Title of Interest – “Miyazaki’s Animism Abroad: The Reception of Japanese Religious Themes by American and German Audiences””
Animism Abroad: The Reception of Japanese Religious Themes by American and German Audiences by Eriko Ogihara-Schuck (McFarland, 2014) After winning an Oscar for Spirited Away, the Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films were dubbed into many languages. Some of the films are saturated with religious themes distinctive to Japanese culture. How were these themes, or […]
‘Joss Whedon and Religion’ Nominated for “Mr. Pointy Award”
Along with my co-editors, J. Ryan Parker and Tony Mills, I was quite pleased to receive this notification via email today. See all the 2014 finalists here: On behalf of the Whedon Studies Association’s Mr. Pointy jury, I am honored to notify you that your work, Joss Whedon and Religion: Essays on an Angry Atheist’s […]
Pop Culture Reactions to “Salem”
If you haven’t seen the Salem television series on WGN it’s worth checking out. It eagerly scoops up Christian mythologies of the Witch as the consort of Satan, a frequent trope in horror films, and uses this as the major element in a reframing of the events surrounding the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Given […]
“In the Flesh” Teases on the Redeemed
Previously I’ve commented on the interesting program airing on the BBC/BBC America, In the Flesh, which represents a thought provoking subgenre of the zombie narrative. One of the areas of interest to TheoFantastique is the incorporation of a religious element. In this case it’s an eschatological aspect, of sorts, wherein a group of Partial Deceased […]
Tablet: “What Science Fiction Tried To Teach Us About Jihad, and Why No One Listened”
There is an interesting item that appeared in Tablet: A New Read on Jewish Life titled “What Science Fiction Tried To Teach Us About Jihad, and Why No One Listened.” The subtitle explains a little further: “How Alejandro Jodorowsky muddled sci-fi by turning Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’ into a New Age manifesto.” In the piece by […]
Toronto Jewish Film Festival and Jewish Horror
Carl Rosenberg, a reader of this blog, made me aware of an interesting facet of the 22nd Toronto Jewish Film Festival. It features a section on horror titled “The Search for a Jewish Horror Film: Golems, Dybbuks and Other Movie Monsters.” This is described as follows and features the following films: With a series of […]
Verhoeven: Robocop’s Theological Significance
The Real History of Science Fiction aired with its first installment last weekend on BBC America as it tackled the subject of robots. This series is narrated by Mark Gatiss who has done some great documentary work on horror featured here at TheoFantastique previously. It is difficult to tell from the series website whether Gatiss […]
Titles of Interest – ‘The Birth of the Dracula Myth: Bram Stoker’s Transylvania’
I just learned of the following volume, one difficult to find information about online. The following comes from an abstract and other online information by Marius-Mircea Crisjan. The volume Impactul uni mit: Dracula È™i reprezentarea ficÈ›ională a spaÈ›iului românesc (The Impact of a Myth: Dracula and the Fictional representation of the Romanian space) is an […]
‘JINN’ horror film and Muslim folklore
The Huffington Post recently featured an essay discussing the forthcoming horror film Jinn. The interesting thing about the piece is that it comes from the Religious News Service, authored by Omar Sacirbey, and HuffPo describes the film with the title “‘Jinn’ Horror Movie Features Elements of Muslim Folklore, Interfaith Themes.” When these elements come together […]
Margot Adler’s “Vampires Are Us”
Margot Adler has written a volume titled Vampires Are Us: Understanding Our Love Affair with the Immortal Dark Side (Weiser Books, 2014). The synopsis and promotional statements include: In a culture that does not do death particularly well, we are obsessed with mortality. Margot Adler writes, “Vampires let us play with death and the issue […]
