Faculty of Horror
Podcasting from the Horrored Halls of Academia
Episode 26. Mother Lover: Matriarchy in The Wicker Man (1973 & 2006) and Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
Andrea and Alex talk about sisters doing it for themselves as women run communities, islands and families with sinister intentions. Are they better, worse or the same as communities run by men? Have they developed an immunity to bee stings and Bloody Mary?
REQUIRED READING
The Wicker Man. Dir Robin Hardy. 1973
The Wicker Man. Dir Neil LaBute. 2006
Paranormal Activity 3. Dir Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman. 2011
EXTRA CREDIT
The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory. The first chapter from Cynthia Eller’s book which discusses the second wave feminism fascination with a matriarchal order.
The Eeriness of the English Countryside. From film to literature, a look at why the British countryside creeps us out.
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Episode 25. I Thought There’d Be Stars: The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Andrea and Alex return to the outskirts of civilization with Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods. Looking at archetypes, genre tropes and the limits of humanity, the Faculty ponders the fate of horror and if it should survive.
REQUIRED READING
The Cabin in the Woods. Dir Drew Goddard. 2012.
EXTRA CREDIT
The Cabin in the Woods: The Official Visual Companion by Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon.
Literature’s Greatest Fools. A look at famous fools from across literature.
The Stanford Prison Experiment on YouTube. Not a horror movie per se, but pretty chilling all the same.
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Episode 24. Kill is Kiss: Pontypool (2008)
Up is down, left is right and black is white in this month’s episode. Tackling the Canadian winter horror film Pontypool, Andrea and Alex talk about national identity, broadcast journalism and how the stories we tell should stop making sense.
REQUIRED READING
Pontypool. Dir Bruce McDonald. 2008.
EXTRA CREDIT
Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media: The Extension of Man (1964). The Canadian theorist’s treatise on humanity’s dependence on (and interpretations of) media.
Northrop Frye – Conclusion to a Literary History of Canada (1965). Canadian-ism and the garrison mentality.
Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (1972) by Margaret Atwood.
Pontypool Changes Everything (2009) by Tony Burgess.
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