Oh friends, do I have some amazing articles for you this week. How musicals are a lot like horror movies, hauntings from Disney, a look at personal trauma through The Bear tv show, racial bias planted in The Birth of a Nation, and a fascinating look at the stage and re-experience.
Let’s just jump into them!
SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN SHORT NON-FICTION
“Scream in’ in the Rain: The Orchestration of Catharsis in William Castle’s The Tingler”
By: Michael Arnzen
Release: 12/7/24
Page count: 21
Synopsis: Arnzen draws a fascinating correlation between how musicals - such as Singin’ in the Rainare as cathartic as a horror movie such as The Tingler.
First line: “Full of brash ballyhoo, tricky gimmicks, and plenty of cinematic hokum, director William Castle’s low-budget ‘shocker’ films seem to lie somewhere far beyond - or beneath - criticism.”
Favorite line: “Those screams, in my view, are as interactive as any song in a musical that encourages an audience to sing along.”
Thoughts: What a creative and well researched article! At the beginning, I will be honest, I thought, “there is no way he is going to convince me that these two are alike…”, only to be pleasantly and very nerdily surprised by how much fun I had with it. Arnzen somehow made 1+1=3 when he compares Gene Kelly saying, “Gotta dance” to Vincent Price saying, “Scream for your lives!” Stellar read!
Rating: 4.5/5
“The Horror of Donna Berzatto and Her Feast of Seven Fishes”
By: Vince Liaguno
Release: Nov. 2024
Page count: 7
Synopsis: Liaguno draws from his personal life to relate and see a perspective in regard to his mother after watching an episode of The Bear tv series.
First line: “Like many who watched the bravura sixth episode of The Bear’s second season, I was taken in by the exquisite writing, the sublime choreography of the acting ensemble, and, of course, positively blown away by the award-worthy performance of Jamie Lee Curtis as the Berzatto family matriarch.”
Favorite line: “After decades of self-defense and rightful resentment for the admittedly horrible things she had done to me, I suddenly saw her through another set of eyes.”
Thoughts: Unfortunately, this one completely did not work for me as a Stoker level finalist. While interesting and raw, it doesn’t seem to fit with the academic feel of the other finalists. While it is personally horrific for Liaguno, it is not an overall sense of horror for others.
Rating: 3/5
“Hidden Histories: The Many Ghosts of Disney’s Haunted Mansion” (from DISNEY GOTHIC: DARK SHADOWS IN THE HOUSE OF MOUSE)
By: Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock
Release: 2024
Page count: 19
Synopsis: The history of the Haunted Mansion through three lenses: Gore and Blood, Dark Rides and Ghostly Sights, and American History.
First line: “Despite being invested in the past in the way that all haunted houses inevitably are, Disney’s Haunted Mansion attraction stages what might be referred to as ‘historicity without history’”.
Favorite line: “Bringing together the themes of murdered brides, the haunted portrait, and the haunted house is possible point of reference… to Rebecca.”
Thoughts: A Disney fan’s dream article. So many fun tidbits to go with the history of the exhibit. I wish some of the theories referenced were expanded on, but overall, an interesting read.
Rating: 3.5/5
“Jackson and Haunting of the Stage” (from the Journal of Shirley Jackson Studies - Vol. 2, NO.1 )
By: Kevin J. Wetmore Jr.
Release: 2024
Synopsis: Jackson’s novels turned plats and how re-experiencing media in different forms can lose nostalgic feelings.
First line: “… This brief sequence in the novel illustrates and satirizes the prejudices, causal and cruelties, and attitudes of its postwar suburban California characters.”
Favorite line: “… that all texts are haunted by other texts, and all theatrical performances are haunted by the audience’s memories of previous performances.”
Thoughts: What an article! I never knew that Jackson wrote a play and one that sounds feisty and relevant even today. We learn the why she wrote it, the staging, the request for more performances. Then we get into fascinating deep dive of how re-experiencing media from one form to another, or even one production play to a different company, can detract from the original experience. It may sound simple but the way Wetmore Jr. lays it out is fantastic. I read his nomination last year and he is constantly remarkable.
Rating: 4.5/5
“Blacks in Film and Cultivated Bias” (from the anthology NO MORE HAUNTED DOLLS: HORROR FICTION THAT TRANSCENDS THE TROPES)
By: Lisa Wood
Release: 2024
Page count: 24
Synopsis: How the release and subsequent viewership of The Birth of a Nation caused, and continue to cause, heightened bias towards Black people in all forms of media.
First line: “In The Birth of a Nation, the seeds of what has become a deep-rooted bias towards Black people were planted.”
Favorite line: “For example, horror movie classics such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street are designed to reflect any town U.S.A.; however, there are no Black characters present.”
Thoughts: Everyone needs to read this. Simple as I can put it. There are so many quotes and lines that made me stop s and reflect. Sections such as how blaxploitation did more harm than expected, the way slaves were seen as docile and subservient compared to their portrayal after the abolishment of slavery, to how most white readers do not seek out Black literature. Hands down, one of the best scholarly articles I have ever read.
Rating: 5/5
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