I recently came across two trailers worth taking a look at. The first is for the new video game Dead Island, the latest in zombie survival horror. The trailer is as haunting as it is artistic due to the graphic imagery of a zombie attack in slow motion, but also in the creative way in which it is depicted in reverse, and with relaxing and moving music. The game is produced by Technland and will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows.
The second trailer is for a new independent horror film titled Midnight Son. According to the press release:
Midnight Son is a dark, character-driven drama that plays on horror themes in an understated, subtle way. The story centers on Jacob, a young man grappling with a dramatic physical transformation. No matter how much he eats, he suffers from malnutrition. To his disgust, he finds the blood in his steak packaging more satisfying than the steak itself. Something is changing inside him. When romance sparks with a young woman named Mary, he wrestles with the monster he’s becoming while desperately trying to keep his new craving a secret.
Midnight Son will make it’s World Premiere at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California on March 4 at 9:30 pm. Writer/Director Scott Leberecht, Producer Matt Compton, and several cast members will be in attendance, and will participate in a Q&A after the screening. The film will have two additional screenings at Cinequest: March 6 at 6:45 pm and March 11 at 12:30 pm. It will also screen at the Omaha Film Festival on March 5 at 8:30 pm.
The trailer reminds me a lot of George Romero’s great “vampire” film, Martin. For further information on Midnight Son see the official website at http://www.midnightsonmovie.com/.
Recently Curt Percell of the Groovy Age of Horror blog suggested to those of us in the League of Tana Tea Drinkers (LOTTD) that we tackle a question: “What Do Cute Versions of Monsters Tell Us About Horror?” It’s an interesting question to explore, and some of my fellow LOTTD members and I will try to offer some thoughts as we reflect on it.
To begin, I would have assumed that I like my horror more monstrous and terrifying. But as I look around my office I see this is not necessarily the case. Yes, there are wall posters, action figures, and toys from various horror films that are miniature representations of their scary counterparts on the silver screen. But I also have my fair share of not so scary monster items. In fact, many of them could be labeled cute. As I swivel my chair around I see zombie finger puppets, plush toys from Monsters vs. Aliens, a Frankenstein’s monster toy that dances to “Monster Mash” when the button is pushed, a dancing werewolf toy, and several pieces from the Lemax Spooky Town collection. Just today I received my copy of a Twilight Zone bobble head in the mail, the Kanamit alien from the episode “To Serve Man.” And every Halloween season I scour the local stores to try to find boxes of Count Chocula cereal, and maybe a box of Boo Berry on the shelves. So it would seem that I like my horror in a variety of ways, from the scary to the cute.
Given the large number of monster toys available it would appear that I am not alone. It’s not just the types of toys that are geared directly to horror fans (which has been going on for decades as The Gallery of Monster Toys illustrates), those great items produced by companies like Sideshow Toys, Funko, Entertainment Earth or McFarlane Toys. There are cute monster toys that are produced for a larger segment of the consumer market. On a recent visit to Toys’R’Us I found several interesting monster items that I wish I could have had access to as a kid, including a Bigfoot with remote control, combining the best of cryptozoology, the paranormal, and a monster toy. An Internet search will find many more, including the one in the first image accompanying this post, a Scary Cyclops Monster Toy Car.
This brings us back to the original question of this post: “What Do Cute Versions of Monsters Tell Us About Horror?” In preparing for my response I did a little research. I looked at the volumes in my library on horror, and found nothing. I also did several Internet searches over the course of a few days hoping to find scholarly research on the subject. It may be out there in a journal or book addressing horror in culture, but I couldn’t find anything.
Off the top of my head I havee a few thoughts. First, we live in a consumer society and monsters sell, both scary ones and cute ones. So as long as a dollar can be made on a variety of presentations of monsters there will be those interested in producing them. But this doesn’t really address why we like cute monsters and how this leads to their production for consumers. A second suggestion might nudge us a little closer to some insights. There has always been a relationship between horror and comedy. It can be seen in films, for example, that are horror but which include comedic elements, such as Bride of Frankenstein and An American Werewolf in London, to those comedy-horror hybrids such as Young Frankenstein, Shaun of the Dead, Fido, Slither, and Zombieland. So cute monsters remind us of the close connection between two genres that we might not necessarily think of as having any relationship, let alone a close one. Third, it may be that by enjoying cute monsters we make the real monsters a little more bearable.
