“The Autopsy of Jane Doe” – Surprised by Witchcraft
I’d heard quite a lot of positive buzz about The Autopsy of Jane Doe. Since I added it to my Blu-ray collection I watched it Saturday. I don’t have much to say about it other than it was a satisfying horror film that focuses more on suspense and the creep factor than gore. Even the […]
“The Girl With All the Gifts” – Interesting Variation on the Zombie Film
I had seen advertisements for the film The Girl With All the Gifts (2016), and after almost buying it at my local Walmart over the weekend, I found it for video on demand through internet streaming and decided to give it a viewing. I’m glad I did. It presents an interesting variation on the zombie […]
Call for Papers – AI and Apocalypse
Call for Papers AI and Apocalypse Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CenSAMM) April 5 – 6, 2018. Inside the Big Top at the Panacea Charitable Trust gardens, Bedford, United Kingdom CenSAMM Symposia Series 2018 / www.censamm.org Abstracts are due by December 31, 2017. We invite papers from those working across […]
Titles of Interest – Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History
Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History by David Frankfurter Princeton University Press, 2008 In the 1980s, America was gripped by widespread panics about Satanic cults. Conspiracy theories abounded about groups who were allegedly abusing children in day-care centers, impregnating girls for infant sacrifice, brainwashing adults, and even controlling the highest […]
Titles of Interest – Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange
Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange Adam Scovell Columbia University Press, 2017 Interest in the ancient, the occult, and the “wyrd” is on the rise. The furrows of Robin Hardy (The Wicker Man), Piers Haggard (Blood on Satan’s Claw), and Michael Reeves (Witchfinder General) have arisen again, most notably in the films of Ben […]
Titles of Interest – Monstrous Progeny: A History of the Frankenstein Narratives
Monstrous Progeny: A History of the Frankenstein Narratives Lester D. Friedman and Allison B. Kavey Rutgers University Press, 2016 Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein is its own type of monster mythos that will not die, a corpus whose parts keep getting harvested to animate new artistic creations. What makes this tale so adaptable and so […]
HBO’s homage to the original “Westworld”
Previously I’ve commented on my appreciation for the 1973 science fiction film, Westworld, as well as how much I enjoyed the premiere episode for the HBO television series reimagining from 2016 (as well as some of my own theological reflections on it). Last weekend I added a subscription to HBO as another part of my […]
“The Last Jedi” and Religious Disillusionment
There is an interesting essay by Britton Peele at GuideLive that connects dots between the trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi and contemporary dissatisfaction with institutional religion. The piece is titled “How Luke’s words in ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ mimic real-world disillusionment with religion.” In the trailer Luke can be heard saying, “I […]
Saw Gerrera: patriots, terrorists, and perspectives
A quotation from the Star Wars franchise character Saw Gerra makes for an interesting reflection related to current events. For those that don’t know about this character, here’s some background from StarWars.Wikia.com: Saw Gerrera was a human male resistance fighter who, as a leading member of the Onderon rebels, fought against the Confederacy of Independent […]
“War for the Planet of the Apes”: Reverse dehumanization?
A new trailer for War for the Planet of the Apes was recently released, and it promises to wrap up the trilogy with violent conflict as the world’s remaining humans battle the dominant ape population. Just as the original POTA films reflected their social and cultural contexts, so do the current group of Apes films. […]
