MONSTERS: Reverse SETI Apocalyptic
A new horror film debuts at the end of October titled Monsters. The film’s website describes the plot: Six years ago previously, a NASA probe returning to earth with samples of an alien life form, crashed over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear, and half of Mexico was quarantined as an […]
American Horror Film: James Kendrick and Spiritual Horror Films
As previously noted here in a discussion based upon an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, there is a growing body of academic books exploring horror films. One of those books is American Horror Film: The Genre at the Turn of the Millennium, edited by Steffen Hantke (University Press of Mississippi, 2010). While many […]
The Black Cat: Edgar Ulmer’s Gothic Vision of Europe vs. America
I have finished reading, and enjoying, The Philosophy of Horror, edited by Thomas Fahy (The University Press of Kentucky, 2010), and with this concluding post on the book I will comment on Paul Cantor’s chapter, “The Fall of the House of Ulmer: Europe vs. America in the Gothic Vision of The Black Cat“. Cantor’s chapter […]
Video Games: Zombies Ate My Neighbors, and Nightmare Creatures
Video games have been an important part of pop culture for man years now, having come a long way from my first experiences with Atari in the 1970s. The genres of the fantastic has been an important part of game play, and with this post I’ll highlight a couple of my favorite games from the […]
Joseph Laycock: The Legend of Cain and Vampires in the Bible
Joseph Laycock continues to demonstrate that he is the up and coming religion and vampire scholar for the next generation. He recently wrote an article for Religion Dispatches titled “Vampire Bible: Will Smith and The Legend of Cain.” The article begins with the recent announcement that Will Smith will play the Old Testament biblical character […]
Cleansing Our Sanctuaries: Ghost-Hunters and Home-Improvement
What do any number of ghost-hunting and home-improvement television programs have in common? Nothing, you might say? Don’t be so sure. I am working my way through my growing stack of reading relating to the fantastic, and this weekend I read a few chapters in The Philosophy of Horror, edited by Thomas Fahy (The University […]
The Rise of the Monster Scholars
As I watched horror films when I was younger I especially appreciated those learned individuals who devoted their lives to developing expertise in the area of the monstrous. Perhaps the most iconic of such figures is Abraham van Helsing from Dracula, pictured in association with this post in the image at left as portrayed by […]
DEVIL Trailer: The Night Chronicles
The trailer for the horror film Devil from Universal Pictures is now available. This supernatural thriller is based upon a story by M. Night Shyamalan as part of a Night Chronicles series. It tells the story of a small group of people trapped in a stalled elevator in a high rise who come to learn […]
Open Salon: “What Does the Zombie Genre Say About the Modern West?”
Kim Paffenroth of the Gospel of the Living Dead blog, as well as editor and author of several zombie books, recently made a Facebook post which referenced an interesting item. It is an article at open salon titled “What Does the Zombie Genre Say about the Modern West?”. This piece, by an author listed as […]
Paul Meehan: Forthcoming Book Horror Noir
My friend and TheoFantastique contributor Paul Meehan has completed his work on his forthcoming book Horror Noir: Where Cinema’s Dark Sisters Meet (McFarland, 2010). From the publisher’s website: This critical survey examines the historical and thematic relationships between two of the cinema’s most popular genres: horror and film noir. The influence of 1930s- and 1940s-era […]
