Monthly Archives: April 2008

Cylons in America: Critical Studies in Battlestar Galactica

After Star Wars became a phenomenon in movie theaters around the world in the 1970s it didn’t take long for television to take advantage in the resurgent interest in fantasy and science fiction. One of the television programs I remember fondly, although in my estimation it doesn’t hold up well when revisited thirty years later, […]

Paul Davids: Sci-Fi Boys and the Pied Pipers of the Imagination

A while ago I was channel surfing and came across a late night showing of a great documentary film called The Sci-Fi Boys. I have commented on this film previously, which documents the tremendous influence of the films of Ray Harryhausen and the publishing work of Forrest J. Ackerman on several generations of young people. […]

The Final Cut: Sci-Fi Thriller Connects with Contemporary Issues

From time to time I try to do a little treasure hunting, not the kind where you dive deep below the ocean’s surface, or the kind where you use a metal detector and scan the sands of the beach, but the kind that can result in literary or cinematic treasures. Last week I engaged in […]

Gilmore: Anthropology and Monsters in Cultural Imagination

In a previous post I mentioned the work of Dr. David Gilmore, an anthropologist who teaches at Stony Brook University. He is the author of Monsters: Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts, and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), an interesting book that provides an anthropological perspective on monsters in various cultures. Dr. […]

Recent Developments

Readers may have noticed a few developments and changes in TheoFantastique over the last couple of weeks. First, I was humbled a while back when Steve Biodrowski of Cinefantastique Online asked me if he could link this blog to his publication. I was even more humbled when I was invited to contribute content to Cinefantastique’s […]

An Anthropologist Considers Our Monsters

A recent e-newsletter from the Constructing Horror website introduced an interesting topic: “The beasts of past days have given birth to a new kind of creature. In movies like Saw and 28 Days Later, the monsters are powerful and horrifying. But the concept of evil has been turned around on the audiences and what once […]

The Mist: Thrills, Chills and Thought-Provoking Social Critique

I am usually a late commentator on films since I watch few at the theaters and prefer to wait until they come out on DVD. This provides me with a cost savings, and enables me to read reviews and commentary so as not to waste resources on bad films. This last weekend I was able […]

Pop Culture Legacy of Malleus Maleficarum

The April issue of Rue Morgue magazine caught my eye at the newsstand recently with an article titled “The Witch Hunter’s Bible,” an article that explored the infamous Malleus Maleficarum. For those unfamiliar with this document, it comes from the medieval period (perhaps the 15th century) as a Christian manual that purports to provide the […]

Sacred Terror Book Due Fall 2008

Long time readers of this blog might recall my two previous interviews with Douglas Cowan on the topic of horror films and their connection to religion and fear. Doug shared his insights on these topics as they related to his book on the topic Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen (Baylor University […]

Small Screen Treasures: Two Gems of Seventies Horror Television

In my previous post I focused on a classic horror film of the 1970s, and in this post I shift to commentary on horror television from the same decade. Last weekend I watched a series of VH1 programs that looked back at various aspects of the 1970s. Although I was born in the mid-1960s I […]

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