Horror Homeroom

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 December 23, 2018

The Pro-Sex Slasher: Talking Black Christmas (1974)

Elizabeth Erwin

Holiday horror is a mixed bag. For every acknowledged gem (Rare Exports, Better Watch Out), there exist some seriously awful yuletide tales (Santa Claws, To All a Good Night). Occasionally though, a film will get it so right that it establishes a template for the films that followed. Such is the case with the cult classic Black Christmas (1974). Criminally overlooked, this film by Bob Clark is typically recognized for establishing some of the most well-known tropes of the slasher genre. But it is its transgressive female characters that really steal the show and leave us asking why these characterizations didn’t become the standard.

In this Horror Homeroom Conversation, we’re kicking it back to 1974 with the ultimate holiday horror film, Black Christmas, and considering how the depictions of women in horror might be different had this film had gone mainstream.

Posted on December 14, 2018

Frankenstein in a Corset: Talking The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Elizabeth Erwin

The comedy-horror hybrid can be a tricky genre to get right. This is especially true of those films that attempt to leverage well known monsters. And while names such as Dracula and Werewolf pop up fairly frequently in these types of films, it is The Creature from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein that offers arguably the most interesting template from which to draw inspiration. While some films focus primarily on achieving humor (Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, I Was a Teenage Frankenstein), others dial back the levity to create a more transgressive viewing experience (Lady Frankenstein, Frankenhooker). But one film that manages to blend both aims seamlessly while also offering up a healthy dose of social commentary is The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Read more

Posted on December 8, 2018

Await Further Instructions: New Christmas Horror

Dawn Keetley

As a fan of Christmas horror films, I’m very happy to be able to recommend Await Further Instructions (2018), written by Gavin Williams and directed by Johnny Kevorkian, director and writer of the horror feature, The Disappeared (2008). Await Further Instructions has a lot going for it, including what is essential to Christmas horror—the agonizingly tense family get together (and that’s an understatement when it comes to this film). Await Further Instructions also delivers a pretty provocative message about both violence and technology, along with some fantastic (and beautifully-shot) body horror in its culminating scenes. I’d say this is a must for your holiday viewing.