Happy Thanksgiving
I would like to wish a warm Thanksgiving to all of the readers of TheoFantastique. I thought the disturbing picture accompanying this post depicting a twist on a classic Norman Rockwell painting of a family enjoying Thanksgiving transformed into a zombie gathering enjoying a giant brain was somehow appropriate for this blog on this day. Enjoy your family and friends, and thank you for your interest and support in our common journey in the fantastic.

Skillet: “Monster” as Rock ‘n’ Roll Jekyll and Hyde
The figure of the monster surfaces in many ways in popular culture to serve us for good or ill. At its worst it becomes a way of conceiving of the “other” which provides us with justification for their eradication. At its best it helps us to look inside ourselves to see that many times the monster is not “out there,” but rather within, lurking just belo

SAW: Cultural Registers for Post-9/11 Anxiety?
In 2004 my brother encouraged me to watch a horror movie that had come out which he thought I would enjoy. He was referring to Saw, but given the trailers I had seen for the film I wasn’t interested. It seemed like it was going to be just the latest in the trend in horror films for gratuitous gore and mayhem. Thankfully I was wrong in my assumptions about the film, as it presented a good story that takes place largely between two characters in a single room, a storytelling device

2012 and Mayan Calendar of the End
Several weeks ago I first saw the trailers for 2012 in movie theaters and on television. The trailer depicted a man and his family making a last second escape from apparently worldwide destruction as homes, buildings, freeways, and entire landscapes crumbled around them in a catastrophic upheaval. A small private airplane with the family on board narrowly escapes and weaves its way around falling debris. For my tastes in storyline and special effects this was a little

New Moon, Monsters, and Mormons
I recognize that many horror fans are less than pleased with Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight creatures, whether vampires or werewolves, but as I’ve written previously, while they may not be the average horror fans “cup of tea,” their romantic elements places them within the spectrum of depic