The Haunted Screen

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Latest Episodes:

Cinema Oblivion: Lost Films, Haunted Histories Jan 31, 2025

As many as 90% of silent movies are lost to the ages, and many from later eras have vanished as well. How do these holes distort the story of film? This week: reel infernos, missing monsters, Jerry Lewis'... Auschwitz clown debacle, and a little hauntology as a treat.

A New Year, A New Orlok: Nosferatu vs. Nosferatu Jan 07, 2025

Robert Eggers' new version of Nosferatu is an absolute horror show in the best way possible. With Orlok Fever sweeping the nation, we're taking the opportunity to repost a 2022 episode on F.W. Murnau's century-old original.
Travis also offers his take on the Eggers adaptation. He promises not to read it as a political allegory, then promptly does so anyway.

Folk Horror, Pt. II: The Haunted Screen Gets Hauntological Nov 27, 2024

Folk horror is a past-haunted subgenre for our past-haunted times. Appearances from A-Ha, Christopher Lee, Jacques Derrida, Ronald Reagan, Mark Fisher, and creepy child laughter.
Episode artwork by DALL-E. Yeah, I know.

The Happy Halloween We're So Back Folk Horror Extravaganza, Pt. I Oct 31, 2024

Midsommar!
Witchfinder General!
The Blood on Satan's Claw!
The Wicker Man! '73! And a lil '06 as a treat!
No Derrida, though. Gonna have to wait for Derrida.

1.6 — The End: The Blue Angel and the Twilight of the Weimar Republic Sep 21, 2022

Nazi, dissident, victim…
Josef von Sternberg’s cabaret classic The Blue Angel had three stars: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, and Kurt Gerron. As the Weimar Era ended and the Third Reich began, fate brought them—and all of Germany—to a crossroads. What would they choose, and what choices would be taken from them?
For show notes and other supporting information, click here.

1.5 — Fritz Lang & Thea von Harbou, Pt. II: A Marriage—and a Country—on the Brink Sep 07, 2022

As the 1920s became the 1930s, both the Lang-von Harbou marriage and German democracy itself teetered on the edge of collapse. In this moment of personal and political chaos, the couple made movies—and choices—that would define their legacies.

For show notes and other supporting information, click here.

1.4 — G.W. Pabst & the German Left: When Pictures Got Political Aug 31, 2022

In a political environment as combustible as the Weimar Republic, it was only a matter of time before the country’s Kinos became venues for ideological warfare. G.W. Pabst was on the frontlines, firing broadsides against nationalism (Kameradschaft), capitalism (The Threepenny Opera), and the patriarchy (Pandora’s Box). But even in the face of a rising fascism, the German left threatened to tear itself apart.
For show notes and other supporting information, click here.

1.3 — Fritz Lang & Thea von Harbou, Pt. I: Seduction, Spectacle, and the Birth of Nazism Aug 24, 2022

Through movies like Destiny, Die Nibelungen, and Metropolis, the husband/wife team of director Fritz Lang and screenwriter Thea von Harbou helped establish Berlin as Hollywood’s one true rival. But their emergence as international celebrities paralleled the rise of a certain failed artist storming through the beer halls of Munich.
For show notes and other supporting information, click here.

1.2 — Villains: Nosferatu, Dr. Mabuse the Gambler, and the Timeliness of Terror Aug 17, 2022

In 1922, a pair of diabolical creatures arrived on German movie screens. What can the vampire Count Orlok and the supercriminal Dr. Mabuse teach us about the fears and fantasies lurking in the Weimar imagination?
For show notes and other supporting information, click here.

1.1 — Beginnings: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the Rise of Expressionism, and the Long Shadow of World War I Aug 17, 2022

A world war lost. An economy in tatters. A country riven by political violence. Germany’s Weimar Era had a tumultuous birth, and with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, its filmmakers began to channel that mayhem into sinister celluloid fantasies.
For show notes and other supporting information, click here.

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