Teen Werewolves: From the Silver Screen to America’s Schools
I came across an interesting item at the science fiction website io9 with a post titled “Teens pretending to be werewolves.” You will see the news report out of San Antonio, Texas accompanying this post that describes a group of teens who identify with werewolves and gather in groups they call packs. When I came [...]
What if The Green Man Gets Ticked Off?
If nature gets really ticked off at humanity as a result of the damage to the Gulf Coast from the oil spill, in addition to other instances of environmental destruction, I wonder if the Green Man as a symbol of nature will rise in the form depicted in this illustration. Typically the Green Man is [...]
THE ROAD: Post-Apocalyptic Thriller, Depressing, But Brilliant
Last night I had the privilege of enjoying a few movies at home with my wife, one of which was The Road. This 2009 film is based on the novel by Cormac MCarthy, and it stars Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McKee, Charlize Theron, and Robert Duvall. It tells the story of the post-apocalyptic struggle of a [...]
Philip Tallon: The Philosophy of Horror
My most recent book review copy arrived in the form of The Philosophy of Horror (The University Press of Kentucky, 2010), edited by Thomas Fahy. The press release for the volume sets the stage for what is in store for the reader: The Philosophy of Horror investigates the reasons that audiences continue to revisit horror [...]
Call for Papers on “Vampire Love”
The Popular Culture and American Culture Associations are issuing their last call for papers on the topic of “Vampire Love:” 2010 Film & History Conference: Representations of Love in Film and Television, November 11-14, 2010, Hyatt Regency Milwaukee, www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory Third Round Deadline: June 1, 2010, AREA: Vampire Love. The history of film is regularly punctuated [...]
SPLICE: Genetic Science Fiction/Horror Premiers in June
Today various news outlets are reporting that a scientist and his team have created the first synthetic life form, in this instance the genome of a bacterium. Coincidentally, advertisements have begun for Splice, a film that adds to the canon of horror and science fiction dealing with genetic manipulation. The film’s website includes the following [...]
Gary Varner: Gargoyles, Grotesques and Green Men
There are a few items in the fantastic that I am passionate about, and one of those happens to be gargoyles, or more specifically as we will see below, grotesques. Each Halloween season I try to add a few to my collection. They have been popular figures in culture for some time, including on contemporary [...]
MOON: Intelligent Sci-Fi Contributing to the Ascendancy of the Genre
Every once in a while the process of working through a lot of cinema results in the finding of a gem that makes it all worth while. This is most certainly the case with MOON (2009), an independent science fiction film directed by Duncan Jones. MOON is set in the unspecified near future where Helium-3 [...]
Raffle for Autographed Copy of “Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks” – Revised
Readers may recall my previous post on Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms by Ethan Gilsdorf (The Lyons Press, 2009). This volume unfolds the personal quest of Gilsdorf as a teenage Dungeons and Dragons player and his later adult quest [...]
Fox Plans “Rise of the Apes”: Future Biting Social Commentary or Burton-esque Blunder?
Various media outlets have reported that Twentieth Century Fox is planning to produce another installment in the Planet of the Apes series of films. This one is tentatively titled Rise of the Apes which will represent a reworking of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), and is set for a June 2011 release. [...]
