CFQ Spotlight Podcast 2:48.1 with a focus on Trek Nation and the legacy of Star Trek is now online at Cinefantastique Online. There I am a guest with regular contributors Dan Persons, Steve Biodrowski, and Larry French. Click here to enjoy the show.

The Devil and the related phenomenon of demonic possession, have been the source of several horror films for the years. Previous decades offered THE EXORCIST (1973), with its Roman Catholic perspective, and the various films that made up Protestant responses to it in THE OMEN (1976) and its sequels. Moving forward into more recent cinematic history, we have seen THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE (2005), and a dual release of diabolical films in 2010: DEVIL and THE LAST EXORCISM. Our fascination with the ultimate supernatural villain continues in 2011 with the recent release of THE RITE, which returns the horror treatment of Satan and demonic possession to the Catholic roots of THE EXORCIST. As a result of our present social and cultural circumstances, which echo much of the turbulence of the 1970s, we may be calling on Satan to help us deal with our current angst. As we will see, paradoxically, he may also provide some with faith in God.

The essay may be read here. See also TheoFantastique Podcast 2.1 on this film involving a discussion of the film with Douglas Cowan, Paul Meehan, and Scott Poole.

And the dream comes true for one young, idealistic podcast host. After months of campaigning, Dan finally gets a chance to bring Steven Moffat’s (DOCTOR WHO) BBC series, JEKYLL, to the table for an extended discussion. Listen in as CFQ editor Steve Biodrowski and theofantastique.com’s John W. Morehead join Dan Persons in a spirited and detailed appraisal of this updated sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella, and learn whether this radical reenvisioning — featuring standout performances by James Nesbitt (BLOODY SUNDAY) and Gina Bellman (COUPLING), plus corporate conspiracies, weird science and, oh yes, lesbian private detectives — is worth your time.

The program can be downloaded or listened to at this link. You can also listen to the Cinefantastique Roundtable Podcast 2:4 where we discuss various fantastic items in the news, weigh in on Disney’s Little Mermaid vs. Beauty and the Beast, amazement over PBS’s treatment of The Twilight Zone on Pioneers of Television, and I give a spirited defense of Looney Tunes’s Hyde & Hare. The program can be found here.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a novella written by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1886. The story is told from the point of view of a London lawyer, John Utterson, who investigates the increasingly odd behavior of his old friend, the brilliant scientist Dr. Henry Jekyll. After relating a disturbing tale of an angry fiend assaulting a small girl, Utterson uncovers a horrific and terrifying truth.

The book was an immediate success and one of Stevenson’s best-selling works. Stage adaptations began in Boston and London within a few months, and it has gone on to inspire scores of major film and stage performances and countless references in popular culture. The phrase “Jekyll and Hyde” has become shorthand to mean wild, controversial and polar behavior, or schizophrenia.

In more than 100 film versions, Jekyll has been played by such stars as John Barrymore in a 1920 silent version; Frederic March, who won an Academy Award for his deft portrayal in 1931; Spencer Tracy (1941); Jack Palance (1968); David Hemmings (1981); Anthony Perkins (1989); Laura Dern and Anthony Andrews in the dual role (1989); Michael Caine (1990), and John Malkovich in Mary Reilly (1996).

The BBC program does not represent another retelling of the Victorian story, but instead offers a fresh interpretation set in contemporary times.

Jekyll, described by writer Steven Moffat (Coupling, Doctor Who), as “somewhere between a modern horror story and The Odd Couple,” is set in the present day and stars James Nesbitt in the title role. Dr. Jekyll is a contemporary man with an ancient curse of Mr. Hyde. But he’s done a deal with his own devil – a body share – and keeps his dark side in check with the very latest surveillance hardware. Just barely keeping one step ahead of his alter-ego, Jekyll has managed to keep his wife and two kids a secret from the vicious Hyde. But what neither of them knows is that an organization with limitless wealth and power is monitoring their every move.

Creator Steven Moffat explains how he updated the classic tale: “There’s potential to go in so many different directions with the tale – it’s such a rich and strong idea – so here we go again! Another Jekyll and Hyde! The doctor and his dark side are back!

“What’s new this time? Everything! Literally, actually new. For the first time the setting is modern day – no fog, no cobblestones, we’re in London 2007. Dr. Tom Jackman is a new man with an old problem. If this story speaks to everyone with a dark side (everyone), why set it back then? Why not make it here and now? Why not make it a modern man in modern London? Why not have a helicopter in episode four?

“The story of Jekyll and Hyde was a shocking idea when it came out in 1886, and it wasn’t a period piece. It was set in the modern day and was shocking in that this respectable man had this terrible dark side. Instead of a tale of naughty Victorian hypocrisy in London of long ago, why not make it about all the horrors slinking around the dark side of your mind right now?”

I had never heard of this program prior to my invitation to be a part of the podcast. I am glad to have been made aware of it as it provides an opportunity to reflect anew on this important horror story, and what it tells us about human nature, particularly our dark side. Unfortunately, there was only one season of this program, even though the final episode set the stage for a second. The six episodes comprising the season can be downloaded through Amazon.com’s Video on Demand. After the podcast is uploaded and available for listening I will update this post and include a link.

