Monthly Archives: June 2009

Michael Jackson’s Contribution to Horror in Pop Culture

June 26th, 2009 | Posted in American Werewolf in London, ghost, horror, John Landis, Rick Baker, Stan Winston, Thriller

Yesterday the news quickly circulated around the Internet, television and other forms of media that Michael Jackson, talented musician and tortured personal figure, had passed away. The final chapter has yet to be written on his life as the complete autopsy results will not be known for several weeks while toxicology tests are performed, but […]

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Roman Catholicism in Fantastic Film

June 25th, 2009 | Posted in horror, Roman Catholicism

The Religion and Popular Culture email group is circulating the following call for papers. Since at least the late 18th Century, the symbolism, practices, and personnel of the Roman Catholic religion have been elements of the fantastic, the supernatural and the horrific in Western literature and art. Mad monks and evil nuns, abandoned monasteries, and […]

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Romance, Gender, and Horror Icons

June 20th, 2009 | Posted in vampire, zombie

Vampires have had a long connection to sexuality and romance as they have been expressed through literary history. Dracula, the most famous, or infamous, of all vampires is well known for playing off a sense of eroticism, both in his encounters with women, and also at times forms of homoeroticism as well. This connection has […]

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HBO’s True Blood: Viral Marketing and Fact-Fiction Reversals

June 14th, 2009 | Posted in hyper-real spiritualities (or fiction-based), True Blood, vampire

A recent article in religion dispatches, “True Blood: When Marketing Goes For the Jugular,” by Joseph Laycock, author of Vampires Today: The Truth About Modern Vampires (Praeger, 2009), describes an interesting scenario where the lines between horror fiction and popular culture were blurred, and for some, obliterated. Laycock discusses the hit HBO series True Blood, […]

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Midnight Syndicate Films Releases THE DEAD MATTER

June 9th, 2009 | Posted in horror, independent horror films, Midnight Syndicate

TheoFantastique is a supporter of independent film, particularly in the form of indie horror. Midnight Syndicate Films makes its contribution to this art form with The Dead Matter. The press release for the film reports that post-production was completed at the end of April. “‘I am absolutely thrilled with how the movie came out,” says […]

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Rue Morgue Magazine Tribute to Ray Harryhausen

June 7th, 2009 | Posted in Ray Harryhausen, Rue Morgue magazine, stop-motion animation

The new issue of Rue Morgue magazine, #90 (June 2009), recently hit newsstands. I knew when I received their weekly email announcement that I had to pick up a copy of this issue to add to my collection. The cover art drew my attention to the Ray Harryhausen tribute. Fans of fantasy films will be […]

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Graeme Harper on Surrealism in Suspense and Horror Films

June 1st, 2009 | Posted in Surrealism

Professor Graeme Harper is Director of the National Institute for Excellence in the Creative Industries at University of Wales, Bangor. He is author of Swallowing Film (2000), and Comedy, Fantasy and Colonialism (2001), and the co-editor of Signs of Life: Medicine and Cinema (2005). He is also the co-editor of the journal Studies in European […]

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