The Horror Pod Class

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The beauty of small theatres is that they act as little pockets of experimentation.  They are smaller and more adaptable and willing to try lots of different things to get people in the door.  That's why last week Screenland Armour hosted a kick ass free screening of The Ranger directed by Jenn Wexler.  A small budget slasher film with a fiesty indepededent spirit was exactly what I needed to start the work week.  

The Ranger at its core is a movie about a girl whose uncle dies in the woods only to be rescued by a forest ranger.  The titular ranger (Jeremy Holm) is not the good guy he seems. Years later Chelsea(Chloe Levine) now a young woman runs with a group of punk rockers.  During a raid on a night club they are hanging out in the group shoot a police officer and decide a cabin in the woods is the perfect place to run to.  Chelsea leads the group to the cabin her deceased uncle bequeathed her.  The ranger recognizing Chelsea begins to come after her and her friends. 

The Ranger leans into its label as a a punk rock slasher.  All of the characters would willingly define themselves by that label.  They go to punk rock concerts, they dress punk, and most importantly they have that fuck you mentality we commonly associate with that genre.  That being said as we are establishing our main characters the punk rock label is never a mask our characters can hide behind.  If they are assholes, they are punk assholes.  If they are ditzy and silly than they are ditzy and silly punks.  In short punk rock is not a panacea for everyone's personality issues.  I appreciate that level of introspection.  It gives a fullness to the characters that makes the punkness of the movie feel more like a contribution as opposed to a contrivance.  The soundtrack is absolutely bonkers.  Comprised mostly of west coast punk the sountrack is a wonderful hodgepodge of new and old.  You will find Rotten UK, The Polyester Wags, and The Lobstrosities to name a few on this absolutely killer mix tape.  It is clear that the soundtrack was handled with the same loving care the movie was given which is a truly rare thing nowadays.       

The acting in this movie by the supporting cast is servicable.  There is no one stealing scenes from Chelsea or the ranger.  They are mostly standins for traditional slasher archtypes only with punk and modern sensibilitites.  Two of the punks happens to be gay which interjects a level of modernity to the slasher subgenre that some are all too fast to label conservative.  Chloe Levine is an absolute star.  She emotes more with her giant eyes than most do with their entire bodies.  Levine plays Chelsea with a richness that helps the audience grasp her level of damage without painting her as a victim.   She is a survivor and in a punk rock fantasy that is about as good as it gets.  Jeremy Holm plays a great goofy villain.  I am not quite sure if he is going for campy or realism and this indescsion prevented me from ever deciding if this character is really fully developed. There is a bit with some wolf skin and some howling that totally lost me towards the end of the film.  That being said if his only job is to create pe

M: GoT. Finished Jean Rey. Hey also Written in Darkness Mark Samuels

OR: hey, wanna read some Canadian Horror? Gemma Files http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/drawn-up-from-deep-places/

Essential Question: How does Ginger Snaps handle Puberty, the Female Monster and Transfiguration.

Movie

Hey, BTW there were two sequels: https://www.thoughtco.com/ginger-snaps-movie-franchise-1873037

Theory

https://modernmythology.net/weird-horrors-conceit-807fde7e5170

Out by Sixteen”:Queer(ed) Girls in

Ginger Snaps—Tanis MacDonald in Jeuneese, Young Poe

Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures 3.1 2011

I am your worst fear, I am your best fantasy: new approaches to slash fiction

Brennan, Joseph Carl Linden

https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/5872

Application of Theory to the Movie

http://www.brattleblog.brattlefilm.org/2019/01/23/lunatics-and-riot-grrrls-how-ginger-snaps-reclaimed-the-feminine-power-of-the-werewolf-14629/

Mike:  Game of Thrones.  History of Westeros Podcast. 

