In late September, the University of Toronto’s St. George Campus, hosted a one-day event called “Uncaring Canada?” Its purpose, as the name suggests, was to examine Canada’s foreign policy, and how perceptions of Canada as a caring, compassionate, and peace-loving nation are, in many ways, wrong—especially as Canada arguably shifts to militarization and neoliberalism. With […] More »

First and foremost, Annabelle scared the crap out of me. The prequel to the 2013 horror hit The Conjuring was certifiably creepy thanks to the scariest children’s toy in history—the porcelain doll (just one notch higher than the ever-frightening Furby). Since their creation, porcelain dolls have been a consistent source for scares. I had a porcelain […] More »

So long ago it was proven that women are evil because, duh, uteruses have horns. This week, I am reading An Introduction to Women’s Studies Gender In A Transnational World by Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan for Dr. Kristine Klement’s Introduction to Gender and Women’s Studies class at York University. We are focusing on how […] More »

Providing actual historical or scientific context is an excellent way in bumping up a horror movie’s credibility. Throw in some real science, or something spooky that actually happened, and suddenly everything gets a lot creepier. You start thinking “whoa, that could totally happen.” Gulp. Unfortunately, far too many horror movies seem to revisit the U.S. […] More »

On September 20, United Nations Women Goodwill Ambassador and actress Emma Watson, addressed the UN (transcript here) at its New York headquarters about gender equality in association with HeForShe movement. The video went viral, some people got mad, others lauded the message, and then there were the ones who missed the point entirely, focusing on […] More »

Strait jackets. Lobotomies. Scary nurses reminiscent of Nurse Ratched. Audiences are both freaked out and captivated by psychiatric hospitals. That’s probably why it’s one of the most popular settings for a horror movie—even when not set in one, raging axe-toting chainsaw-waving murderers often seem to be escapees from them. From the fictional Smith’s Grove Sanitarium, […] More »

Take Back The Tech, an online campaign that seeks to bring awareness and end abuse against women in the info and tech world, has recently published a report that analyzes the policies on reporting abuse on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube. And of course, they totally suck. The report shows that there’s an extreme lack of transparency […] More »

One of the most pervasive and totally gross movie trends of the 2000s is the notorious torture film genre—sometimes dubbed “torture porn” or “gorno” (a combination of gore and porno). I may be horror-movie obsessed, but I make it a rule to not watch torture films. They’re the scourge of the horror genre, representing a […] More »

The hipster palace of fashion: Urban Outfitters. I’ll admit, I shop there. Of course, I speed walk immediately to the sale section in search of $7 sweaters—did I mention I’m the queen of bargains?—but even in my sprint to sale racks, I never fail to catch a glimpse of at least one totally offensive clothing […] More »

Exorcisms are a distinct, massive subgenre in horror films for good reason. There’s just something about watching a good ol’ demonic possession movie that always hits the spot for horror movie cravings, mine especially. Even though the subgenre tends to recycle the same essential plot, it somehow never fails to frighten. Besides, it’s always interesting […] More »

Horror is an endlessly fascinating genre. The idea alone is weirdly sadomasochistic—it’s a genre that profits off watching fictional characters get scared, attacked, murdered, while simultaneously scaring the viewers themselves. But taken at a deeper level, horror explores the disturbing side of human nature, our own twisted, often unspeakable, fantasies coming to life on the […] More »