Horror Homeroom

Posted on June 23, 2018

Decapitation in Upgrade, First Reformed & Hereditary

Guest Post

Three movies that happen to be playing in multiplexes this week have a surprising connection. Upgrade (Leigh Whannell, 2018) is a sci-fi action film, First Reformed (Paul Schrader, 2017) is a spiritual drama with a dark comedic streak, and Hereditary (Ari Aster, 2018) is a horror film with plenty of family drama for seasoning. When I saw all three in the same weekend I thought I was programming a few days of very different movies, and they are that indeed. But they all feature a particular variety of body horror that brings them into conversation with each other. Not only does the same gruesome thing happen to a character in each film, but it also happens at roughly the same time in each film. If you’re looking to avoid spoilers on these movies, I would skip the section about the ones you have not yet seen, although I won’t be discussing the endings. Instead, I’ll examine how this form of body horror emphasizes the film’s themes and ideas.

Posted on June 21, 2018

Veronica: Possession or Psychosis?

Guest Post

The 2017 Spanish horror film, Veronica, directed by Paco Plaza and now available on Netflix, has been described as one of the scariest horror movies accessible on the streaming platform. Based on a true story, the movie follows a fifteen-year-old school girl who is supposedly possessed by a demon. It should be noted that the movie is very loosely based on real-life events. This article only looks at the narrative of the movie itself, and it questions whether Veronica is actually possessed . . . or whether something else is going on.

Posted on June 15, 2018

5 Terrifying Documentaries and the Rise of Real Life Horror

Guest Post

A horror film has certain safety measures. You can turn it off, change the channel, or cover your eyes. In any movie, you have the ability to just stop watching. After all, none of it is real. But what happens when the horrific events on the screen can’t be turned off or changed? What happens when a film is frightening because it is real, because its horror is the kind that exists beyond the confines of the movie screen? This is the kind of horror that horror documentaries deliver.

The horror genre is enjoying a boom right now. There’s no denying it. But the recent surge of horrific content is not limited to the fictional. Documentary filmmakers are cashing in on their viewers’ attraction to the macabre. Any good documentary seeks to expose a new truth, understanding, or perspective. This work of uncovering becomes terrifying when we realize that what’s been documented is the inescapable horrors of reality, the things we can’t un-see, and the moments we can’t avoid. What follows are five horror documentaries that feel like fictional horror films. Their discoveries leave you wondering what’s worse, fact or fiction?

Posted on June 15, 2018

Support Horror Homeroom on Patreon!

Horror Homeroom Admin

Dear Readers:

Consider this post our version of a PBS pledge drive-we can’t do it without your support! And so we’ve started a Patreon!

Horror Homeroom started as a labor of love in which we wanted to merge our love for the horror genre with our academic skills of analysis to create points of discussion for fans. We like to say we take horror seriously so that you don’t have to and in the past four years we have published over 400 articles exploring themes as diverse as the state of eco-horror to explorations of identity construction in zombie films and everything in between.

Our commitment to keeping these articles open access means that we are a completely self-financed operation. And as our readership has grown to the point of requiring frequent server updates, the expense has become prohibitive. It is important to us that our content remains free and so we are asking for your help.

We have a lot of plans to expand Horror Homeroom (detailed below) but we can’t do it without your support. Patreon enables you to make a monthly contribution to support our work (starting at just $1!) and the best part is that you can increase or decrease that contribution as your budget changes. We hope that you will be part of our journey toward creating free, academically rigorous content that celebrates the horror genre.

We are incredibly grateful for your continued support! And a HUGE thank you to those who’ve already pledged their support!

Posted on June 11, 2018

Hereditary: Grief and Motherhood

Guest Post

In Danse Macabre (1981), Stephen King’s nonfiction book about the horror genre, he says that if a horror movie is going to work and be memorable, there has to be something beyond spatter, a story that functions on a symbolic level to help us understand our deepest fears. In Hereditary (2018), written and directed by Ari Aster, grief, mental illness, and the challenges of motherhood are the subconscious fears that erupt after the family suffers one loss after another.

The plot and strained family dynamics of Hereditary unfold after the death of the Graham family’s matriarch. The film opens with the obituary of the 78-year old grandmother, who is described by her daughter, Annie (Toni Collette), during the funeral as having been a “very secretive” and “very private woman.” The first 30 minutes of the film focus on how the rest of the family deals with her death. The father, Steve (Gabriel Byrne), initially tries to comfort his wife and family, while the son, Peter (Alex Wolff), spends much of his time getting stoned and going to parties. The daughter, Charlie (Milly Shapiro), who had the closest relationship with the grandmother, asks her mother, “Who’s going to take care of me?” Annie deals with her mother’s death by throwing herself into her work, creating miniature houses for a scheduled art show opening. As the film progresses, the miniatures mirror the events of the film, and the deadline to finish the work only creates added pressure on an already stressed mother.