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Posted on May 13, 2016

“What’s In The Box!?” A Top Ten List

Gwen

I was watching the SyFy channel last night and blissfully re-indulged in the 2012 film, The Possession. During the commercial breaks (yup, no DVR here folks) I had an average of 2-4 minutes to ponder random things. Why did Rachel Maddow show up as my college roommate in my dream last night? And, more importantly, why are there so many boxes in horror films!? Of course, when I have important things to do like write a dissertation, I suddenly found it much more imperative to test my horror knowledge and see how many horror films prominently feature boxes. Every good scientific experiment needs rules, and I decided to rule out boxes in the forms of coffins, sarcophaguses, music boxes, jack in the boxes, and other banal background boxes.

I thought to myself, people love to look at why horror features so many clowns, children, and dolls, so why not boxes and crates?[i] Whose curiosity isn’t piqued by a mystical box that holds treasures unknown? Take for instance the story of Pandora’s Box, eons of pirate treasure stories, and geeks like myself who will scour the area in hopes of finding a geocache that is probably only filled with a pencil and a button. Boxes evoke the unknown; they conceal and contain both wondrous and horrible things. And in many of these films, the boxes hold a component of weighty choice…a path not taken or a rule broken. Each container holds a picture of what we reveal, what we hide, and who we are. I hope you will join me in avoiding real work to enjoy this list with me! (Beware of some plot spoilers) Read more

Posted on March 14, 2016

Top 13 Movies Reminding Me Why I Don’t Want To Get Married

Gwen

I have to expose my bias here: I have never dreamed of getting married, I didn’t play house, I never planned my ultimate wedding, and despite my grandmother’s insistence, I was able to make it through college without getting my Mrs. I won’t bash marriage, because it really works for some folks. But all those happily married and want-to-be married people get TONS of movies to themselves between the dramas, action films, and romantic comedies. Hell, even horror has really great marriages as we saw in my previous post about the Maitlands in Beetlejuice (1988). So, today I am going to reclaim the horror genre for those of us who prefer alternative lifestyles. In the spirit of fun, this list aims to be a little bit silly and a little bit serious. It is no secret that I love horror films that focus on the family. I feel that it is an important platform that exposes both criticisms of traditional family as well as fears about being part one. (WARNING: There are some spoilers and lots of sarcasm in here)

Posted on March 7, 2016

6 Essential Pre-Code Horror Films

Elizabeth Erwin

To say that I’m a sucker for a well-crafted, classic horror tale brimming with salaciousness would be an understatement. And so it was with more than a little glee that I read about Turner Classic Movie’s month long film series devoted to tackling those films which made the Legion of Decency’s hair stand on end. I’ve written about American horror during this time period and I’ve always wanted to compile a short list of recommended pre-code American horror films as a complement. So here is my list of 6 essential films that will give you a taste of what horror was like pre-code. With everything from a killer with a fondness for meat suits to maniacal scientists hell bent on playing God, these films are a showcase for the cinematic perversions that left many audience members clutching their pearls.

Posted on February 5, 2016

Top Ten Infamous Female Characters

Gwen

As we all know by my history, I have trouble sticking to the rules. As usual I struggle to narrow my lists down to ten and I almost always have some genre jumpers. You will see that I stuck to American horror in order to set some useful limits for myself. As with any top ten list, this is completely subjective. I am listing in chronological order, some of the most memorable female antagonists that jump into my mind when I think of horror. My choices may not be the most remarkable for their leading roles, their murders, or their mayhem. Rather, they are true to the definition of infamous: well known for a bad quality or deed, disreputable, wicked, or abominable. No matter the size of their role, these women live in infamy in the dark corners of my mind.

Posted on October 30, 2015

10 Horror Legends We Miss

Gwen

As the harvest season ends and winter looms ever near, the Celts believed that this transition between seasons opened a bridge between the living and the dead. It is thought that the winter cold and higher death rates contributed to this blurring of life and death. The Celtic festival Samhain moved people to wear costumes to ward off ghosts that roamed the earth, brought trouble, and even served as harbingers of death.

As Romans later conquered much of the Celtic land, their festival (Feralia) which commemorated the dead, came to blend with the Celtic Samhain. Much later, with the spread of Catholicism, the Church drafted their own day of remembrance to honor martyrs, saints, and the dead on All Souls Day, All Saints Day, and All Hallows Eve.

Despite the watered down, consumer version in America today, Halloween is still fundamentally about blurred boundaries and remembering the dead. No matter how you celebrate—whether you dress up to ward off ghosts or partake in a vegetarian feast by the light of a bonfire—we should honor the origins of our favorite horror holiday.

Join me in commemorating Halloween in true horror film fashion by remembering some of our dearly departed.