Local film expert and Monstrous Flesh podcast host Clelia McElroy is launching a brand new course. She tells us all about it...
The new course is called Horror without Borders. Why did you want to develop a global aspect for this?
When I started running Women's Bodies in Horror, I was really interested in having a broad discussion with horror fans, and particularly female audiences, about what attracts us to a genre that is so often perceived as misogynistic.
By looking at tropes like vampires, witches, demonic pregnancies or, again, the ageing female body in horror, we get a clearer picture of the societal anxieties horror is giving a voice to, and that's very empowering, in my opinion.
I ran this course four times in total, and by the end I was quite conscious that I was looking at this topic from a predominantly white, western perspective - so I really wanted to include different stories from around the world, while keeping the focus on the representation of women in these films.
How did you go about choosing the films from such a wide pool of potential subjects?
It's always a challenge, and it's definitely been an education! I am an avid Letterboxd user and I find it a brilliant tool to find and catalogue titles. I'm also incredibly lucky to be part of a wonderfully diverse community of film fans and artists here in Nottingham who are never short of recommendations.
Each week of the course focuses on a different area of the world, so it's a case of finding a film that suits the themes we are going to deep-dive in that session. Some sessions are more challenging than others, but my rule of thumb is that the film we all watch and discuss in the session is accessible to those who are not the biggest fans of horror, so as not to alienate anyone in the group.
The course is for anyone who has an interest in storytelling and on-screen representation
The course has a focus on 'folk horror'. For those who may not know, what does this specific area of horror involve?
That's a very interesting question, and the answer will vary wildly depending who you ask!
I think that the idea of folk horror cinema often conjures up a picture of rural Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, maypole dancing, pagan cults and human sacrifices.
However, folk horror doesn't have a single definition, nor does it originate from a single place. While some people might think of folk horror as a specific narrative genre reflecting old ideas and superstitions through myths and fairytales, I prefer to think of it as a culturally specific type of horror that is used to reflect universal and very human anxieties.
Folk horror has not only a rich cinematic and literary history, but filmmakers, writers and artists around the world have also been reimagining folk horror for the contemporary moment, offering an ethnographic understanding of different places and world cultures.
Speaking of people who may not know much about horror - is this course for horror fans only, or does it offer something for anyone?
The course is for anyone who has an interest in storytelling and on-screen representation - horror is such a personal thing to each and everyone of us that the label has become something of an umbrella term, in my eyes at least.
I love it when someone contacts me to say they love the sound of the course but they hate horror. I always tell them, 'Let me change your mind,' because I know the perception they have of the genre is completely different to what we are going to discuss in the sessions.
My aim is to create as inclusive an environment as possible, and for this reason I always make sure that the films I select for discussion are not extreme or hyper-realistic in their depiction of violence and gore, and I make sure everyone is aware of trigger warnings and so on.
Similarly, I never show anything explicit during the sessions, or I give people a chance to step out if I do. I will always recommend further viewings for horror aficionados, and we can discuss more graphic examples during the sessions, but everyone is always extremely respectful of other people's triggers. It's about creating an environment that makes people rethink their own attitude towards the genre, no matter which end of the spectrum they sit at.
Folk horror has not only a rich cinematic and literary history, but filmmakers, writers and artists around the world have also been reimagining folk horror for the contemporary moment
What is some essential viewing for those thinking of signing on to the course?
I don't think I would consider any film essential viewing for the course, but I would really recommend the following titles to start thinking about how personal and diverse the folk horror sub-genre can be:
The Blood on Satan's Claw (Haggard, 1973)
Medusa (Rocha, 2021)
Onibaba (Shindō, 1964)
Haxan (Christensen, 1922)
Cat People (Tourneur, 1942)
The Lure (Smoczyńska, 2016)
We collaborated with The Screen at Nottingham Contemporary over the summer and screened all these titles as part of a film season titled Hideous Thing Inside: Delving into fairytales and folklore to explore the wild, feral, forbidden feminine, and I think they work really well as a prelude or companion to this course!
Are there plans to tie the course in with your podcast?
We are currently working on other strands for the podcast, but folklore is an element we always come back to in each episode, as Meg [co-host] and I are both so interested in stories and myths from around the world, and how this feeds into our understanding of the role of women in the genre.
We also released an episode earlier this summer talking about our film programme at Nottingham Contemporary, where we deep-dive into our understanding of the folk horror genre and representation on-screen.
So, although our current episodes are not in direct relation to the course, our conversations always end up finding their way back to our culture, and the folk within it!
Sign on to the Horror without Borders course through the Monstrous Flesh podcast
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