Working the Blue Rose Case: Signs, Codes, and Mysteries in David Lynch’s Fire Walk With Me

fire-walk-with-me
Fire Walk With Me

Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies – London

Instructor: Maura McHugh

Date: 8 December 2016

Time: 7-10pm

Venue: Horse Hospital

Address: Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1JD

Prices: £10 advance / £8 concs / £11 door

Miskatonic website

Fire Walk With Me (1992), directed by David Lynch and co-written with Robert Engels, was created to address unanswered questions in the seminal TV series Twin Peaks (1990-91), but instead it offered more puzzles and dream narratives to confound viewers. Its premiere in Cannes was met with boos and jeers from the audience, but over the years critical opinion of this challenging film has matured and developed. Maura McHugh will explore the symbols and themes that underpin Fire Walk With Me and Twin Peaks, and will offer you a refresher course in its characters and strange happenings in advance of the new series of Twin Peaks which will materialise in 2017.

About the instructor:

Maura McHugh lives in the West of Ireland, and began her career in academia. Her first Masters examined Irish nineteenth century supernatural fiction (making her a life-long Dracula nerd). After a sojourn in IT she later explored her love of cinema through a Diploma in Film Studies followed by a Masters in Screenwriting. Her dark fantasy and horror short stories and non-fiction essays have appeared in magazines and anthologies in America and Europe. Her two collections – Twisted Fairy Tales and Twisted Myths – were published in the USA, and she’s written award-winning comic book series, including co-writing Witchfinder with Kim Newman for Dark Horse Comics. Her short story ‘Bone Mother’ is being adapted into a stop-motion short film by See Creature in Canada. She has also served on the juries of international literary, comic book, and film awards. Her web site is http://splinister.com and she tweets as @splinister

About the Miskatonic Institute:

Named for the fictional university in H.P. Lovecraft’s literary mythos, The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies is a non-profit, community-based organization that started in Canada, founded by Kier-La Janisse in March of 2010. The school currently has branches in Montreal and London, with Miskatonic London operating under the co-direction of Kier-La Janisse and Electric Sheep Founder/Editor Virginie Sélavy.

All classes take place at the historic Horse Hospital, the heart of the city’s underground culture. Season ticket is £35 and will be available shortly. Individual class tickets are £10 advance / £11 on the door / £8 concessions and will be available 30 days in advance of each class.

For full details of the next courses please check the Miskatonic website. For all enquiries, please email Miskatonic.london[at]gmail.com.

Electric Sheep Film Show November 2016

capsule
Capsule

audioInvestigating Genre: In this show, Alex Fitch talks to Lee Broughton about his book Euro-Western, published by I.B. Tauris, which uncovers progressive attitudes to women and minorities in European Westerns, and to director Andrew Martin about his excellent Cold War SF thriller Capsule, recorded at the SCI-FI-LONDON film festival. Plus, Virginie Sélavy discusses this year’s London International Animation Festival (LIAF) with festival director Nag Vladermersky.

The Electric Sheep Film Show is broadcast every third Wednesday of the month, 5.30-6.30pm at Resonance FM 104.4. Next date: Wednesday 21 December 2016.

This show was first broadcast on Wednesday 16 November 2016.

Clear Spot – 16 November 2016 (Electric Sheep) by Resonance Fm on Mixcloud

Little Terrors: Children’s Horror on Film and Television

the_man_from_nowhere
The Man from Nowhere

Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies – London

Instructor: Catherine Lester

Date: 10 November 2016

Time: 7-10pm

Venue: Horse Hospital

Address: Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1JD

Prices: £10 advance / £8 concs / £11 on the door

Miskatonic website

Children and horror: two things that are usually not considered to go together. Very often, it is assumed that if children are exposed to horror, they will be psychologically ‘corrupted’ in some way, and so they should be protected from it at all costs. However, for many horror fans, our fascination with all things spooky began in childhood – whether because we watched something that we really weren’t supposed to, or were introduced to horror through children’s content such as Scooby Doo, Goosebumps, or classic Disney fairy tales like that scene from Pinocchio. With recent films such as ParaNorman, Frankenweenie and Hotel Transylvania, and children’s toys like the Monster High dolls, horror for children is becoming increasingly mainstream.

This class will explore in detail the area of horror films and television programmes created specifically for children in the UK and the US. Aspects of this topic that will be covered in the class include:

How horror for children emerged and how the subgenre has developed and changed across time, from early cinema to the present day;

Key academic theories on or relating to frightening media for children;

The defining characteristics of children’s horror stories on film and television;

How children’s horror is able to be both ‘scary’ enough to be classified as horror, but ‘safe’ enough to be considered ‘child-friendly’;

Similarities and differences between children’s horror and adult horror;

The possible functions and benefits that horror might provide children.

This class aims to show that the relationship between children and horror is as complex as it is fascinating and that, far from being incompatible, children and horror are actually an ideal match. Films and programmes discussed range from the popular to the obscure, the good to the bad, the expected to the unexpected, and the surprisingly disturbing to the downright fun. Examples may include Disney’s The Watcher in the Woods, cult-favourite The Monster Squad, 70s CFF chiller The Man From Nowhere and the British anthology series Dramarama Spooky.

About the instructor:

Catherine Lester is completing her PhD on the children’s horror film at the University of Warwick, and has taught and spoken widely on this topic. Outside of this research, Catherine is interested in children’s media culture more broadly, particularly in representations of gender and sexuality, and has done some recent work in relation to this on Disney’s Frozen. In March 2016 she co-organised an academic conference on ‘Girlhood, Media and Popular Culture, 1990-present’ at Warwick. She has written film reviews and essays for the site alternatetakes.co.uk and you can find her tweeting about popular culture, feminism and occasionally her pet rabbits @CineFeline.

About the Miskatonic Institute:

Named for the fictional university in H.P. Lovecraft’s literary mythos, The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies is a non-profit, community-based organization that started in Canada, founded by Kier-La Janisse in March of 2010. The school currently has branches in Montreal and London, with Miskatonic London operating under the co-direction of Kier-La Janisse and Electric Sheep Founder/Editor Virginie Sélavy.

All classes take place at the historic Horse Hospital, the heart of the city’s underground culture. Season ticket is £35 and will be available shortly. Individual class tickets are £10 advance / £11 on the door / £8 concessions and will be available 30 days in advance of each class.

For full details of the next courses please check the Miskatonic website. For all enquiries, please email Miskatonic.london[at]gmail.com.