Posts Tagged ‘normality’

Robin Wood famously articulated the American horror film, but one thing still needs to be added

While rereading Robin Wood’s essay An Introduction to the American Horror Film I noticed that it failed to talk about an important element in the discussion of what exactly describes an American horror film. The absence of this topic in his subsection titled “Basic Formula” surprises me now, as it is arguably just as simple a provision to the genre as the overarching blueprint stipulating that “normality is threatened by the Monster.” While Wood’s essay has long since been considered a seminal one for both him and academic thought about the horror genre, and this is very true, an amendment should nevertheless be made. That amendment is specific but not intricate, dealing with the main protagonist’s direct relationship with the antagonist.

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On Halloween everyone's entitled to one good scare

Happy All Hallows Eve everyone. In celebration of this most frightening of holidays, we here at Movie-Thoughts invite you to take a look at our essay on a film that was inspired by this night of the year – John Carpenter’s Halloween.

They say the more you know your fears the less powerful they become. Our essay, “Halloween: Destroying Normality One Home and Family at a Time,” will help you kick the frights that scare you while watching Halloween by allowing you to know better what exactly it is that makes you so scared of it. So save yourself, and don’t be afraid.

Halloween‘s definition of normality - that is, how normality is represented in the film - is depicted as being relatively care-free with only minor day-to-day inconveniences and annoyances to battle with (a friend speaking to your crush for you, a boyfriend getting grounded on a date night, getting harassed by bullies, etc.). It is an enclosed suburban world where evil does not reside, and the time of when it once did is considered a distant memory; a history that is acknowledged but not really known or given much, if any, attention. The horror inherent in this film is that this normality comes under threat by something completely unexpected that they could not have prepared for. Michael Myers is a threat that seeks to change the definition of normality in his world – that is, the world as seen through his eyes - and ends up also changing it for others. Read the rest of this entry »