Foundations of Fear - The World of Horror Filmmaking



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Dracula: From Sexual Predator to Romantic Hero

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               As the sun sinks beneath the horizon and night descends upon the world, humanity huddles around the collective light to fend off the threats within the darkness. In ancient times, this was often equated with the fear of predators, red in tooth and claw, but as humans abandoned their caves and huts for more cosmopolitan climes, the dangers began to take on a more familiar appearance. Senseless crimes such as murder would often be attributed to strange, supernatural beings -- after all, in the eyes of early man, no human could possibly do something so heinous to their kin. As such, tales of blood-sucking demons such as the draugr of Scandinavia , vrykolakas of Greece, and vetālas of India began to rise in prominence all over the world. Though the word “vampire” would not be coined for many centuries, all of these legends speak to a baser human fear of those who would prey upon their own kind. In the 19th Century, the Vampire sudd...
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Kristin Thompson on 'Groundhog Day'

     In her exploration of the film Groundhog Day (1993) author Kristin Thompson asserts that the film, despite the originality of its premise and narrative method, adheres to numerous classical Hollywood filmmaking standards. Though high concept films are generally viewed as the antithesis of auteurism, films such as Groundhog Day fill a particular niche that proves that while a film may be fantastical it is, by no means, devoid of artistic value. Indeed, the simplicity of explanation of a high concept film grants the filmmaker the potential to be complex and poignant in their storytelling, showing audiences a new cinematic experience that otherwise traditional Hollywood filmmaking otherwise denies them. Groundhog Day features a single protagonist, Phil Connors, trapped within an endless loop of the eponymous holiday. In a departure from traditional Hollywood storytelling, which would insist upon spelling things out, plainly, for an audience, the reason for this myste...
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Cucalorus Films: "Meeting MacGuffin" and "World of Tomorrow"

This year, I was fortunate enough to sample two impressive, yet wholly distinct forms of animation. The two shorts I had seen were the films Meeting MacGuffin  and The World of Tomorrow 1&2. Meeting MacGuffin: An Ecological Thriller  was a bizarre yet charming take upon a dystopian future where humanity is all but extinct -- and the ascendant surviving species (typical woodland creatures) have taken to creating humanlike proxies known as "homies," constructed from the discarded bodyparts that are all that remain from humanity, itself. Utilizing stop motion animation with figures constructed from dolls and other such crafting materials, the film gives a charming feeling of a dark and macabre fairy tale -- paired with the gentle voiceover performances, yet all together unsettling aesthetic, I don't know if I would necessarily classify this film as a "thriller," as there were really no moments of suspense found within.  It would be my own assumption that the ...
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