Talk and interviews at Kurja Polt Film Festival

I recently attended Kurja Polt Film festival (Slovenia) to give a talk based on my forthcoming book The Metamodern Slasher Film (which should hopefully be out with Edinburgh University Press later this year).

My talk was titled "Subtraction and Compression in Contemporary Indie Horror" (or, as Google translate put it, "Countdown and The Thickening"). The abstract is available here. A recording of the talk is available below

While I was there, I was interviewed for RTV's Osmi Dan and for the radio programme Gremo v Kino. I was also interviewed by Ana Jurc for MMC about my broader research profile.

It was fantastic to be back in Ljubljana, to be speaking alongside Alexia Kannas again, and to meet the other guests at this year's festival

New Article on Revenge and I Spit on Your Grave (2010)

My article "Appealing, Appalling: Morality and Revenge in I Spit on Your Grave (2010)" will be published later this year in the Quarterly Review of Film and Video. A pre-print version of the article is available here

Abstract

Despite being a prevalent theme in popular cinema, revenge has received little dedicated attention within film studies. The majority of research concerning the concept of revenge is located within moral philosophy, but that body of literature has been overlooked by film studies scholars. Philosophers routinely draw on filmic examples to illustrate their discussions of revenge, but those interpretations are commonly hindered by their authors’ inexperience with film studies’ analytical methods. This article seeks to bridge those gaps. The 2010 remake of I Spit on Your Grave is used as a case study to illustrate the benefits of an interdisciplinary engagement with revenge. Philosophical literature on the topic has routinely posited that revenge is either appealing or appalling, and that impasse has stifled conceptual understanding. The interdisciplinary approach employed here elucidates that revenge is simultaneously appealing and appalling; this dualistic nature is evident in I Spit on Your Grave since it is built into the narrative design. I conclude that an interdisciplinary approach to revenge has the potential to advance understanding of revenge-qua-concept both within films studies and philosophy.

New Chapter on the Elm Street Series

I have a chapter on the Elm Street series in the new Routledge edited collection Horror Franchise Cinema (ed. Mark McKenna and William Proctor)  - the title is “If Nancy Doesn’t Wake Up Screaming: The Elm Street Series as Recurring Nightmare”. 

Here is the abstract:

Long-running horror series are reputed to yield diminishing returns (both in terms of profit and quality). At first glance, the A Nightmare on Elm Street series appears to fit that established pattern. For instance, lead antagonist Freddy supposedly ‘deteriorates’ from sinister, backlit child molester to comic-book ‘Las Vegas lounge’ stand-up act by the end of the 1980s (Schoell and Spencer 1992, 116). However, interviews from the period indicate that comedy was a central component from the outset of the series; it is not, as has been often suggested, that the series’ horror was diluted by the introduction of humour in later sequels. Such misremembrances are entrenched by the writers’, directors’ and actors’ retrospective reflections on Elm Street, which colour how the series is understood more broadly. 

This chapter will focus on one of the most common misremembrances embedded into Elm Street’s lore; that the series began with hard rules about the relationship between dream and reality, which became looser (to the point of incoherence) as the series progressed. As close textual analysis and examination of archival interviews will demonstrate, the series’ “rules” were never as clearly established as creator Wes Craven intended. Moreover, rather than complaining that the continuing story did not hold together—indeed, Craven dismissed parts 2-6 of the series on these grounds—I argue that the series ought to be taken on its own terms. The individual films may vary in aesthetic and quality for various industrial reasons, but they are nevertheless chapters in a continuing narrative, and ought to be understood as such. Given that the diegesis is based on shared experiences—secrets held by Springwood’s parents, nightmares and abilities shared by the teens—it is reductive to understand the Elm Street films as anything other than an imbricated whole. As such, this chapter will demonstrate that the series’ narrative is best understood as a recurring nightmare. Its logic is dreamlike, being constituted by events, characters and motifs that are echoed across the series. Thus, this chapter contends that to dismiss the Elm Street sequels as a product of diminishing returns is to overlook the series’ narrative richness. More broadly, this chapter makes a case for understanding sequels as valuable parts of a whole, rather than dismissing them as inferior copies of the original. 

