for the ghouls

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Blog Post #8: Final Thoughts

Coming into this class, I was hyped. I have always grown up loving horror movies, starting with “House of Wax”. I never shied away from horror. I think the most significant idea that I learned during this course, is how American fears are portrayed in movies. It did not matter the time period, there was always some type of fear from that time period, found in the horror movies produced. Whether it was individuals who were not “typical”, women who expressed their sex life, religion becoming scarce, etc. It was really neat seeing how that trend followed every time period. I think that was the most surprising thing I took away from this course as well. Another take away was from the beginning, where we learned that horror is used as a place for people to go and let out some of their own deepest and darkest thoughts without ever being judged. When you watch a horror movie, you never think of that movie as being an outlet for one’s deepest wants and desires. After everything, this course has definitely enhanced the way I think of the supernatural. I now see shows or movies with supernatural characters and before it was just whatever, it was just a show, but now I think of all the historic components to it. And how they follow or break societal views. I loved this class, even if I did not participate in class all the time, I learned so much more than I expected. I really enjoyed the class and being able to learn so much more about a genre that I am already so fascinated with.

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Haunted Site: The Molly Brown House

While I loved learning about Molly Brown, who she was, what she stood for, and the history of her house here in Denver, I do not believe that her house, The Molly Brown House, was haunted in any way. I have always found myself more in touch with the spiritual world, I have sensed presences around me and have seen some pretty unreal things growing up. While we were taking our tour, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There were no weird cold spots, there were no smells of J.J.’s pipe, there was no furniture moving. When we took our tour, it was during the day and not during the Halloween time – which is when everyone says there some type of unexplained things happening. The reason people believe her house to be haunted was because Molly (Margaret) Brown was a socialist, as well as a philanthropist, but she was said to have loved parties, gatherings, hosting people. So, when her house was restored to her previous conditions and turned into a museum, more and more people began coming into her house. People believe that because there are so many tours and so many people in the house, that is why Molly Brown found her way back to it. Margaret Brown is also known as Molly Brown, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Margaret Tobin Brown, and Mrs. James J. Brown. She’s best remembered for encouraging the crew of Lifeboat Number 6 to return to the debris field of the 1912 sinking of RMS Titanic to look for survivors. Not only did Margaret survive the Titanic, she also founded the Denver Women’s Club, raised money for children, and fought for the rights of miners. After surviving the Titanic, she helped raise money for the less fortunate survivors from that night. Once she gained the popularity that she did, she used that fame for good. She continued fighting for rights; for miners’, for women’s suffrage, and for workers. She also worked hand in hand with the Red Cross and the American Committee for Devastated France in WWI. Margaret Brown was incredible and helped changed a lot of things. Not only does she have some pretty amazing history, her house does too. When it was first built, it was designed with styles of Classic Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque, making it unique and eclectic. Margaret and her husband James Joseph (J.J.) in 1894. The couple later split up, not officially, in 1902 where Margaret then started traveling the world more and renting out the house. Then the Great Depression and declining neighborhood hit and forced her to turn the house into a boarding house. When Margaret passed away, in 1932, the house was sold, and the subsequent owners altered the house. In 1958, Art Leisenring purchased the house, renting the rooms to gentleman boarders and later leased it to the city to use as a Jane Addams Hull home for girls. After a few years, Art Leisenring fought to have the house refurbished and turned into a museum. After seeking help, the Historic Denver purchased the house in 1970 and restored it through paint analysis, architectural research, and studying the house from photographs back to Margaret’s original house. The house has been through a lot, which is hard to believe that Margaret and J.J. have come back to “haunt” it, after all this time. Besides that, it was an awesome experience to see how something so old and worn down can be turned into such beauty with the proper care and maintenance. I also loved learning more about Margaret. 

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Blog Post #7: The Cabin in the Woods

This film felt very fitting for this class and the topics discussed throughout the trimester. The Cabin in the Woods incorporated the different types of horror discussed in class and the different cultural and societal fears, and the anxieties of society at the time of the film. This film included almost all the horror archetypes we looked at this trimester; werewolves, demons, and zombies while also focusing on the fears of Americans.

