The Wretched: Supernatural Twist on Rear Window Casts a Spell

Horror movies often work best when they place extraordinary events in relatively ordinary settings. Halloween scares because its inexplicable evil just happens. It has no motive or reason, and it happens right next door. The family in Poltergeist could be your family. And the neighbours in Rosemary’s Baby seem so damn ordinary. As the “Master […]

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Mental Illness in Horror Movies: Exploiting and Stigmatizing For Scares

Years before Joker raised a furor, the American Psychiatric Associated (APA) levelled similar criticisms at DC Comics. Specifically, the APA took issue with Batman’s ‘rogues gallery’ and its misrepresentation of mental illness. Outside of comics, popular culture has historically misrepresented mental illness. Like mainstream news media, our movies and television entertainment have propagated the myth […]

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A Boy’s Best Friend is His Mother: Horror’s Worst Mothers

Happy Mother’s Day! Every year we take one day to honour those special women that raised and molded us into the people we are today. Horror films, however, thrive by letting fear and darkness into corners where we normally feel safe. Here, in the world of horror films, you’ll find mothers for which not even […]

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