Films to be Viewed for this Course: {subject to change}
First Class: Introduction to horror.
Slade, D., director. Metalhead. Black Mirror. Series 4, episode 5. Original release date: 29 December 2017. Written by Charlie Booker.
Unit 1: What is horror? Why are we attracted to it? What does it do to us/for us?
Hooper, T., director. Poltergeist. Metro-Goldwin-Mayer Films, 1982. Rated PG: 120 minutes = haunted house, early fears of television, fears of burial grounds, fears of suburbia (old America, new America), creepy kids
Craven, Wes, director. Nightmare on Elm Street. New Line Cinema, 1984. Rated R: 91 minutes = fear of child molesters, sleep, dreams; gendered violence, slasher films, sex and horror, karma
Unit 2: Gendered/Racialized Horror—Do we have different fears based on our intersectionality/positionality?
Polanski, W., director. Rosemary’s Baby. Paramount Pictures. 1968. Rated (no rating): 2 h 17 min = fear of Satan, satanic possession, rape, cults; fear of lack of professional success, fear of old people, fear of old buildings, deal with the Devil/fear of Satan
Garland, A., director. Men. Entertainment Film Distributers, 2022. Rated R: 100 min = fear of stalking, assault, rape; fear of pastoral settings; fear of men in multiple forms; fear of nobody believing you/gaslighting
Peele, Jordan, director. Get Out. Universal Pictures, 2017. Rated R: 1 h 44 min= fear of white supremacy, country homes, racial crossing/interracial relationships; fear of racial inferiority, police, nature
Unit 3: Our horrific imagined futures…
Johnstone, G., director. M3GAN. Universal Pictures, 2022. Rated PG-13: 1h 42 min = fear of AI, fear of AI surpassing mankind’s intelligence, fear of dolls, fear of technology
Peele, Jordan, director. Us. Universal Pictures, 2019. Rated R: 2h 1 min = fear of abduction, a life that was stolen from someone else, the shadow economy, the Black bourgeoisie, class wars/differences, our good luck/fortune catching up with us, amusement parks
This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