I think the biggest thing that this film touched on is the representation between the “old” / ”new” gods and audiences in the real world. The facility workers were in a sense the filmmakers. In order to make the “old” gods happy, is similar to the way that filmmakers have to make their audiences happy. No one is happy with the same thing happening over and over again. The same scare over and over again is going to get boring and no longer scare people, just like the sacrifices made were no longer making the gods happy. There needed to be change. The gods being unhappy with the sacrifices is the same as the audiences not being happy with the movie, causing bad reviews to come about.

I also feel that this film looked at the anxieties of women. The fear that women need to be a virgin in order to go somewhere in life. In this case, the virgin is the last to survive. For some reason, the sexual choices of women have never fully been up to the women herself. Society has always shown us that women need to safe themselves, that they must stay holy and innocent. The Cabin in the Woods shows the importance of virginity in women and how that is the ultimate end-game in life. If you stick to the morals and beliefs of society and remain pure and innocent, then no harm will be done to you.

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Blog Post #6: The Exorcist

During the ‘60s and ‘70s, religion and traditional family values were at war with the movement of feminism and sexual liberation and the 1973 film The Exorcist became the playing field. This film shows America’s change of culture and the growing anxiety revolving the female body and their sexual tension. In this film, Chris is seen as this “new woman” who broke away from the traditions of family units in this time period. Chris is a single mother, who has her own career with amply amount to give herself and her daughter the life they live. The time in which this film takes place in, is when religion became not so traditional for families. With a new wave of female sexual liberation and a lack of religion, Regan became the vessel for the fears of Americans. The family’s situation was created to scare people. To make people see that if people are non-religious, single-parenting, with a young daughter, then your daughter will eventually be possessed. Regan was perceived as America’s fear; the fear of young girls being sexualized. “The human body itself, especially the female body, came to be seen as a monster or at least a monster-birthing machine” (pg. 170) found in the chapter “Haunted Houses”, Regan in this situation is the monster. In all of this, the only way to stop the sexualizing and possession of Regan, a male figure must be there to help. Not just any male figure, but a religious male figure – a priest. This film, The Exorcistshows America that they must conform to the traditional family lifestyle and continue to follow the religious beliefs set forth by generations and generations before.

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Essay 2: Vampire Diaries

The Vampires Diaries is an American supernatural teen drama television series on the CW that is set in a fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. The town is charged with supernatural history from the settlement of migrants from New England in the late 19thcentury. Damon Salvatore, one of the main characters is a 178-year-old vampire who eventually becomes human again after a curse was injected into him. Damon symbolizes what humans fear.

When Damon prays on humans, the bites are considered animals even though the town sheriff knows exactly what is causing these bite marks. The town all knows that vampires are part of the town’s history, but they never want to accept it. Damon is the epitome of the human townspeople’s fears. They fear the history of this town, so that history comes back and attacks harder than ever. Slowly but surely, the vampires in Mystic Falls become more mainstream within society because Damon’s brother, Stefan, falls in love with a human, Elena. Due to Stefan’s relationship with Elena, Damon becomes more involved with the town, but it wasn’t difficult. At first, not many knew he was a vampire. While the sheriff knew about the brothers and a few other vampires, she was extremely hard on Damon and set very clear boundaries for him, since he was known as the “bad” vampire, as compared to Stefan. Damon preferred feeding off humans while Stefan stuck to blood bags.

The anxieties expressed through Damon were the towns. Not only were vampires in Mystic Falls a fear of humans who knew the history, there was this anxiety that the vampires would soon take over Mystic Falls. This anxiety rooted from one specific vampire who had intentions of killing every human by sucking their blood and usually snapping their necks and then having them drink the vampires’ blood. The town leaders became anxious whenever there was a new attack because they feared that would be the start of a mass war. A war between humans and the 200+-year-old vampires that prayed on the small town of Mystic Falls.

Damon represented what the typical vampire is. He was pale, sensitive to light, he was handsome, he could move quickly, and when he would bite people, they would then turn into vampires themselves when they came back to life. Damon is very similar to Lestat, from Queen of the Damned (2002). Both of these vampires kept very hidden lives, they didn’t communicate much with the outside world. They were both perceived as attractive/sexy. They both experienced a burning sensation from the sun shining on them, but once they received some sort of “power” they were able to walk amongst the sun.

