Weekend Nostalgia: The Day the Earth Stood Still and Forbidden Planet
Last weekend I took a stroll down memory lane courtesy of a couple of special edition DVDs from my local library. I picked up copies of The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Forbidden Planet, two films that are presently in my library, but the two in my collection do not include the extra features […]
Edgar Allen Poe: Gone But Still Setting Records
When we think of bestselling authors in literature let’s not forget a giant who made his mark in a number of genres, particularly horror. That author is none other than Edgar Allen Poe. Poe recently set a record at an auction for one of his works. The Baltimore Sun for Dec. 5 reports: Move over […]
AVATAR May Deliver Digital Real Deal
In a previous post I’ve shared my skepticism about the ability of James Cameron’s soon-to-be-released Avatar to live up to the director’s hype. I should probably have more faith in a cinematic visionary who has served up science fiction icons like Terminator 2 and Aliens, not to mention the romantic tragedy and blockbuster Titanic. But […]
Matt Cardin: Spirituality in Romero’s Living Dead Films
A while ago I first encountered Matt Cardin when he nominated this blog for an award between bloggers. Matt pursues his blogging at The Teeming Brain. In addition to being flattered, it was good to learn of someone else thinking through the issues related to the connection of horror and religion. Matt’s biography on his […]
Fairy Tales: Popular Culture Association Call for Proposals
2010 National Conference March 31 – April 3 St. Louis, Missouri Deadline for proposals: December 15, 2009 The Fairy Tales Area of the Popular Culture Association invites submissions on any topic involving Fairy Tales for the 2010 Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Convention, to be held March 31-April 3 in St. Louis. The Fairy Tales […]
Millennial Mythmaking
One of the great things about having a website like this is discovering people engaged in the same kinds of reflections on the fantastic in pop culture that I am involved in. It gets even better when I get to develop relationships with these people, and then discuss their thinking. This is the case with […]
Happy Thanksgiving
I would like to wish a warm Thanksgiving to all of the readers of TheoFantastique. I thought the disturbing picture accompanying this post depicting a twist on a classic Norman Rockwell painting of a family enjoying Thanksgiving transformed into a zombie gathering enjoying a giant brain was somehow appropriate for this blog on this day. […]
Skillet: “Monster” as Rock ‘n’ Roll Jekyll and Hyde
The figure of the monster surfaces in many ways in popular culture to serve us for good or ill. At its worst it becomes a way of conceiving of the “other” which provides us with justification for their eradication. At its best it helps us to look inside ourselves to see that many times the […]
SAW: Cultural Registers for Post-9/11 Anxiety?
In 2004 my brother encouraged me to watch a horror movie that had come out which he thought I would enjoy. He was referring to Saw, but given the trailers I had seen for the film I wasn’t interested. It seemed like it was going to be just the latest in the trend in horror […]
2012 and Mayan Calendar of the End
Several weeks ago I first saw the trailers for 2012 in movie theaters and on television. The trailer depicted a man and his family making a last second escape from apparently worldwide destruction as homes, buildings, freeways, and entire landscapes crumbled around them in a catastrophic upheaval. A small private airplane with the family on […]
