19: Cloverfield and Terrorism

Get ready for a deep dive episode into the imagery and themes used by Cloverfield (2008) and how they evoke and comment on imagery from 9/11 and terrorism more generally.  Cloverfield was a pretty big deal back in 2008 and we make sure to talk about the critical reception then and discuss some great scholarly articles that have been produced since then.  If you want to talk more about the themes and imagery contained in this movie, or any horror movie for that matter, head on over to the Horror Pod Class Facebook group and click to join.  

To let you know up front, we are discussing two academic papers:

"Terrorist Attack!: The Spectacle of Evil in the Blended Horror of Cloverfield" by James Aston of Liverpool Hope University

"Cloverfield’s Monstrosity: Ideology and Terror" by Steen Christiansen of  Aalborg University.  This one hosted on Academia.edu, but signup up is free!

Show Notes:

2:35- Tyler is watching and enjoying the Handmaid's Tale, even though it can be brutal to watch.  Head on over to Signal Horizon and check out Tyler's reviews and recaps of the show.

3:35-  Did you know that the original novel of the Handmaid's Tale is available on Kindle Unlimited?  It is free to sign up and it also has some pretty awesome horror- click here to see some of the awesome books that make Kindle Unlimited worth it for genre fiction fans.

4:30- Big shout-out to Raygun's, a local Kansas City T-Shirt shop and their Gilead line!

5:30-  Mike is reading Blood Standard by Laird Barron.  It is awesome and you ought to pre-order a copy over on Amazon!

8:00-  Speaking of Laird Barron, one of his novellas Mysterium Tremendum is on Pseudopod and it is read by the very talented Jon Padgett.  This story is a three-parter, but you can check out part one right here.

20:00-  First up is "Cloverfield’s Monstrosity: Ideology and Terror" by Steen Christiansen of  Aalborg University.  This is a super interesting look at how we construct ideologies and their associated images.

33:15-  We talk briefly about the other Cloverfield movies, 10 Cloverfield Lane and the Cloverfield Paradox.  For more about these two movies you can read this really interesting article on Junkee about how 10 Cloverfield Lane continues the War on Terror motif of the first film and also check out Tracy's take on the Cloverfield Paradox.

33:45-  "Terrorist Attack!: The Spectacle of Evil in the Blended Horror of Cloverfield" by James Aston of Liverpool Hope University  This paper is super neat because James Aston argues that the movie at least tries to offer a critique on our collective responses to terrorism.

37:00-  The view that Cloverfield reflected some of the imagery from 9/11 is not just held by a small group of scholars and humble podcasters, in fact it was widely discussed at the time.  You can read this Salon article from 2008 that pretty well sums up the sentiment.  

40:30-  A really powerful documentary about 9/11 and the images associated with it is 9/11: The Falling Man.  

48:00-  Click here to read more about Philip Fracassi's novella, Shiloh. 

48:30- Read more on Wikipedia about the unreleased 1972 Jerry Lewis film, The Day the Clown Cried.  Tyler also talks about Scaramouche Jones, a one person play with a similar theme.  Read more about Scaramouche Jones over at The Telegraph.

59:00- Here is the article on Junkee about how 10 Cloverfield Lane continues the War on Terror motif of the first film.

We hope you enjoyed today's episode!  Don't forget to hit up the Horror Pod Class Facebook group, let us know what you think of the podcast and what films, books, and topics you think we should discuss next.  You can follow Mike on Goodreads and Tyler on Twitter.  Make sure you also check out Signal Horizon for the latest horror news, reviews, and analysis.  Until then, class dismissed!