grey meat

A newsletter from the shed of

Now then Losers' Club, 

How are you doing? What have you been upto?

Since we last spoke, I have been poorly! I got so ill I ended up on the sofa for a few days in my pyjamas, during which Paul described my complexion as 'grey meat'. 

Thankfully I have now transcended the grey meat stage and am feeling a little more chipper.

Inbetween illness, I've done some work stuff.

First, my panel proposal, Acts of (Videographic) Speculation: The Aging Woman, has been accepted for the Society of Cinema and Media Studies conference. This means that in April 2023, I will be going to Denver, Colorado to screen and discuss Knit One, Stab Two, and talk about ageing women in film with my fellow panelists Dayna, Allison and Sadia. 

Second, I wrote a chapter, entitled 'Women in Global Horror Traditions' for the forthcoming book, The Routledge Companion to Horror. I love the Routledge Companion to Cult Cinema by Ernest Mathijs and Jamie Sexton and use it regularly, so I am hoping this will be a good companion volume.

I was approached to write the chapter, and given the chapter title by Adam Lowenstein (horror prof at Pittsburgh Uni, latest book Horror Film and Otherness). But after that, I had pretty much total leeway to do what I wanted with it. 

(I say, leeway to do what I wanted but I am now awaiting comments on the draft I turned in, so we shall see, ha!)

I use the chapter to trace a feminist intellectual history of women and horror film criticism, that considers women’s contributions as writers, as figures of representation on screen, and as filmmakers. This is all read through a global lens. I then set up a small case study on South East Asian cinema, and make a case for historical and contemporary gaps in our academic scholarship on horror film, and suggest theories, methods and approaches that could begin to address that gap.

I *think* I am pleased with it?

I mean, I wrote it very fast?

And although it is a solid draft, it is still a draft, and I expect to do a lot of polishing when I get feedback.

It was much the same with my Jackie Kong essay. I got the bones down, in the right order, with the argument, underpinned by research, then after feedback, I rewrote and rewrote and rewrote until I couldn't see the cracks in it anymore. 

I'll definitely have to do the same with this one.

In case you are interested, some of the references in the chapter are:

Ainslie, Mary. 2016. ‘Towards a Southeast Asian Model of Horror: Thai Horror Cinema in Malaysia, Urbanisation and Cultural Proximity,’ in Sophia Siddique and Raphael Raphael, eds, Transnational Horror Cinema: Bodies of Excess and the Global Grotesque. Basingstoke: Palgrave: 179–203.

Choi, Jinhee and Wada–Marciano, Mitsuyo, eds. 2009. Horror to the Extreme: Changing Boundaries in Asian Cinema. Aberdeen: Hong Kong University Press.

Creed, Barbara. 2022. Return of the Monstrous–Feminine: Feminist New Wave Cinema. Abingdon: Routledge.

Galt, Rosalind. 2022. Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonisation. New York: Columbia University Press.

Izharuddin, Alicia. 2015. ‘Pain and the Pleasures of the Look: The Female Gaze in Malaysian Horror Film,’ Asian Cinema, 26.2: 135–152.

Khosroshahi, Zahra. 2019. ‘Vampires, Jinn and the Magical in Iranian Horror Films,’ Frames Cinema Journal, 16: https://framescinemajournal.com/?issue=issue-16  

Kozma, Alicia. 2022. The Cinema of Stephanie Rothman: Radical Acts in Filmmaking. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 

Ruétalo, Victoria and Tierney, Dolores, eds. 2009. Latsploitation, Exploitation Cinemas, and Latin America. Abingdon: Routledge. 

Sen, Meheli. 2017. Haunting Bollywood: Gender, Genre and the Supernatural in Hindi Commercial Cinema. Austin: University of Texas Press.

The last work thing I want to talk about is something coming up - please feel free to join me for the Women Make Horror: 2 Years On event run by the BAFTSS Horror Special Interest group.

It is happening on Zoom, on Tuesday night - the 29th November - 7 - 8.30pm UK time. 

We are going to think about the legacies of the book, and discuss where work on women filmmakers and horror film criticism could go next.

I am most excited by the line up - I know I've talked about it to you before, but I'm going to remind you.

Our speakers include me, Women Make Horror contributor Dr Valeria Villegas Lindvall (Gothenburg Uni, Sweden), Doing Women's Global Horror Film History contributor Ylenia Olibet (Concordia Uni, Canada), filmmaker Prano Bailey-Bond (Censor, 2021), film curator Caryn Coleman (The Future of Film is Female; Nitehawk Cinema, New York; the Women Make Horror screening series at MoMA), and chaired by horror expert Dr Kate Egan (Northumbria Uni, UK).

