Vile Bodies

New essay on Criterion Daily, new interview with me in Little Village

Hello boils, ghouls, and enbys! I’ll keep this short and sweet, like a piece of candy corn: I wrote an essay about body horror (a term I have some problems with) for Criterion Daily. “Body horror” looms large in the discussion and marketing of many horror films—or even TV shows and movies that have just a bit of violence. I open by writing:

There are three unfortunate realities of writing a book about David Cronenberg: feeling unworthy of the task, actually sitting down and writing, and being asked about “body horror” over and over. The last of these is a social obligation made more difficult by the way, as both a genre and a discourse, its ever-thinning definition is used as a sheath to cover so much these days. Any bit of violence, gore, or goo—however brief or suggestive—means a film or TV show gets slapped with the label. Pointing this development out makes you sound like a cranky scold, but consider the abuse that “Hitchcockian” and “Lynchian” have suffered at the hands of publicists and unscrupulous fans who uncritically regurgitate marketing materials. The amorphousness of “body horror” makes me hesitant to engage with, or even a little hostile toward, new visual media touted as such.

The essay, which covers Ken Russell’s Altered States, Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, David Cronenberg’s The Fly, and William Friedkin’s Bug, lives here. I also highly recommend Matango and Teeth, which are part of Criterion Channel’s body horror collection. It’s going away soon, so sink your teeth in while there’s still time!

Now and Then

I was interviewed by Ian Carstens for Little Village, Iowa City’s long-running alt-monthly magazine. I went to the University of Iowa, and have a great deal of fondness for my home state, so it was a thrill to appear in their pages. Carstens was a great interviewer, and he wrote a really lovely essay about my book that you should absolutely check out. It feels weird to tout things about me, largely because I’m a woman from the Midwest who’s still a bit grossed out by this whole “put everything about yourself online to promote your brand” thing. (We’re almost twenty years into this phenomena and I still don’t care for it.) I hate putting pictures of myself online, and taking “head shots” gives me agita. I would rather break rocks—at least it’s good cardio and strength training.

To take the edge off—lest you think I’m taking myself too seriously—please enjoy this compilation of Crypt Keeper puns. (Yes, dear reader, there’s a part two.)

Until next time, sweet screams!