Horror, like porn, is meant to evoke a physical reaction. They, alongside melodrama, form the trio of genres which are described as “body genres” by my favourite media theorist, Jenna Stoeber*. Stoeber argues that the body genres evoke emotional reactions of “fear, sadness, or arousal” that spill out […]
This is not a spoiler-free essay. There is a lot of discussion of plot elements. If you like to go into a film blind, you will want to wait to read this piece. ~~~ These are the stories of the robots: They resent us for creating them. They […]
The Gutter’s own Angela will be back next month. In the meantime, please enjoy this essay from the vault. Romance Editor Emeritus Chris Szego suggests two winter romances! ~~~ This week, I thought I saw the first snow of the season. Turns out it was actually sleet, which […]
It’s that time of year again, when the snow get shy and slush falls instead; when the sun seems like a distant memory from when you were a kid; when customers show up at the last minute wanting rare imported titles, like, yesterday. In short, it’s Christmas, the worst […]
(…because Famous Penultimate Words just doesn’t have the same ring…) Next month I will write my last column for The Cultural Gutter. I wrote my very first column as a Gutter Guest way back in 2005, about Magic Flutes by Eva Ibbotson. Although Ibbotson died in 2010, she was […]
For someone with a well-documented history of cowardice, I really like Hallowe’en. Yes, the holiday comes replete with ghosts and ghoulies, and a porous boundary between the living and the dead. It produces scads of creepy costumes, and an endless supply of horrible slasher films. But to all that I […]
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