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Posted on January 7, 2019

Another Problem with Bird Box: Dying While Black in Horror Film

Guest Post

Shortly after watching Bird Box (Susanne Bier, 2018) one of my homies angrily texted me: “Why did Tom (Trevante Rhodes) have to die? And why did Malorie (Sandra Bullock) get to live?” While I knew exactly why he was so mad, I didn’t share his sense of surprise. Early on, after recognizing that the film alternated between the apocalyptic past and the post-apocalyptic present, and that Malorie was all alone with those children on that raft, my first thought was, “How many characters in this story will need to die to earn this white woman the empathy she should already have?”

This might seem like a cynical or reductive question from an admittedly jaded, black horror fan, but the implicit demand for Malorie’s salvation calls it forth. As I watched Bird Box with my family and they began to speculate about which of the characters might live, particularly the black ones, I felt sad already knowing that no one else in Malorie’s group (save the kids) would get out alive: I knew that making Malorie into someone capable of empathy was a call for blood.

Posted on January 6, 2019

Channeling the Dark Muse: An Interview with Eric Morago, Editor of Dark Ink

Guest Post

While poetry and the horror genre may seem like opposites, they do share some similarities, namely their use of image and metaphor to address deeper issues. Dark Ink: A Poetry Anthology Inspired by Horror contains a wide range of poetic responses to horror. There are haikus about Poltergeist, multiple responses to the Frankenstein story, elegies to Godzilla and Kong, and meditations on horror’s ability to confront deeper issues, such as mental illness, fear of the Other, and feminism. Eric Morago is the editor-in-chief of the anthology, which features 66 poets total, and publisher/editor of Moon Tide Press, located in California.

Posted on December 25, 2018

The Monster Inside: Frankenstein’s Legacy

Guest Post

Thanks to the Howell Carnegie District Library in Howell, Michigan, who invited me to give the talk from which this article grew.

One afternoon on a late summer weekend in 1983, I was flipping through the channels looking for something to watch on TV. I’m not even sure cable was something ordinary folks could have back then, but in any event, my family didn’t have it, just plain old network TV. For some reason on that summer weekend afternoon, one of the stations was playing The Exorcist, and I discovered it while flipping through the channels. I was 11 years old; I don’t think before that moment I knew that a movie called The Exorcist even existed. I was too young to have found it on my own, and I didn’t have older siblings to frighten me with it; that job was left to network TV. I happened to tune in to one of the most disturbing scenes, when the two priests are performing the Rite of Exorcism and the devil is using the possessed girl Regan’s body to thrash around, vomit, and say a wide range of alarming things (some of which were awkwardly censored).

Posted on November 21, 2018

Boston Underground Film Festival 2019

Guest Post

Boston Underground Film Festival (BUFF) is gearing up to present its 21st annual event in 2019, and is currently calling for entries for its late submission deadline: 25th November.

Horror Homeroom guest writer Matt Rogerson (MR) caught up with BUFF’s Director of Programming, Nicole McControversy (NMcC), to talk about New England’s annual showcase and celebration of all things horror, fantasy and left of mainstream. Read more

Posted on November 17, 2018

What’s the Real Horror in It Follows?

Guest Post

At the start of David Robert Mitchell’s 2014 film It Follows, protagonist Jay (Maika Monroe) has sex with a young man who calls himself Hugh (Jake Weary). He then chloroforms her, ties her to a wheelchair, and explains that a creature—referred to as “It”—is going to follow her until she has sex with someone else. The day after Jay’s assault, she stands in front of the bathroom mirror, looking down into her underwear, presumably examining whether “Hugh” left any noticeable physical changes. In a larger, symbolic sense, she is reflecting on her identity—asking herself whether her sexual encounter transformed her in some way. Jay is startled out of her reflection when a ball hits the window. Though Jay does not see him, the ball was thrown by a neighbor boy who is crouching out of sight to peek at the half-naked Jay. This screenshot encapsulates It Follows‘ running motifs of sexual surveillance and the transition from childhood to adulthood. By combining Jay’s internal contemplation and external objectification, It Follows demonstrates how entering adulthood entails submitting one’s body to both self-reflection and public consumption.