Faculty of Horror

By Andrea Subissati and Alexandra West

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Typical duration
54 min
per episode

Based on Podcast App listening data

Faculty of Horror episodes

March 18, 2024 See you at SALEM HORROR FEST 2024!
We’re packing our bags to hop onto our broomsticks for our annual trip to SALEM HORROR FEST 2024 – and you’re invited!
Listen in for important info, dates, and highlights!

Buy your tickets here!
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18 min
February 29, 2024 Episode 126. Bad Habits: The Devils (1971)

From the depths of Warner Bros archives, Ken Russell’s infamous film The Devils has been resurrected (ish) once more! Andrea and Alex take this opportunity to dive into the politics, contractions, and naughtiness present within one of the most controversial cult films ever made.

REQUIRED READING
The Devils. Dir. Ken Russell, 1971.

EXTRA CREDIT
Ars Erotica. Excerpt from Mario Vargas Llosa book on the influence of spectacle on the West.

Society of the Spectacle. Guy Debord’s treatise on performance and coercion.

Sex Education in the 1970s. A rundown of the controversial sex education film Growing Up.

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1 hr 39 min
January 26, 2024 Episode 125. Fack XI: 2023 Year in Review

It’s time to look back before we scream forward! Join Andrea and Alex for horror and non-horror faves and a game that will decide their fate for 2024.

Alex’s Horror/Horror Adjacent Faves

1. Red Rooms (dir. Pascal Plante)
2. Godzilla Minus One (dir. Takashi Yamazaki)
3. Talk to Me (dir. Danny and Michael Phillippou)
4. The Curse (TV, created by Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie)
5. Poor Things (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)
6. Fall of the House of Usher (TV, created by Mike Flanagan)
7. Beau is Afraid (dir. Ari Aster)

Andrea’s Horror/Horror Adjacent Faves

1. Talk to Me (dir. Danny and Michael Phillippou)
2. Poor Things (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)
3. Huesera: The Bone Woman (dir. Michelle Garza Cervera)
4. Godzilla Minus One (dir. Takashi Yamazaki)
5. The Blackening (dir. Tim Story)
6. The Last of Us (TV, created by Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin)
7. Red Rooms (dir. Pascal Plante)
8. Fall of the House of Usher (TV, created by Mike Flanagan)

Alex’s Non-Horror Faves

Stories I Might Regret Telling You by Martha Wainwright
Monster: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer
The Cure live in June
May/December (dir. Todd Haynes)
Past Lives (dir. Celine Song)

Andrea’s Non-Horror Faves

Inscryption (PC)
Slay the Spire (PC)
Vanderpump Rules (TV)
Tetris (dir. Jon S. Baird)
If Books Could Kill podcast

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1 hr 53 min
December 18, 2023 Episode 124. Death in Venice: Don’t Look Now (1973)

Andrea and Alex delve into the murky depths of Nicolas Roeg’s classic to uncover the film’s themes of mysticism, misogyny and the ethics of mourning.

Class of 2023 merch
Artwork by @thelastjohnyontheleft

REQUIRED READING
Don’t Look Now. Dir. Nicolas Roeg, 1973.

EXTRA CREDIT
Daphne du Maurier’s short story.

The Year of Magical Thinking. Joan Didion’s memoir of the year following her husband’s death.

Mysticism as a Female Path. Mary Sharratt’s look and the intertwining history of mysticism and women.

Take Some Pills for Your Hysteria, Lady. A history of men putting women on pills.

Devil’s Advocates: Don’t Look Now by Jessica Gildersleeve – accessible thru JStor via your local library perhaps?

The Social Regulation of Grief by Martha R. Fowlkes. Some emotional attachments are socially undervalued.

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1 hr 7 min
November 27, 2023 Episode 123. Love Bites: The Hunger (1983) and Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
In this episode Andrea and Alex delve into some truly long-term relationships and their lasting implications. From ageless vampires to hipster gentrification, sometimes loving someone “forever and ever” isn’t as fun as it seems.

Class of 2023 merch
Artwork by @thelastjohnyontheleft

REQUIRED READING
The Hunger. Dir. Tony Scott, 1983.
Only Lovers Left Alive. Dir. Jim Jarmusch, 2013.

EXTRA CREDIT
Not All Fangs are Phallic. James Craig Holte’s investigation of the female vampire film.

Why hipsters could be seen as modern-day colonisers. The article by Melissa Tandiwe Myambo on the political and cultural effects of gentrification.

Rising costs and gentrification force locals out of Detroit’s downtown and Midtown. Detroit Metro Time’s piece on seniors being forced out of their subsidized housing due to market inflation.

Contemporary myths on boredom. An emergent field of study about when people feel out of sync with the present.

