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Posted on March 22, 2019

Breaking & Entering: Talking The People Under the Stairs (1991) & Don’t Breathe (2016)

On this episode of Horror Homeroom Conservations, we’re tackling two of our favorite films: Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs (1991) and Fede Álvarez’s Don’t Breathe (2016). While both films share a startling number of similarities, there is a pointed difference in where the audience’s sympathies ultimately reside. Is The People Under the Stairs an indictment on Reagan’s America? Does Rocky in Don’t Breathe have any redeemable qualities? And how do both films leverage an urban/suburban landscape to increase the terror? We’re breaking it all down on today’s episode! Read more

Posted on March 20, 2019

Perfection, Psychosis and Pupillo: Il boia scarlatto (Bloody Pit of Horror, 1965)

Guest Post

M.B.S. Cinematografica released Il boia scarlatto (Bloody Pit of Horror or The Crimson Executioner) in Italy on 28 November 1965. Grossing 65 million lire during its domestic theatrical run, it was subsequently purchased by Pacemaker Pictures in the United States, where it opened as a double feature with director Massimo Pupillo’s Cinque tombe per un medium (Terror Creatures from the Grave, 1965). Completing Pupillo’s trilogy of gothic horror was La vendetta di Lady Morgan (Lady Morgan’s Vengeance), released in the same year.

The plot of Il boia scarlatto is relatively simple: in 1648 Italy, the Crimson Executioner (uncredited) is sentenced to death for pursuing his sadistic and murderous fantasies. In the dungeon of his castle (the actual location of which is Bracciano, just outside of Rome), the Crimson Executioner vows his revenge as he is entombed in an iron maiden, or virgin of Nuremberg—a medieval torture device, traditionally shaped like a coffin or sarcophagus with the face of a maiden, which slowly kills its victims via strategically placed spikes that do not penetrate any major organs. The narration—the apparent ruling of the tribunal against the murderer—is layered effectively over the scene and informs the audience that the Crimson Executioner is eternally damned, as is the dungeon and the castle itself, which has seen “such indescribable horrors.” As the Crimson Executioner slowly dies, the device is sealed and the narrator issues a warning: no man should ever dare to break it.

Posted on March 14, 2019

The Man Who Haunted Himself: Deadly Doubles

Dawn Keetley

The doppelgänger or double has long been a part of the horror tradition (Check out this comprehensive survey by Aaron Sagers at Paranormal Pop Culture), but it’s garnering new interest with Jordan Peele’s Us hitting the theatres on March 22, 2019. Peele’s new “monsters” are “The Tethered,” and they are perfect doppelgängers of the central family of four, on vacation in Santa Cruz, California. So far, there’s not too much information about where these doubles come from or why, so it’s going to be interesting to see how much explanation Peele offers. As with most horror film monsters, less is usually more, so I’m hoping he’ll be restrained. Peele is on record as having said that he was inspired in part at least by the Twilight Zone episode “Mirror Image” (1960), which he watched as a child. But there’s another narrative from the mid 20^th century in which a character confronts his exact double, one that is definitely worth watching: Basil Dearden’s The Man Who Haunted Himself, released in 1970 and based on Anthony Armstrong’s novel, The Strange Case of Mr. Pelham (1957), which was itself based on his short story, “The Case of Mr. Pelham,” published in Esquire on November 1, 1940. Armstrong’s story was also adapted in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, “The Case of Mr. Pelham” (1955), directed by Hitchcock.

Posted on March 6, 2019

Appropriating Aokigahara?: Talking The Forest (2016)

Elizabeth Erwin

Directed by Jason Zada, The Forest is ostensibly the journey of a young woman who travels across the world to find her twin sister who has gone missing. But lurking beneath this benign narrative is a complicated web of PTSD, trauma, and grief. Situated in Aokigahara, a place in Japan known internationally as The Suicide Forest, the film borrows liberally from Japanese mythology but should it? In this episode, the Horror Homeroom crew considers The Forest’s place within the natural horror canon and debates the impact of cultural appropriation within the genre. Read more

Posted on March 4, 2019

The Hole in the Ground: the Strangeness of What We Think We Know

Dawn Keetley

Written and directed by Lee Cronin (along with co-writer Stephen Shields), Irish horror film, The Hole in the Ground is a wonderful slow-burn film that relies on the formidable talents of its lead actors—Seána Kerslake as Sarah O’Neill and James Quinn Markey as her son Chris—as well as the beauty of the enveloping landscape. Cinematographer Tom Comerford and director Cronin make the most of their locations in Kildare and Wicklow, Ireland—and the forest, surrounding the hole at the center of the narrative—is itself as good as a character. The Hole in the Ground is an incredible entry in what seems to be a veritable renaissance in Irish horror.

The story follows Sarah as she moves with her son far from the city to begin a new life—away from the boy’s father who, as Chris put it, made her sad. (We learn very little else about Sarah’s relationship with Chris’s father, other than a large cut she has on her forehead.) One night, Chris disappears, appearing mysteriously back in the house after Sarah has searched everywhere for him. After his return, Chris seems different, alien. Sarah goes from uncertainty to certainty—finally becoming convinced that he’s an imposter. “He’s not my son,” she repeats. The film keeps us in some doubt, for a while, about whether Sarah is just imagining her son’s strangeness; she’s prescribed pills, and both her taking and then not taking them are suggestively linked to what might be her delusions. It’s also possible that Chris only seems like an imposter to her because her feelings toward him have changed: tellingly, things go wrong after Chris gets angry at Sarah for taking him away from his father.