Cult Controversies! New CINE-EXCESS eJournal launches

Updated with further contents (September 6, 2013)!

Screenshot from The Last House on the Left (Dennis Iliadis, 2009). Read Claire Henry's article about this remake of Wes Craven's 1972 film here.

Film Studies For Free is scandalously excited to announce the publication of the new peer-reviewed eJournal Cine-Excess. Like the long-running conference and festival, directed by cult film scholar Xavier Mendik, to which it is related, the Cine-Excess journal brings together leading film critics and theorists "alongside international film directors and icons to discuss debates and traditions of global cult film activity".

The special launch issue of the Cine-Excess eJournal is entitled Subverting the Senses, Circumventing Limits and is edited by Mikita Brottman and John Mercer. It is described as follows:

[Issue 1] focuses on the theme of the controversial cult image in its political, historical and aesthetic contexts. With the resurgence of critical interest in the 1980s ‘video nasties’, as well as whole new generation of films being subject to official state control, the cult image is now becoming a crucial index between the censor and the censored. In order to explore the phenomenon fully, contributions to the launch issue considers a range of controversial cult case-studies,  with the creators of these unsettling images commenting directly on these critical interpretations.

The contents for the Subverting the Senses, Circumventing Limits are listed below and you can also read the abstracts of these papers here. There is a lot more of interest going on at the Cine-Excess website, though, so do be sure to take a good look around.

• A Cult Called Django: On The Controversial Tail Of A Transnational Bandito by Austin Fisher
• From Controversy To Cult: Franco Nero On Why Django Never Dies - Interview By Xavier Mendik
• The Last House On The Left: The Redemption Of The Remake By Claire Henry 
• The Last House(s) On The Left: A Response To Claire Henry’s Article By Marc Sheffler
• 'Til (Faces Of) Death Do Us Part by Nicolo Gallio
• The Face Of Death: A Response by Director John A. Schwartz 
  House-Cleaning: Or What Its Audiences Can Tell Us About Ruggero Deodato’s Film By Martin Barker 
• Debates On The Edge Of The Park: Ruggero Deodato And Giovanni Lombardo Radice Respond - Interviews By Giovanni Memola
• "People Who Think Outside The Box": British Audiences And Asian Extreme Films By Emma Pett 
• Distributing Outside The Box: Tartan’s Development Of Asia Extreme - A Response To Emma Pett’s Article By Paul Smith
• No Pain, No Gain: Strategic Repulsion And The Human Centipede By Steve Jones 
• More Than Just A Game: Breaking The Rules In The Bunny Game by Jenny Barrett
• My Monsterpiece: An Art Film By Rodleen Getsic
• An Official Afterword: The BBFC Responds To The Launch Issue Of The Cine-Excess eJournal 
• Hammer Has Risen From The Grave A.D. 2012 Conference Report By Mark Mckenna 
• The Cultural Mythology Of The Snuff Movie Conference Report By Mark Adams
• Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival Of Catalonia 4th-14th October 2012 Review By Xavier Mendik 
• • Notes On Contributors
  • Acknowledgements

Four Issues of INTENSITIES: The Journal of Cult Media and a Call for Papers

Screencap from the credit sequence of Games (Curtis Harrington, 1967). Read Steven Jay Schneider's 2003 article for Intensities in which he discusses this and other cult psychological thrillers and horror films.

Film Studies For Free just bumped into the new online incarnation of Intensities, the wonderful journal of cult media studies. Oh yes!

Always a highly innovative and valuable project, Intensities was first launched at Cardiff University in 2001 under the editorship of Matt Hills and Sara Gwenllian Jones. As its new website tells us, it later moved to Brunel University, where it was edited by David Lavery. The journal has relaunched in 2013 with Leon Hunt as its new editor and will publish two issues a year. The journal addresses all aspects of cult media including cult television, cult film, cult radio, cult comics, literary cults and cult authors, new media cults, cult figures and celebrities, cult icons, musical cults, cult geographies, historical studies of media cults and their fandoms, cult genres (e.g. science fiction, horror, fantasy, pulp fiction, Manga, anime, Hong Kong film etc.), non-generic modes of cultishness, theorisations of cult media, relevant audience and readership studies, and work that addresses the cult media industry.

In addition to publishing refereed essays (of between 6000 and 8000 words), Intensities also features a non-refereed Cult Media Review section which will carry shorter speculative reviews, reviews of cult phenomena (e.g. cult TV series, cult films, cult novels, science fiction, comics), short critical essays, interview transcripts, conference and convention reviews and articles about aspects of industry, fan culture, production and authorship.

Intensities' latest calls for papers are reproduced below, as are the tables of (linked) contents from the excellent first four issues of this journal. Let's all wish Intensities a very happy and long online life at its new website. Its entry has been updated at FSFF's permanent listing of open access film and media studies journals.

Call for Papers
Intensities will publish two themed issues in 2013.  Essays should be between 6000 and 8000 words, referenced Harvard style and sent as a word document – a 200 word abstract should be sent as a separate document.
Issue 5 Comic Book Intensities – Comics and Cult Media
The first new issue seeks submissions dealing with comics as cult media.  Topics might include:

• Cult comic book auteurs – Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Mark Millar, Joss Whedon.
• Cult films from comics – Cinefumetti, Manga and Anime, the Turkish KIlink films, Dredd 3D.
• National and international comic book cultures – French bandes dessinees, Italian fumetti, Japanese Manga.
• Comic book fan cultures – Cosplay and beyond.
• Underground and alternative traditions.
• Beyond the cape and mask – neglected comic book genres.
• From EC to Dark Horse – Horror comics.

