Harald Eilertsen

Horror fans and morbidly curious individuals are more psychologically resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 11:34:17 +0200

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). It will do you good!

One explanation for why people engage in frightening fictional experiences is that these experiences can act as simulations of actual experiences from which individuals can gather information and model possible worlds.

...

Interestingly, morbid curiosity and horror fandom predicted divergent types of psychological resilience. While horror fandom predicted less psychological distress, morbidly curious individuals experienced greater positive resilience. A history of watching horror films may help build emotion regulation skills that can be utilized to ameliorate the psychological distress that accompanies dysphoric events, but it might not offer strategies for enjoying life in the midst of negative experiences. Instead of psychological buffering, morbid curiosity seems to promote positive resilience — i.e., positive experiences in the face of threatening stimuli. Presumably, this occurs through a psychological shift in the cost-benefit ratio of approaching a potentially dangerous stimulus. The morbidly curious individual may not see the pandemic as a terrible negative event (or at least not only as that). Instead, the morbidly curious individual may see the pandemic as an opportunity of sorts.

Pandemic practice: Horror fans and morbidly curious individuals are more psychologically resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic

#horror #science #MorbidCuriosity #covid-19

Horror Science

Første programslipp Ramaskrik 2020

Harald Eilertsen

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 13:48:02 +0200

Høstens store horror-snakkis, Zoom-skrekkfilmen «Host», åpner den digitale Ramaskrik 2020. Vårt første filmslipp gir deg norsk sykehus-skrekk, et mørkt dansk blikk på genteknologi, drømmestudier og en hyllest til Evil Dead-fans.

Første programslipp Ramaskrik 2020 / Ramaskrik

#ramaskrik #ramaskrik2020 #film #festival #skrekkfilm #horror

Skrekkfilm Ramaskrik Norsk

Tale

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 20:57:46 +0200

Kult!

Ravenheart International Film Festival 2020

Harald Eilertsen

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 20:46:22 +0200

The second annual Ravenheart International Film Festival is held at Cinemateket in Oslo Aug 27 - 30 this year. And yes, it seems they will be able to run the festival physically as planned!

Check out the program here and get the tickets here.

Ravenheart is a festival dedicated to genre films, and specifically films in the Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction genres. They aim to showcase new films, but have also found place for anniversary screenings of American Psycho (20 years), The Shining (40 years) and Psycho (60 years)!

The curated short film programs are also worth a watch, where more experimental films can be shown, and new film makers get a chance to show their work.

The Cinematheque is right downtown Oslo, only a few hundred meters walk from the central train station. Last years festival was great (there's some reviews if you scroll a bit down my film section) and the program for this years festival looks even more promising.

Hope to see you there!

(Btw: I'm not involved in the festival, but I know some of the people who are.)

#oslo #fantasy #horror #sci-fi #science-fiction #film #festival

Film Festival

It Stains the Sands Red (USA/Canada, 2016)

Harald Eilertsen

Sat, 16 May 2020 22:26:22 +0200

It Stains the Sands Red is quite an interesting and rather original Zombie flick. At the start I thought I knew where it was heading, but then it headed somewhere else entirely. Also this is not a roller-coaster of a film, it keeps the pace low and takes its time. The characters (of which one is a Zombie!) get the time to grow and develop. One foot after the other, so to speak. The main actress Brittany Allen is definitely what carries the film, and her character Molly's transformation through the movie is what makes this film such an interesting watch.

Very much a surprise viewing for me. It was included as a bonus feature on the Blu-Ray for What Keeps You Alive (2018) also with Brittany Allen and from the same director (Colin Minihan). I first thought this was a short film bonus feature, but it clocks in on almost exactly 1 hour and 30 minutes plus credits.

A great watch! Very much recommended!

#horror #zombie #movie #film #cinema

Film Horror

Dead by Dawn / Viral Viewing

Harald Eilertsen

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 21:37:58 +0200

Today should be the opening of the 27th Dead by Dawn horror film festival in Edinburgh. Instead we're stuck at home, and trying not to cough on each other. However, the festival team has scoured the net for short films that has been screened at the festival throughout it's long run, and will share a handful every day of the original festival dates. The first batch is already up, and there will be another batch up tomorrow and every day of the weekend. Then they plan on keeping it up with another handful of films every Thursday until November!

Bookmark the following link, and join in!
http://www.deadbydawn.co.uk/viral-viewing/

See you in Edinburgh in November?

#horror #film #festival #deadbydawn

Film Horror

Aflysning af Blodig Weekend 2020

Harald Eilertsen

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 14:59:19 +0200

Vi har på Blodig Weekend taget den beslutning at aflyse årets festival pga. COVID-19 situationen. Om der bliver andre begivenheder/særvisninger/mm. kan vi ikke sige på nuværende tidspunkt, men vi håber selvfølgelig på det bedste. Det er en meget trist beslutning, men vi håber på jeres forståelse og at se jer igen lige så snart, vi igen...

