The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies is an
organization based in Montreal, Canada that offers a variety of theory
and production-based workshops for youth aged 14-29, and is a
non-profit,
community-based endeavour through
which established horror writers, directors and programmers/curators
help enthusiastic fans of the genre to gain a critical perspective.
CURRICULUM + REGISTRATION
Miskatonic's 2012 curriculum begins weekly classes in the fall, with
the occasional weekend class by visiting instructors. Classes may
require reading or viewing homework. Courses in the 2012 fall semester
lineup - and select courses scheduled for the spring 2013 semester - are
listed below, with the remainder of the spring 2013 lineup to be
announced here in early fall 2012.
Students
can register for individual classes, or can pre-register for an
immersive year-round curriculum. Registration prices vary depending on
course length and are listed on the individual course description pages.
Curriculum may vary
from year to year.
THE FANTASIA SCHOLARSHIP
Sometimes the youth who would get the most out of these courses are
deterred by the professional registration fees. This is where Fantasia
has stepped in to help! Fantasia offers five scholarships per
school year (September-May) to would-be participants who are unable to cover
the costs of yearly registration. To apply for the Fantasia Scholarship you
need to be between the ages of 14-29 and be willing to fill out the one-page
application form available for download on the Miskatonic website. To apply for a scholarship, download and fill out the form HERE and email the completed for to bigsmashproductions@gmail.com.
UPCOMING COURSES:
2012-09-22
Since the early days of tent-bound magic lantern
shows, music has accompanied the grand illusion of motion pictures. This
lecture by Fangoria Magazine's Chris Alexander will not only discuss
the history of musical composition in the horror film, it will
specifically illustrate some of the finest examples of how music can
radically accentuate and dictate an audience’s sensory and emotional
connection to imagery. FREE ADMISSION!
Read more … WRITTEN IN BLOOD: SCORING HORROR CINEMA
2012-10-08
The critical frenzy around the recent postmodern
horror film, The Cabin in the Woods (2012), as a game-changer or
'reinvention' of the horror genre suggests that journalists (and even
fans) have forgotten that horror is always-already a reflexive genre.
This introductory class will give students a pathway into the critical
study and discussion of horror through healthy debate around the way
popular (and sometimes scholarly) discourse problematically frames
horror as constantly in crisis and in need of rejuvenation.
Read more … WATCHERS IN THE WOODS: REFLEXIVITY IN HORROR CINEMA
2012-10-15,
2012-10-15 - 2012-10-22
For many genre fans, a love affair with horror and the
grotesque began early on, sometimes fuelled by unlikely sources. One of
these was the classroom safety film, which for many kids was their
first time seeing other children threatened by true danger, being
confronted with a combination of gore effects and actual accident
footage, and being offered a pictorial glimpse at things their parents
didn’t want to talk about.
Read more … SCHOOL OF SHOCK: PAIN AND PLEASURE IN THE CLASSROOM SAFETY FILM
2012-10-29,
2012-10-29 - 2012-12-03
This six-week course will attempt to revise and
reframe persistent claims in scholarly discourse that 1940s horror is
somehow inferior to a “classical” or “canonical” mode of horror in the
1930s. Within this framework, the creepers, chillers and thrillers of
the 1940s become lost—the result of favoring monolithic binaries, or
strict divisions within genre classifications, between high art and low
art, auteurs and craftsman, and major studios and poverty row. Expect to
see films you may not have ever heard of before in this class!
Read more … FRAGMENTS OF THE MONSTER: RECOVERING FORTIES HORROR
2013-01-21,
2013-01-21 - 2013-02-25
As we reflect upon the recent popularity of horror
melodramas such as True Blood, The Walking Dead and American Horror
Story, it becomes essential to explore the influence of earlier examples
of TV horror. This six-week course looks at shows such as Twilight
Zone, Dark Shadows, Outer Limits, Thriller, One Step Beyond and more,
plus the golden age of made-for-TV features and the tradition of TV
horror hosts.
Read more … SMALL SCREENS, BIG CHILLS: CLASSIC AMERICAN TV HORROR
2013-03-18,
2013-03-18 - 2013-04-01
A filmmaker ridiculed by film critics and genre fans
alike, Jean Rollin (1938-2010) has only recently begun to find
acceptance in his native France. Rollin’s films have been described in
often paradoxical ways, from poetic and literary, to absurdist and
oneiric, to technically inept and narratively impenetrable. Hence,
Rollin films occupy a liminal space in film history - where art-house
horror mixes with sexual taboo, where the fantastique tradition mixes
with the “serial film,” and where lyricism mixes with the macabre -
resulting in a disarmingly unique and personal cinematic vision.
Read more … DREAMING REVOLT: Jean Rollin, the French Fantastique, and Beyond
2013-04-08,
2013-04-08 - 2013-04-22
Predating the Italian giallo by several years, and
intersecting with it on many occasions subsequently, was an important
but oft-neglected strand of crime cinema: The German Krimi film. Based
largely on the work of the British pulp crime writer Edgar Wallace
(1875-1932) who was incredibly popular in Weimar-era Germany, these
lurid tales of underworld gangs, criminal masterminds and masked killers
expanded upon both the cinematic terrain of Fritz Lang’s Dr. Mabuse
films and the serials of Louis Feuillade.
Read more …
