ZooScope

Tag: Horror

  • The Lighthouse. Dir. Robert Eggers. A24. 2019.

    “𝑩𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒚’𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒔 𝒃𝒆. 𝑰𝒏 ’𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒓.” The Lighthouse is a film about madness and evil. The film uses the arrival and death of a seagull, at the hands of Thomas, to explore the threshold between sanity and madness, and our capacity for evil. Thomas’ sanity is questioned…

  • The Watchmen. Dir. Zach Snyder. Warner Bros. 2009.

    What can dogs tell us about criminality? With regards to Zach Snyder’s Watchmen, the answer is ‘quite a lot.’ Dogs are used within the film to align the binaries of legality and criminality with humanity and animality. There is a particular focus on the possibilities of transgression, as both the anti-hero and the villain commit…

  • Cujo. Dir. Lewis Teague, Warner Bros. pictures. 1983.

    St. Bernards. Aren’t they adorable? Slobbering bundles of joy that get up to all sorts of mischief. This loveable breed of dog has certainly enjoyed its share of the Hollywood spotlight, therefore, there’s no other option but to discuss everyone’s favourite troublemaker. No, not Beethoven (Figure 1) I am, of course, talking about Cujo, family…

  • Blue Velvet. Dir. David Lynch. De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. 1986

    Lynch has made a career out of the surreal, exploring the dark and often animalistic nature of human existence. His 1986 neo-noir mystery/psychological horror Blue Velvet centres around college student Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan), who after returning home after his father suffers a stroke, discovers a rotting human ear that leads him on an investigation…

  • The Secret of NIMH. Dir. Don Bluth. MGM/UA Entertainment Company. 1982.

    “We can no longer live as rats. We know too much.” The Secret of NIMH is remembered by many as a dark, creepy, and disturbing film, with retrospectives published in recent years referring to it as leaving basically every kid who sees it with a lingering dread. Don Bluth’s directorial debut after leaving the Walt…

  • The Thing. Dir. John Carpenter. Universal Pictures. 1982.

    The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982) uses dogs as an emotional catalyst to evoke a heightened sympathetic response from its audience. The alien organism – adopting the exterior of a dog – exploited the trustworthy, friendly associations that humans have with dogs in order to infiltrate the research lab after observing human-animal relationships. Clark, a researcher,…

  • Pet Sematary. Dir. Mary Lambert. Paramount Pictures. 1989.

    Mary Lambert’s 1989 adaptation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary is a horror film that supplants the blood-thirsty killer with a household pet – one which becomes increasingly unfamiliar as the film progresses. Aided by a combination of practical and special effects, the Creeds’ ghostly cat Church transitions into an object of the uncanny, and thus…

  • Coraline. Dir. Henry Selick. Focus Features. 2009.

    Coraline is a stop-motion animated movie, based on Neil Geiman’s novel with the same title, featuring mice, rats, insects, dogs and a cat. Of all these animals, the nameless black cat (Keith David) is most intriguing. One could say that the cat plays such a role in the story that we could extrapolate it to…

  • The Shining. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Warner Brothers. 1980.

    A notoriously disturbing moment in The Shining (1980) is the ‘bear costume’ scene, which poses questions why Kubrick specifically chose this animal and its symbolic purpose in this bizarre shot. The cheap appearance, thus inauthenticity of the costume, intentionally reminds viewers of the human inside the outfit, removing its animality in favour of humanity and…

  • White God. Dir. Kornél Mundruczó. InterCom Zrt. 2014.

    White God (dir. Kornél Mundruczó, 2014) depicts the story of Hagen [Bodie and Luke], a mixed-breed dog, and his relationship with Lili [Zsófia Psotta], a young girl who is sent to live with her emotionally distant father [Sándor Zsótér].  Unwilling to pay the newly implemented ‘mongrel fee’ imposed by the Hungarian government in a desperate attempt…