For fall semester 2021, Prof. Scahill took his Film Genres class in a new direction by examining "Xmas Movies" as a genre. Employing the framework normally used to examine genres like horror, the western, film, or the coming-of-age film, Prof. Scahill asked his students if "Xmas Movies" constituted a genre--and if so, what are the features of that genre? The class examined Dickens' A Christmas Carol as a starting point for the genre, and then examined such holiday classics as

Prof. Scahill returned for the third time as the special guest on the podcast Random Horror 9 (by the creators of Welcome to Nightvale). This episode, hosts Cecil Baldwin and Jeffrey Cranor rolled ALIEN and HOLIDAY on the Random Horror 9 dice, and selected 2011's genre-busting alien invasion film Attack the Block. A mix of sci-fi, comedy, and coming-of-age film, Attack the Block offers "biting" social commentary while delivering on the thrilling action of the alien invasion g