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Posted on March 30, 2018

Annihilation, Cellular Degeneration, and the Horror of an Indifferent Universe

Guest Post

When your directorial debut is something as beautiful, trippy, seductive, and amazing as Ex Machina (2014), you have big shoes to fill. Alex Garland has surpassed every expectation with Annihilation (2018). In a world of renewed interest in science fiction and horror (see Mute, The Ritual, Bladerunner 2049, Valerian, etc.) there are a lot of flops (see Mute). Thankfully, Annihilation is one of the most visually stunning and amazingly-realized science fiction/horror films to hit the screen to date. As a director, Garland seems to enjoy twisting our understanding of reality. Annihilation does not disappoint. The film thrives on terrifying questions regarding the importance of humanity in an uncaring universe.

The story of Annihilation seems simple. Something falls from the sky and crashes into a lighthouse in an undisclosed location. After it crash lands, this object begins to spread outwards creating a visual wall, named the “Shimmer.” Lena (Natalie Portman), Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Radek (Tessa Thompson), Thorenson (Gina Rodriguez), and Sheppard (Tuva Novotny) are sent into the Shimmer to investigate the cause of the supernatural event and find information that could end its spread outward.

Posted on March 13, 2018

Mathias Clasen on Why Horror Seduces

Guest Post

Imagine you’re an alien anthropologist sent to Earth to document the behaviour of the strange bipedal mammals who inhabit the planet. You stumble into a movie theater that’s showing the latest Hollywood horror film.

Several dozen humans are gathered together in a dark, undecorated room. They’re all staring at a rectangular area on which patterns of light change rapidly.

They are clearly in a state of high arousal. Their hate rate is elevated, they occasionally glance around nervously, and they sometimes jump collectively in their seats, and emit high-pitched warning calls.

Eventually, the lights come up and the rectangular screen goes black. The humans stand up and leave the room, chatting and laughing, and showing signs of pleasure.

What on earth is going on?

Why do these humans voluntarily expose themselves to what appears to be a deeply unpleasant experience? And why do they react so strongly to those patterns of light on a screen?

Mathias Clasen from the School of Communication and Culture of Aarhus University in Denmark has asked these questions–and he answers them, and more, in his TedX talk, and in this guest post, first published on ScienceNordic.

Posted on March 7, 2018

The Most Terrifying Story I’ve Ever Read: The Little Stranger

Guest Post

Novelist Alma Katsu is known for injecting horror and the supernatural into historical fiction (“makes the supernatural seem possible,” says Publishers Weekly). Her new book, The Hunger, a reimagining of the story of the Donner Party, has just been published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

I’ve always loved ghost stories, probably because I grew up in a run-down old Victorian that we were sure was haunted. Writing a ghost story, however, is another matter. I think they’re hard to pull off successfully. Even if they manage to produce a ghost, it’s often done so unimaginatively that you wish the author hadn’t bothered.

You certainly can’t say this about The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. Although shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2009, it has not been universally loved, particularly by the fans of Waters’ earlier work. However, I’m in the camp that believes when it comes to art, a little controversy is a good thing. It’s a sign of Waters’ genius that she was able to build ambiguity in her novel without the whole thing falling apart. And in the end, she created a very different kind of ghost story. I wouldn’t say the book is terrifying, but it is terrifyingly well done, and I’ve come back to reread and study her artistry time and time again.

Posted on February 3, 2018

3 Films That Can Help You Understand Phantom Thread

Guest Post

Phantom Thread is Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, and I left the theater trying to figure out what to make of it. The story is simple: dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) meets a waitress, Alma (Vicky Krieps), and they begin a relationship in which she becomes his new muse and must find her role in her new life while vying for his attention with Reynolds’ high-class clients and his sister, Cyril (Lesley Manville). Soon, Alma begins to assert herself as the primary woman in Reynolds’ life and eventually demonstrates the implications of that role to him and the audience. Phantom Thread is a beautiful movie but the great camerawork and outstanding performances hide layers of meaning based principally on the complicated relationship at the center of the movie.

Although the film is a romance, there are some horror and thriller elements that helped me comprehend what was happening. To understand some of these aspects of the film better, I recommend thinking about it in relation to Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca and Psycho, as well as Olivier Assayas’ Personal Shopper.

Posted on January 24, 2018

Horror and Scripture Call for Manuscripts

Guest Post

Lexington Books/Fortress Academic is pleased to announce a new series: Horror and Scripture. The series seeks monographs that explore horror, monsters, and the monstrous in early Jewish and Christian scriptures (including canonical and non-canonical texts). Books in the series will be grounded in the discipline of biblical studies, but will exhibit a wide range of methodological diversity, including, for example, film studies, psychoanalytic theory, anthropological approaches, monster theory, and postmodern readings.