Horror Analysis Archive
Jacob’s Ladder: A Proxy War
The Vietnam timeline continues throughout the entire film, the truth slowly revealed in bits and pieces as it comes back to Jake. In the modern timeline, we’re never sure if it’s really happening or the entire thing is a fabrication of Jake’s dying brain as he bleeds out from the stab wound. The Vietnam scenes are the only ones we know aren’t happening in his head.
Gangs of New York: The Fear of Bill the Butcher
Every villain needs a juicy origin story. Bill the Butcher has two, that of his real life basis, William Poole, and the fictional past of the character from “Gangs of New York”. Their timelines diverge in many different directions, but both Bills serve as epic...
Se7en: The Diner Scene
“David and I are going to have a baby…” Accompanied by an absolutely miserable expression. She says “going to” as if she’s positive about her decision to go through with the pregnancy, but her inflection flips the meaning of her words around. The subtext is: “…and I’m thinking of having an abortion.” No one says the word “abortion” in this scene or the rest of the movie, everything is heavily implied, conveyed by the superb performances of skilled actors.
Anatomy of a First Time Director: A Dark Song
Anatomy of a First Time Director: A Dark Song In episode 12 of our Anatomy of Horror series, we explore Liam Gavin’s 2016 debut A Dark Song. A Dark Song A grieving, yet determined mother convinces an angry, alcoholic man to live with her in a dilapidated mansion hours...
Anatomy of an Auteur: The Devil’s Backbone
Anatomy of an Auteur: The Devil’s Backbone Mimic Fresh off a disappointing American premiere of Mimic(1997), Guillermo del Toro was a young director in need of some home cooking. Enter Pedro Almodóvar, the Spanish language film icon. Almodóvar could have cared less...
The Anatomy of The Exorcist
Anatomy of The Exorcist In both our second and tenth episodes of the Anatomy of Horror series, we explore the depths of possibly the most iconic film of all time The Exorcist. In our second episode, we focus on the theme of loss of faith. The character most associated...
When Working on Set of The Lighthouse Seemed About as Fun as Working on an Actual Lighthouse
When Working on Set of The Lighthouse Seemed About as Fun as Working on an Actual Lighthouse By Sean M. Sanford You Gotta Fight for Your Light Robert Eggers’s The Lighthouse is an incredible movie with breathtaking cinematography and imagery, haloed around two of the...
The Platform
During the fascist Franco regime in Spain, Basque nationalists eventually rose to the point of committing domestic terrorism in the name of social change. The Platform aligns with this swift glide into barbarism by showing the flaws in “trickle-down” economics and how human nature can throw a monkey wrench in socialism/communism. When all the food comes from the top, people at the bottom start eating each other.
Anatomy of Ari Aster’s Hereditary
In Episode 1 in our Anatomy of Horror Series, we discuss Ari Aster’s film language and how he used that language to create this horror masterpiece.