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podcast

An undead entity that looks grotesque and is dressed in an old fashioned style tuxedo stands next to a girl in a red wedding dress.
Posted on August 22, 2024

A Living Death?: Talking Beetlejuice (1988)

Elizabeth Erwin

In today’s episode, it’s Tim Burton’s fever dream masterpiece Beetlejuice—a horror-comedy classic with shades of surrealism that’s as colorfully bizarre as its namesake character! The film follows Barbara and Adam Maitland, a recently deceased couple, intent on scaring off the new living occupants of their home, the Deetz family. When their best ghostly efforts prove futile, they decide to enlist the services of Betelgeuse, a freelance bio-exorcist more interested in causing havoc than in helping. With its long awaited sequel set to hit theaters September 6, we’re taking a look back at Burton’s first commercial success so stay tuned.

 

 

Recommended Reading:

Fowkes, Katherine A. “Tim Burton and the creative trickster: A case study of three films.” The Works of Tim Burton: Margins to Mainstream. Ed. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp. 231-244.

Middlemost, R. “”My whole life is a dark room”: Nostalgia and domesticity in Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands.” A Critical Companion to Tim Burton. Ed. A. Barkman & A. Sanna. Lexington Books, 2017, pp.207-220.

van Elferen, Isabella. “Dannv Elfman’s Musical Fantasyland. Or, Listening to a Snowglobe.” The Works of Tim Burton: Margins to Mainstream. Ed. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp. 231-244.

A man and a woman look down into a manhole to the sewer below.
Posted on June 4, 2024

Are all creature features the same?: Talking The Great Alligator (1979) and Alligator (1980)

Podcast

In today’s episode, it’s creature feature, B-movie summer horror with 1979’s The Great Alligator and 1980s’s Alligator. Despite their very different settings, both films lean into the carnage caused by their snappy, tail-spinning reptilian monsters while simultaneously suggesting that the true villains are more of the two legged variety. But do their eco-critical considerations resonate with today’s audiences? We’re breaking it all down today with spoilers, so stay tuned.

Recommended Reading:

Bould, Mark. The Cinema of John Sayles: Lone Star (Wallflower Press, 2009)

Gambin, Lee. Massacred by Mother Nature: The Natural Horror Film (Midnight Marquee Press, 2012).

Jones, Matthew. “Antagonistic Nature: The Loss of Anthropocentric Authority in Eco-Horror of the 1970s and 80s.” Supernatural Studies, vol. 7, no. 1, Spring/Summer 2021, pp. 33–47.

Mann, Craig. “America, Down the Toilet: Urban Legends, American Society and Alligator,” in Animal Horror Cinema, edited by Katarina Gregersdotter, Johan Hoglund, and Nicklas Hallen (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), pp. 110-25.

The Great Alligator has just got a 2-disc 4K UHD DVD special release from Severin Films.

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.

a sloth holds up a camera to take a selfie with a girl in a hospital bed in a breathing mask.
Posted on December 1, 2023

Sloths Gone Wild: Talking Slotherhouse (2023)

Elizabeth Erwin/ Podcast

In today’s episode, it’s an old school horror-comedy romp with Matthew Goodhue’s Slotherhouse (2023). The plot revolves around Alpha, a homicidal three-toed sloth who is abducted from her home in the Panamanian jungle by poachers. Upon killing Oliver, one of the poachers, she is taken in by Emily who believes Alpha just might be her ticket to the sorority house presidency. But when Alpha discovers Emily looking chummy with Oliver in an Instagram post, she unleashes her fury on the unsuspecting sorority house. With some fans and critics lambasting the film as the dumbest story ever committed to film and others declaring it the best horror film of the year, Slotherhouse is, to put it mildly, divisive. We’re breaking it all down with spoilers, so stay tuned.

A young girl, pale and sickly, stares menacingly at the camera
Posted on November 10, 2023

The Devil Inside: Talking The Exorcist (1973)

Elizabeth Erwin/ Podcast

In today’s episode, we are finally tackling the film Roger Ebert called “a raw and painful experience” that “transcends the genre of terror, horror, and the supernatural.” We are, of course, talking about William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973). Based on William Peter Blatty’s novel of the same name, the film is an acknowledged classic trafficking in body horror and demonic possession, scenes of which have morphed into head turning, pea-soup laced pop culture shorthand. But is there more to this story than meets the eye? We’re breaking it all down today with spoilers so stay tuned.

References/Mentioned in this Episode

Clover, Carol J. Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film-Up. Princeton University Press, 2015.

Collative Learning. ⁠The even darker underbelly of THE EXORCIST – film analysis⁠. YouTube, 24 January 2017.

Ebert, Roger. “⁠The Exorcist⁠.” RogerEbert.com, 23 December 1973.

⁠Happy Haunts Library⁠, YouTube, 2023.

Heffernan, Ryan. “⁠The 9 Most Hilarious ‘The Exorcist’ Parodies in Movies and TV Shows⁠.” Collider, 9 October 2023.

Schuetz, Janice. ““The exorcist”: Images of good and evil.” Western Journal of Communication (includes Communication Reports) 39.2 (1975): 92-101.

Williams, Marlena. Night Mother: A Personal and Cultural History of The Exorcist. Mad Creek Books, 2023.

Winter, Douglas E.⁠ Faces of Fear: Encounters with the Creators of Modern Horror⁠. Berkley Trade, 1985, pp. 36-49.

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