If you would like to read it, it is available here

The collection is available here. It features many excellent chapters on horror, including one by my colleague Kate Egan. Northumbria Uni's horror research is being represented in back-to-back chapters in this collection!

New Publication: Evil Seeds - The Ultimate Movie Guide to Villainous Children

The collection Evil Seeds - The Ultimate Movie Guide to Villainous Children (edited by Vanessa Morgan) is out now

https://www.amazon.com/Evil-Seeds-Ultimate-Villainous-Children/dp/B09CRM3KKN

I contributed sections on Plac Zabaw/Playground (2016) and Ils/Them (2006)... 

...although I wrote them before becoming a father (not as a reaction to my daughter's arrival) 😂

Keynote Talk: The Metamodern Slasher

On Friday 13th august, I'll be delivering a keynote talk (alongside Prof Vera Dika) at the Slasher Studies Summer Camp conference

Here is my abstract:

It is commonly proposed that since the mid-00s, the slasher has predominantly followed a trend for remaking and rebooting established properties. While there certainly have been many remakes of classic slasher properties, a significant body of original slasher films have also been made in the era. This talk will focus on one of the most distinctive trends in the subgenre since the mid-00s: the metamodern slasher film.

​A comparison with the Scream-era postmodern slasher will help to explain what distinguishes the metamodern slasher from its immediate predecessors. Postmodern slasher films tend to be cynical, flippant or even nihilistic in tone. Postmodern slasher films are usually ludic, goading viewers into guessing the killer’s identity but then wrongfooting the audience with restricted or unreliable epistemic access to the narrative events. These films also commonly suggest that subgenre conventions are immutable, and that originality is no longer possible.  
​The metamodern slasher is distinguished from the postmodern slasher in several ways. First, the metamodern sensibility is characterised by its sincere tone. Second, although these films are playful, they react against the postmodern slasher’s duplicity. Instead of foregrounding epistemic restrictions, the value of individual characters’ idiosyncratic, subjective experiences is emphasised. Third, the metamodern slasher is characterised by a desire to innovate within the subgenre, underpinned by the assumption that originality is still possible. This talk will draw on a variety of contemporary examples to demonstrate how the metamodern slasher film operates, and why it constitutes a significant development within the subgenre.

New Chapter Out Now

I have a chapter in the edited collection New Blood: Critical Approaches to Contemporary Horror. My chapter is titled "Hardcore Horror: Challenging the Discourses of Extremity".

Abstract: 
This chapter explores the relationship between ‘hardcore’ horror films, and the discursive context in which mainstream horror releases are being dubbed ‘extreme’. This chapter compares ‘mainstream’ and ‘hardcore’ horror with the aim of investigating what ‘extremity’ means. I will begin by outlining what ‘hardcore’ horror is, and how it differs from mainstream horror (both in terms of content and distribution). I will then dissect what ‘extremity’ means in this context, delineating problems with established critical discourses about ‘extreme’ horror. Print press reviewers focus on theatrically released horror films, ignoring microbudget direct-to-video horror. As such, their adjudications about ‘extremity’ in horror begin from a limited base that misrepresents the genre. Moreover, ‘extremity’ is not a universally shared value, yet it is predominantly presented as if referring to an objective, universally agreed-upon standard. Such judgements change over time. Moreover, in contrast to marketers’ uses of ‘extreme’, press critics predominantly use the term as a pejorative. Although academics have sought to defend and contextualise particular maligned films and directors, scholars have focused on a handful of infamous examples. As I will explain, academic publishers implicitly support that narrow focus. As such, the cumulative body of scholarly work on ‘extreme’ horror inadvertently replicates print press critics’ mischaracterisation of the genre. These discursive factors limit our collective understandings of ‘horror’, its ostensible ‘extremity’. and of ‘extremity’ qua concept. Given that the discourse of ‘extremity’ is so commonly employed when censuring representations that challenge established genre conventions, it is imperative that horror studies academics attend to peripheral hardcore horror texts, and seek to develop more robust conceptual understandings of extremity.

