This is Dread Academy, a newsletter about critically engaging with the things that go bump in the night.
The more people that I meet in this world, the more I find that horror is a common denominator among most of us. Whether or not people declare so publicly, we all love to peer into shadows and wonder what might be staring back at us. The human experience is so rife with fear from every angle (be it economic, political, personal, social, etc.) that it’s no wonder we look to stories to scare us. Storytelling is how we have always processed our collective emotions. It’s a means of exploring big feelings or ideas in a safe, controlled environment.
As such, it’s no surprise that- given that the world feels bigger, more dangerous, and more unstable than ever before- horror is having a bit of a renaissance in the public consciousness. For many of us, it never went away, but with platforms like Netflix and Hulu doubling down on the genre, the attention it has been getting from the video game industry over the last two decades, and the boom of studios like Blumhouse and A24, it’s proliferating the zeitgeist like never before.
Yet for all that popularity, I find that I don’t see enough spaces where this genre is being engaged with from an analytical perspective beyond determining whether a viewer or critic finds something to be “good” or “bad.” I fear that, as with so many other areas of media analysis, there’s an idea that such things are only to be discussed in an academic environment. It’s this mindset which I would like to challenge. There are so many conversations to be had about horror media and the stories it tells; discussing its influences, examining plot elements to parse out subtext and intent, debating how the theory of a medium has impacted the storytelling, investigating cultural impact. The list truly is endless. As a genre, there’s so much that horror has to say, all we have to do is listen.
So let’s listen. Let’s talk. And let’s start learning what’s really going on in our favorite horror stories.
Movies, books, games, music, theatre; it’s all on the table.
Welcome to Dread Academy. Class is in session.