https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b Spoiler Alert!! American Horror Movie Experience en-us 2023-02-06 17:22:34 UTC 2025-10-21 17:45:18 UTC hello@padlet.com sflanagan01_2 https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2470509180 The Night of the Living Dead was much different from the other movies we have previously seen in this class not only in tone but in the way the characters interact with each other. The 1960’s was arguably the most turbulent decade of the 20th century. The Civil Rights Act was signed into law in 1964, the Vietnam war had fully engulfed American culture, the hippy movement was spreading rapidly across the US and the space race had encapsulated the globe on who would reach the moon first. The first thing that should be addressed is the featuring of an African American main character who is strong and capable of protecting those around him, this was rather uncommon for the time so for a movie to feature a main character other than the typical white male was extremely progressive in this era. The character “Ben” played by Duane Jones was portrayed not only as a savior type but also a reasonable, level-headed, rational person who was extremely capable of making the right decisions in times of great chaos. Ben was also not afraid to challenge Harry played by Karl Hardman who was a hot head and was doing everything to protect his family in this time of peril. The other major political statement that must be addressed is that the proverbial “plague” came from outer space. NASA is mentioned a few times as they are trying to figure out how to stop this horrible mess that they caused. This is pivotal in driving how scary this was for the time being, at the height of the space race this new undiagnosed plague that causes other people to come back from the dead and consume other human beings around them is horrifying. This notion that we have the capability and technology to go to space and explore but really should we be doing that? The question of how far is too far is something we still wrestle with today so it’s very interesting to see how they addressed that issue in 1968. ]]> 2023-02-06 17:51:04 UTC https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2470509180 sflanagan01_2 https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2480246993 Rosemary’s Baby is an excellent example of gothic horror done under a much different lens. While gothic horror movies and television shows are often in secluded areas off the beaten path, Rosemary’s Baby takes place in the heart of Manhattan. This is an interesting choice that I personally think the movie is better for. From the outside the apartment building has extremely unique features from the columns, to the roof and even the main entry way of the building are very distinct and have a much older, very lived in feel to it. The set design of the apartments is very interesting as when Rosemary and Guy first tour the apartment it’s very dark and dated and after they move in the re-paint and even Minnie comments about how bright the apartment is. Meanwhile the rest of the building is very low lit and we, as viewers, see a very dark almost blood red apartment that Minnie and Roman live in. The whole building has its own character that's very dark and almost brooding and knowing that the building’s tenants are in on kidnapping the baby gives the aura of never having to leave and anybody who enters will inevitably get sucked in as well. Having the building set in New York City was great because it lent itself to the feeling that the coven was everywhere and anybody could be a part of it, even the original doctor Rosemary saw turned out to be an accomplice to Doctor Saperstein. Overall using the city as a backdrop was a clever way to display a feeling of these people walking amongst us, in plain clothes and what happens behind closed doors or within the walls of something so simple as an apartment building isn’t as innocent or predictable as it may seem.]]> 2023-02-13 20:38:39 UTC https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2480246993 sflanagan01_2 https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2505779721 The Shining and The Exorcist both explore the theme of possession pretty differently but do hold some similarities. On a larger scale level The Shining’s take on possession is a lot more subtle in how it goes about implementing the possession of Jack. The Exorcist shows a lot more violent consistency throughout the movie through Regan, it’s all religious and extremely graphic. Jack’s possession and strong relationship with those who have died in the hotel before him is much slower, almost as if he is being courted by the hotel. There are two critical moments in the movie where we see the different effects of the hold the hotel has on Jack and Danny. When Danny sees the twin girls he becomes overwhelmed with fear and covers his eyes with his hands only to slowly pull them off his face to reveal the ghosts are messing with him. The other critical moment is when Jack, after coming off a fight with Wendy, comes across the parlor and walks up to the bar searching for a drink only to cover his eyes in frustration only to reveal when he takes his hands off his face that a bartender has appeared with a full bar. These two pivotal moments reveal that the hotel feels threatened by any outsider that isn’t Jack. Similarly to the Exorcist, the demon possessing Regan only wanted to deal with people who it could manipulate and invoke some adverse reaction so when priests came and performed their work it felt very threatened and tried to stave off as hard as it could. The Overlook Hotel only felt that they could manipulate those that were of weak mind which was in the movie, Jack who struggled with alcohol and insecurity which would be very easy to manipulate into rage, Danny had the help of Tony and “The Shining” to ward off these thoughts unlike Regan who fell victim to these demons.]]