The genre’s haunted and terror-filled places remind us not only that the past matters but—quite graphically—that the dead matter. Whether vindictive forces arise in the setting of the home, a city, a country, or a moment in time, horror films reiterate that we cannot escape our personal, national, or human past—that we bear responsibility for the sins of the father, or of the race. The consequences for those who suppress the truth or ignore history are unavoidable; the reckoning may not always be gory, but it is rarely less than tragic.
Organized by Ron Magliozzi, Curator, and Brittany Shaw, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Film, with Caryn Coleman, guest curator.