I wish I had a better response to this question, and I’m looking forward to what some of my fellow LOTTD bloggers have to say on the topic. Perhaps it can be addressed in more depth in the future, and to that end I’ve suggested it to a scholar contact of mine who recently edited a volume on horror and culture. Until then I’ll have to be content with my meager thoughts above.
Can you identify this photo? Careful, it’s not as easy as you might imagine. Take a few moments to let it soak in before making a final judgment. Have an answer? Most people will be tempted to think this is a photo of an adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel with Vincent Price playing Robert Morgan fending off vampires spawned by a plague in The Last Man on Earth. If this was you’re guess, you’re wrong.
The correct answer? This is a photo of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in the Governor’s Mansion fending off union leaders and public employee protesters. I told you to be careful.
Vampires.com recently posted an interview with me. In the piece I discuss not only vampire folklore and mythology, as well as my favorite piece of vampire fiction, but also issues related to vampires as an identity group and vampires in popular culture in connection with various would-be monster hunters, Van Helsings who seek to warn the public about alleged “ritual occult crimes.” The interview can be found here.
Lemax has announced the 2011 Spooky Town collection. Highlighting the collection are 15 new houses and eight new animated items. From the Grinning Goblin Brewery to Horror High School to Spooky Town Gas ‘n’ Ghoul, there’s a wide variety in the offerings this season. And it appears after reviewing the new line that it represents a significant improvement over 2010’s disappointing offerings. Pre-ordering will be available soon. For now, click here to view preview pics of the new line, as well as the items from previous years being retired.
I just became aware of a new book that is scheduled for release in April 2011 that touches on the vampire in literature and popular culture. It is titled TheVampire Defanged: How the Embodiment of Evil Became a Romantic Hero (Brazos Press, forthcoming), by Susannah Clements, an associate professor and department chair in language and literature at Regent University. The publisher’s website provides the following description and contents:
Vampires first entered the pop culture arena with Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, Dracula. Today, vampires are everywhere. From Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the Twilight Saga to HBO’s True Blood series, pop culture can’t get enough of the vampire phenomenon.
Bringing her literary expertise to this timely subject, Susannah Clements reveals the roots of the vampire myth and shows how it was originally immersed in Christian values and symbolism. Over time, however, vampires have been “defanged” as their spiritual significance has waned, and what was once the embodiment of evil has turned into a teen idol and the ultimate romantic hero. Clements offers a close reading of selected vampire texts, explaining how this transformation occurred and helping readers discern between the variety of vampire stories presented in movies, TV shows, and novels. Her probing engagement of the vampire metaphor enables readers to make Christian sense of this popular obsession.
Contents
1. Why Vampires Matter
2. Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Sin and the Power of the Cross
3. Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles: Eternal Guilt and Transcendent Love
4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sin and Sacrifice, Postmodern Style
5. Sookie Stackhouse: Sex and the Socialized Vampire
6. Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga: The Vampire as Teenage Heartthrob
7. Vampire Sinners
8. Vampire Saviors
Conclusion
Timeline of Referenced Vampire Texts
Since the publisher is a Protestant evangelical one, albeit a good and respect one as an arm of Baker Academic which has done some good work in theological studies, I was more than a little concerned about the approach Clements might take. Evangelicals aren’t exactly known for appreciating horror or the vampire. Arriving at a judgment from the publisher, the title of the book, and the chapter titles, my initial assumption in a best case scenario was that Clements would entertain the vampire in popular culture only as a springboard for decrying the shift away from Christianity as a significant influence in the mythology. Thankfully I was able to track down an excerpt from Chapter 1 through the media arm of Baker Academic and was pleased to find Clements write the following under the subtitle “Why Should Christians Care About Vampires?”:
Christians have been slow to embrace the vampire phenomenon. Only within the last couple of years has the first Chris- tian vampire fiction been released, and many Christians find even that rather dubious. Christians often respond to the vampire phenomenon by either trivializing or demonizing it, brushing it aside as insignificant or labeling an entire century of imaginative production as evil and anti-Christian. In these pages I will seek to counter both responses.
With this approach I’m liking this author already. And she goes further in this same subsection:
Ignoring a cultural phenomenon as influential as the vampire myth makes it impossible for Christians to learn from it—to reflect on how our culture understands itself, how our worldview has transformed through time, and what it means to be human.
Describing the frequent Christian association of the vampire with the demonic in terms of being perceived as a negative cultural icon, Clements writes:
On the other hand, working from the assumption that any story that features a vampire is evil, demonic, and dangerous is an equally problematic response for Christians, as it is based on a lack of critical thinking and ignores distinctions between how the vampire is portrayed in different contexts.