Deadline extended to Friday March 1^st 2013

Issue 6 Historical Approaches to Cult TV
This issue seeks submissions examining TV shows that have acquired cult status at a historical distance – both established cult shows (The Avengers, The Prisoner, the ‘classic’ series of Doctor Who) and those that have received less (or possibly even no) critical attention.  In addition, the papers will locate those shows historically, either by drawing on archive materials or suggesting new cultural, historical or institutional contexts in which they might be understood. Deadline for submissions: May 31^st 2013

Intensities: The Journal of Cult Media 4 – Mysterious Bodies (2007)

Special Issue – Mysterious Bodies
Guest Editors: Rayna Denison and Mark Jancovich

• Rayna Denison and Mark Jancovich, ‘Introduction’ Jancovich_Intro
• Mark Jancovich, ‘An Unidentified Species: Horror, the Body and Early Television’ Jancovich, Unidentified Species
• Lincoln Geraghty, ‘Painted Men and Salt Monsters: The Alien Body in 50s and 60s American Science Fiction Television’ Geraghty, Painted Men and Salt Monsters
• Milly Williamson, ‘Television, Vampires and the Body: Somatic Pathos’ Williamson, Television, Vampires and the Body
• Matt Hills, ‘”Gothic” Body Parts in a “Postmodern” Body of Work? The Hinchcliffe/Holmes Era of Doctor Who (1975-77)’ Hills, Gothic Body Parts in Postmodern Body of Work
• Rayna Denison, ‘The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence: Investigating the Complexity of the Television Body’ Denison, The Muppet Show Sex and Violence
• Rebecca Feasey, ‘Investigating Angel: The Hair, the Car and the Wardrobe’ Feasey, Investigating Angel
• Peter Hutchings, ‘Welcome to Royston Vasey: Grotesque Bodies and the Horror of Comedy in The League of Gentlemen‘ Hutchings, Welcome to Royston Vasey
• Elke Weissman, ‘The Victim’s Suffering Translated: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and the Crime Genre’ Weissmann, Victim’s Suffering Translated
• Julian Savage, ‘The Lost Cult of Wake in Fright‘ Savage, Lost Cult of Wake in Fright

Intensities: The Journal of Cult Media 3 – Horror Issue (Spring 2003)

Edited by Matt Hills and Sara Gwenllian Jones

• Steven Jay Schneider, ‘Murder as Art/The Art of Murder: Aestheticising Violence in Modern Cinematic Horror’ Schneider, Murder as Art
• I.Q. Hunter, ‘Even Baser Instincts: Notes on Hollow Man‘ Hunter, Even Baser Instincts
• Stephen Harper, ‘”They’re Us”: Representations of Women in George Romero’s ‘Living Dead’ Series’ Harper, They’re Us
• Kate Egan, ‘The Amateur Historian and the Electronic Archive: Identity, Power, and the Function of Lists, Facts and Memories on “Video Nasty”-themed Websites’ Egan, The Amateur Historian and the Electronic Archive
• Linda C. Badley, ‘Spiritual Warfare: Postfeminism and the Cultural Politics of the Blair Witch Craze’ Badley, Spiritual Warfare

Intensities: The Journal of Cult Media 2 (Autum/Winter 2001)

Edited by Matt Hills and Sara Gwenllian Jones

• Marie-Laure Ryan, ‘From The Truman Show to Survivor: Narrative versus Reality in Fake and Real Reality TV’ Ryan, From The Truman Show to Survivor
• William D. Routt, ‘Bad for Good’ Routt, Bad for Good
• Mark Jancovich, ‘Placing Sex: Sexuality, Taste and Middlebrow Culture in the Reception of Playboy Magazine’ Jancovich, Placing Sex
• Bertha Chin and Jonathan Gray, ‘”One Ring to Rule Them All”: Pre-Viewers and Pre-Texts of the Lord of the Rings Films’ Chin and Gray, One Ring to Rule Them All
• Will Brooker, ‘The Many Lives of the Jetman: A Case Study in Videogame Analysis’ Brooker, Many Lives of the Jetman
• Intensities interviews Henry Jenkins @Console-ing Passions, University of Bristol, July 7th 2001 Intensities interviews Jenkins
• Ben Talbot, Conference Review: Compete, Command and Conquer – Playing for Space at the International Games Cultures Conference Talbot, Compete, Command and Conquer

Intensities 1 (Spring/Summer 2001)

Edited by Matt Hills and Sara Gwenllian Jones

• Lynette Russell and Nathan Wolski, ‘Beyond the Final Frontier: Star Trek, the Borg and the Post-colonial’ Russell_Wolski
• Mark McLelland, ‘Why Are Japanese Girls’ Comics Full of Boys Bonking?’ McLelland
• Alan McKee, ‘Which is the Best Doctor Who story? A Case Study in Value Judgements Outside the Academy’ McKee
• Patricia MacCormack, ‘Becoming Hu-Man: Deleuze and Guattari, Gender and Third Rock from the Sun‘ MacCormack
• Annette Hill and Ian Calcutt, ‘Vampire Hunters: the Scheduling and Reception of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel in the UK’ Hill_Calcutt
• Will Brooker, ‘Parallel Earths: Diana 2000 – a Review Essay’ Brooker_Earths