The editors - Eddie Falvey, Joe Hickinbottom and Jon Wroot - hosted a book launch event featuring some of the contributors (including me). The video of that event is available here: https://youtu.be/8HACL-xhdTM

 

Article on Slasher films in Slovenian

Way back in April, my article on slasher films was published in Kino 

Here is a link to the abstract (in Slovenian): https://e-kino.si/articles/done-to-death-the-slasher-cycle/

The article was based on papers I presented at Abertoir (2018) and Kurja Polt (2019). That work is the foundation for a book I'm currently writing on the metamodern slasher film.

Philosophy. Horror. Film. #2 Abortion and Pregnancy Themes in Survival-Horror

Philosophy. Horror. Film. #1: Paranormal Activity

New Chapter

My new chapter "Spierig Brothers' Jigsaw (2017) - Torture Porn Rebooted?" appears in the new anthology Horror: A Companion (2019, Peter Lang) edited by Simon Bacon. Read my chapter here, or find more information on the book here. 

Abstract: 

After a seven-year hiatus, the Saw franchise returned. Critics overwhelming disapproved of the franchise’s reinvigoration, and much of that dissention centred around a label that is synonymous with Saw: ‘torture porn’. Numerous critics pegged the original Saw (2004) as torture porn’s prototype. Accordingly, critics  characterised Jigsaw’s release as heralding an unwelcome ‘torture porn comeback’. This chapter investigates the legitimacy of this concern in order to determine what ‘torture porn’ is and means in the Jigsaw era.

Publications in Slovenian

I am part of a REF impact case study focusing on film festivals, which is led by my Northumbria colleague Dr Russ Hunter. The project entails delivering our research in public spaces. In 2019, I will return to Offscreen Festival in Brussels and Kurja Polt Festival in Ljubljana to deliver public lectures.

As a result of our work with Kurja Polt, some of my research work has been translated into Slovenian and published in Kino! journal

“‘Tvoja zgodba je resnična in ljudje to čutijo’: mučenje v kontekstu” (Kino! 31/32), which is a translation of a chapter from my monograph Torture Porn Popular Horror after Saw (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2013).

“Kartezijanstvo in intersubjektivnost v filmski seriji Paranormalno ter v filozofiji duha” (Kino! 36), which is a translation of the article “Cartesianism and Intersubjectivity in Paranormal Activity and the Philosophy of Mind”, which was originally published in Film-Philosophy (21:1, 2017).

Kurja Polt 2018

Last week I was at the fabulous Kurja Polt Film Festival (Slovenia) for the second year running with my Northumbria colleague Russ Hunter. and Alexia Kannas (RMIT, Melbourne). It is a great festival; I can't recommend it enough.

During our time there, I hosted a Masterclass with writer/director Fabrice du Welz. Here is a video of the interview

We also presented at the festival's public Cult Film conference, this year entitled "Contamination, Ruination and Damnation!: Cult Cinema and the Nation". 

My paper was entitled "Wild Justice: Revenge in Contemporary American Film"

Here is the abstract:

Frequently, fictional heroes are violent, angry characters. Nowhere is that clearer than in revenge films. However, revenge is typically presented in several very different ways in fiction. In some revenge films, violent action is presented as a way of upholding justice. If that is the case, revenge is morally virtuous. Sometimes revenge is associated with retaliation; a kind of unthinking, angry “lashing out”. If that is the case, revenge is a sign that when it really matters, we are not moral creatures; we cannot control our animal natures. Elsewhere, revenge is presented as an intricately planned activity. Where that is the case, revenge is a sign that humans are rational creatures who don’t simply lash out; however, we use intelligence in malicious immoral ways. This talk will explore these different ways of thinking about revenge by focusing on contemporary American revenge films such as Reservation Road (2007), I Spit on Your Grave (2010), and I Am Wrath (2016). America is supposedly founded on moral values; leading the “free world” towards betterment by upholding “liberty and justice for all”. Those values do not seem to fit well the sheer volume of revenge films coming out of the US. This talk will ask what the cultural obsession with revenge suggests about the nation and its values.

