Essays

Night of the Living Dead, Get Out

Get Out and the Subversion of the American Zombie

Much has already been said about the connections between George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1960) and Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017). Critics have so far, however, missed a vitally important thread between the two: they’re both zombie films. Jordan Peele is pretty open about the connections between these two films. In an interview […]

Walking Dead

The Walking Dead’s Hyperreal Hillbilly

AMC’s The Walking Dead is back for its 9th season. We’re going to run a series of posts about the series that are distilled versions of the arguments of chapters in our edited collection, The Politics of Race, Gender and Sexuality in The Walking Dead, recently published by McFarland. This collection is not at all the last […]

Apostle

3 Films That Explain Apostle

Obviously my title here is reductive. No three films can explain any other, especially when that other film is Apostle, the enormously rich new folk horror film by Gareth Evans. But this is a series we’re running (3 films that explain another)—and these three films do explain some things about Apostle, if not everything. They are […]

The Walking Dead

Burning It Down: Fire in The Walking Dead

AMC’s The Walking Dead is back for its 9th season. We’re going to run a series of posts about the series that are distilled versions of the arguments of chapters in our edited collection, The Politics of Race, Gender and Sexuality in The Walking Dead, recently published by McFarland. This collection is not at all the last […]

Hereditary as Folk Horror

In a recent post on Ari Aster’s debut film Hereditary (2018), Brian Fanelli contends that “grief, mental illness, and the challenges of motherhood are the subconscious fears that erupt after the family suffers one loss after another.” Fanelli thus summarizes the traits passed down through the generations in the film; he also implicitly reads the text […]

The Walking Dead

Masculinity and Race in AMC’s The Walking Dead

AMC’s The Walking Dead is back Sunday October 7 for its 9th season. We’re going to run a series of posts about the series that are distilled versions of the arguments of chapters in our edited collection, The Politics of Race, Gender and Sexuality in The Walking Dead, recently published by McFarland. This collection is not at […]

Predator

The Wasted Promise of The Predator

The Predator should have been great. The cast is good, full of actors like Keegan-Michael Key and Alfie Allen who thrive even in small roles, and the behind the scenes talent is even better. Shane Black directs a script he co-wrote with Fred Dekker, both of whom worked on the incredibly fun ‘80s tween horror-comedy […]

Grimmfest

Interview with Grimmfest Senior Programmer

Grimmfest is Manchester’s premium international festival of genre film, including (of course) horror, and it will be enjoying its 10th anniversary when it opens on October 4-7, 2018. The final line-up is now out, and it includes some fantastic films. This year, Grimmfest has partnered with House of Leaves Publishing in the promotion of their […]

scared sacred

Scared Sacred: Idolatry, Religion and Worship in the Horror Film

We’re going to be posting a lot about the great projects the folks at House of Leaves Publishing are working on, including their first book, a collection of essays called Scared Sacred: Idolatry, Religion and Worship in the Horror Film. We’re committed to indie horror in all its forms, including writing and publishing, and we […]