Academic Horror Story

Horror film specialist Shelley O’Brien talks about her love of the horror genre

My love affair with horror started very early – at the age of five to be precise. Aside from my encounter with The Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, my first memory of being absolutely terrified was watching War of the Worlds (1953) at home - not a horror film as such, although in my eyes it certainly was. We didn’t have a colour TV but that didn’t matter – it was the sounds which the alien heat ray weapons made (well, that and the total destruction!) which led to me having nightmares for several weeks afterwards. Even now that sound triggers a reaction.

Despite the nightmares, for some reason the feeling of terror stuck with me and I wanted to experience it again. From that point on, I was hooked. I used to creep behind the sofa to peek at films I wasn’t allowed to watch. I always got discovered, but it didn’t stop me from seeing horrific scenes – out of context – like the farmer with his eyes pecked out in Hitchcock’s The Birds! Dr Who used to give me a regular fix on TV and as I headed towards the age of ten, my parents realised my addiction wasn’t going to be cured. They gave me the money for my first book on horror films which I bought from a book club at school – Great Horror Movies by Favius Friedman, a small paperback with text and B&W illustrations. I still have it.

There was no going back. Birthdays and Christmas became a time for a new horror film book from my parents. I used to read them over and over again, and they are still a treasured part of my collection. After I was ten, my parents let me stay up to watch Hammer horrors, old Universal pictures, TV shows like Thriller (some of which were pretty scary!), in fact, anything horror related. I was finally getting to see some of the films which were in my books and I religiously ticked them off in the index after viewing. I even had pictures of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi stuck to my bedroom wall which I had cut out from the Radio Times. Suffice it to say, my friends thought I was a bit weird.

My teens were spent avidly watching anything and everything, including as much horror as possible. I discovered the Pan Horror books series which had fascinatingly grim covers, as well as containing some of the most gruesome stories I’ve ever read. It was also during my teens that my interest in true crime started in earnest, after having seen a TV series about Jack The Ripper in 1973 when I was nine! The impact of reading about real life murder cases made me initially want to pursue a career in forensic science. That all changed during my late teens, but my interest in the subject has never waned and even comes in useful when teaching horror.

In 1980, when I was sixteen, we moved from a village into a town, and much of my spare time was spent at the local library or at the two old cinemas. Video had just started to become a ‘thing’ too and my Dad (a film buff) decided to get a Betamax recorder. This opened up so many more avenues in my film viewing, including the so-called ‘video-nasties’. Before the VRA came into force in 1984 the local library and video shop had these on display, and I would pore over the covers looking at the gory or unsettling images and imagined what strange delights they had to offer. Oddly, I rarely hired them. It was a couple of years later that I really became interested in these supposedly corrupting films through reading horror magazines such as Fangoria, The Dark Side, and Starburst. My Dad also bought a VHS recorder, so during this time I also started my own video collection (not just horror I hasten to add), often tracking down obscure titles being sold off in video shops or on the local flea market. Some of the films were as disturbing and gruesome as their covers had suggested, some were rather tame, and others were pretty dire. It didn’t really matter – the point was to have actually seen them in order to find out what all the fuss was about. Finally, I was able to see such ‘scandalous’ films as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Last House on the Left, The Evil Dead, Cannibal Holocaust and many more.

These formative years in my horror history had a lasting impact. Once I started my degree I was able to actually write about some of the films which had become so important to me. More significantly I later ended up being able to teach horror, to the extent of being asked to design and deliver a third year module called The Contemporary American Horror Film. I had finished my own MPhil thesis on Body Horror and David Cronenberg a few years earlier while teaching part-time at Sheffield Hallam, so this was the perfect opportunity to use some of my own research as well as all those years of watching, reading and collecting horror material. The module has been running for around fifteen years and changed its name to American Nightmares a few years ago. Although I keep it up to date and relevant to what is current in horror, the old favourites – Night of the Living Dead, Last House on the Left, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – still return yearly, just like Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, ready for their next sequel.

The New Not Normal

BA Film Studies Course Leader Dr Emmie McFadden describes teaching during lockdown

The 2019/20 academic teaching year drew to a close for us on Friday 24th April. Needless to say, none of us imagined that our final classes would be held remotely over video conferencing. But they did.