Here is a video of the full talk:

Russ and Alexia's papers are also available via Kurja Polt's YouTube channel

We were also interviewed for Slovenian national news (television and radio)

My deepest thanks to Festival Director Masa Pece and the festival team for inviting us, and for their warm hospitality, and to Russ for organising the conference. I hope to return to Ljubljana again next year.

New Article

My article "Preserved for Posterity? Present Bias and the Status of Grindhouse Films in the 'Home Cinema' Era" has been published in Journal of Film and Video, 70:1 doi: 10.5406/jfilmvideo.70.1.0003

Abstract:

Despite the closure of virtually all original grindhouse cinemas, ‘grindhouse’ lives on as a conceptual term. This article contends that the prevailing conceptualization of ‘grindhouse’ is problematized by a widening gap between the original grindhouse context (‘past’) and the DVD/home-viewing context (present). Despite fans’ and filmmakers’ desire to preserve this part of exploitation cinema history, the world of the grindhouse is now little more than a blurry set of tall-tales and faded phenomenal experiences, which are subject to present-bias. The continuing usefulness of grindhouse-qua-concept requires that one should pay heed to the contemporary contexts in which ‘grindhouse’ is evoked. 

Access a PDF of the article here

New Articles Coming Soon

I have two new articles coming out in print soon.

“The Origin of the Faeces” is a short piece about the tenth anniversary of the viral video 2Girls1Cup. The essays is part of a special section of Porn Studies (available in the online version here and an open-access/post-print version here). I was invited to contribute by Susanna Paasonen: read her article about 2Girls1Cup here (or an open access version here).

Here is the abstract:

On the ten year anniversary of 2Girls1Cup, this article examines the complex balance of shock, pleasure and disgust elicited by this viral video.

My article “Preserved for Posterity? Present Bias and the Status of Grindhouse Films in the 'Home Cinema' Era” was published in The Journal of Film and Video, and is available to read here (the official publication is currently open access - should that change, the pre-print version is available here).

Here is the abstract:

Despite the closure of virtually all original grindhouse cinemas, ‘grindhouse’ lives on as a conceptual term. This article contends that the prevailing conceptualization of ‘grindhouse’ is problematized by a widening gap between the original grindhouse context (‘past’) and the DVD/home-viewing context (present). Despite fans’ and filmmakers’ desire to preserve this part of exploitation cinema history, the world of the grindhouse is now little more than a blurry set of tall-tales and faded phenomenal experiences, which are subject to present-bias. The continuing usefulness of grindhouse-qua-concept requires that one should pay heed to the contemporary contexts in which ‘grindhouse’ is evoked.

New chapter

The Routledge Companion to Media, Sex and Sexuality is out now, edited by Feona Atwood and Clarissa Smith with Brian McNair. The enormous volume contains new work by (among many others) Feona Attwood, Adrienne Evans, Neil Jackson, Misha Kavka, Gareth Longstaff, Alan McKee, John Mercer, Sharif Mowlabocus, Susanna Paasonen, Niall Richardson… it also contains a chapter on "Sex and Horror" by me (which can be accessed here).

