“Pandemics, Politics, Horror” - Aalya Ahmad

Screened discussion 22 March 2021

“I'll begin by providing some context about possession horror films in general, including how moral panics surrounding film and related media over the last half century have often presented parallels to the phenomenon of occult spirit possession, parallels that many of the most powerful films in this mode have incisively explored and exploited. I’ll then focus more specifically on how two recent Canadian horror films formally and narratively frame possession while discussing their relationship with earlier films whose influences they reflect. The first, Justin Dyck's Anything For Jackson (2020), taps into a “Satanic Panic” supernatural vein, albeit with a dose of irony. The second, Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor (2020), takes a grimly speculative approach to exploring possession in a cinematic narrative that marries revenge tragedy with techno-body horror in the vein of Videodrome (1983) or Tetsuo The Iron-Man (1989.)”

See other screenings below:

Winter 2021 Classes at Monstrum

Pandemics, Possessions, and Other Monstrous Alterities:
Global Horror at the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Class