Category: Imaginary Animals: Yes

  • Nope. Dir. Jordan Peele. Universal Pictures. 2022

    Nope. Dir. Jordan Peele. Universal Pictures. 2022

    Jordan Peele’s latest film nope follows siblings OJ and Emerald Haywood in the aftermath of their father’s unexpected death. The siblings ‘We ain’t got no more problems’ is the foreboding line said by Otis Haywood moments before his untimely death and the supernatural haunting begins on the Haywood family ranch. Jordan Peele’s latest film Nope…

  • Kubo and the Two Strings. Dir. Travis Knight. Laika. 2016

    Kubo and the Two Strings. Dir. Travis Knight. Laika. 2016

    Figure 1: Kubo lifted in the air by wings made of origami birds. Kubo and the Two Strings follows a boy whose life is made even more extraordinary when a perilous adventure, which his mother has tried to save him from, accidentally finds him. Kubo can tell stories using the magical music of his shamisen…

  • An American Werewolf in London. Dir. John Landis. Universal Pictures. 1981.

    An American Werewolf in London. Dir. John Landis. Universal Pictures. 1981.

    “The wolf’s bloodline must be severed; the last remaining werewolf must be destroyed. It’s you David.” An American tourist, traumatised and alone wakes up in a London hospital after an attack on the Yorkshire Moors. His newly cursed body drifts between human and wolf as his deceased friend haunts him in limbo, telling him he…

  • Bird Box. Dir. Susanne Bier. Netflix. 2018.

    Bird Box. Dir. Susanne Bier. Netflix. 2018.

    Susanne Bier’s Bird Box follows Malorie Hayes as she navigates the events and aftermath of an outbreak of creatures, which seem to take on the form of a person’s worst fear, deepest sadness or greatest loss, and thereby drive humans to suicide when the people look at them. However, the monsters themselves are never seen…

  • Epic. Dir. Chris Wedge. 20th Century Fox. 2013

    Epic. Dir. Chris Wedge. 20th Century Fox. 2013

    The mouse encounter, experienced by characters MK and Nod in the animated film Epic, displays an inversion of the relationship between human and animal. The stereotypes that form this interconnection are depicted unusually. For example typically, and importantly not in this scene, mice are considered harmless. Inversion is done via the representation of the mouse,…

  • The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, Dir.Jay Russell, Sony Pictures Releasing, 2007, U.S.

    The filmmakers of The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep present audiences with the idea that a wild, Scottish mythological creature can (a) exist, (b) be a pet, and (c) a friend, to a young boy. Angus and the water horse’s friendship makes the point that not only can dogs be ‘man’s best friend’, but…

  • Ginger Snaps. Dir. John Fawcett. Motion International.2000

    Ginger Snaps. Dir. John Fawcett. Motion International.2000

    “B, I Just Got The Curse” In his direction of the initial werewolf attack in Ginger Snaps (2000), John Fawcett repeatedly frames close shots of the creature’s bloodied snout and teeth as it savages the central character, Ginger. These close shots lead to what I argue is a reinterpretation of the lycanthrope, wherein the werewolf…

  • Lamb. Dir. Valdimar Jóhannsson. Sena. 2021

    Lamb. Dir. Valdimar Jóhannsson. Sena. 2021

    Like a lamb to the slaughter, the slow-burn, absurd surrealness of A24’s Lamb (2021) leads the audience to an end that blends both chilling twists and heartbreaking loss as the complications that are inevitable with blurring binaries between human-animal relations come to fruition. In a playful, sardonic reconfiguration of oppositions between captivity and freedom, wildness…

  • Luca. Dir. Enrico Casarosa. Pixar Animation Studios. 2021

    At what point is a fish-out-of-water no longer a fish? Many films can be described as ‘fish-out-of-water’ stories, but very few take this as literally as Disney Pixar’s Luca. Our eponymous character is a sea monster, living with his family off the coast of the fictional Italian town of Portorosso and spending his days tending to his…

  • Wolfwalkers. Dir Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart. Apple TV+. 2020.

    This wild land must be civilised. Whilst this film’s premise – the child-friendly tale of two young werewolves attempting to end Oliver Cromwell’s invasion of Ireland – may sound bizarre, it proves itself to be one of the most politically and thematically poignant children’s films of 2020. The young protagonist is Robyn, an English Puritan…