Damon’s house followed the aspects of the Gothic House, in regard to the Gothic Genre. His house was a large, dark, eerie mansion. This mansion was a family heirloom, passed down from vampire to vampire. The house was connected to a cave below it, which “lend their own haunting flavor with their darkness” (Harris, 2018). The houses’ dark and mysterious setting creates this sense of unease and foreboding, which contributed to toward the element of fear and dread. Not only was the house dark and eerie, it was also been seen as haunted, in many forms, the biggest being that previous vampires who were killed indefinitely somehow were always connected to this house. David Ronneburg wrote “The house as Gothic element” (2002) and in his book he wrote, “For people in classical antiquity man-made space had become so precious that they knew gods, called lares, that were supposed to guard the household. The lar familiaris, “which was the spirit of the founder of the house which never left it,“[16] can be seen as a predecessor to the motif of the past haunting the house in ghostly form” this can be interpreted in multitudes of ways, but it relates back to the house in which Damon and Stefan reside in. It shows that part of the Gothic Genre focused on the house, the “haunted house”, if you will.

The Gothic Genre also consisted of the element of distressed women and the element of women threatened by a powerful, impulsive male (Harris, 2018). Distressed women appeals to the pathos and sympathy of the audience (Harris, 2018), the female character often faces events that leave them fainting, terrified, sobbing, and/or screaming (Harris, 2018). In the case of women being threatened, one or more male characters has the power, as king, lord of the manor, father, or guardian, to demand that one or more of the female characters do something intolerable (Harris, 2018). In this television series, Damon has taken advantage of women he sees in trouble. He rescues them, makes them feel safe, and then he prays on them. He fulfills his desires of fresh blood.

This television show portrays vampires, very specifically Damon, as the common stereotypical vampires. Pale, attractive, sensitive to light, etc., while also portraying him as the town’s fears and anxieties. Eventually Damon and other vampires are able to gain the trust of the humans and coexist with them peacefully and calmly. This series also has elements of the Gothic Genre, focusing a lot on the house in which the brothers leave in, the way women are in distress, and the way women are threatened by powerful and impulsive male figures.

Damon Salvatore. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://vampirediaries.fandom.com/wiki/Damon_SalvatoreHarris, R. (2018, November 16). 

Elements of the Gothic Novel. Retrieved from https://www.virtualsalt.com/gothic.htmRymer, M. (Director). (n.d.). 

Queen of the damned[Video file].Ronneburg, D. (2002). 

The house as Gothic element in Anglo-American fiction (18th - 20th century). München: GRIN Verlag.

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Blog Post #5: The good & bad within ourselves

The Wolf Man is a 1941 American horror film which was the second Universal Pictures werewolf film, preceded six years earlier by the less commercially successful Werewolf of London (1935). The title character has had a great deal of influence on Hollywood’s depictions of the legend of the werewolf. mid Universal’s pantheon of movie monsters, the most human of them is the Wolf Man. Being someone who unwillingly falls victim to what he believes is a curse, he remains the only monster to regret his murderous nocturnal activities. This movie exemplifies the fear humans have of themselves and the good and bad they posses within themselves. The story itself infers that Larry Talbot, has been driven mad by tragedy and cultural hysteria and that his transformation from man to monster occurs only in his head. The fact that Talbot can only see the transformation himself, shows that the real fear of said ‘monster’ is only coming from Talbot himself. Others do not fear him, in fact, many loved him and believed him to be good. Talbot’s change in culture and unfortunate death of his brother caused him to become vulnerable, thus susceptible to the superstitions of the village. He repeatedly hears and old poem that haunts his unconscious mind:  Even a man who is pure in heart, and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms, and the autumn moon is bright. This haunted him because he was vulnerable and only knew this poem to be true, rather than a legend that the village speaks of. This is important in many ways; the way culture creates fears in individuals. Every culture has their own legends, their own folklore, or myths and in each culture, there are ‘monsters’ found within the legends, folklore, or myths. In this case, humans have a fear of themselves and the good and bad they possess within themselves.