Trist, men absolutt forståelig. Har enda tilgode å komme meg på denne festivalen, men håper det blir en ordning med det en gang.

Aflysning af Blodig Weekend 2020

#film #festival #horror #danmark

Film Horror

Dead by Dawn, full lineup announced

Harald Eilertsen

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:01:44 +0100

The full line-up of Edinburgh's horror film festival Dead by Dawn has been announced:
http://www.deadbydawn.co.uk/news/dbd-2020-full-schedule/

The festival is held from April 23. - 26. in the Edinburgh Filmhouse. Was hoping to be able to attend this event, but now we'll have to see how things go with the covid-19 pandemic. Blodig Weekend in Copenhagen has had to postpone their festival, originally scheduled for the week before Dead by Dawn. Still a months time away, so things may change both here and there until then. Hoping for a great festival for those able to attend at least!

#horror #film #cinema #festival #edinburgh

Horror Festivals Film

show all 7 comments

Joseph Teller

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 16:36:01 +0100 from Diaspora

Good luck. Film festivals (and many movie theater and live theaters) are on shut down here in much of the USA

Harald Eilertsen

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 19:13:58 +0100

@Joseph Teller It's the same here in Norway, the rest of Scandinavia and afaict much of Europe. A bit surprised the email from DbD didn't mention anything about it at all.

hEARt PhoniX

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 22:07:54 +0100

Harald Eilertsen

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 22:50:06 +0100

@hEARt PhoniX Yeah, it depends to be seen. I was planning to attend the Inferno metal festival in Oslo this easter (I usually do,) but got an email from them yesterday they were cancelled. I've been to so many concerts throughout the times, that Inferno is more about meeting all the people I see only this one time of the year. But I was really looking forward to Dead by Dawn. Film festivals fits me better these days, and it was a very nice festival last time I was there. Wasn't able to go last year, so was hoping this year should work out.

Oh well, there will be other festivals later. Having to skip a festival or two is not a huge sacrifice in the grand scheme of things :)

Karsten Meyer

Tue, 17 Mar 2020 04:02:07 +0100 from Diaspora

At least Cannes and Venezia must take place, I'm sure. They can't afford to cancel them.

Harald Eilertsen

Tue, 17 Mar 2020 10:42:18 +0100

@Karsten Meyer I'm not sure the smaller festivals or venues can afford cancelling either. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Harald Eilertsen

Thu, 19 Mar 2020 16:15:30 +0100

Allright, just got an update, the Dead by Dawn festival is postponed until November 6 - 8!

Harald Eilertsen

Sun, 01 Mar 2020 16:17:43 +0100

Wohoo! Tickets for Dead by Dawn booked!
#edinburgh #horror #film #festival

Achoura (Morocco/France, 2018)

Harald Eilertsen

Sun, 16 Feb 2020 14:22:26 +0100

To my knowledge Achoura is the only Moroccan horror film to reach international audiences. It's also the debut of director Talal Selhami, and a pretty strong debut it is. During the eve of Achoura, an important celebration in Morocco (and most of the Islamic world,) a group of friends have a terrifying experience in which one of the group is lost. They wow to never speak of again, and over time collectively suppress the happening from their minds. That is, until children start disappearing, and the lost brother resurfaces.

The story works really well, and the cinematography is beautiful. This is absolutely a film worth seeing if you're into horror films. While it has it's flaws, it comes out as a great film over all. It does at times feel a bit too digital, and some scenes would be way more scary if the monster was less exposed. Those are minor gripes though, the film carries itself quite well. Recommended.

#horror #film #ramaskrik #ramaskrik2019

Horror Film Ramaskrik

Exterminadores do Além Contra a Loira do Banheiro (Brazil, 2018)

Harald Eilertsen

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 21:15:35 +0100

English title: Ghost Killers vs. Bloody Mary

This film did not manage to catch my fancy. We follow a gang of "youtubers" (what a horribly meaningless word!) that tries to make a living by making fake ghost hunting videos. When they get called out to clear out a ghost haunting the toilets of a school, with instructions on being as discreet as possible, we already know where this is going. The haunting appears to be all to real, and our ghostbusters wannabe's find themselves deep into waters they're not convinced they can handle. In itself this could be an interesting concept, but it fails on simply being too silly. The humour is too shallow to interest me. I believe it is a film that can work quite well on a younger audience, though.

#horror #film #ramaskrik #ramaskrik2019

Horror Film Ramaskrik

Harald Eilertsen

harald@hub.volse.no