GUTTER STUDIES

GUTTER TALK is an audio-podcast supplement featuring casual, freewheeling discussion on subject matter covered on Gutter Studies.

On this episode, I talk to writer, collector, and pop-culture obsessive Mark Ambrose about Mario Bava’s foundational Black Sunday (1960), as well as other early Italian gothics Lust of the Vampire (1957) and The Vampire and the Ballerina (1960), and later Italian horror in general.

The conversation here can be listened to on its own, or alongside episodes one and two of the GOTH RENAISSANCE video series.

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This is part two in our ongoing series GOTH RENAISSANCE: A Critical Introduction to Italian Gothic Horror. Watch part one here, although this installment can be watched on its own.

In the first part, we covered the emergence of a distinctly Italian form of horror, noting the ways that Italians were already changing the genre. But those movies were prologue. It was a modest cinematographer named Mario Bava that truly changed the game, starting with his iconic directorial debut Black Sunday (1960).

Following that movie’s wild international success, Bava continued to lay the foundation for Italian horror with some of his finest work: Black Sabbath (1963) and The Whip and the Body (1963). Of all the movies we cover in this series, these three movies are the most essential.

Today, more than any other, the name Mario Bava has become synonymous with Italian gothic horror.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Intro covering Mario Bava’s pre-directorial career; ideation and significance of Black Sunday;

2:40 - Black Sunday (dir. Mario Bava, 1960)

9:19 - Black Sabbath (dir. Mario Bava, 1963)

18:16 - The Whip and the Body (dir. Mario Bava, 1963)

22:39 - Summing up the significance of Bava’s early directorial career

As mentioned previously, I’m deeply indebted to the work of Tim Lucas in creating this segment. Nobody has done more to surface and immortalize Bava’s merits and the fascinating details of his remarkable career.

Note: Subtitles are auto-generated and may have inaccuracies.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gutterstudies.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the first installment of GOTH RENAISSANCE: A Critical Introduction to Italian Gothic Horror.

The series will run biweekly for a total of five installments. For a full watchlist of the films covered, see the series announcement page.

In this first installment, I discuss the context in which Italian gothic horror emerged, including the unique conditions of the Italian film industry, as well as the evolution of horror movies internationally since the silent era. With that foundation, I discuss in detail three of the earliest and most important examples of the genre.

Read together, we’ll see how these first Italian gothics set the stage not only for the gothic horror craze of the 1960s, but also for the thing that horror movies would become from the 1970s forward: an exploitation film genre centered around graphic sex and violence.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction and context

5:49 - I Vampiri aka Lust of the Vampire (dir. Ricardo Freda, 1957)

11:40 - The Vampire and the Ballerina (dir. Renato Polselli, 1960)

15:58 - Mill of the Stone Women (dir. Giorgio Ferroni, 1960)

21:05 - Concluding observations: commonalities, themes, and key characteristics

24:35 - Up next

Finally, I must acknowledge that in creating this series, I stand on the shoulders of giants. More than anyone, I am indebted to the work of Tim Lucas, whose magisterial tome Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark furnished me with not only endless factual information and technical observations, but also a tremendous amount of inspiration. Nobody has done more to give this genre its due. I also relied heavily on Roberto Curti’s Italian Gothic Horror Films (1957-1969) for its comprehensive coverage of this moment in horror history, as well as Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell’s textbook Film History: An Introduction (3rd Ed.) for crucial background on Italian film history in general.

On the off-chance that any of these scholars happen across this page, please know that this series is dedicated to you.

Note: Subtitles are auto-generated and may have inaccuracies.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gutterstudies.substack.com/subscribe

BANNED ON YOUTUBE!

In March 2024, Gutter Studies was banned on Youtube. It had only been live for a few months. The reason given was “severe or repeated violations of [the] sex and nudity policy.”

My appeals failed, even though the channel’s content was well within the platform’s guidelines.

Gutter Studies does not create content for sexual gratification, but instead to research, analyze, and understand niche segments of film history. That includes movies that have been dismissed, marginalized, overlooked, and misunderstood. The project necessarily entails a frank encounter with adult content, including both graphic violence and sexuality.

Gutter Studies does not seek to offend or disturb, but it does encourage its audience to explore controversial subject matter with maturity, courage, and thoughtfulness.

The ban was a setback. But it was a blessing in disguise. It gave me the opportunity to slow down, take a step back, to reassess the project.

Having done that, Gutter Studies is back.

1. Why not relaunch on Youtube?

The first thing you’re wondering is why I don’t just go back to Youtube. One reason is because I’m not allowed. My understanding is that the ban is considered permanent and that it’s not worth trying to circumvent.

Do people get away with it? I don’t know, probably. But I don’t want or need to play that game.