This small preview is enough for me to have hope that The Vampire Defanged represents a different way forward for conservative Protestant treatments of the vampire, as well as horror and related elements of popular culture. It represents a more careful analysis that should serve the evangelical subculture well in navigating the currents surrounding one of the more popular monstrous and romantic figures in popular culture.
1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
2. Vampyr
3. The Exorcist
4. Nosferatu
5. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1922)
6. Let Me In (2010)/Let the Right One In (2008)
7. Psycho
8. Night of the Living Dead
9. The Fly (1986)
10. Frankenstein
While I disagree with some of the entries on this list as well as their ranking, and would include others that aren’t listed, there area some great films here. Beyond this I appreciate that a website and publication dedicated to religious perspectives on the arts and faith were willing to not only consider horror, but recognize some of the leading examples of horror cinema and their contributions in the area of both art and faith. For those concerned about why horror and these films were considered, Jeffrey Overstreet provides some thoughts on the Arts & Faith blog. Given that this publication is influential in Protestant evangelicalism, I hope it opens doors for further consideration of this genre within this segment of America’s religious population.
The Ninth Annual Rondo Hatton Awards are now accepting completed ballots and submissions. The criteria is stated as, “Every Rondo nominee below is being recognized for a significant achievement in the genre during the year of 2010.” I wonder if blogs receive as much respect and recognition in the horror subculture as they do in politics and other places in the new media. Granted, they are a dime a dozen, but there are many standouts.
Although I don’t write here at TheoFantastique for awards or recognition, I certainly try to make a significant achievement to not only horror, but also science fiction, fantasy, as well as popular culture and academia as well. Maybe one year my niche probing of the fantastic will register at the Rondos.
With no sense of modesty and throwing humility to the wind, I’d like to think that TheoFantastique could be nominated in the following categories:
Best Interview
Best Blog
Best Writer
Monster Kid of the Year
Until then, stop by and vote at the Rondo Hatton Awards website.
TheoFantastique Podcast, Vol. 2, no. 1 is now available. It involves a discussion on The Rite with past guests and contributors, including Douglas Cowan, author of a number of books including Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen; Paul Meehan, also the author of a number of books including Horror Noir: Where Cinema’s Dark Sisters Meet; and Scott Poole, author of Satan in America: The Devil We Know, as well as Monsters in America: Our Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting (Baylor University Press, forthcoming). In the discussion you can hear a variety of perspectives on the film, as well as related phenomena of demonic possession, satanic panics, and the paranormal. The interview can be listened to here. In addition, TheoFantastique Podcast 1.1, an interview with Ian Concrich, editor of Horror Zone: The Cultural Experience of Contemporary Horror, can be listened to here.
“Where Horror Dwells: Locating Horror across Media Landscapes”
Editors: Drew Beard and Patricia Oman, University of Oregon
Psychoanalysis and gender have dominated scholarship on the horror film for several decades, but they are by no means the only lenses through which horror can be viewed. The fields of ecocriticism, urban studies, transnationalism, and globalization provide exciting new opportunities for exploring the horror genre. At the same time, horror has manifested across media platforms, including television and video games. These developments in the genre and shifts in critical perspectives have occurred in the past decade, following the publication of previous horror anthologies such as The Dread of Difference (ed. Barry Keith Grant) and Horror Film Reader (eds. Alain Silver and James Ursini). Where Horror Dwells is a comprehensive anthology that seeks to build upon and further the study of the horror genre by considering its relationship to metaphors of location and space, e.g., situating the horror genre across media and identifying the common spaces/landscapes of horror. Where Horror Dwells is in the process of being submitted to potential publishers.
We welcome new or recently published articles on the production, exhibition, distribution, aesthetic qualities, or cultural significance of the horror genre as it relates to the following subjects: (1) Theorizing the Genre; (2) The Family Unit; (3) Dystopic or Horrific Landscapes; (4) Regional/Global Conflict; and (5) Revisionist Tales.
Abstracts should be 500-1,000 words in length, and include brief biographical details (name, affiliation, and previous publications). Please choose the most appropriate book section, based on those provided above, and submit the abstract as a .doc file to both Patricia Oman (poman@uoregon.edu) and Drew Beard (abeard3@uoregon.edu). The deadline for submission of abstracts is February 28, 2011.
Articles should be approximately 35–50 double-spaced pages (approximately 10,000-15,000 words) in length, including bibliography and footnotes, and formatted according to the 16th edition of “The Chicago Manual of Style.” The deadline for articles will be August 1, 2011.
