Spooktacular Episode: Black Christmas (2019) | Episode #37

In this episode, hosts Katherine Troyer and Anthony Tresca discuss the 2019 film Black Christmas.

Episode Highlights: In our spooktacular Christmas episode, we finish our discussion of the Black Christmas franchise by talking about how the 2019 film, while breaking free of the formulaic problems of the 2006 film, nevertheless still fails to capture the magical spirit of the 1974 film...in large part because of its inclusion of magic. We argue that the film's inclusion of the magical element creates a problematic conflation of supernatural horrors with real-world horrors like toxic masculinity and rape culture. Once more using the lens of Carol J. Clover's work on gender in the slasher film, we explore the ways that this film attempts, succeeds, and--we think--ultimately fails to present the fully feminist take on this slasher story that the film seems to be striving toward. 

A Dose of Scholarship: For all three Black Christmas episodes, we will be turning to Carol J. Clover's chapter "Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film," available as a chapter in her book Men, Women and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film.  

This podcast episode first aired on December 25, 2020

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