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Posted on October 30, 2019

In Two Minds: Stephen King, George A. Romero and The Dark Half

Guest Post

The 30th anniversary of Stephen King’s The Dark Half, published in 1989, seems to offer an opportune moment to take a look at the collaboration between King and George A. Romero that brought King’s novel about a writer’s alter ego to the screen.

It’s perhaps unsurprising that the late George A. Romero is so often associated with Stephen King. Having become firm friends in the 1970s – King even has a small cameo in Romero’s Knightriders (1981) – the two masters of horror first worked together on Creepshow (1982), a tribute to the colourful horror comics that they both loved in their youth. They collaborated again on its sequel Creepshow 2 (1987) and the cult anthology series Tales from the Darkside (1983–1988), which was designed to capitalise on Creepshow‘s modest commercial success (and was even intended to carry its title before Romero and his frequent producer, Richard P. Rubinstein, chose to rebrand the series for Tribune Broadcasting and avoid a potential rights dispute with Warner Brothers).

Posted on September 29, 2019

A Conversation with Paul Tremblay: On Writing, Being a Guitar Hero, and Horror

Guest Post

Bram Stoker Award for Novel in 2015. Nominated for the Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award for Novel in 2017. Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award for Novel in 2019. Board Member for the Shirley Jackson Awards. Named Horror’s Newest Big Thing by GQ. The laundry list of accomplishments makes it hard to forget that Paul Tremblay is human and not just an exemplar of the new horror scene, taking his place at the top of the food chain. In the best way possible, though, Paul Tremblay is nothing like what you expect him to be.

Paul Tremblay wants to connect. He is open and approachable. As a writer, Tremblay found consistent success in self-awareness and patience. From the moment that Joyce Carol Oates provoked his love of reading, through his deep dives into Stephen King and Clive Barker, and to his eventual leap into writing and publishing, Tremblay has maintained a steady pace upward. Most importantly, Tremblay is human. He worries about mortgages and college tuition payments, and he enjoys his teaching job. He’s a music nerd, a guitar player, a father, and a husband. Things get into his head and, sometimes, he feels overwhelmed. Regardless of all of it, Tremblay produces some of the most interesting and terrifying horror fiction ever written.

Posted on August 29, 2019

Monstrous Excess as Access to Horror Cinema

Guest Post

In W. Scott Poole’s excellent monograph, Monsters in America (2011), he charts American history by exploring its monsters, arguing that the former is best understood through the latter (4). As he establishes this thesis in the book’s introduction, Poole provides a deceptively compelling insight as a brief throwaway line; he writes, “A monster is a beast of excess, and monster stories are tales of excess” (xiv).¹ His point here is that monsters defy easy definitions because horror films tend to seek out contradictions and complexities and subvert narrative conventions, reveling in the (bloody) excess of rendering them on screen in the form of a monster and all of the carnage it wreaks.

There is another way to read Poole’s claim, however, that monsters tend to be defined by a characteristic or two that have been taken to the extreme, that have exceeded what society considers normal. Understanding this interpretation of the role that excess plays in the creation of a monster can open up how we make meaning of horror films. Read more

Posted on August 22, 2019

Horror’s Exotic Religion? The Marked Ones & Curse of La Llorona

Guest Post

The Conjuring universe had a bumper crop this year with two films being released within four months of each other. The Curse of La Llorona (Michael Chaves, 2019) is technically a spin off—and quite far spun out at that—from the diegesis established in the main Conjuring series and its popular Annabelle sub-series. La Llorona came out in April and the latest chapter on said doll, Annabelle Comes Home (2019), was released in late June. Having grossed nearly $2 billion dollars, the Conjuring franchise shows no sign of slowing down.

A certain intertextuality has long been recognized as a hallmark of horror cinema. The genre is notoriously self-referential. Even so, those who spent a few years drinking in the Paranormal Activity films (2007–2015) beginning in the middle of the last decade will perhaps notice some distinct similarities to The Conjuring franchise. Indeed, The Curse of La Llorona stands out from other films in its universe–similar to the way in which Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (Christopher Landon, 2014) relates to the main story of its series. Both involve Hispanic communities, feature a botánica and even involve some of the same rituals associated with Hispanic folk tradition. This could reflect nothing more than the fact that religions that used to be called “syncretistic” bear certain similarities. Nevertheless, this particular form of religion in horror is a form of exoticism for the white mainstream, and it draws on very similar motifs in these two films. Some backstory might be useful right about now. Read more

Posted on July 26, 2019

“Apex predator all day, baby!”: Crawl and the myth of human superiority

Guest Post

Alexandre Aja’s Crawl (2019) is a dark, tense, and claustrophobic animal horror film. It delivers on its promise of alligator attacks, scary scenes (I even shrieked once in the theater), and visceral horror. Its premise is simple: a young woman, Haley (Kaya Scodelario), drives to her family home to find her father, Dave (Barry Pepper), as a Category 5 hurricane approaches. When she arrives, she finds him unconscious and injured in the crawl space beneath the house after an alligator attack.

Because the premise is so simple, if what it describes is what you want from the film, you will be satisfied. Most of the film takes place in the cramped, dark basement as Haley and her father try to keep from being eaten by the invading alligators and make it out of the slowly (and then more and more quickly) flooding space before they drown. This setting and premise allow for lots of close calls and slow, building tension. The tension is amplified by the darkness of the space and the murkiness of the water, neither of which is ever so dark or murky that you can’t tell what’s happening. Aja is clearly invested in the alligator attacks themselves, and they are frightening and impressive. (Brian Fanelli’s Horror Homeroom post about the film provides excellent commentary on the film’s success in these terms.) Read more