We've got a crowd of filmmakers, curators and academics so we get multiple points of view on the topics I listed above. This is really important to me. I love that I get to write about horror as my job, and I love that I can do it in an academic context which gives me freedom to dive deep, and think hard, and write over a long period of time.

BUT I never want my work to just talk to other academics. I want to my ideas to have life in the wider community of film practitioners, programmers, fans and critics.

So this kind of event - and talking to these kinds of people - is really exciting.

Although it is run by academics it is free and open to all and I would love to see you there. If you want to come and just listen that is A-OK and no-one will make you turn your video on or speak or say hey! academics only! or anything stupid like that.

If you would like to attend, please fill out this form, before Tuesday 29th, or check out the BAFTSS Horror website, and I'll see you there.
 

***
 

What have you been watching? Tellywise, the whole family has started Wednesday (2022, Netflix) and so far I am thoroughly enjoying it. Beautifully shot, scored and performed, and the script is sharp as anything too. I very much recommend.

Films are a different matter though. Due to feeling like absolute shit, my bar for film quality has been low, and while I was so ill I could barely move, I watched three Christmas films on Netflix (thanks to Zosia for the recommendations): A Castle for Christmas (2021), Christmas Inheritance (2017) and Falling for Christmas (2022).

They were all extremely soothing and just what I needed. 

(and in my defence, A Castle for Christmas is directed by MARY LAMBERT and features tons of knitting).

Afterwards, when I could walk again, I told Helen about my Christmas film watching and she backed away in shock, like I don't even know who you are anymore, so I thought I'd better get back to watching some horror films before people started worrying about me.

I started by watching loads of children's horror with the kids.

We did The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Coraline (2009), and then I forced the whole family to watch Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) because I'd read it had knitting in it.

The latter went down like a lead balloon because the pacing of an early 1980s kids film (where literally nothing happens for the first 30 minutes) was not appreciated at all... 

I really love children's horror and fantasy films though, and they were totally a gateway into horror for me as a kid. If you are the same, and you are interested in diving into this field in a bit more depth, I recommend Cat Lester's book Horror Films for Children: Fear and Pleasure in American Cinema (2021).

I then realised I was ready to move on to grown-up horror films again, and went in on l morir la matinée / The Last Matinee (2020, Shudder) - pictured at the top of the newsletter.

This has been on my watchlist for ages, partly because it is one of the case studies for the Doing Women's Global Horror Project (made in Uruguay, female production designer) and partly because of the premise:

A crazed killer begins to pick off audience members attending the last showing of a horror film in a small downtown cinema. Meanwhile, the only person to notice that something strange is going on is the projectionist's daughter.

So this is a Uruguayan slasher + set in 1993 + in a cinema + led by a female character = yes please.

I love horror films set in old-fashioned, proper cinemas. My favourite is Popcorn (1991) but there are so many. I also love the intertextual play of cinemas in horror films, in what they are watching on screen, whether they are real or made up films, what the on-screen films are supposed to signify for the audience. There's a lot there for geeks like me to get their teeth into.

While I found this aspect of The Last Matinee very pleasing, it also quickly became apparent that there was not enough story to justify a feature length running time, and the script that exists is very, very thin.

None of the characters have backstories, and all of their worlds begin when they step into the cinema to watch this old horror film. Then, they don't all really talk to each other either? I swear, there is an active shying away from dialogue.

That would be OK most of the time in slasher films, a subgenre not known for its depth of character when it comes to supporting parts, but there are so few characters actually in this film, there is enough space to flesh them out a bit. And make them interact!

The most depth is given to our protagonist, our final girl, Ana. She is working the projector that evening in the cinema while also studying for her engineering exams, which is commendable in a first-wave- final-girl kind of move, but I feel by 2020 it would be nice to have been able to dig in a little more.

BUT

having said all this, and bear in mind this comes from me with my screenwriting background so I really care about script, I should also admit...:

The Last Matinee is very easy to watch, the sound design is fun, and the colour work is gorgeous - loads of greens (teal mint lime) set off by some very vivid pinks and scarlets,

I love the 1990s setting, particularly the costume design,

The serial killer steals the eyeballs of his cinephile victims and puts them in a big glass jar which is both gross and entertaining, and brought to mind Jeepers Creepers,

And the principal actors are good - Luciana Grasso who plays Ana is engaging and charismatic, and you definitely root for her.
 
In terms of storytelling it's definitely style over substance but the style is very enjoyable and very pretty it looks nice and it sounds nice.

