- Horror Movie - Horror Homeroom

Two men look at a painting of an old time, bloodied sea captain.

Posted on February 21, 2024

Gothic Decay: Talking House of Usher (1960)

Podcast

In today’s episode, Vincent Price helms House of Usher, a dark tale of decay inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s 1839 short story “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Released in 1960 as the first in the Corman-Poe cycle of films, the film follows Phillip as he visits the Usher mansion in the hopes of convincing his runaway fiance, Madeline, to return to him. But his efforts are continually thwarted by Madeline’s brother, Roderick, who warns Phillip that marriage to Madeline will result in total, personal destruction. Merging elements of the gothic sensibility that marked Poe’s illustrative career with a specific brand of 1960s film affect, House of Usher is a surprisingly overlooked film in the gothic horror canon. But should it be? We’re breaking it all down today with spoilers so stay tuned!

Recommended Reading:

Avelar, Mário. “The Colors of Melancholy in Roger Corman’s House of Usher.” The Edgar Allan Poe Review 11.1 (2010): 174-181.

Hendershot, Cyndy. “Domesticity and Horror in House of Usher and Village of the Damned.” Quarterly Review of Film & Video 17.3 (2000): 221-227.

Reyes, Xavier Aldana. “Gothic Horror Film, 1960—Present.” The Gothic World. Routledge, 2013. 388-398.

St. Armand, Barton Levi. “Poe’s Landscape of the Soul: Association Theory and” The Fall of the House of Usher”.” Modern Language Studies (1977): 32-41.

Thompson, James. “Alternative Treasures: The Fall of the House of Usher and The Terror within Roger Corman’s Poe Cycle.” Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture 6.1 (2021): 168-190.

Posted on December 17, 2021

Crones, Crime, and the Gothic, Conference at Falmouth University UK

Call for Papers

Crones, Crime, and the Gothic

In-person Conference

Falmouth University UK, 10-11 June 2022

Older women have traditionally been portrayed negatively in folklore, fairy tales, literature and film, for example. Images of witches, evil stepmothers, shrivelled, bitter ‘spinsters’, and vindictive, bullying women abusing positions of power are rife in Western culture. Yet, perhaps things are changing. A new emphasis on the need to discuss and understand the menopause seems to be at the heart of this. This conference examines historical representations of the ‘crone’ in relation to crime and Gothic narratives. But it also looks ahead and globally to examine other types of discourses and representations. Bringing older women to the fore of the discussion, this conference aims to go global and really shake up the way that the ‘crone’ is thought about and symbolized.

Posted on July 27, 2020

Mexican Gothic: Pulpy Anti-Colonial Critique

Sara McCartney

From the title on, Mexican Gothic, the latest from Mexican Canadian novelist Silvia Moreno-Garcia, leaves no doubt about its genre or its self-awareness. Fans of the Gothic will find all its greatest hits lined up and ready for savoring – the crumbling house, the family with a secret, fraught sexual dynamics, ghosts of a restless past. Moreno-Garcia delivers it all with gusto. But more than mere homage, the novel’s pulpy plot invites a closer read to its treatment of race, colonialism, patriarchy – and some very scary ecology.

Moreno-Garcia locates her Gothic in 1950s Mexico; her heroine is Noemí Taboada, a high society beauty sent to check in on her beloved cousin, Catalina. Recently married to English expat Virgil Doyle, proud owner of a defunct silver mine, Catalina’s rambling letters home have aroused her family’s concern. No swooning damsel, Noemí is vibrant, cunning, and sharp-tongued. She’ll needs all that and more to escape the machinations of the Doyle family, who decide to make the most of Noemí’s intrusion.

Posted on April 7, 2019

Pet Sematary as Folk Gothic

Dawn Keetley

A couple of articles have suggested that the 2019 Pet Sematary (directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer) amplifies the “folk horror” of Stephen King’s novel (1983) and of Mary Lambert’s film (1989). It does, perhaps most noticeably in the addition of the masked children forming a “procession” to the cemetery (though this ritual ends up being much less important to the film than the trailer makes it appear). As I began thinking about Pet Sematary as folk horror, though, it occurred to me that the film actually seems more akin to what we might call “folk gothic”—and that there is a significant difference between the two.[i] So, while recognizing the slipperiness of both “folk horror” and “folk gothic,” this essay represents my effort to think through, with Pet Sematary, what “folk gothic” is.[ii]

Posted on September 16, 2018

Michael Tully’s Brilliant Don’t Leave Home–Reviewed and Explained

Dawn Keetley

It’s well over halfway through the year and claims about the best horror films of 2018 are gaining more legitimacy, so I feel on firm ground when I say that Michael Tully’s Irish horror film Don’t Leave Home will be in my top ten this year. It is directed and written by Tully, shot on location at beautiful Killadoon House in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland, and features stellar performances by its three leads—Anna Margaret Hollyman as Melanie Thomas, Lalor Roddy as Father Alistair Burke, and Helena Bereen as Shelly. Don’t Leave Home is eerie horror. It builds dread and has moments of jarring creepiness. It veers into non-narrativity at times, as resonant images fade and dissolve into each other. It is beautiful. It makes you think: I watched it and then had to watch it again, and I’m still not sure I understand it—not in a frustrating way but in a way that makes you realize there’s simply more to be understood. Don’t Leave Home will stay with me.