Perspectives on Horror

CINEMA SERIES PERSPECTIVES ON HORROR

EXPLORING THE GENRE'S HISTORY

FALL 2019

In October 2019, Block Cinema explored the history of horror cinema through a variety of critical and creative lenses. Pairing new documentaries and classic films with in-depth introductions and discussions, including guest appearances by celebrated artists and scholars, this series to shed new light on film fright.

THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980) OCTOBER 10, 2019

Although noted for its evocative black and white cinematography and for John Hurt’s sensitive and powerful performance as Merrick, this classic film’s emotional landscape derives, as in all of Lynch’s works, from its rich, atmospheric use of sound. Introduction by seven time-Academy Award-winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom. Co-presented by Block Cinema with the MA in Sound Arts and Industries

HORROR NOIRE: A HISTORY OF BLACK HORROR (2019) OCTOBER 25, 2019

Block Cinema welcomed scholar, author, and Vice President and Associate Provost for Diversity at Texas A&M University, Robin R. Means Coleman to introduce and discuss the documentary Horror Noire, based on her field-changing 2011 book Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to the Present. Both the book and the film examine the alternately problematic and affirming history of Black Americans in the horror genre, in front of and behind the camera. Co-presented by Block Cinema with Humanities On the MAP, sponsored by the School of Communication

I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943) OCTOBER 31, 2019

This collaboration between RKO producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur is one of the most celebrated in the history of horror, and I Walked with a Zombie may be the pair’s masterpiece. The film’s mesmerizing low-key cinematography conjures an atmosphere of exotic dread and uncertainty, but the darkest shadow cast in this Gothic melodrama is the one cast by the island’s ugly history of slavery and colonialism. This Halloween screening was introduced by Ashley R. Smith, doctoral candidate in Screen Cultures.

SERIES PRESS

NORTH BY NORTHWESTERN: Block Cinema examines horror films in new series (October 10, 2019)

“Of all film genres, horror is really the one that benefits the most from being seen in a group with other people, where it is a part of a collective experience” Lami Zhang

BLOCK STORIES

"Something unexpected underneath the surface": Sound Designer Gary Rydstrom on "The Elephant Man" [Audio]

November 25, 2019