Category: Analysis
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ANALYSIS: Phantom Felines – The Revenge of the Oppressed in KURONEKO (1968)
Trigger warning: this article discusses the film’s portrayal of rape. As part of our examination of J-Horror, Johnny Restall looks back on an iconic landmark in Japanese folk cinema. Japanese cinema has long been influenced by the country’s rich, distinctive folklore. Arguably the figures best-known to Western audiences are the ghostly yurei, particularly onryo – wronged souls, often female, […]
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ANALYSIS: Shifting Space in THE SHINING (1980) and DOCTOR SLEEP (2019)
Released almost 40 years apart, there nevertheless is a fascinating correlation in the use of space between the two cinematic visits to The Overlook Hotel. Dr Vincent M. Gaine books a stay… With Doctor Sleep, Mike Flanagan faced an unenviable task: a sequel to The Shining – one of the most iconic and beloved horror properties of […]
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ANALYSIS: Dysfunctional communities in the work of Stephen King
Melissa Cox unpacks the dark heart of many of King’s communities… One of the most notable aspects of Stephen King’s writing is his impressively detailed world-building. The towns of Derry and Castle Rock are horror icons in themselves, providing the settings for interweaving stories spanning decades. As well as helping to convince generations of readers […]
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ANALYSIS: Keeping Secrets in King’s STORM OF THE CENTURY (1999)
Kim Morrison celebrates of one of King’s most under-seen 90s miniseries… Due to the sheer number of pages in a lot of his books, many of Stephen King’s works have been given the mini-series treatment rather than risk losing important details just to conform to a standard film’s runtime. However, in 1999, King decided to […]
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ANALYSIS: ROSE RED, 20 Years On
Ariel Powers-Schaub turns back the clock to examine a Stephen King mini-series that remixed Hill House with varying results… “A good house cuddles and comforts. A bad one fills us with instinctive unease. Bad houses hate our warmth, our humanness. That blind hate is what we mean when we use the word haunted.” Sound familiar? […]
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ANALYSIS: The Power of the Losers in IT (1990)
Spoilers Much like Pennywise’s cyclical slumber, there was a 27 year gap between the original TV adaptation of IT in 1990 and Andy Muschietti’s big screen iteration. But what did the mini-series have to say about its central septych of characters, the Losers Club? Kim Morrison heads back to Derry to find out… The mini-series […]
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ANALYSIS: Green is the Future – examining relationships in CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954) and THE SHAPE OF WATER (2017)
Kim Morrison dives into two creature features to explore how sub-aquatic relationships might offer a way of decoding real-world romances… Monsters falling in love with human women is something that pops up in the horror genre quite often. From King Kong climbing the Empire State Building with Ann clasped in his hand or Dracula romancing […]
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ANALYSIS: Mommy’s Little Monsters – Motherhood in Horror
This Mother’s Day, Ygraine Hackett-Cantabrana unpacks the darker side of motherhood… There is very little else in the entirety of a person’s life that is as frightening as reproducing, giving birth to and raising a tiny human whose survival instinct – unlike that of most animals – doesn’t kick in properly until their late teens. […]
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ANALYSIS: “I am not a real duck” – A Portrait of Paranoid Marriage in HONEYMOON (2014)
Spoilers Before the Fear Street Trilogy, director Leigh Janiak’s debut explored the dark waters of a relationship in freefall. Kim Morrison investigates… “Before I was alone. And now I am not.” This is one of the first things we hear Bea (Rose Leslie) say on her wedding video in the opening minutes of Honeymoon (2014). […]
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ANALYSIS: “So many pretty parts, no pretty wholes” – MAY (2002), Twenty Years On
Spoilers Ariel Powers-Schaub examines the lasting legacy of Lucky McKee’s incendiary directorial debut… Despite being twenty years old May (2002) remains painfully incisive today, containing themes which still feel relevant for 2022. Focused on the eponymous May (Angela Bettis), the film follows her as she works at an animal hospital, sews her own clothing and makes […]
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