Sometimes it's OK to be shallow, right?

Sometimes shallow is what is needed. 

The other feature I watched this week was Trick R Treat (2007, DVD), which has been sitting on the shelf behind my tv for so long.

I bought it for 99p from the charity shop on Bingley Road after someone told me it starred Anna Paquin and had female werewolves in it.

The synopsis is on Halloween, a few people face their worst nightmares as their paths cross one another. These include a couple that blows out a Halloween lamp, a serial killer, a college girl and a few errant teens.

My first thought was oh I should have watched this three weeks ago when it was Halloween the title really was a clue but ah well.

It became quickly apparent that the filmmakers want you to know that they know horror films. There are overt references in the prologue to Halloween and Scream, not to mention utlising that trope of hanging OMINOUS SHEETS in the garden which could be just washing on the washing line but could also CONCEAL BADDIES.

(which in itself is ably negotiated in the Pet Semetery flashback, to keep on point with the classic horror references).

The film is a series of interconnected stories about different types of people and different groups of people who live in the same town on Halloween.

It is shiny, well scored, confident, but yet another film where the script is really thin.

The premise is essentially: on this night monsters are real. That's about it? It's a kind of Monday night in the Hellmouth situation. 

At least The Last Matinee had a solid structure for the overall film. In Trick R Treat, we are just watching various different monsters in different bits of the town. It all feels a bit pointless until a brief moment of salvation at 49 minutes.

We are in a forest, in a clearing, by a fire, where Sexy Women are Having a Party. Then, a vampire, wearing a luchador mexican wrestling mask, and wrapped in Red Riding Hood's red cloak, falls out of a tree. We then cut to a dude in a bear mask, who has been kneeling down in the shadows, (yes guys we get it, you have seen The Shining), and then Anna Paquin swaggers into the clearing, covered in blood, and we realise oh it is not her blood!

I became momentarily invested at this point, even more so when the vampire admits he is called Stephen (?!) and then all the sexy women turn into werewolves and kill everyone to the soundtrack of Marilyn Manson's Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) cover

(so 2000s).

From Salinma (1965, South Korea) to Veerana (1988, India) and beyond, most female shapeshifter films have some element of  patriarchal critique in them, however obliquely, where the female monsters are attempting to take down unequal and gendered power relations at some level.

But Trick R Treat is too dumb even for this.

The thesis in the female werewolf story is: 

you thought the girls were in danger

but they're the danger.

BOOM.

It's pretty much akin to Eowyn in The Return of the King taking off her helmet and saying 'I am no man' and you cringe so hard that your stomach inverts.

There is another bonus to this film though, beside Vampire Stephen. There is a totally unexpected Brian Cox storyline where you get to watch Logan Roy of Succession being terrorised by a pumpkin headed sack monster, which might be worth the 99p DVD purchase in and of itself.
 

***

Time for some reading and viewing recs.

I am currently reading The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, described as a lavish historical drama reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Mexico. I've literally just started so no real thoughts yet, beyond what a beautiful stylist Moreno-Garcia is, she really knows how to write in a way where the words just flow, seemingly so effortlessly.

Other than that, here are my recommendations for.....

Something to watch:
The Bangladeshi short film MOSHARI (22 mins), which has won a million awards including Best Midnight Short at SXSW, and is all SISTERS and VAMPIRES and MOSQUITO NETS. Recommended to me by the wonderful Meheli Sen.

Something to listen to:
The Lovecraft Investigations (BBC Sounds / Spotify). This is exactly the kind of audio format I love - a fictional podcast within a podcast, led by a duo who get drawn into investigating the strange and unusual, and the investigation starts to take over, and threaten their lives. 

Something to subscribe to: 
Queer icon Michelle Tea has started a Substack! She describes Dear Diary as "a newsletter about the daily whatever, including art, tarot, movies, the occult, literature, gossip, food, queerness, sex, diary and the rest".
 

***
 

That's it from me for today. I am now going to go back to knitting myself a hat, and watching black and white films. I hope you have nice Sundays planned too.

As ever, if you want to tell me what you've been up to, if you have any thoughts on this week's newsletter, or have podcast / film / book recs for me, just reply to this email to get in touch. And if you would like to further support this newsletter, do consider shouting about it on social media and / or forward to a friend. If you are the friend who has been forwarded this, you can sign up y'sen and view past issues here.

Take care and speak soon, my lovely Losers' club.
 
Alison

The Losers' Club is a newsletter by Alison Peirse, associate professor of film and 
author / editor of Women Make Horror; After Dracula and Korean Horror Cinema.