Horror

Latin American horror movies – “The Migration and Politics of Monsters in Latin American Cinema” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) – Gabriel Eljaiek-Rodriguez interview

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Gabriel Eljaiek-Rodriguez teaches Spanish and Latin American studies at the New School in Atlanta, GA. We spoke about his latest book on the politics of Latin American horror films.

1:04 – Gabriel talks about how he got into studying horror and monstrosity. He discusses the kind of horror cinema that can be found in Colombia and which he was exposed to.

Colombians have always been interested in things from other cultures.

6:12 – Mexico is a powerhouse as far as producing entertainment in Latin America. Gabriel then talks about the book. He has studied the subtle politics behind horror films. He’s looked at movies from the 90s to 2017. He’s also looked at a range from Guillermo del Toro to more cult type films.

13:14 – He compares and contrasts monstrosity in film between Latin America and the US and Europe.

17:11 – Gabriel contrasts the influence of European and Asian immigrants to indigenous peoples on Latin horror films.

19:50 – Gabriel talks about Andean horror made most often in Peru and Bolivia.

23:43 – Gabriel talks about he approached the research for this book.

33:42 – Gabriel was surprised to see how political many Latin American horror films are.

46:44 – He has a page on Academia.edu. He’s also involved with a website that discusses Latin American Gothic. {Note – the website address is different from what Gabriel stated. It’s https://latinamericangothic.wordpress.com/}

 

Links of interest

https://latinamericangothic.wordpress.com/

https://gabrieleljaiekrodriguez.academia.edu/

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Gabriel Eljaiek-Rodriguez

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: horror, Colombia, Latin American film, Guillermo del Toro, Mexico, Buenos Aires, festivals, Vampires in Havana

Horror movie history – “Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror” (Counterpoint, 2018) – W. Scott Poole interview

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Scott Poole is a professor of history in American pop and folk culture with a heavy emphasis on horror studies. We talked about his latest book that examines the effect World War One had on horror movies.

0:56 – Scot talks about how he got into studying horror.

2:58 – Scott talks about the book and how World War One changed horror literature and stories.

9:58 – Scott talks about directors and creators who delved into horror.

12:45 – Scott talks about how Franz Kafka is associated with horror.

16:03 – Scott talks about the occult, horror and the Great War.

22:57 – Scott talks about French author Celine’s affect on horror.

25:33 – Scott talks about the death of animals affected horror.

28:34 – Scott talks about how he found old horror films and war footage.

35:30 – Scott talks about comedy in early horror.

38:39 – Scott talks about the great emotional difficulty he had in writing this book.

43:11 – Scott talks about an interesting discovery he made about Bela Lugosi.

53:04 – Scott tweets @monstersamerica.

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Scott Poole

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: horror, movies, literature, Kafka, Lovecraft, Peter Lorre, Bela Lugosi, World War One, The Great War, Celine, movie directors, Nazis, occult

Frankenstein art – “It’s Alive!” (GILES, 2018) – Elizabeth Denlinger interview

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Liz Denlinger co-curates the Shelley collection of the New York Public Library system. She has helped develop a new exhibition on Frankenstein and has put together a visual history of Frankenstein for it. We discuss the book and the exhibit.

[Note: About 38:25, I mentioned that lobby cards did not get copyright protection in the past. Of course this is for a specific date range and that rule likely has changed.]

1:13 – Liz talks about how she started studying the Shelley’s and Frankenstein.

3:14 – Liz talks about the book and how she collected the art for the book. She considered how Frankenstein looks in the book versus how he was shown on stage or screen.

8:41 – Liz talks about Mary Shelley’s exposure to the Gothic prior to writing Frankenstein.

10:52 – Liz talks about some of the images she finds the most noteworthy.

13:26 – Liz talks about elements you often find in both Gothic art and depictions of Frankenstein.

20:05 – Liz talks about how they found their images for the exhibit and book.

23:19 – Liz about the collections that were the most fun to look through for this research.

25:00 – People during Mary Shelley’s time liked spooky stuff as much as they do now.

27:10 – The American and French Revolutions inspired gothic fears among the British.

36:00 – Liz talks about what the exhibit will have.

40:10 – The exhibiton information can be found by googling “It’s Alive Morgan.”

 

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Elizabeth Denlinger

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, art, gothic, frankenstein, shelley, new york public library, monsters