The Big Picture MagazineJordan Phillips is a postgraduate researcher and teaching associate at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, whose current research explores issues of queerness in the horror genre. The main focus of the research is to determine why queer audiences find pleasure in negotiating queer meaning in a predominantly heterosexist genre of films, and how these negotiations work to enfranchise queer horror fans.
We spoke to Michael Wandmacher about his diverse career and about his recent project, Voice from the Stone. Michael Wandmacher is an American composer of film, television, and video games. His body of work comprises mostly horror and suspense films, such as Punisher: War Zone, My Bloody Valentine, Piranha 3D, Underworld: Blood Wars, and the recent […]
Youth, the nascent and ephemeral period situated precariously between the poles of adolescence and adulthood, is the thematic heart of the coming-of-age subgenre within the familiar dramedy narrative. These narratives are typified by the ‘everyman’ protagonist finding themselves trapped within the paradoxical malaise of youth; no longer a child but not yet an adult. This […]
Obsession is not a reticent discourse within horror cinema. Most of the horror genre’s notorious villains (and their nefarious intentions) are obsessive: Norman Bates is the obsessive lunatic masquerading as his deceased mother, Freddy Krueger is the obsessive dream demon hell-bent on vengeance, and John ‘Jigsaw’ Kramer is the dogmatic obsessive who ‘rehabilitates’ his victims […]
As the bell chimes midnight on October 31st, the ghoulish period adored by so many horror aficionados ends and the countdown to Halloween’s antithesis – Christmas time – begins. Christmas-themed films have produced some globally admired and iconic pieces of cinema over the years, from classics such as It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) and Miracle […]
Charlie Clouser is a Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist composer, musician, producer, programmer, and remix artist who has worked with some of the most influential names in the music industry over the last few decades. Charlie gained widespread recognition as a member of Nine Inch Nails from 1994 to 2000, but before that had already built a following […]
“If you had to choose, would you rather be deaf or blind?” This question has trickled its way into the glossary of everyday conversation, leading the questionee to then hierarchise deafness and blindness according to their own personal fears of sensory impairment. On the one hand, it interrogates the privilege of those who are not […]
The technology of film can been considered a time machine of sorts. It can transport the audience from one particular time period to another, allowing them to bask in the glory of the neologistic innovations of the time. Let’s take a trip to a time when filmic and musical recording equipment such as the videocassette […]
The road movie is a narrative of migration. The characters within these films typically find themselves travelling or “migrating” somewhere new in search of a new home, a new family, or a new life of some kind. More recently, the rubric of the “queer road movie” has been introduced to define narratives which are guided […]