The bigger reason is because I realized that Youtube was not the right platform for this project. I was already spending too much time struggling with its content moderation system, which is conducted with artificial intelligence and constantly resulted in annoying, arbitrary roadblocks. I was meticulously editing around content, and its copyright checks were preventing me from even talking about certain movies.

Even if I somehow got the channel back, or set up a new channel, it’d only happen again. Or I’d need to create content that is completely different from the project I’ve envisioned.

Finally, there’s just an internal culture to Youtube as a platform that I didn’t love or relate to. The logic of the almighty algorithm, the activities of adjacent creators, the UX of the platform—all of it has an insidious way of creeping into your mind, even if you try to shut it out.

In short, even as I was excited by the channel’s early success, I could already feel it morphing into something I didn’t really want. So it’s best that I just put Youtube behind me.

2. Why Substack?

All in, Substack is the best new home for Gutter Studies. There are a number of reasons for this, including:

The platform’s content moderation policy

The platform’s free-speech oriented philosophy on content moderation, which is premised on a respect for the intelligence and judgment of its user base, aligns with my own personal beliefs.

But more specifically, because of my previous experience with Youtube, the platform’s policy on “nudity, porn, erotica” is exactly what this particular project needs:

We don’t allow porn or sexually exploitative content on Substack, including any visual depictions of sexual acts for the sole purpose of sexual gratification. We do allow depictions of nudity for artistic, journalistic, or related purposes

In addition to the text of the policy, I’ve heard that it’s enforced fairly and reasonably, which is just as important.

The subscriber model

Once I learned that Substack was supporting video, I began to consider it as a viable option.

When it comes to reaching and building a wide audience quickly, nothing compares to Youtube. But because of the nature of this project, quality of engagement is far more important than quantity of engagement. The newsletter-subscriber model provides a more intimate framework than Youtube, and I believe it will lead to higher-quality interactions between me and the people who enjoy my content. These quality interactions will help me create better content.

The Youtube model is an incredible thing for many creators. But for me I think it’d lead to crapper content. Youtube’s platform ran off of onerous monetization requirements that inevitably have too much influence over creative decision making.

By contrast, Substack’s subscription system connects us directly and provides maximal flexibility. More on that below.

Technical features

I like the idea of being able to send new videos to subscribers’ inboxes. That way, it’s there waiting for them whenever they feel like watching.

People will have to sign up, of course, but once they do they won’t miss out on new content. And there’s no risk of a new video getting suppressed by the algorithm (which was another thing that sometimes happened to me on Youtube).

Additionally, Substack has other cool features. For example, I’ll be able to publish an audio-only podcast feed of the video essays, which will be available for those who want to listen rather than watch.

3. Are you charging?

No. Gutter Studies will remain 100% free for the foreseeable future.

However, I appreciate the fact that people will now have the direct option to pledge or subscribe at monetary tiers. This cuts out the whole swamp of Youtube ads for you, and it spares me from ever thinking about monetization thresholds ever again.

To be clear, I do this for the love of the game. I just kind of feel compelled to. I don’t expect it to ever become a real money-making venture or anything wildly popular. That’s in no way the goal.

If you’re interested in Gutter Studies, please subscribe for FREE and know that I consider that the default.

But paid subscriptions, if they come, will feel like real encouragement. For a creator, after a certain point, it’s important to feel like the world values your work, even at some infinitesimally modest level. Time is precious, and every day we must justify to ourselves how we are spending it. You have to be a little weird to undertake a project like this to begin with, and I’ve done enough projects to know the reality: it won’t survive forever without some form of concrete validation.

Again, I don’t expect anyone to select a paid subscription. I want you to subscribe for free.

But if there are those who do want to throw me a few extra dollars, even if it’s just a teensy-tiny handful of people, it’ll go a long way toward keeping me motivated to continue for the long term.

4. Are you republishing your old stuff?

Yes. My previous work will be going back up. Eventually.

Additionally, I’m focusing on a new project and want to start with that. Over time, I will rerelease videos from the Gutter Studies Vault.

Some of them I want to re-edit to include NSFW stuff that wasn’t possible on Youtube.

Some videos were part of an unfinished multi-part series, and I want to finish the series first and release it all together.

5. What’s next?

Gutter Studies will officially relaunch with new content in the fall.

I’ve been working on a new series for the past few months, which I’m super excited about. It’s the most complex project I’ve undertaken so far, and I’m happy with how it’s turning out. Can’t wait to share it with everyone.

I’ll be announcing the series in August, as well as dropping a trailer in a couple weeks.

6. How can I help?

Subscribe and share!

For better or worse, this’ll be almost entirely word-of-mouth from here on. I’ll need your help.

Please encourage your friends, weird coworkers, and online acquaintances to sign up.

I beg of you.

Thanks for reading GUTTER STUDIES! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gutterstudies.substack.com/subscribe