Related post:

“Skillet: ‘Monster’ as Rock ‘n’ Roll Jekyll and Hyde”

Take a journey into the HEREAFTER on this week’s edition of the Cinefantastique Podcast. Special guest John W. Morehead, of Theofantastique, joins Dan Persons, Lawrence French, and Steve Biodrowski for an in-depth discussion of Clint Eastwood’s drama of people confronting the afterlife, scripted by Peter Morgan and starring Matt Damon. Is this another Oscar-worth contender from the director of UNFORGIVEN and BILLION DOLLAR BABY, or does it disappoint? Listen in and find out. As always, the Cinefantastique Podcast also includes a round-up of recent news, events, and home video releases – everything you need to know in order to be in the know.

I also stayed around for the Post-Mortem Podcast where we discussed other films dealing with the afterlife and additional topics. My thanks goes out to Steve Biodrowski, Dan Persons, and Lawrence French for the invitation and opportunity to be a guest. You can listen to the podcast here.

Over a year ago I started TheoFantastique as a way in which to express my appreciation for the fantastic, to probe in depth the various genres that make up the fantastic as they are expressed in popular culture, and to also explore the ways in which religion and spirituality influence these genres at times. I have done so as a person of faith, and I see no incompatibility between my faith commitments and my appreciation for the fantastic, including horror. In fact, I have argued that those who share my faith commitments are the ones out of touch with a significant expression of what it means to be human, and a means of engaging others on issues of cultural and religious significance. I have written a few essays on this topic, including “Christianity and Horror Redux: From Knee-Jerk Revulsion to Critical Engagement,” which was aimed at a Christian audience, and more recently, “Divinity into Darkness: The Rise of Christian Horror,” for a general reading audience in response to a recent article on the topic in Rue Morgue magazine.

I know my views on such things are not widely held in conservative Christian circles, but what did surprise me was to find similar sentiments alleging incompatibility between Christianity and horror from a very different metaphysical perspective. One of my fellow LOTTD members, Curt Purcell of the great The Groovy Age of Horror blog, weighed in with his thoughts on incompatibility in “Thoughts on Christian Horror.” This led to a number of comments and lively discussion on the topic, including a few comments of my own. I will add here though that in my view Purcell seems to be defining his terms and concepts, including “Christianity,” “horror” and “compatibility” in ways far different from my own, but interestingly and seemingly in common with fundamentalist and evangelical Christians who likewise find horror and Christianity incompatible bedfellows. With this discussion at The Groovy Age of Horror I thought the topic would be laid to rest. Not so.

Yesterday I discovered that Steve Biodrowski of Cinefantastique Online picked up on the discussion and the interaction, weighing in with his own perspective in an essay titled “Sense of Wonder: Bashing Christian Horror.” Readers of this piece will see that Biodrowski disagrees with Purcell in a few arguments similar to my own.

Readers know where I stand on the issues, as evidenced by my specific writing on the topic, and the overall thrust of TheoFantastique which tries to exemplify not only a compatibility between the fantastic and the transcendent, but also an enriching partnership. I share these items so that my readers will become aware of the discussion on this topic, and in the hopes that they might join in the conversation.

As cinema buffs and Hollywood’s elite await the Academy Awards this weekend, Cinefantastique Online has addressed the unfortunate lack of critical appreciation for films of the fantastic through its 2009 Wonder Awards. As in any other subjective human endeavor those of us who voted on the nominations disagreed at times with the selections of others. While that is to be expected, some of us took it a step further and split our votes in certain areas in ways that might seem in conflict. For my own part, I voted for WALL-E as the Best Film, and also selected THE DARK KNIGHT for Best Screenplay (by Jonathan and Christopher Nolan). In what follows I will explain the rationale for my voting process, and also comment on why, in my view, HELLBOY 2 should have won for Best Makeup over BENJAMIN BUTTON.

The entire article is available here.

Two additional elements of THE UNBORN held special appeal for me and are worthy of further reflection. First, although the film touches on the issues of possession and exorcism, common elements from any number of horror films since the 1970s, it does so by way of different source material. In the United States, most past possession and demonological films such as THE EXORCIST and THE OMEN, to more recent efforts such as THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE, have tended to find their narrative grounding for the supernatural in the Christian tradition with its concepts of God, Satan, and possession. THE UNBORN breaks new ground in basing its narrative in Jewish folklore and mysticism. The movie’s heroine, Casey Beldon (played by Odette Yustman), comes to discover that her nightmares and ghostly visitations are the result of a dybbuk, defined by the Encyclopedia Britanica online as “a disembodied human spirit that, because of former sins, wanders restlessly until it finds a haven in the body of a living person.” In order to learn more about how to combat this supernatural creature Casey consults a volume of Jewish mysticism from the Kabbalah. Given that the text is written in Hebrew, Casey visits Rabbi Sendak, a skeptical clergyman who is eventually forced by his own supernatural experiences to come to grips with the reality of the situation facing her.