will instead be on Lovecraft Country–and you can check out the call for papers here.

The first Candyman, directed by Bernard Rose, was released in 1993, starring Tony Todd, Virginia Madsen, and Kasi Lemmons. It translated Clive Barker’s1985 short story, “The Forbidden” from a white working-class housing development in England to an African-American housing development in Chicago, Cabrini Green. Candyman tells a powerful story of race and the lingering aftermath of slavery in the US, mixing the supernatural with historical and social realism. Numerous critics have discussed the film, including Adam Ochonicky, Lucy Fife Donaldson, Robin Means Coleman, Diane Long Hoeveler, Mikel Koven, Laura Wyrick, Kirsten Monan Thompson, Aviva Briefel and Sianne Ngaî, and Fred Botting. As the horror genre is, in the twenty-first century, becoming increasingly political, much more remains to be said about Candyman and its two sequels–Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (Bill Condon, 1995) and Candyman: Day of the Dead (Turi Meyer, 1999)–all of which center racism in America.

Despite the powerful presence of Tony Todd as Candyman in all three films, they have been notably white productions. October 16, 2020, however, will see the release of a “spiritual sequel” to Candyman, and it is a predominantly African-American production–directed by Nia DaCosta, co-written by DaCosta, Jordan Peele, and Win Rosenfeld, produced by Peele, and with a largely Black cast (including Tony Todd). In this new Candyman, viewers will finally experience a Black re-writing of a Candyman mythos that has been, until now, almost exclusively white.