Leo Braudy, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
All the popular monsters you’ll see out trick-or-treating, from Frankenstein to Dracula, were born out of fear and anxiety about change and technology.
The Oujia board’s origins were anything but evil. It emerged, in part, out of a longing to communicate with loved ones who had died during the Civil War.
The Netflix series Stranger Things is a throwback to the glory days of cinematic horror. And as VHS disappears from our shelves, this show’s 80s-infused nostalgia is doubly poignant.
Hamlet begins with a ‘night of the living dead’; Banquo turns into a ghost . The Bard had a supernatural streak and it was crucial to the genesis of Gothic literature.
I suggest we take a couple of hours tonight to watch (or re-watch) The People Under the Stairs. And then we can relegate Craven, and the film, to the dustbin of history, sticking them under the stairs where they belong.
40 years ago, Steven Spielberg’s shark attack classic wowed cinemagoers and ushered in the modern blockbuster. It also helped create a climate from which horror has yet to recover.
Christopher Lee, who died on June 7, was one of the greatest character actors to have ever appeared on screen, even after fleeing Castle Dracula for the hills of Hollywood.