Bits and Pieces
This week I have been tending to a personal matter and have been out of the loop in my interactions with the fantastic. With this post I will point to a couple of items from the past week that I find noteworthy and which attempts to catch me up on recent relevant events. First, yet […]
The Dark Knight: Batman, Bush, and the American Conscience
I admit that when it comes to being able to take in the latest box office happenings I am often late to the party. Time and budgetary restraints mean that I usually take in recent films as they come out on DVD. Thankfully the lag between box office and DVD debuts are shrinking these days. […]
Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Metaphysical Reflection
As readers of this site are aware, I attempt to move beyond a surface level analysis and appreciation of the fantastic in cinema and television to dig a little deeper in order to discover their social, cultural, and at times religious or spiritual aspects these venues provide. Last year I had the opportunity to teach […]
Patrick McGoohan: The Prisoner and the Scarecrow Passes Away
This seems to be the week for the passing of childhood heroes for monster kids and those of us raised on the fantastic in cinema and television. In a previous post I mentioned the death of northern California’s Creature Features host Bob Wilkins, and now news is being circulated that Patrick McGoohan has died. McGoohan […]
Article on Cinefantastique Online
Steve Biodrowski of Cinefantastique Online asked me if I would be willing to write an article each month that provided an analysis of certain aspects of fantastic cinema. I was all too happy to accept the invitation. The first article, “Of Folklore and Fatherhood: THE UNBORN and Cinematic Reflection,” has been posted here, and below is an excerpt: […]
Creature Features Host Bob Wilkins Passes Away
Another formative piece of my childhood was lost today as Bob Wilkins, the first Creature Features host in northern California, passed away from Alzheimer’s. (See the great tribute to Bob on his website, and click around to learn more about his work.) I remember many late nights in the early 1970s huddled around my nineteen-inch […]
Forthcoming Interviews on Neglected Aspects of Horror
My research and exploration of the fantastic over the last few months has unearthed some interested gems that touch on neglected aspects of horror. These include the book The Mummy’s Curse: Mummymania in the English-Speaking World(Routledge, 2006) by Jasmine Day, a lecturer in Egyptology. Of the various monster archetypes the mummy is one of the most […]
Jay McRoy on Nightmare Japan: Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema
As a student of intercultural studies I have found the discipline very helpful in my appreciation and analysis of the fantastic. Of course, this is particularly the case when considering the fantastic and horrific produced by other countries. One of the expressions of horror films that intrigues me is that coming out of Japan. In […]
Guillermo del Toro: Visionary Fantasy and Mythic Filmmaker
Given that my family has shifted in the last couple of years to opening Christmas presents on Christmas Eve, and that the vast majority of the gifts that I receive are related to the genres of the fantastic, I really do have a Nightmare Before Christmas. One of my gifts this year has been especially […]
The Unborn: Promising Horror for January 2009
My friends and neighbors who know of my interest in horror and other aspects of the fantastic assume that I enjoy every film connected with the genre. Many times I am asked if I have seen the television ads for a new film and whether I am going, and my answer is often that I […]