To buy and to see a preview, click here

Here is the full Table of Contents: 

PART I: Representing sexualities 

1 The normal body on display: public exhibitions of the Normaand Normman statues Elizabeth Stephens

2 Asexualities and media Kristina Gupta and Karli June Cerankowski

3 Representing trans sexualities Eliza Steinbock

4 Representing lesbians in film and television Rebecca Beirne

5 Representing gay sexualities Sharif Mowlabocus

6 Fifty shades of ambivalence: BDSM representation in pop culture Ummni Khan

7 The politics of fluidity: representing bisexualities intwenty-first-century screen media Maria San Filippo

8 Heterosexual casual sex: from free love to Tinder Kath Albury

9 Representing queer sexualities Dion Kagan

PART II: Sex genres 

10 Erotica Catherine M. Roach

11 A history of slash sexualities: debating queer sex, gay politicsand media fan cultures Kristina Busse and Alexis Lothian

12 Erotic manga: Boys’ Love, shonen-ai, yaoi and (MxM) shotacon Anna Madill

13 Ways of showing it: feature and gonzo in mainstreampornography Federico Zecca

14 From the scene, for the scene! Alternative pornographies in contemporary US production Giovanna Maina

15 ‘Not on public display’: the art/porn debate Gary Needham

16 User-generated pornography: amateurs and the ambiguity of authenticity Susanna Paasonen

17 Celebrity sex tapes Gareth Longstaff

18 The media panic about teen sexting Amy Adele Hasinoff

19 Sex advice books and self-help Meg-John Barker, Rosalind Gill and Laura Harvey

20 Social media platforms and sexual health Paul Byron

21 Young people, sexuality education and the media Anne-Frances Watson

PART III: Representing sex 

22 Videogames and sex Ashley M. L. Brown

23 Sex and celebrity media Adrienne Evans

24 Sex and music video Diane Railton

25 Debating representations of sexuality in advertising Despina Chronaki

26 Media representations of women in action sports: more than ‘sexy bad girls’ on boards Holly Thorpe

27 Sex and horrorSteve Jones

28 Sex in sitcoms: unravelling the discourses on sex in Friends Frederik Dhaenens and Sofie Van Bauwel

29 Sex and reality TV: the pornography of intimate exposure Misha Kavka

30 It’s all about your sex appeal: deconstructing the sexual content in women’s magazines Claire Moran

31 The Invisibles: disability, sexuality and new strategies of enfreakment Niall Richardson

PART IV: Deconstructing key figures 

32 The metrosexual John Mercer and Feona Attwood

33 The sex addict Barry Reay

34 The stripper Alison J. Carr

35 The pen is mightier than the whore: Victorian newspapersand the sex-work saviour complex Kate Lister

36 The pornography consumer as Other Alan McKee

37 The porn performer Angela Gabrielle White

38 The Dominatrix Danielle J. Lindemann

39 The pervert Lauren Rosewarne

40 The pornographer Neil Jackson

New Article in Film-Philosophy Journal

The new issue of Film-Philosophy Journal is out, and features my article "Cartesianism and Intersubjectivity in Paranormal Activity and the Philosophy of Mind". 

The journal is open access, so you can read the article here: http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/pdfplus/10.3366/film.2017.0028

New Article out in Porn Studies

My latest article “‘Extreme’ porn? The implications of a label” has just been published online at Porn Studies journal http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2016.1196011.

Here is the abstract:

Despite its prevalence, the term ‘extreme’ has received little critical attention. ‘Extremity’ is routinely employed in ways that imply its meanings are self-evident. However, the adjective itself offers no such clarity. This article focuses on one particular use of the term – ‘extreme porn’ – in order to illustrate a broader set of concerns about the pitfalls of labelling. The label ‘extreme’ is typically employed as a substitute for engaging with the term’s supposed referents (here, pornographic content). In its contemporary usage, ‘extreme’ primarily refers to a set of context-dependent judgements rather than absolute standards or any specific properties the ‘extreme’ item is alleged to have. Concurrently then, the label ‘extreme’ carries a host of implicit values, and the presumption that the term’s meanings are ‘obvious’ obfuscates those values. In the case of ‘extreme porn’, this obfuscation is significant because it has facilitated the cultural and legal suppression of pornography.

Read the full article here.

