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Posted on May 27, 2015

Poltergeist (1982 and 2015): Guilt and the American Dream

Dawn Keetley

In anticipation of the remake of Poltergeist, directed by Gil Kenan, produced by Sam Raimi, and released on May 22, 2015, I re-watched the original Poltergeist from 1982, produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hooper. It’s not the best horror film ever made, by any means, but it has a certain compelling power—and I realized on re-watching it, that the film’s power comes in large part from the fundamental innocence of the Freeling family, who become the target of the dead’s fury. The Freelings are also guilty, though—and it is this paradoxical co-existence of innocence and guilt in this paradigmatic middle-class suburban family that drives the film.

Posted on May 22, 2015

Top Ten Horror Comedy Movies

Gwen

The weather up here in the Northeast is improving and as we all get a little more Vitamin D from the sun I suspect the regional seasonal affective disorder is waning. Perhaps this is why I felt compelled to move toward the lighter side of the horror genre. Join me in celebrating some of the funniest horror comedies from over the years. I am going to preface this list by saying that I did not purposefully bias the list toward the 1980s (despite my overt preference for the decade). The 1980s are naturally a crucible for horror comedy and from a numbers standpoint this decade easily dominated the others with its overwhelming marriage between horror and cheese. The list is in chronological order as to not influence your expectations; the descriptions are a combination of my thoughts and imdb. I must also thank USA Up All Night for introducing me to most of these masterpieces.

Posted on May 20, 2015

The Unique Monstrosity of Jigsaw

Elizabeth Erwin

Lauded as a significant entry in the catalog of torture porn, Saw became one of the highest grossing horror films in recent memory. The 2004 film opens with two characters chained in a dilapidated bathroom. Instructions detailing how to escape are left by an unknown assailant but there is a catch. One of the characters must kill the other if he wants to live. What follows is a game of cat and mouse in which our ringleader, named Jigsaw, uses physical and psychological horrors to test the will of his “players.”
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Posted on May 18, 2015

James Wan’s The Conjuring and Abortion

Dawn Keetley

One of the best of the current spate of occult films is James Wan’s The Conjuring (2013), which opened to critical acclaim and the distinction of being rated “R” simply for its terrifying sequences (on which promise, in my view, it certainly delivered).

One notable characteristic of occult horror is its seeming resistance to socio-political meanings. After all, it translates its principal conflict to the afterworld: human characters are beset by ghosts, demons and poltergeists—often forces of uncomplicated “Evil”—not by more recognizable and more complicated “evils” of this world. The “dark entity” in The Conjuring, for instance, simply wants the unoffending Perron family dead. Articulating what seems true of occult films in general, Douglas Kellner writes of Poltergeist that it “deflect[s] people’s legitimate fears onto irrational forces.”[i]

Posted on May 15, 2015

Underrated Horror Films Worth a Watch- 1970s Edition

Elizabeth Erwin

The 1970s were a golden era in horror and films ran the gamut from revenge (I Spit on Your Grave) to cults (I Drink Your Blood) to slasher (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) often reflecting the tumultuous political and social conditions of the time. With so much variety, not every release received the fanfare that it deserved. So in an effort to remedy those oversights, here are my picks for the most underrated horror films of the 70s.