horror movies

Women-directed horror films are finally getting the (blood) red-carpet treatment! The Viscera Film Festival, showcasing women-made horror shorts, is this Saturday, July 17th in Los Angeles. The film festival came about through the team-up of Shannon Lark, who started the Chainsaw Mafia to encourage independent filmmakers to produce (and whose email signature reads, "Never forget, if a woman can go through the process of pushing out a baby, she can make a horror film!") and Heidi Martinuzzi, a film journalist and director, and founder of Pretty-Scary.net which covered women in horror films (behind and in front of the camera). Besides the film festival, Martinuzzi and Lark are combining powers (well, websites) to make Fangirltastic.com (still under construction) to keep the spirit of Viscera alive all year-round. I asked Lark and Martinuzzi about the festival and how feminism and horror overlap.

This movie should have been awesome!
Like many feminist blog readers and pop-culture junkies, Kelsey and I have been following the hype on Jennifer's Body , starring Megan Fox as a cheerleader-turned-flesh-eating-demon and Amanda Seyfried as her loyal but mousier (Hollywood mousier) BFF, since we watched the preview way back in July. We finally got a chance to see it this Monday, and while hate is a strong word, there was one too many WTF? moments ("867-5309"?!) for us to get a feminist buzz off this flick (especially after being surprisingly touched by Whip It preview). So like the vlogging pioneers we strive to be (did you know we have a video page?) we sat down moments after the credits rolled to give our impressions, which include a primer on Diablo Cody's latest vernacular additions (:30), why we were disappointed (1:13), and of course its redeeming qualities (What? Unlike some people--JENNIFER!--we're not all filled with black bile and bloodlust. 4:19)! Check 'er out and share your own spoiler-filled thoughts on the movie! Transcript after the jump.
no seriously, spoilers

It's like The View, but with fewer bikini waxes.

Welcome back to another episode of Popaganda, Bitch's (somewhat) bi-weekly pop culture podcast! In this episode, Annalee, Gabriela, and Kelsey attempt to answer the following age-old questions: Can girls out-gross guys at the box office? Is Harry Potter emasculating America? And why do women love horror films?

Click on the player below to start streaming this episode, or download it here and listen on-the-go!



Links to articles, faves, and video clips after the jump!

As a big horror fan, I've been excited to see what My Bloody Valentine 3D would do for the genre, which trades primarily on thrills and spectacle.  But even if I wasn't into horror, the film would be worth taking note of because it's one of the first contemporary films shot in 3D that is not a family picture (and not animated, at that).  The film's success will no doubt be a benchmark for studios considering shooting other films in 3D.  So I'm disappointed to report that, while the film is something of a technological marvel, its (mis)treatment of its female characters is nothing to be excited about. 

More after the jump - and minor spoilers ahead...