In this blog I use the gothic sexploitation specialist Jess Franco as a case study in the vexed issue of cultural hierarchy. This is a large topic for a small space, but my central interest is Franco’s frequent brushes with legitimate, high-brow and arthouse cinema. Whether you regard his flirtations with reputability as sincere, tongue-in-cheek or opportunistic may depend on your cultural politics as well as on which part of which version of which film you are watching. Even then, the generally ragged quality of the films makes Franco’s position on elite culture difficult to establish and

I would like to use my blogs  to look at the filmmaker Jesús Franco Manera, more commonly known as Jess Franco (1930 - 2013). The prolific Franco worked in several genres, but the films I will write about here are wayward combinations of (sometimes supernatural) horror and eroticism situated somewhere between low-budget exploitation and art cinema. Most of Franco’s better known works fall into the hybrid category of sex-and-horror cinema popular in Europe during the 1960s and ‘70s, with promising titles like Kiss Me Monster (1967), She Kills in Ecstasy (1970) and Virgin among the Liv

My perception of screens (movie, television, phone, etc.) has changed considerably since the beginning of the new millennium. After watching the Japanese film Ringu (1999) by Hideo Nakata, the TV screen ceased to be merely the reflective surface of a familiar machine; it became a portal through which communication between the world of the living and the dead was possible. Although I had been an avid consumer of horror films since I was a little kid, movies such as the excellent Poltergeist (1982) by Tobe Hooper or Videodrome (1983) by David Cronenberg —films in which the screen also becomes

Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse by Chris Riddell Publisher: Macmillan (Sep 2013) ISBN-10: 0230759807 ISBN-13: 978-0230759800 Review by Chloe Buckley Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse is a beautiful and wonderfully silly book. I confess: it is one of the most enjoyable books that I have read for some time. However, beyond my immediate response as a newly converted Chris Riddell fan, I would argue that the pleasures offered by Goth Girl are timely and pertinent in terms of understanding why contemporary children’s gothic continues to flourish as a popular and literary form. The suc

  Before my arrival in the United States I had never paid that much attention to the accent of Count von Count, Sesame Street’s cuddly number-obsessed vampire. It was only after I heard the English-speaking version, with his thick Bela Lugosi-inspired accent, that I realized that the dubbed Count that I watched as a kid also had a vaguely Eastern European accent. Despite this blatant oversight I never doubted that the sympathetic vampire came from some remote Transylvanian corner. This is one of any reader’s first certainties regarding vampire stories: they—along with many ot

Presenting part two of our in-depth interview with S.P. Miskowski, author of 'Knock Knock' and 'The Skillute Cycle'.

Inspired by a recent visit to Edinburgh’s underground vaults (courtesy of City of the Dead Tours) – I now want to share my thoughts on this particularly Gothic phenomenon. The focus here is with the curious aftermath of identifying with the Sublime through a much specified use of fear.

In the first of a two-part interview S.P. Miskowski, author of 'Knock Knock' and 'The Skillute Cycle,' discusses writing, labelling and marketing her work; the role of 'horror' in North American culture; 'women in horror'; and the current renaissance in small-press publishing.

Eleventh Biennial Conference of the International Gothic Association: Gothic Technologies/Gothic Techniques For four days in August the bustling town of Guildford was flooded by academics with a penchant for the Gothic. The University of Surrey was the location for the 11th biennial International Gothic Association Conference, and as a first-timer, the experience exceeded all expectations. The conference was opened on Monday with a keynote address by Fred Botting (Kingston University), entitled ‘automaton’, this captivating presentation served as an ideal introduction to the

Contemporary Gothic (7th, 14th & 21st October 2013) Convened by Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes The Gothic is, quite simply, everywhere: from the record-breaking successes of the Twilight vampire films and the TV series The Walking Dead, to the critically acclaimed videogames Left for Dead and Dead Space. Its ubiquity is nothing new. Since its first wave of success in the late eighteenth century, the Gothic has proved to be a truly chameleonic artistic mode, consistently adapting itself to suit the tastes of contemporary audiences whilst simultaneously projecting their innermost anxieties