> 2023-03-06 20:32:45 UTC https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2505779721 sflanagan01_2 https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2518401772 Within American film culture there are a few tropes that become transparent throughout different films and in this film, Halloween, we see a trope identified as the “Final Girl.” Laurie, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, is the lone survivor of her friend group who are all murdered by Michael Myers and has a few very identifiable traits contrary to her teenage counterparts. Laurie is a very pure young woman, focused on school work and the responsibilities of babysitting  two young children. Laurie doesn’t very much concern herself with drinking or fooling around with other young men of Haddonfield highschool. Michael Myers is seen stalking her throughout the movie but gets caught nearly every time by Laurie while whenever Michael is stalking another young teenager, they are too oblivious to recognize this large, ominous, looming figure waiting to find the right moment to strike. These other teens are two busy making plans to get away with something they all know they shouldn’t be doing for the time they're in, i.e. drinking, having sex, skipping school work. It’s also worth noting that Michael killed his older sister when she was around that age after she was done fooling around with a guy, clearly highlighting a pattern that's consistent with serial killers. I think this speaks to the inherent patriarchal societal norms of the suburban life within American culture at the time. Women, especially young women, should represent purity in its best light and if they don’t a serial killer will come and do what Michael Meyers did. When Michael Meyers killed those young people it was like he was cleansing the impurities out of a quiet normative suburban society where not much goes on and those that stray need to pay for their sins. Halloween is a very interesting look at how society perceives young women entering adulthood through the lens of a horrifying serial killer, hell-bent on achieving his mission, even if he gets stabbed or shot.]]> 2023-03-15 21:33:29 UTC https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2518401772 sflanagan01_2 https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2533388722 Wes Craven’s Scream takes a much different approach to other horror films, particularly “slasher” movies, that have been done in the past. Scream doesn’t only involve a lot of introspection about the typical tropes of horror movies but also employs them in their own right. Wes Craven does an excellent job at walking the audience through a crime movie disguised as a horror movie through the writing, having the characters talk about previous, famous horror films e.g. The Exorcist or Halloween. Before the climax at the end of the movie, the character Randy goes over the “rules” of any horror movie, talking about purity, never separating from the group and never indulging in mind altering substances and ironically the main character, Sidney, has violated every one of these rules within minutes of showing up to the house party. I believe Wes Craven does this very intentionally because it leads the audience to believe that Sidney will die at the hand of the killer only to have the script flipped after Sidney kills Billy in the Ghostface costume. Throughout the movie's dialogue there is an over explanation or explanation of several different tropes and in a sense this is similar to breaking the fourth wall without exposing everything, it’s just enough to get the viewer engaged only to have the rug pulled out from underneath them at the last second. It would have been very interesting to see how Clover would approach this movie, especially the character of Sidney. By all accounts Sidney should be dead based on the Final Girl tropes that Clover outlines but she doesn’t, she overcomes and takes on that masculine energy after losing her virginity to Billy and taking the fight right to both Billy and Stu. I believe Clover would really admire this movie and outline how it sets a new standard for gender roles within movies moving into the 21st century.]]> 2023-03-27 16:23:16 UTC https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2533388722 sflanagan01_2 https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2549271879 Dreams are a very unique experience to each individual, they have this way about them that seems extremely personal but at the same time play with space and time. It makes sense that David Robert Mitchell would base his movie It Follows off nightmares he had growing up. The idea that this thing that takes on shapes with no real discerning features or features that change constantly throughout the dream is following from a distance, always closing but never getting faster is horrifying. Mitchell did a great job illuminating this within the movie especially because only the person being followed can identify that they are being followed and see the figure. I think another interesting thing to correlate to a dream would be all of the sexuality involved with teenagers in this movie, the audience can clearly see that these teens are going through very hard adolescent years in a city that has pretty much been left behind in Detroit. All they have is each other and the inherent trust that neighborhood kids have with each other all while passing around this murderous science-fiction like entity that is constantly following them. I think there are two scenes in particular that really help build this movie into a science fiction horror as well as a faux slasher, the first scene would be when all the teens lock themselves in the room and then open the door to let Yara in and she's followed but this huge almost “Slender Man” looking entity with no eyes that only Jay can see is not only terrifying but bleeds deeply into science fiction horror, the lack of soul within the entity, no clear motive but to only kill. The second scene would be when Greg’s house gets broken into by an entity that looks similar to Greg but when Jay follows the entity into the house, it has changed into Greg's own mother who murders him and proceeds to have intercourse with him as his soul leaves his body. These two scenes in particular really helped frame those dream-like nightmares that are unique to individuals like Mitchell and help give this film so much depth.]]