Category: Analysis
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ANALYSIS: Monster Mom and Deadly Dad – Parenthood and Mental Ill-Health in Horror
Trigger warning for suicide, domestic abuse and family annihilation As part of our celebration of Andrzej Żuławski’s POSSESSION (1981) this month, Ygraine Hackett-Cantabrana examines the relationship between parenthood and mental ill-health in horror cinema… Battling your demons and haunted by ghosts: both expressions that can be used to describe those dealing mental health problems. As…
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ANALYSIS: Look At Him If You Want To Live: Shifting Gazes in THE TERMINATOR (1984)
The art of looking has long been the subject of horror criticism. Here Vincent M. Gaine zeroes in on the various gazes in James Cameron’s classic robo-slasher… The male gaze is one of the most prevalent theories in academic and journalistic critiques of cinema. Originally published by Laura Mulvey in 1975, the notion of cinema possessing the…
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ANALYSIS: The Horror of Reservoir Dogs (1992)
With a new 4K steelbook out now, Tim Coleman revisits Quentin Tarantino’s incendiary debut… Thirty years on, it’s easy to forget just how revolutionary Reservoir Dogs was when it first came out. Unleashed from the mind of a geeky video shop clerk who weaponised his broad diet of genre film into something ferocious, Tarantino’s debut…
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ANALYSIS: Bad Moon Rising – The Resurgence Of The Werewolf
In recent years the werewolf has made a comeback to the silver screen. But why now, and what is behind the wolf man’s return? Ygraine Hackett-Cantabrana howls at the moon to find out… Vampires, ghosts, witches and zombies: classic movie monsters, depicted in countless horror films across the decades. But there’s one creature that is…
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ANALYSIS: The Horror of Politeness
In recent years genre films have been exploring “polite horror”: people being trapped in social conventions that prize civility over safety. Alex Kronenburg puts his manners to one side and asks some awkward questions… Predator and prey: two opposing forms that are constantly at odds. A predator is tireless in its pursuit of a kill,…
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ANALYSIS: “Lived any good books lately?” – IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1994)
Do you read Sutter Cane? Johnny Restall does, and he’s here to unpack the closing chapter of John Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy… John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness (1994) is widely viewed as the third instalment of the director’s unofficial Apocalypse Trilogy, alongside 1982’s The Thing and 1987’s Prince of Darkness. While the loosely-linked trio share no characters or plotlines,…
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ANALYSIS: “This is not a dream” – Finding meaning in PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1987)
Spoilers All hail goo Satan, for he towers before you in liquid form and will unleash the will of the Anti-God on this Earth, bringing destruction and death in his wake… Join Iona Smith as she tries to unravel one of John Carpenter’s most divisive films A priest (Donal Pleasence) invites a professor (Victor Wong) and…
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ANALYSIS: Proxemic Patterns in HALLOWEEN (1978)
As we all get ready for Halloween Night Becci Sayce takes a closer look at the use of space in John Carpenter’s classic slasher… One reason we consume horror is to experience a visceral reaction. The exposure to terrifying acts – or even the anticipation of them – causes us to react both negatively, through…
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ANALYSIS: “Nothing matters” – the problematic representation of mental ill-health in SMILE (2022)
Spoilers and Trigger Warning for Themes of Suicide New horror movie Smile follows a psychiatrist haunted by a demon that drives its victims to take their own lives. But is the film’s representation of mental ill-health helpful, or hampered by confused – and maybe harmful – narrative choices? Early on in Smile – the feature…
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ANALYSIS: There’s No Place Like Home – the Unexpected Triumph of PSYCHO II (1983)
How do you follow-up one of the most game-changing horror movies ever made? With an under-rated cult sequel, that’s how. Johnny Restall goes back to the Bates Motel to investigate… Despite its initially lukewarm critical reception, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) went on to become one of the director’s most iconic works, frequently credited with reinventing the horror…
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