On February 11, 2020, Blumhouse released a new trailer and marketing campaign for its horror / action film, The Hunt, which had been due for release in September, 2019. The film was pulled from distribution, however, after a firestorm blew up about its representations of violence (people hunting each other) in the wake of August 2019’s mass shootings and also because of its perceived political stance—“elites” hunting “normal” folk—that sent, among many others, President Donald Trump to Twitter to denounce “Liberal Hollywood.” Meanwhile, virtually no one – including those who were creating the firestorm – had actually seen The Hunt.
Gothic Nature is seeking TV/ film reviews for its next issue. The show or film reviewed should have a clear thematic link to ecohorror/ecoGothic, and the reviews should aim to be about 1,000 words in length (Harvard style and British spelling and punctuation conventions appreciated). We prefer reviews that focus on recent films or TV (within the last couple years), but we can be flexible about this, especially if you want to concentrate on a longer thematic through-line. Send inquiries and submissions to Sara L. Crosby at crosby.sara@gmail.com. For further information about the journal, please visit: https://gothicnaturejournal.com/.
Deadline for submissions: March 15, 2020
Cassiah Joski-Jethi is an award-winning female filmmaker based in the UK, and she has just directed an exciting indie horror short called Catch a Butcher कच्चा बच्चे – and I was lucky enough to be able to interview her about her new film.
First, here’s the teaser trailer: Read more
Countless viewers this holiday season will be re-visiting Frank Capra’s classic 1946 film, It’s a Wonderful Life. I did so myself last night –and was particularly struck, this viewing, by the turn the film takes after George Bailey (James Stewart) drives to the bridge, determined to take his own life. This is, of course, where Clarence (Henry Travers), George’s guardian angel, appears and before long decides to show George what the life of Bedford Falls and its inhabitants would have been like without him. For a while, Capra’s Christmas classic turns into a horror film, and, in doing so, it illustrates the enduring meaning and importance of horror film in people’s lives.
Doomwatch (1972) is infrequently cited in the burgeoning scholarly and popular conversations on folk horror, and yet I would argue that it is in fact a key text.[i] Its hybrid generic form manifests both what is and what is not folk horror; it exemplifies folk horror, in other words, both positively and negatively. Indeed, the Doomwatch’s shift toward the end is a brilliant illustration of how the trajectory of the folk horror plot can be negated.
The 1972 Doomwatch (called Island of the Ghouls in the US, emphasizing its ‘horror’) was directed by Peter Sasdy, who also directed 1972’s The Stone Tape (written by Nigel Kneale), a staple of the folk horror canon. The screenplay was written by Clive Exton, and the film was produced by Tigon British Film Productions, the company behind such folk horror classics as Witchfinder General (1968) and The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971). Doomwatch is based on the BBC series of the same name, which ran between 1970 and 1972. Both film and TV series feature a government agency called the Department for the Observation and Measurement of Scientific Work, dedicated to tracking down unethical and dangerous scientific research.