Publication Updates

I've been quiet lately because I've been in Tokyo for three weeks. In the meantime, a couple of my articles have been accepted for publication

'"Extreme” Porn?: The Implications of a Label' is forthcoming in Porn Studies. Here is the abstract:

Despite its prevalence, the term “extreme” has received little critical attention. “Extremity” is routinely employed in ways that imply its meanings are self-evident. However, the adjective itself offers no such clarity. This article focuses on one particular use of the term – “extreme porn” – in order to illustrate a broader set of concerns about the pitfalls of labelling. The label “extreme” is typically employed as a substitute for engaging with the term’s’ supposed referents (here, pornographic content). In its contemporary usage, “extreme” primarily refers to a set of context-dependent judgements rather than absolute standards or any specific properties the “extreme” item is alleged to have. Concurrently then, the label “extreme” carries a host of implicit values, and the presumption that the term’s meanings are “obvious” obfuscates those values. In the case of “extreme porn,” that obfuscation is significant because it has facilitated the cultural and legal suppression of pornography.

'Preserved for Posterity?: Present-Bias and the Status of Grindhouse Films in the "Home Cinema" Era' is forthcoming in the Journal of Film and Video. Here is the abstract:

Despite the closure of virtually all original grindhouse cinemas, ‘grindhouse’ lives on as a conceptual term. This article contends that the prevailing conceptualization of ‘grindhouse’ is problematized by a widening gap between the original grindhouse context (‘past’) and the DVD/home-viewing context (present). Despite fans’ and filmmakers’ desire to preserve this part of exploitation cinema history, the world of the grindhouse is now little more than a blurry set of tall-tales and faded phenomenal experiences, which are subject to present-bias. The continuing usefulness of grindhouse-qua-concept requires that one should pay heed to the contemporary contexts in which ‘grindhouse’ is evoked

I'll post updates here when the articles appear in print

Off-Screen 2016

On 12th March 2016, I will be delivering a paper entitled ‘Grindigital: The Ghost of Grindhouse Present’ at the 42nd Street Forever conference, which is being held as part of the Offscreen Film Festival, Brussels. The other speakers are David Church, Elena Gorfinkel, Jamie Sexton, Ernest Mathijs, and Johnny Walker - abstracts below. The festival guests are Lucile Hadzihalilovic and Frank Henenlotter. Really looking forward to the event. For more details about the panel and the festival, click here.

Dr David Church
'42nd Street Forever? The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of Grindhouse Theaters'

In the popular imagination, New York City's 42nd Street at Times Square has become ground zero for remembering the bygone theatrical exhibition of so-called 'grindhouse cinema.' But where did grindhouses come from, and how did they gain their continuing reputation as sleazy spaces for sleazy films and audiences? Focusing on the history of 42nd Street, this talk traces the century-long evolution of the term 'grind house' from an exhibition policy to a genre label to a latter-day marketing concept. With the disappearance of actual grind houses from the physical landscape, these lost theaters have gained renewed relevance as ghostly spaces for fans to imaginatively inhabit. Moreover, the recent boom in grindhouse nostalgia has emerged as a reaction against both the increased accessibility of exploitation cinema on home video and the ongoing decline of physical media altogether.


Elena Gorfinkel (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, US)
Skin Flick Cinephilia: Sexploitation Cinema's Scenes of Looking

This talk surveys the 1960s US sexploitation cinema, exploring its location between low budget filmmaking and art cinema, pausing to analyze some of its aesthetic and reflexive fixations. It will offer a cinephile account of the aesthetic value of the sexploitation image as an archive of bodily gestures, textures, faces and places (including the scene of the grindhouse and film theater itself).


Dr Steve Jones (Northumbria University, UK)
Grindigital: The Ghost of Grindhouse Present

What does “grindhouse” mean now that virtually all of the original American grindhouse cinemas have closed? Most of us now watch “grindhouse movies” from the comfort of our own homes on DVD and Blu-Ray rather than viewing grainy old prints in sleazy cinemas, but that change in context alters our experience of watching such films. That shift in context is particularly problematic for a younger generation who never had chance to experience a grindhouse first-hand, and who still use the term “grindhouse” to describe a genre, a location (the grindhouse cinema), or a set of aesthetics (scratched celluloid, “missing reels”, etc). Those aesthetics are flaws that are usually removed from digitally re-mastered DVD/Blu-Ray releases of the films. Preserving the films essentially means “de-grindhousing” them: the damage sustained from being shown in grindhouses is removed, leaving a pristine, digital replica of the film. Contemporary “grindhouse-style” films do the opposite, using filters and effects to replicate celluloid damage even though such films are shot digitally. Neither provides an authentic experience of “grindhouse” film. The more we try to preserve the grindhouse, the further away we seem to move from the real thing.


