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A PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL OF STUDIES IN HORROR AND RELATED AREAS
vol. 6, no.1, June 2023 | ISSN 2561-5629
Editor: Kristopher Woofter
Dossier Editors: Eva Ivanilova & Denis Saltykov
Assistant Editor: Eva Crocker | Editorial Intern: Marcus Prasad
Founding Editors: Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare & Kristopher Woofter
Editor: Kristopher Woofter
Dossier Editors: Eva Ivanilova & Denis Saltykov
Assistant Editor: Eva Crocker | Editorial Intern: Marcus Prasad
Founding Editors: Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare & Kristopher Woofter
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Editor's Introduction
Monstrum 6, Issue 1, is a robust affair. We open with six feature essays on subjects ranging from the politics of Poe (Michael J. Blouin), to Cronenbergian eco-horror (M. Keith Booker), gender and stardom in silent and early sound cinema (Mark Jancovich and Shane Brown), the distribution history of Psycho's move to television (Alex Remington), and revisionary theoretical figurations of longstanding concepts--the gag (Kate Russell) and dread (Marcus Prasad, this year's SCMS Horror SIG Graduate Essay Prize winner).
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A special Dossier on Russian, Belarusian, and Sakha Horror follows. Edited by Eva Ivanilova and Denis Saltykov, the dossier is the product of a 2021 symposium on Russian horror cinema held at the University of Pittsburgh. It includes two feature essays, the first a detailed history and case study of Belarusian horror (Volha Isakava), and the second on Indigenous voice in the 2020 Sakha horror film Ich-chi (Neepa Majumdar and Eva Ivanilova). This revealing dossier on under-studied traditions of horror includes Adam Lowenstein's critical response to the 2020 Belarusian horror film Spice Boyz and four contextualizing essays on Russian horror, selected by Denis Saltykov and appearing here for the first time in English translations by Felix Helbing. We thank the editors of Seans, Kino-Teatr, Iskusstvo Kino, and Lumos for permission to translate the original works.
We also once again present a special feature publication of the videos and transcripts of the second Horror Reverie series of symposia on key horror films, this year featuring scholars and artists celebrating 50 years of The Exorcist. Book reviews of work focusing on the concept of "meta," censorship and children, the horror remake, and the television series Supernatural follow. And we round out the issue with a Student Forum, presenting the work of the prize winners of our 2022-2023 Monstrum Student Essay Awards. All content is available in downloadable PDFs. Scroll down to browse the contents of this issue of Monstrum. On a final note, not long after we had our first meeting in August of 2021 to discuss this issue's special dossier, guest editor Denis Saltykov passed away suddenly. Denis was bright and gracious, expressing to me in an email that having the dossier appear in Monstrum would be "a solid reason to be proud." And while I am equally proud to be able to present it, I'm very sad that we did not have the chance to work with Denis. I want to thank Iva Ivanilova, a wonderful scholar and Denis' wife, for stepping in to see the dossier to completion. We dedicate this issue of Monstrum to the memory of Denis Saltykov. — Kristopher Woofter |
 Cover Image: Sasha's Hell (Nikita Lavretski, 2019, Belarus)
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Contributors: Olga Artemieva, Michael J. Blouin, M. Keith Booker, Shane Brown, Erin Giannini, Rebecca Stone Gordon, Stephanie Graves, Felix Helbing, Eva Ivanilova, Volha Isakava, Mark Jancovich, Adam Lowenstein, Neepa Majumdar, Marcus Prasad, Alex Remington, Kate Russell, Denis Saltykov, Marat Shabaev, Dimitrii Sokolov, Toman Yu, and the panelists for "Horror Reverie 2": Anna Bogutskaya, Simon Brown, Amy Chambers, Steve Choe, Eileen Dietz, Stella Gaynor, Michael Lee, Alexandre O. Philippe, LMK Sheppard.
Acknowledgments: Monstrum would like to thank our editorial board, as well as our collaborators, contributors and peer reviewers, and to the Monstrum Student Essay Prize Jurors: Eva Crocker, Ildikó Glasser-Hille, Karen Herland, and Marcus Prasad. Special thanks to director Nikita Lavretski for permission to use an image from Sasha's Hell on the cover. And thanks also to Stacey Abbott, Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare, Mark Jancovich, Lorna Piatti-Farnell, Gary D. Rhodes, Alanna Thain, and the Collective for Research on Epistemologies and Ontologies of Embodied Risk (CORÉRISC). |
Monstrum is published by the Montréal Monstrum Society (MMS). We are grateful for the generous support of the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture. | Monstrum est reconnaissant du généreux soutien du Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture (FRQSC).
