- Horror Movie - Horror Homeroom

Posted on September 5, 2016

In Defense of Lucky McKee’s The Woman

Guest Post

Like many horror films, Lucky McKee’s The Woman (2011) caused controversy from its first screening. [i] This video of the reaction of one audience member at the Sundance Film Festival says it all:

Certainly, The Woman scarred me the first time I saw it. Upon subsequent viewings, it lost none of its power, and while there are many films that present us with visions of real-life horror, McKee’s study of domestic abuse and extreme misogyny continues to haunt me five years after its initial release. Read more

Posted on September 2, 2016

Dracula: Body Horror’s Beginnings

Dawn Keetley

In her book, Horror (Routledge, 2009), Brigid Cherry defines “body horror” as “Films that explore abjection and disgust of the human body” (6). Body horror involves a graphic breaching of corporeal borders—the body splitting open, its substances bursting, oozing, out. So, because of the inherent limitations of film techniques (notably special effects) in the 1930s, as well as restrictions imposed by the Motion Picture Production Code, classic horror films are generally not considered part of the “body horror” sub-genre: bodies typically remain intact (and fully clothed). A crucial scene from Tod Browning’s Dracula, however, shows that, even in 1931, at the birth of the sound horror film, body horror was part of the fascination (of the repulsion and attraction) of the film.

The scene occurs after Dracula (Bela Lugosi) has first come to Mina (Helen Chandler) at night. She is sitting on the couch the next day and Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) is questioning her about the “little marks” that are on her neck. We do not see them, but the other characters in the film are riveted by them: Van Helsing peers for a while at her neck, loosening her scarf to do so, and the camera cuts to Mina’s fiancée, Jonathan Harker (David Manners), and her father, Dr. Seward (Herbert Bunston), both of whom are staring at her neck. Read more

Posted on August 25, 2016

Trailblazing Self-Reflection and Postmodernism in Student Bodies (1981)

Gwen

I can think of no better way to exemplify my gluttonous yet astutely reflective consumption, digestion, and regurgitation of horror than by beginning with a film that does much the same. The 1981 Paramount Pictures film Student Bodies film gained a cult like following after it re-emerged on late night television via USA Up All Night which showcased other greats such as Reform School Girls (1986), Summer School (1987), and Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989). Read more

Posted on August 16, 2016

Chicken Hawk (1994): Documenting Perversion

Elizabeth Erwin

Like many, the recent social media explosion erroneously linking Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump to the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) gave me more than a little pause.[i] Given what I research, I’d heard of NAMBLA but was under the impression that they had disbanded. A quick perusal of the organization’s website and Wikipedia page confirmed that it is still active although on a very marginal scale.[ii]

One thing that did jump out at me in this reading was a listing for a 1994 documentary entitled Chicken Hawk: Men Who Love Boys. Immediately, the title was what caught my eye, as “chicken hawk” is an outdated term that was once actively used within the queer community to describe an older man who pursues a much younger man.[iii] That it would be used in this context to describe pedophilia was disturbing to me on a variety of levels and so I set out to watch it for myself (it’s readily available on YouTube).

Part of me really wishes that I hadn’t.

Posted on August 12, 2016

Thirteen Women (1932): The Slasher that Started it All

Dawn Keetley

If you love horror films, you’ll want to watch the classic Thirteen Women (David Archainbaud, 1932). It’s a little-known film that, four decades before The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Black Christmas (1974), and Halloween (1978), mapped out the contours of the slasher plot.

Myself and Gwen have recently written an article about the film: “Thirteen Women (1932): An Unacknowledged Horror Classic,” published in the Journal of Film and Video 68, no. 1 (Spring 2016). I’m just hitting a couple of the highlights here, so if you want more analysis, that’s the place to go.

We didn’t conjure our idea up out of thin air. Some film critics had already nodded to Thirteen Women’s anticipation of the slasher sub-genre. For instance, in his review of the DVD, which was released as part of the Warner Archive Collection in 2012, John Beifuss notes that Thirteen Women is “not exactly a horror film,” yet he goes on to map numerous of its “horror themes,” drawing a line to both Friday the 13^th (1980) and the Final Destination franchise (2000-2011). [i] We disagree with Beifuss’s hedging: Thirteen Women is in fact a horror film. Read more