Dr Jamie Sexton (Northumbria University, UK)
The Allure of Otherness: Distributing, Marketing and Consuming Global Cult Cinema

While books on cult cinema are largely dominated by American films, there are nonetheless a number of films from outside English-speaking regions and Western contexts which also gain cult status. Such movies have tended to gain their reputations via fan networks as opposed to more formal, critical channels. Since the emergence of DVD and Blu-ray there have emerged a number of companies who have started to cater to Western cult fans through marketing various forms of cult and exploitation cinema. Such companies include Arrow (specifically the Arrow Video imprint), Blue Underground, and of particular importance – due to their exclusive focus on world cult cinema – Mondo Macabro. In addition to a number of companies distributing global cult cinema in the U.S. and U.K., there are also a number of websites, blogs and web fora that provide information and commentary on global cult cinema.
Academic research on the transnational reception of non-Western films has, however, been restricted by a predominant focus on the idea of exoticisation and otherness. Many scholars have accused Western cult fans of forming attachments to such films in a rather superficial manner: that cultists tend to celebrate films which appear ‘weird’, but such weirdness stems from a lack of understanding of the cultural context(s) from which the films emerge and is often underpinned by imperialist assumptions. In this talk I will redress this overemphasis on exoticism and stress how home video distributors actually provide newer fans with a wealth of contextual information about the films that they release, which can act as a gateway for fans to discover more about such films and their production and exhibition histories.


Prof. Ernest Mathijs (University of British Columbia, CA)
A Room for The Room: the Viral Chain Distribution of Bad and Exploitation Cinema.

There are mythical stories about how now-celebrated horror films such as The Night of the Living Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre found audiences only gradually, after their filmmakers and producers took to the road and shopped their films around, almost like the door-to-door vacuum-salesmen of lore. Similarly, Daughters of Darkness Belgium’s infamous lesbian vampire film, relied on point-by-point distribution to become an international success. In each of these cases, the availability of grindhouse theatres in cities such as New York, Pittsburgh, or Chicago, helped these films reach stunned viewers (or jaded viewers, depending on their stamina, or the time of day).
Today, grindhouses are gone, and the fare they once screened is now streamed, downloadable, or made available via online retailers. Yet, significant traces of that step-by-step distribution remain, albeit in a changed form. I will use the unlikely duo of The Room (from 2003), arguably one of the worst films ever, and offensive to the extent it assaults all sensitivities, and Dude Bro Party Massacre III (from 2015), a tongue-in-cheek exploitation splatter film, to argue that today’s viral chain of theatre-to-theatre distribution has moved to ‘faux grindhouses’: multi-functional venues for the performing arts, that combine live performance activities with screens.
As such, a picture emerges that shows these films’ reception as a performance event, similar to stage and café atmosphere acts such as stand-up comedy or mock award ceremonies. There is also a heavy reliance on digital interactive stage technology to conjure up ambiance, enabling a fan-directed freak-show. It is through these channels that viral chain distribution lives on. I will speculate that the live and stage performance routines force these events into a dense ‘nowness’, in which participants are ‘suspended’ in the moment of the performance – a moment whose meaning is wasted as soon as it occurs. Oh, and look out for the combination of a chainsaw and a crazy rabbit!


