Please direct any general inquiries to Erica Tortolani at etort.phd@gmail.com.
In Cutting Edge: Art Horror and the Horrific Avant-Garde, Joan Hawkins observes that avant-garde and experimental cinema oftentimes trade “the same images, tropes, and themes that characterize low culture” (3); low culture, in this instance, pertaining to genres like horror. Indeed, many experiments in film in video, like the horror genre, have banked on “uncomfortably visceral reaction(s)” (5), exploiting the physical limits of the body on screen. Moreover, in works like Possibly in Michigan (Condit, 1983), The Scary Movie (Ahwesh, 1993), and The Fourth Watch (Geiser, 2000), artists often utilize visual, aural, and narrative horrific elements (sometimes even referencing earlier horror films altogether) to further interrogate representational strategies in mainstream media and explore themes including bodily agency and autonomy, trauma, and memory. Conversely, the horror genre, in the hands of visionary, transgressive filmmakers, becomes experimental by design, pushing narrative, representational, and spectatorial boundaries in the process. Veronica Dolginko asserts that horror more broadly “can be seen as experimental by nature. Trying to find and craft excellent, full-force scares is a form of experimentation, and the trial and error that follows is really the only way to produce results” (n.p.). Recently, films like The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (Cattet and Forzani, 2013), The Wolf House (León and Cociña, 2018), Friend of the World (Butler, 2020), Skinamarink (Ball, 2022), and Enys Men (Jenkin, 2022) have deliberately broken from aesthetic and narrative convention, expanding the boundaries of the genre in the process. The experimental mode and horror genre, while widely studied as two separate entities, therefore have a significant, symbiotic relationship.
The proposed volume welcomes essays that consider any of the following topics:
1) Experimental films, videos, and/or interactive/multimedia installations that incorporate visual, aural, and/or narrative elements that relate to the horror genre;
2) Experimental films, videos, and/or interactive/multimedia installations that elicit adverse affective responses or uncomfortable visceral reactions, in the same manner as films belonging to the horror genre;
3) Feature-length (either released theatrically or via streaming video on demand) horror films that challenge linear narrative, points of identification, and/or generic tropes
Contributors are encouraged to consider the function and value of merging experimental film, video, and other visual media with the horror genre. How can we best operationalize experimental or avant-garde horror? For what purpose do filmmakers utilize horrific elements in their experimental works? How and with what impact do they manipulate horror-specific generic conventions? Why construct non-conventional horror films? What future lies ahead for experimental horror filmmaking?
Likewise, contributors may submit essays focusing on topics spanning temporal and geographic boundaries, with specific preference given to those writing about understudied and overlooked media texts. Essays on those films and other media crafted by BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and international artists (outside the US/Hollywood) are also strongly preferred.
Please submit essay abstracts (not exceeding 300 words in length) as well as a brief bio (not exceeding 150 words in length) to etort.phd@gmail.com no later than Tuesday, July 15 at 5:00 PM EST.
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Some suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
Blood of the Beasts (Franju, 1949)
Dementia (VeSota, 1955)
Ursula (Williams, 1962)
Invocation of My Demon Brother (Anger, 1969); or, any works by Kenneth Anger
The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes (Brakhage, 1971)
The Third Part of the Night (Zulawski, 1971)
Ganja & Hess (Gunn, 1973)
Tape #1 1974 (Circa) (Maughan, 1974); or, any works by Cynthia Maughan
The Virgin Sacrifice (Lawrence [as J.X. Williams], 1974)
House (Obayashi, 1977)
Eraserhead (Lynch, 1977)
Altered States (Russell, 1980)
Secret Horror (Smith, 1980)
Beneath the Skin (Condit, 1981)
Grand Mal (Ourlser, 1981)
Cherie, mir ist schlecht (Kiss, 1983)
Possibly in Michigan (Condit, 1983)
Ghost (Takashi, 1984); or, any works by Takashi Ito
Where Evil Dwells (Turner and Wojnarowicz, 1985)
Begotten (Merhige, 1989)
Secrets of the Shadow World (Kuchar, 1988-99); or, any works by George Kuchar
Santa Sangre (Jodorowsky, 1989)
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Shin’ya, 1989)
The Scary Movie (Ahwesh, 1993)
His Master’s Voice (Gibbons, 1994); or, any works by Joe Gibbons
Don’t – Der Österreichfilm (Arnold, 1996)
Tuning the Sleeping Machine (Sherman, 1996)
Within Heaven and Hell (Cantor, 1996)
Nocturne (Ahwesh, 1998)
The Amateurist (July, 1998)
Ice from the Sun (Stanze, 1999)
The Fourth Watch (Geiser, 2000)
Hollywood Inferno (Episode 1) (Parnes, 2001-03)
Evokation of My Demon Sister (Cantor, 2002)
Hans und Grete (de Beer, 2002); or, any works by Sue de Beer
Bataille (Provost, 2003)
Ani(fe)mal(e) (Scheurwater, 2005); or, any works by Hester Scheurwater
Monster Movie (Takeshi, 2005); or, any works by Takeshi Murata
Amer (Cattet and Forzani, 2009); or, any works by Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani
Antichrist (von Trier, 2009)
Long Live the New Flesh (Provost, 2009)
Ghost Algebra (Geiser, 2010)
Disease of Manifestation (Tzu-An, 2011)
Berberian Sound Studio (Strickland, 2012)
A Dream of Paper Flowers (Jarman, 2015)
My House Walk-Through (PiroPito, 2016)
Hauntology Film Archives (Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, 2018-22)
The Wolf House (León and Cociña, 2018); or, any works by Cristobal León and Joaquin Cociña
Atlantics (Diop, 2019)
Friend of the World (Butler, 2020)
Enys Men (Jenkin, 2022)
Skinamarink (Ball, 2022)
Stone Turtle (Woo, 2022)
The Great Curdling (Thomas, 2022); or, any works by Jennet Thomas
