TheoFantastique Podcast Now Available at iTunes
TheoFantastique Podcast 2.2 discussing Black Death is now available in iTunes. Previous podcasts can be found elsewhere at present, including 2.1 on The Rite, and 1.1 on Horror Zone: The Cultural Experience of Contemporary Horror Cinema.
Ivan Wolfe: Battlestar Galactica and Mormonism
There is an interesting intersection between religion and science fiction at times, and a notable example of this comes with the 1970s television series Battlestar Galactica and Mormonism. The show was presented in a new incarnation as a series on SyFy from 2004-2009 which was very well received by fans, and which was very different […]
Black Death Podcast: Peg Aloi, Medieval Horror, and Religious Dialogue
TheoFantastique Podcast 2.2 for 2011 is now available. In this edition my special guest is Peg Aloi, a religion scholar and film critic and who maintains her own blog at The Witching Hour, who engages me about the film Black Death directed by Christopher Smith. In this interview and dialogue, Peg and I discuss […]
Annette Hill: Paranormal Media
In my ongoing research into various facets of the paranormal in popular culture I have been fortunate to connect with some interesting people. One of the most recent is Annette Hill, author of Paranormal Media: Audiences, Spirits and Magic in Popular Culture (London and New York: Routledge, 2011). Paranormal Media offers a unique, timely exploration […]
International Academic Conference on Cultural Influence of Harry Potter
A call for papers from the Academic Study Magic list. ‘Magic is Might 2012’ : 23-24 July 2012, University of Limerick, Ireland An International Academic Conference Exploring the Cultural Influence of the Harry Potter Books and Films Hosted by the University of Limerick Department of Sociology in collaboration with the UL Interaction Design Centre, Dept. […]
Spectrum Fantastic Art Live!
As a fan of fantastic art, and of the Spectrum fantastic art book which comes out each year, I am pleased to pass along the following announcement concerning the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live! conference. Scheduled for May 18-20, 2012 in Kansas City, Missouri, our intent is to create a venue in which the artists take […]
Rise of the Planet of the Apes, New Trailer
A new trailer is now available for Twentieth Century Fox’s new incarnation of the Planet of the Apes franchise in Rise of the Planet of the Apes scheduled to hit theaters August 5. In this new trailer we see something of the back story as a therapy for the healing of brain disorders is experimented […]
James Arness Dies at 88
It was 1950s science fiction/horror that began my lifelong interest in the fantastic and horrific. Two of my favorite films from that decade are The Thing from Another World (1951) and Them! (1954). Actor James Arness starred in both of these films, as the creature of the title in the first film, and as an […]
Undead in the West: PCA/ACA Call for Contributors
The Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association have issued a Call for Contributors: Undead in the West: Vampires, Zombies, Mummies, and Ghosts on the Cinematic Frontier (anthology) Deadline for abstracts: September 18, 2011 The frontier has long been framed as a landscape of life and death, but few scholarly works have ventured into the […]
The Horrific Trauma of War: Memorial Day and Hopes for the Future
Horror historian David J. Skal has argued that the early Universal horror films were, in part, a response to the trauma experienced as a result of World War I. In The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror, Skal wrote: A good deal of this book has dealt with the long shadow of war reflected […]
