Richard Kelly’s 2001 film Donnie Darko was deemed controversial at its release and flopped commercially, most likely because no plot surrounding a crashed jet engine would have been received well just after the tragedies of 9/11. However, thanks to an influx of sales during its DVD release, the movie inspired critical analysis and a cult […]
Tag: horror film
Short Analysis of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho
The recurrence of birds, specifically “deathbirds,” is a classic horror convention. In “Visual Style,” Richard Allen says, “In Psycho, the main character, Norman Bates, a psychotic murderer, is not simply likened to birds of prey, but to stuffed birds of prey. … he articulates the key significance of the death bird as the figuration of […]
Short Analysis of Phantom of the Opera (1924)
Phantom of the Opera (1924) is a classic horror film and was a perfect example of certain points in Katerina Bantinaki’s “Paradox of Horror.” Feelings of anxiety, dread, and discomfort that usually accompany a fear, such as a movie, are much less intense when we are able to control how much we take in from […]