> 2023-04-10 21:52:17 UTC https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2549271879 sflanagan01_2 https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2557256113 Jordan Peele’s Get Out was one of the more groundbreaking movies to come out of 2017 and within the horror genre as a whole. With that being said Get Out was one of the more polarizing films to come out, especially for the time frame it came out. Coming off a very contentious election period where the country seemed more divided than ever since the 90’s riots in Los Angeles. Racial division is a very uniquely American problem in the sense that African American culture has played an integral role within defining what it means to be American. So many things that stem from African American culture within the United States have become mainstream in houses all across the country from the farmlands of Iowa all the way to streets of Manhattan. The scene in Get Out where they were using bingo cards to bid on Chris was pretty alarming to any viewer as I’ve never seen something like that out of slavery based film. I think Jordan Peele did this purposefully obviously to show how the white elite of America view African Americans in this country. To try and rob Chris of his own mind reminded me of the way corporate America will take on artists, particularly black artists and give them deals that don’t really benefit the artist so the company can make a ton of money off of someone else’s intellectual property and then sell it back to them as a great deal. Since Get Out was released in the theaters there have been a lot of African American horror movies released including 2 more from Jordan Peele himself, Us and Nope. These movies largely have been received well and it seems like although controversial at the time, it fundamentally shifted the horror paradigm on it’s head and allows a new brand of horror the United States hasn’t seen before.]]> 2023-04-17 16:28:33 UTC https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2557256113 sflanagan01_2 https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2566016250 Nia DeCosta’s 2021 film Candyman is a film that on the surface is a horror film but interwoven throughout the film is a commentary on social issues that are current with the time for when the film was released. Taking place in Chicago we see the main character, Anthony, who lives in a newer luxury apartment in a previously run down area of the city which is a talking point several times throughout the film about how a city will abandon areas of a city, particularly areas that minorities live, and choke the area of essential resources until it dies than new wealth can move in for cheap. This gentrification happens in all cities and disenfranchises these areas that have such rich history, a good example of this would be in another city, San Francisco, the Mission District of San Francisco has been a cultural hub for Latin Americans that has stood the test of time against gentrification through dating back from the 1980’s cocaine epidemic all the way through the emergence of the tech sector within the city. So how does a neighborhood maintain an identity while operating on low income? I think in a broad sense, through a deep sense of community where neighborhoods police themselves and everyone looks out for each other but as we saw in Candyman, unfortunately, the housing projects in that area of Chicago fell victim to lack of infrastructure, police presence, etc. essentially robbing all of those working class people of human needs. If you wanted to look closer to home, we could look at the skyline being built up around Mott Haven and the South Bronx, two previously very dangerous neighborhoods, riddled with drugs and gang violence that have struggled to overcome financial burdens of everyday life. It’s like Anthony said in the movie, the city built the projects and when they didn’t want them anymore they let them rot, and since the 1970’s during the rise of the drug epidemic these neighborhoods never really recovered or returned to what they were and by the time the city tried to get involved it was to late so now the properties are worth so little giant real estate developers can move in and build high rise luxury apartments creating huge wealth disparity amongst the community pushing out tenants who have lived and worked there their entire life.

]]> 2023-04-24 16:54:41 UTC https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2566016250 sflanagan01_2 https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2573101492 Barbarian, a 2022 horror movie directed by Zach Creggers is a fresh new take on the genre while also having hints of familiarity from movies like Misery, It and Halloween. This movie challenges a lot of preconceived notions of horror archetypes such as the final girl, black people dying quickly and finally the role of the monster. It isn’t until towards the end of the movie we see who the real victims are; the Creature, Tess and every other woman that was filmed in that basement. Cregger’s does an excellent job slowly uncovering this over the course of the movie through the use of AJ character as the film shifts from being a horror movie to being a movie about the complexities of sexual assault and what it does to those who are victims of it. I think AJ’s character was extremely interesting, it was very familiar for the modern day in the wake of the #MeToo movement and when he reveals to his friend at the bar that the sex he had with his coworker wasn’t really consensual at all he feels no remorse, only anger that she would speak out on it publicly. AJ’s inability to recognize his current immediate surroundings was comical at times, for example when Tess and Keith discovered the underground tunnels, there was legitimate fear in their faces especially Tess who even declared at one point “Nope.” when staring down the hallway only for AJ to break out a tape measure and measure all the way down to the lair of the Mother. I think Carol Clover would really appreciate a movie like this and grabs the horror stereotypes by the horns and flips it on its head. The only characters who die in the film are men with the exception of the Mother at the end of the film when Tess finally puts her out of her misery.]]> 2023-04-30 19:58:52 UTC https://padlet.com/sflanagan01_2/mikpr8o86b2vd32b/wish/2573101492