Time is a Flat Circle: Examining True Detective, Season One

Melissa Milazzo

with Adam and Mark Stewart

Dark Corners of the Web

From The Tablet:  The Second Wife

Essential Question:  Is there such a thing as  Jewish Horror...Also Mike is an Anti Semite

The Movie:

1.  Not really old testament more like apocryphal religious. 

2.  Some background information for the Actual Dybbuk Box

3.  Truman State University connection.

Theory

Judaism, The Dybbuk Box, and Possession by Yoram Bilu

Too Holy To Print by J.H. Chajes on Tablet

Spirit Possession in Judaism (Hardcover) Cases and Contexts from the Middle Ages to the Present (Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology)

Matisyahu is great

The Application

The Witch of Endor

The Disembodied Evil of Jewish Horror by Nathan Abrams

Other Jewish horror.  The new Golem!. 

 NEXT WEEK:  GINGER SNAPS and Transfiguration

I saw US. Some good information about it. https://shadowandact.com/the-ending-of-us-explained-review

The Best Science Fiction of the Year Neil Clark

Getting Ready for Zombie 101

Dark Corners of the Web

3rd bear

http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/vandermeer_04_07/ Also Listen on StarShipSofa Podcast

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Essential Question:

What does Tragedy Girls have to say about SM….PS its on Hulu

1. The Movie

Reviews

https://www.signalhorizon.com/single-post/2018/02/11/Movie-Review-Tragedy-Girls-Is-the-Horror-Satire-We-Want-and-Need

http://collider.com/tragedy-girls-review/

https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/19/16449404/tragedy-girls-horror-comedy-review-slasher-satire

2. The Theory

https://childmind.org/article/how-using-social-media-affects-teenagers/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2018/03/19/5-ways-social-media-can-be-good-for-teens/?utm_term=.2f9cc063c21d

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/01/books/review/podcast-roger-mcnamee-zucked-facebook-catastrophe.html

3. Theory Application

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/08/social-media-copies-gambling-methods-to-create-psychological-cravings

Next on The Horror Pod Class: Splice and Genetic Engineering

The Horror Homeroom and It Comes At Night

Slate's discussion from the Director about Immigration

Annihilation News and Trailer Worry Fans of the Book at our website, SignalHorizon.com.  You can see the trailer for the upcoming movie and read a little bit about the problems adapting the book into a film.

You can also read for yourself what H.P. Lovecraft wrote about the genre, why it works, and how to write it.

Don't forget to head on over to Audible.com and start your free trial!  We recommend that you get a copy of Area X by Jeff VanderMeer, which contains the entire trilogy that starts with Annihilation.  Tyler recommends Karin Tidbeck as another great weird fiction author you can check out.

If you are looking for some weird fiction podcasts, check out Pseudopod, an excellent short horror fiction podcast with excellent stories and equally excellent narration.  We recommend you start your weird fiction journey with episodes 574: While the Black Stars Burn by Lucy Snyder, episode 568: The Room in the Other House by Kristi Demeester, and Episode 578: Alarm will Sound by Christopher Shultz.

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I am excited about Ararat.  It’s awesome. Also Books in the Freezer is great.  Here is the episode we were on. It was a ton of fun. Jonathan Janz The Dark Game.  Also Meta found footage movie Butterfly Kisses

Mike:  True Detective.  Open Curtain by Brian Evenson.  

Dark Corners of the Web

Body Parts Magazine

Bad Boy Kristen Roupenian. Bad Boy 

Essential Question:  How do the invasion of the body snatcher movies reflect the different cultural anxieties of the time.  

Screen Prism has a great body snatcher article

Capgras Delusion is pretty messed up.

Dudes that use logic

Teaching The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Weird people who don’t exist

Teachers in the era of accountability and testing.  We are the POD PEOPLE. Emotionless and robotic.  Found in:

Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue Volume 18 2016 by Michael Bailey

Not linking to the Washington Examiner.  Go find it yourself.

World Health Organization best practices guide for medical professionals to respond to vaccine deniers.  Or, HOW TO ARGUE WITH IDIOTS

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Twitter for Signal Horizon and The Horror Pod Class

Facebook Group for HPC

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The Philosophy of Horror by Noel Carroll

Hippocampus by Adam Neville 

Black Bark by Brian Evenson

The Invitation

High Times Article by Tim Kohut