#horrorstudies

[f0restpunk]

Redemption Video Watched Les Frisson des Vampires last night, getting ready for a project I'll be announcing soon enough. . #horror #horrormovie #horrorfilm #horrormovies #redemptionvideo #lesfrissondesvampires #shiverofthevampires #jeanrollin #vampire #vampires #bloodsuckers #titlecard #productioncompany #1971 #70shorror #horrorwriter #horrorstudies #horrorlover #horrorobsession #horrorclub #horrorgram #horrorglamour #erotichorror #witchhouse #goth #gothlife #jsimpson #amwriting #cinephile #cinephilecommunity (at Portland, Oregon) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1KYoG9B7pV/?igshid=1gnjoyjb5olh1

[scifigangsta]

What makes a horror film...scary? Is it the suspense, hideous monsters, or jump scares? Many horror studies scholars would argue that here is something deeper. Eric Savoy, in “The Face of the Tenant,” discusses the concept of allegory in relation to the gothic and horror genre. Arguing that allegory is “a fluid tendency rather than a discrete literary ‘mode,’” Savoy implies that allegory is an attempt to repress something unspeakable.

The horror trope of personifying an object (for example a haunted house) provides a face to a “disembodied Other.” This is perhaps why the scariest horror films rarely show the monster. Nothing is more terrifying than nothingness because it gives the unconscious the opportunity to fill in its own phobias.  Therefore, like Freud’s uncanny, allegory represents the threat of repression returning to the surface.  Savoy discusses a “chasm” created by “gothic signification” whereby the “specter of Otherness that haunts the house of national narrative” is compelled to “shadow forth.” [1]

In “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre and Excess,” Linda Williams examines the form and function of three types of film: horror, melodramas, and pornography. Although these may seem to have nothing in common, they are all “jerkers,” according to Williams, or “films marked by ‘lapses’ in realism, by ‘excesses’ of spectacle and displays of primal, even infantile emotions.”[2] These “body genres” deal with the “unseemly” and the “gratuitous.” The audience is meant to mimic what is seen on the screen. While watching pornography, for example, the viewer watches people in sexual gratification and becomes aroused just like the characters. “The body of the spectator is caught up in an almost involuntary mimicry of the emotion or sensation of the body on the screen,” states Williams.[3] That is a primary reason why Williams does not include comedies in the category of the body film. Although the comedic film is intended to elicit a affective responsive, the spectator is not always mimicking what the characters are doing on the screen. We are not laughing because the characters are laughing. In fact, we are often amused by a character’s misfortune or pain in physical comedy films.

Although Williams admits that these three body genres typical hinge on the spectacle of a female body, they are not always purely masochistic fantasies of the domination of the female body. There is always a component of either power or pleasure for the woman victim. Williams states that a “bisexual oscillation” occurs between passivity and activity in the female characters in these types of films.  

The blurring boundaries of the horror genre has been a constant theme in the readings this semester. Many scholars of horror studies discuss the potentially liberating or transgressive qualities of the horror genre.

The horror film, with its tendency to blur boundaries, could be interpreted as a temporary escape from the bounds of sadomasochistic culture. As Williams states, “the cultural law which decides that some girls are good and others are bad is not defeated but within its terms pleasure has been negotiated and ‘paid for’ with a pain that conditions it.”[4]

The film The Wind plays with both Savoy’s allegory and William’s bisexual oscillation. For example, The Wind features a monster which does not does manifest in a physical form.  The villain is literally the wind. However, this villain represents a repudiated Other. It is telling that the only two characters that the wind physically possesses (and truly threatens to harm Lizzy) are two male characters. The haunting of a Reverend is deliberate choice by the director. As a symbol of patriarchal Christianity, the Reverend represents the oppressive structure which is pushing back against Lizzy’s rejection of the faith.

It might be too simplistic to argue that the wind is allegory for oppressive patriarchy. However, the film is set during the era of manifest destiny, when rigid gender roles are prominent. You could interpret the film as a women’s liberation film for she escapes this oppressive structure. If the horror genre hinges on the “pleasure of masculine subject positions punishing or dominating feminine objects,” then The Wind breaks that cycle.  Although there is a consequence, Lizzy may eventually escape the wind, but ends up dying in the end.[5]

[1] Ibid., 14.

[2] Ibid., 3.

[3] Ibid., 4.

[4] Ibid., 8.

[5] Linda Williams, “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess,” Film Quarterly 44, no. 4 (July 1991): 6, https://doi.org/10.2307/1212758.

