VICE: Horror Films as Christian Propaganda?
A few days ago an essay came across my daily Google news feed on horror that caught my attention. It was “Why Are So Many Horror Films Christian Propaganda?” by Josiah M. Hess at VICE. My initial reaction to the title was one of intrigue and thankfulness for the issue being raised, but this was […]
Interview with Scott Poole on “In the Mountains of Madness”
W. Scott Poole is a professor at the College of Charleston with a research interest in American pop and folk culture. He has written a number of books that combine his interests in American history with horror, including Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror, Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and Haunting, and […]
The Atlantic and del Toro’s “Highbrow Horror”
The Atlantic has an article on Guillermo del Toro’s work titled “The Master of Highbrow Horror”. The art accompanying the piece copied above is worth taking a look by itself. You can read the article here.
Titles of Interest: Undead Apocalypse
Undead Apocalypse: Vampires and Zombies in the 21st Century by Stacey Abbott Edinburgh University Press, 2016 Rather than seeing them as separate or oppositional, this book explores the intersection and dialogue between the vampire and zombie across film and television. Much contemporary scholarship on the vampire focuses on Dark Romance, while this book explores the […]
Guillermo del Toro: You Can’t Take the Catholicism Out of the Collector
As regular readers of this blog are aware, Guillermo del Toro is a figure of particular interest to me. I edited The Supernatural Cinema of Guillermo del Toro: Critical Essays (McFarland, 2015), and have written a number of posts about his work over the years. The most recent was “Del Toro, Bleak House, and Sacred […]
Inter-Disciplinary.net Conference Call for Participation on the Supernatural
The Supernatural 2nd Global Conference Call for Participation 2017 Saturday 1st April – Monday 3rd April 2017 Lisbon, Portugal Contemporary novels, films, and religious practice all embrace the supernatural with open arms. From vengeful gods and goddesses and witches to poltergeists and hauntings, to demonic possession and the accompanying exorcism rituals, the human imagination has […]
Paranormal and Popular Culture accepted by Routledge
Today my co-editor and I were notified that our proposed volume, The Paranormal and Popular Culture: A Postmodern Religious Landscape, was accepted for publication by Routledge. We have been shopping for a publisher home for a bit, and after positive assessments from external reviewers who examined the proposal including the Introduction, table of contents, and […]
Universal Horror Films Released with Glow in the Dark Covers
Walmart has their Halloween display going for the 2016 season, and a special display of videos near the front of the store features a special release by Universal Studios. Their classic horror films have been released with glow in the dark covers. This is reminiscent of the Aurora monster model kits of the past with […]
Second Call for Submissions: Fantastic Fan Cultures and the Sacred
A number of great abstracts have been submitted, but we need a few more chapters to have a complete volume. Please take a look at this second call for submissions. They ways in which people pursue religion have changed in America and the West. Traditional, institutional religions are in decline, and even among those who […]
