Category: Horror films

Really Awful Movies: Ep 170 – Technology and Horror films with the University of Toronto’s Kevin Chabot

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Technology and horror. And where these intersect. It’s interesting subject matter, whether it’s ghost hunters trying to record evidence of supernatural beings, or new technologies that are changing the way we communicate with one another through an online interface.

Kevin Chabot is currently a Ph.D. student in Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto. He earned a Master’s degree from Carleton University where he completed a thesis titled Bodies Without Borders: Body Horror as Political Resistance in Classical Hollywood Cinema. His dissertation project will examine the paranormal, and found-footage cycle of horror films and how they engage with the changing technological media landscape.

His research interests more broadly include horror film, classic and contemporary film theory, medium specificity, and intermediality.

Chris from the Really Awful Movies Podcast chatted with Kevin at the University of Toronto, in a discussion that focuses on:

The Exorcist

Friday the 13th

Halloween

Paranormal Activity

Black Christmas

The Purge

The Fly

…and many more

Really Awful Movies: Ep 169 – Inferno

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A thematic sequel to the legendary Italian horror Suspiria (1977), Inferno is the second part of Dario Argento’s Three Mothers trilogy. The long-delayed concluding entry, The Mother of Tears, was released in 2007, and one of us caught it at the Toronto International Film Festival.

All three films are partially derived from the concept of “Our Ladies of Sorrow” (Mater Lachrymarum, Mater Suspiriorum and Mater Tenebrarum) originally devised by author Thomas de Quincey in his 19th century work, Suspiria de Profundis.

Inferno received a very limited theatrical release and was unable to match the box office success of its predecessor. The initial critical response to the film was mostly negative…and it’s gotten some more positive attention more recently (if not from us).

The music, for starters, doesn’t match the thunderous beats Goblin graced other Argento films with. Here it’s the cheesy music of one of the dudes from Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

The filming of Inferno took place mainly on interior studio sets in Rome, Italy but a short amount of time was also set aside for location shooting in The Big Apple, including Central Park (the setting for one of the film’s few memorable moments).

Really Awful Movies: Ep 167 – The Changeling

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A superficially straight-ahead ghost story, there’s much more to The Changeling than meets the eye. There’s also a political procedural aspect to this, which is probably a bit less than successful, but that which keeps things interesting.

Well-known in horror circles as among the best of its kind, The Changeling will delight fans of the supernatural.

You really can’t go wrong with George C. Scott. He was Patton after all.

Scott portrays Professor Russell, a grieving music composition instructor who takes a gig teaching in the Pacific Northwest, after losing his family in a horrific crash.

And he’s gotta find somewhere to live right? Well, what better place than a sprawling, creepy Victorian mansion?

It’s rented to him by a woman, Claire, who provides a sounding board for Russell, who confides in her that he’s sensing unnerving things in the abode.

And of course, a spiritual medium is called in to see who’s haunting the house. It turns out to be someone somewhat unexpected.

Check out The Changeling, and be sure to check out new episodes of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, uploaded every Friday.