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1 hr 30 min
October 22, 2023 Episode 122. Homecoming: IT Chapter 1 (2017) and IT Chapter 2 (2019)
We all float down here… or we’ll lose our minds trying to make sense of Andy Muschietti’s blockbuster horror films based on Stephen King’s classic novel. In this episode, Andrea and Alex investigate the depths of Derry’s sewer system, summer holidays and sexual awakenings.

Class of 2023 merch
Artwork by @thelastjohnyontheleft

REQUIRED READING
It Chapter 1 and It Chapter 2. Dir. Andy Muschietti, 2017 and 2019.

EXTRA CREDIT
Danse Macabre. Stephen King’s treatise on horror.

Why do Students Get Summers Off? A history of getting to play hooky in the summer.

The American Small Town in the Age of the US Empire. The dream and reality of the American small town.

Return of the Repressed. Robin Wood’s iconic essay about the American horror film.

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1 hr 45 min
September 25, 2023 Episode 121. Close Quarters: Single White Female (1992)
What kind of person could you live with? Barbet Shroeder’s paranoid erotic thriller seeks to answer that question and more as it delves into queer fear, sexual conservatism, property rights and female intimacy.

Class of 2023 merch
Artwork by @thelastjohnyontheleft

If you’re Toronto, catch Alex’s lecture on Brexit in the modern British horror film on October 17 at the Revue Cinema – get your tickets here.

REQUIRED READING
Single White Female. Dir. Barbet Schroeder, 1992.

EXTRA CREDIT
You Must Remember This. Katrina Longworth’s in-depth look at Hollywood, including the last two seasons on the Erotic ’80s and ’90s

The Rise and Fall of the Erotic Thriller. An overview of the complicated sub-genre.

‘Single White Female’ at Thirty: The Legacy of the Women Stalkers of the 1990s – Lesbianophobia in SWF.

A Room Of One’s Own. Virginia Woolfe’s treatise on women and access to private spaces.

Revolting Doubles: Radical Narcissism and the Trope of the Lesbian Double by Olu Jenzen

Queersighted: The Gay Best Friend Criterion Collections video discussion of the problematic trope

Barbet Schroeder’s quite a character.

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1 hr 32 min
June 24, 2023 Episode 119. Metamorphosis: The Fly (1958) and The Fly (1986)
Dust off the telepods and put your swatters away – it’s time for our thoughts about a short story, an iconic original film, and an even better remake to mingle molecules in an all-new episode.

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REQUIRED READING
The Fly. Dir. Kurt Neumann, 1958.
The Fly. Dir. David Cronenberg, 1986.

EXTRA CREDIT
“The Fly” By George Langelann. The original short story that appeared in Playboy in 1957.

From Pathos to Tragedy: Two Versions of The Fly. Mary Ferguson Pharr’s essay about the different interpretations of the two films.

The Beetle and the Fly. David Cronenberg’s essay about aging, Kafka and his version of The Fly.

On translating Kafka’s “The Matamorphosis.” Susan Bernofsky’s afterword to her 2014 translation of Kafka’s story.

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1 hr 31 min
May 26, 2023 Episode 118. Friends till the End. Child’s Play (1988)
In this episode we look at the origins of the original “Good Guy.” From his place in the history of toys to his ties to masculinity to the anxiety around 1980s family structures, we go deep with Chucky to find out what makes him kill.

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REQUIRED READING
Child’s Play. Dir. Tom Holland, 1988.

EXTRA CREDIT
The History of Creepy Dolls. An examination of how dolls became part of our nightmares.

Technology’s Covert Socialization of Children: High-Tech Toys. How “high-tech” toys create a false sense of safety.

Hasbro’s My Buddy Doll. A history of the doll that inspired Chucky.

“Midnight Scenes and Orgies”: Public Narratives of Voodoo in New Orleans and Nineteenth-Century Discourses of White Supremacy.

The Child and Adult Trauma in American Horror of the 1980s. Freud’s uncanny child in the era of consumerism.

The Place of Play: Toys and Digital Cultures. A look at toys as “generation-shapers.”

Hasbro Brazil’s ad for Baby Alive, encouraging parents to examine their gender biases.

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1 hr 2 min
April 25, 2023 Episode 117. Fear of Folk: The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971)
We’re back on our old stomping grounds of Salem Horror Fest to plow the fertile fields of themes and metaphors to unearth why the British folk horror classic, The Blood on Satan’s Claw, left us feeling so icky. From teens and occultism to PSAs and power, we dig deep.

Tickets for Alex’s Brexit lecture on Tues May 2 are available now!

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REQUIRED READING
The Blood on Satan’s Claw. Dir Piers Haggard, 1971.

EXTRA CREDIT
Folk Horror Hours Dreadful And Things Strange. Paul Scovell’s essential text for British folk horror.

Satanic Tourism: Adolescent Dabblers and Identity Work. Pseudo-Satanism as harmless teen fun!

The Seventeenth Century on Film: Patriarchy, Magistracy, and Witchcraft in British Horror Films. Here’s to King James III!

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1 hr 2 min