SHRIEK: Women of Horror Begins Tuesday with CARRIE!
by Evan J. Peterson
Tuesday will be the first night of SHRIEK: A Women of Horror Film and Discussion Class at Scarecrow Video. We’ll watch Carrie (discussed below in this post), I’ll tell you some things to look for and some things you probably don’t know about the film, and then we’ll have a community discussion.
Seats are expected to go quickly at SHRIEK, but you can reserve your space in the class here.
Stay tuned for next week’s session on Rosemary’s Baby!
The SHRIEK community film class is designed to offer everybody an affordable, accessible way to learn about film and women’s studies while enjoying kick-ass heroines in some of the best horror films ever made. We hope to inspire more women to get involved in film making, especially in the horror genre, where women are severely underrepresented behind the camera.
Kevin Clarke Reporting From Fantastic Fest
by Kevin Clarke
We sent intrepid part-time entertainment journalist and Scarecrow employee/loyalist Kevin Clarke to Austin’s Fantastic Fest to report on the goings on. Well, technically he sent himself. Either way, these movies look awesome.
Green Room (2015)
Waifs and Strays: Treatments of the Solitary Girl in Film
by Melanie Reed
Since its inception, film has been employed to raise society’s awareness of the plight of its abandoned or marginalized members. But the ways these kinds of stories have been told vary as dramatically as the ways they’ve been told in literature and nonfiction. What kinds of story elements best help us to identify and feel another’s pain? Sometimes this is best achieved simply by the close observation of a solitary individual’s daily life. In film as well as literature, the scenes and sensory details must be deployed in effective choice and sequence to create an atmosphere that progressively paints a picture of a character. Filmmakers who choose to “show vs tell” take the harder but subtler route. The material must feel realistic, yet have symbolic content. The actors must work diligently and deeply to display nuanced responses to their experiences that in many cases take the place of dialogue. If we as viewers are open to it, this kind of slowly building picture of a person who is lost or struggling can in the end touch us more than either a comprehensive documentary with many interviewees or a docudrama-style treatment with strongly telegraphed dialogue, “dramatic” music, and a morally black and white ending.
Art Appreciation: VHS Ninja Box Chop!
by Travis Vogt
Few genres have given more masterpieces to the world of VHS box art than Ninja movies. What is it about these films that so inspired legions of box artisans throughout the years? The balletic movement of martial arts in application? The primal simplicity of raw human combat? The swan-like elegance of a muscular human body while engaged in the sacred act of kicking? The nifty costumes? Sadly, we may never know the answer to this age-old question, as all of the artists responsible for the following pieces are no doubt long dead by now. Their work, however, lives on in all its rapturous, thrust-y glory. Brace yourselves–the dazzling beauty of these canvasses will shake you up like a spin kick to the jaw. Or better yet, a throwing star to the crotch.
