Horror Homeroom Conversations

On this bonus episode of Horror Homeroom Conversations, we’re journeying back to the time of Bill Clinton, grunge and Barney the dinosaur. An admittedly divisive era in American horror film, the 1990s gave us a number of unforgettable films whose cultural impact is still being felt. Whether you consider the decade the boring counterpart to the 1980s or whether you dig the referential humor that marked the period, there is something for everyone on today’s episode so stay tuned!

In this episode of Horror Homeroom Conversations, we’re delving into the connective tissue that links Wes Craven’s 1991 The People Under the Stairs with Fede Álvarez’s 2016 Don’t Breathe. While both films feature protagonists breaking into homes only to discover unexpected horrors, do they send similar messages? And how do the urban environments depicted in the films factor into that messaging? We’re breaking it all down on today’s episode so stay tuned!

In this bonus episode, we've challenged ourselves to do the impossible: we're ranking our top 10 horror movies from the 80s!

Directed by Jason Zada, The Forest is ostensibly the journey of a young woman who travels across the world to find her twin sister who has gone missing. But lurking beneath this benign narrative is a complicated web of PTSD, trauma, and grief. Situated in Aokigahara, a place in Japan known internationally as The Suicide Forest, the film borrows liberally from Japanese mythology but should it? In this episode, the Horror Homeroom crew considers The Forest’s place within the natural horror canon and debates the impact of cultural appropriation within the genre.

Need some cinematic inspiration for a snowy day? The Horror Homeroom crew has got you covered! In this bonus episode, we're sharing our list of top 10 horror films.

It's Women in Horror Month and we're taking on Amy Holden Jones' THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE (1982). Both adored and reviled, this cult classic consistently divides audiences. Is it feminist? Is it exploitative? Can it be both? Today the Horror Homeroom crew is weighing in on those questions as well as asking whether death by a 12-inch drill can ever be anything other than phallic.

Love it or hate it, Pet Sematary (1989) remains one of the most controversial entries in the Stephen King cinematic oeuvre. Today we are diving into this controversial take of grief and looking at all the ways in which the movie transgresses against cultural taboos. Do the movie’s most shocking moments still hold up? The entire Horror Homeroom crew is here and we’re talking Jud’s questionable nature, what Zelda brings to the story, whether we should be watching the movie as folk horror and so much more!

Holiday horror is a mixed bag. For every acknowledged gem (Rare Exports, Better Watch Out), there exist some seriously awful yuletide tales (Santa Claws, To All A Good Night). Occasionally though, a film will get it so right that it establishes a template for the films that followed. Such is the case with the cult classic BLACK CHRISTMAS(1974). Criminally overlooked, this film by Bob Clark is typically recognized for establishing some of the most well-known tropes of the slasher genre. But it is its transgressive female characters that really steal the show and leave us asking why these characterizations didn’t become the standard. In this Horror Homeroom Conversation, we’re kicking it back to 1974 with the ultimate holiday horror film, BLACK CHRISTMAS and considering how the depictions of women in horror might be different had this film had gone mainstream.