"The Theatre of Cruelty has been created in order to restore to the theatre a passionate and convulsive conception of life, and it is in this sense of violent rigour and extreme condensation of scenic elements that the cruelty on which it is based must be understood. This cruelty, which will be bloody when necessary but not systematically so, can thus be identified with a kind of severe moral purity which is not afraid to pay life the price it must be paid." - Antonin Artaud
I've spent the past few months watching experimental film (Lucifer Rising), deconstructions of cinematic suffering (Funny Games), and soulless torture porn (Saw/Se7en). All of that has got me thinking about why horror works the…
"The Theatre of Cruelty has been created in order to restore to the theatre a passionate and convulsive conception of life, and it is in this sense of violent rigour and extreme condensation of scenic elements that the cruelty on which it is based must be understood. This cruelty, which will be bloody when necessary but not systematically so, can thus be identified with a kind of severe moral purity which is not afraid to pay life the price it must be paid." - Antonin Artaud
I've spent the past few months watching experimental film (Lucifer Rising), deconstructions of cinematic suffering (Funny Games), and soulless torture porn (Saw/Se7en). All of that has got me thinking about why horror works the way it does, and what shapes our experience of the genre as an audience: form, catharsis, violence as spectacle, etc. Plus, I'm 30 this year, and feel especially compelled to re-visit nostalgic films or those having their own decade+ anniversary. As in the past few years, I will be trying to balance these personal interests with Cinemonster's Hoop-Tober challenge and the Reddit October Horror Movie Challenge. Below is my aspirational list, to be narrowed throughout the month.
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QUICK EASY RULES:
🪦 6 countries: Austria, USA, Japan, Korea, UK, Italy, Spain
🪦 8 decades: 1930s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s
🪦 2 folk horror: Antichrist, Candyman (2021)
🪦 4 films from 1981: Scanners, Burial Ground, Dead and Buried, Nightmare
🪦 2 films from your birth year: The People Under the Stairs, Delicacies of the Molten Horror Synapse, Pit and the PendulumÂ
🪦 2 haunted house films: The Devil's Backbone, Scary Movie 2
🪦 The worst Part 2 that you haven't seen and can access: Halloween Kills
🪦 1 film set in the woods: Antichrist
🪦 1 Kaiju or Kong film (not the new K v. G): The Host
🪦 2 Hammer films: To the Devil a Daughter, Curse of the WerewolfÂ
🪦 3 films with a person of color as director or lead. (excluding Asian): The People Under the Stairs, Candyman (2021), Demon Knight, Scary Movie 2
🪦 3 Asian horror films: The Forest of Love, The Host, Pulse
🪦 And 1 Tobe Hooper Films (There must ALWAYS be a Hooper film): Invaders From Mars
***FOR THOSE THAT LIKE TO DO EXTRA WORK: WATCH JD's Revenge, The Skull and The Scooby Doo Project
-review them all.(eek)
Clearly one film can satisfy multiple criteria. Viewing and reviewing will begin at 12:01am cst on Sept 15th.
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2020, 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016 , 2015