Click this link to download a single PDF of MONSTRUM 6.1 in its entirety.
(Download may take a minute.)
FEATURE ESSAYS
Click the titles or images for a full-text PDF of the individual essays.
Illustration by Edmund Dulac for "The Bells" in THE BELLS AND OTHER POEMS (Hodder & Stoughton, London 1912)
The Cacophonic Politics of
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Bells” MICHAEL J. BLOUIN |
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BEHIND THE DOOR (Irvin Willat, 1920)
“The Finest Examples of Motion Picture Art”:
Prestige, Stardom and Gender in the Reception of Silent and Early Sound Horror MARK JANCOVICH & SHANE BROWN |
THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2017)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer:
Affective and Temporal Configurations of Dread MARCUS PRASAD SCMS Horror Studies SIG Graduate Student Essay Prize-Winner |
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PSYCHO 1969 re-release poster
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A Theory of the Gag: Comedic Mechanisms
in Exploitation Film Form KATE RUSSELL The Uncanny Changes Hands: Discourse and Policy
Surrounding Psycho and Its Move to American Television ALEX REMINGTON |
DOSSIER
RUSSIAN, BELARUSIAN, AND SAKHA HORROR
Edited by Eva Ivanilova and Denis Saltykov
RUSSIAN, BELARUSIAN, AND SAKHA HORROR
Edited by Eva Ivanilova and Denis Saltykov
Click the titles for a full-text PDF of the individual essays
Sakha horror film ICH-CHI (Kostas Marsaan, 2020)
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Russian, Belarusian, and Sakha Horror: An Introductory Note
EVA IVANILOVA |
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Horror Cinema in Belarus: An Unlikely Digest
VOLHA ISAKAVA Born Under a Bad Sign: Spice Boyz and Belarusian Horror ADAM LOWENSTEIN The Specter of Refusal: Sakha Indigenous Voice in the Ethnic Horror Film Ich-chi NEEPA MAJUMDAR and EVA IVANILOVA Russian Horror Criticism in Translation
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SPECIAL FEATURE
HORROR REVERIE 2: AN ONLINE SYMPOSIUM CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE EXORCIST
HORROR REVERIE 2: AN ONLINE SYMPOSIUM CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE EXORCIST
THE EXORCIST (William Friedkin, 1973)
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INTRODUCTION
Exorcising The Exorcist MARCUS PRASAD Click the image or here for a full-text PDF of the Introduction.
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HORROR REVERIE 2 PANELS
Videos can be enlarged by clicking the bottom right of the frame.
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PANEL 1: HISTORICAL AND OTHER CONTEXTS
Speakers: Amy Chambers, Steve Choe, LMK Sheppard; Chair: Stacey Abbott |
PANEL 2: INTERVIEWS
Actress Eileen Dietz and Filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe, in Conversation with Anna Bogutskaya |
PANEL 3: PARATEXTS AND LEGACY
Speakers: Simon Brown, Stella Gaynor, Michael Lee; Chair: Lorna Piatti-Farnell |
Click here for a full transcript of Horror Reverie 2.
BOOK REVIEWS
Click the book cover for review.
Reviewer:
ERIN GIANNINI |
Reviewer:
ERIN GIANNINI |
Reanimated: The Contemporary American Horror Remake
by Laura Mee Edinburgh University Press, 2022 US$110 (h/c) Reviewer:
STEPHANIE GRAVES |
Supernatural: A History of Television’s Unearthly Road Trip
by Erin Giannini Rowman & Littlefield, 2021 US$34 (h/c) Reviewer:
REBECCA STONE GORDON |
2022-2023 STUDENT ESSAY AWARDS WINNING ESSAY
The Monstrum student essay award recognizes achievement in a short essay at the CÉGEP (college) or undergraduate level.
Click the title or image for a full-text PDF of the essay.
ANNIHILATION (Alex Garland 2018)
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