Dr Johnny Walker (Northumbria University, UK)
Snuff love: real death and horror film culture from the grindhouse to your house

This talk charts the legacy of grind-house classics such as Snuff (1976) and Faces of Death (1972) on underground horror video cultures from the 1980s to the present day. It will demonstrate how a swelling interest in gory paracinema in the late ‘80s coincided with the emergence of an array of contemporary, direct-to-video “death films”: all of which collated sequences of genuine human tragedy and atrocity for the purposes of entertainment. The talk will consider some of these films in detail, and gauge their influence on contemporary amateur horror production.
Drawing on a variety of case studies—including the little-acknowledged Traces of Death (Various, 1993–2000) series and its producer, Dead Alive Productions, as well as from examples of contemporary “faux snuff” from the twenty-first century—the talk will show how horror fans of the video age have gone to great lengths to obtain explicit and gory exports of uncensored horror and death films, and how small production companies (such as Dead Alive and Brain Damage) have sought to align themselves with these interests, and produce an array of “extreme” films obtainable through specialist websites.

Snuff Collection: Update

The collection Snuff: Real Death and Screen Media (edited by Neil Jackson, Shaun Kimber, Johnny Walker, & Tom Watson) is due for publication by Bloomsbury at the end of January next year.

The book is based on a conference that was held at Bournemouth University in November 2012. It features a foreword from David Kerekes (co-author of Killing for Culture) and wide variety of essays on the subgenre. My chapter "A View to a Kill: Perspectives on Faux-Snuff and Self" is based around the Amateur Porn Star Killer movies.

The book can now be pre-ordered from Bloomsbury, Amazon and other retailers. The Amazon link provides a preview of the content.

A book launch will be held on 12th February in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: details can be found here: http://snuffmovie.weebly.com/

I hope to see some of you there

Table of Contents: 

Foreword: A Culture of Change

David Kerekes 

Introduction: Shot, Cut and Slaughtered

Neil Jackson (University of Lincoln, UK)

Part I – The Changing Meaning of "Snuff"

Chapter 1: The Way to Digital Death

Julian Petley (Brunel University, UK)

Chapter 2: The Affective Reality of Snuff

Misha Kavka (University of Auckland, New Zealand)

Chapter 3: Animal Snuff

Simon Hobbs (University of Portsmouth, UK)

Chapter 4: Breathing New Life into Old Fears: Extreme Pornogrpahy and the Wider Politics of Snuff

Clarissa Smith (University of Sunderland, UK)

Chapter 5: From Snuff to the South: The Global Reception of Cannibal Holocaust

Nicolo Gallio (University of Bologna, Italy) and Xavier Mendik (University of Brighton, UK)

Chapter 6: A Murder Mystery in Black and Blue: The Marketing, Distribution and Cult Mythology of Snuff in the UK

Mark McKenna (University of Sunderland, UK)

Chapter 7: Traces of Snuff: Black Markets, Fan Subcultures and Underground Horror in the 90s

Johnny Walker (Northumbria University, UK)

Chapter 8: SNuff 2.0: Real Death Goes HD Ready

Mark Astley (Independent Scholar, UK)

Part II – "Snuff" Across Film and Television

Chapter 9: Unfound Footage and Unfounded Rumours: The Manson Family Murders and the Persistence of Snuff

Mark Jones & Gerry Carlin (University of Wolverhampton, UK)

Chapter 10: Wild Eyes, Dead Ladies: The Snuff Filmmaker in Realist Horror

Neil Jackson (University of Lincoln, UK)

Chapter 11: The Mediation of Death in Fictional Snuff: Reflexivity, Viewer Interpellation and Ethical Implication

Xavier Aldana Reyes (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)

Chatper 12: "Why Would you Film It?" Snuff, Sinister and Contemporary US Horror Cinema

Shaun Kimber (Bournemouth University, UK)

Chapter 13: Cinema as Snuff: From Pre-Cinema to Shadow of the Vampire

Linda Badley (Middle Tennessee State University, USA)

Chapter 14: Affect

Tina Kendall (Anglia Ruskin University, UK)

Chapter 15: A View to Kill: Perspectives on Faux-Snuff and Self

Steve Jones (Northumbria University, UK)