New Ad Astra Institute class: Horror Cinema
Sundays in March (15, 22, 29), April (5, 12, 19, 26), & May 3, 7–8pm CST via Zoom. $150 - register now!
Instructor: Shannon Blake Skelton, PhD.
Horror stands as one of the most popular and resilient cinematic genres in the world. Though often greeted with disdain and derision - not to mention controversy and contempt - horror cinema remains an insightful mode of exploring a variety of ideas and concerns.
This course will survey the history of horror cinema, while exploring key works, subgenres, filmmakers, styles, and critical approaches.
Topics can include: theories of horror; international horrors; monster theory; zombies, slashers and vampires; silent horrors; intertextuality; representation, race, and ethnicity; parody; Queer horror; genre hybridity; adaptation; the "splatter" film; aesthetics and design; gender dynamics; found footage; body horror; fan discourse; class; Universal Monsters, and much more.
We'll study the historical background of many films while also developing their own skills at analysis. Participants will be asked to screen films outside of class and read short reviews.
The class meetings will focus on discussion and analysis and is geared toward writers, teachers, and high school students.
Shannon (he/him) is a teacher, professor, and researcher located in the Midwest. His fiction, scholarship, and reviews have appeared in numerous journals and collections while his plays have been performed on stages throughout the United States. His recent volume, Interviews: Wes Craven, is published by The University Press of Mississippi.
This is part of the Ad Astra Institute's growing offerings - including seven for Spring 2026, four for Summer, and one (soon to be more) for Fall. Ad Astra Universe-ity provides a deep, broad, and comprehensive education for people of all ages seeking to learn about spec-fic as well as to write and teach it - essentially, we're designing the optimal program we would have wanted for ourselves when we first began our journey into the SF universe.
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