Persephone's (Gothic) Insights

After watching the trailer for Team Cherry's  Silksong , as well as  a recent interview with the developers, themselves, I decided to do a response video  of my own. The video clocks in at over an hour. So I wanted to provide an abridged version for people to read, here. As a Gothic scholar, I wrote my thesis on two Metroidvania:  Metroid  (1986) and  Hollow Knight  (2017). I consider most Metroidvania to be Gothic. However, being a sequel can wildly effect a Gothic text's ability to horrify or terrify its audience. Ann Radcliffe chose to terrify hers; "Monk" Lewis chose to horrify his. These two devices generally work in tandem, and nearly any text will contain elements of either. Usually one is more predominant than the other, and this ratio can invert from sequel to sequel, author to author. Works from the same author can change, too. Ridley Scott has helped shape and reshape the  Alien  franchise as an ongoing narrative. In a dark, un...

"It's alright to be a cat person, you know?" Much like  Reservoir Dogs (1992),  Bullet Head  (2017) starts at the end of a heist. Dead behind the wheel, the driver crashes into a bulldozer. Stunned, but alive, the survivors climb free, carrying an iron safe full of cash—three desperate criminals fenced in a condemned lot with a giant, killer dog. If this sounds like the premise to a horror movie, it kind of is. However, this is a crime movie, the best of which are horrifying in spots: Mesrine (2008), A Gang Story (2011), Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Bullet Head , however, chooses to focus on dogs as much as people. This might sound weird on paper, but it works. The men hole up. Waiting for their relief, they tell each other stories ("It's not like we have a paucity of time."). Each brings a streetwise legitimacy to his role. I buy the act. Malkovich has done this kind of thing in his sleep since  The Killing Fields  (1984). Adrien Brody sports a...