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Greetings, and welcome back to Horror Business. We have one awesome episode in store for you guys, and we’re talking about 1972’s Lemora and 1988’s Paperhouse
First and foremost, we want to give a shoutout to our sponsors over at Lehigh Valley Apparel Creations, the premiere screen-printing company of the Lehigh Valley. Chris Reject and his merry band of miscreants are ready to work with you to bring to life your vision of a t-shirt for your business, band, project, or whatever else it is you need represented by a shirt, sweater, pin, or coozy. Head on over to www.xlvacx.com to check them out. Thank you also to Essex Coffee Roasters, our newest sponsor. Head to www.essexcoffeeroasters.com to check out their fine assortment of coffee, and enter CINEPUNX in the promo code for ten percent off your order! And as always thank you to our Patreon subscribers. Your support means the world to us and we are eternally grateful.
We start by talking about what we’ve done involving horror recently. Liam talks the films Alone, Anything For Jackson, and Rise Of The Guardians, and Justin talks about the films Peninsula, Freaky, and the newest Max Brooks novel Devolution.
Up first is Lemora. Liam talks about how the film examines the idea of pushing the idea of innocence upon a young attractive white woman and how it involves a world filled with characters intent on devouring her in one way or another.
The idea of the film being a criticism of Christianity is examined, and Justin talks about how the name of the town the film takes place in (Astaroth) is indicative of this film being a criticism of Christianity. Justin also talks about how he initially thought the film was a nod to “abject person” as discussed, as is the “sovereign figure”.
Justin talks about how he wasn’t a hundred percent sold on the film although it feels like an archetypical “hero’s tale”. The film as “Southern Gothic” is discussed. We briefly talk about the phenomenon of ghost towns and how they relate to the Great Depression.
Up next is Paperhouse. Justin begins by admitting that he wasn’t feeling the film until the horror element kicked in and then fell in love with how effective the film portrayed the “logic of children” and how it put him in the proper mindset to enjoy it.
We talk about how the film is often accused of not really being a horror film, and Liam argues that this functions as a bait and switch to “ease us into a boiling pot.” We talk about how while the film never explicitly comes out and addresses any underlying issues it’s very clearly about something much darker than the subject matter. We discuss some of the more unexpectedly horrifying imagery.
The idea of the film being about sexual abuse and how children relate to such horror is discussed, and how the structure of the film itself feels like the reality a child would construct to hide the truth of the abuse. The phenomenon of films about children’s unrecognized desires is discussed. The film’s depiction of “puppy love” and how accurate it is is depicted.
The film’s similarity in how abused children view their parents with The Shining. We talk about how the film might not be seen as a horror due to how effective it is in executing certain dramatic elements and how neither of the child characters in the film are annoying. We again talk about how easily and successfully the film nails “dream logic” and it unexpectedly made both of us feel a very real yearning for childhood.
First and foremost, thank you to everyone and anyone who donated on Patreon, checked this episode out, or shared a tweet/shared a post on FB/gave us love by recommending us to someone. We love you forever for listening and donating. Any questions, comments, suggestions for movies and guests, or if you yourself want to join us for a movie viewing or even an episode, can be sent to [email protected]. We would love to hear from you! Thanks always to Justin Miller, Jacob Roberts, and Doug Tilley for their technical contributions and fliers, Mike Smaczylo for the shirts and fliers (you can check more of his work out at here), and also thanks to Josh Alvarez for the theme song, Chris, Brad, and LVAC for the support and buttons (check them out at www.xlvacx.com and on Twitter), Essex Coffee Roasters (www.essexcoffeeroasters.com) and a HUGE thank you to anyone who retweeted us or shared something on Facebook that we posted. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @thehorrorbiz666, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/thehorrorbiz66, check out our Spotify account at Cinepunx, and remember to rate, review, and subscribe to us on ITunes. In fact, if you write us a review, email us with your mailing address and we’ll send you some free pins and stickers! Check out www.cinepunx.com for more info on some of our other podcasts, some ultra stylish Cinepunx related merchandise, and how you can donate to our Patreon! Until next time…thanks!
