Week 4: The New Weird
In the writing assignment for this week I would like you to create a blog post that discusses what you read for the topic of the New Weird and what you think other future trends in the genre of horror might be and why that trend is developing. Write a post on your blog (250-350 words) that discusses what is "weird." Use specific examples from what you read and watched for this week. Why do you think is so compelling about the "weird?"
For this week, I read Three Moments of an Explosion. In this collection of short stories, I read about iceberg's freezing and floating over London in Polynia, The New Death that causes dead people's feet to point in a direction like a compass after death and a depiction of a zombie movie depicted through a script in The Crawl.
I believe that in the New Weird horror movie genre, there isn't a limitation to what "weird" is. However, I think there is a definition of what it is not. The new "weird" usually doesn't depict the usual horror movie tropes such as ghosts, hauntings, haunted objects, ouija boards etc. Instead, it mixes science fiction and fantasy elements with horror. I believe that the weirdness that comes into it is weird and adds to the horror factor because the short stories are events that could take place in our real world. For example, in Polynia, it depicted how the icebergs floating in the sky would melt and cause a downpour but they would freeze back again. This caused the weather to be cold no matter the season. With the way the climate is changing now, this doesn't seem to be too crazy, and the weirdness and the horror of it is that this could be a reality. Additionally even in the story The New Death, it expresses how people are not ready to deal with this because they don't comprehend it. "What might be the endgame of New Death be?...We don't know what to call for, to live up to the potentiality of New Death." The horror part of it is how realistic this is in our world. Whenever a new disease erupts or when there is a virus outbreak such as SARS, Swine Flu, Ebola and so on, everyone is terrified and paranoid while scientists and governments scramble to look for answers and cures. I believe the horrifying part of the new weird is the realistic parts of these stories.
From the New Weird, I believe new horror movie genres will continue down the road depicting current events, exaggerated of course. The classic horror movies will always exist, however the couple I've seen being advertised have centered around technology and how technology is and will completely take over our lives and replace human relationships.
For this week, I read Three Moments of an Explosion. In this collection of short stories, I read about iceberg's freezing and floating over London in Polynia, The New Death that causes dead people's feet to point in a direction like a compass after death and a depiction of a zombie movie depicted through a script in The Crawl.
I believe that in the New Weird horror movie genre, there isn't a limitation to what "weird" is. However, I think there is a definition of what it is not. The new "weird" usually doesn't depict the usual horror movie tropes such as ghosts, hauntings, haunted objects, ouija boards etc. Instead, it mixes science fiction and fantasy elements with horror. I believe that the weirdness that comes into it is weird and adds to the horror factor because the short stories are events that could take place in our real world. For example, in Polynia, it depicted how the icebergs floating in the sky would melt and cause a downpour but they would freeze back again. This caused the weather to be cold no matter the season. With the way the climate is changing now, this doesn't seem to be too crazy, and the weirdness and the horror of it is that this could be a reality. Additionally even in the story The New Death, it expresses how people are not ready to deal with this because they don't comprehend it. "What might be the endgame of New Death be?...We don't know what to call for, to live up to the potentiality of New Death." The horror part of it is how realistic this is in our world. Whenever a new disease erupts or when there is a virus outbreak such as SARS, Swine Flu, Ebola and so on, everyone is terrified and paranoid while scientists and governments scramble to look for answers and cures. I believe the horrifying part of the new weird is the realistic parts of these stories.
From the New Weird, I believe new horror movie genres will continue down the road depicting current events, exaggerated of course. The classic horror movies will always exist, however the couple I've seen being advertised have centered around technology and how technology is and will completely take over our lives and replace human relationships.
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