Kate Egan

The Criterion Collection, Cult-Art Films and Japanese Horror : DVD Labels as Transnational Mediators?

Abstract This article considers the circulation of Japanese horror titles in the West, focusing on how this is informed by increasingly heterogeneous uses of the term ‘cult’ employed by specialist DVD and Blu-ray companies. The article focuses on the ways in which the celebrated high-end distributor, The Criterion Collection, has framed a number of Japanese horror titles as a kind of cult cinema that can be termed ‘cult-art’. Through this case study, the article considers how the cultification of East Asian genre films, as they enter Western markets, can impact on the cultural canonisation and elevation of such titles, but in ways that draw productively on their original contexts of production rather than de-contextualising such titles through strategies of othering or exoticisation.

Considering the Chestburster-Choosers: Realism and Repeat Viewing

This chapter focuses in detail on overlapping discursive patterns in the answers of a group of 56 committed viewers of Alien. This group first watched the film at an early stage of its circulation history, have since watched it repeatedly and still rate it highly. In addition, all selected the film’s infamous chestburster sequence as the moment that most stuck with them from the film. Te chapter explores the ways in which the sequence’s realism and acting are particularly foregrounded and discussed by these participants. As a consequence, the chapter considers how such elements play a key role in sustaining these committed participants’ afective engagement with the sequence, and the film as a whole. In the process, it considers how such findings might challenge or problematize claims that have been made about viewer engagement with Alien, and with horror and science-fiction films more generally, on repeat viewing.

Remembering a First Encounter with Alien

Chapter 4 explores in close detail a select group of responses where participants wrote at significant length (defined as answers of more than 100 words) on their memories of their first viewing of Alien. It draws attention to how the distinct viscerality of Alien – illustrated by the repeated use of sensory imagery and discourses of corporeality – means that participants recollect it as an exceptional viewing experience – ofen encountered during a transitional life phase, causing it to remain with them (‘etched’ into their brains, as one participant explains it) in later life. Te findings of this chapter add a new complexity to Linda Williams’ provocative ideas on ‘body genres’

Gifting the Alien Experience

Chapter 3 identifies the presence of fan practices surrounding Alien, looking particularly at the context of families and how the curation of the Alien film-watching experience can be identifed as a fannish practice. Situating this activity within the concept of fan giftt economies, the chapter charts the experience of participants whose foreknowledge and frst viewings of the film were infuenced by their family. Identifying key trends within these responses, the chapter moves on to discuss the way in which familial relationships are informed by watching Alien together. It is argued that the experience of the film, rather than the text itself, is framed by families as a ‘gift’ – something to be savoured, treasured, and enjoyed

Remembering a ‘Masterpiece’

Chapter 2 explores the responses of one group, in particular: those who rated Alien a ‘Masterpiece’. Our approach to these is contrasted with persistent fears of the infuence of popular culture over ‘addicted’ audiences, and connected instead with emergent trends which explore the importance and complexity of intense pleasures and commitments to cultural forms. Te chapter draws out from our dataset clear evidence of distinctive qualities among those most committed to the film, including a greater belief in the political or allegorical meanings of the film, and the persistence of their original perceptions of maintenance. Te role of parents in introducing (ofen very young) children to the film is explored. Te role of parents, and the intensity of commitment to the film, is shown to decline and change over time, as Alien becomes more a component within general popular culture.

The Alien Memories Project

Chapter 1 explains the background to and reasons for our project, and the story of the making of the film is briefy retold. It examines the extent to which Alien has become a point of reference and reuse within a wide range of kinds of popular culture. It also explores its highly unusual position within academic debates, and illustrates the role that claims and assumptions about ‘the audience’ play within these debates. Te rationale for the design and methodology of our project is outlined, including a consideration of the role of specifc kinds of cultural knowledge within this. A first summary of results is given, with particular attention to how our participants perceived and understood Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), and H. R. Giger’s alien.

Precious footage of the auteur at work: framing, accessing, using, and cultifying Vivian Kubrick's Making the Shining

This paper aims to explore the centrality to Kubricks cult reputation of a touchstone resource for Kubrick fans: Vivian Kubricks 1980 documentary Making the Shining. Through an analysis of the documentary itself, as well as a charting of its circulation from original broadcast on television to its dissemination and discussion via a prominent Kubrick fan site, alt.movies.kubrick (amk), the paper will explore the shifting valuations of this crucial Kubrick-related paratext in relation to Kubricks status as cult auteur and to forms of technological change which have impacted on this documentarys history of distribution and dissemination. In particular, the paper will attempt to problematize the notion that the cult status and value of particular texts automatically diminishes when they become readily available on DVD, by focusing on the range of ways in which Making the Shining is valued by amk users, subsequent to its shift in status from a rare object (swapped on second- and third-generation video copies of off-air recordings) to a key DVD extra, in a remastered form, on DVD releases of The Shining from 1999.