[korrektheiten]

Montag, 08.02.2021 17:10 Uhr

Kopp: +++ Hellseher im Bundestag? Pandemielage soll über März hinaus verlängert werden: Union und SPD wollen »EpiLage-Fortgeltungsgesetz« +++ +++ Seehofer bestellte beim RKI »Horrorstudie« für einen harten Lockdown +++ +++ Weidel fordert Abgeordnete auf, auf »Querdenker«-Demos zu gehen +++ +++ Thomas Gottschalk: Wutrede über Corona-Krisenstäbe und Öffentlich-Rechtliche [...] Der Beitrag Montag, 08.02.2021 17:10 Uhr erschien zuerst auf Kopp Report. http://dlvr.it/RsGxKy

[jayare-m-q]

New killer Podcast and "Educational" books!!! Part of my "research" 😂 #InTheBlinkOfAnEye #FilmEditing #StephenKing #DanseMacabre #HorrorStudy #lastpodcastontheleft

[f0restpunk]

Let the Right One In (2008) . Just got an email from my favourite horror magazine, and one of my all-time favourite assignments, with an idea for an article they want me to write. Cant mention specifics yet, but in the meantime, anyone have any recommendation for #vampiremovies dealing with #gender, #identity, #androgyny, #sexuality or #queer culture? Will be researching like mad in the meanwhile! I'm actually working on like 4 exciting assignments atm! More about that soon! . #lettherightonein #vampire #vampirefilm #vampires #bloodsucker #letmein #horror #queerhorror #horrorstudies #horrormovies #horrorfilms #horrorlover #horrorfiend #horrorgram #horrorobsession #horrorclub #horrorstudies #queerstudies #lgbtqia #academicwriter #academicwriting #jsimpson (at Portland, Oregon) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bza9eWEh_am/?igshid=gz22svaaqeti

[f0restpunk]

Am incredibly honoured and excited to have numerous pieces included in Hallowzine Issue 2, including my first time publishing photography! Ive got four photographs, which i also edited myself, a bit of graphic design, and a short essay where i deconstruct and analyze the figure of the Bedsheet Ghost, where i discuss The Other and the limits of knowledge. Can be read online this weekend and DLs are coming soon! Ill put the #linkinbio!!! Happy Halloween/Samhain/Dias de los Muertos/All Saints Day, lovelies! . #halloween #halloween2021 #hallowzine #zines #samhain #amwriting #photography #photographersofinstagram #photoedits #photoediting #editorsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #design #graphicdesign #designersofinstagram #travelphotography #pumpkins #autumn #darkphotography #pumpkinpatch #ghosts #mrjames #deconstruction #TheOther #spookyseason #missionsanfernandoreydeespana #iconography #horrorstudies #jsimpson (at Mission San Fernando Rey de España) https://www.instagram.com/p/CVq8CTrPrXK/?utm_medium=tumblr

[f0restpunk]

Dracula (1931) . Was so freaking stoked to finally get a chance to watch the original Dracula last night, the 75th Anniversary Edition w the Kronos Quartet soundtrack. Felt like discovering the source of some mighty river, the origin of the vampire mythos in the United States. Pure aesthetics. . #dracula #todbrowning #1931 #1930s #1931movie #belalugosi #helenseward #davidmanners #dwightfrye #edwardvansloan #francesdade #bramstoker #vampire #vampires #bloodsuckers #silverscreen #horror #horrorclassics #vampiremovie #vampirefilm #classichorrormovies #kronosquartet #horrorscores #horrorglamour #hauntcouture #cinephile #cinephilecommunity #jsimpson #horrorstudies (at Carfax Abbey) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1PeK6LBvrp/?igshid=sokh2vofl61o

[f0restpunk]

Requiem for a Vampire (1971) . Two lesbian clowns are on the run, getting trapped at a haunted chateau by an ancient vampire and his servants! Very nearly finished with this piece I've been working on. Will be able to announce what it's all been about very soon! . #requiemforavampire #requienpourunvampire #jeanrollin #mariepierrecastel #mireilledargent #70smovies #70sfilm #1971 #70saesthetics #clowns #lesbian #lesbianmovie #queercinema #eroticmovies #eroticfilm #vampires #bloodsuckers #vampiremovies #vampirefilm #vampiremovie #horror #horrorlover #horrorobsession #horrorgram #moviegram #amwriting #horrorstudies #cinephile #cinephilecommunity #jsimpson (at Crevecoeur) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1UwvdFhs_Q/?igshid=1dpv8yslkjkdc