- Horror Movie - Horror Homeroom

Posted on September 15, 2018

Scared Sacred: Idolatry, Religion and Worship in the Horror Film

Dawn Keetley

We’re going to be posting a lot about the great projects the folks at House of Leaves Publishing are working on, including their first book, a collection of essays called Scared Sacred: Idolatry, Religion and Worship in the Horror Film. We’re committed to indie horror in all its forms, including writing and publishing, and we urge you to pre-order Scared Sacred House of Leaves Publishing’s websitefrom .

This week, House of Leaves shared a preview from Alexandra West’s chapter from Scared Sacred: “Onward Christian Soldiers: Eyes of the Believers in The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring 2 (2016).” You’ll find below an exclusive typeset sample of this preview, including John Sowder’s beautiful woodcut illustration. (Just click on the images to enlarge them.)

Posted on September 12, 2018

Sleepaway Camp and the Transgressive Possibilities of Queer Spectatorship

Guest Post

After a quick Google search, I was astounded as to how many blogs denounce Sleepaway Camp (1983) as transphobic. I’ve always been conscious of the film’s inherent homophobia – two children touch each other after seeing their father and his partner in bed, suggesting homosexuality as a taught paedophilic behaviour – but I’m less certain of the film’s inherent transphobia. As a cisgender gay man, it’s questionable whether I can rightfully claim what is and isn’t transphobic, but watching Sleepaway Camp, something less regressive resonates within me.

Angela’s father embraces his partner (top) for Angela and her brother to mimic their behaviour (bottom)

I first recall watching Sleepaway Camp at 15 years old. Besides the ending, I hated it. The only thing that carried me through was Angela (Felissa Rose) who I felt desperately empathetic towards. A quiet, tortured soul, I wanted to like her. I certainly felt a proud grimace of hope whenever she opened her mouth to speak. Little did I know, I was Angela; she’s the bullied caricature of every queer kid. Read more

Posted on September 9, 2018

Mara: The Best Horror Feature about Sleep Paralysis

Dawn Keetley

Clive Tonge is from Northern England and has devoted his life to working in the film industry. While he has directed a couple of shorts, including the horror film “Sunday Best” (2011), Mara is his first feature film. Written by Jonathan Frank, Mara follows a criminal psychologist, Dr. Kate Fuller (Olga Kurylenko), as she arrives at a troubling murder site. A man is dead and it seems clear to everyone that his wife (Helena) did it. But she insists that her husband had been experiencing increasingly troubled sleep and that the night he died a “demon” entered their bedroom, sat on her husband’s chest, and choked him to death. As Kate investigates, she is led to a string of apparent strangers who have all shared the same terrifying night paralysis. More and more of them start dying inexplicably in their sleep, and soon Kate is investigating a phenomenon in which she too has become a victim.

Posted on September 5, 2018

Teeth: A, Sort of, Superhero Movie

Guest Post

When released in 2007 Teeth seemed to be a very misunderstood film, most particularly by its distributors who marketed it as a sexed-up up body-horror/monster movie. This was summed up by the UK DVD which features on its reverse a coquettish picture of lead character Dawn (Jess Weixler) with various blood splatters around the text. It contrasts heavily with director Mitchell Lichtenstein’s preferred marketing image in which Dawn, dressed in a “Sex Changes Everything” T-shirt stares confused at the viewer. Released on DVD through the Dimension Extreme label (familiar to fans of Torture Porn), Teeth’s very nature as a horror-comedy, and specifically a satire on American sexual values, was obscured.

Posted on August 31, 2018

Creepy CliffsNotes: August Edition

Elizabeth Erwin

Gather ‘round horror fiends because we’re about to unleash some tasty morsels for you to feast upon!

The way we see it, the only downside to everyone talking about the horror genre is that there’s never enough time to read everything. So we’ve decided to whip up a new monthly feature called Creepy Cliff Notes where we give you a heads up on some think pieces or news items you may have missed. Think of it as syllabus reading you’ll actually want to do.

We’re Gremlins getting fed after midnight levels of excited!