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documentary

Posted on July 2, 2020

In Search of Darkness: A Nostalgic Celebration of 80s Horror Cinema

Guest Post

Coinciding with the current renaissance of American horror cinema, we’ve seen more interest in horror documentaries. Within the last two years alone, Eli Roth’s History of Horror (2018) and Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (2019; see the Horror Homeroom review here) both released to critical acclaim, and now we have the collector’s documentary In Search of Darkness: A Journey into Iconic ‘80s Horror (2019), written and directed by David A. Weiner, to add to the mix.

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Posted on June 29, 2020

Scream, Queen! Review

Sara McCartney

Around this time last year, the Met Costume Institute was displaying its exhibit on camp, sparking explainers and podcast episodes and angry rants (the last one from me) about just what camp is exactly. I thought about it some more while watching Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen’s Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street (2019), and here’s what I’ve got. Camp is the reclamation of something embarrassing or perceived by others as embarrassing. It is the amazing knack queer people have to transform shame into joy and survival. Scream, Queen! is the story of how Nightmare on Elm Street 2, once an embarrassment to its franchise and the career of its then-closeted gay star, Mark Patton, became beloved by fans and a launching pad for Patton’s activism.

The 1985 sequel to Wes Craven’s slasher smash hit, Nightmare on Elm Street 2 is the rare slasher film with a Final Boy. The hapless Jesse, played by Mark Patton, is not merely Freddy’s intended victim but his entry point into the real world as he strives to take over Jesse’s body. More a possession film than a typical slasher, Nightmare on Elm Street 2‘s Freddy functions as an unlikely metaphor for repressed homosexuality. Read more

Posted on October 25, 2015

Why Horror? (2014) Film Review

Elizabeth Erwin

Why Horror?

Not Rated   |   81 min   |   Nicolas Kleiman & Rob Lindsay |   (Canada)   |   2014

 Sound byte Review: Talking about horror seriously and in a variety of contexts while still celebrating the experiences of fans makes Why Horror? a unique experience for viewers who both enjoy and are repulsed by the genre.

 Grade: A-

As someone who writes about horror and has a special appreciation for extreme gore, my sense of discomfort this past summer with the way some fan fiction was handling those perversions (murder, rape, incest, etc.) often tackled in horror was unexpected. And so as I was already beginning to question my own involvement in the genre, I was perfectly primed for the topic of this compelling documentary that seeks to answer why it is that people are drawn to horror. While I can’t say that it revolutionized my thinking on the topic, the film does illustrate the importance of opening up a conversation on why it is that we fear the things we do.

Premiering Friday on Showtime, Why Horror? is an interesting exercise in exploring all the varied reasons why horror resonates with fans. Examining everything from film to art to psychology, this POV documentary works largely because of its commitment to not exploring the genre in a vacuum. What I especially appreciated was the way in which the film wove in discussions of culture and gender to consider the myriad of ways in which horror has the power to impact society. Less in-depth exploration and more personal journey, the film is best suited to those viewers who can’t quite grasp why it is that people would find enjoyment in depictions of explicit gore and violence.

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