In some ways, I’m a creature of habit – familiarity and routine are important to me - but I tend to adapt quickly and love the thrill of change and doing something new. In fact, willingness to push boundaries and explore the unknown defines my character considerably more than someone with a penchant for familiarity and routine. When things don’t change quickly enough, I get frustrated. And when change finally happens, I often lament that it’s a change that should have been in place years ago.

But when we transitioned to online classes, my feelings about change were different. Yes, I was excited to explore new ways of teaching and learning and generating different methods for connecting with students and colleagues. But it was a change that came with a price. And when the price for change comes with an emotional tag, familiarity and routine trump change.

The transition to online teaching was quick. Like everyone else, I was adapting while keeping an eye on the news. I worried about my family back in Dublin. I worried about my friends and loved ones who were also worrying about their friends and loved ones. I worried about our students and what this enormous challenge would mean for them – some were being let go from their part-time jobs, many had to return home to self-isolate, some had to take care of ill family members. Even though we are all in similar circumstances, we are not necessarily all in the same boat. With tremendous support from our management, The Film Team rallied together to embrace this unwelcomed change and deliver an online teaching and learning experience as best we could.

And students embraced it too. All of us were adapting as quickly as our broadband connection would allow us! Our Thinking About Movies cohort made my Tuesdays. Rather than me posting pre-recorded lectures for them to watch in their own time, they specifically requested that we have live lectures so to give structure and routine to the day. Meeting up, albeit online, was important. We’d spend at least ten minutes each session doing small talk – asking each other how we’re doing and if we’re keeping safe and well. In one-to-one online tutorials, students would ask me how I was doing. It always took me by surprise. I thought it was for me to make sure that they were keeping okay; it is a warm feeling to learn that they were making sure that I was okay too.

So, since lockdown, I’ve been working hard in the background putting together this new SHU Screen website to keep students and lecturers better connected now more than ever before. The website is a space to share our love for film, to post about our experiences, to build our digital profiles, to catch up with alumni, to keep motivated, to keep inspired, to reach out, and to stay connected.

Film Studies at Sheffield Hallam

First Year BA (Hons) Film Studies student Ben Matthews shares why he chose to study BA (Hons) Film Studies at Sheffield Hallam

I’m currently a few weeks away from officially finishing my first year as a film student at Sheffield Hallam University, and although recently it’s been a bit challenging for obvious reasons (Covid-19), my experience has still been a hugely positive one.

I’m from a small town in Lincolnshire, where my nearest cinema is a Vue. It’s programme really only covers the biggest blockbusters out at the time, which is of course fine but naturally I grew out of it as I started wanting to see more of the films that they wouldn’t be showing. Me and my friends would regularly make day trips to the Showroom. It was great, we got to spend a day in Sheffield which had already become my favourite city, and we had access to the wealth of special and regular screenings that the cinema had on offer. We saw a silent horror film with a live score, and even a broadcasted Q&A with Spike Lee; Showroom really had it all and more (the popcorn is actually affordable!). This gave Hallam a huge plus when it came to choosing a University. Having already heard of Hallam’s film department, and its close links with this cinema, you can understand why I made it my first and only choice.

When I first moved to Sheffield getting on a year ago, I was blown away by the choices of cinema I had right on my doorstep. A state-of-the-art multiplex was about a five-minute walk away from my accommodation, and Showroom was only about fifteen; it couldn’t get much better than that. With these being so close, I found myself going to see film’s I hadn’t heard of and otherwise wouldn’t have seen just when I had a bit of spare time. Also, a lot of film’s I’d heard a lot about but for all the wrong reasons (I saw Cats on the big screen twice). In my first-year money never became an issue when it came to watching films as I thought it would; Showroom tickets for under 27’s are only £4.50, and I was regularly offered free tickets from my course. And on top of all of that I was watching around three films a week as a part of my course, in Hallam’s own state-of-the-art Void cinema (as good as a real cinema) or even sometimes in Showroom itself.

I love Sheffield because of its cultural diversity and its sense of community (particularly its strong film community with loads of societies, festivals, and volunteer run cinemas). It was easy to find friends with similar interests to mine and through these people, all the cinemas, and my course: I feel as though my film knowledge, appreciation, and understanding has grown exponentially. I really can’t wait to start my second year and be back in Sheffield. That first trip to Showroom is going to be great!

Written by Ben Matthews - First Year BA (Hons) Film Studies