October 16, 2017 – (originally published October 4, 2012) Tree hugging peaceful pagan hippies, you say? Perhaps, perhaps…but the horror genre hasn’t always seen it that way. Given their association with the Celtic S’amhain, our Halloween, it’s only natural that the ancient Celtic priest class would find their way into our tawdry terror tales without any sort of critical eye. Continue reading
source: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498519090/Possessed-Women-Haunted-States-Cultural-Tensions-in-Exorcism-Cinema
October 13, 2017 – When I first stumbled onto the blog It’s Playing, But With Research, I was jealous. Jealous! With envy as green as the pea soup streaming out of Regan’s mouth! Academics CarrieLynn D. Reinhard and Christopher J. Olson not only studied exorcism cinema for a living, but they compiled a comprehensive list movies featuring an exorcism (the list is continually revised).
What?! Someone has watched more exorcism cinema than me?? Impossible – I wasn’t having it! So I went on a bender thanks to their list, and we began a correspondence that ended with me having a credit on their book Possessed Women, Haunted States. What a lovely honor. I urge you to read the book (which analyzes the tropes of exorcism cinema and puts them in sociological context), check out their blog and listen to their podcast, Pop Culture Lens. Continue reading
October 12, 2017 – As I’ve chronicled on a prior version of this blog, satanic panic is de rigeur in recent horror cinema. From the possession and exorcism genre revived by The Exorcism of Emily Rose to retro satanic cult thrillers like House of the Devil. From the franchising of Ed & Lorraine Warren’s infamous devil-busting “true stories” to the conflation of witchcraft with devil-worship (Lords of Salem, The VVitch). From flirtations with affirming the 1980s moral panic of Satanic Ritual Abuse (HBO’s True Detective) to challenging it (Regression).
My suspicion is that current filmmakers are as fascinated as I am with it, some of them having studied its history and some of them having lived it. But I also suspect it’s failing to strike any basic nerve or chord with today’s audiences, except perhaps in the more insane conspiracy theory circles out there.
So I wanted to take the opportunity to highlight six made for TV movies made straight out of the Satanic Panic era! I chose these primarily because they earnestly traffic in the lurid prurient headlines of the times with zero irony and Lifetime TV Production panache. Some have very high profile actors involved, which makes them simultaneously awful and delightful. Continue reading
October 11, 2017 – This will be a short one, and please be warned that there are heavy SPOILERS for Exorcist The Series. Season 2 has already begun airing on Fox. I started an “Exorcist Retrospective” on this blog and I’ll take this opportunity of the 31 Days of Halloween to catch up by covering last year’s Season 1. Continue reading
(This post was originally published May 13, 2010 and is part of an ongoing serial of fiction stories about Sister Lucretia Dismas, aka the ‘Noir Nun’, a violent foul mouthed nun fighting crime and occult menaces)
Heart racing violently, tears threatening to burst forth in relief, the woman observed Sister Lucretia Dismas walking up the stairs and down the long corridor of the drab concrete hallway. As the nun strode forth in sweeping steps, her habit and robe billowed splendidly, sentient, living extensions of the holy woman’s will. Continue reading
October 9, 2017 – If all goes well, what I write below (plus some sort of introduction and minus the more spoilery parts) I’ll submit in a sound file to Gary Hill of Legion Podcasts, who has requested short horror reviews for his October 2017 project. Check out Cinema Beef Podcast and all of the great podcasts on the Legion network which have been keeping me sane in tough times.
I was excited to watch 2016’s No Estamos Solos (directed by Daniel Rodriguez) on Netflix, released as We Are Not Alone. It is a Peruvian horror movie, something I have never seen. I may dedicate next year’s 31 Days of Halloween to covering international horror. Continue reading
October 6, 2017 – Dig THIS, baby: Chillerpop can’t get behind any dull square that doesn’t love Hammer Films production of Dracula A.D. 1972! Yes, the movie is already dated at 1972. Swingin’ London, per “the Internet” was done by 1970.
October 5, 2017 – I fondly remember the days when major movie releases would have tie-in novels. They helped make the film, its logos, its marketing campaign, ubiquitous in bookstores and supermarket racks. That didn’t register as obnoxious branding to me then (it may now). If nothing else, they encouraged reading, especially for the kids who claimed they didn’t like to do it. The tough knucklehead rednecks that would pick on me for reading Narnia in 6th grade could be seen with the paperback novelizations of horror and action movies when we had those MS book pledge drives. Continue reading
October 4, 2017 – Plot: Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, the tenuous domestic order he has established with his wife and son is put to the ultimate test with the arrival of a desperate young family seeking refuge. Despite the best intentions of both families, paranoia and mistrust boil over as the horrors outside creep ever-closer, awakening something hidden and monstrous within him as he learns that the protection of his family comes at the cost of his soul. (Synopsis by imdb.com writer A24) Continue reading
October 3, 2017 – Plot: When police officer Carter (Aaron Poole) discovers a blood-soaked man limping down a deserted road, he rushes him to a local hospital with a barebones, night shift staff. As cloaked, cult-like figures surround the building, the patients and staff inside start to turn ravenously insane. Trying to protect the survivors, Carter leads them into the depths of the hospital where they discover a gateway to immense evil. (Source: IMDb. Written by Prodigy PR).
As I often say, I’m horrible at plot recaps and here doubly so. Because what you have in this gem is a paper thin plot involving a crazed hooded killer cult (one that makes run of the mill cinematic devil worship look like a PTA bake sale), a hospital standoff, a quest for immortality, and spare but memorable hints of gruesome insane cosmic creatures to drive you right mad. Continue reading
Chillerpop 