INTERVIEW: BLACK HORROR & SOCIAL CRITIQUE
Dr. Scahill was interviewed recently by Voice of America to give his thoughts on the movie US and the future of minority filmmakers using the genre of horror to wage social critique. VOA correspondant Penelope Poulou asked Dr. Scahill to provide historical context for genre and what the success of films like Get Out and Us might mean for forecasting genre trends. As Scahill notes, the horror genre has traditionally been antagonistic to minorities, as often "monsters" like Nos
SCMS 2017: SURVIVING THE ADJUNCT
The Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) conference will be in Chicago this year. Look for our workshop "Surviving the Adjunct" on contingent labor in media studies on Friday, March 24 at 9am. Today, 66% of college faculty members are non-tenure track, and half of those instructors work part-time at multiple institutions to make ends meet. 66% of those adjunct faculty are currently seeking tenure-track employment, and 38% have been on the market for over five years.
Q&A: TANGERINE DIRECTOR SEAN BAKER
On December 5, director Sean Baker answered questions via Skype for Prof. Scahill's Film Genre class as they concluded a unit on the screwball comedy. His award-winning film Tangerine chronicles a day in the life of two transgender sex workers in L.A. using a hyper-saturated "pop vérité" style and caused a sensation at the Sundance Film Festival for being shot entirely on an iPhone 5. In the clip above, Baker addresses the political potential of both social realism and come
INTERVIEW: TV'S STRANGER THINGS
Dr. Scahill was interviewed for the Winter 2016 issue of the British magazine Dazed and Confused as part of their special feature on the immensely popular Netflix series Stranger Things. In the article, Susanne Madsen considers the impact of the series on nostalgia-hungry adult fans, and what this turn to the 1980s might say about 2016. Dr. Scahill was called upon due to his unique work on childhood and monstrosity, as well as his more recent scholarship on reboots and remak
Q&A: MAD MAX FURY ROAD COMPOSER JUNKIE XL
On Wednesday, November 2, the composer of Mad Max: Fury Road, Junkie XL (Tom Holkenberg), talked via Skype with Dr. Andrew Scahill's Introduction to Film class from his production studio in Los Angeles. Holkenberg is an award-winning and prolific film artist who began his career as a trance DJ and transitioned into film scoring for blockbuster films such as Divergent, Amazing Spiderman 2, Deadpool, and Batman vs. Superman. His background as a classically-trained pianist and a
CLASS FILMED FOR HORROR FILM DOCUMENTARY
On April 4, Dr. Andrew Scahill was interviewed and his Horror Cinema class filmed for the upcoming documentary Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street. The film explores the curious queer afterlife of Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), considered by many to “the gayest horror film ever made.” Part video essay, part historiography, part character investigation, the documentary talks to the filmmakers, fans, and its star, Mark Patton, who was wrestling with h
NEW ESSAY: TV HORROR REBOOTS
Dr. Scahill contributes a chapter to the new edited collection Cycles, Sequels, Spin-offs, Remakes, and Reboots: Multiplicities in Film and Television from University of Texas Press. The collection takes a serious look at textual plurality and the processes of reiteration to elucidate their importance for audiences, industrial practices, and popular culture. Dr. Scahill's contribution, "Serialized Killers: Prebooting Horror in Bates Motel and Hannibal," asks what happens when
Q&A: WINTER'S BONE PRODUCER ANNE ROSELLINI
Students in Dr. Andrew Scahill’s Literature and Film class at Salisbury University recently conducted a question-and-answer session with Academy Award-nominated independent film producer Anne Rosellini. “This is something I’m trying to do more and more in my classes — to get actual industry professionals to talk to students,” Scahill said. Rosellini is best known for the 2010 Jennifer Lawrence film Winter’s Bone by director Debra Granik, based on the book by Daniel Woodrell.
FEATURE INTERVIEW: REVOLTING CHILD BOOK
On October 29 2015, Dr. Scahill was featured in a five-page interview in Metro Weekly, DC's gay and lesbian newspaper. In the piece "Scary Movies: Gays Have a Special Dark Place in the Horror Canon," Dr. Scahill discussed his new book, the horror genre, The Exorcist Steps, and the unique relationship that gays and lesbians have to the genre of taboo-breaking and social upheaval. #interview #revoltingchild #book #feature #scarymovies #metroweekly #horror #queer #childhood #exo
NEW BOOK: THE REVOLTING CHILD
Dr. Scahill's book The Revolting Child in Horror Cinema: Youth Rebellion and Queer Spectatorship was released today from Palgrave Macmillan. Scahill argues that the “revolting child”—whose forms include the child with a dark secret (The Bad Seed), the child who transforms into a monster in adolescence (The Exorcist), or the child who forms a cabal of outcasts (Village of the Damned)—functions as a potent metaphor for queer youth. Drawing together film theory, queer theory, ch
COURSE FEATURED IN ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY!
Prof. Scahill's course "Deconstructing Breaking Bad" was featured in this week's Entertainment Weekly in a special feature on popular culture and academia. The University of Maryland Honors College offered this exclusive seminar for the first time this semester, and Dr. Scahill was selected as the professor for his work at nearby Georgetown University in the English department. In the Entertainment Weekly piece, the writers examined how professors across the country were aski
NEW BOOK: LOST AND OTHERED CHILDREN
Lost and Othered Children in Contemporary Cinema challenges notions of the innocent child through an exploration of the dark side of childhood in contemporary cinema. The contributors to this multidisciplinary study offer a global perspective that explores the multiple conditions of marginalized childhood as cinematically imagined within political, geographical, sociological, and cultural contexts. Praise: "Here is an excellent, invigorating collection dealing with children i