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Blog Post #4: Zombies

When looking at the contemporary representation of zombies in today’s culture, it’s easy to see that these creatures represent what society is afraid of. Let’s look at The Walking Dead series. There becomes this zombie apocalypse, and everyone is forced to learn how to survive on their own – without electronics, without communication to others, without heat and electricity, without food and water. They are forced to live without the things they so heavily relied on. In today’s society, nobody knows how to do anything on their own, they are all so reliant on the little device that sits in their pocket, but The Walking Dead forces society to think about how to live without that little device in their pocket. Society is scared to live without that, so a show came about it. I think the zombies also represent the fear humans have when it comes to themselves as a society. I think in today’s society; people have this fear that humans will take over (as they already have) and destroy the world into this chaotic and horrific world (which at this rate – may happen sooner rather than later). The zombies and the way they destroy the world is what the world could become, and humans don’t know how to live that way – they are scared of it so they create this show, that becomes this outlet for themselves. It’s similar to horror and why horror is so popular.

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Blog Post #3: Queen of the Damned

TheQueen of the Damned does represent and revise the tradition of the vampires in different ways. When vampires were first “created” or “found”, some signs of them included (1) an epidemic occurring around the individual, (2) appeared to stand before the victim at night and strangle or suck their blood, (3) body appearance included a fallen nose, hair, beard, long nails, and old skin growing over new, (4) the stench of them, (5) fresh blood appearing in their mouth, (6) they had to be staked in the heart in order to fully die, (7) they typically had an erection when found. The Queen of the Damneddoes keep some of the same signs in a newer and more modern way. Lestat does in fact stand over his victims and then suck their blood in a few scenes but not all the time. The women vampire in this movie have long nails, not super long ones, but they do have longer nails. This movie does represent the idea that vampires would be burned by sunlight, which in this case was true. This movie also follows the belief that vampires are very pale, with little skin color, and are very cold to the tough. The belief that the color red coincided with vampires also continued in this film. Most of the “older” vampires wore some type of red, usually it was a velvet red. On the other hand, the Queen of the Damnedrevised these old traditions and created new views of vampires. Lestat did not follow the typical vampire look, he was young, attractive, and smooth with his words. Vampires in this movie were seen as extremely sexual creatures. The vampires in this movie could be killed without being staked in the heart, it seemed like anything could kill them indefinitely. There was this lore that vampires could bite their victims and they would become vampires themselves, and while this is true, this movie added a little bit more too it. In the movie, the individual who was bit had to die and then drink the vampires’ blood to come back to life and become a vampire themselves. The Queen of the Damnedtook old myths and beliefs and put its own modern twist on them while adding some different ideas of vampires.

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Essay 1: The Home of Ghosts: Neglect

As society’s view of burials has shifted to more economically-safe alternatives, it is easy to forget about the churchyard burials and cemeteries. What comes with neglect may shock people. Neglect of cemeteries and churchyard burials results in more ghosts lobbying around. It makes sense that ghosts haunt certain places; whether it be from unfinished business, looking after someone or possibly haunting them, but they also tend to stick around when there is bad record keeping (they kind of travel like people – following the drama).

In 1860, Thomas Bryan founded Graceland cemetery in Chicago, Illinois. It started as a private cemetery and has remained that. Bryan was a successful lawyer with his own practiced, so when he purchased the 80 acres of land, he was able to get many prominent Chicagoans to join the board of managers. Many other wealthy Chicagoans became members and purchased large family lots and “landscape rooms”. The cemetery is still active to this day and can still accommodate a few more Chicago families who would like to join. Unlike many other cemeteries that have been neglected and abandoned, Graceland is known to be peaceful, contemplative, and aesthetically calming. With ground so large, individuals are able to find solitude. While this cemetery is known to have a few famous people buried there, there is really only one story that stands out. The story of Inez Briggs.

Inez Briggs, known as Inez Clarke, was six years old when she passed away due to diphtheria. She was buried in Chicago’s Graceland where she’s known to stick around and cry. Her tombstone is not a typical one. She has a statue, of a little girl with her legs crossed and perched on a stone tree branch with a summer hat and an umbrella dangling in front of her legs. Her statue is encased in glass atop the monument. The only thing the statue reads is her first name, “Inez”. It’s speculated that she is still afraid of lightning. People have said that during thunderstorms her statue disappears entirely and only returns when the thunderstorm is passed. It’s hard to fully know the true story of Inez. Most people believe that Inez did not in fact die of lighting, but rather of diphtheria, as stated above. It is speculated that Inez’s mother had recently remarried and changed her last name to Clarke, resulting in Inez’s last name to change as well. Shortly after Inez passed, her mother denied having any previous children from her first marriage. It is also speculated that Inez lived with her grandparents and not her mother. This happened when her parents divorced, and her mother moved on to another man to build a family with him.

