Posted on November 30, 2018

Creepy CliffsNotes: November Edition

Elizabeth Erwin

The weeks after Halloween can feel especially dark. Stores trade in their creepy displays of severed limbs and cobwebs for sparkly tree ornaments and festive lights. For fans of the macabre, it can be downright depressing! Like American Horror Story teen angst levels of depressing!

So to stave off the November doldrums, Horror Homeroom kicked it up a notch by offering an exclusive chapter from Scared Sacred, a look at how Channel Zero is remaking horror television, a reconsideration of the rape scene in Young Frankenstein, and an anniversary look at sex and sisterhood in The Slumber Party Massacre. We followed those essential reads up with a consideration of what is the real horror in It Follows, a list of five horror films set in snowy landscapes, an interview with Boston Underground Film Festival’s Director of Programming, and a must read look at Salem’s Lot and the threat of nuclear war.

That’s a lot of reading goodness and pairs especially well with another piece of pumpkin pie from the fridge. But we’re not done yet! We’re rousing ourselves from our Thanksgiving Day food comas to bring you this month’s very best horror related reads from around the interwebs! Go grab yourself a turkey leg and let’s dig in! Read more

Salem's Lot
Posted on November 24, 2018

Salem’s Lot and the Nuclear Threat

Dawn Keetley

Salem’s Lot is about vampires, of course. But as I recently re-read King’s 1975 novel and watched the exceptional TV miniseries (directed by Tobe Hooper) from 1979, it occurred to me that the latter—the film, not the novel–might also be about the nuclear threat. In 1979, America was entrenched in Cold War paranoia, with the attendant heightened fears of nuclear war. Filmed in July and August 1979 and airing on CBS on November 17 and 24, 1979, Salem’s Lot was bookended by two events critical to deepening anxiety about the nuclear threat. In only four more years, ABC’s The Day After (1983) would galvanize 100 million people gathered around their TVs to watch the devastating consequences of a nuclear attack on US soil, setting a record for the highest rated television film ever. And just before Salem’s Lot began filming, Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in central Pennsylvania was the site, on March 28, 1979, of the worst nuclear accident in the US. Anxiety about the effects of nuclear energy and nuclear war was rampant.

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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

It Follows
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.

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