As a woman, in the 1800s, it was heavily frowned upon to get divorced, never mind getting remarried again. But that’s exactly what Inez’s mother did. A huge reasoning for hauntings is due to neglect. Neglect makes people angry, sad, hurt; it makes them want more. Neglect keeps ghosts present, because they haven’t yet fulfilled their emotional needs. When you look at the story of Inez passing away due to diphtheria, it’s easy to see the neglect she endured due to her mom being a woman in the 1800s. Inez living with her grandparents and not her mother after the divorce can be seen as her mother’s own feelings of embarrassment or shame. Her mother knew that it was socially unacceptable for her to have gotten divorced but to also bring another child into a new marriage who clearly did not come from the new man. It was a disgrace for women to do that.

In society, gender plays a huge factor in a lot of things. Gender plays a factor in stigmas, acceptable and unacceptable behaviors, attitudes, jobs, lifestyles, etc. It’s easy for women to feel the shame and embarrassment of other women who find themselves stepping out of society’s’ views and expectations. In the 1800s it was expected of women to be stay at home moms, not take on social roles, not work or even go to school. They were supposed to be the perfect stay-at-home wife. Inez’s mother left her to her grandparents because she knew that getting divorced and then remarried to a man who did not father her child was not socially acceptable from a woman’s stand point, so she neglected Inez. Neglect is home for ghosts.

Works Cited:

Dickey, C. (2017). Ghostland: An American history in haunted places. NY, NY: Penguin Books.

Schwarz, R. (2017, July 15). Inez Clarke, the Haunted Statue of Graceland Cemetery. Retrieved from https://www.strangerdimensions.com/2013/08/10/inez-clarke-the-haunted-statue-of-graceland-cemetery/

Taylor, T. (2017, October). Behind The Legends: Weird & Haunted Chicago INEZ CLARKE Legends & Lies in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery. Retrieved from http://www.prairieghosts.com/grace.html

The Story of Graceland. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.gracelandcemetery.org/the-story-of-graceland/

Ugc. (2010, June 15). Graceland Cemetery. Retrieved from https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/graceland-cemetery

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Blog Post #2: Amityville Horror

American Dream (n.): a happy way of living that is thought of by many Americans as something that can be achieved by anyone in the United Sates // good jobs, a nice house, two children, and financial stability. 

The Amityville Horror story is the American Dream gone terribly wrong. They had what everyone wanted; a perfect house (that they owned and not rented), children, the husband had a solid job, etc. Over time, their perfect home, their perfect depiction of the American Dream, slowly came to a terrifying spiral downward. Unexplained and unplanned occurrence came about. Their perfect house quickly became a disaster. At the same time, they most definitely broke nuclear family norms during their time period. They had a step-dad, George, and their mother, Kathy did not necessarily follow the expectations of women during the 1970s. She wasn’t a typical “house wife”. She seemed to have a say in the house they built, she made decisions in regards to their plans (inviting people over), but she still fulfilled the basic roles of a woman. She took care of the kids, she did the cleaning and cooking.

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Blog Post #1: “Why We Crave Horror Movies”

After reading the article by Stephen King, “Why We Crave Horror Movies”, my own thoughts of horror movies being an “outlet” for people who have insane emotions have been confirmed. Everyone has their own sick and dark and twisty place they go to every once and again. For many, they find themselves in that state of mind while in a dark movie theatre watching the gruesome, breath-taking, scream-provoking movie. King was right when he said that no person is completely one-hundred precent sane, we are all mentally ill, some just hide it better than others. Some people use horror movies to help squash their disturbing thoughts or to help them from lashes out in society and becoming a murderer or monster in real life. While the Purge series are disturbing to some people, the reason as to why they did so well has to have some type of correlation with the people who sat and watched it. People in those theaters were living vicariously through the actors in the movie. The Saw series is also a prime example of horror films that audiences live vicariously through. Most people will not admit that they feel some kind of giddiness or pleasure when watching movies like The Purge or Saw, so instead, they sit in a dark room and watch silently feeling emotions such as thrill and excitement.